 Hey, welcome back to our Stupid Reactions of Corbin. I'm Rick. I wanted the intro to be as long as some of LJP's still shots. You shot, yes. Hey, welcome back to our Stupid Reactions of Corbin. We just did that. Did we? We did. I was asleep. Me too. I'm a different person now. You can follow us on Instagram, Twitter, for more juice. Did I say that too? Nope. No? Well, you did just now. Just now. That was the first time. What about then? Well, you've done it before. What? Because it may have been somebody else. Maybe. Today we're doing a movie review, which is why we are in a very poorly lit, weird place right now. We enjoy spending our Saturday night sitting in a car in poorly lit places. With microphones. Yeah. And cameras. People love us. Today we are doing a movie review of the new 2023 film. Brando. None baka la narathumaya kalam. Not bad. You added a la at the last part, but other than that, it wasn't really carbonized. Well, I said it in Tamil. Yeah. Oh, did you? Well, then how would you say that? None baka la narathumaya kalam. Directed by our, however you say Dost in Malayalam, I apologize for forgetting. LJP is our that. And he also wrote to the story for this. And it was produced and starring the superstar. I don't know his moniker. Right. What is it? A legend. Mammoody. And a big ensemble cast, but this is a Mammoody film. He is the star and the other star is LJP. Yeah. And Shocker, if you know this director, there's a lot of people in the cast. A lot of people on cast. It's kind of. But it is. Mammoody is the lead. Absolutely. But, so since this just came out is in theaters currently, we had to drive 35 miles, which I believe is around 80 kilometers. Yes, but that means we were going, it took us 90 minutes to get down. In LA, it could, if that would normally without any traffic would take about 30, 35 minutes. But with traffic about an hour and a half. Commitment. Yes. But I did it because I was like, it's an LJP film. I have a lot of confidence in him. Yeah. Because he is our dose. And we like everything our dose too. Yeah. You all know. Yeah, of course. But anyway, since it just came out and is currently in theaters, I'm going to do a little non-spoiler. But the only reason it's a little non-spoiler is because it's very, very difficult to talk about this film in non-spoilers. Like without getting. All of his films. Anything. Exactly. And there are some Indian reviewers that I've noticed in big ones that will literally in their beginning of the review, tell you the whole story. What do you mean, Indian? All critics do it. Yeah. It's inferior. Maddening. Absolutely maddening. And I wish, I don't know why more people don't talk about it. It's very strange. But we will not do that. No. Obviously we don't want to give anything away. Let the movie tell its story. But just to let you know, if you like LJP, you're going to like this movie. Yeah. Because Rick, did you like it? The band's a cinematic genius. So that's basically what you get into. So we're going to, if you don't know his films, watch them. This is a, any one of them is a big jump. There isn't anybody making motion pictures right now, anywhere in the world with a higher IQ in cinematic storytelling than this man. Period. Yeah. Full stop. All of his films, this one included, are so unique. And I just, I wonder where did you come up with that? Seriously. Where in your brain hole did this idea come about? And obviously I'm not going to get into that. We'll get into that in the spoilers, but that's, if you like the trailer, if you were intrigued by the trailer, you're going to be intrigued by the film. And what conspires. And pay attention to, like you do with all of his films, don't just pay attention to every frame of film, but look around every frame of film. Yes. He's a genius. His framings, his choices of what frames to choose and when to put them and what to put right after them and the score to put behind it. And just, it's the IQ of the man. It's like when in American football, they said the football IQ of the man is like a Peyton Manning. Exactly. Through the roof. Yep. That's how he is with cinematic knowledge. And it's just, we knew that when we talked to him. He was like, we were talking to a genius. He really is an inevitability in my mind that he's going to become more globally known and is going to have a film that becomes, that's going to get Globe and Oscar attention for its level of artistry. He was submitted. Yeah. But this one, he just. Yeah. This is a, and you can't really get into it without giving anything away because it starts almost immediately. And we cannot, we can say that in addition to that, Mamoudi is pretty much flawless throughout. Yeah. We haven't seen a ton of him. I think two or three films. Yeah. A phenomenal job. A phenomenal performance. Just a great job. Yeah. Really great job. It's, I mean, we've seen two films this year and both have been really, really good and obviously Kuti versus this one. Very different. It's very Malianum. It's very LGP. No, you know, if this film had been made and you couldn't, but if it had a name star here in America, right? Let's say that was a Tom Hanks in this role. Everyone would be talking about his performance. Yeah. I agree. And this, one of the things I love about LGP and we're still in on spoilers is that he doesn't tell you what his films are about. You'll walk out, just like in the, I don't know the name, but it starts with the same thing. I know. Yeah. I don't want to say what I call it because that's kind of a spoiler is what I, from what I call it. Right. Right. And then Jali Taku and, but he doesn't tell you, he says, what do you think this film is about? Cool. Yeah. He's not going to confirm your theories either. He's going to be like, he's probably, I almost guarantee he's going to be like, oh yeah, that's interesting. They're really, he's the kind of director that as actors you marvel and want to talk to him about his approach to everything, his screenwriting, his ideas, his shot setups, the way he goes about his editing, his scoring. And he's also the kind of director that makes you, you have to be a very selfless actor to want to work with him because it is his medium and it is his story. And even in a role as meaty is what Mamoudi had. You're always going to be playing second fiddle. He's first chair. Yeah. He is the director. It is his film and you are there to service his film and it's one of my favorite things about him. It would make me want to work with him as an actor. It's my goodness. Just show me where I can serve to help whatever vision you've got. Yeah. Come out. Absolutely. And it's, if I kind of finish off the non-sport, go see this film. Please support this film. Obviously that's what we're saying is if you haven't seen the film, please go see this film. If you thought the trailer was intriguing, if you've liked other LJP films, go see it. You're going to like it. And I know there's limited screens because it's obviously a very small film, but it's an LJP film. It's worth your time. It's like Wolfgang Puck cook it. Come on. It's worth to travel a little longer distances than normal to be able to see it on screen. I'm very glad we got to see it on big screen and big sound. Yeah. Because there's a lot of ambient. It's just so much more, it's always more immersive and every film, you want to enjoy the immersiveness of it no matter what. The score. And we'll talk about that in the spoilers. It's brilliant. It's a brilliant genius film at every level. What he did with the score. I just don't even know how he came up. I've never seen anybody do that. What he does. The composer is, say his name right here. Yeah. The composer for the... That's cinematographer. I got a question. Oh, wow. Is there someone credited for that? Interesting. Because there may not be. Interesting. That may have been all his choices. And I don't have internet. I just pulled this page up before so I can have all the names here because we don't have internet. We're just in Rick's car right now. But I'm wondering if the cinematographer is the same one from his other films because the cinematography in this is just out of this world. It's very different from like a Jolly Taku. Very different. But obviously because that's like a different kind of beauty. This is just genius of creative shots and hilarious shots and... There were some that were reminiscent of the movie of the title, forgive me, the one with the priest in the village with the... Priest in the village? Yeah. With the LGP film? Yeah. Oh, is it E.M. Mimo? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that one? Some of the shots were reminiscent of that. I don't know if that was the cinematographer or just because it's him. Yeah. It's LGP. But anyway, into the non-spoilers. Because once again, I really can't get into this film without getting into spoilers immediately. It's impossible because it's just... If you know LGP, that's kind of just how its films are. It's worth your time unless you just want R.R. style films, which is... Obviously, we love R.R.R. in that style. The only style of him you like. Obviously, maybe if you've... You've probably never seen an LGP film, so why are you here? Yeah. But if you are a connoisseur of cinema and you love cinema and creative... Art. Beautiful cinema art. This is art. This is art. Go watch this film, please, and support it. So, in my LLM industry, I make so many films like this, but LGP specifically is so unique. At the end, I just smiled and said, I love LGP because I just do... What he does to you while you are watching his films is absolutely brilliant, so please go watch it. And now, we are into spoilers. Go watch the film. Do not continue if you have not seen this film. There's spoilers that will ruin its experience. So for you... It's your own fault. Please don't do that. God. Okay, we're assuming now if you're here, you've seen this film. Okay. I don't know if you've had enough time to digest. What do you think? What do you... It's getting the meat and potatoes before you get everything. What do you think happened? Well... Can I have a couple of them? Like most of his films, I think it's an allegory. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think it's primarily because most of his films have multiple layers of communication that he's wanting to send you messages about. He doesn't ever just have a singular message, though there typically is a singular message. Yeah, but there's a bunch of different... It's never left a line. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think for me, the takeaway of the singular message can be put together in one word, and it's what Andrani said when we were walking to the car to come back over here. She said the word in describing a sentence about the film. It's a film about identity. And it's a film about... And I find it to be... It will be most appreciated by Indians or people who have a more than cursory understanding of Indian culture. Because there is a level of consistent expression about identity and empathetic understanding of one another that I can get into deeper about in a second. But for me, that's what the greatest takeaway for me was it's an allegory about who we are and why we are the way we are. And if we really took a minute to stop and examine it with the proverbial walking in someone else's shoes, we would recognize that the things that divide us really shouldn't. And if we were more empathetic and loving toward one another, we would recognize... And I have more to say about that on the Indian side of things, but that's my initial thought. Yeah, but obviously, the deeper meanings is there. But what do you think happened? Oh, I think... Do you think it's just an allegory? None of it's real? Oh yeah, I think... I'm asking like, obviously he goes to sleep. Wakes up a different person. Yeah, I think the whole film... I don't know that the film is supposed to be something that took place. I think the whole film is an allegory. And I think, yes, I do think if you're talking about the story, obviously there's the constant metaphor of sleep as death. And what the... And then the waking is a new birth. Yeah. And the birth... You know, the bus represents them, all people who are like-minded from the same place, speaking the same language of the same beliefs, going in the same direction. And one person steps off of that and walks in another man's shoes, not by reason of his own free will, by reason of the fact that he died and awoke, but isn't that what spiritual awakening is for somebody? That you become awakened to something and dead to an old self. And there's both the cycles we go through as people in a singular existence, but it's very explicit. And this is the Indian-ness of it in terms of... I was saying this to Andrani. One of the most powerful things, I got emotional when the wives and the families looked at each other and put their hands together. Because everyone was antagonistic of each other, whether you were Malayali or Tamillion. You didn't like each other, you didn't trust each other. Why are you speaking that language? When they're on the bus, the driver is Tamillion and he's like, play something Malayali. And the fact of how is it that a land where so many... where there's so much diversity, why has that become a point of divisiveness and division rather than inclusiveness and empathy, even for the millions who believe in something like reincarnation? If you're Malayali in this life, what if you had previously been Tamillion? And how would you treat a Tamillion if you had walked into Tamillion's shoes? And how would you treat a Hindu if you walked into Hindu's shoes? And what I found beautiful was that the only one who could see was the blind woman. She was the only one who could see through everything and just accepted it in the moment. And she loved him as her son and I thought it was beautiful when he walked away that that was when she mourned when her son was gone. It's got so much symbolism. The symbolism behind it is absolutely made. And then it kind of threw me for a loop almost at the end because I had a... Obviously I picked up on a lot of what you were saying in terms of like the overall... because his films have a lot of Christian message. Very much. Obviously I think he's a Christian himself. I think he tries to... Comes from what he knows. And it's wonderful. I think that's how... because we call them religious films here in terms of Christian... They're all terrible here. When they fall under the faith-based films they're all just absolute garbage because they don't focus on the film. They focus on this is a Christian message I'm going to push it down. They proselytize it. It's awful. It's not storytelling. It's preaching. But he doesn't do that. No, no. He's much like Mel Gibson. He's very much like, I'm just going to tell you a film from my own personal point of view. Much less racist than Mel Gibson. Well, his films... Gibson's films aren't racist. I just wanted to piss off right now. But it... Yeah, so you were saying your point about... Yeah, no, no. What you picked up on. I like obviously he has all those messages and then I kind of almost picked up on... Was he ever actually awake? Is this entire... No, like, I think they both can be true at the same time. Is this entire thing almost a dream just on the bus? Because there's multiple things that happened that... And stuff in... I think one of the reasons why there was in the background score only radio TV is because that's what was playing in the bus. Right. And so that's all he's hearing the entire time. Could very well be. Except back... There's a reason I think it's not and I'll tell you why. And then there's also instances where he starts to... He's out and he's going through the village and he's hearing the window that cracked it back for. And they have it multiple times in the barber chair. Yeah. When he's seeing in the reflection it's doing this. It's the sound of the bus. Yeah, yeah. And so there was multiple instances in that that it led me... I was like, hmm... Is it... I think all those... I think... That's why he's such a brilliant filmmaker. I think everything Rick said can be absolutely true. And he also thrown these kind of... Inception style things happening. It could be just a dream that happened and all those things could obviously still be true. I think it is. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if he told you that this film was his dream that people could empathize with others. And that that is his dream. I think there's a tell at the very, very end as to why this is not a dream. Yeah, that threw me for a little loop there at the end, the theater. Did you notice that? Why did they sub that at the end? Because it was on the bus. There are... Yes. Yes. That... The world to stage. It was the Shakespeare reference. That kind of... The world to stage. Because they even referenced that line when they're waiting outside the bus about the world being staged. And then somebody could come away and think, was all that an act? The entire thing. The final tell for me as to why this was not just a dream but it really did happen. You know what it is for me? Hmm. The dog follows the bus. Why does that mean it's not a dream, though? Because the dog is following him who was just in the village taking care of him. Mm-hmm. Why would the dog just come out and randomly follow the bus if that he hadn't been in the village and hadn't been connected to those people and that animal hadn't been connected to him and when he left, the animal followed him, which we know what the communication is about. Dogs in relationship to God and good people. What about the donkeys? None of them came out at the end to follow the bus. But where were they? Yeah. What was the meaning of... Was it donkeys or was it goats? No, there was a lot of goats. Goats is what it was. A lot of goats. What was up with the goats? No clue. I have no idea what that meant other than he was really enjoying throwing goats in the foreground because it was village life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's what for me the tell was. I don't... I'm not sure that that totally throws that theory out the window of... because him just staring out the window at the end just gave me a vibe of just he's just been sitting in there. He just woke up and just been sitting in there. I got the other. I got... I think once again, I think all that stuff that you said I think it all could have been... Yeah, and I think you could very well be right. Yeah. That's what's beautiful about his films is we could... he'll probably tell you you're both right. Yeah. But I saw him looking out the window of a man who's been changed because the man who got on that bus was a prejudice against him millions. He was very impatient. He was kind of rude to his wife. Not wasn't a dick, but he was just impatient and caught up on stuff and she's like chill, eat your food, relax, have a good time. I don't want this drink. He was complaining a lot and I think him looking off that way if it was a dream he was saying the look on his face was one of I'm profoundly changed by what just happened to me which is the point of life as well. It's another message. Are you just on the road to nowhere and you're not living with intentionality and learning about this experience in life? He could have been walking in the days. He could have been changed by the dream. Could have been. Dreams are pretty big in Christianity as you know. Could have been. But why? Did the dog come out because this is reality? You're really hung up on that bitch, huh? Or did the dog come out because he's still in the dream and life is but a dream? And it's just row row your boat. Wow. Is the top still spinning? Yes. Exactly. The dog is the top. Very much so. Very much so. The dog is very much the top. And the question is, is the dog spinning or is it fall over? I absolutely believe that's the case. Oh my word. I think one of the biggest tells is why I think it was almost like a dream which stayed for him is because of the background score. I know we're talking about in the non-spoilers. Absolutely brilliant. What he was able to do, whether it was him or whether it was a composer, I can't tell who the composer is right now. The clips of the sound clips from TV and film. Obviously there's a whole bunch that we probably missed because obviously some of it wasn't subbed and so you probably had a humor there. There's probably dialogue stuff that we completely out the window that we don't understand in the slightest. But the fact that the entire thing was that. That is a big choice to make in a film. I've never seen it done before like that. There's no score, it's just that. I've never seen it done before and so I think that's probably my biggest feel of why I think it was a dream. I think all the stuff he said once again is true and he still had, he was changed by and all those messaging that he saw in that dream is absolutely spot on. But there's some other stuff that we're going to talk about and you guys can let us know what you think actually happened obviously in the film because this is one that, this is a film that if you're a film lover you can sit down and talk about what you think happened and all that. But man, his cinematographer, did he say cinematographer? Yeah, it did list. His cinematographer is Denny Eswar. What he and LGP did with the framings of some of the shots. How about that shot with the two families? Yeah, the two families, the ones up in the window and they're sitting down with the one with the shadow that stayed. Oh, that was a great shot. What do you think the messaging of that was? He leaves physically but his shadow remains powerful imagery. And then, what he does with this film in terms of comedy just with his framing is brilliant. Like when he first takes the motorcycle and it's just five different six different frames through the passageways of him and the people which are very hilarious. The whole theater was laughing. It was us. We were the only ones up here. I also loved, he's telling them all the story in the place and he's standing up and he's telling them the story and he's going on and on and on and on and the guy says, now do your dance. He does his dance with them. He walks out and the guy looks at everybody and says, who the hell was that guy? Yeah. There's a lot of very, this is, I think, and I think it's set it up that way at the beginning after it said the initial premise of the film of when you go to sleep, you die, when you wake up, you're born again and Mahmoodie asks something and he said, oh, that would be a good name for a play. Yeah. So the movie starts with him waking people up. Yeah. And this is basically, this is shot like a play. Very much. Yeah. Like you could make, you could take this, put it on Broadway and you could, I mean obviously it probably wouldn't work. Very different because it's not in India and I think you could probably do it pretty well just because it's, it's a lot of situational. You need a damn good director. You will, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely, but it's, even though it's extremely complex, it might be one of his more simple films. Absolutely. Which is crazy to say. The messaging is extraordinarily complex and high level and so intelligent, but it is, it is, I would say it's, it's his simplest complex film. I don't think he can make a simple film. Yeah, exactly. Like I don't think he can make a film that's just like, oh, here's the hero. He goes. And I'm sure we missed a ton. This is a kind of movie when, when it was ending and they're leaving and they walk past the house where the woman had been putting the dung on the walls. I thought, I could probably watch this movie 10 times and I'm going to catch new things every time that I missed last time. Messaging that he's done through visual symbolism or something in the sound or something somebody's doing at that moment. I mean it's just, it's, it's just richly loaded with so much. And it was just absolutely gorgeous as well. Like that, the scene where he's saying the Tamil dialogue and going back and forth was brilliant in this. Mamoudi did a phenomenal job in this entire thing. Like of, of feeling like two different people very subtly. And so did the, so did the wives. I felt like they both, and it was almost heartbreaking the, the, when he's having the lunch after he's been to the barber and he's sitting next to his dad and how they've started to come to just, they can't deny that the son and the husband and the dad are back in this guy. And they're kind of at the place of I think I'd like to accept this. Because he's back. Yeah, but that's still a Malayalam guy. And maybe that guy is more like the dad, son, brother you have if you simply got to walk in his shoes too. It's beautiful. Yeah, a lot of just still frames keeping I didn't know it was one shot. Mamoudi, I mean not Mamoudi, LJP it was after something happened in the village and it went back to the bus and everybody was standing in such a like such a pose spectacular. It was it was almost like it was like a painting in like the Louvre or something like that. Especially the one guy in the down camera right with his arms on his hips just looking up to the sky and everyone was still but it was great as they held it for just a few seconds and then slowly came out of it. It was and there was a lot of that style in the film and I really, really enjoyed that. This is a film you could talk about for hours of what you think happened and it's all the elements of LJP he's an absolutely genius and obviously the lovely performance by Mamoudi as well. Should be proud of this film. Let us know if you've seen the film obviously I hope you're still not here if you haven't seen the film but if you have seen the film let us know what you thought about the film let us know your theories and what you think is happening obviously if you're here still I'm assuming you've seen the film so I can't say don't look at the comments if you haven't seen the film but let us know what you think actually happened in the film what you thought about the film and what should be our next LJP film where does it stand for you in his films as far as your favorites it's difficult because it's hard it's probably between this one and the shoot it starts with a C the last one we watched yeah it's probably between those two this may be my favorite it's hard to say cause it's recently biased I gotta let it sit with me for a while this is one that I feel like I could understand the most just because it's it might be as most simple and he's probably too smart for me a lot of times it differentiates for me whereas like Jolly Katsu had a payoff for me in the end that was so freakin big I mean the ending of Jolly Katsu for me was like damn that's what this is all about you know what I mean this I got an inkling of what I thought it was about much much earlier on than in any of his films and in that regard it made it even more fun to watch it unfold cause I got a sense of what was going on with everybody sleeping the identity the blind grandma so it being on the ride early on and not just catching it at the end so anyway let us know what you thought about this film down below and Johnny what do you think about the film?