Patriotic Movies (Hour 1)

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 likes to talk trash, but only when he's at the dump.

Pete Chwaba.

Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.

We are finally on the air ready to talk about all the things that will help us ease into a holiday weekend and Make your transition that much easier.

Assuming you have the day off tomorrow.

We do if you don't It's tomorrow tomorrow's people automatically get the third off do they?

No, I don't believe so.

I had to beg for it off, but I'm not about begging

Either way, great to have you with us here on this, our last live show until next Tuesday night.

I'll be back next Tuesday night.

Conrad will be back next Wednesday night.

He needed an extra day off to decompress from his leisurely weekend.

You got big plans?

Yeah, yeah.

I'm going to see some friends in Beaver Dam.

Oh yeah, that's

right.

But we're also going to, we are also going to Madison actually.

Oh yeah.

And we're going to stay at, funny enough, the concourse.

The world famous concourse, a fine establishment.

And just tear down the night, you know, on State Street.

Where are you going to go?

Where on State Street do you like to go?

Have you been there recently?

Actually, this is my first time I've been able to drink, actually, and go on State Street, so.

God, you could do that.

That would be like a legendary bar crawl if

you

just left the concourse and walked to State Street, made a quick right, started with Paul's.

Nick's like, you could go all the way down to the union.

Yeah.

And we're also doing this, this pedal boat thing where like, it's like kind of like a bar on the, on a boat.

Oh yeah.

And then you're sitting down at the bar seat and you pedal.

On the water.

Like we see those here on the street in Greenvale and they have them on State Street too.

Well, it's actually in the water.

So it would be, it's, it's going to be fun to do that, I think.

Yeah.

And it's bring your own booze.

So I'm bringing a cooler.

cooler backpack and having some having some

some brew house some stuff to nurse Nothing you go wrong when you mix alcohol with the water They

stop in the in the middle.

I believe of Lake Minota.

Oh, really?

Yeah, and then they're like, yeah, you can jump in if you want

you can snorkel Maybe not Well, that sounds like fun.

I'm gonna chill out.

I've got a lot of family coming to town.

We're gonna hang out.

It's gonna be fun

We're gonna set up a little, my sister's gonna set up her outside ping pong table.

And we set up, like, tomorrow since family's coming to town, I said, just come over after one, we'll have brats, because we gotta do one brat day a summer.

So we figured it

would

be

tomorrow.

And we'll just keep brats going all day, you know, potato chips, potato salad, all that kind of stuff,

chips and

guacamole.

Listen, I'm not a fan of it either, but...

Whoever's making it, you can't say, please don't make potato salad.

You just make it and you put it out there and you see what happens.

And then you just snarl at it every time you walk past it.

And

give it a dirty look.

You know what I, not as much as I do deviled eggs.

I love deviled eggs.

I know

you do.

We are, you know, I think we get along pretty well, but that's a sticking point between us, the deviled eggs.

I can't, I can't do it.

I think they taste amazing.

I like every single type of egg, so.

You like Eggs Benedict?

Oh my God, I do.

The Hollandaise sauce?

Oh, I love

it.

Okay.

Well, that's a topic for another show, I guess, but- You don't like eggs, Benedict?

Come on.

It's okay.

I like most eggs.

I need my eggs cooked well.

I don't like runny eggs.

I don't like-

Oh, see, that's where we're different.

I like them runny.

Scrambled?

No, I usually don't make scrambled eggs.

I usually have- You're talking about, like, the yolk.

I usually have over easy so that I can have the yolk go on bread.

People dunk toast in the

yolk.

Exactly.

It's so subversive.

You know what?

You know why I do that?

So I don't have to put butter on my toast.

Why?

What's the matter with that?

It's just not a health thing.

Yeah, just not.

But the

yolk is not the good part of the egg, correct?

Like the

healthy part.

It's not terrible for you.

It raises cholesterol, I think.

Probably.

I mean, if you eat enough of it, but I don't know.

That's a good...

I will have plain toast, nothing on it.

Just dip it in the

yolk.

Have the egg over easy egg on top of

it.

I'm just saying, if I have to vomit, do you feel comfortable covering for a couple of minutes?

I don't.

We got off on egg talk.

You know,

eggs should

be part of the question at some point on our question of the night because there's so much fun we could have with eggs that came out wrong.

So fun show tonight, folks.

Glad you're here as we.

This is the Eve.

of the eve of the 4th of July.

It's a holiday.

Holiday is in the air everywhere.

Everywhere I go around our neighborhood, it's so funny.

Like I'm taking the day before the 4th off, but I still see other people rolling into town and it's like, they've already started and I'm like, oh man, that sucks.

But it's like, how many days can you take off really leading up to the holiday?

Hey,

you can take

two weeks off.

How about that?

Take whatever I want to do.

But it's going to be, I hope everybody has great plans and it will party safely this weekend.

We'll be talking tonight about a lot of fun things that you can do over the next week or two, but specifically on the 4th of July, there's a very big movie opening today.

It's the latest chapter in the Jurassic World franchise, Jurassic Park Rebirth or Jurassic World Rebirth, is it?

You know,

that's a good question.

I literally just laid down the Hollywood beat for that and I can't remember what it was.

It's Jurassic Park.

You're not going to pay for the wrong movie when you go in.

You're not going to end up like in the Spinal Tap re-release.

If you just say Jurassic, they'll know what you mean.

But that opens today.

Matt Miller will be here at 6.35 tonight.

Our pal, the Milwaukee Film Critic, who does such a great job, will be here and we'll talk about that big opening.

He's seen Formula One.

He's seen 28 years later.

Matt is always fun to talk to.

He will be here at 6.35.

And then in hour number two, this will be fun too.

My pal Wendy Schneider will be here.

She is a record producer.

I love saying that term.

I know we don't really have records anymore.

Oh, we kind of do.

They're still vinyl.

But Wendy is a great record producer and a great filmmaker too.

She's made a film about 10 years ago called The Smart Studio Story, which tells the story of Butch Vig and Steve Marker and how they started Smart Studios right out of Little Madison, Wisconsin.

in a what's been called by Butch Vig, what looks like a crack house at the corner of Baldwin in East Washington.

Wendy will be here.

She worked for Butch and Steve and she made a film about all their great records that they produced at that little studio on East Wash.

They produced, as I'm told, the Nevermind album for Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkin's records.

Butch and Steve are in the band Garbage.

So they...

produced records there as well.

They don't anymore.

I think it changed hands about 10 years ago, or maybe even a little more.

Anyway, Wendy did a great documentary called The Smart Studio Story.

It won a host of awards about 10 years ago.

The Atwood Music Hall in Madison is replaying the film.

July 9th, I believe, one week from tonight.

So we'll talk to Wendy about the film, take her down memory lane a little bit, get you familiarized with a great movie, a great music documentary.

Our pal Frank Anderson is all over that documentary.

He's played with Butch and Steve quite a bit.

And he's friends with Wendy too.

So that'll be another fun interview.

Two great guests tonight.

And we've got a good question.

What do you think?

Should we get to the question or is that just crazy?

Let's do it.

Let's do it.

The 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.

Question.

What is your favorite patriotic movie or song?

Pretty straightforward.

I think we just posted movie on social media, but I widened it a little bit to song.

And I know a lot of people pick songs that aren't typically patriotic.

But they sound like they should be, like born in the USA.

Fortunate Son gets kind of a bad rap.

People think it's anti-America.

It's not really.

It's just like anti-filthy rich people that don't go to war.

But there are a lot of great patriotic movies.

There's Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, if you like The War Angle.

Born on the 4th of July with Tom Cruise is listed as a popular one.

I'd have to think of that, even Blowout.

I saw the movie Blowout listed in a lot of lists because they have a firework display.

That's a movie with John Travolta, where he hears something.

He's a sound man on a film and he picks up a little bit of sound that leads to him being embroiled in this caper.

But there are a lot of great, and you know what?

You can do whatever you want, folks, with this question.

Jaws can be a patriotic film because it came out 50 years ago.

right before the 4th of July.

What's the one I just talked about with Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum?

Not enemy, I always want to say enemy of the state, Independence Day.

Yes.

That is considered a very patriotic movie.

So I really don't know what I'm going to say here.

I've been thinking about this kind of on and off all day and I forgot to finalize something right before the show.

But I will give, here's what, you know what, never mind.

I'm going to say this and I've gone to this movie before in the past.

Sandlot is my favorite patriotic movie because there's a scene in the movie with the 4th of July Where they play baseball under the fireworks and Ray Charles is singing America the beautiful So there you go Sandlot is my favorite patriotic movie.

It's one of my favorite movies and For song I'm still gonna say born in the USA because I love Springsteen and because the song is not It's not necessarily pro USA, but it is in a way

Because the song kind of says, let's not get into BS wars.

And that's a big thing right now, still to this day.

40 years later.

So I'll say born in the USA for my song.

But you can give one or the other.

And again, there are no right or wrong answers, folks.

You can let us know what you think at 855-752-4842-8555.

75 Civic, or you can text us on the app.

Or if you're watching on the stream on ex-Facebook or YouTube, let us know there as well.

You got one?

You know, it's kind of a pro USA song in a weird way.

I'll say this is my favorite song.

It's a phenomenal tune.

And I would say Hexaw Ridge.

Oh, wow.

You know, I haven't seen that.

It's a it's a fantastic movie.

Clint Eastwood, right?

Clint Eastwood.

Vince Vaughn's in it.

Andrew Garfield, right?

Andrew Garfield.

Yes, Andrew Garfield.

Yep.

It's a great movie.

Fantastic.

I saw it.

Don't even know probably like six six years ago, and I just keep rewatching it every year because it's so good

That that's probably about when it came out maybe something

around

there.

Yeah Okay So there you go folks that's tonight's question Let us know what you think and we will read your text on the radio like we do every night I had a pretty good day overall.

I did you ever do this though?

It was raining when I left Marinette like bad like the sky looked like black

Yeah, and I'm driving on highway 41 and I drove out of the rain and I bet my wipers were on for 20 minutes Completely dry windshield.

I've done.

I must

look like a lunatic I've done that as you just like forget about it.

Totally spaced out.

Yeah, I'm just looking for deer or other drivers This is like a pleasant distraction the wipers going back and forth.

It didn't even bother me, but I do that more often

Probably should and a lot of traffic out there even today heading south.

Yeah, I don't where people are going from the UP maybe or Marinette area, but and also According to LinkedIn I'm on a roll.

Oh really?

Yeah, that's what it says.

I don't know what that means That means they want me to up my subscription to premium, which I will not do

But I'm on a roll, I'm linked in, whatever that means.

And I saw this too.

We can talk about this after the break.

I sent this to you in chat.

Did you see it was the best, the goat from every sport?

Yes, I did see that.

So I thought that was interesting.

I had Jordan on there, of course, Brady.

But there's one I would maybe take issue with.

I don't know, like girls tennis, they had Serena Williams on there.

Someone said maybe Sharapova.

I just don't know enough about tennis.

Girl or a guy to weigh in on that.

Would you take Babe Ruth out?

I thought about that Because Babe Ruth I don't think he played in the league when it was totally integrated, but I have a friend who says Babe Ruth Should be the goat because he pitched to and he was a good pitcher like he did both But I still think if you didn't play when the league was integrated.

I don't know I'm on the fence

about there's another one.

I disagree with Muhammad Ali.

It should be Jake Paul

We're coming right back.

This is Nightlight with Peach Waba.

I'm at Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome back.

This is Night Light.

I am Pete Schwabba.

There is holiday cheer in the air.

And I'm of course talking not about Christmas, but the 4th of July, right around the corner, our nation's Independence Day.

Whatever you have planned, folks have fun and party safely.

We will be broadcasting on July 4th.

What do we have on July 4th?

We have the best of Madison

music.

Yes, it's going to be a lot of artists and some tunes that they do in studio.

Yeah, in Madison specifically.

We've had some great guests there.

And what else?

What do you have tomorrow?

So tomorrow's just some great interviews and moments from 2025 so far.

A few laughs, yeah.

Actually into the second half now of 2025.

Yeah,

it's been a good it's been a good first half We'll try to keep the bar raised and then next Monday.

I will be out too.

We have another Quiz quiz that are our favorite quizzes we've given and we've given some pretty good ones people have so much fun with

those One of my favorites was the movie quiz we did about the baseball movie quiz and I was with Heather.

Oh, yeah

She did well didn't she?

Yeah, she did.

She didn't get my secret, the one that I had that was... I can't even remember who it was now.

Listen, she's a trooper.

She took our friend's quiz and embarrassed herself.

It was brutal.

I'm kidding.

But she still came back and took another quiz.

It was great.

So we have... Oh, God.

This is funny.

I'm just reading these texts here.

So before we get to the text, I do want to say, I don't know, I think Ali was the

Greatest boxer

really

I do it's

not Jake

Paul.

It's not Jake Paul I think Jake Paul might be the best boxer in his family But I and and I I'm on the fence.

What do you guys think Babe Ruth?

I don't know.

I mean, I think the league isn't integrated It's tough to put him as the best ever, but he did pitch to that's his I think that's his claim to fame.

I love Hank Aaron

You could probably argue maybe Ricky Henderson, I don't know.

But Brady's probably the goat, Jordan, although there's a lot of people underneath the Jordan, said Bron and Curry.

They had Steph Curry over Jordan.

It's a generational thing.

Yeah, I

disagree.

But I

mean, it's for our generation, it's tough because we didn't grow up watching.

Right.

You know, so the greatest players we've seen are the ones still playing, you know.

Correct.

So you automatically are like, oh, yeah, the ones that I've seen it.

But I still think it's Jordan.

I mean, Scotty Pippin posted something recently and he said, hey, congrats.

It was Oklahoma that won.

He said, hey, congrats.

He's sitting there with his six rings.

He goes, congrats, Oklahoma, on a great game seven win.

As a guy who's never been to a game seven, I can

imagine it must have

been a lot of fun.

No one ever took Jordan to a game seven.

And he played against the greats of his era.

Gretzky, I think he's the great one, right?

Tiger Woods, again, I'm not a golfer.

Is

he the greatest?

He's the greatest.

He's the goat, okay.

And then women's tennis I looked up there's someone I've never even heard of Margaret court

Never heard of her

holds the record for most grand slam singles titles.

She might be really old Got routine and never out of love.

Well, you guys can weigh in on that too.

Oh, I'm getting a phone

call.

It's good.

Just take it.

I'm gonna take this it's spam.

So all right

We got to our question of the night is what is your favorite or what is the most patriotic movie, your favorite patriotic movie or song?

So let's get to the stream.

Let's start with the stream first.

Dave Akunish says, legends of the fall sticking with Brad Pitt.

Dave just said legends of the fall to a question last week.

What was that?

Brad Pitt movie.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Favorite Brad Pitt movie.

Okay.

That's a nice old country movie for, for patriotism.

And again, folks, there are no.

right or wrong answers.

Dave also says, all quiet on the Western front, John Boy crushed it.

He did.

That was a great movie.

Do for a rewatch.

I haven't seen that in ages.

Rose Bauman.

Hey, Rose.

She says, hi, hon.

I didn't know we were on hon terms, but I guess I'll have to have Rose back on the show now.

How you doing, Rose?

Great to hear from you.

She says, Billie Jean King should have been in the women's tennis category.

And I was gonna suggest her too, because she was so groundbreaking.

I just don't know enough about women's tennis or hockey or soccer to really say who the goat is, though.

But thank you for the suggestion, Rose.

Great text.

And going to the text line here, we've got Aaron Zahmerz.

This is funny.

Of course, he produces, wonderfully, the Todd Alba show here on Civic Media.

He says, I'm with Khan on this one.

Big egg guy here.

Yes.

It's just funny to talk about eggs because they also mean, you know,

Other stuff.

I mean, eggs are great.

I had on my list here, on my show list for last night, I still had Balls Under Boob and Butt written on the sheet.

And I always used to love when I used to leave my stand-up notes around and my wife would see, she would see something like that and go, Balls Under Boob and Butt.

I'm like, first of all, you're married to a comic.

You should just assume that it has something to do with that.

But it's funny when other people see

this.

There we go.

It's catchy.

Gotta

put deodorant everywhere.

And that's not just our favorite body parts, folks, that somebody wrote a song about.

It's deodorant.

They're trying to encourage

people

to put deodorant on every square inch of their body.

When we played it the other night, two times, it was stuck in my head the rest of the night.

I just kept, at like nine o'clock, I just start singing.

It's

so crazy.

I wish you were on a first date.

Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids says, do you like green eggs and ham?

Sure, if they're scrambled and not runny.

I don't think they're scrambled in the story.

Tyler, go on.

A little doctor sees there.

Tom from New Berlin says, band of brothers, great choice, Tom.

Excellent, a play-tone production, outstanding.

Todd or Billy?

From Billy says for movie I say mr. Smith goes to Washington that was on a lot of lists today, too When I was looking this stuff up says for song I say rocking in the free world by Neil Young.

That's what freedom is all about That's great great text from the 414 Todd or Billy if that is your real name names Tom from New Berlin also says Midway Was so cool with CGI that it really shows the technology for the time and it was a start in the Pacific campaign

Well said, Tom.

Excellent.

Oh, I love this one.

715 says, movie stripes, song American girl bike.

Tom Petty.

Stripes, how did I forget stripes?

Keep the text coming, folks.

What's your most favorite patriotic movie or song?

We're coming right back with Milwaukee film critic Matt Miller at Speechwaba in Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

I'm Pete Schwabber, great to have you with me on this Wednesday.

Short week here for us at Nightlight as we go to best of episodes tomorrow and Friday and Monday as well.

Conrad is taking another, he's taking Tuesday off too, he hates Tuesdays, but I'll be back Tuesday with the Rockin' Todd Michaels producing, that'll be fun.

Tonight we have Wendy Schneider coming on in the second hour folks to talk about a screening of her film the smart studio story You have to see it if you haven't and we will find out from Wendy where you can see it in terms of streaming But she's going to be showing it screening it at the beautiful new Atwood music hall in Madison next week So we'll talk about this gem of a film she made and how you can find out more information Our question of the night is what is your favorite patriotic movie or song?

And we'll get back to your texts after we talk to our pal, our good friend, Milwaukee Film Critic, who joins us now on the stream, Mr. Matt Miller.

Hey, buddy.

Howdy, howdy, howdy.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, always fun.

Do you have a favorite patriotic movie, Matt?

I really like

Yankee Doodle Dandy.

We

go in old school.

I love that one quite a bit.

If we're talking modern movies, Big Fan Top Gun Maverick, you know, that movie, as far as propaganda goes, it's very good propaganda.

It is.

It's kind of spine-tingling.

A lot of people talked about Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Yankee Doodle Dandy.

They were popping up all in these lists today.

I have not seen Yankee Doodle Dandy.

And if I did, I was very young.

It's, it's quite good.

It's very, very jingoistic, but you know, you have a lead performance that good, you know, you're going to have a great time.

Absolutely.

Um, we, I have to, I was going to give a shout out to, and I guess I can do that with you here, Matt too, because I don't know if you've been following action Wisconsin's efforts.

But we got, I heard from my friend, Nathan Deming today, who said that he was on the show a couple nights ago with Jeffrey Kurz, a fellow Milwaukeean.

And apparently there was some good news today.

I can't find the text from Nathan, but he said that something passed or something today or they got it added.

I know it's added or it's going to be up for debate, but I'm trying to find the.

Yeah, I know the tax credits or what you're talking about the Wisconsin film and TV tax credits, which.

You know, we'll see if this go-around goes better than the last time.

You know, I think, you know, it would help.

It would definitely be a boon to local filmmakers and to our film industries and to the industries in the area.

We

have incredible places to film.

There's no reason why people shouldn't want to film here.

So it's just a great way to bring business to Wisconsin and also to give us opportunities to point at the screen and go, hey, that place is great.

Absolutely.

It's an obvious choice pairing it with tourism because it's a great message and a great way to get our state out there.

The press release said Action Wisconsin has an official press release about the film incentives getting voted on today if this is worth commenting on at all.

He said, would you give us a shout out?

I said, sure.

I didn't hear anything about that, so I don't know.

But I know it was looking good to pass, so I think Wisconsin's in good shape for that, at least.

Yeah, thus far pretty good, but we'll see what happens.

As we've seen in the news today, this past week, things getting passed left and right that we're all just super thrilled about, just nothing but W's down the board.

So, why not an action Wisconsin tax incentive?

It'd be

nice to pass something that I'd be happy

with.

Exactly.

What would

that be like?

Same here.

All right, so, man, let's jump in.

I'm very excited that you've seen a lot of the same films I have.

What should we start with in the theater?

Let's start with...

Something that opened a couple weeks ago.

I know you saw this.

I saw 28 years later as well.

Yeah, I really liked it.

I thought it was maybe my favorite of the three.

My wife loved it and we're not really horror people, but it was just something to grab.

It's just great storytelling.

Yeah, it's a very odd movie, which honestly shouldn't be that surprising.

It's Danny Boyle and Alex Garland.

They don't tend to make traditional movies even

28 days later is now a part of horror lexicon, but people forget at the time, you know, the big third act of that movie that stops becoming a zombie movie was very confrontational for people.

And so 28 years later is a really fascinating approach to this story where they're like, we're going to take some big swings.

We're going to make this a coming of age story.

We're going to like have this strange plot, like the story is going to be told almost in like two separate parts and boomer

back to this island.

It's gonna be shot entirely with iPhones, which means it's going to look absolutely vivid and gorgeous, but also still have this kind of digital fuzz to it.

So it

feels like a sibling movie two, 28 days later in that way.

I think it's really great.

It's only marinated better the more I've sat and thought about it.

It's a very odd movie.

I'm not surprised that it kind of had a tough second week fall off, A, because it's a horror movie.

or movies always have a hard second weekend fall off.

But also it is just, if you're expecting a traditional classic zombie movie, this is not that.

It is much more of a coming of age story.

And then you add the final two minutes to the movie, which

are very

odd and very tonally at odds.

And if you don't know that they're making two more movies, you're probably very thrown off with this kind of cliffhanger that the movie ends on.

And if you're not British, you super don't know what's going.

going on.

But no, I think that's a pretty tremendous movie.

And it's like I said, it's one that's definitely stuck with me.

And I agree with you.

I like how it's kind of evolved.

It's not just about what I think is cool about this film is it's kind of dystopian or apocalyptic or whatever.

At least that's how it started out.

But now this rage virus has kind of morphed into something else.

And there was a character that had the virus that had a baby.

in the film so it's like wait a minute they can reproduce and then there's this this alpha running around naked with a big prosthetic on and it's like that's the thing too I don't know what is happening but like

we're seeing

so much male nudity in this movie.

There's so much nudity period.

I'm kind of amazed it got through the MPAA and that's leaving out all the violence in the movie, which it is very much a traditional zombie movie.

Like it has got a lot of crazy zombie violence, plus all that nudity.

It's wild that they got this one through, but it's been a success.

And like you said, it's very unconventional how it goes at things in that this is a movie about

dealing with death while surrounded by death, you know.

Not many apocalyptic movies take a moment to think about like what death actually means to these people and how these things impact people.

I think these guys, Boyle and Garland are very good at world building.

They're very good at smartly assembling a world and a society without kind of holding your hand through it.

So you get this really fascinating 28 years later and the evolution of these zombies and the evolution of a

written that has been isolated and collapsed.

Make your own Brexit references here.

It's a fascinating movie.

And I think Ray finds, weirdly, I think this is one of his best performances.

He just

shows up playing this very unusual character that could totally

totally be a misstep for the movie if played wrong.

And instead, he just feels so, he feels like he was waiting forever to play this character, feels so lived in.

I really hope people still check it out, especially because like I said, we have a sequel coming next year.

And hopefully we have another one directed by Boyle and with Garland writing.

I know they're talking about getting the funding together for that.

And this has been enough of a hit that I think they'll make it happen.

But I would love to see

them wrap up this new trilogy that they're making.

It's so crazy because this is the third installment.

This is the end of a trilogy in the beginning of a new one.

And I agree, like Ray finds like he's like this post-apocalyptic doctor who knows how to control these zombies.

And he's got like this great bedside manner like he's been living in this island by himself.

It's or the mainland, I guess technically.

But yeah, just a real fun watch.

I loved it.

Yeah, it's it's both.

It is simultaneously what you would want from a zombie movie and something completely different and something.

I mean, I didn't cry in the movie, but I know people who really got emotional near the end of this movie.

And that's very fair.

And yeah, I'm very excited to see where they keep taking this story of this collapsed society.

It's kind of a new Mad Max in a way.

Yeah.

And I'm

kind of

excited by that they're taking that approach to this instead of, you know, when we heard they were making another

28 days later movie, it's like, okay, this is just a cash in.

You know, are these guys just, is Danny Boyle just desperate to make another movie again, that he's going to go back to the well and make another zombie movie?

And this is by no means just another zombie.

It's funny you say that, like when you said people cried, I guess I had a moment, I didn't cry, but I was like, when the kid decides to go to the mainland himself, the film opens with his dad taking him there to do his first kill of a zombie.

They make it back barely.

That's a great scene too.

And then the kid decides to take his mother back to the mainland to get her medical help.

Yeah, and it's that moment where I'm like, oh, the dad made a mistake, the kid's mad, and he went back.

I felt for the dad.

As a dad, I'm like, oh dear, what a horrible mistake this guy would probably think he made if something had happened to the kid.

But yeah, a lot of emotional stuff in the film, really good movie.

it's a really fascinating movie about kind of the cycles of a society and you know that they've rebooted society and they're kind of making the same mistakes again where they're all about kind of you know aggression and this masculine society that is resulting in you know it's really fascinating and

then he goes

out with his mom and it's a much more kind of

Love and much more kind of thoughtful world that it could be even in dark horrible times And again, I cannot also say this movie was mostly shot on iPhones and it looked obviously modified iPhones And it looks unlike any movie you will see this year It looks so crisp and so clean like the colors are so bright and there's shots angles

where the main land of England looks like the largest land mass you've ever seen in your life and the greenest land mass

you've

ever seen in your life.

It's just a really fascinating movie and one I hope people keep checking out.

Matt Miller is my guest.

He is a film critic from Milwaukee.

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

And Matt, I have to say Jody Comer is a great

before we move on.

I love her.

She is so good in everything I've seen her in.

She was outstanding in this.

And the other comment I want to make is I read that they shot this on iPhones a couple months ago and that never even entered my mind while I was watching.

I had completely forgotten that until you said that.

Yeah, it gives the again, it has this vivid color as a result.

You also have this digital kind of fuzz to the movie.

It's not it's not as clean as you expect from like a digital movie you see nowadays.

And then also you get these insanely intimate shots because Danny Boyle did this on Slumdog Millionaire.

He basically took apart the camera.

while they were filming that movie so they could get that camera anywhere they wanted to.

They wanted to make it as flexible and as intimate as they could.

And with an iPhone, obviously, even easier.

So you get these really incredible close-ups where you get really close to people and you get this really cool depth of frame and just different vantage points.

It doesn't look like many other movies out there, which is exactly what you would say about 28 days later, 20 years ago.

Right.

So, yeah.

Impressive work.

Uh, cinematographer's name is Anthony Dodd-Mantle.

And in a just world, I would love to see him get nominated for Best

Cinematographer

with the Oscars.

But this is a movie with this much zombie nudity and this much, uh, people getting their heads ripped off doesn't tend to be the kind of stuff the Oscars pay attention to.

I might have to figure out a way to open up this can of worms on the show, but I have an issue with all these guys all of a sudden agreeing to be nude, but using prosthetics.

It seems very unfair to women over the course of history in movies with all the TNA films and that.

And now guys are doing it.

It's like, what are they so afraid of?

It's like this false sense of who men are or something.

It's so ridiculous.

Well, if you

want to, it is thematic in a way.

very notable male zombie nudity in the movie, because it is about, you know, this kind of hyper masculine, this kind of out like these, you know, raging men for society.

So

if

you want, you can say they're thematic.

Fair enough.

And the guy's like seven feet tall too.

Let's, uh, Matt Miller is here.

We're coming right back.

I'm going to ask Matt what he thought of with the new Brad Pitt film F one.

It's nightlight with peach.

Wow.

But great to have you with me on this Wednesday, folks, on the civic media radio network.

What the hell?

Welcome

back.

This is Night Light with Pete Schwabba.

We're doing the Wednesday thing here as we head into a holiday weekend.

Hope everybody's having a great night.

Our question of the night is what is your favorite patriotic film or song?

And on social media, Monica Hale says, my answer involves two films because they represent the war from both sides, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima.

Wow, great.

A lot of people going with the war stuff.

I guess I could see that.

It's the 4th of July.

Matt,

I

chose the Sandlot.

I went with something a little more childlike in the Wonder of Innocence,

I guess.

Yeah, that's not too.

Yeah.

That's that's a pretty good.

It could have done the the natural too.

Yeah,

that's a real America coded movie.

Anything baseball, right?

I guess

anything baseball.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Moneyball, the most American movie.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Matt Miller is my guest, folks.

He is a Milwaukee film critic.

Check out his work at a man about film on his sub-stack.

Matt, he joins us frequently here to talk movies and TV and we always have a blast.

Matt, what did you think of F1?

F1 the movie, I had a really good time with F1 the movie.

It is very much every sports movie cliche.

You know, we talked about baseball.

It is not only every sports movie cliche, it is underlining every single sports cliche that is in the movie.

There's even like a journalist character whose entire job is just to be like, the last scene featured you in a depression meltdown.

Did you also know that you're divorced and you're low on your pavements and all this stuff?

Just like we get it.

on his luck.

I've never seen this plot line

before.

But the thing about these sports movie cliches and the reason why they become cliches is because they work.

You know, sometimes we take for granted that some of these, you know, overused tropes become overused because when you do them right, when you have them well acted, well written with a little snap to them, well filmed by a director who's bringing some energy to the stuff, these things

these things really gets your

juice

going.

And so I had a good time with F1, the movie.

I think they do a good job of making you care about not only Brad Pitt and his protege, but the entire Pitt crew.

They kind of give everyone kind of like a dime's worth of character, which is frankly more than a lot of movies give their supporting characters.

I think the

car racing scenes are thrilling and really excitingly captured.

It's the director of Top Gun Maverick and he's using a lot of the same tricks he used

with that movie to really feel like, make you put like, put you in the seat of these cars.

I had a good time with it.

It is a classic summer sports movie, the way that we kind of don't really get as much anymore.

You know, now that you say all that, I'm kind of re, not rethinking, but you're absolutely, maybe I was expecting too much, but I felt like you're right.

The racing scene's amazing.

The music was good, but it was wall.

to wall.

I mean, this was

a, to me, Matt, this was a video, not really a movie.

Like there's some character stuff.

And I like what you said, like when they go into the, some of the minor characters, you get a dose of it.

That's all you need.

And the kid was good.

Brad Pitt, I don't, I don't, I don't know.

I like Brad Pitt, but I just, something didn't work for me.

And you said Top Gun.

I felt like that story was better than the story here.

And maybe it was just because I have seen all of these kind of tropes before.

It was like Boulder meets, you know, Hoosier, not Hoosiers, that's a bad example, but it's like they took a little bit from

every

sport.

Yes, exactly.

But it's fun.

I'm being overly critical.

It's a fun summer watch.

And for the racing stuff alone, it's pretty exciting.

I don't think that's being over critical.

Like it is very cliche.

It is very kind of trite in the story and the way it moves and stuff like that.

You're not going to be surprised by much in this movie, but there is something very satisfying about a movie that knows how to set up bowling pins in terms of a story and knows how to knock them down.

Well, it knows how to, you know, knows how to get a strike.

And that's kind of what this is.

It's not, it is very flashy, but when it comes.

to the story.

It is profoundly not flashy, but they save the flash for the kind of exciting parts.

And then

you've got really good stuff.

And also, I gotta say, Carrie Condon, just a charmer

in a

half.

She's the female lead of the movie.

And she is so charming.

And I honestly think she helped their romance is kind of one of the weaker points of the movie, just because it feels very much like

checked that off.

You don't need it.

Yeah.

But

she sells it because you're like, yeah, I get immediately falling in love with this person.

She's so charming and so fun in this movie.

So and, and yeah, I, I agree.

This isn't a top five red pit performance by any means, but he's a movie star.

He is one of those people who when he's on screen, you're like, I want to see what you're up to.

Right.

And he, that is what this movie needs.

And for that, it delivers again, if it gets nominated for best picture

we had a bad year at the movie.

But if you're looking at, you know, a good time at the summer box office, I think F1 is a really nice good time.

It's a good dad movie.

That's very well said.

And you know what I liked?

I almost forgot was in it was a Javier Bardem ups the level of he was great.

every single line he delivers is like maximum scene stealer.

And not in a way where you're like, okay, pump the brakes, buddy.

There's other people in this movie.

He just shows up with so much charisma.

He did the same thing in Dune Part II.

Man, that movie, you get your money's worth per second he is on screen.

He's

so

good.

And again, a role that could be totally boring and generic.

And he just brings so much life to it.

And that's kind of the F1 in the nutshell.

absolutely, um,

All right, Matt Miller is here, folks.

We're going to keep Matt through the news because he is watching a TV show that you have to hear about.

I've watched the first episode and I trust Matt's opinion so much.

I'm going to go back to it.

It's not that I didn't like it, but it's not my typical show, but I am going to go back to it based on Matt's critiquing of the show.

We'll talk about that after the news and we'll get a little July preview of what's coming up at the box office as well with our pal Matt Miller.

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

And lose your sin in the sky

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 considers a silver medal, a participation award, Pete Chwaba.

Welcome

back.

Act 2, hour number two, folks.

Hope you enjoyed intermission.

We are kicking off Act 2 here on Nightlight.

We had a great hour one.

We started the show with a conversation about eggs somehow.

Conrad can eat eggs.

I

love eggs.

It's kind of bizarre.

So it's unsettling, his love for eggs.

We also have a great question tonight.

What is your favorite patriotic movie or song as we head into the 4th of July?

We will read your texts in just a bit.

We have a few more minutes with our current guest, Matt Miller at 735, Wendy Schneider, filmmaker and record producer.

Wendy Schneider will be here talking about a screening of her film, The Smart Studio Story at the brand new beautiful Atwood Music Hall in Madison.

That's at 735.

And as I mentioned earlier, we will be off tomorrow, Friday.

and Monday, folks.

But we do have content.

We put together some fun shows over that break.

I will be back live Tuesday.

Conrad will be back Wednesday, unless he decides to enlist in the military or something like that.

Peace Corps, whatever.

Right now, we have a few more minutes with our current guests and our friend, Matt Miller, who joins us over the stream from his beloved Milwaukee.

Matt.

I don't even know where to, I don't know where to jump in here.

So I'm just gonna let you have the floor and talk about this show you seem to love.

I've seen your social media posts.

I'm talking about, of course, HBO's The Pit.

Yes, HBO Max is The Pit.

I have six months late finally jumped on the bandwagon.

It's tremendous.

It's very good TV and it's really fun because we've been watching it.

We watch, my wife and I watch The Pit.

And then Grey's Anatomy is like our falling asleep television.

And it's just fascinating watching the difference between the two where the pit is just so the storylines are not that far off.

There is not that much like that's not entirely true.

There's a lot less ethical dilemmas on the pit.

But they handle things, but it's just so much more grounded and so much more realistic, the pit.

And I've just really enjoyed its premise that it's taking you through a day in this hospital, essentially,

that

each episode is kind of 24-style, an hour in there.

I think it's really well done.

It is kind of...

you know, competence porn in a way where it's just watching people who are good at what they do and good at their jobs, try to do their jobs well, which is just very satisfying to watch on some level.

I'm about, we're about two thirds the way through this first season.

And yeah, it's really scratching that TV itch, you know, there's no

It also doesn't have the problem of modern prestige television where it's like, you know, it's clearly a movie stretched out across 12 hours.

It's like, this is episodic television and I've been really enjoying it and I've really enjoyed having Noah Wiley back on my screen.

Um, yeah, makes me excited to rewatch ER.

It's been a long time since I've revisited that show.

So yeah, I highly recommend the pit.

I will be the, the 157th person to tell you that the pit is worth your

time.

Well, everybody talks about how intense it was.

And that was a great comp, I think with 24 because every episode is an hour of this day.

And

I

watched the first one just because I wanted to have a sense of it.

And I did like it.

I don't typically like medical dramas, but I'm to the point with the pit where I just have to watch it because I just heard way too many good things.

It'll probably get nominated for a lot of Emmys.

So I think I'm definitely going to check it out.

Yeah,

I really like I like that, you know it for the most part It feels like a show that is like, you know what working in a hospital is dramatic enough We don't need to add in a lot of kind of soap opera storylines and stuff like that trying to get through a day at a busy, you know Metropolis ER is very very stressful to begin

with and

very dense and even if their case is just like, you know Person fell off a ladder, you know, the stakes can still feel big

without it being like, this is the 14th time we've cured an uncurable tumor this season on Grey's Anatomy, which is where we're at on the show right

now.

So let me ask you this.

In terms of other medical dramas, like it's the same team basically with Noah Wiley and John Wells

that were

behind the pit that were behind ER, you've got Chicago Med, you mentioned Grey's Anatomy.

What makes the pit better than those network shows?

It's very grounded.

It doesn't feel as I mean Grey's Anatomy is a soap opera.

It's not a medical show

and

And it feels much more down to I watch it with my wife who is a veterinarian and she is Diagnosing stuff alongside the show which tells me that their science and their medicine knowledge is pretty good And that's not to say that accuracy is what makes it great, but it feels real It doesn't feel like they're pushing too hard down on the drama meter for the most part.

There's a few stories

So then I'm like, okay, this is maybe a little much, but I mean, it's a 15 hour TV show.

They're not all like, you know, with a lot of subplots.

That's the other thing I find impressive about it.

It weaves in so many different storylines because you're dealing with a hospital ER that is bringing people in and out and in and out.

And yet it handles, it juggles all of these elements so well that you kind of know what every case is.

I really enjoy it.

I know my wife is really enjoying it.

Everyone I know is enjoying it.

Everyone I know is right.

It is a good

show.

My guest is Matt Miller.

He is a Milwaukee based film critic.

He joins us here from time to time on Nightlight to discuss movies and TV.

It is one of those shows, Matt.

I will say when I watched the first episode,

you get sucked into the world and you're like most of the fun I've had in my adult life has either been in a movie set or doing something where I love it so much I don't want to sleep.

Not that working in an ER is like that but it's one of those things where it's so intense you feel alive when you do it and that is the vibe they give the viewer which is really impressive.

you know

yeah without a lot of the showy prestige tv things of

like

oh the big wonders and stuff like that are like the big show offy technical stuff like i think people are souring on the bear this new season because the bear is kind of

the classic case of kind of empty calories prestige TV where it's got all the music drops and all the fancy camera and editing stuff and all the big performances and people are like but what is what's in the show like what am i getting out of this am i laughing that much am i feeling that much drama am i are we just recycling old like leftover plot lines whereas you know the pit

has a bit of excitement to it.

It is kind of, you know, meat and potatoes television in a way, um, done really well.

And hopefully it doesn't do what happened to ER back in the day, where I don't, I don't know if you remember, but I feel like by season seven of ER, it was like a plane crashed in downtown Chicago and a tank is driving down the streets and someone's arm has been cut off by a helicopter again.

And it's like they, they had so many, they kind of became Gray's Anatomy.

me where it was like every episode had to become a very special episode where you know something insane happened in the hospital and hopefully they it avoids that kind of you know excessive drama and just sticks with the low stakes of oh my gosh this person has you know this person is having a bad reaction to this medication what should we do

Matt, let's pivot here and go to upcoming movies.

I know Jurassic Park opens, the latest Jurassic Park opens today, but we've got someone on the text line.

Chris from the 608 says, what are your thoughts on the remake of the Toxic Avenger?

I really don't know anything about that, do you?

Yeah, so they're remaking this old trauma, kind of super grisly, R-rated, kind of, you know, gross.

I think it's based on a comic book character, but the Toxic Avenger, and it's directed by, what's his name, who is in the green, who's in Green Room, and it was in Oppenheimer.

I'm forgetting his name, but it is, I'm really excited about it.

It is being, it has been unrated.

They are going all out on the gore and on the violence and on the kind of,

campy tone that is kind of perfect for this kind of story.

The lead actor is played by Peter Dinklage,

who's a

very good actor, very excited to see that.

It feels like everyone's heart is in the right place with this Toxic Avenger remake that they're doing, where this isn't Hollywood being like, I don't know, can we make a blockbuster out of Toxic Avenger?

This feels like people who really love the Toxic Avenger character and love the kind of

not grisly, but kind of cartoonishly violent world of the Toxic Avenger and that kind of trauma world and they want to bring it to a new audience.

And hopefully people show up for it.

I'm more excited for it than I am for like, Terrifier, which I think Terrifier is terrible.

I'm much more excited for something like Toxic Avenger.

There you go, Chris.

That's a pretty good answer.

Thank you for the text.

And the first one, I just looked up on Rotten Tomatoes, 92%.

That's pretty good.

So what are you hearing about the latest Jurassic Park, Matt?

This could be the biggest film of the summer.

It's reviewing kind of mediocre, but what have you heard?

Yeah, first of all, I just let Macon Blair is the name of the director.

I

couldn't remember in the last segment.

Make sure to check out Green Room in Oppenheimer if you haven't already.

Bad is what I've heard about Jurassic World rebirth.

I think that the most complimentary thing I've heard about it so far and I haven't seen it for myself.

I'm hoping to check it out tonight or tomorrow for sure.

But all I've heard is that it's like at best.

Fine at best functional at best dinosaurs on the big screen at worst

It's just kind of boring, which is kind of sad to me because I like everyone involved with this movie, including dinosaurs.

I love dinosaurs.

I want

to be excited.

And I think it says a lot about this Jurassic Park movie that I've seen all these commercials and I'm still waiting for the hook.

I'm still waiting for the thing about this movie that made it necessary to bring to the big screen.

What is the exciting thing that makes this one different from any other Jurassic Park movie?

And there's been nothing yet.

There's been no interesting hook to it.

And I think you're seeing that reflected in a lot of the reviews.

And I think it's sad.

It is very sad that we are in a place that Jurassic World, the 2015 Collins-Rivaro one that kind of started this new era of Jurassic World, not a good movie, but that's probably the second best Jurassic Park movie.

There are far more bad Jurassic Park movies than there are good Jurassic Park movies at this point Yeah, and it doesn't sound like this new one is we're gonna switch that around but hopefully These reviews are wrong.

Hopefully I mean listen.

I grew up loving dinosaurs There's

nothing I

want to see more on a big screen than dinosaurs So maybe that baseline element will get people excited and I'm sure it'll do well this weekend It's still a Jurassic World movie still a big blockbuster with Scarlett Johansson

But I don't know, like, are dinosaurs enough to sustain,

you know?

It bothers me that you have a built-in thing like dinosaurs.

Base level that's interesting enough and you can't of the seven films that they've made two of them have been fresh on rotten tomatoes They're not great movies and you're blowing it because you've got dinosaurs I just did my classic movie pick of the week the movie the doors not a phenomenal movie but with the soundtrack Elevates it, you know, you've got this built in whatever it is soundtrack actor autobiography You have dinosaurs and you can't seem to crush the franchise.

It's very frustrating

Yeah, that's what it is.

It's frustrating.

And the director is Gareth Edwards, who is a really interesting director.

He did Rogue One.

He did Godzilla.

He did The Creator, the original sci-fi movie that came out two years ago.

I want to love, I want to love his movies because I think

what

he does with CGI and with scale in his movies, the way he makes big things feel huge and small, like the way he makes, like I don't love his Godzilla movie, but I love how big Godzilla feels in that movie.