Will and Hesse (@ZeroSuitCamus, @SSDERANGEMENTSS) review the films of 2022 in this special Academy Awards preview. This is also “episode 0” of our next mini-series, MOVIE MINDSET, in which Will and Hesse will give you the keys to unlock true movie consciousness. Series coming late April, details inside.
> I still don't get why Film Twitter hates it so much
Not to get all DavidFosterWallacey about it but I think there is a level of earnest sincerity about EEAAO that certain self-consciously savvy media consumers interpret as maudlin. I loved it but this is a fair criticism imo. There is an undeniable sappiness to EEAAO but to me that is part of the appeal (but I can totally see how it would turn some people off).
I saw EEAO at a time I was genuinely kind of nihilistic and not unhappy but just so overly cynical. The movie was genuinely very cathartic for me. I also just think it’ was a very interesting/well done movie. It’s definitely also very referential in a way that self serious movie people will hate
I think it was the first movie I saw in a theatre in a long time. A friend suggested it and I knew nothing about it, it was just really fun and unexpected.
i love how the main thing people 'learned' from that guy is that we should unabashedly love every single thing that appears in some vague way as *earnest*
my sort of normie brother who loves parks & rec and brooklyn 99 and all that garbage, he walked out of the theatre cause it was so obnoxious
> i love how the main thing people 'learned' from that guy is that we should unabashedly love every single thing that appears in some vague way as earnest
I think the lesson is more that hair-trigger irony being the shortcut to cool opinions is just as much of a philistine impulse as gushing sentiment.
Seriously. A lot of the problem is that they keep replaying the same joke over and over. The hotdog fingers bit was funny the first two times, but they *kept coming back to it.* Like, I know that "the movie is too long" is something that gets said about anything that goes much over 100 minutes, but it really applies here.
Yea i didn't mind it because of the end payoff scene showing their happy loving hot dog life together, after the main phrase that started it all was her saying "I Love you" to Jamie Lee Curtis' character.
I hated how the movie pretended to be something very personal and intimate, but it's really just regurgitating preexisting tropes and ideas (more below). Also, this is kind of a meta point, but the \*discourse\* around the movie was unbearable because fans kept trying to promote it as a beacon of representation. The daughter is queer! It's a movie that stars a middle-aged Asian woman! How often do you see this perspective depicted on screen???
But it's all facsimile. The movie is \*about\* a gay girl and a Chinese woman, but it's so transparently written from the perspective of two soy nerds who spend too much time on Reddit. One of the writers compared the movie to Rick and Morty, for fuck's sake. The subjectivity of the mom especially is so different from anything an actual Chinese immigrant would embody it makes me cringe; in what world would this woman's deepest thoughts echo extremely American, early 2000's comedy bits like "hotdogs for hands"? And what is the psychological fantasy she constructs to make sense of her mental disorders? A fucking sci-fi, Marvel-ass parallel dimensions plot. This takes me out of the movie so much. Again, they are trying to convince us that this fiction reflects the interiority of a conservative Chinese immigrant, but it is entirely populated by the imagination of nerdy millennial guys.
I could also go on and on about how the movie's big thesis, stated loudly and proudly during the climax, is "love each other". Lol, fuck off. Again, regurgitation of tropes pretending to be deep. Overall, the movie is fine, I'd say. Just extremely overrated. Certainly nothing really good or timeless. When the dust is settled in 10 years or so, I am willing to bet people aren't going to look back super fondly on it; it's gonna age badly.
It’s the first “arthouse” movie that these dipshits understood (because the movie literally stops halfway through to spell it out on the screen for you) so they think that it is the most brilliant thing ever made. They get to Leo point at the screen and go “ooh ooh that’s Wong Kar Wai!” Same way you can watch the Antman trailer and go “ooh ooh that’s Antman!” And the good boy points just flood the brain with dork dopamine so they’ll defend this shit with their life.
Nailed it brother. And on the "love each other" message, I also thought Ke Huy Quan's line "be kind--especially when we don't know what's going on" was the corniest, most vapid fucking thing I've ever heard and I am honestly shocked so many people thought it was profound.
the best take on it came from leslie lee of struggle session who said it was like the matrix but if neo went back to his job the next day with a better attitude
I loved it and so did my dad. It was also fun watching a second time on shrooms (me sadly not my dad). I think it is earnest in a way that rubs the irony-poisoned Twitterati in a way they can’t process.
I have the correct opinion which is that the film is basically good but about 50% longer than it should be while also not nearly as profound as its most ardent fans claim it is.
It gets a little up its own ass which wouldn't bother me nearly so much if I hadn't seen quite so many takes about how transcendently perfect it is.
Frankly, it suffers from Rick and Morty syndrome.
Because it's **fine**. It's a good movie that somehow has gained this juggernaut awards momentum. I don't hate it, I enjoyed watching it. But I'm absolutely sick and tired of hearing about it. I don't think it deserves any of the awards it's getting and I'm a small person who actually cares about awards being deserved.
I waited a while to see it because I thought it sounded kinda lame and gimmicky. When it came back in theaters I finally watched it and I really liked maybe the first third or half of it before it kind of turned into what I initially expected it to be.
I had the same feeling watching it the day it came out. Granted I was fairly excited in the lead up to the film but I found the second half pretty tedious and the callbacks to different jokes were tiring. It's a solid 3.5/5 for me, good performances but the Daniels-style humour and runtime needed some work. Also the WKW "allusion" was pretty hacky.
tbh im in the same camp as matt where the title pisses me off so much that i refuse to see it out of petty spite. movie itself is probably fine but im a small man
The title is a play on the Chinese word 瞬息全宇宙 which has two meanings an adverb and a conjunction as well. I understand if the title failed in English but I guess you'd like it if they had used the Cantonese title of the film "奇異女俠玩救宇宙 (Weird Woman Warrior Fucks Around and Saves the Universe)"
It has the problem a lot of modern movies have where it's like 20/30 minutes too long. Also doesn't have a lot of rewatch value. I've seen it 3 times and liked it a little less each time. It's definitely still in my top 6 movies of 2022, just don't think it deserves all the hype it gets.
This is interesting, I feel like with everything they were trying to cram in there, EEAAO felt *too short* and rushed imo. Like they needed another 30 minutes to tie together everything, because that last act felt rushed.
It also made the multiverse component not feel very robust or fleshed out - like the movie is called Everything Everywhere but we don't really get that, and like half of the multiverse views we get are way-too-drawn-out Random Jokes (hotdog fingers + racacoonie).
I just kind of wanted a regular movie about these characters. I didn’t realize I was going to a mix of indie family dramedy and Hong Kong action. All the actors were great and it’s marvelously edited. Just wasn’t blown away by it like a lot of people
I didn’t hate it but I certainly didn’t enjoy it. I personally found the positive nihilism and message of “if nothing matters than everything does” to be very grating. I don’t even disagree with it philosophically it just felt like an incredibly adolescent picture told in a way that would’ve blown my mind at 18 but leaves me cold at 28. I didn’t find it to be funny at all and grew extremely tired of it’s repetitive jokes, BUT the group I saw it with loved it. Most of my friends are gay and second generation so the experience hit very close to home with them. Not a film I personally would watch again but it’s found it’s audience.
> Most of my friends are gay and second generation so the experience hit very close to home with them.
Atleast you pointed this out. The film is great at how it tackles this better than most attempts at tackling 2nd gen AsAm trauma.
Is it first or second gen who’s parents are immigrants? Anyway, as much as I hate the term “it’s not for you” and find that it flattens artistic discussion, being gay and closeted from your non-American family really is an experience that is widely shared in my cohort of aging millennial college-goers. For them, this was a powerful experience that overrides whatever critique I personally have with the writing.
I love having keys jingled in my face for 2.5 hours of 2010 rAndOm Reddit humor and “just be nice :)” faux philosophy. The Russo brothers really said “what if we made a Marvel movie but everyone talked like they were trying to get a good grade in therapy” and all the dumbest people you know said “this is the greatest movie I have ever seen” (as soon as they got done weeping about “a freaking epic everything bagel with le everything on it”)
I’ve had the exact opposite experience. It seems like everyone loves it and I’m one of five people on planet earth who turned it off after 40mins.
I liked none of the characters and it was hard for me to care about any of them, even if the concept behind the film was interesting.
This really exemplifies how the Chapo guys are very eloquent and interesting when talking about art that they love, but can be so shallow and stupid when talking about art that they dislike.
Also “this piece of art is good (or at least I don’t have a strong opinion of it) but I’ve grown to reflexively dislike it solely because of all the praise it gets / the type of praise / the type of person praising it” is by far the most irritating kind of opinion that so many people seem to regularly have and regard as completely normal. Why would someone else’s opinion about something bother you to such a degree, grow up
They (rightfully) shit on Liberals for thinking that movies like Joker and Northman are liked by the "wrong people" but will shit on movies endlessly if they're liked by Liberals lol
Humans are inherently tribal creatures that rely on in-group/out-group distinctions to understand and order the world.
That said, that impulse is something we should all try to be aware of. Some end up more self-aware than others at the end of the day.
I am a huge fan of the movie mindset. In the past year, I watched like 200 movies. I saw all of the best picture nominees. All I can say is of course the Chapos did not watch Women Talking.
Oh cool, I will check that out. I like E1 a lot. Which other episodes is she on?
I’ll also recommend like the Undercover Billionaire episodes of Seeking Derangements.
There's another one from a few weeks ago where she's E1's HR person and mediates their petty grievances that's also top tier. Any E1 ep where they just play stupider versions of themselves is always great.
I think she was also on the James Bond parody one.
oh my god the very recent one where she's their HR rep they didn't even know they hired. she completely takes over the episode within 10 minutes. one of the funniest E1 guest characters ever.
''I texted will 20 minutes into the film''
''I narrated watching this movie on twitter''
I'm sorry, no, fuck off, both of these such rescind your movie mindset membership. Don't do that shit.
I would hate to see a film in a movie theater with these people. “Shrieking with laughter at Tàr on edibles” is such a “look at me performing as a very special movie enjoyer at my first year of college” type of look.
Will's takes on movies really annoy me. He thinks of himself self as such a buff, but I'm 20 minutes in and despite Will describing Hesse as "the only person who knows more about movies than I do," he's stated 3 times he hasn't seen a movie they're talking about. I will be forever grateful to Chapo for Avatar pilling me, but his opinions are very boorish and his interest in movies are so chauvinistic and narrow minded. I rarely see him talk about movies that aren't in English and maybe only one movie directed by a woman. I think it's totally fine to only be into American B movies and rarities, but to describe himself as this "movie mindset" guru despite his limited interest just makes my eyes roll.
Edit: listened to the rest, opinion hasn't changed. Very annoyed about them talking about Living, the movie bill nighy is nominated for. If you're interested, it's written by kazuo ishiguro but is based on Akira Kurosawa's movie ikiru
This is spot on. I love Will, but his takes are pedestrian in the true heads world. I should know because I have basically the same tastes as him, but I have tons of friends who are true cinephiles in every sense. Will (like me) is a Guy Who Likes Movies. And thats fine; just don't pretend to be an authority on the matter or even have unique tastes. He may have Podcast Brain like Scott Aukerman; every thought must be explored via bespoke pod.
Couldn't agree more. He's the caricature of 30-something film bro who only like Scorcese and Tarantino movies. Meanwhile, most other vocal Marty fans are like tracking down every Hong Sang-Soo movie.
As someone who used to live in NYC Will always reminds me of some of the most insufferable people I met while living there.
Podcasts are all parasocial or whatever but I can't imagine enjoying interacting with Will in real life despite thinking he's pretty funny as a podcaster.
Yeah, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt when they play a version of themselves for a living, but Will seems terminally tristate.
Not saying he sucks or something, just seems like he's a particular type of person that seems very geographically specific
Honestly same. Because of how sarcastic and contrarian the Chapos are, I sometimes dont know when they’re truly lauding something or properly trashing some worthless, soulless cash grab. I got avatar pilled too, and glad for it because it made watching the new Avatar vastly more enjoyable. But I felt there were many lukewarm takes on this episode, but I’m still going to listen to every episode because slop is slop. They still have a decent batting average, but when they miss, boy do they miss hard lol.
Also Felix has raved several times about A Field in England, and I dont think I’ve ever seen a more forgettable movie in my life. Totally unremarkable or enjoyable.
Yeah, I like Will’s enthusiasm about movies in general, but I think “pedestrian” is the perfect word to describe the attitude. I thought it was satire, but he really does seem intent on “solving the mystery” of each movie, like the most deranged Lynch fans would watch Twin peaks if not the director’s entire oeuvre. Also it’s funny he gets mad when the satire really hits its intended target audience, “leftist” media personalities in NYC for example. Also, for a guy who worked in fiction publishing, he seems oddly unfamiliar with ”literary tropes” in film, or how they are not always “about” any one thing.
The idea that women talking is gonna win is laughable. Just purely vibes based guessing from will and hesse when, as you're pointing out, you can pretty easily tell what's gonna win most of the time by the awards shows leading up to the Oscar's
Right? *Women Talking*, which was absolutely the last movie in for Best Picture, is going to struggle to win Best Adapted Screenplay, which was considered by some to be a ~~kick~~ **lock** months ago. I thought it was a great movie, but the Academy clearly doesn’t love it.
What got me was his analysis of Tar. What would even be the point of reading it that way if you weren’t later gonna vandalized the YMMV page on tvtropes.
Yeah, like that interpretation of tar doesn't go any farther than the plot. How does her being dead the whole time or whatever change his interpretation of the themes? I like the other things he has to say about the movie tho, like its depiction of cancel culture. But that cracked.com esque interpretation was very silly
It's very American I think. He sees the themes and he understands them, but in the end they must fit into a consistent plot, because plot is king and a movie that can't be contained by a plot cannot be a good movie. They even brought up Mulholland Drive which is another movie where people do the same thing.
Yeah if you want to point out a character who's actually another embodiment of Krista, I think it would be Olga? The woman who fills Krista's shoes while drawing Lydia to her downfall? Rather than Tar herself.
EEAAO is gonna win because it pulled off the relativity rare feat of coming out and getting Oscar buzz waaaay before the awards itself, and then when it came out on streaming people re-watched it and it mostly still held up.
It winning best picture would also help the academy go “see, we can give awards to movies with diverse casts, take that #oscarssowhite”, with the benefit that the movie is, you know, Actually Good. You can say it’s just elevated marvel material, but no line in a marvel movie has had the emotional weight of “in another universe, I would have really liked doing laundry and taxes with you”. We’re getting into backlash to the backlash to the backlash territory here, but some of the pushback against the movie seems to be based just on the movie daring to be kinda openly corny, if given a choice between the marvelization and emotional flatness of movies as a whole these days, I’ll save from too much scorn a movie that wears its heart on its sleeve
Wandavision had that line “what is grief but love preserving” or whatever that everyone on Twitter was hyping up forever. I agree with you that it will win Best Picture though because I don’t see what’s stopping it.
Idk, I loved EEAAO but as psycho as it sounds I think they may give it to Maverick all because Steven Spielberg and several others essentially said "it saved the movie industry" (paraphrased)
people in this thread calling EEAAO "elevated marvel" and complaining about its "corniness" tells me that people who post in this sub are joyless cretins and need to drop that bullshit if they want to meaningfully connect with people. like, god, it's a popular movie with an original script that's kinda fun and moves the audience. what do people complaining about it like to watch?
I love how this is the only movie where if you don’t like it you’re joyless and can’t connect with people lol. It’s a fucking movie with a nerdy sense of humor and that’s not for everyone.
well because it feels like the actual "main plot" about the immigrant family struggling is interesting but the movie feels the need to "reward" the audience with action set pieces that feel very disconnected from everything else and nearly feel like "reddit writes the movie" scenes
what on earth are you talking about? you can't connect the action sequences as entertaining metaphors for what's going on inside the family? in a science-fantasy movie? reddit writes the movie? we're on reddit dot com right now!!
It’s seen as a “libtard” movie because of its over the top message of inclusiveness and empathy. I don’t care, I still get chills when I think of Michael Shannon’s last line in it.
I think it's just a very cute little film. A real fairy tale, made by a guy who not only truly love fairy tales, but is also a very talented film maker.
I thought Crimes of the Future was kind of boring. I'm big fan of Cronenberg's older movies but feel like eXistenZ was probably the last one I actually enjoyed watching.
I read Crimes as being part of a trilogy alongside Videodrome and eXistenZ. The first two set the grounds of the conflict between human and neo-human, and Crimes is fully embedded in the postbellum neo-human victory. The conflict is no longer whether humans will adapt/transform/mutate, but to what extent we will allow ourselves indulgence and pleasure from the ongoing transformation. It’s also full of those weird stunted performances that are in eXistenZ but made somehow even more alien.
Crimes of the Future has the unfortunate curse of “movie obviously made during covid restrictions.” Too many scenes in completely empty Greek villages!
It was a very... interesting movie. Kristen Stewart is incredible in it; if nothing else she deserves best actress. But it seems like the movie is missing a third act. It just kind of ends abruptly with only the main character getting a personal resolution, but none of the overall plots developing much.
I loved Triangle of Sadness as well as Ruben Östlund's other work (The Square is a much watch for anyone with any experience in the world of modern art)... It definitely felt uneven in parts but I think dismissing the island stuff as anti-leftist is a pretty uncharitable & lazy read. Also very weird that Will's ultimate beef with the film is how it makes people feel bad for going on luxury vacations.
Yeah I'm sorry but Ostlund's satire wasn't particularly deep but I think it got Will and the Chapos to a T, and now he has to pretend the movie isn't funny. I mean he even breaks with that stance pretty quickly when Hesse mentions what she thinks were funny parts.
I wasn't rolling on the floor or anything and the movie does get worse as it gets on, but the digs that he's getting in are often pretty good and accurate. I mean, the "debate" between Harrelson and the Russian dude just consisting of looking up quotes on like Goodreads is really fucking spot on.
The most important scene in the movie is when the oligarch quotes Marx to try to win the new leader over. It's very deliberately targeting aesthetic leftism. All of his work concerns deconstructing the modern obsession with perception, the way people believe they are in their heads versus the way they act in reality.
The stuff that goes on in the final act is easy to reduce to "it's bad because it's saying 'all workers would be bad anyways'" but I appreciate how provocative & challenging it is to overly simplistic theory (I also find it to be more of a critique of anarchism than communism). [Östlund grew up in a Marxist household](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/ruben-ostlund-i-worry-that-left-wing-people-misunderstand-marx-1.3417217) so he certainly isn't phoning it in.
Thanks for linking the interview. The criticism östlund got for The Square (that it was ”right wing” or ”conservative”) is exactly the same facile critique Will has. Like the director says, it’s very upperclass, moralistic view that expects poor people to be “good”. A sentimental world view, where suffering makes the other people somehow inherently “noble”, and welfare policies are just tax funded charities to make “us” feel good. Poor people don’t “deserve” stuff and power because they are somehow better and would be kinder to others, or because they wouldn’t be corrupted, moral qualities have nothing to do with the need to completely reorganize wealth and power.
I also loved The Square and Triangle, because they are uncomfortable mirrors to “my kind of people”. I found it funny that Will praises Parasite (although I seem to remember some Chapos hating it when it was talk of the twitterati) while hating Triangle of Sadness. I guess satire can alway be an “easy way out” for its intended audience, but I think this type of reaction from an online “Marxist” is part of the point it tries to make.
I remember how liking Parasite was way more acceptable until it got nominated for awards as well. Then all the complaints became similar, everyone started hyper fixating on how it made the poor characters look like they were just as evil.
But I honestly can't think of a more effective way to critique class from within the capitalist system itself than by effectively demonstrating how it ends up destroying everyone it touches. The point of these things should be to show the middle class the path we're on if nothing changes, not jerk off online leftists.
He confused it with the director Daniel Kwan lol
And he was bitching about how the film was winning awards as "an apology to asians from the film industry' lol
i don't know if he was bitching about it- even the most generous academy award fan understands this is part of the awards campaign
but yeah absolute flub from the man
I haven't listened yet so idk if this gets mentioned at all, but imo the best movie from 2022 wasn't nominated for almost anything
I'm talking about Aftersun, one of the most affecting movies I've seen in a long, long time
Anyway I think Tár should win Best Picture
Aftersun was incredible but it is doomed to be the 3rd best movie of the year behind Tar and Banshees, any other year and I think things would be different
that movie rules. i need to see it again because watched it on a flight to iran with my mom. she liked it so much that she decided to watch pacific rim next and quickly realized her mistake.
Pacific rim kicks ass as well, I liked nightmare alley as well. Guillermo deal torros made a bunch of bangers I don’t get why people are kinda down on him.
Everything he's done since Pan's Labyrinth is just okay imho. I so want just one more masterpiece from him. Without that ever diminishing hope, I would've stopped watching his movies a while ago
I want to say his version of Pinocchio is his second best movie after Pan's Labyrinth. It also manages to fuse the fairy tale/real life horrors in a satisfying way, and the ending is a welcome twist on the whole Pinocchio story.
Also, the animation's gorgerous.
I liked Shape of Water about as much as I liked Pan's Labyrinth, but those are the only three movies of his I've seen. I'm not a movie guy, just a guy who watched Shape of Water and Pacific Rim on an airplane while flying to Iran.
I mean my Shape of Water take is totally subjective. I just have so little interest in nostalgia for an era of Hollywood I never experienced, and I didn't feel the chemistry in the romance (tbf maybe I just couldn't get past the fishman/human thing). It was very pretty, nicely stylized in his signature over the top way, score was top notch.
Maybe some nostalgia is coloring my Pan's Labyrinth love, but it remains one of the most singular movies I've ever seen. Nothing else like it. It succeeds on every disparate genre it weaves together: fairy tale, horror movie, historical war drama. I was mesmerized by it's beauty and shocked by its violence. Delighted by how seriously it treated the fantasy elements so they became a nightmarish and inextricable part of the reality.
Not that you probably give a shit, I just like talking about that movie :p
Will = Paul McCartney. Has the best voice, is the leader of the band, but his solo projects don't have much edge and are a little too soft.
Matt = John Lennon. Has the most out there creative energy, and is always pushing the envelope, but really needs a will/McCartney to help balance him out.
Felix = Ringo Starr. Yellow submarine is a banger and I don't care what anyone says. Brings a fun energy, but certainly not the deepest thinker of the band.
Amber = George Harrison. Most underrated member of the band, and probably the most level headed. First to go on with a solo career and of the 4 probably put out the best post-beatles music.
Chris Wade = Billy Preston. The 5th Beatle, nuff said
Cumtown = Eric Clapton. Played some of the best riffs, but also kinda crazy
As an Irish person I hated Banshees tbh. I think I hated it for the same reason Will hates 3 Billboards but I thought it was fine. For an American the political commentary of 3 Billboards is blatant and unavoidable, and for an Irish person the Civil War metaphor that is Banshees is so blatant that it drowns out everything else. All I can see is Martin McDonagh smuggly jerking himself off about how clever he is that “Inisherin” comes from the Irish *Inis Éireann* which means “The Island of Ireland”. Colm is the Free Staters, Pádraic is the Republicans, and the brilliant message McDonagh has to share on the Civil War is “both sides were equally bad and ultimatetly fighting over nothing”. Wow. How insightful!
I could go on forver about how shit the Civil War commentary is but I’ll save ye from that screed.
Also incredibly funny how many Americans have been proudly showing their ass talking about how they couldn’t tell it was a period piece. I think that says a lot more about how ignorant you are, Will, than how “backwards and parochial” Ireland is!
I feel like Will's Triangle of Sadness point about the different classes eating at each other is at odds with his take on Parasite and people not getting it?
Couple things-
Hesse really mellows Will's default contrarian takes with "eh, I thought it was alright" which is incredibly healthy. Takes away the potency of the #filmtwitter snobbery Will occasionally (often) falls into.
Hesse has some of the worst oscar predictions I've probably ever heard lol.
Loved Will's opening monologue- genuinely great jokes.
Will's take on Tar being the view of Lydia from the girl who was abused by her doesn't really work honestly. I can sense him working backwards from the photo obscuring her face. The explanation also creates a meta element to excuse the SJW OWNED scene being so overly curated. He is right if feels like a guy coming up with an argument in the shower, but instead of the student writing it, it's Todd Field's view of cancel culture. The scene is literally framed as 'she's right but why is she a dick about it'
A student cancelling Bach over adultery? Fucking lol. I was in Uni doing a Music degree with a bunch of SJW like myself when #metoo hit the discourse and no normal person gives a shit about adulteries. Otherwise Will nails it, and how funny the movie is.
Every element of Elvis they mention is so fucking funny. What a goofy af movie
Glad to hear someone so eloquently diss Triangle of Sadness 'Both Sides' ass movie
Top Gun still sucks, i'm sad to hear the Chapo ep on it wasn't ironic
I was kind of afraid that Will would fall into the Film Twitter trap of not being able to like anything that’s new and currently in the discourse. Pleasantly surprised with the generally positive reviews. It’s just more fun to hear people talk about movies they like.
Beyond being positive, I thought the discussions were insightful and made me think about some of the films I watched in different ways. The Fabelmans in particular.
Hesse is very well-versed in all this stuff. A much better person to sound off with than Matt and Felix.
Pretty bad at watching the films they were meant to watch lmao.
I was waiting for five bags of popcorn after some of these since they were just that informed.
Tar spoilers here
The brothel scene isn't just that Girl 5 is Mahler's 5th symphony that she never got to finish. The girls are also presented in a semicircle like the orchestra with Girl 5 in the seat where Olga sits.
It's also the artifice and prestige being stripped away and making Tar confront her actions and the harm she's done because she can't hide behind the her position or frame it as a favor to the girls she exploits. I read her rushing outside to throw up as the last bit of her conscience, which they foreshadowed in the very beginning, finally trying to reckon with the harm she's done and she can't handle it.
Also the moment when Lydia suggests open auditions for the cello soloist position and Sharon and the current lead cellist share a quick stunned glance as they realize Lydia is betraying both of them for the new girl is amazing. Nina Hoss isn't even nominated but deserves Best Supporting Actress for that single look.
Also 100% agreed that it's a much funnier movie than it gets credit for, the scene where she takes time out of her day to threaten to beat up a child is genuinely funny
I really love what the boys are doing with the mini series. Whether it be Matt and Chris explaining important historical moments and how it leads to where we are now, and me not understanding ANYTHING that’s going on but being like “Damn they snapped.” Or it’s Will and Hesse just talkin movies, which I do understand.
Also, think Banshees sweep would be cool, won’t get it but I’d like that. Also liked Tar a lot. Really fucking hated Triangle of Sadness.
sorry, the Freudlemans rules. You have your filmmaker insert showing himself be horny for his mum and filming the actor playing yourself film himself in a mirror reacting to his families divorce.
Spielberg literally 'Synecdoche, New York's himself and packages it into a fun palatable prestige picture
how dare they make a podcast about movies when they aren't film school grads, haven't watched every movie released this year, don't share every opinion I have, and have more followers than me for some reason even though I am a genieos
Lol sorry but that is too dishonest of a framing. I love Chapo and whenever people in the episode threads think the ep sucked I'll think it was perfectly enjoyable slop but if you're gonna do a podcast on Oscars predictions you could have at least watched all the best picture nominees.
Will and Hesse (@ZeroSuitCamus, @SSDERANGEMENTSS) review the films of 2022 in this special Academy Awards preview. This is also “episode 0” of our next mini-series, MOVIE MINDSET, in which Will and Hesse will give you the keys to unlock true movie consciousness. Series coming late April, details inside.
I am waiting for the new miniseries where felix reviews new types of unregulated benzodiazepines. But thank you for the free slop.
The Felix miniseries that covers the entire history, life, and lore of MindOfJSON >>>
Will doing a guest spot on the Mikey Miles episode
Fighting in the Age of Loneliness is the best Chapo side project
Jon Bois doesn't hurt
Got a laugh out of me with this one. Then I felt sad.
I get my script refilled tomorrow. Hoping to be at his level come the new episode.
Excited to hear from Hesse herself after hearing about her so much in Hell on Earth
Is she from the Hesse-Kassel or Hesse-Darmstadt branch? Landgravine or grand duchess?
She has to be a Kassel, because Darmstädter do have an unintelligible ugly dialect.
Hot take: Everything Everywhere All At Once is a good film and I still don't get why Film Twitter hates it so much.
> I still don't get why Film Twitter hates it so much Not to get all DavidFosterWallacey about it but I think there is a level of earnest sincerity about EEAAO that certain self-consciously savvy media consumers interpret as maudlin. I loved it but this is a fair criticism imo. There is an undeniable sappiness to EEAAO but to me that is part of the appeal (but I can totally see how it would turn some people off).
I saw EEAO at a time I was genuinely kind of nihilistic and not unhappy but just so overly cynical. The movie was genuinely very cathartic for me. I also just think it’ was a very interesting/well done movie. It’s definitely also very referential in a way that self serious movie people will hate
I think it was the first movie I saw in a theatre in a long time. A friend suggested it and I knew nothing about it, it was just really fun and unexpected.
i love how the main thing people 'learned' from that guy is that we should unabashedly love every single thing that appears in some vague way as *earnest* my sort of normie brother who loves parks & rec and brooklyn 99 and all that garbage, he walked out of the theatre cause it was so obnoxious
> i love how the main thing people 'learned' from that guy is that we should unabashedly love every single thing that appears in some vague way as earnest I think the lesson is more that hair-trigger irony being the shortcut to cool opinions is just as much of a philistine impulse as gushing sentiment.
nah brooklyn 99 is fine. its got a lot of issues but like, at least it's not 100% nicecore bullshit all the time like 99% of sitcoms of that era were.
Hot dog fingers
hmm, i am excited to watch it then. i tend to love things that are unabashedly sappy; maybe the tone is a bit off or something
There is a good 90-minute film suffocating inside the fat suit of EEAAO
Seriously. A lot of the problem is that they keep replaying the same joke over and over. The hotdog fingers bit was funny the first two times, but they *kept coming back to it.* Like, I know that "the movie is too long" is something that gets said about anything that goes much over 100 minutes, but it really applies here.
I really liked the over-use of the hotdog fingers tbh. one of those bits that went from mildly amusing to dumb/boring to hilarious with repetition.
Yea i didn't mind it because of the end payoff scene showing their happy loving hot dog life together, after the main phrase that started it all was her saying "I Love you" to Jamie Lee Curtis' character.
I hated how the movie pretended to be something very personal and intimate, but it's really just regurgitating preexisting tropes and ideas (more below). Also, this is kind of a meta point, but the \*discourse\* around the movie was unbearable because fans kept trying to promote it as a beacon of representation. The daughter is queer! It's a movie that stars a middle-aged Asian woman! How often do you see this perspective depicted on screen??? But it's all facsimile. The movie is \*about\* a gay girl and a Chinese woman, but it's so transparently written from the perspective of two soy nerds who spend too much time on Reddit. One of the writers compared the movie to Rick and Morty, for fuck's sake. The subjectivity of the mom especially is so different from anything an actual Chinese immigrant would embody it makes me cringe; in what world would this woman's deepest thoughts echo extremely American, early 2000's comedy bits like "hotdogs for hands"? And what is the psychological fantasy she constructs to make sense of her mental disorders? A fucking sci-fi, Marvel-ass parallel dimensions plot. This takes me out of the movie so much. Again, they are trying to convince us that this fiction reflects the interiority of a conservative Chinese immigrant, but it is entirely populated by the imagination of nerdy millennial guys. I could also go on and on about how the movie's big thesis, stated loudly and proudly during the climax, is "love each other". Lol, fuck off. Again, regurgitation of tropes pretending to be deep. Overall, the movie is fine, I'd say. Just extremely overrated. Certainly nothing really good or timeless. When the dust is settled in 10 years or so, I am willing to bet people aren't going to look back super fondly on it; it's gonna age badly.
It’s the first “arthouse” movie that these dipshits understood (because the movie literally stops halfway through to spell it out on the screen for you) so they think that it is the most brilliant thing ever made. They get to Leo point at the screen and go “ooh ooh that’s Wong Kar Wai!” Same way you can watch the Antman trailer and go “ooh ooh that’s Antman!” And the good boy points just flood the brain with dork dopamine so they’ll defend this shit with their life.
Nailed it brother. And on the "love each other" message, I also thought Ke Huy Quan's line "be kind--especially when we don't know what's going on" was the corniest, most vapid fucking thing I've ever heard and I am honestly shocked so many people thought it was profound.
I think the hate for the movie itself is just misdirected hate for the movie’s loudest champions. Also, some parts of it are a bit reddit/Rick&Morty.
The story is great and so is so much of it but yeah the sense of humour misses sometimes and the misses are pretty notable
i am torrenting it as we speak but i can't stand when movies take time out of the story to 'do jokes'
It insists upon itself
LOOK HOW WACKY THIS IS!! YALL REMEMBER RATATOUILLE LMAO ISNT THAT SO RANDOM??
God that bit was so bad. Credit to them for using practical effects on the raccoon I guess but my god that did not need to go on for so long
the best take on it came from leslie lee of struggle session who said it was like the matrix but if neo went back to his job the next day with a better attitude
It's basically a Pixar film with adult bad words. I still love the movie tho.
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Pretty much how I feel. Like the movie’s fine but I saw someone on Twitter today say it’s one of the greatest movies ever made and it’s like wait what
I loved it and so did my dad. It was also fun watching a second time on shrooms (me sadly not my dad). I think it is earnest in a way that rubs the irony-poisoned Twitterati in a way they can’t process.
I have the correct opinion which is that the film is basically good but about 50% longer than it should be while also not nearly as profound as its most ardent fans claim it is. It gets a little up its own ass which wouldn't bother me nearly so much if I hadn't seen quite so many takes about how transcendently perfect it is. Frankly, it suffers from Rick and Morty syndrome.
Because it's **fine**. It's a good movie that somehow has gained this juggernaut awards momentum. I don't hate it, I enjoyed watching it. But I'm absolutely sick and tired of hearing about it. I don't think it deserves any of the awards it's getting and I'm a small person who actually cares about awards being deserved.
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God gives his hardest challenges to his strongest soldiers 😔
they are jealous, it’s cringe to be a millennial director. they should be a loser like us
I waited a while to see it because I thought it sounded kinda lame and gimmicky. When it came back in theaters I finally watched it and I really liked maybe the first third or half of it before it kind of turned into what I initially expected it to be.
I had the same feeling watching it the day it came out. Granted I was fairly excited in the lead up to the film but I found the second half pretty tedious and the callbacks to different jokes were tiring. It's a solid 3.5/5 for me, good performances but the Daniels-style humour and runtime needed some work. Also the WKW "allusion" was pretty hacky.
It’s kinda boring
tbh im in the same camp as matt where the title pisses me off so much that i refuse to see it out of petty spite. movie itself is probably fine but im a small man
The title is a play on the Chinese word 瞬息全宇宙 which has two meanings an adverb and a conjunction as well. I understand if the title failed in English but I guess you'd like it if they had used the Cantonese title of the film "奇異女俠玩救宇宙 (Weird Woman Warrior Fucks Around and Saves the Universe)"
that does sound like a cooler title
It has the problem a lot of modern movies have where it's like 20/30 minutes too long. Also doesn't have a lot of rewatch value. I've seen it 3 times and liked it a little less each time. It's definitely still in my top 6 movies of 2022, just don't think it deserves all the hype it gets.
This is interesting, I feel like with everything they were trying to cram in there, EEAAO felt *too short* and rushed imo. Like they needed another 30 minutes to tie together everything, because that last act felt rushed. It also made the multiverse component not feel very robust or fleshed out - like the movie is called Everything Everywhere but we don't really get that, and like half of the multiverse views we get are way-too-drawn-out Random Jokes (hotdog fingers + racacoonie).
i liked it a lot, but i understand a lot of the reddit movie allegations. still think banshees and tár were better
All 3 of those movies were trying to do very different things and they each succeeded at them!
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Same here. I don’t like Reddit humor and if you don’t think the movie is funny it is almost unwatchable.
I just kind of wanted a regular movie about these characters. I didn’t realize I was going to a mix of indie family dramedy and Hong Kong action. All the actors were great and it’s marvelously edited. Just wasn’t blown away by it like a lot of people
I didn’t hate it but I certainly didn’t enjoy it. I personally found the positive nihilism and message of “if nothing matters than everything does” to be very grating. I don’t even disagree with it philosophically it just felt like an incredibly adolescent picture told in a way that would’ve blown my mind at 18 but leaves me cold at 28. I didn’t find it to be funny at all and grew extremely tired of it’s repetitive jokes, BUT the group I saw it with loved it. Most of my friends are gay and second generation so the experience hit very close to home with them. Not a film I personally would watch again but it’s found it’s audience.
> Most of my friends are gay and second generation so the experience hit very close to home with them. Atleast you pointed this out. The film is great at how it tackles this better than most attempts at tackling 2nd gen AsAm trauma.
Is it first or second gen who’s parents are immigrants? Anyway, as much as I hate the term “it’s not for you” and find that it flattens artistic discussion, being gay and closeted from your non-American family really is an experience that is widely shared in my cohort of aging millennial college-goers. For them, this was a powerful experience that overrides whatever critique I personally have with the writing.
I love having keys jingled in my face for 2.5 hours of 2010 rAndOm Reddit humor and “just be nice :)” faux philosophy. The Russo brothers really said “what if we made a Marvel movie but everyone talked like they were trying to get a good grade in therapy” and all the dumbest people you know said “this is the greatest movie I have ever seen” (as soon as they got done weeping about “a freaking epic everything bagel with le everything on it”)
I’ve had the exact opposite experience. It seems like everyone loves it and I’m one of five people on planet earth who turned it off after 40mins. I liked none of the characters and it was hard for me to care about any of them, even if the concept behind the film was interesting.
This really exemplifies how the Chapo guys are very eloquent and interesting when talking about art that they love, but can be so shallow and stupid when talking about art that they dislike. Also “this piece of art is good (or at least I don’t have a strong opinion of it) but I’ve grown to reflexively dislike it solely because of all the praise it gets / the type of praise / the type of person praising it” is by far the most irritating kind of opinion that so many people seem to regularly have and regard as completely normal. Why would someone else’s opinion about something bother you to such a degree, grow up
They (rightfully) shit on Liberals for thinking that movies like Joker and Northman are liked by the "wrong people" but will shit on movies endlessly if they're liked by Liberals lol
Humans are inherently tribal creatures that rely on in-group/out-group distinctions to understand and order the world. That said, that impulse is something we should all try to be aware of. Some end up more self-aware than others at the end of the day.
>war and the people who kill in them are dope as fuck will is firing on all cylinders folks
I am a huge fan of the movie mindset. In the past year, I watched like 200 movies. I saw all of the best picture nominees. All I can say is of course the Chapos did not watch Women Talking.
Probably cause it's about women talking, amirite?
Its just one guy
Hesse is great.
Her guest appearances on Episode 1 are fantastic, if you liked this I'd fully recommend the one where they review non-existing movies (#247)
The E1 HR episode with her was the hardest I’ve laughed in a while. They work so well together
Oh cool, I will check that out. I like E1 a lot. Which other episodes is she on? I’ll also recommend like the Undercover Billionaire episodes of Seeking Derangements.
There's another one from a few weeks ago where she's E1's HR person and mediates their petty grievances that's also top tier. Any E1 ep where they just play stupider versions of themselves is always great. I think she was also on the James Bond parody one.
oh my god the very recent one where she's their HR rep they didn't even know they hired. she completely takes over the episode within 10 minutes. one of the funniest E1 guest characters ever.
I love Hesse sooooo much. Rlly psyched for this series
''I texted will 20 minutes into the film'' ''I narrated watching this movie on twitter'' I'm sorry, no, fuck off, both of these such rescind your movie mindset membership. Don't do that shit.
I would hate to see a film in a movie theater with these people. “Shrieking with laughter at Tàr on edibles” is such a “look at me performing as a very special movie enjoyer at my first year of college” type of look.
It reeks of the guy who won't stop laughing loudly during a horror movie to show everyone how cool he is.
Completely obnoxious
Will's takes on movies really annoy me. He thinks of himself self as such a buff, but I'm 20 minutes in and despite Will describing Hesse as "the only person who knows more about movies than I do," he's stated 3 times he hasn't seen a movie they're talking about. I will be forever grateful to Chapo for Avatar pilling me, but his opinions are very boorish and his interest in movies are so chauvinistic and narrow minded. I rarely see him talk about movies that aren't in English and maybe only one movie directed by a woman. I think it's totally fine to only be into American B movies and rarities, but to describe himself as this "movie mindset" guru despite his limited interest just makes my eyes roll. Edit: listened to the rest, opinion hasn't changed. Very annoyed about them talking about Living, the movie bill nighy is nominated for. If you're interested, it's written by kazuo ishiguro but is based on Akira Kurosawa's movie ikiru
This is spot on. I love Will, but his takes are pedestrian in the true heads world. I should know because I have basically the same tastes as him, but I have tons of friends who are true cinephiles in every sense. Will (like me) is a Guy Who Likes Movies. And thats fine; just don't pretend to be an authority on the matter or even have unique tastes. He may have Podcast Brain like Scott Aukerman; every thought must be explored via bespoke pod.
Well said about Scott Aukerman lol, he's so far up his own ass
Couldn't agree more. He's the caricature of 30-something film bro who only like Scorcese and Tarantino movies. Meanwhile, most other vocal Marty fans are like tracking down every Hong Sang-Soo movie.
As someone who used to live in NYC Will always reminds me of some of the most insufferable people I met while living there. Podcasts are all parasocial or whatever but I can't imagine enjoying interacting with Will in real life despite thinking he's pretty funny as a podcaster.
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Yeah, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt when they play a version of themselves for a living, but Will seems terminally tristate. Not saying he sucks or something, just seems like he's a particular type of person that seems very geographically specific
It’s called being a New York trust fund baby
Honestly same. Because of how sarcastic and contrarian the Chapos are, I sometimes dont know when they’re truly lauding something or properly trashing some worthless, soulless cash grab. I got avatar pilled too, and glad for it because it made watching the new Avatar vastly more enjoyable. But I felt there were many lukewarm takes on this episode, but I’m still going to listen to every episode because slop is slop. They still have a decent batting average, but when they miss, boy do they miss hard lol. Also Felix has raved several times about A Field in England, and I dont think I’ve ever seen a more forgettable movie in my life. Totally unremarkable or enjoyable.
His take on Tar was incredibly pedestrian and deflates all the interesting points the movie is trying to convey.
Yeah, I like Will’s enthusiasm about movies in general, but I think “pedestrian” is the perfect word to describe the attitude. I thought it was satire, but he really does seem intent on “solving the mystery” of each movie, like the most deranged Lynch fans would watch Twin peaks if not the director’s entire oeuvre. Also it’s funny he gets mad when the satire really hits its intended target audience, “leftist” media personalities in NYC for example. Also, for a guy who worked in fiction publishing, he seems oddly unfamiliar with ”literary tropes” in film, or how they are not always “about” any one thing.
He’s a perfect example of how as long as you appear you know what you’re talking about people lap your balls, bonus points if you’re funny.
His predictions were also laughably bad. He clearly hasn’t been paying attention to awards season/the Oscars at all.
The idea that women talking is gonna win is laughable. Just purely vibes based guessing from will and hesse when, as you're pointing out, you can pretty easily tell what's gonna win most of the time by the awards shows leading up to the Oscar's
Right? *Women Talking*, which was absolutely the last movie in for Best Picture, is going to struggle to win Best Adapted Screenplay, which was considered by some to be a ~~kick~~ **lock** months ago. I thought it was a great movie, but the Academy clearly doesn’t love it.
He blocked me on Twitter when I called him out on this
What got me was his analysis of Tar. What would even be the point of reading it that way if you weren’t later gonna vandalized the YMMV page on tvtropes.
Yeah, like that interpretation of tar doesn't go any farther than the plot. How does her being dead the whole time or whatever change his interpretation of the themes? I like the other things he has to say about the movie tho, like its depiction of cancel culture. But that cracked.com esque interpretation was very silly
It's very American I think. He sees the themes and he understands them, but in the end they must fit into a consistent plot, because plot is king and a movie that can't be contained by a plot cannot be a good movie. They even brought up Mulholland Drive which is another movie where people do the same thing.
Yeah if you want to point out a character who's actually another embodiment of Krista, I think it would be Olga? The woman who fills Krista's shoes while drawing Lydia to her downfall? Rather than Tar herself.
Isn't his confidence a bit?
I used to think so too. I don't know, I think it's sort of both bit and 'fake it till you make it'.
> it's written by kazuo ishiguro but is based on Akira Kurosawa's movie ikiru which is also sired by Tolstoy's '*The Death of Ivan Illych*'
this was a great episode and made my commute fly by. will is really in his element here
The man loves movies.
EEAAO is gonna win because it pulled off the relativity rare feat of coming out and getting Oscar buzz waaaay before the awards itself, and then when it came out on streaming people re-watched it and it mostly still held up. It winning best picture would also help the academy go “see, we can give awards to movies with diverse casts, take that #oscarssowhite”, with the benefit that the movie is, you know, Actually Good. You can say it’s just elevated marvel material, but no line in a marvel movie has had the emotional weight of “in another universe, I would have really liked doing laundry and taxes with you”. We’re getting into backlash to the backlash to the backlash territory here, but some of the pushback against the movie seems to be based just on the movie daring to be kinda openly corny, if given a choice between the marvelization and emotional flatness of movies as a whole these days, I’ll save from too much scorn a movie that wears its heart on its sleeve
Wandavision had that line “what is grief but love preserving” or whatever that everyone on Twitter was hyping up forever. I agree with you that it will win Best Picture though because I don’t see what’s stopping it.
What is this 2014 no one cares about Oscars so white anymore Lmao
People will defend the guys saying James Cameron's simple and cookie cutter stories are okay because it's sincere but shit on this movie as corny lol
Idk, I loved EEAAO but as psycho as it sounds I think they may give it to Maverick all because Steven Spielberg and several others essentially said "it saved the movie industry" (paraphrased)
I wouldn’t be mad at maverick winning, it absolutely does capital c-Cinema things
people in this thread calling EEAAO "elevated marvel" and complaining about its "corniness" tells me that people who post in this sub are joyless cretins and need to drop that bullshit if they want to meaningfully connect with people. like, god, it's a popular movie with an original script that's kinda fun and moves the audience. what do people complaining about it like to watch?
what kind of world is this where people don't like all the same things as me?
an unfair one!!!
I love how this is the only movie where if you don’t like it you’re joyless and can’t connect with people lol. It’s a fucking movie with a nerdy sense of humor and that’s not for everyone.
It’s not joyless to be turned off by the Russo brothers jingling keys and references to 15 year old Pixar movies in your face for 2.5 hours
i dunno, dude. even if it's not for you, i think it's dismissive to say that the film is like jingling keys in front of a dog. why do you say that?
well because it feels like the actual "main plot" about the immigrant family struggling is interesting but the movie feels the need to "reward" the audience with action set pieces that feel very disconnected from everything else and nearly feel like "reddit writes the movie" scenes
what on earth are you talking about? you can't connect the action sequences as entertaining metaphors for what's going on inside the family? in a science-fantasy movie? reddit writes the movie? we're on reddit dot com right now!!
I don't see the old farts from the academy giving the big prize to reddit: the movie, but stranger things have happened. I'm rooting for the Na'vi.
The funniest thing about Women Talking is that it honestly does not pass the Bechdel test
Always surprised when folks from the chapo-adjacent corner of Twitter/podcasting slight Shape of Water, or act as if it’s a particularly bad movie.
"She fucks a fish man 😏" *Thunderous applause, hooting, oinking, tears of laughter*
It’s seen as a “libtard” movie because of its over the top message of inclusiveness and empathy. I don’t care, I still get chills when I think of Michael Shannon’s last line in it.
I think it's just a very cute little film. A real fairy tale, made by a guy who not only truly love fairy tales, but is also a very talented film maker.
name a better movie that came out that year forreal
good time, killing of a sacred deer, phantom thread
Phantom Thread is goaded w/ the sauce. One of the best movies in the decade, imo
Wolf Warrior 2
Get out c’mon now
Oppenheimer was one of the internals
Bashees was my favorite oscars nominated movie but Crimes of the Future was the true Best of 2022
Has David Cronenberg ever explained why he has made two separate, seemingly unrelated movies in his career titled "crimes of the future"...?
Title goes hard, the first one barely anyone saw and was right at the start of his career
I thought Crimes of the Future was kind of boring. I'm big fan of Cronenberg's older movies but feel like eXistenZ was probably the last one I actually enjoyed watching.
I read Crimes as being part of a trilogy alongside Videodrome and eXistenZ. The first two set the grounds of the conflict between human and neo-human, and Crimes is fully embedded in the postbellum neo-human victory. The conflict is no longer whether humans will adapt/transform/mutate, but to what extent we will allow ourselves indulgence and pleasure from the ongoing transformation. It’s also full of those weird stunted performances that are in eXistenZ but made somehow even more alien.
Crimes of the Future has the unfortunate curse of “movie obviously made during covid restrictions.” Too many scenes in completely empty Greek villages!
It was a very... interesting movie. Kristen Stewart is incredible in it; if nothing else she deserves best actress. But it seems like the movie is missing a third act. It just kind of ends abruptly with only the main character getting a personal resolution, but none of the overall plots developing much.
Barbarian was comfortably better than Nope. There, it had to be said, so I said it.
Absolute 100% truth here.
Barbarian has been on my list. Glad to hear it’s good
I loved Triangle of Sadness as well as Ruben Östlund's other work (The Square is a much watch for anyone with any experience in the world of modern art)... It definitely felt uneven in parts but I think dismissing the island stuff as anti-leftist is a pretty uncharitable & lazy read. Also very weird that Will's ultimate beef with the film is how it makes people feel bad for going on luxury vacations.
Yeah I'm sorry but Ostlund's satire wasn't particularly deep but I think it got Will and the Chapos to a T, and now he has to pretend the movie isn't funny. I mean he even breaks with that stance pretty quickly when Hesse mentions what she thinks were funny parts. I wasn't rolling on the floor or anything and the movie does get worse as it gets on, but the digs that he's getting in are often pretty good and accurate. I mean, the "debate" between Harrelson and the Russian dude just consisting of looking up quotes on like Goodreads is really fucking spot on.
The most important scene in the movie is when the oligarch quotes Marx to try to win the new leader over. It's very deliberately targeting aesthetic leftism. All of his work concerns deconstructing the modern obsession with perception, the way people believe they are in their heads versus the way they act in reality. The stuff that goes on in the final act is easy to reduce to "it's bad because it's saying 'all workers would be bad anyways'" but I appreciate how provocative & challenging it is to overly simplistic theory (I also find it to be more of a critique of anarchism than communism). [Östlund grew up in a Marxist household](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/ruben-ostlund-i-worry-that-left-wing-people-misunderstand-marx-1.3417217) so he certainly isn't phoning it in.
Well yeah. That's why Will didn't like it lol. Its making fun of.him
Thanks for linking the interview. The criticism östlund got for The Square (that it was ”right wing” or ”conservative”) is exactly the same facile critique Will has. Like the director says, it’s very upperclass, moralistic view that expects poor people to be “good”. A sentimental world view, where suffering makes the other people somehow inherently “noble”, and welfare policies are just tax funded charities to make “us” feel good. Poor people don’t “deserve” stuff and power because they are somehow better and would be kinder to others, or because they wouldn’t be corrupted, moral qualities have nothing to do with the need to completely reorganize wealth and power.
Yeah, they did Triangle of Sadness dirty. It was fucking great.
I also loved The Square and Triangle, because they are uncomfortable mirrors to “my kind of people”. I found it funny that Will praises Parasite (although I seem to remember some Chapos hating it when it was talk of the twitterati) while hating Triangle of Sadness. I guess satire can alway be an “easy way out” for its intended audience, but I think this type of reaction from an online “Marxist” is part of the point it tries to make.
I remember how liking Parasite was way more acceptable until it got nominated for awards as well. Then all the complaints became similar, everyone started hyper fixating on how it made the poor characters look like they were just as evil. But I honestly can't think of a more effective way to critique class from within the capitalist system itself than by effectively demonstrating how it ends up destroying everyone it touches. The point of these things should be to show the middle class the path we're on if nothing changes, not jerk off online leftists.
The newest film podcast from noted film expert Will Menaker, who thinks Ke Huy Quan’s name is Daniel Huy Quan.
He confused it with the director Daniel Kwan lol And he was bitching about how the film was winning awards as "an apology to asians from the film industry' lol
i don't know if he was bitching about it- even the most generous academy award fan understands this is part of the awards campaign but yeah absolute flub from the man
I haven't listened yet so idk if this gets mentioned at all, but imo the best movie from 2022 wasn't nominated for almost anything I'm talking about Aftersun, one of the most affecting movies I've seen in a long, long time Anyway I think Tár should win Best Picture
Will shouts out Aftersun and gives it high praise at one point
Aftersun was incredible but it is doomed to be the 3rd best movie of the year behind Tar and Banshees, any other year and I think things would be different
Will was on Stavvy's World. Any chance that will be posted here? It's a premium ep.
we do not talk about the betrayer from thessaloniki here (check kemono dot party and search for his patreon handle)
Isn't his family from Athens?
This side venture is already a success in that it has already generated the most insufferable discourse it possibly could.
you know hesse is a real woman because will keeps talking over her
I love the shape of water it’s great, there are way worse best picture winners. Happy to hear will talk movies though.
I mean, Crash (2004) fucking won. I was 16 and that's when I decided the oscars were bullshit.
that movie rules. i need to see it again because watched it on a flight to iran with my mom. she liked it so much that she decided to watch pacific rim next and quickly realized her mistake.
Pacific Rim is A+ for what it's attempting to do. Big awesome SF mechs battling alien monsters. One of my favorites.
Pacific rim kicks ass as well, I liked nightmare alley as well. Guillermo deal torros made a bunch of bangers I don’t get why people are kinda down on him.
Pacific Rim is the better movie
american evangelion is just ok.
Everything he's done since Pan's Labyrinth is just okay imho. I so want just one more masterpiece from him. Without that ever diminishing hope, I would've stopped watching his movies a while ago
I want to say his version of Pinocchio is his second best movie after Pan's Labyrinth. It also manages to fuse the fairy tale/real life horrors in a satisfying way, and the ending is a welcome twist on the whole Pinocchio story. Also, the animation's gorgerous.
I liked Shape of Water about as much as I liked Pan's Labyrinth, but those are the only three movies of his I've seen. I'm not a movie guy, just a guy who watched Shape of Water and Pacific Rim on an airplane while flying to Iran.
I mean my Shape of Water take is totally subjective. I just have so little interest in nostalgia for an era of Hollywood I never experienced, and I didn't feel the chemistry in the romance (tbf maybe I just couldn't get past the fishman/human thing). It was very pretty, nicely stylized in his signature over the top way, score was top notch. Maybe some nostalgia is coloring my Pan's Labyrinth love, but it remains one of the most singular movies I've ever seen. Nothing else like it. It succeeds on every disparate genre it weaves together: fairy tale, horror movie, historical war drama. I was mesmerized by it's beauty and shocked by its violence. Delighted by how seriously it treated the fantasy elements so they became a nightmarish and inextricable part of the reality. Not that you probably give a shit, I just like talking about that movie :p
I could not possibly be less interested in a Chapo-adjacent series. Will isn’t nearly as knowledgeable about movies as he thinks he is.
Let people enjoy themselves. Nobody is making you listen. Unrelated: I’ve got a new podcast I’m trying out, please like and subscribe! 😍😍😍
is Matt not going to be a cohost of this? big L
Will = Paul McCartney. Has the best voice, is the leader of the band, but his solo projects don't have much edge and are a little too soft. Matt = John Lennon. Has the most out there creative energy, and is always pushing the envelope, but really needs a will/McCartney to help balance him out. Felix = Ringo Starr. Yellow submarine is a banger and I don't care what anyone says. Brings a fun energy, but certainly not the deepest thinker of the band. Amber = George Harrison. Most underrated member of the band, and probably the most level headed. First to go on with a solo career and of the 4 probably put out the best post-beatles music. Chris Wade = Billy Preston. The 5th Beatle, nuff said Cumtown = Eric Clapton. Played some of the best riffs, but also kinda crazy
Virgil Texas-Pete Best
I do not enjoy the implication that Matt will soon be shot, much like Lennon, he deserves it the least
Fuck me it's almost 2 hours long. Amazing what focused Will can pull off
Wills on that same shit they have Biden during the debates
As an Irish person I hated Banshees tbh. I think I hated it for the same reason Will hates 3 Billboards but I thought it was fine. For an American the political commentary of 3 Billboards is blatant and unavoidable, and for an Irish person the Civil War metaphor that is Banshees is so blatant that it drowns out everything else. All I can see is Martin McDonagh smuggly jerking himself off about how clever he is that “Inisherin” comes from the Irish *Inis Éireann* which means “The Island of Ireland”. Colm is the Free Staters, Pádraic is the Republicans, and the brilliant message McDonagh has to share on the Civil War is “both sides were equally bad and ultimatetly fighting over nothing”. Wow. How insightful! I could go on forver about how shit the Civil War commentary is but I’ll save ye from that screed. Also incredibly funny how many Americans have been proudly showing their ass talking about how they couldn’t tell it was a period piece. I think that says a lot more about how ignorant you are, Will, than how “backwards and parochial” Ireland is!
Top Gun will win because when you got movies like Tom Cruise in them, you can't lose!
I feel like Will's Triangle of Sadness point about the different classes eating at each other is at odds with his take on Parasite and people not getting it?
Couple things- Hesse really mellows Will's default contrarian takes with "eh, I thought it was alright" which is incredibly healthy. Takes away the potency of the #filmtwitter snobbery Will occasionally (often) falls into. Hesse has some of the worst oscar predictions I've probably ever heard lol. Loved Will's opening monologue- genuinely great jokes. Will's take on Tar being the view of Lydia from the girl who was abused by her doesn't really work honestly. I can sense him working backwards from the photo obscuring her face. The explanation also creates a meta element to excuse the SJW OWNED scene being so overly curated. He is right if feels like a guy coming up with an argument in the shower, but instead of the student writing it, it's Todd Field's view of cancel culture. The scene is literally framed as 'she's right but why is she a dick about it' A student cancelling Bach over adultery? Fucking lol. I was in Uni doing a Music degree with a bunch of SJW like myself when #metoo hit the discourse and no normal person gives a shit about adulteries. Otherwise Will nails it, and how funny the movie is. Every element of Elvis they mention is so fucking funny. What a goofy af movie Glad to hear someone so eloquently diss Triangle of Sadness 'Both Sides' ass movie Top Gun still sucks, i'm sad to hear the Chapo ep on it wasn't ironic
Enjoying this episode a whole lot and got some movie recommendations i haven’t seen yet
I was kind of afraid that Will would fall into the Film Twitter trap of not being able to like anything that’s new and currently in the discourse. Pleasantly surprised with the generally positive reviews. It’s just more fun to hear people talk about movies they like. Beyond being positive, I thought the discussions were insightful and made me think about some of the films I watched in different ways. The Fabelmans in particular. Hesse is very well-versed in all this stuff. A much better person to sound off with than Matt and Felix.
Pretty bad at watching the films they were meant to watch lmao. I was waiting for five bags of popcorn after some of these since they were just that informed.
I used to think Will had bad film takes until I started listening to Those Good Old Fashioned Values, there are some truly awful takes there
Chapo knows as much about movies as I know about obscure Civil War generals
Tar spoilers here The brothel scene isn't just that Girl 5 is Mahler's 5th symphony that she never got to finish. The girls are also presented in a semicircle like the orchestra with Girl 5 in the seat where Olga sits. It's also the artifice and prestige being stripped away and making Tar confront her actions and the harm she's done because she can't hide behind the her position or frame it as a favor to the girls she exploits. I read her rushing outside to throw up as the last bit of her conscience, which they foreshadowed in the very beginning, finally trying to reckon with the harm she's done and she can't handle it. Also the moment when Lydia suggests open auditions for the cello soloist position and Sharon and the current lead cellist share a quick stunned glance as they realize Lydia is betraying both of them for the new girl is amazing. Nina Hoss isn't even nominated but deserves Best Supporting Actress for that single look. Also 100% agreed that it's a much funnier movie than it gets credit for, the scene where she takes time out of her day to threaten to beat up a child is genuinely funny
THE SLOP MUST FLOW. THE MINDSET WILL GROW
I really love what the boys are doing with the mini series. Whether it be Matt and Chris explaining important historical moments and how it leads to where we are now, and me not understanding ANYTHING that’s going on but being like “Damn they snapped.” Or it’s Will and Hesse just talkin movies, which I do understand. Also, think Banshees sweep would be cool, won’t get it but I’d like that. Also liked Tar a lot. Really fucking hated Triangle of Sadness.
Real stunning insights on movies I don't care about by people who haven't watched them.
Listening to them jackoff about Fabelman reminded why I stopped taking serious movies that were passed off as serious.
Jesse what the fuck are you talking about
sorry, the Freudlemans rules. You have your filmmaker insert showing himself be horny for his mum and filming the actor playing yourself film himself in a mirror reacting to his families divorce. Spielberg literally 'Synecdoche, New York's himself and packages it into a fun palatable prestige picture
how dare they make a podcast about movies when they aren't film school grads, haven't watched every movie released this year, don't share every opinion I have, and have more followers than me for some reason even though I am a genieos
Lol sorry but that is too dishonest of a framing. I love Chapo and whenever people in the episode threads think the ep sucked I'll think it was perfectly enjoyable slop but if you're gonna do a podcast on Oscars predictions you could have at least watched all the best picture nominees.
They podcast for a living and make high six figure salary from it Cry me a fucking river.
Excellent take/analysis on Tar