All right, here we go. Quiet, roll up. Hello, welcome to The Big Picture Podcast, where we take a look at the latest movie news, the films of today and yesterday, and put them all into some sort of context. So seated across the microphone from me today is FilmBuffOnline Editor-in-Chief Rich Treese.
And seated across the microphone from me every time we do this is the one, the only FilmBuffOnline Contributing Editor Natasha Bikinski. Every time we do this. Man, you need to get more people on. I would, but I enjoy the company I keep right now.
Oh, I appreciate that. Considering what we're about to talk about today, I'm surprised you don't want to kill me by now. I'm actually okay with, you know, seeing it. And we'll get we'll get into Taylor Swift, The Eras Tour concert video, concert movie, excuse me, in a few minutes.
First, though, we need to, you know, do want to touch on a couple of quick things. I guess first of all, to get the grim stuff out of the way. Pete Davidson last night. We're recording this on Sunday.
This will drop on Monday of this week. Pete Davidson last night on Saturday Night Live gave perhaps one of the most thoughtful replies to what's been going on with Israel and Palestine and the Gaza Strip and that entire situation. It was nuanced. It was personal, but it extended out to those involved.
And I thought it was very thoughtful. And I don't think we've seen or, you know, anything like that from Saturday Night Live since maybe that first episode back after 9-11. It was it was very moving. You know, and I wanted you to watch it.
What were your immediate feelings on that? My first thought was he's going to talk about his dad dying in 9-11 again. Sorry, it's just Pete Davidson is known for really like three things now. His comedy, which should be like item three.
His drug use. Actually, four things. The woman he's banged. And the fact that his dad was one of the few souls who was lost during 9-11.
And I like that he took something that was very personal to him and kind of reverberated it into, I actually understand what you're going through and I'm so sorry for that. Yeah. And, you know, it was probably something that needed to be addressed as, you know, Saturday Night Live often comments on what's going on in the culture, what's going on in the world at any given moment. It's not anything that they could do in terms of a comedic context, really, except, you know, right at the end, which, you know, when he says, you know, this is what this is how I cope, this is how I deal with it.
I try to find humor. I try to make people laugh and I'm going to try to be funny tonight. Remember, I said try. Yes.
Yes. And that, you know, I like that. I thought that really set the tone. It was good.
And then, oh, my gosh. I know you haven't seen anything beyond the monologue, but it was freaking funny and dark as hell. He came in dark and hot. Yeah.
As I said, he that was pretty much the equivalent of, you know, putting on a condom and saying, I don't care if you're lubed up, we're gonna fuck. Wow. Yeah. These are our normal conversations, ladies and gentlemen.
Yes. Welcome to our craziness. Yes. You should witness a production meeting.
Oh, wait, I think possibly you might have in the Miller podcast. We've done on air podcasts, but that yeah. That was that was certainly a statement from you. But an honest one.
Yes. Speaking of grim, we we lost a great this week. The one and only Piper Laurie of Carrie fame, as well as Twin Peaks. But she's also been in The Hustler, in Children of a Lesser God, nominated for two Academy Awards or I'm sorry, two Emmys.
And was it one or two Academy Awards? Now I can't find it as I'm looking at this. But it's sad, you know, I mean, she lived a great life. She leaves a great legacy of work.
But, you know, it's always always sad when we lose somebody, even if they are at the age of 91 at the time. She had a great life, a great career, and she has left us with a legacy that will carry on for many years to come. Exactly. And I guess the only other thing we really need to hit upon before we dive into our review of this week is I was at New York Comic Con this weekend, Thursday, Friday and Saturday with the Screen Actors Guild going on, Screen Actors Guild strike going on.
Excuse me. It's been a little bit weird at that show this year. Obviously, you know, your actors can't be there to promote current or upcoming projects, which was a bummer. One of the, you know, perennial panels that they would have was for Archer.
And usually the whole cast would be there. They do a live reading. It's about the only time these guys are ever actually together because they all record everything separately. So there's a lot of joking around, a lot of fun.
They're fun, vibrant panels. This year it was a Fox publicist or an FX publicist just introducing the episode that it just aired. We got to all watch that again. And then they announced a three part series finale called Archer Into the Cold.
That's going to air starting December 17th. And they showed us the first first half of the first episode or so. So that was fun. I mean, that was nice.
But at the same time, given what other Archer panels have been in the past, it was a little bit of a letdown. I'm sorry. It's okay. I got a free T-shirt out of it.
I know. But I've never seen any of Archer, but I know how much of a fan you are. And I'm sorry that for its final season, that's what you got stuck with. Yeah, it was.
It was disappointing. It is what it is. You know, I firmly, you know, support the Screen Actors Guild strike wholeheartedly. We have signs.
Yes. I still have my SAG strike sign right here behind me for when I'm at stupid day job and I have video calls. People will see that I'm a union man. But, you know, there were some other press opportunities that I had that probably would have had actors included as well had the strike not been going on.
The Star Trek universe panel was kind of underwhelming as compared to other years because they couldn't have actors there. So it's it is what it is. It's not the show's fault, really. It's not anybody's fault.
Well, it's the producer's fault. It's the AMPTP's fault. Fuck those guys. But overall, it was a good show.
Lots of wonderful cosplay. I saw a couple of Kamala Khan Miss Marvels, which was nice. Yeah. Actually, yesterday as I was.
Well, it helps that Jersey City is just right across the across the water there from the Javits. Well, I was on the ferry back to Jersey, back to Weehawken to get to to my car yesterday and there was a Miss Marvel on the boat. So I felt safe. But again, you know, it's always great to see lots of family, lots of cosplay, lots of cosplay.
I couldn't readily identify, which I think is just means that there's so much wonderful pop culture out there that people are finding exactly the things they love and connect with. Probably a lot of it's also video games and anime. And that's something we're not as well versed in. True.
Oh, yeah, I'm sure a lot. There's a lot of anime stuff. In fact, I was hanging out with our good friend Joel, the editor in chief of Tripwire magazine from England. And I said at some point I go, I really think if I just did something that looks like it was from an anime, but wasn't actually from an anime that you could just pass by and people would still just think it's from an anime because there's so much.
I don't think anybody really knows every single, you know, could identify every single thing. It's fun as you're walking along going, OK, there's some Mandalorians. There's some there's a Spider-Man. There's a punk.
There's a lot of different Spider-Man's, Spider's man, Spider-Men. English majors help me out here from across the Spider-Verse. Love it. Yeah, it was fun.
Saw a couple of Gwen Stacy spider, Spider-Gwens, punk Spider-Man. I saw one of the cowboy Spider-Man. Awesome. Yeah, I was like, yeah.
Every year in my memories, a particular gentleman from New York Comic Con pops up in my in my memories on Facebook and I'm like, oh, I miss him. I never spoke to him, but across the way from where we were standing, there was just this guy dressed as La Force from Mallrats. And I could see him standing out in the crowd and I was like that for me was one of the best cosplays ever because it's just so underrated. He looked like Michael Rooker, too.
No, that wasn't Michael Rooker who played La Force. Oh, no, no, I'm sorry. He looked like, but he looked like the guy who played La Force. Yeah.
Yeah. It was really cool. There was I saw something. Oh, remember in Star Trek four when they're on the bus, the punk?
There was a guy who was doing that cosplay on the ferry. Really? Yes. That's freaking awesome.
I didn't notice it. So I got up as we're all getting off the ferry. I look, I literally look across the boat and I see him. I just give him a nod.
Sunday morning today. And according to the Hollywood Reporter, you know, the official gross will hit tomorrow after we've dropped. So I'm excited. Yes, that's that's fantastic.
It's always good when people come out to the movies. It's good for the business. Every distribution executive who turned this movie down when they're shopping, when they're shopping, when they were shopping around, no, they're not just kicking themselves. They should be fired.
If I was if I was on the board of any, you know, like Warner's or anybody and I found out, wait, we passed on this. This was the thing that broke Ticketmaster. Yeah, fucking broke Ticketmaster and tickets were going for thousands of dollars. And you pass on the film for this.
You're out of your damn mind. Exactly. Like you obviously don't wanna make money. Now just kind of glancing through the Hollywood Reporter piece, too, here really quick.
I see that overseas, the movie opened up between 31 and 33 million across 94 countries. So that gives a worldwide total of 126 to 130 million with an M dollars. Woo. Mm-hmm.
Not bad for something on what, $35 million budget or so. I seem to recall when they first announced it was about 35. And man, so let's get right into it. Yes.
Are you ready for it? I had to. I'm sorry. I had to.
Okay. Okay. Okay. This movie is reaching people.
Oh, yeah. It's reaching the Taylor Swift audience who were out in force at the screening. We were at just a few hours ago. They weren't as bouncy in our screening as I'd hoped that they were going to be, but I think that was more of a case of, it's 11am on a Sunday morning.
Yeah. But it was the only time we could get tickets because remember when we were originally, and this was like two days. Yeah, this was two days after they announced the dates and tickets went on sale. We were looking at trying to get a couple of them and Friday night and Saturday, all day Saturday was gone.
And usually there's a couple of scattered seats and the pit is usually open. No, every fucking seat was taken. Yes. It was nuts.
So it was Avengers Endgame, Star Wars, uh opening weekend level of uh trying to get in. Yeah. Um, so honest, the fact that we were able to get in this quickly, I'm still okay with and honest, um, I want to give it a week, but I kind of want to go back Friday or Saturday night if I can get in to see it. Uh, just because I'd like to be in the crowd in that vibe and actually understand.
I mean, I kind of got it. I kind of got it. I mean, there was the little girl came down with the bracelets. Yeah.
I'm never getting rid of those, by the way. I know that was really freaking sweet that she was going around the cinema and she was just handing out these bracelets that she had made to people. And uh the, the one, you know, I don't know, uh teenage girl down a few rows trying to organize the mass picture. That wasn't, that wasn't a teenager.
Oh, that was a natural mom or something. That was, yeah. She was probably about 40. Oh, geez.
Okay. I was, I was kind of like, okay, I'm not getting into a picture. So I wasn't paying attention to how that was all being organized. I wanted to, but I just had a feeling like the people in the room, particularly in the rows that we were in, were just like, I don't need, there, there was, it's very weird.
So like the first four rows were very much like, I'm feeling this. This is a concert. This is an event. And then like the back rows where unfortunately we got tickets were dead.
They were just dead people. They were just sitting there. The lady sitting next to me. They were bouncy.
They were bouncy. They were singing. One of them was up a couple of times dancing. Yep.
There were two or three people behind us. But the majority of like a top three or four rows dead. Like they just sat there passively. Like the lady next to me.
Oh my God. I'm like, well, what are you guys doing here? If this is like, this is supposed to be, yeah, an event, something. I mean, for God's sake, if Stanley Tucci can get up and start dancing at a Taylor Swift concert, you are no better.
Well, the Tucci is the man. Yeah, exactly. He is the man. He's unapologetically enjoying himself.
You don't need to be very pretentious about it. And this tour apparently was a lot of spectacle because, which I think they captured fairly well. Oh God. Yeah.
And, uh, you know, so I give them credit for that. Um, I mean, we've had this discussion. There's a couple of songs I knew going in. Um, I am not the main audience for Taylor Swift's music as a 54 year old, uh, middle-aged guy.
I understand that. Hey, be nice. My friend Wes would kill you. He would squash you like a bug right now.
He is a huge Taylor Swift fan. Okay. Because he respects the amount of musical talent that she has and the fact that she's a ballerina and stuff. I'm getting there.
Okay. I know I am not the main target audience of, you know, the experiences she's singing about things like that. But again, I do respect the craft that she brings. Um, and uh, I think, you know, her lyric writing is very clear.
Obviously it's very clear because it connects with so many younger people. And I think the, the, the points that I was most engaged with the film in terms of the performance and everything was when they were a little bit more stripped down away from the spectacle. When she goes, welcome to my acoustic set, you know, and then sings, what was it? Our song.
And um, at the other time when she was up by the uh the, the cabin thing and saying, what was it? Uh, champagne problems. Those were times that I was most actively engaged because it was just her performing a song. All too well.
Yeah. I mean, for a lot of this pop stuff. Yeah. You want the big video screen.
You want this, uh, the video floor. You want, you know, legions of dancers and everything. And they were all wonderful. And the way she interacts with everyone, you can, you definitely get this vibe from her that, yeah, she's up there and she understands that they've come to see her.
They've come to see the music, but she respects everyone who steps their foot into that stadium, whether they be an audience member, whether they're security, whether they're her band, whether they're her backup singers or her dancers. She works just as hard as they do. She doesn't have an ego about it. And I appreciate that so much.
Well, here's the thing I noticed, uh, you know, that struck me very early on, uh, as I'm watching like dancers and singers, uh, you know, backup vocalists and everything, I realized her, her backup dancers were not all slim women. No, they're the mixture. There's a lot of different body types, including some of the gentlemen too. Uh, some mixture of body types.
And I appreciated that because it said, I think it just made the show feel more inclusive that it's not just skinnies and we're not going to have any, you know, it's not about the appearance. It's about the music and dancing as expression of music or expressing how music makes you feel. So I really did appreciate those elements, that element there. I was like, okay, that's nice.
I like that. That's, that's fantastic. Other people, you might not see something like that. Everybody has to be kind of like a slinky slink, uh, hottie coming along, but certainly never anybody as hot as elites as your main singer, because, you know, she's the star of the show.
So here it was, you had a mix of everyone and it was just, it was wonderful. You definitely got that vibe of my music is for everyone. When you come in, you are going to see yourself on the stage. You're going to see someone just like you, who's enjoying it.
And you're going to feel welcome here. It felt like a safe space. Yeah. Yeah.
No, no, I agree. I agree. Um, yeah. And they, and something I generally don't like is crowd reaction shots in a concert film.
I want to watch the performance. I don't want to see how people are reacting to the performance because that it feels like the filmmaker is telling me, well, they're having a good time, so you should be having a good time. And I feel that's kind of manipulative in a way. It's like, no, the performance should be making me have a good time.
But here, when you cut to so many different people from little kids to, you know, older, you know, dads, you know, in their thirties or forties, taking their daughters or kids, you know, guys, uh, you know, in their teens. There was a couple of, uh, couples there too, male, male, female, female. Yeah, it didn't matter. And I wasn't gonna read that.
Oh, those who must be gay just because they're standing next to each other. Maybe they are. Maybe they aren't. But the inference I think is we're for everybody.
We don't care. And actually you saw that up on stage at one point during the dance, the dancers, there, there was some pair offs, um, that were kind But yeah, I think it's a, you know, obviously if this thing's gonna do big bank, people are not gonna go see it once and say, I'm good. Oh no, I've already decided I'm going back. Yeah, you've already decided.
I decided the moment it was over I was going back. I'm sure there are a lot of kids who have already decided that their parents are bringing them back to see it again. I'm not sure if the parents have been notified yet, but it's gonna happen. Uh, yeah, it's, it's one of those movies where if you connect with it, if you're a fan, you're gonna go see it a couple times because it's what theater going is about.
It's a big giant theater spectacle. Yeah, we saw it on a Cinemax XD screen, which is, you know, they're fake IMAX. Cinemark. Cinemark.
Excuse me. Cinemark XD theater, you know, their fake IMAX. And honestly, I'd love to see this in an IMAX, like an actual like. Like the King of Prussia IMAX.
Oh yeah. Ultra IMAX, five stories. Honest. Oh God.
What? Now I've got that idea in my head and now I'm thinking of driving down to King of Prussia on Saturday. I would love to see this on an IMAX screen because I just think it's such a huge spectacle. The production value on this thing is freaking insane.
Yeah, the stagecraft on display here is amazing. Yes. It was, there was a lot of stuff, although there was that one song early on, and I hate, I hate to say this, but it was like the, the LED lights on the floor were all like, I guess supposed to be gold bubbles or gold spheres or something. Oh, wait.
And the way the shadows hit and everything, when they looked straight down, it looked like they were dancing on top of giant matzahs. Okay. If you look really close during that, it's sparkles on a guitar. That was during her fearless section and the entire stage lit up into almost like a, what are those, like cigar guitars.
You know what I'm talking about? Like the big, like the boxy, like bandoi guitars. Yeah. And so they turned like the center diamond part of the stage into like that style of guitar, but it was sparkling.
So yeah, it did look like giant matzah balls, but you had to like follow the, where the lines were to see the full outline. Yes. And that makes sense because fearless was one of her first albums. Um, that was back when she was almost like country pop.
Like we're talking like little singer songwriter. Jewel. Yeah. Like that kind of vibe to her.
Um, and so everything was more, uh, acoustic and, and toned down very much big, bigger with the, the band, um, and kind of, yeah, like singer songwriter, like when she was working in downtown stuff. And I have to admit too, that the, um, the production detail on everything, on things that most people probably wouldn't either see because where you're way up on the top row of the sofa stadium and you're seeing little colorful dots dancing around on stage. Or if you're even up front, you're probably just too enamored that you're that close to seeing Taylor Swift live that you're not going to notice really that she goes through, and I counted, 10 different microphones. Honestly, I thought there was one for every single era and there's like seven or eight eras in this.
So, I mean, she starts off with that, that bedazzled one that has all the jewels that you see on the cover of the poster for the concert film. Yeah. And then she goes through a series of ones. Um, there's like a one that's wood tone.
Give me a second. I can pull up the, uh, the setlist. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Okay, nine eras that she goes through.
So then there's technically one for every single era. At least. Because I noticed the one for reputation had like the snake wrapped up around her hand as if it was like a cross guard on a rapier. Oh yeah, that's the red one.
And it kind of had like the thing coming out of it. Uh-huh, it wrapped around her hand. I was like, wait, wait, wait, oh, okay, I think we just crossed the 180 there. Oh well.
Yeah, but, you know, you were having so much fun with the songs and everything. You didn't notice. You didn't care. It didn't bother you.
And that's fine. And, you know, I will say, even in a few things I hold in high esteem, there may be one or two edits like that too that cross the 180. And I was like, oh, hmm, go figure. And I hadn't realized that until recently.
So that's just because my brain over the years, you know, shifted on how I watch. From my technical thing, uh, to the technical, yeah. Towards more, you know, more technical awareness. Yes.
Um, but I, I've always figured once you know the 180, you can go ahead and break the 180. You can find ways to trip it up. Um, so you, it's not something that is foul. It's not a big point, but it was just something that, you know, clicked with me while we were watching it.
So that's, it's not, I'm not saying it as a detriment to. I still think the editing on this thing was freaking killer. Because there's just so much. Mm-hmm.
And like, you could go, okay, I want to see a, a crowd shot here. Or I want a massive wider. Let's get in close on her, or let's get the background dancers. And some of them, they, they edit so freaking fast.
And it really gives you, like, when I think of how fast the edits are, let me just say the opening of the reputation section, because that's, that's one of the moments I really caught it, uh with the grossing snake that wrapped around the freaking stage. And then when you started getting the, the opening beats of the song with the bam, bam, bam, and the really quick shots of everything, I was like, holy shit, because they started blending into the same shots, like three different shots all into one really fast. And I was like, this thing's blowing my mind. It's literally blowing my mind with how quick this is going and it actually works and it cements the vibe of what this album is before she's even opened up her damn mouth and saying the first note.
And I was like, Debbie, you know, from, I think she went from Folklore into Reputation. Yeah, which is a vibe shift. It's a huge vibe shift. You're going from like, uh, Druids in the woods and very ethereal vibes to, I'm coming to fuck shit up.
Like we're gonna fight. And I was, I was like, I can't handle this. This is amazing. This is actually freaking amazing.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, the editing holds up. It covers everything. You get a lot of good coverage. Um.
The vibe shifts are amazing as well too. Yeah, and solidly constructed film. Yeah, three hours, you have to, and nine eras, there has to be some sort of, you can't blow your water really. You've got to, you know, leave them hanging, give them moments to breathe and bring the energy back up and then, okay, we're going to tone it down a little bit more and maybe just a little more after that.
And okay, we don't need them falling asleep. Let's bring it back up a little and then a little more and then bam, we'll hit them. And I was like, whoever constructed the setlist, give them a raise because three hours is a long time on a concert. Like, I mean, two, two and a half.
Yeah, but this thing was. Closer to three, I think. Yeah, it was, it was, it was exactly three hours because the movie started at 11. We walked out of there exactly at two o'clock.
Exactly at two o'clock. You had about five, 10 minutes of trailers, didn't we? Like five minutes. Yeah, but five minutes is.
Even then. Yeah. Three or four minutes on the back end. I mean, 10 minutes is not going to make much of a difference.
Technically, yeah, three hours. With no intermission, no break. I feel for her because that's, that's something that you really, that's a marathon. Not just for the audience, but for her as a performer to go through those jumps and hoops.
Was there an intermission during the actual live show or not? I mean, because that's easily. I don't know. Honest, I don't know.
And also my other question was, was it all one night or did they shoot multiple nights? No. Uh, SoFi, I think, was one night, I think. I don't know.
Okay. But there was a couple of times I was, you know, they'd have a shot and then they'd cut to something looking, you know, almost, almost a reverse. And I'm like, wait a minute, shouldn't there be a camera like over her shoulder or shouldn't there be. And so I was wondering, okay, were they shooting two or three different nights or were, you know, were they shooting like something so long lens that, you know, they were so zoomed in that you, you know, technically, when you go to the reverse, you really couldn't see because the other cameras disappeared into the blackness behind her or something.
So yeah, so again, uh, technical tech brain was The documentary Woodstock is for other generations. That's fine. That, you know, that speaks to the power of A, music, B, cinema, and A, music, B, music, C, the specific bands and how we interact with, you know, the previous two things. As cinema, just removing my feelings about the music and removing, you know, my non-connection with a lot of Taylor Swift stuff through no fault of her own or my own.
It's just, you know, we don't connect. Looking at them both as just cinema, I still want to give it a little bit of an edge to Stop Making Sense in terms of how they captured what they captured, how director Jonathan Demme brought you on stage with the band in a way that made you feel like you were part of that community and made you feel, helped you feel a connection to the community that is slowly built over the first several songs. And I think also there's an assuredness to the filmmaking process itself that I see a little bit more in Stop Making Sense. And I'll tell you why.
There's one song about two thirds of the way through the movie. Once in a Lifetime. It was one of the Talking Heads' first big hits on MTV. One of the, you know, big, you know, artistic videos, a very much, you know, an impactful moment in their career.
And for the song, Demme starts, starts with a shot on Bernie Worrell, keyboard player, pans down to David Byrne, and at the microphone singing, dancing, singing, dancing, singing, dancing, and holds that shot of David Byrne, starting from Bernie Worrell all the way down to David Byrne, holds that shot for four minutes and 32 seconds. It's a wonder. Never cuts away to anybody else. And then for like the last minute, they cut away to some other stuff going on during the song.
And I almost suspect, and no one's ever mentioned it in like an interview or something, but I'm wondering if the camera they were holding on Byrne for that whole time, and he commands that whole performance. So you don't even notice it at first. It took me years before I realized that, wait, this is, this is a single shot, isn't it? That I almost want to believe that, because they were shooting 35 millimeter, that the camera probably, the, ran out of film because, you know, they only have like 12, 20 minutes or whatever.
And I wish that for a couple of those songs in the Eras tour, I wish the director had felt confident enough, because he should have, to allow just a camera to sit on Taylor Swift during one of her performances. And let's just watch her. Particularly one of the piano pieces. like, yeah, like Champagne Dilemma or Champagne Problems, excuse me, or our song.
Our song particularly, I think would have been just boom, because that's going all the way back to her career. It's stripping everything out. All the artifice, all the, you know, all the extra things that are around it. And it's just her, a song that she wrote for her ninth grade talent show, she said as he introduced it.
And I think that would have been the time to just kind of sit there and really just let us watch her perform that song. And I mean, yeah, there's some, you know, slow dissolves and stuff like that during that song. But I sort of wish, you know, that he had allowed, just be a little bit more cinematic with it. And, and, you know, and it's maybe not great for him to criticize a movie for what it isn't or what it doesn't do.
But I felt, I felt that they could have gotten away with something like that. And I think that would have maybe even moved the whole experience up another notch for me. Okay. All right.
Okay. I was like, because I was thinking about that as we're watching this and, you know, I knew that the, of the oneer, you know, and I was like, I have a feeling we're going to have to talk about the oneer in Stop Making Sense at some point. So let me just, so this morning, uh, right before I left, I rewatched that whole, that whole performance again. I was like, oh my goodness.
Um, everything in Eras Tour is shot very well. Great composition. I can't complain. Um, I think there's a more interesting artistically done composition in Stop Making Sense.
Um, I, I said to our mutual friend, John, after I had seen it, you know, with him, a friend of mine from high school, I said, there is not a frame of this movie I wouldn't want blown up into a large picture to hang on a wall in my home. Uh, just because I think there's so many, you know, incredible, incredible, incredible shots. Um, in terms of, you know, and this is just, you know, this is in a regular theater with just like stage lighting, you know, above and below. Um, no giant LED walls.
Okay, there's like a black screen behind them that does get lit up with slides on for two numbers and bathed in a red glow for two other numbers. But beyond that, though, um, a lot of it is not as high tech, obviously, because it's far from 40 years ago. But, uh, there's so much in there that I find like very visually stimulating and visually interesting going on from just the ray of light coming off backstage onto the stage and David Byrne's shoes as he walks out to start the show with his acoustic guitar to, you know, all sorts of things that they do throughout the whole thing. But again, part of that may be tinted by, you know, 40 some years of Talking Heads fandom and rewatching that movie probably about 50 or 60 times.
And I've seen this other thing once. So it's a little it's a little lopsided, I think, you know, for me to compare, but I hope I'm at least giving uh Eras its due, at least. Of course. Thank you.
Uh, I do have another question. What does this mean for cinemas? We next have uh Beyonce's uh tour concert coming out, which I don't think is going to do as well here. I don't, you see, yeah, I don't see it doing as well.
Here's the thing. And I can't remember if I talked with you about this or not. Um, Taylor Swift has a relationship with her fans that feels very organic. It feels very shared experience.
Yeah, and humble. And, you know, there's a lot of love expressed back and forth. I mentioned to you earlier on about how during a lot of this, um, there, there was still that faraway look in her eyes of I am just so grateful to be on this stage. It was like deer in headlights.
Like, holy, I can't believe this is my life even 17 years later. Yeah. Beyonce's fans, and again, I speak from a position of an outsider. It's not my cup of tea for music.
Um, they seem to be very aggressive about their love. We are the beehive. And there seems to be something that's very braggadocious about. That's a word.
Yeah, isn't it? Holy shit. It's like, we're awesome. She's awesome.
Everything's awesome. And we have to worship her. Um, there, there's a difference between the love between Taylor Swift and her fans and the worship element, it feels like between. It does feel different.
Yeah. I'm sure her fandom will show up for this. I don't know if it's, if it's going to have that same fervor, or maybe it will. I don't know.
It doesn't feel to me like it will, um, for whatever reason. But I've been wrong before about box office, so. Speaking of box office, given the fact that autumn and winter this year is kind of lacking in how much promotion can be done for a lot of the movies. I mean, we have we have the Marvels coming out in about two weeks, and I don't think we're going to have a lot in the way of promotion for it because obviously your actors can't go on late night.
They can't go on morning shows to promote. Is there even a point to having a premiere if no one shows up? Dune was pushed back into next year. Um, so a couple of other things.
Yeah. And it's a mess. We haven't been seeing a lot this year at all in terms of like bigger box office things raking in the money that they should apart from Oppenheimer and Barbie. Um, honest, I'm going to toss a coin out there.
Taylor Swift's film may actually surpass Oppenheimer in terms of box office. I don't think it's going to surpass Barbie. No. It's not going to hit a billion.
Could it hit like what Oppenheimer did was about $890 million? Somewhere in there? Close to $900 million? If it doesn't hit that, it's going to hit at least $600 million.
Yeah. And that's... I certainly don't see this movie tailing off fast. I think we're going to see a very low, you know, normally like second week and you see like a 40 to 50% drop off.
Yeah. Anything more than 60, it's bad, bad news. Um. I think the longer this stays in theaters, it's not going to be so much kids going out to see it with their parents anymore.
It's going to be the true Taylor Swift fans who are technically my age. So you're going to see people who are, you know, from 20 to mid 30s. The people who were with her when it first, when she first started, they're the ones that's going to keep this thing going. You don't think you think it's gonna be Like I said, it may have some little minor nitpicks here and there, but I am so happy for all the kids who were there who were just dancing and singing along and having a great time because I went in there knowing that that's what that was.
I am a casual Taylor Swift fan. I would never say that I am the biggest Swifty in the world. I probably only know the main songs off of each album. I understand some of the backstory.
I understand the Easter eggs. I've seen a lot of the videos, but I would by no way call myself a Swifty. You know what? I didn't until just now.
I'll say it. I'm a Swifty now. Okay. Good for you.
I'm not, but I have a better appreciation. Yeah, I see. Seeing that film, seeing how she interacts with the people around her, seeing the respect that she has, not just for the music, but for the fans, for everyone who works so freaking hard by even just putting this thing out into the world to make certain that the people, the little people, the people who couldn't spend thousands of dollars to come see her still get the opportunity to be a part of this experience and this event. And I'm glad I saw it.
I'm glad I saw it with you because, you know, sometimes you are my eyes that I see through certain experiences. And so I appreciate that always. I wanted to get up and dance, but honest. Yeah, I know you're kind of tired this morning.
Well, yeah, there was that. But I was looking around the people in the top couple of rows. And I'm like, this is definitely not the row to be in if I want to start dancing. I would need to be down lower, but then I would feel like a creep just kind of going down there.
With all the preteen girls. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I could see that. Would I go see this movie again?
I kind of want to take my mom to see it. That might be fun. Would I go see this movie again? Maybe if some friends were going and saying, hey, we're going to see it.
All right, I'll go along. What if you can't get Darren if I say, hey, let's double date with Wes and his wife? That might be. But it's certainly nothing like if I walked into a room and I saw somebody, you know, watching it on TV or something, I wouldn't run screaming out of the room either.
So I was like, oh, cool. And that's the whole era's tour. Cool. You know, I might sit down and watch a couple of songs.
So that's your version of Spice World. Your girlfriend and her daughter turned around and looked at you like, how do you know this? And you're like, Richard O'Brien. And they're like, figures.
That's the one thing. Well, not just girlfriend. This was this was my wife at the time. We were married at the time when I walked into the condo to give the full story.
Came into our condo one day after work. My now ex-wife and her daughter watching TV. I glance over. I go, oh, Spice World.
And I keep walking into the kitchen. And Paula was like, how did you know that? I go, Richard O'Brien. And now Paula, who is a Rocky Horror fan and has performed Columbia in a shadow cast, turns, oh, okay, yeah, I could see that.
I wasn't a big Spice Girls fan until after I watched Spice World for the first time. It's a fun movie. It's so bonkers off the wall. I would actually probably watch it again, maybe with an adult libation or two.
I'd love to do it as like a group activity. Yeah. Because there's some funny stuff. You know, Meatloaf as their bus driver.
The whole bus chase scene is fucking insane. Right up to the model shot. Yes! That kills me.
That's a great joke. A lot of the comedy is, I don't know what to wear. The little Gucci dress, the little Gucci dress. Or the little Gucci dress.
Oh, I know. How about the little Gucci dress? Now you're talking, babe. Yes, it's very British musical.
It's really dry on the comedy. And I freaking love it. But Meatloaf's character, in my mind, is the same bus driver character he played in a movie in the 70s called Roadie. And so to me, it's just like his Roadie character just kind of like migrated to England at some point and became the Spice Girl.
It's a cinematic universe that nobody asked for. Oh, I definitely turn into Leo from like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood when I'm watching that. Because I'm like, oh, there's Elton John. Oh, there's Meatloaf.
You got Richard O'Brien. Jonathan Ross. There's Jason Fleming and Roger Moore. And oh my God, you just got Elvis Costello to walk in and be a bartender for a second and walk out of frame.
I love you. Yeah, it's a crazy movie. But getting back to Eros really quick. No, I would definitely love to just go back and see this a couple more times.
I wish some more of my girlfriends and stuff were bigger Taylor Swift fans. I don't think I could. You think it would be a good girls night out? I think so if they were more than just your like very, very minimal casual fan.
Like they probably know Love Story and a couple of the earlier stuff, but probably haven't listened to her since like Shake It Off. Yeah, they're not gonna go out of their way on streaming to listen to her. And I doubt a lot of them have access to like the radio at their work. I definitely do.
There is a radio on full freaking time. So I was hearing songs tonight where I'm like, oh, so that's what that one is. I was wondering who sang that. And yeah, I just, I don't know.
I really, I think this would be a great film to vibe as a group too. Unfortunately, as we learned during Barbie, when I got a group of people together, it's somewhere there and somewhere not. But most of it was not the energy that I was kind of looking for. I just think go see it.
Enjoy. Just let it carry you. Because that's exactly what this thing is going to do. Okay.
And I think that just about wraps us up though. Remember, you can find us online at bigpicturepod.com. We are now available on iTunes and Google Play. So use the link in the show notes post, head directly there, search and hit subscribe.
And if you like what you're listening, please leave a positive review because that always helps us connect with new listeners. Now, next week, this is it, right? This is the one? Okay, now we have to.
I have to plug this. Okay, go ahead. We are doing for spooky season. We're back on our spooky season kick.
We are doing a double feature of Dario Argento's Suspiria versus, I can never fucking remember his last name or how to pronounce it, but Luca La Laboz's Suspiria from 2018. We are going to review and compare and contrast these fuckers. Wow. Okay.
Oh, they're beasts. I'll admit, I have been listening to some Jessica Harper singing recently. I've actually never seen the original. I need to get on it.
I've had the soundtrack from Shock Treatment playing in the car while driving around for New York Comic Con. I enjoyed that movie. So, but yeah, that will be next week. And that's all right here on the Big Picture Podcast.