Home Show A Private War

Greetings, Empire member and or members. If you are hearing the sound of my voice currently, it means you are a part of the Empire, or the clubhouse podcast live every Sunday night, 7 Eastern, 4 Pacific, live at Vocal Now Studios, make sure you go to VocalNow.com, it is V-O-K-A-L now, make sure you download the app, take us with you wherever you go. My name is Rob, I am the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast, and I believe in the freedom of the press, I am not alone joining me across the desk is the newest member of the cast, and the man who probably has the sharpest shirt in the room, hang on to you, he is Alex, welcome sir.

Well it is a, it is a low bar for that. Yeah, actually my shirt is very spiffy, thank you very much. Rounding out the days is the official fact checker of this show and the only person in the room with a collar.

You may know him as fun, don, go, but his mom and him, don, for it, I am going to calm down for it, let's go down sir. This is a gray collar, not a blue collar, white collar, gray collar. All right.

Now that we've established that, let's get into it. Whenever we do one of these, it is to review something and this is no exception. This is going to be an interesting thing because the film we're going to talk about in this particular home show number 441 for those of you playing the home game.

This feature something that I don't know that has ever happened. The story that we're going to talk about has had both a narrative and a documentary done, which is not, that's not unusual. The unusual thing is the films are being released in back-to-back weeks.

That is odd. The documentary which I have not yet seen is going to be called Under the Wire, but the narrative which I have seen is called a private war. We love our vendors, they let us come see movies in advance so we can talk to you guys about them so that you can make your decisions for your entertainment dollar wisely.

There is a connection to both sides of this show in this film. Because we handle pop culture, so you've got the film part of it. We also handle sports.

We also handle sports entertainment. One of the producers on this film, gentlemen, is one Marissa McMahon. Really Shane's wife is a producer on this film and he and the boys are all in the thank yous in the end credits.

Wow. She needs to be very, very proud. Does she need to be or should be?

If she's not, she should be. There you go. This is the true story because again there's a documentary coming out.

Of Marie Colvin and if that name doesn't mean much to you, don't go do research. She is a work correspondent who has been handling conflicts around the world since 1986. She is one of the gutsyest humans when it comes to the press in the history of ever.

She is able to get herself into places that she's not supposed to be to tell stories that maybe aren't supposed to be told to the free world. So she's one of the early vice reporters. You could say that.

The film opens as she takes an assignment in Sri Lanka. Oh, it starts there. And in Sri Lanka, she is the victim of a grenade blast that takes her left eye.

She takes the vision and she decides she's going to wear a patch and that's kind of what she was recognized for. A lot of the pictures that are seen in this film are with her at that point. The story goes, it runs about a 12 years time spam.

It's a long gap. She does a lot. Rosemind Pike plays her.

Fantastic. Who would end up becoming her photographer for a majority of the latter part of her career and most of this film is Paul Conroy, played by Jamie Dornin. Some of you know him as Christian Gray.

You also have the great Stanley Tucci in this who's not in it a lot, but his character is very important. You put Stanley Tucci in anything. You already have my attention.

I feel like that should start to be the Stanley Tucci. He's not in it a lot, but he's important. He's so great.

Andy crushes it. And it's not like he's Stanley Tucci. It's not like he tries to play a character.

He's just Stanley Tucci. And that's great enough. I'm good with it.

I said at the top of this, if you don't know who she is, don't do any research. And this is very important because I didn't go in. I knew she was a war correspondent.

I knew she was fairly important because if I'm getting two movies in two weeks about her, by not doing my research, this film had me on the edge of my seat for all hour and 50 minutes. It says an hour 46, but that doesn't include the credits at the end. There is an all new original song from Annie Lennox in this.

What was your watch cage? 47 minutes? That's up there.

Because this thing goes, I mean, oh, for where it starts. And it's kind of funny when you're watching, when I'm watching the end credits and it's like original song from Annie Lennox, I'm like, okay, I see what you did there. We get it.

It's cool. As things got up and running, Roseman Pike for me, it was a little weird because there was a feeling as I was watching this film that she was a little over the top with her performance until I saw actual footage of Marie Coleman and went, nope, that's just who she is. Now is it because of the atmosphere that that may have been in or is that the personality who she was?

Okay. Now, Donna, I want you to think back when we saw Jackie a couple of years ago. And remember we talked about that and we kind of had the discussion about Portman's performance in that, how, for you, it graded on you, but that's who Jackie was.

And when they actually interlaced actual Jackie O footage with Portman's and it was a seamless process, same deal here. Oh, wow. When they play actual footage of Marie Coleman, there's a voiceover, I was like, okay, so they got, oh, wait a minute, that's not Roseman Pike.

This movie is incredible. A friend of the show Marcus Blake was sitting next to me and we were both transfixed to the entire time and Marcus himself is a veteran. So I was interested to hear his thoughts because she was going to these war torn countries and they were dealing with, you know, American liaisons with press to military and things like that.

And Marcus was like, this was amazing. Did you ask him about any accuracy on the field? We didn't have a lot of time to talk afterwards because you guys know me.

I sit through the credits. Marcus doesn't tend to, but this movie is incredible. It's directed by Matthew Heinemann who he is more known for documentaries and shorts.

Don, this is the guy that directed Cartel Land, which I know you were a big fan of last year. And he uses that same documentary style, but he puts it to a narrative, which is kind of interesting because there were moments as she's going through things that I felt that I was right there next to her. He gets that camera right down in there.

What network did she, did slash, she worked mostly for a British newspaper, okay. But she freelanced as well, but most of her career was spent there. So she was on TV or during her career.

She was, but she was more known for her writing than her. She wasn't one of those in front of the camera kind of thing or not a lot. Okay.

But everybody knew who she was. Yeah. I just noticed the big one from the director though.

He was the one that did City of Ghost. Yes. We also saw last year.

That's also amazing. So the subject matter is nothing foreign to him, no pun intended. But for him to do a narrative, it translates amazingly well.

Do you feel like his ability to capture in documentaries made it that much transfixing for you? I didn't do a lot of research going in. Well, no, no, I mean, did it because obviously for you to get sold into something, there has to be an element of either absolute entertainment or just realism that pulls you in.

It's both. But what I'm saying is do you think his documentary background helps with that? Absolutely.

Because it helped him tell a story without shooting a script. I'm torn as to where this film will wind up in January. And we talk about this every year because for those of you that are listening to this on our archive, we recorded this in November.

So the award season is in full swing. Right. Everybody's pushing their movies for end of the year.

And every year, we talk about how thick the field is. And Don, I think you would agree with me. This year, just as thick as any other that we've dealt with in the five or six years, you've been there.

I've seen some great stuff this year. And this is the season where yes, this is where the heavy hitters come out. But I always hear if you go back to every show that we do our best to the year on for the last four years, you would say, but there's been so many good films this year.

You say that every year. And this year is no exception. This year is no exception at all.

So I worry where this film will wind up in the pantheon of all of the great films that have come out this year. But I feel like it has a puncher's chance to get to stand up and get noticed. Will mention possibly for you?

I think right now, if I remember correctly, this literally sits right outside of my top 10. Okay. Now what I was thinking of based on material, feel, and everything that's gone along with it, does this feel like this could be this year's Hurt Locker?

Because it has that gripping narrative. I will tell you apples and oranges on that. Really?

Because this is, it's just a different kind of film. Allow me to elaborate what I mean. You were saying it has a puncher's chance.

It seems like a, I don't want to say small budget, but a more indie feel to it, like the Hurt Locker did. And that, the reason I go back to that one is because that was the smaller film going up against Avatar. And I'm wondering.

Yeah. And I'm wondering, getting back on topic, if you felt like this has the puncher's chance as that smaller film that may hit home. Not necessarily.

I think it's just because there's been so many amazing films this year. And I think when we do our top and bottom tens of the year, I think a lot of people are going to be surprised on what's made my list and what hasn't because this field is so deep. There.

But I think that releasing this film in November is this smart move because you want people to have it fresh in their minds. Uh, Dornin plays a really interesting balance because, and I wrote this in my written review currently located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com. That's our website.

That his, he gets the character that he plays in Paul Conroy because he understands that Paul is the second banana in this deal. But at the same time, he's, he plays Marie's conscience basically where he's the one saying, we've got what we need. We need to go.

This is too dangerous. We've got to go now or because this, this film is so much more than that. And I want to talk about that real quick too.

This is not only about her field reporting. And I think what pushes this even further up for me is that it also deals with, she can't just, you can't, when you see the things that she's seeing, you can't just leave it in the field and how she copes with that. And Paul's kind of the one there going, you know, it's okay to deal with what you're dealing with.

And I'm here for you. I got your back regardless. But you have to confront the nightmares.

You have to confront these images that you can't get out of your head where they're going to get worse. And he plays it with an honesty that really impressed me. Again, I haven't seen a lot of the stuff that the doorning's done, but this, this portrayal I think will make people stand up and notice because he plays it with a subtlety that not a lot of actors would.

They would see this as him being her equal versus him being the support for her. Right. And he does that very well.

Let me kind of bring up in this, in acting in this thing. As a former probation officer, I've seen some of the most sickest horrible stuff that, I can't even imagine the things that you've seen, that I will never tell, not even my wife about. Understandable.

But I had, and there's stuff I'll never forget, and I had to start thinking that as in the job as a robot, that yes, this is horrible, but we got to move on. Was her mind set the same in that, or did she get where it affected her way too much? I know we're human, but you have to be able to, I think externally she liked to put that front on, but in the quiet moments, she realizes that she can't.

And there's a couple of really good sequences that really show that in the moments when she's by herself, and she drinks herself into oblivion, basically. But again, I say, if you don't know the story, don't do the research, because by not doing the research, I was literally on the, there were moments, and I say this in my written view as well. There are, I lost track of the number of moments that I was like, oh my god, oh my god, don't let this happen, don't do this, don't do this, and it just, it wasn't good for my blood pressure.

I can take that much. So this, thank god I have low blood pressure. The simple on that would be, don't know where you're going to go, because it helps with the ride.

I kind of could see where it was going, but I didn't want to believe where it might be going. I feel like that's an edge of spoiler. Not really.

Okay. It's, it's kind of one of, because, and we can talk about this off air. It's not like they necessarily hide where it's going, but at the same time, if you're not, if you don't do the research, you don't, you're just kind of like, okay, that's, this is where we are on the timeline, kind of a thing.

Okay. But this movie is amazing. I mean, even when she has scenes with her, her editor, played by Tom Hollander, who is always great.

He's always awesome. And you see, you can even, in his performance, you can see how he's torn because he wants her to go out there, and because he knows that this is, this is her thing. But he sees the, the toll it's taking on her, and he wants to be her friend, but he has to be her boss at the same time.

Yeah. It's, this movie is nothing short of riveting. And I was a little bit bummed because the screening got moved, and then there was a morning screening that I couldn't attend, and I was so glad they put another prime time screening on this because this, I would have been horribly bummed if I didn't get to see this one.

Yeah, I do want to see this in the end. It's so good. Yeah.

And I appreciate allied, you know, accommodating us for this because this movie is that good. I mean, and it was like, when they changed, I was like, oh, and I mean, they were riding the, you know, I said, no, we're going to do another one. Can you do this?

And I'm like, absolutely, I can be there. Yeah. That's why our vendors are awesome because our vendors really do, they take care of us a lot more than they ever had.

The biggest gripe with this film, or if you were the director, well, will you have changed? If there is a criticism, and when I talk about this in my written review, and this is a weird criticism, it's almost too real in certain sections. Like unnerving?

Yes. Luckily, it doesn't dwell on it because you guys know how I am with, with graphic violence and things of that nature. I don't do well with it.

But it's enough to give the audience a sense of this is what happened, but it doesn't necessarily dwell on it. It's a kind of like, quick cuts of things. It's kind of like the reservoir dogs with the ear where it goes to the side and you kind of know what's happening.

No, you see something. Okay. No, it does show something.

Okay. What I'd be fidgeting in my chair like I've done once in a few times or would have been like, or were you going, oh, dear, oh, dear, because I need a couple of points, I think you might. Okay.

But nothing, it's not consistent and it's not a ton, but it's enough to tell the audience, hey, watch out. Basically, as the old guy says, where's hell? Yeah.

No, is it to the level of, like when they, if you remember when saving private Ryan came out and they had people available to veterans after seeing it, is it to that level of intensity? Not really. Okay.

Because private Ryan is, it's just, it's on such a list by itself. And that's actually going to be referenced in another home show that we've got coming up because that's when we talk about a movie Don Saw this week. It's kind of funny that you actually asked that question because you didn't know that and I know that because I edit the reviews.

But this film is so good and I wouldn't be surprised to see some of our friends in the Dallas press and even some of the national, international press that are telling people to put this on the radar. Now, two quick questions. One, do you see this for warden to season next for acting or?

But that's what I'm saying. It's one of those, it's got a puncher's chance. Okay.

Well, no, no, no, no, I understand what he's saying. Are you saying is it for the people that you see on film or the people behind the camera more? Okay, so it's both.

Both. Cinematography would be one that if I had to pick one, Cinematography would be, you would almost be betting out with house money because this is so visually gritty and real. On your gripe, do you think that they put that in there because it's showing, hey, this is what really, you know, it's showing, where's hell, where's hell, brother?

Because that's your gripe, but you think the director said, I'm showing this because this is what happened. Yeah. As comfortable as it.

Uncomfortable as it is. Well, and you also have to remember this guy does documentaries and he has seen some stuff we can't imagine. Yeah.

And I just, I can't say enough about this film, be prepared for real. I mean, that's really the only thing I can say, just be prepared for real. It sounds like you're setting up for a couple of questions.

You guys ready? Yep. All right, let's get to the final analysis.

The way we do the final analysis on the show, we're not going to give you thumbs up, thumbs down, letter grades numbers, anything like that. Up to two questions will be asked. Question number one is, would I see this film again?

If the answers know that we're done here, but if the answer is yes, then we have a spectrum to work from. From the best of the best of the worst of the best, here's how it rolls. Full price data theater down to a twilight showing, down to a matinee showing, down to early the morning on a weekend, down to actually leaving my house to get it from red box, down to streaming on Netflix, down to cable.

And now Rob? Yes, sir. Would you see a private war again?

Absolutely. Okay. Inquiring mine's one or no?

I'm told out what level would. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. This film is one that everybody needs to put in their Mercedes.

Is it getting a specialty theater release? It's an indie film, it wouldn't. I wouldn't expect it, but I figured you might have looked.

But if you could get it in a larger house where you could have a really good sound system to work with, I mean, we were in one of the bigger houses. Actually, no, we weren't. We were in one of the smaller houses with our friends at the Angelica when I saw this.

But I would love to see this in a larger room, for sure, because it's just, man, this is a good film. So go check it out. It is Matthew Heinemann directing a private war for this whole thing.

Yes, I don't think Bianca and her best friends have an integrated marketing. We love our vendors, our vendors let us see movies early so we can talk to you guys about them and help you make the best possible decisions for your entertainment dollar. Let's do the plugs.

Visit our website, the aforementioned www.theclubhousepodcast.com, where you'll find my written review and so much more. You can follow us on social media, Twitter is at ClubhouseShow. Anything else is the Clubhouse podcast, all three words in that order, where you will wind up somewhere else.

You can follow me if you would like. Everything is yes, and that rob urban that has spelled E-R-V-I-N, my normal co-hosts for this show is Chad Womack. You can follow him at ChadNPG69.

I am Vexploit at all on all social media and remember to catch our regular shows every Sunday, seven Eastern for Pacific on VocalNow.com or on the Vocal app. Be Vocal anywhere. And on Twitter, I'm at Igbonu, IG, B-U-N, U-U-U, and also email me at Don at theclubhousepodcast.com.

Email Don for information, how we can come do a live show for you. We love doing live remote shows and hang out with the Empire. You can email me, questions, comments, concerns, somebody to go pound sand.

I am Rob at theclubhousepodcast.com, Chad is Chad at theclubhousepodcast.com. Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because we are morally obligated to say that. Our normal show, every Sunday night, seven Eastern for Pacific, you can listen and watch us on the VocalNow website and app as well.

So until next time, for Don, Alex and the Empire, I'm Rob, clubhouse is closed.