Oscars 2025 Recap / Filmland Spirits Quadraforce

0:01 On today's Film and Whiskey, we are recapping the 2025 Oscars. They just wrapped up and I'm joining you pretty much live here. Then we're going to throw over to an interview with our friends at Film Land Spirits. That's all ahead on Film and Whiskey. Well, hey everybody, welcome into the film and Whiskey podcast. I'm Bob Book. I'm flying solo tonight because my Co host does not care about the Academy Awards and he does care about sleeping.

0:45 So what I did in his stead is I brought in our chief Oscars expert for the second time this ox Oscars season. It's our friend Daniels. YO, we're going to break down this entire awards telecast. It just wrapped up, I guess, 10 minutes ago. So we collected our thoughts a little bit and we're going to spoil what we thought of this whole thing. Daniel, how you doing tonight man? I am good, thank you for having me. OK, so let me let me preview this a little bit by I want to say thank you for an article you wrote the other day for, I believe, Rodger Ebert breaking down the mathematical chances and probabilities of our best picture race. So going into this tonight, Enora was pretty much the the odds on favorite the front runner for the award. I guess what I'd like to start by saying is I am surprised the extent to which everything kind of ended up coalescing around Enora this this Oscar season.

1:38 I figured it would win best picture. I don't know if I would have pegged it to win all five of the Oscars at 1:00 tonight. Yeah, I agree. I you know, the, the biggest difference between the nominations and the winners, I think are what gets nominated is primarily a question of what people watch. What wins is primarily a question of what people love. And there are a lot of times where films rack up a lot of nominations and not a lot of wins. There are also a lot of times where films rack up 345 nominations and sweep their categories. You know, we saw the last few years Scorsese films like The Irishman and Killer Slaughter Moon get a lot of nominations and win nothing. We saw Amelia Perez go 2 for 13 tonight. And Inora, on the other hand, win 5 for six. So there's a lot of temptation when the nominations come out to feel like, oh, we can tell based on these numbers what voters love.

2:38 And a lot of times you can't. I I don't mean to speculate too much here, but when you came on last, the nominations had just been announced and Carlos Sofia Gascon had not yet torpedoed the entire film that she was in. So folks, if you are not familiar with the ongoing drama behind Amelia Perez, it's star Carlos Sofia Gascon. There was a number of incriminating tweets dredged up against her, which she doubled down on repeatedly and then paid for her own disastrous press conference, essentially tanking her chances at winning Oscars. And somehow Zoe Saldana and the songwriters survived the the scorched earth policy that she went on here.

3:19 I guess, Daniel, what I am. What I am wondering though is once Amelia Perez was kind of out of the picture, I think everyone locked in on a Nora. If that hadn't happened, do you still think Anora comes away as the winner here because Amelia Perez was already so divisive? I, I do something we talked about when the nominations came out and I and I said on that podcast and like you said, this is, this is before the Amelia Perez controversies. I had said in the last podcast that I did not think Amelia Perez, the brutalist and wicked could win. And I thought the winner would be 1 of either a Nora Conclave or complete unknown. Because in the preferential ballot, once you get past the early eliminations, the films that just don't have a lot of support and you get into the heavyweights, at that point, you're deep enough in voters ballots that getting last place votes really matters. Because once you go deep in ballots and 6th place votes and 7th place votes turn into first place votes, at that point it really is a competition of, OK, what films are going to be 9th and 10th on the most number of ballots? Those are the films that can't win. And that's why I've thought all along that Amelia Perez, Wicked and the Brutalist could never seriously win Best Picture, because those are the three films that were most likely to appear at the bottom of the most ballots. So how'd you do tonight?

4:39 I went 14 of 23. It was not a not a banner night for me. Yeah, I went 15 of 23. I was doing really well for a while and then I missed several of the top categories because I had Demi Moore, Timothy Chalamet and Brady Corbett, all Brady Corbett, all winning. So I would had only missed 6 until I'm sorry, I'd only missed 5 until it got to the to the last few categories and I missed three more. I was getting the growing sense over the last week that the brutalist had been perceived by the Academy at large as a little bit pretentious. And so I didn't pick Brady Corbett to win and director, I picked Shawn Baker, and I got that one right. But I did pick both Timothy Chalamet and Demi Moore.

5:21 I got swayed by the last Chalamet win, and the guy has been running such an incredible campaign. And I really did think that the youthfulness of the new Oscar voting makeup would swing things. Timmy's win like this was a truly new type of Oscar campaign that hit a level of virality online I don't think we've ever seen. It might be my favorite Oscar campaign I've ever seen. I don't even love the movie, and I really didn't love the performance that much. But I was really pulling for Timmy here. And when they called Adrian Brody's name, I like Adrian Brody and I liked the performance. It felt a little bit anticlimactic to me, I'm not going to lie. Yeah, I would be curious for any voter that voted for Rami Malek in 2018, but not for Timothy Chalmet this year. So just explain.

6:11 And I, I'm not, I don't say that in like a combative way, like, oh, you're an idiot. Like, I'm just genuinely curious for them to say what it is about Rami Malek's performance that worked for them and Timothy Chalmet's performance that didn't. And, you know, it's all circumstantial. Like, maybe their answer is just that no one in Rami Malek's here was as good as Adrian Brody and the Brutalist. And that's a perfectly valid answer. But it does feel like Rami Malek got credit for doing something that Shalomay didn't, which is confusing me, especially because Rami Malek wasn't singing in Boogie and Rhapsody and Shalomay was. And I know you can make the point like, oh, Dylan's not a good singer, so it's easy to, you know, mimic his bad singing. But I felt like Shalomay channeled Dylan in a way that Rami Malek was just kind of doing cosplay.

6:55 And so I'm really interested in, in what voters see the difference as because I, I kind of don't get it. Yeah, I think it was the lack of prosthetic teeth, really. If if they'd given him a nice pair of chompers, it would have tipped him over the edge here, I think. No, but it's a similar thing with the Demi Moore Mikey Madison Award. So Mikey Madison wins in what you were calling a 5050 race. I really thought that was the shocker of the night. I think everyone that I've been talking to was like, look to me, basically swept all the precursors and I don't know if it was just like where I was looking at the TV screen when they had the five tiles up, but I was locked in on Demi Moore. You could tell the shock when they did not call her name and she didn't do anything disrespectful. And she kind of nodded politely and then, you know, gave applause.

7:43 I thought that room was shocked and I was definitely shocked when they called her name. I thought Moore was a very graceful loser. I I think that, and this is one of the just fun things about watching the Oscars, if you can see when the momentum changes in the room throughout the course of the night, You know, Enora won a few awards earlier in the evening that were kind of considered toss up races, both editing and original screenplay. Editing. It was considered kind of a toss up weather between Enora and Conclave and original screenplay was considered pretty 5050 between Enora and a real pain. And when Enora won both of those, I felt like you could tell that how much people love that movie. And that's when I first started to really think I, I kind of bet Mikey Madison is going to win this. And I had predicted doing more, but I felt like by the middle of the show that it was going to be Mikey Madison's. And I actually just looked up a really interesting stat earlier that had never even occurred to me until this afternoon. And then I ran out of time to look it up until after the Oscars were over.

8:40 And then I looked up really quickly in terms of films that the title of the film is just a character's name. So not a film with a character in the title, but also other words like All About Eve or Lawrence of Arabia. Not a film where it's a character's sort of ceremonial title, like The Godfather or On the Dais or Dances With Wolves, but just films that are a character's name that win Best picture. There have been eight such instances. I'm sorry, 9 instances in an all but 2. But the person who played that character has also won the lead acting Oscar. One of the exceptions for Gigi, the lead wasn't even nominated.

9:22 So the only time a lead has ever lost the Oscar for playing the titular character of Best Picture winner was Albert Finney for Tom Jones in 1963. Interesting. But there are many other examples of that person winning, from Oppenheimer, Forrest Gump, Annie Hall, Patton, Ben Hur, Marty and Hamlet in 1948. That's crazy. What a stat. So This is why we bring you on. This is like the ESPN stats and and facts level analysis we need here man. Well, it just makes you think that when a movie is called Annie Hall, or when a movie is called Oppenheimer and you're voting for that movie is the best movie of the year. And then you have the option of who gives the best performance of the year and you already think Oppenheimer is the best movie of the year, or Annie Hall is the best movie of the year, or Forrest Gump is the best movie of the year. You're probably just eliminating to think, well, the guy that played Forrest Gump must be the best performance, but the guy that played Ben Hur must also be the best performance if I think that's the best movie and it's called Ben Hur. Yeah, and like, once again, justice for Timothy Chalamet for ignoring being ignored last year for Wonka. That's what I'm going to say.

10:23 You could have had it again last year and we didn't. Thanks a lot, Killian. Sadly, I don't think Wonka was going to be the best picture juggernaut that that's that depends upon. All right, Daniel, I got a let's zoom out a little bit from the ceremony itself or from the awards themselves. We talked a little bit your last time here about what kind of a movie year it was. And I know that there's been a lot of division even amongst critics as to what kind of a movie year it was. I'm I'm on the side that this was a little bit of a thinner year for movies that I think are going to stand the test of time. Not that the films themselves were bad. They just feel kind of of the moments, and I don't know if it's going to be one that we remember years down the road. Brad and I were recording an episode on a movie from 2011 today, and when I looked at those 2012 Oscars, that was a rough group of nominees. You had The Tree of Life and Moneyball, and that was pretty much it.

11:14 And they didn't win anything. And so I'm looking at these winners now, and I think that when you have a year where it's like a thinner crop, if you pick the right movies, no one really remembers that the crop was thin. Now that we see the winners, what do you think we're going to think of this batch of films 5-10 years out from now? I think for the most part, it's a good batch. You know, when the nominations came out, the extreme over performance of Amelia Perez I think made it seem like voters felt like they had no other choices in it there. It wasn't a good problem movies. But then when you look at the winners, Inora won five Oscars, The Brutalist won three, the substance 11. I'm still here 11.

12:06 Dune won a few. Yep, I think Dune and Wicked both won two I think was my tally. Yeah, yeah, Conclave won the award that I think it probably deserved to win. I believe eight of the 10 best picture nominees won Oscars. The only two that didn't were A Complete Unknown and Nickel Boys, which are both in my top five of the year. But you know, what do I know? I do think looking at the results, it looks like a pretty good year. And I, I've been thrilled with the craft results in the last few years that, you know, you used to see films go on just kind of tear through the crafts and just go on sweeps the last years. I feel like every craft category, The Academy Is really judged on its own merits. And I think almost all the craft winners are pretty deserving. So if you are like an average Joe, you know, most people don't see the number of films that you and I do, and you see even more than I do.

13:00 You're looking at this list of winners and you're trying to decide, OK, I guess I should watch a Nora because it just won five of them. What's a movie that really didn't, I don't want to say that it got snubbed. I don't like that word. But like, either didn't win as many awards as you would have liked it to or didn't win any awards that you think people really need to seek out because it's it's getting buried by its lack of recognition here. Yeah, there are a few. I there are three movies that I really, really loved in the past year that got no Oscar nominations, Furiosa, Hitman and Saturday Night. Furiosa, I think is especially strange that it's not here because if people remember back in 2016, Mad Max Fury Rd. nearly swept the craft Oscars that year.

13:46 And Furiosa looks and sounds every bit as good and all of a sudden because it more or less failed the box office, it was deemed non Oscar worthy. I think that's really weird. Hitman Glenn Powell gave one of my favorite performances of the year. I think everyone should watch Hitman, it's on Netflix, fantastic Richard Linklater film. And Saturday Night is another weird 1. You know, that didn't do very good box office and I think that killed a lot of its award chances. It also got savaged by some critics, but I feel like what a lot of critics didn't like about it was the point of view of the director. Yeah, exactly. The director and the point of view of the story. But man, the editing in that film, the casting, like, there's some really impressive work happening in that film. I think it really was deserving of an editing Oscar nomination. And I also thought Jon Batiste's kinetic score of the movie should have been nominated.

14:41 I thought Cooper Hoffman gave one of the best like 5 minute performances of the year. That just a really, really good. Thing for me in that movie and man, I saw someone and I apologize and I don't remember who who said this, but I saw someone on Twitter a few months back when Saturday Night was in theaters do a screen capture of Cooper Hoffman with. His hand on his hip. Yeah, I saw the. Scene he was he was yelling at Gabriel LaBelle in the stairs and he was holding his hand up like this. And someone pointed out that the way he's holding his hand, you can literally see his dad that he like holds his hand to sort of yell at someone in the exact same way. And it was so cool that someone pointed that out because as soon as they say like, Yep, I see it. You know, it's, it's funny, this is one of those years for me that I saw everything that was supposed to be the big Oscar movies.

15:27 And then, you know, like most years anymore, 70% of those went nowhere and didn't get any Oscar nominations. And then I had to play catch up after the nominations were announced because I had, you know, put a lot of these on the back burner. I just got around to seeing, I'm still here about a month ago and it has not left my memory since then. I think I'd honestly is my number one film of the year. It just worked on me like gangbusters. I really loved Jesse Eisenberg's film a real pain. I'm, I was shocked that that didn't make the cut for best picture. And you know, I was just on a plane with somebody this past this past week and like looking up the row, a ton of people were watching that on an airplane. I don't know what that says about it's watchability, but it was the film of choice on the flight to Las Vegas last week. I I would highly recommend people seeking that out. And then as you said, Nickel Boys seems to be kind of the critics consensus for the best film of the of the year and it really just never generated the kind of buzz that you would expect for something that had that much of a groundswell of critics behind it.

16:29 Yeah, Nickel Boys was fantastic. I really think the the distributor behind that, and I apologize, I don't remember who it is, also that I really think they screwed up its release. Yeah, for a film that is that much of A non crowd pleaser, you have to build buzz in a different way. And I thought they really messed up by not sending it to Toronto. The only festival it played was Telluride, which is super exclusive. There aren't that many critics there, so you don't get to build the reputation film in the way you do. If it had opened in Toronto and then it opened in theaters so late that it didn't have the opportunity to build a groundswell.

17:09 Well, and here we are a year out from the premiere of Dune Part 2, and I'm still wondering why Warner Brothers. I know that they're probably in some sort of financial dire straits and they really needed due to in that first quarter of 2024. But someone was posting today like if this had premiered in September, I think it would have swept everything. And I don't know if I disagree with that. It really was kind of the juggernaut of the first half of the year. And it seems weird that a movie that big, that had that much public support and two really prominent young actors in it fell as flat as it did here on Oscar night. Yeah, I mean, it won two awards. I think it was, I saw Sean Tennessee of The Ringer tweet that it actually won the same 2 awards as the middle Lord of the Rings film, which was an interesting point. And I think where Sean was sort of going with that is the second Lord of the Rings film won these two Oscars and then third one won everything.

18:07 And maybe that's what will also happen with Dune. Which I I'm not sure if we can transpose that one to one though, 'cause things are about to get real weird in the Dune universe here. Yeah, I don't know if the Oscar voters are ready for that. Yeah. And there's so much temptation to think, you know, anytime there's a series of movies that, oh, maybe Oscars voters will give it the The Lord of the Rings treatment and just wait till the end. And people forget that. I mean, first of all, that was a very different Academy that was half the size in an extremely different makeup. That was also, you know, Lord of the Rings. It was the first time any films had ever been made that way. So thinking that the Academy will just sort of go on the same behavioral path as as strange logic to me.

18:58 All right, Daniel, let's let's do just a quick little lightning round here. What are the moments from this telecast itself, whether it was something Conan did or some other presenter's bit, a speech that you really liked? What do you think of the moments that are going to stand out from this telecast, that are going to be played in clips packages for the years to come? I thought Conan did a great job. Definitely him. The the Wasting Time song I thought was brilliant. I want one of those Conan hair hats that all the backup dancers were wearing. Speeches, man. I thought Sean Baker said a lot of great things. I, you know, I don't have a lot of faith that the powers to be will listen to the things that he said, but hope springs eternal.

19:45 I mean, you know, maybe, oh, I thought the speech that the film makers of No other Land gave was really powerful when the Israeli winner for the film said of his Palestinian colleague, you know, I look at him and I see my brother, I thought that was extremely powerful. And it's really sad that no distributor will pick that film up because they're too afraid of backlash. I don't know when I'll ever get the chance to see that movie. Honestly, yeah, same. I mean, there's clearly money to be made from a distributor hating that movie, but who knows? I mean, you know, I'm sure it'll line up on Canopy or something like that and a more academic streaming service, but.

20:26 Exactly. I think people love a really easy to digest Oscar's clip too. You know, I'm thinking of like Cuba Gooding Junior jumping up and down on stage. And I think for me, the moment that kind of hit that this year in terms of the speeches was that first one by Kieran Culkin. It was very rambly. But then he hit on the the story about, you know, let's get cracking on those kids. I really do think that's going to be a pull quote that we're going to hear for years and years and years down the road. Yeah, he was great. That that was a really great way to kick it off. So one thing about the show that I saw a lot of people get wrong on Twitter. So like I said, I just want to use this opportunity to say I saw a ton of people on Twitter suggested that James Bond montage was just bought and paid for by Jeff Bezos.

21:15 Not true at all. That was in the works before the Amazon news and the reason they did it is because the long time Bond producers have been given an honorary Oscar earlier this year. That was the impetus for the Bond tribute because Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson were honorary Oscar recipients of the Governor's Awards a few months ago. Which they did a horrible job of communicating on the broadcast. Yeah, So I just want to dispel that rumor. And I mean, the Bond news only broke, I think a week ago. You know when something happens a week before the Oscars? You can. That's enough time to get Morgan Freeman on the stage and say a few nice words about Gene Hackman. That is not enough time to organize an elaborate song and dance number with dozens of people and three different singers. You can't do that in a week.

22:01 Now I will say I still think that it was a pretty good telecast. This telecast is just always gonna have bloat. And I don't necessarily think that cutting the runtime is the solution. That's obviously never been your solution. We've talked about this before, but it just the way they allocate time throughout the telecast is still infuriating to me sometimes. And the James Bond tribute going for like 9 1/2 minutes when no awards were being presented and then having to make up that time by cutting off multiple award recipients from being able to speak it. It gets under my skin every single year. I don't care if you got to put each of the four people that win an Oscar on a 15 second timer to make sure they hit a minute.

22:42 Like, you got to let all of them at least say thank you before you usher them off the stage. Yeah, I was really upset. I think it was when Dune won for best sound. There were three winners. The 1st 2 got to speak and the third guy was cut off. I think it's OK to cut off someone who has been speaking and just kind of won't shut up. It is not OK to cut off someone who hasn't even gotten to speak yet. That's just not OK. And that do sound guy really got a raw deal. And I wish you know, I remember it was in 2007, the year that once won best original song and the guy Glenn Hansard was able to speak. And then the the woman Marquette, her globa was cut off. And then later in the show, Jon Stewart brought her back out on stage so she could so she could speak because it was just not OK that she was cut off. She didn't get to say anything and I wish that Conan had done that tonight with the Dune sound guy that, you know, clearly wanted to speak and just wasn't allowed to. Yeah.

23:39 All right, let's wrap things up here today, man. It sounds like it was a pretty successful Oscars telecast for the both of us, even if we didn't pick all of the winners correctly. If you have to pick one movie that you think we will still be talking about as a society and then maybe another movie as a group of film critics or film lovers, what are the films that we will remember from this year and are they the ones that were honored tonight? Yeah, they are 'cause I honestly think the two films that will be remembered most from this year are Nora and The Brutalist. Nora is far and away my favorite film of the year. And I thought that the second I saw it in Toronto back in September, I mean, one of my friends actually just texted me an image of the of me raving about a Nora to him on September 7th. And, you know, when I saw Nora in Toronto, I think we had hopes that like, OK, this movie won the Palm Door and it's playing like gangbusters in Toronto.

24:34 We had hopes that it might be one of the 10 Best picture nominees. I don't think anyone thought then that this was going to be the film to beat. So Indora winning five Oscars tonight. I, I, I don't think any of those are narrative wins. I think those are just purely merit. Like this is the film that people like the best. And I, for whatever my one opinion is worth, I think it really is that good. And then the brutalist. You know, I'm one of the people who doesn't think the final 40 minutes or so of the movie hold together in the way that I wish it did. But. I still think that that movie is quite an achievement, and that's one that I feel like cinephiles and film school people will really talk about it, remember for years and years to come.

25:21 And there will be people citing the brutal as 20 years from now as the reason they wanted to become a filmmaker. Daniel Zwayo, I can't thank you enough for joining me at 11:30 at night. Where can people find you as you start to prognosticate about next year's Oscars? Well, I have a big piece for The Ringer that's in the works and should post toward the end of next week. I don't know how much I can spoil it. It is not about this year's Oscars, but it is about it is sort of about the Oscars as a broader concept. And that is theoretically going to post Thursday, if that's that's the hope, if I can get it done in time. And after that, you should find me on Blue Sky at Third Man Movies. You can also, I suppose, find me on Twitter. Although one of my goals that I've been promising my wife for a long time is that I will delete my Twitter account a week from tomorrow.

26:15 That I wanted to get through this Oscar cycle. And I want to get through my Big Ringer Project posting. And then I was going to finally leave Twitter for good. So find me on Twitter for the next week. After that, find me on Blue Sky. There you go. Daniels, Wyo, everybody, Thanks again for joining us, man. We're going to throw over to an interview with our friends from Film Land Spirits, because what goes better with the Oscars than Film Land? So stay tuned for that one right after this break. All right, Brad, that's our wrap up on the Oscars. Thanks so much for all of your input on that. As always, Brad, really appreciate. The insights I have so much to offer. I was going to like start humming pomp and circumstance or something because I don't actually know what the song what.

26:58 What's the song that they use to pull people off? I don't know, I think they they play different movie themes to try to make it feel lighter and you know what I mean? Dude, All right, so that's, you know how you have like a walk up song for baseball? What is your theme song you want played when your Oscar speech goes on too long? Oh. It's got to be the Jurassic Park. That's exactly what I was. Thinking. Just to like, make me start marching off the stage in time. Yeah, that's. Perfect. I literally asked that question with that song in. Mind, you know me too well, man. And Brad, if you know me too well, then you also know that I can't make it through an episode without drinking whiskey. So we're here today catching up with our friend Troy Belotnik from Film Land Spirits. Folks, if you've been listening to the podcast for any length of time, then you will remember that Film Land has been on here, what, 2-3 Times Now?

27:50 We try to have you guys on about once a year and you came back, dare I say, Brad, with a pun here in full force this time around. I love it. Troy, how are you, man? I'm great guys. How you doing? Doing good, Troy. We're going to kick it off right away. What is your get off the stage after winning an Oscar song? First, I was going to say the Raiders theme, but I really think it's probably Darth Vader's theme. Oh, yeah, let's go. That's a great choice. Just sounds like someone's going to creep up behind you if you don't get off the stage. Yeah. So, Troy, catch us up a little bit on Film LAND. Like I said, it's been about a year since we've talked to you guys. What is new in Film Land and what are we going to be sipping on today?

28:36 Because you definitely did send us both a bottle as well. Yeah, absolutely. So new in film land. I mean, there's amazing new things happening almost every day, if not every day. We are in what you know, most people would call a growth stage when you're a startup company. So we've been on the market almost 2 1/2 years. We are adding States and markets like crazy right now. So we're as of today, we're up to 13. If I come back in September, we should be over 20. Wow. And so it's so it's really accelerated growth is what's going on right now. So we are New York and New Jersey will come on in March. That's huge additions, man. Yeah.

29:16 Georgia in April, Pennsylvania in April or May with a couple of our products with our rye and then we're on the verge of going into states. You know, no promises, but like Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Texas, Missouri, all of them are on the list and being actively discussed. Just just make us a promise, Troy. Get into Ohio before Michigan. Ohio is the white whale. Everyone knows that. We're all chasing Ohio here. Yes, we, we are literally pursuing both at the same time and, and you know, I've been getting fingerprinted a lot.

29:58 That's fun. It is. I never would have thought of like that side of the, like the that element of the business side. The compliance is very, we're not going to bore your listeners, but the compliance part, it's very complex and it's different for every single state. And so some states want like ink fingerprints, others do live scans, some just you don't want me to sign a paper. It's it's really tedious but fascinating. Swab your cheek, give blood. Yeah, it's really the list goes on. This is this is nowhere on that level. But as an ordained minister, the state of Ohio requires, it's very simple, but in order to do weddings, you just have to like send in some paperwork and it's like a $10 fee. I was living in Kentucky for grad school and a friend wanted me to perform their wedding down there. And so I called the local like City Hall and I was like, hey, I'm just curious, like what I have to do to get authorized to do weddings.

30:54 And this lady just goes, well, you, you got yourself a license, right? And I was like, yeah, I do. She goes, ah, you're fine. Don't worry about. It I. Was like, hi, welcome to Kentucky, I guess. Even the $10 fee is is asking too much. All right guys, So if you remember anything about Film Land, we rant and rave about Film Land all the time because Brad, for my money, may be the best custom bottles in the whole industry. For. Like, I mean like first of all, I love a weighty bottle and this thing has some heft to it, that is true, but you. Can't murder a man with a bottle. Like what are you doing? It's got like the film perforations along the bottom here. Troy, I know that we've made you talk about these bottles before, but maybe as a segue into talking about the specific bottle we're we're discussing today, which is called Quadraforce.

31:43 Tell us a little bit about this blend, but then also, you know, remind our listeners of the process that you guys go through to get these beautiful bottles made. Sure. So we, you know, we start by creating an original script for every one of our products and it's one that pays homage to the B movies of the mid 20th century, like robots and monsters, big over the top characters and plots. Then we create a poster for that script in that mid 20th century pulp art style. And we always like to try and make them bright and very eye-catching. And that becomes the label, you know, and then the rest of the label has the character headshots and their BIOS. And then the other side of the label, we talk about our award-winning liquid, like who we are, what it's made from. You know, we try and get the mash bill, the char, the barrel, as much as we can possibly put on there, whatever. We're not limited by any kind of contractual obligation or anything.

32:31 The bottle itself, which you have mentioned is custom and the bottle is meant to be sort of like the Art Deco movie theater from like the 30s and 40s where, you know, the bottle is that like really cool proscenium. But that you know, in the in the movie theater, you're the proscenium is surrounding the star, which is the screen in the movie hours, that proscenium is surrounding the star, which is the label and the liquid. So it's meant to evoke various aspects of film. So the closure is a combination of a film reel and a film can. And as you mentioned, the bottom is meant to represent like cells of film, like the original Kinetoscope, like the Edison with the horse running in a circle and think things like that. So now the particular release that we have here today is called Quadraforce.

33:17 Behold the blend. Of four. Sorry. I just ruined your tagline. No, that's OK, I'll do it again. Quadraforce. Behold, the blend of four. So Quadraforce was an idea that I had before Filmland was Filmland. When I was coming up with like Rise of the Robots and all that kind of thing, I knew one day I wanted to do this product. I didn't know what the liquid was going to be and I didn't have the full concept, but I knew it was going to be a superhero story and I knew it was going to have multiple heroes in it. So what Quadraforce is, it's technically a blend of straight bourbon whiskeys and we made it by combining 4 different straight bourbon whiskeys originally distilled in four different states.

34:02 And the result is actually a four grain weeded bourbon. So there's literally like when I'm tasting people on this, I like to say you have literally never tasted this bourbon has never been made before. There's never been a bourbon like this before. There probably will never be one again because I don't even know if I can get that liquid again. But we did that. We put it together and then what we did is since Quadraforce is the story of four heroes, we created four different versions of the label. So it's the same liquid in all the bottles, but each of the four labels represents the city or state of distillation. And one of the four Quadraforce heroes are pictured on the front. So you have Cali Comet is the Los Angeles edition, You have Kentucky Anna's the Louisville edition, Tennessee Terra is the Nashville edition.

34:48 And then the 4th character is called Mr. Misteron, and pretty much everything about him is a mystery. We don't know his secret identity. We even his powers, they're constantly changing every time he tries to use them. So we don't know his state of origin or his state of distillation. And we're gonna say we, like you, also don't know where this whiskey comes from. I'm not sure if that would be legal, but no, I know where it comes from. But we thought, you know, certain times we get whiskey and we're not allowed to say where it comes from. It's just it's a contractual thing. Some distilleries, they only want their name on stuff that's their brand. So they forbid us from saying it, which is OK. So we thought this time, well, since we can't say where it's from, why don't we make it part of the fun? And so we designed that character to represent the mystery bourbon that's in the blend. That's awesome.

35:38 Is this your guys's first 4 grain whiskey? Yes, that's exciting. Yeah. And we didn't set out to make a four grain, honestly, we set out to make this blend of four. And at the last minute when we found the California bourbon, it turned out to be a weeded bourbon. And by blending in the weeded bourbon, it became A4 grain and a weeded bourbon. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I mean it, it worked out very fortuitously for you guys here. But I'll also say, Brad, we just recorded a review last night, Troy, and I was talking about how it was a very middle of the road bourbon. And I meant that in the best way possible because I would say for the last 12 to 18 months, 4 out of every five bourbons were being sent now are finished in something or blended with something.

36:26 And it just, it feels a little too gimmicky sometimes. And it is so nice to just put my nose into this glass right now and just smell classic weeded bourbon notes on this. Brad, I am like in heaven just nosing this thing. Yeah, absolutely, man. I for me, the the wheat comes through, but there's enough of the wryness from the the rye secondary bourbons that like you get a little bit of that peppery kind of minty vibe underneath that like cherry cola that you get from the wheat. I like I am highly digging this mixture. Specifically, this blend better with the mixture of of of mash bills is the.

37:13 Word there it is. You'll find it eventually, man. So this is clocking in at 94 proof once again, kind of bucking trends in the industry. Like it sounds funny to say that like doing a lower proof bourbon is bucking trends. But right now it feels like everybody's going for something called foolproof or barrel proof or cask strength. And you know, once again, it's like this is a really enjoyable, easy to drink. I I would call it like your daily drinker, Brad. You you know, we were introduced to a term a few months back by a good friend of show, David Thomas Tau. This baby's crushable. This is a very crushable I. Could crush this whiskey man well. Let's let's go ahead, Troy, sorry. I was going to say it has become my favorite of what we have done.

38:02 And I know that'll, you know, that varies and obviously it's it's the latest for us. So it's. So I'm not gonna lie, man, I'm still pretty partial to your rise of the robots. Rise of the Robots was good and that was the first one we tried. I'm, I think I'm with Troy. This is the best thing I've had from you guys so far. You guys really knocked it out of the park on this one, man. It's so unique and so different. Was a huge risk for us right, because you can we can blend in small amounts to create test batches, but it changes when you put it all in and when you're working with you know the same you know 30 barrels or 10 barrels or 15 or whatever it was of the same exact liquid you, we know what moonlight mayhem is going to taste like when after we make a test batch right This we knew what it tasted like in the beaker but when we when it came time to blend it all together it was a huge risk and it paid off fortunately.

38:48 Absolutely. All right, Well, let's pivot a little bit away from the whiskey. I want to talk a little bit about movies as we've got the Film land guy on here. Now, I know that you're a busy man, Troy. So of the nominees this year, of which we've just discussed, but we're recording this before the Oscars, I'm going to give you the chance to be both Nostradamus here and to just be Troy. What do you think is going to win Best Picture this year? And well, first of all, I guess how many of you seen, have you seen any of the nominees this year? I have seen one of them. I I am. I've been extremely busy. I, I travel more than I'm home for the business at this time. And so it is a little tough to get to the theater ever. And a lot of the movies that are up for Best Picture, the ones I've heard of anyway, you can't even stream them yet. Right.

39:38 So and, and it's funny, I was before I came on, I was like, what are the last movies I've seen? So I went to my phone to see the purchases I made and the most recent movie I saw was was Captain America because my son and I are Marvel nerds and we always go see them together. Before that, the last movie I saw in the theater was Wolverine, Deadpool, and and before that the last movie I saw in the theater was one I talked to you guys about, which was Godzilla. Yeah, oh man. Yeah. So that is it for the. Theater. And then what's really funny, you look at my phone and it shows, oh, I booked tickets to see June 2. Cancelled. I booked it again. Cancelled. I booked it again. Oh, I booked tickets to see a complete unknown cancel. Did it again 'cause these are the movies I really wanted to see and just every time something comes up and and I haven't been able to see it.

40:25 So I have seen Dune, although I cancelled that in the theater like three times and ended up streaming it at home. Dune 2, I should say, and I love it. I mean, I love both Dune movies. I'm a huge fan of them. As if it makes you feel any better Troy. I also have only seen Dune 2 so I'm. I'm with you man, life is busy. Right. I've heard of a few of the others, like Amelia Perez and Wicked, of course, but I haven't seen any of them. Obviously, I have not been to the movies in in quite some time, except for Captain America. Well. Then maybe, maybe the better way to do it is whether it was on streaming or in the theater. What was your personal favorite movie of 2024?

41:09 Well, it definitely has to be Dune 2 'cause it's one of the only few movies that I've actually seen. I'd have to go back and think about what I watched in in streaming. But no, I've watched Dune 2 probably like 10 times 'cause I'll get, you know, I'm on the plane so much and I'll just turn it on and watch it again and you hear and see new things. In fact, I loved it so much I read the first two Dune books, which I'd never read. Oh wow, I I'm actually in a similar place. I haven't started them yet, but my buddy has all the Dune books and I'm I'm like, I'm ready. I think I'm ready. I'm ready to take the plunge. Yeah, I'm very concerned about Dune 3. Yeah, it's going to get weird. That's I I haven't read the books, but all I know is like, things are about to get real weird and the Academy should have awarded Dune 2 when it had the chance because it's it's it's hit or miss whether this one's actually going to be good.

42:00 Denny is going to pull it off, man. I think so. Oh ye of little faith. And, and I really, I wanted to see the complete unknown so badly. I'm a huge Bruce Springsteen fan and so by extension Dylan fan. And so I was like, I'm going to watch it this weekend before I come on the podcast and it's just not available to stream anywhere. It became available today. Aw, man. So I even said to my girlfriend, I go if I can, I'm going to play hooky and I'm going to watch it before and I couldn't do it. We forgive you, man, because honestly, when you come up with something as good as Quadraforce, all of your efforts have paid off. So Troy, first of all, thank you for sending us these bottles. Thank you for appearing once again on our show. Tell us a little bit more about what's coming down the Pike for Film Land and where we can find you. Sure.

42:46 Well, you can find us at filmlinespirits.com and we ship to 46 states from there. As I mentioned, we're also in 13 states. So a lot of the West, California, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Kentucky, Kansas, we're in total wines in all those states. We're in Liquor Barn all throughout Kentucky. So really, you know, very common kind of places you can go and shop in terms of what's coming down the line. We have two new products that are coming this year. I can't talk about either of them. They're both pretty much ready. But I can't talk about them because we haven't decided 100% which one's coming in the spring and which one's coming in the fall.

43:26 And if I say one or the other, then my team is going to get really mad at me that I just unilaterally made a decision. But it's, it's I'm very excited. Both are unique and different than anything we've done before in a lot of different ways. And I'm, I'm super excited for them. So one of them is going to be in the spring and 1:00 will be, you know, late summer or fall. Well, thank you again, Troy Belotnik from Film Land Spirits. Brad, this wraps up our Oscars recap 2025. Man, I'm ready to go to bed. I'm not going to lie to you, man. It's it's a late night for us folks. What we're going to do, because this is a Sunday night posting, you'll probably hear this on Monday morning when you wake up.

44:07 We're going to take a couple days off. Our next new episode will come out this Wednesday instead of Tuesday, so tune in for that one. But until then, I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad Gee. And we'll see you next time.