Weekend Watchlist: X, Deep Water and Umma
[Izon by Trent Walton fades in, plays alone, fades out]
MIA Hello! Welcome to Weekend Watchlist, a look at what’s screening and streaming, brought to you by Slim...
SLIM Hi!
MIA And together we’re going to dig through what’s dropping this weekend, last weekend, recent trends on Letterboxd, and then we’re also going to take a peek at our own watchlists.
SLIM Mia, this is your first appearance on this brand new pod, Weekend Watchlist, and your Four Favorites episode dropped this week, which was amazing, if I can be honest with you right now, it was an amazing episode.
MIA Thank you!
SLIM Everyone should check it out. So before we get into X, before we get into Deep Water and Umma, what is the most recent movie you added to your watchlist this week on Letterboxd?
MIA Umma is actually my most recent addition. I’m super excited for it. We’re going to get into that later. But other than that, my watchlist is a lot of newer releases that I just kind of missed. So like, ing, Mass, Parallel Mothers, Belle, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy—which I’m going to be seeing this weekend, that’s by the director of Drive My Car, supposed to be awesome. And then I also found some older movie recently, that’s just about Meg Ryan duct-taping her cheating husband to a toilet right before their home is invaded by burglars. [Slim laughs] It is called Serious Moonlight and I added it purely based off of that description.
SLIM My god!
MIA I think it’s on HBO or something. I was like, whatever, that sounds funny.
SLIM That sounds like a total nightmare of a movie for me to watch. [Mia & Slim laugh]
MIA Yeah. It does not have stellar reviews, I’ll say, but that’s part of the charm.
SLIM Mmm. Okay.
MIA So that’s what I’m up to. What’s your watchlist?
SLIM How many—well, let me look—I want to see your , how many movies you even have on your watchlist.
MIA It’s like 280-something.
SLIM Okay, so that’s not a lot. So I have 300...
MIA Not a lot?! [Slim laughs] What?!
SLIM Mitchell has like a thousand movies on their watchlist.
MIA Okay.
SLIM It’s like, insane. So I just looked at mine. I have 353 movies on there. One that I wanted to call out just based on poster alone, it’s called Bobby Deerfield from 1977. Directed by Sydney Pollack, and Al Pacino is in it and he plays a famous American racecar driver on the European circuit. And he falls in love with someone who’s terminally ill.
MIA Oh no...
SLIM I need you to see this poster right now. I’m gonna DM it to you. Al looks tremendous.
MIA Ah, Al, my king. My Italian king. [Slim laughs] Okay...
SLIM I mean, look at that hair! He’s like a young, old Robert Pattinson.
MIA Young, old Robert Pattinson! This is crazy. Why does it look like—I know he’s on a little racecar outfit, but it looks like it’s some old period piece.
SLIM Right.
MIA Like it looks like a gold painting.
SLIM Doesn’t it make you want to watch that right now?
MIA That’s a gorgeous poster. That’s cool! And 1977, I feel is the best year for cinema.
SLIM It could be.
MIA It’s very good.
SLIM I’m not gonna dispute it. I’m not even gonna give you an opinion on that. I’m just gonna say it could be.
MIA Thank you. Thank you. [Slim & Mia laugh] Just trust me, okay?
SLIM I will have to trust you on our journey together. So X from Ti West is our first movie that’s dropping this weekend that we’re going to spotlight. It’s on 40,000 watchlists right now. And the synopsis is: “In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in a secluded farmhouse in rural Texas. Their reclusive, elderly hosts take a special interest in their young guests and, as night falls in, the couple’s leering interest takes a violent turn.” And you—maybe, just maybe—have seen this movie. What’s the story? What’s the backstory here?
MIA Yes! I did get to go to a special advanced 35mm screening at The New Beverly, shoutout to New Beverly and the very kind A24 staff who let me in even though this was like my first assignment and I was freaking out and they were nice. [Slim laughs] Let me in for free. Shoutout, huge shoutout, I was so stressed.
SLIM Thank you A24.
MIA Thank you A24. But yeah, it was such—it was so fun to watch with a crowd. This is like, you know, a very traditional slasher, but it plays with expectations. They played trailers for Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Prom Night, also starring Brittany Snow, and The House of the Devil, also directed by Ti West, which was fun. That really set the mood. I like when they do that.
SLIM Yeah.
MIA It was really good that they showed the Texas Chainsaw [Massacre] trailer because this movie is very much in that vein, very inspired by it. It’s chock full of a bunch of homages to, you know, classic horror movies like that. Like that one, [The] Evil Dead, The Shining, Psycho, a lot of ’em.
SLIM Wow.
MIA Yeah, yeah. If you like horror, you really should check this one out. Also, Eli Roth surprise showed up for the Q&A and he described it as, “Texas Chainsaw [Massacre] meets Boogie Nights but not gimmicky.” [Slim & Mia laugh]
SLIM That’s a pretty quality pitch. I feel like a lot of people will probably be adding it to their watchlists just based on that sentence alone.
MIA Yes, so that is direct from Eli Roth himself. The production was cool. It was filmed in New Zealand. Heyyy Letterboxd!
SLIM Oh my.
MIA And they use the same workshop that Avatar used, that [The] Lord the Rings used. It’s called Weta. So like it’s all practical, the gore and effects are all practical. It’s super cool to see that. The love for the genre really, really shined through.
SLIM There’s a lot of buzz about this movie. I mean, even our Letterboxd Slack, I’m getting pretty annoyed that I haven’t seen this GD movie yet. [Mia laughs] So hopefully I can see it this this weekend. [The] House of the Devil you had mentioned, I enjoyed that. I think that was probably the first time I’ve ever even heard of Greta Gerwig, from Ti West.
MIA Yes! Yes, that was actually how I discovered it was when I was discovering Greta Gerwig and I saw, “Oh, she’s on a horror movie. That’s cool. I love horror.” So that’s how I checked it out. And I did enjoy [The] House of the Devil. I do quite like that one. It’s fun. She eats pizza in it. [Mia & Slim laugh] That’s the main thing I . There’s a fun scene where she eats pizza. I don’t know.
SLIM Maybe date night, I’ll see X with my lovely wife.
MIA Oooh! Yes. It’s very fun to see with a crowd, I also want to say. The crowd reaction was so much fun. And it’s also opening on 2,500 screens in the US.
SLIM Cripes.
MIA So it should be pretty accessible. Very fun to watch on the big screen. It’s pretty horny, so watch out for that. Not necessarily erotic... There’s a big difference between horny and erotic, at least to me.
SLIM Yes.
MIA And speaking of erotic... a traditionally erotic movie, Deep Water is also dropping.
SLIM Deep Water, I’ve heard so much about this movie. “Vic and Melinda Van Allen are a couple in the small town of Little Wesley. Their loveless marriage is held together only by a precarious arrangement whereby, in order to avoid the messiness of divorce, Melinda is allowed to take a number of lovers as long as she does not desert her family.” So this is dropping on Hulu this weekend. This is on 15,000 watchlists. Adrian Lyne directed this film. And this one has an interesting backstory, right? Like this one was supposed to come out a while ago, then it got dropped by the distributor, and then it’s kind of like almost unceremoniously dropped on Hulu, which I’m all for, I can watch that at home.
MIA The main thing I know about this movie is, you know, the tragic Ben Affleck, Ana de Armas relationship.
SLIM Yeah.
MIA That is... no longer in the works. So I feel like they just kind of dumped it because, you know, neither Ben or Ana want to promote it, which I totally understand. I would not want to do promotion with my ex, especially if he’s with J.Lo! Are you kidding? [Mia & Slim laugh]
SLIM Most awkward press tour of all time probably.
MIA No, that would be terrible. Yeah, so I understand why they don’t really want to do press. I get that. I haven’t been able to see it. But I think that that’s the main thing that people are going to be thinking about. It also reminds me of Gone Girl, only because Ben Affleck and, you know, like thriller-type-thing.
SLIM Right. Shady-ish character.
MIA Yeah.
SLIM Gone Girl vibes come to mind.
MIA Yes. It kind of has a little bit of Gone Girl vibes, which, you know, I will watch anything that has Gone Girl vibes, so I’ll probably check it out. [Mia laughs]
SLIM When we’re talking about this movie, I was thinking of other, you know, sensual, erotic movies, like mainstream movies that had come out. And the first one that came to mind was, believe it or not, the first time I watched Basic Instinct was like, two years ago.
MIA [whispers] I still haven’t seen...
SLIM Oh my! You haven’t seen it?
MIA [whispers] I know... I’m whispering it so people don’t get mad at me.
SLIM Nobody listening to this podcast can hear you if you’re whispering to me!
MIA They can’t hear me if I whisper that I haven’t seen it yet. [Slim laughs]
SLIM There are some scenes in Basic Instinct, let just tell you dear listener, you better close those blinds my friend. Make sure no one is walking by during the beginning and many parts of that movie. So, just a word to the wise.
MIA I do want to see it. I like erotic thrillers and I miss erotic thrillers. I feel like there hasn’t been a ton of erotica in mainstream films lately. I don’t know if that’s because of Covid or, I don’t know, weird puritanical beliefs. But some of my favorite sensual cinema is ah Bound by the Wachowski sisters.
SLIM Ohhhh.
MIA Oh, that one’s awesome!
SLIM Believe it or not, I have not seen that one. [Mia gasps]
MIA Okay!
SLIM So we’re even now.
MIA Okay! That one’s great. That’s a fun be-gay-do-crime one.
SLIM Yeah.
MIA So Bound, Secretary with Maggie Gyllenhaal and certified freak James Spader. That one’s fun. Out of Sight, George Clooney and J.Lo.
SLIM Ohhh speaking of J.Lo.
MIA Speaking of J.Lo. And then this one is just for the Rob-sessed. Bel Ami starring Robert Pattinson, is not a movie I would call good, but it is his movie I would call sensual. So if you’re Rob-sessed, checkout Bel Ami, it’s just him boning his way through Paris. [Slim laughs] Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci and Kristin Scott Thomas.
SLIM Wow. I need to check the watchlist data from the day we record to the data’s episode drops for that movie, because that pitch—“Rob Pattinson boning his way through Paris”—I feel like, it just shot off the charts, in my opinion.
MIA Yes, I mean, that is literally what it’s about. And there are women of all different ages too, like age-appropriate, older and even older. So...
SLIM Wow. Good for Rob.
MIA Yeah, good for Rob! Good for him!
SLIM So that’s Deep Water, that’s on 15,000 watchlists. I’m eager to see the response to this movie. I did see a little bit of vibes from the film Twitter. I think some reviewers got access to the movie. So, we’ll see. I’m excited to watch but we have another film we need to get to this week. And Sandra Oh has had a movie dropped last week with Turning Red, which we’ll touch on in a little bit. But she also stars in our next movie, Umma from Iris K. Shim. This is hitting theaters, and this is on 8,000 watchlists.
MIA Yeah, so Umma is about a woman named Amanda played by Sandra Oh, and she and her daughter live a quiet life on an American farm. But when the remains of her estranged mother arrived from Korea, Amanda becomes haunted by the fear of turning into her own mother. I’m super excited for this one, I want to say. I’m kind of bummed it’s not getting a ton of publicity, because it seems really cool. The trailer’s awesome. It’s an original supernatural horror movie, which is also awesome. And it’s produced by the Sam Raimi.
SLIM The king.
MIA The king! He’s so much fun. Malignant was fun, which was also produced by him. That’s a fan favorite. So I’m excited for it. Haven’t seen it yet. But I really want to see it opening weekend to it. Again, because it’s also written and directed by an Asian woman, which is just so cool, Iris K. Shim. And it also seems to tackle the subject of Asian-mommy issues, which I know I have. And I say that with love and respect for my mother, I love you very much, mom. [Mia laughs] So yeah, much like Turning Red too. And I think that that’s just a really interesting subject, which again, we’ll get into later. But...
SLIM Yeah, I’m all for supernatural thrillers. And I feel like we didn’t even get the trailer for this movie until like a month ago. So this is one of those cases where, you know, why not drop this on an HBO Max to help spread the word? Make it more accessible. So I do hope people check this out, because I love supernatural thrillers. And we’re thinking about, you know, since this is kind of a recent drop, what are some supernatural thrillers that we have enjoyed over the last year or two? And the first thing I thought of was Host by Rob Savage. , like, the height of the pandemic and everyone’s like, “Oh, there’s gonna be all these pandemic movies!” And that one was like, literally just a movie recording of a Zoom conversation about a seance. A group of friends do a remote seance. And I love that movie. And also Relic from Natalie Erika James, about the missing matriarch of the family. She comes home but they think there’s some “presence” attached to her. Really enjoyed those two.
MIA Oh yeah, with Emily Mortimer?
SLIM Yes!
MIA Ugh, I love Emily Mortimer.
SLIM How ’bout the end? The ending to that movie was insane.
MIA I have—okay, so I haven’t seen Relic but I do want to see Relic. And I also want to say that I really enjoyed Host, also. I had such a fun time watching Host.
SLIM Yes.
MIA I love found footage though.
SLIM Yeah!
MIA Like any found footage, almost any, I will have a good time. Just mentioned Malignant, but my pick is Malignant. [Slim & Mia laugh] It’s just goofy, campy, fun. And again, Sam Raimi! We love him.
SLIM Yeah and you know what? I think word spread but movie was because that was an HBO Max release.
MIA Yeah!
SLIM If I correctly.
MIA Yeah, I saw it in theaters. But it was on HBO Max. And I’m glad I saw it in theaters, because I just think horror is so fun to watch for the crowd, as I already said before, but I can’t stress that enough.
SLIM For sure.
[music fades in, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM Let’s look back to last week, and see how the Letterboxd community is shaking things out for our most recent releases. And just a reminder from last week, if you want to have your review or list potentially read on the show, on future episodes, just tag your review with “Weekend Watchlist”. So I know we both want to spotlight Turning Red. I ... loved Turning Red. You watched it twice, right? So I’m assuming you also loved it.
MIA Yes, I did watch it twice in the span of a couple days. Yeah, I loved it. I loved it. It was just so relatable, like viscerally relatable. [Mia laughs] I was like, my friends and I were all just like “ugh...” like wincing and cringing on the couch, just like at all the embarrassing moments. [Slim laughs] It’s... ugh, oh my god. I really enjoyed it. I cannot believe how much weird, bizarre hate it’s getting for daring to show puberty. [Slim laughs] Ohhh, so scary—and it is scary, not to downplay how scary puberty is. It is genuinely terrifying. But I just think it explores that subject so authentically and honestly, and I feel like if I had watched this movie when I was a 13-year-old Asian girl who was obsessed with, you know, boy bands—mine was Panic at the Disco, which is humiliating to it. [Mia & Slim laugh] But that is the truth. I think that this is a really important film, not to mention it was directed by an Asian woman. It had like a team of a lot of women creatives on it. So I just, I think it’s kind of sad that again, it was dumped on Disney+, but at least that makes it accessible, so that preteens can find it on their own and watch it, you know, privately, maybe, because of they could be—
SLIM That’s. a good point, I didn’t even think of that.
MIA Yeah, I think that, you know, parents are also kind of upset because like, it’s an uncomfortable watch. And it kind of teaches kids that like, you’re your own person, separate from your parents. And it teaches kids kind of about generational trauma and breaking the chains of that and breaking cycles. So I see why, I guess, parents might not want to watch it with their kids.
SLIM Yeah, I agree. I would have loved—it’s funny to waffle on Umma, whereas this one was like, “Oh, I wish this one got a theatrical release.” I also felt like this was a really important Disney film to have that moment, and unfortunately it didn’t. And Soph, who does the transcripts for Letterboxd, I do want to spotlight her review: “As a pop-music-obsessed Asian weirdo-girl from Toronto, there’s literally no universe where this movie doesn’t get five stars for me. It felt like this movie was made for me and me only. But the beauty of it, is that there’s something in it for everyone.” So I wanted to spotlight that review, it was great.
MIA Yes! Yes! [Slim laughs] That’s the thing, it is like... it is universal even though it’s specific. [Mia laughs] But because it spotlights an Asian community, then people think like, “Oh, it’s a niche little community.” It’s like no, actually, there are millions and millions, billions of us, even.
SLIM And even to spotlight its universal appeal, JibShoo tagged their review with “Weekend Watchilist”: “I’m actually happy this went straight to Disney+, so I didn’t have to go to the cinemas alone and see all the parents stare at the grown man going to see the fluffy-panda movie.” So JibShoo gave it a beaming review on Letterboxd. So at least they were appreciative to be able to watch that at home. So I wanted to spotlight that.
MIA Another thing that I really, really appreciated about this movie was how it so honestly and empathetically explored, like the very complex and touchy subject of Asian Canadian, slash, Asian American mommy issues. [Mia laughs] And again, I love you Mom, I love you Mom. We’re good now. But, you know, it’s just like Mitski said, “Your mother wouldn’t approve of how my mother raised me, but I do. I think I do.” ‘Your Best American Girl’… [Slim laughs] Great song, check it out if you haven’t. But I just think that this is a very, very important and interesting subject. And I am very happy that it was being discussed in a pretty mainstream film.
SLIM This isn’t a spoiler, but how great was that scene towards the end when the two characters were walking by the trees and even before that? Holy cow, what a scene.
MIA I had chills. I was tearing up. That really hit me hard. [Slim & Mia laugh] Yeah, it’s very emotional. Very emotional. Oof.
SLIM The other thing I want to spotlight too, last week’s Ron: “I expect that The Adam Project isn’t going to land for most people. It can be fun and heartfelt but it’s mostly generic. Even just a couple of years ago, I probably would have forgotten about it before the credits rolled. But today, it hit home. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to call my dad.” So that’s from Ron.
MIA Wow.
SLIM So there is some definite appeal to The Adam Project. Christian also tagged their review: “Movie Junk Food” which I thought was a pretty positive review. [Slim & Mia laugh]
MIA Let’s move on to the Letterboxd Top 50 of 2022. So Jack updates this list every Monday to show what is at the current top of the pile. One thing that stands out to me, this week, is that After Yang dropped from number four to number six. So let’s get that up, people! Tell your friends about After Yang! Please!
SLIM It did also drop from 4.1 to 4.0.
MIA No!
SLIM So it is doing that kind of leveling out. [Slim laughs] But again, like this is my movie of the year so far, folks.
MIA Yeah, me too. Me too.
SLIM If you have Showtime—get the free trial of Showtime, if that’s what it takes—make sure you watch it. Two other things that are worth pointing out. So Turning Red has entered the list, Letterboxd Top 50 of 2022 already. It’s sitting at number ten with is 3.8 average. Also has 326 fans already, in their top four on Letterboxd.
MIA Aw!
SLIM Jack pointed out two films we want to talk about. Marvelous and the Black Hole and Turning Red, two films about female-Asian tweens from a female-Asian director’s debut feature. And both of those movies have entered the Letterboxd Top 50 of 2022, which is pretty rad.
MIA That is so rad! That is extremely rad! It’s what I’m looking for! It’s what I desire! Yay!
SLIM Yeah, the synopsis for Marvelous and the Black Hole: “A teenage delinquent befriends a surly magician who helps her navigate her inner demons and dysfunctional family with sleight-of-hand magic.” Yeah, I had never heard of Marvelous and the Black Hole. This is at number 41. It has a 3.4 average on Letterboxd. This premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, but it’s finally getting its first national release, which is why it’s entering this list. I think it officially happens April 22. So Rhea Perlman is in this movie and director Kate Tsang has a history in animation, working on Adventure Time and Steven Universe. And Adventure Time is one of the greatest television shows ever produced by human beings, so I’m going to be watching this movie.
MIA Wow! Yeah, now I’m very interested—adding to the watchlist now.
SLIM Okay, so last thing we’ll do this week, and Aaron at Letterboxd had this suggestion as we were listening back to last week’s episode. You know, last week we talked about what do we add to our watchlist this week, but maybe try something even brand new. Let’s both head to our watchlist on Letterboxd and in honor of Umma, [filter] by horror and then sort by shuffle. So whatever movie is first, you have to watch that before we’re together again on Weekend Watchlist.
MIA I can commit to that.
SLIM What did you get by heading to your watchlist and doing that sort and then shuffling? What was your movie?
MIA I am... I’m actually thrilled with the one I got. I got Scanners by Cronenberg!
SLIM Ohhhh my gosh!
MIA Yeah.
SLIM The famous GIF movie.
MIA Yes! Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And I love Cronenberg. I’ve seen quite a few of his films. Most of them, this is like one of the last few I just haven’t seen for whatever reason, even though it’s one of his most famous. So yes, I can absolutely pledge to watch that one. I’ve been meaning to watch it for years.
SLIM I’m going to go in there right now. I’m sorting by horror, genre, and then I’m going to hit shuffle. Sort by shuffle. Ohhh my. Wolf Guy starring Sonny Chiba. My dear friends at Bat & Spider Podcast just covered this movie. So I haven’t been able to get to it yet. But let me just read this synopsis. “Akira is the only survivor of a clan of ancient werewolves who relies on his supernatural powers to solve mysterious crimes.” So if that’s not a movie to watch... [Mia laughs] Mia’s jaw just dropped when I read that synopsis.
MIA Wolf Guy!! [Slim laughs]
[Izon by Trent Walton fades in, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM Thank you so much for listening to Weekend Watchlist, brought to you by HQ page on Letterboxd using the links in our episode notes.
MIA Yes, thank you so much to our crew. Thanks to Letterboxd member Sophie Shin for the episode transcript. And to you, for listening. Weekend Watchlist is a Tapedeck production.
[Tapedeck bumper plays] This is a Tapedeck podcast.