The Odyssey

[00:00:24] Excuse me, I am but a simple beggar. Is this the Kingdom of the Czech Republic? I've heard that your co-host has been journeying on an odyssey across Europe and there is an opening to co-host the podcast. And once again, I'm just a simple beggar and nothing more.

[00:00:46] Unsheath! I draw a bit into my bit bow. And then here's my bit bow. Your joke arrow. Defy the pods. That was defy the pods cast. Wow. That was so great. That was really good. Yay! And you have authentic facial hair, much like Matt Damon.

[00:01:15] I do. I have... How would I describe this? I'm describing it as you look like Seth Bullock in Deadwood. Yes. I do. I've been saying conquistador, but you're right. I feel a little Don Quixote. It's a little... Maybe that's because I've been in Spain. Well, so we should explain for the listeners. Basically, Griffin, he's always been rocking a mustache, but now he's got a pretty full soul patch. He's got the patch. I'll say this. So the mustache has become more and more of an emphasis in how I conduct my face.

[00:01:44] I'm a fellow stash man. Of course. I love it. We're secret stashers. Sure. Thank you. I'm filming a TV show. I'm working on a TV show, which I'm gonna say, sometimes I think people should make. And I'm gonna say, Griffin, humble brag. Thank you. This TV show is very well run, but I am coming in late into a season and there's a big wall in the hair and makeup trailer of like the 70 speaking roles in this season. Yes. And I'm introduced like 60 out of 70.

[00:02:14] There you go. And they're like, you need to have a facial hair design that is different than what anyone else has. So it's like so many of the things have been claimed and variations. And I came in just sort of unshaved. I hadn't shaved anything in like a month or two going into this. And they were like, we're keeping the mustache. And we're emphasizing the flavor saver. There you go. So even right now you're seeing me, I'm a couple days off from filming. The rest of my face has been squeaky clean.

[00:02:43] I got a little stubble back now, but I've been squeaky clean outside of mustache and flavor saver. He's squeaky. And you're right. I look exactly like Matt Damon in the Odyssey. Well, I was gonna ask you like, how long of a beard can you grow? Oh, like if allowed. Matt Damon's beard, the length of it is really impressive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, if you can grow facial hair, you can grow a long beard. You can. It's about commitment. It's about time.

[00:03:10] My problem is, if I have too much beard, I start like picking at it as like a nervous tip. Exactly, right. And then I start like pulling out and futzing with it. So then I usually don't let it get past a certain point. I heard that Matt Damon grew for a year. He said a year. He said he had a beard for a year, I guess is how he put it. I mean, a beard for a year. It's a full looking beard. Yes, because in Greek antiquity, they didn't have fake beards, I guess. So no one was like, no fake beards.

[00:03:37] Well, and we know that this is a movie that is 100% historically accurate. Exactly. And that's why no one is angry about it. Exactly. Wait, people are already angry about it? Oh, don't worry about them, Ben. Don't worry about those guys. We're here to celebrate. It's guys? You're saying it's angry guys? What if it was all girls? Ben, if I told you that one multi, multi, multi billionaire was angry about this movie, who would you guess it was? Hmm. One very online. Well, let me think. Very rich man. Are they normal though?

[00:04:07] The most normal. Okay. Then Elon Musk. Perfect sense of humor. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Okay. Okay. What's this podcast called? This is called the Podacy. It's called Blink Check with Griffin and David, but today we're going on a Podacy. We are going on a Podacy to Ithaca and I guess Troy and... A bunch of other unnamed islands with scary stuff on them. Upstate New York City. Yeah. Yeah. A bunch of other... Right. That's so true.

[00:04:37] Have you guys been to Ithaca? Of course. My mother is a Cornell alum. The thing that's really scary about Ithaca as far as walking around is the gorges and you have to go over these bridges and you just look down and it's just... It's quite hefty. It's just... It's quite a drop. I visited Cornell in Ithaca on like a little college tour and the one thing that everyone talked about was like, oh yeah, lots of people just like fling themselves off into the gorges here.

[00:05:03] My cousin went to Ithaca College and just casually mentioned like, yeah, people just will commit suicide. Because it's too gorgeous? You know, it's very small and look at the island. Like, God, everyone's fighting over this. That big. Yeah, but like, you know, it's home. It looks like it has some nice beaches. It's home. I know. It's home. It's home. But you know, Pattinson's coming all the way out just to try and get this little like... Why not this island? Look at this island. This island's huge. Cephalonia right next door. I don't know. Maybe there are fucking monsters on it.

[00:05:31] The thing about Ithaca is that there are no monsters on there. There are just... They're just like... Well, there's... There's men. There's petty men. Right, men are the monsters. They're the real monsters. But you don't have like giant Bill Irwin like butt naked with one eye eating you. See, my read on it was just the smaller island is maybe more strategic. Maybe. It's just maybe safer. I think easier to govern too. It's just kind of like, hey, you know, got some sheep. I want to front load this.

[00:06:00] The Cyclops sequence in the movie is the highlight of the film for me. Interesting. I would not say that's true for me, but it makes sense that it is for you because it have big monster, which you do love a big monster. Right. I also love Bill Irwin. We love Bill Irwin. Which it genuinely was one of the first times in a long time that I watched a sequence in a movie and went, I have no idea how the fuck they did this. I had the same... I certainly... Obviously, I was trying to give myself over to the movie, but I was constantly kind of

[00:06:29] like, I guess there's some forced perspective stuff, but I'm not totally sure how they pulled this off. But then it's that great movie magic thing where you watch one shot and you go, okay, I think I figured out that they need this. I think I can see this one. And then they switch it up on you. The next shot completely breaks whatever your sense was. And part of it is that he's pulling things back to basics so much that any overcomplicated process that you would just assume or hand wave away, you're ruling out. Yeah, I don't know.

[00:06:57] It was very cool when he'd pick up Guy and eat him. Yeah, that was scary. Perfect. I got scared. I'm... Step on him with foot. And step on him with foot. You know what's... Squeeze him. And squeeze him. I know. You know what's so cool about the Odyssey is I wouldn't be surprised if all of us had a different favorite section of the movie. Okay, let's go around. Let's do this. Let's go around the horn. David, favorite section. I think Marie and I have the same favorite section though. Well, I have two favorite sections. Oh, I know mine.

[00:07:26] My favorite section is certainly Cersei and the pigs. Yes. Cersei was a big standout for me, but I also was really, really moved by the flashback to Odysseus' experience of carnage in Troy. Oh, sure. That was very... Yes. I was very impressed by the narrative thing he was doing in the third act. Certainly. Yes. That is fair. Ben?

[00:07:55] Okay, I'm gonna attempt to say the name of these people and I'm sure I'm gonna butcher it. The last Dragonians. The big guys. Yeah. The big fucking crazy knights. I mean... You like a big guy. Oh my God. It was so sick. Yeah. Yes. And that was crazy when it was like, who's that man? And then it turns around and it's a giant kid. Sure. And he's laughing. Well, that was great.

[00:08:20] It's weird that Ben liked the sequence with the taunting child and the giant brute army and I liked the sequence with the emotionally wounded monster. Just in a fetal position in a cave. Played by one of America's finest clowns. I didn't know it was Bill Irwin until after the fact. Yeah, I had to tell you. It's such a good performance. Yeah. Very cool. This is Blank Check with Griffin and David. It's a podcast about filmographies, directors who have massive success early on in their

[00:08:48] careers, such as making a Bartman movie, and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. Those checks have not run out for one Christopher Nolan. They keep getting bigger. He has been on an uninterrupted run of checks being handed to him for now 21 years. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. What are we counting as the... Batman Begins, right? That was 21 years ago? Yeah, it was. 2005. That's what's crazy. Oh my God.

[00:09:18] I was but 19, maybe 20 years old, yeah. You could say that Batman Begins was the guarantor, but I think the circumstances around Batman were so weird at that point in time that they basically gave him a blank check because they were like, we got no better ideas. But we already said this with him. He constantly has guarantors. He said about this movie, like, this is my biggest budget movie ever. And it's because Oppenheimer did so well. Right. It's like it keeps everything... But you don't get to make a movie like Oppenheimer at Oppenheimer's budget without that being a

[00:09:47] bit of a blank check as well. Of course. Correct. Correct. I have no idea what he does from here. He can do whatever he wants. I don't either. I think he has to go smaller. And I think he's even sort of talking about that now. But we covered him many years ago. His success has only grown since we covered him. At the time, he already was arguably the filmmaker of his generation. And with every successive film, he has only become more and more important.

[00:10:12] And now he's making what feels like the biggest movie you could possibly imagine. Yeah, sure. I mean, we had this conversation after Oppenheimer, all of us. We were just like, the fuck does he do next? When Oppenheimer, which on paper was a one for me, makes nearly a billion dollars and wins every Oscar and performs as high as most of his films have ever achieved. And then what is there even left for this guy to cash in?

[00:10:40] And there were all the rumors that he was doing Blue Thunder. That's made up. Is that a helicopter cop movie? Those are cold word things. Oh, is he doing a horror movie? Is he doing a this? He has said he wants to figure out a horror movie, which is interesting. But do you remember we were all in the office together? I can't remember what episode we had just recorded or were about to record. And I went, holy shit. And I showed you there was a tweet.

[00:11:07] And it was Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey filmed entirely in IMAX coming summer 2026. Right. It was just all at once. Suddenly the announcement was out there. We had known the cast. The cast had been started, been growing, had been pinned to the board, but we didn't know what it was. And then we just went, holy shit. Of course he had to do this. It was either The Odyssey or the Bible. It was the only move for him to do next.

[00:11:32] As he's pointed out, there's no Hollywood version of The Odyssey ever. That's what's wild. And that's why it had to be this. He's like, it's like a weird gap. No one had ever tried this. Obviously there's, there were a couple of sort of Italian, you know, versions. Well, there was the Amandasante. That's a TV movie. I tried watching that on YouTube last night. I turned it off after 30 seconds. Do you want to see what the Cyclops looks like in it? Yes. Someone posted it to my work Slack. Oh, you know, he looks kind of good. He looks like a big baby.

[00:12:02] Let me see this guy. I like this. I like this guy a lot. He looks pretty good. That's some Griffin shit right there. It's a little bit dinosaurs vibe, you know? Yeah. A little early Holland there. Did the Jim Henson creature shop work on this at all? I mean, one assumes, right? I mean, let's find out. They did a lot of those TV movies. I was going to say that was their, that was how they kept the lights on, right? Exactly. There's like the Ted Danson Gulliver's travels around that time. Oh, that was huge. All the kind of hallmarking. Remember the Ted Danson Gulliver's travels? Well, he was huge. Remember how big he was? He was big. He was.

[00:12:31] And you know what, Griffin? And the Williputians were small. I can confirm for you that the creature effects for this miniseries were provided by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. They had a talking animatronic pig roasting on a spit. That's cool. They had a rod puppet sea slug sea monster and they had, you know, a psychopath. Well, maybe I'll try, I'll give it another shot, but I'll just fast forward to all the cool puppet stuff. Puppet stuff. Last night for research, I was like, I want to watch some stuff to like get me in the Odyssey

[00:13:01] mood again because we saw the movie, what, like three days ago? So I watched the episode of Arthur where DW retells the Odyssey. Yes. And I watched the episode of Wishbone. I was going to say, Wishbone must have spun that tale. But it's very interesting because, okay, in the Arthur version with DW, there's none of the like what's happening back at Ithaca stuff. It's just DW on a boat encountering monsters.

[00:13:31] Sure. And then in the Wishbone version, barely any of the monsters. It's all back at Ithaca. I really hope Christopher Nolan's listening right now as we talk about this. I just think it's, I think it's crazy that children's media used to do this shit.

[00:13:56] It's the first story. I wasted a fifth hour stewing over how God awful it was. That's pretty good. He's saying this shit was so bad. It ate into further time in my life. It ruined an additional hour of my life.

[00:14:23] That miniseries had its own controversy at the time because they cast Baby Sinclair to play Helen of Troy because they had him kicking around the creature shop and people got really upset. And that's a Muppets reference or is that? Not the mama. That's a dinosaur. I'm not the mama. I didn't know his name was Baby Sinclair. You didn't know his name was Baby Sinclair? I think he's handsome, but people thought he didn't have a face that would launch a thousand trips. That was the argument. I think he's handsome. He's iconic. I mean, I don't know if I would call him handsome, but like, everyone knows the baby.

[00:14:52] He is literally the moment. You think he's currently the moment right now? I think Baby Sinclair has never been more relevant as proven by how quickly all three of you understood the joke I was making. I didn't like the joke, but- I just forgot that they're called the Sinclairs. Why are they called the Sinclairs? Because they're just a normal family. But they should have had like a pun name. I agree. You know? Wait, isn't there like a Sinclair oil or like a gas station called Sinclair with a dinosaur on it? Oh, I think you're right. That sounds a little- I think you're right.

[00:15:22] That sounds like a stretch though. No, see look. Sinclair Oil Corporation. Fossil fuel. Yeah, the name is a reference to Sinclair. Okay. This is funny. This is really good. It's a really good show. I am so smart. That's too sophisticated. Okay, let's talk about- The Odyssey. The Odyssey and our screening experiences. So- Okay, great. We have three different screening experiences. Three different experiences. We do. Three different experiences. Three different experiences. Three different major cities. Three cities. Wow.

[00:15:50] Much like the Odyssey the movie, this is an episode that spans multiple countries, multiple cities. Multiple formats. Multiple formats. Multiple formats. Because yes, okay. So, all right. Well, Maria and I saw it at the AMC IMAX Lincoln Square. 70 millimeter IMAX. 70 millimeter IMAX. Where I guess you can't get like a seat at like the 3 a.m. screenings in August right now? Yes. Right. Sold out for the rest of time? We are checking our privilege.

[00:16:17] It was, I feel enormously blessed to have had the opportunity to not only see this film in the, you know, the director preferred format. Big old theater. But also in the best seat in the house. Of course. We had my favorite seats in the back of the house near the secret bathroom. Yes. Okay. Which I really took advantage of. This is on the IMAX screen. Yes. On the IMAX screen. Oh yeah. Okay. But it was 70 and you know, the picture, there were little spots and pops and little guy. I like artifacts.

[00:16:48] I like the texture. Exactly. I like the imperfections. Yes. Now Ben, where did you see this film? I was in Chicago. The Windy City! Visiting. And I went to an AMC theater in downtown Chicago and saw this film in 70 millimeter. And at that theater, there's no ketchup and it's all, it's like a giardiniera, right? And a big pickle in your popcorn. He's talking about hot dogs. I'm doing a Chicago bit. Yeah.

[00:17:17] There was celery salt. You saw inside the bean, right? I did. And the perspective was a little weird. Right, right. It was a little, the picture was a little more. What's the deep dish version of a movie theater? Is it that the chairs are behind the screen? It's like the whole theater is kind of like a conversation pit. Yeah. But it just goes way down. It's pretty funny. Or it's maybe, maybe it's like Ben's original pitch of like the underwater upside down movie. Right, right. That would be good. Especially for that. Anyway, okay.

[00:17:46] So yeah, you, you were in Chicago, Chicago. And so you went to a press screening there. Yeah. And unfortunately IMAX not available. They don't have an IMAX in Chicago. I just learned this today. I am shocked. That's pretty wild. Yeah. For such a major market. Or I guess if they do have one, they don't do press screenings there. I don't really know. Do you know what format you saw Ben? Was it 35? Was it a digital? You saw it in 70. Okay. So you saw it in a gentleman 70. A gentleman 70. Yes.

[00:18:14] Obviously most people around this country will not be able to see the film in like fancy, fancy IMAX. Obviously there's, you know, digital IMAX out there and there's 70 out there. There's a lot of formats. I'm going to see it on 35 on Saturday. Where? Nighthawk. Wow. Crazy. I saw, I think the number is there's somewhere between 40 and 50 screens on the planet that show it in the kind of complete preferred Nolan format. Now I have been in Spain filming.

[00:18:43] Griffin's in Spain. In the entire country of Spain, there are only two IMAX screens, both of which are digital. Wow. I had purchased tickets for one of them at midnight. So I was going to see this movie at midnight on Thursday, record with you guys the next day. And then my buddy, let's say friend of the podcast, he came through in a major way here. Sam Clements, who works for the picture house chain in the UK, the great movie theater chain. I was texting with him and he said, I might be able to get you into the press event, which

[00:19:12] was at the BFI South Bank IMAX. The big, big, big fan theater in Waterloo. Very, very large. One of the biggest IMAX screens. Yeah. And he pulled off a miracle. His buddy David at organic publicity got me in. I had a handful of days off from filming. I, in fact, have more than a handful of days off from filming. It seems like you're barely showing. Are you doing any work? A little bit. A little bit. I've been doing a lot of siesta-ing, but a little bit of work, a little touch of work on the side. A kind of pinchos amount of work.

[00:19:42] Just small tapas work. How many other phrases can I appropriate here? But I got to see it at the South Bank in 70 IMAX, which was quite a treat. It is, it's a fucking big ass movie. It really is. This is, Nolan's been working on this project for a decade of how much more, more than a decade, almost 20 years now, because I guess it starts with Dark Knight 18 years ago, of how much IMAX can I get into a commercial release film.

[00:20:12] And this is the first movie where he's gotten it up to 100%, right? Every single shot in this movie. I got to say, this movie's epic. It is quite epic. Pretty epic. I think, regardless of what format you see it in, the actual fidelity of the image that has been captured is pretty fucking astonishing. Yeah. David Ehrlich, run of the pod, a friend of my life, was at the same screening as us seeing the movie for the second time.

[00:20:38] He saw it in IMAX for the first time, and then for the second screening he saw it in 70. Mm-hmm. Um, and he said he preferred it in 70, which we were like, hmm, interesting. I think he was just making stuff up. You know, the first screening of a movie like this where it's all hyped, you're all, you're so like, you know, buzzed up watching it and it's hard to concentrate even, you know, the second screening you can focus more at what he's doing. Yeah. Maybe that was part of it. And if he's listening right now, he should throw a wallet at himself.

[00:21:06] Yeah, he should actually. Yes. Yeah, that's right. I'll say this. We've, we've all seen it one time. Mm-hmm. We've been fortunate enough to see it one time before release in order to get this episode out quickly. I don't think I had any like adjustment to how high my expectations were or the hype. I felt pretty settled into meeting the movie where it was at. It does feel like a lot of movie to absorb on one viewing. Yes. Like I feel like I'm struggling even two days later to get my head around some of it. I think the movie's excellent. Not me, I'm strong as hell.

[00:21:36] You're strong. Strong as hell. Yeah. You feel like you got a complete take. He was saying before we started taping, like he's got the names locked down. Yeah. He's got the names? I was saying, look, I'm not going to remember all of the names. Okay. And he was like, don't worry about it. We're just going to say the actor's names. And I was like, okay. John Leguizamo. Can I say he's my MVP in this movie? Well, of course he is, Griffin. Of course he's your MVP. He's so good. He's so good. I would, he's the Krumholz of the movie.

[00:22:05] I personally, and I don't know, maybe David, you will agree with me on this. I think Samantha Morton is the like standout performance. I mean, I really think that everyone in this movie is very well cast and used, but it was so nice to see people like Morton and Leguizamo who Nolan's never worked with before. Where Nolan clearly immediately was like, that is the person.

[00:22:29] I don't need to identify like whatever, a bigger star here or what, you know, what, like a glitzy or like he matched the actor so perfectly. Like Leguizamo in the Odyssey. You're like that. Like that doesn't automatically. And then you see it and you're like, I understand this completely. Morton makes total sense that, you know, that was not, I think, I think they're the two MVPs.

[00:22:50] Morton, you know, we've talked about Morton a lot this year and on the Morvyn Caller episode, we were talking about how much in the late 90s and the early 2000s, she was seen as like one of definitively the great actresses of her generation. And she's receded a little bit. And this just feels like Nolan wanting to remind everyone how good she is and how powerful she is. Leguizamo, I don't feel like I've ever seen him use like this before. It's interesting. I was trying to think about this. Yeah. Unlocking new chambers for me.

[00:23:19] Cause he's like kind of the heart of the movie. Yeah. He is. The emotional spine of the thing who all the other characters are filtered through. I, for some reason kept thinking about John Wick because Odyssey does have a John Wick vibe of like, he's coming back and he's mad. Like everyone should be afraid. John Wick has an Odyssey vibe. Of course. Absolutely. Everything has a... Just calling him and being like, do you still have my car? Yeah. Right.

[00:23:43] I mean, it was a little bit that where it's like Leguizamo's just playing the guy where it's like, everyone agrees that this guy is reliable and wise. Like, as hell. Like that is what we turned, because I'm looking at Leguizamo's, I mean, he works. Like, he's always working. Yeah. But like, what's the last time he was in... It might be John Wick. Like, that he was in something where I was like, oh, it's so... What a great use of him. Like... I didn't see Bob Trevino likes it. I didn't either. Which everyone said he was really excellent in.

[00:24:12] I should see that. He's the lead of that, right? He's Bob Trevino. It's him and Barbie Ferreira. Yeah. And Barbie Ferreira, by the way, she's having a hell of a year. She is. This is great. Our buddy Chandler Levix, great film. Yeah, that movie is so good. Chandler. It's so good. Yes. Are you listening? Chandler! I liked your movie! The Canadian film explosion of 2026 is to me the big story. That's so true. Yes, Canada's everywhere right now. Oh, let's see.

[00:24:42] He's in the new Exorcist, Leguizamo. Okay. I bet you he plays like a priest who's like, eh, I don't like the looks of this. We gotta get this theme now. I bet you're right! That sounds very good. I can see it. I bet he talks out of the center of his mouth exclusively. Right down the center of his mouth! Yeah. Those front teeth getting a lot of exposure. Is he like, you know, has he done, like, should we throw him like a glitzy miniseries so he can grab an Emmy or something?

[00:25:10] He was in an Apple TV series called Smoke, which wasn't very good. But he was in it. He was in it. It feels like he's primed though. That's a good point, David. You know what I mean? I feel like we got Leguizamo in like third position on an FX series. He's like winning every award. Yeah, like, who doesn't, who's not happy to see Legs? Johnny Legs. Well, King Koopa. Well, that's true.

[00:25:36] Although actually, I don't really know that King Koopa registered Luigi as a threat, did he? I mean, I can't really remember. You know, I haven't watched that film in a little while. Do they do battle even? Like, I don't really. If King Koopa doesn't register Luigi as a threat, I would say that's a narrative shortcoming. I would say if King Koopa does not recognize one of the two Mario Brothers as a threat at any point, that movie might have some script issues. Um, I do think, I've seen the Super Mario Brothers movie several times in my life.

[00:26:04] I think one could accuse it of having script issues. I think that's fair. I think everyone would bear that accusation with grace and respect. This is the first time hearing this. Oh my God, what do I say here? Put my finger up behind my ear. Um, so here we are. We saw the Odyssey. So Griff, you saw it at the BFI. Was that nice? That's a lovely theater. I haven't been there in a long time, but it's very cool. It's a big old circle. It's in a circle. You gotta go a little bit underground in a tunnel. Cool. Yeah, cause it's in like in the middle of a, of a giant roundabout. Correct. Like there's cars going around.

[00:26:33] It's in the middle of like a, like a traffic circle. Yes. And so you gotta take an underpass to go into the secret chamber. Cool. That's great. See any pals there? Uh, uh, honey Ross, friend of the podcast. Okay. Uh, and Sam, Sam Clements was there with me. I don't think I saw anyone else. Fair enough. But I was, I was immediately taken aback by, and I think I wasn't reading early responses. You guys had gone with Marika Brownlee. Mm-hmm.

[00:27:02] Ben was seeing it the same time that I was vaguely. I had gotten general thumbs up from people I knew, but I wasn't reading anyone's deeper thoughts. And I was taken aback immediately cause I was Sam, Sam helped me get into the screen, but he had already seen the movie. And there was a whole kerfuffle with me being his plus one where they wouldn't let me in without him. So he said, I'll come and I'll sit through the first like 30 minutes again, and then I'll leave. And I said, is like the opening particularly good?

[00:27:31] I was wondering like, does it have one of these classic Nolan sort of James Bond style dark night tenant? You open with something kind of just so fucking insane. Right. Mm-hmm. And he was like, the opening's great, but it's not like that. And the movie starts and immediately it was just like, this is not where I thought this film would start. Hmm. This is not how the first hour I imagined would progress. And the structure of this movie for a guy who likes to play around with structure is so different than I was expecting because he doesn't diagram it.

[00:28:00] Usually when he does funny structure tricks, it's like really set up and explained. Hmm. And this movie almost immediately reminded me so much of Thin Red Line. Hmm. Okay. Yeah. And that it feels like it's editing based on emotions. Um, that's interesting, Grace. So, you know, I will say the Odyssey, I'm gonna, am I the only reader of the Odyssey in the room right now? Not to, not to an Odyssey mog anyone. I mean, I studied it in school. Not to poetry mog. Sure. Okay. So you read it.

[00:28:31] Back when? I have no memory of it really, but I have brushed up a little bit and just watching some YouTube guides. Mm-hmm. I bought a graphic novel version of it with pictures. Hell yes. Who did, who did this graphic novel? It would be a disaster if the graphic novel didn't have pictures. I know. That would be a huge misstep. It would be a big bummer. Uh, Gareth Hines. Okay. I've, I've seen this. I think my wife has used this as a teaching aid because she teaches the Odyssey. Yes. Your wife teaches the Odyssey. She does.

[00:28:59] Um, but like, you know, the, the first four books of the Odyssey are from Telemachus' perspective. Mm-hmm. They do have this kind of prologue-y kind of like, where's Odysseus? You know, like. Right. Son of Odysseus, we should say. Telemachus is the son of Odysseus and he is played by Tom Holland in the film. You guys notice that? Yes. Peter Parker. He was there. Peter Parker himself. Uh, Nathan Drake himself.

[00:29:24] Uh, did you guys see the video of Tom Holland and Matt Damon doing a, like, junket thing where they had to guess. Make a pizza? I did, I did not see the one where they had to make pizza. What did they have to guess? They have to guess which of their films by just the colors of the frames. You ever see the movie Lutz thing or whatever? Yeah. Uh-huh. And it was. That's a fun game. It's tough to put those two filmographies next to each other. Well, that was what was really fucking funny. Damon has like eight masterpieces.

[00:29:52] So it's like, okay, so is this movie the departed interstellar or goodwill hunting? One of the 14 Soderbergh movies I made and Tom Holland's like, is this chaos walking? No, for Tom Holland, they gave him, they gave him three, his three Spider-Man movies and he had to guess. Oh, that's so lame. And I'm like, they all fucking look the same. I wouldn't be, like, it was so sad. I felt so bad for him. Is this the best, I mean, he, I think The Lost City of Z is my favorite movie that he's ever been. You love that film. Yeah.

[00:30:19] Uh, but then I think this is a, this is a huge challenger. I don't see anything else in his filmography that I would really vault up the list here. He's at a tough. It is wild that, I mean, obviously No Way Home was so fucking humongous and was, you know, one of the first in a series of movies that saved Hollywood after the pandemic. Right. And it got a little erased by Top Gun and Maverick and, uh, Top Gun Maverick and Barbie and Oppenheimer. Yeah, but it was a phenomenon. And some of the movies that came out.

[00:30:49] It was a phenomenon. Yeah. Humongous is one of the 10 highest grossing films of all time. And he's been a little silent. And I think there's been a couple years for all of us to stroke our chins and be like, is he juiceless? Like where the fuck does his career go at this point? Especially because everything he tried to do outside of Spider-Man really didn't work. And yet he's about to be the undisputed king of the summer box office. It's true. He's about to have a humongous fucking summer. He's gonna have a huge, it's just July. King, he's the king of July.

[00:31:18] I thought Sully could have only dreamed of the kind of July he's having. That's so true. I, uh, I think he was very well cast in this movie. Yeah. I thought he was well deployed in this movie. I think he's, you know what? I'm going to give him his flowers. I think he's good in the film. I know some people are like, ah, no, I just sort of felt like Tom Holland-y to me, but no, I think he, No, I think he's good. I think he really under, he's really, he's good at playing someone who needs to learn, like, and mature and grow. Like, and I'm not saying that as a, as a neg on him.

[00:31:47] No, the problem with him is gonna be the, can he ever age into anything else? I'm not sure. I don't know. I saw him saying in an interview, like, I think this will be the last time I'm kind of playing a kid. And I was like, maybe. Like, it is crazy. Like, I know, I know that he is 30. He is 30. I cannot believe that he is 30. He do, he do have a baby face. But it reminded me a lot of his Lost City of Zed performance. Like, it did, you know, like. There's that John Mulaney joke of, uh, I'm sober, which I know is surprising to people

[00:32:16] because I look like someone who hasn't done anything before. Right. Like, I've just been sitting in a room eating crackers. Like, I've just been sitting in a room eating crackers. Yes. Right. A lot of this Odyssey Spider-Man promo tour has been Tom Holland pushing Bureau, his non-alcoholic beer alternative. Yeah. And that's another thing where you're like, I can't believe you're old enough to be sober now. I'm happy for him that he's got whatever equilibrium he desires or whatever. But yes, it is interesting. But he reads as perpetually 16. Yeah. He does. He does.

[00:32:45] Which is why he's in this role in which literally the point is that he is not of age yet. Yes. The point of the Odyssey is like, you are Odysseus' son. You're a strong young man, but you cannot inherit his throne yet. So I got to keep weaving this fucking thing until he comes back. She's weaving. Can I say, Hollywood, thank you for your service. How about you sit here in the corner and you do your thing? And we're just going to wait on Matt Damon to come back.

[00:33:22] David? Yes. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Mutant. They are purveyors of all things physical media. Mutant creates records, posters, home video, and more in close collaboration with artists, composers, filmmakers, and studios around the globe. Yeah. They've produced some of the only physical releases of some of the biggest film soundtracks of the last five years, including Sinners, Dune Part II, and The Odyssey. They've got that score on vinyl, the Ludwig score.

[00:33:51] It's a beautiful, it's like a bronze colorway. It looks ancient. I love it. Like an ancient disc. But this album has a 24 page booklet with liner notes by Christopher Nolan, along with Ludwig. The director of the picture. Yes. Obviously, Mutant's made a lot of beautiful packages like this in the past about, you know, we've got some other Blank Check films that we've covered, like Furiosa, all of the Christopher McQuarrie, Mission Impossible films, Andrew Stanton's in the blink of an eye. I didn't know that they did that soundtrack. That's cool.

[00:34:21] Mutant also makes physical media for video games and hit streaming shows such as Pluribus, The Boys, Severance, and coming soon, Widows Bay. You can visit madebymutant.com and use promo code BLANKCHECK for 10% off all in-stock products. Very good, very good, very good.

[00:34:51] Very good? Why is the money good? That's a lot of people. Who said that? The Warentest, Computer Build, Focus Money, Chip, Finanztip, such dir was aus. Mega! Aber das ist doch bestimmt kompliziert. Nö. Einfach Foto von der Lohnsteuerbescheinigung machen und fertig. Klingt sehr gut. Ist sehr gut. Mit Wieso Steuer? Bis zum 31. Juli abgeben. So, The Odyssey.

[00:35:20] Uh, it is a film directed by Christopher Nolan and it does begin with Travis Scott, uh, the great Travis Scott, a friend of Christopher Nolan's, right? They're best buds, right? Yes. Don't they like send each other gifts and shit? Like they're like- They are friendly, yes. Uh, because Travis Scott had a song in Tenet, I feel like that was their, um, that was their initial- And he's got the end credit song in this. And, and you know, it begins with him trying, you know, he's gonna sing the song of Odysseus. He's- Right.

[00:35:46] And it's clearly Nolan like taking you by the shoulders and being like, you have to understand that this storytelling form exists now and has just evolved. Like, yes. Like, it has just changed. And like, but he's like, it's a real mission statement moment for him where he's just like, this is still what we do. We tell like stories through verse to each other. It's so good. I was so startled by it. The first five minutes of the movie played in front of another movie. Is that true? Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

[00:36:15] The prologue, which I saw is the Trojan sequence, which is much later in the movie. Okay. Because- The horse. I really tried not to see a ton of marketing for this movie. Like I saw the teaser trailer, whatever it was where Tom Holland was like, my dad's coming home or whatever. And I saw that and I was like, this doesn't look good to me, but I'm, so I'm not going to watch anything else because I trust Christopher Nolan and- You want to see it in context. I want to see it in context.

[00:36:42] Uh, but then I, I know that, I don't know what movie they put it in front of an IMAX, but some people did get to see the prologue. It was- You could see it if you bought a ticket to an IMAX. So I saw, I bought a ticket to the Sinners re-release just to watch it. Okay. It was also in front of one battle, I think. And or whatever, I can't remember. Like it was, it was the fall of, it was like a little sizzle reel basically. Okay. So it was not like the first fight. It wasn't like Dark Knight Rises where it was truly just like, let's watch the opening.

[00:37:08] Because I too was genuinely shocked that the movie, the first shot of the movie is Travis Scott. Yes. Saying sing, oh muse. And so I was like, oh, did people know this was coming if they saw the preview? I didn't. I'll also say, uh, Sam Clements of Picturehouse, aforementioned, goes to like the European equivalents of CinemaCon. And he said that a month or two ago they showed what they said was the opening of the movie and it was very different than this. It was constructed differently.

[00:37:34] So it feels like they've been, the editing of this movie feels very free flowing. I could see this being a thing that he kept iterating on until the last second. Um, but to your point of the Travis Scott thing and the stupid controversies that existed around this movie, which Nolan very wisely didn't really weigh in on until recently he had to do the press tour. And then I thought he put it perfectly, which is, you know, a lot of people were complaining that there were things in the trailers and the posters and fucking whatever that seemed

[00:38:04] too modern or too casual or didn't seem historically accurate. And this is partially a trap of Nolan's own making in that his fans have come to build this sort of mythology around him of being like the guy who takes everything the most seriously. Whereas that has never been his thing. There's always been silliness in his movies. There's always been flights of fancy and stylization in his movies. He is a literal minded guy in a certain kind of way, but it doesn't mean that he's a guy who just is like nothing but the facts, ma'am.

[00:38:34] And he said, you know, so much of what people consider to be accurate in these types of movies is based on iteration of theatrical traditions of how we tell these stories. These things like that we like to think of of people speaking in Shakespearean accents in a certain language is like a theatrical form that we use to connote seriousness that is put on epics like this. And as you said, this movie is starting out and being like, this is the tradition that this is in.

[00:39:02] And we're going to translate this into something that feels urgent to you right now, a modern audience, rather than trying to gloss it up in some sort of sense of seriousness. Right. And then you almost immediately go to the beaches with the horse. Well, you sort of do. It's basically like he's starting to tell the story and you see Elliot Page getting pinned to the horse. But then what is it? Isn't it Penelope and Hathaway is like, no, I don't want to hear the fucking story.

[00:39:31] Because the point is, it's like, I hate that story. Enough of this. We've been singing the song of Odysseus for so long. But where is he? If we heard he did this, then why hasn't he come back if they won? Other guys came back. Where's my husband? Right. The other guys came back. And meanwhile, Odysseus is on a beach with Charlize Theron and, you know, send help vibes, obviously. Nice work if you can get it vibes. I love when she wears that little, like, fishnet thing. Yeah.

[00:40:01] And I was like, ooh, that's so couture. She's the catch of the day. You know what I'm saying? She really is. David, she's the catch of the day. I understand what you're saying. I would say Odysseus actually is the catch of the day. She caught him. Well, then maybe you should put that fucking net on. She's been feeding his ass lotus. I know. He really likes that lotus flower. It doesn't look that. It's very pretty. It didn't look appetizing to me. It doesn't look filling to me. It's about how it feels. Yeah, I understand. I could use some lotus sometimes. Same.

[00:40:30] Definitely lately. Well, I mean. Once in a while you got a lotus night. Yeah. You know, I'll tell you. You need to pull a pedal. Yep. Or two. Mike White, he could use the lotus. He could use it? I think he's got more than enough of it. He should share the lotus. He should. You're right. He should share the lotus. I don't know. I was trying to figure out a white lotus joke. Can Mike White share the lotus, please? Just share the lotus, Mike White. Just share the lotus, Mike White. Did I just saw something that he wrote? What was it? Oh, yeah. Despicable Me 4. Okay.

[00:41:00] He has a writing credit on that one. And on three, maybe? He's got them on two of them. Am I wrong? Let's find out. He also wrote Migration. He's written, he's quietly written a couple- He wrote Migration. He has no other minion credits. Okay. But of course he wrote the Emoji movie. That's, okay, there we go. Which is not illumination, but I lump in, in my mind. And he did write Pitch Perfect 3 and no others. Hmm. Yes. Weird. Interesting.

[00:41:27] We both were watching through all the Despicable Me and Minions movies in anticipation of minions and monsters simultaneously. Yes. And it was very funny for you and I to check in with each other and be like, yep, still don't like these very much. Not too much. I like the minions. Anyway, two more to watch. Right, yeah. No, but they never really got me those earlier ones. See, you were like way out on Gru and really in on the minions. And I'm a little bit in on Gru and I'm not that in on the minions.

[00:41:55] And both of us were just like, not my cup of tea. Some stuff I like. Anyway. I don't like Gru. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to Gru. I kind of like her. And you know who I really like? Gru's mom? No. Gru's wife, Lucy. Oh. Who is her own person. Who has a lipstick taser. And I think is quite fetching. Yeah, she's okay. Played by Kristen Wiig. I'm glad she's cashing the checks. I'm glad everyone's cashing their checks, you know? That's fine. Direct deposit on that one, right? Yeah.

[00:42:23] No one's taking the time to run those to the bank. No. They're doing mobile deposit. Or at worst, they're taking the photo on their phone. Do you think that the Cyclops in Christopher Nolan's version of the Odyssey would have been harmed by stepping on a Lego in the way that the Cyclops in the Minions version of the Odyssey was? I mean, that whole sequence would be over in two minutes if Odysseus had thought to carve a Lego block. Mm-hmm.

[00:42:53] That's all he needed to do. The Minions have the answer. Henry and James. I wanted to bring up that we see Elliot Page, whose character is Sinon. Sinon? Yes. And the horse so early because this movie feels very haunted by the horse. Yes. The horse is very forward in the marketing. It's on the poster. They've been putting the horse up outside of theaters. There's a horse popcorn bucket. And I assumed, oh, there's probably a big horse set piece.

[00:43:20] But that's not the main story that Nolan wants to tell is just the Haydn and the horse. But this movie keeps cutting back to the horse as like this thing that fucking haunts Odysseus. Yes. That the thing that he's most known for, what is seen as his greatest triumph, he can kind of never get over what feels like the dishonesty of it. Yes. So this is, I would say, the brilliant conceit of this movie.

[00:43:47] And it's clear that Nolan, you know, is like, okay, I'll do the Odyssey. He's sitting in his chair, drinking a cup of tea, not having a smartphone. And he's like, perhaps the Odyssey. But like, the Odyssey is the original great tale of Western storytelling or whatever. But like, it is not something that you can locate emotion in easily.

[00:44:13] And, but it is, if you read the Odyssey, it is obsessed with hospitality. Like, that's a huge part of the poem. The idea, the ancient Greek notion of hospitality. And, you know, they call it Zeus's law here. You know, the sort of like, be kind to, you know, welcome a stranger to your home and like, you know. Any simple beggar might actually be your co-host in disguise over Zeus from London. Exactly. And might have wonderful Seth Bullock has facial hair and all that.

[00:44:41] And it's a simple idea because like, both the Iliad, which is also by Homer, quote unquote, you know, we don't really, you know, and the Odyssey. Those things are not like, and we really fucked Troy over. Like, those things are like, it rocked when we smashed Troy to pieces. And you're like, great, you know, you're so. But like, it's very simple for Nolan, but it's very clever for him to be like, it's kind of fucked up. Yeah. You know, we, you know, kind of lied our way in there and then we sacked the city and.

[00:45:11] And he was allowed to put a bunch of soldiers in a horse. And to make this, this sort of like notion of like Odysseus, right, is weighted with the guilt of like, we did kind of defy the gods by doing that. Yeah. And like, we are the ones who maybe have contributed to the feeling that society is ending around us and makes the film feel contemporary without it feeling didactic to me. Like, I was just kind of like. They broke the social contract. I kind of can't believe he pulled that off. Yes.

[00:45:41] In this movie. Much like Oppenheimer's the same way, right? Where it's very haunted by like the world we live in now. Oppenheimer made the terrible world we live in now. He didn't mean to. He was just smashing bits together in his, his particle accelerator or whatever, right? You know, and fucking everyone's wives. Nolan movies, because he has become the guy at the top of the mountain, he has become the person who represents filmmaking globally, sort of as an idea.

[00:46:07] And certainly as an industry and now is literally also the president of the DGA. A guy at his level of career rarely takes on an elected position like that, except it feels like he's like, there's too much at stake and my people need me and I have to fight for them. All of his movies have increasingly become about two things. One, I am the only one who can do this. The burden is heavy on me, but I must do this for everyone else. Two, what have I done? Oh, sweet Jesus. What have I done?

[00:46:37] And this is a movie about a guy who's like, I need to do this for everybody else. And the final shot of the movie is literally the shadow of the Trojan horse. Yes. It's like he cannot get out from under that shadow. It's one of the first things we see in the shadow. The silhouette is the last thing we see. Um, you know, it's, it's beautiful stuff. Uh, do you guys know about the sea people theory of Bronze Age collapse? Can I very briefly? Please share.

[00:47:06] The sea, that's like what they were talking about. This is what I'm saying. In the movie. The sea people that were ruining everything. You know, so sort of during the late Bronze Age, all of the major civilizations in the Mediterranean basically collapsed and no one knows why because it was so fricking long ago. So we can't really, we're talking like the 12th century BC or whatever. And it led to the first dark age. Right.

[00:47:31] Not, not the lovely dark age we like to think about, which is like, you know, whatever, like the 8th century and people rattling, you know, I don't know, carts and stuff. What do people do in that dark age? Wearing big. Rattle carts. Yeah. Coughing blood into a tissue. Rats everywhere. You know, but like the, right, the old, old dark age. And one of these notions is like the sea people were like, it's like an academic theory

[00:47:56] that like these kingdoms were done in by invaders and no one knows who or even why or except for, but like, and I just love Nolan picking up on that and having that be this like looming threat in the movie. And then of course at the end it's like, well, no, but we are, we're the, you know, we're the ones who ruined civilization, like going to do a stupid war that sucked for no good reason.

[00:48:20] And then returning home to like, you know, like places, you know, our homes were in turmoil and like with civility gone and everyone at each other's throats and getting stabbed. Right. I also think, yes. And with, within that framework, you realize that the big set pieces of the Odyssey as a story are mostly about them being bad guests. It's like, we just got to get home and they land in a different place and come across a

[00:48:48] different creature and just kind of our shitty house guests over and over and over again. There's that early moment where they show up on some beach and the guys have like burned their houses and are in a bad mood. And Pemish Fratelli is like, we're Greeks. Like we're, we're not threatening. Like, you know, even though he's like in armor and has a sword. Yeah. Why are you scared of us? And the guy's like, Oh, fuck you. See people leave me alone. Let's clarify.

[00:49:16] They pull up their whole town is on fire. He's like, why? He's like, we saw people coming. We thought we just get this over with. Like rather than let you burn us to the ground, we'll burn ourselves down. Like that's the level of paranoia and exhaustion. Everyone's at. Uh, yes. Um, but okay. So let me, let me try and unpack the, uh, the flow of the story here. So yes, the first bit obviously is just, we're in Ithaca. We're with Telemachus.

[00:49:44] Penelope is in a bad mood. I was, she's many a suitor. I was really impressed by how cunty Anne Hathaway was in this role. She's great in this movie. She's great. David, what did you text about Anne Hathaway the other day? Because we, I thought you worded this very well. Uh, someone, someone was noting what a busy year she's having. Six movies. Is it six? I'm going to look at it. Mother Mary, Devil Wears Prada 2. Yep. The Odyssey. Oak Street. Farity.

[00:50:14] Oak Street. And I believe there's one more that I'm forgetting. No, it's just five. I think it's four and six. It's just five. There's a movie called Alone at Dawn that's a Ron Howard movie. Yes. With Adam Driver, but I'm not sure if we know when that's coming out. Okay. It'll come out eventually. Well, now that I know it's only five, she seems like a slacker. I said, Anne Hathaway is a gift to Hollywood that we should always be thankful for. And I certainly believe that. Yeah.

[00:50:41] The range of just even the three movies she's had out so far is pretty astonishing. Well, it's also interesting because like, it's not like Anne Hathaway had had, she's been working. Like it's like, she didn't like go dark, but it was sort of like. The size of the movies had shrunk a little bit. Yeah. And like after Oceans 8, which she's great in, but even that's a supporting role or whatever. You know, she's got that weird Serenity, the hustle, Dark Waters year where like, we

[00:51:10] love Serenity, but it's, it's a weird one. The hustle was filmed like seven years prior. Dark Waters is a wonderful movie, but she's kind of just showing up to help it along the lines. Right. Yes. As you said, that was a tax deductible. Last thing he wanted, disaster. Right. Last thing he wanted is one of those movies where you're like, did they forget to finish it? Like, sorry to that movie. The Witches. The Witches obviously was five stars, A plus. We love that one on Blank Check. This is like, all these movies are in one of two categories.

[00:51:40] She tried something smaller and more interesting and it worked or it didn't, or a real failed attempt at a major movie. So the stuff she's doing that's good is not really at the center of the culture and the stuff that's attempting to be at the center of the culture is not working. But then like, you know, locked down. We're going to give everyone a pass on that one. That didn't happen. Right. Armageddon Time, again, she's great, but it does it a little bit, again, kind of like, I'm here to help this movie along. I'm not. I'm helping you get finance.

[00:52:09] And then Eileen I did like, but it didn't really go anywhere. So good. She's excellent in that. I did not see the Rebecca Miller film She Came to Me. Me neither. Which is her and Dinklage and who's the other guy? Marissa Tomei? Oh, Marissa Tomei. Marissa Tomei. Hey. Uh, and then, and then there was the mother's curse or whatever that movie's called. Right. Her, her very kind of like trashy 2024 of mother's instinct and the idea of you. The idea of you is good. No, it's not. Yes, it is. It is good. She's good in it.

[00:52:39] I respect her. That movie is not good. Uh, that movie, that movie is good. Sure. The boy band in it. Good. Was a streaming hit. It was a big streaming hit. I don't think Michael Showalter is capable of, of telling a story like that with sincerity. I guess. You don't think he knows how to put on a show Walter? I, you know what? I found it. Sometimes he does. I found it very sincere. Sometimes. I liked when they were in their hotel room, uh, kind of like kissing and dancing to, um, dance all days.

[00:53:09] Yeah. There you go. But you were saying basically last year she was quiet cause a lot of her 25 movies got pushed back to 26. Right. Mother Mary got pushed to early. Yeah. And Oak Street got pushed. Yeah. Can't wait for whatever the heck that is. I know this is kind of her big center stage year and I love that it's such an array of even different sized roles and different styles of performance. She's so kind of stripped down in this. Yes. Like she's really just sort of laser focused. Yeah.

[00:53:38] Um, and she's not doing any of the theater kid stuff that people sometimes bristle at. And I think it's, it's why she's so good and why, as you put it, she's a gift to Hollywood because it's like, she's like an old school movie star who can do any type of thing. She really is. And you know, like the scenes she has, the flashbacks with Damon before he goes to war are really like simple and beautifully done and get all the emotion across very fast. Also fucking sexy. Yeah.

[00:54:08] Like, but like you have very little time to establish a sense of genuine chemistry between those two characters and you're doing it late into the film and immediately you're like, there's heat here. There's a reason why she's not remarrying. Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah. I mean, look, Robert Pattinson is a handsome fellow. Okay. I wouldn't fucking marry this asshole. Right. Would you? This guy, this guy's an asshole. He's slimy. Are we, can we say he's an asshole? He's an asshole. He is so good.

[00:54:37] I just love that he is always game. Like, you know, that he's not like whatever, like looking for the sympathetic role or looking for the, you know, like he just wants to play little slimy freaks and he's so good at it. They just announced that Batman is being pushed back another six months and people are wringing their hands over it. And I'm like, there is no better outcome than Robert Pattinson having six years in between Batman movies to do whatever weird shit he wants to do. Batman's the ultimate hammock in between.

[00:55:07] He's just given latitude to do whatever because they go like, as long as you promise you're going to put that cowl back on, we'll let you play your worms. He's got, and he's got five movies in this year too. He's got, he's having a crazy year. Okay, wait. So it's this. Yeah. It's prime time. Yeah. Which I hear is great. It's the drama. Yeah. And then the other two are have neither of them have yet to come out. Correct. One we just got a trailer for.

[00:55:37] Dune part three. He's the villain. And then what's the fifth movie? It's the Fernando Merrill film Here Comes the Flood with him and Denzel Washington. Oh, which sounds awesome. That's a Netflix thriller, but does sound very cool. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So he's all over the place and he's doing different voices and he's having fun being a little sicko. And he is. Yeah, he's the lead suitor here. He likened the character to James Woods character Lester Diamond from the 1995 film Casino. Which we will be talking about soon. That's true.

[00:56:07] Just a classic Robert Pattinson poll to like read the Odyssey and go like, you know what this character's like? James Woods in Casino. James Woods in Casino. You've also got the great Corey Hawkins. I love Corey Hawkins. Those are the main two suitor jerks, I feel like. Yeah. He's sort of the right hand man. Yeah. I think he's just a total fucking gem. He's always good. He's always good. Love to see Corey Hawkins. Yes. Yeah. He's not working enough. No. Yeah.

[00:56:32] And then Logan Marshall Green and Mia Goth are the two kind of grandma worm tongues of the palace. Right. We're slipping secrets. She's a servant to Penelope. Yes. I think it's unspoken in the movie, but they are twins. They're siblings. Logan Marshall Green and Mia Goth in the myth of the Odyssey. Yes. They're working together. They're the bad servants. Bad servants. They're not being, they're not, you know, tending to Odysseus' flock.

[00:57:01] Now who is Leguizamo. Leguizamo. Leguizamo. Holding a stick. Being blind. And yet he can see more clearly than everyone. There's, there is a bit of a, you know, there's an irony there. Yeah. It's true. A real irony. So a little rude for him to throw a dog off a cliff. Yeah. Right at the top of the movie. Uh, David and I were concerned. One of the first things we said after we got out of the movie was we were worried how Ben was going to take the, the dog violence in this film. Yeah.

[00:57:29] It's the kind of thing that does turn Ben off completely. Yes. Sometimes. But I think because he did it like so early in the film, it felt like just pulling the bandaid off. Okay. And then of course they treat the other dog Odysseus' dog really well, even though he's like old and sad. Yes. And waiting for Odysseus to return home. Mm-hmm. Um. I think they also, the, the inhumanity of how the animals are treated is used as a dramatic

[00:57:57] storytelling tool for the rot of society. Yes. It is, it is not something that is done callously. It's not using it just to shock you. No, no, not at all. No, it's, it's your, I think all the stakes of the, they are like, because yes, there's the argument for like, shouldn't we shoot this movie out of a cannon? Shouldn't we start with something really exciting? Mm-hmm. And it's like, now you just sort of, it's not just that he wants to go home. You're like, his home is like ruined without him. Like, it's like, he's. You're starting with the feeling of his absence.

[00:58:25] There's a vacuum and he's missing and it's just like, yeah, it's, it's ruining everything. Which is what the story is really about. Right. It's the fact that this guy's fucking gone. And there are like two main sort of narrative or storytelling devices, I guess. The first is Tom Holland hearing stories about his father. Sure. As he. Who he's never met, essentially. Right. He was a baby. A wee baby when he left. When he left.

[00:58:49] So he is traveling and hearing stories from other people, most notably John Bernthal. Yeah, Bernthal. Let me tell you something. You're definitely a cool guy. He's trying to do like the fifth season of Serial and pull enough stories together from his dad to get a good narrative going. And then the other on the other end, we have Matt Damon with Calypso played by Charlize Theron. Mm hmm.

[00:59:13] And she is kind of goading him to remember how he ended up. How did I get here? What happened to my men? Also being like, do you really want to remember? Yeah. Doesn't remembering suck? Are you ready yet? Doesn't it suck here? Have some more Lotus baby. Yeah. Take some Lotus. We're right. We're sort of like trying to put the pieces together of like, okay, what happened? Where are his men? What happened? Why hasn't he come home? Mm hmm.

[00:59:41] And then I feel like the first, then we, we do find, you know, okay, what do you remember? We do finally get to them like getting on the boat. And I guess is the first place they go to the, to, you know, the, the Cyclops, right? Like that's the first sort of major sequence. But first major set piece in Odysseus' journey. Right. But we also establish what life was like back on Ithaca before Odysseus left.

[01:00:07] We meet young Robert Pattinson and young Elliot Page. That's true. I was going to say, yes. This set up very early on. Which sets up a, you know, a very upsetting dynamic of. What is Pattinson's character's name again? It's like Antonius or whatever. Yeah. Antonius. He's, yeah. Yes. And the, the, the volunteering Murray. Right. Antonius. Antonius maybe. Antonius. I don't know. I don't know. What do I know?

[01:00:37] Every time, every time I watch something where it's like little boys going off to war. This also happens in Horatio Hornblower and in Master and Commander. I just get very upset. Well, I think it shouldn't happen. But they're drawing sticks. And they're drawing lots. Yeah. Like a short stick gets you on the boat. Yeah. And Odysseus' cousin, Sinon, draws. Elliot Page.

[01:01:03] Elliot Page draws whatever the stick that means that he has to go to war. The short stick. They say there's a lottery draft going on. Yes. They need to build an army. It's a lottery draft. And Sinon gets picked who is a very small child. Yes. Right. And the Pattinson character sort of volunteers to go in its stead, not just out of some generosity, but also because of, I think, an ego of wanting to be a big tough boy. He's a little older. He's a teenager. And Odysseus puts his foot down and goes like, it's got to be who's chosen. And also says to the Pattinson character. No, no, no. No, no.

[01:01:34] Antoni, you know, it's Pattinson draws the short stick. Sinon is put in his place. Right. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The whole point is that Antonius ducked the draft. Correct. Okay. That's why him giving the lot back to him is like, this is your shame. I misread that. See, I also didn't get that. Right. It's like Antonius is the, I think, you know, the richer, because he is like one of the big wigs or his family right on Ithaca, I want to assume. That's why he's like a cheap suitor. He's the littler guy.

[01:02:03] And like, they're saying that Odysseus basically kind of knew what was happening and overlooked it or like, didn't put his foot down because like he knows like he doesn't want to wound the pride of the parents like they say. Right. And this will all be helpful on rewatch, I will say, because like this information, it's the classic Nolan thing of this information is being like hydraulically delivered to you in voiceover and flashback. And you're like, okay, okay, okay, okay. And you can tell like it's the Nolan thing where he's like this will matter later.

[01:02:32] Like you need to know all the context. I mean, that happens in like the first 10 minutes. Very early on. You barely met the characters. We have not met the characters and I did not even totally track that, you know, that Sinon had become, you know, Elliot Page had grown up to be. Because Leguizamo says something to the effect of, you know, he needed to do things to help the ego. And basically Odysseus says this thing of no, it's actually good if you stay because you need

[01:02:57] to watch after your family and watch after my family as well, which kind of poisons him with the idea of, oh, I have a responsibility to watch your family. I should probably fuck your wife if you disappear. That's kind of the implication, is it not? I mean, you know. But that's, he goes message received. I got it. So if you're gone for like five years, I should start trying to fuck your wife. I mean, maybe Greek law should have some rules on this. Okay. Maybe there should be time limits. Yes. Um, but okay.

[01:03:26] So, but no, no, we're with Odysseus and it's post Troy. We still haven't really seen the sack of Troy, but we've seen little glimpses of the horse and all that. Uh, and God, the horse looks so good. It horse looks really good. It do look pretty cool. Really awesome. It's awesome. And he sees, you know, Agamemnon played by Benny Safdie in this crazy imposing armor. Uh, Nolan wanted him to have, he has what's it called? It's called black bronze and sulfur in his armor, which Nolan was like, these were like

[01:03:53] the most expensive sort of materials back then. So we wanted him to have this. Oh, fucker's got a gold spine on the back of his helmet. He's got a spine. It's so funny that it's Benny Safdie. It is really cool. Not that he's not good. He is good. We never see his face in the movie. We see his beautiful hair. Yes. We see his face through a slit. We see the, yeah, the. It is interesting though that that was the main, like one of the main posters for the film. Right. Was the back of Agamemnon's head. Like the helmet.

[01:04:22] I wonder how much he kind of just likes that imagery and how much it is that like, much like the shadow of the horse, the sort of like image of Agamemnon's armor without ever seeing the guy inside represents this force that's pushing everything along. Right. I mean, and you know, I interviewed Benny Safdie last year. I told you this Marie. Yes. And he had just finished the Odyssey. And I was like, who are you playing?

[01:04:50] And I just, I just assumed he was gonna be playing some weirdo. Like I was like, of course Safdie's gonna play like, I don't know. Yeah. Like a, a weird little trickster or, you know, right? Like a, yeah. A mean suitor. And he was like, I can't tell you, but I, we were just in Iceland, like shooting on this black beach is what you get to. And then obviously that's the like afterlife sequence. That was another, that was another favorite sequence in the movie. This is really great. Um, but yeah. But you basically never see his face.

[01:05:18] It's like the idea of him looms so large and most directors I think would go, oh, so then what you should cast in this role is either a stunt performer because this is mostly going to be physical. It's going to be who fills the suit or cast a guy with a voice like Clancy Brown, because it's mostly going to be booming voice if you're not going to see their face. And as you say, it's so funny that he cast Benny Safdie, who's such like a presence energy guy. Yeah. And is also like a sensitivity guy.

[01:05:47] But Safdie is, I will say he's very tall. He's like six one and he has this great hair and maybe Nolan just kind of liked the physicality. I appreciate it. I think, you know, you guys bring this up, you brought this up a lot in the Peter Weir series, the casting for the final color thing. Yeah. Oh yeah. And I do think that when we get the backstory of what happened to him and when he is in

[01:06:13] Hades and he is speaking from the, you know, from the dead. Right. Uh, there is like a pathos to it. Yes. That it really got to me. And you need to be able to unravel this guy. You need to be able to strip away the sort of imagery and the mythology of him to get to a sort of broken person inside eventually. Yeah. So I, um, I'm not really a big ancient Greece person.

[01:06:39] And I was asking David Sims on the subway home from the movie. I was like, I want to keep living in this world. So like what movies should I watch next? Oh, I wasn't even thinking movies. I was going to suggest a time machine. That seems a little expensive. Uh, but sure. You know, I, I did pay $4.99 to rent Troy on Amazon Prime. I want to talk about this briefly.

[01:07:06] I'm very confused by this recent holding up of Troy as the gold standard. Griffin, Griffin, I'm, we got to get into it. That movie is fucking dog shit. I hadn't seen it until like this week when I read, watched it after the Odyssey, which is a masterpiece. And there is, you know, it's a, the, the Iliad is part one, the Odyssey part two, you know? So it's like a prequel. A lot of the same characters are in there. What the fuck? What's going on there? It's a very hollow movie in my memory. Right.

[01:07:36] I hated it when it came out. I thought it was a bomb. People didn't like it when it came out. It got bad reviews. It made money. It made a lot of money. It was a hit, but it got no, it got no Oscar attention after like, you know, in the warmup because of movies like gladiator, people were like, maybe this will be a epic, you know? And I pointed out to you is the same year as Alexander. There were two like giant budget swings at like, great. Well, if gladiator wins best picture, what other like epics can we do?

[01:08:04] And they did the most obvious, they did the Iliad and they did Alexander the Great. Like they did the most obvious ones possible. Both of those movies are flawed. Troy made a lot of money, but sucks. Alexander didn't make enough money, but is very interesting in my opinion. And then they both have the director's cut DVD re-edit. Like I fixed it. And you're like, no, not sure that you do. I mean, the big problem with Troy, it's the ultimate pit thing of like, he sucks at this. Yeah.

[01:08:33] He's so good at playing squirrely weirdo. He's actually not good at playing the hero, the alpha. Like that's not what he likes. It's also, that's his cat in the hat. That's he has to make that movie because he pulled out of the fountain. And Warner Brothers were like, you fucking owe us a movie. And he was like, do I have to do some movie star shit? He's really blonde in it. I remember him looking great. I wasn't into it. Yeah.

[01:08:59] But the thing that was really sending me at like watching it immediately after the Odyssey was that Brian Cox. Yes. Yes. He's playing Agamemnon. He is Agamemnon. Yes. Very similar to Benny Safti. And I'm just like, wow, these are two very, very different interpretations of this character. Brendan Gleeson plays Menelaus. Yeah. And who plays Odysseus? Sean Bean. Sean Bean. He's the best part of the movie. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I don't even remember it that well.

[01:09:27] But I just remember being like, it's all surface level. It feels like an impression of a type of movie, a type of epic that actually has ideas within it. Well, and it's only absorbed the aesthetics. The ideas that are in Troy are not ideas about like man and psychology.

[01:09:50] They're more like mapping like political and historical ideas of war onto a myth, which is not that interesting to me. I agree with you. I don't find that interesting. I'm more interested in the interiority, which is what the Odyssey is. It's like, it's such a psychological story while also being really epic visually.

[01:10:16] It's why I related this to Thin Red Line is A, your perspective character is changing a lot throughout the movie. And B, it feels like you're often kind of editing laterally through the characters' memories and thoughts and feelings. It is so much trying to find a way to put you in the inner life of these people rather than zooming out and turning it into mythology. Right.

[01:10:41] So, David, I gotta ask, since we're talking about the Iliad and how that story then relates to the Odyssey, how do you feel about them not really including a lot of the gods in this story, in this film? We really only get mention of Zeus and his law. They talk about the gods on Poseidon. And Poseidon. You mentioned Poseidon.

[01:11:09] But I'm saying we only really see Athena. So, the thing in the Odyssey, the story is, for example, one of the important moments in the Odyssey is that Odysseus is stuck on the island with Calypso. In this movie, he has this emotional realization of like, right, I'm ready to go home. I'm accepting the loss of my men, right? You know, it's this big... In the Odyssey, Hermes, the messenger god, shows up and is like, hey, time to go!

[01:11:39] And this is like, oh, fuck, okay. He's like, come on, boat's this way. That happens a lot in the poem. The gods show up and they're like, wow! I mean, even the reason that Helen ends up in Troy is because of intervention from the gods. Right. And so, obviously, that's a little dramatically not gonna... You know, that won't work. I think it totally makes sense that he made that choice.

[01:12:02] It's just when you go back to the source material, I mean, especially in the Iliad, it's like, the children of the gods are all kind of connected and... Zeus sees a lady and is like, oh, kid! He's a freaking swan! I don't want to fuck this lady! Yeah, I'm gonna turn into a swan, fuck her! And then she has eggs and one of the children that come out of the eggs is Helen. Uh, can I do a tiny little Merc spotlight? Look at what they were giving out at the screening. Oh, you got the pin! Oh, you got the Athena pin! Oh, you got the Athena pin! I got the Athena pin.

[01:12:32] Oh, we didn't get pins! What did you get, Ben? I got the Athena. You got the Athena? They had the Athena and the horse, but you could only take one. I tried to take two and I got yelled at very loudly. Well, the Athena pin feels like that would be my pick because the pin itself is such a... I had a feeling. It's such an important part of the movie. It was before the movie, but I had a feeling this is closer to the movie object, which I always like in my merch. Because Penelope gives this pin to Odysseus as a way of remembering her, but also as a symbol

[01:13:02] to prove that it is him. Yes. I saw Interstellar again last week, David, because it was just playing in 70mm in Spain. They're just rolling out the classics, right? Yes. And you said that's a smart rewatch. I have a feeling these two movies are going to be really paired together. And there certainly is. Yeah. I mean, Nolan loves his, I feel so bad for leaving. How do I get back home? It's the thing. Kind of movie. Yep.

[01:13:32] Um, uh, I, I need to get back to my family. I need to get back to my wife. I need to get back to my child. Which is interesting because he, but he works with his wife. I know, but I just feel like he had, it's like clearly this thing that Ren, you know, because like so many of his movies have that. Well, yeah, he, I think it's less about the way that he runs his life as an adult, a husband and his father, but more of what he experienced as a child when his family was split up. I think it's 50% that. And I think informed by that it is his worst nightmare.

[01:14:01] It's the reason he works with his wife and he makes everything a family production is because he can imagine no worse fate than being stuck on a shoot for six months away from his family. Like he is just such an ultimate wife and family guy that he needs that unit around himself. And so if he's writing an emotional story of a challenge, it's the biggest challenge he can imagine in so many ways, which is why, you know, people go, why is he so obsessed with the dead wife thing? I like that he has moved away from dead wives and has found a way to tell stories about men

[01:14:30] longing for their wives that did not require them to be dead. Um, but that scene is so fascinating because the dialogue, even though it's a very different scene where she hands him the pen feels so similar. Having watched it recently to the final child Murph scene of like, I'm coming back. I'm coming back. When are you coming back? I can't tell you, but I'm coming back. I just promise you that I'm coming back. Yeah. I mean, I think Christopher Nolan is by and large, a charmed man who leaves the one leads a wonderful life.

[01:15:00] And he knows that like he's got a great thing going on. But that's clearly the fear that drives him a little bit or whatever keeps him up at night, I guess. I mean, he's just he's very similar to Shyamalan in my opinion in this regard. He's just so concerned with like the world we're leaving our children with like what the future is going to look like for his family and he can blow it out, you know, to big epic scale.

[01:15:26] But it's you know, it's what what makes these movies tick. The key difference between him and Shyamalan is obviously that Nolan is not very concerned with what if the devil was in an elevator. Other than that, I think they were very not. He wants to do a horror movie. What if he's like I'm remaking devil? Yes. M. Night Shyamalan produced thriller. That would be the greatest move in the history of movies. I saw Logan Marshall Green on the set of the Odyssey and we started talking about devil and I said, who has the rights to devil? And he said, I have them.

[01:15:55] They cost one dollar. You can have them right now for one whole dollar. Who directed devil? Because it wasn't Shyamalan. It wasn't Shyamalan. John Eric Dowdle. What else has he done? He did the remake of the Spanish film Wreck Quarantine. Oh sure. Yeah. He did the Poughkeepsie tapes, which is one of those like fucked up tiny budget horror movies that everyone talks about. Yeah. They kind of never got a proper release. Right. And then he did as above so below. Oh sure. That's the catacombs movie.

[01:16:25] Yeah. And then something called no escape. That's like that is like Owen Wilson is stuck in a country that is having like some sort of like political uprising. Yeah. It's Owen Wilson trying to do behind enemy lines again. It's like straight survival action movie. Yeah. Except he's a family man. The Athena pin is handed to Odysseus as a, if I can't stop you from leaving, then let Athena watch after you, which does feel like talking about Nolan imagining his worst nightmares.

[01:16:54] It's like handing him a smartphone. It's saying if you're going to leave and be away for a really long time, at least take this pin so Athena can pop in and talk to you all the time. It is such an incredible display of Christopher Nolan's clout that you're like, what does Zendaya play in this movie? Zendaya plays Athena. Athena, the god watching over Odysseus. She shows up at certain times over his shoulder and gives him a look and says like one line.

[01:17:21] Zendaya as an actor is really, really good at doing like disappointed face. Unbelievable at it. Yes. When she makes that face, I'm like, oof, I feel bad. You don't want her silent judgment. But this is the kind of role where you go, oh, it's pretty small. You can't shoot her out three days because she has to be in 20 different countries. Yeah. She has to keep showing up on different ships. Yeah. I mean, she's obviously like in the movie probably for five minutes total. Yeah. But, uh...

[01:17:50] She makes an impression. She makes a huge impression. And she must have been, yeah. I mean, every, every... I don't know. Every small part in this movie is played by someone that has a Wikipedia page. Um... Like... Yes. Our, our mutual acquaintance, Griffin Shiloh Fernandez is in this movie. Yes. Somewhat briefly? He plays one of the soldier, one of the Trojan soldiers who I think approaches Elliot Page in the beginning of the movie. Got it.

[01:18:19] Never takes his mask off. But it is crazy that like even those guys are played by guys. Totally. Right. I mean, who wouldn't want to be on these sets, right? The beggar in the beginning is James Remar. Yeah, I asked David and I didn't know who it was. I believe it's James Remar. No, no, no. He's credited... No, no. No, no. James Remar is the prophet. Is he Hades? Oh, okay. Yeah, like, uh, Taurus, yes, or whatever his name is.

[01:18:47] But yeah, he's the guy buried in the sand. Yeah. Okay. I recognize the bottom of his... Yes, while I was trying to pay attention to that scene where he kept being like, is that Richard from Sex and the City? And I was like, yeah, I think so, Marie, be quiet. I knew James Remar was... I was just really excited that it was him. ...one of the two cloaked guys. I don't know who the guy was at the beginning, but he seems so familiar. Yeah. By the time this episode comes out, we're gonna point out. Marie and I were trying to figure out who that was.

[01:19:13] We couldn't figure it out, but I'm sure we will know in a bit. It speaks to the Nolan mystery box kind of thing. There's still so many actors for this movie with unlisted characters on IMDb. Yeah. Like, the cast has been announced, but it was not really told who was playing what other than the top ten people. Right. Right.

[01:19:46] Let's just talk... Because the movie is a bit of like an episodic structure. Let's just talk about the scenes. Okay, so, all right, Cyclops. Cyclops is the first big thing. They go to island, they follow some sheep, as you do. Mm-hmm. Yep. Into a cave. There was that nasty moment where Odysseus just sees like giant bags of cheese hanging on the walls of the cave and just eats some. I was like, you know. They're hungry. They're tired. I guess. I don't know if I would eat cave cheese.

[01:20:13] I don't know that I would eat random cheese hanging in a cave in a sack. Sort of where cheese comes from. It is, in fact. But usually it's been, for me, inspected by a government, one assumes. Or at least by somebody. Fair enough. Like a merchant. Fair enough. A trader. If there was a stamp on the bag of Agamemnon giving the thumbs up, would you feel okay if that was the inspection? Of course.

[01:20:37] Or if it was like, you know, Cyclops, Polyphemus' beloved homespun cheese cave, or where he had a little sign. Some sort of branding, you know. I will admit this, because it was a special screening. The BFI South Bank, the concessions, was not open. Oh, that's so bad. And I really wanted a popcorn and a soda the whole movie, especially because it's a long film. Oh, yeah. So when he goes over to the bags of cheese, I went like, that's disgusting. Is he really going to eat this?

[01:21:05] And then the more he started eating it, I started getting jealous of him. You were like, kind of go for a bag of cheese right now. Yes. Do they sell cheese bags? I had two handful of cheese. They had popcorn going at the IMAX, but they had shut down all the other things. So I had to go downstairs, talk to the ticket taker and be like, hey, I need to go buy some food because I'm going to like faint if I don't eat something during this three hour movie. And she was like, yeah, whatever. So you got chicken nuggets, nachos and popcorn? That's right. Is that a problem?

[01:21:35] Is there a question? That's a great question. I also got orange soda and the freestyle machine kind of spat some like orange, you know, like the sort of concentrated stuff on me and it looked like I had robbed a bank and like a die packet exploded on my hand. Yeah, it was a very good time. I did feel borderline faint towards the end of this movie. I was talking to you guys before a quarter of just how fucking hot it has been in Europe. Yes. And halfway through every day I get exhausted just from taking steps.

[01:22:03] And I think Europe has like one air conditioner per country, right? They kind of just like pass it around. They keep moving it around. Right. So this week I think Spain has it and sadly I'm in London. Right. I do, you know, it was bad timing to take a Euro trip, you know, for some amount of work right when a heat wave is hitting the entire continent. On the other hand, I feel great that I left the United States and New York in particular at the time that the dial real wave is hitting.

[01:22:33] There is one of my friends has it. Yeah, there is some there's some diarrhea. Didn't your sister have it? Everyone has the diarrhea. Yeah, your sister had it? I don't know if we want to announce that on the podcast. Well, she posted a subject about it. Oh, she stacked it? Yeah. She stacked it and she grammed it. She grammed the Rhea? Yeah. No, it is fun. No, Griff, I think you're wrong. You would be thriving right now because basically the government is like, you can only eat the most processed foods imaginable. Do not touch a vegetable. Leaves are not for you.

[01:23:03] Look, everyone's complaining about how bad it is. I go, yeah, welcome to my world. Now you know what it feels like for a minute. Griffin, you're also missing the wildfires is causing a lot of residual smoke down here. Yeah. So you also can't really or you're not supposed to go outside, which is perfect for Griffin Newman. There's also like the Legionnaires outbreak on the Upper East Side. So you wouldn't be able to visit your grandma. That's a good point. My grandmother does live on the Upper East Side to docks her.

[01:23:31] I also say, I mean, Ben, if if the wildfires from Canada are brushing over into New York City, I imagine it wouldn't be a good time to barbecue. Any smoking I would try to do would get intercepted by the smokes that were not my control. Yeah. I'm very particular. You know, I'm fruit woods only. Have you been trying any of the barbecue in Europe? It's not really a barbecue hub. I've been trying to make my own. Of course. Yeah. You lugged a Weber green egg or whatever.

[01:24:00] All the way on the plane. Smoking some jamon. Some jamon. Yeah, I'm smoking some jamon. Right. I mean, they smoke meat well there. But yeah, I am smoking meat well here. So why do you like the Cyclops? Because he big boy. We did talk about this a little bit. All right. It's quite scary. I think the sequence is a marvel. I think it is something so uncanny to just make him a guy. I think it gets to what's the opening title at the beginning of this film.

[01:24:28] It's something like a time of magic, something like that. I can't remember. Yes. Fucked up. And this is obviously a fantastical story that asks you to believe that centuries and centuries and centuries ago, magical things happened. And at some point they just disappeared from the world. Right. It's true. It's all true, actually. So, okay. It's all true. Sorry. The opening title is, it is a lawless time. Crime syndicates compete for resources, food, medicine, and hyperfuel on the shipbuilding planet of Corellia.

[01:24:57] The foul lady Proxima forces runaways into a life of crime in exchange for shelter and protection. And coaxium, you can, you can smoke that, right? You can keep it hot. The coaxium needs to be cool as hell. So we got to keep it away from Madrid right now. Oh, absolutely. It needs to be so cold. Yeah. And Paris, they got no AC. Oh. Right. Right. Yeah. It is funny. The Paris, they're just like, no, no, no. The cigarettes have no filters. The apartments have no air conditioners. Yes.

[01:25:25] No air conditioners, but we're going to smoke all the time. Right. And they take some damn naps. They do. They do. Have you been taking siestas? Napping. Oh, yeah. You kidding me. You siesta maxing out there? Oh, yeah. Sorry. I know we were making jokes, but I did look up the actual opening prologue line. Please. It is a time of apparent magic. Oh, that's cool. There we go. Love that. Yeah.

[01:25:53] This is a thing I like about the realization of the Cyclops tied to that is it feels like you're witnessing something that could, they make him a scale that clearly becomes magical. Right. But other than that, you're like, am I just looking at a person with facial differences? Am I looking at something that could have been misinterpreted and through the oral tradition of the story being told and retold and reprocessed got more and more extreme?

[01:26:23] Right. Uh, they don't, you know, in the story he talks to the Cyclops more because the whole thing is that he tricks him into thinking his name is nobody. He also gets him drunk. He does get him drunk. And that's how he ends up falling asleep. Right. And, you know, that's when the Cyclops is asked, like, who did this to you? He's like, nobody did this to me. You know, like, it's the trick, you know, it's a classic Odysseus, the cunning guy. Right. And Nolan has said, like, I just couldn't figure out how to make that work. Right.

[01:26:53] Like, it's just a different movie, I guess, if it's just like he's talking, you know, like he wanted it, I guess, to feel more primal, which it does. He does talk. He makes noise and he says Poseidon. And it made me so sad. It's very, it's quite effective. This is the other thing. It's that it makes the character more sad because you're sort of like, is he almost being bullied by these guys? Right. They treat him like he's not, you know, intelligent at first. They're dealing with him like he's a wild animal.

[01:27:20] And then the realization that he has the ability of speech, which implies obviously, like, deeper internal thoughts, has come after they've already fucked with him a bunch. He also crunched a bunch of them. He did. That's true. He did be crunching. There's some self-defense of crunching. I liked that the aesthetics of... They went in his cave and ate his cheese. They ate his cheese. But I guess Zeus's law says you should offer your cave cheese to anyone who chose them. They made a nice fire for him. Yeah, that's true.

[01:27:48] I thought the aesthetics of the Cyclops design really reminded me of 90s. Like, I could have seen him in like the Madonna Bedtime Stories music video. That's a Marie thought right there. I like that his eye is sideways. Yeah, it's kind of vaginal. A little bit. And that's another Marie thought right there. A little bit. Well... Anyway, he burns his friggin' eye. He does. He does. He gives them a little poke. He lights the sword on fire and they... What?

[01:28:17] They poke him to wake him up and then stab him in the eye. Yeah, and they... And then they, you know, they have the hay and they... Pretend to be sheep. They're pretending to be the sheep, which is, you know, that is classic. In the Arthur version of the Odyssey, because they don't want to really show violence, the Cyclops is embodied by Buster, the rabbit. Oh, perfect. Yes. Arthur's best friend. And DW just ties his ears around his eyes. His eye.

[01:28:43] Is the Odyssey episode of Arthur from the Steven Crowder era or was he not voicing Brain at that time? Um, I have to admit that I am not super familiar with the cast and crew behind the show, Arthur. So I don't know. He only voiced the Brain for two seasons, Griffin, out of 25. Okay. So it's hard to, you know, narrow it down here. I think he did do Jekyll, Jekyll, Hyde, Jekyll, Hyde, Hyde, Jekyll, Jekyll, though, if I'm not mistaken. Someone will check that.

[01:29:13] I was a little lost here, but that's... I'm assuming that's an Arthur episode. There's so many goddamn memes about children's entertainment and it's hard to keep up. Um... So they escape. Yes. They do escape, but... Odysseus... Odysseus does fire a little parting shot out of the anger. Yes. Shouldn't have done that. Should have done that. In the story, in the poem, he just says his name triumphantly. And that's what gets them in trouble. But it's the same basic idea of like, now they've invoked the gods.

[01:29:42] Now, I think that Nolan keeping the gods at a distance is good because it keeps the men's sort of opinions like, kind of up in the air too. You know, where they're like, no, no, the gods have cursed us. Right. But I like the idea that it's like, well, maybe you cursed yourselves just by, you know, the way you've behaved over the years. Like, without it not having magic to do it obviously, it's all that magic. Because Odysseus has hubris kind of throughout the story. Let's call out another thing here. One of our...

[01:30:09] I think it's maybe our true introduction to Odysseus in the movie, but in that first 30 minutes where we're getting so much information in different times thrown at us, we're watching Tom Holland train with Mentor, who of course is Ryan Hurst, our friend from the Lady Killers, who played Lump. He's got a real... He looks like he just walked off like the set of Sons of Anarchy or Vikings or whatever. Yeah. David, would you be surprised to hear that in fact he was on Sons of Anarchy?

[01:30:37] And of course, next is playing Kratos in the God of War series that everyone thinks looks perfect. Oh, everyone's grumpy about that one. Which is the first time that video game fans have had some objection to an adaptation of their material. What I was gonna say is we're introduced... Tom Holland is training with Mentor and they're sort of explaining the way that his father used to fight and his rules and everything. And then there's like a flashback within a flashback.

[01:31:00] And Odysseus is explaining his whole method of stringing his bow, which is sort of his like Mjolnir test of no one can take the throne unless they can string his bow. A thing that only he can do. But also that he loves to pluck the bow to sort of play the musical note before because he thinks it's the honorable thing to do to alert whatever he is about to shoot at. That he's engaging them in battle. Whether prey or a pool.

[01:31:28] That hunting is the same. You know what he doesn't... The Trojan horse is the complete denial of the warning. Correct, yeah. But even here with the Cyclops, you know, he like tricks him and then he turns around and yells like another one. Yeah. And just fucking like spiked. He does briefly slip into Khaled mode and he regrets it the rest of his life. He does. And he brings out like 20 guest acts. Yeah. Right. While we're...

[01:31:57] Himesh Patel! That guy you've seen in a lot of movies playing heavies! What's his name again? Can we shout out Himesh Patel for a second who we were introduced to obviously... Shout out to Himesh Patel. In yesterday. Andrew Howard is who I'm mentioning there. Okay. Yeah. And Will Yun Lee. But yeah, now Himesh Patel who's in Tenet. Yes. And is wonderful in Tenet. Plays kind of an Adam Goldberg gum chewing annoyed asshole in that. Yeah, he's in the one set piece basically. Right. I guess he's in two.

[01:32:26] But you know, he's like a helper guy. You want me to do what? Like he's that kind of guy. Right. Crash a plane into a free port? Right. And then yesterday he's obviously like doing a Hugh Grant thing I think incredibly well. He's such a huge guy. And then in this, he's just playing like ultimate straight arrow right hand man who's increasingly questioning what is this mission we're on? Like can I trust this guy? I got a bone to pick with Wikipedia for the Odyssey in parentheses to 2026 film.

[01:32:55] They list Himesh Patel as Odysseus' second in command and incompetent brother-in-law. Perhaps in the... Again, I have not read the poem. Yeah, in the poem he is cowardly. He's a fool. He's sort of like the emblematic thing of like the men just not listening, not like heeding the signs and going into...

[01:33:18] Isn't he one of the characters in the original poem that he's, you know, gifted that bag that controls wind? And then like he and some of the other crew members think there's gold hidden in it? Yeah, because they're like petty, you know, silly men. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And... I think in this he is hyper competent. I think he is usually... Usually, yeah. ...hyper competent in order to cast more doubt on Odysseus, right? In order for Odysseus to doubt himself more.

[01:33:48] I also think him being such a like earthy, reliable character makes the ultimate loss of him. Yes. Right. He's the one you're really attached to among the men. Really, really, really sting. You need one of those guys to really be kind of delineated and fleshed out in that sort of way. Yes. Well, sorry, just to rewind a bit when we're talking about the Matt Damon bow trick. Mm-hmm.

[01:34:18] Not the plucking of the bow, but the stringing of the bow. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I'm just gonna come out and say this. I've never really been a Matt Damon is hot, girly. Sure. Oh. Matt Damon's reliable. He's good. He's handsome. He's a cutie pie. He's a cutie pie. But like, I've never been like, ooh, Matt Damon. ...takes the roles in things like Ford versus Ferrari or Air or whatever where it's like,

[01:34:45] well, he's the kind of doughy, you know, middle of the road guy. Yeah. Like, he's not the sexier guy. He's become a little America's dad. We were talking about this in our True Grit episode with Stavi that like, it's funny that Matt Damon had this big action star run with Jason Bourne, and it feels like he's firmly settled into his I am dad mode. And then we remembered, oh, right, his next movie is The Odyssey. Like, he's doing his one last seemingly I'm gonna get fucking swole as hell. He got, he's ripped, yeah.

[01:35:14] But he's ripped in a really attractive, like, realistic way. Yeah. Earthy. Where I was just like, ugh. I think they should have put the bodysuit from live action Moana on him. Of course. I think that would have worked better. Yes. Don't you think? Yeah. My problem with Odysseus in this movie is that he had nipples, and I wish we could just take those off and just have smooth rubbery pecs. Have you seen it yet, David? Are you seeing it? No, I won't be seeing it. Why, no? None of us are seeing it. No, no, no.

[01:35:44] Unfortunately, Ben had to see it. Unfortunately, of course. Did see it. Why? Because these are critical darlings. Oh, sure, sure, sure. Right. So you had to help out there. Yes. No, no, my daughter- Oh, I should mention, it sucks so hard. Not good? It sucks on ice. Yeah. When I saw it, the theater smelt like vomit, which felt utterly right. Which theater? Which theater was it? Alamo. Oh, there you go. I've been walking around vomiting in theaters recently just to kind of like, you know, mark my territory. Yeah.

[01:36:14] No, my daughter has seen the trailer for it multiple times and is always just kind of like, that's grown up Moana. And I'm like, yeah. And she's like, hmm. You know, she's not like, I can't wait to see that. And so I haven't even suggested that. I mean, that explains the box office. We were opening Weekend Minions and Monsters. We were right there. Yeah. You were crying. It was like fucking Bernie Mac at Def Comedy. She was just like pointing at the screen and screaming at like everything the Minions did. Good. I mean, as were many other children in the audience.

[01:36:42] And adults like Marie Barney Slinas. I was not. I was just like very touched by that movie. I was just watching it kind of with like my hand to my chest going like, this is so sweet. They love the movies. You got verklempt. I love James. I love James. Yeah. James is an artist. I've quoted before Robert Downey Jr. saying that his performance in Jodie Foster's Home for the Holidays is the most relaxed performance in the history of cinema because of how much heroin he was on. Hmm.

[01:37:09] I think The Rock's performance in live action Moana would make him jealous. Yes. I want to know what he's taking so I can use it to fall asleep at night. Griffin, do you think, how about this theory though? I'm going to throw this at you. Dwayne Johnson, as we all know, actually loves independent cinema. He made the Smashing Machine. You know, he's out here supporting artists. He's saying he's making another movie with Benny Safdie, an adaptation of a Daniel Pinkwater book. We'll see if that happens. It'd be cool if it did. I mean, I think the issue there might be no one will give them the money, but we'll see.

[01:37:39] Possibly. But he brought down the Snyderverse. Okay. He did it himself. The hierarchy of power did change. Exactly. He has now brought down possibly Disney live action remakes. Is he a man on the inside? It's a dark, dark, dark theory. Is he actually doing God's work? Yes. Yes. You know what I mean? I love this conspiracy. I've been viewing him as the enemy for a while and yet I loved his performance in Smashing Machine. You and I both like that movie. I do. I like it a lot.

[01:38:06] And he has been successfully killing the things I hate the most in modern American cinema. He, I think he might be just like here to help. This is all I'm saying. Like, I just think now is this perhaps, you know, challenged by things like he's in Jumanji 3 this year, which is hard to get excited about. But is, I'm trying to remember, uh, did Bella Tarr direct Jumanji 3? Yeah. He directed that and it killed him. Yes. It's his final film. It's his eyes wide shut.

[01:38:36] Yeah. Uh, and uh, you know, I did get served up that interview recently. Did you see this griff that was going around from the black Adam time where the guy is like, so which Joker would be in black Adam? Uh huh. Like Jared Leto or Joaquin Phoenix or Barry Keegan. And he's like, Barry Keegan. And they talk about it seriously for two minutes where he's like, what he's doing is. And I'm just like, are you guys talking about? What are you guys talking about? They're all, it's like, it's the ultimate just like how everyone just went insane about

[01:39:05] multiverses and didn't know what they were talking about anymore. And he was acting like black Adam could just like bring all the worlds together. I know, I know we've already made this joke within this conversational circle, but I just need to underline it. There is nothing funnier in the world than a year long marketing campaign that was all framed around the hierarchy of power and the DC universe will change. And he conclusively did do that. Yes. It's not in the way he intended.

[01:39:34] He fully lived up. Maybe he did intend it. Maybe he's a force of good. Anyway. Moana's dog piss. Yeah, I believe you. I won't be seeing it ever. Um, so. Okay. We talked about Cyclops. Cyclops. Okay. So then. Poseidon frigging pissed. Poseidon mad. Cause they fucked with his son. Yeah. So they get driven to another island. Cyclops is dead. Which is where they meet the, the large men, Ben, that you were. Oh, sure. Big ups. You approved of so much.

[01:40:05] Uh, and I do the, the nightmare of the, the kid who's like laughing and. Yeah. Yeah. That, that, that. Stinker. He's got kind of wilder energy. Yeah. What's that? Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. Your arch nemesis. Right. Right. Um, the 10 year old that I am feuding with. And so they're driven. The 10 year old who has your number. Nolan is so good at this like stark nightmare stuff. Yeah. Yes. Um, but the, when they go to the other side of the island and they're just seeing the

[01:40:33] animals, you know, like the tiger in the line, you know, like the weird. Oh, that's on Circe. Just kind of looking at them. That's on Circe's island. It's the same island. Oh, it's the same island. Yeah. Same island. Yeah. And, and they, right. And they encounter Circe. And this is, I mean, it was just like, I know. So I know that Circe will turn them into pigs. Right. And I know that Christopher Nolan really tries not to use CGI, obviously. I mean, I'm sure he used it a little bit in this griff cause he's, you know, he's making the guys big. Yeah. There's the whirlpool.

[01:41:02] Like there's stuff. There's the creature when they have to make the bargain, the rock creature with the. Yeah. That's the one thing that felt conclusively CGI. Right. Where it's like, what are you going to do? I mean. Right. Some of this has to be, I know so much of it for him is he doesn't want these stages in the process that will degrade the film. That when you run these things through optical printing and then you have to. Right. Or rather, unless you do optical printing, if you're running them through a computer and

[01:41:29] then you're sort of outputting it again onto film, you're losing fidelity. And so I know he tries to keep those things to an absolute minimum, but it is just sort of striking to just see guys who are big and not 80 feet tall, big. Yeah. Right. But just, just a little too big. Yes. But the way they so simply have her just like stretching the faces to turn into pig. Oh my God.

[01:41:57] And just the grossness of the like, what the, what the. Entrail soup. Oh my God. Yeah. So gross. It starts forming this like waxy kind of like weird icicle coming out of their throats. I wanted to throw up cause. Did it not remind you all of spirited away? Of course. Well, spirited away is referencing that. I mean. Yeah. That's, you know, that's, this is, this is the first time anyone told these tales. So the, uh, the, uh, TV version of the Odyssey that we were talking about, it was being really bad.

[01:42:27] Do you know who plays Cersei in that Griffin? Tell me. Or, uh, Fran Sinclair from the TV show dinosaurs. Close. Bernadette Peters. Oh, which does sound cool. Yes. I, as soon as I found that out, I was like, oh, I could see her just like feed and slop to pigs. Like, you know, just be like, all right, eat my slop. Eat my slop. Oh my God. She looks pretty hot. Yeah. Bernadette Peters. We love her.

[01:42:52] Um, I, I, but yeah, Cersei sequence. Uh, incredible. I, I, but again, like, so, okay. So in the poem, Odysseus does, uh, fuck Cersei and have a couple of kids with her and lives there for like a year. They got all that out. Good. Good idea. But I just love that, again, this sort of simplicity of how he solves this problem of

[01:43:18] like understanding that there's something like wounded and dark about her, grabbing the bird, like realizing it's important to her. And then the way Nolan solves that puzzle so simply of like, she's just like, I like her better as a bird. Like it's, it's her sister. Yes. We get along better. But it's also that he breaks off from his crew. He does. To go hunting. Well, also cause they don't like him. Yes. They're already kind of doubting him and thinking that the gods have smited him and they, they have. The gods have smited him and you know.

[01:43:48] You know, and, but, but he might be the first to defy the gods and successfully and maybe prove the gods wrong. Uh, what's that tweet? I'll look up the tweet. But yeah, he shoots a deer and it turns into a very, very handsome naked man. Tight little tushy. Yeah. Exactly. This is, this is the famous tweet. Uh, RIP to everyone killed by the gods for their hubris, but I'm different and better, maybe even better than the gods. I'll send it along to you guys. And that's from Senator Ted Cruz. Who tweeted that? Uh, while we're, while we're talking about Samantha Morton. Mm hmm.

[01:44:18] The great, um, do we think that she is in the supporting actress Oscar conversation? Sure. I think this isn't everything Oscar conversation right now. Yeah. I, I think, I think this is such a kind of reemergence for her and it's such a scene stealing role. And even in the way that Nolan's been talking about her performance in the movie, he's been really spotlighting her in interviews. Yeah. Even though she's not part of the core like press team that they're pushing out there. Right.

[01:44:47] And she's, he said like, there are two times. He compared her to Heath Ledger's. Oh, sorry. I'm stepping on your thing. Okay. No, he said there are two times in my filmmaking career where an actor has done something that when I called cut, the crew broke into applause. Wow. And it was Heath Ledger, I think during the pencil trick scene. Right. And, and this. And when John David Washington said, I ordered my hot sauce an hour ago. That was the third. Well, but to be fair, they applauded the hot sauce. That's actually what they were applauding.

[01:45:14] And when Elizabeth Debicki opened a car door with her foot, even though she was on the other side of the car. Remember that. Yeah. When she height maxes. When she leg maxes. I gotta watch Tenet again. You gotta watch Tenet every single day of your life. That's a big time tonight. Yeah, you should watch it yesterday. I don't have that much time. Uh, I don't know if you noticed, but there was applause in our audience when her name came up in the credits. Oh, that's nice. I did not notice that. Yeah.

[01:45:40] Um, my, my crowd had one guy like the not another teen movie guy who was trying so hard to get applause breaks happening throughout the movie. And the movie is a little too contemplative and moody. Yeah. Our only applause breaks were for the, the, the moment where Corey, uh, gets the arrow to the throat upon saying your Odysseus, which rocks. Correct. That is the only time it successfully happened in my theater. This guy truly tried ten times. Right.

[01:46:10] There were ten times where you would hear. Maybe he was trying to turn on a light and he had a car. He was clapping. You think it could have been that? He was clapping on. Clap on. Um, I want to say about the Cersei sequence. Yeah. And then she was like, I'm going to go down preemptively. Her whole rationale is I know men, they were going to do something right. That Odysseus is like, why did you do this to them?

[01:46:40] They didn't do anything to you. And she's like, I know where it's going. Yeah. That there was a time of such incredible distrust happening that, that people have started defying the gods that they've started defying each other, that they're defying the laws of like behavior, uh, and that everyone is just on the defense all the time. Um, yes. Like she can't trust anything anymore. As we have said already, you know, everyone's speaking of these invaders from the sea who don't follow Zeus's law.

[01:47:09] And yeah, I mean, could she have maybe asked five to ten questions before she served them pig soup? Maybe. I don't know. She's gone a little mad up there on her by herself. She's also just got pig soup on the back burner all the time. They are like, Oh, you have food? And she's like, yep. Slop it up. Sloppies. Um, gross looking. It was so disgusting. So she is the one who says you're going to have to go to hell. Hades. Sorry. You know? And he's like, nobody ever does that. And she's like, I don't know what to tell you, man.

[01:47:38] You're going to be the first. You're going to pull it off. Yeah. And so they go to the underworld. Pretty rad. Oh my God. It's so sick. The black beach. The black beach. The black Icelandic beach. Yeah. I need to go to Iceland. It's beautiful. And it's a four hour flight. I know. You gotta do it. I'm going to do it. I've been, yeah, it's been on my list. Sit right over there. They have hot dogs. Oh, good. Okay. That was the only thing holding me back. I'm glad you know they have hot dogs. Exactly. Pop over there for an Icelandic hot dog.

[01:48:08] Okay. Perfect. That's great news. And yes. And this is James Remar. Okay. First, he inquires as to like, did Samantha ever show up and is just like that? And just like that. Oh. And Damon's like, yeah, but it was weird. They clearly just kind of shot it separately. And she just kind of like has a one-sided phone call. And it wasn't really satisfying for anyone. He tells Odysseus to meet him at the top where the air is crisp. That's a girl next door reference. Cannot. Wow. Remar cooks in that movie.

[01:48:38] He's always cooking. I mean, the guy cooks apart from Mortal Kombat Annihilation where the stove was broken, I guess. The gas was cut. Yeah. Marie did remind me on the subway ride home of the other next door movie. What's the Jennifer Lopez movie? The Boy Next Door. The Boy Next Door. Where someone, either she gifts the boy next door or the boy next door gifts her a first edition of the Odyssey. Yes. A first edition of the Odyssey. Yes. Iconic.

[01:49:08] Could we do a next door? Sure. A Patreon series? Well, okay. Are we doing movies with the title next door in them? The something next door. There's also kind of a lot of like fucked up neighbor movies. You know what I mean? Pacific Heights. Next door. The Girl Next Door. The Girl Next Door. He's on the next door. Next door. Okay. We've also got... Girl Next Door, Boy Next Door. We've got a 2020... Oh no, that's a TV miniseries. I'm out on that. Um... Are there any other good ones?

[01:49:38] The Girl Next... There's two Girl Next Doors. Sometimes we are... The Spy Next Door. Okay. Jackie Chan, The Spy Next Door. Uh-huh. I'm not seeing a lot of good stuff here. I think you would have to more do a Neighbor series, right? Like rear window. Okay. Well that, but you know... Kind of thing, right? Yeah, exactly. Like what's the one where Samuel L. Jackson's the cop who doesn't like things? I like that. Lakeview Terrace. Lakeview Terrace. You know? That's an insane meal abuse movie. The Bad Neighbor Pacific Heights, which is really fun. Right, yes.

[01:50:07] Pacific Heights I love. Any movie where people are like kind of peeking through blinds, you know? Blinders, yeah. And then like, ah! Like something happens that makes them go, ah! Wasn't there like a racist Dennis Quaid Bad Neighbor movie recently? Yes! Where again, it's like... The Intruder. The... Dennis Quaid plays the racist? Yeah. Yeah, because it's Michael, Ely, and Megan Good move next door. Yes. He's like, hi, I'm your neighbor.

[01:50:33] In a transformative performance, Dennis Quaid plays like a somewhat unhinged reaction to the revolutionary. Well, this is the Dennis... The Dennis Quaid thing is so funny. It was this thing in The Substance too where I'm like, you're in this movie playing a character that is like satirizing the kind of guy that you associate yourself with politically. Yes. It's fascinating. It's got some self-awareness. Are you self-aware? Arlington Road? What if your neighbor was possibly a terrorist? Another fun one. I've never seen that one, yeah. You've never seen Arlington Road? I've got to see Arlington Road.

[01:51:03] I do think Rear Window is the king and origin of it, Ben. Like, I think you're right. Well, yes. Rear Window, I would say, is the best one. I don't know. Have you seen The Intruder? Disturbia? Disturbia, which is just Rear Window. It's Shia LaBeouf. That's Simpsons episode, Bard of Darkness. Is that what it is? That's a great episode. Love that episode. Yeah. That's the one where Milhouse tries to write Milhouse, but he wants to go to the pool, so he writes Milpool. Milhouse rules.

[01:51:33] And David just smacking the table laughing. Milhouse is so funny shit. It's so good. Everything's coming up Milhouse, I think, about once a day. Of course, yes. The Simpsons did an Odyssey. They did. That episode. Did they? Homer told the Odyssey. What season's that? It's one of those anthology episodes where it's three stories in one, right? Oh, yeah. Sure. I sent this GIF to one of our group texts the other day, David.

[01:52:00] I think it was Blank Doe, but of the lineup of the suitors who are coming from Marge in their version of the Odyssey, because I remember that being the best section is just Disco Stu and Moe and everyone courting Marge. Oh, I see. Yes, it was called Tales from the Public Domain. Which is really funny. The Odyssey is the first, and then they have a- Lisa Simpson as Joan of Arc. Lisa is Joan of Arc, and then a Hamlet episode called Do the Bard Man. Really funny.

[01:52:27] And I believe the final joke in that episode is he finishes telling the story of Hamlet, and he goes, and of course, it was adapted into a movie called Ghostbusters. And then they play the Ghostbusters theme, and Homer dances to the Ghostbusters theme for one straight minute over the end credits. That sounds really funny. Marie is laughing. I'm laughing. The title of the Odyssey section is Do, Brother Where Art Thou? Yeah, which is- That's pretty good. That's pretty good.

[01:52:56] But still, it's like a season 14 episode. I'm skeptical that this was very funny. It's so funny that I have to keep bringing these back to the- All right, okay. Freaking homework ass- Ben, Ben, Ben, you're doing great. Also, season 14 is doing great. Thank you. People have been saying lately on the Reddit or whatever, like, wow, Ben's really like- He's become kind of the taskmaster. No, Ben is doing his job. Ben's doing his job. And that mood will persist on this episode. He is the producer of this show, and he is keeping us somewhat on track. They're just trying to help out.

[01:53:25] Come up to Ben, tears in their eyes, and they say thank you for producing. So, yes, the sequence on the beach, speaking to the blind prophet, beautifully done. Oh, Tyrese. Speaking to Elliot Page. Right. So, like, Elliot Page kind of emerging as, like, the heart of the movie as the sort of

[01:53:55] avatar of the men Odysseus sacrificed for what exactly? And the betrayal, because basically what happened with Sinon is that- They convinced Sinon they actually did leave. Correct. Like, Sinon did not know about the Trojan horse. The Trojan horse. In order for the trick to work, Sinon needed to be tricked as well, so they believed it. And Odysseus defends himself of, like, look, I needed you to believe it. I needed it to be real.

[01:54:22] You- Yes, you died, and I heard you die, and I was sad about it, but it meant others didn't have to die. But you can tell he knows, like, this is a bit of a- Because it's like, what- So, for what? So that we could pillage a city? Like, you know. And the whole reason of the Trojan war is, like, literally the dumbest thing. It's in trade routes or whatever. You know, come on. Bring up Jar Jar Binks. It was the- It's some guy's wife. Well, okay.

[01:54:47] The stated reason, obviously, yes, is that Paris of Troy stole Helen from Menelaus. Yeah. Her face too pretty. Right. And brought her- But they say in this, it's like, Agamemnon would, like, even if we got Helen back, like, Agamemnon wants to disrupt Troy's, like, control over the trade. It's what the fucking Republicans do. They blame it on some other thing. Wait, the Republicans? I thought that was like a standup party founded by Abraham Lincoln that's never done anything wrong, Griffin. Oh, you're right. I'm sorry.

[01:55:17] They were actually the good ones all along. We see Agamemnon. He has been murdered. Yes, this is right. So then we're right. We're moving over to Telemachus, who goes to see Menelaus, played by Jon Bernthal. Brother of Agamemnon. Right. Very good Bernthal. Oh, yeah. When is he bad? Only when he hosts a podcast. I would say sometimes Bernthal can- Did any of you guys see- Hit the gas a little too heavy. Did any of you guys see Dog Day afternoon? No, I did not. I heard it was quite poor. Yeah.

[01:55:47] This is what I heard as well. I heard some very loud rumors that it was not good. Yes. Someone told me that it opened and people were laughing and they had not anticipated that. And so then they leaned into it. That doesn't sound good to me. But I think- Bernthal's excellent in this. He's excellent. And it's like Telemachus is seeing in Bernthal. Bernthal's like, yay, I won. Now I'm here. Shit's mad. Helen doesn't like me.

[01:56:17] Yeah. Her face is all scarred. Yeah. My hot wife isn't even hot anymore. Right. And then- She's only going to launch 500 ships now. Yeah, right. And Helen's like, and don't forget what happened to Agamemnon. And I was like, I don't want to talk about that. We're not even going to talk about that. But it's another thing that we had been seeded. It's seeded very early in the story where Odysseus tells Penelope, like, Agamemnon, like, sacrificed his daughter for favorable wins or whatever. And Penelope's like, what? And like, Odysseus is like, I don't know, you know, it's a spoilery.

[01:56:47] You know, it's war. What are you going to do? And like, the minute Agamemnon comes home a champion, like, his wife is still mad about that and murders him. Yeah. And both roles, of course, played by Lupita Nyong'o. The great. Yeah. Um, we also get at some point around here, the fuller sequence of the Trojan horse attack. Yeah. We see that before they go to the underworld, right? Because we've seen sort of like Sinon's sacrifice more in full. Oh, sure.

[01:57:15] We also see, I like that this movie answers some of the practical questions I have had about the Trojan horse since being a child. They were just shitting, pissing, puking. It really reminds me of Dunkirk. Yeah. Yup. Mm-hmm. Um, I, I also love that they show that anytime the horse is like turned over that all the guys inside. Uh-huh. Have to like re-configure their bodies. Yeah. Yeah. At one point, the Trojan soldiers are stabbing the horse and one guy gets stabbed and they

[01:57:44] all like cover up his mouth. Yeah. The guy's just drowning at the bottom of it. Oh, yeah. You don't want to be at the bottom. A bunch of guys dying at the bottom of the horse. You don't want to be near like the head. Yeah. Yeah. Get me near the head of the horse, please. Very jackass. Not that. Very jackass of them. Very jackass. Great jackass. Yes. Yes. I'm Odysseus and this is Jack. Yes. Then it's just like the horse. It's like the wooden horse. Oh man.

[01:58:12] And there would be one point where like Preston Lacey would fall on top of Wee Man inside the horse. Sure. That would be really funny. Yeah. Uh, what I was going to say is that John Bernthal, another thing that was like very much out of context in the teaser for this movie of him just being like, Hey, you want to hear about my brother? Like just talking like John Bernthal or whatever. And that was another thing in the trailer. I was like, all right, you got Tom Holland whining about like my dad's coming home.

[01:58:41] And then John Bernthal just talking like John Bernthal. And I was like, but it's all, it's removing the distance from these things. And I was also talking to a friend who was saying that like, you know, there are a million different translations of these things. And some of them are like, no, the wording is something more casual than father. Totally works for me in the context of the movie. The characterization of these characters, like the way that these characters are portrayed

[01:59:05] makes absolute sense and ultimately makes the story really relatable for, you know, contemporary audiences, but not in a way that feels forced. Yeah. But yeah, I was saying hello, fellow kids. Right. I just, I just rewatched Amadeus last week, which, you know, perfect movie.

[01:59:26] But again, that to me is like the classic version of we're going to apply sort of like modern sensibilities to it. Yeah. To a, you know, historical story, but it just, it just works. Um, to, to, to wrap the, uh, yes, the, the, the, the black sand beach, like the scale. It's so cool that they come out of the sand. Right. When they all come out of the sand and start charging where it's like all the shades want is like news of people who are alive. Right.

[01:59:55] Like, uh, this is where it's sort of seeded for Odysseus of like, you're going to need to pay tribute to the men you lost. Like you, you know, you haven't been honoring their deaths enough. And then Telemachus, I feel like from Menelaus is getting the sort of the information of like, you can't just walk back to your house and think everyone's going to be happy to see you. Odysseus will need to survey the landscape when he arrives, you know? Yes.

[02:00:21] Yeah. And you've got, you know, you've got the intrigue of like Pattinson and Corey and all these guys are like, maybe we should kill Telemachus, you know, whatever. That's all a little bit of kind of like, that's, that's screenplay chaff or, you know, like, but, but Pattinson's big seduction scene is pretty excellent. Yeah. Yes. He does a good job of towing the line between being actually really convincing, but also winking at the audience. He plays the character as a fairly good actor. Yes.

[02:00:49] Which is hard to do to show that he's almost pulling it off. Uh, and then what happens next? Well, so he gets the prophecy and he knows Odysseus knows what's to come. Yeah. But he does not tell his men, which is that they will come across a whirlpool as well as this, I don't even know how to describe the monster. It's like a spider. It's a bunch of different arms. It's an octopus. Spider.

[02:01:11] It's called Scylla, you know, and it's a man eating monster of, you know, it's sometimes it's depicted as like a maiden with like dog heads coming out of her body, which is kind of a Ben. Yeah. No shit. Punch that turns into a bite. Yeah. He cools out. But it's, you know, Odysseus keeps being told by people like Circe and the, what, Tiresias? Tiresias? Tiresias. Tiresias.

[02:01:41] Like your men are going to die. Yeah. And Odysseus is like, no, you know, they don't, you're telling me how we can avoid that. And they're like, that's true. And you will live, but they're not gonna, it's not gonna work. Yeah. And like their ultimate fallibility is like, they make it to this island where they're like, don't eat those juicy, juicy cows. And those cows look good. Those cows look good. They belong to the sun god Apollo. So you can't fucking eat them. You can't fucking eat the cows.

[02:02:07] But it's just like a marshmallow test of like, but the minute you're here, you can't leave. The winds die down and you're just gonna get hungry and hungry until you're like, well, maybe we have to eat the cows. And then, you know, they all get struck down in the, in the, in a store. They go in their little barbecue hole, Griff. They do go in a secret barbecue hole. They smoke those cows. Yeah, that is true. We also see the sirens. We do. We do.

[02:02:33] And again, you know, Nolan connects this to like Odysseus is like longing for what is lost. Like versus just like, he's so horny for these hot ass singers, which is sort of the classic sirens thing of him being like, let me at him. I want to get there. You know, instead he's just wailing and crying like a great performance moment from Damon there. Yeah. Oh, incredible shit. When he says the thing of like, it's like the tastiest itch. And when you go to scratch it, you realize it's under the skin.

[02:03:03] It's so evocative. It's good shit. This is some good shit. I think he pulled off some good shit here. Nolan, I'm going to tell him that in a typed note. Ben, I assume that you believe if you listen to the sirens, everything would turn out okay and marry all of them. They would just be like, you're so chill. You rock. Now you can go. Here's a bunch of money. Thank you for your time.

[02:03:32] They give you money. Yeah. Of course. Here are our wallets. And so, yes. What else? Oh, I wanted to ask about the boat stuff. I guess then he gets back to Ithaca. What do you think of the boat stuff? Because they shot on a friggin' real ass boat, man. I think like the oldest available boat is what they used. It's like a Viking boat. I read in Bilga's piece for New York Mag. Yes, I need to read that. The boat is called the Draken.

[02:03:59] A 115 foot boat from Norway. Right. I guess it's a modern built boat. Yeah. Because obviously you're not, I guess you're not allowed to take like items of antiquity out to the open ocean or whatever. They just go by some like London museum and they're like, can I have that? But it's imitating obviously like an ancient Viking longship or whatever. And I would have thrown up. Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people did.

[02:04:28] I read some story about Nolan being like, do you mind if I shoot you throwing up? Yeah, I read that too. Cool. Which is cool. Yeah. I mean, rowing seems relaxing. I don't know. It does not seem relaxing in this movie. Get into the groove of it. I'm telling you. Oh, sure. Just a kind of like repetitive thing. You know, put on some ambient music in the air pods. Toss some Aphex Twin on and let's go. He just listens to the sirens. That's true. Yeah. Right. Good rowing music.

[02:04:57] I think I would have died at Troy. No, I would have died before we even got to Troy. Like I wouldn't have made it that far. I wouldn't have made it that far. Right. Exactly. They would have eaten me. Let's be honest. In this time, I would have died in the cradle. Yeah, exactly. Die right away. I would have died of like air allergy or some shit. Maybe, maybe I would have been sacrificed. Cause I am like a firstborn child, you know? They would have tried to sacrifice me and the gods would have rejected me. Yeah. They'd be like, no, thank you.

[02:05:27] What am I supposed to do with that shit? Okay. Also throughout this whole time, we keep flash, we keep, you know, cutting into Odysseus with Calypso. She keeps being like, remember more. What happened to your men? What happened to your men? And finally he breaks down. Yes. Finally Calypso. Right. And he is mad at Calypso, but she's kind of like, look, man, you needed to get like, I feel like traditionally Calypso is just a trickster.

[02:05:55] Like Calypso literally means like steel, drum. Right. Yeah. She who conceals, you know, like that she's like a liar. You know, but like, she's just kind of like, if you wanted to go, you would have remembered. Like you're only remembering now cause you're finally ready. Yeah. To sort of accept the emotional truth. Now, like would Penelope be thrilled to hear this? No. No. But, um, and so yes, he goes home. In disguise as a beggar. God bless Nolan.

[02:06:23] Like he is very true to the tale of the Odyssey, which is like the last part of it is Odysseus disguised as a beggar hanging out in his house being like, hmm, you know. Yeah. I loved all the beggar stuff. I also love that Leguizamo gets to shine so much in this section. So much more legs. Because he becomes the one ally he has. Right. Well, there's that nice old lady. Yeah. Who notices his leg scar. Sure. Also the dog. The dog. The dog is finally red. The dog. And the dog that's what it's talking about. What's the dog's name?

[02:06:53] Argos? Argos. Oh, so sad. Poor boy. Apparently it's very controversial that in this film he touches the dog. It's controversial that he touches the dog? It doesn't sound that controversial to me. I don't know. People are like, he's not supposed to touch the dog. I did find it so funny in that interview That they were asking Nolan like are you worried About this backlash at all and he was like One I don't consider backlash from people Who have not seen the film yet Two everyone forgets that I

[02:07:22] Worked on Batman movies for a decade I don't think people forget that but he's right No but he was just like I dealt with Fucking nerds for a decade I don't give a shit So by the touching the dog Tom Holland recognizes This is my dad Yes that is when Telemachus puts it together Thank God because Telemachus would seem really dumb Otherwise I think at a certain point Where this guy's like no I'm not Odysseus But I know him And he's coming this way Soon

[02:07:51] Okay sorry so the dog The thing with the dog is The dog is what Potentially gives him away His identity So the question is does Odysseus kill the dog Or does the dog die Dog dies The dog does die in the movie But some people are like Actually it should have been Odysseus Killing the dog Name an important or learned person Who has said that You cannot simply cite Randos on Twitter

[02:08:20] Is there a real person Who has talked about this? Probably not No It is a bunch of comments From And I will say this confidently Fools So Penelope has set up this test For all of the suitors Which is the The trick we see Odysseus do way earlier in the film Where they line up a bunch of axes It's basically like this Incredible Like target It's a party trick He would do Yes

[02:08:49] He would string his bow And then he would fire the arrow Along the axes And it would be really cool And everyone would say Odysseus you're the best Never leave Yep Fucking rules And so now all these suitors Are lining up They can't even get this bow strong It's so good Yeah Yeah they're fools We gotta go back a bit No we don't Yes we do Because we have the whole scene When he talks to Penelope Through the screen And that's Yeah sure Because that's before This is around It's all you know This is all happening In this final act It's before the trial But

[02:09:19] Yes That sequence when It's finally revealed What actually he witnessed At Troy And that Right That is the Right We've talked about it A little bit already But right That's the emotional thing Nolan's getting at This is what he can't get over And he's not revealing himself To her No He's using a fake name Yeah again he's going Kind of like Yeah what if a guy Who knew Odysseus Knew that he felt Really shitty About the sack of Troy Yeah How would you feel about that Because it had been Kind of gnarly and bad

[02:09:48] I had tears in my eyes Oh no It's so good The revelation of Zendaya Like that really just Crushed me That worked for me so well Yeah Like the use of her In the sack of Troy You know like And then him looking at Athena Quote unquote You know Yeah Because Zendaya Basically was just Some peasant woman Who gets struck down But then Kind of embodies Athena then Throughout the rest of the film Right Like his guilt His

[02:10:17] Story Yeah And the sequence Is exciting Like it's also Genuinely thrilling to watch Yeah I mean I think With these stories Get passed down And by virtue of them Being Passed down You lose Some of Maybe the more Unsavory elements Like the fact that There is an Adaptation of The Odyssey On the show Arthur That you know Yes I think that is Of course The peak Of Of the telling Of the story And Homer Was happy about it Right

[02:10:47] But there Cruelty of tying Buster's ears together Is something that Nolan Darent Depict Right But there There is So much Emphasis On the Heroic moments And the moments Of valor That like Maybe some of the other Aspects of What happened Don't get passed out Yes But it's also a movie That's It's so explicitly About guilt That I think It's not like It's Whitewashing the

[02:11:17] Character You know No no no I'm not saying It's whitewashing The character I'm saying that Like When There's I think of Like I'm tired Of hearing these Stories about Odysseus Or other people That are like Really really great When it doesn't Really like Like mirror The feeling Of The loss And the guilt And the tragedy And finally We get to see Part of the story And it breaks you And Yes Like It's be good

[02:11:46] It's really good Look Iliad and the Odyssey The poems are about Triumphant victories Over barbarians Like they He is He is putting this In a completely Modern context This is not something That you know He is like Borrowing from Homer He's But he's putting it in Very well I think We should shout out That a big influence For him was A somewhat recent Adaptation By Emily Wilson Which is a It's an important Distinction Just mentioned It's the first time That this poem Was ever translated By a woman

[02:12:16] Right Which I don't approve Of to be clear Oh okay I think she should be Translating raw food Into cooked food In the kitchen Sorry That's a joke Actually The lead of my review Was Which I think Is very For one I couldn't think Of a fucking lead So I used this instead But like Emily Wilson You know Famously The Odyssey Usually kind of begins Like tell me Of Odysseus Like the man Of twists and turns Right Like that's the sort Of Greek translation Of And she Renders it much more Simply as like The complicated man

[02:12:46] And like I think that's what Nolan is responding To Like this is not Just a person Who had twists And turns That he navigated Like this is You know There is something Introspective We can find In this man Yeah No there is Yeah The other thing This movie reminded me Of a lot And I don't know If I just I haven't been Reading or watching A ton of interviews With Nolan So I don't know If he's already Called this out A bunch Reminded me a lot Of Excalibur In sort of The vibe Of it being This kind of Like earthy Dreaminess

[02:13:15] Even just the way He uses fog And smoke Throughout the movie And sort of Finding this way To make a tactile Version of Magical ideas To me He cited Last Temptation Of Christ And that to me Is also what You're talking about A little bit That moment Where he stands up And he's got Like bits of the Beach on him On his back Yeah That felt very What are some Other things I feel like He's been talking About some other Movies Andre Rublev Sure Hey Oh yeah Yeah Ron Right Right

[02:13:45] That felt Like you know Anytime We're zooming out To a bunch of Guys running on the Beach That felt very Curious Like Lake Kurosawa To me Girl Next Door I've seen him Yes Call that out A couple times Because of the fact That she's next door And James Remar And also Is the juice worth The squeeze Is kind of a Common refrain In this movie That's the Elisha Cuthbert movie Yes Correct And Timothy Olyphant Is there I would put him On the supporting Actor ballot For that He's the Kind of like The Joey Pants Who shows up late And he's like

[02:14:14] All I remember Is that Paul Dano And Emile Herscher In that movie They're in it Right Yes He's like the Ray Liotta In something wild Right He's the Spark plug At the third act Right He's really good Yeah Okay He makes the five So yeah So he does The trial Reveal himself None of those Other men Can string that Fucking bow He can string The bow Pattinson is like I won't even Play the game Like he's trying To take the He's like I won't fall For your trick I know what You're trying to

[02:14:44] Say here But he ain't Coming back So you just Gotta pick One of us Anyway And that is I feel like Around when Odysseus Do shoot Corey Hawkins Yeah He do In the throat And his last words Are you're Odysseus It just It was really cool It just made me Very happy And it was really Fun to see Matt Damon Go apeshit Yeah Dude that fight Sequence is Incredible Yeah Quiet apeshit It does feel like This is the last time He's gonna go

[02:15:13] Action star mode Right I mean probably Except for maybe Odyssey 2 2 Odyssey 2 Furious I just feel like Damon is not a guy Who's like Desperately holding on To his ego Of being a certain Type of leading man No I feel like He is happy To age in When's the last time He made an action movie Exactly Born The last born Well actually The Rip Which I guess Was this year Yeah but that's A different kind of thing That's more of like A thriller That movie But it has Some action in it Gun action Is different From this action

[02:15:43] Yeah Right And I guess The instigators Which everyone Remember so well Jesus Christ It took me a second To even pull What you were talking about That was kind of Capery Like there's like Cars He spends a lot Of them Like his character Is they take his Like therapist Played by Hong Chao Hostage with them Yeah So it's a lot of Like him talking To his therapist While other people Do stuff I do think Gun heist stuff Is different It's different It is I mean like And then obviously Even like the last

[02:16:13] Duel or whatever Like A movie that I love A great movie Incredible movie And it does have You know Action in it But it's Yeah Brutal and kind of You know And he's I mean he's playing A guy who has to Go to court To argue He gave his wife An orgasm What I'm sure he will Do action sequences Again But I'm saying I think this Feels like Yeah His final Like big Action hero movie Although I don't know Anything about This Daniels movie Yeah no one does That is his next project

[02:16:43] Like what is that The rumors I have heard Do not make it sound Like that's what it is And in fact I think a lot of Why there was Such a musical chairs Of which A-list star Was gonna play that role Is that that role Is a little secondary To the narrative That he's in a lot Of the movie But he doesn't get To like Have the big wins I feel like That's something Damon is happy to do Exactly Yeah That's what I'm saying I think he's happy To like surrender that And go like I'll let the younger cast Sort of drive the story

[02:17:13] And I'll just service The plot Wait I'm so sorry I just clicked on the Reddit Did you fucking see this? Yeah I was talking about The highway sign Yes Do you know There's a highway exit In Georgia That just says Griffin Newman No no no But it's What? It's Noonan Noonan Griffin Oh okay But from far away It literally just says Griffin Newman Why is this happening? Is that the name of The town or something?

[02:17:43] Who knows It's very It's really upsetting I feel like I'm witnessing Some sort of glitch In the fact It's a little back roomsy I'll say Like Okay And you know The best thing about it About that sign You can eat it too Yes Here I will tell you the answer It appears to be That there are two separate places Griffin Georgia And Noonan Georgia And I guess you can access them Both from this exit That is wild Okay All right I should move to that intersection I think you need to move there

[02:18:13] We gotta go there Maybe when we drive Eventually to Disney World Live show And in Griffin Noonan Live show Let me get in touch With the bookers down here The Griffin Noonan sign Okay sorry Back to the Odyssey Let me book the sign Yeah he'd kill everyone He'd kill everyone And you know There's some It's just like a fun sequence Where you got Tom Holland And uh What's his fucking What's his name? The guy who used to Logan Marshall Green We're Logan Marshall Green Oh sure Three name guy

[02:18:43] Who used to look like Tom Hardy Right I was gonna say When Tom Hardy and Chris Nolan have not worked together In a while You can at least get Logan Marshall Green I think that role Was supposed to be Cosmo Jarvis And Cosmo Jarvis Probably had to go film Shogun Go to Japan Yeah But you know They're upstairs And there's a hole In the floor Slash ceiling They removed all the weapons Before the suitors Showed up So now But then he goes And he tries to put him Through the hole Right So yeah There's that moment Where Pattinson just goes

[02:19:12] Spears Spears He's not even doing anything Pattinson in that scene Is so funny He is So funny He's so good at playing This kind of like Desperation And this like Faffishness You know I cannot wait to see him Play Chris Hansen I just think it's like Such genius casting And I'm really excited for it He's really cool I want to see it But Yeah And Odysseus It's like Him versus

[02:19:41] Like 60 guys And when he finally Is victorious At the end of the battle He's just got Spears Poking out of his body He does get a couple Yeah A little couple He doesn't make it Through Scott Furry No He takes some Some L's Nolan has a little bit of fun Making you think like Maybe he's gonna die Yeah Right But he's not a superhero No no We're gonna do Dark Knight Rises It's like what we talked about We're gonna fucking retire We'll go off He's gonna

[02:20:10] He and Anne Hathaway Are going to go off Into the sunset together We'll make Talamica's king He's proved himself He's done great And then when he gets on the boat Is when he might Finally reveal like By the way I did spend eight years On the island With Charlize Theron Anyway Let's go And we might have Hooked up a little bit Yeah Just over the clothes stuff Yeah no totally She always had her Fishnet thing hat on Like and it was It was the lotus Look what can I tell you It was all lotus Blame the lotus I feel like back

[02:20:40] In ancient Greek times There was like An understanding That like sex is different I think Over the jeans Doesn't really count Yeah I mean they had So many jeans then It was such a Denomy society This is such a Dungary movie It is funny It's the last thing I expected for it To be so heavy On the Levi's product Although the costuming Is awesome It is And I love that It's very interesting It's not like Corny Like sandal and sword Like over the top No it's It's very like Simple and kind of Rough hewn

[02:21:09] Like David literally wears Like a cut off t-shirt At one point But it's just like You don't need The over the top Robes And all the nonsense You know what Movie's costuming Is dog ass Dog ass Troy Nominated for an Oscar They made all of the Costumes out of Dogs asses That's why That was the issue That's why it was Impressive They got Brad Pitt Wearing crop tops Like cerulean blue Crop tops And sarongs It was Devil wears product era

[02:21:38] Where does this come from In history What do you mean It's actually before They beat them To the cerulean punch I was I was researching Ancient Greece Crop tops I could find nothing Oh yeah You couldn't find anything When you googled that I could find nothing Although it is funny How in Bushwick right now Caesar haircuts And crop tops On Madden Are so popular Yes Hot odyssey summer Yeah There you go I remember Troy being a very Naval forward movie

[02:22:08] Yeah a lot of boat A lot of boat No I meant like Belly buttons Oh yes you're right You're right It does have It's both naval With an A And naval with an E Yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yes I'm not sure if you see Eric Bana's cute little Innie or outie I'm not sure what I wish I'd love to tickle that I'm a little worried About googling Eric Bana belly button I don't know What that'll do To my algorithm Looks like an Innie Looks like an innie A classic innie Okay A classic innie That was just one Of those movies Where everyone I think was just like

[02:22:38] I need biggest arms On this set You know like Everyone's just Like hitting the gym Constantly No they're not That bulky Alright fair enough They're not that bulky Like you see What's his Orlando Bloom Well he was Naked a lot And it is It is peak twink Look at this Look at this The very male model Yeah Bana looks good Bana looks good Bana looks good He's the heftiest Bana looks good Final thoughts On Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey Very good

[02:23:12] Really fucking good Yeah very good movie Same It just kind of moves Like crazy Tight 250 Yeah David your wife Wants the bucket She does How do I get that Fucking bucket God The horse

[02:23:42] I'm keeping my eyes On the orders If it goes back In stock anywhere I'll send it to you I am so I am really looking forward To your wife's review I'm really excited For her to see it Because she's been Somewhat skeptical She's not like A diehard Nolan fan Anyway But we're gonna go see it Yeah and her review Will be on a Patreon tier That doesn't exist And will never exist Right We haven't come up With a tier that high Yes Yeah Maybe The bucket is huge The bucket's really big It's really big And then there's also The IMAX camera bucket

[02:24:11] Yeah which is cool So I think that one One of them is Regal And one of them is AMC I can't remember Which is which Can we say quickly They had to I mean Nolan basically Threw the challenge Down to IMAX They've been Refining the technology To help him make These movies Not just in terms Of the filming But even in terms Of the projection Because there was A time limit On how long An IMAX movie Could be There's sort of A three hour cap Right Yeah Right But he helped them Work up to three I think it used to be Two something

[02:24:41] Right But they finally Made the smallest Version of an IMAX Camera possible For this movie Yeah And they also Developed what They called the blimp Which is a case That goes around The camera That suffocates The sound Yes Because everyone Says it's so God damn loud You can't hear Yourself thing The dialogue scenes That's why usually He only shoots The more visual scenes In IMAX And the dialogue scenes Aren't And this because He was going to do The whole thing They had to blimp it up It was all It was all IMAX I'm That aspect ratio Never changed

[02:25:11] I'm very curious Because I am seeing it In 35mm Like it really did feel Like he was using The entire IMAX frame I'm curious I mean there have been The infographics That have been going around At the different formats And some people Complaining that If you don't see it In a perfect square Is the framing All going to look weird No to me That only looks bad If you're watching The next to each other It only looks bad If you know what you're missing But if you don't know What you're missing You don't know what you're missing I'm sure it works So I'm sure I'm sure it'll look great

[02:25:40] It would be funny If it's like You don't see Damon's eyes Like it's horrible Like they did no work Thinking about it His head is out of frame Jaws talking to each other Yeah But No it's very good I'm very happy I think it's going to make A ton of money I think it'll do very well You know My father-in-law Has texted me You know Being like You heard of this And I'm like Oh I've seen it Manny I've seen the movie And it is phenomenal You should go I know Griff Do you have Box office predictions I mean we assume

[02:26:10] Moana will jump 100% So it'll be number one And then Odyssey number two Yes with 80 No I think people are assuming That this is going to open Over 100 Yeah Right I mean Oppenheimer Open to 80 against Barbie Yes Because we should mention We're recording this Thursday afternoon The day before We're recording this Yes The night it's coming out Basically Right But I think it's probably Going to open to like 100-110 The thing with these Format forward movies Is the opening weekend Cannot be

[02:26:40] Totally humongous Because a lot of people Wait until they can get The ticket they want Yeah yeah So you have a lot of people Who are going to wait Two or three weekends Which means this thing Is going to hold Incredibly well But I think it's probably Going to open to like 100 or 110 Would be my guess 200 worldwide And then end up I think I end up at like Yeah yeah I'm guessing it ends up Around 350 domestic I don't know I bet this plays well In Greece A billion worldwide Yeah it'll play well In Greece I think it probably will Yeah I think that's true We should

[02:27:10] Demerit You know Offer some demerits For this phone casting Neither No Stavi No Zooks No Manzoukas Right No Stamos The big three No Stamos Who does Stamos Could have He could have been One of the suitors Yeah exactly He could have been The horse He's in there And you know Who are the other guys From Full House Oh well Bob Saget isn't with us anymore Who's the third Joey Dave Coulier Coulier He could be there He could have had a puppet Lori Loughlin Convicted felon

[02:27:40] Yeah jeez wait What's going on With Full House actually It's bad It's bad over there House too full I mean And Penelope does have A full house It's a good Right That's a point Yeah David That house has Too many people in it Sometimes you remind us That you're the film critic That you're the one Real professional In this field That is a great point I'm like writing Penelope does have As I'm being like Taken out of my office By security You have been fired I'm like no no no Let me let me My friend I think You finally found your lead I think it'll be Odyssey

[02:28:09] Moana Minions I don't know what else Is out there Evil Dead I would not be surprised If there is A Moana drop That is so significant That Minions Or Toy Story Are actually ahead Of Second Weekend Moana Yeah Yes The invite has been Growing quite nicely I think that might That might continue To do well Have you seen that one yet Griffin? No it is not Playing in Spain I think it maybe Doesn't come out For another month or two I'm trying to see it While I'm here in London So I may go see it After this record Or I may go see it Tomorrow I really enjoyed it

[02:28:38] You should just watch The People Upstairs The Spanish film That it's based on In Spain This is true But I mean Which should I watch first? Hmm? I don't know which one I should watch first I don't think it matters I think you're fine No matter what Well well well Well well well Yeah let's wrap it up I mean you know You can't be cooking In there forever In that London studio This is one of the most Relevant films of 2026 It's one of the biggest Films of 2026 It will certainly go down In history as one of the Films that represents This year

[02:29:08] Which of course means That next week We're talking about In the blink of an eye No Yes Yes Yes that's true That is true But hey My brother's on that episode I remember us having A lot of fun Your brother Joey Sims Is cooking Yeah We have a good time On that ep Maybe not talking about In the blink of an eye That much A 2026 Hulu release That you might be hearing about For the first time Right now I'm excited to watch it Are you? No Okay Yeah Marie

[02:29:38] I like one of the three Sections in that movie A lot And I'm curious Don't tell me which one I'm not gonna tell you But I'm curious When you watch it If you have the same response I think you will And yeah So we've got two more Stanton films Right to fill out That little mini So we got In the blink of an eye And Toy Story 5 Two films he directed In 2026 And then over on Let's also No I was just gonna Call out You say the Patreon David Yeah on Patreon We've got the final Robocop entry Which is Robocop 2014

[02:30:07] Five stars A triumph From what I remember Yeah Illegal It should be Right No suicide is contemplated On that episode I'm kidding Kidding I was just gonna call out We We have announced Our John Carter screening Which sold out That's true Really fast In which Andrew Stanton Is going to be doing A Q&A with us What a fool he is We are not sure If we will be able To record And or release that

[02:30:36] But we are going To be doing A sit down With him In studio That's the plan So that will be Coming later And we will figure out The deal with the Q&A But for a number of factors That we can talk about later We're not totally sure What form that will have Down the line But look forward to A release On the main feed As just a bonus Episode Yes It'll be a kind of Old school Thursday bonus I think is the plan And on that note Griffin Oh sorry please Wait no there was one thing Griffin before we started

[02:31:06] Recording you said You had a big joke You wanted to make Did you make that joke Oh it was the joke About how funny is it That I left New York And everyone has diarrhea Now I made the joke Oh that was the joke Okay Yeah Yeah yeah Thank god We got that in there Because you did tell us Put a pin in that And so often we put pins In things that never get unpinned I want to start a new segment Called the cork board In which anytime we say We're going to put a pin In something Ben you write it down And at the end We check the cork board What do you think about that That's a good idea That's a good idea I can also see that Working as a fun

[02:31:35] Like social media asset Put down cork board For the cork board idea Yeah Cork board for the cork board So we're announcing The cork board Unfortunately the next Two months of episodes Have largely been recorded Get ready for a bunch Of episodes that don't Have the cork board No and probably have A lot of unfinished tangents Let's be honest There are a bunch of Mark Scorsese episodes Well tell us what to add Anything we miss In the upcoming episodes Throw it on the cork board And be polite And for all the Arthur Talk in this episode I must say And as always Jekyll Jekyll Hyde Jekyll Hyde Hyde

[02:32:05] Jekyll Jekyll Jekyll Jekyll Jekyll Hyde Jekyll Hyde What is that? Three people will be So happy I'm gonna get a seltzer One sec Yeah David can you get me A seltzer too? David can you grab Griffin a seltzer? He almost did He did a double take Okay good Now can you just Can I do a little Pour towards the camera? Yeah If you pour it Into the soundboard

[02:32:35] It will come through My headphones Blank check with Griffin and David Is hosted by Griffin Newman And David Sims Our executive producer Is me Ben Hosley Our creative producer Is Marie Barty Salinas And our associate producer Is AJ McKeon This show is mixed And edited by AJ McKeon And Alan Smithy Research by JJ Birch Our theme song Is by Lane Montgomery

[02:32:58] And the great

[02:33:28] Checkbook Book on Substack This podcast is created And produced by Blank Check Production The show is We're all going to be And the great Show Is The best