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Join us on Movies We Like as we explore the movies we all like with the people who make them. And Steven, our people will call your people. Let's make this happen bobby. Subscribe today. What's up most excellent friends? It's Chrissy and Nathan for the most excellent 80s movies podcast. It's a podcast where a filmmaker and a comedian and their most excellent guests adventure their way through the 80s movies we think we love or might have missed with our grown up eyes to see how they hold up. Join us for a delightful discussion. Rolicking recaps. Ratings and deep cut recommendations. Plus members get some extra fun chit chat with the hosts after the show. Download the most excellent 80s movies podcast today at truestory.fm. Or find it wherever the finest podcast are stored. And do remember to keep the most excellent 80s movies podcast motto in mind. Be excellent to each other and... Cardión, dudes. I'm Pete Wright and I'm Andy Nelson. Welcome to the next reel when the movie ends. Our conversation begins. "Pontypool" is over. Something's about to happen. Something big. But then, something's always about to happen. What you are hearing is an actual radio broadcast. It is the only recording of the event. Everybody is under quarantine. We still do not have an official version of these events and it's very difficult at this moment to get a fix on what has happened. They cut into our signal. I love that bit of wisdom in the beginning. Quick, something is going to happen. Can we just talk about that? Can we open with a conversation about the opening and that whole bit? Oh, I have thoughts. Yeah. Let's do it. It's a fascinating way to kick off this film. We're just watching waveforms and we're just hearing Grant Massey, this down on his luck shock jock who is working in his little tiny town of Pontypool in Canada. We're just hearing him talking about his daily routine. Mrs. French's cat is missing. The signs are posted all over town. Have you seen honey? We've all seen the posters, but nobody has seen honey the cat. Nobody. Until last Thursday morning, when Miss Colette Pasine swerved her car to miss honey the cat as she drove across the bridge. And then it just keeps going on and playing on words like Pontypool, the bridge's name is Paul de Flock, Paulette whose name sounds like Koolat, is panty in French. Pasine means pool, pantypool, pantypool, like he just kind of keeps going through this whole thing and then has this shift in like talking about Norman Mailer and this theory of when there are these huge events in the period surrounding them, all sorts of things start seeming to coincide in strange ways, street names, birth dates, all of this sort of stuff. And that was just an interesting way to kind of set the story up because we're getting this idea of wordplay, which comes into importance as we figure out exactly what this disease is and how it works. It's also setting us up for kind of the vibe of the town and the type of radio and just kind of this sense of the way that events unfold and the things that start happening in this over the course of the story. It was a really interesting beginning. What were your thoughts on it? Well, I love it and I just want to walk through what you would think if the entire movie was done this way because this was apparently the idea. Tony Burgess, the writer of the screenplay and the source material, the original concept was just to have Tony reading the script with only the blue line as the visual. So you wouldn't have the confined, constrained storyline of the people in the booth. You wouldn't have any of that. You'd just get the Orson Welles kind of radio play, but you'd be sitting in a theater. Interesting. Well, I know that they did make this into like when they made this film, at the same time, they also made a play version of it, which is shorter. I think the play is only an hour as opposed to the 95 minutes for this, but I think that makes sense. I can see the interest and the inspiration because they talked about how Orson Welles War of the Worlds was a big inspiration for kind of the creation of this and kind of taking a story like that, putting it into a context where you're only really hearing it. And I think it would be harder to get into if we're just seeing it that way, unless it really turned into just a play. Like I don't know how far he was going to take. Were we only ever hearing Grandma Aziz or are we also going to be doing more and piping in? How long did that joke last? I don't imagine it would have been met with a strong reception, if you like paying to go to a theater to watch a waveform is not ideal. It's our house theater. It's our house. There's something really, or you go to a museum to watch it. Totally. Totally. I can see that for sure. All that said, I had never even heard of this movie when I picked it. Had you seen it or heard of it? I feel like I had heard of it pop up in just as another horror movie that's out there or something worth checking out. Yeah. And I don't think I ever really knew what it was or anything about it. So I walked into this pretty blind. So the conceit of the film is that there's an outbreak, right? And we start in the movie, in the radio station. And while we start in the movie outside, he's our protagonist is on his way to the radio station. And once he gets to the radio station, we're just there for the duration. And all of the action, all of the horror starts taking place outside through, you know, by virtue of call-ins, by virtue of Ken Looney, Ken Looney, Looney, I don't remember, the sunshine chopper who's actually in the car at the top of the hill, like there's just so much that comes slowly kind of gently to us revealing that there's something horrible going on outside. And I think the tension that that builds before we have any idea what the actual nature of the viral outbreak is, is fantastic because the nature of the viral outbreak is a touch flimsy. And I'm relieved that I knew nothing about it and that I was able to get into the intensity of the action before we learned why it was spreading and what that was all about. What did you think of getting into this movie? Yeah. I mean, I love the whole conceit, you know, the idea of keeping us locked in this radio station with only three employees as they're communicating with calls coming in with, as you said, we're listening to Ken Looney coming in from the sunshine chopper and like those sorts of things. It made for a fun way to kind of tell this story. And when I heard that the inspiration had been War of the Worlds, you know, as I'm watching this, I'm like, oh, it makes perfect sense. I see exactly what they're doing here. And they're having a lot of fun with the idea of this and how they set this up. And so yeah, I loved that entire conceit. And I just, I had a great time with this movie. And I mean, yeah, when it gets to the point where it's the virus itself and they're, they're trying to figure out the virus and, and how to handle the virus, what, how the virus works, how you cure the virus, these sorts of things. There is this point of having to just buy into it by that point, you know, because it, it seems a little far fetched. But at this point in the film, you're having such a good time that may not matter as much. Exactly. That's, that's exactly my point. Like don't you think that had you, had I just told you, Andy, here's, there's a movie and they're going to make a horror movie out of the conceit that language is a virus. Do you think you'd really want to, do you want to watch that with me? Like, I don't know, it just doesn't, I don't, it doesn't, I don't buy, I don't buy that. I don't buy that I would be terribly into it. I would see it, but I would, my expectations would be very, very low. Not knowing anything about this. I was, I have to say, I was totally in it. And when I started to waver in that opinion at the end of the movie, when they, when we start getting into the cure part, it takes me on this ride of, Oh, no, now I'm going to be disappointed because that's really dumb, the whole, you know, when he can cure by reassigning the definitions of words to other words. Oh, that's, I'm, I'm not totally in on that. But then they, it redeems itself by saying that Grant Massey was heard making no sense on the radio. Like, that was the end of everything was that it turns out he, he wasn't making sense to anybody at all. And so that, that part was redemptive for me. Like I felt like the entire arc took me on a really satisfying kind of intellectual journey that also happened to include some solid violence in the studio. Well, and that's interesting that you saw the ending as, Oh, it's been him this whole time. He's just spreading this stuff and like buying into that, because I thought that that was just their conceit that they, the, the people on the outside had no idea what this was. They were just kind of blaming him and it wasn't actually him. But you were, you're saying you thought that it was him? No, no, not, not that, but just that, that his efforts to cure. I guess maybe this is a, a point for debate. Maybe I'm, maybe I missed it. But for me, the idea that he was talking and that his experience at some point had shifted and that from the outside, they're listening to this guy who was already himself infected. So you think he was infected? I do. I think he was infected. That's how I ended the movie. You don't? I didn't think he was infected. I thought he may have actually come up with a way to get past it, but they just thought he was infected. And so it's just the darker, I guess I went with the darker ending where he solved it, but they destroyed him because they just assumed he was part of the problem. I would argue that I, that we're equally dark because either way, the conceit of the movie is language, it can very much be a virus and is irredeemable. Yeah. Right? One way or another, Pontypool's gone as it was. Pontypool destroyed itself by, you know, effectively, if we look at the metaphor of it, it, you know, language itself, itself became contagious and dangerous and killed a lot of people. I guess I wanted him to have been infected because I didn't want him to be redeeming. Oh, interesting, interesting. Yeah. Because you didn't like him or? It's not that I didn't like him, it's the, it's that I didn't like him. It's the idea that he, what he represents in terms of the kind of darker side of shock shock radio, the fact that he was, he ended up in Pontypool because as we, as the film implies, he was canceled somewhere else. Like he is trying to learn the small town values and clearly doesn't respect them, doesn't respect the ways he resents the fact that he's there in the first place and, and, and so I think that having, having this character be the one to figure out how to cure the place. I didn't, I don't think I would, I would buy that. Yeah. I'm not exactly sure. I, I don't know. I, I mean, I don't know. The way that I read it is that he does seem to cure his coworker in the film, right? Like when Sidney starts showing signs that she's got it, he works with her to try figuring out a way to kind of get through it. And I mean, the way that it's depicted, you're right. Could be we're in his head and we're seeing it all from a crazy person's point of view. I just didn't think that I went along with the ride and thought, Oh, this is him. He's actually figured out a way to get her thinking the wrong word connections in her head. And somehow by doing that, she was able to break through this thing. And so, yeah, so I just, I felt like the way that the film played it. It was, it seemed to be saying that he found a cure, but they didn't believe that. And so destroyed him, you know, honestly, I can go with either one. I feel like I get my way either way. I can't lose. Well, but I mean, the interesting thing, and I suppose as much as we may have some issues with the conceit of this virus being in language, I think that, I mean, as you kind of mentioned, there's the metaphor of the whole thing. And that's, I think probably, I haven't read Tony Burgess's original material, which I think was called Pontipole Changes Everything. I don't know if in that he was really trying to tackle this entire idea of the way that words can destroy, right? And how especially, and it's all the more fitting today in today's world with social media, and just misinformation that gets out on online propaganda, any harmful rhetoric that can, that can be brought into a conversation that can really throw people against each other. And I think that's an interesting element that Burgess, I don't know, my read on it is that was kind of what he was trying to say. It may, it may be a little hard to kind of buy into the, the virus as it is depicted. But in the scope of the metaphorical element that he's discussing, like that I thought was pretty strong and quite interesting. Oh, absolutely. I had a blast with that particular angle, right? The idea of setting it in this radio station in the, you know, the mouth of a shock jock who in 2008, when the movie came out, like sure, we were already sort of seeing the waning days of broadcast media as the, as so much media shifted to the internet. But even then, like this represents a big mouth with big opinions that has the potential to reach and influence a lot of people. And I think that's the idea, like even in this small town, the listeners are swayed by that voice and what are the risks and, and, you know, responsibilities that come with that. You know, Sydney is the vessel of balance for Mazzi, right? She's like trying to rein him in and teach him along the way. And he is resistant to that. But that resistance is the problem, right? That resistance is, is forcing him to unleash weird ideas that are half truths, false truths, you know, whatever, that's his responsibility and he's caught in the middle of this language as a virus challenge, the zombie challenge. Well, on top of that, it's interesting that it's only the English language in the film, like they get this message that in French that supposedly says, you know, don't speak in English only French because English is the, is the language that has the virus. And I think that's an interesting thing because I, my hunch is, you know, Canada as a country with two official languages, one is English, one is French. I think that there's this element to the way that perhaps English, because it's so prevalent around the world, pushes down some of those other languages and then eventually cultural values, ideologies, just cultures as a whole, local languages that end up getting completely overshadowed and some die. Like, I think that's another element that, that they're tackling here is this idea that English in some capacity may globalize, but also may homogenize. I think you're exactly right. And I think this works on two levels being a Canadian film that it feels like it's definitely making a point to the value of the traditionalists in, you know, Ontario, that there is value to the French language and that, you know, probably, you know, they kind of laugh at Mazzie, another Canadian who doesn't speak French, who speaks very little French, right? He is the butt of a lot of sort of the joke in here, but the other is that so much of this kind of damaging language and media comes from the United States. You know, the United States, I feel like historically sort of put the stake in the ground around shock, shock radio, talk radio. And so I think the movie is also kind of a middle finger to look at what you have wrought, right? Like so much of the identity behind these kinds of things comes from English. It's, you know, that's where it starts in, in modern communication, I think, like we can go back and we can, right, if you want to go back to World War II, like we can go back. But I just think that this is, that's important to note for me. I don't know. I find that the film is so interesting now, 2024, when we're talking about it. And this was a film that was released in festivals, 2008 and theaters, 2009, as the way that social media has just, just become so commonplace. And it's just like everybody is constantly on it in every minute of their lives. And just this, like there is this sense of connection, but also it really is amplified the sense of division. I think that's an interesting element of this story is that we don't think about it too much. Like this idea of the fear of this communication and the language and how things can end up shifting much quicker than ever intended and not necessarily always for the better. And it really amplifies the responsibility that we have on using it in ways that are smarter and better and with more care. And perhaps that, again, going back to the whole conceit of him being a shock jock, that is part of the element of this story, because notoriously, historically, those are the people who would spout whatever it is that stream of consciousness sort of diatribes that often were pretty negative. And one of my favorite portrayals of how a shock jock can destroy is the Fisher King and Jeff Bridges' character and the way that that portrays him. So it's fascinating the way that it plays all of this. Yeah, for sure. And I think there's another piece of it too, when they get the tables kind of turned on them, because, you know, Sydney and Mazzie get to watch as is it Laurel, Laurel, and I think that Laurel deteriorates, right, because she gets it somehow. She gets it and they get to watch the impact of language, quote, language on her personality. And she becomes the zombie, she becomes the monster that is trying to get into the studio to take them over. And I think that the movie actually does that pretty well for me. Like I was able to sort of see that sentiment of like, let's bear witness to what our jobs are causing to have happen. And we get to see it through Laurel Anne. And I think that was really nice. Well, and it was also gave us an interesting perspective because we've never really seen the other zombies. We've kind of heard Ken talking about it, like what people are doing, like eating through each other and just like constantly repeating things like there's that crazy lady who is repeating stuff from the Nazis and they're all running around spouting like Nazi propaganda that everybody is just walking around repeating. And like all of these strange things, but Laurel, like we only hear all about all of that. And Laurel Anne is a case where toward the beginning as it starts happening, she is saying some words, she's repeating things that she's heard. But once they lock her out of their soundproof studio and she can't actually hear anything they're saying, it becomes this window into getting to watch a patient, somebody who has this virus fall apart without the thing that they're drawn to, which is the language. And that made for a really interesting exploration is by that point, Dr. Mendez is in there with them. He had kind of snuck into the studio. And so he's watching, he's completely fascinated, Laurel Anne has nothing to do other than keep smashing herself into the wall, hoping she'll break through it so she can actually hear things again. But she's lost as far as like a zombie, it's like a zombie with no, no people that they can see or smell or hear and she can't hear anything. So she just keeps doing that and then eventually kind of explodes with a massive stream of vomit and then collapses. And it's like... And that was rough. Yeah. But it's like interesting. So that's when all of those things that you need to survive or completely pull away, that's kind of what we end up witnessing with her is pretty crazy. Yeah. So you brought up Dr. Mendez. What do you think of Dr. Mendez and his role as the book of the vampire for this movie? You know, it was kind of fun because he was so passionate and excited about all of it and just like really into it, like getting to watch Laurel Anne go through this process. Like he was... Oh, I haven't seen this yet. Yeah, this is great. Like he was just... It was really funny. And then when he starts realizing that he's repeating things and is saying the same thing and like he's like, oh, and he kind of like keeps covering his mouth every time he catches it because he doesn't want anyone else to hear it. Which happens for, you know, a period before it's really obvious that he's starting to go down that path. But he's just so excited by the whole thing and curious and helpful because he's helping them figure out what's happening. I never completely figured out some of the things like he's saying, you know, or maybe it was the radio transmission to their like avoid terms of endearment and things like that. But it seemed like when Sydney calls for kids, she was still saying things like sweetheart and stuff like that. And it didn't seem to be causing any problems. So I guess I can never quite figure out some of those specifics. Like was the virus just waiting for a certain trigger word, you know? I don't know. I don't know either. And I guess this goes back all the way to the beginning. Where did the virus, how did the virus get into the studio? Was it the little girl as one of the singers? That was what I thought or it's also entirely possible that he brought it in from that girl that he met when she stopped him. That Mazzy brought it in? Yeah. Is it possible that he brought it as well? Because that's a central point that the whole things did start before Mazzy. Yeah. It had been there. Right. It was already there. And that could be, you know, in terms of our book of the vampire, I mean, that could be what we need to learn from this thing, which is that, you know, our metaphorical kind of message spread or virus spreader in our shock jock, he amplified this horrible message. And that is that was his role as kind of a carrier or mass spreading event. And again, gets to the danger and power of mass communication. Yeah. Yeah. It ties up. It's a little in terms of a metaphor for languages of virus. It's a touch heavy handed, but it does tie up. Right. Like it works. Right. Yeah. And I think that's what's interesting because like when he gets to that point where it's the word play, but say something that is completely dissociate with whatever word that comes out of my mouth and like just to find a way to break it so that you're losing those connections. So yeah, it was kind of interesting. Did you find yourself trying to do that while you were watching the movie? No, but I was, I was, I was like wondering, I'm like, Oh, okay, interesting, interesting. And then my brain was like, are there, is there a connection there? Like, because he's like, kill means kiss, kill means kiss. Like that was kind of the big thing. And yeah, you just kind of wonder how long does that last? Yeah. Because eventually if kill means kiss, then kill means kiss. And now when you think that we can all get connected again. Yeah. So it can only go so far. And I think that's why like, cause he was just saying random words and then she would have to say another random word and that ended up breaking it. And I guess I kind of bite into it. But yeah, it's, it's, it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, okay, I'll buy into it because the film has set it up and it works in context of what I've been getting here. Yeah. Like this goes, this goes to one of the things that constantly breaks my brain. I know it intellectually, I understand it, but the question of like when you see the color blue, how do I know that when I see the color blue, we're seeing the same thing? They could look wildly different, but we've assigned this word that to you means one thing and to me means another. That is a very, very confusing thing that I found myself thinking about while I was watching this movie. It's funny. Cause like you try to break down an example like that. And you get into this, this place where it's like, well, no, because it, it might mean one thing or to me, a different thing to you, but then essentially it's meaning the same thing to each of us because that's what blue is now. Yes. And so it's meaning what blue it, it means blue. And so suddenly it's like, and that's, that's where that thing is. It's like, you know, it's like, how far can you take that? Because inevitably it's like it all kind of still is going to mean the same thing, even if we're thinking it's mean something else, you know. Even if what I see to your blue is pink. And we know that blue and orange make a great color pairing, complementary color pairing and design, but pink and orange to you is a nightmare and pink and orange must suddenly be awesome to me and design. How do we get here? Like it's just it's humanity and communication is crazy, crazy to me and amazing. And I think this movie, the cure of this movie depends on us being able to start thinking about those things, kisses, kill, kill is kiss. Like how do you reprogram semantic use of language? And how far down that road do you have to go? Yeah. Consistently, because eventually, as we were saying, once you've reprogrammed it, then that's the new program. So but then are you immediately reprogramming like it's, which I think is the, is the genius of the movie. That's what makes the movie so interesting to me is that it's, it's a horror movie and a thought experiment. Right. Like I think it's, I think it's pretty cool. Yeah. Anyhow, have you seen much of Bruce McDonald, the director or have you looked at looked into him much after this? So I know that I need to because what I have heard is he has done some amazing things besides this and he's done so many of them and so much TV that I feel like I would really, really like what he has done. I do know that I have seen the entire show, Dark Matter, which was an awesome amnesia space show, not, this is not the new Apple TV one, which is also good, very different. This was a wonderful sci-fi show that I had a blast with and he was on board to direct some episodes of that. Oh, okay. Nice. You know of, of Bruce McDonald, you're a big fan. I don't know much either, but I'm kind of fascinated by him. He's a Canadian director who has definitely been keeping busy making all sorts of things, documentaries, horror films, just like TV, like you said. There are a number of them that are kind of considered some of his, his high points like roadkill and Highway 61 and hardcore logo seem to be the three films right at the start of his career that got him started as this kind of Canadian indie director and that was kind of a big, a big step for him and hardcore logo is often on lists of films, great films from Canada. So, you know, I know very little of him, but now I'm really wanting to look more into kind of the sorts of stuff he does. I feel like we need to start by watching every one of the 21 episodes of Degrassi, the next generation that he did. I mean, you know, they call him the bad boy of Canadian cinema. And so I think that that may be something that speaks to the way he puts his stories together. Oh, yeah. Bad boy, can we just take, can we just take a beat to think about that, what that represents. Canadian bad boy. The bad boy. He said, I mean, of all of the nicest people on the planet, he is the least nice is what we're saying. He's the bad boy. He's the bad boy. Right. Yeah, where's that like in the scope of nicest to least nice? Where does that where like where does that fit with us like nicest to least night like is the least nice still nicer than the nicest us or is it like midway through the list? It's a scale. It's a scale that starts in the like oil fields. I imagine those being the nicest people in Canada and it goes all the way down and at the least nice Canadian is at the border. And then that becomes the nicest American and it goes all the way to the tip of Texas where things get just bad news by the tip of taxes or the panhandle of Florida. It's bad news. Sorry. I'm saying it like it is. I happen to be from a more nice part of the country. Andy is not very nice. So you're saying it's this is really a trickle-down, uh, nice anomics is what you're doing here starting from Canada and it just driples all the way down and like, you know, the drags are down at the south end. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. And I'm sorry that you're in Phoenix, but you can improve your standing on the nice anomics the trickle down, nice anomics by moving north. That's all it takes. Right. I know. Yeah. Oh, man. Wow. Sorry, San Diego. I have a certain impression of San Diego's, but nope, not in this model. Right. Oh my God. So okay. All right. I don't even what movie are we talking about? I don't remember anymore. Well, Stephen McCatty is, uh, he plays Grant Massey and I thought he was great here as our show dog. And he's one of those that guys who I've seen in a lot of things like he's, he acts in all sorts of things. He was in the fountain and 300 and shoot him up and a history of violence and baseball. But he was also in things like pterodactyl woman from Beverly Hills and red werewolf hunter. And so, you know, he's, he's in tons of different things. He's all over the place. But he's, and a lot of times it's the that guy, but here as our lead, I had a fantastic time with him. But he carried the role perfectly. He just felt like he was living in the skin of this sort of character. What do you think of, uh, Stephen McCatty? Well, I love Stephen McCatty and I was actually, I wondered if he had actually done any, um, any radio. I mean, so many actors with great voices have, um, and so it, it would not surprise me at all if he spent some time on the mic, uh, because he just sounds so good, so good. And he, he actually happens to be married to Lisa who the producer Sydney. Oh, look at that. Isn't that fancy? He's been in a lot of things, a lot of the Jesse Stone. That's that Tom Selleck character. He's been in a lot of those Jesse Stone movies. Oh, how funny. Oh, I'm selling. And, and so Stephen McCatty. I don't know. I don't know if he's friends with him or what, but yeah, he's done a quite a few of those with him. Well, he does have, oh, some credits to 21 to 21, Andy, that's a lot. Very busy. Very, very busy. He's almost has as many as a podcaster. Uh, who else stands out either, either of our, anything to say about either of our, uh, ladies? Well, I thought they were both great. I really, uh, like Georgina Riley, I think she was, she's fantastic in, in that dance between like healthy and, uh, you know, uh, very, very sick. Um, and, uh, I liked the way she kind of, uh, made that transition. I feel like both her and Lisa were faces for me, like, I, like, I should know who they are. I cannot figure out who they would be, honestly, like I, I feel like I've seen him before and I don't know where. Yeah. It's a whole lot, um, Lisa has not been as busy, definitely not as busy as, as, uh, McCatty has. And, uh, I mean, it's a possible you saw an episode of Seinfeld that she was in or something like that, but a much smaller career. She and McCatty would go on to be in Dreamland in 2019, also directed by Bruce McDonald. That is, if you, if you stay to the end of the credits of this, there's this weird scene that you're like, what is going on with this? Like this makes no sense to the movie. It's two other characters and it just, it really made no sense at all. And I guess it's because that whole ending was kind of a part of this other story. And it is, it was part of the Dreamland story you're saying? Part of Dreamland. Yeah. It was like, it was meant to be like, uh, a lead in to what's going on with this new thing or something. I don't know. This new story. Well, I don't get it. No, it didn't make any sense. I don't think anybody else got it either. They had to move it around. It was apparently the end before the credits of the movie originally, but nobody understood it. So they made it a post credit sequence, which I don't, I'm, you know, turn it off before you get to that sequence. I don't know. Yeah. Very odd. Well, even Dreamland when it did come out confused people, that bill by itself was enough to just make people go, hmm, I don't know if I understood that. It's a 4.7 on IMDB. What is it for you? Dreamland. Do you know what you gave it? I haven't seen it. Oh, I thought you had seen it. I thought you were making it. No, no, I'm just based on what I've read about it. Yeah. I, uh, the one episode that I know I have seen, uh, Lisa who'll in, uh, but would not have been able to tell you which one is Haven. I loved that show, uh, which was based on Stephen King's properties. And she was in an episode in season two called Love Machine that was very good, but I would not have known that she was who she was. Yeah. Right. I do. Delightful. Yeah. Very nice. All right. Uh, any last little bits with this? Any other thoughts? I'm good, man. I thought this was great. I had a blast with it. And I'm glad we watched it. Lucky that we just kind of picked this one out of the hat and it was, it was a win. Very interesting film. Yeah. Very interesting. Uh, all right. Well, we'll be right back. But first are credits. The next rail is a production of true story FM engineering by Andy Nelson music by a teller ride free, young rich pixies, oriole novella and eat like catlin. Andy usually finds all the stats for the awards and numbers of D dash numbers.com box office mojo.com imdb.com and wikipedia.org. Find the show at truestory.fm and if your podcast app allows ratings and reviews, please consider doing that for our show. Let's be honest. Everyone fancies themselves a bit of a film critic. You watch a movie with your family and suddenly you're launching into a monologue about the cinematography, the symbolism, the director's clear artistic decline. But deep down, you know, you might not realize it in the moment, but nobody asked. Your family just wanted to watch the movie and frankly, they think the world probably has enough armchair score says he's, what do they know, right? What if you could take those hot takes, those weird opinions strongly held and actually do something worthwhile with them? What if you joined Letterboxed? Letterboxed is like a beautiful curated diary for your movie opinions. Log every film you watch, rate it, review it and share your genius with a community of actual film lovers. And the best part? No algorithms, just pure cinematic bliss. Imagine personalized annual stats that would make even Tarantino jealous and he normally doesn't think about you at all. Instant notifications when that obscure french new wave film you've been dying to see hits your favorite streaming service, whether that's Netflix or Criterion Channel or even Mubi. Are you kidding me? Mubi? Plus, you can see your friends' average ratings and silently judge their taste, track your ever-growing Blu-ray collection and even duplicate lists. You can organize your entire cinematic life. And right now, our listeners can support the NextReel family of film podcast and get 20% off a Letterboxed Pro or Patreon subscription, just use our link in the show notes or enter the code NextReel at checkout. Think of it, you, contributing to a global community of cinephiles, you, supporting independent film discussion, you, finally having an outlet for those rambling thoughts about that art house flick, even your dog fell asleep watching, Letterboxed, because even armchair opinions deserve a beautifully designed platform. Use our link in the show notes or NextReel at checkout and upgrade for 20% off. Remove your family, join Letterboxed today. Sequels and remakes, Andy. Oh, do we get another one? Please tell me if we get another one. Yeah, it's interesting because I think the book, I have to look at this, but I think the book is part of, it's the second novel in the Pontypool Trilogy by Tony Burgess. But I don't, again, I don't know a whole lot about that as far as like, is there a story connection or is it just connected because of towns? I'm not really sure. Regardless, as far as when it comes to sequels for this, there had been discussion a number of times about this. As of a couple of years ago, they had talked about a sequel, Pontypool Changes. They talked about it in 2009 for 2010 release. They talked about it in 2012 for 2013 release. They talked about it in 2018 for 2019 release. It just keeps, they keep talking about it and planning it, but nothing has been, nothing's happened. It's been an active development off and on over the last 13 years. Wait a minute, Pontypool Changes, Pontypool Changes was the title you just said because the book's title was Pontypool Changes Everything. Does that mean a third movie would be Pontypool Changes Everything? I don't know. They need to have Pontypool, Pontypool Changes and Pontypool Changes Everything. Maybe. Yeah, that's a virus is what that is. Exactly, exactly. That's how it starts. There was another confirmation about this. They actually released a teaser poster at the Fantasia Film Festival. They talked about how that, we talked about the film Dreamland that we had teased as a post credit sequence here was actually a spin off of this serving as a quote, sequel to the film's post credit non-secretary sequence with them reprising their roles, but it's like it does account as a sequel if it's just a sequel off of the post credit sequence. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Yeah, a non-secretary sequel is not a sequel. Yeah, right, right. And then it's interesting that the other note that they had, and this was from Tony Burgess, he confirmed that Pontypool Changes also was known as typo Chan, which, you know, as the credits as Pontypool, the title popped up. It was letter by letter kind of like alien, but you end up with the word typo on screen for a minute before it kind of keeps building and Chan changes. You can see how it's doing that. I don't know. It's interesting. I don't know where they're going with it, but anyway, they're still supposedly wanting to do something. It just hasn't happened yet. Okay. Well, that takes us into award season for two people who've never really knew much about this movie. Is it fair to assume that it didn't make it didn't get much into a word season? Well, it did get noticed. A lot of the notice was from a genre awards, genre festivals, and the Canadian awards. It had one win with 11 other nominations, starting with the genie awards, the Canadian Oscars. It was nominated for three best adapted screenplay, but lost to 50 dead men walking, best director, but lost to Denis Villeneuve for Polytechnique and Steven McHaddy, who's not made for Best Actor but lost to Maxim Gaudette, also for Polytechnique. At the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards, it was not made for Best Canadian Film, but also, again, lost to Polytechnique, that Villeneuve, maybe people need to keep their eyes out on him. The Korean Pushan International Fantastic Film Festival, McHaddy, this was the win. He won Best Actor at that festival, and also, McDonald, who was nominated for Best of Pushan for the film, but lost to Joko Anwar's film, The Forbidden Door. At the Vangoria Chainsaw Awards, McHaddy was nominated for Best Actor but lost to Jesse Eisenberg in Zombieland. At the Spike TV Scream Awards, it was nominated for Best Foreign Film, but lost to let the right one in, and, last but not least, at the Saturn Awards, it was nominated for Best DVD Release, but lost to Nothing But the Truth. Okay. What do you think? McHaddy or Eisenberg for Best Actor? Oh, dear. I liked McHaddy so much. I think Zombieland just gave Eisenberg more to do. Well, that's possible. I probably would pick McHaddy, but yeah. Yeah, man, it's actually tough for me to do that, but I think I might lean gently Eisenberg. Oh, okay. Gotcha. Okay. How did it do at the box office? Well, for McDonald's Zombie Not Zombie movie, he had a budget of $1.5 million or $2.2 million in today's dollars. The movie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival September 6th, 2008, then was released in Canada on March 6th, 2009, and domestically May 29th, 2009. On one screen, very, very limited, opposite up, drag me to hell, and departures. I don't know if it was the complete lack of marketing or what, but it was only playing on one screen for two weeks, and then it was out of theaters here in the States, maybe have just been a qualifying run. Altogether, it ended up earning $3,865 here and $28,253 everywhere else for a total gross of $47,535 in today's dollars. Unfortunately, that lands the film with an adjusted lost per-finishment of $23.3,000. A bummer, but its cult status has really kind of helped it continue being discussed and is definitely a film worth discussing. Sure, I really enjoyed my time with this movie in spite of our little quibbles. I thought it was a fantastic ride and thrilled that it's in the collection. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I had a great time, so I'm glad you picked it. Alright, we'll be right back for our ratings, but first, here's the trailer for next week's movie, George P. Cosmatosis, The Cassandra Crossing. A thousand passengers sealed on a train, wide, armed guards in spaces, wide, it is forbidden to leave the train alive, wide, a thousand human beings on a journey to nowhere with one way tickets to hell. We've got no choice. Yeah, we're going to die. The children. The girl over there. What, what? Jennifer, stop it. Catherine. Stop it, Catherine. How can't stop it? Send a plane to warn them. Put flares on the track. Give them a signal. Any passengers attempting to escape from that train must be stopped. A thousand lives are at stake here, including you and your men. Come in, Dr. Shambi. Hello. Hello. Cassandra Crossing. Cassandra Crossing. Cassandra Crossing. Cassandra Crossing. I want this train stopped now. My orders come from Colonel Mackenzie. Okay, and I'll start with you. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Sophia Lauren, Richard Harris, Martin Sheen, O.J. Simpson, Lionel Standard, Ingrid Thule, Lee Strasburg, Kurt Lancaster as Mackenzie, Ava Gardner as Nicole, a powerful cast of international stars in the most spectacular suspense film of the year. The Cassandra Crossing. I know you must see me as some sort of a monster. You had every option, Wyatt. But it's my job and I do it well. You think I purposely murdered a thousand people? Good evening, loyal listeners, and welcome back to WTNR. The only station that matters in our little slice of paradise? This is your main man, Handy Andy Nelson, coming at you live with all the news that's fit to print or, in this case, broadcast. First up, a tragic tale from last month's County Fair, Cornelius Corny Cobb's prize-winning pumpkin vanished into thin air. That's right, the 500-pound orange beast that took home the blue ribbon has disappeared, and all that's left is a trail of seeds. My sources tell me it was last seen hitting a ride on a UFO. You can't make this stuff up, folks. Moving on, the town council held an emergency meeting today to address the crisis of potholes on Main Street. Mayor Archibald Archie Ashford declared a state of emergency and I quote, "We will not rest until every last one of these asphalt craters is filled, even if we have to use our own dentures to do it." That is some serious dedication, my friends. In other news, the fighting ferrets, our local high school, are putting on a rather peculiar production this year. They're taking cats and giving it a bovine twist, calling it cows. I've got a feeling this musical is going to be a moving experience. Now here's the doozy for you. Local eccentric Wilbur Wild Bill Watkins claims he's invented a perpetual motion machine fueled by nothing but moonshine and positive vibes. The Department of Energy may be skeptical but I say if it works, hook me up with one of those gizmos. Oh, and before I forget, here's a special bullet and form our sponsors. Are you a fan of our little podcast network? Well, butter my biscuits, have I got a deal for you? For them easily $5 a month or just $55 for the whole year's kit and kaboodle, you can become a bona fide member and get all sorts of exclusive goodies. We're talking early access to shows without any pesky ads, bonus content that will make your ears tingle and even the chance to sit in on live recording sessions. Plus, you'll get your very own personal podcast feed, access to our super secret Discord channels and the warm, fuzzy feeling of supporting the shows you love. Just point your browser to truestory.fm/join to sign up. That's truestory.fm/join. Don't be a stranger now, you hear? Well, loyal listeners, that's about all the news that's fit to broadcast for tonight. Remember, if you've got a juicy tidbit or just want to bend my ear, give us a ring a ding at 555-W-T-N-R. And don't you forget truestory.fm/join is your ticket to podcast paradise. This is handy Andy Nelson signing off with a wink and a smile. Stay tuned for the soothing sounds of Sleepy Steve's Naptime Jazz Hour. And as my dear old granny used to say, "If you can't be good, be careful. And if you can't be careful, name it after me." Catch you on the flipside, folks. Letterbox, Andy, oh, letterboxed. Letterboxed where we go to take our stars from the infected who aren't going to use it. Those infected films and apply them to films that are more deserving. What are you going to do with "Punty Pool"? It's a fun, easy film to watch. I think if it wasn't for some of the overly metaphorical disease elements, I could probably go high. But I think it still is super fun. I had a great time with it. I'm going to say three and a half, three and a half, and a heart for me. All right. Well, that sounds about right for me, too, except for, you know, I can't do half stars. So four stars and a heart for me. That's right. Four plus. Let's do it. Let's go ahead. We're going all the way. Yeah, I had a blast. I had a blast. time. Now that will average to three and three quarters, which over in the letterbox will round up to four stars and a heart for this film. You can find me there at Soda Creek Film, you can find Pete at Pete Wright and you can find the show at the next reel. So what did you think about Pontepool? We would love to hear your thoughts hop into the show talk channel over their discord community where we will be talking about the movie this week. When the movie ends, our conversation begins. Letterbox, give it to Andrew. As Letterbox always do it. Okay, I want to start with a one-liner because we didn't talk about it and I want to know if you have thoughts. Okay, I like that. This is a two star two star from Haunted Hippie who says sorry. So no one is going to mention the young girl in blackface. I mean, how much of a salient point did we miss? I don't know if we missed a point or just the fact that sometimes things like this happen in small towns where people just don't get it and they're still putting on blackface to portray Lawrence and the Arabians or whatever that was was a weird choice anyway was a weird choice anyway. And you know, at the same time, it also made me think of it wasn't that long ago that the Canadian Prime Minister had some images of himself in blackface or brownface at some Halloween party. So I'm like, yeah, people still make those bad decisions. People do people make bad decisions, even the nice ones. Okay, why don't you go? Technically, you go first. Okay, well, I'm reading Five Star and a Heart by Nathan Lawrence and I'm reading it largely for the first part of his review because I just found it a fascinating exploration in Nathan's way he goes about reviewing. These five stars are rounded up from 4.7. I would have given it five stars, but the music at the end is just not right for the moment. So apparently minus 0.3 stars there. Pottypool is a fantastic exploration of the English language and a marvelous redefinition of the zombie horror genre. If you have never seen it, do yourself a favor and watch like that. But at the beginning, like that's really what this is about. Like what? Wow. Okay, so how fine. I'm rounding it up because it did lose those 0.3 for that end credits music. And because all of my ratings are actually out of 50 or 500. Who knows where it goes? Yeah. Or 500. Okay, I've got a four star and a heart from Josh Lewis, and I'm reading it to you because it has a lot of Canadian words in it. Oh, wow. Okay. This might very well be getting that Canadian genre cinephile bump. I grew up about 25 minutes away from Pottypool, but I do genuinely think that what if Night of the Living Dead was a locked in war of the world's radio play starring Quartha Lake's Howard Stern is an amazing premise for a movie. And Steven McCatty is so good at doing the talk radio thing that effectively carries it through the more derivative zombie movie elements. Also helps that it has a legitimate cinematic interest in its Romero-esque ideas about the literal breakdown of the communication process and has a pretty fantastic low budget, chilly, doomed atmosphere that it holds true right to the cut to black. Okay. It doesn't have a lot of Canadian words, but I think Quartha Lake's Howard Stern is what really sold me. Quartha Lake's Howard. I don't know what that means, but I'm here for it. Right. It makes it feel like I can see where they're going with that. Yeah. I am officially a local now that I've read that. Yeah, right. Yeah. You could just call the government and they'll send you your passport. I think that's how it works. Right. That's exactly how it works because they're so nice. - Yeah. - It's settled science. It's settled science.
