iTunes Exclusive Episode A Wrinkle In Time

If you are hearing the sound of my voice, it means the following conditions have been met.
At least once in your life you have checked out the Clubhouse podcast live every Sunday
night, seven Eastern, four Pacific, your one-stop shop for all things pop culture.
It also means you've checked us out at least once on your favorite podcast app because
it is time for another I-Tunes Exclusive.
This is number 355 for those of you playing the home game.
Welcome.
My name is Rob.
I am the executive producer of the Clubhouse Podcasts and making a few adjustments, making
a few adjustments because that's how I do it every day, every day.
But I'm not alone for this particular episode, joining me in the co-host chair as he tends
to do from time to time is my co-host and a man whose shirts are always ironed.
He is Chad.
Welcome, sir.
Whatever you're over here dressing your work clothes are very dapper.
Oh, well thank you, sir.
All right.
Next to him is the official fact checker of this show and a man whose polo shirts are
always ironed.
You may know him as fond on go, but his mom and even Don Ford, I'm going to call him
Don Ford.
Welcome, sir.
Yeah, the fantastic people for it does the ironing for me.
Good for her.
That's good news.
Because I can't do worth a darn.
That's one of the few things I can't do great.
Yep.
Even upgrades can't fix that.
And rounding out the dais is the newest member of the crew and a man who's still trying to
figure out what the heck he's gotten himself into.
Alex is here.
Welcome, sir.
How are you doing?
But I do buy the wrinkle free shirt, so I skip that step.
As do I.
I'm not a fan of ironing.
Never happened.
Me neither.
Whenever we do one of these things, it is to review something and this particular episode
is no exception.
The beloved children's novel, a wrinkle in time has gotten its an update for the first
time since 2003 as Ava DuVarnay directs this particular version of a wrinkle in time.
Start this whole thing.
Yeah, sir.
We got to thank Delaney, Susan Jacobs in our new, new, new, new, new friends, Susan
at Levinson.
Such fans of those guys.
And they, we're just starting a partnership with those great people, Levinson, this kind
of, yeah, very, very excited.
They give us a chance to see movies before they come out.
So we can talk to you about them and help you make the best possible decisions for your
entertainment dollar.
And also got to thank Disney.
I forgot that.
Yes.
Okay.
First of all, a Disney film under two hours.
Very excited about this.
Rare.
Yeah.
And based, again, I'll be the, I would say the beloved children's novel that was released
56 years ago.
Yeah.
Right at the end of the 50s.
But I was surprised as I was talking to people about this film that had never heard of
it.
I mean, I was familiar with it, but I wasn't, I had never read it.
I knew that it existed.
And I knew about the, the 2003 made for TV version.
And there's a, there's a series of books.
This centers on Meg played by Storm Re, what a great name.
Published in 1962.
Okay.
Okay.
That's our fact checker.
That's what he does.
Meg is the child of a couple of scientists.
Her father goes missing one day.
He is played by the great Chris pun.
And about four years later, she finds out that he's not missing.
He's across the universe, not the Beatles song, different movie.
And so she teams up with three celestial beings, if you will.
You've got Mrs. Witch played by the Oprah.
You got Mrs. What's It played by the Reese Witherspoon.
And you've got Mrs. Who played by the Mindy Kaling.
Who kind of helped Meg and her brother Charles Wallace played by Derek McCabe on this quest.
And of course, their mother played by the great Google about the raw.
That Gallifinakis also in this Michael Pina in this Andre Holland in this David O yellow
O.O.
His voice appears in this and he's going to be his name will be mentioned in back to back.
I do the exclusives this week.
That was a long way to go.
I'm sorry.
I had to push the button.
And the button wasn't worth it.
The button was.
I'm very easily confused and there's also an appearance.
It's a very quick appearance in this by the great Will McCormack.
I did read that.
Mm-hmm.
As soon as I saw him in the credits, I was like, that was him.
Okay, fair enough.
Colby Deans.
All right.
And stuff.
I said Colby Deans.
Let's just dive right in.
I really enjoyed this film.
I didn't.
Well, all right.
We'll get into that.
We'll get into that.
We'll get into that.
We'll get into that.
We'll get into that.
We'll get into that.
We'll get into that.
We'll get into all this.
But go ahead.
I really enjoyed this film.
I thought from a pacing standpoint, it was fine.
I thought that the story was told, there's some liberties taken with the story that has
kind of divided the fan base a little bit here from the makeup of the family.
There's a couple of kids that aren't represented.
The makeup of the family is different, of course, because given when it was written,
it wasn't written like it is now.
But Chris Pine said the makeup of the family was one of the things that attracted him to
this project.
Right.
Visually stunning.
Disney.
Come on.
Be real.
I really enjoyed this film because Oprah didn't Oprah it up.
Reese Witherspoon didn't Reese Witherspoon it up.
Mindy Kaling didn't.
Mindy Kaling it up.
I like Mindy Kaling.
But I know a lot of people that don't really dig her because of the character she plays.
This character is a lot different from anything she's done before.
Yeah.
She was easily the most reserved of the three.
I'm a fan of her from the office.
I really like, and I can see how the chickie get that kind of rep.
But it didn't fall over in this.
She did really good.
I was expecting her character to be more like Reese Witherspoon's character to be close
with you.
Just given the kind of personality that she has.
You're not sure what this is.
And the characters.
Sizzes.
Sizzes.
But Don, you right off the bat did not enjoy this film talk about it.
I really was interested in this film.
And it started watching it.
I started enjoy it.
CGI I loved.
I'm the first...
I love CGI.
I love CGI.
I love CGI.
I'm the first...
I love CGI.
I love CGI.
I love CGI.
I love CGI.
I'm the first...
I love CGI.
I love CGI.
I love CGI.
And there were great some great natural scenes where they added CGI.
But you can tell it was CGI.
I didn't see that overflow of natural shot was CGI added in.
They did it perfectly.
I love the visual.
Acting was good.
I don't know.
Um storm read did find she did beautiful. I thought she was great for this being very early in her career
But this is a Disney film. It's not a Pixar. This is
Marcos Walt Disney Studios for the whole family
There's no way a six-year-old could follow this plot. There was no way a 10-year-old could follow this plot
I had trouble following this plot. That's not saying much. I was gonna say that but I was trying to keep it serious
I mean storm read has 20 20 projects to her credit, but nothing really as big as this
She was in a music video with the Jay-Z and the Beyoncé
She did an episode of Chicago PD an episode of NCIS Los Angeles a couple of episodes of Adam divine's house party
But that's about all you've got there by the end there's some emotional scenes and she plays it perfectly the tears come out
She did great in acting she's also in 12 years, but there's a scene right by
When Zach Galken from that whatever he obviously is
Yeah, I've been that guy said. No
That's been close, but when his character comes in
From that point on this thing got complicated complicated complicated and it's trying to I think trying to be a philosophy
Movie a philosophy class because I go where is this going? This what are they talking about? This is getting like over my head
And there's one scene at the end where Oprah says
You accomplished this is I'm gonna say being spoiler free. I compared her to Gandhi and everybody else
She's as great as a person in history of Gandhi for what she did
No, I think you missed the point. I know I heard I was watching that but I would sit down
I really you just said that Oprah really I mean it was there's no way a ten-year-old could watch this and understand a plot or even a 15-year-old
It gets to I'm not sure I'd go that far too complicated way to now
This was a Pixar can understand because sometimes they don't try to do the whole family and market towards the whole family
There were a lot of kids there and those kids I was watching during the thing. I kind of looked over
They're kind of like, huh? What's going on here? Just like I was again not saying much, but
It's still you know, I just I don't agree with that. I think that
This is a movie you have to pay attention to yeah big time, but I
Don't know that I'd go as far as to say a ten or fifteen-year-old couldn't follow this plot
I think you might be underestimating a little bit a seven or eight-year-old might have some issues
But I think ten to fifteen. I mean that's Disney's wheelhouse in this deal
And I think it's fine for them. There's some depth in there. It's definitely a film that
Again, you have to pay attention to no doubt in my mind at all. Oh, but I
Didn't find it that big of a deal chat
I tend to side a little bit more with Don on this and I've that I normally would okay
And I'm sure that comes as a huge shock to everybody in the room, but yeah
No, I'm not really we're being honest. I
I tend to think that
Given who their target demographic is
So much of this especially the last third of it became like that scene at the end of the matrix trilogy when Neo is talking to the
Architect some the moment that we went. Oh, there it is. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just like
Those you that don't know what I'm what we're referring to chat
And I didn't see the third matrix home in the theater
We didn't see it to we watched it together
But we didn't watch it together until it came out on DVD and we we're sitting there watching it
And we were just with the whole time we were like I don't see the beef. I did. Oh, there it is
Then the other shoe dropped and you're like and it just became this overly preachy overly talky
just
Mishmash of
Philosophical space-time continuing mumbo jumbo that
Not only do I think would go over the majority of the target audience's heads
But they wouldn't even care if they did understand it. It just it it it it's an emergency break
It's a it's a monkey wrench that they just throw in in the middle of something that was going on
Pretty well, and then I'm just and you're like, oh, okay. Do you think it's because
The ending was rushed. Yes, because do you think I mean they could have drawn it out a little bit more?
Maybe so I mean this is one of those instances where we're like we're praising Disney for keeping it under two hours
But I think it could have used another 10-15 minutes and they extended some certain stuff that they didn't need to and a few things
Or it got too much of the complication and wrapped it up too fast honestly. It's like I think the I
Think that the the pretty visuals got in the way of
Some of the storytelling. I think that the that the story could have been explained a little bit better
And it would have made it enjoyable not just for the target audience, but I think for the
The parents of the target audience this thing just lost me several times. I'm like, okay, what it has some great points visually beautiful
I'm talking to some other critics after the film. Mm-hmm. They one of them read the book and knows the book
You said the first half kind of follows a book pretty close considering but the last half
The end is not even not the last half does not
Nothing like I read a nut a nut shell synopsis of it. I'm like, wow
They didn't even come close to getting the ending right. It's like they didn't even try
Okay, I've never going out the way to make it completely different from what was written and I
Purposely I mean I remember reading this and I was very very young, but I don't remember a lot about it
I purposely avoided the source material on this one because I wanted to kind of go in cold
And now I'm now that you've mentioned I may go back and check out the Wikipedia page and just to see the differences
But that's what I did. Yeah, I just I know I just enjoyed this film more than I thought I would
I wanted to enjoy it more than I did and that's what bothers me because
Like I saw instant
Almost right off the bat instant parallels to the never-ending story and that's fair and I have such a deep love for that film
And and oddly enough I remember it's one of those cases where
The authors work got adapted and they were furious with the outcome
I'm not saying that the I don't even know if the author of
Of a wrinkle in time is still with us metal and lingo
But I know that whenever never-ending story came out the author had I mean the book had a little bit published like two three years before it was adapted
And he can stand it
The same way with role doll. Well, that on angle passed away September 6, 2007 at the age of 88. Okay
So I mean and like the author of Mary Poppins couldn't stand the way it was that her work was adapted by Disney
So we're the movie about it like to hear it. No exactly
So you know you're you're going to run the risk of alienating people that
grew up
Huge fans of this book whenever you change as much as you changed about it
Yeah, just on that fair on just on that premise alone
You're gonna you're gonna tick off a ton of people because you and I have been saying for years when they've been adapting comic book films
stay
True to the source material and here it doesn't look like they really did
It's just it doesn't bother me one way or the other because I didn't reach those as a standup
Go ahead. Yeah, I have a genuine question like you were saying that everything's great going into the ending
But then it wraps up too quick
I do know that with this being a series of books and odds are they're gonna want to make money
Especially on something that they can get visually stunning with do you think that they wrapped it up quick figuring all right
We already nailed what we wanted to do at the beginning we hit the notes
We hit the notes we wanted we're gonna wrap this up at the end in two years
We're gonna explain what we just condensed and then we're gonna get into the next story and move along
I don't know that that was even necessary it's like it's like well
No, I'm not I get what you're saying about it not being necessary
But what I'm what I'm saying is from any
Production standpoint. Do you think they were like all right? We've already done what we wanted to accomplish
We made something that people are gonna want to come see
And we'll worry about the story on the back end. I hope that's not what they were thinking because I don't think that worked
I mean they they were great on the dismount, but they really didn't stick the landing all that well
Well, look
Well, look in it's it's only 44% and rotten tomatoes. Yeah, it's it's it's not getting it's not I I enjoyed this film
I can't better let that take my thoughts on it. I really did enjoy it
I mean I'm afraid to say there are parts of it that I genuinely did like
But it just it was inconsistent
If they had tightened this up a little bit and maybe fleshed a couple of things out that needed
Fleshing out and maybe not excluded a couple of the characters that they excluded
I don't know I this there's the makings of a really great great film here
But as as it is in this current form, it's just it's all right
I mean, obviously it did it's gonna fare better than the 2003 television adaptation did because people
That's it eviscerated that thing out. Do you have any other questions for against violent houses? I got nothing else
but there was one thing that
Do you think this could scare the kids too too much? No, no
I think so no, no, no, no, I mean because there are some real dark scenes in this there are there are but with they they've they've
They've weathered worst storms in this that's fair
All right, the way we do the file analysis on the show. We're not gonna give you thumbs up thumbs down
We're not going to give you letter grades numbers
Wrinkled shirts anything like that. Oh that's how I roll. We're gonna ask up to two questions question number
One is would we see this film again if the answers know we're done here, but if the answers yes
Then we're gonna ask how far are you willing to go to see it because that tells the gauge of how much you enjoyed it
From the best of the best of the worst of the best here's the order full price at a theater
We saw this in iMacs by the way was awesome beautifully visually
Full price at a theater twilight show matinee early morning on a weekend second run at the dollar theater
Actually leaving your house to get it from red box streaming it from Netflix or on cable don't let's start with you
Would you see this again?
Yes, how far you I will say I'm gonna predict that for the you're not going to go real far to do it
No, HBO at best. All right, Chad, would you see it again? I'd see it again if they green light a sequel and I'd want to refresh her
Just to watch it again, so I would see it again
I would say matinee this is a good matinee on the weekend take the kids have a good time
I don't know that the the iMacs enhanced my viewing, but it looks beautiful. Yeah, it looked great, you know
And avid different a before our screen shadow message that she sent out she talked about your inner my inner 11 year old
Which is more like my outer 11 year old most of the time
enjoyed it and and kudos to her because she is the first woman of color to direct a film with this kind of a budget
She's first woman of color to direct a $100 million. She is great
It is Disney's a wrinkle in time for a wedding soul thing. Yeah, it's her again
We got think Delaney Susan Jacobs and Susan that Levinson and people at Disney for the invite huge fans of all of those guys
Thank you guys so much for letting us come see this so we can share our opinions with the empire that being said. Let's do the plugs
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I'm Rob clubhouse is closed Britney Palmer. I mean she could be she could be in this so easily put right there in a moment
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