Ep. 12: Best Of 2023 So Far

Alex and Lee discuss their favorite films, audio description tracks, and performances of 2023 so far.

Transcript

Lee Pugsley  
Hey what's up everyone, welcome back to Episode 12 of The Dark Room, where two blinds cinephiles illuminate the sighted. I'm Lee Pugsley.

Alex Howard  
I'm Alex Howard.

Lee Pugsley  
And we are the two legally blind hosts of this podcast for film lovers of all abilities. And this episode, I guess we could call it a mid-year check in, that we wanted to touch on our favorite films of 2023 so far, as well as talking about some of our most anticipated films. And now that they're out, how they measured up to our expectations. Alex, I'll kick it over to you and you can get us going. 

Alex Howard  
So we're gonna do alphabetical order, because we don't know if the order will change by the end of the year. So yeah, my first one was A Thousand and One, which I know is kind of under the radar for most people. It's spelled out "A Thousand and One". And right now it's streaming on Peacock. It's from Focus Features, and it kind of starts off like a basic mother struggling to take care of her son, kind of like A Pursuit of Happiness thing. But it turns into something very, very unique, and that I've never really seen in movies before. So I really enjoyed that storyline. And, you know, anytime you go to the movies and see something new, it's very rewarding, and I was not expecting it at all.

Lee Pugsley  
While it's not in my top five favorite films of the year, I do vouch for it. I think that the acting in it is excellent. The cinematography that I could make out is very beautiful. The score has a little bit of a jazzy feel. So all of those elements make it a really enjoyable watch. I will say that when I first started out with it, it seemed like you said Alex, just more basic, and I'm like, "Okay, what's all this hype about?" But as we got into it, especially in the third act without spoiling anything... Stick with it, I guess is what I would encourage viewers to do. Stick with it until the end, because the payoff, it's good. It really hits home.

Alex Howard  
Yeah, I think it's crazy that that kind of movie has stuck with me for this long. We'll see if it sticks with me by the end of the year, because it seems like we're gonna have a really strong last half. But yeah, we will see how it fares at the end.

Lee Pugsley  
Awesome. I guess I'll go ahead and jump in there. So my first film alphabetically is Air. I thought that Air was fantastic. It's one of those business negotiation dramas that could have easily been very boring because we know where it's going to end. And we know a lot of tropes of you know, the things that it took to get there. But it's still very compelling and it kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole thing. I think a huge part of that is due to Ben Affleck's excellent directing, and excellent performances by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Viola Davis, and the rest of the cast.

Alex Howard  
Yeah, I completely agree. Actually, Air is my next one as well. I think this is the year of product movies. And this is one of the first ones that came out for the year. We had this one, we had BlackBerry, we had Flamin' Hot. We're gonna have a Beanie Baby movie, a Barbie movie. This is the product movie year. 

Lee Pugsley  
And we can't forget Tetris as well.

Alex Howard  
And Tetris. Yes. And so I think Air was really, really well done. I think all the performances you said, I think the screenplay also. I will be shocked if that doesn't get a Screenplay nomination. I'm not sure if it's original or adapted. But it might be based on a book. But no, I think the writing for sure, really elevates the movie a lot, just like all of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's movies that they've written. I also think -- I'd like to get your thoughts on this, Lee -- I feel like Viola Davis, and in my opinion, Chris Tucker, might come back around for a potential award season talk later in the year.

Lee Pugsley  
I could see that happening. And I would be very happy if that's how things ended up. I just wonder if they're going to be able to stay in the conversation once we get into the second half of the year. But it is a strong possibility that they could make the cut. And once again, I would be really happy for them.

Alex Howard  
I also really admire that Amazon put this movie in theaters first, for a pretty good amount of time. I think it was in theaters for about a month before they put it up on Amazon Prime. So I really like that they're taking that approach to it.

Lee Pugsley  
And it was pretty successful in theaters too, which made me really happy. I also just wanted to comment on how enjoyable it was to see Ben Affleck and Matt Damon back together again and the scenes where they're bantering back and forth are so much fun.

Alex Howard  
Oh definitely. I think The Last Duel they were together, but they didn't have that banter like they normally do, because it was a much more serious movie. I also really loved Jason Bateman's character and his performance really touched me a lot. And then also, it was just funny, like the -- I can't remember -- Christmas scene, I think, the lawyer for Michael Jordan was really, really great. And I thought it was really interesting too how they didn't show Michael Jordan really much. He really didn't have any lines. Even though it was about him and his presence hung over the movie. I liked that they didn't show his character that much.

Lee Pugsley  
Yeah, because it wasn't really needed. You still very much felt his presence, like you said, in the movie, without him being a central character. And the fact that they were able to pull it off as well as they did, once again, I credit that to the screenplay, and the direction as well. 

Alex Howard  
Yeah. So, what is your number two, Lee, alphabetically?

Lee Pugsley  
So alphabetically, my number two would be Asteroid City. Now I know that this is a little bit of a polarizing movie, as I guess I would say most Wes Anderson movies are. I'm a big Wes Anderson fan. I wasn't really huge on Isle of Dogs, or The French Dispatch. So I enjoyed this movie, because it seemed it was Wes Anderson returning to more of his usual form, or the form that we as Wes Anderson fans have grown to love. It was quirky, it had a really fun bits of humor. It had one of the most stacked casts ever as his movies always tend to go that way. And it was a little meta, I will say, because it's like, without spoilers, once again, a play within a TV show within a movie. And I enjoyed the meta part of it. But I do think in general, nowadays, the meta thing just seems to appear in a lot more media. And maybe we could ease off of that a little. For this movie, though, it wasn't enough for it to be a deal breaker for me. What I really enjoyed most about Asteroid City was the humor, the performances, and I was personally a fan of the screenplay as well. So I don't know, for whatever reason it worked for me. It might be because, you know, I'm in the showbiz world in terms of like, the acting world, and watching the behind the scenes stuff going on is something I could relate to as well. But yeah, for whatever reason, it just really clicked for me.

Alex Howard  
That's really funny. I don't know why I, I thought I remember you saying you weren't a big fan at first.

Lee Pugsley  
I was always a big fan. It might have grown on me a little bit more, the more I thought about it. But yeah, from the moment I walked out, I was like, "Oh, that movie was great."

Alex Howard  
Okay. Yeah, for some reason, it didn't really click for me. I felt like, whenever a movie is met, especially as much as that movie was, I always feel like they have to earn it. And I felt like the movie started meta, like from the first minute. And I was just like, "Whoa whoa whoa," like, you know, I usually need to warm up to that. Also, the AD for me was pretty rough. I felt like, I don't know if you remember when they first start telling the story in the town, the AD said, "Stop motion." And so I was thinking the whole movie was going to be stop motion. But then I was like, "Wait, the actors look real. I don't think the actors are claymation or anything." So for a while, for most of the movie, actually, I was trying to figure out what was stop motion and what wasn't, it was kind of distracting. 

Lee Pugsley  
That's so interesting, because I didn't catch the stop motion thing. And so I wasn't even thinking about that through any part of the movie. I will comment on the audio description for the movie, though, and say that you really had to focus in on what was happening, because there are so many characters that are thrown at you so quickly. And if you zoned out for even a split second, you could be really confused about like, are we in the Real world? Are we in the Play world? Are we in the TV world? What world are we in? Are we in a flashback even? So it did take me a little bit of time to really latch on to the style of the movie, and how things were jumping back and forth so quickly, between all the different worlds. And the audio description did do a good job with that, I think, but it took me probably the first 20 to 25 minutes to really, you know, catch on to how this was going to go.

Alex Howard  
Yeah, I think that's probably where I lost it a little bit. Maybe I need to go back and see it again. But yeah, it didn't really click for me as much as it did for you the the first time at least.

Lee Pugsley  
Also, one of the other things in relation to that regarding the AD is, do you ever have those moments where you're watching a movie with AD that just has a lot of description, and then you end up zoning out? Because there's just so much talking the whole entire time? And then you check back in, and then you realize you missed a bunch of things?

Alex Howard  
Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. You like find yourself imagining what they're saying. And then they're like, Oh, I missed a little bit of dialogue or, right?

Lee Pugsley  
Yeah. Or even like action sequences, like yes, for example, in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, like there was a lot of audio description for the action sequences. I thought they did a really good job with it. But I found myself in certain moments, just kind of tuning out of the sequences they were describing, just because there was so much talking. To be clear, that's not the fault of the audio describer or the script. They need all that description in there. But it really just reminded me that as an AD user or consumer, we really have to focus sometimes and it does take a bit more effort to do that.

Alex Howard  
Yeah, I definitely need to train my brain a little bit to, especially in action scenes, kind of turn my brain off. And like only listen, not really watch and then kind of come back in once the action scene is done, especially if it's fast cutting.

Lee Pugsley  
100% agreed on that. Now what's next on your list? I guess this would be number three, you have A Thousand and One, Air, and then what's your third in alphabetical order?

Alex Howard  
So in alphabetical order, my third is Blackberry. A lot of people really praised this movie. I I absolutely love this movie. At first, I thought I liked it more than Air. I'm not really sure now because I have watched both of them twice. But I really, really loved the Blackberry. I thought the performances from Glenn Howerton and Jay Baruchel are awesome. I think I would love if their performances came back around at the end of the year for awards talk. I don't know if they can get Oscar noms because of their comedy roots. I don't know if the performance is strong enough to get them an Oscar nom. But they were so good. Glenn Howerton is almost unrecognizable. The script is great. I love that. It's almost a thriller, kind of, of how everything goes down. And once again, another product movie, but I feel like these product movies are so funny because you know how they end. Like with Air, you know, they made the deal, and with Blackberry you know iPhone comes in and kind of BlackBerries aren't around anymore. But it's still so intense. And it's so cool that even though you know the story, they tell it in a way where it's still intriguing. You're on the edge of your seats the whole time.

Lee Pugsley  
I agree with all of that. I think that BlackBerry, while it did not make my list, was a solid product movie. And Glenn Howerton and Jay Baruchel were fantastic. I don't know if BlackBerry was a big enough movie for them to make it into the acting races. I would be happy if that was the case. And I will say though, there's just something ever so slightly, that did not elevate it to the level of Air for me, and I can't really put my finger on what that was. Because I do think that there was a very intriguing premise, I think that there was a lot of intensity to the situations that they were in. And even some of the ways that the movie was filmed with kind of some of the shots of like coming from a doorway or down a hallway and looking into like an office or something, the way that the director chose to do that I really appreciated. So it was a good movie. But for whatever reason, it just slightly missed the mark for me. And I once again, don't know what that is.

Alex Howard  
And this is why movies are experiential events because Asteroid City missed it for me, BlackBerry missed it for you. 

Lee Pugsley  
But all that being said, I would still recommend BlackBerry to anyone, I think it's a very enjoyable watch. And maybe I would get more out of it watching it a second time.

Alex Howard  
Yeah, I feel like it was more towards Social Network than Air was in tone, if that makes any sense. Like Social Network was more of an intense ride. And I feel like Air was more of a comedy. Yeah. So what is your next one?

Lee Pugsley  
My next movie would be Past Lives, which is a simple film, yet it has a really beautiful level of authenticity and honesty, to the performances, to the relationship between the two lead characters, and there's just something that's very captivating about it. There's no real major drama in it or anything, but it gives moments a chance to breathe. It kind of reminded me a little bit of the Before trilogy, where it's just two people interacting with each other and going through life.

Alex Howard  
I love the Before trilogy, it's one of my favorite Trilogies or romantic movies ever. I liked Past Lives. It didn't hit me like it hit a lot of people, I see this in a lot of people's top five or top 10 of the year so far. I really sympathize or identified with the husband character. But I think beyond that, I don't know what it was. It just didn't grab me like other movies did this year. But it's really cool that it -- it was a great movie. And I do recommend it to people because I know a lot of people love it. And it wasn't a bad movie by any means. It just it didn't crack my top five so far. But that's awesome that you liked it so much.

Lee Pugsley  
And to keep it real, it doesn't necessarily reinvent the wheel. Like we've seen the stories about friendships that happen as kids and then they're reunited later in life. So that's a trope that hasn't been around for quite a while. I think it was just the way that they did. It really felt genuine. And I think that's really what connects with a lot of people is just the genuine sincerity of these two people that the movie centers around.

Alex Howard  
And to be fair, I think it's rare you see a movie about friendship with a boy and a girl. It's usually, when it's about a boy and a girl, it's usually a romantic movie. Usually the friendship movies are a boy and boy or a girl and girl. So I think it's really unique in that way.

Lee Pugsley  
Very true. So what your number for then?

Alex Howard  
So I think my number four at this point in the year is John Wick Chapter Four. I was just very, this is another one I saw twice. Very, very impressed with. I mean, you know what you're getting when you go into a John Wick movie. And somehow they still impress you, even though you know what it's supposed to be. And it's, you know, obviously the cinematography, the action, the description of the action, everything worked really, really well for me. And even though it was on the longer side, I never really got bored. It was just a really solid John Wick movie. And I think what's great about now, they kind of lean into the ridiculousness of it. Like, there's a scene where he's falling down stairs, and in a normal action movie, it'd be kind of like silly, which it was a little silly, there were some laughs in the audience. But it didn't take away at all from the action or the movie. It kind of, they lean into the silliness a little bit of it.

Lee Pugsley  
Indeed, they do. And, and I like the John Wick movies, because there's a level of self awareness to them. And they know exactly what they want to be, they commit to it fully. And then they just like, go for it. And the result is something very fast paced, very energetic, and a lot of fun with some of the best action sequences from any action franchise nowadays I would say. Also, the audio description of that movie was very good, too.

Alex Howard  
Yeah, I think like we mentioned in, in a previous episode, the overhead shot scene where he's going through the building was awesome with the description. 

Lee Pugsley  
Well, that's great that you liked it so much. I thought it was a solid movie. It almost made the cut, but barely missed by a slight margin. 

Alex Howard  
Well, what is your number for then?

Lee Pugsley  
So my number four is this small movie that very few people have talked about, but it's the Ray Romano movie, Somewhere in Queens, which he directed as well. And he also acted in it. And I just felt like, it was one of those family drama movies that I wasn't really expecting much from. And it really surprised me with how much heart it had and how much earnestness it had with all of the characters in the situations and struggles they were going through.

Alex Howard  
Yeah, see, this one was really, really good. It almost made mine, too. It was a great story and a great movie. But in my mind, I didn't think it did much to elevate it above other movies like it's kind. It didn't do anything special for me. But it was very well done, very well acted, very well written, all of that. It just didn't stand out to me very much. But it is a very, very solid movie.

Lee Pugsley  
And I think it does a really good job of capturing like, the Italian culture that this family is in. I do agree with you, though, that it didn't break any new ground and all the beats that you anticipate, play out mostly the way that you think they're going to. But you know, every so often, nice, good hearted family drama gets the job done. And then what's your fifth movie?

Alex Howard  
So my fifth movie is another small movie that not many people have seen, I don't think. It's called Spider Man: Across the Spider-Verse. And obviously, I'm being sarcastic. Funny enough, I did not love this movie as much as most people. I think I really struggled with the animation style, combined with my eyesight, it was just a very rough watch. But obviously, the audio description helped. It is a necessary tool when I watch any Spider-Verse movie, but I can't deny that the story they told is groundbreaking, especially for animation, for what you could say is a kid's movie. It was very mature. They went in a direction I never ever thought they would do in a superhero movie, let alone an animated superhero movie. There are things about the story that I was very surprised about. And I couldn't not put it in my top five. I don't know if it'll be there by the end of the year, we will see. But I do think the story is something very revolutionary for animation.

Lee Pugsley  
So this movie is also in my top five and falls into my fifth spot alphabetically. I agree with many things that you're saying. I think that the strongest point for this movie is the storytelling and how well they told the story and how well they use the multiverse. I think it's arguably one of the best comic book movies to date out of, you know, any Marvel movie, DCEU, or any other superhero movie that's come out. I liked the animation style from what I could pick up on. And I know that we've talked about this previously, the animation for me can work better than live action sometimes because of the color palette and just the definition of how the characters are drawn and formed. And even though this movie was a little bit on the longer side, it never lost my interest. And I was just so intrigued the whole way through. And I was so sad when the movie ended. Because now you have to wait for the second part of it. And I want it like right now. 

Alex Howard  
It is funny. They left it off a cliffhanger and you're like, "Oh, no!" But I have a feeling it's gonna get delayed. Because you know, when the report about the working conditions for this one came out, it wasn't great. So I think if Sony is smart, they'll push it back. Even honestly, for box office reasons. It's supposed to come out next March. I think they could do it next summer and, you know, take over the summer again, like they did this year. It's really the only hit box-office-wise we've had the summer

Lee Pugsley  
True. And I would be okay if they delayed it, if it means that the quality is going to be higher. I would definitely take quality over a rushed release date. And one of the other things I will say about Across the Spider-Verse, is I personally liked it more than Into the Spider-Verse. I know that, you know, other people I've talked to all have different opinions on that. But I thought the story was just a little stronger in this one, and I still love Into the Spider-Verse as well. But this has the slight edge for me.

Alex Howard  
I would agree. I wasn't a big fan of Into the Spider-Verse. Like I thought it was good. But I think this story is definitely stronger than the first one.

Lee Pugsley  
Well, very cool. All right, so let's go ahead and shift over to the most anticipated films of the year and check in on those so far. I'll pass it over to you Alex, and you can take it from there.

Alex Howard  
So from our most anticipated episode for me, the only three from the episode that have come out are Beau Is Afraid, The Flash, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.  Beau is Afraid was a little disappointing. It was long, it was -- the first 30 minutes were good, I thought, but I don't know, it did not really work for me as a horror movie overall. I feel like I don't know that I'll ever watch this again. It was definitely an experience and definitely stressful at times, which I guess is what he was going for. Um, have you seen Beau is Afraid yet, Lee?

Lee Pugsley  
I haven't yet. And the more word of mouth I hear about it, the less motivated I am to see it. At some point this year, I will watch it. I just don't know when.

Alex Howard  
Yeah. And then one of the other ones for me The Flash. I really, really liked it a lot. It was not -- I think James Gunn made a little mistake when he was touting it as the best superhero movie of all time. I don't think it's that. But I do think it's really, really good. Really solid. There were certain things I really connected with it on. I think they did multiverse really well. I think one of the weaker parts of it was that it did come out two weeks after Spider-Verse. And there were some very similar story points that they did in Flash. But I really really enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun with it. So that one was not a disappointment for me.

Lee Pugsley  
I liked The Flash, I wouldn't say that I loved it. And I think part of the reason for that is just because the hype built around it was so high that I don't know if it could have fully lived up to the expectations that everyone was giving it. I thought that the story overall was good. But my biggest issue which you hit on is that I had just seen Across the Spider-Verse. And because there are similar plot points in both of those movies, it was easy to do the comparison game and Spider-Verse was the stronger film in terms of the way it told the story. But Flash had some fun moments, and it had some fun cameo. So it was still an enjoyable experience for me.

Alex Howard  
Yeah, I think at this point, if I were doing a top 10 so far, I think Flash would be in my bottom five. But I don't know that it will stay there by the end of the year. But I mean it, it was fun. Like I said, it wasn't the best thing ever. Like they were saying it was gonna be, but it was, it was good. And then Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny for me... [sighs] I mean, it was fine. It was good. It wasn't amazing. I feel like Indiana Jones deserved a better send off. His age was very apparent. He wasn't climbing all over cars like he was in Raiders. There was just something missing from it for me. Like it was a lot, a lot of action. And not a lot of like solving puzzles and doing archaeology things. It just felt like a giant chase for two hours. And then the third act really worked for me, I thought. But before the third act I just wasn't really feeling the Indy magic. And maybe I need to go back and see it again. I know I didn't see it in the best or the most ideal spot for me, but I just -- I don't know, I couldn't help but be a little bit disappointed by it. What did you think of Indy, Lee?

Lee Pugsley  
Having just watched the original three Indiana Jones movies, not the Crystal Skull, but the original three Indiana Jones movies for my first time ever? I thought this movie was fun. And that's really all I have to say about it. It wasn't bad. It wasn't necessarily memorable. It felt like the character of Indiana Jones, but not the world of Indiana Jones. It just felt like a different story, in a different set, in a different world, using the Indiana Jones character. So I thought there were some good action sequences in it. And Harrison Ford is definitely showing his age. But on the other hand, I'm like, you know, props to you, dude, that you're still able to do what you do. But I think his time has come to an end with this franchise. So it's probably a good thing that they're closing it out. I mean, if they wanted to do something more with the franchise, they should just find another actor to play Indiana Jones potentially, like they do with James Bond. Yeah, that might be a controversial statement, but I'll put it out there.

Alex Howard  
I would be very okay with that. But I do think yeah, this rendition of the characters, the last scene of the movie was my favorite scene of the movie. And it was the perfect send off for him. But as a movie as a whole, with the quality of the movie, I think could have been a better send off. And then yeah, I think one of my honorable mentions Evil Dead Rise, which was like, once again, it was fine. It wasn't as good as I was hoping. But I mean, it was good. I guess. Scream Six I think was another. When we did our most anticipated, that one had already come out. And it was on my most anticipated. I really liked Scream Six, a lot. Maybe not quite as much as Five, but another really solid entry into the screen franchise. But yeah, from my most anticipated, those were all the ones that were on mine. Were there any on yours that have come out?

Lee Pugsley  
There are. Across the Spider-Verse was one of them. And we already talked about that. But it did meet the expectations that I had for it. Then there was Guardians Three, which is a better Marvel movie than most of the Marvel movies in the latest phase. It was a little more somber than I was hoping for, and it didn't have the fun humor that I've come to expect from the Guardians as much as the other movies do. I still liked it, though. I think I was a little disappointed by that movie. But there were still some good moments in it. What did you think of it?

Alex Howard  
I really liked Guardians Three. I'm not a big -- controversial statement -- I'm not a big Guardians fan in general. But I did really like Three. It's funny that you bring up the humor because that movie was so dark in like, tone and the story. I think it was a little hard to put as much humor as he usually does in it. But I also, my one complaint about that movie was I felt like it was manipulative. Like it, it really played up the fake death thing. Like they did it like three or four times with different characters. And if you do that enough, it kind of takes away the, you know, when you do it the next time kind of like boy who cried wolf thing. Oh, this person's gonna die and like, "You didn't do it last time, you're not going to do it this time." You know, it kind of takes that away.

Lee Pugsley  
Really good points on that. I had forgotten about the fake death thing. And yeah, that did happen more often than it needed to. And then the last movie on my most anticipated list from when we did our episode was The Little Mermaid. And we talked in depth about that on our Disney live action episode so you can hear our thoughts there. But it was a pleasant surprise. I went into it with very low expectations and came out with a pleasant experience.

Alex Howard  
And then what are your favorite audio description tracks so far the year?

Lee Pugsley  
Favorite audio description tracks so far would be, uh... Indiana Jones actually was a really good audio description track because of the way it described the action sequences. John Wick Chapter Four was a good audio description track, once again for the same reason. And then The Flash really gets mass props because it actually described the cameos for the legacy actors that appeared in the movie.

Alex Howard  
Yeah, I think for me definitely Flash is up there. I think Flash should be the template for movies that do cameos like that. I think saying the actor's name really goes a long way. I wanted to cheer in the theater when they said the actor's name because I was like oh my god, they finally are doing this. Like they didn't do it with Bullet Train, they didn't do it with Chip 'N Dale. I had been waiting for this and I think it really helps blind and low vision people appreciate the cameos more than saying just the character. And then I think the other one that I really liked was Guardians Three, because I was sitting kind of far back and I saw it in 3D. So it had that tint, so I couldn't really see it that well anyway, and I think the description really did a good job of letting me know what was going on in the movie, especially since I couldn't see it very well.

Lee Pugsley  
I need to go back and watch Guardians Three with AD because I didn't get that experience because my AD didn't work. So I definitely missed out on a chunk of things that happened there. I'll probably wait till it's streaming, though. But yeah, I'm excited to revisit that because I know that you were really raving about the audio description in that movie.

Alex Howard  
Yeah, it's funny because there's the part where they go to the planet with the like, they have like animal people. And the description of the people there was really interesting because they were combined with different animals. So they really had to figure out how to describe that in a way that made sense. 

Lee Pugsley  
Yeah, I'm excited to check it out. And as we're looking back on the first half of 2023, were there any movies that were surprises to you, whether positively or negatively?

Alex Howard  
I mean, BlackBerry was a surprise, Air. I think, well, Air was kind of expected, but I didn't really, I wasn't a huge fan of Argo. I was kind of like, hesitant about how it's gonna stick with the Argo formula, because that got all this acclaim. But I really, really ended up liking Air a lot. I think, I want more from the second half of the year. The first half was good, but it wasn't amazing. Like there weren't 10 movies that I loved in the first half. I really want the second half of the year to be a banger.

Lee Pugsley  
I am hoping the same thing. As I was looking at my top five movies of this year so far, I was like, you know, they're good and even solidly good. But any of these could easily be replaceable at the moment. Like these are my top five movies right now because I feel like our pickings have been a little slim for, I guess, movies that really resonate with me. In terms of surprises that I just want to shout out Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. I was not expecting anything from that movie, and I've never played the game, and I thought that movie was so much fun. 

Alex Howard  
Oh, I would agree with that. Yeah, I definitely didn't expect it to be as funny and work as well as it did. That was a surprise for me. Yes. I also thought, I mean Fast X, I would say it's my least favorite movie movie of the year so far. Not that I expected it to be great. But I didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. I think Jason Momoa was awesome in that. But besides that, it was awful. I never walk out of a movie. I kind of thought about it. When I saw the movie, I was like, "Should I just leave?" Like I don't, I don't know, it wasn't really doing anything for me. And I guess I'll go see the next one. But begrudgingly, I'll go see the next one. And then I think another kind of disappointment for me was the movie Inside with Willem Defoe. It's a Focus Features movie. I just, I usually love the one man show movies where it's just, Buried, or Lock, any movie like that, where the the actor can really show what he has. And just, he's the only one on screen. And you know, he's struggling to do something. I love those kinds of movies. I just thought Inside was super boring. I could not get into it. And it was just him trying to figure out how to get out of this apartment the whole time, which is what I expected it to be. But I don't know why it did not work for me.

Lee Pugsley  
I need to -- well, maybe I don't need to watch that movie. I'm still interested in that movie. I know it's streaming on Peacock now, so maybe I'll check it out. But your review of it definitely doesn't incentivize me to do so. As for me, though, in terms of movies that are on the weaker end, and that were disappointments in a big way, I talked about this movie on our most anticipated movies, I think as an honorable mention. But it was Showing Up with Michelle Williams and Hong Chau. I love both of those actresses, but that movie was pretty boring and very forgettable now. The performances were good as always, but the script just didn't go anywhere very quickly. I feel like I feel the way you do about Inside about Showing Up. And then another movie that was not my favorite was Love Again. I realize it's a romantic comedy, it's with -- or romantic drama -- with Priyanka Chopra Jones, and my biggest draw to that was that I'm a Céline Dion fan, and Céline Dion plays herself in it and they use her songs. But it was just not good. Honestly, like, there's Hallmark movies that are better than what Love Again was. And then the last movie that comes to mind is Infinity Pool. It just did not work for me in any way. I appreciate the ambition and the effort, and maybe even some of the experimentation they did with that film. But it is at the bottom of my list as well.

Alex Howard  
I will say the description track for Infinity Pool I really did like, because they really went -- [chuckles]. They that is one of the most adult tracks I've ever heard. And I really appreciate when they do go mature with it because, you know, there's kind of a stereotype of trying to be tame when it comes to disability. And I think if it's a Rated R movie, and it's as adult as Infinity Pool is, the audio description track should be the same. 

Lee Pugsley  
They did handle that very well. And it's one of the rare times that they've actually gone for it and described the adult scenes in ways that actually give us a full picture of what's happening.

Alex Howard  
Yeah. Just a quick couple of other honorable mentions. Like I mentioned, Flash would be in my top 10 if we were doing top 10. Still on Apple TV would be in my top 10. It's a Michael J. Fox documentary. I mean, I probably love Shazam Two more than most people. I don't know if it would be in my top 10. But I had so much fun with that movie. And I know, I can acknowledge it's not as good as the first one. But it's a shame that that and Flash both bombed pretty hard.

Lee Pugsley  
As of now, Super Mario Brothers would also be in my top 10 if we're doing a top 10 list, and I don't know if Tetris would be in my top 10. But that was a very gripping movie.

Alex Howard  
Yeah, that's a good product movie for the year too. And then the ones coming up, I mean, I know we did our most anticipated, but I know July has some great potential with Mission Impossible, Oppenheimer, Barbie all coming out in July. We have Dune and Killers of the Flower Moon coming out later this year. So I think we have some great potential movies coming out.

Lee Pugsley  
Yeah, I can't wait for all the ones you mentioned. And it'll be fun to revisit at the end of the year and see if the top five movies we have now still hold in our top 10, or if they've been replaced by other things.

Alex Howard  
Yeah, as well as what great audio description tracks we're gonna have for the rest of the year too. And we would love it if you guys would let us know your favorite description tracks. If there were any movies we didn't talk about that you really love. We are always looking for recommendations as well.

Lee Pugsley  
And we would also be curious to know your top five movies of 2023 so far. We'd love to dialogue with you about that as well. So you can email us at DarkRoomFilmCast@GMail.com Once again, that's DarkRoomFilmCast@GMail.com. And as we wrap up, we also want to thank Matt Lauterbach and All Senses Go for making transcripts of this episode possible.

Alex Howard  
Yeah, you can also follow us on Instagram at DarkroomFilmCast. And I wanted to do a tease for next episode, we will be doing an interview with Liz Guttman from IDC, she's done a lot of description on different properties, especially for a lot of the Netflix properties. So I think all of you will find that very interesting. Our first audio describer on the podcast.

Lee Pugsley  
I'm excited about that. Thank you guys so much for listening. Continue taking in some really good media and we'll see you next time here on the darkroom.

Alex Howard  
Yeah, enjoy the summer guys.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai