Hey there, folks, we just saw the movie that so many people were talking about Millennia. This is our very carefully worded review with that, welcome to this episode of Aiming and TJ. Road. I say, everybody was talking about it, the President, the big premiere they had at the Kennedy Center and all that, and then it wasn't expected to do well, and let's give it it's do. It performed beyond expectations, made a little lower seven million dollars opening weekend.
That's a big deal for a documentary.
It's a huge deal for a documentary, even one with the hefty price tag that this one had. But yeah, they were expecting between three and five million at best, and it was north of seven million. Correct, There were some astermates to say closer to eight million. So that is a wild success for a documentary.
Yeah, I put that in right context. You hear that seven million dollars If it was an Avengers movie, that's total bust. This is gangbusters and one of the best documentaries we've seen perform in a decade at the box office. So that let's give it it's due. Now. The other part of it is that in ropes, you have it up right now, what's the current Okay, so it has been just skewed by the critics out there, and the Rotten Tomato scores are hilarious.
Yes, so the critics score is five percent, that's about as low as I've ever seen, and the popcorn meter, which is the audience verified reviews or ratings, are at ninety nine percent.
That's why I say it's hilarious, and that makes perfect sense. You go, okay, why is this possible? I don't see that kind of We see discrepancy. Sometimes the critics are at forty five and the audience is at seventy. Stuff like that can't happen. This doesn't happen, and it makes sense when you think about it. Maybe don't have to think about it that long. Why that be such a discrepancy?
Well, look, yes it makes sense, But I also thought, you know, what are all of these critics? And yes, you might think people who work in the mainstream media, according to our president at least, are all left of center and anti administration and anti Trump, and so you could start to think, Okay, those critics had an agenda,
and we obviously leave space for that as well. So we wanted to go see for ourselves to have the audience love this movie and rave about the movie as much as they have, and to see the critics not just say this isn't a good film, don't go see it, but just disparage it, call it a horror movie, call it an abomin nation.
I mean, they went off on this film.
Okay, some of that was a little much, and it certainly you can understand robes. The people who are in the theater, in all likelihood at least who aren't critics citizens are probably already fans of Donald Trump and Milania Trump, so that would make sense predisposed to like Milania a lot. But ninety nine percent versus five percent is just not something you see. And this this is the biggest disparity obviously, I've ever seen one.
And it was I think that was really the driving reason behind why we knew we had to see this movie for ourselves.
So we had to see it, and we did some context here. You've seen a lot of headlines and some places a lot of critics say I went to a theater and it was empty, Oh, nobody was there. And then they say, yeah, I went to the one at Lincoln Center on the Upper West side, okay, like duh okay, fine, but then you had reports of places like Dallas at
whatnot that did have larger crowds in those theaters. We went full disclosure in the daytime, in the middle of the week and a weekday, so you wouldn't expect the full theater anyway.
Every time we go to the movies, and it could be the biggest blockbuster ever, we always go at like the eleven thirty am showing on a Monday, and guess what, we're almost always one of the only people in the theater. So it was not an exception that the theat was mostly empty for us, because that's always what it looks like when we choose to go to the movies. There were I think I counted for women, and we'll get
into some of the demographics because they're very interesting. But they were all women, and they were all I believe age forty.
And up, and that goes exactly in line with the demographics you're going to be talking about. So that sets it up. We get in there with our popcorn, literally a bucket of popcorn, diapepsy diapeps in the water, and let's take this thing in now, robes let's go before we get into some specific details that stand out your general initial first response to it are initial thoughts upon seeing Millennia.
Well, she looked perfect. She was perfectly curated from head to toe. And look, I know that if you've read the reviews, you know this is true. But the I think it's it definitely was disappointing for a lot of people who wanted to actually get to know Malania.
That was the whole point of the film.
She started out saying, you know, you all want to know, so here it is, and you think, okay, great, We're going to pull back the curtains. We're going to see twenty days in the life of Malania Trump leading up to the inauguration. This is going to be fantastic. Finally I'm gonna get to see Milania not perfectly curated and quoifed, and I'm going to get to hear her talk and see her interactions with President Trump, and maybe even get
to hear Baron Trump's voice. I've never even heard his voice before, so I was hoping for all of those things.
And none of them happened.
None. So before you even I mean, content wise, it was fairly shocking from what you were expecting to what you actually got, and this wasn't. I felt it never felt like a documentary, and the feeling of it to me was a reality show. A reality show where certain things are it's supposed to be real, but it certainly.
Feels staged without any drama.
There was zero drama conflict of any kind.
And that's what make reality shows good and interesting and entertaining.
I think you pointed it out. There was something that one of the designers was stressing for a second, and that felt like drama.
I was like, is this like in the film?
This was perfectly packaged presentation of Milania And they didn't want you to see a flaw and.
We didn't, and that is but that was the flaw of the film for.
Me, because I went in genuine I am fascinated by this woman, and I walked away still fascinating, fascinated. You don't actually feel one way or another because you don't get anything to react to or feel. Of course, she is a fashion icon, and we see it repeatedly and repeatedly and repeatedly in this film. But romees it gave. I was fairly sunned. We were stunned at how little we see in a documentary. There are times robes they played long stretches of the inauguration like film footage we
have seen plenty of times before. Why do I need fifteen minutes here when I'm trying to learn about her beautifully shot great right? All that, I was stunned at how little we got.
I yes, agreed, because we knew going in obviously the bad reviews. We had a level of expectation about what we weren't going to get, and still it fell even further short than those expectations. And I look at it as a missed opportunity. There was a real opportunity to show us Malania Trump as a human, as a woman,
as a mother, as a wife. And all I saw was that she knows how to hem, She knows where the hemline should go and address, and she knows how she likes her collars, and she likes you know, she has a very specific way of designing and curating herself in the White House.
That's what I got.
That's not sarcasm. What you just said was accurate, what the highlight was. And I'm just making sure nobody heard you and thinking you were in some kind of way being facetious there no no, no, no, no, we learned this about her like that is what she is skilled at. I'm saying how they were highlighting things robes that I didn't want to know about her. I know she is perfectly curated, and I'm sure she has tailors around and
I see all that. I wanted to know what she's like as a mother, what if she is in handling and taking care of Donald Trump? I And maybe it wasn't supposed to be that type of personal intimate thing. It was something else, and maybe they did exactly what they wanted.
I just wouldn't it have been amazing though, to have seen her and relate and be able to relate.
To her she wanted to look. I can't see what she wanted.
It seemed as though, based on the film and what they present to audience members, they wanted her to appear almost like royalty queen like and up on a pedestal above us all and focused on her role taking care of us and taking care of her image.
And it just fell so far below.
Or beneath what I was hoping for, because I just wanted, like I think all of us, regardless of politics, I want to like the first lady. I want to root for her. I love seeing women, and she's gorgeous. Like the thing is what I.
Saw in the film.
I already knew she's beautiful, she's stunning, she was a model. You don't need to prove that to us. You are gorgeous. You were given incredible DNA and you've done really wonderful things with it. But I didn't need to know that. I already knew that.
That's it what I saw, I already knew that's it. That's the review. You could probably write that and keep it pushing and don't have to say much more. And that's fine if that's what they wanted to put out. But we were just saying what we saw with our own eyes, that we are fans. Robes of All's Fair, Kim Kardashian's show on Hulu. I bring that up because that's another show that was horribly reviewed, But I say
it in this way. Robes, it had the documentary at least had this over the top fashion opulence at times. Feel to these introductory shots, these big opening it felt this over the It really did feel like that showed me at time.
Yes it you know, the look of it just and by the way, as you pointed out earlier, the shots and the cinematography were gorgeous, but most of the time I felt like I was watching an out of touch with reality fashion like almost a music video, because there was just there was wonderful music of my favorite songs, from Michael Jackson to I Forgot.
They just had a bunch. I was like, oh, I love the song. Oh I love this song.
But basically that is what the director had to put because all we saw were I think you said fifty to eighty percent. I think it was seventy five percent. Foreshore of the film, and this is not an exaggeration.
Is her walking, and the only thing that changes is either the cameras behind her, so you see her gorgeous hair as she's walking in her stilettos, or maybe you get a thing from the front and you see her holding Donald Trump's hand but she's walking like a model, or sometimes the camera was off afar, like maybe behind the scenes and you're seeing her walking. But literally it was just from one walking shot to the next, to the point where our jaws dropped. I was like, you've
got to be kidding me. She's still walking.
Okay, you all this is one This is not a criticism, it's an observation, and you can call the criticism, but this is an observation. To the point it got comical. We were laughing, could not believe how it's You're right, folks, it's an hour and forty four minutes. And every time you see her, seventy five percent of the time she is in motion, she is walking. You need to see a close up of the shoes. We see everything going up. How many times do we see her hair and not
see her face? Kind of that too many times?
Too many times, it was it was comical. And the other shots were her getting in and out of vehicles. Those are the other shots. And then when you did have Trump, and by the way, when Trump did come onto the screen, it made it finally somewhat interesting.
He spoke a little bit to the camera.
We got to see a few little exchanges, but sometimes when they were actually talking and walking and music was blaring, those are the moments I actually wanted to hear what was he saying to her? What was she saying to him? So it was actually frustrating because the one time you might actually get to see some intimate exchanges that weren't performative.
They were masked with music.
One of the funniest. He did have some moment and you even mentioned like nice moments, sweet moments. It seems like he's been disarmed to a certain degree. The only time I've ever been around him, she was next to him, and he was charming, He was fun, and there was something that she adds some element of warmth to him in those moments, and you see that nice.
Yes, he seemed to soften when when he was around Malania in a way that I appreciated.
It was nice seeing that.
I would have liked to have seen her just in sweatpants or in anything other than high fashion and stilettos, Like give me a little like she was sitting on her couch watching the news in stilettos.
No woman does that.
She does.
No, she does not, not when the cameras aren't there, She is not sitting in her living room watching the news in stilettos.
I guarantee it.
We did mention that, to the point you pointed it out to me about the shoes. I don't know. Halfway through the movie, so I'm staring. I say, oh, yeah, we're gonna see her in some tennis shoes, some fashion shoot something. There was a slipper.
Shot for like a half a second.
It really was. In an hour and forty four minutes of this movie, it was less than five seconds in two different shots that you see her in something other than five inch heels.
Yeah, that's true.
That was it. So what sure if that's what she wants to present? And I don't need you to see me casual. I don't want you to see me casual. That's cool, But I was hoping for those moments and every time, even at home, right she's walking just in and out of hallways, through golden doors and golden walls, and it never looks chill, ever looks chill. And her fittings when you're seeing in side the home were happening in the same like boardroom with glass behind them to where those went on for a.
While, and there was what will happen?
Will her lapel be wider or thinner? Where her neckline go get tighter and crisper? Will the lines be the way she wants them come Inauguration day? Sorry, I'm sorry.
In this one, however, Melania did have what I think and I think we might agree, robes was her most open, her sweetest, her most authentic, even moment, we'll explain what that was, and we'll explain the demographics of Milania.
Stay here, Welcome back everyone.
As TJ and I talk about our time in the theater watching the film Milania, and we mentioned, look, this was a highly curated and I'm again this is not me looking to criticize.
It was just, babe, can I say this? It was just really really boring. It was boring, like there's only so many shots of her walking with no dialogue, and the only time you hear her voice, she's speaking in.
A way that appeared to be so forced and so contrived. It was poetic even it almost some of the it was. It wasn't natural, it wasn't authentic, it wasn't off the cuff. It was again, like everything in the film, so highly curated and orchestrated.
Again, if that's what they were going for, they succeeded. It's not maybe not our cup of tea. I just want to reserve that for everybody else who this was for, or like this, or is looking for something like this. I was just looking to know, what did you say? You just used a great line before the break I just it didn't give you anything.
I wanted to know. I wanted to know who she was when the cameras aren't rolling.
That's what a documentary typically typically is for, so you actually get to see and get to know someone and you know, you literally pull the curtains back. That did not happen in this There was one moment when she and President Trump came down off of one of the balls on the inauguration night and she had that beautiful white and black dress. You'll get to see how it was made and everything that want into making that dress,
if you're interested. And when she came off the stage, they were playing Ymca and she was doing the little dance and shaking her hips and giggling, and it was the only time that we saw her actually kind of let her hair down, so to speak, and show a little personality that wasn't thought through and perfectly executed.
Well, you're right, it was cute. It was you said she was giggling a little bit. She was cute, Well like she was the first time in the film, having a good time.
And I think that's when I thought, what a missed opportunity. Not that you want to have your first lady and being silly. I'm not suggesting that, but just getting to see and know her personality beyond this. I have a speech and I'm reading exactly what the speech writers told me to say. I wanted to see the person behind the first lady, and that was one small glimpse, you know.
What the other if that was one small glimpse the other highlight for me Robes And I don't know if this story had been out there, but during the inauguration, there was a moment that happened between President Trump and Malania Trump as he was making his speech. Now, if you caught it, he's just kind of paused for a moment and looked back at her and kind of pointed after he had delivered a line, and she kind of smiled back. We see in the documentary Robes where that
came from. I thought that was kind of cool.
It was really cute.
They had a rehearsal basically of the President giving his speech, and she suggested a change in one of the lines, and so she kind of interrupted and said, I think you should say this, and so you see him then cut to his speech and he says the phrase that she suggested, and he looked back at her appointed. That was sweet, and I just that's what. If there were more of those moments that it would have carried the film to a completely different place.
That was cool. I just that was sweet. She got something into his all important inauguration speech, and he acknowledged in that moment he stopped and gave her credit. It was two words, I think something. Yes, it was like unifying, unifying peace or something. Yeah, and gave a credit. So that was something at least that we got. Now, we talked about folks try to report that they're empty theaters. However, theaters in places like Dallas, Orlando, Tampa, Phoenix, West Palm Beach.
I think those were the top five markets and robes. We said, not a lot of people in our theater, but the ones that were in there seemed to go along with the demographic information.
Yeah, with white women over the age of forty, you were the only man and the only black person in the theater. Seventy two of theatergoers were women, three percent were over the age of forty five, and seventy five percent were white.
That totally reads.
So we mentioned the cities in which this film has done gangbusters. I did want to point out because I thought this was quite funny, because sometimes you just have to be able to take a joke. But an Oregon, there is a theater that look and it's Oregon, right, yeah, just you know the state and where they typically stand politically, and so so a theater there decided to try and draw people in with some creative marketing and knowing their audience. So one of the messages on the films or the
cinema's marquee said, does Milania wear Prada? Find out on Friday? That's funny, it's not bad. That's funny does not mean that's not bad. And then another message to advertise the film, to defeat your enemy, you must know them.
Malania starts Friday.
It's somebody I had the sense of humor.
It's okay, so it's funny, but guess what, it was not funny to Amazon's studio Amazon.
So Amazon pulled the film, pulled the film from.
That cinema, and then so this was then what they put up on the marquee. Amazon called our marquee made them mad. All Milania's showings canceled. Show your support at Whole Foods instead.
Somebody Humor.
That book is hilarious without being mean. Again, they know their audience, they know their community.
You're not being mean. And then the other time, I can't take a joke. Can't take a joke? Isn't that the best way if you know your audience to get them in here?
And couldn't Amazon have said, clever marketing will take whoever wants to see Milania.
The more people who see it, the better.
Can't take a joke.
Couldn't Amazon have just said that? That would have been a smart reaction. There was an again, another opportunity there. There's an opportunity to not take yourself so seriously and to have a little fun with the reality of trying to show Milania in Oregon.
Take my movie and go home. Oh goodness, I wanted to lead this last one here. This was I think, not a mean one, but this was one of the best ways I heard people sum up what this movie is without being mean.
Ropes, Yes, it reads.
No good impression emerges of the former Slovenian model. No bad impression emerges either. Radner's film achieves rather a sort of passive distance, as you might get by pointing a camera for close to two hours at a waterfall or a wheat field.
That's spot on, right, spot on, get.
Up close to it. You're just watching this thing happen in front of you. It's a pretty picture, it's great. Look at it for a while, but you walk away with what an understanding and insight? Nothing that and again that thing, no good impression, no bad impression emerges. Nothing, And that's too bad. I wanted to know, so I really did want.
To know more about it, and I do, and I and so did I.
You and I both have said that, and I think even after reading the bad reviews, I was still surprised at how boring it was.
She gets her steps in with that, Folks, check it out by all means see for yourselves. And with that, I am TJ. Holmes. Always appreciate your spending some time with us, with my dear Amy Robot, talk to y'lson,