Season 9 Bracket Challenge Part 3 — The Final Reckoning

0:01 On today's Film and Whiskey, we are rounding out season #9 with our third and final bracket challenge episode. This is the one where we crown the champion. Also, we're going to reveal our top five whiskeys of the season and give out a couple more filmy awards. That's all ahead on Film and Whiskey. Hey there everybody, welcome into the Film and Whiskey podcast. I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And we are coming at you, Brad, with guess what? First time ever third bonus episode of The Bracket. It has been a a true marathon recording session for us today, Brad. 3 episodes in one calendar day. This has not happened since the early days of the Film and Whiskey podcast, and we swore we'd never do it again. Yet here we are.

0:51 But here we are. Yeah, if if we recorded a fourth episode today, that would put us back into the season 1 territory where we would get together on a Saturday and record 4 episodes in one day. It would be a legitimate 8 hour day. That was work. That was actual work, man. That was actual work and it was a time when, between the two of us, we had one child. One child whom I abandoned once a month to hang out with you. Sure did drink some whiskey. Yeah, well, I mean, why not? If you're gonna abandoned your kid, you might as well drink whiskey. Too. I dude, I still look back on that and I'm like, how did I keep 4 movies in my head to talk about them intelligently?

1:36 Because like, you know, you watch them over the week and a half, two weeks beforehand. Yeah. And then I would sit with you for 8 hours and talk about them. I I don't know how I did that. Do you remember in the very early stages of Season 1, we had like a like a formatted, like a form document that we filled in. It was like, what did you notice about this? Yeah, I think that's what got us through those early few weeks. I I totally forgot I haven't taken a single note since we started recording online together. Well, jeez, that's that's encouraging. That's what you want to get. No, that's not true. I have taken 22 pages of notes on one movie. On The Last Jedi, that's true.

2:16 Well, hey folks, welcome into film and whiskey. If you're new to the podcast, you have no idea what we're talking about. On this podcast, we review classic movies and new whiskeys each week. This season we've been going through 32 films from the last 20 years. We've been asking the question, does this movie deserve to be considered a modern masterpiece? Now at the end of every season, we put the 32 films into a madness style bracket and we seed them according to how much we liked the movies. We are down to the final eight films in our bracket. Brad, we left off last week. We've been running very long on these episodes, so we left off last week after the round of 16 and I dare say this might be our strongest group of eight we've ever had.

2:59 I would have to go back and look at some of the other seasons, but this is an incredible lineup, Bob. We have Whiplash versus 1917, Parasite versus the Holdovers, Oppenheimer versus Mad Max Fury Rd. Past Lives versus Everything Everywhere All at Once. I don't don't think I didn't notice that we found a way to pit the only two Asian women in our bracket up against each other here. Hey that. Was not me, man. I'm gonna blame. Blame the blame the seating, whoever does the seating. Yeah, whoever, whoever does the seating, we should make up like an imaginary producer for our podcast so that we can just deflect all things to him. All right, man, let's dive into the bracket here. Brad, I don't think we should waste any time here. Let's go ahead and do the left side of the bracket, and then we'll, we'll play it by ear as to what we want to do after that.

3:53 But we've got 2 pretty huge matchups here, the first of which is our number one overall seed, whiplash, going up against 1917. Now, I think on paper, one would think that this is where the road for 1917 ends because the consensus #1 Whiplash was at, I think it was my second highest rated film or third. And it was about the same for you, Brad. I I just don't know that it's, it's going to be really hard to beat Whiplash, not necessarily because it's our favorite film, but just because it's so undeniable as a pretty perfectly made movie. There's nothing about whiplash that doesn't work other than the car accident for Bob. Apparently that's just not his thing. Car accidents in movies.

4:37 I the the thing with 1917 is that it is an impressively beautiful film that that hits on a lot of different levels, but it it left me wanting more. It left me feeling like it may have been better served as a film with a traditional structure versus the one shot nature. So I you know, it's not going to be the film to beat with Whiplash. Do you think that if 19/17 was 3 hours long it would be better or worse? It'd be more impressive and worse. That's what I'm thinking. Like, does the gimmick wear off the longer the movie goes, or do you come back around on the gimmick? Like, wow, they sustained this for three hours, you know? Yeah, I mean, at at a certain point it's impressive to keep it up for that long.

5:26 I'm actually how long Birdman is. Birdman is about two hours as well. It is on the .2 hours. So yeah, I mean two hours seems like the limit without any, you know, artificial stimulation. Sure. So yeah, I think I think 2 hours is about the right amount of time for a One Cup movie. Yeah, at 3 hours they tell you you have to go to the ER to get get it checked out. So all right, man, I think I'm also. Where are we going, Bob? Apparently we're going to the ER, we're going to move Whiplash on to the round of four here, Brad. There's really no drama. There's no suspense needed for this one. All the suspense is packed into the 100 minutes or so of Whiplash and I think that means we can move down into the bottom left quadrant here.

6:17 The Blanchette bracket for parasites, the number four overall seed up against holdovers, the number 5. So this was all the favorites making it to the group of eight here. This is a heart pick for me, Brad, I think you knew from the beginning I was probably going to go holdovers here. Parasite I will grant the world is the more highly regarded film, but this is this is not like me picking How to Train Your dragon in round two. Like I actually think I have a legitimate argument here. People really love the holdovers. The Holdovers is a great film. It is no parasite there. There are no sewer drainage floods in The Holdovers where she is sitting on a toilet smoking a cigarette.

7:03 I I mean, if you don't have that in your movie, what are you doing? Yeah, but you also don't have Paul Giamatti calling somebody penis cancer in human form. That's. A great line. That's a great new line, man. And dude, when he drives off swigging that bottle. What a great that should have been in our final shots thing where he just drives off at the end. That was a good one. That's that is a good final shot. All right, man, I I'm assuming you went parasite here. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I went holdovers. So it means it's time for us to break out the Coin of destiny. Now again, folks, if you've been listening, you know this. But the coin of Destiny decides when Brad and I have come to an impasse. The higher seated movie will be heads. The lower seated movie is tails.

7:49 That means Parasites heads and the Holdovers is tails. Brad for the future in the final four, flip that coin. Bob, at the end of the day, how are you going to beat foreign cinema? It's just where the it's where the true films are made. There's nothing in America quite like they're what we can see overseas. Now listen, this creates an absolute juggernaut of a group of four match up here between Whiplash and Parasite. It is an easy, it's an easy choice for me when we get there. But I think you put this choice in front of the average movie goer. This might be one of the hardest choices we've ever presented on this podcast.

8:36 I easily like these are both beloved films that have their fan bases. I would be very curious to see if you just you know, did a did a poll of like IMDb users, letterbox users where this would shake out. All right, Brad, we've got our first two entries into the group of four here. I think it's time for us to give out some of our famous Filmy awards now, typically the way that we've done the filmies as we give some of them out based on the scores we gave the films and some of them just based on vibes and what Brad wants to do. I think in the spirit of goodwill, since we have eliminated goodwill in the form of the holdovers, I want to try to keep hope alive.

9:17 Brad, Let's do the Brad G filmies here 1st. And as I remember, the first Brad G filmi that we always do is Biggest Let down. This is a movie that was either too hyped for you and just didn't meet expectations, or a movie that you didn't expect much from and still managed to be worse than that. When you look over this list of 32 films, what's the biggest let down for you? I will say the Joker scene where he's like walking that dancing down the staircase was like super hyped and that was a very big let down. But overall, like the movie closely matched what I expected. So I won't say that the whole film was a let down. It it was just a crappy movie.

10:03 Ford V Ferrari would be up there. I was pretty pumped for that and found myself just going like, wow, that was a nice movie. I think though, as I look through these 32 films, I'm going to have to go with Zodiac. Oh, interesting. You had really pumped that movie up over the years. Like multiple mentions over multiple seasons about the how tense it is and oh, if you like this, then you're going to like Zodiac. I didn't love Zodiac. It was. It was just OK. Boo hiss. Yeah, most most biggest let down.

10:43 Zodiac. Jake Solan. Jake Gyllenhaal. Who we had multiple times this season, but apparently it's a greater success in other films. Yes, I I like Jake Gyllenhaal don't love this specific movie. All right. Well that takes us to a a bit of lighter fare here and that is most unexpected. Now we leave this a little bit open-ended. It doesn't necessarily mean like biggest surprise or whatever, like in terms of it was better than I expected. It could be as simple as like, I thought that this was a movie in one genre and then it turned out to be a completely different genre. It was unexpected. So, Brad, however you want to interpret it, what is your most unexpected this season? Oh man, I mean, I honestly, I could go with Everything Everywhere all at once because I saw it twice. The second time I was a little lower on it and then this third time it just worked for me.

11:38 I man there, there's a lot of options here. I think I have to go with Mad Max Fury Rd. I I. Think you're on a mission to give it every filmy this year? Dude, I'm dominating. Let's be honest, Bob, how many times in the history of the podcast have I watched a movie twice in a day? Because I was so. How many times have you watched a movie? Twice. Ever. This is already up in the upper echelon of watches. You know, it's probably in the top 30% of of movies based on amount of times I've watched them. Yeah, I'm 100% going to go with Mad Max Fury Rd. because it it deserves more witnesses.

12:27 All right, man, and that leaves room for one more. Now we always just kind of leave one open for the Brad G Special Award of the season. It's one that you make up usually on the spot. I am curious to hear what the Brad G Special Award is for season #9. Bob, this is an award we can both give out. I want to know of all of the characters in all of the films we watched, sans the one we're going to mention, which character is most likely to survive in a Mad Max world? So it can't be from Mad Max, it has to be another. Yes, yeah, it has to be one from the other 31 films.

13:08 Is Paul Giamatti, elderly teacher from The Holdovers, going to survive in a Mad Max world? Oh no, his his head will be mounted on someone's hood immediately. This is kind of a cop out because it's also a A sand based warrior, but I'm going to go with either Paula. Tradies. Either Josh Brolin or Javier Bardem from Dune. I want, I want them screaming the whole time. If if if Paula trades goes to the South and crosses the giant sandstorm and the South side of the planet is just Mad Max, that is like my dream crossover. Half the world is Dune, half the world is Mad Max. Actually, could I just pick just the sandworm from Dune? Does that count as a character?

14:02 I think he would survive pretty. Well, I, I'll, I'll give it to you the. Sandworm. Everybody else is toast, but the sandworm lives on. I'm going to give the award to a hopefully somewhat unexpected character. I am going to give this award, I can't remember his name. Give me half a second. Is it Vickas Vandeverva from District 9? It should be Vickas Vandevere vandevere Vande. I don't know, Vanda something, yeah. He, as an alien, probably could. He he's going to violate some guys. I am going to pick Jordan Belfort from the Wolf of Wall. Street Are you sure about?

14:48 This. As long as he had cocaine he would become one of the warlords 100%. That's true, Donnie. Donnie would not survive, though. All right, so I went with just the sandworm. Brad has given it to Donnie as Scrotus, right? Is that what we're going with? Sure, Donnie and Jordan. It's a it's a paired award. They they come together. All right, so there is the Brad G Award for most likely to survive a Mad Max post apocalyptic wasteland. Brad, let's get back into the Brad, let's get back into the bracket here. Why don't you take us to our next match up? Oh Speaking of Mad Max Bob, we are now facing off the pre apocalyptic nightmare of Oppenheimer with his imagined reality in Mad Max Fury Rd. Who I Who would have thought what a what a great match up. Man, this is really hard.

15:46 I, I mean, I think that for me, I don't like Mad Max as much as you do. However, if we're just talking about like the purest distillation of cinema, I don't know if like, like Mad Max is going to be studied in film schools forever. I don't know if Oppenheimer is like. I don't even know if I would call Oppenheimer the best Christopher Nolan movie. So this is. A really interesting pairing Brad shots. Fired what? What would you say is his best film? I think if I'm like just thinking about what's the most perfectly put together Christopher Nolan movie, I think for me it's Inception, one that people don't really like anymore. But I freaking love Inception.

16:28 How? How do Pete the Internet's so dumb if you can't? Find something to hate. You can't be on the Internet, those are just the rules. Is that why I'm not on like social media at? All no, you just direct that hate towards me in my opinion. So you don't really need to be on social media because I'm your outfit for that. That is helpful, that man, that's a piece of self-awareness. I appreciate that. Brad, breakdown the match up from your side of things like who's who's landing the winning blow here and why? Man, I think Oppenheimer has a lot going for it. It has easily the most influential like sex scene in a movie that it actually made sense and he used it in a way to advance the characters, which is like, I, I've never seen that before in a movie.

17:19 So I will give Nolan props for that. It has Killian Murphy just freaking nailing it. Matt Damon is incredible. Like, like there's so many great performances in the movie, The intrigue, the nuance, there's so much to love the the sound design. Jeez Louise, man, what an incredible movie. I think Mad Max hits it for me a on its timing. Like it, it's paced perfectly. There's just enough breaths of fresh air to let you dive into the action, the emotions of the group slowly bonding and becoming friends. And you know, you have the Nicholas Holt's character, like, slowly integrating himself into the group and like falling out of belief in his religion that there's so much about Mad Max.

18:12 That dude. I might go watch it tonight. I freaking love this movie. Mad Max is the winner for me. Wow. OK, so even though you gave a 10 out of 10 to Oppenheimer, Mad Max has captured your heart. I think we may have discovered your new favorite movie, if I'm being honest here, Brad. Dude, it's it's up there. I I mean I gave Mad Max 9 1/2 why did I do that? I'm I should change that it's a 10 out of 10 movie? Brad, I went with Oppenheimer here. I think that at the end of the day, it's just a movie that I like better. I understand the arguments for Mad Max though, and I think this is a really colossal matchup we have here, and it's a match up deserving of the Queen of Destiny. Yeah, I will say there are very few movies in this bracket that I would say are a worthy contender for Mad Max. Oppenheimer is one of them.

19:05 Like it is a masterpiece of cinema. All right, so we have a Coin of Destiny flip ahead of us for a spot in the final four. We've got the number one seed, Oppenheimer, which will be heads going up against Mad Max Fury Rd., which will be tails Brad for that coveted spot. Flip that coin. Bob, there is a film that will be moving on. It will not destroy the world as we know it. The math has has spoken. Oppenheimer moves on. Mad Max has never exists. Wow, Oppenheimer doing some damage here, Brad.

19:48 All right. So it is into the group of four here, and that takes us to what is sure to be the most contentious matchup of this bracket. Brad, I usually don't ask you to spoil this so early on, but can I take a stab and say that I think Everything Everywhere All at Once probably won your bracket? Is that fair to say? That is a great question, Bob. So I have like throughout these three episodes, I have talked myself into a point where Mad Max has a chance against Everything But Everything, Everywhere All At Once did did win my original bracket. And past lives won my original bracket. So we're talking about the two winners like there's no way either of us can get anything into the championship if we don't get past this round here.

20:41 So I'm, I'm man, this is stressful. Past lives is the number three overall seed. Everything Everywhere is punching way above its weight as the number 11 seed here. It had to survive a coin flip against Godzilla -1 just to get here. Brad, why don't we do this? Say a couple nice things about Past lives and then I'll say a couple nice things about Everything Everywhere, and then we can get at each other's throats. Past Lives. Past Lives is beautifully shot. Like there's so many great scenes of the characters walking together in New York City, thinking specifically as they were like walking past AI believe a carousel and then like on to the docks and and the camera just follows them. It's slow.

21:29 What's the name of the husband? The the actor? John. Magaro John Magaro is freaking awesome. Bob like his the depth of his vulnerability about his insecurities is honest and raw and feels so true to anybody who would be married to someone from another culture. Like like the line when he talks about feeling like he he's not. What is it? He doesn't speak the language of her dreams or something. Oh yeah, he says. You speak in a language.

22:09 How was it you dream in a language I can't understand? Yes, Yep, what a great what a great freaking live dude. Yeah, no, I past lives if not up against Everything Everywhere. I think for me, Past Lives has a chance against Oppenheimer, Mad Max, Parasite, and Holdovers. I don't know if it would have a chance against Whiplash and I don't know if it has a chance against everything for me, but it's up there, man. It is a beautiful movie. Everything Everywhere All at Once is a movie that I think takes some pretty tremendous swings and it's not afraid to be silly while also like being incredibly earnest. Like it's, it's not tongue in cheek when it matters the most. And I think those emotional moments and especially Ki Kiwi Kwan's performance are just next level, man. It's a, it's a movie that I've cooled on a little bit, but what it's good at, it's really, really good at Brad. And that means that I, I think we go ahead. I just watched In the Mood for Love because at some point somebody mentioned that as like a very direct reference point for Ki Hui Kwan in everything ever All at once. A, what a great movie I really enjoyed In the Mood for Love and B, like, it is A such a direct reference, but like everything about the main character in In the Mood for Love is Kihui Kwan. And I want to start smoking in a

23:41 Gray suit in the rain so bad because it's the coolest thing in the world. I think that it's a direct reference on both of these movies, honestly, like that you you probably couldn't have brought up a better movie for like the themes and the pacing of past lives and also for like direct visual representation in Everything Everywhere. Brad, dude, I. I didn't even think about that. You are right. There is a huge amount of In the Mood for Love that you see in past love. Holy cow, I'm. I'm incredible, Bob, You really tell me how good I am. I just did. Let's move past that and let's flip this coin of destiny, Brad.

24:25 We have not established past lives is going to be heads and everything ever all at once is going to be tails. I have flipped the coin. It is lying on the top of my hand. And Bob, is there anything else you want to say about past lives? Don't do this to me. No anything else. My my thoughts are on the record. Your thoughts are on the record. Yeah, well, it's good that you love this movie so much, Bob, because it is moving on into the Final Four. The dream lives on, man, Brad, I listen. If I could make it my mission in life to make people watch one movie, like that movie is so close to the top of movies I want to make because like there's certain movies. I know you didn't like ET, but like everyone's heard of ET and even if they haven't seen it, it's like, yeah, I should probably watch that.

25:17 Past Lives is a movie you really got to work hard to get people to watch, but once you watch it, it's like, that is a life changingly good movie. It's so freaking good, man. Yeah. And it if, if you are of an age like Bob and I early to mid 30s, you remember when Skype became a thing and do that scene the like short little bit when they're in like the early to early to mid 2000s and they're using Skype, I like had flashbacks of using Skype for the first time. Brad that sets up a match up in the group of four between Oppenheimer and past lives, my two of my top three movies from 2023, another juggernaut year. And that takes us to our final filmies of the day. These are the ones that are based on the scores that we gave the films at the end of each episode. So what we're first looking at, Brad, is our most overrated and our most underrated films of the year. And we do that by taking our average score from an episode and comparing it to that film score on IMDb. So we get a sense of where the general public stands on this compared to us.

26:23 Now, I think we should start with the most overrated film, a movie that IMDb users liked a lot that we really didn't. And Brad, I want you to go ahead and take a guess as to what that movie might be. Oh man, I I have to imagine. We were cool on Ford V Ferrari. We were cool on the Big Short. The Big Short feels like it would be an IMDb darling look. Oh sorry, I'm like looking through the list giving options, There's only one option. It's Joker.

27:04 It is Joker I'm. Sorry to have put you through like 12 seconds of not having the answer because it's very clear that Joker sucks. It's. AI listen, I don't think it sucks. You gave it a six. I gave it a seven. I think it's a good movie that people have read the wrong meaning onto and have over hyped a bit. It has an 8.3 on IMDb. We gave it a 6.5 on average. So we are like 18 percentage points away from where it is on IMDb. That's pretty drastic, man. Oh yeah, Joker. The messaging of the movie feels so gross and like Todd Phillips isn't taking responsibility for it. And I don't like that movie, Bob, even if it is a competently made film.

27:56 All right, let's move on to some happier ground here. The most underrated film. A film that IMDb users gave a lower score than we did, and substantially lower in many cases. What do you think's the most underrated of Season 9? Man, I, well, I mean, we just talked about it. Is, is it past lives? Because, because I know that we both gave it a 10 out of 10 and I can't imagine it has more than like an 8 or an 8.2, which would be a pretty big swing. I I'm going to go with past lives, Bob. You are 100% correct Brad. You were nailing this today. Past lives it is. Here's the depressing part. IMDb score on Past Lives 7.8.

28:41 No. Come on, like come on, what are you guys doing? What 7.8? What is this? That I mean, I, I feel like if you hit the 7.8 and above, you're starting to get into like, oh, this is probably going to be a good movie 8 point O and above is where you're hitting OK, this is probably something of a classic. I think this should be in the 8.1 range 8.2. Well, it's not, but it is in our hearts, Brad, because it's the most underrated film of season #9 hey people, go watch Past Lives, OK? Just go do it. Yeah, go give it a 10 out of 10. No big deal. Now it's time for us to give the award for the most divisive movie of the year.

29:24 Brad, this is the one where you and I were the most disparate in our scores. This this might be a little bit more of a challenge for you, but you've been nailing them so far. What are your guesses here? I mean, I know that you were a little higher on John Wick. You were higher on How to train your Dragon. Now I'm going back to front. We were a little bit off on Inside Out and Ratatouille. This is actually kind of a tough one. I'm going to guess Zodiac because I know that I did not like that nearly as much as you did. Once again, you have freaking nailed it Brad. It is Zodiac. You went three for three.

30:06 That was really good, man. Thanks man. I I feel like recording all three episodes in a day, we've like gone through them all and so it's a little more fresh in my brain. This is how I am like when I show up to a recording. I have like studied that movie so many times that I'm like, I'm ready to go, you know what I mean? So it's it's nice. I feel like we are both well seasoned now, Brad. Yeah, we we are firing on all cylinders. I gave that movie a 9.5, you gave it a 6.5. We were a full 3 points apart from each other. For the record, that movie has a 7.7 on average on IMDb, so we came out to an average of an 8 point O. We were pretty well in line with what IMDb thinks of that movie.

30:48 Yeah, yeah, between the two of us. So it was very low. You were very high on it. We're about average. We evened each other out in the IMDb rankings. Brad, before we get into the round of four match up, I think it's time for us to go ahead and taste our whiskey for the day. We've got one more of our old Hammer lines to go and this is a special 1. Brad, can you intro this for us? Yeah, Bob, today we are drinking Hugh Hammer of the old Hammer line. It is a Hugh Hammer Straight bourbon whiskey finished in rum barrels. I have these. I'm sorry to interrupt you, dude, hold on.

31:28 I have the best idea looking at the label for this. So this is not, as Brad said, not old Hammer. It's called Hugh Hammer. And I really want to mispronounce this as huge hammer and then just pair it with four. And then that should be just continually like with no explanation. Just keep calling it huge Hammer Whiskey. Huge Hammer whiskey. Tell me that's not my best idea of all time. Dude, it is, yes. Whatever. I don't know if there's like a native spirit to the Icelandic Nordic countries, but if you ever finished a whiskey in that you can call it Huge Hammer Myolnar finish.

32:14 You're set dude. We've we've just cracked the code man. We need to open a distillery. All right, I'm sorry. Please keep giving the information on Huge Hammer here. Huge Hammer is a 99% corn, 1% malted barley aged for a minimum of four to six years. It comes in at 103 proof. I am super pumped for this Bob. So like we said, this is finished in rum barrels. I will say that on the label, Brad, they don't go into a ton of detail on what kind of rum barrels it's finished in, which leads me to believe it's probably like a combination of different kinds of rum barrels for our purposes. We have enough information to drink the thing. Why don't you go ahead and give us your nosing notes here?

32:56 Yeah, Bob, this is a really pleasant nose. There is caramel, there's Maple frosting. It's got a nice vanilla vanilla zest to it. There is a decent amount of like a corn pops vibe, like a really sugary corn cereal that I like a lot. I'm going to give this an 8 out of 10 on the nose. You really are in a cereal kind of mood today man. You need to have like a late night bowl of cereal after we finish recording here. Dude, we we literally just have Cheerios in the house. We're not a big cereal family. You know what? We weren't either for a long time. And our children have finally hit the age where they're like, listen, you guys got to you got to meet us in the middle here. Give us at least some Like Life cereal. Or something like, did they like sit you down on a Sunday night? They're like, hey, we need to have a family meeting. Yeah, they wear the suits from the Boss baby when they talk to us, so it's yeah, it's kind of crazy. I could.

33:51 I could see your oldest being a boss baby wearing a suit kind of kid. 100% man, no. So I'm getting a lot of like dark fruits on this, but not so much like plum as it is like a like a fig or a date. It's got that really, really sweet kind of syrupy note to it from the rum barrels. I like this a lot. If I'm being honest. I don't know if I like the nose on this quite as much as the last one we had the old Hammer, but rum finish is it's kind of tricky to work with. It's not quite as tricky as a tequila finished bourbon, which I I've never really had a great one of those, But I feel like you can kind of tip into some weird spots with rum if you're not careful. And this one seems to be kind of, I don't want to say dipping its toe in the water, but it's not going overboard and I appreciate that. I'm going to give it a 7 1/2 on the nose, Brad. I think for the palate it it sticks in a lot of traditional bourbon flavors.

34:44 There's caramel, there's vanilla, it's a little bit oaky for me. The Corn Pops sticks around. It's got that sugary corn vibe going on. There is a little bit more fruitiness here. Not as much as I'd like Bob I I wish this had more rum influence going on. Like I don't really get that. That sugar cane, coconut tropical vibe. I, I want it, I'm here for it. It is really good though. Like, I'll give it a 7 1/2 on the palate, but man, if you give me a little more fruitiness, this is like an 8 1/2. Yeah, I honestly, for me, what it did, the rum finish doesn't add like a layer of complexity or another kind of sweetness.

35:26 It actually added not, I don't want to call it sour notes, but like some herbal and spice notes that made this taste like a high rye bourbon. Now I'm pretty sure this is distilled by MGP and this kind of reminds me of like an Ezra Brooks, like a really high proof version of that that we've tried from Luxe Row before. It's interesting. I think it's really good, but it just lacks that like really deep sweetness that I thought we were going to get here. So I once again I'm going to give it a 7.5 on the pallet. Yeah. And on the finish, I, I think it kind of comes back around. It settles into its oakiness, the corn is there, there's a lot of caramel and it finally settles into like almost like a fig, plum, dark fruit kind of vibe that I'm enjoying and I, I wish was there on the palate more. I'll give it an 8 out of 10 on the finish. I think you're nailing these notes today. I I really don't think that there's a lot going on here. Fig, plum, those are really good notes. It's just like hints of fruit, not a lot of like really bright citrusy kind of notes or anything that's a little bit tart to kind of override that rum flavor. Once again, good.

36:35 I just think it misses greatness a little bit here. So I'm going to give it a 7.5 and I think that kind of dictates exactly where I'm going to go on the balance here. This is a really solid whiskey. I think it's probably better balanced across the board then like each of the individual categories. So I'll come up to an 8 out of 10 on the balance. Yeah, I'm with you. I, I think 8 out of 10 on the balance, they're doing really nice things here. It just doesn't go quite far enough. You know, I, I don't know enough about it, but I, I feel like maybe a few more months in the rum barrels might have done it a little bit of good. Now we are looking at spending $65 on this bottle, which once again I I don't think is an outrageous ass for a finished product. It's also not a great value.

37:28 I like it's not out of this world. I don't think it's unfairly priced. I am going to sit at a 7 out of 10 though. Yeah, I think I'll be in the same spot as you, man. This is definitely not the out of this world value you get with the old Hammer cask strength, but it's certainly not exorbitant either. It is a year older than the old Hammer is and you get that rum finish as well. So I'll give it a 7 and that takes me to a very respectable 37.5 out of 50 on this one. Bob, I am coming in at a 38.5 out of 50. This is a really nice high corn bourbon. I I just wish it had a little more of the rum influence. But still, it's $65.

38:11 Like if you are living in Indiana and you want to support a local distillery that's giving you some good juice like I highly recommend this stuff. Yeah, and I'm really glad that it kind of shook out the way it did. Brad, you know, after that first episode where we weren't in love with the West Fork, we did. I was kind of worried about where this was going to go. But we had three whiskeys. One of them is in our upper echelons of scores. One of them is in the recommend like a a green light, but not like a rave about it. And then one of them was, hey, this one's not for me. And I think that gives a really good picture of a brand that's trying to expand its offerings and doing interesting things with them. And honestly, like, it makes it makes for a better drinking experience because you and I were able to identify very clearly which one of the three was our favorite here.

39:00 Absolutely. I, I mean, I don't know, Bob, I think you were higher on the cast string. I think I'm actually a little higher on the rum finish. Oh interesting, the huge hammer has done it for you. The. Huge I I love me a huge hammer Bob. Man, it's the end of the season, isn't it, Brad? It really is deep. We are tired and we. Need. We need a, We need a month off. All right, man, let's get back into this bracket. It's been long enough. Thank you once again to West Fork Whiskey. All right, it's time for the group of four. Brad. We have only four movies left to go. 2 matchups here. We're looking at, on the left side of the bracket, Whiplash, the number one seed, up against Parasite, the number four seed. And spoiler alert, all of the top 4 seeds are our final four films.

39:53 Brad. They were not mine. I had mad backs and everything ever all at once. So if anybody is complaining that we had just an all top four bracket, you can blame one, the one and only Rob. Rob. The one and only Robert book. I will be daxing him later on Twitter. Yeah, please do. You can have his address, his children's names, his social. Send them. Send them my student loan bills. We should crowdfund that. You know, dude, let's go. I had three of the four in my personal final four. The only one I didn't was the holdovers, which I had beating Parasite. So Brad, regardless of that, where are we falling on Whiplash V Parasite? Oh, this is a tough one, dude.

40:42 I think my bracket was Mad Max versus everything. That was a super tough decision for me. This one isn't quite as much like Whiplash was my #2 film. I came into the season thinking it would be my number one. Like Parasite's incredible. I was blown away by it. It didn't win my most unexpected award. It would have if it was my first time watching it for the season. Like because I've watched it before, like I knew what I was getting. I think I'm sticking with whiplash here man. I think I am too, Brad. You know, I've been saying this entire episode.

41:23 It almost sounds like I'm crapping on Parasite, a movie which I am very much in the like. This is an 8.5 to 9 out of 10 for me. Range. Whiplash is just a perfectly made movie. I really doubt that Damien Chazelle will ever make a movie as good as Whiplash again. But you know, sometimes you're Orson Welles and you can't help it, but you make Citizen Kane first, you know? Yep, 100%. Dude, it is just a perfect movie. It's an example of like Chazelle had just a perfect idea for a film. He turned it into an Oscar nominated masterpiece, Oscar winning for JK Simmons. That has made him millions of dollars as a filmmaker now. So like, I can't feel bad for the guy. He nailed it with his first film. He's made some other very interesting great movies like La La Land and some that people weren't so hot on like Babylon. So we'll see where he goes.

42:17 He's still young. I'm sure that he will get another movie into our modern masterpiece. Season 10 seasons from now. For now, Whiplash is going on, and that takes us to the right side of the. Bracket Now, as you said, Brad, the other two movies in the the Group of eight over here were the ones you picked to move on. You had Mad Max versus Everything Everywhere All at Once. Those have both been eliminated, leaving us with Oppenheimer versus Past lives. So this was a match up that I had created in my bracket. I already know where I'm going here. This is something that you're kind of doing on the fly here and following your heart. I'd love to hear where you're going with this one man. Oppenheimer, I just.

43:03 Keep thinking about. The beauty of the politics and how you start with thinking that Robert Downey Junior is a good guy and by the end of the film you realize how low minded and like petty he is and it's. Just such an. Incredible transformation for Robert Downey Junior. Like, like he just nails that descent throughout the movie. And the way that they juxtapose that by focusing Robert Downey Junior's attention on the conversation between Einstein and Oppenheimer and how he thinks that, you know, Appi was turning him against whatever Downey Junior's character's name was. Straws.

43:52 Yes, straws. Strauss, He keeps correcting them. Too, Every time they suggested it's like exactly German pronunciation, he's like, no, no straws. Yeah, it yeah. It's such a great little piece to show how like petty he is that you don't pick up until like the second or third time watching it. Oh my gosh, dude. And then like to know what Einstein and Oppenheimer were actually talking about the fate of the world and humanity and all these high minded ideals. I, I just, I freaking love Oppenheimer, man. It's so good. Is that? It is that. Does that mean you're moving Oppenheimer on here?

44:34 I think I'm going to move past lives. On yes. Yes, Brad. Yes, I I really like past. Lives on. It's a great movie listen and. And here's the thing, if you put past lives in Oppenheimer in the best picture race, like we did in the real world, I think even I would vote for Oppenheimer as best Picture based on what we're trying to capture with an Oscar, right? Like you have all these categories that it dominates and like, it represents so many people working in Hollywood and like the craftsmanship. But if you ask me to like, submit a list to the sight and sound pull of my ten favorite movies ever, I'm fairly certain Past Lives is on that list now. Like Oppenheimer is a great movie. Past Lives is a transcendent movie to me. And like, I have to move it on here, which sets up to completely tonally different films for our championship. We've got whiplash versus Past lives. I I was gonna say it's a.

45:35 Little bit of a whiplash from one to the other. Yeah, 11 might call it a. Bit of whiplash, Brad. So we've got a battle of Titans here. Whiplash versus past lives. Before we get to that, Brad, it's time for us to count down our top five whiskeys of the season. All right, Brad, let's quickly go through our top five whiskeys of the season. This is something that we do every season in the last episode because, you know, we're spending a ton of time on movies here. We might as well talk about the other half of our podcast. Looking over our list here, Brad. It's like a Venn diagram with the huge overlap. Like there's really, it's just a circle. We almost have the exact same top five here. Yeah, it's.

46:20 It would have to be more of a there's just a tiny little three parts that aren't overlapped and everything else is the same. We we were singing in concert this season. Baba at the very least on the whiskies now, as is the the. Case most seasons, Brad, you were a little bit higher in your average scores per than I was this season Let's see you came out to a four. I enjoy life, Bob, you do. You came out to a 40. .68 on average, like the average whiskey we drank had hit that 40 mark for you? That's nuts. I I was thinking about whiskeys. This year I felt like we drank a lot of good whiskey this year. I mean, I came out to a 30. 8 1/2 So I wasn't that much lower than you, but I think the key thing here, Brad, is that probably 90% of the whiskeys we drank this season we're provided by our friend Zach Johnston as old review samples that he had.

47:13 And you know, the guy just got sent some incredible whiskeys. So like the dollar value, the rarity of all these whiskeys is significantly higher than in seasons past. But I think what really helped supplement that was even when we snuck in like a newly released whiskey, for the most part, they were all bangers too. We just like we we had really good luck this year with our whiskey. Yeah, and I'm. Very happy about that because I like drinking good whiskey. I I actually just the other night was sitting down to play some board games with friends and pulled out some whiskeys. Bob. I don't know the last time I just drank a straight up like big brand release, like their main thing.

47:55 I had just regular old Woodford Reserve last night and it was delicious. Good stuff man. I was very, I mean, obviously. You know, we love double oaks. We love all of their stuff. It was fun to return to just regular old Woodford Reserve. Yeah, 100%, man. All right. Brad, let's start this countdown. And as I look at our individual top fives, we actually have four of them in common, which means all four of them made it onto our combined top five lists. So I think let's just start the countdown with like the number 4W on our combined top five because it's one that we both share and that is one that we just had a few weeks ago. Hardens Creek, Jacob's well now we paired this with Godzilla -1 I did some stupid little like, oh, it rises from the deep.

48:41 That was the thematic connection here. We tried two different Hardens Creeks this season and the first one way back at the beginning of the season was the Colonel James B Beam. That was the two year release and that was one of our lowest ranked whiskey's of the season. So I'm really happy that the Jacob's Well was so highly received by us because for me at least, it really redeemed the whole brand of Hardens Creek. I mean I you gave it a. Very low score of 32. I gave it a 39 Bob. So I I enjoyed the Colonel James B Beam for what it is, a lower proof, lower priced specialty expression. The Jacob's Well was incredible though.

49:21 You know what I got? I tried it. A little ways. Before you did and I was like chomping at the bit for you to try it. I am pretty sure that that 30. 9 is actually a 29 and it's just a typo. I, I think we scored that one really, really low. But in any case, we're not talking about the lowest ranked whiskeys of the season. We're talking about the highest ranked whiskeys of the season. And I'm totally with you, man. They they really redeemed themselves with that Jacob's Well, I would heartily recommend that one and Brad, that takes us to our number three of the combined top five. Why don't you go ahead and intro this one? Bob this. Was probably, I mean for me, I think it's scored at my 4th.

50:02 I would say this is one of the most memorable whiskeys of this season. For me, it was our Bushmills 30 year. This stuff was like a plum bomb. And it was incredibly delicious. It is also one of the reasons it's so memorable. It's when our friend David Thomas Tao introduced us to the term crushability. He certainly did. This was crushable. I liked both. Of those Bushmills, as I recall, I actually think I liked. I can't remember which one I liked better. It must have been the 30 because it's in my top five. One of them had like an overwhelming sense of like a a finish to it and was too fruity for me. Let's call it the 29 because the 30 definitely made it into my top five.

50:52 But it was crazy to me just how much difference, you know, a 29 year old product that was in one kind of barrel and a 30 year product that was in another kind of barrel had, you know, because I don't know how long they were finishing these or if any of them were finished. But I just remember from week to week when we drank the 29 and the 30 from Bushmills, I had wildly different experiences. Yeah, I I mean it. Feels like with product that is aged for that long, if they're in a different barrel, it's kind of like if you started 2 ships from the same port and they headed off. Just like a few degrees difference from each other. Like the further out you go from port, the vaster difference you're going to have and where they end up.

51:35 And that's what you see here in the Bushmills 29 and 30, both spectacular whiskies, great, great expressions of Irish whiskey. But yeah, man, I I really enjoyed that. All right, our number 2 selection this. Season and we will go back and kind of mention the 5th place finisher. I'm not like just holding on to that one, but our second place one, at the time we drank it, Brad was the highest rated whiskey in the history of our podcast and that was the Bo Moore Masters selection, Aston Martin. Now, we paired this with Skyfall for obvious reasons. And Brad, I have never fallen in love with a Scotch that I'd never tried the brand Bo More before.

52:18 I mean, obviously Bo More is a very popular brand. I just never had anything from them. And starting with that bottle, I was like, oh, I am all in. I am in love with this thing. It really knocked our socks off, man. Yeah, one of the better. Scotches, one of the best scotches we've ever had on the podcast. And as, as somebody who is pretty obsessed with Scotch nowadays, that Oh my gosh, dude, I, I really want a bottle of that Beau Moore Aston Martin now, dude, do you want to know how much cache? Our podcast has with these brands now. How much after we after? We did a whole reel. And everything saying like this is the highest rated whiskey.

52:59 We did a whole bunch of promo for it. Our friend that has connections in the industry made a connection with the folks at Beau Moore and said, hey, these guys rated this the best whiskey on the history of their podcast. No response from Beau Moore. Ghosted. Thanks so much, Beau Moore. Yep, Yep. Really appreciate that one. We are. We're pretty. Incredible, Bob. You know what? And that's why I'm. Kind of happy that our number 1W of the season actually usurped the crown from Beau Moore. And it's our friends at Bardstown Bourbon Company with their Cathedral Oak finish. I'm going to be so honest with you, Brad. I, I had kind of fallen in a rut with Bardstown a little bit.

53:39 Not that any of them were bad, but that they were all like forties, 40 out of 50 for me, like a really good, no brainer recommendation. And it was like I was getting lulled into ignoring how good their whiskey had become. And then we tried this Cathedral French Oak, and it's one of the best Bourbons I have ever had. Brad, It is absolutely. Stunning. Now, I, I will say we were under the impression that it was $100 for a bottle of the 7:50 and I have to correct us here, it is $100. It was $100 for a 375, which I still think is a decent value if you're thinking of it as a $200 bottle.

54:23 I Bob, I still think that that's a decent value. My score might have been a little lower, if I'm being honest. It's still one of the best whiskey's we've had in a while and definitely the best whiskey we've had out of Bardstown in a while. Yeah, and I you got to forgive. Me for that oversight, but like, I didn't actually see the sizing listed with the price. And I'm, you know, I'm not accusing Bardstown of trying to hide that fact, but it certainly wasn't front and center. And so yeah, we definitely scored it as if it would be a 750. Now, I think maybe my score goes down to like a 7 out of 10 or an 8 out of 10 on value because I remember saying even if this was the $160 that they typically price things at, I'd still be at like a nine out of 10 on this.

55:07 So, you know, perhaps the score gets lowered by a couple points and Beau Moore takes the crown back again. But I think it's worth noting that this Bardstown Cathedral is so good at a 375 size that we're still arguing whether it would be the number one whiskey of the season for us. Yeah, I mean, if you took my. Scores sands value. I would be at a 38.5 out of 40. So like this is a daggone. Good. Whiskey that deserves at the very least one of the top two or three spots for this season. 100% Now our #5. On the combined top five, and now that I've spoiled #1 for you folks, was the barrel Seagrass toasted? We really liked this whiskey.

55:56 I will say that when I first popped it, I shared it with a friend like immediately after opening it and we were kind of like muted on it. We didn't really love it. I let it kind of just sit for a couple weeks on the shelf and I don't know what happened, but it really opened up so that when when it came time for us to review it, it really blew me away. But The funny thing about this barrel seagrass Brad, is that it really snuck into our combined top five because neither of us actually has it in our personal top five when it comes to the scores. Yeah, I mean, I, I felt. Like this was a really beautiful whiskey that just wasn't quite worth the $200. I mean, I, I came to a 45 out of 50 on it. I think it's a great, incredible drinking experience.

56:38 It's just a little bit on the overpriced side and then like, that's fine. Yeah, absolutely. Now I did. Have one of our B TAC lineups this season that made my top five. It was the William LaRue Weller from 2023. Brad, you also had AB TAC in your top five. Yeah, I had the George. T stag from 2023 It's pretty funny though, that we're. Far enough apart on each of those two whiskeys that like, it made my top five, and it was nowhere near making your top five and and vice versa. And that's how the seagrass snuck into that five spot here. Yeah, which makes me happy. Anytime I see the word seagrass it just, you know, I feel warm and fuzzy on the inside.

57:19 All right, so one more time with. The top five, Brad, I'm going to read them off from 5:00 to 1:00 and I want you to just give like a, an immediate top of mind one to 10. Get in your car and go buy this right now on each of these OK #5 Barrel Seagrass toasted 6. Harden's Creek. Jacob's Well 8 1/2. There you go, Bushmills 30 year. 9 1/2. Beau Moore, Aston. Martin, 10, and Bardstown. Cathedral. Ten, Yeah. I think those two are the the. Clear champions of this season? Yeah, absolutely for. Me, I like, I don't know, I, I do think that the, the Bo more partially just for its rarity, Like I, I think that I think that's my winner for the season.

58:11 Well, here's how we're shaking out on this. Bardstown, thank you for answering our calls and continuing to send us samples. Bo more call us back. You know, that's, that's what I'm saying here. Let us know how we can support you guys. Yeah, we'd love to continue. To try your product and to give it publicity. So, Brad, that's our top five for the season. What do you say we get into this championship matchup? Let's get to it. All right, man. What do you say we get back into this championship matchup? Brad, I feel like I've been talking so much. Why don't you do your best? What's the guy's name? The let's get. I want you to queue up our I'm not going to say that and you need. To bleep that out because he is highly litigious about that phrase.

58:58 Oh well, there you go. Have you have you not heard about this? No, no. Oh. Dude, he trademarked. That phrase and he has like a small team of lawyers scouring the Internet, looking to litigate as often as possible because he has a rightful claim to it and he has made millions off of people using it. And I'm talking like a church youth group holds like a local fundraiser. Yeah. And it you know, it's like, I don't know the the sumo like American Gladiator, you got those big polls and they have somebody say that phrase lawyers like 2 weeks later. Wow. All right, it's bleeped. It's.

59:40 Done. Let's let's go just intro the matchup for us fresh. I just want to hear. Let's get to beep. We are ready to. Bleep Bob, because this is a matchup of Titans I like. This is one of the better final, you know, 2 championships that we've had. This is whiplash, baby. Like the king of the 90 minute movie versus past lives. A quiet, introspective, get you thinking about who you are as a human being kind of movie. Whiplash, the king of the 90 minute movie, is in fact an hour and 47 minutes long.

1:00:22 So, you know, it feels like 90 minutes, though. It feels like 90 minutes. It's So what is that, 107 minutes? It's all right, Bob. It's close enough. Past lives an hour and 46. Minutes. So I mean, I'm just saying, Brad, this is now go ahead. What's? The most bang for your buck, Bob. The most bang for your buck is whiplash. 100% dude. But sometimes you don't need. Bang for your buck sometimes you need to invest your dollar. You need to invest your tuppence wisely in the bank, safe and sound, and that is what past lives does it pays dividends man. You plant that seed and that thing just keeps coming back time and time again. That movie is like it's a beautiful film. It's also a film that haunts you. Like I think about that movie sometimes and it's just like, damn, did she capture a feeling better than any movie I've ever seen.

1:01:18 And I think I have to go with my heart here. Like I I know that whiplash is like a perfectly calibrated machine and past lives is just like watching a leaf like float on the breeze back and forth. It's like the Forrest Gump feather and you're wondering about destiny. Like it's it's just so good, man. I'm I'm picking past lives here. It's the American beauty. Trash bag. It is floating. It's it's the shopping. Bag against a brick wall, Brad. And it is beautiful. I'm picking past lives and that is, I think fittingly setting up a battle of Titans for the champion I am. I am really hopeful.

1:02:00 But I've, I, I didn't expect past lives to get this far. So it would make sense that I suffer A crushing defeat right now. Brad at the height, right? Right at the. Peak of the mountain will my. Sherpa push me off of the peak. Here is the question. All I can see is. The The Cola Mountain in Wreck it Ralph past lives. Is just going to get. Shoved down in there as John C Reilly. Recites. The villains, whatever it is, it takes like a Mentos in there with him. Yeah. Yep, Yep. All right, whiplash will be. As the number one seed heads in this coin flip of destiny past lives as the number three seed is tails. Brad for the whole kit and caboodle here. Flip that coin.

1:02:56 Bob. Bob. My friend, it is my duty to inform you that past lives is going to live in your fiery inferno for the rest of time. Because. Whiplash is the. Victor of Season 9. Whiplash has done it. It has pulled out. I don't even want to say they come from behind Victory, but it, it staved off a push from the Cinderella team here. In past lives, You know, I've never hated the movie Whiplash more than I do right now.

1:03:42 But if I'm, if I'm being honest, Brad, it's a worthy champion of season #9 yeah, I, I mean, I, I. Did not have it as my champion. You forced out my number one choice, probably my number two choice as well. I, I think Mad Max versus Whiplash, we might have been stuck here for an hour, like with me just debating myself. So maybe it's good that we saved ourselves from that because those two feel very on par for me. I am, I'm very happy with this. I, I truly felt like Whiplash was going to be my #1 going into this. It is the number one at the end of the season. I feel vindicated, Jordan, good friend of show Jordan McCain for all those years that I gave you crap about whiplash before I saw it.

1:04:32 I'm sorry. I should not have made fun of it and called JK Simmons JK Rowling so many times. No, it is a great movie, man. And it is no past lives in my book, but it is a freaking great movie. And I think I can safely say looking especially at our final four here, Brad Whiplash, Parasite, Oppenheimer, past lives, they unequivocally answer our question of is this a modern masterpiece with a yes, there are some others in this list of 32, but I feel very confident in those four movies getting a a an all the way green light on that question. Absolutely. I mean I. Would even say our Elite Eight other than maybe 1917?

1:05:15 Yeah, like I would say all of them are modern classics. I think so too, folks. I. Hope that you have enjoyed this season. I would love to hear if you have downloaded your bracket at filmwhiskey.com, what your champion is. I'd love to hear what you think of modern classics. Are there movies that we missed? Remember, we have nine seasons of movies, including some from the past 20 years that we've talked about before this season, and that I think we would definitely qualify as modern masterpieces. But I'd love to hear what you think. You can find us on any of our social media platforms to tell us all about it. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok or YouTube at Film Whiskey or if you want to join the conversation. You can find a link to our discord at the end of every single one of our show notes.

1:06:03 We will gladly debate with you what is the best film of season 9. We want to say thank you once. Again to our season long sponsor, Blackwood Distilling Company, if you have not gotten your bottle of Blackwood yet, I would highly recommend doing it. If you go to bourbonoutfitter.com/film Whiskey, that's Bourbon outfitter.com/film Whiskey and use our code Film Whiskey at checkout. You will save money off of your bottle of Blackwood as well. Those guys are freaking great. Please go support them. Please pick up a bottle of Blackwood. It makes for a fantastic gift. Father's Day is coming up. I can't think of a better gift Brad for Father's Day than a bottle of Blackwood.

1:06:44 Absolutely, dude, it is. A a great purchase that easily will sit on yourself for a long time because you're not going to want to finish it like like it's going to be that bottle that you're I want to drink it every day, but I don't want to drink it every day because I want to share it with the right people. It'll be like paralysis for you because it's so good. We will be back at the beginning of. July to kick off season #10 but we've got some things planned in the interim. We will release a couple bonus episodes. I do think, Brad, we got to do the 21st century Pantheon now. So be on the lookout as the feed is updated with a couple new episodes. This is a fantastic time to go back into the catalog.

1:07:25 We've done what, 300 some odd Movies Now we have over 100 bonus episodes to pick from. Catch yourself back up on film and whiskey as we gear up for season #10 but just in case we don't see you until July, I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And we'll see you next time.

1:08:07 The.