I love movies, Nell Mino is here, the movie mom. And we're going to talk what's coming
out for the holiday season. But first you got to talk about the movie. I just, you saw
and we both liked it. Nuremberg. Let's talk about that.
Yeah, I thought it was an outstanding movie and it was a story I knew nothing about. You
know, we're all familiar with the Nuremberg Trials, which happened after World War II.
I hadn't really focused on the fact that there had never been a trial following a war.
And what was interesting about it is that they were trying the members of the German military,
for what they did like invading other countries, but for what they did to their own citizens.
It's about what we later learned to call the Holocaust. And it was fascinating to see how
it all came together with Michael Shannon as Supreme Court Justice Jackson, who organized
it all. But most of the movie is just Russell Crowe as the number two in the Nazi party,
Herman Gehring, talking to an American military psychiatrist that they brought in to interview
the top 22 officials. And I was so interested in it that I actually tracked down the now out
of print book that their real life psychiatrist wrote, 22 cells at Nuremberg, where he got
to interview. Can you imagine that opportunity to talk to these incredible forces of evil
and try to figure out what made them tick? So I thought that the scenes with Remy Malik
and Russell Crowe were outstanding. And I had a wonderful time talking to the guy who
wrote and directed it, sent years researching it. And I thought he did a wonderful job.
You got to get it right because people know the history. And you can't screw that up.
And we both agree, Russell Crowe, we can't, an Academy Award nomination, minimum, if
not the way. Definitely. He was just incredible. Because just like the real Herman Gehring,
he had to be both charming and ruthless. And I thought he delivered on that really, really
well. He's just an amazing actor. Good performances all around, good movie, not the feel good
movie of the year, but well in way it is because justice does triumph at the end.
They show some really terrifying actual footage of the concentration camp, Bergen Belson
Auschwitz. And the director told me that when he was first putting the film together,
the team came to him and said, okay, now how are we going to recreate these scenes from
Auschwitz? And he said, no, no, no, we're going to use the real footage. And we're not
going to show it to the actors until we're filming. And he said to the actors, I know you
guys are doing a lot of research and that's great. I love that you're doing the research.
Please hold on the visual images because I want to film your actual reaction.
And of course, after you see that, watch Judgment at Nuremberg from 1961 with Spencer Tracy,
Max Millions Shelley won the Academy Award that year. Richard Whitmark, Judy Garland is
in that film, believe it or not. He sure is. And get an off star cast, Cindy Kramer
directed it. And, you know, that follows chronologically after this one. That's at the end
of the process when the, not just the American people, but all of the people in the world
who are so worried about the bomb, they're worried about the Soviet Union, they're like,
are we still doing this? And, and that's the question about it. So I, that's also a very,
very good movie. And Warner, Verna Klemperer is in that film.
Yes, he is. Colonel Kling from Hogan's here. Did that guy play anything other than a Nazi
just a tire career? Is that his entire recipe? Well, that, you know, that, that they cast
him because he had a real life German accent. I mean, he, that's Colonel Kling, and he's
in Judgment at Nuremberg. Yes, I know. Okay, let's talk about some good fun movies and
the blockbuster. This is the one people I'm waiting for for over a year. Wicked for good
opens up. And I saw it last night. Oh, you, you didn't take me with you. Oh.
Well, I, I have to tell you, I got there last night, and this is just a movie screening.
There were so many people dressed up as Oz characters. It was really, really, really
fun. They gave it a real party atmosphere, and they were cheering and applauding. So, yeah.
If you haven't had a chance, watch the, the concert special from the entire cast that was just
on TV. It is excellent. It is so much fun to see them and see them interact with each other and
see them perform and some behind the scenes footage and their conversations. It's really,
really good. So, yeah, Wicked for good. Okay. First, I have to just say what anybody who's ever seen
the play Wicked will tell you, all the good songs are in the first act. Okay? So, you're not going
to be getting as, it's not as fun as the first one, because it's a much darker story. This is
about 12 years later, and it's about rebelling against the corrupt wizard, and it's about falling
out of the two friends, as you know. But it's also got just some incredible visuals and, and very
touching moments, and I thought they brought it home very, very well. I saw the stage musical in
Chicago, and I just knocked me out. It was that good. Little side note here from the original Wizard
of Oz, 1939. Two of the Munchkins were actually in this radio station, in this room that I'm in
right now. I think you told me about that before, but that's very exciting. And the sign that
is right in back in me, the WRJN sign from decades ago, it's still here, and we have a photograph
of the two Munchkins in front of that sign right over there. And the lady who interviewed them is
going to be with us on our 99th anniversary coming up in two weeks. So, that's amazing. That's
amazing. I actually met one of the Munchkins. He was doing a signing at a shopping mall here.
He was the mayor of the Munchkins, and, and I just had a delightful conversation with him. What a
sweetheart. Now, let's talk about some other films, opening up Zootopia too. It's going to be a
holiday, a big holiday movie. It is. I'm very excited about that. I loved the first Zootopia,
which we remember, did get the Oscar for Best Animated Film. And this one looks just as good.
For those who are fans of Zootopia, I will probably, you will agree with me when I tell you
that I was really important to me that the slots are back because they were the funniest part of
the original film. So, I'm happy to say that they are back. There's a great new character who's a
snake. And there's an interesting theme about how the mammals have been kind of prejudiced against
the reptiles. And so, you know, the question is, are they going to be able to live together?
And so, yeah, I'm looking forward to it very, very much. I love Jason Vateman, by the way. I love
him and everything. Oh, what fun. Michelle Fifer is an overlooked mother. What's that about?
Well, I'm sure you remember the movie Home Alone. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Okay, which was shot in my hometown. And an old one fun. It's kind of like a reversal because
it's mom who gets left behind. Mom, who is so underappreciated. I wonder if, you know,
you can imagine a world in which moms do all the work and no one ever thanks them.
And so, Michelle Fifer is taking care of everybody and doing all the cooking and all the decorating
and no one is helping her or thanking her. And so, when she gets left behind, she decided to go
off on, yeah, I'm going to teach you a legal term because you know I'm a lawyer, okay?
There's a very technical legal term, frolic and detour. And you just go off on a thing by yourself
and have a, have a blast. And that's what she does. And I love Michelle Fifer and this one
looks like it is going to be a what fun. I just don't remember her from Scarface.
I remember her from Scarface. She was great in that. I think my favorite of her movies is probably
married to the mob. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was good. Excellent. All right.
Next one we have is a parody of Downton Abbey now. Tread lightly because my wife is the biggest
Downton Abbey fan. She just watched the entire series again on demand. And so, Tread lightly
on this one. So, what's this? It's a parody. It is a parody. It's called Fakum Hall. And I'm also
a big fan of Downton Abbey. And I think the more of a fan you are, the more you will appreciate
the parody because they nail it. And you have to really have seen some of these shows. Not just
Downton Abbey, but upstairs downstairs and some of the historical Jane Austen style movies
to appreciate just how well they know it. And you know, you have to really love something
to do a good parody of it. And of course, the greatest of all. And that category is
Galaxy Quest. Oh, yeah. That was good. Yeah. One of my favorite movies. But unless you have seen
like every episode of Star Trek, you are not going to understand why it is so funny. So,
I think Fakum Hall is going to be a big hit because it's definitely dedicated to the fans.
The movie mom, Nell Menow, talking with us this morning about all the new movies out.
But moving back to the new movies, it's the 50th anniversary of Cisco and Ebert. And you just wrote
a nice piece online about it. I did. RogerEbert.com where a lot of my reviews appear also. I had so
much fun going through all the clips and picking out some of my favorites, including a clip from
their very first episode where they're so nervous and this set looks like it cost about a dollar
and a half. But, you know, they really revolutionized the way we think about movies. And everybody loves
their arguments. And I put in a link to a compilation of all their best arguments and insults of
each other. And I have an outtake clip from them really insulting each other. And I'll just say Roger
was better at it than Jean. But yeah, they made us understand the way they look at movies. And it
made me want to be a critic. So it was a lot of fun to pay tribute to this show, which began as a
local PBS show on in Chicago. Later, we came national on PBS and then nationally syndicated by
Disney. And it's really just a wonderful saga. And the two of them were great together.
I still love the dog of the week feature. Yeah, the dog would come in bark. And the most
horrible movies, they don't do that anymore because they don't put those bad movies and theaters
anymore. But they used to. Oh, my friend. Oh, well, I am sorry. I've been. I've been correct.
You know, somebody asked Jean Cisco once. It's a great job to have. Yeah, until you got to sit
through two hours of bad movies every day for a week, they just not such a great job anymore.
I always say that my number one qualification for this job is that I don't mind watching bad
movies because I like to think about why they're bad and write about why they're bad. And a lot
of times it's easier to write about a bad one than a good one because we have a lot of different
adjectives for why things are bad. We don't have that many for why things are good. So I, you know,
I like to write about bad movies. And I have certainly seen a lot this year. I mean, wow.
Jay Kelly are next film with George Clooney and Adam Sandler. What a pairing.
I loved this movie and Laura Dern. I absolutely and Riley Kio who you know is the granddaughter
of Elvis Presley. I actually love this movie. George Clooney plays a character a little like him
in that he is a big, huge movie star who's at a particular stage of life where he's beginning to
think about some of his choices. He's got two daughters, one who is not even speaking to him anymore.
That's Riley Kio. And the younger one who's getting ready to go to college and who is,
I wouldn't say it's strange from him, but not that interested him because you know what?
He's 18. He wants to be with their friends. And he's beginning to think about the choices that he made
and whether he neglected them and and he's off to a festival where he's going to be honored.
And they're going to show clips from his old movies and they show real clips from George Clooney's
old movies. And Adam Sandler plays his manager who is basically managing his whole life. He is
there to take care of everything so the movie star doesn't have to have any problems ever.
And and you know at some cost to his own family life. And I thought it was just an excellent
movie, really, really liked it. So that's Jay Kelly and I recommend it.
Santa Metal Value, you say this might be enough for an Academy Award huh?
Santa Metal Value, I'm telling you right now is the front runner for Best Foreign Language Film.
It is in Norwegian and Swedish and some English. And believe it or not, it's got a lot in common
with Jay Kelly because it's also about a filmmaker played by Stone Sarsgard who has two daughters,
one that is not talking to him at all and one that is somewhat talking to him. And so in that
way, they're there a lot of like. But I thought it was very, very well done. Beautiful performances
by everybody. So yeah, Santa Metal Value, if you like international films and I think that this
is definitely needs to be on your list. The Broadway musical, Marilee, we roll along.
Yeah, it is the Broadway musical meaning that it is a filmed play. I mean, you can see them on the
stage. I have to tell you something about the background on this one. Kaufman and Hart who were the
most successful comedy playwrights of the first half of the 20th century. They did the man who came
to dinner and a lot of other, you know, really, really funny plays. They did one serious one and
it was this. Marilee, we roll along and the gimmick about it and it was huge flop. And the gimmick
about it is that it begins with the characters in middle age dealing with some of the choices
they've made. And then each successive scene goes back in time until the first one when they're
in their very early 20s and so optimistic and so close to each other. Such wonderful friendships.
And so you see it fall apart backwards. So Steven Sunheim decided, I'm going to take this play that
was a huge flop and I'm going to put songs in it. And guess what? It was also a huge flop and
there's a great documentary. Jason Alexander was one of his first big roles. And okay fine,
but they keep trying with it. And finally, when they put it on Broadway a couple of years ago
with Daniel Radcliffe from Harry Potter and Jonathan Groff, one of the great Broadway stars,
it was a hit. And so they filmed that. Now, having said that, in my opinion, you can see why it
was not successful the first few times. Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, actually great.
Some of the songs are really good, but I think people are not necessarily on board with the idea
of going through the story backwards. I think people find that confusing. So that's my caveat on
that one. We've got a couple of minutes left. Why don't you pick from the list here what you want to
talk about? Okay. Well, the one I'm looking forward to that's kind of under the radar right now is
Ella McKay with an all-star cast and and from the guy from broadcast news who wrote and directed
it. And it's got kind of that vibe about a young woman who unexpectedly becomes the governor
of a of a state and has to reconcile with her strange father. Wake Up Deadman from Knives Out.
I love that series and I love this movie. Incredible all-star cast with Glenn Close,
Josh O'Connor, Josh Brolin. And then Marty Supreme is another one that's a little under the
radar with a table tennis story with Timothy Chalamet that everybody's the early buzz on it is
great. And finally Song Song blew a Neil Diamond tribute team based on a true story starting
Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman. If you watch the trailer, you'll see why I'm looking forward to that one.
From Milwaukee. Yeah, they're from Milwaukee. That's right. They're from Milwaukee.
Let's talk about Wake Up Deadband. That's is that the knives that's from Knives Out, right?
Knives Out One. Does it have James Bond guy coming back? It does. Oh great.
And Rob Long, Daniel Craig. Yeah. Absolutely. He's got Long hair in this one. And there are more
twists and turns in this story than you can possibly count. It's what they call if you're a mystery fan,
you will know about the locked room mystery where a dead body is found in a locked room.
And that's what this one is inspired by a book by John Dixon Carr and Edgar Allen Poe as well.
And it's very gothic. It's great. I got to interview the composer. I had a great talk with him
and it turns out he is the first cousin of Ryan Johnson, the writer director and they've been working
together since they were in high school. You know, we have the knives out on DVD and we watch it all
the time. We know what the ending is. You know, it doesn't matter. There's such great performance. Yeah,
there's great performances all around in that film. All around and you'll see the same in this one.
And this one is so funny, particularly the first half. Very, very funny. Yeah. I was just
a mentor because I saw the preview for it. And when I saw a Nuremberg hamnet. Now not hamlet.
Hamnet. Just meant to that for a second. Okay. Hamnet is based on the true story of William Shakespeare's
son who died in the plague and how that influenced him in writing hamlet. And the movie begins by
telling you that hamlet and hamnet were interchangeable names back in Shakespeare's time. The
one to watch there in terms of the Oscars is Jesse Buckley who plays Shakespeare's wife and who
is of course shattered by the death of her son. And and she is extraordinary. Jesse Buckley
amazing actress really gets a chance to show what she's doing. Also speaking of British actresses,
each is for hawk is coming to the screen also with Claire Foy and that looks really good too.
And of course, this is the these are films all coming out this holiday season. One came out and if
you get a chance to watch Nuremberg go watch it. It's two and a half hours, but it flies by very
quickly. It does. It's excellent, excellent movie. And that's because you got great performances again
from everybody there. Moviemom.com, moviemom.com. Check Nell Minow out it. What's the Cisco and Ebert
site? Roger Ebert.com Roger Ebert.com. And you can if you want to hear our chat again if you missed
any part of it. Oh, I forgot to come to nine at seven thirty. You can hear we're going to podcast
it everywhere. So wherever you get your podcast, you can listen again. I love talking to you now. I
love talking to you. I love movies and I love just chat. Even though I'm not a movie maker. I
can't I can't do anything like that. It's always great to talk to people about movies and I grew up
going to movies my entire life. I parents went every weekend to the movies. So I always have a
blast talking to you and we'll do it again soon. You have a nice Thanksgiving with your family and
yeah, we get to talk soon as soon as the holiday season's over. We'll talk about the winners and
losers and we'll talk about the who's going to be nominated for the Academy Awards coming up in
March. So you got it.
