We're back for our first full-length episode as we peel back the layers of reality TV's latest sensation, Vanderpump Villa. We scrutinize the show's evolution from the authentic drama of early Vanderpump Rules to the current, more orchestrated chaos. We share our hate of the Villa's villains, Marciano and Eric, and weigh them against the unforgettable Jax Taylor.
Then, for the second half of the episode, we're giving you our full review of the dark Korean film, "Exhuma." We recount the film's gripping narrative, complete with exorcists, geomancers, and funeral directors caught in a web of the supernatural. Spoilers are part of the package, as we reveal the dire consequences of defying the supernatural's sacred laws.
Watch out for new episodes every Sunday, wherever podcasts are found. Until next week!
We're back for our first full-length episode as we peel back the layers of reality TV's latest sensation, Vanderpump Villa. We scrutinize the show's evolution from the authentic drama of early Vanderpump Rules to the current, more orchestrated chaos. We share our hate of the Villa's villains, Marciano and Eric, and weigh them against the unforgettable Jax Taylor.
Then, for the second half of the episode, we're giving you our full review of the dark Korean film, "Exhuma." We recount the film's gripping narrative, complete with exorcists, geomancers, and funeral directors caught in a web of the supernatural. Spoilers are part of the package, as we reveal the dire consequences of defying the supernatural's sacred laws.
Watch out for new episodes every Sunday, wherever podcasts are found. Until next week!
Welcome to High Low Brow, the show with high barotakes on lowbrow culture. I'm your one host, Amanda Scriver.
Speaker 2:And I'm your co-host, jimmy gilbert we're officially back.
Speaker 1:We're back, we are back and we've got a great show I think so yeah, I mean we're going to be talking about shit that we have been watching and I think we gave a little hints in the last episode, or intro episode, of what we're going to talk about this week do we want?
Speaker 2:want to start with Vanderpump Villa.
Speaker 1:I think we should start with Vanderpump Villa, because A we just watched the most recent episode which was episode 4.
Speaker 2:Yes, and.
Speaker 1:I think we have a lot of feelings.
Speaker 2:Especially compared to VPR.
Speaker 1:Let's not talk about VPR.
Speaker 2:Oh, I think we should talk about VPR.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean we can talk about VPR in the sense of how it relates to Vanderpump Villa, or? I just don't want to cross mingle.
Speaker 2:That's fair. I just wanted to be like Vanderpump. Villa feels like early seasons of VPR.
Speaker 1:It is so interesting because I've been seeing a lot of discourse on the internet, people having conversations about like what is it like? Should I spend my time watching this? Yes, you absolutely. Like. I was not sure. When I first saw the trailer, it was like I'm not sure.
Speaker 2:And when we first saw the like incredibly photoshopped poster.
Speaker 1:Okay, whoever is editing Lisa Vanderpump's photos needs to be arrested, because they're doing a terrible job. It looks like they're using a little bit of ai and photoshop what's the opposite of body dysmorphia?
Speaker 2:because it like, because lisa's got like j tits and her head is so tiny and yeah, it's like her again.
Speaker 1:We're, we're not body shaming of course not but it's like her waist is like snatched inward, she's got like barbie proportions yeah, it's weird and like her head just looks like a bobble head on top of like a random human body it's yeah no, but in spite of that in spite of all of that, we at least we didn't fall asleep while watching it at all.
Speaker 2:Ever, I don't think either of us you have.
Speaker 1:Well, I've never fallen asleep but yeah, I'm the, I'm the, you are the rogue sleeper yeah, you're always like you take so many naps, and it's like you do too.
Speaker 2:It's just while we're watching tv yeah, like a true old yeah, yeah, yeah but yeah, vanderpump villa.
Speaker 1:So here, here is my only sort of critique. Okay, and we, we can get into it, but like vanderpump villa seems heavily produced, heavily scripted, and like I just there's sometimes when I'm watching some of these scenes and I'm like this could have done without, like it could, it doesn't need as much of a heavy hand as it's having so what I feel it?
Speaker 2:personalities feel like early vpr, yes, but it's modern vpr editing. Where like with this bullshit, like we have to forgive tom sandoval storyline, yeah, where it's like no, just let things happen nobody wants to forgive tom sandoval.
Speaker 1:Stop making tom sandoval. Stop making Tom Sandoval happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah so the? I guess we should sort of give a rundown of the instead of being one of Lisa's like restaurants it's a villa.
Speaker 1:In like France. It's in France. Yeah, it's Chateau Roosevelt.
Speaker 2:That sounds right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, You're like I know what I'm talking about yeah, yeah, sounds good.
Speaker 2:You said that very confidently.
Speaker 1:Because I've watched the show. Thanks, listen.
Speaker 2:So all of the staff are people from stateside and they have been flown out.
Speaker 1:Except for the chef, yeah.
Speaker 2:The chef and the sous chef are both very French.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the chef and the sous chef are both very French. Yeah, and also the chef and the sous, like they are the two people who seem to actually have their shit together. Well, yeah, cause they're professionals yeah. My guess is that Lisa has some sort of like relationship with them. Perhaps this guy is going to come work at Wolf or something or something, cause, like he seems legit, the rest of this cast of characters.
Speaker 2:Questionable.
Speaker 1:Questionable. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that's a very good Like. Okay, marciano is giving straight up Jack's early seasons of VPR vibes.
Speaker 2:I yeah, yeah. I'm like Because, like like, there's two jack's characters, there's two number one guys there's yeah, and they're like now best friends they're best friends would you say so eric is the?
Speaker 1:eric is, yeah, the chateau manager. Would you say that, eric? If we're comparing them to like past cast, would eric be the Tom Sandoval?
Speaker 2:No, I think we were talking about this. I think they're both Jax Taylor. Okay, it's just. I think that Marciano has a little bit of Tom Sandoval in him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, yeah, I can see that.
Speaker 2:And I think that Eric has like a serial killer in him.
Speaker 1:Yes Cause didn't. I find?
Speaker 2:find that that newspaper article about how he had, like, beaten the shit out of this. I hadn't even remembered.
Speaker 1:I totally forgot about. So eric is like we, we do not stand eric in the bad, bad person. Well, like I think I not tweeted. I posted something on threads saying when you look up the definition of red flag in the dictionary, Marciano and Eric's photos are there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean also VPR started. Did it start before Me Too?
Speaker 1:Uh yeah, We'll have to fact check that. We'll fact check this, but I'm almost certain, because it just seemed like a different time.
Speaker 2:I was going to say like there was like, yes, tom, tom Schwartz, yeah, total misogynist, totally. So is Jax, so is Sandoval, like they do not like women. But that was kind of to be expected at the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think not to sort of go back to because we said we weren't going to talk about Vanderpump.
Speaker 2:Rules.
Speaker 1:But I feel like they kind of relate, yeah, yeah yeah. In this current season of Vanderpump Rules it seems like Tom Schwartz is trying, like he is still bad but he, like, has called, called like in in his own way, his own tom schwartz kind of way, has tried to call in sandoval.
Speaker 2:so you know, remember like bush era junior yeah, uh, where they were like we're not sure if he's evil or stupid. Yeah, it's like two sides of the same coin. Schwartz is the stupid side, sandoval is the evil side totally.
Speaker 1:I 100 see that and I think, like again, if you have to choose the lesser of two evils, you take shorts. Yeah, you're gonna take shorts because, like even jacks will do the valley in another episode when we start liking it but Jax is the same.
Speaker 1:Yeah, period hasn't changed at all and like maybe doesn't cheat on his wife as much yeah, and and that scene between Sandoval and Jax where they had to like introduce the valley. It was their intro or crossover episode, whatever it's like. It's like seeing two spider-mans point exactly like no, you, the veneer came off of sandvall.
Speaker 2:He's no longer has the moral high ground. It's like, oh, you were jacks the whole time yeah, vanderpump, let's go back Villa, Villa. So front of house staff does not have their shit together.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:I like Andre.
Speaker 1:Yeah, andre is like.
Speaker 2:He's one of the mixologists.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he Andre is like keeping it together, yeah.
Speaker 2:He cried in like the second or third episode because, like Lisa told him what a good job he was doing yeah See, he seems to be relatively like. The worst thing that he did was so far. So far was lisa told him to make sure that he knew how to use the coffee maker, and then he didn't know how to use the coffee maker totally I mean. But it's a fucking nespresso machine, so like yeah, I was dying. I'm just like bro, it's an espresso you put pot in, you press button, you're done yeah plug it in you've got this
Speaker 1:put some water in there I I feel really bad for telly oh telly so I feel like you can tell even in this you can tell you can tell yeah, you can tell in, like this latest episode, she is like going through it, and I mean that's fair, because the people that you're surrounded like you no matter what, and you would know this.
Speaker 2:Working in service I've never worked but you kind of absorb other people's energy oh my god, like there are people that you, like generally speaking, can't stand to work with because the vibes are off. And if you have somebody who the vibes are off with, they don't last for very long because usually they're let go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and in typical Lisa fashion, she seems to be siding with the problematic men at the villa, which is like I know. There has been discussions for years about how Lisa's a misogynist.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean. I also know that she has countless lawsuits against her for wage theft.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I think you know it's interesting because we've seen these conversations happen, we've seen the dialogue and everyone was always like Lisa Vanderpump is a queen.
Speaker 2:She's wonderful, she's one for the people.
Speaker 1:But she doesn't like women.
Speaker 2:She likes men a lot and will go out of her way to defend them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which is kind of gross.
Speaker 2:It's real, it's Sheena behavior.
Speaker 1:Well, I was gonna say, this is probably why Lisa really likes Lala. Yeah, yeah, lauren from Utah, she has had such a fall from grace. I mean here's the thing I was reading online today about Lala made a statement like she was doing her Amazon Live A gender reveal. No, no, no, no, no no. She didn't do a gender reveal.
Speaker 2:On Amazon Live.
Speaker 1:Did she do that?
Speaker 2:She did.
Speaker 1:Oh well, that was not what I was going to talk about. What I was going to talk about is that she just keeps talking about how like the finale, the reunion episode, how like she had to keep it real. And it's like lala, we have heard you, lala, lala.
Speaker 2:We have heard you say this 18 million times and literally, I will pay you money to shut the fuck up it's so on the subreddit, like the top, like top posts for the past week or so have all been like lala slander and and like the vibe with lala has always been hit or miss, yeah, but now is like firmly in the like she's a terrible person camp.
Speaker 1:I think it's because she has revealed herself to be a true producer pet. So, like they want to push a narrative, she'll take it and run with it.
Speaker 2:She wants to be the villain, and she's not afraid to be.
Speaker 1:Right, and if you're producing a reality television show, those are the type of people that you want to cast.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Because they bring drama, because they can carry a story and like For what it's worth, like if we did not have Lala through some of these seasons of Vanderpump, like what would we be talking about?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean like that's, it's the whole activating emotions, like it's what I say about Jax Taylor, it's what I say about Lala. It's like I seem like terrible people. They make wonderful TV.
Speaker 1:Yeah, people, they make wonderful tv. Yeah, and if we kind of swing that back to vanderpump villa, if we didn't have eric and marciano doing these fucking ridiculous ass things. Telly would have a lot less trauma, but also yeah I mean she'd have a lot less trauma if she was not on reality television. But hey, we all hate ourself in some way, in some way. No, but like, honestly, if we take those two away, what would this, what would the story, what would the episodes be?
Speaker 2:well, like at first. So I thought that the drama was going to be heather. Was it heather? I, the one who's dating marciano oh, I actually forget her name I do too, okay, but that hannah, I think it's an h name it's an h name so when she got really mad at one of the other cast members for like being on the same couch and like lounging with her legs open while her like well, marciano, who she formerly dated and now is maybe dating- but we don't.
Speaker 1:Well, they're fuck buddies now, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she like raised hell about it and it was like girl, yeah, like. But like I thought that that was going to be the drama, I thought she was just going to be an instigator about things.
Speaker 1:well, I've seen a lot of commentary online, which you've probably seen as well I'm not on villa talk I wasn't sure if they're talking about it in the subreddit.
Speaker 2:No, they're not Okay, they're like fucking. Yeah, I'm not on that one yet I should be.
Speaker 1:Fine, but what I have been the word on the street is that when they were casting, it's like she fits that Stassi sort of character from season one of Vanderpump Rules.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, which like A little racist and like bossy sort of yes, character from season one of Vanderpump Rules, yes, yeah, which like a little racist and like a little racist you're like. I stand by that yeah, I mean we'll see.
Speaker 1:I mean to be fair, she did. She was being pretty fucking terrible to telly yeah, yeah, so we're just, we're just making observations.
Speaker 2:We're just saying things that we see.
Speaker 1:Allegedly racist.
Speaker 2:So, as somebody who comes from a service background, this most recent episode drove me fucking nuts.
Speaker 1:It drove me fucking nuts too.
Speaker 2:It's different because they are living on premise and like that is a different dynamic. And how do you separate like work life balance? You kind of don't I assume it's a similar thing to like below deck, but like they were, eric was walking around criticizing telly while he was not in uniform and I'm like, bro, you're not working, you need to shut the fuck up well, allegedly he had been working since 6 30 am. Well, then you, you should be in your uniform if you've been working since 6 am okay, but also my, my gripe.
Speaker 1:So you brought up about like you know, they live on site, they're also serving these people when he sort of gave a half-naked lap dance to the trans woman yeah, oh god, what was her name?
Speaker 2:I can't remember.
Speaker 1:Can't remember either but anyways, I get that you are like I'm gonna make the the people who are staying here have the best time. I'm sorry, but that's not.
Speaker 2:That doesn't I'm gonna give this woman the authentic woman experience by assaulting her yeah, I mean to be fair.
Speaker 1:She did seem pretty into it okay, sure, but like I I think I looked over at you and I was like ah, eric's a chaser and like I don't think.
Speaker 2:I think he's one of those people who are like look, look, how good an ally I am by like it's giving wow, you're so pretty I could barely tell you're trans. It's like just call me a tranny.
Speaker 1:Like shut the fuck up that's not the compliment that you think it is. I mean, okay, let's okay. Now that we've sort of gone full in, would you recommend that people watch it 100%?
Speaker 2:if you like chaos and don't mind heavy production, like in the most recent episode, they were doing a who do you think doesn't deserve to be here.
Speaker 1:It's so produced yeah, it's very produced, I think I agree. I would recommend people watch it, especially if you have felt like this current season of vanderpump rules is not giving in any sort of way it scratches the vpr edge. Yeah, it's like oh, this is, this is what I want. I, yeah, I want messiness is it as good?
Speaker 2:oh, this is what I want. I want, messiness. Is it as good as?
Speaker 1:Scandival no, but what is? Yeah, so it's on Disney+. It comes out every Monday, every Monday First four episodes have dropped.
Speaker 2:They did a big three-episode premiere because two-episode premieres are so out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean like so that's what we're going to be watching on.
Speaker 2:Mondays it's firmly in our schedule that's our Mondays.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's our Mondays. Maybe we will talk about it again. We probably will if something happens, if something happens when something happens when something happens, but I think we should talk about the film that we were alluding to in our last episode. Can we talk about Exuma? We can talk about exuma. We can talk about oh my god, exuma do you want to explain to the people what exuma is?
Speaker 2:so amma came home and was like I saw this preview and it looks like the kind of shit we would watch the trailer. And it's just these they are. They seem to be exorcists of some kind and they're exhuming a body and the biggest thing is it's a korean film. Yeah, I was like when we were watching I was like, oh my god, they remembered that. Like, korean films are awesome. I'm so glad that this is like. People are talking about this.
Speaker 1:This is a great, yeah, I, I think so. It's entirely in korean, it's two and a half hours two and a half hours long.
Speaker 2:Uh it, okay. Can we say spoilers now?
Speaker 1:yeah, I think we could, if you're gonna listen to to this.
Speaker 2:Stop it right now and just go watch it, please.
Speaker 1:But in order to give you the full experience, we need to sort of spoil something.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. It starts off with somebody who's a medium she's a medium right and she gets hired by this rich guy who's like, hey, my dad, me and now my baby are all being plagued by this like supernatural thing. And she's like, ah shit, okay, here we go again. Yeah, she brings in her geomancer buddy who goes around korea and finds like, what good plots of land are left for burying people that like feng shui properly? Yeah, and they go and they're like cool, let's do this.
Speaker 1:And the the rich guy is super cagey about it yeah, the rich guy who hires this team is kind of like okay, but if we like exhume the body, we gotta get like we gotta burn it right away cremated immediately. Do not open it yeah, and you know the geomancer, and the geomancer had his sort of side skit, sidekick who's?
Speaker 2:a priest? Yeah, he's a priest or funeral director, funeral director yeah, who is he's sort of like?
Speaker 1:ah, that's against the law, like we can't really just do that yeah, so they things start off pretty sketchy.
Speaker 2:It's also established from the get-go hey, ghosts are real, the supernatural is real. This isn't a scam. We may be taking these rich fuckers for a ride, but this is real. So they, they, they get on the site and the gm answers me like we gotta get the fuck out of here, guys. Yeah, the vibes. Vibes are not immaculate yeah, and and immediately.
Speaker 1:It's like from that point on it just sort of builds like I was already invested yes and then the, the medium.
Speaker 2:She's like hey, we can do this ritual like this. And the gm answer is like in theory that works. Yeah, like no one's ever done that.
Speaker 1:Yeah kind of.
Speaker 2:I guess we could do it that way and then they did actual magic on screen and it was fucking great yeah.
Speaker 1:So they did that and then it kind of works. But oh no, it works no.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:What I'm trying to allude to the people is that it just gets worse Every, every single fucking time.
Speaker 2:So it's like four acts. Yeah, I think there's seven chapters in it. Yes, so like the first one, they exhume the body. The grave diggers are still on site and like they're digging around trying to find something. One of them finds a snake and kills and kills it because he's like that, doesn't look like a normal snake and has a human head yeah, and then shit gets weird. Yeah, it starts pouring.
Speaker 1:They're like we can't cremate him on a rainy day yeah, and it's interesting because some of like the, the guy who was digging the grave, yeah, he gets very sick. Yep, and I thought maybe this is I'm like racism, but I thought they were sort of alluding to covid. Oh, interesting, yeah, like that's not what I got at all no, I mean, I think it was you know I think we're just hyper vigilant of any illness yes, people come down suddenly mysterious illness
Speaker 1:yeah yeah, so that's why I got, and then I, but anyways, yeah but so they're like okay, cool, we can't open this fucking thing.
Speaker 2:Also, we can't crema item, so we're gonna bring him to the hospital yes don't open it. So they the funeral director pays a bunch of money to this guy to store it in the cold storage at the morgue at the hospital. They all go get some food and then the guy that they paid opens the fucking casket.
Speaker 1:And it starts a whole cycle of madness. Oh my God.
Speaker 2:Everything like, and that's like the first 45 minutes to an hour of the movie?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what I mean. Is that like, in terms of it being like two hours, two and a half hours? It's sort of like the pacing was really good in the sense that one thing would happen and then you're like, oh, we're coming up to like not a resolve, but some, and then they would build on that, and then they would build and that tension just kept rising the stakes just kept getting higher and higher and higher.
Speaker 2:Eventually, they have to like exercise, the like embodiment of japan yeah, I like it's wild it is like if you are into like korean history and like if you think that japan really fucked up by occupying korea surprise, you'll like this you will love this film it's interesting too, because when we walked out I don't want to smile too much, but when we walked, out. I don't want to smile too much.
Speaker 1:But when we walked out we both thought we were like that was the best film we've seen all year.
Speaker 2:Easy Like that, that, now that we have had some breathing room, I was like I'm going to say this is better, Like this has edged out Hereditary as my favorite horror movie.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, that's, that's huge.
Speaker 2:It's huge.
Speaker 1:Like this is on par with like, quite on, and like this is top top three movies of all time yeah, and I think there's something to be said about korean filmmakers who do like horror or suspense or thrill, like they're always good.
Speaker 2:Well, I feel like we've as like Western as Western. We have just been so fetishizing specifically Japan. It's the model minority myth, because everybody's just been focused on like Japan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think also Western America. You know white people in general, we have a difficult time looking outside of our own country to see like what's actually good 100%. We're like, oh, they're not speaking English, I'm not watching it. But the fact is is that so many films where there's no English dialogue to be had are fucking incredible, Usually better than Western film, yeah, so I think that's sort of the thing too. Is that, you know, just taking a chance on a film like this?
Speaker 2:I'm not sure that it's having a full north american release I would be very surprised if, like an a24, didn't try to pick it up, though yeah, I.
Speaker 1:I mean I think that's also what we talked about when we left was we were like, if a24 doesn't pick this up, I would, we would be shocked, just just, yeah, no but I think that also gives a better.
Speaker 2:If you are a fan of a24 films, you will love this yeah, it's further, further spoilers, but my favorite letterboxd review was uh, korean ghostbusters beat a ghost with a wet stick. Yeah, um, which is legitimately it.
Speaker 1:We don't have to say anything that's it, yeah, that's it you know. So yeah, I think I immediately afterwards, like I know you, went and read letterbox reviews. I just went on threads and was seeing people were talking about it. Literally every single person who has seen this film has been like this is the best film.
Speaker 2:Go see it I I am shocked at, like the reviews that I've been seeing. It is not receiving critical acclaim. It is get like letterbox. It was like a 3.6 on rotten tomatoes. It was like, oh god, I think it was like high audience score, very low critic score oh, that's right.
Speaker 1:I remember you showing me that, yeah, and I was like this doesn't make any sense this is a like a fantastic film yeah, of course.
Speaker 2:So I think, this deserved to win over anatomy of a fall oh, that's no question.
Speaker 1:Like when, at the beginning I think of anatomy of a fall it said that it was like chosen as like the film for cons, and I was like, okay, clearly we're not conning us we are not film people apparently we're Exuma people this was the first episode back this was the first episode back.
Speaker 1:Because we're weekly, we're going a little shorter but I mean, I feel like we talked about so much yeah, we did, yeah, we did, and it was good and hopefully you enjoyed it. And then between this week and next week you'll go and watch Exuma.
Speaker 2:Yeah, please, if you haven't already go watch it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we would love to hear what you think. I mean not to throw immediately to the things and where you can find us, but, as we've stated so many times before, we have a voicemail box. You can find it in our link on bio, on Instagram threads, tiktok, and our handle for all of those is at highlowbrowpod. We want to hear from you what did you think of this film, what do?
Speaker 2:you think about.
Speaker 1:Vanderpump Villa. What do you like? We want to know that we are not in here alone thinking the things that we're thinking.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm sorry I got distracted because I was trying to find out where you can go watch Xuma. It's got very, very limited screenings. There is a couple in Toronto.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you're all resourceful people, not that we're telling you to use a VPN or download anything but yeah.
Speaker 2:You'll figure it out. You'll figure it out, you're smart.
Speaker 1:You can do what you want, we believe in you.
Speaker 2:We believe in you. This has been your affirmations with River and Emma.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell the people. I know I already shouted out our social handles. Tell the people where else they can find they can also find us on our website.
Speaker 2:Uh, high, low brow podcom. Yep, you can go to our link in bio. Do we use link by or do we use?
Speaker 1:we use one of the links I mean, even if you just say go to our link in bio it, it means it's the same thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a kleenex. Yeah, you can find a place to leave as a voicemail. You can find a place to rate the podcast. Um, we've got four seasons. I'm on last season, more professional people are on the ones before that, so you got a huge backlog to catch up on. Yeah, but if that's really intimidating, you also don't need to and we're just happy you're here and we will see you next week we'll see you next week.
Speaker 1:We'll see you next week.