"Digger" ??? (With Dana Stevens)

SPEAKER_1 (0:07)

From Blank Check Productions, this is Critical Darlings, a podcast about the movies everyone's talking about, one new release after another. Please welcome your hosts, Richard Lawson and Alison Willmore.

Richard Lawson (0:28)

Thank you as ever for that introduction, Marie Barty. Do you know what cost us $180 million to record that introduction?

Alison Willmore (0:34)

You know, her talent fees are just out of control.

Richard Lawson (0:36)

But I think in this case, unlike Digger's case, it was worth it.

Ben Frisch (0:39)

It's worth every penny.

Richard Lawson (0:40)

Yeah. The voice you just heard was our producer, Ben Frisch. Hello, Ben.

Ben Frisch (0:43)

Good morning.

Richard Lawson (0:44)

And we are joined by a special guest who is particularly special perhaps to Ben Frisch because we have with us the former host of the Slate Culture Gap Fest. She is also a wonderful, one of my favorite critics, a film historian, a friend of the Blank Check universe, Dana Stevens. Hello, Dana.

Dana Stevens (0:59)

Hey, great to be here.

Richard Lawson (1:01)

Thank you for being here.

Ben Frisch (1:02)

Dana, I've known you for 10 years.

Dana Stevens (1:04)

It's wild, yeah. And you've produced me for much of that time. Yeah, yeah.

Richard Lawson (1:09)

You came up during your short pants with your hoop and stick and you said...

Ben Frisch (1:12)

10 long years ago.

Dana Stevens (1:15)

Yeah. It's true, you were but a beardless youth when you first started producing my podcast.

Richard Lawson (1:21)

Before we get into Digger, which is our topic for the day, we have one big announcement that's very exciting. Later this month on October the 29th in the city of Savannah, Georgia at the SCAD Film Festival, we will be doing a live episode of Critical Darlings.

Ben Frisch (1:39)

Our first ever.

Richard Lawson (1:40)

Our first ever. Yeah, we're very excited. Huge, huge. But yes, so we've been doing that. We don't have the exact time. I don't... We do. It's 2 p.m. 2 p.m. Okay, at SCAD, if you're in town for the festival or you live there or you're a student there, like Ben was just, what, 10 short years ago or something.

Yeah, let's say 10 years ago. Let's say 10 We'd love to see you. It should be fun. We're going to kind of do an overview roughly of like awards season and the season so far.

So we think it'll be a great time and we'd love to see you.

Ben Frisch (2:07)

The show is called Critical Darlings Award Season Kickoff Live. You can purchase tickets online. We'll put a link to it in the podcast description.

And it's Thursday, October 29th at 2 p.m. at The Gutstein Gallery, which is in the side of the big old library.

Richard Lawson (2:25)

Yes, which is a nice little bit. I've been to that venue before. Yeah, there are many times.

Alison Willmore (2:28)

And we're going to make wild, irresponsible predictions about award season. And we're ready. We're going to come in hot.

So if you're able to be there, please do come and see us.

Ben Frisch (2:39)

Yeah, you guys will be doing other little things around the festival.

Richard Lawson (2:42)

In theory, yeah. And you're doing an alumni panel, I think, right?

Ben Frisch (2:46)

Yeah, the following day.

Richard Lawson (2:46)

Yeah. So we're going to be around in Savannah. So if you see us stumbling out of the gray or that karaoke bar, just say hi.

Ben Frisch (2:54)

Just a note on spoilers before we get into Digger.

We are going to have a normal spoiler section, but we are going to talk about a part of the premise of the movie that was not revealed in the marketing, but is pretty essential to the film and to be able to discuss it in any meaningful way. So if you are really sensitive and don't want to know anything about Digger, then you might want to come back. Otherwise, we will just save some of the bigger revelations for the spoiler section.

Richard Lawson (3:24)

What we are talking about is that Tom Cruise is a Scientologist. Yeah. It is shocking news, guys. I know. Dana, Iñárritu as a filmmaker, he has won two Oscars, he has had big commercial hits, some flops recently.

Where do you sit with him in general, in his uber? Are you a fan?

Dana Stevens (3:41)

I mean, I would say I'm less and less of one with each passing year. That's not because his movies are getting worse and worse. I think it's because I sense that he is not growing as a filmmaker in some way, even though he tries different things. He's in this whole comic era now. You could look at his last, I believe there's last three movies, they might not be consecutive, but Birdman, Bardo, and now Digger.