The 2025 Oscars & Theatre (Hour 2)

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with P. Chwaba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who loves the sin but hates the sinner, P. Chwaba.

Welcome,

ladies and gentlemen.

Tonight Light with Pete Schwabba.

I am your host, Pete Schwabba.

Great to have you with me on this Monday night where we start our countdown for the next Oscar broadcast, which is just 364 short days away, ladies and gentlemen.

Did you watch?

I did.

I love movies.

I love to watch movies.

I like to watch the Oscars.

I didn't always watch them, but I did watch them last night.

I watched them last year.

As the years go by, I find myself watching the entire broadcast more.

It's fun to watch with a group, kind of like the Super Bowl.

A billion people joined me last night in watching the Oscars.

Were you one of them?

Let me know.

Let me know what your thoughts were about the broadcast, about some of the winnings or people who maybe got snubbed.

Did you think there was a surprise?

Did you have no interest?

You can share all of this stuff at 855-752-4842, 855-75 Civic.

Phone lines are open.

Let me know what you thought of the Oscars.

We'll be joined at 635 by one Matt Miller, Milwaukee based film critic who we have on this show quite frequently to do a deep dive into the broadcast.

Lots to talk about too.

There was Conan O'Brien as the host.

There was some kind of crazy weird James Bond tribute.

The In Memoriam segment was always, that's a staple at the Oscars.

Couple snubs there we'll talk about.

Adam Sandler made a crazy surprise appearance.

Timothy Chalamet showed up.

I want to cheer for this guy.

But I don't know what he was doing with that yellow outfit.

Don't you have enough attention?

You're an Oscar nominee in the Best Actor category.

You're a young guy.

You had two films that were nominated for Best Picture, and you show up wearing that?

That just screams like, I need more attention.

Really strange.

But we'll talk about all things Oscar over the course of the night.

We'll talk about Adrian Brody's really long acceptance speech, which is ironic because he was in the Brutalist, which was almost four hours.

And I muscled through that yesterday before the broadcast.

You see the Brutalist Conrad?

I did not.

Awful.

Did not like it.

I would give razzies to the brutalist and the substance.

The substance was just terrible in my opinion.

The brutalist was just long and sort of self-indulgent.

It looked cool.

The acting was great, but eh.

We'll talk about all of that with Matt Miller.

He's gonna be here to help us do a deep dive into last night's broadcast.

And then at 7.35,

This is exciting.

We have the chair of the musical theater department at UW-Stevens Point, who's going to be here talking about their big spring play, Pirates of Penzance, that those of you who live in Wisconsin Rapids, Wausau, Plover, Stevens Point, it's all right there.

Beautiful facility, gorgeous theater, and you can still catch Pirates of Penzance.

I know this coming weekend, possibly the weekend after two, not 100% sure about that, but we will talk with our guest, Mark Hansen.

about that and how you can catch this great show by these up-and-coming musical theater future professionals.

We'll talk about that at 735 with Mark Hansen.

Riding shotgun as usual is the lovable producer

Conrad.

Hello.

How's it going, buddy?

It's going good.

It was a really nice day.

How about that?

Yeah.

It was a great day to stay inside and just kind of hang

out a little bit.

I had the windows open.

It got outside for a little bit today, took a little walk.

It was great.

I was inside.

I had a lot of work to do and I thought, you know, I don't know what it's going to take for me to get outside.

The last three gorgeous days I've stayed inside and just kind of worked on the show, worked on some other stuff, made some phone calls.

We have to, we have a little bit of business here we have to get to the other night.

Friday we got texts, we got Tom from Jackson sent us a text right as we were going off the air.

And he said, what is the name of the restaurant?

And that was in Dork County, I believe we were talking about, where our musical guest, Laura Sawaska, worked.

And I don't know that we asked Terry that time.

If I had seen your question, I would have asked her.

I don't know that she knew, actually.

But we could try to find that out.

It was a diner, wasn't

it?

Yeah, on Washington

Island?

Yes.

Yeah, we'll have to try to find that out.

I would love to go see her.

She sounds fantastic.

Love the song Terry brought Friday night for Barbie on Friday night.

Always fun.

And then we got another text too.

Bud, I got Bud confused with Brian from Milwaukee, I think.

You did, yes.

Bud is the one who listens from 4 a.m.

to 6 a.m.

when we're on the repeat.

The rebroad the recast the rebroadcast if you will bud from Jamesville tuned in and says hi guys I deliver newspapers in Madison, and I appreciate the shout out by the way I deliver papers from a truck so he is a truck driver I Knew I wasn't crazy you got that right glad we could keep you company buck Bring the news bud buck I'm so

I got Oscars in the brain, because I had a joke about it.

Never mind.

But keep listening.

Happy we keep you company.

Keep delivering the papers.

I assume it's newspapers?

Do we still have newspapers?

I hope so.

But thanks for listening, buddy.

And text anytime.

So, all right.

Ladies and gentlemen, we've got our guest, Matt Miller, 635.

Mark Hansen from UW-Stevens Point at 735.

And that brings us, in honor of the Oscars, to our question of the night.

Let's talk about the

question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Questions.

What is your best picture from last year?

What film would you give an ask or two?

Let me know.

I mean, I know you guys over the course of the year saw at least one movie.

And that would have to be your Oscar winner, because that's what I'm asking.

What is your best picture from last year?

What film would you give an Oscar to?

8-5-5, 7-5-2, 4-8-4-2, 8-5-5, 7-5-Civic.

That's a good question.

And I'm gonna have to actually think about that.

I kind of spent all this time coming up with the question, because I wanted it to be best picture related, and now I'm kind of... What did you see?

You only saw Dune 2, right?

No, that's the movie I didn't see.

Oh, that's the movie.

You know, I'd give it to the full guy.

You can show yourself out.

I'm kidding.

I actually... That's the only picture you saw, okay.

No, I would actually give it to the challengers.

That movie I really... That was a good movie, yeah.

I really, really liked that movie.

That's a

great choice.

Okay.

Different, innovative, cool.

I admit I'm getting swept up in the Enora buzz.

Sean Baker.

who I wasn't, he wasn't even on my radar until a guest recently said, what have you seen of Sean Baker's or something of that effect?

And I started watching Sean Baker films.

I had heard of the Florida Project for a couple of years and it was on my list of things to watch, never watched it.

And then when the guest said that, I can't remember who it was, I watched the Florida Project, loved it.

One of the sweetest, kind of sad, but one of the sweetest endings I've ever seen in a film, William DeFoe was great.

And I watched Tangerine, Red Rocket, or Red Rooster, Red Rocket, and Enora.

And I have to be honest, I don't even think Enora is Sean Baker's best film.

But Hollywood loves this guy.

And for him to go on a terror like he did last night, I think they were nominated for six Oscars and they won five.

That was the big story last night was Enora.

Let me know if you saw Enora.

I liked it.

I'm surprised at one, but...

Having seen The Brutalist now, which I did not like.

I don't know what else... I don't know what I would have picked.

But I would say last year, or at least of the films I saw this year, I might have liked a complete unknown the best.

Conclave was good.

Best picture I saw all year though.

I will get back to you.

Let me know what you guys think though.

What's the best film you saw all year?

What would you give an Oscar to?

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

You can text us on the app.

Really easy to use if you haven't downloaded it.

Check it out.

There's a little text icon right next to whatever station you are listening to because we are on statewide.

So you just click the text icon and fire away or you can call us.

You can also text us on the stream.

Conrad, how can people watch the radio?

Yeah, so on Facebook, it's WISS, WGBW, or Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on YouTube.

It's Civic Media or WGBW.

And on Twitter, Civic Media or WGBW.

And I've got a great shirt on tonight, folks.

I'm wearing one of my favorite shirts.

So if you do watch on the stream on YouTube or whenever the outlets Conrad just said, you're going to get to see me in a really slick looking shirt.

If that's not enough to get you to the stream, I don't know what it is.

But join us any way you can.

Just join us.

Be part of the show.

Today is national Irish whiskey day.

Yeah

Man, that makes me thirsty I'm on like month 20 27 now with no booze other than the occasional Blue moon with has like 0.25 alcohol in it or something Now I do drink a hundred of those to catch a buzz that might be a problem but No international Irish whiskey day that do you like Irish whiskey?

I

don't know if I was into it at your age No, you know, I'll take the occasional shot during March because yeah, you know getting festive but I Don't really like it in drinks or just by itself.

You know, it's weird I I used to drink Jameson when I was actually when I was your age That's what we would do if we're at the bars or even when I was younger We would do a shot of Jameson a shot Like if you're just gonna get drunk

Drink the cheapest crap there is.

You don't down good Irish whiskey.

And I think there are better Irish whiskeys than Jameson.

I'm just saying, even back in my mid-20s, I was probably popping down five bucks for a shot of Irish whiskey.

Why would I do that?

And then just down it.

It's like my mother-in-law had a guy she was seeing for a while, and I had great Irish whiskey.

I think I had Ptolemore Dew or something.

I asked him if he wanted some, and I poured in two fingers, and then he puts Coke in it.

I almost lost my mind.

No, that's what Kessler's for.

But whatever.

I love Irish whiskey.

You can tell me your favorite Irish whiskey, too, folks, if you like.

So many good ones.

I do think my favorite for the money is Ptolemore Do.

Ever had Ptolemore Do?

I have.

Yeah.

I'm just not a huge... I really don't sip anything on the rocks, to

be honest.

Oh, I drink it neat, I think.

Really good whiskey, just in my opinion.

I think it has to be neat.

Okay.

There there's one have to be but there's one liquor that I actually drink by itself.

What's that?

And it's bamboo What's that again?

It's it's a rum, but it's it's like a banana.

I don't know right banana flavored Okay, it's it's so good.

I have it in mixed drinks, or I have it just in a glass.

It's For a Christmas two years ago, I got

a set of the bamboo and then the little glasses.

Look at you, man.

Stylin'.

All right, we have so much to talk about.

We're talking Oscars tonight.

Matt Miller is here.

Mark Hanson is here at 735 talking about a great big production at UW-Stevens Point.

We're going to do a deep dive on the Oscars with Matt.

We're going to come back and talk more about the Oscars.

I've heard Adrian Brody is still delivering his acceptance speech.

We'll check in on that.

This is Pete Schwab and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

So I was all set to read a text.

And Google makes me log in.

Yeah.

So we're going to have to keep everybody in suspenders here.

Because that's my favorite Benny Hill sing.

We're going to keep you in suspenders.

So our question tonight is, what would you give an Oscar to for Best Picture?

What's the best film you saw last year?

Let us know.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

Ross from Crawford County.

Ross is checking in.

Hey, buddy.

He says, I like Inora because the actress had such spunk.

She just wouldn't put up with you know what and when the Russian or Armenian Mafia boy showed up I thought oh boy here comes the violence and it just turned into these bumbling fixers that was just hilarious It brought some levity to a serious movie Very well said Ross.

That's a great take He says nickel boys was great a complete unknown.

I really enjoyed they're all good movies all the ones you mentioned Ross I liked a lot too.

Nickel boys is such a heart-wrenching story

Based on a true story loosely the two characters were great.

It was weird watching for me personally Watching them break the fourth wall.

I that I had trouble adjusting to that and I don't know if that helped or hurt their cases for best picture I don't know but I did enjoy the film and I do agree with you You know Sean Baker stuff is also weirdly funny.

It's kind of like dark comedy the Russian guys were funny I think there's a scene where a Nora kicked one of the guys in the nose and broke his nose

I just felt like it went on too long and I'm totally nitpicking because, you know, now that the Oscars are in the books and you see how overwhelmingly Enora won, you kind of have to go, yeah, okay, that's the best picture.

Not saying it was like anonymous.

I think The Brutalist was a favorite for a while.

I thought Conclave had picked up steam.

And I would have been okay with that cool, with that too.

There was great acting, pretty good script, and then a cool twist at the end.

I did not see coming.

So I would have been okay with that too.

Ryan from Madison, he's in the 608.

He says, did, that's a Marjorie Taylor green text.

That was not a best picture.

The text was not a best picture.

I don't think it was intended for this show.

Kurt checks in on the stream and says, a complete unknown was phenomenal.

I was hoping it would sweep the Oscars and bummed it didn't win any.

Yeah, that's right.

They got shut out, didn't they, Kurt?

I liked it a lot too.

I was surprised.

I thought maybe, especially since like Adrian Brody won, but the brutalist kind of got shut out, I thought after that, it might have won one more.

I thought, you know, maybe Timothy Chalamet would win, but he didn't.

And seeing that outfit he had on, I'm glad he didn't win.

What is he doing?

I know people want to seem weird and make their mark and stand out, but good Lord.

This

is

what

I, my theory is that Kylie Jenner addressed him.

Yeah, that could, that's true.

Blame your Kardashian, right?

You might be right about that.

You gotta stand out, Tim.

In the 608, I was disappointed that Timothy Chalamet and Demi Moore lost.

Halle Berry looked amazing.

Yes, she did.

That's Anna from Madison.

Thank you, Anna.

I was watching, my mom was over, I was watching it with my wife, my mom and my mother-in-law.

and we all got so drunk, there were drugs, it was great.

No, but my mom and my mother-in-law both commented on Halle Berry, she looked beautiful, no question about that.

I don't know about Timothy Chalamet, I would have been fine if he won, because he was great, he learned how to play the guitar, he did the voice, it was great, but to me more, I don't know, I just hated everything about that movie.

And I thought there were other actresses that did really well too.

I have no problem with Mikey Madison.

She kind of carried the whole movie.

We should check in because Adrian Brody won his second best actor award, which is quite an accomplishment.

That's incredible.

And last I heard, he was still talking and he has now surpassed the amount of time it took to watch The Brutalist.

Let's hear part of his speech.

You're already counting me down.

Okay.

Thank you, God.

Thank you.

for this blessed life.

If I may just humbly begin by giving thanks for the tremendous outpouring of love that I have felt from this world and every individual that has treated me with respect and appreciation, I feel so fortunate.

Acting is a very fragile profession.

It looks very glamorous and in certain moments it is, but the one thing that I've gained, having the privilege to come back here, is to have some perspective.

No matter where you are in your career, no matter what you've accomplished, it can all go away.

And I think what makes this night most special is the awareness of that and the gratitude that I have to still do the work that I love.

We'll come back.

It goes on quite a while.

We'll be checking back in throughout the show to see if he put some closure on that.

Very sweet, very genuine.

He teared up.

He's obviously very thankful.

But it's funny that it...

Actor who's so charismatic does not give a great speech And maybe he wasn't prepared maybe he was talking from the heart.

I don't know.

I do think Adrienne Brody is a great actor My issue was with that movie if if that was and I've heard it's like loosely based on other stories of architects and immigrants But all the weird stuff that happened in that movie I'm okay.

I would have liked it better if it were a true story or based on an actual

Guy named last low who came to this country and Connected with this millionaire and built cool structures.

It just went on forever And I don't think it was the best picture I'm having I just saw it under the wire yesterday And I'm glad it didn't win and I would have taken a Nora conclave a complete unknown I thought they were all way better than the brutalist.

I Like the double entendre name But was not a huge fan

So our question tonight, what would you give an Oscar to what's the best picture you saw yesterday yesterday?

I'm sorry last year What's your best picture?

Let us know eight five five seven five two four eight four two and we'll ask the same question to my next guest Matt Miller joins us the Milwaukee Film Critic We'll do a deep dive into the Oscars recap the event talk about some of the movies It's gonna be a lot of fun and we'll check in again and see if Adrian Brody is still talking.

It's peach wabbit a nightlight on the civic media radio network

Jim from Applin says, I would have given it to Dune 2.

It left me impatiently waiting for number three.

Man, it's funny because Dune 2 was nominated.

One of the ten best according to the Academy.

You did not hear much about it though.

I think it won best sound.

But I enjoyed it.

Great text, Jim.

I don't know much about Dune 3 either, but maybe we can ask our next guest that.

Joining us now in the program, as he so often does, our friend Matt Miller.

He's a Milwaukee film critic who does great work and has always enjoyed to read.

You can check out his sub-stack at A Man About Film.

Check out his work.

He does good stuff there.

And he joins us now over the stream on Nightlight.

Matt, how are you?

I'm doing great.

I'm doing fantastic.

A little tired.

I'm still waiting for Adrian Brody's speech time.

We've chopped it up.

We're getting through it.

It's a mini series here tonight.

It's unbelievable what he... It's funny.

It's ironic that...

He was in the longest movie in the history of mankind, and then he gives the longest speech, too.

So I love

it.

Well, and, you know, I could almost grant it if he was like a surprise winner.

Like if he was, you know, not a betting favorite and, you know, he gets up there and he's like, ah, or, but A, he was somebody who was expected to be up there.

It was between him and Timothy Chalamet.

And B, he's been there before.

Like he won an Oscar before.

This isn't new to you.

So, I mean, it's a great performance.

He's a worthy winner, but...

boy and and you know what no good speech has ever begun with the sentence i'm going he threw his gum at his wife you know like that

oh is that what he

threw i

didn't know

i

saw him toss something yeah he would have

gum and instead of just swallowing it like a normal person or i don't know figuring out something he like shucked it at his partner and i'm just like this is not a good start this is a this is not a strong start

it would have been cool if he was like smoking a cigarette and he looked at her and said

keep this lit.

But yeah, gum, I don't get that.

That just doesn't make sense.

I think

it's officially by one second the longest speech in the history of the Academy Awards.

Is that true?

which takes some doing.

So good

work, Adrian Brody.

And the funny thing is, it's not like he had a lot of meaningful things to say.

No.

We got to the end of that speech and we were like, the guys trying to, you know, make peace in the Middle East were able to wrap it up faster than you.

No kidding.

Yeah, he needed an envoy.

Yeah, it was strange because it was meandering.

It's like, really?

Then he tells them to stop the music.

I gotta get through this.

And like, he's a second time Oscar.

that's probably what gave him the street cred to have them do that, but come on, dude.

Well, and like, you'd think when he was shushing the orchestra, it was like, oh, here's where he has like the heartfelt tribute to his parents or something, and instead it was just more rambling.

It was one of the most bizarre parts of the night, and there was a random whiz tribute in the middle of the night, so it was

a

fun night, but that was not one of the highlights.

What?

All right, before we get hardcore into this deep dive, I...

came down to the wire.

The only film I was unable to see was I'm Still Here.

I just don't live in an area where they showed it and it's not available.

That was a

late release.

That one just came out just a few weeks ago.

Yeah, but I did see Nickel Boys and I did see the Brutalist.

I wasn't a fan of the Brutalist.

I love the story of Nickel Boys, but I thought the techniques they used breaking the fourth wall and kind of how they told the story took me out of it a little bit.

I know some people love it.

What is your take on those two films, Matt?

Yeah, I love Nickel.

Nickel Boys would have been, if I was a person with a ballot, Nickel Boys would have been my best picture.

I do get the kind of hesitance people have toward that movie.

For people who don't know, it's a movie about two young black boys in a reform school in a abusive, horrific reform school in Florida in the 1960s, based on the Coulson Whitehead novel.

And it's all told in first person mode.

It is all told from the perspective of

of its two characters.

And I think that works really well in that movie.

I think it especially serves as a gut punch when they're older, you see that the camera is not first person, it is dissociated.

It is seen from their backside.

And I think it's a very moving, emotionally well-told movie.

But I understand it is a very strange movie.

Like

I said, a lot of...

technical craft is getting involved in that film.

And it can be distancing for some people.

For me, it was more immersive.

But yeah, I'm amazed it got the best picture nomination over the likes of Sing Sing, which is a little bit more,

you know,

conventionally uplifting and interesting and kind of conventionally, you know, emotional.

So I was at the nomination was the win there.

And I respect the brutalist.

I think it's a mammoth

production that they pulled that movie off.

But for a three and a half hour long movie, I really want to feel that movie and really come away being amazed.

And the back half of that movie just doesn't come together for me in a way that I really walked out satisfied.

But I can't not appreciate.

everything that went into making that movie.

It's one maybe I respect more than I really love.

And I think that's why it didn't ruin

much last night, you know?

Yeah.

I think, you know, other than Adrian Brody and Best Score, I think Brutalist was otherwise pretty much held out.

And in a weird way, and that's a great way to put it, I respect it too.

And Adrian Brody was great.

I just felt like it would have had a better chance if it were a true story.

You know what I mean?

Like I felt like kind of it was like, wait, now this guy's doing this and now

I don't know.

It just did not resonate with me, but it looked great.

Adrian Brody, all the actors were great.

Felicity Jones

was great.

I will say, I like that it's not a true story.

Like, if you remember three years ago, there was that weird thing with Tar, the Kate Blanchett movie, where people were like, oh, is this a biopic?

And everyone was like, no, this is a completely made up character.

And that's what I had with The Brutalist, where I walked out and I was like, I got to read more about this architect.

And then

it was like,

oh, he's not a real person.

But I think that speaks to the writing of that movie that he feels so real in a lot.

And the story feels so tangible.

I think that's maybe the most impressive thing about the movie is that it feels like it should be based on a real person, or at least that this is a true story that actually is, for the most part, just inspired by an architect, as opposed to being truly a biography.

Right.

And it's hard to argue with his win.

Before we get into the awards, Matt, what did you think of the broadcast itself, the Oscars?

I

thought it was a really good show.

I think

I thought...

Conan O'Brien, this has got to be the first time in my lifetime that someone has hosted the Oscars and gotten rave reviews.

Yeah.

Normally the hosting the Oscars is the most hated job in Hollywood.

You know, it's a no win scenario.

Everyone thinks you did a bad job.

The room is, you know, awkward.

Conan killed it.

I

think he

did a very good job balancing, making fun of the room, making fun of himself.

When it got to the, why are we gathered here when the world is a mess?

Partion of the night.

I thought he delivered that really sincerely and well.

I thought he did a good job of, I liked the pomp and circumstance of the show.

I liked the kind of, we're going to do a 10 minute, you know, tribute to James Bond for no real reason.

What was that?

Yeah.

That was crazy.

If Amazon didn't buy the rights to Bond and that franchise is doomed to become a shell of itself and MCU'd to death, I think I'd be more upset about that, but I appreciated it.

I think, do you know the John Mulaney joke about making a birthday sign where it's like you start and you do a big ol' B and a big ol' I and a smaller R and a thing and you realize you're running out of room on the sign?

That's how last night's show kind of felt, where it was like, in the beginning of the night, they really let people take their time and luxuriate.

You got these really fun speeches and emotional moments.

And then as the night got on, clearly ABC was like, we got to wrap this up.

So

more people started getting played off.

And it seemed like things were really kind of rushing to get to the end.

But I thought it was a good show.

I'm sure the ratings aren't going to be great.

I don't think this was a show.

People were like, oh, I got to see what's going on.

here and we have to acknowledge that, you know, these kind of shows are becoming more niche entertainment as opposed to general public entertainment.

That's

fine.

That is the way culture is going right now.

Um, but I thought it was a good show.

And I think if the Oscars were smart, they should be like Conan.

Here's a 10 year contract doing this.

You did

great.

He was in Conan's already kind of awkward.

I thought he seemed at.

as at ease as I've ever seen him hosting that broadcast like he was a natural to do that.

I thought he pulled it off great.

He has

that good insider outsider energy where he knows what's going on.

He knows how to poke fun at the industry while also seeming like an outsider but also not

alienating the people way Kimmel can, or the way Ricky Gervais does, where Ricky Gervais just seems like he's, it tends to run a little mean and a little self satisfied about it's like, oh, I bet you've never heard this about yourselves.

Yes, they have Ricky, they have the internet too.

So I really liked Conan, I thought he had just the right tone, you know, and again, I'd be shocked if he doesn't come back next year, if he doesn't.

I don't know what they're doing.

I hope he does too.

And just to put a button on the broadcast itself, I love what they did with the fire victims, with the first responders.

The sand worm thing was ridiculous, but kind of funny and just silly.

So I like that.

Yeah.

The one complaint I have, and this will be apparently my eternal complaint, show clips of the

movie.

Yeah.

Show the work.

I don't need to hear Robert Downey Jr.

use this big five-minute flowery, you know, monologue to each of the nominees for Best Supporting Actor that I tune out of.

Show the work that you are nominating and get people excited to see these performances as opposed to have someone just being like, oh, man, that cinematography was so good.

Show the cinematography.

It's a visual medium.

Right.

That's what we're doing here.

Yeah.

Um, Mick Jagger was cool too.

That was kind of fun when Jagger went out there.

He, and that's the vibe I think of the modern Oscars, you know, have celebrities come out and kind of just like seem like they're hanging out, being cool

on

stage.

Like that, that was what the Oscars can be at their best.

And I think what we need them to be.

I thought last night it was that good combination of, like, relaxed and, you know, glamorous and luxuriating in its pump.

And I think that's a good combo we can move forward with.

I totally agree.

My guest is Matt Miller.

He is a Milwaukee-based film critic.

Check out his stuff on his sub-stack at A Man About Film.

We're breaking down the Oscars a little bit here.

Let's jump in to the actual awards, Matt.

Kieran Culkin started off the evening with a win.

Your thoughts?

One of the weirder steamroll victories I've seen in a while.

We've seen some weird ones too.

Like Renee Zellweger winning for Judy, which no one has thought about that Oscar winning quite some time.

I think he's very good in a real pain.

I'm just amazed there was never seemingly any competition.

And I kept waiting for that to happen.

You know, when real pain missed out on Best Picture nomination, I was like, okay, maybe this is Ed Norton's time.

And

then, you know, we start getting into the awards ceremonies and his speeches are kind of awkward and rambling.

And you're like, okay, well, maybe this will be, you know, Guy Pierce in the Brutalist.

Maybe people will move towards him.

Never happened.

People just really like him, like his persona.

liked that performance in the movie, which I think is fair.

It's a good performance and that movie crumbles if that performance isn't perfect.

Are you talking about Kieran Culkin now or Guy Pearce?

Kieran

Culkin.

Okay,

right.

If Culkin's performance is not pitch perfect in terms of being a charming jerk, like being a guy you hate that you have to be related to, but also you get why people like him.

That movie falls apart.

That movie is unwatchable.

That movie is

a

Sundance movie no one ever speaks of ever again.

And instead, it became the movie it was.

So I appreciate the win.

But yeah, I'm kind of amazed that it never faced any resistance this entire year.

My whole thing with that was, I felt like he was doing his character from succession too.

He's so good at that.

It's so natural to him.

I felt like Guy Pearce.

I wasn't expecting him to win, but when I saw, I just saw The Brutalist yesterday, and Guy Pearce was one of my favorite actors.

I thought he was great, loved Ed Norton, Jeremy Strong, I did not see the apprentice, Boris Soff was good, and Nora, really, it could have gone any way in that.

of those nominees at least

yeah i mean you've got borah boris uh

very boris

not i think yeah in in anora which obviously is a movie they loved and he becomes

a

very big part of that movie by the second half ed norton he's the heart of a complete unknown and i i agree i think guy pierce is really this is like he's fun in

the

middle list the way he plays this kind of you know aloof

Hyperbillionaire, you know,

I was I was trying to figure his character out the whole movie That was my favorite thing maybe about that in addition to Adrian Brody's performance.

Yeah

Yeah, I think all the thing with all the winners this year is that pretty much all of them I have no problems with this was a really

Strong year of winners that I'm like good for you like even Zoe Saldana.

I don't love Amelia Perez I don't love that yeah, but Listen Zoe's been putting in good work for years in really big stuff.

She took a big swing in this movie She's probably the best performance in that movie.

So yeah,

oh,

yeah, that's fine

Let's pick up there when we come back in for a very short break.

Matt Miller is here helping us break down the Oscars.

We'll get into some of the other awards when we come back.

And then Mark Hanson is here at 735, the musical theater chair at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point.

You won't want to miss that as well.

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

Network.

In Madison, she's in the 608 says, Pete, Adrian Brody's girlfriend is Harvey Weinstein's ex-wife.

Wow.

Talk about, yeah, they split up in 2018.

Talk about a rebound.

So if she's married to Harvey Weinstein, getting a chunk of gum thrown in her direction is probably a highlight of her day, I would imagine.

That is not the reason.

That is not great.

That is not, no one.

Well, whatever.

I mean, that's a shock.

Thank you, Anna, for the text.

And then, where are we here?

Conrad, I'm lost.

Oh, there we go.

Joshua from Warsaw says, Pete, this is good.

Pete, how about awards I watched?

The Godfather of Green Bay a couple months ago.

Good movie.

It made me laugh, but it deserves an award for the number of times the Macarena is played in a movie.

Yeah.

Most people probably wouldn't argue with their Joshua.

We paid handsomely for that title.

We wanted to

get our fair use out of it.

Matt Miller is here.

We're breaking down the Oscars.

Matt, so you're OK with Zoey Saldana?

That's another category I thought could have gone.

I would have been happy with anybody that won.

I thought they were all great.

I will say Amelia Perez, the more distance I have from it, the more I dislike it for some reason.

Yeah, I think it's funny because I talking to people in my Oscar watching room and people I was texting with one of the big takeaways was all that movie looks interesting I want to like everyone wanted to watch that movie But I think the thing is Amelia Perez is best watched in 10 second clips like that movie is so out of control and so many you know Impulses not being reigned in and a lot of people taking big swings that maybe don't work

especially across a two-hour time frame.

I can respect the swings it's taking, but it is not a movie I predict.

It was the least of the nominees I thought this year.

Same.

And what I don't understand is I don't think the Twitter scandal even hurt them.

I think they were lucky to win two.

I don't know that that really hurt them in the long run.

I think even as like I think that probably was the death knell for that movie but I think it was as soon as it got that many nominations because people forget it was only one nomination away from tying the record for most nominations for a movie ever um I think you know the frontrunners curse hit it you know it got all those nominations uh and people were like

Do we like this movie that much?

I don't think so.

And people backed away from it and they found other places to go.

And obviously, Enora was that case, especially in terms of best picture.

So let's talk about, we talked a little bit about Adrian Brody.

Was that an upset or who would you have given it to him at?

It's hard to say.

I would have given it to the woman Fernanda Torres, and I'm still here, the Brazilian movie.

I think that's a really fabulous performance in a very good movie.

I wouldn't call that an upset.

I know a lot of people in the aftermath were like, oh, Demi Moore looks like Hollywood didn't learn the lesson from the substance.

Oh, sorry.

Wait,

who did I say?

I was talking about Adrienne Brody.

But maybe you thought I met Amelia Perez.

But I was asking if you thought Adrienne Brody

Who would you have given best actor to?

Oh Best actor I would have boy in that category.

I'm trying to remember who's all in there.

You got Timothy

Chalamet Coleman

Domingo.

I think I would have given it to Chalamet I think he's pretty great in that movie and I think and of the nominate Oh, no Coleman Domingo and sing sing nevermind.

I forgot he's nominated He's tremendous in sing sing.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's Coleman Domingo is gonna be accepting award at the Oscars within the next five.

I agree

Putting out great work.

He is really liked in Hollywood.

I think if he finds the right movie and it gets the right push, that's a done deal.

You know, it's like Paul Giamatti with the holdovers, you know, give him one more movie and that man is going to have an Oscar.

It's so funny you say that because Coleman Domingo, you're right.

He is, I watched the first spinoff of The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead.

I stuck with that.

kind of because of him.

He plays

a

scoundrel and I still liked him.

Like the guy just has that quality.

He's got that great voice.

He's a good actor for whatever reason.

People love him.

So you're probably

right about that.

He's great.

He's instant gravitas on screen.

Like he's got, you know, to bring it to current events, like he's got kind of Gene Hackman energy where it's just like that guy shows up on screen and he feels like a lived in person immediately.

That's really interesting.

Okay.

So Coleman Domingo, but yeah, I'm with you.

I can't argue.

Adrian Brody was great.

Let's turn to Actress.

I have to say, I don't know how you feel about the substance.

I hated it, another movie, when I get distance from it.

No thanks.

And to me, Moore was good, but everyone was acting like it was a slam dunk, and I'm like, there's some other great performances here too.

I didn't think what she did.

I've seen her act in other better films, I think.

Yeah, and I was getting to this point where, you know, this morning everyone was like, ooh, looks like Hollywood didn't learn the lesson from the substance.

They gave a new young starlet the award, instead of, you know, a woman who's aging.

And I just want to be like, are we forgetting that the substance is an insane movie?

Are we forgetting that the substance is one of the wildest movies to ever receive best picture nominations from the Oscars?

That movie is gross and violent and in your face at all.

times, the fact that Demi Moore was in the running.

is a victory all in itself.

I really like that movie.

I think that movie's, you know, outlandish and wild.

And I'm not surprised at all that the Oscars in the end were like, yeah, this movie's too big, too weird.

And if they loved Inora as much as they obviously did, they gave it best picture.

They gave it, I believe, five Oscars at the end of the night.

Five or

six

Oscars at the end of the night.

They clearly liked Inora a lot.

How do you give Inora a best picture and not give Inora

Best actress.

So I think, I think, and you know what, Mikey Madison is tremendous in the movie.

That's another performance where that movie doesn't work without her.

She

carries it.

Absolutely.

Yeah, the movie is at its worst when she falls out of the movie in that kind of middle section.

But when she is the centerpiece of that movie.

That movie is very good.

Yeah.

Matt Miller is my guest.

We'll talk best picture and best director by the hottest thing in Hollywood right now.

I think he has been for a while and I just didn't know it.

Sean Baker, we'll talk about that for a few more minutes with Matt Miller.

When we come back after the news, it's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

And all the music she's been through

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Chwaba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who thinks outside the box and hates cliches.

Pete Chwaba.

Welcome

back.

Coming up at 735, the chair of the musical theater department at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, the only musical theater department in state of state colleges here in Wisconsin.

Mark Hansen will be here.

He's going to talk about their big spring show, which is in full swing right now, and a little bit about the program.

On the text line, the 608 says flow.

Glad it won.

It had such a powerful, and yes, I agree with you Matt, and I would say timely message that we're all in the same boat and sometimes all we've got is each other.

And more, it was a metaphor for life itself, the ups and downs and mysteries of it, while at the same time, on another level, it's just a good old-fashioned fantasy action adventure, story complete with the traditional Hollywood convention of the four friends banding together to fight the odds.

Totally original and just brilliant.

That's from, I hope I'm saying this name correctly.

Kacha from Madison.

Thank you for the text.

That's a great text.

Matt, you saw Flow, right?

Loved it.

It's one of the 10 best movies I saw last year.

I was very and listen the Wild Robot is a great movie as well That would have been a worthy winner But the fact that a animated movie a Latvian animated movie with no words and no budget really, right?

I heard $4 million I think are something insane like that.

Um That that one best picture really cool and that was kind of a theme of all of last night's big winners was no big movies really one obviously do

one in some of the technical categories, but when it came to the big major categories, you had flow winning best animated feature.

You had No Other Land, a movie that does not have US distribution.

And if you see it in theaters right now, that's because they're self distributing that movie right now.

That one best documentary.

Obviously you had The Brutalist, which was an independent movie, and Enora, which is an independently produced movie winning best picture.

A really big night for the little guys last night, which was

very heartening to see and very unusual for the Oscars.

This was a real sign that it is a new Academy voting for the Oscars now.

This is not the fuddy duddy old days.

This is not that time anymore.

They seem

to

have officially become a new body, which is exciting.

It's exciting to think that there may not be such a thing as a obvious predictable Oscar bait movie anymore.

Yeah.

No, well, very well said.

And thank you for the text.

Katya in Madison.

Great text.

Yeah.

All right.

I also just want to double back because I heard one of the talking textures mentioned Dune Part 2, which did kind of as expected last night, only won the two technical awards was basically and also ran everywhere else.

I think

to answer questions.

The reason why that happened, it came out in March, it came out a year ago.

Right.

It was just not top of mind for a lot of voters.

And I also think there is a certain feeling of, you know, there's a third movie coming, like Lord of the Rings thing of I think this happened to Wicked too.

I was gonna, yes.

Why give the first movie the awards when we know we've got the full package coming soon?

So maybe Dune Messiah is the big Dune movie that performs really well at the Oscars.

Maybe Wicked For Good is the Wicked movie that performs really well at the Oscars.

But we'll have to see what happens when those come out.

Very, yeah, great point.

Let's go to, we got a couple more categories here, Matt.

Let's talk about director Sean Baker.

I'm late to the Sean Baker train.

In the last three months, I've seen

I've seen Tangerine, Red Rocket, Florida Project, which is one of my all-time favorite films now.

Very good movie.

And Inora.

And I don't even know that Inora, for me personally, is his best film, but he made history.

He won four Oscars from the same film that's never been done before, mostly because he edited it.

That's incredible.

What's your take?

Are you a huge fan?

I think he's great.

I'm a I'm a fan of his I'm even more of a fan of his after this awards campaign because he said everything he said last night on that Oscar stage was things that he was saying throughout this award season talking about the importance of movie theaters and you know making sure people put theater first and the state of indie film yes at the indie spirits award talking about you know this this industry right now is really struggling so cheers to all of you who are making these independent films

for essentially the love of the film.

I think he is somebody, I think Hollywood loved Inora.

I think they're big fans of that movie.

But I think last night was them also being like, we love what you're doing, Sean.

We love these on the ground, extremely humanist portraits of corners of society that never get spotlights on them, generally speaking.

These very human stories that he tells for low, low budgets.

I think that was a big part of last night's Love Fest for Enora was that they were like, Sean Baker, we love what you're doing.

We wish we made more movies like this.

We wish, like the studios, I think are like, man, remember when we used to make interesting character studies for mid-budget to put them out in theaters?

That'd be cool to do.

We're not going to do it, but it's nice that somebody still is.

And people forget, Tangerine, his first is breakthrough movie, was all filmed on an iPhone.

Like he's always been kind of working on this on the ground kind of rugged way, finding stars like Simon Rex in Red Rocket, who was incredible in that movie.

I wish Red Rocket had gotten more of a shake when it came out two years ago.

I'm very happy.

that he found success this past, this past Oscar season.

Enora is not my favorite of his movies, but it is a worthy winner.

And I'm excited to see what he does next.

He's one best picture.

What is a blank check Sean Baker would play, you know?

Great point.

Probably he's gonna escalate to a whole $15 million on his next movie.

I don't, it's interesting because he ends his films.

The end of the Florida project was heartbreaking and then really sweet.

It just had, I was not expecting that.

And then Red Rocket too, when he pulls up to the girl's house and I'm like, oh my God, I love that.

Like, I'm like, how is he gonna wrap this up?

And it's perfect for what the movie was.

Did you understand the ending of Enora?

It was so odd.

I just was kind of like, it was real though, you know, but I didn't get

it

real.

It's

it's ambiguous and I think you can kind of see what you want to see in the ending I kind of see that more of as an issue with the movie.

So again, I think that movie is really good Yeah, but I do think she kind of falls out of the movie's focus in a lot of the middle section of that movie And I think for that end sequence to kind of have the impact you need it

I need to be more in her head.

I need to be like on with her through this entire journey, kind of seeing how she's interpreting things and figure it, seeing how she's seeing the situation unfold.

And I think that's kind of the big faux pas.

That's the reason why that movie is not the favorite of mine, you know, this

year.

But I think it's still a good movie.

And I still think there's a lot of really fabulous stuff in that.

I also wonder if a lot of the Enora love this year.

was a lot of that movie's got real uncut gems vibes.

And I wonder if they're looking back at that Oscar that's

interesting.

And they're like, we missed that one.

Uncut gems should have like Adam Sandler should have been nominated.

We should have given that movie some love somewhere.

And Nora is kind of the next thing to come through.

We can give this some of the love that maybe we missed before.

That's a

really great point.

I will say

Mikey Madison, much easier to watch act in her character like Adam Sandler.

I wanted to punch him through that whole

movie.

I mean, Uncut Gems is one of the most stressful movies to watch that isn't a horror movie.

It's just a guy making bad decisions for two and a half hours.

Crazy, I know.

I like that about the movie.

I almost wish Nora was able to maintain the way Uncut Gems does.

Uncut Gems is two and a half hours of like...

Don't do that.

What is this guy's problem?

Anora is mostly that and then like large intermissions.

All right, so you just said maybe

Anora wasn't your favorite Sean Baker movie.

In terms of best picture, you okay with that or where would you have gone if it was up to you?

I mean, again, if it was up to me, I think Nickel Boys was head and shoulders above everything else.

I think I'm still here.

The Brazilian movie is really tremendous.

It should still be out in theaters.

It won the Best International Film Award.

So very much worth your while.

Unfortunately, very politically relevant to us right now in this country.

For those who don't know, it's about the Brazilian mother and woman living in 1970s Brazil as militia.

dictatorship is kind of really putting a chokehold on its people.

As I, like I said, big laugh for real fun time.

But no, it's a very good movie, very much worth your while.

Yeah, and I really liked Conclave too.

I think Conclave was the, I've said this since the beginning, it was the Argo of this year where it may not be exciting or, you know, revolutionary cinema, but it's just a really well made adult drama, you know, the kind that we used to take for granted.

10, 15 years ago.

I think that movie's quite good.

It's almost better for it now that it doesn't have to live up to the title of best picture of the year, because that title can crush movies.

We've seen that happen to a lot of movies that are good, but maybe can't withstand the pressure of being the anointed one for a specific year.

Now it just gets to be a good movie and good on it.

It's weird, I said before.

with distance from Amelia Perez, I hated it even more.

Kind of the opposite with Conclave.

I kind of liked it when I saw it, but when I had distance from that, I'm like, boy, that was a solid film all around, writing, acting, the great twist at the end.

I could have been happy with that winning, too.

And like you said before, Matt, if there was no sequel to Wicked, they make a strong case.

But hey, they left out in memoriam a Wisconsinite, Jim Abrams.

Oh, yeah.

Terrible.

They always leave out somebody.

They leave out multiple somebodies, unfortunately.

Tony Todd, famous from Candyman, he was left out as well.

I know a lot of very notable figures were left out of this.

It's sad that we can't find a way to do everyone justice at the Oscars.

I blame Adrian Brody's speech.

They had to cut something.

I'm going to blame Adrian Brody's speech for every bad thing that happens to me for the next year.

And it's bad to be left out of something like that, but it's also good to be famous enough to be considered having that be considered a snub.

So everybody kind of still wins.

Only 364 days to go till the next Oscars, Matt.

Thanks so much for helping us break this down tonight.

That was a lot of fun.

We'll do it again soon.

Yeah, absolutely.

We'll talk more.

Sounds good.

All right.

That's Matt Miller, folks.

Check out his sub-stack, A Man About Film.

He does a very good work there, and that was a great discussion.

Conrad, did you learn anything?

Do you wish you would have seen the broadcast

now?

I mean, I watched some of it on YouTube, but I watched, during that time, I actually re-watched the SNL broadcast this on Saturday, but on Sunday.

Like the regular show,

you mean?

Yeah, it was Shane Gillis.

Oh, yeah.

How was that?

It's so funny.

He's a funny dude.

Is that the one where Mike Myers wore the Canada?

I love Canada t-shirt or whatever is that last week?

No, I actually didn't they might have done that in the cold open I actually didn't watch the cold open, but

yeah, they did some kind of I love can I saw it all over social media, but I didn't

I didn't see the actual broadcast.

Hey, when we come back, we're gonna check in and see how Adrian Brody's speech is going.

Mark Hansen is coming up at 7.35, talking some musical theater here in central Wisconsin.

This is Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

who refuses to text the show and text to me personally, which is fine.

Okay.

He says Long Legs was his favorite film from last year.

The horror film with Nicholas Cage, who you wouldn't even know it was Nicholas Cage in the film.

That's how good the makeup job was.

Fascinating.

It was a good movie.

It's not really my genre.

Did you see Long Legs?

Did we talk about that?

I'm not a horror person fan.

So I don't watch any of those.

I

That's interesting it Dave likes horror.

That's fine.

It's not my cup of tea either, but it was a very well done film and That studio I think is neon they are having a they're just crushing.

I think they did not surround to long legs They might have done a Nora too.

I felt like they got thanked a lot last night So anyway, hey, we should probably check in as many of you may or may not know

Adrian Brody was still talking last we checked he started his acceptance speech last night at the Oscars and let's see is he still talking?

What's what's going on?

Let's check it out.

Yeah, we'll go right to it.

Okay.

I know this is a it's been a roller coaster, but Thank you for accepting me into your life and pops he's coming home a winner and And who else and Judy Becker the real

the real Oslo Toth, who deserves to be up here as well.

And I'm wrapping up.

Please, please, please, I'm wrapping up.

I will wrap up.

Please turn the music off.

I've done this before.

Thank you.

It's not my first rodeo, but I will be brief.

I will not be egregious, I promise.

You know, I am, I am oddly, I have to thank my mom and dad who are here as well.

And they've given me, they've just created just such a strong foundation of respect and of kindness and a wonderful spirit.

And they've given me,

they've

given me the strength to pursue this dream.

He had to think, he had to gather himself to remember to think his parents.

That's just at the top of your head or you have it written down.

What did Matt say that missed the longest speech at the Oscars by one second in the history of the Oscars?

And he was the star of one of the longest movies.

So Our question of the night ladies and gentlemen is what is your What's your best picture nominee or winner from last year?

What's the best movie you saw that you would give an Oscar to?

I'm still actually thinking I can't there's so many great films last year and a lot of them didn't get nominated and I'm trying to decipher and go through what I saw

So I can give an answer here on the show because we thought of the question kind of last minute.

But what did you see that you would give an Oscar to?

What's your best picture from last year?

855-752-4842.

855-75 Civic or Text Us on the App.

Enora was the big winner last night with five out of six.

I would say, I can't really say a movie that I saw that came out this year.