← QAA Podcast
QAA Podcast
Bugonia Movie Night (Premium E326) Sample
00:09:37
After many requests, Jake, Julian, Liv, and Travi…
Loading summary
Transcript47 lines
- [00:00]
A
Sam, if you're hearing this, well done. You found a way to connect to the Internet. Welcome to the QAA podcast premium episode 326, Begonia movie night. As always, we are your hosts, Jake
- [00:45]
B
Rockatansky, Liv Aker, Julian Fields, and Travis View. We don't usually discuss films nominated for Academy Awards for movie night episodes. Begonia has actually earned four nominations for the 98th Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score. But were making an exception for Begonia because it. It touches on a lot of the themes that we explore in this podcast. And frankly, we have received a lot of requests for it.
- [01:13]
C
Oh, man, I didn't know it got four. I was coming in here trying to be real nice about everything. You're already four fucking Oscar nominations.
- [01:24]
D
Uh oh.
- [01:24]
A
I sense like a disagreement potentially between me and Julia.
- [01:28]
C
No, I mostly enjoyed it. I'm not trying to take away which
- [01:31]
A
is good for you. You are. You are a harsh critic.
- [01:34]
C
Clemons is just so delightful. Very much.
- [01:36]
A
I. I thought I. To me, the fact that he's not nominated for an award.
- [01:40]
C
Oh, that's crazy.
- [01:41]
D
Yeah.
- [01:41]
C
It's by far like Emma Stone. No offense.
- [01:44]
A
Whole face changes.
- [01:45]
C
He wasn't the standout.
- [01:46]
A
He is like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyways, anyway. Stavros, was it. That was a pleasant surprise.
- [01:52]
D
Yeah, that was really.
- [01:54]
A
It's like the pedophile cop.
- [01:56]
C
I love you so much, Stavros. You are. That was. The acting was bad, man. It's fine.
- [02:02]
D
I support him.
- [02:02]
C
I know. I support him too. I do enjoy. I do enjoy our. I mean, it's like fellow. You know, it is. It's Greek. It's Greek. Like. It's Greek excellence. Like insider. It's an insider Greek track.
- [02:13]
D
Vulcan excellence. That's. We take that.
- [02:15]
C
But. Sorry for interrupting with my immediate negativity. Travis was going to say something about Naomi Klein, which I actually would like him to put back into the script. Thank you very much.
- [02:25]
B
Okay, fine. All right. Finally, it's the end. So, I mean, we'll get into it a lot, but like, I. My takeaway from Boldia is that I thought of it as like the highest production exploration of an idea expressed by Naomi Klein in her book Doppelganger, A Trip to the Mirror World, which we interviewed her for. She wrote, conspiracy theorists get the facts wrong, but often get the feelings right. The feeling of living in a world with shadowlands. The feeling that every human misery is someone else's profit. The feeling of being exhausted by predation and extraction. The feeling that important truths are being hidden. This film expresses the particular frustration and tragedy of being at once totally right and completely wrong.
- [03:03]
C
But was it wrong? I mean, in this case, that's. That's what was so funny is it was kind of sublimated by. It almost looks like it was like a redirection that kind of took away from the movie for me because it's like, if you're gonna say that these people are totally right, then go ahead and say it with your. Your full chest. But then why redirect it to, like, alien stuff, right? Because otherwise, I think we recognize this kind of frustration. And I have to say, even though I was very tough on it, like, I think that the movie that captures the moment and probably deserves a few more Oscar nominations was Eddington. You know, it was like the. Of tension. You know, as Para Power Mapping said on Twitter, like, I think Eddington does represent the Amer Israeli years of lead better than this movie. This movie, to me, is what Fanon would call, like, a kind of redirection of essential energy that we are going to need in the near future, you know, into Starseed stuff, which is fun. But then, like, damn, the tone of the movie is so dark. And then the end is like, I don't know, like a. A perfume ad. Like, I don't.
- [04:13]
D
You know what I mean?
- [04:13]
C
Like, it just. It absolutely evaporates. It's. It's kind of like eating meringue.
- [04:18]
D
I definitely do think that the. The twist at the end kind of sours the message, but I. I do think that there is, like, maybe we can get into this more when we talk about the details of the film, like, the conspiracy theorists who, in my mind, I'm like, worst case scenario, Travis View. Jesse Plemons.
- [04:33]
B
Right?
- [04:34]
A
Yes, yes, yes.
- [04:35]
D
He doesn't get everything right. There does seem to be a nuance of, like, he's just blaming the aliens in a certain way that isn't. Isn't quite accurate. So there is some nuance to, like, hold him to account while allowing. Because I assume that that's, like, that was probably a concern. The screenplay director of, like, well, this is kind of undermining our message, despite being interesting as a. As a twist.
- [04:57]
C
That's the thing with messages. You know, it's like, yeah, it's hard to have a message. And, you know, and I. I don't really expect movies to have messages right now. I don't think necessarily it's a message. It's just attempting to capture something extremely ambiguous and volatile and. And horrible and dark. You know, both Eddington and this. And yeah, like, I'm a bit tired of the whole, hey, it turned out to be real the whole time. Which, you know, is quite common across like this, this new, this new kind of crop of, of. Of directors.
- [05:28]
D
It almost felt like it was a twist that was so obvious that I didn't consider it. And so when it happened, it was like slightly less obvious.
- [05:36]
B
It was obvious, but I think it was well executed. It was like they threw themselves into, you know, the, I guess the twist. Which is fun.
- [05:45]
A
Yeah, I took it to mean kind of that like, even when you're right, like there's a wrong way to go about doing things. I agree with Liv that had the movie ended with her going, 3, 2, 1, and the fucking bomb, you know, the bomb goes off, which was surprising to me. I was like, that's really shocking. That was like, really shocking. Shocking. And then like, you could have cut the whole alien thing at the end and you would have been left being like, wow, like this dumbass conspiracy theorist, like, blew himself up for nothing. Outsmarted by like the pharma tech lib. And like, you're right. Like, that message is boring. It's lame. I think to me, I took it as like, even, like, you can be right about like, you know, the world is in control of like shadowy forces, but, like, you can't do it damn thing about it. And look at all the like, chaos and violence that you've like, caused along the way.
- [06:39]
C
Not at all. Actually. It's a nice Instagram ending. All human beings die in the most beautiful and evocative ways. A Wes Anderson ish twist on, like you said, Liv, it's like there was no actually surprising possibility. Right. Either he was right or he was wrong, both of which were kind of boring. And I think that what this movie does great is like the vibe along the way, the acting and some of these moments of like, tension between the characters is way more interesting, I'd say, than like, for example, the relationship with the guru in Eddington, which was like a little more kind of Triton cartoonish. So I will say that this movie overall was really well made. And I mean, Plemons, as always, just delivering. And in this case they give him a lot to deliver and he really goes out of his way to make Plemons look ugly and kind of out of control and unhinged. And it's.
- [07:35]
A
It works.
- [07:36]
C
I was kind of, you know, I mean, the, yeah, the, you know, we'll get into the electric chair stuff, but I mean, you know, I mean, I guess if there is a message, it's that with. He should have kept cranking that knob until she. She was gone. Is Lanthimos, like, just fantasizing about, you know, killing Emma Stone? I mean, isn't there rumors, like, on. On Instagram you would. You might know. Liv, you like a good gossip.
- [08:01]
D
No, I do love it.
- [08:03]
C
Yeah. That they're. The rumors. That they're. They're. They're fucking. You know, which I think would. I. I actually haven't looked into it enough, but I think would constitute some form of affair. I'm not sure which one of them is Mary. I don't fucking really know, but I'll just throw that out there. Frustrating Travis to no end and interrupting a script.
- [08:19]
A
Once again. You've been listening to a sample of a premium episode of the QAA podcast. For access to the full episode as well, as well as all past premium episodes and all of our podcast miniseries, go to patreon.com qaa Travis, why is that such a good deal?
- [08:35]
B
Well, Jake, you get hundreds of additional episodes of the QAA podcast for just $5 per month. For that very low price, you get access to over 200 premium episodes, plus all of our miniseries. That includes 10 episodes of Man Plan with Julian the Nanny, 10 episodes of Perverts with Julian and Liv, 10 episodes of the Spectral Voyager with Jake and Brad, 20 episodes of Trickle down with Me Travis View. It's a bounty of content and the best deal in podcasting.
- [09:05]
C
Travis, for once, I agree with you. And I also agree that people could subscribe by going to patreon.comqaa well, that's
- [09:12]
A
not an opinion, it's a fact.
- [09:14]
C
You're so right, Jake.
- [09:15]
A
We love and appreciate all of our listeners.
- [09:18]
C
Yes, we do. And Travis is actually crying right now, I think out of gratitude.
- [09:22]
B
Maybe that's not true. The part about me crying, not me being grateful. I'm very grate.