Home Show What They Had

If you're hearing the sound of my voice, it means you know a little something about the
Clubhouse podcast.
We've got a couple to do between when we record this and when you publish it, so the
number will just be in the description.
My name is Rob, I am the executive producer of the Clubhouse podcast, and this one's
going to be a little different.
But I'm not alone for this particular review, joining me across the desk as he does from
time to time is the official fact checker of this show, and a man who I think it's going
to be interested in what we're going to talk about.
You may know him as Fondango, but his mama named him Don Ford, I'm going to call him
Don Ford.
What's going on, sir?
I'm always interested.
Good.
Whatever we do, one of these, it is to review something and this is no exception.
Elizabeth Chumco, she writes and directs a brand new film, and it's called What They
Had.
Of course, that's hoping.
Yes, sir.
I think Julie Joshua made Slifox with the invite, zinni, zinni, zinni, zinni, zinni.
We love our vendors, our vendors take care of us.
They let us see movies in advance so that we can review them for you.
Now this is the first time for her as a writer director, but she is, she has acted before,
so she's not a stranger to the business.
Here's what you need to know.
Hillary Swank plays Bridget.
Okay, she lives in California with her husband, and she has two daughters, both of whom are
out of the house, one of whom is older, the other ones in college.
The college one is Emma played by Taysa Farmiga.
She gets a call in the middle of the night, Christmas Eve, that her mother has gone missing.
She gets the call from her brother, Nick, played by the great Michael Shannon, who you know
I'm a huge fan of, who isn't?
So she flies to Chicago to see her family, Nick still lives there.
Her father, Bert, is played by the great robber forester.
Her mother played by a lady that whose presence we have been in before, and the great
wife, Danner.
Now Ruth the mother is her, she's mentally deteriorating, Michael Shannon, Nick owns
a bar there, he's been taking care of the both of them, this is not the first episode
of this she's had.
She does find her, but what this film is about is number one, it's about the struggle that
this family has, because Nick wants to put her in a home for people who have these kinds
of issues.
Bert just wants to be her caretaker, Bridget has power of attorney.
So you've got that go that back and forth of, we want to get her checked in, no I don't
want to check her in.
And then you've got them dealing with their own issues with each other and themselves.
You mean this brother sister, sister, brother sister's parents, everybody okay?
This runs about an hour 40.
This is going to be a different kind of review, like I said earlier.
As I was writing my review for this currently located at www.theclubhosspodcast.com.
That's our website.
My biggest struggle when I write a review is how to start it, because for me I like to
try to put a little different spin on every review that I write, so that it's not the same
thing all the time.
This review is more personal, I think than almost any review I've ever written.
Because we're creeping up on 10 years ago, that I lost three of my four grandparents
in the same year, but I focused it on my maternal grandparents.
The events leading up to losing both of them were very difficult on multiple levels.
From seeing the deterioration of my grandparents who were going through some, both of them were
going through something similar to the stories I would hear of the state they were in when
my mother and her brother and her sister would go to see them to the back and forth between
the three of them as things progressed.
My uncle, just like Nick does in the film, my uncle was local to both of them.
My aunt and my mom both were not, so you have that dynamic as well.
A lot of what I saw in this film hit me where I lived a little bit, real personal, because
I saw certain things that made me go, because my mom kept me out of a lot of it, but I
knew enough to be dangerous at the time.
This was 10 years go, dude.
Okay, 10 years ago.
Okay.
I mean, I'm in my mid 30s at that point.
So for me, I could watch parts of this film and go, I bet this is a conversation that
my mother and my uncle had, and how as we get older, we have to deal with our parents
on that level.
And there were just moments that I was just like, I'm seeing probably what's my past, but
how much of my future am I seeing too, because my mother is in her late 60s.
So this film made me think about a lot of things that I don't know that I want to think
about right now.
I'm going to have to eventually.
But I'm also not there.
My mother lives in Boise, Idaho.
So you don't think I have to deal with Montana and Pittsburgh?
No, I know.
I'm not saying you don't.
I know because I know exactly what you're seeing.
I get those thoughts too of, you know, I can see exactly where you're coming from.
So this film hit me on a very, very personal level.
It's wonderful.
It's incredibly well written.
It's smart.
It's got a little bit of humor to it, but it's got a realism talking about this subject matter.
It tackles it head on.
And there's a line that Blife Danter says close to the end of the film that just destroyed
me.
And I don't want to give it away because it's a spoiler.
And I'll tell you off air.
But I mean, with a cast this strong, you, you know, Michael Shannon and Hillary Swinker
also executive producers on this film.
Okay.
There's some really neat symbolism that when it was over, I was able to go back and go,
oh, I noticed that earlier and how that ties in.
It's incredibly well acted.
It's incredibly well written.
It's beautiful.
It's a beautiful portrait of a dysfunctional family.
Because at the same time, you've got Bridget dealing with her daughter and her collegiate
struggles.
Struggling to love to the expectations of her parents.
And it's, there are moments where you're like, oh, okay, like, oh, and like, okay, I can
see what's going on here.
This doesn't need to happen.
But not in like a scary way, if it makes sense.
There are some light moments.
But this is a heavy film.
Yeah.
When I was in college in Montana, far moved to Dallas, living with my mom, my grandmother
here, her mother, her side.
She passed away from cancer a little bit before I graduated or right after I graduated,
I looked after graduate and moved down here.
And we decided to take her in kind of thing.
It was tough.
It wasn't easy.
And there were in the last couple days, my grandmother can even move or do you talk, move
her mouth or anything, you know what I'm saying?
Okay.
So it was tough physically and it's a tough situation to have somebody in there.
Of course, we'd still do it all over again.
That's my grandmother.
And we have no regrets of her of us taking care of her till she passed instead of putting
her in a home.
But then some people, it's just gets too much, even as much as you love those people.
And it sacrifices that those people have done for you.
It sometimes is a home the best thing, even though you hate to think about it.
So I can imagine the what was kind of gotten going through your mind too or files to see
this also.
So you're saying this is happy, okay, watch cage, 35 minutes for an hour, 40 minute movie.
And often much after that, probably every 15, 20 minutes.
Some are in there.
Okay.
So that means you're interested.
Big time.
Absolutely.
What would your biggest complaint?
I don't know that I have one.
I thought this was really, really good.
What would you have changed?
I don't know if there's anything I would change, like I said, I don't know.
There's a lot going on here.
I can tell you that.
Does it get too complicated?
I won't say complicated.
It's just heavy man.
It's just heavy.
It doesn't get too complicated, but don't fall asleep, please, or you're saying.
And if you watch it, you won't, you'll be able to follow the storyline.
Oh, yeah, no, no, it's not a complicated story.
It's just a very heavy subject matter that I felt it feels dealt with honestly and openly
in a really good way, but it's heavy.
It's real.
Which is going to, it's going to play into the final analysis.
Okay.
Let's get to it.
The way we do the final analysis on the show, we're not going to give you thumbs up, thumbs
down.
We're not going to give you letter numbers, grades, anything like that.
Two questions will be asked.
Question number one is, what I see this film again, if the answers know that we're done
here.
But if the answer is yes, then the follow up question is, how far would I be willing
to go to see it?
From the best of the best of the worst of the best, here's how it goes.
Full price of the theater down to a twilight, down to a matinee, down to early morning
on a weekend, down to second one at the dollar theater, down to actually leaving your house
to get it from red box, down to streaming it on Netflix, down to cable.
Okay Rob, yes sir.
Would you say this film again?
That's an interesting question.
Yeah, that's the one.
If you're asking me if I would recommend this film, yes.
Well I see this film again, probably not, but not because it's a good film or it's
a bad film.
I'm sorry, I apologize, here's the thing.
There is only one other film that I've ever seen that I will put in this category and
that film is good while hunting.
Good while hunting is an amazing film, it's a wonderful film.
It's too personal, I can't watch it again.
Really?
I never knew that.
There's aspects to good while hunting that hit way too close to home for me and I can't
put myself through it again.
This is another one of those films that I might be able to revisit down the line.
I highly recommend this film, don't get me wrong.
I wouldn't do it on first date, but this is an excellent, excellent, excellent, excellent
film.
I just don't know, especially if you have parents that are aging, and again, it's heavy.
And I don't know that at this point in my life that I could sit through it again and
not just have this flood of emotions hit me.
I kept it together for most of it, but man, I mean, it's almost too real for me.
Again, this is a wonderful film and I highly recommend it.
I just don't know that I can sit through it again.
So how would you recommend it to what level?
Anyway you can see it.
Full price?
It wouldn't offend me if somebody did.
Okay, absolutely.
Subcute that out there.
It's an excellent film and I highly recommend it.
I just couldn't sit through it again because it's so real.
Elizabeth Chomco writes in directs what they had.
Again, we are thank Julian Josh, everybody, it's Slime Fox for the invite.
Thank you guys so much.
We love our vendors.
They take care of us.
They let us see movies early so we can talk to you guys about them and you can make the
best decisions for your entertainment dollar.
Let's do the plugs.
All right.
Visit our website where you can read my written review and so much more.
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