George Miller is weighed first, with a joke that Happy Feet was easily better and Babe and Babe 2 called excellent; The Road Warrior is named his best film, the one that laid the carpet for him to become a Spielbergian director who could do action and drama, and Lorenzo's Oil, about Susan Sarandon and Nick Nolte trying to cure their child and drawn from Miller's experience as a doctor, a fine tearjerker; because he never worked at the volume needed to stay in the mix, one host answers no for this film and names Road Warrior as Miller's apex.
Tom Hardy is called really complicated: Inception, with the Ames (as transcribed) character, is rated higher than Fury Road, Dunkirk and The Revenant come up, and Warrior is picked as the best he has ever been as a performer if not in fame, Tommy Conlon being a better version of Max in a largely silent physical performance.
Charlize is put to the table: two voices say no, then one says yes, placing this over the Oscar win for Monster, the Jason Reitman collaborations and A Million Ways to Die in the West; her shaved head meant she wore a wig in the Seth MacFarlane western comedy.
The dissent on Charlize is that Monster is her Apex Mountain, so her yes does not carry the table.
For Miller, a second host answers yes, this is Apex Mountain, even while agreeing The Road Warrior is the better film in story, characters and pacing: as an achievement it is almost unparalleled, a movie where you feel the physics in a near-fully-CG era, made from non-Marvel IP after all the struggles to get it made, a top-five action film that, like The Fugitive, grabs you and cannot be switched off once it starts; this yes stands against the earlier Road Warrior answer and is not resolved.
The Doof Warrior is easily at Apex Mountain, agreed with several 'easily's.
Pre-production began as early as 1997 and 2001 and 2003 shoots were delayed by September 11th and the Iraq War; Miller briefly considered a computer-animated version in 2007; iOTA's guitar weighed 132 pounds and shot real flames; the film was shot in sequence; a 120-day shoot in Namibia and Western Sydney wrapped 17 December 2012; Miller demanded colourful cinematography and beautiful art direction; John Seale came out of retirement; Eve Ensler consulted on the female characters
Fury Road sat in development hell with pre-production as early as 1997; attempts to shoot in 2001 and 2003 were delayed by the September 11th attacks and the Iraq War; Miller returned to it in 2007 after Happy Feet, briefly considered a computer-animated film, then went live action, which everyone agrees was the right choice; his filmography of Happy Feet, Babe, Babe Pig in the City and Lorenzo's Oil is called incredible, one of the most fascinating in movies.
iOTA, the Australian artist whose real name is given as Sean Hape, told Vice the guitar weighed 132 pounds and shot real gas-powered flames controlled by the whammy bar, which the hosts half doubt was verified; the movie was shot in sequence, from page one straight through, surprising given the complexity, and Charlize appears 15 or 20 minutes in after Max is captured and escapes.
Principal photography began on 26 June in Namibia, with work at Potts Hill and Penrith Lakes in Western Sydney; in October 2012 The Hollywood Reporter reported that Warner Brothers sent an executive to keep the production on track, and filming wrapped on 17 December 2012 after 120 days, a long shoot.
Miller's two stipulations were cinematography as colourful as possible to set the film apart from desaturated post-apocalyptic movies, after producers talked him out of an initial black-and-white concept, and art direction as beautiful as possible; the hosts doubt the second was achieved, calling it not a beautiful movie nor one rich in interior design, with only the 'Rose of Cabbage' (as transcribed) and the stilt-walkers at the now-defunct Green Place standing out.
The untreated YouTube clips of the car sequences show overcast days, off-white skies and light-brown rocks in shabby deserts, with the computer grade supplying the contrast; John Seale, who shot many of Miller's films plus The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley, came out of retirement in his 70s at Miller's behest; and Eve Ensler, creator of The Vagina Monologues, was consulted to enhance the portrayal of the female characters.
Recommendations: Nathan Jones as Rictus Erectus, who was really going for it with expert line readings; Zoe Kravitz in a flex performance before the hosts had much of a relationship to her; and Hugh Keaton's Keysburn (as transcribed) as Immortan Joe.
The pick is the Doof Warrior, played by iOTA (transcribed 'Oda'), described as a musician, writer and painter from New Zealand who apparently beat Hugh Jackman for a Tony Award; in a landscape of dust, brown, chrome, neutral colours and monotone voices he wears a red pajama suit and plays a flaming double-neck guitar, impossible not to look at, and wakes from a hammock of guitar straps straight into his riff like G.E. Smith coming out of a commercial break.
In a Noisy (as transcribed) interview iOTA described being strapped into the harness for eight hours after six-a.m. makeup, noodling ACDC songs to himself and eventually banging out nonsensical riffs because staying animated mattered most; the thinking behind the character is left as a question: is it that an announcement of destruction was needed?
Though also nominated as what aged the worst for its wasteful nu-metal excess, the Doof Warrior is loved, and the Dion Waiters Award goes to the Doof Warrior.
