A Quiet Place: Day One
Scorecard, best movies where America blows up, vampires for XMas, new pod drop.
If you’ve been following us for a while, you might have noticed some changes around here. We’ve recently renamed our website, podcast, and social media handles to Sweet & Condensed to make everything we are working on uniform. We will still be bringing you all the content you love (and some new stuff!) and if you want to hear about what we have in store, be sure to tune into the podcast with Eric and Josh below!
Here’s what we have for you this week:
Concession Stand Scorecard: A Quiet Place: Day One
Temp These Takes: Let’s get ready for the 4th of July in style
Watchlist Worthy: “Slay” bells, eggnog, and scary-ass vampires - cancel your Christmas plans.
New Pod Drop: 📢 Eric and Josh have a special pod-related announcement! 📢
This week’s movie - “A Quiet Place: Day One”
Letterboxd Description:
HEAR HOW IT ALL BEGAN.
As New York City is invaded by alien creatures who hunt by sound, a woman named Sammy fights to survive.
Best Watched With
Friends who like to crank the volume up to 11, and artists. Avoid watching with anyone who punches when they jump scare, or who has a heart condition. 😰
End credit thoughts
While the story adds to previous films by showing the arrival of the alien creatures, filmmaker Michael Sarnoski wasn't beholden to them and gives us a fresh, standalone story. If you're new to the AQP movies, you can start with Day One no problem.
The City That Never Sleeps is the perfect backdrop for an invasion by alien creatures with ultrasonic hearing. When it gets silent on screen, you become aware of every noise off-screen—your seat neighbor’s breath, the crinkling of popcorn bags, the hesitant movements of re-situating postures as if the characters lives depend on our silence.
While it feels like it's going to be non-stop fear and anxiety, moments of laughter are sprinkled in, glimpses of joy leak through, and gentle what-it-means-to-be-human touches keep us grounded.
We get outstanding performances by Lupita Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn who, for obvious reasons, couldn't rely on too much dialogue, but instead conveyed so much emotion through their eyes and faces.
The monsters are frightful. The performances are powerful. But the story goes well beyond the surface of survival in the midst of a monster invasion, and asks us to consider humanity's reasoning for living when death seems inevitable.
We saw this in Dolby, and it rocked our world. It wasn't as ear-shatteringly loud as Civil War, but we FELT it. Not only do we think you should see this on the big screen, if you are able to, you should absolutely see this in Dolby to truly experience the incredible sound design.
Run, don't walk to go see this in theaters.
🇺🇸 Our favorite movies where America gets destroyed 🇺🇸
Josh
Station Eleven (2021) – not a movie, but a miniseries about the destruction of America that had me thinking about it for days, weeks, and, well, a very, very long time afterward. Incredibly well adapted from the book with the same title, beautifully shot, and memorable performances from literally every person. A flu wipes out most of the world, and the series follows a group of people who hold onto parts of life that were pre-pandemic and envision a new world to live in with art and storytelling at its center.
Sarah
Love and Monsters (2020). This is kinda cheating for this take because it’s a Monsterpocalypse, so the whole world has encountered this destruction. BUT. I will sing Dylan O’Brien’s praises until my dying day [have you SEEN the “All Too Well - 10 minute version (Taylor’s Version)” music video!?]. This movie is sort of a coming of age, survival, boy & dog journey. I thought it was going to be so hokey, then I finished it weeping and in awe of the storytelling and acting.
Eric
Dawn of the Dead (2003). One of the best intro sequences of any zombie movie, shoot of any horror movie for that matter. Super fun with a killer cast. The zombies were just right. The story was great. And the moral? Consumerism is the downfall of us all.
New Mexico Drew
I absolutely adore the movie Mars Attacks (1996) by Tim Burton. I’m not sure how Burton was able to convince so many top stars to agree to such a zany, outlandish script, but I’ll count my blessings that he did. Those CGI martians wreak havoc on America, with the Strip in Las Vegas taking the brunt of the damage. Caesars Palace, a mobile home, Jack Black, no place and no person was safe.
Celebrate our country’s independence by watching Americans act like idiots and get obliterated for it. 🫡
What’s your take? Hit Reply or leave a comment below and let us know!
Nosferatu (2024) directed by Robert Eggers
I remember having to watch the original Nosferatu (1922) in school. It’s one of those movies that isn’t fun to watch at all, but is really important to cinema history because it’s essentially the start of the modern horror genre. So I have to tip my hat to the ambition and guts of Robert Eggers for taking this on.
Eggers is known for his period-piece horror movies and after seeing the first trailer, it looks like all of his previous work has primed him to deliver us an incredible remake a hundred years after the original.
My favorite part of all of this is the absolute savage and punk rock move to release this movie on Christmas Day. Such a middle finger to conventions and a testament to the pull Eggers has in Hollywood right now.
-NMD
Letterboxd Description:
A gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.
Other movies directed by Robert Eggers:
The VVitch(2015)
The Lighthouse (2019)
The Northman (2022)
Podcast Update! With Eric and Josh #027
🎧 Listen to this podcast at Apple Podcasts or Spotify
🎥 Watch the video of this podcast on Spotify
In this episode, Eric and Josh switch things up and announce podcast changes. The major one being this podcast feed will now be called The Sweet and Condensed Podcast! Like the newsletter, socials, and website.
Eric and Josh dive into a wide range of topics including their personal experiences, humorous anecdotes, movie and TV recommendations, and exciting updates for their podcast BUT not to worry, Living A Stream will still be a frequent episode within the Sweet and Condensed podcast. Full episode post and shownotes here🎙️
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