Undertone (what to expect)
Scorecard, Watchlist Worthy, New Pod Drop, Friends We Reccomend
The Oscars are this weekend, and the design department has DELIVERED (thanks, Josh!)! Note the two bonus categories: Best Full Movie: Held in Thought, Laughed, Cried (joy or sadness), and Friends to Follow.
Also, one of the Harrisons fell ill, so, as much as our bullying Kelly into doing Reminders of Him for the scorecard actually worked, in the end, it did not. We had to pivot. Ironically, the movie is Harrison Catnip.
Hereâs what we have for you this week:
Concession Stand Scorecard: Undertone
Watchlist Worthy: Guy Ritchieâs latest
New Pod: Patrick DâSilva, PhD, back on the pod
Friends We Recommend: Patrick launched his podcast!
This weekâs movie - Undertone
Letterboxd Description:
It wants to be heard.
The host of a popular paranormal podcast becomes haunted by terrifying recordings mysteriously sent her way.
Best Watched With
Your podcasting friend, your podcast co-host, a your religiously curious friend.
End Credit Thoughts
We have some good news and some bad news. And like our good friend Eddie says, bad news first always.
The writing is where the movie suffers the most. We donât always need everything laid out for us through dialogue, and the podcast recording scenes particularly struggled hard. The co-hosts, Evy (Nina Kiri) and Justin (Adam DiMarco) did not have the chemistry that led us to believe this is a popular all-things-spooky podcast. Their podcast show came off lackluster and a stereotypical used-car-salesperson energyâyou like selling things more than liking what youâre actually selling. The story has heart, but the writing was in need of some innovation and creativity that went beyond playing childhood songs in reverse and the âI donât want to finish this/Yes, weâve came this far/Oh no we shouldnât have done thatâ resolution.
Okay. Now that we got that out of the way, and situated the rest amongst the movies weakest part. The execution of this movie is actually creative and pretty damn cool. Hear us out.
It reminded us of last yearsâs Presence, the movie that is shot entirely from the phantomâs POV, with each segment being one long take. The story was fine, the writing was actually sub par, but the execution of how they told story was a big swing with high risks. Undertone feels similar.
Even though there are multiple characters, we only see two actors and hear the rest over phone calls. And one of the actors is the main character, Evyâs mom whoâs severely ill and unconscious. Evy goes to a party and the doctors, but we, as the audience, donât actually leave the house. It all takes place in one location, Evyâs home, a few rooms, and a few voices. It feels like a small budget movie making the most of every dollar to achieve horror, which they do pretty damn well despite their limitations.
The use of sound is vital. While podcasting, Evy uses noise cancelling headphones which we experience when she puts them on. It is a cool experience, until we were dying to hear what the hell was happening in the house but couldnât because Evy still had her headphones on.
Then, thereâs the use of spatial and stereo audio. The audience is hearing things not just from the screen, but from the side, behind, slight forward and to the right, all around the theater. There were times when we didnât know if it was the movie or just a loud audience member.
The use of sound and the creative swing for the fences is what makes this movie worth seeing in theaters. Is it a good movie? Divisive. Walking out of a full theater, the chatter consisted of people who loved it, hated it, âI thought it was cool, but not scary at allâ was one direct quote, but, nonetheless, people weâre discussing the experience. Sure, the writing needs a serious makeover. However, it can be watched like an ode to the OG Paranormal Activity, The Blair Witch Project, and the other found footage films where people were forced to be savvy to extend the budget and squeeze every ounce of juice of what they had in front of them.
Itâs a slow burn, it takes a while to get to the actual horror aspects of the movie. So if you are a horror fan, but do not want something that builds up, skip this one. Also skip if you want your mind to be blown by an amazing original story. But if you enjoy creative experiments and good use of sound design and technical skills, watch in the theater.
Last thing, when editing stereo audio tracks, the right and left sound usually mirrors one another. We felt like this was intentionally used in the camera work. They used mirrors a few times where it felt like we were bouncing from the left to the right of rooms/the house, mirroring each otherâŚbut slight offâŚlike one was showing reality and the other was showing horrifying things that looked like reality, blurring what was real and what wasnât.
Want to know more about our individual rankings of movies?
Follow us on Letterboxd:
@justjoshperez
@ericharrison
@kellyharrison
@newmexicodrew
In The Grey by Guy Ritchie
We finally got a trailer for the latest Guy Ritchie flick. I love Guy Ritchie films. And what I mean by âI love Guy Ritchie filmsâ is that Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels changed my movie-watching brain chemistry and Iâve been chasing a high that I have yet to feel since my first Snatch viewing. I have not loved his latest movies, but I continue to show up for my Guy, hoping he will deliver a cinematic rush that will have me evangelizing Ritchie films again.
This one has some of his recent usual suspect collaboratorsâHenry Cavil, Eiza Gonzalez, and Jake Gyllenhaalâbut In The Grey is introducing his first team up with Rosamund Pike who is an absolute scene stealer. When sheâs called, she delivers. The history books will read one day about how humanity has made some grave mistakes, and one of them being not giving her the Oscar for her performance in Gone Girl.
I donât want to hype this one up too much. I want to keep the expectations low. But I canât help myself. Iâll be there opening day with my gold pan expecting to find precious minerals, with a good chance of being the fool who falls for another mid movie BUT if Mr. Ritchie happens to read this, know if I am anything, I am loyal.
When a ruthless despot steals a billion-dollar fortune, a covert team of elite operatives who live in the global shadows, as comfortable wielding power and influence as they are automatic weapons and high explosives, is sent to steal it back on what would be for anyone else a suicide mission. What begins as an impossible heist gets much worse, spiraling into an all-out war of strategy, deception and survival.
Also Directed by Guy Ritchie:
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Snatch (2000)
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)
Race, Religion, and Science Fiction: Co-Created Learning, unEssays, and the Power of Film #70
đ§ Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
đĽ Watch this episode on YouTube
Josh interviews Patrick DâSilva, PhD, about his graduate special-topics course âRace, Religion, and Science Fiction,â developed from an upper-level âReligion and Science Fictionâ class and expanded to foreground race alongside gender, sexuality, and disability through units on Lord of the Rings, Star Wars/Star Trek, Indigenous Futurism, Afrofuturism/Africanfuturism, cyberpunk (including Neuromancer), monsters (Frankenstein), and Jediism as a fiction-based religious movement.
Patrickâs Substack/podcast project âWorlds Beyond Worldsâ is now live, where he will publish interviews with students about their projects.
Patrick launched his Podcast, and has been writing the occasional essay, on his Substack Worlds Beyond Worlds!
WBW: Home for explorations of how religion, race, and speculative fiction (sci-fi and fantasy) all intersect to create different visions of how to be human.
Patrick J. DâSilva writes about spaceships and dragons (among other things) at Worlds Beyond Worlds. An Islamicist specializing in Persian Sufism by training, he has taught in Philosophy and Religious Studies departments at several universities in Colorado. He lives in Boulder, CO, with his family.
Episode two of his current series interviewing students about the course and their final projects drops today. And I am one of the students in episode 2! If you are reading this after 6 AM MST, it should be populated below :)
Tune in next week for | Project Hail Mary
Follow us on:
Instagram: @_sweetandcondensed_
TikTok: @SweetAndCondensed
Youtube: @SweetAndCondensed