MUTE (2018) w/ writer Jessica Maison - Paired with German Wines That Don't Belong

This week we’re joined by our Produce-er, Jessica Maison! Jessica is the writer of the graphic novel series MARY SHELLEY'S SCHOOL FOR MONSTERS and novelist of the science fiction PLASTIC GIRL trilogy.

You can follow all thingss Jessica here:

https://monsteroftheweek.substack.com

And today Jessica joins us to follow up our episode on director Duncan Jones' MOON (2009), and we tackle the loose sequel that takes place in the same universe: MUTE starring Aleksander Skarsgard, Paul Rudd, and Justin Theroux, 

Chapters

• 2:11 Wine Trivia Question of the Week
• 3:31 Special Guest Jessica Maison Intro
• 6:40 Moon (2009) to Mute (2018)
• 21:03 Our Hot Takes on Mute
• 36:19 Dave Goes to Bat for Mute
• 45:33 We All Agree: The Third Act is the BEST
• 58:55 Weingut Schlossmühlenhof Boden Funk Rheinhessen Sauvignon Blanc 2023
• 1:02:18 2022 Maison Barboulot Cabernet Syrah
• 1:05:54 2017 Schnaitmann "Steinwiege" Pinot Noir Württemberg
• 1:12:30 Answer to the Wine Trivia Question
• 1:14:08 Wrap-Up!

Transcript

0:00

This has a lot of sediment in it, which I think is weird because I've never had a white with a lot of... Probably because it's a uh minimal intervention slash natural. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. They don't believe in filtering and all wine should have that sediment in it if you don't filter. Yeah. So yeah. But I've seen it in red, just never have had it. I don't drink that much white, that's why, more than anything probably, but yeah. Yeah. I drink a lot of white these days, but yeah, was, was a red first and it took me a while to expand. So you gotta get into whites, yeah? I think I will we won't get into that. That's a therapy session. Never mind. We don't need to do that. Are you not Ventertained? Yes sir! We'll have a real good time! He's Dave and I'm Dallas and this is Ventertainment. We have opinions on just about everything. Sometimes those opinions are spot on. Sometimes they go down easier with a glass of wine. This is entertainment, the wine and entertainment pairing podcast. Welcome back to another wine and entertainment pairing for your Vintertainment. This is the podcast where we pair wine with entertainment. It's as simple as that. We always know what we like or dislike, but we rarely know why. So what better way to learn about that than by comparing different wines to different types of entertainment and compare and contrast how they both hit us and affect us the way that they do. I'm Dave, your WSET Level 3 certified wine professional. And I'm Dallas, your professional writer and world builder. And now for the wine trivia question of the week. Today's movie bears the title Mute, and that term is also used in the world of wine, specifically mutae with the accent over the E as in French. But what does it mean when someone says this wine is the mutae because it has undergone mutage? What does it actually mean? Does it mean a fortified by the addition of spirits? B. D, acidified by addition of a D acidification agent such as potassium carbonate or C, age in a neutral container such as stainless steel instead of oak or D, told to shut the fuck up by an older bossier wine. We'll reveal the answer at the end of the episode. Or if you're seeing this as a part of a short video, check the comments. Once again, those choices are A fortified by the addition of spirits B deacidified by the addition of a deacidification agent such as potassium carbonate C aged in a neutral container such as stainless steel instead of oak or D told to shut the fuck up by an older bossier wife. He just wanted to say shut the fuck up. That's why he had to repeat all of that over again. It's totally my motto. All right, Dave, tell us what we're doing today, All right, today we have a very special guest, the first to make a second appearance on this podcast, our very own producer, Jessica Mayson. Yes. As many of you may know, because we shout her out every episode, a perk of being a producer, Jessica has her own substack, monster of the week dot substack dot com, where she puts posts different short stories of monsters from across time and around the world and keeps readers up to date on her graphic novel and novel pursuits like Mary Shelley's School for Monsters and the Plastic Girl trilogy. And by the way, side note, you too can become a producer by heading to our sub stack of entertainment studios dot com and subscribing at the producer tier, which is just 50 bucks a year, at least for now. And that gets you a shout out on every single episode. Plus you get to commission your own episode and tell us what to cover as Jessica did on our Dead Male episode just a few short weeks ago. If you want to experience an unexpected and delightfully understated indie horror film, make sure to check out Dead Male currently streaming on Shudder. Okay, Jessica, how's you been? How's you doing? You've just been to a couple of No Kings protests in a couple of months. Those are under your belt. You have a brand new Mary Shelley School for Monsters graphic novel released into the wild. It's been a banner year both for good and for ill. But you know, let's take the temperature of this year since it's almost over. How does it feel this November? How you doing? Well, I mean, I'm happy, I guess, on a personal level. um All of the No King stuff and everything that's happening has been crazy. um I mean, it's also getting pretty dramatic, I think, in the world. We'll see what happens. We'll see if it's possible to take anybody down. uh But I think good. I, right? I just... uh December 2nd, which is also my birthday. I am releasing the first book of Mary Shelley school for monsters La Llorona and machine on all the digital platforms And that's a first for me with a graphic novel. So We'll see but yeah, I'm good I I'm also embarking on a podcast which I'm gonna talk about too much But I know I'll be bugging you guys at some point. Oh, not just a little buggy not too much little We bug you enough too, so you know, we'll return the favor. All the mutual. Exactly. That's the joy. It's the joy of these little subcultures. But we'll have links for all of Jessica's stuff down below in the description of this episode. So folks, please go click on them. Check her out. Check out her sub stack. Keep an eye out for that December 2nd uh Mary Shelley's School for Monsters hitting the digital platforms. We'll have as many links as Jessica can throw at us. We will happily put them down there, Jessica. And so you've been on once before, as already mentioned. I love being on, so I'm so excited to be here again. And this is a long time coming follow up, right? Yeah. Yeah. So we talked about 2009 movie Moon, the directorial debut of Duncan Jones and starring Sam Rockwell. For those of you who have seen that movie, it turns out, yes, it turns out Moon is the first of a loose trilogy of sci fi stories, all of which have now been released. So it was high time that we returned to tackle the second movie. in this loose trilogy, Mute. So the movie, Mute was released on February 23rd, 2018 on Netflix as a quote unquote Netflix original. I believe they did fund the whole dumb thing. So yes, a proper Netflix original. It's the fourth feature film by director Duncan Jones following Moon, Source Code and Warcraft, which a movie I still have to see someday just because I don't know it's in. The fact that Duncan Jones directed Warcraft... Did you? It was the only thing I had like two hours available. was the only between either meetings or something. I don't remember. But two hours, it was the only thing playing and I was like, Oh, fuck. Okay, I guess I'm seeing work. Hey, yeah, I mean having watched moon and mute we're gonna talk more at length about these two movies and especially mute today but he definitely has a style he definitely has a voice and Warcraft is does not really feel like it fits into that world, but we'll talk about that in just a moment um But mute was actually the very first script that Jones co-wrote and wanted to make into a movie back in the day. So we covered some of this uh of this movie's origins and our episode on Moon. So we won't go super in depth on this. You can go listen to our episode on Moon. You can hear about those origins and how it relates to Moon. But we'll cover some of the broad strokes again, just for people listening to this episode, because it's important to cover some of the same ground to give the proper context to mute. And we got one part of our Moon coverage incorrect. So we have to correct the record. on that. So this will give us the opportunity to do that. So mute tells the story of Leo played by Alexander scars guard, a kind but short tempered bartender who works in a Berlin nightclub circa 2050. And who cannot speak because of a childhood accident that his Amish mother refused surgery for him to fix. It was this weird motorboat accident motorboats all those Amish motorboats. running around there. It's all over, folks. It's all over, especially if you're Amish. Be careful of motorboats. Although he lives in a world where everyone seems to embrace technology to some degree, Leo keeps his life simple and prefers making wood carvings over having a smartphone type device. But when the love of Leo's life disappears under enigmatic circumstances, Leo goes in search of her. A mission that eventually puts him on a direct collision course with dangerous AWOL American soldiers Cactus Bill, played by Paul Rudd and Duck, played by Justin Theroux in the seedy environs of Berlin's criminal underworld. This movie is a blend of noir and sci-fi infused with elements of Blade Runner, MASH of all things and other films. is the most personal project to date for director and writer Duncan Jones. Part of the reason it's so personal is that it took him 16 years to make this film. He originally envisioned the film to be his first. According to an interview in Den of Geek, Jones is quoted as saying, quote, obviously we didn't have any access to any real budget. We were trying to work it out. I was living in London and at the time we were thinking it could be sort of a London gangster film. back when films like Sexy Beast and Layer Cake were coming out. It was quite a long time ago. But then I had the chance to write and make Moon. And that kind of gave me a new insight into, there's a way of telling this story which uses science fiction to maybe turn it into something a little bit different. I got very excited about that and kind of ran with it. That's where this sort of science fiction element came into it, unquote. And folks, that's the bit I got wrong when we covered Moon. I thought this was a sci-fi epic that he couldn't get off the ground because of how expensive it was going to be to make a sci-fi Blade Runner like epic as your first film. Turns out Mute was originally just a London crime drama, street crime drama. And it was the making of Moon that gave Duncan Jones the idea to turn it into sci-fi. But to understand why he then made Moon first anyway, we have to talk about the original non-sci-fi mute script and actor Sam Rock. That's right. In a deadline interview, Jones revealed that he had just written an incredibly wordy script about artificial intelligence that was basically a 12 angry men courtroom drama about AI. Full disclosure, I literally just started a 12 angry men courtroom drama about AI about a week ago. Of course you did. This is full circle, baby. ah Jones is quoted as saying it was just sheet after sheet of dialogue. It was before AI and iRobot. It was a good idea and an interesting subject matter with great speeches, but it wasn't really a film. He gave that script to editor Barrett Heathcote, who would eventually edit both Moon and Mute. And Heathcote said, I didn't know Duncan very well at the time. We worked together on a couple of things. I said, I think the script is great. And it was the first full length script he'd written. And I said, You've just done it with dialogue rather than stage direction. The story is great. So Duncan said, I'm going to set myself an exercise and write something where my main character is mute. As mentioned before, it was originally a contemporary British gangster movie. According to Jones, think Jonathan Glazer's Sexy Beast had just come out. It was the advent of the British gangster film and lots, lots were happening, lots was happening. I was like, I couldn't do it in London and it would feel like that. That was the original idea. Low budget shot in London where we were living and we'd see if we could get it picked up there. It was so early on in Leo's character that it was so early on that Leo's character was essentially just a guy who couldn't talk. There was no real background to him other than that. I had already fallen in love with the idea of using Trapper John and Hawkeye Pierce from Robert Altman's Mash as my villains. To this day, he says, that film is still my favorite comedy. Every time I watch it, I think to myself, I wish I could just sit around the table with guys like that. Then I also remind myself that they're horrible if they don't like you. What if they hate you? What would happen to you? That's kind of where Cactus and Duck came from. It was turning those guys into villains. But it was this London version of the script that Duncan gave to Sam Rockwell. And here our guest is going to join us in chronicling the history of this film, Jessica, take it away. Okay, um well, according to Duncan, he says, I gave Sam Mute wanting him to play one of the MASH characters, Duck. And he loved the script, but he did not want to play Duck because he played enough villains. He wanted to play Leo, which was never going to happen. um I love Sam to death, but I had Ray Stevenson in my head for a while, then obviously Ken Watanabe, big guys, because he was going to be silent and I wanted him to have a presence that people could interpret in multiple ways. Like one person, he might seem dumb to someone else intimidating to someone else thoughtful, but having him be a big guy was essential. So without the physical presence, it limits my options. You don't get the intimidation factor. You couldn't do it. This is him talking to Sam, obviously, but you would have to play it a different way. But Sam wanted to play Leo. He said no to duck. And then at that point in the meeting with Sam, I said, I'm going to go ahead and write something for you. And then I wrote Moon. And from that meeting to having a first draft of the script was nine months. Then from the first draft to shooting was probably three or four months later, the speed was incredible. And I would say that's because he wrote a good script. When you write a good script, it goes fast. I'm sorry, if I'm not allowed to do that, I'll do it over. uh But we definitely inspired, we enjoyed the conversation here. So when something does pop up, we like the back and forth. So go for it. Okay. So, Yeah, exactly. years of struggle and hardship, uh after Moon came the larger but still cerebral source code, 2011, and then the bail mouth Warcraft, 2016. In the intervening years, while still working to get Mute made and seeing its meaning for him change during this time, Duncan, the meaning for Duncan changing over time. uh So, something that- Now we're at the point where something didn't quite work anymore with the original London version. um And so the first thing Duncan does is he needs to change these characters and maybe the place where they're from. um And I think this is a good change. has the two, uh Duck and his friend, the two like MASH characters, he has them, puts them in a strange world. They're Americans, they're trapped in a culture abroad and they really, at least one of them really hates it. uh Duncan is quoted as saying, we went through so many different phases with it, between trying to make it in different cities with different actors and trying to pitch it to different studios. And then here at the American film market, and they try, we tried to drum up interest by doing it as an animated film at one point. We also tried with a graphic novel, which would have been a good move to keep us there. But unfortunately, these incredibly talented artists were struggling to keep up with the work at the time and just kept getting slower and slower. So we never really got through with that. And now they're all coming out in the wrong order. We made Moon because I couldn't get Mute made. And after source code, we were trying to get this other film made, which is basically the third part of the triangle. Expect it to be as different to Mute as Mute is to Moon. It involves a pair of sisters. But more than that, I'm sorry, but more than this Jones won't say so he didn't want to tell at that point But I we know we know maybe maybe maybe Dave will tell us what happened Yes, and that quote unquote pair of sisters project turned out to be Maddie, M-A-D-I, which eventually became the graphic novel that Mute almost was released by Z2 Comics in giant oversized hardcover. Expect us to cover that third part of this loose trilogy in the near future with Jessica as well. And all that's left to say about the background of this movie. is this one final evolution of the story. During the years when it was getting underway via Netflix, Jones lost both his father, the musician David Bowie, as well as Marion Skeen, the nanny that raised him like a mother after his birth mother had abandoned him when he was young. Both Bowie and Skeen died within a year of each other. So this brought the themes of parenthood front and center in the mute story when it wasn't there before. of what makes a good or bad parent. if you ask me, having now watched the film, especially for one of these characters, the messiness of being both at once. Yes, ah Bowie's inspiration is certainly all over this film as Jones has gone on record, roughly saying that he'll likely become aware of even more dad specific subtext as the as time moves on. ah Even in the early scripting stage way back in 2003, Jones asked his father to read the original script. ah And as Dave mentioned earlier, the film is set in Berlin where Jones spent a lot of his time as a toddler and then later playing rugby in the weeks preceding the fall of the Berlin Wall. He's he's gone on record as saying he's got a serious connection to Berlin um and particularly this moment right before the Berlin Wall fell, uh which, you kind of get a sense of in in this film. But Berlin is also where David Bowie created his masterwork Berlin Trilogy. with Brian Eno between 1977 and 1979 and It's literally considered the Berlin era. Like his Berlin era. Yeah. And in 1978, Bowie was hard at work filming Just a Gigolo, which features Marlene Dietrich in her very last starring role. And it was during breaks from filming this that Bowie would make busy with his other great love, art. His focus at the time was the lino cut technique, which is essentially an artistic process in which a design is carved into a piece of linoleum. similar to woodcut, but without the grain, then it has ink added and is pressed. uh Bowie was quite a fan of this style. And he was quite the artist. There was a great exhibit here in LA uh up at the Forest Lawn Cemetery has a great building up and museum on a hill here in Glendale. And they did the first traveling Bowie exhibit of his artwork. and pieces of his life after his death. And I went to see it was fantastic. Anyway, ah the piece that was created on the set of Just a Jiggle-O makes an appearance in today's film, Mute. Interesting. I can't quite picture it. I'll have to Google that. Yeah, you'll see it's in the background. It's a great image. It's a great little image. Cool, cool, cool. All right, so with that bit of history and context behind us, let's get our takes on this movie, Mute. Jessica, kick us off after having been a fan of Moon for all these years. And you have revealed to us before we started recording today that you have actually seen this movie once before, completely forgot about it, and only realized halfway through watching it again that you're like, wait, I've seen this before. Not a good sign, not a good start, but. What do you think of this long gestating spiritual sequence? Yes, it is weird that I don't remember it. It was weird that I didn't remember because I do remember movies quite well um I think I blocked some of it out because I Was a huge fan of moon I'm a huge fan of Sam Rockwell and I'm watching this movie the first time and then in the second time because it I hadn't remembered I'm like, Sam Sam Rockwell's not very much. He's not really in this movie. I just got so sad He's though, there's a great It was a great tease, but such a tease. my number one issue with the movie probably is the portrayal of my own mind thinking I'm going to see lots of Sam Rockwell. I shouldn't be upset because I get Alexander Skarsgård, who is amazing, and I get Justin Theroux, who's amazing in this. Dominic Moynihan shows up for seven seconds. Right. And I don't want to leave out Paul Rudd, but he's not my favorite actor in the movie. But like. Yeah, does. Yeah, there's a it's a pretty dark movie. um There's a lot of individual set pieces I really like um that are really fun to look at and see, but then that they don't always feel like they go together. But. Yeah, I mean. Everyone's on a journey in this movie and I'm not on board with everybody's journey. Please say the least. And I could see, you know, I never knew that it had been a London gangster movie in the, you know, in that time period. it does. It does make a lot of sense. Like, and now that I'm thinking about it, I'm like, OK, I get it. And I could see it with these accents and everyone being a little over the top, but that's not exactly what's happening. And the mash thing. makes total sense. Absolutely. think Justin Theroux kicks that right out of the park. That's kind of the masterstroke of this entire film for me is that relationship between, it's a dual antagonist kind of role, which is so rare, but when done well, it's so good. That relationship between those dual antagonists is just perfect for me. And you do see that mash sort of inspiration for sure. Yeah, I mean, I think any other actor played that character. I'm forgetting his name right now. Not Duck, but who did Justin play? He played... Cactus Bill. No, no, no, Cactus, okay, so he is Duck and then Cactus Bill is Pawdwin. And anybody else, they did such a masterful casting job because likeable, but you're never comfortable because you know he's got a weird thing for girl, like underage girl. And there's a daughter that's there all the time that Cactus Bill loves. so you're just, it's a, that is what creates a lot of the tension, I think, in this movie. is just his presence. In his scenes, I'm like, my God, just get me out of the scene. But he's also really likable. He comes over and he's a good friend and it's weird. It's so weird. That part's yes, Dallas, go ahead. What are your thoughts to pick up from there? There, for me, I really wanted to explore, I wanted to get away, I wanted to just get away from the moot conceit, conceit of the film and just have an entire film about this dual protagonist relationship between these two characters. Because that was the most dynamic, most interesting thing about the entire film. It is the most layered thing. was most laid sort of in terms of writing, in terms of character arcs. I do think Paul Rudd was, miscast horribly. ah But I do. Yeah, it was horrible for me. ah But I ultimately I think the way the the that that relationship was written was just so delicious. And it had such depth and such sort of possibility that I wanted the entire film to be about those two no slight to anything else happening in the film. I was just so ready. to take off and follow the relationship between these two because everything else was not paint by numbers, but it was also a little sort of pedestrian. um But ultimately, I walked away from this film really, as Dave and I have discussed many times, anyone who watches this regularly knows that I wait the try of a film when I can see that the architecture of the film, there's something lofty they're attempting to kind of do it may not be executed well, but I wait that and I do see that this is one a labor of love and there's a lot of stuff in this film. He may not even know himself that he was sort of trying to sort of work out because again, it's what 1520 years uh now 22 years now since he first put pen to paper. So um ultimately, the film for me was Okay. My motto for this year is how not to make enemies by being myself. uh That's a very long, nothing nice enough is coming. Nothing nice enough is coming. You're gonna say something It does manage. it's not the pacing is just a little too slow. And what I think they don't do as well as if they had tied in the I think they were trying so hard to be this big reveal that Paul and the woman were together. I think they waited too long on that. Like I she disappears very early and then you're trying to understand why you're watching these two storylines. And I think I would have been okay knowing that earlier, because that would have increased the tension for me in a different way. Yeah, yeah. There are individual, yeah. And so then if they could have tied those in just a little bit earlier, you know, then I could have, we could have had some more, um we might've gotten like a Michael Mann moment with, is that movie with the two guys, you know, where they're together and it's like tense before they're actually about to kill each other. Yeah. Which Pete, yes, and they're trying to do that in the cafe, but you don't know yet that they're connected. Right. And so it's not, yeah. And so you want that later. I mean, I do see the father, the interesting thing about Bowie and, you know, Duncan is like, in a weird way, you can see a father who's involved in something. I'm sure Duncan got around a lot of adult things. Not that David Bowie's into bad things like these guys, but like, you know, he probably had this. For sure, yeah. Yeah, so spillover where he knows his dad's protecting him and loving him, but he's also like, you know, a bunch of girls and crazy art people are. And you don't know. And so that part's interesting to watch. mean, I think there's a lot of cool stuff in this movie. I'm just rambling. That's what we do here. That's totally what we do here. But you mentioned that and I did not consider that as sort of a theme or tether back to Duncan's childhood. The fact that this little girl, the child avatar is set up, placed in the care of. you know, rather shady or potentially shady characters. And you know, you're right, that does sort of harken back to what we think the child of David Bowie in the 70s and early 80s would actually experience. So yeah, I think I actually did not think about that. Yeah, that's a point. And all those shady characters took, well, nice care of her. Nobody, you treated her poorly. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, I, I thought I like Alexander. I love Alexander Scarred. He's my one blonde exception. Ah, but like that's a T-shirt. That's not a blonde. oh to do. But I watched Murderbot where he's got a mask on half the time, which I think is a mistake. And then this one is interesting because he's not talking. He has such a great voice and it's fun to listen to him speak. So then it's like you're just taking his tools away, which is probably fun for him for one movie or one show. then it's like, but as the audience, he does a good job. But I just always want, you know, I wanted I like to see him. I like to hear him talk. We Alexander Skarsgard. um When they're facing off you want him to say one of his things Yes, yeah, why are you why are you acting? I will say one other thing. sorry. Go ahead, Jessica. ah This film is missing action for me. has the it's such a John Wick. It sort of sits on a similar shelf cosmically as John Wick, um and it's missing this sort of well, it's a guy who is it's the thing he loves in the world goes missing and he goes out trying to put together the pieces of where it went and make the people. So it's a lost love with anger and all that nonsense. uh taken because you're you're you don't it's not you don't know anyone's killed them right Okay, well, we'll it's somewhere between taken and It's somewhere it's somewhere between those two on the cosmic shelf I've and i think know i i i i this concept of the cosmic shelf so everything is a relationship on the cosmic shelf to me when I I no idea what that even means. I make one for myself now. Exactly. am- Exactly, that's the beauty of words. They mean nothing to some, everything to others. it was a cosmic shop none of them and i don't know if you know that i have a conversation about cosmic So Dallas can put his thing up in the cosmic shelf and then I can reach in and grab the thing from the cosmic shelf. um No, so, so I often have difficulty describing particular specifically my own work. It's the whole comparable comparables thing that you have to sort of, you know, master in the business, right? Because that's the only thing people understand. Well, what's it like? Okay, well, read it and find out asshole, but uh in the pitch in the cell. the idea of the cosmic shelf, for me is essentially just an exaggeration of the comparables concept. um You know, I'll take uh if if there were a sort of cosmic bookshelf or a cosmic sort of shelf at ah the video store, where would this film live? What films would this be on a similar shelf to? Not alphabetically, not necessarily genre specific, but in terms of the comparables. And for me, this one would lend somewhere near a John Wick. Not exactly the same. But if I were loosely described. what the walk of the character, the primary character was. If I were reaching without thinking, I would probably go first to John Wick. And then you're right, I may go with a little more thought, go to Taken. And there may be something else that gets a bit more refined in the future. So that's the idea of the cosmic shelf for me. But you're right, it probably is closer to Taken, but for the purposes of dramatic effect. said, John Wick. Go ahead, Dave. No, go ahead, Jessica, you got something real quick. I was trying to, you know, I I'm kind of like I get the whole going after something that's been lost or taken and just losing your mind. It gave me there's this movie I watched and I want to talk about it, but I'm not going to remember the name and I can't remember what it said, but it was all around eggs. This concept of eggs. was like an indie movie. I think it came out like in the 90s. And I wish I was trying to remember what you're talking about. But that was. What genre loosely? It was like kind of like, I would say it was kind of like film and a worry, a little sci fi, but there was like people smuggling very rare animals and eggs into this country. And then there was this whole underground stripper thing going on. And I got like, yeah. We're gonna do it because it's such a good movie and I just can't remember it. I shouldn't bring up these things. Yes, this is where you should bring these things up actually. I should have. I thought of it while I was watching and I meant to look it up so I could remember the name. But it was I love that movie. There was moments where the energy kind of matched, but totally different situation. OK. But it was the search. There was the search for the last thing, the thing that we're looking for. And I mean, that's always intriguing. And what the problem with where I think this movie is, is you've got two people, you've got your antagonist trying to get his papers. trying to get out of the country. You got your protagonist who's like, my girl's gone. Where'd she go? And I just want them to come to, you're right. I want more action of them. I want that to know earlier and I want more fight scenes between them before the big fight scene where it's just. lack of, no, I'm done. You can piggyback off that. I think if they'd that reveal of the relationships earlier, we probably would have gotten more action and maybe it was a production thing. um I've read that the budget was somewhere between 18 and 25 and Jones had originally budgeted for somewhere around 40. So who knows? Maybe that was, you know, sort of lost in the production of but who knows? But I do agree with you 100%. So one, Exotica is the movie. exotic I love Exotica. I love Exotica. It's not, they're not storyline similar, but the vibe of the. Yeah, Cosmic Shelf, yes. It's in the Cosmic Shelf. you, Dave. I was going to be so I loved exotic. I watched that in college at some weird late night screening and I was like. weirdly good. It's weirdly good. Yes. I remember it's uncommonly like you look at the trailer and you're like, that's trash. Like, no way. This is going to be and then it's such it is an interesting and actually well-made. It's like surprisingly well-made film. that note, I'm going to take a little I think I had a different reaction to this film. I don't really disagree with anything either of you two have said. um I think there's a couple of things that hurt this film. One, think that, I don't disagree that like more action would have actually made it more what people expected. And especially when you start the film, you kind of expect it to go in that direction. Like that's what it's setting up for. It's not an action movie at all. And I think that is part of the problem is like, And I think it's part of making it sci-fi and making it almost Blade Runner-esque. I Blade Runner suffered this too in the fact that it has so little action in it. And it's so plotting and it's so slow burn and so like, what are we do? It's beautiful, but what are we doing here Ridley Scott? Come on, man, do something within this setting and with these characters. And it happens here and there. There's like a couple of scenes where boom, shit happens. And the rest of the movie is vibes, right? The of the movie is just let's watch. Let's see what's going on. Now, this movie, I don't think it's vibes as much. I actually think the sci fi setting is just one giant red herring with what this movie actually what the story actually is and what the It should have been a crime drama. It should have been just set in the modern goddamn era. Do Berlin. Awesome. And have them be American AWOLs. All of that. could have worked. I'm not saying the script is perfect even if you had done that, but I do think the buy-in and the just going along with the ride and seeing where all these characters were going. If it was just modern day and this was slice of kind of weirdly slice of street life and all the you were just following these characters and how they kept weaving in and out of each other. And then the reveal at the end where crash they are completely connected to each other. I think that all would have been really much more interesting and cool and kind of like, that, but in this Blade Runner E sci-fi setting, you're just like, why are we here? Like what we keep expecting some reason for that. That's more than vibes. Go ahead. I agree with you and it's not the action so much. It's the we're being led down a rabbit hole by this blue hair girl, right? Yeah. And then they stop showing you the blue hair girl. Yeah, right. And I feel like some flashes of her in these different situations, you're just getting weird references of her. But if I could have seen a little bit, I don't see a little bit more of her connecting with Paul and not understand Paul. But. um cactus bill and not understanding their connection. And like just maybe a little bit more of that. You just have Leo going to places she's been. And it it sorry, my doorbell just rang my dog. And she's gonna bark. ah But anyways, can keep. Yes, it's real life. Sure, what's going on? But um, yeah, I mean, it is. I do see what you're saying, because it probably was just a crime drama and not sci-fi at some point. And that is what it was written as. I mean, I do like a good sci-fi film noir crime drama. I'm OK with it being in there. But yeah, no, I do understand your point, though. But yeah, it makes the story just feel too light. I think the more the movie went on, the more I liked it, much to my surprise. Because even as it's going, I'm like, I don't know what, there's not much here. It's like the characters just stand around and talk and like have these moments where you're like, these are all such characters. And it is almost like an indie crime drama where something that if it had been low budget and unexpected probably would have stood out. And if we had seen it in the nineties or something like that and it had only been made for under a million dollars with all new, like that would have been something that Duck character, the Cactus Bill character, this mute guy, the fact that they all are swimming through these very seedy places looking for this girl. And then you realize it's connected to Cactus Bill and Duck and then Duck's Secret and then Duck even having the final I thought after Paul Rudd's fate, no spoilers. And then Cactusville, I'm like, wow, they're just, this is a strange place to end up. But no, Cactusville keeps, I'm sorry, uh Duck just keeps going. And you're like, whoa, I did not expect it to just keep going. Third act was the best thing about this one. Sorry Jessica, go ahead. Yeah, no, go ahead. We're saying the same thing. agree. go for it. What? No, please. I will say that, so the relationship between the dual antagonist, uh but first of all, still the best thing about the film. And I pray to God they do some prequel if they are going to invest in this IP again, because that's the only thing worth doing. ah But I think act three in this film is that turn, that reveal, that character change, that arc moment is beautiful. Like it's the thing, I'm not kidding you, it's the thing that saved this entire film. And I get it now. That's the reason I waited it. I wait the try because I see that this reveal, this ending, okay, I see what he was attempting to do here. And I'm not sure how it got off the rails, if it was a production thing or no, just a collective, right? But that third act was just so potent and so well-written. I was like, it saved the entire thing for me. It did, it did, totally did. uh Right, what happened to Doug and the war? Jesus. It's messed up, man. m But even seeing like the slow dissolution of Duck and Cactus Bill's relationship where it's it's souring and it's becoming something where it's like they're almost playing the chummy like but we've been Bud so we'll keep playing that like we have to be but no things have changed and then that's gonna lead somewhere that then is going to lead to this whole almost act 3.5 like there's the third act. Yeah. Where you're like, this movie's still going and it's just between Duck and Alexander Skarsgard. And you're like, this is fascinating. Like how this keeps going and where this is going. And I do think Dallas, I have my theory of how this went off the rails. I'm a little positive, which is it's the same way Megalopolis went off the rails. And that is this was a too long gestating project where the seed remained the same and never really like, like here's the base, the bare bones structure of the story. And 16 years later, you keep, now it's sci-fi, now it's in the future. Now it's in another place. Now it's got daddy and mommy issues. And now it's like, we're just going to keep piling on things, but that bone structure you don't tweak at. Leave it exactly as it's always been. And suddenly these things sitting on top, of the structure, it's fascinating maybe? And I thought it definitely was. And I think some of it, like there is that like, huh, why these things altogether? But I'm not sure. It doesn't feel organic or natural in any way, shape or form, which I think is part of what I just really like about this film. It's so nothing like this is not a film that should exist. Still, that's the nothing about. It's stilted. That's what I came with. It's like stilted. It's slightly, like you said, nothing about it necessarily. It's not that it doesn't make sense, but it's like it, things seem almost magically arbitrary, right? It's like, it's a, It's like a degree. One degree from things that make sense that track that sort of, you know, that it just it's like one degree of separation from uh from good. I hate to say it from good. Right from from working at the very least at the very least for you And I can't like I said, I don't really disagree disagree with anything I just for whatever reason I really appreciate it somehow like much to my surprise as I watch it's a movie in two sittings and I mean I was chomping at the bit to get chomping champion of the bit to get back to the second sitting and then I watched it and I was just like I was mesmerized by this fucking thing because I was just like, where are you going? What is happening in this movie? The resolution of this movie is crazy. It's crazy. Well, it's well worth watching. It's really well worth watching for most of the performances and for what is good about it. Right. And then you just have to accept that some parts you're just like, OK, this is taking a long time here. Leo is, you know, going to these places, trying to figure it out without being able to speak. And he's also not necessarily a very expressive person with his other senses. And so, you it is, it, you get to that thing going on. And the one thing, I don't know, we can't spoil anything. Is that the rules of the? We can go for it, say it. We can cut it out if it's not. Yeah. Knock us out. it out. Cut it out. All right. So give me time to cut it out. The plastic bag. oh So we cut to that scene and person is trying to get out of the bag. Is she still drugged? Is she still in all of her senses? If she's still in all of her senses, when Mr. Alexander finds her, he just goes... He I Right! knew exactly what you were saying. opens it up. It nothing. Nothing. And I was so upset. was like, she not get out of that? What? She was like sitting in that corner. And so then I was going to just I wanted to ask you guys if you thought he was constantly drugging her or if he just left her and that was so confusing to or if that was a flashback. It was a flashback. But how far of a flashback? Right. That part was a little confusing to me. It's interesting you say that because Duck, when Cactus Jack and Duck were having a bit of an argument, they referenced her and Duck said something to the effect, I should go back and look this up, but he said something to the effect of you don't have to worry about her anymore in relation to Nardole. Nadira. Madeira and Cactus Jack's response was, what does that mean? And so in that moment, when they revealed that she was dead, sorry, when they revealed her fate, cut that part out, Dave, when revealed her fate with the black This whole part. I know, cut the last 10 minutes out. But then when they revealed her fate, he wasn't shocked. And so I had question about the line, what the hell was he referencing? I'm gonna have to go back and watch it again. Well, watch that scene again. That's what I thought when... Now I have to watch it a third time? What are we talking No, no, no, no, no, didn't do it. So when, because when Paul Rudd, like when duck walks in and Paul Rudd is in the state that he's in after the Alexander scars guard finding the plastic bag moment, duck tells him he's like, you just couldn't like it's you and your temper. You just had to. That's right. He did say that. Yeah do her in and I'm like, okay, this was right 100 % and we see the flashback of Rudd following them, drugging them, dragging her back. So I'm pretty sure this was all him. But I still don't know what he was referencing, what Duck was referencing in that scene. what I think he was referencing. Here's what I think he was referencing. I don't think Duck knew he killed her when he said that line. Because when Duck comes down, sees the dead body, sees Paul Rudd, like that's when he's like, you stupid shit. You had to go and do this. You couldn't let it go. He meant you don't have to worry about her anymore because she's out of, like you're leaving. She's not in your life. Like this is in the past. And that's why Paul Rudd was like, and that's why Paul Rudd was defensive because he's like, do you know I killed her? Like, what do you mean by that? And that's what I think. All right. I'll buy that, all right, good. I will say this movie has my favorite dispatching of a villain of all times. It's up there. I do enjoy that scene. think he gets everything he deserves. I like, what you did to your daughter. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and the worst part is he Yeah, sec. oh Yeah. So so the other thing I think this is a this is kind of a masterstroke. I think this may be taught in like 20 years in film course film school screenwriting and filmmaking classes. But there is the moment after uh Cactus Jack dies. Duck turns the camera. He goes upstairs. We see him go in the room. And I think the very next scene we go to black and the very next scene is we We pan past the little girl's open bedroom door and it is just a mess. And it's one of those moments when I was like, ooh, creepy. That's okay. All right. That's why I blacked this movie out. Right, right. But it's one of those things when you're just like, oh man, okay, that's effective filmmaking. That's very effective. Very effective. Because it's in passing, it's truly like two seconds, but you see the illusion. Mm-hmm. Yeah, but it was the Paul Rudd character. He's a character that is just He can't it's interesting because he can't really get everything he wants whenever he wants it But he acts like he has no like repercussions don't exist. Yeah, and he's furious if any do um And we don't know anyone in the modern era that behaves like that at all um But it's very much Yeah, it was very satisfying, especially in that final scene where he meets his fate. He had like he instigates and and exit on like to the final second, like nothing he does allows him to not deserve it. Like for a half second, like there's nothing redeeming about this character except for that. fatherly love. It's an interesting element where it's like it's the only thing you can admire in any way shape or form and yet everything else about him outside of that one thing he's decided to care about and do that for is like the worst human being you can imagine on the planet. Boom, right there. Yeah. And I think it's why he lets uh Justin Theroux's character stay around, because whatever they went through in the war together, they both are monsters in their own way. you know, Cactus Bill lets it slide with his friend because he's also very dark and gritty and ugly inside. you're just like, and that letting it slide is his biggest mistake, really. You know, and like I'm telling you, the characters are... There's no, there's zero actual redeeming qualities of these characters, but it's the film I want to see. I would love to see the back, how we got to this point, you know? Because they are very well-drawn characters. uh For such a relative short time on screen, you know? Oh, they have a lot of stuff. I mean, that's the thing they have more time probably than frickin scars guard does technically, we follow them a lot. I'm not sure if they have a little time. I guess there I think of them more sort of peppering but it is it did make me want to dig into the concept of the dual antagonist and how rare that is because they are they are mirrors to a certain degree of one another they have their own arcs but they both operate a completely different sort of wavelengths and sort of you know moral ethical compasses. ah But it's a seamless kind of interaction and relationship. And I, I'm, I'm impressed by that relationship more than anything else in the film. Yeah. As a character-driven crime drama, it's actually It's just couched in all this other nonsense that is, unfortunately, like again, it evolved in this way where it's like, sure, but now the way this thing looks, the money you're spending on it, how it's coming across, like it's getting in the way of what the story actually is and what makes this sing. And as much as I love the idea of a loose trilogy of sci-fi, Stories that we're gonna get from Jones. Although I will say this having watched moon and now this also I mentioned earlier There is definitely a style and a voice and a tone to Jones between moon and this that I'm like in the dialogue in the way Characters talk to each other the way the Sam Rocksville characters talk to themselves ah There is something there where I'm like I'm starting to recognize that Duncan Jones voice for sure Like it's not this movie is not just like incoherent in that regard. I'm like, no, I see your fingerprints all over this thing. It's still a strange out of left field movie in many ways, but yeah, it was a weirdly breezy watch. As heavy as everything was. ended up being oddly and I use that term intentionally, oddly satisfying. I did not have any great expectations of this film halfway through. was rolling my eyes like, OK, thanks, Netflix, for, you know, vibe coding this film for us with your in-house style. But, ah you know, no offense to Netflix. If you want to give us some money to make a movie, you're great. uh But um yeah, it was one of those things where it was like But when we got to that act three, I was like, God damn it. Shit. This is actually Yeah, I would have liked Sam Rockwell to play Cactus Bill and had that been Ah, so, so- So would Duncan Jones, god damn it. Everyone wanted Sam Rockwell to play Cactus Bill. it would did he or did he want to play duck I'm could don't but we wanted to play one. I to play duck if I was Sam Rockwell I wouldn't I mean power to Justin Theroux but I wanted to want to play that character but I think Sam Rockwell as the Paul Rudd character would have been fabulous and who knows how that I mean yeah just because then because the spirit this what do they call it the sequel to the spiritual sequel Spiritual sequel, yeah, yeah. It is good to know what happens in that little scene with Sam Rockwell, but I still know that my main issue with this movie is that it's not, one of the main characters is not Sam Rockwell. Whether it's uh whatever version of Sam Rockwell from Moon it is. I will take it. But yeah, the young so but. Go ahead, I didn't check the cast list. We got to delay, we got to delay. This is beautiful. All right, I'll go. uh So I didn't check the cast list. I should probably do that. But who was the was the actor who was the muscle in pink who was sitting in the corner reading? Is that you know I'm talking about the guy who OK, uh is he looks so much like the? actor from the Johns Hugh John Hughes movies. uh Shit, god damn it. gotta look his name up. Son of a bitch. Well, I couldn't tell. I couldn't. It's gonna drive me crazy. ah Anyway, anyway. I don't think so. When I looked at the cast list and I did look at that guy, I don't think he had like a long and storied acting career. So I don't think so. But maybe, maybe listeners feel free to go look that up if you like. And I will say, Jessica, at the very least when we do the third part of the spiritual sequel, at least it won't be a movie. So you won't miss Sam Rockwell. It'll be a graphic novel and you can, that part of your brain can just like let that just my love for Sam Rockwell is so deep and so intense. And also also the film I referenced starring Marlene Dietrich in her final film role, David Bowie starred in, Duncan Jones's father, Justin Gigolo. We're adding to the list. We're definitely going to do this because it is bonkers. So. eh We got it. right. You heard it here first. Just a gigolo. One of these days coming soon. We promised you mute and here we finally are one year later. So even if you don't see it right away, eh when we make a promise, it happens. m I'm sure we've already made promises. So maybe not, but probably, probably. So on that note, though, let's talk about the wines. My God, what are we pairing with this? Jessica. Kick us off, you're now an old hand at this, so you don't need to see us go first. So why don't you kick us off? What did you decide to pair with Mute? Okay, this time I did not go to Trader Joe's. I went to Vino Corp, which is a local shop, a woman run shop that features female made uh wines, which I thought was kind of important for this because women so much drove this film. They were like the motivation, whether it was the daughter or it was Leo's love interest. So I picked a Sauvignon Blanc that was made in Germany. The Weingut. Let me see how I can do this. uh Slashmulen... Nope, starting over. Starting over. I can do it. Slashmulenhof. I could do it before I drank some. My husband took German and he was helping me and I knew I was going to still... Anyway, Gabrielle is the woman's first name who made the wine. uh It's Bodenfunk and the Sauvignon Blanc. And one, I picked it because it was a female winemaker. Two, because it was made in Germany and the film is set in Berlin. um I just, but mainly and really truthfully, I picked it because it reminded me of Leo. um The wine is natural. It very Amish, I like to say. It's white, it's dry, it's got a little grit and it has electrifying acidity, just like Leo. feel like I wanted a mute wine, but I couldn't find one that I knew for sure. I like the Bodenfunk. is loosely translated as like sound waves or soil waves. And so that kind of ties in the sound waves tie into Leo. The soil waves, I think, tie into Cactus Bill, like in a weird way, like he's so pulled by his homeland, America, where he's from. And it's just his main drive. And I think um that was how the wine kind of connected to that character. um And. Just funk itself in the wine world is kind of like references. It's referring to the unusual and wild and earthly aromas and flavors that come with these natural wines. I just thought these characters were a little wild and earthy, especially Leo. um So yeah, it's like, it's a dry Riesling. It's got a lot of acidity. And honestly, on the second day, that lemon really comes out almost just a little too much for me. I really liked it last night. Tonight, it's a little bit, I still like it, but it's... That's natural wine in a nutshell. Non-natural wine tends to get better up by day two, but natural wine, you're really like, it when you're having a celebration and get some people to join with you because it tends, it doesn't have the preservatives. So it tends to turn more quickly. Yeah, was a little it had a lot of grit in it this morning and it's Lemony the more so than it was last night. Anyway, it's someone referred to it as Beyonce's lemonade, which I liked because it tied into the album I guess uh This is the wine I picked it was the only German wine that the wine store had as well So, you know, but it luckily tied it fit some somewhat so I like it. I like it. I like it. Beautiful. right Dallas, what do you got for us? How are you gonna follow that up? For me, this film is about loosely like the everyday in a seemingly, seemingly extraordinary world. Yeah, the palette is kind of sumptuous from time to time. It's vibrant, but kind of moody, but definitely accessible. And that kind of screams like Sarah to me. um The film also feels a little not feels it is a little pedestrian in many ways. uh a little too accessible maybe in its narrative structure. And that kind of seems like uh cab sauv. Yeah, I said it, fight your mothers. ah Overall, the film is satisfying, but again, mostly because I kind of wait the try as we discussed earlier, solely than just the execution. um And this film is a solid try. mean, that third act. And I, it's very rare I could say that I've seen a film where the third act, the final 10 minutes of a film saves it. ah And it does. The final 10 minutes of this film saves this film. Watch more martial arts films. It's like the finale is the only thing that matters. And the rest of the film is like, this is not a good film. You're there. That's why you're there. For those of us you're there for the final 10-15 minutes for those folks. um Yeah, the dual antagonist thing ah is is fantastic. um So with that in mind, I decided to go with something that was kind of split down the middle ah is maybe a good table wine was what kept coming to mind, you know, uh imagine that something was sort of equal parts. Ra or cab. And then I remembered our good old friend, Joe, the trader, who luckily for me has set up stores all around our fair city where I could find such a thing. Specifically the twenty twenty two, Maison Barbello, uh Cab, Syrah. It is a fifty fifty right down the middle blend of Cab Sauv and Syrah. It is from the south of France. Of course, it is fermented in concrete tanks and aged a few months with French oak or in French oak. I should say lots of. Jessica's namesake too right in there, Maison. yeah, that's right. Exactly. Maison! uh You did that on purpose, of course, of course. That was my thinking. Maison! uh lots of deep red fruit, there's some vanilla and even and this is kind of a stroke of genius. This film came off a little bubble-gummy to me. I don't know if I said that earlier. It was like ele- slightly slightly elevated bubble gum. That's what it feels like to me. And um it's pleasant. Does it stick around? Is it a life changing experience? No, there's some great you know, really potent burst of flavor. um But, you know, and both overall, like I said, are very satisfying. This um one, I'm actually probably halfway through the bottle or a little more than half because it's, you know, it's it's easy to drink. This film is easy. It's easy drinking, man. um So, yeah, that's that's what I did. The twenty twenty two my song, Barbello cab sera. All right, Dave. Bring us home, tell us what you got. So yeah, so I'm the one who probably enjoyed the film the most liked it the most. It does stick with me. I mean, some of the things that happened in the film, Jesus, ah don't necessarily want them to stick with me, but they're sticking with me. um But so my thinking was similar to Jessica's, but I decided to focus on, I wanted I would thought, it's Berlin set, maybe a German wine, but I wanted to focus on the American expats. ah Paul Rudd and Justin Theroux, those two characters, Cactus Bill and Duck, they are the two characters that really make this movie a standout. I think to Dallas's point, it does feel like if you're following Skarsgard's character, as interesting as the mute angle is, it's a taken, it's a John Wick, it's a that type of story where suddenly you expect all this action, you don't get it, but you expect it, and it is that seemingly that type of story. but it's the other two MASH-like characters as villains that really are the thing to suck you in and you're like, okay, this is worth watching. Like, I wanna see where these two characters are going and what's gonna happen here. So I thought to focus on the element of what Duncan Jones, the director said is like, what if these guys were out of place? What if it was Americans in a land that wasn't theirs and they just wanted to get out of there or at least one of them really wanted to get out of there? So I thought, well, what's a wine? from Germany that's out of place, that doesn't belong there. So on top of that, Mute is, it's a fairly austere film emotionally. Like it kind of keeps you at arm's length, which I think is another thing that keeps you from, most people from really digging this movie or really getting invested in it or really connecting with it. um Even though it's superficially candy colored with science fiction elements and... ah very colorful characters, sometimes fatally so. The story is very slow to unravel. It's more like a day-to-day slice of life about relationships that are framed due to each character's weaknesses. So when I thought of Germany, and an austere wine made from a grape that doesn't belong isn't from there, but that would bring a balance of that austerity and intensity that also is a big part of this movie, especially in the final act. I went with... a German Pinot Noir or Spatburgunder as they like to call it over there. um Which is why they actually make a lot of Pinot Noir in Germany, believe it or not. um It came to Germany in the 1400s, but it was really hard to get uh red grapes generally in Germany. It was always historically very hard to get them ripe enough. So it made Not the best red wine. made it because they needed some local red wine to drink, but it's rarely was that good. But with climate change and very advanced vinification techniques nowadays, German Pinot Noir is considered some of the biggest bang for your buck out there. Like the you can find good 20 to 30 dollar pinot, which you kind of can't find from nowadays with American pinot and with French pinot like even South African and Australian pinot you're spending like some bucks on those things. And German Pinot is now your kind of budget affordable Pinot that is still really good. um And they actually make about, they're the third largest producer of Pinot Noir in the world after California and France. If France makes the most, California makes the second. And Germany actually makes two thirds of the amount of Pinot that I'm sorry, America, all of America does. So they produce a lot. of Pinot, but under the name Spatburgunder, so you might not have realized they produce Pinot. um Because of course they had to just come up with their own name for it and call it Spatburgunder. It's like, do you not like money? Come on guys, like just call it Pinot Noir and get it out there. um Now to that note, I think things are changing a little bit because the bottle that I chose specifically, they did actually call it Pinot Noir on the bottle. And it was a bottle meant to go out to overseas. So obviously they're picking up on that where it's like, well, if we want to sell it non locally, let's maybe not call it Spatbergunder because nobody knows the hell that is. So this is the yes. So this is the 2017 Schnaitmann "Steinwiege" Pinot Noir from Württemberg. A region, though, Württemberg is a region known for red wine, which is kind of a rare thing in Germany. It's one of the warmer regions. of Germany, so they make about 70 % of their wine is red. Coming from Württemberg, usually Dornfelder, Pinot Noir, of course, and Blaufränkisch are kind of the big ones that all come from Germany. And this particular Pinot aged 18 months in old neutral cask barrels, rests in a bottle for several years before it's released. So this 2017 is the new latest release, they actually hold it back until they think it's ready. And only then do they release it for people to buy. um So somewhere to the smoothie, which was held back until it was ready to come out. So it was held back in age for the people and then only released when the director decided it was ready. So, yeah, this Pinot, it's light and body. It's got that kind of tart, sour, cherry flavor that comes from cooler climates, even though this is a warm quote unquote climate for Germany. It's still for Germany. So you're not going to get a right Pinot noir. You're going to get that harder sour version of this, but it's also got a little bit of a richer depth, some black cherry sweetness in there to go on top of the sour cherry, some herbaceousness, earthiness, it's all and minerality, you always get minerality with cooler climate pinos. So it's got that roundness that there was something about this movie that just had all those elements in it to me, it was a breezy watch, this pinot is just drink, drink, drinkable, while having that bit of complexity where if you want to talk about this movie for all its whether it works or doesn't or how well it all comes together. Like it's not a simple straightforward movie with these characters and all that's going on and how they're weaving in and out of each other. So you needed some of that complexity. So for me, I went with that Pinot out of place in Germany, the 2017 Schneidman Steinweig Pinot Noir from Wurtenberg. That is my parent for Mute. Thank you, Dallas. All right, guys, you know, we had last thoughts that we might have done, but we really talked this movie at full length. went all the way through. Yeah. So let's wrap this up first by giving you the answer to the wine trivia question of the week at the end of this episode here. This is the first time since we started to put it at the end of the episode that I'm remembering to record it while we're recording. I've had to like while I'm editing the episode, I'm like, shit. hop back into Riverside and record something real quick. what does muté and mutage mean in terms of wine? And the answer folks is A, fortified by the addition of spirits, believe it or not. So it's called mute because what you're doing when you add, usually brandy like in port, or you can do neutral grape spirits. depending on in certain types of wine, where any type of fortified wine, what you're doing when you add alcohol, it kills fermentation, it just stops it outright. So you wind up leaving sugar behind. like in port, you dump the brandy in, it's halts fermentation, you leave a lot of sugar in the original grape juice behind, which is why it's sweet, but then also has high alcohol because you've added the brandy to it. So you're muting the fermentation, which is why they call it muté and mutage. Deacidification is just called deacidification. um Aged in neutral containers doesn't have a term. It's just what you agent it in. And no one, no one came up with a fancy term for that and told to shut the fuck up by an older boss here wine. Eh, common. That's called the Dallas effect, actually. That's called a Dallas effect. There you go. Perfect. Perfect. All right, folks, thank you so much for listening. Once again, our special guest today, Jessica Mason, one of our producers. Jessica, where can people find you online and follow you after listening to this episode? You can find everything about me at wikittreepress.com or if you are on sub stack you can follow me uh Monster of Week or Jessica Mason you'll be able to find me. Yes. Beautiful and that is MAISON is her name. uh Thank you so much for listening everybody. We also have to shout out our two other producers because we have to because they're producers by the way, you know, could become a producer by going to our subs. entertainmentstudios.com and subscribe at the producer tier. You get a shout out every single episode and commission your own episode. Anyway, our other two producers, Kate Ruschel of survives on wine.substack.com. She is a Portuguese wine expert. So she does these amazing visual tasting notes that I absolutely love. And then Paul Kalmkierian of Wine Talks with Paul K. He is an OG podcaster in the wine world and his podcast is leaps and bounds. One day when we've been podcasting for 10 plus years or however long he's been doing this, like, yeah, we might be there, but we're only at like years. Give us some time. Thank you so much to everyone. Thanks so much to our producers and. Folks, will be back in one week and I actually think it will be one week because we have a couple guests lined up and we might be back on a weekly schedule for a little while. So we will be back hopefully in one week, maybe two weeks with another one in entertainment pairing for your entertainment. Until then, ciao for now.