Lived It

Main: Would you survive a Jurassic Park-style apocalypse?

Episode Summary

Premiere pick Love and Monsters, 90s blockbusters, and Australian dogs who double as action heroes. Plus all the ways to survive the apocalypse in this episode with Alexei Toliopoulos and Gen Fricker.

Episode Notes

Tell us what dog we should get for the pod at @netflixanz on Instagram and Twitter, or tag #thebigfilmbuffet.

Episode Transcription

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I'm out day one. I'm one of the first to go in an apocalypse. Absolutely.

Gen Fricker:

I feel like I'm one of the ones that snap at the end.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

So you think you'd be one of the crazies that people come across, for one seed out of the wild?

Gen Fricker:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They think I'm dead. And then the whole time I've just been eating grubs in the mud. I'm just like, "Yeah, this is where I belong."

Gen Fricker:

Hello. I'm Gen Fricker.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And I'm Alexei Toliopoulos.

Gen Fricker:

Welcome to The Big Film Buffet.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

A podcast for pop culture fans and people looking for what-to-watch recommendations.

Gen Fricker:

And today, we're serving up our main course, where we recommend you a Netflix film for you to watch this weekend.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And of all the films out this weekend, this is what we think you should spend your time on. It's a movie called Love and Monsters.

Movie trailer:

I'm sorry.

Movie trailer:

God. Where have you been, Joel?

Movie trailer:

We have to go right now. Say your goodbyes, get in the car.

Movie trailer:

I have to go.

Movie trailer:

Maybe you should come with us.

Movie trailer:

No. My mom's waiting. I'm sorry.

Movie trailer:

Get in the car. Aimee, you need to hurry home now.

Movie trailer:

I want you to have this.

Movie trailer:

What? This is Crocodile Girl, it's your good luck charm.

Movie trailer:

Be careful.

Movie trailer:

You too, Aimee. I love you.

Movie trailer:

I love you too.

Movie trailer:

I'm going to come find you.

Movie trailer:

You better.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

So Love and Monsters is a new movie from director Michael Matthews. What it is basically is a blockbuster-style dystopian future with creatures crawling around. The world has had a natural and innatural disaster. And now there are survivors out there, feeling lonely, looking to connect, but there are giant creatures keeping them all apart.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. It has real shades of quarantine life to be very honest.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

It's kind of like quarantine lifestyle meets Jurassic Park meets Little Rascals meets a touching nod of Stand By Me.

Gen Fricker:

I love this film because it's a really, really well-done monster movie with some legit jump scares and stuff, all centred around quite a cute and lovely love story. A kind of teen rom-com.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah. It's this really cool genre hybrid. I think what excites me most about this movie, it really does feel like it has been a fricking minute since we've got something like this. How rare is it to have an original, not based on anything in particular, blockbuster-style movie at this kind of mid-budget range. Which allows us for some exciting experimentation, some new kind of monster designs while still being completely touching with this really sweet love story right at the centre of it. It feels very much like they've captured this 1990s vibe like that blockbusters had back then.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah, for sure. It really reminds me of the original Jurassic Park in that way that you were kind of discovering the world as the characters in it are discovering the world and the rules of the world and that kind of thing. It definitely feels like it could be franchised, but this is such a strong stand-alone movie. And it's really fun. Like if you're looking just for a fun watch this weekend with your mates, with someone you love, or just by yourself, this is super, super fun. The creatures in this.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

The creatures. My lord, we have to talk some creatures in this. Because I think you hit it on the head when you mentioned Jurassic Park because it has almost a new take on that Spielbergian wonder. So many of modern blockbusters when we have a giant creature where we get this sense of scale sure, but we don't get this sense of seeing something completely new and fresh. The way the movie does this, is we follow the protagonist Joel, played by Dylan O'Brien, that we know from the Maze Runner as he kind of leaves his shelter for the first time in nearly a decade to go on a journey to meet his ex-girlfriend. Who he's been separated from for the entire time of this ongoing apocalypse. And he's seeing a lot of these big creatures for the first time. And their designs are fantastic because they're all based on actual animals in our regular earthly environment that have been mutated and grown out into ginormous, gargantuan, Leviathan-like versions of snails, of dogs, of little grublets and stuff like that.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And so when he sees them for the first time, they really do capture this sense of, Oh, I'm seeing something completely fricking new, completely crazy both of that world and familiar to us in just that tiniest sense. I think it's really, really fricking cool.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. And I feel like so often monster movies really work hard to justify why they exist by trying to throw in some kind of angle. Like, Oh it's a metaphor for X, Y, Z. It isn't trying to sell you an ideology or whatever. It's just like... this is just going to be a fun monster movie, really charming actors. Like you said, Joel played by Dylan O'Brien is just a real quintessential, 90s character. He's just the kind of schlubby, nutty guy who met a girl, lost the girl, and he's trying to get her back.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I think one of the things that reminds me of the 90s was, we've kind of come full circle with this now where the nerd is the hero. And I think in a lot of 90s action blockbusters, they kind of started slowly doing that. People like Nicholas Cage kind of played the nerd in The Rock and then he slowly evolves to doing Con Air, a year later, and then all the way with Face/Off. And then weirdly Nicholas Cage is like the action star of the 1990s. And that kind of was the way things went. It was like, you started a nerd, then you become this action hero. And now we're seeing the action hero, literally in this movie, starting as a nerd, that's what his skill set is. That he learns what the weaknesses are of these monsters.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Very much Pokemon-vibe styles of how he has to go out in the world and eventually puts this handbook together of how to tackle all these monsters and the best way to fight them, to beat them. But it's done in a way that's very sweet because I think part of the charm is these monster designs are interesting. They're not just freaky. They are made to have a sense of warmth to them as well. That's kind of part of the journey of this movie is understanding what these creatures are. Which I think is very rare for this type of film to have this kind of complexity. To what the creatures are in a way that is kind of fun as well, without it being too much of a downer or too much of a scary film.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. It feels, at the heart, it's not a cynical film. I will say what you were saying about the nerd main character. I feel like it's absolutely nerd propaganda, to be honest. To be like, Oh yeah, we're going to make him the centre of this action-adventure movie, a guy who can't fight. And his real strength is that he can draw monsters and notice things. It's like, yeah, of course, a nerd wrote this. My biggest strength is that I can't fight. Shut up, nerd.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

My biggest strength is that I can't fight and I can observe things in the wild, okay. I'm a wonderful observer.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. I listen.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

But I guess that's like the fantasy. It's like, Yes, I will be able to survive the apocalypse because all the skills that I've learned in my real, regular life have prepared me for it. And I don't believe that I would, I'm out day one. I'm one of the first to go in an apocalypse. Absolutely.

Gen Fricker:

I feel like I'm one of the ones that snap at the end.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

So you think you'd be like one of the crazies that people come across, like for one seed out of the wild?

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. Yeah. They think I'm dead. And then the whole time I've just been eating grubs in the mud. I'm just like, Dude, this is where I belong. I always feel in stressful situations, I really feel like it's a fifty-fifty for me where I'm like, I'm going to hold it together. I'm going to get through this. I'm going to be strong for everyone. Or, I'm the other person that just runs out the door and is like woo. We're all dead. Fend for yourselves.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I'm trying to think how I could possibly survive. Like what skills I have to bring to apocalypse survival. I know film knowledge, I don't think is going to cut it. Especially if there's no electricity, the best I'll be like, "Hey, do you remember that one scene in like The Blues Brothers? That was awesome, hey." That will be so annoying. At one point I'm too much of a gourmand to go out there and like gobble up grubs from the dust.

Gen Fricker:

See, I was thinking you'd be a great chef. Much like the main character Joel in this, who is the chef of the people in his bunker. You'd be the Joel man.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I would love to be the Joel. But I think my nose would be too far upturned to possibly grill a grub.

Gen Fricker:

You'd never grill a grub?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I want to put it on the record right now. Alexei Toliopoulos will never, dare I say never, ever grill a grub.

Gen Fricker:

Okay. What would you grill though? Like old baked beans that you found in the shelter?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah, I would just put the can on the grill whole and just hopefully it heats it up on the inside. When you ask me what I would grill, I had a visceral thought of me grilling a rat. And I guess I would try it. That's what it's come down to. I had a deep moment where I looked into my soul for one half of a second and I saw myself, yep I'm going to do it. I'm going to fricking remake Ratatouille, but we're not sitting with Ratatouille at the end.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. I was going to say, you're going to reverse Ratatouille.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah. The rat controls me from the inside.

Gen Fricker:

Oh my God. I mean, the only thing I've got is that I'm kind of strong. I could carry some stuff.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

If it happened right now in the studio, if everything outside this world started crumbling, would you piggyback me to safety?

Gen Fricker:

That I could do. There'd be no nobility in it. That's the other thing. I'm not like a hero that could be like, I'm doing this for the good of everyone and for the community, I'd be like, Wow, okay. You've got 90s hero hair I would say, Alexei. He's got a kind of tousled side part.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Oh my lord. Thank you so much.

Gen Fricker:

Which I feel like is a strength that you are not picking up on for yourself.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I think that might be my curse though, that my hair is too good. I do admit it. It's my greatest asset in this world that I have fabulous hair. Okay? And don't look at the podcast cover you're listening to right now, it was a bad hair day for me that we did the photo shoot, okay. And I think about it every fricking day, go onto my Instagram. Look at some of the better gorgeous shots of me and you'll see how gorgeous my hair actually is. And probably would cut it shorter if we were in an apocalyptic world because it would make me look too strange. Because I have like Zeus Grecian, god-hair. And then I'm a little nugget man underneath it all.

Gen Fricker:

I mean, I would welcome the apocalypse and I did get into this a bit during lockdown. I was very keen for the Mad Max-style haircuts that we were all going to get. You know what I mean? I dipped into cutting my own hair during the [inaudible 00:10:58] and I didn't go crazy with it. You know what I mean? I just gave myself some curtain bangs and I took some length off the ends, but I do feel like it'll be fun to just start getting clippers and just shaving down one side of my head or having a horse mane, you know what I mean? Don't you reckon that would be exciting?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

That's a real fantasy of mine to just one day go nuts and shave my head. I think it's because I read an interview probably 15 years ago with Hugh Jackman. And he said that when he shaved his head for The Fountain and he had a shower right after, he said it was the best feeling he's ever had in his life.

Gen Fricker:

What? Why? Because it just felt so good on his head?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

He said it felt cold and rippled through his scalp. But then if you shave your head in like this apocalypse world, you're not going to have a shower. The grime will just go straight onto the head.

Gen Fricker:

We were speaking earlier about the monsters, the titular monsters. The team behind it, an Australian team, who worked on this film has copped an Oscar nomination.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah. This is for Best Visual Effects. Right?

Gen Fricker:

I don't know. You know, sometimes you watch a film and you're like, that's clearly a puppet. That's clearly a man's hands just in some felt or whatever, like waving about. Or the other one is Oh, that is absolutely just completely CGI, very loosey-goosey, no weight or interaction with like the real world that it's meant to be set in, right. It does perfectly blend these characters. Like it feels really real and it really took me back to watching those films. I want to say like NeverEnding Story. Even though now I look at that and I go, Jim Henson, workshop creatures, but it really took me back to, Wow, this is what film is able to do. Just make you not sure what is real and what isn't.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Absolutely. I agree. I think part of it is that there is this slight cartoonish quality to the designs, which kind of sits in a conversation if you will, with the actual physical actors in the scenes. Like that perfect amount of suspended belief to just buy into what these creatures are because it's not completely realistic. So you're not going to be caught off guard by anything that feels too reaching beyond like Ah, too uncanny because they're designed in such a specific way to not even enter that conversation at all. I think as well, aesthetically, the world that they create in this film, it's really fascinating. It's really cool because it's set in America, but kind of this nameless part of America, but it's filmed here in Queensland. And I really do love seeing Australia be used as a fantasy world because there's so many interesting trees and so much interesting wilderness and wildlife here in Australia. That making it set in America, but filmed in Australia, it gives it this kind of perfect alien world. Like the wilderness has completely changed from when this cataclysmic event happened.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Because it's so often New Zealand or somewhere that feels completely exotic. The way that Australia is used here as this backdrop of this fantasy world is really nice, exciting. Australia has the most unique sunlight captured on film. It's really warm. It's really golden. And seeing it used for a movie like this, a blockbuster fantasy film is very exciting to me.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. I know. It's funny. Isn't it? It's like, you know how you'd watch a movie on TV on a Saturday night, Friday night movie and they'd be starring Australia's Hugh Jackman and it's such a silly parochial thing. But whenever I see movies and it has nothing to do with Australia, but it's clearly shot in Australia or it's got Australian actors being American. I'm like, Yeah, that's us.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Please watch Love and Monsters starring Australia's Australia. It also stars another Australian in this movie. I'm talking about this dog. The dog in the movie, we're getting back to our pets-on-sets thing here. The dog is superb in this film. Our character Joel comes across this dog that's kind of living by itself for a long time, found its own way in the apocalypse after its former master has disappeared. And this is a wonderful canine performance. One of the greats in recent years, since Uggie sadly passed away. I thought that this might have been Red Dog, but it's not Red Dog.

Gen Fricker:

It is a wonderful performance though, by this dog. I've never thought I'd be speaking so much about animals in movies. And I'm so glad that this podcast came along. I love that first scene between the dog and Joel. And it's just a one-sided conversation between a man and his pet. And I was watching it thinking like, God, this really could have not worked as a scene. A man talking to a dog, asking it questions, and reading reactions from an animal that has no concept of language. It could so easily not work and come across as really cheesy or really forced. But it's just another part of this very lovely film, that works. What I like about it is it's not trying to be anything bigger than what it is, but what it accomplishes is excellent. It's still really great.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

It's very heartwarming. And it's exciting that it uses that apocalyptic imagery that is so entwined in apocalypse popular culture now, of this image of a boy and his dog. Which goes back to Harlan Ellison, the great sci-fi author wrote a story called A Boy and His Dog. I think it's always been used as this idea of humankind and canine-kind are together in this world together. They are allies to the end. And I think it's used in a very sweet and sincere way where this red dog, this Kelpie joins Joel on this journey. You see their friendship blossom and then the dog is so kind to all the other survivors out there in the world.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. It makes me wish I had a dog. Should we get a podcast dog?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

We got to get a pod-dog, dude.

Gen Fricker:

A pod-dog.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

We've got to get a little pod-dog.

Gen Fricker:

Or at least let's start interviewing dogs on the pod.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Oh, we got to bring a dog on the pod. That's finally it, if I have a week off where I get sick or something, we got to get a dog to replace me on the pod.

Gen Fricker:

For a really long time, I just wanted to do a podcast. And it was just for people's animals that were at home while people went to work. And it's just me just being like, Hey. Hey, what are you doing? What are you doing?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I think we got to release this. This is our first nine-hour smack episode where Gen and I talk to dogs.

Gen Fricker:

What breed of dog would we get for the pod, do you think?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I'm a bit afraid of animals. So I think you need to pick a dog that will be gentle with me to bring me into a dog world.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah. Bro, can I be very honest with you? I got bit by a dog last week and now I'm very [inaudible 00:17:51]. This movie is great because it really suspended my disbelief that animals can just turn on you for no reason. But there are some good animals.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Exactly. And that's what the heartwarming tale of this Love and Monsters is all about. It's not just about monsters. It's equally about love.

Gen Fricker:

Love.

Gen Fricker:

Getting back to the set of this film. The bunker design as well felt so great to me. Like it felt equal parts lived in, but also for sci-fi, you know what I mean?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yes. I agree.

Gen Fricker:

All these kinds of relics of people's lives that they've just kind of recovered from scavenging over like a decade.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I agree. And I think it does this great mix. I think that's a great point to hit on the genre-hybridity of this film is that it simultaneously does all that core sci-fi lived-in stuff. But it does it through this thing that I'm personally fascinated with at the moment of the idea of teen bedrooms on film. Because so much of a character has to come from the space they live in. And part of this apocalypse is that all these young people are in this state of arrested development. They're all still young. They're all still trying to find their place because they've been stuck in this world, living in their teenage bedrooms, trying to look out into the past. And I think the way that this film construct those rooms, works in exactly the same way those teen bedrooms do to show someone's personality. Show their state of life through their space.

Gen Fricker:

I mean, it wouldn't be a film pod without me asking you about some extremely niche actor that no one's probably ever noticed in a movie before, except you Alexei?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

There's some great character actors in this movie, of course. I love seeing a character actor be thrown into apocalyptic setting, but I'm going to give a big shout-out to Michael Rooker, who we know from stuff like Guardians of the Galaxy, who has already been in the apocalypse in The Walking Dead. He kind of plays this mentor figure for Dylan O'Brien's character, who he meets across in the wilderness. He's a survival expert. He's got a young daughter following him as well. And I think that I really like seeing Michael Rooker, who's got this really gruff, tough exterior take on a much more sensitive role like this. Like that tough love scenario where he's helping this guy through the world, but not taking it easy on him, but he is so sweet and kind. And I think Michael Rooker, who's done so many movies where he's played the bad guy, the heavy, the rough guy to go against that with this film and be very sweet in a tough world. Ah, man, it melts my heart a little bit. Big shout-out to Michael Rooker.

Gen Fricker:

Are you crying?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

No, I just feel tingly. I promise you, I'm not crying.

Gen Fricker:

Alexei, if people enjoyed this movie, what else should they watch?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

There's a movie that I'm a big fan of. It's been a bit of a discovery for me in the last couple of years. It is also a kind of rom-com meets apocalypse film. It's from 1988, it's called Miracle Mile and it's basically, two soulmates meet each other in Los Angeles at The La Brea Tar Pits. They instantly fall in love and they're meant to be, but then they are separated because the apocalypse starts happening. There's a countdown to nuclear war and it's like this mad rush. It's kind of funny and comedic, yet it's also truly a scary, exciting, and thrilling apocalypse movie. And it's all set on one night as it's all building up to a nuclear wasteland. It is very cool, Miracle Mile, check it out. You can find it somewhere online I'm sure. Gen, who do you think should watch Love and Monsters this weekend?

Gen Fricker:

Look, I'll be honest. Everybody should. No, I just think if you're after a fun watch, it's a PG movie, but it's also pretty fun at any age. You should watch this film this weekend. If you've got some time, if you feel like you just want something fun, that'll get you immersed in a different world. It'll stay with you for a while, I think. Just like the visuals of it, the world of it, the story, the acting it's all just so charming and so lovely. Absolutely get around Love and Monsters, which is out this weekend on Netflix.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And I'm right there with you. I think it's such a sweet blockbuster, absolutely worth your time. And you'll be touched by it as well, being freaked out by some cool creatures. It's a total recommend from me.

Gen Fricker:

And you know, a separate category of reviewing pets-on-sets, I would say it's five paws out of five.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I'm going to give it three and a half snouts.

Gen Fricker:

And if you enjoyed this podcast, subscribe to The Big Film Buffet on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a nice comment, a nice review.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And next Tuesday for us, next episode, we're going to be joined by Naomi Higgins from Why Are You Like This?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

This episode was hosted by me, Alexei Toliopoulos, and Gen Fricker.

Gen Fricker:

Produced by Michael Sun and Anu Hasbold.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Edited by Geoffrey O'Connor.

Gen Fricker:

Executive produced by Tony Broderick and Melanie Mahony.