Jan. 23, 2026
Good Boy Explained: The Horror Movie That Hits Different
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What happens when a dog gives one of the most emotionally resonant performances of the year?
In this episode of Parallel Frequencies, Just Blane and Coco dive into Good Boy, the indie horror film that stunned audiences and awards voters alike. Told almost entirely from a dog’s perspective, the film quietly explores grief, illness, obedience, and the uncomfortable truth behind what it means to be “good.”
What begins as disbelief quickly becomes admiration as the conversation unfolds. From the ethics of conditioning and approval to how animals reflect our own fears back at us, this episode goes far beyond a movie review. It’s a discussion about authenticity, mortality, and why some stories linger long after the credits roll.
If you love horror that interrogates rather than entertains, this one’s for you.
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Just Blane (00:00)
It is parallel frequencies with Just Blane and Coco over there. What's up, Coco? How are you?
Courtney Pearl (00:05)
I'm doing great. I'm having a great.
Just Blane (00:07)
I gotta ask you something. What is this post I saw on Facebook or social media about you talking about pissing people off? What is this?
Courtney Pearl (00:15)
⁓
yeah, that's only on TikTok. ⁓ I posted a video on TikTok. said, my day hasn't started until I've pissed somebody off. This is a totally new year, new me kind of a vibe because I am not somebody who likes to piss people off. But that Florence Givens show has really given me some audacity. And I was like, maybe I just haven't started my day until I've pissed some people off. Have you pissed anyone off today?
Just Blane (00:31)
Yeah!
I I probably, I do every day. I piss people off just by waking up. But I was so surprised. I almost texted you. I almost hit you up and I was gonna be like, did somebody take over your account? What happened here? Is this you? Have you been hijacked? Because I was, I'm used to seeing these other kinds of posts from you and not that. And I'm like, man, she's got, she's owned one today. Are you owned one? You are.
Courtney Pearl (00:49)
You
It's not like me at all. Yeah.
I I
am. I'm a little bit on one, but I'm kind of also like, what if I was not trying so hard not to piss people off, but maybe in fact actually just gave myself permission to piss people off? Maybe I almost try, but not in a way that's mean, but just being me. Like, what would it be like to just be me? Like actually saying the things that I'm afraid might ruffle feathers.
Just Blane (01:27)
Give me an example.
So in other words, just being truthful. Yeah. That's how you're gonna piss people off is just by telling the truth.
Courtney Pearl (01:39)
Yeah, yeah, pretty much.
Yeah, or I might not. I might just have people go, same, but I'm not going to be afraid to piss people off. I guess is where I'm where I'm coming from with that. Like having audacity means just being OK with whatever they feel, I guess.
Just Blane (01:49)
Mmm!
I love that word and that's
your word. That's your hype word for 2026. Your key word for 2026 is audacity. I like that. I'm stealing that too. I think it's gonna be mine. You know.
Courtney Pearl (02:16)
think everybody should steal it. I want everybody to have it. I'm like, you and you and you get it and you get it and you get it.
Just Blane (02:23)
Well, I got something out there that's pissed me off and I'm going to have the audacity to get irritated about it. I started looking into this, this it's award season. I love award season. I don't know why, because it does always piss me off because you know, I don't think this person should have won or this or that, but this time there's something though that has really irked me and it's bothered me. And I saw an award show.
Courtney Pearl (02:34)
Mmm.
Just Blane (02:51)
And I keep hearing this hype about Good Boy, this movie, about a dog. And let me just tell you that the damn dog won an award over Alison Brie, Ethan Hawke. And I'm like, how does a dog beat out these human actors in their game?
Courtney Pearl (03:15)
Wow!
Just Blane (03:17)
Have you heard of this movie?
Courtney Pearl (03:18)
No, I have not seen this movie.
Just Blane (03:22)
AMCP, you know what? This is gonna be crazy. This is gonna be a first for us because I'm so amped up and irritated about this that I think right now, me and you are gonna stop this down. We're gonna go watch Good Boy right now. It's an hour and 13 minutes long. We got an hour and 13 minutes. And then we're gonna just come back on the other side and we're gonna find out if this dog deserved to be out. And I saw that it was at the... ⁓
Courtney Pearl (03:49)
I
gotta see this.
Just Blane (03:49)
What is it? Astrofilm
Awards. It's won some South by Southwest Awards. Indy the dog is the name of this actor. And I'm saying that loosely because I just don't, I don't get it. But we're gonna go watch the movie now. Not here on, we can't stream it for you. We can't show it. So it's gonna just be a jump cut in time here. But Coco, what do you say we go watch Good Boy and then come back on the other side and see.
Courtney Pearl (04:16)
It
Just Blane (04:18)
if this dog deserves an award.
Courtney Pearl (04:20)
I have to see this. If this is record history making award winning acting from a dog, I'm gonna have to see. I'm gonna have to see how this turns out.
Just Blane (04:30)
Yeah, to
beat out Ethan Hawke, you're not talking about some schmuck here, you know? Like Ethan Hawke's a ⁓ top tier, top echelon actor. So I got this dog, it better blow up. All right, we'll come back on the other side, all right?
my God, Coco.
⁓ I don't think I'm as pissed off as I was after watching it. After we just saw the dog, Andy.
Courtney Pearl (04:54)
Yeah. How can you
be pissed off at that cute little pie?
Just Blane (05:00)
I
can't be upset at Andy. Andy did his job. That's a performance. Did you notice that they didn't even really show a person's face till near the end of the movie? It was blurry. It's just a dog.
Courtney Pearl (05:04)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
yeah.
Yeah, all filmed from the dog's perspective. Some of it literally like as if this was the dog's eyes looking, but always filmed down low too in that range. So you very rarely see people's faces because of course the dog wouldn't be seeing their faces very often unless they look up. yeah, shadow faces, everything was in shadow. Really cool, really cool choices from the director. I'm really impressed here.
Just Blane (05:21)
Moving!
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean I was all upset and that's Ben Leonberg is the director. That's his dog in real life. He's the writer, director and that's his man dog. ⁓
Courtney Pearl (05:51)
be. That's how you get that kind
of acting out of a dog. you know, from ⁓ the little bit of acting training that I've had, you know, I'm gonna be humble here for a second. It's not much but I did at one point think I was going to be an actress. at some some of the training that I've had, it's it's like stop acting was a lot of the training that we got. Stop acting. You don't need to act. Because
Just Blane (06:14)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (06:20)
really it should come naturally. should be a natural extension of who you are coming through as a character. I mean, and that's exactly what we're seeing here with this dog. This dog is just being a natural dog. This is just the dog being the dog and no training whatsoever as far as this dog being an acting trained dog, because there's a different kind of training that dogs usually go through to do a movie. But this is just the director's pet dog. They're like,
Just Blane (06:34)
Yeah!
Courtney Pearl (06:49)
We can get this dog to do whatever we need him to do because we have a relationship already, right?
Just Blane (06:54)
Yeah, and that's what he did. I think the movie took 400 days over three years or something to film, and it's because it's a dog. Like you've gotta work on the dog's time, you know? And the dog did, Indy, we're just gonna call him by his name, because Indy is the dog, and the facial expressions, the stuff, it's all there. Like you can feel what the dog is supposed to feel, and there's a sense of dread, and there's a sense of,
Courtney Pearl (07:06)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just Blane (07:24)
You know, like all of that, it's all there and you can see it in the dog's face. The closeups of his eyes, of his eyeballs is what got me. I like those shots. And a lot of the stuff, you got jump scares happening inside of his eyeball. It's wild. You know me.
Courtney Pearl (07:36)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, kind of makes you think of
those dreams that dogs, you when they're dreaming. You ever watched a dog sleeping or dreaming and they're like, made you think of those jobs.
Just Blane (07:50)
⁓
And you know how
I am when people think outside the box. And this movie right here is an outside the box movie that actually does hit. And I think there's a deeper story going on than paranormal stuff and the dog fighting off supernatural spirits. I think it's, you know, they say dogs have a sense where they can sense stuff and even Vera says it early on too.
The guy on the phone, she's like, dogs can sense that kind of stuff. I think the dog is sensing death creeping up on the guy. You know, I think it's the cancer, it's all of that. I don't know if Todd, I think it's his name. Was that his name? Who cares? Andy's the star of the show. Yeah, but I don't think it's ever said that he sees any of this stuff going on.
Courtney Pearl (08:22)
Hmm
absolute.
Yes, Todd.
Just Blane (08:45)
But it's there, you know, and I think it really is. That's what this whole thing boils down to is there's this dog trying to stay by its owner's side till the end. And even then, the dog is still there. This is the most heartbreaking horror movie of 2025, 26, I think. It's sad when you start digging in and thinking about what's going on. And the dog really does. And he portrays that.
Courtney Pearl (09:02)
Yeah.
Just Blane (09:11)
Look at me just going on about this dog when I was over here hating on it and saying, you can't beat Ethan Hawke in a acting performance content.
Courtney Pearl (09:17)
he can.
He just doesn't know he did. That's the difference. Indy's got no ego whatsoever as far as being able to win this award. probably most, I'm assuming that his owner's going to reap the benefits of that award and keep that award for him, which is probably who actually deserves it because the effort that they had to put in to get those shots, I was the one Googling like, how did they get a dog to do all this?
Just Blane (09:21)
Yeah!
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (09:45)
How did they get this? Because I'm thinking, did they use any CGI or special effects to get these certain looks or to get these certain behaviors? How did they do this movie? And that's what I really started to appreciate the making of this film because it's so fascinating to see that most of it was done with treats, with the director and his wife saying random nonsense words to get the dog to look a certain way. You know how you do.
Just Blane (09:49)
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (10:14)
with your dogs, those of you who are dog owners, you know, you can just go, ba-ba-de-ba-ba-de-boo or whatever and the dog will go and have a reaction. So that's what they were actually doing. So which means that most of the looks we were getting that looked like dread or fear was probably just the dog looking at a tree and wanting it and staring at it. That means that it's not the dog's emotional expression that we're reading, it's our own reflected in the dog.
Just Blane (10:20)
Yeah.
Mm!
That's it right there. And that's where this movie's really, really deep when you start looking at it thinking about it. And I there's gonna be people out there who think, oh, it's weird, or oh, I didn't get it. It's okay. It's okay if you didn't. It's not for you. It's not, yeah, this movie is not one that's trying to necessarily entertain you, you know? Some movies are trying to interrogate you, and I think this is one of them. It's trying to...
Courtney Pearl (11:00)
You can appreciate it.
Mmm.
Just Blane (11:13)
bring it out of you and find out what's going on. You know, who benefits from disobedience or what part of you disappears to keep the peace. And that's all being portrayed in Andy and not necessarily just him, but the whole story as a whole. This is not like a movie that's like yelling at you. It's all very quiet, very subtle. It's not really in your face, you know? And I think that's what's cool about it too.
Courtney Pearl (11:24)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (11:42)
One of those movies that hits different depending on where you are in your life at this point. You know?
Courtney Pearl (11:47)
Yeah, for sure. In
fact, I've heard people, and I can't remember why I heard this, but someone said that ⁓ people like witches, mystical people like myself, they found it interesting that most of us don't have any issue talking about death. That's a lot of us are very comfortable with the idea of death or can talk about it really candidly. And I noticed that that's true of myself.
I mean, I have no issues talking about death. I mean, we're all dying. To me, it's just talking about breakfast. I mean, we all had breakfast, we're all dying. But I notice when people get uncomfortable, you notice that feeling of like, you know, I start talking about death in any capacity, whether it's a person or whether it's the person I'm talking to, their death in particular, or my death even for people who care about me or love me. I'll start talking about my own death.
Just Blane (12:19)
Yeah?
Mm.
Courtney Pearl (12:45)
quite often and I notice how uncomfortable certain people get. They're like, I don't wanna talk about that. That's making me uncomfortable. I don't like thinking of that. I don't like thinking of you dying. I don't like thinking of myself dying. I don't like thinking of my relative or my person dying. And I think, well, that's kind of an odd reaction because it's inevitable. It absolutely is inevitable for all of us, whether we have a chronic illness like the character Todd in this movie or not, death is inevitable.
Just Blane (12:53)
Mm-hmm.
Mmm.
Courtney Pearl (13:14)
So it's a fascinating ⁓ symbolic or metaphor to have it all centered around this dog, around the dog's experience of their loved one, their owner, going through the chronic illness, which by the way, I can go into a whole other discussion about generational healing and generational chronic illness when it comes to the grandpa and the dog that the grandpa has. It's a whole other level to that.
Just Blane (13:23)
Yeah
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (13:44)
But here's the dog trying to make sense of this looming death. The dog knows something's not right, but the dog might not totally understand what it is that's creeping in. So the movie kind of shows at the beginning, you're not totally clear on what's going on. So you think maybe this is a haunting. Is this house haunted? Is this man haunted? Is the dog haunted? Are they being haunted by something? It's not totally clear at the beginning, right?
Just Blane (13:57)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, I was like, you know what, is the dog schizophrenic? Is this the reason that I've got a dog at home that's neurotic and goes ape shit and bounces off the walls? Is she seeing stuff like this or, you know? But that's what I'm looking at too and thinking like, what's really going on? But I love that they don't really give you the answers. And it's one of those movies that you gotta think about it. You gotta look at it. You gotta figure out, well, what is my interpretation? You know, and that's fun.
You look at the title of this movie, Good Boy, and you see how the owner and the dog are in the movie. And it's not all love. There's some tough stuff going on there. There's tough love. And you look at it and you take it back to the title, Good Boy, and you realize that's not a praise. It's a command. It's conditioning, you know, wrapped in a head pat.
Courtney Pearl (14:53)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (15:07)
know, wrapped in him, patting him on the side saying, not right now, or whatever it is. And I'm thinking, I'm watching this, I'm thinking like, how many of us have been trained to hear those words and feel relief instead of rage? Good, good job. Good, good going.
Courtney Pearl (15:08)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. You got that validation,
you're worthy, right? Yeah, it's a lot of the, it's a lot of the like self-reflection work that people do and healing work is to try to think about what does make me feel good? What actually qualifies me as a good person or good, in this case, dog? And for him, I mean, clearly, and some of it's conditioning and some of it is literally bred into
Just Blane (15:27)
But you know what I'm talking about. Yeah.
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (15:49)
the fact that we keep these wolf canine creatures as pets, but they've been bred to be our companions and to protect and to care. And so here's this dog. I mean, let's talk about codependency for a second. This dog's entire existence is going to depend on the owner's happiness and health. So how is this dog going to feel when the looming death and illness is just
Just Blane (15:54)
Yes.
Yes.
Courtney Pearl (16:17)
They're more and more and more ever present, scaring the crap out of this poor little puppy. But mostly just, can't save this human. This is my job, my purpose. This is my whole existence is to save this human and I can't. I'm not gonna be able to. Now at the very end, the dog is given a choice and it's clear what choice the dog made.
Just Blane (16:23)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (16:47)
the previous dog in the previous situation, which is grandpa and his dog. Cause they say early in the film, when we found your grandpa's body after passed, we never did find the dog.
Just Blane (17:00)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (17:01)
Right? So the dog made a choice. The dog was like, if you're going to go, I'm going with you. It's that's the end of my life.
Just Blane (17:07)
I'm going too,
Yeah, and it all goes back to that good boy. You you being controlled because approval feels better than authenticity. And you know, there's a tension, there's discomfort, there's a slow crawl under your skin for this whole movie because it's not about power dynamics. We don't like admitting
Courtney Pearl (17:22)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ⁓
Just Blane (17:35)
that we're participating in something like this in real life. We're getting the good and good is rarely neutral. It's somebody else's definition of what good is. We learn this, we learn this in school, family, religions, jobs, relationships. You find out all this stuff and it's be quiet, be grateful, don't make waves, smile when you're uncomfortable, be a good person, be a good boy.
Courtney Pearl (18:05)
Yes. Now we're all starting to question, and this is why love, it throws back to our beginning before the movie episode of this episode, which is, what if you had the audacity to piss people off by being you? Now, does that make you any less good? Does it make you any less of a good person, especially if your authenticity is to be a compassionate person, to be a person who stands up for people, stands up for injustice, stands up for things you don't believe is right?
Just Blane (18:18)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (18:33)
and then you're gonna ruffle feathers. Maybe just by standing up for yourself, you're gonna ruffle some feathers. And what does that mean?
Just Blane (18:39)
You're not gonna make everybody happy.
you're not gonna, nobody's gonna make everybody happy. We talk about that here on the show a lot. Like not everything is everybody's flavor.
So how do you say what's good and not? What's good for me is not good for you necessarily. And I love that thought and that feeling because that's a lot, that's heavy. And this movie nails the heaviness of all of these life questions in these. It really did. And when you look at this movie on paper, and that's why I was knocking this before we even talked about it, and that's why you don't judge a book by its cover.
Courtney Pearl (19:01)
Yeah.
Just Blane (19:16)
Don't judge a movie by its poster. Don't judge a movie by the awards the actors win. Even if it's a dog. You know? Because watching this, it's one of those that I'm gonna think about. I'm gonna go back on, I'm gonna watch it again. And question it maybe even a little bit different, you know? I love this idea that the director and writer, Ben, that he had. I think it was Ben.
Courtney Pearl (19:30)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah,
and to have this all from the dog's perspective too, as I'm thinking about it, I remember a novel that came out when I was younger. And I wish in the moment right now I could remember what it was. Maybe somebody out there has read it and you could tell me, you remind me what it was. But it was ⁓ basically a novel written from the perspective of a dog. And it used a lot of science and understanding of the biology of dogs. What we know about them is that
because their senses are so heightened, like smell, for example, they can go around and smell something and they can get the history of that thing way back. They know what kind of dog was there before, what they did, what, know, people who have walked by, they can smell them. They're basically able to have this whole ⁓ mystery solved by just smelling something.
Just Blane (20:17)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (20:42)
you know, of history behind it. So you get that in this movie because it's not that they're being haunted by, or this dog is being haunted by the dog that was previously owned by the grandfather. You get this kind of idea that there's like a ghost dog. It's actually the perception of this dog smelling things and getting this information and processing the information in a dog way that's like, there was a dog here before. This was the bandana of the dog that was here before.
Just Blane (20:56)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (21:11)
This is what that dog saw. This is what that dog experienced. This is how that dog felt. I can smell all that from what I'm getting. It's fascinating to me that they did this entire thing as if it was a haunting, as if it was a horror, but it was actually just dogs being dogs.
Just Blane (21:28)
It's dogs being dogs. Like you could definitely watch this movie in multiple different ways. And like I said on paper, you read the description and it almost sounds like a comedy. It's like, hey, a dog moved into a new house and tries to fight off supernatural forces from its owner. And I'm like, what? Like that sounds like B horror at its finest. I'm not knocking, I love that kind of stuff. But that's not what you get in this movie.
Courtney Pearl (21:39)
Yeah, you're like, really, dad? Okay.
Just Blane (21:56)
I thought it was great. I wanted to know what the freaks think about this. That's what we're gonna do on Featured Friday. This right here, we're gonna talk about it and we want you to go watch what we talked about even more so so that you can join the discussion with us and tell us, have you seen your animals act like this? Are they looking at ghosts?
Courtney Pearl (22:16)
Right, look
at the corner for a little too long.
Just Blane (22:19)
Are they sensing something
that's not there? Yeah, I've definitely seen that. Kids do it too. And they always say kids got a sick sense or whatever it is, you know? And that freaks me out a little bit, you know, when they're looking around and, oh, hello, and they're waving, like, who the hell's over there?
Courtney Pearl (22:31)
Mm-hmm.
for sure. They're more sensitive,
right? Kids and animals, we know that. They're more tapped into what's beyond the veil or what sort of energies. And you know, from an energy perspective, is an energy healer, is a Reiki master, is a witch, whatever you want to call me, ⁓ it's important to note that not all spiritual energy is in fact spiritual, like a spirit or a haunting of a soul that used to live there, which is kind of what you
Just Blane (22:41)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (23:03)
question at the beginning of this movie or like, is this grandpa's ghost and grandpa's doll ghost and like what's happening here? Even though the shadowy figure, the first time we see it is not at grandpa's house. I'll just point that out. It's very, very beginning of the movie, but some energies are actually the person living or ⁓ the people in the house that are living. They can have negative or
Just Blane (23:07)
Yeah.
That's right.
Courtney Pearl (23:30)
heavy energy attached to them that can create almost an entity of itself. So sometimes when someone does a house clearing or something like that where the house is full of negative energy, you can feel it, you can sense it. They might ask someone like a Reiki master to come in and clear that. Sometimes it's not an entity that was obviously like a living person that died and now it's haunted by a ghost or something like that, something you see in the conjuring. But sometimes it is from the living people there.
Just Blane (23:35)
Mmm!
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (23:57)
And in this case, it's the looming death or illness of the main character that ⁓ creates almost an entire entity of its own haunting the space. Keep that in mind.
Just Blane (24:07)
That's interesting
to me. We actually broke down a movie during the Ghost Movie Project, Presence, that reminded me a lot of this movie. You know, we got the POV of the ghost, we get the POV of the dog, and then there's a lot of similarities to these two in the way that it's filmed, really. I think the filmmaking itself is very close. Remember that one, Presence. I was another out of the box.
Courtney Pearl (24:16)
Yeah!
Yep, that's a throwback one to go and watch
again.
Just Blane (24:35)
out of the box thinking movie, not everybody's gonna like it, art, whatever you wanna call it. But I love that kind of stuff where they're giving you the POV of somebody and we get the ghost POV in that one. We get the dog POV sometimes, not the whole movie. But like you said, it's really good about putting the low shots. this movie is made for the dog. It really is, it's made from the dog perspective.
Courtney Pearl (24:58)
Yeah, me to put him center
focus, right? Yeah.
Just Blane (25:02)
Yeah, I'm highly impressed with this movie. And that's how big of a shift we can make from just reading about it on paper and saying, oh my gosh, how did this, as I said earlier, damn dog beat Ethan Hawke and Alison Breen in an award? I can see it and I know it's gimmicky, but it may never happen again, but also it should have. Like sure, this dog should have won an award, it's cool.
He better not go off winning an Oscar or anything or, you know, I think there's better performances and best actor. So what was the other one? He won another.
Courtney Pearl (25:41)
Yeah, yeah. Well, sometimes it's not about the politics
behind the award. Sometimes it's literally about giving credit to the fact that this dog is being recognized for simply being a dog. For the edits and cuts really being the hero of this making of the movie, right? Because like I said, it was just a dog looking at treats.
a dog hearing weird words and reacting as dogs do. But it was really kind of the genius of the director and the edits being made to, know, instead of cutting to, I'm holding a treat, here's a look from the dog and then showing a dark corner, right? So you're the audience member kind of inferring what's happening here. You're putting together like, ooh.
Just Blane (26:27)
Yeah!
Courtney Pearl (26:34)
What's that? What's in that corner? What are we going to see? What's going to pop out? What's going on here? And kind of creating the horror within ourselves.
Just Blane (26:42)
Yeah, no. I thought this movie was excellent and it's one of those that sticks with you after it's over with. We're still thinking about it, we're still talking about it deep and I could keep on going and it's like, the more I sit here and think about it, what about this? What about that? There's all these other little questions that pop up and this movie's only an hour and 13 minutes long and it's one of those that we could probably talk about for two, three hours and keep changing. ⁓
Courtney Pearl (27:04)
Yeah!
Just Blane (27:11)
evolving. I think we could really evolve our thoughts over this movie and really dig in super deep. But I'm not trying to make my head explode because like you said, the dog was just being a dog and that's what it is. That's the movie.
Courtney Pearl (27:19)
Yeah.
Yeah,
and I will say without going too deep, so this is my surface level, ⁓ point out something from this movie moment. ⁓ You'll notice that he goes ⁓ to the doctor again and kind of getting tests and they're telling him you probably, it's progressed too far. You kind of get an insight into what's really going on, the illness that he has and why he's coughing up blood and things like that. But, ⁓
Just Blane (27:34)
in.
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (27:53)
You'll notice it's after that scene that he comes home and all of a sudden he's lighting candles and he's putting crystals around and you see him trying to sage the room. And I just had to point out that, you know, oftentimes the ⁓ desperation of illness and we've gotten to the point where Western medicine can't do anything for us. And then we go to the mystical and then we reach for something that's kind of like
Just Blane (28:03)
Yeah
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (28:22)
maybe this will help or maybe this, you and you can kind of sense as he's crying on the edge of the bed that this was an act of desperation, not really that he believes that any of this stuff will heal him. ⁓ So as an energy healer, as somebody that works in that realm, I will say, ⁓ don't wait until you're desperate to go try some holistic healing and look into other avenues of healing that Western medicine can't give you. It's okay to try those things throughout your health journey.
Just Blane (28:31)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (28:50)
But the crystals that he has hanging in the room, all of a sudden it's full of crystals. I was like, I just have to point out that those are all glass crystals, not actual minerals and crystals. So just give a little shout out to my friend Jamie at Rising Moon Minerals who does sell crystals at her shop. There are some really great health benefits to having those crystals around. Not so much if they're glass. They're pretty and they're
Just Blane (28:51)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah,
Courtney Pearl (29:19)
you know, sparkle some light
Just Blane (29:19)
I wouldn't know that.
Courtney Pearl (29:20)
around.
Just Blane (29:21)
So you're saying some con man sold Todd these crystals in this movie.
Courtney Pearl (29:28)
I feel a little bad. I'm like, they're pretty. And if they make you feel better, there's nothing wrong with that. ⁓ But just for those that kind of make us crystal healers and energy healers seem like we're really crazy. We're really woo woo crazy for doing that kind of stuff. I'm like, well, there is some science behind why minerals of different frequencies can help support your healing journey and why I recommend it. ⁓ But if they are just to make...
pretty rainbows shine around your room, that may not do much is all I'm gonna say about that.
Just Blane (30:02)
I will say
I've been in the rising moon minerals shop that you speak of and it does, you can feel something in there. It's a feeling, it's different, it's wild. It's not anything crazy, but you can feel something. you know.
Courtney Pearl (30:16)
It's a di- Yeah.
Yeah, won't heal you. Obviously, it's
not going to cure your cancer or something like that, which nobody is claiming that it does. But there is some science to back why the energetic frequency of certain crystals resonate with our bodies and help us support our ⁓ enlightenment. But ⁓ I just had to point that out because ⁓ also white sages made fun of or overused a lot of times when we talk about clearing spaces.
Just Blane (30:25)
No!
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (30:49)
And if this was kind of an energetic entity he was trying to get rid of, I'm just gonna point out White Sage may not be the right thing for that circumstance. So look into it before you use such things.
Just Blane (31:00)
What kind of sage, what am I supposed to be burning?
Yeah, what am I supposed to be burning to get rid of?
Courtney Pearl (31:04)
Well,
ceremonial white sage in native indigenous practices are often used for calling in the ancestors ⁓ or, you know, prepping the space for a ceremony. ⁓ That's kind of up to the indigenous people that use that to kind of give their experience on that. ⁓ I particularly like to use smudging or smoke cleansing for things like juniper or pine or
Just Blane (31:24)
Mmm.
Courtney Pearl (31:34)
⁓ different things that kind of come from my ancestral background, just so that I'm not appropriating white sage for a different purpose. And I know white sage is just something that has become this blanket ⁓ thing that people use where they're just like, there's ghosts. I need to white sage everything. And I'm like, maybe don't. Yeah, just ⁓ it's become kind of a synonymous with crystals and things like that. So I'm kind of
Just Blane (31:39)
Mm-hmm.
Well, we're here in just a...
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (32:03)
just giving a shout out to point that out from the movie and say, maybe no, maybe no to that and leave it at that.
Just Blane (32:11)
I love it. And you're the expert here. So, you know, I like that. And I'm, thinking like,
Courtney Pearl (32:17)
to think about.
Just Blane (32:19)
What I took from that is don't wait till the end before you start trying this holistic stuff. Maybe mix it in with the Western medicine while it's happening and you might have a result. If anything, you might have a better mentality. Like it really will make you, you know, feel better about stuff. It's not gonna, like you said, cure your cancer.
Courtney Pearl (32:36)
Yes, I've seen that kind of healing
work. I've seen like, have been on the deathbed of people drumming with them and it's not that I'm going to pull them out of death or keep them from death. But what I found it does is it really helps people to come into a space of peace and acceptance in the process of their death, which as I said earlier,
Just Blane (32:49)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (33:01)
We shouldn't be afraid of death. And I think death is just a part of life and it's kind of another portal to go through, but ⁓ it depends on, you know, your spiritual beliefs and where you feel at peace with that. So just something to consider for people.
Just Blane (33:08)
Mm-hmm.
It's been said, nobody makes it out of here alive.
Courtney Pearl (33:20)
That's right. That's
right.
Just Blane (33:25)
I love this movie. I think there's gonna be a whole lot more movies pop up like this now. And maybe it's one of those that like pave the way for people to think outside the box. And let's make some movies about animals and how they're feeling and what a dog like Andy is going through while his master dies. Like I think there are gonna be more bigger ideas like this. Maybe they won't all hit. They might fall flat, but.
I'm open to it. I can't wait to see what else comes out in this, maybe a new genre of movie. I don't know. Maybe this is a new type of movie coming out. But I love this movie. You got any more final thoughts before we wrap on this?
Courtney Pearl (34:05)
Make the change.
I think that pretty much says it all. Great movie. Shows that you can make a movie without much, but maybe time and patience.
Just Blane (34:19)
Yeah, yeah. And if you want to see this movie, it's on AMC plus. If you need a password and log in, let me know. Hit us up at the, no, I'm kidding. Could you imagine if everybody started logging in on one account? Yeah, but no, seriously, it's on AMC plus shutter, all of that stuff. Good boy. It's worth a watch. It's worth a subscription or a free trial even. Just go give it a chance.
Courtney Pearl (34:30)
AMC is after us.
Hmm.
Just Blane (34:46)
AMC I will shout out as being one of my favorite streaming services. I watched that one more than anything else and of course that's where Shutter is, Joe Bob, all the horror movies that you can find. I love it and they don't even pay me to say that. Maybe we should get an affiliate link with AMC plus.
Courtney Pearl (35:04)
Maybe they will. Maybe we'll
get a piece of that pie.
Just Blane (35:09)
Yeah, it's gonna be fun to see how the awards season plays out and if Indy gets any more awards. I know there was some at South by Southwest he was nominated for. So it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be real fun. I'm wondering if we're gonna see him walk the red carpet at the Oscars. That's what I'm waiting on. That'll be fun.
Courtney Pearl (35:26)
That would be fantastic.
Just Blane (35:29)
We'll cover that when it happens. Maybe we should go to the Oscars. If Andy goes to the Oscars, we'll go too. But until then, it's Just Blaine and Cocoa, parallel frequencies. We will see you on the other side.
Courtney Pearl (35:34)
Yeah.
Bye!
It is parallel frequencies with Just Blane and Coco over there. What's up, Coco? How are you?
Courtney Pearl (00:05)
I'm doing great. I'm having a great.
Just Blane (00:07)
I gotta ask you something. What is this post I saw on Facebook or social media about you talking about pissing people off? What is this?
Courtney Pearl (00:15)
⁓
yeah, that's only on TikTok. ⁓ I posted a video on TikTok. said, my day hasn't started until I've pissed somebody off. This is a totally new year, new me kind of a vibe because I am not somebody who likes to piss people off. But that Florence Givens show has really given me some audacity. And I was like, maybe I just haven't started my day until I've pissed some people off. Have you pissed anyone off today?
Just Blane (00:31)
Yeah!
I I probably, I do every day. I piss people off just by waking up. But I was so surprised. I almost texted you. I almost hit you up and I was gonna be like, did somebody take over your account? What happened here? Is this you? Have you been hijacked? Because I was, I'm used to seeing these other kinds of posts from you and not that. And I'm like, man, she's got, she's owned one today. Are you owned one? You are.
Courtney Pearl (00:49)
You
It's not like me at all. Yeah.
I I
am. I'm a little bit on one, but I'm kind of also like, what if I was not trying so hard not to piss people off, but maybe in fact actually just gave myself permission to piss people off? Maybe I almost try, but not in a way that's mean, but just being me. Like, what would it be like to just be me? Like actually saying the things that I'm afraid might ruffle feathers.
Just Blane (01:27)
Give me an example.
So in other words, just being truthful. Yeah. That's how you're gonna piss people off is just by telling the truth.
Courtney Pearl (01:39)
Yeah, yeah, pretty much.
Yeah, or I might not. I might just have people go, same, but I'm not going to be afraid to piss people off. I guess is where I'm where I'm coming from with that. Like having audacity means just being OK with whatever they feel, I guess.
Just Blane (01:49)
Mmm!
I love that word and that's
your word. That's your hype word for 2026. Your key word for 2026 is audacity. I like that. I'm stealing that too. I think it's gonna be mine. You know.
Courtney Pearl (02:16)
think everybody should steal it. I want everybody to have it. I'm like, you and you and you get it and you get it and you get it.
Just Blane (02:23)
Well, I got something out there that's pissed me off and I'm going to have the audacity to get irritated about it. I started looking into this, this it's award season. I love award season. I don't know why, because it does always piss me off because you know, I don't think this person should have won or this or that, but this time there's something though that has really irked me and it's bothered me. And I saw an award show.
Courtney Pearl (02:34)
Mmm.
Just Blane (02:51)
And I keep hearing this hype about Good Boy, this movie, about a dog. And let me just tell you that the damn dog won an award over Alison Brie, Ethan Hawke. And I'm like, how does a dog beat out these human actors in their game?
Courtney Pearl (03:15)
Wow!
Just Blane (03:17)
Have you heard of this movie?
Courtney Pearl (03:18)
No, I have not seen this movie.
Just Blane (03:22)
AMCP, you know what? This is gonna be crazy. This is gonna be a first for us because I'm so amped up and irritated about this that I think right now, me and you are gonna stop this down. We're gonna go watch Good Boy right now. It's an hour and 13 minutes long. We got an hour and 13 minutes. And then we're gonna just come back on the other side and we're gonna find out if this dog deserved to be out. And I saw that it was at the... ⁓
Courtney Pearl (03:49)
I
gotta see this.
Just Blane (03:49)
What is it? Astrofilm
Awards. It's won some South by Southwest Awards. Indy the dog is the name of this actor. And I'm saying that loosely because I just don't, I don't get it. But we're gonna go watch the movie now. Not here on, we can't stream it for you. We can't show it. So it's gonna just be a jump cut in time here. But Coco, what do you say we go watch Good Boy and then come back on the other side and see.
Courtney Pearl (04:16)
It
Just Blane (04:18)
if this dog deserves an award.
Courtney Pearl (04:20)
I have to see this. If this is record history making award winning acting from a dog, I'm gonna have to see. I'm gonna have to see how this turns out.
Just Blane (04:30)
Yeah, to
beat out Ethan Hawke, you're not talking about some schmuck here, you know? Like Ethan Hawke's a ⁓ top tier, top echelon actor. So I got this dog, it better blow up. All right, we'll come back on the other side, all right?
my God, Coco.
⁓ I don't think I'm as pissed off as I was after watching it. After we just saw the dog, Andy.
Courtney Pearl (04:54)
Yeah. How can you
be pissed off at that cute little pie?
Just Blane (05:00)
I
can't be upset at Andy. Andy did his job. That's a performance. Did you notice that they didn't even really show a person's face till near the end of the movie? It was blurry. It's just a dog.
Courtney Pearl (05:04)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
yeah.
Yeah, all filmed from the dog's perspective. Some of it literally like as if this was the dog's eyes looking, but always filmed down low too in that range. So you very rarely see people's faces because of course the dog wouldn't be seeing their faces very often unless they look up. yeah, shadow faces, everything was in shadow. Really cool, really cool choices from the director. I'm really impressed here.
Just Blane (05:21)
Moving!
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean I was all upset and that's Ben Leonberg is the director. That's his dog in real life. He's the writer, director and that's his man dog. ⁓
Courtney Pearl (05:51)
be. That's how you get that kind
of acting out of a dog. you know, from ⁓ the little bit of acting training that I've had, you know, I'm gonna be humble here for a second. It's not much but I did at one point think I was going to be an actress. at some some of the training that I've had, it's it's like stop acting was a lot of the training that we got. Stop acting. You don't need to act. Because
Just Blane (06:14)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (06:20)
really it should come naturally. should be a natural extension of who you are coming through as a character. I mean, and that's exactly what we're seeing here with this dog. This dog is just being a natural dog. This is just the dog being the dog and no training whatsoever as far as this dog being an acting trained dog, because there's a different kind of training that dogs usually go through to do a movie. But this is just the director's pet dog. They're like,
Just Blane (06:34)
Yeah!
Courtney Pearl (06:49)
We can get this dog to do whatever we need him to do because we have a relationship already, right?
Just Blane (06:54)
Yeah, and that's what he did. I think the movie took 400 days over three years or something to film, and it's because it's a dog. Like you've gotta work on the dog's time, you know? And the dog did, Indy, we're just gonna call him by his name, because Indy is the dog, and the facial expressions, the stuff, it's all there. Like you can feel what the dog is supposed to feel, and there's a sense of dread, and there's a sense of,
Courtney Pearl (07:06)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just Blane (07:24)
You know, like all of that, it's all there and you can see it in the dog's face. The closeups of his eyes, of his eyeballs is what got me. I like those shots. And a lot of the stuff, you got jump scares happening inside of his eyeball. It's wild. You know me.
Courtney Pearl (07:36)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, kind of makes you think of
those dreams that dogs, you when they're dreaming. You ever watched a dog sleeping or dreaming and they're like, made you think of those jobs.
Just Blane (07:50)
⁓
And you know how
I am when people think outside the box. And this movie right here is an outside the box movie that actually does hit. And I think there's a deeper story going on than paranormal stuff and the dog fighting off supernatural spirits. I think it's, you know, they say dogs have a sense where they can sense stuff and even Vera says it early on too.
The guy on the phone, she's like, dogs can sense that kind of stuff. I think the dog is sensing death creeping up on the guy. You know, I think it's the cancer, it's all of that. I don't know if Todd, I think it's his name. Was that his name? Who cares? Andy's the star of the show. Yeah, but I don't think it's ever said that he sees any of this stuff going on.
Courtney Pearl (08:22)
Hmm
absolute.
Yes, Todd.
Just Blane (08:45)
But it's there, you know, and I think it really is. That's what this whole thing boils down to is there's this dog trying to stay by its owner's side till the end. And even then, the dog is still there. This is the most heartbreaking horror movie of 2025, 26, I think. It's sad when you start digging in and thinking about what's going on. And the dog really does. And he portrays that.
Courtney Pearl (09:02)
Yeah.
Just Blane (09:11)
Look at me just going on about this dog when I was over here hating on it and saying, you can't beat Ethan Hawke in a acting performance content.
Courtney Pearl (09:17)
he can.
He just doesn't know he did. That's the difference. Indy's got no ego whatsoever as far as being able to win this award. probably most, I'm assuming that his owner's going to reap the benefits of that award and keep that award for him, which is probably who actually deserves it because the effort that they had to put in to get those shots, I was the one Googling like, how did they get a dog to do all this?
Just Blane (09:21)
Yeah!
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (09:45)
How did they get this? Because I'm thinking, did they use any CGI or special effects to get these certain looks or to get these certain behaviors? How did they do this movie? And that's what I really started to appreciate the making of this film because it's so fascinating to see that most of it was done with treats, with the director and his wife saying random nonsense words to get the dog to look a certain way. You know how you do.
Just Blane (09:49)
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (10:14)
with your dogs, those of you who are dog owners, you know, you can just go, ba-ba-de-ba-ba-de-boo or whatever and the dog will go and have a reaction. So that's what they were actually doing. So which means that most of the looks we were getting that looked like dread or fear was probably just the dog looking at a tree and wanting it and staring at it. That means that it's not the dog's emotional expression that we're reading, it's our own reflected in the dog.
Just Blane (10:20)
Yeah.
Mm!
That's it right there. And that's where this movie's really, really deep when you start looking at it thinking about it. And I there's gonna be people out there who think, oh, it's weird, or oh, I didn't get it. It's okay. It's okay if you didn't. It's not for you. It's not, yeah, this movie is not one that's trying to necessarily entertain you, you know? Some movies are trying to interrogate you, and I think this is one of them. It's trying to...
Courtney Pearl (11:00)
You can appreciate it.
Mmm.
Just Blane (11:13)
bring it out of you and find out what's going on. You know, who benefits from disobedience or what part of you disappears to keep the peace. And that's all being portrayed in Andy and not necessarily just him, but the whole story as a whole. This is not like a movie that's like yelling at you. It's all very quiet, very subtle. It's not really in your face, you know? And I think that's what's cool about it too.
Courtney Pearl (11:24)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (11:42)
One of those movies that hits different depending on where you are in your life at this point. You know?
Courtney Pearl (11:47)
Yeah, for sure. In
fact, I've heard people, and I can't remember why I heard this, but someone said that ⁓ people like witches, mystical people like myself, they found it interesting that most of us don't have any issue talking about death. That's a lot of us are very comfortable with the idea of death or can talk about it really candidly. And I noticed that that's true of myself.
I mean, I have no issues talking about death. I mean, we're all dying. To me, it's just talking about breakfast. I mean, we all had breakfast, we're all dying. But I notice when people get uncomfortable, you notice that feeling of like, you know, I start talking about death in any capacity, whether it's a person or whether it's the person I'm talking to, their death in particular, or my death even for people who care about me or love me. I'll start talking about my own death.
Just Blane (12:19)
Yeah?
Mm.
Courtney Pearl (12:45)
quite often and I notice how uncomfortable certain people get. They're like, I don't wanna talk about that. That's making me uncomfortable. I don't like thinking of that. I don't like thinking of you dying. I don't like thinking of myself dying. I don't like thinking of my relative or my person dying. And I think, well, that's kind of an odd reaction because it's inevitable. It absolutely is inevitable for all of us, whether we have a chronic illness like the character Todd in this movie or not, death is inevitable.
Just Blane (12:53)
Mm-hmm.
Mmm.
Courtney Pearl (13:14)
So it's a fascinating ⁓ symbolic or metaphor to have it all centered around this dog, around the dog's experience of their loved one, their owner, going through the chronic illness, which by the way, I can go into a whole other discussion about generational healing and generational chronic illness when it comes to the grandpa and the dog that the grandpa has. It's a whole other level to that.
Just Blane (13:23)
Yeah
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (13:44)
But here's the dog trying to make sense of this looming death. The dog knows something's not right, but the dog might not totally understand what it is that's creeping in. So the movie kind of shows at the beginning, you're not totally clear on what's going on. So you think maybe this is a haunting. Is this house haunted? Is this man haunted? Is the dog haunted? Are they being haunted by something? It's not totally clear at the beginning, right?
Just Blane (13:57)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, I was like, you know what, is the dog schizophrenic? Is this the reason that I've got a dog at home that's neurotic and goes ape shit and bounces off the walls? Is she seeing stuff like this or, you know? But that's what I'm looking at too and thinking like, what's really going on? But I love that they don't really give you the answers. And it's one of those movies that you gotta think about it. You gotta look at it. You gotta figure out, well, what is my interpretation? You know, and that's fun.
You look at the title of this movie, Good Boy, and you see how the owner and the dog are in the movie. And it's not all love. There's some tough stuff going on there. There's tough love. And you look at it and you take it back to the title, Good Boy, and you realize that's not a praise. It's a command. It's conditioning, you know, wrapped in a head pat.
Courtney Pearl (14:53)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (15:07)
know, wrapped in him, patting him on the side saying, not right now, or whatever it is. And I'm thinking, I'm watching this, I'm thinking like, how many of us have been trained to hear those words and feel relief instead of rage? Good, good job. Good, good going.
Courtney Pearl (15:08)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. You got that validation,
you're worthy, right? Yeah, it's a lot of the, it's a lot of the like self-reflection work that people do and healing work is to try to think about what does make me feel good? What actually qualifies me as a good person or good, in this case, dog? And for him, I mean, clearly, and some of it's conditioning and some of it is literally bred into
Just Blane (15:27)
But you know what I'm talking about. Yeah.
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (15:49)
the fact that we keep these wolf canine creatures as pets, but they've been bred to be our companions and to protect and to care. And so here's this dog. I mean, let's talk about codependency for a second. This dog's entire existence is going to depend on the owner's happiness and health. So how is this dog going to feel when the looming death and illness is just
Just Blane (15:54)
Yes.
Yes.
Courtney Pearl (16:17)
They're more and more and more ever present, scaring the crap out of this poor little puppy. But mostly just, can't save this human. This is my job, my purpose. This is my whole existence is to save this human and I can't. I'm not gonna be able to. Now at the very end, the dog is given a choice and it's clear what choice the dog made.
Just Blane (16:23)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (16:47)
the previous dog in the previous situation, which is grandpa and his dog. Cause they say early in the film, when we found your grandpa's body after passed, we never did find the dog.
Just Blane (17:00)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (17:01)
Right? So the dog made a choice. The dog was like, if you're going to go, I'm going with you. It's that's the end of my life.
Just Blane (17:07)
I'm going too,
Yeah, and it all goes back to that good boy. You you being controlled because approval feels better than authenticity. And you know, there's a tension, there's discomfort, there's a slow crawl under your skin for this whole movie because it's not about power dynamics. We don't like admitting
Courtney Pearl (17:22)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ⁓
Just Blane (17:35)
that we're participating in something like this in real life. We're getting the good and good is rarely neutral. It's somebody else's definition of what good is. We learn this, we learn this in school, family, religions, jobs, relationships. You find out all this stuff and it's be quiet, be grateful, don't make waves, smile when you're uncomfortable, be a good person, be a good boy.
Courtney Pearl (18:05)
Yes. Now we're all starting to question, and this is why love, it throws back to our beginning before the movie episode of this episode, which is, what if you had the audacity to piss people off by being you? Now, does that make you any less good? Does it make you any less of a good person, especially if your authenticity is to be a compassionate person, to be a person who stands up for people, stands up for injustice, stands up for things you don't believe is right?
Just Blane (18:18)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (18:33)
and then you're gonna ruffle feathers. Maybe just by standing up for yourself, you're gonna ruffle some feathers. And what does that mean?
Just Blane (18:39)
You're not gonna make everybody happy.
you're not gonna, nobody's gonna make everybody happy. We talk about that here on the show a lot. Like not everything is everybody's flavor.
So how do you say what's good and not? What's good for me is not good for you necessarily. And I love that thought and that feeling because that's a lot, that's heavy. And this movie nails the heaviness of all of these life questions in these. It really did. And when you look at this movie on paper, and that's why I was knocking this before we even talked about it, and that's why you don't judge a book by its cover.
Courtney Pearl (19:01)
Yeah.
Just Blane (19:16)
Don't judge a movie by its poster. Don't judge a movie by the awards the actors win. Even if it's a dog. You know? Because watching this, it's one of those that I'm gonna think about. I'm gonna go back on, I'm gonna watch it again. And question it maybe even a little bit different, you know? I love this idea that the director and writer, Ben, that he had. I think it was Ben.
Courtney Pearl (19:30)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah,
and to have this all from the dog's perspective too, as I'm thinking about it, I remember a novel that came out when I was younger. And I wish in the moment right now I could remember what it was. Maybe somebody out there has read it and you could tell me, you remind me what it was. But it was ⁓ basically a novel written from the perspective of a dog. And it used a lot of science and understanding of the biology of dogs. What we know about them is that
because their senses are so heightened, like smell, for example, they can go around and smell something and they can get the history of that thing way back. They know what kind of dog was there before, what they did, what, know, people who have walked by, they can smell them. They're basically able to have this whole ⁓ mystery solved by just smelling something.
Just Blane (20:17)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (20:42)
you know, of history behind it. So you get that in this movie because it's not that they're being haunted by, or this dog is being haunted by the dog that was previously owned by the grandfather. You get this kind of idea that there's like a ghost dog. It's actually the perception of this dog smelling things and getting this information and processing the information in a dog way that's like, there was a dog here before. This was the bandana of the dog that was here before.
Just Blane (20:56)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (21:11)
This is what that dog saw. This is what that dog experienced. This is how that dog felt. I can smell all that from what I'm getting. It's fascinating to me that they did this entire thing as if it was a haunting, as if it was a horror, but it was actually just dogs being dogs.
Just Blane (21:28)
It's dogs being dogs. Like you could definitely watch this movie in multiple different ways. And like I said on paper, you read the description and it almost sounds like a comedy. It's like, hey, a dog moved into a new house and tries to fight off supernatural forces from its owner. And I'm like, what? Like that sounds like B horror at its finest. I'm not knocking, I love that kind of stuff. But that's not what you get in this movie.
Courtney Pearl (21:39)
Yeah, you're like, really, dad? Okay.
Just Blane (21:56)
I thought it was great. I wanted to know what the freaks think about this. That's what we're gonna do on Featured Friday. This right here, we're gonna talk about it and we want you to go watch what we talked about even more so so that you can join the discussion with us and tell us, have you seen your animals act like this? Are they looking at ghosts?
Courtney Pearl (22:16)
Right, look
at the corner for a little too long.
Just Blane (22:19)
Are they sensing something
that's not there? Yeah, I've definitely seen that. Kids do it too. And they always say kids got a sick sense or whatever it is, you know? And that freaks me out a little bit, you know, when they're looking around and, oh, hello, and they're waving, like, who the hell's over there?
Courtney Pearl (22:31)
Mm-hmm.
for sure. They're more sensitive,
right? Kids and animals, we know that. They're more tapped into what's beyond the veil or what sort of energies. And you know, from an energy perspective, is an energy healer, is a Reiki master, is a witch, whatever you want to call me, ⁓ it's important to note that not all spiritual energy is in fact spiritual, like a spirit or a haunting of a soul that used to live there, which is kind of what you
Just Blane (22:41)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (23:03)
question at the beginning of this movie or like, is this grandpa's ghost and grandpa's doll ghost and like what's happening here? Even though the shadowy figure, the first time we see it is not at grandpa's house. I'll just point that out. It's very, very beginning of the movie, but some energies are actually the person living or ⁓ the people in the house that are living. They can have negative or
Just Blane (23:07)
Yeah.
That's right.
Courtney Pearl (23:30)
heavy energy attached to them that can create almost an entity of itself. So sometimes when someone does a house clearing or something like that where the house is full of negative energy, you can feel it, you can sense it. They might ask someone like a Reiki master to come in and clear that. Sometimes it's not an entity that was obviously like a living person that died and now it's haunted by a ghost or something like that, something you see in the conjuring. But sometimes it is from the living people there.
Just Blane (23:35)
Mmm!
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (23:57)
And in this case, it's the looming death or illness of the main character that ⁓ creates almost an entire entity of its own haunting the space. Keep that in mind.
Just Blane (24:07)
That's interesting
to me. We actually broke down a movie during the Ghost Movie Project, Presence, that reminded me a lot of this movie. You know, we got the POV of the ghost, we get the POV of the dog, and then there's a lot of similarities to these two in the way that it's filmed, really. I think the filmmaking itself is very close. Remember that one, Presence. I was another out of the box.
Courtney Pearl (24:16)
Yeah!
Yep, that's a throwback one to go and watch
again.
Just Blane (24:35)
out of the box thinking movie, not everybody's gonna like it, art, whatever you wanna call it. But I love that kind of stuff where they're giving you the POV of somebody and we get the ghost POV in that one. We get the dog POV sometimes, not the whole movie. But like you said, it's really good about putting the low shots. this movie is made for the dog. It really is, it's made from the dog perspective.
Courtney Pearl (24:58)
Yeah, me to put him center
focus, right? Yeah.
Just Blane (25:02)
Yeah, I'm highly impressed with this movie. And that's how big of a shift we can make from just reading about it on paper and saying, oh my gosh, how did this, as I said earlier, damn dog beat Ethan Hawke and Alison Breen in an award? I can see it and I know it's gimmicky, but it may never happen again, but also it should have. Like sure, this dog should have won an award, it's cool.
He better not go off winning an Oscar or anything or, you know, I think there's better performances and best actor. So what was the other one? He won another.
Courtney Pearl (25:41)
Yeah, yeah. Well, sometimes it's not about the politics
behind the award. Sometimes it's literally about giving credit to the fact that this dog is being recognized for simply being a dog. For the edits and cuts really being the hero of this making of the movie, right? Because like I said, it was just a dog looking at treats.
a dog hearing weird words and reacting as dogs do. But it was really kind of the genius of the director and the edits being made to, know, instead of cutting to, I'm holding a treat, here's a look from the dog and then showing a dark corner, right? So you're the audience member kind of inferring what's happening here. You're putting together like, ooh.
Just Blane (26:27)
Yeah!
Courtney Pearl (26:34)
What's that? What's in that corner? What are we going to see? What's going to pop out? What's going on here? And kind of creating the horror within ourselves.
Just Blane (26:42)
Yeah, no. I thought this movie was excellent and it's one of those that sticks with you after it's over with. We're still thinking about it, we're still talking about it deep and I could keep on going and it's like, the more I sit here and think about it, what about this? What about that? There's all these other little questions that pop up and this movie's only an hour and 13 minutes long and it's one of those that we could probably talk about for two, three hours and keep changing. ⁓
Courtney Pearl (27:04)
Yeah!
Just Blane (27:11)
evolving. I think we could really evolve our thoughts over this movie and really dig in super deep. But I'm not trying to make my head explode because like you said, the dog was just being a dog and that's what it is. That's the movie.
Courtney Pearl (27:19)
Yeah.
Yeah,
and I will say without going too deep, so this is my surface level, ⁓ point out something from this movie moment. ⁓ You'll notice that he goes ⁓ to the doctor again and kind of getting tests and they're telling him you probably, it's progressed too far. You kind of get an insight into what's really going on, the illness that he has and why he's coughing up blood and things like that. But, ⁓
Just Blane (27:34)
in.
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (27:53)
You'll notice it's after that scene that he comes home and all of a sudden he's lighting candles and he's putting crystals around and you see him trying to sage the room. And I just had to point out that, you know, oftentimes the ⁓ desperation of illness and we've gotten to the point where Western medicine can't do anything for us. And then we go to the mystical and then we reach for something that's kind of like
Just Blane (28:03)
Yeah
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (28:22)
maybe this will help or maybe this, you and you can kind of sense as he's crying on the edge of the bed that this was an act of desperation, not really that he believes that any of this stuff will heal him. ⁓ So as an energy healer, as somebody that works in that realm, I will say, ⁓ don't wait until you're desperate to go try some holistic healing and look into other avenues of healing that Western medicine can't give you. It's okay to try those things throughout your health journey.
Just Blane (28:31)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (28:50)
But the crystals that he has hanging in the room, all of a sudden it's full of crystals. I was like, I just have to point out that those are all glass crystals, not actual minerals and crystals. So just give a little shout out to my friend Jamie at Rising Moon Minerals who does sell crystals at her shop. There are some really great health benefits to having those crystals around. Not so much if they're glass. They're pretty and they're
Just Blane (28:51)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah,
Courtney Pearl (29:19)
you know, sparkle some light
Just Blane (29:19)
I wouldn't know that.
Courtney Pearl (29:20)
around.
Just Blane (29:21)
So you're saying some con man sold Todd these crystals in this movie.
Courtney Pearl (29:28)
I feel a little bad. I'm like, they're pretty. And if they make you feel better, there's nothing wrong with that. ⁓ But just for those that kind of make us crystal healers and energy healers seem like we're really crazy. We're really woo woo crazy for doing that kind of stuff. I'm like, well, there is some science behind why minerals of different frequencies can help support your healing journey and why I recommend it. ⁓ But if they are just to make...
pretty rainbows shine around your room, that may not do much is all I'm gonna say about that.
Just Blane (30:02)
I will say
I've been in the rising moon minerals shop that you speak of and it does, you can feel something in there. It's a feeling, it's different, it's wild. It's not anything crazy, but you can feel something. you know.
Courtney Pearl (30:16)
It's a di- Yeah.
Yeah, won't heal you. Obviously, it's
not going to cure your cancer or something like that, which nobody is claiming that it does. But there is some science to back why the energetic frequency of certain crystals resonate with our bodies and help us support our ⁓ enlightenment. But ⁓ I just had to point that out because ⁓ also white sages made fun of or overused a lot of times when we talk about clearing spaces.
Just Blane (30:25)
No!
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (30:49)
And if this was kind of an energetic entity he was trying to get rid of, I'm just gonna point out White Sage may not be the right thing for that circumstance. So look into it before you use such things.
Just Blane (31:00)
What kind of sage, what am I supposed to be burning?
Yeah, what am I supposed to be burning to get rid of?
Courtney Pearl (31:04)
Well,
ceremonial white sage in native indigenous practices are often used for calling in the ancestors ⁓ or, you know, prepping the space for a ceremony. ⁓ That's kind of up to the indigenous people that use that to kind of give their experience on that. ⁓ I particularly like to use smudging or smoke cleansing for things like juniper or pine or
Just Blane (31:24)
Mmm.
Courtney Pearl (31:34)
⁓ different things that kind of come from my ancestral background, just so that I'm not appropriating white sage for a different purpose. And I know white sage is just something that has become this blanket ⁓ thing that people use where they're just like, there's ghosts. I need to white sage everything. And I'm like, maybe don't. Yeah, just ⁓ it's become kind of a synonymous with crystals and things like that. So I'm kind of
Just Blane (31:39)
Mm-hmm.
Well, we're here in just a...
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (32:03)
just giving a shout out to point that out from the movie and say, maybe no, maybe no to that and leave it at that.
Just Blane (32:11)
I love it. And you're the expert here. So, you know, I like that. And I'm, thinking like,
Courtney Pearl (32:17)
to think about.
Just Blane (32:19)
What I took from that is don't wait till the end before you start trying this holistic stuff. Maybe mix it in with the Western medicine while it's happening and you might have a result. If anything, you might have a better mentality. Like it really will make you, you know, feel better about stuff. It's not gonna, like you said, cure your cancer.
Courtney Pearl (32:36)
Yes, I've seen that kind of healing
work. I've seen like, have been on the deathbed of people drumming with them and it's not that I'm going to pull them out of death or keep them from death. But what I found it does is it really helps people to come into a space of peace and acceptance in the process of their death, which as I said earlier,
Just Blane (32:49)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (33:01)
We shouldn't be afraid of death. And I think death is just a part of life and it's kind of another portal to go through, but ⁓ it depends on, you know, your spiritual beliefs and where you feel at peace with that. So just something to consider for people.
Just Blane (33:08)
Mm-hmm.
It's been said, nobody makes it out of here alive.
Courtney Pearl (33:20)
That's right. That's
right.
Just Blane (33:25)
I love this movie. I think there's gonna be a whole lot more movies pop up like this now. And maybe it's one of those that like pave the way for people to think outside the box. And let's make some movies about animals and how they're feeling and what a dog like Andy is going through while his master dies. Like I think there are gonna be more bigger ideas like this. Maybe they won't all hit. They might fall flat, but.
I'm open to it. I can't wait to see what else comes out in this, maybe a new genre of movie. I don't know. Maybe this is a new type of movie coming out. But I love this movie. You got any more final thoughts before we wrap on this?
Courtney Pearl (34:05)
Make the change.
I think that pretty much says it all. Great movie. Shows that you can make a movie without much, but maybe time and patience.
Just Blane (34:19)
Yeah, yeah. And if you want to see this movie, it's on AMC plus. If you need a password and log in, let me know. Hit us up at the, no, I'm kidding. Could you imagine if everybody started logging in on one account? Yeah, but no, seriously, it's on AMC plus shutter, all of that stuff. Good boy. It's worth a watch. It's worth a subscription or a free trial even. Just go give it a chance.
Courtney Pearl (34:30)
AMC is after us.
Hmm.
Just Blane (34:46)
AMC I will shout out as being one of my favorite streaming services. I watched that one more than anything else and of course that's where Shutter is, Joe Bob, all the horror movies that you can find. I love it and they don't even pay me to say that. Maybe we should get an affiliate link with AMC plus.
Courtney Pearl (35:04)
Maybe they will. Maybe we'll
get a piece of that pie.
Just Blane (35:09)
Yeah, it's gonna be fun to see how the awards season plays out and if Indy gets any more awards. I know there was some at South by Southwest he was nominated for. So it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be real fun. I'm wondering if we're gonna see him walk the red carpet at the Oscars. That's what I'm waiting on. That'll be fun.
Courtney Pearl (35:26)
That would be fantastic.
Just Blane (35:29)
We'll cover that when it happens. Maybe we should go to the Oscars. If Andy goes to the Oscars, we'll go too. But until then, it's Just Blaine and Cocoa, parallel frequencies. We will see you on the other side.
Courtney Pearl (35:34)
Yeah.
Bye!