Yeah

... primarily a story about male entitlement and insecurity, so it makes sense for the film to view Nikki in the same way that Bear does.

But having said that, I think the film is simultaneously trying to make Nikki more than just an object, and I don't know if it succeeds in that regard.

It's kind of a ca- it's, it's like a case of a film trying to have its cake and eat it too, and I don't know if it really did a great job picking a lane.

'Cause I think Barker wants us to feel bad for Nikki, yet I don't think his writing nor Indie Navarrette's committed performance really do enough of the work to get there.

And that might get me in trouble because I do think Navarrette is very good, but I don't think it's a particularly deep performance, and I think the film is asking her to go deep, and I don't think she's actually able to go beyond that.

And I think it might be more of a Curry Barker issue than it is her, but I, I, like, in my opinion, this is not gonna be one of the best per- performances of the year for me, and I think the, the movie just doesn't give her the space to really take advantage of it, and I think it is asking her to do that, so.

Mm.

Gotcha.

Which I know is a difficult film for a lot of people to stomach, even myself included, knowing how Christina Ricci was treated on set by Vincent Gallo during the filmmaking of this one.

Also, especially considering that this was the first film that Ricci was in without her mother on set to help supervise just her trajectory as an actress.

And given the film's subject matter, that made the film a much achier experience for me.

But this is all about separating the man from the art.

And if you're able to do that...

I can't deny that this film continues to have an effect on me.

Okay, there you go.

What do you think about Saving Private Ryan?

Well, I'm glad we laid the groundwork earlier that we're going to be talking a lot about that Spielberg series that we did some years ago as sort of the main context of this conversation because Saving Private Ryan, I feel like, is just one of those films that pretty much every film podcast or every critic has talked about to death to the point that there's not really much new to say about it.

And I want this conversation to feel like we're bringing something new to the table whenever we talk about a film that's as popular as this is, right? So with regard to that series that we did, we spent a lot of time talking about early to mid-2000s Spielberg and how that era was basically him turning a new leaf in some ways.

That was a more cynical, a more bitter Spielberg than the sentimental side of Spielberg that he tends to be known for, right? Full disclosure, Saving Private Ryan is a film I've always really liked, but it was never top 10 Spielberg for me, which I guess might be a little bit of a hot take.

It was always pretty close, but it was never quite a top 10 favorite Spielberg film for me.

Having rewatched the film now, especially with the context of what movies would come afterwards if we were to squeeze this into that series that we did some years ago, I appreciate this film more because I think there is an argument to be made that this might be the first film in that string of more bitter films that Spielberg has made.

Now, I don't know if it's quite as graceful as maybe something like Munich, for instance.

Brilliant moment in this film.

Ooh.

I don't know.

But I mention that there's one animated movie that I wanted to highlight that I think represents how great these movies could be, and this is one that did get a lot better for me after becoming a dad.

Because one movie I re-watched, uh, after becoming a dad, and this is gonna sound like a random, random pick, but trust me, it makes sense in the contest of the, context of this conversation.

Yeah.

And I definitely sense that in that movie.

My issue and why it, why I've kind of soured on the movie a little bit really does come down to the filmmaking.

Uh, it's mostly to do with you bring all of these great characters back from different iterations of these Spider-Man films, and even though they're technically in the same scene together, it's edited in a way where it's like I don't think they were even in the same room when they c- when they had this dialogue with each other.

And Esker, this is just out

the Millic road there.

I want you to take the right turn there at the church.

And it's on the left hand side.

We pass an old stone building called the store.

That's where there's two French soldiers buried.

So we're unveiling a plaque out there to the two men, what you call this evening.

One more