Desserts, Movies, and Laughs (Hour 1)

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And now, a guy who writes checks his mouth can't cash.

Pete Schwabba.

Welcome to Nightlight, ladies and gentlemen.

It's just the kind of guy I am.

Always running off at the mouth and writing checks my butt can't cash.

Hey, how are you?

Hope you have a great day today, folks.

It's a little rainy out there, but it feels like fall, which isn't a terrible thing.

It's still a beautiful day in many ways.

However, you're finding us tonight, welcome to Nightlight, whether you're listening on the app, the stream, or over the good old fashioned radio.

It is great to have you here tonight.

We're gonna have a fun show and hopefully the conversation tonight on the show will help dry things up in your world.

Is it bad all over Wisconsin?

Conrad, do we know that?

I should probably look that up before I come on

up here.

Well, Green Bay, it's bad, so.

All right, he's not the best weatherman in the business or nothing.

You're no Brittany.

We're low So anyway, hope you're having a great day folks.

Welcome to nightlight great show tonight lots of fun We got a great question a couple really fun guests and I'm gonna tell you about all of that

Momentarily, but let's let Conrad get his brewer feelings out of the way first before

we get to

all that Let's get the negative energy out of the way a tough loss to a good team and their ace which What's he gonna is he gonna pitch one more time?

Maybe two I guess but I'll be in short rest.

Yeah, you know, it was it was a game that You didn't see too many hits

right

for either team really

It was just it was a pitching battle until we brought in one of our one of our bullpen pitchers Chad Patrick and he Well, he was facing Freddie Freeman.

So Freddie Freeman's like one of the best players in MLB So, okay, I don't blame Chad Patrick, but it

was a home run obviously

and that was the deciding factor pretty much like that, you know, it's it was just That's brutal.

Yeah until we finally got the bats going in the ninth inning

Which only leaves you three outs.

Yeah, but you only lost by one run, right?

Yeah, cuz I mean we got one walked in or not walked in they did they got one locked in we got one in the regular way I

guess What's the seven game series you got time, you know what I mean like and it's is it two three two

Yeah, okay, it is three once we go to LA it's

Three games.

So you got tonight is the must win.

However, even when you're on, I think in baseball, when you're on another team's field, that team, they're still not going to win three or that's a tough draw.

Yeah.

You know, the.

You just went through puberty in here.

That's a tough draw because, I mean, I don't like this format.

I like how it used, I was talking about this with a friend of mine the other day.

It used to be 2-2-1-1-1.

I know that's more travel, but I feel like that's truly a better advantage.

It's more fair to both teams, I

guess.

I love that, because they do that in the NBA.

Do they, I thought they did 2-3-2, or they do 2-3-2 for

the finals in the

NBA, right?

No, it's 2-2-1-1 in the playoff basketball.

Oh, it didn't used to be like that.

It is.

Yeah, that's how they do it.

Wow.

It's, I believe, yeah.

Don't they?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

I just had to think about it in my head for a second.

Yeah.

No, yeah, they do do that.

And I, well, I mean, they also get more rest than baseball.

True.

Because, I mean, we played a game last night and there's a game tonight.

So.

Yeah.

Well, it'll be interesting.

Yes.

Good luck to the Brewers tonight.

Go crew.

Go crew and...

And you know bears look pretty good last night, too

I don't know if they look good.

Here's why

it's the defense look good

The defense stepped up when they had to I did not think they look good But that makes the win all the more impressive because it was on the road in slop.

They had dumb penalties

And I guess Washington's a good team.

I don't care.

Jayden Daniels is great, you know.

He just had a little mistake there at the end that cost him the

game.

He did.

And usually it's the bears doing that.

So I'll take

it.

Yeah, you're probably like, you're really happy about

that.

I was like, wow, for once.

OK, here we go.

But then they got to bring in a backup kicker.

I'm like, oh, no, it's like a chip shot.

Jay Moody.

And

what a nice guy.

I never even heard this guy talk.

But after the game, they interviewed him like, he's just like this soft spoken.

I was like, I always root for kicker.

I feel like it's so much pressure.

I know all they do is kick they take a lot of abuse But that is a ton of pressure.

It's like missing a block out of 60 blocks and yeah, it's like missing a kick is like

the kicker that got signed last week for the Packers he was He was thinking about going back to substitute teaching before he got signed

See there you go and now that guy's gonna make a kick and you're like, I don't know he

made a bunch of good kicks so

Good for him.

Yeah.

No, I I root for those guys for sure All right, so Tonight folks at 635 this will be fun.

I've been waiting to do a deep dive into this movie since I saw it one battle after another Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina King, Sean Penn Newcomer chase infinity this another newcomer kind of to the world of movies Tiana Taylor

and Benicio del Toro, just a phenomenal movie from Paul Thomas Anderson.

And my guest tonight, I believe, has seen it like five times already.

It's been out two weeks.

So I'm going to talk to Ben Reiser about that.

Ben is one of the programmers at UW Cinematheque, a great program in Madison.

You've heard me talk about it.

And he's one of the programmers for the Wisconsin Film Festival, an absolute movie nut.

And he sees a ton of films.

And I love

Talking movies with Ben.

He'll be here at 6 30 and then at 7 35 or 720.

We've got my

set 720

720 yes, are we sure about that?

I hope Mike sure

I don't know what I told him.

But Mike Kaoth from Comedy Sports in Milwaukee will be here.

He is one of the directors slash coaches at Comedy Sports, a Milwaukee institution.

And Mike will be here.

He's always fun to have on the show.

And we'll find out what's going on with Comedy Sports and about their upcoming events and all kinds of fun stuff.

And we got a question of the night that I think is going to be really fun.

We always do well with the food question.

Huge stars in food.

People just come out in droves to respond to.

So let's get to tonight's 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.

Questions.

It's National Dessert Day, folks.

What is your favorite dessert?

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5-6.

What is your favorite dessert?

You can also text us on the app.

Very easy to use.

comes in handy too when we do our text-to-win contests here at Civic Media, so definitely get the app if you don't have it.

And then if you're listening on the stream too, you can drop us a stream comment over Facebook, YouTube, or X, and we will read your text on the radio.

What is your favorite dessert?

Why don't you lead us off today, Conrad?

It's a classic, and it has to be this way too.

It can't be a different way, all right?

Okay.

It has to be a hot brownie with ice cream on top.

Wow, that's pretty good

and my other my second one.

I don't I wouldn't call it maybe a dessert, but I think it is banana bread.

Oh,

yeah That could be a great breakfast like with coffee or or a dessert.

I love banana bread.

It's so good.

It's not stamp But

what made you think

of that?

My mom used to make it all the time and I miss okay that banana bread

nice

Could she

make some in Florida and send it to you?

I think she should mom if you're

listening

come on Paula

All right, mine is hands down and I'm a little biased because lately I've been into it, but key lime pie.

On

my

dessert days, cheat days, whatever you want to call them.

I am firing up some key lime pie and it is dynamite.

I love, love, love key lime pie.

Key lime is, it's good in any form.

It

doesn't, not just pie.

It's great,

no matter what.

Absolutely.

I was in Florida years ago when I was doing stand-up and a family friend I stopped by to see her and she gave me a key lime and I kept it in my car for like a month, driving all over the South and I would just smell it.

It smelled so, key lime is just heavenly.

So that's my dessert, but I will say this, that brownie with ice cream over it, or like a lava cake, that's pretty good too.

So, let us know what you think, folks.

Tell us your favorite dessert.

And Conrad found kind of a fun thing we can do here, too.

Tell us what this is again.

You explained it to me.

It's tier.

It's a

tier list.

A tier list, okay.

And

it's S is the top, okay?

It's the

best of the best.

Nothing beats it.

So usually only there's one in it, you know?

Okay.

A is kind of like, it's good, not on the highest level.

B is it's like, okay, it's getting like, I'll eat it.

Not my favorite.

C is like, eh.

And then D is just, I hate it.

So.

It goes S?

S,

yes.

Then the typical scholastic ABC.

That's kind of strange.

But S is the best.

Yes.

To me, that's a satisfactory.

And I saw that all of my report card was.

So, okay.

So I have a few items here that we could put this in the list and then kind of put it out there.

Let's do it.

So the first one is cookies and it's chocolate chip that it shows.

Boy, it's hard to go against the all-American

Dessert.

Is this warm chocolate chip cookies out of the oven or just Chips ahoy?

No,

it looks homemade.

Okay.

It doesn't look like it doesn't

look like the stuff you get at the store, you know

I'm gonna put I'm gonna put that in I'll give that an a

yeah, I would say that too the only thing I say is sometimes they get like You can have it too much, you know,

right?

So all right, we have that in a the next is it just is chocolate cake.

Well, wait, so you put it in a as well

Yeah, I agree with you.

Yeah, yeah If if last week we did this your favorite kind of cake if we if we did chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting that that to me is an s But is it chocolate just chocolate chocolate or

what it looks chocolate chocolate, but I think we could put it any way we want

All right, I'm gonna go as if it's got cream cheese frosting

I would say s because I like ice cream cake better

Oh, that's

good.

So we

could settle it a I think and kind of okay.

All right.

Well, wait, I went as so I got one s1a you went you put them or are we

doing it?

I thought we were combining both of ours and

oh, we're like sharing the score.

Yeah, okay.

So we do that.

So we kind of yeah, so I put that at a you put that at s We'll give it

an a so

that goes above chocolate chip cookies in the a category.

Yeah, so far chocolate cake is number one.

Okay.

The next one is brownies

I'm gonna go S on that because it's my favorite Hot brownies with it doesn't have ice cream on it though.

So it's just warm brown

So I'll go a I would go a okay got a tie between those two So

we just got all A's

right now.

That's right.

This is the one where I think we're gonna maybe agree on okay fudge I'd straight up fudge.

I'd put that at C. I'm not a huge fan of fudge

Island fudge.

I've had a bunch.

Yeah, I think so

Fudge on its own I To keep things simple.

I'll go see but probably it's a if you want if

you want to go be I mean, we'll kind of just what would that make it like a C plus?

We'll put that at a high C. How about that?

Sure high C by the way is not on my list at all.

Okay.

I

love I see

All right.

All right next one

ice cream and this is looks like a single serve I mean they kind of put a picture of like a McDonald's one

Soft serve with the

milk

with a cone and... Wow.

I'd probably put this at a B just because you can never get it.

Yeah, ice cream is a... there's so many different kinds.

Like if it's mousse tracks, love it.

A good chocolate peanut butter, forget it.

That's an S for me, so I would put it in a B. Overall ice cream.

It's just... it's vanilla, so I guess, yeah, we could just...

Oh, vanilla, it's like a C. If it's just vanilla, that would be my...

Okay, yeah, I agree with that.

But behind the fudge?

We're above the

fudge.

Depending on the ice cream, above the fudge.

Well, that just looks like McDonald's ice cream.

Then below the fudge.

All right, I think we can get one more in before the break here.

All right, let's do it.

S'mores.

Oh, wow.

Here's the problem with s'mores for me.

When I'm patient, they taste heavenly.

But most of the time, I'm hungry, and I'll stick it, I'll singe the marshmallow, and it's tough on the inside.

A perfectly cooked s'more, I'll give a B.

This is what I will say.

I really like s'mores.

I think they're taste great, but I hate When I always every single time you have to wash your hands to get sticky off and I hate that So I would say be because I don't like that part, but it does taste heavenly.

All right We agree on this more is perfect.

That was fun desserts folks.

What's your favorite one Texas and let us know we're coming right back as nightlight with peach waba on the civic media radio network

You're listening to Civic Media.

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Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

This is Nightlight.

I am Pete Schwabba.

Great to have you with me on this Tuesday evening or rainy Tuesday evening, at least in downtown Green Bay.

I hope it's nicer where you are, but it is great to have you here.

We covered a little bit of Brewer Talk, and now we are doing a, we have a couple more desserts to put in our tier list.

So far, are you keeping track?

I've got the, an S is just a chocolate spice cake for me, and you had the chocolate brownie with the ice cream, right?

Yeah,

so we don't have any official S's yet, because we didn't agree on the

S. Okay, fair enough.

All right, very good.

All right, this one next is an S for me.

Okay.

Pie.

Just, here's my issue.

General pie?

Like I like pie, but I don't like all kinds of pie.

I don't want like meat cake.

Okay, how

about...

Pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

It's just a staple.

For me, it's an A. I'm the right time of year, Christmas Thanksgiving, sure.

That's an S for you.

That's

an S for me.

We'll put that at A behind the chocolate cake and the cookies.

Okay.

All right, I think, I can't remember if we decided, but I think it's a Danish.

Oh yeah, that was tough.

I

believe a

dessert really is it?

I like a Danish in the morning.

I'm a pastry guy.

Okay, so

Pastries I guess we just general pastries be

be as

a dessert.

I mean it's morning with coffee.

It's an A plus

Okay,

nice donut.

I yeah, I mean that's hard to argue with cuz I wouldn't I don't have those at night, but when I

have those

in the morning, yeah

It

makes me day

off right makes me a little happier gives you the energy you need I think I could put that a you said edit an A plus or an

S for the morning for the morning in a plus I would say plus I agree

with that Okay, the last

one

last one cupcakes

Again, it depends on the cupcake Well, but a cupcake done right my favorite kind of cupcake.

That's an A plus two.

I only have one S really and it's the

Chocolate cake with the cream cheese.

I

guess we should just put both of our s's on in the s category.

All

right, let's do that Okay, that works.

So it's

chocolate cake and brownies in the s.

This is some good bartering going on here.

This is like we would have done really well if we were pilgrims

So cupcakes for you, I guess it just looks like a plain cupcake with some cream cheese frosting on it,

you know Alright fair enough.

I'll say an a-plus.

I would say B B. Okay

So above s'mores in the

yeah, I would agree with that

above s'mores and behind pie.

Okay So you're gonna put that on Facebook.

I'll put that on Facebook and comment what you guys

feel free to comment Yeah, tell us where we went wrong.

I'm not really sensitive about this list so you can tear into us if you like folks But be part of it and let us know what you think but our question of the night Kind of piggybacking on this is what is your favorite dessert?

I said key lime pie Conrad said chocolate brownie with ice cream

But it sounds like Pumpkin Pie is up there, too.

I have to tell you, I found something I love in its YouTube highlights.

Do you ever do that after a game?

Oh, yeah.

I guess more, I watch a general of all the games to see what

big plays I missed or something.

But if your team, I've discovered I like this, one of the Cubs.

I couldn't see I didn't get home in time.

So I went to the highlights.

It's 15 minutes.

You know the outcome so that that stress is gone.

And it's just pure joy.

So I would say every game they put

highlights

on on YouTube.

And it's like you see all the best parts of the game without the pressure of thinking your team is gonna lose.

I'm not crazy.

I don't watch the losing highlights.

That would be insane.

Not breaking down tape at home.

So I like that.

But I will say, I'm in a mood today because I showed up here tonight, as you know, I don't have my glasses, which is making life difficult.

And I woke up this morning finding out I owed a lot more on my taxes.

And I can't write off, there are billionaire companies not paying taxes, Apple, Exxon, whatever, every year it changes.

I can't write off mileage from Marinette to Green Bay.

If I think about it enough, I might take hostages.

It really bothers me.

So I always gotta pay up, man.

You cannot fight Uncle Sam Conrad.

That's

my lesson to you.

So I gotta get over that.

But man, that would be nice if I could, and I'm almost equally as annoyed with myself for forgetting my glasses.

Okay, so we've got Ben Reiser coming up at 6.35.

We're gonna talk about many movies, but we're gonna start with one battle after another.

We'll tell you what's coming up at Cinematheque and Mike Kauth at 7.20.

He will be here to tell us about comedy sports.

So we're repping Madison, we're repping Milwaukee.

It's gonna be a fun show here at Nightlight.

And our question of the night, your favorite dessert, please let us know.

I have to say to Ed Gein, we gotta talk about this.

I don't know when we're gonna do this, but.

apparently they are smearing one of our weirdest sons.

It's like Netflix has taken so many liberties with this guy.

Like is it not weird enough that he robbed graves and killed multiple people?

They gotta fabricate stuff?

They're saying apparently on Netflix that Ed Gein gave a tip that caught Ted Bundy.

And admittedly, I'm not an Ed Gein guy.

I don't know who it'd be.

But I thought he was like 80 years ago.

but he was around apparently when Ted Bundy was doing his nonsense too and being a serial killer.

And that's false.

Like, why do you have to make that stuff up?

It comes out immediately now that you're lying.

I don't know.

It's so bizarre.

I probably won't watch that series.

I just read that.

I won't watch it either, especially now that I know it's not true, but I just find that crazy.

I don't know why you would do that.

All right, so our question of the night, what is your favorite dessert?

And Dave in DeForest.

That's our Dave.

That's our stream Dave.

Sidspal.

He says ice cream cake, Conrad.

You got a kindred spirit there.

That's my favorite.

Edward in the 414 says spotted dick, spongy British deliciousness.

He could be making it up and I have no idea.

And I just said the D word.

I have no idea what that is.

I just said the D word on the radio.

But apparently it's a thing, spotted dick.

You can say private dick, whatever.

Dave also says Dairy Queen.

Yeah, the ice cream cake from

Dairy Queen.

Yeah, that's

right.

Or just the blizzards from there, too.

Or the caravoke.

I think it's caravoke.

You can get them at grocery stores.

Anna from Madison, and Hypeet and Conrad, my favorite dessert, is cheesecake any kind.

I'm with you, Anna.

That would be an A-plus for me, Conrad, by the way.

Just... All right, we're coming right back with Ben Reiser after the news.

Don't go anywhere, folks.

We're talking movies.

It's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on Pacific Media,

radio 9.

Welcome back.

We are

definitely doing it up this Tuesday night.

It's a rainy, chilly night.

It feels like fall in Wisconsin.

So what better time of the day of the season, whatever, than to talk movies?

Joining me now on the show is one of my favorite friends to talk movies with.

He is one of the programmers at UW Cinematheque in Madison, a great program.

And he also is one of the programmers of the Wisconsin Film Festival, and he's a podcast host.

You can check out his podcast, The Lifers, or 70 movies we saw in the 70s.

He'll correct me if that's wrong.

He joins me now over the stream, Mr. Ben Reiser.

Hey, buddy.

Hey, I'm happy to not have to correct you that was

perfect.

I thought I got it, but you know 70

movies we saw in the 70s I think we're up to number like 50 something we've every episode we cover a different movie that I saw in the 1970s theoretically sure when I was a kid sure What do you do when you

run out of movies like

switch it to the 80s or what are you saying?

You think I didn't see 70 movies in the 1970s.

I'm saying when you get to 70

Yes.

When you run out, when I get hit 70, that's the end of that show.

You're right.

We might move on to 80 movies I saw in the 80s.

You know, we could just keep going.

But it's taken me, I don't know, five years to get even 50, 50 episodes in on that one.

That's

not

like, that's not like, not like you doing your nightly.

Radio show.

It's not even like me doing my other podcast, which is weekly the lifers podcast They do with the guys from the band local age and we talk about music and we talk about movies and we talk about politics Which is kind of like your show.

Yeah, I get you on one of these days We're gonna do like a crossover episode.

Well, you know, you keep saying that bet.

You know, I know

That's just for the air one of these days Well, it's good to have you buddy.

Hey, do you have a favorite dessert?

I was reading some of the comments.

I do love a pecan pie.

There's a couple of restaurants that I go to that do these things called Brownie Sundays, where they sort of have this big slab of brownie and they heat it up and then they drop some ice cream and whipped cream on top of that.

It's hard to beat that, honestly.

Wow, there you go,

Con.

Yeah, that's my favorite.

That's

kind of

it's favorite dessert.

So

all right, can't walk maybe you should have

something in common.

You should have our

love of you Pete and our love

So let's do okay, I was gonna I didn't know what I should lead with but I don't want to open

well

showstopper But I also want to get right to the

movie

that I think you you said today Let's just jump into movies Ben because you said today or yesterday

I've seen it five or six times now.

I think I know, I think you're talking about one battle after another.

I

said I saw it four times and I'm ready for a fifth.

And that is one battle after

another.

That is impressive.

And this is a guy, you're a movie fan, but you're also picky.

I love your opinions.

I loved the movie too.

Let's just start with one battle after another, the latest Paul Thomas Anderson film, phenomenal cast.

Really, there's no weak link in the movie, but I'm dying to hear your thoughts and why you love it so much.

Well, let's talk about the cast.

I mean, it's funny because it's not like every time I see it anything particularly new is revealed to me, but it's such an entertaining

and powerful and for me emotional movie.

So I'm just every time I leave the theater, I'm like, I'm ready to see it again.

And the other thing is, it's playing in all these slightly different formats.

And so that's like catnip to cinephiles like us.

Oh, we can see it in 70 millimeter, or we can see it in IMAX, or we could theoretically fly to New York or LA and see it in VistaVision, or we could see it on a regular old DCP at our local multiplex.

done three of those formats so far.

I think there's still two formats that I could theoretically see it in that I have not.

But that's not even it.

I don't even care.

Like the most recent time I saw it, which was yesterday with my mom who was visiting in town, I said, mom, I've seen this movie three times, but I think you would love it.

And so I dragged her over to Flix Brewhouse and we just saw a regular old digital cinema screening of it.

And it still was blew my mind.

I loved it every much, every bit as much as I did the first three times.

Did your mom like it?

She loved it.

Yeah.

But my mom's, you know, my mom's, uh, a hippie or what, you know, grew up, you know, she, she was, uh, she was of age in the sixties and early seventies.

And she used to drag me to Pete Seeger and Joan Baez concerts.

They used to take me, my parents used to take me to Washington DC for Vietnam war protests.

Apparently I was there when Martin Luther King gave his big speech in DC.

So, you know, that's kind of.

the backdrop sort of not really of this movie, but that whole sort of protesting and revolution.

They weren't they're very my parents are totally the nonviolent type, you know,

right?

And that's not the protagonists in this movie.

These these people are like violent revolutionaries.

But you were you were saying the cast is power.

So one of the things what I love most about this movie, I think the more times I watch it, the more I realize sort of every base is covered.

It's like a study in contrast and like balance in that you've got all these great well-known actors, Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn, Leonardo DiCaprio and others.

And they're sharing the screen with a bunch of people who, if they've been in a movie before, I haven't seen them.

Certainly a lot of them seem like just locals that they picked up.

There are all these kids and teenagers in the movie.

There's this one guy, I've seen it four times, I still don't even know if he has a name in the movie, but he's the army guy who interrogates everyone and gets them all to confess.

He blows me away every time.

His performance, there are all these like really great sort of like big dramatic.

actorly performances and then they're perfectly matched with all of these kind of like, is this guy even an actor?

This is such a, this is such a just a realistic performance that you really think this guy just must be in the army and this is what he does for a living.

And the fact that those performances can live on the screen together and work as well as they do is one of the things that amazes me about the movie.

I was talking to someone recently on the show and I was kind of fascinated by

Sean Penn's choices.

He's very

glitchy and kind of he has these ticks and At first it's like he's trying too hard for me But he's such a great actor.

You just trust him and by the end of the movie He's just that guy.

It just works like that is a gutsy performance because you can look like you're trying too hard to be weird or different But he is that guy and those guys exist.

He's like a

I don't know.

I thought his performance was outstanding.

Love, Tiana Taylor.

I've never seen her before, but she just steals every scene she's in.

Oh, she is the first half hour of the movie.

Yeah, exactly.

That's all you see.

That's all you think about.

She controls the movie and then she leaves the movie.

And that's another amazing thing about the movie.

You think you set up this movie with this indelible character and then they're out of the picture pretty early on.

And yet the movie still soldiers on for another

two hours and it's every bit as entertaining without her as it was with her.

I want to say about John Penn.

It reminds me most of Spicoli.

It's almost this weird mirror image of Spicoli.

And I also would say that the other thing

Again with these contrasts and balances this movie is full of protagonists that are sort of do bad things and are not always likable and not always smart and full of antagonists who are awful.

Sean Penn's character is a monster and yet you still by the end of it you

kind of feel for him in a way.

You feel for his weakness and you just think about what it is that got into this point.

And you kind of feel some pity

for him, which I think is amazing.

My guest is Ben Reiser.

He is one of the programmers of UW Cinema Tech and the Wisconsin Film Festival.

And he hosts two great podcasts.

We'll tell you about those coming up too.

But right now we're talking about the film, one battle after another.

Pardon me.

So where was I going to go with this?

Pardon me.

Sorry.

Usually Del Toro makes me laugh so hard

in this movie.

Me too, but is he kind of wasted, not wasted Ben, but I thought he was gonna do more.

There wasn't a whole lot for him to do.

Yeah, well, I mean, it's packed, this movie's packed with characters.

And

so there's a lot of screen time to be shared by a lot of people.

And I think basically everybody does, everyone to me becomes indelible no matter how much or little screen time they have.

And Del Toro,

It's true.

He's only on screen for maybe another half an hour.

Yeah.

But in that half an hour, he's got the maybe four, at least four, maybe five all time great sort of throwaway laugh lines, including when Leonardo Caprio tells him all the things that have been happening to him when he first bumps into him.

And Del Toro goes, that's heavy metal, bro.

It just cracks me up every time.

I let's talk about

Leonardo DiCaprio I hate whenever I see action comedy been on a describing movie I you typically run I don't think the action or the comedy ever delivers.

This is all character based situational Leonardo DiCaprio is hilarious in this and when he falls off the roof

I laughed out loud.

It

was

me and two

other people in the theater and I laughed hysterically

I I have a couple of guesses as to how they even shot that shot, but it's still

Every time I think wow this this somebody just I'm assuming there's wires involved that have then been digitally erased or something But it looks so perfect.

It's great.

He's so good in the movie.

I've heard I've read that all six actors Could be nominated for an Academy Award.

I don't know that's never been done before according to what I read but

You know, I don't know Regina Hall or is it Regina

King

Regina King.

It's one of those.

Yeah, I always get them except

you but She's really good.

I don't know that she or Benicio they didn't have huge parts So I don't know but I you can't you're and you're right even the bit players Were just they look like real people like this is a this is a masterpiece and I've only seen it once been

Yeah, what are you waiting for?

I know it's almost out of theaters.

You know, first of all, in a way, it's shocking to me that this movie even got released.

But yeah, it certainly seems to have turned off a lot of conservatives, which I think is interesting because I think this film can be read.

I mean, okay, sure, sure.

It's certainly much more for liberals than it is for conservatives.

But I mean, I think that these revolutionaries get their fair share of being teased and made fun

of.

He makes fun of, I mean, Leonardo DiCaprio made fun of the whole movie, basically.

And they take shots at them for being woke and all.

If this movie hurts your feelings as a conservative, I don't think you're really understanding what's going on here because they do take some shots.

And frankly, some of the higher ups, the bad guys in this movie, they could just be rich liberals too.

They're not saying, anyway, that's

neither of

them.

Wow.

The Christmas Adventures Club is not a liberal.

type organization.

They're talking about ethnic purity and cleansing the planet of all.

Listen, Ben, they've

got their quirks.

I hear you.

Let me ask you this because I've heard this comparison.

Leonardo DiCaprio with the ponytail and the bathrobe comparisons to the dude, Qui-Gon and the Star Wars.

And like,

do you

see any of that?

I see a definite parallel there.

Definitely with the dude.

I've also heard he in

Benicio, you know, they thought of themselves as doing like a Cheech and Chong movie.

And I,

you know,

they're scenes together.

I definitely, I mean, they're, they're driving around.

They're literally on the run, but they make time to drink beers while they're driving.

They've got their priorities straight in this movie.

I'm trying to

think if I here's one here's another thing that I was thinking here's I mean this is this is really an almost non-stop action movie like yeah thriller like really tense as only paul thomas anderson seems to be able to do he's got a bunch of movies where you your tongue your stomach tightens in the very first scene and you he doesn't let go until the final credits

right

but

This is an action movie that I want to say 75% of it is close-ups of people's faces, which is beautiful like it's not It defies all sort of conventions when it comes to the genre of film that it's trying to do and I think it is a terrific action movie But it's a terrific action movie made up of people just really

And you're seeing their faces and actually into their souls sometimes.

All right,

Ben Reiser is here, folks.

We're going to do a very short break and we'll come back.

I might ask you to rank, Ben, maybe your top three to five Paul Thomas Anderson movies.

And we'll do that when we come back.

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

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

Hello, this is David Zucker and you're listening to Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.

Welcome back.

So Sydney politics on the stream says I would say pecan pie usually but also I have liked the Dubai chocolate version of everything We left that off our list.

I love Dubai chocolate.

It's like the Netflix of flavors.

It's taking over the world Sydney also says pumpkin pie is boring.

Okay, Sydney I don't know if we need to get confrontational here, but he says cheesecake pumpkin pie is worth something He's giving us that much.

All right

My guest is Ben Reiser.

We are talking about the movie One Battle After Another.

If you haven't seen it, you got to see it.

It's outstanding.

Ben has seen it four times, looking to go a fifth.

So text him if you're interested.

We'll give his number out in just a few minutes.

I can't remember the last time I saw a movie four times in the theater on its, you know, initial release.

If I love a movie, I will try to see it a couple of times before it.

disappears into the world of streaming.

And I think, you know, when I put together my, my annual list of top 10 movies or top 20 movies for cinema tech, well, I know one year, not too long ago, I only listed movies that I'd seen more than once in a movie theater.

But I don't think I've seen, I don't think I've, I think I saw anatomy of a fall twice in a theater.

You know,

There's probably a handful of movies that I'll see a couple of times in a year.

Not often a

tangent, Ben.

Anatomy

of

a fall.

And what was the

one about the

Holocaust that year?

It was the same year.

Oh, yeah.

Zone of interest.

Aesthetically, I just did not like those movies.

I don't know what it was.

I mean, both very important stories, great stories.

I didn't like the way they were shot.

And that kind of, that means a lot.

It's cinema, you know?

Absolutely.

I don't know.

it's subjective though whatever

so um all right so i never went back to um zone of interest i mean i think it's an interesting film but not not one that i would run back to i mean not just because it's incredibly depressing and right you know that's part of it and out of me before i thought was more entertaining i was kind of taken in by it um

Anyway, so I think the last time I went to see a movie, I saw Once Upon a Time in Hollywood knowing nothing about it.

I don't know how that happened.

It was about, what, three, four or five years ago when I went in and I was like, I came out of the theater and I was like, I think I love that.

I went back, I brought my son Joe with me the next day and I'm like, and then I think I saw it a third time.

Other than that, I haven't done this in a while either, but I will try to see this film again.

Where do you put, obviously, I'm assuming this is your favorite film of the year?

Yeah, so far although I will say that I probably talked about this last time I'm having a good time at the movies this year.

I don't know I feel like maybe I'm just getting old and my standards have lowered but like I I kind of went through the summer and with that Which is usually like very hit or miss, but I kind of liked every almost everything that I saw

Do you do you see sinners?

I saw we talked about sinners.

I don't like sinners.

You liked it.

Oh, that's right.

I

did I

Yeah

That's the only film I would say those are my top two of the year and I put one battle.

Above that, but you're better when you're talking to me.

So all right, other Paul Thomas Anderson films.

How do you

how do you rate them?

Just give us obviously without going through his whole catalog.

But I mean, right, what are your like top three or top five?

Well, I'll just I'll name the ones, you know, I love most of them and I like the rest of them.

There's really only one that I.

Can't even say I really like that much, but I haven't really sat with it and give it that much of a chance and that one's Liggerish pizza, which is his one that came right before this one.

Yeah But other than that, I would say in my top, you know, the ones that I think I walked out of the movie thinking oh my god, that was perfect boogie nights Magnolia There will be blood maybe that's maybe that's the one that I've been like whoa

And punch drunk love, I really like a lot with Adam Sandler.

And then, of course, this one.

And I would struggle to rate them within that group.

But those are maybe my top five, and they're all sort of great in their own way.

I think I would add heart eight to that.

I love boogie nights.

Loved Heart 8.

I don't know if it was just because it was a smaller film, and I love smaller films, but loved Boogie Nights, loved Heart 8, really liked Magnolia.

Like there will be blood and maybe I have to watch it again because everybody I talked to just raves about there will be blood and it's got Daniel Day-Lewis I mean come on, you know, but

right we'll talk about a person that takes up the whole movie and is not somebody that you learn to like or Right love or root for so that's that's it is it is a tougher film in that way.

Definitely spending a lot of time with a guy who's really quite terrifying

Absolutely.

So what is your, what other films, if you had to say your other two films, and we'll get into some more specifics after the news, but aside from this one, what would you say your top two films of the year are Ben, if people were looking for something?

Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, let me think about that.

Think about that.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, think about that.

And

So we'll do that.

And then I just want to say, I wish there were more movies

like this.

Oh,

one

of them is Weapons, which I really meant to get back to see a second time in a theater, but didn't.

But I loved that movie.

Okay, that's right.

I think we talked about that

last time.

Did you see

Weapons?

I did.

I liked it a lot.

Very creepy.

I think last time you were here, I think I said I liked Barbarian better just

because of

the... But they're both great.

Like, I liked Weapons.

I thought...

Yeah, I don't have anything I would totally be nitpicking if I look for something and that's just silly because they're both great films and weapons was outstanding very creepy I wanted more Josh Brolin and Ruth from What's her name from Ozark

Right, okay.

Here's here.

We here would be my my other one would be I think Eddington also I've only seen once but that Ari Aster Aster film that takes place during the pandemic and is really just sort of like this

I don't know if you ever read Jim Thompson novels like really dark noir novels and it's sort of like a Jim Thompson novel come to life Eddington, okay?

Outstanding all right when we come back we're gonna talk about did you see friendship?

I can't remember what you said