iTunes Exclusive Episode Queen Of Katwe

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There's this time for another at Tunes exclusive.
The 239th one of these things, I believe that.
My name is Rob.
I'm the executive producer of the Clubhouse podcast and I enjoy chess, but I'm terrible at
it.
But I'm not alone.
Maybe not in that category, I don't know, but I'm not alone in the studio because
you're going to meet across the desk because he tends to do is my co-host and a man
that feels that life is a game of chess, which you've got to know the players.
Is that a country music song, I don't know.
He is Chad, welcome sir.
On any time, I think chess, I'm always thinking.
One night of this.
Yes.
In the world, Joel or stuck beating.
Also joining us is the official fact checker of this show.
And a man who if you read his written review about the war, but we're about to talk about.
Might find not something new about him.
You may know him as fun, don, go, but as mom and even, don, ford, I'm going to call
him, don, ford, hell, sir.
About the chest thing.
We're probably in that same level, so we should play a game and see who wins by default.
Dude, I have a friend.
My buddy James Hardy, who Chad knows, he met at my wedding.
That dude, no matter what I do when I play him in chess, he beats me in three moves.
And I change the strategy and he still beats me in three moves.
We got a plan to see who wins by default.
Like I still made it him one time.
Ooh, that was, that was the greatest chess match I've ever played.
I've only played Star Wars chess on the PC, so that's how deep my knowledge goes.
You may have figured out by now, we are here to review the Disney ESPN films Queen of
Cotway directed by Mirra Nyere.
Does that mean, does that mean anything to you Chad?
She's out one lady.
She's out one lady.
She's out one lady.
She's done a lot of different stuff recently.
She did a segment in the film New York.
I love you.
She also did the 2004 version of Vanity Fair.
She also did a segment in the September 11th film that was done in 2002.
But this is kind of a departure for her.
For we start this whole thing.
We have to think our great friends Susan, Jenna, everybody at Susan.
We are such fans of those guys.
We love those ladies.
We love Disney.
Thank you so much for the invite guys.
And they did a great job promoting this film.
We'll talk about here in a minute.
I want to bring it down.
There was really cool.
Yeah, I don't think I even talked to you about this.
You couldn't make this one.
But this is the story of Fiona Mutisi.
Mutisi, I'm sorry, it's based on the true story.
It is based on a true story.
She is from Uganda.
And she lives kind of hand to mouth pretty much in the slums.
In the slums of Uganda with her mother, not who Harriet played by the great Lupita
and Yongo, who you know, I'm a huge fan of as am I.
And they're basically they're uneducated.
But the way they live is they just, they buy vegetables from the market
and sell them on the street.
Okay, pretty much as how they're surviving.
She one day, because her brother always can sleep early when they do these things.
She doesn't know why.
So one day, she follows them and what she finds out is that he's spending
his afternoons at a local church, like a mission outreach program.
Community Center, but it's sponsored by the church and where they get porridge.
So they have something to eat and it's it's run by a guy by the name of Robert
Katenday play.
You're going to have to help me with this because I always screw this up.
I'm a huge fan.
That's why drives me nuts that I screw in his name up.
David or yellow.
Yeah.
Get that right.
Yellow.
Yellow.
Yeah.
He's an industrial engineer.
It's having trouble finding a job so he gets a job with his ministry where he's teaching
kids how to play chess and trying to teach them so that they can better themselves.
So Fiona decides that she's going to go ahead and try her hand at this and finds that
she's got a bit of an act for it.
I don't always kills me.
Yes, like how do you have an act for that thing?
Just an innate knack.
There's just, there's just certain things in this life that people are just good.
Yeah.
And she really, like she starts to be able to see the strategies behind everything and
how everything works.
Like 12 moves ahead.
She's that natural prodigy.
Right.
Right.
People are natural prodigies like with orchestral music, they're like the next Mozart
or something like that.
She's like the next Bobby Fisher.
Bobby Fisher.
Yeah.
So Mr. Katenday decides he's going to take these kids and he's going to start out
putting them in competitions with some of the more rizzi people, not only around the country,
but even the continent in the world.
And it's her story of how she gets to be where she is.
But we'll probably surprise you about this film.
This is a Disney family film.
Right.
Two hours and 15 minutes.
That is unusual for them.
But the beauty of it for me and I know Don and I actually, I'm just spoiler alert.
We disagree on this.
Oh, little bit.
Oh, little.
I thought the pacing was perfect.
I really did.
I looked the watch gauge.
Yes.
45 minutes.
No.
Not kidding you.
Okay.
And maybe the longest ever.
It's close.
There's one that went an hour.
This, the pacing on this, I thought the story telling on this, like, the way
now you're directs this, it's kind of like, it's one of those two steps forward.
And then she has it taken three steps back.
And you feel like I felt it when she was suffering, like I felt like I was suffering
with her.
Like that's how well this is directed.
And outside of the two names that I mentioned, all newcomers and mostly actors from
you Gandhi and South Africa, which they did on purpose, because this is based on an article
from ESPN the magazine, which then turned into a book by Tim Krothers, which is where
the ESPN Disney connection comes into them.
Okay.
Is this a first for them?
The Attricly I believe.
Yeah.
I mean, some of that you could technically say that maybe some of the 30 for 30s
may have crossed over, but this is the first time on in a theatrical release.
Yeah, that's what I'm referring to.
Yeah, if you go to my written review of WWW.com, that's podcast.com still our website.
I put on there that I was so impressed with basically the whole cast almost being newcomers,
probably 80% was probably newcomers.
This was their acting debut, roughly, about 80% you give or take.
They acted like they've been doing it for years and they got three or four things.
It does, it does make you wonder, but it does make you wonder that casting that way gives
them a unique perspective.
Some of those, you wouldn't say lead, but major characters, like they just had it.
They seem like they've been doing it.
They were done with doing it.
They have like a little thing, like it's almost like a high five thing, but when they look
up and they snap at each other and they like that snap or you you pull your hand up as
as soon as you see it snap, that was like their thing.
They seem like they seem like pros who've already done like 20 commercials and couple
things on Disney.
Very, very natural.
Very, very natural.
Oh, no way on that.
And of course, you know, when 98% of your cast is that and then you have these two people
that you can put the words Oscar with, everyone said again, you would think that there
would be like a chasm there, there's totally not.
There's such a natural flow between the characters that you'd think these two were just
coming out of the gate.
It's that, it's that kind of a natural chemistry that you don't find very often when
you have a difference in experience like you have in this film.
It's shot beautifully.
It's told beautifully.
There's a couple of moments, not gonna lie to you.
Got a little weepy.
I, I kind of figured as much there was an emotion to this film that on a certain level
you don't see coming like, we just, 10 days character hits you with a story about two
thirds of the way through and you, it just, it hits you like a break.
Are you talking the sister in all that or, because I was real bad, that Timmy wasn't as
much as the story that he tells Fiona at a time where she's living with him.
Okay.
Because at one point, she does live with him and his wife and his daughter because her
living conditions are so bad.
This, this film is beautiful on so many levels and what I really dug and we always like
to, you know, we love our vendors so when we can give them shoutouts, we like to do that.
This one.
When Don and I sat down, there was almost the entire theater had reserved seats
on them.
But the first five rows, there were two groups, there was an elementary school chess club
and a middle school chess club that were there that they invited, and the kids, it was
really neat and I don't, I don't know if you noticed this.
But after the film, I was walking out because, you know, if you know me, you know, I
said all the way through the credit as I was walking out, I was hearing the kids talking
about it.
And it was almost, there were certain conversations that I overheard that were almost
like they were comparing their chess strategies to the ones they saw on the film, which
that shows you how effective this film is because these kids were focused, they were
watching the film, like I was like, you know what, they're taking notes.
And what's those kids are probably to kill us both on a chess board?
Oh, yeah.
I wouldn't use the word probably.
Yeah, I would use the word most assuredly.
I would bet money.
I will say one thing, one thing that will enhance this film, it's just like searching
for Bobby Fisher, if you know how to play chess, not master it, but know the basics,
of the game.
It won't enhance your viewing of this film.
Because you're going to see, you'll see how things unfold.
So if you see how the rooks move and all that and what happened here and there and all
that, it helps, I enhance as if you know the game at chess.
Now, with the one thing we different on, which I want to agree, I mean, bring up, please
do.
I thought it was, it seemed a little long, I thought it was a little long and don't
get me wrong.
The plot was incredible.
I loved the plot.
I thought it was great.
After Moscow for about 20, 30 minutes, I thought it kind of hit a rudder there.
Well, let's explain.
There's at one point where she goes to play to be try to become a master, he goes to
Moscow.
So you're taking the girlfriend the slums of Uganda and you're putting your in the middle
line.
Yeah.
An international world renowned chess culture.
It got long.
Don brings up a great part in his, in his review that they're the scene where she gets
off the plane in Moscow and she sees and feels snow for the first time.
He walks outside.
Wow.
Absolutely beautifully shot beautifully acted.
I mean, because really, they, you know, she would have had a reason to see snow.
And again, you see the roadblock she faces.
This ain't sunshine's in unicorns.
Yeah.
Like, you see her struggles just as much as you see her triumphs in this thing.
And I'm sure it's not just because of her, her financial or living conditions.
I'm sure that people that don't want her to see her always getting away with it.
Don't want her to succeed.
You're taking a 14-year-old girl who has such a passion for something.
And she just thinks that she should win every time.
She's a 14-year-old girl.
So you experience something struggles of, you know, there's people better than me or
the issue is when, if she doesn't win, it's like, I'm not cut out.
I don't deserve to be here because she's living now.
She lives her life in a bubble.
And then you have to, you look at the, the dynamic she has with her peers.
These kids that have been coming to this ministry for months and months and months.
And she's coming in and she's smoking at me and they're just like, what the heck, man?
This is so fair.
I got people.
You've been here for five minutes.
I've been here for six months.
You see, they show you that struggle and it's real.
It doesn't feel manufactured.
It doesn't feel forced.
It feels real.
And I'm torn on whether I want to talk about this or not.
So I'm going to ask Don, and I'm going to get you from if Don says no.
Then we won't talk about it.
But the way the end credits work.
Oh, yeah.
Really, yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Because it's not a split.
At the end at the end of the movie, I would say when it's a true story.
And I put it on my written review that state, you know, I even buy that up.
Well, they tell you what happened to them afterwards.
Like, you see the young lady that plays Fiona, you see Medina Nollonga and they talk
about what happens to her while she's standing there in the set of the last house they
live in.
And the real girl comes walking out and they have a nice, you know, here what they're
talking about, but they have an exchange to make you that with every member of the cast.
So so you see the character and you see the real luck.
So it's kind of shades of how they end a Chandler's list, but on a much more positive
up.
Yes.
Well, but was really neat.
My favorite one was Lupita Nihongo because she's standing there and not who walks
out and she bows to her and about halfway in the bow and not who stops her and lifts
her back.
It's such a beautiful moment and they do they do that with every member of the cast.
So cool.
All the way down to her brothers and her sister and everything else and it's so great.
Even some of the other kids that are in the ministry, they show you them as well.
It's so cool.
It's so well done with them.
What's going on and all that.
All the way down the road.
Well, I've done a little digging since we've been talking and I've gone to ESPN films and
seen that they've only put out 11 full length films.
This is the first one they've done with Walt Disney Pictures.
I would say this is probably the first one that's going to get a wide release.
Right.
Because most of them wind up either as ESPN films on ESPN or they wind up like SEC story
or 30 for 30.
They did like one on Lombardy that was produced in conjunction with NFL and NFL films.
So that might have shown up on NFL network.
Yeah, probably.
So I'm wondering if this thing goes over well.
I think this is the start of something.
I think this is the total the proverbial toe in the water.
I think there are so many great stories out there.
The only thing I want to give word of caution ESPN films if you're watching.
If you're listening to this, if you're going to do this, move forward.
Don't go back and redo something you've already done.
Because there's a series that you and I love so much called Unsung.
And Unsung did their first film this year.
But it was on somebody they already done an unsung on for making Howard.
Don't go back and retell a story you've already told.
Bring us new stories.
Bring us stories like this that we as a people can rally around because we need that
right now.
We need those stories about those people that have persevered that we can rally around
as a people.
I'm wondering if if Miracle and Invincible hadn't happened yet, I wonder if it would
be under this banner if they were to do it now.
Miracle was Disney.
Right.
And I'm pretty sure that they were more they involved in Invincible.
Invincible, I think was touched on.
So yeah.
And I'm a big huge fan of both of them.
Yeah.
But I'm just wondering.
I'm wondering if that would fall under the envelope.
I do have a question.
Because there are some tough scenes like with their sister.
And you know what?
Yeah.
I'm going to sum up.
Is that too much for children or do you think it is rated PG?
So let's let's put that out there.
And the reason it's rated PG is there's some situations that get a little squirrely.
I would say late elementary school at the absolute youngest.
And that's their chest nut.
Right.
But the kids that were from one of the elementary schools.
I didn't see them and go, you know, there was some in front of us, not even the whole
front of the theater where between the main walkway, where they like to say late elementary
school.
They're on the front.
And there's also the first couple of rows also.
So I mean, they had about three or four different groups of chest things, which was really
cool.
Loved this film.
It sounds beautiful.
It sounds like it's a beautiful thing to experience.
And I really hope that the people rally behind this film and support this film so that
you can send the message to the Walt Disney company and say, you need to do more things
like this.
It sounds like a strong partner show this.
This is something they should capitalize.
And it's just kind of like how they do those animal kingdom films every year.
Which we didn't kick.
Well, they do one last year.
But they're a little bit.
The Disney nature.
Yeah.
Disney nature.
All right, let's do the final analysis on this thing.
The way we do the final analysis on this show, we're a little different.
At least that's what people tell us.
Yeah, we're not going to give you thumbs up thumbs down.
We're not going to give you emojis.
We're not going to give you letter grades anything like that.
Am I normal?
No.
How do we do emoji on this show?
I'll just get it.
Strange your things have happened.
All right.
On our show, our audience, who we love to call the Empire because we love them so much.
They want us to dig deeper.
We're going to dig deeper.
Two questions.
Don't I.
First number one is what we see this film again.
The answer is no, then we're done here.
The answer is yes.
Then it becomes, how far are you going to go to see it again?
And our spectrum from best to worst goes like this, full price in the theater, twilight,
matinee, early morning, second run at the dollar theater, red box, Netflix, cable.
Done.
Would you see this again?
Yes.
How far are you willing to go?
Well, here is going to be a first.
Okay.
Fair enough.
You changed my mind.
Really?
Yeah.
Because I put in my written review that I put twilight, but yeah, I had that one thing
with the time where I thought after Moscow kind of lagged and seemed a little long.
I really, you, us really discussing it.
Can I say your boat?
Well, we're at it?
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
That's a, that's an inside joke that Chad and I know about it.
I'm talking to Tom.
Yeah.
But I'm, I'm, I'm changing it to coveted.
Really?
Wow.
So I bumped into, I bumped into the top of the list.
So you went from maybe not to coveted?
He went from maybe twilight.
No, it's a twilight.
It went up a level, but it went up the only way.
It could go.
Yeah.
Went up a level from twilight to coveted.
I will definitely see this again, but I'm not going to put a limit on it.
If you want to go in the morning on a Saturday, go in the morning on a Saturday, you
want to go, you're not going to regret paying full price for it.
I can tell you that right now.
This might be one that would also be worth owning on a blue ray, because I would love
to see what extras they put on it.
And kidding.
You know, I would love to hear commentary from feeling it herself, or maybe a 20 minute
feature read on what it's like now, which that would be amazing.
I would be this film.
I doubt she's back in the slums after this film.
But then we have to end this with a big thank you to Susan to Jenna.
Thank you, Susan.
And what you did for these kids, I mean, I got to give it out to Susan Jacobs and
everybody there in Disney.
Let me kids come in.
Our vendors are so creative.
We love the way they market film, and it makes it fun for us, because not only do we
get to kind of experience these things, we get to see, you know, the outreach that our
vendors do.
They don't want to bring up how much these kids enjoy real quick.
They really did.
It's like, at the end credits, all of a sudden, you get, it is kind of a slow, I mean,
no tone music throughout, till the very last song where it's a big jump, but he's song.
These kids are standing up dancing in the theater.
These little like, you know, 7, 8, 9, 10 year olds just dancing along at the end
and the, and the great, the song they paid her in the end credits is a studio type version
of the song that the kids used to sing to each other when they were trying to sell their
wares in their quote of her day jobs.
So yeah, very well done.
These kids were jumping around and having a good time.
A lot.
I saw that Alicia Keys does a song.
I said, that's what it is.
No, it's a different song over the end credits.
That's not that song.
Okay.
All right.
So let's get to the point where we can do the plugs here.
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So I'm going to go out and send.
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I am Chad at TheClubHousePodcast.com.
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She knows a lot more about chess than I do.
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So until next time, for Don, for Chad, for the Empire, I'm Rob.
Clubhouse is close.
You can have a pretty pomegranate like an intro to the film.
That'll be awesome.