Oscar Nominated Film Talk (Hour 1)

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Schwabba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now, a guy who believes in an eye for an eye, but only if they're lowercase, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.

How are we doing in Wisconsin?

It is Monday night, middle of February.

On paper, you could not ask for a more depressing night.

A Monday, it's freezing, it's the middle of February.

There is nothing going on.

Except... Nightlight.

Am I right or am I right, Conrad?

Uh, you're right.

I knew.

I knew you'd say that.

We got a great show planned for you guys.

Hope you had a great day.

And if you didn't, we hope we can turn it around for you.

We're gonna talk a little showbiz like we do, some current events, some fun stuff that's in the news when it comes to entertainment.

All kinds of great stuff as we broadcast live from beautiful downtown Green Bay and extend our reach statewide.

So wherever you're joining us from, welcome to Nightlight.

Riding shotgun as usual is Conrad.

The voice you just heard.

How you doing tonight, buddy?

You know, it's it is a little depressing out there.

It's it's very cold.

Why do you why do you say that just because of kind of what I just said or particularly depressed tonight for some reason?

No, I think it's it's all adding up all that snow we got.

It's like feels like negative degrees out.

Just doesn't make you want to go outside.

It's brutal.

And I'm looking at my car right now.

There's like three feet, well, two and a half feet of snow.

You have to step through after you park.

Like I mean I could walk around on the street.

It's just it you're right It's just a pain and it reminds me when my kids were little and we moved to Wisconsin and they were trying to adjust to winter I Would make them really mad and I would say guys kind of glue me out.

It's kind of cold We got to bring our own sunshine to this day.

They would both look at me like they hated my guts I feel like dad never say that again So I'm gonna say that to you Conrad because I think you need a little bit of an attitude adjustment

tonight

Yeah, I don't like that.

I don't like that

phrase.

Even though I agree with you, I'm still gonna say you need an attitude adjustment.

I left here Friday.

We were supposed to have that snow and my wife and I drove from here to Milwaukee.

That was the plan.

Not a bad drive.

What is that, 100 miles, if that?

Something like that, yeah.

We pulled over and got a hotel room in Sheboygan.

You know how^?

depressing that is?

Sheboygan?^?

Yeah.^?

Well, not not Shaboygan, just we have 100 miles to go.^?

We were going to be there before 10 o'clock.^?

Yeah,

we're going to spend the week in there and hang out with my son.

And yeah, we had to pull over like the roads were really bad.

And if it was just me, I probably would have just kept going because I've driven through horrible weather before most of my adult life.

But at some point, you start like, like I was fine.

I wasn't going that fast.

I was in no hurry.

But it's these pinheads that go around you.

and spray snow in your car.

And you feel like they're almost gonna clip you.

I'm like, this isn't worth it.

I'm pulling over and we got a hotel room.

And then, you know, it's like 10 o'clock at night, you can't find food.

Your feet are soaking wet.

You're in a hotel room.

You're in Sheboygan.

You're 50 miles from where you're supposed to be.

It's like, how many hotel rooms can I buy that I'm not gonna use?

It's terrible.

But it was fun.

We went out to got a little dinner in Milwaukee Saturday night was lovely a nice little downtown Place downtown called.

What was it called a calderone club?

You ever been there

that sounds familiar I didn't go there though.

It's right across from

the higher kind of down by where all those

What is going on is the Bradley Center still used?

It was demolished was it?

No, no, sorry.

It wasn't wait.

No,

I don't think you what there's something called the Baird Center now

Maybe that's the old Bradley center.

I don't know, but you got Pfizer You got the Mecca, which is probably size the Panther arena now.

No, it was demolish.

Sorry.

I remember

was

it taken down?

Yeah,

the the one that's your scene I think is the EW Panther arena, maybe

no, but that's old I know that I know about that we used to play high school basketball there for the state tournament, but there's another huge Kind of convention center.

I was wondering if that was the Bradley center that had been renamed or something

the Bradley summer actually got um

The the Bradley Center got like imploded like you know

like they blew it up.

Yeah, they literally blew it up There's a party.

There's a video

on

YouTube.

You can see it get demolished.

Okay

Maybe we fire that up later in the show.

Let's see what happens.

Just just the noise.

Let's not go crazy.

Let's see what happens Yeah, so it was fun, you know, I don't know what you do this weekend.

Do you have a good weekend?

Well, what you just said about the people passing you I went out

in the morning on Saturday because I had this golf lesson.

And it was indoors, obviously.

Oh,

that's right.

You had a golf lesson

in

February.

I love that.

So my sister-in-law got my brother, her, and I golf lessons.

And it was just like a meet and greet with the coach.

But driving there was horrendous for my car.

It was your car you cut do you have like one-wheel drive or something?

You're always talking about how your car is so terrible in the water

I have front-wheel.

I have front-wheel drive

shouldn't be that bad if you have front-wheel.

I'm spinning everywhere.

Yeah, anyways Someone passed me and just kicked so much snow up on my car It made me go from I was going to speed limit, but it made me go down like yeah, cuz they can't see I'm like, okay cool

And then you slow down in a panic, you don't know what's happening behind you.

Why don't people just drive normally, especially in the storm?

Yeah, it was still snowing, roads not plowed at all.

I was like, I don't even understand why people want to go fast in this.

Right.

And part of it was my own fault.

We had this little hybrid, and then we have this big 1999 Lane Cruiser.

That's the most awesome car I've ever owned.

I'm never getting rid of it.

It's phenomenal in the winter.

But do I bring that to drive through a snowstorm?

Nah.

Let's take the hybrid.

There you go.

Hey, we got a really fun show tonight.

Matt Miller will be here at 635, the Milwaukee Film Critic who we have on frequently.

He's one of our favorite frequent flyers.

And we'll talk award shows.

There's a lot of hints that are being given about the Oscars that we can draw from other awards show.

We'll talk about that with Matt at 635.

And he is one, I think he has two films to see still before the Oscars March 2nd.

I have three, so Matt's ahead of me.

We'll see what he's been watching.

And then, folks, this is maybe the first time in radio history this has ever been done.

I can't confirm or deny, but Matt Harper will be here at 720 Live in the studio.

That's two mats on the same radio show.

Do we know if that's been done before?

I mean,

I haven't seen it.

I've never seen it before done.

I'm gonna plead ignorance.

I'm just gonna say, I don't think it's ever been done before, but we're making it happen here tonight on Nightlight.

We got two mats, both incredibly talented, and we'll have great conversations with both of them.

And Matt Harper is gonna perform live in the studio, so that will be fun.

We've had Matt on the show before.

He's a local Northeast Wisconsin rap and rock artist.

I love that genre combination, so cool.

And Matt will be here to perform at 720.

Our question, folks,

is brought to you tonight in honor of the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary that aired last night.

They crammed 50 years of television.

You said you thought it dragged.

I've only seen half of it so far, but I thought it was pretty good and I think, you know, it better be.

50 years crammed into three hours.

You should be able to get a fat-free broadcast out of that, I would think.

And I thought it was pretty good.

I...

I mean, I enjoyed it.

I just think there are some parts I was like, okay, well, we can keep it moving.

Let me ask you something.

Do you not like the older stuff since you're of the younger generation?

Does that have anything to do with it?

I think they dragged too much on when they were asking the questions

to the

audience.

That felt like it took like an hour.

Yeah,

I wanted I wanted more sketches, but they like they kind of said they wanted to get everyone

who's been a part of the show some time on

the screen.

Right.

I thought the sketches were the best part, like when they would play the compilations.

But do that, oh, we got someone at the door, so get that and we'll do the question.

You know, I'm just gonna say the question tonight and then we'll play the montage music.

What is your favorite SNL sketch or character of all time?

What is your favorite SNL sketch or character?

of all time.

You can let me know at 855-752-4842-8555-CIVIC.

Let me know and you can elaborate as much as you want.

Folks, the phone lines are open too.

Feel free to call if you have a thought on last night's broadcast of the SNL 50th anniversary.

I know Conrad just started watching White Lotus season three.

I haven't even started season two yet, so I gotta play catch up there.

And we are getting down to the nitty-gritty.

The Oscars are right around the corner, two weeks away.

How are you doing on your Oscar films too?

There's 10 best picture nominees.

So let me know that too.

You can call our text 8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

You can text me on the app.

That's very easy to use.

Nightlight is on statewide, so you can just click on any one of the stations and tune in as long as there is not a local basketball game going on tonight.

You'll get Nightlight.

And there's a little text icon.

So click that and let me know what you're thinking.

Conrad, I went ahead and did the question of the night anyway.

We can skip the music for one night.

You had to answer the door.

Who's here?

Well, it's one of our guests.

He's here already?

Yeah.

Oh my gosh, that adds pressure.

Matt Harper is in the studio, folks.

He will be along in the second hour.

We'll have a good time with Matt when he's here.

But what is your favorite SNL sketch or character of all time?

You have 50 years to choose from, folks.

What say you Conrad?

What are you thinking?

Oh, what I mean?

What do you think

Kate McKinnon?

It's the close encounters Kate McKinnon.

Yeah, that's funny,

but I also Pete Davidson is Chad with just the deadpan famer saw that there's I think there's about Seven or eight different sketches of him being a Chad.

Okay,

it's the funniest thing.

I'll

have to look that it's so

deadpan

I don't

watch it regularly anymore, but I see the highlights, or I'll look up the highlights at the beginning of the week and see what I missed, but I have never seen one of those.

I think I want to say, my favorite line the other night that I thought was so funny was when Kenan Thompson, who is the longest running cast member right now in the history of the show, and very funny, he was the host of Black Jeopardy, he said, welcome to Black Jeopardy.

the only game show where all the contestants understood Kendrick Lamar's halftime performance.

That's great.

That was a great lot.

Kristen Wiig was funny.

She had the tiny hands out again.

She always cracks me up.

Will Ferrell was great.

Will Ferrell was great.

Yeah.

Oh, that was the same skit, right?

Yeah.

Did you see the Debbie Downer?

I have not seen Debbie Downer yet.

I got about half of it to get through.

It

was so funny.

It

was Jimmy Fallon in it.

Debbie Downer hilarious.

What do you think of the Andy Sandberg thing where he was

song?

Yeah,

it was

fine.

But does that make the best?

I mean, the Lonely Island came from SNL kind of.

So

I'm talking about what he's saying about they all have anxiety.

I felt like it was a cute song, but I was like, eh, I could have done without that, but anyway.

That's our question of the night, folks.

Let us know what your favorite Saturday Night Live character or sketch is of all time.

Lots of pressure, 855-752-4842, 855-75 civic.

We will read your texts and have a brief discussion of President's Day and our own little tribute that's coming up next, and then Matt Miller at 635.

It's Peach Waba and Nightlight on the Civic Media radio network.

Welcome

back.

Anna in the 608 says my favorite SNL skit was Gilda Radner's Roseanna Roseanna.

I love that one, Anna.

She says I loved Gilda.

I think the close encounter skit would have been better with Melissa McCarthy instead of Meryl Streep.

Oh, that's interesting.

I think that would have been.

Yeah, I think I could

see

that.

Yeah.

I thought she was going to say without Kate McKinnon and then Conrad was going to storm off in a half.

That's a great text.

Thank you, Anna.

And I agree about Gilda Radner.

She, God, she was just, and I guess they honored her.

I didn't, I haven't seen that yet.

I got to play catch up on that.

But PJ checks into the stream and says, that's why it's called the dead of winter.

Yeah, you got that right, buddy.

He says, the Will Ferrell Eddie Murphy prison sketch was hilarious.

I laughed so hard.

I think I pulled a muscle.

That's a great laugh man.

You get that abdominal laugh going and it feels like you broke a rib Was that on last night or was that going back yours?

No, no, that was the the scared straight One from last from last night.

Okay, and it was

it was it started out with Eddie Murphy and Kenan Thompson And then will Ferrell came in later.

It

was it was hilarious.

All right.

I got to check that out like I said, I'm only like halfway through I did see the

Nothing compares to you.

I think that's when I stopped watching right to turn it off because I was running out of time But I will check out the rest of that Craig can it checks in on the stream and says Pete Chris Farley's motivational speaker will always hold a special spot in my heart No matter how much I or my buddies do that impersonation the original will always be dear to me Yeah, that was written by Bob Odin Kirk too that the what's his name Matt Foley, right lives in a van down by the river

Beautiful.

That's a great example of a brilliant writer like Bob Odenkirk with an amazing performer like Chris Farley.

And they might have collaborated on it, I don't know.

But I love the story that Bob Odenkirk was working at Ed DeBevix in Chicago, still doing second city classes.

And he wrote that and sent it in.

And he's waiting tables at Ed DeBevix and looks up on TV and sees Chris Farley doing Matt Foley.

Such a great story.

Craig says also Kristen Wiig was my favorite last night as well.

Yeah, she is hilarious We have a call.

Let's let's jump on the phone lines and get this party started.

Who we talking to here?

This is whistler from Richland Center

whistler.

How's it going?

Hey, it's going great man.

I'll tell you why it's been a bright sunny day here in Southwest Wisconsin Wow and last night's show I think in my own personal view

Uh, the old skit with John Belushi playing the samurai coffee shop owner or whatever.

Uh, anything with John Belushi in them.

Uh,

but the whole show was awesome.

Yeah.

No, it was.

I have to see the, uh, there are times, Wiz, where I will just Google or go to YouTube and pull up Belushi's old Saturday Night Live sketches.

I think my favorite is Little Chocolate Donuts.

Um, yeah, but I love it all yeah when he's doing cheap burger cheap burger chip chip chip and the bees all great

stuff

That's

great another one that I actually missed was George Carlin.

Oh Did they do something with Carlin last night?

They they had a little bit of a play back And I only saw it on advertisements

Okay

for the show, but yeah, George Carlin was always good.

He's great.

I'm excited to finish the show

Dan Acroy John Belushi dad Bill Murray Gilda Radner Jane Curtin

Jane Curtin.

Yeah, what a cast

you like

your original cast

Yeah, the original not ready for primetime players great stuff.

Have

you seen the

movie yet whistler?

Excuse me.

Have you seen the movie Saturday night yet?

No

That came out a couple months ago, and it's all about the lead-up to the first episode ever of the show.

I haven't seen it yet either.

I've heard it's great and I Recommend it based on what I've heard, but I haven't seen it myself, but it's on my list of watch

Okay, let me let me throw this out at you.

Yeah, all right Todd earlier in the day this summer was talking about them.

Oh Just a bit outside.

All right, I wanted to see that but it never came

close to me.

I'm 60 miles from any big theater here in Riston Center.

Okay.

The same thing now with the Green Bay Packer film,

Green and Gold,

that just came out.

I bet the farm on the Packers,

right?

Right.

You know, but hey, I love listening to you in the evenings.

I love listening to the radio.

And, you know, Todd knows me.

It's like, well,

Winsor is kind of weird, but that's okay

That makes for bet it's more fun when people are weird than when they're just sort of more vanilla So I I celebrate your weirdness and even though I didn't necessarily see it.

Thanks so much for the call whizzer keep listening and thanks so much

Hey, you bet you man.

Have a good

evening buddy you too He's talking about Todd Michaels, right?

Todd Alba.

Oh Todd Alba.

Yeah interesting

I'll have to do, we'll do a background check on Whizzler with Todd Alba.

Sounds like it might be warranted.

He's a self-proclaimed weirdo.

I love that even more.

I love people that are weird.

It's like the old Karowax saying, the only ones for me are the mad ones.

The people who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved.

Those are the fun people.

But I like it even more when someone says that about themselves.

How do you rate yourself Conrad?

Do you think you're weird?

Do you think you're a pretty normal dude?

Uh, I think I'm pretty in between

in between.

Okay.

That's a good way to play it.

Uh, Anna from Madison says, when Will Ferrell came on in the prison skit last night on SNL, it made me laugh so hard.

I already got to check that

out.

It's so funny.

Uh, Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids says, adventures with Bill, the claymation guy.

Oh yes.

Mr. Bill, I think, right?

Best musical guest was Ricky Lee Jones.

No kidding.

Okay, great text Tyler.

Thank you.

Do we have time for our Simpsons clip?

We do not we do not all right.

We have a little tribute We'll get to this at some point during the show folks.

It is Presidents Day after all Conrad how did you celebrate Presidents Day?

You know honestly, I didn't even

know was Presidents Day two you rolled in and saw it on the sheet It's also what are these old

Is it National Random Acts?

Okay.

How come we don't have President's Day on here?

I knew it was President's Day.

Because I didn't know it was President's

Day.

All right.

We have a Simpson's tribute.

Their song, We Are the Mediocre Presidents, great tune.

And we have Bart Simpson playing John Wilk's Booth, trying to take out Abe Lincoln with Homer cheering him on.

It's a beautiful thing.

We'll get to that at some point in the show.

After the news, folks, our old pal Matt, he's not old.

He's not even middle age, probably.

Matt's a young guy.

But he's coming up after the news.

We're going to talk movies and award shows and all kinds of great stuff.

With our pal, Matt Miller.

It's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media, Radio Network.

Steve from Florida says the first season of SNL will always be my favorite.

They set the stage for everyone through the 50 years.

I thought Steve Martin did a great job last night starting the show.

I agree, Steve.

But I will say...

If I never see Martin Short and Steve Martin on the same stage again, I'm okay with that.

They're great.

I love them both individually.

I love them together, but enough.

They're like a married couple.

Tom from Jackson says, do you remember the Friday show?

Yes.

That was sort of an answer to Saturday Night Live.

And I was thinking maybe it was ABC, but Michael Richards.

Kramer from Seinfeld was an original cast member on Fridays.

In fact, there was a video that just surfaced recently of he and Andy Kaufman getting into it during a live broadcast of Fridays, which was great.

And upsetting at the same time, but they worked through it.

I do remember that, Tom.

I don't think it lasted very long if I remember correctly.

Keep those questions coming.

What is your favorite Saturday Night Live character or sketch from all time?

You can pick from 50 years, folks.

Let us know at 855.

752-4842-8557-5CIVIC or text us on the app or the stream, however you're listening.

It's great to hear from you.

Right now, it is my pleasure to welcome to the show one of our favorite frequent flyers who does great work as a film critic based in Milwaukee.

You've heard him before, you've read his stuff.

Matt Miller joins us now on Nightlight.

Hey, Matt, how you doing, buddy?

Hey, I'm doing well.

Staying

warm.

I was in your fair city this last weekend.

It was lovely.

Oh, wonderful.

I'm glad you enjoyed your time here.

What brought you to Milwaukee?

Well, my son lives there currently, and we hung out with him all weekend and just sort of wanted to get out of, you know, our town is pretty small.

And my goal was to go to Milwaukee and see three movies, and then I'd be done with the best picture nominee.

Films and of course I didn't go to any movies and we just hung out and shot the breeze and all that kind of stuff, but that was fun

How dare you?

I know see movies and spend time with your family instead.

What kind of a monster are you?

That's the when that's the problem like, you know, you don't talk so I drive to Milwaukee and watch nine hours of movie actually 14 hours in movies because I haven't seen the brutalist yet and You know, but it was alright.

It was still a fun time walk.

He's a great town.

So How you doing Matt?

I'm doing very well.

You know, we're ramping up Oscar season.

We're two weeks away still, which is probably too long.

I still think the Oscars need to move themselves comfortably.

into late February rather than drag things up to March.

But you know, obviously with the fires and stuff this year, it's maybe not the worst thing that they gave, gave some time between everything.

So but yeah, I'm ready for Oscar season to come to a close.

Yeah, no, I'm with you.

And I, although I still have three, three films to see, we'll talk about that.

I know I think you have a couple to see as well, we can, we can get into that.

But

Did I understand this properly on our text exchange earlier?

You were not boycotting Saturday Night Live, but you seemed like you were very indifferent, Matt.

Yeah, I am indifferent to the SNL 50 thing.

I feel like they just celebrated themselves 10 years ago, and I know

literally they

did.

But I don't know, I've kind of reached a point of I don't need, you know, everyone to congratulate SNL on being moderately funny, you know?

I watched the Saturday Night movie, and that was the same case where it was like this whole thing of like, we're about to revolutionize comedy.

Oh my gosh, can you believe the stakes of this moment?

And for a bumblebee.

Skit, you know, I don't know I'm done with SNL and I'm definitely done with SNL congratulating itself on being the most important TV show of all time

Well, it's interesting you say that because you're right.

They just did them.

I still haven't seen the movie Saturday night.

I saw half you don't have to I've heard from some people it's good and I've heard other people's who I am I'm gonna see it because I'm curious Did you see studio 60 on the sunset

strip

years ago, right?

Yeah.

Then

you saw Saturday Night Live because it's got the same vibe of that where it's this reverential thing.

Yeah.

Okay.

I

think that a Saturday Night Live movie would be funny, but it's not.

And yeah, unless you're like super into SNL's history, I think that movie is an easy skip for anybody.

I do think it's funny because I haven't watched it regularly in years.

But I do have fond memories as a kid watching it up at our, in our, like my grandma's cottage, all of us at, you know, you got two channels up in the North woods.

We were all gathered around watching Saturday Night Live.

I do have fond memories of it, but I don't disagree with you.

They've got a movie.

They've got the three hour 50 year anniversary.

I think there was a big music celebration.

It's like they're definitely cashing in on that brand.

And I don't blame them for doing that, but I don't envision myself watching all of it, I guess is

what I said.

Yeah, you put Donald Trump as one of the hosts.

You've had Elon Musk as one of the hosts.

You have.

repeatedly brought back Dave Chappelle.

You padded yourself on the back by giving Sinead O'Connor a tribute when you tossed her under the bus.

It's just not a show that I'm really in the mood to be like, congratulations, SNL.

And on top of all that, they just haven't been very funny in recent years.

I mean, I think it says a lot that they tried to anoint the music sketch that was popular this season and immediately put that into their SNL 50 sketch.

And it's like, that's been around for two, two weeks.

Like that's what you've got these days.

I don't know.

Conrad Matt is single-handedly trying to dissuade me from my love for Saturday Night Live.

And I hate to say it's actually working a little bit.

I'm starting to come down a little bit.

Listen, SNL is innocence because they gave us Bill Hader.

So, you know, they gave us Gilda Radner and lots of great comic.

For sure.

I think it's hard for someone my age and younger to have the appreciation of SNL because SNL's mostly been watched via YouTube.

Right?

Yeah, great

point.

And in a lot of cases, the best SNL bits in recent years, whether are normally either A people cracking on sketches, which is bad comedy.

Really annoying.

Yeah.

which is really annoying and becoming a shtick and in a sense of itself or it's the pre-recorded stuff.

It's the lonely island guys or it's the the new trio that does the the super hyper edited please don't destroy.

So I think maybe the younger generation for them it's it's kind of a comedy show that every time it shows up on Saturday night it's like congratulations you're a week late on the jokes.

We have

social media now.

So

it's

interesting.

It's the New York Times of comedy, you know?

It has a lot of flaws, but I'd be very, very sad, and it would be a sad thing if it was gone.

Oh, that's interesting.

Yeah, to me, the worst...

at that was Jimmy Fallon.

He would walk out in a sketch and he'd just start laughing right away.

It's like, why are you in this?

You know, everyone thought it was cute and oh, he's cute and he's laughing because he can't stand it because they're so funny.

It's like, I want to see what they're trying to do here.

I don't want to, I don't want the focus to be on him laughing.

And he, to me, he was like the worst one, you know.

Yeah.

When you had him and a ratio of sans on screen together, they were a real problem in terms of good, tight.

clever comedy.

It was a lot of just these two guys really think they've come up with something humor.

Exactly.

All right.

All of that criticism aside, Matt, which a lot of it is warranted.

I agree with you.

Do you have a favorite character or a favorite sketch from the history of the show?

In the history of the show, that's, that's a lot.

I, like I said, as a millennial, I do really enjoy the Lonely Island bits.

I also think John Mulaney is just a tremendous.

comedy sketch writer.

He's the guy who did the kind of musical numbers.

What was it the Brooklyn bodega and stuff like

that

show always takes a step up with his book.

He is the brainchild behind Stefan on weekend update.

So I'm a big fan of him.

Um, and I don't know, I'm going to cheat on this answer by saying that like

SNL's existence gave us 30 rock, maybe the best sitcom of all time.

So that's fine by me.

You know,

I

do think so.

I like those.

I think the original Tom Hanks Black Jeopardy sketch is very good.

It's very funny and very, you know, potent.

I don't know if anyone wanted to see that sketch

on SNL 50

last night, but the original was really good.

And even the one with Black Panther was very good as well.

So those are some of the ones that stick out in my mind.

that's great um so have you been watching the award shows matt have you been tracking all of them i know there's like a certain significance it seems like or people tie well they won this so they have a better shot at the oscar and that kind of thing it's hard to keep track of

Yeah, it is tricky.

So for people who don't know, we're in precursor season right now.

So you've got the producers guild, the writers guild, the directors guild and the screen actors guild, all these various guilds that make Hollywood movies that are a part of the Academy.

They're giving out their awards right now.

And unlike the Golden Globes, unlike the Critics Choice Awards, these are groups that actually vote for the Oscars.

So if you want to have an idea of where things are maybe tallying up and where things are going, you keep an eye on.

and these precursor awards.

And it's very interesting, right now it's looking like a Nora is your front runner, the Sean Baker movie about a woman who marries a Russian.

piece of piece of crap.

Like a

little wormy Russian guy.

And fine, and hopes that thinks she's in love and thinks that she's got, you know, her out of her life.

And it kind of turns into a crazy night out.

And it's it's all of a sudden kind of become a steamroller.

It won the writer's Guild Award.

It won the director's Guild Award and run the producer's Guild Award already.

And I believe the last time a movie won all

three of those and didn't win best picture of the Oscars, I believe was Brokeback Mountain in 2006.

And that was a huge upset.

That was a massive surprise.

And obviously there were a lot of other things going on in 2006.

We were not as LGBTQ, you know, sensitive and people were trying to find reasons to not vote for Brokeback Mountain back then.

So Crash came back, came from behind and won that.

best picture race and a kind of surprise.

We still have the SAG awards coming up this weekend.

And that'll be interesting.

Enora is up for best picture there.

If it wins there, I think we are free and clear to say Enora is your front runner to win best picture.

But a complete unknown could win.

Wicked could win.

Wicked is the most nominated movie at the SAG awards.

So it'll be very interesting where that takes things.

I will say, I don't think this is like an Oppenheimer year where everyone two months out was like Oppenheimer, no one else has to show up for the ceremony.

Oppenheimer's winning best picture, done deal, you know, white pans.

I feel like if we could see the vote totals, the vote percentages, I think we'd be looking at a very close race that Enora is just squeaking by.

I think there's a lot of people who like Conclave and like the Brutalist and like a complete unknown.

And it's just Enora is just maybe a tiny bit percentage ahead of them.

Interesting.

My guest is Matt Miller.

Check out his work at A Man About Film, Matt Substack.

He does great work there.

He's a Milwaukee film critic and joins us often here on Nightlight.

Matt, you, okay, so let me ask you about this.

Just your opinion, I saw Nora a couple weeks ago.

I liked it.

I think I would have liked it better if it weren't up for best picture.

I think people are in love with Sean Baker.

I'm in love with Sean.

The Florida Project is one of my all-time favorite films.

Red Rocket is

incredible.

I said, Tangerine.

I warmed up to Tangerine.

I really liked Tangerine, too.

I think the guy's a real talent, but I'm struggling with Enora being a best picture.

I thought it kind of dragged, and that's just me personally, but I know that it won.

I know the conclave won the BAFTAs, and supposedly there's a lot of crossover with voters, so now that's getting some Oscar momentum.

But is Enora worthy of all these awards in your opinion?

And I'm just asking that because I need you to set me straight.

Yeah, I mean, is it worthy of winning an award that Green Book won?

I mean, that's the question we're asking here.

Will it join the company of Crash and driving Miss Daisy?

But no, I think I'm very similar to you.

I like Enora quite a bit.

I think it's a good movie.

It would be one of those situations where winning best picture would be the worst thing to happen to it because people would

watch that movie and be

like, this was the best picture of that year.

Right.

Okay.

It's kind of like, you know, the best thing that happened to La La Land was not winning best picture because that movie is so nice and so light and fluffy that the mantle of the best movie of a year crushes it.

Right.

I think Nora's good.

I agree for a movie that's kind of going for kind of a after-hour

screwball, crazy, one crazy night energy.

I think it drags in places.

I also think Anora gets lost in that movie at a lot of points.

I think the perspective of the movie disappears from her perspective to other characters' perspectives.

And I think the ending would hit more if we knew more of what was going on in Anora's head in that movie.

She still kind of remains at a distance for a lot of it.

I do think the movie's a good time.

I think the movie's good.

don't think I it would not be my vote for best picture and it would be it would be a strange best picture win like a movie that small that prickly um that kind of

shapeless that these are not the kind of things that the Oscars go for.

I think maybe it's them looking at this movie and being like, we used to make more movies like this.

We mean, we used to make, you know, five easy pieces

and

these kind of and after hours and these kind of thorny, tricky

character

pieces.

Can we go back to these kind of movies?

Yeah.

Maybe if we give a Nora our prize, we'll see more of this kind of stuff rather than it being an exception.

Very cool.

Matt Miller's here.

We're coming right back after a very short break.

We're talking awards shows.

Oscar lead up.

We're going to talk about some of the films he and I have seen.

You're here on a great night, folks.

We got two mats on the same show.

First time in radio history.

It's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Paula from the 9-2-0 checks in.

That's Conrad's mom for those of you listening at home.

Gilda Radner is Roseanne Rosanadana.

That's our second vote tonight for Gilda Radner as Roseanne Rosanadana.

Great choice, Paula.

Thank you.

AJ from the 6-0-8 says, Hey Pete, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for any Chris Farley sketch, but I also laugh every time at Dan Akroyd and Colin Blosk.

Some of these I forgot about.

I forgot about the colon blow thing.

And anything by Phil Hartman, I love too.

That's a great text, though.

Thank you, AJ.

And thank you, Paula.

Matt Miller is here with us.

He is a Milwaukee film critic.

Check out his work at a Man About film, his sub-stack.

He just Googled Matt Miller and a Man About film, and all Matt's work will come up.

Just to go back to Nora, just for a second, Matt, I loved the end of it, where they're married like a week.

And then the kid's parents come over and they're the biggest jerks in the world, obviously, because their kid is a jerk.

And they say, you know, you're getting in an element, whatever, without giving too much away.

She gets a backbone for a moment and says, no, we didn't sign a prenup.

I'm taking you to the cleaners for everything.

That would have made that movie.

Maybe I'm old fashioned and I like that plot point.

But then it just kind of fizzled after that.

I don't know.

But it's real.

It's very realistic.

And I think, again, it's just like if it weren't.

nominated for Best Picture, I would have liked it more.

I don't

know.

Yeah.

And like I said, that happens to almost every front-runner Oscar movie or movie that gets nominated for Oscars period is just there's always this weight of, oh, should you, do you deserve this mantle?

Yeah.

Again, I think it endures the kind of movie that could really get crushed by that.

I mean, this happened to Argo.

This happened to The Shape of Water, you know?

It happens to almost every movie that isn't a universally agreed upon masterpiece, like something like A Parasite or A Moonlight or A Lord of the Rings Return of the King, you know?

There are certain movies that escape that, but if it's divisive, people immediately are like, well, we've screwed this up, you know?

Conclave, now we talked about that at one best picture at the BAFTA's last night or this weekend.

And just based on what I've read, I think it was a variety set.

It gives it momentum for the Oscars.

I liked Conclave and I liked the twist at the end.

To me, that made it a more interesting movie and Oscar worthy if it is Oscar worthy.

What did you think of Conclave?

I enjoyed it.

I predicted that would win Best Picture probably incorrectly a few months ago.

It seems like the kind of movie in a year where there's not a lot of consensus on a movie that feels very comfortably Oscars.

It feels like an Argo Pick where it's just a

really

well-made, well-crafted

drama for adults with brains.

And that is something to be celebrated.

I think it's a good fun movie.

I do caution against the BAFTA hype for two things.

First of all, the Oscar voting period I believe is like done in 24 hours.

Okay.

So, so they're voting

right

now for the Oscars.

And so conclave, how much momentum can it get from this?

Who knows really?

And second of all, you know, the BAFTAs, the British Oscars for people who don't know, they don't line up very often with the Oscars.

I think when I looked up the numbers, I think the BAFTAs and the Oscars have only overlapped twice for best picture.

Oh, really?

In the

past 10 years, they tend to have, you know, kind of more British taste.

They went with 1917 over

parasite, you know, the

British in terms of their taste in things, a little bit more traditional in terms of what they give best picture to.

And so I caution, I still think Anora is your front runner.

I think Conclave is in the conversation and I'm still waiting for, I think a complete unknown could do something here.

I wouldn't be

surprised if that snuck in for a win at SAG Awards.

I think people really respect and like that movie.

It's a movie about artists, which Hollywood famously the Academy loves.

And, you know, even people who went into that movie being like, is this just going to be Walk the Line 2.0 came out of it being like, that's a well-made, well-acted, interesting movie.

So I'm waiting for the...

For that to equal an Oscar win or some at some point here, I I kept thinking that Edward Norton was maybe going to creep past Kieran Culkin for best supporting actor.

That doesn't seem to have that that isn't generating anywhere.

So maybe I'm just, you know, putting these things out into the universe and they are not the universe is not sending them back to me.

I'm not manifesting right now.

I agree with you like I, you know,

The complete unknown isn't Oppenheimer, but it really, the more I think about it and the more of these films I see, I could see it winning.

I feel like there's no weak link in it.

It's got great acting, great music.

It's a great story about a small piece of his, you know, career.

I just really enjoyed it.

I want to ask you before we get to the new open, I know you saw the new Captain America movie, but man, Matt, the substance.

I saw that and I'm still trying to forget it.

What's your take on the substance?

I really like that movie.

But the minute I saw that movie, I was like, there's no way this is in the Oscar conversation.

And here

we are

somehow.

That is a midnight movie.

That

is a

movie we watched at midnight with a bunch of weirdo gore hounds and people who want a crazy, weird time at the movies.

And I think it's great that the Oscars are recognizing the substance, that they're recognizing the craft of the movie, and that they're recognizing Demi Moore in the Best Actress category.

Because the more the Oscars bring other genres into the fold, the better.

The

more

that horror movies aren't immediately disrecorded because they are not a Oscar genre would be great.

The fact that the substance, a movie that

gross, that gnarly, that kind of blunt and in-your-face, that gruesome, is nominated for Best Picture and may win Best Actress is very interesting.

It's very exciting on some level.

I think that movie's a real hoot.

I think the movie's very attending.

I think that movie's very incisive about, you know, the pressure we put on people and women and particularly women that Chobhiz puts under women and kind of the

the age,

the

ageism that both sides feel that gets fomented in this, the rage that older people feel towards the younger generation, younger generation feels towards the older generation.

I think that movie is really smart, but also really silly in all the best ways.

Wild that that is the best picture.

Very well said.

Hey, can we keep you for a few minutes after the news, Matt?

I have a few more things.

All right.

We're having fun here with Matt Miller on a Monday night in the middle of February.

What could be better?

This is Peach Wabba Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.