Everything Everywhere All At Once / Barrell New Year 2025 Bourbon ft. Lee Diaz, ReserveBar

0:01 In 2022, directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Shiner and star Michelle Yeoh gave the world a mind bending drama about the power of human choice. In 2025, we go back in time a few weeks to try a new year release. The film is Everything Everywhere all at once. The whiskey is barrel New Year 2025. And we'll review them both. This is the. Film and Whiskey podcast. Welcome to the Film and Whiskey podcast, where each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob Book.

0:59 I'm Brad G. And this week we are looking at the 2000 and 2223. What did we? Say 2022. 22 man the the whole 2025 thing is throwing me off dude. Like I'm not used to it being a new year yet. Yeah, it's it's tough, man. It happens every year. It's a regular occurrence in our lives. And yet here we are. And yet I don't get used to it till February. Let me, let me go ahead and give it a take. Two, we're looking at the 2022 film Everything Everywhere All At Once. Brad. As you know, and as many listeners of the podcast will know, this season on film and Whiskey, what we're doing is we're looking at films from the last 20 years and we're asking the question, does this movie deserve to be considered a modern masterpiece? Not to whittle down our list of movies that we looked at this season, we looked at 4 categories. Is it in the IMDb top 250?

1:50 Is it in the letterbox to top 250? Did it make $100 million? Was it nominated for Best Picture? Brad, I pulled up absolutely none of those data points to double check against except I know it was nominated for Best Picture because it's a Best picture winner. This movie, I, I watch it now again and I'm like, how in the hell did this movie win Best Picture at the Oscars? Not because it's not a quality movie, but there is very little about this film that screams Oscar winner Brad. Yeah, I just pulled it up on Box Office Mojo. It made 143,000,000 worldwide, with 77 of that coming domestically, so. And I'm not. I'm not.

2:31 Sure, quite the 100 million mark. Yeah. Is it in the top 250 on either of these sites is the thing? I honestly am not sure I I think on IMDb it is like a 7.8 which I think would put it out of the out of the. Top 250. So is the only qualifying entry that it is a best picture winner? That would be super shocking to me. It it would be to me as well. I think that this is well higher than a 7.8. I'm curious because I remember coming home from the theaters and looking this up and it was like at an 8.8 on IMDb and I knew that that was inflated. I was expecting it to land in like the 8.1 to 8.3 area. 7.8 is a huge drop.

3:23 Yeah, The funny thing about IMDb is that it seems like there are just masses of people who don't like anything and then vote on it like a year after the fact. Like the movie score is always going to come down as more people see it. But what surprises me is how often a movie starts at like a nine point O and then six months later it's still at like an 8.38 point 2. And then you give it like a full year and it's down into the the high sevens. Like, I get that not everybody loves this movie. I get that it's not for everybody. But I'm with you, man. When a movie starts as high as this movie did on IMDb, it's it's interesting to see it fall. However, Brad, I really like this movie.

4:04 I know that you really like this movie. We've been hinting at how subsequent watches of this film post the theatrical experience have maybe diminished our appreciation of the movie a bit. So I'm interested to get into that with you today. But before we go any further, we've been making our guest for the day Just sit here in the background, not saying anything. He has googly eyes pasted to his microphone, so I know he's ready to dive in. It's our old friend Lee Diaz from Reserve Bar Lee, how are you, man? Hey gentlemen, it's I'm doing great. I'm so excited to be able to review this movie with you. It's it is one of my favourites so I have a lot to say. I mean, yeah, we gave you the option to choose your movie for the season and you landed on this one. So typically people don't choose a movie that they want to come in and crap all over.

4:52 But what is it specifically about this one that made you want to spend an hour and a half with us today talking about it? Well, I think it has so many layers just of complexity and depth. I mean, you can keep it super like high level superficial and be like, hey, this is a new take on the multiverse. Like, what does it look like when certain decisions really make for a different person? And how many people am I in the world? But I think as you kind of dig in, there are so many layers. And then having seen this in the movie theater before anybody was talking about it, I think there's just such a wow factor that came with seeing this in the movie theater, which is actually why I think it got such high early IMDb scores, because the wow factor is in the movie experience, man.

5:40 When you put that on the smaller screen, if you're deep enough, you got it. If if you're kind of high level still it it's not as powerful. I've seen it a few times just on my TV and sometimes it's just like, no, it's not hitting the right notes. I will say I recently got a very expensive OLED monitor for my computer and watching this on like, you know, like a 27 inch OLED monitor, man, oh man, does it look good. It's a it's a beautiful experience and it did for me recapture a little bit of that like magic of the cinema 'cause you are rightly this is a movie that I would put in like the top three.

6:26 You have to see in theaters to understand how awesome it is. Type of movies like like it's a movie that justifies the existence of cinema. Absolutely a. Theater going experience. Brad, that is a bold statement, man. And typically you don't make blanket statements about the existence of cinema like that unless you've got a lot to say. So I think maybe this is a good place for us to segue into our first segment of the day, which we call, Brad explains. Brad's going to give us the movie plots with only 60 seconds sticking on the clock, so let's go ahead and do your take with this little segment that we call, Brad explains. Brad Explains is the part of the show where Brad breaks down the plot of the film that he has just seen, often for the first time.

7:11 Now, Brad, we were talking off air. I believe this is watch #3 for you of this film. Yeah, it sure is. Saw it in theaters, watched it with some friends a few months later, and then sat down a few nights ago and watched it in its entirety even though I only meant to watch like half of it. I got dude, I got sucked in so hard. I don't want to get too far down the rabbit hole here, but you're talking about your LED, your OLED monitor. Lee, I'm kind of with you on the experience of watching this movie based on like where and how you're watching it. So I watched this movie today on a laptop. I had watched it for my second watch on my largest television in my house, which is like 65 inches. And then I'd seen it in the theater. And it does kind of feel like one of those films that's like the inverse Brad of Past Lives, where the sort of smallness and stillness of that movie I think works. You can watch that movie on your phone if you really wanted to, and it still works really well.

8:08 Or on the backseat of an airplane. Yeah. I mean, apparently not. That did not work out very well for you when you tried that. But I think this film, there's so much happening that I'm curious about like the sensory overload experience of it. You know, I, I talked earlier this season or or maybe it was last season about Into the Spider verse and how that movie like almost gave me a seizure in the movie theater and I didn't like it until I could watch it in a more controlled environment. Do you feel like any of the three experiences Brad has been influenced by the format that you watched it in? Yeah, I, I think the second time I watched it, we watched it in my basement.

8:48 My heater was running and it was like a little too loud. And the kids are right above me sleeping. And so you have to kind of keep it down and, and, you know, have subtitles on for the whole movie, not, you know, not just for the Chinese lines that are throughout the movie. And so there's something about it being a little too quiet, having to read subtitles the whole time. And I did not enjoy it as much the second time. The most recent time I had headphones on, I could have it at just the right volume and in theaters. This is a impeccable experience. Yeah. And I I would say that really the theater experience for this one, it, it brightens those really high action feature parts and then it allows kind of for the like depth of the movie to kind of sit with you. And so for theater, like I think this is perfect because that just deep action that Michelle is known for. I mean, I just think back to all of her action movies way back when, even before we get to like Crouching Tiger, right? Like the actual action movies.

9:58 And you see kind of this level of how well orchestrated everything is that comes together with the bright lights in the in the flashing between lives and everything. Like everything needs to be a little bit bigger than life because you're expressing these notions of of multiple lives. All right, Brad, we'll get into Brad explains here. You have 60 seconds to break down the plot of this movie. This is another one of those ones we've had a lot lately where if you wanted to go 5 minutes explaining the details of this movie, you really could. You could also go like 11 seconds on explaining this movie. It's a it's a mile wide and I don't want it's not an inch deep, mile wide and a mile deep, right?

10:39 You have 60 seconds. Spoil the hell out of this movie and go. Everything Everywhere All At Once is a film that initially, before it was released on IMDb, the synopsis was given. A 55 year old Chinese American woman tries to do her taxes and I I almost want to leave it at that because that's like such a perfect encapsulation of the film. Trying to pay what she owes to her future generation to the government. Bob, I don't know how to explain this movie. I have seen it three times. It is a multiverse movie.

11:20 It's a philosophy movie. It's an action movie. It's a noir drama movie. It's a love story. It's everything wrapped up into one beautiful mind boggling experience that if you haven't seen it guys, I don't know if I could ever more strongly tell you stop listening to this stupid podcast and go watch this freaking movie cuz it like you can't. It's it's a movie that deserves fresh eyes and a fresh brain that isn't like tainted by our thoughts of the film. All right, not only did you go almost a minute and a half, you also trashed our podcast.

12:10 So Brad, you're officially being placed on mute for the next 5 minutes. Yes, let's. Do it. You're going to your corner. No, I think where I want to go with this guy is because the sense that I get is that I'm going to be a little bit lower on this movie than the two of you are. And this, I think was my number one movie of the year back in 22. It was right up there upon my second viewing, I asked my wife to watch it with me and we watched it really similar to you, Brad. We're like in the basement watching it on the TV and I could tell that she just was not vibing with this movie for like a large portion of the film. Was it the point where you realized what the auditor award could be used for? Was that the point where she was like, eh, I'm out?

12:52 No, my like my wife appreciates a good dirty joke. That's fine. It was, I think it was that your wife appreciates it. Absolutely not. We're we're not going there, Brad. You really are getting put on mute here, man. This is you're going to get me in trouble. Like at the halfway point of the movie, I started hearing those little noises people make when they're being polite, but they're kind of checked out. You know, when it's like you get the first little sigh that indicates I am impatient with this film and there's. Something like when you've been talking for a while on the podcast and I'm over here just ready to interrupt you. Yeah, there's something about watching a movie with an uninterested party that really kind of, like, puts your anxiousness levels up.

13:37 You start wondering, like, do I just turn this off? I don't want to start an argument, you know, But like, if she's not enjoying it, what do we do here? And what it ultimately did was it made me start looking at what may be perceived as flaws in this movie. And it really solidified for me that this movie is not as great as I remembered it being. Doesn't mean it's not a great movie. It's just not a 10 out of 10 for me. And I'm curious because both of you guys, I think you're going to laud this movie throughout this episode. Maybe a fun little exercise to start with here is like having watched it multiple times. Do you see any kind of cracks in the facade, or does it work as well the third time around as it did the first time around?

14:22 Butt Plugs Butt plugs are the crack in this movie, Bob. Well, they they at least went in the crack. They sure did. That was a crack in the film, if you will. I I the first time I walked out of the movies, I was like, that was a perfect movie, But I don't think they needed like and I don't even want to say like the sexual stuff because there's not there's barely even any scenes of anybody kissing each other. And if it is, it's like a cute older Asian couple that's just being adorable. The paraphernalia, maybe you could say like that they're those are the few things for me in this movie that even on 1/3 watch, I'm like, like, there's so much humor in this movie.

15:06 And I don't think it needed to go into the crass like region to make its point. Other than that, Bob, there's not a single flaw with this film. Yeah, I I agree. Actually, I think that like I started taking notes of all of the triggers, trigger items in order to explore the different, you know, to gain the skills of alternative universes. And it really, I mean, you're right. Like they're really the butt plug 1 was like you actually didn't need it because there's so many just fun things. And actually the one that really hurt for me was like the four paper cuts across the fingers. Like you could do these what eating somebody'd burgers or those things are kind of funny, but they don't have to go to that next level. And you could have kept it there easily and been wildly entertaining.

16:02 And I think for the rest of the movie, a lot of times it's it's stayed in that like wildly entertaining space with a few cringe moments. I just think they they overstepped the cringe moment like a few times and and you know, it kind of it kind of missed. I think for me, what you guys are hinting at, it gets to a little bit of a larger problem that I have with the movie. And you know, it's not to say that like I wasn't bothered by some of that stuff, but like the presence of paraphernalia, Brad, like it just doesn't bother me that much. What I what it hinted at, though, I think was like it was representative of this movie's larger attitude of being really irreverent. Like it's just a, it's a movie that does not care what you think of it for a large chunk of its runtime. And that can be good and that can be bad. You have to find a really good balance of not undermining your movie's own existence by acting like you're too cool for school. And we've had a couple movies like this on the podcast, Brad and I man, I can't remember which movie I made this point about, but it was almost identical where I said, like, the movie was irreverent for a really long time. And it wanted to try to, you know, buck trends and subvert expectations and not follow a linear path. And then ultimately, to make the movie land, you've got to wrap it up in a really traditional way anyway. Like you got to return to the types of story arcs that work for people.

17:30 And I think my big problem with the movie is like when you have a butt plug or when she's holding a gigantic dildo, it feels like they're tipping the irreverence meter off the charts. And then that started to make even the smaller, irreverent moments kind of have this sum total effect on me where it was like, man, I really think you could have cut like 10 or 15 minutes out of the middle of this movie and it would have moved along a lot better for me. I think the, the irreverence of the film is like baked into the story that they're trying to tell. And so I, I actually don't feel like the movie is how do I put this? Like the irreverence is not irreverent in this movie. Like the only reason it feels irreverent in my opinion is because the Daniels, as you will, the the two directors of the film, they are like pulling from so many different genres to create these movies that the irreverence feels more like it's being irreverent to the history of those genres more than to the actual like self-contained universe of this film. Does that make sense?

18:43 And doesn't? Kind of it get to the notion kind of be one of the notions behind the film, which is like it's all meaningless, right? Like the, the irreverence itself is meaningless, right? Like, like it's all about enjoying and being in that moment. And it like, if everything's meaningless, what gives you meaning? And I think some of that is like you can almost say like it's a very meta like display of their own notion of everything's meaningless and being like it actually doesn't matter what the triggers are. It's really about giving you a full range of random stuff that causes things or creates connection or makes you cringe that you're just kind of like going across this spectrum of the human condition through the movie.

19:32 And, and some of that's challenging and some of it's just like, wow, that's ridiculous and fun, but well, and. That, and that's the beauty of this film, is that in a world where everything is possible anywhere all at once, right? Like in a world where absolutely anything is possible, you can kind of lean into one of two ways of thinking about it. You can be as irreverent as you possibly can and just act like it doesn't matter if I kill you with a gun or with a dildo. And like, that's kind of the the Jobu Tupaci, who is the main bad guy in the film.

20:13 Like, that's kind of her philosophy on the world is like, let's be as irreverent as possible because nothing is matters. And by the end of the film, Michelle Yeoh has experienced that Evelyn is her her character's name. Evelyn has like experienced that. She understands it. And yet she intentionally chooses what she is going to bring into people's lives. And even some of that is a little ridiculous when she's, you know, fighting the final battle and choosing love over choosing, you know, hatred and violence. Like, part of that is giving a sexual deviant what he wants, but part of it is also like bringing two people to fall in love or spraying a perfume to remind a man of his lost wife. And, and it's like really beautiful things. And so I think that's kind of the whole premise of the film is like, are you going to lean into the randomness and irreverence or are you going to be specifically, what's the word I'm looking for?

21:21 Like be very specific about the way you choose to engage with the world, to bring love and relationship and kindness. And so I and that's why I say like, if there is irreverence in the film, it makes sense within the world, even though because he gives you all these genres that you have expectations and tropes and things like that. The irreverence might be saying like something about those genres and make you feel uncomfortable. But within the self-contained film, I think it works perfectly. Yeah, And I. Think a lot of the the irreverent nature of the movie that does kind of bother me is like there's a there's a spectrum of like silly and irreverent. And you can be silly towards your subject matter and irreverent towards your subject matter. Think of a movie like like Anchorman, like OK, it's following the beats of a biopic of a fictional news man, right? But everything in that is a complete send up and a parody of that genre.

22:23 I think you also have like an irreverence of character in a movie like Guardians of the Galaxy, Like they are not your typical superheroes. And that's kind of their point. And then I think where you start drifting into really dangerous territory is where you become so irreverent about your character, about the story, and then about the movies on purpose that you're kind of sitting in the audience wondering like, why did they make a movie if it feels like they hate movies? And I don't think this movie tilts into that realm. But I remember just this past year, I went to see Deadpool and Wolverine with a buddy of mine who is a huge Deadpool fan. And I was there because it was a movie. And I, of course I'm going to go. And I asked him what he thought afterwards.

23:03 And he was like, I think that was the worst of the three Deadpool movies. And so why do you feel like that? And he said it just felt like the movie existed to make fun of the MCU and to, like, specifically call out the decision makers at Disney through the mouth of Ryan Reynolds. Like it wasn't a movie. It was just an excuse to break the 4th wall and talk about meta things outside of the movie. And so I think that that that kind of becomes the fine line of like, you want to be silly, you want to be goofy, you want to be irreverent, but you don't want to undermine your movie's own existence in the process. Yeah, but I. Also, I also think that there's such a fun like connection between the world's right. And I think like, how do you express this notion that there there are multiple U's?

23:53 And I love this notion that like significant decisions in your life, at least when we're looking at like the closer world's right before it gets everywhere, you know, like the significant decisions in your life actually impact like the, the person that you actually are. And I, I think that there's like they're trying to pull together a whole bunch of things, which is like, we all have those like out of body experiences or thoughts of like, if I had made this decision, what would that look like? So if you're trying to tell that story in a unique way and then be like, but just imagine the crazy version of you, like with sausage fingers. And like if you during the flashback towards the end where there's like 40 different versions of, of Evelyn, like, you know, the ones that you can't even imagine and then you try to create connection between them. How do you do that in a way that kind of breaks again, breaks that 4th wall.

24:51 Like I'm so locked into the person of Evelyn that I'm distracted by everything else. Actually, I'm going to give you so much distraction that you start understanding the other people of Evelyn, right? Like it's almost like I'm helping you break out of this very focused character building by giving you 1000 other characters by distracting you with all this like nonsensical stuff and. I and I think it also what it does incredibly well is it gives you an opportunity to examine how the battle of like nature and nurture plays out. And that in all of the universes that you see Evelyn in, she is almost the same person.

25:37 Like she's very driven, very determined, very hard working, has a brilliant mind, has hobbies that she loves. Like all of them feature the same core driving factors within the heart and soul of Evelyn, but there's they all result in vastly different places. And the the key factor among all of those is her choices. Like at each and every choice of her life, she chose something that led her to where she is now. And I and I love how the movie is raw and honest about the fact that you could take a person, it's still Lee or Bob or Brad, and they still kind of have the same inner drive and spirit and who they are.

26:29 But the choices we make truly matter. And they lead us to different places in their lives. One set of choices might lead us to be famous opera singers, and another set of choices might lead us to the lives we are living right now. And I I think that that's like such a fascinating examination of the human experience. Lee, let me open a can of worms here real quick. Let's do this with Brad on our last episode when I brought up The Last Jedi. I'm not gonna bring up The Last Jedi. I am gonna bring up. Perhaps I did. Just bring up The Last Jedi. I'm gonna, well, I'm. Also gonna bring up perhaps the second most hated film of Brad. Where do you stand on Eternal Sunshine? Oh. Man I Brad, man. OK, so.

27:12 Pro are you Pro So so. Here's the thing, I love parts of it and I hate parts of it, right? Like I think that like this notion of like removing part of yourself in order to I think have a more, what you would say more happy life, I guess, right? Like that's the spotless mind, right? Like, man, it's hard because everything that you are makes you who you are. And so I was really challenged by this notion of like super broken people facilitating his removal of, you know, of an, of experiences and just parting all around him and everything like that. I actually, I didn't enjoy watching that movie. I I loved kind of the notions behind it and where they were trying to go, but I just didn't like the packaging around it. Like, I thought you could have actually filmed a far better movie without kind of the package that it ended up in. So that's part of why.

28:14 I brought it up because I think this movie reminds me a lot of Eternal Sunshine in the sort of like really playful style of filming that it went for. Like there's just some weird whimsical use of the camera, you know, lighting styles in that movie. And I kept trying to think of, you know, if I was going to describe the overall vibe and aesthetic of this movie to somebody. It's almost like if Michelle Gondry, the guy who directed Eternal Sunshine, was asked to make The Matrix, like I think that's kind of what this movie would come out being. And I, I say all that as a segue into, I do think that there are a ton of influences on this movie, both narratively, thematically, aesthetically, Brad and and Lee.

28:58 I'm wondering what you saw as either references this movie made or things that you think influenced this movie. Oh my gosh, I mean, there's so many references throughout. I mean, one of the ones that I love towards the end was like, and for me was just referencing the Matrix, for instance, like stopping the bullets when everybody's shooting at her, right? Like and just picking that one bullet and being like, like if that for me, if that wasn't the matrix, I mean a perfect, you know, example. But I just think that there's and you talked about it earlier. There's so many elements to this movie that just lean into a variety of genres, including, I think, like leaning back into when we look at like Weyman's character, we actually look at the actors like earlier characters of like whimsy and like using like joy and like, you know that like actually, he just encompasses that normally in general, right?

30:00 We look at Michelle Yeoh and, and Kung Fu and, and various styles of, of martial art. Like, I think you can say this was almost a culmination of a variety of the movies that they had previously been in and, and not giving nods to the people that they actually are. I mean, clearly the the Kung Fu actress is a pretty clear nod to who Michelle Yeoh is normally, but I think that there's just a lot of depth where they're just pulling in so much while making fun of kind of all of it. There there's an element of this movie that reminds me of like if you took Ikiru and like, just put it on absolute steroids.

30:47 Yeah, but like, for me, there's a lot of that similar like with the backdrop of the dead end government office environment, like what happens when you begin to ask questions around purpose and who am I and why am I here? And you know, Akiru by the end of the film is a quiet Japanese film about the beauty of a life well ended. And this film ends with the IRS building in complete shambles and destroyed it. And it's, it's incredible. But I I think that there is something to be said for a film like a Kiru influencing a film like Everything Everywhere All at Once 100%.

31:31 Man, yeah. And I think we're we're tipping dangerously close into let's make it a double territory. But I couldn't really go any further without talking about movies that I felt like we're influences on this. And I wrote down a couple, obviously The Matrix and Eternal Sunshine, but it really gave off strong Walter Mitty vibes for me. I think there's a ton of that. Like let's take a leap of faith in a way that's almost fantastical, almost like, is this real? Is this not to discover ourselves? Brad, Maybe it's because it's January and I just watched this like a month ago, but I think you could draw a connection today. It's a wonderful life, you know, somebody being shown what their life would and would not be like without them by a kindly, you know, other original.

32:13 Multiverse, yeah. I think that there's a lot of a movie that I don't particularly care for in Scott Pilgrim versus the World where you're like physically fighting manifestations of yourself or others in another way that's like, I don't know if this is actually really happening. I don't know if this is all a metaphor. And then that traced me back to I think the originator of that. It was all a dream, which is the Wizard of Oz. Like there's there's this movie really fits into that sub genre of I don't I don't even know what you'd call it. Like metaphorical self discovery type movies. Yeah, well, and I think what you're hinting at if you haven't seen everything ever all at once, is that this movie like falls within a million genres. Like there there's so many different cinemagraphic choices made throughout the film.

33:04 Like the the cinematography I think is incredible in this movie, Like the the way that they build up the characters through the use of the camera. I think the acting is incredible. Is it K Hui Kai Hui kwan? He pronounces. It Ki Hui kwan Ki Hui kwan. So like Ki Hui Kwan is so freaking good at letting the audience know which version of Waymond he is just and like obviously he kind of takes off the glasses each time and then puts him back on when he's normal Waymond. But like even just his physicality, you can just feel like a raw masculinity emanating from him anytime he goes into alpha verse mode. I like, I just I love everything they did in the genre hopping in the acting that there's so much to love here. I think the.

33:59 The other thing we haven't really touched on was like Joy's journey in in the movie as well. And I think this leans into some of those coming of age films, right? Like, and, and the struggle that she really has is like an ABC, right? American born Chinese, when you're looking at your first, second, third generation Americans and just this, just this like struggle, feeling like you're in between two cultures. I mean, she like, that's really where her pain stems from is like feeling like she's just touting in between two and out of that being like, you know what, forget it. All right, Like I, I don't care.

34:39 It's all meaningless. This is where I become the bad guy because like I just, I'm disconnecting from it all because it all sucks and I don't understand it and nobody's kind of giving me my due. So is that like the sisterhood of the traveling pants grows up? I don't know, you know, but like, I, I think there's something to be said of like that human condition of feeling disconnected from who you're expected to be or you who you feel like you should be. And then the net out of that is like, well, it all sucks, right? Like, and and that's, that's actually her impasse that she hasn't actually gotten to yet, Michelle, or as Evelyn is a little bit further down that road, but like she's about to make a a ton of just life decisions and she's at the beginning of it. And just at the beginning of it, she's like, forget it. I'm out.

35:30 Yeah. I think that what you guys are are also underscoring here is when this movie feels like it is connected to this larger tradition of other great movies is when it's really working for me. And that middle section that I, I suggested could be tightened up a little bit. I think what's what's happening there that doesn't work for me is the Daniels. The two directors of this film got their start making music videos and YouTube videos, and so is it what's the big one? Not party Rock Anthem. Were they Party Rock Lee? I can't remember. Turn down for what? That's their big video that they ended up securing their first movie off of. And it has this chaotic energy.

36:11 I think when the movie's not working for me, it's because they lean a little bit too much into that. Like we're making an SNL digital short where, you know, John Ralphio's sister has a dog on a leash and she's swinging it at the like. It just got a little bit too far away from what I felt like the movie was ultimately pointing towards. But again, like, you can't talk about a movie with this many influences that is like so tapped into its characters and and just crap on it, right? Like I I do think ultimately this movie is successful and you started hinting at it, Lee. It all comes down to the performances. That's what really grounds this movie. And guys, we're running a little bit long. So I think it's time for us to break and try some whiskey. But when we get back from break, let's dive into especially these three main characters, plus the Academy Award winner Jamie Lee Curtis.

37:05 So what do you guys say? We try this barrel New year, Let's get. To it. All right everybody today we are drinking Barrel New Year 2025. Now Barrel has long been one of our absolute favorite not distillers blenders of whiskey. And let me tell you what this is an absolute banger. It is coming in at 112.1 proof, so not a terribly high proofed whiskey. I I could read off all of the different like mash bills that they're putting into this, but it's like 87 mash bills and they know what they're doing and we trust them.

37:52 This is a daggone good whiskey, Bob, and I'm excited for you guys to drink it. Yeah, I'm drinking. It Live Today, so I haven't quite dove into it yet. The Barrel New Year is an annual release from Barrel. We've had past iterations of it on the show. It is one of my favorite recurring releases, especially from Barrel each year, Brad said. You know, there's a a million match bills in this. I think it is really a testament to their blending abilities and that's kind of what they're trying to do with this release. This year's release includes whiskeys from 123456 of the eight different States and there are 18 different whiskeys going into this blend. So the ultimate mash bill on this is 75% corn, 20% rye, 4% malted barley, and 1% wheat.

38:38 We have officially reached 4 grain designation here, Brad. 18 whiskeys. Dude, I can't even imagine trying to keep these straight as you blend. How many? Whiskeys should I put into this up to six. I think the answer is 7. My my disciple, the answer is just. Yes. How many whiskeys? Yes, all of the whiskeys. Lee, before we dive in, Brad and I sing the praises of Barrel all the time on this show. Where do you stand on Barrel as a company and what's typically your favorite release of theirs? Oh man. So I'm a huge fan of barrel. We've actually been selecting a number of single barrels from them since we started our single barrel program at Reserve Bar. So they were really one of our first because we saw that the saw the work that they were doing. I think that Nick Christensen as, as a blender has just such an incredible nose and palate, bringing that out of the food and beverage industry and just leaning in. And I, I love the entire team and the work that they're doing. They know who they are and they're like, we want to continue to redefine what blending whiskey can look like in a time where a lot of people are like, forget blended whiskey, right?

39:55 So like I actually think. They're super fun. Man, I actually, I'm a big fan of their finishes and so I I can't pick a specific one if I have to. I really like the the Armeniac finish. That they've pulled a few times. I just think that they know their whiskey, they know how to finish it well and anytime I see that they have a new finish out in the store or if we can get access to one, I want it and I probably want multiple bottles of it. I think that's. Typically our attitude as well. So guys, let's go ahead and dive in. Lee, if you want to pull up a little calculator to keep your your tab running here, we will score this on five categories, nose, taste, finish, balance and value. All of them are scored out of 10. You can give half point increments if you'd like. Brad, you've tried this already.

40:49 So Lee and I are going to be sticking our noses and our glasses here while you give your nosing notes. This has just an incredible nose of like mostly classic bourbon notes with some like surprises. There's some peanuts and like a really nice creamy creme brulee caramel vibe. There's a little bit of a cinnamony spicy note going on. And then like the longer I sat with it, the, the more I was like, man, there's like a zesty lime pop going on here that I think is really incredible. This is a delectable nose that's going to get an 8 out of 10 for me.

41:31 Yeah, this is surprisingly bright for me. Like it. It has these notes underpinning it that don't quite tip into what I would call the Will it Funk Brad. But there's a lot of leather, there's a lot of sawdust. I get quite a bit of rose on this, and then the wheat character here comes out a little bit, which is hilarious because I think there's only 1% wheat in the mash bill, but it has that dusty cherry quality. I'm with you. There's definitely some citrus zest in here, but what what? Ultimately, I don't know if this is even really a note. It just smells like a summertime kind of whiskey to me. It's a little bit brighter. It's a little bit like there's those pops of melon that we sometimes get on, like Irish whiskeys, so it doesn't tip into the really heavy syrupy notes for me.

42:16 I'm intrigued by it. I'm going to give it an 8.5. Wow, guys, you're starting really strong. I I agree. I love the I think the the older whiskey and I don't know how much of the blend it was, but you know, you're looking at what 15 year old Tennessee? I'm trying to look really quick. 12 year old Wyoming and your 12 year old Indiana, like I think that that gives you some of those oaky. There's like this great, like when you walk into a Rick house nose like that older oak that just kind of sits and lingers, which is super fun. And and Bob, to your point, I don't know how it happens, but at 1% wheat, where I most prominently get the wheat is in the nose. And I don't know, maybe that's the wheat and malted barley, but it sits interesting.

43:10 It's crazy. I'm not gonna be as friendly on the nose. I I'm going to be a a little bit more friendly later on. But for me, for me, the nose here is like a 7.5 I think as I. Dove into the actual pallet for me, there is like almost like essence of like maraschino cherry. It wasn't even like a a super active flavor. There is a bit of like a peanut brittle vanilla bean, kind of like a a dusty Graham cracker, almost like a cinnamon Graham cracker rather than the honey that it was really great. And then the the zestiness turned into, I think like the creaminess on the nose and the zestiness turned into like a Key Lime Pie that I like.

43:58 Bob, you're right. This is a really bright summary kind of whiskey that has a depth to it that helps it really stand out. I'm going to give it an 8 1/2 on the pallet. I think I'm going to come. Down quite a bit on the pallet here, Brad. It's not that I dislike it, but it's definitely a bit thinner than I was expecting. There's just not a lot of viscosity here, even at this proof. It's a little more astringent in the way that you feel it on your tongue, like it has the thinness of a lot of ethanol. And for me it's a bit over oaked as well. And that kind of overrode everything else on the palate. There's some nice kind of subtle notes here. There's definitely stone fruit. But ultimately for me, this is a step down from what we tried last week with that seagrass toasted. I think it was going to be at about a 7 out of 10 on the palate, man.

44:48 So I, I actually moved up when we're looking at the pallet, I think that it's incredibly complex and every, every sip that I have, I'm getting something new. Now I totally agree. I get some of that oak that I think I give more towards the finish. So when we get to the finish part, I'm gonna say oak, just oak in your mouth. But here, like in the mid pallet, man, I think it's bright. I think it's fragrant. I do get like toasted, like those roasted sugar, like candied nuts type thing along with your stone fruit. I think that it's just a lot of fun to let this thing evolve with every sip.

45:31 This is one where I do want to see like if I let this out for maybe 10 minutes, what's going to happen to it because I actually think it's going to evolve quite a bit. If I was to give this a score, I would say this is probably an 8.5, maybe edging towards it's a nine, but I'll I'll be 8.5. Lee is very obviously giving the proper proper understanding of this whiskey here. Bob, I think on the finish Lee, you're 100% right. This gets really into a beautiful oat territory. The the lime flavor almost turned into a lemon zest for me. The caramel sticks around. It definitely dives into more of a coffee bean kind of territory that I'm like absolutely digging on the finish.

46:16 I'm a a little lower than the pallet, but I I'm going to stick it in eight out of 10 here every now and then. I'll talk about like how a whiskey just has a really mouth watering finish. And it's not just that, I mean that it's not tannic, like it's not sucking the moisture out of your mouth. But sometimes it really just takes on a, a, a note of like mineral water for me, where like all the other notes fade away pretty quickly and you're left with the taste of like a fresh cracked spring water that this kind of has that. It's not a bad thing. I just wish more of these notes lingered for me. Lee, I'm totally with you. There's definitely oak. And again, I would say that it's a kind of bitter oak on the back for me. There are no real fruit notes for me. There's no like sugary syrupy notes hanging around. It's just like minerality and oak. And I don't think it's great.

47:11 And I definitely think, again, I'm carrying on this theme from last week. I think this is definitely a step down from last week, Brad. I'm going to give it a 7 out of 10 again on the finish. So this is one where I drop down just a little bit. But I do think actually that oak, as you let it linger, I get some really fun notes. Like I get a little touch of like mint, like oolong tea, some dark chocolate in there. Like I think you're getting some of like those really refined notes where it makes me want to take another sip and again, kind of see where I am and and that really kind of I think that's a really nice Topper to this experience, right. Like you're kind of hanging in this realm and you're not kind of breaking out of a range of flavors. You're kind of like working in this wavelength of flavors. If I were to score this, I would give the finish about an 8. Yeah, and as.

48:05 Far as balance goes, this is an incredibly well balanced and complex whiskey. I'm going to jump back up to an 8 1/2 out of 10. I've literally gone 88 and a half, eight 8 1/2 so far. As you can tell, I really like this whiskey. I think that it offers you a whole heck of a lot as in terms of its complexity, its flavors. It has some classic bourbon notes paired with a brightness that I think is worth trying. Yeah, I think. That we established a long time ago, Brad, that the worst whiskey that Beryl has ever made is still like a 7 1/2 out of 10 from us and would still get a thumbs up and a recommendation.

48:47 And I think this is kind of in that zone for me. Like I, I would not by any stretch call this the worst barrel I've ever had, but I would also say that like it is a solid whiskey that I am still going to recommend and we're just comparing it to some of the best whiskeys we've ever had, right? So I'm going to give it a 7.5 on the balance. I think this is a well balanced whiskey. There's really nothing that is like a sharp increase or decline from category to category. And yeah, I think that if there's anything bad I can say about it, it's just that it is a pretty darn good whiskey. And if that's your floor, then you're doing pretty well. Yeah. So for balance, I actually go a little bit higher. So I think that you are getting a really great consistent like experience across as long as you drink this whiskey. I also kind of cheated and put it on a rock and just kind of saw what happened with it.

49:42 When you pop this, this bottle you from the nose all the way to the finish, you kind of know what you're going to get. And so for me, the balance is, is probably a nine. Like I think it's a a really well balanced whiskey, like you know what you're getting into. And I also, I think I'm giving a little bit of like love points to barrel because it's, it's what you're doing with so many whiskeys, right? Like you're creating nuance and character and consistency with arguably way too many whiskeys. So if you were like, this is way too many whiskeys, maybe you give it like a six 'cause you're like, no, they just tried to do too much with too much.

50:24 But I think that they they really kind of locked in where they were with this whiskey, what they wanted to do, even though I think that's like way too many barrels in a whiskey. Well, and that takes us to value where MSRP on this bottle is $90.00. Now, Brad, I was reading online today, somebody reviewed this bottle and in the comments someone posted like, hey, if you just wait a couple weeks after the new year, a lot of liquor stores will put this on sale to try to move it because no one wants to be looking at a New year bottle on the shelf in July. And that's kind of the unfortunate drawback of this product. But like it's a huge boon to consumers. So if you can find this on sale for 60-70 dollars, I think that's like a 10 out of 10 value. Even at 90.

51:10 And even given the fact that I this is not my favorite barrel product, you're talking about 18 different whiskeys being manually blended to make a barrel strength whiskey here. There is nothing in the market that would tell me that this is overpriced. So I'm still going to give it a 7 1/2 on the value. Brad. Yeah. I I'm in the same spot, Bob. I think this is a really delicious whiskey. It is not the best barrel product we've had in this price range, which like it seems like pretty much all of barrel products are in that like 85 to $90.00 range. They have their foundations which is around like 50 to 60 and then they have some premium stuff, but for 8590 dollars, I think this is a really solid value and especially as a as a limited release product. Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head, right. I think that New Year when it does go on sale, it's get it on sale and and grab it while you can. I think as it initially comes out, it's fun to have it, you know, as the New Year's passing like that January, February time frame.

52:21 But I, I think that you, there's a level of respect for the amount of blending and work that happens. But at the same time, like, is it, you know, in that price range, does it really fit? So I totally agree. I think 7.5 is super fair. All right, Brad, where's that bringing you out to? I am. Sitting at a 40.5 out of 50, about five points lower than the toasted seagrass last week. But I mean, we're still talking. I think before, I think I'm at like a 34 out of 50 on the OR 34 out of 40 on just the tasting notes. Bob, this is just an incredible whiskey.

53:04 Yeah, man, I'm just a little bit lower than you. I'm at a 37 1/2 out of 50, but we're both still comfortably into the zone where we start recommending a product. I do think if you want to just go ahead and buy this sight unseen, it's not a bad value. If you want to plunk down, you know, 15 to 20 bucks for a pour at a whiskey bar, I would also say that's totally justified. Between Brad and I were averaging a 39 out of 50 or 78 out of 100. Lee, where are you coming out on this one? Yeah, so I actually. Came out a little bit higher. So I was at 40.5 and I think that, you know, it's it's with a caveat, right? Like I do think that your oaky notes your your more like toasted oak nuttiness.

53:47 If you like those types of whiskeys, this will do fine by you. If that's not the type of bourbon or whiskey, excuse me, that you like, it's really not going to work out. And so that's really where you you come out like I actually happen to like those notes. And so I tend to be a little bit higher in in my level of like interest with those pores. Some of my friends absolutely hate them and they're like, no, I don't want to just be chewing on oak when I'm drinking whiskey. So I think that's really for me is like that tannic, oaky nuttiness. If you love it, I would not that that like is out of balance, but it's a little bit heavier here and knowing that going into it, great pour.

54:34 If you don't love it, maybe just hold on until you can get it on sale. I mean once again. Beryl continues to just knock it out of the park. And Brad, we try to find thematic connections to our movies a lot with our whiskey pairings. Obviously, this is a movie that takes place at Chinese New Year. Women is talking the whole movie about New Year, New me, sign the divorce papers, baby. And so like we've got a New year product. I also think that given the fact that there are 18 whiskeys from 8 different states all bottled together, we truly have Everything Everywhere all at once in this bottle today. Brad, you have outdone. Yourself. Thank you. Well done. Thank you, Robert. Actually, thank you to Lee, because you're the one that picked it today. This is a fantastic bottle.

55:16 Like we can't say enough good things about Beryl. Yeah, the new. Year New you was where I was going. I didn't even think about like how many. That was incredible. That just blew my mind. That's why. We make the big bucks here on film and Whiskey Lee my mind just. Blew up in a Now I'm glitter. Brad, what do you say we get back into talking about the movie? Let's get. To it, Bob. All right, everybody. That was a barrel New Year 2025, a whiskey that continues to bear the standard that has been set for barrel craft spirits. And I have to say, Bob, you have been bearing the standard of winning this year on 2 facts and a falsehood.

56:01 Brad is going to try to stump you Ball all right and what is wrong? 2 facts and a falsehood. 2 facts and. A Falsehood is the part of the show where Brad presents me with three items as fact about the making of this movie, one of which is a complete lie. Brad, you got me last week. Man, that was a really, really good one. I had to just take a a shot in the dark and I totally missed everything. Everywhere All At Once is one of those films that because there is so much going on in this movie, I imagine that you could just write three complete falsehoods pretty quickly here. So you might have a leg up on me today, man. That's actually. I write 3 falsehoods every week and just randomly decide if you win or lose.

56:45 Oh. I wouldn't be surprised, honestly, Brad. All right man, hit me with your two facts and a falsehood in fact number. One directors and writers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Shiner had always intended the film to be about the gaps that exist in between familial generations, but the fact that it was about a mother came later. Kwan added that the idea really started to gel when they hit on the concept of quote, putting my mom in the matrix, End Quote and starting to pitch it to themselves and others that way. I I hope that is a fact because I literally said that in the first half. So that would really validate all the things if we put our.

57:25 Mom in the Matrix, Yeah. Fact number. 2 The appearance of Jamie Lee Curtis's character of Deirdre Beau Beard I I did not know her last name until I just read it. We'll just call her Deirdre is based on a stock photo of an IRS worker. The Photo by Mike Simons captioned Kathleen Malone works on tax return turns at the Cincinnati Internal Revenue Service Center shows an IRS worker with identical hairstyle, yellow turtleneck, light yellow knit vest, glasses, and necklace. Fact #3 Directors and writers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert base the character of Waymond partially off of their own experience working with Daniel Radcliffe in 2016's Swiss Army Man, saying that his incessant positivity on set was inspirational and sometimes quite frustrating.

58:22 All right. Lee, the way this works is that I get to phone a friend here and I always phone a friend, which it really favors Brad because if I consult the guest and if we lose, I get 2 losses counted against me, whereas if we win, I only get one victory. So you better know what you're talking about. Lee is my threat to you, Bob. I think you you should just be on your own and and just just take 1L but but I will on this piece of paper write down my guess. OK, that's perfect because I just feel like I'm going to be wrong. But I have a reason if I am wrong for.

59:03 OK, perfect. I'll tell you what I'm thinking and I am not consulting you today. So, Brad, 1V1 loss, all right? I think number. One is true. I I really want number one to be true, so I'm just believing and hoping that number one is true. Usually when, when Brad writes a falsehood, he's drawing on something from his, you know, past views of a movie. And he is a big Harry Potter fan. So I, I'm imagining Brad going to their IMDb page, the Daniels, and seeing that they made a movie called Swiss Army Man, and then it stars Daniel Radcliffe. And so he writes #3 it's definitely got to be either two or three and #2 could be a falsehood because he mentions Cincinnati, which is not too, too far down the road from him. We're talking about Ohio cities here. So I'm, I'm pretty stumped.

59:55 I am once again taking a shot in the dark. Lee, I am going to say that number 3 is the falsehood. But your face and Brad's excitement tells me that it might be #2 I'm gonna go ahead and lock it in. Brad. Which is the falsehood? Wait. Hold. On, I'm ready to reveal. All right, let's see. Also had #3 yes. OK, come. On please be correct. Wow, look. At you guys go look at. Us be wrong. Yeah, look. The view are absolutely correct. That is the falsehood, yes. Brad, what was your level of familiarity with the fact that they did make a movie called Swiss Army Man prior to this? I was.

1:00:38 Familiar with the fact that they made a movie called Swiss Army Man OK and that Daniel Radcliffe was in that film and that's about it but like had. You have you heard of that movie before? No. Absolutely not. OK, I. Actually, so I was just going off of a feeling, which was this idea that oftentimes actors and actresses in those types of roles you like Harry Potter, where you would think they're like actually great to work with, are actually not great to work with. Like I thought that number 2 was just oddly way too specific where I loved it. And Bob, I agree with you. I love the idea of and this Harkins back to actually one of my mentors.

1:01:20 His name was Daniel Kwan, unrelated. Oh, wow, OK. And and actually funny enough, worked with James Hong Hung in a movie. And I just know that sometimes like the actors that you you think are going to be like the best, nicest people that you can work with. Like are not actually, I heard that James Hong is one of the nicest guys you can possibly work with. Oh, that's great on set. So but Lee just has a. Feeling that Daniel Radcliffe is an absolute Dick. So that's what that's what we're saying here. I bet you. He's not fun to work with, I'm willing to bet. All right, well, that that libel and defamation suit can get directed towards Reserve Bar, not towards film and whiskey.

1:02:03 That is not the official opinion of this podcast, Brad. I'm going to claim my L or my W rather this week. Only one victory. I feel like I should get 2 because I did it all by myself. But that's that's not the rule. You do it all by yourself. Every week I also really want to share a picture with you both right now. I was going to ask. You if you could pull up this picture. Oh man. Look at this picture if you want you. Can go. On Google and just type in IRS agent Everything Everywhere all at Once and it should pull up a picture a side by side of Jamie Lee Curtis's character and the stock photo from Getty Images that it's based on.

1:02:50 It's incredible. This is a. Fantastic. While we're on the topic and and transitioning out of two facts in a falsehood, one of the things I really loved about this movie that I thought went unsung is both the set design and the costuming and makeup for everybody in the movie. They did a really great job of capturing like lower middle class to poor people and their hairstyles and their clothing and the general sense of grime that was all over that laundromat. Not like not necessarily that it was unsanitary, but just like the difficulties of working in an old building where there's water damage. Like I just it was it was the most subtle thing about the whole movie, honestly, but it was really good. Dude, they.

1:03:34 Nail that element and they show it of like something that was really beautiful in the 70s and 80s and now it's like 2022 and it still has a bit of a vibe, but it's just well used, a little bit grimy. And like, as somebody who lived in the inner city, did laundry at a laundromat, they just absolutely nail the look of the laundromat as well as the apartment. In my research for two facts and a falsehood, one of the things that Daniel Kwan wanted to base the apartment off of was all of his Chinese like Auntie's apartments, he said. And and he has said that after the movie came out, there are so many Chinese Americans that have come up to men and been like that apartment gave me flashbacks to my parents generation.

1:04:29 Well, and I'm going. To say so I grew up in in a city that was like 50% Asian American and I know those apartments really well. So like the rice cookers that they're using how things are stored. Like I just actually, for me, it was like looking back into some of my favorite childhood moments of like just running around some of my friends houses and, and places and just being like I, I can still go back to that right now when I go back to California and just being like, man, I, I love how well those things are captured And it, it, if you don't understand it, maybe it feels disconnected or, or like not not real.

1:05:12 All of that really felt real, which is fun. Well, that's the. Magic gosh, I'm going to get on the soapbox about the magic of movie making, but like the the whole idea of set decoration is that it has to look real enough to not be distracting, like it has to look real enough that you don't notice it. But then every now and then, they do such a good job of, like, really pouring themselves into replicating a real world environment that you, it kind of comes all the way back around. Like, I totally noticed the sets in this movie, but I noticed them because they evoke something in me that I've seen in the real world, like the fact that they had to store people's clothes in their apartment. And on the top shelf of one of the bookcases, you just see a plastic bag, like, hanging off the whole movie.

1:05:55 It's like, yeah, that's how people live, dude. Like, that's what a real cluttered apartment actually looks like. And I just couldn't go any further now that we've seen that costume, Brad, without commenting on it also. The character of Waymond saying doesn't don't the clothes look happier up there? And you're not quite sure if he, like, really believes in, like, Feng shui or if it's just the fact that he put googly eyes on them and he wants that to mean that they're happier. All right, guys, let's dive into performances. We haven't really talked about performances at all, which is crazy because we're an hour into this podcast. Michelle Yeoh wins best actress. It was a neck and neck race between her and Cate Blanchett for the movie Tarr.

1:06:37 Cate Blanchett gives an all time great performance in that movie. And I think that Michelle Yeoh gives a very, very great performance in this movie as well. And I also don't like I I wouldn't say her Oscar was undeserved. I do think that because this movie is a much more heartfelt movie, it definitely gave all three of these actors an opportunity to have like their big Oscari moments. I have no complaints. They all paid it off man. Like this movie wins 3 acting Oscars. There's not a lot of movies that can say that well and I think. The The challenge here is that all of these actors have been working in genres that are like under represented when you look at best film, but also some of your best actor, actress supporting roles.

1:07:28 And so this was really the one moment that gave someone like Michelle Yeoh an opportunity to truly be recognized for an entire body of work. Yeah, That is really encapsulated in this movie, right. Like there are really great like leanings and nuances of who like her development as a person that are expressed in this movie and really allow her to kind of show the diversity of or, or the like full range that she is as an as an actress. And, and I think so like when you honor somebody like where you kind of see that full range of that person through and through. I think this was the one film that finally got her to a point of like here's like everything that she kind of does manifested and probably her one chance as an actress to win best actress. Like this is probably the one chance. And I think about before I get off of my soapbox, I think about like Jackie Chan and having done like so many just incredible movies, but really winning a lifetime achievement award from the Oscars.

1:08:43 Because a lot of his movies never reach like that level of visibility or intrigue that will allow him to maybe win best actor as as an actual actor. And I think the reason that Michelle Yeoh received so much adulation for this movie and deserved it is that she, like with all of her experience as an actress, she is able to capture it. And this is something that, you know, Bob, you and I probably experienced from a lot of the Eastern European, you know, like our parents generation that lived in Eastern Europe, emigrated over here to the US. And she captures that born somewhere else, but came to the US in search of a better opportunity spirit of like determination and ruggedness.

1:09:41 And I'm never going to let anything truly destroy me paired with I'm going to choose the right thing to do because it's the right thing to do. And, and like, I, I don't think I've ever seen a performance capture that as well as what Michelle Yeoh does here. I remember. In 2022, lead to your point, it's it's a role that's it's a once in a lifetime role for her, right? Because it allows her physicality to be on display. Like there's fight choreography, which she's amazing at. But in none of those movies does she really get a chance to sink her teeth into really great dramatic acting like this movie does. And so on the best actor side of things that year, you have Tom Cruise being left off the Top Gun Maverick list. And I just remember thinking like, that's exactly what's happening with Michelle, yo.

1:10:32 It's like it's the perfect mashup of everything Tom Cruise does. And I'm glad that one of the two of them at least got recognized for it. But to your point about this being a once in a lifetime kind of role, I think we need to look at Kiwi Kwan, who had an incredible story, like Hollywood loves a good story. You know you, you may know him as Short Round from Temple of Doom. He was a working actor for a really long time and in the years leading up to Everything Everywhere All at Once had basically just returned to a normal life because he could never find opportunities to act anymore. And I don't know that there is a human being alive that would be a more perfect fit for the way this character is written than Kiwi Kwan.

1:11:16 I, I wish him the best because he's he's trying to carry some of this momentum into new movies that are coming out. I think he has a movie coming out like this week. I don't know how many opportunities he's going to continue to get. But I think at the end of the day, what you're looking at here is like an all time perfect marriage of actor to a role. One and he as data in the Goonies actually inspired me to just start trying to invent random crap at my house. Like that was like the best thing ever. And I think that what you've seen since then is now that he's back in kind of the Hollywood limelight, he's using it so effectively.

1:11:58 And what I've actually loved to see about him is post film really being like everyone's favorite uncle, right? Like I, I think that like you just see him on various red carpets just loving people. Well, and it's it, it's part of what I love about him is like, I almost feel like he was just living his character well and then stepped into the alpha character when he needed to, right? Like he showed how deep he could get into that character. But he actually maybe is like that loving, encouraging, incredible, like kind of beta or secondary character most of the time. And he actually can lean into that. And now that he has a platform, he just wants to like love everyone in Hollywood.

1:12:47 Well, and, and I think that's super cool. And I I think just showing what he can do in film was super fun in this film. Yeah, I mean. We we often talk about the movies where it's like this is a great Tom Hanks performance, but it's just Tom Hanks being Tom Hanks, right? And we can say that because we have seen him in 100 movies. I think that this movie is just Ki Hui Kuan being Ki Hui Kuan. Like it just seems like he is an incessantly positive, I choose joy over anything else kind of person. And so when you watch him with his, I think it was his Golden Globes acceptance speech, might be one of the best speeches ever given in Hollywood.

1:13:39 He's incredible, man. He is my MVP of the movie. I think that as great as Michelle Yeoh is and she carries the movie like he's just freaking knocking it out of the park. And the the moment in the movie that really gets me to start crying is when they're intercutting, you know, multiple locations across universes. But it's when he's pleading with her to be kind and just, you know, you've got the cool version of him, which is tailored after the movie in the mood for love, saying the whole thing to her about like, you know, you think you're a fighter. I'm a fighter too. This is the way that I fight. And she's stabbing him, you know, indicating how hurtful she can be to him. And he's just like, receiving it and withstanding it and continuing to be the rock of that family.

1:14:25 And it's almost, I don't want to call it a flaw. It's almost a flaw with the movie that it peaks right there. Because then her emotional sort of reunion with her daughter at the end of the movie, while really good, doesn't quite get me as much as that one 1/2 hour before did. And I think that might be a good segue into talking about the two supporting actresses here, Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis. Jamie Lee Curtis wins the Oscar, gets quite a bit of pushback after winning the Oscar because a lot of people thought that the daughter should have won the Academy Award. I think this is like a prime example of there's this thing the Tony's do, Brad, where they have like best actor in a musical, best supporting actor.

1:15:07 And then there's a category called best featured actor, which is for someone who just comes in for like one or two scenes and freaking kills it. I think we need one of those at the Oscars cause Jamie Lee Curtis absolutely deserved to be recognized for something. But it, it's a, she's only in the movie like 15% of the movie, whereas Stephanie Sue is in like 45% of the movie. You know, yeah, almost. Like she's a supporting character. Like she supports the main actors and actresses in the film so I guess I'm. Wondering not not that you have to choose between them. I think they both obviously have a really good argument for why they should be the one recognized in this movie. But Brad, like what do you do with a the daughter character who is obviously not the lead but is in such a huge chunk of the movie?

1:15:53 Do would you consider that a Best actress performance or is it? Does it belong at supporting? Oh, it's, it's hard to flesh that out because like, clearly this is Michelle Joe's movie. Like, I don't think you can put Stephanie Sue in the role of best actress. So sure, I I think she is a supporting actress. I just think that the difference is, are you going for a best supporting role that is nuanced and philosophical and kind of carries some of the philosophical weight of the film? Or are you going to go for Jamie Lee Curtis, who is quite vast in what she tries to do in this movie as far as like moving from tired IRS agent to like pro wrestler in WWE And like that's that's the the beauty of Jamie Lee Curtis's performance is the spectacle of it more than what you're getting from joy in the film, which is a much more nuanced performance. So I'm just.

1:17:05 Going to throw it all out and say that Stephanie Shoe should have won best supporting actress. I just think that Hollywood also has a way of like making things right. And I think that like, again, Jamie Lee Curtis has been in a lot of beloved supportive roles that have never really given her a stage to to win. And I think she was given that here. And, and I think there's a certain like homage that you pay to your long lasting actors that they gave her here where, you know, Stephanie still has time and opportunity to gain notoriety and, you know, opportunity in in that type of role. However, I think that her role is way more nuanced than we give her credit for.

1:17:55 And maybe that's like my own, my own experience, like having just grown up, you know, where I, where I did. And, and I just think that that understanding that plight of like that coming of age between two cultures is super important. And I think that she nailed that really well. Like that feeling disconnected from both and, and struggling through that. And then also playing the bad guy and doing that so well and just being like, I give, I give no consequence to anything. I'm just going for it. And so I, I think that she should have just won and we we should have moved on. But like, I think that it's great that, you know, Jamie Lee Curtis could actually win.

1:18:41 And, and this was again, her only opportunity to win. I don't think she'll she'll find another one because of just the role she typically takes. But I think it was just a miss, a misplacement of that. I think it's also fascinating that if you look at Stephanie Sue's role, most movies about this subject matter would be her as the main character, right? It would be about the young person's journey to understand where they fit in a world where they are both from another culture, but from the prevalent culture that they live in.

1:19:24 And, you know, the movie would be about her. She would be the main character. And so I, I'm curious if there was almost a little bit of like, oh, well, yeah, we've seen that character before as the main character in a lot of movies. And so because of that, paired with the fact that we want to give Jamie Lee Curtis her dues because, you know, Bob, you and I have said like from the 90s, like and beyond True Lies. She's so good. I'm a. Huge fan. I'm such a huge fan. Like I, I don't want to take anything away from her. No, because I agree. With you, Lee. You, you, you. Can't, you can't take anything away from from her, but. Like, again, roles like True Lies aren't going to give her the place because of the type of action film and, and how that is kind of appreciated within the Academy, right? And so this was the the one opportunity we're all perfectly connected and you could give her her due because she finally got there.

1:20:23 And and that's unfortunate for Stephanie because I do think she plays the more poignant, diverse, like range character. It's just timing and and who you are, like within the context of the film, yeah. And I. Think Jamie Lee Curtis wins it when she and Michelle Yeoh finally are both like, broken down. They're sitting outside the laundromat and she just looks at her. You know, Michelle Yeoh asks. What, Like, what did my silly husband say to you and I? I love this, the dialogue here, the script writing, like, they don't tell you what Wayman said, but she just simply goes, yeah, I lost it when my husband gave me my papers, like, and the way they interact there and they it's just a perfect, beautiful mishmash of two really well experienced actresses just nailing it on screen. Yeah, it's it's.

1:21:24 That global like exhale, right? Like, you know, you know, when you go through like so much anger or just just so much like conflict and after you're done, you just kind of have that like, right. Like they, they experience that together where they were enemies the essentially the entire time. They are still kind of enemies. And yet they find common ground. Yeah. Lee, this is my favorite thing in the world because you and I have now set the record easily, like far and away for most amount of time on the film and whiskey podcast that Bob has not gotten a word in edgewise.

1:22:07 And I can like I can feel it through the camera. His like readiness to jump in here. So I just want to take another like 30-40 seconds to keep him off of the audio, to just keep it between you and I and say thank you like you have given Film and Whiskey Nation a gift. We. We. Clearly have plenty to say on this film and I mean it's it is a lovely film and I will keep talking so Bob cannot no just stop. I just want to say that I'm continuing to craft my pitch to the Academy to introduce the Best Featured Actor and Actress award I support. It because then. We get an Academy Award for Bradley Cooper in licorice pizza talking about peanut butter sandwiches. That's ultimately that's what this is all about, Brad. Absolutely man.

1:22:54 Also, I do think it's a wonderful idea to add more awards to a broadcast show that is already lambasted for being way too long. I mean this is true. But the only thing that people TuneIn for is to see famous people. And as much as I love Rodger Deakins and his cinematography, I feel like getting Leonardo DiCaprio nominated for more things is probably going to draw more eyeballs. Yeah. But that is you. You're not wrong there, all right. Guys, let's get into our last segment of the day, which we call. Let's make it a double. We're near the. End of the episodes of things listening to the film and Whiskey show. Let's have another film with this one. Even if it's struggling. It's the final segment of the day. Now let's make it a double. Let's make it a.

1:23:35 Double is the part of the show where we pick a movie to pair up with this one to make the perfect double feature. Brad I I think I am just going to go ahead and continue my Matrix thing here. I have a number of movies that I wrote down. I, I talked about a lot of them in the first half. There's definitely references. I, I think I mentioned earlier to a movie called in the mood for Love. I think that'd be a cool pairing with this. I think this movie borrows pretty heavily from inception with the way that it talks about like, what's the thing? You the totem. You have to have your thing that reminds you that you're in and then just like pairing that with let's make it silly. So we're like ripping chewing gum off desks. There's a lot of pairings you can make here, but hearing that the directors use the matrix as their ultimate influence, I think that's my pairing today, Brad.

1:24:20 I am. Going to go way off the beaten path for what anybody might think I would choose here. I I haven't had a chance to really dive into it. I I hinted at it in the intro. I think the reason I love this movie so much is that it is an extraordinarily emotional examination of the power of human choice. That when when you consider that everything, everywhere all at once is a possibility, and that when you reach into that possibility, everything feels meaningless. In the middle of all of that, Michelle Yo's character realizes that if I can do anything, I want absolutely anything in the world. Then from that mass chaos, the solidity of a choice that it it it goes from being chaos and anything into one singular reality is what makes meaning in the world, what brings people purpose.

1:25:30 I think that this film, just like stands apart at giving you how important it is that we make good choices and that our choices can truly change the world around us. And so like, with that specific theme in mind, I'm actually going to pair this movie with Schindler's List. I, I think that at the very core of Schindler's List, you have a man who could have chosen to go along to get along, who could have made billions and billions of Reichmarks, right? Like he could have become one of the wealthiest individuals in a alternate, you know, right, Third Reich universe, and yet he chose instead to protect those less fortunate than him, protect people who were Public Enemy number one at the time.

1:26:24 And because of those choices, you get a powerful revelation of what could be true. And so I, I, I think that weirdly they both have a similar theme in the core underpinnings of the like philosophical bent of the movies, I think. That your thematic pairing is really artful and I don't want to just come in here and undercut it. But I will say that in the same vein as last week's pairing of Creed with $1,000,000 Baby, there is a correct order to watch these two movies. And I cannot imagine after finishing Schindler's List, you're probably thinking to yourself, man, do I need a palate cleanser and the the early pan of the camera over to the butt plug shaped trophies.

1:27:16 I think will will definitely help lighten the mood a bit, right? And honestly, like we haven't talked about it, but just the the cinematography of Schindler's List and how beautiful it is leading directly into that opening shot from Everything Everywhere but we haven't mentioned it. I couldn't get away from this episode without saying it. What a freaking shot, dude. Like the mirror showing them doing karaoke, the door slams the mirror adjust and then the camera goes through the mirror. Oh dude. All right, Lee, we've got some weird ones today. What's your pairing with this movie? All right, guys.

1:27:57 So. I quit. I mean, how do you, how do you, how do you come in after Schindler's List? Wow, man, I just have to rethink life at this point. So give me give me 5 minutes. No, I think that how I was approaching this was actually in two ways. Do you get something that Bob, to your point, something that explores kind of the multiverse and, and just kind of like what if life isn't life and or what if life is disconnected? What does that look like or do you explore really like the early versions of some of these actors? I think we've talked about like like really incredible experiences that they've had acting and and really wowing people.

1:28:49 I'm gonna go kind of funny and, and I mentioned it before, I'm gonna go straight Goonies. And and the reason I want to do that is I think that funny enough we see Kihu Kwan's like just whimsy in that film. And I love that you see that same whimsy in this film. And I, I think that like you have to think like as an actor who's gone through the throes for now, like 40 years later, 35 years later and, and still giving that spirit that kind of manifests in such a fun way.

1:29:34 At the same time, like this is like a group of kids that wants to make their whole world better, right? Like they're at this impasse. And I think everything that we explore within everything is or, or half of what we explore and everything is like, there are these like major milestone moments in your life that create like these very like, like detriment, not detrimental, but like very impactful changes to what could be. And that whole film is to create a, a new, a new path, right? Let's, let's find the treasure. Let's save our homes, let's stay together. I just I love that connection and that fun that occurs in that film. All right, so we've.

1:30:19 Got the Matrix, Schindler's List and the Goonies. What a wild and diverse selection today. Just watch those. 3 movies all. Right, Let's Make It a Double was brought to you by Blackwood Distilling Company. No matter what film you pick to pair this up with, you can always make it a double with Blackwood. You can. Drink Blackwood anywhere, anytime, all at all. At all at once guys, let's give this movie some final scores. I am for sure the low man on this movie. When I first saw it, I gave it like a nine. When I saw it the second time I was like it's between an 8 and an 8 1/2 because there's definitely flaws. This time around guys, I came in here and I was about to give this movie a 7.5.

1:31:02 I think you've talked me up to an 8 because the last it's, it's really like the last 30 minutes of this movie. And I think the first 15 ish minutes of the movie are perfect film making. I really do think you got to cut 15 minutes out of the middle for this to become a 10 out of 10 for me. But you walk out of the theater on such a high note that it really does kind of cover a multitude of sins in the middle. I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10, Brad. Yeah, I I think that for me, a 10 out of 10 movie often has to dive deep into some element of what it means to be a human in honest, raw and enlightening ways. And I think this movie does that in freaking spades. The watching it this time through I got done and was like, this might be like a top five movie all time for me. Wow, I really absolutely love this movie. I spent $20 on Amazon Prime to make sure that I owned it forever.

1:32:16 I'll probably buy a Blu-ray copy at some point. This is a movie that I think brings so much value to the world of cinema. And I, I remember one of the one of the takeaways I had the first time I watched it was that this is a experience that like could only exist in the medium of film. Like this isn't a novel, it's not ATV show. It's not something you see on YouTube as like some YouTube creator like that. There's no other medium that could portray the story that is trying to be told here as perfectly as film.

1:33:00 And so I think that on so many levels, this movie succeeds even given like that. Like there's elements of the film that I'm like, oh, you didn't have to go there. But even with that, I think the depth of what it is trying to convey about the human experience is so overwhelmingly accurate and powerful. Like, like even down to the at the end of the film, Evelyn has an honest conversation with her daughter Joy and is like, hey, like, like I still think that there are problems in our relationship. I, I still think that there are issues that are real in your life and I care and love you enough to be honest about them.

1:33:45 And I it's things like that that I just love about this film is that it doesn't whitewash the reality of what it means to be in relationship with one another. It is brutally honest about the fact that to be human is to be flawed, but it is to be awesome and amazing and beautiful. And and the choices that we make to build relationships with one another, where we are honest with our feelings, where we're honest with where we are at in relationship with one another, it it's the most beautiful thing that separates humans apart from any other aspect of creation. Lee, once again, you have to follow that up. What?

1:34:29 What are you thinking about this movie, man? I just need to. Constantly go before Brad because I think what Lee's over here like. Rakakuti was great man. Rakakuti, Rakuti, he was great. Actually, I love that part. It's. So good because they're like. Ratatouille and he's like no Ratatouille. So I actually I for the most part, I agree with Brad. I think that like it really like leans into the human condition and I think it it welcomes the breaking of film convention for the sake.

1:35:09 Again, I, I said this earlier, I think it breaks film convention almost to shock you into saying this is not going to be the film that you expected. We're going to take you on a journey. And I think that some of the things that we find shocking are almost those things that just kind of pull you out of this is the film that you were expecting. However, like one of the things that I really think about when I think about like a perfect film or great film is can I watch it kind of over and over again or like, if it's on, will I, will I turn this on? And I, and I think that's one of the things that this film misses like this has to, this is a film that needs all of my attention in order for me to truly love it.

1:35:55 And so when I look at this film, like I've watched parts of it over time. So I've probably actually seen this film 9 or 10 times when you think about parts. But when I watch parts of it, I almost turn it off towards something else because I need to be fully engaged in this movie to truly kind of respect and appreciate the film that it is. And so for me, this ends up being like a 8.5 leaning towards 9 because I, I think that it's one of those that I truly have to sit down. And you kind of like, I think Schindler's List is actually another great example, right?

1:36:35 You do need to sit down and you need to be fully like immersed in that film experience in order to like just fully recognize kind of the beauty of what it is. And this is another one of those films where I just, I have to put pause on life in order to love this film. And the films that I would say are perfect are the ones that are masterpieces and I can get it, can get a part of my attention. And I love it. We know what. You're really saying, you're saying I couldn't watch it on my phone, therefore 8.5, yeah.

1:37:17 No, I think movie this this is AI mean for me. This is a strong nine right like I I I love every aspect of this film. I just think that when you in the wrong time frame or like if you touch a part of it, it makes no sense and it's almost a bother versus like additive to your, your time, right. And I, so I, I think that the films that I always would say are like the perfect film are incredible films. And anytime I see them, even if I grab 20 minutes of it, I'm in. Yeah. We've talked often on the show about the Sunday afternoon dad cable movie and like that like like a Shawshank type of film was like great film. And you can watch 10 minutes of it. You can watch a one minute, you know, YouTube reel of it and like you're like, yeah, oh, man, what a great movie. Yeah, but.

1:38:18 I have to, I have to be in like Shawshank is 100% in. To your point, if I get a little moment of Shawshank in, if I get 5 minutes of this film, I'm like, discombobulated, Yeah. Well, and that, and that's like I said, I sat down the other night having seen the film twice before and I was like, all right, it's a little late. I need to, I'm busy the next few days. I should just get like an hour, 45 minutes to an hour in so that I don't have as much to watch tomorrow or the next day. You can't. And I I. Couldn't I? Like, I was absolutely sucked in. Haley came downstairs at like 1145 and was like, dude, are you coming to bed? Like, what's what's going on here? And I was like.

1:39:00 I freaking. Love this movie. All right. Well, we want to say thank you to Lee for joining us. Dude, it's always a pleasure to see you give our listeners your 32nd elevator pitch for Reserve Bar. Why should we be using Reserve Bar and where can we find you specifically? Yeah, so. For Reserve Bar, you can find rare and unique spirits as as well as some limited time releases from some of your favorite brands anytime. And So what we hope is that we can give you your things that you don't have to wait in line for outside of your favorite liquor store. Still love your liquor stores. But some of those things that are hard to find, we try to make them a little bit easier for you.

1:39:40 And if you need to give something to somebody else in a different state, we do some great gift ordering to deliver it to their door with engraving. That was my my pitch for reserve bar. For me, for me, I'm just living life. I, I as part of reserve bar. I love picking incredible single barrels for the company. Just came back from picking a Woodford Reserve private selection and a 1792 foolproof barrel. That thing is going to be bonkers good. If you want to find me, you can actually talk to me on Instagram. I am managing at Reserve Bar Spirits. So I am the guy who responds to you. If you want to find me personally, I'm at Lee Diaz, 24 on Instagram on the side just for funsies. I love the city I grew up in in LA. And so I have the AT History of LA account, which just shows just these beautiful historic historical photos of the city I grew up in.

1:40:41 And I just hope it kind of manifests in everybody just loving a little piece of LA and Hollywood and everything that we talk about here. Lee, what? We've talked about this before. What is like your ultimate LA movie? Oh. Gosh, I think my ultimate LA movie, I mean, I have to go for LA Confidential, but I will say the movie that encouraged me to move back to LA the last time I was in LA Now I live in Dallas again, but was actually La La Land. How do you go? I was out, I was out in LA watching that movie. Actually, I took my mom to the movie. She never goes to the movies.

1:41:24 And so I, I, we went on like a son and mother date and I took her to watch La La La La Land and I was like. That that's. A That's a powerful statement. Right now you are in. Lockstep with Brad, man. Yeah, I. Freaking love. That movie, it was a. Beautiful example of how like just art and and film can inspire us to do incredible things. And literally it encouraged me to move back to Lai. Was back home for a few years and that was just such a gift and it was encouraged by film. All right guys, it is a nine out of 10 on average from all three of us here on Everything Everywhere All at Once.

1:42:09 But we like to know what you think. You can find us on any of our social medias at Film Whiskey on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok or YouTube. Or if you want to join the conversation, you can find a link to our Discord server at the end of every single one of our show notes. Next week we are looking at a much more divisive film than this one. Brad, it's 2019's Joker. I can't wait to dive into that one with you, man. So join us next week for some Joaquin Phoenix. But until then, I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad. G and we'll. See you next time.