Intro [Music] all right get in here we have a lot to talk about there's a new movie about Ronald Reagan there's a new season of oie murders in the building there's a lot happening in the world of Pop Culture the group chat is here to talk about all of it so settle in let's [Music] Ronald Reagan movie go I'm alamin Abdul Mahmud this is commotion all right look it's the end of the week it means it's time for us to talk about the Big Pop Culture stories of right now we are going to get into that new season of only murders in the building in a minute but I think the bigger story The surprising story is that there is a new biopic out about probably one of the most impactful but also one of the most controversial figures in American history there's a new Ronald grean movie out such an interesting time I think for this movie to be landing Rachel hoe is here rad s ple is here and for the first time Adam non is here Adam Rachel rad welcome to the show y'all helloo hello I'm delighted that everybody's here all right why don't I play you a bit of the trailer for the Reagan movie I'm curious Ron what would you say is the issue of our time no question about it communism and the Soviet Union get in the game run for office it's you I'm running for governor and I would like your vote I forgotten your name do his initials help are our honey Roy r rers is here all right let me just set up Reagan a bit uh you have Dennis Quaid playing Reagan who's of course an actor who becomes a president of the United States Adam you wrote a piece for the ringer uh this week about how Reagan remains this large commanding figures in the in in the American imagination yet Hollywood has really struggled to tell his story in TV and film can you just give us a bit of background here what makes Reagan such a tricky character to capture on film well because he's a creature of film right I mean this is someone who came out of a a really sort of glorious time for Hollywood when Hollywood was shaping I think real fantasies about American life and then he helped actually shape a fantasy of American Life as a politician he drew on all that iconography I mean he was trying to make America great again before that was a hat right and I think that he was really good at it he's very charismatic he's very good at playing himself he's an actor so how do you get an actor to play him and the last time that they tried to make a movie about him really was that TV miniseries the Reagans which came out in such a polarizing moment when the right was mad about liberal Hollywood skewering George W bush and there were just a lot of complaints that CBS shouldn't air a show that criticized Nancy Reagan that quoted Ron talking about you know the AIDS epidemic and and in in a disparaging way that show kind of got pulled where it got shunted by CBS down to a smaller Network it was like Reagan's very Teflon right and so of course when someone tackles him again 20 years later it's like a Marvel movie for people who think books should be banned in schools you know it's the most sort of the the most kind of superhero origin myth treatment of him which is what the people who are going to go see a movie like Reagan want to see and then for the rest of us it's just like kit it's like stalinist kit but it's American I mean like the the idea of drawing the the comparison to a Marvel movie um for people who think book should be banned um you're getting at an iconography like rean represent something there's there's a sort of an idea of Reagan that has kind of persisted throughout time do you want to talk about why he's presen maybe significant from a pop culture point of view yeah there you can't talk about his presidency without invoking movies right the missile defense program was called Star Wars he watched Rambo and said next time I know what to do you know in terms of there being a a sort of foreign crisis even his assassination attempt is based on a movie it was a guy cosplaying taxi driver because he wanted to impress jod even even even without talking about Reagan's career which is completely mediocre as a as an actor he was a Bist leading man he was like an A-list witch hunter you know and someone who really had an amazing ability to again shape those fantasies so it was a very movie uh a kind of movie star presidency morning in America evokes all the imagery of those Spielberg movies from the early 80s not that Spielberg's a conservative talking about the speech morning in America Yeah the speech morning in America the iconography morning in America the idea of a kind of bright optimistic time overlaid on in incredible not just political division but political manipulation like you this isn't something a movie critic talks about but historians would talk about activating the religious right and deepening those divisions between right and left and changing what the idea of a kind of conservative facing politician looks like in America he did that because his command of pop culture was you know in some ways quite brilliant and that's someone who's been on camera for his whole life who knows how strong Hollywood is and who wasn't afraid and this to to to make those connections you think now with this new Reagan movie The posture of everyone involved in it is to criticize Hollywood Elites and say this is the kind of movie Hollywood doesn't want you to see Reagan was a Hollywood Elite he was someone who came out of that same dream Factory mobilized it to his ends and it's funny and I'm sure everyone else is going to talk about this the movie is both completely enthrall him like it's completely Geographic movie but it's also so pathetic compared to the standards even like mainstream film making it's cheap it's low budget it's got you know almost no production values to it which I think speaks to the power imbalance in Hollywood because Hollywood is more liberal left and this is sort of the loyal opposition now it's a it's funny to me that uh people always mention you know Ronald rean and say he was the first first American president to be an actor they can't name a movie he's ever been in like that is not a part of the way that people talk about Ronald r i want to talk about some of the things that Adam just brought up Rachel um but the idea of this movie because I think what Adam just laid out frankly sounds like a more interesting movie to me than the movie that is now out in theaters at this moment so the framing for this film is kind of strange it's just like narrated by a fictionalized former kjb officer uh played by John Voit here what story is this film actually trying to tell about Reagan it's a good question because you know it's one of those things where I you know John voy I Reagan's connection with the cold war with the Berlin wall so I get the you know trying to bring in KGB agent I feel like John Voit was kind of there just to fill in the gaps when they weren't able to find like a good seamless trans uh you know a good transition between different parts of his life and they just thought we'll throw John void in there to like do his thing but for me it was just like it was like watching a Wikipedia page get acted out like I don't know if I really know Reagan actually I do know I don't know Reagan the man any better than I did before watching this movie I know more of like the key points of the events that he was uh you know po not popular for I shouldn't say popular for but that he was known for yeah um but I don't know if I came out of the movie with any more knowledge about Reagan the actual man who he was or like what makes him tick kind of exactly exactly rad we should say like Reagan the movie was directed by Sha mcnamer he's a filmmaker who's worked a lot in the Christian Market he claims to be a registered Democrat he says he wanted to make a nonpartisan movie was this movie successful at being that I mean sure you know I mean first I say I think this movie was successful in general because I had a blast okay I just want I want to put it out here I do look I do love a movie that is so blatant with its intentions and with its manipulations that it becomes fascinating I mean you talk about John voy like the performance John voy is giving here yes he's reciting a Wikipedia page but to frame it with him is wilder than his performance in megalopolis and everyone's calling how that's wild right like all of this is is is insane stuff but um as opposed to like as in terms of like you know Shan mcnamer being a Democrat sure I mean I'll take his word for it because I don't know that a lot of the issues that this movie deals with are necessarily non you know bipartisan issues I mean the movie you know it hates commies it hates Soviets so does Biden yeah you know what I mean like you get more yeah yeah I mean the movie celebrates uh it celebrates like how Reagan was able to shut down those student protesters that's what the Democrats are doing right now that's what Justin trau is doing they're vilifying student protesters today so like this doesn't feel non- bipartisan or bipartisan to me in that sense right U but or partisan as it doesn't feel like it's part of the kind of the Republican de Democrat toide I think you know if you were to feel that it is but it is a kind of SW to to say sway towards the Republicans it's because of this attack on Hollywood and it's because of as Adam said Hollywood being a a Lial Lial Democrat Town everyone being in the bag for Hollywood I mean you know like the biggest thing about this movie is how Reagan came out of Hollywood but then stood up against the labor movement within Hollywood stood up against Hollywood being P puppeteered by these manipulative commi forces and Hollywood you know trying to brainwash the mass public he was like the righteous defender of that so you know that that's a subject that Republicans and the Bible Belt will be drawn to that's a subject that Dennis Quaid and John Voit will be drawn to that's a subject that a religious filmmaker who has to work outside of the Hollywood Sy the whole Christian Market exists outside Hollywood so all of them will kind of rally around something like that because Hollywood doesn't make room for them Adam it's worth noting that you believe that actually the greatest depiction of Reagan on screen is this one here's how things the red countries are the countries we sell arms to the green countries are the countries where we wash our money the blue countries are the excuse me Mr President sir yes it's your 11:30 photo opportunity the little girl who sold the most Girl Scout cookies damn okay let's get it over with everybody out come on move move this is the part of the job I hate the late great Phil Hartman playing Ronald Reagan on Saturday Night Live this is 1986 Adam what does this comedy sketch tell us in like five minutes that this two and a half hour movie can't do well it tells us it takes a Great Canadian actor to play Ronald Reagan first of all you know Phil Phil Phil Hartman maybe maybe the greatest SNL cast member of his era if not of all time wow say that great continue sorry yes WR written written by Jim Downey a writer who was never into easy Applause recently brought back into the Consciousness through the Conan O'Brien Jeffrey Epstein jokes on the podcast that's Jim Downey although he wrote it with Al Franken who actually ran as a democratic politician so there's a bipartisan Coalition for you and it it it took a great angle on the idea of Reagan being disingenuous which is that the daughtering friendly old persona uh was someone who knew what he was doing the hypercompetence is the joke if you watch the sketch he's like speaking Flawless German and balancing the budget in his head and telling his staffers what to say when the cameras are off that's projection I don't think the sketch the point isn't that he's secretly brilliant the sketch is what a funny fantasy that this guy is a genius but what it's really saying is of course he knew what he was doing there's a part in the sketch where he's like of course I knew about Iran Contra just say that I didn't it's a sketch that kind of in a good way doesn't get applaus and doesn't get laugh and doesn't cater to the SNL audience but it gets its shots in and it's just funny and this movie is like watching a Saturday Night Live sketch that's been hit in the head because it it's also like watching sketch comedy except most of it's not trying to be funny it's it's it's it's kitch and when you mentioned John voy I mean John everything rad was saying I mean John voit's narrative is of left to right radicalization he was an activist in the 60s and70s he sted going home for God's sake coming home for God's sake which is one of the Great anti-war movies by Hal Ashby in that period him H Reagan it's a very similar trajectory for all of them so I think this is a homecoming for him and the catharsis that Voit must feel playing a communist an X KGB agent whose every other line of dialogue is if you need to know why we failed it's this guy he tore down the wall piece by piece with his bare hands you know I mean it he must feel great doing this and that movie I think is going to be really cathartic for one set of viewers but as rad was saying it's very cathartic for another set of viers because the movie is hilarious it's hilarious I will say what's cathartic for me is you doing a John void Russian impression that was just the highlight of my day uh if folks any time man folks are just joining us my name is Alam Abdul Mahmud the group chat is here Rachel ho is here rad s p is here Adam ne's here okay we are going to move on because we are back with this Rowdy Bunch okay p casters we have a fabulous cast I'm Eugene leving I'm EV Longoria Oliver this is Zach G oh yes Zach galif jistic of course I see what you're doing I happen to have started the second highest Gros in comedy of all time are you the little boy from Home Alone what have they done to you that is a new clip from the fourth season of O murders in the building it stars of course Steve Martin Martin Short and Selena Gomez if you're not familiar with the show let me just set it up for you in a sentence it's a those three play True Crime podcasters in New York who always seem to become suspects in actual murder investigations this season the action has moved into Hollywood because their podcast is being adapted into a major Motion Picture which means there are just celebrity cameos everywhere you look this season Rachel I'm going to start with you on this because you've been a fan of the show from day one why do you keep returning to only murders in the building because it is the lightest of light entertainment and it's done well it makes you feel good there's no heaviness afterwards it's entertaining like it's kind of exactly what you want from a show that when you just really want to turn off you don't want to think about anything you don't want to think about how miserable the world is you don't want to be reminded of you know the presidential election things like that and I think that they've done a really good job with um you know with making that entertainment it's thrilling I Only Murders in the Building enjoy kind of seeing how everything evolves I love seeing Martin Short Steve Martin and Selena Gomez together I think it's just really well done popcorn television yeah I think sometimes when a show does joy and does it well I think we need to like celebrate and Elevate that a little bit more rad uh you famously you hate Joy but you're watching the season in this new season the crew goes to Hollywood uh you get all these celebrities who are going to kind of come into the come into the fold we've heard in that trailer Eugene Levy you've heard um Eva Longoria zagel fakis they're playing the three that we know does it work does that device work I mean look I think that device is a get dead giveaway that they're running out of ideas right like I mean clearly as soon as they start like shoehorning in Celebrity guest cameos you know like that kind of stuff it's it's to distract from the fact that there's a holess here we have no story left to tell I mean it worked for Deadpool and Wolverine right like that's what they do okay so but you know in this situation like what we have here with this this new episode with the with where this uh new Season's going is it's kind of like Scream 3 you know when Scream 3 goes back to the set of the movie that is depicting the previous screams and like they're just kind of doubling back and returning to the same old territory because they got it like what what else we got right and what was interesting about scream is remember scream started off as a meta narrative as as all as in the same way that only murders in the building was like only murders in the building like scream it's a it's you know there's a murder unfolding but we're narrating the narration of the murder and now we're in season 4 and there's a movie being made about the narration of the narration we're gone down the rabbit hole right here right because it's fun rad okay continue sorry sure but I mean no and here's the thing that clip you played I love that clip you played I love it because I finally I'm glad they finally got Zack GF and ais's number with Martin sh being like yeah who are you like sorry you were in that one hit and somehow that bit just kept that was never funny to begin with just kept living for years upon years in between two friends that they they won me with that I did not expect Zach galanakis to be catching Strays this morning but you know what I should have known Rachel is this new premise for season 4 working for you I agree with red like it is a bit annoying seeing all these guest cameos coming in and coming it kind of distracts but then again it distracts from what it's the same formula it's the same season like this same thing over and over again thought it was fun though I like seeing Eugene Levy like it was just enjoyable you know Eva Longoria had some good funny bits in there u i I like the whole Martin Short doesn't know who Zach Alanis is like it's all fun I I don't know I'm not I'm not a killer of Joy like rad so I feel like it's just a good time and it's yes it's it's a bit dragged on at this point but um I still think it was it was comical and I enjoyed it that was a good 45 minutes of just watching some nonsense television I'll tell you who's been suspiciously quiet is Adam non who has not watched oie Murs in the building uh Adam what has kept you away from the show uh we talking about Saturday Night Live you know the five timer sketches I do where Steve Martin and Martin Schwarz stand there and talk about how incred famous and successful they are and other famous and successful people join they all kind of they famous and successful each other sort of to death that's what I always assumed that the show was now the good thing about that is when people like that are funny they're worth watching yeah and it does have you know now meral Streep on it who I've heard is worth watching you know she's kind of a well-known actress and I think that the the pleasure of watching these people be light and funny and kidding themselves has a very honorable tradition right Bob Hope you to play himself the the SNL was a history of people you know playing on their Persona and as rad was saying the meta narrative thing might be annoying but it's also the currency of the moment I mean everything is a commentary on on everything so in the spirit of Joy I I watched the first episode of the fourth season without having watched the previous three seasons and um a lot was ha a lot was happening and uh I did like I did like the idea that they go all the way to Hollywood to see New York recreated not as good as the not as good as the same joke in a Toronto movie like Scott Pilgrim but still funny yeah and um I mean I think I think I I think that it's charming and funny but the problem is I really need to be reminded of how crappy the world is so I I I'm I'm okay Adam's like I will sit in the darkness on your all on on your behalf everybody I know what I'll watch is I'll watch Martin Short do Jiminy Glick which is the funniest thing in the world that's a because that's a recording character on Kim is it is it is that where it sort of recurs well he started it him he started it himself and if you've ever seen Jiminy Glick in lwood where he plays David Lynch as the narrator which is the only good David Lynch impression I've ever seen Martin Short's brilliant and Steve Martin's brilliant and and Merl Streep is brilliant Cena Gomez really talented I mean everything Rachel was saying about it being enjoyable and light I mean you can't not agree so I was happy that I watched that 45 minutes and I will get back to it the next time I'm on a show where people are like we have to talk about only murders in the building another I know I thank you for your service okay we have a few minutes left I want to talk about [Music] this that is just a little bit of winipeg director Matthew Rankin's movie universal language it premiered at can last spring it is it has its North American Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival that's just in a week or so look this week we learned that universal language has been chosen as Canada's entry for International feature um in the in in next year's Oscars rad we just played that clip of of of a bit of French dialogue universal language um this is a bilingual movie but the languages are not French and English they're French and farsy what is going on in this movie what's the thing that makes it unique you think I mean so this movie is set in this kind of magical Lial place where like Winnipeg and T ran have somehow merged together okay and it's it's about um so basically it's it's a place where pers is served at Tim Horton and and the kids are either dreaming of being diplomats or raising donkeys like that's the yeah yeah and and look it's it's it's a really lovely lovely movie about different desparate people trying to find connection not just connections across cultures but across these kind of Lial spaces across these voids um it's it's a movie that definitely feels like it's born out of the pandemic in terms of this kind of yearning for human connection but it also it's a movie that merges like the Winnipeg film group style to kind of the earlier film of abas karami and Jafar panayi um you know so that language is very much in play The Cinematic language on top of the merged You Know spoken languages and you know I think you know especially in these times when you were feeling a certain islamophobia consistently rising in this country there's something like this where this feels like a real bomb and a real we need the connection that it's having to offer and look it was one of the the three features out of Canada that played can it was my favorite there it's still one of my favorite movies of the Year mhm I've I've heard nothing but just praise for the movie when you think about this movie why do you think it was chosen to be Canada's Oscar Contender for a lot of what rad said and to return to the theme of Joy this was my joy this week because it's not a movie that denies that the world's a tough place but it finds things in the world that I I find more joyful than celebrities playing themselves it's a movie that has this wonderful idea this wonderful sense of possibility and community and solidarity while making great fun of Winnipeg there's one scene where there's a tour guy taking people around and it's like there was someone had trouble parallel parking here in 1958 you know um and it's also a movie that does something really interesting with English Canadian pop culture which is pretends it doesn't exist right English Canadian culture is the structuring absence in the movie you're in a Winnipeg that's been sort of recolonized in the movie by two different sets of non seers and what rad was saying I think is such an important point which is not just the Winnipeg film group and the guy Madness of it but the referen is to '90s Iranian Cinema which are some of the most important movies and beautiful movies ever made he's not stealing from them and he's not appropriating them he's trying to talk to them through how he's making this movie I thought this movie is beautiful and uh I really like it I think it's the best thing mat Matthew Rankin's made and he's made some other good things so it's chosen for all those reasons on top of which it's good and I will watch the Oscars hopefully rooting for it because I liked it a lot Rachel I want to give you the last word here when you consider the sort of sorts of movies that are usually selected to represent Canada at the Oscars what does this selection tell you about where Canadian film is right now I'm always endlessly fascinated with kind of like what what is a Canadian film especially what what gets submitted to the Oscars yeah it's usually been French Canadian movies you know deep and meta kind of broke the mold on that one about many years ago now yeah uh but I I love that this is not just you know a French movie there is obviously a lot of French in it but I like that it's French and farsy you know the last couple years Canada has been submitting things that people might not assume is Canadian because it's not French Canadian right um but I like that this is French Canadian but it's also kind of uh a little bit that International flavor that diversity that Canada is known for as well yeah I'm really excited to see this movie it's it's it's at top of my list um when it comes to uh Tiff because I'm going to be out there and also we should we should say rad you and I are going to be a part of doing a daily show that tells people what's happening at Tiff where there's more details about that um a little bit later this week I'm just going to crap on all the movies at the festival and that's that's why we have this relationship where I go I kind of liked it and R goes yeah but it was bad but you know what you didn't do that as much today and for that that's a delight rad and Rachel and Adam I appreciate your time I appreciate you being here thank you so much you guys I really appreciate it thank you thank you Rachel ho is a film editor for exclaim rad Sim play is a film critic with CBC and CTV and Adam non is a film critic for the ringer they're all joining me from [Music] Toronto that is it for the podcast today listen while you're listening to this make sure you give us a follow in whatever podcast app you're using commotion was produced by Stuart Burman Ty calender Dean Kim and Jess low our digital producers are Carla Antonio Emelia ebal shulie grman gray and shal to ringan our directors this week are Danielle Grogan and Jane Vancouver in our engineer is Tom hashme Danielle Grogan and John Perry were our senior producers and McKagan is our executive producer I'm alamin Abdul Mahmud this is commotion see you next week