Summer Movie Preview 2026 and ’40s Madness Champion | #1062

19:18Josh Larsen:Totally get why you felt the need to try and steal this from me early. You know my love for Pixar in general and Toy Story in particular. I'm almost a Pixar completist. still have to catch up with hoppers this year's, but that speaks to what you've been saying about the, you know, this not being such an event when a Pixar movie is out, but, and I don't blame you for forgetting this. I was, I liked it as you said, but I was let down by Toy Story four. I was really, it really left a bad taste in my mouth regarding Woody in particular and the way where they brought that character. I think we argued about that a bit.

19:59Josh Larsen:Yeah, I think we did. I think most people are generally higher in Toy Story 4 than I am, particularly for the Woody storyline. But yeah, for that reason, Adam, I didn't have this as high on my list. Now, Stanton is, as you say, maybe the key reason to have some optimism here. I mean, Finding Nemo, WALL-E, among the best Pixar has offered, and Stanton directed those. And the plot you described, yeah, I think I think there is some potential to be timely. And what's the, what's the Pixar magic is when they make these movies for parents and you've already spoken to the way this plot alone appeals to things that parents are struggling with.

20:46Josh Larsen:So, so if it has that as its goal, we're off to a good start. So maybe it'll redeem the ending of toy story for, for me. Um, definitely want to see it, but actually don't feel too bad that you grabbed it because now I want to be strategic myself. So let's see here. Oh no. Don't let this backfire against me.

21:06Adam Kempenaar:Let's see. Let's see. Don't do it. Don't be a jerk. Go with your heart, Josh.

21:13Josh Larsen:Go with your heart. I will because as I look at the titles on my list, I don't know that I see one that is We're getting into territory where it's tough to choose now.

21:26Adam Kempenaar:I will say that.

21:27Josh Larsen:I mean, I'm excited about these, But I don't see one that I think you would be desperate to have. So I'm just going to stick with my draft board and I'm going to go with the one I had up next anyway. And that is The End of Oak Street. So this comes from writer-director David Robert Mitchell, who broke out in 2014 with It Follows, which to my mind, one of the key horror texts of the last 15 years. he followed up it follows though with something very different 2018's under the silver lake that was the kind of trippy detective comedy i think you'd call it with andrew garfield it has its ardent supporters some people just love that movie i liked it well enough but felt that it was probably intentionally just a bit of a dither you know it didn't especially for how much i liked it follows i was a little disappointed so it's been a while mitchell's been on pause since then and and is now back with the end of Oak Street.

22:28Josh Larsen:This sounds less horror than sci-fi. Here's the IMDb plot description. The Platt family bands together to navigate their new surroundings after a cosmic event transports their suburban neighborhood to someplace unknown. I think our house,

22:52our neighborhood,

22:57Adam Kempenaar:Our whole street

23:05has moved.

23:08Josh Larsen:Promising cast, Anne Hathaway yet again, and Ewan McGregor, but mostly this is a director pick for me. I'm hoping for something really exciting again from David Robert Mitchell. This one, The End of Oak Street, will be out on August 14.

23:23Adam Kempenaar:This is one like my Toy Story pick where I didn't like It Follows as much as you did. And because of that, I wasn't as excited about Under the Silver Lake and I never saw it. And I know you said it, Arden Supporters. It has a cult following. I Googled it. Sure enough, our friend Scott Tobias at the reveal, put it in his new cult canon. I hear about it. I know that it's a puzzle that a lot of people, including several of our listeners, many of our listeners love to watch and dissect. And I've never been intrigued enough to jump into it, Josh. And maybe you love the long goodbye, right, Adam? I love the long goodbye.

24:07Josh Larsen:Yeah. It's very much indebted to that as well. So you should catch up with it. I think it would be your thing. Okay.

24:13Adam Kempenaar:With the end of Oak Street coming out, maybe I finally will take the plunge and I'll see Under the Silver Lake.

24:23Josh Larsen:Adam with Summer around the corner. Summer movies are on our mind. You've got the big releases like Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day. You've got, you know, the reheats that people are still clamoring for, like Supergirl, another Spider-Man movie. So much coming out in the next few months here that even if you're not someone who maybe goes to the movies all that often, regularly, this is probably the time you're going maybe every weekend. And if that's the case, you're going to want to join Regal Unlimited. With Regal Unlimited, you'll be able to see one of these blockbusters for free.

25:06Josh Larsen:Regal Unlimited is the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Right now, Regal is offering film-spotting listeners endless movies for less. If you sign up for Regal Unlimited using code FILMSPOT26, you're going to get 15 % off. Now, Regal Unlimited is the only truly limitless movie subscription pass. You can see any standard 2D movie at any time. There are no blackout dates. There are no restrictions. Also with Regal Unlimited, you won't just save money on tickets. You'll also save on snacks. Members get 10 % off all non-alcoholic concessions. So sign up now in the Regal app or at the link in our description and use code FILMSPOT26 to receive your discount.

25:59Adam Kempenaar:We're at the halfway point of our summer movie preview draft. Let's take a moment, Josh, to thank the people who keep the show going, the most ardent supporters of our show, FilmSpotting family members.

26:14Josh Larsen:We want to thank a member I know quite well, actually, Jeffrey Overstreet in Shoreline, Washington. I have had a chance to meet with him over the years and talk about a various number of things. He's got a great book coming out in a couple of months. we'll hopefully get a chance to talk about. So thank you to Jeffrey, and also thank you to Family Plus member Dave Meldrum, a Brit living in Cape Town since 2010, so pretty sure I've not had a chance to meet Dave. Dave wrote in with this, I came to film spotting when Josh appeared on British critic Mark Kermode's YouTube channel to talk about Movies Are Prayers, which then led to episode 638, Top 5 Religious Experiences at the Movies.

26:55Josh Larsen:Now, Josh, you know that soon enough

26:57Adam Kempenaar:you'll be doing a meetup in Cape Town.

27:00Josh Larsen:I would love it. I would absolutely love it. Dave, let's set something up. As for Jeffrey, he wrote in, said, I've been talking back to Adam and Josh in the car on my daily commutes to Seattle Pacific University and back for so long that I can't remember how I discovered you. Funny thing, as much as I admire and learn from the show's dynamic duo, Letterboxd has revealed that my film preferences skew much closer to those of producer Sam Van Halgren. Sorry about that, Jeffrey. So since Sam is clearly the team's most discerning cinephile, the Yoda to Adam's Obi-Wan and Josh's Luke, I think, oh, that hurts, Luke.

27:38Josh Larsen:I think the host should give more attention on each episode to Sam's opinions. What is this?

27:46Adam Kempenaar:Sam notes that it's true that Jeffrey and I are eerily aligned on most films. That's from Sam. And yeah, Yoda, Yoda to my Obi-Wan, if Yoda occasionally went just totally nuts. Does that ever happen in the Star Wars movies?

28:05Josh Larsen:I mean, yeah. And the prequels. There you go. He loses it. All right. A little more from Jeffrey here. In view of my history with this show, you might wonder, what took you so long to support the show like this? Fact is, I rely on the support of my readers to cover the costs of my own film coverage, and I've been hesitant to draw from their contributions to support someone else's film platform. But the fact is that your show has contributed so much to my own exploration of movies that I've decided it's only right that I do my part. So many great artistic endeavors are being threatened these days.

28:39Josh Larsen:I want to help strengthen the best things that remain. Totally get that, Jeffrey. And yeah, deeply appreciate the support.

28:47Adam Kempenaar:Yeah, absolutely. Certainly a name that we have seen in the mailbag and corresponded with for many, many years. We'll close with these. Reviews we got wrong. Dave says, Josh is wrong about The Phantom Menace. Speaking of Obi-Wan and Yoda, I rewatched it recently just to make sure. Oh, and it's not a review as such, but why is SNL so revered? People get applauded for walking on screen, aren't funny, and are then applauded again? Sorry, ignorant Brit, I guess. We've got to get Dave's reviews of the new UK SNL. See, I think maybe that's hurting his opinion. He's watching that version and he thinks that the American version must have inspired it too much or something.

29:27Adam Kempenaar:No, come on. The American version does have its moments. Moving on.

29:31Josh Larsen:And Dave saying that about Phantom Menace, which is great and amazing, Cape Town is off. Okay.

29:38Adam Kempenaar:You ruined it, Dave. Jeffrey says this, I predict that in five or ten years, both Adam and Joshua have a higher opinion of the Phoenician scheme. They liked it, sure, but while it may not be, I didn't really, but while it may not be the most immediately affecting of Anderson's films, it's a masterpiece in so many ways. See, here he is, aligning with Sam Van Hagen. it is a masterpiece in so many ways joke density oh is that do we have analytics on that political commentary editing production design for my money while it doesn't move me like moonrise kingdom does it's the most relentlessly hilarious film in anderson's catalog by contrast i love your reverence for kogan out as columbus i have a new book coming out in spring 2026 called lost and found in the cathedral of cinema and it begins with a chapter on columbus i've been revising for eight years.

30:26Adam Kempenaar:Wow. I thought I was a slow writer.

30:28Josh Larsen:That's commitment. There you go. That's the title I couldn't pull for Jeffrey's book. And as far as the Phoenician scheme, I would normally say he's probably right. Most, almost all of Anderson's films appreciate for me, the more I watched them, but I watched that one three times when it came out because I just couldn't believe that I wasn't connecting with it more. Maybe I just need some distance to fully appreciate it as much as Jeffrey and yeah, and Sam do. Well, thank you, Dave. Thank you, Jeffrey, for being family members. You can follow Dave on Letterboxd at Vicar Dave. Jeffrey is Jay Overstreet.

31:06Josh Larsen:In addition to keeping us doing what we're doing, membership does come with perks. You can listen early and ad-free. You'll also get Sam's weekly newsletter and exclusive opportunities like the Film Spotting Family Discord. You'll also get monthly bonus shows. Our most recent bonus show just went out to film spotting family members. A very fun. Ask us anything.

31:27Adam Kempenaar:That's right. You can get all of that for as little as$4.99 a month. That's discounted. If you pay annually, you can learn more at film spotting family.com. And you can also help the show by rating or reviewing us over on Apple podcasts or Spotify. Can I make a suggestion? Where'd you go? Like never gonna run. If you don't walk. But don't look down. Let's get back into our draft, Josh. We are at the number six pick. That is my choice. And if longtime listeners of the show, and especially if they're Team Adam, and there are a few, if they're out there and if they're paying really close attention to the draft, and if maybe they've studied the summer movie calendar themselves pretty closely, and they heard you say, I don't see anything.

32:25Adam Kempenaar:I don't see anything on the list that seems like a real Adam movie, so I'm just going to stick with my draft board. They're out there just chomping at the bit, waiting for me to scream out this title, knowing that Josh has made a major misstep. Oh, my. How exciting. Because there is such a title, and it's the last title of real consequence for me on this draft board. In fact, I have it as my number two most anticipated film of the summer. And if you're not familiar with it or Josh, if you just completely maybe overlooked it or you didn't know who was involved. This is what I'm wondering. You are going to know why I care so much about this movie as I get through this official synopsis.

33:16Adam Kempenaar:when Rick, Paul Rudd, a past his prime wedding singer, meets fading boy band star Danny, Nick Jonas, during a gig, the two bond over music and a late night jam session. But when Danny turns one of Rick's songs into the hit that reignites his career, Rick sets out to reclaim the recognition he believes he deserves, even if it means risking everything he cares about. Okay, so I'm in anyway, probably just based on, And I'm not the biggest Nick Jonas guy, but I like Paul Rudd quite a bit. And I still am trying here to kick around and play in cover bands. My journalism faculty band just knocked out seven songs for some of our students at the Spring Showcase.

34:02Adam Kempenaar:I got to play guitar and play Psycho Killer by Talking Heads and Teenage Dirtbag. And I finally got to live my dream and play one of the greatest rock songs ever. I got to play Surrender by Cheap Trick. I actually got to play it on guitar. Now, wait a minute.

34:18Josh Larsen:Does your other band know you're moonlighting? Have you gotten? Yeah. Okay. I just don't want there to be like, you know, some sort of Netflix documentary about this in a couple of years. The rift you cause between your various cover bands.

34:33Adam Kempenaar:It's the summer of Adam trying to reclaim his youth as a musician. I had the journalism band. I've got the college band reuniting. I've got the high school band reuniting all within like two months of each other. Oh my gosh, there's three? There's three? Three reunions. I have so many songs to learn. I don't know how I'm going to pull it off, but it's super exciting. And so you read that description, you know I'm in. But then you really know I'm in when you hear the next sentence. From writer-director John Carney. From writer-director John Carney. Sing Street. once two of my favorite films of their respective years two of my favorite films of the last 20 years it's called power ballad and it says it's a feel-good story about music self-respect friendship and the price of ambition josh injected into my veins it's my song i wrote it do you think it is easy to turn a song into a hit so good

35:35Josh Larsen:okay i get another pick here do i have two more picks left or one yeah you have two more seven and nine josh seven and nine okay um okay yeah these are all kind of i'm similarly enthused about all of them so i want to give a small movie some attention then this is probably the smallest movie i would i think we're probably going to talk about The title is Rose of Nevada, and the writer-director is Mark Jenkin, who is someone that I've been waiting to really pop, at least for me. There are people who are just hugely enthusiastic about his work. He's based in West Cornwall on the far southern English coast and has been doing work since the early 2000s.

36:22Josh Larsen:I'm not familiar with everything, but I did seek out his two most recent features. That was one called Bait and then Ennis Main. And I did that because just their distinct locales that he was working in appealed to me. And they both got really strong reviews. I liked both films, Bait and Ennis Main. The second one I should spell out, E-N-Y-S and then M-E-N. I liked both, just didn't click with either as much as I felt I should or other critics did. So I saw in doing research that he has a new film, Rose of Nevada. It's been greeted with, you know, similar acclaim as the other movies. It seems similarly regionally focused.

37:03Josh Larsen:The plot basically involves the sudden return of a fishing boat that's been missing for 30 years. And then two men decide they're going to join the crew to curious results. One of the stars here, George Mackay, who was so good as one of the soldiers in 1917. so maybe jenkin upping things a bit in terms of you know i'm not sure how familiar a lot of audiences are with makai but a familiar face for sure i'm just hoping this is the one that really knocks me out from mark jenkin and so the title again is rose of nevada and it's coming out june

37:40Adam Kempenaar:19 okay well a good nudge for me to go back into the mailbag josh and i do remember bait remember some listeners writing in and saying, hey, this should be on your radar. Mark Jenkins should be on your radar. And it rung a bell. And so I went into the mailbag and we got this email from Holly who said, I just wanted to get in touch with a couple of shout outs for potential Golden Brick nominees. Firstly, Mark Jenkins' new film, Rose of Nevada, a time travel tale set in a Cornish fishing village starring George Mackay and Callum Turner. His films have often been describe as folk horror, but I don't think that label does justice to their beauty and strangeness.

38:17Adam Kempenaar:And this film brings the best elements of his previous two features together. I'm going to read the other one as well. For the next recommendation, I may be slightly biased as it is about my home city, Glasgow. It's a documentary, Everybody to Kenmure Street. Oh, yeah. Details. You know about it? Can't wait for this one. It details a neighborhood protest that occurred in response to immigration forces attempting to detained two of its residents. A hopeful and optimistic portrait of the power of community and collective action, the film couldn't really have arrived at a more important time. Holly viewed both films at the Glasgow Film Festival, but Kenmere Street comes to theaters across the UK.

38:54Adam Kempenaar:So we got this back in February, comes to theaters across the UK on March 13th. It recently secured a deal for US distribution. So I'll have to look that up and see where that stands. Rose of Nevada comes to UK cinemas on April 24th. So just this week, and it will have a limited release in the U.S. on June 19th. Holly says, I hope you guys enjoy the film. So thank you for that, Holly.

39:16Josh Larsen:Yeah, thanks, Holly. There you go. Looking forward to both of those.

39:19Adam Kempenaar:Okay, that brings me to my penultimate pick. I am at number eight. And yeah, it does get it gets a little more difficult here. But I think especially I don't think you're going to pick either of these films. So I think I can probably I could probably mention both. It doesn't matter. And I'm inspired to consider both of these movies, Josh, mainly because of the movie that we haven't recorded our conversation about yet. But we are going to do that soon. And it's our conversation about Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator, the first movie in our dissident cinema marathon. There are two films coming out this summer that seem very similar in the sense that they are about political machinery.

40:13Adam Kempenaar:They're also very much about Soviet political machinery. Not that that's what The Great Dictator is about, but it is very much about political machinery, the gamesmanship of politics. we've got the brink of war which is about ronald reagan and mikhail gorbachev and meeting in helsinki and the potential for nuclear war and those talks those negotiations but this is the one i'm going to go with and it's really because the filmmaker who i think is a first-time feature filmmaker and writer a name i'm not familiar with at all who who wrote and directed the brink of war It's because of that. It's because I'm more familiar with the director, much more familiar with the director of this film.

41:00Adam Kempenaar:I'm going to go with this one. And it's The Wizard of the Kremlin. Did you see this in your research? Sounds vaguely familiar. Yeah. So The Wizard of the Kremlin is the new film from director Olivier Assayas. Oh, yeah, that's right. And it stars Jude Law as Vladimir Putin and Paul Dano. And Paul Dano plays. He's he's the wizard. He's the wizard of the Kremlin playing Vedim Baranov, who is this young artist, was this young artist in the 90s who becomes the spin doctor, the guy that that helps that helps Putin come to power. of a name I'm not personally familiar with, a story that I'm not familiar with.

41:51Adam Kempenaar:And as unsavory, as distasteful to me as it sounds in a lot of ways to have to sit through a movie, no matter how it portrays him, to have to sit through a movie where I'm watching a story about Vladimir Putin, Putin, I still want to see what Olivier Assayas does with this material. I still am someone who tends to be very fascinated by the backroom dealings, the psychological warfare, if you will, of these types of characters. And I'm fascinated by these characters. If you watch the trailer, you'll see that Danos Baranoff is someone who will remind you a lot of someone like a Steve Bannon, who his attitude seems to be burn it all down.

42:43Adam Kempenaar:None of it matters. Power is the only thing that matters. Take it by any means necessary. It is all just a game. There's no such thing as really as integrity, as democracy, certainly. And the will of the people is meaningless. And you'll understand if you have seen The Great Dictator recently why that would very much be on my mind as I'm watching the trailer and reading a little bit about the wizard of the the kremlin so dano's performance is getting some attention jude law seems very good lately at playing these these real life characters that these real life historical characters and alicia vikander's in it jeffrey right is in it as well so good cast very good director material that i'm drawn to even if As I said, I'm also a little put off by it, but important material as well.

43:44Josh Larsen:Yeah. No, that one, that one sounds amazing. I'll say yes, I'm, I'm a little, I've liked everything of his I've seen, but it's one of those categories where I'm wondering why I don't like it as much as most other people do. I think Clouds of Sils Maria is maybe my favorite of his that I've seen. I know, you know, personal shop are very good as well. So definitely anything he does is worth putting on your radar. All right. So for my final pick, I mean, we're going to be able to give a few honorable mentions, right? Just to let people know what else is coming out in the next few months. But for my official pick, I'm torn here.

44:22Josh Larsen:I don't think you're going to grab. I know you're not going to grab the one I'm leaning towards. So can I cause some trouble? You're not going to grab that one. You might grab this, but it's lower.

44:33Adam Kempenaar:I'm not passionate about any of these final choices Josh so

44:36Josh Larsen:I'm going to go I feel like I here we go as the world's only don't worry darling defender and I mean I mean top 10 of the year defender it made my top 10 list you didn't have to say it out loud Josh

44:52Adam Kempenaar:I'm not running from that

44:54Josh Larsen:so of course I'm intrigued by the next film to be directed by Olivia Wilde You're going the invite. Let me note, Olivia Wilde also directed the very good Booksmart. So the invite, this is her new one. The invite stars Wilde as well, alongside Seth Rogen, Edward Norton, and Penelope Cruz. Wilde and Rogan play a couple whose relationship is on the rocks. Then they get a provocative invite from their neighbors. So that's pretty much all I know about it. Aside from this, it is a remake of a 2020 Spanish film that did not star Penelope Cruz, by the way. That, you know, I don't know what the track record.

45:36Josh Larsen:My instinct is the track record on American remakes of international films, especially comedies, is dicey. But as far as I'm concerned, Wilde can still do no wrong over two films. So I'm going to be in for this one. The invite opens on June 26th, and I'll take that as my last pick.

45:55Adam Kempenaar:Is there something I've been wanting to talk to you about? We also have something we wanted to talk to you about. You can bring my back. Okay, it is your last pick. I have one more. I do want to clarify two quick things. One, about The Wizard of the Kremlin, I didn't give the release date. Coming up here pretty soon, I'm sure it will be a limited release here in the States, but May 15th is when you can look for it. And the Baranoff character is actually inspired by the political strategist Vladislav Surkov. Okay. Just didn't want emails. I'm sure there are people who know all about Putin.

46:33Josh Larsen:Putin is, I mean, you better look out after the things you just said.

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48:56Adam Kempenaar:Amazon presents Jamal versus the Shih Tzu. Descending from the gray wolf, Shih Tzus live by their own untamed primal code of not giving a single Shih Tzu. But Jamal shopped on Amazon and bought dog treats, chew toys, and 32 ounces of carpet cleaner. Hey, Jamal, you've been promoted to pack leader. Save the everyday with Amazon. My last pick, Josh. Here's where I'm going to go. And yes, there are some honorable mentions, so I'll be able to get out one or two other picks here. there's there's one maybe obvious place i could go and there's one choice here that people are definitely going to be writing in saying what kind of show is this how could you not be mentioning this movie and maybe we're going to be forbidden to ever do another summer movie preview after leaving this movie off however do you know where i'm going when i say that josh surely you do

49:59Josh Larsen:i mean are you thinking like big big blockbuster potential yes yes yeah i i was planning to address those on the honorable mentions but if you want to grab one now no i'm not going to because

50:11Adam Kempenaar:something else caught my eye and these types of films the genre i think it qualifies as a genre there's there's lots of debate about what exactly specifies if you're going real textbook definitions of a genre but i don't give a lot of love here on the show to animated movies but when i saw the images and when I read about the description for decorado I said this is one I have to see it is one that's being described as a black comedy comes out May 15th and it's set in the city of anywhere it is about a mouse named Arnold who hears from the official plot summary confides to his wife Maria that he suspects his entire world is nothing more than a set and his life is a scripted performance.

51:11Adam Kempenaar:So there you go. Shades of the Truman Show, of course, a movie I have. Initially, when I saw it in theater, when it came out, I was just lukewarm on it. I've revisited and come to love that film. But I read a little bit about this filmmaker and his name is because he's someone I'm not familiar with, so I want to make sure I get it right. Alberto Vasquez is the director. And I read a little bit about him, Josh, and he name checks all sorts of great films that were inspirations for this movie. And they included not only The Truman Show, but even Bergman's scenes from a marriage. And you put together The Truman Show and scenes from a marriage with a movie that's about a middle-aged mouse.

51:59Adam Kempenaar:And I have to see what that concoction is. So it's from G Kids. Like I said, in theaters, May 15th. It's a Spanish language animated film. This mouse is having an existential crisis. And movies about characters in existential crisis, tails and big ears or of any other kind of variety. Those are maybe my favorite.

52:27Josh Larsen:I love this for you. Whatever it takes to get you, yeah, to move further into an embrace of animation, I am obviously all for. And yeah, the images from this look amazing. It's in hand-drawn style and we don't have enough of that these days. So that alone is reason to put it on your radar. So Decorado, Decorado.

52:50Adam Kempenaar:Decorado is it. That is our summer movie preview draft, five picks each, 10 films total. You can find all of those picks and the dates, the release dates, if you don't want to Google them, find them in one spot, filmspotting.net slash lists. We will also link directly to the page with all of those picks and the release dates in our show notes, wherever you get your podcasts or on our website. Josh, you said you would have some honorable mentions. What are the other titles that you do want to make sure that we give at least a nod to? So this is the one I thought you might actually grab.

53:28Josh Larsen:And I almost went for it. David Wayne directing a new comedy. How did we miss David Wayne? What is it? I'm giving him my first honorable mention here. Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass. This is coming out. I didn't realize that was him. That's coming out July 10. And we're going to be showing Adam this summer. Wet Hot American Summer. Wayne's Wet Hot American Summer at Film Spotting Fest 2. Reminder, get your tickets now. That's going to be June 27 where we're watching Wet Hot American Summer. And yeah, Wayne is back with, get this, here's the plot. I love the premise. You've heard the premise.

54:09Josh Larsen:Okay. after her fiance actually uses his celebrity sex pass. Gail heads to Hollywood to play her own. And I think Zoe Deutsch is the title character, I believe. So very promising there. I also like that the cast includes Mad Men, alums Jon Hamm and Jon Slattery playing themselves. Weird Al Yankovic also playing himself. I'm assuming he's the one Gail. That's Gail's target, right? It's got to be Weird Al. Yeah, it's Ham. It's Ham, yeah. ham i think it's weird al i i'm i'm hoping and knowing that would be now that knowing david wayne he would make it weird al so yeah so yeah gail daughtry and the celebrity sex pass is july 10 wanted to give that a nod and yeah the the big ones are you thinking of something like um spider

54:57Adam Kempenaar:man brand new day maybe well july 31 our our regular listeners know that we probably weren't going to get love to that movie we haven't been too kind to to spider-man over the years we've liked we've liked i think the most the last one we were a little yes we were harsh i'm a little more friendly towards those i don't know that i needed another one i'll say sure i actually was thinking of josh and you you really should know better because i'm pretty sure you for a previous This day job kept up to date with this stuff in a way that I certainly have not. Have you forgotten about The Mandalorian and Grogu?

55:38Josh Larsen:Oh, The Mandalorian and Grogu, I am interested in. I'm unfortunately going to have to catch up with it late because I'll be traveling when it releases. I think that is one worth noting. It was a really good TV series. Yeah. Yeah, I watched all of that. Again, so we're heading into reheat territory, right? We're heading into sequels, spinoffs, feature versions of streaming series. I don't know that I needed a Mandalorian film, but we're getting one. And this is why they make them. I will definitely go see it. So, yeah, that's that's another one. And then Supergirl, you know, that got the film spotting triple thumbs down.

56:20Josh Larsen:Superman, James Gunn's the trifecta. You and Sam. Just get Superman. out of here. And of course, that set up this film, Supergirl, which is coming out June 26. Now, I did like Crypto the dog. Very cute. He's back for Supergirl. So I guess I'll look forward to that. Here's the real, the one beacon of hope for Supergirl, I think, Adam, is that it's based on the comics run by Tom King. And I'm not a huge comic book reader. I'll dive in here or there on occasion. I have read some of King's Batman work and it's incredibly thoughtful and thought provoking. I don't know how that might translate, you know, to Supergirl, let alone translate from there to the screen.

57:06Josh Larsen:But seeing that it's based on his material is promising.

57:10Adam Kempenaar:Tom King fans here at Film Spotting, it does. It does give me some hope for that film. And if I was going to dive into all of this Mandalorian Star Wars world that I have not kept up with at all over the past, just whatever's been on TV, whatever's been on streaming that I have not watched at all. Pedro Pascal, the bounty hunter stuff. I'm going to go see this film. I'm interested. Good. Okay. And we'll talk about it. We'll talk about it. I know I'm not at this point somehow the target audience because I haven't kept up with it, but I am curious about this movie and we will give it some time. I mentioned the brink of war earlier and yes, I probably have let enough time pass that one or two or twelve emails have come in correcting me.

57:58Adam Kempenaar:I knew it didn't sound right when it came out of my mouth. The summit in 1986 between Gorbachev and Reagan was not in Helsinki, Josh. I can't mix up these countries. It was Reykjavik. Of course. I can't believe you didn't correct me. How dare you not know that it was Reykjavik in 86.

58:14Josh Larsen:This is so exciting. This has been like a live newscast and you're just getting updates in your earpiece. It's in my ear. Sam's in my ear. Yeah. He's a little later. World affairs, geopolitical.

58:26Adam Kempenaar:Yeah. Wow. See, I could have dubbed these in later, but I'm just going to do live corrections. Let people know how the sausage is made. Reykjavik. So I want to see the brink of war. The Dog Stars. Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Ridley Scott. A new one from Ridley Scott and an adaptation of Peter Heller's book, The Dog Stars. It's a thriller set in the aftermath of a devastating flu that wipes out most of humanity. OK, that cuts a little too close to home. I love Boosters, which is the new one from Boots Riley. Kiki Palmer. Josh, you had to consider that one.

58:59Josh Larsen:That would have been my number two pick, but it's like May 22. So I thought I was looking from Memorial Day out. So otherwise everyone should go see I Love Boosters. I concur.

59:13Adam Kempenaar:Now I have to issue, I think, another correction. I'm pretty sure I even told you. I'm pretty sure I even told you that's correct. And I went earlier in May. Silent Friend is another one I'm interested in. Tony Leung, Lea Seydoux won multiple prizes at the Venice Film Festival. I'll let you Google it and read the plot description. It sounds fascinating and it's got Tony Leung in it. And that's all I need to know. Once again, those are our most anticipated movies of the summer. We would love to hear your picks. We'd love to hear any other things you'd like to correct me about. Write in, tell me why I should have been watching.

59:51Adam Kempenaar:I'm Grogu, Mandalorian. I should know who Grogu is or what a Grogu is. Baby Yoda.

59:56Josh Larsen:It's just... Baby Yoda. I've never sounded more...

59:59Adam Kempenaar:I've never sounded more old and out of touch.

1:00:02Josh Larsen:But he's not literally... I need to clarify now. He's not literally Baby Yoda. Okay? Just... You should know that.

1:00:08Adam Kempenaar:I do understand there's a difference. Okay. Okay. Just trying to help. You can see our pics at filmspotting.net slash lists. People have a right to know the truth. It belongs to seven billion people. What is it?

1:00:27Josh Larsen:You wouldn't believe me if I told you. So I'm going to show you.

1:00:32Adam Kempenaar:There aren't many films that may be more anticipated than The Odyssey this summer. But if you're Josh Larson, Disclosure Day, we know how you're going to vote. Let's go. In the current potentially deeply flawed film spotting poll. we know that a lot of people fall into the same category as me josh and the odyssey is the number one movie they're most excited to see so between myself and sam we were thinking about this poll and we were trying to put together other options and do we just leave the odyssey out completely because it'd be too boring and then we just said you know what let's just make it the odyssey versus the field.

1:01:12Adam Kempenaar:You can see one summer 2026 movie. It's either the Odyssey or it's something else. Anything else. One of the other nine movies that we drafted, one of the other seven honorable mentions that we mentioned, or one of the movies we didn't say, but that you're aware of. You can go that way. How do you vote? We know how you vote.

1:01:34Josh Larsen:We'll see if there are others who feel like I do. Maybe it's not Disclosure Day. Maybe it's another title, but yeah, we'll see how the field fares.

1:01:41Adam Kempenaar:I'm excited. You can vote in that poll and share a comment at filmspotting.net. We will share your results in a couple of weeks. We also wanted to provide a few notes for Chicago area people or people who are just willing to travel to Chicago for the movies. Film spotting fest, too fest, too film spotting. Yes, that it does amuse us every time. Maybe I have to stop laughing at it, Josh. June 27th and 28th in Chicago. Tickets on sale now at filmspottingfest.com. You can see three movies at the Athenaeum on Saturday. You can see one movie Sunday morning at the music box. We do stress that, as always, guests are subject to change, but we're pretty sure that the screenings and the times are not subject to change.

1:02:32Adam Kempenaar:We got Cleo from 5 to 7, the movie that has just recently been inducted into the film spotting pantheon. That's how great that Agnes Varda film is. And you know what? It's not here on our list, but we can announce it now. It's on the film spotting fest page, but new information to share here on the show. The author of the recent book about the life and work of Agnes Varda, the great critic, Carrie Rickey is now coming to film spotting fest to help us intro. How about five to seven and talk about the movie after we're going straight to the source for this one. That'll be a great conversation. It will be.

1:03:07Adam Kempenaar:After that, introing and talking about his movie, the movie he wrote and directed, Trey Edward Schultz. The movie is Cretia. And then a movie you mentioned earlier, David Wayne. I'm sorry if you're listening and we know you actually do listen to Film Spotting. I saw that title and said, this movie is one I actually really do need to consider. The premise sounds amazing. And it would actually be hilarious if Jon Hamm didn't play himself, if someone else played Jon Hamm. but I love that Jon Hamm's playing himself. Yes. I want to see this movie. I can't believe I didn't look up who the director was.

1:03:40Adam Kempenaar:I hope you'll forgive me. We are going to show Wet Hot American Summer, Saturday night, our showcase film, and then Sunday morning we close it all out, Josh, with the Royal Tenenbaums, and Michael Phillips will join us on stage to talk about that Wes Anderson film.

1:03:56Josh Larsen:Yeah, what a way to close it out. Can't wait for a packed crowd there and a good conversation with Michael. I don't know. I'm trying to think if we've had one with Michael about Wes Anderson films in general or Royal Tenenbaums in particular. I know you and I, this is what's great about the fest is we get to throw another element into the mix, especially if we're revisiting movies that we've been able to hash out together and we get a different perspective and a different dynamic. So having Michael on for Royal Tenenbaums, that'll be great.

1:04:26Adam Kempenaar:FilmSpotting family members, you do get a discount on the music box tickets. You get a discount on the Saturday Festival Pass that runs up until the event itself. FilmSpottingFamily.com is where you can get those details if you're not already a member. If you are a member and you need the pre-sale code, you get it in the Film Spotting Family newsletter. If you're not seeing it or you haven't gotten it somehow, email us, feedback at filmspotting.net. There will be a meet and greet opportunity that is exclusively for you. Once again, the hub for all information about the fest is filmspottingfest.com.

1:05:05Adam Kempenaar:the chicago critics film festival is the what josh the fest that's in its fourth year fifth year seventh year i don't know how many years i think it's beyond five at this point i'm pretty sure it's beyond five it feels like it we've highlighted it every year and it opens this weekend as we said at the top of the show runs through may 7th all the films are at the music box. You know, that's an incredible venue to see movies. Great lineup as always many Chicago premieres, and we're not going to go through the entire lineup, but we did want to give you just a few dates, give you a few titles that if you didn't already have them on your radar, you should have them on your radar.

1:05:47Adam Kempenaar:And we will also give you the URL where you can go find all the information that you need to make sure that you are able to buy tickets, check out the dates. It is Chicago critics film festival.com lengthy, but pretty intuitive Chicago critics film festival.com.

1:06:08Josh Larsen:And this first one, you know, you might be hearing this too late, but just at least as evidence of the good taste they have when they program this, it is the invite. One of my picks in the movie draft for our summer movie preview from Olivia Wilde, who's going to be there, the director and star of her new film, The Invite. This is a 35mm print they're going to have. The movie, as I said, also stars Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton. It'll come out at the end of June. Now, also Friday, May 1, they're programming a 40th anniversary screening of David Cronenberg's The Fly, also in 35mm.

1:06:45Josh Larsen:How great would it be to see that with a crowd?

1:06:48Adam Kempenaar:I would love to see that film, which isn't a Cronenberg film that I adore, but being able to see that in 35 with an audience, the music box audience in particular, would be so great. I don't know that it would be as great though, Josh, as seeing one of my top draft picks on Saturday, May 2nd, John Carney's Power Ballad with Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas, which does come out in June. Sadly, neither Paul Rudd nor Nick Jonas nor John Carney will be there, but you can see that film. And if you need more Olivia Wilde, she stars in a film I did consider for the draft, I Want Your Sex, which is the latest from Greg Araki, Made Mysterious Skin, The Doom Generation.

1:07:30Adam Kempenaar:That comes out at the end of July. You can see it now here in May at the fest.

1:07:35Josh Larsen:On Sunday, this is May 3, they'll be showing late fame. This one features Willem Dafoe and Greta Lee. It's directed by a former film critic, Kent Jones. He previously made Diane and Hitchcock Truffaut. This one is written by Sammy Birch, who wrote May, December. That won't be out until August. So again, this is a great opportunity at this festival to get a jump start on some of the movies that look really intriguing coming out later in the year. Late Fame, that's Sunday, May 3. And then, man, this one is really killing me because Steven Spielberg's AI, Artificial Intelligence, I don't know where I have it ranked.

1:08:15Josh Larsen:I think I have a rank like maybe number three in his filmography, and they will have a 25th anniversary, 35 millimeter screening of AI artificial intelligence, which I've obviously not seen in a theater since its release. That movie is a wonder. You can see it at the fest Sunday, May 3.

1:08:34Adam Kempenaar:Speaking of Kent Jones and Hitchcock Truffaut in the Film Spotting Archive, you can find my conversation with Kent Jones about his documentary Hitchcock Truffaut. That was a very fun, enlightening conversation with him. FilmSpotting family members have access to that archive. We'll close out with how the festival is closing out. Jonathan Demme's Something Wild, another 40th anniversary screening, another 35 millimeter screening of that film. Really good film. And the closing film is Joe Swanberg. He's presenting his new movie, The Sun Never Sets. Co-star Corey Michael Smith will be in attendance along with Swanberg.

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1:11:02Adam Kempenaar:Amazon presents Juan vs. Baby. Drunk on milk and power, this bundle of sheer chaos only comes with three settings. Crying, pooping, and crying while pooping.

1:11:17Josh Larsen:But Juan shopped on Amazon and saved on pacifiers, diaper cream, and a colossal bag of coffee beans.

1:11:24Adam Kempenaar:Hear that, baby? Juan just rocked you to sleep.

1:11:29Josh Larsen:Save the everyday with Amazon. Nobody else has ever danced the red shoes since you left. Nobody else ever shall. Look, I probably should have told you this before, but you see, well, insanity runs in my family.

1:11:45Adam Kempenaar:If I could only get inside that brain of yours and understand what makes you do these crazy, twisted things.

1:11:52Josh Larsen:Put on the red shoes, Vicky. and dance for us again.

1:11:57Adam Kempenaar:This is Sparta! It is time, Josh. Film spotting, 40s madness is coming to a close. It all culminates with the question that everyone has been dying to know the answer to. Is it Citizen Kane or is it Casablanca? We put those two in conversation with each other last week. That was fun for us, hopefully fun for listeners to hear as well. And you tried to help me out, whether you were doing it intentionally or not. And I knew you weren't. You seem to be edging a little bit towards Kane in that conversation. I voted Kane. I'll just put it out there.

1:12:37Josh Larsen:I voted Kane in the official poll.

1:12:39Adam Kempenaar:I did as well. We'll see how our listeners voted. This was the closest madness finals we've ever had. So think about that. After this chalk-filled madness where there weren't really any close calls, there were basically no upsets. There was only one upset, and it was a 9 beating an 8, and it was a 9 that Sam and I knew would win. There were no upsets. This finals ended up being the closest we've ever had. So 50s was rear window versus 7 Samurai, and that was a blowout in favor of rear window. 60s blowout 2001 over psycho 70s godfather crushing jaws believe it or not in the 80s do the right thing killed the shining the closest before this year josh was last year's best of the 21st century so far there will be blood versus mulholland drive is this true or is this a typo i i need to have sam in my ear and i need to be able to communicate with him i think he's saying that okay he's saying it was 8%.

1:13:49Adam Kempenaar:So it was closest because it came down. There Will Be Blood only beat Mulholland Drive by 8%. That's how close it was. And in the 90s, Fargo and Pulp Fiction, Fargo was also 8 % was the margin. There Will Be Blood in the 2000s over Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mine, that margin was only 6%. And 2010s, how about this? Parasite versus Mad Max Fury Road. Parasite only won by 4%. So this This was lower than 4%. That's how close this was. But there was a winner. We had the number two. Believe it or not, how would he abide this? How would Charles Foster Kane live with being number two seated? Never.

1:14:37Adam Kempenaar:He'd have some newspaper men on it, right? Whereas I think Rick would have been fine with it. Yeah, he probably would have been okay. Likes to fly under the radar a little bit. Number two seed, Citizen Kane, versus number one seed, Casablanca. A little bit of feedback before we give you the numbers. Here is Clayton Shank.

1:15:00Josh Larsen:A perfect finale, as all things should be. Casablanca is arguably the ultimate studio film, firing on all cylinders, setting precedents of quality for future generations to admire and emulate. In the 40s, Kane must have been like looking into the future, confronting the possibilities of a medium you only thought you knew. Arguably the greatest leap in filmmaking since the introduction of sound before or since. Call me a cynic all you want. Kane all day.

1:15:28Adam Kempenaar:We then have this from Grant Averitt. Final week of filling in blind spots to ethically vote for Casablanca. Thank you, Grant. Citizen Kane wasn't technically a blind spot, but I watched it some 15 years ago, very, very early into my cinephile journey. Watching it then felt like what I imagined reading Heart of Darkness immediately after learning the English language would feel like. I admired it from a great distance, but found it emotionally inaccessible and formally perplexing. On rewatch, I realized that, of course, neither of those things were true. It is a remarkable film that lives up to its reputation in every way, And I'm grateful for the excuse to finally get it rewatched and properly appreciated.

1:16:09Adam Kempenaar:And yet for me, it is still no Casablanca. Kane can have Xanadu, but I'll always have Paris. Hey, Grant did the work. Yeah, he did the work. Now, I am realizing that if we'd really thought about this, we should have. And somehow, did we miss it? Did we not put in? How did we not put in the third place results? I don't think we have them on our sheet, and we should have given them the third place matchup first. Really built up the suspense, but it's too late. We've set up Casablanca versus Kane. So I'm going to give you the exact numbers here, Josh, the exact voting numbers. With 51.52 % of the vote against 48.48 % of the vote.

1:16:58Adam Kempenaar:So it's a margin of 3.04. Yes. the greatest film of the 1940s is do you have a guess how it came out i really don't because i feel like i should have had a firmer handle on this yeah and i thought for sure it was going to

1:17:15Josh Larsen:be cane when i made my predictions and even named my prediction after it because i thought i could go around that. And no, I don't know. I still don't know. Just tell me.

1:17:32Adam Kempenaar:Well, Rick Blaine just never loses. He always finds a way out.

1:17:38Josh Larsen:Wow.

1:17:38Adam Kempenaar:He always finds a way out. That guy cannot be stopped. Casablanca, 51.52 to Canes, 48.48. Casablanca is the winner. Fascinating. Yes. Congratulations to Casablanca. Now, the third place winner. We do have a third place matchup. Yeah. We always like to list the third place. And guess what? Almost, almost just as close. 52.25 % of the vote. This is, I'll go in alphabetical order. This is double indemnity, which is actually the four seed against the number three seed. It's a wonderful life. And with 52.25 % of the vote against 47.75.

1:18:24Josh Larsen:it's a wonderful life takes yeah that one i was a little more confident in i wouldn't have thought it'd be that tight though man some real difficulties for voters here when it came down to this final

1:18:36Adam Kempenaar:voting it's so great that at least the final matchups the first and the third place finishers came came to be that close that it we actually at least challenged our listeners on right on on those final four films. I am heartened to see that, even if I was rooting for Kane to win. I was certainly rooting for Kane to win in the bracket prediction contest. And because we have to record this, obviously, before the show drops on Friday, and we are waiting to have it be announced here, we can't officially update the bracket here before we record. But we know who one because we know how the standings are currently stratified.

1:19:21Adam Kempenaar:I believe that's a correct word, Josh. And so we think we know the winner and we're going to go with it. But before we announce the winner, I love this email we got from Anthony Reich. And Anthony, you may recall going way back, he had a perfect bracket after at least round one and maybe even after round two. He was he was running away with this for a while. And so he sent us this, he sent us this email with the subject line, blustering madness induced outrage. And really, if madness can't induce outrage, then what's the point?

1:19:51Josh Larsen:I was going to say that's, that's a common subject line around this time of year. All right. Here's Anthony. I gather that things are going down to the wire with the voting, but I am still hopeful of Casablanca beating out Citizen Kane. Should that be the case, then Louie raising Kane Hill and Jim, shocked, shocked to find brackets being made, McMahon will no longer be in first and second place, as they will have lost the final matchup. If that happens, then Samuel, too many Hitchcock's Maxton, will jump into first with myself and Matthew, black and white like chalk Emery, tied for second. And herein lies the outrage.

1:20:28Josh Larsen:Should this all come to pass, how on earth does someone who got three picks wrong beat out someone who had a near-perfect bracket getting just one prediction wrong out of the full 63? It would be more absurd than the sweet little old ladies in arsenic and old lace killing off men under the guise of charity. Yes, yes, yes, you can hide behind your answer of later rounds being given more points. But when in the history of the world should getting a magnificent 98.4 % correct lose to someone getting a mere 95.2%. This gentleman is the madness and folly and farcicality. Farsicality. Great word. Lained bare for all to see.

1:21:08Josh Larsen:I demand an emergency meeting of the committee be held to rectify this injustice. And yeah, Anthony has a PS here. I hope you know that the tone of my email is very tongue in cheek. Well, the first thing I can tell you, Anthony, is that the committee only has emergency meetings.

1:21:27Adam Kempenaar:So I don't know how you're going to get on the docket. They're all emergency. They're all that important. Yeah. Sorry, Anthony, except I'm not sorry because while it may be true that the winner perhaps missed more than you did, it's all about stakes. And the stakes get higher as the rounds go on. So we're sticking by it. And I'm afraid, as the great Willy Wonka said, you lose. Wow. Okay. But Samuel Maxton did not lose. You win. You win, Samuel Maxton. And your prize is you get to join us on a show. You get to select a top five. And is it a top five or a draft? I think it's usually a draft, but we can make it a top five.

1:22:18Adam Kempenaar:And so this is Samuel too many Hitchcocks Maxton, right?

1:22:22Josh Larsen:That's right.

1:22:23Adam Kempenaar:That's right. I think, yeah, I think we should do a Hitchcock themed. Maybe we should just for him. Samuel gets to decide. So congratulations, Samuel, email us. We'll correspond. We'll decide what that winning prize is. We'll see if we can throw in a few other things. You should get a film spotting prize pack. There's got to be a few other things we can find laying around the studio. in addition to the show appearance. And we thank you. We thank everyone who participated in this insanity that we call film spotting madness. We'll get to what we have in store in just a moment. But we do have to, well, I was going to say announce who won our internal challenge, but we still don't really know, Josh, because we haven't flipped the switch.

1:23:04Adam Kempenaar:Sorry. All I know is that I did not win. I did not win because I went with Kane.

1:23:10Josh Larsen:So the only thing I need you to tell me is did I beat you? You lost. I'm last no matter what?

1:23:18Adam Kempenaar:I still don't know. How is that possible? I guess you're right. I think I lost. I won. I predicted the winner. Yeah, see, that's the thing, but you were so far down. You were in 200th or something, and I was in 9th.

1:23:32Josh Larsen:I think you're trying to use the Anthony argument against me now.

1:23:37Adam Kempenaar:All I'm saying is the unbiased producer Sam has said the loser will be you or me as in me, Adam. So we'll see. I don't know at this time.

1:23:49Josh Larsen:How am I supposed to sleep tonight?

1:23:51Adam Kempenaar:How am I supposed to sleep? We won't know until Friday. Wow. What do we have in store for film spotting madness 2027 and beyond? Well, here goes. Our plan is the conversation we were having internally and having with a lot of film spotting family members, including members of the film spotting advisory board was, are we going to stop at the 1940s? Or are we going to finish out the decades? We never really thought we would go into the 20s and try to do an entire bracket. But could we combine the 1920s and 30s? Could we do a 64 film bracket? Obviously, we could. I've done the math, If I put the films together, we could.

1:24:37Adam Kempenaar:Or do we make it a tighter and maybe more interesting bracket if it was only 32? There's an argument to be made that we should keep going. We should be completists. We should continue this act of discovery that Film Spotting Madness at its core is really all about. And if it means a lot of homework, even for us, if it means a lot of homework for our listeners, Josh, let's do it. but we also know that film spotting madness is about fun and it's about participation and as we get back through the decades as you would expect the fewer movies people have seen which means the fewer entries we get the fewer votes we get we want people to participate and what we decided to do was make this a little extra bonus for film spotting family members we like to add incentives We like to make that community even stronger.

1:25:30Adam Kempenaar:So we're going to do a bracket starting in June. We're going to announce the shortlist soon just for family members. That's the 20s and 30s. A bracket just for family members. We'll participate too, Josh. It'll be great.

1:25:46Josh Larsen:And this is a great opportunity to knock out the so many, many, many blind spots people probably have from this era. I've just independent of this, I've been required as part of my master's program to watch a couple of films from the 20s and the 30s as well. And there's some fascinating stuff that I had never heard of. So it's not necessarily that these are decades where amazing films weren't being made. It's just that they've been talked about less and less with each passing decade. So I love this as impetus to get people, including us, to start delving into the movies from that era. Because you're right.

1:26:27Josh Larsen:I don't think because of that very nature, it'd be hard to do this as a proper madness and have the level of participation and just be too much work. But the diehards are in the film spotting family. That's it. Yes. And they're chomping at the bit for these sorts of challenges. And it will be, I think, Josh, different than the 40s.

1:26:48Adam Kempenaar:It'll be hard. some of these matchups just to give you some of the titles in the 30s we're talking about movies like the wizard of oz the passion of joan of arc we're talking about the general from buster keaton and m and king kong i don't know how i'm gonna vote in these and these are the and these are

1:27:06Josh Larsen:the ones people have seen but as as i was saying like if you dig a little deeper you know it's just like with each passing decade the ones that are remembered or talked about from previous decades, the number gets cut off, right? More and more. We've seen this doing this project for madness. So the math is clear. Yes. It's not that there aren't, you know, films of equal stature worth considering. And once people start digging into them, it's going to be really difficult to vote against something that maybe, you know, you've known all your life, but suddenly you've seen this wonderful other movie and, you know, which way do you go now?

1:27:43Adam Kempenaar:Yeah. And it's not just about the numbers or participation. It's also the madness is supposed to be the difficulty of the choices. It's supposed to be about these films that you know deeply, you love deeply. You're not going to love everyone, but you love a lot of them and you feel like they're part of your identity almost and you can't believe you have to pick between them. That's why we call it madness. That is harder the more distance you get. So that brings us to why we're even doing that at all. And we're going to close out the decades. The godfather of Film Spotting Madness, Mike Merrigan, the listener who first threw out this bracket idea that we've run with.

1:28:27Adam Kempenaar:he texted me i i alluded to this a little while back maybe three or four shows ago he texted me and said what if we did a concept where we effectively combined the sweet 16 of and i'm trying to remember if he if he said i don't remember exactly which decades he chose it might have been i think it was the 80s to the 2010s like 80s 90s 2000s and 2010s Take the sweet 16 of those 40 years that were in madness and put them together as a kind of super madness. And I thought that was really exciting because that's that's the core years of us, you know, us as hosts and our audience. Those choices would be incredibly hard to seed.

1:29:17Adam Kempenaar:They'd be incredibly hard to pick. But then I said, well, we've been we've been on this decade by decade process. What if we instead actually took the elite eight of all eight decades that we've done and called it super madness and we did 2010s back to the 40s that would that would truly culminate this entire process. And we could really then call it super madness. And how hard would that be to put Cain and Casablanca and these elite eight up against the elite eight from the 2010s?

1:29:52Josh Larsen:Well, what you're forcing people to do then is the exercise we force ourselves to do every 10 years is essentially the sight and sound list, right? That's it. It's the best of all time. And I don't know. Let's think about this as we're helping people make those lists, right? That's right. We're forcing them to window it down and rank. And whoever plays when they're done. And rewatch. You'll have a handy sight and sound list you can refer to.

1:30:19Adam Kempenaar:That's it. And there's still going to be a lot of discovery and rediscovery, which is a major part of this. So the eight by 10 or I'm sorry, the eight by eight worked really well because then you had 64. All we're going to do now is we're going to take the elite eight from the family 20s and 30s and we're going to put those into the mix. So we have 72 and there will be some play ins. so we can say we've covered every decade and we're going to have 72 and we'll whittle those down to the 64 for the final Super Madness tournament there you go it's going to be fun, it's going to be really good next year, so fairly soon by mid-year by the end of the summer really you should be able to find on our website we'll announce it, we'll have the entire list of all of these films obviously you could go find most of them now but we'll have the entire list that will comprise Super Madness so you can start doing your homework for 2027.

1:31:19Adam Kempenaar:2028, we've already announced 100 years of the Oscars. We're going to be doing Best Picture winners. That's right. We're going to seed those, and we're going to do that bracket. 2029, this is a Sam idea that I love, and he threw it out on the FilmSpottingFamily Discord, and they went pretty crazy for it, Josh. So I want to see what you think. It follows the Oscars idea, but rather than best picture winners, it's Oscar losers. So best picture nominees that went home completely empty handed. So no acting wins, no screenplay wins, no technical wins, no nothing. So think about this. They got shut out.

1:32:08Adam Kempenaar:They got shut out. They had to be nominated, but they had to be shut out. So listen to some of the films that would be on this list that would comprise the bracket. Lady Bird, The Tree of Life, Double Indemnity, Dr. Strangelove, 12 Angry Men, Taxi Driver, The Conversation, The Shawshank Redemption. That's just a few.

1:32:33Josh Larsen:I mean, I think it's, yeah, it's just going to be fascinating to get this list of titles compiled and see who this happened to. Also, this is such a Sam idea. I feel like, you know, his heart has just been aching for these poor movies for so many years. He just wants to do something nice for them. Share the love. And so he developed an entire madness to make everyone feel better. This is great. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then feel good. Feel good.

1:33:03Adam Kempenaar:Film spotting madness. We're doing. And that'll bring us to 2030 when we'll be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the show. And no, we haven't planned that yet, but we'll have to do something big and important for the 25th anniversary of the show. And maybe I'm saying just maybe because we could come up with something potentially bigger, but maybe we could harken back to the inaugural film spotting madness and revisit performers, actors and actresses all time, either all time or current, because you may recall, Josh, that the very first film spotting madness was actors and actresses. but it was only, we only even gave ourselves 32.

1:33:46Adam Kempenaar:We didn't even do a full bracket.

1:33:49Josh Larsen:Oh, I know. I mean, I think you participated in that one. I think, I think the truly, yeah, I definitely was part of the planning still at that point. I think, I mean, the, the most madness thing we could do is have 2030 be a bracket of film Spotting Madness brackets and we just pit them all and listeners have to vote and argue over which madness was better than this madness. And we get to the top and we all just implode.

1:34:22Adam Kempenaar:Okay. Meta. Very meta. I'm in, Josh. You can send us your ideas, feedback at filmspotting.net. You can find everything you'd ever want to know about Film Spotting Madness. I'll have to add this schedule to the page at filmspottingmadness.com. Thus ends of the madness that is this episode. Thank you for listening to us babble.

1:34:44Josh Larsen:If you would like to connect with us still on social media, you can do that on Instagram, Facebook, Letterboxd, and YouTube, where you'll find Adam and the show at film spotting. You can find me at Larson on film. And we are independently. Oh, how did I forget that? You have made your Blue Sky debut. I took the leap out of the plane with the parachute. Blue Sky. I could ask you how you feel about either of the two topics that Blue Sky is constantly enraged about. But maybe we should do that off air.

1:35:19Adam Kempenaar:I don't know what they are yet. I can't wait to find out. You haven't been on long enough. No, I have not.

1:35:22Josh Larsen:You haven't been on long enough. Okay. We'll circle back to that. at any rate, yes, Adam is on Blue Sky now at Film Spotting. I clearly am there too, Larson on film. We are independently produced and listener supported. You can support the show by joining the Film Spotting family at filmspottingfamily.com You can listen early and ad-free. You'll also get monthly bonus episodes, a weekly newsletter, and access to the entire show archive. For show t-shirts and other merch, go to filmspotting.net

1:35:52Adam Kempenaar:slash shop. out in limited release this weekend, a movie that we've been told by many people will at minimum get or deserve a Golden Brick nomination. It's called Blue Heron, the widely praised debut feature from Canadian filmmaker Sophie Romvary. It's playing at the Siskel Film Center in Chicago. Out wide is Andy Serkis' adaptation of Orwell's Animal Farm. It has the voices of Seth Rogen, Woody Harrelson, Kieran Culkin, Glenn Close, and others. We have Deep Water from director Rennie Harlan and Ben Kingsley is in this movie about an emergency landing in shark infested waters. Wait, did you say Ben Kingsley?

1:36:33Adam Kempenaar:No, let's just move on. Sir, I noticed Sam didn't include the sir. He lost the sir. Once he signed this contract, he lost the sir. Adam Scott is a novelist. Oh, I can't wait to see Deepwater.

1:36:46Josh Larsen:What are you talking about? I'll watch Deepwater. Uh-huh.

1:36:47Adam Kempenaar:Who winds up at an inn with a haunted honeymoon suite in Hokum. and a sequel to the also insanely named original. That is that time I got reincarnated as a slime. The movie tears of the Azure sea Sam made this up. He wanted me to read this. There's no way this is real. I have no idea what just happened. Please move on. I had a seizure just now on air. I believe devil wears Prada to Josh is got my tickets to that today. Okay, that's going to see it on Sunday. release next week in the film spotting feed film spotting svu reviews the netflix streaming hit people we meet on vacation the popular letterbox review describes it as when harry met sally for taylor swift fans why not sure the new film or the first film in our dissident cinema marathon it is charlie chaplin's the great dictator you can check out our lineup at filmspotting.net slash marathons don't forget to check out the next picture show wherever you get your podcasts they are calling their new pairing josh minnesota not so nice normal this is inspired they do that i use that word all the time with their pairings and that's because they are normal with bob odenkirk and fargo very good yeah and you'll hear from us our top five meryl streep scenes and we will also be reviewing the devil wears prada to meryl streep of course back in it seems one of her defining roles, but you would know better because you've been doing a bunch of homework for this top five, it seems.

1:38:25Josh Larsen:Yeah. And, and, you know, she's very fun and devil wears product, but with each movie I see of hers, it becomes less defining. Let's just say cards on the table. I'm not a huge fan of the movie overall. And I rewatched it recently. So my opinion stands. I've done the homework, Adam, and I'm already regretting saying that because people love that movie so much.

1:38:49Adam Kempenaar:The timing may not work out here because it's going to overlap or people, by the time they hear this, it will have already happened. But do you want to give a last call for the Edinburgh meetup?

1:38:59Josh Larsen:I mean, sure. If you're listening to this on Friday, May 1, we will be gathering on Saturday, May 2. And it's at one of my favorite places I found. It was recommended to me by a listener, actually, Micah Rickard, the Salt Horse, Salt Horse Beer Bar and Burger Spot. So we're going to be getting together there Saturday, May 2, starting around, what did I say? We'll be, it's sort of an open house thing we're doing. We're going to get together around four to seven. We'll probably be hanging out. So if you're in the area and still caught this in time, I'll see you there. Okay. Film Spotting is produced by Golden Joe Dessau and Sam Van Halgren.

1:39:40Josh Larsen:Without Sam and Golden Joe, this show wouldn't go. Our production assistant is Sophie Kempinar. Special thanks to everyone at WBEZ Chicago. More information is available at WBEZ.org. For Film Spotting, I'm Josh Larson. And I'm Adam Kempinar. Thanks for listening.

1:39:57Adam Kempenaar:This conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.

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