A Merry Reference Christmas 2023 (Part 1)

Full transcript of A Merry Reference Christmas 2023 (Part 1).

0:01KT: Howdy ho, friends and lovers, and welcome to the most nasty FYR 2023 Merry Reference Christmas special. Woo! Woo! That's my second favourite mouthful after Oti. How are you? Pumped. Reference tidings, my love. Reference tidings, indeed. Um, we're, we're feeling as festive as we can in this fucked up world. Um, as we say every Christmas special, friends and lovers, um, we are your proverbial family and we will always be your friends and lovers. So. Grab a snack, grab a beverage. Um, if you're in cold places of the world, keep yourself warm. Otherwise we keep it hot and nasty. Um, but for those that are new to the For Your Reference podcast, welcome, welcome, welcome. We love you. We love you. We love you. And I guess just for branding, make sure to welcome to sit on our Jupiter's cocks.

1:00KT: Yeah. Spartacus actually spin off show for Ashur.

1:04Oti: If anyone wants to get a spin off show. It would be Ashur,

1:08KT: but that just shows how much I miss that show. Cause I'm actually excited about it. Um, we're a TV and film podcast, wankers, friends and lovers, but thank you. Welcome. Um, because we focus more on analysis and discussion, that's what our full review or combined reviews and Reference Max, um, actually entail. Um, so we leave it at the booty end of the year to get some numerical ratings on shit that we've watched. Last year was the most. If you think about it, 52 weeks in a year, podcast maths, we did around 60. This year we have over 120 TV shows and films to rate. Yeah.

1:46Oti: It's been a big year.

1:48KT: Booked, busy and busted out of our asses, friends and lovers. Um, before we get started, uh, Again, thank you for everyone that has supported us, um, in any sort of capacity, even giggle gaggling on the socials, um, listening to the podcast, but more especially, we would like to extend all of our splooshes to our patrons who had the opportunity to rate on our ratings this year. It's going to get spicy. Are you ready, Oti? Ready. Okay. After the Christmas special before 2023, we did have a couple of, um, reviews coming in, so we're going to get into that before we get into January of this year, um, and we're kicking off with A Man Called Otto. Um, I believe it definitely is a remake, um, in some European country.

2:37KT: Can I get away with just saying European? Um, and I, I believe it was Ove instead of Otto and it was also based on a book as well. So this is the American daddy, Tom Hanks. Um, and unfortunately Oti wasn't able to watch it. So I went to go and watch it myself. Um, it was okay. Um, we've got a lot that we need to get through. Um, I, I just think it was interesting. I'm not going to get into detail, but trigger alert for suicide. But I just, I guess the tone just didn't necessarily work for me, or maybe I'm just not used to seeing, and I don't give grace to Tom Hanks for doing anything that is anything that isn't cheery. Cause I just remember a serious Philadelphia, Tom Hanks, and then we're riding on a rainbow with him.

3:20KT: Otherwise, um, but let's get into something that we've both watched, um, that closed out 2022. It is The Fabelmans. We have our first patron rating, Oti. All right. All right, off the ranks. Do you want to, let's do our ratings first, but I just want to, I was, I just got too excited. I'm so sorry. Um, but give us your rating. You can give us a summary if you have any more residual feelings.

3:49Oti: No, I thought it was a good watch and I give it an eight.

3:56KT: Okay. I gave The Fabelmans a nine. Um, I think it works in Spielberg's favor that, um, I don't, at least I'm not necessarily an expert in his films, obviously, without trying, people will have experienced, I haven't watched Jaws though, um, but in any case, I like grounded things and, and I don't think we're going to get to it in this Christmas ratings, but Dream Scenario of Nick Cage is my favorite Nick Cage film. Um, but yeah, I did give it a nine because I appreciated the artistry and the filmmaking. Um, and I do remember when we briefly spoke about it, I talked about the, you know, the, the very bias sort of lens, but you know, it's hard to be impartial about your own life. Um, but, okay, so do you, do you want to guess the patron or should I just tell you?

4:53Oti: Oh, tell me. Ben. Of course it is.

4:56KT: The, the, the master of chaos. Mm hmm. I'm going to read his comment, and then you can guess what he rated it, okay? Because I'm cross with Spielberg right now, having heard how much money he funnels into genocidal machines, I decided to drag down the score for his latest self indulgent Offering it gets blank stars simply for the Lynch cameo at the end. Spoiler Ben doesn't respect spoilers. Obviously, um, David Lynch, the master Lynch time to revisit Twin Peaks, friends and lovers, you can't plug something else in your comment. What do you think based on that comment? Um, which is so funny because Ben and I specifically have lengthy DMs about separating the art from the artists. Which I guess you could apply here with Spielberg, um, and I guess his, his sort of funding into genocidal machines. But what do you think Ben rated The Fabelmans?

5:53Oti: I think he gave it a seven.

5:54KT: He gave it a two. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, fuck yeah. Now let's move on. Wow. Um, so this is again, rounding off 2022. Uh, this is the Stan original Australian series about South Sea Islanders, Black Snow. Also Travis Fimmel.

6:21Oti: Yeah. Um, I really enjoyed the show. We got a chance to interview, um, and it was really exciting. Yeah. I give it an 8.5.

6:32KT: Hey, is this our first, um, same rating? Nice. Ooh, okay. Okay. I also gave it an 8.5 too. Um, it's so interesting having conversations about. Representation and, you know, uh, you know, critiquing, but also supporting. And sometimes to critique is not to support and all that sort of thing. But I didn't need to give it the rating it did because of what it did in the landscape of Australian television.

7:00Oti: Right. And the way it ended, it set up for a second season, which I hope it gets. Yeah,

7:06KT: go on. Interesting to see. Yeah. Um, well, let's continue on. We don't do many a Marvel, Oti. Mm. If I can quote Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development, A Star War. We don't do many a Marvel. Um, but we also shout out to Zenobia Shroff. We did have the interview, um, uh, opportunity to interview. So Ms. Marvel, interesting. One of the more interesting sort of offerings in the later sort of phases in Marvel. Um, what did you rate it?

7:34Oti: I gave it a 7.5.

7:38KT: I gave it an 8.5. Don't you miss doing 0.5s? I do.

7:42Oti: I love my 0.5s. It's Yeah, you do. It's, it was very reminiscent of, um, uh. I think iterations of Black Panther and what he meant and I saw how big he was in the Asian community to see representation. South Asian as well. Yeah and it was really interesting to see and I loved how Zenobia talked about the show. And expanding on the opportunities, you know, just being there and being in the space and being recognized, it's important. And I love this show.

8:17KT: Me too. Um, something that we love to talk about, what we didn't necessarily love, we're talking about M3GAN. We have another patron rating, Oti. Do you want to rate yours first?

8:33Oti: Oh, yeah, let me give you mine. I gave this movie a seven. Me too! High five! It's the movie that I wanted to love most in 2023. It was the most anticipated, at least for me and just the sheer disappointment of the direction they decided to go with it. And I just could not vibe with it. Seven is very generous, even for this. Okay.

8:58KT: This is Brent from Hustle motherfucking Hustle. The Home Video Hustle podcast. This shit was dumb as hell, but I loved it. Watch the unrated cut to see more gore. If you like to get wet out here, I refuse great comment, Brent. Yeah, but fuck that. Whatever you theatrically release is what the official cut is.

9:21Oti: Yeah, don't tease me with, with, with R rated bullshit afterwards when you knew exactly what this movie was meant to be. If that's what you released, theatrically, I'm not going to vibe with it when you come. Oh, I'm going to watch another cut later. Now, it's all seven.

9:40KT: Unless you told me Ronny Chieng is in it more than I'm not very interested in watching, um, the unrated cut, but let's continue. Um, friends and lovers that are new to the podcast, every January 26th, um, otherwise known as invasion day in so called Australia, we always highlight, Um, mostly Aboriginal, um, TV and film. And this year was, I think our first documentary actually, as well. Right. This is the artist turned activist, Richard Bell. You Can Go Now.

10:17Oti: I gave this a nine.

10:19KT: A nine. Okay. Why did you say with trepidation? Nine's a good score.

10:23Oti: Nine is a good score. I thought I'd give it higher, but I really enjoyed learning more and seeing the endeavors made by people to progress and to. educate around the world to be appreciated as an artist outside of your own country is wild. Um, and You Can Go Now just paints a picture of what the things we deal with as an Australia as a country and things we can do better. And You Can Go Now is Are an essential watch for everyone to just understand where things lie and to paint that sort of nuanced picture that I think a lot of people are missing.

11:06KT: Yes. And, uh, lots of, lots of very interesting themes. Um, you know, Aboriginal art, it's a white thing talking about the commodification of culture. Um, and also. White girls can't hump, how much better could you get than that, really? Um, but yeah, friends or lovers, definitely go and watch the documentary and you can always meet us in our love places, um, for further discussion. Something that can vacate my love places, we are now covering Tár.

11:37Oti: Oh, uh, this was a very hard watch for me, I give it a five. Um, many of you know that I usually say that I started on six for any movie and it has to severely disappoint me to go any lower or to not meet expectations or just to be fucking boring. I think Tár just created this disconnect for me that I couldn't vibe with. It felt like it was trying to capture the imagination of people outside of, I don't know, it felt, it was just trying to be impressive for impressive sake or to be technical for that sake, rather than really emphasizing anything with regards to story or even connecting with the characters.

12:17Oti: Um, and if you tell me that you cannot do something musical without, you know, bringing a bit of, uh, Clarity adventure to it. I'd give you Whiplash. It painted a very good picture. We connected the characters with this just felt nothing. I felt nothing. And that's why he got a five.

12:34KT: I, I didn't even like Whiplash and I was yearning for it while I was watching Tár. I think, no, but the thing is, as long as you're not being like self indulgent, self righteous up in your own ass. It doesn't matter what the scale of the film is. It doesn't matter how big the stars are, even if it's a like indie that isn't necessarily the most smooth or, you know, have the most budget, unless it isn't trying to be a fucking dickhead, I can get into it. And, um, you know, it is a bit weird to like speak on achievements and stuff, but we got our Rotten Tomatoes, um, for the podcast this year, Oti, and the reason why I say that is. You know, the way the Tomatometer score works is it's very binary. It's either fresh or rotten. Um, but you can put your own ratings on it.

13:24KT: And we've decided that five, five and a half out of 10 or two and a half out of five is considered rotten. So this was your first rotten rating, right? It was also my first rotten rating and I gave it a fucking four. Cause you can fuck off. Fuck. Yeah, that sounded very melodious. It's very harmonious. It wasn't doing the thing. It was just the thing. But there you go. Friends and lovers. Let's continue. Um, we celebrated our fourth year of the podcast, friends and lovers. We've done Hayao Miyazaki, Taika Waititi, Quentin Jerome Tarantino, and, um, in 2023, we covered Takashi Miike, which is really just a nibble. Um, out of your tasty nipple, um, because Takashi Miike has so many films, um, but we covered four and we started off, I guess, with the flagship sort of offering, um, which was Audition.

14:23Oti: And this is one of my favorite, um, Takashi Miike movies and I gave it a 9.5.

14:29KT: I gave it a 9.5 too. Can you, um, in some sort of way, rationalize why it wasn't a 10 cause I have a rationale for it.

14:41Oti: I think the last quarter wasn't as good as I wanted it to be or it didn't tie everything up as I expected it to. Um, and that's just a really, really me, me being really nitpicky. Uh huh. Um, but I think the execution of everything up until that point, I think the decisions by some certain characters fell short on why they did what they did or even the explanations around it. But

15:09KT: Oh, interesting because we just had a discussion about Saltburn, but whatever.

15:13Oti: But overall, such a solid movie. It's something that we've watched a couple of times now and I envision us watching it in future a couple of more times.

15:24KT: There's, there's something so delicious about Takashi Miike and being able to, I really enjoyed like the commentary specifically. There was a lot of commentary about like, um, Japanese people or the way Japan, um, views the world and that sort of thing. So I really enjoyed it. And I agree with all of your points. Um, I also feel like it didn't have the same sort of, um, spectacle, uh, the second time around, which I think that's more of a you thing. Like you prescribed rewatchability. I don't necessarily do so. Maybe if I had rated it the first time I watch it, it would have been a 10.

15:57KT: So 9.5 is also great as well. Let's move on. Uh, shout outs, love and splooshes to Ben. We don't have a patron rating, but if not for Ben, this would not have been introduced to our household and I am, I will forever be at the altar of Ben. Yes. What did you rate it?

16:18Oti: I gave it nothing short of a 10. Yeah.

16:22KT: Wanky fucker.

16:23Oti: It's my first 10. Deservedly so. It's, um. It takes us on a wild journey and I think it's one of Takashi Miike's best work to date. Like he could have stopped. He could have stopped. Yeah. And just be remembered by that and it would be fine because he'd be the Lauryn Hill of directors living off one album, living off one film. This would have been Takashi Miike's legacy and If you stop there, bow down, man. Yeah. Nothing more needed to be said.

16:54KT: Oh, I absolutely, I absolutely love this film. It's like, it's literally a perfect film. And, um, friends and lovers, if you have managed to get your nasty little fingers on this film. Um, Oti definitely enjoys mics as much as the dad does. Let's move on to probably the most aesthetic poster of Takashi Miike.

17:20Oti: Oh, I had a tough one with this. Yeah. Um, I gave it a seven essentially at a base level. I enjoyed it, but after Audition and, um, it, uh, Visitor Q, I expected so much more with Ichi. Yeah. Um, I think what was portrayed didn't really transpire in the movie. I think I expected something completely different and maybe that's on me. Uh, the storyline just felt. A lot of things just felt gratuitous for gratuitous sake, rather than it building upon itself, which is different from Visitor Q, which just,

17:56KT: but it built upon, which just

17:58Oti: did everything intentionally. And this just felt a bit off the mark.

18:02KT: Yeah. I also gave it a seven as well. Um, First Love.

18:08Oti: I give this a 7.5.

18:08KT: It's better than Ichi the Killer? I gave it seven. To me, they were both similar.

18:15Oti: I just edged it based off the story perspective. I enjoyed it more from a narrative perspective rather than anything else. Okay. Um, so it just edged Ichi just by a bit.

18:28KT: You're such an edge Lord, aren't ya? I am. Um, let's move on. This is the Hugh Jackman, um, Anthony Hopkins film, The Son. Oh, I didn't think this would be a film we reference a lot. It wouldn't.

18:44Oti: And we think about it a lot. We think about it a lot because it resonates a lot. And what more can a director or a writer do?

18:54KT: Because Oti is the titular son.

18:57Oti: I am. And I give it an 8. Because I, I enjoyed it, uh, from the storytelling perspective, um, the acting was great. And I think even the decisions being made by characters felt bought in, um, real and grounded to a point where I didn't feel like they're just doing things for, for just to be outlandish or anything like that. Yeah. Um, and even the son's journey was captivating and his decisions, you could tell that. It's already been built on, so I love The Son.

19:33KT: Um, we don't do a lot of comedy specials. This might even have been the first one. Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark. Did you know much about him? Cause he is that podcast guy.

19:45Oti: He is daddy podcast. You know, um, if you want to reference any podcasts, Marc Maron is the founding fucking father. Um, I really love the standup and I give it a nine. Um, I think me too. The rawness he brought, um, you know, from tragedy to anything and finding lighthearted moments in that was really special and something that only Marc can do in a Marc-y sort of way. But you know, it was a different time.

20:12KT: It was

20:13Oti: a different time and we referenced that a lot.

20:17KT: We do. We do. But it was, and it was so genuine. I think, you know, we love Hasan Minhaj, even though he can feel a bit. Overly produced and cringed to me sometimes friends and lovers. Um, but even the wringer that he's been through, but essentially the reason why I bring him up is like, for me, comedy can exist in groundedness and in the, the soft center that makes us human. And Marc Maron definitely had that and don't clip that soundbite. I love Hasan.

20:47Oti: Okay. Oh yeah. And he can make Brian Cox sound fucking interesting. So he's a really good interview.

20:54KT: Wow. You just had that locked and loaded, eh? I did. Um, let's talk about a sequel shout outs to Searching, cause that was very good. John Cho. Yeah. Um, yeah, we never really got a time to do a full review on it, but I personally really enjoyed first off the story in Searching and second off the way that like social media was like. Yeah. Integrated into like actual parts of the plot. Um, and Issa Rae also said in a recent interview that the original film Searching was inspiration of Rap Sh!t and the way that they would weave in social media.

21:35KT: Yeah. So good. Right. But anyway, Storm Reid, Nia Long, Missing.

21:42Oti: Eight. What can you say? Yeah, Reid was amazing in this, one of her first ever roles. It's amazing what she managed to do with that, and Nia Long, it's fucking Nia Long.

21:55KT: Yeah. What more can you,

21:57Oti: yeah. The only thing that was missing was Omar Epps trying to reach out for Nia Sties, but we'll leave that for another

22:03KT: movie. That poor Omar Epps. Every time we talk about him or Nia Long, we have to bring that up. Fatal Affair, I believe. Um, but yes, let's move on. Uh, I don't think we're going to spend a lot of time on this, but Rain Dogs, that British TV series. I gave it a six. I'll give it a six. All right, let's move on. Creed III. That was this year, Oti.

22:25Oti: Feels such a long time ago. Yeah. I'm not the biggest Creed fan. I think I watched the first one great. I enjoyed it too a bit. Uh, but it being, uh, Michael B. Jordan's, uh, directorial debut, I had to watch it and I was not disappointed. I give this movie a 7.5.

22:46KT: I gave it a 7.5. How are we so in sync this year? It's fucking wild. Yeah. Cause we had, I think last year was the year of the tens. This year is the year of the syncs. Our man moons are syncing, Oti. Um, yeah, I don't have much else to say about Creed. Till! Ooh, Chinonye, shout outs, love and splooshes all around.

23:10Oti: This is my second 10, um, for this review, because Till just took it there, you know, if, if you had a preacher that always got people to speak in tongues, this movie is it, it just elevates everything, Chinonye, and I can't even, I cannot say enough good things about this movie, the performances are sublime, it's sublime. One of the things that I want to win an Oscar, it's one of the things that I want to win a Golden Globe. It's that good. It is that good.

23:45KT: Um. Um, you know, we talk about this a lot, so it's not as if this is the only time we're going to talk about it, but, um, I guess levity, but we don't need to give you levity, Emancipation is an example of subject matter that we potentially, I know, um, it's focusing on specifically a Haitian man, so it is different, um, but I think black suffering for screens. Um, you know, I, I guess always, always take, um, the voices of black people over me, but I would say it's become something that, like, if, if people aren't learning from it, which is very clear from even the fake histories that your parents are telling you, um, what are we getting out of it aside from brutalizing black people on screen?

24:32KT: Right. So Till came. In that context, but was able to provide meaningful, um, heartfelt and contemporary themes, especially because it took over 70 years, wasn't it? For the anti lynching bill to pass.

24:52Oti: Yeah. And I think above more else, the care, you know, um, I think when you juxtapose Emancipation, we just felt like another. 12 Years, which felt like another, you know, name, whatever slave movie you want to name in there,

25:06KT: um, Tyrese Gibson's, um, Django audition. Yeah.

25:11Oti: Um, I think it just shows you the difference that you can tell a story from and, and still be able to, you know, make it seem as if it's just not about the shock value of the lashings or. Oh, I'm going to win an Oscar by this. I'm just tired of that Emancipation bullshit. Can't deal with that. Till was done so well.

25:34KT: Yeah. And it deserves all of the praise. Uh, also deserving all of the praise, Breaking. Our first. How rude, slap us on the ass, our first John Boyega led, uh, film.

25:48Oti: First John Boyega appearance on FYR, and I could not leave this without giving it a nine. I thank Boyega

25:55KT: Oh, boo, boo, you need to give more than that, you really hyped that up. What? Boo! I gave it a ten.

26:02Oti: Nine is a really good score. Sorry, did you say what you gave Till? What did you give Till? Oh, cool. So say you have three tens. I forgot.

26:11KT: I think I've had four tens now, actually, because I gave Visitor Q a 10 as well. Um, yeah, Breaking is great again. It's it's centering black lives. Um, it was one of the last films, rest in love and peace of power, Michael K. Williams. Um, it was one of his last on screen. Um, yeah, like you said, a lot of love and care was put into that film. It was. It was understanding the systems at which especially veterans, uh, obliged to, but never benefit from, which is a bigger conversation as opposed to individualistic choices. Um, let's move on. Oh. Ha ha. Oh, the opposite of individualistic choices. Succession. We've, we've cutely said it throughout, um, the year friends and lovers. And maybe this is our time now, because unless Greg gets his own show, which I would not be interested in, um, we never really closed off season four. So while we did get a screen access to the first episode, which is fucking wild.

27:19KT: Um. Let's just wrap up all of season four and give our rating on it. But again, we haven't really spoken about wrapping up the show of Succession. So I'd love to hear those thoughts first, and then you can rate it, my love.

27:31Oti: So Succession has been one of, um, our family's sort of most favorite show to us. It's won a lot of splooshies. It has. And if you know, we referenced Succession a lot. Um, season four, we're super excited getting to see the pilot. The premier episode of, um, season four way before it was released was such a big moment for our household. And it just set up for an expectation of what we expected. The first episode was really, really good. I expected it to go through from different heights. And sadly for me, it didn't meet that mark. I think the ending of Succession sort of. Spoiled a lot of things that I thought this show was going to be on how everything is going to tie. It wasn't to the devastating level of Lost or anything like that, but it still wasn't as good as expected it to be because I hold it to a very high standard, which I really expected to meet at the very least.

28:31Oti: And for that reason, I gave the final season a 7.5.

28:36KT: I gave it an eight. Okay. Fair. Um, for all the reasons that you said, but I guess that 0.5 can be attributed to. The legacy of the show. Um, I just want to put it on here. Um, you know, cause we've just, we, we, as in we supported, but, um, you know, writers and actors just came out of the double strikes after months. Right. And we're still seeing the ramifications studio merging, which sounds like we're turning into cable premium plus, but anyway, um, it's just fucking wild to have Brian Cox do a documentary series. And even. Even just the matter of fact that he's rich. He got offended at friends and lovers. He was getting paid 500K an episode and he had the audacity to be offended that he was called rich more than 500K.

29:30Oti: Yeah.

29:32KT: Um, but that's the problem. It's the connotation of being rich, not being called rich that you should be offended at. And it's like, it doesn't make you a better person just because you reject your riches because you're still rich, you know?

29:44Oti: I, and this is why I never really listened to actors per se, because I think majority of people are crap. So

29:53KT: people, actors, everyone,

29:55Oti: like listening to Brian Cox in his fucking self serving documentary was off putting. He would walked around interviewing people who are struggling and. Connecting with them as a level as if they're fucking the same and not even trying to, he got angry at someone saying he was fucking rich. Yeah. And I'm like, bro.

30:17KT: And he was helping out at, um, a community kitchen and he was getting annoyed that they didn't have funds. And it's like, grow up. Like.

30:27Oti: And this is why I never really watched actor interviews. I really didn't want to know anything outside of the people on screen. I love my characters and I like to leave them there on screen because once I move out of that fucking disappointment and Brian Cox was the biggest one. He just does not want to, he, the delusion is next level. It is fucking next level.

30:54KT: And you think he'll be one of the cool, like, OGs, right? You'd assume so. Fucking asking people how can they live through and see people gentrify. You think they have a choice, you dickhead?

31:07Oti: Yeah, he probably thinks he's being gentrified on as well, so.

31:09KT: Anyway, let's carry on.

31:13Oti: They're struggling actors, man. Fucking hell. There you go. Can't catch a break.

31:17KT: Oti's going to have his spin off of these fucking actors and just rip into all of them. Yeah. Um, we're not going to spend a lot of time on this. This is something that, um, I had the opportunity to watch, uh, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. I gave it a seven. I actually, I think I went a bit in depth in the, um, combined review Ref Max that we did. So feel free to go and dig it out. Friends and lovers. Cause I definitely had a lot to say, but I don't need to say it now. Um, Gotham Knights.

31:43Oti: Oof, I thought I enjoyed the pilot a little bit. Um, but I gave it a six. Just like it did nothing to, to move me into liking it. And I didn't stick in there too long for it to distract anything. So six is fair.

31:58KT: Well, I don't have a stick up my ass. So I gave it a seven. Nice. Oh, speaking of someone, Zachary Levi having a stick up his ass. Shazam, Fury of the Gods. That's another actor. Like get over yourself.

32:16Oti: I don't even know about him. As an, uh, as I give this movie a five because what the fuck would you get me to sit down and watch that?

32:25KT: Same. And it was like. You know, it's not even a, um, unique opinion to myself. Everyone was saying the little kids were more mature than him. Yeah. Like

32:36Oti: just, just miss me with our bullshit. Like

32:37KT: grow up, uh, this we're going to do very quickly. The TV series better. This was just me. I watched it. It's a six. Let's move on. Ooh, we have milestones, friends and lovers, and this Life of Pi play production that was filmed. was one of those milestones. I think I know what you're gonna rate it.

33:03Oti: This is my fourth 10. If there's any ever one thing that transcends or transforms your thinking of what a play is and what it can be done or can be streamed, Life of Pi does that, it captures the imagination in a way that you never really thought a play would. The production value of this is off the chart. Mm-Hmm. We watch the interviews, uh, about the people who did the set design and yeah, the process owners. The, the attention to detail is bloody amazing in this. Mm-Hmm. Life of Pi is one of the things I will watch on a regular because it is that fucking good. 10, 10,

33:43KT: 10. Add my 10. Oti pretty much said it all. Um, but it's so great. Treat yourselves, friends and lovers, uh, and watch that. Superman & Lois. This is of all of the things we've covered this year, this is the only thing I can tap out of because enough, I've been through enough. You're not going to make me watch. Cause I think it was like the third season or something, whatever. You rate it, my love.

34:11Oti: I'll give it a seven. It's, it's Superman & Lois. I can't do so much wrong with it.

34:19KT: Okay. Let's move into the delicious Donnie Yen of it all. Jonathan Wickenston Quattro.

34:29Oti: Oh, I love my John Wick series. And I thought this would be a 10, but it wasn't.

34:33KT: All right. Wait, hang on. Just because of festive cheer. What, do you remember what your rankings were for the films? Ooh,

34:41Oti: I think I gave. The second one or the third one higher than the first, okay, because I felt that you're wrong, but okay, it did more for the story with four. I felt it went into it. It's sort of, it's jumped the shark moment. It was, it's, um, you know, in Fast and Furious where Tyrese and Ludacris went to space. John Wick 4 had those moments and it just felt, come on now.

35:07KT: Yeah. No, I would actually, um, relate it to like Family Guy cutaways. Um, but yeah, I think we're both pretty much saying the same thing. Um, okay. Ready? I gave it a nine as well. First movie for me, Jonathan Wickerson. The first one, then Parabellum, then, uh, four and then the second one. Okay. Baba Yaga. Jäger, Jäger. Jäger. Tomato, tomato. Um, let's move on to, again, it's been a long fucking year friends and lovers and we're only in April. Um, The Last of Us. We have another patron rating, Oti. Oh, is this Julio? It is Julio!

36:01Oti: How did you know? I know Julio. Come on. What did he give it?

36:06KT: You want to do Julio's first? Yeah. The first patron to go first. Look at you, Oti, playing favorites. Julio. The Mandalorian and Little Lady Stark versus hordes of video game zombies. What's not to love and what an ending. Honestly terrified that they'll blow it next season. No, live in the now Julio. Don't think about later, live in the now. What do you think Julio rated it? I think he gave it a nine. He gave it a 10.

36:32Oti: Oh, good. I said nine. So I wasn't disappointed. Uh, yeah, this. One of the best shows of the year. Yeah. I think the fact that they took liberties with the story and still made it amazing and good, it's a bloody 10. What can I say?

36:53KT: I can say it's a nine. What? Some, some of the arcs, particularly near the end of the last of the, the, the lot, like the end of the first season, um, is why it's a nine. But again, like you said earlier, nine isn't a bad score. It is not so it's not the patron. It's me bringing down that particular average. Hey, um, speaking of bringing up the average, let's talk about old mate Rusty on a Vespa. All around whizzing around Europe in one cut scene, we're talking about The Pope's Exorcist and I'm so happy to report friends and lovers, not Barbie, not Oppenheimer, what Oti chose to watch to catch up on was The Pope's Exorcist.

37:41Oti: Old man Rusty can do no wrong. Um, he is fun in this, the movie just doesn't take itself too seriously. It is

37:50KT: enjoy like, like OG, like OG priests versus new age priests. Don't don't fluff it up.

37:57Oti: It's exactly the good days of watching The Omen or anything like that. Like I enjoyed this movie and I gave it an eight.

38:03KT: I also, no, I gave it a nine actually, I got some good mileage. I think The Sum of Us is my favorite Russell Crowe character.

38:12Oti: You went through with this movie.

38:14KT: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I had so much fun. I really enjoyed it. Um, The Sum of Us, friends and lovers, we did as a part of pride month for a couple of years ago, um, it was probably my favorite Russell Crowe film. And then The Pope's Exorcist, probably Gladiator's coming out. Uh, the, we might have time to watch that as well. Um, Hallelujah.

38:36Oti: Oh, I didn't think I would enjoy this movie as much as I did. Sure. Just based off the poster and the description. Yeah, I gave this movie a seven. You gave it

38:47KT: more than I thought you would. I really enjoyed it. And, um, I do feel bad cause we didn't get to do spoilers cause we did it in our combined review format, but there were definitely some things I wanted to talk about. So friends and lovers, if you have watched Hallelujah and you want to discuss it, hit up our DMs. I gave it an 8.5. Wow. I really liked it. I liked it too. I liked the themes in it. Because you don't see the themes and you don't see them executed in the way that it did. Um, in this film. Yeah.

39:17Oti: A lot of things that people just don't really talk about, especially in movies. Yeah. And they tackle a lot of stuff that is important in the right way. And they leave you with. decisions. Yeah.

39:31KT: Dreamland, Lily Allen.

39:34Oti: One of the screeners we got, I didn't really know anything about the show, but I'm glad I delved in because oh my God, I enjoy this show. I give it a nine. I'm looking forward to season two. I gave it a 9!

39:50KT: Okay, sir. That's okay. I gave it an 8. I enjoyed it. I loved it. I just didn't know you enjoyed it that much. I loved it. Okay, well, I guess we'll see where we are here. I'm surprised none of our patrons rated on this. This is Air.

40:07Oti: I'm looking at my rating here and I see that I gave it a 7 off Rotten Tomatoes score. Which is surprising. Because in retrospect, I think it met all the criteria that I thought Air would be without focusing on Michael Jordan. Um, but seven is still fair a score because at the end of the day you want to

40:24KT: change it. You can, if you want, I'm not

40:26Oti: going to change it. Old me thought it was a seven fine. I'll leave it as, and yeah, good

40:33KT: movie. I fight with my past self, my future self, and my present self, Oti. I rated it a six. Ha! Yeah, I saw that. But that's not even bad. I saw that. Yeah. No, but can we, no, can, can we, friends and lovers, talk about the fact that six out of ten, three out of five, doesn't constitute for a bad film. It doesn't.

40:56Oti: It's an okay movie.

40:57KT: But especially if you watch a lot of films. There's no way that every film that you watch is a three out of five. I'm so sorry to tell you. In what world? It's like people you meet. Do you meet 10 out of 10 in the face people every day? No. Oh, speak of 10 out of 10 in the body. Chippendales. Oh, this is our first Kumail Nanjiani led as well.

41:24Oti: First Kumail led show. I give this an eight. It was frustrating to watch just because of the storyline, but the performances, oh my God. It left me at the edge of my seat and I enjoyed every minute and the upcoming, you know, and the comeuppance because I really didn't know anything about this fella. And Steve Banerjee. Yeah. And man, happy you went

41:49KT: that way. Stay on the edge because I'm full on splooshing my love. I give it a nine. Nice. The reason why I give it a nine is because we don't necessarily see true crime from the point of view of non white, especially brown, um, people. So the interconnectedness and the fact the mom was a fucking MVP and she had the line of you weren't born to be rich. Some

42:14Oti: people don't

42:15KT: know how to be rich and it's like, bruh, pack your fake cheese back in your suitcase, go back to, nah, that was good. Like, I just really appreciate it. Cause there was so much, um, craft. That went into Chippendales that it's, and you know, it's one of those shows that people won't really talk about, but I really enjoyed it.

42:37Oti: Beef. Ooh, I enjoyed the show more than I thought I would. I give it an eight.

42:46KT: You know, it was really interesting about Beef. It was one of those shows where, unfortunately, like. It doesn't happen as much as it used to happen in like 2020 or like pre COVID, but Beef was one of those shows that happened in real time. People were discussing it, live tweeting it, reacting in real time, and that's very rare. I can think of Squid Game, The Last of Us. Like, there aren't many shows that can do that and bring the pull in real time from a week to week. Or Beef, or just like an immediate sort of presence. So, um. I understand why people love talking about it, but I definitely had some foundational qualms with this show, but who cares what I have to say. It's a seven, but I also want to say one more thing about Beef. I don't care for unchecked dickhead. And that's what this show was.

43:37KT: Right? It's fine if your character is a dickhead, it's fine if most of your characters are dickhead, but if they've not checked in any way, just because it's new, because Asian people are doing it and not white characters, traditionally, they're still fucked and I still get annoyed. Um, Mafia Mama. So, uh, that was what a screening that I went to myself. It was a Toni Collette film. It's exactly what you think it would be based off of the name of the sex. Let's move on black lady, A Black Lady Sketch Show season four. You can talk generally about the show. Cause unfortunately we haven't had a time to, um, give a full review, but specifically about season four, give you a rating, but you can give your thoughts

44:23Oti: about the show. So this was the last season, um, for the show. Robin Thede has done an amazing, has done amazing work throughout. I think it was also important to just showcase, um, black women. Being fucking funny. Yeah. And I think black ladies does that for black women or black women, you know, and I could not give this anything less than an eight. It is really, really good. And something that you'll bust out laughing. Um, yeah. I do not need to be black to watch it.

44:57KT: Yes. That chuckle at the end made it feel like that was a case. No, no, no, no. Um, Evil Dead Rise. Oh, hashtag justice for my brown people in this film.

45:12Oti: I really loved this movie. I think being in the cinema and just having other people, other fans around, you could tell that they really got references and I loved every aspect of that. I gave this movie a 7.5.

45:27KT: I gave it a seven. Um, I don't know, like, unless it's like Black Panther, I don't think there are times where I would want to go to the cinema and then I was going to a point where just everyone is annoying, but then when we're at home alone, I'm the one annoying Oti with all my commentary. So I guess it's a balance friends and lovers. Um, Totally Completely Fine. This is the Australian series.

45:54Oti: Oh, I'd give this a six and five, six. I just felt like there was a lot of nuance missing.

45:58KT: Mrs. Davis, Betty Gilpin.

46:04Oti: Betty can do no wrong. I give this a seven.

46:06KT: I still haven't finished the season, so it could get better, but it's a seven. Fired on Mars.

46:13Oti: Oh, there's heaps of this sort of animation coming around. I think. You just have to shove the crap from good quality ones, uh.

46:23KT: How do I have to look like that though?

46:24Oti: Yeah, um, I'll give this a 7. Like, it's just another nondescript sort of animation that you get for adults or whatever, that a depressing white dude at the end of his tether, and yeah, animation. There.

46:41KT: And there's a new show, is it Carol and the End of the World? Yeah, like there's just, so it's, so it's ugly drawings. Like seriously, it's not nice to look at and I'm not even an aesthetic person. They all look like poopy butthead. Is that his name? In Rick and Morty. So it's ugly animation, but then it's also themes of like. Being depressed, it's not even about being lonely, but some of it is, and it's like, is this, is this what we have to look forward to after a long ass day of listening to, you know, people at work and having to support work and sit

47:14KT: there and watch stupid, like ugly looking things of people being depressed and lonely. Like, is that the level of escape we have?

47:24Oti: Maybe it is, maybe it is.

47:25KT: No, thank you. I gave it a five. Mm-Hmm. piss off. Um, Love & Death.

47:32Oti: Love & Death.

47:32KT: Uh, Elizabeth Olsen. Mm. Our baby Plemons.

47:38Oti: Yeah. Elizabeth Olsen can act man. Um, yeah. I give this a nine. Me too. I made the show. Me too. I enjoyed it. Yeah. Like I don't even think a lot of my pe people in my circle will talk about this show a lot.

47:49KT: And don't discount it. Just 'cause the Jessica Biel one came out earlier. Yeah, yeah. Fucked up version. It was so good. It was so immersive and. You know, friends and lovers, when we get screeners, depending on the type of show, sometimes it's an episode to episode, but most of the time it's either the first chunk or the whole season and we binged this show. We did. Yeah. Um, so the next one I went to the SWANA Film Festival, shout outs to Phoebe. Um. I, I watched a couple of films and then Oti also watched that in that chunk as well, but for the SWANA Film Festival, Baghdad in My Shadow, friends and lovers, go and watch the film, listen to my review, um, I gave it a nine.

48:37KT: Oh, nice. And then, uh, I also watched Miguel's War, which is a documentary, um, from Lebanon. And I gave that a nine as well.

48:48Oti: We'll see you in your dreams. See you. Bye. Bye.