Scoring Christopher Nolan / Lawrenceburg Bourbon Company

0:00 As we get into today's episode, I just want to take a second and remind you that there's a ton of extra content available to the members of Film and Whiskey Nation who support us through our Patreon. Check us out on patreon.com/filmwhiskey. This week on the Film and Whiskey Podcast we will be doing what every director loves most, scoring them out on a arithmetic based measurement. Then after we score out, Christopher Nolan will be trying 2 whiskeys from Lawrenceburg Bourbon Company. This is the. Film and Whiskey Podcast.

0:55 Hey everybody, Welcome into the Film and Whiskey Podcast. I'm Bob Book. I'm Reggie. And we're coming at you with another special bonus episode. I just see like whenever you say coming at you like. Having finger guns coming at you it. Reminds me of like when we were little kids and we would watch like Nickelodeon, they always said stuff like that. Like we're coming at you with all new episode of Peter Nikail. And later on Bob's gonna get slimed. Anywho, we're coming at you with a new bonus episode. Bonus episode. Today we are reviewing our three films by director Christopher Nolan.

1:35 And we will be running Nolan through our trustee 5 point metric to determine just how good is this guy anyway. Now if this is your first time joining us for scoring a director, I honestly Brad, I expected this to generate a lot more buzz than it has because I thought people would be like who are these guys? Why do they think they can talk about my favorite director like that? No one really cares. It seems people, really people really like to just hear us give scores. And move about that day so you know I'm fine with. It yeah, That's basically all we do on this podcast. Not as controversial as it once seemed, but. Although we are now getting into the territory of the Nolan Bros.

2:16 The fanboys? Yeah. So if this is the first time you're joining us while we score a director, here's the history of it. Last year we had a bonus episode where we did this for the patrons. We thought it was a really fun thing to do and we tried to narrow down what are 5 categories. That you could determine what makes a good director, A good director based on those categories and the ones we settled on were performances. So how good are they at getting great performances out of their actors? Cinematography. Not just like how does the movie look, but how does the director in collaboration with the cinematographer put together what's on screen and how the movie looks overall editing.

2:59 That encompasses the rhythm, the flow of the movie, you know, some really great cuts or the sound editing as well. It all plays into editing, cohesion. What kind of a world is the director crafting? Does it hold together? And then finally, uniqueness among his or her peers, Does this director stand out in a good or bad way? I guess. And so, yeah, Christopher Nolan, you're about to get run through this metric today. Yeah. And I I'm excited to get into it, Bob. We're also going to be drinking some whiskeys from Lawrenceburg Bourbon Company and I'm really excited for those because I personally have already drank them and I can tell you it's going to be a good review. Well, there you go.

3:40 So just to lay some groundwork here, as we get into talking about Nolan, we only are considering the three films that we watched from him this season. So we have already reviewed Inception, Interstellar, and The Dark Knight in past seasons. And this time around, we're only evaluating him based on Memento, Dunkirk and The Prestige. Those are the three that we did this time around, which I think is a really interesting set of three, Brad, because neither of us thought that like taken as a collective these that these are his three strongest films. So I think it's going to be cool to see like where each of us find little points to nitpick him about. And I guess without further ado, let's just jump in, Let's talk performances. Brad, I feel like I've been talking nonstop for like 5 minutes, so you go ahead and give me your performance score on Nolan and tell me why.

4:32 Performances. I think that The Prestige is really going to help him stand up here. I think Memento was fine. The the thing for me with Memento is that there it just felt like there's a lot of wooden acting and guy, my guy guy just. Struggled being a normal guy. You know what I'm saying, Bob? And so I, you know, there's parts of that that I struggled with. But overall, I think that The Prestige and Dunkirk, you have some really great performances in Dunkirk. I don't remember the name of the young man who was supposed to carry the movie and just doesn't. Finn Whitehead.

5:13 Yes, Finn Whitehead. All I remember about Finn. Is that a lot of times when we're recording episodes? I'll just kind of like keep IMDb up on my phone to like the movie just so I can remember, you know, cast people and all that. And Finn Whitehead, the picture that he has on his IMDb there's like he's like kind of off center to the left and there's a woman that's just obnoxiously in the center of his IMDb photo. You need to go look at it, Bob. What a great metaphor. Yeah, Yep, that's that's about it. So, but we're talking performances here. I think that Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are stupendous in their roles in the prestige. I think Scarlett Johansson is incredible. I think Michael Caine is incredible. So all of those, I think for me are going to lift him up to an 8 1/2.

6:10 I I just think he struggles enough in the other films that he doesn't quite get that nine out of 10. Yeah, Brad. I'm also going to give him an 8 1/2. I think that overall he is a really good director of actors. Listen, it's impossible to actually divorce the other movies that I've seen from Nolan from my thought process here, but you and I did have differing thoughts on various people in the movie Memento. I liked Guy Pearce a lot. I didn't love the dialogue that he was given. However, we don't always factor in writing because it's not often that the OR. It's not always I should say that the director and the writer are the same person. But in this instance, I think I'm going to reflect that in the performances score. Because if the actor is given wooden enough dialogue, I think that most actors are going to have a hard time pulling that off, and so it reflects poorly on their performance ultimately.

7:01 So yeah, I'm going to give him an 8 1/2. I think you're right. Hugh Jackman is maybe the best performance we've ever seen in a Nolan movie. And that really does kind of like raise the rest of the actors around. Him. But I can't go any higher than that. Yeah, So jumping into cinematography, I think that this is where you I was really glad that we chose these three specific movies because from Memento to Dunkirk. With, you know, The Prestige also being an earlier film for him, you got to see him grow as a cinematographer, like his ability to move the camera, to control the shot, to get what he wants on screen and nothing else.

7:46 I think he's kind of a master of that. By the time you hit Dunkirk, Memento kind of holds him back a little bit. But there's still moments where you're like, oh, there's Christopher Nolan coming through. I think I'm going to give him a nine out of 10 here. He had a long time cinematographer, collaborator, kind of the way that Spielberg always works with Yanush Kaminsky. Now he had a guy named Wally Pfister who got nominated for like 3 or 4 Oscars with Nolan. I think he may have won one Oscar and then they had, I don't know, some sort of acrimonious falling out. And then Wally went off and directed a movie by himself and then it flopped and he doesn't really do much anymore. And you can see the visual.

8:30 Differences in the cinematographers that he works with now versus his older movies even up through like, I don't know, was it Inception, the last one that he did, or it may have been The Dark Knight, I don't know. In any case, Dunkirk looks a lot different than The Prestige and Memento do, and both of those were shot by Wally Pfister. I still think that the cinematography in Nolan movies is second to none and the way that Dunkirk captures. Like the various sizes of things on the screen, like a tiny little, you know, pinhead of a plane off in the distance versus the person watching them in the foreground. Really, really cool cinematography.

9:10 I just sometimes I do miss the old look of Nolan films a little bit more, but I'm going to give him a nine and a half here. Yeah, Wally Fister famously probably won it for Moneyball. Is that for real? Is that what he wanted for? I have no idea, but he did. He was the cinematographer for. It. Well, there you go. So next we have editing and we remember that this includes the sound and musical editing as well as, you know, the editing of scene to scene. Bob, I think that he might be one of the best editors of movies that we've seen like I I just think he has an ability to keep his films moving.

9:52 With with just so much talent and ability, I think that you see that in The Prestige, I think you see in Dunkirk. And once again I I'm realizing now I'm like I like I liked Memento, but it seems like it's an albatross around his neck for these three films, Bob, because it's it's keeping me from giving him a high score in any of these categories. I'm going to give him a nine out of 10 here I think. I'm really surprised that you say that, because I think we both agreed in the Memento episode that the editing is what that movie's all about. Not just that, like, oh, it only holds together because of the way it's edited, but the things that work about it are so reliant on very particular cuts and very particular rhythms. And the last 20 minutes of the movie is, you and I both said perfect, and it's perfect because of the way it's cut together.

10:45 I am not always a fan of the Nolan. I have to have three intercut storylines going on at the same time thing. But it always does make for a really propulsive kind of rhythm to his movies. And so, yeah, I'm with you, man. It's not always the best editing in my mind, but he certainly wins the award for most editing. And I think that, you know, when it comes to this metric, it's kind of the same thing. So I will also give him a nine here. You know what? You're right. I'm going to give him a nine and a half. I think that this might be might be his highest category. So yeah, I'll give him a nine and a half here. Cohesion, maybe his. Worst category? Maybe his worst.

11:28 And like even I think about Inception and and his other films and I'm like this is the area where like our comments on Interstellar I think applies. This is the place where he tries to hit a Grand Slam every time he's up to bat and sometimes he hits like a nice two run Homer, but man, he like. He's always swinging for the moon. I think he accomplishes it sometimes, but. It it can be rough sometimes, man. His movies can be hard to understand. He is truly the. He's the David Ortiz of Major Hollywood. He's either hitting a Homer or he's striking out in embarrassing fashion.

12:14 The thing with Nolan is like, I I keep going back to the comment that we were we made when Bill Go was here. And we talked about Roger Ebert's thoughts on The Prestige and how he felt cheated by this literal Deus Ex machina at the end of the movie. And I do think there's something to that. I still think the movie works, but I can absolutely understand why that reveal could collapse the whole movie like A House of Cards for people. And I think Nolan is guilty of doing that in a couple different movies. So you if you're impressed by the sheer, I guess, magic trick of storytelling that he likes to do, and if you're impressed by how clever it all is, then it it it might be a 10 out of 10 for you.

12:58 But I have found myself on more than one occasion with Nolan being like, OKI didn't realize you were going to do that. Like I didn't think that was on the table. So yeah, I'm just going to give him a 7 1/2 here, Brad. Yeah, that's actually exactly what I gave him as well. I I think that for me that last point you made about like if it works for you, this is a 10 out of 10. I think uniqueness is where that like line of thought belongs. Because, like, when I think about him as a unique director, I think that he's a 10 out of 10 unique director, Bob. Like his. Like, think about Dunkirk. Have you ever seen a war movie like Dunkirk?

13:42 You know what I mean? Like, like, is it the best war movie ever? No. Is it a Great War movie? Yeah. Is it like any other one you've ever seen by a long shot? No. And I think about The Prestige and I think about Memento, and I'm like. Those are some of the most unique movies that I've ever seen. And so I I think I said earlier that, you know, maybe editing would be his highest category. I think Nolan is one of the most unique directors we've seen in the last 20 years. And that's, you know, without even, we haven't even talked about his commitment to, you know, real film and how he shies away from CGI and like he like he just is committed to the art and craft.

14:26 Of movie making in a way that that that alone makes him unique among his peers. You know all the other directors who care about that are like 75 plus. So I I think he's a 10 out of 10 unique. I'm tempted to give him just an 8 1/2 here. I think I'm going to give him a nine. And here's why I'm a little bit lower than you, Brad. A lot of what makes Nolan unique comes down to the way his his mind works, which is often expressed in the way he writes movies. And I think Nolan the writer has hit on some really interesting concepts that not a lot of people have been given the budget to explore. Nolan the director, when I think about like, what's his visual style like? What kind of camera moves does he like to employ? What are some unique motifs?

15:14 He's not necessarily the most unique director. He's not the only one that's ever explored these themes, and he doesn't necessarily shoot his movies. In a in a unique way, the way like a Scorsese has, he always has that weird, like God's eye view in every single movie. Think about like the end of Taxi Driver when it's like floating over, like no one doesn't have a shot like that that he calls back to. And that's not to say that I'm going to Ding him for that particular thing. Like a Spielberg wonder type. Of exactly. He He does remind me. You know, I keep bringing this guy up. He reminds me a lot of like a Ridley Scott that way, where it's like every movie is really solid. Every movie, like, does what it's supposed to do. But I think what sets Nolan over the top is actually the writing that he does to complement his direction. The one thing that he does really, really well, whether the movie ultimately works or not, is he's good at giving his movies a sense of heft, like a real weightiness. Every time a Nolan movie comes up on screen, you know that opening shot of Dunkirk?

16:15 Where they're like mid like crouching, like they were just getting dive bombed and all those papers are falling out of the air and you're immediately thrust into the situation with this ticking clock Hans Zimmer score. Only Nolan makes you feel like you are watching a movie that the future of cinema rests on every time you watch it. I always feel like the movies are at stake every time I sit down to watch a Nolan movie and so for that reason I feel like, well, go ahead, go ahead. I was going to say also like his payoff. Like I I feel like he sets you up for these epic hefty movies and the payoff is almost always there. Like even if you didn't love the movie, like like we said, the last 20 minutes of Memento are an incredible payoff for the somewhat of a slog you had to go through to get there. So I I I think that's another point in his favor. All right, man, I I am going to give him a nine here. I'm coming out to a 43 1/2 out of 50. Brad, what are you coming out to? That nine made the difference.

17:20 I am at a 44.5 out of 50. All right. So we are averaging out to a 44 out of 50 or an 88 out of 100, which puts him pretty much in line with most of the people we've examined this year. I mean, Eastwood's a 41. Billy Wilder is a 43. Bigelow was at a 40.5. Chaplains at a 43.75 and now Nolan at 44 so like. Taking the cake. He's taking the cake. But you know, I don't think anyone's really running away with it the way that Spielberg and Scorsese were last year. Yeah, no, they they were a very clear winner among all the other directors that we've ever done. So, alright, I'm excited to get into Kurosawa, man. Yeah, me too, man.

18:04 Let's take a pause here. Let's try these two Lawrenceburg whiskeys. What do you say? Let's get to it. All right, so today we are checking out two whiskeys from Lawrenceburg Bourbon Company. This is a cool little distillery, Brad, that is founded by a guy who is a Navy combat veteran who is also born and raised in Australia and now finds himself living in Lawrenceburg, KY. So if you hear Lawrenceburg, you might be thinking Lawrenceburg IN this is actually based in Lawrenceburg, KY. We're very excited to try both of their products today. We've got a bourbon and a rye, both of them given to us at barrel strength.

18:47 Brad, which one do you think you want to start with today? Let's go the classic tasting route and go with the lower proofed option first, which I believe is the bourbon. Yes, the lower proofed option which is 117.1 proof. Is this four year sample of bourbon that we've been given Now the mash bill on this four year bourbon is 70% corn, 21% rye, 9% malted barley. I believe this was distilled by Lawrenceburg Bourbon Company. I don't have any notes to the contrary. So Brad, let's go ahead and dive in. What are you picking up on the nose of this bourbon? Yeah, this one is a lot of really nice classic bourbon notes.

19:30 There's caramel. It's a little bit grainy. There's a little bit of corn coming through on the nose and then I I got kind of some nice like sweet cream butterscotch, like really nice notes coming through on the nose. I I like the nose a lot here, Bob. Yeah, me too. I'm with you, man. There's there's quite a bit of oak on this for me, and I'm not getting, like, really dark, sugary, bourbony notes yet. It's not that the whiskey smells young. It's at the whiskey stool is very bright, It almost has like a fruitiness to it. And then I get the charred oak, but I'm not getting a lot of like brown sugar or Maple or even vanilla notes on this. It's an interesting nose, but I'm like cautiously optimistic, if that makes sense.

20:16 Yeah, yeah. And when I got into the pallet, the caramel came through. That corn stuck around. For me, the butterscotch was like the dominant note. And there I I know it wasn't there on the nose. For me, it got a little bit of like a light Maple syrup on the flavor that it it was just viscosy enough that that Maple came through. Bob, I'm a big fan of this. I I think that the the palette here delivers a little more of a hefty punch than what we got from the nose. Yeah, I get quite a bit of cherry on this and it almost manifests as like a. Like a cherry and eucalyptus.

20:56 It reminds me of like the halls cough drops that I like to suck on when I'm like really really sick and just need something like that. It's not like a robitussin, but it has like a almost minty effect, probably from the rye and like a really good medicinal kind of cherry. It definitely packs a punch, Brad, but it doesn't drink like it's 117 proof. Like if you told me this was 100 proof, 105 proof, I'd probably believe you. It's really nice and prickly that alcohol is present. But it's not overpowering anything. This is a really good whiskey. Yeah, yeah. I think it's really impressive. It's a solid bourbon expression that for me it just has a hint of youth with those corn notes, but not enough to to make it you know, lesser in any of my estimation. I think it's a really creamy sweet bourbon that has a little bit of spiciness to it.

21:47 Bob, I this is like really impressive. If I was like scoring it out of 50, I'd probably end up in like. The 3839 out of 50 range. Brad, I I'm excited to dive into this 10 by 10 rye and they call it the 10 by 10 rye because it is 10 years old and made from 10 barrels of 10 year old rye. Now looking at their website, it looks like this was actually distilled in Canada. So we're drinking a Canadian rye right now, unless I'm reading A/B wrong, but I believe A/B stands for Alberta, right? As far as I know. Or Alabama Cool. That's not Alabama. Alabama's AL. No, it is. What's. A.

22:27 There's no A/B in the United States. Alberta it is. Alberta. All right, so we're drinking 10 year old Canadian Rye. This is 122.5 proof. Brad, what are you picking up on the nose of this one? Man, I I I'm not picking up much of anything, Bob. Like I I know that it might sound weird, but. Earlier when I drank this, I I had drank it after I had the bourbon and I was like, man, I'm not getting much on the nose. Maybe I got, you know, my nose got a little messed up from the bourbon, who knows? And then tonight I've been drinking it again, you know, 8-10 hours later and the nose just isn't really there that like there's some rye notes, there's a little bit of honey that comes through. It's kind of floral, but I I'm not. I don't know about what's your experience with it because I was struggling on the.

23:18 Net, I'm with you, man. Like, when I really dig my nose in here, it gets overpowered by ethanol because it's 122 proof. But I'm not getting any real notes coming off of it. There is the the slightest little note of, like, gunpowder, Like it almost. You know, it was just the 4th of July here, so I'm not talking about that really, like sulfuric smell after fireworks. But, you know, I took the boys out in the driveway. We were playing with those little, like, popper things that you throw on the ground. And it reminds me a little bit of like okay, there's like some burnt, you know, like spent gunpowder here. That's literally like all I'm getting is a little bit of smoke and ethanol, which I'm I'm just surprised because it's a 10 year old rye and it's 100% rye. It's not blended with any other grains. Dude, that's what I'm saying.

24:03 I like, I mean, at this point it's standing out because of its uniqueness, but we've been doing this for 4-5 years now and I'm like, I don't know if I've ever had a whiskey where I just. Didn't really have a note on the nose. I just took my first sip of it. Brad, I know you've tried these already. I'm trying them live. It's really earthy, like, really earthy and herbal. And then I get this like very distinct, burnt, like char flavor to it. And I'm like, listen, I would never eat one of those poppers that I threw out my driveway on the 4th of July, but like. I like my note of flex spent gunpowder is actually coming through a little bit here.

24:45 I I really like how I don't know how to phrase it like it's going to sound like an insult. It's it's almost like a nondescript palette that's just like straight rye grain and then like char. And I kind of, I kind of dig it, man. Yeah, no, it's super oaky. The rye comes through. The little bit of sweetness I get reminds me of like a a a malted Scotch like honey kind of coming through. But like, I don't know what to do with this rye, but I actually like it. Like, I like the flavor. I like how it tastes.

25:26 I just. I don't know exactly how to describe it Bob. It is more effable. One of the more unique rise we've ever had in this podcast. Like I will say that bar none. Yeah, easily one of the more unique rise that we've ever had. And I like, like I said, if I was scoring this, I don't honestly know how to score it. I I'd probably end up in the upper 30s. I think I would. Too. I like it. I just don't think that I could like if you asked me to, give it a list of professional tasting notes on this. There's not a lot going on. It's just kind of like I just. Just kind of good. I just want to write down, like generically manly. Like it is a manly whiskey. And I think that's kind of where I'm falling on this one. Your mustache is just like growing handlebars. As you do 100% all right, well, we want to say thank you to Lawrenceburg for both of these whiskeys. These are darn good whiskeys, and I'm excited to see what continues to come out of Lawrenceburg in the coming years.

26:24 We'll be back on Tuesday with another regularly scheduled episode, but until then, I'm Bob Book. I'm Reggie. And we'll see you next time.