Fight Club with Alex Ross Perry

[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 Gentlemen, welcome to podcast. First rule of podcast is you do not talk about podcast.

[00:00:29] The second rule of podcast is you do not talk about podcast. Third rule of podcast, someone yells stop, goes limp, taps out, the pod is over. Fourth rule, only two guys to a pod. Fifth rule, one pod at a time fellas. Sixth rule, no shirts, no shoes.

[00:00:47] Seventh rule, pods will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule, if this is your first time at podcast, you have to pod. Now, if I went limp during this podcast, the podcast would not stop. You should admit that.

[00:01:02] Yes. And also, this is a four person episode. I should make it clear. We're breaking rule number four. Oh, that's true. And also all our shirts are on. Yes. And shoes so far. Has any quote ever been more preordained? Oh, your shoes are off.

[00:01:16] My shoes are off. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. Okay. Saucy toe wiggle. Saucy toe wiggle. That's the kind of energy at Fight Club, right? People talk about saucy toe wiggles. The only question was, were you going to hold podcast off for the end?

[00:01:29] Yeah, were you going to sprinkle it in throughout? If this is your first time at Fight Club, you have to pod. I didn't know if we'd hear it. No, I wanted all of it. I wanted all of it. I wanted it everywhere.

[00:01:39] Now, it does put us in a difficult position. Not the quote I just read, but the actual quote in the movie. We're here ostensibly to talk about this film, but are we not allowed to? And I'm not saying because of the SAG WGA strikes

[00:01:54] where people are very muddy on the idea of what is or isn't legal podcasting and are going to false conclusions. That's not the issue here. The issue here is we've been told specifically not to talk about Fight Club. I mean, this is a no-biz podcast.

[00:02:06] So we would never do something like that where we would incorporate some weird element of the movie and then sort of like have it affect the episode. I think if we just chose to not discuss the movie at hand and spend the next three hours talking about Becker,

[00:02:19] people would be happy. There is a track record of people being happy when that happens. Not one single solitary minute of old Dr. Becker? Becker's kind of got big ARP energy. You would maybe reboot Becker if you started watching Becker.

[00:02:34] My only association with Becker, I guess you guys have resuscitated, is the South Park joke. I don't remember the South Park joke. You guys don't remember this? It was like, I don't know, 2005 South Park where they were just watching it

[00:02:45] and it was Ted Danson, like cartoon animated flat face. And he just said, I'm T. Becker. The T is for terrific. And I'd never seen it or really heard of it at the time and I just thought this is either very funny or very stupid,

[00:02:59] but either way it makes me laugh and I have no context for it. He is John Becker though. Well, take it up with Matt and Trey. If I ever meet Matt and Trey, the first thing I'll say to them is like, why did you get Becker's name wrong?

[00:03:13] It's also possible I'm misremembering this, but I'm 90% certain that the T is for terrific. Becker obviously debuted in 1998. So canonically within the show, Becker might have seen Fight Club. He might've been like, I'll go see a movie. Summer of 99. Maybe I'll see Fight Club. Fall of 99.

[00:03:33] I thought it was summer. He's a shit out of luck if he's going in the summer. Poor guy. You're right. It's the fall. Why did I associate it with the summer? It's such an October movie. It is, but that's why I think in my head,

[00:03:44] I was like, they sort of weirdly whiffed and put it out in August or something. But I'm wrong. Very wrong. Which is silly. Maybe, could it have come out that late in Britain? Let's look it up. You mean a year later?

[00:03:56] Like back in the day that would happen. Like they would release shit in, I mean, honestly, they still do it sometimes. Nope. Came out November. It came out November. Immediately? Yeah. A month later. Feels like an Empire Magazine movie. The biggest. Yes. Alex, you bringing up things

[00:04:13] that have lingered with you in terms of being funny, that you still think about and laugh on a regular basis. Tea is for terrific. Tea is for terrific. I want to pull this up, get it verbatim. Sunday, April 16th of this year, apropos of nothing,

[00:04:29] you text me at 940 AM. You ever think what John Henson is up to? John Henson, the basketball player? Incorrect, David. Way off. Way, way off. From talk soup? That's right. Oh, the comedian guy. The most forgotten talk soup host. And then you say, of course,

[00:04:48] on any given day, 98 to 2000, in parentheses, pre-Killborn, my answer for funniest person alive. Oh, oh, oh. In 1998, you were like, when I want comedy, I turn to John Henson, the host of talk soup. His rhythms, his everything about him was like my absolute favorite.

[00:05:07] And then look at this is... Keeping in mind, you say 940 as David and I know, I've been up at that point for three hours. I'm not rolling out of bed and texting you. This is like the middle of my day. I'm not saying that.

[00:05:19] I'm just saying, for context, and I forgot the direct transition here is, I respond, no, I never think about what he's up to. Then I say it looks like he hosted Wipeout for seven years. And then in April, I text you,

[00:05:32] by the way, I think we're doing Fincher after Park Chan-wook, if any pics spring to mind. And you go, oh yeah, hell yeah, anything. Fight Club, of course, the defining movie of my life for four years. I worry that me on Fight Club

[00:05:44] has potential to be too obnoxious, but much like Clockwork Orange, maybe irresistible. Or pivot back to the old Alex selection method and do Panic Room. Now this is a big thing. Your selection method used to be pick the least essential film in any person's filmography.

[00:05:58] Or just the kind of one that people would say like, oh yeah, I forgot about that. And then your last three picks, including this one, it's a new trilogy of movies that basically are the building blocks of your entire personality. So Halloween, Clockwork Orange, and now Fight Club.

[00:06:12] You've gone from being like, I pick the things that don't exist or the most marginal to the things that are the most important to you on a cellular level. We'll close the book on the trilogy maybe. Make this episode 70 minutes long. Just like truly piss everyone off.

[00:06:27] I have to be somewhere in 90 minutes. Do you? No. Yes, I do. Right here starting to talk about the movie. 90 minutes from now we will begin the plot. Yes. But yeah, I mean, it would be fun. Would it be Panic Room?

[00:06:41] I feel like that's kind of the one that just... Yeah, it's that or Button. There's not really a finch where you can be like, no one around. Panic Room is probably the closest. And I'm sure you have a superior guest for that.

[00:06:52] We have a lovely guest for Panic Room. Look forward to that next week. In fact. Yes, but this is a blank check with Griffin and David. I am Griffin. I'm David. Jumping Jack. Sam's. Call me whoopie because I am jumping Jack Sam. He is jumping Jack Sam's.

[00:07:07] Real quick, as long as you're referencing it. Oh, absolutely. So when we were promoting or no for some reason after Listen Up Philip came out, Jonathan Price was in New York and at MetroGraph I was like, well, we got to do something.

[00:07:20] So we screened Brazil and I did a Q&A with him. But then Jake Perlin, former programmer of MetroGraph was like, as long as Price is in the building, I want to have him introduce Jumping Jack Flash. So it was a sold out screening of Brazil.

[00:07:34] Yeah, I sat next to Jonathan. He watched me for the first time in 25 years. He was so emotional. He was like, it'd be funny if he was like, this thing's a piece of shit. No wonder the studio didn't want to pay you. That we've lost.

[00:07:45] I think Hoskins had maybe just died. He just was like, I cannot believe like in the room. The room was going wild. Such a good movie. And then he introduced a 35 millimeter print of Jumping Jack Flash for seven people.

[00:07:55] And he was just like, I don't know why I'm doing this. I don't think I'm actually in this movie. I think I just do the voiceover. He has like a small role in that film. I think he's just in the final scene.

[00:08:04] It's not like he's the villain or something. Incredible move from Perlin. To this day, it's just like, man, remember that? That was one of my all time wins. Yes, no, that's incredible. Yes. But anyway, Jumping Jack Sims. We were just talking Price the other day

[00:08:18] because we're doing the Brosnan Bonds over on Patreon. So we're talking his Murdoch-esque turn. Yeah, I will say that... As the villain of Tomorrow Never Dies. We were at the Locarno Film Festival or listen up, Philip. Getting to like walk around a European film festival

[00:08:32] with a Bond character was really interesting because to me... Even one of the lesser Bond villains. No offense to whatever his name is. Elliot Carver. People forget that he's... I had forgotten he's in that movie. And he's good in it, but like the mania...

[00:08:47] He's doing exactly what it wants. ...of European fans coming up to a Bond villain was outrageous. And someone at some point handed him like a James Bond, like a cookie. A James Bond cookie? Like the frosting was arranged to say 007 or something.

[00:09:04] And they were like, can you take a picture with this? I take pictures of every Bond girl or Bond villain that I encounter with a cookie. Like it was... That's wild. The cookie guy. People really love interacting with a Bond character in Europe. Yeah.

[00:09:17] I love Jonathan Pryce, but he is not in Fight Club. We do love him. But we may cover Jumping Jack Flash one day. Because it's a penny. Yeah, I mean, I think we got to do her someday. It's her first film. That'll be a fun act.

[00:09:29] If we ever decide to give a penny for our thoughts... Exactly. ...or our thoughts on penny. Right. This is a podcast about filmographies. Take a penny, leave a penny. Take a penny, leave a penny. That's what it'll be called? It's the first miniseries where we only cover

[00:09:42] every other film in our filmography. We take one penny, we leave one out of the schedule. But Jumping Jack Flash is essential. Listen, it's a podcast about filmographies. It's also a guest guest guest. It's a what? It's Rolling Stones song. It's a guest guest guest. Jumping Jack Flash.

[00:09:56] Oh, oh, sure, sure, sure. Directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. And sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they fight baby. It's a miniseries on the films of David Fincher.

[00:10:11] It is called The Curious Pod of Benjamin Butt-cast. Maybe our best title ever. It's the best one. It's the best one. I'm glad I learned that. Yeah. On mic. We got a genuine chuckle out of you. Our guest today returning to the show,

[00:10:26] completing his My DNA Makeup trilogy, Alex Ross Perry. And I can't be obnoxious. I didn't because I'm underprepared. I have no real... Oh, you're not coming in with like a folder? No, I have a few pages here in my notebook. You didn't print it out.

[00:10:43] No, I just went back to basics in that regard. The first thing I did was I went to the library and I went back to basics in that regard. That all I have is what I wrote down while watching the movie. I think that's fine.

[00:10:52] We have a big fat dossier as always, of course. I kind of want to get a lot of dossier. I kind of want to get some dossier on this because I found the Wikipedia page for this movie to be insufferable. Yes, and also unsurprisingly... It's quite fat.

[00:11:06] It's a big old page. But it's a Wikipedia page that some people have uploaded their dissertations to, which I don't like. Sometimes it's a problem. I also was like reading stuff on the Wikipedia page as I was watching the movie with commentary on

[00:11:18] and in real time hearing Fincher negate what was reported on the Wikipedia page. Which is weird because it's usually a bulletproof source for information. I've never read one wrong thing on Wikipedia up until this moment. People shit on Wikipedia, but a good Wikipedia page, well maintained,

[00:11:36] you know, is a lovely thing. And then, yep, sometimes like you say, people are just dropping paragraphs. It is amazing that it exists. Yeah, it is. And it is better to have it as an imperfect resource. Right, right, right, right. I mean, it's really good for like,

[00:11:49] I want to learn about elementary physics. It's less good for like, I need gossip from behind the scenes of my favorite movie or whatever. Yes. But yes, Fight Club. Fight Club. 1999's Fight Club. David Fincher's, I want to say, fourth film? That's right. Correct.

[00:12:09] Wow, that was impressive, David. You did that math in real time? I counted. One, two, three, four. Wow. We're doing this out of order. And a moderate flop on release. An instant cult classic. A generational cult classic. Would you agree? One of the big DVD generation movies.

[00:12:28] Part of the legend of 1999 as an iconic year for film. A defining power of DVD movie. Yeah. Very much so. In every sense. In like DVD sales. The DVD looked like a little box. The DVD itself as an object. Using the medium of the DVD

[00:12:44] and the special features and everything. And then also just immediate reclamation. Immediate cult reappraisal, basically the second this thing hits disc. And goes into profit. Like basically was a flop in theaters and within a year of it being on DVD has gone into profit. One of Ana's questions

[00:13:02] when we finished watching the movie and I put it back in the DVD that I've had for 23 years. The brown paper bag. Why is this a brown paper bag? Because there's not a single image like that in the movie. Yeah. And she said,

[00:13:13] is it meant to contain soap? And if so, why did they decide on this design? I believe that is exactly the idea. I think that's part of it. And I think the other part of it. Bespoke soap. I thought it was supposed to look maybe like, you know,

[00:13:22] like pornography in the mail brown paper bag. Like what's inside is. That makes some sense. Too hot to handle. Now I'm trying to find where I read this quote and I'm embarrassed if it is from the Wikipedia. But I think their whole thought was knowing that he prepared

[00:13:38] this whole holistic thing for it. They were like, we wanted to make a package that spoke to the anti-consumerist message of the movie. So to make the movie look as sort of nondescript as possible. And it's just like, here's the plainest packaging. Like it's almost their version

[00:13:54] of the Repo Man labels, right? Where they're like, this is just like garbage. It's like brown paper with a string around it and just says the movie on it. This movie also had like iconically quote unquote bad marketing. Yes. Yeah. You know, people have like,

[00:14:09] they don't know what to do. They're putting soap all over the posters. Like they're confused. Mischief mayhem soap. Mischief mayhem soap. Great tagline. Julie Markell, 20th Century Fox's senior vice president of creative development said the DVD packaging complimented Fincher's vision. The film was meant to make you question.

[00:14:24] The package by extension tries to reflect an experience that you must experience for yourself. What the fuck does that mean? The more you look at it, the more you'll get it. I don't know what the fuck that means. What are some other DVDs in the running

[00:14:36] for most iconic DVDs of this time? Well, I would say 1999 has Fight Club and The Matrix. Yeah, but the Matrix DVD is a snap case. It was a snap case. Oh, you're saying the look. A huge DVD. Because I'm just trying to think

[00:14:47] of DVDs that had things on. No, no, The Matrix was obviously I think the first million selling DVD. But like it was not a beautiful object. This was like a DVD that you had to own. It was the law. Here's the better quote. I'm sorry.

[00:14:59] We want the package to be simple on the outside so that there would be a dichotomy between the simplicity of brown paper wrapping, the intensity and chaos that was in the picture. I think the idea. That's fine. Yeah, Griff. Come on answer his question.

[00:15:11] This is I feel like it's a real Griff question. No, what I'm looking through right now. The other ones were like the Boogie Nights Magnolia kind of two for the way this and the seven. The reason I have to tap out of this is

[00:15:21] I grew up in Britain. Different packages and the packages are different. Usually honestly, God bless the United Kingdom, but they're usually worse. I feel like they do not have a good history of like a beautiful package. We Britain lacks the snap case cardboard that never existed.

[00:15:33] It was always the plastic case. Interesting. But then obviously also you have to have your what was it like when you first saw a snap case? And what was your first snap? It would have to be LA Confidential. I think that's my first

[00:15:43] snap Warner or New Line movie. Yeah, and and Platinum a Platinum series. I can't remember. I watched that movie so many times. Took a hammer to it. I want to just lit it on fire. I was like driving on the other side of the road.

[00:15:53] I watch LA Confidential so many times on DVD. I actually broke the DVD. I broke the DVD. I broke the DVD. I broke the DVD. I broke the DVD. I broke the DVD. I broke the DVD. I broke the DVD. I broke the DVD.

[00:16:03] I actually broke the DVD, which I didn't know was possible. I'm trying to find this article. There was an entertainment weekly article in 2001 that was the 50 essential DVDs. And it was when DVD was taking over. It was the cover story and it was basically here are the 50 DVDs

[00:16:14] everyone should own. You are not going to find that ever. I because Googling 50 essential DVDs will there they're fucking formatting is so bad that it's a split across multiple pages. But they put their fight club at number one. Makes sense. I remember I remember I remember I remember

[00:16:29] I remember I remember I remember I remember I remember I remember Criterion Rushmore being way up there, which I think was another found a big one. You found the full list. Well, it's like you say Boogie Nights is number two. Yes, their site is so broken the thing

[00:16:48] that formatting is so sad. Yes, that like you actually can't see the rest. But some of their inclusions were just good movies that are now on. Yeah, it's like okay. I'm like Casablanca right the conversation disc which has three guys going deeper into this. Are you

[00:17:06] I have to ask why you're you know you're doing Fincher right are you is anyone letting you guys be Frank are you going to be Frank during this mini-series we haven't recorded that one yet. You're going to be Frank we aren't yes, what we're going to

[00:17:20] be frankly I don't understand I bet you thought I'd never talk about not doing that you're not we're not doing House of Cards we're doing the voice Oh, well, okay, I don't think of being Frank. No, he is but I'm saying or just being Frank perhaps someone

[00:17:37] will have an opinion on these movies that you never invited into the studio. Sure, you're not doing you said it was illegal for me to be on podcast. I can do house cards for you right now that shows dog shit. All right. You don't like the first

[00:17:52] there was a little mini episode. Yeah, I'll do house of cards for you quickly. Well, well, well, I bet you thought I'd never be on Mike again. I mean, I think house of cards stinks. It stinks like the Fincher episodes. That's probably the worst shit he's ever done.

[00:18:10] I mean, it looks fine. I never watched it. I'm a much bigger fan of Kevin Spacey. Delivering monologues to you in that fucking accent, right? Which is done really well three times on YouTube on Christmas Day. Yeah, that's the best version of it cut the fat.

[00:18:26] We've said this before right Alex that you had this thought of like I should make every actor audition with let me be Frank like if they can deliver this then they can do anything. That's the only thing to test. They don't need to read pages from my actual

[00:18:38] script really compelled by Kevin Spacey's ongoing trial and all these character witnesses that are just coming in and saying like he's a really good guy normal. Let's drop that. Let's drop the DVD thing. Let's talk about Fight Club. When did you first see it? Alex not permitted

[00:18:52] to be Frank apparently apparently opening night October whatever 15th October 15th 1990 run amok. You're not even allowed to be Frank anymore. I mean literally yes. Yes. How Frank woke culture has like made it difficult for Kevin Spacey to participate in polite society because the crimes he's accused

[00:19:10] you're almost making it sound like it's illegal to be Frank like if you were currently be on trial it's funny to do like a joke version like oh I can't even like eat M&M anymore without the woke police like wow I can't even talk about Kevin Spacey

[00:19:23] without there being some sort of woke discussion. I'm not even to be Kevin Spacey anymore. Kevin Spacey without people getting upset you laugh even bring him up and impersonate him saying various things without people having a problem with that. Yes. But you know Schrader would agree he would

[00:19:39] say I can't simply tell producers of a film that this movie would only work with Kevin in the lead role without someone telling me I can't have this why it is literally 20 contracts that he has to log off Facebook when his movies well well well Entertainment

[00:19:52] Weekly says Matrix is the fifth best DVD of all time in a snapper case. I'm not even sure if it's true. I'm in a snapper case not to quote something of my own but in the documentary I made about Schrader where he says you know the

[00:20:04] script is just a fastball coming right down the plate and Kevin's just there ready to hit it. I have thought of that quote and I also think about that thing where Ridley Scott cut him out of all the money in the world and they're like was he

[00:20:17] good in the movie and we're just like yeah he's great but you know just I wanted to put my fucking movie out like so he's got to go like I just imagine Kevin Spacey standing at an actual home plate. Kevin at the plate. Kevin at the plate.

[00:20:29] I swear to God. Like an old timey baseball. Like a saggy loose fitting. We're probably gonna cut all this out right? Yep. Yeah I think so. You know what's one of my favorite parts of that Ridley Scott press tour? For all the money in the world.

[00:20:44] It was around then when someone was like it was like around the time that like he was reshooting that or Lord Miller got fired and people were just like so what do you think of like young directors running amok? Right. Do you remember this? I think that anytime

[00:20:57] Ridley Scott gives an interview you're gonna get at least one nice slab of you know juicy ham. Yes nearly verbatim where he's like well look you hire someone who has experience you know what you're getting so like when you pay me my fee which is considerable.

[00:21:11] Yes I remember that. Which is considerable that is what I always think of is him just saying like look I'm not gonna lie I need a lot of money but what you're getting is someone who's going to get in and get out and not give you any trouble.

[00:21:22] I just feel like he had that thing about the accents in Last Duel where he was like shut the fuck up stop worrying about it that I appreciate like that's been going around a lot he's just got so many good quotes. You're not really

[00:21:33] cutting out the House of Cards talk this is Fincher or Jason. We're gonna cut some of it. It's Fincher or Jason. I saw Fight Club opening night I also saw it again Saturday night. You saw it two nights in a row. Was that the plan? No.

[00:21:47] Or after you saw it you were just like I gotta go right back. It became the plan by the end of the movie. When where did you see it? At the AMC Marple 10. Wow. I saw it in New York Pennsylvania Newtown Pennsylvania Griffin near

[00:21:59] a circuit city in a big parking lot. You would have been near 10 years old. Correct. When Fight Club came out I did not see this movie and imagine you saw it. No I think like the following spring or summer. Okay. Would have been out on

[00:22:14] DVD boys sleepover party boys having a sleepover and they watched Fight Club. I think it was not even getting me DVD my memory is that it was perhaps VHS. Amen. His mom rented a DVD for me. I remember watching this movie and I was like I can't remember

[00:22:30] what it's called. And then I remember watching it in the movies. He was one of the kids whose parents let him watch R-rated movies and they put Fight Club on and I was pretty into it. Uh huh. And everyone was just going like when do we see tits.

[00:22:44] When do we see tits and blood. It's like no this movie is kind of more about like sort of how like Gen X guys feel like they don't have any balls. You got a bunch of 13 year old. You got to the weird and pretty shortly

[00:22:55] after that they were like let's watch something else and then we probably went to even finish. Who knows what. 2000 maybe we put on how the Grinch stole Christmas. Was there another R-rated movie. Maybe someone find out who what someone did last summer perhaps. Right. Or like something about

[00:23:12] Mary. I'm guessing we went to a comedy. Sure. Right. But I remember one other person at the party being like it was kind of good. It's kind of right. So then I rented after that I somehow got to the party and then we watched something else.

[00:23:27] And then I think it was like a couple of weeks after that effects used to have a thing getting back to the important subject called DVD on TV. I remember I think this is where they would like first way give you some special features. Yes in the broadcast.

[00:23:41] Remember that. Yeah. So no commercial breaks but they sort of take the uncensored version of the film where the commercial breaks would be. But imagine being that person's like hey do you buy them on TV. You don't know. They're such a big company is tricky they

[00:23:56] make you think you got to buy the DVD. They put the DVDs on TV for free. Ben did you see Fight Club in theaters. No no. You also would have been a little young. Yeah. Now were you too busy fight. Are we the same age Ben.

[00:24:12] No I think I'm 38. Yeah. I think you're two years older than Ben. I turned 39 last week so I was if we'd record this really I weigh 38. OK. Yeah. How are you to reflect that perfect age for a project mayhem. Suppose that's true. You would have been like 14. Yeah.

[00:24:28] I mean it's just like you can't automatically sneak into an R-rated movie when you're 14. I mean I did. But like but it was back then I feel like it probably was a little more like all right we got to this was still got a plan this weekend. Right.

[00:24:40] Buying crackdown on R-rated movies where theaters were encouraged to be very very hard. We can't let the kids watch movies that would make them go back. Most of 99 it was really like theaters would ask to see an ID. My big thing was I had a Visa box card

[00:24:52] which was the credit card made for children basically that was like a debit card that your parents could put a little money like a hundred dollars a month or whatever. Right. And once they started putting the ticket machines in theaters rather than having to

[00:25:05] go to the ticket taker I could as a young person with one hundred dollars a month to spend go to the machine buy a ticket and they'd be like you're 18. I'd be like absolutely you know 14 I look like I'm nine. Right. And I would be like OK.

[00:25:19] I'm going to go to the ticket taker and I'd be like you're 18. I look like I'm nine. Right. And they'd be like and they ID to you and I went yep the idea when I saw the ticket you could act like I already talked to that

[00:25:32] guy that guy already cleared me. Yeah. That was my move for years. So you saw it. Did you see it on the porch. For sure. I've watched this movie hundreds. I have no doubt you've seen Fight Club many many times. I will say the way

[00:25:47] that I was able to get my hands on the DVD is me and my family. I was like wow. This movie is so pivotal to me. This is like me taking acid for the first time. Like this is my introduction to what it's like to be a

[00:26:00] misanthrope adult. This is your brain. This is your brain on Fight Club. Yes. Absolutely. 100 percent right. I'm not surprised to hear this. This is like around the time of me like starting to take drugs and reading Bukowski and the Fight Club is somewhere right in there. Yeah.

[00:26:17] A lot of you know like you're you're a millennial but you're like fuck you know consumer capitalism. Fuck the man. Mindset is is very appealing to you. Did you want to fight? Oh yeah sure. Did that make you specifically appeal? Maybe have a Fight Club. Right.

[00:26:32] You've always struck me as a kind of perpetual hellion near do well. Just like say me I'm a lover not a fighter. Right. I don't get big fight energy from you as much. Yeah my friends and I did not start a Fight Club after watching this movie.

[00:26:47] Because even when the most mad I've ever seen you get you kind of just like stomp around. Yeah and I yell. Yeah and I punch things. You punch things. So I will say I was kind of more the type of beat yourself up. You were doing the

[00:27:03] Edward Norton in the office. Yeah. Yeah. Fuck idiot. Was the mayhem appealing? Did you want to do the sort of public art destruction and arson? 100 percent. That seems more interesting to you and me also than fighting. Yes I right away commit vandalism. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:23] Did you get went on to get into graffiti. Of course. What was your tag? I'm not going to say OK well he won't come up before it's come up before it still stands in some places. Well I think so. I'm sure it does. Um Ben

[00:27:39] what was the thing I was going to say did you get into soap. Soap making. No rendering. No. I did not see this in theaters for it was rated 18 in the United Kingdom. Illegal. Can't sneak into an 18. I could sneak into a 15. So you're 12. I'm 13.

[00:27:56] I'm 13 and I snuck into the Matrix which was rated 15. Yeah. But I did not sneak into the Marple Newton. Yeah. You entered the matrix so that was that was the theater for 99 three kings there as well. Three kings. So everything there three kings I believe number 47 entertainment

[00:28:12] weekly's 50 best DVDs using. Yes I owned it. Wait can I just give a DVD tangent of this era after after David finishes his story. I don't have a story I don't remember when I first saw this movie was on video. Yes like probably the year after.

[00:28:25] Do you guys remember the website real dot com or which was the DVD selling website. Yes. Do you remember this was like 99 2000 their daily trivia question where if you got it right you got either a quarter or 50 cents of credit. Wow. And you played every day.

[00:28:45] And it would just be like a multiple choice trivia question. OK. And it wasn't one winner because anyone who got it right. I think it was a quarter would get a quarter of credit for deep for real dot com. Yeah. And I in a very Ben

[00:28:58] prankster way I had set up a second email address. Sure. So that on one I got it right which is harder to do back then you can just set up an email just for free. No there's no Gmail. It required like a little bit.

[00:29:11] I think I just use my dad's email address or something. And so I would play it on mine get it right some of the time then go to the other account get it right every single day because now I knew the exact time. And then like every you

[00:29:22] know two months I had enough money to buy like a 1499 snap case DVD. Yeah. And that was how I got three kings snap. I can snap my hot dog right because every other company was like some variation on plastic like a clam shell of right.

[00:29:37] And then Warner Brothers and New Line were just like what if it's 90 percent cardboard. What if you left if you left it out in the rain once. Yes. Ruined so like it would bend and fold. I'm just looking here at this cover story. I remember most of these

[00:29:52] not even being on the list. The images they have for the DVD cover are Aaron Brockovich the X-Files Gladiator Silence of the Lambs I think the criterion version was a big one that was one of the first movie that was a big came out concurrently

[00:30:05] on DVD and video. Yes. And I think was a two disc or six cents which I assume would have been the Vista version edition Toy Story which they had the ultimate toy box box set Wizard of Oz saving Private Ryan. And then the it's you've got the player.

[00:30:18] Now here's our guides the essential this. The only other thing on the cover is the banner on top is a picture of Eminem and it says will Grammy reward Eminem's hate rhymes. Ah thoughts on that David let him be Frank. Yeah. Let him be Marshall.

[00:30:35] Sorry I think I'm I think the Gladiator thing isn't that it came out at the same time because I was like 2000 I think it was the Gladiator and X-Men came out the same day. I could see that. That was like I remember the Gladiator DVDs.

[00:30:45] Remember the Gladiator DVD being very popular. It was very heavy on special features. Yeah and the whole story with that movie of course is like they recreated Rome as it stood. Yeah. That was 3000 years ago. I was that was like Black Friday when I was

[00:30:58] working at Suncoast video at the mall when those two DVDs came out and I had to wear like a Gladiator button and an X-Men button and people would come up and they would hit you on the chest for which one they wanted right. And then I whipped

[00:31:10] one from behind. I remember having to buy or wanting to buy the X-Men DVD a blockbuster because they had a promotion where if you bought it there exclusively it came with a mini CD ROM that had additional special features that weren't on the disc but

[00:31:26] one of those horribly sized CD the tiny GameCube size sometimes get lodged inside and fuck up your machine. Sure would you need you really needed a tray that had a little divot that you could put it inside remember being like like rectangle shaped

[00:31:39] trust a few fear the rest it wasn't rectangular shape it was found this you found the mini I mean no no but those many discs were were certainly had to be my friend they did not have to I remember getting some oddly shaped ones

[00:31:52] that would fuck you up that was the whole point they'd be like this has to you can only play it in certain types of players because otherwise the shape will mess it up but it's the whole that I'm going to disc trays had this

[00:32:03] thing this divot in the middle that was circular yes well you could spin a rectangle it was smaller than that space but oddly shaped I guarantee I'm going to find it on this I don't think I don't I don't think that's the technology I find the

[00:32:17] laser wouldn't be able to make it I'm gonna find this let's keep talking about fight club I'm gonna find this one who saw this on initial release this makes me feel like I'm 10 years older than you guys but it's a one just a very

[00:32:29] slim you know like if I was just a couple years older and probably would have yeah it was rated 18 sure well it was that sort of thing like the movie is violent and obviously has sex but I think it was truly like rated 18 and it was

[00:32:42] rated 18 for like this is to anarchic and grown-up right like just fundamentally like well if I can be frank I will say whatever I was 14 maybe 15 great age to see this movie in the theater twice opening weekend yeah changed everything really let me know what the world was

[00:32:58] about I mean look I like fight club I'm happy to talk about it today but it just was not this movie for me feel like it wasn't for you either grip no I know it was fundamentally for many people our generation that because you came to a

[00:33:12] sponsor a year later because you just didn't have the thoughts that lined up with this movie yes I just did not have that masculine or mad at the fucking world no no the matrix is yeah I was so happy no the matrix is my 1999 the

[00:33:29] world doesn't make sense movie more than fight club right I mean if you think about me now sure that's sort of where I fall to this day totally that you are wearing actually to say all leather with a floor-length jacket right and the propeller

[00:33:40] heads are playing from a speaker on my shoulder whereas Ben is shirtless listening to the dust brothers good score I'm sending we'll talk about the music Griffin is about to say not one eBay like you or whatever I have anything I was right and

[00:33:53] wrong the x-men CD ROM I was remembering was in fact a little three inch round CD ROM yes it's a mini this is a mini CD but I'm going to send you as a supplement that I was not fundamentally wrong that sometimes they were oddly

[00:34:06] shaped let me see what this eBay listing refers to as animal house odd-shaped CD look at this little guy look at this funny little disk look at this funny little disc and we'll house odd shit now okay now what's happened here yeah try to

[00:34:20] David is still right it's basically I am right the x-men one no I'm right in general this is a circular that has this reaches the edges of the tray I'm gonna keep finding so what this is if you zoom in on this you

[00:34:33] can see that the amount of space on the disc is less than the wonky shape correct so they have it's in your tray they have created a mini I mean it looks so stupid basically looks like someone took two bites no I'm

[00:34:47] looking out of a out of a regular-sized disc it is so silly look we love DVDs we love them and as we pointed out on and I when we watch this when he flaps his arms and says whoa in front of the car that was in like every

[00:35:01] Fox power of DVD pre-roll right that shot is in every like welcome to DVD and that's why it's important fight club another that's the reason it was important because if it's rolling the Fox power of DVD pre-roll I look I cannot deny this film's importance in DVD

[00:35:19] culture like yeah like that is certainly a bedrock of its you know don't deny legacy I won't deny it our sponsor for this week's episode is text notes no sponsor that's right it's the ultimate beer usually society plays the bit on us trying to sell us stuff

[00:35:43] shove it down our throats you need to improve yourself you gotta buy stuff you are what you own get better clothes get better furniture get a friggin mattress buy a bunch of action figures society is constantly telling all of us to buy action

[00:36:01] figures all the time like the Fight Club action figures I bought recently put in our shelf in the studio the point has been we said let's get with it no ads this episode that's right this is our anti-establishment stance it's a this big one episode it's a

[00:36:20] bit that costs us and yeah sure I did plan when we set this emotion to come up with a bunch of fake ads and I ran out of time because that's what society wants you to do they want you to work for free they want you to

[00:36:39] come up with fake ads some fake product to mock companies that pay us money your little catalogs but we're sticking it to those sponsors for one week and one week only next week we'll come them back warmly thank you for supporting our podcast but

[00:36:53] this week you can't sell anything to us yeah man we haven't sold out at all at all for this one week for this one for this one week we pointedly didn't sell out because usually we go oh good we sold out this episode all three

[00:37:07] ad slots filled this week we said no ads we X them we X them out we went and I think it's really brave of us I think it's really brave I think this is the year we should finally win a streamy and

[00:37:21] OB is the one I've been really angling for for a while stream a streamy I'm not familiar it's like the Internet Awards isn't it you're thinking of webbing oh yeah I think the streamy is something as well maybe maybe well let's get let's get

[00:37:34] them all all right yeah this is the year though for us to actually just get an honorable mention for bravery and a Nobel Peace Prize absolutely and a Pulitzer yes in the war against advertisement yeah yeah and once again next week our sponsors are back and we

[00:37:48] love them love every single one of them this week you can't sell us shit have any of you read the book oh that's my other question I assumed immediately right did you read it after I read it after yeah me too but then I became a

[00:38:10] real like diehard Paula Nick I was definitely with Paula Nick for a couple of years as well I was looking at his bibliography he's actually written a lot of where I well for a while he was like one a year yeah he's one of those guys

[00:38:21] he's not unlike a Kevin Smith where it's just like he has his fan base yeah he will pack a bookstore once a year with the same people he will sell the same number of books you can't go broke and you'll never get rich but like there's

[00:38:34] just that fan base there yeah yeah I was with him for a while they're not gonna teach him in literature classes do you know what I mean he's like a little bit well now they have well well well I read this book in college what as part

[00:38:48] of my post-american to post-war American literature class it was the last thing we studied and this guy was like this is a totemic work of like you know kind of point out Ben is punching the wall right now he is he's so mad god damn it I read

[00:39:02] I read it in college when you know I read I read it in college when this book and American Psycho were like the first two books I ever read in my life for fun after I was a child like there was a

[00:39:14] there was like a nine year there's like a nine-year gap where I didn't read a book uh-huh why not because reading was lame I was a kid I had video games to play and like fires to start we're readings great I'm hooked on phonics

[00:39:28] well right but I've also heard that reading is fundamental when reading homework you don't want to do it is that a poster? yeah you don't remember that one? I get it's Britain man I was probably told that reading was like a big cup of

[00:39:40] tea or whatever they were telling me over there whatever their fucking propaganda campaign was I mean to be clear I loved reading but you okay when did you drop reading like age 10? like when it became homework all right Griffin's sending another let's see what this one is

[00:39:53] uh look it seems to be a square it is a fucking rectangle business card blank CD that is no longer available for sale but was sold in packs of 100 from B&H do they still sell them? and can the blank check business cards be on these?

[00:40:10] yep I found another link we could order them from this is okay says no longer available sure yeah bandscds.co.uk we are currently having issues sourcing stock of the business card CDs so unfortunately we will not be able to deliver any new orders I'm

[00:40:23] trying to see if anyone's still printing imagine the joy of slapping one of those in someone's palm and saying like go home and feel that weight buddy go home and pop it and don't scratch it don't put it in your pocket yeah you better

[00:40:34] not let anything touch any other metal objects um do you like the book David I did you read other Palanik? I think I read survivor which that's that's like the airplane cult one I read choke that may be it I remember diary and haunted being kind of big

[00:40:53] books what's the one after choke with like a bird on the cover? lullaby I think that was the last one I read lullaby I always loved the detail in that where the character is building his own monument to himself he's like stacking rocks up and like his like

[00:41:04] backyard I was just found that to be intriguing that sounds good I mean I remember choke and then that was a movie did someone make a diary movie I think no or maybe someone wanted to choke was was Clark Gregg made it right he's one

[00:41:18] of those like yeah like one of those writers that just he either was going to have like a Grisham-esque run and everything becomes a movie or nothing does because it's all just like or even like Dennis Lehane yeah too rare to

[00:41:30] esoteric like I just feel like there was like it used to be every year his new book whether or not it got good reviews yeah we get our posters you'd see you know it would be at the front of the you know fucking borders right you know

[00:41:44] like and then around 2008 2009 it's sort of like you forget about him he you know whatever but he's still just making a book in the store and you see his shelf and you're like he has like nine new books yeah no those are the

[00:41:56] only two that were made in the films I did read I didn't read the book I read Fight Club 2 oh you read it's a graphic comic sequel and I didn't realize there was also a Fight Club 3 recent ish Fight Club 3 but most of Fight Club 2 is about

[00:42:10] Tyler Durden sort of trapped inside the narrator's brain it was drawn by David Mack right looks cool oh the covers the covers are David Mack Cameron Stewart did the art fair enough yeah I'm not sure if the art's fair enough yeah I

[00:42:23] like the book yeah you know it's you know I am Jack Sparrow you know you know I am John's bile I am you know it's all that remember that I haven't read it since 2000 this would be 2006 yeah no I read it like exactly at the time

[00:42:36] the movie you know I got the movie tie-in edition it felt like you know it felt like a lot of these these like the you know Bukowski or whatever I'm like there's a point of view here it's it's this you know starkly written thing sort

[00:42:51] of admire it but I never was like this guy's talking to me if that makes sense right I was like he's going there right he's saying shit that I think that no one is saying now how do you feel about Fight Club now I immediately was

[00:43:07] radicalized I've written down here life is bullshit and meaningless right there on the top of Ben's yellow legal pants I will say we are now the age of the characters in Fight Club yeah which sucks almost older maybe I mean at least

[00:43:28] possibly early 30s yeah right it's yeah they still seem older than me I just watching it sure well they're like adults I been Tyler Durden in the series artwork or do we not know yet we don't know you don't know you guys kind

[00:43:42] of feel like that's right there probably I mean put it on a white shirt for sure Ben's just staying there ready to hit it I imagine that I'm seven but I look a lot older Benjamin Button I have to imagine that's where I'll end up I mean

[00:43:54] that's there for you specifically that version and David is probably I don't know the girl with the dragon tattoo hey fuck yeah you know go off that sounds good wait what was the thing I was gonna say Oh Ben and I were specifically

[00:44:07] yesterday after we recorded David and you rushed off Ben and I were talking about our shared insomnia and how bad it's been recently and then I put this movie on and forgot how much that's a part of it and it just immediately right

[00:44:22] it's about having insomnia way too hard way too hard yeah yeah I'm going a little crazy we're both not sleeping well unfortunately woke up today at 5 in the morning well I have fun news for you guys I'm also sleeping very poorly yeah because of stress yeah well

[00:44:41] there's that and also I fell asleep at 1015 last night watching secret invasion by myself well secret invasion of course is prescribed this year by all doctors more effective than quick and melatonin I crawled into bed and was knocked out by 1030 I mean the thing

[00:44:55] about secret invasion is the episode says it's 50 minutes long it's actually four minutes long that's a black screen no one actually makes it that far my problem is my sleep issue is stress and whatever all the all the usual stuff but also my roommate keeps on fucking

[00:45:09] bringing a hell in the bottom Carter back and having the world's loudest sex ever I'm having a roommate who is the who's the Tyler Durden of the dynamic here of our group yeah then Ben is like the potentially fictitious figure who has spawned from your inner your inner

[00:45:26] one who like we wouldn't be doing this if not for Ben it's a little suspicious that somebody's just the two of you if it's just the two of us yeah I think I'm meatloaf now who's the Tyler Durden no question yeah because right he's the

[00:45:38] sort of more you know chaotic sort of courage to do bad things yes okay I'm sleepy yeah but you sleep well sometimes when yeah this movie changed everything for young guys and pollen it kind of with it it's it's crystallizing a thing this movie has the thesis that

[00:46:02] see here's my thing with Fight Club I like this movie I feel like this is a movie that's reputation is constantly being damaged by the world's most annoying people liking it for the wrong beginning of its as with a lot of films

[00:46:14] right and a lot of the most sort of popular quote-unquote cult films as much as that's a thing anymore right rewatching it I was like right this is so much better and I have remembered it being because of the annoying people you

[00:46:27] know yeah like the actual act of watching this I really kind of loved I do find like the expression of what this movie is sort of getting at for me reaches its peak form in Jackass another great great great instruction manual for hurting yourself and breaking things and

[00:46:47] not just the fighting part of it but it's the same thing of like it's like this is a generation of men who have no outlet who have been made like irrelevant right there's like some weird animalistic urge that like it no

[00:46:59] longer has a place the big I mean of course there's the crossover of Brad Pitt being on Jackass one of the best Jackass moments yeah Jack is yes I mean that's that's a fair point the sort of like what else can we do but damage our

[00:47:12] bodies for glee and Knoxville are aesthetically very similar yeah he looks a lot he has like a real early Knoxville look but Jack is similar as that that was another thing when I was in high school yes every all the fucking boys

[00:47:24] would talk about it all the time and I'd be like if we talk about anything else is it called Jack Arse were you they would they would call it that yes they would they would yes it wasn't spelled that way but yes they couldn't

[00:47:33] help themselves react ours yeah of course they corrected exactly fucking can't they don't they can't conceive of certain words no jack if they said ass you could feel them having to shift their bodies into being able to say it Jack ass like they would like have to

[00:47:47] like sort of stand up straight for a second Jack Arse is obviously the less nihilistic expression of the same instincts just spelled jackass people just say I finish your thought curve no I just think it's a way the finisher there was a finisher quote I don't

[00:48:01] know if it's in the dossier crack the dossier open now here's a good transition point but there were some there's a lot of this movie that should be talked about there's a quote I found that was basically like the problem is that like man are genetically like

[00:48:12] designed to be hunters and we're in a society where there's nothing for them to hunt anymore so you become like consumers and there's like some pent-up energy that has no outlet and as a teen boy I felt thank God I don't have to

[00:48:24] hunt and gather I'd much rather I think you read my book are the same in that sense where those are not the things that make me feel out of touch with society is that I can't hunt right and jackass is like the more productive of

[00:48:36] expression of that same frustration because it's like oh there's a genuine camaraderie found there not that I don't relate to the nihilism of this movie but I feel like my nihilism manifest in a very different way let me I'll give you

[00:48:49] some dossier here I think that's a good call so Chuck Palahniuk Palahniuk pronunciation is Palahniuk Palahniuk writes a book called invisible monsters that he cannot get published which I have you know I'm trying to what that one's about like about a disfigured model yeah that's okay yes

[00:49:10] it was seen as too disturbing like you know feels invisible now that she's not beautiful or something and it's sort of hey man can I read this is just because I found it it's from film comment he said we're designed to be hunters and

[00:49:22] we're in a society of shopping there's nothing to kill anymore there's nothing to fight nothing to overcome nothing to explore and that societal emasculation this everyman the narrator is created which is the whole thing with this movie that's Fincher that's Fincher all right like 1999 society is collapsing nothing

[00:49:37] matters what are you reading it's a film comment interview in how'd you find it I found a hyperlink to it on what Wikipedia but now I'm on the article itself inside out David Fincher but Smith September October 1999 go on let

[00:49:52] me let me read from the dossier now Chuck Palahniuk decides I'm never gonna get published I might as well write something for the fun of it so fight club is written with no thought really of commercial success I suppose it Norton publishes it it sells a little

[00:50:09] bit 5,000 copies and Joshua Donan the son of Stanley Donan okay I'm not sure don't in this now he had produced two films the underneath Steven Soderbergh's film not a bad movie but I'm a little yes and Sam Raimi's The Quick and the

[00:50:25] Dead a great film so he is Stanley Donan's son who is whatever trying to you know kind of make his way in Hollywood sure a nepo baby class a bit of a nepo baby loves the twist of the book the iconic twist at the end and

[00:50:41] sends he Rick basically records a reading of the novel okay and sends it to Laura's is skin at Fox 2000 which is at the time the searchlight exist into 99 but like it's sort of like in between searchlight and regular Fox right was sort of the concept of Fox

[00:50:58] 2000 yes right like it's kind of like we're gonna do like mid to big ish existed until like five years ago very recently it was one that I think that finally got shuttered movie was like Disney sale that Kate Winslet Idris Elba mountain movie mountains between

[00:51:13] me the mountain between I think that was the last Fox 2000 movie the I'm sorry the woman in the window which ended up being sold to net right they sold a lot of them off was the last one but it was basically shut down in 2019

[00:51:26] but at this point Fox 2000 will do has done things like one fine day they gave us one fine day volcano that goes just toast the thin red line was a Fox 2000 film right there kind of all over the place never been kissed this same year

[00:51:41] haven't I'm working on it David raining threes all over court no their 1999 list is ravenous never been kissed pushing 10 Lake Placid broke down palace best laid plans Fight Club lighted up anywhere but here Anna and the King that's a bizarre collection of just 2000 that's just just 99 saying

[00:52:00] that is all for that's a movie every five weeks for your basically crazy they were their main outlet I think Fox was just like Phantom Menace and nothing right I guess and then whatever family films they must have released everything I mean they probably felt

[00:52:14] like they had to clear the deck before the calendar turned and they look ridiculous come come the year 2000 they were like ironically only three films in the year 2000 mean like the thing you said the list of movie it's exactly that's exactly right like you know you

[00:52:28] can't even really pinpoint apart from those movies I guess all were not blockbuster sized or in the size that's about it right that's a den called movies yes I don't know what you're talking about um Laura Ziskin reads the book and it blows her mind

[00:52:42] so she options it the rights for $10,000 and it's just like I don't know how you make a movie out of this but I want to you know figure out if someone can there's another guy called Raymond Bon Giovanni who also worked at Fox

[00:52:54] and died of a blood infection of 41 and his his obituary claimed that bringing Fight Club to the screen was his dying wish okay they throw it to a director named David Oh Russell which makes sense absolutely like that he's just done flirting with disaster I can

[00:53:12] absolutely see them thinking like yeah he you know he's got the twisted mind suitable right sure I mean sure I mean I can see it I can yeah who else was there really uh well well well we can well well well David Oh Russell says he

[00:53:30] did not understand the book I read it I didn't get it I didn't do a good job reading it obviously his retrospective thought of the matter because he made three Kings in 1999 so he's you know he's getting his big project as well

[00:53:43] um they get the books over to Fincher and they're like oh my god I'm gonna they get the books over to Fincher and say you got to read it tonight and Fincher's like I'm not gonna read a book in one night and they're like you know

[00:53:55] you do you're gonna read it really fast his his agent reached out and said you need to read this thing and he went I barely read books right and he went I'm telling you one night and he goes right now pitch me on the phone the reason I

[00:54:08] should read this book and his agent says to him there's a guy in it who pisses in soup and splices porn into family films and there's a scene where he takes a guy out of a convenience store holds him up

[00:54:20] a gunpoint says what do you want to be doing and he says I want to be a vet but the school was too hard and he says I know where you live I'll come back in a year and shoot you or six weeks if

[00:54:30] you're not in classes and Fincher was like I'm sold I'll fucking read the book and what hang on yeah sure then said does this guy with the gun does he quote Forrest Gump does he like Forrest Gump and the agent said just read and find

[00:54:42] out just read and find out I have a lot of thoughts about Tyler Durden's book and Tyler Durden's relationship with Forrest Gump okay well we can get into that basically he was like I absolutely want to do this and then his agents

[00:54:54] like great news Laura Ziskin and Fox just bought it and then he was like well now I'm fucked right he's like I will not work with Fox his big comparison which I do think is very interesting is he's like this is the

[00:55:06] graduate right like what I do love that he that that's he's like it's about coming of age right except these days you come of age in your 30s and you feel like disaffected in your 30s now right and I think that's a really cool

[00:55:18] experience with Fox doing Alien 3 I think he also was just like this was a thing I was hoping I could option develop and then bring to them as a package thing if they're already trying to develop it internally it's gonna get fucked up let me ask a question

[00:55:32] about Fincher now you guys so you had if you didn't even see this in theaters you probably hadn't seen seven when you first saw that no I did I've seen seven yes you had on video yeah so like that but not enough that you were like I

[00:55:44] want to see the new movie from the guy who's like the best director and reading Empire magazine because like at the this is something I felt now re-watching the movie for the 102nd time in my life but the first time in I don't know 15 years is like

[00:55:59] at the time I think that Fincher made perfect sense as the guy who made this movie after 7 in the game which like I didn't know until like 2006 were in that order sure I always was like it must go seven and then fight club sure

[00:56:13] and it wasn't I was like when I learned that the game's in the minute blew my mind game fucking rules it does rule but then at the time it was like this is a perfect Fincher thing and now 20 years later with more I'm like I

[00:56:24] actually can't quite figure out if I think he is the perfect person for this movie knowing what we know now or at the time because it does seem very strange considering the filmmaker he has become and to hear him tell it like there's some quote on Wikipedia you

[00:56:40] know maybe it's inaccurate but he's like I was too much locations too much or half it's just like this doesn't really seem like the path he followed no because this is a very anarchic movie yes and nobody would now be like well David Fincher an anarchic

[00:56:54] filmmaker yeah yeah so therefore this now seems very strange to me in a way that I never basically like I felt like I kept on spending most of my days watching people load and unload stuff off of trucks in order to get three

[00:57:06] lines of dialogue I want to watch people load and unload stuff in a scene all day with zero lines of dialogue this is also though like to your point that's another question I think you could make the argument that it's the I'm gone girl I guess qualifies now

[00:57:20] that's comedic ish but like this is his only funny movie like gone girl has a black humor to it but yeah I this is a comedy this is social network is also funny social network is funny social network is funny very funny in

[00:57:32] its way yes yeah you know and all that but I think I don't even feel highlights his like more than sense of humor more where then you're it's easier to identify the comedy and things like even seven and the game now play

[00:57:44] funnier of course knowing his sense of humor brick thing it's like this guy's funny and there's humor in his movies but like social network is funny because it's sorkin and there's quirk to it gone girl is funny because it's campy right this movie is funny because it's

[00:57:59] a satire yes and I don't think of Fincher as a satirical filmmaker especially not really in the decades I mean social network is not a satire no it's not this is a satire and that's a very specific kind of comedy but weirdly like the fucked upness of

[00:58:12] this in 99 was connected to his work in a way that I don't think it's connected at all anymore I think a lot of it truly on a stupid like studio surface level thing was like well seven was fucked up and it's fucked up in a way

[00:58:25] that's entirely different from this movie this guy loves drippy wet houses right and I think they were just like we need someone who's fucked up we need something that's like intense he was fucked up right I was like I was

[00:58:37] fucked up guy he's such a gen x guy too that's yeah that's why I like a gen x you'd think a gen x guy which does not be the guy to make a movie about the golden age of Hollywood because that's

[00:58:47] just not his thing yeah it's good but it goes back to just like in this moment I think in 1999 the studios were like nothing keep going coming off the whole like rebels on the back lot right 90s indie revolution those guys working

[00:59:02] their way into the studio system I haven't covered any of those guys this is kind of the first like of the big because Soderbergh has so many movies and Tarantino is so over discussed and I'm trying to think who else we got Russell's the greatest filmmaker well

[00:59:15] obviously David Russell I talk about him so much in my regular life I just you know I get a break PTA like you guys haven't really done like the 90s Jenna because they are the revolution discussed filmmakers of our generation I think it's felt a little overtude for

[00:59:29] us for sure to a certain degree but there was that feeling of like in the late 60s in the early 70s I think largely spurred by graduate and easy rider suddenly these movies became really fucking profitable and it was the studios reacting to an audience they

[00:59:45] hadn't thought to make movies for in a style they hadn't understood before and in 1999 feels like I think it's the reason it produces so many films that are now like feel like this last gasp is I think the studios were like it's time

[00:59:57] for another reckoning right it's time for another disruptive force in cinema we have to give all these guys big ass budgets and assume that they're going to convert to like well mainstream success and so I think even if you're not correctly identifying what is

[01:00:11] Fincher skill set if you're a studio exec in 1997 when this movie's getting set up you're just like his shit's edgy and it was popular for sure seven made so much money that's the thing yeah this movie that's really fucked up and

[01:00:24] it was a big hit even if it's a different kind of fucked up than this book and he was Frank in that movie he was very frank let him be Frank I just really watching this again wonder what's in this box he literally is yes he's

[01:00:37] Frank he's letting him be Frank we haven't recorded seven at this moment we're gonna drive him in 90% no I'm excited for I just this was a very complex rewatch for me as someone who like Ben ingested this movie on a molecular level for many years of my

[01:00:52] life has grown away from it and I view it now is like I mean I love this movie spiritually it's a deeply embarrassing movie to actually admire I kind of agree with like it is very you sweeties it's like basic like entry-level

[01:01:08] philosophy 101 is a stoned person in a bathtub being like don't you under fucking stand man like corporation and you're just like yeah no I know there's some quote I came across I think in the New York Times Dennis Lim like blu-ray special edition article where Norton's

[01:01:24] like it's a deeply serious movie made by deeply goofy unserious people sure which is debatable never Norton calling himself that but I don't laugh right but I know it's like it's on the line of is this a smart movie made for dumb

[01:01:38] people or a dumb movie made by smart people thing but it's at this point I think you can answer that question no you can't watch me on this journey because I watched this movie daily and something like right not in its entirety

[01:01:50] but I had a tape of it so I could watch it because I had the TV VCR in my room with the DVD player in the basement so I need to have the tape upstairs and I would just watch 20-30 minutes before falling asleep every night for there

[01:02:01] are so many what I do with the ways in high school right I do that with but not this one but I just did it all the time and watching it again now it's like look this movie is not profound in fact it's deeply juvenile and idiotic

[01:02:12] and borderline like laughable yes and the music is so of its time and it's just so long the special effects are terrible it's so long I Ana who knows this movie well was like I don't remember the last hour of this movie because you fucking get exhausted with

[01:02:26] it's just it's so flawed and it is so inherently like stupid in the way that Gen X angst is stupid any generational angst becomes stupid yeah I can't not love it for what it has meant to me but watching it again I was just thinking

[01:02:38] man this is like what does this mean to a 23 year old now let when I said to Ana on those my final points don't cut them off my man's cook I just said this is like kids watching this now I think

[01:02:49] would be like when I watched easy rider and she said I knew you're going to say easy rider where you watch it in right no you're right you're watching writer and all you think is later sure I guess like I can see what this was I can see

[01:03:01] what this meant it doesn't work for me at all yeah I don't connect with it I don't understand what they're talking about yeah I don't care what they're talking about and I don't like these aesthetics yeah cuz they're too busy posting on Instagram and like like it's

[01:03:15] like go up line those bulls up like Ridley Scott is here times has gotten worse the millennia the Millenniums yeah the shit that he's complaining about the consumerism right all of that like messaging now just everywhere so worse right hair I mean that's the thing

[01:03:31] they lost like what what right now we're just sort of like yeah what are you gonna do people are self-aware and accepted it's not like we're oblivious we're all fucking brands now well and it's all just like a fucking brain that's your entire currency as a human

[01:03:44] being wait whatever so we talked about selling out with the dough boys the last oh they live oh sure right like the thing where you now it's like you're selling out people just like well you got money get that back right gotta get

[01:03:55] you know got a rise and grind motherfucker you know all right they pay you to sell out Ben what's up hey it's me it's Griffin you're Ben yeah hey sorry to interrupt the episode again I know we did the ad break where

[01:04:11] we then revealed it was not an ad break and we didn't have sponsors for this episode yes right which is sort of this meta idea in line with the sort of sentiments of Fight Club to to not do advertisements in the episode right I

[01:04:24] have to admit that was a that was a bit we we decided to forego one of our ad slots we usually have three we kept one open to make an anti-advertising sentiment but but to be fair you know truly I mean these ads they help pay for

[01:04:39] the salaries our editors you know researcher or rent here in the studio so we do we need to do ads so it was we took a little bit of a financial hit on the first one but we're gonna do two other ads with here's today's episode sponsored

[01:04:53] by just kidding we still don't have got you we cut your ass so bad you didn't even see it coming you didn't see it coming and to be clear we love those companies thank them for their years of support we will reinstate our

[01:05:08] relationships with them next week but this week I don't fucking give a care all you fucking listeners you're sitting there with your napkins tucked into your collar for tonight going please feed me more ads I'm a pig fuck you here's your ad get a life yeah yeah why

[01:05:29] don't you go to your damn library yeah read a fucking book or even better punch somebody well we can't condone okay you're right we can't condone violence but well this was what defend someone yeah or read a book about punching somebody there you go like

[01:05:48] fight club the book but this is not an ad for a book no it's not an ad for anything it's an ad for nothing that's right we don't believe in ads this one just this one week okay back to the

[01:05:59] episode I see my thing I think why I enjoyed this movie rewatching it more than I remembered liking this film in my mind's eye is I never it never was a a call to rise for me you know like you were not like I right I'm being spoken

[01:06:25] to by my club right and I think I've always landed on it's a dumb movie made by incredibly intelligent people and so I find the movie very fun and entertaining in that level I also love easy rider it is a movie that I do not

[01:06:38] relate to any of but I find it so I like the film itself but also it's got that thing of like born to be wild I was born to be wild but I watch it I'm just like it's kind of funny watching a movie

[01:06:49] that is this primal scream from a failed countercultural movement right yeah where you're like at this point it's just a closed-loop time capsule of a thing being presented with the promise of like are we about to shake fucking everything up although that movie of course ends

[01:07:04] with like their deaths being shot right so I I think now with like more distance from this film and the less it actually speaks to our current moment or the attitudes at least that most people apply to our current moment I like it

[01:07:18] more as a time capsule of this is what people were yelling sure yeah no yeah absolutely absolutely I think I just also these days I respect any movie that looks good I think this movie looks great yes some of the visual effects are like you know dated or

[01:07:32] whatever but like yeah you know it looks like 1999 in a glass I love that the other thing I was gonna say what David I just I feel bad for criticizing last hour this movie because I do want to acknowledge I do think the ending of

[01:07:45] this movie is so effective in the last hour is bad or what you sort of are losing steam a little bit right a dozen times like it all bits and pieces you're like I remember Marla I remember the fights the like levels of project mayhem

[01:07:59] that goes on for like it and him being like what do you mean you know like the Tyler reveal taking 10 minutes of exposition you're just sort of like I get it I go but of course the ending is so good at you do you always finish on a

[01:08:10] high note yeah Fight Club Fincher in the commentary said that he really didn't want the movie to be that long right sure and he was like two hours 20 yeah and he was like supportive of it but they were like obviously if you could

[01:08:23] cut it down and make it user-friendly we understand what we signed up for we wanted fucking countercultural revolution we're gonna talk about this specifically yes but like if you can do it and he was like I really worked hard and I kept on trying to pair out anything

[01:08:37] I could and I got to a point where I said I don't think I condense the story down anymore I really tried to squeeze it as much as I can and he's recording this commentary maybe a year later yeah and he's like now I absolutely think I

[01:08:47] could cut it down I needed distance there's a part of me that wishes I could just go off the grid for six months go into the woods completely rethink it and I could absolutely get this down under two hours but I was so deep in it and I

[01:08:59] was so committed to like all the different story beats I wanted using as much of the actual text from the book all these different gags that I just thought all of this was indispensable Raymond K. Hussle human sacrifice scenes a perfect example like that is a deleted

[01:09:14] scene it has it's never set up you see the driver's licenses on the door later but the human sacrifice element of Project Mayhem is not part of it yeah it's like a scene that could I mean you could just lift it out I just I find it

[01:09:26] so fascinating where you need it in there for the gum breath right because you have to know that he loves gum how's it going my question is is the fact that Tyler can quote gum proof that the narrator has such lame taste

[01:09:38] yes that he himself can quote gum of course he watches it there is so lame yeah he's so lame that he loves gum Tyler doesn't love gum well Tyler isn't real right but at that moment before you know that are you supposed to think he

[01:09:51] projected guy one of the guys who thinks the Pulp Fiction should have won best picture I can't see the quoting gum I mean sure where's the narrator loves gum I can't conceive of Tyler is a real person I don't remember not you know I

[01:10:04] don't remember knowing about this movie before the two you know I think I did watch it not knowing the twist but I just don't remember I will say to Ben's aggression point of this movie connecting to the movie I for an English class

[01:10:16] project where I made like a movie of like whatever the problem I you had to do something for a project and I made a movie like a 30-minute thing I put a frame of pornography in it before we watched it for the class on iMovie

[01:10:29] because this was when my school switched from VCR to VCR editing to iMovie and I was like I can put one frame of porn in it did people notice no one frame is brilliant brilliant yeah unlike the I mean what they show in the movie is

[01:10:41] like two cents I know it's not one night I did take that order literally page two of this 26 page dossier it's funny JJ sent this to us and then just said like I imagine you're not gonna get through any of this and he's being

[01:10:55] proven right real time he is told the movie is set up at Fox he does not want to work at Fox because of course that's where he made million three and had such a bad time and he is told well Joe Roth isn't there anymore Tom Jacobson

[01:11:06] isn't there anymore good thing about these multinational corporations is the people you loathe are gone so quickly it doesn't really matter you know it's just like Fox the big statue with lights doesn't like you it's just all those fucking guys you fought with you actually

[01:11:19] liked him yeah they thought he did a good job yeah see what Deadpool has to say about that oh my god wait a second wait you think Deadpool's watched fight call this is one of those movies where when Deadpool 2 was coming out Fox re-released like their 20 top-selling

[01:11:34] DVDs with covers where Deadpool was now on the movie and there's an addition of Fight Club you can buy that is Deadpool holding up the soap that's fucking disgusting yeah I think that's good and definitely the kind of thing that you know Tyler Durden would approve of yes

[01:11:50] so okay so you know he goes into this meeting with Fox and he says look I want to make this movie like I'm not gonna water this down I want to make a balls-out version where planes explode and buildings explode and it's for real

[01:12:04] I don't want to do this for three million dollars you know I want to do it for lots of money Fox CEO Bill McKinley who I feel like has come up on this podcast before during Selleck right and all that is sort of like okay give us a

[01:12:19] real outline you know like prove it prove that you can do this so Fincher goes off he amazingly approached Buck Henry yes going with his graduate idea being like do you want to write my script for this movie it was a Fox

[01:12:36] decision JJ said it was a Fincher thing I mean he says the director reached out I mean I okay you know so but Buck Henry's response was I don't think there's anything funny about it okay script written by Jim Yule's I've always thought who had written a special

[01:12:53] called hard hearts which was his like ticket to Hollywood he's only other credit is jumper yes day I think he's a rewrite guy it is just interesting that this very big movie was written by a guy who just kind of has no footprint

[01:13:10] in Hollywood really I don't know yes yes right yeah yeah I mean obviously the movie is the book is very he's cribbing right from the book like but still which was Fincher's big thing it's a complex work of adaptation it's hard to put that book on the

[01:13:24] screen Laura Laura Ziskin who is in charge when he had to go pitch it to her he was just like I think the thing to do is to really look at the book I have no radical idea of how to adapt

[01:13:33] this I think it's there there was sort of a fear about using voiceover so he was like I don't know how to do voiceover I've never seen that such a hacky cliche and he was like you gotta yeah a lot of the development speak at

[01:13:46] the time according to Fincher was he can't do voiceover voiceovers a crutch the first draft has no voiceover according to Fincher and he's like and there he's like where is the voiceover and they're like oh you know that's a crutch and he says it's not funny if

[01:13:59] there's no voiceover it's just sad and pathetic I think that is so true yeah imagine this movie without the narrator talking you just be like what is this you know he's he you'll says I never wrote an entire script without the voiceover I wrote like 10 pages of

[01:14:13] spec without but you know they fight over I guess Andrew Kevin Walker polish sure as he did with the game squeaky squeaky he says and I like this quote Jim Yules made an amazing chair and I came in and I sanded some of the

[01:14:28] edges and put the little things that protect the floor on the bottom that's his that's his take on what he did the three detectives in this movie are named Kevin DeVette Walker in separate scenes that's cute I should also mention that

[01:14:41] I I went through a phase where I would buy anything on eBay that was Fight Club or just search for it and buy stuff when you were gonna bring this up what you had in your basement well no that was I didn't buy that used but I bought

[01:14:53] the script like a script like the kind of thing you would now get on the street in Soho or whatever yeah and I read it was the first script I'd ever read and it like taught me formatting and I would make sense read the script

[01:15:03] and watch the movie and be like oh this is how this is written and I just had this thing next to my computer for like five years and just was always like oh so that's what a script looks like so

[01:15:12] Jim Yules is like such a big name for me even though have you ever met him or no I don't know I mean see the kind of guy who's probably like on the board of governors of the WGA now or something

[01:15:20] did the script read well yeah it was exactly like the movie Cameron Crowe apparently gave some interesting advice says make sure that he's not so sure about what he's doing because otherwise that's gonna be boring read Tyler Durden sort of like that the other thing

[01:15:34] I saw him say Linson did a pass yeah I got Alex Alex's laughing I'm just seeing these texts now he's sending Deadpool covers yes they're like 20 of these they're they're really bad they're very funny um Deadpool's in them yes my god he they fucking desecrated

[01:15:51] Assassin's Creed are you fucking serious under the hood mother this is gonna radicalize Ben no the thing I was gonna say yeah he went to Cameron Crowe and he was like my worry is that Tyler Durden is is a little too one-dimensional

[01:16:12] I want to make him feel a little more rounded as a character and Crowe basically gave him the opposite advice which was like make him more inscrutable make him more unknowable he doesn't need to be a real person you have to go

[01:16:24] lean harder into yes Fincher goes back to Fox and with this giant package he's written up but he's gonna he's like it's gonna cost 60 million dollars it's gonna have Brad Pitt and Edward Norton we're gonna start inside Edwards brain and pull out right we're gonna blow up a

[01:16:38] plane all this shit you have is 72 hours yes or no that was basically yeah when he went to Laura's this can his pitch was I don't want to go through the notes let me just go off work on this for six months I'll come back I'll give you

[01:16:49] that cell and he went in with like a book that was fucking humongous of every single thing storyboarded the two stars and yeah pick up 17.5 he did Norton got to you know what yeah primal fears only three years before no that's right but

[01:17:05] by the time this comes out Norton is absolutely hot shit this is the year that Vandy Fair does the off mentioned there's no denying it Ed Norton is the actor of his generation he's sufficiently milquetoast enough to be this guy he's I

[01:17:19] think he's very well cast because he's a nervy little wrap I mean I think he is because that's how the movie is but like if the guy is supposed to be like the most pathetic office drone every man Norton does have an edge I mean that's

[01:17:31] why he's so good in rounders and in American History X the kind of two movies and primal fear where he's in jail like he those three movies you would have seen up until this point he's like right that's come back that was the thing or a

[01:17:43] bad guy at this point angry guy positioning himself as like I'm the new De Niro I'm the guy who will go there right but Fincher casted cast him in this off of people versus Larry Flynn which is very much the same vibe yes

[01:17:54] that's the thing he's like responding to and then Norton like you know within five years of this movie starts to enter like a wilderness period that he isn't really pulled out of until Wes Anderson reclaims him and it's like you are goofy

[01:18:06] you are funny applied in goofy ways and listen to the commentary Fincher just keeps on talking about like his Adam's Apple is so funny look at how like goofy he looks and he's just keep saying like Norton has the best under eye bags of

[01:18:21] any actor I've ever seen he's got good bags we play it up with makeup but that's like that's how he looks he's just silly kept saying he's like Buster Keaton it's funny to watch him get punched here is art Linson producer of the film his take

[01:18:33] on this movie getting made he's basically like you got Brad Pitt and David Fincher last time they made a movie it made 300 million dollars worldwide and it was a 300 million dollar success that no one could have anticipated which makes people

[01:18:44] take the risk when you let them be Frank yes okay later I'll build domestic and overseas DVD sales went to shabby neither Tyler Jordan Brad Pitt is obviously the choice yeah Fincher says I hung up the phone after offering it to him and he

[01:19:05] was knocking on my door like four minutes later I live in a gated community I don't know how we got past security I'm had to have been the best call of pits life right like pit is this guy who's so desperately trying to find

[01:19:15] the way to knock himself out of pretty boy shit right and it's like 12 monkeys was him finally getting some sense of like serious credibility and here it's like you get to do that and you get to essentially be the center guy but then

[01:19:24] in between those he does like just nothing but the I was about to say like he he keeps obviously you know throughout his whole 90s I guess double zone is legit well no it's a terrible but like that's like a legitimate choice

[01:19:35] unlike some of the movies in the middle sort of a good it's a tape yeah sure I mean but like yeah like obviously for much of the early 90s he's you know river runs through it legends of the fall interview the vampire it's like

[01:19:47] you are playing a very pretty girl golden boy and he hates any drama so right then he does 7 and 12 monkeys and you're like all right baby like you know yeah and then California is around the same time to yeah movies yeah horrendous

[01:19:59] sucks but it's part of the same movement that's not closer to true romance yeah then in 96 he makes sleepers which sort of is like I mean he's not a huge part of that movie right everyone's kind of I don't want you to rewatch that me too

[01:20:13] it's so long I know it's very long that was a huge when I was a teen like people kids being like that movie is so good that movie so far yeah I was like to me like by watching that like this is adult

[01:20:23] filmmaking right serious in 97 he does the devil's own in seven years in Tibet which is just a huge back-to-back flop disaster year and then follows that up with me Joe black so he's in kind of like disaster zone and obviously this

[01:20:36] year he does fight club next year he does snatch yeah and you're like and then the next year after that is oceans love you're like he's found his we just did this on the concert but that's the movie Ocean's Eleven's the one where he

[01:20:48] crystallizes who Brad Pitt here I am as a handsome man yes then he's like Troy let's do it I figured it out right let's let's go to war yeah I've been thinking of rewatching tour to thank you thank you I will good luck my wife

[01:21:05] also keeps being like we're not doing that and I'm like kind of wonder there's some kind of like medieval section on Apple TV that they keep pushing at me even though it's a classic six-hour extended cut of hell yeah that probably

[01:21:16] gets that from a C plus to a B- yeah all right this is a funny quote from pit the JJ is very happy with he says it's astounding it's an astounding extraordinary amazing movie it's a pummeling of information it's mr. Fincher's opus it's provocative but

[01:21:34] thank God it's provocative people are hungry for films like this films that make them think Fincher is piloting the Enola Gay on this one he's got the a-bomb mr. Holland's opus reference yes pits referencing Holland's opus yes that's no weirder than Tyler Durden referencing Forrest Gump well picture

[01:21:50] Pitt getting his his VHS of mr. Holland's opus and being like man when they played that opus at the end he couldn't rip the shrapnel fast now Sean Penn wanted to play the narrator yes which doesn't really make any sense at

[01:22:03] all but it's a little too much for it but he'd worked with Fincher in the studio I think wanted he's still a huge name right Norton's a little more untested he's rising but obviously they're seizing on Norton right at the right moment as you say people versus

[01:22:16] Larry Flynt his big monologues and that doing the court arguments he's like okay good he's gonna be talking about him being put upon next to he's good in the irascible wild card he's great in that movie I am such a I'm so mixed on

[01:22:29] Norton I feel like we both are Griff obviously his later career is very up and down when he's good he's incredible and I feel like we have this conversation a lot and any of our listeners who are like wife's favorite actor and biggest crush to this day

[01:22:41] well she see him moving now just because he's in it absolutely when he showed up in Alita battle angel a cameo that some people did not even recognize it and that is worthless yeah she basically started firing a gun in the year she

[01:22:54] was so happy she's like that ever Norton so she'll see like motherless Brooklyn just to spend time with Norton absolutely I didn't see Gotti which he only produced sure he produced and sure did that's so fucking weird to bring Gotti to the world this is

[01:23:09] probably a five-timers club but just that like that fucking Vanity Fair cover right that moment where he's positioned as a dog guy yes my sister only was nine years younger than me some motherless Brooklyn and went why the fuck did they let this is a seven

[01:23:21] members most important guy in the West Anderson movies make that movie and I went you understand that's like this has all been in theory a weird sidestep from what he was supposed to be doing all along how this guy was framed to us

[01:23:34] in the late 90s of like undeniably this is the dramatic heavyweight actor of his generation will be owning the screens for the next 30 years and now he's gonna direct to how do you feel about it and then very I'd say at this

[01:23:46] point just kind of mixed negative yeah he because at this point is point of Fight Club contemporary he was the guy I mean I loved it I loved American History X I had it on snap DVD snap case snap that one I love Larry Flynn

[01:23:58] these and this movie was seminal and I just thought he was the guy and then now it's like I don't even really like him now like I don't look back on the isn't be like man I just love watching I don't you know like some actors you

[01:24:10] just think I just love watching him in anything how I feel about Brad Pitt I'm yes I just don't I don't love watching him in anything and when I see him and stuff now I'm just befuddled I hated him in glass onion see okay I love me I

[01:24:22] love him as well I think he's great in Asteroid City yes and then I'm looking actually awesome in Asteroid I think he's awesome in Asteroid City I think that's his best of the West performances although I think he's pretty good moonrise and he's and he's

[01:24:36] pretty good in yes but it's like right the last three Asteroid City glass onion friends dispatch then you go back to motherless Brooklyn disaster I think that performance is not good no and just the whole movie is like on him and then you're going back further you're

[01:24:53] like collateral beauty what the fuck are you doing why is that your follow-up to Birdman Birdman awesome he's great in a movie we don't like but I don't really like that movie but I think he's really good but once again you're just like

[01:25:05] basically he is only successful when he's making fun of his own reputation as like precious self-serious you know and then you're just like born legacy you know outside of the Wes Anderson movies leaves of grass stone I'm like what's the last time I liked him in the sort

[01:25:21] of like original hot run and it's like it basically stops in 2002 it's it's 25th hour yeah I think he's very good um you know Italian job he's the least interesting part I know he's like someone I feel like this is the kind of pattern that's obvious sometimes like

[01:25:41] after 25th hour he never really seems to seek out great directors obviously he's obviously he's number 17 on every Wes Anderson call sheet but like but after that who does he want to work isn't well but isn't also people don't want to work

[01:25:54] with him that's like how do you go from Milos Forman Fincher Spike Lee and then just like no a list director look 96 to 99 is primal fear everyone says I love you people versus Larry Flynt rounders American history x Fight Club that's when that cover comes out and they're

[01:26:13] like this guy has made six films they are all culturally important to Oscar nominations already he's like barely 30 years old probably yeah anything he wants and his next move is I'm going to write direct and co-star with the lynch least interesting part in a faith-based

[01:26:27] you didn't write it rom-com he didn't write I'm sorry but maybe I think that's almost more insane I'm going to direct movie or one of the so that's why she loves that is my wife's favorite movie that was one of my brother's favorite

[01:26:38] movies he showed it for a birthday party it's a charming film it's honestly not bad at all at all but you're like weird that this is what this guy wanted to make it's a little bit weird but you're sort of like go off I guess right and

[01:26:49] then he does the score which is this moment of like we're so high and don't your own Norton they're the three guys right that movie is itself unmemorable and then o2 is death the smoochy free to red dragon 25th hour he's good in death

[01:27:01] the smoochy he's great in death this money's good he's great in 25th hour red dragon he's fine yeah he's you know doing what he's free to he's dating some high and he was very involved in rewriting that film right but you're

[01:27:17] like that's a year where he's still in the conversation percent and then 2003 Italian job you're like he hates that he's in this movie 2004 you have a scene of him playing himself in after the sunset what the fuck is he's Rattlers boy right and then people

[01:27:32] like that performance but he's wearing a mask the whole time he's really good in Kingdom of Heaven but it's this kind of like oh you know good for you you did a movie where no one saw your face down in the valley is a movie I

[01:27:43] actually love that I think he's great in but doesn't exist I never seen yeah and then like illusionist he's not great I'm painted veil what is this wait a second excuse me I'm pumping the brakes what I actually don't mind the movie illusionist but I can't I

[01:27:56] can't really remember what what he's like and he's fine right I think your Vought is like ah I think that movie is fun it's fun yeah painted veil just got it's it's just got its lunch eaten by the prestige absolutely painted veil time and now yeah is a

[01:28:12] very good movie really that I think he's good in but obviously the global appetite for that movie was zero and you like the painted veil yeah of course I painted that veil every week what are you talking about porch classic we all had veils but then

[01:28:30] it's over the Joseph cotton and citizen came gift of like he's literally folding paper in half and tearing it up while you run through Norton's disaster that it's that's the thing you know he basically pride and glory is all right and I think why is

[01:28:45] this guy doing kind of like your movies he sucks when he announces that he's doing Hulk it's like Oh Norton clearly gets it he's ready to play ball he wants to make good and then he makes that experience so difficult for everyone

[01:28:58] for a movie that just does not work where they're like you know what you're fucking not part of these when he's in glass onion you are almost kind of like I can't believe Rian Johnson with this expensive you know sequel with a lot of

[01:29:11] expectations took the risk of putting Edward Norton in the second biggest role sure like in a way like cuz like I feel like his reputation becomes he's gonna try and take over your movie like don't leave you know don't don't even bother but that's like a Warren Beatty

[01:29:25] thing but Norton is coasting on this like off of what everything he's gonna take it over and make it good I'm like how can anybody even take that as a serious threat in 2021 or assume that Rian Johnson thought right and I think

[01:29:40] there's the other part of it which is like it seems like maybe he's less controlling when he's in a comedy sure none of the nightmare stories come from comedies and his only good work in the last 15 years have been in comedies and

[01:29:53] he's usually not as the center guy never is the center guy to quote Fincher at you answering your question and I'm not sure I agree with him he says Fincher Reeve Fight Club I wouldn't believe Nat Damon in this role I don't believe

[01:30:08] Affleck in this role I don't be believe Giovanni Rabisi in this role you do really wanted Damon makes sense he's the guy he's the ever also like he's he is an everyman type right and the similar kind of corn-fed slightly dorky but but

[01:30:21] still handsome enough to be a good thing what are you talking about Brad you know I mean like fucking they do that notion of love two years later but he says Edward makes a great blank slate his opacity is part of the thing that makes

[01:30:31] him a terrific everyman I don't feel that way about Edward Norton I do think he's well cast in this movie I think this totally works because like I certainly don't think he's an everyman Norton he's not at all Norton seems like a miserable guy yes and this character

[01:30:44] needs to be miserable from minute one Damon does not seem miserable no no Damon's a you know kind of this is the boy can be frustrated but he doesn't seem miserable you have to see this guy in the first five minutes and think

[01:30:56] god this guy's just so fucking unpleasant right cuz he's unhappy he's like and he's got nothing he is the mirror image of Keanu in the Matrix same year the you know the cubicle guy with the fucking you know ill-fitting white shirt yeah and Norton looks like

[01:31:10] he wants to kill himself and Keanu looks like he's like asleep right he's just like in a daze like those right to I mean this movie in matrix generation really feared the cubicle well I had to look at it I understand there's a

[01:31:22] different evil to the the open workspace but the cubicle thing is just I think one of the most depressing environments in the world the felt cubicle under fluorescent lighting is certainly not the most pleasant seeming vibe yes but they have this sort of you guys should

[01:31:36] build cubicles in here yeah we need separate cubicles where we can't see each other peek over Norton and Pip made this sort of handshake deal with it was like 99 too oh yes yeah and you would not believe what Deadpool did to

[01:31:47] the cover of that one I'm telling you blow your fucking mind it's so disrespectful is he covered in post-its no he's poking behind the guy he wouldn't even do it you wouldn't even do the difficult part Ben is punching the wall again furious Ben hey this is

[01:32:05] our third ad read slot right this time is different this time this time is different let's be reasonable we're we're adults here and to sacrifice two ad slots on a big episode yeah I club one of the bigger movies we've ever covered culturally yeah which just it

[01:32:22] would not be prudent and once again you got to keep the lights on we have salaries to pay totally so we're gonna do one ad we're doing one actual ad and we're sorry if it feels like a real kind of a sellout bailing on the bit and I

[01:32:38] feel like the brand that we're about to promote I think actually when you hear who the sponsor is it'll make sense but just again it won't feel like a betrayal that we've like had two ads sort of essentially mocking ads of course I

[01:32:52] feel like the brand may not love that but even give them credit for choosing to stay on as a sponsor in this week even if it feels like we're kind of selling out because it was pretty cool of them because even audio boom had to

[01:33:05] say like hey just you know they're doing this a bit yeah without ad so that's okay brands usually are not really into our bits totally but this is a very tolerant very cool of them we're sorry if this feels like once again like

[01:33:20] we're bailing out on the bit and our integrity and if you want to skip ahead now's the time to do it they'll just be like I'm in or two we're just gonna get through the ad copy as quickly as we can our sponsor for this week's episode is

[01:33:31] FUCK YOU NO ADS We did it! Three! Yes we did it! And you fucking fell for it even though last time we played the same fucking shit we did we didn't even fuck on you and in fact we maybe oversold the setup

[01:33:48] on this third beat we laid out way too much runway to the point where it got suspicious no you still fucking fell for like an idiot you know why because you like ads you love them I'm sitting up in my chair this is my fucking manifesto

[01:34:06] you pigs we just dunked on your ass on your ass so hard there is actually a sponsor on this episode really if you look like a damn fool listening to these ads and guess what that sponsor got their money's worth because you look

[01:34:21] like a damn fool right now honestly the sponsor is you being a fool I told you to skip ahead I said skip ahead and you're listening to this you damn fool anyway David left hours ago David is long gone when I when I talked to David

[01:34:37] about this he said okay do whatever the fuck you want yeah and we said oh well you will trust we're gonna get our money's worth the non money we're not paying to sponsor this episode with non ads and honestly it's paying out

[01:34:51] it's paying out not in terms of salary though and as we said we do have about 10 people on payroll and we have the rent we have to pay for for this office so next week ads will be back in full effect yeah this is paying out

[01:35:03] comedically but once again we are we are taking hit financially yeah no absolutely worth it absolutely oh I'm so glad that we did this yes but next week we're gonna hawk stuff so hard you will not believe how hard we're gonna

[01:35:15] sell stuff next week because we got we got ourselves into a hole on this one we really did this is the most expensive episode we've ever done actually you know what you're right in a way it really somehow it's become like a Terry Gilliam project that's spiraling

[01:35:29] out of control next week we're selling out we might have to do a for that we might have to do a bit this has been a success it's been a success and I did buy the Fight Club action figures which I thought were kind of funny because it

[01:35:44] sort of goes against the message of the movie you can see I think the other two fell down they're not very well sculpted but that's little Edward Norton there so it's just look like men that's kind of the best suit that's kind of the bit

[01:35:57] yeah there's the Marla looks kind of distinctive because she's got a she fell down I guess she's sitting next to Teddy from AI that's looking on the shelf here like that specifically looks like her right the Edward Norton ones pre-generic I mean I guess it just sort

[01:36:11] of looks like a sick woman the facial likeness isn't there because I think they didn't have likeness right so they have to sculpt it just based on the costume and the styling yeah yeah I know all this stuff I go too deep in on licensing agreements for different

[01:36:27] products anyway cuz I hate establishment fuck you back to the episode pit Norton shook hands and we're basically like Norton I'm gonna lose as much weight as I can pit I'm gonna bulk up more than I ever have sure and start doing it now

[01:36:53] and continue doing it over the course of the it's a great it's a great call so it was basically like I I was just lifting constantly and Norton was like I basically was on a diet of vitamins for six months which makes him look goofier

[01:37:08] he looks all withdrawn I will say also I want to just to complete the Norton thought they want him for talented mr. Ripley obviously that ends up going to Damon they want him for man on the moon obviously that ends up he wants that

[01:37:22] more than a foreman yeah they also want him for the biggest of these three movies runaway jury they're desperate to get Norton away giant he was supposed to do that it just her rank get off the ground and it's also this is all part of

[01:37:34] the Paramount movies and the movie it's also this is all part of the Paramount pictures you know handcuff that he has you know I think it was from the primal fear or fear moment it's what they end up using against him

[01:37:49] to make him do Italian so they he gives gets permission to appear in this movie with Italian job as the price which is why he then complains about the Italian job for the whole press tour while journalists are like you know have you

[01:37:59] seen the movie it's actually like perfectly right and he's like this piece of shit yeah it's very similar to the Emily Blunt Gulliver's travels thing well with that one you do feel for her a little bit although she was also

[01:38:11] spared being in the MC I mean it's good for her I think it worked out well for everybody yes they're making this movie Norton says to Fincher as they're starting he's like this is a comedy right and Fincher's like yeah that's

[01:38:23] the whole point so you know they are aligned as you're saying like this is a satirical film and then people watched and they were like do they believe what they're saying in this that we should blow things up you're responsible because Columbine had happened earlier

[01:38:40] this year yeah movie was pushed back from summer to fall people thought it was because they wanted more distance for Columbine in fact Fincher was like it was the one time in my life basically where I'd made the movie I'd been told

[01:38:54] I was out of time and had to lock and Ziskin and Arnaud Melchon came to me and they said like are you happy with it and he was like I'm happy enough right and they said if we could give you six more

[01:39:03] weeks would you take it and would you be able to make it better and he said yes they gave him like seven hundred fifty thousand dollars another six weeks to refine it and and pushed it back because of that I'm sure they also

[01:39:16] probably I think they wanted some distance some distance and it played better in the fall the Matrix has gotten tagged so much with the Columbine shit because they were so close together yes yeah Janine Garofalo supposedly was the first choice for Marla Sink this is one of

[01:39:31] those legendary right this era of she was the first choice for Jerry Maguire and then the studio box she was the first choice for Fight Club she was at this threshold point of yeah she claims Edward Norton felt she didn't quote-unquote have the chops she's

[01:39:48] always blamed him she said in an interview years later that Brad Pitt came after him said I'm really sorry about how that all went down and she was like had nothing to do with you wasn't your fault Norton claims that Janine is mistaken and that that is

[01:40:04] not true and says I'm a big fan of Janine's I'd love to do a reading with her and if she sees me in the neighborhood I hope she comes say hi that's kind of an asshole answer yeah yeah well he seems like a huge asshole

[01:40:14] I have no idea if it's true or not and of course Edward Norton is only allegedly a huge asshole and I don't want him to come for me no Edward Norton was dating Courtney Love at this time okay so we're getting to her

[01:40:23] next but I Courtney Love has one of the weirdest dating histories ever but he was dating Courtney Love for a while but so we can all agree that you Grafala doesn't do it it's just a matter of we're not sure why now

[01:40:35] Edward Norton wanted to do it and she felt it's sort of it's fascinating to imagine Grafala doing this because it would be the kind of like can you do a role this like this like you know could have everything right right I have no idea obviously supposedly

[01:40:50] Edward Norton wanted Courtney Love to do it and Brad Pitt was like absolutely fucking not like she is too insane to like she will fuck this movie conjecture you could see today had been in people versus Larry Flynn together it's Courtney Love's best performance yes you could see

[01:41:05] Norton icing Grafala out because he wanted to create the opening for love conjecture and then everyone else just went love is not getting this you created an opening for no reason absolutely possible obviously Fincher casts Helena Bottom-Karner now you can read Courtney Love's long exegesis on

[01:41:27] her getting focused and coherent it's not reach it was on Marin that she says she also had I believe a Twitter or Instagram thread maybe where she expanded on it as Fincher said Fincher is pretty blunt about it in Brian Rafferty's book where he's just like

[01:41:45] the personal stuff was gonna get in the way of it like she understood the character there's no doubt but like it was just too much I think they're all just basically like do you know how insane it is we're getting to make this

[01:41:55] at a big budget right like we cannot introduce like something chaotic like that she says that it's because Pitt wanted their life rights to Kurt Cobain and she wouldn't give them she does and then he said don't cast her that seems

[01:42:07] she says like a thing that Courtney love has said absolutely it's a good it's a good story it's just I want to go in Occam's razor you can definitely see just the stakeholders this movie being like Courtney love seems like a chaotic person yes right in 1999 really wanted

[01:42:23] Reese Witherspoon and kept on pushing her on him which is kind of interesting because she hadn't really popped yet but I guess she was one of those people where they said like tensions is 98 yeah right like an election is 99 obviously like obviously again that's a

[01:42:38] zag for her like she's been in like pleasant yeah that was his whole thing and then I know fucks her out of Gone Girl is fucking to campaign but but Reese Witherspoon Helen is an interesting choice at this point because she's almost exclusively prestige

[01:42:53] period where this was my introduction to her right I had no sense of this in room with who I now feel like the public are section of on the bottom Carter primarily is yes very good in the film in my opinion is I agree with

[01:43:06] that is this a but is this a non character she's she disappears for I would say almost an hour of any character in Fight Club have any dimensionality at all Bob you know what he's got the most well-rounded and a

[01:43:18] couple wait a second I did I feel like Marla Singer iconic as a sort of twisted female character correct but she's really after the first 20 minutes of the movie there's not a single drop of new information again is there and does any character in this movie have

[01:43:33] any no but she's the third you know she has whatever first lead also has made up yes I was trying to define like what is it but she's almost like a flip of a manic pixie dream girl where it's like the dream is that he's got got

[01:43:47] manic gothy dream girl whatever night girl like laconic laconic gothy nightmare girl there you go right this is a big influence on me where I was like wait a second what you're attracted this kind of woman absolutely I was like Pete

[01:43:59] mean to me step on me smoke in front of me and blow smoke my face by the way Ben's current girlfriend is nothing like this very true you really did not end up with a Marla I pivoted in a good way we've been friends for 10 years I

[01:44:11] remember you dating a couple Marla's you ever seem particularly happy in the moment you had a couple Marla's blow through your life yeah you know sexy trash bags yeah he bottom Carter says I wanted I want to meet Fincher to assert that he wasn't a complete

[01:44:25] misogynist because I think you're reading the script and you're like you know to what extent am I supposed to be taking all this seriously sure and she says like I could tell he's not an all-out testos package okay he's got a healthy feminist streak and she's yeah

[01:44:41] she's awesome she's she's she's she's very crucial to this movie I think I agree making sense yes she looks sick she does look a bit as it unwell or great both well yes unhealthy and rad as hell film shop for a hundred and

[01:44:59] 38 days mm-hmm just a long time it was like originally budgeted like 25 then when Fincher got a hold of it and he got pit involved the budget went up to 50 60 well 50 was what they agreed upon according to the research he said 60 it

[01:45:11] went to 65 I think in your linear 65 is what I heard it ended up at I think in the commentary he said 50 was what they he's lying he's a liar you're saying 17 or Fincher 17 I would never accuse JJ of lying 17 in pits pocket 17 and a

[01:45:27] half right to bratty yes right and you're tracking a Fincher like this this is that's a long shoot it's a long movie but this is definitely before this ridiculous obsessive reputation gets started maybe before it gets started but I don't think I think that is like I

[01:45:43] consumed everything about this movie every commentary every article I never heard like hundred takes I don't know if you did a hundred takes but I think you did a lot of takes 40 I kept on hearing him say 40 that's on the heavier side on the commentary here's a good

[01:45:57] quote from Edward Norton apparently hello kept laughing during takes like corpsing as the Brits would say and he he would say to her like David's gonna make us do 40 of these you really want to make it 70 stop fucking yeah no I

[01:46:10] think I think to some degree this movie has so many scenes so many locations so many setups that he had to like cut his usual takes and I don't wear those usual on the game I don't think so I feel like two things happen and this is

[01:46:23] where the Fincher heat comes is like one this idiotic reputation he's created of as a perfectionist I think is absolutely like it's just nonsense I hate it uh-huh to he's still shooting on film at this point I think panic room is hybrid both film and digital by

[01:46:39] Zodiac I feel like he's like look so jackson percent this is the movie about obsessives yeah I'm gonna just let it all out I'm now that guy right I'm Jake Gyllenhaal is gonna say I did a hundred takes and I watched David delete the

[01:46:50] first 99 yeah I'm gonna like it's time for me to fully put it on the table I feel like at this point that reputation is not there yeah okay he works people long shoots big budgets but it's not like Jesus that's a marathon and I think

[01:47:03] this is for the better I feel like he went out of his way to create this reputation we I kind of on the Kubrick episode yeah you know we had fun saying like this reputation and I think it's kind of complex I don't really think

[01:47:15] it's the way people perceive it sure the perfectionism it's not so much that Fincher I think is the opposite he kind of like created this for himself yeah he was I think as someone who loves him and is also deeply cynical of his public

[01:47:28] persona he seems to have been like I want to be perceived as a perfectionist so that my work is perceived as perfect and I think this is charlatanism and it's nonsense like the hundred takes like oh he stitches these frames together so that everything is perfect

[01:47:43] and it's just like to what end who cares about this this is like so not in the context of the work and then he makes four movies in five years and it's like you can't like his work does not keep up

[01:47:54] with this legend he spins about himself I almost think it is like it's a green M&M thing okay right where it's like the heels conservatives don't like him Hachi Machi it's green M&M wait I need my charger you guys keep talking let me tell

[01:48:12] you I've always been more of a brown M&M person myself Frank's got opinions they melt in my hand and in my mouth quick David's getting something do Frank I'm doing I see you need an AC charger for that laptop David David's gonna go take a

[01:48:31] shit well Frank when the Davids away the Frank will play no you know the there's a defender of this Fincher narrative so now that he's in the bathroom we can really debunk it I mean I think it's a good idea the green M&M thing in the

[01:48:45] writer which which band was it was it Motley Crue and Helen I've been Helen yes you know this thing right that like for years and years and years that it was cited as this like they are the greatest divas one of the things in

[01:48:57] their writers in their concerts for their shows is that they demand that in the backstage the green room there are no green M&Ms I thought this was Ozzy sure well other people start doing it right but they're the they're the biggest I think it's Van Halen I

[01:49:14] believe it was very love to be proven wrong and it was sort of this thing that for years they was sort of like not rebut it but also never really claim it and it was like are they that neurotic do they think they taste

[01:49:25] different is it like truly just a power control thing and then it came out decades later that like we had a very complicated tech setup and our writer have like the full breakdown of how things need to be set up because we understood like the amount of energy

[01:49:40] actual like electrical danger was at play right and there was one time they did the show and the equipment was poorly set up and someone got injured and they were like we're gonna put the green M&M thing in like halfway through

[01:49:53] the writer so if we get backstage and we see that there are no green M&Ms in the bowl we understand that they actually read every word we put in there and it was this test but in order to keep it going strategic geniuses Van

[01:50:05] Halen right in order to keep that test going they could never publicly own up to why they were doing that and I do feel like there's a similar kind of thing with Fincher where it's like I get people on set knowing that they

[01:50:16] would be willing to do this for me not that I'm gonna ask them to do it as much you know like I remember some Timberlake interview where he was just like and was it tough like the hundred takes thing and he was like no he was

[01:50:28] just like you do five takes maybe like do you not like we can be done if you want we can move on I've never heard someone who works with Fincher say that and I certainly ask anyone I meet who's worked with him like so what's

[01:50:37] the deal and what did they say they say you work you do a lot you do a ton of fucking takes when I interviewed everyone they just all were basically like anyone who doesn't like that as a big baby but of course that was his

[01:50:49] loyal crew an actor is saying I would love to work with you know I would love to do that that sounds like a fun process but like I just think he created this myth of himself rather than it being kind of created despite himself

[01:51:03] mm-hmm and I think it has led to a perception of his work that I find very irritating and at odds with my occasional love and occasional complete disconnect from his more recent movies interesting it's just myth-making and this movie doesn't have that and this

[01:51:21] movie David as you say looks great I feel like he really I mean he really I Zodiac kind of the exception but like his proselytizing of digital I think is a huge mistake and it's like borderline embarrassing at this point especially

[01:51:33] when you look at kind of like go off I mean you guys you're doing like you're covering all of house of cards so you'll talk about this later but like one episode at a time like the way he excuse me say that in a different accent

[01:51:44] if you will we wouldn't want to rush you're doing them all as commentaries slow and steady wins the podcast and you won't believe who's the one doing the commentary you miss me you thought it was fast fascinating when I turned to camera and talked to you

[01:52:02] he the way he kind of flattened the aesthetic of television with that show and kind of made all TV look like that very stately very cold it sucks I feel like it's ground zero for all the problems of prestige and streaming TV

[01:52:18] that we now live right I don't know if I throw that at Fincher's feet I throw that more no well for sure you know even I think even prestige shows HBO prestige shows up to 2012 did not look the way house of cards did and I think

[01:52:30] it's like a lot of shows look that way because he's so influential he's so is that when you're just influential and Netflix also likes movies things basically being produced in his style because it gives them more ability to manipulate it and post further well for

[01:52:44] sure I just feel like and this is like broader that again this movie does not live within nor does seven nor panic room a little bit zodiac to a good extent but like his coldness and his digitalness is good but it has all the

[01:52:59] had a bad influence it's good when he does it but it has only had a completely insidious and horrible impact on people's relationship with changing camera technology people's relationship with tone and mood and people's relationship with like this kind of movie even if it's a kind of

[01:53:16] movie there's anyone else who does it good anyone surely give me some examples her break and Michael man those are the three guys I think of who like Michael man is a hot stylist though he's hot yes but no but I'm just saying all

[01:53:28] three of them have like gone to video and tried to own what it does differently than rather rather than using it to try to replicate a replace but Soderbergh to use better Soderbergh is a dang ass freak like he does not even count he's trying stuff right well

[01:53:44] because he has like a camera in his butt these guys like all right let's move it along with the glass and he's just filming you but like he's like a he's just filming you but like I remember Soderbergh had some quote

[01:53:58] about Fincher where he was like see if you can find this where it's like he was like yeah we did color correct I talked about and I just thought like imagine seeing the whole world that way and it's like where he's like 25%

[01:54:11] darker in this quadrant yes get the fuck out of here like come on well this is silly so then what's your take on him it's very it's very up and down I mean this movie seminal uh-huh seven I've seen dozens of times right Zodiac well

[01:54:27] you're taking notes towering masterpiece yes I was taking notes on how to be like one of the great American films yeah a towering masterpiece and then all those other you know social network love right dragon tattoo I saw it once and then we rewatched it like a year

[01:54:41] ago went from like 7 to 12 stars for me correct correct correct it's one of those things where like I enjoyed it it was on Netflix you know like in the dead what about a movie about a girl who's gone like it a lot haven't seen it

[01:54:55] in a while I just remember let me be terrible yeah I know you you texted me a rant about make so long when it came out that I actually had to put my phone in the fucking bathtub what about a boy

[01:55:07] who's seven but it looks a lot older I have not seen that movie since it came out then you loved it at the time can I ask a lot of bits a lot of bits a lot of Benjamin bits how long we've been recording 30 minutes an hour

[01:55:22] and 47 minutes I joked at the start of this podcast it would be 90 minutes before we started the plot of Fight Club oh my joke was to team focused we know very on top I just feel like the future quite sorry could you say that in

[01:55:37] different accent for me no tangents in this episode we're on a straight road this is your point David a road to full hours he is so over discussed that you have to draw a circle around all of it because otherwise what are you doing

[01:55:51] you can't just say let's talk about the movie because that's not that interesting because people have been doing yeah we can't wait that's why we're not we cannot do a fight club is certainly not a movie where we have to be like all right the film begins with

[01:56:03] the narrator who is never named but often called jack right you know and he's attending various therapy sessions for diseases he does not have around his apartment he sees prices on the furniture which is a reflection of this capitalist packed IKEA furniture everywhere

[01:56:18] you guys are making me want to do this access emotion or his own feelings so he has to watch dead dying people I remember a thing I've been on a couple other movies we've covered from this year but I remember seeing entertainment

[01:56:30] tonight do the exclusive premiere of the trailer uh-huh which they also did for eyes wide shut maybe a couple other big 99 movies when this is kind of like peak film nerd movies that were like totally normal and didn't have any provocative elements sure right yeah and they would

[01:56:44] like be like it's coming up in the last five minutes the exclusive premiere trailer for mayhem yeah so much like TRL where you'd wait to see the video and they'd only play like 30 seconds of the MTV bug like having sex with someone in

[01:57:03] the corner totally yeah moon man high-fiving moon man mooning you yeah they they were like selling up the trailer and then they were only playing like excerpts from the trailer and having the horrible entertainment tonight correspondence go like we see the movie and it's like here for

[01:57:20] Charles price the time apparently you can't talk about fight club but they were like speaking to the fact that this movie is maybe a satire of capitalist society consumerism we'll have to find out Brad is definitely looking hotter than ever I do think

[01:57:37] all the things I was just pointing out such as yes he can imagine the prices of everything in his beautiful shitty apartment or he's going to you know these therapy sessions to feel profound in 1999 I cannot like a floating in the still fucking resonate

[01:57:54] uh-huh well the real things like the therapy set like things like that like this guy is so far from accessing his emotions that he has to experience like the worst human emotions right yeah like does that feel profound to you now

[01:58:07] because it feels trite but does it just feel trite because it's like fight club did that and it became like a parody of itself I don't know I mean like this guy I just want to sit this guy down and be

[01:58:18] like you just like jerk off and relax fucking weird he's never heard of it it feels like something like weird loser misanthrope wouldn't do but that feels like something that's very swept under the rug especially back then like men couldn't have feelings or whatever in a

[01:58:38] normal way couldn't have feelings right wasn't allowed it had to the green M&M came along the movie does literally start with you're probably wondering what the hell is going on here we have to acknowledge that it also then starts

[01:58:50] with like let me start earlier no no no even earlier okay that's right there I am like it's it has every silly cliche and yet does none of these things feels like it's aware of all these cliches like desolate like that right Deadpool

[01:59:02] perfected the formula of course um fight cool fight club walked so that Deadpool could run fight pool fight pool um dead club the narrator uh the whole first chunk of this movie right it's the same except for the sort of last

[01:59:17] chunk they kind of right change uh the whole first chunk is him fighting with Marla over um you know which days you get my favorite section of course it is because it's like screwball comedy yeah like more than comedy with a timber I

[01:59:30] like it yes he's more centrally a part of the film and the car recall stuff is dark and fucked up in a fun way it's right out of like Douglas Copeland or whatever right like right you know like the gen x people where it's like you

[01:59:43] know it's so meaningless and surreal like it speaks to our human condition like 99 like it's cold war the gen x cynicism is now metastasizing into a is the whole world over well right not just literally y2k but also just being like end of

[01:59:58] history yes and I knew you were going to say the end of his course I was we're talking about fight club it's like one of the most end of history movies ever made David David we're not don't say we're talking about fight and then

[02:00:09] history is now gonna end now right currently yeah well no that's the end of the world is what you're talking about the idea of the end of history was that the world wasn't going to end there just wasn't gonna be any more they're gonna

[02:00:20] things happen yeah right yeah and then too many things happen to be clear the end of history is more complicated can I say something I'm so tired of living in unprecedented times can we get precedented times for a change history this feels like history won't

[02:00:34] stop happening around me I can't take a damn breather no as you said we can history happening we can't talk about this movie without mentioning 9-11 it's one of the it's the one of the definitive like oh I see that 11 hasn't happened to these people yet yeah

[02:00:50] right you know more so than American Beauty even if you just showed it to people now they would think like this has to have been a commentary on 9-11 is this a reaction not that young people would be like oh this is one of

[02:00:59] those 99 movies they would just think like oh this is a 9-11 movie which it is well in the imagery at the end which is I still think the most effective imagery in the entire movie so cool I think this movie has one of the better

[02:01:09] endings you mean the Chinese ending yes that one where they go Tyler Durden you're a bad man time to go to jail you know this yeah because American films were not allowed in China for a very long time this is very recent Fight

[02:01:24] Club finally got released in China and they made their own ending where they were like well crime cannot pay you Tyler Durden must be punished it ends with a freeze frame of Norton shooting himself and then a text comes up that

[02:01:35] says like thanks to all the clues the authorities arrested Tyler Durden and he was sentenced to life time in an insane asylum he died on the way back to his home planet the end truly his home planet it's basically a poochie level

[02:01:49] tacked on it ends with a note to viewers that says through the clue provided by Tyler the police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals successfully preventing the bomb from exploding after the trial Tyler was sent to a lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment he

[02:02:03] was discharged in 2012 this appears in the movie after it is revealed that Tyler is not a real person right nobody the ending of this movie had to like rap for the day like it was almost five o'clock fuck we forgot to do the

[02:02:15] fight club ending uh they all went to jail yeah also they were writing this postscript on Twitter they only had so many characters that Tyler was rehabilitated by society basically a quote tweet on the movie no but I the ending feels like literally what you're

[02:02:32] saying of like time in my life yes and then like two buildings collapse or what it's one building that's massive anyway many my right you're watching a bunch of buildings collapse out your high-rise window exploded yes and then you're sort of just like I guess this

[02:02:46] kind of puts things in perspective yeah how do you feel rewatching it the because David as you said we can't watch this movie and not know that I mean it's on my mind opening night of course it's I think it's a good twist

[02:03:00] obviously does it work when you rewatch the movie I had this thought rewatching it just now like is this a it's almost just as rewarding now that you know no it doesn't make any sense it's it's more frustrating almost yes go on well

[02:03:11] I just feel like because you're always like as Anna was saying like so how is he like walking around while Tyler's having sex with her like what is the POV that we're in very often you're like is he actually doing this or is he imagine

[02:03:23] Tyler doing this and it's unclear in the movie kind of place that's what I would all or upstairs with Marla I think it depends imagining that he's also downstairs with Marla I think it's imagining that he's also downstairs trying to not listen to it like when

[02:03:37] he's talking to Marla in the kitchen right that's the most devastating moment where he's like what are you doing here and she looks at him like very hurt because she's like we've just been upstairs this whole time like like I actually if she plays that moment quite

[02:03:51] well it's very good and it's very good to me like representation of like as much as he's like no one understands me I am you know the Gen X narrator I am Jack's bile duct or whatever it's like no you're just like an asshole it's not

[02:04:03] nice people around you like and you're writing this off as like well my insane alter ego best friend Tyler Durden is causing all this trouble and Tyler Durden is just his evil you know male id right uh-huh it's just bad in like

[02:04:16] the you know when you see him later it's not like a sixth sense twist really good God they like you know like it was perfect they dodged every it was there oh right yeah no like no it's it's metaphorical right yes yes it is

[02:04:28] obviously I mean this was my professor James Anil scene and I was like I'm gonna go back to this because my professor James Anil scene post-war American lit shout out James his big his whole thing was like watch the movie like you know Brad Pitt looking

[02:04:41] like the sexiest man who ever lived dressed perfectly with washboard abs yeah is like looking at a Calvin Klein out on the bus and being like men are fed such you know lies that they have to aspire to and he's like this is like

[02:04:53] the funniest shit in the world like that you have Brad Pitt saying this right Brad Pitt is the most possible ideal and he's styled in the way that is like insane that any man would like be like well I could never dress like this

[02:05:05] Ben what's the read on Tyler Durden's fashion he is dressed in cheap clothes that you would get at a vintage store it's all for store right you know Hawaiian shirts he at one point is wearing like a tuxedo pants he's got

[02:05:19] the bathrobe with like the ice creams on it you know all this shit we're like no one could ever pull this off and he's like and he has a a chicken on his head and he has a chin goatee like he should look like the biggest idiot in

[02:05:32] the world and you're like he's so cool spiky fucking like a mark yeah amazing understanding this I think Fincher said in the commentary that these sunglasses were what Brad Pitt's assistant was wearing on set and he was just like you should put those uh-huh

[02:05:48] that's cool yeah but Ben do you like his look absolutely it was so deeply influential I feel like around this time I definitely me and all my friends were wearing Dave's auto body shirt absolutely right anything with a patch on it yep like yeah absolutely gas

[02:06:06] station attendant shirt like something like that just like shitty jacket slogan t-shirt that's Knoxville as well yeah the other convergence of these totally well not real is like for Z-List Brad Pitt like he's like I've been trying to be Brad Pitt in

[02:06:20] Hollywood no one will take my phone calls but it's what if I throw myself a chaotic good versus chaotic yeah he's also like literally Tyler Durden we're friends are walking down the hallway yeah it's like I'm just gonna like push you into a giant hole right and watch

[02:06:32] you get out of it yeah the funniest man where but he's also kind of the hottest man who ever lived yeah he's so fucking so sexy yeah but only once he has become this like jackass loser like and then yeah anytime he shows up in a

[02:06:44] scripted movie you're like yeah you're all right you know I just remember girls in my school when there was the poster of him shirtless like yeah with sunglasses on and they were just like he's the hottest guy alive and I was

[02:06:56] like really he is why were you confused because I didn't get it you didn't get it but you get it now I was asleep he thought men like Johnny Bravo I did women want one thing and it's fucking disgusting monkey with me yeah tiny legs

[02:07:12] tiny legs triangular door yeah it's bigger than the rest of the body five inch tall hair when will we get our Johnny Bravo movie why don't you make a Johnny Bravo where I'm scabbing writing one right now thank God Alex's new bit

[02:07:30] is that he's scabbing I knew but it's not that I have done literally nothing for three months you're going insane not able to do anything definitely not going insane but rather than doing nothing for three months is that I'm constantly working for studios under

[02:07:42] the radar as a scab but which is clear I'm not is it scabbing if you've already gotten a Johnny Bravo waiver which they made very clear in the outline yeah this is very unknown but the WGA granted Johnny Bravo we went to the WGA and said

[02:07:54] can I write a Johnny Bravo movie and they said no we're on strike absolutely not and he said do the monkey with me I had to google literally what is Johnny Bravo because this is after my time and what is something of his I

[02:08:05] could say mama I was seeing Fight Club in theaters twice opening weekend while you guys were watching Johnny Bravo I wonder we hit a great one true and I was like yeah this is pretty profound Johnny Bravo yeah it's got a lot to say

[02:08:18] about my masculinity and I was making phone calls Saturday morning being like you gotta come see this movie with me I'm not going to tell you anything about it I saw it last night we're all I'm rounding up a posse and we're going

[02:08:28] tonight how do you know I was yelling at my brother down the hall James got to get in here Johnny Bravo's doing the monkey it's gonna change your fucking mind how did you feel about the twist at the time it blew your mind first I was

[02:08:39] all right I mean this is a time you know this is two months after the six cents I know twists are hot especially the guy doesn't exist as a twist it's just crazy they fooled us twice in two months it's the same thing well it's not

[02:08:50] I mean it's not literally but it is like wait a minute that guy's not real right no one else can see that guy that's the same twist twice ten weeks apart I mean no I mean you're right there's two big twisty movies at the same you're totally

[02:09:02] right technically the monkey is kind of a twist do the monkey with me yeah go on oh cuz it's sort of like the twist good call it's a solo down thank you Ben it's a credit to like I mean again

[02:09:15] this is like the pit magic and like I think we could all agree the first half of the movie is better than the second half yes it's magneticism is so that 17.5 million is so well spent because you can't take your eyes off him yeah

[02:09:29] every time he's even near the center of the frame that you can't even conceive that this guy is anything less than the Sun around which everything in Fight Club orbit the whole thing with the 12 monkeys performance which gets him an Oscar nomination it was everywhere a

[02:09:44] plague of madness and I do think I love I love that movie it's a huge hit and I love I love that movie it's a huge movie for me yeah I watched that movie that performance now and I'm like he's trying so hard it's like a little much

[02:09:55] at times he will this is obviously the great performance to show the work and needing to show the effort and then earlier this is the good version of that performance where it's like he's obviously he's playing the most obnoxious you know mile a minute like

[02:10:08] you know ultra charismatic guy but he now feels effortless like it does no longer feels like he feels effortless I think it feels I think much effort to get me in a room you know I know I actually do know what you're saying I

[02:10:23] think he gets better at letting this roll off of him more casually but like those jackets where the water doesn't touch him yeah I just think he gets to better versions of this but this is the first moment where it's like well you're

[02:10:35] saying he's just undeniable you're like this is like the center of the universe and you're watching him so closely it's impossible to imagine that you and then later you're like oh no no one else really talks to him and like right it's

[02:10:45] very like you don't even think about that you don't part early when he's not on screen you were asking where's Tyler and then anytime Tyler is talking everything he's saying is absolutely I'm sorry nonsense like like when he's putting the soap on his hand a big soap scene

[02:11:01] burning laughing just laugh and he's just like saying all the stuff like you have to like hit rock bottom and you know like I'm just like beautiful moment of your life and you're also fucking not but not everything because I also

[02:11:12] think he has that thing that feels very of its time where it's like I I know all of this like weird information that I dug up at the library that people don't know how you make dynamite all that stuff because yes disinformation he's the one

[02:11:26] that's like they're lying to you man you don't understand I mean he's such an armchair philosopher right of the stoner Jack Shepard if you will absolutely absolutely he is without a paddle indeed he is indeed he has paddle let me be

[02:11:40] frank he's just such an obnoxious gen X armchair philosopher keeps talking about how like men are slaves waiting tables pumping gas you know all this stuff snowflake generation of men raised by children of history another woman is what we need like it's a book that

[02:11:58] coined snowflake it like it all stems out of this use it's it's just like so silly the stuff he's saying and you are not your job you're not your khakis you're not how much money you have in all that we know what a duvet is and

[02:12:11] yet here we can quote everything he says because it is so simple and he delivers it so well yeah I agree with you everything he says on the in this movie I think it's sort of like quasi horse and yet gain Olyster this guy wanted to

[02:12:24] be my friend probably even today I probably kind of be like yeah let's hang out you know while he's going on about duvets I'm like you're so right drifting you would love to hang out like let's hit fucking cars with bats

[02:12:36] right okay but go ahead the other thing I mean in Gen X terms like this guy he's he is Tarantino he's combining this like thrift store aesthetic with this like I got a take man like let me tell you what it's all about I see the world

[02:12:50] this way this this period of history so and you're just like in the 90s people just took this very seriously yes but do any of you I know the answer to Griffin is from Griffin will be no what you know what a duvet is yeah I know

[02:13:05] what a duvet do you want to hit each other in the face no do you want to do punchings yeah which of course is the big I would do punch halfway into this movie or maybe even a little before just like all right come on man hit me

[02:13:17] like times you know pain is like cathartic I mean you sound like Tyler Durden his apartment gets blown up it's like 40 minutes into the calls him up for drinks they've met the one time on the plane I think in the book they meet

[02:13:29] on a nude beach is that they do that's right that's where he first sees him right yeah and Fincher was basically like why do I have a non-starter conversation why even start the fight over they're never gonna let me shoot

[02:13:41] that the way I want to right so I need to come up with something else it actually doesn't make sense that the narrator that we know on screen would go to a nude beach he seems it's done sort of pathetic he would go to a beach

[02:13:53] exactly to do anything fun like he all he does is go to his dumb job and Zach Grineer and was mean to him right he's like the idea of any travels you wake up in the morning you wake up in right I

[02:14:02] mean I don't know if you've ever seen a movie like this but I've seen it like five or six times every line reading of every like small character is first of all perfect and second of all burned in my brain you guys like show this over

[02:14:14] here to my show this to my man here you liked it like that guy is great in the conference room the like you know a dildo case in point the dilt like that guy is great the amyl nitrate lady at the support girl like all these like

[02:14:26] everyone who has movie five or six times but I don't have that everyone I'm I'm fucking Lou who the fuck are you like that every player comes in for a small moment is great yeah the all you know the what you know well now we

[02:14:39] know it's Holt McElhinney at the time it's just like that big guy yeah yeah like these guys are all you know build a house like every line reading like that in this movie hits so hard and it's so funny even like the guy at the

[02:14:51] you know there's hope in the inner city it's like that guy like every line in this movie pops and it's so cynical and cartoonish in this Gen X way of like everyone in the world is so grotesque yeah you know a fat burned into his

[02:15:05] polyester shirt almost modern art like with all of this stuff it's just this which car company do you work for like every one of these lines from all all these like people that are in one scene are so good I agree with that I guess

[02:15:21] yeah and meatloaf is incredible we haven't I mean we haven't really talked about credit as meatloaf a day which I love he keeps because there was a period where he courses a day or right he's no longer with us this was when he was

[02:15:35] really trying to like start a second act as like a pure character actor and not as like kind of a gimmicky cameo guy right and what his real name was Marvin Lee a day right then he was meat Michael Lee sorry Michael sorry oh he was born

[02:15:48] Marvin Lee boy Marvin Lee and went to Michael I think you went Marvin to Michael to meet he went through a period where he was like I don't want to fucking be credited as meatloaf and this is sort of like the halfway point

[02:16:00] where he's like I'm gonna add a real last name on to it meatloaf the rock a day right right Ben is it okay that I like bad out of hell I think it's an awesome album it's amazing I don't know

[02:16:13] it's corny you know it is corny it is corny but no you got to give it up for his like I think the actuality and theatricality and this show musical no it never came to Britain I mean or America never came to it was on Broadway

[02:16:27] for like two years yeah recently here 2019 yeah I was embarrassed about it held a musical yeah you're right it was right before the pandemic yeah cuz I remember it was playing in Toronto one year that I was in Toronto and I kept

[02:16:40] like seeing it being like should I just duck out for a battle in the hell me love is very good and he's good so effective in this it's very effective yeah I mean that you know the sort of supposed physical grotesquery of him is a little

[02:16:52] bit like very Gen X Ian snarky yes bitch tits is like a very dumb phrase that even at the time I hated when people said me too yeah it's annoying but like again I just associate with this movie so strongly as well like you

[02:17:07] know it's the first you know what's a Bob had the bitch tits like that's the first line in the book isn't it yeah right maybe I think it just helps that he's such a genuine warm presence yeah that's that's the thing yeah his face is

[02:17:21] so nice yeah and so open and yeah yeah but even like when he's like you can cry Cornelius so sad you're like this is the first guy who's been able to make this dude feel anything for a while right like Tyler Durden's whole thing is

[02:17:37] like you need to get punched in the face to feel something but like meatloaf gets through to him just as hard just through hugging him and listening to him it's the line they say which is like people listen to you differently if they think

[02:17:47] you're dying right yeah um and and meatloaf like sees him hears him acknowledges him what do we think of Jared I want to talk Lido I like to see him get punched a bunch should we take a walk on the on

[02:18:02] the Lido deck I have to say I still maintain this opinion I'm pro Lido always have no no I'm joking I'm joking I'm joking always will be you always will be what I'm sorry Lido pro Lido in all at all times no but like cuz I might

[02:18:17] want to be frank about that yeah do you like his cult work I do yeah and I really like his band she's Morbius like we're talking like Norton was a Swiss cheese recipe there's some holes I you were very amp for Morbius in the light

[02:18:32] right I just Morbius felt like a movie made for you to cover on blank check where it's like what is this this came out you guys are doing Espinoza right yeah I just feel like we're talking Norton at the time right he has a for me

[02:18:45] Lido my so-called life Catalano we love that guy sure circle of course by this point early 90s in this run uh-huh he made an American quilt he'd run he'd been a boy without limits he's in pre-fontaine but like this like for me

[02:19:02] he trod the thin red line this heard the urban legend this American psycho and Requiem for a dream yeah like okay Vanity Fair and how interrupted I know you're not including that but he has those four movies that are all about like disaffection Vanity Fair can have Norton

[02:19:19] after these three movies I was like this is the guy uh-huh this is the guy right after those three you guys are all like you're all one year too young to have seen no no no no no no I was so special about him especially I just pose

[02:19:31] as a young man who was so good in American psycho as a young man he's gonna America he's good I would a Requiem for a dream he's got all those he's well I think he's well suited to I think we do make the argument in our

[02:19:43] next episode the panic rooms has best performance great in panic room he's right panic room yeah highway was you know you kind of like tip your hat to that one is a little you know 2002 I don't know I don't even know what the

[02:19:57] artifact with fucking some Blair and Jake Gyllenhaal with the goggles sort of a VHS class talking about this is not a VH I don't think there's any 2002 VHS class I mean DVD classics sorry you know a rental store classic you've made that Photoshop and then

[02:20:10] like in 2004 when he's in Alexander you're like sure I remember there's this sort of brief notion of like hey could Lito get Oscar buzz are we like ready for like some big supporting turn from him and then after that is like going away like he always will have

[02:20:24] that 99 to 2000 run then no matter what I'm like yeah but he was in American Psycho and Requiem for a dream in the same year even with the cat fucking head especially with the cat head he looked awesome you don't want to dress

[02:20:37] up like a giant white cat he took the head off and he had his normal head inside he looked like a mascot I just like I but this was kind of like you know this is him doing a great thing he's like look I want to be number 11

[02:20:49] in this no I think his appearance in this film is quite effect angel face or whatever his name is and just get like pie if he's like five lines he has five lines and half the movie he has crazy makeup of you know basically like the

[02:21:01] worst black guy you've ever seen I wanted to destroy something beautiful I'm just controlling sir but but I love him in this movie yeah great presence I agree I do think panic room is is like Fincher being like having just worked

[02:21:14] with you I think it's really great to abuse you on screen I just wish that kind people just like react to you similar to Fincher and Pitt like why no more Fincher Lito why no more Fincher Lito could have been Jalen Holland

[02:21:27] Zodiac what he'd be terrible he's not better I'm not saying he'd be better but you could see Fincher being like we've made a couple movies together yeah but but that's what I'm saying by 2007 even you're like he's doing chapter 27 it's like his fucking leprechaun

[02:21:44] gold is like melting in his hand he's got nothing when he came and you know when he came back after chapter 27 he makes to one movie before Dallas Writers Club he makes mr. nobody harmony you know not harmony he was focusing on

[02:21:59] Jacob and Amel what's the name of the band fucking 30 seconds to Mars I hate to even say it it's acid on my tongue well speaking of music can we talk fight Club music sure yeah we talked us brothers we talked to him can I actually

[02:22:11] actually there's a really good quote about the dust brother his first choice to score this film was Tom York he went to Tom York it was like this you know I'm thinking okay computer like you know I want your music for this and Tom York

[02:22:23] was like I'm busy we had just done an album I didn't want to do it and he sort of regrets it now he's like I see the film and I go you know what have been fun but it'd been man so instead he

[02:22:34] throws it to the dust brothers what are the dust brothers best known for at this point three things in my opinion they produce Paul's boutique yeah okay you know BC boys sort of like kind of the thinking man's BC boys album right totally sample based right produced

[02:22:50] odalé the Beck breakthrough album that I feel like is sort of a huge deal in the sort of all late 90s produced mbop one of the one of the definitive did not say that twist coming either and you're not there what was the name of

[02:23:06] the band Hanson yes middle of nowhere here's my advice to you if you ever driving your car on a highway put on mbop you will look at the speedometer and be like I'm going 140 miles an hour this song is liquidated cocaine

[02:23:19] and then let go of the steering wheel and crash into a car and let them then slide down a hill if you actually time mbop with that scene in fight club it works out perfectly the funny thing about dust brothers according to

[02:23:33] one of the brothers Michael Simpson and Don John King not Don King Simpson says David said he wanted music that sounded like it was from white guys who thought they were funky but really weren't I said thanks a lot that's that's the vibe

[02:23:48] I feel like that's your genre at this time David you know that's your like Brit techno yeah are we going to talk about hip-hop Sims we might okay I forgot about that until just now I keep it in my pocket for another year I

[02:24:03] think you never want to tell me what that is more of a trip hop movie yeah this is the moment of like fucking tricky and you know left field and those kinds of guys are you a dust brothers or a chemical brothers guy do

[02:24:16] you want to keep hope alive a huge chemical brothers guide this you prove my two options I guess I'm gonna have to go with chemical brothers they're the fucking greatest the music in this movie works very well in this movie it

[02:24:27] is dumb terrible music I it's very I gotta say it sounds like listen to the score isolated it sounds like being in like a crowded Thai restaurant but he said an authentic like sort of like restaurant on Roosevelt Avenue you know

[02:24:41] or is it like sort of a shitty man it's like a Thai restaurant that has purple lights and like a like a bunch of aquariums sure sure do you like the Dust Brothers score for Fight Club Griffin I think it works I think I

[02:24:55] think it's I basically I think I'll just nailed it to a wall and I can't finch is very interesting in that he has great music obviously in his early movies like David Shires Zodiac score is so good right I love the Howard

[02:25:08] Shore panic room score but then like when he gets Reznor and Ross for social networks kind of the first time he's like okay I found like my composers like I'm gonna now do me you know for it do everything I do right yeah for then

[02:25:21] he's always kind of like thinking of soundscapes and stuff right I guess seven is also sure I guess he used shore a fair amount yeah me in the beginning no I agree with you that didn't totally crystallize as like this is a key working relationship until Reznor

[02:25:36] right but okay so the music sounds like a Thai restaurant anything else soundtrack the soundtrack we have it on CD at home iconic soundtrack great I just feel like as the middle of the season there are these kind of montages fight club building montage it

[02:25:51] gets bigger and bigger there's more people coming then the project mayhem montages they're all set to like very trip hoppy techno sure background beats which is became iconic it kind of became the sound of this kind of disaffection I feel like I didn't get enough about

[02:26:08] fighting Griff you don't want to fight no if you guys want to fight you can fight right now neither I think maybe that is where this bonus episode lost me maybe a patron episode is just fight you guys could just have a fight club I'm

[02:26:19] like I'm like so on a feeling and what Ben was saying we're at my most mad my fantasy is punching a wall as hard as I can I like it never manifests even in my mind in a hypothetical way as attacking another person because I

[02:26:31] don't like fighting now I will say I have gotten my ass kicked I've been in fights but not in the way where I'm like yeah then I book it took that guy down no I got punched in the face what are

[02:26:41] you I have also been punched in the face I like that no I hated it it hurt and then you know what it kept hurting keeps her for like a couple days let me ask this who punched you a person

[02:26:51] punched me on the face in the street in the face on the street there's a random person in the face all of those yeah a random person punched me in the face when I was coming home from work one night when I was like 22 years old right by

[02:27:03] punching see I had a slow knockout game actually that was me oh shit oh yeah really can I forget I'm so sorry I don't remember that I don't remember that I used to walk around Park Slope punching people can we say the new bit

[02:27:14] you started doing Alex I don't you could be referring to any number of things right now it's a fucking thick soup what are you getting on that little you and David live fairly close to each other yes you will see David like a

[02:27:26] block away and take a picture of him from behind like a creep shot and just text it to him an hour later see me like on a bike and we'll not reveal in the moment no you see him it's funnier

[02:27:36] to me to see you on a city bike from a block away and text you like a couple of hours later and then you take a picture rather than yelling right yeah and then just send you these like zoomed-in pictures of you from a

[02:27:48] thousand feet away zoom makes it feel creepy I take the picture I zoom in I do a screenshot understand a bit very blurry size and I have a recognizable gate I can't deny and you're just out and about a lot I do

[02:28:00] love to be man about town I am a man about pushing a stroller riding a bike these are things I do arguing go ahead arguing with people doing construction loudly was I arguing with someone like hey keep it down just going I

[02:28:12] don't think I've ever done the worst kind of the worst kind of past New York and complain about it we've done that when we had our construction sure when the construction was so powerful I didn't call and complain I called and asked what are you doing next door

[02:28:26] basically shaking the foundation I do like my David my David sneak attack photo it's a really good bit yeah I'll keep doing it yeah fight club fight club they're punching each other I feel like once the fight club is going well the movie is flying it's

[02:28:40] like a movie that's going to be a movie that's going to be a hit I think it's a movie that's going to be a hit I'm not sure you have early on in the fight club the senior reference where the mobster is like get out of my

[02:28:52] basement and Brad just sort of lets him I feel like that mid I feel like that that project mayhem is close like I guess so the fight club itself I feel like it's not lasting for I guess it's a fair move in together that stuff is

[02:29:04] all fun yeah he's not going to the groups he's feeling good house I love there's the you have to get enough Alex how did you make this work for Griffin has taken the DVD cover to highway a photo yeah of the DVD snap

[02:29:26] case cover for highway not like a with a flash not like a JPEG of the because for this to work it has to be a physical it can't be a poster it has to be a DVD copy and he has put Deadpool

[02:29:38] on all three cast members David can you just narrate the poster for highway you know I love when you narrate a poster do you want me to narrate the actual post and you have to read the tagline have to do the

[02:29:51] whole thing okay so the poster is it says Jared Leto Jake Gyllenhaal some with Blair then there's a Deadpool and on let Linda's head on his shoulder is a Deadpool and then behind him is a DVD and then it says highway and the

[02:30:08] tagline is it started as a desperate escape and became the wildest ride of their lives DVD video and then there they are on a car and they are see there's other right I will say you got to put really small dead tiny dead

[02:30:21] okay I'll do a second draft I must why I wanted a notes round yeah this is great Griffin I must say that I worked in video stores for the entire time after this came out I have never seen this DVD or heard of this movie

[02:30:33] before cult classic I know I have never seen a physical copy of this back when Gyllenhaal was like sort of like Donnie Darko his bubble boy face he's got the glasses I'm saying you you were like oh what else is Donnie Darko been in like well October Sky

[02:30:47] you know winning family film sure what else I don't know he was weird freak in these movies Bubble Boy and Highway no just Bubble Boy okay the fight club is going to think of the house Paper Street Paper Street house very

[02:30:59] cool I do I'm the worst where you want to live yeah you're mad my house is a mess I'm not going to live in it this is basically the aspiration for where I'm gonna settle down you want brown water coming out of every

[02:31:10] faucet absolutely when it rains the basement fills up with water you can just go outside and break bottles use just smoke cigs and just throw it on the floor when you're done with it just discard trash just you know where wherever obviously there are as

[02:31:24] Fincher says there are no Victorian homes with 18-foot ceilings on the West Coast so they basically built beyond that they mostly did location shooting but the Paper Street house is their creation it's very cool mold of from the warped mind who brought you seven yeah yeah where it's

[02:31:40] like what is because where is fight club set nowhere yeah nowhere and everywhere America USA that's right where it's American flags everywhere in this movie there's even an American flag hanging up in the house when his project mayhem well it was two years

[02:31:54] before 9-11 we had to you know never forget we're trying to make sure we remember you see David that's satire American flag you saying these guys don't love America the scene where Tyler is in the bathtub and Norton is kind of like bandaging himself up

[02:32:08] nursing his wounds I forget what they're talking about in that scene there's some important information in that scene yeah sure fight my dad right right right that's what I graduated told me get a job called five years later told me get married they'd shot

[02:32:22] that scene on like a children's playground underneath like a rusty swing okay and it was like a thing that that Fincher was really proud of raising oh it's interesting that they're having this conversation about how their fathers fucked them up in a child's environment whatever and he

[02:32:37] watched the thing he was like this sucks right this sucks I think this is important dialogue and I thought it was so clever I was patting myself on the back and they were about to tear the house down uh-huh and whoever the producer one of the producers was

[02:32:51] like is there anything else you still need in this environment right and he was like that's a good question are you gonna do it again and he came up with it and he said it was like a key moment in his career where like the

[02:33:03] things that bug him the most in the movie had have the towel on his head because he shaved his head at that point impossibly yeah yeah there you go probably yeah but he was like I would plan everything what no yeah I plan everything out so perfectly

[02:33:17] good joke uh and then the things I hate the most my movies are things where I had convinced myself of them being correct and refused to acknowledge it later when it wasn't right so I think that's like a great segue into the next question

[02:33:31] which is like what do you think you need to shake a scene off sometimes you've gotten too settled in your head and you need to just like throw it up in a different way approach from a different angle should we talk gay

[02:33:43] text and subtext now that we're on the same thing it's very important that was the other big note how fucking right gave his right he was like I needed a scene to show like how devoid of self-consciousness and embarrassment Tyler was right he's

[02:33:57] like a good skin yes which is pretty good skin sure good skin all right so I'm trying to skin brand in this sort of like obvious attraction that narrator has to Tyler like is that ultimately just about this because this is like it okay so if he's in

[02:34:12] love with himself uh-huh is this an antithesis of the movie is this like deep solipsism I think he's in love with an idea of who he wishes he could be yes I think that's true but I do also think he wrecked he resent you

[02:34:24] know Tyler does also represent his like latent fear of sexuality sure like in general because like as the movie goes on Tyler growing apart from him including the comfort comes with project mayhem is like he's acting he's acting spurned yes he's acting

[02:34:39] very but he's like why didn't you tell me about that I thought we who are these other people I thought I thought it was you and me right it's also when he thinks the Tyler's fucking Marla Marla right it's all he's afraid yeah

[02:34:51] he's jealous of her not of him and he won't even admit that he is attracted to her it's part of the twist obviously but yes I do think it's also right it's his sort of self-hatred and his like you know yeah well the other

[02:35:02] thing that is much like American psycho like decades later when the author was like I'm gay I was gay when I read like I've been in a relationship since I wrote this book sure it took the supposed subtext of people being like

[02:35:14] you know fight club kind of gay and it's like well no like Fight Club questioning masculinity from all angles including the idea of like well why did these guys think you know why do we want to watch these cut beautiful men box each other right how can you

[02:35:28] watch that and not be in all of their body the movie is kind of asking that question well and then most of the other guys who are there are gross or just normal what once again they're just like suits who you know you know

[02:35:40] stuff shirts who are coming alive like punching each other when the first jackass movie came out and it did well and the young audience rushed out and then was lingering at the box office and Paramount was like what's going on here and they were like it has been

[02:35:54] a lot of people being naked around each other and just like trying shit yeah covered in semen and shoving things into each other's asses and there's like no judgment in it Fincher this is a funny point just apparently when Fox started doing lots of ads for Fight

[02:36:08] Club during wrestling Fincher says like I was like this movie is pretty homoerotic you sure you guys want to do this but at this point no one's listening to him right basically thing like two things about that one so is wrestling so what does he care to

[02:36:22] there's always venture watch but there's always quotes of him being like oh you know and we should talk about the marketing where he's just like oh you know that's not how you market it and it's like if he really believes in the message of the movie

[02:36:36] shouldn't he be like yeah market it to people that don't know what's gonna hit them get them in the theater to see the bare knuckle boxing but Fincher is they're getting and then it's a two-hour screed against capitalism because they were basically like all

[02:36:50] right Griffin what you asked me to do I did it pretty quickly quick turnaround I would like to see this printed as a poster the next time I'm here you guys have nothing on the walls I'd like to see a printed out version getting stuff

[02:37:02] framed once upon a highway the dead pool cut hey once up can I say Alex you came here recently Ben was helping you do some other work for a different project yeah right and you casually placed on our shelf a VHS copy of bad

[02:37:16] company that wasn't that reason that was months and months and months ago you right I did do that this about six months ago two days ago you were that's a Ben copy right the small soldiers I didn't bring yeah but I placed a VHS

[02:37:27] copy of bad company David's favorite movie of that respective year right you said that that was the bottom of your letterbox on 2002 so you place it on the show I happen to have an a tape of it laying around that I didn't think I was

[02:37:39] going to ever revisit it is no longer the bottom film obviously what's the bottom is not quite cut this is how this came up oh I was like is it worse than bad company so I knew I had a tape of it and I wasn't getting rewatch

[02:37:51] anytime soon I thought I bet David would enjoy that he placed it on the shelf and you go I just want to know how long it will take for him to notice this was in March yeah has had never noticed no and David will walk in and

[02:38:03] after sometimes clients look at the shelf and go like hey Griffin what new stuff have you put up right like what this but does never noticed it Max McGill a mutual friend of the pod of course when he was going to visit

[02:38:15] you he came swung by here and on the way out he went like oh that's funny I'm going to go to the bad company on VHS immediately Max noticed Max no Max probably owns a bad company shirt because all he wears are like shirts

[02:38:27] from shitty movies for the 2000s that he buys on eBay but pinged it immediately and David was like why is that here okay good was that on Mike no damn well now I don't I know we have zero time for this but we do I'm

[02:38:39] still gonna we have still gonna set it up we have time do you notice behind the hat seems to be a gift here for me correct I Christmas gift have a Christmas gift for you Christmas in the car I need it well you know what

[02:38:51] my birthday was last week so we can well fold it in would you like to open it right now take a little pause from the fight club I think so yeah we've been too focused on the movie we have been focused on the movie I want to

[02:39:03] after this we should just talk project mayhem and the second yeah but this has been sitting here for about six months and wait the other times you come to the studio you said I don't want to open it I want to wait to open until

[02:39:15] I'm on my oh my god okay it's a VHS unsurprising well I mean you know this is the movie I thought I finally was rid of this movie no VHS for the rising winner unopened sealed yeah seal now if you open that there will be

[02:39:29] a curse on your family for seven years I don't want that now I also when I brought the bad company tape I brought the lucky numbers DVD that I had to buy to get the Nora Ephron commentary commentary so I've had like a nice

[02:39:41] four-month break from having a copy of lucky numbers in my house back in your life thank you Ben you're welcome where did you get did you buy this online as a gift I'm sorry what yeah my landlord had a like garage sale and he had a ton

[02:39:54] of he had a sealed lucky numbers yeah I guess you never want to break the seal beautiful I saw then I was like I know just the guy is gonna that's one of those movies we covered during the early pandemic where I'm like I know I

[02:40:07] watched it I sort of remember things about it but like like kind of forgotten about it be time for a revisit like one Michael Moore jerk well of course it was because we were just what the fuck else are we doing yeah could be time

[02:40:19] for another one of those like I don't know what else we're doing but I just want to say thank you so much for sharing the lives of this of this space I want to say something just to pin this for for a distant future that may

[02:40:31] never come you're welcome just because the fact that you got this from your landlord is so fascinating your landlord is a fascinating figure there are things that happen in your building that people would not believe how on brand they are to be Ben Hunsley

[02:40:45] universe and we can never talk about them because if we did you'd be able to reveal those things but you will not believe the things that happen right underneath Ben that Ben has no pardon yeah it's just happenstance that it really aligns with my vibe

[02:41:00] absolutely and just having a sealed VHS copy of lucky numbers fits into that as well yes yes it does indeed Alex is in the bathroom Alex is in the bathroom you want to say anything David how do you feel like the episodes going pretty good honestly

[02:41:14] the car garage episode was so like a lot of people texted me with concern after it aired oh because we were getting up right and and I responded to all those people being like oh I think that episode is funny like I think

[02:41:26] you know my frustration is like you know I'm playing into a little bit it's funny yeah but like I got a lot of concern text messages yes there was a there was there are many threads of like has the show gone too far right

[02:41:38] and then of course right I read it and I'm saying like people who actually know me or in contact right and then my brother remarked he's like there's this moment where like David says like this is not funny anymore and Ben says like

[02:41:50] it's not and he says it on humorlessly like Ben is just like yeah saying that until he's like I was really proud of him for leaving that in like that's kind of a kind of an intense moment like to just sort of like not cut out of the

[02:42:02] show to go in and break the bed we try it was not the intent for us to break the bit yes I don't think Alex and I I can fucking pull up the text we were like this is we're gonna break the bed

[02:42:13] break I mean obviously you wanted to go as hard as you could but you're not supposed to go as hard as you could I know that we're talking about project mayhem well in a way in a way now we're talking about your last appearance

[02:42:26] on the show on the clock recording episode and we shouldn't be too self reflective universally beloved and right not at all scrutinized appearance right right and then since then we have made fun of you on the show a few times and you've texted us angrily which it

[02:42:40] which is which is fun angrily in quotes yeah exactly I don't know if you did you make fun of me or did you just kind of remember at some point you were like Griffin was like yeah you know Alex running a bit into the ground and you

[02:42:52] were like yeah no shit right well yeah no shit yeah it was my stated intention to burn it down okay I came into that episode and these movies are obviously very unified this is kind of the clockwork orange for another generation

[02:43:04] it's the edge Lord I came into that Halloween less so maybe no we'll find another edge Lord one right I came in being like jumping jack yeah here's my project mayhem homework I want to find a bit and burn it down right yeah

[02:43:16] right uh-huh well I want to destroy something beautiful it was saved my life it was it was a quiet act of of mercy yeah quietly it was to put you it was putting the bit out of its misery to be fair you had already said we're doing

[02:43:30] Boyle and I said that's gonna be tough and you were like I have told Griffin the bit has to not exist right and when we do a British filmmaker I'm not sure about this timeline on whether that was only your prior absolutely I knew

[02:43:42] that it was okay absolutely on our drive to he's got you now getting a lot of credit for basically being annoying no you said I have said when we do this filmmaker I cannot deal with this right and I thought great I mean I certainly

[02:43:58] was yes I was preparing for the the ultimatum he said I can't find the text now but it was we have to go harder than we've ever gone before I have to break it was on a text with the two of

[02:44:09] you oh okay Ben was let me see if I can find let's mention Ben was in on it yeah Ben was in on it yeah but then Ben was over you were like that was too much and like you know I feel bad for

[02:44:19] David Ben has a beating heart he's a sympathetic figure very true I'm all about like the you know the the anarchy of it the content right burn it down watch the world burn or whatever what is another edge Lord movie you could do what's another edge Lord classic

[02:44:33] from this time for you for me mm-hmm I will think about that okay like another like Fight Club where you're an angry young man movie yes like I have to see this over and over again I mean American Psycho is one sure it's funny

[02:44:45] yeah no I think that movie is from like a gaze perspective that is like well the people who love this are wrong about what they love about it sure I mean obviously I feel literally make a film and take this at famously insane

[02:44:57] fans if you much like Fight Club if you take this at face value you are a fool and you are missing the point a good edge Lord movie of that time what's what's this okay the box office game in like 10 minutes 45 project may have yeah

[02:45:15] Ben I told Griffin this the other day but be prepared to go hard as hell with the England bit during Glenn Goren ship so I'm serious it's the most British movie you've ever covered we need to go so far beyond with it that David loses

[02:45:28] his mind and Ben's responses I fully accept this invitation to take things too far like every 20 minutes ring break not hearing the word well here's the word break if only we could have break away glass and a pipe to smash as well

[02:45:42] that would have been good if you've done that that's a reference to something else you were not trying to break the baby we're just trying to make me mad it was a benefit of running something into the ground and then hey look Friday August 26 5 of 9 p.m.

[02:45:56] really don't feel like that could have gone any better apparently I was very pleased with how that went but the funny thing is like I feel like some people said like to me like or you know you saw like people I seem very exasperated now

[02:46:12] and I'm not and it was people were like I think people really think that I'm like mad that's that's exactly that right and then I was getting you in on this people were because I don't have any other form of social media you can

[02:46:24] at me about other than on Instagram and people were adding me being like the fuck man like sure and then you were like hey come on and then there's this notion that's like man David was just so mad we got in the car yeah and we were

[02:46:36] basically like unpause you turned up the prodigy we talked about our daughters and just laughed and goo of course as though this had never happened of course it wasn't like all right you're ready to drive home and you said actually I have

[02:46:49] to go a different way oh right I was like Alex I won't be driving you home today you can get out and walk right I just want to be clear was all in good fun course because I like Tyler Durden

[02:46:59] and I'm not a fan of the way he drives and I'm not a fan of the way he talks and I'm not a fan of the way he talks and I like Tyler Durden enjoy the chaos I viewed the bit as like the credit

[02:47:08] companies you just have to blow them up yes because otherwise we'll never be free because we're a weak generation of men raised by movies what do you want to say about project mayhem it's just the movies turn from let's I feel like by

[02:47:22] the back third of the movie much like the back third of this episode is with the Fight Club you're like I understand the metaphor I understand yes not only do I understand it but this was set up in emotional character driven terms that

[02:47:34] are so clear and so logical also satirical but very clear but this is self-expression and then project mayhem has basically nothing new to say the movie has no new points to make right it evolves into what it really like terrorism yes but also like 60s

[02:47:49] revolutionary absolutely like it's not that different apart from that it's weather under it's more corporate targeted you know but like yeah it's just yeah we need to start blowing shit up like you know we're gonna take this to its logical and it's like we're

[02:48:03] gonna go logical continuation of let's just get out our aggression right is the logical continuation let's blow up a Starbucks I don't think so because I do think that the defining thing I mean the Fight Club comes out of them being like I don't I don't care about

[02:48:17] anything I want to care about something right feel something I have to feel something right even if that is a fist in my mouth right whereas project mayhem is like very pointed it's more like look I'm breaking out of the IKEA apartment I want to break someone's face

[02:48:30] yeah now I want to go to the source of my angst and destroy that as well and then the speed with which it becomes this national cell kill them all where we're a paramilitary organization it just feels like a thing that's like they

[02:48:42] adapted the sequel into the book as well like it feels like that kind of it's just so much content of move is 50 minutes I will say I do feel like though Tyler all of the stuff he's doing as the cater waiter where he's pissing you're

[02:48:54] coming in food I'm not gonna say I'm gonna say I'm not gonna say I'm not coming into food like I do think there is something to his character that like it leads to project mayhem like I do see totally yeah I see there like being sort

[02:49:08] of it leading up or escalating to that it escalates nicely but it's just like the point has been made yes when Fincher talks about like I now with distance could go and spend six months and figure out how to cut this movie down you do

[02:49:21] feel like this is what he cut down like the thing he wants to accomplish is like this is what he'd cut down. Like, the thing he wants to accomplish is, Tyler becomes scary to the narrator now. Spiraling out of control, the narrator's not even,

[02:49:32] yeah, aware of his other self at this point. He's turning on him and it's like, it doesn't need to be 45 minutes. It can be almost a proposal. But if it was 20, it would just be a disaster. It might even feel crazier, right?

[02:49:43] Yeah. The slow build of it is correct narratively, but like, emotionally, the mood, like, as we're saying, you see the beginning, you see a fight club. Someone like Ben and I says, you know, I can see the thrill of that. By the time they're in the black suits

[02:49:59] and they're blowing up the corporate art, I'm like, look, I like setting fires as much as anybody and I love fireworks, but like, come on, I don't want to do this. Mm-hmm. And as Edward Norton says, he's like, you're running around in ski masks.

[02:50:10] What do you think is going to happen? And I'm like, yeah, I mean, come on. I want to like fuck shit up, but I don't want to like get shot at by the police. Right. Yeah, well, these are the limits of our pussy generation.

[02:50:20] That's true. But that's the point is like, it goes from being, I think, in a satirical heightened way, fairly relatable. Yes. I am angry. I know what it is to feel angry and to feel confused to highly unrelatable, which is like, I don't actually want,

[02:50:33] like, I'm not actually ready to run off and like join a militia. But I mean, like, I think it's just crucial because we need to understand that Tyler was then found guilty of his crimes and rehabilitated by society. Oh, that's true. But then there's like, there's subtle stuff

[02:50:47] once the guys start living in the house that I do like a lot, like early narrators, like after the first month, I didn't miss TV. Right. Then when Project Mayhem's there, they have a TV. Yeah. So it's like even Tyler is selling out these ideals. Even now.

[02:51:00] That's a great call because that's the thing. It's like the pure simplicity- And the American flag is in that shot. When they're watching the TV report, there's like a makeshift shitty American flag on the wall. The pure simplicity of Fight Club where it's like, we're punching each other.

[02:51:12] There is no end to this except we don't want to do it anymore. Right. And that's fucking it. Someone taps out, the fight is over. Right, but that's so like primal and like understandable versus like I'm the boss and you're my soldier.

[02:51:25] You know, it's like suddenly it's like, fuck we're bringing rules into this again. Yeah. You know, what were you gonna say, Graham? I mean, you're gonna sigh loudly the second I bring this up, but I think it kind of needs to be said.

[02:51:35] Does it better be another Deadpool DVD cover? Well, he knows I have like 20 more. He's 20 steps ahead of you though. I have saved, I'll send to you guys later. He knows everything. He knows everything. He's already photoshopped himself onto the artwork for this mini series. Goddammit, Deadpool! What?

[02:51:50] What are you gonna make David say? Make him sigh? This movie is getting at, it anticipated basically like the radicalization of like rando nihilistic who gives a shit humor on the internet leading to like bizarre political righteousness. You know, it is. It's like The Matrix in that respect.

[02:52:09] But when you're talking about that shift, right? Of just like Fight Club is basically just being like, we're just like posting edgelord memes to then like 4chan becoming this like place. Here's what I'll say. A political hotbed, what? These people have always existed.

[02:52:25] The internet of course, you know, amplifies them or channels them in certain direction. You have to go down to NPR. Right. As we continue this conversation. But the tiresome aspects of some of the people in Fight Club, like I said,

[02:52:39] like there are people like that in the 70s and 60s and before and before and before. But not after really. What do you mean? I mean, I think that kind of radicalism is very much not a part of the culture. It goes away. Sure.

[02:52:52] Well, but people are always saying, oh we gotta blow shit up. Yeah, you know. I mean, it's always gonna be there. Is it though? I don't know, maybe not. I'm too tired. I feel like in the last 20 years. That's right, I can't even discourse anymore.

[02:53:04] I feel like in the last 20 years, this kind of action is very much not a part of the culture. Frowned upon more. Yeah, sure. Very few protests, very few like, you know, putting a pipe bomb in some like, some end of some kind. But this is my point.

[02:53:18] Feels Good Man, which I think is an excellent documentary about the whole weird life cycle of Pepe the Frog, is about this whole thing of like, it's a bunch of people who went to message boards because they were like, I don't give a shit about anything.

[02:53:29] My life feels like an absolute dead end. All this feels meaningless. I have no value. I think I am dumb and boring, right? And then all of them were sort of like bonding over that. Then they start like making comedy, you know?

[02:53:43] What are funny jokes we can make online? What are funny gifs we can make online? And then that somehow like metastasizes. I keep on using that fucking word. You do use it a lot, but that's fine. Into them being like,

[02:53:53] we've decided we care a lot about certain things and we're gonna get like really active. How long have we been recording? Like an hour. He's about to say a number that's gonna make you feel. We're at the end of the movie. It's two hours and 47 minutes.

[02:54:06] Still going strong. We're at the end of the movie. We're getting close to David can't record ads today. Here's a question. Does this tale of the movie make it harder to appreciate as a very, very good David Fincher movie? I just get a little bored.

[02:54:21] It doesn't make me appreciate the movie less. It's just in the act of watching it, I start to feel myself slipping. Because like this is a pre-internet movie. It has to be. Yes. Literally because it's from 1999. Well, the internet is just coming into shape.

[02:54:34] Yes, but like it does not reflect the internet as we now know it. And it does reflect a mentality that is wildly rampant on the internet now. But the point of this movie is like, you find that in the basement of Lou's Tavern.

[02:54:49] Now you find it on the message board. Tyler would hate this. Now you find that meme accounts. If you're doing this as an edge Lord on the internet. Meme accounts are good. They got dank memes. Inspired by the vitriol of this movie, you're missing the point, obviously.

[02:55:02] Because this is about feeling something. And it's not, you know, the people- Having soap or a lie poured on your hand. I mean, the soap stuff is, we haven't talked about it, but it's very funny. Not a big part of the movie. No.

[02:55:13] No, I feel like it is more important in the book just in terms of like economics. Like that is how he makes money. It's part of the marketing. Hits slapstickery when they're getting the fat. The fat scene is really good where it gets caught on the-

[02:55:24] And he just falls a couple times. The barbed wire and then it's like gooping everywhere. Stuff like that. Griffin, are you photoshopping Deadpool's face as something new? I am not. Okay, one, you can't say that incredulously because you have photoshopped Deadpool. David, I would never.

[02:55:37] What have I ever done? During this episode. I would do such a thing. Uh-huh, what are you doing? Nothing. Oh, okay, I thought you were looking something up. You're getting distracted. I just feel like this is a movie that the- What are you doing?

[02:55:49] I'm reading the fucking dossier right here. Okay, well so am I, got the tab open. It's easy to love nostalgically. It's impossible to admire this movie now. I don't know if it's impossible. I admire, I really admire this movie aesthetically.

[02:56:03] I think because movies look like such hot trash a lot of the time now, no offense to good movies that I like, the way this movie looks really does feel so special to me. Even though I don't really love Fincher's digital obsession,

[02:56:15] he never makes movies that don't look good. I'm not talking about, Fincher always makes movies that look good. I'm just saying movies generally. It's just like- The amount of care put into- But also what I mean is the amount of words

[02:56:28] spoken in this movie that makes me watching it now just laugh and roll my eyes is ludicrous. Like all of the stuff there's, you know, even in the- The whole time you just have to be turning to someone being like, you gotta understand, you know,

[02:56:39] in 1999 a lot of this felt like very sort of like with it and interesting and now yes, I know that feels a little trite, yes. I roll my eyes but I'm nostalgic for it. Right, you're nostalgic and you're sort of clapping them on the back. I have a-

[02:56:53] You know, like yeah, you guys, you're having fun. I can offer you know what feels like a concluding point on the movie before I list all the great Fight Club merch I had and we talk about the video game for half an hour.

[02:57:02] Do you have to talk about the video game for two minutes? Great- Two minutes times 15. In Chuck Closterman's book, The 90s, I looked up to see if he had anything about Fight Club and he says, either Slacker or Fight Club could justifiably be called

[02:57:18] the decades most generationally defining... I wrote one word here that I can't read of my own writing. Probably no. Edifying. Generationally defining edifying film. It's interesting that he calls out a very stonery, gentle film. And a very- And also Slacker plotless kind of vibes only. 1990, 1999.

[02:57:41] And it's very interesting that he identifies these two movies from opposite ends of the decade as generationally defining edifying films that crystallize what is clearly in the air for lots of people watching them. For Gen X men especially. I can't find a number. Oh, I love Slacker.

[02:57:54] I remember Art Lindsayn, the producer, having a quote of just like, we all thought this thing was gonna be a big fucking hit and it was gonna speak to this feeling in the moment. It was gonna be this sort of like cultural touchstone movie in theaters.

[02:58:06] It ultimately became one. I have this quote, if you want it. I mean, I don't know if it's a quote you're looking for. He said, I think we ended up realizing we made the first film of the 21st century

[02:58:14] instead of one of the last films of the 20th century. Which is a clever thing to say. Like, I don't even know what that means, but I still am also kind of... Cause I'm also like, this movie is kind of the end of the 90s. Yes.

[02:58:25] So it is kind of the last 20th century film. And once again, But I don't know what he means in terms of feeling like current and new and like the launch of something. The irony is that like the 20, the 2000s, like there is no cinema like this.

[02:58:36] It's not like, oh, Bonnie and Clyde, first movie of the 70s. It's like, no, there are the 2000s do not make art that looks like this for $70 million. 9-11 changes everything. You ever heard about it? Or did you forget? No, I never forgot.

[02:58:50] It's just a very, you know, it was a movie that was misunderstood like as it was being projected for the first time. Right. Which is why it failed, because it was confusing to people. And they thought they were seeing a movie about hot men making soap. Hot men.

[02:59:05] Right, that was the other thing. Instead they were seeing like a two and a half hour long anti-capitalist screed about how pathetic it is to have emotions and feelings. They made the soap the center of the marketing, but then it's like...

[02:59:15] And I bought on eBay a pink bar of Fight Club promotional soap. Do you still have it? I don't think so. I don't know what happened to it. You used it, wash his hands. No, I definitely didn't use it.

[02:59:22] It sat on my shelf and it shrink wrapped for years. I think it disappeared when my parents got rid of the house, but what they didn't want to save your commemorative soap. I mean, I might have it somewhere. I just, I can't speak to it for sure.

[02:59:33] I also had, as Griffin alluded to earlier, two prize pieces in the basement. I got the seven foot tall cardboard display from Blockbuster for Fight Club. Holding up the bar, right? Brad Pitt's holding up the bar. It's 3D, you know, it's several platforms. Because I said,

[02:59:48] what are you gonna do when you get rid of this? And they said, throw it in the trash. And I said, if I print my name on the back of it, will you call me the day you don't want it anymore? And they said, sure, who cares?

[02:59:54] If you come get it. So I had that in the basement. It was right next to the Nintendo. Right. It looked great. And I also got the four panel Blockbuster window display. Okay. Which they used to put up in the windows. So it's like with the, you know,

[03:00:08] a beam in the middle, two and two, with like six by four. Okay. Huge poster. Okay. Of Fight Club. And I had to nail it to the wall because the stickiness was gone by the time they gave it to me. You had to nail it to the wall.

[03:00:20] Sure. So these were in the basement. I bought a lot of Fight Club stuff. Script, the book, the soap. Never the game though. The video game, of course. Which I learned about yesterday. Was on the PlayStation and two and the Xbox. Yes. Griffin, have you played it?

[03:00:36] I have not. And it's wild because I was such a fan of tie-in games. I was looking for a used copy on eBay for a price that didn't feel stupid. And which basically is anything under $5. I can see it on the shelf here someday.

[03:00:48] I will get here eventually. But the big thing, which you texted a photo of. Immortal Combat style fighting game. It is just a fighting game. It is not a game about dismantling capitalism. There's some narrative, I believe, but largely it's like men in jeans

[03:01:00] punching each other in the rain. And who is one of those men? Well, okay. So it has no likenesses, but it does have the characters of Tyler Durden, Angel Face. This doesn't look like meatloaf to you? It pointedly has no likenesses. Okay, fine.

[03:01:11] But the characters are styled after the characters from the movie. Yes, you can play as Bob. Narrator, Tyler, Angel Face, Bob. The mechanic, you can play as Marla apparently. She's so good at fighting in this film. Someone missed the point on that one.

[03:01:26] But if you beat the game, the ultimate unlock, do you know this Ben? The ultimate unlock character in the game is Fred Durst. Now Fred Durst famously close friends with David Fincher. Is that her? Yes, because this was early mid 2000s when Fred Durst is like being pushed.

[03:01:45] It's like maybe he's going to be a good filmmaker. Maybe he's going to educate Charlie Banks. And it was like he would shadow Fincher on sets. Fincher says this guy knows what he's talking about. Fincher's boosting Durst.

[03:01:55] So I was like, is that how we end up in the game? No, they wanted to use a Limp Bizkit song on the soundtrack of the game. And Fred Durst's contract for any video game that wanted to use a Limp Bizkit song was

[03:02:08] you can use the song as long as I am a playable character. Indeed. And Fight Club said yes, the game. So he's the only person in it that looks like a real. Fight Club, the game said yes. He's also in various wrestling games, I believe. Yes.

[03:02:22] And this was always the deal. Did he ever pop up in a Tony Hawk? He should have. Probably. Go on. That's the end of the story. I mean, I've never played it, so I don't know if he's good. Appallingly misguided Fight Club side-scrolling fighter game.

[03:02:35] Right, I just think it's so funny to be like and you won't believe who the final unlock is. It's not like Goro. It's not like some super powered guy. It's Fred Durst. It's also not Fincher. It's someone who has nothing to do with the movie. With the hat.

[03:02:49] He's in classic sort of like, But that's like a perfect example of like, music video love. The wrong Fight Club. Correct. The wrong lens through which to view Fight Club is like, yeah man, break stuff. Right. Right, break each other. And when does the game come out?

[03:03:01] Game comes out in 2002. So it's like, okay, this movie's a hit. There's a huge cult for it now. We can sell this to like dumb bros who have a PlayStation and think this is a fun movie about fucking people's faces and getting into fights.

[03:03:11] And this is probably just like a re-skin Yeah, it's just fucking virtual fighters or whatever. King of fighters or whatever. Yeah. I mean, I'm watching some gameplay now and it seems heavy on punches and kicks. Yes, we watched a little, we sent the gameplay clip.

[03:03:23] David responded with some personal stories about his relationship with Limp Bizkit that we can either save for another day or you can reveal here. I think we need to just quickly throw them out. I have personal stories about my relationship to Limp Bizkit?

[03:03:35] Well, you said them on a text yesterday. What did I say? I love Limp Bizkit. I always have, and I still do. I'm listening to them right now with my daughter. Pretty sure. That's not what I said. I heard the classics early. I said, let's see.

[03:03:48] First, it's us arguing over whether we're starting at noon. David, were you a Bizkit fan? Have to assume Ben wasn't asking would be a waste of time. Ben gave that a thumbs up and said $3 bills y'all. I said, I downloaded at least two records,

[03:04:02] probably on Kazaa or LimeWire or whatever I was using back then. Said, don't think I own them, but I did do them the honor of burning them onto a disc. So somewhere in the world. Hotdog flavored water is one of them. It's the one before that Significant Other.

[03:04:16] I think you have the order wrong. Yeah, I know, I was saying before. Significant Other and hotdog, chocolate starfish. You guys would know better than me. You burned them onto a business card shape CD, right? Of course. A Bizkit card. And I handed them to all my DMs.

[03:04:28] You had a wallet full of Bizkit. And I said, I'm not gonna take a listen to that. Jesus, Significant Other, 70 minutes long. Fucking shut up, Fred. Isn't that like seven times platinum too? Yeah, and chocolate starfish is 75. I remember at one point listening to chocolate starfish

[03:04:45] with a friend of mine and like three songs. And we were like, what is the matter with us? Some kind of spell broker. We have to stop listening to this music immediately, forever. You know, the one that song that's just like,

[03:04:59] we live in a fucked up land with a fucked up place. You know, like he just says that over and over again. No, I don't. But I like this rendition. It's so bad. As you do, you're clearly the biggest Bizkit head.

[03:05:10] If they had a video, I probably saw it. It's called Hot Dog, I believe. And it sucks. The song sucks. I just remember. Oh, it sucks? Yeah. That's the bad Limp Bizkit song? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. The Roland single off of that album is so bad. Yeah.

[03:05:26] What? Come on. Roland, Roland, Roland, Roland. It's the other thing also, it's like all I did all day was watch MTV. So I had to watch Limp Bizkit. They were just fucking cramming that stuff down our throats. It is a bad time. It's a bad time for Tina.

[03:05:40] This is the crisis of post Fight Club, post 2000, post September 11th, like identity, masculinity, aggression, anger. It just became this. It became Fred Durst. It's accidentally Fred Durst being in the Fight Club game makes a lot of sense. 100%. The other thing, of course,

[03:05:56] is that Fight Club is about 30 something Gen X men, but then a bunch of 13 year old future millennials are watching it being like, this has a lot to say. Right. And it's not like Fight Club has nothing to say.

[03:06:06] No, it's literally the Rage Against the Machine of movies where it's like socialism, anti-capitalism. And then these angry kids are just like, yeah, man, fuck you. Well, hang on. I'm gonna set you on fire. Hang on a second. Hang on a second. There's a lot more going.

[03:06:21] The artists who are using a corporation's money. It's like, kid, you don't have a credit card. You're not even, you don't have these things to be mad about yet. It's like, yeah, I do. The artists burning a corporation's money

[03:06:31] have a kind of a point that they're Trojan horsing in and the kids are just like, fuck you, mom. It really is like an equivalent thing. I want chocolate milk. And if you're me, you're like, oh, I get into this because it's angry

[03:06:43] and I appreciate it later because I see what it's doing. And if you're most people, you're just like fucking snowflakes, man. Bulls on parade, break stuff. Yeah. I guess so. I got no beef with Fight Club in a way. Like, you know, I'm like, right?

[03:06:57] It's sort of like, you know. I think because it was less formative of my personality, I look on it with less embarrassment now where there are tons of movies that I will not name that I do feel that way about. All right, give us one.

[03:07:07] Scooby Doo two monsters only. Fair enough. And we'll just mention, we have a bit of a point as we end, like you're levitating when the pixies starts. That is like, okay, you've been exhausted for 30 minutes. Maybe the mayhem, as you said. And you're also like, where's this going?

[03:07:21] And he shoots himself and doesn't die. And when they reveal all the scenes again, Norton is just, you're like, oh, that's, that's where, oh, there was only one of him. You're just like, come on. It's a cool twist the first time,

[03:07:31] but by the time you see the movie a lot, you're sort of like, I know. And then the pixie song starts and you're just like, oh, five stars. It's great. It's just what I just find it to be one of the most evocative endings.

[03:07:43] And it obviously is like, it's the obvious culmination of everything this movie's doing. But I also just think like, God, I wish you could fucking end most movies this way. You could end most movies with someone looking out a window and watching the world collapse.

[03:07:56] It's a good end of the decade. Right, yes. Now they premiered this film at the Venice Film Festival. It went very badly. Brad Pitt remembers the Helena Bonham Carty, the Marlon line, I haven't been fucked like that since grade school.

[03:08:09] Like he's like, Edward and I are the only people laughing. Like sort of like Tony Festival audiences like walking out. Do you know the story behind that very quickly? In the script it was during that scene, she says, I wanna have your abortion.

[03:08:24] And Laura Ziskin was like, I fucking hate that. Can you please shoot an alt? And Fincher said, I don't wanna shoot an alt unless I come up with something that I like so much that I prefer to what we have in there right now.

[03:08:38] So you have to promise me if I reshoot it, you use whatever it is. And he shot that and gave it to her. And she was like, you fucking son of a bitch. Yeah. But Norton does say while the movie's getting booed,

[03:08:50] Brad Pitt turns to him with like a huge smile on his face being like, this is the best movie I've ever been in. Like clearly Pitt is like, I did it. Like, you know, I got to actually channel my image in a way that I really like.

[03:09:01] But he does that again, you know, like Jesse James is another thing where it's like, I wanna deconstruct the myth of the guy who looks like me. Well, I mean, that's what Moneyball is. That's why Moneyball is the greatest film for me.

[03:09:10] He does that a lot after this movie. I know, because it's the thing that works for him, right? I mean, like, yeah, like even in Glorious Bastards or, you know, like, you know, it's like, he's making fun of his image in the perfect way

[03:09:24] or he's like, you know, sort of messing with it. Like, you know, like- Yeah, this is when he starts to figure it out. He's like playing a movie star, but also their self-awareness. I mean, you know. The film made $11 million in its opening weekend and 37 domestically.

[03:09:41] And worldwide it took 100 even. Sure. So certainly a failure, but then as we have said, makes a lot of money on DVD quickly. It makes it back. Paul Thomas Anderson famously called the movie out and wished David Fincher testicular cancer. Do you remember, do you know this?

[03:10:01] I forgot about it. I don't know it. Because his dad had recently died of cancer. And he said, I thought, saw 30 minutes of the movie. This is also like late nineties, really nervy, young PTA who was kind of like this kind of like wired asshole.

[03:10:13] He's also got magnolia. He also was just worried that he's going to lose- Well, this is twice. He talks to this chain and then Kevin Smith shits on magnolia. Like these guys are all fucking- They're all needling each other and they're all, you know, but he says,

[03:10:24] I saw 30 minutes of it only because our trailer's playing in front of it. I would love to go on railing about the movie. I'm just gonna pretend as if I haven't seen it. It's unbearable. I wish David Fincher testicular cancer for all his jokes about it.

[03:10:35] I wish him testicular fucking cancer. I really- 20 years later, Fincher says, I've been through cancer with someone I love. I can understand if someone thought that. We weren't making fun of cancer survivors, but he's basically like, I kind of get it.

[03:10:48] Like, if you're in a rough state like that, my dad died, it made me feel different about death. My dad probably liked Fight Club less than Paul did, which I think is a funny line. But I just love that Fincher's like, yeah, I get it.

[03:10:59] Filmmakers need to talk like this more often. We've really lost this. I do agree that we need some like B4s with filmmakers. The only problem is no one makes good movies anymore, except for, you know, but like, you know, it's like-

[03:11:09] No, no, it's just guys on Twitter arguing with guys who like different directors on Twitter. It's just saying complaints from people who have no skin in the game. We just need like top tier beefs like this. This is perfect. We need the auteurs to have the knives out.

[03:11:22] Instead, they're all basically like, look man, if you made a movie, I'm proud of you. We need this industry to survive. That's Paul Thomas Anderson's thing. He says all the time, you gotta respect the swing. Does that, yeah, where he takes John Krasinski aside?

[03:11:34] Yes, yes, I think about it all the time. Don't ever say anything bad about anyone. The other thing I- I love this era of PTA. He's such an asshole, it's great. Yes, Fincher also says when his daughter was nine years old

[03:11:44] and she went to some school function with him and said, oh, I want to meet my friend Max. Fight Club is his favorite movie. And Fincher says, I took her aside and said, you are no longer to hang out with Max. You cannot be alone with Max.

[03:11:55] Very funny. October 15th, 1999, Griffin. Yeah. Fight Club opens to $11 million. Only on 2000 screens, which also feels like kind of a mistake. Yeah. But whatever, it's a bomb. Sure. Pretty big bomb, right? Yeah. However, there's not that many more screens in 1999. There's no 4,000 screen releases.

[03:12:16] Well, I will say there are two films playing on 3000 screens though. So why is it Fight Club? Yeah. October 99. This was in a box office game online recently. Oh, really? Right away I was just like, oh, a Fox movie that's not doing well, that's Fight Club.

[03:12:29] Number two is from the good people atop the mountain. This is number one. I know. No, I'm saying Fight Club was with 11. A soft one. A very soft one. Number two had been number one for three weeks in a row. Okay. It is a crime thriller

[03:12:43] from the good people atop Paramount's mountain. Is it Double Jeopardy? And it is called Double Jeopardy. Movie we rewatched less than a month ago. And? So fun. That's like a rare. At the time we were like, eh, this kind of like B-list thriller.

[03:12:56] Now I watch and I'm like, a taut masterpiece. I had never seen High Crimes. Oh yeah. So I've never seen High Crimes either. So solid. I mean a terrible, like the sixth Xerox of Silence of the Lambs and Seven. Yeah. But again now you're just like.

[03:13:10] Is everyone smoking that dank weed in that movie? No, no, no, it's not that kind of high. No, no, it's very serious crime. How dare you? And you wanna end the episode? I'd never seen that. We're just starting to get somewhere. Super solid.

[03:13:21] And then I was like, let's rewatch the other Ashley Chudnow. I'm gonna paraphrase him, but I was talking to. That's the second judge Morgan Freeman as well, right? That's him reuniting them after Kiss the Girls. But it's the first Alex, where, I forget the Alex Cross.

[03:13:33] Well Alex Cross is not part of it. Kiss the Girls, not Kiss the Girls. The Long Came a Spider. He's Kiss the Girls and Long Came a Spider, not High Crimes. Okay, exactly. So yeah, High Crimes is just. He's a lawyer. Yeah, exactly.

[03:13:43] So it's like a reunion, but it's a franchise. There's a literal Alex Cross sequel and then there's a spiritual reteaming. Yeah, we have a Long Came a Spider next after doing High Crimes. Long Came a Spider kinda stinks. Kiss the Girls is pretty good in my memory.

[03:13:56] Or no wait, that's what we watched. We didn't watch High Crimes yet. High Crimes is like 2002. High Crimes is like a diesel. I'd never seen Kiss the Girls. High Crimes is the last of the jug thrillers. I had never seen Kiss the Girls.

[03:14:07] So you watched Kiss the Girls. And then we watched Double Jeopardy. Karaoke, the Carton of Milk. Yeah. Yeah, good movie. I mean it's kind of bad. Pilga, Barry, friend of the show. Absolutely. We were talking to him the other night. Prank. Humble prank.

[03:14:18] And we were just talking about like watching any three star movie from like 1987 to 2002. You just go like, well this three star movie is now by default a five star because of its like ambition. Knowing exactly what it's trying to be and actually execute it with good craft.

[03:14:38] Right. Yeah. Fun, punchy. I completely agree. And of course you also throw on one of those movies and it's like Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones and you're like yes, I know the stars of Double Jeopardy. But then, right, it just keeps going and you're like holy shit,

[03:14:51] everyone in this movie is somebody. Like I'm so happy. Bruce Greenwood obviously is the villain. Annabeth Gish, Roma, Mafia, Michael Gaston, Spencer Tree Clark, like I mean it's not the best version. A movie that basically made most people misunderstand the law. Absolutely. What do you mean?

[03:15:07] Just from the trailer, it's like well of course there's a Double Jeopardy. There's a Double Jeopardy situation. Number three at the box office an even bigger bomb than Fight Club Griffin. Even bigger bomb than Fight Club. I would say. This is opening at number three to nine million

[03:15:17] in underperformance. What studio made the picture? The studio is a globe spinning. Universal. Words come around saying universal. They're here to tell a story. A story. A romantic comedy drama starring two movie stars directed by a big director. It's the story of us. Story of us.

[03:15:35] The story of us, Bruce and Michelle. Bruce and Michelle playing for Oscar I feel like. Oscar doesn't pick up the phone. It does not. No. They send him a letter, Oscar returns to send her. Haven't seen the story of us, have you? No, I don't think so.

[03:15:49] Not the kind of, that's gonna be really low on my 90s recovery project. I feel like there's a chance Anna and I might have watched it like 10 years ago back when Netflix would just have random, like you know, real movies on it. But I don't know for sure.

[03:16:04] Number four at the box office, we've invoked this director a bunch on this episode. He was the first choice for Fight Club. David O. Russell, Three Kings. Three Kings. Maybe Stealing the Gold. Good movie? I think so. I haven't rewatched it in a long time.

[03:16:17] I would like to. Do you guys know what the tagline for Story of Us is? No. Can a marriage survive 15 years of marriage? What? That's the hook. The poster is so bad. Oh, let's narrate it. Yeah. It's narrated? Let's narrate the poster. Okay, Michelle Pfeiffer.

[03:16:37] Wait, my eyes have to be drawn left. It's one of those classic like Bruce Willis' famous verse, but Michelle Pfeiffer's name is above it. Sure. And then Michelle Pfeiffer in profile, smiling wanly as she is, you know, often does. She's like whispering in her ear,

[03:16:52] but it's clearly Photoshopped and they're not in front of the camera at the same time. I was gonna say, I think it's supposed to look like he's whispering in her ear or sort of kissing her on the cheek or something. Instead, it kind of looks like

[03:17:00] he's being blown away by a big fan. Because he's like blurry and he's kind of like, eh, like. And it says, can a marriage survive 15 years of marriage? A Rob Reiner film in little floating scroll. Ribbon, there you go. You'll do it when you do Reiner.

[03:17:15] I thought this was a Zweibel. Zweibel wrote it. I've mentioned, I texted this to, I think at least David at some point, but whenever you play online, the Daily Box Office game, 1999, you're like, one of the great year.

[03:17:26] How many gems are going to be in this top five? It's all trash. Yeah, it's like, oh, okay, it's one movie that people like and then four of the biggest pieces of shit that have ever been. It's so true. And of course,

[03:17:36] the Oscars that year are like a lot of whiffs. Like, and ignoring obviously movies like Fight Club. Not a great Oscar. Number four is Three Kings. Number five is the Best Picture winner of 1999. American Beauty. In its fifth week, what's it at? $41 million. Well, I do declare.

[03:17:55] You ever jerked off in the showers and made the highlight of your day? I rule. Nothing gets me going like a rose petal. Number six at the box office, speaking of like forgotten 1999 crap, Sidney Pollack's Random Hearts. Yeah, that's a real.

[03:18:11] Which has maybe one of the most misguided studio decisions in history. Chris and Scott Thomas doing an American accent. Yeah, why do that? Number seven at the box office, Superstar. I like when Helena Bonham Carter is listing all of his names

[03:18:23] when she's standing in the middle of the street. And as her line reading goes on, she just gets more and more British. She's like, any of the names they call you? Rupert Cornelius. And it's like, what is she doing? Did they not want to AD on this line?

[03:18:38] That's, they're all movie characters. Like it's supposed to be Rupert Pumpkin and Cornelius from Planet of the Apes and whatever. Okay, that makes some sense. I know Rupert is, they use it a lot. Wait, what was after Random Hearts? Superstar, SNL movie. Another great, 1999 man. Great year for.

[03:18:51] A Mark McKinney. Not sure. That's an incredibly strange film. I haven't seen it since I was a kid. It is incredibly strange. Now you guys gotta do the SNL movies. I've thrown it out. I mean, with some finessing. Yeah, I told you. Do them all.

[03:19:04] I told you how we're closing on Patreon for the year and you got so excited. Yes, I got very excited. I'm excited. Ding! It's a joke. It's a joke from one of the movies we're covering. Okay. And a very obvious one if you know the trailer.

[03:19:15] Yep, and I know you know it. Number eight of the box office is The Sixth Sense. Three months in has made $250 million. Number nine is Martin Lawrence comedy, Blue Streak. Is that the one that people helped me remember

[03:19:29] what it was when I said when I left you was like ee, and then I came back and you was like, well, boom. Yes, correct. And then someone was, I was like, I need some blankie to tell me this. It's Blue Streak.

[03:19:37] Number 10 is a Christian film opening this week called The Omega Code, which is like the Antichrist is using the Bible to take over the world or something. Is that the one that Christopher Walken's in? It's got Michael Ironside and Caspar Van Dien. Okay. Are you thinking of prophecy?

[03:19:56] Yes, I'm just wondering. Which is not Christian. No. Michael York as the Antichrist. He was playing Basil Exposition and the Antichrist. Good year. You've also got Drive Me Crazy, the Melissa Joan Hart vehicle with Adrian Grenier. Saw that first week. Absolutely. Tell you that much.

[03:20:11] Banger of a Britney song. And The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, which I should probably fire up for my daughter. Yeah, she'll love it. You know who's fucking? Patinkin. Ham sandwich. Patinkin is really good at that movie. Fucking eyebrows for days.

[03:20:26] Yeah, For the Love of the Game, which we've covered. Stigmata, will we cover that one? A very important film. Price. Mystery of Alaska. Price is in Stigmata. Jonathan Price. Is he playing like a priest? Sure. That guy's played a lot of priests. He also played a Pope.

[03:20:41] I don't know if you know this. Which one? One of the two. One of two? He's playing Pope II. He was part of a set. My daughter likes to say that there are two things, like that's the most exciting thing for her. And it would be really funny

[03:20:52] if I could make her say, two Popes. She likes to say there are or likes to observe when there are. She'll pick up two things and be like, two spoons, whatever. That's her favorite number. Two. Good number. How old she is and mine as well. That's very true.

[03:21:07] They know from two. Yeah, we gotta get them together. You've been away. I was briefly away. You were away for like two weeks. That's true. Yeah. Then I'm away. So you say. But, geez, leave me alone. Let me wrap it up. What do you mean?

[03:21:21] I don't want you drawing this episode out. God, David, you gotta go. I'm making plans with Alex. I gotta make dinner for my baby. I gotta get out of here. Wait, who's your baby? My baby. I'm just imagining. Griffin has a basket case ass. Oh.

[03:21:33] No, I'm imagining like a baby Yoda doll and it's like sitting in a high chair. Get out of here. And I'm imagining a mutant in a wicker basket that Griffin feeds slop to. Do you know that Aquaman's in its third series of reshoots and is something that

[03:21:46] the Hollywood Reporter just posted? I wonder if that movie will ever. That got an indie SAG waiver, right? No studio money? Yeah, no studio will acknowledge being involved with it at this point. It is wild. That is the only DC movie since

[03:21:59] the Nolan Dark Knight trilogy to make a billion dollars and they have been treating it like it is the biggest disaster on their hands. Yeah, it is really weird. The number one thing that DC ever produced and the sequel is basically radioactive. I don't know, man.

[03:22:18] Alex, final thoughts? Very complex rewatch for me. Oh. A beloved film. Yeah, you demanded, or not demanded, but requested. I accepted it when Griffin was like, you should do that. It's just a complicated movie to look back. I remember having raucous sunshine midnight screenings

[03:22:34] of this a few times when I was in college. Just like, man, get to see a print of Fight Club, people going nuts, you're there until 2.45 in the morning. Yeah. It's a very silly movie. It's very silly. Is Zodiac your favorite?

[03:22:47] I would say I would rank it number one if pressured. But it's insane to be like, yeah, this was my favorite movie for three years. It would maybe be my third favorite Fincher now, possibly fourth. Yeah, wait, what else is above it?

[03:22:59] I mean, I would put seven above it. I would probably put Social Network above it. And then I just, beyond that, I just couldn't justify anything else above it, even if I'm like, yeah. What about Benjamin Button? He's a venerable, senior citizen. Gotta give the guy some respect.

[03:23:12] And how does he look relative to how old he actually is? Let me be frank. Yeah. I would put the first seven as possible. But I look a lot older. Ben looks like he's melting. Ben, you came in ready for Project Mayhem and we gave it to you.

[03:23:27] Yeah. Yesterday we did a different episode and I was like, do we have anything planned for Fight Club? And Ben was like, I don't know, we might fight. That's the only idea I have. That was his pitch. He's been doing some complicated bits recently.

[03:23:38] Yeah, and I feel like for this one, I was like, I know we're gonna go for approximately three hours. Your complicated bit, let's say, and you did put a lot of prep work into it, was not sleeping for two weeks. Yes, that's true. So I-

[03:23:51] You gotta become a sleepy time honk shoot king again. You gotta do it. I know. Maybe we'll get you a big cap and a candle on a plate or something. I mean, like, we gotta do something. Can I tell you what Ben told me yesterday after the court?

[03:24:02] I don't think this will embarrass you, Ben. What if I was like, I'm a sleep therapist and I'm like, here's what you do. Put this big cap on, take this candle. No, sorry, go ahead. Can I say this, Ben? I don't know, what?

[03:24:10] I don't think it's too embarrassing. Wow. Ben was like, I've been sleeping so poorly. I was like at the beginning of the episode really struggling to stay awake. And then you guys, in what was the Alien 3 episode, called out- Brought out him falling asleep

[03:24:23] on a different alien house. That when we did the alien commentaries on Patreon, he fell asleep. I was like, I couldn't do it twice. You did seem out of it at the start of the episode to the point that I was like, is Ben mad at me?

[03:24:32] Like, what's going on? And I think you were just sleepy time on a shoe. Very sleepy time on a shoe. I'll say this in closing. I think I'll save Hip Hop Sims for another day. Yes. Yeah, you're never gonna reveal that one. That's a promise.

[03:24:43] We've been, Ben and I are working on something. Okay, great. Mixtape. Ben's got his assignment. His Project Mayhem homework is- I understood the assignment. He understood the assignment. Ben looks full of vim and vigor and energy about this assignment. Ben needs a nap.

[03:24:59] Alex, thank you for being here. Yeah, happy to come by. Yeah, and I'm glad you got your present. Mischief Mayhem, lucky numbers on VHS. It's what we promised here at Blank Check. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe.

[03:25:14] Thank you to Marie Barty for our social media and helping to produce the show, AJ McKeon, and Alex Barron for our editing, Joe Bowen and Pat Reynolds for our artwork. Please don't put Deadpool over our faces. Thank you to JJ Birch for our research.

[03:25:28] We end up using a lot more of it than we thought we would. Leigh Montgomery and the Great American Owl for our theme song. You can go to BlankCheckPod.com for links to some real nerdy shit, including our Patreon Blank Check special features

[03:25:41] where we're doing the Fincher music video episode, but we're also doing the Brosnan Bond movies, including Jonathan Pryce's, of course, vehicle Tomorrow Never Dies. Mile a minute action excitement, dude. So great. It's a good episode though. It's a really good episode. And we're doing every,

[03:25:59] we're doing House of Cards one minute at a time. Right, but only if you pay me $1 million in unmarked American cash. Yes. And then we'll get real Frank on me. Frank is gonna like me to bang. Anytime I can get you to do the voice, I'm really happy.

[03:26:15] Tune in next week for Panic Room with- Eva Anderson. The great Eva Anderson. We already recorded it. It's a good app. It's a corker. Love that movie. And as always, gentlemen, check your texts. Everyone just please go to your phone. Oh my God. This was a difficult one.

[03:26:34] This is good. Yeah, well this is why you've been so occupied for the last hour. Tell them what it is. Well, I'll read this poster aloud for everybody. Starting at the top left, they're headed to the homeland. Who could be headed? I sort of move my eyes over.

[03:26:59] Nia Vardalos, John Corbett. I'm sure you're seeing their faces on this poster. My big fat Greek wedding three. And this is of course, Griffin has taken a very soberly photographed poster where everyone's faces looked normal. 10 different humans. And everyone was clearly in the same room

[03:27:18] and he's put Deadpool's face on everyone. Lainey Kazan, Joey Fatone. Not Michael Constantine because he sadly left us. God bless. He got out before he did. He was like, they were like, we're gonna make my big peck Greek wedding three. And he's like, I'll see you later.

[03:27:36] RIP to Michael Constantine. Yep. Only in theaters September 8th. Love the movie that comes out during TIFF. That's probably premiering at Venice and Telluride though. That's why it's coming out then. Telluride secret screening. Well, they're all secret. This is top secret. Pain of death. This is classified.

[03:27:56] You need a Q clearance to see this one. Bye.