Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Film Finder, brought to you by Pioneer Library System.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Five Minute Film Finder. I'm Ben.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: And I'm Darren.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: Today we are going to be talking about a couple of movies about journalism, if. If we wanted to stretch the term.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Yeah, that's probably the. The. The best thing that you can compare between the two of them.
Different aspects of media. Yeah. The consumption of media and how it's created.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Between these two movies. Yes.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Do you have any favorite movies that are based on, like, news or journalism or anything like that?
[00:00:55] Speaker A: Well, put me on spot. Yeah. So I do really like Nightcrawler. The Nightcrawler's been a movie that I'm a fan of.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: This is my first time, and it was fantastic.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: Great. Yeah. Good. Good one. I also like basically any newsroom scene. Yeah, there's something about a newsroom scene like you're talking about, like, the newsroom. Superman movies.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: Superman movies?
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, stuff like that.
There's that newsroom scene. Always been an interesting scene in movies.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Yes. There's something about the hunt for the truth and talking about integrity and the ethics and everything, which both of these movies kind of explore the far ends of that spectrum.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Yeah, very much so. The opposite ends of that coin.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: Sure.
So I guess without further ado, we can kind of get it because they are such drastically different movies, it's kind of hard to draw from. From one pool about them.
So to start off with.
I'm gonna get Wilhelm started.
Spotlight.
So 2015 Spotlight was directed by Tom McCarthy. A huge cast of heavy hitter actors.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Gigantic list, gigantic ensemble cast. And, like, people coming up top of their game.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: Were nominated. Should have been nominated. All that. Yeah.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: And I wouldn't say that there's one character that is like the lead focus, but probably the most that we see is Michael Keaton because he's connecting to.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Many parts of the team, right? Yeah, exactly. Kind of the central. The hub.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Yeah. So we have Michael Keaton, we have Mark Ruffalo, we have Rachel McAdams, we have Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, who you may know from Mad Men.
That's the Tooch.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: The Tooch got Stanley Tucci.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Yeah, Stanley Tooch.
So this movie. Let's read the IMDb synopsis. I think it does a pretty good job this time. So it's the true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover up within the local Catholic archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
Yeah. So not a light film.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: Not at all. And they show from the very beginning. You're shown what this movie is going to be about. They set up, you know, there's a. A previously, you know, 30 years.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: In the. In the past from when the movie took place. They. You get a little bit of that at the beginning. And that kind of sets up the story that is brought to. Through this. This news team.
[00:03:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: In Boston.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: And essentially this movie kind of just like shows the importance of journalistic integrity, journalistic process, and the depth with which you need to treat these types of situations with seriousness.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. These are. Yeah. Not just. And because, you know, it's not just a crime. It's not just a crime against children.
It's a crime against children that involved the. A religious institution and so.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: And a religious institution that is an institution in the city.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Not just. Yeah. Not just the religious itself, but the fact that it was in Boston.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: And. And all that's involved with that.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: And like, so how. And like how the job of the journalist is to tease out all of those twisted trails of complication, to get at the most important thing and get the truth out there in the most clear and effective way for everyone involved.
This is one of those rare movies. It's very heavy. That doesn't make me, like, get exhausted with the heaviness throughout it.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: It tempers because it's focused on the news.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: Like them teasing out these information. This information, like you said.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think it's all treated very sensitively and there's just something about it's. And I think it, like, it makes me think of the Mr. Rogers quote of like, these are the helpers. Like, the helpers are doing their thing and makes. Kind of makes you feel good in the face of this tragedy of like, okay, the process is happening.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: There's people that are people who care.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: And are doing the thing. And so like, the whole time you're just like, okay. I think they're gonna. I think they're kind of figure it out. And you're just kind of like, weirdly like, rooting for like this team of.
So it's the spotlight team who is a specialist team on the Boston Globe who only takes on deep dive, deep investigative reporting.
And they.
They basically pick their own stories. They.
And take a very long time with a fine tooth comb.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: Yeah. This is. Figuring out this movie takes a place over the course of. Mostly takes place over the course of a year. Yeah. Or so of time of them digging for these facts and stuff. Slightly interrupted because it took place in 2001 by 9 11.
And they had, you know, terrorism to report on at that point. So. Yeah, but like I said, about a year's worth of deep investigative reporting process.
[00:06:35] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: What.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: What did you think of this movie?
[00:06:39] Speaker A: Well, it's great. Yeah. I mean, it's an excellent, excellent movie.
And hanging on these performances that, you know, because they have to be there, those great performances have to be there to be able to drive this story in the way that it was told, you know, through these, the eyes of these journalists.
And like I said, you can't say enough about just these actors. Just killed it in this movie.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: Absolutely.
So. Oh, and there's Wilhelm. Perfect timing.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Great.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: So trying to think of who I would suggest this for.
You know, one we didn't think of when we were talking about journalist movies. Zodiac.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: Oh, another movie that's.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: We just, we covered that on last week's podcast or however many weeks it'll be when this comes out.
And. Yeah, another fantastic movie. Mark Ruffalo and journalism and a heavy, heavy topic. So. So if you, if you can stomach a heavy topic, but enjoy journalistic process. Lots of newsroom, lots of, like, teasing out what's important about a story.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: It's, you know, people that are passionate about the truth, that kind of thing, you know, that want to get to the bottom of things.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it's definitely got all those things in spades.
So that was Spotlight. We're going to take a quick break and then we'll talk about our next movie.
All right, we are back.
So now I'm going to get Wilhelm ready and we are going to talk about.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: We have. Next is Nightcrawler. Both Nightcrawler and Spotlight came out around the same time. I think it was like 2014, 2015.
Again, this is a movie that ostensibly is about the news. Yep.
You have the creation of, I don't know, like, content that is driving nightly news. The, the viewer, the. The drive to get viewership rather than the truth. As, as Ra talked about, Spotlight stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed in a breakout supporting role, and good old Bill Paxton there to drive the story along. He's kind of. Who gives Jake Gyllenhaal the. The idea to do what he's doing. Jake Gyllenhaal. I'm going to read the IMDb synopsis. We have a petty thief desperate for work, muscles into the world of crime journalism and becomes the star of his own story as he blurs the line between observer and participant, which is a great description of this movie, that's exactly what happens. It's shown at the very beginning that he's not a good guy. You know, immediately that he is not a good guy.
[00:09:32] Speaker B: They're not, they're not trying to like, trick you into like.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Well, is he right? He's. He's not an anti hero, he's a jerk. He. He assaults somebody and steals his watch at the, the security guard at the beginning of the movie in the middle.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: Of a crime left a little like, ambiguous is like, did he kill that he may have.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: Like, he didn't care.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: So like the movie didn't care. He just kind of went along, you know, the next phase. And, and he was there to like steal manhole covers. And like, it was a weird crime.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: Like he was pulling the chain link fence off to. To scrap.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. So he was, it's not like he was a jewel thief or anything like that. He was just, just a criminal doing criminal stuff. And he finds this journalism, which is these guys who will go around to following police scanners to find crimes and car crashes and stuff like that.
Stingers. Stringers.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: Stringers.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: Stringers, Yep, is what they call them. And so these guys will show up at a crime scene as. Or a accident when things happen and take pictures before the police even get there kind of thing. Yeah.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: The name of the game is being.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: First on the scene, getting that scoop.
[00:10:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: And what Jake Gyllenhaal's character, who is, who's great in this movie? I think he.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: Yeah, there's some amount of physical transformation.
[00:10:57] Speaker A: Like some makeup, the way he's dressed.
[00:10:59] Speaker B: Very thin, like, which accentuates his already large eyes. And like, he uses them to great effect to like play off this very icky, greasy character who has a deep pool of ambition.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's, it's interesting because he doesn't show a lot, like emotionally, outwardly. But you, you get these scenes where he's, he does things and there's like, oh, okay, well, how far is this guy gonna go? Yeah, it's very interesting.
Exactly. And how far these people will go for that. That scoop.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: Yeah. And so it, it's a fascinating movie. Cause it just kind of like endlessly escalates throughout as he becomes more ambitious and also like rewarded for his ambition.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: He sees power for the first time. You know, he's shown as this petty criminal who can't do it. Right. He's stealing crap and does that. Wrong. And then moves into this new career and has success for the first time doing these things.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: Yes.
And it's clear. Like he's an odd duck, like in his life. It's clear that that has been a constant for him and that this is finally the thing that like, kind of clicked. And it's clear that like, his.
His ability to not worry about anything and just like to have no compunction.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: Or like, I'm gonna move this body so I get a better shot. Yeah, yeah.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: It's just like, oh, okay, this will benefit.
My lack of moral and ethics will be rewarded.
It's, I think, especially like a picture of the time. Like, it's the early mid 2010s local news is starting to like, kind of wind down.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: Los Angeles, like plays a role in that. Like, it's. You know, that's a big news market. That's. You know, they're so. They're kind of showing that and they're like dying of the nightly news kind.
[00:13:02] Speaker B: Of thing and like the desperation to get viewers through shock and awe.
So they really play that up and to like. I don't want to spoil it because it's such a good.
Think that's our time. But it's such a good movie. Like, it's. It's so upsetting. And he also has this way of like, infecting some of the people around him with his like, delusion and like, ambition.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: They see the path that is working for him. They're like, oh, okay, this I can find too. Could do that, right?
[00:13:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's, I think, the most disturbing thing about it.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: How easily they fall into that kind of.
[00:13:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
But like, I don't even want to stop talking about it because it's so good.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: It's great.
[00:13:57] Speaker B: Great music.
It's not just creepy, it's also. It's just interesting throughout.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: Good shots. We didn't even get to talk about the fact that Dan Gilroy is the. The writer and debut director, if you're interested in andor look into that. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, it's. It's a good movie.
Lots of darkness. Shot at night mostly. Because that's really.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: Well shot at night.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:22] Speaker B: It just. Everything looks really good in a movie that is about shooting news stuff. Yeah, it's. It. And like really. And when it gets into it, there's like some really kind of cool action stuff in it too, which it's not an action movie.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: It's interesting that I'd seen that. People have a hard time defining this movie genre wise. So, you know, like neo noir, crime thriller, you know, so it's. It's an interesting one for sure.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: Absolutely.
But yeah, that's Nightcrawler.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: A couple of news movies.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: Couple of news movies.
We, I think highly recommend both of them. They are both available on Canopy.
Canopy's selection is just getting better and better. So definitely newer movies, movies that, you.
[00:15:08] Speaker A: Know, award winning movies. It's been, it's been pretty good recently.
[00:15:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Definitely go out and take a browse around Kanopy. They have a lot of new stuff to offer and they're, they're refreshing their catalog a lot more often as well.
So that's all for us today and we will see you next time.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: Bye.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: Bye.
