 What are you drinking? Urine. You're a stupid rax to eat at some Corbin. Do I have stuff in my teeth? I was eating lunch and I still, I still have a remnant of it as most people do. Yeah, but mine was, has the potential to be truly riveting in the teeth area. He falls on Instagram, Twitter. It's so juicy. It's so juicy. I can't believe it's going. BAM! It's on purpose. It's on purpose. I love it. Feel it in your nuggets. Today, we're doing a movie review. And it's a Bengali film. Heck yeah. Well, it's a film that was produced in the Bengali industry. Yes. Outside of a few stuff in the background, there's no dialogue in this film. So if you haven't seen this film, I'm pretty sure it was a pretty independent film. But we are, it's called, well, at least in English, it's called Le Beu of L'Héov. Yes, it's called Le Beu of L'Héov. But in Bengali, it's Asha Jouar Mache, which more literally translated means in between, coming and going. That's the more literal translation of the words, Asha Jouar Mache. Really? Yeah, but I understand after watching the film. I understand. I love the idea that it had been called in between, coming and going. But I like labor of love. It's a little more subtle. Yeah. Then I think the other one is. But I like, as the movie continued, I understood and appreciated what was going on. Yeah. And I, hold on. It's not even coming up. Hold on. That's okay. Come up, it's labor of love. It came up as the other one. Starring Rithwick. Rithwick Chakraborty. That's how you pronounce it, right? Yes. And Bashrodhota Chaturgy as woman. And directed by Aditya Vikram Sengupta. And, yeah. So it's, it's gonna be a spoiler view. Yeah. But I would encourage you to go watch it. I believe it's on Amazon, for us at least. I don't know if everybody else, but it's less than a normal film. So it's an hour 20. We didn't, there was no silence because there's no dialogue, except for two parts. The beginning, it's like a black screen and then there's some background noise and they're talking about a labor union and stuff like that. And then one other time, it's a protest. Right. Which we also didn't have. So we were watching it with Indrani. Yes. Tell you what they were saying. No, actually, because it didn't. It didn't matter very much. Doesn't really matter. Okay, cool. Now, make it sure. But yeah, so if you haven't watched it, go check it out. It's, once again, really short. So this is, I think, our sixth been going? Seven, maybe? I think it's right. Six or seven. Up who is? Three films. Yeah. Always forget that. I forget that. I forget that. That is three films. Just like Lord of the Rings is three films. But I do like that. I think of Lord of the Rings as a single film. Yeah, yeah. Harry Potter, I have to watch them all. If I watch them, I'm not gonna start in the middle. No, exactly. So anyways, so yes, this is a 2014 film. Rick, your initial thoughts. I sometimes have a paragraph. I have one word. Okay. The word is autolunia. And what does that mean in big- Or autolunio. I think that's more perfect in the pronunciation. I'm still learning Bengali. That word basically means incomparable. So she- Matchless. So you hated it. I am still, I am still in the afterglow of what I saw. And it is, you know, everything we do, we compare to Header, as far as like our favorite Indian films. But Header's always gonna remain a singular kind of entity because it's an interpretation of Shakespeare. So if you take that aspect away, which you really can't, because that's what makes it so incredible. If you were just looking at Header as a film, if you weren't seeing it as an interpretation of the greatest play ever written, right? And just as a standalone film, I would still love the film. But comparatively, taking away the Shakespeare element. Just ignore that. Nevermind the upstaging. We're not talking about Sho-Leg. Man, this film is falling apart. This channel is falling apart. Literally. This is not only my favorite film we've seen in the past two years, but this is one of the best films I've ever seen. Spoiler, Rick liked a Bengali film. What? Actually, he didn't like one Bengali film. There was one that he did. That's true. And by the way, I'm not like some of you idiots who like a film just because it came from a certain region. No, he likes it because his girlfriend likes it. No, that's not true either. I'm just being a dick. Yes, you are. And I have to say, as we'll get into the details of the film, I said this to Andrani when we were done watching it as I was wiping the tears off of my cheeks. Oh, made you cry. Oh my, to the point where I had a hard time talking, describing the things that were impacting me as I was talking to Andrani about it and just let the credits roll so I could let the music play. And what I said to her was, I really want someone I know here in the States to watch the film and then tell me what they think because in the same way when I watch Schindler's List, I can't separate the fact that I have family of mine that died in concentration camps or if I watch anything that's involving Italians. And even like when I watch Rocky, the personal connection that Rocky looks like he could be one of my family members and that's so personal. So I can't escape how personal the film is for me. Having been to Calcutta, the sights and the sounds of everything, I have so much I want to say. So we'll get into that. Synopsis for me, this is for me one of the greatest motion pictures I've ever seen any language. And yeah, I definitely enjoyed it as well. I thought it was really, it was very personal to me as well because I actually went through partial of this in terms of work schedules early on with my wife when I was saving up to come out to Los Angeles. I was working two jobs at the time. One job was Starbucks and that was Monday through Friday, 4.30 in the morning till one o'clock. And then Best Buy controlled the rest of my schedule. So I usually, so it could have been most of the days that I worked at both was 4.30 in the morning till one. And then I met Best Buy two until about 10 or 11 at night. So there were sometimes five days a week where I didn't really see my wife outside of that, I called her at lunch or she worked down the road and so I would take her, like I bring her a coffee and that would be the only time I would see her during the day and then I would always make sure we had at least one day together to be together. So it was very relatable. And I think a lot of people, you don't have to be Indian to relate to this story. I would hope not. No, no, no, I just know there's an, like for example, I put in my notes that first of all, I'm only five minutes into this and the sights and sounds are so definitively Calcutta that I'm getting emotional. And this is as close as you're ever gonna get to a visit to Calcutta without actually going. And I mean, not a, hey, let's take a tour of Calcutta. I mean what happens when you go and you have feet on the ground and you're taking your time. It was a big character in the film. It was the third character. And I mean, and I'm in Calcutta every day because I'm on video call. So the background, certain things I knew that were coming. The voices in the loudspeaker, the sounds of those birds and the crows in the morning, the conch cells being blown. I was waiting. I said at one point I said, where are the conch cells? And the conch cells started to blow. Those are blown every morning. Yeah, it's part of worship. Not just during Durga Pooja, but just as an extenuating part of life whenever there's a point of morning prayer and worship or even in the evening, you'll hear in the back, ceiling fans. And Drani always has her ceiling fan going. So it will in the summer months. So many things and the going to buy fish, cooking it in mustard oil. Those things are definitively Bengali and definitively Calcutta. But then when you remove yourself from that, that's why I want people that I know who've never been have no connection to just watch this because apart from that, I gotta say, when I looked up and saw that this was this man's directorial debut, I was freaking gobsmacked flabbergasted. I can't think of a directorial debut as good. This boggled my mind that this is his first film. Yeah, and it was very impressive because to make a film that does not have dialogue is a difficult task because you have to keep people interested and a lot of what keeps people interested is conversations or and that's how you carry the story along. So to just do it with the visuals, you're taking a massive task. And I'm glad he wasn't intimidated by making this less than a normal feature film is 90 minutes. That's basically like the bare minimum to get to. Even though I think it's for actually 50 minutes to 90 is actually a full feature. Yeah, as far as that qualifications of the Oscars and stuff. The Globes is 40, the Oscars is 50, something. But the normal film, the shortest you'll usually ever get is 90 minutes. 90 minutes, that's it. That's usually the shortest. So he wouldn't even 10 minutes less. And I think that was probably good because you don't, it was such a good story that he was wanting to tell and he wasn't intimidated by making it a much shorter film than normal Indian films are used to doing. But he definitely kept you, or is it a he, right? It's a he. Oh yeah. He definitely kept you engaged and you figured out early on that this was obviously two people that had two very different, I don't know when you figured that out, but I thought pretty obvious towards the beginning that these were two people and this was their stories that they obviously came more clear. Which by the way, this is, we don't have to blame anything on Rohan. Here's what happened. When we did the reaction to this and I told Indrani, Labor of Love, she doesn't know it by that name at all and it's not a translation of the Bengali. Gotcha. The translation of the Bengali properly is gonna come somewhere in the neighborhood of in between coming and going. So when I said Rohan said your favorite film was Labor of Love, she's like, I don't know. This is, this is her favorite show. So Rohan, you were right. Gotcha. Which I just, so let's just talk on the, because there's the technical aspects of both the directing and the acting and then there's just the story compound, right? Yeah, we can talk about the story. Let's talk about the story. That, you brought it up. The universal understanding that everyone's gonna have. First of all, I said this to Indrani. At least to working class people. Yeah, absolutely. I said this to Indrani. I said, this was a reminder that you don't have to live in different places to have a long distance relationship. That this couple as an example would have a harder relational challenge than even Indrani and I have. Because we get to see each other far more often than they get to interact. And the, I felt, so when he has this dream, right? I knew we were being shown a dream and I knew we'd be told later what it meant because all we got was him in the forest. Actually, I don't know if it was a dream. It was like a dream-like state when they were together. It was a dream. Because he was asleep. He had just fallen asleep. Yeah, but then at the end, it was the exact same thing. And I think it's their dream state of being together so it's like a dream. No, that, hence, that's what they're doing. The reason you're introduced to it, at that point when he's asleep and he has an actual dream and you get that later. And she has the same thing happen. It's much quicker than it is. I just don't think they showed you full. I think they were actually together at that time. I believe they were together at what time? No, during like they were showing you part of the dream state of them being that 15 minutes of passing. That's what I thought. No, what I saw is when you see that forest, black and white thing for the very first time, he has fallen asleep. And I got something to say about his performance in this and that scene in particular. But when he fell asleep, he has the dream. And it's just a few seconds of him in this forest. And obviously the reason we're shown that is because later on, when he walks in the door and looks at her, no one's asleep when we go to the dream place. What we're shown is that the dream of both of their lives is to just be together. So when they're together, their dreams are coming true. Cause everything that they're doing and the labor of love that they're doing is to fight forward and have a life together. And the first and only time you see them smile is at the end when he comes up the stairs and he walks in the door and he looks at her and he smiles. That's when I started to cry. I know you won't agree, but that's actually how I wish it would have ended. Oh no. I know you don't agree. Oh no. If I was a filmmaker, that's how I would have ended it. Oh my stars, no. But I did, actually it would have been fine smile and then cause I did enjoy the fact that it began the exact same way it ended with her walking down the- Yes. The corridor? Yeah. It's just personal privacy. That whole- The whole- You know I don't like those types of things. Taking us to the dream come true. And having them, and I loved that what we see in their dream is their marriage bed. And they're just sitting on it and arms around each other. And then, oh, I get emotional again thinking about it. The looking at the watch. And all they got was that moment. And now it's time. And screw you time, you know? And that everything he's done, the being alone, the thinking about her, the having different schedules, working at a job that isn't very fulfilling when he's doing it. And I love their wake up calls to each other. And then just all of that is to just be able to sit on the bed and watch her do her hair. I just, when I started crying, the minute he saw her and didn't stop crying until 15 minutes after the movie was over and I was talking and drawing about it. Yeah, and they did a whole bunch of other really unique things. You know, the calls when you, at the end when you actually realize that's what they were doing is they're calling each other. They're wake up each other up, even though I would have just said, you know, I love you. That's what I would have done. But I don't think they were allowed to be on the phone. That's possible. Yeah. So that's it. But those moments and then also when he's getting ready and then he, I think he like, does this with his pants? I don't know if you saw it. Yeah. Does this with his pants and then her image for that split second pops up on the mirror with her bendy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, he sees her bendy so he's thinking of her on the mirror. Yeah. And there's a whole bunch of little ways where, you know, they're in this awful situation of they have to have these jobs, obviously to live. And I'm guessing these are the only jobs they could find. And so they have to make the best of it and make the most of the little moments they have together. Yeah. I think it's a beautiful, simple story that it was shot so incredibly well. The cinematography in this thing was absolutely gorgeous. Like I said, I've never been to Calcutta, but it was definitely the third character in the entire film. Yeah, it was. And as far as the, you know, people talk about Bong Joon-Ho. Yeah. Particularly talk about his symmetry and his mathematics and his cinematography with it working. This was comparable. I actually, I said to Indrani, why isn't a film like this submitted as India's representation of the Oscars? As a film like this? It wasn't. You took it too quickly. She said she didn't know. I don't know if it was but why it wouldn't be included? Because of all the films I've been watching this year that are submitted both in the American films and the international films, even Minari. Minari isn't as good as this film. Minari is a really good film. Minari is extremely good and it sucks that it had to be categorized by the Hollywood Foreign Press, which foreign is their middle name. They need to change their rules. It's not a foreign film. It was produced in America. It's an American story. It just happens to have more than 51% of its dialogue in Korean. Anyway, this film is, there are so many shots that have been set up both in the framing and the lighting. There were times where I thought, is this all natural lighting or is the lighting so good? I think it's natural. And I don't know which one it was. I love like when the shot came for sunset and all we see are the black, dark outlines of the building and the very orange sun against the black sky dropping down. I said to Andrani, I said, he won't cut till that sun's gone. And there it goes. There it goes. I said, nope, nope. And the minute it disappeared, cut. But then he surprises us later when we see beautiful. We see her wet footprints right where his wet footprints were. This guy did not care about boring you with long shots. No, they weren't boring at all. No, no, I'm not saying I was very intentional. But he does not care. Like, I'm staying on the shot till it's done. And yet remains unpredictable because when he goes to her footprint, I said to Andrani, I said, because it started to disappear just like the oil in the pan started to disappear. And I said, and he won't cut until the footprints disappear. And he said, yeah, Rick, you think? And he cut before the footprint disappeared. And I laughed. I laughed out loud. I said, oh, this director is something else. And it's that level of subtlety when we talk about movies that annoy us because exposition is awful and it's done in the dialogue, film is about showing, not telling. So when you, this is the perfect example of how you are to convey something without having it put into the script or the dialogue. And this conveyed everything of not just their relationship, but how circumstances constrain you and you have to make the best of the circumstances. It also talked about the fact that they're doing what they're doing because of work situation, economic situation, political situation that they're living in that are beyond their control. I'm personally living in that right now. Andrani can't come to me and I can't go to Andrani because of our governments right now. Indy won't let eVisas for Americans come in because of COVID and she has to go through a fricking process to try and get a visa to come here. So it sucks to think the only reason you're not with the one you love is because of a government or a job or economy. And this covers that as well as, you know what this feels like. Anybody who's worked at a job that you do over and over and over, the sights and the sounds of the routine are life. That is what life is about. And he did that over and over again where you just were, this wasn't a slice of life, the full immersion into what it means to be a couple living and working in Kelka. And I like how we get it because at the beginning she was at work and he was the one doing the stuff at home, you know, taking down the laundry and then you saw him put up stuff he needed done, like he had the hole in his pants. And then the big switch- Oh, the hole in the pants. When she fixed it? The big switch was obviously she put the keys and this was obviously, if you hadn't realized by that, but it'd be weird if you hadn't realized it by that time that she dropped it, he dropped the key in the window and then when she came home and it switched. Now, she's at home, he's at work. And so the whole process is reversed and so you see all their whole relationship. Yeah, and I'm gonna point something out here that there is a moment I would, if I was teaching, I would be using this moment and I'll bring it up again over and over again of superb acting. And it's a moment that would pass you by if you really weren't aware of this kind of thing. So Rittwick is lying down to nap at the beginning of the film. It's spelled Rittwick, but in Bengali, it's more approximating of Rittwick pronunciation. And again, I'm in Bangladesh, I'm learning Bengali, but I'm learning it from a very good source and have it inundated over and over and over again with my conversations with Indrani. And there's a moment where he lays down to take his, to go to bed, right? And the fan's blowing and the wind blows his shirt up and you see his stomach. And when I watch films, here's how I will know if the acting in it is, in my opinion, worth celebrating or not. If I'm watching and I'm fully immersed and I'm not thinking about the acting, you're doing a great job. The times that are frustrating for me is when I'm watching people and I'm wishing I could be in the room with them and ask them to redo the scene and I wanna give them some notes and some redirection and see if we can tap into some things that they're dealing with with subtext or emotional recall or whatever it may be because I think they've got walls or boundaries. And then there's acting I just can't watch and it just annoys me. The brilliance of this guy to be in the moment because what inexperienced actors would do in that moment is they would lie down, the wind would blow and the thing would go up and the actor would think, oh, my stomach is being shown right now. Oh, it's on camera, that's kind of uncouth maybe. And they'd fix it. But that man in that moment sleeping in that bed, he wouldn't touch that and he didn't. That's brilliant acting. If I could show you in one thing with no one saying anything, what's the difference between a good actor and a bad actor? I would show you what he did in his decision to just be there and lay in bed. That's brilliant acting. There you go. So you liked it. I genuinely mean this. I said this, I have to, when I see a movie that is this good and sticks with me for days, I have to measure it and weigh it in terms of this is at first impact for me. It's unquestionably one of the greatest pieces of cinema I've ever seen in my life. The next closest thing of a film that I saw where I was like, this is one of my favorite movies ever was a portrait of a lady on fire from France. That was immediately in my list. But I'm talking this for me is immediately in my top 10, if not my top five of films that for me is if you wanna see how moviemaking's done and it can't be done any better than this, this is one of those films. I liked it. It's not that for me. Yeah, it is. But I liked the film. No question for me. And for those of you in comments, thanks because it's the Bengali thing in the whole, I could give a rat ass about your bias toward me. I know I love artistry about any of my personal preferences. So there you have it. And his girlfriend liked it. So that's why he asked to like it. So what is he gonna do? No, I don't do that. Let us know what you thought about the film and what should be the next Bengali film that we should watch. And this director, I just, sir, for this being your directorial debut, please make a hundred films a year. I want you to, I wanna see more of your genius and I have so much to say about this. Make a film a year. I'll do an afterthought. Make a film a year. Don't make a hundred. Quality better than quantity.