Nerd Critic J.E. Petersen

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Back from a long hiatus, and finally entering the wide world of video, Jordan and CJ belatedly cover one of the biggest sequels of the decade.
In this episode...
- Jordan shares his new favorite non-movie-related hobby
- CJ finds buried treasure on Disney+
- How reading the book affects the experience of watching the movie (Jordan read it, CJ didn’t)
- Politics, religions, prophecy, tyranny
- Who’s movie is this anyway?
- How about that ending tho
- The difference between fan service and great writing
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nerdcritic.substack.com

Bottoms
Two straight white dudes in their 30s talking about two gay girls in high school.
I mean what else were you expecting.
But for serious, we really liked this movie, and if you saw it, or are thinking about seeing it, then this episode is for you.
And as always, hit us up at nerdcritic.substack.com. We’re always around.


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BARB/ENHEIMER
Pre-shownotes note: CJ sounds bad because he was recording on his airpods like a complete rube.
Actual shownotes:
* CJ does not complain about the giant corporation he works for
* Why #barbenheimer? (the marketing phenomenon)
* BARB/
* Disclaimer: we’re dudes, talking about a movie made maybe not for dudes
* Unsurprisingly, we loved Ryan G
* Big hits (production design, cast, some humor), big misses (…the rest?)
* What we should expect from a movie about a Mattel toy sponsored by Mattel
* You can’t speak truth to power when the power is funding your movie
* The third act culminates in an unearned sermon
* A token zoomer in a movie made by and for millennials
* Absurdism spins out of control without something to consistently ground it
* CJ mic drops on the haters
* /ENHEIMER
* On the merits of seeing a Christopher Nolan movie twice
* Jordan responds to CJ’s response to Jordan’s invitation to go see it with him for the 2nd time
* Masterclass in filmmaking, but…
* It’s too long, and too “important,” and not nearly entertaining enough
* Whole first hour feels like a montage
* Nolan loves his nonlinear storytelling, but his best films are his most linear
* What kinds of movies earn rewatches?
* A discussion of the film’s most unironically important scene
* The emotional core of the film is Robert Oppenheimer being cursed with existential guilt
* Special shoutout to Florence Pugh, who accomplishes a lot with a little
* Also Casey Affleck
* The visual conceits deployed to keep the audience oriented in space and time
* Nolan is a great, very fallible director
* An example of a director who understands how to conjure a truly great script: Denis Villeneuve
* Where does Oppenheimer fall in the pantheon of Nolan films?
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This is the best action franchise ever created. No cap.
Listen we’re just gonna get right to the show notes because I worked really hard on them:
* In the banter: Nerding out about Harry Potter lego book sets + one day we will be Black Beard and Red Beard
* Would you like to know where this movie ranks in the M:I franchise? It's high. Very high.
* Drama sometimes slides into melodrama
* How this movie (and the other strongest entries) set up personal stakes
* Mourning the loss of a favorite character, and a sincere disagreement about how the loss was handled
* How to make a Car Chase feel fresh
* Cart sometimes pulling the horse, i.e. theme sometimes strong-arms plot
* The calculus of character death
* Hayley Atwell is luminous
* Ethan Hunt is the American James Bond
* Can this franchise continue without Tom Cruise? HINT NO
* That train sequence tho (or, how to make a Runaway Train feel fresh); homages to Jurassic World and...Toy Story 2
* Best comedy of the franchise?
* What Part 2 will have to do to be narratively successful
* Why this is best critically reviewed movie in the franchise
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Yeah, it’s late. Like, really late. We get it. Let’s maybe move on?
OK fine here’s what happened.
We went to see this movie opening day, then went back to see it a second time (in IMAX. Again.) and then recorded this episode a couple days later. We were on it.
And then I (Jordan) got reeeeeaaaaalllly busy. Too busy. Work, weddings, birthdays, travel, blah blah blah. This item on my to-do list:
* Edit and publish spiderman episode
got bumped day after day after day, until oh crap it’s been more than a month.
Which is really an unconscionable misstep on my part, because holy crap was this movie fantastic. We loved it so much that it almost ruins the episode, which is too long, too hyperbolic, and too scattered.
But I guess that what it’s like to be in love.
If you are also in love with this movie, join us! You’ll fit right in.
Notes!
* CJ’s sister-in-law thinks Jordan is a celebrity
* Meeting the directors outside the theater after
* How the style of this movie (and its predecessor) radically widened the scope of what studios are willing to do with animated movies
* Creative maximalism
* How grateful we are that theaters are dark enough to hide our tears
* Conjecturing a 17-year-old boy’s crush on Spider-Gwen
* The easter egg of all easter eggs
* And so much more!
Also this, which we referenced and promised to link to:
PS don’t be surprised if you see a couple more episodes drop real soon, here. There are like three movies we want to cover this month. At least. What a summer. What they call a good problem.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nerdcritic.substack.com