Movie Reviews + Losing Monster Truck Virginity

[Music] Hello and welcome to another episode of bass news network. If you are here, you're either listening on Patreon, or you are listening to the preview. So if you want to hear the full episode, make sure you head over to Patreon. I'm Sophie, aka Jonavarca, and I'm here with punk publisher now, aka Kaya, say hi Kaya. Hello Sophie. We have had honestly a crazy month. We have watched some amazing films in preparation for the Oscars. I was featured on Instagram account for 24 for 24 creators list, y'all. That was crazy. We also did something that we've been wanting to do for a while, which was go to a monster truck show, and it did not disappoint. I was hoping you were going to say that we went to the monster truck show in preparation for the Oscars. Oh yeah. There's something really cinematic about. I wonder if there's an annual Oscars from monster truck drivers. Honestly, there probably is. It seems like there's some prestigious award ceremony thing for everything under the sun. I think there's something for podcasters too. There's stuff for YouTubers, the streamies or whatever. There's all sorts of. Anything you can think of, there's probably an award committee for it. I wonder if there's the punkos, the punkies. Or award for the best punkos. The punkies in your nominated? Or nominated for the punkies? I'm nominated for the punkies, the truckos, and the podcasters. Wow. I didn't even know we were nominated. Or were you just nominated and not me? If I was ever nominated and you weren't nominated, I would immediately turn it down. I would start a whole storm on the internet. I'd be very happy for you, but it would be a little sexist. It would be very, it would be very sexist. It would be, but we have surprising many people listening, I'm sure. We have not been nominated for any podcast awards, so if there are any podcast awarders listening, please consider us. Anyway, we went to a monster truck show last weekend and it was really. It's like one of those things you probably wouldn't do unless you were somehow thrust into that situation. You know what I mean? It's not something that a lot of people just consider doing. I was thrust into the situation by the Instagram algorithm knocking it out of the park. Lowkey. Honestly, the Instagram algorithm recommendations are not too bad. Kio is sharing a bunch of monster truck videos on his story as he does. It's just one of his bits. First, I was exposed to videos of people driving around RC, the remote control cars that doesn't have a person in it. I was like, okay, this is very captivating. This is cool, but I want to watch real people in the cars. Then I looked at monster trucks. Oh, he looked it up. Yeah, well, I mean, I was halfway there already. I mean, it's kind of like, you know, upgrading from like movies rated G to rated PG. I was getting a leveling up and then I was hooked on the monster truck content. And it didn't take long for Instagram to pop an ad and advertise it in front of my face. And normally I wouldn't normally, you know, I don't know, we all get a million Instagram ads, some of them, most of them flop. This one, this one, this one did not flop. This was a perfectly targeted ad that advertised that there was going to be a monster jam monster truck show in Long Island, New York. And living in like Brooklyn, like in the city where there's very little space, like you don't really, I don't know. I just thought like going to a monster truck show is something that was just not going to happen. You know, because it's something you think only happens in places where there's like, you know, mask or whatever. And I'm, you know, I'm a girl, you know, and women are not typically interested in monster trucks. But we'll get into this later, but there was a lot of female representation at the show. Anyway, yeah, it was just something I never expected I would do. It wasn't really my scene, but I think Kyle would agree that I'm a pretty like, when it comes to like going to weird things or like, I don't know. I feel like I have an open mind about like doing certain things, you know? Like I don't like to put my life in danger, but if there's some like weird event going on, like I'll go to it, even if I'm not remotely interested. I think you would agree with that, but this was like one of those situations where it's also like, I would never otherwise do this. So I should just experience it. Like you never know until you experience it. And I'm really glad I went. It was really fun. It's something that I can say I've done, you know, that I never would have done. So that was just the stars aligning because the advertisement for this show was like, it was driving distance from us. It was happening coincidentally the weekend that you were going to be here. So like it just like the stars aligned we want for it. And it was a very epic adventure. It was and it was my first time in Long Island as well. So that was cool. There were so many kids. Everyone had those like special headphones on too. PSA like make sure you bring headphones or like your plugs or something because it's extremely loud. And we were basically in this arena. Kyle got us like box tick. Kyle got us box seats. And it was very fancy. And we basically watched like these monster trucks do different like tricks that like there was like individual competitions. And they had this like thing where you could vote on your phone, but they let anyone vote. So it was like the most like unfair voting like what mechanism I've ever seen. When there was a male driver doing a trick, we gave it a zero, but when there was a woman driver doing a trick, we gave it a 10. And actually like it was really interesting because one of the female drivers she did really well in one of the competitions like scoring wise. I think she got second or third even though she like she basically wiped out, but she still so I the thing is I don't know how to judge like actually like I have no like basis on like judging what is good in a monster truck show. So like maybe it's possible she did a lot of really cool stuff before she wiped out and that's why she got this high score, but I don't know like it. But also like some of these these trucks have like existed for a decade like a while now, you know, because monster gems been around for like a few decades, a couple decades, a few decades. And people have these like emotional attachments to the trucks and and I think you know people just they want their truck to win, you know. So like that's also bias to like if you're a big fan of megalodon, you're going to give her a 10 because you've been a fan of megalodon since you were a little kid. So there's this like into like very complex political voting system. It's a whole. Yeah. A whole new world. And Sophie like Sophie found this from looking it up that the because I didn't know this the trucks stay the same. So there's like the trucks with their design, but the drivers change, I think like every year. Yeah, it's really interesting sports team. Yeah, like a sports team. So we're rooting. It's kind of like rooting for you. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, so I honestly so thought with the with the with the person who who wiped out real and got a good score. I think that she wiped out super early into her run and didn't do really anything cool besides wipe out. But I think like with the voting, it comes from your heart. And my heart and all of our hearts in that moment were saying the wipe out was so cool that she deserved a high score. Apparently so. So yeah, I really don't understand like how the voting worked, but I mean again, we're at a monster truck show. So I don't I don't know how like much people care about fairer voting. I don't know. I don't know, like, anyway, it was really fun. - I cared a lot. - You did care as evidence by your zeros and tens that you were giving out. But yeah, it was really cool. And honestly, I'd like to go to, if they come back to New York, I'd like to go to one again. - We're done to go again. And definitely a good time for kids. It's really a family, it's like really a wholesome kids event honestly. - Trust me, if you're like some alternative hipster from Bushwick, you can enjoy it too, and you should go see it. - You also have just thrown it out there, maybe we could also consider trying to get a monster truck driver on our podcast at some point. (laughing) - Oh my God, that would be interesting. I'm sure that person has stories. - They've seen some stuff. - They've seen some stuff from those trucks. - All right, so we just kind of wanted to spread the word about monster trucks. They're being maligned in the media. I don't know if that's true, I just slide, but there are people think they're lame, but they're actually cool. And we want to get the word out so that where people appreciate monster truck shows. - I have one piece of feedback if the monster jam people listen to this is, you should switch as soon as you can to electric monster trucks. (laughing) - Not even kidding, because it'll be better for the environment. - Okay, so it's smelled a lot like gas in the stadium, which I'm sure some people maybe think is a cool experience, but for me, it's kind of like, I don't know. - I like a gas smell, but that's just me. - Okay. - Not too much, but I don't know. It's 'cause I drive, you know. - Okay. - I imagine I drive. - Maybe they can switch to electric and then they can put something in the stadium that creates bad smells when they come. - They probably would do that. - They would do it. - Like that's very like, I feel like that's very 2024. - Just something to think about monster jam. - It's like, it's basically like imitation meat. - Which actually turns out to be better if you just just believe. (laughing) - So true. - You just gotta believe it's better and it is better, okay? - So true. - Yeah, like, sprout the word, bring your friend to a monster truck show. It will not disappoint. The actual topic of this episode though are these foreign films that were nominated for Oscars this year. The Oscars are coming up soon. We saw both of them recently and we wanted to talk about them. And I don't know, I also wanted to talk about like the foreign films category in general because it's kind of, kind of a strange thing if you think about it, you know what I mean? Because upon looking, anatomy of a fall, I thought it was nominated for best foreign film, but it was actually nominated for best picture. But society of the snow was not. It was nominated for best foreign film. But basically like, the Academy Awards are like super American centric or English speaking centric. It's rare that like a foreign film makes it into the best picture category, which is really like strange, you know what I mean? If they're gonna make it like mostly American films that are end up in these like this best picture category, you would think that they would, like they should like rebrand as like an American or an English speaking awards show, you know? Because there are so many incredible films that come out that are not American that are like placed into the secondary best foreign film category. - Yeah. - It's really weird. - Yeah, just to make it super clear to the audience too, like both of these movies are foreign films, but the one thing that differentiates it is at least anatomy of a fall has like, well like is like 60% in English, 70% in English. So. - That's true. Yeah, there is a lot of English. - So I think that's probably the differentiator, but I agree, it's like they don't, is that somewhere in the rules? Like the language is what differentiates whether it's a foreign film or a best picture? - I don't think that's a rule. I know, like because what happens is like the films are submitted to the Academy. So like, for example, like anatomy of a fall was submitted probably as best foreign film by the country of Spain. And it was also probably submitted to best picture, but was not nominated. That's my guess. But essentially what they are submitted into these categories for consideration. And then nominations are made by the Academy. - Yeah, so if there's no rule in the rule book about the language. - I don't believe there is, because also parasite one best picture a few years back. And that's exclusively in Korean. And I remember that was kind of like a groundbreaking thing because it may have been like the first quote, foreign film or one of the very few foreign films that have one best picture. So it's definitely possible. There's nothing in the rules that ban it, but it just doesn't happen. - They need to figure this out 'cause this does not make any sense. - It's like best foreign film, but it's foreign to Americans. It's not foreign to other place. It's really weird. And then somehow British films aren't foreign. I don't know, it's really really weird. - How could anatomy of a fall be considered possibly the best picture, but not the best foreign film? It doesn't make any sense. - I don't know, like I guess it's really weird. It's really weird. So I don't know. I guess like, I also think too like a lot of Americans are hesitant to like watch foreign films because they don't like to read subtitles. And I don't know. I think that's something like, you gotta get over if you're able, like if you are able to like read and you have like your sight, I feel like you should watch films with subtitles. Like it's, it's, you are missing out on like, a whole world, literally a whole world of like arts. - I feel like foreign films are a little intimidating, not only because of the subtitle thing, but I think it's sort of like once you open up the door to like, I'm going to open up the possibility of watching international films, then all of a sudden your scope of the amount of movies available to watch have multiplied by like 10. And like some of the best films ever made are foreign films. No question. So yeah, I don't know. I feel like it's just disrespectful to have that category at like just, I don't know. Like, I don't know, then, or if you have that category, then you should make it like an American, like exclusively an American thing. I don't know. - I'm gonna Google this. You keep, you keep talking. I'm just gonna Google best foreign film category. Cause I'm sure I'm okay. - There's a lot of articles I pulled up one too, but there's like a lot of articles about like best international film, best foreign film, like how that category needs some like reformation. - Okay. - Which I would agree with, but. - Yeah. - It's kind of, it's weird. But anyway, I would encourage you to see the films that are nominated for that. - Okay, so just to be clear here, according to Wikipedia, and I know this is like, we're getting really, I know we wanna move and talk into the movie, but like, it does say that-- - No, it's okay. I think this is like something I wanted to talk about this. So-- - Okay. - So it does say that this award is awarded for excellence in international film with a predominantly non-English dialogue track. So it does seem like language is taken into consideration, but it still doesn't really-- - But some have bypassed them because Parasite was nominated for best picture. Remember when Trump got really mad that it won? Because it wasn't an American film. And then he's like, he was like basically, he was being like super racist about that. - You know, it's just one of those things where he just has done so much insane stuff. He just can't even retain at all. And I believe you. - It sounds like he did do-- Yeah, I kind of remember that, but I also-- - He was like, the Oscars are disgrace, like they let like foreign influence. It's like, dude, you do not go to fuck about the Oscars. I'm sorry, Trump. - Yeah, that'd be so funny if you watched Parasite and was like, oh my God, I was wrong about everything. (laughing) - Well, maybe it hits a little too close to home. - Yeah, yeah, it's a holy shit. Wait a minute, I'm a bad guy. Trump pertains consciousness for the first time. - Yeah, it starts posting like leftist infographics. - God, I wish. - Yeah. - Anyways, so we watched two films that were technically foreign films. Anatomy of a fall was from France. And then the society of the snow was from Spain. It's a Spanish film that is actually like, it takes place in, you're a guy, Argentina and Chile. But it was made by like a Spanish like production, which is interesting, but I'm just clarifying that. But yeah, we have thoughts on those films, so yeah. - Should we start with the, society to snow? Yeah. All right. So Sophie, what did you think of a society of a snow? Society of the snow was really good. If you're not familiar with this story, which I was already familiar with the story because I love like reading about disasters and freak accidents like and stuff like it's my morbid curiosity and then it like tortures me but I just keep doing it. It was like it was a flight that crashed in the Andes. It was like primarily boarded by a team like a rugby team from Uruguay. They were on their way to play a game in Argentina and the plane crash in Andes like in like a horrible spot to crash basically because it's like super far from like anywhere and upon impact like it like broke apart some people fell out and like a lot of people died and like or died of their injuries eventually and they basically had to work together to survive and had to resort to cannibalism to eating their dead family members and classmates to survive and eventually like two of them are able to like hike their way to civilize like to like a place where there are people like at help but they were out there for over like 70 days. There were originally 45 passengers and by the end they're only 16 still alive and it's like it's just like a remarkable survival story that is so horrific but you can't believe actually happened and that they actually managed to survive. So I was already like it's already like an inherently fascinating story right like it's it captures the imagination it's crazy and there's also already a film about it called a live that came out and then that I think that came out in the early 2000s or something I can't remember when it came out but there was there was already there's already a film called a live but this one I would I haven't seen the other one I believe this one took on like a more realistic like kind of gritty tone tone and like style but yeah um I thought it was incredibly realistic and immersive and I can't stop thinking about it how about you. Yes I agree well I liked it because um well there's a lot of reasons like it but I in college I studied abroad in Buenos Aires so I basically lived their experience to an extent because they had they had like accent they they had they obviously was speaking Spanish but there's like specific South American like Buenos Aires you're a Hawaiian accents that were familiar to me which is cool. That's yeah that's cool and when I was in Argentina I took a bus that drove from Argentina through the Andes into Chile through the Andes so I also kind of was in the Andes like they were but yes no I really like the movie I I agree I liked how it was like quite realistic like the plane crash I think was a probably even though the whole movie was very dark and intense and scary I feel like the plane crash scene in particular was like probably the most intense scene that you just like won't ever forget. Yeah remember when you were watching and I had to pause it multiple times because I was too scared I don't think I've ever done that before. Yes you pause it multiple times and each time you paused you sounded like you were out of breath. I was terrified I don't know why I guess like I knew it was gonna happen but the I also flew on a plane that day so I think that contributed but like it was so realistic that I don't know when you hear about like freak accidents usually all you hear is a freak accident or someone died in a plane crash someone died in a car crash but you don't actually imagine how that death happens you know which a lot of times is like being impaled and decapitated or like like burning alive being thrown from a high distance like there's so many horrific things that happen that you just you don't think about when you hear these things it's it's it's so to see it in real time like it was horrifying. 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/basternsnowwork and join us for $5 a month we really appreciate the support thanks for listening see you next episode