183 FUNKY FOODIE!

183 FUNKY FOODIE!

Eric joins the Kool Kids Klub, and we do another remote podcast!  Also discussed: Paisley Park, The Umbrella Academy, The Boys. (Hmm, maybe a group with three K's isn't my best idea.)

Transcript

Unknown: 0:03

sorry did I break your concentration somewhere between science and superstition sights to show you strange aeons. Welcome to strange aeons radio. That's Eric over there. Oh, that's Vanessa. Audio Only to saluting oh well. Also only audio saluting didn't work for the podcast download portion of this, sir. Okay, should we set this up and give another shot? Let's see how long you know I'm gonna leave it in anyways Welcome to strange aeons radio. That's Eric. That's Vanessa Kelly. Eric. We are recording remotely once again. What the fuck struck the final cockpit odd faster. I went on a family reunion, Minneapolis, Minnesota this weekend and got a bonus present when I got home. I am I am COVID. Well, that is exactly yeah. Now you've sent to me when I told at it. Do you Do you know like when it happened? Or who is patient zero so far? Well, Dina, my wife presses a positive today, and so far nobody else has. So what Eric has figured out is and I can I mean, the trip home was the only time it was just the two of us. But that would be like, I don't know, eight hour incubation period or something. I guess it could be that no, it's it's like three days. So that's well entered. And who cares? Who gave it to her? We all get it. Yeah. So we do a good job. Nobody's fault. No, I just like to gossip. Speaking gossiping, you guys. My mom called me yesterday to let me know she had watched the first episode you boys. Oh, sorry. Oh, the season one slowly and at least regardless toes. And she did say, Is this supposed to be scary? And I said no. And she said, Oh, good. Because I was laughing the whole way through. But okay. I'm glad she's. Yeah, exactly. I'm glad she's having a good time with it. Because that that made me nervous right there. Yeah. My mom who is also listening should not watch the boys do not, you will not enjoy good advice. I also want to put this out there. We're doing this remotely. We are using a new program we got Mike's to do this remotely with. And I want to say thanks to everybody who has participated in the value for value model. Because when you give us that cash, we're not out drinking it away or anything like that. It goes towards stuff like this, this new recording program that Vanessa has our microphones, whatever. So when when you donate to the show, we just put it right back into the show. So thank you very much. Absolutely. That's covered what chairs mics, some mic stands for us. So yeah, we really appreciate you guys. And all it does is allow us to make even better shows. Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. better sounding so it was I don't know if you guys are Umbrella Academy fans, but the new season dropped a couple weeks back. I read them all I watched the previous seasons. I have not watched the new one. Yeah. Is it good? Is it bad? It's good enough. You know, it's such a departure from the comic book now because I think there were only two series of comics and now we're in third series of a show so it's going its own way now. But you know, it's all the characters that you know and love although the the young man that they've got playing the 13 year old boy, it's getting harder and harder to pretend that he is 13 I can only imagine when I was thinking that when I saw the poster, I was like, Oh, he grew that. Yeah, yeah, still got the same humor and the first episode of this new season has an amazing sequence that just made me think Oh, I'm so glad you guys are back. I missed you. Well, as of last night, I caught up with all of Stranger Things. So I've seen the hole of Stranger Things for this season has as of I started yesterday, okay, like 8am We are now 45 minutes into Episode Eight. So I am like, wow. Three hours away from being done. Yeah, I started it yesterday at like, I think nine and I was like it's gonna be a long night but I have to see all of it because I cannot let anything get spoiled for me so I won't let anything get spoiled for you, Eric. I just I really enjoyed it. I really liked the music this season. Yeah, yeah, I liked the music as well. Yeah. I I liked kind of how it ended up. But I'll tell you the bullshit Russian storyline was ridiculous. Yeah, I ELLs taking LOA from her friends and everything was ridiculous. The only thing that I did really enjoy was the main group of kids trying to get shit done in Hawkins 1,000% I almost feel like they should have done Stranger Things stories and done that Russian thing as an entire independent season. Like for episode Yeah, mini season. I think that would have helped a lot because it feels like you're watching three different series in one show. It basically is it basically is yeah, it's it's so frustrating to watch L in a storyline. We've seen probably two if not three times already. And then like the Russian storyline, I'm like, just bring hopper. Home guys just bring him the home. We don't care about Russia. Like I mean, it was fun for like an episode. But we spend so much time there. I will say they did remember at some point that Winona Ryder was hot. And that was that was good. Because you figured that out? They're like, Oh, yeah, remember, she was a massive sex symbol in the 80s. Whoa. And we've got her and this show is set in the 80s Oh my god. So that's good. Like I said, I been to February union, Minnesota. Finish what you probably call a bucket list thing. Visiting Paisley Park. Prince is Oh, slash massive. Three studios of audio recording systems and a 1500 person live concert arena with a 200 person small concert venue. And it's a it was really really cool. It was really Oh, yeah. There was the tour we on had people from all over the country and UK and the Netherlands and there's only like 12 of us. Wow. That's so yeah, it was really cool. So as they built in like 86 And I remember combat that'd be cool to visit but I'm guessing you know, you know, go there well, Prince's living recording, like that. Sure. But so yeah, I'd say you know, if you're a prince fan, and you're anywhere within the realm to go see it. I check it out. Well worth it and a hell of a lot of fun. So that was cool. That's so that's pretty cool. I'm happy for you. You know, I'm not the biggest Prince fan, but I know that you are and so that makes me happy that you get to do that. Well, I stayed at home and watched the latest episode of the boys. Oh, yeah. I've caught up on that one. Yeah, some some revelations at the end of this episode. But Eric, I know you read the comics. I thought it was really interesting. Correct me if I'm wrong? Didn't we find out in the comics that black noir was a clone of homeland or if that sounds familiar. That sounds right. So it's so very interesting that they have gotten completely out from that. Oh, yeah, they did. That was quite the origin story. They told me. I I am looking forward to more Warner Brothers animated origin stories in his head. That was something else. That was pretty cool. And I will say that the voice is probably the most satisfying show. I've been watching lately. Just in that at the end of every episode, I'm like, oh, boy, that was a good episode. I think that says something more about you than anything else. Kelly. Me and my mom. Every time I watch an episode of the boys, I'm like, a little a little bit further in the need of therapy. It's just yeah, it just breaks some precious part of me a little bit further. Never get it back the fragile boy reaction to People going, Wait a second. Home lenders the bad guy. Say, that was so fucking funny that she's the bad guy. How did you not realize I was surprised? Are you surprised? If you want to change right now? Right? Right. I think this is, you know, anybody could look at this and apply it to whoever they don't like at this point in society you start that's the point of it. So first because you start in season one, and he's literally not helping a plane crash and he's like fuck off and leave like when do you think he's a good guy? Because that's just an allegory for 911. So, Mitt oh, wait a second. Are you telling me that in real life people didn't realize that homemaker was a bad guy? Yes. Oh, yeah, there are people that are upset. Oh, he was speaking for them. And realize oh, what wow, I have not heard anything like that. They've portrayed him as a complete psychopath the entire series. So yeah, if you've latched on to him as your your north star in this show that I mean, there really is no more star but I guess the closest would be huge. But usually or, or starlight, a woman. What do they call her? Kumiko in the show with the woman in the comics. Yeah, she's pretty. She's pretty good. She might be the only one with a soul. And the guy the I not Russian but the guy who hangs out with her. Frenchie. Frenchie. I guess he's French. Yeah. And his name is Frenchie. So take me a minute took me a minute. For my brain. It's still early in the morning. So I asked for Well, I am I don't know if I'm fully caught up yet or not on Miss Marvel. I think I am. And it's been like a real roller coaster. Because I'm finding that with each episode I either I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm getting really into this or. Okay, what? And then oh, yeah, that's really cool. And then Oh, okay. It's like they go really small scale. And I really love it because it's these personal stories of these different characters. And the art design is spectacular. And I just love spending the day with them. And then they're like, and now we're in a foreign country. And it's like, oh, okay, why are we here? Can we go back? Oh, no, we're in a new dimension. Oh, okay. Like it's just it doesn't like the scaling is just not working. So I think I am an episode and a half behind at least and how many episodes are in the show? I think there's going to be six six. Okay, does has this tied yet into I know that? It ties peripherally because of Captain Marvel but as it's tied into anything going into the new phase? Not yet. But I think it's supposed to set up the new face or there's rumors that it is going to set up their face. I wonder if you're feeling because the reason I'm an episode and a half behind was whatever happened during the half episode I started watching I was like, Oh, here's the here's the kids part of this show that is not aimed at me. Oh, and I started I started losing a little bit of interest. But I still think it's awfully it's it's fun. It's enjoyable and it's it does get a little interdimensional stuff which seems like the setup team coming in. Okay, but absolute can still miles ahead of Obi Wan for joining us fucking Obi Wan. Why? Why? I have so many problems with that show. But anyway, it's Eric's turn. Yeah, well, I'll bring one that I think you liked. On the plane. I watched Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So good. Was this an option? This is something you brought an option in their streaming. They had Wi Fi on the plane that you could connect to actually for free to watch certain things and this was in that one. And it's really good. It is so glad you liked it. Oh, that makes me so happy. If that gives it 100% rating on the strange aeons style. I'd have to add that one in. But the the cleverness of the lines and the the breakdown of different fandoms brought together really well. I don't know. It's just a lot of fun. Yeah, they did a really good job. They were so caring towards all the characters because often when you rewrite these different people and stick them together, it feels like they haven't gotten atone right but for this they somehow made that type of work and it should not have and it's awesome. Yeah, it's like you can tell Oh this was written by the Batman writers or this was written by the TMT writers but this this was written by a good writer that was in present Yeah. Did you make Dena watch that with you know, she was reading or asleep good because otherwise I was gonna suggest that perhaps she shot you up with that is she not a turtles fan? Dina is a surprisingly lovely normal human. Oh, that that married this big thing. I gotcha. But that's well put expectations readjusted it's always hard to be around a normal person and be like I'm so gender and they're like, Damn, you're a nerd. I'm like she is adjusted Yes, there were there have been periods like what's right Yeah, right. I'm sure well, okay, cool. Why don't we take a little break guys and then when we're coming back we're talking weird food going on is food again mom. Figures income toys do not log in. And we are back. Eric this was your sub genre pick man did I do it to myself on this one? Sheezus This is a film I watched years ago I put it in like the a group of Brian months probably three or four films. City of Lost Children, the chocolate war and a few other movies that I watched moving from small town twin where you've got you know your blockbuster style video stores and discovering Scarecrow and got what is this weird crap? Oh my god. And I had powerful memories of this one being pretty strong. I was the cook the thief his wife and her lover 1889 Have you ever seen this one? Yeah, I saw this. I know what the weird food is. There's a few things. Yeah, I have not seen it, but I feel like I've heard a lot about it. There's Yeah, I can understand why this is rotten tomato rated at 85. Critics ADA crowd couldn't really find a good budget but it made about $7.7 million. So arthouse wise, it did fine. Just directed by Peter Greenway, who's prolific as a director, shall we say, especially for modern times. He's got 79 credits. He has four movies in pre production, one shooting and one in post right now. Wow. He also did Jeremy by numbers, the pillow book and even half women. There's also the writer Look, what's that? The pillow book? I haven't seen that one. You may not like him then. The is that also has 58 writing credits, including the movies I mentioned above. So writes a lot of what he shoots. This one star is Richard Boehringer. Who's the cook 156 credits included. I married a dead man salt on the skin, and many many French productions. Michael Gambon plays the thief, Gods for Park. Albus Dumbledore in many Harry Potter films. Helen Mirren might know her name, she's the wife. You might know her from Hitchcock or read the Queen, our 144 of Her other films with three in post production right or pre production right now. Oh, my God. Alan Howard plays the lover. He's the voice of the ring in The Lord of the Rings. And been in a lot of TV and stuff. It's done a fair amount. And Tim Robbins, Rob Roy, invincible Tarantino. He's sort of the thief's sycophant. It's on screen a lot. But he doesn't say or do a lot outside of what the guy tells him to do. Oh, no. This is a well made film. To not get my reaction to make you think this is it a good movie, or a well made movie? It starts off right the beginning with a brutal scene of the thief. Humiliating a guy by taking off all his clothes and rubbing dog crap all over and smearing on his body and then peeing on him. So yeah, it's a, it's a film. That's a moment that sets you up for what is a large portion of this movie, which is really, really brutal. They're visually, this film desperately needs a remastering a criteria, I can't believe there's not a criterion release of it. There's no small market company that's picked this up to do a beautiful version of it. Because visually, it's amazing. This scene where he smearing stuff on the guy takes outside and most of this stuff's in blue. And you've got two trucks set up with the backs opening and see food inside of them. So it's setting up all kinds of things about the movie with the food and the thief. The wife tries to jump in and start and try to stop him from being an asshole. But it does not go well. The from there they the group proceeds into the whole basic storyline is the thief. I can't quite tell if he's a partial if he's a partial owner or just thinks he's a partial owner of this restaurant. And he comes in with this large group of people every night and the only person really doesn't put up with his shit very much is the cook hates him and makes it known that he doesn't think much of him and seems to be the only person that can talk to the thief this way and frequently does. So that's kind of that's nice. I'd like more of that. But they go from the blue of the alleyway into this kitchen. And now everything's green. Anybody wearing a sash or a tie or a scarf? This color changes with the room. The visual aspects change the way the show is shot. It's now ready the kitchen is always shot Almost always shot in a flat, left to right. And it looks huge. The scale of the kitchen is just ridiculously large. And so they have a moment or two in there with the thief kind of sort of threatening the cook, but it really doesn't bug him much at all. But they cook then takes the guy who's after they leave the kitchen, the thief leaves the grabs the guy has been humiliated, helps him and cleans them off. Showing that the cook really is kind of the nice guy of this movie. So then they move into the dining room, the dining room was all read. Everything happens again, every tie every sash, every accessory anybody's wearing switches to read, it's done incredibly well to where it doesn't feel like look at what we're doing. You can obviously see it but it's not everything's not red, just accents are red in the room is red. It looks really, really cool. From there, you start to notice that the wife is flirting with a guy who's over in a corner who's always reading and he has a brown suit on. He is the only character whose outfit never changes is always in brown doesn't matter what room he's in. He's always wearing brown, and the same suit pretty much until he's while you're not wearing anything, which happens frequently as well. The thief in this film, this dude never stops talking. And he is on screen. He's blabbing constantly. Luckily, the actor is good enough that he carries it off. And it's just like, This guy is just an asshole is always an asshole. Everything he does, he's an asshole. He's the guy who thinks he knows everything that's going on and knows how everything functions, but he's just kind of a dick wife, and the man in the brown suit the lover sneak away into the bathroom. Everything's white. So there are four distinct rooms. Some have speculated and I don't know if he's said this, and if the director has said this, and Peter said in an interview or anything, but the idea is that from alley to bathroom is the food tract. We've got where the food trucks get delivered in the alley, you get it processed in the or excuse me processed for eating in the green. And then the red is where it's rumbling around in your body. And then of course, the white is obvious. So I don't know if that's true or not. But it's a neat theory. And the film is already enough to pull it off that you can go along with that. The see it's it's very cat attacking me at the moment. The scenes between the lover and the wife are tender and sweet, passionate. And then there's a similar scene with the thief coming onto his wife and it borderlines at least initially borderlines on aggressive, not quite rapey but very, very close. And the feeling different between when the wife is with the thief versus with the wife is with the lovers incredibly well done. Everybody in this movie can act their ass off. So that's not a problem. Excuse me. We'll see how long I can go on this. Most of the movie is really kind of that slice of life film. There's not a plotline going on here. The whole film is basically them figuring out ways to mess around the cook provides them hiding places in the kitchen for them to have their merriment. One point the Lover says, Well, why don't we go someplace else. And the wife basically is like, I like doing this right underneath his nose. I like him not knowing that I am right here. Right where he could find me at any moment. And he has no idea what's going on. There are scenes where she shows up. There's another ongoing theme through the whole movie is this child singer who has one of those high falsetto voices of a child's choir. And there's a scene where the lover and the wife have gone away. They finally decide we're out of here. And he's trying to find him and the thief and Tim kind of torture the kid and it's damn near unwatchable. It is so hard to watch. And him abusing her in a very long shot in the back of a car at once again is another scenario Jesus Christ. What am I doing to myself and seeing when the To cut when the thief catches them, and what he does to the lover is really, really brutal. This is not a happy movie. There are multiple things eaten that are not food. During the torture scene of the small boy he is eats buttons. During the scene of the lover getting found by the thief, he eats a book. And well, you've seen anything about this movie, you know how it ends already, because it's plastered everywhere. So I it's if you're really interested in seeing this film, it's hard to call it a spoiler because it's not a plot and movie. But let's just say Helen takes a very unique way of disposing of the lovers body, and the thief is involved in helping of the disposal. even watch the rest to find out if you really want to know I can't say don't watch this movie because it is a stunning arthouse film. But I felt so shitty at the end of this movie. And just beaten up by it is just so brutal. But it's gorgeous. It's incredibly well should the shooting the music. It was I forgot the composer's name. I don't think I wrote him down but he's did a minimalist style music so it's not a lot of music in it, but where it's used, it's really good. So, let's take a moment and do some trivia and notes. We'll start with you know, taglines, of course. This one's weird. greenways recipe of food and sex myths with art is both delicious and wonderfully wicked. I'm not sure that's a tagline. And that's a tagline. That's like a sounds like a review. That's not post directly. But here you go. Lust murder, desert. Bon appetit. And I like it. I kinda like it. Peter Greenway said he was inspired by Jakob means play. Tis pity she's a whore provided him with the main template for the screenplay. So that must be a happy play. I've never heard of that. And I have not either. John Paul duty air designed all the costuming for the movie. So it looks good. Italian chef Giorgio Locatelli prepared all the food that was used as props. So the prop food is actually real gourmet chef made food. Oh, the film's original running times 124 minutes, which is the one I watched. Do the content, Miramax was given the option of either an X rating or go unrated. For theatrical releases. They went with unrated which is a good choice, the film's power and its brutality and what makes it that kind of get that kind of rating. I mean, it wasn't pleasant to watch, but it's why the movie works. Because it is so unflinching. Two versions were released on VHS and the 90s one was an R rated cut. That was 95 minutes long. Wow. Holy cow. Yeah, mainly, I'm guessing blockbuster probably cut and released that one for their stars for sure. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus puts us as a pretty nice way. This romantic crime drama may not be to everyone's taste. But the cook the thief his wife and her lover is an audacious, powerful film. I didn't write any of them down but I did dive into the one star reviews on Amazon. And they're really interesting. Because I mean their whole lot remember like, this is a British version DVD doesn't play in America who know oh god, okay. I love those because it's really good too. But the ones that didn't like it not a lot I mean there's a few people are like well worst movie ever seen. I don't know what do you think's your greatest movies of all time or is it go beyond Pippi Longstocking? But a lot of them were this movie is just too damn brutal. is too rough to watch. I don't have a problem with that idea for giving us a one star to this movie because it is rough. But there you go. Here's my happy time movie. Thanks. I glad I picked this subject for myself. Wow, I I remember renting this when it came out just because everybody was clamoring about it. And I didn't like it. I don't remember why I think quite honestly, I was just kind of bored and it was a little too Artstor for me, but I am kind of missing the days where we could look at, you know, Miramax Films in a theater. Those days are long gone, where you're gonna get an art house picture like this. Yeah, yeah, it's a, it's either some weird indie that breaks through for so God knows what reason, or a $200 million movie. Yeah, you didn't say what the budget was? I think he said he couldn't find any. But I would be surprised if this is more than two or $3 million. Yeah, depending on what he had to do with some of the art stuff. Wasn't a ton of money spent on this one. Yeah. And yet it got a theatrical showing. Yeah. Oh, please. Yeah, I will not be watching that movie, but just out of curiosity, when they would move from one color space to the next and all their accessories would change color, would they remain the same accessory? Or would they change to a different Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, it was, it was like it was it really, I mean, you know, find maybe find a clip of it on YouTube or something because it's really, really interesting. They basically do a walk through the wall, and we walk in there one color and they're the other side of the wall. It's there dressed exactly the same all the stuffs in the same position. It's just a different color. Interesting. Okay, I like that. That's a really cool concept, but I don't think it's worth watching the movie to get there. Not during COVID Maybe when we're in happier times. The advantage to is actually looking it up I have this on the that DVD and it's really hard to find. Oh, otherwise, it's just kind of out of print completely and nobody's streaming it right now. But the way it seems to work on our show with some subjects we do and then like two weeks later, like they're all over the place. So somebody's listening oh man Well, hence the all the British like it's a region two Oh, no DVD is probably because you know, other countries are probably carrying more than ours. I appreciate the use of the word hence correctly, but I'd like Hance to never show up on the show again. Done. So yeah, my film. Yeah, also really weird. I had seen it once before, but I had forgotten literally everything about it. And I think now that I've worked in games, this film makes a lot more sense to me. The movie I chose for weird food was existence. There's an intimacy involved in playing existence that is beyond the scription you just pop your spine with a little hydro Van Briggle your cage back I haven't crippled anyone yet. stepped into my office it's going to be a wild ride. The new millennium will bring a new experience you're the power source. See unnatural it feels with a playing field is a parallel universe seems a lot more fun when it starts feeling realer than real. I don't like it here. I think it's infected. It's not infected. It's just excited. I think we're still inside the game. We have enemies in our own house. I do feel the urge to kill someone here. Do it it's just a game something's wrong. Let's come back here with me capital X capital Z from 1999. I assume you both have seen this. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, so rotten tomatoes scores. I was actually pretty surprised by the the scores 74% from critics and 69% from audience that's way higher than I thought it was gonna be. cuz I was like, this is like a 3020 person are in here but no, critics thought it was okay. And audiences were fine with that. I guess they just didn't go and see it. Because the budget was 31 million Canadian. Aka 15 million US at the time and the box that box office was 2.9 million. Oh no. crashed and burned hard. Wow. Yeah, this is not good. Not good. I'm Written and directed by David Cronenberg, who's definitely a favorite I think of all of ours i I would assume 46 credits including the flies scanners video drum, the brood which I know talked about for our Mother's Day episode. And then more recently, things like history of violence and Eastern Promises. He's been doing a lot of acting recently as well. So he has 38 Acting credits, including you might have seen him on Star Trek Discovery, or in the TV show not TV show The shutter show slasher Right, right. And I have not seen crimes in the future but that is currently in theaters so hopefully I'll get a chance to check it out. The cast is incredible much like your film, Eric, but not as high of hitters like more like just just under that level. Jennifer Jason Leigh 106 credits, she plays our lead Allegra. You might have seen her in Single white female Backdraft several episodes of weeds, Hateful Eight, the new Twin Peaks. And currently she's in a typical which I've been watching. Jude Law has been an ad for things he plays kind of a co lead Ted pickle. I don't know if I'm saying that right. But I'm gonna go with pickle. I love to make Gattaca. He's also around and things like midnight and garden in the Garden of Good and Evil. The Talented Mr. Ripley AI Sherlock Holmes Fantastic Beasts, and he was in the hole Young Pope, old Pope new pope stuff. So I have not seen that. In Holmes is in this he's been in 139 things. He started off in British TV and Shakespeare but we would all know him as alien, or sorry as ash and alien. He was also in time bandits, Brazil, fifth element, and Bilbo Baggins, of course. William Defoe is in this 146 credits. He is the Green Goblin. And he's also the guy the weird guy in The Life Aquatic and the weird guy and the lighthouse and the kind of weird guy in Aquaman. And the weird guy northmen. He apparently does between three and 10 films a year, so he had just knocked him out during COVID or during to 2020. I think he managed to do three or four films, which I was shocked by maybe maybe that's some voice acting I don't know. He was also the only good part of Boondock Saints and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. Is that movies trash. Christopher Eccleston. 87 things. He was in shallow grave 20 days later, but I knew him from Doctor Who where he pissed off everyone by only doing one season, which made a lot of Doctor Who fans mad because there were only supposed to be so many lives for Doctor Who. And they felt like he wasted one. So anyway. And Don McKellar, who's been in 75 things. He's more like kind of like a recognizable face than somebody who's specifically famous. But I know we've talked about last night on the show before and he was not the red violin and lots of indie films. So the story of this, now, I've tried to pay really, really close attention, because it's a Cronenberg joint. And I often find if I get distracted for like one second, during a Cronenberg movie, I will be lost for the whole rest of the movie. So I was really, really tuned into this particular film. And it's, of course insane, because it's anyway, so we start off in what looks like an AAA meeting. We've got Jennifer Jason Leigh, and the very back of this kind of big room where there's people sitting, she's getting some bad coffee, and someone on stage is talking to my surprise is not an AAA meeting. It is actually a fully packed Church of people who are excited to try out a new VR game. They want to be the first to get their hands on a brand new game console, as well as the launch of a VR game called existence existence. You get it? And of course Jennifer Jason Leigh is a LeGarrette Geller, the very famous game designer who is behind this and several other titles, everyone knows who she is everyone loves her and adores her. Because she's changed their lives. Everyone's so excited to be in these VR situations that a lot of normal life stuff has gone away. Her publicist slash marketing guy who's just around Ted pickle, Jude Law is in the is in attendance and is pretty excited to be there working with her. However, she gets up the first test group and they all sit down in the chairs in front of everybody. They're ready to go for two slash three hour experience. When somebody in the crowd jumps up with a gun, made out of bones and shoots her. They kind of get her in the shoulder don't quite kill her, and then shoots the other guy on stage kills him. And Jude Law then kind of grabs her and runs out the door with her to try and protect her from obviously an assassination attempt. So what is going on? Who knows? But she believes unknown guy tried to kill her called her like a demon and denounces her. So they're trying to find sanctuary and she is just like, there is nowhere that's safe. All these people are obviously corrupt and trying to get to me, I don't trust the company that I work for. I don't trust other companies. There's there's got to be like a mole in here who wants me gone, which I was like, that's a pretty big leap from a guy who like shoots at you to think that then the whole company is correct. But okay, that's cool. I'll go with you on that. They find a place to pull over for the night. And she asks him to get the bullet out of her shoulder and it is not a bullet. It is a tooth. This gun shoots teeth. Very fun, very fun. So, Allegra insists on them stopping off at this hotel, and she really wants to plug back into the game. She's clearly addicted to her own VR universe. She's just constantly like, Okay, I know, I need to like check up on people, I swear, it's definitely not because I just don't want to be here and just want to be in the game all the time. And she's shocked to discover that Ted does not have a port. Now everybody has a port. This is something that's the equivalent of having your ears pierced, but instead it goes in your spine. And then the game plugs into that. And the game has a plug that is basically an umbilical cord. And the Game Pad is like a fleshy, enormous controller with sort of like nipple like buttons. And as you touch it, it squishes and moves all over the place. very organic, very everything's flesh colored, which is super gross. When when there's anything wrong with the the controller, there's a couple of moments where you see them spliced open, they're filled with like, viscera, and like blood and nerve endings. It's a mess. I think they even have a bone structure. But she's, she is shocked to discover that Ted does not have this port because everybody has them. It's basically you know, she's like, you can get these at the mall. Why? Why don't you have this port? plugged right into your spine, so you can VR. And he's like, Well, I just I don't I don't like the idea of things going into my body. And she's like, we're gonna get you plugged in, because I'm insulted. You have not played my game. So they go to a gas station where William Defoe who's in love with her because she's the best thing ever and she changed his life. He is willing to put this port into Jude Law's back and it's gross. Basically, he's, you know, just he puts on a clean mechanic suit, but his hands are still filthy. And he's like, alright, just bend on over and and utilize it terrified of getting an infection and he's like, Oh, you'll be fine. It's impossible to get an infection. He's like, how is that real? How is it real that you can't get an infection in a port site that is that constant open wound in your skin and they're like, it's fine. So they stick a port on him. And Allegra is so excited. She doesn't even let them leave. She immediately sticks her gamepad in him because she wants him to experience it right away. And her gamepad explodes. Turns out that of course William to FAU wants to kill her because everybody wants to kill her. Apparently there's a bounty on her head for $5 million. Then they get even more if they destroy her game. So now they're really on the run. Everybody in this valley. It's kind of this countryside bumpkin area where I guess it's all filled with game designers, which I feel like is An early allegory for San Francisco. But they take off and she finds a safe haven spot where a friend of hers can take out the bad port put in a good port, and she can finally get him to play her game. And then they start off on this really wacky weird adventure inside of this VR universe. Where is not a fun game. He starts off on like a fish line, like in like a factory, where he's like, basically gutting and opening up these like mutated reptiles, which will become the game pads. And it's yeah, he's basically working a fish line. And then they're, you know, in a restaurant, and this is where the fun food part comes in. Because he, he's compelled as a player to do certain things. The game is very on rail. So you can make a few decisions, but it's really going to force you to do certain things while you're inside of this game. And one of those is asked for the special at the Chinese restaurant. And my home I it is a big, smelly, enormous silver platter filled with these weird dead reptiles and like fish heads and just stuff. So he starts to eat it all. He's like, I don't want to do this, but it's happening and like and of course, Allegra is like, Yeah, you should do that. Oh, not gonna barf not gonna barf not gonna barf. She's like, Yeah, no, totally just do it, just do it. And while he's eating away at this fish stuff, he ends up building a gun out of the fish bones that looks exactly like the gun that killed her. What does this mean? Who knows. But he is compelled to use it at various points. And for some reason, I think two or three times a dog gets it and drags it from one place to another. It's very strange. We now get them sort of hopping from waking from one place into another place that might still be VR to another place that might still be VR. They're not quite sure what's going on. Everybody's still after her. They're trying to win the game, I guess. And everybody that they think is their friend ends up turning on them. And we end and this is I'm not going to fully give away the ending. But I will say there's a lot of twists and turns in this. And probably the reason why people are mad about this film, for one of many reasons other than it being incredibly confusing, is that it's very much got that it was all a dream feel to it. However, of course, because everything was maybe all a dream on every level, they also have that is this reality moment as well. So, um, yeah, if you want to know how it properly ends, what the details of those twists, and turns are, I guess just check it out yourself. I spent four bucks on Amazon so you can to. Um, I think that there were some really interesting things going on in this, especially since working in games. I just really felt like he captured some of the weird moments you have where you're supposed to basically have an avatar that represents you, but you go and speak to a townsperson and they say the same thing over and over again, unless you give them the right prompt. So that happens in there. They have people who are just rolling their heads around like okay, you have to say the right thing to me otherwise, like I'm not gonna respond to you. And you have to like say their name and choose certain things and it did really feel accurate in a strange way. I don't know it's I mean, it's not accurate to VR, but it is accurate accurate to games as a whole. The game pods being super sexualized, were super gross. I there's like so much plugging and porting and holes and body and it's Cronenberg, of course, but it's just seeing people like plugging into each other with basically umbilical cords out of their spines was like, What is this so much? Um, the, I don't know, the fish bones were a lot. That was a lot to watch. I just I can't tell from watching this film whether Cronenberg loves or hates VR, I cannot figure it out. Because the main character, the game designer, she's obsessed with it. And also, you know, there's, there's just so many moments where you're like, okay, is he against this? Because everyone's like, given up on their lives, like she She jokes at one point because they go and find sanctuary in a ski lodge. And he's like, Well, aren't you worried that people are going to come here and she's like, nobody's skis for real anymore? It's like, okay, sure. I mean, that's the course like it's VR. Everybody's gonna live there forever. We can't except for in the year 22 I need to we can't pay people to be in VR, so it's fine. I don't I don't know. Because there's also a lot of loving interesting, fascinating stuff about it. So I don't know guys. I don't know. All right, so trivia. It's weird. It's so weird. It's so weird. Um, okay, trivia tagline. Play it, live it kill for it. Cool and pretty weak, pretty weak sauce. The film's plot came about after Cronenberg conducted an interview with Sam Salman Rushdie for shift magazine in 1995. At the time, Rushdie was in hiding due to have fatwah being put on his life due to his controversial book The Satanic Verses. Rushdie's dilemma gave Cronenberg an idea of a fatwa against a virtual reality game designer existence was originally pitched to MGM, but they did not greenlight the film due to its complex structure. Or alternatively, as you can see in other pieces of trivia, Cronenberg was working with MGM, but he pulled out because he wanted to cast Jennifer Jason Leigh, and MGM said that basically, he did not want to cast her because she makes little art movies that don't make money. Jennifer's Jason Lee had actually finished shooting her role and Eyes Wide Shut when this role came up. She jumped onto the film and then Eyes Wide Shut it required reshoots. She was not available for it, she chose to stay on this movie and she was fully recast and Eyes Wide Shut so I don't know what she was supposed to be in there. But whatever she was was taken out. She also insisted during the shooting of keeping one of the prop pods one of those controllers with her between filming to strengthen the maternal bond you see, she has with the software hardware flush where I don't know what to call it. In the movie. I'm also the motel that they stay at. And this film is also used in shits Creek, and it is the Rosebud motel for short series shits Creek. This is the first thing David Cronenberg wrote since video drum and 1983, it won a lot of accolades, including the silverbear at the Berlin Film Fest. But of course, it was a huge financial failure. Some people think it's because Dimension Films, which is the US distributor basically gave it a very limited release with almost no publicity. And in Canada, they didn't even make back the cost of distribution. So rough. Christopher Priest wrote the tie in novel to accompany the film, which is similar to his other books in nature, I guess I don't know who he is. And in 1999, a graphic novel credited to Cronenberg and Shawn Scofield was published. So, that was my pick. That's interesting, because Christopher Priest is a comic book writer. Why wouldn't you get the graphic novel job? It's so weird. Yeah. Okay. Like, I think I remember kind of liking this movie. And it felt like, you know, a spiritual successor to video drum maybe, sir, but it just looked really cheap. I thought, sure. Okay. And I don't know if it was like, the photography just didn't look very cinematic, or what, but there was something about it that the as I was watching it, I was like, this almost feels like a, a TV movie or something. And you're saying, yeah, the sets that you do feel really confined in spaces a lot of times, and that might be due to camera work. And the sets are like you're very much in this place in this place. You don't really get this feeling of movement. And I know when they're in the car, I was thinking that I was like, this looks like cheap blue screen. Like I felt like there was a little bit of balloon reflection in the car. And it did look very, very bad. So I don't know, I it didn't massively bother me throughout. But it was also kind of a boring film to, to I mean, I don't know, there's mixed feelings about this movie. It's interesting, but it's also like a lot. And I don't know. I remember liking it more. The second time I saw it partially because I had such an opinion that I disliked it so much first time. So I don't know if that's like, Oh, guess it's better. Right, I sat for free on Netflix. So I didn't have the $4 Anger building in me either. Yeah, I'm not I'm not regretful for spending the money because you know, Cronenberg. Hopefully he gets a few cents of that. I'm hard to say. But I don't know at the same time. It's just it's not a great film, and it's got that really cheesy 90s This is what VR is gonna be and it's always the same. It's always everyone. He's gonna be obsessed with it and they're gonna jack into it. It's better than real life and then you see the VR and you're like this is shit. It's always shit. Like Lawnmower Man. It's shit. Like Strange Days it's shit there's no reason all right what about what was the Spielberg one that Oh, Ready Player One all right oh, film is fucking the worst because you're just like it does right it takes a bunch of really amazing properties and cheapens them so thanks for that Spielberg Wow Spielberg meanwhile is looking at our podcast is going fuck that I do to these guys it's not all the time but Ready Player One is particularly awful when you look at this episode's poster image you're not going to see a food theme. It's going to be three very artsy films because I chose for 1985 Brazil be five eight steps and this whole system of yours could be on fire and I couldn't even turn on a kitchen tap without filling out a 27 b stroke six Do you believe that the government is winning the battle against terrorists? arrays in a while? Brazil I love a girl with no Brazil nobody I don't remember that either. Okay budget of $15 million. box office of $10 million. I was good to myself, you guys. Rotten Tomato critics of this at 98%. The audience says it at 90%. It was directed by Terry Gilliam, who directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail time bandits, adventures Baron Munchausen Fisher King 12 monkeys, and of course was a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Written by Terry Gilliam and the amazing Tom Stoppard, who wrote Empire the son, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Shakespeare in Love, and then also Charles McCann, who is a Gillean associate who has helped write and act Believe it or not in all of his films. Starring the wonderful Jonathan price 128 credits. Let's see Tomorrow Never Dies stigmata. GI Joe Rise of Cobra he played the American president. Yeah, little lot. But forever known to me as Mr. Dark in something wicked this way comes. It also serves Kim greased grace. I believe it's greased. But she wasn't Chad man hunter and just tons of TV episodes and stuff like that. It also has a revolving door of famous actors with small parts of cameos, including but not limited to Katherine Helmond. Robert De Niro Bob Hoskins in home has Vanessa just mentioned, Jim Broadbent. I know that you guys have both seen this movie. I haven't seen this movie. Until I mean 1990 I might have seen it. And that was the last time I have Oh, like this movie. God. Oh, wow. This was an absolute delight to watch again. At least until the end, which I had forgotten about. So wait, remember the ending? But yes, take us on Andre. This is a weird dystopian future film. It's kind of a political satire. We are in a hyper polluted hyper consumerist, bureaucratic, totalitarian future, much like the one we live in. And we meet Sam Lowry, who is a low level government employee. And when we first meet him, it's sort of a dream of him flying with angel wings to the clouds and rescuing this law. Really damsel in distress. And then we get pulled into the real world, which is incredibly crowded, and polluted. Everybody's living on top of each other and stuff like that. He wakes up and he goes through his morning routine of coffee and toasts and go into work and all that stuff. And all this is done in this really cool retro futuristic way, that it's all kind of a technological marvel. But it's, it's made itself so much more complex than if you just throw a couple of slices of bread in a toaster and use a regular coffeemaker, you know, so it's, it's all this cool stuff, you know, machinery moving around him and everything, then all of a sudden, two pieces of toast pop up. So the inciting incident of this story comes almost immediately when a big beetle gets stuck in a teleprinter. While it's printing out the name of a wanted terrorist in this office. This terrorists name is Archibald Tuttle, but the beetle getting crushed in it instead causes it to print out the name Archibald Buddle who is not a terrorist, but who is immediately arrested from his home on Christmas Eve in front of his family. So Lowry, our hero, he discovers the mistake and he tries to go talk to bubbles wife, which doesn't go all that well. But at the apartment above, he meets the beautiful woman from his dreams. Jill Jill Layton. She is a truck driver in this dystopian world. And she gets drawn into all of this because she's trying to help Mrs. Buttle find out what happened to her husband, because everybody is just like, you know, he gets arrested in a very spectacular way and thrown in this weird cocoon and then just dragged off and the family is like what, what just happened? So spoiler, the government killed him. When Sam's AC goes out in his own apartment, the man who comes to help him is none other than Archibald Tuttle, who is in fact a terrorist, but it's also heating an AC duct repairman. And then from here, the whole thing becomes this hero's journey for Sam to rise above his menial, you know, cog in a giant machine government job and do something important with his life. The weird food scene comes when he goes to meet with his mother for lunch at the swanky restaurant. And he's there with his mom, his mom's friends. And they all order this amazing sounding food, you know, they're getting lobster and shrimp and steak and veal, all this. And when the food comes out, they're given their each given a plate of this green glob that looks like mashed potatoes, colored green. And they are all EU law. And the waiter puts down this blob in front of them. And then he takes this little sign, and he puts it behind the plate. And this sign has a picture of the food they ordered. So you know, he's like, for the MME steak, and he puts his green glob down and he puts his picture behind this delicious looking steak. So that is how I shoehorn this into the weird food movie. So So I thought that was very cute and clever. Anyway, Jill, she gets arrested as an accomplice of Tuttle because she's been trying to find out what happened to Buddle. And this is when Lowry finally answers the call to adventure, which puts him at odds with the rest of this world. Of course, he finally gets captured and is being tortured. And the third act is is very surreal escape scene where he and Jill are reunited, had been told that she was killed. And then she and her friends come and rescue him from this thing. And it turns into this weird thing where you start realizing, I don't think any of this is real. And he he Injil escape, you know, spectacularly from this dystopian world. And then it ends in a very depressing way that I'd forgotten about but, but makes perfect sense for this entire film. It's really a great ending, but it is a bit of a bummer. There is so much trivia to go through on this but I'm going to pick out just a couple of things that I thought was really it's got to be second to like Blade Runner is smarter stuff that's been rigged, right? So the myth behind the name of this movie because I actually had to look up why is this movie called Brazil now the theme song of Brazil runs through the entire movie, right? But I was like why? So the myth is that Terry Gilliam was at a beach in the UK. And apparently the weather wasn't particularly great, but a man was sitting on the beach alone, listening to the famous song Brazil on little stereo. And Gilliam was fascinated by the man sitting there despite all of the bullshit going on at the beach, this horrible weather, and this he thought would be a great theme for the movie. Gilliam's original cut of the film was 142 minutes long, and ends on a dark note. As I mentioned, this version was released in Europe and internationally by 20. This Century Fox without issue, however, US distribution was handled by Universal, whose executives felt the ending tested poorly universal and assessed insisted on a dramatic re edit of the film to give it a happy ending, and suggested testing both versions to see which scored higher. So at one point, there were two editing teams working on the film and Gilliam didn't know this, oh, he's putting together his pet. And the studio is putting together Oh my god. So once he finds this out, this becomes a real problem for him. So the studio is not going to release his film, and he's not going to allow them to release their version of it. So Gilliam was asked to do a film class during the filming of this movie at the University of Southern California, or during the editing of the movie, Terry agreed and took advantage of the situation by preparing to bring an audio visual aid, which was his cut of the film, which would have been allowed but unfortunately, two days before the event students advertised a free screening of the movie, so when he arrived, it was announced that Universal Pictures would not allow him to show it. During his speech to the class, he was interrupted by studio executives phone calls. They eventually allowed him to show a clip. So he showed the entire movie and repeated this feedings for over two weeks. During one of these screenings, that LA movie critic saw it and awarded it the Best Picture of the Year Award, which was responsible for getting Gilliam's edit released finally, oh my God, that's incredible. Yeah, so they were all excited to have Robert De Niro on board at first. But as time wore on, they found a Niro's need for research and obsession with details increasingly irritating. This is coming from Gillean if you've ever watched the 12 Monkeys documentary, Sol De Niro's need for research and obsession with details, increasingly irritating with Gilliam saying that he wanted to strangle him. While most of the actors and actresses needed only two to three takes, Robert De Niro insisted on 25 to 30 takes for his character, and he still managed to forget his lines. Awful. In 2004 Total Film Magazine named Brazil the 20th greatest British movie of all time. In 2006, channel four voted Brazil, Brazil one of the 50 films to see before you die. The film also ranks at number 83 in Empire magazine's list of the 500 greatest films of all time, Wired Magazine ranked Brazil number five in his list of the top 20 sci fi movies. Entertainment Weekly elicited Brazil as the sixth best science fiction piece of media release since 1982, and also ranked the film number 13 on their list of The Top 50. Colts films. Our buddy, Roger Ebert. Oh no, he gave the film two out of four stars and said it was hard to follow. He felt the film when Roger just whines you felt the film lack the confident grasp on its characters roles in a story, a quote, a wash and elaborate special effects, sensational sets, apocalyptic scenes of destruction and a general lack of discipline. Oh my god, what is he what? Oh, he gets cancer and dies more? Was Was he given four stars? And two thumbs what? What is he like? Nothing. Nothing was only one of the twosomes remember? That's true. Oh, guess what this film was just a joy to watch again. I was just wrapped up in it. It seems really poignant. Now with all of the government bullshit we're all dealing with every single day and media just being slammed in your face and never knowing what's going on. But having a feeling that perhaps your government doesn't really care what happens to you one way or the other. So yeah, I was I was like, Wow, this movie is you know, as topical now as it was and 85 This fits really nicely in with his time bandits, Brazil, and 12 monkeys. I mean, timeout is Brazil and was the film right after this. I know he called it part of a part of a unofficial trilogy. No, because then this is the first part of another trilogy with 12 Monkeys something Yeah, that the time whatever trilogy. Yeah. So I don't know it was just just a lot of fun. And I felt like I really finally, you know, after fucking Dracula 2000 I feel like I gave myself a nice little nice little thing to watch for once. Yeah. Good call. Good call. Yeah, that's okay. Well, that means I believe Vanessa, you have to pick the next. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Um, next topic. So I'm thinking that maybe we should focus on films that feature some kind of creature or monster but has to be furry. It has to be a furry, furry monster. Um, be fuzzy. You want us to watch Oh, no, no, no, that is the one caveat. No furry as in you and I don't want to hear about my little ponies. I don't want to I don't want to hear any of that. Nobody show up dressed as a fox next week. Just focus on movies. But anyway, listen, the furries are a lot different than the bra so offended that you I think you can be a furry that is a brony Okay. Isn't a brony just like a subset of a furry? I don't. I don't really know that I brought this up now because I have no information to back it up. I know people who are bronies check real quick. I mean, of course you do. Say I work in. A friend of mine is a furry. Really? Let's turn that closet behind you back. To be friends, if that's the case, you're gonna make me watch the horrible TV like 2020 special about how like it's not really about sex and they're just really like, having a community situation. It's like no, it's about sex. Like that's, that's 100% about sex. Don't pretend it's not about sex. It is. ABS All right, this ticket weird. Yeah, cuz that never happens in any other geek culture. No other conventions have had that going on for 30 plus years or took a weird turn and my mom is now going what is occurring. Don't Google it. Don't Google it Kelly's mom. Now I do. What's the third movie? Maybe there's a bear Munchausen. Okay. With Mike correctly pointing out why? Found by honor D was originally shot in English. I figured well, if we can get that facts before he shut down. Because yeah, he mentioned on Facebook that it was the studio was paying for it. The US studio is paying for it. So that's why it was in English first. Yeah, there we go. You know what that is? You know what that is? Eric that is value for value. He just produced content for our shows. Right? And that's how the value for value system was. So thank you for that. Thank you Micah. Absolutely after providing us some GI Joe. Yep. DTS, I wasn't gonna mention it No. added to our experience knowing a little bit more in the comments section. So thanks for that. Well, and let's also thank Bob and Ron who has been doing some fun stuff behind the scenes for all of us and Danny Carlos. Ryan All of you lovely humans who are participating in this bizarre experiment we are undertaking can't thank you enough You guys rock thank you so much. That's awesome. Even when I give you shit on Facebook, I mean it lovingly All right, shall we call it a day and let Eric get back to resting and recovering? Yes. All right. Sounds good. We will be back in one week. Quite possibly in person we'll see how Americans feeling and we are going to be talking death by free transportation other considerations for strange aeons radio produced by Pan Am airlines. When you think of traveling think of pan and you can't think the experience. Yes, the strange aeons radio stay at econolodge ever. It's an easy stop on the road. Strange aeons radio is recorded live in front of a studio audience. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a positive review on your favorite podcast app. Sit. I think that says something more about you than anything else. Kelly