The Social Network / Blanton's Gold

0:00 Hey, everybody. Before we get started today, I am super excited to share with you something. We've been working on. We are partnering with Paramount Pictures to give away digital copies of their new movie fat, man. Have you guys seen the trailer for this movie? It looks absolutely Bonkers this movie stars, Mel Gibson as Santa Claus in what they're calling. An outrageous action comedy. When a 12 year old boy receives a lump of coal in his stocking he hires a highly skilled assassin to kill Santa Claus. I gotta tell you, I I have checked out the trailer for this movie. I can't wait to watch it. It looks like a ton of fun. It just it looks just just insane. Walton. Goggins is also in this movie, you might remember him from Django Unchained.

0:40 One of my favorite Parts in that movie or in Tarantino's the hateful eight, I am absolutely on board to check out this movie tis, the season to get even with this dark action comedy. That keeps on giving buy or rent fat, man today. And of course, if you'd like to enter our giveaway, you can find our giveaway post on our Instagram page At film whiskey. Let's get to the show in 2010 director, David Fincher and starred. Jesse Eisenberg. Gave the world. An incisive drama about the Inception of a social media Juggernaut in 2020 and international favorite hits the u.s. shores for the first time. The film is the social network. The whiskey is Blanton's gold and we'll review them both. This is the film and whiskey podcast. Welcome to the film and whiskey podcast, where each week, we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob book, I'm Brad G and this week we are looking at David Fincher's, 2010 film The Social Network, you know? I've already apologized in the Crimson to the a bhw too far as a Latina and to any women at Harvard who may have been insulted as they take it that they were. As for any charges stemming from

2:12 the breach of security, I believe I deserve some recognition from this board. I'm sorry. Yes, I don't understand which part Brad. This is I feel like this movie is kind of a big deal in the history of our podcast and like obviously we have been reviewing nothing but Classics for three seasons now but this is one of those few movies that's come out in the 21st century that I think keep generating more and more Buzz. The longer. It ages we're looking at it on its Tenth anniversary. It's been a decade. I feel like we can objectively kind of Why's this movie better now, but I think over the last 10 years, this movie's reputation has just continued to soar and in no small part because of what we've actually seen from Facebook, over the last 10 years and how it has come to consume our lives.

3:02 This movie, I feel like can't really be separated from its subject matter. And I keep seeing, you know, critics all over the place talking about is this the most important movie of the new century? So I guess it's probably a good thing we're getting around to talking about it. Well, the fascinating thing about this, Movie Bob. Is it be almost like if you wrote a biography about Clint Eastwood when he was like 50, you know what I mean? Like, the dude has gone on for almost another 50 years worth of movies and directing and writing and all these things. And so, when you watch The Social Network, like it's about events that happened five to seven years before the movie was actually made.

3:44 And so it really is fascinating to See this film in light of what Facebook has done from 2010 to 2020 in the real world, it really is a unique film in that aspect. Yeah, Brad. I feel like there's only been a few movies with this level of exposure that have done that in movie history. You can look back to the 1970s and look at movies, like All the President's Men Who were, you know, reporting on how the Watergate story got broken, just a few years after it happened, but I think the closest analogy we could make Brad is a he that we just did a couple months ago on this podcast and that would be Citizen Kane. And I think that that's actually a really appropriate comparison because the themes of both of those movies, I think are also very similar. I have more than one time seen this movie compared to Citizen Kane and talking about how it is the Citizen Kane of the 21st century in terms of the subject matter, a guy who amasses all the power he possibly can pushing people away getting back at people but longing at the end of the day, For deep human intimacy that he can never have.

4:51 And I don't think that's an unfair comparison to make. I just don't know if I like comparing it to Citizen Kane in terms of its overall quality. Well, I think I would agree with you Bob. I think that the social network shines because it has Aaron Sorkin as a writer. And what what he does in this movie is really impressive because at the very, he bookends the movie with comments about Mark Zuckerberg. Surberg being an asshole, you know, at the start of the film, it's Erica. Albright his girlfriend, his sophomore year college saying like, you know what, man, you're just an asshole. Like, you are the worst and you can kind of see why she thinks that. I'm sorry officially impressed with my education. I'm sorry.

5:37 I don't have a robot. So we're even, we should just be friends. I don't want friends. I was just being polite. I have no intention of being friends, is under some pressure right now, from IOS class. And if we could just order some food, I think we should You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. You're going to go through life thinking that girls don't like you because you're a nerd. And I want you to know from the bottom of my heart that that would be true. Be because you're an asshole and at the end of the film, you have a young lawyer played by Rashida Jones saying you know like you're not an asshole. It just seems like you're trying really hard to be one. Yeah he bookends the A movie with this question is Mark Zuckerberg and asshole.

6:21 And if you watch the entire movie, with that question, in your mind, I think it really takes this movie to the next level, because you see how Sorkin writes every scene around that question. And it's so focused of a movie that I can see why critics have fallen in love with this film. Yeah, I think there's a ton of things to praise here. I think there's also some stuff to nitpick. This is one of those movies that I think as its reputation has grown, I've gone back to. I've probably seen this movie 10 times I would say, and, and that's no small feat for a movie, that's only 10 years old. But I think the more and more people seem to fall in love with this movie. The More I go back to it in Wonder, like, does this really deserve to be held up as the movie of the 21st century and so Brad, I'm excited to kind of get into that and answer this question with you today, but the first question that I have for you is, have you seen this movie prior to watching it for our podcast? I sure have Bob, all right, how many times have you seen a now just once?

7:23 Well, just once before the podcast, I think I had watched it at some point when I was in college around two Thousand Eleven or twelve, most likely. And I remember the first time I saw thinking like, oh, that was a, that was a pretty good movie. Like I learned more about Facebook, I think, but maybe I didn't because it's, you know, Hollywood and you never know how real that actually is going to be. So I remember walking away the first time and being like, That's fine. Movie. It was like seven and a half eight out of ten. Maybe. Alright, I think that's pretty acceptable and Brad. Now that you've seen it this time. I think you probably know the Contours of the movie a little bit better which means you can explain to our audience, maybe some of whom haven't seen this film what the movie is about. And so it's time for our favorite segment planet, Earth's favorite segments, Brad the galaxies. That's raybert, seg-y, limited to Earth. This segment is called Brad explains. It's where Brad break.

8:18 Is down the plot of the movie that he has just seen often for the first time that is not the case today. And so Brad, we are expecting an absolute home. Run of an explanation, can you break down the plot of the movie? The Social Network, Facebook wasn't real, and then Mark, Zuckerberg made it real boom, that's it, he made it, he did it. Oh man. Now the social network is about a young sophomore at Harvard University and he Yates this crazy cool thing called Facebook he comes around to the idea in a roundabout kind of way when he his girlfriend breaks up with him and he's writing a blog post about it and his roommate brings up the idea of like making a website where you could say if a girl or a farm animal is hotter and he gets her to the farm, animal part, but he actually creates a website called face smash where there's just literally two girls from Harvard and you Ed, which one is hotter and it breaks the Harvard internet, which I can't imagine would be very hard back in 2003, but it destroys the internet servers and he kind of becomes a big deal and he's approached by the Winklevoss.

9:31 Conglomerates might be a good word for them. It sees its these twin brothers who are basically Terminator and they're like, rich and famous and their dad is an investor and Wall Street, and they are trying to The next big internet sensation and they come up with an idea for a website where you're able to socially interact with friends at school and you'd have pictures. And you can talk about if you're in a relationship and post on each other's walls and all sorts of things and they approached the Zuckerberg after his face. Wait hold on. Can I can I interject one thing? And the most important thing about their idea is that you have to have a harvard.edu that's email.

10:16 That is very true because it's exclusive that the exact you have to know, they use that word like 19 times in like two seconds. It's very exclusive. And so it's this exclusive website where only the Harvard Elite can socialize with one another online. They approached Zuckerberg about writing code for the website. After his you know smash hit a girl comparison website and he is like yep I'll do it. And then he goes off to his best friend Eduardo And is like, hey Eduardo like we need to make this website and it's going to be awesome and he pretty much makes what the Winklevoss twins had thought of without them.

10:58 And he Dodges them. And is sending them emails, back and forth saying that he's busy and he won't meet with them. And at this point in the movie, you start to realize that it's actually a flashback movie. And the present time is Zuckerberg in two separate lawsuits, one against his supposedly. A former best friend, Eduardo Saverin, and the and a separate lawsuit against the Winklevoss twins. And the entire movie is then told in a flashback sequence of different parts of Zuckerberg is life. As he is creating Facebook, it's about how Zuckerberg slowly builds relationships in the tech world. Most notably with Sean Parker, one of the co-creators of Napster and how sean helped launch Facebook from being a smaller term, million-dollar idea into a massive billion dollar idea and The movie explores how Zuckerberg slowly pushes certain people away from him, how he is antisocial and it really revolves around.

12:04 This question of is Mark Zuckerberg, a person that can be liked and you're not really sure where it ends into the, at the end of the film. But by the time we get to, the end of film Facebook has been created. He is out in California, they have a massive office space. Sean Parker is arrested. There's all sorts of crazy. See stuff happening, but it all comes down to this girl. Erica Albright that had broken up with him at the start. He friend requests her and your left kind of wondering like, was it all worth it? Brad. Excellent job sir. Well thank you. Yeah. And as you were talking I was going to ask you this and and it's a completely leading question. But what do you see as the overall theme of this movie? Like not not just what was the movie about? But like, what do you think is the main point? They're trying to get a Across with this film, man. I, I mean, I think you could go in on deeper levels that might not have been there in 2010, but in 2020, I look at this movie and I go, man, this movie is about how a person couldn't hold real life, human relationships.

13:15 And so he created a website so that he could fake those relationships. Absolutely. And I don't know if that's necessarily fair to Mark Zuckerberg, I will fully say Haley and I watched this movie together and when we were finished with it we went on and watched a few different interviews of Zuckerberg in the media. He is similar. I think Jesse Eisenberg nailed a lot of his mannerisms and kind of the way he talked, but I feel like Eisenberg, took it a little bit too far into making him an anti-social unlikable. So is that something that you picked up on ya? So I think this is a good place to have this conversation. I thought maybe we'd have it in the second half of the show, but one of the things that comes up for me, even before we get into, like the nuts and bolts of the film itself is kind of the ethics behind the making of this movie.

14:06 Because, you know, we've talked about, we've been talking about this a lot lately Brad, with our musical biopics miniseries. And how it's weird to see biopics made about people while they're still alive. And not only, are you getting a biopic or, you know, quote-unquote, a biopic about a person that still alive, like you said, it's coming. Like five years after the events happened and Sorkin and Fincher and Company were all very careful to say that they purposely kind of fictionalized. This account of Zuckerberg that they took him as an archetype. That they used his story but they made him purposely different than the real life person Zuckerberg and that comes out in Jesse eisenberg's performance, he's much more cold and calculated he speaks much quicker. I mean if you've ever watched Mark, Zuckerberg, like when he was giving testimony to Congress, the man is like Sweaty and nervous and can't string a sentence together. This is a very different Mark Zuckerberg. This fictional character.

15:02 We see than the one in real life. He's been, he's been Sorkin eyes. Exactly. And it kind of does make me wonder though, regardless of what we think of Mark Zuckerberg. And I have many thoughts and feelings on what he's created and and what it's done to our society, is it fair to do this to a person not only while they're still alive? But then to use them as an archetype and a jump. Off point using their name, using their likeness and getting some details. Exactly. Right. But then also completely fictionalizing other things and it brings me back to this kind of Citizen Kane question. Like, is there an Ethics behind this, or a lack of Ethics behind this that we just don't talk about because the movie is so good. Well, I think it comes down to the fact that story is often so much more powerful than cold hard facts and reality. And so, So, regardless of whether or not Zuckerberg is as he's portrayed in this movie, what people will remember about him, aren't his interviews on, you know, Good Morning America or him in the Senate, chambers being interviewed by senators in the end, what they're going to remember is a powerful and captivating story written by Aaron, Sorkin, directed by David, Fincher, and acted by Jesse Eisenberg. And I and so I think that That you can claim all you want like, oh, just, hey, guys, this is fictionalized, you know, it's a, it's a representation of maybe

16:33 some parts of Zuckerberg personality, but not all of them. But in the end, Baba, I feel like biopics, like, this are so hard because people always want to believe what they see in the movies are true. And so, when they see a movie that has some modicum of Truth in it, they want to just assign all truth to it. Well and I really think that's unfair. It is unfair and I well, So that that part is unfair to the makers of the movie, but I also think it is unfair for the makers of the movie to try to have their cake and eat it too where they say like no this is not a biopic we've pert. We've purposely fictionalized this man's life to tell a different story, but also we're going to use his name and try to convince you that this is what really happened.

17:17 It seems like they wanted to craft a narrative where they made Zuckerberg either a tragic hero or a villain however you want to Are you, however, you want to interpret it but then when they get called out on the lack of accuracy, they say, well, we've never wanted to be accurate in the first place. It just kind of seems like they're trying to play both sides of it. Well, and that's the thing I when I look at this, if this was a 100% fake movie that had just been made up, I think that this movie actually would come across better. Like this is an incredibly tight film that is for. That is just the cinematography is great. I think that the story is told in a captivating and Powerful manner that if it was 100% fake about fake people and they just made it up, it would be one of the most captivating movies I've ever seen.

18:09 But because I know for a fact that it's about a real human being, I spent the whole movie asking myself, huh? I wonder if this is really about. Mark Zuckerberg is or not, were you leading them on for six weeks up then why didn't you raise any of these concerns before it's raining? I'm sorry. It just started raining mr. Zuckerberg do, I have your full attention? No. Do you think I deserve it? What do you think? I deserve your full attention. I had to swear an oath before we began this deposition and I don't want to perjure myself. So I have a legal obligation to say, no. Okay. No, you don't think I deserve your attention. I think if your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have a right to give it a try, but there's no requirement that I enjoy sitting here. Listening to people lie, you have part of my attention, you have the minimum amount, the rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook.

19:03 Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients are intellectually or creatively capable of doing that. I put me answer your condescending question and I think that that detracted from the movie for me. Well, and I think this is one of the things that that is a pet peeve of mine with Aaron Sorkin in general. And I, like Aaron Sorkin a lot, but I think that like, I think that we have decided as a society to, like, fall down at his feet and worship him as like, the god of screenwriting and With Sorkin I think it's not just that it's Hit or Miss it's that you have to be all in on it because Sorkin rights house or can rights. And so it either works for you or it doesn't. And I think that in this movie in particular I really am impressed with some of what he does. Like that opening scene is always called out for being like you know I don't know how many pages of dialogue that's uninterrupted and ending with that incredible line about it's because you're an asshole but Brad I was Actually watching an interview with Aaron Sorkin, where he talked about this movie in particular and he said that the Facebook of it, all the Zuckerberg of it.

20:12 All is incidental. That that what he was interested in? He read the story of how Facebook was created and he saw in it and more Universal story, right? This, this Citizen Kane kind of story and he essentially said this movie could have been about somebody who just invented a really cool new toaster and it would have played exactly the same and that really pissed me off. Hear him say that because Aaron Sorkin is too smart to try to play dumb like that. This movie is 100% reliant on audience, recognition of what Facebook is and also his own recognition of what Facebook is. Like, if you don't have the layer of the story of he made a social networking site, he made a site where other people go to meet each other and go to have connections with each other because a he was, he was looked over by all.

21:03 The final clubs that he wanted to get into and be, it was the only place where he could create that environment for himself. I think with this movie, what Sorkin is trying to do? Like I said before, is have his cake and eat it too. He wants to convince us that there's a more Universal story being told here, but he's also like hyper aware of the irony of a very antisocial guy. Being responsible for humanities social interaction now, like and I feel like, what pisses me off about listening to stork and talk about this movie? Is that he To have it both ways and it's very obvious that he can't write. I mean, if you made a movie about how people made toast together, nobody would watch it. Well, I mean, there's a really great movie that came out a few years ago called the founder. I don't know if you've seen it Brad, it had Michael Keaton in it playing.

21:48 Ray Kroc, the guy that took McDonald's and made it into the Empire that it was today, and it's very similar to this. But even then like the fact that it's McDonald's plays a huge role in it. Like this guy changed, how America viewed only like, Honest ownership and, and diet and everything else. And so, like you can't just divorce the subject from what they did. Like, it's essential to telling the story that Sorkin is trying to tell here. Well and that's and that's the issue. When you look at any sort of media adaptation of real events. I mean heck, but I look, you know, I run a wedding business and so I see wedding photos all the time and some of these wedding photos are so heavily edited that, I don't think that they actually represent reality and what was happening on that day and sure they look beautiful but There's a part of me that goes well you're not getting the actual facts of really what happened?

22:40 And so, I think any time you take the literal human existence and experience, and you true humans just can't create a true replica of reality that will ever replace reality. Like we will never know about what actually happened between the Winklevoss Twins and Zuckerberg will never know. I actually what happened between Zuckerberg and Eduardo, like these things are just lost to history. And the crazy thing is, you can even have video camera footage of what happened and still not, really get the full picture of what happened. And so I think this movie really does tie into the idea that everything is editorialize.

23:27 Yeah, everything has an opinion on it and Sorkin like you said can't just act like oh, this is just This is just a story about an archetypal human character. A platonic ideal like it's just not. You just can't have that. Well, and that's the funny thing is like, the one of the themes of the movie. Is this idea of the truth lying somewhere in the middle? Like you have conflicting accounts of the same thing in the movie and then in the real-life conversation about this movie, on the one hand, you have this idea that it's just a movie about how Facebook was made which is false. And on the other hand, you have Aaron Sorkin, the guy who wrote the movie saying Facebook isn't An essential to the story. I was trying to tell which is also completely false, you have to have both things kind of working in tandem. Well if there's anything that is essential to this podcast, Bob it is you know these movies we watch but probably more important is the whiskey that we drink and this Blanton's gold is just too tempting to leave by the side, any longer. Yeah Brad let's get into drinking it. Alright, so today we are

25:10 checking out Blanton's gold. Now, if you have been listening to the podcast for the last few weeks, you will remember that. We first tried Blanton Single Barrel a few weeks back. And again, everything comes with the caveat that when you are drinking Single Barrel whiskeys, there is a ton of variation that's possible. So the barrel that we got may be very different from whatever barrel of Blanton's. You got your hands on but Brad and I were not fans of blatant, single barrel. And in particular, the sample that we got was Was the harshest, Kentucky hug that we've ever had when drinking a bourbon. And so, I reached out to the people that send us that sample, which was our friends Bourbon and stuff on Instagram. They also provided us with the sample of Blanton's gold today and when I asked them like, hey, are you sure you didn't send us something different, they went back and tried that blatant single-barrel. They said nope, you absolutely are spot-on with your notes here.

26:01 It's really harsh but they promised us that the Blanton's. Gold was going to be different. And so Brad, I am looking forward to that experience, at the Released. Yeah. And Bob this kind of comes back to a frustration that I have with single barrels is that you just don't know what you're gonna get other than the price, you know exactly what you get in there. And if it's Blanton's it's gonna be if you're lucky $60 and otherwise it's going to be 80, 100 120 or more for this Blanton's. And so when you know, you're going to pay that much for an uncertain drinking experience that kind of knocks Blanton's. Down a peg in my mind. Well, and that's that's the frustration that we continually have with Buffalo Trace products.

26:44 They have become Masters at allocating their products at driving up demand and then people having to chase it on the secondary market and you quoted a 60 dollar price tag for blatant single-barrel. This Blanton's gold is significantly more than that Brad. And we'll get into that price here in a little bit, but just a little bit of quick background on Blanton's. Gold, this used to be a product that was only sold overseas. It was kind of gonna call it like, a tourist trap but it Something that, you know, Travelers in airports in Japan would be on the lookout for because they want to pick a bottle up and bring it back to the States because it wasn't sold here. It's a really brilliant business model because only people who were traveling or who lived overseas, could try this very specific brand of Blanton's, Buffalo Trace decided just this year to start releasing Blanton's gold in the United States again after driving up demand like crazy because people couldn't get it.

27:33 So it just dropped in the United States. It's only been available here for a few months. This is a 103 proof, whiskey as opposed to the 93 proof regular Single Barrel. This is also a Single Barrel Bourbon. So everything we say today comes with that caveat that what we're saying is true for the Barrel in our glass, not necessarily the one in yours. Yeah. And as I look at this whiskey Bob it's really got a beautiful color to it. A nice golden Amber. It's got some nice legs. You can tell the viscosity is a little bit higher and man when I knows it it is There's some nice dried fruit notes on it. There's a little bit of classic vanilla and caramel.

28:16 I am just really enjoying this on the nose Bob. Yeah, one thing that I will say Brad and I think we might diverge on the nose here B. This does remind me of the, the Blanton Single Barrel that we tried, because it is very Oak, heavy on the nose for me, and that's something we pointed out the last time around. It does remind me kind of Eagle Rare in that regard that the oak is really, really prominent and really, really Heavy on this nose for me, kind of to the point where the alcohol in the oak. Are the two prominent notes for me. I do get a bit of that dried fruit. Like you said, kind of undercutting it, but I think that the oak is so dominant on this, that I don't know what this is going to translate to on the taste. So I'm only going to give it a six out of ten on the nose by.

28:57 I'm a little ways off from you. I'm at an 8 out of 10 on the nose. I think there's a there's almost like a little hint of Apple at the end of the nose for me, the oakiness isn't overpowering. I don't know where that's coming from, but there's a little bit of oakiness there. That's nice and smooth to me. It's leading me to expect some pretty good things from the palette. Well, Brad, let's give it a taste and find out what we think. Huh, that's watery. It was yours. Watery, I don't know if I'd call it watery, I'd call it my older than the last one we had. That's an interesting palette. I'm not sure if I my nose, led me to the right places, there's a little more Oak.

29:43 Like I think you might have been picking picking up Bob. The viscosity isn't quite what I expected it to be, you know, being 103 proof. I expected a little bit of a thicker. Experience, and that's not quite there. But I am picking up some really nice fruit notes, it's a bright whiskey that has some stuff going on for it. Yeah. I think of what might be happening here Brad is that the taste is just kind of bringing us both back to Center because you started to pick up the oak notes that were present on the nose. I actually on the taste started to pick up more of the fruit notes that you got on the nose. I think this is much much sweeter than the Blanton Single Barrel that we had a few weeks ago, like much so Here, this is a completely different whiskey. I don't know again.

30:27 I don't know if we just had a really wonky Barrel or what, but this one is just all honey and fruit to me. It's much much milder. There's not a ton of burn on it. In fact, there's this really interesting thing that's happening Brad. When I took a sip of this, that it was almost like the taste skipped over a whole zone of my palate. It was really prominent on the front and in the mid and it was honey and fruit. And then I went to swallow and there was like nothing on the back of my tongue. Tongue. There was no flavor left there at all I could feel a bit of burn on the finish and I don't want to get too far ahead but I could feel a bit of burn there and I had some flavors left over on like the front of my palate but there was just nothing on one portion of my palate. It was really, really interesting, all that aside. I actually really enjoyed the taste on this Brad like a lot and I'm super relieved that it doesn't taste like that. Last plans we had, I'm going to give this an eight on the taste. I think I'm coming down a little bit from the nose. I'm gonna give it a seven and a half. If on tastes like you said, there's some really nice honey notes here.

31:28 There's a little bit of that oakiness that you need along with some of that nice fruit flavorings that give it some complexity. It's an impressive whiskey. I think I was just hoping for a little more out of it based off of the nose. So I definitely gave this a Kentucky chew when I was drinking it. And that's where if you ever seen people who professionally taste bourbon, they literally like open their mouth. They make some Obscene sounds as they're chewing on it as you would like a piece of steak or something and it introduces a lot of air into your mouth and actually, for me really improve the tasting experience. I was swishing this around in my mouth, pretty pretty vigorously the more that I drink.

32:08 This, the more that it reminds me of a couple other Buffalo Trace products that aren't from this Mash bill, so, I'll say that. But it reminds me of Eagle Rare in the way that the oak becomes prominent. But it also reminds me of Weller especially Weller Special Reserve in the way that it He's the oak taste with the sweetness. There's just like, waves of Oak that come through on this at, so it's not overpowering. It really plays nicely with that sweetness, but I was really surprised at how much it reminded me of Weller, Special Reserve. Not so much, the antique, but definitely that green label Reserve. I thought on the Finish Brad that this is just a damn good bourbon. Like it's it's really good. It's really solid. I don't think anything about it makes me want to run out and find a bottle but because it reminds me of Weller which I really really love.

32:54 Of and it's not a super harsh, alcohol burn on the way down, I think I'll give it a seven and a half on the finish. I think it's interesting that it reminds you of like a we did, you know Weller? Yeah, it's not too much wheat. The wheat part of it. It's just like I said, it's just in the way that it marries the oak with the sweetness really well. And I think well are definitely has those two notes as well for me. Okay. Yeah, I can see that. I think that it's got a really nice Synergy between the sweetness, and that oakiness. And there's a little bit of that fruit. Venus that goes on. I can see where you're coming from. For me, I think. I'm going to stick it a seven and a half for the Finish. There's nothing. That's blown me away here but it is a solid above average, finish with a soft Kentucky hug coming off that last Blanton's, I was a little worried, this one is actually a little bit on the lower side of the Kentucky hug and I'm kind of okay with that.

33:46 Yeah, I am too and I think that that's a pretty well-balanced whiskey, like the nose kind of hinted at a little bit more alcohol than I thought. We actually got Delivered on the pallet or the Finish but for 103 proof Brad. This is very, very drinkable and it's incredibly more drinkable than that last plans that we had, which was only 93 proof. And so I'm sure that that bad experience is definitely coloring. My scores a bit here today but I'm actually going to give this an eight and a half on balance. I think this is a very, very well-balanced bourbon. Yeah. When it comes to my balance score, I think I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10. It's a very well-balanced bourbon but nothing about It really thrust it up to that, upper echelon of a 9 or 10.

34:29 So we're just going to keep it at an eight. Bob, I'm coming out on this whiskey to a point where I'm like, you know, this is just a really solid whiskey. Yeah, but I'm, I'm worried about what you're going to tell me with the prey. Yeah, so here's the thing, guys, if you've listened to this podcast, you know, that our fifth category is value. And so, if you only are interested in our tasting notes and you only want to know what kind of score, we'd give a whiskey on its drinking quality alone. Just take our first four categories and multiply them out by two and a half to get 100, right? So I'm at a 30 out of 40 on this. I think this is a really good upper echelon bourbon, like it is it it's a 75 out of 100 at this point, but we have to factor in value in our fifth category and I was going to say I'm at a 31 out of 40.

35:15 Yo, Weber really like the same spot. This is a really good whiskey, but here's where the value comes in to the plate. Brad. This is a annual release by Follow Trace. They're only going to drop this once a year and they're going to drop it in extremely small amounts. So when I look at the Ohio liquor website, it's not for sale anywhere right now because it's very allocated. And I know for a fact, you're going to have to either stand in line for it or it's going to be a lottery, pick somewhere the state of Ohio, which regulates prices. So this is not secondary cells, this bottle for $120, a bottle and this is where things start to get weird for me, Brad because if they sold this at the price of regular Blanton's, If this was set at the price of Blanton's, I would give it like an 8 or a 9 out of 10 on value. I think this is absolutely worth the 50 or $60 at $120. It is double the price that I would want to pay for it. Wow.

36:08 And if you if you just do a quick Google search of blatant gold, the very first one that came up for me on Google shopping was $699 because that's how insane the bourbon secondary Market has gotten today. This is that is that is so many dollars so many dollars. And it's not worth that and in fact it's not worth $120. This is a really good 60 dollar bottle of whiskey and sixty dollars is nothing to sneeze at. That's like a higher-end bourbon and Brad, I'm going to give it a 2 out of 10 on value. I just like I have nothing else to say about it. It's not a good value, it shouldn't be that high. I'm sick and tired of Buffalo Trace, jacking up prices all the time. So it's a two out of ten. Yeah. Bob I'll just I'll just agree with you two out of ten.

36:50 There's nothing more to be said, Buffalo Trace. I mean, good on you for taking advantage of capitalism and people who love bourbon but good night, bro, like $120. Come on. Yeah. And again, that is worth the price controlled state. So 90% of you listening to this are not going to get it for $120. You're going to get it for to $300, which takes might, which would take my value score down, even further, I'm coming out to a 32 out of 50 Brad. I believe that puts you out to a 33 out of 50. It's it sure does. So that's bring our average out to a 65 out of 100, like it is a state. It's still a good bourbon, but the value score, really kills this thing. I actually really, really enjoyed this until I saw how much it costs.

37:35 Yeah. Bob, I want to give such a huge shout-out to Bourbon and stuff for sending all my gosh because it genuinely is a great whiskey that I would be loath to send to anyone. So, thank you so much for sending this out, but in the end Buffalo Trace, get your stuff together. Man like like I'm just really sick and tired of all these crazy expensive whiskies that should cost anywhere from 20 to 50 dollars. Well Brad let's just take this you know burn and pillage attitude back into talking about the social network. What do you say? Let's do it.

38:56 Alright, so that was Blanton's, gold, a whiskey that we really really liked, but we can't really recommend based on the price and now we're getting back into talking about the social network Brad. We went down the rabbit hole pretty far in the first half and so we kind of have to backtrack and talk about a few basic things. We haven't talked about the performances. We haven't really touched on David Fincher's Direction. I do want to go back to talking about Jesse Eisenberg because, you know, you were making the comparison to the real life Mark Zuckerberg. And I want to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that they purposely constructed this character to be different than Zuckerberg. And for what the character is supposed to be a cold calculating anti-social College sophomore, who wants recognition, and who can't get it, and, and kind of vindictively creates that recognition for himself creates an environment where he can control, who, gets in, and who stays out, I think Eisenberg actually does a great job in this movie, he was nominated for an I think it was entirely well-deserved. It's a really great performance.

40:00 I actually think just memorizing. The sheer number of words. He had to memorize, was almost worth the Oscar nomination in and of itself. Yeah, I was, I was genuinely impressed with Eisenberg in this movie and I'm gonna frame it like this Bob. I think that if you are willing to set aside the real life implications of this movie that this movie is actually, really, really great. And it's great because Because of its actors and it's writing and and Eisenberg. This might be the height of his career. I don't think I've seen him in anything else that I really was like Blown Away by. But this, this movie was like the perfect peak of like needing, Jesse Eisenberg to fill, its main character role. He portrays Zuckerberg in such a way that you understand how he is both likable and hateable at the same time, throughout the Tire film.

40:57 And so I really like Eisenberg in this movie. But the reason you understand how likable and hateable he is is because of Andrew Garfield's performance as his best friend, Eduardo. Yeah. Garfield's great. In this movie. And there were a lot of people who were campaigning for him to get an Oscar nomination. He did not, I think he's really good here Brad. I do think that 10 years of Andrew Garfield performances after this have kind of, I think I'll say this, I think He's a really good actor. And I think maybe his best performance was in scorsese's Movie silence, because it's the least, like Spider-Man that he's ever been, dude. He's so good as so good in silence. And so that that kind of leads me back to this movie where I'm like okay he's good but I also kind of saw him lean into this a little bit in to Spider-Man movies after this. He's kind of just playing like the likable. Sensitive vulnerable.

41:51 Andrew Garfield part. Yeah he really is he is likeable, he's Fun. His interesting and went, like, I think, I think, the reason Garfield is good in this movie is because when he is angry or upset, you feel it as an audience member, like you get why? He is angry and frustrated because he's banging his head against this wall known as Mark Zuckerberg. And so I think that's where Garfield really shines is when he's exasperated and frustrated and the the scene where his girlfriend is. Earning his track. His the gift that he gave her in the trash can. Like it's a little bit over indulgent, but there's still a part of me that's just like, I love that scene.

42:36 It's so funny. It's a crowd-pleaser, and I'm amused by it. Well, speaking of crowd-pleasers, I have to say, Justin Timberlake. I understand that Justin Timberlake Bob, I don't, I don't want to like Justin Timberlake, what I do be, right? But I do and the thing is Justin, Timberlake it real. Seems like a pretty good guy. I think he's really done a lot of image Rehabilitation after dating Britney Spears and everything, but he leans into the douchebag so much in this movie and he absolutely Nails it, like he comes on screen and I, you know, we've used this phrase, a lot in this podcast, he chews scenery like he is there to just hold court and everyone you know especially Zuckerberg kind of Falls over and worships at his feet and the whole time Eduardo sees right through him and And the tragedy of the movies that Eduardo ends up being right about Shawn. He picked up the check.

43:30 He told, Mark they talk again soon and he was gone, but not before he made his biggest contribution to the company, drop the, the just Facebook, it's cleaner. But man. Oh man, does Justin Timberlake just steal almost every scene he's in or what the, the scene, where they meet in New York and they're like, ordering like Tartar and all these different things. He's just eating it up. And so, it's funny because you always talk about chewing scenery and usually when a character choose scenery, it's almost like, that's just what their characters supposed to do. But I feel like in this movie, it's Looks like an Inception level of like a real life person who choose scenery being played by a character who is chewing scenery. Like, do you get what I'm saying? Yeah, like he's it's just like layer upon layer like a guy who is just over the top and ambitious and just knows that he is the center of attention because he wants to be the center of attention in any room that he goes into. I mean, he is the ideal of what Zuckerberg wants. To be in this movie, he is a guy who is, you know, to sound like an old square.

44:48 Like he's sticking it to the man, he created Napster failed, spectacularly from a business point of view, but change the industry by being like punk rock basically and by, by making something exclusive that he wanted to make. That's exactly what Zuckerberg is motivation is. And so when he sees this guy, Sean Parker whose entire thing is, disruption disrupting the system and being the guy who controls and pulls the strings, he I mean he becomes a puppet for him and that's there's that great scene where, you know, Sean's dropping him off for a business meeting and coaching him about how to say f, you to the guy in the room, right? And he shows up in pajamas and everything else, and Zuckerberg, just totally goes along with it because he is so enamored by this guy. I think anybody else in that role, and I really mean this, like, it's a role that I think a lot of actors could play, but casting Timberlake was such a brilliant touch, because like you said, Brad, he already Already is a sort of Larger than Life, Persona.

45:46 He like, he was in in sync for crying out loud. He dated Britney Spears and bringing that baggage into the movie of we, what we already know of him outside the movie, I think, actually really helped what that character was supposed to be in the film. Well, and this kind of brings me to a point where I think that I am going to give Aaron Sorkin some advice, because I'm sure he'll take it Brad. I'm sure that he will. He probably listen to this podcast constantly. so here's the thing, Aaron, I think that this movie would have been better served if you gave Andrew Garfield, a stable steady girlfriend that at the end of the movie instead of showing Eduardo with a girlfriend who is psychotic and jealous and burning, you know, his apartment that if they had finished the movie with him like in the bed talking to his wife or girlfriend and like like being exasperated with Best friend. Mark, it would have served the movie so much better because the whole movie is about how Mark is desperate for human connection and human relationship.

46:54 And that's epitomized by his inability, to keep his girlfriend Erica to start of the film. So, I think that it would have better served the movies story. If you showed how at the end of the film, Sean is arrested for doing coke off of an interns belly and how he We can't keep any relationship alive because of his dysfunction and because of his desire for Prestige and honor, and all these things and if that had been contrasted with how Eduardo was the opposite, yeah. Actually, that represents a great note and you know, if we're going to give Sorkin notes on the script, I think that is one that probably would have helped strengthen that Central thesis Brad.

47:37 Unfortunately, we did not talk much about Fincher's Direction, but I think we all know David Fincher is a Our director known for his technical precision. And that's absolutely. The case here, I think that he found a screenwriter here that matched him in technical Brilliance for a change. And I think it really does help Elevate the script, to see how Fincher moves the camera, the way he cuts. Everything seems so intricately planned and it really helps complement. What Sorkin does Bob? I feel like you're trying to make up for your Fight Club score here a little bit. No, this is just a better movie than Fight, Club. I'll say that. Okay. I just I just feel like you're really keeping on the praise here because you realize how bad of the take your Fight Club. So I just wanted to make sure we got a couple nice things in about David Fincher and like if I have two point, one thing out, I'll say this.

48:26 I think that the very end of the film that last scene which is Sorkin and Fincher together, really creating a great ending, where you just see Zuckerberg sitting in a room alone, friend, requesting Erica and hitting refresh over and over to see if she'll accept. It's just, it's in perfect ending to that movie. She and I think on top of that the Beatles, usually. Well that doodling what dog. But what a great little drop to end that movie with baby, you're a rich man. It's just such a like just an it's polish cynical thing to do but I think one of the things with biopics is that they usually end with the Montage pictures of the real person and it's like you know Eduardo went on to make this kind of money and do these things and you know Zuckerberg went on to These things.

49:14 This is the first and only time in a movie where I have seen those like, I don't know title cards or captions used to contrast what's actually happening in the heart of the main character. And I think that is the peak of the importance of this movie because in the end, the the scorecard at the end of the movie, because in the end, that's what it is, right? Like at the end of any Pick whenever you see those captions, what they're telling you is a scorecard on that human beings. Life of like yeah they went on to be this successful and do these things. And with Mark Zuckerberg, they they are putting his scorecard up. Like, he's a billionaire.

49:58 He's able to pay a 75 million dollar lawsuit, to the Winklevoss brothers. He's able to pay an unknown amount to Eduardo. He's able to do all of these things, there's billions of users, and while they're putting up all of these successes success success. Success. What are they showing an image of him sitting absolutely alone in his lawyer's office where they're letting him sit there for a little while longer using their internet. Trying to friend request an old girl, absolutely. That is just some of the most brilliant writing and film direction I've ever seen in my life. Yeah, it's just such a great touch and it hits on these to Bob that was like a bob style, re I, dude, I loved it. And Brad, it really takes us back to these themes that we've identified.

50:43 Defied with the movie in the first one is this idea of exclusivity. It's everything that drives Zuckerberg forward. He wants to create a world of his own making that. I mean, it's something we keep talking about. He wants to kind of be the guy that stands at the door and decides who gets to come in because he can't get into the final clubs, which is the first thing we establish at the beginning of the movie. And so he wants to make his own. And when the Winklevoss twins approached him with this idea of something, that's exclusive, he immediately jumps out it because now he gets to be the guy. Who determines who gets in and who doesn't get in. And I think the real one of the really great things that Fincher does with this movie, is that he intercuts like the creation of the facemash thing with this party that's happening at the frat house or that the final club and what ends up like kind of costing Zuckerberg in the end, is this this drunken misogynist rant that he went on? But then they their inner cutting it with these final clubs and where girls are taking off their clothes and being objectified anyway, And so, like what they're trying to say is basically, Zuckerberg is doing exactly the same thing as these final clubs do but we don't like it when Zuckerberg does it because Zuckerberg is a loser, or Zuckerberg is a nerd and we put up with it when these other people do it. It's actually a really, really subtle touch and I like that. They kind of lean into that a little bit and then the other thing that drives Zuckerberg is Revenge, right? Like, Erica breaks up with him.

52:06 So he creates facemash as Revenge when he goes and talks to Erica in the restaurant later and talks about making Facebook. Reject him again. He says it's time to expand everything he does, is this kind of ruthlessness that targeted towards revenge. And the tragic thing about it is that at the end of the movie, he still can't make a real human connection. No matter how hard he tried to create an empire of his own making, he is still sitting there in that room, clicking refresh and still can't get into the Inner Circle even though he's the one that's made the Inner Circle he is still dependent on air. Akka letting him in. And so, he's just sitting there, clicking refresh. Refresh, refresh.

52:47 It is a brilliant end to the movie. Brad, The more. I've talked about this movie, The Higher I want my score to be that, I give it, but if I'm being honest, I think that this movie does have some flaws. I think that I just really kind of bristle at this idea of it being the movie of the century quote unquote, it says a lot about who we are, it says a lot about who we how we communicate and it's a really good really solid movie that should have won the Oscar in 2010 and But for me, I'm going to give it an eight and a half out of ten. I just don't think that it is the game changing phenomenon that it's been made out to be in retrospect, still a great movie. Absolutely still worth watching. But for me it's an eight out of eight and a half out of ten Bob.

53:29 I think I'm kind of in a similar range of scores as you. But for me I guess I'm trying to just throw out any semblance of like reality to this film and just saying, how do I like this as a A movie and just simply, as a film that I'm looking to entertain me and be interested in. I really love this movie, it's not perfect, there's definitely issues with it, but I'm going to give it a 9 out of 10. You know, like I said, I'm falling in very similar, places you, it's a great movie with great actors, with great writing, and great film Direction. But in the end, I think that, as long as you're willing to say, hey, this movie isn't a Of reality.

54:14 It's the establishment of an archetype and it's the establishment of just an interesting foray into what happens when a socially awkward person creates a social media website. I think it really shines and I will comment for a second. I think it's fascinating that 10 years after the social network, which is the idea of bringing people together. We see a documentary come Out called the social, dilemma pointing out the dangers and flaws of these social networks. For some reason that just that little Nuance, just made me think really hard about this movie to think about how 10 years.

54:58 After this movie, we're sitting here, going man. Should we even be on Facebook? No, I think it's a great Point Brad. And I also think that we are just building. People's watch lists here today. Like we've mentioned Citizen Kane, we've mentioned the founder, we've mentioned the social dilemma, I think you should go out and All those in addition to watching this movie. And on that note, I want to hear, we want to hear what filmin whiskey nation has to say about this movie. Do you think the social network is the film of the New Millennium or did it kind of pale in comparison to something else? In your opinion? You can reach out to us on Mark Zuckerberg is creation and fight us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram at film whiskey, or you can leave us a voicemail. Let your voice be heard on the film. When whiskey podcast our phone, Number is two one, six eight hundred 593.

55:46 Once again, it's 216 805 93. Or if you want to leave us a voicemail on our website, you can find us at www.engvid.com / film whiskey next week. We'll be back. Talking about Christopher Nolan's 2010, Masterpiece inception for the film in whiskey podcast. I'm Bob book, I'm Brad G and we'll see you next time.

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57:20 James Talbert, Austin Dupree and aperture, flash will see you next week.