OK, we know there are some audio issues during the review portion of this week's show. The person responsible will be flogged until he doesn't like the flogging any more (we could be here a while). Anyway! Join John, El'Ahrai, and Special Guest Star Tim Conw--I mean, Cati Glidewell as they discuss "Blink Twice", "Sugarcane" and "Oddity"! Plus naughty trailer creators, home video picks, and the usual jackanapery. So listen! When you can't trust the lawyers and the advertising men, what the hell's America coming to, huh?
The Neon Movie Bunker
The Neon Movie Bunker -- Episode 358
(upbeat music) - Welcome to another episode of the Neon Movie Bunker. I'm John Robinson. - And I'm LaRae Stanik. - And we're here to talk about movies. - And Megalopolis. - Yeah. - Or more specifically, Megalopolis's trailer. - Yeah. - So, a trailer was released for Megalopolis this past week. - Mm-hmm. - However, if you try and find it, it will not be available at any of the official-- - That's a readily available, no. - These are a pair of articles from Variety. The first is dated August 21st headline. Lionsgate pulls Megalopolis trailer offline due to made up critic quotes and issues of apology. Quote, "We screwed up." Whoopsie doodle. Lionsgate is recalling its latest trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's epic Megalopolis, which featured a litany of fabricated quotes from famous film critics. Quote, "Lionsgate is immediately recalling "our trailer for Megalopolis." Lionsgate spokesperson said in a statement provided for Variety, "We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved "and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zo Trope "for this inexcusable area in our vetting process. "We screwed up, we are sorry." The trailer, released on Wednesday morning, aimed to position Coppola's latest film as a work of art that would withstand the test of time much like his previous masterpieces, "The Godfather in Apocalypse Now." The video included several quotes from critics panning Coppola's previous work. Pretty sure I've said his name three different ways and three different times in this article. But none of the phrases attributed the likes of Roger Ebert and Pauline Kale could be found in any of their reviews. Variety's own Lieberman was incorrectly cited as calling the 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula, quote, "a beautiful mess" and highlighting its, quote, "obsertity" when he reviewed the film for entertainment weekly where he worked at the time of its release. Quote, "Even if you're one of those people "who don't like critics, we hardly deserve "to have words put in our mouths." Then again, the trivial scandal of all of this is that the whole Megalopolis trailer is built on a false narrative. We've been said of the trailer's falsified quotes. Critics loved the "Godfather" and though Apocalypse Now is divisive, it's received a lot of crucial critical support. As far as me calling Bram Stoker's Dracula a beautiful mess, I only wish I'd said that, regarding that film, it now sounds kind. It's not clear where most of the quotes featured in the trailer came from with the exception of Roger Ebert's comment, quote, "a triumph of style over substance," which was actually pulled from his 1989 review of Batman and not about Dracula, as indicated in the trailer. The trailer sniff, who was the latest in his string of scandals, be falling the $120 million production, which Coppola financed entirely himself. Megalopolis hits US theaters on September 27th. So that's Article One. - Okay. - May I offer you something in an article too? - Yeah, you know, I'd like a follow-up, please. - Well then, how about this from August 23rd? - Okay. - Megalopolis trailer's fake critic quotes were AI-generated, Lionsgate drops marketing consultant responsible for Snafu. Lionsgate has parted ways with Eddie Egan, the marketing consultant who came up with the Megalopolis trailer that included fake quotes from famous film critics. The studio pulled the trailer on Wednesday after it was pointed out that the quotes trashing Francis Word Coppola's previous work did not actually appear in the critics' reviews and were in fact made up. Sources tell variety, it was not Lionsgate or Egan's intention to fabricate quotes, but was an error in properly vetting in fact checking the phrases provided by the consultant. The intention of the trailer was to demonstrate that Coppola's revered work, much like Megalopolis, has been what met with criticism. It appears that AI was used to generate the false quotes from the critics. - Aye, aye, aye. For instance, the trailer claims that Pauline Kale wrote in the New Yorker that, quote, "The Godfather was diminished by its artsiness," end quote. Kale, in fact, loved the movie. When Variety prompted AI service chat GPT to provide negative criticism about Coppola's work from well known reviewers, the responses provided were strikingly similar to the quotes provided in the trailer. Egan has worked closely with Adam Fogleson, the chair of Lionsgate's film group for more than 20 years, the two worked together universal and later at STX. Fogleson was the chairman of Universal Pictures until 2013 and then chairman of the STX film group. Fogleson was hired as vice chair of the Lionsgate film group two years ago and named chairman in January. Egan has been an independent consultant since leaving STX in 2019. A spokesperson for Lionsgate declined to comment to do this report. Egan did not respond to multiple requests for comment. - Oopsie. - Yeah. I guess it is generating some discussion of their release. - This may be one of those great test cases of there's no such thing as bad publicity. - Right, right. - Right there next to the Wednesday report in 2017 in the New York Times. - No. - Yeah. - Hey. - Yeah. - All right, well, these mistakes happen. But honestly, these mistakes happen, that's true. My thought though, is that this is not, I don't know if Mr. Egan is the person directly responsible for, I'm gonna use this word intentionally, generating this trailer. - Gotcha. - I don't think he said, okay, I'm gonna go to chat GPT and have it spit out a bunch of negative quotes from Francis Ford Coppola movie reviews. That said, somebody did. - Oh yeah. - And if Mr. Egan is not that person, he sure as heck better find out that person's name and probably should drive him out to the middle of the desert with a shovel. - Going to have a bit of a talking to you, at least I'm sure. - The phrase you'll never work in this town again is thrown around perhaps a bit too easily and too often, but this is the kind of thing that should have that kind of weight genuinely behind it. - You would think. - I would hope. And I really don't care if it was some 22-year-old intern who did it. - No, just that 22-year-old intern, he or she, or they should not be allowed anywhere close to this kind of thing again. Mr. Egan is not gonna be working with Lionsgate again in this capacity, which is good because, yes, he deserves to take a fall for it as well. And not just 'cause it got released, and not even just because it made it through, but because he thought it was a good idea to put this task in the hands of an idiot 22-year-old intern. - Yeah. I am feeling a bit business-vengeful right now, so. - duly noted. - It is surprising that it made it through all of the QC that you'd expect a trailer to have. - Again, there's that word expect. - Yeah, well. - 'Cause I think some of it becomes reputational. Lionsgate said, "Oh, Egan sent it over, Egan's good, he knows what he's doing." - Mm-hmm. - The question becomes, where did Egan say? How many levels of management were there between Egan sending it to Lionsgate and 22-year-old potential intern sending it to Egan? - Yeah. - 'Cause each one of those people, and hopefully there are more than one, each one of those people needs to pay the piper. - Yeah. - But then again, again, feeling a bit. - Business-vengeful. - Old Testament. - Gotcha. By real fire and brimstone. - Mm-hmm. - Anything else particularly catch your eye in terms of news bitty things? - No, honestly, the trailer was the primary thing. - Sure. I mean, there's one other thing that's probably worth mentioning, even though it's technically TV. James Spader sets Marvel Return as Ultron and Vision Series. - That sounds like fun. - Yeah. - That sounds like fun. - A schedule to debut in 2026. So we will see what that looks like. Terry metallis of Star Trek Picard will serve as executive producer and showrunner of the Untitled series. - That's a pretty talented showrunner. - The news of Spader's return confirms that at least some version of Ultron survived. How Ultron will return to the series is unclear. Spader performed the Rowan Age of Ultron via performance capture. But that process remains an expensive proposition for a TV series. Variety reported that the same approach for transforming Tatiana Maslani into the titular She-Hulk Attorney-at-Law cost Marvel roughly $25 million per episode. - Yep, not a cheap thing to do. - Nope. Vision Series is Marvel's first new live action show in nearly two years. And of course, you know, James Spader is just such a delightful weirdo. - Mm-hmm. - And yeah, so that's happening too. Oh, and no, that's not worth it. - No, come on, what is it? - I was just gonna say, what's the best way I can put this? What's the most show appropriate way I can put this? - What is appropriate for this show, John? - When I say show appropriate, I mean, we try to stick to actual movie news and not celebrity gossip. - Right, okay, okay. - How about if I just say, Electra Karen Siskotima movie win? - Gotcha. - Okay. - We have an email address that we do. Mail@neonmoviebunker.com is that email address. - Of course, that's not the only way to get in touch with us. - Well, there's facebook.com/neonmoviebunker. - Yes, indeed, there is. - Twitter.com/neonmoviebunker or @neonmoviebunker. I am @JohnNMB. We are available through blue sky @neonmoviebunker.bsky.social. I am available on Letterboxed as user JohnNMB. So follow me there if you're interested in seeing what I'm seeing and when. Please subscribe to the show and Apple podcasts or YouTube or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Then of course there is our website, www.neonmoviebunker.com. And twitch.tv/neonmoviebunker is our event space which is a place where things sometimes happen. - So we are here joined by our friend, colleague and all around snappy dresser Katie Glidwell, the blonde and herself and the blonde in front herself to talk about a couple of movies and possibly debate the world situation, world peace, solve all the problems and get us off this rock. Or maybe just we'll just stick to the movies for now. I'm thinking. - I just stick to the movie. - Yeah, okay. All right. First up, we have Blink twice. Directed by Zoe Kravitz, written by Zoe Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum, stars Naomi Achee, Chanting Tatum, Alia Shocott, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Wozman, Liz Carabell, Leavon Hawke, True Mullen, Kyle McLachlan and Gina Davis. We begin with Slater King making an apology. He's very sorry and he's been to a lot of therapy and bought in Ireland. Slater is a billionaire, you see, in some kind of not particularly well-defined tech field. He's very, very sorry and he's, you know, moving back into the world's eye after his time away after his unspecified misdeed or misdeeds. Frida is an aspiring nail artist/caterator, who at the previous year's King Tech Ball ran into Slater and he complimented her nails. She's working on developing a nail mousse, which are like little decal things you can put on your nails and look cute. I think I more or less exhausted my knowledge of nail technology in this sentence. Frida lives with Jess, her roommate, played by Alia Shocott, for Naomi Akey, plays Rita. And she wants to precipitate another meeting with Slater at this year's ball. So she has a bit of a plan. They are working, Jess and Frida are working as waiters at the ball. And about halfway through, Frida pulls Jess aside and says, "Red or blue?" What do you mean? Frida opens her backpack, shows her a bag inside with two cocktail dresses in it. Jess takes the blue, Frida takes the red, and they, well, start to impersonate guests at the ball and eventually they meet all sorts of people up to and including Slater King. There's some flirtations, some talk and whatnot. Well, the evening ends Slater and a bunch of his coterie are about to take off and Jess and Frida are sitting on some stairs and Slater comes back and says, "Hey, we're going to the island, wanna come with us?" So we cut to the private plane taking them to Slater's private island where their phones are confiscated. - Always a good sign. - Yeah, and well, long days of flunging by the pool and drinking champagne and as the character played by True Mull and Heather, as Heather says, "The huge blunt queen." A touch of the cannabis. And nights of meals prepared by Simon Rex's Cody, fine chef prepared things and wines that are beyond the imagination of normal people. And then Slater breaks out the custom psilocybin, NDMA liquid, and they all start to have revelations and wake up the next morning in bed, ready to take on another day of legend by the pool and drinking champagne. - So tough life. - Isn't it though? I don't know how I deal with it. But eventually things start to go a little bit wrong at the edges. There's Frida and Jess and Sarah, played by Andrea Arjona, who is a multi-day winner on a sleazy rip-off of Survivor. - Gotcha. - And there's Camilla and there's Heather, the previously mentioned huge blunt queen. And they run around frolic at night and at girl time. And that's all nice. And then the next day it's Frida and Heather and Sarah and Camilla running around frolicing, having real time by the pool. And then an item appears, which reminds Frida, Hey, wait, wasn't my friend Jess here? But they're living among this lavish paradise with its own perfume based on a made from a flower that only grows on the island. And as long as they avoid the terrifying giant yellow snakes that are very bitey, bitey. But things are just peachy, really. Except Frida starts to get the idea maybe, maybe not so peachy. And well, then it gets, we start to see behind the curtain, go we say. And in the end there is a, the ending is happy for at least a couple of the characters. At least one. - Okay. I'm leaving out huge swaths of information here because this is a movie that is very spoiler dependent. - Yes. - Katie actually suggested that if you have not seen the trailer yet, do not do so because it tells you more than you wanna know. If you have already seen it, you know, short of lacuna tech coming in. I don't think you're gonna be able to avoid it, but yeah. It's a, there's a lot of things going on behind the surface, beneath the surface behind the curtain, under sub rosa, I choose here, idiom, really. When I got out of this, I texted both of you separately that this movie reminded me very strongly of a movie I liked a lot, a movie I hated a lot, and a movie I was kind of indifferent to. Katie, I just gave you the three names straight out. LRA, I didn't specify, but you'll probably be able to figure it out for our audience. I'm just gonna let them decide. The inverse alphabetical order, those three films were salt burn, I spit on your grave and get out. I think those are KDA, a good kind of triangulation for this. - I would consider, don't worry, I would replace get out with don't worry, darling. And then have the other two, yeah, I could agree with the other two in your trilogy. - That's fair, either one I think works on that point of the triangle, but yeah, that's eminently fair. 'Cause this has very deep dark secrets going on. And this is Zoe Kravitz's debut feature as a director. And this movie does not work at all if the person in the director's chair has the slightest moment or glimmer of self-doubt. And I think that self-assurance that she clearly has in this is one of the things that makes it work as well as it does. She also obviously co-wrote it. It's... Naomi Akke has had a couple of large prominent roles before this. She was Jenna in Rise of Skywalker and she was Whitney Houston in I wanna dance with somebody. And she clearly has the chops, just in general, 'cause she's doing really good work here, very kind of complex, has at times to seem like she knows less than she actually does. You know, all your shock hot always delight to have around Andrea Arjona seriously recovering from Morpheus between Hitman and this. And then there's Channing Tatum as Slater King, who Slater's not exactly like a character Channing's done before. And that is used very well. The words are you having a good time, might never sound this sinister again. It looks great. Interesting music to it. Okay, you might be able to help me out with this. This is the first time I remember seeing this particular thing used, which is that immediately after the MGM logo fades, the very first thing that pops up is a static text trigger warning. And if it helps people, that's great. I'm not against it. My issue with it is basically it sets up a bit of an expectation in certain viewers like myself. If you're gonna be avoiding the trailer, if you're gonna be avoiding the trailer to have this be the very first thing you see works in, not a, it's not, it's obviously it's a primary concern, but it does kind of, at least for me, it raised that, okay, when is this going to occur and in what context? But as I said, if it helps people that's, that outweighs my kind of plot-based. - Waiting for the shoot drop? - Yeah. - My, I actually saw this twice and neither one of my screenings had that trigger warning. - Really? Interesting. - Yeah. - Yeah, that's how it happened for me. It was, you know, Leo the lion fades out, that comes off, there's like either a website or a phone number or possibly both. If you know, if you need resources and then it goes into the actual start of the movie. - Hmm. - Oh yeah, no, mine, neither of mine had that. - Hmm, interesting. Have I left out anything important? - One of the things is that when they get to the island, they, it is true they have to give their phones away, but each action that is taken, there's always the, you know, you could do whatever you want. You know, we just want to have freedom and Christians later while, you know, people can't text, they can't take pictures, Christians later, as a Polaroid camera. So he's taking pictures of everybody throughout the time. They also, you know, just hopped on the plane and have no clothes, but there's clothes provided for them at, in each one of their bungalows. Now, the girls automatically think that's kind of weird, but they also put it together that it's a rich person thing. For me, I thought this is unlike any character that Channing Tatum has played in the past, which I think says a lot. And also I think the way Zoe Kravitz captures his face. Like, I mean, he's a good looking guy. We're not gonna get it past that, but he just, she just really focuses on his face in a way that is unlike any film that I've seen him in. And I think when Frida and Slater meet, it's very that meet cute kind of thing. You're kind of, I mean, the audience may be wondering, like, why are these girls going to this island with these guys? But at no point do you feel like there's any tension or it's like, what are we, it's like, this is crazy. You know, we're going with this bill. - Oh my gosh, we're going to Slater Pied Island. - Yeah, it's like, oh my gosh, it's, yeah. And it's also, you know, they have that underlying like competition between Frida and Sarah, 'cause Sarah is with Cody and Sarah played by Adria Ajana. She's with Cody, but you can tell that she's kind of like definitely trying to get her claws into Slater. But, you know, that, I love how that takes, transforms into something in the end. I mean, if there is a trigger warning, I think that is, that's not bad. I think that because there are definitely, it's not overly graphic, but you definitely see some things that you're not going to expect and that can be quite disturbing for people. I think this is one of Channy Tatum's best performances that he's ever done, but I mean, Adria Ajana, I know I'm butchering her name. Yeah, Adria Ajana, or however you pronounce it, she to me is just absolutely outstanding. Like she was fantastic, but again, so is Naomi Eckie. I couldn't figure out where I recognized her face before and then I looked on IMDB and knowing that she did the Whitney Houston character, 'cause I thought that was a pretty good adaptation, better than some of the other ones that have come out that this year regarding, you know, famous women, you know, grappling with drug abuse and whatnot. And she really did a great job portraying Whitney Houston. In this one, it's that wide-eyed look when she sees Slater King, you know, it's like, I know it's like one of those things like, you see a teenager that like has a pop star that she's had on her poster on her wall. It's like she's got that like infatuation that is very sweet and innocent and then we find out, you know, what this is about, yeah. And I think, you know, Zoe Kraviss did a great job with her directorial debut. I think it was, this is a psychological thriller, but it's also a dark comedy. I mean, there's definitely some nefarious actions that happened, but yet there, I mean, there's things that made me like actually really laugh. I think that casting is exceptional. I mean, you've got, what is it, Levin Hawk, who is? - Levin Hawk, yeah. - Yeah, Levin Hawk, who's Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawk's son. I think this is a great, yes. This is great seeing him. I haven't seen him in a film before and then Haley Joel Osmond. He was a, you know, a comic relief in the film. I think the casting was, actually I think the casting was just perfect. Everybody involved. And I mean, I watched this twice. I really enjoyed this film. I think it's definitely gonna be hit or miss with people. You may, especially if you watch the trailer, I think it obviously, what a trailer gives too much away. Yeah, I think the trailer does. But I think if the way it rectifies stuff at the end, I think there's, I mean, it's a happy and not happy ending depending on where you're looking at it. Definitely someone has a better ending than others, but I think I liked the, what happens at the end when you know what's going on in the film. And yeah, I think that this was a very good job by Zoe Kravitz on her direct oil debut. I recommend it. I know some people might not. Right now it could be in my top 10 for the year. Again, some people might not, I love the music. I actually liked the editing and yeah, I recommend seeing it. I recommend it too. The reason I mentioned Salper in particular was that one actually occurred to me very, very early and told me where I'm completely out of line on this. Frida at the beginning, particularly. To me, it seems almost like the reason she, does the dress switch and goes from being a waiter to being a, quote, guest at the ball. She wants to meet Slater and there's got to be some kind of third word somewhere between entitled and deserving. It's, it felt to me like she thought that becoming rich, particularly, you know, if, if by becoming a member of Slater King's orbit or not, becoming wealthy beyond her dreams was something that she just had coming to her. I could be completely off on the, I don't know, but it's, and I compare that to Barry Keogin's character in Oliver in Salper who very much knew exactly what he wanted and certainly took steps to make that happen. The difference is kind of self-awareness, Oliver knew exactly what he was doing and was perfectly okay with it. At least at the beginning, Frida to me seemed to be kind of a almost lie that the universe owes this to me so I'm going to make sure it happens. I'm probably not expressing that correctly and I'm probably coloring it through generational disgust. But am I totally off? - I want to say totally off. I do see the comparison between Barry Keogin's character and Naomi Carey, it's like when we see Frida at the beginning, she's, you know, on her phone and like, you know, again, looking at Slater King and all that stuff, but it's also, you kind of get a little bit of the backstory with her and her roommate, you know, they're struggling to pay the rent, the conditions of their apartment aren't the best. She has, you know, she kind of goes into a little bit with, I feel like there's a family moment between her and her roommate and then also her and Slater King where it's like, you know, she was definitely forgotten when she was younger and it's like she just doesn't want to be just someone that people forget. And when she's, you know, trying to get in touch with Slater King, she's like, I wonder if you'll remember me and stuff like that. So it's like they've had an interaction before and she wants it again, even though it, I mean, they don't really go into the specifics of what happened during that first interaction the year before. - He said he was nails. - Yeah, you liked your nail. But I mean, it's like, that was, it seems like because her boss even says, like, you know, you can't talk to him, it seems to be actually, and it seems like there was more of a discussion that was had between them or something, but they don't really get into that. But it's definitely, I feel like she just wants to have that like, I want to, you know, not have to worry about where my rent's coming from for at least one night and like hope that maybe this billionaire is gonna sweep me off my feet and stuff like that. And so I can definitely see where you get the comparison between her and where don't blink and, or blink twice and salt burn. I can definitely see that comparison. - Okay, basically, it's good to know that I wasn't completely imagining it. - No, I didn't even think about that until you had brought that up and I'm like, okay, yeah, no, I can see that I can definitely see, you know, they're hard working, they definitely come from, even though Barry Kemp's character, it's not like he was poor by any means. He was just middle-class and he just, he didn't want to be where he was. He wanted to be on a different level on that level that Jacob Lordy was. - Very true. So yeah, I went twice in theaters now if what we've said is of interest, jump on it, but be prepared. - Yeah, definite, definite trigger warnings. Like I said, we did not have any of those in a, I mean, you know, forgetting is a gift, but I do not remember there being trigger warnings in either of my films. - All right. And what else do you have for us, Katie? I know you want to talk about, well, you tell us. - So I watched the documentary "Sugar Cane", that's out by National Geographic, that's directed by Emily Cassie and Julian Brave Noise Cat. It is about the investigation into abuse and missing children on an Indian residential school that sparks a reckoning and at the nearby sugar cane reserve. At one point, there are 215 unmarked graves that are found in one location. - Holy spoke. - And, you know, like I said, even though I do not recall there being a trigger warning for Blink twice, there definitely are warnings about at the beginning of this film, how they talk about sexual violence towards children and violence towards children. And it's interesting because this in, there's actually some opposites in 2021, evidence of unmarked graves near an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada, sparked a national outcry about the forced separation, assimilation and abuse. Many children experience at this network of segregated boarding schools designed to slowly destroy the culture and social fabric of indigenous communities. And throughout the film, they show like the children who were taking from their families and they also talk about how in the indigenous communities they talk about it's like, oh, you know, single mothers and, you know, these children. So we're trying to save these kids and all that stuff, but it's also the fact that these kids were actually taken from the mothers and stuff. And some of these single mothers became pregnant due to the abuse. There's a gentleman who is a survivor who talks about the generational abuse that happened in his family, how his grandmother was abused, his mother was abused because she was abused, he actually came from that abuse and then he was abused by a priest. One of the directors, while they're investigating, doing the investigation, he actually has a connection with his father, who while his father was born in one of the residential schools and actually in a, what is it, they end up calling the garbage can kid because when he was a newborn infant, they found him in a box that was about to be incinerated. And that turns out that many of these children when they had the unwed mothers, these mothers were thinking that their babies were gonna be sent to orphanages or be adopted and all that stuff. And there's several, there's evidence that some of these children didn't even make it out of the operating room. Like as soon as they were born, then they were, well, it's really, really, it's a rough watch. I'm gonna let you know, it's just, I mean, the amounts of suicide for the survivors is just astronomical. And even when I like to hear these adults talk about these circumstances that they went through and one woman talks about the abuse that she went through, the first time it happened, she told adults, she told people that she thought she could trust. And she went through a series of people that she told. And then it finally went to her dad. And when she told her father what happened, he beat the crap out of her. And then she drank an entire bottle of wine that night. And I believe she was like 13. - Oh, wow, wow. - And that started her alcoholism. And it's, these are all stories that at one point, Justin Trudeau doesn't use conference at the location and you know, how he's, how this is just horrible for Canada and, you know, trying, you know, making sure that justice will be done, you know. And one of the community, one of the members of the community, they go to the Pope to talk about this. And he doesn't necessarily talk about, he admits that this is a horrible thing that has happened. He doesn't necessarily give an apology per se. It's sort of like a roundabout thing. And it's also, it's like when this news comes out, it's the modern, it's the modern day that, you know, the news comes out, you just have stories and stuff like that. But then it's the comments of people. It's like, oh, just the comments are just so horrendous when you look at the social media aspect of, it's like, oh, you know, the lies these people are telling and all that stuff. It's like, you can't have thousands and thousands of people who have never met, who have never met, saying the same thing happened to them, that, and it'd be a lie. I mean, it's like, that's not how that works. But of course, you know, people are brainwashed into thinking, it's like, oh, no, the church is doing a great thing. It's like, you know what, maybe on paper, it was supposed to do, or I don't even know on paper if it's supposed to be doing a great thing, because it seems like, or it definitely, you know, when the church would take these children away from their families, they were also trying to take away their culture and everything about them. It's, I think, a beautiful documentary. I mean, you know, like when they do the B-roll of, you know, of the scenic views of where this is, you have one of the most beautiful landscapes that has one of the most ugliest histories. And I think it's definitely a film that should be watched. I think it's been awarded, and it should be awarded more. For me right now, it's one of my favorite documentaries, if not the best, my vote for best documentary of the year. And I hope it gets the awards and accolades that it deserves. And it's playing, I know it was playing at the gene fiscal theater, yeah. And, yeah, I definitely think, again, it seriously, if this has, you need to be prepared for, this is a rough, rough watch. And, but I think it's in a, it's, you know, one of the most important films of the year that I have seen. And it definitely is a film that should be watched and discussed and, you know, making sure that the justice for these people is done. - All right, then, that's quite a recommendation. - Yeah, it sounds like it really profoundly touched you there. - I mean, it's just, yeah, it's like, you know, I made sure to watch it a couple times to make sure, but yeah, it's just a really important film, but it's definitely, like I said, it's a hard, hard watch. I mean, you know, these children, what they've endured, and then just to have to relive that when they're discussing it. And, you know, I haven't even, I mean, I kind of briefly mentioned the suicides, but this amount of suicides that happen. And then the deaths that happen that no one really tried to figure out at all. It's like, you know, with kids in the, in the schools that were deaths in the schools. And it's like, oh, this kid died. It's like, it's okay, this kid's 14. How did they die? It's like, oh, I'm not really sure. We're just gonna bury them over here. And it's like, it's, it's just disgusting, honestly. And it's just one of those, it's something that, you know, the story needs to be told. The people need to know what has happened to these people. And I mean, these are, there are also schools in America that I'm sure have similar stories that we're just touching on. And, you know, it needs to, if reparations can be made in any way whatsoever, you know, with the acknowledgement, the justice, financial, anything that could be done to help all of these, you know, survivors, it needs to be done. - Forward, it's worth, I'm showing that it's currently still in theaters, but it's in that geo production on some level, which means it's probably gonna end up on something like Hulu at some point and not too distant, which would make it very easy for a lot of people to see, which is good. Right, right. - Yeah. - No, it's, and it's like, I mean, not only with the direction, but it has a beautiful score. And I'm looking at my notes. There are hundreds of thousands of kids that were allotted into these schools, 139 of these schools in Canada and 408 in the US. - Wow. - Yeah. - So please go and watch it, you know, discuss it. And it's just, we, you know, do whatever we can to, you know, get something done. But it's, I like the fact that Justin Trudeau didn't try to hide away from it. Like he was there on the site, he discussed it with the chief, Willie Sellers, but to have, you know, the prime minister, you know, try and take accountability for something that's not, I mean, it is his country, but it's not like, that's anything that he was ever a part of. 'Cause I mean, he would have been a child when all this stuff was going on. But it is, it gives me a little bit of hope that to see a political person, you know, stand up with those people, you know, to make that known. - Very cool. I whole heart to agree. - Yeah. So I, like I said, go and see it's in, in the theater, I think it's best to be, you know, a captive audience so you don't like leave or stop it. - You don't want to look away at that kind of stuff. - Yeah. - Yeah, I think it's, again, one of the most important films of the year that you will see, if not, you know, not only of the year, but of your lifetime. - Okay. - So, to lighten the mood a little bit. 'Cause, but honestly, the heavy, heavy documentary. But I have oddity for you. - Okay. - Written and directed by Damien McCarthy, stars Carolyn Bracken, Willem Lee, at Murphy, Carolyn Menton, Jonathan French and Steve Whale. We open up with Danny, mid 20s, young woman recently married to Ted, a psychiatrist. And they've bought the old, old country house that's not that far from the asylum that Ted works in. - Okay. - And so, Ted is going to work. He works over nights. And during that time, Danny's been staying to work on the house, trying to get it fixed up for them to move into. And she's there, and she goes out to her car to get something. And as she's coming back, this guy comes up and she quickly ducks inside, closes the door. And he's banging on the door, basically saying, "Hey, don't go in there, don't stay in there." There's somebody else in there, somebody else went in there, don't go in there. - She goes in there, doesn't she? - She does. - Does it turn out well for her? - Well, spoiler. - We flash forward to roughly a year later. When she is, Danny has passed on, she died that night. And Ted is visiting Danny's twin sisters, her cabinet of curiosities out of the shop. And to chat a little bit, they talk about a bellhop that's haunting a bell. You know, just making shit chat. Darcy mentions that everything in the shop is cursed, is a way of preventing shoplifting. And Ted asks if it works, and she claims that it has. - That a lot of people have returned things after discovering that they were having rather poor luck. The two make plans, or tentative plans, to get together at the house, or on the anniversary of the death, just to talk about Danny and keep remembering alive. - Okay. Seems like a group sounds. - Yeah, so we followed Ted for a little bit, and we learn about him, his job, at the sanitarium. And he comes home and he's talking with his girlfriend, Yana. And Yana points out that this cabinet arrived from his sister-in-law. And it's this big, huge, weird cabinet. And then who should happen at the door, but Darcy? And says, you know, hey, it's the anniversary of my sister's death. He invited me over. And Yana is completely taken back by this. Not interested in having her there. Ted is a little bit more moderate. Eventually, the decision is made that Yana is going to go to the city. Spend time in her apartment. Ted's going to go to work, and Darcy is going to stay in the house. - Okay. Are there bad things going on going to happen? - There are bad things that are going to happen. - Oh, yes. - And revelations that are made as to what actually happened that night. And it builds on and on from there. I don't want to give away too much more of the storyline, because after a revelation that Darcy gives Yana at about this point in the story, things kind of, well, that's when it gets really fun. And you get into the deeper mystery of it. I was entertained by it. I was entertained and kept me going. I bought it into the supernatural aspects of it. I liked the way it had a certain skepticism to the supernatural, at least in tone with some of the characters. But then revealed that there was most definitely something supernatural going on, kind of just a tales from the dark side, sort of twisting of the knife a bit. - That's a very specific reference. Tales from the dark side is supposed to tell us from the crypt, or I offer Hitchcock's sense of Twilight Zone. - Yeah. - Intentionally chosen? - Intentionally chosen. - Okay, okay. I enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend it and say it's worth giving a shot. All right, cool. Katie, where do you come down? - I love Audity. I think that Carolyn Bracken's performance as both playing twins, Danny and Darcy was fantastic. Because Darcy is definitely a very specific individual, and I love the fact that she wants to know what actually happened to her sister. Her brother-in-law, you definitely know that he's not on the up and up, because especially with it being less than a year, or being a year, and he already has his girlfriend living in the house, so he lived in with Danny while it was being built. That to me is like a, that's a shady lady kind of thing. It's like, I don't know what's going on, Ted, but I don't jive with anything that's going on with you. And I think that Damian McCarthy doesn't throw stuff in the audience's faces. You definitely get subtle hints here and there. I think the gift that Darcy brings for Ted is fantastic. And in fact, it was supposed to be at the Chicago Critics Film Festival. And for some reason, there was something with the shipping or something, and they weren't able to get it there. I know, Audity, I know it has been at other screenings, and it's like, oh man, I would love to take a picture with that. But if anyone has seen Damian McCarthy's previous film, caveat, you're going to see a little object from there that will be very familiar. I think this is, I know you could say it's slow burn, but I like the fact that it's more of a slow burn, and it doesn't insult the viewers' intelligence, rather than having a bunch of jump scares and stuff like that. It definitely has an aspect to it that I did not see coming. That's closer to not at the end. I definitely foresaw that. But there's something before the end that I did not see coming, which I was like, OK, well done. That sucks, but yeah, that's really good. I would definitely go see this. I think it's one of the best horror films of the year. I think it's kind of, I mean, thing is, I don't know, this has been sort of a-- it's been one of those years where it's not great. But oddity, I definitely feel, is up there in one of the best horror films of the year. I wholeheartedly agree. It's ability to build tension over that slow burn is great. It's not plotting it any particular point. It's very gracefully building that tension and getting the audience primed for when those scares do come, because they do. All right. So three recommendations it seems. Dance listeners, did you see Blink twice or did you see sugar cane or did you see oddity? Please let us know what you thought. Mail at the end moviebooker.com. Katie, thanks for joining us, as always. Thank you guys for having me. Always a pleasure. You're perpetually welcome. So feel free to stop by any time. And of course, where can the peoples find you? They-- y'all can find me. You can find me on the Blonde in France, on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. All right. In the meantime, there are DVDs. DVDs, they're Blu-ray. Blu-ray, 4Ks. Yep, all sorts of stuff. All kinds of shiny, shiny, shiny plastic. Yep. With images encoded upon it. That is true and very technical. That love. What's going to end up on my tombstone? About true and very technical. Yeah, fair. So anything catch your attention this week, John? Yeah. Oh my word, yes. Yeah. Try and stop me, yes. Okay. I have made no secret of my love of Albert Brooks into this microphone and various ones that have served its purpose previously. And I have also made no secret of my love of the criterion collection. Yep. Well, when those two tastes decide to taste great together. That's pretty nice. You're going to hear about it from me. Because this week from the criterion collection, we've got not one, but in fact two Albert Brooks movies coming out. Nice. We've got real life and we've got mother. Real life is the one I frankly haven't seen because it came out. 79 when I was a year and a half old. Yeah. But what it does decades before reality television, there was Albert Brooks's debut feature, a brilliantly dead pan stylistically innovative satire about a narcissistic Hollywood filmmaker who plans to spend a year embedded with an American family. So and that's. Yeah, basically what it is. It's on some level. It's imagine the Truman Show told from the point of view of Ed Harris's character, but he's also kind of a dope. He's also Albert Brooks. Yeah, exactly. The writer director plays Albert Brooks, a narcissistic Hollywood filmmaker who plans to spend the year in Phoenix, embedded with Warren Internet Jaeger and their two children. Deploying an arsenal of cutting edge equipment to capture in American families ordinary day to day. Chronicling the project's disasters fall out, as the medical medicine Albert can't keep getting, can't help getting too close to his subjects. This pioneering mockumentary is more relevant than ever amid today's media landscape. It's Albert Brooks. It's criterion. Insert fry shut up and take my money gift. Yeah, I'm I totally get it. And then there's mother. Which is the one I have seen came out in 96, I believe. Yep. Albert Brooks is a struggling novelist who determined to figure out where his life went wrong, moves back in with his cheerfully passive aggressive mom, played by Debbie Reynolds in a triumphant comeback role. The line six out in my head about this one is I may have even been mentioned in the trailer. He decides he wants some sherbet out of her freezer. And he scoops them out, puts an edition says, wow, God, this is horribly old. This tastes like an orange foot. And she says, just look under the protective ice in the carton and find it there. The, uh, the joke, of course, ultimately is that she's got to put together way more than he does. And, uh, which frankly worries me about seeing it again. But anyway, um, yeah, it's it's Brooks and it's criterion. And I just can't possibly get enough. So that's fair. And what do you have for us? Well, on the two C side, there is a couple of catalog titles that are just plain fun. I mean, you've got the, not that Albert Brooks isn't fun, but it's a different kind of fun from frogs or empire of the ants or for the food of the gods, all of which make their way to a blue ray this week sweet fruit of the gods. Is that what the ones with the giant rats? Yeah. Okay. Also worth your time is the Mexico trilogy coming out on 4k. Heck, yeah. A lot of cattle, um, from our friends over at Arrow. You got El Mariachi, you got Desperado, you got once upon a time in Mexico. Yep. I have an anti catalog pick. Something to avoid? No, no, it's brand new. It came out this year, but I didn't realize it was coming out this week until just now. And I definitely want to call attention to it. Okay. Daddy. Oh, yeah. Cool. Yeah. Is coming on. It looks like just DVD. But, uh, yeah, it was one of my top five of the year this year back in the beginning of July. Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn take a long cab ride together and characters revealed. I do not think the format that, uh, Amazon has listed for it is correct, but. Yeah, probably not. I think it's just DVD and that's, that's fine. It's not exactly what you'd call a visual special effects tour de force. Do you have something to avoid this week? I do. I guess I would guess you do because I saw something and. Yeah, the watchers comes out this week on blue ray 4k DVD. And honestly is not worth your time. On any of those. Just not a good film. Okay. I also have an an avoid pick because just because I'm. A contrarian in some ways. Yeah. There's a 4k coming of Ryan Gosling in Nicholas whining reference drive. One of the emptiest movies I've ever seen right up there next to Joker. Yeah, stylish as heck, but there's no there there. Do you have a question for me? Yeah, you mentioned stylish as heck, but no there there for drive. Yeah, not the only movie you've encountered that's. That it falls prey to that true. What are some others? And is there ever an situation where stylish but no there there's a bonus. There is there is a point at which. The style becomes the substance. Okay. Here's an example from earlier this year of something that is. Absolutely insanely stylish. Uh, to the point that it becomes the substance, but this is not necessarily a picture that is devoid of substance in and of itself. Right. Maxine. Ah, yeah, okay. There's some style there. Oh, yeah, definitely. There's rather a lot really. Yeah, that is extremely drenched in style. But still finds one or two things to say. Here's one. Okay. That certainly had style to spare. Not a style necessarily at all. A lot of people liked or agreed with, but it definitely had it. Okay. And certainly had nothing to say. Yeah. Let's take a trip in the way back machine to 1997. Okay. There is a certain summer blockbuster that came out that year. It featured people in it like. Alicia Silverstone. And another person with the initials AS. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Oh my God. Yeah. Also, Uma Thurman is in it. Yeah. Chris O'Donnell. George Clooney. Yep. Yep. Batman and Robin. Yep. Yep. Had plenty of style. That it's it. Did not have anything approaching a thought in its head. Not even when it came to the puns. Yeah. But that's I think that that qualifies, right? I would say so. Can I flip it on its head for the last one? Sure. The last one is. A movie that. I described when I saw it as perhaps the most style less thing I've ever seen. Okay. And I understand on some reason why it happened this way. But. Doesn't what does the name Ray Whitey Bolger mean to you? Confect. Boston Gangster. Yeah. Long time. There have been two movies made, two big movies made. That involve Ray Whitey Bolger. One directly as kind of a biopic. And one as a jumping off point. Yeah. The jumping off point one came first. In 2006. It was called the Departed. Had some style there. A little bit. You know. Scorsese going to Scorsese it up and. You know, hard to go wrong. In 2015. Scott Cooper. Made a picture called Black Mass. I've got, I've been getting his name wrong. It's James Whitey Bolger. Not Ray. Starring Johnny Depp as Whitey Bolger. Benedict Cumberbatch is his brother Billy. Also starred Dakota Johnson, Joel Ledger, Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgarde, Jesse Plemons, etc. And I think it was just a matter of. Cooper so strongly wanted to avoid the appearance of any influence from the Departed. He forgot to have any kind of style of his own. Gotcha. And unfortunately the substance that's there. Wasn't great. So yeah, I think on a sliding scale. You've got Maxine, which has a lot of style and some substance. You've got Batman and Robin, which has a lot of style that wasn't really good. No substance. And yeah. And then you've got Black Mass, which has a lot of substance, but no style. Okay. Interesting. I have a question for me. Okay, I kind of like this idea. Okay. I'm going to give you three movies that I know you enjoy. And as I sketched Blink twice as the triangulation of Salt Burn, I spit on your grave and get out. Yeah. Give me three movies that will fall perfectly or at least close to well. When the triangulation points are in no particular order, Ghostbusters seven and the thing. Oh, man. So what movie would be the intersection point of those three? Yeah. Well, stylistically, there's a lot of intersection between the thing and seven begin with. Sure. Just didn't wrap our team work on both of them. Yeah. Yep. And that definitely, you know, kind of was plot driving in both cases. True, true, true. Uh, let's see. So a certain element of body horror to it. True. But not without its. Charlie. Similar aspects. Yeah. Hmm. I can tell you one movie that tried to kind of be this. Yeah. Evolution. Do you remember that? Ivan Reitman, David Dukovny, Julianne Moore. Yep. Yep. And I think Sean Williams Scott, among others. And Orlando Jones. Orlando Jones. Yeah. Uh-huh. And. Wasn't there a cartoon show based on that series for a while? Or that movie for a while? Uh, let me check. I'm pretty sure there was a cartoon series. Although Evolution getting a kids TV show is not the worst movie to get a kids TV show. Oh, I have a strong contender for that. RoboCop? Yeah. Yeah. Alienators. Evolution continued. Continues. When a meteor bearing a Trojan horse horse of rapidly evolving organisms crashes into the earth, it's up to Dr. Ira Kane, Dr. Harry Block, and their friend Wayne to unite us in anti-alien defense force known as the alienators. Must be great. It has 189 ratings on IMDB. Ooh. That many. Yep. Wow. So yeah, there's one. Okay. Evolution definitely. And, you know, comes from one of the directors of one of those three. Yeah. If I'd had more time to, or had thought of this earlier, I suppose I should say, I wouldn't have just given you those three, I would have given you three sets of three, where it's a love of hate and indifference. Yeah, but this works. Yeah. This works. Perhaps, you know, there's always the future. That's true. Well, there's usually the future. I guess, ultimately, there will be a point where there'd be no future. Exactly. But even then, would time continue? I mean, are we talking about on a human level? Or are we talking about just the flow of time in general? Well, there are a couple of ways to look at it. There's the key depth of the universe level. Okay. There is the sun goes extra hot and deep-rise everything on earth level. See, that strikes me as small potatoes when we're talking about time. Time. And then there's the, eventually, one or both of us is going to not be around to do the show anymore kind of level. Yeah. So when I say that there's usually the future, one of those things is going to happen. Frankly, all of those things are going to happen at some point. And it just becomes a question of one. Yeah. So anyway, you had other movies to talk about? Next up, I would say the shining. Okay. There's some of that, just the 80s tone of Ghostbusters, just the general look of film and the fashion and on like that. That makes some degree of sense, certainly. And then there's the isolation of the thing. Sure. For sure. And the meticulous Mies and Sen and shot, just photography of seven. You get those three together and you get, you can kind of see where I'm going with the shining. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And for a third, and then yeah, Edgar writes World's End, the last of the Cornetto trilogy. Okay, okay. You get the kind of surprise. Terrifying aspect that you get out of seven. And Ghostbusters, for that matter. Plus, you got the humor that you get from Ghostbusters. Yeah. So yeah, definitely. All right. All right. Hey, John. Let's go to the movies. Okay, Doki, what are we going to go see? First, Melissa, thanks to see right now, back on top of the box office this weekend. It's Deadpool and Wolverine. Mm-hmm. Surprise, surprise. Mm-hmm. Yeah, well, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's so fun. It's, it's fun. It's hoodie. It is. Then I'm going to go with Blink twice, for all the reasons Katie and I outlined earlier in the show. And last, Melissa, thanks to see right now. I think we're going to stick with Dee Dee. I think that's the kind of thing that I want to try and nudge as many people as possible too. Okay. The further, that's one of those, the further I'm getting from it, the more I like it. So, which is not common. Okay then. And what do you have for us? Well, if you're going to stay home and pass something into your home video player of choice, be it DVD, Blu-ray, or streaming, the first thing I'd recommend to you is Audity. It is a really, really great time. Where is it available? It is available on Amazon Prime, YouTube, and Fandango. And as PBOD. Mm-hmm. Okay, okay. Is that a shutter? Am I incorrect in that? Yes, it's a shutter. Okay, so it's IFC. Okay, but it's not there yet, but it's going to get there. It will be there. Okay. And follow that up with bike riders, available on premium video on demand, streaming, as well as on Blu-ray. Okay, very cool. And apparently it's on Peacock. Yeah. If you're, you know, if you're subscribing to Peacock. Yeah, yeah. See it. See Jodie Comer's accent. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, her performance is fantastic in general. And run things out with... Mm-hmm. Ball guy. Yeah. Ball guy's a good time. Yeah, it is. And is available on Blu-ray and also on Peacock. All right. Want to take the opportunity to mention our email address one more time. Mail at neonmovivunker.com We are on Facebook at facebook.com/NEMovivunker. We are on Twitter @Nianmovivunker. I am @JohnNMB. We are available through blue sky @NEMovivunker.bsky.social. I am on Letterbox as user JohnNMB. So maybe follow me there and, you know, see what I'm seeing. And then we are available through Apple podcasts and YouTube and Spotify and where we get your podcasts. So please subscribe and maybe leave us a rating. Mm-hmm. And then our website is www.Nianmovivunker.com still featuring the Maureen Ryan interview and twitch.tv/NEMovivunker is our event space, which is a place where things sometimes happen. And so we come to the end of another episode of the Neon Movie Bunker. This week's episode is produced and edited by the possibly sleepy LRA static. Yeah, I have a little bit. The executive producer is Maggie Stanik. The theme song is by... Dr. Awkward and the Monkey Man Trio. Thanks again to Katie Gladwell for joining us. Find all her stuff. If you see the blend in front, more than likely, it's her. Any of the assorted socials. And yeah, until next time, I'm John Robinson. And I'm LRA Stanik. And we'll probably see you at the movies. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] You're having a tough one. Again, I need to commit murder and I'll end my handle clear right up.