Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
The primary focus of this podcast episode revolves around the film "Eyes Wide Shut," directed by Stanley Kubrick, which has elicited a range of reactions from its viewers. JJ expresses his profound dissatisfaction with the film, articulating that his discontent stems from a lack of comprehension regarding its narrative and themes. Alec, offers a contrasting perspective, emphasizing that the film resonates differently in light of contemporary societal issues, particularly those surrounding power dynamics and secrecy. Throughout their discourse, they delve into the film's notable performances, especially that of Sidney Pollock, highlighting how secondary characters often overshadow the leads, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Ultimately, they grapple with the film's length and perceived disjointedness, concluding that while it possesses certain artistic merits, it falls short of delivering a cohesive and engaging experience.
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Transcript
I do not like this movie because I don't get it.
Speaker A:It's weird.
Speaker B:Well, we know you don't like documentaries, so that's been well established on that.
Speaker A:Fair enough.
Speaker A:Welcome to the what's Every podcast.
Speaker A:We fashion ourselves cinematic judge and jury.
Speaker A:My name is J.J. crowder.
Speaker A:I'm with my co host, Alec Burgess.
Speaker B:Let's get it.
Speaker A:We appreciate you tuning in.
Speaker A:Go and hit that follow subscribe like bell notification buttons.
Speaker A:Tell a friend about us.
Speaker A:Tell a family members about us.
Speaker A:Do not tell anyone related to this movie about us.
Speaker A:And we'll talk about why here in a minute.
Speaker A:But first and foremost, we're in a new month.
Speaker A:Crazy town, dude.
Speaker A:How was it?
Speaker A:September nuts.
Speaker A: The is going on: Speaker A:But yeah, we're in a new month, which means new topic.
Speaker A:And thank you, Charles.
Speaker A:I think.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker B:We probably should thank you.
Speaker A:Thank you for being an active member in our community.
Speaker A:God, I hate this topic.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's Stanley Kubrick month.
Speaker A:Kubrick.
Speaker A:A month of Kubrick.
Speaker A:What a depressing, weird month.
Speaker A:But we're kicking it off with Eyes Wide Shut.
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Speaker A:So do it for the podcast.
Speaker A:Anyway, let's talk about Eyes Wide.
Speaker A:Shut up.
Speaker A:It was released.
Speaker A:I am not prepared.
Speaker A:Where is that damn date?
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:It was written and directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Speaker A:Oh.
Speaker A:It stars Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Todd Field, Madison Egginton Sydney Pollock, Peter Hans Benson, Leslie Lowe, Randall Paul, Stuart Thorndike and Julian Davis.
Speaker A:Don't forget Thomas Gibson.
Speaker A:There's a lot of people in this movie which we've seen a lot of lately.
Speaker A:And it's about a Manhattan doctor who embarks on a bizarre night long odyssey after his wife's admission of unfulfilled longing.
Speaker A:That's a generously no basic synopsis that doesn't fit what this is.
Speaker A:Listen, this is Alex movie and I can't wait to hear what you have to say about this thing because dude,.
Speaker B:This is a conspiracy theories like bowl of ice cream, chocolate sundae all rolled into one.
Speaker B:That is the entire reason.
Speaker B:And it only, you know, enhances it with the fact that this comes out and you know, then Kubrick dies like a couple days later.
Speaker A:That's fair.
Speaker B:So feeds the conspiracy theory soul.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:And I actually didn't know that you despise this movie as much as you do, but that is just added cherry on top.
Speaker A:I was gonna say that's icing on your cake there because.
Speaker B:That was not the issue.
Speaker B:Yeah, but I'm glad it had that effect.
Speaker B:Yeah, but yeah, that's why Shadow group of weird ass party.
Speaker B:Yeah, like P. Diddy was definitely at that party.
Speaker B:Behind one of the masks.
Speaker A:No, no.
Speaker A:Some baby oil.
Speaker A:Listen, dude, I usually love like I've been.
Speaker A:I usually enjoy Kubrick.
Speaker A:Like, okay, I like Kubrick because he's weird, but he also doesn't shy away from.
Speaker A:Well, he never did.
Speaker A:I shouldn't say he doesn't because he doesn't do anything anymore.
Speaker A:But he didn't shy away from the weird and the, you know, the, the dark and the real.
Speaker A:And I like that to a point.
Speaker A:This movie I felt like.
Speaker A:And I don't know, and I'm not trying to harp on the man's death, but like this movie felt like maybe he was in the midst of a fever dream in the last couple years of his life because this one.
Speaker A: ought the rights back in like: Speaker A:So he sat on it a long ass time and then moved it to New York.
Speaker A:And I'm just like, oh, you probably shouldn't have made this movie.
Speaker A:It just doesn't.
Speaker A:At least to me.
Speaker A:Like it feels disjointed and it doesn't know what the.
Speaker A:It's trying to do except for make you feel weird.
Speaker A:And then a whole lot of sex and nakedness.
Speaker A:Which at the time when this movie came out, I was 18.
Speaker A:So I was like, hooray, Nicole Kidman titties, I'm in.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:And then it's like, Jesus, there's a lot of sex.
Speaker A:But I just like.
Speaker A:And I like Tom Cruise and I like Nicole Kidman and I'm like, okay, that's three people that I really enjoy.
Speaker A:And then I left the theater going the, like not even the.
Speaker A:It's one of them.
Speaker A:Like millennial, Late millennial, early Gen Z, D, A, F, U, Q, duh.
Speaker A:That I just watch.
Speaker A:And, and I.
Speaker A:And I don't.
Speaker A:And here's my biggest problem with that.
Speaker A:I don't get it.
Speaker A:Like, I do not.
Speaker A:And I usually am.
Speaker A:You know, this we six years of this dude.
Speaker A:I'm usually pretty good at finding the through lines and the.
Speaker A:I do not understand this movie except it's a bunch of weird ass powerful people doing shady and some dudes accidentally fell into this like because his wife said she thought about cheat.
Speaker A:What the.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker A:So there it is.
Speaker A:Like, I do not like this movie because I don't get it.
Speaker A:It's weird.
Speaker B:Well, we know you don't like documentaries, so that's been well established on that.
Speaker A:Fair enough.
Speaker B:But no, I get where you, I get where you're coming from because I for when it was made.
Speaker B:This is so far out in left field now.
Speaker B:A little bit later, you have the Harvey Weinstein, you have P. Diddy, you have several stories coming out from Hollywood, from powerful people where this now doesn't seem like such a stretch if that that where it's going.
Speaker B: I didn't see it in, you know,: Speaker B:I was six.
Speaker A:Thank God.
Speaker B:I saw it much later.
Speaker B:And it's, you know, it's, it's almost like when I saw it, I was like, okay, I can put a little bit more realism behind this.
Speaker B:And it's not so far out of left field because it is places where, you know, he starts to get paranoid after this.
Speaker B:He's being followed.
Speaker B:He's trying to connect the dots and all these things.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so there's, there's lots of this movie where it is just really weird.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But post like Weinstein and post B. Diddy and stuff like that, it comes out.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:Hey, you know what?
Speaker B:It's not that big of a stretch.
Speaker A:Fair.
Speaker A:That's fair.
Speaker B:I. I will say about Kubrick though, is what I.
Speaker B:Because I'm hit and miss with Kubrick.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:What I like about Kubrick is his willingness to commit.
Speaker A:So what he's doing would explain it.
Speaker B:Like, I mean, there is in almost every single one of his movies, there is so much nudity.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:But it's also, he's like, oh, well, if I show a titty, I'm getting an R rating anyway.
Speaker B:So I'm gonna show a thousand of them.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Like I'm not gonna get a different rating based on what I'm showing type of a thing.
Speaker B:But I mean, I.
Speaker B:It's also like a two edged sword because his perfectionism, like, I, I wouldn't be surprised if this movie had been in production for 30 years since he had the rights.
Speaker B:And it probably was in a lot of different cases.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:In some way, shape or form.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Some way, shape or form.
Speaker B:He's been working on this because of his perfectionism.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think it's even like the, the longest movie production continuous and it lasted over a year.
Speaker B:And that was before they did like reshoots and.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Dude.
Speaker B:And so it's, it's one of those things where you almost have to look at it.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:For all that work that you put in to still have it be like what you said.
Speaker B:Just you're sitting there going, the.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's hard to almost see, you know, the universal belief that Kubrick's genius.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:When you're looking at it going, I.
Speaker B:Okay, hold up, dude.
Speaker B:What on earth was I supposed to be following along?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But I will say I really like.
Speaker B:Even though he's got like three lines.
Speaker B:Sidney Pollock.
Speaker A:Oh, dude.
Speaker B:Does it really makes this movie more so than Tom Cruise, really?
Speaker B:Tom Cruise almost feels out of place.
Speaker A:In this to me so much.
Speaker B:But you have like, Sidney Pollock does a really good job of playing this.
Speaker B:Just, you know, he's.
Speaker B:He's got his seat at the table type of a thing, but he's not, you know, really high up on the table.
Speaker B:He's.
Speaker B:He's a low ball player in this whole thing, but he's got his seat and he just has this, you know, really disconnected view.
Speaker B:And so what I.
Speaker B:The line that gets me that I loved is like, nobody killed anybody, but people die all the time.
Speaker B:Some variation of that when they're talking at the end about this girl that oh, OD'd.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And Tom is like, wait a minute, this is too convenient.
Speaker B:And City Pollock's like, no, it's not.
Speaker B:I mean, nobody killed anybody.
Speaker B:Nobody hurt anybody, but people die all the time.
Speaker B:And, you know, we're getting a lot of this, you know, suspicious news again over the years.
Speaker B:You have, like, Avicii, Anthony Bourdain, you have a whole list of celebrities that they have these really just out there kind of, you know, tragedies of taking their own lives.
Speaker B:And you almost sit there wondering, like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, nobody did anything.
Speaker B:And people die all the time.
Speaker B:And so that line.
Speaker B:That line is, like, sticks with me.
Speaker B:And the way he delivers it in such a.
Speaker B:Like, nonchalant, Almost fully believing this, you know, fully believing the lie.
Speaker B:Almost.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Is delivered so well.
Speaker B:And so his performance especially is like.
Speaker B:I would have rather had him be the main character.
Speaker B:Freaking Tom Cruise, dude.
Speaker A:It's so true.
Speaker A:Like, I think I.
Speaker A:One of the things I was going to talk about is I think this movie suffers.
Speaker A:Listen, I don't know that I would like this movie, period.
Speaker A:Like, it's just not my thing.
Speaker A:Like, it's weird, but that's a personal thing, right?
Speaker A:But I think this movie, regardless, if I look at it objectively, this movie suffers to me because Tom Cruise is in it and.
Speaker A:And to a certain degree, I think it suffers because Nicole Kidman's in it and.
Speaker B:And that they were together at the time.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I think there's no question it suffers from that or suffered back then from that, because I remember very.
Speaker A:Going, Jesus, these.
Speaker A:You know, because they.
Speaker A:Far and away or whatever that.
Speaker A:Where they met and then they got married and they were like Hollywood's golden couple for decades.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And then all of a sudden, after this movie.
Speaker A:Well, no, like.
Speaker A:Well, I.
Speaker A:This movie's wild.
Speaker A:And then.
Speaker A:But they.
Speaker A:Neither of them impress me in this movie.
Speaker A:It's everyone else around them.
Speaker A:That is a very cool, you know, connective tissue.
Speaker A:Like you said, the Sydney Pollock, even.
Speaker A:I can't remember the actress's name, but the one that plays the prostitute that he walks the street with for like 25 too many goddamn minutes having the conversation.
Speaker A:But that's one of the most, like, the better parts of the movie to me is like, the whole conversation with her where he's on his way and if he hadn't gotten this phone call, dude's gonna sleep with the prostitute.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And so I think.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:But yeah, like, there's nothing interesting to me about Tom's.
Speaker B:Cruise.
Speaker A:Tom Cruise's character.
Speaker A:I don't give a.
Speaker A:About him and about what he's going through.
Speaker A:I want to see more of this underground society.
Speaker A:I want, like, that part.
Speaker A:I'm like, okay, if you had made a movie.
Speaker A:And even to me, the, the character Nick.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like if you had made a movie more about Nick.
Speaker A:And Tom Cruise's character is like a periphery that he, that gets him in trouble.
Speaker A:And now I've got to deal with this whole, like, I invited this dude in, we see Nick get kidnapped.
Speaker A:Now we see him be.
Speaker A:Whatever's happening to Nick.
Speaker A:I'm more interested in that than Tom Cruise's character.
Speaker A:I couldn't give a less about.
Speaker A:In fact, I care less about Nicole Kidman's character than I do Tom Cruise's character.
Speaker A:So it's just one of these things that to me, I absolutely agree with you.
Speaker A:I say all that.
Speaker A:Just come back and circle around and say I 100 agree with you that this movie suffered because of Tom Cruise.
Speaker A:And I think it suffered exponentially more because of their relationship and the fact that Nicole Kidman was in this and they were married.
Speaker A:And so it's like this almost like weirdly autobiographical that you find out about.
Speaker A:It just.
Speaker A:I don't know, it just.
Speaker A:I don't, I don't like them in it.
Speaker A:And I don't think the movie in the way that it's told would be any better necessarily with anybody else in it.
Speaker A:I just think it's told from the wrong perspective personally.
Speaker A:Like, I don't.
Speaker A:And it's about the wrong thing to me.
Speaker A:Like it's about relationships and sex and, and your doubts and fears within a relationship.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But then it incorporates this weird ass secret sex society that I'm interested in.
Speaker A:Because that shit's like you said, especially now.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like back then you're like, there was always rumors of like the, that can go on in Hollywood and the upper echelons of our society.
Speaker A:But to see it is more interesting.
Speaker A:But now I'm like, now I'm even more.
Speaker A:Because we know that was happening.
Speaker A:But I don't.
Speaker A:The, the, I guess what am I trying to say here?
Speaker A:The, the perspective by which this is, this is told and we flow through.
Speaker A:It's the wrong one to me.
Speaker B:No, I get what you're saying because like the most interesting.
Speaker B:Interesting is not really the right word.
Speaker B:But the best parts for me were the ones where it's not Tom Cruise, it's Tom Cruise interacting with Todd Field.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:With Alan Cumming.
Speaker B:With Mr. Milich.
Speaker B:I don't know the actor's name, but the crazy Russian guy who's just awesome.
Speaker B:Anthony isn't.
Speaker B:Oh yeah.
Speaker B:But you have it.
Speaker B:So it's almost like I would rather this if it was me, I would rather put Tom Cruise and almost like a detective role and he's following leads of what's happening and piecing it all together.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because those are the most interesting things.
Speaker B:And where, where he's trying to connect all the dots, but they've already shown like the center of the Tootsie Pop at that point.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:We already get everything versus having him not knowing what's going on.
Speaker B:Because really the problem is he knows what's going on, but he doesn't know enough.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'd rather he don't know anything.
Speaker B:And he's trying to figure it out and you know, have it be uncovering that, you know, his wife is at the center of this kind of web or something along those lines.
Speaker B:And so he's following these leads or following up on all these things, trying to figure out how they all connect.
Speaker B:Neck together.
Speaker A:Yeah, I like that.
Speaker B:But the fact, like, it's like you said, they're telling the wrong story and with the story we get instead is that he's this like everybody who's at this weird sex party we see at other points in the movie we just don't know yet.
Speaker B:And so that's the story there that's almost being told is like he's going through this completely witless until he stumbles upon it and then instead of doing the smart thing, which is, oh, hey, they take you blindfolded to play the piano.
Speaker B:Yeah, I don't want to go there.
Speaker B:I'm good.
Speaker B:Let me know how it is afterwards.
Speaker B:Like, no, he's like, hey, that sounds like the place I want to go.
Speaker A:Yeah, let me go check this out.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so I much rather have it be the flip of he's trying like they find, you know, this, I think character named Mandy.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Find her.
Speaker B:He has, he recognizes her from Cine Pollux or whatever.
Speaker B:And now he's going down trying to figure out as a detective.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Rather than as, you know, the reason why she didn't kill herself, but she was, you know, just happened to end up dead.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so now you add in this almost detective esque type story because I think we get too much too soon.
Speaker A:That's fair.
Speaker B:That makes any sense.
Speaker B:We know the story, we know everything and there's nothing left really to discover.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, I see it.
Speaker A:No, I agree.
Speaker A:It feels like they were aiming for, which is a cubic thing.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like aiming for character development.
Speaker A:But then the characters weren't interesting enough for me to give a about their development or their situation.
Speaker A:Like I don't you guys are wealthy and married beautiful people.
Speaker A:Why do I care if you're unhappy?
Speaker A:Like, I just don't.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:And so.
Speaker A:So for me to go have to watch a 2 hour and 40 minute movie of you trying to figure out why you're unhappy alongside this weird ass side story of being tied up in this occult type.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It doesn't connect.
Speaker A:And I'm starting this conversation is helping me understand why I don't get it.
Speaker A:Because it doesn't connect.
Speaker A:Like I feel like I'm watch two now I'm seeing that I'm watching two different movies mashed together with no common through line.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So I love what you were saying about the investigator.
Speaker A:What happens if Mandy is a good friend of his wife's and she dies and wife is surprisingly not nonchalant.
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:Not affected.
Speaker A:And he's like wait, what the.
Speaker A:And then maybe he finds a card that let.
Speaker A:That tells her where the next party is going to be.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Or it has the password and that's how he only gets one password.
Speaker A:And so now I'm interested because now I don't give a about her cheating on him or thinking about cheating on him.
Speaker A:What I care about is what the is she into.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I want to follow this dude along as he figures out the have I been married to for the last however long.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like that intrigues me.
Speaker A:Now I'm curious.
Speaker A:Now I want to see character development.
Speaker A:I don't give a fuck about your busted ass marriage.
Speaker A:Who cares?
Speaker A:And I how it's can.
Speaker A:But it's weird.
Speaker A:It just.
Speaker B:Yeah, well that's a Kubrick thing too because we had the same kind of gripe.
Speaker B:We're doing Full Metal jacket.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's two movies.
Speaker B:It's first movie is about 50 minutes long.
Speaker A:Good call.
Speaker B:The second movie is.
Speaker B:And so we had the same experience, that same jarring experience.
Speaker B:And this is less separate.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:But it's the same kind of thing.
Speaker B:Like you're talking about is.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The.
Speaker B:The rom com side of it almost.
Speaker B:And then the porno side of it and that's.
Speaker B:That's how they kind of split it down the middle.
Speaker B:But it's happening at the same time.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so I think, I think you switch it up and you switch up the point of view of how we're viewing the story and keep the audience in the dark.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because we've talked about this before.
Speaker B:Movies that do really well by not showing the monster, not showing the kind of scary thing that's there, but instead kubrick just drops you right in the middle of this weird ass orgy.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it's.
Speaker B:And it happens just like, it's like it's a scene transition almost.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And you're not prepped for it, you're not ready for it, but here you go.
Speaker A:Yeah, well, and then it's.
Speaker A:And then it immediately.
Speaker A:You drop into this heightened situation and then they immediately slow it down and go.
Speaker A:Let's watch how this impacts him.
Speaker A:What?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:First of all, he's way too calm, like, through most of this movie.
Speaker A:Like, especially when you get to, like, one of the worst.
Speaker A:Like, you're like, what the.
Speaker A:And then you're like, you took that really well at first and now you're starting to spiral.
Speaker A:Dude.
Speaker A:I'd have run out of there with my hair on fire going, nope.
Speaker A:Because even if I wanted to get down in jiggy in the orgy, this is just not gonna end well.
Speaker A:Like, I'm leaving.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, what was cracking me up.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Is, you know he shows up in a taxi, right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Does.
Speaker B:Doesn't bother to put his mask and robe on right off the bat.
Speaker B:Walks in, waits until like the absolute last moment to put it on.
Speaker B:It's like, what is this your first time at a secret society meeting?
Speaker B:Yeah,.
Speaker A:Hi.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm here.
Speaker B:You guys wait for me or what?
Speaker B:And then, like, as soon as you're in here, like, in the thick of it, it's a very quick, easy.
Speaker B:Nope, I'm out.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Not what I signed up for.
Speaker A:And I'm sorry.
Speaker A:The instant my buddy tells me I need a password to get in, I'm probably going, let me know how it goes, buddy.
Speaker B:An hour beforehand.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:You need a password for what?
Speaker A:Yeah, most I need a password is because they don't want anybody else to find out about it.
Speaker A:That means there's trouble on the back end because I'm not keeping my mouth shut about the robed ass dorgy off.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I'm out.
Speaker A:I'm good.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'll be fine.
Speaker A:Hate this movie, dude.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:But I do like the.
Speaker A:Our conversation around it.
Speaker A:Like, I like the re.
Speaker A:I like.
Speaker A:Here's the problem, though.
Speaker A:So this is the last thing that I'll say having.
Speaker A:And this is fully generated from our conversation.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I like the movie that we've talked about.
Speaker A:Could have been made.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:But let me ask you this question, because in my head it's churning.
Speaker A:Hasn't that movie or a version ish of that movie already been made?
Speaker A:Maybe not with orgies and.
Speaker A:But like, the whole you know what I mean?
Speaker A:Like, that's.
Speaker A:And maybe that's where Kubrick's like, well, no, I'm not telling that story because I'm.
Speaker A:I can't imagine he didn't kind of go down that road.
Speaker A:But like, we've seen that movie before.
Speaker A:So again, would I love this movie at that point?
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:Maybe if Kubrick did it because Cubic's not afraid to.
Speaker A:Because like the European version of this movie, like the release, the European release, like actual.
Speaker A:Had like hard course.
Speaker A:Like it was a porn.
Speaker A:Like it was like.
Speaker A:And so of course in the States they didn't want the NC17 rating, so they cut that.
Speaker A:But Kubrick making a movie that we've seen before could have been interesting.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because it would have been way different than what we've seen before because Kubrick wasn't afraid of the.
Speaker A:Like, he'd be like, you, I'm making my movie.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker A:But that's my only.
Speaker A:Like, yeah, we've seen that movie that we just talked about.
Speaker A:Even though I would be interesting to see it made by somebody who's not afraid of ratings in Hollywood.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:And so piggybacking off of that, like one of the greatest point of views stories ever been told I think is Movie Flashpoint.
Speaker B:I think that's what it's called where you get eight or nine different point of views telling the same 30 second of story.
Speaker B:I hated the actual movie Flashpoint because I think the wrong story to do it with.
Speaker B:But there's so many movies out there where I'm like, if you told it through this lens.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think it'd be really great.
Speaker B:And as simple as showing like a two minute sequence of Tom Cruise once they figure out he's not supposed to be there.
Speaker B:Mandy is saying, you know, like, take me instead.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And then the morgue.
Speaker B:And then you tell it from Tom Cruise's vantage point.
Speaker B:You tell it from Nick Fields is.
Speaker B:Or Todd Fields as Nick.
Speaker B:And then you tell it as Sandy Pollock and you tell him.
Speaker B:So then you tell it as Nicole Kidman and all these characters.
Speaker B:And that's what the movie is.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Showing how each of them got to this two minute sequence.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then maybe your final point of view is Mandy.
Speaker A:That shows what really happened.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:No, I like that.
Speaker A:That makes sense to me.
Speaker A:Point is, it could have been a way good movie or at least way better than what it was.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, there's all the things that you want to see and the things that could work, but I just think Kubrick did what Kubrick wanted to do.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And, and, and so it, but it was interesting for you to call out the patterning, because I didn't notice, like, until you said that about Full Metal Jacket, because that's always been one of my biggest gripes about Full Metal Jacket is like two different whiplash.
Speaker A:And then this now makes more sense where it's just you can't see that line of demarcation like you can and Full Metal Jacket, but there is two distinct story lines happening that don't mesh.
Speaker B:Not very well, anyway.
Speaker A:All right, should we rate this thing?
Speaker B:Let's do it.
Speaker B:All right, I'll give you first.
Speaker B:I'm gonna give it a two.
Speaker B:It might be a generous two, but it's the conspiracy theory in my soul.
Speaker A:There you go.
Speaker B:And I just love going back to this after we get more Hollywood scandals happening, more people in power supposedly doing weird, crazy, out of the way.
Speaker B:Has happened before, wink, wink.
Speaker B:And then again, I'll reiterate that one line where nobody killed anybody, but people die all the time is like, yeah, that's, that should be on every single T shirt.
Speaker B:So, yeah, two for me.
Speaker B:It's a tricky one to watch again because I think I'll, I think parts of it I could watch again.
Speaker B:Parts of it are very, very good.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But as a whole, is a very, very, very long, 2 hour, 45 minute movie.
Speaker A:Dude.
Speaker A:Brutal.
Speaker A:I had to watch it in chunks.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I don't think I've ever done that for the podcast, but I had to watch it for chunk in chunks because I, it's, it's long.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So it's, it's up there.
Speaker B:But I, I'll watch it again.
Speaker B:I don't know how, how long it's gonna be be, but I will watch it again.
Speaker B:But yeah, two for me.
Speaker A:I'm gonna give it a one.
Speaker A:I want to give it worse.
Speaker A:But there are redeeming qualities to it.
Speaker A:And I, I, I will say that the thing that again I've mentioned it, I love that Kubrick just does what Kubrick wants to do.
Speaker A:But I will say this about Kubrick, that there are very few that do it as well as he does or did.
Speaker A:And that is visually because, like the gritty film, like, he always uses that real 35 millimeter.
Speaker A:Back in, even in 99, we didn' he went old school.
Speaker A:It's grainy.
Speaker A:It looks and, and it's beautiful, but it's grainy and it looks old school.
Speaker A:It looks real.
Speaker A:And I like that this movie has A ton of that.
Speaker A:Enough that it makes me uncomfortable in some places where.
Speaker A: ets of New York and it's like: Speaker A:And there's spots of that in New York, but mostly the biggest touristy spots now they've cleaned up for the most part, but watching them walk down the streets, you're like, yeah, that's New York.
Speaker A:Look at the garbage on the street.
Speaker A:The weird little.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:So visually, he always brings me in, right?
Speaker A:No matter what movie.
Speaker A:Like, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna be visually assaulted by this movie.
Speaker A:And I love that.
Speaker A:So I want to give credit there because Kubrick was like none else in that.
Speaker A:In that regard.
Speaker A:Typically dialogue wise.
Speaker A:Again, as a writer, he's fantastic.
Speaker A:Like you said, there are some really great conversations in this.
Speaker A:That one being probably the best.
Speaker A:I'm with you.
Speaker A:Sidney Pollock stole the movie and he was in it for like 10 minutes, I think.
Speaker A:Like, it's not long screen time, but.
Speaker A:But again, all the surrounding actors to our two headliners are what make the good parts of this movie and the conversations make sense.
Speaker A:And it's really strong.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:Outside of that, it's too long.
Speaker A:It.
Speaker A:It's not cohesive.
Speaker A:To me.
Speaker A:I, I think it was more.
Speaker A:And, and I think this movie has huge ratings.
Speaker A:Like, I don't.
Speaker A:I never trust critics for the most part, because they're after the artistic piece of it, not the entertainment piece of it most of the time.
Speaker A:But even from a, a viewer perspective, it gets higher scores than I expected.
Speaker A:So I'm curious.
Speaker A:Like this, I've not done this in a long time either.
Speaker A:Like, please, like, if you were watching.
Speaker A:Listen, you got this far into our, our review.
Speaker A:Put in the comments.
Speaker A:If you love this movie, tell me why.
Speaker A:Because I'm, I'm genuinely at a loss.
Speaker A:Why anybody would enjoy this movie a lot, right?
Speaker A:Like, I.
Speaker A:Parts of it, sure.
Speaker A:But as a whole, like, I just don't get it.
Speaker A:I don't see it.
Speaker A:But I'm curious as to why, because in my opinion, and this is my opinion, and it's subjective and it's full.
Speaker A:It's because there were tits and ass everywhere and sex.
Speaker A:So everybody's like, well, I'm just gonna go watch this.
Speaker A:And because it's a, it's a normal movie, I'm not going to a porn film, right?
Speaker A:But I'm going to watch and I can get my jollies off and come home and, you know, say, I went and saw an artistic film from Stanley Kubrick off.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker A:You went to watch Tits and Ass and see Nicole Kidman naked just like I did.
Speaker A:So off.
Speaker A:Okay, so I. I say that fully understanding that's when I was 18.
Speaker A:That's exactly why I saw this movie.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I'm curious if people.
Speaker A:Why people like this movie outside of that.
Speaker A:Anyway, one for me.
Speaker A:I will do everything in my power to never watch this movie again.
Speaker A:I. I don't like it.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:There's so many other.
Speaker A:There's not so many other, but there are other better Kubrick films.
Speaker A:If I want my Kubrick experience, I'm going for some of the others that are on this list this month, not this.
Speaker A:So, yeah, there it is.
Speaker A:Not great ratings.
Speaker A:The bar is pretty low for the rest of the month.
Speaker B:Very true.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So Alec, tell everybody where you can find us when we're not actively avoiding weird, robed, masked orgies.
Speaker B:My number's in the comment.
Speaker B:No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker B:Happy to.
Speaker B:So, best place to find us is on YouTube where you see our smiling faces, happy faces, glad faces, sad faces, bad faces, mad faces, all the faces as we talk about movies.
Speaker B:Aside from that, the best place to get involved with the podcast creation content is on Patreon at.
Speaker B:What's our verdict?
Speaker B:Reviews.
Speaker B:We run monthly votes, monthly polls every single month.
Speaker B:Best place to get involved.
Speaker B:The content is to go on to Patreon.
Speaker B:What's up?
Speaker B:Virtual reviews and vote for free.
Speaker B:100% For free if you're interested.
Speaker B:Behind a small little paywall, there is upwards of 700 extra bonus content episodes.
Speaker B:Everything from bloopers and outtakes all the way up to full length episodes and movies that nobody should watch.
Speaker B:That we did for you.
Speaker B:This one didn't make the list, surprisingly.
Speaker B:But that's the best place to get involved with the content.
Speaker B:Special thanks to our current patrons.
Speaker B:Rich and CB Charles, thank you once again for wonderful topic.
Speaker B:We both love Kubrick so much, but with that last time, don't forget W. GG10 off your order with code.
Speaker B:Our verdict.
Speaker B:All one word.
Speaker B:And with that, I'll kick it back to the Maharaja of mash, the Mali Monarch.
Speaker B:A. JJ yes, sir.
Speaker A:Thanks, Al.
Speaker A:Yeah, go check all this stuff out.
Speaker A:We appreciate it.
Speaker A:Cubric and Eyes Wide Shut.
Speaker A:What a start.
Speaker A:But there it is.
Speaker A:With that, as always, we appreciate you tuning in.
Speaker A:We'll catch you on the next one, baby Cinematica.
