Podcast: Recommending a Movie
Betsy: Have you seen “Everything Everywhere All at Once”?
Kate: No, but I’ve heard about it.
Betsy: Yes, as had I, but I hadn’t heard much. So, it stars, uh, Michelle Yeoh. If you hire Michelle Yeoh to be your star, there’s probably going to be some fighting.
Kate: Oh.
Betsy: Because she is a martial artist. She’s very good. However, her character is just this middle-aged — maybe a little older — mom, uh, with a grown daughter. She runs a laundromat with her husband.
Betsy: Her husband, I should say, I did not recognize him at all. Uh, he’s Ke Huy Quan. He was probably best known for being in an Indiana Jones movie as a child.
Kate: Oh.
Betsy: I think his character was named “Short Round.” In any case, uh, he’s adult now, and he is great. And she is great, of course, you expect her to be great, but he is fantastic.
Betsy: And it is the most insane thing I have seen in a very long time. It really goes wild. I don’t even want to tell you what the plot is because it’s way better if you go into this thing mostly blind,
Betsy: but I will say that the fight sequences are out of this world, that it is the most imaginative, like, using CGI in ways that I have never seen anyone even come up with, and it’s funny.
Betsy: It’s just really, really funny, and also Jamie Lee Curtis — surprisingly large role in this film.
Betsy: Uh, it is a delight, and I’m sure, you know, when it first came out, everyone was talking about it. Oh, talking about it, talking about it, uh, but no y’all, y’all should see it. Please go out, find somewhere.
Betsy: “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and yes, it can get really, uh, gross sometimes, but not in, like, a bad way, just a really weird way. So yeah, fun!
Vocabulary:
stars – features a famous actor or actress as the main character in a movie or show, “The new superhero movie stars my favorite actor.”
martial artist – a person who practices traditional styles of fighting, such as karate, judo, or kung fu, “The stuntman is a trained martial artist who can do incredible flips.”
middle-aged – being in the period of life between youth and old age, roughly between 40 and 60 years old, “My middle-aged uncle decided to learn how to play the drums.”
laundromat – a public place where people pay to use washing machines and dryers to clean their clothes, “Since our washing machine broke, we had to take our blankets to the laundromat.”
best known for – famous or widely recognized for a specific achievement, role, or feature, “Italy is best known for its beautiful art and delicious food.”
In any case – regardless of what else happens or what has been said; anyway, “It might rain today, but in any case, we are still going to the museum.”
fantastic – extraordinarily good, wonderful, or impressive, “You did a fantastic job on your science project!”
insane – extremely crazy, shocking, or unusual (used informally), “The traffic on the highway today was absolutely insane.”
goes wild – becomes very exciting, crazy, or uncontrolled, “The crowd goes wild whenever the football team scores a goal.”
plot – the main story or sequence of events in a book, movie, or play, “The plot of the movie was about a clever dog trying to find its way home.”
go into this thing mostly blind – an idiom that means to experience a movie, book, or situation without knowing any details or background information beforehand, “I didn’t watch any trailers because I wanted to go into the movie mostly blind.”
fight sequences – the specific scenes or parts of a film that show characters fighting, “The action movie had some of the most exciting fight sequences I have ever seen.”
out of this world – an idiom meaning extremely good, beautiful, or impressive, “The chocolate cake she made for the party was out of this world.”
imaginative – showing a lot of creativity, original ideas, or fantasy, “The young child wrote an imaginative story about a castle in the clouds.”
CGI – a short term for “Computer Generated Imagery,” which means special visual effects and graphics created using computers in movies, “Modern films use a lot of CGI to make the space battles look real.”
come up with – a phrasal verb meaning to think of or suggest an idea, plan, or solution, “We need to come up with a fun game to play at the birthday party.”
surprisingly large role – an unexpectedly big or important part that an actor plays in a movie or project, “Even though she is a new actress, she got a surprisingly large role in the play.”
delight – something that gives a person great pleasure, happiness, or enjoyment, “Reading a book by the fireplace is a real delight during the cold winter.”
y’all – a short, informal way of saying “you all,” commonly used to talk to a group of people, “Are y’all ready to go to the park now?”
gross – unpleasant, disgusting, or dirty (used informally), “The old milk in the back of the refrigerator tasted completely gross.”