iTunes Exclusive Episode Spotlight

The following is a sooner orgator production.
The following is a sooner orgator production.
Greetings, Empire member and our members.
If you are hearing the sound of my voice, it means the following conditions have been met.
It means at least once in your life you have listened to the clubhouse podcast.
Your one-stop shop for all things sports and entertainment live every Sunday at 7 Eastern for Pacific.
But if you are hearing my voice, it means you probably subscribe on iTunes, because it's time for another.
Welcome.
My name is Rob, I'm the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast.
I've always been fascinated with the media, especially for media.
I mean more spoken media, obviously, but still.
But I'm not alone for this particular episode.
Joining me across the desk is my co-host.
And a man that I don't think before this deal was ever really any form of journalists, but I'll let him tell you that he is chat.
You didn't work in any journalism in school or anything, did you?
Other than my radio experience.
Yeah, we were in years with all.
Yeah, no problem.
I'm the same way.
Yeah.
I mean, I think I may have had something printed in my elementary school paper or something.
Or like workplace newsletters, but nothing for formally organized.
Check you out.
You had an elementary school newspaper.
We're lucky if we get an annual grant.
Well, it wasn't like a full newspaper.
No, whatever.
Effectively, they're pretty much.
Also, joining us is the official fact checker of this show.
And a man that'll do some writing on you if you let him.
You may know him as fun, don't go, but his mom and even don't.
I'm going to call him down for the book.
I'm sure.
You'll back home on Montana.
They don't have the internet.
We just smoke sneakers.
We just smoke sneakers.
We just smoke sneakers.
We just smoke sneakers.
We just smoke sneakers.
We just smoke sneakers.
Nobody's here to judge you outwardly.
Pony express.
Whenever we do one of these bad boys, it is usually to review something.
This particular installment is no exception.
Today, we are here to review for you.
Just you.
Don't tell anybody else we did it for them.
Just you.
The brand new film from Tom McCarthy.
Guy that directed Adam Sandler in the cobbler.
Directed Paul Giamati and win win and directed.
Why does that just lose his name?
Game of Thrones.
Peter Dinklage in the station station.
I've got one guy who we locked it up.
It is called Spotlight.
It is based on the true story of four reporters at the Boston Globe.
In 2001, who are tasked by their new editor,
to follow a story down the rabbit hole of Miss Conduct
within the Catholic Church.
And I think we all know where it goes from there.
In Boston.
That, that, that, that, that, that, that it, that Boston was the catalyst.
As deeply rooted as the Catholic Church is in Boston.
That just, wow.
But we're here to talk about the film, not, not maybe.
Stay away from the politics of it.
Let's stick to the, let's stick to the plan.
Before we get in on this whole journey.
We got to think our best friends in the world.
Well, I didn't create a marketing Ashley.
I just brought my party exactly and also to open real films
for, uh, inviting us to this thing.
Absolutely.
We love those guys.
Thank you so much, everybody.
Thank you so much for that.
Because we really, we're looking forward to seeing this.
We've heard so much about it.
The trailers had me very intrigued.
I mean, let me just run the list for you.
Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams.
We have Schriber, John Slattery, who I'm a huge fan of.
Stanley Tucci.
We are also a huge fan of.
He's a very, very big fan of Paul Gilfoyle, who you remember is Captain Brass
from CSI is in this.
There are all kinds of star power to this thing.
So the first thing that I had to think about was
can these kids all coexist?
You know, it's like they say about teams.
There's only one ball.
Indeed.
The answer, I'm not even going to bear the lead.
The answer?
Yes.
Yes they can.
I mean, we'll start with the script, who was actually written
by Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer.
And I've said it before and I'll say it again when a director
writes his own script.
You kind of have a leg up in the vision category
because he knows what he's looking for.
Josh Singer, you would know from such writing gigs.
He did a bunch of episodes of French.
He did nine episodes of French.
One of my wife's favorite shows.
He also wrote 26 episodes of a little thing.
I like to call the West Wing, sir.
Wow.
So this guy's got skins.
That's automatic skins on the wall there.
I'm going to go ahead and start with this.
This script was insane.
Like this script, this written script is completely next level for me.
When you deal with subject matter like you deal with in this film,
with the characters you have and it's based on real life events,
that's like a triple whammy because you've got to find that place
where you're not getting too preachy, you're telling the story
and you're doing the people that the story is based on justice.
Because to my knowledge, they are all still living.
The principles anyway.
And that's a real story.
These two of them I know are because I've been reading about the making of this film.
Now, Tom McCarthy, and I don't know how much you've read, sir, about this.
But some of the scenes in this film were shot over a hundred times.
They did over a hundred times.
It took them five months to complete principle photography.
They were just looking for the right emotional balance.
I guess.
And the cast still couldn't say enough good things about their experience.
The guy that Ruffalo portrays was actually on set in in between takes.
Ruffalo would take the guy he portrays.
Michael Resendus, he would take him to script and go have him read the script.
So he could hear how his voice sounded.
So he could emulate it properly in front of the camera.
Wow, so Ruffalo's really method.
Then you look at somebody like Keaton, who went out and found a bunch of YouTube videos
of Walter Robby Robinson, and had already worked the mannerisms and the speech patterns out
before he met him in real life.
That's amazing.
I mean, this cast was dedicated to this thing because this script is so strong.
Done.
There are so many scenes in this thing that will just hit you.
And it's written so amazingly well that it does that.
I put this in my written review at the Clubhouse podcast talk.
That is our website.
There's so many scenes where nothing has to be said, but just seeing something like with
or just say as the kids, right, that are grown up at this point.
No, even because some of these cases that they talk about the film go back to the six.
Yes.
But even that scene back to the end where easy.
Which kind of mirrors what happens in the beginning.
Yeah.
It just nothing was said.
But they did not have to.
And that's one of the things I'm glad you brought that up because.
Understand that this film is rated our for a reason.
Yes.
But there's nothing ever shown.
Exactly.
Which I think is the genius of this script.
It's, you get, you get the descriptions.
Don't get me wrong.
But they don't have to show it to you, which I truly, truly,
respect it about this film that McCarthy writes such a strong enough story that.
He, again, doesn't have to go to that place where he has to show it.
Like you, you know what happens by the narrative.
It's the idea is horrifying.
Yes.
We need a question.
That's the point of it.
Two great points I want to bring up.
Please do.
Number one is how they said don't say you were just violated.
We want the details because we don't want to sugarcoat this thing.
Agreed.
And that's what they really did.
And it shows that in a film and how uncomfortable these victims were.
Really getting into detail about what happened.
All those years later.
They still couldn't talk about that.
You can't remember everything.
The ice cream, you know, you, it goes on and on.
Another thing I love is how it showed this thing over time.
It wasn't like this thing we're going to do and show it as it takes.
This is done in two weeks.
This took months.
The better part of a year.
Yeah.
And it showed it how it took months.
And that's a good thing I loved about it is how they didn't rush this investigation.
And it made you feel like we're putting so much into this time after time after time.
Week after week after week.
It's not just like what's rushed through it.
It took its time because this investigation took this time.
I'm just saying, oh no.
No, no.
This is this is, I think I had the nail on the head of this.
Yeah, you're welcome in or not.
And I agree with you completely.
And this runs about two hours and ten minutes.
And when you're coming out of the season of the slash bang explosions season.
And you're getting into that time of year where.
That I'm going to where movies are going to be a little bit deeper and a little bit more meaningful.
And there's more narrative, more focused on dialogue and performance.
This can seem like a long film because I the first time I looked at my watch just to see where we were.
We weren't even a half an hour in.
And I was like, holy cow.
And it wasn't because it was pay slow.
It was because there was so much story that had to be told that McCarthy's like, no, we're not going to rush this.
We're going to, we're going to tell this story the way it needs to be told.
It was very dense.
It's very layered.
And it's past very well.
It's too long and it didn't strike for me at all.
No.
And it does.
It does the one thing that she would think would be virtually impossible in a film like this.
It takes the neutral stance.
Oh yeah.
It lets you make the decisions for yourself.
And now as the facts come out, that's different.
But it doesn't lean one way or the other, which is hard to do in this day in agent Hollywood.
And I really commend these guys for how they did it.
Because they're like, look, we're just going to tell the story.
We're not going to, we're not going to tell you anything else but the story.
The story has the facts.
The story will give you what it needs to give you.
And it does involve use.
Now, when you get, I mean, the look of the film is what it is.
I mean, you have to be anything special about this.
Right.
I put it in there.
It was historically correct.
It looked historically.
Where I want to get into are the performances because you're talking multiple Oscar winners.
You're talking multiple Oscar nominees.
You're talking a lot of people in this film that you go, dude.
That's that guy that was in that thing.
You know, like one of my favorites, Jamie Sheridan, who you might remember as the captain in law and order criminal intent before
begotion.
I've completely forgot about that.
I kept, he's, I wish, rack in my brain.
I'm like, what do I know this guy from?
He's, I didn't realize that was him.
They completely changed his look.
He is Robert Queen on Erot, sir.
Oh, dear God.
They completely changed his look.
Was that one again?
Oh.
Jamie Sheridan.
He was also on smash.
One of your personal favorite shows.
He was, he was Jim Sullivan, the guy represented the church.
Yeah.
The attorney that was in at the church.
This is, this movie is so full of amazing actors that you say to yourself, how is this going to work?
And like I said earlier, it totally works.
This cast is so amazing.
Nobody overshadows everybody else.
And it's not like like watching law and order SVU in the last five years.
It's like Emmy nominations for everyone.
It's one of those films that you can honestly can tell that these people are like, if we get nominated for awards from this, that's fine.
But that's not why we're here.
Yeah, genuinely feel that when you watch this film.
There is, you can see the love and passion that everybody that's in this project has for this project.
Regardless of their personal feelings, they know that they're here to tell the story and they do it.
There's a moment in there where a couple of them are talking to each other about how they haven't had a decent night sleep in weeks.
And something tells me that that was art and life imitating.
Oh yeah.
Agreed.
Yeah.
There's one thing that I put my written via kobasplacas.com.
That's our website because it deserves this.
There's one scene where there's an exchange between Keaton and Ruffalo.
Oh yeah.
And when it hits you, you'll know it when you see this film.
And as soon as that scene was over, it was just like you're talking Oscar nod for Ruffalo on this thing.
And I loved how they how well they they played off each other.
Keaton's response at the very end of that.
It got so emotional that I'm going, if he gets nominated, that's the scene they're going to show during the nominated nomination.
Yeah.
The clip from the movie, they're going to show when they're announcing the nominees.
But the thing that even so much greater is how Keaton, what he said and how he reacted to it.
Yeah.
I totally agree with you.
That's totally agree with you.
Yeah.
And you know, somebody that's kind of getting overlooked in this is Brian Darcy James,
who was the other guy on this, what they call the spotlight team.
The team that whose job it is.
Oh yeah.
He was on smash.
He was.
He was Frank Houston.
Deborah Messings husband.
And he was Michael.
He also did some voice work for Medal of Honor rising sun.
Oh wow.
I mean, there is so much star power in this.
And it all works.
And two cheese character and how he played with us.
He played with us.
Stanley, two cheese a beast to begin with.
But yeah, he kills this.
You're talking home run easy on this thing.
I mean, this was a baseball game.
You're talking this is going to be 125.
And we are in the time of year where there's a lot of movies that are going to come out that are going to be nothing but pure Oscar bait.
And we know it.
And I've said it before.
I'll say it again.
This movie doesn't need it.
If it gets it, it'll be deserved.
But this movie doesn't need it because it's just that good.
But I think it's going to.
This will get an Oscar push because one when it's being released.
But two, just how good it is.
I'm talking.
There are some people who will get some nominations and acting some.
I hope so.
But I'm also okay if they don't.
You know what I mean?
I'll be shocked if they don't.
Yeah, I would.
I think that's a crime.
I mean, I just like Jill and Hans.
But in the only in that crawler last year, he got robbed.
The only thing that that to me hinders this.
And Chad and I talked about this after the screening that we saw.
A lot of the studios seem to be holding their cards pretty close to their best.
And it's like they're going to unload the gun all at one time.
And I think that there's a possibility that this film could get lost in a shuffle.
I hope it doesn't because this this film.
I cannot say in proper words how amazing this film is on every level.
It works on every level.
There isn't.
I can't even tell you.
You don't the only criticism I have for this movie is it ended.
That's all I can say that bad about the film.
Like and the the the the pre credit sequence will punch you in the gut.
Yeah.
And it's just one of those films that they had to have known going in.
This is going to work or it's not going to work.
And we've all got to be on our A game all the time.
And every this thing fires on every cylinder.
Here's my big question.
Yes.
All the president's men.
Great film.
Okay.
Amazing film.
Would you call this this generation's all the president meant all the president's men.
A lot.
And and would you say it's better than that one or.
Apple's an orange.
Yeah.
Because I don't know that this could be this generation's all the presidents.
I think it is.
I will call it.
You can call that.
That's your opinion.
And you're welcome to it.
I honestly think that.
For me, it's apples and oranges because you're still.
Although you are still dealing with the press.
This is a whole different ball of wax, man.
It's amazing.
It's a great film.
I think it's a film that people will look back to.
For generations to come.
And if you look up to the trivia on IMDB.
That is one of the films that the cast watched together preparing for this film.
Yeah.
That was obvious.
I mean, it's.
Because they had that same thing.
It's basically the same thing.
But it's a new scandal.
And all the blockades they go through.
I think it's this generation's all the presidents.
This is in that level.
This is in the level.
This is in the level.
Textbook definition of an ensemble film.
Yeah.
Because everybody gets their time.
Nobody.
There's nobody.
Again, I said it earlier.
Nobody tries to outshine anybody else.
And that's the genius.
It means Chad had a thing on this.
Who would be the leading role actor?
I'm saying.
And I do think it's interesting that Chad brings up a point that if you look at the one sheet,
Ruffalo is top billing.
I don't know what she's in the credits.
Which is weird to me.
I thought so too.
Because to me, if I were to pick the lead actor, it would be Keaton because the whole thing revolves around him.
But resendous wrote the article.
And I think maybe that's it.
And that could be why.
I think that's why.
But I think I'd be okay either with either one of them.
I will too.
I was an arguing the fact with you, Don.
It's like it's this is how it says.
And the fact that he's the author of the article.
And they seem to give him a little bit more.
I don't know if you if you want to call it face time.
Screen time in this film because of all the research that he did.
All the leads that he that he hunted down.
Now granted there were other people on the team that did that as well.
But they really seem to focus on his quest to get to the bottom of this.
Does the stuff at the courthouse?
The stuff where he's having a fly out of state where another tragedy happens.
Yeah.
That we all are.
But I he you know, Maddie Carroll his character.
You know, he did a lot.
He seemed going to the houses of the, you know, and getting kicked off the
Purchase and everything.
They had that big montage of the visiting the victims.
And including McAdams, you see her go to the house.
That was what I thought to say Rachel McAdams is one of those people that you know she's going to bring it.
And and I will I will warn the empire a little bit ahead of time.
When you first meet her character, you will kind of see her as one of the
kids is doing her own thing.
But they explain it.
There's a reason that that that hurt that she that she is who she is.
And I liked how they just kind of is this is why move on.
It was a stick and move thing or two are like, okay, I can now settle into this a little bit.
And it showed how she handled that situation very well.
And they didn't necessarily gloss over because it gets revisited and it's even more
You know, intensely explicit.
And there's one thing in this movie, which it this thing hit me in that got so many times.
And now I saw it hit you and that got so many times Chad when we're in the screening.
I mean, I was like, oh, God, I look over and we're just both going.
Yeah, but there's just another layer to the story.
Yeah.
And it's just like, but it did that in a very, very good way.
Very uncomfortable moments totally done.
Done right totally agree.
Beyond belief.
Anything else that we want to say about this before we get to the final analysis?
Oh, no.
I'm sorry.
We got to think actually again, everybody at allied and everybody at open road pictures for
Biden's to this thing.
Thank you so much.
There are best friends for a reason.
We love those guys.
Thanks again.
Okay.
The way we do the final analysis on this show.
We don't give you thumbs up thumbs down.
We don't give you letter grades.
We don't give you stars.
We don't give you a ranking one to ten.
Our audience whom we affectionately refer to as the empire is better than that.
Here's how it works.
Two questions.
Question number one is, would you see this film again?
If the answer is no, then we're done here.
But if the answer is yes, it becomes how far are you willing to go to see it?
Will you see it full price in an evening show?
Would you go to a twilight show?
Would you go to a matinee?
Would you hit an early morning on the weekend?
Would you wait for it in the dollar theater in second run?
Would you leave your house to go to red box to watch it?
Would you stream or, yeah, stream it on Netflix?
Or would you wait for it on cable?
Would you see this film again?
Yes.
How far are you willing to go?
It's not the kind of film where you need an IMAX presentation.
Agreed.
Agreed.
And it's something that you kind of want to take in
in a relaxed state of mind.
Because by the time you walk out of this place,
you're going to be all twisted up inside.
It's going to have that effect on you.
So I would recommend seeing this like at an afternoon matinee
just like you have time to recover from it once you've seen it.
I see that.
Done.
Would you see this film again?
Without a doubt.
How far are you willing to go?
The coveted.
Without a doubt.
The coveted.
You would pay for price.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
I actually agree with you, but I lean towards Chad at the same time.
I think that maybe a twilight show split the difference.
You're definitely going to want time to decompress when this is over.
And you're going to want to talk about it.
Yeah.
Definitely don't go by yourself.
No.
Take a group of people that that can honestly discuss this thing.
Because this is a heavy, heavy issue.
This is not something that you can go, you know, hey, what's up with
their line food?
You know what I mean?
Like this is the kind of film that afterwards you're going to want to talk about.
This is a water cooler.
I just want to make one point clear on this.
Sure.
Yeah.
People are to see this full price theaters.
You're not saying that they're going to get ripped off.
Oh, no, no.
No.
But I'm just saying for the servo of that.
But you think due to the subject to be better here.
But it's if you want to see a full price theater.
Please don't worry.
Yeah.
See it.
And I want to clarify that.
You're earliest possible convenience.
But I would not hurt my feelings to pay for price.
Oh, yeah.
I'm just saying I might pay a twilight price just because I'd have more time afterwards
to kind of decompress and talk about it.
Yeah.
I'd be willing to pay full price if for no other reason.
I'd like to support filmmakers to make more films.
This good.
Congratulations to everybody involved in this thing.
This beat.
This is something you should be proud of.
Yeah.
Bob Ray talking was amazing.
I thought.
Driver.
Leb Schreiber almost steals the movie.
Let's just be honest.
Because his ranorism and in all these other roles.
He's does.
He's does a perfect as a editor in this thing.
And we never talked about him.
I wanted to be the quiet calm voice of reason.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He keeps the ship.
As we both said, look like a very young Stephen Spielberg.
It's awesome.
I think he did was an Amblin ball cap and he could tell him in the bio bank.
So spotlight.
Go.
All right.
Absolutely.
Let's do the plugs.
This is our website.
www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
Find out everything you need to know and some stuff you don't.
Like our Facebook page.
Look up the clubhouse podcast on Facebook.
Put the word podcast on the end or it's something completely different.
Follow this show on Twitter at clubhouse show.
You can follow me on Twitter if you'd like.
I'm at yes.
That Rob Irvin.
That is about the RVIN.
I am at chat in PG69.
I'm at Fondongo and you can email me at Don at the clubhousepodcast.com.
Email Don.
For stuff like, hey, we'd like you to come to a live show for us at our establishment.
We love doing live remote shows and Don gives the details on that.
You can email me if you'd like questions, comments, concerns.
Tell me to go pound sand.
I am Rob at the clubhousepodcast.com.
I am Chad at the clubhousepodcast.com.
Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest.
And Julia's mom and she's just chilling at the house, bro.
It's all I'm saying.
Did she enjoy it?
She was like, oh, yeah.
We saw this one on our own.
So I have five apologize.
Our normal show every Sunday night.
Seven Eastern for Pacific is your one stop shop for all things sports and entertainment.
Join us then live or just keep subscribing on iTunes and you get all kinds of cool stuff like this.
So until next time, for Don, for Chad, for the Empire, I'm Rob.
Clubhouse is closed.
Ready Palmer?
What's up?
The preceding was a sooner orgator production.
Gotta go get a go!
Why?
Because I have to.
Julia!
The preceding was a sooner orgator production.
Gotta go get a go!
Why?
Because I have to.
Julia!