April 22, 2025
Prisoners (2013) / Almost Old Bones Bourbon
The player is loading ...
Bob and Brad dive into the brooding, morally complex thriller Prisoners (2013), directed by Denis Villeneuve. With towering performances from Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal, the film explores justice, vengeance, and the disturbing gray areas in between. Then, they uncork a bottle of Almost Old Bones Bourbon, a high-proof expression with deep flavor and plenty of mystery—just like the film. Does this small-batch whiskey hold its own on the Film & Whiskey flavor scale?
(0:00) Intro
(4:59) Brad Explains
(7:20) Performances, Themes
(30:45) Almost Old Bones Bourbon review
(40:10) Two Facts and a Falsehood
(47:21) Final Analysis
(57:29) Let's Make it a Double and Final Scores
Save on your bottle of Blackwood (use code FILMWHISKEY)
Film & Whiskey Instagram
Film & Whiskey Twitter
Email us!
For more episodes and engaging content, visit Film & Whiskey's website at www.filmwhiskey.com.
Transcript
Brad
In 2013, director Denis Villeneuve and star Hugh Jackman gave the world a quietly violent thriller that keeps you captive till the final moment.Bob
In 2025, we could not have picked a better thematic bourbon to pair this thing up with, Brad. Better? More apt?
I think worse might have been the word. More apt, we'll say that. Oh man, the film is prisoners.
The whiskey is almost Old Bones bourbon. That's bad, bro.Brad
Oh, we're going to review both of those things today here on The Film and Whiskey Podcast.Bob
Welcome to The Film and Whiskey Podcast, where each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad Gee.
And this week we are looking at the 2013 Denis Villeneuve film, Prisoners. Dude, I've been waiting a long time to watch this one with you. And I fear that, I don't think I ever tried to hype it up as like, this is the best movie you'll ever see.
But I fear that just like kicking the can down the road so long really did not set you up for what an absolute downer of a movie this is going to be for you.Brad
I think if anything, I have worked out my, as you said last episode, I've worked out my cinematic critique muscles enough that I think I have enough heft to actually say why I don't like this movie. Okay. All right.
Because the thing is, this is like a solid 9 out of 10 really well-made Mystic River-esque type film, right? Sure. I don't like the decisions that Denis makes.
Now, are you talking like the... The moral, emotional decisions that he makes. Okay.
Throughout this film.Bob
So here's the thing. You're supposed to bury the lead a little bit, man. Like we are one and a half minutes into this episode, and half our audience knows exactly where we're going already.
And the other half is just along for the ride, and they're waiting for the whiskey segment. So hang with us. But I want to drill down immediately on what you're talking about here.
So you say you don't like this movie, and it sounds like what you're saying is like, I feel gross having watched this movie, and I don't like where it goes. No. And you also said, I don't like the decisions that Denis makes.
So is it like where the story goes? Because that's a writing thing. Or is it like visually decisions that the director is making that irk you?Brad
Oh, it's absolutely Denis' decisions. And sure, the script maybe calls for it. But specifically, this is a movie about how everyone is a prisoner to their own story.
Right. Do we want to do Brad Explains real quick? So get it out of the way.Bob
This is the weirdest episode we've ever done. This feels so chaotic, dude. Sure.
Let's do Brad Explains. Brad Explains is the part. You know what?
No, we're not going to do Brad Explains. This feels so chaotic. Yeah, we'll do Brad Explains in like 30 seconds.
Let me say this. It's still so early in the episode that I haven't said. Welcome into film and whiskey, folks.
If this is your first episode, this is a wild one so far. What we do on this podcast is we talk about movies and whiskey. And this season, we're looking at films from the past 20 years and we're asking the question, does this movie deserve to be considered a modern masterpiece?
Now, Brad, this is at least the, I don't know, third or fourth Denis Villeneuve film we've done on the show. We've done Sicario. We've done Arrival.
We've done Dune Part Two. So this must be four. I don't think we've done any others.
But we've done. Yeah, I think that's it. I've done enough that we know our boy Denis likes himself a very dark tale.
And this is his first big American film. So I think it's worth us talking about. It's worth us exploring.
And it's worth getting into Brad Explains. Brad Explains. Brad Explains is the part of the show where Brad breaks down the plot of the film that he has just seen often for the first time.
Brad, this was absolutely your first time with the movie Prisoners, a film that I totally forgot has a runtime of two hours and 33 minutes. This is a long movie. Oh, it's so long, dude.
It's very long.Brad
It is.Bob
It is only like 15 minutes shorter than Dune Part Two. That's how long this movie is. Yeah.Brad
Yeah. And I would say that Dune Two feels longer, though.Bob
This movie moves fast, man. There's a lot going on in this movie. It's a very simple premise, but it gets very twisty.
It's very plot heavy. So, Brad, I'm going to go ahead and let you explain the movie. Folks, if you have not seen Prisoners, man, do we want to say go watch it and then come back?
It's a very heavy movie. I think that if you've seen films like Brad said, Mystic River or Zodiac, I think would be a good comparison or Seven. I think Fincher's Seven is a pretty good comparison point to the kind of heaviness and griminess and grossness that you're going to get here.
And if that's your bag, go watch Prisoners. Come back and join us for the rest of the episode. Brad, you get 60 seconds to spoil this movie and go.Brad
Prisoners is a film that follows Keller Dover, played by Hugh Jackman, as he tries to solve the mystery of his and his friend's abducted daughters. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a detective who is on the case as they follow a promising lead of a creepy RV with a creepy Paul Dano, which kind of leads somewhere, kind of leads nowhere. Eventually, they find out that it's Paul Dano's creepy aunt who has been doing it for decades now with her husband, and they're evil and bad, and they want to turn people into monsters.
And in the middle of all that, Hugh Jackman tortures Paul Dano. And it's it's pleasant and just an easy, breezy, lemon squeezy kind of a movie.Bob
It certainly is, man. Just a delight. This movie, I tell you.
All right, so I'm going to kind of walk through the movie in terms of, like, things I thought in sequential order. And the very first thing I thought when Paul. Go ahead.
You didn't let me finish.Brad
I said we need to get in. Brad explains. So I don't spoil anything because I got thoughts, Bob.Bob
Oh, OK. So my thoughts are getting put on the back burner. Go ahead.
Give your thoughts. Yes, you already are. You're supposed to bury the lead, man.
Wait for things to come up, dude. All right, give your thoughts.Brad
Denny knows where this movie is going. He knows that the entire purpose of the film is to portray how we are all prisoners of our own story. And yet at every single turn that there could have been any emotional catharsis, he fades to black.
Every single time you could have any sense of like. OK, like like this all bad stuff has happened. And yet and yet, oh, wait, we just faded to black.
There's no catharsis. And I think that's my problem with this movie. Yeah, it's that it's bleak.
If you're going to make a movie about one of the most horrifying thing that can happen on this Earth. You can't take away the emotional catharsis of seeing things be OK. And like that is a capital C choice from Denny, and I think I just I'm just in utter disagreement that that is a OK way to make a movie.
It's like it would be better if the movie ended with the children dying and allowing you to sit with a grieving family.Bob
Yikes. You heard it here first, folks. Brad G, huge proponent of the bleakest possible ending to this film.Brad
I am a huge proponent of movies being an emotional medium that allow us to. It brings things out of us that we might not normally be able to do in real life, and a movie that refuses to allow you to have catharsis. I think it's a.
I don't know what's the word I want to use. I don't want to say, like, I think there's malintention. Interesting of some sort that that you would refuse to allow the audience to experience catharsis.Bob
All right, let me let me respond, please. So this is an interesting episode for us because I don't know that you've ever jumped on a call to discuss a movie as soon after the movie is finished as we just did today. Like you literally just finished this movie and I can tell that like you're still grappling with it.
And that's really cool because usually we give ourselves like a day to kind of collect our thoughts and put some structure around things. This is a very visceral response from you, which is great. I think it's going to make for an interesting episode.
I'm with you, man. I think that the the utter bleakness of this movie is intentional. Denis is purposely not allowing any emotional catharsis to happen, and it's underscoring his point that the world is kind of a cruel and punishing place, and it's a place that we make cruel and punishing through our own machinations.
However, I also think that part of the reason it doesn't totally work, and this is crazy. Have you ever seen the movie Seven, Brad? I have not.
OK, and that's another one I've been kicking the can down the road on. It is it is perhaps the bleakest crime movie ever, and the general premise of the movie. I don't know if you're familiar, but there's a serial killer who is murdering people in the pattern of the seven deadly sins, so basically punishing people for their sins.
And the ending of that movie is just horrifically bleak. But what's in the box? Yes, yes.
So it it goes all the way with its premise. And I feel like this one kind of pulls its punch a little bit at the end. So I'm with you.
Like, I didn't. Obviously, I don't want to see the kidnapped children meet their demise in this film. However, there's something about the like, oh, things kind of ended well, and maybe things will kind of end well for Hugh Jackman's character, who, spoiler alert, is literally still a prisoner hoping to be rescued at the end of this film.
And and those weird moments of not even hope, but like. I don't know. Respite from what's been going on just don't really fit with the way the film has been made for two and a half hours.
And so I'm with you that, like. There are certain points where you you wish for a little bit of relief and the movie is unrelenting. And then as it hurdles towards its climax, it tries to give moments of relief when it needs to just fully commit.
Does that make sense? A hundred percent.Brad
The only relief that you get are the small moments of humanity that that Hugh Jackman shows like, dude, when he is about to turn on the the hot or cold water tap on Paul Dano again and instead the tears roll down his face like that is the extent of the respite you get for this movie. Yeah, it's freaking brutal, man.Bob
So I want to dive into performances. But before we do that, let me go back to what I was going to say right after Brad explains the very first thought I had about this movie is as the credits are coming up that just say like the title of the movie and it's in this like really cheap looking like Times New Roman font that you could just tell like somebody did a drop down on Microsoft Word. I was like, who else does cheap fonts like that?
What does this remind me of? And I was like, oh, it reminds me of the beginning of like every Clint Eastwood movie. Like the fade in on the town and throughout the first 10 or so minutes of the movie, I was like, oh, this really is like an Eastwood movie.
This is like it reminded me of Mystic River. It reminded me of he did a great movie called Changeling about 15 years ago, and I was prepared for the Eastwood moral quandary movie. And I feel like this might have actually been a better movie if it was more of an Eastwood movie and less of a plot driven, twisty serial killer movie because it kind of hints at I mean, obviously it portrays like Hugh Jackman is a very broken man who is willing to go to some horrific places and really not like he kind of feels conflicted at parts, doesn't make many apologies for it.
And then you watch like Terrence Howard and Viola Davis and like the places they're willing to go. And it's bro when Viola Davis stops Terrence Howard. Yeah.
From letting him out. Yeah. Oh, and I like that they explicitly show that people will allow their own morals to get bent or broken when they're pushed far enough or they feel like they need to.
It's an interesting psychological experiment. I just think Eastwood is way better at plumbing the depths of those things than what Villeneuve does in this movie, because ultimately those things take a backseat to like, but who's the real killer? Do we pull the rug out from under you now and do this twisty thing?
Like, how are we going to find these kids? And, and I, I feel bad saying this, but like the heart of the movie really isn't even in the like, will the kids get found as a, as an audience member? Right.
Because halfway through the movie, they've like given up on ever finding these kids. It's in like, what is this going to do to these people's souls? And I feel like about two thirds of the way through the movie, they just stop exploring that and they have to like wrap it up with a bunch of plot stuff.Brad
Totally agreed. I think structurally, one of my issues with this movie, putting all the morals of it aside, I do think that at the end of the day, the creepy aunt, who's very obviously the kidnapper, like that, that was the big thing for me. If you're going to make this movie feel like a whodunit mystery thriller, then like do a better job of hiding the real suspect.
As I don't know about you, the first time you saw it, it felt very obvious to me that Paul Dano's creepy aunt was the one who did it. The last third of the movie just kind of felt like, well, I guess we got to wrap it up now. We're almost two and a half hours in, so wrap it up.Bob
And it wraps up so neatly. Every character that you've been like, who's this random guy? She confesses to like, oh, we kidnapped that kid too.
He's just a really messed up kid now that we let him go eventually. It's like, wait a minute, you guys still live in the same city? What's going on here?
And I think that comparing it to Zodiac from earlier in the season, a movie that you weren't crazy about. And it's it's funny because I think Gyllenhaal got on a real tear with these dark like between Zodiac, this and nocturnal animals. Like my guy was in a state for a while there, but at least in Zodiac, they kind of just let the loose ends be loose ends.
And it's acknowledged that like that's part of a police investigation. You're going to get introduced to some real weird dudes and think that they must have done it. And then they just didn't.
And I kind of appreciate that more than what they do in this movie, which is like everybody you've met in this movie is going to tie back into this in this one monologue that our Bond villain lady is going to give at the end of the film. It just it didn't quite click for me. It works too neatly.
Yeah. Yeah, well, especially in a movie that's all about like chaos and messiness, like to wrap up that neatly just feels false.Brad
I think the most fascinating like plot mystery intrigue that happens is the fact that the wife doesn't know that her husband who committed all these crimes with her had himself locked in a priest basement so he would die and not not kidnap children anymore.Bob
Is that what the priest says? Or is it my read on that scene when Gyllenhaal is like forcing him down the cellar and he says like he came back to me. I convinced him to come back here again.
I just thought the priest just locked him in there until he died. I didn't realize that he let himself do it.Brad
Yeah, the priest said he forced me to put him down there because he didn't want to commit these crimes anymore. Oh, interesting. And like that, that to me, it was the thing I walked away from going like, that's an interesting, like well written sucks me in kind of plot point of like this dude who has done abject evil with his wife and like finally hits a true breaking point where he feels like his only penance is to starve himself to death in a priest basement.
Yeah, like that to me was the most fascinating plot point of the whole movie.Bob
Well, it sounds like we're complaining a lot about this movie. I think this is a good movie, like not even a pretty good movie. I think it's a good movie.
It just kind of misses greatness and I think that it mostly misses greatness in the script. The script wraps up too tidily and the reveal at the end that Melissa Leo's character is the villain. She really does give like a Bond level monologue and then walks him out to the car, puts the gun to his head, says like, this is our war against God.
And a like, yes, we gathered that from what you said prior in the film. Like, I get it. I know what you're doing here.
Be like human beings will never communicate like that. Like no one will ever say, I need you to understand that my evil plot is a metaphor. And this is the metaphor.
It's like it just doesn't work that way.Brad
You know, I don't know, man. What about the Manson murders? What did he say?
I'm the devil and I'm here to do devil shit.Bob
That might not be verbatim. All right, let's talk about these performances. This is a kind of unnecessarily stacked cast.
Like, yeah, obviously you think about Jackman and Gyllenhaal, but Maria Bello, Jackman's wife is a like moderately famous actress in the mid 2000s to 20 teens. And then you've got like Terrence Howard, who is struggling post Iron Man and getting cut from Marvel. And so they get him here.
Viola Davis is on the come up after the help. And it's like, this is not the kind of performance you would get Viola Davis in after 2013. But she just happens to be here.
So I think let's talk a little bit about the two main performances. And maybe we could take a break. I didn't even mention Paul Dano.
Paul Dano. And then the other creepy guy, David Dastmalchian, who is just made a name for himself playing creepy guys. Apparently, like a lovely person and a good actor.
Really?Brad
But yeah, I feel like I feel like it's him and Paul Dano that any casting director gets a note like, okay, we need a super creepy dude, like kind of androgynous somewhere between 25 and 45. Yeah. And they got Paul Dano and David Dastmalchian.Bob
Do you want him to have a super bony face or like a very round cherubic face?Brad
Pudgy face. That's it.Bob
Those are the two differentiators. Let's start with the two guys at the top, Brad. And then I think we could probably go to break.
Jackman, I think, is the better one for conversation because this is one of his bigger dramatic roles, you know, kind of in the midst of his 11 Wolverine appearances or however many it's been, and I think it's a really good performance. I also think that sometimes when these guys that are coming from superhero movies get a chance to go do something else and reset, you can almost see them trying to relearn how to not be a superhero like on screen. And I think Jackman has moments where it's like not just really good, but believable, like when the emotion takes over.
And then there are other times where it's like, oh, he's just really going for it. You know, the first scene where Terrence Howard is helping hold him up against the wall and he's got the hammer and he's like destroying the sink. And that was like a big, oh, Hugh Jackman did this unexpectedly and everybody was terrified.
And I'm watching that like if I'm another actor in a scene, I'm like silently pleading with him with my eyes to like dial it back a little. It's just there are moments where he goes so over the top that it almost takes me out of the movie. I think I kind of disagree on that.
Oh, interesting.Brad
I if I don't know, man, if my six, seven, eight year old daughter was taken like I don't know if I wouldn't do very similar things. I wouldn't do very similar things because I'm a good person. Sure, you are.
Sure, you are. That's what this movie posits. Brad, are you?
Let the record show that Brad, she would not do those things. It didn't seem over the top to me.Bob
OK, if someone would want to do those. I'm not saying necessarily that like his actions seem over. I mean, his actions are obviously over the top, but like I think even the way that he portrays an unhinged man felt more like a guy trying really hard to play an unhinged man than than a believably unhinged man, if that makes sense.Brad
Yeah, I think it's the quiet moments for him that that I already mentioned that make the the wild moments believable. I agree. Like because he's not one dimensional, he's not just like a singular thread.
There's an entire tapestry to his character. Like, I believe the anger and rage and violence because I believe the tears, the prayers, the inability to say, as I forgive those who have forgiven it. Like, yeah, it's those moments that make me believe this is a well-rounded, fleshed out character.
And I don't mind the ridiculousness as much.Bob
All right. Let's talk about Gyllenhaal then, because I said all that about Jackman specifically because I think Gyllenhaal just kind of runs laps around him in this movie. Like Jackman may not be a one dimensional character, but I think the way he chooses to play that character limits his range a little bit.
And I think ultimately, even though Gyllenhaal is not top build in this movie, this is kind of Gyllenhaal's movie. I think he really runs away with it in a way that like, you know, you had commented on his Zodiac performance as I don't quite know what he's going for here in this character, and it didn't click for me. I think Gyllenhaal is just like in complete command of this movie, dude.Brad
Well, the reason I like him better in this movie is that they give you just enough fleshed out of who he is, like just a few tiny comments of like, I grew up in a group home. He's wearing a Freemasons ring throughout the entire movie. Like there's just enough hints of like, if he didn't become a police officer, he might have ended up as a serial killer.
Like that. I like his character here, and he has the ticks, the facial ticks, and he explodes just often enough that you're like, oh, this is a real human being really struggling with understanding his own emotions, understanding what's happening in this case. He just nails everything about this role.
I think this is my favorite Gyllenhaal performance.Bob
It's really good, man. And I think that he's got to be the MVP of the movie for me. I can't think of somebody else that would be.
Totally.Brad
Yeah. I mean, nobody else has enough meat to chew on. Like Viola Davis is really good, but she's just kind of a background character.
Terrence Howard is basically like, hey, can you be kind of a sissy and not stand up to Hugh Jackman as he's wild? And he nails it. He does a great job at that.
But, you know, there's nothing too wild to write home about. Really, it's Jack and Hall that have everything to work.Bob
I did find myself throughout the movie wondering, like, I wonder if there's going to be a read on this film that like Brad and I interpret the Jackman character just completely differently. I mean, because I think you would agree like the movie does not want you to root for Hugh Jackman or or even approve of his methods. Right.
I think everyone has a spectrum of like, hey, I understand what would cause somebody to do this. But even within that, like, I really liked the Terrence Howard character. I didn't find him to be a sissy.
Like, I felt like he was the only one that was like, you guys like we can't do this is not right. We can't go forward with this. And then finding himself not necessarily just getting peer pressured, but also like, yeah, I guess there is a little part of me that kind of wants these answers.
And he's the most conflicted person in the whole movie. And I found that he played that super well. Like, is there a lot of tears?
Absolutely. I don't necessarily know that I would say that makes him like a sissy. I just think that he's he's probably got the strongest moral backbone of anybody in the movie.
And to watch him even have that moral backbone get bent was one of the more compelling characters for me.Brad
Now, he hands the reins over at multiple points in the movie. He has morals, tries to stand up for them. And then people who people just bulldoze over him, right?
Like Hugh Jackman bulldoze over him with a hammer and, you know, iron conviction and his wife bulldozes him over with a soft word. Yeah. So I like in my mind, he is portrayed even when the thing that cemented it in my brain is when Viola Davis and he show up at Hugh Jackman's house.
It's the way Hugh Jackman looks at him like you betrayed me, bro. Like we were in this together. And the way he looks at Hugh Jackman is just kind of like a beaten guppy.
Like, oh, well, my wife had to know and you had to know. And I'm caught between my boyfriend and my girlfriend.Bob
I mean, and I can't. Yeah, it is. I just wonder, maybe I'm just the most like him in terms of how I think I would react in a situation like this, because like watching them.
I'm Hugh Jackman.Brad
You're clearly Hugh Jackman.Bob
I don't trust you at all, bro. But like, I think that watching the psychological manipulation of him was really interesting. Like the way Viola talks to him, like implying that if we let off of this guy, you will be responsible if something bad happens to our daughter.
And that like accusation sitting with him and ultimately causing him to be kind of cowardly in that way, it's at least understandable to me. Like, I didn't look at him and be like, are you freaking coward? I was like, yeah, dude, I get it, man.
Like, if somebody came at me and said, like, we can stop, but it's all your fault. If something goes wrong, that's that's hard to live with, dude.Brad
Yeah, 100 percent. And the fact that Viola Davis trusts Keller more to, like, save their daughter than Terrence, like that is the most emasculating thing I think I've ever seen on film. Well, it's like, hey, hey, buddy, you need to step aside and let our big jacked white friend take over.Bob
And Brad, if I can awkwardly segue us into our whiskey for the day, what she's ultimately saying is you need to prevent these beloved members of our family from becoming almost old bones. Brad, it is time to get into our bourbon. What do you say, man?
Let's do it. All right. Today we are checking out almost old bones bourbon.
This is a nine year whiskey. It's called almost old bones, nine year reserve. This is batch number one, which is interesting to me, Brad, because I've literally never heard of this brand before.
This was included in a bunch of samples we received from our buddy Zach Johnston. I thought it sounded cool. And it's you know, when I saw the name almost old bones, I figured, oh, this is going to be like a two year whiskey.
This is a cool way of them saying this is not quite old enough. No, it's nine years old. I was a little shocked by the title here.Brad
Yeah. So the the whiskey comes from Backbone Bourbon Company, which is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, and they start in 2014. They are sourcing their whiskey.
Originally, they had a supplier that stopped supplying them because they didn't have enough representation or something. And so they were like, oh, we wish our supplier had a little more backbone and like helped us out. And that's that's where they got the name.Bob
It is.Brad
You see what they did there? They have a flagship product, Backbone Uncut, and they have an old product called Old Bones, which is a 10 plus year bourbon. And this specific bottle comes from some barrels that they were like, this is nine year product and it's way too good to let it go any further.
But it's not our old bones at 10 plus years, and it's not a regular stuff at like five or six years. So they decided to make a new skew. They called it Almost Old Bones.
It comes in with a mash bill of 75 corn, 15 rye, 10 malted barley. It looks like it was distilled in Bardstown, Kentucky. So, you know, I wonder wonder where that happened.
And it's 110 proof.Bob
Yeah. And at the time that it was released to the retail price on this was $89. I'm not sure if that's gone up or down.
This is a little over a year old as a skew. So I'm excited to dive in, man. It's been a while since we've had a good, well aged bourbon.
You've drank it already. I'm drinking it live. So why don't you give us your nosing notes?Brad
Dude, this is just a really beautiful honey, caramel, apple peel, brown sugar. Like it's got all sorts of really deep, rich bourbon notes going on with the honey is what stood out to me of like a little bit of a lightness to the flavor that accentuates all of the really rich notes. I get really beautiful on the nose.
Bob, I give it an eight out of ten.Bob
Yeah, I think I'm going to give it a nine out of ten. It's been a minute since I've had a nose that reminds me of some of those great classic foolproof or higher proof bourbons from the big boys. This reminds me a little bit of like a wild turkey rare breed on the nose.
Even more so, it reminds me of 1792 foolproof. So I'm wondering if Barton might have actually distilled this for them. It's really spicy on the nose.
And I think that the 15% rye is really coming through here. But there's a layer of almost like a saline kind of thing, too. It smells a little bit like not quite salted caramel, but more like a salted maple.
I really, really like this, man. And it is closer to a classic bourbon than anything we've had in a while. I'm at a nine out of ten.Brad
Yeah, and the palate just continues to improve upon the nose, Bob. It gets a little bit oaky, but in a really beautiful, enhancing type of way. There is tons of brown sugar.
There's apple, the creaminess and vanilla. I feel like I just had a big scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream at the county fair. There are all sorts of really rich flavors.
It almost gets spicy enough that it feels like a fall apple cider. There's a little bit of cinnamon there. I like this a lot.
I'm going to give it an eight and a half out of ten.Bob
I don't find that it has quite enough sweetness to be like a Bob Book staple. It really stays on the spicy side. And this is like super prickly on the tongue.
You probably could have convinced me that this was even higher proof than 110 because it drinks barrel strength. That said, I think that this is right in line with a lot of those whiskies, Brad, that like when we go to Kentucky Bourbon Festival every year and we line up at that tent of all the single barrels that have been picked. This is this is like barrel strength, Bardstown, Kentucky whiskey.
I really like this a lot. I do wish it was a little bit more viscous and a little sweeter. But I think that like, even though it's not my preferred wheelhouse, I can't go any lower than an eight out of ten on the palate.Brad
The finish has like a little bit of oak char going on. It's got brown sugar, the vanilla sticks around, and it definitely gets more spicy on the back end. I still like it a lot.
I think the palate is the real all star here, but I will give it an eight out of ten on the finish.Bob
Yeah, I think that it gets. Man, I feel like it was maybe last week that I was talking about the kind of minerality. This gets a little bit of like that mineral water quality again for me.
Not quite like irony or metallic, but it kind of tips into that. Um, I don't know. Maybe maybe some salt, maybe some like limestone.
It's a little bit oaky and it loses all sweetness on the finish. And so the finish is my least favorite part of this. Now, again, I don't think that it's like out of character for what I've tasted so far.
It's just not my preferred thing. So I'm going to give it a seven point five here, and I'm going to give it an eight out of ten on the balance, just because it is not my favorite kind of bourbon. Doesn't mean that the kind of bourbon it is is in any way out of character.
Like this is a very cohesive drinking experience. I like this a lot. I'm at an eight out of ten.Brad
I'm also at an eight out of ten on balance. I think that they're they they put together a really great grouping of flavors, and I'm kind of with them like they I if I tasted this out of the barrel, I also would be like, you know, we can't wait any longer. This is delicious as is.
I'd be very nervous about it souring, becoming a little too oaky if it was left in the barrel any longer. Now, I will say MSRP on this is ninety dollars. Everywhere else that I'm seeing it is like one hundred and ten to one hundred and thirty dollars.
So I don't know, Bob, do you want to price this at one ten? Do you want to price it at nine?Bob
So is that like is that just for the batch one? And because there's like limited supply or is that for newer batches? You're seeing that.Brad
It looks like they're still on batch one. OK, so I guess if you're in Indiana, you can get it for ninety dollars.Bob
Let's go with that then, because it may just be a thing of like the price has gone up because there's more of a limited supply now. And so when they come out, if they come out with a batch two, I'm sure that it will be closer to ninety at ninety dollars. This is this is still a little bit steep for me.
It kind of reminds me of like some of those Hardin's Creeks that we've had from the Jim Beam Company. Not the two year one, but the more well-aged one where it's just like man, you got to really knock my socks off to charge me ninety dollars for a bourbon. Now it's it's nine years old.
I get that. This is still like a seventy dollar bourbon to me. So I'm going to give it just a five out of ten on value.Brad
Oh, wow. Yeah, we're going to be pretty far off on that. I initially thinking it was one ten was thinking it's about twenty to thirty dollars too expensive.
So for me, I like I think eighty to ninety dollars fits for this product. It's not like an all star value by by any stretch of the imagination. I don't think it's a five out of ten.
I'll give it a seven and a half out of ten. I think it's a decent value for what you're getting. And I will say, like I overall, I was really impressed with this whiskey, Bob.Bob
What are you coming out to, Brad? Met a forty out of fifty. I'm at a thirty seven and a half.
So even though I gave it a much lower value score, like this is definitely a recommend for me. And it's a pretty solid thumbs up. We're coming out to an average of a thirty eight point seven five.
So kind of just below that forty mark where we kind of say this is a no brainer. You've achieved the forty mark, Brad. Is this a is this a qualified recommend?
Or is this like a absolutely pick it up if you see it anywhere?Brad
Uh, no, I would say that if you want a good classic bourbon experience that has a richness and depth that you don't find on most, you know, forty to sixty dollar bourbons. Like this is a good pickup.Bob
All right, man. Well, that that was pretty painless. What do you say we get back into talking about prisoners, which is not at all painless?
Let's let's do it, man. I'm ready.Brad
All right, everybody. That was almost old bones bourbon. It feels like it almost hit the right notes for you, Bob.Bob
Almost. It was like, I think, what, thirty seven and a half. Not not a bad score by any stretch of the imagination.Brad
It's so funny how, you know, we were two and a half points apart. I was at a forty. And yet I feel like if you just listen to our audio without any scores, we would be like eight points apart.Bob
And it's also funny sometimes like you and I get that impression about each other. And it's like, oh, I feel like you're super negative on this. And then it's like, surprise, motherfucker.
Thirty seven and a half. Right. Yeah.
Oh, man. All right, dude. It's time for us to get into two facts and a falsehood.
And I have to say, I am incredibly disappointed in our friend Patrick Willems. He's a busy man, so I know he's not listening to this. I am.
I am debating whether to ever let him back on after giving me two freaking losses last week on this, Brad. The comeback is happening, Bob. I'm going to get you.
All right, let's get into this segment called two facts and a falsehood.Two Facts and a Falsehood
Brad is going to try to stump you, Bob, to our right. And what is wrong? Two facts and a falsehood.Bob
Two facts and a falsehood is the part of the show where Brad presents me with three items as fact about the making of this movie, one of which is a complete lie. Brad, I haven't tallied up my wins and losses in a couple of weeks. But like I said, they are they have increased by two in the loss column.
And that freaking sucks. So I'm hoping for some redemption here. We've only got one, two, three, four, five episodes, including today left on the season.
So I'm doing kind of a mad dash to make sure I finish with a winning record here.Brad
Yeah, I think if I'm counting correctly, you're sitting at ten losses. Oh, and I'm guessing probably like 13 to 15 wins, something in that area.Bob
So it sounds like it has been. Yeah, it sounds like 16 wins because there was one week where we did not do a two facts and a falsehood given the subject matter of the movie spotlight. And honestly, we probably could have done the same thing today, man.
But yeah, I were a trooper.Brad
Yeah, I was sitting there like, man, how do I write a falsehood or facts and be like, yeah, don't worry about the two little girls you just watched get kidnapped and the torture you saw Paul Dano experience. Did you know that Denise smokes Lucky Strikes?Bob
You should have done it in like an old timey game show announcer voice. Like, did you know that that should be the kind of thing?Brad
And now, you know the rest of the story. All right, man, hit me with those two facts and a falsehood. Fact number one, director Denis Villeneuve first met Roger Deakins at the Academy Awards when Denis was up for Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2010.
A huge fan of the film, Deakins told Villeneuve that he would love to work with him. And it just so happened that Villeneuve was able to send him the screenplay for Prisoners shortly after. Fact number two, the impossible maze shown throughout the film was actually created by Adrian Fisher, a famous British maze designer.
He allowed it to be used in the film only once he knew that the children in the film did not, in fact, die. Fact number three, to play Holly Jones, Melissa Leo wore a gray wig and a foam rubber posterior prepared by costume designer Renee April in order to ground her character. Leo also requested the props assistance to avoid cleaning her glasses after each day's shooting.Bob
All right, so number two and number three both stick out to me for for kind of small ish reasons. Number three, because I feel like you could have inserted a commentary about someone's fake butt. It just seems like it could be a Brad Pitt invent a Brad Pitt, a Brad G invention.
Ooh, yeah, I know. I did, baby. I think butts.
I think Brad Pitt, you know, number two could potentially be a falsehood because I find it hard to believe that they wanted this maze so badly for this movie that they would be willing to spoil the end of the film to some rando just to use his maze when they could have just easily designed a maze that looked unsolvable for the three seconds that it's on screen. And in fact, I think that I've already talked myself into it. Number three could very well be the falsehood.
I think I'm going to go with two Brad. That seems like the biggest stretch to me. So I'm going to lock in number two as my falsehood.Brad
Bob, you have nailed it once again. This is your season of victories, my friend.Bob
Yeah, not so much, dude, given that I am coming off two consecutive losses, I guess three consecutive losses based on last week. So I'm glad to get back in the win column. Nicely done on the falsehood, though.
That was a pretty good one. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I thought it was pretty decent.
Brad, let's give the listeners a peek behind the curtain here a little bit. How long does it typically take you to do your like, not just to collate the two facts, but to write your falsehood?Brad
It's probably like a 20 to 30 minute process. Oh, wow. OK, I used to I used to find the two truths and then write the falsehood.
I can't do that anymore because there's like too much information in my head and it makes the creative process difficult. So nowadays I sit down and I just kind of ponder like things about the movie, stuff that I found interesting, stuff that stuck out to me. And I'll like write a few falsehoods and then try to find the one that makes the most sense that might trick you.
I love it, man. I'm glad. And then it's probably like 10 minutes or so browsing the IMDb page trying to find innocuous facts about the movie, but facts that are interesting enough that like once you know they're true, it's like, oh, that is kind of interesting.
So it's like a hard it's a hard balance, man.Bob
Well, and you made a good point a little bit ago, like with a movie like this, it's got to be hard to find facts that don't feel too flippant that like undermine how heavy of a movie we're talking about. Yep.Brad
Or there's like one was about Holly Jones. So the character is Alex Jones's aunt is Holly Jones. And apparently that's like the name of a child in Toronto who was abducted and killed.
Oh, I'm like, I don't I don't know if that's a fact. I like want to throw in my game here.Bob
Yeah. And I feel like that also might just be a coincidence. Like, I can't imagine that like the screenwriter would be like, oh, yeah, let's throw that in here.
That would be a horrific thing to do. Right.Brad
Let's make the name of our of the most evil character. Right. A child who was abducted.
Yeah, that seems a little on the nose in a very not so good way.Bob
All right, man. So we've talked about Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. We've touched a little bit on Terrence Howard, Viola Davis.
We haven't really gone in on. Go ahead. Can I can I say one thing?Brad
We never see Terrence Howard in movies anymore. No. So anytime I see him, I have to remind our audience that he is into some weird stuff and not in a bad way.
He's just like, I mean, maybe not in a good way. He's like into weird maths and like Pythagoras theorem and platonic ideals and solids. And he is a weird dude.
And you should just Google Terrence Howard platonic solids, I think, is his whole thing.Bob
It's pretty wild. He's gone off the deep end a little bit, and he keeps reemerging on podcast. I want to say he did Rogan a couple of years ago, and that was like his big I'm back.
Listen to me now be a scientist. And I've just seen many, many videos of like real scientists being like, I don't know what the hell is he's talking about like this. It's kind of the equivalent of like if all of the girls from your high school that got really into essential oils for three years.
Instead, we're Terrence Howard getting into like I read a science book one time. Here's my thoughts on quantum physics.Brad
You know, it's it's kind of like Tom Cruise doing Scientology. But instead of like going zero dark 30 about Scientology after a while, he just like ramped it up and got more crazy about it. Like that's what it feels like to me.Bob
So Bill Simmons has this great thing that he does on some of his podcast where he talks about how certain actors get market corrected by a new actor that comes after them and kind of takes all their roles. And I feel like Terrence Howard's in this really interesting place from, you know, 2005 to 2012 or whatever it is. He does crash and he does hustle and flow and he's Oscar nominated.
And then, you know, he shows up in this movie. He's obviously an Iron Man. And the unfortunate reality of like being a black star in Hollywood is like there's there's not a lot of great parts for black males or black females.
And so they're all competing against each other. And I feel like he got really typecast as the sensitive leading black man in Hollywood for a while there. He always cried in his movies.
And he kind of market corrected like Cuba Gooding Jr. had come, you know, a decade prior to him. And by this point, he's hitting about 40. His roles are starting to dry up.
Terrence Howard comes. And then Terrence Howard kind of makes his own career nosedive. And it's not for a couple more years after this, but I feel like now the person who's kind of in that typecast role in a lot of ways is Sterling K.
Brown. If you've ever watched This Is Us, like he's he's the guy that you get in your movie when you need an African-American man and you need him to cry in a movie. And like I said, it's an unfortunate reality that we typecast people like this.
But I do miss seeing Terrence Howard. I think that, like, regardless of how cuckoo he may or may not be in real life, he's a really good actor, man.Brad
I I don't know if I've ever been able to separate the kookiness from the acting because I like I never really saw him in anything other than Iron Man growing up. And so for me, it's like, oh, yeah, he was in Iron Man and got replaced by Cuba Gooding Jr. And then I saw videos of him trying to get replaced by Don Cheadle. Oh, I apologize.
Yes. Replaced by Don Cheadle. So he was a replaceable actor that I eventually saw him trying to explain crazy, weird, philosophical math.
Yeah. And so I've never had a super great impression of him, I suppose.Bob
No, that stinks. Yeah, I like him a lot. Come back, Terrence Howard, drop, drop the science stuff and start acting again.
Brad, anybody else in the cast that you think we should touch on? Should we talk a little bit more about Paul Dano or Melissa Leo or do you think we've kind of hit what we need to hit here in terms of the performances?Brad
I think Paul Dano is really good, especially he his performance is one of those ones where he plays everything so close to the chest that like. His role takes on different nuances as the film progresses and as you kind of waver on whether or not he's guilty and then he like chokes his dog and you're like, oh, yeah, he's totally guilty. And then you find out at the end that he's like semi partially guilty, but mostly not.
He's mostly just a traumatized kid himself.Two Facts and a Falsehood
Yep.Brad
And you're like his performance takes on so many different layers when you know the entire backstory that like you're like, yeah, this is a great performance with the tiny amount of screen time that he has. I mean, his eyeballs have a lot of screen time in the film. His whole body doesn't have quite as much.Bob
Yeah, man, I think it's a good performance. Part of what pulls me out of Paul Dano's performance is that he's always struck me as a really intelligent actor who's able to play slimy. I think there will be blood is maybe my favorite performance of his.
And so watching him play a person with an IQ of a 10 year old is a little bit like you're watching a smart person try to figure out in real time how to portray limited mental capability. It's also so similar to his Riddler from the Batman that came out a couple of years ago, which I just did not like that movie that that's kind of I feel like I feel like Dano's getting a little bit typecast here as well. If I can kind of pivot us for a second, the Paul Dano character.
So at the end of the film, it's revealed not only is he not really Alex Jones, he is this kid who had been abducted 25 years prior and never returned because this family just kept him and like is now making him an accomplice to all the horrific things they're doing to children. And you only get this at the very end of the movie, but there's like a newspaper headline that's like, hey, Paul Dano got returned to his original family. And it's like, wait a minute.
Is that how that would work? Like you this guy has been party to like numerous child abductions and or murders and is clearly like almost mute from being so traumatized. And you aren't going to institutionalize that guy like he just gets to go home.
What? That doesn't seem like it's going to end well.Brad
Yeah, his family is going to be totally chill about the whole thing. It's going to be a very easy transition. Nothing to see here.
Moving on.Bob
Well, that coupled with the fact that Jake Gyllenhaal gets mad during an interrogation that's taking too long, goes in and assaults the guy who then grabs his gun and commits suicide in front of him. And they're like, damn, Jake, tough day at the office. All right, get back out there and keep knocking on doors.
Wait, hold on. You're not suspended. Not just not off the case.Brad
Yeah, not just knock on doors. Go to the relative of the man who was just kept in captivity for a week and tortured within an inch of his life. Go let her know what was going on.
I trust you with the guy to do that. You're clearly in a good headspace right now. So just go do that for us.
Exactly. And honestly, that's kind of my thing with this movie where there's a lot about it that's really great and really done well. Like Deakins is a master.
He's the best. But there's stuff like this that I'm just kind of like, oh, I don't know if this was I don't I don't know if it was well thought out. I don't know if there was plans for it.
It feels like an early effort from a really great director that he would have cleaned up a lot if he made it 10 years later.Bob
I agree. And I think he would have done more work on the script himself. You know, I remember seeing this movie and being like, oh, that was a really good movie.
And then the following I guess it was the following year that Sicario came out and didn't really make a huge splash at the box office. But I remember seeing like this is the guy that did Prisoners. And I was like, oh, man, I should go watch this movie.
I remember seeing it when they still had the dollar theater. I went to the dollar theater and watched Sicario. And I was like, oh, this dude took a jump.
This is like this is a big movie is a huge undertaking. And he is in total command of the material here. And I think revisiting Prisoners, Brad, my big takeaway is that Denis Villeneuve is a master filmmaker who at this point of his career, the material was dictating what he could do rather than him being in control of the material.Brad
Absolutely. I think there's a lot to love about Prisoners, and it really does point to where he's going to go. I'm with you, man.
The fact that Sicario came out, you said a year later. Yeah, either one or two years later. Is mind boggling to me because I really do think it is a pretty vastly superior movie to this.
And like I said, it's not to put this down. I do struggle with the morality of taking your audience to a place of emotional destitution and then leaving them there. I don't think that that's what people deserve for having spent their money on watching your movie, and not from the sense that we should just feel happy feelings for movies.
I think that it needs to come more full circle. But even beyond that, there's a few things in this movie that he just needed to work on, and he does it quickly and becomes such an incredible director.Bob
Well, it sounds like we're tipping into final scores here. But before we get there, we have one more segment to get to. It's our final segment of the day, which we call Let's Make It a Double.Two Facts and a Falsehood
So thanks for listening to the film and whiskey show. Let's pair another film with this one, even if it's a struggle. It's a final segment of the day.Bob
Now let's make it a double. Let's make it a double is presented by Blackwood Distilling Company. It's the part of the show where we pick a movie to pair up with this one to make the perfect double feature.
Brad, we've thrown out a lot of titles today. I don't really have any like cute, clever thing here. I think the best movie to pair.
I really hope you don't. Yeah, right. The best movie to pair this with in terms of just like this is a dour, sad, heavy movie would be seven.
I don't personally like that flavor of film, so I would I would choose to pair this with a movie like Gone, Baby Gone, which is also very much about similar thematic territory of a missing child. But it does a better job to me of asking those thornier questions and leaving you in ambiguity instead of just in a bleak, dire place. So I prefer that movie to this.
I think they'd make an interesting pairing. But once again, I keep coming back to the fact Ben Affleck's first movie to me is his best movie. So I'm going to continue to recommend Gone, Baby Gone.Brad
That is actually what I was going to pair it with as well, Bob. Oh, nice. Yeah, I think Gone, Baby Gone has the same, a similar, you know, level of moral ambiguity.
It feels like it comes more full circle, though. I think that he's more responsible with the things that he shows you. And I actually think there's multiple times throughout the film where Denis pulls his punches.
And whether it's giving you catharsis or going as far as, you know, this grossness goes, I feel like Gone, Baby Gone is more willing to dive into the grossness of what takes place and what happens and more willing to go into the catharsis and the feeling better. I just, I prefer that. If I had to pair it with something else, I think I'd probably go with Mystic River.
I know I mentioned it earlier, but I think that you are right in calling out a Clint Eastwood comparison here. And I think that that would be it would make for a very sad, depressing night of cinema. But I mean, you could watch this with with Up, and it would be a sad, depressing night of theater.Bob
All right. Well, there you have it, folks. Those are our picks for Let's Make It A Double.
But no matter what you choose to pair it up with, you can always make it a double with Blackwood Distilling Company. And once again, go to our special link on bourbonoutfitter.com. That's bourbonoutfitter.com slash filmwhiskey. And if you use our code filmwhiskey at checkout, you'll get 5% off your bottle of Blackwood Distilling. Brad, I've been sipping on this rye 105 that I just brought back from Kentucky. Freaking delicious, man.
I like to the point where I don't know if we need to just dedicate a whole episode to talking about it, but like one of my favorite like in the rotation rise right now.Brad
Yeah, it sits next to my desk. And whenever I need a drink like Don Draper in the middle of the workday, I pour myself some Blackwood 105 rye.Bob
There you go. All right, man. Let's give this movie some final scores.
I think this is an eight out of 10 for me. And it's like it is both overachieving what a somewhat limited script is doing, and it is underachieving at what I know Denny is capable of. And so it's a weird, you know, sometimes we talk about like, oh, it's an eight, but it's a really good eight bordering on an eight and a half.
It's an eight in every way that a movie could be an eight for me. That's kind of where I'm landing.Brad
Yeah, I think that craft wise, this is like I'm with you. This is an eight out of 10 movie through and through. I think that I personally just didn't vibe with it.
And I understand why and I don't necessarily hold it against Denny. It just doesn't totally work for me. I'm going to give it a seven out of 10.Bob
Oh, OK. I'm glad we watched it because it was kind of the big glaring hole in our Denny Villeneuve filmography. And I'm glad I revisited it because I haven't watched it in like a decade.
So it's good. I think I probably I don't know, like it's on par with Arrival for me, a movie that I don't feel like totally works. It's definitely a step down from Sicario.
And then I think both Dune movies easily surpass this one for me.Brad
Yeah, I would say so. I think Sicario might still be my favorite from him with probably Dune two and Arrival being right behind it. All three of those films are just so incredible.
I can't recommend Denny enough. He's such a great filmmaker.Bob
And yet I feel like he's never quite had a 10 out of 10 movie yet. Even Sicario is like a nine bordering on a nine and a half for me. But I just want that one perfect movie that is undeniable from him.
And he hasn't quite gotten there yet.Brad
I totally agree. And I think for a lot of people, Dune two will be that. I just feel like once again with Dune two, he is so restricted by the source material that he can only do so much.
And the only so much is like a nine and a half out of 10. Fantasy epic that I'm so happy he brought to the big screen. I'm with you.
It's not a 10 out of 10. It doesn't have his stamp on it the way some of his other movies do.Bob
All right. So it's a seven and a half on average from us. But we'd like to know what you guys think of the movie Prisoners.
Brad, I'm going to assume that it's a no from you on modern masterpiece. Is that fair to say? Yep.
Yeah, I'm going to say the same. I'm going to say the same. I think there are better crime, like procedural movies.
I think there are better serial killer movies. I think there are better moral quandary movies than this in the 21st century. So it's a no for me.
But again, you can find us on all of our social media channels to tell us what you think of the movie Prisoners. We're on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok or YouTube at Film Whiskey.Brad
Or if you'd like to join the conversation, we have our very own Discord server where we talk all things movie, whiskey and pretty much anything else going on in our lives. So if you want to find a nice community, you can head on over to our Discord server. There's a link at the end of every single one of our show notes.Bob
Next week, another movie I have not watched in a while that I'm really excited to revisit. It's the 2019 Sam Mendes film, 1917. So we're going into World War One territory here, Brad.
The most uplifting of times, Bob. All right. So join us for that next week.
But until then, I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And we'll see you next time.
