Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: I was like, also, Michael Stelberg is in it, but I don't think anyone else cares about that.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Who's Michael Stulberg?
[00:00:10] Speaker A: So he's the he's kind of like the mean guy who's like, no, you can't talk to the Chinese.
And he's in the Coen brothers film. A serious man. And most importantly, to me, he's the dad and call me by your name, who's like, I understand you Timothy Chalamet. And that part makes me cry like crazy.
So good.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Welcome to Five Minute Film Finder brought to you by Pioneer Library System.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of five minute film finder brought to you by Pioneer library System. I'm Ben, and today with me is Tracy. Welcome back, Tracy. The action buds. Right again.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Yes, but today we're not the action buds.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Today we are the Sci-Fi buds.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: The alien buds.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Alien buds. Yeah. So today we're going to be talking about some movies about aliens arriving on Earth in a couple drastically different forms.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: Yes. We're talking about alien miscommunication films.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Truly.
Are you passionate about alien movies?
[00:01:23] Speaker A: I don't think so. I've definitely seen plenty of them because we live on planet Earth.
I like a big action movie. A lot of those are alien movies. So yes, but no.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel like I've never been super passionate about the semi accurate arrival of aliens genre. If there's aliens, I want it to be somewhere else and crazy.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Yes. I want it to be wild.
I want the aliens to be telling me weird information about space.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: Yes. All those fun things.
So without further ado, we'll jump in with our first movie, which is Arrival. Wilhelm, start the timer.
All right. So arrival is a 2016 film by Denny Villanuev.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: Villanuev. Villanuev. I don't know.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: There's a lot of ways to pronounce it. He's a French director who has made some very artistic, very beautiful movies. You may know him from Blade Runner 2049.
Let's see. What else do we got on there?
[00:02:38] Speaker A: He's making the new Dune movies.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: He's making the new Dune movies. Yes, of course, with Timothy Chalamet, everybody's favorite young actor.
But yeah, this is a stark movie. That's beautiful.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Yeah. So I didn't expect to go into this alien movie and be like, you know what? I'm going to understand better. Grief.
And it is a lot of, like, what is time and what is sadness and what is emotion and what does it mean to be a yes?
[00:03:11] Speaker B: Like, all those things.
It's about Amy Adams. It's centered around her character. Earth is visited by alien ships.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: They arrive.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: Everybody freaks out, as you would expect.
And then she is a linguist.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Yes. A linguistic professor.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: Yes. And they draft her in to help communicate with these aliens. But that's just like the very basic bones of what it's about.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: That's what we build all of the sadness around.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Yeah, it's an interesting movie because with his artistic style, it's very dark. There's lots of ominous the score is so good rule. Yeah. They won, actually, a sound editing award for the Oscar for it. And it's building up all these weird tensions, but also is leading this hopeful note at the end, which is the weirdest line to walk that they do so well.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: It's crazy because there's so much of the movie where you see Amy Adams being like, I thought this was the beginning of your story. And you see these images of her daughter, and you're like, but really it's not. And the next thing you know, aliens land and Forrest Whitaker is there.
And you're like, I'd follow you anywhere.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Let's go, Forrest Whitaker.
[00:04:36] Speaker B: So we also have Forrest Whitaker playing the general who's kind of in charge of the contact with the alien ship that is over US. Soil. Our other main character is Jeremy Renner in one of my favorite roles of his.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: I think I had forgotten that I liked watching Jeremy Renner on screen until I watched this the other day because I had never seen this before.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: He's so charming, so lovely.
He plays the kind of like I'm the science guy. Yes. Kind of staunchly sciencey guy who's won over by the loveliness of the linguistics.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: Professor because she's Amy Adams. Amy Adams should have been nominated for an Oscar for this, and she was not. And that makes me so sad.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Yeah. She is doing so many little things that make you invested, but also you see a weird grief throughout the movie that you're like, where is this coming from?
And it just leads to the mystery of the film in such a lovely way.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: I know you think the thrilling part of this movie would be the seven foot tall, seven footed, Cthulhu esque aliens which do rule such fun designs. But everything that I was thrilled. I was like, oh, Amy Adams'eyebrow moved in a very telling way. And I am riveted.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: So I think it's easy to say that we'd both suggest this movie. If you like atmospheric movies, if you like beautifully shot movies, it's so clean, it's so crisp. You feel like you know exactly what the air tastes like in the shots.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: Yeah, there's like one scene where she's in the fog and you're like, oh, I can feel that.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: And it doesn't feel good. But it is interesting.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: So this was nominated for a bunch of Oscars. It won the sound editing, but was kind of like the biggest kickoff for Denny Villanuev's career. Led to Blade Runner, led to the Dune movies.
He's got such a style, like the colors, everything.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: He's like, do you want your science fiction to feel part 40s noir part like Giallo film Watch?
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: There's like a color usage that's very reminiscent of like, suspiria or something like that.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Absolutely. And I think that's our time. But we love this movie. We would absolutely suggest it. It's available on canopy. I believe it is a PG 13 it is a PG 13, and we suggest you go out and watch it as soon as you can.
We'll take a quick break and then we'll be back with our next movie.
All right, we are back. And our next movie is going to.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: Be Tracy Mars Attacks. All right, Wilhelm.
[00:07:46] Speaker B: Wilhelm.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: Okay, so Mars Attacks is a 1996 film directed by the one and only Tim Burton.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Tim Burton.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: Tim Burton. And, boy, howdy do he be both Tim and Burton in this movie? It is a visual feast, truly. Yes. And we were saying earlier we could list who's in this movie, but it would take our entire five minutes, truly, to list who is in it. But the plot is, Earth is invaded by Martians with unbeatable weapons and a cruel sense of humor, according to IMDb.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: Thank you, IMDb.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Which I actually think a lot of the times I like to criticize. IMDb. Nailed it. Yeah, that's nailed it on that one.
Do you think there's a plot to this film?
[00:08:37] Speaker B: No. Is it the folly of man?
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Have you ever thought, wow, maybe everyone's bad?
Mars Attacks.
[00:08:47] Speaker B: Oh, boy.
[00:08:48] Speaker A: So basically, at the beginning the beginning of the movie starts out strong.
There's a herd of fleeing cattle on fire on fire from a UFO. And then you're like credits. Great.
So this movie is based off of relatable to everyone a series of trading cards from the 1960s.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Of course, like most good films, the.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: Upcoming polypocket movie, Eat Your Heart Out, mars Attacks was here first, making random IP into films.
And these were like the kind of trading cards that were sold with gum, of course, in the 1960s for five cents. And this company ended up having to pull this series of trading cards because they were so violent.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: Yeah, we looked them up. They're pretty horrifying, considering that it was.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: 1962, I think, when the cards came out hardcore.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: This is actually kind of a good movie to move us into. Spooky season. This will probably be our last episode before October hits full horror.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Yes, but you and I talked about this. I remember seeing this movie at a really young age. My dad watched it on TV all the time, and I double checked with him this afternoon to make sure I hadn't made that up. I was like, did you watch this on TNT? Constantly? And he said yes. And I said perfect. And I think you and I both saw it at kind of a young age where the aliens were horrifying, truly upsetting.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: Like the exposed brain, like the charred skeletons in different colors. I don't know why that was so visceral and scary to me, as such.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: A young child really imprints on you. That's really scary. But when you watch it, it's like this really weird, punk rock nihilistic satire about the government, I guess.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: Governments.
Come on, guys.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: Constantly. Everyone. The aliens come in, they go, we come in peace. And we go. Amazing. And then the aliens kill everyone over and over and over again.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: And that's about as succinct of a plot synopsis as you can get.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: And then you're, like, starring Jack Nicholson in two roles.
In two roles. Annette Benning danny DeVito as rude gambler. If you're wondering, that is how he is promoted, this movie.
Who saves the world? Tom Jones.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Incredible.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: Welsh singer Tom Jones. And Jim Brown, the NFL player and actor is in it, who is probably one of the main heroes of the movie. And all he wants to do is.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: One of the few good people in the movie. Yes. There's, like, three people that you could probably be like, they're good.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: Yes. Jim Brown is one. All he's trying to do is save Pam Greer, which I think we would all do in An Alien invasion. Lucas Haas is in it as a little baby.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: He's trying to save Grandma.
[00:12:05] Speaker A: His grandma. Yeah. And he's another kind of that guy. Kind of guy that I think a lot of people our age will most recognize as being the patient in the Black Parade music video.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: Incredible.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: Yes.
But it's just kind of all of these people continually messing up alien relations.
And the aliens get crueler and meaner and more violent as you go along.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
This is a weird movie in the sense that this was I believe you said it was Tim Burton's first movie with CG effect.
[00:12:43] Speaker A: Yes. He wanted to make the aliens in Claymation, actually, but they said that will put us so far over budget. Absolutely not. Tim Burton, would you like to meet CGI? And he said, sure, that sounds great.
And they did. And I think that it's aged into almost a Claymationy looking thing because the CGI is so weird.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: Truly. Yeah. Like the when they show Mars and the ships rising out, I was just like, oh, this is like a set. Oh, it's not. This is not Claymation.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: No, it's not. I think we're at five minutes. I'm sure Will hum screamed at some point, but yeah, if you want to see some stuff and maybe not necessarily follow a story, may I recommend Mars Attacks?
[00:13:27] Speaker B: It is a wild ride. It's a great movie to put on in the background.
[00:13:31] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Especially when you get to the parts with Lisa Marie, who I think she is the most iconic part of the movie as the kind of female alien spy with the giant wig. And you're just I could watch that for hours.
[00:13:46] Speaker B: That's the iconic picture from the movie. It's on the poster, but yes. Yeah. We are so glad to be back. I'm so glad to have Tracy back on the podcast.
We will be much more regular again. We are excited and keep tuned and, like, subscribe and follow. We will be back. Bye.
