Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to five Minute Film Finder, brought to you by Pioneer Library System.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of five Minute Film Finder. I'm Ben, and today I'm joined by Darren.
We are here to talk about a couple of sci fi anthology films in a series by the Bad Robot Studio.
Are you a big fan of sci fi anthology series?
[00:00:36] Speaker B: We'll see. I'm a big fan of sci fi, of course.
I was talking to one of the other podcast hosts, Samuel, the other day about how much I love sci fi. So I do. I do enjoy sci fi. I've enjoyed rewatching both of these movies. I enjoyed them when they came out.
The anthology bit of it. Yeah.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Not. Not your.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: I could take or leave it in this series. Not.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Not a Twilight Zone or.
Or a Black Mirror person.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Not really my favorite, you know, my most favorite form.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Prefer an ongoing
[00:01:15] Speaker B: direct sequels and stuff. Yes, exactly. Yeah.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: These ones, I think are kind of like the, like, prime examples of what you can do with that. The. The strings between them are kind of tenuous, but like, there. There is a shared vibe somehow.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: But with that, do you just want to go ahead and jump into our first film? We're gonna go chronologically with.
[00:01:41] Speaker B: First off, we're gonna go with Cloverfield, which came out. And what year was that?
Oh, man, I'm bad. 2008. 2008's Cloverfield.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: All right, so found footage.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: This is one of the biggest found footage films.
Higher production cost than like the Blair Witch, of course, and which.
[00:02:06] Speaker A: That was before money, right?
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Blair Witch was. Yes, was before this. This. That was like the first. That was like 1999 Blair, which came out and you have. Other than that, you have the paranormal activity that has come out since then.
The other big found footage one after those, like, this is like the next one, box office wise. Did pretty well.
Interesting movie. It's, you know, set in New York. You have, you know, big monster. Yes, that's the. The gist of it. Set in New York and it's a big monster found footage film.
Basically there's a guy with a. With a camcorder that was recording a party and going away party for going away for his friend and. And stuff happens.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: And yeah, it's. I really liked it at the time. Had a interesting, super interesting marketing campaign. There's a giant Wikipedia article for the. The marketing thing for this movie because it was very extensive.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: I do remember that time, like, period was a thing. Yeah. Everybody was just like, what it. What's it gonna be, though?
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Like, it was a thing.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: I don't remember there being a discourse
[00:03:08] Speaker B: like that that often about a movie where they, they're. They're excited what going to be about. Like this happens sometimes with, with shows and what. But not. But like this was a big thing where a lot of people were talking about it. So it was an interesting thing at the time.
But yeah, great movie. I think I like a monster movie and I think this is probably my favorite found footage.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: Movie for myself. Absolutely.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: I could see that. This is actually my first time seeing Cloverfield.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: So what did you think?
[00:03:37] Speaker A: I really enjoyed it and like it felt so like 2000s. Like it very much like seated you right in there with the beginning bit of the movie because it was set at a party. So lots of needle drops of like great indie tunes from that time.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: Music with. And it's the only music in the entire movie because that's. Because they're at the party.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Yeah. It's all diegetic music.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's, that's great.
Those quick cuts. Because the, the. The gist of the party is, is that the character who carries the camera most of the film. Hud is filming goodbyes for his friends. So he goes around the party and he's filming these things. So there's, there's just like cuts where he's going to the next person and he's filming something. So the songs change and stuff as the party goes along. So there's like some time passes.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Quickly during that, you know, that section there. And then you get to the. The rest of the movie after that party set up. Which kind of introduces the characters that you're going to follow out through the rest of the film.
The six friends that are trying to escape New York City.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: And yeah, you know, there's some friend drama in there.
You know, the one guy trying to.
[00:04:49] Speaker A: It did feel very of the time because of that as well. It felt very much like a lot of the like teen dramas of the time overlaid across this like horror movie essentially.
[00:05:01] Speaker B: I feel like the stakes of that were interesting because like I don't think they do that these days. Like the way. Not a lot the way that he. The choices that these characters made to go do this thing. And it was interesting. Yeah. Good movie.
You have the great early effort from Matt Reeves, director of the Batman. Yeah.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: I was going to mention the two
[00:05:28] Speaker B: directors of this like some, some Planet of the Apes films.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:32] Speaker B: And then Drew Goddard, who is big time recently writer of the project Hail Mary, oh, Martian. I didn't Realize that yes, yes, he wrote this. So like, there's some, some earlier things from these bigger names that have been doing some great things recently.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: So and so that's I think part of the like bad robot of it all. It really seemed like a like development production thing where they're like finding cool directors, finding cool writers and putting people teams together to make really great things. And it's kind of bore out in these last few years. Like all both of these movies had great teams who then went on to do cool stuff.
But yeah, I think it was the thing that I was most interested in. And this is with that whole like mystery around the movie when they're releasing it, they don't like hold out very long before they're like, yeah, it's an alien or yeah, yeah, it's a big monster.
[00:06:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, the, the, the stuff at the party, like I said there, you know, some time passes, but it's quick cuts. Like it's not very long into the movie. You get a pretty, you know, 20 minute, whatever introduction to the characters and then there's a earthquake explosion thing or whatever and everybody has to go investigate what's going on. And, and yes, like I said, you know, it's not a super long movie in general.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I think hour and a half.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: Yeah, the setup isn't, isn't super, super
[00:06:51] Speaker A: long, but I think it's like 10
[00:06:52] Speaker B: minutes after and there's Wilhelm interrupting us.
But yeah, like I said, solid movie. Gets going pretty quick. You know, mostly non stop action with a few breathers in the middle there to kind of like, you know, slow it down. I really like the whole pacing and yeah, you know, it's not a movie that like holds your hand. I really kind of like it.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And like, I think my main thoughts on it are like, they use the found footage of it all very effectively to. It's very much not an action movie. It very much feels, oh, this is terrifying for the people involved in it and plays up the like, oh my gosh, the one scene where they're running and then the alien shows up. The gigantic alien or monster or whatever it is shows up and then the army starts to sweep down and they're just stuck on the sides of the street like duck behind cars.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: You're looking at their perspective and there's just explosions and missiles and it feels
[00:07:53] Speaker A: visceral and scary like it should in that situation.
Unlike in another movie that might like play up the like, oh, this is cool and crazy. Or like the like showing clearly what's Going on with the battle.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: They're just like a clear, slow mo shot or something like that. Whereas. No, this was very much about their terror.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's so very effective in that way.
Do you have any other final thoughts? I think that's it for me.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: No, just, you know, check it out if you like, if you can handle the shaky cam. You know, it is a little bit of a shaky. You know, some people might not like that, but if you can handle the shakiness, watch it. It's a good monster movie.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: Also, not too bad in terms of found footage in that most of the movie you see most of what's going on. Like, it's not, like, incredibly dark, Correct.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Like, there's only, like, one sequence where that's pretty well produced and it's like,
[00:08:46] Speaker B: part of the story. Yeah, they did a good job of that.
[00:08:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
Anyway, we'll take a quick break and we'll be right back with our next movie.
All right, and we are back. So I'm going to just go ahead and have Wilhelm start the timer and we are going to talk about the next in this series, which is 2016's Tin Cloverfield Lane.
This is the next in the anthology. It is not the same director. It is directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who you may recognize in his debut. In his debut. Yeah, this was his first film and he has since gone on to kind of revamp the Predator series.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: I loved Prey.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: Prey is so good.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: Love Prey so much. I enjoyed the Killer of Killers show and I enjoyed Badlands. I love Prey. So I was. I loved this movie when it came out. I was excited for. For this movie and what he was going to do in the future, and it's been pretty much great since.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: Yeah, we forgot this on the last one. But I'll go ahead and do a quick IMDb synopsis of our movie. A young woman is held in an underground bunker by a man who insists that a hostile event has left the surface of the earth uninhabitable. That is a good summation of, like, the beginning of this film.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Yeah, like the first 10 minutes or whatever. That's your. You know, that's your movie.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. And it's such a good, claustrophobic movie and an interesting choice in contrast to the first one because this is not found footage. They didn't make that a theme.
But the scope of the first movie was so large. You're in New York, the monster's huge.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: Traveling across the city.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: Traveling across the city.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: A bunch of different locations.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And this is not bad. Yeah. It's what they call a movie in a bottle.
It is largely in just one location with, like, a couple different sets within that location.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: And there's three whole people in this movie.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:10:59] Speaker B: You have Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John goodman, John Gallagher Jr. The three people in the bunker with
[00:11:05] Speaker A: a brief outsider to the bunker who then dies.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: But basically three people for 99% of the screen time.
[00:11:15] Speaker A: Yes.
I randomly caught this movie for the first time. Like, I think around when it came out on home video, I went over to a friend's house and they were just watching it, and I was just like, this is captivating. John Goodman, what a good, scary person. And was this, like, the first time he'd played, like, a big scary in a big movie? I mean, I'd say, like, wasn't, like, lightly comedic.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: There was a. Like, most of the other ones. I feel like he was either a little over the top.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Because he's been in the. Cohen's being evil. Right.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: Stuff like. Stuff like that.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: It was with a different tone.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: I feel like this was the unsettling.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. He was creepy in a way that was just, you know.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: Understated.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: I think he did a really good job here. Yeah.
[00:12:04] Speaker A: And I think this was also very much capitalizing on the moment of, like, prepper culture commenting on that.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Because, like, you. You assume from the beginning, like, okay, yeah, there's just.
Just a weirdo with a bunker.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. This is a paranoid man who kidnapped this woman. And then things happen.
I don't want to spoil this movie because we are suggesting it, because it goes so many directions that you don't expect. And, like, it also doesn't resolve all the threads that it picks up, but that are so unsettling that you're like, well, what happened?
[00:12:42] Speaker B: I thought about this after we talked about doing these two movies, and then when I watched it, I was like, this is a harder movie to talk about.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Without spoiling.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: Without spoiling because.
Because it is such a movie in a box. There is not very many characters, like, you can't really, like, expand upon what's going on too much without, like, you know, just breaking down the whole movie. And.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: Yeah, we can talk about the actors more. I really enjoyed Mary Elizabeth Winstead in this movie.
You may also know her from Scott Pilgrim as playing Ramona.
She's tremendous. Also, the other guy whose name I don't remember. John Gallagher Jr. John Gallagher, Jr. Who I love from the newsroom.
He's. He's fantastic. As well.
This is.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I really feel like this movie would have broken down a lot faster if those three weren't so well cast.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. The way that they each play off each other in the story is just right to where you can feel like the struggles constantly poking at each other and pulling at what is possible in unraveling stories and all that kind of stuff.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: But.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: Oh, and I think that is our time.
I would.
I would love for there to be more movies like this where you're just like.
It's because we can say the twist without telling the story.
Where it's just like, what if a horrible thing happens, but you're also in a horrible situation inside of that that has nothing to do with the other
[00:14:28] Speaker B: thing and you're assuming just one thing. Yeah. So, yeah, it's an interesting thing. I really liked this movie.
I thought that. I was surprised when it. When I said. When I first saw it, I was really surprised by what they did.
[00:14:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: Pleasantly so.
I think this is a. This was a really fun pair to do for the podcast and I was. I'm really excited we got to talk about these.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: Yeah, me too. Have you seen the Cloverfield Paradox?
[00:14:56] Speaker B: I have.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: What are your thoughts on that?
It's by all reports, the least strong.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: It is not as good, I will say.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it is a space movie.
[00:15:10] Speaker B: Yes.
It is a space based sci fi movie.
If you're interested in pulling at more of the threads in the stories, the
[00:15:21] Speaker A: first two movies, does it seek to connect?
[00:15:27] Speaker B: I'd say less seeks as, you know, kind of dangles more threads kind of thing. You know, that's. It's more. More of that kind of a thing, I would say.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: Well, cool.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: I'm glad that you suggested these because I've always meant to watch Cloverfield after having gone back after having watched 10 Cloverfield Land. So now I might just watch the Paradox just to close the loop. Yeah, but you said they were thinking about doing a Cloverfield.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: Yeah, there's been direct sequel talk since forever, but as recent as last year, I think they were talking about it still. But who knows what's gonna happen with the whole Bad Robot thing.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: Yeah, unfortunately, Bad Robot did seem to lay off a bunch of people. So we're hoping that the studio survives because they've made a lot of really cool things over time and developed, but
[00:16:17] Speaker B: they were a much smaller studio when they made Cloverfield, so, you know. Hey, hey.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: Yeah, it might. Might kick him back to doing like cool, ambitious small scale things, but yeah, great. Well, thanks for joining me today, Darren. Of course.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: And thank you all for listening. We'll see you next time.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: All right. Bye.
[00:16:33] Speaker A: Bye.
Five Minute Film Finder is a digital program brought to you by Pioneer Library System in Oklahoma. All opinions expressed in this episode are those of the host and not those of the organization.
Five Minute Film Finder is produced, recorded and mixed by Ben Si. Theme music by Ben Si.
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