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With me, Dave White

And me Alonzo Durality We are film critics for the rap. You're the film critic. You're the film editor. You're the film reviews editor. I always, you know, you're the film reviews editor. And this is the show. And what a show is going to be today oh boy howdy because we have guests not one not

two but three yes it is our annual year review wrap up with our our the usual gang of idiots as

they used to say at mad magazine uh please welcome our guests robert abley from the l a times

and the rap peter de bruce variety aminolidgis in the New York Times. Welcome.

Now you just said those names very quickly. Did I? Robert Abel. Robert Abelie. Peter de Bruges. Peter de Bruges and Manola Dargis. Yes. Thank you. Okay. All the different places that they write for. Yes. All represented here. All right. So clearly. Or maybe you will visit. Or maybe you guys come in more often.

It's sort of a tradition.

Yes, we're seeing it behind your back. During the rest of the year, y'all are blacklisted. But we love this. This is sort of our annual, you know, best of the year. Absolutely. Hubub, chit-chat. Now, it didn't come. And this isn't being recorded, is it? It didn't come out until December 20th, but I think we can all agree that this was... The whole year was about cats. Oh, absolutely. No question. For me. It's just waiting in anticipation, especially after the trailer dropped. Oh, yeah. See, I went in as a Cats Virgin because I refused to watch the trailer because I knew that I needed to really kind of experience, have the full cats.

I always think of you as a cat's lady, Mano.

I am a cat's lady.

We only have three currently.

But I didn't, I didn't, I wanted to go in with in with you know completely and be surprised and oh my gosh

surprised was definitely the the main feeling people had who I didn't who weren't familiar

with this show to the board does the fact that so many people had such a strong response

of this film I mean obviously it says a lot about

the nuttiness of the movie, but does it speak to the larger sense of predictability and safety

about mainstream movies that we walk into most movies knowing exactly what we're going to get?

And this was sort of the rare occasion of like, oh, I did not see that coming. Well, I mean, don't we know what we're going to get? If you have seen the musical, it's going to be some version of that. It's the, it's the, that phrase that they like to use here in the industry, execution dependent. And every choice on the execution of this is wrong.

Well, yeah, that helps.

I have to say that, you know, having seen it, the two times I'd seen it on stage once was

as a teenager in London in its original theater where it was an environmental experience

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