Transcript
Matt Mueller on movies and streaming (Hour 1)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Fri Apr 17, 2026
You're listening to Civic Media.
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From Washington to Hollywood and right back to Wisconsin.
It's Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.
Connecting the dots on the stories shaping our world with smart takes, sharp humor, and plenty of personality.
You know, I really expected more professional behavior from you.
It's news and culture without the noise.
Yeah, come on!
Here's Pete Schwabba.
Dude.
And Greg Bach.
Dude.
Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.
You made it.
Happy Friday, everybody.
We are coming to you live from the Civic Media Network through various parts of Wisconsin.
I am Pete Schwabe, situated in Marinette in the northeast corner of the state.
And just downstate for me is Greg Bach.
Good afternoon Greg and Dom Dom Lee Dom Lee as we call him is in Madison home down the fourth the Yatter Hey triangle is coming at you live I hope you had a great day.
We've got a great show for you Hopefully will help you ease into your weekend a little bit with some maybe a few laughs some movie talks some new stories We think are fun and all kinds of stuff a great question tonight, too.
How are you guys?
I'm doing too bad.
you are turning into such an old man
Wow, I uh
that was amazing, Dom.
You just came at that one like with both barrels firing.
You're
enter.
It's a good thing you're, you're over the camera, buddy.
I reached through this camera right now and give you a young whipper snapper.
Uh, Greg, how are you doing?
I was a lot better until Dom called me old, but you know, hey, we're all doing great around here.
Uh, doing well.
You know, I, one of those days we're working on a project and, and it all fell apart because of my own doing, because I forgot to press one button.
So it was like an hour and a half of work, just right down the tubes.
I'm like, well, so I had to like stand
up,
take a walk, take a breath, come back to it all and realize, nope, completely screwed it up.
Have to start over another time.
So yeah, but it's the lessons you learn along the way.
It's like I've done that before computers were when back when they were less smart and they didn't save immediately and I've done that.
I totally relate.
Here's what I found out about myself today, you guys.
I could never be in the military or a spy because I was on the phone getting a lower car interest rate, refinancing, whatever.
And I'm giving the guy my VIN number.
And I got to the letter.
I'm like, E is an Edward, H is an Henry, and I get to N and I was completely stumped.
So my troops would be being bombed behind me and I can't think of an N. And I'm going, and first I thought Neil.
And I go, no, that's not, that's K. That's not Neil.
I could not think of an N. And the guy finally goes, November.
Oh
my God, I felt like such an idiot.
I did that once where I was, I was on the phone with somebody and had to give him my, I get to give him my name, but they wanted my middle initial and my middle initial is S and my middle name is Steven.
And I said, I spelled my name Gregory.
And then I go, S as in Sam.
And I go, that's not my, why did I use Sam and just, I didn't just say Steven instead.
Cause that's my middle name actually.
And I don't remember the rest of that phone call cause I was sitting there in my head going, why did you do that?
Like it's those things where like,
They didn't notice, they didn't care, but in my head,
I'm
thinking to myself, well, we shouldn't help this person at all, because they don't even know their middle name, you
know?
There was literally like a four or five second silence between me and this dude.
And I think he felt bad for me.
And then finally he had to jump in because I'm going, and I would use Neil, even if it was K, and have to
make
the guy think like, I just,
there's
this very, you couldn't think of an N. I felt like very, very emasculated, if you will.
A masculated?
Why a masculated?
Because I feel, you know, I felt like I should have been, like, pretending I was in the trenches.
Does your
masculinity depend on whether or not you know how to use words as how they
have the letters?
It's all alphabet-dependent, Greg.
I don't, uh... In my house, a man knows
two things.
You protect your family, and you know what words start with certain letters.
Unless you do that, you're not a man.
Get out of my house.
Whiskey tango foxtrot.
That's
all I'm
saying.
But you know what, though?
Here's what I'll say.
We had, we had a day.
We had some stuff.
Dom called us old, but that's okay.
Cause we're officially in casual Friday.
Yeah, it is casual Friday.
Play it, Tom.
Grab something that sound that grab something that starts with the letter and a snack on go
Nabisco shredded wheat Snack with the
that's so that's our co-worker who does some of our voice work.
She does casual Friday and she does the nightcap and Her voice is so relaxing that when we go into casual Friday or the neck nightcap.
I'm always like Yeah, I'm relaxed now
Yeah,
and as a nightcap.
I got it right there boom right there But yeah, so welcome to the welcome to casual Friday everybody where we're take these troubles you're having that mean Pete We're having let's let's let them melt away.
Let's do our thing Have a
good show
too mellow because
we are a show that mostly that's for the listeners right like we still have to kind of be on
I mean, I'll be on but I also want to be like pardon me wants to be mellow and relax and let it just like let the world
You know, yeah run and roll and do its thing because what what are we gonna do?
I can't open up the straight of Hormuz I can't I can't get taller at this point my life.
I have to
accept the things I can't control Pete Listen,
I do
that on casual Friday.
Can I can I just have a something I got to get off my chest We've been on here about seven minutes or so right now.
Yeah, six minutes and I you used to cut hair, right?
Agreed.
Yes,
I did.
I
did.
Yes, I did.
I have this really smart looking haircut and neither one of you have said a word.
Oh, I'm sorry.
That's okay.
November.
So tonight's show is going to be really great.
But like, okay, so all right, I'll bite on this one.
Captain, give me a compliment.
First of all, it's needy.
Looks nice.
I can really not say like you, you get a haircut regularly like it was
because you just
got
Wait, when
did you get the haircut?
Today and but I got to go to do the TV gig that next week So I got a haircut.
Otherwise.
I don't really bother with it.
So I can go like three months
without it or I'll do it like every month if I have to be somewhere in public and worry about my appearance Well,
I was it was a half inch Yeah, my hair does grow fast.
Maybe three quarters.
Plus you got like you got like curly hair you got like
Your hair is thick.
If you're watching the live show and you can tell like that man right there has a has a good has a good head of hair on his head and there It's like I wish I wish
I know I try not to
You know
Usually every like three to four months.
Just get a trim make sure
yours
Do you do it yourself?
Can you
just say?
No, I
don't cut my own hair.
No, I never did that.
Even when I was shaving my head, I didn't cut my own hair because there's places you miss.
And
I don't want
to mess that up.
And when I worked at the barber shop and your haircuts are free, you just sit in the chair quick, knock it out really quick.
Let's do this.
Actually, once I left the shop, I just stopped cutting my hair.
And I've gotten two haircuts since then.
to like even it out.
And I actually need to get one because it's getting a little raggedy, but still it's, uh, yeah, I don't do it.
I don't do it every off.
I don't do it very often because I want to keep the length.
I like the length where it's at.
Love it.
Well, there's a good, uh, I think, I think we, uh, we're a good composite of men who haircut frequency.
That's great.
Hey, we have a great show tonight.
We've got
Matt Miller
joining us.
Talk about a great head of hair.
He is a Milwaukee based film critic.
We love having Matt on the show.
He's going to tell us a little bit about opening night.
Maybe if he was there enough, not, we'll just talk movies and some of the, of the Milwaukee film festival.
There it is.
Started
yesterday.
Started
yesterday.
Just yesterday.
And we sent some people there with some free passes and an all access pass.
That was a fun contest.
and most of them are regular listeners, so that was fun.
Yes, they are.
And then Greg and I are going to play a game at 535 called Binge or Cringe.
And Dom, correct me if I'm wrong, this is a game that we've played before.
You and Tucker, our senior producer, who I'm really starting to like, start you guys.
You guys have come up with some stuff you're going to say and Greg and I will decide if we will binge it or cringe it.
Gotcha.
hope Tucker caught that line where you say I'm really starting to like
him.
See, just want to make sure he's listening.
Um, and then let's get to, I love this question.
Let's get to the question of the night.
Who is your favorite sitcom wacky neighbor?
Who is your favorite sitcom wacky neighbor?
You got so many people to choose from.
Yeah.
You got Art Carney from the Honeymooners, Kramer, Rota.
I mean, Walona from Good Times.
Tons of great Mr. Roper, Mr. Furley.
Mrs. Roper.
Yeah.
You know, I had a little bit of a crush on her.
Honestly, God, Mrs. Roper.
And it just stopped about a week ago, Tuesday.
She
was
great.
I stopped liking Mr. Roper.
I just started liking Tucker.
I
need to fill that void.
Yeah, exactly.
Who better with Tucker?
Tucker and I have already had drinks together.
He knows.
He knows.
Yeah, I'm aware.
And you hung out with Dom in Madison.
That's great.
I love it.
I absolutely love the camaraderie you have with my coworkers.
It's grand.
Listen, you were growing your pizzas on your pizza farm and you couldn't, uh, you couldn't make it.
Wasn't funny then?
It's not funny now, okay?
I have the clip of that too, by the way.
Yeah, that's great.
We'll just, we'll just hold that for posterity
Make sure to play it at my funeral and make sure you elongate the silence even longer.
Like 20 minutes.
This is casual Friday here at Nightlight.
Uh, we've got some, but let us know who your favorite sitcom, wacky neighbor is eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five civic.
You can also text us on the civic media app.
Very easy to use.
You should have it.
If you don't highly recommend it.
And if you're watching the radio on YouTube, Facebook, or, uh, ex Twitter, drop us a stream comment and we will read it on the radio folks.
But,
uh, we got some news we should give you Friday, but yeah, let's get to the news top.
All right, folks, for those out there who love Disney, who love haunted mansions and really want to get married, you can do all three now because Disneyland is offering very, very few couples, like these are slim pickings on the spots, but you can get married at Disneyland at the haunted mansion for the low, low price of a minimum.
$40,000, which is not much different than the average price of a wedding in the United States.
But here is one of the catches, not just the $40,000 price tag, but you have to get married at 5.20 in the morning before the park even opens.
So not only do you have to have the cash, you have to have a very reliable alarm clock as well.
Not to mention the fact that $40,000 is just the minimum.
There's also other things that you have to pay for.
It says the Gothic theme affair will take place at the steps of the
a wedding that is traditional.
That breaks down to $1600 a person to sit in folding chairs near a fake graveyard and don't expect a long celebration.
The entire experience clocks in in about an hour, which actually to me, that's good.
Especially if you're a guest.
Yeah, a wedding shouldn't be.
longer than that.
It also goes on to say, uh, that, that $40,000 covers the efficient light, light decor, minimum light and photography and transportation.
So does it include the hotel?
Am I paying for the people who are coming?
this goes from a $40,000 wedding to $100,000 wedding immediately.
So yeah, but if you want to get married at Disneyland, I hope you have the cash because it can get spooky when you don't
and the love of your life.
might run off with Goofy.
There's always that possibility.
They also have to want to get married there too.
We have a couple more stories we're going to ask.
I'll just tease this.
Washcloths.
Yes or no, folks.
Not been your cringe.
Yes or no.
We're coming right back.
This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get
started.
Trying to get back in Greg's good graces by playing some Phil Collins.
But it's not Phil Collins.
It's Phillip Bailey with Phil Collins,
the
Phillip Bailey solo tune.
Yeah, but it's a Collins vehicle in my opinion.
He brings a lot to that.
But
he doesn't, he's not driving it.
Mr. Bailey is.
The video is hilarious though.
The video is hilarious.
Cause
it's
just hanging out being goofy.
It's wonderful.
Totally.
I love that song too.
It's
just a fun song.
Oh yeah.
Welcome back to nightlight folks.
I am Peach Baba.
He is Greg Bach.
Dom Lee is working the board.
John Murray getting things started off early on the text line, calling my haircut the day, but Hasselhoff haircut.
You can do
worse.
that's a good,
yeah.
It's like, you could definitely dress up as Michael Knight for Halloween this year.
Only I had
a cool car.
Yeah.
John says straight up somewhere between Dan Marino and David Hasselhoff.
Okay.
I can sling it too, man.
There he goes.
He's a Schwabba blah, blah, blah, handsome.
Blame his mama.
I don't know.
His blame
is.
My
mom is great hair.
Yeah.
He says, my name is Schwab.
I live on the second floor.
Now we're just referencing lyrics.
Yeah.
Thanks to you, John.
Thank
you.
I
live on the second floor.
Locked into the door again.
That song is dark.
It is a dark tune.
But I, you know, every once in a while you hear that one come on and I probably just takes me back to the eighties or something.
we got some more news stories to get to.
Dom Lee.
What do you say, pal?
Go ahead, Greg.
All right.
What do you want?
Do you want to talk about?
Oh, you were going to do do Marvel.
Okay.
Marvel.
This is a big one.
So it's not just the Milwaukee Film Festival.
That's also big in the theaters right now.
This, uh, a yearly, uh, convention called CinemaCon is happening right now in Las Vegas, I believe.
Yes.
Las Vegas and, uh,
All the stars were out Marvel wise Robert Downey Jr.
and Chris Evans Iron Man and Captain America respectively to premiere the new Avengers doomsday trailer and I have been someone who have been who's tried to tamp his expectations down with regard to Marvel because you know The first ten years were really good.
I think and then you know this next ten years.
There's there's there were some clunkers in there.
I won't lie secret invasions But I am severely excited about this.
I got I watched a
I watched a breakdown video from one of my nerdy channels I watch on YouTube and they gave a beat-by-beat of the trailer they showed and it looks very, very exciting.
I'm very excited.
I know Pete, you are not that into it.
Dom, you're not that into it.
So I will be talking about this incessantly for the next six to eight months.
So is that what it opens?
It opens in December.
Okay.
Yeah.
And in between now and then between, actually between,
Between here and that movie opening a new spider-man movie is coming out too that they released a trailer on but this is the one that people this is this I'll bet dollars to donut spider-man will make over a billion dollars because they just do know and everything points to that but Marvel really needs this movie to do well because You know, this is the first real Avengers movies since
2019 and they've had movies that have underperformed.
So they're really putting a lot of, they're really putting their eggs on the basket on this one.
So I'm excited.
I'm very, very excited.
Also at the cinema con, they showed a trailer of Dune three and also promoting.
Yes.
I can't wait to see that.
I'm going to try to read the book again before that comes out.
It took me like six months to read it when I was younger, but yeah, that looks cool too.
Yeah.
I'm absolutely excited.
I want to ask Matt Miller his thoughts on this, but I feel like he's just going to make fun of me.
On what?
Marvel?
The fact, the fact that I like Marvel,
man, that's not a Marvel hater.
Is he?
Well, we got into a fight about Wolverine versus Deadpool and Deadpool.
It was, it was funny.
It was very funny to watch us go back and forth.
Cause I was like vehemently foreign.
He was vehemently against, but I might bring it up lightly.
We'll see what happens.
We'll see what happens.
But another quick thing folks, just really quick, because of the, the weather going on right now, we wanted to tell you guys this, you might hear weather updates break into the show to give you an update of what's going on in your neighborhood, your community.
Please make sure you stay safe.
If you got weather rain coming your way.
Make sure you're staying up to date.
We'll get you all the information you need.
But just in case you hear that, that's what's happening.
One of our fearless leaders is out actually storm chasing.
He is a storm chaser, Corey Hartman.
That's crazy to me that, but I love people to do it.
Cause I like to hear about it.
That's as close as I want to get to it.
But all right.
We have one more story and this is a little more benign.
Greg the word is in the verdict is in we've been waiting for this data to come in only 17 people 17% What that could be it only 17% of people use a washcloth in the shower.
I am not one of them You are and I think that's interesting and I am surprised though that only 17 people 17%
First of all, I do not use a washcloth.
I use one of those spongy things, not a loofah sponge per se, but just one of those things that where you put the body wash on there.
I like that better than a washcloth because what happens is use a washcloth, which by the way, very hard word to say.
And you use it like just on your arm and what happens is your hand just slips off and the cloth falls on the floor and then you got to pick it up and then try to, I just use the other thing instead.
But the other point we were making before the show is that the amount of people who say they don't wash their legs,
in
the
shower, which to me is bonkers.
I don't understand that.
I will say you've made me think harder about that.
I rinse my legs and I do rinse them, but because it's like, who smells your legs?
Like I just, it never even occurred to me, but you go to the gym, you sweat, it runs down your legs.
I should
absolutely
be washing
my
But do you think about the other parts of your body you do wash in context to like, who smells them?
Yep.
Okay.
Case closed.
That's it.
All right, cool.
I'm part of the 31%.
I guess it is a luffa.
I guess I never call it a luffa, but yeah, I use a luffa.
A luffa seems like you have a chance at injury there.
That's a, I don't like the surface of the luffa.
That's a take years off your life.
50%, 31% say they use a luffa.
Like Greg just said, 50% say they wash themselves with their hands.
I'm a hands guy.
And I don't know.
Maybe I need to rethink some things off.
All right, folks, we are coming back to play binge or cringe.
If you're in an area where there's bad weather, be careful out there.
And, uh, I'm Pete Schwabba.
He's Greg Bach.
He is Dom Lee.
We are coming back.
Don't miss Binge or Cringe.
It's Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.
Welcome back.
This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.
I am Pete Schwabba coming to you live from Northeast Wisconsin, Christmas City, USA, also known as Marinette, Wisconsin.
Greg Bach is just downstate at Radio Park in Racine, and Dom Lee is working the board in Madison at Civic Media headquarters.
Great to have you with us on this Friday night.
Hope you had a great week, and we've got a lot more show to come.
Greg and I will actually play Binger Cringe in hour number two, because this is casual Friday, so we shuffled things around.
And Matt Miller is about to join us right now, and I couldn't be more thrilled.
He is a Milwaukee-based film critic.
who, uh, you can follow at a man about film.
He does a sub stack there and does great movie reviews.
And he joins us now over the stream from his beloved Milwaukee.
Hey, pal, how are you?
I'm sure you did everything right.
I'm sure it's on this.
And then it doesn't matter anyway, because
great to have you here.
also
We also got the news you've also been denied the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the third time.
Sorry,
terrible.
Matt, how are you?
Doing better than our dog goes right now.
Oh, no.
Day four of Stormpocalypse has done a number on them.
But thankfully, thankfully, I will say our knock on wood.
The only thing we've had so far is whiny dogs.
We haven't had any water.
Best thoughts out to those dealing with the flooding and the tornadoes out there.
It's a gnarly start to spring right now.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Well, let's jump into, let's talk about something happening locally there.
We've talked about it quite a bit on the show.
We did a contest for the Milwaukee Film Festival, gave away a bunch of tickets and an all-access pass.
What are you most looking forward to with this year's Milwaukee Film Festival?
And tell us a little bit about your experience with the Film Festival too.
I think it's one of the best things that happens in the city.
I love seeing the city come together, watch these movies that, you know, otherwise would probably never come to Milwaukee.
Otherwise, I mean, going to like a weeknight screening of a random Czech journalism drama and seeing it like two thirds filled with people who just want to see an interesting movie and talk about it and experience something together.
I think that's, it's really beautiful and wonderful.
So, you know, I love the Milwaukee Film Festival.
It means a lot to me.
And there's, there's a lot to be excited about with this.
I mean, it's, I use this line all the time, but if you can't find something at the Milwaukee Film Festival that you're interested in, you probably just don't have interests.
Like there's, there's something just across the board.
I mean, you've got rock docs, you've got crazy midnight movies.
You've got really informative documentaries about, you know, the biggest
political stories of today.
You've got really good indie movies.
One that I I really want to spotlight right off the bat is called Blue Heron, which is the kind of movie title that is easy to kind of look over when you're looking through a booklet.
And it's like, okay, Blue Heron kind of vague, I don't know what that's about.
It's gotten incredibly good reviews.
A lot of critics already saying this is one of their best movies of the year.
Oh, wow.
Canadian family drama, kind of just about a family making a move all told from the
perspective of the youngest in the family.
And you can tell that there's some like family tensions and dynamics simmering the whole time.
It's supposed to be terrific.
I'm really excited to check that one out.
That one's number one.
And I always I want to let people know because you know, you have the big names and you have the big recognizable docs.
And it's easy to look look over a movie like Blue Heron.
But I will say, Canadian cinema has been killing it in recent years with Rice Boy Sleeps, and with Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie.
Um, and, uh, there's a, I like movies, just really, really good stuff coming from our favorite friends up North right now.
Nice.
Nice.
I, um, besides that, like, well, I'll ask this, I'll ask you a question.
I asked some of our friends from the mall from Milwaukee film, you know, you've seen.
You see movies all the time.
You've been to the Film Festival.
I'm sure you've been to other Film Festivals.
What is it about Milwaukee Film Festival that sets it apart from the other ones you've either been to or heard about?
Because we see people, you know, on the red carpet in Toronto and Cannes and Sundance and all that.
But there's a certain element that makes it different.
What do you think that it is that makes Milwaukee a very special Film Festival?
I think part of it is that it truly is the Milwaukee Film Festival, in part because, yes, you have these locally made films, but it is a movie festival for the local audience, for Milwaukee, for, you know, a market that oftentimes doesn't get a lot of these movies.
And, you know, your New York's and LA's and Chicago's and other big cities, I think sometimes they take for granted that every movie basically comes to a theater by them.
And in Milwaukee, we've rarely had that experience, you know?
So I think that's really important too.
And I think part of what makes Milwaukee special too is, you know, these Toronto and Telluride and Sundance, you can get real...
a cynical brain and celebrity brain at those festivals, you know, being in a screening, you know, or it's the premiere and the stars are in the house, it's a really easy way to kind of get drunk off of everything but the movie.
And that's why, you know, when Sundance happens and when Toronto happens, sometimes you hear these responses to these movies and people are like, oh, incredible, the best movie you'll ever see.
And then it comes to wider audiences and everyone's like,
this this this is the best thing you saw this year um and so Milwaukee is kind of a more pure film going experience this is a film festival about people wanting to gather and watch movies for the movies not for distribution reasons not for awards cloud not for any of that it is movie lovers watching movies and as as a person who loves doing that that's what makes it great to me
Matt Miller is our guest.
He is a Milwaukee based film critic.
You can follow him at a man about film.
He does a great sub stack and great, great articles there.
Uh, he's writing about Milwaukee film and he's got, I would go there now too, because Matt posted something and I want to ask you about this, Matt, the three movies to see every day of the 2026 Milwaukee film festival.
You don't have to give us 14 days.
That's, you know, whatever that is.
Uh, math is not my thing, but, uh, 42.
Give us an overview, if you would, but give us five movies in addition to Blue Heron that you're excited about.
Yeah, so Blue Heron is probably my number one for people to check out for on the complete opposite side of the spectrum.
You know, I think sometimes people hear film festival, they think, oh, snooty pretentious movies and stuff like that.
And that's not the case with the Milwaukee Film Festival.
They also have crazy midnight movies that are about giving you just the wildest ride of your life.
And they've got two that I think are about to become two of the buzzy horror movies of the summer.
One
stars Adam Scott as this guy who visits this Irish cabin, this kind of Irish inn, and freaky stuff starts happening.
That comes out next month wide.
But I think it's really fun to see a movie like that in kind of a packed midnight house.
And before, you know, film Twitter gets their hands on it and starts complaining about, oh, it's overrated.
It's not that good.
Like, see it now kind of pure without all of that.
Love, Adam Scott.
The director I believe his name is Damien McCarthy did a indie horror movie a few years ago called Oddity that people really dug.
I think he's going to be somebody who you start seeing more and more his name popping up for big buzzy horror movies.
The other one I would recommend is called Obsession, which has been playing film festivals.
This is this gnarly, darkly comedic
indie horror movie about a guy who makes a wish that his crush becomes madly in love with him.
And his wish comes true in all of the most horrific ways possible.
And I think that's a really kind of fun, twisted take.
That's exactly what I think that movie should be.
So if you're a horror movie fan, definitely seek those out.
Again, these are two really buzzy movies.
I'm also really excited that Stop Making Sense, Jonathan Demi's probably maybe the best concert movie ever made, is come back at the Milwaukee Film Festival this year.
If you've never seen Stop Making Sense, my God.
Go see the screening.
It is such an experience.
It is such a musical and cinematic joy to behold.
And if you have seen Stop Making Sense, then you already know that and you know you got to see it on the big screen.
I know the Milwaukee Film Festival, they tend to have people dancing in the aisles, which is really fun.
It becomes kind of just a celebration.
And the movie is itself a celebration.
So definitely check that out.
And then I'll end with the closing night movie if I'm kind of just rapid-firing these here called Power Ballad.
I never thought I would recommend a Nick Jonas movie out there, but this is a movie starring Nick Jonas and Paul Rudd as two kind of music guys who connect one night and kind of jam out together and they write a song and Nick Jonas goes and becomes a megastar with that song and Paul Rudd gets left behind and it becomes a kind of dramedy about these two guys kind of dealing with that.
It's an interesting enough premise, but it comes written and directed by the guy who did once, which is the Irish musical that came out like 20 years ago at this point, which is one of the sweetest, loveliest movies.
It is this tiny movie was probably made for like $50.
It's just a lovely movie with great music.
And he also did Sing Street from 10 years ago.
So if you like another
great one.
And that is a key part of making a good music movie is the music's got to be good.
So I'm really interested.
I think that's a really good way to kind of send out the festival.
Those and I could keep going.
But and I'm sure we still will keep going.
But those are the five I would say if you're kind of dipping your toe into the waters, I think those are some you might really
love it.
Absolutely.
You know,
Pete mentioned the substack, a man about film.
What can people look forward to when they visit that?
Is it movie reviews?
Is it more than that?
What do people see when they go to your substack for your thoughts on movies?
day.
This is just purely me being like, these are the movies I'm going to.
These are the movies that I personally am really excited about.
Yeah.
And part of the fun of a film festival is going into a movie kind of blind.
Yeah.
Let's see how this goes.
Some of the best discoveries I've had at the Milwaukee Film Festival, the movies that I was like, I don't know, I got two hours.
Let's see how this goes.
And I walk out and I'm like, oh, it's the best movie I've seen this year.
That's wild.
That's awesome.
bring that up.
I saw that in your text.
Oh, I see.
So Matt's got excuses for
not
writing.
OK, gotcha.
I feel like my phone is going to be fully charged every single day at the festival because there's a chance I may walk out of a screening and they're going to be like, oh, not to your liking.
And it's like, no, I've got a human to welcome.
Um, so hopefully reviews, uh, you can also find, there's a competition I've got, right?
Not a competition, but I'm giving away some passes as well.
Uh, so there's an article about that.
I just also have general reviews, Oscar predictions, musing.
So that's what you can find there.
And I'm hoping to branch that out, but obviously got a, got a kiddo on the way.
So everyone tells me that apparently bringing a human into the world, well, take some doing.
So, uh, maybe a little, not for
you, but like, yeah.
Listen,
Good
luck
with that.
I just like the idea that you're like, you come out early because she's in labor and like, did you not like the movie?
Like, no, my wife is having a baby right now.
But while I have you here, here's some thoughts.
The tone is a little off.
The pacing is stunted and the saturation is beyond bad.
So I got to go.
Have fun.
Have a great time.
Bye-bye.
And you just take off.
There's a Matt Miller sized pluma smoke.
That is so cool, Matt.
Congratulations on that.
Much more important than movies, obviously.
But Matt is here.
We are going to have a few more minutes with our pal Matt Miller after this very short break.
I'm going to ask him about a classic I saw at the Wisconsin Film Festival, and then another big blockbuster one that's out in theaters right now.
We'll do all that after this very short break.
Do not leave, folks.
This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media 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.
Welcome back to Nightlight.
I'm Pete Schwabba, joined by Greg Bach and Dom Lee.
We are the Nightlight Yatterhey Triangle.
Matt Miller is with us.
Follow Matt at A Man About Film.
He does a sub-stack there, great reviews and great, he's got some great stuff there about the Milwaukee Film Festival.
So we were just talking before the break, Matt, that reveal before I get to my actual question.
At the end of 28 days later, 28 years later, Bone Temple.
I did not see that coming, but I loved it with a certain actor who's back in the franchise now, apparently, which is really cool.
Who could you possibly
be?
Yeah, it's Aerofaucet.
It's
Frank Stallone, everybody.
Frank Stallone is back.
You wish.
Yeah, me.
I do.
I really do,
Mike.
So hopefully I am with Greg though.
I'm not a zombie guy, but I did start watching The Walking Dead and it was so well written and done the first few seasons.
I kind of got hooked until I started to pick and
ask.
It gets terrible.
That's
fans.
I have never I have in my life.
I mean, I've I can complain about Game of Thrones till the cows come home.
But I have never seen a fan for a franchise fandom hate something more than the Walking Dead fandom, because it was like the first season was unstoppable, perfect.
And then after that,
everything fell off the rails like ever you ask anybody who likes that show like oh yeah i can talk about how that show is terrible from season two and it's like listen to simpson's fans too like they'll tell you exactly what they hate about it like they despise that franchise but they still watched it
what i i disagree with that's the only show i know that had a show about what you just saw called talking dead and that was popular so i agree it gets worse but it and after the first three or four i think it gets
Not as good, but a very well done series overall, I think.
Anyway, so Matt, all right, so Night of the Living Dead, I just told you during the break, I saw this at the Wisconsin Film Festival last week, very kind of ahead of its time, a little bit crazy ending.
that I did not see coming.
And you say there's something parallel sort of to that genre at the Milwaukee Film Festival this year.
Like it's very hard for a movie to pull that off.
But yeah, there's a great, there's a really interesting documentary at the Milwaukee Film Festival called Black Zombie.
So if you are a fan of zombie movies, or if you're like Greg, and I think you're intrigued by horror movies, but don't actually enjoy watching
watching a horror movie?
I'm a
cat.
I think Black Zombie might be perfect because it is a movie about a, the kind of cultural and societal origins of zombie lore, like going to kind of Haitian culture and kind of going into history and seeing what these things mean.
And then also seeing what zombies represented then and now.
And, you know, I think that kind of stuff is really fascinating.
So if you're a horror movie nut, rather like, like I said,
If you're a Pete Schwabba and you're fine watching, you know, 28 years later, The Bone Temple or you're Greg Bach and you're like, hard pass, but tell me about it.
I think Black Zombie is kind of a great meeting ground there.
Whereas it's all the interesting stuff about horror without the frightening stuff.
Yeah.
We had a question on the text line here from Anna in Madison listening in.
She said, can you ask Matt Miller if he saw the movie about Bob Euker at the film festival?
And unfortunately, sorry, babe, I can't go to birth.
I can't go to birth class.
I got to watch a documentary about Bob Uker.
As much as I wish that would fly, that did not.
But I heard great things about the movie.
I believe it is looking at a wide release this summer.
I haven't heard if there's any plans for a wider release.
I'm sure it will come sooner than later.
I've heard great things about it.
So sounds like a great start to the film festival last night with that one.
And I'm really excited to check that out if and when it comes back to the big screens.
Very cool.
Matt, we probably have time for one more question.
The big film, well, Mario Brothers is the big one now, but Project Hail Mary before that crushed at the box office.
Big still is March opening or April.
Yeah.
So
right?
And I know saying it's an original movie is not correct.
It's based on a book.
Um, but the fact that a movie like that, that isn't a franchise movie that was a, you know, kind of big price tags, big swing conceptual swing.
is is doing that well is really heartening.
And it's been a really heartening across the board start to the year for the box office.
You and others have asked me, you know, is the box office back is the are the movies back our theaters back.
This is the first year where it kind of truly feels that way.
Because you're getting back to the healthy ecosystem that you need that yes, you've got a Super Mario Brothers movie making tons of money.
And you've got you know, scream seven making a lot of money.
But you also have stuff like the
housemaid making money, which again, based on a book, but is an original to audience movie audiences situation.
You've got hoppers, which yes, it's a Pixar movie, but it's an original Pixar movie.
And those are really struggling lately.
You've got stuff like goat, which is an original animated movie finding success.
Send help an original movie finding success.
It's not that we shouldn't have franchises.
It's not that we shouldn't have Marvel movies.
It's that we shouldn't
rely only on those.
That we can have a healthy world where a rom-com can coexist with a Marvel movie, can coexist with a horror movie, can coexist with a sci-fi movie, and all of them can find their audiences and find success at the box office.
And right now, we're kind of finding
that.
I heard a quote, and I can't remember who said it, but I thought of UMAT immediately because we've had this conversation about the movies, the theater experience.
And someone says, you know, it's not about getting people to come to the movies.
It's about giving them something to come to.
It's our job to make movies that they want to see, not just them coming because we expect them.
And I think that's so true.
And I feel like these movies that are coming out now are giving people a reason to come back to the theaters.
I agree and sinners in one battle just you know these great directors and they they crushed last year so
Totally bat Miller.
Thank you as always my friend great stuff and enjoy the Milwaukee Film Festival and
the whole baby thing that sounds like a lot of
Congratulations Run your camcorder We are coming right back folks for our number two.
It's Pete and Greg a nightlight on the city
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