Top 5 Robert Duvall Scenes and '40s Madness Final 4 | #1060

21:57Josh Larsen:And I, I remember when that scene happened, I was like, I think that's how he approaches acting. Like this is his character describing musical performance, but that seems to be how Duvall approaches performance on screen, especially related to what you were just talking about when it comes to those gestures that are so crucial. There's even one in this scene you're talking about something he does with his hands after um i think max gives him the fu and his response is just kind of like i think he just kind of like waves it away like it's like it's smoke in the air that doesn't mean anything it's that sort of stuff that's just the door almost

22:35Adam Kempenaar:with his hands in the line i do have to say it the the vulgar line where he does the breathy duvall thing where he gets really blustery is when he says when he says he's got a big fat big-titted hit.

22:47Josh Larsen:Oh, yeah.

22:48Adam Kempenaar:That's Duvall, man.

22:50Josh Larsen:That's the Duvall line delivery. Yeah, that's a great scene. Nice pick. I definitely had Network as a honorable mention, so glad it made your list. All right, my number four is going to come from a much lesser-known Robert Duvall film. But again, maybe I was too influenced by thinking of this character type. I'm going with the funeral speech his character gives in a movie called Get Low. Now, Get Low, you know, Adam, that was the film that was the prompting for your joint top five Robert Duvall movies list you did with Maddie back in 2010. Right. Back before I joined the show. And yeah, that was just out in 2010.

23:30Josh Larsen:I reviewed it at the time and called out one scene in particular, which now putting it into the context of his career, watching it again, I just had to go with. This was the funeral speech his character gives. He plays Felix Bush, a hermit in 1930s Tennessee, who announces to the nearby town suddenly that he wants to throw himself a funeral party before he dies. He then uses the occasion to publicly confess a long-held secret and the confession which he gives at the funeral. That's my pick. It's a very long scene. It's a long speech. It's probably too long. I wish the music that creeps in at the very end wasn't there and the film had just trusted Duval.

24:14Josh Larsen:Despite all that, man, does he hold this moment, especially the key early section where Felix talks about why he held onto the secret for so long. Essentially that he didn't want forgiveness, that he wanted to make himself suffer the guilt. Y 'all probably think you know what you do or what you wouldn't, and I wish you good luck with that. I really do. When I told Charlie what I'd done, he told me to confess to God the law and to somebody else so as I could get forgiveness. But I didn't want forgiveness. No. I needed to hold on to what I did to be sick from it every day of my life so that I never told nobody else.

25:05You see? Nobody.

25:08Josh Larsen:So here is an irredeemable bastard who resists redemption like other Duvall characters, and then, this is unique, grasps for it at the end of his life, which I think is significant. And also this moment just shows you the shading of these aren't just, you know, these aren't just bad guys who turn their life around. Like Duvall came back to these figures frequently, I'm assuming because they fascinated him, but also because he knew he would be able to give each one distinct layers. And that's the layer he gives here to Felix Bush is this one reason a guy might resist redemption is because he wanted to punish himself.

25:47Josh Larsen:so that's that's from get low good movie not a great movie probably great probably better than the great santini i'm kind of working working up towards better duval movies i like them both but um yeah bill murray co-stars in this as the town funeral director and he's also he's also quite

26:03Adam Kempenaar:good so that's the funeral speech from get low i will have to take your word for that i didn't get a chance to re-watch that scene it's duval i'm sure he's wonderful in it i'm i am now just bringing up my, my notes. I still have my notes from, you know, that, that conversation in a Google doc, my, my review notes. And it, it looks like I was maybe a little bit hard on get low back in that review. So I can see it.

26:30Josh Larsen:I was mildly positive. And I think the movie, which my comments on the scene priority alluded to stacks the decks more than it probably needs to in terms of winning the audience over. And, you know, the Duvall movies in his prime that took full advantage of him knew they didn't need to do that because they had Duvall.

26:50Adam Kempenaar:Okay. Well, let's go with an oldie, but a goodie, a classic. One of those faces, obviously I felt like needed to be on that Mount Rushmore, despite the fact that this character may be in the movie, Josh, for 10 minutes, 12 minutes total. But I think it's a testament to Francis Ford Coppola's vision and Robert Duvall's skills as a performer that he is that memorable as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in Apocalypse Now. And look, I love the smell of napalm in the morning is the choice. It's probably the better choice than the scene I'm going with, which is his introduction, Kilgore's arrival. But that's the one I'm going with.

27:36Adam Kempenaar:And the reason I'm going with it, Josh, is because I love everything about how Duvall owns the scene primarily physically. And of course, a huge part of this is Coppola as a filmmaker and his directing choices. But the way Coppola shoots Duvall when he gets out of the chopper, it's textbook, low angle, medium shot into a medium closeup that because of that low angle just immediately asserts Kilgore's authority. But I don't know that Coppola even needs it because just the way Duvall is standing right in in that costume that he's wearing, the way he wears that uniform and the way he's standing with those shades on, he already has all the authority that he needs.

28:26Adam Kempenaar:And in terms of that bluster, he's loud, but he's loud only because this is my theory, he has to shout over the sound of the chopper blades and over the sound of the bombs exploding. Otherwise, I do think his physical stature is bold enough to dominate anyone or any space that he's in. Otherwise he can, he can communicate anything he needs to communicate. And here again, this is the movement I was talking about the precision with which he, he, he cracks open the deck of cards, those death cards, you know, the way he taps the cards and then opens up even the precision with which he he he throws the cards down and they they somehow like choppers are you know the wind is blowing around and he he throws them onto bodies and they land perfectly on their chest somehow the the way he walks all of it is just with purpose and and we even get then that brutal joke that duval somehow does make funny where he kilgore makes such a show of fighting against one of his men or whatever, of giving that dying man water.

30:00Adam Kempenaar:I think one of those sellers, Lance Johnson, the surfer. Right ahead. And then, of course, as soon as he finds out that Lance Johnson, the surfer, is there, he just takes his canteen and even spills a bunch of it as he goes and leaves the man just flailing there.

30:17Josh Larsen:Yeah, I remember we called this out in our Sacred Power Review. He just flips on a dime his personality from this supposedly merciful warrior to what? Famous surfer?

30:28Adam Kempenaar:Famous surfer. It's brutal. And then the way he, this guy, this soldier, this guy who does not seem to care at all, doesn't seem merciful at all, then somehow seems to have a code, as you said. And then he's looking at Lance, a surfer, like he's a four-star general, like he's in awe of him. The absurdity of this guy who's so unaffected by slaughter and mayhem being odd by Lance and even just talking about surfing in Vietnam and how he does it. It's just such a wild ride from minute one until about minute four into this scene. And it's easy to say, following my theme, that Kilgore needs to be knocked down a peg or two.

31:16but you know what, Josh, you go tell him, you go tell him, I'm not going to go tell him that he

31:21Adam Kempenaar:needs to be knocked down a peg or two. I'm not going to try in, in Vietnam, where, especially in Coppola's vision of it, insanity reigns, Kilgore is, he's the king, he's the ruler, you know, and, and Duvall just seems to eat it up. He, he knows exactly how to embody this guy, But here again, we're talking about or we're dancing around or even using some of the same phrases like arrogance and bluster and bravado. But he plays him, of course, in a completely different way. He embodies this type of masculinity, hyper masculinity in a completely different way than he does the childlike Frank Hackett, for example.

32:05Josh Larsen:Yeah, we're going to stay with Apocalypse Now for my number three. I couldn't talk myself out of the smell of napalm, so that is my number three. And I, I think of Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore now that I've seen some of other films from Duval as the great Santini unleashed in Vietnam. This is, this is the war Meacham was likely waiting for just chomping at the bit for while he was stuck in South Carolina. Um, and you know, he got there and morphed into this monster that is, that is Kilgore. Um, it's, it's chilling to me beyond the things you talked about, um, which are so intimidating and the level of his voice that you mentioned relates to this, how casual Duval makes Kilgore.

32:55Josh Larsen:Cause I agree with you. He's only raising his voice out of necessity. Um, he doesn't really get riled up by any of this nonsense that's happening. The only time he seems to get a little perturbed is when, um, Martin Sheen's Captain Willard tries to, tries to like call out, maybe it's not that safe to surf on the beach. And he, Charlie don't rips off his shirt and declares he's going to surf. And you know, that's the only time he really gets animated again is about the surfing, but otherwise think of the terrifying calm he projects amidst this, this madness when he calls in the napalm strike, like he's ordering pizza.

33:32Josh Larsen:For him, it's as significant. How about the language of this madman? He talks about blowing him back to the Stone Age. Sound familiar? I mean, good to know that we have a president taking his wartime leadership cues from Lieutenant Kilgore. That's encouraging. How about this touch? And I'm not sure if this was rehearsed or not. There's a mortar strike that hits the beach, I don't know, a dozen yards or so behind his position. I know where you're going. Everyone else. Everyone cowers. Cowers, jumps. He doesn't flinch. Motionless. Yep. Doesn't. So they must have like rehearsed that and staged it.

34:13Josh Larsen:But it speaks to, you know, everything we have both just said. This is, you know, Duval shows up in Apocalypse Now for a couple of, I don't know how many minutes, not many, and comes away with perhaps its most memorable scene. So yeah, it kind of works well that we were able to break it up into two moments because it deserves that sort of attention. I think so too.

34:36Adam Kempenaar:And the fact is, Josh, you maybe didn't even touch on what I think is perhaps the most interesting line in that sequence. And it's not even, I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It's his last line. Think about what Duvall does with someday this war is going to end. I'm still, I rewatched the scene and I'm still chewing on someday this war is a mystery there. There's such a mystery to it. And I can imagine so many actors and I don't even mean on the level of Duvall. I just mean any actors who, I don't know who would be daring enough to try to use that scene for a casting side, you know, trying out for a role with that scene.

35:23Adam Kempenaar:But if you were imagine trying to make that line work, it's such a non sequitur. That's the point, right? It's like you're doing all this, all this nonsense about napalm in the morning and war, war, war. And then all of a sudden he gets really contemplative and says something like Someday this war is going to end. And it's so open and mysterious that you really can be left for weeks thinking, what does he really mean to suggest by that? I don't know how many actors could imbue it with enough honesty, with enough in-the-moment just truth to make it ring. It makes sense for the character to say.

36:03Adam Kempenaar:That's what I was going to say.

36:04Josh Larsen:And keep it connected to the character. That's the challenge with a line like that. right and he he does make it work it is even though you don't understand what he means it makes sense as something Kilgore would say in the little time we've come to know him

36:21Adam Kempenaar:someday this war is gonna end I love that touch and yeah everything everything he does with Kilgore is so insanely insane being the operative word insanely memorable we're gonna go and then then to my number three and I do feel like that Mount Rushmore any any real investigation of Duvall scenes has to include Tom Hagen the question is are you going to go with Tom Hagen from The Godfather are you going to go with Tom Hagen from The Godfather part two and then which scene which scenes are you going to choose from and it it was tough one of the first that came to mind because of the sensibility that he brought to Tom Hagen, the way he balanced here going between that, that need to be brought down and, and, and that, that sort of, uh, humility that I'm talking about with my characters, the way he balanced the hot headedness of Sonny in the first one and the ruthlessness of Michael.

37:32Adam Kempenaar:He was the brother that was kind of in between, right? The advisor in between. I always thought about or I immediately thought about the scene in Godfather 1 where Sonny blows up at him and says after Pop gets shot and he says, if I had a wartime concierge, Pop had Genco, look what I got. It's such a dagger to his brother as both his brother and his concierge to say that to him. And I remember watching The Godfather, Josh, with friends in college. And we used to throw on, we were such a cliche, I guess, as a group of guys. We would throw on The Godfather all the time in my dorm room and watch it.

38:14Adam Kempenaar:And we would always comment on how we couldn't believe Sonny was that mean. Why would Sonny say that to Tom? Tom's such a good guy. Tom's so nice. I guess we were falling prey to what Lamette was saying. We saw Duval in this role as so nice and so sincere. And he's just trying to help the family. And why is Sonny being such a jerk to him? Right. So that was that was something that I thought about that scene. And it would be appropriate for my scene in some ways, because Duval there, Tom, Tom kind of rises up against Sonny and he yells at him and Sonny humbles him quickly. like Sonny puts him in about as low a place as you could possibly put him and really cuts him deep but the more I thought about it I realized that my true favorite scene with Duvall in in Godfather one or two is the one in Godfather two that makes us recall I think it has to at least a little bit this exchange I'm talking about Josh between Sonny and Tom in the first one where whereas I'm saying Sonny uses Tom's heritage against him.

39:22Adam Kempenaar:Tom's adopted. As we recall famously, he's German-Irish, right? Not Sicilian. And Sonny has made sure to remind him of that. He's questioned him as a member of the Corleone family, capital F, and Corleone family, lowercase f. He's questioned him as a concierge because he's not Italian. But that's to basically say, you don't belong here. And now in The Godfather 2, the scene is that scene fairly early on where you have Michael in the boathouse after the attempt has been made on his life in his home. In his home! Sorry, had to do it. In my home. He turns to the only person he can fully trust. Tom.

40:07Adam Kempenaar:And what does he tell him first? What does he say to him? He has, Michael of course has a reason for this. there's something he's trying to accomplish with this conversation, but he doesn't get right to the point. What does he say to him first? Tom,

40:22Josh Larsen:you're my brother.

40:29Josh Larsen:I always wanted to be thought of as a brother by you. Mikey, real brother.

40:35Adam Kempenaar:Duvall's reaction is just so tender. He has that subtle emotional breakdown, and that line just cuts me every time I watch it, Josh. He says, I always wanted to be thought of as a brother by you, Mikey, a real brother. And then Michael unifies family and family. He says, you're going to take over. You're going to be the Don. And I just love the push-pull of it being that it's such a quiet, such a tender scene. There's zero Duvall bravado. It's obviously the complete opposite of Kilgore or Hackett or some of these other men that we're talking about, Even though at the same time, he's literally being elevated.

41:13Adam Kempenaar:He's being promoted to the dawn of the family. You know, it could be this moment of real sort of, you know, celebration. and it's more significant to him though that he's getting that psychological and emotional foundation, that rigor, that support that he's always longed for, that he's being told what Sonny didn't give him originally, he's being told by Michael, finally the validation, you're truly part of this family, you're my brother. I've always found that such a touching, such a touching emotional scene. And it's, it's the way, it's the way Duvall, and we're going to see this again coming up in, in a scene that we may share.

42:00Adam Kempenaar:It's the restraint Duvall understanding how emotionally impactful that scene is for that character and thus for the audience and, and knowing just, just at the right volume to play it and to not overplay it.

42:20Josh Larsen:Adam, I think the next big release in theaters that we have our eyes on and will hopefully be reviewing soon here on the show is Mother Mary from director David Lowery. Anne Hathaway is a pop star. I knew the basic sort of concept behind this, but then in the theater for the drama, this was the trailer beforehand. And I don't know what to expect anymore. I mean, this seemed absolutely wild in terms of its visuals and also the metaphysical aspects that Lowry is bringing to this story. So very excited for Mother Mary and to see it up there on the big screen. Listeners, if you had Regal Unlimited, you could see Mother Mary for free because Regal Unlimited is the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits.

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43:56Josh Larsen:Yeah, I love this pick because I think this is a great example of Duval's range, just the different registers he's playing compared to some of the other characters we've been talking about. While keeping some of those same qualities he always brought to the screen. I think for me, here's where, you know, the, uh, the semantics of how we label our lists sometimes comes into play. I think if we had done top five Duvall characters, I would have had Tom Hagen on, on my list for sure. Um, when it came to scenes, I had a similar struggle you did is, is like, where do I go? What's the, what's the central one?

44:29Josh Larsen:I think what you pick does work really well. Um, I was also, I heard from a lister, James Decker, when I was wrestling with this, who sent in his pick, and it was Tom Hagen for his favorite and said his haunting role in Godfather as Concierge. There you go. Staying quietly, but powerfully and influentially in the background in almost every scene where he appears. And it was that background quality that James highlighted that really does stand out to me here. I think of that meeting of the five families scene. And this is where I struggled because he doesn't really do anything, but he is literally sitting behind Brando against the wall in this meeting.

45:12Josh Larsen:When Brando stands to talk, he looks back at Tom and Tom stands with him. It's like they're so of a piece, but it's all in the background. And I guess one litmus test for Duvall as Tom Hagen is imagine someone else in the role and this would be a forgettable part. Not only that, it would probably be a part that might've been written out of, you know, I mean, these are long films. If you don't justify these moments, they could be cut and just left on the editing room floor. But because of what Duvall's ability to bring so much to them, you remember Tom, um, even though he never really takes over a scene.

45:54Josh Larsen:So yeah, in my honorable mentions, but glad Tom made your list. All right. We're at number two. I wasn't sure where I was going to go with The Apostle, which was my favorite Duvall starring film until I did some homework for this episode. I love The Apostle. You should note Duvall here also served as writer and director. And yes, This is absolutely another irredeemable bastard, Duval's Sonny Dewey. This is a Pentecostal preacher who discovers his wife is having an affair with the youth group leader at church. He kills the man in a fit of rage and then flees Texas for Louisiana, where he begins a new church and a radio ministry as the Apostle EF.

46:40Josh Larsen:Now, Sonny was actually on my list of the top five characters who shaped us back in 2023 with Aisha Harris. She was on the show with us, then Adam. It was around her book that was released at the time, Wannabe. I'll let film spotting family members take advantage of their archive access and check out my reasons for that pick by going back and listening to that episode. Before I get to my scene pick here, though, I want to share another listener comment, an email I got from a listener who chose a moment I didn't go with, but definitely consider. This is from Reed Lackey, who chose Sonny's final sermon.

47:19Josh Larsen:And Reed, as he'll explain, did this for personal reasons. Perhaps because of my personal upbringing in the Pentecostal church, the scene that stands out to me as his tour de force is the final sermon in the church service at the end of the apostle. My understanding is that the scene was captured largely in one take, using a multi-camera setup with minimal pickups. Duvall taps into something uncommon here. He connects to a lengthy American tradition that has too often been satirized and parodied and endows it with dignity, reverence, and power. But the scene is also a masterclass in character work.

47:53Josh Larsen:That, it concludes, the complex and textured examination of a devout but sinful man could have been a moment of supreme melodrama or worse, saccharine sentiment. But the scene lacks any musical score. There's no sensationalized camera work. It's pure performance, as believably authentic a portrait as I've ever seen put to film of that subculture, which characterized so much of my childhood. So thank you for that read. Definitely thought about going that direction for some of those same reasons. Instead, I'm going to go with a far earlier scene. This is before Sonny's outburst of violence, but his life is already crumbling.

48:32Josh Larsen:He's learned of the affair. The church is going to be taken away from him. And he's fervently praying to God for relief and direction and gets no answer. Give it to me tonight, Lord God, Jehovah. If you won't give me back my wife, give me peace. Give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give me peace. Give me peace. I don't know who's been fooling with me. You are the devil. I don't know. And I won't even bring the human into this. He's just a mutt, so I'm not even going to bring him into it. but I'm confused. I'm mad. I love you, Lord. I love you, but I'm mad at you. I am mad at you. What I love about this scene is the way Sonny vacillates between preacher mode.

49:15Josh Larsen:So when he's giving it a bit of a performance, you know, the give it to me, give it to me, give it to me. And when he hits genuine notes of surrender, here's maybe a little bit of the humbling that you've been talking about. Exactly. I think this trajectory, this from bluster and performance to genuine surrender, that's the struggle that Sonny is going to have for the rest of the film. And it is brilliantly all set up here in this solo powerhouse moment. So give me peace. What, one of the other things he cries out in that moment, that's my number two pick from the apostle.

49:52Adam Kempenaar:I had a pretty strong feeling it would make your list. And maybe that's why I felt comfortable just having this scene as an honorable mention, despite the fact that, to be totally honest, it was a guide for me. It was one of the scenes that helped lead me down the path I went down for my list, because I felt like the Apostle EF was one of those key characters who most crystallized this idea of both needing to be humbled and also desperately was humbled, Right. And that's the central struggle that we see play out with that that character. So, yeah, absolutely an honorable mention for me. Number two, Josh, I guess I may apologize to you, but I don't feel that bad about it because I feel like this was fair for me to do.

50:47Adam Kempenaar:My homework on the miniseries Lonesome Dove, did you just ultimately decide not to get to it here? You watched, how many hours is that again? Remind me. I don't remember how long the series is, but I'll tell you this. It's only four episodes, but they're very long episodes. Yeah. They're almost like features, right? Yeah. Multi-hour. Yeah, exactly. But I'll tell you this. I didn't realize there were only four. And so when it ended, I thought, this isn't over. There's like 10 more episodes, right? I was sort of shocked. This is what's helpful when you are ignorant about what you're about to embark on.

51:30Adam Kempenaar:I did not think it was done. So I did complete it, and I did feel like I had to for this top five. And the reason is because in the wake of his death, I saw a couple places where Duvall said, let the English play Hamlet in King Lear. My Shakespeare is Augustus McRae and Lonesome Dove. Now, having watched it, I'll put this out there. If there is a priority order on Mount Rushmore, I don't know if there is with our presidents, there would be a number one spot. If there was, I think it would probably be Gus McRae, even though I have it at number two and there's a reason why. But if you didn't watch Lonesome Dove or you haven't seen it yet and you think you will watch it and you don't want it spoiled, look, do whatever you need to do.

52:24Adam Kempenaar:Josh, you can put me on mute if you need to, but Larry McMurtry's book came out in 1985. The miniseries was on in 1989. So if I have to spoil Lonesome Dove in order to pay proper tribute to Robert Duvall, that's what I'm going to do. Go for it. Go for it. You've got my permission. Thank you. The plot broadly, very briefly, he plays Gus McRae, Tommy Lee Jones's Woodrow Call. They are two pretty famous retired Texas Rangers circa 1870. They live a pretty humble life in a small Texas border town. And then they kind of get this dream to start the first cattle ranch north of the Yellowstone River. And they set out for Montana.

53:13Adam Kempenaar:Hannah. That quote I mentioned, I was, of course, familiar with that before I started watching the series. It was really kind of the impetus to watch it. So my expectations then for that character, Gus McRae, were pretty high. I mean, if you're going to throw around names like Lear and Hamlet, I have to see what Duvall found so fascinating about Gus. And I got it. I got it. Gus is, He's never anything but a man, but he's also so richly drawn and portrayed by Duvall. And a big part of it is the friendship between Gus and Call and that partnership between Duvall and Timely Jones. As cantankerous as it is, they're so damn entertaining together.

53:59Adam Kempenaar:And it's so damn complicated, that relationship. The pair of them together too, Josh, despite their ages, they seem so indestructible. This is why I said they seem so human, but they also seem almost super heroic the way mythical Western figures often do. Our superheroes before we had superheroes wearing capes, right? That it's almost unfathomable to consider one of them not making it to Montana. And I mean that in terms of the narrative, how I'm describing just the way they're portrayed in this mythical fashion, but also just emotionally. You become invested enough in this journey, in these characters that you can't imagine them both not being around, but also you can't imagine the other, the characters, all the supporting characters living without one of them.

54:56Adam Kempenaar:They're so dependent on them, right? And yet with that context, somehow I found myself fairly early in the fourth and final episode having to confront the fact that even Gus McRae wasn't going to be able to fight his way out of this scenario, having been shot in the leg with arrows by Indians. And the sepsis, you know, the infection has spread and he wakes up to a doctor having taken one of his legs and it looks like it's over. and this is then when Tommy Lee Jones when when when call shows up and it's just such a it's such a classic you know Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones kind of showdown here in this moment which is that there's so much tenderness and there's love but there is that cantankerousness as well right and there's humor to it despite the stakes of the scene and when call shows up he the doctor says basically, you know, well, there's still time the other leg could come off and I could save his life.

56:06And before he's even done saying the line, Duvall's gun comes out and points at

56:12Adam Kempenaar:the both of them, you know, and and then when that's settled, that the leg isn't coming off and the doctor leaves and it's just the two of them having these final moments together. There's just some of the writing, Josh, I have to say, obviously, the acting is impeccable, But the writing, too, you know, he says to to call at one point, like, why don't you relax? He can see in his friend the toll it's taking on him. And he's thinking about him. Right. Even though he's the one dying. And he says, why don't you relax? You can't save me. and and it's such such a powerful line because if you think back to what i was saying before as viewers you're thinking well this is just one more scenario where one of them will help the other get out of it right except this is one where there's no saving to be done and and here's where the humbling really comes in even if if gus doesn't need it need it the same way some of the other characters we're talking about really need it.

57:09Adam Kempenaar:He says, he says this finally to, to call, he says, I walked this earth my whole life with my pride. You see now, if that's lost, the rest will be lost with it because there's certain things my vanity won't abide. And he's talking about losing that, that other leg. So, you know, Gus McRae, this character, the character in the world of Lonesome Dove, the man in the pages of McMurtry's book who had to come to life on screen as we see him on screen is a legend and it only works if Duvall can embody that legend and legends don't die and I think we as as viewers as readers potentially too but certainly as viewers here my experience we don't want we don't want to be made aware of their mortality and this scene makes us sort of cruelly but also I'll say again tenderly aware of of his mortality and Josh there's a moment I'll tell you this I'll warn you in advance if we're ever doing this top five treatment later for Tommy Lee Jones I'm just going to pick this scene again so you better watch Lonesome Dove despite me having spoiled it for you because he's just as good if not even better than Duvall in this moment and Jones after this exchange this long exchange this long exchange Jones touches his head, his friend's head, and these are grizzled Western men, right, in 1870, who they show their affection in ways that are maybe not ways that sensitive men today would show their affection.

58:47Adam Kempenaar:And in this moment, he touches his friend's head and he touches his cheek and they touches his chest because his eyes are closed. And it seems like he might actually he's passed. Right. And then he pronounces his name slowly, Augustus. And there's something about him saying his name, honestly, that's just like heartbreaking because it's just sort of like he's like he's by pronouncing his name. It's like he existed. You know, that's the only way I can describe it. and as he says it right after he says it duval's eyes shoot open one more time almost like he summoned him back by pronouncing his name and and that's the the line i was alluding to at the beginning of the show his his character gus has one final line he says by god woodrow it's been quite a party and and then that's it the eyes close for good and just you're watching two legendary characters played by two legendary actors just at the at the top of their craft in this moment and and throughout this entire series and you can tell that they they they played these two characters like they like they believed they were the equivalent of kinglair or hamlet or any of those other great literary characters it's all there on the screen

1:00:08Josh Larsen:And Lonesome Dove was a huge cultural event at the time of its release. I mean, it was appointment viewing for my parents in our house. I can recall that. And I don't know if they just wanted me out of the way, but I didn't watch it then. And yeah, I wasn't able to get to it this time, but I'm glad you made the time for it. I did make time for a movie that ended up being my number one pick though. And it's, you know, you, you have sometimes homework for these lists where you're glad you saw that, you know, I would say for great Santini, I'm glad I watched it. Good film. You know, is it great? No, but you've heard about it.

1:00:46Josh Larsen:You know, the reputation, especially in relation to Duval. I'm glad I watched it. Then you have some titles and it's like, oh, that's a revelation. Like what took me so long? And that's what I would say about tender mercies. I would say this to people who kind of know what it is and it does, you know, it sounds, yeah, maybe if you love Paris, Texas and you haven't seen tender mercies, I think this should be your next watch. Um, I think this came out a year earlier. Yeah. I think I have that right. And it's very much a spiritual and aesthetic sibling as well. This is a gorgeous movie in a different way than Paris, Texas is, but I was thinking about both hand in hand.

1:01:31Josh Larsen:So that's just a bit of encouragement. If you need one more nudge to see Tender Mercies, here's a second. And it's this scene with Duvall, Wings of a Dove. And Duvall here plays Max Sledge, a alcoholic, former country music star who wakes up at a roadside Texas motel after being abandoned by his traveling companion. That's how we meet him at the beginning. Tess Harper plays Rosa Lee, the devout single mother and owner of the motel. She lets him work off his unpaid bill. She hires him eventually to do odd jobs. And this puts Mac on a path towards, toward redemption, like so many Duval characters.

1:02:14Josh Larsen:But yeah, as with those characters, Mac really struggles, struggles to let it stick, but never in the ways you expect. Like it flirts with, you know, the bender montage, but very skillfully works its way around it without making it a moment of triumph necessarily for Mac. I should probably note at this point, director is Bruce Beresford gets a lot of credit for this and it's from an original screenplay by Horton Foote. so the scene okay this struggle for Mac involves many quietly stunning scenes in this I've got two honorable mentions that come from tender mercies but I went with the one that offered me the biggest gut punch Mac has gotten a surprise visit from his adult estranged daughter played by a young Ellen Barkin and in their conversation she asks him if he remembers this song he used to sing to her when she was little there was a song he used to sing to me when I was little I

1:03:10Adam Kempenaar:I think it was something about a dove. Mama says she never heard you sing it to me.

1:03:18Josh Larsen:I think it went something about a,

1:03:22Adam Kempenaar:on the wings of a snow white dove, he sends his something, something love. I don't remember that. I don't.

1:03:33Josh Larsen:And, you know, he's, he's been kind to her and, you know, open to a new relationship. This has been a very, you know, a congenial exchange. And he just says, no, you know, I'm sorry. I don't remember it. She leaves. We are left in the room with Duvall and he goes over to a window, turns his back to the camera and just softly begin singing that very song, Wings of a Dove.

1:03:58Adam Kempenaar:when jesus went down to the waters that day he was baptized in the usual way

1:04:10Josh Larsen:and this is a 1958 i guess country spiritual you'd call it written by bob ferguson it's been covered by countless artists i don't know adam if there are many other scenes in cinema where an actor conveys more than Duval does here by doing less. With his back turned to the camera? It starts there. It starts with that choice. And not only that, but Beresford's choice to keep the camera at a distance from across the room. So this is a full length body shot. We're that far away from Mac and he's singing softly, quietly, barely moving until he gets to the chorus. and this is where you remember this guy's, you know, he's also a musician and a performer and he shifts his weight, the slightest bit for the chorus, very slightly starts swaying to the rhythm, getting a little bit louder and then quietly drifts off again, shifts his weight once more and lets out this sigh.

1:05:23Josh Larsen:that's it but i mean it's incredible and so complicated this is the mystery we were talking about before with that kilgore line reading um why did he lie to his daughter in the first place what is he thinking while singing? I'm happy to talk about it. Okay. I mean, we, we have, we, we can talk about it and why can we talk about it? Because Duval gave us that gift of wondering and theorizing rather than clearly communicating it. He doesn't attempt to explain any of it. The movie, again, credit to Beresford and Footscreen play, the movie does not as well. Just worth noting, Duval does his own singing here and throughout Tender Mercies.

1:06:07Josh Larsen:There's a lot of music. And I, yeah, I do know we, we both kind of like stumbled into talking about this early because this was a bit of an awakening experience for you to tender. Yeah.

1:06:18Adam Kempenaar:Yeah. I, I really liked the film. It was one I needed to watch as homework for this list. Same as you. And we, we did discuss this very briefly on air even and off air as I recall. And I just knew, I just knew when I watched this scene, I, I knew this was going to make my list. I knew it was going to be high on my list. And then my next thought was, I hope somehow Josh is, is, is taken with some other scene. He doesn't see the brilliance of this scene and, and he's going to be pulled in a different direction and he'll have something else for tender mercies. And then sure enough, we, we both saw the magic of this one because it's my number one as well.

1:07:01Adam Kempenaar:And I do like, I like the connection. I like the connection you're making. I like the comparison to Paris, Texas. I absolutely see it. And I think, I think there's accuracy there. And I could see someone hearing that who hasn't seen this film and, and seeking it out because of that. It is different in its, in its aesthetic choices for sure. And in, in just overall, how, how challenging it is, I would say, just in terms of its ambiguity, there, there isn't as much ambiguity or mystery to tender mercies as there is in Paris, Texas. But in some of those artistic choices, and I laugh a little bit when I say this because I want to be careful, the choice of the shot that you're mentioning, not just to have it be a long shot, see the entire body, to have him across the room and to have the restraint, to be that restraint, to not tip anything emotionally, to allow us to just keep that distance, that is one great artistic choice in and of itself.

1:08:09Adam Kempenaar:But the reason I was kind of chuckling is because I'm watching this online, Josh, and it's been now at least a month since I saw Tender Mercies on the screen. So I don't really remember it on the screen. I only remember watching the YouTube clip. And the YouTube clip is sort of like a VHS-worn copy looking on YouTube. right? And it actually gives it more texture. And in some ways, the YouTube clip makes it look better because it makes it look more worn. And you realize, I'm guessing this still transfers to the actual crisper looking version on the screen too. But the framing draws so much attention to the color palette, all the browns and the different colors that are in that, the choices they made in the production design and with the lighting to shoot that, that place where they live, the very modest home that they live in, the, the, the types of furniture they have, the, the types of paintings they have on the wall, the type of television set they have all, all of this is none of this is by accident.

1:09:16Adam Kempenaar:Right. And it, and it creates a tableau that looks like a pose. You could take that out. You could take that frame out of Max Sledge looking out the window, of Duvall looking out the window, and you could hang that in a museum. That is a portrait. That is a gorgeous portrait. And put 10 different titles on it and assign to 10 different people or 100 different people that walk through. they could they could put onto that their own thoughts about what they think they're looking at and what that man is thinking all because of the different the ambiguity but because of the different layers that are there in the colors in the choices of of the design of it it's it's that gorgeous of a shot it really is as simple as it ultimately is and you know i i like ending with this for my theme as well, because this other other than that opening scene, and if I remember it correctly, we don't really see Duvall.

1:10:15Adam Kempenaar:There's there's definitely a bunch of rabble rousing going on. He's he's carrying on there's alcohol and, you know, a bunch of partying. But then when we really meet him, it's the aftermath of that the next right. And the movie then really begins after that so this is like fully humbled duval this movie max sledge is pretty much fully humbled like i'm trying to turn over a new leaf yeah no more country singing no more honky tonking you know honky tonking i'm just now trying to just be a normal guy and put alcohol behind me and now i'm gonna you know maybe try to be a family man and on the quieter side josh he he not only barely raises his voice when he sings, he barely raises his voice.

1:11:02Adam Kempenaar:You know, he, he keeps everything at a certain decibel level. And as a viewer, we know he's a flawed, you know, he's a flawed character. He's a, he's a human being. He's a flawed man. But as a viewer, I'm on Mac's side, I'm rooting for him. And, and as soon as his daughter, Ellen Barkin, right? A very young Ellen Barkin starts to ask, Hey, do you remember? Like we kind of know where this is going, right? And we're hoping we know that he wants to make this connection with his daughter. We know that he does because he sought her out already, you know, earlier when he went to the show that his ex-wife was performing at and he was looking for his daughter.

1:11:42Adam Kempenaar:We're rooting for him. We, we hope he'll remember and that they'll have this moment together. And I remember so closely studying. I'm not going to say Duvall. I'm studying Max Sledge's face. I'm watching Max so closely as she's finishing her question. I'm watching him in closeup as she says, do you remember that song you used to sing to me? It was something like, you know, the wings of a dove and that pause that he has, he looks away and then he looks back at her. Right. And he says, I don't remember that. I don't. And maybe now, Josh, now that we know the truth, maybe the fact that he adds, I don't, after already saying, I don't remember that, that should have been a tell that he was protesting too much.

1:12:25Adam Kempenaar:Right. But I was studying him so closely. I was sure that he genuinely didn't remember. I don't know about you, but I was sure he was telling the truth in the moment that, that, that he did not remember, or maybe it never even happened that she was conflating something from her childhood, some other memory, but this didn't happen. Right. Or he just didn't remember it. And here again is the restraint to have Matt come back in, go to the window, look at her leaving and start singing the song, hold that tableau shot. He knows the truth. And the only other people who are going to ever know the truth are us, the audience, right?

1:13:05Adam Kempenaar:And she'll never know the truth. And the way I, what hits me so hard about that scene is that he, he could have, this is why the moment you said at the top of the top five about being irredeemable. The irony about that is, is that this character, Max Sledge, could have had that moment of redemption. And maybe even we could say deserves in some way to have it because he seems like a character who genuinely wants it and has changed his life in some ways to earn it. And he wants it there. Who wouldn't want it there, right? But he has a little bit of perspective, finally, and he lies to her. And I think he lies to her because he has enough perspective to know and he's actually caring enough to know.

1:13:55Adam Kempenaar:He actually listened to his ex-wife as much as they fight. He listened to her enough the night before when he saw her at the show. He knows that what his daughter is putting, he knows what his daughter is putting his wife through. And some of it is her rebelliousness, right? But he knows that they're having a tough time. And he knows that with his daughter coming out to see him, that all it would take is for him to verify that shared memory and sing that song to her now. And she would, she would almost certainly melt. And she would be, if not full on, she'd be a lot closer to, to being daddy's girl.

1:14:35Adam Kempenaar:And some of that would be to hurt her mom, right? Part of that rebelliousness, But partly it would be to fill that void. That would be such a huge step. If they had that moment of singing that song together, him singing that song, it would be like they were father and daughter again. And everything in the past was water under the bridge. I think he understands how powerful that could be, how genuinely redemptive that moment would be. And he knows that he hasn't truly earned it. He doesn't deserve that redemption. And so he sacrifices the satisfaction that he would get in that moment, the beauty that he would share with her in that moment.

1:15:16Adam Kempenaar:He sacrifices it because he hasn't earned it. He doesn't deserve the redemption.

1:15:21Josh Larsen:Yeah, I mean, I think that's a fair reading, and it connects very much to the pick from Get Low that I made with Felix Bush, the hermit, who wanted to punish himself for decades. You do wonder watching Max Sledge, he becomes, in trying to turn his life around, he becomes something of a monk, but with a newfound family and responsibilities. But he's at this very isolated place with strict daily duties and routines. Yeah. And I think part of the emotional processing here might be that entering, having her enter his life, his daughter again, disrupts all of that, which is a very fragile place. um now there's a part of him that probably wants to and i also you know there's another element at play here which are her motives his daughter's motives which we learn more about as as the movie goes on but you can get a sense of as you suggested she's obviously trying to play parents against each other again um but how genuine is this desire for connection um is something else he's processing.

1:16:36Josh Larsen:So yeah, just to allow, allow all of this to percolate in, in a moment where he's alone in the scene and he's not even looking at towards the camera. Right.

1:16:47Adam Kempenaar:And the master for an actor too. I mean, to have the humility as an actor to know that this could be your, your biggest dramatic moment in many ways in the entire film and to not, to not say, you know when i start singing it be sure to cut to a close-up from the side where i'm gonna have a little tear come down my face i gotta show the emotion on my face duvall doesn't he doesn't care

1:17:15Josh Larsen:go ahead and keep the camera back there 99 out of 100 films with this scene would cut to outside looking at him through the window absolutely and and maybe even make it raining outside so that they're in the reflection of her car driving away yeah right and this is just nope we're gonna sit here and let him have the privacy of this space. Yeah, it's incredible.

1:17:39Adam Kempenaar:It is. Those are our top five Robert Duvall scenes. We've heard a few honorable mentions along the way. Any you would like to re-mention or highlight that haven't come up yet?

1:17:51Josh Larsen:I think the ones you had on your list that I didn't, I would include as honorable mentions. And the one that hasn't come up is I didn't get a chance to chase down this scene, but looking back at some of my reviews of Duval movies, Crazy Heart, he has a small supporting role. And there's a moment where I just wrote an excellent Robert Duval who saves Blake, that's Jeff Bridges, right? In Crazy Heart, saves Blake and the movie really with a few honest words during a fishing trip. So that stood out to me, especially in the context of our discussion here, where honest has come up a couple of times.

1:18:26Josh Larsen:So maybe that Crazy heart scene is worth considering. Otherwise, yeah, Tom Hagen, um, you mentioned to kill a mockingbird as Boo Radley, the other tender mercies options. I thought for sure, Adam, that you might go, I had the same experience as we talked about. I thought for sure you were going to go with the guitar lesson, um, early on tender mercies where he's teaching Rosalie's son, how to play guitar. Um, and the climactic, I think it's, I think it's the second to last scene perhaps where he's out tending the garden with Rosalie. And, um, I'll just say he gets some tragic news or is processing recent tragic news.

1:19:07Josh Larsen:And he's complaining about unanswered prayer. We're back to the apostle here. Just why? Um, but the way Duval plays it physically, they're in this shared garden and he's very gently padding the earth as, as you need to, to not damage the seeds, even though everything else about him is expressing this confusion and rage. There's something about the gentility we've touched on with Duval that comes out in that scene, is that even though this is a low point in his life, he's very carefully patting the earth as a good gardener would. So that would have been maybe... I could have done a top five of

1:19:47Adam Kempenaar:tender mercy scenes with Duval, obviously. Sure. Yeah. So yeah, let's see. Yelling at the Lord, an apostle, Boo Radley, Smell the Napalm, what hasn't come up. Don't worry about anything, Frankie, Five Angels in The Godfather Part II. That scene, Josh, if you remember The Godfather Part II is when he goes and this is the magic of Duval and Tom Hagen. And you were getting around this a little bit when you were talking about how he's in the background and he has so much power, but he's in the background until I considered it for this top five. I didn't fully process to, I didn't fully process the extent to which in that scene.

1:20:31Adam Kempenaar:And I know people listening to this are like, yeah, of course, that's what the scene is about. No, I know. I didn't fully process the extent to which he is the puppet master sending Frankie five angels to his death in that scene. And he's doing it in the nicest way possible. he's he doesn't even directly say anything he only hints at and alludes to things and mentions things from history and sends him off with a smile and shaking his hands and and and frankie thanks him for it because he tells him his family will be taken care of you could listen to that entire conversation 10 times and never know that tom hagan basically said hey be sure tonight to take a bath and slit your wrists and die because you went against the family yeah that was one of

1:21:18Josh Larsen:That was one of the Godfather scenes I definitely thought about going with. It's so good. It's so good.

1:21:24Adam Kempenaar:Now, again, from The Godfather 1, Mr. Waltz, not only when he says, I'm German-Irish, and he says, well, my Kraut-Mick friend, but the moment when Duvall, just one of those idiosyncratic Duvall line readings, when he catches, you almost feel like he had to catch other actors off guard. when they're having a nice dinner and then Mr. Waltz gets all heated and does the whole, you know, I'm never going to give Johnny Fontaine a role. It'll make him a star again. And I ain't no band leader, right? And what does Tom do? What does Duvall do? He makes a face like, well, that got out of hand. And he just then puts the napkin in his lap and he gets up and is like, thank you for a lovely lovely evening maybe one of your cars can take me to the airport and you can see that the the character mr waltz is sort of stunned like i didn't like he expected to have a battle right but tom instead of course is just like you know he's just like well mr corleone doesn't doesn't want to hear uh he wants to hear bad news in person and just the way the way he delivers that is just so kind of matter of fact and i'm just going to get out of here now and he He doesn't fight back at all.

1:22:46Adam Kempenaar:And the way Duvall does that, I just think, is so much fun to watch. A couple other characters I'll mention. Talk about In Need of Humbling. Another one that's like, oh my God, Frank Hackett level comeuppance, Max Mercy in The Natural. The scumbag journalist in The Natural. I do like him. I'm not picking individual scenes here, but I like him as Frank Burns in Mash, Bernie White in the paper, Boss Spearman in Open Range, the Kevin Costner film. And that's just classic.

1:23:15Josh Larsen:Really good movie. Yeah.

1:23:16Adam Kempenaar:That's just, that's just, that's just Duvall in classic, like grizzled, wise, old Western guy mode and just a blast to watch. Right. And then, you know, he only appears in two scenes, but he makes them fun in the two scenes he appears in with Tom Cruise and Jack Reacher. So I'll mention them here in my honorable mentions.

1:23:39Josh Larsen:I thought you were going, he's in days of thunder too, right? He is in days of thunder. I thought you were going that direction.

1:23:44Adam Kempenaar:You know, I mean, whatever it is. Days of Thunder is days of thunder. And that's all I'll say about that. Those are our top five Robert Duvall scenes. We would love to hear your picks. You can email us feedback at filmspotting.net. We may share your feedback on an upcoming show. You can also find our lists and links to the scenes we mentioned by going to filmspotting.net and clicking on lists right there at the top of the page.

1:24:25Josh Larsen:We like to mention the film spotting family here on the show every once in a while. And those of you who aren't part of the family might be wondering why take that leap? Why join? Well, here's some good reasons. it's only$4.99 a month to join. And for that small amount, here's what you get. Bonus shows every month, ad-free listening every episode. You can join the conversation on the FilmSpotting Family Discord. You'll also receive our newsletter once a week, and you'll get pre-sales and discounts on live events. Of course, that$4.99 a month price tag, that becomes discounted if you decide to pay annually.

1:25:06Adam Kempenaar:If you do the math, and I know you love to do the math, it's only 76 cents more per month. If you break it up that way, if you do the annual family plus plan, that means you get all those benefits you mentioned, plus complete access to the film spotting archive. You can learn everything you need to know at filmspottingfamily.com.

1:25:27Josh Larsen:Let's thank a couple of Film Spotting Family members here, Brad in Denver, and then Film Spotting Family Plus member, J.P. Aguirre, who is in Fontana, Florida. J.P. wrote in this, found you in college around 2014. It was the end of the year list and finding an hour-long podcast where people were talking about the top films of the year made me so happy. And to hear people who love film made me feel like I found home. I think JP probably meant they're hours long. I don't know that we've ever done an end of the year list that's an hour long.

1:26:02Adam Kempenaar:No, probably not. Yeah. Half a segment. Just remember that part about people who love film. Just put a pin in that for later. Okay, Josh. Brad says his favorite part of the show may be outside the criteria, but the Varda marathon was great. She can do no wrong. Yeah. Accurate. JP says absolutely love when you do deep dives on certain directors and can't wait for, oh, so this must have been submitted a while back. I hope he enjoyed our Andre Tarkovsky marathon. We do have a rolling submission list here. So yes, we did Tarkovsky back in 2025. And if you missed the announcement last week, we did tell you our 2026 marathon lineup, Dissident Cinema.

1:26:42Adam Kempenaar:That's coming in three or four weeks. It will begin. And you can find that entire lineup at filmspotting.net slash marathons.

1:26:50Josh Larsen:JP and Brad also weighed in on reviews we got wrong for JP. It's Shawshank Redemption. You guys praised it, but this movie more than so many others is a nostalgic mid movie at best and made me happy to see at least Sam agrees with me. Brad, for his part, said, I don't understand the praise for past lives.

1:27:10Adam Kempenaar:Okay. Movies they credit with becoming cinephiles. JP says Seven Samurai, which my dad showed me when I was about five years old. Brad says The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Interesting.

1:27:21Josh Larsen:We also love it when family members recommend books about movies or movie making. Brad highlighted Cameraman by Dana Stevens. Of course, that's a great one. And for JP, one that I am going to get around to at some point, I promise, Andrei Tarkovsky's Sculpting in Time.

1:27:38Adam Kempenaar:We do thank Brad and JP for being family members and for all of their years of listening. You can follow Brad on Letterboxd at bradleo165. JP is at, JP is me, that's me, M3. So JP, I-S-M-3. Now, I did want to share this. Remember last week we were having a little bit of an issue deciphering, is it cachet? Is it cash? Uh, yes, we weren't, we weren't sure. Well, we didn't get an email from cash, but I think this speaks to the, the great community that is film spotting. We got an email from a listener named James who said, heads up my favorite film spotters. Cash may perhaps be too demure to weigh in himself.

1:28:23Adam Kempenaar:So I wanted to let you know his name is indeed pronounced Cash and his letterbox handle is Cash Eel. So C-A-C-H-E-E-L-L. I was tickled to hear him shouted out on last week's show. Cash and I met thanks to the FilmSpotting Discord and have since been to many movies together by ourselves and with our respective wives. The power of the FilmSpotting family. See you at FilmSpotting Fest, James. How about that? How about that? So we solved that and we found out that two listeners met, family members met through the Discord, hanging out, going on double dates. It's always heartwarming to hear about. So in addition to keeping us doing what we're doing, your membership does come with various perks like Josh mentioned.

1:29:09Adam Kempenaar:And we're getting ready here pretty soon to record our April bonus, which is an Ask Us Anything edition. which yes, we do cover movies, but usually at least the other half is not movie related at all. And more personal talk. Yeah, random stuff. So more about joining the family again, available at filmspottingfamily.com. We do also like to mention here that you can help a show like ours, which is still independently produced, has been for 20 years, by rating or reviewing us on Apple Podcasts. Spotify. Again, we have, we have a five-star rating system there. We have it on Apple podcasts and Josh, I, I do just want you, I want you to humor me for a minute.

1:29:54Adam Kempenaar:Okay. Cause this is fun. I think this is funny and, and it's not, I think in 20 years, we have never once bemoaned a negative review. And if you look at, if you, if you look at, no, listen, if you look at Apple podcasts, we have, we've been around for 20 years. And if you look at Apple Podcasts, we have almost 4 ,000, I think 4 ,000 ratings and we have like a 4.6 out of 5. I am so overjoyed with how people feel about the show. I will never critique an individual rating or an individual review. But this was funny to me. I think I was looking at, I had to look up something over on Apple Podcasts and I was like, oh man, I haven't looked at reviews in a long time.

1:30:36Adam Kempenaar:I made the mistake of looking. Okay. And I have to read this to you. It's very short and get your response to it. Okay. Here it is. Subject of the review is the, you know, show exclamation point, amateurs exclamation point update tried listening again after years of ignoring them. And there were 500, you knows within the first minute, these self-proclaimed self-proclaimed film freaks have the most incredible ability to come up with reasons to dislike nearly every film in existence. Great films are remembered forever, not the critics who bash them. And that was a one out of five star review. Do you think it's possible, Josh, that that was intended for a different podcast?

1:31:27Josh Larsen:I was just going to say, sometimes people review podcasts not realizing they're thinking of another podcast. Also, whoever that podcast is, I like this notion that they're apparently broadcasting beneath this person's window. They tried to ignore them. They tried to. It's not that hard to ignore a podcast.

1:31:50Adam Kempenaar:They tried to, but they just found themselves clicking on it. They were compelled.

1:31:53Josh Larsen:You don't follow the show. But apparently this podcast is broadcasting, yeah, out on the sidewalk 24-7, And it's been really hard to hear all those who knows.

1:32:03Adam Kempenaar:I don't know. I don't feel as if we say you know a lot, but I know this for sure. We've never once referred to ourselves as film freaks. Those two words have never been uttered in this show's history until right now. Yeah, I don't think I've used that. No. And also, going back to the little note I made when we were reading those comments, don't we probably have a history of liking more movies than bashing movies i'm just certain yeah

1:32:34Josh Larsen:i am certain that the reviews weigh out as as positive which is not because we're not willing to give a negative review we just generally choose we don't review everything so we generally choose titles that we that we think will likely have a good experience with right so i just i couldn't

1:32:55Adam Kempenaar:resist. I saw that and I was like, wait a second, this is a negative review and there's no way it's even about our show. What are we doing here? Apple podcasts. Now, let me ask you this.

1:33:04Josh Larsen:Has, has this little session helped? Do you think you'll, will you sleep a little better tonight? Will you forget about this person? I don't know. I had forgotten about it.

1:33:12Adam Kempenaar:And now more now I've brought it back. Look, just, I guess I'm, I'm using it. I would love film spotting listeners go rate us on Apple Podcasts and cast that one to the back of the reviews. Then I'll feel better.

1:33:26Josh Larsen:Bump it down. Okay.

1:33:27Adam Kempenaar:Bump it down and I'll then feel much better. Okay. Reef Hawk.

1:33:34Josh Larsen:For the last four decades, America's favorite movie star. Starring in three of the biggest franchises in film history, you've had five years off. How are you going to frame the five years thing? I won't say that I was hiding a heroin addiction from the public. and that my best friends and my insane lawyer helped me cover it up for years.

1:33:54Adam Kempenaar:That is a really smart omission. Strong omiss. The day I walk... Outcome, as we said last week on the show, perfect example of a movie nowhere near our radar. We need our streaming video unit investigators, Matt Singer and Jordan Hoffman, to make us aware of, to tell us whether or not we should be on the case or not, whether or not we should be paying attention to it. Well, I haven't listened to the entire episode, but based on what I know, it sounds like we don't need to be paying too much attention to outcome, unfortunately.

1:34:32Josh Larsen:They took the hit for us. Is this going to be the subtitle of SVU?

1:34:37Adam Kempenaar:We investigated so you don't have to. Yeah, it might be. We will see next week, because here's another one that I had no idea about. And boy, does it have an entertaining title? And if I gave you, if I just told you the title and then said, I'm going to give you three guesses, it's a known director. I'm going to give you three, three guesses, which director it is. I bet you would have gotten it. If you haven't looked, we can play this game. I bet you would get it within two guesses. Okay. It's a new Amazon prime comedy. It's definitely a director. Well done. It's definitely a director. you know the film is called balls up who who does most of um adam sandler's netflix stuff i'm

1:35:21Josh Larsen:blanking i see where you're going but that's not it do you get brian is it a brian no david or

1:35:28Adam Kempenaar:something like that no i'll save you give it to me peter farrelly oh doesn't it sound like a

1:35:35Josh Larsen:fairly production balls up does, but is he back to wait? I didn't know post green book he's doing because he was green book, right?

1:35:46Adam Kempenaar:Yeah, he was. Okay. Well, he's got, he's got a new one. Bastards. Uh-huh. He's got a new one with Mark Wahlberg and Paul Walter Hauser. There you go. So you can hear next week, every Tuesday in your film spotting feed, you can hear film spotting SVU. They talk about new streaming movies like balls up. They also share some related streaming recommendations and they debuted a new game called letter box ding.

1:36:16Josh Larsen:Hmm.

1:36:17Adam Kempenaar:Okay. Box ding. Yeah. Curious. Producer Sam Van Holgren played that last week. Did he really?

1:36:23Josh Larsen:He did. He joined the show. So a couple of extra reasons to make sure I listened to that shortly here.

1:36:29Adam Kempenaar:Yeah. There There you go. New episodes, as I mentioned, drop every Tuesday in the film spotting feed, wherever you get your podcasts.

1:36:38Josh Larsen:Don't forget to still make room for our other sister podcasts. The next picture show looking at cinema's present via its past. As a matter of fact, they have a new pairing beginning just this week. They're looking at the drama alongside David Cronenberg's, a history of violence. So this first episode is a history of violence, which a beloved early film spotting movie.

1:37:04Adam Kempenaar:I understand, Adam. Yeah. Number one film of the year, 2005, Adam and Sam. We both, we agreed on it that it was the best film of that year. I mean, we might have seen that first year of film spotting 17 movies between us. So I don't know how much stock you want to put in that, but we agreed that we love that movie. And I do say this from time to time. I mean, they always do great work on the next picture show and their, their pairings are always on point, but this one's particularly inspired because it's one that doesn't have an obvious corollary. The drama doesn't have just an obvious one to put with it.

1:37:41Adam Kempenaar:And this one makes you think for a second. You have to say, okay, why exactly a history of violence? And then you go, I get it. Okay. Secrets, married couples, the, the split. what do I think of my partner now that I know this? It's great.

1:37:58Josh Larsen:Yeah, I do enjoy those pairings as well. For the next picture show, just look for episodes every Tuesday and you can find those wherever you get your podcasts.

1:38:07Adam Kempenaar:Okay, we have the big news finally to share. We've been teasing it for weeks, giving you a little breadcrumbs. Finally, we have some real details to share about Film Spotting Fest 2 or how we are at least lovingly nicknaming it, if not officially naming it Too Fast Too Film Spotting. I mean, I don't know if it's going to make the posters, but it should. No, but it should. June 27th and 28th in Chicago. You've saved the dates. We've told you the venues, the Athenaeum Center for Culture and Thought, the Music Box Theater. Now we need to give you the movie titles. titles and a few more details. And before we give you the movie titles, just a quick sketch of how we approach this.

1:38:57Adam Kempenaar:And it goes back to what we did last year with the inaugural film spotting fest. And that was different, of course, because it was celebrating 20 years of film spotting and it was a bigger event, six films over kind of two and a half days. But we're approaching it the same and that we're trying to represent what the show is. And that means we are thinking about Pantheon titles. We're thinking about marathon titles. We're thinking about golden bricks, discoveries, things like that. We're also just thinking about titles that will be good, fun, communal experiences and other connections to the show.

1:39:36Adam Kempenaar:So all of those things are in our mind. When we think about these titles, we want people to see the lineup and think that feels like film spotting. We get it. I think we've done it.

1:39:48Josh Larsen:I think with this mix, we've managed to do that. I mean, speaking of Pantheon titles, we're going to kick off the fest with the most, one of the two most recent inductees to the Pantheon, Agnes Vardas, Cleo from five to seven. I think it was inducted two weeks ago, maybe. Yeah. Maybe something like that. And yeah, so that'll be Saturday, the 27th at the Athenaeum Center. Probably is that going to be like a late morning? I think is when we're kicking. Yeah. 11 a.m. will be the first. Yeah. 11 a.m. We'll be kicking things off

1:40:19Adam Kempenaar:with Cleo from five to seven. That's right. And I've touched on this, I think, a little bit, but if you were a participant in Film Spotting Fest last year, we crammed a lot in. And fortunately, everybody was game. Josh, our, our fest goers were awesome. They, they barely had time to use the restroom, much less, you know, get a snack before they had to get back in the theater for movies in one day. In the case of the Saturday at the Cisco, we have three movies in one day now, and the movies are all a little bit shorter. That wasn't planned. That just worked out, but also we have more time built in and it's just going to be more relaxing all around.

1:41:02Adam Kempenaar:Also, since we're at the Athenaeum, we're going to have more of a neighborhood to kind of roam around in more restaurants. So we, we think it's going to be just more relaxing in general. And that one starts at 11. We'll have our Q and a and everything after as we, we always will with a guest. And then at three o 'clock, Cresha, a 2016 Golden Brick nominee and currently scheduled writer director Trey Edward Schultz will be joining us at the Athenaeum for that screening to do an intro and joining us on stage after for a conversation about the movie.

1:41:41Josh Larsen:I like the tradition we're already establishing is include at least one nerve jangling title. I think we could say take shelter filled that with the inaugural film spotting fest. And here now with take shelter is also, yeah, buckle up for this one. A great one to have a conversation about afterwards as well, let alone, hopefully, likely it looks like at this point, we will be having that with director Trey Edward Schultz.

1:42:10Adam Kempenaar:But then after it gets, you know, it starts out a little bit, a little bit harrowing with Cleo gets more intense, way more intense with Cretia. But then we all get to come down. We get to we get to chill. We get to laugh. We get to be a bit ridiculous celebrating the 25th anniversary of one of the great cult comedies of the 21st century directed by friend of the show, David Wayne. wet hot American summer in that 7 p.m. slot. That will be fun. And it's going to be extra fun because Katie from the film, Marguerite Moreau, is going to be joining us for that screening and the intro and Q &A after.

1:42:54Josh Larsen:The love for this movie is just off the charts and seems to grow every year. And I'm especially eager for this because while I liked it when it came out, I feel like for whatever reason, I didn't join in that fervor that everyone else had and has grown. So I'm going to be one of join the crowd a little bit late, perhaps. And yeah, another great Q and a afterwards comedies like this. You've got to have that experience with a pack theater. It'll be so fun to do that with wet, hot American summer coming up here this summer.

1:43:28Adam Kempenaar:Closing it out Sunday morning, late morning screening on the 28th, another 25th anniversary screening, a Pantheon film. And the theme here, all of these movies have something in common in terms of time, whether it's sort of characters haunted by the past. We have with Cleo, a movie that's effectively in real time. Five to seven is built into the title. Obviously, you have a film like Wet Hot American Summer, which is made in 2001, but is looking back, you know, set in 1981. The characters in Tenenbaums, that's the movie we have here in that Sunday morning slot, the Royal Tenenbaums, where those characters are still unable to get past what they see as the sins of the father, right?

1:44:16Adam Kempenaar:And the children and the promising children that they once were. that's that's why we have that movie closing out the fest you know in addition to the fact that it's one of our favorite films of all time from one of our favorite filmmakers and seeing that at the music box with michael phillips who was unable to be due to a scheduling issue unable to be at film spotting fest one he's going to be here at the music box with us now to talk about

1:44:43Josh Larsen:that yeah what what a shame that he couldn't be there but to bring him in for this is perfect Uh, I can't wait for it. I don't know if I've had, you know, we had Sam on for our sacred cow review of Royal Tenenbaums many, many years ago. I feel like we did that in spring green together. We did it in spring green.

1:45:00Adam Kempenaar:It's how I even know the episode was like five 89.

1:45:03Josh Larsen:Okay. So yeah. So the three of us have, have dug into a Royal Tenenbaums quite a bit, bringing Michael into the fold, having him in the mix, um, will be wonderful. So yeah. Yeah. I love the lineup. I think it's a good mix of types of experiences, all which lend themselves to good conversations, which we'll be having afterwards and between. This is going to be a lot of fun. And, you know, we mentioned the Film Spotting family and one of the benefits of joining the Film Spotting family are access and discounts to live events like that. So like this. So it will be the case with Film Spotting Fest.

1:45:43Josh Larsen:family members will get access to tickets before everyone else and also a discount and we're doing

1:45:51Adam Kempenaar:a meet and greet type thing as well for family members yeah it's it's going to be quite an affair for film spotting family members and i do need to go back extra plug here for people to want to come to the fest michael phillips has already told me he's gonna dress like richie for the screening so okay band racket shorts if i had my choice yeah richie's good richie's good yeah that okay i think that works so maybe that's not true but we'll see what we'll see what we can do film spotting family members this this does get us right into ticket information friday aug friday april 24th is when tickets will go on sale at noon filmspottingfest.com is the hub for all of your information.

1:46:41Adam Kempenaar:You can go there now, right at this moment, depending on when you're listening, you will not see links to buy tickets. They will not be available until Friday, April 24th at noon. But for film spotting family members, you will have access. We will share a link with you privately. You'll have access a couple of days before. So Wednesday, April 22nd at noon is when you'll get the link. So you'll get first access to tickets for all of those. Okay. Also, the way we're doing this is you can buy tickets individually for all four movies, or you can buy a festival pass for the three movies on Saturday at the Athenaeum.

1:47:19Adam Kempenaar:And you get a discount if you buy the, everybody gets a discount. If you buy the festival pass to the three films, the film spotting family members get an even larger discount when you buy that festival pass. in addition to getting earlier tickets and a bigger discount on the Festival Pass we are going to have a special meet and greet just for FilmSpotting family members with us and our special guests prior to the Wet Hot American summer screening at the Athenaeum so it really does benefit you to get the benefits of being a FilmSpotting family member FilmSpottingFamily.com is where you should sign up and FilmSpottingFest.com is where you should go to get all of your details about the festival.

1:48:04Adam Kempenaar:We really are excited about it. We didn't envision when we did Film Spotting Fest last year, celebrating 20 years, that we were going to do this every year. I don't know if it's the smartest thing for us to do, but damn it, we had so much fun. We couldn't help but try it again, and it's coming together, and we're happy with how it's come together. So we're doing it again. It's happening again.

1:48:28Josh Larsen:So that's one save the date to put in your calendars, June 27 to 28 in Chicago. I have another save the date for you coming up more quickly here and far away from Chicago. I'm going to do an Edinburgh meetup Saturday, May 2. So yeah, just around the corner. But this will be the last meetup of what's turned out to be a little bit of a world tour. I guess, you know, a UK slash European tour of meetups I've been able to do these last nine months or so that I've been studying in Scotland. Definitely wanted to have one here in Scotland, have met so many wonderful people, some of who are already familiar with the show, some of whom have come to know the show and to do that before I leave.

1:49:12Josh Larsen:So Saturday, May 2 is when we're going to be having that. I'm also coming fresh off the Berlin meetup. So did want to say thank you to the folks who came to that and give a little bit of a report. We actually, we were having so much fun talking. Debbie and I just pushed our dinner reservations back. We were in the same place. We were going to be having a meal and they were kind enough. They're like, yeah, we'll hold your table. You guys just keep chatting. So, so thank you very much to Moritz, O 'Neill, Mikkel, and Uwe, who all came out. uva especially made we mentioned this adam earlier on a show a four-hour train from munich to hang out how many beers did you buy uh well we went fancy we we had cocktails at the lounge and uh yeah they were they were quite delicious but we don't have any hotel bills for uva he stayed with his brother there in berlin so so that that worked out best probably for everybody but yeah thanks to that group for coming.

1:50:12Josh Larsen:It was a lot of fun. And next one up, as I said, closer to home for me right now, Edinburgh May 2, email us at feedback at filmspotting.net. If you want details for that, or let me know on social, you can find me Larson on film. Anything major decided at the Berlin convention? The Berlin convention? No, we talked about the drama. There was more support. I mean, I guess one resolution to come out is that people are concerned you might pull the plug someday on Massacre Theater. And that's not something Berlin wants to see happen. So there is an official Berlin resolution in favor of keeping Massacre Theater.

1:50:59Adam Kempenaar:Okay. I might have to keep threatening this. This is good.

1:51:06Josh Larsen: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,

1:51:15Adam Kempenaar:well, insanity runs in my family. If I could only get inside that brain of yours and understand what makes you do these crazy, twisted things. Put on the red shoes, Vicky, and dance for us again. This is Sparta! 40s madness, Josh.

1:51:36Josh Larsen:It's down to four films. Are you ready? We did it. We've incinerated how many classics at this point? 60, right? Does the math work out that way?

1:51:44Adam Kempenaar:Yes, at least 60. More than that if you count the play-ins. You're so proud, yes. That's exactly what film spotting is all about, just destroying movies. Four films, two matchups. You can vote now at filmspottingmadness.com. Polls close Mondays, 11.59 p.m. Central Time, and each new round opens on Tuesdays at noon central time. Again, filmspottingmadness.com. The Elite Eight results. We had two blowouts. We did have two matchups that were closer than you might expect, a little closer than I expected, but alas, no upsets, Josh. The first one, our unrequited love matchup. How did it come out?

1:52:25Josh Larsen:This was Casablanca versus Brief Encounter, and it wasn't close. Casablanca 80 % of the vote taking out brief encounter, which, yeah, I mean, you know, brief encounter had some steam thought maybe is it put it possibly no way.

1:52:43Adam Kempenaar:No way. Yeah. Yeah. It was quick. You know, Sophie PA behind the scenes was like brief encounters in the lead. Is this going to happen? What's going to happen? And I'm like, no, this is just early film spotting family voting and they're weird. And in this case, and in this case, right. I mean, cause I also voted for brief encounter, but no, eventually Casablanca, the juggernaut's going to take over. And it did. Here's Grant Averitt week for a filling in blind spots to ethically vote for Casablanca. And this was the toughest week yet. Brief encounter was incredible, gorgeous black and white cinematography, brilliant script.

1:53:19Adam Kempenaar:And wow. Celia Johnson is Laura. One of the finest cinematic performances I think I've ever seen. Five stars, but it's still no Casablanca. Wow. Few films are the rug out.

1:53:29Josh Larsen:Next matchup, Citizen Kane versus his girl Friday. So the newspaper man, newspaper woman matchup, let's call it that. Kane also prevailed quite easily, 76 % to 24%. We heard from Ethan Johnson, Citizen Kane is surely the better film, but Friday has given me the most joy of the two machine gun dialogue and charisma for days. Okay. Sean means also weighed in as a long time newspaper person, citizen Kane and his girl Friday are both high on my personal list of most watched movies. It's a tough pick, but I choose Walter Burns and Hilde Johnson over Charles Foster Kane and Jed Leland, both for movie relationships and for who I'd hired to work at my paper.

1:54:16Josh Larsen:Okay. Okay. Yeah. Interesting criteria.

1:54:18Adam Kempenaar:Yeah, I think we'd all agree on those fronts, probably. A little closer, the number three seed, double indemnity, up against the number four seed, or is it the number four seed? Yes, double indemnity, up against the number five seed, the third man. And double indemnity took it 58 % to 42%. Dave Allen says, scrolling down the poll page and seeing these two paired up elicited a groan, followed by a good deal of tense internal debate. These are both fantastic films. So I had to split hairs. The slightest edge went to the third man for the masterful camera work and Wells speech in the Ferris wheel.

1:54:53Adam Kempenaar:I already feel sad. Well,

1:54:58Josh Larsen:that's the madness experience, Dave. How about this from Joseph Carr? It's heartbreaking to vote against Alita Valley in the third man. She's suffered enough, but actually maybe I can use madness incinerator rules to ensure she never has to suffer anymore by voting for double indemnity. So double indemnity it is, Barbara Stanwyck gets to keep having her devilishly murderous fun.

1:55:21Adam Kempenaar:Well, who's going to stop her? You're not going to stop her. I'm not going to stop Barbara Stanwyck. The last matchup. It's a wonderful life. The three seed up against our closest thing to a Cinderella, I guess, the number six seed, the red shoes and the red shoes. It put up a good fight, Josh, but only only amassed 44 percent of the vote.

1:55:45Josh Larsen:Here's Jennifer Milch. This one kills me. How do I choose between the pathos-filled, funny-sexy, the chemistry between Reed and Stewart, always moving, wonderful life, and the fever-dreamy, surreal, tragic shoes? I hate this matchup. I'm voting for shoes because I think life will win, but I want it to be close. Also, because the last dance in that movie is one of the most surprising, chilling, and beautiful endings ever. To make this worse, I'm a huge David Lynch fan and he loves both. Oh, wow. Jennifer's just making things worse for herself by doing that depth of research.

1:56:20Adam Kempenaar:Mike Weston says, thanks to film spotting madness. He actually saw both of these movies for the first time. Wow. Oh, wow. Voted for it's a wonderful life, but it was a close call and it was our closest call, but still pretty decisive victory for it's a wonderful life. And that means that our final four is exactly the final four that we thought it would be. We have the number one seed Casablanca versus the number four seed Double Indemnity. We have the number two seed Citizen Kane versus the number three seed It's a Wonderful Life. Now, Josh, are you going to surprise anyone with your choices here?

1:57:00Adam Kempenaar:Are you going with the top seeds? Is it one and two or?

1:57:06Josh Larsen:Yeah, I mean, this is so boring. I wish I could annoy people, but it's pretty clear to me that out of these four, it's got to be Casablanca and Kane. I could try to come up with a contrarian argument, but I'd really be bending over backwards.

1:57:25Adam Kempenaar:Okay. I am going to go against the order of things a little bit. You know my love for double indemnity. I have it beating Casablanca in my personal preference vote, not in my bracket. And I do have Citizen Kane beating It's a Wonderful Life. I do, of course, think it's going to be Casablanca versus Citizen Kane in the final matchup. That is what I predicted. And we'll see how things go. But right now, for our show next week, our plan originally was to talk about the new David Lowery film Mother Mary. It doesn't look like that's going to work out for both of us schedule-wise in terms of what's available for us both to see theatrically.

1:58:09Adam Kempenaar:We had to pivot, and Citizen Kane has been on our calendar as part of our Pantheon project. It turns 85 this year. So we needed to talk about Citizen Kane anyway to check that box. you suggested maybe we should check that box now tying in with madness and we could bring Casablanca into the mix because as I think we recently put into the film spotting feed an archive drop that Casablanca conversation from I don't know 10 years ago or whatever was myself and Michael Phillips you never got to talk about Casablanca so what if we did sort of a Kane versus Casablanca, just like we did rear window versus vertigo conversation.

1:58:53Adam Kempenaar:And I think

1:58:53Josh Larsen:that's what we're going to do. That's right. That's the last time we did something like this, just embracing the madness, the ridiculousness of pitting these movies. Let's just not pit them against each other in a bracket, but in an actual conversation. And honestly, that's not the thinking about it. I think as that vertigo rear window pairing revealed is there will be ways these movies reflect off each other and bring things out of each other. And also I was thinking we've joked about the fact of how do you talk about something like Citizen Kane, right? It's been so studied, so discussed. It's so obviously great.

1:59:29Josh Larsen:What new could we bring to it? I feel we would have been up to that challenge, but this is kind of a nice workaround to that as well, is to think about it in light of something like Casablanca. So we'll see. This could be an experiment that blows up in our faces, especially if there's an upset in film spotting madness. But yeah, it sounds like a fun plan for now. And the stars did align with how the bracket was heading.

1:59:57Adam Kempenaar:There you go. So let's take a look at how things stand in the bracket prediction contest. We did have to kind of guesstimate the results because we recorded both. We recorded the show before the polls had officially closed. But as anticipated, we had Lewis Hill. I don't know why he's called Raising Kane here. That's a Sam nickname. He is at the top of the leaderboard. He maybe it has to do with the fact that he has Kane winning it all. He is at the top 59 out of 60 picks. Correct. He did only miss that one in round one. And he does have Casablanca versus Kane in the finals with Kane taking it.

2:00:38Adam Kempenaar:The winner will likely be dictated by which film wins. Yes, it will come down to that. Almost certainly. If it's Kane, Lewis wins. If it's Casablanca, it looks like it will be Samuel, too many Hitchcocks, Maxton. He's currently in third place. He missed three picks in the first round, Josh, but he's been flawless since. on a roll. Yes. If it's, it's a wonderful life. Sam's doing the math here. He's done the breakdown. If it's, it's a wonderful life or double indemnity, there are brackets out there that have gone with those films to win and we shall see. So he, he, he decided I'm not going to do further analysis.

2:01:18Adam Kempenaar:We'll just say there are others that could win now. Thank you, Sam. Yes. Our bracket challenge, The internal bracket challenge. Oh, guess who's in ninth place overall? Me. Not me. No, I am in. I am in ninth place. I've never been in the top 10 print the banner. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to change, though. It's going to change pretty quickly. I have a fear. I am in ninth place. Sam is second. He's 50th overall. Very good. Mike Merrigan is in third place. he's 71st overall. And Josh. So you're picking up the rear. You're 200th overall. And a big part of that has to do with you picking the third man over double indemnity.

2:02:09Adam Kempenaar:So it didn't work out for me. No. As I mentioned last week, we do, though, all have the same. Well, we can't all have the same final four, can we? If you pick the third man over double indemnity.

2:02:21Josh Larsen:no I think I'm I think I'm out I think I'm I'm just gonna go walk around the block 20 times yeah

2:02:28Adam Kempenaar:yeah something something must be off there but the big difference the big difference I know between our brackets is that I'm the only one that picked Kane to beat Casablanca so that's what's going to decide it here it will definitely be Sam or Mike taking it I don't know if the point discrepancy is enough with you picking Casablanca to overtake me, but we will see if that's how it plays out. Kane, Kane V Casablanca or not. And if Casablanca, the number one seed goes on to win, we have a few, few rounds left right now. The final four polls are open. They close Monday, April 20th at midnight central time.

2:03:08Adam Kempenaar:And the new round will begin the championship match, Josh, plus the third place option, the third place matchup, I should say, will begin on Tuesday, the 21st at noon Central Time. Filmspottingmadness.com is your hub for all of the madness. And that's where our madness, this show, will end. Josh.

2:03:33Josh Larsen:If you'd like to connect with the show on social media, you can find Adam and Filmspotting on Instagram, Facebook, Letterboxd, and YouTube at Filmspotting. I'm at those places as well as Larson on film. We are independently produced and listener supported. You can support the show by joining the film spotting family at film spotting family.com. You can listen early and add free. You'll get monthly bonus episodes, that weekly newsletter and access to the entire show archive for show t-shirts and other merch.

2:04:02Adam Kempenaar:Go to film spotting.net slash shop out streaming or VOD this weekend. Yes. You can see Balls Up starring Mark Wahlberg and Paul Walter Hauser on Prime. You can see Sadie Sandler and Chloe East in Netflix's college set comedy Roommates. In limited release, the new one from Francois Ozan, he adapts Albert Camus' The Stranger. Wide, after going missing in the desert eight years earlier, a young girl returns in or as Lee Cronin's The Mummy. Lee Cronin directed 2023's Evil Dead Rise. And we have Bob Odenkirk is a small town sheriff who uncovers an international criminal conspiracy in Normal directed by Ben Wheatley.

2:04:49Adam Kempenaar:Next week in your film spotting feed, you will find film spotting SVU on Wednesday. You'll get our archive drop. Josh, we are going to do the 824 draft that we did back in 2022 to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of 824. So some fun stuff to talk about there we'll get into when we set up that draft. And then Friday will be Kane v. Casablanca and the 40s Madness Final.

2:05:18Josh Larsen:Film Spotting is produced by Golden Joe Dissot and Sam Van Halgren. Without Sam and Golden Joe, this show wouldn't go. Our production assistant is Sophie Kempenaer. 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.

2:05:38Adam Kempenaar:Thanks for listening. This conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.

2:05:51Adam Kempenaar:Peace to the planet. Charlamagne Tha God here. And listen, we are back. The Black Effect Podcast Festival is back in Atlanta on April 25th at Pullman Yard. Yeah. And the full lineup is nuts. We got the Grits and Eggs podcast, Deontay Kyle and Big Ice Cup Cat. We got Club 520 with Jeff Teague and the gang. Don't call me white, girl. Mona will be there. Keep it positive, sweetie, with Crystal Renee. We got Reality with the King with Carlos King. And yes, Drink Champ will be in the building. Plus, you know we're going to have a lot of guests, so you need to join us. And we got the Black Effect Marketplace, the picture podcast, and everything you expect from the Black Effect Podcast Festival.

2:06:29Adam Kempenaar:Tickets are on sale right now. Go get yours at blackeffect.com slash podcast festival. Don't play yourself, okay? Pull up.