Moonrise Kingdom / Wilderness Trail Small Batch

0:00 In 2012, director, Wes Anderson gave the world, an ethereal foray into the world of first love in 2022. We take a trip to a small Kentucky. Distillery, the film is Moonrise Kingdom. The whiskey is Wilderness Trail small batch and we'll review them both. Yes is the filming 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, I'm Brad G and this week we are looking at director, Wes Anderson's 2012 comedy Moonrise Kingdom. Brad.

0:57 We are recording this episode at 9:45 in the morning and I feel like I feel like are sultry, sounding voices, reflects. The fact that we both just woke up. Yeah, just sit just a little bit ago man. Yeah it's not my favorite thing in the world but we will Soldier on for the sake of our listeners. Does your voice tend to crack in the morning. Brad it does get a little more crackly crunchy kind of if I try to go into like a lower lower register. If you will, it gets a little bit pubescent almost. No. Well, it fits the material. So it'll be perfect. It'll be a nice somatic thing. We have going on here today. Yeah.

1:37 So we're in the middle of three movies by director, Wes Anderson, to go along with Royal Tenenbaums, which we did a few seasons ago. Brad. What's your impression of Wes Anderson, thus far? Having now seen three of his movies, you know? I feel like you'll probably have a pretty good sense of his visual style, the pacing of his films. With the matically, what he tries to go for. Do you feel like this movie fit in with the rest of the West Anderson movies, or was this more of an outlier for you? I think that it fits in stylistically, he's still Wes Anderson. Hmm, I think that content-wise. It feels like he normally deals with adults who have adult problems. So this one definitely feels like a little bit of a jump, but at the same time, his child characters. Literally no different than any of his adult characters right in their Oddities and how specifically strange they are. So I honestly know, it doesn't really feel that much different for me than any of his other films. I've seen a lot of people say that this is his most kind of sentimental movie and I think that there's definitely some sentimentality in this movie and it is ultimately a very sweet movie, but I just wonder if people say that automatically because it's a movie about kids and not have Movie about adults. Yeah, 100%.

2:59 And I think I mean, there is a Sentimental feel to it like the entire movie is shot in just about a sepia tone, hmm. You know to represent the 60s 70s without you know, whatever are there in? I think it's 1965, that's it. Yep, yeah. So it definitely I think if anything the color palette makes it feel more sentimental than anything else and just you know, people don't do Boy Scouts much. More apologies to all of our listeners who are like Eagle Scouts, right? And so I think that even that just like putting him as a part of a sorry, a khaki Scout Troop right? I think that that is like a Nostalgia inducing type of thing as well.

3:43 Yeah. And but at the same time I think that this movie maybe more than any of the other ones we've done so far. Has that sort of classic Wes Anderson Melancholy running through it like there is just a perv Evasive sense of sadness in this movie. I mean, Royal Tenenbaums, is there to I've, like, everyone in that movie is sad for the whole movie, but this is a movie where I think I really love it because at the end of the day, I am a sucker for sentiment and I am a sucker for Happy Endings and, you know, we will talk spoilers in this episode, but I like a movie where characters can go through the sadness and come out the other side and still be able to put their lives back together and this movie does that? And it works for me, man.

4:25 I don't know if it works. You this is one of my favorite Wes Anderson films. Yeah I think that from the Royal Tenenbaums to this. The daughter in Tenenbaums feels very similar to the main girl character in this. Yeah. Yeah. I thought about that unlike she is just a 12 year old version of Margot Tenenbaum. Yes. Right down to the eye makeup. Mmm hundred percent. Yeah so I think it's still Wes Anderson like like very clearly All right man, well, let's do this. Since it was your first time seeing the film, we're going to segue into America's favorite segment, which we call, Brad explains. But before we get there, we do want to say, whether this is your first time listening to the podcast or you're a longtime listener.

5:09 We'd love to encourage you to go over to our patreon patreon.com film whiskey, where you can support the podcast at three different tiers, a three, five and seven dollar a month tear at each tier, you get a ton of bonus perks, at the five and seven dollar a month. Tears, you get some Really, really good stuff. I got to say Brad, the people here us get a little bit blue with our material. Mmm. They get bonus episodes that are specifically tailored for them, but hey, maybe you just want to join it. The three dollar level no matter what level you join at. You do get access to a special discounted server that we are on every single day talking to the members of the film and whiskey patreon. So be sure to check us out, patreon.com slash film whiskey Brad. Let's get into Brad explains the part of the podcast where you will break down the Lot of the movie that you've just seen often for the first time, we've put 60 seconds on the clock. Can you explain to our listeners? The plot of Moonrise Kingdom.

6:04 Salmon, Suzy are two young children in the 1960s who fall in love. They meet at a kids play version of Noah and the Ark they become pen pals. They fall in love and they make a plan to escape their terrible lives. Sam is a foster child and Use the as a problem child for her parents, the movie follows them as they escape on this island. The parents are trying to find them with the help of Sam's Boy Scout. Sorry. Khaki Scout Troop led by the inept Edward Norton and they get caught.

6:47 And they fall in love. Oh, and then Bruce Willis adopts. / Foster's Sam. There you go. He's a junior jr. Policeman. There you go. Yeah. There you go, man. That's it. All right, Brad. Let's go ahead and talk about the performances in this movie. It's where we usually start here, and this movie really is anchored by to child performers. Jared Gilman as Sam, Kara, Hayward as Susie, I'll let you pick, who do you want to talk about first? Let's start with care Hayward. Yeah. For it. I think I think she's absolutely fascinating. He asks her to do a lot with her performance and I would say, for the most part she's like B to B plus. Yeah.

7:29 There's a there's a few moments where you can tell that she's a. She's a child delivering lines that she memorized, but for the most part she just has the angsty like sixteen-year-old look but she's only 12 and at work. Works for, for what? He's asking her to do. Yeah. I think with both of these performers, you know, they're not known for being the greatest child actors of all time, Jared Gilman, especially as like, he's really cool to follow on Twitter. He's in film school now and he's has really cool opinions on movies but neither one of these child actors went on to like really extended Movie careers. Kara Hayward has been in a few things but I think what Wes Anderson does so well with both of them is he finds actors who are just at that Perfect place in there, like Child Development, and prepubescence or pubescence that it's like they're kind of gangly.

8:25 They're kind of not, they kind of look older than they are. And then in the next scene, they look like a little kid. They behave older than they are and then they behave like a little kid. It's just like a perfect marriage of material to like where these kids actually are in their physical development. I don't know if that makes sense, but that's what worked for me. I think best about the performances was how believable it was just because you could tell both of these kids are going through that phase of growing up and you have Sam you know played by Jared Gilman who he feels like he's the leader of this. Khaki Scout Troop like you know Edward Norton his troop Commander even says like that he's the best at like all the practical skills and yet he's the worst Scout that they have you know?

9:14 And and so there's this sense. At both of the child actors are asked to be adults in a world where they are not allowed to be. And I think as a writing as a story development, it they're just really interesting characters and their they're very believable in the sense that you get a picture of what her life is like and the the frustration of her parents life, spilling over onto her as the oldest child and then you get a picture of his life as a father. Foster child, who is unwanted with as an orphan and and their their motivations. Just fully makes sense in this movie. Yeah.

9:55 Well, and I think this is what Wes Anderson does really well. Because people always tend to point out, the sort of, like, Whimsical, Twee things that he does, and how his movies have this sort of like, fascinating, you know, what's the word I used last week? Festivity is Miss to it. Mmm, but he's always underlying it with really compelling character, motivations and arcs, and You know, here you've got hers. Like you just said her side of the story where her parents her mom, is clearly having an affair with somebody that she is aware of her. Dad is Awakening to that fact and getting super depressed about it. She's lashing out because of her home life and they're taking it out on her by calling her a troubled child. And then you've got him who is even less understood. Like she thinks she understands his situation, his parents have died and he has that great line where he just tells her. Like, I love you but you have no idea what you're talking. Talking about.

10:48 And I just, I really love that within all of the Wes Anderson, you know, I chuckle at how silly this is and how precise these things are that are happening that and supposedly the real world, there are some really dramatic steaks going on under the surface. Yeah. And I think that the sound design really helps with that. Like the, the score for this movie is really like hauntingly beautiful. And it's paired with some really great Rafi, what? You know, we talked about the color palette a little while ago, as they Trek around this island, it's just beautiful. Like the the music like is intriguing and interesting and the the shots of the island is there walking across. It are just absolutely gorgeous.

11:35 And so I really love the way Anderson tells a story visually and auditorily as well as what his characters are doing on screen. Like he really marries it all together in a Beautiful way. I was reading an essay about this movie and it was talking about how the Brilliance of the movie is that this isn't a movie about loss of Innocence, as it is about how these young people are gaining. The intelligence that they're entering into a world that is hostile or indifferent to them. And I really love that, because so many Coming of Age movies, are they tried? And they try to manipulate you, they try to make you cry because these kids are Growing up and they're losing their innocence, or whatever this movie. It really deals more with that, sort of like the crushing realization.

12:26 That I'm not a kid anymore. And what I am entering into what I'm becoming aware of around. Me is actually like really sad and really hard to deal with and it's really embodied by Susie having this conversation with her mom when she's first rescued and her mom's giving her a bath and she's telling around my hate. You and Frances McDormand. Her mom is saying like, you know, you don't mean that and she's like I absolutely do. I'm trying to hurt you right now and it comes down to her saying, you know, I know what you do with that dumb sad policeman and Frances mcdorman. Just sits back and there's just this really pregnant pause and she just says he's not dumb and it's a joke but it's not because like Bruce Willis is a really really sad sack of a person and everybody in this movie, everyone who's not a child in this The you can tell has this sense of loneliness, has this sense of longing and I think the Brilliance of what, what the Brilliance of what Anderson is doing here.

13:26 He's setting these kids up as kind of like taking their last stand against what's looming there for them. Like they know that they're entering into a phase of life where they're going to become older and become just as sad as everybody else. And they're like, they're planning their escape from that. And I think it's a really, really great way to structure a coming-of-age movie. Well, in on top of the idea of escaping everyone who has been a human for any amount of time knows that an island is something of like a trap. Let your so contained on the island that until you build a boat or you until you do something to be able to get off of it, you are stuck thing.

14:06 Like there's only so much space to travel. And so, even the, the plot device of them, you know, living on an island of the, the Khaki Scout. Setting up camp there for the whole summer. Like it's this sense of it adds to the sense of them being trapped in this future where like you can tell like Sam is going to end up as the the Khaki Scout Troop leader eventually and Susie is going to end up like her mom unhappy, you know, in a place where she doesn't want to be. And so, it Anderson just has a really phenomenal job of ham.

14:46 Murmuring home that point with every choice, he makes about the movie. All right, let's transition to talking about the adult, you know, supporting characters here. And I guess I kind of want to go from like least important to the movie, two most important to the movie. So starting with, you know, Jason Schwartzman, who shows up for a minute and a half in a really funny little performance and then you've got Bob Balaban who functions kind of as, as like the Muse, or the narrator of the movie, making his second appearance, this season after Close Encounters of Weeks ago and I have nothing to say about either of them, they are, they're great. I love having them in the movie, but they have absolutely no impact on the movie. Yeah, there's, there's not much going on there. The, the narrator is, I will use the word for once. He is like the embodiment of Wes Anderson's quirkiness, you know? He and I think he does a phenomenal job with it, but he doesn't necessarily draw me in a ton. I think the thing that I love is that his name is narrator. Oh, and that Tilda Swinton is character's. Name is social services.

15:51 I left. She just keeps referring to herself as that to. This is social services. Everyone just calls her. How you doing up there? Social Services? Yeah, yep, you know what movie, this reminded me of Bob. What's that? They like halfway through the film? I was like, oh, this is like the American version of hunt for the wilderbe. Eat people. Oh, that's a great comparison. Oh, you should have saved that for our make this a double section. Shoot here. Sit down sit on that will come, will come back to it at the end because I think that's a really, really great comparison. I was going to say because the main thing that clicked for me was that the social services and this feels very similar to Social Services in Hunt for the world or people. I really liked Tilda Swinton.

16:34 In this movie, I think that like half of her performance is just on the phone with Bruce Willis and, and Edward Norton and her facial reactions to the things that they're saying are so funny. Be like this for being such a sad movie. This also has some of the silliest moments in a Wes Anderson movie and like really broad comedy. You know, there's a scene where they first find out that Jared Gilman has run away all the other khaki Scouts and then they're like, you know, we should take weapons with us and then they just cut to a shot of a kid that has like a club with nails on the end of it. And they're all walking through this field with like a bow and arrow and just like incredibly deadly.

17:16 Weapons and that comes back at the very end of the movie where they're all trapped in this church. And Social Services is saying like I'm going to go get this kid at all of a sudden. They cut to Bruce Willis and he holds up that same Club. Just says, nobody's going anywhere and I laughed. I laughed so hard at that moment because it came out of nowhere. Then it was such a great call back to earlier in the movie. But you know, with Tilda Swinton especially her character is just so weird and and evil for no reason that she is. Is kind of free to just walk around and do whatever she wants. And I just it is such a pleasant performance to me because I just get, it's like, it makes me giddy to watch her in this movie. Yeah, I think that she is like, just a very small kind of a bit role in this and she just plays it to Perfection. It's kind of the example of when you get a pretty big name actor to play a pretty small role and they almost like, take over that little bit of the movie because you're like, man, like, how did they get somebody?

18:15 So good to do something? You know, not a big thing. And I love that they're in it and I think that that's Tilda Swinton in this movie and on the flip side, you've got Frances McDormand. Who is one of our great living actresses? Three-time Academy Award winner who I feel is really underutilized in this movie. And it's not just that she underplays her role which she does and it's very subtle performance, but I she's just not in the movie very much and I kept expecting her to be kind of a more major presence throughout the Film. And she's just not, and it's kind of unfortunate because I think the overall effect with the way that she plays the character and then the fact that she's not used very much almost makes me forget that she's in this movie from being quite honest. Yeah, I think that her she has like two scenes where she is the main focus when she's talking to Bruce Willis and kind of breaking off their Affair.

19:09 And then when she's talking to Suzy, as she's giving her a bath after they bring her back from running away. And I think if You had one more Scene like that where she's interacting maybe with Sam for some reason. Like I could just imagine a world where just one more scene where she has like 2 or 3 minutes of screen time and just gets to be Frances mcdorman, like would have risen her to the importance level that I think she deserved in this movie. Well and then her husband is Bill Murray, who is playing his trademark Sad Sack, Wes Anderson. ER, here and what I've really loved about watching the three Wes Anderson's that we've done for the show.

19:51 So far is the variations on the depressed, male character that he plays in each of these movies, because this is kind of similar to his Royal Tenenbaums character, where he finds out that Margot is having numerous Affairs and is just gross through the whole movie. But I think this is also the one where he seems like the angriest. Like there's just a level of rage and anger, underlying everything. Does in this movie and it makes for a really interesting character. I also don't know that I love his character in this movie. I don't think you're supposed to, you know what I mean? But yeah, I didn't really enjoy spending any amount of time with Susie's parents. They just didn't add a lot to the movie to me, and they gave them so much.

20:35 I know, I said that Frances McDormand isn't in the movie that much, but comparatively, I felt like they tried to kind of balance the scales a little bit between figures in Sam's life and figures and Susie's life but the figures In Sam's life were so much more interesting to me. And and Susie's parents just weren't. Yeah. I think that Edward Norton's character. He was probably my favorite character of the whole movie. Yeah. But I'm with you on Bill Murray. They it's not that it's bad performances, it's just that they Place. Sad Sack lawyers and we already know how much I love lawyers after the marriage Story episode. So yeah, they're just kind of annoying and Are unaware of the world around them and it feels like the as the adults in the situation, they should be the ones who are caring for their daughters needs.

21:28 And they're not, they suck at it and obviously they're written to be that way. I understand that. But at a certain level it just kind of gets annoying to watch. All right, let's transition to talking about these last two figures. Edward Norton, as scoutmaster Ward and Bruce Willis, as police captain Sharp. And they're both incredible and it's really funny because I feel like you could make a case that either one of them steals the movie and you'd be right, and it's very rare for two people to steal a movie together and they absolutely do it. This is one of my very favorite Bruce Willis performances. We've talked about this before with movies like The Sixth Sense when he, when he plays a, a truly lonely and sad, man, he's so good. Good, yeah, he's so good at at, at showing the The interiority, you know what I mean?

22:18 Like you can see that he has been thinking deeply about how sad and lonely he is. And he doesn't have to say much to get that across and I think honestly this performance reminded me a little bit of really good. Clint Eastwood performances, there's a moment where they're sitting in the trailer together, it's him and Jared Gilman and Jared. Gilman asked some like, were you ever in love once? And he says, yes, I was and he said what happened? And there's a pause and he just says, you know, she didn't love me back. Back. But the way he says it, he gets this look on his face that like, he looks like he's fighting a stomach ulcer, like he's like in pain and it just had Eastwood written all over it. It was exactly the way Eastwood would have played this performance but I'm not saying that he's like mimicking, Clint Eastwood, but I think it reminds me of the best performances of an Eastwood where he's always playing like this kind of lonely figure and Willis just does it to Perfection here, Bob, you know what, I just realized you talking. About Bruce Willis.

23:18 And that scene in the boat with, with Sam made me realize there's a massive similarity between Wes Anderson and Steven Spielberg that I completely overlooked, what's that? They love to give their underage actors alcohol. They sure do man. We added in Rushmore, we have it here and Moonrise Kingdom. We have it, an e.t. It's just like a continual Trope in these directors of ours. I love that. They make a joke out of it in this movie though. And I Can't remember exactly what Bruce Willis says. But he says something like, you know, we've got to find a way to make you stop doing so many dangerous things and then he's like, you want to split this beer with me? It's like, it's like the next life. Alright.

24:00 Do you have anything else you want to say about Edward Norton before we go to break? Because I think you're right. He's every bit as good as Willis here and the two of them really do walk away with this movie. Yeah. The with Norton, he just plays. Like what you kind of wish every scout leader was like like he knows what he's Doing and he teaches them good skills, but he also kind of lets them get away with a lot. And I absolutely love the way he's written and Norton's performance is just spectacular on top of that. So in this essay, I was reading. They were talking about, you know, how Sam and Susie are running away from this, this world, where, where parents are trying to control them where every structure around them, all the adults are trying to force some measure of control on them, and that it's not that they're opposed Used to growing up.

24:47 It's that they're opposed to being controlled, they just want to do things the way that they want to do them. And I think it's really exemplified in Edward, Norton's character, who is probably the most sympathetic adult character throughout the movie and, you know, until you get to the end with Bruce Willis. But he's, he has that great scene where after they rescue Sam and Susie, he goes below deck and he's talking to Sam. And he basically tells him like, I'm so sorry. I didn't know that your parents had died, it wasn't in the register and he tells him what? Job he did on his campsite and it's his way of trying to tell him. Like I care about you and I recognize you and I want to praise you. But then the way that he the way he responds to that, his next line is you really don't want to be a khaki Scout anymore.

25:32 And Sam just says, no and you can tell Edward Norton does not understand that. Like, yep, and what Sam is saying is like, hey man, I like doing this. I just I am rebelling against the idea of being controlled. I'm rebelling against these these strictures you're putting on me and I think it's such a beautiful moment because they don't come right out and say it, but you can see it in the way, the two characters interact and you can really tell it in the way that that Edward Norton is giving that performance. Oh, it's my favorite scene in the movie and I think you can tell that Edward Norton. And that moment is kind of like, making a bid to be Sam's, father figure like, hey I have all this to offer you and I like I think you're really good at this and it could be a life. For you and it's once again, it's Edward Norton, trying to give purpose to his own life by giving purpose to someone else's life, which some people might.

26:26 Look at that cynically. I genuinely think that that's a perfectly fine motivation. Yeah, yeah I think it's good to give your children purpose in life so I love that scene and you can tell that Sam's like know I've set my course with Susie and I'm in love with her and we're going to make it happen, no matter what. What It Takes and being a khaki. Scout does not fall in line with that. And I just like you said, it's in the way, the characters interact with one another, that that was the most emotional scene. Yeah, I mean the whole thing. Well, and it really underscored without being mean to any of the characters that like even the best intentioned adults can't wrap their brains around a world without those rules, you know what I mean? He was trying as hard as he still couldn't do it. So all right, man, I think we're in a good spot to hit pause here.

27:16 Let's This Wilderness Trail small-batch bourbon. What do you say? Let's get to it. Some whiskey Nation. Do you ever think about Awards course he do you drink whiskey and watch movies which means that, you know, that nothing is validated until a group of random people say hey we love what you're doing. The awesome thing about doc Swensons, whiskey is that it isn't just some group of schlubs that are given them Awards. They have been winning attention from some of the most important whiskey experts that you can imagine. They've been voted best distillery in Washington. State by the New York International Spirits competition. They've been voted the best Independent bottler by the Ascot Awards, as well as the best finished bourbon from the Ascot awards for their La.

27:56 Mente exploratory Cask their exploratory Cask series is where they release some of the most fascinating and adventurous experiments. If you're ever checking out, docks line up and see a white label is a really good chance that that's the only time you'll see that bottle. So make sure you snatch it up. Doc Swensons has been offering just phenomenal finished and Blended. Excuse for quite some time now, you can find them online at Doc's, whisky.com, that's doccs whisky.com. All right. So today we are checking out Wilderness Trail. Small batch bottled in bond bourbon, Brad. Wilderness Trail is a Distillery located in Danville Kentucky which was not too far from where we were living. When we lived in Kentucky, it was founded in 2013 and when it was founded the the two founders of The Distillery said our first product will be a bottled in bond Bourbon and so they sat on their product for four years and just sunk all these costs Into putting out a really good quality whiskey. And man, I gotta say, like, what I've heard about Wilderness Trail and we've never had their products on the show before. So I'm really excited is that they're just doing things the right way and they're doing things kind of the hard way and they're doing it that way on purpose. And I really, really love that about them. Their whiskey is all sweet Mash whiskey and I know we've talked about this before on the podcast. Brad.

29:22 Do you remember the difference between sour mash and sweet? Mash. I do not at the moment. All right, so sour mash Is basically, when you think about like making sourdough bread, you have like a starter and it's, they take a strain of the yeast. The sour mash from each batch of whiskey that they make and they put it into the mash of the next batch. And because of that, there's like a consistency it ferments at the same kind of quality and and I'm probably getting some of the scientific aspect of it wrong but it provides consistency from batch to batch and they're not doing that. They're doing a sweet MASH which means that they're starting with Completely new set of yeast and fermentation in each batch is much harder to do, especially when you're shooting for consistency.

30:06 The only other one that I remember that we've done on the show, that is a sweet Mash. Whiskey is Kentucky Peerless, they do it that way as well. But Wilderness Trail was doing it that way a few years before Peerless came back on the scene. So I love that they are doing things with like the most labor involved. It just because they want to produce what they think is going to be the best. Quality whiskey. Yeah, I think that there's a reality where we might not always acknowledge it because in the end we just want to drink good whiskey. But the thing the issue is it takes hard, work to make good whiskey and you can shortcut the process, you can do different things to make it easier and you can do things like you're saying with the the type of mash that you use that you know, everybody does it like it's not a big deal to use a sour mash over sweet Mash. Like a lot of people do it every Yeah, I was gonna say everybody 99% of them do it.

31:02 Yeah, but the willingness to go the harder Road earns them some respect, regardless of what the product is. And, you know, having drink it already, I will say, Bob, a big fan of the product. I have not drink it yet. I'm trying it live on air today. So before we dive in, I will say that the mash bill here is 64 corn 24%, rye and 12%, malted barley. So it's a high high Rye Mash bill. They also have a heated Mash bill, which we're not going to get a chance to try this season. That's it's like the same Mash Bill, except for they sub out the Rye for wheat. So it's 64 corn, 24 wheat. It's a small batch of 12 to 15 barrels. So, it's a, it's a pretty significantly small batch here.

31:44 I'm really excited to dive into this Brad. And as I take my nosing, why don't you go ahead and give your notes on the nose? Yeah, Bob it's interesting that this is the the Rye version because for me the, the nosing here was cherry II thought that I got a bit of a wheat nose to it caramel Vanilla some of the traditional bourbon flavors I gave it a 7 and a half out of ten. I was really intrigued by this and kind of excited to see where it would take me. Yeah. This is really like Cherry heavy and I get lots of berries on this as well. Like it's almost like a blueberry note that I'm getting on this, which is something I've never ever gotten on a whiskey and then just tons of pepperiness. I'm not getting a lot of baking spice here. It's like black pepper.

32:27 Strawberry Blueberry dark cherry. I'm really digging it. I am noticing the ride just because of the way. It's hitting my nose. I'm not getting like a Cherry Cola. Like I do with weeded as much like that Rice spices definitely coming out as black pepper here. I like it a lot and it's super unique. So I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10 on the nose. Yeah. And the the flavor palate for me, it was incredibly creamy. There's a lot of cherry going on. Kind of a cherry cordial. There is some butterscotch happening and then Just a nice little Foundation of vanilla. This is an incredible tasting whiskey Bob. I gave it an eight and a half out of ten on the palate. Yeah. Brett.

33:07 I'm not quite getting what you're getting on this. So I will say that this is probably one of the most. I'm gonna throw back to season one here. This is one of the most viscous Whiskey's we've ever had on the show. Like it is just so thick on the mouth. Feel the viscosity viscosity. Dude, it's creamy is a great word for it. Almost almost oily. I would say though like it really covers the palate but it does. So in a way that I almost lose all of the flavor on the end, it has like a layer. It almost tastes like, like Cream of Wheat. They have you ever had that that breakfast? Cereal like unsweetened oatmeal or cream of wheat, is almost what I'm getting on this where it gives you that kind of like milk equality and grain with just a little bit of sweetness. Underlying it you're right, there's Oak here, there's a little bit of vanilla.

33:58 I'm getting just a touch of strawberry still, but I was really expecting a flavor bomb after that nose and the palate is just not quite there for me. I think. I'm only going to give this about a six and a half on the taste. Hmm, man, I'm a little disappointed. I thought you were going to like this as I got to the finish. The Cherry continued on for me. It was almost it. Almost got like a little bit thicker, like almost like a cream cheese, kind of feel with a lot of vanilla. There is a little bit of Oak. Enos at the end but it didn't sour or turn bitter in any way. It just added a nice little bit of Woody flavor. I like the finish a lot. I'll give it an eight. Yeah, you're I think the cream cheese note is actually a really good one because it tastes like cream cheese that has like black pepper sprinkled into it. Like it's a very spicy little bit of Oak but that creaminess really does still hold through.

34:50 I just wish there was a little bit more sweetness on this. I like it. But coming off of the palette, I'm still just a little bit disappointed in the overall flavor profile. So I'm going to give it a 7 out of 10 and the balance, I can't Mark anything off for this. I'll give it. The average of my first three scores. I'll give it an 8 out of 10 on balance, because there's a lot of flavor here. It moves from one area to the next really smoothly. And I think that it's an incredibly drinkable whiskey that has High marks in my opinion for its flavor. I'm gonna give it a seven and a half on balance. I know I said that I was disappointed in the palette here, but even with that drop off you can tell that this is still a really well made whiskey.

35:36 So I'm going to give it 7.5 on the balance and that brings us to Value Brad. Have you looked up what this would cost us in the state of Ohio? I wasn't able to find it in the state of Ohio but I did find it just online at about $57. All right so knowing that this Is from a craft, Distillery knowing that it is sweet Mash that it is small batch, like 57 is not astronomically expensive. I think that the problem is that a lot of people won't take those factors into consideration, when they're just comparing this to something else on the shelf, right? Like if this is a four-year or slightly older bourbon, that is 100 Proof. All right?

36:18 Well, I can get that anywhere else for 30 bucks. Why would I pay 57 bucks here? So I think that has it. It has that. At working against it. But when you actually factor in all those other things, I think it's a pretty decent value. I'm going to give it a 7 out of 10 on value. Yeah, I'll give it an 8 out of 10. I think that the the value that Wilderness Trail has created here is that it's a really unique, beautiful expression of bourbon that that just hits all the right notes for me. As far as the sweetness. The thing that would push it up. A few notches is if I could actually taste those Rye notes. Hmm. Because for me, I think rise are my favorite whiskies, oftentimes just because there is so much complexity there.

37:01 There's a mixture of the sweet decadent notes with all of those baking spices and that's what I love about it. If they were able to accomplish that, this would be a stellar whiskey, but as it is, I'll give it an 8 out of 10 on value and that brings my final score to a 40 out of 50. Wow. All right, so that brings me to a 36 out of 50. So our average score is a 38 or a 76 out of 100. I think that's a good place for this. Brad, it's not my favorite flavor profile, but among craft whiskies. You can tell that they really, really put the effort into this one. I don't know, really, how else to explain it unless you've drank 250 Whiskey's, or whatever it is that we've drank. Like it's not checking all of my favorite boxes but you can just give hell losses that they they put all of the labor into this Bob moving.

37:56 This is my favorite moving box. Big big fan. Ba-bye, I've enjoyed this one, but rather than recommend, buying recommend, trying, I think I would recommend buying and trying, I think that this is a really beautiful whiskey, that that's worth your money. So yeah, for 50 to 60 bucks. It's a worthwhile by, we want to say thank you to our friend. Austin Dupree at The Bourbon earring. Podcast for sending us this sample. I think, next time we we gotta try that. We did one, man. I'm very intrigued to try the weeded, Mash Bill. I'm with you man. All right, Brad, let's get back into talking. Out Moonrise Kingdom. What do you say? Let's get to it. Today's sponsor is a little bit of a departure from our usual area of expertise.

38:40 And man, oh, man, I was blown away by their product. Once we received it, I am talking about manscaped. Now, if you're like me at all, you probably seen the manscaped ads and kind of Wonder to yourself like, do I really need like some sort of specialty trimmer to take care of my downstairs business. And I've just got to be honest. I was absolutely wrong there. Are trimmers called the lawn mower 4.0 and I got to say it is the Rolls-Royce of trimmers. It's got a ceramic blade. That reduces grooming mishaps, a wireless charging base and an awesome flashlight. That keeps things illuminated while you're working and beyond all that it's waterproof. This thing is really changing the game when it comes to below the belt hygiene.

39:21 Now this is just me talking about my experience but this trimmer really is Way Beyond anything I've ever used to keep things neat. And tidy, you can use our discount code. Whiskey to get 20 percent off your order and free shipping head on over to manscape.com and use code film whiskey, to get 20% off free shipping and you will be well on your way to hygiene Heaven. All right? That was Wilderness Trail. Small batch bottled in bond bourbon Brad. I think I've been doing a better job at trying to pair up the Whiskey's with the movie thematically lately. We had, we had puncher's chance for Scott Pilgrim.

40:02 And now we have Wilderness Trail for a movie about two people running off into the Wilderness together, so yeah, you nailed it. I'm doing my best, you know, do you want some kind of reward like, instead of two facts on a falsehood? Do you want one? Fact, and one falsehood 11 fact, addition fact into falsehoods, please. And I only have to guess what? One fault is it. All right? It is time for two facts and a falsehood, the part of the podcast where Brad tries to stump me. With three things that he presents. As fact, one of which is actually a bald-faced lie Brad. I think that I am above 500 now. Is that true? I think so. Become 6 & 5, 6 & 5 right now.

40:44 Yeah man. Oh man, it feels good. Yeah, I'm glad for you, dude. I enjoy when you feel good about your life. Hey, thanks, man. Alright, well, do your best to wreck that feeling? Yeah, well fax number one, you're going to like this. Bob he comments on it similar to the way you talk. Talk about licorice, pizza commenting on the film's connection to the first time. He fell in love, Wes Anderson has said, well what I wanted to do is recreate the feeling of that memory. The movie is kind of like a fantasy that I think I would have had at that age like when you're 11 or 12 years old, you get so swept up in a book that you start to believe that the fantasy is reality. Hmm. Fax number two, the number of their troop. Troop number 55, stems from Anderson's. Own experience with Boy Scout Troop. Number 555 located near Houston Texas, where Anderson grew up, according to Anderson Edward Norton's character is based completely on his own troop leader who was quote, clueless, and napped and completely sincere fact. Number 3, according to Wes Anderson, Susie's, discovery of the quote, or of the coping with a troubled child, For it was based on a similar experience from his own childhood quote, it wasn't anything.

41:59 Terrible is just something that at the time when I found it, I was like, what is this? I mediately knew who that trouble child was even though hypothetically, it could have been someone else. Brad. I have absolutely no idea which one of these is a falsehood because they just, they all seem very plausible. I think a lot of this could have happened in Wes Anderson's life, do I think? Wes Anderson was a Boy Scout, is the question. He is so neat. And so tidy that I think he may have had like, you know making your bed and pitching a tent drilled into him as a child. But also he seems he does not seem like the kind of person who would have been a Boy Scout. So Number two is really sticking out to me. Number three.

42:43 Man, I don't know. I think I'm just gonna have to pick a random number and go with it because I have I have no idea. Got a 33% Chance, by sure, do. I'm gonna say I don't know. I'm gonna say number three is the falsehood. Bob number three, the coping with a troubled child find as a child, is a true. All right? Yeah, that actually happened to him. The falsehood was the number of the troop number 55 coming from his own experience. So did he did he have an experience or did not make the whole thing up? I made the whole thing. Nice. He he may or may not have been a Boy Scout but it definitely wasn't number five. 55 and it definitely he never said anything about his own troop leader in. All right, cool.

43:31 Well you got me. I'm back to 500 now. Hey, nailed it. I think that I have the most success when I like theme all three of them around the same idea. Yeah. That seems to work for me pretty well. Alright, Brad, before we wrap things up today. I just, I want to go a little bit further on the The Coming of Age story. And the way Wes Anderson chooses to do it here because it It does seem different than some of those Coming of Age stories that we watched. I had a recent experience where I drove up to Cleveland Ohio to go to an IMAX theater because they just re-released ET in IMAX. And why didn't you let me know?

44:12 It was would have been so excited to come. Watch it. I did send a message to our friend, Jackie's, I can afterwards because that's also her favorite movie of all time. I was like, uh, surprised I didn't see you there, you know, it was freaking great. This movie does remind me a lot of those underlying themes of sadness and loss that you find in a movie like ET. And I think that a really, really great coming-of-age story has to have those elements of, you know, I might say that like the kid has to have a horrible life for it to be a good movie, but there has to be some recognition of like what world they're entering into and what they're fighting against. And I think that because of that, this movie does share a ton of DNA with a movie like e.t.

44:56 And especially coming off of the Spielberg miniseries. We did, this doesn't strike me as like, a particularly Spielberg a movie. Like it's still very Wes Anderson, but I think the matically there's definitely parallels there. Yeah. He dives into the exploration of, like, what does it mean to be a child in the midst of unhealthy adults lives. And that's like a really difficult thing to do. And so, the obvious thing to do is live out a fantasy, To see of running away with your one true love and, you know, fighting the power and of, you know, trying to make it work. No matter what else is going on. And I think that Wes does for the most part, a really beautiful job of illustrating.

45:42 What it's like to fall in love in a place of trying to make sense of the world around you as a prepubescent young person. Go ahead a little bit on that Brad because you just said, for the most part and we haven't really talked about nitpicks or things we disliked about the movie. But I also don't think that this is a perfect movie, and I think my score is going to reflect that. So I'd like to hear a little bit from you as a first-time viewer like what didn't work for you about this movie. Oh man, I was kind of saving this for final scores but we're getting close to that. So Listen, man, I can't I can't get down with this movie 100%. Really like, The scene where they are alone and there. Did they have like a first sexual encounter with one another?

46:36 I can't get down with it Bob. I think that this movie is hot garbage because of that. See, wow, dude. You really pulled the rug out from under me here, you've talked about it in such glowing terms until this moment. Well, and that's the thing I like, I want to be fair to it. Like, I think that Wes Anderson is a very talented director. I His style. I find it unique and interesting and very different than the the the rest of the world of Cinema. But if you look at the definition of child pornography that was child. Pornography that was displayed in an artistic way I and I completely disagree with that. But I mean like I you I'm not. So let me say this, I'm not debating like where your particular line for what is acceptable is, but I also think that I also think that what he portrayed on screen was like a very matter-of-fact and kind of humorous portrayal of what A lot of people's first experience like getting their first kiss or hmm.

47:38 You know what I mean? I and all he had to do was leave it at a first kiss, but then he like, he makes them say the lines about him, having an erection and her not minding it. And then he the next scene, he shows them sleeping in the tent together, in the scene that we've all seen a billion times in other movies that they just slept together. CI is, I didn't even make that. I don't know that that's necessarily implied there. It's 100 bomb. They go from him talking about having an erection her saying that she doesn't mind it and then boom. It's the next morning and they're sleeping like in each others arms. I have you ever seen that before in any movie ever? I mean, I understand where you're coming from. I just I don't I don't think that they Maybe it's just me like wishing for the best.

48:32 I just, I never assumed that that actually happened. I thought that they were still too young to actually go through with anything like that. I don't know that they would even know what to do, like, given their innocence in the movie. So, like, I mean, I understand where you're coming from. I just had a different read on it than you did, but, but here's the thing, it's beyond, just like, what the audience is seeing, for me, it was the idea that those actors who were 12 years old at the time. I'm had to do those things and say those lines and have that experience. And the more I looked into it, the more, it kind of creeps me out, like, like, Wes. And here's the thing, if he had just stopped at having them kiss. It's 100% fine.

49:16 I'm totally down with it. I think it's adorable and cute, and a great coming-of-age story, but like, the way he had them do it, he had them, like, write letters to one another before the, the filming started and and he Gives you know, some of the more intimate scenes till the end of filming. So that they knew each other better and and he did all sorts of stuff like that but then he also used a closed set for them to have their first kiss and had and shoot that scene. And I'm like, the only reason you have a closed set is to do like inappropriate things on screen with adults and like, I just don't think a child actor should ever be asked to be on a closed set. And I know that they got their parents permission but as the Consenting adults in the situation. I don't think it's I don't think that they should have consented for their children to act in such ways and I think it was all really weird and really inappropriate and I just I've been really struggling with this movie ever since. Wow, he gets child pornography dressed up as an artistic Coming of Age story.

50:23 I honestly don't know how to how to respond because this is like so blinds. You you gave me No indication about this until just now and I feel like this this episode has gone very sideways as a results but I respect your listen, I respect your opinion, I disagree about the closed set thing. I think that that's actually a very sweet thing to do for children like who are doing a scene where they have to kiss and you know pretend like they're being somewhat intimate with each other. I don't think that you would want to do that with a set filled with adults and like, you know, the middle aged. Men holding boom mics and things like that so like I think there's a different Reed. You can take on almost every step of that process Brad and again like for you if that seemed an appropriate I totally get it. I just I did not have that reaction to the movie. Yeah, I like I said I didn't want to like get into it right away because I knew it would just derail the entire episode. And as I said, I like Wes Anderson. I just think that what he and the other adults in the situation did here was was not it wasn't good, bro. Wow.

51:31 It was really not good. Well, I really I really hate to steer into. Let's make it a double then because this seems like a huge Downer of an episode now. But Brad, you know knowing now your affinity for this movie. What would you pair this up with as a double feature? I mean I'll stick with hunt for the world or people. It's thematically similar, it's goofy. There's there's genuine humor to it and if you want to watch a movie that has appropriate depictions of young kids falling in love, then go watch out for the water people. Yeah, I think that I think that's like the perfect pairing for this movie. I was also thinking of a movie like up, you know, the Pixar movie where there's a young kid, who is, I think that kid is also in the Foster system in the movie and pairing up with a lonely old man and finding community and a home with him. I think that like that's a pretty that's also a pretty obvious like comparison at the end of the movie, I really loved that scene where, you know things have been made, right? And Jared Gilman is coming to visit Suzy's character in his little police uniform him and says, I'll see you tomorrow and they all run off together and and the last shot of the movie is it pans down and shows the, he was painting that little Inlet that they escaped to and it's this memory of Lycra, you know, remember that summer that we shared together and and how that was the summer that we all

53:02 grew up and that reminded me a lot of a very different and much heavier movie which we watch way back in like season 1, I think To Kill a Mockingbird and I really love The end of that movie. I've always loved the ending of tequila Mockingbird after everything that's happened and, you know, gem is in bed. And Scout has that narration where she says that Atticus was there for Gem all through the night and he was there when he woke up in the morning. But she also talks about how you know that summer was the summer that they all grew up and so it really reminded me of that. I think if you wanted to go for for a more dramatic route, you could definitely go with To Kill a Mockingbird but I did. We've got three pretty good. Double feature offerings here.

53:45 Yeah, you know talking about the watercolor, he also paints a minor nude Bob. And they show it dude. They show it on screen, dude. I'm just saying man. I don't know why any adult would be portraying that on screen? All right, let's do final scores. I want you to go first because I have no idea where you're actually falling on this movie. Now it sounds like you really liked 98% of the movie. Yep, I did. I would probably give it like, an 8 or an 8 and a half out of ten and I'm going to leave this up to you. Bob, do you want me like On based on principle. I genuinely think that there is child pornography in this.

54:28 So I'm either going to not score it or give it a 1 and that's that's up to you. You can choose whichever route. You want me to go on that. I think it will be better if you don't score it then, okay. I'm in. Yeah, no score. No score from Brad. That's the first in the film whiskey podcast really. Is it really is. I'm going to give it an eight and a half. I think it's a really good movie. It's really nice. Now that I don't have to do any sort of average. I just might Score is the film and whiskey score. So I'm going to give it an eight and a half. Brad has labeled it as pornography which is a incredibly spicy take but that's yeah that's your opinion. So let us know what you think. I want I would really like to read the fan mail after this one.

55:11 Here's here's the thing. Bob, we've watched pornographic movies before and I've still scored them. Beale Street is one day, they show a sex scene which is fine like that's it's adults doing their thing. This is labeled as child pornography. And I just, I understand where people come from, where they say, it's not, I just it's more, it's less about what you see on screen and more about what those children were asked to do as miners that I just don't know. I know I'm beating a dead horse at this point. I under listen, I understand what you're saying, I think that there is II think that we could do an episode a bonus episode or just and person to person conversation one of these days about how we Define the word pornography and I don't think that necessarily just depicting sexual acts on screen is pornography, I think there is an intent behind it. I think that there is an, an exploitative nature behind it. I don't think this movie qualifies as I definitely. Don't think Beale Street would qualify. But again, I, I think I understand where Where you're coming from and how you personally might Define that, I just don't see it here.

56:22 And so again, I'll, you know, we got to wrap the episode up. I'll say this, if you would like to write in or call in, or leave a comment on how you see this film, which I would say is like, 98% a very Charming children's film or film about children and 2% apparently, you know, objectionable material. I'd like to know what you think about the whole movie in particular Literally on this debate that we've just had. You can find us on our social media accounts, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram at film whiskey, or you can jump into the conversation on Discord. I would imagine that we will be talking about this when it releases. So jump on our Discord you can find a link to it at the end of every single one of our show notes.

57:08 Next week, we will be back with one of our most favorite guests on this podcast. Patrick H Willems talking about what might be his favorite Wes Anderson, Umm 2014's The Grand Budapest Hotel but until then I'm Bob book, I'm Brad G and we'll see you next time.