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, brought to you by Pioneer Library system. I am Ben, and today I'm joined by.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: I'm London. I'm smiling and I hope you can hear it.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: London, so excited to have you back on the podcast.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: We're talking about some sad movies today.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: I don't think it was intentional.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: No, it wasn't. I think we both looked at what was available on campy and we're like, oh, those are both supposed to be really good. I haven't seen this. You hadn't seen one of them?
[00:00:46] Speaker B: I was like, yes, they're great. And then we get into them and we're like, oh, they're sad.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: Yep, yep.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: But they are great.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: Are you a fan of sad movies?
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Anyone who knows me, I can't lie right now. Yes.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: So.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: I have a hard time with sad movies because I just feel them real strong. But when they're good, they're so good. And I think that really hit home on these ones today. Like, they're both, like, from great directors. So we should say we're doing the whale and punch drunk love today.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: The whale, much more recent. Punch drunk love.
Recent past.
But so 2002. Yeah.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: To me, it's not that long ago, but truthfully, it is.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: Yeah. It's over 20 years. It feels like just yesterday.
But I think we will be starting today with the whale, and London will be leading us off with that. So if Wilhelm could start our timer.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Thank you so much.
Yeah, the whale. This was new last year. This is from Darren Aronofsky. So immediately when this came out, I was like, yes, I have to see it.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: Yes. I did not know that. When I started the movie, and, like, midway through, I checked it and I was like, oh, this explains a lot.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So if you don't know him, I hope you do. He directed PI. Requiem for a dream is a huge one for me. That is a heavy movie.
I have shown friends and I said, it's great. And they say, what's wrong with you? But I think it's fantastic. He did the fountain, the wrestler, Black Swan. He's done a few others. I think he's fantastic.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: An incredible visual and tone director.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: Just really sets a mood for his movies.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: And so this is written by Samuel Hunter. This is based on a play that he did. And when you watch it, it's very obvious, I think, that this is a play.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: I didn't know that but it totally feels that way. It is.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: I don't. We barely make it outside. We are in this guy's apartment the whole movie, and it's kind of just this rotating door of, like, people coming in and out of the apartment.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: It doesn't go any further than, like, the landing outside the threshold.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, it really is all in the apartment. If you haven't seen it, if you don't know a thing about it. I borrowed this little synopsis. A reclusive english teacher suffering from severe obesity attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.
So it's heavy stuff right there. This got a lot of attention with, you know, the awards cycle. Brendan Fraser as stars as Charlie.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: He.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: I think he did a lot to prepare for this role. He does wear a bodysuit.
He worked with, I think, a dance teacher just to kind of work on movement of how he would move if he was this size.
He did win Academy Award for best actor for this. I think people have mixed feelings. Really great performance.
Talking with my hands a lot. I'm excited about this movie.
Some people were maybe upset about how the character is portrayed or that they didn't get an actual big actor to do it. But I think it's a really great performance, and I love the character. I think he's great.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: I think he pulled it off beautifully because there's a weird balance of sadness and hope and, like, it's dealing with a lot. It's. It's family, it's grief. It's. It's depression. It's just loss and loneliness. Yeah, loss and loneliness.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: But through it all, somehow he is so hopeful and positive, which. Which will just. I think it'll blow most of us away of, like, how does he stay positive?
[00:04:40] Speaker A: But those little moments of sweetness where he's, like, telling his daughter that she's incredible and, like, those just wrecked me.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Because, like, amidst everything else that's going on, like, you get. You gave a brief synopsis, but, like, it's, like he loses his partner. He's dealing with grief from that. He also has a daughter from an estranged wife.
Lots of stuff to unpack there. But, like, they walk this line between those things. It's just, like, so tricky, but they balance it.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: Yeah. To me, it works. I saw this in the theater when it came out, and I love it and that this was just my second watch and still loved it. So I recommend this one. We also see Sadie sink in this. People would probably know her from stranger things.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: Ty Simkins is in it playing a young missionary man. He's was in Jurassic world, Iron man three.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: Oh, that's where I knew him from. Yeah, he's the little kid.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: He looks familiar, but he's grown up, so you're like, what is he from? So I think it's a really great small cast, but.
So, yeah, I recommend this. This is a 24. I mean, you can't go wrong with that.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: Yeah, we're big. A 24 fans on the podcast.
[00:06:01] Speaker B: So pioneer library system carries this on DVD and Blu ray, but this is on canopy, and that's how I accessed it. So.
Rated R. You know, there's some mature content, but really fantastic movie.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: Yes.
I'm trying to think, who's this good for? I mean, if you're fans of other Darren Aronofsky, like, be prepared for an emotional roller coaster. There's not a lot of ups on this roller coaster, but deep downs.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: Yeah, it's just a very human drama. And I think if you want a real story, and it's heavy and sad, but it's really well done.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: And, oh, one last thing. We're almost out of time. But the score, yes. Whenever he would go on his binges, when he's really depressed, it turned into, like, a horror movie.
Oh, and that's time. But I'm gonna finish my point.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: You can't stop librarians from talking about these things, so.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: But, like, the way that they, like, played those moments, and it's just, like, existential horror of that, like, depression binge mode is just so upsetting. And you kind of see, like, the skills that Darren Aronofsky got from his darker films, like, really playing it up of, like, how horrible this is. And, like, I think everybody's aware, even the characters aware, like, this is. This is bad. And they, like, play those moments so well. And even, like, the lighter moments where they bring in the music are so beautiful, too. And that, I think it really lifts the whole film. But anyway, highly suggest if we're talking.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: About the music now, we're really gonna have to talk about the music when we get to your movie.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:07:41] Speaker B: So it's like, just a character in the movie, so. Yeah, I was prepared for that.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, so we'll take a quick break, and then we will be back with punch drunk love.
All right. And we are back. So.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Hello.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: Hello. So our next movie is going to be Wilhelm. Start the timer.
Punch drunk love.
So this is a drama comedy.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: There's romance.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: There's romance. It's kind of hard to define. Like, this is directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, kind of has that surreal tone that a lot of his movies have. I got a little bit of Fargo vibes from this, even though that's not a Paul Thomas Anderson, but, like, similarly funny, but also, like dark and bleak.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: I get uncomfortable in parts.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So as you were mentioning right before the break, the music in this movie is such a driving factor. In fact, it drowns out the dialogue in parts of the movie and drives the stress and anxiety of this movie. I should probably talk about what this movie.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: Sure, sure.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: 2002 film.
Here is the IMDb summary. Socially frustrated Barry Egan calls a phone sex line to curb his loneliness. Little does he know it will land him in deep trouble and will jeopardize his burgeoning romance with the mysterious lean that is technically correct. However, it feels like it doesn't get at. That's very boiled down, but, and like, that is like the mechanical things that are happening in this movie. It's about Barry, played by Adam Sandler, and, like, I feel like one of his first, like, big, serious roles where people started to, like, take him seriously as an actor.
And he's just this kind of, like, rattled guy who has, like, latent rage and is kind of spacey and, like.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: And seven sisters.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: And seven sisters. So I actually love the canopy synopsis or little snippet about it because it says Barry Egan, who is, like, abused by his seven sisters. I was like, that feels more accurate to me because, like, he's got these seven sisters who just, like, relentlessly rag on him and, like, kind of, like, break him down. And they're like, what's your problem?
But this story is about him, like, kind of finding his person and finding some purpose ish. But it's also kind of, like, idealized in a weird way.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: I have sisters, not seven of them, and I hope they never listen to this podcast. But there was some nugget in there that I was feeling. And so it's like, yes, this is what it's like. I could understand his, or a person might be able to understand his rage a little bit and just these things he's feeling.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: Yeah. And as we were saying, like, the.
The music in this movie is, like, heavy, like, not heavy music, but it's like, very, like, busy, anxious, like, percussion stuff that just, like, increases in intensity. And, like, it's always at points where, like, you feel his anxiety building and it kind of, like, makes you, like, build with it and get tighter and, like, you feel the explosion coming. And the weird thing about both these movies, I didn't know who the directors were, and I think I had, like, false impressions of what they were. This one was such a 180 from what I was expecting. I was expecting, like, a sad romantic comedy, but it's not.
So you. You saw this when it first came out?
[00:11:40] Speaker B: Yep. So, you know, like 20 years ago I had watched it.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: Yeah. And did you like it then?
[00:11:45] Speaker B: I do. I mean, it's unexpected, and it's such a night and day difference. Like, if you watch, like, kind of a standard sort of Adam Sandler movie, I'm trying to say that in a nice way.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: And when it's not really an Adam Sandler movie, I think he can really blow you away. I like some of his. We'll call them silly movies.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: But when he does, like, a serious role in a serious movie, like, he's pretty fantastic.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I mean, in recent years, like, he's proven that time and again with, like, uncut gems and several other movies that don't come to mind right now. But I don't know. I think this was just like a wild. Right. The surreality of this movie is so heightened. Like, the characters don't feel naturalistic at all. Like every, like, it's very quick dialogue. It's. It's all like, there's strangeness, but people don't seem to, like, register it as strangeness.
But it's kind of, like, beautiful in that Paul Thomas Anderson kind of way. Of like, oh, this is to get at a bigger point.
Would you. Would you suggest this movie?
[00:12:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I would.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: You know, it's very anxious.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I think it's really well done. So, you know, if someone's high strung, I might not recommend it, but yeah, yeah, I think this is really well.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: Made picture, and that's our time. But there's a weird fifties kind of vibe to it with the little color scenes, the music, interstitials, and also just kind of like the way that they style it. That blue suit that he's in the whole time feels like a very classic movie star thing. And people keep just being like, why are you wearing that suit?
[00:13:30] Speaker B: It does, and you're right again. It's making me uncomfortable that he's wearing this blue suit. The whole movie suit.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I was watching. I was just like, does anything. He does change ties. He changes ties throughout the movie, but the students. The suit stays the same.
I don't know. I would. I would suggest this movie, at least for one watch. It was very stressful, but, like, it's kind of lovely in, like, its imagery and it's. It's a very unique movie. Definitely amongst Paul Thomas Anderson's classic kind of vibes.
Uh, I can't say another movie that is like it.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: That's tough.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: Yeah, he makes very like singular voiced films. So if you like his kind of movies, definitely check this out.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: You can just, you know, challenge yourself to something new if you haven't seen it.
[00:14:22] Speaker A: Absolutely.
So London also has some news about canopy, which is where we found both of our movies today.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: Yes, we like talking about canopy. We also, we use hoopla here at Pioneer library system. Um, but, um, Canopy had a change recently been, um. If you're used to canopy, it's always been a, um. What were those called? Just checkouts or credits, I believe. Um, in November of this year, we did away with the credits. We being canopy. I don't work for Canopy, but I do love canopy. Um, so Canopy has implemented a new system to keep track of your allotted monthly checkouts. Instead of the previous eight credits, um, you now have 24 tickets you can use to choose the content you want to watch. So when you, when you browse through here, it'll tell you how many tickets something costs and how long you will have access to that title. So really, maybe it's supposed to be fun, like it kind of plays like a game now, I think, but it's still the same canopy you love, lots of great content on there, but we just wanted to share that with you.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: I think it makes it a little more flexible. So if you're watching a tv show, you can get through more in a month, that kind of stuff. So we like the system. It's just a little bit different. So we wanted to let everybody know to expect that when they're browsing around.
[00:15:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I like knowing now, like it will tell me I'm going to have this title for 72 hours, which is kind of a standard thing on a lot of streaming platforms. So I think that's nice.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: Absolutely.
So it was so great to have you back on the podcast. Thank you.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: It's been a minute.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: Yeah. Hopefully we can do it again soon.
If any of you listeners would like to reach out with a comment or a question, you can reach us at podcast pioneerlibrarysystem.org, comma, that is podcastsingular pioneerlibrarysystem.org. And I have a question. Sure.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: Whats an upcoming movie youre excited about?
[00:16:19] Speaker A: Ooh, in the theaters? Yeah, thats a great.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: Or streaming, but something new.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: Mmm.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: I've got mine if you need a minute.
[00:16:29] Speaker A: What's yours.
[00:16:29] Speaker B: Beetlejuice two.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: Oh, boy, that's exciting. Yeah, I forgot about that one.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: So, yeah, I need that to be real good.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely.
I don't know. I've kind of watched all my movies for the year. Aquaman two is probably gonna be a crazy, overblown visual craziness. That should be fun.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: I think they spent a few dollars on it.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: Truly.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: Hopefully it looks good.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: So at the very least, that will be a fun feast for the eyes. Yes.
That's probably next on my list, but, yeah.
Thank you for joining us, and we'll see you next time. Bye.
