Memento with Amy Nicholson

[00:00:00] Please remember to rate review and subscribe You can follow us on reddit Blankies.reddit.com big thanks to And for good over social media Pat Reynolds and Joe Bowen for our artwork they Montgomery for the theme song

[00:00:18] And as always podcast he did it back. He's doing it backwards. He got it because of the movie He's that's the thing we do at the end. I'm explaining to our guests your stupid bit

[00:00:27] Oh, we could you can follow us on Twitter at Blank Check pod or check us out on Facebook. Please welcome everyone Oh, hi everybody. Let me just shake this polaroid quickly. My name is Griffin Newman. I'm David Sims

[00:00:40] This is a podcast called Blank Check with Griffin and Dave. Mm-hmm We follow Filmographies directors who had massive success early on in their careers And then we're given a series of blank checks to make whatever wild cinematic follies

[00:00:53] They wanted and sometimes the checks clear and sometimes they bounce baby And we're connoisseurs of context We like looking at the larger picture of how the film got made what it means in the larger arc the person's career and

[00:01:06] How the film was received at the time and how it's held up today. When did you add that connoisseurs of context thing? I feel like you're doing that now. I It's I said a couple times and then like a Ben

[00:01:17] AK producer Ben AK the Ben dooser a kid producer Ben a K Poet Laureate a K the ha this is terrible way to welcome our guest a K the tiebreaker

[00:01:24] K refiner someone critic a K the meat detective a K the meat detective. I'm sorry a K the fart lover, okay? K the fuck master. He's not professor crispy. Oh, you can wish him a hello fennel. I'm not a temperature queen either

[00:01:36] Good we're getting all the bits out of the way He's graduating certain tells over the course of different maces It's just producer Ben Kenobi, Kylo Ben Ben say Ben Anything The dollar sign and war house the fans love all this crap Yeah

[00:01:50] Oh, yeah, we like people to talk before we introduce That's the last bit here's the cornerstone of this podcast is that everything the fans love David hates Including sometimes whole episodes they demand that we do including entire co-hosts of this I

[00:02:10] Everybody no you anyway, that's a joke because we are of course hashtag the two friends right we have two friends Oh, it's a podcast. That's a competitive advantage that does not apply to any other podcasts ever exist right so we you know

[00:02:20] We trademarked that we've hashtagged it. We're good, but what we like to do in this podcast are mini Things are still in the intro and this is a main series on the films of Chris for Nolan, right and this mini series is called

[00:02:32] The pod night cast apologies for the title. Yeah. Yeah got a tattoo on my thigh Mm-hmm back six don't trust the pod night and I'm trying to figure out who the pod night is I don't know

[00:02:45] Okay, and we have a guest with a guest today. Yes great guest It's very exciting guests who were annoying with all this crap. She is a film critic MTV She's the host of the podcast the canon ladies and gentlemen Amy Nicholson is here with us today

[00:02:59] Hey guys, I've just had my mouth open and quiet astonishment for the last three minutes. Hello At least he did it all you just did it all at once. Yeah, we'll get ready for the ending. Oh boy Yeah, hi Amy

[00:03:15] Amy's in New York. Amy's in New York. Come on away Cross continental we flew out here as we do with Oliver. Yeah, you're very rich. Thank you for putting me up at the I'm a superhero

[00:03:27] I feel like Tom Hanks and Joe versus the volcano. This has been a really magical week. Thank you I feel like I can die happy now, please my pleasure. You know, it's honestly worth it to see the glint in your eye

[00:03:37] So, you know, of course the blank check policy is John Patrick Shanley Mini series all two of them isn't that Joe versus the volcano? He did that right now Right, is that a movie in between? Let's find out No

[00:03:52] And I hate doubt if he gets a bad movie What do you think a doubt? I think that every time Viola Davis lets her nose run she gets nominated for an Oscar. That's a secret power

[00:04:03] That's when she discovered it in doubt, right? She was like, let's let's let's try the one one with nose running Yeah, yeah, everyone knows that you have to wipe waste not from your When it's running down your face, but what Viola Davis presupposes is

[00:04:18] Maybe you don't maybe you know I fucked that up Amy, you know, of course we have a rule that everyone knows that when we fly a guest out from another city on Our dime as we always do from our infinite pockets

[00:04:32] Could you upgrade me from business to first night time? Well, it's one or the other Because right now you had business But you were allowed to bring one celebrity guest with you as we know when Fran Hoffner was on the show She brought ansel Elgort

[00:04:46] Remember this bit. Okay, who is your celebrity plus one on the airplane? Um, who would you like to ride an airplane with in general? That's a good question Like who would chill you out on an airplane? That's true because I'm going through a list of people

[00:04:59] I think would be interesting and then people who I think would be nightmarish to sit next to you Like who's most likely to talk about themselves the whole time

[00:05:04] You don't want someone who's too funny or too like, you know into doing like a lot of it. I couldn't deal with Anthony Ketus You couldn't deal with Anthony Ketus He wouldn't be wearing a shirt

[00:05:16] He would just keep going on and on about the red hot chili peppers and their new music I have a sub question and then we have to get to the movie but I have a sub question

[00:05:26] Have you ever seen anyone on a shirt with an on a plane with their shirt off? No, like in general like a grown person. I think I've seen people With barely not a shirt on like on the way to Vegas. Yes. Yes

[00:05:39] Yeah, I'm close to no shirt because it's like when you it's a mesh vest When is the line between is that a shirt or not like how much fabric do you technically need or like Hawaiian shirt unbuttoned?

[00:05:48] That's another like almost shirtless look where it's like you're hanging out, you know Yeah, it's like if you have a Hawaiian shirt with seven buttons and you only have one button Are you wearing a shirt or not barely? Yeah, but if you unbutton the button

[00:05:59] They're gonna say you're not wearing a shirt correct, right? It's just this difference of an inch is the eyes that the move to and they're like can you please put a shirt on you? Just button one button very passive aggressively

[00:06:09] See I like when we get this philosophically because it really is there's an inch that separates you between two different states of being Really it truly is just one just one button. This is a shirtless movie

[00:06:19] There's a lot of shirtlessness male shirtlessness in this film my answer would be Vin Diesel by the way I would sit with Vin Diesel Man a few words he wouldn't talk the whole time, but when he had something to say who boy I

[00:06:31] Don't usually like being negative, but the only thing I can think of is who I don't want to sit next to on a plane I think that's sort of like your chair and Don't say I just went to a thing where I saw Jewel talk every day

[00:06:43] Okay, and I went to this like Walmart film festival where Jewel was there and I saw Which is worth reading well I left out because it was a little mean But I saw jewel like first I saw jewel

[00:06:53] Give a concert and then I saw jewel the next day like talk about mindfulness at a seminar Oh, and then I saw jewel on a panel about feminism in Hollywood and each day She gave the exact same speech and then at the fourth time

[00:07:05] I saw was at the award show and she gave the same speech again about her entire life And I know her life story so well right now that it just becomes Aggravating and I'm mad at her and she's literally the last person

[00:07:14] I'd want to sit to next to on a plane because you tell it to me again I think she'd probably tell it to me twice what's jewel doing these days apart from apparently just starring as like the main centerpiece of a film festival

[00:07:25] She have an album. Oh, she's starting a website about mindfulness She's like really getting into teaching kids how to meditate so that they can deal with the stresses of the modern world Well, that's a great answer to your question

[00:07:36] Rodeo clown she was for like ten years. She lived in her car. I did not know that I knew that very well She talked about the rodeo was like a Hillary Swank situation She did not talk about her. She left out all the interesting stuff

[00:07:49] She really only talks about from like she talks about the time She turned down a million dollar signing bonus like nonstop if you ever hear her talk She'll talk about turning down a million dollar signing bonus like because it was like what to corporate or like it wasn't

[00:08:02] Yeah, she's like I was a homeless teenager living in a car with my mom I didn't have health insurance. I almost died because I had problems with my organs and I went to a hospital

[00:08:10] And they wouldn't help me because no problems with her organs. I forget which organ I should remember if she told she said in it enough times. She was shoplifting a lot She was stealing clothes

[00:08:18] She stopped shoplifting when she saw herself with in the mirror wearing a sundress and thought she'd gone too far Then she started playing music. Oh god now But she became famous and local saying this is not the jewel podcast anyway, I just I'm sorry

[00:08:33] I just found out so much about jewel. I just want to run it down real fast Sean Penn did not know that in 95 So like really kind of trashy Sean Penn to like really scary No, I feel like you marry is Robin Wright like in the late

[00:08:51] 96 okay, whoo Yeah, only dates blondes. It's really that's true because then he was with Charlie's and he dated Scarlett Johansson He's very particular isn't he doing Vincent Zanafrio's daughter now is she bomb? No, she looks like Vincent no

[00:09:07] I refuse to believe it he's dating her unless she's like dying her hair cuz I she is a blonde Vincent Zanafrio's daughter Layla Denofrio. She's sort of a dirty blonde You know I don't have this information

[00:09:20] I can tell do you have a picture if she looks my I'm gonna guess I don't know I'm gonna show you a picture and you can make a decision here. She is with Sean Penn All right, here we go here we go. Here's a side-by-side of them

[00:09:32] No, she's a dead blonde Looks like it. Let me look one more time at the eyebrows. She's got She's barely a blunt, but you know, she's fair-haired I suppose. I don't know

[00:09:42] Also, she married a rodeo cowboy. I'm sorry for calling him a rodeo clown. That might be rude. They were married for 10 years and she is the cousin of Corianca Kiltcher who played Pocahontas in the new world

[00:09:57] Really? I've heard her in interviews say that's not true and people just made that up Well, it's not what you're saying that or the woman. Oh, Corianca Well, she's the daughter of at Kiltcher an Alaskan and apparently

[00:10:08] Corianca is also but maybe maybe it's all made up and she's estranged from her mother She accused of stealing money from her later in there. You used to live in the car together. Yeah I don't know man So that's what I got

[00:10:22] Her family, she comes from a line of singers. That's nice Anyway, what I was gonna say is With this Well my hands my hands that's how that song the title is pronounced right my hands You have to say you can't you can't say my hands

[00:10:43] Amy thank you very much for answering the question you chose to sit with Bizarro Jewel. No On your no Opposite of jewel I would say I'm crashing this plane But then I'll probably get stopped on my flight home like the opposite of jewel so like louge

[00:10:59] Louge yeah, she gives clothes back to stores and she lived in a boat So yeah, so jewel was at the height of her popularity the year is 2000 and The film Memento. Yeah, this is obviously an episode about the movie Memento

[00:11:16] Right we have we not mentioned that you know that right? This is clearly. That's all we're talking about today. Mm-hmm This is about yeah, we're talking about Memento Christian owns breakout film a second movie Amy

[00:11:27] Amy requested it. I believe it's one of the only coaster for Nolan films. I like it's a good reason Interesting now wait, what are we talking about? Memento. Oh I forgot guys. I forgot to tell you I slammed Ben into a bathroom here right before this episode started

[00:11:44] So he doesn't remember anything like 75% They don't tell me about this shit Amy they don't tell me about these bits they plan Well, could you tell from the blood? It's obvious it's all over the control in David's defense. That's Ben's neutral state for one reason or another

[00:12:00] He always has blood Like wrap him in a shower curtain or what's like what's another piece of imagery from Memento Do that as my friend Do you want me to put duct tape on anybody's mouth because I could do that

[00:12:15] Poor poor Dodd. We need to get into Dodd. What happens to Dodd? We got a time. I just I just want to put that on the table so we don't forget I just want to resolve Dodd. Do you think it's related to Lot Dodd?

[00:12:29] From the Star Wars now It looks similar When did you turn off on Nolan then are you just sort of not a Nolan fan in general sort of you know more recent epic widescreen Nolan How do you feel about Christopher Nolan? Well say a week ago

[00:12:45] You were at the Ehrlich wedding David and I were at and I said like excited to have you on the show and you said I think it's the only one I like and then I immediately said wait. No, I also like the dark

[00:12:57] Okay, okay sure and then I'm gonna get kicked out but I've never seen the prestige. Oh wow people I just I never have made it around to it. I know it's never happened I think it's isn't it on Netflix right now It is on Netflix right now

[00:13:09] You know you could easily watch the prestige which yeah, I feel like You know movie nerds are always like that's the best one. I think the prestige is great I like the prestige. I've been lying and pretending I've seen the prestige for so many years

[00:13:20] How does it feel to finally unburden yourself? Gotta say that's a real prestige move Everybody forgets what I said in five minutes But but the later like inception Interstellar the sort of recent Nolan not your back

[00:13:35] Well, I think the thing with recent Nolan that drives me and saying is he reminds me of really Scott and that he doesn't seem to care That much about people. He's just really full-blown went over into the world of plot Right and when I watch his films

[00:13:47] I feel like I hear dialogue come out of his mouth that no human would ever say and I don't think he really cares about People at all as anything more than just mechanics and this Rue Goldberg contraption, right? That's designed to celebrate how brilliant he is

[00:13:59] So I'll watch everything he doesn't now because I want to know I want to be on top of it But I missed maybe it's that you see a film like memento at the start of a guy's career

[00:14:09] And you see one direction you want his career to go in and to see him go so far askew It makes you mad. I think I don't know if you guys feel this way, but

[00:14:19] Nolan is one of the first young a tours that I've just bought in on right away Ownership over him and maybe that's maybe not fair of me to do no

[00:14:29] No, but I know what you mean exactly like and so what's the direction you wanted him to go in like you say like you know You see memento and you think what from like what do you expect from this guy? I

[00:14:39] Expect there's something about directors when they work with limitation I feel like maybe that's something we're gonna be talking about a lot today that memento is a film where

[00:14:46] Pretty much his only technical effect is a reverse shot the kind of thing that people have been doing since film was invented Right and everything else he had to do with like his imagination and with his dialogue and with this construction

[00:14:55] And none of it came from pixels and to I think you work best when you're constrained And I wish someone at Warner Brothers would have been like cool You are still never getting more than $50 million from us maybe 20 maybe 20

[00:15:09] Maybe every film should try to be made for like 20 maybe 30 top now I'm just messing with the number but do you know I think that's when you get most creative I think that's kind of one of the central conceits of our show. Oh is that like

[00:15:24] It can be a curse as much as it can be a blessing You know they want to earn that sass or they can do whatever they want and write their own budgets and whatever

[00:15:30] But oftentimes the best film they make is the one that gave him the blank check Which was the one that kind of happens by mistake to a degree like the analogy Do you guys remember being in elementary school and being given like free writing exercises?

[00:15:41] When they're they give you a piece of paper and they say go you have 20 minutes write something in your head Yeah, and if it's a blank piece of paper it was always so

[00:15:49] Hard yeah, but if they give you one sentence or it has to use the word banana or whatever I feel like it's just easier to get even more creative like you are Freer when you are constrained now. I feel like that's Stalinist or something

[00:16:00] No, I agree. Do you folks want to hear something really dumb? I totally agree with you I also think it's a huge problem TV, which I feel like I've talked about

[00:16:06] Even more so in TV because I feel like right now that's where the blank checks are being written more than anywhere And it doesn't have to end doesn't have to end doesn't really have to even like

[00:16:15] Tell like a story every episode is kind of just like just give us a season of a TV show Like you know do what you want, right? My elementary school was so dumb that I think as a way of trying to teach that principle to us

[00:16:27] They would only let us like during art art class paint with one color at a time Really they'd be like this month is blue But wait, would they hide the other colors and then like at the end of a month. They'd be like huge announcement green

[00:16:44] What I guess maybe no, I think they gave us each one incrementally It wasn't one at a time, but it was like distinctly like weird school. Yeah. Yeah, I know We also didn't have gym class or theater class. We had rhythms class which was interpretive exercise

[00:16:58] What is interpretive? Is it just like just like explore the space like I want you to do four laps around the room as a horse And that was like a woman with a scarf and then there was a guy at a grand piano

[00:17:10] Who would play music to like maybe like here's a hula hoop, but you cannot goos it as a hula hoop go You went to like a fancy right yeah, this is why It's true all the seeds are being planted. It was like a weird like crunchy

[00:17:27] Private it wasn't like a fancy Right a horse or no, no you were taught to run like a horse right you were the horse Did you guys ever have to play with parachutes in gym class? Oh, yeah, okay?

[00:17:41] Cuz they still do that that seems like the weirdest thing that happened only when I was a child Those big well, I don't know if you know this David grew up in London. Well, I know I grew up in New York

[00:17:51] Elementary school into PS 87 you didn't go to London to learn Amsterdam in 78th until the third grade And that had this very weird Playground that was designed by some architect who was like like I will design the perfect space for children

[00:18:07] Like, you know, he was like given free reign. He was given a blank check Oh, and it was this amazing playground that was full of like covered bridges and all these like structures that went up

[00:18:17] And down that we could just hide it and it was obviously disaster for like grown-ups because they could not monitor us at all It really was like a wonderful space like four children. So it was a great playground

[00:18:28] They've destroyed it and replaced it obviously because it must have been like a health and safety like nightmare But you never had the rainbow parachute thing. No, and you grew up in California, right? I mean Yeah, and Texas and in Texas. We definitely had the parachute thing

[00:18:42] Like one of my first memories is doing the parachute you would this might sound strange You grab the parachutes a circle and everybody grabs around the ring and you just march carrying the parachute for no reason I could ever figure out to songs like the Ghostbusters theme song

[00:18:55] And then you like wave the parachute up and down and it ripples I've seen right. I have seen that right where you're almost like you're holding a big trampoline And someone's gonna like jump from a building to it

[00:19:05] But it fascinates me because it doesn't seem like you get that much exercise and I don't know why we all did this It's just like Jesus they'll just at least see where they all are and like, you know, this won't be complicated

[00:19:16] Like I remember being like a once a year thing like maybe two max it like it counted It was like almost like a reward, you know or like the last day before Christmas break or something

[00:19:26] You get to do a parachute. Do you think this is like a Cold War thing? We were in the Cold War ended in the 80s They had all these excess parachutes and they were all rainbow schools

[00:19:34] Is that what well like what I want to know what kids do now like I that's about Elementary school probably playing their apps Because in England when I went to elementary school England when I moved there when I was nine humble Brown

[00:19:48] They did they do the Maypole all the time. They love that You know, you guys, you know There's a pole and a bunch of ribbons and you all like run around it Yeah, like princesses. Yeah. Yeah, like like little princesses and they also like Morris dancing

[00:19:59] Which is like a sort of version of line dancing where you're kind of like Facing each other and you move around like that that's good for kids You mean the one that you see in Jane Austen movies You were a Jane Austen dancer

[00:20:08] Well, that's like that's like romantic line dancing where you like have your hands You remember you need touch, you know Morris dancing you sometimes you have a stick and you just sort of like bang them together and like as you swap sides

[00:20:19] Oh, they gave kids sticks. That's a really good idea. Your school sounds awesome Hanover school it was a school for asthmatic built in the Victorian age It was on the canal

[00:20:28] Regents canal in London because the idea was like they would get the sea air of this like polluted canal It's like very silly and the playground was on the roof Somehow on the roof. Yeah, everything about this is so dangerous. I love it

[00:20:40] We weren't allowed to play with real balls We had these like foam balls because that because obviously if we kicked the ball over the roof Which was really easy to do like we could harm someone This is what this is where I went to school

[00:20:53] My my I've stunned you two into silence with this my weird crunchy elementary school also had the playground on the roof And it was like a cage. Yeah, no, we had very high Yeah, it was like on the roof

[00:21:03] But then they had these cage like there was like fencing all around it and above us for that very reason So no one like fell off the side or threw a ball or anything

[00:21:11] This makes me so glad I grew up in Texas where we just had giant fields Here's my school and Obviously that's where that's the roof, you know those high cages Hanover. It's a nice school guys is linkedin It looks like a prison. Yeah, well, you know my school

[00:21:32] It's like by a swamp then grew up in New Jersey. Yeah, and I'm surprised because we only played dodgeball Like that sounds very Jersey though and it was just like that was life. It was just like gym class

[00:21:47] No, it was a dodgeball. It's just like hate your friends with balls. I hated I hated dodgeball Ben No, you're out but I find nothing surprising I was

[00:21:59] Was a fat kid and I always got here you're a fat kid. I don't see because you know why re yeah Benny was tipping over the bike. They were always

[00:22:09] Yeah, I'm bad. Amy's question. How fat yeah pretty big. I feel like I'm sending it for just like how fat warrior I'll show you a picture of my face really. I've never seen the picture

[00:22:21] This is this is huge the fans are gonna go crazy. I love us talking about a picture. They can't see We'll post it on the Twitter. You didn't lose the weight until like your 20s, right? When did you get skinny?

[00:22:32] In college. I was this is me skinny kid who got chubby once he was a teenager You could see my fat face and marching bands. Is that you in the back? Yeah, that's you in the back You look like a little toy soldier

[00:22:45] What was your instrument at that time? I was they had me play in the tuba. Oh boy, that is rude You have so much more fact in a tube, but you had a lot more face back

[00:22:58] No, I need to see it oh my god, it's lighted over he does look he looks like a bespoke collectible Like he looks like a precious moment statue. Oh

[00:23:10] My god. Oh, yeah, you really you're right. He looks like a toy soldier. That's like the best way to be so red face though I know you also look really like grumpy like because your arms are folding. I was our serious photo

[00:23:23] And then we had it in another photo where we have fun. Have you gone to a reunion? Everyone's like damn not yet, but I'm excited

[00:23:32] Yeah, I'm excited. I mean everyone's gonna be surprised. It's funny all the people that picked on me. How old are you in that photo? I am 25 12 you're 12. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I mean that's an age where all kinds of things start happening

[00:23:48] I guess you like stretch out. Yeah Yeah, anyway dodgeball so this of course is a podcast Hit all the time. Yeah, I was good

[00:24:04] All right, all right, all right. Yeah, thank you for trying to get us back on track Griffin. We're talking about memories. We're talking about memories That's true. That's true. It's true. What are we doing again? Oh boy

[00:24:16] Here I'm gonna hand you a tissue just wipe the whole general face area So moment so coming off of following Sure, he makes this tiny little have you ever seen following His little sort of calling card movie

[00:24:32] It is a festival hit taken it back by how similar these two films are stylistically watching them close together I mean this movie really is like grown up following Sure. Yeah, but it's also very it reminded me of insomnia

[00:24:45] Which I also watch right at the same time because they're both daytime noir movies I forgot that there's like almost no night in this movie Which is Uh, I feel like a fun risk like you know, it's all like this like washed out. It's somewhere in california, right?

[00:24:59] I assume like it's like yeah, the license plates say They say nevada they say nevada it's it's but it they shot it in california But it looks like the kind of people you'd meet in nevada

[00:25:11] On your way to vegas if you've ever made that drive we've made make that drive a lot I would love to make that drive. Uh, I've never been to las vegas really my greatest regrets I really would need to get to las vegas it is fun for

[00:25:24] A little bit. Well the problem is I really like really really like to gamble So it's both like I really want to go but also like I fear what would happen to me

[00:25:33] You and my father are so similar. I know it's true. He's talking about it. Uh, all right, so he makes following Yeah, uh, he went on a cross country channel. Let me give you some context actually

[00:25:43] Look, I'm a connoisseur of that. Uh he went on a cross country trip with his brother jonathan from chicago to la But let's make it clear chicago the city not big chicago michael shana They did not start the road trip at michael shannon's feet. Uh, no

[00:25:56] Oh, that's why I want to sit next to on a plane. Oh, he'd be great great choice another hawaiian shirt fanatic I was trying to think of someone in a hawaiian shirt and I can't believe I didn't even think of him

[00:26:04] But he keeps it buttoned. He's classy. He's she is all the way up to the top I think he unbuttoned the top too. He should do a nollin movie

[00:26:10] He'd be fine for nollin. He'd be great in a nollin. Everybody would be lucky to do a michael shannon movie Very true. Nollin should do a michael shannon. Nollin's good at casting actors who look like buildings and michael shannon looks like a building

[00:26:20] You know what I mean? Because michael shannon should have been jack reacher. This is the thing. Oh, I've gone on about this so much Oh man, we did a jack reacher episode. We love jack reacher on this podcast

[00:26:29] Jack reacher needed to be it's lim nison or michael shannon. That's who it needed to be Like that's who should like the idea of tom cruise making a franchise like that and a character like that But that specific character in that book should have been michael shannon

[00:26:41] Amy wrote the book on tom cruise. Who is this podcast's favorite movie star for sure? We talk a lot. Thank you I'm glad that he I'm glad that you guys respect his talent. We totally respect it But still he should not have fucking been in jack reacher

[00:26:52] No, but I but like rilike riffin saying I do I like to see him stretch and it's a weird Weird role for him. We love that movie love the first jack reacher just like the second one

[00:27:02] Michael shannon should have played it. Yeah, man. Michael shannon would be a great jack reacher He's perfect like I was obsessed with those books before the movies came out And so that in my whole head in my whole head. I made it sound like a big place

[00:27:12] But in my head I kept thinking of uh, how perfect he would be because you can just picture him walking down a dark alley And a white t-shirt right and jeans from a thrift store and his toothbrush

[00:27:20] And terrifying you and that's what jack reacher is supposed to be a guy who scares you the second you see him He's not supposed to surprise you movie. He surprises you It's like oh, I can deal with this guy and tom cruise then he does his

[00:27:31] Exactly in the movie actually really screws up a plot of the book I wish we had had you on our jack reacher episode because that would have been awesome Uh, so but as a cruise and reacher fan that must have been

[00:27:44] Very scary when they were put together like very confusing Well, the lucky thing is I wasn't a cruise fan until I started to write the cruise book So I've you had not yet been converted to cruise. It's true. I thought he was

[00:27:57] A hack and then I realized I was wrong So the whole thing of the book is me telling myself that I'm an idiot and how did I get this wrong for so long

[00:28:05] I had a late conversion to him too. I I didn't like I actively disliked him until maybe like 2008 Well, I've loved him since I saw jerry maguire. Anyway, uh, what's your favorite cruise quickly?

[00:28:16] Uh, well my favorite cruise performance even if it's not necessarily the best is interview with a vampire Oh, he's great in interview with the vampire. That's a great pick

[00:28:24] He's phenomenal in it and interview with the vampire is what convinced me that he's an actor and Brad Pitt is not Because Brad Pitt's terrible. Yes, Brad Pitt's awful in that movie

[00:28:34] I think Brad Pitt eventually figured out his stardom how to use it as like in a sort of quasi-cruisey way But he also definitely needs a good director. I mean very direct. Did you see war machine?

[00:28:43] He's like that's a great example of a terrible Brad Pitt. Yeah, wait. Have you ever seen one of Brad Pitt's first movies? Uh, the dark side of the sun. I have not seen the dark side of the sun

[00:28:52] I have heard of because I have seen the dark side of the sun It's the movie where he is a young rich boy who's allergic to the sun and he spends the whole movie in a head-to-toe Gimp mask like actual zippers over the mouth

[00:29:03] And uh, she can't go outside and then he finally falls in love with a local girl So she convinces him to have this one day in the sunshine

[00:29:09] And he goes into the sea and a dolphin uh comes up and like hits him in the face and that was not scripted It just happened It was the first time Brad Pitt ever left the country. He never had a passport before

[00:29:19] I think they shot it in Malta or something. Good. Yeah, by uh my college professor co-wrote this disastrous movie. So I've seen it See that

[00:29:29] Uh, I think like the earliest pit I've seen is like Johnny suede or whatever. That was like, you know pretty boy movies he made Yeah Cool world. Yeah, I've never seen cool world He would love this mean spoiler alert like when he starts going into the sun

[00:29:41] He gets lesions all over his body and he's like topless and skinny and covered in lesions I just love that some people had young Brad Pitt and they were like, okay, what movie should we put around him? What if he's covered head to toe in leather?

[00:29:53] And then lesion beautiful human being who's ever existed let's cover him and then destroy his skin Okay, so anyway while chris and john were taking this cross-country trip John pitched chris on this idea

[00:30:05] You know this this movie idea guy with short term. Had he already written it as a short story at that point No, okay. He pitches him on the idea then christopher says to him like write it write the script. Yeah

[00:30:15] Uh, and then christopher decides now it should be backwards. He comes up with the backwards idea Uh, so jonathan decides to write a short story version of it christopher writes the script That's why there's it's sort of like quasi like based on a short story

[00:30:30] But they're sort of like they were kind of written simultaneously An idea incubator almost And then they and christopher i believe in the same way that he wrote following he wrote it linear and then he

[00:30:41] Missed it around like he uh, he didn't write it as you see it. He just remixed it. He right. Yeah, yeah, exactly Uh, have you ever heard the short story? I read the short story is a teenager. It's totally different. Yeah, thank you

[00:30:54] Have you anyone ever read the short story memento mori? No, it's basically just told from the perspective of lennard in the mental institution Oh, that's very different. Yeah, so it's not really the same at all

[00:31:04] I'm glad they cut the mori though. Yeah, I know memento is a good title sometimes a little too pretentious Sometimes lessee is mori You know in the case of that title. Wow, is he usually like that? He's always he's usually worse. He's toning on fire. Yeah

[00:31:17] I'm usually like uh, emma thomas nolans girlfriend at the time now wife Who is like, uh, she's a movie producer, but she I think she was up and coming she showed it to someone at new market The now defunct indy studio shingle

[00:31:33] And uh, he loved it and green lit it the the producer there for four and a half million bucks Which is kind of a big bet at that time off of following. I guess so. Yeah, they shot it seven weeks Uh shot in l.a

[00:31:48] Brad Pitt was gonna play Leonard As I don't know if you knew but it's great that he came out. I'm glad he didn't air neck heart and thomas jane We're both considered and everyone passed

[00:31:58] Uh and then pierce guy pierce who had already been in like l.a confidential. He was like what this shot in 98 Uh, no it shot in 99 comes out in 2000 because the matrix had already come out

[00:32:11] That's what I was gonna ask so this they shoot this right after the matrix comes out They like carry on moss in the matrix they cast her and she suggests jope and talliano for teddy Wait, so you're telling me The carry on moss

[00:32:24] Took out her ironing board. Uh-huh and her steamer Yeah, placed her clothing item on there. Uh-huh ironed out all the creases Just and then past chris rinolen a fine pair of Italian pants. That's right. Jope and talliano Apparently the producers worried he would be too villainous

[00:32:42] You know, he's too obviously a scumbag But uh, they cast him anyway. He's great. That's the joy pants pull you can't hang out How do you feel about joey pants in this movie? Amy? I really like him because he looks so insecure

[00:32:54] You know, he looks like a like a like an alley cat that you just dunked in dirty water And it's not the cat's fault. Yeah, it's not the cat's fault that he's repellent. That's just what the cat is

[00:33:05] And to make you deal with your own natural repellence to a guy just because he seems awkward and he has that crooked grin But he's not necessarily that guy like we prejudge people We do based on there

[00:33:14] I mean look one thing that I noticed in this movie is that when he gets his photo taken He's like not here not here and there's no explanation for why he does that

[00:33:21] Like it's not like it plays a part in the part in the water lighting. He's just like Come on In the photo you keep on going like why is his smile so weird? Take the photo because oh the sun is right in his eye

[00:33:32] So he's like squinting to sort of block out the sun That's one of the many things I love about this movie is how the photos are all kind of bad Yeah, like it would suck if they were all like these head perfectly composed head shots

[00:33:43] Like the natalie photo you can barely see her like he's yeah Yeah, I was thinking about it like if you made this movie in the age of instagram You would know at least when you took all the pictures and you could make your little caption underneath it

[00:33:55] But you would probably take three or four different pictures And then maybe people would know what you were thinking about anyways unless you made your account private Now you're going through all of this in my head today

[00:34:03] This is a movie that writes smartphones immediately make it irrelevant, right? Like yeah It's one of those texting stuff to yourself right all norm movies cannot function in the age of the smartphone I guess well the mental really this which is about like

[00:34:16] Evidence it would be a movie about two apps. He'd have his ever note app And he would have a private instagram account and he just scroll through them and he go great. I got all my information

[00:34:27] I'm never having to search for a pen around caria and moss's house like a I mean one of the best things about this movie is that yeah, she defeats him by removing pens from her house

[00:34:37] Like that's his ultimate kryptonite. He's like no pen. What do I do? That's one of the things I love about this movie He should have a tape recorder. He really should be like, you know July 1st

[00:34:47] It's me this girl natalie's like she's up to no good like you know and then so you want him to become a comical offline Exactly or henry from the book of henry or fletch or fletch fletch has a tape recorder or

[00:35:00] Fletch I don't know about you guys but guy pierce was a really big to me already when when this movie came out Because briscilla queen of the desert was one of the first R rated movies. I ever snuck in to see That's like 94 Yeah, I was really young

[00:35:14] I got picked up by an older guy to go on a date and that was the movie I wanted to see my parents weren't gonna let me because it was R rated and it became my favorite movie

[00:35:21] And he so I didn't know who he was at all when I saw that movie or terence stamp or Or the guy who's playing a young hugo wee-ee being who was then in the matrix with karen moss

[00:35:29] I didn't know any of these people were and I just believed They were the people on the screen. I totally believe like terence stamp was transgender I believed all of it and I believed guy pierce was just like a handsome gay australian man

[00:35:40] And then I realized he was an actor and I felt very dumb guy pierce is it's funny He's so pretty but in such a strange way, but you know, he has those cheekbones in the very angular face He's perfect for obviously for priscilla for that for that movie

[00:35:55] But he's become I love him now Where he's still kind of pretty but he's a little older And he looks like this sort of what please go ahead

[00:36:03] It's the same argument I make about tom cruise which tom cruise got more interesting as an actor once the bag started developing under his eyes You know these guys who kind of look a little too perfect when the insecurities though

[00:36:13] I just did a whole 80s cruise ride. I watched like rain man color money Well, I love how his neck was really thick and then his neck somehow got thin and I don't know how he did that He made his head bigger

[00:36:24] You got one of those head enlargement But the thing with guy pierce is he's not just pretty he's prim You know and he looks like almost unlikable his lips can be Hurst together when he wants them to be in this way that makes him seem unpleasant

[00:36:38] He can also look like he uses to his advantage exactly and he can also look like in that one picture where he first kills the guy And he's like a static right he can look like a soccer hooligan. Yeah, I know it's true

[00:36:48] Yeah, giving him the blonde hair was actually a good touch too because it makes him seem kind of a little alien Yeah, because it's so white his hair like it's so light

[00:36:57] But also has weird horse teeth which is funny too well when they want him to be a little unnerving If he smiles a little too big his whole face gets very distorted It's just crazy now how like, you know, like I feel like he makes me mento

[00:37:10] And he should be a big star after this right like and he was apparently he was almost in the dark night as two Faced like you know, they really, you know and like and I think he was in the running for batman and begins

[00:37:21] He was in the running he auditioned for batman And and like instead he doesn't become a star. He does the time machine. Yeah, he kind of just vanishes He's the count of montecristo remember that

[00:37:32] And then he sort of comes back and he resurfaces as this weird preening villain guy like in the king's speech In like that movie. What's it called lawless or whatever with the child of the iron man three

[00:37:42] Iron man three like he's really good animal kingdom and now like the alien movies where he's Wayland, you know where he's become this a creepy character actor. It's so odd Sorry, what do you think?

[00:37:55] I I know anybody else didn't consider him a major star, but maybe it's just my priscilla grounding in him I consider him. I love him and anytime I see him I'm like like very happy to see him, but he's just he's just had an odd career

[00:38:07] I'm sort of looking at his he doesn't really have an iconic leading role post-momento But mementos, but he's so good Well, what's so interesting about him is he's kind of robloan You know where roblo is handsome in a similar way

[00:38:21] Where roblo can't play anybody except people who are just a little unnervingly handsome And it has to be part of the character like when he is in parkson rec

[00:38:29] You know, like that's the kind of character that roblo was designed to do and guy pierces like the slightly more villainous version of that Slightly more twisted like Yeah But it's like you almost play a character who vanity has to be built into the role

[00:38:41] Like it is when he plays wyland in the aliens movies Right and I mean I know I mean this is before memento, but I love love love his performance And like confidential which is like a movie I've seen as early in time

[00:38:51] And he would have won your davia award that year right for best lead for sure and that's like a movie where he's like very vain Like the character is very vain and you're watching like slowly is it he both like

[00:39:04] Gaines and loses his vanity, you know what I mean? Like he figures out how to look and like how to be a cool cop But he also realizes it's all like bullshit anyway. I love I mean I love it Wait, you know how like when you were in

[00:39:15] Elementary school a place we've been talking about a lot today There was like the cutest boy in the class and the cutest boy in the class tended to look like guy pierced did that kind of shrunken

[00:39:24] Kendall look right. Yeah, and the slightly like thinner fit, you know, like bones. Yeah, he's pretty And usually that guy grows up to be kind of hideous looking But guy pierce just kept it going and then he made it work as an adult

[00:39:35] Maybe that's why he gets cast as his villain roles as all of these producers Are reminded of a guy who was mean to them when he was in fifth grade Right, right throw in balls at him

[00:39:45] And he's less charismatic like in an I think by design. He doesn't like to be boring with charismatic You know, he's married to carice van houten Really from uh, you know a game of thrones melisandre from black book paul verhoeven movie Not that long

[00:40:00] You know what? I also didn't know about him. How tall is he? He is I will tell you how tall he is. He started out as a bodybuilder right before he was an actor He started out. Oh my god

[00:40:09] He was a professional bodybuilder see the thing in england. He's legendary as mike from neighbors, which is this australian soap opera Uh, so that's what I think of him from. I don't think he ever was a bodybuilder. I think he was a bodybuilding

[00:40:19] All right. Well, we're just gonna leave that and he is 511 That's way taller than i would have thought normal height. Yeah, doesn't he look like he'd be 5 8 Yeah, he looks like well because he's small like in a way, you know like a bodybuilder

[00:40:30] So it compacts as usual the word you think of with bodybuilders He plays tom cruise all the great bodybuilders. Yeah, he plays lennard Leonard Shelby, yeah an insurance a supposed insurance investigator Who has short term memory loss? interior great amnesia

[00:40:51] And after the murder of his wife and he's on some weird revenge mission where he's trying to like Find her killer. We all know the plot of memento, right? I mean Jesus

[00:41:02] It's a tough movie to actually because we usually go through the plot kind of and then like have our observations as we hit those points But it's a very tough movie to

[00:41:09] Discuss chronologically it is well, maybe we can go through it chronologically in the way that the movie screws with our emotions Right. I'm sorry. Hold on one second here I won the junior state championship when I was about 10 I just found the whole world of bodybuilding really fascinating

[00:41:23] The idea of actually changing yourself was fascinating as I got older I concentrated on developing my mind and spirit rather than my biceps I was always looking at my biceps wishing they were bigger. No, no, no wait

[00:41:31] Wait, I was like the proud bodybuilder that I think some guys are guy pters He was a 10 year old bodybuilder. 10 year old bodybuilder is not a bodybuilder through his teen years So he was like young harcules. Yep, and then when he hit his 20s

[00:41:43] He started developing the mind. So he waited until he was 20 to read a book Yeah, I guess They have 10 year old bodybuilders apparently what can Australia do? Australia's a weird place. They have 10 year old like alligator wrestlers

[00:41:56] I don't know. I've never gotten to go to Australia yet. I've also never been to Australia But uh, he moved there when he was three years old. He's actually born in britain Oh, really? He was raised in Australia and you're right competitive amateur bodybuilder until the age of 16

[00:42:07] I just saw it Uh, and he also fenced Anyway guy Pierce he plays lennard shelby And the movie starts with a polaroid Of a murder he's shaking it. He's shaking it backwards just like andre 3000 pull them to do this very uh

[00:42:24] You know like you say it's like his big showoff shot. It's like no one's only big, you know, right? Like he's got this reverse shot He's got the david julian like that sort of weird like synthesizer score and the polaroid d develops right

[00:42:39] And he goes backwards it undevelops I'm always fascinated by special effects that Look like things that could happen in the real world and just really disorient you Because there's just such a difference between a special effect like a reversing polaroid And a CGI dinosaur

[00:42:54] And like this polaroid is so normal that the fact that it's bizarre blows your mind where's a CGI dinosaur I feel like you just shut off and like who cares? I agree. I agree with you right? You're immediately like oh, I guess fake

[00:43:04] We're in fake land now. Yeah, I was talking about the movie seconds recently. Have you guys seen seconds with john frankenheimer? Yeah, yeah There's just this little moment where he goes to where this character tries to run around and escape in an elevator

[00:43:17] And there's just no elevator button to get down and it's just that little like whoa such a good little nightmare It's the tiniest special effect. This is why I want directors to have like five dollars I mean give them all five dollars and do what they do

[00:43:27] I don't disagree with you and like griffin says this is part of the concept of our movie and you know in the This isn't a movie. Yeah, it's a weekend. Yes You know in our insomnia episode next week, which we've already recorded We talk about how like

[00:43:41] Even getting insomnia what doesn't happen anymore, you know, you make a movie like memento Now you get the superhero movie right after that at least, you know, like 15 years ago It was like oh, you know, here's like a star-driven small like mystery movie, right?

[00:43:56] Now yeah now he makes this and he gets spider-man 8 or whatever right not to be derisive of spider-man 8 Maybe it would be great. I have no idea. Yeah spider-man homecoming 6 But you're right like sometimes the director isn't ready for that yet

[00:44:10] No, and then they get exposed as intelligent It's you can't get promoted too fast if you haven't learned how what's his pants a fantastic fork a Trank your tranks

[00:44:19] Well, I also think a big thing that happens now is that they will promote someone too fast because they go like Look if it turns out they're up for the job, that's a benefit to us

[00:44:27] And it turns out if they're not then we overpower them and the studio takes over the movie Right like it's easier to push over a guy like that if it's really ip based Brand-building franchise movies versus if you hire Ridley Scott and Ridley Scott's gonna stand his ground

[00:44:41] Sure, I think that's like one of the the large symptoms of studio filmmaking Right, but that's then then you get like an alien covenant the other way around Yeah, Ridley Scott's like I have this I have this specific idea for this movie

[00:44:52] And I bet Fox wishes that they could have hired someone like Josh Trank to make an alien I bet they do Uh, anyway, did you like alien covenant? Have you seen alien covenant? Yes, only alien covenant

[00:45:01] I liked it better than Prometheus because I thought I was less pretentious and fewer speeches But it's still it's still it's still it's still That girl though was great and I'm just blanking on her Katherine waterson Yeah, Katherine waterson

[00:45:14] She just has this baby face and she sort of looks like a stork and she's really stretched out She's also five foot 11 like Sigourney and Guy Pierce

[00:45:21] She is compelling. I really I like her face. I like her face a lot and a bird face in a good way Like I don't mean that. Yeah, I think for her body. I'm trying to think what her face is more like a

[00:45:32] She does she has an interesting quality. I mean she looks unlike anyone else in movies Yeah, but it's also got that thing where you know like Christopher Nolan Ridley Scott can't write dialogue for a human being to save his life

[00:45:43] He doesn't know how humans talk nor does he care anymore, right? He's more like right I have this big idea for my movie and the dialogue is only in service of the plot Which is right, which I which he's leading with see a difference between Nolan

[00:45:56] This movie has decent dialogue. This movie has good dialogue. I would argue A difference between the two of them for me is I I think Christopher Nolan works best when his characters are similar to him Like he can't write

[00:46:10] Naturalistic human characters, but he can write guys who are as sort of clinical and obsessive as he is And when that's the primary focus of the movie, I think the movie kind of works I think Ridley Scott thinks he's more of a humanist than he is

[00:46:22] You know, he's constantly sort of fighting with that and like a character like David and Prometheus is probably much closer to How Ridley Scott views the world. Ridley Scott doesn't know he's a replicant That's what I'm arguing For he learned to learn

[00:46:33] Nolan's two biggest influences are for sure Michael Mann and Ridley Scott who are both these robotic At times filmmakers, right? And he I mean he would admit that Nolan that those are his two biggest like four bears

[00:46:44] But then the weird thing is like in terms of what he's come to represent in culture It's like somewhere in between Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick Like he's a weird axiom of like cold precision But also super analog

[00:46:57] Super star director status like right populist. Yeah, yeah, we're he's got little boys in the palm of his hand Literally he holds little boys when he's directing memento Wait, yeah, what are we doing? Jesus christ Ben how many times have I told you your name is Ben Hosley?

[00:47:14] Oh, he knows his name is that's the thing Your wife was murdered and you have to come in here and podcast with us every week in order to find her Seeing memento

[00:47:22] I saw it in the theaters in England this movie came out in 2000 in England. It came up before it came out in America came out 20th of october 2000 and this was definitely I was 14 years old and this is a movie that like blew my mind

[00:47:35] Did it come out in 2000 in the u.s. No 2001 Came out march 16 2001 And uh, and I then I bought it on vhs and I made people watch it with me Because I was a little a little teenager

[00:47:50] And I remember showing this to my mother and one of her complaints being like, why does he know his name though? Like, you know, she just like did not like the short term memory loss gimmick at all

[00:47:58] And anyway, when did you guys see this movie? That was me I probably saw this movie after Batman begins because that was the first Nolan movie I had seen I'm a big Batman fan

[00:48:07] That movie for me was like, oh, this is the comic way. I've been wanting to see my whole life And then after that I like went back and watched Uh in sound a memento hadn't seen it since then I probably have not seen since 2005 saw it once

[00:48:19] Oh really? Yeah, okay, right. I watched it a bunch and I remember at the time I I mean I definitely liked it more watching it this time because at the time I had seen it

[00:48:28] It had been so overhyped and it was one of those movies which a lot of shitty people liked You know, like especially like five years after its release It was like a movie that like a lot of dumb people wouldn't stop talking about

[00:48:38] I mean it was a fight club It was kind of a fight club for sure and Nolan sort of does Also starring a shirtless Correct, uh, but Nolan falls into that territory where it's like a lot of dumb people like his movies for the wrong reasons

[00:48:51] You know, there are a lot of elements that I don't think are what he's consciously playing up to It's different than fight club, which is like a satire and guys took it at face value

[00:48:59] Well, right, but the thing with memento and with a lot of is was like, I get this movie, right? Yeah, it's like the way they say that Trump is a poor person's idea of a rich man Nolan is a Okay smart person's idea of a genius

[00:49:13] But what's fascinating about him to me? I mean and this is that the whole thing that I sort of like can't crack of how Like what he reflects in society that has made him especially in American culture

[00:49:25] It's very odd because here you have this like sort of elitist cold British man Who should seem like the antithesis of what like mainstream audiences want to see In filmmaking, but he's like tapped into this very like universal thing And it is that he is kind of like

[00:49:42] A dumb person's idea of a genius which isn't to say he isn't smart But he's this very particular type of smart where I think he's not watering himself down at all in his intelligence

[00:49:51] But his level of intelligence and how he tells stories is just understandable enough for people to get With some effort so that they feel like they're smart, right? It's like breadcrumbs where you follow his breadcrumbs and at the end you feel full

[00:50:04] Because he's very clear in what he's doing anyone if they're paying attention can track on to it And he's very aesthetically engaging and he hires beautiful movie stars And he's got cool sequences and cool plots, right?

[00:50:14] But and he always prestigious really well like the third act you're always like, ah, yes Yes, I did all work and people feel proud now when they finish watching a no-lin move Yeah, and none of this I feel like as we're talking about it

[00:50:25] Sounds like we're being condescending, but it's still cooler in a lot of ways than what other filmmakers are doing He's not just like here take my garbage. He's like let me screw this garbage around and it's really artful way And it's going to be modern art

[00:50:36] And at a certain point especially, you know once I'm seeing movies like interstellar where I'm like, okay He just this is just what he does and like I feel like you see enough movies by director And you stop being frustrated by their their

[00:50:48] Bit whatever you want to call it. Yeah, they're tropes and you're just like, oh, yeah Of course, I wish he didn't keep killing my wife's he's like So into dead wives and this is a dead wife movie. It's a dead wife movie

[00:50:58] And he loves dead girlfriends and I feel it like it there's something in him That's like I don't quite know what makes humans sad on a normal level So he has to just take it to 11

[00:51:06] I feel like this is the common complaint about him right where he's like look I've I've distilled a basic emotional arc into this very complicated epic puzzle that you walk through right like I've made this cool maze

[00:51:17] Understand what being sad is right. He knows grief. He knows grief so well He likes grief, but there's so much more interesting things in life than grief right But as I rewatch these movies for this podcast

[00:51:28] I really do he likes making movies about like ghosts right like walking ghosts who have like a thing left to do This movie is about a person who is basically dead. He directed Casper, right? He directed Casper Then he moved on to this and ghost dad

[00:51:39] He did ghost dad and ghost ship uh ghost ship sure and ghost dog. He directed ghost That's a oh, oh, yeah, that's a good movie right, but this is right. This is about a guy who's gonna add a lot more episodes onto this mini series

[00:51:52] Maybe we should do a ghost uh ghost ghost pod any movie with ghosts But remember ghost dad. He's not a ghost right remember wasn't this what we got in trouble with at trivia He's like in a coma or something

[00:52:03] He's in a coma and he like he's like they think he's gonna die and he enters a ghost state and at the end of the movie comes back to life Same trick that Oh

[00:52:16] All right, at least they're retrying it. Um, are they definitely gonna be that they announced it immediately Uh, I mean, I've served on a jury. I was certainly not surprised especially when I heard they'd come back and said

[00:52:26] What is beyond a reasonable doubt? I remember when I was on a jury that was a lot of discussion about like What does that mean like for you the 12th? Uh, it was a little bit It was a piece of shit uh case anyway um

[00:52:42] Why was just going to say is totally derail. Oh, when did you see memento? That was my question Oh, yeah, I think about memento a lot because I feel like one conversation

[00:52:50] I feel like I'm always having with people is that I love vod and streaming and as soon as you can stuff for uh Indian movies now because I feel like right everyone can see it

[00:53:01] Because everyone can see it like there's not this way of like your only reviewing for a handful of people who Hopefully will remember that this film exists when it's at the video store in a year Right, I miss video stores a lot. So memento

[00:53:12] When memento played it played at a theater maybe 45 minutes away from where I was a freshman in school And we all just piled into a car and drove out there together

[00:53:21] It was just this big big big deal where I think we were full we met up with a bunch of our friends at the theater It was our night out We were so excited to go and drive to see it Yeah

[00:53:31] And I missed that a little bit because I was kind of small town and like you would look Oh, this is my college was a small town and to look around a little theater and to know everybody in there

[00:53:39] Because you were also excited to see this one movie that you had heard was good And also just sort of like like we're talking about restrictions like the lack of choice was almost exciting where it's like What does the art house theater have it has one screen?

[00:53:49] It has one movie every week like what is it going to be? I will see it because I trust them enough right one also a movie like this that did break out a little bit outside of

[00:53:57] The art house it's like that might be the one art house movie that makes it to a multiplex It might only be in one multiplex within an hour range of where you are, but it might be the one

[00:54:06] That's exactly why this was there was like a big theater in a mall far away from us that sometimes would give one of their screens to something Interesting if something kind of like broke out of the pack

[00:54:14] But did you so did you enjoy the film when you saw it? Absolutely, and I felt like I was like patting myself on the back There's a cool new movie and I've actually gotten to see it which did not happen that much in oklahoma

[00:54:24] Right shit. It made it to call. I mean obviously this movie was a huge hit for it made like we'll get to the box Office, but you know it did well. It made well 25 million dollars got a dga nomination, which was the craziest thing

[00:54:35] I got two oscar nominations writing and editing right the editing nod was so funny because it's like I mean, it's a perfectly well edited movie, but obviously anytime there's a movie with multiple narratives

[00:54:45] Right any kind of storyline that give credit to the editor and it's like the editor is just putting the pieces together in the way The writer told them to uh, but yeah, it's but it's hey, it's it's a well-edited move

[00:54:56] Yeah, it's a very hot movie especially considering it's pretty long In my head it was shorter, but it's almost two hours. I always thought it was like a 90 minute picture It's like right at two hour

[00:55:05] So the plot memento I just described it and it's going backwards and so that's the plot. What do you guys think of memento? Yeah, I mean so I dig into memento hadn't seen it since 2005 or 2006 whatever it was and I was surprised by

[00:55:20] No joke how little of it I remembered I remembered the ending scene very vividly Uh-huh and sort of the basic idea of it, but watching it I was still like kind of it felt like watching it for the first time because I

[00:55:32] Couldn't remember how it all fit together. Okay. I couldn't remember the pieces I just remembered the end point the end. Yeah, I remember scenes like I would I remembered karyan moss Coming back messing with him. Yeah, who's so goodness and such uh, like undeveloped character

[00:55:48] Yeah, she's I mean she's a femme fatale. I guess that's the excuse What I like so much about this movie is how much it plays with just our need to

[00:55:58] Prejudge everyone else and assume that the hero is the hero. Yeah, like you just assume that guy that guy pierces on a quest And so well, god damn it Who is messing with guy pierce's life never really considering that guy pierce could be messing with his own life

[00:56:11] Of course right or the and like he has those things early on where he's like Memories are unreliable. I trust evidence and you're like right this guy. He knows what he's doing He's got his folder. He's got his you know, he has a system

[00:56:22] I have to trust this guy because he's he's like he's perfectly crystallized his mission But of course like his missions like all his stuff is bullshit, right? Well, there's I think I love about this movie

[00:56:33] There's the whole like meta textual element of like I feel like this movie is kind of a commentary on how people watch movies And that like you engage with any scene and try to pick up on the contextual clues of how someone's behaving

[00:56:44] How they're dressed how the scenes lit The things that give you all these signals of like, okay, who's my hero? Who's my villain? When is the scene going to be? You know kind of like teasing a threat of danger or whatever

[00:56:55] And he's sort of observing every scene the same way we are Like the character in the movie has as little context as we do In the audience so you're like it's an amazing audience association movie

[00:57:08] Yeah, because you're just like seeing it through his eyes trying to figure out like have have These conversations happened before has he spoken to this person before is that his car or not? Exactly even in that way where He tells us right on about sammy

[00:57:23] And then like writing and he's like did I tell you about sammy and we have that frustration of being someone in His life who already knows the story that he's already forgotten and we immediately feel what it must be like to be around him, right?

[00:57:33] and to that point like I also What I think is so fun about this film is when a director is able to get inside the audience's head and just mess with it So much that you really I think when we think about like filmmaking and film construction

[00:57:46] We think about like the look of it and the performances and and you know how the script is written But this film remind watching it again today reminded me of watching. Did you guys get to see?

[00:57:56] Uh billy linds long halftime walk. Oh, yeah. Did you get to see it in high frame, right? I saw it both weirdly. Yeah. Yes Like I know it gets a lot of garbage for the high frame rate

[00:58:05] But that the use of high frame rate in billy linds halftime walk makes you so hyper alert and so uncomfortable And so miserable seeing all of the text of what's going on seeing all of these people moving

[00:58:15] Seeing all the glitter in the pom-poms that you really get to where you want you to go with it Which is this is what ptsd feels like right and he makes you feel it by using this technology It's it's manipulative, but in a good way. It's just compobulating

[00:58:26] Exactly, and I think that's so hard to really do and that does it well and memento does it well I think you're right. Yeah memento. Yeah, you're genuinely Feel both like him and you feel like the people like people like teddy around him

[00:58:38] Who I'd never come up with a better term for this than like theme park movie and it always sounds like Dereis of your back Yeah, but it's that movie that makes you feel the exact way the character's feeling through like cinematic technique like this

[00:58:49] You know and like dying belt on the butterfly does that too. It's like sure we're gonna use this to make you feel like It's almost a VR movie Yeah, because there's a difference between like Audience empathy for what the audience is feeling an audience like awe and submission

[00:59:05] And I think he later on goes towards awe and submission Like here is a giant astounding image bow down instead of thinking like only about your nervous system And what is your nervous system feeling and what is your brain doing?

[00:59:16] When yeah, when you see a movie like this you wish you'd make movies like that for sure like this movie also It's like more fun than a lot of his other movies And I like most of his films, but there's like you feel a playfulness here

[00:59:29] Like the joy he has. Yeah, and just the I'm he's you know, I'm chasing this guy He's chasing me like it's like a dirty grimy movie and he's sort of like digging into all these weird little like scummy pockets of this culture

[00:59:41] But also the fact like the joy. He's having at the trick. He's pulling off because right it's pretty infectious When you watch the movies, you know The movie is really about this weird guy comes to town and it's it might as well be like

[00:59:54] What's it called out of the past or whatever right like some fucking weirdo shows up everyone knows him Oh, it's the memory guy. Yeah, you can imagine this being like 1882 Nevada exactly It's like a western like he rides up on his horse

[01:00:08] This shit town is that it's like there's the bad bar that like, you know The guy deals coke out of and there's the discount in that like no one's actually at so he's renting multiple rooms To the memory guy just to like cover the bills

[01:00:20] You can't tell pants is the good kind of sheriff or the bad kind of sheriff Who the fuck is he and like and then there's this like God damn player witch house like at the you know the bad end of town

[01:00:30] What is that place where and I'm joe joey pants says like, ah, it's this fucked up place Like he doesn't even just like really so he's like, you don't want to go there. It's a fucked up place um

[01:00:40] And so it's about this guy wanders into town and eventually everyone is like oh this guy I could like do something with this guy. This guy's kind of useful because he's He just wants one thing which is defined, you know, john g

[01:00:53] I I could get like so joey pants is like I can get some money You know out of sort of using him as a blind so joey pants is the cop who was assigned to his case to find the man Who who murdered his wife except?

[01:01:05] Spoiler alert didn't actually murder his wife and the man who attacked the man who injured his brain right And uh, but yes, yeah, he finds the man. They find him. They kill him off books

[01:01:16] They take the cutest Polaroid of all time. What a sincere smile looks like he's a burning man It really does look like he's a burning man It's so true and it's perfect right because he's eliminated by the flash of the polaroid and it's just black around him

[01:01:28] Like you have no idea what happened winning smile. He's pointing to his nipple. He's pointing to no He's pointing to here where he's gonna put I did it. That's the idea And uh And so I kept them from just writing I did it

[01:01:44] Well, there's a shot in the movie where you see her lying on his bare chest and it's the tattoo's there And you don't know if it's like, you know, right at the end when he's kind of like processing like, oh, yeah

[01:01:56] Maybe I maybe I'm like lying to myself And you don't know, right? Did he just not do it or did he do it and then get it removed? Or like, you know, like

[01:02:04] Because I like the idea that even the tattoos aren't really very trustworthy, right? Like you can fuck with tattoos Yeah, I was wondering watching this because now I feel like the big trend in tattoos for the last maybe eight years

[01:02:15] Has been like inspirational phrases all over the body. Sure. Which I don't think was Quotes you're like remember to breathe You know tattoos like that, which I don't think people had that many of in 2000 No 2000s like the end of the nose pierce ear pierce eye pierce trend

[01:02:28] Transformers sort of like yeah, yeah right the Celtic art or the Sanskrit symbol or whatever Mall tattoos Mall right where they're like Darth Maul, of course

[01:02:38] Where they would be like, yeah, look at all these like symbols we have does any of them speak to you and someone would be I like that one's it mean they'd be like it means like cup of coffee and like, you know

[01:02:46] Bengali, but sure let's put it on you know, your cheek body forever But you're wondering if this movie kind of was at the forefront of text-based tattoos Well, yeah, because he has he doesn't just have word tattoos. He has so many beautiful fonts

[01:03:00] Really good fonts. It's a great font The lady who's giving him the driver's license tattoo. I mean that license plate tattoo, which is Like aesthetically one of the least pleasing tattoos. It's literally just license plate number blah blah blah

[01:03:13] That's a great. She's doing a great job. That looks like free hand. It's a free hand serif font. It's amazing. She's awesome. I mean He's such it's such a I don't know who had the idea

[01:03:23] I assume, you know one of the two Nolan brothers had to say it's such a good idea the image of him Like just just to look at him Uh, and it's such a low scale prop like just to paint him with all this weird makeup

[01:03:35] But and they do a good job teasing it out because at the beginning of the film You're just seeing the one on his hand. He's wearing this weird suit

[01:03:41] That's really high quality but also doesn't fit him properly, which I love that's another thing that's sort of out of the past About it. Why does he have this car and like right at the beginning Joe pants is like your windows broken, you know like

[01:03:52] You're right about the alien thing though because the character kind of looks like the most is David Bowie and man who fell to earth Yes, we're like this guy's very handsome and very stylish but weirdly off

[01:04:02] And yet what's weird is I think so many movies lazily write this hero character with a nice suit and a nice car Never questioning why he has it and I like that this movie says this is bizarre

[01:04:11] This should not be happening. I should not have an endless supply of money. Why does he have all this money? Why does he get the money from right? They how does his I mean like yeah, how does his mission work at all?

[01:04:22] You know, and I love that one of the tattoos is an actual like plot twist in the movie when he finally lifts off the Bandage and it says don't answer the phone. That's great And it's in such scary fun too. He has a weird like impact lettering

[01:04:34] I love how the end credits this movie are just a shot of him turning around and they're all tattooed on his back That'd be great. The camera just slowly pans down

[01:04:44] What do you think of that line when he realizes that he oh has a gun and he says well I don't think they would let someone like me have a gun right and Teddy's like fucking hope not

[01:04:52] Yeah, but I'm like, oh no we live in a world where we're having this fight all the time And yes lots of people who should not have guns because of mental reasons are having guns It's for sure

[01:05:00] And but not only that like the the movie is kind like he kind of does get to have a gun like that's sort of the problem You're letting this guy run amok He probably should be institutionalized Maybe the anti-gun lobby should just buy that

[01:05:13] That 10 second clip would just be running it in ads all the time I can hope that but of course, you know this movie is the reason why I own a gun because we got lunatics like Teddy running around

[01:05:25] All right, so Teddy Teddy is this right so Teddy's is kind of like Busted guy, I guess, you know, you maybe you don't even really know if he's a cop But when we watch the movie as I've rewatched it many like

[01:05:36] The more you see it like Teddy or you're like What's this guy doing hanging out like because he'll he shows up in his car at one point like He has this weird familiarity with him

[01:05:47] That makes no sense when you consider the guy's never going to know who he is right, right? But I guess that's his move is just if I just am totally familiar with him He will get that I'm not a threat

[01:05:58] Yeah, and like right from the beginning when you see him There's all these signs that you can't trust him, you know the movie keeps setting it up like that's not my car That's not my truck and he just feels like he's always mansplaining

[01:06:08] I guess like his life and always being wrong and you don't know if you can trust anything that's coming out of his mouth Right, and then of course he always looks at the polarities like don't believe his lies

[01:06:15] All right. Well, I won't believe his lies but uh which things are the lies But it's true. Teddy always just shows up and Because what is basically seems like decent advice which is you need to leave this town like

[01:06:27] Uh, and if Leonard probably knew that he's been hanging around this town for a long time He would get that but he doesn't know that he just knows that he just woke up like in his brain every 15 minutes

[01:06:37] And he's like so where am I again? Do I know you like you know? I love how well he plays the fake Like oh, yeah, you know like this sort of like the sammy jenka's thing essentially

[01:06:49] Over and over again, I've relate so much that because I feel like I have mild face blindness Uh, I mean I like I don't like people self-diagnosed nosing themselves with crazy diseases

[01:06:59] So I like I probably do not have face blindness. I'm probably just terrible at looking at things But I'd never recognize people it's like very hard for me to recognize people usually And so I live so much in that sammy world of like

[01:07:11] Preemptively smiling to make sure that if I forgot who that person is they're not mad at me And I feel like that's my continual state So I empathize so much with that and he's I mean to me the scene in the bar where he's like

[01:07:24] I'm here to see natalie and she's like i'm natalie. He's like, yeah, hey, how you doing? You know, he's trying to just move with the even though he Literally just walked into this bar knowing nothing except I am Leonard and my wife is dead like every time

[01:07:35] That's what he remembers. I have a coaster in a suit But it goes into like my larger nolin read which is all of his movies end up being about confidence and very often they're about literal

[01:07:46] Con men sure and that's who this character ultimately turns out is revealed to be But the way yeah, but the way he's able to function conning himself Right, but they also said he was a con artist before. Oh, yeah, right, right? No, no, no, no

[01:07:59] They say sammy jenkus was a con artist The whole that don't they reveal that he was a con artist joey pants Do you want I'm so nerdy because I've just seen this movie so many fucking times That the real plot is sammy jenkus is him right?

[01:08:12] He killed his wife by giving her a diabetic overdose. Oh, I hope that's not it. That's terrible That's and but sammy jenkus like who he it was was a con man who he rightly exposed as an insurance fraud investigation

[01:08:25] Oh, okay. Yeah, because that's what joey pants said. I mean this is all just what teddy says We don't know if it's true, but he's like sammy jenkus was a con man

[01:08:32] You're the one who the story's about like that's you but they talk about how I mean he uses like con man techniques in order to make it through life because he has to fake until he makes it

[01:08:41] He has to go into rooms and seem like he knows what he's talking about And that's like the ultimate currency in a nolyn movie is speaking with authorities speaking calmly, you know having the facts Even if they're like written down on polaroids

[01:08:54] He's able to go into rooms and until people call him out on it seem like he understands what's happening I don't want him to secretly be sammy jenkus. That's just such an unnecessary complicated plot twist

[01:09:04] That reminds me of later nolyn. I know you mean this movie doesn't need that at all It doesn't need it. I mean the idea obviously that no one is trying to drive through is like this guy is He's deluding himself like intentionally

[01:09:16] Well, I like it on that straightforward level that we're all lying to ourselves about something because really to me What this movie is about is the quest for meaning in your life like for sure your life He has that line actions of purpose

[01:09:26] What do you have to do to pretend your actions of purpose the way like I could be You know that that I convince myself sometimes that writing or view of an adam sandler movie is the greatest gift I can give the world right now, which is not true

[01:09:37] But I'm deluding myself that that is what gives the world meaning absolutely Um, when that's the whole like you know quixotic thing about his quest Is that like all he wants to do is kill this guy and if he does it or if he did it

[01:09:50] He won't remember it right so he won't be satisfied unless he's able to do it again But I do think what's you know important about the end of the movies he says like no, I'll know if I do it

[01:10:00] I'll like it'll be different something will change and Teddy's like yeah, I thought so too But you didn't and like it's a good reversal of this sort of ghost movie because it's like right He's unfinished business is finished

[01:10:11] Yeah, but it doesn't matter because he's just trapped in this state anyway I mean how amazing if teddy just knocked him out and then got a giant happy eagle on his chest covering up

[01:10:20] Like I wish he didn't have to go into so much detail about what happened to his wife raped and murdered I know it's a little much like you're avenging your wife. She just said you're happy now

[01:10:27] And every morning he looked in the mirror and went oh, okay, I'm happy now Right, but that's isn't that it's like that's not possible right? I mean like that's got enough money and you got a good tattoo artist He's got a trunk with 200 grand. I love that

[01:10:39] He's driving around in a with 200 grand in his trunk and he doesn't even know it This is such a funny character like when you remove this is from the context of this movie

[01:10:47] If you the movie is so bound to his perspective necessarily obviously because I mean one thing also That's fun about the movie is when you're watching every scene you're like this has to wrap in a few minutes

[01:10:55] Like because they can't go too long which I think is like works well And then when you finally see like the handoff like teddy going like Lenny you're like

[01:11:04] Oh, I've seen this and then it like that's always like a little like in dwarf and rush where you're like Oh, they did another they did it again Um, which the Lenny thing also falls into like that like how people view movies Like he's doing a bad performance

[01:11:16] Like Lenny is putting too much like spin on the like hey buddy. How you doing? You mean teddy. You mean teddy. Sorry. Yeah, teddy is doing that too much

[01:11:24] But um, that's how like in movies and shitty movies especially as shorthand we get like oh, I guess these people are friends Because the characters introduced in the first scene they go like hey buddy, how that fucking thing going? But like oh, they've known each other before

[01:11:36] I also like that when he explains his memory condition for the first time in the movie He's explaining it to mark boon jr. He plays the hotel so well cast and You know especially once you're rewatching it like oh, this guy's heard this like 10 times

[01:11:48] He just gets a kick out of the fact that he genuinely does he genuinely is like explaining it for the first time And every one of the movie keeps on testing him in the way that like his wife tested him if you believe that story carry him off

[01:11:59] But like that's the thing right no one can really buy it. They're like come on This can't be real like that you don't know who there are actual people like that. Yes

[01:12:06] It's a real condition. It is a real condition. You know what's interesting to me too is the way that Um you see these signs of use you know that that you know the car has jaguar is like filthy right and how did it get filthy

[01:12:18] Where did the dust come from and I like that idea of trying to like backdate it and try to figure out where it all happened from And the scratches on his face and then when you and the scratches

[01:12:25] And then when you realize he's walking into a bar dressed like the drug dealer and everyone's like what is happening Right and she goes you can't walk into a bar wearing that suit You think it's a general comment about the suit being too nice for that place

[01:12:36] And that's the thing with dod too or dod's like you what are you doing driving this car? You know, but anyway, sorry carry on Oh, but just like the way

[01:12:43] The way things these like habitual things become so familiar to us that don't become familiar to him like the car alarm For some reason the car alarm always pops out to me because you just keep hearing that security thing that beep beep beep beep

[01:12:55] And he builds in patterns into the movie that make this world feel very familiar to us It's like the only thing that feels grounding in a way. You're right and like right part of the idea is he's like You know he survives by creating these like

[01:13:08] Like Pavlovian things that he can like him instantly be like, oh, yeah, I know I like this is my room. I get that just my room because my all my weird polar lights are in here

[01:13:17] I mean and you never know by the end of the movie how many rooms he actually has at this end Right, you never know. You never know if it's three or four or seven

[01:13:26] Um, so yeah, and we you know, we should say like cross cutting between the backwards chronology The film are these forwards running black and white scenes that are much shorter of him on the phone So it's my move for him to do it in black and white

[01:13:38] It's such a simple thing and talk about like not having the money to do anything crazy But just like okay, you just want to be able to track this story in pieces

[01:13:44] Right. So anytime the movie is black and white your brain can go like, okay, right back to that And he's wearing like a flannel shirt. He's like kind of like country Pre-scratch before he became city Leonard

[01:13:54] And and uh, he's talking to teddy on the phone and the score is like this weird like ticking noise Which I also think is crucial See this movie too many times. I had on vhs. I watched it all the time

[01:14:06] I once lost a babysitting contract because I showed it to a kid who was too young to see it It wasn't that young. He was like 12 He freaked out look like like this is all he didn't like it

[01:14:17] I mean you freak out in front of me, but later he complained to his parents that time was going backwards Yes He had become unstuck in time because it's not a thing where you'd be worried that there's somebody living under your bed

[01:14:28] I mean maybe hiding in your car I mean it opens with a scene of violence that I guess is sort of nightmarish like the blood rushing back into But like apart from that, it's not really a very it's kind of a weirdly chaste movie. I guess they're

[01:14:41] They're sort of they're swearing and stuff Haven't 12 year olds just seen so much blood already. Hey man. Look this maybe he was an innocent 12 year old Well, let's call it out. Maybe they were just looking for an excuse

[01:14:50] Yeah, David. No, maybe he hated the real reason they got angry at you is because they walked in there Kidd in the shower and he had a bunch of tattoos that said history paper do on Thursday Right now. He learned all the wrong lessons so, uh

[01:15:04] So Lenny, let your mom Lenny is looking for John G Yeah That's all he knows. The guy's name is John G He was maybe a drug dealer license plate. He's a white male, right? And then he's got this license plate, right?

[01:15:17] And we know that he has killed Teddy Yeah, like to start the movie but as the movie goes on I feel like we are sort of more and more thinking like I don't think Teddy is the guy like right. This doesn't make sense because why would his killer

[01:15:32] Yeah, or his wife's killer like hang out with him all the time so much Do you think do you think teddy had to like put a lot of work into making sure he never accidentally went after john goodman? Because we're in Nevada like they're close enough to goodman

[01:15:47] Where do you think don goodman lives? Oh, he lives in new orleans, right? Yeah Is he a louisianan like he was in tramae? He takes it easy. That's why he was on tramaic I can roll out of bed Is that what you just said?

[01:16:04] And in the so I guess he kills teddy And then before that there's the sort of like if i'm going backwards, you know, there's like the natalie stuff Sure. No, no before that there's dod right now. They kind of has her section in the middle

[01:16:16] No, no before that is dod where he like wakes up in a hotel room and there's a guy. He's like tied up in his closet Yeah, played by Calum Keith-Renny

[01:16:23] And then and then you go back to natalie and you realize like oh she sicked him on this guy sort of Kind of sort of kind of sort of not really it's more like dod just goes after him because he he's obviously stolen the drug dealer's car and

[01:16:38] clothes right And right, I mean she convinces him. I mean she convinces him that dod beat her up when in fact she fucked with Him Leonard until he punched her right he punched her. Yeah

[01:16:52] What do you make of that? Say I feel like that was a that was a crux scene in the movie in general Uh the the uh the natalie reversal Uh, you know, yeah

[01:17:02] I mean because we want to empathize with her so much when we see her kiss him and say like you'll remember this You should be comes up tell where you wish that it was sincere and she like she's the one who sort of unveils him in the

[01:17:13] Mirror so we see all his tattoos in full I've never totally understood So is her main play just she's trying to get revenge on him for killing her boyfriend I think so, but I don't know

[01:17:24] It's not like and it's sort of the problem of many a nolan character Right like they're more their plot function first and a character second Well, he just likes brunette women with beautiful eyes who are fucking with people

[01:17:33] It's true. She is a proto marion cotillard for him, right like Uh and then before that I guess I'm trying to remember like What else happens not much else happens? I guess it's just I guess we should talk about the sammy jenkin story a little bit Sammy jankis

[01:17:50] I'm sorry played by sivan tabalowski and thomas lennon plays his uh his doctor Right and uh harry tyson harris who's a great actress great like character actress. She's the uh the wife Mrs. Jankis

[01:18:02] Isn't it true that steven tabalowski used to have amnesia that an accident happened to him? That sounds like something because I feel like something like that I mean not just because he's seems very interested in these roles. He does this and ground hogs day

[01:18:15] That's true right roles where he is like a specter and garfield the movie too. He plays a similar I don't know. I also feel like steven tabalowski because he has like the podcast where he tells all these like crazy stories from his life

[01:18:26] That does sort of sound like something. I don't know Unless you think he's making it up I mean can we trust him like do you have a tattoo on your body? Do not trust even tabalowski

[01:18:35] Well, that's the key to the tabalowski files is that he's an unreliable narrator Um, but I so I guess the fun of the movie is just all like you see on natalie's picture That something's been crossed out and written under it

[01:18:45] Uh, right you like you just want to see How all these things fall into place like he takes great care and making sure Every little clue gets sort of its own little answer and I guess that's why people respond to the movie so well

[01:18:58] I don't know. He's like, I know what was written on that. Oh, I am a genius And this is where right the criticism comes from where he's like, you know the somewhat patronizing criticism of like you you're he's just

[01:19:09] Holding your hand through the whole thing. He's a trick, but I don't think that's fair either I think but when people write themselves that big of a check and they're able to cash it Right, you know just narratively

[01:19:19] Like it's impressive a really complicated plot. I mean that's it's the same thing that gave uh, m night shaman his blank check You know, it's like right you're impressive the parlor stretch. Yes, it's true same period exact same period

[01:19:31] And it's like you can't pull that off by accident whether or not you can repeat that Whether or not you can grow that and evolve that into something else You can't make that kind of movie by accident Right because people like ebert thought that memento was a movie

[01:19:43] You should only watch once maybe twice and then it didn't get any better than that But you're David clearly like proving that wrong. Well, I really liked the movie I was a teenager and I was just someone who watched as many movies as I could

[01:19:54] But it was you know, this is a pre netflix era my teenage hood And so I did watch it over and over again I didn't enjoy but it was also one of those movies that when you know when you're a teenager you like showing other people

[01:20:04] Movies, so I would like yeah like like to my friends. I'd be like we should watch this Yeah, there was a thing when you had stuff on tape where it was almost like trading underground records

[01:20:12] Exactly like you had a special thing right and you'd be like come over and see this thing You wouldn't just be like, oh, you should stream that someday You made it like a social of it

[01:20:20] And the other movie was clueless that I would try and make everyone watch because all the British boys were like I don't want to watch that that's like that's not for boys

[01:20:28] And I would just say no, no, it's good. It's good. You're gonna get it boys get so limited Thank you for making them watch it. That's one of my favorite movies That's what I'm that's the movie I've seen the most is clueless

[01:20:37] Did it seem alien to them like yes was British? I had to explain so many jokes like I had to explain like what cliffs notes were because that's a great joke In uh in clueless when she writes like a little love letter for the teachers and

[01:20:51] Dion's like that's a beautiful quote. Where'd you get that and she's like list notes And no British person understands with that. So I always had to like pause and be like, let me explain what cliffs notes is

[01:20:59] And meanwhile they're like we just hit each other with sticks and reset A moron stands You hit the sticks together. So you were like the annotated clueless Oh god, I love clueless

[01:21:11] You're like the cliff notes of American comedies a little bit. Yeah, but I was like an American right I tried to explain what America really was to these people and they like clueless

[01:21:20] This is basically a documentary of American life because they you know like the most common thing that kids would do to me all the time Would to be to pinch my nose And say now you can't talk

[01:21:33] Because in britain the joke was like Americans talk through their nose Oh really because we have nasal voices What are they talking about? You can't talk anymore. Can you like that that was like a joke that multiple people did to me. Isn't that strange?

[01:21:47] I've never heard of that. Can you still talk? I'm like testing it out. Of course you could still talk But to british people americans they have like such a you know nasal voice like that they that they thought We just talked about where do they talk from?

[01:22:02] I don't know Stinky buttholes This is why I don't know why this is david's memory lane But I remember when I was 10 years old, you know kids in britain call each other

[01:22:12] Bosteds all the time like bastards. Yeah for some reason that was and I remember trying like trying it out And saying it wrong saying bastard and everyone laughing at me Like because I didn't know I was gonna say it wrong. Look, this is a movie about memory

[01:22:29] Anyway, we're relating our own experiences to those of Leonard Schell You pointed out that one Nolan has a british accent and the other one doesn't we talked about this

[01:22:36] I think we might talk about it next week or no. Did we talk about on the following episode? We figured out why Huh, I think it was the following separately their parents were divorced separately and one grew up in chicago

[01:22:45] One grew up in london so it's like the parent trap And then right and then they did a parent trap and they got back together But no, yeah, they grew up he grew up in chicago

[01:22:52] to christa and of course as we mentioned on the following episode christen had an older brother Who's a con artist who was sent to prison? And nobody I feel like nobody knows that but it is interesting to hear about in the context of his work

[01:23:03] Because that's like what he's obsessed with he's so many movies about con artists But his mom lived his mom didn't get murdered right? No, I think I don't think he has any like women haunting him or anything like that He should but it's just funny when you

[01:23:18] Would you haunt christopher? No, he seems tedious Yeah, let me haunt michael shannon Then what's your take you said you had to take on this movie. Oh you said it was really smart and good

[01:23:30] I just wanted to get to that before we wrap things up. Um, I've been here check out this polaroid see if that jogs anything Oh, thank okay. Yeah, right. Um so This movie is like a term paper Go on it's so Like hard to follow

[01:23:51] If I feel like I had to work at it had you seen it before was this it? Yeah, I'd seen it but I don't know. I didn't retain any of it so It's fine. It's just like I'm like what why make it so confusing

[01:24:05] You just wish it was just straight shot start to finish my thing make movies easier to follow Great. Thank you ben copy paste add a fucking montage make it sexy You got a movie make it's ben's favorite movie is flesh

[01:24:21] Yeah, if you know what's gonna happen. He's gonna save the day and get the girl because he's working overtime Gotta work overtime. I just working overtime Thanks, ben You just looked you should have looked around the room Well, he doesn't remember where he is

[01:24:35] You're producer ben record a podcast. Um I can't remember what I was gonna say he kills jimmy grants at the end of the movie Yeah, and then he sets himself on this path. That's that's the right thing. That's the prestige he's gonna kill

[01:24:48] Uh teddy this time. Yeah, he decides like he writes don't believe his lies And that's like he's like creating like a little wrench in his like, you know Machine that's gonna eventually resolve with the murder of teddy which I kind of I find the ending oddly optimistic because

[01:25:02] I mean a yes He's giving himself another like false flag to murder but b it's also like if he murders teddy He's freed of this guy who's forcing him to murder other people. You're right

[01:25:14] You're right. You don't think k.m. Moss is gonna go find him in like 20 minutes later. He's gonna be like, oh, here's this coaster I should go meet k.m. That's why we need to see tumento. That's why he needs to go back to the well

[01:25:24] Memento. Yeah, you're right. That's better. That's better. That's much better. Jesus. You're fucking bases right right now griffin I'm really angry myself No, but I I I find the end of the movie when he commits this murder, right and immediately realizes like

[01:25:38] Oh, fuck. All right. This isn't the guy And then he confronts teddy and teddy says all the stuff then in response He throws kettys teddies keys into like some rushes like you and teddy joe pantaliano. Who's wonderful

[01:25:51] He's so good at pathetically looking for those keys. He's looking for those keys for like 10 minutes While you know Leonard's just sitting there having this whole internal monologue about like is this true?

[01:26:00] Do I do this to myself? Teddy is rifling around for those keys. Teddy go look for those keys I gotta do some voiceover if I'm looking for those keys you'd be like you wouldn't buy it

[01:26:08] You'd be like hey the keys are right there. He would have seen the keys like joey pants can make himself so pathetic that you You really feel so bad for him like in this moment of his death sentence

[01:26:20] I would argue that joey pants is one of the best like transformative status actors Like he's really good at within a movie going from high status to low status and selling both even though

[01:26:30] He's kind of a guy who's like right in the middle, you know, he doesn't seem particularly pathetic or particularly impressive But like there's so many movies like uh Midnight runs another one where it starts out and it's like oh, he's got like fucking denier by the balls

[01:26:43] And at the end of the movie denier is just like fuck you and you're like this guy sucks That's my hot take on midnight run. Do you want to know some fun facts about joey pants? Yeah, uh, he runs a um non-profit called no kidding me too

[01:26:58] about uh depression In the for actors who have depression Because he says anytime he says that to another actor like oh, I've suffered from clinical depression They go no kidding me too. So that's what it's called. Isn't that so cute?

[01:27:11] That's beautiful. It's a wonderful man. That sounds like a great sequel to memento should be meant to just be called no kidding me too No kidding me too No kidding memento Do you think it's his most? I mean, I guess the matrix is his most famous and then

[01:27:25] Sopranos and right and then this and then midnight run and then la confidence I mean the fugitive How do you feel about joey pants? We have we've praised joey. We love you've praised him. He's so praised like he's like joey tuxedo now

[01:27:38] Can we talk about carry on moss a little bit because it's we talked about her just it's weird that she has Matrix then this and there was like a trick she she got legit oscar bus because this movie was

[01:27:49] Sort of an underground like sleeper head and I think she is really goodness. I mean those scenes are complicated She's actually really pulls them off She was in shukla this the year before as well

[01:27:58] Which she also plays an abused wife in that I think she doesn't have much to do and then she had like a couple failed like red planet Yeah, she's in red planet. It was sort of weird that she never got her own vehicle

[01:28:11] I wonder if like angeline joe lee just ascended and took over the dark haired green eyed Like femme fatale like she just kind of supplanted her and got all the roles kind of unsurprising

[01:28:21] Surprisingly made the detour into action movies when she seemed a little more high brow carry on moss probably would have been A lower she could have been in one. Yeah wanted her lower

[01:28:32] The other thing I mean she was 32 when the matrix hit so like, you know, hollywood is not a very nice industry to Women who hit in their mid 30s like, you know

[01:28:40] And there's also like linda fiorintino at this time too like there's a lot of competition for this niche And that's a kind of movie we because we're talking about john doll like last week We were saying that like christopher nolin with following memento and insomnia

[01:28:53] It's like he's the noir guy the best version of john John doll like that's what he was gonna do and he was gonna do like, you know good mid budget studio fine cast

[01:29:04] Neon award and when he and it's the same thing with brian singer honestly like public access usual suspect app people It's like, oh right. Yeah here This guy's gonna make these like hard boiled 90s are rated right and then somehow christopher gop mccrary

[01:29:16] Just ended up making them forever and I wish he would stop what do you what would you want? What do you want mr. McCrary to do? I don't need him to do really anything. I'm fine if he doesn't do anything. He just chills out

[01:29:25] Yeah, he can just relax He can just take his usual suspects money and just go like limp off and be fine He's tom's guy now because he's he's in the he's on the mummy

[01:29:33] Uh, he's killing tom's career. I feel like I really do. I mean, I like these I like the mccrary. I like the movies where mccrary's got a strong hand I like rogue nation. I like edge of tomorrow. I like the first jack creature

[01:29:45] My theory is cruise felt so The trade and isolated after 2005 that he just wanted to trust someone and he just latched onto mccrary Yeah, and he won't let it go because before then cruise barely ever worked with the same director twice

[01:29:57] I know and I think lineman is that guy for cruise too. He trusts him too And I think he's trusting the wrong people. Well, I mean, I think It's more like you say it's a trust issue in general

[01:30:06] He needs to go back to how he was in the 90s where it's like you are a great director. I am tom cruise I respect great. Oh, it's me

[01:30:13] Which he was almost like too forceful about but still like he really was like I worshiped the altar of you Oh stanley kubrick. Oh, you know, whoever. Yeah, paul thomas anderson. I saw your first film

[01:30:22] You're gonna make something great put me in it. And so like what do you want me to do? Okay, I'll do it sounds weird, but okay, I'll do it and now he doesn't do that anymore

[01:30:30] I know like what we should do is take polaroids of christopher mcclary and dug lineman and write Do not trust these men and just put them in his pocket and end the Scientology guy

[01:30:39] Have we already talked about how it'd be interesting to see tom cruise do a christopher nolin movie? Well, I mean my opinion with nolin in general is I'd like to see x star do a christopher nolin movie because he's pretty good

[01:30:48] With stars like I'd like to see a cloney nolin movie like Uh, but that's almost more a complaint about how movie stars don't get to make fun movies anymore Yeah, I don't know like I feel like that's sort of what we really mean by that

[01:30:58] So I had this thought watching at this time But you know we had talked about these first three nolin movies as this little neon noir trilogy that then he diverted from so much And we we recorded our insomnia episode before this episode just because of scheduling stuff

[01:31:11] So I rewatched this after rewatching insomnia and I was just like god the leap from this to batman is so weird that like He transitioned so well that they would give him the job that they could see how he would apply the style

[01:31:23] But like there's I think a cleaner shorter line between this and batman Because this movie does feel very like 90s comic bookie to me in a certain way Like it feels like a vertigo miniseries or like ed brubaker Right, like here's a weird high concept like noir thing

[01:31:41] You know with like these grimy archetypal. Yes. Yeah, that's why that maybe that's why and there's something very pulpy about it You know In how he does have almost this weird superpower and everyone sort of talks about it like it's a burden memory guy

[01:31:55] Right, but he's memory guy like It does feel like it could be a vertigo title or he could be like a marginal villain that batman fought for like four issues in 1987

[01:32:05] Oh, yeah, the guy that batman keeps fighting and then he just keeps coming after him because he didn't know that he already fought him In law the problem is the guy doesn't know he's been defeated your crimes will look

[01:32:13] You can't beat someone who has no shame because they don't remember being embarrassed. That's what he is right? Yeah, yeah Uh, what other I feel like we're wrapping up But like what have you took some notes is there anything else Amy that you want to point out

[01:32:26] I mean just this idea that I think we are very Goalable as audience members, which I think we've kind of been touching on a little bit but to me that's just this main thing I love is like

[01:32:36] I think we have a tendency to sit down in the theater and believe everything we're told about everybody We're not cynical in the theater. You know, I think it's like going to a magic show You kind of need to be not cynical exactly exactly

[01:32:48] And so I like the feeling of being taken advantage of in this way In the way where it reminds me not to be so naive about everything I see at the theater Do you should watch prestige? I think that's the other role in the movie that functions

[01:32:58] I agree I should see it but we spend our lives watching new garbage and I never have a chance to watch old Our old classic Hey Wait, I mean So are you because I'm like this like when I'm seeing a murder mystery or whatever some movie

[01:33:11] I never like try too hard to figure it out I'm always just like it'll like it'll wash over me soon enough, right? Like I feel like some people go into the movie thinking like I'm going to solve this movie while it's happening

[01:33:22] Which is why I think a lot of people like Nolan movies because people want to feel like they like one You're right, but no, I'm like you. I don't actually try to guess. I mean I get annoyed. You sort of think right

[01:33:30] Oh, I hope it's not that guy and then if it is that guy I'm mad, but I'm not Busy doing it. I'm more concentrating on everything else. The movie should be experiential Yeah Do you guys want to play the box office game?

[01:33:41] So we do a game where I try to guess the box office the week the movie came out. This is a weird one This is a weird one My my father and I read the box office

[01:33:50] Every monday when it came out because he was obsessed with sports stats And that's how I bond it with my brother and I hit sports So this I have all this stuff burned into my memory forever because it was the only way I could build a bridge

[01:34:00] Emotionally to my father Sounds very dull in it. Yeah, Chris from the lunch making movie about you um father's great man So this film came out we should say it was a hit at sundance

[01:34:10] You know, so that was where it sort of got buzzed and it comes it had been a hit overseas comes out march 16th 2001 right after the oscars or right before right in the oscar season of last year It makes 25 million

[01:34:23] domestic 39 worldwide which is very nice for a would have been like 40 something adjusted. Uh sure and um It opens number 27 on 11 screens Makes 230 000 So it's not in the top five So number one

[01:34:41] March 16th 2001 which is like that's great for the box office game because there's no good movies Yeah, right because summer 2001 is very very big to me But this is right before we have the shrekening right before the mummy returns

[01:34:54] Right before dr. Do little two knocks on our door So that's in the furious So number number one is an action movie an r rated action movie starring like a washed up Action star of an earlier era and ex-executants. Yes

[01:35:08] Got it before I even said end a rapper because I remember it being so weird It was a big uh nice opening weekend 18 mil Well and like steven segal's slump happened like his last successful movie before exit wounds was before I started tracking the box office

[01:35:24] So went out of nowhere. He had like a 20 million dollar opener I was like since when does like steven segal make money my dad was like like 10 years ago less talk about it Steven segal and uh DMX

[01:35:33] Yeah, I saw the movie in theater. I have never seen it. Have you seen exit wounds? God no It is on box office mojo's. It's the fourth highest dirty cop movie Behind LA confidential training day and the department

[01:35:46] It's got two comical relief characters in it one of them is tom arnold The other one is anthony anderson the only thing I remember that movie Is the last scene is clearly them being like, oh, these two guys are funny

[01:35:56] Let's add a scene for the end credits of them talking and it's just tom arnold anthony anderson talking about Jerking off Number one at the domestic box office even mendice is also in it apparently. I don't know

[01:36:07] I don't remember that but sure number two was at the time one of the most expensive european films ever made to war movie I saw this in theaters. It's not jon avar stars. No, it starts two very pretty british actors

[01:36:21] And one very pretty british actor enemy at the gates starring Uh What it's jude law. Yep And fuck the other one is it's a race. It's josephine And rachel vise and john jackanoe

[01:36:34] Directed that uh, yes and ed harris isn't it as well. It's about the battle of stalingrod. Have you seen that movie? No, yeah, it's a bad movie. I didn't get to see a lot of movies this semester. I'm so sorry

[01:36:44] I don't mean to uh, no, i'm just like i feel very momentum in my daily life as i said and i have I have a very hard time remembering movies. I've even seen

[01:36:53] So i'm impressed by this this is this is really knocking me out. I think there's a sex scene at the gates Where there's a there is a quite a bissar when all these other soldiers are sleeping around them and it's like that's just kind of rude

[01:37:02] Yeah, where they're like having sex in like a muddy trench like three weeks into the battle of song She's like disguise as a man. Yes, and you're like like I get it like, you know You guys like each other but this this seems

[01:37:13] Unsane here. Yeah, there's snipers. Yeah. All right number three is was number one the week before It's uh comedy drama sort of sort of a crime comedy Uh starring two huge movie stars who don't spend much time together on screen. Oh the mexican the mexican

[01:37:33] Julia roberts, this is what he does julia roberts and brad pippe I think some people now are bourbonski wonder if i'm like looking at the answers No, i'm looking at the answers. I can vouch that you are looking at nothing. Yeah, my brain is stupid

[01:37:46] I saw the mexican for my 15th birthday party. Oh, congratulations. I remember that Uh, i'm yeah, gorgobinski. I haven't seen it since theaters. I remember it being kind of good I saw an airplane. I think it's kind of solid gandalfini gandalfini is really good in it

[01:38:01] People were angry that brad pitton jewelry rock perform in it together at all Nope They have like one scene together and it was sold as like the two pretty people together Yeah, they only have a scene together at the end Uh

[01:38:11] So number four is a dog movie that i've never heard of like never heard of it's not c spot wrong It is c spot right That's crazy. What is that? I don't even know what that is

[01:38:23] It's made 24 million dollars in three weeks. It's doing just fine. It's a david arkett family comedy david arkett Oh, it's a david arkett vehicle with him and a dog. I think you know, we're nostalgic for old like, you know Like the hollywood of our childhood, but jesus

[01:38:38] Dog vehicles. It's a david arkett. I remember the posters david arkett on top of like a dog No, no the dog david arkett's in the carrier the dogs on top C spot run

[01:38:49] I think he's got to protect the dog for some reason. I think it's like someone important's dog and the dog It's kind of like a did you see this? Marmaduke tech I did not but this is what I remember distinctly about the movie

[01:38:58] So more brothers picture and they put the first trailer for harry potter in front of it Oh, sure So the box office was boosted because this was still in the era like you were talking about with insomnia

[01:39:08] On the attack of the clones trailer or not insomnia. What was it? Ice age? Ice age with the attack of the clones trailer Yeah Where if you were like, you know, you want to see the harry potter trailer

[01:39:15] You got to go see this dumb david arkett dog movie an opening weekend. It made like 12 million dollars because All these parents have to take their kids to it

[01:39:23] Are the things in your brain that you don't have room for because you've made room for this almost anything else How to be a functioning person my past and future guest and my friend sam rougal

[01:39:35] Uh had said, uh, it was like the I think the most real and moment has ever happened in our show You and sam were talking about me while I was in the studio

[01:39:43] Right and you both said like yes sometimes I just wonder how you make it through the day How do you like fry an egg? I just sometimes i'm standing around. I wonder how you do this. All right

[01:39:52] I don't know anything other than this. Uh, yeah sam rougal spam from the show as we know uh, number five 50 oh Well now what is it? I almost said it

[01:40:02] It's a crime thriller number five at the box office. I almost said that it starts with 50 on that no Starts with fifth fifth It's a crime crime thriller starring a major, you know big actor and uh someone we make fun of a lot of this podcast

[01:40:21] Uh who was I guess a pretty boy of the moment Uh, Jesus. It's such an irrelevant movie and starts with fifth. Yeah it starts with fifth fifth 15 minutes with ed burns and robert in here gave that one away. I feel bad

[01:40:35] Yeah, uh never seen no neither. I don't know anything about that So we ragged on ed burns a lot. We had burns. Yeah, uh crushing character in the State of private ryan is from brooklyn I don't know if you know that's subtle

[01:40:50] It's kind of sub that's like a trivia piece Uh, so ed burns brother wrote daddy's home. I didn't I watched daddy's home because You're a big daddy's home fan. I feel like Amy's the biggest daddy's home fan. I know

[01:41:03] Whoa, whoa, whoa, I mean, I think it's a really solid film But I'm also a john sena girl. So when he shows up in the end, I'm in love with this movie I think john sena is the untapped common comic resource of the modern era

[01:41:15] And I'm ready to retire the rock and switch totally over to sena. I think sena's better. I think sena is great. Uh No, I just feel like you're the only one who I read like really saying like we need to appreciate daddy's home

[01:41:26] I said it was one of the 10 best movies of the 21st century. Did you not see that? I did see that She did she said it was one of her 10 picks for the day with the caveat that she watches it all the time with her kids

[01:41:35] But yeah, but nonetheless she I feel very vindicated about that. I was very pleasantly surprised by it I remember the trailers being garbage and I watched it and I think it's a good character comedy Like it's actually good like character based There you go

[01:41:47] They just put the couple of dumb like slap sticky scenes in the trailer so it looked really broad It's certain like I didn't know Hannibal barrest that well before I saw that film

[01:41:55] He's amazing. He comes in and I'm just like I am in love with that Thomas Hayden church is really good Isn't it there's that one scene where he yells after Hannibal barrests and he's like no, I'm still here

[01:42:04] And then they spend this scene going like oh man, I was gonna run after you and I was gonna say this And Thomas Hayden church is like, why don't you just do it anyway? He's like, well, I don't know. It feels forced now

[01:42:13] I've already explained they spend three minutes deconstructing the scene they don't do and I'm like this is a weird gag for like A family comedy. All right. I'm cutting you off

[01:42:23] Just some other movies crouching tiger that's in the top 10 still down to what's it up to at that point Uh, it's up to 100 million dollars exactly which is crazy when you think it's saying Down to earth the chris rock

[01:42:36] Just like heaven remake or whatever. It's not just like a movie heaven can wait. I guess so Probably by default. I need to rewatch them. I did see that one Hannibal Ridley scott's Hannibal. Yeah Shokula

[01:42:48] Lassie Hellstrom shokula, uh, Steven Sonner works traffic. So a lot of the like oscar Holdovers, I guess this is when Oscar movies didn't come out on dvd like cast away after the Oscars when they They would like start to really boom at the box office post ceremony

[01:43:01] But yeah, and then memento had a very nice long run. It was in theaters all the way through september Uh starting in march, you know, so it was like a real word of mouth hit

[01:43:09] And it was always hovering and like the buy it only goes into the top 10 like for two weeks But it's always sort of hovering around there Uh kind of movie that doesn't really happen anymore. It wasn't it movie and he became the director Yeah

[01:43:21] He was the kid everyone was talking about coming by Amy. Thank you so much I'm glad that we could sit around and talk about this movie. Maybe someday he'll make another one like this Maybe he will I don't know. I don't know and we said in our insomnia

[01:43:33] Like I'm excited to see Dunkirk, but when I heard he was making a war movie I was like right okay another of the like big genres like can't you can't you be like I'm making can't he do ridley scott and do a movie about rid

[01:43:45] Russell crow just drinking wine He's gonna say you know like I love how Ridley scott in between like kingdom of heaven and robin hood and all He's like I we should just do this movie or Russell crow just drinks wine And like a french villa

[01:43:57] This thing where they sign directors to two picture deals for like 180 million and they're like you can split this up however you want Yeah, you wanted to 90s or do you want to do like a 150 and a 30 or yeah?

[01:44:10] Exactly. I would love that idea. I agree. But then you get the book of henry Sometimes, you know We're about to record a book of henry you'll have heard it at this point. It's an emergency episode We say in our insomnia episode

[01:44:23] I mean chris rinolen seems more likely to be able to go back and do a smaller movie creatively than a lot of other directors Sure, I mean he could do whatever he wanted, you know, I mean, I don't know I think he I think

[01:44:34] Obviously he could do whatever he wanted, but it seems like he might actually choose to do that at some point I hope I would hope so I mean imagine spending money gets boring after a while

[01:44:43] Like he's bought himself all the toys he ever wanted. So what else does he need to do? It's a good point. Yeah, are there any Nolan movies in the canon? Uh, I think we voted inception down and then I have not put another one forth

[01:44:55] You never did a dark night. I haven't done a bad. We've not done a dark night Batman I'm a fan stat you I mean, I like the dark night actually like I remember watching the dark night at a press screening

[01:45:03] And then going home and watching the original Batman the very very first one with jack Nicholson And suddenly feeling embarrassed of jack Nicholson's Batman a bad man that I had loved so much

[01:45:12] And then feeling bad that I felt embarrassed for it and having that sense of what is it like for an actor to think you did something definitive And then somebody just comes along and embarrasses you

[01:45:20] It was it was almost like watching jack Nicholson do it again with his pants on it felt really terrible But it's it's funny to watch old superhero and super villain performances where you're like, oh right

[01:45:30] They were just kind of like does this work? You know, and then it's getting refined and it's getting come at from different angles Is again, and the truth is like I'd almost rather watch that now

[01:45:39] I think then another like dark and twisted super hero movie which is why like waves right? Yeah, it's like wonder woman is the first Superman all over again, and that's great

[01:45:47] Just see it cheerful and big and happy like happy like no, I agree and it feels like a breath of fresh air Yeah, she does not have a dead wife Look Amy you got lucky actually because usually you have to buy jack Nicholson dinner

[01:45:59] If you want to see him play the Joker with his pants Boy, I think he buys that dinner as Gary and moss might know I want to get Amy the power in that scenario

[01:46:08] No fair enough. I just I'm going to dinner with jack Nicholson pick up the check He's picking it up. You guys are talking about my dad, you know He's getting just kidding father's day dinner. I'm a father's day dinner man. Imagine him being your dad

[01:46:21] He has like a bunch of kids. He has a fashion designer named Jennifer Nicholson There's not that many famous Nicholson, so you take note of them. You're right I didn't even put it together though, of course. Amy Nicholson right here in our studio

[01:46:31] Right here daughter of jack illegitimate blonde daughter of jack grew up far away and looks nothing like it What a twist That would be a Nolan twist. Yeah

[01:46:42] All right, thanks for coming. Thanks for being here. Everybody listen to the canon. Is there anything else you want to plug? No You're an excellent writer for sure one of our finest film critics for real attention follow the feed What do you mean for real nothing? Oh no

[01:46:59] Wait, this just got suddenly tense in a way that I can't understand. No, we love each other And as always silence just uh anything else you want to say because he's about to do a stupid bit

[01:47:12] I think just bring on the stupid bring on the stupid bit. Wait, can I say that? I like your shirt. Oh, yeah Thank you. I'm wearing a shirt that's alfredi newman dressed up as axel rose I think this shirt was listed as axel e newman

[01:47:24] I like it because it's a cross section of the two people I admire the most when I was 13 My two seventh grade heroes were alfredi newman and Axel rose that explains how I 2000 axel roses

[01:47:39] My two favorite bands in middle school were guns and roses and journey at the least cool moment to like either of those Really? I got picked on equally for both of them. Oh, what?

[01:47:49] That's like that's like worse than like weird Al being your favorite musician aged 30. Well, I transitioned from weird Al At 11. Yeah, do you understand how fresh?

[01:47:58] Regal is to like be like obsessed with the journey and have kids throw apples at my head and call me a fucking loser And then like four years later Right and everyone's like, oh you like that side. It's so funny right now

[01:48:10] I was I was there when it mattered when they needed me when they really know Yeah I bet those people who threw apples are quietly thinking griffin was right all along what a trendsetter

[01:48:21] What a cool guy I should let him know that he's the coolest and he was secretly better than all of us I wish I still had that apple my friend Oliver Ignatius and I at summer camp did a ribbon dance

[01:48:30] To don't stop believing and I sprained my ankle and I limped for the rest of the summer And we tried to explain why We we just we ripped up fabric and we tied it to sticks. We found in the woods

[01:48:43] We did reduce children and it was like ha ha we're in on the joke But it was like I just wanted to dance to this song my entire life

[01:48:49] I wanted people to have to watch me dance to the song because I remember hearing don't stop believing for the first time I said why don't all sound like this? Oh my god. Anyway I'm really glad I told you I like your shirt. Yeah

[01:49:00] You triggered some good things Rob bring us home griffin Memory can change the shape of room. It can change the color of a car Memories can be distorted. They're just interpretation. They're not a record and they're relevant if you have the podcast

[01:49:36] Hi everybody, this is griffin and I'm playing check with griffin and david I'm not being I'm not part of this bit That's it right. We're done Now you gotta enter the show. Yeah, Jesus Christ

[01:49:48] David sims is blank check. Yeah, there you go griffin and david or hashtag the two friends Right, all right. I'm here too producer ben. We're done today. We're talking about the movie momento done. Yeah I was confused by it

[01:50:00] Well, ben that's because you're bleeding. Oh, shit. Yeah, david push your head into a bathroom mirror Oh, yeah, it was david remember look at your tattoo. It was david It was it says david and you actually have tattoos, don't you? Do you have any tattoos?

[01:50:13] Ben actually looked at his arm just in case He picked the wrong Oh, I do have tattoos. All right, it's over. Okay. Bye