 So, I genuinely thought it was my random wake-up thing. My random wake-up thing is boners. Boners are a great wake-up thing. Yeah, you're welcome. I'm sure Stephen would actually eat some Corbin. I'll pick. For those of you who don't know, particularly the ladies, real common to arise with a woody. I've never done it, actually. Really? It's really fun if you're laying face down because then when you wake up, you're kind of levitating. Welcome back. Just Instagram, Twitter, just all those kind of stuff and things. And juiciness dripping from every hole. Today we're doing a movie review of the 2023 film. Isn't that this year? I think so. Whoa. Depends on what you're saying it, I guess. That's true. You could be watching this in 3033. Hi. Hi from the past. We're both dead now. Yep. What if we were? That'd be a funny joke. I would love to know somehow to be able to know that that actually happened in 3033. You would be able to, wouldn't it? But today we're doing a movie review of the 2023 film. So what's going to happen? We will come back as another human being and we'll be watching the reactions and see that and have a really strong deja vu. Maybe. Yeah. Anyway. Of the 2023 Tamil film. Vidutali. Vidutali, part one. I think that's what it's called. As do we. Directed by another mispronunciation. Forgive us. Who also co-wrote it. And it was based off a novel called Your Mom, whatever this is. Yeah. Dunayvan by this giant Mohan. Composed by Raja Sir, starring Suri is your main lead and then also a supporting role with Vijay Sarapathy and Bhavani Shree. And a whole bunch of other people. Big ensemble piece. But Suri is your your your main lead in this one. It came out a while ago. So we're just going to go and do a spoiler review just because it's been out for a few months now. Yeah. If you haven't seen it, see it and then come back. We saw it on Z5. So if it's available there or if it's available somewhere else in India, you just. Yeah, it may be. And actually, here's what we'll do. We'll give our synopsis as to what we thought of the film. OK. On spoilery. That way you can hear whether we liked it or not. And then go watch it if you have not seen it. So your initial, I guess, summary thoughts. My summary thoughts obviously will get into the nuts and bolts. I really enjoyed this movie a lot. I felt like I was watching a Mani Ratnam film. It had to me that heart, that sense of pacing, willing to risk slow pace that might bore an audience, but trusting that the audience is engaged enough and intelligent enough and you're telling a good enough story that the audience will stay with you. I thought it was just uniformly a really enjoyable and really good film and I'm looking forward to part two. No shock that Mani Ratnam was one of his heroes. Yeah, it really didn't feel like a Mani Ratnam film. Do you remember he was the director in the panel? The only one we didn't really know. Which is wild because I want to see his film. I wrote down the name of the film. His film from, I believe it was 2016 that is called Visorani. Was the official selection to the Oscars that year. We haven't seen it. No, we haven't. I've heard it. I would very, very much like to. Oh, no, I apologize. We have, no, that's not the one we saw, sorry. I was thinking of, I was thinking, no, wait. No, that's a different film. No, it's not. Yeah, that's this. The film I'm referring to is from 2016. No, I'm saying we've seen something of his. Oh, OK. But yeah, but we have not seen that one. That was a Suran Suran, which you didn't actually like. Which is why I don't remember it from what I recall. Correct me if I'm thinking of a different one, but I'm pretty sure this is the one that you you felt. I felt differently. We had a different opinion on this film that you felt it was more of a religious style of film. From what I recollect. I don't remember much about that review. But if that's the one I'm thinking of, which I believe it is. And if I don't like a film, I typically don't save headspace for it unless it was so tremendously bad, I could never forget it. Oh, no, I'm a fucking idiot. We've saw Vada Chennai. Oh, yeah, Vada Chennai. And which what is this about? Sorry, that's that's the one. Yeah, this is the one. That's the one that was the most on you. That was the official selection. I've heard a lot about it, so you guys can let us know if that's worth it. And so what did you think? I really enjoyed it. I don't think it's without its flaws in terms of some some different stuff, like some editing choices, maybe some length, but also that could have been because we saw the director's cut. They I found that out after they put the director's cut on. Yeah, there's a well, there's both. You can choose from both, actually, which if you just go to the link you sent me, it takes me directly to that. But if you go to Z five and look the film up, you can't there's a theatrical cut. And then there's I think it's just 15 minutes. Yeah, but it's taken away. I would much rather watch a director's cut. And then there's some other little things, but overall I thought it was, Monty Rotten was a very good comparison because it's all very story driven. It's a performance as well. Hard hitting with important message. Oh, he was the producer on the Crow one. Ah, you remember that one? Yeah. I want the bad pizza at the end. Yep. Really good film though. A special appearance. Sorry, I'm just going through his IMDb now. A brilliant opening scene. The opening shot, we'll talk about it in a minute. Yeah, yeah. It's an incredible one shot. That's all I'll tell you. One of the best we've seen, I think. Yeah, I just, my very first note, opening shot is magnificent. And it happened actually quite a few times throughout the film as well in terms of really good camera work. And I think we saw behind the scenes thing on this at one point. Oh, did we? The guy that was role-blading backwards or anything, that was from this. Oh, okay. I believe it was from the end. Okay. That would make sense. But ultimately, I really enjoyed it. I think it's a hard hitting film. I'm hoping we get it in theaters so we can see it in theaters. The second part when everyone comes out. Yeah, part two. It says it's supposed to come next year. Next year. Yeah, okay. That's what the internet says about it. A very hard hitting film that I think you will appreciate, but I'll get into. So now we'll spoil the other stuff. Let's spoil it. If you haven't seen it, please go. Yeah, go see it. And now this is for everybody who has seen the film. Well, let's just start at the beginning. That one shot, man. That one shot. That was fucking brilliant. In addition to the brilliance of that one shot, the stunt jump, where the guy jumps on the train and breaks his leg. Yeah. I don't know how to do that. How the heck did they do that shot? I don't know if it was green screen in the train with CGI maybe. It was great CGI if it was. Yeah, for me, it was a flawless watch to see him jump and watch it look like an actual leg break. And there's another incredibly well done stunt work. And this is brilliant. Great stunt work. Because there was another time where a guy I think got shot and he looked like he landed on his face. And it looked like that stunt man actually may have gotten hurt. And our lead, forgive me for not knowing this. Yeah, right off the top. He had some, I'm pretty sure he did his own stunt work when he was doing the rooftop jumps at the end of the film and hitting the tile roofing and sliding and falling off the tile roofing. Yeah. So you have the one shot. But that one shot. I would love to see the behind the scenes of that one shot because. You know what it reminded me of? That took a lot of choreography. A lot of choreography. And it reminded me of, it's a better one as far as the intricacies, but it reminded me of the opening one shot in, what's the war movie? It's just the air. Was it 1917? Yeah, something like that. Yeah, that opening shot is just tremendous. And this too, when it got off to its start, I was immediately blown away. Yeah, it was absolutely incredible. So shout out to the cinematography team and the camera work team. Incredible. Editing team. And I know there was some VFX in that as well. So it's a big collaboration. Yeah, there's a forgivable weakness in the final train fall. That is just unfortunate in regard to the fact that if they probably had more money they could have cleaned it up. But it's utterly forgivable. I imagine it's had a very small budget. Because that happened a few times with VFX. Yeah, yeah, yeah, in the film. Forgivable, because you know that when that happens, you know there's like, I bet they would have wished they had more money because they would have been able to. Because they can see it. Right, of course. They know. They know, but also, it's forgivable. Their producers were like, this is a genre film that you, who knows how much money you're gonna make back. Exactly. And I think it did well. Yeah, it did. It said it was a box office success. So that's good. But, so let's talk about Suri as well. I don't believe we've ever seen him before. I don't believe we have either. If we have, please let me know. He gave a lovely performance. Agree. I loved his character. I loved his sincerity. I loved his, I cared for him. I liked the fact that he was, felt like the only good man in the entire. Yeah, he had the moral, he's a good man. Yeah. He's a good man who doesn't want to be pushed. And you didn't also get the feeling that maybe if he was pushed to the edge, he was gonna flip a switch. You just felt like this guy is no matter what's going on, he's gonna wanna do the right thing. And he doesn't understand why other people wouldn't wanna do the right thing. Yeah. And just such, the best of the best things you can say about an actor. No performativeness, no sense that he's being watched, willing to just let the moment be just really lovely. He carries, he has to, he really carries the film that makes you care for him and care about what he cares about. Absolutely. And his love interest in, I believe it's- It was beautiful. Is that her? Yeah, forgive me if this is mispronounced. Bavani Shray. Beautiful performance. I love her. Their chemistry was great. Agreed. As well. I really like immediately upon the first, I think love song that they had. Yeah. Was I think really when you started to really care for them, which is one of the great things about Indian cinema and the way they use songs in there. It shows a long period of time in a short period of time and it gets you invested in these people in their relationship real quickly that no other cinema can really do outside of, I guess, musicals. Yeah. But Indian cinema is unique in the way they do it. But I thought her performance was great. I characterise her a lot of really great performance at the end. I know. Even though I know it's not their fault. There's blurring stuff that just. I wrote something about that I have to share. It pisses me off. Not because I know that's probably not what they wanted, obviously. I know they probably had to do it. It just sucks because it takes away from the point of them doing it, the actors. This is the one thing I wanted to, this is the only thing I wrote something about that I really need to share. And it wasn't something to say at the front, but since you brought it up. Oh, in case you don't know what I'm talking about. They blurred everybody who was naked, the males and the females. And there's a lot of nudity in the film. Yeah, a lot of it. So here's what I had to say about that because it just infuriates me. So none of the nudity in this film is either gratuitous or graphic. Nope. The nudity in this film is tremendously important in showing us the extraordinary vulnerability of innocent victims and what it means to be dehumanised by corruption. Yep. Any adult who has a problem with seeing or allowing other adults to see the naked human body in a movie, painting or other form of art, especially when that nudity is absolutely necessary in the storytelling. That person is either unhealthily prudish and or stiflingly religious. One of the major contributors to unhealthy opinions about sex and the human body is a direct result of this kind of prudishness and religiousness. And any man who can't look at the naked female body without objectifying it or losing their own self-control has a serious psychological or moral problem they need to address. And I want to commend and applaud the bravery of the men, but especially the women who were courageous in portraying characters who needed to be naked and were naked a lot. So that it just, and I know it's infuriating. The censor board and whatever that because of, you know, sentiments and all that crap. In what context in real life would you ever walk into a room where someone's being interrogated and they're naked and somehow their body would be blurred? It would never happen. It violates suspension of disbelief. It is in a front to artistry in the name of censorship. Like the fact that you can in this film and I'll talk about it, cut off a man's arm and that's okay. Preach Corbin. Yeah, but like you can't see a naked body which we all have like, I don't know what's under there. Especially when the artists themselves are willing to share that part of themselves for the importance of the storytelling. It's maddening. So yeah, that was infuriating. But the fact that their performance, all the females at the end when that was going on and her when she was talking about her mom, her dad or any other time that she was upset or she gave a great performance. I liked her performance a lot. Very much. I loved it. Yeah. VJ Satapathi, I liked him. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him. Because you got like, it was like Fafa in Pushpa. You just got a little like a little sizzle of VJ Satapathi. And so I'm assuming in the second part he's gonna be a lot, a lot. Which I hated the ending, but I didn't hate the ending. I hated the ending, but I didn't hate the ending. No, what are you talking about? Just the abrupt ending? Are you talking about the glimpse into the second part? Okay, so there's two parts to the ending. I hated the glimpse. So when it ended, it bothered me as much as the two towers ending. It's one of those things of no, but I get it. It's part one. It's like watching Gangs of Wasapur and you realize this is one film. So they ended mid-story and that's a good thing. You want more. The thing I genuinely disliked and wish was not there. It was the glimpse of what's coming. It seemed, it felt like a TV series wanting to show you what the next episode was gonna be. And it was not done well. Not done well and not needed. It was herky-jerky. Yeah, it was just kinda sloshed together. I knew I don't need to. I didn't need to see all that. I'm already invested in what's coming. I don't need to see anything. In fact, I kinda don't wanna see anything. That's what the trailer's for if you're gonna release a trailer. Yeah. Release it then. I know it's well done. Yeah. Cause that wasn't well done. You left me, I was hooked and now I kinda wanna wriggle off the hook a little bit after watching those things. Yeah, I didn't like the glimpse there at the end. But yeah, I actually enjoyed the ending. And I'm assuming that's how Gangs of Wasper kinda did it in theater. Yeah, it just said, you know what? We're done telling the story here right now. Deal with it. Yeah. Exactly. I liked it. One of the things that was super interesting and I actually have seen some people that liked and disliked and I was kind of in the middle was the score. There's certain parts that I loved because it was old school. I don't like it. Another reason it felt Monty Rotten to me. It felt like we, Steph had me showed me like this old school or Haunting of Hill House or something, but the old one, right? Right, Vincent Price, right? Yeah. Oh, the original. The original. Okay, I haven't seen that. Like it almost, the score's almost Scooby-Doo-S. Okay. And that's what it felt at times. And I don't know if it was Monty or if it was a different person that did the background score. I know he did the songs. So you guys can tell me, I don't know if he does the background stuff. But I love that because it was different. It almost gave it bombay-ish to me. It was like very eerie. And there were other times that the score was very different. And I don't know if I loved the differences in it, all that well. I love that it wasn't overscored. Yeah, it definitely wasn't overscored. Lots of moments of just breathing and letting it be. And you could tell there was some audio issues with, I'm assuming- On the day? The budget. Yeah, for ADR. Yeah, ADRs and sound, whatever. Cause you could tell that, but like I said, I talk a lot of that up to the money aspect. If you don't have money, you can't do everything perfectly, sadly, in filmmaking. Money doesn't make you make a perfect film at all. No, it just helps you tell the story you want to tell with as much technical expertise as you can. Yeah, that's all. It definitely helps the technical side of things. It really does. But yeah, that was one of the issues slash things I did actually really enjoy was the corkiness, the old school feel. Agreed. Like it was almost. Yeah, it was very much a tip of the cap. Yeah, I agree. And I liked it a lot in a more modern-ish style film. Some of the, I did feel that it probably could have benefited, maybe the theatrical version was kind of on the runtime. Tighter? Yeah. As opposed to, I think it was almost 240, I think it is what the runtime, maybe closer to two hours would have been a better feel. It didn't, like, it wasn't excruciating by any stretch. It's tough. I see both sides of the coin to that. I absolutely understand why somebody would say you could have easily chipped 15 minutes off this thing. Yeah. Yeah. But it doesn't bother me. Yeah. Yes, I see both sides. The Surge's character was so interesting because you're like, you were like wanting him, you're like, you have great moral compass, but you're also like, God, you're going through a lot of shit right now. Yeah, I just don't want you to go through this. Right? I don't much want him to just tell everybody and stop everybody. And he's so long suffering and patient. They really made you sit with his suffering for a long time. They make you sit with his suffering. And the other thing I really appreciated is that he didn't, right, our director, he didn't feel the need in any way to say anything other than what was story driven. And specifically, the moral compass for Suri and what made him who he was as a moral man is a bit more, it's kind of clouded in mystery in terms of his backstory, which made it all the more interesting as to what is it that makes this guy so deeply moral, especially in the midst of corruption, how naive was he to get into law enforcement and not understand the corruption that was there? And I also loved what I found to be an incredibly interesting moment, which is where the door opens up and he's got Vijay Satapathi there at gunpoint. And I'm thinking, on the one hand, yeah, he's broken the law and you're gonna arrest him, but at the same time, what Vijay Satapathi's been doing is trying to stop the corruption of the people you're with right now. Yeah, it was, they definitely, outside of maybe the villagers, they really out in Suri, they really made you feel like, do you know who the villain is here? Right. Do you really know who's the bad guy? The police, which is a common theme in Indian cinema, like the corruption of the police is, I mean, that's probably expressing crime stuff. Happens 95% of the time. 95% of the time, yeah. But especially in Indian cinema. Yes, especially. They definitely call out the corruption of the police a lot. A lot. Probably the single most pointed at area of corruption. Absolutely. And so, are the police the bad people here? Are the terrorists the bad people here? The terrorists. I mean, I guess they kind of, the villagers were hiding the terrorists, I guess you could say. Right. But they really, and I'm wondering if in the second part, which is one of the reasons I wish they didn't give you the glimpses. Me too. I've thrown them out of my head. Hopefully it's in like a year so we can forget everything they showed us because it was bad. I didn't want to see any of that. I don't even understand the point. And the only reason I watched it, I was ready to turn it off, but I did what I always do. I scanned forward to see if there's anything in the credits for a post scene, but it wasn't a post scene. It was just next time on Viditali Part One. Yeah. I wish I would have skipped it for sure. But yeah, I'm assuming in the second part, it's gonna kind of turn you on your head and be like why they're doing specifically what they're doing, even though they did chop people up and kill people pretty good. Even though if it is the police that maybe had done something to them or we know they have done stuff to them, like kill people and shove it off as they got attacked and all this kind of stuff. So I'm betting that's what's gonna happen because I believe the police were probably a bigger villain here than what the terrorist. And I'm interested to see what they do with the relationship between Kumar Hassan Suri and Vijay Sarapathy's character because in many respects, they feel, and I'm not saying this is a copy, I'm saying this is a really wonderful tension between a perceived protagonist and a perceived antagonist that most of you would know more vividly from anything in modern cinema is the relationship between Batman and the Joker and the Dark Knight and how they kind of are two sides of the same coin in a way. I hope we kind of get into more of that because I feel like these two guys are very much I almost feel like Vijay Sarapathy's character is who Suri would be if he had reached to the breaking point and he said enough is enough, I'm tired of the corruption. And he went to the far extreme. I think they're both driven by the same values. And I'd love to see more of that explored in part two. Yeah, did they ever go over what they did outside of in the forest? Cause it's presumed that they're the ones that did the train attack, right? 100%. A presumed and he's accused as being the leader of the train attack. Yes. Did they ever take credit for that? Like, did I miss that at all? I don't believe that. Or was it like a setup to go after? That probably will be revealed in part two. I don't think that that was clarified. I think it's made apparent by the storytelling that he's the one responsible, but that could be a wonderful switch to make it look like the police and the government did that as an excuse to get more resources to go after them. Yeah, which I don't know. If I miss stuff, please don't be a no. I didn't see anything on a larger scale other than what they had been doing within the village in that particular region. Yeah. Which is crazy. The predominant, and this is often seen a lot in corruption pointing, when they do the political corruption pointing beyond the police, more often than not, and that's the case in this film, it points to the politicians aren't making decisions based on what's right and wrong. They're making decisions based on what's gonna look better for them for reelection. And I think that's probably what's gonna happen because they alluded to that a lot. A lot. Whether a politician speaking at an event or the guy basically them meeting with the police a lot and talking about what they should do. Right. And it was all about the ruling party and the opposition party. Right. Not about what's best. Right. So I'm assuming that's what's gonna happen and we're gonna find out more about VJ's character. I hope so. I'm really looking forward to part of it. Because his love interest, Suri's, she said her brother, right? Yeah. To join him and she hasn't seen him in about seven years. Right. And so there's, I suspect we know who the brother is. Already. I could be wrong. It may be too simple for me to think this. I think VJ Sotapathy's her brother. But he's been in the village. Oh, is she just covering? I think she was covering. Why wouldn't she tell him though? Who? Suri? Because she was pretty open with Suri. She was. But I think she didn't tell him for two reasons. I think the first one was because he's such a moral and good man, it might distance him from her because he's afraid of hurting her going after him. And secondarily, I think she's afraid, knowing he's a moral man that- You're saying Suri's a moral man. Yeah. I just think for her, she was, she's just too afraid of what, there's too many negative outcomes that could happen to her brother and to her relationship with Suri who she clearly loves for her to fully reveal. I could be very, very wrong. But that's just my- Yeah, I didn't pick up on that. That's my thought. That's my thought. Maybe. Yeah, I didn't pick up on that. But there's a funny moment in this. When the guy was trying to bring the other guy tea and he kept going. Like, do you remember the part? Like, it was the two police officers, like the high-up police officers were talking about something and the guy brought them tea and he kept trying to give it to them, but they wouldn't get around to it. Oh no, I'm not, I'm blanking on that. I didn't pick up on that. That was very funny. I didn't pick up on that. I really enjoyed it. It was kind of a corky moment of it that I enjoyed. Any other points of it that you'd like to talk about? No, that was it. I just all in all really, really enjoyed it. But I think probably my favorite thing above all, aside from the ultimate being, I mean, the bravery of these men and women willing to be so vulnerable in their nudity, that the primary thing of I'm so impressed with his ability to tell a story where he's willing to allow things to go slowly, knowing many people might say, I was bored. Like, you know, there's people who said, I don't like open hybrid, there's too much talking. That's fine. You don't need to say it. I love writers and directors who are not there to appease an audience for the meanings of box office success, but are willing to tell the story they wanna tell and the risk of distancing themselves from people who may say it's boring. That's my favorite aspect of this. It's such a good film. Yeah, did you finally see Barbie? No, not yet. I've been busy this week. All right. And we're gonna hopefully get to it maybe this week or tomorrow or something like that. Yeah, okay, good, good, good. I've been wanting to get to it. Great, so yeah, no, ultimately a great takeaway. Can't wait for part two. Where's this fall in your favorites of the year? It's up there. Also, Dammel, man. Also, for Oscar submission, would you still put LJPs over for Oscar submission? Yeah, okay. Only because I think his film is so cinematically, the cinematic IQ of that, man, is so, so, so, so high. But also, foreigners won't get all the, I know, if you're talking, If you're talking about accessibility and you're talking about messaging that needs to be heard, the fact that this deals so much with corruption in such a real way, and hopefully the Academy members would see a version of this that isn't censored. Yes, I wouldn't be bothered if this was the submission. It would not bother me. I think you have a higher likelihood of cinematic appreciation. In the LGP. In the LGP, yeah. But most non-Indians. What about the superhero film? That, that. Of the three, that's the one I'd watch more often. Oh yeah. You don't want to watch Schindler's list all the time. Also, I do appreciate in this the fact that they showed the gory parts, like the fact that he cut his frickin' arm off. Also, great prop. Yeah, the visual effects, people in the makeup people. Great job. Great job. On the killed people multiple times and it was, they showed a lot of blood. And then I appreciate that when you. Especially the opening train shot. The amount of graphic appendages and blood and guts was just extra. And everybody was on, I was looking around for background people making mistakes and nobody was making mistakes. It was crazy. You know, people doing this and like looking to see if someone's coming. And the timing of everything. The timing of everything. The choreography on that entire thing of our 12 minute one shot. That's the worth, worth the price of admission right there. That's a harder choreography than a lot of dances. It really was. It's one of the best opening shots I've ever seen. Yeah, it was absolutely brilliant. So looking forward to the second part, let us know what you thought about this film and what should be the next domo film from this director or others that we should watch down below.