iTunes Exclusive Episode Gleason

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Riding vampire member and or members.
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 listened to the clubhouse podcast live every Sunday
night, 7 Eastern or Pacific.
Your one stop shop for all things pop culture.
It also means you listen to the show on iTunes because it is time for another iTunes exclusive.
The 226th one of these things, they just keep climbing the numbers they do.
Welcome!
My name is Rob, I am the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast, and I am a big fan
of the NFL, but I'm also a big fan of people helping people.
But I'm not alone for this particular episode, Jordy Mia Cross, the desk is the official
fact checker of this show, and I think it's just about ready for some football as I am.
He may know him as fun, don't go, but his mom and even Don Ford, I'm going to call him
Don Ford, welcome sir.
So how about my beloved Steelers, I'm going to do this year?
Well, I'll have to talk about that on the regular occasion.
Every Sunday night, it's 7 Eastern or Pacific.
Because whatever we do one of these it is to review something.
This is no different.
But today we are reviewing a documentary.
Before we start this whole thing, yes sir.
We got to think of best friends.
I live in a great marketing list of, actually, we can ask him next time we haven't
have to.
Some of our favorite people in the world giving us the opportunity to screen this documentary
before it's available to the general public, so we can talk to you about it.
It is directed by Clay Twil, who really, if you're a documentary person, you might
know him from a documentary called Finder's Keepers, that was out last year.
He was also a producer on the fist full of quarters, King of Kong documentary.
I love that one.
He is a producer on that.
But he directs this time around for a movie called Gleason, G-L-E-A-S-O-N, make sure we get
it spelled right.
It is the story of Steve Gleason, former special teams player for the New Orleans Saints.
You might remember him the first time that they played a game back in the Super Dome after
Hurricane Katrina was in September of 2006.
He was the special teams guy that blocked the punt that led to New Orleans Open Score,
opening score that is, and he retired and shortly after retiring found out that he had
ALS, which is also known as Lugiaric Disease.
Shortly after that, he found out that he and his wife and Michelle were pregnant.
So what Steve decides to do is he's going to start recording video journals for his unborn
what they find out would be his son Rivers.
He's trying to talk him through life before he starts to say, because ALS does, your brain
is still great, but your body just can't respond anymore.
So before he gets too far gone, he wants to know who he is and he wants to give Rivers
fatherly advice and it's like that.
If you remember the movie, my life with Michael Keaton is kind of the same thing.
But this is actually in real life and not in a film.
I'm not even going to bury the lead here.
I have a new favorite film of the year right now, and it is Gleason.
This is an hour 50, which for a documentary normally is long.
It's a little bit long.
Usually, I don't have to somewhere around.
So going in, I was a little nervous because I was like, man, this is good.
This one's going to be one that we're going to have to sit through here because it's going
to be lengthy.
First of all, don't even pay attention to your watch because you don't have to.
Did you even look?
I mean, I did periodically, but nothing for was the first one maybe 45 somewhere in there.
Yeah, that's a sign of a good film with you.
If I don't look at my watch until the 45 minute mark, that's a good thing.
Yeah.
I was emotionally drained when I left this day.
It's the only way I can say it.
I mean, because when you talk about documentaries, you can't really review them like
you reviewed narrative films because it's a little bit different.
Yeah.
There's no acting.
Right.
High thought script.
I thought Clay Twill shot this brilliantly where he entered, you know,
intercut the stuff that he filmed versus the stuff that Steve did on his own.
You might have heard of team Galison that is his charitable foundation.
That's working with ALS patients to get them a technology that they need.
This guy even takes it to the next level.
He's not legislation with his name.
Yes.
They do address that in the film as well.
You get to see his foundation with teammates like Fujita.
Is one of his teammates that's actually on the board of his charity.
This was actually produced to the producers or Drew Breeze in his wife.
Incredible.
So you see how the organization has wrapped their arms around him.
I'm not afraid to say I had tears.
I had laughter.
The entire emotional gambit is in this film.
It's a roller coaster.
Yeah, absolutely.
I put in my written review at www.clobaspodcast.com.
That's our website.
I, I, I was emotionally spent.
It was a roller coaster.
How literally one minute you are crying.
You have your to the tears.
Yeah, how often do I get that to your my eye?
I'm not very sure.
And then literally five seconds later, you're just dealing with the life of you.
Yeah.
Steve says something that just makes you laugh and it kind of helps for that.
Getting out that sad mode.
And there are a few scenes.
I'm just going to say this.
I just pull there three, two.
Don't say the one.
Faith Hitler scene.
That may be mad.
I actually saw your reaction in the theater as we were watching this.
And I was like, wow.
Yeah, just every emotion you will get in this thing.
And then let me just say, when you, if you're an adult and you have kids, tell
her to let's say teenagers, yeah, this is rated R.
But it's rated R for language and a couple of adult situations.
There's nothing that you, that you, we would be embarrassed to sit with your kid
or walk.
Yeah, exactly.
I think it's very informative.
Absolutely.
Because not only does it tell Steve, journey, but it also, and you're right, there's
an educational aspect to it of teaching about people about what ALS is and how would affect
your body.
And it doesn't get real scientific.
It gives you enough to understand what's going on in the documentary.
And that's really what it should do.
But it shows what I'd call in the review what basically the living hell this disease is.
Yes you did.
It is.
So it shows how brutal this disease is.
I mean literally everything in your body goes except your mind.
And you see that?
No doubt in this film.
No doubt at all in this film.
He has to, he has trouble walking, then he needs a cane, then he gets to the wheelchair,
then he can't even talk, then he can't even move.
To me, the video diary where he, he says, I'm afraid this
is the last thing I'm going to be able to say before I lose my ability to talk.
That hit me right where I lived.
Like that, that was so painful to watch because can you imagine knowing that you're about
to get to a point where you can't talk anymore, which you know, that's what we all do.
That's the best way for us to communicate is verbally.
And to be doing that your whole life, and now you're not even what 35, 36, and you can't
anymore, it's, it's so emotional, be on the leaf.
I, I, I, I, I was so spent after this thing, but in the very, very good way, absolutely.
It doesn't, it doesn't go for the cheap emotion, no.
It doesn't go for the cheap laughs, everything in this film feels real because it is.
And I love the mix of the video diaries, the footage that the director shot, and also
one thing to bring up was the news footage and NFL footage.
Yes, they did that perfectly.
I, I put it out on this, this director did such an incredible job.
Clay Twill is his name, especially also whoever did the editing on this thing.
Because how they put the, it was just perfect.
I mean, what I'd call perfect on the way they arranged.
Edited by Clay Twill himself as well as Brian Palmer co-edited this.
How it told the story right, and it had the right footage for the right moment.
And it's told this, and it made the storyline start to finish incredibly perfect.
Absolutely, because you start here's the NFL stuff, you chose him.
Hey, I'm retired, you know, blah, blah, blah, then it starts, something's going on.
And it was the mix of some news footage, then the video, then the, the, the, the, the footage
shot of the people, then the diary, then the news footage, the whole, it was just edited
perfectly. And I never said that before about a film said it perfectly.
Something else that happened that I don't know that I've, that I've, if I've, if I've seen it,
it has not been in years. We go to a lot of screens. Yes. And I went to a lot of screenings,
even before I was reviewing films pseudo professionally, I've very rarely, if ever,
been to a screen that when the lights came up, you could hear a pin drop in the theater.
People were just so blown away by this, like, nobody was talking about it. We were all just,
we were so blown away by this film that it was absolute silence. And how many times I heard
people around me snifled. Oh, you're sitting right next to one brother, but you heard it
certain times you could, I can't have the people were grabbing the clean extra, whatever.
When you go see this, make sure you've got some, you know, Zen, because I don't care how
manly you think you are. I don't care how steel. How hard did you think you are. This film
will make you emotional. And it does it in such a beautiful way that it's not political.
No, it just shows the disease. And to these people who think it's, you know, oh,
poor L.S. They don't really understand what it is. Basically, your body goes, and you just,
your body just keeps not being able to process, except your mind is perfectly healthy.
And what usually causes the death is the last thing that goes, is you're not able to
burn out your blood. You're lungs. That's the last thing. And they really do show the progression
of the disease very, very well. So the people who don't think anything bad about, or it's,
oh, it's about, when you watch this thing, you really understand how brutal it is. And
some people's views on, you know, and I don't like political, but some people don't think,
oh, whatever, you know, fight, fight, fight. No, watch this. And your opinion could change about
this disease and how you feel about it even politically. But it's not a political film. That's the best
film. But also I loved about it. Is yes, it's his, his journey. Yes. But you also see the journey of the
people around him to see how it affects his wife. Oh, how it affects his family and her family.
And the wife. Oh, she's, she's a shining star in this thing. Michelle, God bless her. Yeah. You know,
I mean, she, and it wears on her and it shows. Yeah. Yeah. And I appreciate the honesty and I appreciate
that her saying, you know what, I'm okay to show this vulnerability because people need to understand
how it affects me. And I really do respect it because a lot of people are like, no, I don't want
to be seen in that light. But she was like, you know what, if we're going to do this, we need to go
all the way with it. And she did absolutely she did. And it even shows how it strains the marriage.
Remember that I'm going to say is the bedroom scene. You know, oh, that and sometimes how he is,
I hate to say it, but how the disease and how it affected him that in a way he got in one of
those moods where he takes it out on Michelle, even though she did nothing wrong. You know,
he got brutal tour a couple of times, even though it's a voice talking. I mean, all I'm saying
is Oscar voters get your ballots ready because if this is not on the ballot for best documentary
feature, oh, what there was something wrong in this world or even a best picture to a documentary
could be best picture. Yeah, I'm going to say if I have nine, that's a fair point.
I think if we want to add before we start putting our our stamp of approvals on this,
except for the little kids, I cannot say, bring the family. Yeah, don't be afraid that if your
kids are at least teenagers, I would say because below that level, there's some discussions
you're going to have to have, but I think if your kids are teenagers are older,
go with them or you don't have to be a football fan to understand what's going on,
football just is just kind of really a secondary story just to tell you who this guy is.
You know, it surprised me. I thought, and I could be honest with the empire here on this. I mean,
snow, it's no hidden secret that he is alive today. He is. He hasn't eaten. I thought this
was a video would tell you that. Yeah, I literally thought I didn't really do the research which
is fine, which I wanted. I thought that he would be dead by now. You know what I'm saying,
but I mean, if he's still fighting, if that was his family. Because ALS, he got one of two options
basically. Either you just let it go and the breath goes and you get past or that you put on
on Mac Breedering, you know, a respirator, which he keep your life for years and years and years.
I love the slogan of his foundation. No white flags. Oh, yeah. And when you see the shirts,
the end of the L.A. are highlighted for New Orleans, which I think is awesome. I give it to the
saints to breeze. I mean, what the saints have done for him? And you've been all senior to do.
And, and, and other NFL players, John L.A. was in the United States, a lot of great people were
in this. And I just, I can't say enough good things about it. I just can't. I mean, see this film.
I'm sure what we're about to do is considered formalities, but we're going to do it.
I'm going to be a little different, which I told you. The way we do the final analysis on this show,
we're not going to give you thumbs up thumbs down, numbers, stars, letters, whatever.
Were you things a little bit differently on this show? Basically, you could be up to two questions.
Question number one is would we see this film again? If the answer is no, then we're done here.
But let's be honest. You know the answer to that by now. So maybe you don't.
If the answer is yes, then we really want to know a little bit deeper. We're going to dig a little deeper.
How far would you want to go to see it again? From top to bottom, highest to lowest. Would you
pay full price in the theater? Down to twilight, down to matinee, down to early morning,
down to second run at the dollar theater, down to red box, down to netflix, down to cable.
Darwin, would you see this film again? Actually, let me explain this. No. Really. Yeah.
And the reason why it is so tough to watch, it was incredible. So I wasn't, this, this killed me
emotionally and I just cannot go through. So let's be clear. But there was so incredible.
And it's such an under normal circumstances. To say no, to say, this would say there's no way I
want to watch this film. This gets that big exception. This is a little bit of an asterisk.
Yeah, I know which I put on my review. I put that big button on there. I, this will make my top 10 of
the year for sure. I'm giving a promise to you. So it's not that you wouldn't recommend this to people.
You could get through to everybody. See this thing. See this thing full price. I'm given it to
coveted beyond the doubt. This will make my top 10 best of the year. It's just I cannot watch
that again, because it's so emotionally draining. But if that is a compliment beyond belief,
I will say that I would see this again. And I don't care how you have to see it. If it's in
your town, go now, go again, bring somebody, bring their mom, bring their family, go see it again.
If you have to wait until it comes out on a home format, like go at midnight and buy it and
it is worth everything. I am looking forward to seeing what the DVD presentation of this is
like because I want to see extras. It's that good. It is one of the best documentaries. But I just
can't emotionally do it. It was just one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. It is right now
as of we us recording this on August the 5th, which once you hear this, it will be available the
day we recorded. It is out there for you. This right now, with about four months to go in the year,
is my favorite film of the year. And basically, there's a good chance. It's going to get a metal,
but it brought bronze silver gold. For me, it's it's probably get a metal. It's already won
some awards. Yeah. It will get my top 10. The audience award winner of South by Southwest. It was
in the AFI documentary series. It was actually its Sundance this year. Yeah, but this will
even make this probably make my, may make my bronze of the year or the silver of the gold. But
it's going to make my top 10. It won best documentary. If they see Adel International Film Festival,
I mean, I could go and buy everybody. Every critical loves this thing. People who have seen it
just can't see it enough. Again, we have to think our best friends at all. I didn't create a marketing
list of Ashley, everybody there. Thanks for the invite. See this thing. See it. See it. See it.
It is gleasing. It is directed by Clay Twil. Go now. Go often. Go again. Let's do the plugs.
Visit our website. The aforementioned WWW dot the clubhouse podcast dot com. Find out
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It's Chad Wama. You can find him on Twitter at chat npg69. I'm at fondongo and you can email me
at dawn at the clubhouse podcast dot com. Email Dom with questions about us coming to do a
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me questions, comments, concerns, so I'm going to go pound sand. I am Rob at the clubhouse podcast dot com.
Chad is featured at chat at the clubhouse podcast dot com. Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because
we are morally obligated to say that. And since we said today is August the fifth, it is Jules
birthday. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. We want to say happy birthday to Jules. Our normal show
every Sunday night, 7 Eastern, 4 Pacific is your one-stop shop for all things pop culture. So until
the next time we talk, for done, for the empire, I'm Rob. Clubhouse is closed and the new
months on the Brity Palmer calendar.