[00:00:00] Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to expect, All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check There's something wrong with this podcast! Yeah, thank you.
[00:00:26] Can I say what the second quote here on the old quote page for IMDb is? Yes. On the old? Or you're saying, okay, the old, the movie. It's new. This is a new IMDb page for the movie Old. Okay, got it.
[00:00:42] The second quote is, Charles, I'm a doctor, Jaren, I'm a nurse, my name is Jaren. Good scene! I remember that too. How do they spell Jaren? I was confused, was Jared or Jaren? This is written J-A-R-I-N. That's what it's titled. That is how they spell it. J-A-R-I-N. Yeah.
[00:01:03] How interesting. I mean, you know, he's allowed to be called that. Yeah, he is. But I don't know why he's called Jaren. But he's very much called Jaren. He is called Jaren. And that is his name. Yeah. I don't know if you guys know this. He got old.
[00:01:17] Jaren? Jaren got spoiler alert, dead. That's the oldest you can be. Doesn't get much older than that. That's not true. They're various stages of death. Yeah. Well, like, I don't want to get it too long. No, let's do a dead David.
[00:01:35] He's a dead teenager, older than a living old man. How long have they been dead for? Well, I don't know. I think it all equals out once you kick the bucket. I just like, like, so what you're saying, like a dead teenager.
[00:01:50] Okay. Well, they died last week versus like they died in the 12th century. Are you saying the clock keeps ticking post-death? I guess that's my question. The age clock. Right. I feel like you're currently asking is Casper the friendly ghost older than Regis Philbin? Sure. Absolutely.
[00:02:08] Because Casper died when? Early 1900s. I don't know. Let's look it up. When did Casper die? How'd he die? Murder? No, he was he got cold when he was sledding. Correct? His dad loved him too much. He gave him a sled just because he was a good boy.
[00:02:26] It wasn't even a holiday or a birthday or anything. And he had so much fun with the sled that he died of hypothermia. It's the saddest movie ever. Do you think there's like an alternate universe where Casper could have become Charles Foster Kane? Absolutely.
[00:02:37] Oh yeah, like his slide is Rose Butterwood. Because Casper is rich, right? Because he lives in a fancy house. Yeah, and his dad spends the rest of his life building an anti-ghost machine. Wait, who's his dad? There's no reason I bring this movie up all the time.
[00:02:49] Who's his dad is? His dad is not played by an actor. There was a thing. Bill Pullman is the human. Pullman, I couldn't remember if it was Daniels or Pullman. I knew it was Mother. Pullman is a current day ghost hunter. Right. And Richie is his daughter. Right.
[00:03:01] And his wife died. Yes. And he is trying to reconnect with his wife. They move into this house where Casper's a centric father after accidentally killing his son by giving him too good of a gift. I think the son is like trying to reverse debt. Yeah, okay.
[00:03:17] The movie is string. I just remember that at the end he's briefly corporeal and he's Devon Sop, correct? Well, yeah, Nick Codenance and Casper. But then he... But it's not permanent? No, it's a wish granted by the dead wife of Pullman.
[00:03:31] Right. I think it's Amy Brennan maybe plays. Yes, the wife of Pullman. Oh, no. Did Brad Silverling directed? Correct. Okay, yeah, they were married. Yes. I don't know if they still are. Yes. So that's... She comes back to life as like an angel for Casper.
[00:03:46] There's this concept that keep on talking about which is unfinished business where like Casper's brothers or his uncles rather than him are still around. They haven't passed on to the other realm because they have unfinished business they have to resolve
[00:03:58] and that his wife perhaps has gone on to that zone where she becomes like an angel. And so to reward Casper, because spoiler, Casper got the fucking anti-death machine to work but there was only enough juice to make one ghost a fleshy again
[00:04:11] and he gave it generously to Bill Pullman who fell through a manhole after getting too drunk with a bunch of rowdy ghosts. I don't know. My pants are not fitting right now really like well. I don't know. Is anyone feeling that?
[00:04:24] Like I just feel like my clothes are not or too loose. Kind of tight. I feel that way too because I lost some weight recently by having getting it back and now I'm feeling a little suffocated by my pants.
[00:04:33] No, no, no. I think this is a reference to what happens to the children in the movie Old. What are you talking about? But you're not okay. Yeah. But yeah, I mean that does happen to the children in the movie Old. Of course they grow because they're kids
[00:04:46] and they're on the beach that makes you old. Yeah. Technically it's the rocks that make you old but they're on the beach that makes you old. Well, I'm just saying to just make sure to keep, you know, observe me make sure that nothing is like happening.
[00:04:57] Let's check in with each other in the 15 minutes. And then maybe every 15 minutes after that. Okay. Okay. Right. Anyway, Casper very generously let Bill Pullman come back to life and then Bill Pullman's dead wife comes back to reward him
[00:05:09] by saying you get to be a real boy but only Cinderella rules. It's like two hours and it goes back and he dances with Christina Ricci and they kiss and it's very nice then everyone at the party realizes they're levitating because he's a ghost.
[00:05:21] He's played by Devin Sawa and then the movie ends with little Richard singing Casper The Friendly Ghost. And this is a podcast about Casper. Right. The 1995 movie by Brad Silverling. I believe so, right? Yeah, 95. Let's hope we're in for four or five. You know, it looks like 95. 95. Hey.
[00:05:39] Yes, that's right. So thank you for exploring Casper with me which is also about child mortality, I guess, in its way. Yeah, that's what we got here. Yes. Okay. But no, this is actually a podcast about Femagra. It's podcast. David's waving his hand. Do the thing.
[00:05:57] Do the thing. Do the thing. It's a podcast about Femagraphy's directors who have massive success early on in their careers and they're given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion products they want. Sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they get old, baby.
[00:06:11] Yes, we do get old. We are all getting old. I mean, someone pointed out every beach makes you old in that time marches on. Someone had this good tweet that was show me a beach that makes you young then you got a movie there. And it's like, whoa.
[00:06:27] Yeah. But you know, you're getting old real fast. That's all. Yeah, Ben, I feel like I'm seeing wrinkles on you now that I wasn't seeing two minutes ago. Wait, really? I don't know. We'll get back to that later. This is a podcast that we said
[00:06:42] usually based around mini series, right? These Femagraphy's. Sure. The first guy we ever talked about. Number one, I mean, number two if you would count George Lucas, I suppose. But number one. That was Cheers. This is Frazier. Yeah. Right. Well, okay.
[00:06:57] But then what are all the other ones? Are we still in Frazier? I'm sorry. I didn't know there was only one season of Frazier. That's a good question. Frazier is the show starting with M. Night Shyamalan. Correct. Okay, cool. And then Patreon is the new Frazier reboot
[00:07:13] that apparently will have no other returning cast members. Hyde Pierce, not involved? I don't recent Kelsey Graver comments have made it sound like no one's returning and his big story hook for this new reboot. He was rich. No, but like, Frazier is rich. He keeps on saying like,
[00:07:29] when he rich, he's going to be like real rich. I don't remember a lot of Frazier plots about how he was like hurting for money. Like a fucking baby grand piano in his apartment. Yeah, it's good. It's true. They're always drinking. Shearing ain't cheap. No. Come on. Yeah.
[00:07:46] But this time he's going to be like, he's really rich. But like, also his dad's dead. His brother doesn't talk. Well, this is the thing. Like obviously John Mahoney is not with us anymore. He's dead being dead is perfectly variable.
[00:07:59] Yeah, he got old, but you can't not have Niles. I mean, I agree. Okay. Has the dog come back? He hates that dog. I don't think anybody likes the dog. This is one of my favorite. What was his name, Eddie? Eddie. Yeah, it was two Moose.
[00:08:14] Well Moose was one of the, the dog that's in the artist was the second Frazier dog. Right. Right. The first dog was Moose, which I remember because Disney Adventures magazine, you always say there, there was going to be a movie called Moose on the Loose.
[00:08:26] It was about Moose the star of Frazier getting lost. And it was going to be like a road trip movie where he has to get back to set. Maybe they, maybe there was only, cause he's also in my dog's skip. Sure. Moose. Moose was huge for a while.
[00:08:39] He was. Yeah. I think he was replaced at some point. I think so. I can't remember. He used to look at Frazier. That was the joke. This is the thing. He would behold Frazier. Everyone else, oh spanoff how's that going to work?
[00:08:51] The show is like a hit right out of the box. Everyone's talking about Moose. And you read interviews with Kelsey Graham from the first season. He's like every goddamn person asked me what it's like working with the dog. It's a dog. It's not an actor. Right.
[00:09:05] He's like the dog looks at me. That's not acting. It's not impressive. I don't know. I saw some of those really funny scenes with the dog and the dog's given something. Yeah, he's given something. He's given something. I agree.
[00:09:16] That's the thing of like actors are really trained animals anyway. And they don't like to admit it. He does not like to admit it. Yeah. M. Night Shyamalan, the Frazier of this podcast, our first guy.
[00:09:26] And when we were trying to figure out what the show was going to be moving past ours, you know, we come up with this blank check premise. Yep. And it's like, well, the obvious guy I talked about is M. Night Shyamalan. He was yours and Wachowskis were mine.
[00:09:37] Yeah. Those are the first two guys we brought to the table as like these are the right things that definitive. But it just felt obvious that it's like, well M. Night Shyamalan is the exact case study of what we're interested in here.
[00:09:46] And at that point in time, we thought we were more going to cover people who had like rise and fall arcs in that kind of way. Right. Like people who kind of lost it. The visit hadn't come out. Visit had come out. We hadn't seen it.
[00:09:57] We hadn't seen it. That's what it was. Sure. Now I also just want to say, Marie, I don't know if you know this, but there was a period of time where I was really trying to sell them on the name of what was it? Griffo and Simmsburg.
[00:10:10] He said we need a cleaner branding post-star war. And he sent us a doc with a bunch of suggestions, but the ones that that was like circled a bunch of times was Griffo and Simmsburg present. Oh, like Siskel and Ebert. Well, yes.
[00:10:24] In fact, that is what Ben was going for. Oh no. Griffo and Simmsburg. Well, I mean, we can always like the new Frazier reboot. Reconsider, but just wanted to remind you guys and our listeners. That was a thing I had suggested that is what the subtitle is.
[00:10:39] For the new Frazier reboot, Frazier colon, a reconsideration colon, a peacock original. Our guest today of course, the first time on main feed is someone who does not run the social media accounts for Griffo and Simmsburg.
[00:10:53] No, no, but she has recently become a big part of the Blank Check family. And if you're on Patreon, you heard her on our March Banness updates where she had a very easy normal time to get a job. And I think that's a good thing.
[00:11:06] Where she had a very easy normal time running the March Banness votes. No complaints. Marie Barty, party, party. Hi. Hey guys. Gilly native threw her name down and said, well, if we're going to talk old, I want to talk at night.
[00:11:20] Is Marie mentioned in the Wide Awake episode? Because Marie is in Wide Awake, right? Marie is here. I am in Wide Awake. His second film. I believe I was mentioned in the Village episode. Oh, because when Ehrlich was the guest. Right.
[00:11:37] Was the one who gave us the bombshell info that you were in it. Yeah, I have a very long history with M Night Shyamalan. We're going to get into it. Yeah, let's get into it. Let's get into it right now. But yes, but you are in Wide Awake.
[00:11:49] That is the one. I am in Wide Awake. I am a non-sag background performer. Griffin and David, you both grew up. Please call us Griffo and Simmsburg. Thank you. I'm going to start with you, Griffo and Simmsburg. You both grew up in metropolitan areas.
[00:12:07] New York City, I think only New York. I think so. You guys are only from New York. And so you have spoken about being spotted by casting directors looking for kids. Our ridiculous absurd privilege where if you are a fucking spoiled
[00:12:20] little Lord Fauntler who goes to a private school in New York City, you cannot avoid getting brought into five open casting calls. Exactly. Well, I'm from a little city 99 miles from New York called Philadelphia. And I was in the second grade and there was an unknown filmmaker named
[00:12:42] M. Night Shyamalan who had also gone to my grade school, Waldron Mercy Academy in Marion Station, Pennsylvania. At this point for folks who did not listen to our M. Night mini series, he's made one film. It's called Praying with Anger. It was released, I believe in one theater.
[00:13:00] I think it only played at the cinema village in New York City. It's a tiny budget film that he starred in himself. So, Widerwijk is a big step up, but this is a guy who does not really have any reputation at this point in time. No.
[00:13:14] Just complete no one. He wrote this movie about his time in Catholic school, the same Catholic school that I was at the time attending. It starred Joseph Cross and Robert Loja and most importantly, Rosie O'Donnell as a nun. The reason I saw it opening weekend.
[00:13:30] Robert Loja is the kindly grandpa who's like, it's okay. Why do we care? You gotta run. I'm gonna be dead soon. I'm going to a beach. He's all flashbacks in the movie. Yes. And he's the kid that Joseph Cross plays is dealing with the death of his grandfather.
[00:13:46] So, this is one of my five favorite movies. A very wise decision on the part of production was to shoot it at an active school. And they used all of us students as either background or some older kids got featured roles.
[00:14:04] And it was my first time on a movie set. I was eight. You got the bug? I got the bug. I got to sit in a hair and makeup chair to go through the works very quickly. They didn't really do anything to me because I was one of
[00:14:17] like 60 children that they were seeing that day. But it was very exciting. And then we all got the option of going to the premiere in New York at the Ziegfeld Theater. Wow. It was a Miramax production. So Harvey Weinstein was there and Bob Weinstein and
[00:14:33] weirdly enough Al Gore. Oh. I'm not. Well, you wanted America to be wide awake to the Freda Plumma. Yes. I don't know. This is 99? No, this is 90. This is the film. No, no, no. Six cents is 90. 99. This is like 98 or 97. 97, 98. I was in second grade.
[00:14:54] That's the thing I'm trying to say. Yes. Al Gore is currently the vice president of the United States. I still to this day have no idea why he was there. He still has been my opinion. I must stop the stealer for that far.
[00:15:07] I think he's still vice president. I think the rest of it's been staged. See, I'm just imagining like Al knocking on Bill's door, the Oval Office and going like, hey, Bill, I need to borrow Air Force One. I got to see wide awake. This is a tie-tied kid.
[00:15:23] And he needs to be wide awake. The movie is called Wide Awake, but he's a sling. Clinton's hyped up about loja. I love that guy. I'm doing real half as gory. Can you say lock box for us? Lock box. I was on work for Halloween in fucking 2000.
[00:15:44] This kid still kills. Yeah, still so good. And then you and like I remember I show it to someone. I'm like, he said lock box. He said lock box and then Twitter didn't exist. So no one made the joke for seven days. Everyone's just like, oh my God.
[00:16:00] Which speaking of I want to resume the wide awake conversation, but it is funny that like a couple of times a year we get to cover a new release movie, right? People are like, oh man, I can't wait to hear the bits.
[00:16:13] They're going to do this and that. I do feel like it's now gotten to the point where it's like SNL not in terms of our prominence, but like, oh, a debate happens on Tuesday or whatever. And then the next six days,
[00:16:25] everyone's tweeting what jokes they think are going to be made. Where I'm just like, I had a bunch of stuff in the chamber and it's like, I can't do old member. I love old. It's kind of at this point it's already been done. Everyone did it.
[00:16:38] This episode's really. Right. That's what I'm saying. That's why we're going back to the lock box. That's why we're going back to the lock box because all the old jokes have been taken. I have this urge to do my taxes right now and I don't know why.
[00:16:50] What's going on? Did you always have those hairs coming out of your ears? No, wait, what? Oh my God, they're so long. What's happening to me? Like weirdly long. Yeah. Do I need to shave them? Are they that distracting?
[00:17:03] I can get you a little clipper that you put in. You can use it on your nose hairs too. I'm seeing a bit of those. Oh God, I'm hideous. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry you have to see me like this. No, no, no, it's fine. It's fine.
[00:17:13] What was the name of the movie that Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando did together? The Missouri Breaks 1971. Thank you for having a quick answer. That's all a lot of problems saved a lot of time. The Missouri Breaks. Someone would have told him. Marie question for you. Yes.
[00:17:28] This experience filming wide away kick starts your love affair with the movie making process. It does. Now, M.I.A. as we said has no reputation at this point in time. He's not a known quantity, but beyond that only one movie later, not only is he this prodigy,
[00:17:45] is he on the cover of Time Magazine, is he Oscar nominated all this sort of shit. He also then immediately has a thing that made him such a prime subject for us at the beginning of Blank Check, like a brand, right? He's got an identity.
[00:17:57] People have an idea of what he represents. He remains, if not the biggest name involved with any movie, like kind of splitting the bill. Because you even think about it at the period time where he's working with like huge movie stars at their peak.
[00:18:11] The advertising is can you believe Mel Gibson's in an M. Night Shyamalan movie? You know? Yeah. Like and half the time he is the biggest name. I remember it being a huge deal when Bryce Dallas Howard was cast as the lead in the village
[00:18:26] because it was like her first thing. He's going to make her. And it was, oh that's a star making role. It was like the same conversation that people had when Rooney Morrow was cast in Girl with Dragon Touch. Right.
[00:18:35] It was the role every early 20s actress was hunting for. He's either working with the top, he's making stars himself, you know? But it's like everything's written that decision. What was your memory like of him on set? I'm curious what he was like in those early days,
[00:18:52] especially before he has any sort of reputation to uphold. So I was, I was like eight. So my memory of him specifically. So you were young? I was very young. It is not. No, I was not old. I was young.
[00:19:07] I was about the same age as the little boy. What's his name? Trent. Casper? No. Well also probably Casper's age as well. Yeah. I was in between Trent and Casper's ages. Sure. I don't really remember him on set.
[00:19:22] I remember him at the premiere of the movie because he, it was, you know, right at the Ziegfeld and then there's like a podium and it's like Harvey Weinstein goes up and he speaks. Yeah. And he's a big character. Then Al Gore goes up and speaks.
[00:19:39] And then it's this little guy who just seemed, I mean, I think Knight must have been like mid 30s at the time. And then just, he just, it was like, oh, it's this. This is the guy who made the movie.
[00:19:51] Like I knew who he was, but it was, it just did not feel like he was the biggest star at his own premiere. It is funny how for like 10 or 15 years M Knight got very caught up with like, I need to see mysterious.
[00:20:07] I'm like a master of horror. I'm creating this sort of mystery around me, which obviously hits its peak with like the fucking buried secret and everything. Three of us went to see old together. Ben Murray, Graf David saw it himself earlier on a mysterious
[00:20:20] beach and it's Crosby Street Hotel, but sure there's some weird rocks in the building of that hotel. But when we saw it at AMC, there was like a pre movie message before M Knight and it was just kind of a stark contrast of
[00:20:33] just like now M Knights like a totally avuncular like, hey, thank you so much for coming out to the sea. My movie old. I really hope it scares the shit out of you. Social media seems to have changed him in that regard because
[00:20:44] he's kind of active on it, right? And he's very like fun dad on Twitter. The thing that I think is interesting, I was just listening to a podcast on my ride over here to our beach recording studio. It was an interview he did with this NPR podcast specifically
[00:21:05] about entrepreneurship and resiliency. I forget the name of the podcast, but I will tweet about it. He refers to himself as mischievous. And he is this guy's a little fucking scam. I'll tell you that much after watching this movie.
[00:21:23] He is an absolute scam and he he referred to himself as mischievous instead of mysterious because it was, you know, how do you see yourself Knight as someone who originally got this reputation as being like a bit of a mystery of darkness.
[00:21:41] I get caught up in this hot thing where it's like, I have to be playing the role. I mean, obviously we covered it in our podcast and you should go listen back, but the buried secret of M. Night Shyam on your first movie role, right?
[00:21:51] Which I was cut out of is, is he that's that's not all us make the final cut. That's the height of him. Sorry Griffin. I'm in the race. He has his own head about his image as the next Hitchcock or whatever.
[00:22:05] And he's like, I need to present myself as this like spooky ghost. Right. It's it's fascinating. But because as you said, like when you step back, you're like, he's the guy directed wide awake. You're almost surprised this guy is a director. There's something kind of like, you know,
[00:22:20] there is something impish about him. An interview. I feel like I probably brought this up at some past point in the podcast, but he did an episode of Norm McDonald's very short live Netflix talk show that was incredibly good.
[00:22:33] And like most of his guests on that show were comedians, right? And you're like, why is M. Night going on this? But I think he's entered this state of being like very candid and open and reflective about everything. Has he done Maren yet? That's a good question.
[00:22:47] How is he? I don't think he has, but I mean, it's got to be in the works. It doesn't look like he has. I don't think he could do Maren because I think Mark Maron, no offense to Mark Maron probably still thinks of Shyamalan is like,
[00:23:00] what that like bad movie director? Because this is the thing that's happened with old. Yeah. And he's been out and this reaction has been predictable, right? But it's half people being like, it's so great to see this guy making movies that are original and interesting.
[00:23:14] Let's just say obviously two movies that no one sees despite the second one featuring a star making performance from Ray Barley. Right. Sixth Sense is a fucking global phenomenon. He's a brand then it starts to be like, what's the deal? What's the deal? What's the deal?
[00:23:28] He becomes a joke, bomb, bomb, bomb bottoms out. And then he's been on this upward trajectory since we finished the mini series. I think that. But glass divided people despite being profitable. I think that among many people, Yes. They're just still like,
[00:23:41] well yeah, but he like makes bad movies. Yeah. I've had this conversation many times this week when I Marie, what are you doing on Friday night? Guys, I'm going to see old. I'm so excited. Wait, the M. Night Shyamalan movie? Bad.
[00:23:52] The reason I'm bringing up the timeline thing is just because I feel like when the visit came out people were like, that's surprisingly good. And even people like you and I were like, really? Can it be? We watch it. By the time Split comes out, people are like,
[00:24:05] that looks good. Like people are surprised. There's no tongue in chic nature to it. Fuck, that looks good. Comes out. People like it a lot. It's a humongous hit. When Glass was coming out there was genuine excitement. This guy got his groove back.
[00:24:17] I would say especially because of its star studies. Yes. Recalling his past glories. It's equal to two movies that people liked. And then Glass did not win over a majority of the audience. So now Older back in this zone where it's
[00:24:32] like, oh, he's now back to very strong defenders and people who just laugh him out of conversation immediately. Yeah, I just think there's this, I don't know, we're going to talk about it. I mean, this movie is exceptional. Love it.
[00:24:46] It's one of the best movies of the year. I think it's his best movie since the village. And I like a lot of his other movies. Pretty much what we said. I might agree with you. S tier. I walked out. I think I told you this.
[00:24:57] I was like on a high. I'm loving it. I get a text from a film critic. I shall not name a friend of the show. A bastard future. Yes. You named him nitpicking. He's like, what was up with this? And I was just, I just just said,
[00:25:13] stop fucking talking to me right now. Right. I'm on cloud nine. I'm riding an M9 high. I don't want to be brought to earth with your negativity. Like we're the movie ends. We're just sort of sitting there reeling, right? Marie, Ben and I.
[00:25:26] And I'm just like, I love this guy so fucking much. And like I get it. You're either all the way in or all the way out at this point. We've gone through so many cycles with this dude, you know? But like, I just fucking love what he is.
[00:25:39] I love who he is. I have more appreciation for even like the movies that I feel like I was more critical about back when we did the show, like fucking after earth and last airbender, you're never going to sell me on right.
[00:25:49] But the ones I want to write, I want to go back to her lady in the water and happening. Now I know you were, you have your defense. I was anti-happening, but I happening really. Well, Berg is just. I think old is better happening.
[00:26:02] Like, yes, far, but yes, I know I get the comparison when he was doing all the happening press. His whole thing was like, look, I don't want to be pretentious. I'm not trying to weigh Oscars anymore. I'm just trying to make the best B movie of all time.
[00:26:12] And we were sort of critical of that where it's like, oh, he's like acting like he's above this thing or he changed. He's trying to change the narrative after the bad reviews came in. Right. And this actually feels like, oh, this is like a fucking
[00:26:24] champagne of B movies. Like this is elevated Twilight Zone episode. That's what I want. It is interesting though, because I mean, yes, he does now refer to himself as mischievous, but he also referred to old as like Bergman Island,
[00:26:40] not to steal the title of Mia Hansen loves movie. But still, I mean, I think there are elements of art film in it. This is what I'm watching while strawberries and he's like, yeah, but what if this guy was at a beach that made you
[00:26:52] want to be like, just kind of like hit the pedal to the battle or whatever. This is what I love. And this is why I'm just like, look, maybe he's blown his career again. Like maybe he was back. Hear me out. Hear me out.
[00:27:05] I think he was at a point where he had successfully for a couple of years killed all of the sort of obvious jokes about he had it was partly by Gus. Yeah, he had basically. Right? It was in a provisional state under the radar way. Yes.
[00:27:22] Where it was like, I don't if I stopped somewhere on the street and I was like, we heard a split. I don't even know if they would have known it was Shyamalan so much. $150 million. Well, they did after the movie ended. Right. That's right. The fucking toy.
[00:27:34] All that's was so triumphant, you know, and it was like, this is a different style. He has dropped his pretension. But no interviews kept saying like, I just want to scare people. I just want to scare. Here's my argument. Yes. As much as yes, sure.
[00:27:47] They knew split was made by him. Yeah. I feel like with split, not for nerds like us so much, but for the general public that was the James McAvoy movie. And just, oh, this thing looks scary. But it would like you watch it and you're like, wow,
[00:27:58] that's that movie where that actor I sort of know from like X-Men or whatever was really going wild. Let's acknowledge another thing which is. Blumhouse? Hey, yeah. Yeah, sure. And then the general. Blumhouses. It's a harm. It's sort of been a harm movie I saw. Right.
[00:28:12] That's the other thing I was going to say is at this point in his career has been going on for like 20 years and someone like my sister who is younger is like split looks scary. Should I see that? Right.
[00:28:20] And she does not know that Sixth Sense has a twist ending. She's not like cackling at the very site of M. Night's Night. His name means nothing. It's just that movie looks scary. It's made by that producer makes scary shit.
[00:28:30] The other thing to sort of acknowledge with this is like, and the, the. Norm MacDonald interview, right? He sort of talked about his career bottoming out and feeling like he lost his way and went too far up his own butt and got really defensive.
[00:28:43] The more people criticize him, the more he doubled down on his shit and all that sort of stuff. The other thing he said is like, you know, I got really successful, really, really young. Sure did. He's not that old. How old is M. Night? I mean,
[00:28:56] now he's 40 years old. No, he's 50. He was born in 1970. Yeah. I mean, look, I mean, unless he's on any beaches. The point is he's 28 29 when the Sixth Sense comes out, that's his third movie and becomes on the 10 highest gross movies of all time.
[00:29:09] It becomes one of the youngest best director nominees. All this worship, right? And he's like it was so big. I mean, the first film was like expecting all the shit from me and I started buying into my shit like too much and all of this.
[00:29:19] And then he said like, you know, I think I lost my way. I was trying to prove people wrong rather than doing what made me happy, all this sort of stuff. But the thing he said that I thought was really interesting was he talked about how
[00:29:31] like he would study other director's careers, right? And he would go, there's like this point in your career where you have a lot of ambition and a lot of ideas and you don't have the craft yet. Right? And then there's some fulcrum point where the
[00:29:45] two things collide in opposite directions. Your knowledge, your understanding, your experience of how to do the technical thing collides with you being in a pure creative state, you know? And you know what you're doing but you're not over intellectualizing it.
[00:29:59] And then from that point on the two things start to go in the opposite directions again and it's hard to get it back because you know what you're doing too well. You're trying to replicate success, all this sort of shit.
[00:30:09] And the thing he said was I knew I had to be scared again. Like I need to feel like I had something at stake here. So for split, for glass and for the visit I said I'm mixed up order. He goes to Blumhouse, he mortgages his house
[00:30:24] in Philadelphia and he says I'm putting my own money into this, self-producing it. I need to feel like this movie needs to be a hit because it's literally my livelihood on the line. So he goes small, he goes insular, he has complete creative control and those
[00:30:38] movies are all three financial hits at varying levels. Old is he's not at Blumhouse, he's a big universal, he's working with an actual budget again. This is sort of him for the first time in a little while back to playing by
[00:30:51] the old rules of how he used to operate. Well let me complicate this. Sure. I was again listening to this NPR podcast, name of which I'm forgetting. Old was an interesting production because it was an entirely COVID shot bubble movie. Everyone quarantined in the Dominican Republic.
[00:31:12] They had to contend with the weather which sounds, you know, which is intense. Did they start right before COVID? No. They started right after? They started in September of 2020. Yes. That's wild. So late September. Yeah. So I believe it was an eight week shoot and he,
[00:31:30] Knight bought out the hotel. Yeah. And everyone who was there was fully there. No one was on set who wasn't supposed to be. And it was that he was kind of running his own little universe that he had complete control over. I think the movie maybe costs like
[00:31:48] 18 million dollars, which, Yeah. Which, that's a list of budget, which is a, it's a budget. It's not a, compared to what other movies made by directors at his level in the studio system. Sure. It's fair, it's pretty small. But I'm correct. He didn't sell finance this one, right?
[00:32:06] At least not entirely. I don't know, because I feel like he sort of reveals that later. I don't, He kind of gives us an M Night Shyamalan. Because it's not a Blumhouse. It's not now. This is just a universal film. It's big universe. And I'm sure,
[00:32:21] I'm sure big universal is totally fine, green lighting and $18 million Knight Shyamalan. Yeah. At this point. The movie made back, you know, that domestically That's an easy one. During Delta. Like, so it's like, you know, it's not really taking a hit. Yeah. Um, it is,
[00:32:38] it is just all interest. I mean, he had, now I'm trying to like figure out timeline shit, but it's like this, the book that it's based on, I know he read when he was preparing for Glass. Someone found an Instagram post of his, when he was prepping Glass,
[00:32:54] that he bought a bunch of comics to try to re- Sam Castle. assimilate himself within the current comics landscape. Belgian, I believe, comic book. But yes, from what I've heard, starting point. It's right. It's a pretty big, right. You liked it.
[00:33:10] But he more than I think he liked the basic concept and he wrote what is largely an original film with that as a starting point. There was a beat to major. I think the film was supposed to start shooting. A few months before September. Okay.
[00:33:24] That's what I was trying to figure out. And he did as much as he could before getting to the Dominican Republic. Okay. He, he storyboarded every shot. You know, every, everything that he could prepare for. He did. And then, you know, he gets there and he, see,
[00:33:40] I don't know how he didn't go into the granular details of the script and what was changed post COVID. It seems very much like it was, it was, what is the word I'm looking for? It begins with a G means you're pregnant with something. Just stating. Just stating.
[00:33:57] Yes. I was going to say just articulating, but that's not the right word. It was just stating during COVID. Okay. The COVID resonance of the film is very, it's, it's very strong. It does feel deliberate and I think it probably is. He does say that he, you know,
[00:34:11] purposely made it two settings. Yeah. I mean, he was trying to keep it as small and as COVID bubbly as possible. It's a small group of people outdoors. Yes. In a set location for most of the right. I mean,
[00:34:26] it's the same thing as fucking white lotus where like, I was talking about this with Ram yesterday, and the HBO was like, we can't fucking film anything. Mike White, if you have any ideas that take place in Hawaii, we'll give you a green light in two months. Yeah.
[00:34:37] And you're going to have 15 actors who are ready to do it because like rich people to resort there's a murder and they're like, sure. Yeah, cool. Can Alexandra and Dario be in it though? Right. But that's the thing you get all this,
[00:34:48] like these fucking great actors because they have nothing else to do. Like all this similarly kind of ingenious in that way. Old has a pretty stacked cast of character actors and good actors. No superstars obviously, but you know like when someone like Thomas and Mackenzie,
[00:35:07] I'm like, oh, she must be sort of a secondary lead here. And it's like, she's not really. What's the other girl, the girl with the Australian actress? Oh, Eliza Scanlon. Yeah. Like, oh wow, she's in this too? Yeah, she has a pretty small role. It's true. Yeah.
[00:35:22] I mean, it's all kind of established people by and large at the end. Pretty much. Is this Vicki Creeps's first major release post-Fantom Red? Yeah. In the U.S. You know, she has a brief part in the girl in the spider's web, which we all remember and love.
[00:35:40] A movie that definitely exists. We got caught in the web. We are all caught in the web where she plays, I saw that film, the editor, I guess of Mike, whatever, you know, Daniel Craig, except it's not Daniel Craig anymore. It's some other fucking, you know,
[00:35:56] the journalism guy. Yes, sure. So she's got a small part in that. So wait, so she's like the Robin Wright role? Yes. She's the one at the magazine who's like, what is your story about like the girl in the spider's web?
[00:36:10] And he's like, listen, I can't sleep with you right now. I have to leave and it's a thankless role. That's the only thing I've seen her in. I do feel like you and I, David, have spent the last two plus years or whatever going like, where's Creeps?
[00:36:21] Where is Creeps? Where is Creeps? Just fire up the pancake pan. The world wrapped around her finger. Let's make some creeps. Let's make some creeps. Who's from Luxembourg? Vicky Creeps. Right. She did the doc secretary series. She should be secretary general. Right. Yeah, yeah, right.
[00:36:39] She's in Bergman Island like now she's starting to do stuff again, but she's in that movie Beckett that John David Washington is in. Right. That's a movie. That's a movie. I don't really know much about it, but JDW looking hot.
[00:36:53] She's in a movie that Barry Levinson made called The Survivor. Interesting. That's going to be a tiff this year, I guess. Okay. It's a Ben Foster boxing movie. Ben Foster boxing movie. We all have to make our Ben Foster boxing movie.
[00:37:06] I cannot wait to hear about how he prepared for that role. Wait, what? What do you mean? You think he got in the ring with someone? Look, I don't think he did less. I think he probably did much more than he needed to.
[00:37:18] I just saw, oh, Ray, I watched Aint Them Body Saints. Foster's really good in that. I mean, Ben Foster's great. I wish only the best for him. He's great except for when he, you know, whatever, spills the ham. I tend to love watching him on the big screen.
[00:37:34] And I perversely love watching him do interviews talking about what he did for those performance. See, I don't know about that side of Ben Foster, but that's a good one. Did he like hang out with dead soldiers for the messenger? Absolutely.
[00:37:45] And the famous one is that he took all the drugs that Lance Armstrong took, and then interviews was like, but I wouldn't recommend most actors do that. I just needed to do it. He's actually good in that movie. I'm sure he is.
[00:37:59] I have heard people like that movie. He's usually good. The funniest thing would be if he hung out with birds to play Angel or whatever, right? He just spent two weeks with birds.
[00:38:08] Speaking of age, time, everything, did you guys ever watch the Canadian show that was on the Disney Channel? Was it called Flash Forward? Flash Forward. It was him and Joel State. Yeah. I love that. There's another show called Flash Forward. There are two shows called Flash Forward.
[00:38:23] He was on Goofy Flash Forward, which is sort of like a proto-even Stevens. Yes. And he was playing like Shia Goofball, dude. Sure. I mean, because I remember him as a young actor. He was very cute. Yeah. He was on 16 on there.
[00:38:34] But he was like doing the voices and the rubber faces and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, geez. Here it is. It's a 1996. But I feel like there was some sort of time progression element, like the opening of the show.
[00:38:48] Like the credits were him and Joel State as like little kids. Yes. And then you see them growing up really fast and have their best friends, but also like, you know, adolescents. So being a boy whose friends with a girl is kind of complicated. Yeah. Anyway.
[00:39:01] Ben Foster is not in old. He's not in old. But old's got a great cast. Although Ben Foster feels like he is dying to do a Shyamalan movie. Like you could imagine Ben Foster. Absolutely. He would fit in the Philadelphia universe for sure. That's true.
[00:39:12] They'd be egging each other. And you give him like a Rufus Sewell type. Can we talk Rufus Sewell? We're going to talk Rufus Sewell. I guess we can get there, but we'll get there.
[00:39:23] We need to wait for the van to come and bring us to the Rufus Sewell. Yeah. M Knight needs to drive us in the van. That was an early thing. I mean, like going out of order here, but when M Knight is driving the van
[00:39:34] and then opening the gate, Mary turns to me. Her brain is exploding. She's like, this is the best director cameo of all time. It is incredible. It's something. He's literally driving you to the premise of the movie. Let's get it out of the way. Come right in.
[00:39:47] Here you go. Here's the point. And he is, he's literally a table setting. He's table setting and then he goes to a mouth. And then he's filming them. I know. Believe me. Believe me. I saw it. I think the movie's over. I think we've hit the end.
[00:40:01] I believe me. M Knight Shaman as we know, loves to be in his movies. He does. Much like Big Al. Hitchcock used to do it. What's his name? Red Ready? What was that character's name? Killmull Gibson's wife. I believe it is Red Ready. Yes.
[00:40:13] Sometimes he's bad, such as in signs where he plays the guy who killed Mugam. Not a great performer. Sometimes he's, you're just like, oh, there's in my chum on for a second. He's like playing a doctor. I'm a doctor.
[00:40:24] I think this kid can see dead people and you're like fine. You did what you needed to do. He finally found the perfect thing. He's good in this movie. So good. I think he's good. It's actually, it's a really good. It's charming that he's in it.
[00:40:40] There's something a little bit squirrely about how he plays on camera. And I will say, I no longer think it applies to him in interviews, but as an actor, there's a little uneasy about him and that's perfect for this.
[00:40:52] It's perfect for this where he's playing too hard to be like, hey, I'm like nice chill guy. He has the one line because in the village, he's got that line where he's like, he has to explain like the entire plot of the village or whatever his village came.
[00:41:06] It was like too fucking clever. He's the one line where he's like, yeah, I watched for like 90 seconds or whatever it is. Like he works and you're like, yeah, you're like, wait, that's not long. Okay, whatever. It doesn't matter.
[00:41:19] We're moving on here, but apart from that perfect, perfect. I just loved seeing him in the rear window shot with the big camera. So good. I was delighted. If we're talking about him being mischievous, yes, it was quite an impish little cameo. He's in on the joke.
[00:41:34] He's on the joke. Finally, finally. Finally. Was he in on the joke and lady in the water? No, no, no, no, no, no. That's the one that he's into. No, that's right. I forgot that's the apotheosis.
[00:41:45] That's the one word you need to tell stories because you help save the world. But that's what you're saying is he in on the joke and that's what we're missing about the lady in the water. I've only seen lady in the water once.
[00:41:56] And I saw it like maybe four years ago. Uh-huh. It's so fucking weird. I don't think I was prepared for how weird it is. The snarf. Snarfs snarfs. There's snarf since grunts and, and, and you know, because having one jacked on. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, Paul Kimati.
[00:42:13] Love drinking milk and like convulsing on a couch. I mean, there's a lot of something maybe it would maybe I would benefit from seeing it again in a post mischievous night. Shyamalan. Yes. You know, frame of mind is at the beginning of it. Right.
[00:42:28] I like that movie a lot, but I don't think that movie is in on the joke. And I think that movie has a lot of comedy and a lot more humor than people were expecting. It's a very sincerely told movie. Yes. Right.
[00:42:39] It has the sort of story book. Right. She's playing a character called story. I mean, but you know, right? Like that's our member of it. It's got this very sweet. Bedtime story by Shyamalan. Right. I think that was all disarming to people because it was so different
[00:42:49] than what he was thought of as doing. Right. But I think his, the framing of him in that movie does not feel like it is in on the joke. But like, I think that's him reckoning with people told me I was the new Spielberg.
[00:43:01] I think this is him going, this is why I want to be, I want to be cackling at the top of a mountain. Yes. Well, weird shit happens to some people who don't know how to talk to each other.
[00:43:10] He is his kind of like Spielberg if an iron girder just fell on Spielberg's head kind of thing. Yes. Down to the like 10 more minutes at the end where you're like, okay, you know, like, you know, where you're like, do we need the 10 more minutes?
[00:43:21] And I'm like, you know what? I'll take the 10 more minutes. Like Spielberg starting out with like, you know, night gallery in name of the game and then going to dual and that sort of stuff.
[00:43:30] And you're like, well, but I'm saying Jaws sort of becomes a sixth sense moment, right? Where it's like, you have elevated this to an art form. But he wasn't trying to. He wasn't. Neither was M. Night arguably. Exactly. It's a sixth sense.
[00:43:43] And then M. Night was like, you are correct. I did just do that. You know, Well, then that's the problem with the happening the last airbender after it. He feels like he's scrambling. He feels like he's trying to get by his own mission. The old glories. Right.
[00:43:55] And he's like, I got to stop competing with who I used to be. I need to do right. But old so good guy. It's so good. I mean, some scattered thoughts on this movie. Okay. You guys all saw it together. Did you have a good time?
[00:44:08] Can I just set the scene? I would like you to set the scene. I was asleep because I go to sleep at 9 30. Ben, we saw 10 30. Ben Griffin and I went to a late screening of old on Friday night, which in time square,
[00:44:24] I mean, in the city of the never sleep. The streets are filled with ATVs. They were truly. I go up to Ben. I say hi, Ben. Age to Symphony of dirt, dirt bikes. Ben, his eyes grow wide. He his mouth just well because they're doing the thing where
[00:44:43] they fucking put it on the back tires and sure, sure. It was an amazing prelude. It was even better than Maria Munoz pepping us for moving Yeah. We go, we see the movie. We have a great time.
[00:44:58] And I think I can say I don't think the three of us have spent much time in Times Square in the last 20 months. So even that is kind of mood setting. Yes. But I was pushing like, I think we should go to Times Square and opening that time
[00:45:09] square eyes is kind of who you want to see an M night movie with. I've seen bad ones and I've seen good ones in Times Square with people are my big question. A little crowd. Great question. Well, I would argue that maybe we were the only people who
[00:45:23] were watching the movie. We walk in there like nodding and understanding two people in the theater, right? Where they're like five minutes before the movie starts and we all kind of go like, oh, I'm night. People fill in. It's not a sold out screening but people fill in.
[00:45:36] There was a woman who was sitting next to me silently. She was there was a couple at the end of our row. Yeah. I'm pretty sure when we were staying there after the credits talking, I'm pretty sure I saw her giving him a blow job. Full blow job.
[00:45:49] Interesting. Yeah. And I tried to tell you guys and you guys where I guess you were ramped up about. You were ramped up about. You were ramped up about. The page made them old. I'm like, you guys we should leave.
[00:45:59] I was going to say it seemed like she was watching the movie but I guess maybe there was enough because they were at the very end of our row. Maybe there was a woman in the middle. I think there was a woman in the middle.
[00:46:09] There was a lady who was like in the middle. That's what I was talking about. Yeah. No, there was another couple at the end that were having a good time. She seemed to be watching. The old lady was like the one sitting closest to me. Old lady.
[00:46:17] And then there was like a rowdy group of teenagers, like 15 of them, which is what I would expect at an M night. So screening under. I would expect that was 90% of the audience. There was one big group. They were sitting like five rows behind us and 30 minutes
[00:46:30] in they moved like five rows ahead of us. Well, some of them did. Yes. There was a beat. There was beef going. You love when that happens at a multi-flex. They were joking about beating each other up. It was clearly a joke but then they also sort of
[00:46:43] started doing it but they were laughing while they were. Yeah, it never felt like it was a threatening situation. Sure. But there was like a constant soundtrack of conversation happening during the movie. Do you remember the thing you said to me? Because if you don't,
[00:46:59] I'd like to quote it directly, which I think you put it perfectly about the experience of watching the movie with these young men. No, you do it. You said this movie. My memory is really bad. I don't know what's up. This movie is so good.
[00:47:09] M night so thoroughly has us in the palm of his hands that even a bunch of teenagers shouting suck my dick every 10 minutes couldn't distract you from the work he was doing. Like it was engrossing. Like M night's back in the zone enough because some
[00:47:23] of M night's films that would have broken the spell. Right? Oh yeah. And then what I added on to that was at some points in the movie when something weird was happening or something quiet was happening or there was a pause, they would make a fart noise or
[00:47:35] do something stupid. Right? That would kind of work against the energy of the movie. Right? To Ben's point, I think we were so engrossed in the movie that it wasn't breaking the spell. That having been said, the thing that I found very satisfying was these
[00:47:49] guys absolutely coming into the screening with their own shit, trying to be bigger than this movie above and all that. There were as many moments where the movie got quiet and it was pin drop silent. And I was like, you fuckers think you're clowning on this
[00:48:02] movie but he's got you. It's kind of. Right? And then the next scene they go like whatever. But it's like, no, he had you there for a couple minutes. Yeah. It almost started to feel forced because the movie's momentum, it's going so fast
[00:48:15] that I think earlier in the showing they were doing that. And I feel like even towards the end it became really like less frequent. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Now look, there are people hate this movie and they think it's fucking stupid. It's America, you're a tell to your opinion.
[00:48:31] Yes. But I do think this is one of those movies where it's not like the thing that I feel like I'm not used to getting for where it's like, oh my God, amazing premise and then halfway through take some catastrophic turn in the thing goes off the rails.
[00:48:45] I have found that the people who don't like this movie don't like it from the beginning and they're like, this is boring, it's ridiculous, it gets more ridiculous. Or you're fucking on his wavelength and then it just builds and builds and builds and builds.
[00:48:56] I don't know anyone who liked this movie and then it lost them. Agree with that. People who don't like the movie, right, we're not, it's not like they were like, but I've seen complaints about the ending. Absolutely. I don't love the ending. I love
[00:49:11] You don't know how the beach makes you old? No, I love how the beach, I love the reveal of the pharmaceutical company or whatever that is. Yeah. Doing the human experimentation. Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers. Spoilers, spoilers. You shouldn't have listened to this episode if you haven't.
[00:49:24] No, go see old. Yeah. It's about a beach that makes you old. I did not, I wish that we sat in the discomfort of that moral quandary longer. And we just, we discussed this as we were leaving in Griffin,
[00:49:38] you had a good argument that maybe the movie does, that it has a bit of a, the end of the graduate sort of ending with the two kids who are adults on the helicopter, going back to face the real world, not really knowing what's going to happen
[00:49:53] and how they're going to deal with their new bodies and their new lives. I think it is one of his better twists if you just look at the reveal of the pharmaceutical studies, right? And then the question is, what is the right note to end on
[00:50:05] in the aftermath of that reveal? The question is, what if a beach made you old? Well, of course. My second question, my follow-up question is, what is the right note to end on in the aftermath of that reveal? Right. And Marie, your immediate take was like,
[00:50:17] I'd kind of like it if they die in the coral, you cut to the study and then that's sort of this very bleak, jarring ending, right? Rather than giving them a victory. And what I said is, I'm still kind of chewing on the ending.
[00:50:29] I don't know where I land totally. I did dislike it, but I'm trying to figure out like, which ending I think leaves you with the most interesting thoughts. My argument was yes, the sort of helicopter thing of like, A, what the fuck is their lives?
[00:50:43] Are they gonna get jobs? Ends on this glib joke of like, how do you think your aunt would respond if her six-year-old nephew was a 50-year-old or whatever weird, we should have done in July joke this movie ends on, right?
[00:50:57] But the other thing I kind of like about it is like, you have this study, those scenes are played very straight, right? It's this very interesting moral quandary of just like, trolley car problem. So what if they let 10 people die on the beach
[00:51:11] if you're actually curing diseases forever? That's a difficult question. Is it fucking worse that all this sort of stuff? It's a good kind of twilight zone like... It's twilight zoning, but again, the whole Shyamalan thing where like... Who are the real monsters?
[00:51:23] Yes, but also there's a little bit of a sort of like someone got hit in the head in the middle of writing the script and also like, wait a second, wait a second, why are they all on the beach at the same time?
[00:51:32] Can't we just do one at a time? There's so many problems with your stupid experiment. But I don't care about that. Yeah, this is the other thing. Because it's... They should be old on the beach. When we did Shyamalan originally,
[00:51:43] I had not really become a twilight zone fan and since then I've watched most of them and not only that, it's been a show I go to a lot, especially when I'm in like stressful periods in my life. It's like a comfort food show.
[00:51:52] I rewatch and all of that. And there's something about the style of that show that very few people have been able to replicate or translate or carry over into anything else, including the many attempts at trying to modernize the twilight zone, right? And it is that like,
[00:52:07] it is not a subtle show at all. It is a very theatrical show in terms of performance, in terms of direction. It's a real showcase for both and it's got big fucking ideas, but there's something about the fact the worst season of twilight zone
[00:52:22] is the one where they were like, what if it's an hour and they all become laborious. When they're fucking 25 minutes long, they're not subtle, but there's something about the economy and the impact of the density of what they're doing that you forgive the cartoonishness in certain things, right?
[00:52:38] The bonk on the head feeling because it's like, look, we got to set these characters up in three pages because then the setup, the reverse needs to happen on page six. And then there has to be the status quote
[00:52:50] for 10 pages so we can come with the ultimate reveal or the twist or whatever it is. And he actually has made like a twilight zone movie that I think sustains that stuff for two hours. For 108 minutes, yeah? Right, which is pretty fucking wild
[00:53:02] and that ending feels like that to me too where a lot of those twilight zone endings, it just sort of goes somewhere else. You have an ending that feels like an epilogue to something else. You go to a different location, you reveal different characters,
[00:53:13] your perception of the thing was wrong. You go to a different scene and it's just like, here's its own little capsule story that reframes what you watch before. There's something I like about the starkness of just ending with that, right? Does it really make sense?
[00:53:26] No, David, as you said, the organizational thing makes no fucking sense, but there's a point he's trying to make and he's trying to make it. I don't care. That's my whole thing. I just love the metaphor. The metaphor is just so rich. Yes.
[00:53:37] And like this movie's so sad and beautiful. It's so sad. And it's so visually adventurous for him, I would say. I agree. I want to make this one final point before we get into that. What I do like about the ending,
[00:53:51] aside from just the weirdness of what's their fucking life now, right? And you've already introduced the question of the morality of shutting down the thing. I like that the ending feels like it might be a little bit tongue-in-cheek where it's like, look, they got the cops.
[00:54:07] They took them down as triumphant. They're fucking Jurassic Park, helicoptering home. The music is swelling. They're enjoying each other. And it's like, they might be the villains. The two kids might be the villains here. I don't know if they're the villains.
[00:54:22] Well, what in the name of the greater good is more important? They're not the villains. You know what I'm saying? That they might have actually stopped something. I like the question. I'm not saying I think they are. I like the question. Sure.
[00:54:34] I've been thinking about this while we're having this conversation. I'm trying to think of the bigger picture, M Knight, what is he trying to say? Politically, et cetera, et cetera. I've had a lot of climate change anxiety recently. This is a movie about raising your children during climate
[00:54:52] change. This is a movie about, you know, maybe it's okay if you're old right now, if you're already lived half your life. Yeah. And you know, you're, it's okay that we're scientifically experimenting on you and you've already had a nice,
[00:55:07] you've already went to prom and had your first kiss and you already had those memories. You were able to become a parent. I think to zoom out, it's a movie about like, what do you do when we're maybe 15 years away from a complete collapse? The moon is wobbling.
[00:55:20] Right, like everything's a fucking... I'm sorry, what's up? I'm not afraid of a wobbling. Dave, the moon is wobbling. The moon is wobbling. Have you not heard about this, Ben? The moon is wobbling. It's going to wobble for a little bit and so the
[00:55:30] tides are going to be a little saucy for 10 to 15 years. What the fuck? It's wobbling a little bit. How did it get loose? Well, I don't know. Moose was on the loose. Moose was on the loose. He wobbled the moon. Yeah, he gave it a look.
[00:55:47] He gave it a stern look. What are you going to do? Sometimes moons wobble, okay. Well, but these are the things that M. Night's fucking wrecking with. Yeah. I mean, and you know, the happening is also about what we're doing to the environment. We're making the environment angry.
[00:56:01] Yeah. I mean, it's just... I think it's something that maybe gets put on the back burner with his work as a whole because people get so focused on the twists. But I think he is kind of grappling with big issues in a lot of his films.
[00:56:15] And this movie is existential. Like, he's... It's very... He also, you know, a theme that he returns to a lot is like the dignity of children and like their... They haven't been corrupted. Right. Well, they haven't been corrupted, but also
[00:56:32] the fact that you should speak to them on their level, understand their experiences and what they're going through and, you know, we shouldn't dismiss them. Kids are the heroes of what? Like, wide awake, sixth sense, the visit. Signs are people. Signs, absolutely. I mean, unbreakable. I mean, unbreakable.
[00:56:46] I mean, unbreakable. Unfortunately, unbreakable. The sun is such a big part. The kids are huge part of the same class. The visit, I mean, that one kid arrives. Is it absolutely... Is it annoying? But it's about the kids recognizing that something's bad and no one listening to them.
[00:56:58] Even on your Taylor Joy, you could argue. Absolutely. Yeah. Right. I mean, this is the thing. I have not fully formulated my take on this, but I'm working on it. Because like, you and I were talking about this, David. I hadn't seen the movie yet.
[00:57:13] You were sort of talking about the complaints people have, right? And when people were... You mean, like, dialogue, things like that. People were like, how is it possible he still hasn't figured out how to write dialogue? To which I say, that's how he writes dialogue.
[00:57:26] You can dislike it, but to say like he fundamentally doesn't know how to do it is like what I said to you was it's like pinging fucking Douglas for not being naturalistic. I'm just like, can you dislike it? Or can I get mad at you and tell you
[00:57:39] to shut the fuck up if you don't like his dialogue? It's a taste. I mean, look, maybe it's cilantro, right? And it fucking hits your tongue differently. He is kind of the cilantro. But he knows what he's doing. He can't stand when people talk
[00:57:51] about dialogue with like, well, people don't talk like that. Who gives a shit? Don't go to beaches that make you hold your person. Yeah. Here's another thing. Sorry. People are fucking weird, okay? Sure. Like I spend this last weekend in New Jersey doing meet and great
[00:58:07] shit for the Himantra, right? For Masters of the Universe. Humble brag. I bring this up only because I spent 20 months being largely in seclusion only in the last like six weeks have been seeing people again, right? But even still, I'm not going out into public.
[00:58:20] I'm not meeting a lot of strangers whatever. And I had two days where I was like meeting a lot of people in very short conversations. Guess what? There was no standardized way that people talk. And I say this because I went through a fucking weekend of having
[00:58:33] to readjust my brain every five minutes to a very different way that every single person communicated. That's true. The other thing about it is like I think his dialogue is very on the nose. When people say things, it's often serving a plot utility.
[00:58:46] They're saying things that will be picked up later or... He's giving you these. You have the weird quirk of the kid who asks everyone's occupation. This is my point. I'm going to come back to go. But honestly kids are fucking weird and they do that.
[00:58:57] That's the thing at all. They do the perfect fucking sense to me. Okay so this is my... I think she said that she worked at a museum a couple less times. Maybe. She works at a museum. She probably works for the University of Pennsylvania's Archaeology Museum. That's true.
[00:59:12] That's a good point. They're from, of course, Marie texts me seconds out of the movie. Is there a Philly connection? I'm like don't worry. They're from Philly. A couple weeks ago I tweeted something that was like I swear to God if like Guy Ellen Vicky are not Penn
[00:59:26] professors on vacation, I don't know what I'm going to fucking do. I'm expecting the twist to be that the beach was in Philly the whole time. I mean, The shores of the school. It was a Truman show, a style trip where they fell asleep and then they
[00:59:39] rearranged everything around them. Wait why is that? You can't go in the water. You can't go in the water. That's the tell. No but this was the thing I was sort of talking through with Marie. And I haven't totally come to it. But like he at this point
[00:59:52] has now had several movies where you have characters who are like weird computer brain people who are obsessed with like stats and facts and numbers. They're happening. You've got Walburgs always talking math. Like is almost the one who's like crazy about it. Yeah, it was almost the one.
[01:00:09] Sorry, I forgot. Right. But when people are like here's the thing I know very well even the way that like Unbreakable opens with like here's how many pages of comic books are printed per year. This weird like very didactic. Mr. Glass's whole personality is like that
[01:00:22] the way he talks. Right. And this you have the kid who's like I need to ask everyone what their profession is but you also have Guy the actor. Where he has to run through the stats. 96% chance that if you're dying on a beach you have heat stroke
[01:00:33] or you have a doctor and nurse and like a fucking music master and all this sort of stuff. Right. I do think especially with how much his movies are about children there is this. I want to say sort of like there is a point of view
[01:00:51] to that it is not arbitrary even look at like Jeffrey writes like I don't know I understand puzzles. Are the only thing I understand. Sure. All these people who are like caught up in these codes and these languages and these like knowledge bases that they can understand. Right.
[01:01:06] And I think it's all about people trying to make sense of a nonsensical world. Yeah. Especially in movies that are increasingly about absolutely bonkers bananas things happen to quote unquote everyday people. Right. Because he doesn't make movies about extraordinary heroes. He makes movies about people
[01:01:20] who somehow have these things foisted upon them. Right. And I think there is that element of just like it's about people contending with a world that doesn't make sense and it doesn't make sense even before the nonsensical thing happens. I also think he is somewhat
[01:01:36] still confounded by the way that adults talk to each other and I don't think he is failing to write adults directly because he doesn't get it. I think he is sort of saying like it is weird that grown-ups just go like oh yeah
[01:01:48] and the Dow and this and that and the numbers on the da da da da and that he understands more kids who are able to just sort of go like who argue what do you do for a living why am I sad? You know who aren't obfuscating
[01:02:01] their language and all these weird sorts of codes and secrets and shit like that. To go like full M. Night Autorism like just a little bit of background. Because at this point it's such a pattern that there has to be whether it's conscious or not something
[01:02:18] larger going on. He is, he is, he was born in India. Yes. He is an immigrant. His parents are immigrants. His parents are doctors. He's not Catholic. He goes to Catholic school for 10 years. He's indoctrinated an entire... Well, Catholic and then Episcopalian but still Christian.
[01:02:34] The Catholic stuff is especially having gone to the same school night went to. We had one girl in the school who was Jewish and her Bat-Mitzvah became stuff of legend because it was so foreign to us. So to, you know it was not a very diverse place
[01:02:52] and he obviously it was very white He's got an odd outsider insider status. Yes. And I think that is you know a theme that is he chooses to best express through children. Yes, right. And his movies are always almost always about to one degree or another people grappling
[01:03:12] with their belief systems, right? And sometimes it is overtly religious and sometimes it is a much smaller kind of thing. It can be tied to a relationship or sense of self or whatever it is but that is deliberate. And I watched Buddy Jordan Fish sent me
[01:03:27] he did one of those I get confused which magazine does which fucking YouTube series but the one where it's like the most searched. The auto complete right. It's wired or GQ or whatever they're all content anyway. Right and they were asking him some question about
[01:03:42] like his sense of religion faith and all that sort of stuff and he said it is it's about belief systems for me. I wish I wish he could have made life a pie we talked about that I would love to have seen this life. Yeah, I like
[01:03:55] I like Anx version at that point in time it was like maybe don't let him do this and now you're like what a big kind of did feel like a movie. It's perfect material. But he was so right. He was so lost at that point.
[01:04:07] There was also do you remember that pre split it was announced that he was like going to do his smaller drama and it was like a faith based Bruce Willis drama. Yeah, I remember that not like a not like a fucking not a fire behind faith based drama
[01:04:22] but it was like it sounded more like a return to war or like a wide awake sort of thing. It was like a movie about like a guy having like a mental breakdown going on like a walk about to find himself again. I'm not sure
[01:04:33] I want him to make that I know the thing either I think he does want doesn't he doesn't get to be mischievous in a movie like that. I do think he works best in genre. That sounds a little poh faced for him. Which plays he understands that
[01:04:46] about himself now. And but at the same time it's like lady in the water he strayed too far into poh face happening he strayed too far into trying to just make an R rated movie. Right. It was kind of like, you know like whatever the happening the marketing
[01:05:01] doomed it as much as well no the movies back but whatever. Yeah I need to rewatch parts of the movie are good. There are sequences that are very interesting but that's always been but true. It's also one of these things where it's like I'd love to rest the
[01:05:14] happening and like it more. I don't know if you ever can fully get past the fundamental miscasting of those two actors. It's like such a it's yes. Yeah. So there was a topic on the blankies reddit the other day that was the question what was the question?
[01:05:30] Well no yes but no is this a bit do these guys really like old? Is this another sully thing and was sully like sully? Yes people don't get it. And as we said if M. Night is the cilantro filmmakers I'm sorry he tastes like soap to you
[01:05:51] but to us in the way that I commented in that thread and I tried to explain it is like he makes decisions that call attention to themselves. Which some people hate which some people hate but hey can we just like talk a bit about his camera choices?
[01:06:08] I think are the most exciting thing about this movie. And this is maybe his most adventurous film in that sense. It's brilliant everything he does for the camera. There's also shit in this that I don't even understand yet but I'm so fascinated by the fact that he's doing
[01:06:23] shit I've never seen before and that he's clearly going for something. That I want to watch it eight more times to try to parse. I mean it's so good it sounds so crazy I read I think it was Creeps some interview with her where she was talking about
[01:06:35] how complicated all the camera was where it must have been and very very annoying to make. He's like bobbing and weaving so much. You know the camera it feels very deliberately like a pendulum which would be in a clock because we're all tick fucking top. Motherfucker.
[01:06:48] Weird rhythms, repetitions. We get it set up when our little family checks into their hotel suite and it appears to be a single unbroken shot of mom and dad kind of getting used to their surroundings discussing their trip while the kids disappear into the background
[01:07:10] as the camera continues its unbroken shot the kids then re-enter and they're wearing bathing suits and it already is preparing the audience to expect that once we get this kind of shot something is going to change. Things people are going to change. He's always about
[01:07:27] lulling you into weird sort of like patterns and rhythms again but setting this weird sense of unease even in the quote unquote normal scenes in the movie. It's so much better than a jump. It's this sort of like thing where you're like when's it going to cut
[01:07:44] something's going to happen you know like that. Why is that person framed only in the corner? Why are they going to walk? People like grow bigger than the frame which I love like he like moves in on them where you're like wait why
[01:07:56] is that person's head cut off? Right. Is this mask wrong and then you're like no like they're just like they're growing outside of the frame. Right. But it's just it's a very deliberate building sense of unease and also setting up certain visual games that he will repeat later
[01:08:11] training you to understand how to process some of the images that he's going to repeat. Beyond that on just a even more simple basic as fuck level the movie starts in like 90 seconds and I'm like right it is so fucking good to watch any movie let alone
[01:08:28] a major American studio film getting a wide release where there is no arbitrary coverage and you can fucking feel that there's not a single shot in this movie that feels like an AD going hey you might want to have this just for editing options
[01:08:41] every single shot in that movie is so deliberately thought out that even the ones I don't get I want to spend time trying to figure out why he picked that. Well but it also it goes back to you know how he said that he had to plan everything
[01:08:53] meticulously because they couldn't shoot yet. And he did none of it obviously. No. He did none of it the normal easy way that anyone else to choose. To think about it and make weird choices and storyboard it there's that moment when they're on the beach
[01:09:08] and it's I guess the kids who become Mackenzie and Wolf and Scanlan right. Do you remember like you and I turn to each other and what is he doing where it's like this very fast moving it feels handheld but CGI assisted where it's like it's focused in on
[01:09:25] one kid and it's tracking with his body and then when another kid runs by suddenly the whole rhythm of a changes when they're playing freeze tag yes because that sequence is incredible and I was just like I don't know what he's doing on a technical or thematic level
[01:09:38] and it's so cool I think it's just supposed to freak us out like what is going on with these kids I also don't know how he did that I don't even know how to describe that I never see anything how does he articulate what he wants
[01:09:52] to his DP right I have no idea no idea no idea it's fucking cool but beyond that how cool to see a fucking guy at this point in his career when he films in who is still this playful fucking fucking fucking fucking imp
[01:10:07] Ben what do you think of old feel like Ben needs to jump in here well no I mean I'll find my moment I was gonna say though have you been hearing us okay Ben as we've been talking about this more it's been hard to hear a little bit
[01:10:18] and I've been kind of getting sleepy but it's okay stay away so I was going to say a shot I really liked is Rufus how do you say his last name there's like the point in the movie where he's like really fucking lost it yeah
[01:10:35] and to me there's like this really close up shot of his face and I was like space madness from fucking Ren and Stimpy like it is just like Ben turns that to me made him a he said this is literally space madness Ren and Stimpy
[01:10:50] he totally just took on that like kind of like like I have really fucking lost it yeah but then the visual like I think really was telling you that too it was great yeah yeah all the weird like direct close ups contrasted with things like you're saying
[01:11:08] David or people are like cut out of frame or it's a four shot and all four people are at the corners and you're like are they going to step more into focus or not there also it seems like he we all know that he loves Spielberg
[01:11:20] and Spielberg is the kind of like North Star in his career as a filmmaker and like the king of like the unshowy winner yes and you see if we want to talk about other movies that take place on a beach where something horrible happens
[01:11:38] this old is pretty much him experimenting with the idea of oh I can't show the shark right and there are that's his it seems like he is having so much fun not showing the shark here's another thing it's like the most fucking universal thing
[01:11:55] to build a horror movie around right yeah find a single person who is not very haunted by the idea of that if not even literally getting old losing your faculties getting sick having something grow inside of you getting cut open and it is truly like
[01:12:10] it's the silent killer right it is a thing that has no physical form but has no reason that is unavailable but also his little tweaks you know the rust the tumor right the ways he finds clever well you love logic yeah of course
[01:12:25] I think it's as a backbone as a spine of a thing absolutely no I remember I don't know if you guys remember this but a Sinecta King New York was originally announced as Spike Jones and Charlie Kaufman are going to make a horror movie together
[01:12:37] absolutely they go to Sony it's about dying they didn't have a premise at first they went to Sony and they were like what if we tried to do a horror movie and Sony was like money in the bank and then Charlie Kaufman comes back with this script
[01:12:48] and Spike Jones is like I don't know if Sony is going to green light this as a horror movie and he was like well getting old is the thing that scares me so that's what I wrote about they were like well you go off and make that
[01:12:59] we cannot release this in 2000 screens right which I love that movie and I find that movie very horrifying in certain ways but this feels like him figuring out how to make a movie about aging that actually plays like a somewhat conventional horror movie yeah well also right
[01:13:15] Sinecta King is also it's like about decay and fear of disease and fear of your body but this gets at a lot of those things in the more visceral thing that's so good about this the Sinecta King is slow Sinecta King is internal I love that movie
[01:13:26] but this movie every like immediately you start to feel the tension of like time passing where you're just so anxious of like they're not fucking understanding what's happening to them they're letting this time with themselves slip away and it feels like thinking
[01:13:40] like they're going to figure it out sure and get off the beach I know they can't get off the beach I can pretty early on it feels like they're pretty fucking doomed right that's what Inga vibe is like I agree that's why I'm such a good metaphor
[01:13:51] Suf, can I ask a question of you David yeah one of us here on mic who has a child got a boss baby wait do I have three kids I have to pick up from school Ben why are you drinking metamucil I just need the fiber
[01:14:04] yeah that's my metamucil give it back oh sorry here you go I have a kid that's true yes Navee better name sure for Kat we've gone through a couple untitled Marvel event film 2021 we've gone through a couple different bits at this point so the I Grafina Bendusers
[01:14:24] the scene where Eliza Scanlon has to give birth I sobbed at this scene okay I cried if that's what you're asking yeah fucking horrified but I also think it's really one of his loveliest little scenes that he's done since like the sixth sense
[01:14:39] the sixth sense is a very lovely movie as freaky as it is I mean I was there watching you from the back of the the stage at your retoidle and I'm proud of you every day the scene should have won Tony Colette the Oscar and Haley Joel Osmond
[01:14:50] right I mean I was there and Haley Joel Osmond right but like the whole scene look old's about people who are on a beat we're not going to go through the plot I guess the beach makes you old the plot is they get old they get old
[01:15:04] there's various people on the beach they get old and various people like the whiplash of you know when they're in the tent together oh my god and they're talking about how they feel their brains getting old in the same way that their bodies are getting old
[01:15:18] he does this weird coverage where both of their shots are over the other person's shoulder you're only seeing the sliver of the eye you haven't seen them in this new age state but it's also so intimate it immediately telegraphs that they are teenagers who are going to fuck
[01:15:30] well that's the thing but you're watching and you're like so is this him you know kind of winking at this and he's gonna let it lie after that or is he is this him setting up a scene and then when she's pregnant I mean just I was just
[01:15:43] hackling with right with kind of with despair I can't believe he did it I can't believe of course he's doing it you have to do it he goes that hard he's the only guy who goes that hard it's revealed in the trailer that there is an unexpected pregnancy
[01:15:57] I don't think I knew that I knew that was coming I did not know how it would be addressed in the film and like the lines were like again the way his camera is like you know spinning around and you hear like the dad in the background
[01:16:10] being like that's how you make a baby and he's like I thought you had to do it like a lot but look this is the thing that's wild no no no you have a baby you have a baby yeah so that all happens he gives birth
[01:16:21] and there's the body horror of the all you know of her body growing so fast what did they say about the baby that it's like because it's so fast that they didn't engage with the baby so it just it dies because like from the feet of baby constantly
[01:16:34] like right like it ages too quickly like when it's six months and five minutes or whatever and then so like then by the way love that there were baby bones and then they bury it the sound effect of the dry bone well so that's the thing
[01:16:46] but you're sort of riding on the high of all that we're like Jesus and then there's that little scene with the two of them where they bury the bones and I was like this it was oh my god this is the best thing he's done it's so
[01:16:57] it was so profound yelling at his dad like I'm gonna marry her we're never gonna get divorced so fucking good so funny I mean like and tying that line back to that really early scene with the kid what's the kid the friend Idlib Idlib cool
[01:17:12] also obsessed with codes puzzles yeah like puzzles and all that like you know the back when Alex Wolf is Little Wolf and he's talking to this kid and this kid's like you know I don't have any friends we're not gonna be friends he's like we'll be friends
[01:17:23] unlike then we'll be older yeah and we'll we'll get mortgages or whatever there's that line he has about mortgages right trying to understand the language of adults exactly like that right that you've been twinning that line with his later line where he's like right
[01:17:36] I'm gonna do this right even if I want to beat the mix you old yeah and I'm gonna be dead in a day I'm not gonna divorce my wife my right right right in our bone I'm not gonna be a crappy adult like you
[01:17:48] I know how to be an adult and then just that he can throw that in yeah in this me as this like chaotic scene and we're gonna move on quickly and there's gonna be more stuff and have it hit yes is so good this is also the the
[01:18:02] the how do I even say this you have a moment like that that is profoundly sad ridiculous and scary at the same time and I think for some people they go like pick a lane you cannot at the same time ask me to take something serious emotionally
[01:18:19] feel the stakes of it and have it be this over the top and for the four of us we happen to be delighted by that so delighted it's it's operatic yes it is it feels like a play like at times and then like at the end
[01:18:33] I mean the truly beautiful ending not the end end but you know when Gael and Vicki are on the beach and they're old and they're not and I think it's good that they're not like you know wrinkly I think they're the right amount of old
[01:18:44] I think they did the wrinkling really well right but they're not like but it's so it's so subtle it's so subtle and like dried apple skin and lies and shit and like he's got you know he's like what were we talking about
[01:18:58] they show a hand at one point and the hand is like an old person's hand and like I think they are holding hands or something that's what I love his little fucking tricks of just bringing an old person on set and shoot a hand and that's worth more
[01:19:11] than any fucking special effect that's like wait so he dies and then she gets up and walks into the water and walks back and then she dies I've been thinking about that for since I saw the movie it's such a simple little move that is not explained
[01:19:25] and everyone fucking criticizes him explaining everything but like there's like little stuff like that that like haunts you this movie is so good it's so good it's so good like two two performance and talked about midsize stand God we are fucked such a good name
[01:19:42] is probably one of the funniest name like or joke about a name of a rapper that I feel like I've heard ever what's his real name Trevor Derrick Brendan Brandon or something is it my name is Brandon my parents are like doctors I don't know that
[01:19:57] I see someone to know that Aaron Pierre he's English but he's got a great look beautiful eyes wait how would you know it's like Wikipedia that line in the movie Kilt we all like laugh I feel like that really went over so well as like a name
[01:20:13] people were also criticizing the name midsize stand is being too ridiculous but I would like to remind everyone that there's currently a rapper right now named Poo Shiesty that's good so let you know midsize stand is good maybe it's on the other end
[01:20:30] of the spectrum but it's honestly like anything goes yeah it fucking anything goes fucking anything it also just feels also like that perfect M night dad joke energy to where he's like well what's this guy's name midsize stand like it works on every level
[01:20:44] right it feels like Gael Garcia Bernal's character should be saying what's his name midsize sedan and they're like no his name is like little master P okay so now I that was one part of the movie where I feel like I was getting a little caught up
[01:20:58] on trying to figure out the logic of him and then the body why did she die and he didn't but it seemed like her sickness was worse yes she had MS he says and I guess she just whatever they got into the water and something happened
[01:21:15] she drowns she drowns not like dead of old age at that point in the movie I think I thought the aging was connected to the water so I went like oh she died sooner or faster because she was swimming in it
[01:21:29] because I was also like well the kids are growing up faster they were in the water the adults were not I had a question at the time because I thought I was ahead of the reveal but then of course it's the rocks it's all about the rock
[01:21:38] it's about those damn magnet rocks you've got a good job for him but to go through everyone in this cast so you got Gael Garcia Bernal and there's nothing wrong with him he's an actuar I always like watching him on script oh so absolutely right it's kind of
[01:21:54] is a calming presence quietly one of my favorite guys I always just absolutely underrated him until I watched it outrageously attractive and let's say a short I always love watching him on screen and being like he's five six and not hiding it I understand the decision to not
[01:22:11] have their hair age because they explain that as like oh hair is dead same reason your nails are growing I'd love to see a little salt he's gonna look so good he's gonna look so good he's aged so well already you've got Vicky Creeps this is his wife
[01:22:31] who has a tumor so that's her thing every family has a problem but also we don't know whether or not her tumor is she says it's benign sorry getting a little TMI about Marie's medical history I had a uterine fibroid sure a problem which is a common problem
[01:22:51] that people with uteruses have it went from being nothing to the size of an orange within like three months and I had to well right it's absolutely terrifying but it's one of those things where like oh you don't think it's that big of a deal
[01:23:11] because the tumor is gonna grow so slowly it won't matter and then it fucking explodes and it's terrifying we're not supposed to totally know if like it was always gonna be life-threatening or it's just like I think the beach is accelerating it
[01:23:25] I think the beach is accelerating it I think the fact that she died of completely yeah the fact that she like died of old age on like on beach time meant that it had it was not like a cancer that had spread to the rest of her body
[01:23:41] it gets so big because no one's they never tie it to a larger I hate the rules of it though where they have to hold it I guess they don't show it such a good elevation to say like the big set pieces of this movie are the
[01:23:59] concept of what he has dramatically set up is so deeply unnerving that you were on the edge of your seat right where you're like I cannot believe he's going to do this there's no way he's going to do this and you're sitting and you're squirming and you're recoiling
[01:24:13] and he shows you fucking nothing multiple times in the movie right he shows you fucking nothing yeah I mean you get the one shot when you see the thing pulled out right but it is so telling that there's like the shop where we're just like oh fuck
[01:24:27] shit fuck where he makes the second incision they put their fingers in and then he cuts away immediately you don't see them holding it it is this shop that's like the four heads poking out of the corners of the frame looking in as he does the thing
[01:24:41] pretty reserve sound effects considering what he's showing on screen and everyone the theater is going like fuck fuck fuck fuck you're not squirming anything you're seeing slivers of heads I mean I think in product to surgery is a top make your audience
[01:24:57] yes you know and settle he knows just putting the idea in their heads can be scarier than anything I show similar never showing the baby never showing the baby when I'm very little dusty but right when Rufus Sewell and Ben Sheeran when Rufus
[01:25:09] Sewell is is going stab crazy at the end of the movie very dark set up the device that guy L is largely blind it's very dark so you're not see anything graphic the the well so there's verses happening where he's like is that what I'm supposed to do
[01:25:23] am I supposed to be right is it supposed to be R rated but yeah okay so Rufus Sewell an actor I love I do too who I've seen on stage do all kinds of wonderful things but I do feel like in movies tends to do like two things
[01:25:35] he plays jerks he plays like stuffy Brits right but he is so much fun in this movie yeah playing a doctor who is crazy I mean he's schizophrenic they do say that later in the movie it took me a while to figure out what was going on
[01:25:51] when he's did the schizophrenic they do say I thought he was just like a senile like that's what I thought too yeah because when the Brando-Nickelson thing happened for the first time Marie was like what was that I went like it has to be senile
[01:26:03] right they're setting up senile initially thought that it would be some early dementia or whatever but no because there's the scene there's the doctor later is like maybe we should keep the people with me away from physical health I also thought maybe that there was
[01:26:17] like a racism element to well there is but it's just what it is it's filtered through his his nasty side paranoid right but so okay yes it's like not arbitrary who he targets as a threat in that movie you have Abbey Lee oh my
[01:26:35] boo boo boo boo as crystal oh my god who's got brittle bones brittle bones oh god that's the other fucking thing because I was going to say Griff yes this movie that's the most graphic yes it's not bloody but that's the visual so I would watch an entire
[01:26:53] movie about her character dealing with the horror of aging as a young beautiful woman I love the way the movie has her vanish for stretches and then when she's but she's like don't look at me like I love that it is so it is so grotesque and
[01:27:11] you can just tell that he that Shyamalan is just like reveling in the grotesqueness of it and it doesn't it didn't feel like it was necessarily um misogynistic because I think she the actress understood the role that she was playing and I felt so bad
[01:27:31] for her she's incredibly sympathetic I mean there is that sort of like right it has that kind of like fairy tale like oh she was too vain and look how she but I think there's a counterpoint to the Rufus Sewell thing right that they represent a certain
[01:27:43] kind of very appearance based status like that I must be the great doctor I have to protect my family you know I also think to have you know the their daughter go through this horrible thing where she's pregnant doesn't understand that she's pregnant gives birth loses the baby
[01:28:01] and you see Abby Lee's character just completely struggle with how to deal with it she can't even be there in the moment when it's happening and it is I don't know I found that to be like a very I didn't that didn't make me think less
[01:28:15] of that character I was like that is probably sympathetic that is absolutely how I would react I would be so overwhelmed and horrified in that moment you go how does anyone deal with something like that how do you survive something like that so good yeah and the
[01:28:29] the reveal of her bones in her turning into a weird spider woman in the cave is just like was it is it the term grand weenie all yes yep I mean who chefs kiss I was like they're gonna do it
[01:28:45] and then he did it and then the little flashes just goes so hard he pushes it past the point that anyone else would go this is gilding the lily this is going to get too silly but we're there with him at that point
[01:28:57] if he had done that 20 minutes and I think you'd be like whoa whoa whoa whoa what's going on like it's almost like there's like a self-selection sort of test at the beginning where it's like if you're this thrown off by the dialogue in the first
[01:29:09] five minutes you're out right and if you're willing to go with this then I'm gonna slowly build up to the point where she becomes a fucking noodle lady and I think that's the most visibly graphic part of the movie absolutely and and you know like gory no he
[01:29:25] he led up to it there wasn't the part when Eliza Scanlon falls off the cliff and I was like oh are we gonna get that fucking shot in mid-summer which gave me nightmares no we don't we don't see it
[01:29:35] great shot but right I'm glad we don't see it yeah I would not that scene's really intense too because it actually has that weird tension of like wait like there's a moment where you're kind of like just could make it is she
[01:29:45] sort of like the beginning of the third act or whatever right just the confidence of him not cutting once she's up there only covering her from so far away where it's really hard to parse what is happening but that the obliquely thing is the only time
[01:29:57] it shows you the thing right fully gets in the wrong show man which I think is great oh sure but that's but I'm sort of shrouded in darkness sort of like it doesn't go full psycho like I also think part body parts rotting off
[01:30:13] you that venom like yeah it's not scary it's a little triumphant because at this point you're like totally has become the most immediate thread on the beach yeah you got Nikki amuka bird an actress I really like as the the psychologist
[01:30:27] what is she doing before you know she's in the david copperfield movie she's in you know she's like a british theater actor I'm sure I've seen her stuff I didn't yeah well she's in a place where I'm sending not I not a movie I've
[01:30:39] only seen that movie like three times I can't like but I think she's the captain of the as it has a more blame check thing ever been said on the show I've only seen jupiter three times she was in the laundromat apparently
[01:30:51] okay movie that I saw but like that has so many characters that I can't remember but she's done a lot of TV anyway she's really good favorite the person who caused me to always disrupt a movie and go he's so good in this
[01:31:03] role for him which is the sort of nervy you know explainer yeah but he's also like the nurse and I'm here and I'm like very down to earth and like fun tension between him and roof of school where he kind of knows a little bit more right
[01:31:17] right I will say this I don't cite this as a criticism but you already calling out that you wish we got to see a little salt and pepper on guy L can lung famously rocks the gray in his hair very well has been very long it's true yeah
[01:31:33] he shows up in this movie and it's like very dark right like he's fully sort of like dark into his hair and I was like oh it's almost a natural color they're doing this because he's going to eat rapidly and get right I just
[01:31:45] wish I could have seen it I like I like his great his death is that he just swims away and tricers cape and I try to make it you pop up his body pops up later right that's yeah her death is the
[01:31:55] epilepsy where it's like I guess the idea is like the medicine is finally not working right that's right it's work they got a long time right right and then like yeah right if we if it's that infrequent then we then you
[01:32:07] pretty much just right it's a nice fancy bespoke cocktail right did you guys I mean I just never think about these things I tried I do I am kind of like mind head empty with movies like because like I someone I left the
[01:32:19] theater with was like I'm pretty I pretty much figured out from the beginning like oh yeah they're being tested on like and I know no no I just thought it was a fucking dang ass freak watching that shit like I just thought
[01:32:31] it was somebody you can see them from right away well look we're lab rams right here in some way I figured it was some sort of human experiment I didn't know to what ends but yeah once you see someone up there you're like oh
[01:32:47] you know we're we're watching them they're being watched by someone in the movie I thought it would be more of a psychological thing like to see like more of like a Milgram sort of thing I was wondering if it was going to go into
[01:32:59] loss sort of like more overtly supernatural the people who are testing them are not human there is some larger thing at play you know that kind of thing rather than it being a very specific business thing and I like the mystery of like look these people
[01:33:13] they're not on expedition they discovered this horrible thing we've been able to turn it into something good we're not going to explain why who fucking cares why the rocks make you old I also think it's it's fun that the characters are also trying to figure
[01:33:25] out what yes it made me I have not seen escape room I hear telling me I gotta see I haven't seen any escape room you gotta escape this this old made me think of my one time I went to an escape room where everyone's kind of banding
[01:33:41] come up I don't know you you don't know me I know with real escape rooms usually you do I only knew the one other person but like right let's all just like get her thinking little spaking yeah I also I think look that
[01:33:55] is a thing that did M night in for a while right the people went to the movie trying with the fucking okay and I'm gonna solve it and I think he like it's this movie is so fucking fun yeah besides being as we said profound
[01:34:09] inside yeah it is so fun because M night is essentially playing himself setting the stage bringing his actors and then I could go I could try to figure out food they're trying the whole movie they are trying to figure out yeah right right right so a
[01:34:25] that helps him a lot that the characters are like you know on it they're like the audience but be at this point I have just succumb to like I want to write this out I don't want to try to fucking figure this out and I
[01:34:39] get a certain glee from every time he underlines an element going that something I don't know what it is yet and I'm not going to distract myself from staying in the emotion of the movie trying to solve it I would rather
[01:34:53] watch this play out and then at the end be satisfied to see what the things were now can I ask though what did we think to the your point what did we think of how he showed the characters not being able to leave
[01:35:07] the pressure oh yeah that to me was like a thing where I was like where they like black out when right I was fine with it and I actually get like aging bends they can't right and they explain it enough right where the connection to
[01:35:21] the bends it makes sense and I think it's like that could have not been successful very easily yes if maybe you show too much or not enough and I just think it like I think he really pulls it off yeah because you're essentially showing like
[01:35:37] why can't they just leave the beach and then they don't really show you why but it still is like a thing where you're not getting too distracted I also think it's so much better that it's like they start
[01:35:47] trying to leave the beach in the next thing they know they're back on the beach and like you know yes it's like so much better than like reaching a force field this sort of weird cut and then wake up is just like well
[01:35:57] I guess it just fucking your stock that felt the most overtly lost yes yes it is quite lost but that's the thing with lost to where you're like the metaphor so good I'm not sure I want right but it doesn't need to be explained yeah and then
[01:36:13] I mean lost ultimate explanation is well the island is magic and some people were just like well wait a second like you know like that's all like obviously there were many explanations with it but the ultimate explanation was like look this island's fucking magic
[01:36:27] okay yeah and it's always been magic and any time anyone comes here they try and figure out what to do with the magic but this is also the M. Night thing once again I'm just I think his confusion with other people of just like well nothing fucking makes
[01:36:39] sense why do any of us do any of these things why does any of this operate this way yeah yes can I say something I did not like about the movie you are a lot thanks um I think he is so specific with the mechanics of time
[01:36:57] while they are on the island oh defining 30 minutes is a year which I love I didn't think too much about it I just trusted him with it but then when they're swimming through the coral and it takes so fucking long and I'm like these people
[01:37:17] how long can you hold your breath underwater and I know that's like a common suspension of disbelief that you know it's always in movies but all I'm doing for the past like 90 minutes is thinking about the passage of time that's why I wanted them to die or
[01:37:35] you just wanted that to be that yeah I just wanted to stay like just okay I want to keep thinking about time and how time eventually kills all of us yeah and you know what's the point of living if not to you know
[01:37:49] be with the people you love because like he has sand castles and he has that with creeps and burnout right which I think is so beautiful right and then so he's having his cake a little bit yeah you know by having them
[01:38:01] also escape and then but I do I think the ending is the graduate like I think they're like what do we do now where it's like there's not a lot of triumph in them taking this down I agree with you like it's sure
[01:38:11] not even if they're not the villains maybe like you know just the sort of like yeah I don't know okay that cut is so heartbreaking to when they cut to the next morning and then bet David's walks out and you're like her by the way right
[01:38:27] and it feels like the kind of thing that any other movie you go oh shit they just jump 30 years later and it's like well they did and they didn't right they did but also this has been like one night sleep and your
[01:38:39] brain is playing that trick of like oh what's all the shit that happened off screen that I didn't see and it's like them sleeping for three hours right like this is the mentality of just like you go to sleep you wake
[01:38:49] up and suddenly you've missed this much of your life you know which is sometimes how it fucking feels being a person especially when you are locked up for a year and a half yeah I mean I like the last couple of weeks I kept
[01:39:03] on having this thing where when I was like fill out forms I had to answer it as a question going like my age doesn't feel right anymore and it's because maybe other things as well but like fundamentally this year and a half we lost
[01:39:19] it feels like I should be older or I should be younger or like this number doesn't make sense to me anymore and then after two or three weeks of having that internal conversation every time I had to say my age I realized
[01:39:31] I had been getting my age wrong were you saying you were too old I was saying I was 31 I'm 32 and I spent three weeks every time 31 came out of my mouth going that sounds wrong but believing that I just feel out of whack rather than that I had
[01:39:45] done the math wrong and the answer is that fucking year disappeared into a memory hole what have you but also just that disorientation of like how old am I what number does make sense you know what passage of time does make
[01:39:57] sense where there's that kind of thing of just like there's I think those two performances are really good sure and they play a very specific kind of comfortable chemistry with each other right where it's like those two siblings get along
[01:40:11] I like that I might just doesn't have them be fucking fighting siblings annoying bratty kid and all that sort of stuff they sort of understand they get each other's weirdness in a way or whatever right Thompson Mackenzie and Alex to their credit I think do extraordinarily
[01:40:27] good jobs of playing children right and not making it feel creepy not making it feel like fucking Coppola Jack I think Thomas and Mackenzie in particular is pretty incredible of that as well as Vicki Creeps playing you know what I was thinking of is like we were
[01:40:41] watching the movie it was like fuck they don't have mirrors yeah right they don't know they don't know what they look like most they can do is look in the water right I know Abby and me looked at like a like some sort of
[01:40:53] case that had a shiny surface to see herself but they could see the other people they can't see themselves and that's like another element of how absolutely absolutely I mean yeah Thomas and Mackenzie plays that part so so what's wrong
[01:41:07] what's wrong why are you looking at me like right and not playing it like a sketch comedy version of a kid but really feeling like this is somehow a kid in the wrong body right the unsettleness but when they wake up the next morning they're playing
[01:41:19] them kind of like adults in a way I find interesting like this day has changed them so dramatically that like the trauma of this has pushed any child like innocence or energy out of their body they watch the lady break all her friggin bones in a cave
[01:41:35] like they've gone through some shit exactly but I like that they're now just playing fucking grown-ups and they're there on the beach and they're sort of like well I guess three more hours and then we're done right like everything's this resign sadness before they solve it
[01:41:49] before there suddenly is a last chance this movie had me thinking a lot about boyhood which which was shot on the beach that makes you all it was shot on the beach that makes you old that's a cheat yeah it's crazy
[01:42:05] it was incredible producers who figured that out they're doing the fucking merrily we roll along on there too and linklater's up on the clips he doesn't go on this he finished Merrily two years ago he was gonna sit on it for another 18
[01:42:19] well the one guy in it got cancelled that's why it hasn't been released yet is that true? who's that? Lake Jenner but no boyhood I saw it when you know I premiered at Sundance I was like wow this is kind of my first experience of watching a film
[01:42:39] and maybe seeing the world through the eyes of a parent like identifying with the parents for the first time if you had a boss baby yeah so you know if I had my own Navi or Untitled Marvel project 2021 what would be like to see them grow up
[01:42:53] and that feeling of not having enough time with them everything goes by so fast and uh you know it's cool that M. Night corner did the same this was working with the same themes in a different way it took him you know only 8 weeks in one location
[01:43:07] to shoot old not 10 years he's on the treadmill baby he's on the treadmill David just flexed his muscles he's got two like uh weights in his arms he's like he's boyhood and he's like look he's the rocky of filmmakers he's running up those Philly steps
[01:43:25] it's true he's a Philly icon just like Rocky it is kind of incredible this film works from what I would say all three perspectives of how scary it is as an adult as a parent to watch your kids grow old how scary it is as a child
[01:43:39] to watch your parents grow old and how scary it is to grow old yes there you go you nailed it that's exactly what all fucking three exactly that's exactly what is so good about the metaphor yeah but then also just the movie gets to be playful
[01:43:55] gets to be sad gets to be visceral gets to be thoughtful it gets to be lovely and people are like ee ee ee and feel it wasn't very good well you know what you're not very good my gut instinct right now
[01:44:09] is that I still probably put in breakables my number one success number two and this is my number three Shyamalan I think interesting that's my gut reaction my number one is the village I think that's his I love that movie you've been early killed
[01:44:23] no I'm joking I love the village I'm saying then I think unbreakable six cents and then I have old four yeah I have glass fifth glass would be my hot take for me fourth I need to think I mean I see I like that even more than you
[01:44:37] do I need to watch glass again I need to see this again I almost saw a second time today but I ironically ran out of time the last airbender which is a movie I hate it yeah I can't go back there nothing I've watched the whole thing
[01:44:49] right you kind of I kind of want to but I only imagine that'll make me hate it I don't even know what the last airbender feels like being on the old beach where you're like where's time to go so I haven't seen the last airbender or after earth
[01:45:01] sure does did he write after earth no I think after it is the only one he didn't write at all is that right yes it's Gary Witte I mean I'm sure he did some massaging of the script but it is no you know what he does
[01:45:13] have a screen he does okay yeah what about last airbender it was very much not what is not originally with what is that movie about after earth it's like they land what should it be about what is it about does it touch on the Shyamalan themes
[01:45:29] that we've been exploring in this episode what's about is the fucking father and a son in a spaceship crash on a hostile planet the twist except the twist is set up from the beginning is that it's earth so it's playing out of the apes
[01:45:43] with no marquis but you know that from the begin it's an overgrown earth and there's monsters who can like smell your fear the actual thing the movie is about which is kind of Shyamalan and I think probably why he agreed to do it aside from
[01:45:55] just career desperation of the biggest movie star wants me to do a movie I'll do it is that the ship crashes and will smith is trapped and jaden has to go get help for him and it's like you have to go out
[01:46:07] on your own you have to be the man you have to be the adult I can only guide you so far at a certain point you have to figure out how to do this yourself and it's up to you to find help to come
[01:46:17] back and save me so there's some yeah you know the empowerment of a child no it of course thematically ends up being a lot more about the relationship between will and jade in in real life than it is about the m night sort of parent child
[01:46:33] stuff that he likes to explore it's a lot more about like you go off and be a movie star and jane being like I don't know if this is what I want to do right so kind of like space jam to with LeBron
[01:46:43] yes it was his kids name Dom Dom in the Dominic Toretto James all right I have a question now for you guys because I feel like hearing you both list off your updated ranking is this maybe the first or like I don't know I feel like there's
[01:47:03] so few directors where you guys list late period movies this high up sure he is arguably the only guy we've covered who is maybe in his sweet spot after we finished cover it's just his weird thing of two sweet spots with a huge dip
[01:47:23] right there's not a lot I mean I don't know I'd have to think about it but like it's unusual for sure well was did you guys cover L we did and see no I know you covered L but did you cover it as part
[01:47:35] of the we did it had already come out okay that is one to me where I'm like oh shit he's like at the top of his game and look I'm fucking amp the shit the band and I love that a he made the band name easy
[01:47:47] for us but be that he's now like and I'm going to make an American thriller or my Jesus movie and it's like yeah just go out guns a place and he talk about old he's old he's old he does not get I feel like
[01:48:01] Paul Verhoeven is not afraid of dying like he's just we are just seeing all of the beautiful sandcastles that he's built if over hoping was on that beach you fucking the rocks and saying I dare you to make me old no you do it like Joaquin
[01:48:17] does in the master oh yeah he builds the little sand lady and then he's like hey yes but yeah Shyamalan's career I mean it's it's so funny because you know I do you say Shyamalan is the the Frazier of blank check yeah I kind
[01:48:39] of you know I think he's kind of like the godfather of this podcast not godfather the movie no yes he is the like the concept of doing this only really crystallized around him as an example he's the little seed that got planted and it's just I
[01:48:55] got all I love that his narrative it's you know it's still evolving and also much like Frazier it's like he didn't just try to cheers again his second wave right after his his valley is him figuring out
[01:49:11] how to take some of the stuff that used to work and putting it in a new dare I say Seattle patina oh oh all right all right well let's play the box a box game any final thoughts we have our voices sounding a little there's a box office
[01:49:29] it's it's what is it today Wednesday Tuesday it's Tuesday I don't even know what year is it 2021 and got all yeah right then got old you don't like it no I love it I just I just think he messed up asking what year is it because it's
[01:49:51] like well I don't really know how to get in that one should I say a different year does he think it's earlier or later and Ben just I said that was just dirt bikes just road bike around fast like that
[01:50:09] people on your street no but there should be I'm writing my congressman you're right well I would write your city council your congress he doesn't know he's too old he doesn't know who to get him all getting out of typewriter right now
[01:50:23] it's a good candle there's a box office of course for like this week yeah how fun is that to guess we all know the answers well we can talk about the movies okay let's talk about other movies I'll say this though okay a thing I found
[01:50:35] with the box office that's weird is I think we're still in the point where you have movies in the top 10 that are making well under a million dollars there's only one there's only one okay so that's progress and old was the lowest grossing number one in a long
[01:50:49] long although it is one of those weird box offices where it's like a lot of movies are sort of close together and gross and all that obviously I'll gross like war with grandpa but if you're talking like theaters being reopened it's a low number one
[01:51:01] before we get into the box office game but this is relevant to movies that are currently being released so David we had a very strange experience as we left the theater okay for old there's there was a huge poster like it took up the entire wall the multiplex
[01:51:25] for this post shaman say we're uneasy we're questioning reality what year is it what time is it my god how long were we in that theater for and let's make it clear we walk into the theater we're not running late but the movies like five minutes away from
[01:51:39] starting we want to get snacks so we see this we clock this we crack couple jokes about it but it's not until we walk out of here that we really step back to it the theater's closed there are no more showings and we're like let's really examine this
[01:51:51] so there's a movie that was supposed to come out this week the comeback trip so that's the movie with Robert De Niro yes David let me tell you the billing on this movie yeah I mean I'm aware of this movie Academy Award winner
[01:52:05] Robert De Niro yeah Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones yeah Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman and of course the fourth name above the title on this poster is and introducing butterscotch the horse that my horse David isn't my kind horse it looks
[01:52:23] a lot like so I didn't know about butterscotch butterscotch is new to me butterscotch is brand new to all of us the poster said July 23rd it's a comeback to theaters July 23rd we're like what is this we went something out what day is it today
[01:52:37] I say to Marie isn't that today and you go no no that's not possible that's not possible that doesn't make any sense that doesn't make any sense so we pull out our phones and start checking it is not playing anywhere in America no I believe its release
[01:52:49] was either cancel or pushed to um virtual it is very surreal to stand there and look at a poster with the day that you are currently living and telling you come back to theaters and have that not be playing on one of the
[01:53:03] 25 screens at the establishment you're at with three Academy Award winners and introducing butterscotch literally right across from the snake eyes right snake eyes is there I don't look I got an email about the comeback trail like a couple weeks before it came out release cancel due to
[01:53:19] total lack of interest no no well I mean I think it happened but like they certainly with like July 23rd like screening links available come back to theaters the you know the movie is written and directed by George Gallo who wrote Midnight Run he did
[01:53:33] I think it was made a very long time ago at this point I think Zach Braff is in it it's so fucked up that Zach Braff got replaced by a horse named Butterscotch on the official poster well Zach Braff invented podcasts sure yes of course twice start
[01:53:49] twice right but yes I think maybe it just they just decided to pretend like that happened with a that movie about the snakes to where they kept being like it's coming out it's coming out this week it's coming out actually we're gonna put it out six
[01:54:03] that the Sundance movie yeah call it was called them that follow yeah anyway they don't want at the box office I just want to say David that of course the comeback trail is the film that gave us Robert De Niro's current Wikipedia photo which you're obsessed with
[01:54:19] you told me to look at this no I know I just now I didn't know it's from are you getting home it's changed now it's just some picture but it was time moves so fast time's moved so wait but like what was the I'm getting old
[01:54:33] you have to look up De Niro's poster for the comeback trail I mean I know he's got this like mustache or whatever yeah and it's like a fucking director's cap and like yeah it looks insane while he's doing this really quick
[01:54:43] something I did want to say is that my final is the title of this movie old old it's good it's a good title I think more movies should just encapsulate what the vibe is and just one fucking word do you know the name of the new Jordan
[01:54:57] Peele movie then they just announced it last week oh it's so good you're gonna love it nope oh shit yep fuck yeah that's good poster is a cloud with like a fucking kite string coming out of it and then just the three actor names nope nope from Jordan
[01:55:15] Stephen young Palmer Daniel Kaluya great fucking cast love all three of number one of the box office is old yes 15 a gentleman 15 okay okay it went up a little Sunday is that domestic or domestic number two Griffin is the other new big movie this week snake eyes
[01:55:33] snake eyes and on 13 million right obviously look it's coming out at a trepidatious time for theaters sure people are scared but like this is the thing with that and with free guy and with some of the stuff that's kind of clogging up you and
[01:55:47] I these months talking about free fall right those were things where they're kind of like well we have this movie doesn't it have to come out well essentially snake guys were had like fucking all these toys tied to it that been sitting in a warehouse
[01:55:59] for two years and they're like what are we gonna do thing was never gonna do well right there's no one care this is a little better are they when you say there are so many toys like for children yeah well I know it's g.i. jose but like
[01:56:11] I just don't under like I see trailers yeah for snake eyes yeah this is a movie that's being marketed to children well it's a movie that they hope could revitalize a brand that was originally popular children if you ask me and I'm someone who kind of defends both
[01:56:25] of those the prior two films as fun junk summer's movie in the film movie right they're fun junk those movies very much if I were six would have made me want to buy all those action figures and snake eyes from the trailer looks
[01:56:37] really fucking down and it is one of those things where the toy is the same as the Mortal Kombat movie I could not differentiate this is all I was gonna say I won't go into a whole fucking merch spotlight corner here it is very telling
[01:56:49] to me that g.i. jose snake eyes origins whatever the fuck it's called a movie based on toys that is supposed to revitalize a toy brand for toy company they made all the toys look different than the movie because the movie characters
[01:57:01] look boring and they want to make the toys realistic right so then maybe make the characters look like that in the fucking movie or what's the point I think the Ghostbusters trailer drop today and it's it stinks to high heaven and it's got this poor tenches
[01:57:13] kind of like you know oh there's a legacy and like and like it's got this fucking music and I'm like why is this what good it's so ridiculous we're gonna do only kind of a trian I've been saying this for a while comes out because the study
[01:57:29] of three bites at the apple trying to figure out how to reproduce Ghostbusters which all have very different approaches is very fascinating to me I just want to say I'll just out myself with it I had a very much a space jam to reaction
[01:57:45] to the trailer because I was like this is bad but I'm like but also Ghostbusters is good well that's what they're trying to do I know I know I know that movie is gonna get me at moments I'm already resenting it like I'm not excited
[01:57:59] for that movie and I know I'm gonna sit there and it's gonna fucking trick me into feeling shit like twice I didn't see Ghostbusters until like seven years ago I've only seen one haven't seen any of the others I don't understand with the emotional connection there is none
[01:58:15] we were kids when the movie was gonna do it where it's gonna be like oh well she's they're descended from you know but like no there is none I will say this there's no like emotion like I don't really get like a big emotional art
[01:58:25] there's nothing there's nothing there's nothing we will do our patreon series about this I have a thousand thoughts I just want to plug our friend Patrick Williams podcast passing future guests did a great video about the first Ghostbusters asking the question is Ghostbusters
[01:58:37] the best movie that is about nothing and his argument is Ghostbusters is the only movie that is that good that has no thematic depth to it what so ever there's no like larger it's just Boston makes you feel good look anyway just Boston makes you it does
[01:58:53] what the song says and it does why are you getting angry at David who are you that calmery number three the box office is a film from the Walt Disney Company that one of their subsidiary branches has a gun or see heroes I'm sorry
[01:59:09] you said it's a movie about superheroes yeah they have Walt Disney owns a brand that produces comic book inspired movies all black well yeah right I forgot that it jumped up above space jam I sure did it sure did yeah because space Ram dropped 69% nice really nice
[01:59:27] can I listeners she's got her own movie listeners of the podcast I would love you to at us on twitter if you saw both black widow and old and think that black widow is better movie yeah look I I I mean you're allowed
[01:59:45] I agree with my here where it's like I don't say that as like a provocation I would be interested in hearing that yeah well I'm not going to fucking clown on people I'm actually curious because I do feel like black widow is
[01:59:59] peak my problem with Marvel and we've gone over this their marvel movies I love their ones I tolerate black widow is everything I dislike in the marvel movies where I'm just like it sucks it has fucking no flavor it's got no character
[02:00:11] it's got no personality but I guess for some people it does nothing weird enough to upset you versus a shaman thing where he's gonna like push you and poke you and prod you into things black widow for some people it's like
[02:00:23] I can sit here and it's just a fucking passive experience that never well that's my problem with the movies it feels like the main character is having a passive experience that's my example I just want to know people who prefer black widow to the films
[02:00:37] of M. Night Shyamalan what do you want out of a movie I don't know maybe a movie that features Ray Winstone saying widow's saying what widow's widow's that's what I'm Russian old I want to have a movie it's what I want to have
[02:00:51] a theater going experience she should have put him on the old beach that would have taken care of him said she's got to break her own nose or whatever to defeat him kind of like that I mean I like the ray winstons in the movie but it's just
[02:01:03] like after what 13 years black widow will finally get her movie a businessman with thick-rammed glasses who is the ultimate villain ray winstons like on Russian on I it's me the Russian man like it's just like this is it that's like the only sequence the movie
[02:01:21] that has any juice for me we're just not even bad and there's no bones that rattle once don't think so no rattles I was huge for Ben alright number fourth the box office is a film we discussed last week on the podcast Space Jam 2
[02:01:37] a new legacy should have been called cyberspace jam yeah big drop 77% look my dad loves to boost blink check on his LinkedIn sure does he's a real proud dad I should friend him you should oh you should you're gonna get clap emojis
[02:01:57] you're gonna get a lot of your grams and what's the prayer hands as well I love your dad on Instagram yeah he's great on Instagram famously hacked on Instagram but I don't remember if it was his Instagram or his LinkedIn but I sent to you guys
[02:02:11] he posted with pride that the space jam episode was doing well he gets doubly excited when you know James or Romney are on episode we have multiple new ones on one episode or whatever but he had this like all caps caption under the screen grab of us
[02:02:27] on the Apple chart that sounded violent where he was like he yelling Griffin and David and James dominating the charts number three with their space jam episode that is almost three hours long and I was like that you don't have to mention that it's almost three hours long
[02:02:41] that's a point of embarrassment we hadn't seen each other in a while first in person number five of the box office is a film we also all saw together the movie is called F9 the fast saga our return to theaters the movies are back
[02:02:57] still in the top five number six is escape room two number seven is boss baby two well you're making some money family business baby number eight is forever purge and it came and went I think it rules it might be my favorite purge that's a hot time
[02:03:15] I've never watched those purge movies they're good we gotta do them we gotta do a commentary you would dig the purge have you seen forever David number nine is quiet place part two solid and then you know we got news new entrance here Joe bell good Joe bell
[02:03:35] Mark Wahlberg is a dad he's walking can I spoil the twist of Joe bell spoiler alert for Joe bell is it true that you don't know the twist that the kid is dead until the end of the movie you can guess that the kid is a ghost
[02:03:55] but it's based on a real story but he's talking to his kid the whole time while he walks and but they don't no they don't it's weird it's not you know what it's this kind of movie
[02:04:09] where you're like you know what there's a good version of this movie maybe and this is just kind of a boring he directed that movie he directed that movie isn't the director good yeah at least like there's just there's a good version everyone's trying hard in that movie
[02:04:27] it's just very perfect it's interesting to see Wahlberg give a performance even though I don't the movie's not good he's trying to tamp himself down and it's sort of like okay you know how he doesn't do an accent in that other movie that just came out
[02:04:45] what other movie the fukua movie that movie is so bad someone told me that he does a movie that went straight to streaming that has made less of an impact than that to be fair it went straight to paramount plus star trek
[02:05:03] that movie I threw it on because I'm like fukua is not a director I love but he tends to make pretty robust watchable stupid two star ten yeah and like chihua tells the villain half the fucking movie is them being like
[02:05:17] Mark Wahlberg you're like a samurai because of reincarnation what are you talking about who's this guy and you're just like it is the worst fit of star to recent action the joe bell thing for me is interesting only because Mark Wahlberg has such a fucking messy past
[02:05:37] with protected groups but the idea of him doing this movie about persecuted people and someone sort of like gaining a conscience and all that sort of shit he's not bold enough one to talk about that in public and two it doesn't really feel like
[02:05:55] his performance in the movie is not strong enough that you're like I really feel like he's working through something here but it's also like he fucking will this movie into existence which he really wanted to do this it plays it fucking tiff or whatever
[02:06:07] it's also just funny there was called good joe bell and they were like you know what drop the good let's not overdo it that movie got bought by what was it called solstice studios who released the Russell Crow car movie drive angry
[02:06:23] it should have been called drive angry it was called on hinge making a joke I know the title folks don't at me we're going to reopen the theaters on hinge first movie in theater solstice is going to make a huge fucking splash
[02:06:35] they buy joe bell for 20 million dollars and they're like we're going to re-edit it we think there's a masterpiece here and then six weeks later they're like no we're not we're going to let roadside release in six months quietly yeah okay I don't know what happened to solstice
[02:06:47] can I just say yes but we need to be done but yeah no I know but this is putting a bow on this game as you said it's a volatile time it's a weird time delta it feels like we're fucking coin on its side it's an inception top
[02:07:03] what's going to happen right right but I also do think there's this thing that I think to some degree we need to accept whether it's for the indefinite future or it's a permanent thing of just like the thing we have perhaps lost I go
[02:07:19] back to you saying like well snake eyes was never going to do well right but the version of snake eyes that would have bombed two years ago would have made 60 million dollars yeah no it would have done better right because
[02:07:33] aside from the people like us who are fucking hardcore lunatics and are going to defend the movie theaters for as long as we can right there used to be people who'd go like I don't know what's Friday what's out there's a fucking snake eyes movie why not
[02:07:43] you're losing the casual moviegoer I think we've largely lost the casual moviegoer and knows if they come back or not but with a lot of these movies it's just like there's no default audience people are making very strategic choices about very specific movies they want to see
[02:07:59] and they're not going to see anything passive way right and that could change but the kitchen it's not something movie you just can really control on no no all right but old is good we got a wrap up old is good rules can I say it
[02:08:13] yes I think it's a plaster piece yeah it's a glass to piece but you know what actually it's better than that because I think plaster piece means something a little specific where it's like it's when you make a movie called glass that's also a master
[02:08:23] right but also it's like a movie where it's like maybe old fits a movie that befuddles but you're like no no this is special it's not flawed but interesting you can call this movie Elmer Fudd okay okay sure remember special no notorious PIG
[02:08:41] the fucking okay so you guys were saying we got to be done I know but I just started the tangent it's very short okay what what is it big Chungus I didn't know what big Chungus was and you were like oh they put big Chungus in
[02:08:53] space and you were like oh he's this fucking bugs bunny meme right and they put a reference into it were you saying that to me that wasn't me really yeah I don't know Mike but someone was telling me like wow
[02:09:03] they put big Chungus in there and I was like what's this fucking big Chungus like Photoshop and I looked at and I was like that's a classic cartoon it's he does an impression of Elmer Fudd and he takes it which would have whatever bad tangent
[02:09:15] it's like a it's like a it's become of me oh yeah when he's big right but it's him that's when he does his Elmer Fudd you know because like bugs bunny reaction shots right are now like a sort of internet language I like the one where he's in
[02:09:29] the tuxedo exactly I wish all my blank a pleasant blank yeah exactly but but all of those are like taking a bugs bunny thing and turning into something different he's cool yeah bugs my rules he was my favorite if he's star I'm so sorry
[02:09:43] Griffin it sucks space jam anyway old's good kill kill the podcast it's time for it to die it's time for the podcast to die quietly on the beach as we stare off into the water clinking its bones consider whether it's worth going through
[02:09:57] the coral why does the uncle hate the coral so much his uncle hates the coral folks thank you so much for listening please remember to rate review subscribe and get old Ben shaking his head because I refuse to say like or whatever follow right that's what it is
[02:10:15] we're too old to change our ways at this point yeah we're old as shit now I don't know how old I am anymore thank you to Marie Barty for social media for being on the show you're the best Marie thanks Griffin excited to all get old together
[02:10:33] yeah thank you to Joe Bonpat Reynolds for artwork thank you to Lane Montgomery in the great American novel for our theme song thank you to AJ McKinnon and Alex Barron for our editing mm-hmm did you first in Nick Larraround didn't do research
[02:10:51] for this episode but guess what we're gonna throw them the thanks anyway because they're part of the family and we love them and we'll get old on a beach together tune in next week for John Carpenter hell yeah John Carpenter because Holtotransylvania 4 got pushed back
[02:11:05] and earlier than we next week Dark Star should we say who the guest is Emily Ashida mother Blankies back to kick off a new series mama it's a good app we do a lot of google maps stuff in that one it's a good app
[02:11:19] and like if you've enjoyed the space jam app and the oh right forgot that whole thing there's a whole weird we don't need to say anything else if you've enjoyed the energy and space jam and old of us being in the same room again chronologically
[02:11:33] Dark Star was recorded earlier but Ben and Emily only are in the same room they sure are and they are as goofy as we have been and David and I are like perhomp perhomp go to pitchfran.com we're about to do those Riddick movies we're getting pitch black
[02:11:51] with Dick Riddick Dick Riddick Dickie Riddick Richard B Riddick it never stopped being funny Blankies I read the comp was a real nerdy shit and as always everyone got to the joke before me but I'm still gonna make it I love all that's good thank you