Final Recommendations and Closing Thoughts

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New Trex Refuge , built for beauty, tested for fire, performance engineered for your life outdoors. Learn more at Trex. com, subject to local code, consult your builder or inspector. Looking for an SUV that does more? Discover the twenty twenty six Maasta CX ninety plugin hybrid at Ken Harvey's Dublin Mazda. Get zero percent APR financing for up to seventy two months on approved credit. That's zero percent for up to seventy two months on MaSa's premium three row plu gin hybrid SUV , experience stunning design, advanced technology, and the performance Mazda is known for Ken Harvey's Dublin Mazda, Maasta for those who do more than move move Well, hello there, all you denizens of Hollywood Land out there. My name is Zeth Lundy, writer, showrunner and good doctor here at Double Elvis. And I want to welcome you to another installment of a little thing we like to call the screening room. This is our weekly episode of the Hollywood Land podcast, of course, in which I take you on a deep dive into one movie that connects with our subject this week . This week we featured a fully scripted and sound design episode from our archive back on Monday all about Judy G arland , best known arguably for playing Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz . But as she got older , she also became known for her live performances like the one that was documented on the nineteen sixty one album Judy at Carnegie Hall, a bestseller, thirteen weeks at number one on the billboard album chart, album of the Year at the Grammys , the first woman in history to win that award, by the way , and she was known for other performances in films as well, particularly one called A Star isborn , the nineteen fifty four George Cuker film in which he starred as an aspiring singer who is discovered by a former star played by James Mason who happens to be on his way down and the film tells this story of the rise of one star while the other star's once bright light is dimming fast . It was a remake of a nineteen thirty seven film directed by William A. Wellman , and then the nineteen fifty four version with Judy Garland was remade years later in nineteen seventy six, directed by Frank Pearson, co written by husband and wife duo, John Gregory Dunn and Joan Diddian, by the way, starring Barbara Streisand as the unknown ingenue whose star is in the ascent , and Chris Christopher as the weathered rock and roller who is in artistic and personal decline . It would be over forty years later before the film was remade a third time for its fourth iteration total, and that was in twenty eighteen when Bradley Cooper decided that a new version of this film would be his first film as a direct or. Now before Bradley Cooper, along with Will Fetters and Eric Roth, the latter being one of the most decorated screenwriters of the last fifty years , before those three guys wrote a brand new script to modernize this story and bring it to the screen. Again, there were many other attempts to bring this back. Will Smith was attached to this film for a while. Oliver Stone was allegedly high on making this with Jamie Fox and Elia starring , Lauren Hill, Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys. These are other singers who are reportedly either considering or being considered to make this film. And then around twenty eleven, Clint Eastwood was attached to the project as director with Bradley Cooper starring alongside Beyonce . There was some other scuttle butt here. Tom Cruise was st going toar on this at some point. I feel like every major A list Hollywood actor and every major female pop star, R and B star were somehow attached , quote unquote to this film at one point or another. Will Fetters, at least , he had been working on this script back of the time that Clint Eastwood was attached to it, and he mentioned, I believe at the time, that the script was inspired by Kurt Cobain of all people . But anyways, the Clint Eastwood project never got off the ground. Beyonce became pregnant, I think. Things changed, you know, things were always changing in Hollywood If we knew of every single film that was supposed to have come out that never came out, I think our minds would be blown. Before long, you know, Clinton was off shooting American Sniper with Bradley Cooper instead . My point here is that a lot of people have been trying to remake a star as born for a long time before Bradley Cooper was able to make it happen. Making this one of the most sought after and thought about gestating movie remakes in Hollywood history. And why is it that some titles become the titles that get remade over and over ? It's a business model, I guess, on the surface . You reboot IP or some generational hit in order to recontextualize it, to keep it fresh , but also, you know, keep the money rolling in because if it ain't broke, honey, don't fix it. And if it was a huge hit in nineteen seventy six and it was a huge hit in nineteen fifty four, then surely it'll be a huge hit in twenty eighteen . You know , Jake and I talked about cover songs and cover movies in the rap party this week a few days ago here in Hollywoodland . You know, we hear cover songs all the time and we don't think twice about it. That's just the nature of popular music. You know, years ago before, the Beatles broke the mold by performing songs that they wrote , that's how it was done. You had a songwriter, the songwriter wrote the song, and then you had performers who performed the song. And different performances by different artist s gave you different flavors, gave you different ways of experiencing the same source material and such . So why does a cover movie so to speak? Why is that any different? Why do we blame Hollywood for not being original enough when they remake a Christmas carol for the one hundred fiftieth time as Ty West is currently doing with Johnny Depp starring as Ebenezer Scrooge ? But when, you know, Johnny Cash covers hurt by nine inch nails, we treat that in the opposite kind of way. It's like it's a revelation, it's not something that we shit on . I realize this is a case of apples vs oranges, but you know what I'm saying? And I'm not saying we should normalize movie remakes because original ideas, original movies, original scripts , those are the thing. You know, that particular model should be protected at all costs. But when a remake com es along like the Cohen Brothers remake of True Grit or Bradley Cooper's remake of a Star is born , I think these are examples that need to be celebrated because they prove that , you know , maybe the idea was sol id , but the idea had yet to be executed in its best possible form. And I do believe that Bradley Cooper did that, just the way the Cohen brothers did that with true grit. But before I go deeper intoar a st is born, I want to zoom out and take a quick look at the history of movie remakes in general. What movies have been made over and over? What stories have Hollywood gone back to decade after decade, gener ation after generation to retell, to try to reclaim a spark or just to get it right . Here are a few things that I dug up and there are a lot of these, so I'm not going to obviously this say is not a fully comprehensive list . But the subject just kind of fascinates me, you know? First of all, it was a movie called Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This came out in nineteen fifty six . It was directed by Don Siegel, K stearvredin McCarthy and Dana Winter. It's awesome, by the way. It was remade a few decades later in nineteen seventy eight, directed by Philip Kaufman, starring Donald Sutherland and Brook Adams. It was remade again in nineteen ninety three, directed by Abel Ferrara, and then it was remade in two thousand seven . It was called the Invasion at that point. It starred Nicole Kimman and Daniel Craig . The Longest Yard, which is the football film from nineteen seventy four with Bert Reynolds . That was remade , let's see, at least one, two, three times two thousand one movie called Mean Machine , starring Vinny Jones . There's a two thousand five version starring Adam Sandler. And then there's a twenty fifteen Egyptian movie called Captain Maser, which is a remake of The Longest Yard. The Great Gatsby , the classic F Scott Fitzgerald book has been made one, two, three, four times nineteen twenty six , nineteen forty nine , nineteen seventy four. That's the one with R obert Redford and Mia Farrow. And then twenty thirteen, the Baz Lerman version with Leonardo DiCaprio, Toby McGuire, and Carrie Mulligan. You know, what strikes me as I'm going through these is that sometimes these movies that are remade over and over again, they're just they just they're not getting it right. Like the great I don't the great Gatsby, I don't really know that anyone's gonna be able to make a film version of that that rivals the book. I don't think that any of the ones that have been made have matched the novel, but that's just me. So in some of these cases, it's like guys maybe quit while you're ahead and move on to something else, right? Speaking of classic novels , little women, let's see, there were two silent film adaptations back in the teens, nineteen seventeen, nineteen eighteen , that was made in nineteen thirty three, in nineteen forty nine, in nineteen ninety four in twenty eighteen, and then most recently in twenty nineteen, the Gregor Gerwig version with Sira Ronan and Emma Wattson, Florence Pugh, and all those gals . Romeo and Juliette has been made apparently over fifty times Godzilla, Dracula, Frankenstein. Frankenstein might be the most egregious. Do we really need another Frankenstein? Did we need Germal del Toro's Frankenstein like really did we? I don't think we don't think we ever needed another Frankenstein movie after Mel Brooks young Frankenstein. I think that was that was it guys. I think we think we did it. I think we conquered that one and we can move on. Okay the most remade movie of all time, however, and I'm not talking about a book that has been adapted time and time again , but an original film that has been remade. That distinction, according to the Guinness Book of World Records , is a twenty sixteen Italian film called Perfect Strangers . In just the last ten years since this movie, Perfect Strangers came out twenty sixteen , that film has been remade twenty four times in different languages twenty four times in the last ten years . It has not been adapted into an English version yet, however, because the U. S. rights were acquired back in two thousand six teen or around then , they were acquired by the Weinstein Company and well, that company has been having some issues. So don't hold your breath on an English language American version of Perfect Strangers anytime soon is what I'm saying. Now , back when a star is born was announced, the Bradley Cooper Lady Gaga version here that we're talking about, I got to say I had zero feelings about this. I liked Bradley Cooper enough as an actor at that point, but you know, honestly, he was untested as a director and I saw nothing in him to indicate that he would come through. Perhaps that was just me being myopic or I don't know. I just had no evidence to get me psyched on Bradley Cooper or some visionary . And again, you know, in the honesty department here, I could care less about Lady Gaga. Her music just wasn't my thing. It continues to not be my thing. I find her whole shit to be more performative than emotionally resonant to me. I'm reminded of an excerpt from Dave Marsh's old book The Heart of Rock and Soul , which is basically a giant list of the greatest songs of all time. And this one excerpt, he argues that a song like Aretha Franklin's respect is arguably stronger than a song like The Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever because Strawberry Fields has this performative nature to it. You know, the thrill as it were, the cut and paste wizardry, absolutely a groundbreaking piece of art, but when it comes to pure emotion and to songs doing what Soloms are supposed to do. Something like Aretha's respect is more impactful. Now that's what Dave Marsh is saying, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying this reminds me of this point of view. And I'm not going to go down the Dave Marsh rabbit hole right now. I can understand his argument. I think it's an argument that he needed to make in order to sell the order of the rankings of his own book. But suffice to say, there's plenty of room in the world and in my own list for both Strawberry Fields and RESP ECT . When it comes to Lady Gaga, I've come around a little since. I actually like some of her latest stuff more than some of her earlier stuff that put her on the map, but that just wasn't my scene or my jam or whatever. So I had zero feelings about this movie when it came out . There was a free screening here in town though , one of the local theaters where I live. It was some sort of benefit. I forget the details. My wife and I went because why not, you know, a night of the movies is always a good time no matter what the movie is. And I gotta say, I was I was actually shocked. I loved it. I loved this film. I loved Lady Gaga's performance. I' neverd seen her so vulnerable and relatable before. I thought Bradley Cooper was incredible. I thought he was a steady hand behind the camera . He delivered this really simple yet extremely effecting story with grace and empathy. And when it comes to movies about singers, movies about musicians. I think this is one of the best. I don't think he's topped it either. I did like his second feature Maestro that came out on Netflix a few years ago now, right? That was his biopic on Leonard Bernstein. I really liked it. Actually, I've only seen it the one time, but I like the big swing of the film and I like that Bradley Cooper is obviously a music fanatic and is making movies about music and about artists and about what drives artists to make music , to make their life out of music and all that. I did not like his third movie, his latest one called Is This Thing On? That's the one in which Will Arnett plays a guy who's going through a separation with his wife and he tries his hand at stand up comedy. The whole thing is shot in like very uncomfortable close ups, which I guess is the point, but it was just it was just not a comfortable watch if I'm being honest and I am since you know, not once but twice now or maybe thrice I've made pit stops here at the Department of Honesty . A Star Wars born, the fourth version, the twenty eighteen version, the Bradley Cooper Helm version is a movie about big breaks, about long , slow falls, about addiction and regret and opportunity. And perhaps above all it's about voices, the voices we are given, the voices we nurture and the voices we want to possess . And I'm going to get into it right after this This is Larry Fleck, owner of the Floorsport. July fourth is one holiday that lights up our country and our fourth of July sale is here to light up your home. So from nowuly to j sixth, everything in our stores will be twenty five percent off. That's carpet, hardwood, laminate, waterproof flooring, and much more. If we sell it, it's twenty five percent off. At two years free financing and you won't need fireworks . Visit floorstores. com to find the nearest for our eleven dayri showrooms. From Santa Rosa to San Jose, the Floor Store, your Bay Area Flooring Authority . 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It's called a SOFI home equity loan , and it could consolidate your debt at a typically lower interest rate than existing debt with lower monthly payments and all while keeping your existing mortgage rate. View your rate at sofi. com slash payoff debt today. Mortgage is originated by SOankFI B and a member of the IC and MLS six nine six eight nine one terms and conditions apply equal housing lender . The Star Was Born is about a country singer , more the Americana, you know, Chris Stapleton, Sturgel Simpson, Jason Isabel, Lucas Nelson kind of country rather than the Morgan Wallen, Zack Bryan, Luke Combs kind of country, you know , a country singer named Jackson Maine, who is in his forties , played by Bradley Cooper . He's an addict and when we meet him, he's about to perform in front of a huge crowd with his band and he's knocking back pills with some booze. And then he's giving this incredible performance of this hard driving rock song. Really, it's a rock song with some country tinges on the edges . It's a song called Black Eyes . But you can tell by how Bradley Cooper looks and acts that this character Jackson Maine, he's really struggling to get through this performance . Cut to another struggling character, Allie, this waitress played by Lady Gaga. She's breaking up with someone over the phone, she's getting chewed out by her boss, she's going through some shit in her life, but then she's singing beautifully into the night as she walks down the street after her shift. The two characters meet later that evening at a drag bar , Jackson is there just to get out of the limelight, just to go somewhere where he knows he won't be hounded and he won't have to deal with his own fame or his own reality or mortality or whatever. And Allie is there hanging out with her friends and she sings a rendition of Edith Pop's La Von Rose , which totally blows Jackson away, just completely levels him. So he makes his presence known, he introduces himself, they strike up this friendship, you know, they become lovers, musical collaborators . But first he convinces her to come with him on his massive tour. It's like this dream come true for her. You know, she's out here quitting her stupid day job. She's flying on a plane. She's watching Jackson Maine this superstar from the side of the stage . And then despite her protests, she's being dragged out from the wings to center stage to perform with Jackson in front of this huge crowd and we're off, you know, Allie Star is on the rise . But it's not hard to see the problems lurking just below the surface. Jackson is a drunk, he's self destructive, and as much as he wanted this for Allie , the success I think he wanted this for her, it becomes harder for him to see her do so well and be embraced by the public and lauded by the critics while he is increasingly being written off as it has been through, you know, through his own his own actions . And this leads to some unnecessary confrontations, it leads to embarrassments and humiliations. And ultimately, it leads to a tragedy which casts a dark shadow on all that Allie is continuing to accomplish. There's something so lived in and so true and spontaneous about this film, which is kind of a small miracle. I mean, these are major, major stars Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, and yet so many moments in this movie feel like you're a fly on the wall, watching these real people have these real moments. You know, a lot of times there are moments that feel uncomfortable because it's for us because they're so raw and they're so personal. It's like you shouldn't be watching them. Lady Gaga in particular is just absolutely revelatory in this movie. She's so dynamic , her range , she's got power, she's got subtlety . And as much as I love Bradley Cooper doing his Sam Elliott impression, Sam Elliot plays Bradley Cooper's character's older brother and Cooper is deliberately doing Sam Elliot's voice because his character idolizes his brother. But as much as I love all that, Lady Gaga gives the all time performance here. It's just so great . And I think what makes all of this connect, what grounds it all in this true real world is the music. It's like the music that was written for almost famous. The songs that Bradley Cooper's character sings and that Lady Gaga's character sings. They were written by some of them were written by Bradley Cooper in collaboration with Lucas Nelson, who I mentioned earlier, and Lady Gaga, and Mark Ronson and Diane Warren, Jake B rennan's favorite songwriter in history there are different combinations of writers for different songs. Jason Isbel and someone else I mentioned earlier, he wrote the song Maybe It's Time for this , a song that he still performs at his own shows . And then Lucas Nelson and his band Promise of the Real , they are here in the movie as Bradley Cooper's backing band. And it's not just the songwriters and the songs, but it's the locations . They actually shot at the Stagecoach Festival in India when that was happening. They literally had minutes to set up and shoot each scene because they were, I think they were doing it in between real sets by real bands at this festival. You know, they shot stuff at Coachella in Glastonbury. Lady Gaga was headlining Coachella, which helped them get access, but also Chris Christopher was there as a performer and he's got some skin in the game when it comes to this film where he was in it back in the seventies. So he was cool with letting some of the filming of the movie eat into his set. They shot the SNL scenes at SNL, they shot Chateau Marmont at Chateau Marmont, all these real locations, these real festivals, these real songs, you just you can't deny the results here. Even if the songs aren't like your favorite songs, these aren't necessarily any of my favorite songs. I'm not you know, I'm not walking around singing shallow all the time , but there are songs that sound absolutely faithful to the characters. I buy Bradley Cooper singing these songs. I buy Bradley Cooper leading a band featuring Lucas Nelson in front of a huge crowd of real music fans. And speaking of music fans, which I know all of you are , I want to make a hypothetical, theoretical, metaphorical, potentially possible mixtape inspired this film. So give me two shakes of a lamb's tail and I'll be right back to do just that. Alright gang, we are back here in the screening room in Hollywood Land and as usual , as always , I want to create a hypothetical, theoretical, metaphorical, potentially possible mixtape. I'm going to trademark that by the way , inspired by the twenty eighteen Bradley Cooper film A Star is Born . Lots to think about here guys. Stars rising, stars falling, self destruction, self sabotage , love, depression, addiction , opportunity . Man , dudes talking like other dudes . The first song I thought of, there's always a first song in the first place my mind went to is this great song called On Your Way Down written and performed by Alan Tous from his nineteen seventy two album Life Love and F aith . Life Love and Faith is one of my favorite records of all time. I'm going on record here. It's in my top ten . I love this album so much. Alan Tusain, just what can you say? Legendary New Orleans producer, songwriter performer in his own right . This guy wrote Mother in law for Ernie Kado. He wrote Working in the coal mine for Lee Dorsey. He produced the Meters, he produced Dr. John. He did the horn arrangements for the band for their Rock of Ages show . He's got the Meters as his band on this album , and this song on your way down , it's basically like a , you know, it's like a do unto others how you want them to do unto you. It's been a while since I've said that so I got it wrong, I think. But it's basically like, hey, be nice to everybody while you're on your way up, even the little people, because you might meet him again on your way down , right ? And of course, Jackson Maine is on his way down in this film. And so I thought of this song right away. It's just it's gossiply, it's swampy, it's funky. It's incredible. And again, this whole record, life, love and faith is just you can't you can't fuck with this album. This song, by the way, was covered in the seventies by Little Feet , and then Alan Toust did it again with Elvis Costello when they collaborated on an album together called The River in Reverse. I believe the song opens that record on your way down Allen Toussaint. All right, my next song here for our hypothetical, theoretical, metaphorical, potentially possible mixtape is however much I booze by the Who From the nineteen seventy five album Who by Numbers? Now , like many of Pete Towngend's songs , this one is highly personal. It's a look at his own self destructive tendencies . But it's also one of those kind of rare who songs that is sung by Pete as well . And I love me a good who song with Pete on Leed. I got to confess Roger Daltry , you know, love ya. You've got one of the greatest screams in rock and roll, but there's something so vulnerable about Pete's voice that Rogers just so is just so sure of himself and and cocky and you know I like the I like the the sort of the more tender vibes that Peep brings . This album Who by Numbers gets my vote for the Who's Dark Horse album? It's Low key, my favorite who album on some days, some days, not all days, but some just the opening four tracks alone here, slip kid, however much I booze, Squeeze box and dreaming from the Waste. So good, man. And then you compare this song that I'm talking about, however much I booze with another song on the second half of this record How many Friends which is all about, you know, how many friends do I really have that I can rely on and trust and all that. This is a very depressing record I guess . It's like I'm drinking too much , I don't have enough friends , you know, it's got heavy Jackson Maine vibes. So that's why it's going on this mixtape, right? However much I booze by the o h, the bloody ow . All right, now next here song , great song by one of my favorites. You guys know this, REM. This song's called Don't Go Back to Rockville from their second album, Reckoning came out in nineteen eighty four . This has one of my favorite shout out loud sing along songs or choruses in REM's catalogue. It's so cathartic. It's got the killer backing vocals by Mike Mills. You know, Mike Mills, of course, not only REM's bassist, but also the worst kept secret in REM because the dude is just the goat at background vocals . In the song, I hear themes of regret, of inevitability, of repeating old patterns of not doing the thing that you're probably going to do and so many of those themes resonate for me so much in a star is born. So that's why I'm including it here. Plus it's just a fucking great song. All right, the next song here in our hypothetical theoretical metaphorical potentially possible mixtape is called love song by the Cure because I think we need a love song on this mixtape, but we need a love song that feels doomed. You know what I mean? And I think that love song , all one word, no space by the cure from their nineteen eighty nine album disintegration is a doomed love song. My college roommate and one of my great friends, Dave, he's the world's biggest cure fan and I think this is his favorite cure record behind pornography, right? Did I get that right, Dave ? I don't know that Dave listens to this show. Maybe he does. Hi, Dave, if you're listening, hope all is well down under in Australia. Doesn't this song feel doomed to you guys? Whenever I'm alone with you, you make me feel like I am whole again . The delivery, the atmosphere, the production, the music. Damn that's the saddest fucking love song I've ever heard. It's like the relationship that Jackson and Allie have. It's so sad. Perfect love song for this film. Love song, by the way, by the Cure, a favorite of Olivia Rodri go who is name checking the cure on her new record numerous times and singing live with Robert Smith at her shows now. I know this because my daughter is crazy for Olivia Rodrigo. She's also crazy for Benson Boone and I get to take her to a Benson Boone show in Boston next month. So say her prayer for me, please. Okay, next song on our mixtape here inspired by a Star Wars born is a track by Derek and the Domino's called Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out. This of course is from the only studio album that Derek and the Dominoes ever put out Lela and other Assorted Love Songs from nineteen seventy, Layla being the song that Eric Clapton wrote to be like, Hey, George Harrison, I'm stealing your wife . Incidentally , there was not a guy named Derek in Derek and the Domino's. It's kind of a Benfolds Vi situation . You know, there's only three guys in Ben Folds five. There's not five . So Derek in the Dominoes is the brief supergroup of sorts, I guess that Eric Clapped informed with Dwayne Alman of the Alman Brothers Keyboardist Bobby Whitlock , bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon. This is one of my favorite clapton records. I mean, the title track is canon obviously, but the blues tunes on here like this one are just awesome. They sound incredible. This record was recorded by the legendary Tom Dowd, legendary engineer . Nobody knows you when you're down and out is an old blue standard written by Jimmy Cox back in the nineteen twenties. It's been performed by Bessie Smith, Otis Redding, Van Morrison, Nina Simone, Janice Joplin. The list goes on and on and on and on. And it just gives me the down and out vibes that Jackson Maine is going through in this movie. All right? Okay, I got one more song for you for this mixtape, okay Hang with me here. This is called Only Success Can Fail Me Now . This is by Quasi from their nineteen ninety eight album featuring Birds Quasi is the ex husband and wife duo of Sam Coombs on keyboards and guitar and Janet Weiss on drums. Their sound is very distinctive because Sam often plays or used to play. I think maybe it's broken now and there's not a lot in existence or something. I forget. But he plays what's called a roxy chord , which is like an electric harpsichord. And it's often like distorted. It's turned up so loud or it's put through an amplifier or a ped als or whatever . You may know Janet Weiss from her time in Slater Kinney. She was the drummer in that band for a very long time. You may know Sam Coombs from his time as the bass player in Heat Meiser. That was Elliot Smith's band back in the day in Portland , Oregon. This quasi record was one of my most listened to albums back in the late nineties. Sam Combs writes these wicked catchy songs that are funny and caustic and dead serious with titles like I never want to see you again or you fucked yourself . There's a song on this record called California and it has the line life is dull, life is gray. At its best it's just okay , but I'm happy to report life is also short . That's kind of the quasi vibe in a nutshell. They actually they toured with Elliot Smith on his exo tour, his first major label tour . They were the opening act and then they were his backing band for his set . And I saw that tour at the paradise in Boston and as Will Farrell would say, it was transplendent. This song Onlycess Suc can fail me now is a rare example of a quasi song without lyrics. I believe it's just guitars and drums, but the title is so evocative of one of this movie's many themes. So I'm putting it here in the mix tape and there you go, some songs to get this hypothetical theoretical, metaphorical, potentially possible mixtape off the ground. Let me know if you've got any additions for this one songs about big breaks , songs about rising stars or falling stars, about self destruction. You can get at me on the telephone six one seven nine zero six six eight. You can send me an email at disgraceland pod at gmail dot com and while you're doing that, I'm going to pause real quick, but stay put guys, I'm going to be right back Hi, Hollywoodland peeps. We are back and I hope you all dug that deep dive into the fourth iteration of Star is born from twenty eighteen. Have you guys seen this? Curious what your thoughts are? Are you into God guys performance? What did you think of Bradley Cooper Sam' Eslliott Impression . What's your favorite song from this movie? Do you have a song? Do you like the songs from this movie? Again , not my favorite songs per se, but songs that I completely believe just like I completely believe these characters. Hey, real quick, relevant to our interest here. I've kind of been doing this like little detour here at the end of these episodes to kind of I kind of miss the random movie recommendations portion of the rap party that I no longer do because I do these more thematic recommendations with Jake now over there . So I've been kind of slotting those here at the end of this end of the screen room episodes. It just kind of feels right for now . But again, relevant to our interest movies . I finally saw obsession at the theater a few days ago . This is the new horror film by a filmmaker named Curry Barker. This is a guy who's known for his YouTube comedy channel. Another guy just like Jordan Peel and Zack Creger who came from the comedy world and is now making horror films . And obsession is quickly become one of the phenomena of the year , it costs well under one million dollars to make. I think it costs between five hundred and seven hundred fifty thousand dollars . It's already done something like three hundred million worldwide. It is the highest grossing film that Focus Features has ever produced , which is wild. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it might be the most successful sort of grossing movie of all time based on how much it costs to make versus how much it made at the box office. It's really connecting with audiences. It's connecting with younger audiences. These audiences are going back to the movie theater to see this film numerous times, which is rad for movies and for the traditional movie going experience that some would have said was taking its last breaths back in the wake of the COVID pandemic . But anyway , this movie guys, it freaked me the fuck out. I think I spent the last two thirds , at least the last half with my hoodie pulled up to my bottom lip so that I could easily cover my face at a moment's notice , it strikes this tone early on that's tough to describe , but it's like you don't know if you should laugh or scream . You let your guard down only to be stunned into terror and vice versa you're stunned into terror and then you find yourself laughing and it has incredible sound design . It has a dynamic shapeshifting performance by Indy Navaret . In some ways it sort of subverts the typical tropes of your typical horror film . Yes, it has jump scares , but the jump scares are delivered in a way that feel fresh to me. This whole movie feels f resh. It's far from perfect , but it feels super fresh while also still being rooted in this old school nineteen eighties, nineteen nineties era indie filmmaking or horror filmm aking pedigree . I highly recommend this. Just be prepared to watch it through your fingers. It's it's freaky as hell. Check it out. Okay, crystal ball time here. Looking ahead to next week. Coming at you Monday