Inside The Emmys (and the Afterparties) with Marcus Jones; Who is Ahead & Behind after Fall Festivals

13:48Ryan Lattanzio:How do you feel about theater kids? I didn't like theater. How do you think I feel? Yeah. But no, I think A24 thinks it's probably their most likely best picture. Of course.

14:00Anne Thompson:Well, they're going most likely. Well, where did you end up on primetime? You were so high on primetime, Marcus. I wasn't. I liked it. No, I liked it a lot. I am pro-Robert Pattinson. And furthermore, I think that Merit Weaver and Skylar Gisando really stuck out. They're very good. I would say that Skylar Gisando is one of the great breakouts of the season, actually. He's really good.

14:27Ryan Lattanzio:The A24 movies, Club Kid, people's feelings about Jordan Firstman aside, that is the one that feels like it could travel the furthest. I agree with you. But we already have two gay movies. I don't know that we can have too many. We have Elsinore and we have La Bolinegra. Elsinore could also be just actor. Correct. But that's a lot of gay for one Oscar season. So I'm just cautioning you. But I do think that Club Kid of the A24 movies, that's the one. And I think that's the one the audiences are most going to go for.

14:58Anne Thompson:We're going to learn a lot when the critics weigh in on some of these things.

15:04Ryan Lattanzio:The critics all loved Club Kid out of Canada. Club Kid is fine.

15:07Anne Thompson:I'm not worrying about Club Kid or La Bola Negra. I'm happy and Wild Horse Nice. Those three movies are super cool. They're going far. I think primetime and the debut, we will see more nuance in the responses. A24 also has The Invite, so that's another one. I think the invite's going to do really well at the Oscars, actually. Yeah. Okay. So I have a question for you both. I would love to know what you think the People's Choice Award is going to go to at Toronto.

15:41Ryan Lattanzio:Well, I think there's five movies that we're looking at here. The debut had a very good response. Wild Horse 9, Club Kid, La Bola Negra, and I Play Rocky, which I haven't seen yet. But people are doing backflips for that movie. And unexpectedly, honestly. Yes. So I have seen I Play Rocky. And did you see it?

16:02Anne Thompson:No, I can't wait. I really enjoyed it. And I would probably have like a mental breakdown if it won People's Choice Award. It is a very wax museum quality. Like, I don't think anyone is wrong in saying that the lead gives an excellent performance. And that this is sort of one of Peter Farrelly's best directing. What's his name? The guy you played? Anthony Ippolito. Yeah, there you go. And I'm kind of desperate to see what he's like in person because it is so kind of sliced alone in the film. But it's just like, it's so bizarre to like for the biopic to be specifically about this actor who's still around making a film that ends up winning Best Picture.

16:56It is a crowd pleaser, but it's just the Academy already gets enough accusations of having its head up its own ass that like putting a lot of recognition towards this would be so bizarre to me.

17:12Anne Thompson:Peter Farrelly, he's been there before. He played really well in Toronto. Green Book. Green Book. And then he ended up winning.

17:20Ryan Lattanzio:One of the worst best picture winners of all time.

17:23Anne Thompson:That was the year of Roma, and it was the year that the industry couldn't have been more anti-Netflix. I would argue that they're not as anti-Netflix now as they were then, that they have become much more friendly. I think Netflix has made serious strides also with wanting to buy Warner Brothers and looking like a better solution than Paramount in many ways. I think La Bola Negra would be my pick to win a People's Choice Award. Yes, I agree with you. So what films lost steam? I think everyone is saying Fjord. Palme d 'Or, Winterfjord, Christian Munju's film. In addition to being eligible for Best International through the Cannes Award, it's also Romania's choice.

18:09And I think a lot of people have been waiting for Munju to get some Oscar recognition. But I don't know if people think this one is it now.

18:20Anne Thompson:I'm afraid that Fatherland is losing steam also. And it's a terrible reason. It's because it's not as good as all his other prior films. I hear it back from people over if they screened it recently. Now, Sondra Huller could go forward. I'm excited about Sondra Huller, because the best actress race isn't that strong. But yeah, yeah. Am I crazy to think that the three of us prefer Rose, her performance in Rose? I saw both Fatherland and Rose and was like, why are people saying Fatherland is the performance? Because it's Pavel Polakowski, who is established and has won the Oscar race before. He's actually very highly regarded.

19:08Anne Thompson:And more people are going to watch Fatherland than Rose. Yeah, there's more familiarity there. But I'm like, Rose is, because that one, it's all her. And it's such an interesting story. And it's a really great performance. And so I have seen a little bit, especially from the people that went to Telluride, being like, oh, I hadn't seen Rose yet. I finally saw it. She's amazing in this, too. And so I would like to see that happen. I think Rose ends up supporting Fatherland. It's also who's distributing it, who's got the money, who's got the wherewithal to give it. Oh, yeah, they're both movies. Support, yeah.

19:43Anne Thompson:That's going to be interesting for a movie, you know, in terms of how they handle that. Ryan, what do you think?

19:49Ryan Lattanzio:I mean, Rose is a movie I've been trumpeting since Berlin. It's one of my top three movies of the year. And it's definitely, it's a performance that brings to mind Passion of Joan of Arc and Maria Falconetti in the sense that it's so much of it is on her face. And there is such a range of emotions that she plays so subtly. And, you know, it's a lot about being persecuted. It's a lot about martyrdom. and there's so many layers to it in that way. Fatherland is a very different kind of experience. They both seem to be these kind of abstruse, arcane art movies on their head because they're both black and white and they're both maybe a bit small and maybe a bit slow, if you will.

20:24Ryan Lattanzio:I'm just putting myself in other people's shoes, but then you get into those movies and you go inside them and you realize that that's not the case and I think they're both very accessible movies. That said, I agree that Fatherland is looking weak. fjord. Something happened between Cannes and now where there was all this discord discourse. Well, discord as well, really, about this movie's provocations with regards to whatever political biases in terms of sort of pitting this puritanical Christian super religious family against these quote unquote super woke white savior liberal type of people.

20:59Ryan Lattanzio:But I actually think that the movie isn't as provocative as people said it was. So it was really setting up people catching it for the first time at Telluride in Toronto to see a movie that was going to inspire this great debate. But in fact, I don't think the movie doesn't succeed in that regard at all. I've said this before on the podcast, when those kids are on screen, it is just deadly. Those scenes are just awful. They're terribly directed. And that's so much of what the movie is about, is these scenes, and they just don't work at all. And as a Munju head, this is one of his weakest movies.

21:30Ryan Lattanzio:And I think if he does make it in for this it's out of respect and tribute to perhaps some of his older i don't think it works that way but it doesn't no no it doesn't not for someone like him it doesn't work

21:41Anne Thompson:that way no you're right but the one that it will work that way for hopefully is mike lee so hopefully we get tender loving care into best director or picture or whatever we'll see the one i didn't think was very good at all was the idiots did you guys maybe i managed to warn you off it's all about johnny flynn having a gambling addiction it's horrible i i really didn't like

22:06Ryan Lattanzio:it the one that i didn't see that seems very extremely dead which also needs a distributor is prima fasci yeah that got bad reviews that was excoriated this is a cynthia revo starring adaptation of the play that i think we both saw and right with jodie comber did you see it's a It's a great play, but I don't know how you adapt that into a movie without losing some of the kind of intimate power of it. It was a one-woman show.

22:36Anne Thompson:It was a real tour de force.

22:38Ryan Lattanzio:I don't know how you make that into a feature film. Yeah.

22:42Anne Thompson:Even with the wonderful Cynthia Erivo. So, Marcus, give us your insiders look at the Emmy show and the after parties. It seems like the show played better in the room than at home, where it was a chaotic hit or miss for me. I want acceptance speeches and the show producers just didn't seem to to care about that. But as far as the parties go, I was sorry to miss my night of the Seven Kingdom singing karaoke at the HBO party. Yes, Mr. Peter Claffey singing Frank Sinatra. I could have met him. I could have met him. So that's how I ended my night. We'll get to how I started it. I sort of agree. I think that I didn't have very much expectation for Mariska Hargitay.

23:27I like her. I think she's sort of a fun personality. But like, I don't see her being known for comedy or singing or anything like that. And so I was impressed when she's singing and dancing in the opening number and sort of open to doing comedy bits and things like that. But like you said, I think them cutting some of the categories that are usually televised was a bit of a disaster. Well, they ended up short.

23:58Anne Thompson:They ended up vamping. And that was truly the worst note to end on. Like that was a nightmare in the room to see them just trying to vamp and trying to keep it going when like the job is done. We know what category they're presenting. They're there to give the last category of the night, Outstanding Comedy Series. Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey already did their comedy bit about why you should watch their new show, Brothers, on Apple TV. And then for them to keep it going. And of course, like they couldn't even do it long enough because I think the show ended up ending like three minutes before 10 p.m.

24:36Eastern. And so seeing them try to fill the last 10 minutes, I was just so uncomfortable. And I'm like, let's get this over with, even though I understand you have airtime to fill. I think ultimately that viewership for the Emmys were already going down. I don't think you're going to get anyone new by being like, oh, I can't miss this comedy sketch starring Mariska Hargitay. Like if you are a person watching the Emmys, you are watching it specifically to see your favorite TV stars. Exactly. Finally win. Or win again. Right. Or win twice. The big categories, the big acting categories that got cut from the telecast were supporting actor and supporting actress for limited series.

25:25And the two people who won were David Harbour and Linda Cardellini for DTF St. Louis. Those are two examples of people you know because of their TV work. Linda Cardellini, freaks and geeks. She had a standout turn on Mad Men. She had the show on Netflix with Christina Applegate. She is primarily famous for being a TV star. And so for her to finally win an Emmy would have been a big deal to people who watched the Emmys.

25:54Anne Thompson:Big whiff. Big whiff. Yeah. What about the parties? Similarly, the gala was kind of a bust. I was only kind of in and out there. It was cool to see some of the Daily Show correspondents because that show shoots in New York. Afterwards, Disney was probably like 10 minutes away. And so Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNerney, the head writer of the show, and also his partner were really holding court. I think someone was celebrating a birthday. So like people are taking selfies with them. They're taking selfies with their friends. friends. Sterling K. Brown is walking around. I ran into him at the Whole Box Catering Station.

26:33I don't know if you know that restaurant. It's so good in L.A. And then after Disney was Netflix, which I was the most impressed by. This was Chateau Marmont. It was the first time since I've been covering the Emmys that their party has been there. They were getting people from other networks like the couple from love story was there chase infinity was there even though she was nominated for the testaments on hulu i was told that the corner coleman domingo was in was like a cigar bar type situation because they would have like a mark a bar specifically for martinis a bar specifically for whiskey this is all by the pool at chateau marmont which they cover the pool, which I think is probably extremely expensive.

27:21But you're getting Queen Latifah there, baby face, and you're seeing Chief Content Officer Bella Bajaria hold court. Ted Sarandos is maintaining a relationship with Sofia Vergara. And so I was just, it felt in the moment that I was there a little bit like the place to be. And with HBO afterwards, which was at San Vicente Bungalows. I think I had missed most of the talent, like Stephen Colbert was still there. Some of the Pitt people were still there. But it was fun. It's a lot of different rooms at that location. By the time I was there, the infamous sushi room, out of sushi. So I didn't get to have any sushi.

28:02But the theater room is where the karaoke was happening. And so it was a lot of like HBO employees at that moment singing like Chaperone and then Peter Claffey coming in and doing Frank Sinatra.

28:17Ryan Lattanzio:So Anne, you went out and saw Resident Evil, which I ended up skipping. I'm actually going to see it as a paying patron tomorrow in theaters. You'll have a good

28:25Anne Thompson:time, I think. I think you'll enjoy yourself.

28:27Ryan Lattanzio:I didn't go for a very legitimate reason, which is that I attended Christine Bichon and Pamela Koffler's killer film celebration for their Governor's Oscar Award, which was Julianne Moore was there. Paul Schrader was there. The New York regulars. Yeah, the New York regulars. Kent Jones, a lot of people who worked with Christine Vichon and Pamela Koffler. Anyway, that was a very fun event. And what did you think of the movie?

28:51Anne Thompson:It's the eighth one. There were six Mila Jovovichs, none of which I ever saw. And there was an attempt at a reboot, which I never saw. I never played the game. So I'm coming in cold. I'm a Resident an evil virgin. Okay. And but I like Zack Kregor. So that's why I went he pitched an entirely new approach to the franchise to this one German company, Constantine, which has managed the rights to this IP all these years. And they went for his pitch before weapons came out. It was based on barbarian. And Sony eventually agreed to distribute and Kregor insisted on casting Austin Abrams, who had a small role is a thieving junkie in in weapons memorable, something about the way he fought with the metal fence, convinced Kreger to give him the assignment of trying to shoot his way through a series of locked gates.

29:39Anne Thompson:You'll see what that is when you see the movie. Kreger is a visual writer-director who knows how to frame horrors really, really well. I just love watching his directing. He's a good director, and it was fun. Snowy woods, creepy house, car, burning high-rise hospital, maternity ward, sewer. So this poor guy is just moving from place to place to place to place trying to survive. And he keeps it believable. And he's funny. And I didn't mind that at all, as he figures out how to use bigger and better guns. Next up, he's surviving being swallowed by a whale in Whale Ball. So this is something of a career path that he's on.

30:20Ryan Lattanzio:We love Austin Abrams. I have played many of the Resident Evil video games, and I'm personally super excited about this one. So there's a bunch of movies that are coming up that haven't screened yet. I think all of us are seeing Digger this weekend. I'll be seeing it at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, which definitely means that they want a lot of people to be there and they want a lot of people to see the movie when you do it at that hour. And what else do we have coming up? This is the social reckoning, obviously, Doom Part 3.

30:48Anne Thompson:Yeah, yeah. The New York Film Festival brings a lot of new things. I want to see The Statement. I want to see Godzilla minus zero. A Long Winter from Andrew Haig was in Telluride. I haven't seen that yet. I want to see Tony Gilroy's Behemoth. Tony Gilroy is going to be our special guest on Screen Talk in New York, our live Screen Talk that we do every year at the New York Film Festival. So that's going to be fun. I obviously want to see Naza. So lots of stuff to look forward to in New York. Ryan, do you have a recommendation this week?

31:19Ryan Lattanzio:My recommendation is to not watch something, which is I watched the first episode this morning of Monster, the Lizzie Borden story, which is now on Netflix. And this is with Ella Beatty, who's a really interesting actress. She's playing the murderess Lizzie Borden.

31:37Anne Thompson:She's the daughter of Warren and Annette.

31:39Ryan Lattanzio:Exactly. Yeah. She's very good, actually. I quite like her. The problem with this show is that with the last Monster about Ed Gein, Ryan Murphy, he got Vicky Creeps. He sucked her in. She's in the Ryan Murphy world now and it's not doing her any favors. These are my least favorite performances that she's done and it's depressing. I hope she's getting a lot of money. I like Vicky Kreese. I love her. She's one of my favorite actors. But somehow with these Ryan Murphy shows, they find the worst parts of the best actors. And like, I skipped ahead honestly to watch a little bit of Sarah Paulson playing Eileen Wuornos and yikes.

32:18Ryan Lattanzio:Talk about some overacting. Anyway, Marcus, what's your recommendation? Diminishing returns of those Ryan Murphy series. I don't watch a lot of network TV, but I gave the show Line of Fire a try because I had liked a lot of Joshua Safran's previous shows, whether it was Quantico with Priyanka Chopra, Jonas now, or the Gossip Girl reboot. He also worked on the infamous Smash. But this is a family where the parents and the kids are all in different government agencies, whether it's Secret Service, FBI, U.S. Marshals, the USDA office. And so there's like the family drama that bleeds into kind of the national incident of it all.

33:06And you see the president and it ends up being this kind of like murder mystery as well. And so, yeah, I'm surprised that I'm having a lot of fun with a show I wouldn't traditionally watch.

33:18Ryan Lattanzio:Peter Krause and Hope Davis are in that one, right? Those are two of the best character actors. I don't know that you would call Peter Krause that anymore. He's a lead on, isn't he in 9-1-1 or one of those? He is a TV star. He's one of those blue, he's in one of those blue shows. I mean, I know him from Six Feet Under. Ann, what's your recommendation?

33:35Anne Thompson:I've Got the Weight, a period noir adventure which made the most of its limited resources. I would suggest if it had more money, it would have been even better than it was, and took advantage of two wily performers, Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe.

33:49Ryan Lattanzio:They couldn't shoot it in the United States, and that's sort of the problem, is that it's supposed to be this slice of Americana kind of story, but they're shooting in the woods of Eastern Europe, and it's very obvious.