"Asteroid City" (w/ Ian Naude)

Eli Price (00:39.199)
Hello everyone and welcome to the Establishing Shot, a podcast where we do deep dives into directors and their filmographies. I am pretty excited to sort of be wrapping up our West series with his now, as of now final film, Asteroid City. And yeah, my name is Eli. I have a first time guest, Ian Nade with me today.

I pronounced your last name right, correct? Sweet, not a. It's got the little accent mark, so that helps. Yeah, fancy, that's right. Yeah, I'll let Ian introduce himself in a second. But yeah, I'm excited about this. I'm pretty sure Ian too is coming in on one viewing of this one, a film that is probably

Ian Naudé (01:10.774)
You got it perfect, nada.

Ian Naudé (01:17.29)
Yeah, it's because I'm fancy.

Eli Price (01:38.599)
You know, probably needs more than one. There's a lot going on in this one. But yeah, Asteroid City is going to be the topic of discussion. Our first movie, really, that's like current. It's still in theaters. I think it actually has of the time of this recording just dropped where you can rent it at home for like 20 bucks on Amazon Prime. So I'm sure by the time this comes out.

It'll be available on all those formats for people to watch if they didn't make it to theaters. So that's exciting But yeah, I'm sure if more West movies comes out I will kind of maybe I'll jump back in and bring someone on to cover those as they come out But uh, but yeah as of now, this is the last one. It's kind of bittersweet Yeah

How do you feel about Wes's filmography so far? Like, are you like Wes? Like, keep pumping him out. Because that's kind of how I feel.

Ian Naudé (02:45.406)
I mean, I really want Wes to do what he loves to do. Cause I know that's what made, his first movies that came out, it's clear that he was doing what he loves to do and it still is, and that's what makes his film special is he loves doing it. So as long as he's loving doing it, I'll be a fan of it. He just needs to keep cranking them out. That's my-

Eli Price (03:10.555)
Just keep doing it. Yeah. Yeah, Ian, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are, what you do, how you became a movie guy, movie guy, movie buff, cinephile, yeah.

Ian Naudé (03:23.69)
movie guy, movie abuff. I'd like to be a buff someday. Yeah. So yeah, so my name is Ian. I live in Tennessee, obviously, and I sell insurance. And that's the most boring part of this whole segment, hopefully. I love it. We live here in East Tennessee, best part of Tennessee to live in, in my opinion. It's beautiful. I've got a wife, two kids.

And one of them is currently asleep and the other one is our oldest she's four you might see her here in a little bit uh, because My wife and her on like a mother daughter date when she comes in Almost guarantee she's coming right here to see what i'm doing so um in terms of how I got into movies Uh, but you know, this must have been Gosh nine No longer than maybe 12 years ago

Eli Price (04:21.557)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (04:22.166)
I was just like the average moviegoer, movie viewer. You know, I still love movies. I love going to the theater, but in terms of the actual movies I liked, you know, I like some things that today I consider inferior, some of them even garbaged, right? And I worked with Michael Johnson. We both know Michael Johnson, a coworker of ours from...

Eli Price (04:48.82)
Yeah, yeah.

Ian Naudé (04:51.542)
way back in the day and he started just feeding me little nuggets of film goodness. He actually started me off with either The Exorcist or Rekuim for a Dream which almost turned me off to pursuing more. Those movies are heavy but he just kept giving me little bits and stuff. Yeah it's like why do you start with those? But eventually something clicked and I was like you know I...

Eli Price (04:52.673)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (05:08.512)
Yeah.

Eli Price (05:12.343)
diving into the deep end head first.

Ian Naudé (05:21.086)
I want more. Actually, I think it was when Michael Johnson asked me to do his Oscar thing. He does his Oscar Academy Award thing each year where he watches all of the nominees and tries to guess who's going to win on a weighted point scale, where best picture's worth more points than international short. And so I did that with him. And it was fun.

Eli Price (05:34.967)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (05:45.678)
Okay, that's fun.

Ian Naudé (05:51.126)
That's fun, I liked it. I watched more movies than I, and a large variety of movies than I would have normally watched. And that kind of kickstarted it for me. Yep.

Eli Price (05:57.054)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (06:01.115)
Yeah, that's cool. Do you remember what, uh, who, like who was, who won best picture? Who, who was nominated that year?

Ian Naudé (06:10.418)
I remember that Daniel Day-Lewis won, he was my pick to win best actor for Lincoln and he did win. And I'm trying to remember which movie won best picture that year. And I can't remember, but I remember it was the year Daniel Day-Lewis won for Lincoln. That I know.

Eli Price (06:16.359)
Mm-hmm. Okay, yeah.

Eli Price (06:24.787)
Yeah, I couldn't tell you.

Eli Price (06:30.811)
Yeah, yeah, so uh, yeah that That must have been yeah about 10 years ago a little bit more I guess Yeah Yeah, that's awesome. Um Yeah, that's a fun. I guess like too you're watching movies a little bit more palatable than Requiem for a dream If I was Yeah

Ian Naudé (06:38.75)
Yeah, it's... Yeah, something like that.

Ian Naudé (06:53.866)
Yeah, it's not quite my thing, honestly, but I'm glad I watched it. It's worth watching once, you know, if you're in the film. So.

Eli Price (07:00.247)
Right Yeah, I think it's a really good movie, but I don't know that I want to watch it again even as someone who Like I watched it. I actually watched it sometime in the last year for the first time I was like that was really good. I don't know that I ever want to watch it again Uh, which you know, um Yeah, it's an intense one for sure Yeah Yeah, what? Um

Ian Naudé (07:07.338)
No. Ha ha ha.

Ian Naudé (07:17.43)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (07:25.174)
It's intense. It's heavy. Yeah.

Eli Price (07:28.575)
You know, I always ask people, what was your first Wes Anderson movie? Do you remember that?

Ian Naudé (07:33.322)
Yeah, I remember the exact, I actually remember exactly when I watched it too. It was my junior year in college. I went to Liberty University and it was at Christmas time. And there's this period of time where everybody's already left, but there's like a few stragglers, you know, still on campus and everything's empty, but things are still open. You still go to the cafeteria and stuff. I was one of the stragglers that year, like right before Christmas.

Eli Price (07:41.687)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (07:50.933)
Yeah.

Eli Price (07:56.235)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (08:01.93)
And so the question is like, what are we going to do? Like, what are you going to do? And as time goes on, you can't do stuff with people. So I was like, I'm going to go to the movies. And I just went to the theater, and I just winged it, and I just picked Fantastic Mr. Fox. And it was honestly the perfect viewing experience to watch Fantastic Mr. Fox for me, because it was so much fun.

Eli Price (08:06.118)
Alright.

Eli Price (08:21.078)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (08:28.93)
There's some very melancholic moments in the movie. And at that time, it's like people are leaving. So I'm like remembering all these moments with friends. And some of them are on their senior year, they're not gonna come back in a few months. So I was kind of thinking through that and it's kind of, I don't know, it's kind of resonated with me. And watching it alone without friends, to kind of distract and cut up and stuff, it was like the perfect viewing experience. And I...

Eli Price (08:44.321)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (08:57.526)
Like I just loved it. I didn't know who Wes Anderson was at the time. I didn't look up who the director was then because this was pre me getting into movies, but that was my first one. I loved it.

Eli Price (09:08.839)
Yeah, that's awesome. I always have thought Fantastic Mr. Fox is like a really good introduction for sure. Like me and my wife have actually, I can't remember, it seems like I've mentioned this on the podcast, maybe even on the Fantastic Mr. Fox episode, but me and my wife watch it every year on Thanksgiving. Because it's like, it's the perfect fall movie. And

Ian Naudé (09:16.501)
It is.

Ian Naudé (09:29.955)
Perfect.

Eli Price (09:33.275)
And we both love it. And it's like, it even kind of feels Thanksgiving-y. They got the feast going. Yeah. Yeah, and so we watch it every Thanksgiving. We started it a couple of years ago doing that. And so this year, I'm like, ah, my son's four. I feel like he can watch it now. And so we're going to like, I'm starting to, I'm even right now starting to hype it up for him. Like.

Ian Naudé (09:39.658)
It really does, like now that you mention it. Yeah.

Eli Price (10:00.435)
Hey, on Thanksgiving we're gonna watch Fantastic Mr. Fox. And he's like very headstrong. He's never seen it before. But he's very like very headstrong. So he's like, no, I don't want to. But you just gotta like keep planting those seeds, you know, getting them excited for it. And by the time it comes, he'll be excited. So yeah, Fantastic Mr. Fox is great. I love Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Ian Naudé (10:00.499)
That's perfect.

So he's never seen it before.

Ian Naudé (10:13.742)
Mm-hmm. Exactly.

Ian Naudé (10:23.166)
Yeah. And I've heard you say on the podcast that you think it's like the best intro movie for getting into Wes Anderson films. And I agree. I know some people say Grand Budapest is, but I wouldn't recommend Grand Budapest for kids. You know, like kids can't watch that movie. But Fantastic Mr. Fox kids can watch it. Adults can watch it and everybody's going to have a good time. And it's your dog can watch it because the animals.

Eli Price (10:34.397)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (10:37.756)
Right, yeah.

Eli Price (10:46.291)
Your dog can watch it.

Ian Naudé (10:52.49)
I love that movie. My favorite part is when they cuss at each other. They're like, you cussing with me? You little cuss? Cuss, cuss, cuss. It's hilarious.

Eli Price (10:55.699)
Yeah.

Eli Price (11:01.435)
It really is. Yeah, there's even, I think I mentioned in the episode, there's like a graffiti in the background in one of the scenes that just says like, cuss. Yeah. Yeah, it's in there. You gotta look for it real hard, but it's in there. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. So yeah, we've covered.

Ian Naudé (11:13.942)
I never noticed that.

Ian Naudé (11:18.894)
I'll be looking for it next time. Maybe this Thanksgiving.

Eli Price (11:28.175)
everything and now we're on Asteroid City and man, I so I feel like I Haven't really felt like I needed to really do this for all the other episodes But I do want to say from the start before we just start discussing this that this is a spoiler podcast We talk about anything and everything in the movie And if you haven't seen it then like maybe like hit pause Go ahead and get on Fandango

buy a ticket and go watch it and then come back and then you can listen because I don't I don't know I don't like to spoil things for people but uh, but some people are strange and like to they'll listen to stuff like this before they see it like okay, you know, whatever but uh

Ian Naudé (12:15.65)
That's your thing, so be it, but you've been warned.

Eli Price (12:18.023)
Yeah, you've been warned. Spoiler alert. I don't have like a siren to throw on to let people know. But yeah, since this is like kind of still a current movie that's just coming out, you know, I just want to make sure everyone knows. We're going to talk about everything when we get into it. So and I don't I don't necessarily like make a distinction between like this is non-spoiler talk and then spoiler talk. We just we just follow all the rabbit trails and.

and talk about everything. So you have been warned, as Ian said. But yeah, this was fun for me because I've started doing this podcast. This is my first series. And this is the first time I went to the theater and had to take a notebook and a pen with me. Because I was like, I've got to try to scribble some notes in the dark so that I can remember some things that I want to remember.

And I've never done that before so that was a new experience for me And it was it was fun It was kind of fun to look at like my chicken stretch notes when I came out and try to decipher them But yeah Yeah, what was your theater experience like for this one?

Ian Naudé (13:35.386)
it very similar in ways. I also took a notebook and I thought it was, I didn't think about it at first. I was like, I'm definitely taking my notebook. I'm going to take great notes. And I get in there and I'm like, well, it's dark. You didn't think about this, you know? And I like the whole time I'm like trying to like, how do I take these notes? You know, like, just like you, like afterwards, I was trying to read my notes. I'm like, what did I write?

Eli Price (13:37.557)
Yeah.

Eli Price (13:45.585)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Eli Price (13:57.009)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (14:04.75)
It's just, eventually I can decipher it. I'm like, oh, this is this part of the movie. I was writing that, you know, even though it's in.

Eli Price (14:11.255)
Yeah, yeah, you kind of have to like chronologically work through the movie and like, okay, these notes, okay, yeah, that must be what I was saying there.

Ian Naudé (14:19.818)
Yeah, like I still can't decipher the actual squiggles, but I know it's came after this other thing that I can decipher, so I know it's this. So, and like you said earlier, this is one of the few movies where I feel like I would really benefit from a second viewing. I think most people would, because I really, like just off one viewing, it's difficult to bring it all together, you know? And...

Eli Price (14:23.317)
Right.

Eli Price (14:28.971)
That's awesome.

Eli Price (14:37.61)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (14:48.59)
I think I've seen some of your notes that you've been taking. I think you've got a stronger grasp of what's going on than I did coming out. But I definitely have some thoughts on it.

Eli Price (14:59.239)
Yeah. And a lot of that is just like, I do a lot of like reading and listening to what other people are saying. And so, you know, I have some original thoughts, but I also like, I also am relying on the wisdom and knowledge of others. So that helps a lot. Yeah. So I will. I want to start off right off the get go with my extremely ironic

Ian Naudé (15:18.209)
Yep.

Eli Price (15:29.099)
theater experience. So I walk in, it's a noon, we were actually on vacation. We were in Georgia staying with my parents at my parents' house. My kids were playing with the grandparents and I was like, I'm gonna sneak out and see this movie. And so it was a noon showing, I walk in, there's one other guy in the theater on the back row.

So it's me and this one guy and At some point in the first act which you know which act you're in because Wes You know has the annotated little things in between to tell you which actor you're in So at some point in act one, I start hearing snoring and I'm like, oh great. Oh, yeah, like not like Terrible, but like that really like breathy like a little bit of a wheeze kind of snoring

Ian Naudé (16:26.135)
worst.

Eli Price (16:26.135)
And I'm like, this poor guy, I was like, I'm just going to try to block him out and listen, watch the movie. And it wasn't really that distracting. I was just like, I kind of felt bad for the guy because I'm like, surely if you're coming to this movie, you don't want to fall asleep. And here you are asleep watching it. I'm telling you, he was asleep for all of Act 2, at least.

And like, maybe he was like coming to here and there, but I was hearing like on and off snoring all through like act two. And so, no, not at all. He needs to see it three times. Maybe with some coffee before. But yeah, so he's, you know, snoring away. And then like at some point in act three, he like, the snoring ceases. And then like,

Ian Naudé (17:03.93)
There's no way he's understanding this movie.

Eli Price (17:25.299)
I mean, like, probably like 10 minutes or less later is the scene where they're all like chanting, you can't wake up until you've gone to sleep. And I'm just like laughing to myself because I'm like, how ironic is it? I wonder if this guy is like hearing them chant this and thinking, oh, I've been sleeping. They're like saying this straight to me. So that just like amplify.

Ian Naudé (17:37.582)
It's hilarious.

Eli Price (17:55.167)
That made probably what was like the least jokey part of the movie like really funny to me. Which is, yeah, so that's something that I will probably always remember. One of those like theater viewing experiences that like, yeah, you can't get that watching it at home. So or maybe you could but it, yeah, you can make you can get somebody sleeping.

Ian Naudé (18:12.095)
those moments.

Ian Naudé (18:19.438)
I think I can make it happen, but you can't guarantee it.

Eli Price (18:25.151)
Watch it with them, I guess, at home that way, but it wouldn't be as funny as it was at the theater. Yeah, so that was my theater viewing experience story for this one. Every once in a while, you get one of those stories when you go to the theater. Yeah, it's not too bad. It's just kind of ironic.

Ian Naudé (18:28.758)
now.

Ian Naudé (18:49.158)
That was not too bad, you know. I was expecting like a disaster or something, but I'm glad, you know, it kind of, I love how it worked out perfectly, right? Before that scene, he wakes up and I'm like, it's like parallel. It's hilarious.

Eli Price (18:54.589)
No.

Eli Price (18:59.328)
Yeah.

Eli Price (19:02.939)
Oh yeah, I was I was just laughing to myself. You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep. I'm like, well, that guy, that guy did it, you know.

Ian Naudé (19:12.878)
It's like he fell asleep and he woke up. Like it's happening. It's happening here now. Ha ha.

Eli Price (19:17.699)
happening right now. Yeah, so just getting into like Asteroid City, like the beginnings of it. So I was actually, so I was watching an interview when I was doing research for the French Dispatch and Wes and some of the other actors were, it was like at the Lincoln Center, they were doing you know like a little

after a showing of the movie, a screening. And Wes and some others actually video-conferenced in, so they were on the screen at the theater after the screening, and they were like, "'Hey, we're calling in from Spain.'" And I was like, what are they doing in Spain? And just wondering that in my head, not even thinking about, oh, they were shooting Asteroid City. And so, yeah, they actually shot it in Spain.

Ian Naudé (20:16.622)
That's crazy. I didn't like I didn't know until today that that's where they shot. I thought it was out in California somewhere, you know, but that's just like West to do it somewhere else, you know.

Eli Price (20:22.919)
Yeah, yeah, I think if you. Yeah, yeah, just yeah, of course. Like, I'm sure he went. It seems like there's something that was shot like in Arizona somewhere. But but like that's the set, the main set of the movie that is, you know, quote unquote, Asteroid City is. Yeah, that's in Spain. It's this town called it's well, I guess outside of this town called Chinchón.

which is my pronunciation of it. Yeah, maybe, who knows? Maybe I got lucky and got it right. But it's like, I think I heard it's like an hour outside of Madrid. And so, yeah, he was looking for like a really flat, open space. And of course, like he wasn't satisfied with, I'm sure he did like went to several locations and.

Ian Naudé (20:56.469)
Probably spot on too.

Eli Price (21:21.339)
ended up in Spain, of course. And yeah, they just went outside this town and built Asteroid City out there, which is crazy. Yeah.

Ian Naudé (21:32.59)
So I got a question about that. So I was wondering this when I was watching the movie. I was like, where is this? I was like, is there a screen out there somewhere, like on the horizon? But chances are, if they filmed it in Spain in an actual desert type area, that's the actual horizon I'm seeing? Is that the case?

Eli Price (21:56.279)
Mm-hmm. I as far as I can tell like so like when you when you watch the movie You're like there's definitely a lot of things fake like all those like big Mesa's are like very apparently fake Like it's not like they're trying to make it look real You know which I love and you actually like you can see actually screenshot it I meant to send this to you like to send you the screenshot earlier, but I forgot

But there's some B-roll footage from the making of, where you can see the back of the Mesa sets in some of them. Yeah. And so they built those Mesas like that. Yeah, here's another one where you can see the back of it. Yeah, it's all the scaffolding on the back of the Mesas holding it up.

Ian Naudé (22:34.478)
Okay, that's, yeah, that's what they did. Gotcha.

Ian Naudé (22:48.051)
So there you go.

Eli Price (22:53.095)
Yeah, really fun. Like and even in this picture, I think like so, like obviously, if you're listening, most people listen, you can see like back there behind this really big mesa. Yeah, it's like a it's like a little warehouse building, I guess. They they built back there that I'm assuming is like the workshops and the storage and all that for the for the movie.

Ian Naudé (23:05.262)
There's some commercial building back there.

Eli Price (23:21.183)
which is really fun, like hiding that behind a big, like fake rock structure.

Ian Naudé (23:22.69)
It's really cool.

Ian Naudé (23:28.866)
I love that. So they really went out, they built basically this whole tiny little town with the ramp and everything, the ramp to nowhere, you know.

Eli Price (23:33.714)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (23:37.319)
Yep, yep, they built the ramp to nowhere. They built the little diner and I'm imagining Wes probably had written out all the little signs like 25 cent hot dogs. I'm sure he had all of that exactly planned out just based on how detailed he usually is. And yeah, I think they... I think I...

Ian Naudé (23:44.078)
clearance.

Eli Price (24:05.663)
heard or read that they did like a little mini model of it first before they went out there so that they could kind of plan it out, which makes sense. And then yeah, like I want to say there's every once in a while there's probably some green screen used just to make sure that you know everything looks right. But I am I'm pretty sure like I looked up on Google Maps this place and it is like just a wide open.

like flat, nothing out there area in Spain. Yeah, and so I'm sure that like actually is the real horizon. And you know, the way he shoots is like, uses a lot, like Robert Yeoman, his DP does, he uses a lot of like natural soft lighting and stuff like that. And so the way he shoots was really like.

Ian Naudé (24:38.274)
That's awesome.

Eli Price (25:03.383)
kind of perfect for this pastel, deserty colors he had going on. But yeah, Chinchon, Spain is Asteroid City. Yeah, I think he worked with, oh man, Adam, I wrote it down, Adam Stockhausen, who is, I wanna say production designer or something.

Ian Naudé (25:11.202)
Yeah, I love the...

Eli Price (25:33.743)
on the movie. Yep, I was exactly right. I was I'm like scrolling letterbox as I'm talking to make sure I'm I have the right info. But yeah, the production designer, Adam Stockhausen, he like worked with him to try to make like all the buildings and whatnot on set to look more like of that time. Like so night, you know, 1950s kind of style.

Ian Naudé (25:56.758)
Now has Wes worked with Adam Stockhausen before?

Eli Price (26:01.127)
I think so. The name sounded familiar just from research, but yeah, he's yeah, pull it up. Yeah, he's I mean, he's worked on him since Grand Budapest. So no, since Moonrise Kingdom, Moonrise, Grand Budapest, French Dispatch and Isle of Dogs. And then now this one. So yeah, really all of them since then.

Ian Naudé (26:17.952)
as... Gotcha.

Ian Naudé (26:30.074)
I saw that name and I was like I've never heard of this guy before but again I like he just made the one usually I go and I look up all of the all the crew You know, I guess his name just never stood out to me when I saw it today I felt like I was like who is this guy? Let's go

Eli Price (26:38.785)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (26:46.791)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So he's been his production designer, I guess, since Moonrise Kingdom. So that's how he that's really how he works. Like he'll find a guy and, you know, just kind of like, he's part of the West crew now, you know, same thing. You know, people know that from the actors, but it's the same with like his crew also. Like once he fought like Robert Yeoman is shot.

He's been the cinematographer for all of his live action stuff. And yeah, and then he he's used the same person for both of the stop motion features to for like cinematographer for those. Yeah, it's and it really does. Like so I was watching this movie and I was thinking like when you see especially like the landscape to me, I was thinking like

Ian Naudé (27:20.503)
Yeah, he's this guy.

Eli Price (27:45.535)
This looks like so much like a Looney Tunes cartoon, like the colors and the fake looking mesas and rocks and stuff. And then all of a sudden, there's a scene and there's this little Roadrunner puppet popping up and looking around. And I was like, and I think it even says, meep, meep at some point. Do you remember if it said that or not? It seems like it did.

Ian Naudé (28:11.776)
I can't remember, but...

Eli Price (28:15.599)
Hehehe

Ian Naudé (28:16.855)
It probably did, but you're right, like the color, the landscape, and especially that Roadrunner, all evocative of, you know, Looney Tunes, right? And

Eli Price (28:26.139)
Yeah, yeah, I thought at any moment there might be like a coyote like ran over flat on the on the road or something uh But yeah Yeah, it definitely like reminded me of that um and so and I think When the when the roadrunner popped up I was like man So not only does it remind me of that like that has to be like something that he had in mind when he was making this Yeah

Ian Naudé (28:30.646)
Hahaha

Ian Naudé (28:53.294)
I'm sure he did, yeah. Especially coming off of some of his other movies where he, especially Grand Budapest, it's got this storybook feel. I could definitely see him drawing from something else that maybe he watched Looney Tunes as a child, who knows?

Eli Price (28:55.784)
Uh...

Eli Price (29:09.151)
Yeah, yeah, I mean I would imagine he did like didn't we all you know Yeah, so Yeah, so that like that's You know, it's pretty typical like West really does try to make it like I think in one of the interviews He was kind of talking about Just like He tries to make his sets

Ian Naudé (29:16.567)
It was my day.

Eli Price (29:39.027)
like as real and tangible as he can. Not just because like that's what he prefers and he prefers like how it looks and stuff, but also he was just saying like it he feels like it helps his actors because they have like something real and tangible to like, you know, work around and within like it's a tangible space that they can like act in. Not just like obviously like.

green screens or like, you know, that sort of thing.

Ian Naudé (30:12.59)
it like I love that Wes does that you know it's one of my favorite things about him and any director who chooses practical props practical effects You know I because I can tell you know like Like 99% of the time I'm gonna tell I will be able to notice which one is which and the real one will look better In almost all of those cases

Eli Price (30:27.065)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (30:37.895)
Yeah. Yeah, I think I remember when I was doing an interview, watching interviews for Moonrise Kingdom, he was talking about like the flood scene and how he was like, well, yeah, like I could CGI it or I could like make a miniature and like do that. And he was like, either way, you're going to know it's fake. And so this is just like, I prefer the way this looks over the way that fake CGI looks like.

Ian Naudé (31:06.444)
Exactly.

Eli Price (31:08.971)
Because like at the end of the day like you know They're not actually like flooding and whole area like it's either CGI or they like built a model and so He was like Yeah, yeah, and it's I feel like you know it's more fun to do like the real thing Yeah, the I thought like yeah, so I thought like the really the

Ian Naudé (31:14.807)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (31:19.938)
Yeah, and it just looks like much better.

Eli Price (31:37.219)
when you first get into, which I guess we'll get into the movie a little bit later, but when you get the introduction, not the first introduction, which we'll get into the layers, but when you actually get into Asteroid City, the stuff that you see in the trailer, which is the main chunk of the film is there. That opening just like...

coming into it and then like the whole like 360 like looking around at everything. I just felt like that was just like for one. It's just it looks incredible. It was fun to like just get introduced to the town that way. And I think it was like, I don't know there everyone's been doing these like

Eli Price (32:32.479)
like if I just stand in the middle of the frame and do things symmetrical then I'm then I'm doing what Wes Anderson does and Like it's I mean it's I guess it's fun for people to do and some of some of them are kind of funny but like This like that shot was like okay. This is like what's showing like no He's like no one's no one can do this like this is

Ian Naudé (32:41.73)
So cringe.

Ian Naudé (32:58.348)
Yeah.

Eli Price (32:59.711)
This is unique. Like, this is unique to me. You know, all of the people that are doing that, like, if they really think, if they're just having fun, like, great. But if they really think they're, like, actually, like, imitating what Wes does, it's like, no. Like, and I think that shot really, like, shows, like, the incredible amount of, like, work he puts into, like, what he puts on screen, you know. Um.

Ian Naudé (33:27.722)
Yeah, I love anytime I can see Wes Anderson in the process of filming and giving advice and, you know, saying you can see him like talking to actors. I love seeing all that behind the scenes footage because you could tell he's just got it dialed in. He knows exactly what he wants. Like he has the vision in his head and he's going to get easy. He's either going to get it or he's going to get pretty dang close, you know, so and I just love that about.

Eli Price (33:53.833)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (33:56.75)
just attention to detail and you're right about the center frame thing I know that's what everybody thinks but it's more than that you know and it comes from his vision he's got something unique it's not just putting you know the foreground subject in the center of the frame you know if it was that easy then lots of movies would look like Wes Anderson's but they don't you know so anyway he's one of the greatest filmmakers of all time

Eli Price (34:05.837)
Right.

Eli Price (34:15.113)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (34:27.047)
Yeah, I mean, he's one of the best of our generation for sure. And I've talked about before on the podcast, he really created his own unique voice in cinema. Even though he's pulling from just tons of influences, it's not like he takes those influences and just kind of recreates them.

It's like he puts them through the filter of his like imaginative Wes Anderson mind. And so you can see like, oh, I guess I can see how like this French cinema or this like, or like, I don't know, Steven Spielberg like influenced this. Like, I mean, you have the alien, which, you know, isn't technically a spoiler because apparently they put it in the trailer, which I'm glad I don't watch trailers that often because.

I was, the alien was a fun surprise. But yeah, like, I mean, you know, like you're watching that and you're like, this is kind of Phil Spielberg-y in a way, but it's not Spielberg, it's 100% Wes Anderson. But you know, like he had Spielberg in mind, but it's like filtered through his mind and his imagination, which I think is really cool.

Ian Naudé (35:47.818)
Yeah, 100%. Yeah, I mean, what I tell people is, if you want to watch something, you know, that's like a Wes Anderson movie, you have to watch a Wes Anderson movie, you know, because there's nothing else that does, that no one else does what he does. So, it's so unique.

Eli Price (36:03.399)
Mm-hmm Yeah, there really isn't any like there's no other films I can think of that are like Like a whole lot like Wes Anderson like I think the closest one to me is actually Paddington 2 Feels like it feels in some sections very much like a Wes Anderson movie

Ian Naudé (36:28.579)
I still need to watch that. I've seen Paddington 1 and I really liked it. So I want to watch Paddington 2

Eli Price (36:31.709)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, Paddington 2 is even better to me. Yeah, it's better. So there's like a whole prison sequence where Paddington is in prison, and which isn't a huge foil, that's pretty early on. But that whole section of the movie just feels like, not like Wes made it, but that like, if Wes was in the room, like,

Ian Naudé (36:36.886)
Really, it's better? Sweet. Because I really... It's the first one.

Eli Price (37:02.507)
He definitely had some influence, which I don't think that's the case, but it gives off the vibe. Yeah. Yeah, so whenever we get done here, like, you know, stay up extra super late and just watch Paddington 2. Like, don't sleep tonight, just watch Paddington 2.

Ian Naudé (37:08.794)
Man, I need to see this movie.

Ian Naudé (37:21.634)
Deal. That'll be great for my meeting in the morning.

Eli Price (37:26.084)
But yeah, so yeah, I mean, yeah, he has his own unique voice and he really has his own like, I don't know, one of the things that I think is starting to pop up a lot, especially like in the interview rounds that I've been seeing for Asteroid City is like, and I'm

I don't know, like maybe it's just because it's out right now and so I'm like constantly seeing stuff but I don't remember seeing a ton of stuff for past movies where like all of the actors are just talking about how much they love working with Wes. Like I'm sure they did but it seems like in this like press cycle they're like really like they're talking about all the things he does that makes it a great experience and like which is I think is just one of my favorite.

through this series has become one of my favorite things about Wes Anderson is just, you can tell when you do like research on the background of all these movies that he's having like, he's just having a great time. And because he's having such a great time, he creates an environment where like, everyone that he's working with is having a great time. Even, you know, obviously there's like crunch time, times when you...

have movies and like making a movie, but like for the I feel like a large portion of it is like, you know, We're we're hanging out having a good time I know for like a lot of his movies they the crew really stays like all together Like the cast and the crew they stay together like I think in this one he was like, yeah we were we would like you know, I'll go back to

Ian Naudé (39:11.246)
That's fun.

Eli Price (39:17.963)
to the hotel or whatever and then like take golf carts back over to set and work and like they're eating meals together and Yeah, right it's like camp Which me it me and Ian met I mean we worked at a conference center in the summers so like, you know, yeah, just like, you know, we would finish our work and go back to our dorm and Like eat a meal together hang out

Ian Naudé (39:27.766)
Yeah, that's fun. Love you. Yeah.

Ian Naudé (39:38.486)
Yeah, it's just like that. You know, you work during the day and...

Eli Price (39:48.579)
And that's kind of like how Wes Anderson, working on a Wes Anderson film is. He even said like, so that, you know, they have the little cowboy troop with Jarvis Cocker, who's been done some music in a few Wes movies. And then Sae-O George, who did all the Bowie songs for Z-Su. He was one of the cowboys. And...

Wes even said like sometimes at the end of the day they'd be like having their meal and like Uh, say george or jarvis crocker would like pull out a guitar and sing some songs So, I mean it's just like it sounds like

Ian Naudé (40:29.538)
It's one of those environments where you kind of want to be there. Like I wish I, yeah. Like I, I don't even have to be part of anything. Just let me, just, just let me be there. I'll just follow y'all and we'll have a good time.

Eli Price (40:32.263)
Yeah, I'm like, I want to go.

Eli Price (40:40.999)
Yeah. Yeah, I'll just sit at the table. I won't even say anything. I'll just sit there and smile and listen.

Ian Naudé (40:48.011)
Just let me exist in your presence.

Eli Price (40:49.859)
Yeah. Yeah, it just sounds like, I don't know, you, you when you so when you think of like, these alt-tier filmmakers, like, you a lot of I feel like a lot of people think of them like, it's like very like self-serious and like, focused and, and just like, not fun. But really, like you all, like time after time with these movies, I hear like the opposite.

in my research about Wes, which is like he's lively and energetic, like he's laughing and having a good time.

Ian Naudé (41:27.97)
it's telling that actors agree to come back and work with him again and again because if i was an actor and i hated the director it might be a once-off you know and i'm sure i'm sure you know most actors are like that if they if they can't stand the director they're like not doing it again probably right but they

Eli Price (41:33.565)
Right.

Eli Price (41:37.884)
Right.

Eli Price (41:46.523)
Yeah, yeah, probably. Yeah, the one exception would be for I think the one exception that didn't work out Sorry for Wes would be Royalton and bombs with Gene Hackman apparently him and Yeah, apparently him and Gene Hackman did not didn't get along I think it just feels like Gene Hackman is just didn't understand what he what Wes is about Which I guess I get that

Ian Naudé (42:02.146)
Chief Hackman didn't like him.

Ian Naudé (42:06.359)
Really?

Eli Price (42:16.231)
And he's like the sort of actor that doesn't, he's one of those sorts of actors that like doesn't want your notes. But with a Wes movie, like it's so like precise, like you kind of have to like follow his, like what Wes wants you to do. And, but yeah, so yeah, apparently him and Gene Hackman didn't like, didn't work the best together. But it turned out great. The movie turned out great. Yeah.

Ian Naudé (42:16.45)
I can...

Ian Naudé (42:41.95)
The movie was great.

Eli Price (42:44.784)
And his character was great, like one of the best West characters probably, I would say.

Ian Naudé (42:50.398)
Yeah, I had no idea that Gene didn't like it.

Eli Price (42:53.907)
Yeah, I don't know how like, I don't know how like, I don't know, opposed they were, but there was definitely like some, a lot of like frustration at least, at the very least, you know. Who knows if they were actually like, didn't like each other, but yeah. Definitely just one of those like, he works one way, he works a different way, and they don't like, they don't necessarily wanna bend a whole lot sort of thing.

Ian Naudé (43:22.122)
Yeah, if did, Wes definitely isn't going to bend, you know, like, anyway, and I love that about them. Hilarious.

Eli Price (43:25.93)
Yeah.

Eli Price (43:29.639)
Yeah, yeah, and I think that's one thing that I was hearing in some like cast interviews is just how There's So like a lot of times when they go to work on a movie, you know, you're sitting there Or whatever you're doing for the set or the that scene or whatever and the director has you know lines written? but like they really want the actors to like

take hold of the part, maybe change some things, put their own whatever in it. And with a Wes movie, it's like, no, like he has the lines, the lines are written exactly like how he wants them written and like the rhythm, even like the pace. Like I think Bryan Cranston was saying, like he did like the opening monologue for the movie and Wes was like, yeah, that was really good. Now I just need you to say it a lot.

way faster And so like he's like he even has like the pace of how he wants it like in his head, I guess like um You know, I kind of doubt he writes like beats per minute on uh on the script but in his mind he has Yeah. Yeah, maybe that's one thing I could suggest to wes is just like get a metronome You know, uh set it up

Ian Naudé (44:45.526)
Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if you did.

Ian Naudé (44:53.722)
It's kind of simple.

Ian Naudé (44:57.73)
drive people crazy. That's kind of similar to like complete opposite personality wise, Stanley Kubrick, you know, like he was very precise with his movies. He, I don't think he knew, sometimes he didn't know exactly what he wanted until he found it. But so I guess it is different, but they're both very, they're not going to budge. I'd rather work with Wes than, than Stanley

Eli Price (44:58.943)
Hehehe

Eli Price (45:13.46)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (45:20.043)
Mm-hmm Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure Yeah for sure it and you know you when you when you do enough research into West you start seeing like Oh, well, he has a lot of like happy surprises and like things that go wrong Where he has to work around stuff and he's like he's happy to he you know, that's the thing even when things like

Ian Naudé (45:35.453)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (45:41.292)
Yeah.

Eli Price (45:44.715)
the preciseness of what he wants to happen doesn't work out. He's like excited to figure out a new way to do it or to make it look like similar to what he wanted, that sort of thing. And so, but yeah, he, like he, and I think part of it is like, so I've talked before on the podcast about, ever since Fantastic Mr. Fox, he's made the animatics, which is basically like, they sketch out the storyboards and like animate how.

all or most of the movie in these little sketches. And Wes will do the voices for all the characters for those. And so, but the actors get to see this and the crew gets to watch this. And so they know exactly where the camera needs to be to get the shot, because you can see it in the animatic.

The actors can kind of get a sense of like the pace of the scene and that sort of thing And so like really like I think it was Jeffrey Wright was just talking about how Because of that like he's such an efficient filmmaker That's how he can like have these fairly low budget films like these aren't huge budgets that he's working with And still have like such a huge cast of like start like it's not like just a big cast it's a big cast of like

stars.

Ian Naudé (47:10.39)
Yeah, I was like looking down the list. It's like tons of big names.

Eli Price (47:12.628)
Yeah.

Eli Price (47:15.879)
Yeah, all of them could be the star, the lead. But he's so efficient, they know my time isn't gonna be wasted. I'm gonna show up, I'm gonna get my stuff done, and I'll be able to go, because Wes already has everything ready and set up and ready to go. I think all of that just creates...

Ian Naudé (47:18.751)
Yeah.

Eli Price (47:44.051)
I think I heard a few different actors just talk about how, yes, there's a lack of improv sort of stuff going on. There's a lack of being able to do your own thing as far as the lines and the pace. But then because of those constraints, there's a freedom within it to bring your own little taste that only you can bring as an actor into the part.

And like I said, you know, oh, I'm going to be able to jump in, get going, and do my things. And my time isn't going to be wasted. We're not going to be doing a million takes of this one shot, because he's got it all ready and planned out. Which just like putting myself in an actor's shoe, and even the cast. I'm like, oh.

Like I'm glad he does so much work on the front end, planning everything so that when we get on set, like we're like moving, you know.

But yeah, I did want to also point out that this was shot during COVID. There were still COVID protocols going on when this was being shot there in Spain. And so which is, I think it was the Cannes Film Festival.

press conference that I watched where someone had asked about like the quarantine and the movie and Wes was kind of saying, you know, they're the writing process is probably the most improv part of the whole process for him You know, he I think he wrote this with Roman Coppola Just one co-writer for this one but um, yeah that so obviously like you're writing and

Eli Price (49:45.979)
You have to kind of rewrite some stuff, kind of shift stuff around. And so for Wes, this is the part that's like the most like improvisational. Like once it's written, it's like pretty much like set. But, but yeah. So he was talking about, they were writing this when like COVID came along and there was quarantine and you know, COVID protocols. And so he just kind of said, yeah, like this, the

the quarantines part of the movie probably wouldn't have been in there without like that happening. So that, you know, it's definitely like the influx, like it's pretty apparent that there's like COVID influence going on here. And it's fun to hear him talk about, say that again.

Ian Naudé (50:26.99)
And it makes sense with the story. Oh, sorry. Oh, no, I'm saying it, but it makes sense with the story. So it's kind of worked out perfectly, but it also makes sense, it's on his mind. It's like at that time, it's like what you're hearing, seeing everywhere. So it makes total sense it's in the movie and it works with the plot.

Eli Price (50:42.379)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (50:47.751)
Yeah, yeah, and I wonder like so like for this one there's not For like his past movies. There's more like interviews and stuff that I can watch so For this one. There's not quite as much out there yet, and so I didn't really find Anything that where he was talking about like the influences the big so usually there's likes Two to four things that were like these are the things that I like mushed together to make this movie

But obviously that's one of them. And I wonder like if there were some other, I wonder if this would have been a very different movie if like COVID hadn't happened. Because I mean, he already like said that the quarantine section is definitely influenced by it. And then like, you know, some of the other themes of like that kind of isolation

that sort of stuff going on. But yeah, it's just cool to see. Like, I wonder how much they had written or if they maybe started writing when after COVID had already started. I'm not really sure.

Ian Naudé (51:59.234)
Yeah, it'd be interesting, but it's definitely clear that it had a huge influence on the movie, maybe even from the beginning. But if there was another script that existed before, I'd be interested to see what else he had planned. You know, like, but I appreciate what he did here.

Eli Price (52:18.087)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And he actually, in that press conference, he was kind of like talking about how COVID and like COVID protocols actually like suited how he likes to shoot movies. He was like, he's not, he was like, I'm not saying it's like good for the movie, but I'm just saying we took something bad and it was, and you know, it was good for us the way we used it.

But yeah, like he likes to shoot with like small cast and crew And it's like a he just likes to shoot in a in an intimate setting. He doesn't like Like people going off to trailers and stuff. He likes everybody to come in and do their work all together and And really like it helps because obviously like there are sequences where you have a lot of people where you have to It's not as intimate

just because there's a lot of people in that scene. But a lot of, you can kind of see a lot of his scenes are just like him and a few, like cast and crew shooting that scene. And he can take the time, like you said, you notice the way he like interacts with people and kind of that those making of little things. It allows him to like have those intimate interactions with people. And so really like,

COVID protocols are like, yeah, no problem. This is how I like to shoot movies anyway, you know?

Ian Naudé (53:51.014)
And honestly, like when I hear you here describe him, like that does sound nice. Like, you know, that intimate setting, we're all in doing this together. You know, like, I'm like, I like that. That sounds good. Like it, not that you need, you know, quarantine conditions to do it, but, you know, but without it, I'm sure there would be people who were like, well, I'm just going to have my trailer and you know, yeah.

Eli Price (54:08.991)
You're right.

Eli Price (54:14.387)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, for sure. I think Scarlett Johansson was saying, for her, it makes it feel more like stage play theater because you're not going off to a trailer. She was like, it's just different. She was like, a lot of movie sets, you go off to your trailer.

Do your thing on thing, but she's like for when you shoot like this with Wes Like you really like you gain momentum like you're not going off to the trailer You're you're staying right there and like and doing your shots and your takes And like it's when you go off to a trailer like it kind of stops the momentum of like of your flow I guess what that you're acting I wouldn't know because I'm not an actor, but that's what

Ian Naudé (55:09.902)
It makes sense. If you know you're about to go back to trailer and you're going to do that a few times, you're kind of expecting it. I know for myself, I would mentally be in a different place. When I know I'm just doing one thing for four hours, I approach that way differently than if I'm going to have sporadic intermissions throughout. I like going into...

Eli Price (55:10.056)
Scarlett Johansson said.

Eli Price (55:17.673)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (55:22.455)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (55:38.518)
like a whole big thing. I'm like, I can do this fully. I can, I can let myself fully do it without having to expect the next thing, you know? So yeah, so I definitely understand that.

Eli Price (55:44.363)
You're right.

Eli Price (55:51.943)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and that's why I like for this podcast I make sure we just we have like a little bathroom break in the middle, but we're just like we're going, you know, no trailers um Intimate setting it's the best way to do a podcast. I think um Uh, but yeah, uh Yeah, so one of the things that I did not know before watching this that I

that kind of came up when I was doing research was that because I was wondering like Bill Murray has been in every Wes Anderson movie Uh since Rushmore and he wasn't in this one and I was like Yeah, like I was like why I wonder why bill Murray isn't in this one. I don't he doesn't seem like he's like Doing a whole lot of other movies. It's not like he's you know working on something else and has to decline west because it feels like

Ian Naudé (56:31.05)
Yeah. I was like, where is he?

Eli Price (56:48.915)
he would do the opposite because he likes to work with Wes so much. But, yeah, so apparently when they were, you know, getting ready to go shoot or whatever, Bill Murray got COVID. And so he was like, I don't know, on vacation, I think in Ireland is what I read with his family and got COVID. And so I think Steve, so he was set.

Ian Naudé (56:52.054)
Oh yes.

Eli Price (57:17.479)
slated to play the hotel manager that Steve Carell played. And so, yeah, he did really good. And I felt like he, you know, because he's not improving more constrained, like he fit really well with the role. But yeah, that's what Bill Murray was slated to play. And I think Steve Carell had to come in kind of last minute.

Ian Naudé (57:23.012)
Steve Grohl did great, but...

Eli Price (57:46.871)
to do it.

Ian Naudé (57:48.01)
man, I was really sad when Bill Murray wasn't in the movie because he's one of my favorite parts of every Wes Anderson movie that he's in, just because I think he nails it. Like every role he's in, I'm like, he nailed that and he nailed that. And anyway, he's just, I don't know what he's got, but he's got the magic attached, at least for me. Like I love any scene with Bill Murray in it, in the Wes Anderson.

Eli Price (57:58.696)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (58:12.083)
Yeah, yeah, he I mean he's just I think he just understands what Wes is doing They just they're just like on the same wavelength, I guess But yeah, so he wasn't in the movie he wasn't in the movie But when whenever I guess he got done with his cove it protocol stuff. He went He actually still went to this set and was like on set and like hanging out and stuff which sounds very Bill Murray

Ian Naudé (58:41.842)
Which I don't blame them. I did the same thing, you know, it's like well, I was already planning to go You know, and I know how West operates. I'm just gonna go and just hang out

Eli Price (58:42.272)
Um, yeah. Yeah.

Eli Price (58:49.587)
Yeah, yeah, and so I think Wes like was like he and Seems like it was like a New Yorker interview was just saying like Once you're like once you started like shooting a movie It's hard to like I had extra characters in and so he just couldn't figure out a way to get him into the movie But they did shoot a little short with Bill Murray as This like extra character I think I wrote down that

character's name. I did not. Anyway, he's like, it's like a little short where he's like introducing the stage play, like the, I don't know, it's so hard to keep track of all the layers. The Asteroid City section of the movie, he's like introducing it. So he's playing, he's like playing a guy that's...

Ian Naudé (59:34.907)
layers. Yeah.

Eli Price (59:45.651)
that was supposed to play a certain part in the movie. And he's introducing the movie and like interviewing, he's kind of like, yeah, unfortunately, the editorial team had to cut my section of the movie. And I'm not in the movie.

Ian Naudé (01:00:05.654)
Sounds like something that could have been in the movie, honestly.

Eli Price (01:00:07.751)
Right. It does, actually. But then he brings on Schwartzman's character, like he calls. But I do have with me, you know, Jones Hall, who plays Augie Steenbeck in the in the movie. And yeah, he's and he like kind of does like a, you know, fake interview with Jones Hall about the Asteroid City movie.

Ian Naudé (01:00:34.951)
on YouTube I need to look this up.

Eli Price (01:00:36.487)
It's not. So I was looking for it and I couldn't find it, but then I realized it's in, it's like exclusive to the New Yorker article that it's with. So I'll have to shoot you a link. Yeah, so I had to, I've already read like apparently looked at a New Yorker article and like the, you know, the paywall was like, oh, you can't, you've already looked at yet. Right.

Ian Naudé (01:00:46.478)
Really? Yeah, because I want to see it.

Ian Naudé (01:01:02.402)
you've already, you look, you've used your like, your one, like.

Eli Price (01:01:06.367)
And so I just opened it in private mode and the cookies weren't there, so it didn't know that I, yeah, smart thinking, huh? Yep, it doesn't always work, but a lot of times it does. Yeah, so I was able, it's like at the top of the article, it has a little, it's like three minutes and like Schwarzman as Jones Hall as Augie does like talks about, like he.

Ian Naudé (01:01:12.13)
I didn't know you could do that.

Ian Naudé (01:01:17.071)
Interesting.

Ian Naudé (01:01:32.622)
I'm like, yes.

Eli Price (01:01:36.307)
He, I feel like I wrote it down, what he says, but it's really funny.

Eli Price (01:01:47.231)
This is the portion of the podcast where I flip my pages. Yeah, he he's like, he's like Jones, you know, tell us about the movie. And he's just like kind of deadpan is like, this is a movie for our times. Nineteen fifty five about people like you and me. And then just like stops. And and Bill Murray's like, you know, made up characters like, can you tell us more? And like he.

Ian Naudé (01:02:16.448)
That was hilarious, I gotta see.

Eli Price (01:02:17.259)
And then he just like starts naming like thematic words like that in the movie like and counting them off on his fingers Yeah, it was actually really funny But yeah, so they uh, you know, they ended up finding a way to do something with bill murray Which is this like little? exclusive um You know short with that's on this new yorker article that I couldn't find anywhere else

Ha ha.

Ian Naudé (01:02:47.65)
Yeah, I need to see that.

Eli Price (01:02:49.199)
Oh, yeah. Yeah, so I appreciated that. He was like, I got to get my I got to do something with my boy Bill. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, man, this one, you know, we haven't really gotten into like the actual film, just kind of background stuff. But yeah, this I mean, it's there's layers here for sure. It's.

Ian Naudé (01:02:58.382)
You're glad they did.

Ian Naudé (01:03:16.462)
How many layers did you count?

Eli Price (01:03:18.427)
So yeah, so let me think. So there's the TV broadcast that is, feels like it's like a documentary about the production of the.

Ian Naudé (01:03:31.311)
Yeah, that's the black and white part.

Eli Price (01:03:33.627)
Yeah, so there's like a couple there was the only thing that was in color that I remember is like the actual Asteroid City portion um Which is like so did you notice before you saw the movie that so this is something I noticed um, I guess like A week or two before it came out was that all like the posters Um had Asteroid City in quotes like the title

Ian Naudé (01:04:01.691)
Oh, I didn't notice that.

Eli Price (01:04:02.683)
Yeah, like go for real go back and look there's the only one that's not is like the billboard, but that's not like a movie poster It's just like a picture of the billboard But like if you look at all the movie posters asteroid city is in quotes So like I think technically the name of the movie is in quotations

Ian Naudé (01:04:19.39)
is in quotations. That's interesting. That makes perfect sense. Because, yeah.

Eli Price (01:04:23.771)
Yeah, because it's a play. And I guess, like, grammatically, you put plays in quotes. I don't know. I can't remember what you learned in high school.

Ian Naudé (01:04:30.846)
Yeah. So yeah, so there's the TV. So there's a TV program that kind of introduces. What is it even?

Eli Price (01:04:36.939)
Right?

Eli Price (01:04:41.235)
It's like, it's like, it's almost like a documentary introducing the, um, it's like a dramatization of the play. Like, it feels like it's not actually like the play, but it's like a dramatization of the play.

Ian Naudé (01:05:00.074)
we see Edward Norton play, he's cast as the playwright.

Eli Price (01:05:02.263)
Mm-hmm. He's Yeah, he's the playwright and I think that that's the thing like so the structure of this is so like layered and I'm still I'm still not positive like I could I I'm still not I don't think able with my one viewing to like map everything out But somehow it's still like I Don't know. It's it's like it's kind of confusing in structure, but somehow it's still like

Ian Naudé (01:05:21.074)
I can't either.

Eli Price (01:05:33.383)
You know, you don't feel lost somehow, which is a strange feeling to like not exactly know how these layers are working, but you still feel like you're getting all the information you need.

Ian Naudé (01:05:35.639)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:05:44.439)
I think having the big color section, having that is like, okay, well, I know this is one big thing. And that is when it cuts to the black and white, because I think in the black and white sections, there's at least two layers. Because sometimes you're watching the playwright writing or trying to write or trying to conceptualize his play. And other times you're watching

Eli Price (01:05:51.791)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:05:59.381)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:06:03.497)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (01:06:10.21)
the cast that he's found for his play, Acting it Out. Another time you're watching the TV broadcast introducing the play. And then I think there's even another one because the Margot Robbie scene.

Eli Price (01:06:18.536)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:06:27.751)
Right. Yeah, so at the end of the, so towards the end of the movie, you know, towards the end of Act 3, Jones Hall, who's Augie in the Asteroid City play, like literally like walks out to like backstage. And that feels like it's not necessarily like part of any of the broadcasts or any of the like

Ian Naudé (01:06:47.02)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:06:55.643)
It just feels like that you're just watching the actor walk backstage and like have a discussion with the director and then You know having the discussion with the actress that was supposed to play his wife. That was Margot Robbie and so that's like another a whole nother layer that like is kind of more of the I Think it feels like the most meta of all the layers

Ian Naudé (01:07:21.738)
Yeah, because that was like way out there because in the play, like in the actual, like in the movie, in the actual dramatization, Margot Robbie is photographed as the deceased wife, right? But then during the play when he's acting, when he's actually performing the play, he walks off stage because he's having like almost a mental break and he has to walk out on the balcony, right? If I remember correctly.

Eli Price (01:07:34.527)
Right.

Eli Price (01:07:41.174)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:07:46.343)
Right. Yeah, it's after I think it's after he talks to Adrian Brody as the director Then he walks out on the balcony

Ian Naudé (01:07:51.679)
Yeah.

And there's Margot Robbie, he sees this other theater actress who was supposed to play his deceased wife. You know what I'm saying? The scene got cut and I'm like, so what am I watching here? It's like, what is this part of?

Eli Price (01:08:00.353)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:08:04.967)
Yeah. Yeah, but her scene got cut.

Eli Price (01:08:14.159)
Yeah, she even like delivers the monologue that was supposed to be in that scene Yeah, and that like we'll probably get into all that later but that was like the to me that was like that whole part where he walks out was like What tied everything together for me?

Ian Naudé (01:08:19.084)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:08:23.895)
Okay.

Ian Naudé (01:08:33.962)
I need to hear your thoughts on this later when we talk about it then, because I'm interested to hear.

Eli Price (01:08:36.763)
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and we'll get to it, but yeah, the layers. So I was gonna say too about the layers is it feels like this is, in his last few movies, has become like a new Wes Anderson distinctive. So you have all the ways that Wes makes movies that are distinct. People talk about the symmetry, which is for sure a thing. People talk about the dollhouse.

Which is a thing the whip pans like have all have always been like a West thing But this feels like a new like West distinctive of creating movies that have like these like peel back metal layers in them like you have Yeah for sure I mean for Grand Budapest obviously, I think that was where it started you have You have the framing. It's the in it's the framing devices to like

Ian Naudé (01:09:09.282)
Easy. All right.

Ian Naudé (01:09:19.611)
Mm-hmm. This one definitely hits the most, that he's out of all the others once he's done.

Ian Naudé (01:09:29.388)
It did.

Eli Price (01:09:35.123)
He started making movies that have a framing device. Obviously, Grand Budapest, you have the author that's thinking back on when he met F. Murray Abaham's character, Zero, and then it goes back to another layer. So you have the layers there in Grand Budapest. French Dispatch, you have the layers between the writers writing the stories and then the stories being...

Dramatize themselves sort of thing, but yeah, this one is the most like complex for sure so far But it's definitely like okay, I guess I can expect This sort of thing in Wes Anderson movies from now on is like these layers that you have to like peel back and it sounds like it sounds like it's too much and maybe it is for some people like like, you know talking we were talking earlier about like

Ian Naudé (01:10:10.38)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (01:10:32.939)
how to introduce people to Wes Anderson, and this definitely isn't one I would start with. But, but like, I don't know, it's just weird that a movie that has such a like strange complicated layering structure of like framing devices, that while I didn't like figure out exactly while I was watching, what exactly was going on with all that.

Ian Naudé (01:10:37.684)
I won.

Eli Price (01:11:03.259)
I still was able to like grasp what Wes was doing with it, if that makes sense.

Ian Naudé (01:11:11.162)
Yeah, which is a very tricky line to walk, but I had the same experience at the end of it. I was like, I can't say I understand everything. I just walk, but I'm walking away with what I'm pretty sure is the main things Wes wanted me to take away, which I'm sure that was his goal.

Eli Price (01:11:32.863)
Yeah, yeah, and that, you know, it even, I feel like he tells you, like in some of the lines that happen in some of those meta parts, like I think it's when Augie's like walking back, or I guess he's Jones Hall at that point, is walking backstage and he's passing someone and they're like, you know, it's a metaphor. What's the metaphor? And he's like, well, we don't know yet. And like, which is,

Like that's kind of how you feel when you walk out like you're excited and you feel like yeah I got it and then but if someone like asked you like well, what was it? You're kind of like well, I guess I don't exactly know yet Uh, you know, give me give me some time on that one, but you still It if somehow like I guess emotionally resonates still somehow um Which is what it feels like, you know, jones hall is

Ian Naudé (01:12:18.131)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:12:32.275)
dealing with like I don't exactly you know he tells Adrian Brody's director character like I don't understand this play like I still don't understand it like he's been acting in it for how long now and it's act three and you know he's like I still don't understand this character or this play um and it feels like he's you feel like you're with him you're like yeah me either

It feels like he's speaking for you as the viewer as well as himself in that moment.

Ian Naudé (01:13:10.286)
then you know well maybe we're gonna get into this later that like that whole scene with Adrian when he sells success yes so you know Adrian Brody says to him you know you're playing him right like you keep do he says like keep doing it or something like that and I think you know him not knowing was how it was supposed to be played at that time you know like I think that was part of it

Eli Price (01:13:16.231)
Yeah, we will, but we can talk about it now too.

Eli Price (01:13:25.131)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (01:13:40.322)
um which kind of i think connects with one of the themes of the movies of the movie um

which we know we can get into later or now, it's whatever. Why not? So let me go to, oh yeah, so some of the themes. I mean, just the, just everything feels, seems to be in process. People are in process in the movie. They're trying to figure something out. That's what most of the characters are doing. And there's even a lot of symbolism in the movie of things in process, the train.

Eli Price (01:13:53.099)
Yeah, let's jump into it. Why not?

Eli Price (01:14:08.716)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (01:14:20.214)
the chase, you know, like the ongoing kind of cops chasing the criminals thing. These are things that aren't resolved and by the end of the movie they still aren't because they're in process. So it kind of reflects what the actors are going through and the people, like the characters who are playing the stage version as well, like especially, what's his name? Hall, like Joe Hall, whatever.

Eli Price (01:14:36.001)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:14:43.778)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:14:50.163)
Yeah, I don't remember. Which, who's that? Who's the real actor?

Ian Naudé (01:14:54.083)
uh, Schwarzman's... Jones, yeah, I'm getting the name wrong, sorry.

Eli Price (01:14:55.027)
Oh yeah, Jones, yeah, Jones Haw- Yeah. That's a weird name.

Ian Naudé (01:15:00.427)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:15:04.279)
But yeah, that makes sense. You know, that wasn't something that I was like, was prominent in my mind, I don't think, walking away, was like, or maybe it was, but just in different terms. You know, but yeah, like that being in process is, yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense. Just thinking about, I think part of it is,

Ian Naudé (01:15:16.268)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:15:32.443)
in the play, like in the Asteroid City section, the color section, like they're all, you know, they're all there for various reasons, obviously. But when the alien shows up and throws everything for a loop and then they're like stuck there, it kind of like throws everything out of whack, like whatever plans

control they were planning on having over their time there like it was thrown out the window and so then they're all just like stuck there and they like they don't really have like full control over their lives at that point and so that's where like yeah the unresolved nature of it kind of I feel like comes in because really like by the at the end of the film like

The alien takes the little meteorite, but then at the end of Act Three, he shows back up and puts it back. And they had just canceled the quarantine. They were like, the quarantine's over, and then the alien shows back up. And then, yeah, so there's not really a resolve there, almost, it's weird. But then he wakes up.

He like wakes up and like everyone else has left. And so it's, yeah, it's a strange like, I don't exactly know what's going on with all that.

Ian Naudé (01:17:03.058)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:17:08.462)
It's almost, there are parts of it that are almost dreamlike. Um, and just in terms of like, especially what you just mentioned of how, like, like the alien comes back, puts the thing back and then like, you know, Augie wakes up and everybody's gone. And, um, it's like a little bit disjointed, like, like dreams are. Um, and I don't know. It's a fun movie to try to figure out. Um, so.

Eli Price (01:17:11.741)
Yes.

Eli Price (01:17:24.8)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:17:36.04)
Yeah.

Yeah, the dreamlike thing though, I think is interesting because, you know, it does have that line that they repeat and kind of the it's in the playwright section, you know, the playwrights telling this little class that has some of his actors in it, you know, that he was thinking about writing a section of the movie where everyone like is asleep and dreaming or something. And like everyone starts like.

Ian Naudé (01:17:38.666)
Um...

Eli Price (01:18:07.947)
showing how good they are at acting, being asleep. And then it's Edward Norton as the playwright starts saying that line. If you, what is it? I think I wrote it down. You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep. They start chanting it almost. And it does bring to mind that idea of life as a waking dream.

Ian Naudé (01:18:12.919)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:18:23.915)
you

Yeah.

Eli Price (01:18:38.087)
Is is one thing it made me think of which I can't I'm not sure is that if that's like a quote from literature or from just someone famous it feels like it is Yeah, it feels like it comes from somewhere, but I'll I googled Wait like life as a waking dream, and I couldn't really find anything so I'm at a loss

Ian Naudé (01:18:49.047)
It feels like.

Ian Naudé (01:18:59.842)
Who knows, but I feel like it's happened before, but I can't flex it.

Eli Price (01:19:04.871)
Yeah. But yeah, like that idea of life as a waking dream where we're all, I don't know, we're all a little bit unsure of exactly how things are gonna play out, what's happening at any given moment. But also it felt like art, just that idea that art...

whatever form it might take like helps us to see the world and like art naturally has a dreamlike quality to it Like when you're watching a movie like It you know, it's not real But it kind of becomes real as you're watching it just like a dream does like if you're dreaming a lot of times You realize like I'm dreaming and I know this not this isn't real, but it feels real in the moment

and like, you know, in that dreamlike state, you know you're gonna wake up. And like, hopefully, I guess the hope is that when you wake up from that dream, whether it's like, you know, literal dreaming or, you know, the dreamlike state of watching a movie, quote unquote, I guess, you're, I guess the hope is that you'll wake up, I guess literally.

But also like metaphorically to like something new Learn something about yourself in the world is kind of like something that

And I didn't get that when I walked out. I've got, I've just been thinking about what was that line all about? And that's like the best answer I can come up with.

Ian Naudé (01:20:43.298)
I didn't either.

Ian Naudé (01:20:46.966)
Yeah. And I'm actually glad you said that because I was going to ask you like, what did you think about that line? Because when I walked out, I was like, you know, I don't know. I know it means something. I just didn't know what you know at the time. So

Eli Price (01:20:54.08)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:21:02.281)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and I'm not confident in that answer. Like I'm like, I honestly don't know. That's just like the best I've got.

Ian Naudé (01:21:10.774)
Yeah. You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep. I was thinking something similar like, you know, a lot of times, like maybe saying it's OK to be, you know, like to be in a mental state where you there's uncertainty, you know, and things are resolved because that's, you know, a theme in the movie, especially during like the quarantine section.

Eli Price (01:21:33.786)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (01:21:37.472)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (01:21:40.854)
And maybe like going through that helps you in a sense wake up, you know, find resolution later on. This is just a big maybe, you know, but, you know, so, but it that's kind of what it made me think of.

Eli Price (01:21:54.12)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:21:58.167)
Mm-hmm Yeah, and that I mean that makes sense to just with everything else going on in a movie There's so much like you said uncertainty about everything. I mean the literally like the thing that the Junior star gazers like they all put boxes on their heads and look up at a cosmic ellipsis It's like these three I guess like stars that line up just right and they have to look through like they have to look through it so that it doesn't get like

burned into their eyes like the Tilda Swinton character. But yeah, I mean it's a cosmic ellipsis, which like, it's an ellipsis. An ellipsis is like, it's all about uncertainty. You don't, like, it's a punctuation about uncertainty. You don't know what's coming after, like it's a pause, like a break, like.

Ian Naudé (01:22:31.522)
Oh.

Ian Naudé (01:22:50.457)
I mean, all you know is that it continues.

Eli Price (01:22:52.711)
Yeah, right. I mean, ellipsis is like, I'm going to dot dot. Like, you don't, it's, that's, an ellipsis represents uncertainty, I feel like, in certain ways.

Ian Naudé (01:23:05.13)
It does. I mean, it's not really like a question mark. It's more like, it's more like, it's more the experience, you know, like you're, it's a, you're about to get the answer, you know, and, but you're right now you're in the experience of in between, you know.

Eli Price (01:23:07.68)
Right.

Eli Price (01:23:13.547)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Eli Price (01:23:22.215)
Yeah, it's almost like a little to be continued punctuation. So it's a, yeah, the cliffhanger. Yeah, right. Yeah, and I mean, it's like, you know, going back to that line I pointed out where the guy's like, you know, it's a metaphor, we don't know what for yet, you know. And I feel like that's that.

Ian Naudé (01:23:26.038)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah. I thought there was lots of symbolism in the movie, you know, like hidden in there. So.

Eli Price (01:23:49.191)
That's how art often works though. You know, you, I mean, you can watch, we're watching this movie and we're taking away these things, but like when we watch this 10 years from now, like it'll be with totally new eyes, with totally new perspectives, and we'll probably take away something totally different, like removed from the context we're in now. And that's just kind of how art works, which is.

Ian Naudé (01:24:03.82)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (01:24:16.178)
It's definitely art because it's one of the movies, some movies I watch and I don't think about, you know, like I watch them like, Oh, that's fun. The other movies I watch and which is fine, you know, some movies that's all they need to be. There's other movies I watch and, and I don't expect them to stay with me, but I just find myself thinking about it. Like, you know, sometimes like day after day, sometimes, you know, I think the longest one was

Eli Price (01:24:22.007)
Mm-hmm. Right. Which is great. Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:24:45.122)
the Banshees of Inna Sharon last year, which the first time I watched it, I hated it at the end of the movie, my first viewing, I hated it. And, but I couldn't get it out of my mind for like, I thought about it for like a month. And by the end of the month, I was like, I was just thinking about these characters. And I was like, oh, this one did a really good job. And I like, I just, I was just thinking about all the characters in the movie. And after a month, I was like, I've been thinking about it this much. I guess I like the movie.

Eli Price (01:24:47.072)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:25:00.968)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:25:14.396)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:25:14.602)
You know, and this is this one's similar. You know, that kind of clues me in that I'm watching art. This is art. It's sticking with me. And so the same thing with this movie, it's something that I've been returning to and thinking about just because there's a lot of, there's lots in there that I'm trying to process still. Um, and that's one of the joys of it. It's one of the things I love finding movies like that. It's the joys of watching film.

Eli Price (01:25:35.627)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:25:42.261)
Right.

Yeah, that's one of my favorite things when you find a movie that you can't get out of your head. And I think that's one of the things that makes real art is that something that I feel like artists do when they're creating is, especially in this capacity, is they're more interested in asking questions than giving answers.

Ian Naudé (01:25:49.856)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (01:26:10.382)
I'm going to go ahead and turn it off.

Eli Price (01:26:13.807)
and then on top of that like they're I guess it's more like they're interested in what okay

Ian Naudé (01:26:19.56)
You're gonna see my daughter.

You're gonna see my daughter here. Come here, darling.

Watch out for the cord right there. What is daddy doing? Oh, you stayed up late? Oh, are you shy? Yeah, just a little shy. You want to say hi? This is my friend Eli. Not your cousin. Do you hear what he said? He said he likes your flower. Thank you. Are you tired? Did you have fun with mama? Are you ready to go to bed?

Eli Price (01:26:38.559)
Hello.

Eli Price (01:26:43.008)
I like your flower.

Eli Price (01:26:50.783)
You're welcome.

Ian Naudé (01:26:57.322)
Oh, you're not? You big girl? Here, can you give me a kiss? Mwah! Love you, darling. You can go back to mama.

Eli Price (01:27:03.019)
Hehehehe

Ian Naudé (01:27:08.878)
So that's Ellie, that's my eldest. Yep.

Eli Price (01:27:09.011)
Cute very cute Yeah, um, yeah, I just feel like you know our Ask questions and then wants you to just like experience the emotions that come from asking those questions Which I guess like

Yeah, it feels like that's what happens in this movie. Because I did feel when the movie really started getting into that third act and the whole sequence we've been talking about where Schwarzman's character walks off set, that part, that whole section of the movie felt like you experienced

I don't know, he felt like a stand-in for you in that section. Like he's trying, he doesn't understand what's going on, but he's going, but he's like, he feels the questions and he feels like the emotions that are coming with those questions. And that, yeah, it just feels, yeah, I just love that whole.

Ian Naudé (01:28:24.302)
I thought that scene was perfectly placed in like timed in the movie to you know reflect what I was feeling at that exact time you know like so I feel like Wes very intentionally placed it right there like it's like two thirds you might hear my daughter in the background I don't know she's yoke um but yeah so I think I feel like he placed it very specifically right there to represent and reflect what we were feeling as an audience member.

Eli Price (01:28:29.993)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:28:43.013)
No worries.

Eli Price (01:28:54.483)
Yeah, for sure. And one of the things that came up in interviews was Wes just talking about how actors fascinate him. Like, it's one of the reasons he loves making movies is because he just is fascinated by how these people are coming together on screen, and they're creating this.

Ian Naudé (01:28:54.75)
Um.

Eli Price (01:29:23.687)
I don't know, this thing that is very much, like it's very strange and intimate and like interesting to him. And so like he loves creating this, I guess these films and environments where like he can watch these actors do their work, which is really cool like to hear. And I think that may be, you know, going back to our discussion of like why people come.

back to work with him, that's probably one of the reasons is because they get that sense that he... And I think even like Jeffrey Wright or somebody in an interview talked about how you really feel like he appreciates actors. And he said, some directors you'll work with and you're just there to make their movie, but with Wes, you know...

He appreciates what I'm doing and the craft and the skill that goes into it sort of thing.

Ian Naudé (01:30:26.058)
Yeah, and you mentioned Jeffrey Wright. He's one of the standouts in the movie for me. And you're right, I saw an interview where he said, at first he wasn't really into the movie before they started filming. Like he was just like, okay, you know. I think this was the first time he's worked with West. It must, he was? Okay. All right, so I still haven't seen that one, by the way. So.

Eli Price (01:30:38.432)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:30:46.023)
No, he was in the French dispatch. Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:30:55.746)
But yeah, he said he wasn't really into the movie, but once it got started, he enjoyed it. I think Wes's personality and his value for the actors has a huge impact on them.

Eli Price (01:31:03.092)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (01:31:14.587)
Yeah, yeah, that feels like there it feels like something of an ode to acting like this movie does you know just like Watching Schwartzman's character like Really like he's I don't know. I feel like there's a degree to which acting is so hard because it takes a certain kind of person that really like is interested in like

digging into the human psyche and what makes us human and trying to tap into that to perform that, whatever they're trying to tap into. And so, yeah, there is a, it is a very particular art form acting is. And this movie in a way feels like an ode to that.

You know, it's almost like Wes Anderson's love letter to actors. Like, I understand, like, I appreciate what you do. And I know that there's a lot of emotion and difficulty that goes into it sort of thing.

Ian Naudé (01:32:30.646)
You know, I hadn't thought about it like that. It's like an ode to acting, but now I'm glad you said that because that fits. You know, there's lots of things in there. Like, um, the Jason, Jason Swartzman as the, not as Augie, but as the, the theater actor, everything he's going through sometimes, and then like with Margot Robbie, sometimes your S your scene gets cut, you know, like, so, you know, so stuff like that happens sometimes. Or like even with Brian Cranston, sometimes you're

Eli Price (01:32:47.68)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:32:53.716)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:33:00.502)
you're in the scene, you're not supposed to be in the scene, you know. And so like, there's lots of little things in there. Like now that you said that, I'm thinking, yeah, there's that's there. Yeah. So really cool.

Eli Price (01:33:02.744)
Yeah. Which was funny.

Eli Price (01:33:10.775)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, and even like, um, you know, Jeffrey Wright's character, the general guy, like, he was playing in a certain way and Wes, like, gave him the note of, like, you know, hey, this is, this guy is like, he's an actor, but like, he's not a great actor and like, he's really trying really hard to be an actor. And like, so, and I feel like that kind of comes across, like, because he has these like, very like, over the top reactions to everything.

Ian Naudé (01:33:39.071)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:33:43.423)
that happens. Yeah. Which, you know, I didn't know when I was watching it, but like hearing that in an interview, I was like, oh, that actually makes sense. Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:33:43.73)
Ah, I loved it, yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:33:53.11)
It makes sense, yeah. I love watching Jeffrey Wright in this movie because it just looked like he was having fun doing it. But if Les was telling him, like, hey, you're playing an okay actor, he's trying really hard, like, I can totally see that, that's hilarious.

Eli Price (01:33:59.092)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (01:34:05.915)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:34:09.563)
Yeah, but yeah, it's Really like and I think one of the scenes that really taps into that is when so like we haven't talked a lot about Scarlett Johansson's character, but she's like one of the most layered characters there is because she Yeah, she's an actress Well, scarlett. Johansson obviously is an actress, but she plays And then she's playing an actress that is acting In a play which is asteroid city

Ian Naudé (01:34:23.338)
Yeah, we haven't even... Yeah.

Eli Price (01:34:39.547)
in which she is an actress. And that, yeah, and that actress in Asteroid City, the play is rehearsing for another play or film that she's going to be in as an actress.

Ian Naudé (01:34:44.695)
to save the salmon.

Ian Naudé (01:34:58.98)
It's hilarious. When you think about it, it's like he just made multiple steps of actress, actor.

Eli Price (01:35:07.911)
Right. Yeah, it's hilarious, but it's also like, you know, it he just loved he loves acting. And I feel like he likes acting. He appreciates the actors and really like there's that scene. So like she's rehearsing for whatever she's going to be in the Asteroid City like portion of the movie. And she like kind of pulls in Augustine Beck.

Ian Naudé (01:35:08.846)
It's hilarious.

Eli Price (01:35:35.627)
who's Schwartzman's character in that section. Yeah, yeah, they're in like neighboring little houses in this little asteroid city town. And she like kind of pulls him into helping her rehearse. So like, you know, he's doing line readings for her to work from. And then there's that one section where like, she's trying to act off of him, but-

Ian Naudé (01:35:37.618)
when they're in different huts, different... yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:35:44.482)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:36:05.247)
He's not delivering the line in a good way. And she's like, use your, you know, so something we haven't talked about is this character that he's playing has lost his wife. We did touch on it, because Margot Robbie is that wife that's dead, or she was supposed to play the part of that. And so like, this character that he's playing has lost his wife. And so like, you know, Mar-

Gargeau's character in the Asteroid City that's rehearsing is trying to like, you know, work off of him with these line readings he's giving. And she tells him to, she tells him at one point, use your grief. And so like, you have Jason Schwartzman is playing Jones Hall, who is an actor playing in this play as Augie Steenbeck. And she's telling him to use his grief. Well, it's not, it's not a real grief.

It's a you know a faux grief that and so he's like trying to figure out how to about tap into that Well, like one of the reasons I feel like that seen with Margot Robbie really taps into everything is because you realize At some point in that sequence that the playwright has died Like not that long ago And at and at a point earlier in the movie you realize like that, you know Joe Jones Hall, I guess had some sort of like

intimate relationship with this playwright. And so that's a loss that character has that maybe he's perhaps tapping into the grief of that. Yeah, but then on top of that, just thinking about the real life actor of Jason Swartzman, he's being asked to use your grief, but in layers, working through these layers. And so how does he...

Ian Naudé (01:37:43.714)
So that's why that's interesting.

Ian Naudé (01:38:01.186)
Can you imagine trying to...

Eli Price (01:38:03.219)
Yeah, how does he work through all these layers of this character to like really pull something and deliver this line? That sounds like a person in grieving and Yeah, it's just like and that to me is why like I feel like Wes is really like This is an ode to acting like they do a work that no one else can do and Yeah, just incredible and

I think at one point Wes in that press conference at Cannes was saying that when so Schwarzman was just talking about how like he met Wes when he was 17 auditioning for Rushmore and you know Rushmore was his first film like Wes like connected with him and like was like you're gonna be Max for Rushmore and yeah and so he said.

Ian Naudé (01:39:00.567)
It's perfect.

Eli Price (01:39:03.667)
you know, he was just really appreciating that. He talked about how Wes talks to him in a way where, and asked him questions in a way as a 17-year-old that he could tell that he actually cared about the answers he was gonna give. And he said, really, at that point in my life, no one over 20 that wasn't a family member talked to me in that way. And so just seeing that relationship.

all the way back to Rushmore, which came out in, I wanna say 98, up until now, and seeing the growth, and Wes was just, and then Wes started riffing on how he didn't even realize that Jason Schwartzman had this hour-long ritual that he went through to kind of have tasks that he would do to get into this character, which is a multi-layered character, because he said they were shooting something

Ian Naudé (01:39:40.726)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:40:03.246)
this movie.

Eli Price (01:40:04.275)
Yeah, for this movie. And so Wes was just talking about how like, I didn't realize we were shooting the scene. Jason was there on set with us, but he wasn't supposed to be in the shot or in the scene. And I had just had this idea for something we could do with him in it. And he was like, well, I really need an hour. Like, before I can like, and Wes like didn't even realize like he had this whole thing that he had come up with.

that he had been doing every day before he came to set of these tasks that he would do to really tap into this character, this multi-layered character. No, he didn't talk about it, what he was doing, but the point that Wes was making was, it's just incredible for him. Jason was doting on him for giving him a chance and helping him grow in his craft, but then Wes was like,

Ian Naudé (01:40:42.082)
Did he describe what he was?

Eli Price (01:41:02.675)
you know, doting on Jason for like the amount of growth he's come through in his, in his craft as an actor where like he, like when they were working together on Rushmore, like Wes was working like very close with him, like constantly like, you know, giving him notes, helping him make adjustments, like that sort of thing. And now like Jason has like this hour long ritual that like, Wes was like that I, like I appreciated, like I was trying to like,

I didn't understand that first why he couldn't just do the scene, but then I realized like, no, he's really like putting in hard work to make this character who he is. I can't like bypass his process, which is really cool, I feel like.

Ian Naudé (01:41:48.858)
cool that's a high level of respect both ways. That's really cool to see.

Eli Price (01:41:52.583)
Yeah. Oh yeah, for sure.

Eli Price (01:41:58.866)
Yeah.

I don't know, was there anything else that really stood out to you? I think, I know I just asked you a question, but something just came to mind. One of the things that I appreciated was that there were a lot of little funny moments in this movie. We've been talking about a lot of the more serious aspects, but it was a pretty funny movie. Were there any jokes that stood out to you that you thought were really funny?

Ian Naudé (01:42:11.874)
Yeah, go for it.

Ian Naudé (01:42:24.906)
Yeah. That's it.

Ian Naudé (01:42:29.334)
Yeah, so just not really a joke, but just like funny moments, like right at the beginning when they, when Augie and his son and his three daughters pull up in their car, that's breaking down and, um, and they're trying to get gas, you know, and he gets out of his car and he tries to light a cigarette and he's out of his, his lighter is out of fuel. And so he kind of like flips it. Just like, just to the side of the almost out of frame, you know, and this little.

Eli Price (01:42:57.92)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (01:42:59.186)
nozzle comes out of she comes out and like that one got me I thought it was hilarious um and I was like right at the beginning I was like okay all right it's a Wes Anderson movie it's kind of like you know what like I don't even know where that comes from but it hits just right you know so that's one of the funny ones that stood out and I'm sure you've got some

Eli Price (01:43:12.357)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:43:18.391)
All right.

Eli Price (01:43:24.583)
Yeah, I think one of my favorite lines in the whole movie It's after the alien and we haven't even talked about and there's so many So many characters like we haven't talked about Tom Hanks who I think was I think knocked it out of the park as the stepdad to Augie in the play like Why hasn't Tom Hanks been in a West movie yet? Because he was perfect But yeah

Like but in Maya Hawks character, we haven't talked about either She plays the tea Yeah, she plays the teacher of these kids. Yeah, but yeah, so along with her one of my favorite lines was that alien has I guess these kids are on a field trip with her as their teacher and That you know, the alien has shown up at this point They're in quarantine and she's still trying to do like her lessons her like space lessons for the day and she's like

Ian Naudé (01:43:56.83)
Yeah, she was a standout. The... He plays June...

Eli Price (01:44:21.319)
She has the solar system like pull like on a little board and she's saying, you know She's like well, there's a obviously a lot of things we don't know about the universe But I'm pretty sure there's still nine planets in the solar system And then one of the kit pops up and says except now there's an alien

Eli Price (01:44:47.507)
Like, I laughed out loud when the kid said that because it was just so funny. Yeah, I think that was like one of my favorite like funny moments was that kid saying, except now there's an alien.

Ian Naudé (01:44:52.875)
hilarious.

Ian Naudé (01:45:02.198)
Yeah. And then like another one of those scenes, I don't know if it was that same scene, but there's another one of those like teaching scenes with her in the class is when, uh, one of the little kids had written a song, you know, and I thought, I thought the song was hilarious. Cowboys playing. Yeah. And they weren't going to like, she wasn't gonna let them sing it, but then Montana or somebody was like, well, we done rehearsed for it. So might as well, you know,

Eli Price (01:45:09.353)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:45:16.679)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The cowboys play. Yeah, the cowboy troop plays along.

Ian Naudé (01:45:31.074)
do it or whatever and they start singing and it was a fun song.

Eli Price (01:45:32.179)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:45:36.115)
Yeah, that was a fun scene. The yeah, Rupert Friend plays the kind of head of the cowboy troop, which he was really, he was really great. Um, yeah. Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:45:47.894)
He was great. Yeah, so in terms of like character standouts, Jeffrey Wright, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawk, those three stood out significantly for me. I really liked Rupert Friend and Maya Hawk, who I don't think I've seen in other things. Or at least I didn't know they were in other things. But they were great here.

Eli Price (01:46:06.599)
Yeah. Maya Hawke is in Stranger Things. That's what I think I know her from.

Ian Naudé (01:46:14.083)
Oh, you're right. Yep.

Eli Price (01:46:15.015)
Yeah, yeah, I can't remember her character's name, but yeah. I think that's the only thing I've seen her in is that. But yeah, she was really good. There was the funny line from, I think from Montana, Rupert Friend's cowboy, where he's talking about the alien, where he walks up on the class, and he's like, well, you ain't.

Ian Naudé (01:46:40.526)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:46:43.999)
You know, I don't think he meant no harm. Uh, he's not American, but, uh, he's like, he's not American, but he's not a creature of God's earth, but he's a creature of somewhere. And he's like trying to teach the kids that you should, like, you know, treat this alien, you know, with dignity, which is funny. Just the whole, like, concept is just funny just to think about.

Ian Naudé (01:47:06.123)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:47:12.938)
Yeah, I really liked that whole, his whole like mini monologue there. That the whole thing I thought was great. That stuck with me. Um, that's, that was.

Eli Price (01:47:18.164)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:47:21.599)
You know who we haven't talked about is Jake Ryan, who plays Woodrow, which is one of Schwartzman's kids in the movie. He's the whole reason that Augie Steenbeck is there in Asteroid City, because he's a genius Junior Stargazer kid who's invented this thing that projects images onto the moon. And yeah, Jake Ryan was great.

Ian Naudé (01:47:29.491)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:47:50.695)
I didn't even realize, I've seen him in other stuff, like eighth grade, he was in that movie, which was, it was a Bo Burnham movie that came out, I want to say five or less years ago, really good, like kind of coming of age, eighth grade teen movie. But yeah, he was in that, which I had forgotten.

But yeah, he was really good. Like he fit in He fit in so well with this one in a

Ian Naudé (01:48:24.182)
Yeah, he was.

Ian Naudé (01:48:31.374)
Yeah, and he played that character perfectly, I thought.

Eli Price (01:48:34.927)
Oh, yeah, and you know you even get kind of like with him and oh Man, what's the girl's name? That's his kind of like Yeah, the love interest Yes Mm-hmm Right, yeah, so they have a little a little like love interest going on that leads to him using his little invention to project a heart or it's like

Ian Naudé (01:48:44.758)
The love interest, Grace Edwards plays Dinah, which is Scarlett Johansson's daughter in the movie.

Eli Price (01:49:05.927)
It's like Woodrow Hart's, like, whatever her name is, the character's name is, on the moon, which is great. Yeah. Which I loved.

Ian Naudé (01:49:10.218)
Yeah, onto the moon. Yeah, they're trying to come up with something that represents Earth. They're trying to communicate with the aliens. And they're like, well, can you come up with a symbol? And eventually, that's the one they like. I'm sure it's just those two.

Eli Price (01:49:19.04)
Right.

Eli Price (01:49:25.023)
Well, at that point, like, yeah, at that point, like all hell is broken loose because the alien came back and they reinstituted quarantine and there's like a riot. And so I think at that point they're just like, screw it. Like we're projecting our like our love onto the moon.

Ian Naudé (01:49:33.057)
Uh huh.

Ian Naudé (01:49:38.71)
You're right, yeah, they're probably not trying to communicate. They're just like, I'm just gonna put this out there.

Eli Price (01:49:43.575)
Yeah, yeah that Woodrow is a great character you know he has a little like a monologue where he's like talking about the alien and like You know, maybe there you know could be like something about the meaning of life or maybe there is one and stuff like that and uh, he's just like so good and Yeah, I think even in that scene he says something like you took a picture of him dad and

He's like I'm a photographer Yeah, which is like if it reminded me of like how Wes answers like interview questions sometimes It's like why did you why did you do this in that way? He's like well? I liked it You know I make move basically like I don't know I'm a filmmaker. I Just did it Yeah, he and then Woodrow also has kind of like a little relationship with the main scientists

Ian Naudé (01:50:20.002)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:50:39.743)
that Tilda Swinton plays. Dr. Hickenlooper. What a name, right? And so she's like, you know, she has a very funny line where she's dealing with Woodrow and Sandy is the name of the girl, right? No. June, no, that's my Hawks character.

Ian Naudé (01:50:42.878)
Yeah, Dr. Hickenlooper. What a name.

Eli Price (01:51:09.851)
Anyway, I can't remember. Dyna, that's her name. Dyna, Woodrow and Dyna. She's like talking to them and she's like, I'm probably not gonna get the line exactly right, but she says something to the effect of, I wonder if I wish I had kids, something like that. And it's like this line that like, when you really think about it, it's hard to decipher what exactly it means. But it's just like,

Ian Naudé (01:51:12.078)
the love interest character? Dina.

Ian Naudé (01:51:37.194)
Yeah, yeah, it's like she didn't say I wish I had kids. Or like I.

Eli Price (01:51:42.011)
No, she said, I wonder if I had wished I had kids or something like that. Which is just when she said it, like it was funny to me. But yeah, you have a lot of stuff like that in this movie where characters are like saying these lines that are like these weirdly constructed sentences that Wes has written that I thought was really funny.

Ian Naudé (01:51:47.295)
Yes.

Ian Naudé (01:51:52.438)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:52:07.327)
where they're like kind of repeating the same thing in two different ways in the same sentence. I don't know, did you notice that?

Ian Naudé (01:52:14.89)
Yeah, but it's just, it makes sense, like being in a Wes movie, you know, it's a little bit quirky and it's funny. Like I hear these lines, I'm like, they're just like, there's humor in here, you know? And I think Wes knows that. I think he's very dialed into, you know, you know.

Eli Price (01:52:25.885)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Eli Price (01:52:32.958)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (01:52:40.75)
I think that makes him internally chuckle a little bit. I think he's got a good mind for what the audience will hear when they, you know, well, how they'll experience it. He's good at what he does.

Eli Price (01:52:42.899)
Yeah. Oh, for sure.

Eli Price (01:52:49.547)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Did you? What did you think about the alien?

Ian Naudé (01:52:55.626)
Honestly, okay, so the alien ship comes over where they're looking up at the stars and the hatch opens and this foot steps out. When that foot stepped out, I was really worried. I was like, is this CG? Are they CGing this? And is this gonna look terrible? But when he fully came down, I was like, they got it right. It's just, he's a funny looking alien. He looks like an alien, but he doesn't look.

Eli Price (01:53:00.276)
Uh huh.

Eli Price (01:53:13.556)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:53:22.068)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:53:24.094)
It's not cringe, it's not, it doesn't look bad. It looks perfect for the movie. And I thought the alien was perfect. And even like how he acted, it just got these wide eyes. He just kind of like, and then what do you like? He picks up the meteor and he's like, yeah, he's like nervous. And he like picks up the meteor and he's like, he sees the camera and he goes, yeah, he poses. That part got me, that was hilarious.

Eli Price (01:53:26.122)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Eli Price (01:53:35.947)
He's like, looks really nervous.

Eli Price (01:53:44.851)
Yeah, like he poses. He poses for the camera. Oh, man. And I don't know. I was the I don't think I heard anything about if that was like stop motion or what? It felt kind of stop motiony.

Ian Naudé (01:54:02.466)
I saw that they had a puppeteer for it, you know, so I couldn't tell if it was still motion. Yeah, because the woodpecker, I thought the woodpecker was, yeah, the roadrunner, I thought at first the roadrunner was stop motion, I was like, it has to be stop motion, right? But it looked, it looked a little too fluid. So it

Eli Price (01:54:04.803)
Okay. Oh, so kind of like the woodpecker.

or Roadrunner, I mean. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:54:17.303)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:54:21.459)
Yeah, it was puppeted, so I saw a B-roll behind the scenes clip of these guys. They have green screen pants and sleeves on. Yeah, and they're walking the little road runner around with puppet sticks. Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:54:31.362)
Yeah, they got green pants. Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:54:37.726)
Yeah, I thought that was great. I loved it. When I, because I saw the same thing, I was like, oh, that's how they did it. That's great. That's great. It's brilliant.

Eli Price (01:54:44.175)
Yeah, yeah, I guess the alien was probably something similar. But uh, but yeah, the alien was fantastic

Ian Naudé (01:54:48.77)
Yeah, they may have CG'd his eyes, you know, I think they may have CG'd his eyes. But, you know, it's since I had a puppeteer, I assume they had, you know, a puppet for the main, like the main shooting, and then just went back in and had some details, I think.

Eli Price (01:54:54.004)
Maybe, yeah.

Eli Price (01:55:02.843)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:55:07.911)
Yeah, yeah, probably so. And those, I know in a few of those scenes they had some green screen action going on just because of the nature of those shots. But obviously we talked about how most of it's pretty tangible, so probably the alien was mostly a tangible physical puppet, which the alien just made me laugh. And then he comes back and puts it back.

Ian Naudé (01:55:17.239)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:55:38.187)
That's an, there was another line that Augie says to, I think is her name, Mercedes Ford in the Scarlett Johansson, I think her in the, yeah, Mercedes Ford, or no, Midge. Mercedes Ford is the name of her, outside of the play character, but her inside of the play character is Midge. But yeah, Augie says to Midge like,

Ian Naudé (01:55:50.359)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:55:55.67)
Mitch Campbell. Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:56:00.002)
Please.

Eli Price (01:56:05.983)
I don't like the way that guy looked at us and she's like who he said he was like the alien She's like, how do you look at us? Like we're doomed I just like how he said that line Like I don't like how that guy looked at us like he referred to the alien is that guy? Which to me? Yeah to me is kind of funny Yeah, I don't know there's Right, yeah not an alien

Ian Naudé (01:56:23.202)
Just that guy.

Ian Naudé (01:56:29.39)
because that's something I would say about some guy out there.

Yeah. Yep.

Eli Price (01:56:35.595)
Um, yeah, there's, there's a lot going on here. Um, I appreciated, uh, one of the, I feel like one of the new things that he kind of brought in that he's, I feel like he's maybe used once or twice before, but it's used a lot here is like the split screen, um, where you have like, you know, people on the phone and you're seeing, you know, one person on the left, one person on the light, right in two different locations. Um, like I,

Ian Naudé (01:56:53.974)
You

Eli Price (01:57:04.679)
I feel like he used that to get effects. I'm thinking of the first phone call that Augie makes to his father-in-law, who's Tom Hanks, and they're talking to each other, and at one point, they're in two different locations on the phone, but it's a split screen, and they turn, the way he has the camera has them facing each other.

Ian Naudé (01:57:26.178)
Yeah, one's on the right facing left, one's on the left facing right. And then the scene's cut down the middle.

Eli Price (01:57:28.219)
Uh huh. Right.

Right. Yeah, but it but you know, it's framed where it looks like they're looking at each other like really close um and uh, and like those I don't know. There's like an intimacy to that I think works really well because they're They're talking about like his wife Passing and has he told his kids yet sort of thing and um, and like there's some I feel like I feel like this is a very fast-paced movie. Like there's a lot going on

Ian Naudé (01:57:38.286)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:58:02.623)
all the time, but I feel like there are a few moments like that where there are some like there's space. Like I remember distinctly like there's some line readings in there where there's like just some empty space between the lines where nothing's being said. They're just kind of, you're just kind of like looking at their faces. And so I appreciated those touches and the split screen was fun.

Eli Price (01:58:32.211)
Yeah, was and it seems like was there a whip a whip pan in within a split screen? Like, isn't there a point where he's on the phone and then the police, like the police car comes through town and it whip pans like on his side of the split screen?

Ian Naudé (01:58:43.703)
does.

Ian Naudé (01:58:48.506)
I think it does. I think it does, cause I remember the camera turning and it's kind of like turning into the split screen. I think I remember this cause I have the same memory of that.

Eli Price (01:58:55.37)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:58:59.335)
Yeah. Which is just, I don't know, it's like, feels like he's showing off at this point.

Ian Naudé (01:59:08.935)
Yeah, but I liked it, you know, it was cool to see.

Eli Price (01:59:13.055)
Yeah, was there any other points you felt like stood out to you in the movie before we get to final thoughts?

Ian Naudé (01:59:18.198)
Yeah, the Tupperware containers, you know, like the Tupperware container, um, like hold, I just thought that was funny. You know, like he's carrying around this Tupperware container and it has his wife's ashes in it. And one point, one of the kids, like it hasn't been like revealed yet. One of the kids is like, is she in there? And he's like, and he's like, yeah, so like he indicates a yes in some way, you know,

Eli Price (01:59:23.901)
Oh yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (01:59:27.796)
Yes.

Eli Price (01:59:33.28)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:59:46.023)
Yeah. Yeah, I think it's Woodrow's like his mom in there. He's like, yes. When he finally tells them that she's died. And then the three, we haven't mentioned there's like three little girls, like triplets that are his daughters, like a decent amount younger than the Woodrow character. But they're like strange and like really cute and funny. Yeah.

Ian Naudé (01:59:51.754)
Yeah. Ha ha ha!

Ian Naudé (02:00:00.651)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:00:12.814)
They're very cute and odd, but cute.

Eli Price (02:00:18.288)
There's almost like this Macbeth, like, three witches thing, because they're like pretending they're variations on witches. So there's almost like this Macbeth, three witches, oracles thing going on with those triplets. But in a very Wes Anderson way.

Ian Naudé (02:00:26.271)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (02:00:33.238)
Yeah, when they're trying to... Yeah, exactly. Very Wes Anderson, but they're pretending to be witches with their mother's Tupperware container with her ashes in it. You're like buried, but not covered in the ground. And they're like trying to bring her back to life or something. It's just, you know, it's just funny. It's like, it's kind of dark, but it doesn't feel dark. It just feels funny. I don't know.

Eli Price (02:00:45.277)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:00:48.733)
Right.

Eli Price (02:00:57.871)
Yeah. It's it's like cute, but really weird.

Ian Naudé (02:01:05.138)
Yeah, but I liked it. I love the three girls that got picked for that. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:01:06.727)
Yeah, and it... Yeah, yeah, I remember too, like towards the end, like Tom Hanks' character, the step, which is their granddad, is like trying to like, take the Tupperware container, but at some point he just like gives in, and it's like, I guess we're burying her right here, because that's what her daughters want to do, as strange as it is.

Ian Naudé (02:01:30.25)
Yep. Yeah. In a shallow grave too. You know, it's like somebody's going to find that. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:01:34.351)
Yeah. But she's in a Tupperware container. Yeah. The Tupperware is a joke in and of itself, because it's definitely a joke about those times. Like, oh yeah, everything's sealed tight, safe in a Tupperware container. Like, yeah. Yeah, but I wanted just to get into some final thoughts. One of the things that we kind of talked about

Ian Naudé (02:01:51.068)
Exactly, yeah.

Eli Price (02:02:03.403)
the way that Wes kind of sets up his movies where everything is so dialed in as far as the lines and the rhythm and everything, but how the actors kind of talk about how there's a freedom in those constraints. And really, you see that along with the Jones Hall character that Swartzman plays.

He's within this structure of a play, and he's like, you know, he's acting within it. And there's, you know, there's constraints when you're working within that structure. Um, but it's, it's allowing him as that Johns Hall character that's an actor to explore his own, like, emotions and his own grief and his own, um, you know, issues within the

like through that character of Augie. And it just makes me think about how like, I don't know, and it's one of those things that kept coming up in the interviews was how like, yeah, like there's, Wes has a particular way of doing things, but because it is, there are these like constraints that you're working within, it's like you can do so much more.

I think Schwartzman in an interview gave the example of like, you know, if I tell you to just like name 10 of the best songs ever, he's like, you're, there's so many songs. He's like, you're just going to be like lost. But like, if I say like name 10 songs about shoes, then like now you have like something to work off of and you can like dig into it and really like find these songs about shoes or whatever.

And he was giving the parallel of working with all of this detail and all these constraints that... Like Wes is working with a specific thing in mind, and there's a specific... That Asteroid City has this feel to it that's very specific and set in its own little world. But within that, those constraints, now you have more freedom to even explore and see more possibilities.

Eli Price (02:04:29.435)
And I don't know, it just got me thinking about like how that rings true in life too. How like, if you don't have any constraints of like discipline or, you know, morality or whatever on your life, like you really like, you're just kind of like flailing about.

there's no purpose or direction to a life that doesn't have some sort of discipline or constraint on it. But once you add that discipline and constraint, then there's so much more freedom to let yourself be who you are. Let yourself grow. There's growth that comes from it. Yeah, that's one of the things that I was really thinking about leading up to

Ian Naudé (02:05:11.031)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:05:22.835)
recording this is It's just because it kept coming up so much in those interviews and it got me thinking of how like you see that in the film too because it is actors like actors playing actors playing actors kind of thing and them working within that structure and through that like dealing with real issues in their lives Things that have happened like, you know the whole use your grief thing

Um, you know, uh, it's, um, you know, you're there, they're harnessing these things that they don't like fully understand about the world to, uh, to find like, like those very things that they don't fully understand, like, all you like, I don't understand the play. I don't understand like this character fully, but like he's still able to harness that.

thing he doesn't understand like to find peace and to actually like understand the grief he's going through from losing the playwright in that case as Jones Hall. And I don't know like and you see that like you know that use your grief line rings true as far as that goes and then like at one point that the Tildes-Winton scientist character tells Woodrow.

Trust your curiosity. It's the he's dealing with like he's not sure What to do with this curiosity? He has about both like this girl that he's interested in but also like What he wants to do with his life in the future, you know He's a teenager thinking about those sorts of things and she tells him like that very thing that you don't understand like use that Trust your curiosity. And so I don't know

Did you have any thoughts as far as those?

Ian Naudé (02:07:21.87)
Definitely. Well, first, I guess I'll do two things. I first just want to go back and touch on what you're talking about the constraints. And I think you're right in the movie and in life that constraints are a good thing. I think they give you focus. Whereas if you have a blanks, if it's like a free for all, you can start wherever you want to do whatever.

Eli Price (02:07:31.476)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:07:41.559)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:07:49.77)
It's like you lack the focus to create something substantial, but the constraints say they guide you in a very specific direction. And you know, since you're going this way, you might as well dig deep and delve in. And so you get after it. You know what the rules are, and you know what the limitations are. You know what's safe and what's not. And you can fill that entire space.

Eli Price (02:07:53.591)
Hmm.

Eli Price (02:08:18.155)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:08:19.734)
basically just gives you focus. And so I think you're absolutely right that that's one of the takeaways for the movie. But for me though, the thing that really stuck with me was a surprising scene that kind of, I don't think this is Wes's main takeaway. I don't even know if he wanted me to take this away, but it's what I thought about. And it has to do with consumerism and how we construct our experiences.

Eli Price (02:08:38.484)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:08:48.811)
Hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:08:50.742)
if we even give any thought to that. And the scene that made me think about it, surprisingly enough, was the one with the vending machine plot of land, which it was funny. And I thought there's a ton of vending machines, and one of them is a vending machine, and it's got all of these options to buy plots of land on it. And I thought,

Eli Price (02:09:01.583)
Yeah, which was funny in and of itself.

Eli Price (02:09:16.607)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (02:09:19.19)
the scene, I thought that was all we were gonna get. I was like, just show that they have a vending machine and nothing more, but Wes goes on and it's like, he lets the scene play out with one of the characters asking Steve Carell's character, the hotel host or whatever the host, like, well, walk me through this. What is this? And it turns out these plots of land are just these tiny little, like, maybe like one foot by one foot.

Eli Price (02:09:30.899)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:09:40.78)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:09:48.782)
plots that you can buy from a vending machine, and you get an actual deed to the land. But what are you going to do with it? You're basically buying it just to say, I have it. And at first, I'll be honest, when I first watched the movie, I walked away thinking, I don't know. I feel like there were some unnecessary scenes in there. This was one of them. And I was like, just because it dragged out, I'm like, what's the point of this scene?

Eli Price (02:09:48.957)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:09:54.827)
Yeah. Right.

Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:10:11.764)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:10:17.674)
It's either unnecessary or Wes had a purpose for it. And so I started thinking, well, what could it be? You know, I started thinking about, you know, what's, what would be the purpose of buying a plot of land that's a one foot by one foot, you're just buying it just to buy it, just so you can have it. And I'm like, well, that's, you know, I make purchases like that. Tons of people live like that. Um, and you know, what are you buying? You're buying like a microcosm of an experience. Like it's nothing substantial.

Eli Price (02:10:32.011)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:10:45.995)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:10:47.606)
You know, you just simply have this tiny little blip on the radar of something, of all that could be, you know, like, what are you doing? And so I started, I doubt Wes wanted me to think about all this, but it's what I've been thinking about is, you know, I want to be meaningful in not just purchasing experiences, but selecting, you know, substantial experiences, whether it's a purchase or not, you know.

Eli Price (02:11:14.016)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:11:17.698)
but also making wise financial decisions comes along with that. So I'm sure Wes didn't want me to think all that. Maybe he did. If he did, he's a genius. I already think he's a genius, but if he is, then he's on another level. But that's what I've been thinking about.

Eli Price (02:11:30.204)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:11:35.527)
Yeah. I mean, it's even it even sort of fits into the whole like constraints thing, like putting constraints on how you like spend your time and money. Like there's more freedom in your life when you do that, because, you know, if you have a budget that you stick to and like, and you're not wasting money on whatever, then you have a freedom to when something interesting comes along to like actually.

Ian Naudé (02:11:47.703)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:12:04.767)
do it because you haven't been spending on things that don't matter. Or same thing with time, you know, if you use your time wisely then when something comes up that is interesting to you, you're able to like spend your time doing it because you've been, you've put constraints on your time. So like it even ties into my thoughts, I think too.

Ian Naudé (02:12:09.439)
Exactly.

Ian Naudé (02:12:27.902)
Exactly, because the thing is for each person we don't have to live that way. Like I can choose to waste my time and waste my money, you know, or I can choose to constrain myself. It's only a decision that I can make, you know, and so and if I do, like it'll like I think anybody would agree that me putting those constraints on my time and money will have huge payoffs down the road, you know. And so...

Eli Price (02:12:36.18)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:12:54.71)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:12:56.926)
Yeah, so I walked away with that. You know, a scene I thought was unnecessary was the one that I'm drawing the most out of, even if Wes didn't mean me to or not. So yeah, so that's it for me.

Eli Price (02:13:08.375)
Great. Love it. Yeah, I love that. And like I said, like this, I need to watch this like a second and third time because there's just so much to dig into here. But yeah, I guess we're at the point where we do our own personal subjective arbitrary ratings. So yeah, what would you, what did you rate Asteroid City?

Ian Naudé (02:13:30.059)
Okay.

Eli Price (02:13:37.951)
First off.

Ian Naudé (02:13:39.946)
Well, I don't think this is my final rating. I'll say that because this movie is kind of, like I'm kind of doing with it when I did with Banshees of Inisharun that I mentioned earlier, where when I walked out of the theater, I thought it was just okay, I'll be honest. But as I've been like thinking about it, like I've been finding more and more stuff to like, and some of the stuff that I thought I hated, I've been thinking, well, as I've been dwelling on it,

Eli Price (02:13:44.136)
Okay, that's fair.

Eli Price (02:13:51.453)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:14:09.218)
well actually I like that scene, I like it now, you know. And so, but I haven't fully done all that, so right now I'm giving it a 3.5 out of five, which is low, right? But higher than it was, you know. And I guess I should explain my ratings, because I write, like it's not just a simple number for me. So if I'm.

Eli Price (02:14:11.933)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:14:22.131)
No, that's, I mean, that's solid.

Ian Naudé (02:14:37.462)
Basically for it to get a five out of five, it has to be a movie that I can put on almost anytime It's an all-time favorite you put it on. I'm having a good time, right? And then to kind of I kind of rate it in terms of rewatch ability, you know And if I'm giving it a three that's something that I I'm only gonna watch one time, but still worth watching just once So 3.5 is a little bit higher than that. Like I want to rewatch it again, you know But it I don't know if it's more than that. It would take another viewing

Eli Price (02:14:51.031)
Sure.

Eli Price (02:15:02.029)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:15:07.418)
me to know. So for now it's you know it's not a three which is just watching once. It's a little bit more than that and I'm not sure if it's going to be higher or stay there. I'll see you know that's kind of where I am.

Eli Price (02:15:08.381)
Right.

Eli Price (02:15:19.392)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:15:22.867)
Yeah, this one I really, really liked a whole lot. I, I walked out and I was just smiling because of just the. I don't know the amount for first off, like just right when you watch your Wes Anderson movie, just like the craft of it all, it's just hard to like walk away and be like, Oh, that was terrible.

Ian Naudé (02:15:27.778)
Good, I'm glad.

Ian Naudé (02:15:46.421)
Mm.

Eli Price (02:15:50.111)
just because you know you're gonna watch something that's visually pleasing. But on top of that with this one, for me, I just felt like there was so many literal layers built into the movie, but also just layers of things to dig into and things going on. And that's the sort of movie that I really, really enjoy. I-

I will say I don't think I'm emotionally connected with it to the same degree that I have others of Wes. I did feel, I did have emotionally connecting moments with those scenes that we've talked about where Augie goes backstage and Adrian Brody tells him, you're playing them right, keep playing them. Which is just like...

It rings true to life like when you don't understand what's going on with your life to like Keep moving forward keep you know, keep telling the story in so many words um But yeah, so there there's a few that i'm emotionally connected with sequences Uh, but I don't feel like to the same degree. I have others of his. Um And so when I rate movies like i'm rating

Ian Naudé (02:16:51.819)
Thank you.

Eli Price (02:17:11.983)
It's a very subjective experience to me. Like I'm going to rate a movie based off of like how I, how it makes me feel, how much like I enjoy it. And then like, you know, obviously like if a movie is getting bad ratings, I don't, it's not like that I necessarily hated all the movie. It's usually because like there was a bunch of parts that like, I thought we're dumb or like didn't, you know, that sort of thing, but

Ian Naudé (02:17:37.442)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:17:39.935)
But yeah, I walked out of this one and this is sort of, so I almost have kind of baked into my rating that I have a very strong feeling that I'm gonna watch it again and like it even more. And so I went ahead and gave it a four and a half out of five.

Ian Naudé (02:17:58.35)
So you've bumped it up a little bit, because you've got a feeling it's got staying power. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:18:02.275)
Right. Like when I've walked out, I was like solid four, like loved it solid four. But the more I've been thinking about it, I'm like, I'm I feel like I need to bake in the fact that there's almost no way I can watch this again and not like it even more. One of those kind of movies for me. And so, but yeah, as far as like where it goes in my ranking. So, I mean, I've seen every West movie now and I have Asteroid City at

Ian Naudé (02:18:07.519)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:18:18.859)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:18:32.051)
Sitting at number six right now. So really like about Midway of his movies Yeah, so I have it's kind of sitting so I have a my top tier has like tenenbaums Grand Budapest Mr. Fox and Rushmore. That's like my top tier and then I have three in Life aquatic now this one asteroid city and aisle dogs that are kind of in that middle tier

Ian Naudé (02:18:38.082)
about halfway. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:19:01.463)
together and then the last four kind of in the bottom tier for me. Um, yeah. Do you have any idea where you would place it for you?

Ian Naudé (02:19:08.258)
means.

Ian Naudé (02:19:11.926)
Let me pull up, is it on letterbox? Like if I were to type in, yeah, I'm sure if I type in Wes Anderson.

Eli Price (02:19:19.611)
Yeah, I mean like you can look this is my letterbox like my personal list I don't know if you can actually see it on the camera, but But yeah, I mean you have he has The you got it pulled up sweet

Ian Naudé (02:19:28.846)
Okay.

I got it here. So for me, like I'm going to go with as these go back and forth. But right now I've got Fantastic Mr. Fox is number one, followed by Grand Budapest. Those two swap for me often. And then below that is Life Aquatic. That's my third favorite. I love that movie. And then I've got the Darjeeling Limited after that.

Eli Price (02:19:41.65)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:19:52.535)
I love it.

Eli Price (02:19:57.867)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:20:01.118)
and then it would be it'd be a toss-up between this one tenenbaums or moonrise kingdom it's kind of i have those three after there after that um and so that's kind of where it is i probably i think i like this one more than i don't know if i can say that i need to rewatch moonrise kingdom uh you know the good excuse to go rewatch i think

Eli Price (02:20:24.221)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:20:27.997)
Exactly.

Ian Naudé (02:20:29.234)
I think it'd be Tenenbaums next, and then either Moonrise Kingdom or this one is where I'd put it. I think I would like Tenenbaums more than Moonrise or Asteroid City.

Eli Price (02:20:40.487)
Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. And that was I feel like I had commented on someone on the Instagram account for the podcast earlier that like one of the cool things about Wes is like, it would be you'd be hard pressed to like find any two rankings of his 11 films that are the same. Like everyone kind of has their different favorites and least favorites, which is so, you know,

Ian Naudé (02:21:03.903)
Yes.

Eli Price (02:21:09.751)
That just, to me that says like, oh, this is a good filmmaker. You know.

Ian Naudé (02:21:13.922)
Mm-hmm. And I love that about him. You're absolutely right, because there are people who are like strong, like, you know, strong supporters of like, Tenenbaums. That's their number one movie, you know, and there's others where, you know, where Grand Budapest is going to be number one on a lot of people's lists. And sometimes it is for me. And it probably is his best movie that he's ever made.

Eli Price (02:21:26.304)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:21:34.21)
Right.

Ian Naudé (02:21:42.422)
Fantastic Mr. Fox though, I just really enjoy that movie a lot every time I watch it. That's why it's number one a lot too.

Eli Price (02:21:46.999)
Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah, same

Eli Price (02:21:52.551)
Yeah. Yeah, well, sweet. Yeah, I've really enjoyed this series. I think next week, so I'll go ahead and say next week, I'm going to kind of do a solo episode, kind of an epilogue to the series, if you will. So it'll be a little shorter, just kind of sharing some final thoughts that I've had.

going through this series on Wes and his films and his filmography. And so I'm looking forward to getting into that and recording that here soon. But that's gonna be what's on the docket for next week, for episode 14, so everyone can look forward to that. But I will go ahead and tease that I do have a next series planned.

that I will talk about more next week. And the tease is that it is a movie that as of the time of this recording has not come out yet, but it is a director that has, let's just say an explosive movie coming out real soon. By the time this podcast comes out, it will have already exploded into theaters. And so...

Ian Naudé (02:22:52.974)
Ha ha.

Ian Naudé (02:23:10.53)
Oh, okay.

Ian Naudé (02:23:16.418)
Those who are in the know already know who it is then. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's got to be who I'm thinking is but I won't I won't say it.

Eli Price (02:23:18.7)
Right, exactly. So

Eli Price (02:23:24.355)
Yeah, yeah, but we yeah, so that's coming up in the next couple weeks. And so Yeah, that's it for the asteroid city portion We're going to take a quick break and we'll be back with our movie news and movie draft section. So we will see you soon

Eli Price (02:23:45.043)
Alright, recording's gonna keep going, but you know, feel free to like grab some water or use the bathroom. I'm gonna go Go check on the baby

Ian Naudé (02:23:51.63)
Yeah, I'll go use the restroom real quick. So this is the part you're gonna cut out, obviously, right? Yeah, so it is Christopher Nolan, right? Yeah, good choice, love it. All right, I'll be right back. Awesome.

Eli Price (02:23:59.049)
Yeah, I'll cut it out.

Eli Price (02:24:03.579)
Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's going to be fun. Cool. Yeah, same.

Ian Naudé (02:35:34.574)
Ready?

Eli Price (02:35:35.831)
Wait. Had to help the wife get, we do like a dream feed for the baby. It's called a dream feed. So she does like one feed where, like breastfeeding where you don't really wake her up. You just kind of like start feeding her real quick. Yeah. It's like, I don't know.

Ian Naudé (02:35:45.774)
Do a what with the baby?

Eli Price (02:36:05.151)
It's a thing and that's what we do. So I try to help when I can.

Ian Naudé (02:36:12.558)
That's awesome.

Eli Price (02:36:13.411)
Yeah. Yeah, I'm good to jump back in a second if you're ready to go, sweet. Okay, so we're reaching the point in the recording time where it might ask us to refresh. So just be aware. Sometimes I'll have to like start back over with something I was saying just for, so that the recording will be.

Ian Naudé (02:36:21.634)
I'm ready to go.

Ian Naudé (02:36:39.446)
Gotcha.

Eli Price (02:36:43.799)
so that it doesn't cut anything out. But, yep. All right, I'm gonna do a quick pause so that I can see where to edit out in the recording and then I'll jump back in.

Eli Price (02:37:01.255)
Hey everyone, welcome back to The Establishing Shot. I'm Eli here with Ian, and we really enjoyed talking about Asteroid City. Wrapping up the final film of Wes's filmography, and, but yeah, it's time now to move on, and do some movie news. But we're gonna stick on sort of a...

a theme with Wes with the movie news this week. I thought it'd be interesting to just kind of like, I don't know, just talk about like the West's kind of era of directors. So like I think Wes is in his early to mid fifties now. But like those kind of directors that are like, you know, Gen X kind of 45 to 60 ish feels like

They kind of feel like their own little like era of directors But yeah, I had written down a few were there were there any that came to mind for you apart from the ones I had written down I wrote down some major ones, but

Ian Naudé (02:38:13.198)
I mean, you hit, yeah, you hit the big ones. And those are the ones that I would think of. And then anybody that's not outside of that, I just probably wouldn't think of. And so these ones here, I'm seeing these, I'm like, oh yeah, these are the ones. Like especially, do you want me like just, yeah. So I'm looking at David Fincher. Man, he's one of my favorite directors. You know, he did what? He did seven.

Eli Price (02:38:18.877)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:38:23.656)
Right.

Eli Price (02:38:31.22)
Yeah, yeah, sure.

Eli Price (02:38:41.719)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:38:42.098)
What else has he done? He's done like a bunch that I like.

Eli Price (02:38:44.713)
Yeah.

Yeah, seven I think is my favorite, personally.

Ian Naudé (02:38:49.246)
Yeah, it's my favorite. But what else has he done? Like I know just, I'm trying to think what he, I say I love the director, I can't think of anything he did.

Eli Price (02:38:55.421)
Um,

Yeah, David Fincher, I mean Fight Club Man yeah now that you're making me think it's hard To come up with it off the top of my head, but yeah, yes zodiac

Ian Naudé (02:39:02.436)
Of course, yeah, if I could.

Ian Naudé (02:39:14.442)
Yeah, he did Zodiac. So he did Zodiac, Five Club, The Social Network, Benjamin Button, Gone Girl, like.

Eli Price (02:39:20.208)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:39:26.663)
Yeah, I mean, yeah, some great ones for sure.

Ian Naudé (02:39:29.13)
You know, great movies. And then, of course, I saw you wrote Don Tarantino, and you have to mention his name, like just in general, but especially this era of filmmakers. He's similar to West in that his style is very distinctive, you know, and like all, most of his movies I love, and especially, you know, Pulp Fiction, you're never gonna watch some.

Eli Price (02:39:38.388)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (02:39:49.056)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:39:59.358)
like that the way he did it. So, but yeah.

Eli Price (02:40:01.895)
Yeah, when I think of, oh sorry, I kicked my mic. When I think of this era, it's like, it feels like a bunch of directors that really loved movies and really like, so when you think about it, they had, when they were coming onto the scene, so a lot of these movies are coming out in the 90s.

Ian Naudé (02:40:05.203)
Are you in?

Eli Price (02:40:31.139)
from the directors. I think they accept, so like let me just read off some of these names. So you have like Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Spike Lee, David Fincher, Steven Soderbergh, Sofia Coppola, Richard Linklater, Spike Jones, Guillermo del Toro, Darren Aronofsky. Those are all the names I kind of wrote down that are kind of in this like little era.

filmmakers and you know when you when you think about a lot of those guys and you hear them talk Especially like if you listen to interviews of like when they have a new movie coming out They're like naming all kinds of stuff And it's almost like they are all like cinephiles before they were filmmakers

Ian Naudé (02:41:21.89)
Yeah. I love, like you mentioned Del Toro, I love watching him in interviews talking about his movies because he's almost giddy. You know, he's almost like giddy with excitement about what he's doing. I think he's just like that, but I love watching him enjoying everything he's doing and, you know, in the movies he makes are just, you know, standalone.

Eli Price (02:41:41.883)
Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, like I was saying, I feel like I mean, maybe other than like Spike Lee feels like he kind of Started coming on strong in the he's a little bit. I guess He's a little bit out of this range, but feels kind of this era But he you know, he started kind of in the 80s more Than these other guys most of them were cut started coming out with movies in the 90s But like just thinking about at that point. I mean you have

you know, how many dec, you know, nearly a century worth of film history to kind of like draw from. And so like, you're coming in with like so much, just influences in your mind as filmmakers. That makes this era of directors really like, I don't know, unique, but also like really good filmmakers because

They do seem to all really enjoy film history and having a vast knowledge of film. Um, like Wes for sure has that and Tarrant, you know, you mentioned Tarantino. You know, whenever you watch Tarantino interviews, he's like all the time plugging other movies you need to go watch. Like, oh yeah, if you liked my movie that just came out, you need to go watch these like five movies.

Ian Naudé (02:43:06.734)
I feel like Tarantino out of all of them, film knowledge, just because I think he worked in a film shot, like a film, like a, he used to work in some film job, like where he, I don't know. He's been in the industry for a long time. And you're right, every time he's talking, he's like, you know, if you like this, you should watch this, or when I was making this, I was.

Eli Price (02:43:18.72)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:43:34.634)
really had this in mind and I used to do, I used to watch these movies and these spaghetti Westerns and stuff. And he's always talking like that.

Eli Price (02:43:40.903)
Yeah Oh, yeah. Yeah him and wes are very much Feel very similar in that way um They they probably have like different movies that they're referencing is the difference but they they're all the time like bringing up movies you've never heard of or like you know just They just have a really huge knowledge of film history. Yeah, and I don't know some of these other directors might be similar but

those two like stand out for me as far as like what I've heard from interviews. Yeah, I don't know. It feels to I think because of the that these directors are like have so much film history to work back on and use as influences that a lot of them do like make movies that feel like they're, you know, reaching back in time. You know, I feel like that's.

Ian Naudé (02:44:11.746)
Yeah, for sure.

Ian Naudé (02:44:39.19)
Yeah. One filmmaker I see on this list, go ahead and refresh to.

Eli Price (02:45:14.747)
Okay, I'm back on. No, it'll tell me if you need to refresh. I was trying to tell you that before, but I had already hit refresh. But it should pop up. Yep, there you go. Now you need to refresh.

Ian Naudé (02:45:46.269)
back. Sweet.

Eli Price (02:45:48.02)
And we're back.

Eli Price (02:45:53.789)
Um.

Eli Price (02:45:58.131)
I'm trying to get remember where I was. Oh yeah, so, you know.

Eli Price (02:46:07.815)
Yeah, so some of them, I mean, I guess because of that film history, they are just that influence naturally like pushes them to reach back in time in their movies. Tarantino definitely is reaching back in his movies in all kinds of ways. And Wes definitely does.

Ian Naudé (02:46:26.642)
Oh, yes.

Eli Price (02:46:37.147)
Spike Lee, who seems to be like very much interested in what's happening now. You know, Steven Soderbergh is like that sort of, you know.

Ian Naudé (02:46:51.809)
And you have people who are just like out there like Spike. I don't know how to say his last name. Spike Jones, Spike Jonzee. Spike Jones. Every time I watch one of his movies, it's like, it's always something, it's different. It's the best way to put it. Yeah. But good, it's always interesting. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:46:58.559)
Spike Jon's. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:47:06.319)
Oh yeah, it's way out there for sure. Yeah.

Mm-hmm, but even like, you know, you think of like Richard Link later like his he is very a very reflective Filmmaker like even had the like the animated movie that came out a year or two ago That's basically like him just reminiscing on his childhood I think it's called Apollo ten and a half I think it's on Netflix. It's really good

Ian Naudé (02:47:19.367)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:47:30.913)
What was it coming?

I have to look that up. I'm gonna write that down.

Eli Price (02:47:39.183)
Yeah, it's an interesting one. But, and then, you know, he made Boyhood, which was filmed over a whole decade. Yeah, so, and that feels like, with a few exceptions, it feels like this era of filmmakers is very reflective in that way. Not necessarily in quote unquote, the good old days sort of thing, but just like,

Ian Naudé (02:47:45.217)
crazy.

Ian Naudé (02:47:58.27)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (02:48:06.549)
You're like trying to like, trying to pay homage to it. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:48:10.791)
Yeah, yeah, like pay homage to the past but also like just drawing from the past to It's not that they're not interested in the present It's it's more like they're reaching back into the past to figure out what to do with it. I guess now sort of thing but Yeah, it's a I mean it's really is a An incredible era of directors. I feel like these are all guys that like I love

Ian Naudé (02:48:35.797)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:48:39.859)
These are all directors I love.

Ian Naudé (02:48:41.545)
Yeah, they're all great. And what I love that you mentioned earlier is, I don't know some of these directors on the list, as well as you do, but I know for a lot of them, they love what they do. Christopher Nolan, Tarantino, David Fincher, Guillermo del Toro, Darren Aronofsky, they love filmmaking. And I love that they love that because they're making great movies. So.

Eli Price (02:49:04.764)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (02:49:08.285)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (02:49:11.186)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:49:12.635)
Yeah, yeah, you know, these guys are all like, you know, like I said, 45 to 60 ish, some a little bit older than 60 now. But man, I really hope like they just like what you're talking about earlier, like I hope they just keep pumping out movies like, you know, score says he is. I want to say he's in his eighties now Spielberg must be too and they're still like.

Ian Naudé (02:49:28.917)
Oh yeah.

Ian Naudé (02:49:36.426)
See you soon.

Eli Price (02:49:40.875)
pumping out movies and I hope this era of directors is the same way like just keep chugging out. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, that's I guess that's it for movie news unless you had anything else to say.

Ian Naudé (02:49:45.921)
Just keep doing what you do.

Ian Naudé (02:49:57.277)
No, for that topic, I think that wraps it up.

Eli Price (02:50:00.687)
Yeah, I think we nailed it. I mean what else is there to talk about now? Yeah, that's our movie news segment, but I am excited to get into our movie draft Yeah, I Just texted Ian this earlier today what our draft was gonna be so I hope I gave him enough time to come up with a good list

Ian Naudé (02:50:03.261)
Yeah, we killed it. Nothing.

Ian Naudé (02:50:16.83)
I'm ready.

Ian Naudé (02:50:28.725)
Yeah, I've got a list.

Eli Price (02:50:31.091)
great. Don't show it to me because I might steal your pics. Yeah, we're gonna be drafting in line with the asteroid city, which takes place in a desert. We're gonna be drafting desert movies or movies with deserts in them at some point, you know. But yeah, so I'm excited. I feel like I've got

a really good list. I think we'll probably, we didn't really discuss this off mic, but do you have enough to draft seven each on your list?

Ian Naudé (02:51:15.196)
As long as you don't take half of mine, I should be good.

Eli Price (02:51:19.333)
We'll wing it. We'll just see where we end up.

Ian Naudé (02:51:21.542)
And I've got some in the back of my mind I can throw in if you take a bunch of these.

Eli Price (02:51:25.055)
Great. All right, let's do it. Yeah, we'll shoot for drafting seven each. You know, seven is a good number. So let's do that. But yeah, you're your first time guest. So you get the first pick. Yeah.

Ian Naudé (02:51:40.453)
sweet very pleased to have that first pick i'm going to go with raiders of the lost ark which is one of my all-time favorite movies put that on anytime and you're going to be having a good time so love that movie

Eli Price (02:51:47.661)
Mmm, good pick.

Eli Price (02:51:57.147)
Yeah, yeah great pick and you know, that's right in line with a Dial of destiny came out this month. I've actually been rewatching these and loving it Yeah, I had never seen King of the Crystal Skull I know a lot of people hate it Dislike it. I thought it was a fun movie. I didn't really understand I understand why you might think it's not that great. Maybe but the

The amount of hate people have of that movie is like, I just don't understand it. I thought I was still in, yeah. But yeah, Raiders, great pick. I...

Ian Naudé (02:52:30.793)
Yeah, it's a bit much.

Eli Price (02:52:42.831)
I have a lot of movies on my list that I love, but probably none that are... that everyone will love along with me. And that is like, not just like a crowd-pacing pick, but is one of my like, 5 star, 10 out of 10 movies. And you might not think of it right away when you think of desert movies, but...

It's full of deserts. They're just not Earth deserts. They're deserts on the planet Tatooine and places like that. So I'm going to pick Star Wars.

Ian Naudé (02:53:15.521)
I think this is on my list.

Ian Naudé (02:53:21.821)
Ah, that was not on my list, but that one's great.

Eli Price (02:53:26.383)
Yeah, Star Wars. I'm not going to say the fake name of A New Hope, because that's not the name of the movie. The name of the movie is Star Wars.

Ian Naudé (02:53:35.201)
That's a great pick. I don't know why I didn't think of that.

Eli Price (02:53:38.299)
Yeah, yeah. It's not it's not Earth deserts, but they are definitely stiff, you know, chock full of deserts for sure.

Ian Naudé (02:53:42.378)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (02:53:47.093)
Good pick, that was great.

Alright, so next I'm going to go with Mad Max Fury Road. Just... Yeah, I'm sure it was on your list. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:53:51.247)
Alright, where are you going next?

Eli Price (02:53:56.157)
Oh, that's a gut punch.

Eli Price (02:54:00.439)
Yes. Yeah, that's one of, I always say, if I had to say, what if you were to ask me and I had to answer what's the best action movie of all time, I would say Mad Max Fury Road.

Ian Naudé (02:54:13.713)
Yeah, it's an incredible movie of action and speed and desert. It's entirely in the desert. And it's just like you. It's a five out of five for me. I love that movie.

Eli Price (02:54:21.295)
and deserts.

Eli Price (02:54:30.651)
Yeah, yeah. Man, I actually have a few like just like five star movies on this list. That was that's actually one of them. Mad Max is one of those for me. But actually, I think I have one more on my list and I'm going to go ahead and take it. And that is no country for old men.

Ian Naudé (02:54:57.217)
That was my next one.

Eli Price (02:55:00.735)
Man, you gotta love sniping picks off of people right before they're gonna take it. Most of the time it ends up happening to me. I would have been really having a hard time picking between this one and Mad Max, so I guess it's better that you went ahead and took one of them so I didn't have to struggle with my pick.

Ian Naudé (02:55:05.073)
It's fun.

Ian Naudé (02:55:18.213)
Yeah. If you had taken med, Max Al is going to pick no country for all meds.

Eli Price (02:55:23.719)
But yeah, No Country, you know, like one of probably the best Coen Brothers movie and just one of my, it's one of those movies that like I watched early on in my like, you know, I guess journey into loving movies and have just like grown to love it even more. It's such a good movie. But yeah.

Ian Naudé (02:55:45.541)
It really is. And I've actually so Cormac McCarthy is one of my favorite authors and he wrote the book for Old Men. Have you read the book as well?

Eli Price (02:55:51.119)
Okay. Right.

Eli Price (02:55:55.979)
I know I haven't, but it's good. Incredible.

Ian Naudé (02:55:59.554)
It's one of the rare exceptions where I think the book is just as good as the movie or the movie is just as good as the book. They're both just perfect. They're both like perfection, you know. Such a good movie. Great movie.

Eli Price (02:56:07.14)
Okay, yeah.

Eli Price (02:56:12.423)
Yeah. Yeah, I'll have to check that book out sometime. Yeah. All right. You're this is your third pick.

Ian Naudé (02:56:21.077)
Third pick. OK, so it's starting to get tricky now. So that one's been taken. I'm going to go with animated movie, which I think is kind of forgotten these days. Prince of Egypt. It was on your list? All right. It's a desert movie. It's a great movie. Yeah. So.

Eli Price (02:56:31.825)
Okay.

Eli Price (02:56:38.175)
Mmm, that was on my list. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:56:46.675)
Yeah, it is.

Ian Naudé (02:56:49.965)
And I'd kind of, songs are peak, you know, they're great. And so like I'd forgotten about it until recently, I saw it, someone had posted about it online and I was like, that was a great movie. So.

Eli Price (02:56:50.879)
Man the songs on that are so good. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:57:03.867)
Yeah, it's been a long time since I've seen it, but yeah.

Ian Naudé (02:57:07.373)
Yeah, me too. I need to rewatch it because it was a good movie.

Eli Price (02:57:12.135)
Uh, so I do have one more.

Five-star movie that I watched probably a couple years ago That this is one of those so like we were talking earlier how like When you're doing these jasper like man do I pick make picks that to kind of make the people happy or picks? That'll make me happy and I always like to do a little mix of both So this is one of those that probably most people are not familiar with maybe but it is I Think I want to say it's a

Ian Naudé (02:57:33.92)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:57:49.031)
movie by Vim Vendors called Paris, Texas. To me, it's just an incredible movie. There's...

Ian Naudé (02:57:53.075)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (02:58:02.579)
I don't even know what to say about it, but the desert is definitely a prominent feature in the movie. And man, it's just an incredible character study into this guy that's the lead actor. Great movie. If you haven't watched that one, I highly recommend it. Really good movie.

Ian Naudé (02:58:23.645)
watched it I just wrote it down on my list of things to watch so but I'm aware of it like I've heard of it you know people talk about life so yeah so for my next one number four I'm gonna go with this is tough

Eli Price (02:58:28.9)
Oh yeah, it's incredible.

Eli Price (02:58:34.832)
Right, yeah.

Eli Price (02:58:38.955)
All right, cool.

Eli Price (02:58:42.569)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (02:58:50.197)
I'm just gonna go with the one that I like the most, which is going to be...

I'm gonna go with the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Eli Price (02:59:00.999)
Hmm. Yeah, I was actually just thinking I wonder if I should take that next. Oh Yeah for sure it's actually caught up with this very recently I'm trying to remember why I did but um, oh I remember I watch a watch I listen to a podcast called film spotting and they do like a March Madness bracket

Ian Naudé (02:59:05.513)
It was on your list too?

Eli Price (02:59:28.147)
They've been doing decades. And so it was the 60s, best of the 60s bracket back in March this year. And so I was catching up with 60s movies that I hadn't seen. And yeah, that was one of them. I was like, I need to watch this. So yeah, it really great. The score on that movie is so like iconic.

Ian Naudé (02:59:40.257)
and that was one of them.

Ian Naudé (02:59:50.621)
It's just emblematic of our love, like my idea of the West, you know, at that time. Like even if it's not that way, that's like my idea of it. And the score is perfect. The scenery is perfect. The cast Eastwood and his prime is great.

Eli Price (03:00:00.596)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (03:00:09.415)
Oh yeah. Yeah, so I've got some different directions I can go. There's at least one more movie that I really love, but probably most people haven't seen that I could take. But I'm gonna kind of go, I'm gonna kind of, ugh, man.

So, okay, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna go ahead and take like the pick that I think is like more crowd pleasing, that I do think is a great movie and do like a lot. That way I can kind of do what I want, maybe with the rest of my picks. And I'm gonna go ahead and take There Will Be Blood. Paul Thomas Anderson's film. Daniel Day Lewis, just incredible, like man.

Ian Naudé (03:00:56.725)
Ah, I didn't write that one down.

Ian Naudé (03:01:05.257)
And that's it.

Eli Price (03:01:05.883)
Every time I think about that movie I want a milkshake though.

Ian Naudé (03:01:11.113)
It's obligatory I think if you watch that movie. That movie has, isn't Paul Dano in that movie? Dano, Dano? Yeah, I love him.

Eli Price (03:01:14.213)
Yeah.

Eli Price (03:01:18.423)
Oh yeah. Mm-hmm. He plays like the... I think the character's name is Eli. His character's name. He's like a priest and his name is Eli. Yeah.

Ian Naudé (03:01:25.513)
Oh yeah, it is. I love any, I love Paul Dano anytime he's in anything. He's...

Eli Price (03:01:33.327)
Oh yeah. He was great in the Fae-Womans for s-

Ian Naudé (03:01:35.837)
Yeah, he was. He was really good. And he's playing a different role too. Usually he's playing a little character that's kind of off, you know. That one's kind of down the line. Okay. So next. Okay. Cool. Um, this is my fifth. I'm gonna go with the movie Holes.

Eli Price (03:01:43.119)
Yeah. Yep.

Eli Price (03:01:49.343)
Alright, we've got three more picks.

Eli Price (03:01:54.035)
This is your fifth.

Eli Price (03:01:59.875)
Okay, good pick. I didn't actually, so I didn't write it on my list because I already had so many that I would choose over it that I was like, I like holes a lot, but I just didn't even write it down. But I do like holes.

Ian Naudé (03:02:11.709)
Yeah. I like it. Like it's not out of all the movies I have on the list. It's not the best, like cinematically, technically made. It's not going to beat the others, but it's one that I just enjoy. I can put it on and I enjoy it. Yeah, exactly. So that's it. That's why I'm picking it. Yep.

Eli Price (03:02:26.087)
Yeah. It's a nostalgia pick. Yeah.

Eli Price (03:02:33.799)
Yeah, yeah, good pick. So. I think. Yeah, I'm going to go next. I'm going to go with a film by director Kelly Reichert. It's kind of I don't know, I guess you might call it like a neo Western, if that's a genre. Kind of. Yeah, it's a film called Meeks Cut Off.

Ian Naudé (03:02:58.749)
I'm curious what this is.

Eli Price (03:03:04.387)
Um, yeah, so it's, I mean, it's a, it's an incredible movie. It's, um, uh, Kelly Riker kind of, she really is a great director. Um, because she doesn't, she does so many different sources, genres. Um, this is a movie set in like the mid 1800s, uh, following like, um, basically some settlers like on the Oregon trail.

basically. But I would call it like a, it actually stars Michelle Williams. She's one of the main characters. Paul Dano's in it too, actually. Meeks Cutoff, M-E-E-K apostrophe S, Meeks Cutoff. But yeah, it's so, I would call it a neo-Western, because it is a Western in a sense. Like they're on the Oregon Trail. They're.

Ian Naudé (03:03:44.385)
What's the name of this movie again? I need to write this down.

Eli Price (03:04:02.915)
There's a guy that's sort of a rogue cowboy-ish kind of guy that's leading them. And the reason I would call it sort of a neo-Western is it's kind of like flipping the perspective that you would normally have in a Western. So the main characters are, the characters that you actually get the most perspective from are the women. And so you'll have these scenes where the men are up.

Up ahead of them and they're like discussing and like making decisions and you can't really hear what they're saying But you have the perspective of the women and it kind of yeah It kind of it's kind of like flipping the power structures in a way Which plays out in the movie really? interestingly but really Say that again

Ian Naudé (03:04:38.663)
interesting.

Ian Naudé (03:04:49.969)
curious. I'll check it. Yeah, I'm curious. I'm gonna check that one out.

Eli Price (03:04:55.171)
Yeah, Meeks Cut Off. I really enjoyed that movie. Watched it a few years ago, I think. Yeah, that's definitely one that most people probably haven't seen, but hopefully they will after hearing me talk about it. Yeah, this is your sixth pick. Where are you going to go?

Ian Naudé (03:05:15.229)
Number 6. I'm going to go with Dennyville News Dune Part 1.

Eli Price (03:05:25.691)
Great. I was wondering if one of us was going to get there. I don't think I was going to pick it. I really enjoyed this movie, but I didn't love it.

Ian Naudé (03:05:38.373)
Yeah, that's kind of where I am, you know? And it's one of, the book is one of my favorite books of all time, it's in my top three. Yeah, and so the movie, like you said, I really enjoyed it. Didn't love it, not like I loved the book, but really enjoyed it. And of course it's all desert, you know?

Eli Price (03:05:47.335)
Yeah, the book is incredible.

Eli Price (03:06:00.039)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I do feel like so yeah, I was out when I saw the movie. I was telling people At the end of the day the book is kind of unadaptable For a movie, but if you're gonna adapt it, it feels like he did the probably the best job you could do um There's just so much in the book. You're so much in um paul atreides head

Ian Naudé (03:06:29.161)
Yeah, and the way it's written, it's written so perfectly in the book, like the inner monologues are perfect in that book. How do you translate that to film, you know?

Eli Price (03:06:29.575)
that like it's hard to make that come across on screen well.

Eli Price (03:06:39.587)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (03:06:45.455)
Yeah, yeah, the voiceover can only really do so much like voiceover narration. Yeah All right, this is my sixth pick. I have two more picks. I feel like I have a lot of pretty serious movies and So I really need to lighten things up. I already picked one Coen Brothers movie But I'm gonna have to pick another and go with Raising, Arizona

Ian Naudé (03:06:47.361)
They go, yeah, it's not the same.

Ian Naudé (03:07:10.23)
Oh, gotcha. Good pick.

Eli Price (03:07:11.931)
which is such a fun movie. Have you ever seen it?

Ian Naudé (03:07:15.937)
I haven't seen it, but I'm aware of it, you know? No. So, yeah, that's a good pick.

Eli Price (03:07:22.139)
Yeah, it's, I mean, it's got a great performance by Nick Cage. Um, it's, it's got a lot of wild stuff going on and it's funny. Um, you know, the Coens are actually, I feel like a really good at comedy. Um, uh, no country is not a funny movie whatsoever. Uh, but raising Arizona is, is very funny. Um, and.

Ian Naudé (03:07:25.727)
Uh-huh.

Ian Naudé (03:07:37.013)
They are, yeah.

Ian Naudé (03:07:41.482)
No.

Ian Naudé (03:07:46.769)
Yeah, they've got humor like with the Big Lebowski, you know, Fargo. Fargo has some dark humor in it.

Eli Price (03:07:51.186)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (03:07:55.207)
Yeah, most of their movies do have a lot of comedy. Dark sometimes, but yeah. Yeah, Raising Arizona, I recommend it. It's a fun movie.

Ian Naudé (03:07:57.821)
Yeah.

Ian Naudé (03:08:03.645)
Yep, I wrote it down. It's on my list.

Eli Price (03:08:07.484)
Alright, this is your last pick.

Ian Naudé (03:08:07.601)
So this is my last pick. And honestly, I'm kind of agonizing over this last pick because I've got a few, like, multiple good ones. OK, cool. Looking down the list, I'm just going to go with the one that I liked the most, even though I don't think it's the most crowd-pleasing one. But out of the ones I've got remaining, I'm going to go with the Book of Eli.

Eli Price (03:08:18.091)
We'll do honorable mentions too.

Eli Price (03:08:37.863)
Mm.

Ian Naudé (03:08:38.508)
which I really enjoyed. So that is my pick. Yeah.

Eli Price (03:08:45.471)
Denzel Washington. Yeah. It's hard, you can't really talk about the movie a whole lot, cause it'll spoil it, if someone wants to watch it. But yeah, it's a, I feel like it's a fun movie. Yeah.

Ian Naudé (03:08:52.657)
Yeah. If you haven't seen it, it's a it is. Yeah. If you haven't seen it, go watch it. You'll like it.

Eli Price (03:09:03.964)
Uh, yeah, and it's about me. Um,

Ian Naudé (03:09:06.981)
It's literally the book of Eli.

Eli Price (03:09:09.775)
Yeah, it's about me. They asked me like, you know, who do you want to play you in the movie? And I said of Denzel Washington, of course. So.

Ian Naudé (03:09:17.185)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Eli Price (03:09:21.171)
Yeah, that's your dad joke of the episode. Man, so like I have, let me count. One, two, three, four. I mean, I have like six, seven, or eight more movies that I would love to pick. I feel like...

Ian Naudé (03:09:23.797)
That's awesome.

Ian Naudé (03:09:41.353)
Yeah, I've got five more movies and there's a bunch I didn't write down, but.

Eli Price (03:09:51.595)
So, man, I feel like one of these really needs to be on this list, even though there's a couple that I like more personally, but I feel like this has to be on the list because I feel I watched it. Again, I actually watched it recently with that 60s movie bracket for that. Yeah. And I feel like.

Ian Naudé (03:10:14.849)
I think I know what.

Eli Price (03:10:19.555)
this movie before I say the name is like the quintessential desert movie and so much so that like the desert feels like a character that is like beating down on everyone in the movie especially like yes see if you can guess it yeah but it's you know beating down you know even like almost the sanity of these characters especially the main character

Ian Naudé (03:10:31.509)
Do you mind if I try to guess before you submit? But you can finish what you're saying, I just wanna guess.

Eli Price (03:10:49.48)
as you go through the movie. And yeah, Ian, try to guess what it is.

Ian Naudé (03:10:52.945)
pretty sure it's Lawrence of Arabia. Yes.

Eli Price (03:10:55.631)
You're correct. Lawrence of Arabia. Great. I mean, it's it really is a great movie. Peter O'Toole is just incredible. As Lawrence. But, yeah, it's a really, really super interesting character study on this guy. And, yeah, the desert really does feel like a character in the way that. Oh, I'm blinking on the director.

Ian Naudé (03:11:04.053)
He kills it.

Eli Price (03:11:25.735)
this one, David Lean. The way that David Lean like will like he has these shots where like it's the it's like the desert in the horizon and like you have like maybe a setting sun and like the characters like going across the horizon on camels like silhouetted it's just it's beautiful but also like really gives you the

the feeling of just like these people are in a desert and it's like it's awful.

Ian Naudé (03:12:00.381)
Yeah. Yeah, it's those iconic shots. They're beautiful, but also lets you see like it's almost menacing because you see the danger of the desert is present in those shots. And you're right. It's incredible movie. I thought of picking it, you know, but it's like it's not. You're right. I feel like it has to be on one of our lists because of what it is. So.

Eli Price (03:12:10.463)
Yeah.

Eli Price (03:12:28.035)
Yeah.

Eli Price (03:12:31.547)
Yeah, yeah, I just feel like it, you know, you have to pick it. It really does feel like the quintessential desert movie. So we picked it last. We got we slipped it in there. Did you have any honorable mentions that you wanted to?

Ian Naudé (03:12:38.119)
It is, yeah.

Ian Naudé (03:12:44.381)
Yes, I do. Some ones that I didn't pick that I think are also great movies are Tremors. It's a good movie. Let me see. Cars, the animated movie Cars. The first one, he's stuck in a death. Yeah. The Martian with Matt Damon. So yeah. And then Palm Springs.

Eli Price (03:12:51.931)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (03:12:58.479)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I wasn't even thinking of that, but yeah.

Eli Price (03:13:08.455)
Right, another planet, just like Star Wars.

Ian Naudé (03:13:13.577)
It's another good one.

Eli Price (03:13:16.451)
Palm Springs with the one the comedy Yeah, Andy Samberg Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I actually picked that on um on the time travel draft Yeah, I thought it was hilarious This might be a hot take but it's got that same like Groundhog Day sort of thing But I liked it more than Groundhog Day, honestly It's a probably a hot day I do

Ian Naudé (03:13:19.741)
Yeah, it isn't like, yeah, with it. 80's Sandburg, yeah. So.

Ian Naudé (03:13:29.161)
Yeah, funny movie. Yeah, hilarious.

Ian Naudé (03:13:38.303)
Yeah.

Oh, that is a hot take.

Eli Price (03:13:45.327)
To be honest, I need to rewatch Groundhog Day, but.

Ian Naudé (03:13:47.045)
Yeah, but I can kind of see it like Palm Springs feels fresh, you know Um, so I get that

Eli Price (03:13:52.303)
Yeah. Some honorable mentions for me. I had on my list. There's a couple that are that I. Want one or two for sure that I really think are incredible movies. One is a HUD with Paul Newman, it's a 60s kind of Western. It's almost like a Shakespearean tragedy sort of feeling movie.

Ian Naudé (03:14:14.046)
Mm.

Eli Price (03:14:21.707)
Is like in the form of a Western? But yeah, Paul Newman is great in that movie has like kind of the tragic, you know character Another one I really like is this is a director I've watched a lot of in the past like year or two Jim Jarmusch is dead man with Johnny Depp It's a black and white sort of

Eli Price (03:14:52.027)
If I had to say, like, so Wes Anderson makes strange, you know, quirky movies, and I feel like Jim Jarmusch is another one of those guys. His movies are very different than Wes Anderson's, but very strange movies, and this is like his take kind of on a Western. And I think it's a really great movie. Those are two like big ones. I also had Wild at Heart by,

David Lynch with Nick Cage. Hiller Highwater was a great movie. Of course, another Coen's in True Grit. I haven't seen the original True Grit, but I love the Coen's. Badlands, have you ever seen Badlands? Terrence Malick.

Ian Naudé (03:15:25.825)
Yeah. That was a good movie.

Ian Naudé (03:15:36.609)
but account

Ian Naudé (03:15:42.621)
No, I've heard of it, but I haven't seen it.

Eli Price (03:15:47.151)
Yeah, it's really good. Yeah, those are I think that's all the ones that I had on my list. Yeah, there's a there's actually like just a ton of great movies with deserts.

Ian Naudé (03:15:58.173)
Yeah, when you first said like earlier today, when you first said, you know, we're going to do desert movies, my initial instinct was, oh man, it's going to be rough. But when I started thinking about it, I was like, well, there's this and this and this and that's a desert and this counts and that's the thing. And I was like, came up with this huge list of like, uh, like 12 or 13 movies just off the top of my head. I'm like, okay, I guess that was easy. There's a ton out there and you, a ton that are great that I didn't even write down.

Eli Price (03:16:10.036)
Yeah.

Ha ha.

Eli Price (03:16:23.401)
Yeah.

Eli Price (03:16:27.484)
Yeah, yeah, I mean.

There's a there's a lot of them, but uh, but yeah, so I'm gonna go ahead and read through our lists Ian ended up with Raiders of the Lost Ark Mad Max Fury Road the Prince of Egypt the good the bad and the ugly holes Dune part one the book of Eli Yeah, it's a good list And then I ended up with Star Wars

Ian Naudé (03:16:53.246)
Yeah, I'm happy with that.

Eli Price (03:16:59.271)
No Country for Old Men, Paris, Texas, There Will Be Blood, Meeks Cut Off, Raising Arizona, and Lawrence of Arabia. Yeah, these are both really good lists. I do, I really do like that you got an animated movie in there. I like to try to get animated movies in the list and I didn't squeeze it in this time.

Ian Naudé (03:17:09.362)
And you also have a good list.

Ian Naudé (03:17:19.999)
Yeah.

Yeah, you gotta, you gotta... Yeah, I always try to like... Cause I think animated movies need to be like, they need a little step up, you know? So anytime I can, I'm like, here you go. Especially in a studio movie.

Eli Price (03:17:32.803)
Oh yeah, there's. Yeah, I was trying to think I was trying to think earlier, like, man, are there any Miyazaki movies that are in the desert and not just.

Ian Naudé (03:17:42.217)
That's exactly what I was thinking. I was going through the list, and I was like, if there's any Miyazaki movie that's in the desert, I'm writing it down. I couldn't think of one. Could you think of any?

Eli Price (03:17:49.935)
Yeah. I guess like the closest you could get is maybe in... I don't think it would really count, but in... Oh shoot. Nausicaa, they're kind of like making places into sort of deserts, but it's like a strange...

Ian Naudé (03:18:02.993)
Is it Nausicaa? That's what I was thinking.

Ian Naudé (03:18:11.065)
That's the closest one I could think of, but I didn't write it down because I didn't think it was like on the line, you know. So, yeah.

Eli Price (03:18:13.471)
Yeah.

Yeah, I felt the same way. But yeah, I always like to get an animated movie in there. Man, you beat me too. That was the only animated movie I had written down. Yeah, yeah, you just beat me to it. Yeah, that was fun. I enjoyed that. Yeah, do you know, I talked about I always wing the recommendation of the week. Do you have?

Ian Naudé (03:18:27.561)
Prince of Egypt.

Ian Naudé (03:18:35.489)
Yeah, I like that.

Eli Price (03:18:45.331)
Do you have anything that you've thought of as we've gone?

Ian Naudé (03:18:47.057)
Yes, actually, so I said I was going to wing it, but during the intermission we had, I went and I picked like three things, you know, that just things I liked. And I don't know which one to go with. So I'll let you pick the category and I'll and then I'll present the item because I'm not sure out of these three. You can either pick a book, a board game or a firearm.

Eli Price (03:18:50.836)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (03:18:56.947)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (03:19:07.198)
Okay.

Eli Price (03:19:12.733)
Let's do board game, that sounds fun.

Ian Naudé (03:19:14.421)
Sweet. So this board game is, I think it's from Spain, it's called Awkward Guests. And it's basically the board game to replace Clue, like the board game Clue. If you like Clue, then you need to play this because after playing this, I'll probably never play Clue again.

Eli Price (03:19:25.524)
Okay.

Eli Price (03:19:33.043)
Right.

Ian Naudé (03:19:42.601)
This like the feel like if you want the feel of being a detective and figuring out You know who did it and how it was done. This is the game you need to play It will blow your mind like because you really feel like you are figuring it out and it's got tons of replayability Can't recommend this game enough The awkward guess it's might be in limited print here in the States, but you can order it online it's

Eli Price (03:19:50.175)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (03:20:04.295)
or guess. Okay.

Eli Price (03:20:10.705)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Naudé (03:20:11.753)
definitely being printed in Spain. I think it's in Spain. But just make sure you get the English version. They do. They do print foreign language versions. So unless you speak Spanish, in which case, knock yourself out.

Eli Price (03:20:18.447)
Right. Unless you speak Spanish, you know.

Eli Price (03:20:25.391)
Yeah, which, you know, I guess like galaxy brain tie in, you know, it's from Spain. Wes Anderson shot Asteroid City in Spain. Perfect. You didn't did you? I don't even know if you thought of that, but it's perfect.

Ian Naudé (03:20:38.953)
I did not, no. I was just trying to pick stuff I liked.

Eli Price (03:20:43.747)
Yeah, yeah. Man, I honestly like the only thing I can think of is what I'm looking at right now, which I've shown before on the show, but I don't remember if it's been a recommendation. But this is the first time I've taken huge extensive notes on movies and director. But I have found these, there's a guy that makes these like

you know, Amazon published, Amazon published like books, little books. Um, but there are these like film studies, notebooks. And so, um, this one is like, yeah, this one is Wes Anderson specific. So, um, I'll kind of open it. So if you're on, uh, if you're on letter, if you're on a YouTube, you can see. Um, but yeah, so he'll have like a list of all the movies you can write, like when you watched it and your rating.

Ian Naudé (03:21:20.697)
Ooh, would you mind opening that?

Ian Naudé (03:21:39.029)
That's so cool.

Eli Price (03:21:40.847)
And then for each movie, you'll have like, he has like the production notes and then like a kind of like systematic rating system. So you can rate each aspect of the movie, like the production, the directing, the writing, the lighting, the composition. You can rate like all those aspects. And then there's just like after that for each movie, there's just like a bunch of pages where you can take notes on each movie.

Ian Naudé (03:21:54.817)
Oh my gosh.

Ian Naudé (03:22:01.909)
I need to get that.

Eli Price (03:22:10.939)
and then additional note-taking space in the back. Yeah, so it's just been really helpful going through this series. Like it even has the wonderful story of Henry Sugar, which I guess when he made this one, that was supposed to be a movie, but I think it's actually gonna be a short film now. I think I heard that somewhere, that Wes decided to make it just like a short film for Netflix or something.

Ian Naudé (03:22:13.566)
No way.

Ian Naudé (03:22:40.612)
What's the name of the book?

Eli Price (03:22:43.707)
Yeah, yeah, so it's if you want to look it up, it's you can't probably can't see it very well on the screen But the guy's name is George our Gill It's probably what you'll have to search on Amazon. It's a George a RG YLL and they're just they're called like film studies notebooks and so Yeah, so he has There a lot of like big current directors like he has these

Ian Naudé (03:23:02.237)
Yeah, I wrote that down because I love that

Eli Price (03:23:12.183)
specifically for, so like, you know, Denis Villeneuve, Chris Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson, all those sorts of guys like he has these notebooks for, but he also has some that are like just like this same format, but are like blank, so that if he doesn't have one for the director you're looking for, you can just fill it in yourself sort of thing. So I don't have one of those, but I assume like for these pages.

Ian Naudé (03:23:36.176)
Yeah, so.

Eli Price (03:23:40.851)
this would just all be blank and you could fill it in yourself sort of thing. But yeah, it's a really helpful tool. So I guess.

Ian Naudé (03:23:46.977)
I didn't know they made stuff like that. That's so cool.

Eli Price (03:23:50.267)
Yeah, yeah, it's great. It's been super helpful, because obviously you can just buy a notebook and take notes, but this is like, just helps organize it so much better. And it's really inexpensive. I think this is like nine something. Yeah. Yeah, so that's my recommendation. These little film studies notebooks by George Argyle on Amazon.

Ian Naudé (03:24:04.117)
Get out of here, are you serious?

Eli Price (03:24:16.571)
It's one of those things that I'm like, I'm sure he just like has a template and just fills in the info and then sells it on Amazon. I'm like, why didn't I think of that first? I could be making money off of these things. Oh, yeah. But yeah, that's my recommendation of the week. And that's going to do it for us. We are done with all of Wes Anderson's movies until the next one he makes. And then.

Ian Naudé (03:24:26.293)
Yeah, that's brilliant. Like that's an easy buy.

Eli Price (03:24:46.995)
We'll come back for this series. We know we'll dip back dip our toes back in Wes Anderson when he comes out with another West movie But yeah, like I said Next week on the show. I'll be doing a Wes Anderson epilogue of sorts Just reflecting back on the series and I'll be announcing officially the next Director series I'm gonna be doing which I'm really excited about a lot of you probably

Ian Naudé (03:24:51.785)
the toe.

Eli Price (03:25:14.419)
already have figured it out from the tease that I gave earlier in the show. Ian did. Ian figured it out pretty easily. He guessed it right during the break. But yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again next week when I do my epilogue show. But until then, I've been Eli Price. For Ian Nade, this has been The Establishing Shot.

We'll see you again soon.