Weekend Watchlist: Knock at the Cabin, 80 for Brady and Godland
MITCHELL Welcome one and all to Weekend Watchlist—a look at what’s screening and streaming brought to you by The Letterboxd Show. I’m Mitchell, she’s a Mia…
MIA Hello!
MITCHELL He’s Slim…
SLIM Yello!
MITCHELL And together we’ll dig through what’s dropping this weekend, last weekend, last month, recent trends on Letterboxd and we’ll also take a peek at our own watchlist during our January break. This show is normally, we promise we are going to get back to 30 minutes, I know everybody’s complaining, “too long, Weekend Watchlist, it’s only supposed to be half an hour. I listen to it on my drive, my drive is exactly half an hour. Why would you do longer?” But we have all three hosts again for this episode, so that means no refunds if we go over. Slim has demanded at least two hours on his 80 for Brady review.
SLIM Just wait until I talk about 80 for Brady, for god sake. Mitchell, Mia, the three of us are back in the studio together for the first time since last year and for folks listening for the first time, this podcast is a way to help you hear what is coming out and what the heck you should watch next.
MIA That is correct, Slim. I am the West Coast Editor, prestigious title of Letterboxd, and Mitchell here is Senior Editor and Slim... we are still not sure how he weaseled his way into Letterboxd but I think it was because he just kept commenting, “Are you hiring?” on all of our socials and that did the trick.
SLIM Don’t tell people that works! We’d be screwed.
MIA But yes, yes we do our best to share what our community is saying about movies. So not only will we cover Knock at the Cabin—knock, knock—but we’ll also cover 80 for Brady, the movie that is sweeping a certain demographic and Godland.
SLIM And from there we’ll dig into your community reviews tagged Weekend Watchlist on Letterboxd, how our own watchlists fared during our time off, and we just might highlight new movies that some folks have seen especially during Sundance.
MITCHELL Do you guys hear that? Do you guys hear that? Is that coming in for you guys?
SLIM No.
MITCHELL I think it’s... Do you guys hear that? Sounds like... maybe a knock at the cabin?
MIA Weird!
MITCHELL Knock at the Cabin directed by M. Night Shyamalan on 43,000 watchlists.
MIA Oh man, we better get on that door Mitchell!
MITCHELL
M Night? Hello? Hello, Mr. Shyamalan, you are here with a new movie? Distributing in theaters wide this weekend? The synopsis for your new movie, Night, who is in my room right now walking, vacationing at a remote cabin. “A young girl and her parents are taken hostage by four armed strangers who demanded the family make an unthinkable choice to avert the apocalypse. With limited access to the outside world the family must decide what they believe before all is lost.” Sounds intense. Mia, I know you have seen this new film from M Night Shyamalan. What are your thoughts on Knock at the Cabin?
MIA It’s true. I did see the knocking on a sacred cabin. Oh man, I’m so, I’m really proud of that one. And once you see it, you’ll understand. But, yeah, this was this was an R-rated M Night, which is wild. Honestly, I thought it was PG-13 the entire time I was watching it and it probably should have been even. Old was scarier and it had more graphic scenes. But I ultimately though, I was never bored. I surrendered myself to the silliness. The plot is ridiculous. And it falls apart if you think about it for more than five seconds. And there are some strange Christian themes that really reminded me of like those, you know, like progressive churches that fly pride flags and have little jokey marquees. Like that’s kind of what this movie is. So ultimately, I understand hating it but I also understand enjoying it like again as I said I was I was never bored. I had a great time so I’m comfortably in the middle. Three stars from me!
SLIM Three stars from Mia. M Night, Philly boy, Mitchell. Where do you stand on M Night?
MITCHELL That’s right, big Philly, big Philly man. We gotta represent you know, I mean, I know you’re Philly specifically, I’m around there. I’m close enough. I’m close enough. I’ve been in the same buildings that M Night has been in, I guarantee it. I was a very big fan of like his big kind of early run of like The Sixth Sense through The Village. I really love those movies. And then like most people I fell off the wagon with him a little bit. It took me, I know people were hyped about The Visit and Split, I didn’t really like those movies but Old, really got me back I love Old and I agree with Mia. I mean, I haven’t seen Knock at the Cabin, but it’s interesting that this is you know, R, saying that it doesn’t really make sense that it is whereas Old, PG-13 and like Old feels like an R0rated movie to me, like that movie is intense. And the contorting scenes and just like the stuff that happens with bodies in that movie. It’s upsetting but I’ve watched it many times and I will watch it many more. So I’m like I’m fully back on the M Night train. I’m very excited for Knock at the Cabin. What about you Philly man?
SLIM I did like Old. I had fun with Old. I my—I took Amanda and my son James to see it. It was a family outing. So that’s why I was curious what the situation is with this being rated R. Because James has seen ads for it. And actually this is the first time I’ve ever had to think about this. But I was like, what if I do try to take my son, my twelve-year-old son to an R-rated movie? Like what are the laws? What are the bylaws at a theater? Would they just kick me out?
MITCHELL Nobody’s gonna stop you.
MIA You’re allowed. You could do it.
SLIMIs that true? Is that real?
MIAYes, you can take your kid if you’re a guardian, but you can’t take them to NC-17. So you can’t see Infinity Pool.
SLIM I thought that was like PG-13? Or is that just Parental Guidance suggested for under thirteen?
MITCHELL Yeah, PG-13 I think anybody can go to. We’re breaking down the NDA standards here.
SLIM They’ve been waiting to get this answer for their children.
MITCHELL R, if you’re with somebody who’s like over 21, you can go to see an R. That’s why when I would see, when my friends and I who were all sixteen, fifteen, when we saw Snakes on a Plane, we had to convince an older couple who were just there, strangers at the theater to buy our tickets for us. We gave them the money to buy our tickets for us and say that they were our guardians, which they lovingly did and we all went and saw Snakes on a Plane. Weird movie.
SLIM That’s like the geeky version of paying someone to buy you beer at at a convenience store. Like can you just walk in with us to this R-rated movie?
**MITCHELL ”**Hey, hey, Mr. We’re all trying to see Snakes on a Plane... Would you pretend to be my dad?”
SLIM So Flynn on Letterboxd also saw Knock at the Cabin. “rupert’s performance made me stop saying that’s ron from harry potter and start saying that’s redmond from knock at the cabin.” So Flynn was on the red carpet for this premiere and she asked the stars, she talked to all of them. She asked them what their fav M Night movie is. So let’s hear from now friend of the show, Dave Bautista...
DAVE BAUTISTA It’s Sixth Sense. Yeah, all day long it’s Sixth Sense. Yeah, and I say that because I watching it and I how I reacted to it. And I the way I felt about it. I the way I kind of picked it apart and I going back and watching it again feeling kind of the same way and knowing the end but still watching the way the movie was shot, watching the way the performances were and how everything built and how they went back and told the story that led up to the ending. And sorry, but that’s just how much I processed, that’s how much I love this film.
SLIM Bautista, the greatest living, professional wrestler turned actor? Easily, right?
MITCHELL Oh 100%. Easy, easy. Stuber? My man from Stuber? Dave Bautista! People might think that’s a joke. Stuber is kind of a good movie.
SLIM Love that review, the byline: “kind of a good movie!” We need those Letterboxd stickers with just the most lukewarm statements and them be like, “Okay, yeah, I’ll watch this.”
MIA It’s really time to move on to 80 for Brady. I’ve had enough of this Knocking at the Cabin. We got to that football on over to these octogenarians. So 80 for Brady, that is on only 3.4 thousand watchlists. Come on, let’s bump those numbers up. It has a 3.4 average rating as of now, which is higher than Knock at the Cabin, I’ll say. And it’s coming out wide in theaters of course. The synopsis is: “A quartet of elderly best friends decide to live life to the fullest by taking a wild trip to the Super Bowl 51 to see their hero Tom Brady play.” That’s right. It’s a period piece set in 2017.
SLIM Period piece, I can’t believe you just said that.
MITCHELL I mean huge period piece. Now this is officially as of breaking news from this morning, Tom Brady has announced his retirement. So 80 for Brady, I think the movie that broke Tom Brady.
MIA And we gotta give it credit for that.
MITCHELL This movie came out, he said I can’t do it anymore.
SLIM He said I can never top what has happened last night in theaters.
MITCHELL This is a man who has avoided time with his family for decades, he has ruined his family for football, allegedly.
SLIM Allegedly. We cannot afford a podcast lawsuit right now against the three of us.
MITCHELL Slim, of the three of us, you have seen the 80 for Brady. So I mean, I’ll let you get into about it, but four and a half star review I’ve seen on your Letterboxd. So tell us about the Brady.
SLIM People doing double takes, triple takes, with their headphones, they’re like moving their glasses up and down. They’re not even looking at anything but they’re very confused. I had an amazing time last night. King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, packed screening. I got there with like 25 minutes, twenty minutes ahead of the screening. Packed. Everyone there in their seat ready to go. A little bit of an older crowd, I’ll say that. But I think you could probably guess that. Judging by our low watchlist data and you know, the scuttlebutt for this movie. But I had an amazing time. This movie could easily be a dud and it just looks like a dud. Like, let’s be frank with each other. It looks like it’s not gonna be fun. But it was fun! I was cracking up. It had heart, it had great writing. I would trust these women with my life, these four women.
MITCHELL I see the backdrop on Letterboxd is a Guy Fieri appearance. I didn’t know that he was in this movie.
SLIM There’s a lot of great cameos in this. You know, if this were another comedy, hot mainstream comedy, you’d get like Taika Waititi doing a bit and it would just be like fallen flat on its face. But in this movie, you do get cameos and it just felt great. Like I thought the writing was snappy. The editing was hilarious. There’s a few dance numbers and yeah, I shed a tear. I’ll be honest with you.
MIA The dance numbers are very intriguing to me.
MITCHELL Yeah. I was very excited when I saw the release a single recently with Dolly Parton, Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Harry, Belinda Carlisle and Gloria Estefan, all on the track. This movie is just bringing in these icons, these iconic women and just I don’t know if it’s Tom Brady, I don’t know if—I feel like one of them. One of them was in it. And then they just brought in everybody else because why wouldn’t you? They’re all pals, they’re all having a fun time. And I’m excited for it. I don’t know if there has been a time where I have gone so quickly from having no idea of movie a existed to it being like at the top of my watchlist, and when the poster for this first drop, and I thought it was a joke. And then I looked up and it was a real movie, and I’m very excited to see it. I’m bummed that I won’t be able to see it in the theater, but I will have fun watching it in my apartment, my apartment where it is known as a Lady Last Vegas. And I think it’s going to be way better than that movie.
SLIM I will say, I think this is a Paramount movie. So if I had to guess, this could be on Paramount+ in less than three days.
MITCHELL Let’s go Paramount, give it to me.
MIA I just want to say that they reunited all the Nine to Five girlies for this one. Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton for the soundtrack. And that really freaks me out because like the target demo for this cast would be elderly people and gays, but you lose the gay audience by making it about football. So I just, I’m like what is going on here? This doesn’t make any sense. I’m afraid!
MITCHELL But now we know that it’s the movie that has destroyed Tom Brady.
MIAExactly.
SLIM It’s breaking down walls and uniting various groups of people. So what more could you ask for in a major motion picture in 2023? Emma left a review: “Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno and Sally Field sat down with the president of Paramount and said “We want to make history”…. and that’s what this is.” Well said Emma.
MITCHELL It’s in the record books. They’re going to study this in schools.
MIA They’re gonna preserve it in the National Library.
SLIM Okay, let’s move on to our final big new release that we’ll spotlight. Godland from Hlynur Pálmason, 20,000 watchlists. 3.7 average. This is in theaters. “In the late 19th century a young Danish priest travels to a remote part of Iceland to build a church and photograph its people. But the deeper he goes into the unforgiving landscape, the more he strays from his purpose, the mission and morality.” So I actually did see this one as well in advance, it’s probably the best looking movie I’ve seen all year. It’s lush, it’s gorgeous. It takes place in like these beautiful Icelandic landscapes. This is one of those movies where I feel like the director is probably an amazing photographer, just because of how it looks. But Mitchell, have you heard of this movie? Because it’s out on 20,000 watchlists, so it feels like it’s finally getting a U.S. release?
MITCHELL Yeah, I have heard of it. It’s definitely been one kind of on the radar, I think Jack told me that it like just missed a few categories in our Year in Review last year, it was doing like a festival rounds last year. And it is one of those ones I really love like the beginning of a year where there is a bunch of you know, big kind of stuff like a Knock at the Cabin and like very like populace fare coming out. But then you get these trickles of these very like acclaimed, very cinephile movies that are finally getting like releases because they didn’t really get, you know, big releases in the US during last year. And so, you know, if you’re, if you’re a cinephile, if you’re looking at Knock at the Cabin, and if you’re looking at 80 for Brady, you’re like I don’t want any of that fluff. You still got very exciting stuff coming out to check out. What about you Mia?
MIA Well, I do the lists for award season for Letterboxd so I’ve been tracking this one. Yeah, inside scoop. I mean it won best picture at the Chicago International Film Festival. And it also got an award for Best Cinematography, as Slim was saying. I’ve heard great things about its landscape cinematography, which is shot by Maria von Hausswolff.
SLIM It’s in 4x3 also it looks like it almost is shot like a picture frame in a way. So very, very high praise for me for that aspect.Robert Daniels left a review: “They do still make movies. Truly amazing work here concerning colonialism and religion’s role in the practice, and the power of being seen and who is chosen to be seen and whose history is recorded.”
MIA Wow, we got three Christian films coming out this week. Big week for Christianity.
SLIM When is not a big week for Christianity, when you think about it.
MITCHELL Christianity, it’s been getting short shrift for too long.
MIA Let’s see what’s going on video on demand. So we have a couple releasing, we got Babylon and M3GAN. They are now rentable on any major streaming platform. So expect a flood of vids of both depraved people and robots dancing.
SLIM Skinamarink is hitting Shudder as of this episode being released, there was a lot of internet buzz about that movie. And we did get a request from a listener asking, “Can you folks add a VOD section so that I know what’s going to be rentable?” I looked online, it is like next to impossible to get a list, an accurate list of when major motion pictures are hitting streaming. You find out the week before pretty much. So I don’t know how often we’ll be able to spotlight something like this. I will say that Pro and Patron , if you have these movies on your watchlist and it hits those services, you get a push notification and an email to remind you. So in lieu of or maybe a recurring segment for something like this, maybe think about upgrading to Pro or Patron.
MITCHELL I’ll put out the call right now for anybody listening, if you want to make a site that tracks when things are coming out on VOD, we will spotlight it every single week, I will shout you out every single week. I will comp you a Patron subscription if you make a website that accurately tracks everything that’s coming out on VOD on all the services, including the iTunes or the Amazon. I will comp you, I promise. That’s binding. It’s on the podcast.
SLIM It’s a binding legal agreement.
MITCHELL For now we’ll move on. Now normally we’d use our next segment to take a look back at the previous week’s releases and see what people have been reviewing, you know, spotlight some reviews tagged Weekend Watchlist, but since it’s been a big month, we’ve been gone for a while. Let’s just kind of take a look back at what we’ve been watching and what the community has been watching as well over this mammoth last month. I think Mia and I both attended a little festival called Sundance in a Park City. But Mia and I maybe watched it from home. We did have Brian and Flynn over at Park City, if you want to check out they got some cool videos on the red carpet talking with people if you want to check those out on our social channels. But Mia, what were some of the big highlights for you from the films that you watch during Sundance?
MIA Ooh, so I managed to fit in about 12 or so features and my favorites were Beyond Utopia, which is a documentary about North Korean defectors and The Disappearance of Shere Hite, which is about a feminist from the ’70s who kind of faded from the public spotlight. Infinity Pool, which we already know about and Rye Lane which is a really, really sweet little romcom and here’s a review from Lizzie that sums it up nicely: “what a fresh take on the classic romcom & possibly the greatest cameo in the history of rom com cameos!!!!!!!” Lizzy I’m backing you up, this cameo made me squeak and scream in my living room. It’s worth it just for that almost. So we discussed all of these films and more in our Best in Show Sundance episode if you want to complete rundown. But for now, let’s toss it to Mitchell. What did you like from the fest?
MITCHELL Yeah, Rye Lane was a delight. I was seeing it kind of blowing up. It wasn’t really on my radar. And then I was seeing it blowing up in the Letterboxd Slack with everybody watching it and loving it. So I checked it out and it is wonderful. I agree with the cameo, I hope that it’s one of those ones that stays. People have been good so far about staying quiet about what who the cameo is. And so I hope that that maintains because it was wonderful. I like the thing too, is that I knew there was a cameo going into it, everybody talking about it. And then I was just so won over by the charm of the movie that I forgot that there even was a cameo allegedly in the movie and then it shows up and I was like holy, holy cannoli. And it’s just a treat and Rye Lane is a film that people will be able to see very soon it comes out in theaters in the UK in the middle of March and then on Hulu in the US and elsewhere at the end of March. So people will be able to check that out soon. Like you, I love Beyond Utopia. I think that dog is absolutely incredible. I hope it gets a really good solid release and people can check it out. My two favorites from the fest were You Hurt My Feelings the new Nicole Holofcener movie with Julia Louis Dreyfus, which is some of the hardest that I’ve laughed in a very long time. And it also, it’s about a woman who’s a writer who discovers that her husband does not like her new book and as somebody who writes predominantly for a living, that’s such a, it hits to the core. And it made me question whether my partner actually does like anything that I write. So that’s just a fun thing to have in my mind for the rest of my life, if there are lies that are all over my existence. But my favorite movie of the festival was ages, the new movie from Ira Sachs, which is about a love triangle between Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw and Adèle Exarchopoulos, and it is very messy and fun and wild and just very emotional. I’ll spotlight a review, Cody Derick’s for ages who says that it is: “Ideal queer cinema in that it skips unnecessary conversations about identity and relationship status that would definitely make up most of this movie if it was made by (or about) straight people. Messy and complicated (and very sexy) I need every outfit Franz Rogowski wears” which I 100% agree with, I want to wear every single thing that that man wears in that movie. Slim, you are not attending Sundance. You were too busy going to 80 for Brady again and again. Checking that out. What have you been catching up with?
SLIM I said no to hanging out with Robert Redford on the slopes. And I said you know what? I’m gonna stay home and watch some filth for the majority of my stay during Sundance. I will spotlight M3GAN. M3GAN is a movie that I went to see with a family in theaters. We had an amazing time. I’m just kind of glad that that was PG-13. I was thinking back to some of my intro to like horror or horror-ish movies. And I think one of my earliest memories is Event Horizon. Was Event Horizon R or PG 13? Maybe I snuck into that.
MITCHELLThat’s a pretty hard R, buddy.
MIAYeah, it’s sexy.
SLIM It is very sexy, very gory. That was like Hellraiser for me growing up. But I was trying to think back of like, what were some of my formative memories? So I’m glad that James, my son, has like a formative memory of having fun seeing a goofy movie like M3GAN. I will spotlight one review, not super positive for M3GAN. Comes from Mitchell, who is on the show right now: “Some fun spurts but kept wishing it would go harder. If you’re gonna make this premise, just effing go for it, man.”
MITCHELL You know, I think Mitchell has some good points there. I mean, it’s fine. It’s fun. I got swept up in M3GAN fever. I was very excited for it. And I wish that I feel like it just should have gone for it. Like the dancing, the dancing bit, it’s in the trailer. It’s just one little moment, have her dance more! Have her be a little weirdo. Like, why? Why are we getting more of that stuff? That stuff where she was just being a real looney tune, I was totally on board for having a blast. But there’s there’s not enough of it. Come on M3GAN. Maybe M3GAN 2, though, I’m still primed. They saw, they already made the movie when people were when it was going viral. People were losing their minds over the dancing and everything. So I think they know what to do for the next one.
SLIM How much of Mitchell’s negative thoughts is maybe revenge for the first line of my review: “Chucky, retire you ginger POS.”
MITCHELL We don’t need to talk about that. If this podcast is going to continue, I think that we just need to put that in a closet and forget it ever happened.
SLIM We’ll move on. We’re rapidly running out of time. But one, I am interested in to spotlight. This isn’t a troll. I didn’t see The Banshees of Inisherin, finally. So I think maybe I had the M3GAN reaction that Mitchell had where the hype machine was nuclear, nuclear hype for this movie. So I did see it. And I thought it was gorgeous. I thought the acting was good. But literally the entire story just kind of, I couldn’t connect with at all. And I know it’s like, “Eh, it’s fable, Slim, it’s a fable.” But that still didn’t really work for me. So I thought that I think I might be the only person, maybe outside—I don’t know if there’s a brave host on the show that maybe also didn’t superduper love it that would want to speak up and stand by my side. But that’s just how I felt about Banshees.
MIA I liked it. I liked it.
MITCHELL Mia loved it.
MIA Well, I said like. I do like it! I gave it four stars and a heart. I like it. I’m not like, “this is a masterpiece and everybody has to see it right now.” But you know, Colin Farrell is a lead, like what am I going to do, not like it?
MITCHELL I thought it was okay.
SLIM Thank you. The bravery right now is deeply inspiring.
MIA We’re very brave for being lukewarm.
SLIM Alright, so let’s move on. Normally, we spotlight the Letterboxd Top 50 of the year. Still pretty early in the year so I thought it might be interesting for us to pull some data. I wasn’t doing SQL queries on the computer today. I was tap tapping away. What are the most watchlisted movies the last week? You know, this is Weekend Watchlist, maybe we should start talking about the billboard like top ten. What are the hot movies getting watchlisted? So I have the list. I didn’t put it in our little doc here. It’s secret right now. But Mia, do you have any guesses as to what could potentially be in this top ten or even the top five most watchlisted movies of the last week?
MIA Most watchlisted in the last week... I would have to guess To Leslie is in there.
SLIM Wrong.
MIANo! Really?
SLIM Not in the top ten.
MIA Wow, there are not as many awards pundits as I thought there were out there. Wow, okay. Mitchell, you guess then. I’m shook up.
MITCHELL I don’t know. I mean, I think that for me, you got to think about like what—have there been a trailers or any like news like dropping for a specific thing? So I wonder if maybe and I don’t know this is very recent, so I don’t know when we got this data. But I know that Batman officially got titled The Batman: Part Two or whatever. So my guess would maybe be maybe that got added in there?
SLIM Also wrong, sadly.
MITCHELLSlim, what are we doing?
SLIM I mean, this is tough, because we’ve never actually thought of, you know, on this podcast, what are the most popular watchlisted movies happening? So I think it’ll be an interesting little experiment to see what’s on this list and we can kind of gauge to see how movies stick around or new ones jump in there.
MITCHELL Give one hint. Give one hint first. For the number one I got it.
SLIM I can’t even say it. I was gonna say something that’d get bleeped. But let me go back, let’s start with the top five and then I’ll drift into what else made the others. So number five, and this is probably related to your comments about award season: All Quiet on the Western Front is our number five on the top ten. So I think you could say is the Oscar fever has hit for a few of these. Aftersun is number four. By the way, Aftersun has just got added 30,000 watchlists in the last week. So that’s pretty nutty. As I mentioned earlier, Knock at the Cabin is on 40-ish thousand. So Aftersun got added to 30 in just the last seven days. Number three, maybe Gemma’s favorite movie of the year, Tár. The buzz is continuing for this movie. Number two, we mentioned it just got added to VOD, Babylon, 35,000 watchlists in the last seven days. And I was going to recite someone’s tweet but it might be too vulgar for this podcast, but the number one movie of the last seven days added to the most watchlist at 42,000 is Infinity Pool.
MITCHELL Ah, see, that makes sense. It’s all because of my tweet, honestly.
SLIM Didn’t you get—we don’t have to get into the details but you might have gotten blocked by like a famous celeb after that tweet went out, right?
MITCHELL Doug Benson...
SLIM I wasn’t going to name him, but okay!
MITCHELLDoug Benson I don’t know what the deal is buddy but, we’re not even—
SLIM
Not only that, but Doug Benson quote tweeted your tweet about Infinity Pool and he had enough, he blocked you after. I’ve never even seen that before.
MITCHELL I don’t even know what the deal is Doug! I hear Doug loves movies, apparently not. Doug doesn’t love them enough because he—my praising tweet for Infinity Pool quote tweeted by Doug Benson who I’ve never interacted with. I don’t even follow, whatever! I don’t care about a Doug Benson. And this son of a gun, he says, “I’M NOT INTO IT.” All caps. And then he blocks me! What’s going on Doug?
SLIM You didn’t even make the movie! You were just writing a social review.
MITCHELL I don’t understand what’s going on Dog. If anybody has a line to Doug and they want to get an answer. I feel like Colin Farrell in Banshees of Inisherin right now. This man just ghosted me out of no where! The biggest beef that’s ever happened right now, Weekend Watchlist versus Doug Loves Movies. Let’s go
SLIM Oh my god, the collapse potential is real. So rounding out the top ten, The Menu was number ten, Triangle of Sadness, number nine. The Fabelmans, believe it or not. Puss in Boots...
MIA Woo!
SLIM And then number six, The Banshees of Inisherin.
MIA Wait, I have to say something about Puss in Boots really, really quick. When I was walking out of Knock at the Cabin last night, there were all these people talking about how great Puss in Boots was, like that was the takeaway after Knock at the Cabin. I was walking out and there was just like a bunch of people like as you’re walking out like, “Puss in Boots was great!” And I think that’s really funny that that was what everybody was talking about after Knock at the Cabin.
SLIM Did DreamWorks pay some actors to walk out of the theater just to talk about Puss in Boots non-stop?
MIA I ed in! I was like, they were strangers. I was like, “I love Puss in Boots, guys.” I’m not even kidding! Making friends.
SLIM So I’m interested to see how much if at all that list changes next week. If it doesn’t change so much, we probably won’t do it weekly. But let’s find out next week.
MITCHELLEvery week, Tar.
SLIM Tar is probably never gonna leave this list for the rest of the year.
MIA Okay, so as we know, we took the entire month of January off to reset and recharge, plus January historically, is not a gigantic month for new releases unless you’re making a Christian film. I’m kidding. I’m kidding. So we thought it would be fun to look at our own stats pages to see how our watchlists fared. How many did each host add? How many did they watch, and we can chat about how we think the year has gotten so far for each of us in of watching movies.
MITCHELL Sounds like a plan. I’ll start with—I’ll check out the stats for Mia and see... Mia, how many films? Let’s go through right now, let’s check it out. Mia, so so far through January, Mia has watched three films that were on your watchlist. You have added nine, so you’re kind of going in the wrong direction.
SLIM Or the right direction depending on who you’re asking.
MITCHELL I mean I’m saying this, we’ll see what my numbers look like. But Mia, watchlist wise, how have you been feeling about January? Do you know what those three films were that were on your watchlist that you marked off of them?
MIA I literally have no idea what they could be. Southland Tales?
MITCHELL There you go.
SLIM Ohhh, Southland Tales. What was your rating? Did you like it? Did you give it a heart?
MIA Yes I did! I gave it four stars and a heart, baby. I’m a Southland Tales apologist. They sing a Killers song in it!
SLIM I haven’t seen that, I think I saw that in theaters and I I might have never wanted to watch a movie again after that movie.
MIA And that’s so fair. That is absolutely fair. This movie is ridiculous. But maybe give it another shot.
SLIM Maybe, maybe. So I have Mitchell’s stats, finally loaded. Mitchell watched 26 movies on their watchlist. And do want to guess Mitchell, how many you added to your watchlist?
MITCHELL I don’t know, man. 50?
SLIM No, a little too low. You added 72 movies to your watchlist. So, making gains.
MITCHELL That sounds about right.
SLIMBig gains on the watchlist this year so far.
MIA You also Popstar twice.
MITCHELL I did watch Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping twice. Those are both rewatches, I might—I’ve considered watching it again. It’s it is a nice movie and it feels good to watch. I don’t know what I’ve been going through. I’ve probably been going through some stuff. There was just moments where I was like, I don’t know. It just feels right to put on Popstar. It’s late at night, I don’t feel like watching anything that’s going to require effort for me. Let’s say that I watched it. I watched it the other day. I’ll watch it again now, it feels good to laugh!
MIA It’s extremely rewatchable, I’ve seen it like maybe ten times. So I’m just saying I’m a fellow Poppy. No, no, sorry. I’m a fellow Style Boy.
MITCHELL Style Boy. Style Boys for life.
MIA Exactly.
MITCHELL Yeah, looking looking at my own stats right now, I’ve watched 64 films this year. I’m averaging 12.8 per week.
SLIM Wow. Is that more than last year? That feels like a lot.
MITCHELL Probably. Like Mia, the Sundance thing. I watched like 25 movies during Sundance because I was just trying to cram them all in there as much as I could. So I think that that’s that’s skewing my numbers a little bit. We’ll see how, we’ll see how things go in February and if those numbers track any differently. Mia, why don’t you dive into Slim stats and see what this man has going on?
MIA Let’s see what’s going on in there. Click. Six films by Tim Heidecker so far. Six films starring Tim Heidecker, Slim. It is the first month of the year.
SLIM The first month of the year. I don’t even know if that’s gonna change.
MITCHELL Every day I see another rewatch of an On Cinema special and I’m like this son of a—this man is going to have Tim Heidecker, it’s the whole year at the top.
SLIM It’s gonna be the same every year for the rest of my life.
MIA Okay also you have a nice seven average per week, that’s a movie per day. That’s healthy.
SLIMLove that.
MITCHELL I... I didn’t know that statement, “that’s healthy.”
SLIM This is a judgement-free zone.
MIA
Judgement-free zone!
MITCHELL
I don’t know, I don’t know if I agree with that!
MIA
Oh, it looks like Slim you watched Opening Night for the first time? The 1977 film?
MITCHELL
What could that have possibly been for?
SLIM Mia, you were a fantastic guest on my other podcast 70mm. We watched Opening Night, we talked about it. I had a great time watching that movie. I gave four and a half stars. Cassavetes.
MIA Same as 80 for Brady.
SLIM It’s the same entertainment quality for me as the viewer.
MITCHELL Interesting how many people here have been on Slim’s other podcast.
SLIM Listen, we have to move on.
MITCHELL I’m feeling a little Doug Benson kind of vibe in the chat right now.
MIA Okay, here’s your watchlist data. You have watched twelve, so congrats.
SLIM Ohhhh, wow. Okay.
MIA That’s pretty good. And then you added 27...
SLIM No! Is that real? I can’t believe I added that many to watchlist. What am I doing?
MITCHELL Welcome to the club.
SLIMDang!
MITCHELL We’re gonna get that watchlist to 2k.
SLIM I have 173, I’m up. I need to fix something here. I need to do something about this. I don’t know how I feel. Alright, let’s check back in later in the year to see how our watchlists have been going. Let us know how your watchlists have been going. We talked about tagging reviews Weekend Watchlist to potentially get spotlighted in the show and this is that particular segment before we wrap up. Chantal left a review for Phantom Thread: “unexpected sexy mushroom content.” What a line. What a line.
MIA Damn right. I don’t know, they’re shaped kind of funny. Something to think about. We have a review from Robert of Infinity Pool, our most watchlisted film: “My intrusive thoughts also sound like Mia Goth.” Her voice in that movie is unreal.
MITCHELL Jamesyyyyy!
MIA Jaaaaames!
SLIM I need to see this damn movie.
MITCHELLYou little babyyyyy!
SLIM Imagine Mia Goth coming on The Letterboxd Show, going through her Four Faves.
MITCHELLMia and Mia?
SLIM Mia on Mia.
MITCHELL Can we? I mean...
SLIM Roundtable. Holy cow. Let’s get PR folks on the horn about this.
[theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM Thanks so much for listening to Weekend Watchlist brought to you by The Letterboxd Show. You can follow Mia, Mitchell, Slim—that’s me—and our HQ page on Letterboxd using the links in our episode notes.
MITCHELL If you had the time, please consider rating the podcasts on Spotify or leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, it helps spread the word about this show.
MIA Thanks to our crew and thanks to Letterboxd member Trent Walton for the theme music Izon, thanks to Jack for the facts and Sophie Shin for the episode transcript and to you, for listening. Weekend Watchlist is a Tapedeck production.
[Tapdeck bumper plays] This is a Tapedeck podcast.