Best in Show: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio chat, the Bruiser boys, Césars, HCAs and guilds galore!
MIA This week on Best in Show, we’re talking to Guillermo Del Toro and Mark Gustafson about Pinocchio and Paddington. We also have Moonlight’s Trevante Rhodes and the director of his indie Spirit Award nominated film Bruiser—that’s Letterboxd fan Miles Warren. And in between all of that, we have so many more Guild Awards and the César Awards. Vive la !
[theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
GEMMA Before we begin we’d like to thank our sponsor, Bleecker Street, for giving us a Toni Collette and Monica Bellucci mobster comedy Mafia Mama, directed by Catherine Hardwicke.
MIA While seeing to her long estranged and now deceased grandfather’s affairs in Italy, Colette, a mild mannered suburban mom, unexpectedly inherits his mafia empire and finds herself stuck in the middle of a deadly mob war. Guided by the firm’s trust hilariously defies everyone’s expectations, including her own as the new head of the family business.
BRIAN Mafia Mama will be in theaters this April and the trailer just dropped. So get on over to YouTube and watch.
MIA After listening to this podcast of course.
BRIAN Of course, of course. On with the show.
MIA Hi, and welcome to Best in Show, a limited podcast series brought to you by The Letterboxd Show. I am Mia Vicino, the West Coast Editor here at Letterboxd and Best in Show, as you know by now, is all about awards season. We have contenders, we have movie execs, we have Letterboxd data, we have reckons, and it’s all in service of doing what we always do here at Letterboxd, celebrating cinema. And here again to celebrate cinema with me are my Best in Show besties: Hollywood veteran and our editorial producer, Brian Formo.
BRIAN Charmed.
MIA And our Editor-in-Chief, Gemma Gracewood.
GEMMA Hello from two hours up the road from you.
MIA Also on our team outside in the broadcast van with their tucky toes and their Aqua Fresca are our resident Fact Finder Jack’s Facts, and the man with the tape deck himself, our editor Slim, thank you as always to these silent gents. And now, the news! Brian, it has been another huge week for the craft awards bodies, the Screen Actors Guild, the Producers Guild, the Emmy Awards for animation and the SES. Our awards were just held in Paris.
BRIAN Let’s start in Perry, shall we? Hollywood can wait just a little bit.
MIA Oh, we the SES. Our awards are the French film industry’s top film prizes. You may the SES Rs from such walkouts as 2020 when Dale high now and Celine Shama and others left the room crying shame. After Roman Polanski was given a gong. Well, well, well how times change. This year the best picture went to a procedural thriller about a case of femicide, The Night of the 12th of film that has had everyone talking about the treatment of women by police and the judiciary.
GEMMA Yeah, well, everyone who’s seen it to be accurate. The Night of the 12th is streaming in , but not really available anywhere else yet, but 10,000 Letterboxd have logged it. And it had a little say as a bump over the weekend on letterboxers. More French or people living in caught up with it. Hugo on Letterboxd says of nine of the 12 that it raises questions about men and women today, and about the place of masculinity, and that Dominic mole deserves his prizes for the perfect staging. Well mold did get the prize for best director at the 48th annual says as and as Sophie also wrote in her letterbox review, what hope to see these speeches made in the mouth of a man in a film directed by a man. Here’s the thing a woman was never going to win Best Director at the scissors since all five finalists are male directors. But a couple of notes on that. Firstly, nine of the 12 had several women producers, and one of them that legendary Carolyn Benjo called for awareness around violence against women in her acceptance speech and she suggested in her speech that Dominique Moll is doing the work that men need to do start listening and secondly the says ours like the vectors and some other words, but not the Oscars yet one day maybe hopefully have a best first film award and is that where we might find a woman filmmaker or to Brian?
BRIAN Absolutely. Much like how Charlotte Welles has kind of been relegated into the best debut category for Aftersun winds and at various ceremonies. Here we find Alice D up being honored with best first film at the SE czars for St. Oh mayor. I had seen Oh mayor in my top 10 Last year. It's a very patient, well directed film. D up has made many several feature length documentaries and she deserves a straight best director nomination or even a win on letterbox rating alone saying oh Mara rates higher than nine out of the 12 Even she used her podium moment why Easily however, she paid tribute to several female directors who made films last year, which inspired her and were ignored by SES our voters. She mentioned Rebecca slot kowski, who directed Other People’s Children. Claire de nee was Stars at Noon and Mia Hansen live for One Fine Morning.
MIA and still under Cesaro, Virginia, Florida, one Best Actress for her performance as a terrorist attack survivor and Alice winter cores. Paris memories while Benoit mushy male won Best Actor with Albert suras pasa fiction, which also won Best Cinematography and has just started playing stateside. Plus letterbox favor. No, I mean, we’re long won Best ing Actress for Louis Garrel’s The Innocent and David Fincher was given an honorary César which means that he got assays before an Oscar. They played the Pixies. Where’s my mind as Fincher walked on stage to a standing ovation.
BRIAN Oh, I wonder about a slim kid. Drop a little bit of that guitar hook there. That’d be pretty sweet. Just what’s your favorite fencer, y’all?
MIA Well, I guess on the topic of Pixies, where’s my mind? It was Fight Club when I first started my Fincher journey then it was Se7en and honestly, now it’s Gone Girl. What about you, Brian?
BRIAN It's probably Gone Girl every ing year every year that I get older. It’s becoming Gone Girl for me over and over and over. It is so rewatchable it is one of the best rewatches out there.
GEMMA I have never seen it.
MIA Oh my god.
GEMMA I can’t understand any of you people who. I’m just gonna be spicy and take a note from LSD up and say it’s Lords of Dogtown which Fincher produced and Catherine Hardwick directed Z boys forever. Venice Beach forever. I’m just up the road in San Luis Obispo. I’m working my way closer to you. We’re going to be in real life together the three of us in Hollywood this week in a matter of days. Which brings us to Hollywood, which has had another extremely busy week, the Screen Actors Guild and the Producers Guild of America both we all chip in on Everything Everywhere All at Once. Let’s start with the actors. Everything Everywhere All at Once is the first film to ever win three individual acting prizes. At the Screen Actors Guild, which we like, the industry will call the sex for the rest of the show, which has always made me snort a little because sag is probably the very opposite of what most cosmeticians want to do. Anyway, anyway, anyway. Michelle Yeoh, key quick con and Jamie Lee Curtis all won their categories.
MIA And Michelle Yeoh and Ke Hui Quan became the first Asian performers to win their respective categories of Best Actress and Best ing Actor which made me cry but during the Everything Everywhere All at Once cast acceptance speech for Best Cast. James Hahn called out Jamie Lee as being an honorary Asian for having the name Lee which made me laugh is also my middle name. So he is right on that front.
BRIAN So every week Curtis is by far the biggest surprise, I think out of the sags but she’s been working hard on the trail this season. And while Angela Bassett did not get nominated for Best ing Actress at the sags, she still added four trophies over last weekend she got two each from the Hollywood Critics Association and additional two from the NAA Image Awards. They were both two career awards and two Best ing Actress awards for Black Panther Wakanda forever so she did win a bunch over the weekend just not the sex.
MIA And speaking of the NAA Image Awards, we should mention that Will Smith won Best Actor for emancipation one year after the Oscars banished him for 10 years because of the slap
BRIAN I can’t believe that the slap was less than a year ago but do we actually think the Academy will bar that long? I don’t know. Back to the sags back to the sags we don’t know we really ain’t got time for the slap. I wanted to mention one interesting fact from our friend Jack specs. So the Best Ensemble Cast award is essentially the sag equivalent of Best Picture. And this year was the highest rated nominee list they’ve ever had according to letterbox. It started in 1995 So it’s not like going all the way back to the 40s but still it’s the highest ever. The 2022 nominated films were Babylon banshees of in a Sheeran Everything Everywhere All at Once the fabled men’s and women talking combine that at a 4.1 out of five rating average rating on Letterboxd the second closest year was 1997 which had 3.9 and The Full Monty was kind of a spoiler when because it had no individual acting nominations which is unusual for the sags but it is truly an ensemble film okay okay. Back to this year not a surprise everything everywhere cruise to victory one everything a clean sweep meow you watch the whole show, tell us your highlight.
MIA I actually want to add, I just ed that Mark Wahlberg referred to women talking as women are talking when he was announcing and that might be my highlight. So let me actually say it was incredible. But then after that he awarded the cast award to Everything Everywhere All at Once. And Michelle Yeoh handed the mic off to 94 year old James Hong, who spoke about how his first film was with Clark Gable way back in the day and they they had white people plain Asian people with their eyes taped back and everything because you know, Asians don’t make money at the box office, they say, and then he was like, but look at us now. To rapturous applause. It was incredible so that both of those moments meld into my highlight Pro.
GEMMA Yeah, insane insane. I just keep thinking about Breakfast at Tiffany’s and how cursed that wonderful. Oh, sickest. Sorry, everyone. A quick note on stunts, though. The sags recognize this craft and it’s not a surprise but Top Gun Maverick won the award that will surely eventually just be named for Tom Cruise for the rest of life. I guess. What else happened or did not happen to your satisfaction at the sag smear? Oh, well,
MIA my poor Colin Farrell and his stunt eyebrows were ed over for Best Actor at the sags to Brendan Fraser for the whale who also won at the Hollywood Critics Association Awards this weekend. And the Banshees have a glorious statistic. It is the first film to get five sag nominations and not win any but they’ll always have their Baptists
GEMMA they will always have the best as so. So the mention of the Hollywood Critics Association in there I feel like all the mini mini mini regional Critics Association it was a month behind us but no there was this one last ceremony over the weekend. And Brian and Mia you were both there what were the vibes
BRIAN it was a love fest for Everything Everywhere All at Once and also our our everything took picture director actress ing actor and more RR one action film best action film stunts international a few others. But this group, which I should know is one of the two critical hips I am a part of, has a few categories that I wanted to highlight outside of the Oscar rat race. Much higher. We already highlighted that the sag does stunts. The HCA has a couple that the Oscars should consider as well. So Jenny Slate was on stage often as Marcel the Shell. She was in one of the best indie films, which was a pleasant surprise. And she was in Everything Everywhere All at Once, which everyone keeps forgetting about which did win Best Ensemble. She was one of the few cast that was at the event. So she got up with KI KI wave con for that. But the loveliest Jenny Slate moment was her speech for winning a category that doesn’t show enough best voice or motion capture performance. Let’s listen because it actually made me tear up a little in the room.
Just want to say this performance has been my very favorite. And being in love, and being a performer is all I’ve ever wanted to happen to me. And I hope that tonight, especially because like there’s not a lot of recognition for voice performance. I hope that it is a sturdy predictor for the rest of my life. One that says you can do this work and live this way in these loves until you are so old, that your life is complete. And your heart takes about the universe itself. So just know I adore this moment. I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
GEMMA I love that so so much. We will come back to some Jenny Slate chat soon. But first, Brian, you wanted to give some flowers to some folks you chatted with inside the room. You big fancy Critics Association member you?
BRIAN Yeah, there's one man I’ve had the pleasure to chat with a few times at a number of these events. And that’s Glass Onion writer, director Rian Johnson, who like Angela Bassett won two awards. One was for Best Comedy. It was the competitive award and one for showing up for the filmmaker achievement award he knew was going to win so he was there. He was given that by his brick and loopers star Joseph Gordon Levitt and I wanted to mention that I love that he shouted out the editor of his clip montage, because quality clips show that award ceremonies is something that no one really mentions unless they’re complaining about it. And I like that Ryan mentioned it and actually gave a shout out in the room because he loved it. So I’m gonna mention it as well because I met the people who put these clips together when they noticed My letterbox backpack. So here’s a shout out to Ezra Cubero and Zachary Marsh as recut Ryan’s career montage and Zachary cut the great opening montage of 2022 films. They’re both proud of letterbox. They’re on there under their given names, but we’ll put links to their profiles in the Episode Notes to
MIA speaking of letterbox . I can report from the HCA red carpet that nopes Brandon Perea is on letterbox and he is catching up on awards, titles and old faves
Are you kidding me? What? Yes, yes, I have my . You know, I was just on it the other day, you know, ing the films that I just watched. I just watched tar finally. Thank God, because like it being award season, it’s kind of hard to like, watch movies. But yeah, I just loved tar. I watched a banshees of Sharon. And what else? There’s one more film that I watched recently. I rewatched Twister. And so I mean, I had to put it in my letterbox like this one I watched recently and yeah, I've been on a low roll right now. Yeah,
GEMMA That’s so cool you talked to Brandon, Mia. But we’re gonna keep moving.
MIA Onwards we go to the Producers Guild of America where Everything Everywhere All at Once won best film. So what does that mean, Brian? Well, I
BRIAN am in Las Vegas right now for a wedding. And even though I’m here I would not be betting on Best Picture because Everything Everywhere All at Once is the runaway favorite. The odds are extremely in its favor. Only one film has ever won the top prizes at both the directors and producers guild along with sag ensemble, and gone on to lose the Oscar for Beck’s Best Picture. The only one that did that was Apollo 13. Every other film that has achieved that has gone on to win. However, there’s reasons to watch, Best Director and most of the Acting Awards, the screenplay award score, there’s just so many Oscars that could go many different ways. And so while Best Picture feels inevitable, this is still the murkiest season and other categories in a long time, which is exciting. A lot of people could surprise Yeah,
MIA BAFTA and sad not lining up for a single acting award is wild, right.
GEMMA Yeah, it is totally wild. But I also just want to say I feel a little nervous. Talking about showings, I think, especially because it was the chat typing film for our letterbox here and review. And we’ve been such champions for Everything Everywhere All at Once since it first came out a year ago. I’m starting to feel really nervous. And I’d like to move away from predictions because I just, I just I just don’t want green book
MIA was at the end, but we can’t have a green book repeat.
GEMMA We can’t have a green book repeat. I mean, yeah, I just had to say that Jim
BRIAN was trying to get that Vegas line more to get more money back.
GEMMA Yeah, I want the odds. I want the odds to reverse. I’ve got 1000 smackers on Oh no, it’s not true. One more Producers Guild mention they gave the Al Yankovic story, the prize for best streaming or television movie and factors. I’m still mad that the film didn’t get a theatrical release. I saw it in a theater. It was effing brilliant. So I’m glad it got another Gong even if it is for a lay mode television movie.
MIA The costume designers Guild are announcing their winners tonight. So look for those victors in my big old Guild Award round up this week in the journal, but now it’s time for some anti awards coverage. The anti awards are the annual trophies given by asiFA the International Animated Film Association. And like all guilds, they go deep on categories with many, many winners at the 50th Annie’s, we will link to all of them in the journal column. But as promised, we’re back to Jenny Slate. She also won the award for voice acting here. And she won Best Writing with Dean Fleischer camp, Nick Paley and Elizabeth home. And Marcel one best in the feature.
GEMMA I love this Virginie. I love this for myself. So Jeannie created Marcel alongside Dean Fleischer camp, who was her husband at the time; they're still creative partners. The voice came to her during a holiday they were taking with friends. They were all rooming together in a cramped hostel. And she started riffing on the idea of being small and crowded. And, then dean went off and kind of built this little character around this voice she created. She’s so cool. Marcel is one of the best creative inventions ever. And as I think you both will agree with me it’s been a delight watching that little shell's journey from YouTube shorts all the way to Best Indie feature.
BRIAN I’ve, I’ve chatted with Ginni at a few of these events and I’m so impressed with her appreciation for the season and her obvious humanity throughout it. I am a genuine fan of hers like she has been the biggest joy to me. Eat throughout this whole season. Another another major winner from the Annie’s was the short film, the boy the bowl, the fox and the horse, which one for Annie’s, and I mentioned that because you could watch it on Apple TV, and it is up for Best Animated Short as well at the Oscars,
MIA and my boy Tom Hollander, who you may recognize from the White Lotus season two plays the mole. So speaking of boys, let’s get to that one boy, it is time to step behind the curtain for a deeper look at Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.
GEMMA So Brian Formo is truly our Hollywood Insider. This episode with all this talk of chatting with Ryan Johnson and Jenny Slate, but Brian did Mia and I a solid this week, he allowed us to interview one of our heroes and one of the best people in Hollywood. So now anyone in their right mind, Amy will know that Guillermo del Toro was robbed of winning Best Picture at last year’s Oscars for nightmare alley. But could this be a key emotion? Yeah, I said it before I’d be happy for me one of the animation nominees to win the Oscar and I feel especially warm towards Domi xi and turning red because I love a good movie about periods and boy bands but its debts affects the vectors Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’s is this year’s front runner. On top of the awards, Mia has already mentioned it one three VFX society awards for outstanding visual effects and an animated feature outstanding animated character for the titular boy himself and outstanding created environment for the stomach of the sea monster lighthouse and all the BAFTA for animated feature is also in hand and Pinocchio continued its animation dominance over the weekend. The best animated movie at the PGAS ndhca is in seemingly every other three leader organization and Annie's Pinocchio took best feature, Best Direction, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, and best character animation. No. Breathe out.
MIA Yeah, take a breath Gemma. So your mill Del Toro is surely one of our favorite people on the award circuit, not just because he seems to bring Pinocchio and Geppetto everywhere he goes but because of his enthusiastic unbridled love for movies and the people who make them. He teamed up with Fantastic Mr. Fox Animation Director Mark Gustafson to make a stunningly reimagined version of the Pinocchio tale involving animation studios in three different countries including GD Ts, beloved Mexico and my beloved Portland.
GEMMA And with incredible creators like composer Alexandria display, production designer guide Davis and Character Animator Tackleberry. We were excited and delighted to talk to Guillermo and Mark about what it’s like working with each other. And with all of these stop motion animators and whether Cate Blanchett sneaked in here Lydia tapped into her role as butser dura. And why GDT fields are forever bound together with the Paddington movies.
MIA Since this podcast is an award season show. Can we go all the way back before filmmaking? What’s the first award or prize? Have you two ever won? And what was it for?
GUILLERMO Mike has a good story. Mark
MARK and never won many awards as a kid. But some like a mike. I think the first award I ever got, I bought at a store. I was in a secondhand store and there was a bowling trophy. And it had my name on it. It said Mark Gustafson. And it was for a high average. And I thought, yep. Am I ever going to do better than that? So I have that trophy I bought. It means a lot to me.
GUILLERMO You know, the first award I won was incredibly meaningful because it was a cash award. I had taken out a loan on my home to finish Chronos and I owed a quarter of a million dollars at age 28. And I had sold my car to finish Chronos so I have no car. And we were going to be foreclosed or we were going to be in deep trouble. My producer and I and this first prize was $100,000 and I always thought when people could climb on the stage and cry it was fake. And then we climbed on the fader. There was a weeping mostly because I was not going to go to jail.
GEMMA I feel like that’s amazing and $100,000 is good cash is great. A lot high average mark that’s that’s official
MARK: Pretty good. You got to it.
GEMMA Okay, so we hear a lot from GDT. But I want to read a review from Harper, who writes of our view, Guillermo. I’m just glad this man decided to be an artist and not a military leader because I fear I’d go to war for him. So and then in that vein, what is that? What is the coolest? Like? What’s the most fun and satisfying thing about working with each other? Guillermo, can you tell us about Mark as a workmate and vice versa? Well,
GUILLERMO yeah. Yes, we have similar sense of humor, we, we, I think that we both have the advantage that we don’t take ourselves seriously, when we take our job and our work and the artistry of it seriously. We are very, very serious robotic, but we ourselves like to be a solid sort of self effacing. And ironic and weird, very weird about it. So his humor is exceedingly strange. And is a very similar domain. So it’s rare, it’s rare to find that and, and, and in the, in the artistic side, I think that is a director that I can completely rely on that we both have each other’s backs. Like, if he says something, it is not something that comes from anything but the betterment of the film. So that’s incredibly beautiful, an hour, you don’t have that with many people.
MARK And I think, you know, what I love about working with talented people, is that I learn every single day. And that’s a, that’s a beautiful thing. And I learned from the people who, you know, the painters, the sculptors, you know, all the artists, and, and in particular from Guillermo, you know, he brings a lot to this, you know, he has a vast experience, and it’s really fun to, to have that reflected in this different medium, you know, and pushing it in a different way and bringing those sensibilities from from live action. And he also, the other thing I really like about working with gamma is that he’s, he protects us. He’s at the gate, we’re not going to get studio notes, we’re not going to have to do screenings, you know, for audiences, and, you know, different parts of the country where gamma is there. And he’s like, Nope, we’re doing this our way. And then see if you’re gonna fail, or it’s gonna succeed. And this is the way it is.
MIA I’m so glad you brought up being weird because we have talked about that Gemma, and I love to be weird and not right. This is so clearly a labor of love. Gorgeous, and distinctive, and nuanced, and weird, and all the better for it. So can we talk about how being weird is the best thing to be as filmmakers, please?
GEMMA You need to be a little bit weird to get Alexandra Destler to write a song with lyrics like you’re a poop
GUILLERMO seldom encounter each other. past the age of three. I think before that, they do and gather with each other often. But for myself, I think it is weird that people think there is such a thing as weird. I think that every person I ever meet is an anomaly. And that’s what makes them absolutely worth meeting.
MARK And I don't think most quote unquote weird people wouldn’t consider themselves weird, necessarily. Thank you. I like weird people. That’s why I went into animation.
GUILLERMO Yeah, well, and we are not disappointed. Why do we have the world on one hand, and whatever you build to cope with it? And the world is crazy. We’re just coping with it. And in reality, all those social structures, mores and norms. The thing that we’re told should be most of them go against human nature most often and and we have to protect the human spirit then sometimes a counterbalance has to be we’re
GEMMA is so so so true. And I feel like this has just turned into a therapy session for all the weird kids listening who are now being deeply affirmed in their life choices. You know, but on that, you know, society and, and protecting the weirdness. Sam writes on the litter box that Pinocchio is definitely, definitely going to scare somebody’s kids, but it’s way worse. Like since when does a kid’s movie deal with mortality out holism and effing Mussolini lm a i another leader bucks member Kevin cause your film and Mark audio Keo well,
GUILLERMO that that is one of the few that is one of the few films that we did watch with the production designers. I said I’m on record on Fellini, we should watch, we should watch because bad Middletown is very much Rimini or Remini. It is the size of the town of Pinocchio. But I think I think that and I’ve studied this very, very carefully through the decades. Fairytales need the darkness to be complete, in all and in fact, when people talk about this movie being being dark is no darker than the original Disney Pinocchio, which had one of the most terrifying transformation scenes and
GEMMA I mean donkeys, donkeys and cigars, you know, finished by nightmares for years. And I’m very, very pleased you went in a different direction,
GUILLERMO don’t get cigars, and if I’m not mistaken, beverages that look suspiciously intoxicating, even if they were not.
MIA Well, kind of continuing this. I also called it Porco. Rocchio, like for Corona. So I just, I mean, I really love and ire how you take these very heavy subjects like war and death, and you distill them just enough so that kids aren’t like, so alienated and terrified, but instead they learn how to cope. And this is a film for all ages, of course, but could you speak a little bit about how you went about making you know, like, fascist world war two era Italy, somewhat kid friendly? Well, we didn’t cry. I love that. That’s amazing.
MARK Hopefully, we’re not indoctrinating children into fascism. That wasn’t, that wasn’t our intent. That’s always but you know, I think trench ism in this film is this in the background, the war is just sort of a backdrop against which this happens. And we really don’t show the war, hardly at all. We show a bit of it, when we are in the training camp. But for the most part, that’s, you know, that’s it. And I because you don’t have to show something like everybody understands the stat. You know, it’s just another note that we’re playing in it. You know, this notion of fascism as a really awful version of a Paternal relationship is sort of what we were getting at with that, you know, this father figure in Mussolini, who wants everybody to obey and walk in lockstep, he essentially wants them to be puppets. He says, I like puppets. So he has very few lines, but he really spells it out right there.
GUILLERMO And the thing is the insidious thing, I mean, you’ll see the warring the horizon, or the distant plains. But then you’ll see it full fledged on the exercises of the kids in the training camp. I think that the political share of things that shape our world doesn’t need to be geographically close, like we are, we are all regimented by whoever governs, or countries or legislates our existence and dough into being real or not before the law. And we don’t have to be close to the White House to be affected by their policies. We don’t have to say that and fascism is even more insidious, because it actually permeates the thoughts of the people in your family in your hometown. You know, it shapes how you behave. And there are different forms of indoctrination. And many of them are sort of guarded by things that are also in our institutions that should be in but are not respectable. You know? So that's what the scary thing is like, or it can be the fact that you are told by adults how to behave and you realize with great horror as a kid that the adults are not not any wiser than you know that they just repeat.
MARK Yeah, and it's as though the world is presenting it with them with ideologies and not ideas. Yeah, that’s dangerous.
GEMMA And it’s also you know, something that occurred to me on the on last night’s rewatch is much like war and absence of women an absence of re in this Pinocchio and all the Pinocchios I guess And, you know, there’s, there’s, there’s there’s very different types of masculinity at play in this film. And I wondered if you’d speak a bit to that? Yeah,
GUILLERMO um, well, you know, even Frankenstein also has that these are creatures that are created by solids, man. No. And I think that’s, that’s why the maternal figure for us was death, death becomes the mother of Pinocchio, and teaches him to be human.
MARK Yeah, no, I was gonna say the irony is that the two most powerful characters in our film are both female, life and death. And as Karen was saying, we, we looked at the difference between them when he said, well, it feels like death is more nurturing, death cares, death engages with Pinocchio actually has a conversation with him, you know, and talks about what it’s what all of this means, whereas life just sort of shows up and you know, what’s bright, and she’s like, here, have you know, I have some life and good luck, and then she just disappears.
GUILLERMO But that is, that is true of the original Pinocchio and think me is a troll of the, of the meat of Frankenstein, the life creation is a spark. But ultimately, just give a few pointers. We are good boys, what is it to be a good boy? And that which is a completely original element that, for me, was the most intriguing thing I wanted to investigate was the dialogue between Pinocchio and death. That was one of the main reasons that I saw the movie as worth doing. And that’s an element when we were developing it originally with Grace Greenlee that, if that element was not there, and when I I said, Okay, um, we’re going to have the same basic ideas, but restart a project. That was the first thing that I wanted to vertebrate with the Pa kale, you know, I think is essential. And it may be too Mexican for some audiences, but we believe that best gives meaning to life.
GEMMA It’s also deeply catalogers, deeply pagan. You know, it’s so accessible Plus, you get the dead rabbits, which is a plus, in our opinion, that though
GUILLERMO those were those were there. When Grace was doing the, his version he brought them from the Columbia book. And then why Dave is redesigned them in this beautiful shape where they look like they’re wearing their own skin as a tuxedo
MIA you just brought up Pat McHale and and you’ve spoken about being a fan of his writing for Over the Garden Wall, which is a total masterpiece. It’s a letterbox favorite. It’s highly rewatched, every single fall. It’s got a whopping 4.6 Out of five star rating like one of our highest rated film slash mini series, I suppose. Could you tell us about how you knew that his writing voice would fit the Pinocchio story?
GUILLERMO Well, I saw Over the Garden Wall and I understood immediately that this is a guy that knows the anthropology of the fairytale, which is something I know very, very well. Not only I’ve been studying most of my adult life, I wrote TV episodes in Mexico that dealt with sort of this idea of the anthropology of the fate tale and how you could use it as a Jungian engine to tell stories, our childhoods that were darker. And when I saw Over the Garden Wall, I immediately knew this guy was using the forest in the way that is analyzed by Bruno Bettelheim, or younger Marietta tower or jagged sites, all the great guys that write about it, and that would be what would make us connect. But the thing I did not anticipate and it was a blessing is that we would also have differences. They would clash in a good way, and reshape the deal. You know, I think collaboration is great when you have things in common, but it’s even better when you have disagreements. And I think they’re very necessary for collaboration.
MARK I disagree.
GEMMA I was waiting for that And right on cue. On anthropology. You were the animation director for Fantastic Mr. Fox and you know from many other films as well. How, how did this experience come in handy in the creation of forex I’m Paul Christoph Waltz’s character, Volpe. And, you know, I mean, there’s, you know, the different kinds of Fox. But you know, there’s a lot of creatures through this, and you’ve used a lot of different stop motion construction approaches to all the different creatures, I’d love to hear you talk a bit about animating these creatures
MARK was every single one of them as a unique challenge. Obviously, based on their design, it’s really hard to make a 3d design that is going to hold up and it’s going to give you everything you want. Yeah, and it’s gonna last for the couple of years that you’re going to spend animating. But, you know, Lee, with every single one, you just start with the character of the way this is, you know, what’s their past? You know? How do they express themselves physically? How does that make them different from the other characters is its character older or younger, you know, so you just, you look at all those things. And then you, you know, you get really good character designers and, and you, you make cool designs. And then you go to the team that’s going to actually have to build these things. And then you collect samples of cloth, and, you know, just you do all this work, and it takes about a year or so to make a puppet. Yeah, there's all these details. i There’s a story I tell from when I was working on Fantastic Mr. Fox, where we were trying to get Mr. Fox’s, you know, his jacket material, the right kind of Jagga material, and we kept showing stuff to Wes. It went on for weeks, and weeks actually turned into months, we kept showing him samples, then somebody got the bright idea. They said, go to his tailor, get a sample of his suit. And we’ll show that to him. That’s what we did. And then it’s the one he approved. So Mr. Fox is essentially wearing the exact same, you know, outfit, as well. I think that only speaks to the fact that we’re all you know, we all express ourselves through these films and ways of May we don’t even realize and and, and in the best case scenario is this something yermo says all the time, all the artists on your project should be making self portraits, they should be able to look at the work that they’re doing and say, that reflects me. And it’s also the movie that I’m making with this whole team. So if you can get there. That’s a really great place to be with the artists. Yeah,
GEMMA I since I think that might have been my favorite part of the making of documentary on Netflix was the footage of the stop motion animators acting out what their characters were going to do. And I've actually worked with ants Alberty on a couple of projects, he’s one of them. And I’ve seen that in real time. And I've experienced in real time, the way that animators over time become so at one with their characters. It’s a beautiful thing. Well, a
MARK a lot of that stuff with Volpe coming down, you know, coming up to meet Pinocchio, and all going down the stairs and saying, Oh, the chocolate and all you know, that’s that’s all and he did a fantastic job with that sequence.
GUILLERMO I think if you watch the different, you know, gears and the different Japan does if you had the knowledge of seeing how each animator made a variation of the Pinocchio or the Geppetto is fascinating. They are. Some of them understood the violence or Malpais better than anyone. None. You think Mark?
MARK Yeah, yeah, that yarn in particular, was almost he was almost to get it at the really dark stuff right before he would explode. I mean, he could just make the hair crawl the back of your neck. He was
GUILLERMO is very scary, I would say.
MIA Yeah. Speaking of making a character your own I have to ask about Cate Blanchett as spaza Turo, I know you had such a great time filming nightmare alley that she said she would do anything for you. She’d play a pencil for you. So could you tell us both about directing Lydia Tarr to make monkey noises.
MARK It was funny you mentioned Lydia Tarr because we were doing some pickups for Spezza Torah in a studio in London. And so we were recording a spider tour and Kate’s in there just really great, really committed to it. It was doing a brilliant job. And then and then she immediately had to switch over to a session where she was doing pickup pickups for tar doing that character. So that's a pretty talented actress.
GUILLERMO Wait When we were leaving the recording booths. And then top sealed will be coming in to the regular for me at that there’s that there’s an old Warner Brothers are doing or the coyote is leaving. And I’m the Sheepdog coming in and having a good morning. Good Morning, America was like we were crossing each other. Good morning. Good morning.
MIA Oh, I’m so glad.
MARK We’re convinced that some of her tar performance might have leaked into the tour. Maybe the other way around as well. So
GUILLERMO the way you cast a movie is you try to cast essence. And the funny thing with gait is if you’re walking with her, everybody knows she’s sophisticated, precise, elegant. But she’s also raunchy and fun. An army of you know this, you understand how good of an IV I resorted to but and smother her. Her spirit animal is like, like, I never had a word with Chris of wolves. But I have been on a jury with him in Venice in the Venice Film Festival, for the entirety of the festival. And I thought, this guy will be perfect for this.
MIA I have one less question that I’m going to kick myself if I don’t ask. So Milo writes, The running gag about you and McGregor trying to get the chance to sing but never getting to is perfectly done, which I really related to because I’m always wanting you into singing movies, and he rarely gets the chance to, and I know that he requested to sing in the end credits of down with love, which is one of my favorite films ever. So I have to ask, Was his Pinocchio and credit song another request? Or did you always know that would be there?
GUILLERMO No, we originally planned it to be there. The killing of the Cricut came from the book from the you know, he does it to Kalani in the book. And we had it from the beginning. But what happened is the song at the end was in and then we ran out of budget and the song in the end was out. And then when we failed how powerful emotionally the ending was and how sort of devastating it was. And we said, You know what, it’s and it was very, very late in the process that we said, you know, why did we have to tighten our belts and pay for God? Cricket singing at the end because we need it. Yes. Or we will leave and go straight from the theater to therapy. You know, and and, and, and and it was and it also, it always may give sense to the fact that the cricket was narrating everything from the other side. And it sort of made it better.
GEMMA Exactly. You know what it reminded me of a little bit. And this leads me to our final letterbox review in question was Hugh grant's number at the end of Paddington to
GUILLERMO the Paddington movies. And I have a very weird relationship, because with Banach they do there is a sort of shape of water sequence where Sally has to swim in the water and rescue paddling the padding done one was in production when we were in pre production out of shape of water. I mean, it has an inundated bathroom. And both of them I mean, and Sally is sort of the messenger between the two. I think Dan do is a damn masterpiece
GEMMA Can we just hear GDT say one more time that thing he said about Pennington to
GUILLERMO is a masterpiece.
GEMMA Thank you slum my life is complete
BRIAN slim. Hold up. Can you drop when Cate Blanchett told me about what she’d like to see spots a tour to the monkey dude next?
I’d love to see spots on a tour, dubbing the film and I think that’d be really interesting.
GEMMA See, Brian, you just undercut our amazing moment with Guillermo and Mack by bringing Cate Blanchett to Rian Johnson and Jenny Slate patty. Honestly, I want to go to your after party where all the famous people are.
BRIAN Yeah, let’s let’s get this Hi, go and we’re talking to gearmotor Kate, let’s hit the next t shall we?
MIA Hell yeah, brother. Every award ceremony has that moment when you realize despite emerging from a darkened tent on the beach with dilated pupils that it’s only 4pm And there’s a little bit of daylight left to walk the Venice boardwalk until you can play a pickup basketball game for cash as a Wesley’s can’t jump ringer. Actually, only the Independent Spirit Awards have that moment. And that’s our afterparty.
BRIAN Yes, the best award show to attend the pop up tent on the beach that’s full of whiskey and stars. Via and slim will be on the red carpet this year. That’s right slim will emerge from the tape deck van sporting the fanciest duds he’s got a sweater.
GEMMA Letterboxd buddy.
BRIAN I kid I kid but a slim and I we’ve been dropping fashion links and slack I’ll be in the press conference area and Gemma, you’ll be in the tent. You’re gonna be in that tent that’s on the beach. State your excitement and expectations please
GEMMA I expect to be wearing a dress by a New Zealand designer Gloria Gloria Christine Crabb, thank you very much. And I hope and will be excited to just run into and hug my fellow country woman Melanie lynskey. Everything else is gravy. It’s
BRIAN yeah, I can’t wait. I can’t wait for you to be in. There’s so much fun. quick rundown of the spirits this year because it’s a little different. They'll be broadcast on IMDb, YouTube Live, as well as film independence, Twitter. And if you’re wondering about eligibility outside of the International category, the films must be made by an American production company or be a CO production with an American company. And the titles must come in under $30 million. Which sounds like a lot for indie films. But there are a bunch of nominated films that are much much much much smaller and this award show is their biggest stage.
MIA Thought we’d get into the indie spirit spirit by talking with Bruiser actor Trivanti Rhodes and first time filmmaker Miles Warren. Now Tremonti of course was on that Astra stage after la la land gave way to moonlight for best film, and his next award stage may well be in a tent on Santa Monica beach when the film Independent Spirit Awards are doled out on March 4, just days away from this recording.
BRIAN Yet sir Vontae is up for Best ing performance at this year’s nd spirits for his role as Porter in Bruiser Porter is a mysterious, charismatic drifter who befriends a 14 year old Darius order has some connection to Darius his family, which unleashes masculine insecurity and his stepfather played by Shamir Anderson. Darius, by the way is played by Jaylen Hall, who also played Emmett Till and last year’s till Bruiser was one of the buzziest smaller titles at a tiff last year, so much love for it on letterbox. We were excited to talk to these two. And Bruiser is available to watch right now, right now, right now on Hulu.
GEMMA I’m gonna go watch it while you talk to Trivanti in miles.
MIA So because this is an awards podcast, we ask all of our guests, what is the first award that you can winning?
MILES First word? Oh, I actually knew this when I was maybe 15. It was like a GoPro Film Festival contest. And I was like, she’s like the one camera I had, I guess. And of course, and, and it was, I think it was sponsored by a bike company. I don’t know. It was weird. So I made a whole short film on a GoPro that was judged by Elijah Wood. Yeah, it was very cool. And he chose my film to wait and then I want to go pal and a bike that I still have today. That’s really that’s for and then from then on. I was like, Okay, maybe I’m going to make a film. Maybe I’m at work first.
TREVANTE You know, I read track when I was younger, summer track always won and was deeply racist. So the first award I was given was about eight years old. Want to say you always want never a lot. And so College.
MIA Nice. TrackSTar Trevante
BRIAN terrazze. Keeping on the awards, Ben, you are nominated for an indie spirit this year. Congratulations. This is your first nomination there for yourself. But you did win the Altman award there before for moonlight for our listeners. So you’ve been to the ceremony kit for our listeners. Can you set up something like what makes this award show different and unique amongst the awards trail?
TREVANTE I think this was specifically because it is the indie Spirit Awards. It’s geared towards independent films when everything else there was a lot of other things in play, I guess, with the other things being as this maybe isn’t so convoluted, I would say.
MIA And festivals are super important to this process too. So one litter box member who attended the TIFF premiere, wrote, I literally made an just to talk about this film. I’m so excited right now I can’t even sleep. Maria wrote, If new and emerging directors like Myles Warren are showing up with these kinds of feature length directorial debuts the future of filmmaking is in good hands. So So miles this is your feature debut. It’s so exciting. Like how does this outpouring of love for your film feel?
MILES It’s I mean, it’s incredible. I can’t there’s no other way to describe it. I mean, I'm obsessed with letterbox accent so I’ve been on for a long time. And so I've very much seen these exact ones. And they’ve fueled they’ve, you know, fueled me, it’s just nice to see fans of film, engage with something you’ve made and do it on a platform that you’ve loved for a long time. And it just, it just feels really great and validating and I try not to let it validate me too much as an artist because I know there’s also going to be native stuff too. And you gotta take it all with a grain of salt but, but it just, you know, it’s, it’s lovely and I love that it letterbox keeps let you kind of have such so much access to the people who can appreciate your film like that, you know,
BRIAN which which hits you hits you more in your fields, Elijah Wood validation or letterbox validation.
MILES Honestly, the letterbox validation is unmatched. It's unparalleled because I know I just know the community and I know you know how it works. And so just to have people that I don’t know on the app, kind of saying nice things is really special
BRIAN and Trevante, you were not only the first person cast in Bruiser, but you also came on as a producer, what excited you most about the script as an actor but also pushed you to produce as well,
TREVANTE holistically was when it came to me. It was right before my son was born. So it really became this love letter, this gift to my son, above all things and then again, I have an opportunity to sit with Myles and just listen to him speak along with obviously reading his work. But just being able to hop in a space with somebody like that. It was great. And then I get to say, you know Jaylen Hall got to buck Jalen Hall play my son. And that’s like his own love that,
MIA Oh, yeah. Jaylen Hall is incredible. And he's having such a big year, like he’s leading performance here. And then he took on that immensely challenging role of Emmett Till, until like, he is absolutely a rising star and I read that you miles, you rewrote the character a little bit to accompany his personality. And I was wondering if both of you could kind of expand on that and tell us about working with this amazing, fresh new talent?
MILES Yeah, he’s, he’s really incredible. And yet Darius was kind of written a little more, I don’t know, maybe shy and reserved, I think and, and Jalen is not that at all, you know, he’s very confident. He’s very, very, very smart. And, you know, he knows, he emotionally is intelligent, too. And he knows what needs to be done in the scenes and what the movie is, you know, and he knows the movie hinges on his shoulders. And so once I started talking to him, I was just kind of so charmed by his personality, and how much he started to remind me almost of Porter, which was interesting. And so I, I realized, Oh, you can see kind of Porter in this kid and the way he’s just kind of effortlessly cool. And, and so I started to shape Darius around that and, and yeah, working with him was incredible. You know, he's one of those rare kinds of young talents, where he can help you, you ask him to do something, and he can do it effortlessly and perfectly. To the point sometimes where I would be like, Hey, you can make a mistake here, you can kind of scuffed this up, you know, and, and, and dig a little deeper and less, you know, surface and he would, he would really appreciate that he liked kind of me challenging him to make some mistakes also, because he’s asked, he’s just a kid, you know. And so that kind of working relationship, I think was really exciting. And really fun.
TREVANTE Sitting with Jalen and obviously getting me Jaylen, he is someone who I feel is very similar to myself. So when Miles was saying that his I guess relation of Porter, I felt that like he is related. I know who he is, as a young man I know he will be as a man. His relationship with His mother is very similar to my relationship with my mother. So I just, it was a blessing. Really cool to see from malapa is like another version of myself. Play was great.
BRIAN Something that really resonated with me with this film is kind of the second nature of over hearing about how your father was when he was younger. When I was Darius, his age, my dad was a football coach. And he coached with his old high school friends in New York. They would tell stories like, on a Friday, Saturday night, you’d want to cross the street if you saw them. And I’ve never thrown a punch in my my life and it but that always made me fit I know that that’s the more like righteous path but that always made me feel strange knowing this about my father and kind of less manly in some type of way much wiser now, but I’m curious if there was anyone that you guys drew from in writing and performing that maybe knowing about them when you were younger, kind of put your quote unquote manhood into question.
MILES I think for me, it was very much more so. The idea of humanizing your your parents in an interesting way, like finding out that As things are just and this isn’t even necessarily personal to me, it’s just something that I always find interesting in media is when, when a younger person finds out that their parent is ashamed of something, or, or has this sort of guilt, or just seeing it seeing a parent or disciplinary figure, feel embarrassed is like a really powerful thing as a kid. And so I just wanted to kind of find those moments.
MIA Yeah, and it’s, it’s very important for art to ask and depict these tough questions. And I’m curious as to how you handled portraying, you know, like, brutal spectacle with care and empathy for the characters, the actors and the audience all at once, while also not necessarily downplaying, like the seriousness of, of the violence
MILES It’s interesting, because the idea of kind of, for the movie came, like very, from the very beginning, sort of, from the idea of what Worldstar five videos kind of end up being and, and those videos like, don’t have very much care, you know, for the subjects involved. And in there, you know, obviously, shot and these kinds of wide frames, and comedy lives in the wide shot. So it always feels funnier than that probably actually is in the, in the moment. And I think that it's weird, it’s bizarre with these kinds of videos, because they are, they’re, they’re shared as comedy or like something that’s just crazy. And then, but there’s a series, there’s a real kind of tragedy to them. And so I kind of what I wanted to do was, film film, the beginning of some of these moments, these, these kinds of violent moments, and these wide angles, and not not, let’s not give too much space for the camera to move anywhere, just be very still. And then once everything starts to ramp up, kind of start to cut in, like very close and not hot, not live in like medium shots, but like, cut into the singles and isolate them. Especially at the fair, you know, it’s like, we have the wide shot, and then you cut into those singles and, and you you’ve once you’re in, you’re like, Okay, this is kind of escalating a little more, you know, and, and so I think, I think playing around with with being very extreme with the camera and kind of staying out and then only coming in, right when, right when the kind of conflict is ramped up to 10 You you kind of I don’t know, you kind of all of a sudden feel like you’re, you’re in it, and you’ve had you’ve been taking it for granted almost did that
MIA played into your decision to shoot it in for that four three aspect ratio? I really loved that.
MILES Yeah, yeah, I think that combined with obviously, it’s a movie about these men that kind of continuously, you know, make themselves feel trapped. And when the other exists in the other end, when they exist in each other’s life. They, they basically just can’t exist, while the other person for some reason is, is around and they, they, they’re they’re kind of space closes in on them in an interesting way. And so I want to capture that. I also really like the how much height, you know, I get on the frame and I can kind of dwarf them sometimes especially with the scene where Malcolm was giving his kind of unhedged hinge monologue about Porter’s past and you see a lot of the ceiling and a lot of the floor and and he almost he’s like this big, you know, he’s wide, but he’s kind of dwarfed by this, this house that he’s built. And so those kinds of moments I love for us to read because you get to see so much with what, but above and below and trapping these men.
MIA Perfect. Yeah, I also want to kind of get into your influences and talk about movies since this is for letterboxing, after all, so there’s there’s that? Well, there's that scene about Dr. Strangelove near the beginning that I really really have to ask about. So Porter’s hyping the film up to Darius, who kind of makes fun of him, and it’s a really charming moment. Could you tell us about why you selected Dr. Strangelove specifically, and if you love the movie, now is your chance to gush about it. No,
MILES yeah, I mean, Dr. Strangelove is obviously a classic. That’s one of my favorites. Growing up, I mainly chose it for the character, I think I think just Porter you know, being someone who served you know, served in the in the middle in the Air Force or military and, and has kind of dropped out of that life and just found it to be like, very exploitive and taken a part of him and it just seems like the type of movie that he would watch and you know, understand and kind of get so there is that and then also, I just loved the idea of of Porter explaining kind of mutually assured destruction to his his son in a movie where these you know, two men are about to basically kind of beat each other to oblivion, I think I thought was really interesting. And so, I mean, that’s why I chose it for the character and obviously I love the movie. And in of specific influences, you know, it’s it’s it started I think, with Charles Burnett’s Where the killer of sheep and, and to sleep with anger. You know, the idea of a stranger coming into the family unit and kind of that showing the seams of that unit. And you know, David Gordon Green’s George Washington kind of the the build very loose poetic stuff that like Terrence Malick had I also you know, Badlands is something that I showed for Vontae to look at Martin Sheen’s character just because of all the kind of posturing at the physical acting that that character does to, you know, bring, bring a younger kind of string, a younger character along on a journey was really interesting to me. So, so yeah, it was there was those are kind of the influences and then and then like, as the movie kind of turns into this thread that goes from this drama that’s in nature into this thriller, then we you know, a little bit of Night of the Hunter Cape Fear took inspo from and so, so yeah, it was it was kind of a whole hodgepodge of influences.
BRIAN Well off of that. Travon, say if you could recommend any movie to someone Darius his age that left a mark on you when you were younger? What would it be?
TREVANTE No, what man has to say hardball? Oh, no, what? I don’t know what No, actually, I’ll tell you exactly what it was one of the first films that my mother, my brother, and I all saw together in the theater, and the little boy who ed away in the film, his name was gee baby, or my little brother’s name is G. It is kind of like so I guess that’s probably not the film lesson. Except for this struck me in a way I think. But that’s the reason why it struck me.
MIA Perfect. Could you also, both of you speak about the importance of that Bruce Lee shirt. I love that Bruce Lee shirt, and you know, and the compliments that come from it. Because you could have picked anyone. So I’m curious about Bruce Lee specifically,
MILES if it was just like a specific pop culture reference that I found interesting. And that deepens the character. And I think it’s, I almost thought it was funny. Because I was like, I haven't been in, I've been my co writer and I, we kind of thought I, you know, maybe Porter hasn’t even really seen that many of his movies, but he’s just the iconography of it and just the energy of it. And he’s just that he has that shirt around and he’s like, learned how to kind of fight from the Bruce Lee school and he’s like been interested in that world and then just has that shirt and in the way he’s you know, talks about Bruce Lee in a very specific way was just I think it just an interesting character thing and in a way to like a visual thing to keep with Darius throughout the movie, because he, when he puts it on, he puts it on very specific moments in the film is kind of a connection thing. And so I thought it was just a nice visual reminder of of Porter throughout the movie,
BRIAN and Vontae since we’re talking about costumes, and miles already said Badlands, so I’m picturing that denim jacket. I have to ask you about that skeleton jacket. Yeah. How did that inform your character? Like, from that moment on to putting it on? Yeah, man,
TREVANTE he’s just such a badass and just that simple Porter is such a badass. That jacket just I think you just showed me that new like, this is this is poor. He just was one of those things that was that made him for me.
GEMMA Well, Letterboxd love surely is more important than receiving an award from a jury featuring Elijah Wood. We’ve made it love your leisure. We will see those nice gents at the beach at the indie Spirit Awards in a few days time. And once again Bruiser is on Hulu right now.
MIA It is starting to get insanely busy and many are getting burned out on awards. But not the youngsters since I’m an award season freshman. I want to highlight my class of fresh faces out there on the carpets. You hear a lot of jaded comments about awards around this time in February. But it’s so exciting to see Frankie choreo and all these New Kids on the Block having the times of their lives right now. So the youth are our Player of the Season nominees this week. Yeah, the youth. I believe children are the future.
BRIAN Kids Are All Right. The kids are right. This year at HCA. There are so many youths in the room with fancy mocktails at least I think they were mocktails who knew the Blackphone stars Mason themes, and Madeline McGraw didn’t know what to say on stage when they were accepting best horror film for the scary Ethan Hawke movie. They just both held the award and we’re just like, oh gosh, oh geez. Oh gosh. Thanks, Scott. It was cute. And Chloe East who is a letterbox member at a massive young talent who I think should have gotten as much award buzz as Judd Hirsch got for stealing scenes in the same movie The fable mints she was my favorite character. I loved her and this sheep. I forget her character’s name, but she’s the Jesus freak. And that's the quickest summaries to get.
GEMMA That’s freaking the fake woman’s Yes,
BRIAN she introduced Gabriel LaBelle, who was getting In a fresh face award, she introduced him like a pro. It’s so fun seeing the younger classmates revel in the moment. I did ask Gabrielle about that David Lynch scene, and he said he was trying to maintain the nerves of beating someone like him since he was playing John Ford. But David Lynch surprised him by hugging him on the first take to lighten the mood and it catches through everything I keep saying the word cute over and over and over meow take it away we got to me Sammy fable man.
MIA It’s true. It’s true. We did get to meet Sammy fable man Brian pulled me over into a conversation with him Gabriel Labelle and told him I lost my vape pen when we saw the fable mins thank you for that Brian
GEMMA seems like a fun story to tell the youth anyway. I I keep thinking about when when we talk about the the fresh faces on the thing I keep thinking about one of those gorgeous photos that came out of the batter’s which was all the young people Katherine clinch from the quiet girl and Frankie choreo and just so many of them sitting together with their ice creams so adorable. And speaking of which, Allah Kim our London need to take up Frankie CoreOS for faves at BAFTA which was adorable you can see it on our socials she mentioned Madeline’s movie The Blackphone as one of them and don’t worry darling as another it’s really lovely that we get these kids favorite movies because these kids are in and are going to be in so many of our favorite movies in the future. And plus also just eating ice creams and awards ceremonies is so much cooler than I don’t know, pocketing bottles of bourbon.
BRIAN Much more holistic, devious laugh they’re like
MIA I also I also want to add that these kits are cinephiles like when I was asking violet and Madeline McGraw about their four faves. Madeline was saying she was saying 12 Angry Men like the original And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient expresses and then both sisters said knives out which was very sweet. Oh, yes, the children are a future as I said before. They’re all right. The Kids Are Alright, starring Julianne Moore and Annette Bening
GEMMA and, and Mark Ruffalo. Sorry,
MIA yes, and Mark Ruffalo and Mia Wasikowska, and let’s just miss the entire cast right here.
BRIAN I forgot that was the movie. I was just saying WHO out, that’s how old I am.
GEMMA Well, I can’t wait to be a fresh face on the scene at the end of the Spirit Awards later this week. Brian, thank you so much for using your insider credentials and getting us in there. I simply am purely cannot wait to see our slim in a suit
MIA in a suit. That’s high hopes, that is, those are very high hopes that we’ll see him in a suit. He was asking me if he should tuck in his shirt.
GEMMA Slim didn't edit it. That’s better. Leave it in.
[theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
MIA Thanks so much for listening to Best in Show, a limited awards season series brought to you by The Letterboxd Show. We would love for you to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and we’d also love to see your reviews of the films you’re cramming in before the Oscars. Be sure to include the tag Best in Show!
GEMMA You can follow all of us and our HQ page on Letterboxd using the links in that episode notes. Thanks to our crew: Jack for the facts, Slim for making us sound amazing and tucking in his shirt. Sophie Shin for the episode transcript and Letterboxd member Trent Walton for the music and to you for listening.
BRIAN Whether we like it or not, we are all connected sharing space and time when we finally choose to embrace that connection to show comion towards one another. We will rise together. I truly believe that cinema has the power to help us achieve that. Okay, this is an ission, that was Alfonso Cuarón accepting Best Film at the 2019’s BAFTAs for Roma. And this is my correction from last week’s episode that there have now been eleven films not in the English language to win Best Film, not ten. Roma is the only non-European one.
GEMMA And Roma is also the film that makes Slim cry the most, so he’s weeping in the tape deck van.
MIA Weeping in his untucked shirt.
BRIAN He has to untuck his shirt to wipe away his tears. Best in Show a Tapedeck production.
[Tapedeck bumper plays] This is a Tapedeck podcast.