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savings and more inspiring flavors. very

1:31

difficult to keep the line between the past

1:33

and the present. You believe that someone

1:36

out of the past can

1:38

enter and take possession of

1:40

a living being. We may be through with

1:42

the past, but the past is not through with us.

1:49

Welcome back to the next picture show, a movie

1:51

of the week podcast devoted to a classic film

1:53

and the way it shaped our thoughts on a

1:55

recent release. I'm Scott Tobias here again with K-Feps,

1:58

Tasha Robinson, and Genevieve Koski. In

2:00

our last episode, we discussed George Miller's

2:02

original Mad Max. Flash

2:04

forward nearly half a century later

2:06

and now, miraculously, we have Miller's

2:09

new movie, Furiosa, a Mad Max

2:11

saga, the fifth in the series,

2:13

and probably the last based on

2:15

its box office performance. After

2:17

roaring back from a 30-year break with 2015's

2:20

Mad Max Fury Road, one

2:23

of the greatest action films of recent

2:25

or non-recent memory, Miller has

2:27

downshifted slightly with a prequel that's

2:29

longer and more character-based. In

2:32

a role popularized by Charlize

2:34

Theron in Fury Road, Anya

2:37

Taylor-Joy stars as the young adult

2:39

version of Furiosa, who is abducted

2:41

as a 10-year-old from a lush

2:43

and secret outpost called the Green

2:45

Place of Many Mothers. The

2:48

Marauders who capture Furiosa deliver her

2:50

to warlord Dementus, played by Chris

2:52

Hemsworth, who has assembled a large

2:54

nomadic force around him. In

2:57

a bid for power, Dementus and his

2:59

followers attempt to seize the Citadel, the

3:01

immense fortress ruled by Morton Jo, but

3:04

he underestimates his adversary and loses her to

3:06

Jo, who has been collecting young women as

3:08

child bearers. From there,

3:10

Furiosa grows into a nimble and

3:13

powerful adult who leverages power by

3:15

inserting herself in the middle of

3:17

Dementus and Jo's standoff. She

3:19

grows close to Praetorian Jack, played

3:21

by Tom Burke, the driver of

3:23

the Citadel's first war rig. We'll

3:26

talk more about those developments after

3:28

the break. As

3:37

a child, my world was forever

3:39

changed. My

3:42

mother was magnificent. And

3:48

he took it all from me. Who

3:53

do we have here? She's

3:57

from a place of abundance. This

4:00

is our destiny. My

4:03

childhood. My

4:05

mother. I want them back. I

4:10

want them back. Whatever

4:17

you have to do. However

4:20

long it takes. Promise

4:23

you'll find your way home. Protect

4:27

the green place. It's

4:30

time to find Quatron Cloud. Ready.

4:34

Set it. Charge.

4:40

All right. So, Furiosa, Mad Max, Saiga, as

4:42

I said in the opening, it is a

4:44

film that is both longer and less

4:47

action-packed. Not to say not action-packed because there

4:49

is tons of action and very exciting action.

4:52

But I think a downshift, no, from the

4:54

last film. Is that correct? And

4:56

did you appreciate it? I did

4:58

appreciate it. And I think maybe

5:01

what you're describing is more

5:03

about it being a little more of

5:05

a character narrative than Fury Road

5:07

is. To go back to what we

5:10

were saying about the first Mad Max,

5:12

you know, it's an origin story. It's

5:14

a prequel and Mad Max wasn't positioned

5:17

that way. But this is

5:19

centering a new character in the Mad

5:21

Max universe. And so it's more about

5:24

that character, whereas where the franchise had

5:26

evolved to by the time of Fury

5:28

Road, it was the world was

5:30

kind of the character that we were being

5:32

reintroduced to there. I mean, sure, there was

5:34

a new Max, too. But you know, I

5:36

think the excitement of Fury

5:39

Road was kind of about the evolution of

5:41

this world in a more

5:44

modern filmmaking context and what

5:47

Miller could do with the tools available

5:49

to him there. And you

5:51

know, as I said, this is more kind of

5:53

a character narrative within that world

5:56

that he reestablished with Fury Road.

5:59

And I really enjoyed it. I haven't revisited

6:01

Fury Road recently, but I feel pretty

6:03

confident that I like this equally to

6:05

it. Yeah, equally to

6:07

it. I feel confident saying that and no

6:10

more yet without revisiting Fury Road, but that's

6:12

where I stand. I watched this pretty close

6:14

to rewatching Fury Road, which

6:16

I had not seen a couple of years.

6:19

And I think Fury Road is almost

6:21

a perfect movie, or maybe it is

6:23

a perfect movie. Every moment

6:25

works, everything builds off the other, the

6:28

craftsmanship is peerless. But I really love

6:31

Furiosa too. It is a much different

6:33

movie. It has different concerns, different obsessions.

6:36

I think there's probably as much action

6:38

in it, but it's not

6:40

as densely packed. It moves at

6:42

a different pace. It's not perfect in the same way

6:44

that Fury Road is perfect, but in some way I'm

6:46

really looking forward to talking about it. I think it's

6:49

like, you know, you listened to X-Men

6:51

on Main Street enough, you kind of want

6:53

to talk about Go Ted Soup. You know,

6:55

it's like, this is a weird or imperfect,

6:57

but fascinating followup to a

6:59

masterpiece. And yeah, I think there's

7:01

a lot to talk about here.

7:03

I just didn't process it as

7:05

that much less actiony. Like

7:08

in the lead up after the film's premiere,

7:11

what I kept hearing was like, oh, this is a much more

7:14

thoughtful and philosophical and nuanced and

7:16

low key movie. And one of

7:18

the things constantly cited is the

7:20

fact that Anya Taylor Joy as

7:23

Furiosa speaks less than 30 lines

7:25

throughout the entire film. And

7:27

I went in expecting this to be

7:29

like a lot, maybe dour and quieter

7:32

than it was. And instead I got a

7:34

movie that feels a lot like Fury Road

7:36

to me. Like maybe it's not, maybe

7:39

it's a smaller budget. Maybe it takes

7:41

a little bit more time for conversations

7:43

between people. Maybe it's a

7:45

little bit more like Mad Max in

7:48

some of its like specific beats and

7:50

lead ups and world development. But

7:53

my God, there are a lot of

7:55

action sequences and they're they're long and

7:57

protracted and, you know, have just include

7:59

stage after stage after stage of and

8:02

now here's the new beat and walking

8:04

that well now we've gotten to the

8:06

place. Surely everything's going to calm

8:08

down. No, we're starting another one now. So I

8:11

this just didn't feel all that different

8:13

to me except that it could dispense

8:15

with some of the set building around

8:18

some of these characters. You know, it

8:20

could lean on the familiarity of some

8:22

of the elements. And, you

8:25

know, Dementis is maybe given a little more stage

8:27

as a villain to

8:29

speechify than a Morton Joe was.

8:32

Not because a Morton Joe isn't

8:34

a talker, but you know, maybe

8:36

because the actor died in the

8:39

interim. And the

8:41

person who replaces him, you know, if they

8:43

put too many speeches in his mouth, that

8:46

would start to show in a way that

8:48

it doesn't necessarily show under that many layers

8:50

of makeup and prosthetics. So I

8:52

it just didn't feel that different to

8:54

me. These two movies feel of a

8:56

piece with each other with maybe the

8:58

one exception that Furioso feels a little

9:01

bit more like a person because this

9:04

movie takes a little time with their backstory.

9:06

Whereas Furioso doesn't need to take time with

9:08

Max's backstory because we've already got three movies

9:10

of that. Yeah. One thing

9:12

I really loved about Furioso is that

9:14

it kind of I think

9:17

it's so many other instances when

9:19

you're talking about prequels, you're like, I

9:21

don't know, you know, with Star Wars, it's kind of

9:23

like, I know about this story. I don't

9:25

need to know how all this came to be. This happened

9:28

and I'm satisfied with knowing these characters

9:30

as they are in the world as

9:33

it's already been laid out,

9:35

et cetera. But I think that I

9:37

think that when you do meet Furioso

9:39

in Mad Max Fury Road, you

9:41

are left with some questions about

9:44

her origins. I mean, you know,

9:46

where did she, where did she come from?

9:48

And you know, what led to these events?

9:50

And also, you know, I think a broader

9:52

question with all the Mad Max movies is

9:55

let's see more of this world. You know,

9:57

this is something that Miller has

9:59

had the opportunity to kind of expand

10:01

upon and he really expands upon it

10:03

in a huge way here it's really

10:05

laid out as well in Furiosa's isn't

10:08

any of the movies of just like

10:10

where the power centers are and

10:12

who's going after what and and everything

10:15

has its own kind of distinct look

10:17

to it you know between the the

10:19

Citadel and and what's the name

10:21

of the bullet or whatever

10:23

yeah I mean all these places

10:26

these locales they have a purpose they

10:28

have their importance and and

10:31

become things that are worth fighting for and it's

10:33

all clarified and you know and then I think

10:36

the other part of it too is that you

10:38

have this element of of hope that comes in

10:40

of lushness of femininity

10:42

I suppose that is sort of drawn

10:45

out more in this film

10:47

than Fury Road and it kind of

10:49

gives Furiosa its own flavor I

10:51

think this film's kind of been really underrated and maybe

10:53

it's maybe it's has

10:55

to do with its box office performance not

10:57

being so great because I do

10:59

think it's quite accomplished it's you

11:01

know it's a very good movie I

11:03

don't know I'm not really sure what what

11:06

I'm pretty confident it's gonna have a second

11:09

life or a first life

11:11

I think Bill go wrote about this

11:13

set vulture why we shouldn't place too

11:15

much stock in the sort of box

11:18

office flop of this and he

11:20

makes several good points in there but sort of the one

11:23

that I think is most relevant is just like

11:25

this is a movie that I think people are

11:27

gonna wait for streaming for you know like it's

11:30

they're gonna watch it on max in

11:32

a few months and rather than pay

11:34

$40 and sit through 35 minutes

11:37

of previews which on top

11:39

of a two and a half hour movie which I was

11:41

not happy about yeah I think also

11:44

just on the on the action front I mean

11:46

the chase scene in the middle of this film the

11:48

first time that the war rig is on the

11:50

road it may be with

11:52

the best chase scene I've ever seen it's

11:54

certainly up there I mean it's amazing and

11:56

it's spooky like there's there's no music or

11:58

there's very little music to it. It gives

12:01

us this whole different texture than any

12:03

other chase scene in any other Mad Max

12:05

movie. I don't know. There's just too much

12:07

that's great about this film for it. Yeah,

12:09

I think you're right. I think you and

12:11

by you, I mean, Boga are right that

12:14

it's going to have a healthy second life.

12:16

I just think it's kind of too bad.

12:19

It's a shame that people won't see

12:21

that scene and all the other scenes

12:23

on this. I was actually, I

12:25

did not go and see this at the drive-in, which

12:27

is sort of my preferred theatrical experience these days

12:30

for a variety of reasons. But this is

12:32

one where it was like, this would have been

12:34

cool to see at the drive-in. Yeah, the

12:36

box office for this movie just really took

12:38

me back to it. It was only about

12:40

two minutes ago that Matt Singer wrote

12:43

his piece, you know, what people want

12:45

from films these days anyway, specifically

12:47

about the fall guy not doing well in

12:49

theaters. But the fall guy then just

12:52

pivoted immediately to streaming

12:55

access. And that might be an answer

12:57

in and of itself. You know, if the

12:59

response to a bad opening weekend is,

13:02

well, let's put it up online, you're kind of training

13:04

people that they don't need to see the film in

13:06

the theater, they can put it up online. At

13:08

the same time, I was looking

13:11

for a movie to see last

13:14

night after being in a theater for

13:16

a critic screening. And

13:18

I couldn't find anything I wanted to

13:20

see and hadn't already seen. You know,

13:23

Challengers is still in theaters. Dune Part

13:25

2 is still in theaters. So, you

13:27

know, this movie may be in theaters

13:29

for quite a while. It might have

13:31

time to build up like Elemental did,

13:33

you know, to just slowly build up

13:35

word of mouth. It's absolutely

13:37

a film that should be seen in theaters, if

13:39

at all possible. It's built for that. You know,

13:41

it's got the impact for that. Is there a

13:44

next-picture show curse? Because we, you know,

13:46

we kind of broke ourselves. It's not us. It's

13:48

not us. It's them. Yeah. Well, Challengers

13:50

did okay, didn't it? Not

13:53

particularly. It's like the most

13:55

reviewed film on Letterboxd or something, I saw. Yeah.

13:57

No, I mean, it hit with the people. Hey,

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54:00

when I was a child. Like I specifically remember going

54:02

to see it with my mom. I couldn't have been

54:04

more than like 10 or 11. I

54:07

don't think it hit me as quite as it was meant

54:10

to then. So

54:13

maybe this is a good excuse

54:16

to revisit it as an adult. I

54:18

mean, I personally just like to be just crushed

54:21

when I watch a film. Like I

54:23

like to have big emotional experiences

54:25

watching movies and this

54:27

is a movie that will put you through the

54:30

wringer. I do remember like being very sad about

54:32

it even at that young age. I

54:34

mean, it's something and it just, it doesn't hold back.

54:36

And I love the passion of it because I think

54:38

it so reflects the

54:41

characters and the way

54:43

that any parent would feel under

54:46

such a circumstance. So good stuff,

54:48

Lorenzo's oil and widely

54:50

available of course. At your local

54:52

library. At your local library, that's

54:54

right. You know,

54:56

it doesn't have a whole lot in

54:58

common with the Mad Max movies in

55:00

terms of car chases and oil tank

55:02

explosions. But given everything

55:04

we were talking about in terms of the

55:07

themes of hope and what you build and

55:09

what you hang on to and whether

55:11

you just walk away from the person

55:14

that you ostensibly loved once they're in

55:16

a hospital and not expected to live.

55:18

It does seem like there

55:20

are a few specific things on his mind. There's

55:22

some growth about that attitude. These

55:25

parents don't just like, oh brother, he's gonna,

55:27

we're gonna give up on this kid. Look

55:29

at that thing, look at that thing in

55:31

the bed. I mean, I don't think that's,

55:33

I don't think that's growth. I think that's

55:35

George Miller, you know, castigating characters in one

55:37

case and like presenting them as

55:39

heroes in another case as opposed to he

55:42

personally believed that somebody badly burned is no

55:44

longer a person and just a thing. I

55:46

don't think that was the attitude. So

55:49

a bit of trivia, Lorenzo's oil

55:51

was nominated for best original screenplay.

55:54

It is one of six Academy Award

55:56

nominations that George Miller has received. Was

55:59

the only film.