When does watching a movie become something we feel like we have to document?
Krloz sits down with Chris Higgins, AKA Bearded Film Guy, for a conversation about Letterboxd, movie discovery, ratings, film culture, and the increasingly complicated relationship between watching movies and creating content about them.
We start with Chris's podcast Beyond the Blood, a show built around using physical-media audio commentaries as the starting point for deeper conversations about genre films. From there, the conversation moves into Letterboxd and the pressure that can come with logging, rating, reviewing, and comparing your movie-watching habits to everyone else's.
Chris talks about why he had to rethink the way he uses Letterboxd, how ratings can affect the way we actually experience a movie, and why having a different opinion from the crowd shouldn't turn into a fight.
We also dig into “contentification” — the idea that movies can become content to be consumed, ranked, reviewed, posted, and monetized rather than simply experienced. Where does genuine film discussion end and content creation begin? And what happens when social media incentives start influencing how we talk about movies?
Physical media naturally enters the conversation through movie discovery, ownership, bonus features, and the idea that learning more about a film can completely change how you see it.
In this episode:
- Chris Higgins and the origins of Beyond the Blood
- Why audio commentaries can change how you experience a movie
- Letterboxd and the pressure to constantly log and rate
- When movie watching starts feeling like a competition
- Rating movies vs. simply enjoying them
- The pressure to agree with popular opinion
- Film criticism, disagreement, and having your own perspective
- The “contentification” of movies
- Social media, movie influencers, and authenticity
- When physical media can lead to deeper movie discovery
- Why bonus features and film history matter
- Chris's Letterboxd Top Four and the movies he owns physically
- SCREAM AT 30: Scream, Letterboxd, ratings, reputation, and the horror canon
Follow Chris: @beardedfilmguy
Listen to Beyond the Blood.
Listen to the episode "Short Night of Glass Dolls''
Follow Steve: @afterhoursvideo
Follow or subscribe to The Physical Cut.
Check out KRPodLab.com and support our little show by buying us a coffee.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:04 Ooh, that's a lot of money. That's a whole lot
00:00:04 --> 00:00:05 of money. There's some criterion titles and I
00:00:05 --> 00:00:19 struggle to pay 20 bucks for it. Welcome back
00:00:19 --> 00:00:21 to the physical cut where films live beyond the
00:00:21 --> 00:00:24 stream. My name is Carlos. And today I am so
00:00:24 --> 00:00:28 excited. I am talking to the one, the only. Mr.
00:00:28 --> 00:00:32 Chris Higgins, aka Bearded Film Guy. Mr. Higgins,
00:00:33 --> 00:00:35 how are you tonight? I'm fantastic, man. How
00:00:35 --> 00:00:38 are you? I'm good. Thank you so much for being
00:00:38 --> 00:00:40 here. This is a conversation I've been... I had
00:00:40 --> 00:00:42 a conversation, Brendan. We started kind of going
00:00:42 --> 00:00:45 back and forth, and I've been kind of stalking
00:00:45 --> 00:00:47 you to be on the podcast since I mentioned to
00:00:47 --> 00:00:52 you about how I feel with Letterboxd and my thoughts
00:00:52 --> 00:01:10 behind Letterboxd. Before we talk about Letterboxd,
00:01:10 --> 00:01:12 I have a few questions for you because you don't
00:01:12 --> 00:01:16 only collect movies, you are also host of the
00:01:16 --> 00:01:20 Beyond the Blood podcast. Yeah, yeah. First of
00:01:20 --> 00:01:21 all, thank you for having me, dude. This is something
00:01:21 --> 00:01:23 I've been looking forward to since we talked
00:01:23 --> 00:01:27 about this. Feels like ages ago now that we talked
00:01:27 --> 00:01:29 about doing this. Yeah, so Beyond the Blood,
00:01:29 --> 00:01:33 it's a podcast where we discuss genre films using
00:01:33 --> 00:01:37 their audio commentaries as... our discussion
00:01:37 --> 00:01:40 platform. So essentially, Steve and I, my co
00:01:40 --> 00:01:44 -host, we dive basically headfirst into a movie.
00:01:44 --> 00:01:47 We dissect any of the audio commentaries on the
00:01:47 --> 00:01:50 physical media releases available. And then we
00:01:50 --> 00:01:52 use what we learned from that to then turn it
00:01:52 --> 00:01:57 into a discussion. And it's been a year and a
00:01:57 --> 00:02:01 half so far since we started the show. And it's
00:02:01 --> 00:02:04 pretty incredible kind of the... The life it's
00:02:04 --> 00:02:06 taken on, it was something that I didn't have
00:02:06 --> 00:02:09 much confidence in because I felt like people
00:02:09 --> 00:02:11 don't listen to audio commentaries. So who's
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 going to listen to a podcast about audio commentaries?
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 We just kept going and kept trying to grow it
00:02:16 --> 00:02:20 and kept pushing and found an audience. Now,
00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 we kind of hear all the time that people are
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 listening to the show and listening to audio
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 commentaries for the first time. So if that's
00:02:26 --> 00:02:27 the little difference we can make, then that's
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 all I can ask for at this point. No, I agree.
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 It's a total different premise because you do
00:02:31 --> 00:02:34 have people where these podcasts are solely focused
00:02:34 --> 00:02:39 on reviewing the film, but taking the pathway
00:02:39 --> 00:02:44 of using the commentary as the starter of the
00:02:44 --> 00:02:46 conversation for the episodes, for the podcast.
00:02:47 --> 00:02:49 That's a pretty interesting concept. What is
00:02:49 --> 00:02:52 the idea generally? Because I know you're a collector,
00:02:52 --> 00:02:56 and I know that you probably deep dive, not just
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 for the podcast, I'm pretty sure for fun, because
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 I don't think this is a job for you necessarily.
00:03:00 --> 00:03:01 I feel like you're one of the people that actually
00:03:01 --> 00:03:05 takes the whole package. I'm talking about the
00:03:05 --> 00:03:09 physical release itself as a whole, not necessarily
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 as that, I'm just going to pop this movie, which
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 I tend to do. I tend to just pop the movies.
00:03:13 --> 00:03:15 You know, I've said it before, I really don't.
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 Not all movies, maybe the ones that I really
00:03:17 --> 00:03:21 do love. I try to do a deep dive. But when it's
00:03:21 --> 00:03:24 like a regular release and stuff like that, at
00:03:24 --> 00:03:26 least you not just having the podcast, but you
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 as yourself, I feel like you're probably used
00:03:29 --> 00:03:32 to already educating yourself through those audio
00:03:32 --> 00:03:35 commentaries, which I can't really sit down and
00:03:35 --> 00:03:38 watch an audio commentary. It's not for everybody.
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 And it took me a long time to like really get
00:03:40 --> 00:03:44 into them. I'm somebody who like. Like, I'm a
00:03:44 --> 00:03:46 bit of an obsessor. I love learning about movies.
00:03:46 --> 00:03:49 And I actually started getting into when I was
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 young and I started collecting DVDs, I started
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53 getting into more of the bonus features than
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 almost the movie itself, because I was lucky
00:03:56 --> 00:03:58 enough that I grew up with VHS tapes. But then
00:03:58 --> 00:04:01 when things moved into DVD and the bonus features
00:04:01 --> 00:04:04 became available, I was just somebody who wanted
00:04:04 --> 00:04:07 to learn everything and anything that I can,
00:04:07 --> 00:04:11 basically. And the show was kind of like I had
00:04:11 --> 00:04:15 done YouTube for a while. I did the whole want
00:04:15 --> 00:04:18 to try to be a YouTuber thing. And it didn't
00:04:18 --> 00:04:21 really feel like fulfilling. It just kind of
00:04:21 --> 00:04:24 felt like you're trying to chase an algorithm.
00:04:25 --> 00:04:27 You're trying to get yourself out there. And
00:04:27 --> 00:04:30 it's like people don't at that point in time,
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 people didn't like long form content. They wanted
00:04:33 --> 00:04:36 stuff that was short. TikTok was. kind of re
00:04:36 --> 00:04:39 -bringing back short form content. And that's
00:04:39 --> 00:04:42 just not what I was into. And I remember kind
00:04:42 --> 00:04:45 of being like, does nobody want to talk about
00:04:45 --> 00:04:47 movies anymore? We just want to talk about like
00:04:47 --> 00:04:52 packaging or be like, so I left that space and
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 I was talking to my wife one night and I was
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 like, I need a, some sort of platform to do this
00:04:57 --> 00:05:02 in a way that's not restricting that will cater
00:05:02 --> 00:05:06 to an audience that. my type of discussion would
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 want to tune in on and I've always been a huge
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 podcast listener like yourself I listen to a
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 ton of podcasts and just thought I'll start a
00:05:14 --> 00:05:19 podcast and then I didn't know on what and I
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 started kind of playing around with ideas and
00:05:21 --> 00:05:25 I think just one day I was like I forget who
00:05:25 --> 00:05:26 I was talking to I was talking to somebody and
00:05:26 --> 00:05:28 I was like I reached out and I was like hey would
00:05:28 --> 00:05:34 you ever listen to a podcast that talks about
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 what people learn in audio commentaries. And
00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 the reply that I got was, yes, because I don't
00:05:40 --> 00:05:44 like audio commentaries. You do that job. I was
00:05:44 --> 00:05:47 like, OK, yeah, basically, like, I'll do it for
00:05:47 --> 00:05:48 you. So just started playing around with the
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 idea. And I started with my friend Chuck. He
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53 was on with me for the first, I think, five or
00:05:53 --> 00:05:58 six episodes before Steve joined. And like I
00:05:58 --> 00:06:01 said before, it just kind of started. gaining
00:06:01 --> 00:06:05 an audience and started growing and then we were
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 lucky enough to start working with some labels
00:06:07 --> 00:06:11 and then you start noticing that you begin to
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 you begin to kind of take on a bit of a responsibility
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 of just continuously trying to educate and talk
00:06:17 --> 00:06:21 about movies in a way that is more of a more
00:06:21 --> 00:06:25 educational than it is just strictly like surface
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 level discussion Yeah, that is your philosophy
00:06:28 --> 00:06:32 for the podcast that you guys put. And it's actually
00:06:32 --> 00:06:34 on your Instagram as well. You're very laser
00:06:34 --> 00:06:37 focused on the fact that physical media is education.
00:06:37 --> 00:06:41 That's like your logo, registered trademark.
00:06:41 --> 00:06:44 What does that necessarily mean to you? Like
00:06:44 --> 00:06:47 that physical media is education, not just for
00:06:47 --> 00:06:51 the aspects of audio commentaries, but just in
00:06:51 --> 00:06:54 general. I mean, it depends on like there's different
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 type of movie watchers. Some people just like
00:06:56 --> 00:06:58 to watch a movie and never touch a bonus feature.
00:06:59 --> 00:07:01 Then people like myself, people like you, people
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 like listeners of both your show and my show,
00:07:03 --> 00:07:07 they like to take it further. And to me, if you
00:07:07 --> 00:07:09 love something, I think that you should learn
00:07:09 --> 00:07:13 everything that you can about it. Like really
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 dive in. And if you're somebody with that kind
00:07:15 --> 00:07:17 of mentality, then physical media kind of gives
00:07:17 --> 00:07:21 you the perfect. ability to do that because you
00:07:21 --> 00:07:23 have ownership with the media, meaning I own
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 the film that I love, which is the most important
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 part, right? I own the movie. But then you can
00:07:29 --> 00:07:31 sit down and watch an interview with the director
00:07:31 --> 00:07:34 and learn about all the different things that
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 happened that led to making the movie possible.
00:07:37 --> 00:07:38 And then you can watch an interview with the
00:07:38 --> 00:07:41 editor and learn about what was removed or what
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 was changed. And then you can watch a documentary
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 and learn even more. Then what happens is when
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49 you go back to the movie after all that, Three
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 months later, you put the movie and you notice
00:07:51 --> 00:07:53 things you never did before or you pick up on
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 things that you never saw the last time and you're
00:07:56 --> 00:08:00 learning. And it doesn't mean you have to hold
00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 on because people always I get messages all the
00:08:02 --> 00:08:05 time that are like, I don't see the importance
00:08:05 --> 00:08:08 in bonus features. Why am I going to do that?
00:08:08 --> 00:08:09 I'm never going to talk about this movie again.
00:08:09 --> 00:08:12 And it's not a it's not about regurgitating the
00:08:12 --> 00:08:14 information, but it's about watching a movie
00:08:14 --> 00:08:18 and. garnering a new appreciation for it coming
00:08:18 --> 00:08:21 from the people who put in the work to give you
00:08:21 --> 00:08:26 the product that to me is what's behind physical
00:08:26 --> 00:08:29 media is education yeah i i agree again sometimes
00:08:29 --> 00:08:32 a good movie and it does suck because sometimes
00:08:32 --> 00:08:35 when i'm really enjoying a film i go and i'm
00:08:35 --> 00:08:38 like the one time i'm i'm actually eager to watch
00:08:38 --> 00:08:40 and not just an audio commentary but just like
00:08:40 --> 00:08:42 bonus features They're not there. And I was like,
00:08:42 --> 00:08:46 God damn. The one time I really want them, they're
00:08:46 --> 00:08:49 not there. That's why some of the DVDs that I've
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 been going through, older DVDs, they have some
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 of the makings, they have behind the scenes.
00:08:55 --> 00:08:57 And then when they're transferred to Blu -ray
00:08:57 --> 00:09:00 or 4K, you kind of lose that. And it's like,
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 damn, I thought the upper was going to give me
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 a little bit more. Especially like now, not to
00:09:04 --> 00:09:07 be a Debbie Downer, to bring the conversation
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 to a sad place, but we've been having people.
00:09:11 --> 00:09:14 like Michelle Traschenberg and Hayden just recently
00:09:14 --> 00:09:18 who passed. And you're kind of like, you want
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 to have that behind the scenes now where you
00:09:20 --> 00:09:24 want to go in and kind of remember them a different
00:09:24 --> 00:09:27 way from the movie, like how they're making the
00:09:27 --> 00:09:29 movie, how they were part of the crew and all
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 that kind of stuff. You want to keep that memory
00:09:31 --> 00:09:33 alive now. And it's like, it's not there. That's
00:09:33 --> 00:09:36 just an example of it, not to be dramatic about
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 it. But yeah, I feel like sometimes I really
00:09:38 --> 00:09:40 want to go and then I can't find them. I want
00:09:40 --> 00:09:43 to know how it was made, how much money was behind
00:09:43 --> 00:09:45 it. Who was the original actor that was thought
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 about or who wrote it? What was the writing process
00:09:47 --> 00:09:50 for this? And that's usually the one that I go
00:09:50 --> 00:09:54 to, like the writing process behind a film. Yeah,
00:09:54 --> 00:09:58 the actor ones are actually the ones I least
00:09:58 --> 00:10:00 like get interested in. Like anytime I'm going
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 through a disc and I'm going through interviews,
00:10:02 --> 00:10:04 I always kind of hesitate at the actors ones
00:10:04 --> 00:10:09 because. I'm like not really as interested in
00:10:09 --> 00:10:12 your career as an actor as I am the career of
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 the cinematographer or the writer or the producers.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:17 And I still watch them and I find a certain level
00:10:17 --> 00:10:21 of enjoyment in them. But for example, we just
00:10:21 --> 00:10:24 covered on the show a shallow film from 1971
00:10:24 --> 00:10:27 called Short Night of the Glass Dolls. And it's
00:10:27 --> 00:10:30 one of my favorite. Italian films ever made.
00:10:30 --> 00:10:33 And on that disc from Celluloid Dreams, there's
00:10:33 --> 00:10:36 an hour and a half long interview with Aldo Lotto,
00:10:36 --> 00:10:42 the director, that was probably the most magnetic
00:10:42 --> 00:10:45 discussion I've ever watched in my life. I was
00:10:45 --> 00:10:49 pinned to the screen watching this. And he went
00:10:49 --> 00:10:53 on about the political side of the film, some
00:10:53 --> 00:10:55 of the illegal stuff that they did to make the
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 movie. Some little details that they put in.
00:10:58 --> 00:11:00 He was giving credit to the editor for certain
00:11:00 --> 00:11:03 tricks, giving credit to this person for tricks.
00:11:04 --> 00:11:07 And the night before the show, I was like, I
00:11:07 --> 00:11:08 got to watch the movie one more time without
00:11:08 --> 00:11:10 anything, with no commentary, nothing. Let me
00:11:10 --> 00:11:13 just watch the movie. And it was kind of like,
00:11:13 --> 00:11:15 it went like this for me. It was a movie that
00:11:15 --> 00:11:18 I loved that just accelerated because I'm thinking
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 like, oh man, they shot all these scenes in Prague
00:11:20 --> 00:11:23 illegally. by saying they were a short film crew.
00:11:23 --> 00:11:26 And then I get to these quick flashback sequences
00:11:26 --> 00:11:28 and I'm like, wow, look at what the editor was
00:11:28 --> 00:11:30 able to do. Look at the tension this builds.
00:11:30 --> 00:11:32 Look what this brings. And I was able to look
00:11:32 --> 00:11:35 at it in a whole different light. And now my
00:11:35 --> 00:11:37 view on that movie has completely changed. It
00:11:37 --> 00:11:38 went from a movie that was like, yeah, I own
00:11:38 --> 00:11:40 that and I like that to a movie that I'm like,
00:11:40 --> 00:11:43 this is a standout of my collection. And all
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45 I did was invest a little bit of time into really
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 good bonus materials and it completely changed
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 it for me. Yeah, I feel like sometimes, again,
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52 sometimes from my point of view, I'm more of
00:11:52 --> 00:11:57 a package kind of person. But if I really do
00:11:57 --> 00:11:59 love the movie and you give me all these bonus
00:11:59 --> 00:12:01 features and stuff like that, I keep talking
00:12:01 --> 00:12:03 about the John Waters that Criterion released.
00:12:04 --> 00:12:06 But that's because he's one of my favorite directors.
00:12:06 --> 00:12:08 So I can sit down and watch him, you know, talk
00:12:08 --> 00:12:11 about movies for hours or listen to him talk
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 about movies for hours and I don't get bored.
00:12:14 --> 00:12:16 But there are sometimes, you know, I do like
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 at least movies that are from like 1930s, 1940s,
00:12:19 --> 00:12:23 because we don't have too much history or audio
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 commentaries from the original directors who
00:12:26 --> 00:12:30 passed decades ago, or even the actors who passed
00:12:30 --> 00:12:33 decades ago. And sometimes when you have historians
00:12:33 --> 00:12:37 or people who somehow pass an oral history of
00:12:37 --> 00:12:40 what happened, it does kind of make the movie
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 a little bit more interesting right now. The
00:12:43 --> 00:12:45 one that I keep going back to that I kind of
00:12:45 --> 00:12:49 want to focus on and go a deep dive into the
00:12:49 --> 00:12:52 films, into the specials, the criteria and specials
00:12:52 --> 00:12:55 is Ernst, the director from To Be or Not To Be,
00:12:55 --> 00:12:58 The Sign of Living, Trouble in Paradise. And
00:12:58 --> 00:12:59 I want to go through those, do a little deep
00:12:59 --> 00:13:03 dive because I really loved every single movie
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06 that I've seen from him. And I now want to know
00:13:06 --> 00:13:08 the history behind all this because I feel like
00:13:08 --> 00:13:11 The Sign for Living is a very risque movie. And
00:13:11 --> 00:13:15 this is... way pre -code, like way pre -code.
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17 I'm like, it's a very risque movie. And I was
00:13:17 --> 00:13:20 like, I want to know how that movie was done
00:13:20 --> 00:13:22 or how did that movie get done in that time?
00:13:23 --> 00:13:26 And what was the thought behind all that? More
00:13:26 --> 00:13:29 importantly, how it was received. And Trouble
00:13:29 --> 00:13:32 in Paradise is no less risque than that one.
00:13:32 --> 00:13:35 And to be or not to be is also not, that's not
00:13:35 --> 00:13:39 very risque because you have this troupe of theater
00:13:39 --> 00:13:43 actors who want to go kill Hitler. So it's like,
00:13:43 --> 00:13:45 and during the time that the war is happening,
00:13:45 --> 00:13:49 in 1940s, so it's like 1930s, I believe, before
00:13:49 --> 00:13:54 we went into a full -blown war, to sit down and
00:13:54 --> 00:13:57 listen to... The history behind that movie is
00:13:57 --> 00:13:59 something that I have to really take a whole
00:13:59 --> 00:14:01 day off and be rested because sometimes these
00:14:01 --> 00:14:03 things could get a little either pedantic or
00:14:03 --> 00:14:06 too long. You're just going to start dozing off.
00:14:06 --> 00:14:08 So, yeah, that's like you said that sometimes
00:14:08 --> 00:14:11 it does make the film better. And I feel like
00:14:11 --> 00:14:14 a great audio commentary or at least like a great
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16 documentary behind the film. It gives me a little
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 bit higher rating for the film itself. You said
00:14:19 --> 00:14:21 something really important there, too, which
00:14:21 --> 00:14:24 is that. film historians kind of keep the conversation
00:14:24 --> 00:14:28 going. There's a moment in that episode for Short
00:14:28 --> 00:14:31 Night of Glass Dolls where Otto Lotto gets brought
00:14:31 --> 00:14:34 up, a scene gets asked by the moderator for him,
00:14:34 --> 00:14:35 and he actually says, like, I don't even remember
00:14:35 --> 00:14:39 shooting this. And Steve and I have a brief discussion
00:14:39 --> 00:14:43 where it's like, this is why film analysis and
00:14:43 --> 00:14:47 film historians... And and people who were involved
00:14:47 --> 00:14:49 in making bonus features are important because
00:14:49 --> 00:14:52 the discussions need to continue. And art is
00:14:52 --> 00:14:56 interpretive, meaning 200 years after a movie
00:14:56 --> 00:14:58 is made, you can still interpret it and keep
00:14:58 --> 00:15:00 a conversation going depending on perspective
00:15:00 --> 00:15:04 and background or viewpoint. Or this is why people
00:15:04 --> 00:15:06 say, like, oh, we've learned everything we know
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 about a movie. And it's like, no, we might have
00:15:09 --> 00:15:12 up until this point, until somebody. watches
00:15:12 --> 00:15:15 it, sees something new and reignites a new conversation.
00:15:16 --> 00:15:19 That's the importance of it. That's why we continue.
00:15:19 --> 00:15:21 That's why people still continue to go and see
00:15:21 --> 00:15:22 the Mona Lisa and why it's been interpreted.
00:15:23 --> 00:15:25 The meaning has been interpreted over and over.
00:15:25 --> 00:15:27 You can walk in that museum today and come up
00:15:27 --> 00:15:29 with a new interpretation, put it out on the
00:15:29 --> 00:15:31 internet, and it could spark a whole new conversation.
00:15:31 --> 00:15:35 All of a sudden, it's as relevant as ever before.
00:15:35 --> 00:15:38 That's what art is, and that's the process it's
00:15:38 --> 00:15:39 supposed to go through over and over and over
00:15:39 --> 00:15:42 again. Yeah, one time the Mona Lisa was a man,
00:15:42 --> 00:15:44 apparently. What you said about when we talk
00:15:44 --> 00:15:46 right now, going back to the historian part,
00:15:46 --> 00:15:49 I don't know if you, I'm pretty sure you did,
00:15:49 --> 00:15:53 but the upcoming... highly anticipated kubrick
00:15:53 --> 00:15:56 box they went through a lot of his files that
00:15:56 --> 00:15:58 they never gone through before so you know my
00:15:58 --> 00:16:03 ass is gonna be sacked on that sofa so but i
00:16:03 --> 00:16:06 am gonna be sitting there for at least a week
00:16:06 --> 00:16:09 just going through all those bonus features because
00:16:09 --> 00:16:12 he is one of my favorite he is the goat and i
00:16:12 --> 00:16:14 don't care what people say about him so i don't
00:16:14 --> 00:16:16 really don't give a shit about people's opinions
00:16:16 --> 00:16:18 but when it comes to him when it comes to him
00:16:18 --> 00:16:22 because i always separate the the art from the
00:16:22 --> 00:16:25 artists. But to me, it hasn't been a situation
00:16:25 --> 00:16:27 where I have to really like, you know, maybe
00:16:27 --> 00:16:30 the Shelly Duvall part where he was a little
00:16:30 --> 00:16:33 bit tough on her when it came to The Shining.
00:16:33 --> 00:16:36 Maybe that part really does hurt a little bit.
00:16:36 --> 00:16:39 But besides that, I'm like, he is a master at
00:16:39 --> 00:16:42 what he does. And I can't wait for that box set.
00:16:42 --> 00:16:44 I can't wait for that box. I'm pretty sure if
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 it sells out, I'm going to be really pissed because
00:16:46 --> 00:16:49 I already pre -ordered it twice. It's a little
00:16:49 --> 00:16:51 too expensive for my blood right now, but during
00:16:51 --> 00:16:54 one of those half -offs, I'm definitely... Wait,
00:16:54 --> 00:16:57 before. It comes out the week before the 50%.
00:16:57 --> 00:17:00 In June, the penultimate week of June almost,
00:17:00 --> 00:17:04 and it ended the week before it was supposed
00:17:04 --> 00:17:06 to end, so I'm hoping that at least in October,
00:17:07 --> 00:17:09 the last week of October when it comes out, I
00:17:09 --> 00:17:13 hope the 50 % off hits then because in that case,
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 I don't have to return the Amazon one, but...
00:17:15 --> 00:17:17 Because I'm going with Barnes & Noble. $300,
00:17:17 --> 00:17:21 that gives me at least $15 back when it comes
00:17:21 --> 00:17:24 to the points. I would say half off for that,
00:17:24 --> 00:17:27 that's what, $300? It's like $300. Yeah, it's
00:17:27 --> 00:17:33 like $300 half off. That's a lot of money. That's
00:17:33 --> 00:17:35 a whole lot of money. There's some criterion
00:17:35 --> 00:17:39 titles I struggle to pay $20 for. Yeah, it is
00:17:39 --> 00:17:41 true. Going back to Beyond the Blood. How did
00:17:41 --> 00:17:45 Beyond the Blood... evolve ever since you started?
00:17:45 --> 00:17:48 How has it taken its shape and form throughout?
00:17:48 --> 00:17:52 The episodes were really bad, man. Like I usually
00:17:52 --> 00:17:53 will talk to people who are like, oh, I'm going
00:17:53 --> 00:17:55 to go back and listen to the first episode. And
00:17:55 --> 00:17:57 I try to tell them not to. Anytime you start
00:17:57 --> 00:17:59 anything new, it's hard, right? And you're really
00:17:59 --> 00:18:02 bad at it. And as you keep doing it, you get
00:18:02 --> 00:18:04 better and you get better and you get better.
00:18:04 --> 00:18:08 Really, I think like we just had to find a flow.
00:18:09 --> 00:18:11 and find out how to really put our personalities
00:18:11 --> 00:18:14 into it the best that we can. It's like, how
00:18:14 --> 00:18:17 do you talk about the most deep analytical perspectives
00:18:17 --> 00:18:20 on something without sounding like a professor
00:18:20 --> 00:18:23 standing in front of a class, put everybody to
00:18:23 --> 00:18:26 sleep? So we had to find a way to do it that
00:18:26 --> 00:18:28 way, which those main episodes can get a little
00:18:28 --> 00:18:31 deep. But I think once we split off and we started
00:18:31 --> 00:18:36 doing staff picks and after hours and kind of
00:18:36 --> 00:18:39 getting more. I hate to say the word, but like
00:18:39 --> 00:18:41 content out there, more episodes out on a more
00:18:41 --> 00:18:43 frequent basis that aren't exactly the deepest
00:18:43 --> 00:18:47 of dives. That really kind of loosened us up
00:18:47 --> 00:18:49 because we weren't spending every single week
00:18:49 --> 00:18:53 like diving into something new. It becomes really
00:18:53 --> 00:18:55 exhausting. It's like, imagine always being in
00:18:55 --> 00:18:59 research phase. Just week after week after week,
00:18:59 --> 00:19:01 you just start getting burned out. Yeah, well,
00:19:01 --> 00:19:07 that's the difference between you and AI. I just
00:19:07 --> 00:19:11 smack myself every time I see content creators
00:19:11 --> 00:19:14 and podcasters that say, yeah, I just go to AI
00:19:14 --> 00:19:17 and do the research there. And I'm like, but
00:19:17 --> 00:19:18 I don't think you're going to come up with the
00:19:18 --> 00:19:21 same questions that if you're watching the movie
00:19:21 --> 00:19:24 and you're taking notes as you go. And then,
00:19:24 --> 00:19:26 like I said, and I mentioned before, like sometimes
00:19:26 --> 00:19:28 I'm at work and I'm taking notes. on my little
00:19:28 --> 00:19:31 notepad on my phone. And when I'm out of work,
00:19:31 --> 00:19:33 I'm like, what the fuck did I write? Like, again,
00:19:33 --> 00:19:35 like I said, if I'm going to be talking to you
00:19:35 --> 00:19:39 who has a Beyond the Blood podcast, I want to
00:19:39 --> 00:19:41 know about that. I want to listen to the podcast.
00:19:42 --> 00:19:44 I want to have questions for you about the podcast
00:19:44 --> 00:19:46 because it sounded like an interesting premise.
00:19:46 --> 00:19:50 So I want to go off of that. And how am I supposed
00:19:50 --> 00:19:52 to tell AI like, hey, I'm talking to Beyond the
00:19:52 --> 00:19:55 Blood podcast. How can I tackle that? No, they're
00:19:55 --> 00:19:57 not going to know because they're not listening
00:19:57 --> 00:20:00 to the episodes. It doesn't know how you, how
00:20:00 --> 00:20:02 your conversations flow, the goal of the conversations.
00:20:03 --> 00:20:06 And when I hear people saying that they just
00:20:06 --> 00:20:09 go to AI or chat GPT and they're like, yeah,
00:20:09 --> 00:20:11 this is what I'm going to talk about. You can
00:20:11 --> 00:20:13 do the outline, put it there. So it's organized
00:20:13 --> 00:20:15 nice and well, I won't criticize you for that.
00:20:15 --> 00:20:18 Cause I do that. Like my thoughts are all over
00:20:18 --> 00:20:21 the place, organize them, please. And then I
00:20:21 --> 00:20:23 go through it again and I'm like, this is. This
00:20:23 --> 00:20:26 is not the conversation I want to have with Chris.
00:20:26 --> 00:20:28 Like this has nothing to do with that, with the
00:20:28 --> 00:20:30 podcast. Yeah. So yeah, having a podcast like
00:20:30 --> 00:20:33 that, when you have this high amount of research
00:20:33 --> 00:20:37 to do, it has to be accurate too. Cause you can't
00:20:37 --> 00:20:38 just be watching the movie five minutes out of
00:20:38 --> 00:20:41 your recording because as if there was a review
00:20:41 --> 00:20:45 podcast, probably sure. Well, if I can be blunt,
00:20:45 --> 00:20:49 if you are a creator who uses. AI for research
00:20:49 --> 00:20:51 instead of just old school, putting in the work,
00:20:51 --> 00:20:55 doing the research. You don't deserve for a single
00:20:55 --> 00:20:58 person to give you any positive accolade on that.
00:20:58 --> 00:21:01 Like, I get that AI has a purpose and there are
00:21:01 --> 00:21:03 ways that people can use it like you for organizing
00:21:03 --> 00:21:06 your thoughts. It's not doing the work for you.
00:21:06 --> 00:21:09 It's not creating the thoughts for you. It's
00:21:09 --> 00:21:13 just organizing them. But I personally know people
00:21:13 --> 00:21:15 who, and I don't, I'm not friends with these
00:21:15 --> 00:21:18 people. I don't consider myself like a supporter
00:21:18 --> 00:21:21 of these people, but I know people who use AI
00:21:21 --> 00:21:24 to literally build their discussion for them
00:21:24 --> 00:21:27 and do the research for them. And I will tell
00:21:27 --> 00:21:32 them every single day as bluntly as I can, there's
00:21:32 --> 00:21:36 no shortcut. It's not authentic. It's not real.
00:21:36 --> 00:21:41 You're doing it to get around something that
00:21:41 --> 00:21:43 everybody else is going to put in the real work
00:21:43 --> 00:21:47 to do and the real effort to accomplish. I can
00:21:47 --> 00:21:51 go on YouTube right now and I can find you three,
00:21:51 --> 00:21:54 four, five content creators on YouTube right
00:21:54 --> 00:21:56 offhand that talk about horror movies that are
00:21:56 --> 00:22:00 very popular, that use AI for every single bit
00:22:00 --> 00:22:03 of their work. And honestly, I hope their channels
00:22:03 --> 00:22:06 fail. I hope they do because you don't deserve
00:22:06 --> 00:22:09 any of the credit for that, man. You don't. There
00:22:09 --> 00:22:11 are people that are out here researching on their
00:22:11 --> 00:22:15 own and putting in time and effort and true passion
00:22:15 --> 00:22:19 that nobody sees because for some reason nobody
00:22:19 --> 00:22:22 follows them or they don't get the shot like
00:22:22 --> 00:22:24 some people do. Eventually they will. Those creators
00:22:24 --> 00:22:27 will. It's insane to think about, man, because
00:22:27 --> 00:22:29 it's like, how can you even fake it? I don't
00:22:29 --> 00:22:33 get how people... do that i can't put on a facade
00:22:33 --> 00:22:36 and act like oh i know what i'm talking about
00:22:36 --> 00:22:38 when i'm getting the research from an artificial
00:22:38 --> 00:22:40 intelligence system i couldn't do that i would
00:22:40 --> 00:22:43 hate myself at night if i did that so i don't
00:22:43 --> 00:22:45 understand it man i truly don't it baffles my
00:22:45 --> 00:22:48 mind well digging deeper is actually a pretty
00:22:48 --> 00:22:50 interesting place to start the conversation because
00:22:50 --> 00:22:54 again beyond the blood is very much about slowing
00:22:54 --> 00:22:58 down and digging deeper into the films and then
00:22:58 --> 00:23:01 You have something, which is a reason I reached
00:23:01 --> 00:23:04 out to you. You have something like Letterboxd
00:23:04 --> 00:23:08 where we're constantly logging and rating and
00:23:08 --> 00:23:11 reviewing and ranking and moving on to the next
00:23:11 --> 00:23:13 thing. It's like a little bit of a competition
00:23:13 --> 00:23:16 when it comes to login films at this point. But
00:23:16 --> 00:23:19 so when did Simply Watching Movies, because this
00:23:19 --> 00:23:24 is, I feel like, from your post, because it all
00:23:24 --> 00:23:26 started with your post and I told you that. I
00:23:26 --> 00:23:29 had my thoughts on Letterboxd. And I said this
00:23:29 --> 00:23:34 before, it became a psychological problem for
00:23:34 --> 00:23:37 me. Letterboxd, I barely log anymore. And if
00:23:37 --> 00:23:39 I do, it's like a one sentence, this is the rating
00:23:39 --> 00:23:43 and bye. I'm watching a movie and I feel like
00:23:43 --> 00:23:47 in the top of my head, cartoonish type, you have
00:23:47 --> 00:23:51 the stars rating system. And as I'm watching
00:23:51 --> 00:23:52 the movie, it's like, it's going up, it's going
00:23:52 --> 00:23:56 down, it's going up, it's going down. I don't
00:23:56 --> 00:23:58 know. It just became a problem for me. I couldn't
00:23:58 --> 00:24:04 really enjoy the films. And my question, my main
00:24:04 --> 00:24:06 question, I had to write this down because this
00:24:06 --> 00:24:08 is the whole point I have you here because you
00:24:08 --> 00:24:12 did a great conversation about that. When did
00:24:12 --> 00:24:17 simply watching a movie become something we feel
00:24:17 --> 00:24:21 like we have to document? Well, I'll tell you,
00:24:21 --> 00:24:24 based on that post that I made, that there's
00:24:24 --> 00:24:26 a whole group of people out there that will tell
00:24:26 --> 00:24:29 you that you're an idiot for ever thinking that,
00:24:29 --> 00:24:34 like, dude, the amount of bullshit that has come
00:24:34 --> 00:24:37 my way since that post of people telling me that
00:24:37 --> 00:24:42 I'm wrong or I do this or I'm an idiot. One guy
00:24:42 --> 00:24:45 told me that I'm the worst type of movie watcher,
00:24:45 --> 00:24:48 which I was like. What? I don't know what you're
00:24:48 --> 00:24:50 even trying to tell me right now. And I want
00:24:50 --> 00:24:53 to make this clear. I don't have a problem with
00:24:53 --> 00:24:55 Letterboxd. The platform itself, I really love
00:24:55 --> 00:24:59 what they've done. And it's a platform that I
00:24:59 --> 00:25:05 simply had to reframe how I use it. And for people
00:25:05 --> 00:25:09 like me who do like organization, who treat it
00:25:09 --> 00:25:12 like a journal or like a diary, I really like
00:25:12 --> 00:25:14 it because I can kind of go back and look at
00:25:14 --> 00:25:17 movies that I've watched. There is something
00:25:17 --> 00:25:20 fun to the old school film log style where you're
00:25:20 --> 00:25:23 like, oh, yeah, I watched that. And I just go
00:25:23 --> 00:25:25 on, click that I watched it, give it a little
00:25:25 --> 00:25:27 heart and then move on. Don't think of it anymore.
00:25:27 --> 00:25:31 But now it's become like a. It's almost like
00:25:31 --> 00:25:34 a I don't know what the word is, like a status
00:25:34 --> 00:25:38 symbol to try to get on Letterboxd and log more
00:25:38 --> 00:25:41 movies than a stranger that you've never met
00:25:41 --> 00:25:43 that that watches more movies than you do or.
00:25:44 --> 00:25:46 to get the funniest one -liner to get the most
00:25:46 --> 00:25:49 likes on your review so your review pops up quicker
00:25:49 --> 00:25:51 when people click on reviews just like every
00:25:51 --> 00:25:55 other social media platform it's become there's
00:25:55 --> 00:25:59 like a game to it yeah that people like to go
00:25:59 --> 00:26:01 after but it's also done this thing which is
00:26:01 --> 00:26:04 really weird because it's not the platform itself
00:26:04 --> 00:26:08 that that catered to this audience but Letterboxd
00:26:08 --> 00:26:11 kind of became like this, like people on Letterboxd
00:26:11 --> 00:26:13 kind of came like this, like prestigious, like
00:26:13 --> 00:26:19 cinephile world where it's like, oh, only cool
00:26:19 --> 00:26:21 people who watch movies go on Letterboxd or like,
00:26:22 --> 00:26:25 oh, because I'm on Letterboxd, I'm a film critic
00:26:25 --> 00:26:28 or I take film serious because I'm on Letterboxd.
00:26:28 --> 00:26:31 Yeah. They become the Roger and Ebert of this
00:26:31 --> 00:26:36 generation. Yeah. Which, which is like. I don't
00:26:36 --> 00:26:38 know, man, it caters to a weird audience and
00:26:38 --> 00:26:44 it's grown this way slowly in like a weird direction
00:26:44 --> 00:26:48 where it's almost like there's memes out there
00:26:48 --> 00:26:50 about like what the Letterboxd user looks like.
00:26:51 --> 00:26:53 And it's like, I don't know, man, it's strange.
00:26:53 --> 00:26:57 And when I made that post talking about how I
00:26:57 --> 00:27:00 was using it wrong, I kind of went back and forth
00:27:00 --> 00:27:02 with actually putting Letterboxd in the post
00:27:02 --> 00:27:05 because. I knew it was going to get a lot of
00:27:05 --> 00:27:08 attention just because the logo was in it. And
00:27:08 --> 00:27:13 I had no idea how much shit I was in for 24 hours
00:27:13 --> 00:27:16 after I posted that. And it became just like
00:27:16 --> 00:27:18 half those comments on that post are people telling
00:27:18 --> 00:27:22 me that I'm an idiot, that I was using it wrong
00:27:22 --> 00:27:24 and I was doing this. And I was like, yeah, that's
00:27:24 --> 00:27:27 what my post was about. It was about how I was
00:27:27 --> 00:27:30 using it wrong. You mentioned that you shared
00:27:30 --> 00:27:32 a lot of the same things that I felt. And there's
00:27:32 --> 00:27:34 hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of comments
00:27:34 --> 00:27:37 on that post of people that talk about feeling
00:27:37 --> 00:27:39 the same way that I did. So clearly there's a
00:27:39 --> 00:27:43 pattern there. Yeah. I don't know. It's an addiction.
00:27:44 --> 00:27:47 Again, it's a social media app. You can say it's
00:27:47 --> 00:27:50 not. You can defend it. But at the end of the
00:27:50 --> 00:27:52 day, it is a social media app. It's funny because
00:27:52 --> 00:27:56 I unfollowed one person because... It's funny
00:27:56 --> 00:27:57 because I've been talking about this movie for
00:27:57 --> 00:28:00 three months now, but somebody made a comment.
00:28:00 --> 00:28:04 I was rewatching The Pest and I went on to Letterboxd
00:28:04 --> 00:28:07 and I was kind of excited to talk about it because
00:28:07 --> 00:28:09 it's a movie I grew up with. We didn't have a
00:28:09 --> 00:28:13 lot of Latino comedians doing comedies at that
00:28:13 --> 00:28:15 level. And yeah, the movie is written by a Jewish
00:28:15 --> 00:28:19 person, but the face of the movie is John Leguizamo.
00:28:19 --> 00:28:22 Growing up, again, we only knew Selena and we
00:28:22 --> 00:28:26 knew John Leguizamo. I went to like the movie
00:28:26 --> 00:28:31 and one of the people that I unfollowed on Letterboxd,
00:28:31 --> 00:28:32 I went through other reviews that he did and
00:28:32 --> 00:28:35 they were all kind of similar, a little pedantic
00:28:35 --> 00:28:39 and a little, not the word, the W word. I'm not
00:28:39 --> 00:28:41 going to use it because, but it's kind of like,
00:28:41 --> 00:28:45 oh, this movie is offensive at every level. Like,
00:28:45 --> 00:28:48 I don't know why this stuff got made. I'm like,
00:28:48 --> 00:28:50 you do know that this is basically the Latino
00:28:50 --> 00:28:54 American pie, right? Like this is what. Don't
00:28:54 --> 00:28:57 be a menace is to black people and American pie
00:28:57 --> 00:29:00 is to white people. This is basically that to
00:29:00 --> 00:29:02 Latino people. You're saying you're offended
00:29:02 --> 00:29:07 by a joke that anybody else from your side. And
00:29:07 --> 00:29:09 again, it's not about a political correctness
00:29:09 --> 00:29:12 or anything like that, but you're kind of offended
00:29:12 --> 00:29:16 because a Latino made these jokes that were written
00:29:16 --> 00:29:19 by a white guy. He's just the actor. And you're
00:29:19 --> 00:29:22 kind of attacking this person who. Probably couldn't
00:29:22 --> 00:29:25 have a job. He was in, to Wong Fu and then he
00:29:25 --> 00:29:28 was in this and it's like, you don't have a gay
00:29:28 --> 00:29:31 people, um, attacking him for being a straight
00:29:31 --> 00:29:35 man, playing a drag queen. As a matter of fact,
00:29:35 --> 00:29:37 he's very well known. All three of them, Patrick
00:29:37 --> 00:29:40 and, uh, what was his names? They're very well
00:29:40 --> 00:29:44 admired, I would say, or loved in the gay community
00:29:44 --> 00:29:48 because. of their portrayal of three drag queens
00:29:48 --> 00:29:51 that it was done very well. And it was done with
00:29:51 --> 00:29:53 a lot of heart. There wasn't any offensiveness
00:29:53 --> 00:29:58 in that movie that it would reflect upon the
00:29:58 --> 00:30:01 LGBT community. So it's like the movie is still
00:30:01 --> 00:30:04 very well received. So is The Birdcage. So is
00:30:04 --> 00:30:07 Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Again, like growing
00:30:07 --> 00:30:10 up with the past and then going excited to log
00:30:10 --> 00:30:13 it in. And the first thing I see is somebody
00:30:13 --> 00:30:15 who got so offended by it because the jokes and
00:30:15 --> 00:30:18 this and that. So you did not see any movie in
00:30:18 --> 00:30:22 the 90s. Because the 90s is the same joke over
00:30:22 --> 00:30:25 and over and over. And we had a lot more minorities,
00:30:25 --> 00:30:30 mixed cast back in the 90s. So you did have that
00:30:30 --> 00:30:34 more of, I would say, culture. kind of clashing
00:30:34 --> 00:30:37 and, you know, making fun of each other in a,
00:30:37 --> 00:30:41 I wouldn't say offensive necessarily way. Cause
00:30:41 --> 00:30:43 there are movies that do kind of stand out that
00:30:43 --> 00:30:45 there were just fully offensive, but there are
00:30:45 --> 00:30:48 some movies that it's like, you got the white
00:30:48 --> 00:30:50 dude being made fun by the black dude. And then
00:30:50 --> 00:30:52 you got the Latino making fun of the black dude
00:30:52 --> 00:30:54 and they're all living in harmony in the same
00:30:54 --> 00:30:57 movie, you know? So it's kind of like three friends
00:30:57 --> 00:30:59 that are just making fun of each other. And that
00:30:59 --> 00:31:01 kind of reflected because. I'm growing up with
00:31:01 --> 00:31:04 those movies and my group of friends looks like
00:31:04 --> 00:31:06 that. It does reflect the society that we were
00:31:06 --> 00:31:09 living in. American Pie reflects the society
00:31:09 --> 00:31:12 that we were living in at that moment. I feel
00:31:12 --> 00:31:16 like now films don't really reflect much of what
00:31:16 --> 00:31:18 we live because we're not living anymore. We're
00:31:18 --> 00:31:21 just kind of like stuck in our own bubble. So
00:31:21 --> 00:31:22 when you're making a film today, I don't know
00:31:22 --> 00:31:26 what culture you're really encapsulating in that
00:31:26 --> 00:31:29 film because there is no culture. You see that
00:31:29 --> 00:31:32 reflected. And Letterboxd. So you have these
00:31:32 --> 00:31:34 people who just want to be pedantic. Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:34 --> 00:31:38 Well, I think so. A lot of this really kicked
00:31:38 --> 00:31:43 off after I saw Obsession. I heard everything
00:31:43 --> 00:31:45 about it and I just want it to be known that
00:31:45 --> 00:31:47 I think what Curry Barker did with that movie
00:31:47 --> 00:31:51 is incredible. I think it's going to change the
00:31:51 --> 00:31:54 way that we watch kind of lower budget horror
00:31:54 --> 00:31:57 forever or at least for the future time being.
00:31:58 --> 00:32:00 And everybody loved it. It was over the moon.
00:32:01 --> 00:32:02 And then I watched it with my wife and I was
00:32:02 --> 00:32:06 like, that was good. Not great. Like for me.
00:32:07 --> 00:32:10 I was like, it was very predictable. There was
00:32:10 --> 00:32:13 a lot of great visual stuff. I think some of
00:32:13 --> 00:32:15 the characters, some of the humor felt very out
00:32:15 --> 00:32:18 of place. I don't think it landed very well.
00:32:18 --> 00:32:20 I don't think it was scary. This is all just
00:32:20 --> 00:32:22 coming from my perspective, right? Which I'm
00:32:22 --> 00:32:25 allowed to have my own unique perspective of
00:32:25 --> 00:32:27 a movie. And I made a post about it and I was
00:32:27 --> 00:32:29 like, hey, this is really good. I was like, I
00:32:29 --> 00:32:31 think Curry Barker will go and make better movies
00:32:31 --> 00:32:33 eventually. But for now, this is great. This
00:32:33 --> 00:32:35 is better than any movie I'll ever make. And
00:32:35 --> 00:32:38 I instantly got like five messages of people
00:32:38 --> 00:32:41 telling me that I'm wrong. And how dare I say
00:32:41 --> 00:32:44 that the movie's good, not great. Some guy called
00:32:44 --> 00:32:46 me a film bro. This is what's wrong with you
00:32:46 --> 00:32:50 guys, with your film bros. And I just remember
00:32:50 --> 00:32:54 thinking like, what? Why? Because I don't like
00:32:54 --> 00:32:55 something that's popular. Why all of a sudden
00:32:55 --> 00:32:59 does it mean that I'm wrong? And the same thing
00:32:59 --> 00:33:02 happened with Sinners. I was like, look, Sinners
00:33:02 --> 00:33:04 is good. It looks great. The cinematography is
00:33:04 --> 00:33:06 beautiful. I'm like, but the second half of that
00:33:06 --> 00:33:08 movie is really bad. When it turns into a vampire
00:33:08 --> 00:33:12 movie, I'm like, it's really bad. It gets really
00:33:12 --> 00:33:14 bad. It becomes a pretty blatant ripoff from
00:33:14 --> 00:33:16 Dusk Till Dawn. All of the originality leaves
00:33:16 --> 00:33:20 it. After the dance scene, it went downhill for
00:33:20 --> 00:33:24 me. Yeah, like that was such a high moment. It
00:33:24 --> 00:33:26 just went downhill for me after that. And this
00:33:26 --> 00:33:29 is somebody I'm predominantly Irish and I love
00:33:29 --> 00:33:31 the Irish element of the story. I loved hearing
00:33:31 --> 00:33:33 the songs. I love kind of seeing more of the
00:33:33 --> 00:33:35 culture represented in a more traditional style.
00:33:36 --> 00:33:38 I love that. But like at the end of the day,
00:33:38 --> 00:33:41 we're all allowed to have our opinion of a movie
00:33:41 --> 00:33:44 and you're allowed to have an opinion and not
00:33:44 --> 00:33:46 be attacked. But then when you go on Letterboxd
00:33:46 --> 00:33:50 and you see that Obsession has a. 4 .2 with 2
00:33:50 --> 00:33:53 .7 million ratings it's really hard sometimes
00:33:53 --> 00:33:56 for people to go why didn't i see the same movie
00:33:56 --> 00:34:00 these people did yeah what am i missing and unfortunately
00:34:00 --> 00:34:04 like influence is such a huge thing that you
00:34:04 --> 00:34:08 begin to kind of find yourself being like tainted
00:34:08 --> 00:34:11 by the word of mouth if everybody is saying it's
00:34:11 --> 00:34:14 good and you don't think it's at that level you
00:34:14 --> 00:34:17 start to kind of question how you really felt
00:34:17 --> 00:34:20 about it. Why am I not on board with this thing?
00:34:20 --> 00:34:23 Why do I not feel the same way that they do?
00:34:23 --> 00:34:26 And that's a normal feeling to feel in life.
00:34:26 --> 00:34:29 But you shouldn't be attacked or be pushed out
00:34:29 --> 00:34:32 separately because you don't feel the way that
00:34:32 --> 00:34:35 others do about something. There are people who
00:34:35 --> 00:34:38 say, oh, Letterboxd isn't like that. But psychologically.
00:34:40 --> 00:34:43 This happens when it comes to all kinds of things,
00:34:43 --> 00:34:46 when it comes down to rating or reviewing or
00:34:46 --> 00:34:50 criticizing. This is a factor that truly plays
00:34:50 --> 00:34:53 a part because people want to fit in. They want
00:34:53 --> 00:34:57 to feel part of a group. And, you know, if you
00:34:57 --> 00:35:01 are a if you're a horror influencer, when Obsession
00:35:01 --> 00:35:05 first came out. Who was talking negatively about
00:35:05 --> 00:35:08 it? Nobody does. Everybody wanted to be on the
00:35:08 --> 00:35:10 train. Everybody wanted to. Nobody spoke up.
00:35:11 --> 00:35:13 Yeah, they wanted to march. Yeah, nobody wanted
00:35:13 --> 00:35:16 to speak up and say, hey, man, this is really
00:35:16 --> 00:35:18 good, but it's got problems. Like, there are
00:35:18 --> 00:35:21 some issues here. And if we... And unfortunately,
00:35:21 --> 00:35:23 I think, like, what happens with movies like
00:35:23 --> 00:35:25 that is that as time goes on, more of those issues
00:35:25 --> 00:35:27 will start to be talked about because finally
00:35:27 --> 00:35:29 people can be like, oh, I can talk about this
00:35:29 --> 00:35:32 movie without being attacked for my opinion.
00:35:32 --> 00:35:35 Or I can talk about this movie and not be...
00:35:35 --> 00:35:37 bastardized from the internet because my opinion
00:35:37 --> 00:35:41 is different than the rest and that's really
00:35:41 --> 00:35:43 that's messed up man you should be able to have
00:35:43 --> 00:35:47 full opinion as long as your opinion is like
00:35:47 --> 00:35:54 critics and critical analysis comes with two
00:35:54 --> 00:35:55 sides of the coin right you have to be able to
00:35:55 --> 00:35:59 speak on what you didn't like about a movie in
00:35:59 --> 00:36:03 a way that defend it Yeah. Yeah. Defend it. But
00:36:03 --> 00:36:04 you have to be able to speak on a movie in a
00:36:04 --> 00:36:06 way you can't just be like, and there are people
00:36:06 --> 00:36:08 who do this where they just go, oh, it sucks.
00:36:08 --> 00:36:12 It's not scary. That's not any sort of like critical
00:36:12 --> 00:36:14 level. And I'm not saying you need to be Roger
00:36:14 --> 00:36:18 Ebert. But if you say, hey, look, I really wasn't
00:36:18 --> 00:36:20 into the script. I wasn't into the direction.
00:36:20 --> 00:36:23 I wasn't into some of the choices made. Those
00:36:23 --> 00:36:26 are things that make sense. That makes me go
00:36:26 --> 00:36:27 like, OK, you actually watched the movie. You
00:36:27 --> 00:36:29 thought about these things. I get that. When
00:36:29 --> 00:36:32 people just go. Oh, that sucks. Or it wasn't
00:36:32 --> 00:36:35 the movie I thought it was. Then at that point,
00:36:35 --> 00:36:38 you're just not, you're not putting any thought
00:36:38 --> 00:36:40 into it whatsoever. And you're just trying to
00:36:40 --> 00:36:43 be the negative one of the bunch, just to be
00:36:43 --> 00:36:45 the negative one of the bunch, as opposed to
00:36:45 --> 00:36:47 actually coming forward and having like some
00:36:47 --> 00:36:50 real critical appreciation and some, you know,
00:36:50 --> 00:36:52 critical questioning about, you know, what you
00:36:52 --> 00:36:55 did or did not like about the movie. Yeah, we
00:36:55 --> 00:36:56 went through the same thing while we were watching
00:36:56 --> 00:37:01 Mother Mary and the film. It was promoted as
00:37:01 --> 00:37:03 a horror film, which is, I think, the downfall
00:37:03 --> 00:37:07 for the film. And itself is a pretty well -written
00:37:07 --> 00:37:13 film. It had a lot of problems, but the way that
00:37:13 --> 00:37:17 people tackle the conversation, giving it one
00:37:17 --> 00:37:20 star, the worst film ever. No, it's not. I can
00:37:20 --> 00:37:22 probably go through your letterbox and point
00:37:22 --> 00:37:24 out the worst films ever, and you gave it probably
00:37:24 --> 00:37:28 a four star. And the conversations were... very
00:37:28 --> 00:37:32 negative but talking from a point of view that
00:37:32 --> 00:37:34 is yeah you're not really hating on the film
00:37:34 --> 00:37:36 so much as you're hating on two women acting
00:37:36 --> 00:37:40 against each other because the acting it was
00:37:40 --> 00:37:43 a battle of the wits really it was uh you're
00:37:43 --> 00:37:46 talking and now i'm gonna talk and then the other
00:37:46 --> 00:37:48 one picks up the baton and starts talking and
00:37:48 --> 00:37:50 it was it was basically watching a broadway play
00:37:50 --> 00:37:53 and if you're not used to watching a play you're
00:37:53 --> 00:37:56 not gonna like it dogville is a movie that i
00:37:56 --> 00:38:00 say is One of the worst movies, but it's so hypnotic
00:38:00 --> 00:38:04 on the way that it was done that I'm pretty sure
00:38:04 --> 00:38:06 if you sit down and you watch the film, you're
00:38:06 --> 00:38:08 going to be like, this is a bad film. But why
00:38:08 --> 00:38:10 is it a bad film? I know why the film is bad.
00:38:10 --> 00:38:13 Yeah. But the way that the film is done, that
00:38:13 --> 00:38:16 is kind of like a warehouse or studio where you
00:38:16 --> 00:38:20 have all these little pieces, sets, and she's
00:38:20 --> 00:38:23 just going from one set to another set. That
00:38:23 --> 00:38:25 has never been done before in film. And to see
00:38:25 --> 00:38:28 that as bad as the film was for me, it's still
00:38:28 --> 00:38:30 something that I admire. I could go into the
00:38:30 --> 00:38:33 worst film ever and still find something that
00:38:33 --> 00:38:35 I can admire. And I feel that with Mother Mary,
00:38:36 --> 00:38:37 it was just looking at it from the male perspective
00:38:37 --> 00:38:40 of we can't have films like this where they're
00:38:40 --> 00:38:43 talking about their vaginas and they're ripping
00:38:43 --> 00:38:45 their chests apart and stuff like that. No, we
00:38:45 --> 00:38:48 can't have that. Why not? You have that all the
00:38:48 --> 00:38:52 time. It's just that this is a female led. film
00:38:52 --> 00:38:54 and you couldn't give it a chance. It's not because,
00:38:54 --> 00:38:57 oh, films are not being made today that are worth
00:38:57 --> 00:38:59 watching. No, it's just that you don't have the
00:38:59 --> 00:39:02 capacity to sit down and watch a film and have
00:39:02 --> 00:39:04 a deep thought about it. But again, the film,
00:39:04 --> 00:39:06 I'm not saying that it was great. I'm not saying
00:39:06 --> 00:39:09 that it was bad or horrible, but I'm just saying
00:39:09 --> 00:39:11 like, it's the kind of conversation that, like
00:39:11 --> 00:39:15 you said, people can really detail what was wrong
00:39:15 --> 00:39:16 with the film. They're the kind of person that
00:39:16 --> 00:39:19 have the argument. It's like, Well, you tell
00:39:19 --> 00:39:22 me why. I know why, but you tell me why. No,
00:39:22 --> 00:39:24 you're the one criticizing my review. You tell
00:39:24 --> 00:39:28 me why you think I'm wrong. Yeah. It's having
00:39:28 --> 00:39:30 a freaking conversation with a wall. You really
00:39:30 --> 00:39:32 can't win. You're never going to win. You're
00:39:32 --> 00:39:34 never going to win. All three of the people who
00:39:34 --> 00:39:37 came after me because of my thoughts on Obsession,
00:39:37 --> 00:39:39 which I answered very nicely to. I'm a super
00:39:39 --> 00:39:43 nice person, and I answered. As nice as I could.
00:39:43 --> 00:39:45 I even said like, hey, when you want to if you
00:39:45 --> 00:39:47 ever want to stop coming after me and you want
00:39:47 --> 00:39:49 to have an actual discussion, let them down.
00:39:49 --> 00:39:51 Let's have this. None of them ever answered me
00:39:51 --> 00:39:53 any further. You know what I mean? They just
00:39:53 --> 00:39:56 kind of spewed their rage at me and then left
00:39:56 --> 00:39:58 me hanging. And I was like, yeah, I'm kind of
00:39:58 --> 00:40:00 disappointed. I wish we could have had a conversation.
00:40:01 --> 00:40:04 It's unfortunately, man, I think that this kind
00:40:04 --> 00:40:06 of happens when you get on the Internet and you
00:40:06 --> 00:40:11 have the whole entire world has access to. you
00:40:11 --> 00:40:13 and your content your opinion and their opinion
00:40:13 --> 00:40:15 and then mix in there people who are just out
00:40:15 --> 00:40:18 there to be trolls who are just out there to
00:40:18 --> 00:40:21 cause chaos or just out there to insult and interrupt
00:40:21 --> 00:40:24 with zero purpose besides just strictly to do
00:40:24 --> 00:40:27 that you get a lot of kickback from that but
00:40:27 --> 00:40:33 in in the world of movies we all try our best
00:40:33 --> 00:40:38 i hope to talk about movies in a way that comes
00:40:38 --> 00:40:43 from a place of loving them. And when you love
00:40:43 --> 00:40:48 movies, you can love whatever you want, love
00:40:48 --> 00:40:49 it as much as you want, but you should be able
00:40:49 --> 00:40:54 to speak about why you don't love something without
00:40:54 --> 00:40:57 the kickback. I should be able to go on Instagram
00:40:57 --> 00:41:00 and say, I didn't see The Odyssey, but I should
00:41:00 --> 00:41:02 be able to go on Instagram and say, hey, I thought
00:41:02 --> 00:41:06 The Odyssey was just okay, and this is why, without
00:41:06 --> 00:41:09 100 people telling me that I'm stupid. Or I'm
00:41:09 --> 00:41:12 wrong. And the thing with Letterboxd is like.
00:41:13 --> 00:41:16 People were coming after me saying you were using
00:41:16 --> 00:41:21 it wrong. For some reason, my brain was looking
00:41:21 --> 00:41:24 at everything based on this imaginary star system.
00:41:25 --> 00:41:28 And it was really hard for me to stop doing.
00:41:28 --> 00:41:31 And genuinely, when I stopped, when I found a
00:41:31 --> 00:41:33 way to stop doing that, I started enjoying movies
00:41:33 --> 00:41:36 like I did before I started doing that. And I
00:41:36 --> 00:41:39 don't even consider myself a critic. I have never
00:41:39 --> 00:41:43 in my life said that I am a critic of movies.
00:41:43 --> 00:41:47 I've never said that. So I've never went into
00:41:47 --> 00:41:50 a movie like ready to critically analyze or break
00:41:50 --> 00:41:53 it down. But for some reason, I found myself
00:41:53 --> 00:41:56 in this really bad mental place where I was like,
00:41:56 --> 00:41:58 oh, that scene makes this movie four stars. Oh,
00:41:58 --> 00:42:00 it went back down to a three because of that.
00:42:00 --> 00:42:05 Yeah. Other people have felt the same way and
00:42:05 --> 00:42:08 other people have done it. No matter why it is
00:42:08 --> 00:42:09 that that happened, I can't tell you. I don't
00:42:09 --> 00:42:14 know. But clearly, it's not just a me thing.
00:42:15 --> 00:42:17 And people were trying to treat me like it was
00:42:17 --> 00:42:20 just like, oh, I have my own problems. There's
00:42:20 --> 00:42:22 just as many comments of people who were in the
00:42:22 --> 00:42:25 same boat. And imagine how freeing that is for
00:42:25 --> 00:42:28 people to realize that, oh, I don't have to do
00:42:28 --> 00:42:29 things this way. I can just watch movies and
00:42:29 --> 00:42:33 enjoy them. on my own merit without applying
00:42:33 --> 00:42:37 a star rating. And I think, I think the conversation
00:42:37 --> 00:42:39 in general around movies would be a lot more
00:42:39 --> 00:42:43 positive if everybody just watched movies to
00:42:43 --> 00:42:46 watch movies without one, without a critical
00:42:46 --> 00:42:48 mindset and just being able to say, Hey man,
00:42:48 --> 00:42:50 I dug that movie or Hey, I didn't because of
00:42:50 --> 00:42:52 this. It's like people and half the people who
00:42:52 --> 00:42:54 were telling me that I was wrong, that I was
00:42:54 --> 00:42:56 taking it too serious, have their letterbox profile
00:42:56 --> 00:43:00 in their Instagram. Don't tell me I'm taking
00:43:00 --> 00:43:02 it too serious when the only thing in your Instagram
00:43:02 --> 00:43:05 bio is a link to your letterbox that you probably
00:43:05 --> 00:43:07 want for random people to click on and find.
00:43:07 --> 00:43:12 Like, come on, give me a break. Yeah. And it's
00:43:12 --> 00:43:15 funny because like you mentioned social media,
00:43:15 --> 00:43:18 letterbox is part of social media. And I feel
00:43:18 --> 00:43:22 like I want to say just letterbox. But again,
00:43:23 --> 00:43:25 the influencers, like you said, with obsession,
00:43:25 --> 00:43:30 it kind of goes. hand -to -hand with the reviews
00:43:30 --> 00:43:34 that you're putting over there and what you're
00:43:34 --> 00:43:35 kind of putting on social media whether it's
00:43:35 --> 00:43:38 a fake review just because you want to get backstage
00:43:38 --> 00:43:41 passes or you want to be on the red carpet or
00:43:41 --> 00:43:44 whatever but there's been such a i wouldn't say
00:43:44 --> 00:43:46 it was a resurgence because i don't think we
00:43:46 --> 00:43:49 have it at this level i feel like movies now
00:43:49 --> 00:43:52 they're just becoming content and now we're in
00:43:52 --> 00:43:57 this contentification of movies like That is
00:43:57 --> 00:44:01 a word that I don't know if it's real, but you're
00:44:01 --> 00:44:05 just creating content for content's sake. And
00:44:05 --> 00:44:08 I don't know if we're watching movies now, or
00:44:08 --> 00:44:11 at least not me, but I'm just like content creators.
00:44:11 --> 00:44:13 I don't know if they're watching movies just
00:44:13 --> 00:44:16 because they want to watch them or if they just
00:44:16 --> 00:44:19 want to have put up the next rant video or the
00:44:19 --> 00:44:22 next viral video or eventually just rate them
00:44:22 --> 00:44:25 and review them. There's people who do reviews
00:44:25 --> 00:44:27 and rank videos. And they're great. And you can
00:44:27 --> 00:44:31 tell they know what they're talking about. But
00:44:31 --> 00:44:33 I feel like there's some people who are, again,
00:44:33 --> 00:44:36 trying to create content that they see how that
00:44:36 --> 00:44:39 is taking off, how that is making this person
00:44:39 --> 00:44:42 popular and how now this person is going to red
00:44:42 --> 00:44:45 carpet. So let me do my own ranking videos that
00:44:45 --> 00:44:48 are very easily to do with AI. There's this app.
00:44:49 --> 00:44:52 You go and you create the layout and you drop
00:44:52 --> 00:44:54 in 10 movies and it just does it for you. And
00:44:54 --> 00:44:56 you just go ahead and you post it as a story,
00:44:56 --> 00:44:59 as a short. And that's how people are rising
00:44:59 --> 00:45:01 up on YouTube. They don't even watch the movies.
00:45:01 --> 00:45:04 They just create content and that's about it.
00:45:04 --> 00:45:06 They don't have any knowledge behind it. I kind
00:45:06 --> 00:45:09 of stopped following a lot of influencers and
00:45:09 --> 00:45:13 some of them I know personally or through Instagram
00:45:13 --> 00:45:18 before they became higher. influencers. And I'm
00:45:18 --> 00:45:19 like, you know what? I'm tired of you. I can't,
00:45:19 --> 00:45:22 everything is great. You're trying these foods
00:45:22 --> 00:45:24 at Disney's and you're like, I can see it in
00:45:24 --> 00:45:26 your face. You want to gag. And you're over here
00:45:26 --> 00:45:29 pretending you're enjoying this slime that you're
00:45:29 --> 00:45:31 eating. Cause I will go when I try it and it's
00:45:31 --> 00:45:34 disgusting. So it's like, can we stop pretending?
00:45:34 --> 00:45:36 And I know you're getting paid for it, or at
00:45:36 --> 00:45:38 least you're getting invites. You're probably
00:45:38 --> 00:45:40 not even getting paid, but you're getting invites.
00:45:41 --> 00:45:44 Then you're getting the promotional boxes and.
00:45:45 --> 00:45:47 That's what people want. People want something
00:45:47 --> 00:45:50 they can post on their socials and make themselves
00:45:50 --> 00:45:53 feel seen, which again, is something we live
00:45:53 --> 00:45:55 in an era where we all want to do that. I'm not
00:45:55 --> 00:45:57 saying it's wrong. I'm just saying, at least
00:45:57 --> 00:46:00 if you're a little bit more genuine, clearly
00:46:00 --> 00:46:02 thousands of hundreds of people agree and think
00:46:02 --> 00:46:05 you are being genuine, but other people see right
00:46:05 --> 00:46:07 through you. And when you're in a community,
00:46:07 --> 00:46:10 a small community, like collecting physical media,
00:46:10 --> 00:46:15 at least films, everybody knows. how authentic
00:46:15 --> 00:46:18 you are because either you started small and
00:46:18 --> 00:46:21 people knew you back then. And now you have your
00:46:21 --> 00:46:24 YouTube channel with millions of followers and
00:46:24 --> 00:46:26 millions of views. And now you're talking about
00:46:26 --> 00:46:29 films that are being sent to you and you don't
00:46:29 --> 00:46:32 even dare to speak about them because you can't.
00:46:32 --> 00:46:35 And that, and I feel like you're just creating
00:46:35 --> 00:46:38 content at this point. And again, it's just Letterboxd
00:46:38 --> 00:46:40 and influencers, or they say social media are
00:46:40 --> 00:46:44 just hand in hand at this point to me. And not
00:46:44 --> 00:46:48 to be like, oh, my Instagram averages a million
00:46:48 --> 00:46:53 views a month on a lower end of things. And I'm
00:46:53 --> 00:46:55 grateful that I have a little bit of a following
00:46:55 --> 00:46:59 on there. And I don't ever work with any companies.
00:46:59 --> 00:47:02 I just started working with a marketing company
00:47:02 --> 00:47:06 that probably 100 people I followed for years
00:47:06 --> 00:47:09 have been working with that have a tenth the
00:47:09 --> 00:47:13 reach that I do. I just never fell into that
00:47:13 --> 00:47:16 category for whatever of like interest from them
00:47:16 --> 00:47:21 because I refuse to just like push something.
00:47:21 --> 00:47:23 I don't want to. There's companies that I work
00:47:23 --> 00:47:27 with that I love and I do unboxings and I have
00:47:27 --> 00:47:28 a lot of fun doing those. I like doing like I
00:47:28 --> 00:47:30 just posted one for Cellular Dreams. That's a
00:47:30 --> 00:47:33 company that I'm very honored to be working with.
00:47:33 --> 00:47:35 Steve and I have a close relationship with them
00:47:35 --> 00:47:38 and we genuinely love what they do. I never want
00:47:38 --> 00:47:40 to be that person that's just like, oh, buy this
00:47:40 --> 00:47:43 thing because I said to buy this thing. And I
00:47:43 --> 00:47:45 could tell you right now, like, I could tell
00:47:45 --> 00:47:49 you offhand a handful of the biggest influencers
00:47:49 --> 00:47:51 in our space that don't even watch the movies
00:47:51 --> 00:47:54 they're talking about. Like, imagine, can you
00:47:54 --> 00:47:56 imagine starting a company, right? You start
00:47:56 --> 00:47:59 a physical media company. You spend months putting
00:47:59 --> 00:48:01 together a release. You purchase the rights.
00:48:02 --> 00:48:05 You restore it. You hire a production crew to
00:48:05 --> 00:48:08 make hours of bonus features. You spend all the
00:48:08 --> 00:48:10 money on packaging, right? And then at the end
00:48:10 --> 00:48:12 of the day, you're like, I want to get this in
00:48:12 --> 00:48:15 the hand of a few influencers to get the word
00:48:15 --> 00:48:17 out. And then you send it to an influencer that
00:48:17 --> 00:48:19 goes, oh yeah, the transfer looks really good.
00:48:19 --> 00:48:22 The blacks are really deep. And yeah, thank you.
00:48:22 --> 00:48:25 Thank you for watching my video. get the fuck
00:48:25 --> 00:48:28 out of here dude no attempt to do anything besides
00:48:28 --> 00:48:30 the most surface level work and then they hide
00:48:30 --> 00:48:33 it under like oh I'm too busy I get sent too
00:48:33 --> 00:48:36 much stuff I can't dive into it dude this is
00:48:36 --> 00:48:39 your job like this is what you do if I owned
00:48:39 --> 00:48:42 a label and I and my products ended up in the
00:48:42 --> 00:48:45 hands of half the people that are most prominent
00:48:45 --> 00:48:47 in a space talking about movies I would cut them
00:48:47 --> 00:48:48 out of my list immediately I'd be like what are
00:48:48 --> 00:48:52 you doing talking about my product this way I
00:48:52 --> 00:48:54 don't want to work with you anymore and Some
00:48:54 --> 00:48:57 of the people that I'm closest with are people
00:48:57 --> 00:49:01 who put in so much work and so much effort and
00:49:01 --> 00:49:04 talk about movies in an educated way and and
00:49:04 --> 00:49:07 dive into bonus features and actually watch and
00:49:07 --> 00:49:12 care. And they're not getting the attention of
00:49:12 --> 00:49:15 other people who don't put in even a quarter
00:49:15 --> 00:49:19 of the work that they do. And that's that's a
00:49:19 --> 00:49:20 shame to see, because I want my friends to be
00:49:20 --> 00:49:24 successful. They all deserve. but unfortunately
00:49:24 --> 00:49:29 people, some people just don't, they'll never
00:49:29 --> 00:49:31 get it because they don't cater to a certain
00:49:31 --> 00:49:33 thing and they don't do what the majority of
00:49:33 --> 00:49:35 people want, which people just want someone to
00:49:35 --> 00:49:39 tell them, Oh, the 4k looks really good. It's
00:49:39 --> 00:49:42 like, that's what sells. But the thing is also
00:49:42 --> 00:49:45 kind of like, and I mentioned before that you
00:49:45 --> 00:49:49 do have people that you tap, you tap into a hobby.
00:49:50 --> 00:49:53 That you're like, oh, well, this is easy to rise
00:49:53 --> 00:49:59 up and become an influencer and X interest or
00:49:59 --> 00:50:02 hobby because it's a small community. And I feel
00:50:02 --> 00:50:04 like physical media and movie collecting is probably
00:50:04 --> 00:50:07 one of them because I feel like the bigger one
00:50:07 --> 00:50:11 other than movie is probably books. And to be
00:50:11 --> 00:50:14 an influencer in books, it's pretty hard because
00:50:14 --> 00:50:16 you do have a lot of massive people. Like you
00:50:16 --> 00:50:21 have people who really dig in deep. into these
00:50:21 --> 00:50:23 books. They're not just going to give you, this
00:50:23 --> 00:50:27 is a beautiful cover. And it has a hundred pages.
00:50:27 --> 00:50:30 Now they have to dig in deep into the book. It's
00:50:30 --> 00:50:32 not the same thing as a film. Like, oh, this
00:50:32 --> 00:50:37 film, this release of Scream 4 has a weird filter
00:50:37 --> 00:50:40 and the packaging is great. It has Dolby Atmos.
00:50:40 --> 00:50:42 Okay, well, we can read that in the back. We
00:50:42 --> 00:50:44 can read that ourselves. But did you actually
00:50:44 --> 00:50:48 dig into the movie, go deep into it? talk to
00:50:48 --> 00:50:52 me about that there's very few people on on youtube
00:50:52 --> 00:50:56 that do that and i follow them because i know
00:50:56 --> 00:50:59 sometimes they get their their stuff sent and
00:50:59 --> 00:51:03 they disclose that up front and some people act
00:51:03 --> 00:51:06 like oh now i'm getting stuff sent and my opinion
00:51:06 --> 00:51:09 is the highest opinion you should take in consideration
00:51:09 --> 00:51:11 and no you just got stuff sent because you got
00:51:11 --> 00:51:13 more followers than the other guy but the other
00:51:13 --> 00:51:16 guy has more credibility to me than you And I'm
00:51:16 --> 00:51:18 just going to unfollow you and keep following
00:51:18 --> 00:51:19 the other guy. There's the downside and there's
00:51:19 --> 00:51:22 the upside. The downside, films have become another
00:51:22 --> 00:51:26 just content for consumption. But then the upside
00:51:26 --> 00:51:28 is that you have people talking about movies,
00:51:28 --> 00:51:31 especially movies that are, you know, otherwise
00:51:31 --> 00:51:34 they would never have encountered. And we are
00:51:34 --> 00:51:39 building communities around cinema, which again
00:51:39 --> 00:51:41 is great. That's the upside. Like I could tell
00:51:41 --> 00:51:44 you personally that. The podcast network that
00:51:44 --> 00:51:45 Beyond the Blood is lucky enough to be a part
00:51:45 --> 00:51:49 of has is not only run by some people that I
00:51:49 --> 00:51:53 think are just the absolute best in our industry.
00:51:53 --> 00:51:56 The other shows that are on our network are hosted
00:51:56 --> 00:52:01 by just the most educated, entertaining people
00:52:01 --> 00:52:03 that you'll ever listen to talk about movies,
00:52:03 --> 00:52:07 people that you can learn from. And people who
00:52:07 --> 00:52:10 are incredibly passionate. And if you find most
00:52:10 --> 00:52:12 of these people on Instagram, they have 200 followers,
00:52:12 --> 00:52:16 300 followers. You know what I mean? They're
00:52:16 --> 00:52:19 not incredibly well known because either they
00:52:19 --> 00:52:22 don't want to be or that type of content just
00:52:22 --> 00:52:25 doesn't appeal. And many of the people that I'm
00:52:25 --> 00:52:28 lucky enough to call friends are people that
00:52:28 --> 00:52:30 I look up to as far as like, I want to be able
00:52:30 --> 00:52:32 to talk about film like you do one day. And I
00:52:32 --> 00:52:35 want to be able to look at it and dissect things
00:52:35 --> 00:52:37 the way that you do. Because I want to learn.
00:52:37 --> 00:52:40 And I get that not everybody wants to do that.
00:52:40 --> 00:52:43 Some people just want to open up PR boxes. And
00:52:43 --> 00:52:45 if that's your thing, that's what you do. But
00:52:45 --> 00:52:48 I'm sorry, there's different levels to the game.
00:52:48 --> 00:52:52 Or there's different levels to how we talk about
00:52:52 --> 00:52:55 movies. And Beyond the Blood was never meant
00:52:55 --> 00:53:01 to cater to, like... the most like surface level
00:53:01 --> 00:53:04 of viewers they're not into the show and that
00:53:04 --> 00:53:07 it wasn't it was never a thing of like how do
00:53:07 --> 00:53:09 we get people who aren't into these movies to
00:53:09 --> 00:53:11 watch the show I don't care to cater to the most
00:53:11 --> 00:53:13 popular I want to cater to people who want to
00:53:13 --> 00:53:17 learn and I want to have this discussion and
00:53:17 --> 00:53:20 are interested in talking about movies at this
00:53:20 --> 00:53:23 level the same way that that I do you know what
00:53:23 --> 00:53:26 I mean and it's zero disrespect to nobody who
00:53:26 --> 00:53:28 who doesn't want to do that, that's perfectly
00:53:28 --> 00:53:30 fine. I have friends who don't even listen to
00:53:30 --> 00:53:32 our show because that's not what they're into.
00:53:32 --> 00:53:37 I love you just as much, but the goal was never
00:53:37 --> 00:53:41 to make it like the most popular podcast in the
00:53:41 --> 00:53:43 world. Just like the goal is never to be considered
00:53:43 --> 00:53:47 an influencer because I just want to influence
00:53:47 --> 00:53:49 people to actually watch movies, to actually
00:53:49 --> 00:53:52 watch bonus features. I want to influence people
00:53:52 --> 00:53:57 to like... Sit back and enjoy a movie for what
00:53:57 --> 00:53:59 it is and then go out and talk about the movie,
00:54:00 --> 00:54:03 not the transfer. Talk about the movie. If I'm
00:54:03 --> 00:54:05 going to influence anybody to do anything, that's
00:54:05 --> 00:54:08 what I want you to do. And the funny part is
00:54:08 --> 00:54:11 that a lot of these YouTubers and content creators,
00:54:12 --> 00:54:14 they just want to monetize, which we get it.
00:54:15 --> 00:54:18 Most of us who are playing around with social
00:54:18 --> 00:54:22 media or doing podcasts. But in our case is,
00:54:22 --> 00:54:25 you know, we would love to get monetized. At
00:54:25 --> 00:54:27 least for me, it's not so I can go break bank,
00:54:28 --> 00:54:30 you know, buying movies, but it's at least to
00:54:30 --> 00:54:32 cover the same costs, expenses that you're putting
00:54:32 --> 00:54:37 into your own show. And, but it's a little stupid.
00:54:38 --> 00:54:39 I want to say ironic, but a little bit stupid
00:54:39 --> 00:54:43 that it's like, you have to cater to, oh, this
00:54:43 --> 00:54:46 is my goal to receive PR boxes from Universal
00:54:46 --> 00:54:52 for Obsession or the Odyssey when. A lot of your
00:54:52 --> 00:54:56 audience is going to watch you talk about a release
00:54:56 --> 00:55:00 and you probably bought it yourself. You probably
00:55:00 --> 00:55:03 bought that release with your own money. You're
00:55:03 --> 00:55:06 talking about it. You have no guardrails and
00:55:06 --> 00:55:09 you're having a genuine conversation about the
00:55:09 --> 00:55:11 release. And guess what? You probably have hundreds
00:55:11 --> 00:55:14 of thousands of people watching your video. At
00:55:14 --> 00:55:16 this point, you're probably monetized. So why
00:55:16 --> 00:55:19 now do you have to basically bend over because
00:55:19 --> 00:55:23 they sent you a release that has five discs and
00:55:23 --> 00:55:26 whatever and some balloons and confetti, whatever
00:55:26 --> 00:55:29 they sent in that box. And you're basically now
00:55:29 --> 00:55:34 throwing your whole viewers, your whole following
00:55:34 --> 00:55:37 under the bus just because that's what you want.
00:55:37 --> 00:55:39 And now you can't be authentic. Now you have
00:55:39 --> 00:55:42 to be, this is the whole script. Because again,
00:55:42 --> 00:55:44 they do send you a script. You're in podcasting
00:55:44 --> 00:55:47 and you know that. If you want to be affiliated
00:55:47 --> 00:55:50 with someone, you have to follow that script.
00:55:51 --> 00:55:55 I talk great about some podcasters and some small
00:55:55 --> 00:55:57 companies. They're not paying me to do that.
00:55:57 --> 00:56:00 It's just that I went on Apple podcasts. I listened
00:56:00 --> 00:56:03 to them and I was having a conversation. I was
00:56:03 --> 00:56:05 like, Hey, by the way, this podcaster over there
00:56:05 --> 00:56:07 is talking about this. When you're talking about
00:56:07 --> 00:56:09 that movie, I'm not doing the same thing as they
00:56:09 --> 00:56:13 are. And they're way better at what I do. So
00:56:13 --> 00:56:15 basically you can go listen to them. Don't fuck
00:56:15 --> 00:56:17 my podcast. Go listen to them. It's all about
00:56:17 --> 00:56:20 being genuine. And I feel like in this social
00:56:20 --> 00:56:22 media era, we are not being genuine. At least
00:56:22 --> 00:56:24 when you're creating content, you're putting
00:56:24 --> 00:56:29 a facade. And I try to limit myself to that,
00:56:29 --> 00:56:31 to being exposed to people like that, because
00:56:31 --> 00:56:35 I can't stand fakeness. I am a very nice person,
00:56:35 --> 00:56:38 but I'm also very honest. And I'm like, yeah.
00:56:39 --> 00:56:42 I will never, ever, ever work with a company
00:56:42 --> 00:56:44 that I don't agree with what they're doing. Like
00:56:44 --> 00:56:47 I refuse. I don't care if somebody came to me
00:56:47 --> 00:56:50 and was like, this is your last chance to ever
00:56:50 --> 00:56:52 make it in this business, but you have to talk
00:56:52 --> 00:56:54 positively about this thing you don't like. I
00:56:54 --> 00:56:57 will miss out on the chance of succeeding. I
00:56:57 --> 00:56:59 had a promoter or like somebody who worked for
00:56:59 --> 00:57:01 a PR company hit me up about a movie and he was
00:57:01 --> 00:57:03 like, hey, this is an independent film. I'd love
00:57:03 --> 00:57:05 to send this your way. If you can talk about
00:57:05 --> 00:57:07 it, make a video. And I was like, yeah, sure.
00:57:07 --> 00:57:10 Like send it my way. No big thing. He sends me
00:57:10 --> 00:57:11 the movie and I just did not like the movie.
00:57:12 --> 00:57:14 And I shot him a message back and I was like,
00:57:14 --> 00:57:16 hey, I was like, look, I'm sorry to say this.
00:57:16 --> 00:57:19 This is not a movie for me. Like I did not enjoy
00:57:19 --> 00:57:21 this. This isn't my thing. And I'm not going
00:57:21 --> 00:57:25 to make a video about how I enjoyed it. I'm not
00:57:25 --> 00:57:27 going to. And he got back to me and he was like,
00:57:27 --> 00:57:29 look, I get it. He's like, could you at least
00:57:29 --> 00:57:31 make a video just showing off that we sent it
00:57:31 --> 00:57:34 to you? And that's what I did. with zero criticism
00:57:34 --> 00:57:36 of the movie. I did mention how it had some cool
00:57:36 --> 00:57:38 visual. Like I was like, oh, there's some cool
00:57:38 --> 00:57:41 visual stuff here, but I just kind of made a
00:57:41 --> 00:57:43 video that was like, look, this is out now. Here's
00:57:43 --> 00:57:46 what it looks like. It's a cool idea. I never
00:57:46 --> 00:57:49 said I didn't like it. I didn't do this. I'm
00:57:49 --> 00:57:51 not going to, I'm not going to work with people
00:57:51 --> 00:57:54 that I don't believe in what you're doing. And
00:57:54 --> 00:57:56 that's why a company like Celluloid Dreams, like
00:57:56 --> 00:57:59 the podcast works with them. We get review copies
00:57:59 --> 00:58:01 for them. We cover their movies on the podcast
00:58:01 --> 00:58:04 because we wholeheartedly support what they do.
00:58:04 --> 00:58:06 We had both the owners, the father and the son,
00:58:06 --> 00:58:09 on the podcast. We spoke to them about their
00:58:09 --> 00:58:12 process, all the work they put in. And they were
00:58:12 --> 00:58:14 nice enough to then come to us and be like, hey,
00:58:14 --> 00:58:17 we'd love to send you our stuff. Which, by the
00:58:17 --> 00:58:20 way, don't ever take that lightly because there's
00:58:20 --> 00:58:22 a lot of work and money that goes into this stuff.
00:58:22 --> 00:58:24 And if a company is willing to send you something
00:58:24 --> 00:58:28 that they put... years of work into that's $60
00:58:28 --> 00:58:31 don't take that lightly that's a huge deal and
00:58:31 --> 00:58:34 you take on a lot of responsibility accepting
00:58:34 --> 00:58:37 that you accepting that and then just talking
00:58:37 --> 00:58:39 about how the blacks look really good and it's
00:58:39 --> 00:58:41 really sharp and not talking about anything else
00:58:41 --> 00:58:44 is doing a major disservice major I was watching
00:58:44 --> 00:58:48 the one that was like the blacks are blacks I'm
00:58:48 --> 00:58:52 like no shit Sherlock I turned it off. I turned
00:58:52 --> 00:58:54 it off. I was like, yeah, not again. Not again.
00:58:54 --> 00:58:56 The blacks are blacks. How long did it take you
00:58:56 --> 00:58:58 to write that sentence? I'm like, like, you're
00:58:58 --> 00:59:02 right. They sent you a $60 package that they
00:59:02 --> 00:59:07 probably spent months, if not years, not developing,
00:59:07 --> 00:59:10 but again, gaining the rights, going rest, restoring
00:59:10 --> 00:59:15 the whole film piece by piece. You're just going
00:59:15 --> 00:59:18 to give it this lame review because you're not,
00:59:18 --> 00:59:20 you're not, you probably didn't even sit down
00:59:20 --> 00:59:23 and talk to them about the film. You just got
00:59:23 --> 00:59:25 the package and that's it. You didn't sit down
00:59:25 --> 00:59:29 with them to talk about the film. So. You kind
00:59:29 --> 00:59:31 of just give this mediocre preview, which is
00:59:31 --> 00:59:33 like the blacks are blacks. The film was good.
00:59:34 --> 00:59:38 This is a disc. It comes in a box. It's just
00:59:38 --> 00:59:40 like, it's very elementary at this point. And
00:59:40 --> 00:59:43 I feel bad because again, you do have a lot of
00:59:43 --> 00:59:46 small companies that are coming, that are coming
00:59:46 --> 00:59:49 out now with some of their own restorations.
00:59:49 --> 00:59:52 Like I said, coffin maker, Alex, who I had a
00:59:52 --> 00:59:56 great conversation with. If he. says something
00:59:56 --> 00:59:59 that knowing the work that he puts, knowing that
00:59:59 --> 01:00:04 he is doing that basically by himself and sends
01:00:04 --> 01:00:07 it to somebody and you don't sit down with him.
01:00:07 --> 01:00:10 I would actually love, and I know this is a small
01:00:10 --> 01:00:13 tangent on that tangent. I would actually love
01:00:13 --> 01:00:16 if they would actually sit down with the person
01:00:16 --> 01:00:20 who went through the whole process of doing that.
01:00:20 --> 01:00:21 Because at least like if you don't have anything
01:00:21 --> 01:00:23 good to say about the film, at least. put the
01:00:23 --> 01:00:26 person in the spotlight or, Hey, if the person
01:00:26 --> 01:00:29 doesn't like being in front of a camera, at least
01:00:29 --> 01:00:32 I take their words, do a small interview and
01:00:32 --> 01:00:35 be like, this person told me they did this and
01:00:35 --> 01:00:37 you can see it here in this scene where he restored.
01:00:38 --> 01:00:39 Cause if you don't know what the hell you're
01:00:39 --> 01:00:41 talking about, you're just going to, again, you're
01:00:41 --> 01:00:42 going to keep saying the blacks are blacks. The
01:00:42 --> 01:00:45 transfer is good. Yeah. Anybody can say that
01:00:45 --> 01:00:47 any person who buys the film is probably going
01:00:47 --> 01:00:50 to see that and say the same thing. So it's,
01:00:50 --> 01:00:51 I feel like it's just a little disrespectful
01:00:51 --> 01:00:55 at that point. Yeah, I have my wife and I have
01:00:55 --> 01:01:00 a 65 inch OLED LG C5 TV. Everything looks good.
01:01:00 --> 01:01:03 My DVDs look really good on that thing. So like
01:01:03 --> 01:01:05 these are all consumer grade stuff that people
01:01:05 --> 01:01:10 can critique. Oh, you know, the colors are good.
01:01:10 --> 01:01:12 The transfer looks good. Everything looks really
01:01:12 --> 01:01:13 good on my TV. But I think the hardest part is
01:01:13 --> 01:01:16 actually talking about the movie. And I've said
01:01:16 --> 01:01:19 this in reels before. I'm like, the toughest
01:01:19 --> 01:01:21 part is somebody sitting down and saying, hey.
01:01:22 --> 01:01:25 This is what I got from the movie because nobody
01:01:25 --> 01:01:28 does it. And then I've had people say, oh, I
01:01:28 --> 01:01:29 don't spend a lot of time talking about the movie
01:01:29 --> 01:01:32 because that's not what my viewers are interested
01:01:32 --> 01:01:35 in. Well, then so what? You only make things
01:01:35 --> 01:01:39 that appeal to your viewers. You only make people.
01:01:39 --> 01:01:40 People don't like when I talk about the movie.
01:01:40 --> 01:01:42 The only when I talk about the transfer. OK,
01:01:42 --> 01:01:46 so you're only doing this for your followers
01:01:46 --> 01:01:51 and not for any other. If you don't like what
01:01:51 --> 01:01:55 I do, then don't follow me. I don't cater to
01:01:55 --> 01:01:57 you. I'm not here for you. Just because you follow
01:01:57 --> 01:02:00 me on Instagram doesn't mean I have to appeal
01:02:00 --> 01:02:02 to what you do. I'm going to talk about whatever
01:02:02 --> 01:02:04 I want and do whatever I want on my page. You
01:02:04 --> 01:02:07 have the decision to be part of that or not be
01:02:07 --> 01:02:09 a part of that. But I'm not going to change what
01:02:09 --> 01:02:12 I do because you tell me that you don't like
01:02:12 --> 01:02:15 something that I don't care. Like, what do I
01:02:15 --> 01:02:17 care? I mean, unless you're one of my friends
01:02:17 --> 01:02:18 and you're trying to help me and you say, hey,
01:02:18 --> 01:02:21 man, You've been doing this recently and it's
01:02:21 --> 01:02:23 something's off that in that case, I'll listen.
01:02:23 --> 01:02:26 I don't care to to make content around what's
01:02:26 --> 01:02:28 going to get popular or what people are going
01:02:28 --> 01:02:32 to agree with. That's it's not what I do. It's
01:02:32 --> 01:02:33 the same with Letterboxd. I don't put things
01:02:33 --> 01:02:38 on Letterboxd to fit in or to try to be part
01:02:38 --> 01:02:40 of a clique or to say, hey, look, I'm on Letterboxd.
01:02:40 --> 01:02:44 I watched 800 movies this year and only three
01:02:44 --> 01:02:46 of them did I not scroll on my phone for half
01:02:46 --> 01:02:49 the time that I watched it like. I don't care.
01:02:49 --> 01:02:52 I just want to watch movies and I want to learn
01:02:52 --> 01:02:54 about movies and I want to be surrounded by people
01:02:54 --> 01:02:57 who do the same thing. And I think the more you
01:02:57 --> 01:03:01 water that community, the more it's going to
01:03:01 --> 01:03:04 grow, the more people are going to do that because
01:03:04 --> 01:03:06 they're out there, man. There are people who
01:03:06 --> 01:03:11 love movies that are making great content. and
01:03:11 --> 01:03:13 are talking about movies in an educational way
01:03:13 --> 01:03:16 that I'm learning from, that other people can
01:03:16 --> 01:03:17 learn from, that aren't getting the attention
01:03:17 --> 01:03:22 they deserve. And that's sad, but I'm always
01:03:22 --> 01:03:24 going to be in their corner rooting for them.
01:03:24 --> 01:03:26 And especially anybody who wants to put their
01:03:26 --> 01:03:29 passions out there, I'm in your corner rooting
01:03:29 --> 01:03:32 for you 100 % of the time. If I know you, if
01:03:32 --> 01:03:35 I don't know you, if I just followed you today
01:03:35 --> 01:03:38 or I followed you for 10 years, if you're passionate
01:03:38 --> 01:03:40 about what you do and you convey that, and I
01:03:40 --> 01:03:43 feel that on the receiving end, I'm going to
01:03:43 --> 01:03:48 support you 10 % all the way through. Before
01:03:48 --> 01:03:51 we close out this Letterboxd segment, I do have
01:03:51 --> 01:03:54 a few questions for you regarding Letterboxd
01:03:54 --> 01:03:56 and physical media, because I know you're a physical
01:03:56 --> 01:03:58 media collector, a big physical media collector,
01:03:58 --> 01:04:00 as a matter of fact, and anybody who follows
01:04:00 --> 01:04:03 you want to know what filter you use, but that's
01:04:03 --> 01:04:06 not the question. The question is, what are your
01:04:06 --> 01:04:08 Letterboxd stuff for, and do you own them physically?
01:04:10 --> 01:04:12 Oh, yeah. So hold on. Let me go on to my letterbox
01:04:12 --> 01:04:14 real quick. I just want to make sure they were
01:04:14 --> 01:04:17 right. OK, so that's like knowing your kids names.
01:04:18 --> 01:04:21 I don't know those. Well, to be honest, though,
01:04:21 --> 01:04:23 I change them out. I do change them. Oh, I don't.
01:04:23 --> 01:04:26 I don't. One that will never move from my top
01:04:26 --> 01:04:29 four is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I think
01:04:29 --> 01:04:32 hands down the greatest horror movie ever made.
01:04:32 --> 01:04:34 I just saw it on the big screen with my wife
01:04:34 --> 01:04:37 for Texas Chainsaw Day. And yes, I include that.
01:04:37 --> 01:04:43 The OG. The 1974, yep. And I own that five times,
01:04:43 --> 01:04:45 five different, I have five different releases
01:04:45 --> 01:04:47 behind me of that movie. So yes, I own it physically.
01:04:48 --> 01:04:52 A movie from 1973 called Hollywood 90028 or the
01:04:52 --> 01:04:55 Hollywood Hillside Strangler. Grindhouse Releasing
01:04:55 --> 01:04:59 put that out on Blu -ray, I believe, not 4K.
01:04:59 --> 01:05:02 Just pre -ordered the 4K of this one, 1980s Cannibal
01:05:02 --> 01:05:05 Holocaust. And then one that recently joined
01:05:05 --> 01:05:08 my top four that we talked about a couple times
01:05:08 --> 01:05:12 is 1971's Short Night of Glass Dolls. Love that
01:05:12 --> 01:05:14 movie to death. I own it on 4K from Celluloid
01:05:14 --> 01:05:18 Dreams. So yes, I own my top four. You spoke
01:05:18 --> 01:05:20 a few times about that film, so I'm probably
01:05:20 --> 01:05:22 going to link the episode here below for that
01:05:22 --> 01:05:25 movie for the podcast. I'm going to link it here
01:05:25 --> 01:05:27 below, and I'm also going to listen to it later
01:05:27 --> 01:05:29 because I haven't. Like I told you, I'm... When
01:05:29 --> 01:05:31 I don't work, I don't listen to podcasts because
01:05:31 --> 01:05:34 that's my entertainment at work and on my commute.
01:05:34 --> 01:05:37 I have to catch up on a lot of movie podcasts.
01:05:38 --> 01:05:40 But another question going on the fact that you
01:05:40 --> 01:05:43 collect, does discovering a movie, at least like
01:05:43 --> 01:05:45 in this conversation that we're talking about
01:05:45 --> 01:05:48 Letterboxd, does discovering a movie on Letterboxd
01:05:48 --> 01:05:52 ever lead you to wanting to own it physically?
01:05:54 --> 01:05:57 Yeah, I don't really. go into much of like the
01:05:57 --> 01:05:59 community set of Letterboxd I don't really go
01:05:59 --> 01:06:01 into a lot of I don't want I don't look at like
01:06:01 --> 01:06:04 what the people I follow are reviewing I don't
01:06:04 --> 01:06:07 dive into that way but Letterboxd does publish
01:06:07 --> 01:06:09 a lot of great lists that I will get into and
01:06:09 --> 01:06:11 I'll kind of watch some movies based on a list
01:06:11 --> 01:06:14 also sometimes too I'll do a thing where like
01:06:14 --> 01:06:16 I'll just fall into a rabbit hole where I'm like
01:06:16 --> 01:06:19 I want to watch a whole bunch of erotic thrillers.
01:06:19 --> 01:06:21 So I'll look up erotic thriller lists and I'll
01:06:21 --> 01:06:24 find a list that looks really well coordinated
01:06:24 --> 01:06:27 and put together. And then I'll kind of start
01:06:27 --> 01:06:29 watching movies based on that. But a lot of times,
01:06:29 --> 01:06:32 to be honest with you, man, most of my watching
01:06:32 --> 01:06:35 comes from what I own more than what I don't.
01:06:35 --> 01:06:39 So if I'm buying something new that I've never
01:06:39 --> 01:06:42 seen before, I want to watch it physically. I
01:06:42 --> 01:06:43 don't really want to watch it on streaming or
01:06:43 --> 01:06:46 watch it any other way. It's the same reason
01:06:46 --> 01:06:48 why I still go to Goodwill and buy DVDs. And
01:06:48 --> 01:06:52 I'll buy DVDs of movies that I know of, but I've
01:06:52 --> 01:06:54 never seen because I'd rather watch it in that
01:06:54 --> 01:06:57 format for $1 .99 than try to find it on a streamer.
01:06:59 --> 01:07:01 If you can find it. If you can find it, yeah,
01:07:01 --> 01:07:04 which most of the time you can't anyway. But
01:07:04 --> 01:07:08 what does physical ownership add to the experience
01:07:08 --> 01:07:12 of being a movie fan? I think it mostly just
01:07:12 --> 01:07:14 comes down to the ownership. I also just love,
01:07:14 --> 01:07:17 like, We have this weird thing, people like you,
01:07:17 --> 01:07:18 people like myself, we have this weird thing
01:07:18 --> 01:07:25 where there is a habitual comfort in I'm coming
01:07:25 --> 01:07:27 into the movie room, I'm grabbing it from the
01:07:27 --> 01:07:29 shelf, I'm looking at the artwork, I'm taking
01:07:29 --> 01:07:32 the disc out, I'm putting it in the player. I
01:07:32 --> 01:07:35 have two remotes in my hand when I sit down,
01:07:35 --> 01:07:37 one for the TV, one for the player. I get to
01:07:37 --> 01:07:40 click play. There's something habitual about
01:07:40 --> 01:07:42 that. I feel like I'm getting ready for a movie.
01:07:42 --> 01:07:45 Whereas on streaming... It's like, oh, I found
01:07:45 --> 01:07:47 it. I click one button and then I'm in it. And
01:07:47 --> 01:07:50 then I'm going to get interrupted every 15 minutes
01:07:50 --> 01:07:52 with an ad anyway, because I refuse to pay full
01:07:52 --> 01:07:55 price for these streaming services. So there's
01:07:55 --> 01:07:57 something different about it, man. There's something
01:07:57 --> 01:07:59 that's really comforting in the analog, in the
01:07:59 --> 01:08:03 work that you have to put in to watch it. And
01:08:03 --> 01:08:06 maybe that's weird. Maybe that's like a weird
01:08:06 --> 01:08:09 like OCD thing of mine, but it's part of the
01:08:09 --> 01:08:22 process, I think. The physical cut presents Scream
01:08:22 --> 01:08:30 at 30. Chris, before we close up this conversation
01:08:30 --> 01:08:34 and tell people where to follow you, since we
01:08:34 --> 01:08:36 spend this whole conversation talking about Letterboxd
01:08:36 --> 01:08:40 and ratings and how movies develop reputation
01:08:40 --> 01:08:45 online, I want to look at Scream through the
01:08:45 --> 01:08:49 lens of... Letterboxd and social media. If you
01:08:49 --> 01:08:52 put Scream on Letterboxd today, what rating are
01:08:52 --> 01:08:57 you giving it? It depends on how you want to
01:08:57 --> 01:09:00 look at it. Scream is a landmark film. It changed.
01:09:01 --> 01:09:03 Wes Craven did it three times where he completely
01:09:03 --> 01:09:07 changed an industry, right? Scream is a movie
01:09:07 --> 01:09:11 that I appreciate more than I enjoy. I wasn't
01:09:11 --> 01:09:15 a Scream kid. That wasn't my franchise when I
01:09:15 --> 01:09:17 was... eight years old when that movie came out
01:09:17 --> 01:09:20 i didn't get into it as much as other people
01:09:20 --> 01:09:21 did it's something that i kind of learned as
01:09:21 --> 01:09:24 i went on and actually i think my favorite scream
01:09:24 --> 01:09:27 movie isn't even the original so now it would
01:09:27 --> 01:09:31 probably be like a 3 .5 out of 5 if i had to
01:09:31 --> 01:09:34 watch it through like a today lens that's probably
01:09:34 --> 01:09:36 what i would put it well run it is one of my
01:09:36 --> 01:09:38 favorites and it still doesn't have a 5 rating
01:09:38 --> 01:09:41 Like, it takes a lot for a film to have a fight
01:09:41 --> 01:09:44 written for me. So it's like, 3 .5, that's high
01:09:44 --> 01:09:47 for somebody who's not a killer fan of the film
01:09:47 --> 01:09:50 itself. Do you think Letterboxd generations see
01:09:50 --> 01:09:54 Scream differently than people who originally
01:09:54 --> 01:09:57 experienced the film in that era? Not even necessarily
01:09:57 --> 01:10:01 in 1996, but yeah. You have to think of the context.
01:10:01 --> 01:10:04 1996, when that came out. Horror was pretty much
01:10:04 --> 01:10:07 dead for a couple of years. Once the major franchises
01:10:07 --> 01:10:10 kind of died off and you kind of had a little
01:10:10 --> 01:10:13 bit of a dead period there and suddenly this
01:10:13 --> 01:10:17 movie comes out that is funny and it's self -referential
01:10:17 --> 01:10:21 and it's kind of looking at an entire genre from
01:10:21 --> 01:10:24 a way that's never been looked at before. And
01:10:24 --> 01:10:26 the thing about Scream that a lot of people don't
01:10:26 --> 01:10:28 know is that it actually wasn't successful on
01:10:28 --> 01:10:30 the first weekend. It was one of the few movies
01:10:30 --> 01:10:33 that became more successful as word of mouth
01:10:33 --> 01:10:35 continued to push it. So each weekend it grew
01:10:35 --> 01:10:38 and more people started seeing it, more people
01:10:38 --> 01:10:40 started seeing it. But it also appealed to a
01:10:40 --> 01:10:43 younger generation because it sounds silly to
01:10:43 --> 01:10:45 say now, but in the 90s, that movie was hip.
01:10:45 --> 01:10:50 It was cool. It touched. a generation that never
01:10:50 --> 01:10:54 really had anything for them before in this style.
01:10:55 --> 01:10:59 And at the time, man, it was pretty scary to
01:10:59 --> 01:11:01 think like you're going to get a phone call from
01:11:01 --> 01:11:03 a voice who is actually right outside of your
01:11:03 --> 01:11:06 house that could kill you or that could kill
01:11:06 --> 01:11:08 your friend or that somebody in your school could
01:11:08 --> 01:11:10 be committing these or it was your best friends.
01:11:10 --> 01:11:12 It was people in your friend group who were doing
01:11:12 --> 01:11:14 this. And what's really funny looking back at
01:11:14 --> 01:11:19 it is that Billy and Stu were kind of like, This
01:11:19 --> 01:11:22 was a whole thing for like attention, basically,
01:11:22 --> 01:11:25 right? They were doing this because of the legacy
01:11:25 --> 01:11:27 that was going to be left behind and that they're
01:11:27 --> 01:11:29 going to get popular and they're going to be
01:11:29 --> 01:11:31 the survivors and that's going to gain them a
01:11:31 --> 01:11:33 lot of attention or they're going to be this.
01:11:33 --> 01:11:36 And it's really interesting when you look back
01:11:36 --> 01:11:41 at it through that lens. But I do think Scream
01:11:41 --> 01:11:44 ushered in one of the weakest eras for horror
01:11:44 --> 01:11:49 in history. I think a lot of movies tried to
01:11:49 --> 01:11:53 be Scream, and that run of like 1997 to 2002,
01:11:53 --> 01:11:57 before you got into horror remakes, is not a
01:11:57 --> 01:11:59 period that I reflect on with a lot of positivity.
01:12:00 --> 01:12:04 Take the good with the bad. I think that, I think
01:12:04 --> 01:12:07 when you look at it today and you look back,
01:12:07 --> 01:12:11 it feels different than it did when people were
01:12:11 --> 01:12:13 seeing it for the first time back then because
01:12:13 --> 01:12:16 it was so fresh. It was so original for then.
01:12:17 --> 01:12:19 But now looking back, if you look at it through
01:12:19 --> 01:12:22 the eyes of like where the genre was at the time,
01:12:22 --> 01:12:25 yeah, it was impressive, but it kind of was a
01:12:25 --> 01:12:29 trend that came and went pretty quickly. You
01:12:29 --> 01:12:31 know what I mean? Yeah, I feel like the reputation,
01:12:31 --> 01:12:34 I wouldn't say changed, but just because at least
01:12:34 --> 01:12:37 us as horror fans or at least those who collect
01:12:37 --> 01:12:39 horror have been discussing the movies so much
01:12:39 --> 01:12:42 online. So I feel like the reputation itself
01:12:42 --> 01:12:44 kind of changed sometimes for good. Some people
01:12:44 --> 01:12:48 didn't. really not necessarily know of the film.
01:12:48 --> 01:12:50 There's still a few people out there that I speak
01:12:50 --> 01:12:52 to that have never seen it. But I feel that because
01:12:52 --> 01:12:55 of the resurgence that horror is having, they're
01:12:55 --> 01:12:58 kind of getting too, they're kind of getting
01:12:58 --> 01:13:00 slowly into Scream. So far, they're kind of like,
01:13:00 --> 01:13:03 and I still not what you did last summer, but
01:13:03 --> 01:13:05 they're slowly making their way into Scream.
01:13:05 --> 01:13:09 Do you think that Scream still feel like a movie
01:13:09 --> 01:13:12 that people are discovering? Or do you think
01:13:12 --> 01:13:15 that Scream has already become part? of the horror
01:13:15 --> 01:13:20 canon I think every movie is still in a stage
01:13:20 --> 01:13:24 of discovery for somebody but just go to your
01:13:24 --> 01:13:27 local spirit Halloween and you can pretty much
01:13:27 --> 01:13:29 answer that question where everything is either
01:13:29 --> 01:13:33 ghost faced or art the clown it's really crazy
01:13:33 --> 01:13:39 when you look at what takes off on a like a pop
01:13:39 --> 01:13:42 culture level and you realize that it kind of
01:13:42 --> 01:13:46 becomes everything to people it really like they
01:13:46 --> 01:13:50 they embody it in a in a really crazy way where
01:13:50 --> 01:13:52 like if you go to a horror convention count the
01:13:52 --> 01:13:55 amount of scream merchandise count the amount
01:13:55 --> 01:13:58 of art the clown merchandise you see compared
01:13:58 --> 01:14:02 to the numbers of any other popular genre i think
01:14:02 --> 01:14:05 sure like probably the 13th is popular but that's
01:14:05 --> 01:14:09 popular among a certain age group That's maybe
01:14:09 --> 01:14:12 not as forward about their love for it. People
01:14:12 --> 01:14:14 obviously are. You do see Jason Voorhees on a
01:14:14 --> 01:14:16 lot of stuff, but nowhere near the amount of
01:14:16 --> 01:14:19 stuff that you see Ghostface or Art the Clown.
01:14:19 --> 01:14:22 Those are kind of the two that are like every
01:14:22 --> 01:14:25 single person who's into horror. I have an Art
01:14:25 --> 01:14:28 the Clown LED light right here that I think is
01:14:28 --> 01:14:30 dope, right? Like I really, I dig this. It's
01:14:30 --> 01:14:32 a cool light for the background. Those movies
01:14:32 --> 01:14:35 are, I enjoy those movies. I personally think
01:14:35 --> 01:14:39 there's probably. a couple thousand other movies
01:14:39 --> 01:14:42 that deserve more attention, but nobody will
01:14:42 --> 01:14:44 ever give those movies the attention because
01:14:44 --> 01:14:45 they don't have that mass appeal. Yeah, I don't
01:14:45 --> 01:14:47 think a lot of people walk around conventions
01:14:47 --> 01:14:53 with leather face. Some people do. Oh, no, yeah,
01:14:53 --> 01:14:56 but they got to get very creative. At least it's
01:14:56 --> 01:14:59 a lot of detail into that. It's interesting because
01:14:59 --> 01:15:02 if you could come into my movie room, there's...
01:15:03 --> 01:15:05 So in front of me, there's three posters. There's
01:15:05 --> 01:15:08 one for The Last House on the left. There's one
01:15:08 --> 01:15:10 for Carrie, and there's one for The Mutilator.
01:15:11 --> 01:15:13 There's posters for Dario Argento's Tenebrae
01:15:13 --> 01:15:16 and Henry's Portrait of a Serial Killer. So not
01:15:16 --> 01:15:21 exactly the most culturally appropriate choices
01:15:21 --> 01:15:27 for horror fans, I think. Not to be like, oh,
01:15:27 --> 01:15:30 I'm edgy because I watch movies that people don't.
01:15:30 --> 01:15:32 I just think that these are movies that are important
01:15:32 --> 01:15:36 to me. They deserve the same attention as the
01:15:36 --> 01:15:39 big guys do. And I'll keep fighting to give them
01:15:39 --> 01:15:41 the attention. Yeah. They're not necessarily
01:15:41 --> 01:15:44 the most viral ones, but sometimes there are,
01:15:45 --> 01:15:47 you can learn a lot from them too. Because sometimes
01:15:47 --> 01:15:50 you see a lot of influence coming out of those
01:15:50 --> 01:15:54 films. And it doesn't matter how much people
01:15:54 --> 01:15:55 don't pay attention to them. They're still going
01:15:55 --> 01:15:58 to be part of history. Well, people will look
01:15:58 --> 01:16:01 at Wes Craven's Scream and talk about how much
01:16:01 --> 01:16:03 they love Wes Craven. But then they gawk at Last
01:16:03 --> 01:16:07 House on the Left, which he directed. I mean,
01:16:07 --> 01:16:10 which he co -wrote and directed. So there is
01:16:10 --> 01:16:14 a little bit of kind of choosing what you want
01:16:14 --> 01:16:17 to stand for from directors or filmmakers that
01:16:17 --> 01:16:20 you admire. The same guy who makes one of the
01:16:20 --> 01:16:24 darkest rape revenge films ever made also went
01:16:24 --> 01:16:25 on to do Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream.
01:16:25 --> 01:16:27 And we can talk about those on the same conversation.
01:16:28 --> 01:16:31 We can give each of them a lot of positive attention
01:16:31 --> 01:16:33 without saying, oh, that one's bad, but these
01:16:33 --> 01:16:38 ones deserve more than that. Well, Chris, I really
01:16:38 --> 01:16:40 enjoyed having you here today. But before we
01:16:40 --> 01:16:43 go, I do ask that you please let our listeners
01:16:43 --> 01:16:45 know where they can find you, where they can
01:16:45 --> 01:16:49 listen to Beyond the Blood. And if you have anything
01:16:49 --> 01:16:51 coming up that you would like to have people
01:16:51 --> 01:16:55 know, please, the floor is yours. Yeah, well,
01:16:55 --> 01:16:56 first of all, thank you very much, man. Thank
01:16:56 --> 01:16:59 you for having this discussion with me. Thank
01:16:59 --> 01:17:01 you for having me on, man. I'm always on Instagram
01:17:01 --> 01:17:04 at Bearded Film Guy. Beyond the Blood podcast
01:17:04 --> 01:17:08 is available on every podcast network all around
01:17:08 --> 01:17:10 the world. So wherever you find your podcast,
01:17:10 --> 01:17:12 you'll be able to find Beyond the Blood. We're
01:17:12 --> 01:17:14 part of the Someone's Favorite Productions podcast
01:17:14 --> 01:17:17 network. I also want people to go and follow
01:17:17 --> 01:17:20 my co -host, Steve. He's at After Hours Video
01:17:20 --> 01:17:23 on Instagram. He is... Absolutely incredible.
01:17:23 --> 01:17:26 The show wouldn't exist without him and what
01:17:26 --> 01:17:30 he incorporates into it. I'm forever the most
01:17:30 --> 01:17:33 thankful to have him as a partner in this. And
01:17:33 --> 01:17:34 honestly, right now, man, I'm not really working
01:17:34 --> 01:17:36 on too much. We're working on a new episode.
01:17:36 --> 01:17:38 Our next commentary episode we're doing, we're
01:17:38 --> 01:17:41 going to talk about The Guest, the Dan Stevens,
01:17:41 --> 01:17:45 Adam Wingard movie. Kind of because of the new,
01:17:45 --> 01:17:48 I guess, like pseudo -sequel onslaught is coming
01:17:48 --> 01:17:50 out. So we're going to go back and talk about
01:17:50 --> 01:17:53 The Guest. And yeah, it's really about it, man.
01:17:53 --> 01:17:55 I'm always just trying to make cool videos over
01:17:55 --> 01:17:58 on Instagram. So if you're into that, I'd love
01:17:58 --> 01:18:00 for you to go check that out. Yeah, they're very
01:18:00 --> 01:18:02 moody. They create a whole mood and atmosphere.
01:18:03 --> 01:18:08 Thank you so much, Chris Higgins, a .k .a. Bearded
01:18:08 --> 01:18:10 Film Guy. And don't forget, you can follow The
01:18:10 --> 01:18:13 Physical Cut on Instagram at thephysicalcutpod.
01:18:13 --> 01:18:16 Also, you can find us at k -r -p -o -d -l -a
01:18:16 --> 01:18:20 -b .com. That's k -r -potlab .com. This has been
01:18:20 --> 01:18:22 The Physical Cut, where films live beyond the
01:18:22 --> 01:18:24 stream. I will see you guys next time.