BURT (2025) - The $7,000 Breakout Feature Paired With Wines to Match Its Real Life Protagonists

Microbudget filmmaker Joe Burke spent a decade trying to get a second feature off the ground after his 2013 debut FOUR DOGS. But after all the “no’s”, all the Hollywood rejection, and finally spending months waiting for an A-list actor to add to this list of “no’s”, Joe said “fuck it, I can get $7,000 together and make a movie with Burt Berger. I’m 40 years old, I need to make another movie now, and I love Burt, let’s do it.”

Who us BURT BERGER and why is this movie starring him one of the best indie films of the decade? Listen on.

THE WINES:

• Municipal Winemakers “Nowadays” label’s release of Alicante Bouschet from Cucamonga Valley 2022
• 2018 King of The Mountain Cuvee from Saddlerock Estate

Transcript

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Micro budget filmmaker Joe Burke spent a decade trying to get a second feature off the ground after his 2013 debut for Dogs. But after all the no's, all the Hollywood rejection, and finally spending months waiting for an A-list actor to add to this list of nos, Joe said, fuck it. I can get $7,000 together and make a movie with Bert Berger. I'm 40 years old. I need to make another movie now, and I love Bert. Let's do it. And two months later, he and close friend and collaborator, actor Oliver Cooper, were shooting for seven days for $7,000 with a three-person crew. This approach partly stemmed from Cooper having worked with a Welsh director who made entirely improvised movies in five days. Add to this that Burke and Cooper had made a largely improvised short film for $100 during the pandemic, and the concept of making a feature for $7,000 seemed entirely possible. Now, the duo had befriended 69-year-old Parkinson's afflicted Los Angeles musician Bert Berger after noticing what a character he was while playing in different small venues throughout LA. They asked him to co-star in a short film, and Bert was not only game, but proved surprisingly dependable. As they got to know Bert better, they also met his roommate, Steve, who was even more of a character, and the idea to bring both roommates into a micro budget feature where they would each play themselves was born. The key, Cooper said in a recent interview with the Important Cinema Club podcast, is to cast people who can't not be themselves, and then create an environment where they're relaxed enough to have cameras rolling. They needed one additional professional actor outside of Cooper, and so they reached out to an acting teacher that Cooper had been working with, Catelyn Adams, who had been working since the 1950s. Catelyn agreed, but She was also Stella Adler method as fuck. So, for example, in one scene, her character is meant to have just made homemade chicken soup, and she demanded she get to make it from scratch before cameras rolled, much to the director's exasperation, especially as they had to shoot all of her scenes in just nine hours on one day. So they compromised by having precooked chicken in the damn thing, but the rest they let her cook as she liked, and she turned in a performance that's hard to deny. Joe Burke and Oliver Cooper finished the film at the end of 2023 and expected 2024 to be their festival year. But instead, they submitted to 28 festivals and were rejected by every single one. Burke was disheartened, but the rejections forced a more independent strategy. They emailed theaters directly, arranged revenue share screenings, sold their own tickets, and took the film on a cross country theatrical tour. Then festivals began accepting them, and the film went on to win awards at festivals including Phoenix, Anchorage, Florida, and CineQuest. A Los Angeles Times feature followed. The rejection had not ended the film's life. It had simply pushed Burke towards a more personal model of distribution. And then, in April 2026, FilmHub acquired the distribution rights to Burt and released it digitally on June 23rd, 2026. It is currently available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime and Apple TV. We bought it. And it was very much worth it. Part of the proceeds, by the way, goes towards Parkinson's research and care, which makes it yet more worth it. You can find out more at burthemovie.com. That is, by the way, B-U-R-T, not B-E-R-T. So B-U-R-T, Bertthemovie.com. We will be right back to talk more in depth about the movie and pair some beautiful lines with it. So let's get that intro rolling. Are you not venturtained? Yes sir! We'll have a real good time! He's Dave, and I'm Dallas, and this is Ventertainment. We have opinions on just about everything. Sometimes those opinions are spot on. Sometimes they go down easier with a glass of wine. This is Ventertainment, the Wine and Entertainment Pairing Podcast. Welcome back to Vendertainment. This is the podcast where we pair wine with entertainment. It is as simple as that. And before we get to our movie today, we first have to challenge Dallas with our one trivia question week. Yes. All right. As today's movie is a DIY do-it-yourself micro budget feature. Let's look at DIY winemakers, which are most typically referred to as what? Are DIY winemakers referred to as garbagers, negotiants, vineyasts, or garistes? That is once again for our listeners our DIY winemakers, so probably not garbagers, I think. Maybe, maybe not, right? not, we're gonna find out. So our DIY winemakers called A garbagers, B negociantes, C Vineasts, or D Garagists. Okay. Gabajas is uh definitely not it, but sound fantastic and I'm probably gonna use as the title for something I write. Uh negotiance? Um no, the root of that is definitely has n I don't think has much to do with um independent sort of micro winemakers, DIY mic winemakers. Vinast, I think that is definitely a bit of a a red herring or a a bit of a a leading answer. The answer is Garagist. D. Uh and uh as a matter of fact, recently, Dave, there was a Garagist festival here in Glendale, which featured 30 different uh Vintners. So my answer is D. Gotta Yeah, garagiste, garagiste. You have to do a dodo francais, Francais. You you garbage, right? And then you then you then you drop the ball on garagiste. Garagiste. Um, yes. So that is like people typically because you make it in your garage, is kind of why it's the garagiste um French term. And yes, we still call them that today. Viniaste is just, I mean, this is vintertainment and it's cineast. Uh is is of course someone who is a independent filmmaker or someone who loves film. So that that is your red herring. That is vineyas is not a term, but hey, it's this is venturtainment. It should on this podcast. It's a term might be from now on. There you go. Now negotiant, that is just someone. It's a w uh someone who either is not a winemaker but buys finished wine and bottles it under their own label, but someone else makes the wine. So like uh This is this is an extreme example, but Trader Joe's and Costco, Kirkland Signature, those are white label negociants. They don't make any of that wine, but they buy the finished wine and then stick their own labels on it. But there are smaller versions of negociants. They've been around for forever. It's not just a giant corporate thing. Where um a winery, there you're also a negotiant if you buy the grapes from a vineyard, but you don't own your own vineyard. You're a winery and you still are considered a negotiant. buying the grapes from elsewhere, someone else who runs that vineyard and making grapes with that. Right. and you then you can be a negotiant as well if you on a much smaller scale are buying finished wine. And you're a small like you're you're not something like Trader Joe's or a Kirkman signature, but you're like, there there's a lot of wine out there, guys. You that juice gotta go somewhere. And yeah, yeah, yeah. So the a lot more wine out there is negotiant related than you would expect. Um a huge, huge amount. And garbage are yeah, maybe that also will become a w term, but it is Again, I like to make up words, so here we go. Hold on. we go. All right. Now, before we get to our movie, one last thing before we get to our movie, don't forget to please follow us and subscribe to the pod if you love what we do here. We watch films like Bert, made for peanuts and a shit ton of passion, and we figure out the most apropos wines to get your buzz on while watching such films. That will actually enhance the experience of the film itself. So you might want to subscribe and get a whole bunch more like this if you love that idea. And while you're at it, leave a review. We love reading them. Uh especially if it's a particularly insightful, interesting, or just a good old fluffer of a review. We will probably read it on the pod. Uh we like hearing nice things about ourselves. We like saying it out loud too. We say nice things about ourselves out loud all the time, but we'd like it to actually be written by someone else, not ourselves. So, uh, you know, what do you like about the show? What would you add or subtract or otherwise change if you could? This is always kind of a work in progress. No one else does a show like this. No one else does swine in movie pairings. So we would love To hear your thoughts, post that review, and we would love to hear your feedback. And lastly, don't forget we have a substack of entertainmentstudios.com where you can interact with us, uh, find bonus wine and movie pairings, and also make sure to check out Wine Cellar Cinema, our new microcinema built inside a wine shop here in mid-city Los Angeles. Our first night of short films paired with wine went swimmingly back in June, and we plan to keep that happening once per month. Our next one is July 24th here in Los Angeles. It is women do genre, four genre films made by four female filmmakers paired with four wines made by female winemakers. That's right. So you can check for tickets to that. Tickets go on sale the week this episode drops. So check for tickets at winesellersinema.substack.com or winesellercinema LA on the IG. And now We enter the section where we break the movie down into acts and discuss our thoughts on the movie and how they evolved act by act. But in this case, we are actually. Bert is the kind of film that a lot of people have said it it you do best when you go in cold. As cold as possible. Absolutely. And I agree. Yeah, I agree with that. So we're not going to break this down act by act because it's just talking through the Watching this movie is a joy just to find out what is the $7,000 movie? What are they doing with these characters? What are they doing with these non actors playing themselves on screen? So we're just going to discuss the setup slash act one. It reveal nothing in terms of the plot, really, just the setup. And then we're going to discuss our thoughts on kind of the early part of the movie, how those thoughts evolved as the movie played without giving away plot, you know, beat by beat plot. Details. We're gonna skip that for this one because go in cold. But the setup, aka act one. Here we go. Burton Berger, aka Bert Berger, a 69-year-old LA musician suffering from Parkinson's disease, performs his song Freedom at a local bagel shop. When he's done, a young man, Sammy, played by Oliver Cooper, asks if he can speak to Bert in private. They head out to a park bench and there he reveals that he is Bert's son from a romance Bert had with Sammy's mother decades ago. Sammy reveals that his mother, Patty, had passed away, has passed away, but produces a handwritten letter Patty left behind for Bert, talking about intimate details regarding that night that Bert corroborates. Thrilled to realize he has a son, Bert takes Sammy to his home, or rather, a house owned and run by Bert's roommate, Steve. Bert's real life roommate, Stephen Levy, or Levy, I'm not sure how to pronounce his last name. They never say it in the film. yeah, yeah. But both are right. Bert's real-life roommate, Steven Levy, playing himself. Steve is an even greater character than Bert, super particular about everything that occurs within his house. Bert has to talk him into letting Sammy stay the night, but succeeds in doing so. Later in the bathroom, Sammy calls an older woman living in a trailer park, Sylvia, played by Catelyn Adams, and the plot surprisingly thickened. It does indeed. That is all we're gonna say about the plot to this thing. because we want you guys to watch this film. We really want you to watch this film. It is a seven thousand dollar marvel. You'll hear hear more about that as we continue. But it is a fantastic film. budget, you know, uh not necessarily the only factor involved in that, but No, so this is a film, as we mentioned earlier, where the director and their main actor, and they they've been buds for quite some time like and creative collaborators, and they met Bert as an actual musician, just like, you know, they'd they'd seen open mic. Right, right, right. And in multiple places. And they didn't talk to him for quite some time. But then when they finally did, they realized what a character he was. And then when they asked him to do the short film, and they were like, you know, maybe this the We'll see wha how this goes. Let's just try to do a short film with him. Right. And Bert was like all for it. They're like, you know, it it's a small budget. And and they apparently they paid him a hundred bucks. And Bert was just like, yeah, a hundred bucks. Yeah, I'll be there for a hundred bucks. I'll there. And apparently he by the way, s sorry, by the way, the title of that short film is Another Cancer Movie, two thousand eighteen. You can you can find it in s I I can only find it in one place and I don't r I actually don't have it in the notes, but it's another cancer movie. They actually did that with Bert first, as Dave was saying. Um Yes. And do you know what that movie, that short film, actually is about? What the concept is? Uh you should read it. Yeah, it it is it is yeah, I do. Yeah, it is it is it's amazing because um and I keep mixing up their names, the director and Bert. what's his name? uh Bert. Yes, Berger. Yes, Bert Berger, that's what it is. But Joe and his collaborator, his co-producer, co-director, co-writer, they were so s smitten and taken by, as you as you'll hear, wi by Bert. because they met him pre-diagnosis, by the way. If you guys don't know, the diagnosis is is Parkinson's diagnosis. It's called another cancer movie, but it's not about the Parkinson's. Yeah, exactly. Um, but they met him pre-diagnosis and were still just smitten with this guy and found a way to work him into this film. And as Dave said, you know, they offered him a hundred bucks and he was like, Let's do it. I'm there. He was prompt, he was punctual, and he brought his f his full self to this production. So um you know, if you don't see this film, go check that one out uh and just dig into their ecosystem in general and even Bert's music. Sorry, Dave, go back. Well I was gonna say what what is the concept of of another cancer movie? Actually I I d I don't know. I d I don't know. Have you seen it? I yes, yes, yes, yes. Um I'm gonna I'm gonna pull it up because this was really a cool idea. Let me see if I can it's on short of the week on Vimeo guys, so everyone can go watch this one. Um but I want to see if I can find we're gonna pause here for a minute, I'll edit all this shit out. Um but we are going to find this. Okay, another cancer movie is a meta comedy movie about two filmmakers played by Joe Burke and Oliver Cooper. Who are trying to make an Oscar-worthy film. And it satirizes the indie film scene using a real-life situation where Cooper's aunt was undergoing chemotherapy, making the project a personal and therapeutic experience for the cast and crew. So they were pr using his actual real-life aunt's situation with cancer and going through the treatment, and then trying to make a meta comedy satirizing how. Filmmakers do this and they use like actual trauma and actual real life tragedy to make Oscar bait, essentially. Right. And that's what another cancer movie is from 2018. Go watch it on Short of the Week on Vimeo. We are definitely going to. So, anyway, back to initial thoughts. This is let's talk about Bert Berger. He's the first one we see on screen. Um, what do we think? This movie, the introduction to him. You went in knowing this was a $7,000 movie. I'm assuming most people probably do. That's why you would seek this movie out. It's hard to know it even exists otherwise by knowing it's a $7,000 movie. So let's just say you know that's what it is. How did this movie ease you in? What were your initial thoughts about Bert? Um, well f full disclosure, I've met Bert before. Okay. And we're both an LA guys, so yeah. That's that's one thing you you learn about LA if you live in LA for any s length of time. And by the way, they're out in Sun Valley, which technically isn't LA, but it is LA because everyone who eventually I have not met Bert Burger. I have not stumbled upon him, but I don't go to a lot of op you go to a lot more things like open mic than I do, to be fair. and I I generally am a magnet for quirky characters. So uh it is one of those one of those things. But Sun Valley, which isn't far f I mean it's it's kinda far from LA, but what happens in LA is those people who come here for the dream end up eventually, sometimes, moving uh to the perimeter sort of areas because one, it's a lot cheaper, more affordable, and there are still people who were involved in the industry out in those areas. So So Sun Valley is definitely one of those places. But I've met Bert before. I've met Bert on uh Hollywood Boulevard, uh, in fact. yeah, that's a cliche, but it's true. Uh but Bert as a character, he is one of these, you know, I call them like the the sort of kings of the dream because they end up they never give it up, mostly because the dream isn't always about commerce or business or Economy for them. Some people who come here, it's about getting into the ecosystem and being a part of the industry and being a part of the ecosystem. For other people, it is about the creation of whatever the art form is that flows through them. Those things aren't necessarily mutually mutually exclusive. But it all but hold on. But it also depends on that person's perspective. Because, you know, having known a lot of people who, you know, they were artists, they had musical sort of uh for lack of a better term, genius or artistic sort of, you know, sentiments. The place you go in order to make that thing happen and get as many eyes as possible on that thing usually is Hollywood. And so you kind of have to buy into the ecosystem, the economy, the infrastructure of Hollywood. And you do see a lot of people who get chewed up by that dream because that that machinery is just it is unforgiving. Yeah, and that's not to say who Bert is, but I I'm just saying that's I'm just saying, but to be fair, he's a musician, so that and he's not trying to score movies. That wasn't the dream. So Hollywood is not as directly important to him and his dream. Yes, music? For He's not trying to do music in movies though, that's not the dream. No, mu well, Hollywood is Hollywood in general is a music, is if not the music hub, as well as film. Like it truly is the sort of a hub of musicianship. So when people come to LA, some are coming for film, but the others are coming for the music industry because it is just as important. I mean, the only one that really compare, only other city that really compares is New York. Al Atlanta is more music than L. I I don't think to birth not birth generation, absolutely not. But but for bird's generation, for sure Atlanta was like the Rick James generation. It was it was huge back then. So I'm I'm not a person about that. He was in Atlanta a lot. I still remember that episode. He yes, he was he was definitely in Atlanta a lot, but he was definitely in Atlanta in LA more because that's where the business He eventually moved there once he could afford to do that. Once he was big. Atlanta was about tapping into the culture of music, but here was about start, it was to get a start. I don't know, I'm not sure I agree that LA is the place to get your start in music. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I 100% agree. Well, we'll we'll we'll we'll probably argue about this later. But you know, the character of Bert, because you do, it's so funny. We you just you and I discussed this the other day. the heavy lifting of this film is casting. Finding, and I you you said something very interesting. You said uh, and it's something that I ek I echoed as well, is like when you find characters who what was your your exact phrasing? What was it? Your exact phrasing was I well I said it earlier in the thing. You you find people who can't not be themselves. Thank you. You can find people who can't not be themselves and Bert is expertly that. And we'll discuss that more. But he is expressly that. He can't not not be himself. I suppose I would still quibble with calling that casting because technically you're not casting, you're building a movie around someone, which is not quite the same thing. I mean, I think you're ca well as a filmmaker, you're casting a person who you think can be an interesting, interesting on camera. So you're casting a role still. You are still as a writer creating something around that person. But if you're building a film, uh, you know, you you're still sort of casting, because you could write that role and then go find an actor. That's casting. Whereas the other thing is, I don't know if casting is quite the right term for it. Because the casting is like an active uh search to cast a role, but the role doesn't exist. It's the person. So you are just taking the person and saying, okay, you're more casting them, you're casting the movie to the person than the person to the movie. But it's not You know what I mean? It's like I that's why I don't think casting Right. uh ask Catelyn. Like there were some things where the interesting thing about this movie, so we talked about we're talking about Bert right now. We'll talk about Steve in a minute, and then we'll talk about how this all works as a because this is more of a narrative feature than I actually expected it to be. Yes. Uh I was really expecting this to be fucking clerks of just the people hanging out and like clerks. Right, right, right. Saying some shit. Well, damn. Oliver is not that old. Stop it. It there are two old well now. You're right. Most people in this movie are old. You're right. It's just Oliver. Um because Calvin is is is is a a seasons of the season. You're right. Seasoned. so we'll talk about that in a moment, but this this movie being narrative like that, it we'll talk about the script and how they might have built a story for these people to be able to shine in. Um, because that's I think where the real skill of this movie comes in. Is I, if I was going to find someone like Bert on the street, I've never met him before, but having watched this movie and seen him as a character, one thing I like about it is that he, you know, he has this, it's not quite monotone delivery. That that that's not the right word. Because he's he's got levels and you can see the emotion when he move when he says things, but he has this sort of very steady tone of voice. Dude, he has this kind of like back of the throat, like down of the chest. And so it it he everything he's he's saying, um, apparently the one scene where he had to get like mad in, and we'll get that when we get later in the movie, Catelyn had to help coach him on that. Because it just was not it because we talked about how you can't not be yourself, but that was one thing that was against his nature. Right. So it wasn't the way, like he gets mad, but he doesn't express it that way. He doesn't like Get mad and like it is visible and it you can hear it. And that was something that she had to be like, No, Bert, you have to yell at me, man. Like you have to you have to actually lie. Right. It's like you have to show that you really are pissed at me right in this moment. And that was something that was not really in his being. But I think that's part of what makes him so winsome as a character and as a person. Is you start to watch this movie and he takes everything. Just like I can see why he is still in LA doing music, even at 69 years old with Parkinson's, because whatever gets thrown his way, he's like, no, that sucks, but that's okay. That's okay. We're still gonna, we're gonna work this out, we're gonna figure it out. And he just keeps going. Um, he very much has that that attitude towards life. Now that said, you know, even in he is the kind of person he does not think he's made it. And he does want to make it, and he's always believed he still will. So to your point though, of like for some people that's not the goal, I actually think that is Bert's goal and has always been Bert's goal. Okay, I knew this was going to be a point of not necessarily contention, but discussion. And in a lot of the information, Bert's big thing was he wanted people to hear his music. And for him, it was about hearing what was coming from his heart, his being, his soul. Now, uh again, I make the distinction, maybe others don't. The idea I understand. It's not it's not it's not money as money for money's sake. I get that. Right. But it's not fame for fame's sake, but it is the these are the ways people hear your stuff. These are the ways people you get your stuff out to more enough people to where it's more than just the eight people at this school location in this moment, right? Right. The amplification and what you're allowed to do. So I understand that you're saying it's not that, but the success in terms of The world, quote unquote, like some number that is large enough that you can say the world has heard your music. You know what I mean? Or at least the country. You know, something. Because I do think that is his ideal. That was his goal. Is he wanted people to hear his music the way they would have heard most major recording artists having heard their music. And he didn't necessarily need the money or want or be like, you know, I need to be a millionaire. I don't think that was necessarily I mean, I think he'd like to not have to sweat of course of of the costs of life and whatnot, but uh definitely he still needed like the success. We'll see what this movie does for him. He and Steve have been very apparently very happy. They have how this movie has gone and and how much attention it's been has been thrown their way. Um now let's talk about Steve. So Steve is the for lack of a better term. He is what you see on camera. Yes. and he is, for lack of a better term, the antagonist of the film to our to our to our protagonist. Who isn't Bert? Bert is Bert is the subject, but we're through the POV of kind of the of Oliver, of Sammy. And Bert is a very antagonistic figure to Sammy throughout m the whole movie. um And Steve is a a a paranoid, a very particular Like one of those guys, it's like you get it's so funny. I had a so I come from a military family. So my dad was navy, and when we were kids, he tried to get us to do what he called a ship shower. which was five minutes or oh Front back, head to toe. Head to toe. Turn the water off after five minutes or less and get out the door and we're out of here. And especially he didn't he didn't care. He wasn't Steve. He didn't care about the money being saved by the lack of of water running. But especially if it was a morning where we were about to take a family trip or do something together as a family, he's like, We are out the door in 10 minutes or we're out the door in 20 minutes. There's four of us. We each take a five minute, you know, prep. So it's like ship shower for everyone. And he was adamant about it. So I I actually have some personal experience in the five minutes of running water or less. And he was Yeah. By by the way, guys, if you know Dave intimately, that will make so much sense. Yes? Yeah. Well it's funny. I'm so not military minded at all, even though I grew up with a military dad. Um, I never have wanted to join the military. The only part of the military that ever I was attracted to was just the concept of like, I w I would love to prove I can do boot camp. You know what I mean? Like I would love to just know. I thrive to Exactly. But outside of that, actually doing and well, and that and the fact that uh military service, having grown up in the military, it's really not the same these days as it was back in the seventies and eighties when I was growing up. But uh they really took care of the families that were with like having that n j uh not only the retirement, but then even what they did while you're like I mean you you were supported so through and through. It was amazing. Um, yeah, I don't think it's as good. I mean, certainly with with the issues we have with veterans these days, definitely it's not it's not the same. But back then it was. So that could have been alluring, but I'm not military minded in terms of like I do I am anti authority in a lot of ways. Like there's a lot of don't tell me what to do. And that that ain't gonna fly in the military, let me tell you. That's like eighty five percent of my personality, depending on the day. It's like I it's not even so much of like, no, I'm not gonna do it, but I'll question things. Like they're We'll do this. And I'm like, Well, but wouldn't it be better? And and I can't help it. I will be like, but but what about this? And what about this? And my god, I would fail. I would so be kicked out so fast. Fast. So I would be punished so quickly and so often that then eventually they'd be like, No, you gotta go. Like we can't even punish you enough. You just have to go. You you don't work, you don't fit in here. Um so Steve is He's not militaristic per se. Uh he's militaristic he's militaristic in that stand your ground in Florida kind of way, but not necessarily in any other way. But he is a very particular guy. He definitely protects his territory. And this was when the filmmakers met him. They're like, he's like this. There's a scene in the movie with a washer and dryer repair person that comes over and he's just giving him what for about this washer and dryer, and that it needs to be fixed, or he's got to take it out of there. And this washer and dryer had apparently been there, standing there in like the middle of the house for like year a year. And and Steve at one point was like, Is this gonna be in the way of filming? And the filmmakers were like, No, no, no, we'll film around it. And that scene where he's yelling at the repair man. Was happening when they were trying to film and they just captured it on film. And they were like, Oh, I guess this is what's happening. So some of what's in the movie is even just literally Steve being Steve, not even trying to act for the film. And Steve was the one being the particular one. Like Bert is very dependable, Bert's very like game. Bert is absolutely lyrical in the sense that, like you said, he just kind of not necessarily goes with the flow, but when he encounters something, he finds a way to move with it. As he's like water. As opposed to Steve, who's very much like um damn. He is a hundred percent the damn. And he's like, You had the what you have to bounce off me or go through these exact parts that I let you go through in exactly the amounts I let you go through, or we have nothing to do with each other and go somewhere else. Exactly. And that's Steve. So Steve was the one that got cold feet multiple times. they wanted to film at the house. He almost pulled at first he was like, You can only do it from these hours on these few days, and then we're done. And then even when it would right before it started, he's like, I'm not an actor, I can't do this, I can't do this. And he almost got cold feet. Bert was never, and the filmmakers convinced Steve this was this is kind of his one saving grace, is they were like, You're doing this for Bert. Yeah. And you even see in the final act of this movie that Steve is like, and even before that, actually, there's a few moments where like Steve and Bert are bizarrely supportive of each other. And so you're like, huh. This is why they've lived together for I I think Bert said something like seventeen years or something some obscene amount of I think it was fourteen, but yeah. Yeah. Fourteen okay, yeah. Um and so they really are they get a lot and and yeah, and Bert was like, no, we fight some sometimes we've even almost thrown down. And it's like, but we get it out of our system and then everything's fine and it's like that's it Yeah. Their relationship again we talked about this quibble about this concept of casting, but you know it Don't tell me you don't recognize this relationship. it's the odd couple all day it's us sometimes. But that's the thing, it's only sometimes we throw down and then we keep moving. So we do recognize this to some degree. But Steve, like they're very particular. And Steve then uh they convinced him to do the movie because they said, Look, this is for Bert. This is something we're doing. And Steve was like, Fine, okay, okay, okay, but only these hours, only these days. And by day two, he was like he was having the time of his life. And he was like, we we don't you can film till whenever, as many days as it takes. Here we go. And he was all in, yeah. Well, another uh bit of a side note here in terms of the production. I was having a conversation with another producer recently, and I don't remember, I guess it was last week or two weeks ago, but he was quibbling about all these people, these kids coming up these days who are calling themselves producers in high school, and how you know you compare that to what an actual producer on a film set, an independent film for like$7,000 has to do. You have to convince the guy. you know, who's already signed on to come out of their trailer, you know, for ten hours a day. Like you aren't a producer until you can convince someone like Steve not to pull the plug at the last minute. Because if anybody's gonna pull the plug Right. But that but that but that but again on a small set, you know, you got a three person crew, you're running all the hats. As a matter of fact, one of the interviews I listened to with, and I'm gonna fuck up his name again, the director is Joe Burke. Burke. Thank you. That's that that it's so close. It fucks up in my brain. Anyway, Joe Burke was lamenting the fact that you know how they had this three person crew. Um, truly a small production guys, three person crew and the two actors and four actors depending on the day, five actors depending on the Day. um How you know he loaded up the snacks for lunch and craft services in the trunk. And then he had to go pick up and borrow the cameras, and you had to go borrow the lenses. You had to drive an hour and do all this stuff, you know, and it is a testament. We'll get more into this later, but it's a testament to this indie filmmaking, sort of gorilla filmmaking energy. But back to Steve. Steve, from my part is a special fine. Because you can tell that guy is just a character waiting to happen and has always been. It just took the right crew to come right and put a camera on him and allow that character to shine because he is a proper character. You would have written this character and it would have been just as interesting if it was fiction. it is just a fantastic bit of quote unquote casting, as we described, just discussed. Yes. So before we go any further on that, let's talk about these initial. So we met Bert. We well, I'm sorry, yeah, we met Bert, we met Steve, beginning of the film, everything we said in the setup in Act One, roughly. What are we thinking wine-wise on this? I will say I'm sipping a white wine right now. And that was my initial thought for sure. This film is so light on its feet. Uh and and the characters so winsome, so easy to just fall into. And it just flows. This movie is 77 minutes, by the way, guys. You know, with credits and credits and all that fun stuff included. So this does not overstay its welcome in any way whatsoever. You're in and it just goes. And it's not fast paced per se, but it wastes no time. This was again a seven day shoot for seven thousand dollars. They're not shooting a bunch of extraneous BS. Like this is like exactly what the film needs and nothing else. Now they wrote this in like two months after they came up with the idea of doing something with Bert and Steve, they were filming. So this was written very fast too. So this is a this is a this feels very instinctual. This feels very natural. This feels very light on its feet. initially I could not imagine for the first half of this movie, I could not imagine anything but a white wine. Um something crisp, cold, nothing too rich, nothing too bitter or astringent. Um, even though Steve i is a little astringent, I was like, still the way everything plays, and some of the other characters too, like the actor characters, uh Oliver and Sylvia, when you are are I'm sorry, the character Sammy and Sylvia. Yeah. Um, the two acting roles, like they're they're when the plot thickens, you start to learn there's a more astringency there, but the plot hadn't really thickened yet. So I was like, Look, there's such fundamental warmth here. Even Steve cares deeply for Bert underneath all the bluster, underneath all the astringency. So I was like, this has gotta be something really fun, nice, drinkable, something refreshing. I was just I can't go any heavier than that. But how about you, Dallas? What were you thinking of? Beginning. You know, honestly, not a dissimilar take. Um, I even wrote in my notes this film is light in on its feet, in fact. but it uh act one will say act one, act, you know, um if it's two acts. And I I qualify this as a two-acts film, but um it punches so far above its weight, and it's so oddly refreshing. Um, I mean it's it's Dyer and dour and all the things, you know, on the surface. But there is also this like fun electricity beneath it. Um, because, you know, I'm thinking about this guy's Parkinson. I'm thinking about the fact that this character probably this is going to be a high point for him going forward, and everything else probably, you know, devolves as the as these diseases go. And so there's this darkness, this stourness, and they're aging. Steve is aging. How much longer is he going to be able to live on his own? How much longer? These days during the tour during the festival run and everything, like s Bert is in a in a bit in a wheelchair summertime now. So yeah. And you know, another thing that was a consideration in this film is at the same time that Bert received his diagnosis, the director's father got his Parkinson's diagnosis too. And so I'm thinking about all this, you know, because that's kind of part of the fuel for this film as well, you know. and there's a in the film is on visual display. And they talk about it like constantly in the film because it's a big part. Like he still strums his guitar, plays his music, just a plecker. Watch the movie, you'll understand what that you'll understand that. And one of the things that's really not like I don't want to glorify Parkinson's because there's nothing to glorify, but it was one thing that was like visually really. um captivating to be able to see Parkinson's in action on this actor that's just again going with the flow and doing everything this movie requires and that the story requa the character as well, even if you treat him as a character, he's got the Parkinsons, but going with everything here and not worrying about himself hardly at all. And you're like, this guy's kind of fucking amazing. Yeah. There's a great piece in one of the interviews I was listening to uh where the director, uh Mr. Burke, uh said that one of the conversations he had with Bert was that, you know, the dream doesn't end because of Parkinson's, it just becomes more clear. And I was like, that's fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. And that is the The director turning forty and then he's like, fuck it, I'm making a seven thousand dollar movie because I cannot keep waiting for someone to let me make a movie to give me money to make a movie. Absolutely. Um, so wine wise, I was actually in this similar sort of space. I wanted something kind of crisp and fun and interesting and that gave me all those sort of whimsical notes that weren't on the surface of this film because it is in grayscale, first of all. That is a bit that's it. I was gonna say as soon as you were done, I was gonna circle back to my white wine and I'm like, that was another thing. It's black and white movie. Right. Um, folks, black and white cinematography. What did you think of the black and white cinematography? I will, you know, I I listened to this interview after I watched the film. Well yeah, after I watched the film. And one of the things they were saying is I think that interview was in the LAS. I think that was one of the interviews I listened to. But Mr. Burke was saying how they got all the footage and it was all in color, but it just wasn't singing. It just didn't have that thing. So can I say something there? Yeah. I have an anecdote to this. So there was a movie not too long. Well, actually, not too long ago. Over 10 years ago. Over 10. It was over a decade ago. um I think it was like 2013-ish or something around there. um Jesse Johnson, I think he was going by Jesse A. Johnson, then he was director. These days he's an action director. He does a lot of action movies with like Scott Adkins. Okay. Um and he did he's done movies like Avengement and Triple Threat, all these things, which which I love. And I didn't realize that he had also done, he did a stab w back in the day of doing a bit of an art house cinema film. Okay. And it was called Um no. V V V V. I'm gonna look it up right now, son of a bitch. I had it in my head and it just I literally I was like, What? The the something ones. Beautiful ones. Maybe the beautiful ones. That's the one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so he made a film that was kind of an art a stab at an art house bid. It was a crime thriller, but it wasn't like action. It was a low budget, very low budget, um crime action movie that he shot in black and white as well. And when it did the festival circuit, it was always in black and white. And I saw it, I want to say it was at a local festival here in LA. So I got to go to a theater. And I not even I can't even a hundred percent remember why I was there or what made me go see this one, but it was something where I was like, Yeah, this sound this looks great. Fucking loved it. It was so good. It then got picked up by a distributor who colorized it. Ha ha there you go. Lots of magic. and you cannot find the black and white version anywhere. It has not been leaked, it has not been gone anywhere else. And I cannot tell you how fucking cheap looking this movie looks now that it's in color. And the distributor was like, no one's gonna watch a black and white movie, we gotta colorize it. And they colorized it. And not only was the film not shot. To be that, I think. I don't know. Maybe they thought maybe they too were like, no, this looks terrible. Let's cut let's black and white it. Oh, this is so much better. Right. And I gotta tell you, which for whatever reason that it was black and white, it was so much better. If you have no budget and you you're you're the cameras you're using probably, you know, are gonna it's going to look very digital. It's going to look Some there's something about the visual where you were like, this just looks like a cheap movie. Yeah. Think about black and white. Because both the beautiful ones and now this movie, with the director having that having his anecdote of like, no, it didn't look right. And then we turned it into black and white and it looked great. Yes, yes, yes. Also sepia tone. I haven't seen enough films done in sepia tone, damn it. Uh but but agreed. It is one of those things. When I heard that, I'd I'd already seen the film and I'd already fallen in love with the film and realized that it was sort of a it had a timeless quality about it. And I couldn't figure out what that was. I know on in part it was the Parkinson's thing, because that is a universal, that's something You know, we are facing uh one of those sort of existential kind of issues because it the diagnosis the diagnoses are happening um earlier and earlier and earlier, uh, and more frequently in communities. And it's something even people in their 40s, 50s are now having to worry about i i like extensively. So it is one of those things that on in terms of the script is just it's kind of these universal concepts, right? And I think the black and white. Does this thing of making it even more timeless. Because as you said, when it's when the films like these are in color, you start to see the washes of the hues in the in in the world, right? You start to see the things in on camera in the real in the real world that sort of will date it. Uh and having that sort of black and white thing, it's almost like a uh filter that dials down. the um moment in time, right? And makes it a bit more timeless. Um yeah. And and see that. Yeah, it just it's it's kind of it's a simple thing, but it almost adds a style. That simple thing adds a stylistic sort of filter that adds a quality, especially to this film, that makes it even more timeless than the subject matter. Um so wine wise, I was thinking and I actually tried a an orange rose. it is it was a blend of I think Pinot Blanc or Savillon Blanc, Pinot Gris and uh Pinot Blanc or something. Well it was yeah, I was like it but it was one of those things where I was just like, mm, okay, because it had lots of like tangerine in it, lots of like um f florals and stuff, and I was like, you know This is one of those cases when the perfumes and the florals don't really add anything. And I was on the road to pairing this feels like an important film to me. and I think uh it has a lot to do with the uh you know the the the set Which is any film in twenty twenty six can be. Right. Exactly. Right. This feels like it's it's going to be a film that one punches above its weight. It's going to be something we look back at in future generations and go, this was that moment in time when the diagnosis for Parkinson's were increasing. And it was something people were rapidly being forced to reckon with in their forties and fifties. And I think that might only get worse as we move forward. but at least in the near future. And I think this is one of the first times I've seen this diagnosis treated in this way. It is done with such care, kind of a reverence, but also it doesn't turn it into a death sentence or a villain or a uh that it's really not about it. It doesn't turn it into it. Exactly. Right. It doesn't focus on it at all. He's like, I have Parkinson's. And you're gonna see it in almost every scene. And it's visually never gonna let you forget that I have it. But really not right. But it's like, but my life isn't that. My life is my life. Right. Out like that it that encompasses everything. Right. This is just something that is that comes along. Right with it, but it's not it doesn't define anything really. Um, which is yeah, a new take on all of that. And it wouldn't have happened if you didn't just cast someone that happened to have it, and you're like, You're you you're playing yourself, so of course you have Parkinson's, but this script isn't about someone who has Parkinson's exactly, right? Um now on that note, let's get to act two, or or let's say the the later parts of the movie, and the plot thickens, more locations, more characters. The our Bert and Steve, our non-actors, have to act in a number of scenes. They have to do pull out a little bit more than they've done in the early the early stages were like just you be you. We're uh some of the scenes and we're even just gonna capture you being you, and you might not even realize it's gonna be part of the movie. Um, but later, these are like we have a story, we have woven an actual narrative. Which I was that surprised me. I did not expect this movie to be that type of movie. but it it is a true blue narrative and that most of the movie is dealing with the narrative. Yeah. Um, as as mentioned earlier, one of the actresses, Catelyn Adams, had to like kind of coach Bert along to like really pull it out in the end. So how do you think that worked with our non actors? How did they how did they fare with having to, you know, act and like do a movie, do a a true blue narrative movie? I think they did surprisingly well because It's so difficult to it's so difficult to sort of uh process it because, you know, as as a person with an acting background myself and a writing background and all the stuff, right? It's it's difficult to kind of turn the brain and say, okay, these are just guys who a film was built around who are now dealing with narrative stuff that's kind of inter inter interjected. and I think they did an amazing job mostly because It wasn't necessarily acting to them. Uh it felt like they were just trying to find some sort of authenticity with this these sort of these moments that were thrown at them. Like they rose to the occasion. it's just so difficult to talk about this without like going to specifics, but I know. Well, to some degree, A, you have the they can't not be themselves. Right. So that is that is part of it. It's like even when they're acting, they're still them, like plainly. And these are the types of characters that an actual actor would have like almost killed themselves trying to become because they're such Characters. So they would have like every tick, every weird thing. And like, don't forget, you always have to hold your body this way and your limbs this way. And you're and these guys are just like, that's just how I hold my limbs. I don't know, I don't know what what what you're asking me to do here. But I will then say these lines and try. And like even Steve has moments like with the with the climax where he has to kind of do something a little outlandish and then fret about it because it it goes slightly wrong. And I'm like, yeah, that was like even he had to pull it out a little bit. And Bert having to get even Bert, like when Sammy first tells him, and this is part of the synopsis, the the the setup, so you've already know this, but when he's like, Yeah, I'm your son, you know, and Bert has this great moment where he's like, ha ha, you're kidding. But you're not kidding. I'm sure whether but the way he pulls it, the way he delivers every single line, I'm like An actor couldn't do it better than that. That was amazing. Um, and then at the end, when he has to get angry, maybe it took some acting coaching to get him to to to pull that out of himself, to be like, no, you have to actually be angry. And it's great too, because at one point he's like, We're we're gonna go talk to Sylvia. And he like gets and the Parkinson's has him shaking. So he's like, he's shaking partly from that, but then also it's not hard to see that like partly from rage. And he can't sit still any longer. He's gotta like he gets up and just starts going. He doesn't look back to see if Sammy's even following. He's just like, I gotta move. I gotta move. I'm so fucking pissed. It's true. And I just gotta move. And I'm like, maybe it's partly the direction, partly the coaching, but whatever it was, it's kind of there are so many films where non-actors, because they're celebrities, they're athletes, there's something that you cast them for, they're in a film, and boy, does it not. Read well. Like they're like, okay, you're not an actor, my god. Um, but not here. That because these are people who are worth turning a camera on That's that's it that's exactly how to say that. Yes. skill, like I think athletes the problem is it's worth turning a camera on them when they're performing their skill. Yeah. But it's not worth turning a camera on them per se just to hear them talk. so that that be that's its own It it does you know, I I think we discussed this initially when we were deciding whether or not to this do this film. It does sit someplace between documentary and you know fiction. And generally those spaces aren't exactly satisfying. Um, because off often you'll get actors who are doing renditions or the real life characters, as you said, don't know how to just Present whatever they're being asked to present. And these characters, uh, you know, again back to what you were saying, they don't know how not to be themselves. And because of that, everything reads authentic. Virtually everything they do reads completely authentic. And I think without that authenticity. As you were saying, if we had actors in there, they would be trying to sort of method it out and like do all the hyper sort of movement and and and and go in directions that it didn't necessarily need. But because uh these characters were to a an extent just sort of saying lines, it worked. Because these these characters were really just saying lines through their own mask. And it's kind of the inverse of what actors do. So it comes off so authentic. Authentic, even in those moments, as you said, later on when he has to get angry, right? Yes. So I will say, folks, I think um I kind of said this earlier, but like I think this is this moment's clerks, where it's it's it's even black and white, my God. It's like it's it's black and white, it's super indie. Because it's not film and we're into the digital world, it was actually because I remember Kevin Smith actually like had to like max out all his credit cards or something of that nature to make clerks. Because for film, you actually had to pay tens of thousands of dollars even to make a super cheap movie. To have the physical roles of film to and then you know doing post and blah blah blah. So now they shot it for 7,000. I think they raised a little bit more for posts and all that fun stuff. So that is also something to keep in mind if you are thinking of making a film as well. That the take it one step at a time, that's awesome. Like if you can scrape together a few thousand dollars and you can shoot a film for that, shoot it. But also remember you have post, you have festivals. You might have to take it on tour like these guys did at some point. And that is plane tickets. You you are not you are not driving that cross country, that whole east coast to west coast tour. Let me tell you, you're probably not. Um, or the gas alone, you might as well just fly, um, with the gas prices being what they are today. So know that you'll need to raise a little bit more money, maybe on Seed and Spark, Kickstarter, things like that, crowdfunding, fa family and friends, whatever it is. We recently went and saw a movie called Withdrawal. I uh at our local cinema. We may cover that on the podcast, but uh after this movie. Um, but they're also doing a tour right now after getting rejected from all these festivals. And it's a movie that really is worth having played in festivals. I so we are in a moment now. And on the tour, they basically said, look, we have made technically a profit. So we've broken, we've more than broken even. It's not a big Off it. Don't think you've like made money that you're putting in the bank. He was like, We've made like in the whole tour across the country, we made like a thousand bucks. But they paid for everything and made a thousand bucks. So it's very doable to get your film in front of people. And by doing that, you get the word out and maybe there's something there's more life to your movie after that, the same way there was for Bert. So This is on Amazon Prime and Apple. As I said before, make sure you go take a look for it. We bought it for 10 bucks to support the film. And Bertthemovie.com, B-U-R-Themovie.com. Go check that out. Now, final wine pairing thoughts. So later in the movie, things do get heavier. I have, for those who are looking at the YouTube video, I did pour a red during the second half of the conversation. This is what I actually paired it with right here. Now, things do get heavier. It's more drama. more layers to the characters, the the non-actors get to act a little bit more. So on a rewatch, I cracked open a red, I cracked open this red. Something still lighter in nature though. A red not normally, and I picked this was kind of the cool thing. I picked a r a red not normally known for lightness, as most dramas are not actually known to be particularly light. But in this instance, this was a lighter, chillable expression of a tip of a typically heavier wine. So lighter in alcohol, lighter in color, brighter in flavor. J I which I think this movie is like when you think of like, no, it's just a drama. It's an indie drama. And it's not even quite a drama D. It's not a it's not really a comedy, I don't think. You could you could call it that. I wouldn't I wouldn't fight you hard on that, but it is a it is more of a straight up drama than a dramedy, but it's so light on its feet that I understand why you'd want to call it a dramedy. Yeah. Um, even though no one in this I the script is not trying for comedy per se, not often. So for my final pairing, looking for a lighter expression of a usually heavier red wine, I settled on this. I'm gonna um for those who are watching on YouTube, I do have the bottle right here. So this is a municipal winemakers, quote unquote nowadays labels release of a wine. It's Alicante Boucher from Cucamonga Valley. 2022. Now, the reason I chose this, Municipal is an a Santa Barbara-based winery. Uh though they buy grapes, they're a negotiant. They buy grapes from all around California. They're just the winery. They don't own a vineyard. And their mission statement is to make wines an everyday experience again. Something to gather and drink regularly and not. Just on special occasions. So they make more approachable wines easy to pop and pour anytime, anyplace, which I thought was super fitting for a $7,000 DIY feature film. That also you can watch this film anytime, anywhere. There's not a timeless quality. and also mood-wise, it's like, I want something heavy, I want something action packed. It's like this is just a movie you can be like, I could watch this. Sure. Just about anytime. So even better. This is municipal wineries nowadays label, which is their natural wine label. Or as they describe it, quote, biodynamic, foot-stomped, native yeast, wine the way it used to be made, cloudy funky alive, unquote. Which cloudy funky alive, I could just about not describe this movie better than those three words. Yeah, yeah, yeah. that said, I will say this uh even more apropos for a film like this, but uh this wine is not. It's not cloudy, actually. Um, so this one in particular, not cloudy. It's not even that funky. It's got a little bit of like this white pepper kind of kind of scent to it, which I definitely associate with a lot of natural wines. But um avocante boucher, this is typically a very I mean, typically the grape, even the grapes I used to make this, it's thick skinned, very dark in color. Um So it but it's also it's a grape, it's a rare kind of grape that they call tinturier, which means it's red on the inside as well as the outside. So the juice will be red even if you don't use the skins. Um so when you make a red wine with Alacante Boucher, and I represent a Portuguese wine book, and Alacanti Boucher is one of the grapes they grow a lot in Portugal. They use it in port, they use it everywhere because and it just makes these just tannic, dusty. Deep, succulent reds, but they are big. And this thing, I don't know how well you never can on camera see it that well with the light coming through, but this thing is translucent. It is completely see-through. So I actually suspect, I do not know how much skin contact they gave, how long it soaked on the skins. It probably did some because they're not called they're calling it a red wine and they're not saying anything special about it. But I'm gonna tell you, for an Alicante Boucher, this is a very short. Time on the skins. This is almost guaranteed a quote unquote white wine. But of course, the juice is red to begin with. So it's not much darker than the juice would have been in the first place. So this is almost a white wine made as a red wine kind of like a red. Like it, yeah. I see it. a almost white wine. There is definitely some skin contact on this, but I think it's very gentle, very light. So you get more raspberry, like bright red raspberry flavors than the darker, dark plum or blackberry flavors that an avocante would normally give. It's juicy, it's vibrant, it's chillable, it's easy to drink multiple glasses of, like this movie is super easy to watch multiple times. I know that because I watched it three times before getting on this podcast to talk about it. so Municipal winemakers nowadays Alicante Boucher from Cucamonga, Cucamonga Valley, which is not far from LA either, which is also a really good, it's kind of close to Anaheim or where Disneyland is. So it's kind of in that like LA County area. So for a movie all about these LA characters, I also found that very apropos. Um, I got this. You can ask someone at your local wine shop. This particular one, if you're not in Southern California, it's probably not getting too far out there. This is not this is sold out on the municipal wine winery website. But in LA, Stanley's Wet Goods has it right now. And uh there's one more. Uh Flaskin Field, the one near you, Dallas, the one kind of downtown ish area, also has this. Uh and they have it well in stock, like dozens of bottles of it. So if you're in the LA area, Flasken Field near downtown. Or Stanley's Wet's Good Wet Goods in Culver City, carry the Salicante Boucher, or go to your local wine shop and say, I want a light expression of a usually dark, heavy red. They will be able to figure that out for you. All right, what do you got, Dallas? All right. So for me, I realize that this film has a lot to do with location and not just where they shot it. So as I mentioned earlier, Sun Valley is out in the sort of perimeter of LA to a certain extent. And you know, LA is a machine. And after years and years of looking for the dream, sometimes people can be pushed out into those perimeter areas. And You get this sort of sometimes, sometimes. You know, the rest of us are just holding on, right? No. Uh The rest of us are just spending our fucking money. Exactly. Um, but these two characters are so in my mind, so quintessentially 80s and 90s characters who would have spent a ton of time in Malibu and Santa Monica and Venice. And I just see it. I know at least one of them spent at least a year uh living on the Beach, you know, in a Winnebago or something. They just, they just ring with that energy, especially Bert, right? Uh as sort of a fledgling musician. Because it's often the story, particularly in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. and so I that's kind of where my mind kept going. I was like, oh, okay, let let's let's think about Malibu. Like, like what what are Malibu wines? Like, and excuse me. And so it made me want some of that old magic because there's a part of Bert that is still sort of simmering with magic. Because there is a magical quality, I believe, about Bert. There's also sort of a wizardry about Steve. There's a wizardry, a wizard, wizard kind of quality. He does, right? Put a hat on him. Put a hat on him. He's ready to go. You know? And so I I immediately thought about specifically tying my pairing to the terroi, the The land, Malibu. Um, you know, Steve is craggy and almost sort of volcanic in a way, and uh the Malibu sort of viticultura area uh is known for that sort of uh volcanic soil. Um it's dry, it's shallow, uh it's all the things. there's also like You know, again, that sort of dryness. And these two characters are very dry in their delivery, you know, which which makes them sing on camera. Uh, you know, it so I all these things are like floating around in my mind. And so then I had to sort of dig into the Malibu sort of AVA. And you know, if you guys don't know, it spans about 45 miles between Ventura and LA in the Hollywood Hills. Uh it is One of the largest AVAs which abuts uh a one of the top tier population centers in the country. Um, it is home to two distinct AVAs, Malibu Newton Canyon and Saddle Rock Malibu. Um, and they are known for their cabs, saws, their Syrahs, their Chardonnays, um, you know, on the Malibu coast. Uh and if anyone's ever been here and taken a drive up the Malibu coast, it is a beautiful, craggy. Rocky place and historically has been the domicile and domain of lots of Bohemians and stars and artists and surfers. So again, I imagine these two characters and their heyday have spent some time in this region. and I think when the director f and Oliver first met Bert, it was in like that Dennis Santa Monica area. So far away. Yeah, yeah. so I ultimately went with a wine that I think accomplishes both goals. And the second goal, which I didn't mention, is the director kind of wanted to give Bert a legacy um that could be easily pointed to and identified because Bert never gave up the dream. And as Parkinson is eating away at his life force for lack of a better term, it became uh a a much more difficult kind of dream I think to uh find and uh achieve and luckily the directors came along and with this film gave Bert an opportunity to not only use his music but his other skills and other talents and gave him an identifiable legacy and made him the king of his own mountain. Now that ties into my pairing because I went with a wife It is a 2018, it's called the 2018 uh the King of the Mountain from Saddle Rock Estates, which is in Malibu, in fact. Um, I think it is the currently the only vineyard uh winery in Malibu. There may be another one at the moment. Um, it is a beautifully balanced Bordeaux uh style. The it is black cherry, it's all the like preserves. I wouldn't call it preserved, but it's all the sort of like rich, stoody kind of fruits, fermented kind of fruits. It is it's it's subtly spicy, you know, which again, like our characters, you know, you talk about the presentation, you talk about the way Bert delivers that line when he finds out that uh the guy is his son. And it is so simple, but it's also so spicy. There's just so much behind that subtle delivery. And it has a lingering finish, which is one of my favorite phrases in all of wine. Just like this film, it is going to be, and this is in my humble opinion, it is going to be so much more important in the next decade or two decades than it is now, um, which means it's going to age very well. I do wholeheartedly believe that about this film. and I cannot sing its praises enough. this is also a blend of Kab Sov, uh Merlot, and I think there's like five percent Malbec um Malbec in it as well. and yeah, that's my my pairing. It is the 2018 King of the Mountain from Saddle Rock Estates um here in Malibu. And you can actually order uh directly from their site. Uh also I think Total Wine locally has some. Maybe possibly. possible. So Total Wine if you're in the LA area. And for the rest of you, because Malibu a Malibu winery will not have a huge output. That's very true. So I will say that it's a Bordeaux blend that's Cab Sov heavy. So that means it's going to be left bank Borde. Go to your wine shop, wherever you are. You can even go to Total Wine and you say, I'm looking for, give them your budget, whatever your price range is, and say, I'm ideally looking for something that's left. Bank Bordeaux, which is going to be the Kab Sov heavy Bordeaux. If you do right bank, it's gonna be Merlot heavy. Um, and Kab Sov tends to be, I think that is more fitting for this movie because Kabsov tends to have a touch more astringency to it. And you pepper in some more like Cab Franc, maybe some Merlot, to like balance it all out when it's on the left bank, but it's mostly Kab Sov. And that's gonna be a little brighter, a little more astringent while still being nice and deep and age-worthy and all that fun stuff. So look for that if you need something more general. to look for in terms of Dallas's parents. Yeah. All right. All right. That has been Bert, a recently released film, B U R T. Go look it up on Amazon Prime or Apple TV if you're in the States. I think Canada too. I think it's North America. I do not know how it's been released internationally, so you'll just have to check that out for yourself. Um, we are now going on a four-week summer hiatus. We'll be recording regularly, but we are going to be banking these episodes to get ahead of ourselves for once. but we will be back mid-August for more. Weekly wine and movie pairings. In the meantime, don't forget to join us for our monthly wine cellar cinema screenings here in LA if you're in the LA area. Tickets for the July screening just went on sale this week. Once again, that is women do genre, four genre short films by female filmmakers, each paired with a wine by female winemakers. Find a link to purchase tickets at wine cellar cinema LA on Instagram or winesellersinema.substack.com on Substack. And we might, you know, I'm we're probably one of the things we're gonna record during this break is withdrawal. We'll see if we don't post that a little early because they're on tour right now and maybe that's time sensitive. If we do that, you might get a s a surprise drop before a month is up, but we're still gonna be banking some episodes during these four weeks and not dealing so much With the editing of the things and getting them out and the marketing and the social media and the blah blah blah. And actually just worry about the recording and then we'll be ahead of ourselves. And if anything happens, we'll actually have some in the bank. So it's true. We're gonna really look forward to doing that. But we have so many incredible episodes, incredible guests, incredible movies to cover coming right up. And of course, many thanks to our sponsor, the place where wine cellar cinema, the microcinema inside of a wine shop, takes place every month. And that place is curated wine shop. Where to begin finding a wine that pairs with your movie? A des okay. Almost literally no one does, but curated is here to help. They accept every Vintertainment-inspired challenge and will curate the selection to match your palette. Just tell them what you're trying to pair with, which movie you're trying to pair with, your budget for the wine, your preferences, and they will show you. The way. Curated is a boutique wine shop on La Brea Avenue, Mid-City, Los Angeles, founded and operated by Peeps currently and previously part of the entertainment ecosystem. Johnny, Kelly, Allison, and Mia, they are all fantastic. Go meet them. Kelly, by the way, is an immigration attorney in Trump's America, so she could really use your support. Go give her your moral support. Pat her on the back. Buy some of her wine. That is her happy place right now because there is no happy place outside of that for an immigration lawyer in America right now. Anyways, they carry Curated Wine Shop carries an ever-changing, wide-ranging selection of small lot artisanal wines from the known and comforting to the completely unique. We're talking reds, white, roses, oranges, sparklings, dry wines, sweet wines, everything in between. Go check them out if you're in the LA area. You can also find them online, curated-wines.com. They do ship. So, you if you're in it, if You're uh well, I wouldn't ship it far, but if you're nearby, you can have them ship it to you, curated dash wines.com. For curated, if you can find us, we are ventertainmentstudios.com at Vinner for us Vintertainment Pros Substack and wine cellarcinema.substack.com for all things wine cellar cinema. Thank you so much for listening. We will be back in four weeks about for with another wine and entertainment pairing for your Vinertainment. Go check out Bert in the meantime and ciao for now. Shall guys called Improven on Earth Twenty Years have gone and I don't really know where the years have gone. Skip the The years have gone and I don't really know where the years have gone. Que bah, Yeah. Fifty years have gone Still I don't really know when the years have gone Just keep moving on, well. Must keep moving on well. Yeah. Love it man. What was the name of that song, Bertie? Improving on. Improving on. Improving on. Life goes on and hopefully we're getting better. We keep following, but we keep getting up. Right on, babe. That's what falling is all about. Thanks, Bernie. My pleasure. I'm honored to play for you.