Horror and Folklore in Heresy

So we cover a lot of movies around here, many of which we adore . But look, we are but mere mortals and some really good stuff is inevitably gonna pass us by , which is why we're taking a beat now to spotlight some favorites we just couldn't get to before. I'm Aisha Harris and joining me today to recommend some great movies we missed on NPR's pop culture happy hour is my co host, Linda Holmes. Hey Lind,a. Hello , Ayisha. Hello. Also with us is NPR film critic Bob Mandello. Welcome back, Bob. Great to be here. Great to have you. And rounding out the panel is Walter Chao. He's a writer, critic, and film instructor at the University of Colorado . Welcome back to YouTube, Walter. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, it's great to have you all here. Let's get right into it. Linda, you're gonna kick us off with your pick, which I have not seen yet, but I've been hearing about it for a very long time now. I'm very curious to hear more about this. So tell us what it is. All right, so I chose Tuner , which I saw at the Toronto International Film Festival. And what I found in my notes when I looked back at this movie is the comment I saw things at the film festival that were more ambitious than this. I don't know that I saw anything at the film festival that I found more entertaining than this . It is a crime drama directed by Daniel Roar, who was the director of the documentary Navalny, which won the Oscar a couple years ago. And it's about a kid played by Leo Woodal, and his name is Nikk i and he has hyper sensitive hearing and it makes it very difficult for him to move through the world because he's very sensitive to loud noises and things. But that exquisite ability to hear has made him a good piano tuner. And he works for a guy named Harry who is played by Dustin Hoffman, who has a piano tuning business and goes around to different places and tunes pianos. So he's basically the apprentice to Harry . Harry's wife, played by Toba Feldsha, they're kind of his surrogate parents and he loves and adores them . And one thing leads to another. Harry forgets the combination to his safe and through all of this Nick, i realizes that in addition to tuning pianos , he can crack safes because of his exquisite hearing. It turns out those skills are connected . So he sort of gradually slides into this life of what he continues , he considers to be kind of victimless crimes mostly because he wants to help this couple that he loves and adores who need help. Naturally, he gets in way over his head . At the same time, he is he has met a woman played by Havana Rose Lou, who is a musician at a conservatory at a music school . And while he's tuning a piano there, they meet, they become interested in each other. Part of it is a crime drama. There's a lot of heist stuff , there's a lot of running around and trying not to get caught, doing different things . But it's also really fundamentally good drama about this guy and his close relationship with this couple that he loves and his effort to get into this relationship with this woman . And what I really liked about it is that balance of elements but also it has a couple of filmmaking pieces that I really responded to. It has a very jazzy piano soundtrack that I enjoyed a lot. I love a jazzy piano . And if you think about watching a guy crack safes , the worry is it's going to be a lot of sitting there with a guy crouched down by a safe with his hand up to his ear . And what exactly are you going to be watching, right? Yeah. There's a lot of really cool , well executed macro photography where they kind of go inside the safes and they go also inside pianos and I think they do a great job of making it a lot more visually interesting than it could have been. I very much enjoyed all these insert shots of the lock being picked essentially. But I enjoyed it so much. I really liked the performances. I really like Woodle in this. I really like Havana Rose Lou in this. And of course, Dustin Hoffmann and Tova Feltchik is amazing. Playing your loving surrogate parents. That's just a good idea . And so I just found this whole movie to be really satisfying and entertaining. And I was really glad to see it because as you know, festival movies can be heavy and parts of it are a little bit heavy, but mostly it's an entertaining movie and I very much enjoyed it. You know, I really love movies about people who are good at their jobs and they show details of people of them doing their jobs. This movie reminded me a lot of thief those safe breaking sequences, right where you have this person's really good at it or even Raf i, which is another sort of safe cracking thing where it's all about plans and it's about a person who's really good at what they do. It reminded me of a lot of shoot the piano player, the Fran z Ross Ruffo film where, you know, it's like you're just really good at one thing . And really it's sort of a caper that's not a caper, it's more of an interpersonal drama. Yeah, a really satisfying watch, I think. Yeah. This may be a me thing, but as a person who's worked for forty years in radio , the representation of audio in this picture is really interesting. And I thought it was very cleverly done. A really smart movie. It really was. And Woodle is amazing. He's great . He's just such an appealing guy. Is he famous for something? He's been in a few things. He was in the recent Bridget Jones movie that they did where he's like her young boyfriend. He's done a handful of things. This is my favorite thing I've seen him in. Yeah. Look, I'm the only one here who hasn't seen this yet, but I'm definitely putting this on my list because you have convinced me. I need to need to check this out. It's right up my alley. And look, ambition , it can be fine, it can be admirable, but execution is, to me, often even more important. So that's Tuner, which is in theaters now and on VOD . So we're going to go from, you know , crime caper heist movie, but interpersonal relationships to just maximum maximum everything , violence, messages and all these things. My pick is the Furious and I love this movie. If you are a fan of martial arts films like The Raid , you will enjoy this movie. And I had such a blast seeing this. So this is directed by Kenji Tanagaki, who's this veteran stunt and fight choreograp . He's worked with Donnie Yen , including on Blade two . So he knows his stuff, he knows what he's doing. And this is a movie. It's a Hong Kong action film, but it's kind of a very multicultural mult,i international film . It's set somewhere in Southeast Asia they don't specify , but it stars Xie Miao as Wang Wei , a mysterious mute handyman and single father to a young girl named Rainey who's played by Yong In Yo . And Rainey is kidnapped by traffickers very early into the movie and of course yes. And Wang goes after her and eventually teams up with Navin, played by Joe Tasm . You might recognize Taslim if you've seen The Raid, as I've already mentioned, but also Fast and Furious Six or the Recent Mortal Kombat movies . This movie is boggers. The fight sequences, which are choreographed by Kenske Sonomora . They are just so exquisite. They are so intricate. They are so sometimes balletic and beautifully choreographed. They up the anti like wong the lead of the film. He does an entire sequence jumping onto a moving truck that's filled with garbage but also his kidnapped daughter in abandoned warehouse as well and it's jumping all over the place. He's running through the streets in flip fl ops, in flip flops. And I was wondering how are they still on his feet? He's been doing everything. He's been jumping. He's been they're still on. And then eventually he takes them off and I was like, oh, wow, this is this is wild. I was yelling. I was like , when things happened, Walter, I know you've seen this movie. You've seen this movie more than I have. Four, five times. I've seen it four times. I'm gonna go in for another dip lounge. I love this movie so much. It speaks so much to , you know, the first time watches of some movies just sort of linger with you and this is one of those with me the first time I saw it. It just felt like oh yeah, oh ye yeahah,, this fits just like an old terry cloth rope for me. Something about this is really comfortable. There's scenes where he builds like pyramids out of the bodies of his vanquished. And he 's climbing up the bodies as he's stacking them on top of each other because they keep coming at him. It is yeah indescribable as a kind of piece of moving art in a way . You know, on the one hand it's horribly violent and you know, it's hard to recommend it to grandma, but on my hand, I look at it like , you know, this is beautiful in a way. The choreography is so meticulous. It has to be. And the imagination, how do we film a fight sequence now after we've seen ten gazillion fight sequences over the course of how do we make it new and interesting and innovative? How do we make the stakes appropriately high? You mentioned the raid, and you know this generation of fight choreographers that are redefining what it is to look at fights. You know Jo,hn Woo did this for the last generation, right? And it just lifts you. And I've been leading a lot of like lifting of late. And so I just keep finding myself, you know, kind of wandering back in the screenings of this film and saying, you know, gotta just got to watch the furious again. This is exactly what I needed right at this moment to watch. Just everything is so witty, visually witty and inventive, you know, from the flip the detail of the flip flops to the call outs to the big boss with the blocks of ice or walking on glass to die hard of all things. You know, they're callouts to the entire history of great action cinema culminating to this point it's really plains like a history lesson of action films if you're so inclined or, it's just , you know, it's just one of those movies that I always rail gets when people say turn off your brain and watch it. Well, this is one of those movies. You could do that. You know, you could absolutely do that. Just get lost in it. It's really great. The only thing I will say is like, thankfully our producer Liz Medzer warned me ahead of time before I saw it, but like I do warn people that the actors appear to also be speaking in English, but like it doesn't always sync up well. So I 'm giving that like, you know that, adds to the charm, I think, but it's also a little disorienting because it's like we're clearly not in a place where you would expect people to be speaking English, but like most characters are speaking English and also like most of the text is written like the police station emblem is in English. I'm like, okay, sure. Clearly they had international audiences in mind, although I always would prefer no dubbing , but again, it also adds to the charm in a way. It feels like watching an old school movie, like action movie in that way. I would also offer the trigger warning that it is about child trafficking and some children are harmed, you know, during the course of the film. So if that is your major red line, then I would say be candle with care, but absolutely. Boy, the people that deserve to get what they get get it. And yeah, yes, they do. You know, I haven't seen this one, but people who have seen action movies with me know that sometimes when something really ridiculous happens, then when it finally get to the end of whatever the stunt is, I will literally sit there in the theater and go, Yay . And it seems like a yay kind of movie yeah. Exactly. Perhaps I'll give it a shot. Well, that is the Furious and that is in theaters now. And again, please try and go see this at the theater because it is that communal experience that you love. Heartbreak feels good in place like this, blah, blah . All right, after the break, we've got some more recommendations, so stick around . All right, we are back and Bob , it is your turn. Tell us your pick . Well, I have been spending a goodly portion of this month watching films that have some association with pride . A lot of films aimed at teenagers, as it turns out, that are being given a sort of queer a angle one way or the other. And of them, the one that I just sort of fell over for is She's the He . There are two guys in high school, they're best friends, they really want the girls to notice them. And so they come up with this hair brained plan . Well , their plan is that they're going to pretend to be trans . And why that would work? I'm not sure. I think you have to be a seventeen year old who's a little warped by hormones to think of that in the first place, but it's a plan and they go for it big time. Now, the interesting thing about this movie is it is produced by behind the scenes in it, everybody on screen, practically is queer, and most of them are trans orb non binary. And Shivon McCarthy, who made the film has made it in the most interesting way possible, if you think that, for instance, the whole bathroom scare thing makes sense, you're going to be challenged really quickly in this when the entire foot ball team decides to dress up in women's clothing emulating these two guys to get into the girl's locker room, right? I mean, it's silly. It allows for boisterous laughter, but at the same time , it points up how ridiculous this would be in real life that this sort of thing would be unlikely to happen . And the whole film is like that. The stars playing Alex and Ethan , a wonderful, a really sharp trans comic plays Alex. His name is Nico Carney. His read on toxic masculinity is so funny. I mean, it's just, it's delightful to watch him , and Misha Oserovich is sweetly affecting as Ethan discovers her true self. And it's a wonderful performance . But what's interesting is that all of these theoretically cis male characters are also being played by trans and non binary performers. And it pops for me. I thought the whole thing popped. It's really funny. And it's fun to watch. It's just fun. Yeah, you know, Bob, it's amazing to me because this sounds when you set it up. I have not seen it. Like the worst most transphobic eighties teenage comedy . And that's what I find fascinating about your description is that it jumps off of this premise that is so similar to what's been done so unkindly and from such a small minded place. And it's fascinating to hear that it's so different from that. Yeah. I think their whole idea is make a film the trans community that shows up all of these crazy notions in a way that is effective. And I think they've really done it. I was very impressed. You know, I think what Bob's really hitting on that I love is that it's very light . You know, you don't feel as though you're getting pounded with a message. You don't feel like there's a soap box. And it reminded me a lot of a film like Five Hundred Days of Summer , you know, where it's very lighthearted and there's a lot of magical realism. I think that goes through their graphics appear on screen they kind of float around squigglys and they're taking very serious topics and treating them intelligently , but lightly. Yeah, not as though the topics are light, but in a way that the audience that most needs to see it potentially will see it. And you know, there's so much joy in it as well . And I think so often whenever we see dep ictions of the LGBTQ community, it's through their pain. And that's that's similar to how many mainstream depictions of minorities are in films is like even if we're just sidekick characters, we're the ones that are suffering for the whatever and you see a different side of it. You know, there's certainly pain in the film, but there's also a lot of joy and there's a lot of friendship and what acceptance might look like from someone who's having difficulty accepting , you know, their buddy is suddenly trans denly trans and from people who are just like, of course you're trans. I knew from the very first day. You know, there's a whole spectrum of acceptance in this and that's kind of lovely too, and something that we all need to see, I think, especially people who are resistant to the very idea, you know, to your point, Bob , are able to see an example of someone who is resistant to the idea who loves their friend more than they love their ideology. It's as if American pie meets, I don't know, Some Leg It Hot meets Heart Stopper, right? Some Like It Hot was definitely something that was on my mind as well, just the Jack Lemmon character sort of realizing that maybe he actually enjoys dressing as a woman. And obviously that was, you know, sixty plus years ago . So it's like the way we interpret that movie is very different. But like there is that sense that that movie is not judging its characters. I'm so glad that you picked this, Bob. It's very fun. I think it's really special. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's She's the He and yes, it's in some theaters now and will be available on BOD june thirtieth. So seek it out, go find it. And finally , Walter, we're gonna end with you and you're going to tell us what we have missed or what maybe a lot of people have missed. Oh man, this is really amazing full horror film and I've really been getting into full horror in the last few years. And this is a new one though. We just had just landed on shutter. It made the festival circuit last year in the year before under a title of Vit aviv is its original title. It means wise woman and it's now good now it's called heresy and it's streaming on Shutter. It is a Dutch production but they translated their entire screenplay into Saxon and they have everybody speaking in Saxon throughout the course of it just to be more period precise. It's about a small village during the Middle Ages in which a woman , a young wife played by Anica Sluters, is incapable of conceiving and that's just anathema to their village. You know, that's not okay, here's something wrong with you. That's the kind of environment that we're in. This really deeply superstitious, very fundamentalistically religious film and it opens with just these dark images of a village at night and these prayers that you can hear coming from all of the houses. These furtive prayers against whatever it is that's out in the wilderness. Everyone's terrified all the time. I would be, I'm scared going camping. I'm scared walking in my car at night. I'll be honest. And so there's this real terror that seeps into every frame of this and eventually is lured the young wife into the woods where she meets . Indeed, the creatures of the wood, creatures taken from Dutch folklore . The practical effects, the monster work, the everything about this movie is gorgeous, meticulous, fascinating to look at. There is one moment of extreme gore that's also very beautiful in a way. It's like a couple of moments during this film of just this real beauty , this real poetry about a woman finding her power and finding her voice in these primordial beliefs and pagan rituals, if you will. I love it. It is beautiful. You are steeped into this time and this place. It feels dirty and cold and miserable for a lot of it. It just looks great and it moves great. I've become very evangelical for this film. I want to tell everybody about it. I want to show it to everybody. It's one of those movies that, you know , man, I know you don't like gore and everything, but this is so beautiful. And there's only that little bit of gore, just suffer it or turn away for that moment, but actually don't look at it. It is sculptural. You tell me there's sculptural gore, Walter. I start to get worried . You know, it's like those episodes of Hannibal, right? Where you're like, oh no, I know. I get it. It's awful and awesome . So there's that kind of awful, awesome thing that's going on here, but overall , just the entire vibe of it is absolutely for me. Yeah. Well, when you say practical effects , I'm in because I love I love a good practical effect and it sounds gorgeous. It's just a beautiful , beautiful little poem. Awesome. Well, thank you, Walter. And that's heresy. It's streaming on Shutter in AMC plus and it was really, really fun to talk to you all about all of these movies. That brings us to the end of our show. Bob Mandello, Walter Chao, and Linda Holmes, thanks so much for being here and recommending some really great films that people should go and check out. What a joy. Thanks for having us. Great fun. Yeah, thank you. This episode was produced by Liz Metzger and Mike Katsuf, and edited by Archer runner Jessica Redi. Hello Kim provides our theme music and thank you for listening to pop culture hopping hour from MPR. I'm Ayisha Harris, see you all next time.