What We Watched
Movie Club #49 - Arrival
This podcast does contain spoilers, so if you're okay with that, listen on, if not, pause the podcast, go watch the movie we're about to talk about and come on back. All right, sweet. Excuse me. Frank, over here. Hey, pardon me. Why don't you have to popcorn? It's starting! Woo! Hey! Hey! Shut up! Shut up and listen to the podcast! Hey! There's a lot out there to see. This is what we watched. That's looking out for you, Matt. Whatever my head. Not just like your hand. Not like your hand. Your hand wasn't over your head because it wasn't raised. Sometimes like your hand. Sure. Whoa! What? Your hand. What we watched! Whoo! We're going to start on your hand, Jeffrey. On my hand? Yes. Like this one? Oh, wait. Your cat. I was going to say you're messing up your cat. Okay. Anyways. Movie club time. Movie club. Movie club. Movie club. It feels like it's been so long since we recorded a movie club. Yeah. I mean, I think it has been. At least two. We did. We had Twisters last week. We're all just super busy so we could not do. But everyone go back and listen to Twisters where I'm the voice of reason on an average movie. And Brandon hasn't seen the light yet. But now he has. So we're doing Twisters too. Yeah. We're doing Twisters again. Twisters the second coming. Twisters the second. Two sets of Twisters now. Coming there. Twisters. To the hold. Like they're just every storm gets copied somehow. And they're trying to figure that out. What have we do to this one? Does this one? How is this possible? Nobody. Actually, what we're doing is movie club. Time travel. Time travel movies. Yeah. Which one are we doing today, Brandon? I was watching this one and I went, is this a time travel movie? And then I got to the end and went, of course this is a time travel movie. This is all about time. Nothing but time. It's a whole thing. Learning how to time travel. So today on the show, we're talking arrival. Denny Villeneuve's at the time masterpiece before he made Dune. I was going to ask which one. Which one is your favorite Denny movie? But anyway, we're talking about that. So we're talking arrival. That's Jeff. I'm Brandon on my screen. What's going on? What is your favorite Denny movie? I'm pulling it up right now. This might be up there for me. And I really do like Dune, but I think Sicario might be my favorite. I think it might be one and two might be a fight between this and Sicario I think. And then the Dune ones are pretty good. And then I don't think anything else he has done is in the conversation. This is our fourth Denny Villeneuve movie by the way. Yeah. Oh, so I can. Oh, I'm sorry. Fifth. This is our fifth movie. Nice. What was the fifth? Yeah. This. Arrival is the fifth. I guess it is. Yeah. So what are the ones that we did? Sicario, Sicario, Dune Part 1 and Part 2 and Blade Runner 2049. I forgot about Blade Runner. Yeah, me too. Yeah. Clearly. I'm sorry. Arrival is probably my favorite of the five that we've talked about. I think I liked it the best. If he didn't watch this on the Tales of Deadpool and Twisters, I believe it might have been a 10. I love this movie. This is a good one. It is good. This is a very good one. And like considering it's from 2016, it looks really fucking good still. I remember watching this in the theater and just being blown away by how the spaceship looked and how grand that helicopter shot when we first get to the field and the reveal of that stone monolith that is the spaceship, I was just like, how the fuck did they do this? This looks perfect. Yeah. Where did they ship that in from? Exactly. I will say when I was sitting there watching this movie, this is a movie that I don't want to say people could make but like when you're sitting on the truck with just the spaceship in the background and it's a gorgeous background and literally it's just like there's just a, you know, that's the CG shot kind of is just you just put an asset like we could do that at home. You could do that at home, you know, especially now with AI, like you could make those shots and stuff but they're and they're so absolutely gorgeous and simple at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. It's quite hard to comprehend quite how massive this scale is. And I did a little bit of research on this. They had practical sets. So like the interior of the ship is a hundred percent practical. I wish the aliens themselves were practical. They still look good though. Oh really? No, they do. They look fantastic. Okay. I didn't have trouble with it necessarily, I guess, but yeah, the fact that they had a practical set, I think kind of helped exactly what you're talking about is it made it look so much better because it wasn't, you know, done with CGI, it wasn't enhanced by CGI, it was all lit, you know, in-house and so that that's really cool. Some of the lighting was annoying. Could we get, could we just put, can I see her fucking face for once in a while? Like most of the movie. Yeah. That's all I'm looking for. I was still getting up this morning on my projector and there's like, you know, I have a skylight and there's daylight coming in. Yeah. So that already makes it a bit rough. And then I was just like, damn, I need to watch this on my computer at a certain point because there were some darker shots. Mm-hmm. It's still not that it's still loud but just like, I don't know. It was impressive lighting, but just, I just, could we just like turn it up a little bit? And maybe it is because it was shot for theater and not necessarily, you know, sitting at home. You're supposed to watch it in theater, which makes sense because I mean, even still, it looks absolutely gorgeous to me. I like that when we did, when she got in there, like, it feels like the lighting-wise, what they were setting up was when she's in there, that's the best you can see her. You know, we like those scenes because I could see her whole face literally when the first time she stepped up, I was like, oh, hey, it's Amy Adams, so who knew Amy Adams this whole time? Like, so I don't know if they necessarily did that on purpose so that we would enjoy, you know, kind of the scenes in there the best or I'm just, you know, trying to make stuff up because it was going to dark. I mean, it was a lot of the, like, I mean, you initially think it's flashbacks, but like it was all those like visions she was seeing that were like some of the darker stuff from what I can remember. Yeah. I mean, once you, before she got to the camp, it was all super, super dark, like, at least for me, it got better as it went, but that's when I wrote down another dark, dark shot of her centered in the frame, which they also were obsessed with throughout the movie was they really, they love to center her in the frames. And also if she's walking anywhere, we're going to center her and then be behind her following her. That was all like the transition shots of her walking. I felt like we did all the time, which, yeah, just a lot of symmetry. Yes. Yes. Ton of symmetry to some movement as well in from frame to frame or from scene to scene. But Bradford Young, who was the DP on this one talks about how they did that intentionally. They used shadows and they used darkness to kind of explore the idea of he, he talked about exploring it, the idea of it as an unknown, rather than as a reason to be afraid, which I think is it plays into the theme of, you know, just because you don't understand something doesn't mean it's, you know, harmful to you, you know, it just means you need to spend time and we need to, you know, understand each other. But it's a thousand percent reasonable to worry about that, to bring that up. No, I agree with you. But anytime someone was like, well, maybe that's not right. Well, you're a fucking idiot. And I'm like, okay, chill out. You know, it's just not an open, obviously this isn't an open space because no one can say anything other than, Hey, hey, I know the truth from the beginning. Yeah. Yeah. You know, she was lying. Anyways, go ahead. Sorry. I don't understand, but do you think, Matt, that they overdid the darkness, they overplayed it too much? For my viewing, I would say a little bit, but I'm willing to admit that it wasn't the best conditions. So it's like, I don't want to, like when I watched that one movie in a hotel room and I was like, Oh, the sound sucked, but I was listening to it on a shitty hotel sound. So I can't really, you know, it's hard to judge to be like, Oh, they were, it was bad or they did it too bad too much based off, they're not, I'd have to see it in theaters because if I saw it in theaters and I could still see everything crisply and see detail 100% fine. And that's how I felt when I did see it in theaters. I didn't have any like, no, there's no part of me that was thinking like, Oh, it's too dark. Like the same way that when that Game of Thrones episode came out where everyone was talking about, like people were watching that shit at home and they were having an issue. That's where you for sure have an issue. Correct. Granted, that's a little different. Yes. Yeah. Well, like when they, when they, it's a TV show, I hear it. But that's the thing. They didn't, they didn't like mix it for the theaters. You know what I'm saying? Like these guys kind of like colored and did things for the theater setting. I know. I agree with you. Game of Thrones is different because they should have colored it for. I, that's what I'm saying. Yes. That's what I'm saying. That's why the other scenario is like that makes more sense for people to be aint more upset about it versus this one is like they tailored it to the theaters. Therefore, when it translates to the TV or projector or something at your house, it's like, you know, you could run into issues. Yeah. Yeah. They also, it was a lot of cold colors it feels like, too. There's never, there's rarely, I'm trying to think of anything pop. Like the warmest colors were the flash back for stuff. The flash forwards. Yes. Future memories. Well, time, what a dream is not a circle. So is it, if it's not also in your future, it's also your path. So. While remaining your present. I'm deep Brandon. That's why I said pass slash feature, you know, flash back slash forwards because it's a circle. Future memories. I'm holding on that. Yeah. No, I think you're right. I think that those are probably the times that there actually was warmth to, to the scene. And I mean, even if that was brief, because I think that the warmest tones were when, when Hannah was a kid, when, when, but I think that was most of the time. I thought we saw her like sick early. Yeah. And we saw her sick a couple of times since the, after the beginning, but like even progressively, you know, as she was growing up in that, in that, you know, up style intro where we went through the, the kids life until she, you know, she, she passed away. It progressively got darker and darker. So you're right. There was glimpses of warmth and warm tones, but even that was just sucked away so quickly. And we just got cooler and cooler, but I love this movie that it totally subverted what you expect to be, oh, you know, so Amy Adams, you know, Louise, she went through this horrible thing with her kid. And now that was her past and now we're cutting to present day. And that's why, you know, it's so cold and dark and, you know, gloomy inside the college and we're following all of that. And, you know, the expectation of time is linear was just really played with in this entire thing. And I, and I really, truly enjoyed it. Mm hmm. I agree. It played so nicely with the storytelling as, as a whole, which I don't know if that's necessarily my favorite part of the movie. It might honestly be a sound design, which we'll talk about later. But the storytelling was, I thought they did a fantastic job of how they structured it. Like you said, they gave us a little bit of, you know, here's the kid. This is what kind is happening. We just took an assumption that it was the past and it didn't necessarily like, I want to say it didn't go out of its way and like lied up. It didn't lie to us. It didn't like try to kind of trick. It just, it used out what we, they knew we'd assume. And then they just ran with it. And like you can think that we're not going to tell you either way. Yeah. But you can think that. And then when we reveal it, it is such a good reveal, but I thought they did a really good job. Or you watch it, it's like, okay, you can see a little bit of like a clue here, kind of clue there. Not as much as Fight Club did it, I think, but they did a good job of doling it out slowly. But also when you rewatch it, you're like, okay, I guess I probably could have caught that. Yeah. Well, that's, if I'd known. That's where I liked about that entire flash by X flash forward later on kind of situations. Like they gave you these fragmented visuals, like, and the dialogue was very minimalistic. And you know, they left it very open to interpretation from what we typically see. And then, yeah, I mean, I just love the idea that they didn't like spoon feed us exposition even once the reveal was there. They kind of just, the dialogue felt natural from like as if it was a memory. And yeah, I mean, that was done exceptionally well. You don't really, I don't really feel like you see much of that in such tight little like segments or cut together pieces where people usually go big old flashback and then a whole bunch of exposition and kind of spoon fed. So it was just cool to see them do that in that style. Yeah. And the dialogue stays pretty vague throughout. There are definitely glimpses and moments where I think like she says, if you want science ego, ask your father, there's very, very much later on. And that's meant to be like, Hey, did you kind of get it yet? Did you, did you understand where we're coming from? But that's, that's where I like this movie's rewatchability factor. I think that gets it gets a bump up because you do catch those kinds of things on second, third, fourth viewings. You get a little bit more and that's, that takes a really well crafted story and a really well crafted character to be able to pull something like that off where you see things multiple times. Well, these also, this also was like a rewatch like I could want, I think I could watch this like twice in a week and you know, you should catch all the stuff and then you don't watch it for like, I haven't watched it in years and then I watch it again and it's kind of like we reset because I'm like, Oh, I forgot. Oh, that's right. I literally put down a note that I was like, Oh, I forgot this was the future stuff. Yeah, I totally forgot until like midway and I was like, Oh, I'm trying to remember what it was because I think I forgot that the kid died and then when they like, they showed the, I was like, Oh, that was, that's why they fought. That was the whole thing. Ah, now I remember. Now I remember. Yeah. And it's, I, it's so good because it's not, it doesn't, yeah, it doesn't like smacking the face and we remember these big, you know, we remember the big stuff, but just a bunch of tiny little details that do also give you the rewatchability of when you just don't watch it again. Mm hmm. So this, this is, this is kind of the situation that I, we were talking about whatever movie it was and I had said, Hey, I want something like crazy to happen. I want the monster to appear. I want the giant robot to come out of nowhere and like disrupt society and like this to happen. Mm hmm. I think that's kind of started here with arrival with the first time I saw it. Oh, this is kind of what I'm talking about. Like I don't need to go and interact with the aliens and the spacecraft even though I want to. Uh huh. But I just kind of want that to happen. I kind of want that just to be so you don't want to be in it. You just want to be near it. No, no, no. He does. Oh, really? Oh, see, I imagine, like I said, I would love to be the one to go and touch the spaceship. That would be fucking insane. I was going to say, I realize I'm Brandon wanting to be Amy Adams, where he's serving and the colonel walks in and he's like, Brandon, we need you. The aliens for some reason only communicate through like, you know, server writing. It's really hard to read. We can't figure it out. There are no other servers. We need you to come save us. And then he's like, fuck yeah, throws all his shit. I quit. I'm out. Fuck you bitches. And then he comes back in like a week or so because they're like, what is going on? Why did you give them French fries? They've been waiting for their water. They said for 20 minutes. Bullshit. Fucking bullshit. They sat down. Two minutes ago. Amy Adams said they wanted a beer. Why did you bring on this? The whole point of this, Brandon, is you're supposed to be predict the future. You know what they are. That's why we sent you to the aliens. That's the whole reason. Amy Adams could be the greatest server of all time, hypothetically. She just stands there. Oh, you guys want this, this, this. Food's already in. Here's your drinks. Ooh. I hate my life. I literally had a note of asking Brandon if he'd be stoked about this situation or not. Yes. Based on the robot thing that you brought up in another episode. Yes, exactly. I literally wrote down a note for that. So I'm glad you brought it up. And let's check out it. It definitely is in line with what we know of Brandon. Yes, yes. I'm glad. I'm glad it all lines up and it's all making sense now. No, that's exactly. But then at the same time, like, we're watching like on TV or we're hearing through the news reports or the radio or whatever, like we're just hearing panic ensue in every city and throughout the world. And that was very also reminiscent of the pandemic where, you know, when things shut down, like the stock market crashed and people were panic buying, you know, essentials and there was just this, sorry to do it again. There's just this uncertainty and, you know, fear kind of spreading throughout. And that is the truly terrifying aspect of a situation like this where, you know, it's always fun to say, hey, what if aliens arrived? What would we do? How would we act? And the reality is we'd all fucking panic and there would be, you know, riots and, you know, martial order and there'd be a lot more terrifying situations than, you know, this cool, hey, we can go and interact when learned their language. I agree. And that's one of the reasons why one of the weird things that they, they got so angry at like the military just being like cautious and stuff. Like they were also, the military was definitely assholes at some points. Like don't get me wrong. And they ended up being wrong. But it was like, guys, people would be freaking out. We can't just share that they were talking to us about weapon, you know, I don't know. It's just like, I understand when the government was like, oh, you can't, can't just tell people that. Yeah. Well, it is a delicate situation. If another being from another world came down, you're like, if we just start shooting missiles at them, they could just like, we don't know what technology they have. Exactly. They could just fucking obliterate us. So it's like, we have to approach this very delicately and try not to get people panicked. It reminds me of how like, but I do think it's realistic in the sense that some places would freak out more than others and things and like, you know, their politics, religion, all this gets involved. It reminds me of like district nine in that way. It's like the realistic factors of how people would actually react in those ways if some ship came down or something. I was also thinking about honestly, the whole thing kind of gave me a district nine vibe, a little bit, not so much, but while I was watching this, I was like, oh, we could do an alien month. Maybe I'll do district nine. Yeah. Oh, alien month with alien as our fantastic franchise will be perfect. Let's do it. I watched the first one so far, I'm trying to get the second one on. First one was good production design. Production design was fucking phenomenal. I thought. Yeah. The more and more I keep seeing trailers for the new alien movie, the more I'm just like, this is going to look so sick, like they definitely took like depth space if you guys ever played that game and just like, definitely put in those like really crazy horror space vibes. Super cool. Anyways, anyway, speaking of aliens, speaking of production design, the production design was, I thought really, really freaking good. Like the camps for the military, you know, that's not the hardest thing to make in the world of setting those up. They did a fantastic job of it. It was very, it felt very believable to me. Also, it's kind of smart, you know, if you want to lower budget, this is just like an a random little set could be placed anywhere. And then you could like just leave it and stuff. But the the ship, which is the most important part, I thought was spec fucking tackular, like just the grooves, the texture, when you get in, in there, the ideas, the freaking glass wall also, which nobody was like, oh, they just have glass like normal. Well, they just caught up the barrier. So I don't know. They didn't really go into detail of what that even felt like. That's fair. I don't know if he said they have a, there's a glass divider or there's a glass like divider. They might have said that too. Yeah. I just remember Amy Adams being like the barrier and I was like, oh, so they're not defining it as glass. I guess. But yeah, I don't know. It sounded like glass. The sound design made it sound like glass. Yes. The sound design made it sound definitely sound like, well, yes, mostly. Ah, God, it was so hard for me to be like, this one, the sound design, I don't know if I could like make this up if so they're like, you know, describe me the greatest thing ever. I was like, I don't know if I could like match this with their sound, but it worked perfectly. Right? It kind of made kind of out of nowhere, but it just worked perfectly in this world. But anyways, production design of that place was the ship was fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it kind of again goes back to how it was a practical set and it was all made with hand and it did it, but it was also minimalist like there wasn't a lot of stuff that was in there. It was a ton of props or we're in a whole, you know, a lot of hoopla with it. It was very. Hoopla. Yeah. Very simple. Yeah. I agree. I absolutely agree. The bird was a perfect touch also. The canary. Yeah. Canary in a coal mine. Mm hmm. Yeah. I know I thought it was interesting. I also think it like, tell me if you guys got the same vibe too, but in watching the intro when the shell ship kind of came around, it felt very doomed to me just based on the score and the epicness of the shots, like, there's all very like reminiscent. I was like, oh, wow, that's definitely a denny thing because it just, that's just what he likes. Well, dude, yeah. Because different composer, different DP, like, but still similar style. Are you talking about like the, which you're talking about the shot that I think it was like the first time they entered the camp from all of it, like when they first actually get to Montana and see the ship, like there's these big shots like looking up and the score is all this like, this fantastic score, like, the helicopter shot, the helicopter shot, I was like, oh, there's Denny. That makes sense because like it feels like staccario, it felt like dune, like this is one of those times where, because we talked about before, it's like, who's the visionary? The DP or the director, if we separated them, who's like got what ideas and you can clearly tell through his movies, because he's worked with multiple different DPs and stuff, that it's like, oh, that is definitely Denny. Denny loves that shit. And it looked fantastic. It looked, oh my God, I was so excited about it. Yeah. Yeah, it was that was insane that that helicopter shot like it like I had mentioned earlier is like, that was the first time I remember in theaters just going, holy shit, this is awesome. And I just and it totally sucked me. And I was at that point, I was 100% bought in to whatever the story was, was going to be whatever I was hoping to whatever this wanted to be. Which one are you guys referring to? When I say helicopter shot, I think of the shot entering the camp when they first get there on the helicopter. That's what I'm referring to. Yeah. When she went, Louise first sees the ship for the first time and it's got like the fog coming over the mountains. And it's really the first time we see the entire spaceship. Gotcha. Oh, we're just going to pull up shots, Jeff, because we're talking about production design. Shots. Am I pulling them up while you're while you're doing that? I was going to say that that scene also, look at this score is also incredible as well. I want to talk about sound design and score at the same time kind of because I think especially again, when we first see that the ship and she's confronted with the realism of everything. Like the score, the score is otherworldly. It's like it's mysterious in a way that just doesn't feel of an Earth. I agree. I do very much agree with that and since, okay, I'm out since we are talking about both one of my favorite things also, we kind of talked a little bit before the pod about a movie letting the greatness kind of shine through and I do I sat there thinking the music is very gorgeous. I think this is perfect setting. We hear a decent amount of it, but it's like they left that under the sound is like under the practical sound effects and let the world kind of breathe and didn't force or didn't necessarily like maybe once or twice have the soundtrack, the music, the biggest thing that's on the on the screen, the biggest thing you're listening to, you know, one of my issues with Twister. I felt like the music was too much like this is the this is the ratio I wanted Twister to be where it's like you can still see you can still hear the sound you hear the music. It definitely sets a tone, but it's it's underneath the footsteps and the casual like, you know, clothes and the world that you're in was the main sound versus the music and I thought it was a gorgeous decision. Yes, absolutely. And when they go when now now I'm doing intentionally sorry and I'm doing it subconsciously when they go like and they're going into the ship for the first time and there's like this this worrying sound almost even though there's no like emission from the ship itself like and it created it's a strange thing that's like it's almost as a practical is it is it made up is it score is it, you know, sound design and it's it's absolutely gorgeous, but you know when we meet the meet the aliens or they're talking to him for the first time and they're kind of flying around, you know, they're doing their guttural sounds like the that shines more than the score does and it is it's mixed perfectly. You're damn near. Incredibly. Right. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. After I said, you know, underneath, it's damn near combined, right? They definitely like they were so like connected. It's hard to kind of separate them and I thought it was a very good choice. They work the tandem really well. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Um, speaking of that first that the scene, the first scene going into the ship, um, Jeff, did you notice anything that I don't know if you, uh, thought of anything when they were going into the ship? Yes. The scissor lifts. The scissor lifts. I haven't known about it. I was like, Hey, scissor lifts. Even, even beyond that, um, that is a, uh, because I did research because I paused it when they showed, like they literally showed the sky. It's a sky Jack. Uh huh. It was a 71, 71 35. Okay. Okay. Um, good. Good. Hey, good scissor lift. It's for outdoors, which is proper. Yeah. Gas. Uh, diesel. It's fantastic. Um, Jeff, do you know though? I didn't believe that when they drove that it was that smooth though. Like, I don't know when their hands were on the ceiling and they were just like gliding across. I was like, there's no way that's not like. It's not that smooth inside. Let alone outside. Both of you. My, my comment is yes. Exactly right. Oh shit. Um, hey, you're really loud. You're only allowed for four people. Oh, that's right. They stacked that scissor lifts too. You jerk offs our brains. Where's Osha? Yeah. Absolutely. I hope they got a freaking letter from Osha. There's six people in here. You're only supposed to have four. God. I know. I love this. I love this. I love this. Before you pull that down, I love that shot. That's one of my favorite shots of the whole, of the whole thing. And they do this a couple of times with this first one where we're, we've got like the alien POV and we're looking down. It just totally disorients me. It totally just throws off like my perception of what is up, what's down. You know, and that, and it, it does exactly what it's supposed to do. It's a gorgeous shot, plays perfectly, it just, yeah, expert execution on this one. I would love to just balance in that like zero gravity spot and then like let the distortion kind of come over you because you're like seeing down and you see the grass, but then you look by like, look up and then you just see the glass, whatever, where the aliens aren't. It's just like super trippy. I would love to just cover there. Well, and they, they only do it for the first time when they're walking up towards that barrier. Yes. I went down. Yes. I was right. Yes. Right. They showed us that. I never until this showing showing, this viewing, I've never noticed that, that I registered that they're upside down the whole time, but we just see them right side up, I guess. And, and like you said, that one, that first, I want to say, I don't remember if they show up first or they show down, but whatever that first one is like, you just start getting more, more kind of confused and you're upside down and then, then they go from like here to like sideways, which is actually like right side up. And then they do such a good job, it takes so long for us to get in there. It's such a believable wall. And then we don't do it again, which I, I'm so happy they didn't have us do it again because they set it up so perfectly and they're like, okay, that we know that. You're already confused. Now we're just going to go to normal, even though it's not going to be normal, but we're not, you know, it's like, that's established, but, you know, now with, now we don't need to oversaturate it. We don't need to go back to it. We don't need to confuse you guys even more, you know, we don't need to use this as a gimmick. We just kind of used it. And then we moved on. It was, it was a great choice. I'm glad as well. But the, the acting in that, in that scene is probably one of my favorites in the entire, you know, entire film is from Jeremy Renner to Amy Adams to Forest Whitaker. Like everyone is just so on point in this entire movie, but it's exemplified in that very first, I guess a rival scene where they go into the ship and they're, you know, freaking out about the gravity switch and about how everything is, like I said, it's their disoriented. This is a monumental breakthrough. There's a monumental event for humankind. And they just kind of encapsulate that again, the panic and the fear with the, the trembling hands and, you know, with Ian falling, tripping and falling and then looking back, you know, and even his, his, you know, kind of somewhat campy dialogue. It's just it all works. And answer him quicker, answer him quicker, dude, you were an alien ship. Chill out. Just say, yeah, I'm good. Yeah. You gotta ask it. What? Three times. Uh huh. That was so, I was so annoyed. I was like, come on, dude. Just fucking answer. Um, I would say one of my favorite this, I found since we're looking at photos, if anyone's listening and not watching, sorry, but we're looking at photos from IMDB, um, this might be my favorite, I think, um, shot in there and like framing. I absolutely love it. You know, we're over the shoulder of Ian, um, Amy Adams is, I guess not centered, pretty damn centered with Abbott and Costello in the background and it is God. It's so eerie. It's so believable. Like, this is a crazy, crazy thing to just pop up and be like, let me explain everything that's going on in here. But, you know, in the moment, God, it's, it all fits so perfectly. When you think about it, they, using that single location, it's actually very simplistic, but they found a bunch of ways to keep it interesting, even though we kept going back to it. Um, it was very cool in that way, whether it was the lighting and the direction and the camera angles like straight on, maybe over the shoulder like this, like, they kept it very visually interesting the entire time to me. Yeah. And they mixed with their shots as well, like there was the one, uh, when she gets called in by the colonel, by Forrest Whitaker's, uh, colonel, and she has to kind of, she has to translate, uh, in Mandarin for the first time. And that's all in, you know, most of that's in a one, one shot and we stay in the wide angle. Like we stay away from everybody. And so they just, they, they mix up not just, um, you know, kind of time, but they mix up shots to help keep things visually interesting as well. Like it's very, very well crafted movie. And I think to kind of, and honestly, I think it's just to always have you kind of disoriented. We rarely, it's just not like, Hey, we're back in the ship. So it's going to look like this, you know, everything always looks slightly different. It felt, it felt like at least, you know, I, I had to go through all the shots and be like, Oh, they did this many shots, but it felt like no matter what we were doing, it was never like the same thing again, kind of it was a new version of something that we were doing. So yeah, that, that wide of her doing, uh, translating in the man, Mandarin was awesome. They didn't give us, they didn't give us subtitles or anything. We just sat there and like let her tell us basically. Yes. Yes. Yes. Jeff, this is the, uh, the shot that Matt talked about earlier. Just want to make sure you saw that for everyone else who wants to know, classic, very classic. Like everyone knows that image for sure. Yeah. Very, very denny move. If somebody knows, uh, some basic, uh, CGI, I feel like we could go out tomorrow and do that. Right. I would be absolutely down to try that would be awesome. Speaking of subtitles a little bit though, I wanted to know how Brandon felt about the subtitle scene. I knew one of you were going to ask. I knew one of you. As soon as like he, um, yeah, um, Luis got over to the, the smoky alien side when the alien started doing the ink patterns, it automatically started to do the subtitles for the alien translation, which was very avatar too, because all of a sudden we're just buying into the fact that she, um, these people know the language well enough that it's not these people. This is, this is at a critical turning point, right? This is, um, after Luis has started to kind of see her, her future memories or future visions, her, whatever, she started to see this kid, uh, slowly progressively more and more and more. Um, she's, it starts to click that, Hey, there is a connection between Brandon was good with it. He got her life now and, and what at, whenever this is happening, like there's clearly some kind of correlation that, that she's tapping into and they're going to, you know, everyone's going to move out because it's after the explosion. So they've got to leave now they have to evacuate and there's a, there's a shot where the, um, shuttle, I guess comes down out of the ship and then she goes and she leaves that, that, uh, meeting and she goes and walks out and gets into it, or she goes and walks out and then the shuttle comes down. So this is after she's already been kind of thinking in that forward way there. It's already been the idea of, um, thinking in this cyclical, you know, way, uh, has been established. I'm trying to, uh, to, to find the quote, um, because it was with Ian and it was with, um, Louise, I think it was, it was obviously before the, uh, explosion and it basically, you know, they're, they're talking about how the theory, uh, that, that the language you speak determines how you think and how it affects everything. Um, and, and Louise is already starting to think in that way. So she gets into the ship and she started talking and communicating with the aliens. She can understand them and she can understand this, this language now while the other people can't. And I thought that that was a very powerful time to use the, the subtitles and actually say, Hey, you're intent, our intent is for you to think that she understands them because she's already immersed in this, in this language now. And that changes how she thinks and that changes her perception of time and of reality itself. So yes. So I think that wasn't like, they gave you a glimpse of it. I want to say when the first time they said, um, offer weapon, yeah, I believe she just said it means, like, I'm trying to, I'm trying to remember was, I think it was like kind of part of a transition, maybe where like it popped up and then you might have heard them say, what does that mean, then she says offer weapon and then they jumped to like the conference room. I think. And if I'm correct sounds right because they're debating the fact that's like, we could have misinterpreted weapon, like weapon could be also mean tool and all these other things. But so I think what they were doing with that was you got the inkling that she was just, she just read it on her own, not the computer didn't tell it. But then they cut to the, the, um, the, the conference room. So we never know. Maybe, you know, we just jumped to a spot and we heard the big first line of the next scene, rather than the end line of the previous scene and the part of the transition, you don't know entirely. So in theory, she saw that on the, on the screen on the fake glass wall and went, oh, that means offer a weapon. And then we jumped to that and then to have a whole discussion and no one really went. You just read that without like being told. So I think, but I think at that point in the movie too, I heard them very subtly say that they'd been like studying stuff for like a month or two, like they'd been out there. Yeah. Oh, again, I don't know how long it takes to learn a new language like this, but I think it's coming up on, on four weeks, I, in one of the later scenes, what's that? I don't know. That sounded like they're currently doing it and they're coming up on four weeks right now. Next week, next week, we should know more. Hopefully we'll get a couple more words to side. Yeah, exactly. There was definitely seen there would absolutely be a, a patreon for each week. They, they'll give you another word and whole thing. So go ahead. Amazing. But now there, there is a part where I think on one of the video boards that said day 27. So I know, I know it near the end, it was only a month in, which also kind of was like, well, that happened really fucking fast. Mm hmm. Yep. She, cause, um, Jeremy Renner asked her at one point, are you still dreaming in, in their language? Yeah. She never answers. So obviously, yes. Um, speaking of, speaking of the, the languages as a whole, she's the first vision, I believe she had was, I want to say when she was studying like the first words, like human and the other one, right? I think she had a flash. So you're saying, so she understood it enough to start getting the powers, right? Yeah. Or, okay. So there's a shit ton of people now that are having visions, right? Everywhere. Because that was the most basic, barely understanding it. The Pakistanis are the ones that figured out what the writing, how to even read the writing. They're the ones that figured it out. So there's a bunch of people there that understand it enough to start getting visions. People are been getting visions for a very long time. And it's weird that she's the only one that like anything that was like, oh, hey, what is this? Yeah. Because I think a lot of people were working. I understand she'd be like the only one that was close enough and got close enough to like actually physically time travel, but like a hell of people have to be having this power at this point everywhere and not, how is Ian not talking to her about this? Right. Dude. I think I just saw the future. Yeah. Oh shit. Me too. So is she the, I don't know, that's a commentary possibly on, you know, what is the future vision and what is like, hey, I just kind of hope this happens. And I was dreaming about this and you were in my dream last night. It's not really a dream. I can't talk to you about this because I barely know you. Or you know, is, is Louise the first one to actually truly understand the language? Is are the Pakistani scientists, are they just able to start to translate? Well, but it depends on what happens to them in their future because she only knows that stuff because of what her future is. She like, she wrote the book, the other thing else in your language. Is the reason she even starts having visions is because she ultimately eventually figured it out. I think so. And she's jumping backwards. I think so. Or that's what I know. I don't want to know that the future is very, like this movie is very, very much the future is influencing our present, like rather than what we usually see out of time moves. Right. So I do think it's that it's the classic, what was it? Stephen Hawkins was like, he was like, Hey, I'm going to have a birthday party and invite nobody so that if I do end up time traveling, I'll just come back to here or like, Oh, yeah, yeah. I was like, so it's like, because you eventually will know it, then you'll show up, but that never happens. So then nobody eventually gets time travel. That's what I was wondering if it was kind of like that, where it's like, unless you ultimately get there and be able to travel, nothing else is going to change, like you're not going to get in visions or anything. And that's why I was, I was wondering, that's why I wanted to see what your opinion was Brandon. We got the two different sides where you just assumed it was, if you understand it, as you're understanding it, you become more and more powerful, quote unquote, not that it's like a superpower, because Brandon would hate this more and more, but instead, we got the other side, which is, Hey, that's interesting. That's good. I like that. But I agree with, I agree with Jeff side. Sorry, Brandon. I was finding you can be wrong in your opinion, that's okay, because if it was the other way, how are people not talking about this for a month? How does nobody else see those visions? Yeah, that's, that's an interesting take for sure is, is what exactly is most of me. Anybody else could have these visions? I thought it was just her. Well, I understand that because the whole movie censored around her and we're very focused on that, but then, but when you take the, take that logic step up, she stared at it and was able to identify enough of it to get some of the power, you cannot tell me somebody can explain to you and figure out from zero how to read this thing without understanding it as much as she did just that bullshit. So either it's the other way or there's some flaws, which are understandable flaws, because if it is like that, I'm fine with like, you know, I'm fine with skipping that logic. You know, it doesn't ruin anything. And if I was in the writer's room and they're going, yeah, but when this stuff be true and I'm like, I'm perfectly fine with just ignoring that because I mean fucking it's minor shit. Let's have a clean, you know, a clean through movie instead of having to explain a bunch of shit and be like, oh, make sure I knew this is about this. And it's about that. So. Good job, guys. Yeah. Good job. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That really makes me think a lot now. Thanks. I appreciate that, Matt. No worries. That's what I'm here for. What people the fucking thing I want to get you guys thoughts about the CGI kind of as a whole. There are parts I like like the aliens I thought looked great for being just strange, great creatures with semi, you know, finger-like appendages. But then. Boom. Boom. Sorry. Not boom. I was like, hold on. But then the humans in their fucking hazmat suits, that sucked. I hated seeing that. That took like, I think the gravity approach. Wait, what part of the suits you see me? Like where their faces, I don't know, maybe they were, but they sure did look like CGI and they just did. They looked like their face wasn't connected to their body. I didn't get that from the hazmat. Oh, you didn't? Okay. Cool. Maybe it was just my. I did not either. I'm going to look through some shots. I was more distracted by the glare from the huge white, smokey, light direction on their hazmat suits because there's just some big line on their, oh, that sometimes covered their faces. But what do you do about this? I mean, I can totally understand it if they were to, I guess, because it's like maybe we don't get a clear view of them the whole time because of the hard plastic and all the lighting and stuff. And it's just like, glares are impossible, but I never was watching it going, oh, that's fake. Yeah. Interesting. The one part that stuck out to me was her hair when she got to the smokey side. Yes. That was the one that stuck out to me. Stee underwater-like, you know, anti-gravity place. Yeah. That definitely looked. And I take the only reason they did that was so that they could establish that's how the aliens are able to float away, but I have no idea why it, like otherwise they could have just had her hair normal and I would have been fine with it because it's mysterious and otherworldly Jeff. That's why. Yeah, a little bit, honestly, a little bit. Because they're hot boxing. Yeah, I don't know, Brandon. Jeff, I'm sorry. I don't agree with your CG's take. I apologize. Yeah. I thought it looked practical as far as I could tell. I don't see anything that makes me go that looks fake. Yeah, in the stills, it's much more realistic, but for me when I was watching, I don't know why I just don't like it, and that's how I thought about gravity also. I did notice it in any way, share, or form. So, unfortunately. Yeah. It's interesting, though. Yeah. Guess I'll have to watch it again. If you don't pull my arm, I don't know, anyway, I'm sorry. I'm glad you brought that up, and then, again, going further into the CG, I will go back to saying that the aliens, like the textures of their skin and stuff looked really good to me, and then the smoke that was engulfing them looked really legit, too. Same. Still, it's strange to think 2016. I was still finishing up college in 2016, and this stuff still holds up just as good as things do today. Yeah. It is very, very impressive. I agree with that. Yeah. Incredibly so. It looks professional. It looks, you know, higher budget, and it looks well done. And these, I mean, Jeff, you ask all the time, like, what are the things you kind of want to make? And it's like, these are the types, like, if I were to make a sci-fi movie, I want to make something like this, where it looks realistic. And it looks hyperrealism. Well, in some ways, this felt like, because, you know, I tell you guys on the same note that I get drawn to Christopher Nolan style in terms of storytelling and, like, and visuals and practical use, and this very much falls in that line as well. Like, I'm very much a very visual storyteller, kind of, like, driven, because I just love the way that he uses dialogue very subtly, but the exposition still gets taken appropriately to the degree that it needs to be. I love holding on shots of people's reactions and letting that tell the story. Yeah, he just did an exceptional job with that. And I mean, absolutely. I think, should we pull the quote from Dune 2 that everyone was all pissy about? I don't like dialogue. We'll put it in here and then he'll say, I don't like dialogue and everyone will go, oh, it was so great. It was such a good idea to do all the minimal by then it was Dune 2. It's like, oh, what a piece of shit. Which line is that? I don't remember. It's for TV. He doesn't like putting dialogue in his movies, but it was minimum, but realistic and it gave us enough backstory and kind of narrative that we needed, but not too much, unnecessary. Yeah. Well, and I also like the way Winnie did use dialogue with the way that Luis's character he had her explain things to us, like the complex ideas. Yeah. Well, yeah, the kangaroo thing. I thought that was still, I thought that was still great, though. I was like, oh, I get it. And she's like, that's a lie. I was like, damn it, I believed you. But also when I wrote in my notes, I was like, cool, a cool history lesson. I started typing and I was like, oh, nope, delete. But the other line too being the fact that it's like giving someone a hammer, like if all you do is give someone a hammer, everything becomes a nail. And I was like, I love those descriptions and stuff. And the whole movie like did a fantastic job, I think, of making you ask questions and dive into stuff. Like, for example, that it's like, oh, they think it's a weapon and stuff. And then they describe the hammer. And you're like, you know what? Actually, that's really very smart and it makes you look at other stuff the same way too. Yeah. It really makes you think. And that I think is one of the bigger parts or bigger things that I liked about this movie is because, you know, they take that, that, I don't know, if timeless or possibly overused, like what if scenario, you know, what if aliens visited us and it kind of looks at it in a different way of how do we, how do we approach this instead of these aliens being, you know, problematic, it's how do we understand them and how, how would humans go about understanding them if they got the chance in the current climate? I liked the spin on the what if and it took it in a really interesting direction that ultimately I feel like made it original. I know this is based on a short story that I haven't read, but it did this, this idea concept pretty, pretty smoothly. Yeah. Quick question for you guys. Yeah. Did you, did it bug you at all when they said like they were talking about how China was mobilizing and starting to like caught, like start to the almost attack and like other countries are starting to follow suit. And then like they were just talking political tactics and stuff and then there was a line where they were like the guy was like saying, it's like, yeah, but the look what like the Germans have done, like the, you know, putting people against the world against each other because we have all these different role leaders, but like look what Germany's done, look what blah, blah is done, like they even have a word for it and hungry. Did it, like, do you remember that line? Like, did it bug you that they didn't define what that, what that meant? I had to look it up. I looked it up because I was very curious about it. All right. Yeah. Also, it's um, I mean, I don't know. I guess it's spelled S-Z-A-L-A-M-I-T anyways, it's salami tactics is what it is what it comes down to. They call it salami tactics, but it's actually, it's pronounced salami tactics. I know it's just got all these all the extra letters, but um, it's essentially the description of the term is like the practice of using a series of many small actions to produce a much larger action or result that would be difficult or unlawful to perform all at once. So like, it's like kind of the tactic of like, um, rather than full out committing like genocide, you're starting to like put in place all these little things happening that gets you to that ultimate goal. And then people are all of a sudden down with it kind of situation or it's just, it's just what happens. Um, it's very interesting. I guess it's like something that occurs in like world, like war tactics and things like politics. Like fuck. I was not really like that. Strategies of war are fucked up. I know. Yes. Necessary in time. One more fun fact or well thing I want to bring up for you guys. Did you recognize? Well, it was a, I hope it's a fact. I don't know. I did fact check the fact, but, uh, it was only been fact checked twice. Um, we definitely good fact check it. So it's like 80% fact, but, uh, did you guys, um, recognize the song, the track? That they played at the beginning and at the end of the movie, did any of that music sound familiar to you guys? Yes. You tell me and then I can't really, it didn't occur to you. So like in the, even in the very beginning, when they start with like the, what we think is flashbacks of her kid and seeing her, the progression of her going to the hospital and getting sick. So it was also a, it was also a circle. You just got to go on them. Whoa. Whoa. Okay. Uh, that song, um, it's called, um, on the nature of daylight, but that's the song that they played in the last of us with Nick Offerman and Marie, uh, Bartlett, when, like, when he's, um, when he's dying, essentially, like, Mitsu said, like, that was that song, but I guess you guys didn't recognize it. No, no, I did. I told you I did. Oh, yes. That's right. Brand new God. Do you even like when you sing it? Have you ever heard a song, loser, but yeah, same track, same track. I just, I really liked that song though. Interesting. It was a good song. All the, yeah, all the, like we said, all the music was felt very natural. I think. Yeah. Um, I will say one of, one of like, you know, small negatives, I felt like the military was just force Whittaker did good acting, but military just felt like so cliche, like, I don't know. Some of the stuff where when she was like, Oh, tell them what, you know, ask them what the horse was or whatever. And like, why did we just like straight up believe her, you know, all the time? Like, oh, we did this or did that. And when he was like, he was like, Oh, you're teaching them how to read and write. Are you stupid? I'm like, what? Yeah. What universe is that? Not the same thing. What you brought her to act like you just expected her to walk up and scream the the question constantly at you. Like, what did you, that's fucking stupid when I kind of set up her and shit. No, I don't know. Because I kind of had the same, the same thought is like, wouldn't, from a basic standpoint, wouldn't it be more difficult and take longer to teach someone to read and write at the same time? Wouldn't you want to start with just reading and comprehending, you know, the language from one aspect and then go on to another one? That's kind of where my bread works is like, starting, starting from there. And it just, it fascinates me that the reality of the situation is when you're teaching someone a brand new language, no, you want to kind of give them more things at once. Plus it also speaks to the, to the aliens understanding of time as well. Like they were talking about how, Hey, they don't understand our algebra, but the more complex situations that clicks. And so like, you know, I can't fathom someone saying I can read, but can't write. That seems ridiculous. I can understand more Spanish than I know what all the shapes look like. Yeah, but you don't, you're, you can read them, but not write, write those words that you can read. Is that what you're trying to tell me? I can, I can understand enough to get the gist of the sentence, but I can't say the sentence out loud, or I can't write the sentence out loud. I get what you're saying, but like, like, I, like, I will say, I can, I can, I can, I was about to agree with you. Shut up. Never mind. Shut up. Nope. Brandon. Hi. You can hear it. Jessica, you can, you can hear it and understand it. Right. Most, most of it. Yes. So, but reading it, you're telling me you can read a sentence in Spanish and not be able to write it down. Yes. That's situational though, because I, I can read Spanish and I can remember that there are certain words that I recall and like they have certain structures that are much easier than English, but then let's say you just like out of nowhere just told me to write a sentence in Spanish. I'm just like, fuck, I don't remember, like what were, it's like, I don't know. I can, I'm more likely to remember the words in Spanish while reading them versus trying to write them out. Like, you know, like there's some words that are part of your vote, like not part of your vocabulary that you can read and be like, oh, I understand and interpret that correctly, but you're not going to write it down. It's not going to become like, you're not, it's not part of your usual writing. I will say, I, I mean, I'm referring, I feel like I'm trying to refer to is writing as a whole. And it doesn't seem, that seems insane to me to be like, I don't know that, hey, clearly you guys agreed. It seems insane to me to be like, oh, you shouldn't teach somebody, you just teach somebody how to read and not write. One, one would take way longer. They're the same fucking thing, be like, you know, here's cat, write cat, here's dog, write dog. And you're like, whoa, could have just gone, here's cat, here's dog. Come on. That just seems so cliché to me personally, but hey, obviously, there's just cliché to me and not you guys. So, all right. Yeah. I don't know. It's more complicated than that. But speaking of dialogue, which is made of sound and I want to get away from this for the love of God, the, how many nominations for Oscars did it get, Brandon? So this got eight nominees, nominations for best most picture directing, screenplay, cinematography, film editing, sound mixing, sound editing and production design. It only won one. This was the year of La La Land and the Moonlight fiasco. It was a great, great time. Yeah. It did move interesting, which is an average movie, Moonlight, and I never ended up seeing it. It was so slow. Moonlight's good. Definitely slow. Kyle and I saw it and were like, "Fuckin' A, what did we..." Yeah, it definitely has an identity that... I don't know, the only one they won was sound editing, which was... Yep, they did win for sound editing. So fucking good. I thought the, just the sound of the aliens, like, I don't know how you even like describe the sound of the aliens, but it fits so, so perfectly. The bird, the addition of the bird in the chamber was a brilliant touch, even outside of, you know, they normally do that for people who don't know. Take it down to caves and mining and stuff. And the point is, if a, if it is unable to breathe, the air is getting poisonous for whatever reason, the bird's gonna die first. So when the bird dies, you're supposed to leave, because they're so precious that, they take so much energy, they breathe so quickly, it will just circle, it will kill them faster than humans. So then you at least have time to get out. And I thought it was... Yes. I love the term. I didn't mean to. And but I thought even beyond the fact that it would be there, you know, not really, but it would be there, is the chirping in the background was beautifully put, placed in. And at least early and gives you just a little bit of, you know, a kind of a clock-ish where it's just like the bird, it's over and over and over again. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just this constant in the background. We talked about the, the creation of the alien sounds fantastic. We talked about, you know, just that the stillness of inside the ship and inside the, the room, the vapor room, I guess, all of that, just the, the sound was absolutely incredible. And putting the, then putting the headphones on in the helicopter. Yeah. That little transition was great. That was fantastic. That helps sell it for sure. I think that probably would be one of the top aspects of this movie is sound. I'm not going to lie, sound cinematography. And for me, story. Yeah. I mean, I think it was pretty solid. Apparently I'm looking at trivia, apparently Denny and Eric Heiserr, like the writers created a fully functioning language with those, what they're calling logograms. Pretty fucking cool. That's crazy. Yeah. So much time. Pretty fucking cool. Yeah. I did feel like a deep language, you know, like, what's his face that did Lord of the Rings and everything. Peter Jackson. Yes. No. Shut up. No, they are our token. Yeah, that one. That one who like wrote Elvish and shit like that and like created a bunch of languages and whatnot. And it definitely makes it, it doesn't explain, you know, all the different aspects of it, but you can, it feels real, even though they don't explain every single bit. Would you guys rather be able to read Heptopod or would you rather be able to speak Navi? What are you talking about? I would rather time travel, I do whichever one that is. If you want to make that the Navi, okay, shit about our language. One tran, one tell time travels. The other is just some blue people. I don't even, yeah, I mean, if time travel is the, like, if that is the condition of me understanding and reading that language, then they, I'd have to go that way too. I would say so as well. I wasn't including that as the condition, but that's fair. That's fair. I'd only use Navi if I was on that planet and the planet, everything's trying to kill me on that planet. Unless you're on earth and you just bump into somebody that speaks Navi, which I don't know how that would be like, happen. You're just out and about talking Navi to yourself. That's also something back. I love you. I am, before we go to grades, I guess I just want to ask if you guys feel like this movie was, took a realistic enough approach, like, could you see in the, if this event actually took place, could you see people inside the military, inside this base camp going up? I'm trying to destroy the ship, like, because I feel like that, I mean, back in 2016, yes, and especially right now in 2024, just the, the kind of extremists that we've got on all sides and all, you know, throughout the entire spectrum, kind of trying to take things into their own hands and say, Hey, I'm going to defend myself and defend, you know, what I think is right. And I'm going to do something radical and crazy. I feel like that was incredibly realistic approach to how different human beings would react. But the one soldier's wife just in hysterics over it, you know, we've, we've have the military from multiple countries preparing for battle, preparing for defense, and then we have regular people, you know, civilians, looting and rioting. I just thought it took an extremely terrifying approach, but one that, that I think could definitely happen. Yeah, I mean, I agree. I think I think they played it out pretty accurately to what would happen because I could also see it being a huge political game, if we're to say happened like this, like I, we, they pointed out something that I've never really thought about a whole lot before, but we do have leaders and like so many leaders in this world, we don't have a singular leader of the like entire planet. Yeah. And in that essence, like there are, there are parts of this world that are kind of like playing against each other in some ways, like I could see people considering all the factors of like, you know, it's like, if one country plays friends with the, the aliens first and like, they like them better, it's like that could be a political or move. If they have crazy weaponry technology that they just give them and then they become the new superpower and, you know, they could go a bunch of different directions, but I did like the political regards to it as well. Like where everyone's generally playing nice together and until they're not. Yeah, until they're not until someone gets spooked and tell someone threatens the others and tell, you know, something like that. And that truly again, it's just the terrifying aspect that I think is the whole message of this movie, the whole theme is, you know, we need to understand each other, we need to be open to what one another thinks and feels and be empathetic and not afraid and not worried about, you know, playing, you know, a game of scorpion with the others, like, you know, the mutual assured destruction aspect of it of, you know, just because they are our power because they have, they have, you know, the means to kill you doesn't mean that they will or that they should kind of, I don't know, I don't know where I was going with that. Sorry. I mean, I get it. I could score being. And then I went dodge ball. I think. Yeah. That's what I was trying to go for. Yeah. I don't know. I honestly put too much thought into like it, like having a message necessarily or like trying to put something out into the world and I just kind of watched it more as this is cool. And like, oh, there for the adventure and the and followed like the current story. But I can totally see that, you know, she was definitely the champion of let me talk to them and share information, I guess, but it felt like it was all in the greater mission of, you know, figuring out what they do want rather than, oh, humanity needs to work together, but it's more of a means to an ends kind of rather than you foolish old men, us young, young women know how to run things. But, you know, it was a bunch of men in the in the room. But yeah, yeah, sometimes they did listen to her to a degree. Yeah, the I don't do you really think if she just called this dude? I don't know. I feel like if somebody called me and like, I guess repeated some words, I wouldn't be like, Oh, clearly this woman's time travel, I'd be like, this fucking people, this the US government is bugging me the fuck is this, not nothing like I should listen to you and everything that you say and make entire decisions for my whole country by this random woman that called me on my cell phone. I do I can't remember if it was in the this in this movie or if it was a deleted scene or if I'm just making it up, but I swear I remember what we have hearing the options. I hear remember hearing Louise or I the general explaining what Louise said it was her. It was her mother. I mean, it was her wife's fine dying words. Yes, but I thought I remember like hearing what those words actually are and like it's like a message of peace or it's like, Hey, forgive somebody or, you know, something like that something to the just in a world like you just said, you think the Chinese president getting a phone call from a military and woman changes everything about what they're doing for this global event based off of that you think the real world Chinese president would do that. No, that's that's all I understand, however, good job. I'm not calling anyone cliche. I'm not trying to insult the movie. I'm just saying that's a weird right crazy. That's a bit of a stretch. But I guess again, it depends on the context, depends on what those dying words were. If her dying words are, Hey, I saw an alien and someone's going to call you soon to tell you to not to attack them, don't this is why I want some knowledge movie so I can make fun of them. You don't want to have to think anymore, good, good, good, great, great, great, great thing time where we grade the movie we just watched a one small thing. Did you guys notice when they switched over from Amy Adams to Jeremy Renner for like three scenes or whatever? We only filed her around and then he started doing narrative narrator and I noticed that he did the voice over and stuff. Yeah, couple scenes we filed him and then or like a scene or two and then went back to her. I didn't notice, I didn't notice like what the reason was necessarily kind of just happened. I didn't think she was passed out or anything. Yeah, I don't know. I didn't I didn't see the look in on our main character, I guess I'm not sure why they chose. Yeah, I would assume so. It was just it kind of like I think it was during a like a montage process, right? Like passing of time, like they were getting progress while like interacting with the aliens and stuff. I feel like that's when it happened. At least the one I noticed. I didn't that's interesting. I only noticed the narrative him doing the narrating one one section. Okay, that's what I thought too. Yeah. Okay, okay. I thought you said there was two. So I. Well, it was like it was like it was a bunch at one point. We just like went through and it was like and I'm pretty sure we filed him at some point. The camera because I was noticing that we never were away from her and then it happened and I just didn't remember. If it was the the jump in time that would make sense that would check out of why. Why they did that or that was that guess that was the jump or whatever. Anyways, um, sweet. So Brandon's got to go first. Right? Right. Yeah. I'm so discombobulated. You did tenant. You did arrival and I'm doing edge tomorrow, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I think so. I've been just thinking them as as a group of three. So that was I'm pretty sure you picked that right. Cool. Let's do it. Yeah. I picked this one because ever since I saw it in 2016, I loved it. I love the idea. I love the execution. It's a powerful movie. I thought it was just solidly put together. Everyone did a great job with it and within it. Like I said, I feel like it was pretty realistic and a smart approach to kind of convey with the implications of an alien invasion, invasion and quotes, uh, we kind of do to our current civilization with the added benefit of taking a particular stance on the political climate of the day. Um, plus again, it answered the question of how would you deal with the first contact being made in a very specific manner, um, and that understanding them is the key and understanding each other is a true moral, uh, which I think is worthy of the movie kind of earns its stripes really. Um, the, the cast is stellar and me Adams is fantastic. Jeremy Renner is great. Of course, what occurs solid as always, um, the score is absolutely outstanding. I loved it. Um, cinematography is magnificent that was just, you know, it evoked a lot of emotion for me as well. Uh, and the visuals, uh, for me kind of were hit and miss with the, with this CGI or with some of the, um, aided, uh, special effects, but overall it was really clean cut and you could, uh, see everything, uh, I could see everything. I didn't think anything was shrouded in too much darkness or anything like that. Um, I enjoy the character study that it was. Uh, it's not my favorite movie of all time, but it definitely is up there and I definitely enjoy it a lot. I think I'm going to give this one a nine out of 10, uh, something like a mid-summer, like a remnant. Hopefully it might just last minute there. Oh, I was too, I was too focused on myself. I didn't even look at it. Dang it. But yeah, I've got a, I've got this one at a nine solid nine. Nice, nice, nice. Yeah. Um, definitely now I'm not an expert. I mean, Jeff God, I'm struggling 50/50 chance. Um, no, I, I agree. I think this movie is very well rounded. Like there aren't, there aren't very many things I can think of as like a downside to it. Um, aside from like, you know, like the little potholes that we might have like discussed of like, like a cliches and things like that. Nope. No, those are true. Oh, that's right. It's none of those are true. How dare you say that? I know. What am I thinking? Um, but no, I, uh, I think the, uh, the actors did, um, really well, the visuals, but like are amazing, um, the score working in tandem, the production design, like everyone, everyone in their like respective like departments killed it. Um, and I think in that regard, I think I'm going to put it at an 8.75. It's just really solid and good and up there. It's not like on my top, top, top list stuff, but it's a, but it is a good watch and I really enjoy it. All right. 8.75 for, uh, Jeff, all right. I don't know if I was happy, see, because I'm leaning towards, we could have had, we hypothetically could have had an entire matching podcast because I think because when I look at it, I, God, I think sound design was fantastic, but I really loved how much it visually gorgeous it was. And I feel like I could watch this again with just, I don't know, without any sound on and still enjoy just the visuals of, um, the camera work and I know we, you know, the coloring still, even though there aren't, you know, very vibrant stuff, I thought the coloring was still consistent, good, solid, the camera work was amazing. Um, the story was, yeah, I mean, it was pretty damn good. You know, maybe small things here and there, but like, damn, it was, I'm looking at my, my stuff and I mean, I had more fun than I enjoy watching it more than, you know, Avatar 2, personally, there will be blood. I thought this is better than that. Um, is more of a story that I like to, to watch, you know, the kind of venture to thinker, um, you know, the, the lines of the bullshit line with the kangaroo and stuff. I mean, I love that, that, that style. Um, do I want to put it on the same level as 1917 Joker and the Half Blood Prince, which I have at 8.2, at 9.25. Mm hmm. I, I, I know it gets tough because they're like, so they're also like not comparable in some ways to exactly right, different style movies and I might change my later down the road. I don't know. And I, I, you know what, I don't know, I'm going to go, I'm going to, we'll all just do different. So I don't have to match with Brandon. I'm going to go, no, I truly do believe it might be on the same level as, as, as those, uh, those three from six, eight years ago, it was gorgeous, very tiny, if anything problems and it let the good shit shine and the sound design was fucking amazing. All right. Yeah. I'm going 8.2, I mean, 9.25. Mm hmm. Nice. 9.2.5. Nice. I'll probably change mine here very soon. I heard I got you man. 9.25. Yeah. It's hard. I looked at my same list and I'm just like, I know it's higher than an 8.5, but I don't know. Yeah. Like it's like some things might have to shift for me to find it's like right spot. Mm hmm. Yeah. So I don't know. My, my knife flat is like, is like Fight Club, which I'm like, I think it's better than, I think it's better than Cast Away. I, I think it might be better than JoJo Rabbit, which are my nines. Fight Club is where I'm, the trouble is, but I think Fight Club might need to be at 9.25 for me, um, which, hey, if everyone sticks around, end of the year, we will do changes. End of the calendar. Yes. We are allowed to do changes. So things can, you know, tweak left and right, generally, massive ones, but, but we'll, but that is a long ass ways away, um, what are we doing? Not that long. I can't believe we're already fucking in August. Holy shit. Right. Tell me about it. It's the best. Always. Old as fuck. Um, what do we, and next week we're going to do 10 it, right? What do you want to, I don't, did we discuss, which one we have, next week's 10 it. All right. So yeah, next week is 10 it. And which neither of you have seen or Brandon saw once didn't love it. And then Jeff hasn't seen it. I saw it. I've seen it a few times. I saw it in theaters when it came out and that was the one and only time I saw it. So I'm excited to rewatch it. Yeah. It's a pound of Joe Brandon. Like Hannah. Oh, Hannah. Yeah. Tenant is tenant backwards shut up for real crazy. We get forwards and backwards. So if I put this movie on in reverse, it's going to be the same movie. No, but I bet you will make sense. You'll see the backwards. We're playing forward. I bet you would make sense in a weird, in a weird way. Right. Do I have to put on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at the same time for it to all sync up backwards without it, but possibly you can if you want, you know, I think watching it backwards would be weird. So might as well. Fuck it. Let us know how it was. Sweet. Yeah. So 10 it's next week and then, uh, stick around later in August as we continue our time traveling through August with the edge of tomorrow, which I haven't seen. So I'm excited to watch that one as well. Yeah. Yeah. I'm predicting it's going to be a good ratings month, I think. I don't know how much I was going to love tenant, but edge of tomorrow is pretty fun. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Me and then, uh, yeah, like a bad side of the beginning. Last week we had a special Sunday, uh, presentation of Twisters to make room for, uh, Deadpool and Wolverine for a Thursday show. So go check out both of those episodes, uh, out anywhere you get your podcast. So check us out on YouTube. Come interact with us on our socials. We're all over the place. All the information is going to be in our show notes. And, uh, thanks for sticking around. Thanks for listening to a rival. Enjoy your upset when they said what happens next and they're like, they arrive, right? Yeah. You could have just said it's the arrival. You motherfuckers. We got a couple of almost titled jobs that I was fine with. I was okay with, it's probably kept it out of a 10 for me, but that's fine. I wrote down Brandon's blue balls on the note of Brandon's blue balls. Bye. Bye. Bye. (upbeat music)