Biopics Grind My Gears

Hello and welcome to a special Patreon edition of Base News Network. You may be listening to this as a preview, and if so, you're excited to hear this, and you keep listening, go check out our Patreon. My name is Sophie, aka Jonavarca, and I'm here with Kayo, aka Punk Revolution now. Say hello. Hi, Sophie. Hi. I just want to say, like, thanks everyone for listening to the Taylor Swift episode. I've gotten a lot of good feedback on that, so that was a really fun episode to record. Anyway, yeah. So, thank you for listening to that, and, you know, not crucifying me, not crucifying us for having a nuanced discussion about Taylor. Anyways, I wanted to talk about another thing I'm kind of sick of, which is, like, the biopic industrial complex. What I mean by this is, there are so many freaking biopics coming out every year, and it's like the worst genre of film in my opinion. That's Sophie. Have you ever seen the family guy movie? No, I've never seen the family guy movie. Wait, hold up. There's an upcoming family guy movie releasing in 2024. Really? Yes. Oh, we will be there. We will be front row. Okay, so I was thinking of the Stewie Griffin movie, which came out in 2005, and then I googled it, and then I just saw, and I'm sorry, this is completely irrelevant to the episode at the hands, besides the fact that they're movies, but we'll talk more about it, but we've got to watch the Stewie Griffin movie that came out in 2005, and then we're going to-- I guess it's kind of a biopic in a way. It is a biopic, yeah. So the reason I brought that up is because, have you seen that meme where it's Peter Griffin? He's like, "You don't really grinds my gears?" Have you really seen it? Are you just saying yes? Yeah, I have. Okay. Well, that's from the movie, and I was just, this is a huge tangent, but the biopic industry grinds your gears. That was such a convoluted joke. Yes, it does grind my-- I love that. It does grind my gears. Does it grind your gears? Well, I never--it didn't really grind my gears until you pointed it out to me. And then I realized that does grind my gears. Yeah. So just some of the recent biopics that have come out, Oppenheimer is an obvious one. I know that you enjoyed Oppenheimer. I liked Oppenheimer too. Another film that was nominated for a best picture this year was My Astro, and--or My Astro. And it's about Leonard Bernstein, who I adore. He's played by Bradley Cooper. And I haven't seen it. It's on Netflix. Maybe we should watch it. But it's supposed to be Oscar bait. People keep saying it's Oscar bait, meaning he does his--he's trying to--he's trying to method act. Bradley Cooper tried to method act as Leonard Bernstein and tried so hard to capture every emotion and nuance. Basically, he was just trying so hard to get an Oscar, basically, is what people are saying and criticizing the movie for. So apparently it's mid. There have been so many biopics I've seen coming out soon. Like the new Bob Marley biopic coming out. Remember we saw that? We were seeing anatomy of a fall, and then there's an ad for that, and it looked really bad. I could be wrong, but-- Oh, the Bob Marley. Yeah. That's like another one coming out, too, is like one of Amy Wine, about Amy Winehouse, who I really liked Amy Winehouse in high school. I'm not opposed to there being a biopic for moral reasons. Maybe there should--I don't know, but that's not my issue with it. It just doesn't look good. And I think the main reason I wanted to do this episode was that there was an announcement about four biopics, about the Beatles, each from the point of view of each individual beatle. And this is coming from Oscar award-winning filmmaker Sam Mendez. He is behind the film American Beauty, which I actually like. So maybe it's going to be good. But yeah, it's supposed to be coming from all their point of views, and I'm like, the first thing that comes to my mind is like, okay, first of all, this is like the biggest cash grab I can imagine. Second of all, this is like the adult male version of just writing fanfiction. Like, what if Ringo POV, like, what's Ringo's like, you know, like, it's just so-- it feels like fanfiction to me, even though it may be a biopic, but like imagining the point of views of each like, you know, almost a character, each beatle feels really-- the anfic should need to me in a bad way. Don't you worry about the thing, 'cause I've created a thing, gonna be all bad. Yeah, that's my favorite Beatles song. Don't you worry. Well, I was just thinking about the Bob Marley biopic trailer. You just know their play. You just know they're playing that song in the trailer. Oh, what they did, they literally did. Yeah. Anyways, I do remember, I think it was like a corny little scene where they were in the car. I don't know. Yeah, what do you-- like, what do you think about the Beatles biopic? And why do you think there are so many biopics about musicians and bands? So let's start with the Beatles one. So I-- I am not the biggest Beatles fans, fans. And the Beatles already has like a million movies, either about them or movies that they're in, but I have to say, I'm kind of excited for these biopics. Because I-- well, so this is kind of why. So I think that Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison all have interesting enough lives to make a movie about. And then Ringo Star, I think, doesn't. You see how those memes about like the Ringo movie is just gonna be like some-- like, I was gonna say some Dory and Electro type shit. Like Ringo's just gonna be doing stuff, you know? He's just gonna-- yeah, exactly. He's just gonna go to like-- Which is like-- He's gonna go do laundry, you know, get pic of lunch. Oh no! He's gonna do-- he's gonna like-- like, I feel like Ringo is just going on side quests, you know? He is, he is the side quest. Well, he's the unemployed friend on a Thursday night, like, you know what I mean? He's just like-- like, time traveling to medieval Poland, you know, like, he's just doing random stuff. That's my-- that's the vibe I'm getting. Well, you know, I think the thing with Ringo is-- so I actually think Ringo-- I think Ringo's talented. Like, I think-- Yeah. I think there's-- there's obviously some talent there if you're gonna play-- like, if you know, like, 200 Beatles songs off the top of your back. Like, the drums are a very important, like, backbone to every band. So obviously, like, even though people make jokes about Ringo being like a bad drummer and all those stuff, like, I think he's objectively talented. But it's just-- it's just-- it's just the case that, like, Paul McCartney is a figure larger than life, with just such a-- just a monumental discography and individual life story. Yeah. And with the other three, like, contributed way more to the, like, actual lyrics and music-- the songwriting. Yeah. So I will say, maybe-- I guess, like, I'm happy they're doing it this way because it gives Ringo the story. I imagine if they just didn't make one about Ringo. But I do agree. It's, like, very fanfiction, like-- you two will tell it from their own perspective. And I don't know, I think-- I wasn't there. I was excited too, just 'cause, like, you said, like, I kind of just want to see how they do it. But, yeah. Isn't there just a Beatles documentary that came out? Oh yeah, that was like, it was like a three-part series. Yeah, it was like a 10-hour documentary about the Beatles. And then literally also, and then I've heard it's all good, and I'm sure it is, and then last year, the Beatles released their final song, which was like an old song that they never finished, and then they used artificial intelligence to help them finish it, and they released it, and then along with releasing that song, they also had to release another documentary about the songs. They couldn't just release this song, they had to release a documentary about making this song. So-- - It's like that one meme. It's like, damn, girl, just give it up. I mean, like, give, like, grow up, like, move-- Oh, it's like, girl, you need to move on with your life. - Yeah, yeah. So, I don't know. I guess, you know, I know that the Beatles is a whole different conversation from the biopic oversaturation conversation, but it's definitely, I don't know. Yes, I think, I think, okay, like, I think what you said about it being sort of like fanfiction, is kind of spot on, like, I don't think there can ever be too much fanfiction. Just like, you know what I mean? 'Cause I feel like a fanfiction is a hobby, you know what I mean? If you're really into reading fanfiction and writing fanfiction, like, you're not gonna be like, well, I feel like for this particular ship we're done, it's like, no, you're gonna keep reading more that gets written and you're gonna write more 'cause you love it. And I think the Beatles is the same story. It's like, if you're a hardcore Beatles stan, they're literally can never be too much. - Yeah, and as someone who's read a lot of Beatles fanfiction too-- (laughing) - We might cut that out, I don't know. (laughing) - Let's leave it in, we'll leave it in. - We'll leave it in, but like, someone who's done that allegedly-- - As someone who's browsed at Kirk Proud of Curiosity. - Out of curiosity, I may have read some. I know there are writers that are more than capable of exploring the points of view of the Beatles, so I hope that he brings those people in as consultants, but I was thinking about what I said, though, about it being fanfiction, there's something about people just will not let the mythology of the Beatles go, you know? And the Beatles are undeniably a really important and great band, I was very into the Beatles as a teenager as everyone was. Yeah, so I was thinking about the fanfiction thing and I do think it's a little bit cringe to like make POV movies from each Beatles perspective, but I think it almost feels like all biopics have to engage in some fanfiction, because if you're reflecting, you're not just reflecting the events of a person's life, you're also kind of trying to convey emotions and themes through the film, you're injecting maybe even your own perspective into it and in that way it feels like fanfiction, you know what I mean? For better or for worse, like I think there's good things and bad things about it, but I think that's probably a really important part of making a biopick. ♪ Every little thing's gonna be okay ♪ Okay. I agree, well, well yeah, I think there's like an inherent issue to this, 'cause if you want to be objective, you can't just have the biopick be like a worship of the individual, but if you're someone who likes an individual enough to make a biopic of them, that might be kind of hard. Yeah, one of the things, I think the issue with a biopic and why they're so mid in my opinion, like as far as biopics go, I don't really like many biopics, but the reason I think they're so mid is that because you already have a real person that most people know about, right? There's already this person that the general public is familiar with and they very well could know their life story already because they're famous. So you're kind of constrained to this very rigid set of events and facts about this person because they were a real person and people are familiar with their story. You're kind of, yeah, you're kind of boxed in and I feel like there's less room for creativity there, which is why I think the good thing about injecting fan fiction into this is that it gives a little more like, themes and excitement and meaning to them, but what a lot of biopics do when they're bad, I'm reflecting as I'm saying this honestly, like I'm coming to my own conclusions as I'm saying this. Anyway, I think the biopics that are bad are ones that just completely tell the story of someone's life very in a linear way that's just boring. I don't know, I just find it boring, they can't do a lot with the story. - Yeah, well that reminds me of when we were watching Fargo, the TV series. - Oh yeah. - And every episode begins with like, and it's like a reference to the Fargo movie, it begins with this like line that's like all events that they picked in this movie are true story. Everything's the same besides the name of the characters to protect their privacy, something like that. And we were watching it and like, we're watching the first season and I think it's really great, but whenever there was stuff happening in the plot that I thought was like less than amazingly captivating, I was like, well, they probably just have to do this because this is actually what happened in the story. And then it turns out that it's actually not a real story and Fargo was trolling me. - Yeah, they just do that for effect, but yeah. No, it's not true, sadly. I wish Minnesota were that interesting. - I wanna watch the movie, The Aviator. Have you seen that one? - Yeah, I actually saw like the first half of it, half of it when I was probably 16 or 15. And I'm a Leo fan, I'm a Cape Lanchett fan. So it's kind of like the perfect movie for me by sexual movie, so I was interested. - Don't say that, don't be like that. - Why, what can I, why not? Oh, 'cause you're my, oh sorry, I was at the time, at the time. - That's true, you really did like Titanic a lot, so. - I love Titanic. Leo noted a cap, he was like the only male actor I liked and like honestly was probably a sign pointing to my bisexuality, but I always thought he was like, especially when he was younger, like he was really androgynous. Anyway, yeah, I have seen some of the Aviator, but it's been a while and I do wanna finish it. - Well, let's add it to the list. Maybe that'll be a good one. - Kyle and I have a movie list. - Yeah. - That we watch. - And I feel like, it's private. - 'Cause you know a big part of it is like him having OCD. - Oh really, the movie? - Yeah. - I didn't realize that at the time. Maybe I didn't watch far enough into it. - Yeah, and now, yeah, it could be interesting to watch it now that we're there. - Right, we both have OCD, yeah. - Yeah. - That would be fascinating. - See, that could be a good one. - Oh, sorry, yeah. I was just gonna say, Kyle, are there any biopics that you can think of that you really like? - Well, Stewie Griffin, the untold story is quite good. (laughing) - Honestly, now that I think about it, not really, I mean, I liked Oppenheimer a lot. If you wanna be real flexible with the definition of biopic, I love Schindler's list. - Yeah, I saw, I was looking up for research list of some famous biopics. And I don't really think of Schindler's list as a biopic, even though it kind of is, as it follows Oscar Schindler in part of his life. But they also show things that do not involve, like they show what have, like things that are happening in the camps, you know, and people who are involved with him, but I guess it is a biopic. I just don't really see that way. - I definitely wouldn't, like, yeah, this is just me. - Yeah, Schindler's list is obviously really good. Yeah, I just Googled best biopics and Schindler's list was there. So if you have to, so if Google is recommending Schindler's list as one of the best biopics and Schindler's list is hardly even considered a biopic, then that goes to show there really are not that many biopics, very good biopics, even though there are tons and tons of biopics. - Yeah, I agree. And you know what I hate about biopics are the most annoying when they just have like the name of the person or like the last name, or it's like, well, I guess Oppenheimer did it too. Himer Lincoln Napoleon Elvis there's so many like ones that get me get me get me going Maestro even though that's just like the title of his like profession like it feels so I don't know why like I would rather it be something more creative like the social network I feel like I'm the only person Hamilton facts I feel like I'm the only person Hamilton yeah keep going I was gonna say this the social network I think like the title of that is at least like relatively more creative than just saying like Zuckerberg but even so like it's more about the creation of Facebook than I don't know maybe it's not though I haven't seen it in a while but I remember not liking it very much and everyone else loves it do you like it the social network yeah I have not watched it believe it or not oh maybe we should maybe should rewatch it because that's just everyone talks about how good it is and I just didn't see it that's one of those movies whenever I say I haven't watched it everyone's like you haven't seen the social network and I'm like I don't want to watch a movie about Mark Zuckerberg yeah for real like what exactly are we missing out on not even though I've seen it but I just don't remember it being anything remarkable but you know it was probably I probably saw it when I was 16 you know so it's been a while look Sophie and I owe a lot to Mark Zuckerberg and his vision we really do so we do so and I feel like doesn't the social network depict Mark Zuckerberg and a not very positive light yes so then I refuse to watch it because Mark Zuckerberg is the goat I want to watch an Elon Musk and buy a bit called musk or Elon would be funny to the musk would be really good I think there's a book out I think there's already a book called Elon that's out see it's always like those titles are so to me just really cringe uncreative all right so okay actually the book is called Elon Musk but they should do they should do a musk I like the idea of doing a critical book of Elon Musk called musk because we're on we're on his scent but oh but I think it makes sense like if you're if you want to like make as much money off of a biopic as possible you're gonna want to go with the generic safe name then the creative name you know and I also feel like that's precisely what the biopic is is a cash crop because people are like oh I know who that is oh I like that person I want to watch like what is essentially a memoir or a not a memoir like a biography or like a snippet of someone's life you know what I mean like there's I feel like there are very few biopics that actually like explore anything interesting or maybe you know maybe this is just my taste but I like it when movies get a little surreal you know and that just doesn't happen very often in in biopics wait Sophie so I'm I'm still in the Wikipedia page for Stewie Griffin the Untold Story and I love this is what you're getting hung up on I need to see this is a good you should watch it I mean I was this came out in 2005 so I was okay so you're like I was like less than I was like you know 10 years old at oldest yeah and I loved it but so that means it's good that means it's even better than you remember yeah so there's a controversy's section on the Wikipedia page oh and it says when broadcast in Canada in 2011 the episode was subject to a complaint to the Canadian broadcast standards council as this is the most like this is the most dystopian whatever the council ordered that global television must apologize to its viewers for not warning them about the violence in a scene where Elmer Fudd kills Bugs bunny with a rifle during a July 23rd 2011 airing episode the panel finds that the scene was definitely somewhat gruesome and uncomfortable to watch it recognizes however that the scene was intended to satirize the violence found in that type of cartoon program the gag was somewhat tongue-in-cheek since family guy is an animated program that sometimes contains violence down well shout out to the Canadian government most Chad most Chad Canadian that is the end of this episode's preview if you want to hear the rest of this episode get access to all of our patreon content and most importantly support our show head over to patreon.com/basinusnowark and join us for $5 a month