SPEAKER_03 0:00

If you were originally thinking about drawing yourself a bath, but now you don't want to, come listen to this and find more details at video.com or go. Greetings, Android Celtic Patents, and welcome to Imbibescome. I'm Jonathan Steel Leggett, along here with my co-host, Michael Newman.

SPEAKER_05 0:41

Trisha Leggett.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

And our special guest.

SPEAKER_06 0:44

Oh, I didn't know I got an intro.

SPEAKER_03 0:45

And Catherine Siegel. You will always get a special.

SPEAKER_06 0:48

Not only is she our special guest, she's our first guest. Oh, yes. No pressure.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

None. Okay. None. Don't fuck it up. In this episode, we are going to be discussing Sam Mendes's Away We Go while we'll be imbibing a mixed berry sangria. There was a lot of strange uh search engine requests trying to find a drink for this evening.

SPEAKER_06 1:13

I just think it's important that you should know that if you search like baby shower drinks for cocktails, Adios motherfucker comes up a lot, and I don't understand that. Really?

SPEAKER_03 1:23

I I all I was finding was like non-alcoholic things.

SPEAKER_06 1:26

No, you weren't looking in the right.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Can you tell us what the Adios Motherfucker was?

SPEAKER_06 1:30

Oh, it's like a blue-looking uh Long Island with chin. Oh, no. No, it's an abrasive beverage. Of course it has to be.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

It's required.

SPEAKER_03 1:41

This recipe, as well as the pictures, are available on our website, which is imbibesinema.com. The Imbibe Cinema podcast is brought to you by the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival, otherwise known as Bwiff. Our festival seeks independent character-driven films of all lengths, styles, and genres. To learn more, please visit us at Bwiff.com. Once again, that is BWIFF.com.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

So that's us. That's us. That's who we are.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Back to you, John. Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

Oh my god. Back to you, John. Back to you, John. Thanks so much. At the many movie, cinema movie. I feel like I'm like chopper money.

SPEAKER_06 2:25

And John sounds like the uh the newsreel guy, which we cracked up because we just saw the last uh the last Star Wars movie. Um may Star Wars rest in peace. We watched the last Star Wars movie and the open movie. Oh, never. There's plenty of Star Wars, they're gonna milk that in forever. Um but uh the the opening, the opening scroll, it was like the dead and talk. And Sean did it, and I was like, oh my god, this is a 1940s news. Okay, so we got that out of our systems. But we're talking about a movie today that uh is also very, very funny, like John's and no Nazis, but very deep. Yes, there's a lot. I I laughed and I cried. It was a very intense film viewing experience.

SPEAKER_03 3:15

Yeah, I mean it is as uh I was gonna say, it's an amazing film about love and family and pretty much the almost infinite ways that those can be represented in in life or in in film. Uh and while this is an extremely funny uh movie, as Trisha had pointed out, it is extremely heavy. Um uh and they really do an amazing job of covering a number of family types uh in a single cohesive story. And uh I think we should actually start by discussing uh the crew, um, because then we can really talk about the families, the cast, uh, or the relationships, the cast, and and the story. So this is uh uh Sam Mendez, uh also known uh more recently, obviously, for 1917 uh Skyfall, Spectre, uh Road to Perdition, which was filmed uh just down the road in uh uh in Elgin. St. Geneva. St.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Real Place? That's a real thing?

SPEAKER_03 4:10

No, so St. Charles, Geneva, and Batavia. So you call it St. Geneva.

SPEAKER_05 4:14

I call it a wow, I really thought that was a town that I had never heard of before.

SPEAKER_06 4:18

If you were if we were to take you to any of those downtowns, drop you in and said which one you're in, you'd be like, Yeah, maybe a big thing. I mean a movie where that was a country. Was that Princess Diaries? Yes. It sure was.

SPEAKER_03 4:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:29

It sure was.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

Welcome to St. Batavia. Um uh and uh also American Beauty. Uh so uh yeah, there's one we haven't heard before.

SPEAKER_06 4:38

That movie. Nobody's ever heard of it.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

American Beauty.

SPEAKER_03 4:42

Is this is that I was about to say I couldn't tell if she was going after like the very serious face.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Very serious. No, sorry. But yeah, I mean American Beauty, what a what a first debut picture. Um, wasn't he? I believe so. That's what I heard. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

Um as I oft do.

SPEAKER_06 5:07

Well, he eats ice, just so you know what that is.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

There there are some people that that argue that American Beauty um is a near-perfect movie just because uh from like especially from a cinematography standpoint, there's not a a uh poorly composed shot throughout the entire movie. Everything is very every movement, every detail um is very very thoroughly thought through. Um and I feel like you could see that even through Sam Mendes's um uh work beyond that. Like uh cinematography is extremely important um as far as uh you know setting up a shot. I know one of the things they talk about uh with Road to Perdition is from the beginning to the end of the film, the uh the movie just gets brighter with every single shot, with every single actually I think it's every scene um gets slightly brighter and brighter and brighter. So the darkest scene in the whole movie is the very, very first scene and the very, very end is the brightest when they're out on the beach. And so uh it's one of those things that you don't notice, but if you were to go back and watch it after being told that, you would um yeah, you would find that.

SPEAKER_06 6:26

And I'm sure there's a subconscious effect that it has on you as you're watching the film. No, I loved in this film there there was this play with things that were uh in especially moments I think that were very deep, in which you were you he shot them in a way or had them in a place where it was kind of like almost childlike. Like we have a scene on the um the trampoline and how in depth of a scene that is, but it's on a child's trampoline in a backyard. Or you have uh where he finally gets he gets this phone call from his brother who's in trouble and he's talking under the bed. Right. Uh the opening scene there in a unique circumstance. Yes. Uh there's just there's so many ways circumstance for film. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

It was it was a unique opening of a movie. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 7:20

Uh but even then, like the way they way he opened it, uh just you see uh an empty family room, and it's like, okay, where are they? You can hear something, but it's like, okay, so this is the home, but where is everybody? Right. Uh and the fact that you don't just open in on the scene itself, that you open somewhere else in the home and then you move it. Uh just uh a lot of the way he incorporates uh how the families he covers through their environment uh and and showcases that.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

Uh and I would even uh call out that uh Jess uh Gonecher, uh who uh did production uh design for Hail Caesar, Little Women, the 2019 version, uh No Country for Old Men, uh the uh assassination of Buster Scrugs, all of the uh households and and and every very unique situation that they end up in, the the set design or production design for this was just uh amazing. I agree. Um you talked about opening up on that the uh the the the living room um and just all the clutter and all of the the random kits. I think we're fuck-ups.

SPEAKER_06 8:29

We have a cardboard window. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Yeah. Beautiful production design. But speaking of the crew, uh one of the things uh about this movie that is really interesting to me is um it was uh one of the I don't know if it was the first or just one of the first films that was trying to practice um an entirely green production. Um so they they worked very, very hard to implement ways where all of the like the grip trucks were hybrid vehicles. Um they did uh they worked very hard about their their trash and what they like what they used was all recyclable. Things weren't going into a landfill. Yeah, it was just interesting that they made that that choice to be like, all right, look, we're gonna do this, we're gonna we're gonna be one of these crews that is going to work hard to see how we can lessen our carbon footprint. Yeah, a project, uh like a film project is notorious for creating lots of garbage and also uh uh huge messes. Like I know uh for for our listeners who have never hosted a uh a filmmaker in your home, um we're notoriously for destroying homes. Um not really, um, but like things break. There's a lot of I mean it's a lot of people, especially if you're in an actual home and still instead of a set. Well, you know, in order to get certain shots, you have to get very close to walls that ideally we would like to just move. But if it's a real house, you can't just, you know, pop out this wall.

SPEAKER_06 10:08

If you're gonna flip a semi downtown real early in the morning and you shatter a whole bunch of windows, that sucks. Right. But they got it in one take, go bammy.

SPEAKER_03 10:18

They got it in one take, and they had all of those windows replaced by the time business started the next day.

SPEAKER_06 10:24

Yeah, they played.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

Uh producers. Yeah. The money are the ones who went buck. All right, call every glass person, wake them up, I don't care. Yeah. Uh yeah. So the writers of this film, uh uh Dave Eggers, uh, who also uh did the screenplay for Where the Wild Things Are, uh, The Circle, uh Promised Land, um, but this was uh specifically Dave's first um uh writing credit. Oh and then uh Vend La Vita, uh who this is her only writing credit, um, and she has also only acted in uh a short film called uh World Gone Water. Um so from an IMDV you know footprint, she's she's not, you know, uh uh I could be wrong here, but I believe they're married. Oh that's a distinct possibility. I would think that uh given the intimate nature of this, uh that might be a major reason why she But it's so well written.

SPEAKER_06 11:28

Oh gosh, and it's so great that there's like you know, males, male and female point of view, and you can tell. Uh it's I can't like there are so many things. I mean, obviously delivery and performance go into uh it and you wonder with the cast how much was improvised. But those lines you can tell that oh, there was so much thought behind everything. And one of the things that I really appreciated was like there are things that you have to lay the groundwork, right? So um just so we don't go, wait a minute, why are we at a house in the middle of like oh our family had a house? What why didn't we go here to begin with? Like that we have that scene in the bathtub in in the store with her sister where we acknowledge in conversation they do have their parents' house. They have been renting it out since they died and that it it's there and that you know we're not gonna talk about it. And I think it's so well written and so well executed and performed that even though we know that as an audience, you don't go, Well, now I know where they're gonna end up. Right, it's true. Right. Because otherwise otherwise you would immediately go, okay. And I kind of like you file it, but you don't go, Oh, that's where I end up.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Well, there's a number of things I feel in this very small things in this movie that get brought up that don't necessarily come back. Um, and that I think goes to how real the movie feels. Um I mean there's some fantastic lines in there that are, you know, they're they're lines of dialogue. They don't they're not like just made up on the spot or or anything like that, but um they they do a great job of um uh chemistry, um, not just between John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, uh but with all the individuals that they meet throughout the way. So um Yes.

SPEAKER_06 13:19

And there are moments that I laughed out loud because we had seen this film before. And I laughed out loud. I watched it by myself, and I didn't realize how like there were things I'd forgotten. I don't know if I laughed the first time, but oh my god, did I this time? And there were moments that touched me, I think, a different way this time than last. And speaking of throwaway lines, there's a line that a little boy has in uh in the scene when they're waiting for her sister hotel. And uh and the line from this random kid is like she was like, tell him tell the mobs, like, tell him everything you know about babies. And he's uh like, yeah, I tried to put a pillow over his face, but then he was still breathing, sneaky baby, I'll get him next time. And you're like, what the hell?

SPEAKER_05 14:01

Super creepy.

SPEAKER_06 14:02

Oh my god, and the delivery, but really the line, I mean, who gives that to like a five-year-old? It was brilliant, it was very creepy.

SPEAKER_03 14:09

Pete Pete Wiggins, the actor who who uh uh played the role of Beckett, who's the creepy kid, uh, was also in the dictator, um with which um is Borat. Oh god. The dictator. Um yeah, Borat. We'll just call him that. It's Borat, but it's I don't know. Sasha Barron Cohen.

SPEAKER_06 14:30

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

Um so I mean this this kid's quite funny. He's also been on the uh the Onion News Network.

SPEAKER_06 14:37

Okay, well, yes, casting. Just saying casting is uh the they did an excellent the casting director did an excellent job of casting Ellen Lewis and Deborah Zane. My hats are off to them.

SPEAKER_03 14:49

Uh Ellen uh also did the Departed, Wolf of Wall Street, League of Their Own, uh Shutter Island, uh Deborah Zane did Hunger Games, uh Catch Me If You Can, and American Beauty.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

So excellent casting. Excellent writing. Um, and then I guess uh the last one that um uh the as far as editing goes, uh Sarah Flack, um who uh John has noted uh uh did uh the editing for Lost in Translation and uh the Limey. Um I definitely see Lost in Translation from an editing standpoint in this. And uh it's interesting um that that she edited the the the Limey, um which is a yeah Steven Sutterberg film. So good. And it's very, very bizarrely edited. Um it's like a giant puzzle of a movie. Kind of like um, I mean, it's not like memento, but it's it's the it's a very um you'll hear dialogue from scenes that you're not watching. And uh it does that throughout the entire film. And it kind of it's it feels like a puzzle, like wait, what am I hearing? This is not what I'm seeing, and then all of a sudden we see it, or it'll do it the other way around. So it's it's it it was a very b bizarely edited, but like it kept you very glued to uh to the movie. And uh I know one of the arguments with that too was if you just told that movie normally in uh sequential order, it would not be that entertaining of a movie. It's how it was a tool that they used, I think, to really drive um the individual in. And so it's interesting, I think, to just look at a you know, a person's different kind like the different kinds of work that they do.

SPEAKER_06 16:35

Yeah, but I can totally see what you're saying with Lost in Translation, because it seems like there are moments where you would go to a scene and we're walking into the middle of like a just an awkward moment. Or a moment that you don't normally start. It's like a beat you don't normally start on, if that makes sense. And it's like this is a weird beat to enter the scene in, and that kind of comes across here too. Yeah, I get that.

SPEAKER_03 16:57

We also didn't necessarily talk about Ellen Curtis, um, who uh was cinematography. Um uh she did cinematography on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, uh POV, Summer of Sam, Blow. Um I mean I I I feel from a lighting standpoint uh you you could definitely feel uh especially Eternal Sunshine, this has a very um uh gritty kind of realism to it.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

Yep. Yeah, for sure. All right then Where's your sign?

SPEAKER_03 17:32

Sign says stay away, fools, because love rules at the l uh of shack.

SPEAKER_06 17:38

Here I thought the sign opened up my mind when I saw the sign.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

It opened up my eyes. I thought it was is it opened up my mind? Oh hell I had a guy's phone. I thought it was okay. Uh we're gonna take a few more minutes uh and to uh fill our glasses with some more sangria uh and get ready to imbibe more after this.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Hey dear listener, this is Michael with Imbibe Cinema and the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival. Did you know that Imbibe Cinema isn't just a podcast? We've also got a variety of articles and reviews available to read on our website, plus a streaming membership that gives you access to a new batch of independent films every month. Become an Imbibe Cinema member today at Watch.imbibesinema.com. That's watch.imbibesinema.com. Download the WIF Mobile app to read articles on the go and get notifications when new content is released. Thanks for supporting and imbibing the various content we offer. Now, back to the show.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

You're listening to Imbibe Cinema. I'm Casey Caseon.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

It was pretty good.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

Yeah. You know, it's been a while since I've heard his voice. Too soon. Bert Farlander. My girlfriend's upset. Can you play something to make her happy? Signed. Bert Farland.

SPEAKER_07 19:06

Go away.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:08

Go away.

SPEAKER_03 19:09

Thanks, Casey. We are discussing the film Away We Go. Um enjoying this podcast. Please subscribe or follow us on your favorite podcast providers to get all the new episodes as soon as we release them, which is every fortnight starting again soon. Rate andor leave us a review to help a show reach that larger audience. Before the break, we were uh discussing specifically the crew. And so now I'm going to open the floodgates and we can finally discuss the cast, the story, families love go.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

And then he just chugged a bunch of sangria.

SPEAKER_06 19:46

I added more rum. Yeah, there wasn't enough rum in there. You notice that it was like I totally didn't get to.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Now all the rum's gone.

SPEAKER_03 19:54

Oh, there's plenty of rum. There's always enough rum in our house. Yeah, that's that that's like a handle.

SPEAKER_06 20:02

Alright, so where are we starting?

SPEAKER_03 20:05

Cass Crew, John Krasinski. I would once again watch that man eat a bowl of cereal.

SPEAKER_05 20:11

He's so funny. Yeah. He's so funny. I had mentioned actually just in the break that it's amazing to me that it's the same actor that is now Jack Ryan on Amazon. He's just his range is fantastic and entertaining and engaging in everything that he does.

SPEAKER_03 20:28

I still haven't seen The Quiet Place.

SPEAKER_05 20:30

I haven't either, but I won't. But that's just my personal. Maybe that could go out on this.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

It looked amazing in the film. If him and his wife were able to do that, you talk about a range.

SPEAKER_06 20:41

Just that, and I'm scared. I don't want to see Mary Poppins and Jim from the office get killed. I'm just I don't want to.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

Who says they get killed?

SPEAKER_06 20:47

Okay. Um Spoilers? No, no, I haven't seen it. It's a horror film. And maybe everybody lives happily ever after. I was wrong.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Well, there is a sequel.

SPEAKER_06 20:56

That's a good point.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

Actually, the sequel's a prequel.

SPEAKER_06 20:59

Yeah. Okay, so that solves that mystery. Uh one of the great things uh about him as an actor is the fact that there's this uh vulnerability that he has that makes him adds to how funny he is, but also gives him this weight when it comes to serious moments. And there are so many of them in this film, which is like has some great laughs, but there's a lot of heavy stuff. Yes. And it's very interesting how unique and well thought out all the characters are. Yes. Not just the main characters. Right.

SPEAKER_03 21:32

Every pairing that they encounter throughout this entire thing is just beautifully assembled. But again, Maya Rudolph, um, obviously known from from SNL, The Good Place, uh, Big Hero Six as uh the aunt, uh wine country uh bridesmaids, uh Book Smart. She was the motivational voice in Mo uh in Book Smart.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Oh, was she?

SPEAKER_03 21:52

I didn't know that. As I was doing my my research, that came up. So there's there's two that we have uh um you know done in. podcast alone right there. Um I mean I I I love Maya Rudolph and and everything she she does. Her her ability to um make the funny without taking it beyond a certain point and and and humanizing everything that she's doing really makes her one one of the greats to me.

SPEAKER_06 22:21

Yeah. I agree. And there's uh oh goodness. Um one of the things I love about the uh the way they went about uh showing family in the idea of okay so we have to find a home right and so we're off to discover where we're going to live but in a way also the kind of family we want to have and the kind of people we want to be and uh there was a little bit of like people that you know in every family right but I don't know like they're uh I think a lot of people react to um the the Phoenix their friends in Phoenix they'll be our friends in Phoenix yeah um and Alison Janie and Jim Gaffian yes who oh my god amazing oh god uh and uh um Maggie Gyllenhaal and Josh Hamilton Roderick L N Ellen and Roderick what Jesus like I wonder I just want to take a poll here um if you think they're both wonderful and you would have them home for dinner great but if you were like please don't ever want to see these people in my life yeah which couple would it be?

SPEAKER_03 23:38

You have to pick one oh wait wait what about Chris uh uh Messina and uh uh Melanie uh Linsky the Canadian couple everybody loves them come on why would you not love them? Because they're a little bit of a downer.

SPEAKER_06 23:55

Oh come on no no no no no no no so okay so you're just going back to the case they let the kids watch yes Sound of mucus I mean that's that's a reason but they're Canadian so no they're not I don't think they're Canadian but they you know they moved to Canadian so therefore they're Canadians now no I don't think that's not natural born um that's not how it works natural born Canadian oh boy the the so do we have to pick one like one for each like which one would you is this fuck Mary Kill no do we just start playing fuck Mary Kill this is if you had to have if you if you were having a dinner party and you were like oh I only have one spot one couple left and you had these two to choose from and you had to invite one over the other who would you suffer through and who would you know Alison Janney and uh uh and Jim Gaffigan you would have them yes wow over over the crazy hippies I mean like at least there'd be a wild time had here's here's here's what I would say I'm gonna go out and just say that I would invite um the crazies um from where were they Wisconsin Wisconsin from Madison Wisconsin from California but they were from Wisconsin right exactly they're very very California but in Wisconsin um that's that's a good point the reason I would invite them is because I'm willing to bet they wouldn't show up right or they would just be offended in five minutes and leave yeah or or immediately try to hand them pork like would you like some bacon? How about some bacon oh no no leave your shoes on it's cool yeah no we brought our own no we're having a stroller derby in the back okay so your yours yours is how I can get them out of my house fast.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Then you don't have to suffer through either one it's perfect.

SPEAKER_06 25:54

Right because one of the best quotable lines I think of the whole movie is uh uh I love my babies why would I want to push them away from me gosh amazing so funny I reject I reject your anger your negative energy energy yeah oh god uh Maggie Gillethall is just so fantastic in this wait you you intend on hiding your love making from your children yeah we we practice family battles we don't go to the car one of those people that repeats stuff back to you so they can like further impress about you how stupid you were to ask well it's interesting how how that scene plays just in the bedroom there is interesting to me because I just thought that that was funny I just love that it plays out in the bedroom movie where it does play out.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Well you you you think about okay when they first show up they they just had that weirdness with the stroller incident and now they come upstairs okay they're like all right well maybe something happened they don't really know um they're like maybe there's a reason and it's something like oh my god we just you know freak them out because maybe some accident happened with the stroller and that's why you know who knows it could be anything but what's so interesting about that scene to me is that it starts out like okay that was weird but let's try and move past it now we're in this room and that is a very large bed this is very weird. And you watch that scene from beginning to end it starts out where we're already kind of like hmm um and then by the end of it I want to know like why didn't they leave then?

SPEAKER_06 27:40

Because clearly there's this yeah negativity coming off them like I would just be like alright well you know they brought us a stroller oh my god and they're being super polite but here right here's the thing I do find very interesting uh with uh Farlander Bird fella bird uh uh Bert's character and the fact that like okay so you have her former boss and his wife in Phoenix and that is a scary situation there and it's like you can tell they're uncomfortable with them especially him and then at the end when Janie like like kisses him and it's like he never says anything negative he never does like but he spends time with his cousin I'm using very cousins friends of the family who were so by the way it's like wait his father and her mother were very close and they're cousins how is it like but nobody explains anything further than that. It's okay.

SPEAKER_03 28:45

It's okay the Jeff Daniels uh and uh uh Catherine O'Hara being his parents there's there's a whole lot of questions going on there anyway oh my god but anyway uh they had uh this sequence where you know he could have said okay we're not moving here or like distance himself from them be like this is not a positive environment obviously but he doesn't he's very quiet because these are his wife's connection with people and then or girlfriend sorry because she won't marry him and then he gets to his personal relationship with Maggie Gillenhall and he's like that's it you've you've insulted my wife my girl we're no we're done we're out and he like tells her off like over the here's somebody who bends over backwards and is so accommodating and then he snaps which is even funnier given that Maya specifically says we need to fight more because the baby's heart rate's not up high enough and so then he starts finding all of the instances he can just say stupid shit.

SPEAKER_06 29:50

So funny all right so Catherine which which which family would you uh uh uh uh kick out or or uh invite I'm sorry it's invite yeah I think I would invite Maggie Gyllenhall oh okay I think so I think so just because I could just I could just listen and pretend to care and then because the other people the Arizona people um like I kill I like was really glad of that scene ended because they like right there was something inside of me that was like I cannot watch this anymore it was so offensive they were so offensive to all kinds of people so I couldn't have them in my home no I I'm I'm with you completely on that it like um they did an amazing job agree yes oh my god I believe they're depressing on so many levels and the way that they're treating their children and small mammals and I almost left large mammals then humans then restaurants birds fountains golf courses then fountains yeah thanks for picking up the depth um they're like yeah I almost left him like 12 times the kids don't know that and the kids just look on their faces and then at the end when like she makes a move on uh Bert and like her daughter is talking to some random dude in a giant truck and then she just leaves him yeah oh my God yeah no I couldn't handle it I couldn't handle the crazy breastfeeding woman any day of the week because I also see them not leaving they would they would out stay there while oh yes they would they would be the last people and Alice and Janie would be so loud all the time the entire time but see maybe that's why I invite them because then I would seem like the quiet person oh okay I see what you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 31:41

Mm-hmm Yeah then I seem sane and rational Well no and I think it's like I could be passive aggressively mean to Maggie Gyllenhaal's character and her husband but I would feel bad doing it Alice and JD Oh you know I mean it's like I think I could like if you think you're so smart and intellectual like I could enjoy making you look dumb you would never try one of the things I love about you you you were you were the moment at the stairs uh uh uh a person through and through you'd be sitting there going like oh oh I would have cut you you know with all my rapier wit but the in you know that's internal external you're all like uh you want more coffee I'll give him a coffee uh yeah one of these days I'm gonna snap and I'm gonna tell people what I think instead of like thinking it 30 minutes later yeah so that would be my choice your your choice you'd choose Alice and Janey and yeah yeah and Jim Gaffigan I would I the the the you're not choosing it because it's Alison Janey and Jimmy Gaffigan you're choosing those people I'm choosing those people I I the John would try and get them to break character I know come on Alison come on no it's cool we we can we we can hang like real people to me the thing is is I I I I like to to believe that I brook no ass hattery um and the unfortunate thing is that Maggie Gyllenhaal and Josh Hamilton uh characters um have so much ass hattery that I I would yes I see I would not be able to enjoy myself at the party so I I I told I've mentioned this is very well directed very well um performed very well uh written I love this movie so much um there is one slight hiccup that I discovered and it was in watching it it was like okay so we've decided like I know why they did what they did but it's from a character point of view I don't from a storyteller point of view I do and it's his brother was never on the list living near her sister living near his weird cousin and living like all these other places but his brother was never on the list of places they were going to go it was only because he called and that's I think how they end up at her parents' house because it's in Florida so they're not actually living near uh his name is Courtney uh in the film uh Paul Schneider uh is is uh plays the brother uh his wife has up disappeared like ninja out uh leaving him with what an eight year old ten year old daughter to try to raise and and and the the the I mean god his his speech about like you know she's always going to be the the the the girl who's you know without a mother and the fact that like a mother is supposed to do like you know keep her her clothed properly so that she's not gonna notice the things like the carrot juice on her lip and the fact that like she's gonna be looking longingly at the girl with the right bag and the right shoes because I'm not gonna know how to dress her. I'm not gonna know just what an oh heartbreaking so so good at finding literally all of these like amalgamations of love and and what that means and what a family means and and really portraying it on on on on the film um it is absolutely amazing. But I think that that's the whole point is that they leave to go be with him and while they're within driving distance but I don't think it's close. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

See and I was gonna say maybe that be might that might be the reason why they didn't we they wouldn't want to go there. It's too close to where her parents were right because it's clear that it's not not something she wants or wants to talk about. Yeah. Right. And it's only after being there and having that conversation and then the next morning having that you know in among the orange trees.

SPEAKER_06 35:56

How you learn little by little more about parents right through their interactions to other people. From the very beginning when Bert's like your parents aren't doing anything they're dead they're dead still well still now this was the first time you'd seen this film. Yes it was the first time repeat so uh being our first guest and all and hopefully not our last can you tell us would you recommend this film to other people?

SPEAKER_05 36:24

I sure would I sure would I think there are um as John had mentioned like so many different layers of different um stories of what a family can be and it can be a man and a woman who all of a sudden find themselves pregnant later in life trying to figure out what that looks like they don't want to get married and that's okay and not having family close then we talk about you know we have an example of um crazy parents with um their friends in Phoenix and and they're still parents terrible terrible parents really terrible parents horrible horrible human beings and then we and then you know we we flip a switch and see their friends in Canada that have been raising adopted children loving them like their own and we find out that it's partially because she's had what six five or six five or six miscarriages. And then that just brings you to another level and I think that seeing seeing each of these play out and then we have his brother um with now a single father what what does that mean for his life and how you know and I'm assuming in my mind they're garnering pieces of what they want to take from these people right and maybe nothing from the Phoenix people but I mean I don't know and and and one we we barely really touched on was the Catherine O'Hara and Jeff Daniels his parents again like when when it comes to like you know you kind of want to have your kids grow up near their grandparents you know that they're a sense of stable relationship.

SPEAKER_03 38:08

There's something that is a you know helps the the paradigm of understanding for your children and everything. And at the same time free babysitting that's free babysitting that that is a lasting relationship and they have decided they're moving to Belgium.

SPEAKER_06 38:23

Right? Like well and I think like three months before the babies do or somehow crazy like that. You have a lot of uh situations in this film where there's an abrupt change that wasn't uh wasn't foreseen. The fact that uh with his parents just departing with her parents had it seemed like a very sudden departure and her life changed and went upside down very quickly. The fact that his brother goes through a very traumatizing thing the fact that their friends in Montreal are going through something that just happened on Thursday. Right. That's very traumatizing. Uh the only ones that haven't had like a sudden traumatizing event would be the crazy people. Right in Wisconsin and Phoenix.

SPEAKER_05 39:09

Right right and for them too the her becoming pregnant didn't seem like it was planned. No it didn't seem like it was so there's an abrupt change that and then him trying to find a job or trying to find a different job I don't really know what he does. Uh he insurance he sells uh insurance for insurance companies yeah right ins listen to a young guy so he sounds more like right so he's looking for a change so there are there are layers there but I love at the end um there's almost very little dialogue when they arrive at her um parents' house very little dialogue but there's also this sense and maybe because there's no dialogue this sense of calm and no change right the house is namely unchanged I mean it's kind of not in great shape it's the same she remembers it you can see that she remembers it and I think that gives her more sense of a calm than I think she had anticipated. I think that she was very afraid to go back there and rightly so but once she gets back there it's this very familiar very calming place.

SPEAKER_03 40:23

Well and it's funny because when you think about it when you set out to start your own family you're like well there are all these things that I came from that I'm not gonna do and then as soon as you end up having your own family it's like no I'm thinking they were right right there's things you take from you there's things you take there's things that you you you may fight with all tooth and nail uh to avoid um but I mean again when I when I talk about paradigms it's it's the things that you're you're inundated with it's the things that are around you which is what makes this film so amazing uh uh to watch is because there's so much coming at them and and and for them to try to absorb it and go okay what what of the chaos that we have seen at Phoenix Madison um you know what about that is going to be us and and again with the brother uh you know all of this is just come streaming at them and they have to find out what is going to make them the family and that's it's beautiful one of the things that is scary when you're starting a family is the idea of uh and whether that be marriage or children or whatnot is the idea of the unknown of anything can happen and you have so many examples of something unforeseen happening of uh life turning on a dime and or not being what you had projected it to be and yet you have to proceed anyway and do the best you can with what you've got.

SPEAKER_06 42:00

And I think it's a beautiful message. And you have to be kind of fearless. And I do love how when they go in at the uh at the end of her house and I think you're right that there's there needs no dialogue there is is it's perfect and it's beautiful the way it is. And the idea that like when you open up that first set of doors it's like you're opening up the past. And then when you open up the set of the second set of doors you're like looking out at what's to come and it's just a very beautiful scene.

SPEAKER_03 42:26

It's true. That's true.

SPEAKER_06 42:27

The wind rushing at them the the the the ocean breeze coming in the hookfinny childhood that we all want our kids to have we want we all want a Norman Rockwell childhood for our children. I painted all the walls very bright so they can all feel overexposed in their memories is it true? What color are the rooms? Oh like orange not orange like yellow and uh and like bluish green I don't know our kids are green and uh like a purple blue yeah but the the the playroom is the playroom is yellow yellow yes and then like looking at my decor recently I'm like wow I feel like Mary Poppins made this this room and I really want everything to go back when I go like if only because I would not have to um because you are the only one no our children should be doing this so we can not fight with each other that's true.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

This is where Catherine and I just uh take a step out where's the rum where'd the rum go where'd the rum go uh is the rum gone Michael would you like to poke the bear? Sure. Um so uh for those of you that are just uh uh joining our podcast with this episode this is uh the part in the show where we uh get critical of critics critical of this film all right we're gonna start with Catherine on each of these all right oh yeah yeah So we're gonna all look at you for a reaction.

SPEAKER_03 44:02

Staring.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Just gonna be silent. Alright. Alright. So first one here is from The New Republic. And uh the uh Rotten Tomatoes um excerpt is you may very well enjoy A Way We Go more than I did. But restart but rest assured that you will never love this movie as much as it loves itself.

SPEAKER_05 44:35

I mean it doesn't even make sense. I don't even that's not even a critique of the movie.

SPEAKER_03 44:42

That's the excerpt. I must find an interesting way to troll without actually making sense. Yeah, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

Okay, uh next one here is from the spectator. It's sweet, I suppose, but it's also oddly insequential, fake, and annoying.

SPEAKER_05 45:00

So they had a bad childhood. Sorry, Kathy. I mean, I think we just talked about how or like real all those situations are, right?

SPEAKER_03 45:12

I mean, and I think they're hyper-realism, but at the same time.

SPEAKER_05 45:16

Yeah, I mean, I could probably if I really thought about it, I probably have all kinds of those same people in my life. Yeah. So they right, they we already discussed it, and I think that um they how they portrayed it made it more real. So I I disagree with the critic.

SPEAKER_00 45:34

Yep. So McLean's magazine says, I began to realize why I'd been resisting the film all along. In spite of its dogged charm, none of the places the couple visit seems remotely real.

SPEAKER_03 45:52

Again. I would call it a hyper-realism.

SPEAKER_00 45:56

They don't get out much. I guess because they must have kids.

SPEAKER_06 46:01

They sit at home watching movies all day. They don't have friends.

SPEAKER_03 46:04

So uh once again, a a huge uh uh thank you to Catherine for joining us and being our our first. Well, good. We'd be loved to hear that. Um and we also greatly appreciate all of our listeners for choosing this podcast and for supporting independent films specifically. Um hopefully now you understand why we do what we do and why we are so passionate about independent films. Keep an ear out for our next episode uh and to check out our show notes or to just drop us a note. Please visit us at imbibesinema.com. Once again, I am Jonathan C. Leggett, and thanks for imbibing with us.

SPEAKER_05 46:40

Cheers.