Eat Drink Man Woman with Alison Willmore

[00:00:01] Blank Check with Griffin and David Blank Check with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to expect All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check Eat Drink Man Woman Pod Cast

[00:00:34] Breaking up podcast was a mistake. I wanted to call this ministry's podcast man woman or Eat Drink podcast, but we didn't do that. Podcast man woman sounds like an Adam Corolla show is the problem. Yeah, yes. This is a podcast man woman. Keep going.

[00:00:55] There's really not enough Adam Corolla impressions out there. Yeah, indeed. Or podcasts, so I think you should do more. Yeah, 100%. Hello everybody. My name is Griffin Newman. David Sims. This is a podcast. A pod. Cast. About, oh sure, go ahead.

[00:01:15] Call Blank Check with Griffin and David. That's us. Yeah. Hashtag the two friends at competitive advantage with the only friends who do a podcast together. Right. Let me clarify. The only two friends who do a podcast together. And it's a podcast about filmographies. Directors who have massive success

[00:01:28] early on in their career and give them a series of blank checks, make whatever crazy passion projects they want. And sometimes they clear and sometimes they bounce baby. Sure. And this is the third. Well, yeah. The third film. We have covered second episode. Right.

[00:01:46] I got to say, foreign language films tough on the old quote master over here. Yeah. Because it's like, am I going to quote a translation? Yeah. I think that's really your only option. And you can't really do the performance like I did with L.

[00:02:02] I butchered it where I just like said an English translation of a quote in a French accent. I know. It was like, it was like red sparrow where you're like, they were all like, we're in Russia. Right. We're Russian. Can't you tell?

[00:02:14] I'm not like impersonating the line reading, you know? Because it's like there's the cognitive dissonance of like. Maybe relax. There's a lot of complications here. Exactly. Like when I'm watching a foreign language film of a language that I don't speak, which is all languages other than English. Right.

[00:02:28] I'm like paying attention to the body language of the actor. I'm listening to basic like tone of their voice and then I'm reading what the dialogue is. Sure. But I'm obviously not getting their line. Honestly, it's harder to evaluate performance in some way. Right.

[00:02:42] Don't you worry that you're like wildly overvaluing performances because I do it all the time. I do it all the time. But I'll say this. You watch these three, what Ang Lee, because this is a major series on the films of Ang Lee.

[00:02:56] I was going to say what's it called? Brook Podman cast. And this is the third of his Taiwanese films before he comes over to Hollywood. That's true. This is the third of the father knows best film. That's the unofficial name of this trilogy. Sure. This tone old trilogy.

[00:03:13] And you do see how the acting improves in each film, which I think he's better with actors. The scripts get better, but also pushing hands little gamey some of those scenes where even the people who are speaking a language that I don't understand,

[00:03:26] I can tell they're not as on point as this movie where it's like every performance seems really good. But I do worry sometimes that like, I don't know. It's rare that I will watch a foreign film and be like, that is a bad actor. That's the thing. Right.

[00:03:42] But also it's like the My Blueberry Nights problem, right? But you're like, aren't these people just saying the things that people say in one car why movies, but it sounds worse in English? I'm not tolerating it.

[00:03:52] I've never gotten over my Blueberry Nights for that very reason where it frightened me so much. I was like, oh God, has it all been like this? I don't think that's true. I think that My Blueberry Nights was, you know, playing with things

[00:04:04] that maybe he just wasn't as adept with. I don't need a but that movie shook me to my very core. Yes. Like the same thing with like Goddard films where it's like, can you imagine having to listen to people say these things? Sure. Right.

[00:04:16] Like here are charming French people. I get to watch them galvanizing around and then read stuff and it just feels like, these are some interesting tweets. You know? Can you imagine having to listen to people dramatize those lines? Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah. But this is yes.

[00:04:30] This is Eat Drink Man Woman. Eat Drink Man Woman. His third film. Yep. His second Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and the film that sort of catapults him onto a larger stage that gets him noticed.

[00:04:42] Sort of, but actually he got sense and sensibility off the wedding banquet. Oh, interesting. When that movie came out, you know, he was already working on this one but it was the wedding banquet that got him the sense and sensibility gig. I still feel like this was...

[00:04:54] The producer loved that movie. This was the movie that made a bigger impact in America. Yeah. I think this was where things were really steamrolling because I remember my grandma saw this movie. Ooh. It is a big crossover success. It was one of those nice little like... Yeah.

[00:05:09] I mean, I don't think it was a Sony Pictures Classics. I think it was the Samuel Goldwyn Company. Like one of those... But you know, one of those movies that'll post up at the Lincoln Plaza for a few months, RIP. Sure. That parents like... Exactly. Yes.

[00:05:23] It's definitely like it's a parent and grandparent art house movie. This is like... Right. One of those movies your parents will be like, you know, they might be from another country but like mom's dad's kids, you know, like they'll have that kind of a terry, you know.

[00:05:34] They're eating food, they're drinking liquids. It's unbelievable. I never realized. It's so universal. Like I don't know, whatever. It's such an interesting culture they have there. They talk to each other. I mean, my grandma was someone who watched a ton of movies.

[00:05:47] I definitely got some of my like movie love from her. But I remember when I was a kid, her telling me, I'm going to go see a movie with a weird title. And I was like what? And she was like, Eat, Drink, Man, Woman.

[00:05:57] Which is a kid you find that title... I was like, that's crazy. Yeah. That's not what the title usually is. And the Oscars that year, they repurposed the title into like 17 different punchlines. Right. It's like the Opa Oma of that year where there was just like, Oh really?

[00:06:10] This is funny to say. I believe... I don't remember that. That's probably a crystal year. It lost to... Barn film. Do you know who? Do you know who it lost to? No. I can look it up. One year he lost to Burnt by the Sun.

[00:06:21] I believe that was this year. Oh, that okay. Okay. That was this year. You know Burnt by the Sun? I've never seen it. I know what the film and it's... I've never seen it either. It was like a big deal when it came out.

[00:06:31] I remember it being like the VHS box in like blockbuster video. It was like... That movie revived Russian cinema and yet like, I feel like no one remembers that it exists. That director did not really amount to like what people thought he was going to amount to.

[00:06:45] He was like a Florian Von Hemelsmark. Florian... Florian Dunkel von Hummersmark who I... Someone successfully nailed it at Joe Reed's spelling bee once. I think... I can't remember. That's... It might have been Katie. That's a weird correct. Florian Henkel von Darnesmark. Yeah, like just what happened?

[00:07:03] Remember everyone was like... Let's not get sidetracked on Florian this early. Our guest is Alison Walmore. Hi. Hey, Alison. Nice to be here. We're turning past... Film spotting SVO. Yes. That is true. The Prestige episode. Yes. That's your number one credit. That's what you lead with.

[00:07:18] I mean, obviously when people are like, I know you from... Your resume. Do you sound familiar? They stop you on the street in the subway. Are you excited to be back? I'm thrilled. Great. I can tell. You're just like... The energy in the room. Crazy.

[00:07:31] Had you seen this film before? I had, but it had been a really long time. Okay. Yeah. So it was... I had mostly forgotten the kind of plot developments and the one at the end especially. I was like, oh right. Ben loved this movie by the way.

[00:07:48] I didn't see it coming. I also... Well, yeah, I love how that... Right. Have you seen the other ones? Wedding banquet and pushing hands. I've seen pushing hands, but I don't know if I've seen wedding banquet. Back it out. Good movie. Good movie. Pushing hands is...

[00:08:06] Yeah, well we talked about it last week. It's okay. It's a fine debut. I feel like these three films, there's a real build of a style that's exciting to watch. When you're watching... What we like in this podcast when we get to watch someone

[00:08:20] put the pieces together slowly because pushing hands, you see some elements. Sure. But you're like, okay, this is like a little basic. So a little amateurish at the moment. Wedding banquet's really fun, and you watch this and you're like, well, this is an angry picture. This is angry.

[00:08:34] Right. And you're watching all of the sort of things where he's putting his finger on the scale too much. Especially in the wedding banquet, because pushing hands again is very simple, the culture class stuff, where he's like, well, let's really emphasize this.

[00:08:45] And you're watching him do less and less of that, have more confidence on like, no, I can build up to this. I think confidence is the big thing. This feels like a very confident movie in terms of... He made them... They came out $92.93.94. He's making them quickly.

[00:08:59] And like, this movie is so pretty and it's so like... Sense of space. The house. You really see the house and how it's set out. Right? Yeah. And it's one of those movies where you're like, the camera's always in exactly the right place. Like without being showy shots,

[00:09:13] you're always like, this is the best place to cover this from. I also just feel like this movie's very confident in terms of what it tells you and what it doesn't tell you. Because it's not a very plotty movie, but it has a lot of characters

[00:09:27] and a lot of through lines running. And in terms of like, things like the big surprise at the end of the movie, it's really smart about like what it's withholding, what it's showing you, often showing you the smaller, less consequential moments,

[00:09:39] but the moments that tell you more about the character and then letting the big developments happen off-screen. Like that's some, you know, that takes some cahones as like a storyteller to be like... All right. I want the audience to stay invested

[00:09:50] and not think that they're not getting what's going on. Know that I'm telling them what I want them to know. And like pushing hands in Wedding banquet are both culture clash movies. Like very explicitly, like and they're both set in America

[00:10:01] and it's like, oh, can you, you know, like can you see what I'm trying to point out here? Whereas this is like, it's a culture clash movie a little bit. It's a generational clash. But it's also about like slow shifts. Exactly. It's all part of a wheel

[00:10:13] that like, you know, things are linked in ways you don't initially understand. Yeah. Eating, drinking, men, women, all linked. It's... I love this movie. I got to say it. I was very happy. No. No, real pleasure to watch. So yeah, I mean this is the third shameless film.

[00:10:30] Third film with the same actor. Third film about fathers dealing with, you know, but this is the one that kind of... I wouldn't say centers the father most. No, it's... Because pushing hands. Pushing hands centers the father the most. This centers him okay in the sort of...

[00:10:47] He's one of four main characters, I guess. Right. And then each... Well, I'd say the youngest daughter probably gets the least time and is the least developed. She definitely is the only thing... It doesn't ring false, but like rings a little cheap.

[00:11:02] Like, you know, the way her story gets wrapped up kind of fast. Yeah. Yeah. Because I initially thought it was just going to be about the three girls and the dad would only really be there for the lunch, the dinner scenes. Right.

[00:11:19] And this movie is widower, master chef, three adult daughters. All living at home? All living at home. Yep. And the sort of tension of... The daughters are all sort of like different things. Yes. One's religious, like one's kind of like a party animal, like whatever.

[00:11:39] Or young at least, she's like a college student. Yeah. And then one's the career woman. Right. And they represent different shifts in the culture. And he's a very traditional man, not in a like stuck in his ways kind of sense.

[00:11:53] But it is about him sort of like trying to figure out where he lands in this new world and them trying to figure out how to like live their own independent lives to the best of their ability. Right? I guess that's... It's a hard movie to summarize.

[00:12:08] It is. Yeah. I do think... I think that like it's all about, yes, shifting Taiwanese culture and this generational thing. I think that's fair. Like they all are kind of dealing with what independent lives they can have and like how they want to pursue them.

[00:12:23] Do you know what movie it weirdly kind of reminds me of? Is it Tortilla Soup, the remake of Eat, Drink, Man, Woman? No, I've never seen that movie. I haven't either now. You've seen that movie. It's crazy that it exists. I've always wondered about it.

[00:12:35] But no, what is it? Isn't it weird that that's the one that got remade? Because Wedding banquet feels like it was designed to be a ten-owl in comedy in 1998. Right. Sure. Yes, it is. Like it's insane that Touchstone didn't remake the Wedding banquet.

[00:12:49] And Tortilla Soup is literally like a Samuel Goldwyn movie. Yeah, it's like another... It's like a lateral move. They were like, let's just pick a different culture, do the same budget level. And it is that thing I was just saying with her like,

[00:13:00] well, hey man, all these cultures, it's the family, the food, like, you know, right. Can we do a Mexican Eat, Drink, Man, Woman? Do you know that every place has its own cuisine and also its own people and those people are related to each other?

[00:13:14] What does it remind you of? What it reminds me of weirdly, mostly in storytelling style, but also in sort of tone is a small change. The Truffaut Show. Oh, sure, sure. I've never seen that. It's this kind of ensemble piece where you have these through lines

[00:13:30] but it's not very plot-driven and it sort of feels like a sketch movie in its own way. You know? Yeah, I guess you had that. It almost feels like this omnibus thing because you keep on going back and forth between these different threads,

[00:13:42] but the threads aren't stacking up in a very didactic like A to B way. Right, they're not intersecting all the time. No, and a lot of times the threads are just kind of like, here's just another day in her life, here's another element to her, you know.

[00:13:56] Well, another thing that I love about all three of these movies is there's no scene where like the father forbids something and that becomes the central conflict or something like that. You know, these aren't movies about a generational conflict that is prescribed.

[00:14:11] It's more just sort of like things are happening and he's watching them happen or the mother's watching them happen and she's like, I don't understand or like I'm upset. I use the word tension but it's not like a terse tension.

[00:14:25] He's not like I'm going to throw you out of the house or I'm going to disown you. It's never a friction. It's literally just there like gauging how far they can stretch the rubber band comfortably. You know, right?

[00:14:35] It's like these films and this is I think is the best version of this. Yeah, I think so. He like kind of perfects it. Well, it's also so much about, I mean, this is kind of a through line in his career,

[00:14:45] like people not actually saying what's on their mind, right? Like he's like king of like repressed emotions and... Which I love and that's early because there's that scene where he's with his friend and they're getting drunk and his friend starts getting a little blue,

[00:14:58] like starts working during, he's just like, you're drunk, shut up. He doesn't even want to talk about it with his like drinking buddy. No, you know the moment we've already recorded our episode after this. Our Sense and Sensibility episode.

[00:15:12] And I mentioned this in that one but Emma Thompson said in an interview, still to this day she's never worked with a director who paid more attention to body language. Yeah, I can see that. Was more kind of focused on it.

[00:15:23] And I feel like this is the one where he finally like perfects that language for him, how to use body language as like one of his storytelling tools. There's a scene that for me I'm like, this is it.

[00:15:34] This is the moment that he arrived as like a great director is when the two oldest sisters have the conversation when they're washing the dishes. Do you know what I'm talking about? I think yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:15:49] And they start talking about the fact that they don't talk to each other and in any other movie it would have been like an acting class exercise scene where they're like blowing up at each other and trying so hard to connect and they barely make eye contact.

[00:16:05] They're both staring forward. They're both dealing with the dishes. Like the tension comes from them trying not to look at each other because that would be too painful and it's just keeping them in this two shot, watching them react to these things but trying not to show it.

[00:16:19] And it's like, this is some good dramatic story time. Yeah, well so much even the dinner is they get described as like right like these torture sessions but like the dinners are totally civilized like they're totally reasonable dinners. No one is screaming at each other.

[00:16:34] No one is, you know. It's a very kind of like modestly pitched movie. Yeah. With all of these deep undercurrents of like tension and emotion and anger that just you see the surface. Right, right. But never explodes into some sort of fakey feeling conflict. Right, right.

[00:16:53] There's never the blow up scenes. I mean, I even love a movie like I really like The Big Sick which is another movie with family dinner scenes as like a sort of organizing story thing and even that has that sort of blow up

[00:17:07] in the end where they're like, we cast you out of the family and you're like, I know they aren't like, you know. So it's like, it's fine. I mean, I like that movie. I mean, talk about the small change thing.

[00:17:18] I guess it's that he like cuts all the shoe leather out of it. Like he makes a movie only of the scenes that he finds kind of interesting. That's on Blank Check Mingo, right? Shoelether. We got to actually work it up at some point.

[00:17:29] I'm trying to fit more and more new pieces on the board. I'm building like my sort of list, you know, of his phrases. Right, remember Zeta Stone. But let's talk about the other aspects of this movie that comes in at the very beginning for starting chronologically.

[00:17:41] This movie makes you want to fuck with some food. Right? Yeah. Yeah, it does. I love a food movie. Ben and I were talking. I think it like adds an extra star for me. Like I just if a movie like photographs, yeah photographs food well.

[00:17:57] Like I'm just very forgiving of said movie. Sure. It's the only movie I can think of where you see someone inflate a duck. You emailed us the picture. I did. I made a gif of it. Yeah. You know, you don't get to see that a lot on screen.

[00:18:11] I mean, I'm now I'm now I've called up the opening scene on YouTube. It's like right. He gets the fish out of a pot. Yes. It's alive in the fish. And he kills the fucking chopstick. He does that more than once. He kills the fish with chopsticks.

[00:18:25] The second time he feels bad about it. Yeah. He likes things twice and then he's like, nah. This is a beautiful movie. It's definitely a fish. It's a fish snuff film. Oh, yes. Well, and then he also talks it out

[00:18:36] and he's like this is a really good fish. You can't like, you know, don't go overboard with the spices and stuff. Yeah. Showcase the flavor. Well, and that's one thing I like is that the dad is so obsessed with not over-flavoring things.

[00:18:49] And like with, with subtlety of, you know, and like balance. And this is so much a movie about like, like confusion thinking. Right. And like, you know, you know, everything should be like properly ordered. And balance of your life. And yeah.

[00:19:07] The first daughter has gone too far maybe one way. The second daughter, she's got a little too far the other way. I guess she's doing fine basically. The career daughter, I mean, she's doing okay. I feel like they're all doing fine. Like maybe the first daughter.

[00:19:20] First daughter with the Christianity. Right. She's put some walls up maybe. All of them are kind of missing a piece. Like they're not like totally off track, but it's like, you got to get that one final thing to push you

[00:19:31] over the edge out of the nest, you know? Yeah, exactly. You've got the also, I feel like it's crucial that the youngest daughter works at Wendy's. Oh yeah. That has to be important. Yeah, well they cut them together, right? There's a contrast there and it's like very deliberate.

[00:19:46] Like when do you think Wendy's reached Taipei? Like when do you think like the American fast food restaurants like started opening and like was probably in the 80s? I would guess in the 80s. Is it literally Wendy's? Yeah, literally Wendy's. So I took note. I was very excited.

[00:20:02] I mean, like I think that, I mean I've seen like McDonald's play a role in some Hong Kong films from like the 90s, right? And all of that. Like they've been there for a while. Well KFC is fucking humongous in Asia. That's the big thing. Yeah.

[00:20:17] Why is that again? Is it just like? The chicken. Well chicken's good. It's the chicken and then I've been humble brag watching Ugly Delicious on Netflix. Oh sure. And they do a whole episode on it. He says the other thing. See you come to pork. Look at this.

[00:20:30] Just look at this. Look at this guys. So food, pork. It's really beautiful. It's beautiful. Look at that. The other thing with KFC is that it's communal. Pork belly. Yeah right. You get a bucket of it. And there's no education necessary in how to eat a cheeseburger

[00:20:45] and how many you have to order for a family. It's like, you get the whole thing. Right. Because this is a movie about communal eating as well. It is. Yeah. The sort of the ritual of what it. Eating with as a family. Yes. Sure. I hate seafood. Sure.

[00:21:02] You're bad with food. Really? I'm a good person in general. You didn't know that about it yet. Yeah, I used to weigh negative 15 pounds. And when I was growing up they kept on sending me to doctors to gauge whether or not I had an eating disorder. Okay.

[00:21:18] And they just kept on being like, no he just seems kind of uninterested in food. Which is a very, very boring sort of eating disorder I suppose. Right. But there were like, is there some complex? Is there like a thing? Is it like a school time?

[00:21:30] It just doesn't do anything for me. Which is why I eat, you know, I eat garbage. You eat like bagel twists and nothing else. Called garbage belly I think because the one way I was able to get myself excited about

[00:21:41] food as a child as if it came with a toy. Okay. So I still respond most favorably to things that are super fucking processed. Okay. But I watch something like this and I'm like, God I should like food. Right, you wish you could appreciate this more. Right.

[00:21:56] Like I like food if it's in a movie. The food in this looks so good. And the slicing of the fish, like I'd never want to eat fish but I watched that and I'm like, that looks pretty cool being cut up. And puts it in a little basket.

[00:22:09] Out of the steam basket. Just like the pork belly and the fact that he like, the way he cooks it and drops it in the ice water and then slices it up and then I think assembles it into the bowl and steams it. Like it's just incredible.

[00:22:22] Like it looks so good. And it's a big metaphor for the movie, right? Of that he feels like his daughters aren't ready to be served yet. They're not ready to be presented on a plate in this perfect way. And also he's lost a sense of taste.

[00:22:37] He's lost a sense of life. Which is like, he doesn't even know what the palette of the culture is anymore. Nice. Hey man, I forgot the frogs. Oh, he also, it's like the way he expresses his love for his daughters.

[00:22:49] It's like very, like it's all of his emotions are getting channeled through elaborate meals that his daughters are largely unimpressed by. His daughters like, God, we have to dinner. And then he just, I love that in all of the dinner scenes to like put up plates

[00:23:01] and then like more plates and more plates. Like there are always these multi course things. They don't all fit on the table and everyone's always just like, yeah. And I love also like another easy lazy thing they could have done is like he's cold, he's totally unemotional.

[00:23:15] All he has is the food and said they make it like, no, he can talk. He's just better at expressing himself through food. It's a better connection than anything else. There's the line I love late in the movie where they're complaining about

[00:23:26] the next door neighbors who keep on doing karaoke. And they're like, you know, it's just, they talk through singing the way we talk through food, you know? Like they just like say it. They just call it out.

[00:23:36] And they're like, that's just like the thing that we're able to all like kind of connect on. Right. But yeah, the first five minutes of this movie, whatever it is, this like opening credit sequence is just like the most effective food porn

[00:23:48] ever and also gets into like processes always like, you know, this is like film nerd thing to talk about. But I just fucking love processing movies. Anytime you get to watch someone like go through routine, especially the more specific it is, the more physical it is.

[00:24:02] And you get to watch him like go through 17 different routines. I'm trying to get food movies now because all I can think of is chef. Chef Casper. Of course we love Chef Casper. No, no, burnt. Come on. I actually did see burnt. It's not a plane.

[00:24:16] So there you go. Yeah. You know what the pitch for burnt was? What if chef but Fox? Yes, chef but hot. Yes. Chef but burnt. Chef but burnt. I actually do kind of like chef, but that's a movie where I feel like,

[00:24:28] man, if there wasn't all this delicious food, I probably don't like this movie. But like it's okay because I get to watch him like make a Cuban sandwich. It's also weird when you realize like chef is a movie about John Favre making Iron Man 2. Yes, I know.

[00:24:40] And then being like I just need to get a food truck and go back to my roots and he makes the Jungle Book and the live action Lion King and a Star Wars TV series. Star Wars TV series I know. What chef is actually about, which I like,

[00:24:52] is that he's like yeah, I just need to get back to my roots because that I can really market and then I'll be right back on top because that's what happens in chef. Like even the Cuban sandwiches are a hit. Right. And he's like plot invest.

[00:25:04] No bigger move than that. Right. And he's like well the problem was yeah, that studio was no good for me. I don't know. It's like yeah. Yeah, there's not a lot of ideas about artistic authenticity there. He left Marvel for Disney and then Disney bought Marvel

[00:25:17] and now he just makes adjacent movies. Right, but I think the thing with Favre, I don't know what the thing with Favre is to be honest, but it is interesting to me that he moved on from Marvel to making movies that he shoots entirely in a soundstage

[00:25:28] and has total control over. Like it's like all brewed up in the lab. Maybe he's just like really convenient because he can move around. It seems awesome. The other thing is like you know like on Jungle Book like he would play all the other characters on set. Wow.

[00:25:43] He probably just enjoys that. Maybe it's fun. Like having an ego way, but like the behind the scenes footage that exists of Jungle Book that isn't a dude at a computer is like that kid on a log and John Favre like pretending to be a bear

[00:25:56] and he looks like he's having a grand old time. What are some other food movies? Julie and Julia. Big Night is a good food movie. Big Night is an amazing food movie. Right, yes right. And I like that. And he like Ratatouille,

[00:26:07] any movie that is centered around like The Dish. Like you got to get The Dish right. The Founder. Another movie centered around The Dish. Wait, what did you say, man? Julie and Julia. Sure. I love that movie. It's a good movie. Have you ever seen Phantom Thread?

[00:26:26] Oh yeah. Yeah. Classic food movie. Hungry Boy. Oil and Salt. Have you ever seen What's Cooking? The Grindr Chatter movie? Oh, I love that movie. That's my favorite of the admittedly very small genre that is the Thanksgiving movie. Yeah. It's an underrated movie. Good Burger. It's Guest.

[00:26:44] All right. Which is another way to taste. That's another one that's about The Dish. Good Burger is about got to figure out this Mondo Burger. There you go. Got to figure it out. Food movies. There's Tempo Po. Tempo Po? Great movie. Oh, Tempo Po. Yes.

[00:27:01] Tempo Po is the shit. And also is another weird movie structurally where it's like half a sketch movie. Yeah. It's like self-contained. It's like self-contained and then half a narrative that they cut back to when they feel like it.

[00:27:15] I have never seen Like Water for Chocolate, which was in the Eat Drink Man Woman like early 90s Prestige Farm movie zone. And it's like, oh, this one's a little sexy. That one's hot. That one's a little hot. Delicatessen, right?

[00:27:28] A lot of food movies, this is what I'm saying. Early 90s, all these European and Asian directors, they're like, you know, they're like, and who are making the jump to America. They're making these food movies.

[00:27:40] Can I go back a second and you're going to get angry at me for saying this? Yeah, whatever. Have you folks seen Siskel and Ebert's review of Good Burger? No, I have not. Siskel and Ebert. So not Ebert's written review. It's the two of them. Okay.

[00:27:55] On At The Movies, reviewing Good Burger, I will post it online at least once a year because I think it's important to recirculate. They get into such an argument. Like Siskel just dunks on it. He's just like, it's dumb. It's stupid. It's based off a sketch.

[00:28:09] It's about a burger. Fuck you. Who gives a shit? Right? And then he goes like, the movie's dumb. It's poorly written. The characters are dumb. And Ebert's like, look, I'm not going to say it's a good movie, but I disagree with you that the characters are dumb.

[00:28:23] And he's like, what do you mean? He's like, they saved the day. They defeat Mondo Burger. And Siskel goes, of course they do. They're the heroes of the picture. And they get into this argument that actually makes you think where it's like, if the hero succeeds in

[00:28:34] the movie, does that mean that they're smart even if the film characterizes them as dumb? Wow. Because they accomplish what they set out to do. That's an interesting question. And they get heated about it. And he's like, so you're saying it's a good picture?

[00:28:47] He's like, I'm not saying it's a good picture. I'm just saying. I'm literally keeping picture. It ends with like, it fades, the audio fades out on them still fighting about it. That's why they were the best. They were the best. Yeah. They could find an angle anytime. Yeah.

[00:29:02] I mean, Good Burger is good. I haven't seen it in like 20 years. I'm sure it holds up perfectly well. It ages just like a burger. I mean, Keenan and Kel holds up perfectly. But that was a more elemental show where it was just like, there's a problem.

[00:29:15] It gets worse. Keenan has a scheme. Like it was always the same everybody. They're like Evan Costello. Yeah, exactly. It was like right. Yeah. Anyway, you drink man woman. You drink man woman. How would you rank them if you had to rank the four? Eat woman, drink man.

[00:29:32] Interesting. Yeah, I think that's how I'd go. I mean, you got to put man last in this climate. I would go drink woman, eat. Well, no drink, eat woman man. Let's just, you know, let's put the food and drink on top. Yeah. I mean, that's fair.

[00:29:49] See, I don't want to look too thirsty, but I go woman, drink, eat man. We've already established your contempt for eating. So I would expect it to be down there. But it still beats man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, man talks. And this is posting months from now.

[00:30:09] God knows what man has done at this point. I don't know. Maybe man's gotten good again. What if in the months that we've been recording somehow, everything got chill? Yeah, right. Everything's great. It's just been addressed. It's just all leveled out. So is Trump gone?

[00:30:23] Oh no, no, no, he's just good now. Oh, great. Wow. He woke up one morning and he was like, what if Trump but good? That's what he was like. And he just started living his best life every day. I don't even know what that is. I don't know.

[00:30:35] Like, what is that? Where Trump like, what are you giving address? Or he's like, guys, I screwed up. I don't know. I've been a real jerk these last 70 years. Just imagine he made us e-crow and we all had to genuinely say like, you know what,

[00:30:47] I think today Trump actually did become president. I think right. We actually have to give him the office. He got down to business. He balanced the budget. Sure. This is sounding more and more like Dave, just the movie Dave. Yeah. Yeah, so eat, drink, man, woman, Jesus. Right.

[00:31:06] Okay, so I'm going to go drink first. Then woman, then food, then man. Okay. Food's got to be number one. You guys are crazy. No, I like alcohol. Well, yeah, you're, yeah. Yeah. It's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, I like it. You like a drink. Yeah.

[00:31:26] It's fun to get drunk with that. Are you a wine? Thank you. Connoisseur, are you a cocktail? I like a bourbon. Yeah, you're a liquor drinker. I'm a liquor drinker. Yeah. Okay. I'm a bullet guy myself when it comes to bourbon.

[00:31:38] You know, lately I've been like bullet rye actually. Nice. Yeah, delicious, delicious. Hey, this is a hot tip. Feel free to send me sponsorship money if you're listening. A really good cheap rye is old overholt. Yeah. It's like the classic.

[00:31:52] I use that to like make an old fashioned. Yeah. It's like, you know, under 20 bucks. So drink it from the bottle, you know, fall asleep on the subway. Keep it in your desk drawer like you're a noir hero. Oh yeah.

[00:32:06] I should have some booze in my desk drawer just for that very reason. I would never drink it though. Right. But just so you could offer it to people and be like, you know. Built a scotch? Yeah.

[00:32:15] And also hold the drawer open a little too long so you can make sure your co-worker see it and then they can be like, that's kind of actually cool though. No, I think they'd be like, it's dated all right. I'm very worried.

[00:32:24] All of a sudden they think it was cool. You'd be like, is this? I used to have like sponsored bottles of things on my desk. I had two bottles of shades of gray wine. Yeah. It comes in red and white. Yes. And then I had a Johnny drama.

[00:32:39] Johnny drama. It was like Johnny Walker, but Johnny drama entourage branded scotch. I got a bottle of champagne. Did you get the well of champagne for darkest hour? I did not. Yeah, I got that. I wish I did. I know, I drank that in years.

[00:32:55] But I got whiskey recently from the Good Fight, which last year sent me wine. Wow. So they upgraded. That is nice. Which is really annoying because it means like the package gets like rerouted to God knows where

[00:33:06] because if I'm not there to sign for it and I had to go like all this way, pick up this fucking package. It was a good fight. I was like, come on.

[00:33:12] I went all this way for a promotion, but then there was booze inside and I was like, that's pretty nice. It's pretty good. So Ang Lee's Oscar nominated film. It's hard to summarize movies that like don't have the. I mean, I guess we go through the plot line.

[00:33:26] There are three characters. Four characters. Four characters. That's got his deal. Yeah. That's got his deal. Mr. Chu is his name. He runs a restaurant that I think has gotten a little too big as the implication. Right? Like he's just also like he's not. He's on autopilot. Yeah.

[00:33:45] He's not feeling it, but like everyone likes him. Like everyone's into it. But he's like, does he also run the restaurant? Like he has basically moved on. He's sort of handed it off. They want him to come back. Yeah. Right. They want to give you more hands on.

[00:33:56] And they keep being like, are you, come on. What are you doing? Something new? Like you got like a, right? Coming up. Right. He's one of those guys where you're like, does Wolfgang Puck actually cook anymore? Right. Right.

[00:34:07] You know, does he just found restaurants and like an airport kind of sandwich places? Yeah. Right. So he's known as a chef, but he doesn't seem to be actively cooking that much outside of his home. You know what Wolfgang Puck does cater? Yeah. He asks. Yeah.

[00:34:21] Does he like do it every year? Yeah. That's like a thing of his. The restaurant is in the Grand Hotel in Taipei, by the way. So that you see it. The one that like has a, it's kind of this Chinese style building is like,

[00:34:32] like that's a real fancy hotel in Taipei. Oh, I'm looking at it. It looks amazing. Yeah. Um, so we, you know, right, we've covered a lot of this whole, but this is his first film actually set in Taiwan. Right. Even though he's now made three Taiwanese. Right.

[00:34:47] So the other two are in the states. In the states. And, uh, it's got, that's why, I don't know. It's, it's, that's why I feel like it works a little better. I agree. I mean, I love the wedding banquet is like a 90s,

[00:35:03] like Manhattan movie just because I love seeing any movies set in like New York that has sort of passed into memory. Um, but yeah. But also, you know, like they talked about the fact that he was not, uh, super fluent in English when they shot sense and sensibility.

[00:35:20] So I can only imagine for the first two movies where he's working with like a mixed cast in the states, you know, that, uh, this film just feels like he is a lot more in his element. I can't imagine how stressful it would be to be a director

[00:35:35] not being able to talk to everyone who was working with you. Right. Or didn't have to go through a translator for everything. Yeah, that sounds tricky. I feel like this movie also, it doesn't feel like it kind of bends over

[00:35:47] backwards to try and accommodate this idea of a Western audience. You know, I don't think it's any way inaccessible, but it's very much like this is about Taiwan. I agree. And I feel like his first two movies, especially because he was like from Taiwan went to NYU.

[00:36:02] He was sort of testing out like, can I, can I straddle the two zones? Right. And that's who James Sheamus is his buddy, right? Helping him straddle. But then his career after this becomes like he does one or the other. He doesn't do these sort of like...

[00:36:17] No, that's true. He makes two more Taiwanese movies, but they are just foreign films, foreign language, foreign setting. 100%. Yeah. Um, what was the thing? We're going to say about the father. Mr. Chu. He's also, he's lost a sense of taste. He doesn't taste. Right. He doesn't taste anymore.

[00:36:35] It's fading. Right. He's kind of not as good, even though his dishes look incredible. They look amazing. But they're not quite as perfect as they used to be. Which his daughters are calling out. They're like, hmmm, paksal. Oh my God, the shrimp paste this time. Yeah.

[00:36:49] Now a question, is it device or do we think that this is a real thing that happens? Okay, this is my question because it's like, are we supposed to take this literally like Dewey Cox losing a sense of smell? Sure.

[00:37:00] Or is it just like he's kind of out of it? Like he's just not... Is it just a metaphor? Right. I mean people lose their sense of taste as they get old, especially if they smoke, like most people did, like in the bath.

[00:37:13] But then spoiler also at the end. Sorry to break it to you. My grandmother previously mentioned a viewer of Eat Drink Man Woman in 1994. Like she was like, yeah, all food just kind of tastes like a coaster to me at this point.

[00:37:25] Like, you know, she like, she smoked for 60 years. Sorry, Betty. Kills your taste buds. Also, you should probably stop eating cigarettes, but I think that's what's really pulling you in is eating lit cigarettes. It looks cool. It does look cool. Yeah, he's losing his sense of taste. Yes.

[00:37:48] He's a widower. He makes dumplings real well. Watching them make the dumplings, I'm like how on earth do people do this unfolding on an industrial scale? Like and I know there are machines and things, but like,

[00:38:00] I eat 10 of those in like five minutes and I'm like, that was great. I could eat 10 more right now. And like, are you watching them like carefully like, wine the flower? Yeah, I could eat them forever basically. Yes, agreed.

[00:38:11] I will say I think that the, I felt like the losing his sense of taste was sort of a depression, you know, standing right? Right, right, right. And his disconnection from his cooking. That's the thing. I don't take it super literally.

[00:38:26] It's sort of just like a kind of numbness that represents like his state in life. He's lost his play, he's lost his way a bit. He obsessively starts cooking elaborate meals for a little girl. Right, yes.

[00:38:37] And there's this sort of, yeah, we should talk about that because I loved that. I remember we, had you seen this movie before? No. Okay, so we were in the same boat, but I remember when we would go to trivia

[00:38:48] all the time, this came up in a food round and we were so charmed by the scene where he delivers. Cause they, they, they interest the food round and we were like fuck one of these is going to be in drink man women. Right, right.

[00:39:01] And we were like, we haven't seen this movie and I know it's going to be in here. So can we correctly identify this? And that scene was so funny that both of us were like, is it that bunch of a comedy? Right.

[00:39:12] Cause there's that like one shot of him coming in with like the stack things. He's like, okay, I only had so much time. And he's listing all the things and all the kids are coming and picking it off the desk. Right.

[00:39:22] He's like taking lunch orders for the whole classroom by the end. But then swapping out and eating her lunch out of her little cartoon lunch. It's adorable. I love schools. Yes. In, in these kind of, I just love seeing other schools. There are two types of schools.

[00:39:37] You have the elementary school and then you have the oldest daughter. Jiajian is teaching at what looks like a technical high school. Maybe it's a little, it's intense. It visually looks like a prison. Yeah. It's very projecty and sort of brutalist. This like building.

[00:39:53] She's like the yard that it's sort of center. And there are a lot of looks like everyone's doing exercise and like sports. They're all wearing uniforms. Yeah. Like it looks like some weird future prison. Yeah.

[00:40:04] So I, when I was like in college, I took this really sketchy job in Taiwan for the summer working for a textbook company where you're not allowed to work in Taiwan on a tourist visa, which is what I was working on. So that was the sketchy element.

[00:40:18] So were they paying you just cash or whatever? They would pay you in traveler's checks. Wow. Very nice. Very old, not 90s but very old. You're not allowed to teach in Taiwanese schools if you are like, I think not a Taiwanese citizen. Interesting.

[00:40:32] But we would get brought around as like they would be like, look at these foreigners. Like if you buy our textbooks, like these foreigners will do like a brief inept attempt at teaching your class. So you were like a textbook sales person? Basically. I was more like it.

[00:40:45] They were sneaking you in. A textbook accessory, I would say. Sure. Right. So today I got brought to a school in Tainan, which is the big city in the middle of Taiwan and like was just ushered into a school that looked exactly like the school in this. Sure.

[00:41:01] And then brought in front of a classroom of like 500 people and made to recite things in English. And at the end as they do in this movie, everyone stood up and said, thank you and bowed.

[00:41:11] I just like, I look at those scenes and I'm like, this feels like Logan's runner or something. Like they're all wearing the same thing and they're like that's sort of like the formality of those sorts of behavior. It's not a pretty looking or friendly looking school. At all.

[00:41:25] At all. Yeah. Who coaches just volleyball? I don't know, volleyball is a big deal. Maybe it's a really successful volleyball team. Yeah. I mean come on. I love the dashing volleyball coach in his sweat pants. He's like Coach McGurk from Hope Movies. Interesting.

[00:41:40] But he has his motorcycle, you know, he's dreaming. I do love that for his motorcycle. So, yes, well let's talk about that character. Ja-jin played by Kuemeyang. She has converted to Christianity. Her family thinks that's fucking bug nuts. Yeah, which I like where they're just like, Jesus.

[00:42:04] I feel like it's not even that. They're just kind of like, it's like this thing. Why do you need this? They're not taking it seriously. Can we pray? And they're like, yeah. They just are like tolerated. You do what you need to do.

[00:42:16] No one thinks it's for real, right? I think they take it seriously, but I think they're just kind of like whatever. But I also think she's the one that they view as like being a threat for spinster hood.

[00:42:29] You know, she's like, she's like, she's like, she's like people off. Right, but I think that's also right. Like there's this fear throughout of leaving the dad by himself, right? Yes. That is like the great unspoken fear that is like in all of these women's lives, which

[00:42:45] is to be like someone has to take care of dad, but he can't just be by himself in this big house. But I think she also fits into that archetype of like the person who's like, look, I actually

[00:42:54] just don't have time to date because I'm really very like, I'm so attached to my father. You know? Right, right. Like she kind of is like Christianity, my dad, those are the two things. Yeah.

[00:43:06] Well, I mean, and there's this idea towards the end that she like is kind of like repressing herself. Right? She presented this narrative of being heartbroken. Right. It was all a big spoilers. Yeah. So I was confused by that. This straight up lie. Yes. That was a lie.

[00:43:25] She told this narrative. She borrowed her friend's boyfriend. Right. I'm like, she borrowed the wedding banquet guy, you know, as like the culprit. Yeah. But she just wanted to create a tragic backstory so they'd get off her case. Yeah.

[00:43:36] She wanted a reason to give them, but it is all made up. That is kind of the one of the weirder twists of the movie. Yes. But I actually kind of like it though.

[00:43:44] I like it too where she was just like, she just like hadn't wanted to date or was scared of dating. Right. It was like, I'm not meaning anyone interesting. Right. Let me create. Right. It means every time they can just be like, fucking wedding banquet guy. Fuck.

[00:43:59] It's weird. They keep on calling him that because it's like within the movie they've seen the wedding banquet. Right. That's his name. Yes. And so, but anyway, that those are her deal. She works in the school. Yeah.

[00:44:10] She's got a broken heart and she's getting these weird pretty emotionally repressed. Yes. That's the whole thing is they kind of can't read her right. Right. And she's got the secret admirer. She got an indie spirit nomination.

[00:44:23] The actress and she's in like a lot of movies I've heard of Taiwanese movies like, you know, the whole or goodbye dragon in the waiver crowd. They know, you know, is it? Fuck. I want to say Ming Liang or is it chiming?

[00:44:38] It's a Ming Liang who is another is like a contemporary in Taiwanese film of Ang Lee's but his movies are strange and boring. So he's got to Taiwan. I mean, I love him, but he did goodbye dragon. Yeah.

[00:44:50] He did goodbye dragon for those who haven't described it please is a movie about a movie theater closing and airing. Describe it please is a movie about a movie theater closing and every shot in it is roughly 25 minutes long, including the end is literally.

[00:45:06] I think that is literally a 12 minute shot of an empty theater. Right? Yeah. I like his movies. I just remember reading challenging. They're challenging. They are. I like that movie. But then like, and then he'll also then he'll be like, all right,

[00:45:18] so I did that my next movie is like a pornographic musical with watermelons. Right. Right. Or the whole right this kind of like, I don't know, almost apocalyptic movie. I never seen that one. I just remember reading a review of goodbye dragon and when it came out

[00:45:32] that kind of like formed how I was like starting to engage with film more seriously where it was like, I get the statement of doing a 12 minute shot of an empty room. Right. But is there anything you're saying with 12 minutes that you couldn't say what's six?

[00:45:47] And it was like, that's an interesting question. Oh, but does it wait, but like maybe six, you'd be like, that was a six minutes. That's right. You're like, oh, 12. He's writing you. It's like there's a difference between 90 seconds and six minutes. What's the difference between six and 12?

[00:45:59] Like that was the argument. But when that movie came out, people freaked out. I mean, because he that to what time is it there is a great movie as well, which but I also love that that's a real high concept movie.

[00:46:08] It's about two people, one of whom sets his watch to the other persons. And then we just watch what they do. They do different things like one goes somewhere else. Like that's the only interaction was that they said each other's watches.

[00:46:19] Well, goodbye dragon was also one of those movies where people either thought it was like brilliant or they were like, what the fuck are you talking about? Sure. Yeah. All right, can you get that group? Yeah. Hello. Wait a second. I'm stirring in the court. Oh my God.

[00:46:37] We forgot about detective will dormer. You got his name right friend from insomnia. Will will what's going on? I thought he was dead by now. I don't know. Sleep. Okay. Well, well, why aren't you sleeping guys? I've been trying.

[00:46:51] I've been trying to die for nine months here in a pile of garbage and a pile of garbage. But if I'm still alive, I should probably find some way to celebrate our nation's birthday. He's United States of America before the July. Well, wait a second.

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[00:48:14] I've been sleeping on it for months. I'm having a great time. Okay. You look very fit. This podcast has genuinely improved my sleep experience in multiple ways. It's kind of amazing. And it just shows up to your house in a little box. Okay.

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[00:48:42] Oh, say can you see. I think he fell asleep again. All right. I want that guy die. Yeah, I'm sorry. Don't worry about it. So sorry. All right. It just happens sometimes also. It's embarrassing. We have guests over and then other guests show up on announce anyway.

[00:49:08] Anyway, middle or youngest. Let's talk youngest sister. Okay. She's got the least to do in this room because we can knock her out like 45 seconds. She's got almost like, it's almost like a parody of a soap opera storyline. Right?

[00:49:24] Or like her thing gets totally resolved like halfway through the movie with the snap of a finger and right. And then it's that that's that. Well, like if you know, as you said before, a lot of this movie is about what you don't see. Yes.

[00:49:35] Part of these stories. Right. And then we'll see. Yes. Part of these stories. Right. And then whenever there are like these periodic times at the dinner where someone's like, I have an announcement and then you're like, oh wait, that's what happened from that? Yeah.

[00:49:50] Hers is like the biggest revelation because you see the setup of this and then suddenly you're like she's... And it feels like it's setting up something totally different than what they end up right. She works at this Wendy's.

[00:50:02] Her friend has this boyfriend that she's kind of stringing along who she's not super into. Yeah. She meets this guy gets kind of attracted to him in his like hang dog, like love sick kind of way. Love is awful. Right.

[00:50:16] And she's like, I can't get out of it. My friend doesn't really like him anyway. He lives alone in a very expensive apartment which makes him look really cool for a young kid. Sure. And so she gets engaged with him then the friend starts flipping

[00:50:34] out over the fact that she lost him. They like get into this like tearful, you know, conversation. You're like, okay, so this is what her plot line is. It's like this love triangle and then three minutes later they're like, nope, pregnant, married, moving out. Goodbye. Smell you later.

[00:50:51] It is funny and I don't really like get totally what he's trying to get. He may be trying to get at something that I am not like grasping. Sure. But it's like there has to be intentional that there's like no

[00:51:07] inquiry from anyone about this basically where they're just like, oh, okay. Right? She's like, I have five announcements to make. She's like, I've got an announcement to make which is what you said they keep saying that at the table. Right.

[00:51:20] Because the other thing, it began a movie, Oldest Daughter, who is the most sort of independent and seemingly together announces her intent to move out. Yeah. Which throws the middle daughter. Which throws them all into this state of like reassessment. Right. Things are being finally changing.

[00:51:37] What will we do? Right. And then it ends up happening like in the reverse order of who you would think would move out. Right. So I feel like that's the biggest thing he's doing with the youngest daughter is just upending the narrative

[00:51:49] expectation of like, I'm ready for middle daughter to move into her own apartment instead it's just like, no, here's this whole thing you didn't fucking know about and now she's living with a guy and a having a baby.

[00:51:59] Well, there's also a bit of like, there's like a pride and prejudice kind of like the youngest girl who marries first. Right. And she marries in this really kind of spontaneous like way. It kind of turns the heat up on everyone else like almost accidentally. Right.

[00:52:11] It is like you watch this and you're like, what a master's trick to realize that he should adapt to Austin? Yeah. It's true. There is this very like they're connected, you know. Yeah. No, for sure. I mean it's one of those things that I guess you got

[00:52:26] to give a producer credit and we do talk about it in the sense that it's not obvious, but it is. She saw the wedding banquet and was like, this is an energy that would work for an English costume drama. And the difference between generations and classes

[00:52:40] and all these sorts of things, the sort of tradition of it all. But the middle daughter is sort of the central character of the film as much as there is one, right? I would argue. Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think the both older daughters are sort

[00:52:54] of co-leaders. I don't know. I mean, like there's a reason it kind of starts with the middle daughter about to move out and ends with the middle daughter. That's why I feel like that. You're right. The ending is crucial.

[00:53:05] And also so much of the older daughters like stuff is happening. She's not acknowledging it. Like it's all so locked away. Right. And the oldest and the youngest are kind of like, I don't know. I'm doing whatever I want, get off my fucking back

[00:53:16] and then take these left turns. The middle art from the beginning is like, I know exactly what I'm doing. Here's the plan. Here's how the next two acts of the movie are going to go. And then there's sort of this arc to her like being

[00:53:26] completely thrown off the hump and then ending up in a totally different place. Right. It's her who got the Indie Spirit Nom. I'm real. Yeah. I was going by billing because it was the middle daughter. Yeah. And the dad got an Indie Spirit Nom too.

[00:53:38] And he's the MVP of the early Ang Lee film. Well, he's such a good actor. Fucking actor. He was, I know he was like, you know, an old like vet who like dragged out of retirement will have talked about it already

[00:53:51] but he's like more prominent in the last two. But he's a great actor. Like it's not just someone who's like got the look and like is a good plausible dad. No, he like handles the emotional scene so like perfectly. Yeah.

[00:54:08] And he is a really interesting physical actor as well. You know? Yeah. But you're talking about the difference between someone just having like a good look and engaging energy versus someone who knows how to communicate a lot with like shrugs and things like that. Right.

[00:54:20] So if Stoic in this, without being cold, you know. This is what of course we've already talked about, it is kind of what I'm concentrating on in a foreign language film. Yes. Yeah. But middle daughter. Yep. Big career, heavy hitter. Has this friends with benefits relationship.

[00:54:37] With her ex. Yeah. With her ex boyfriend where it's like this is so much better. Like she's like I got it fucking figured out. I found an apartment I'm going to move into. I got sex on the side whenever I want it

[00:54:49] like the little ball and chain weighing me down. I got everything fashion killing it. She has her outfits. The business outfits are really good. Yes, very 90s. Right. But I love it, of course, because that's my era. Blouses. Yeah. Yeah. Nice glasses. Her blouses are great.

[00:55:09] She got a blouse game on point on point lit. But but I feel like there's this weird apartment scam she gets caught into, which then makes the papers, they say. I mean, and it's one of her announcements is that

[00:55:28] and they're all like, oh, wow, like that's a that's really fancy. Like it's like a big deal that she's moving in to this specific building. Yeah. Maybe that was something that was happening a lot.

[00:55:38] You know, I'm sure that this is like a rampant time of development in Taiwan. And I think it's also just like the idea, right? Like there is a long tradition of like you lived at home. Yes, yes, right. And then maybe then your parents move in with you.

[00:55:49] Right. So like this was like a real modern thing. You're like, you have your cool, like sexy city apartment. Right. And that's part of the hook. Right. I need to live at home. I need to be in a relationship. Like I'm zooming past all these.

[00:56:01] By the way, no, I would be like, how about I stay at home like with my dad who cooks amazing food? And it's kind of a nice guy, like honestly. It's kind of fun, a fun hang. Sure. Rather than feels like the one who is most

[00:56:16] interested in trying to carve out like a modern life and purposely dispel all the sort of like societal notions of how a woman her age should be behaving. Right. Right. Kind of pointedly. In this way, she's like the son her father doesn't have, right?

[00:56:30] Because she sort of takes up the cooking mantle and like, you know, they're the most connected on those fronts. Right. But they also are the most like at odds over that. Like he was the one who's like, I don't want you to be like a chef.

[00:56:42] You can't be a chef like me. Go do something else. Right. So there's this notion like she was capable. She could have done this for her entire career and clearly likes doing it, but never did it professionally in one of those like kind of anonymous business incorporated jobs.

[00:56:56] I know her job seems so boring. It's an airline, right? Yeah, it's an airline. I'm sorry, they're making deals about flights in Australia. Yeah. There's that thing where, you know, a wedding man, quick guy comes in and he's like, my flight was late.

[00:57:08] And the guy at the boss is like, sorry, you know, like it's like some flight jokes. Some good flying humor. Yeah, good stuff. Arms tired about you. But it seems so like stifling and dull, but whatever. I mean, she's killing it. She's doing great.

[00:57:26] I mean, I think she's not supposed to be super happy in it. No, it's more like she's just doing this new. Right, exactly. She's on the path. And she's got her nice side piece. And then he in like, look, I have a shocking announcement to tell you.

[00:57:40] Reveals that he's, oh, because there's that thing. So she has the conversation with the sister where the sister reveals the man who's scorned her. The cause of her broken heart. Right, so she goes on this like vengeance quest

[00:57:53] to like catfish him into admitting that he wronged her sister. And so he's like, I got no idea what you're talking about. Yeah, he's like, I have not been watching this movie. Right, exactly. She was like in my girlfriend's class maybe,

[00:58:07] you know, like he finally puts it together who she even is. Right, and then there's a scene I think is also like just very well, it's sort of in a very economic way directed where she immediately goes like,

[00:58:24] I got to go see my fuck buddy and tell him this funny story and then realize that she's interrupting him with like another woman but has no real right to be angry about that. There's that like thing where they're both kind of sussing each other out.

[00:58:38] And then the next time they see each other, he's like, by the way, we're getting married. Right, but also can we keep up our relationship? You want to be my soup on the side of soup. Which it's like...

[00:58:55] I mean, you were right to break up with that guy. Yeah, I like how unjudgmental these movies are though in general about sex. Me too, but let me judge this guy's sock. He's the worst.

[00:59:07] But I like that also the other two daughters have stories that revolve around romance. And the romance is in her, she has two kind of abbreviated romances. She has this like failed romance with her ex-boyfriend, a garbage person.

[00:59:21] And then she has this like half romance with what she thinks is her sister's ex-boyfriend who is married also. And then and that ends in this way that is so interesting where he's like, I'm glad that we didn't sleep together. Can we be friends? Yeah.

[00:59:37] Do you think he means it? He seems far more sincere. Yes, he does seem more sincere. But I feel like the way in which he specifically was like, like basically like, I want to be your colleague and like we have,

[00:59:50] you know, like I did really seem to like try to be an attempt to like put the romance storyline to bed. You know, like go Batman. He has to realize like, look back, we need to work together. I got to get over this whole crush thing.

[01:00:03] It's a classic Lego Batman arc. Yeah. Yeah. As they always say in film school, yes. Yeah. I mean, that's what I was working off of. The Lego the Lego Batman. Yeah. Can we talk about the mash notes that we ever talked about the mash?

[01:00:16] Yeah, let's talk about the mash. The weird poems. There are those weird poems left on her desk. Right. Painless. They're just very like highfalutin sexed, you know what I mean? Like, imagine harassing a woman with like parchment paper and like complicated poetry.

[01:00:33] My friend, Juan Nicolón, as part of Nipsey, the UCB sketch group we both been a part of, wrote a very good sketch about a Victorian dick pics. OK. Where like other families, they're sending over portraits. Right. Right. Yes. They're sending over there like, yeah.

[01:00:55] But it does it does feel like the last vestige of like, I got to I got to gussie this thing up. You can't just slide into some DMs like Giffield. Right. You know, I got to I got to turn a phrase here in order

[01:01:06] to get her attention. Sure. But there are these like fucking horny Cyrano. Yeah. Right. And she's she's trying to figure out who it is. The culprit is. But it seems more out of just like her frustration of not knowing rather than like this is my secret love.

[01:01:25] Right. Yeah. It doesn't feel as much like she's like, I got to know who this is. So I can run away with him. I feel like it's more just she had like shut that part of her life. Oh, yeah. So it's an annoying reminder of it.

[01:01:35] Yeah. That she has like this kind of romantic potential. Yes. She seems like really uninterested and existing as a sexual person for a long time. Right. And then she does the makeover. Yes. Right. Everyone in this movie is like ignoring some like desire.

[01:01:49] They're almost in the piece. Sure. Right. They're all missing a piece of each drink man woman. I guess. And they put the four rings together. To be right. Exactly. A form of a yeah. No, you know, it's like the title is from the book of rights,

[01:02:04] a confusion like book about basic human desires being natural. Each drink man woman. The things which men greatly desire are comprehended in meat and drink and sexual pleasure. That's the actual. It's also like a pretty good plot synopsis movie. Sure. Yeah. Eating some drink and men women.

[01:02:21] Yeah. I mean, it's not a plotty movie. No, like for a two hour movie especially. Yeah. And get a lot happens. Everyone has their own little kind of thing going on. Right. It's just like it's very well observed.

[01:02:33] And like unlike the wedding banquet, which is really plotty and very high concept. It's not like a farce. Like the one good thing about the wedding banquet is that it isn't a farce. Like it never turns into the bird cage.

[01:02:44] But like still like that's a movie where there's like identities being hidden and it's the restraint of not feeding into what the movie could sink to. Whereas this is just like we're not going to try to spin those plates.

[01:02:57] This is just take our time like fucking go down the river. He's a filmmaker who takes his time. He does. He makes long movies. Patient. I'm realizing this. Yeah, yeah. There is like, you know, because like sense sensibilities very long. Yeah.

[01:03:09] Even a movie like fucking, I don't know, Billy Lin's long half time walk. It's like surprisingly like roomy. Yeah. Life of pie is like over two thirty right. Is it really? I think so. No, it's only two hours ten minutes.

[01:03:23] But really, you know, even though it felt long, it just felt long because he's on a freaking boat with a tiger for half of it. You could have told me that movie was three hours long and I believe you. I, you know, I mean, I'm looking forward to

[01:03:34] rewatching a lot of these movies. Yeah. I am looking forward to rewatching that movie, but mostly because like I saw it didn't really do much for me. And then that was that. Like I just really haven't thought about it much since he won an Oscar for it.

[01:03:44] Now it's like, okay. Yeah. Life of pie. Yeah. Yeah. His second Oscar. I forgot that he won an Oscar. He won an Academy Award. His second. That is one of those movies that also no one talks about. But made so much fucking money. How is that possible?

[01:04:00] It did really well here. It did bananas overseas. I think it ended up at like 150 domestic. You're right. 125 domestic, six oh nine. Well, that's crazy. Thank you. Those are good numbers. Those are good. That's great about a boy in a boat with a cat.

[01:04:14] I know. That's a largely metaphor. Yeah. It's also a movie that ends with was this a movie? I'm excited for you guys to talk about taking Woodstock. Which is the movie that happens. Another way to crazy business overseas. Did it really? I know, I think $45.

[01:04:32] That taking Woodstock is the only one I haven't seen after this. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. It's just inexplicable. Sure. He's an inexplicable guy sometimes with this project. I mean now he's making this Will Smith movie that sounds Jim and I man silly. But maybe it'll be good.

[01:04:51] I don't know. You know, I think he's good at repressed emotions. I do think it is like the main thing. He applies that to every guy. Even when he made a superhero movie, it was about the guy who's like, can't be angry. That's probably never made.

[01:05:02] But he is, he is interesting. I was talking to someone about the fact that we were getting ready to cover him on the podcast. Yeah. And they said, is there anyone who's kind of more of a chameleon? Sure. At that level than he is.

[01:05:16] And it's one reason we wanted to do him is he worked in a lot of genres so he gets to do lots of different kinds of movies. Without being like an anonymous hack worker, you always certainly feel his fingerprints that are

[01:05:25] commonalities of like theme and style in this and that. But like I was throwing out as a counterpoint. I was like, what about someone like Soderbergh? And they were like, he works on a lot of different genres. But he's got a very specific set.

[01:05:38] Almost every time you see a Soderbergh movie or like that was a Soderbergh movie. Right. I would describe Unseen which I just saw as like a silo movie. It's a Soderbergh movie where the whole time you're kind of thinking like, why do you make this?

[01:05:51] And I liked Unseen. But they're all like that genre, a la Soderbergh. Sure. And then he just kind of like moves around and is like, I don't know why would I make this kind of movie next? But he's not like a Ron Howard.

[01:06:03] No, that's what's fascinating about him. Yeah. Like they were saying like... Even when he misses you're like, I can see what drew him to a Billy Lynn or a Woodstock or whatever. But he weirdly almost feels like a Howard Hawks or something like that where it's like the

[01:06:17] filmography is that varied working in that many different genres at a high level proficiency. Because in that day you had to direct fucking five movies a year. Right. And he's like choosing his films deliberately with space in between, but still like zigging and zagging that much.

[01:06:33] Because you look at this film and you're like, OK, he's figured it out. Here are three films. The Father Knows Best trilogy. And now here is the template for what an anglic film is. And then he's like, different time, different culture, long time ago, continent far, far away.

[01:06:48] And then everyone's like, OK, but it's always going to be about the family and the daughter. He made Ice Storm. So he did stick in the family movie for a while. Yes. And then he kind of flames out and he's like,

[01:06:59] let me make like a kung fu movie. But there's a fucking Western in between. Sure, that's true. There's like a revisionist slavery Western. Emily's here. Emily Shan. Yeah, that's right. Humblewreck. She's here to record a different podcast that's not this podcast. Night call. Listen to it. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:07:18] It's just an interesting guy. What else? Come on. Is there anything else you want to say? Well, I will say the end of this movie destroys me. Like I think, you know. The ending is so good and you think the movie's over. Right.

[01:07:32] And then he, you know, I feel like it even fades to black maybe and then cuts to a new scene. I can't remember. OK, so final dinner table conversation scene. Because there's also been this fortation. There's the next door neighbor or the friend

[01:07:43] who has the young daughter who he's been, the father's been swapping the meals with. Yeah. And her mother has been staying with her, moved in with her. And her mother is awful. Right. And they keep on setting up the dad and the mom

[01:07:54] on these kind of very stilted dates, trying to make fetch happen. And it clearly isn't connecting. And you're ready for like the end of the movie where finally like the guard comes down and they bond and it's like, oh, maybe they were similar after all.

[01:08:06] Like you're waiting for the character to totally shift off of being the worst. Right. To suddenly become and compelling. You think that's what the movie is winding up and then big dinner table announcement. I'm engaged to your daughter. Right. And everyone starts crying. Yeah. People freak out.

[01:08:25] Or fainting. Yes. Right. The mom starts shaking. Yes. Right. And passes out. And also he's selling the house. Yep. And they're like, you're drunk. There's the earlier threat of him being seen now as a quote unquote uncle character who's the more active chef at the restaurant now.

[01:08:41] The guy who works a little blue. Right. He likes to work blue. Works a little blue. Yeah. He gets ill. Right. There's that. Yeah. He gets hospitalized and dies very quietly at a time. He has a really good death scene. Oh, it's actually kind of frightening when he's

[01:08:55] in the kitchen and he just like starts shaking and the guy's like, hey, stop fucking around. Because they're all applauding him for re-entering. Right. And he's like back at the top. Give me a second. Sits down. He's like, hold on. He's like, I'm going to die really quickly.

[01:09:08] You won't even be sure if I'm dead for him. He's like, hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me sit down and I'm dead. That's how you quit a job. Yeah, right. But there's the thing they keep on talking about. Like is dad going see now?

[01:09:24] He's losing his taste. He seems to be losing his lust for life. Like it's like, is depression going to get him? Is he lonely? They're like trying to figure out like, because the guy seems to be off his groove. And then it's like, nope,

[01:09:37] I have been dating someone your age, your friend. Seriously. And now I'm selling the home and we are moving in together. Yeah. Mother passes out kind of like, I believe there is this like hard fade to black. Yes. And then you see him.

[01:09:55] And that is how a lot of these movies would end with some big dinner scene or, where everyone is together, there's a giant confrontation. Right. It would be a 15 minute blow up. It ends a little roughly, but yeah. So then we see the middle daughter preparing a meal.

[01:10:11] I was like, oh, she's not coming yet. I was going on here. We're gonna live together. He's in a car. He drives past what is clearly his old home, which now is like, it's sold. Right. Vandalized, gets out sort of full on,

[01:10:28] tries to open the door with his old key, but it doesn't work. And you're like, oh, it sounds like a, you can't go home again kind of thing. Hey, wait a second. Wait a second. Let's throw a couple bagel twists in here, because who owns the home?

[01:10:43] Middle daughter. She's been the one cooking for him. And how good is her soup? Well, maybe a little too much ginger. Wait a second. How did you know that? And I didn't even like pick up on that. I was like, he's being such a dad,

[01:10:59] he's been the one cooking for him. And I was like, oh, I'm going to go with ginger. That's what I like about it. It's like a twist where like the audience also has to realize the twist just as he realizes the twist.

[01:11:10] He or he's like too much ginger, too much ginger. Wait a second. So you know what I feel like this is cribbed off of? What? My favorite episode of Happy Days growing up. Great. And that was a big happy days kit.

[01:11:22] There's one, it was like post shark jump where every episode something insane had to happen and this is like, this is maybe even like a post Richie Cunningham season where it's like Fonzie's friend doesn't live there anymore but he's still living at his friend's parents place

[01:11:39] above the garage. So he suddenly goes blind and like loses all his passion and it's like Henry Winkler's sad with Big Ray Charles sunglasses on and he just like can't, he can't ride his bike anymore. I guess stand adjacent to a bike.

[01:11:53] He's missing the jukebox when he tries to elbow it and then there's a scene at the end where he like walks into the kitchen and he's not wearing the sunglasses and he goes like, you look lovely today, Mrs. C and she goes like, oh thank you Arthur.

[01:12:09] And then she looks up and she goes, oh Arthur and realizes that he has his vision back but he's like gained it just as magically and suddenly. It sounds stupid. It's dumb. Yeah. It's dumb. I always think about that as being like the fucking sweatiest episode of television.

[01:12:26] In the definition of sweaty, which goes on blank. Ever seen. And then this movie pulls the same shit but it like fucking gets you. Well right because he spent two hours investing you in like this soft metaphor. Well right, yeah exactly. Yes. But it's also so quiet.

[01:12:41] I guess I just feel like there's so much of this movie that is about from the daughter's perspective like loving your father but being terrified that your life will just get sucked into caring for him as he like slowly, you know, recedes from life.

[01:12:54] I also think she starts to become quietly and the movie doesn't put too fine a point on it scared about ending up like her father. Yes. She gets more affected by her father's current state than anyone else. Right. He seems really lonely.

[01:13:08] And like you said he's freaked out about the same idea. He doesn't want her to end up like him either. Right. But they have to accept this. Sometimes these things happen, you know. And the last shot looks like a fucking renaissance painting. It's very moving.

[01:13:21] It does actually, yeah it made me cry is very effective. Yeah. Oh sure. I'll get at this. All right. All right. Who we got? Who's this name? Salvador Dali. Oh wow, I love your art. Salvador Dali? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, Salvador Dali. Okay.

[01:13:41] You said Lali that first time. No, he's the accent. Salvador Dali. All right Salvador. I'm going to get down to brass stacks with you. Yes. We're a couple of busy podcast hosts. Yes, I have many podcasts. Oh really? Have a network? I host a Westworld recapture.

[01:14:01] You're like how do you feel about billions? Love it. All right. Well then if you're a podcast host then you know we really want to get back to talking about great art. Then you are a great artist. So what are you here for? Well I have a problem.

[01:14:17] Oh no. My mustache, she point up. Your famous mustache? Yes. But my wiener it drip down like the melting clock on the branch of the tree. Well we've got just the thing. It's called Hymns. Yes. And it's a one stop shop for hair loss.

[01:14:34] Oh I got to get the belt. Skin care, sexual wellness all for men. That's true. Now this week I'm more interested in talking about baldness than you know, sexual wellness. I also have a bit of that I think. Yeah actually let me take a look at you.

[01:14:49] Let's recheck the historical fault. I'm coming closer to you. You know it looks like you have a full head of hair but a little bit receding. Here's a twist. Here's a twist. To pay. Oh boy. I'm rewriting history. Well 66% of men lose their hair by age 35.

[01:15:07] And it's easier to keep the hair that you have than to replace the hair you've lost. Right. So what you can do is you can use Hymns for Hymns.com. You can get connected to some real doctors, get some medical grade solutions, not snake

[01:15:21] oil pills, not gas station counter supplements, real generic equivalents and name brand prescriptions to help you keep your hair. So what you're saying is... Or keep your you know... You cannot turn back the clock. You cannot unmelt the clock. Sure.

[01:15:37] But you can freeze the clock so it stays in that current state of melt. Then you could even... I mean Ben you know about this stuff right? You can get a cream, you can get a supplement that... Yeah you can. A solution. Right. You can get a pill.

[01:15:52] It's a whole package deal to really make sure to keep what you have or to even have some hair grow. You don't have to go to the doctor. Nothing. Hey doctors. Awkward waiting room time. Here's the thing. You think I'm an absurd artist.

[01:16:07] Try waiting in a doctor's office. We answer a few quick questions. Doctor reviews prescribes you. Products go right to your door. Great. All right. Well here's the thing. Let's tell Dolly and her listeners because we have a special offer. Yes.

[01:16:23] So you could get a trial month of HIMS for just $5 today right now while supplies last. See website for full details. This would cost hundreds if you went to the doctor or a pharmacy. You go to forehims.com slash check. That's F-O-R-H-I-M-S dot com slash check.

[01:16:41] So I checked to make sure I've typed in for them. How did he do this? No it's forehims.com slash check. You can get a trial month for $5 today and it's going to be great. I mean look great sales pitch. I mean 100%.

[01:16:54] I know you said it was mostly about the hair stuff but they do have good wiener stuff too right? So I'm told. Great sexual wellness. Yes they also do offer a generic form of Viagra. Great.

[01:17:07] Otherwise it would be embarrassing if I came all the way here with that very, very strained clock analogy, the mustache and then did not have that answer and also now I'm going to leave. Goodbye. Alright thanks for interrupting the like wonderful ending scene with that.

[01:17:22] Hey don't blame me. Blame that idiot. No Jesus I totally lost my train. Well it has been five minutes since you started talking. No it's just like my parents didn't want me to get into this garbage industry that I'm in and that you're in. Yes.

[01:17:41] Because my parents were both in this garbage industry, not film critics just journalists. Journalists? Sure. Oh okay. Yeah podcasts. Podcasting. They were like some day David this thing will come around called podcasting. Don't do it. Cause they were just talking to microphones.

[01:17:56] There weren't even wires connected to anything. They were just doing podcasts for themselves. Some day people will be able to hear this stuff. Some day you'll be able to make hundreds of dollars. Yeah. The original podcast.

[01:18:08] The mattress will get delivered to your house in a box the size of a mini fridge and I was like mini fridge and they were like well we're going to figure out mini fridge technology. Wait you tell me. It's a fridge but it's smaller.

[01:18:20] The original podcast were just whispering secrets into a bottle and then throwing it into the sea. You would dig a hole. No but you know they had to accept that I was whatever like faded to follow them on their path.

[01:18:36] Which is the exact same thing I went through. My parents were like don't go into the show business. It's for bad people. Which I don't know where they got that from. Yeah what are you talking about? Seems great. I see no evidence of that. Nothing's come up recently.

[01:18:49] Like you said everything's fixed by now. Yeah everything's fixed. But I like the metaphor of that simultaneous both sides realization where she's like it's okay but I'm following in your footsteps. It's okay that you're following in my footsteps right?

[01:19:04] You just hope they end up a little better than you do. We can say this for parents here recording this episode. I love to. The great deal of maturity and life experience. That's what we want for our children. We want them to improve upon.

[01:19:16] I mean how good our children's podcast is going to be. By that point it'll just be beamed directly into people's brains. Yeah they'll just have like a contact lens or something. And you'll have no choice but to buy mattresses online. Like it'll force you to do it.

[01:19:29] And mini fridges will be long gone. People won't even know how to describe the box that comes in. Do you guys have a mini fridge? I had a mini fridge in college. No I didn't have a mini fridge. Yeah I got one right in the boardroom.

[01:19:38] There's one in the studio. Ben's got a little. He does he does. Sometimes the studio feels like a sandwich in there. My sandwich is in there. I love how your mini fridge is called Medea as well. I always think of Tyler Perry. Thank you.

[01:19:50] Sorry about the laundry all over the place. Good bit. You guys want to play the box office game? Yeah cool. So how wide was this might did alright? Like it did a solid little number at the US box office. It made 7.2 million dollars in 1994. Pretty good.

[01:20:06] Which adjusted for inflation is 16. Which like so many pictures classics would take that. Yeah they'd be thrilled. Yeah exactly. And like I don't think it costs more. And I assume it made some I think it made some money.

[01:20:17] Obviously like yes in Asia I you know this is long before box office mojo has any kind of data about that. But it opened limited August 5th 1994. Okay so like and that's when basically when it came out in Taiwan. So it's like you know what I mean?

[01:20:34] Like he is now a big enough name and I guess the wedding banquet was enough for a crossover that they were like yeah we're taking it right to America. So how long is this movie in theaters? Is there like. There's not much data about that.

[01:20:46] I mean it opened to $155,000 so if it made 7 million it was probably like 6 months. I could see this being a movie that played at the Angelica just from learning away. You said it came out in August? August 5th 1994.

[01:21:00] I bet it was still playing somewhere in New York in January or February. Absolutely. I am August 5th 8 years old. This is my last year in America. It's the body of its day. That's the reference I'm looking for. It just quietly ran for six months. I made $150 million.

[01:21:15] I only saw two of these five movies that we're going to talk about because I was a little kid. Okay. But I did see two. You mean the date again? August 5th 1994. Number one is a franchise action picture. It's a sequel.

[01:21:28] It's the third in this franchise which is they keep trying to revive this one and it's opening. It opens to 20 million. And they have revived but the revivals aren't good or they're trying to revive it twice and now they're reviving it a third time.

[01:21:43] Is it diehard with the vengeance? No. Good guess though. That's 95. And it's not lethal weapon three. No. Put it this way. The franchise, the name is not in the franchise. Although they later started putting it in there. Oh, it's a Jack Ryan picture. Jack Ryan movie.

[01:22:00] The third would be... Fuck. What's it called? It has like the driest title of the Jack Ryan movie. It's like a random, it's like a fucking like fridge word poetry. It's not called desperate. No. But it's one of those like extreme... Will he get it? Yeah.

[01:22:20] Oh, it's Patriot games? No, that's the second one. Oh, Clear vs. Danger? Clear and Prussian Danger. Wow. There we go. You talked your way through it. I like the process. There we go. That was the process. Yeah. No, because the first one is Humphrey October

[01:22:34] which is a great movie. And then the second is Patriot games, which is fine. That's the Ford. And then this is the third Ford, second Ford, third Jack Ryan. I think both the Fords are Philip Noyes. Yeah. And I've seen this movie. It's like solid.

[01:22:46] It's like a fun little like spy movie they wouldn't make anymore. But that was the weird thing was like, right October people loved it did well and they were like, let's upgrade this franchise. Let's get Harrison Ford. And they did two Harrison Ford movies that outperformed at

[01:22:58] the box office but no one fucking remembers our watches. They did. They both did great. It was just back in the day which like sort of ends with Air Force one of like, yeah, Ford. If you can get Ford. You'll be stealing. Get Ford. Yeah.

[01:23:11] No one talks about those movies. They just feel more like Ford movies and they do like a franchise, I feel. Yeah, that's true. You don't even think about that. The Jack Ryan movies are, it's a weird franchise because those books are just Tom Clancy describing like how to

[01:23:22] like clean a gun. Like it's so boring. And they're like 4,000 pages long and they're all like then the undersecretary, you know, called the other undersecretary. Maybe it should be like an each drink man-woman style process film. I mean, that's what they, that's what those books are like.

[01:23:35] And then Hunt for Red October is that like Tom, Jack Ryan's really boring. He's a boring person but then it also has like submarines and Connery's. So he's got all this cool shit. But if you're just centering it on Jack Ryan, like Jack Ryan's like an analyst.

[01:23:49] Like he's dull. He has two first names. He does have two first names and he's, John Krasinski's going to play him for Amazon. Five times the charm. All right. Number two is 100% the movie I was most excited to see this summer.

[01:24:02] It is a high concept comedy starring eight year old David's favorite actor. 1994. He's your favorite act. I saw this on a run. He's Terry James. It is James. Carrie. James. Carrie. It's 1994. It's not Liar Liar. That's later. That's like 97. Right. That was sort of his comeback. Yeah.

[01:24:23] That was him being like, let me go back to basics. Right. Yeah. Just do a thing where I do one thing. Cause that's what he's trying to do in Yes, man as well. It's like, well I couldn't lie. Right. What if I have to say yes? Right.

[01:24:35] Like it or it's like just like all the way to the basic. Yeah. No, it's not neither of those. And it's not, it's not Ventura too. Is it? No, that thinks 95. So is it the mass? It's the mass. Okay. There we go. Have you seen the mass? Right.

[01:24:51] This is his miracle year. This is his second of his third of his three movie run cause Ace Ventura, Pet Detective is in February. Yeah. The mask is in July. Smoking. Dumb and Dumber is in December. Somebody stop him. All in one year. There's that year.

[01:25:06] That's the good thing about cable guy is 96. Like he was just in the beginning of his career but people were already like enough of this guy. You know what I mean? And there's that not stat where like he got paid like, I think 400, 500 thousand dollars for Ace Ventura.

[01:25:18] I think he got paid like a million or two for the mask and got paid like 10 for Dumb and Dumber. Right. Dumber went into production after Ventura came out. Right. But before the mask and his number had already like, Risen that much. Insane. Yeah.

[01:25:36] So it has made 52 million on its way to 120 million. Big movie. Yeah. Love the mask when I was a kid. I have not seen it in years. It holds up. Does it? I can believe that. It's visually still fucking holds up.

[01:25:49] I'll watch like the movie clips elements of like the big effect scenes. Oh yeah. Who runs movie clips? What is that? I got it. I'm sure we can figure this out. I run movie clips. I have the music for movie clips in my head

[01:26:03] like all the time that. Oh, I'm sorry. That's the one fucking big thing I forgot to talk about with this movie. One of the big score cues they keep on using sounds so fucking much like the sex in the city. It does. It absolutely does.

[01:26:18] It has that kind of winding up. It doesn't jazz it up. It doesn't go to the next. But you're ready to totally left turn and then what it turns into still sounds adjacent to the next part. Yes.

[01:26:30] Like it goes through three shifts to a degree that I wonder if when they were shooting sex in the city they use this as like temp music. Because it almost sounds like, you know when you see a shitty trailer

[01:26:41] and you're like, they clearly wanted to cut this trailer to like Bohemian like you and then didn't want to spend the money because it's a think film. Right. Yeah. So then they like have like a sound to like. Yeah.

[01:26:53] Is sex in the city's theme song a sound to like of the Eat Drink Man Woman score cue that they somehow punched up? Listeners. We may never know. Questions. Number three is the movie that wins best picture this year. 1994 Forest Gump. Forest Gump, which has made 164. Mr. Gump.

[01:27:13] On its way to 329 domestic. People forget how big that movie was. Which adjusted for inflation is $720 million. I think it was. Yeah, pretty good for Forest Gump, which like just sit down and think about that for a second. Like what happens today if they release Forest Gump?

[01:27:31] You get arrested. You literally get arrested. Like which is yeah, like two and a half hours long. Yeah. As a movie about like a guy with a slow narrative agent. Just wanders into different plot lines. Experiences at post war American history. Right.

[01:27:50] And then at the end of the movie Haley Jalazman is his son and then very successfully sells a double album of greatest hits. Yes, he does. And opens a chain restaurant. Right. And you know that the guy who wrote the book wrote a sequel

[01:28:02] and they kept trying to make it into a movie and they never did Gump Inc. But doesn't the original book have like a space and like a robot Aper stuff like that? Yeah. There's shit in the original book. That's insane. That's a mech. This is like welcome on.

[01:28:18] All right. Number four. No, but that summer that comes out and Lion King comes out. I believe at the time they were like is number seven. They were either the two and three or three and four highest grossing film of all time. Right.

[01:28:32] They were both like fucking monstrous. Right. Okay. Next. Number four is a movie I saw in theaters. The first being the mask. This is the second. Oh, it's a good clue because I know you've only seen two movies in theaters. David, you need to give me more.

[01:28:45] I'll give you more. It is like an update of a classic children's brand, which they did a lot of back in the nineties. Yeah. You know, 1994. Children's brand. You see this Ben? I have. I don't like their size of them. Oh boy. Oh boy.

[01:29:07] So there's some little things. They're little. They're itzy bitzy. Yeah, they're small. Ben likes them big. You know this. It's from the director. He likes everything big, especially in films. It's from the director of Wayne's World. Oh, oh, oh, oh. It's a Penelope Sphere's picture.

[01:29:22] It's called Little Rascals. The Little Rascals. A good movie. Don't remember it at all. I don't think I ever saw it. I was a fucking Alph Alpha Stan. Alpha Alpha. Because Bunk Hall was my favorite actor when I was little. Okay. Bunk Hall, he of Alpha Alpha.

[01:29:41] I don't know what you're talking about. Where he was my favorite actor. He was in this. He's in the stupid. He's in the big green. Oh yeah. And then he did some like Disney Channel, wonderful world of Disney TV films.

[01:29:52] And my household, Bunk Hall was like Keri Granz. He's in Mrs. Hall. What are you doing to your son? Bunk Hall. His name is Brandon. Okay. But he was nicknamed Bunk by his family. So they do, they do hold the blame there. He's got red hair.

[01:30:08] He was also in Honey We Shrunk ourselves. Right. Which I have seen. Yeah. I love those movies when I was a kid. Because you know, like the Cheerio is really big or whatever. I love the gag where you put something on a telescope or whatever.

[01:30:23] And then you pull away and it's got, you got shoe polish on your eye. That's your takeaway from a movie about a shrink, right? Oh yeah. But can I ask this though? Because this is a big question, conflict of interest. What's up? Honey, I shrunk the kids.

[01:30:38] They're very small. But as a result. The results are large. Cheerio. So where do you stand? Because cinematically we're seeing things look big. But actually it's a film that's almost exclusively about tiny things.

[01:30:51] I'm going to have to say that if you shrink people but then now grass and ants are big. If the camera is at their size. It's good. You like it. I like it. So you like Ant-Man? Yeah, I do. I like Ant-Man too because he's like a robber.

[01:31:14] Yeah, he steals stuff. He's a robber. An anti-hero. I like that. I rewatched that movie. That movie is weird. It is weird. It's not that Ben likes anti-heroes. He likes criminals. No, no, no. What I like. Lovable criminals? I like Percival. I don't think he's a prerequisite.

[01:31:30] So you're saying there's like both like actual perspective. Sure. Small big but then there's also some like. Walk a mile and shoot his perspective. Number five is like the big action movie of the year that we have talked about on this.

[01:31:43] We did a whole episode about it on this podcast in 1994. Yeah. The whole episode starring like the most famous action star of all time. The most famous action star of all time. Arguably. It's a Schwarzenegger picture. A real sexy scene. Yeah, it's true. It's a movie true life.

[01:31:58] How do you feel about true lies, Allison? I like true lies. I haven't seen it for forever. You do a podcast with Matt Singer who loves Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yeah. I would say he has some fandom. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

[01:32:12] You know, I feel like I haven't seen it since it used to play. You since I used to have television, like cable television. Sure. And it used to be on TV all the time. It was on something. Yes. It was on one of those channels.

[01:32:23] And I, you know, have a huge soft spot for any movie that you can watch halfway through on a Saturday afternoon. It is definitely one of those movies. The perfect way to see a movie. Right.

[01:32:33] Because you can just queue it up and you can be like, oh, we're in the middle of the Jamie Lee Curtis Park. Right. Or you can be in any part of it. Oh, we're in the part now where they're kind of teaming up? Great. Yeah.

[01:32:41] You got the client. Okay. Oh, that's it. Schumacher. Giren up for Batman. Yeah. That was such a weird move that it was like, here's this guy who started out as a window dresser, right? He was like an apartment store window dresser. You've talked about this so many times.

[01:32:58] Then he goes from being kind of pulpy to being like, we found his niche. He's good at grism thrillers. And then they're like, you know what we should reward the grism guy? Yeah. Let him make Batman movies. So then he was like, guess what?

[01:33:08] I'm going to make him like window dressing. It went like all the way around. You've talked about this so many times on this podcast. Because it's interesting. The Lion King. Huge. Angels in the Outfield. That's another one I saw.

[01:33:20] That was the real spate of early 90s kids movies about baseball. In Rookie of the Year, it could happen to you and the Sandlot kids. All those movies were... I used to say Rookie of the Year, I think is my favorite.

[01:33:30] That one's good because it's about like politics of baseball. Well, is Rookie of the Year the one with the... Yeah. Or the one where he breaks his arm and then... Yes. Yes. And he can throw really fast. Yes.

[01:33:41] Basically the ending of that movie can make me cry out of context, watched on YouTube just like instantly. Interesting thing, Outfield does not get enough credit for how insane that cast is. Glover. I mean Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Matthew Connagy. Matthew McConaughey. He's the Debbie Dad, right? No.

[01:33:57] I'm forgetting who the dad is, but he's one of the players on the team. Okay. So, as is... There's another person who's a fucking player on the team. Tony Danza. Tony Danza is obviously Brenda Fricker. Oh, wow. Off of an Oscar. Sure. Who... Neil McDonough is in it.

[01:34:12] Adrian Brody. Right? Academy Award winner Ben Johnson. He's the owner, right? Right. From Last Picture Show. Of course. Neil McDonough, of course. America's favorite movie star. Who is the Debbie Dad? Oh, Dermot Moroney is the Debbie Dad. Yeah, Dermot Moroney. Right.

[01:34:28] He's kind of a special to you because I feel like he's good at that. Yeah. So, wait a second. I wanted to see if there's anything else. Oh yeah. It could happen to you, which is based on a real story that my mom helped report out.

[01:34:40] You know, the cop leaves the lottery tickets. It's pretty loosely adapted, right? No, it was a real thing that happened. I mean, that's it. Have you seen the movie? Yeah. I mean, it's the same premise. Like they adapted the premise. Right.

[01:34:55] They adapted literally just kind of like the headline. Right. He leaves her lottery ticket. The rest of the events that we didn't happen in real life. Well, I don't know if they fell in love. No, I mean, that's all that really happens in a movie.

[01:35:05] Your mom helped report it out. You didn't stick with her? I think she might have dropped it with the lottery ticket hit what happens next, right? That movie is kind of... Cage and Fonda. Yeah.

[01:35:17] Like back when Cage is still like, I can play like a pretty regular person. Yeah, right. Like you know, like there's a little bit of an edge of something else. But it's charming. It's charming. Yeah. America was Fonda Bridget. Everything was working out.

[01:35:28] Oh, and Air Heads, which opens this week at number 10. So not doing great. Yeah. That feels like your kind of movie. No? Yeah. Definitely. I thought so. And they were like, look, we got three guys in line who might become the next big studio leading man.

[01:35:44] Let's take a shot on them. It's either Frazier Sandler or Buscemi. Yeah, right. One of them is going to become $100 million play. All right. Actually, can we discuss this? The Frazier story dropped. Yes. So now the thing can, can we talk about it? Yeah.

[01:35:57] So I had talked about like a Brandon Frazier story that I never wanted to talk about in the podcast because I thought it was too depressing. But then that story contains the story and more. He talked about it himself.

[01:36:05] He also talked to Bright about the creepy guy feeling him up at the Golden Globes and like that freaking out. Right. Which had been public knowledge, but he had never really talked about it in depth. He hadn't like pushed it.

[01:36:15] The accusation was thrown out and that guy defended himself. Right. But he didn't really like talk about the sort of fallout from that.

[01:36:21] But then the thing that I had known, which was it was because I was on set and I was saying that I wanted to do my own stunts on the tech

[01:36:26] because I felt like that's the thing you're supposed to say you want to do when you're an actor. Right. Authenticity. Right. And they told me on set. They were like, you shouldn't do that.

[01:36:36] Like everyone wants to think they're Tom Cruise and they can do it, but you don't want to end up like Brandon Frazier. And I was like, what do you mean? And they were like, that's what happened to Brandon Frazier is he like stopped being able to move.

[01:36:49] And it's what he says. Like he was like a big, wonky guy. He's too big. Too big. And he kept on throwing himself through walls and then like he said. Making movies like George the Jungle and The Mummy. Like those early action films he made.

[01:37:00] And he said the very haunting image that on Mummy 3 he was essentially working with an exoskeleton made up of ice packs. Right. And then he compares himself to like a horse. I know. He's like adopted broken down horses.

[01:37:14] And also the weird metaphor of Looney Tunes where he punches his own stunt man like right. Like how he like fleshed all that out. An American masterpiece, one of his best performances. But I guess people kept on asking me like what this story was I wouldn't tell.

[01:37:27] I think cause they thought like in classic me fashion it was something that was like saucy and scandalous. Kind of like exciting. I don't want to talk cause it was just depressing. I hope he figures it out that story was very like moving to read.

[01:37:41] And I've always liked Brandon Frazier. Me too. I'd love to see a fucking like. Come back. Yeah. And he's a guy who could morph into a new interesting stage in his career. Remember when he was on Scrubs? Yeah. He was really good on Scrubs.

[01:37:53] I also think there was something so fucking like young about him that was like such a boyish quality. That when he went from being like 90s Brandon Frazier to like 2005 Brandon Frazier still acting like he's 25. And also his body's falling apart. It felt weird and I.

[01:38:09] People weren't sure what to do with him. It feels like now he's like maybe on the other side of like interesting older character actor man who's been through some shit Brandon Frazier. Yeah.

[01:38:19] I do feel like that story was a reminder that for so many of the people where you're like what happened to that person? They're like bad things. Yeah. I know. That is probably what happened to them.

[01:38:28] The thing with like Mira Serrino and Annabelle Schor all those actresses who like where we're like they never really figured it out. Their careers just sort of didn't work. And it's like well no awesome malevolent. Yeah. Yeah. What happened to that big movie star? Oh she went crazy.

[01:38:42] She got really difficult. Yeah. Oh maybe because the entire industry was trying to murder her. All right. What interesting through line. Well of course I'm glad we did a corner talk at the Brandon Frazier story that by the time this episode comes out will be 15 years old. Sure.

[01:38:56] But whatever. That's great. Yeah but now great everything is great. Allison makes so much for being on the show. You know my pleasure. Always a pleasure. It's great to have you back Allison. It's great to have you anytime. Oh thank you. Yeah.

[01:39:09] And next week we will be talking. Sensibility baby. With Shirley Lee baby. Shirley Lee for Entertainment Weekly. Damn right. That's the benefit of canning these episodes. In weird order. And the core of the matter order. We can directly promise what happens next. Yes. Thank you all for listening.

[01:39:28] Please remember to rate, review, subscribe. Go to blankys.red.com for some real nerdy shit. Thanks to Andrew for our social media. Lea Munkering for theme song Joe Bowen and Pat Reynolds for our artwork.

[01:39:41] Thank you to him and Casper for sponsoring this episode but not Chef Casper from the film Chef. Sure. Common confusion. Fine. And as always. Yeah. Eat. Okay. Drink. Man. All right. We need to rock. Woman. Woman.