Welcome, everybody, to the Polarize podcast.
This is a podcast about polarizing movies and polarizing in the sense of rotten tomato
scores.
Sometimes critics love it and audiences hate it.
Or vice versa, those are the movies that we cover on this show slash pod.
Today we are going to be talking about the 2013 movie called The Double starring Jesse
Eisenberg directed by Richard Iowati.
I found that is how you pronounce it.
The scores for this are critics gave it a certified fresh 83% and audiences gave it
a stinky 59%.
And yeah, so we're going to get into it today and talk about this movie, talk about why
it's polarizing and then just, yeah, go soup to soup to nuts this thing.
And it is not only only going to be me talking about it, but at this point I would also like
to intro the forever guess is what we like to call him.
But my co-host Mr. James Lindsay.
Hey, hello, I'm back.
I am here for another episode where you know what another name for this show or maybe a
different show would be.
Whoa, okay.
Soup to nuts.
Yeah.
And we go soup to nuts, baby on everything or maybe it's literal.
Maybe we talk about soup and nuts.
I like that idea.
If we're going to call it soup to nuts, I love the idea of just it's broken up first
half is soup.
Second half is not talk.
Those are both kind of like apps in their own way.
Maybe a bar snack.
Maybe nuts are more bar snack.
We don't have to put them in a box.
I mean, soup in a box doesn't sound like the ideal way to hold it, but you can put nuts
in a box.
Maybe you definitely could put nuts in a box.
That's for sure.
You can also put a dick in a box as well.
Hello.
Can put me in a nutshell.
You know what, before we get into movies, I get in this nutshell.
This is me.
Let's actually talk about soup and nuts.
Okay.
What's your favorite soup?
Fave soup.
Shit.
If I had a favorite soup, man, it is tough to pick favorites.
I love a good minestrone minestrone.
I love a good albondegas.
I really love albondegas.
I'm mixing, mixing meatball soup.
Ramen.
Okay.
Shit.
What would be my favorite though?
It's tough.
Out of those four, what would you say?
Maybe ramen.
I love ramen.
Hey, not that might be the most like, oh man, I'm having soup and it's a meal.
Having ramen.
Oh, oh, Don's really good too.
But yeah, I'll go with, I'll go with ramen.
That'll be my fave for today.
Maybe we'll change tomorrow.
I'll let you know.
You know what, I want to hold it.
Yeah, I want to hold you to that.
Feel free.
You know, wherever the wind takes you, wherever the soup weather takes you.
This is a great first episode of soup soups and nuts, by the way.
So for you, we're starting in the soup section.
What's your fave fave soup?
I know you're not the biggest, uh, clump chowder.
I am not unless it is.
The man had the man had kind.
Yes.
I've also been called clump chowder.
Clump chowder.
For DJ, which funny enough, I've gone by, I go by many names, you know, people just
tuning in.
I go by a whole host of names, you know, Bardini, the great brand, Dany.
Oh, yes.
Uh, Brandon, a with Mr. Biggs, all of this.
Info Fanny pack, Info Fanny pack.
I mean, blood fart.
Oh, how long?
Sorry, cover your ears, children.
Uh, oh.
Uh, oh, but recently, uh, made a new friend and they called me Brandon Manhattan.
Oh, yeah.
What's it?
We didn't we try to come up with that one on the pod one time?
I feel like that was, no, it was like, we were trying to mess with that one.
That's great.
We already got the brand Dany, so brand Hatton.
Right?
Brand.
No, no, it's Brandon Manhattan.
Who came up with that?
Because I feel like I was there for that.
Well, maybe you were.
It's my buddy Cedric, a friend met him through chip.
Um, but yeah, I thought.
That's a great name, though.
It's an excellent.
Oh, of course you met him because of my birthday.
He was in a have a suit with us.
And his wife, he was the guy with the braces.
Yes.
Legendary birthday.
Oh, legendary.
But yeah, we learned that card game Dallas.
I think it was.
Those fun card game.
Yeah, not Corpus Christi.
Some people are trying to make it.
Oh, is that another name for it?
It's not, but it's just.
Oh, okay.
I don't.
I'm a little slow.
I just think of like because we also revived and a game that goes by different names is
a Egyptian rat war or Egyptian screw or however you might say it, but we played that at your
uh, absolutely celebration as well.
And that was a blast.
Just outside weather was just warm nights.
Yeah.
Next to the pool.
Just.
I'm nice.
Cool pool.
Yeah.
Fun games.
What's the name of my autobiography?
Good buds.
Man, Jimmy Buffett alive and well and in Brandini.
Branded Manhattan, the Rizzler and Brandon and the Rizzler.
Hello, let's go.
We gotta, we gotta find a way to actually get our, our, I mean you especially cause
you already have, I don't have a drink name.
That would be sweet.
I mean, but we just got it.
You got it.
You already have, you got to find a place that's like your regular, regular place and
just convince them to like give me a, give me an item on the menu.
Come up with the brandy and he put it on the menu just for a special.
Do a special one day cause I'd be like you've made it at that point.
If you have a drink named after you, you've made it.
And I have a drink already in the can ready to go, you know, Breezy Brandini, Breezy Brandini.
Got a great name.
Got a great name and it's a great drink.
Great on a summer's day.
A variation on a trending drink already.
I know.
Yeah.
Hey, you know what?
I'm going to campaign at my local bar to get the brandy on the menu.
What a move.
You just start posting propaganda.
Just slowly just start to make Breezy Brandini.
Oh yeah.
I love that.
So that's me and Manhattan plan shutter, but my favorite soup is French onion.
Oh, so again.
Ah, it's so fucking good.
Such a good soup.
It's so incredibly flavorful.
It's really easy to make.
It just makes me think of so many situations in my life that I've gotten there because
there's restaurants typically have it on the menu by and large.
I mean, obviously not all restaurants, but a lot of restaurants have it on the menu.
So if you're doing a meal and you're like, I'm going to do a soup course or a salad
course than the main entree.
I mean, if they got French onion on the soup, then are on the soup on the menu, then I'm
doing that.
Yeah.
And there's already, I don't know, a good dip, dipping the bread in and it's kind of
already involved and the bread's already in there and a part of it and the cheese.
It's just like, it's nothing like any other soup.
The closest thing I can think is almost like, and it's not even close, but the cheesy part
of it of like dipping a grilled cheese into a tomato, tomato soup or something, you get
that cheesiness with the soup.
That's just, it's so nice.
It holds up to the temp of the soup and it's such a nice, nice flavor with a good sourdough
or something.
Oh yeah.
Onto nuts.
Oh no, what are we going to say?
I was going to say, it just had a conversation with Danny who's been on this pod before.
He was making a grilled cheese and he made this statement and I 100% agree is sourdough
is the best grilled cheese bread.
Agreed, yeah.
It's just nothing else compares.
Absolutely.
I'm a huge fan of sourdough also for breakfast sammies.
I know like bagels, it's hard to beat a bagel for a good breakfast sammy, especially like
an everything bagel.
Might be the best, but damn, do I love a good sourdough or like a rosemary sourdough?
Oh yeah.
Good for so many occasions, but I completely agree because it, and that sourness is great
with the cheese.
Brings it out.
Jesus kind of got some sourness to it.
You know, it's like, yeah, it's, it's match made in heaven.
We had a, when Brandon and I, Brandini, Brandon, Brandon Manhattan and I lived together, we
had a neighbor that won competitions for grilled cheese.
He did.
And he would tell me stories about and is part of it was like using a little bit of the,
you know, craft American, I believe was.
Oh yeah.
People go too crazy on all the fancy cheeses.
It's like, yeah, you can have fun with some ad incorporate some of that, but you got to
have all that's what a grilled cheese is about.
Is that, you know, singles, like craft singles, like just processed American cheese because
it is so incredibly meltable.
And I mean, it's just, yeah, when you're thinking grilled cheese, you're thinking the cheese
pool, you're thinking something ooey gooey and American cheese, it just, you know, it
can do that.
It gets you there, but you're right too.
Cause he did for breakfast.
Oh, absolutely.
Um, yeah.
I remember him talking about how, yeah, and because of it being a competition, so many
people would, you know, plus it up in all these ways and at all these different types
of cheeses, but yeah, what ends up winning is just having something that gives you that
like, but this tastes like something that I grew up with.
Exactly.
Familiarity to it.
And it's not too up its own butt about needing to have all these, you know, exotic cheeses
combined and, you know, melding together.
So yeah.
Oh, wonder what that, what that as communities like the soup competition community.
You mean the grilled cheese competition or a grilled cheese.
Sorry, we were in soup territory.
I combined it.
That too.
Yeah.
I went to a mushroom festival.
It was pretty small, but it was at, uh, it was near me.
Now it's pretty interesting.
They had a, the center was just so filled with a bunch of different types of mushrooms.
They had them all labeled and it was so cool.
Just like kind of walk around and look at them and I got this, uh, yeah, this mushroom
miso glaze or whatever they brought back.
So good.
Um, but that community was really cool.
They were all really nice.
Oh, for sure.
I bet obviously.
Oh my God.
Cause yeah, the mushroom community, I'm sure is a bunch of outdoorsy, you know, type of
individuals, you know, people that love to go on, uh, hikes.
Uh, yeah, I don't know.
People that, I don't know.
I just a little bit of a hippiness to it.
I think, right?
Exactly.
Yeah.
For sure.
But now, so do you recall what a lion's mane mushroom looked like?
Did I get it?
I'm trying to think if I really honed in and got a good look at that.
I think I was just kind of like looking at the ones that look cool and kind of moving
on because they had this whole, yeah, this whole thing in the, in the middle that just
kind of had them displayed some, some really cool ones.
Um, but I'm familiar with that one being very, a very popular.
Yeah.
Medicinal.
Medicinal for other.
Yeah.
Very cool.
Yeah, such a cool looking mushroom mushrooms in general can be so cool looking.
Sean trail.
I like, I went heart Sean trail harvesting one, one time and those look, those are really
cool.
That was, that was a lot of fun.
Oh, oh fun.
Oh yeah.
I'm a mushroom fan.
I didn't always used to be grown up.
I was not, I was like, ooh, no thanks.
Uh, no mushrooms, no olives too.
I was like, ooh, please no, this is gross.
But, uh, in college, you know, when I was living at that, uh, know what apartment, there
was a lot of things that we did where we're like, we're going to change our minds about
stuff, you know, really take this opportunity of being in college to, uh, you know, develop
new, an interest and, uh, just, yeah, I don't know, open ourselves up to liking new things
because that's what college is all about.
And yeah, I remember just ordering mushrooms and olives on stuff on a semi regular basis
until it just clicked.
And I was like, oh, right.
Vinegar with olives love the taste of it.
Now I love olives so much.
And, uh, mushrooms being that umami that like meatiness, you know, is cool and is such a
great flavor.
Um, yeah, I just cooked with them this week.
I made a, uh, uh, butter masala and mushrooms in it.
And um, God yeah, it was, uh, yeah, I love, love me some mushrooms, but let's, it's
set like, it's almost like that, that introduction to those kind of things are tough when you're
a child.
If maybe you have like a bad version that can ruin your impression of it for a while,
that to where you were scared to try it again and then you try one with like a bunch of
butter and garlic and stuff, you're like, okay.
Okay.
Oh, right.
And then you make some herbs, you know, and some seasoning and, uh, yeah, or incorporated
into something and then you start there and you start to work backwards and to the point
where you're having them, maybe, uh, yeah, on a salad a little bit more by themselves
or whatever it may be.
Cause they, uh, they, they can, you can utilize them in a lot of delicious ways, people, mushrooms,
soups, nuts, peanut.
If I don't know if, if peanut counts cause it's a legume, but I'm gonna go.
I think we're both big peanut guys.
Super huge peanut guy.
Cause by like a long run, it's peanuts for me.
Oh, same here, man.
I just, I feel like I'm having a peanut once a month at least.
I mean, let's, I want to peanut a month.
Just one allowance.
That's my allowance.
I like to keep myself in check, you know, just only one.
And man, when that one peanut, you know, I got to put it in my mouth.
I put on this shirt that just has a peanut on it.
And I'm just going to, yeah.
Monocle on the top hat, like Mr.
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
I just, I, I really get into it because it's such a special time of the month for me to
just, you know, have that one peanut.
Um, when it comes to peanuts, James, what, uh, what's your preferred peanut, you know,
or how do you take it or what's your preferred, uh, it's been a while since I, but I mean,
just a salted, I mean, I don't know if there's a brand, but yeah, just a salted peanut.
You're at our.
Oh, give me that shell.
Sure.
Especially where I'm at a place where I can, I can, or I can drop it in a reasonable,
not messy way.
Like, especially if there's a rest.
Yeah.
Like what is the steak, steakhouse where you can do that?
Or there's other restaurant like Texas.
Does Texas road house?
There's other like steak house.
Road house.
Yeah.
Maybe like five guys.
Like some five guys does it too.
Yeah.
Been a minute since I've been to either of those places, but love when that's the case
or, uh, at a baseball game, like best snack at a baseball, because it, it keeps you busy
too.
You're doing something and I mean, pistachios are fucking great for that reason as well.
Love a good pistachio.
Oh, I mean, that's, yeah, I would say that's number two for me.
Might be.
Yeah.
Ryan.
Yeah.
It's so expensive.
So yeah, it's one of those things where, um, doesn't come by too often, but man, when
it does, it just, it rips.
And macadamia is like maybe not just a straight macadamia, but I love how it's incorporated
into things.
Like a shirt.
I've had macadamia milk.
So good in coffee.
Whoa.
Yeah.
They make all, they make milk of everything.
You find out.
Oh yeah.
Find that macadamia milk people put that in your coffee.
Ooh.
So good.
Ooh.
Get out of down with it.
Maybe a little coconut and macadamia.
I don't know.
Get a little crazy.
Is that a nut?
I mean, no, but we're in the weeds here people.
All right.
Well, that's our episode.
We'll see you next time.
Uh, no, we should probably get into what we might be avoiding a little bit.
Uh, yeah, I'm getting a sense that both of us are kind of, yeah, uh, buying our time until
we delve into this movie, um, which the doble, the doble, the dope, uh, double Reno, double
Reno.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
There's a brand and there's the brandini brandini came in, came into our lives and, and, uh,
you know, it was just a different, different side of Brandon.
I haven't, I haven't seen and I don't know.
There's something, something going on, but, uh, I don't know who we have with us today.
Is it a bar done? Is it Brandon Manhattan? Is it brandini? We'll see.
We'll see. So that makes me think of this concept in the movie that I would like to ask
as a question to you is if you were to be, to have a double like in this movie, would
you be the Gorgarius one, the outgoing one, or would you be the introvert?
I relate with the introverted one.
I know it's like way more like over the top. I think how this movie portrays it so much
so like, and I get, that's just a part of the story I think is having the two sides
of the coin.
Um, and it contrast.
Yeah.
And this one goes very far with it in a, in a lot of ways, but I definitely relate a
lot more with the guy who's apologizing constantly.
Uh, and I don't, yeah.
Some of the other stuff is a little extreme as far as being like not, not rememberable,
remember like not being, you know, memorable or anything like that. But I think more so
just with like the introverted and maybe like just kind of like not trying to ruffle any
feathers and, uh, keep it in keeping your head down a little bit more. But the, yeah,
because the gregarious one, there's a lot of other, there's like other attributes of,
of him too that yeah, it's, it's tough. Obviously it's like very clearly he's like the more
like outgoing one or like that side of him is more outgoing and gregarious and confident,
but also he's like dumber and doesn't want to do the work and doesn't follow through
on, on the actual substance. Like he's not, doesn't have any substance. So that's like
an interesting side of it as well. Um, at least in how this movie portrays it, but
did, which one, which one did you relate with more?
I related with the introverted one as well, because yeah, the idea that you're
so at odds with the version of yourself that you would think you would want to be.
And having that kind of like Tyler Durden, Tyler Durden, for example, but
I won't, that's a great movie to bring up in relation to this, but then it just makes me
think about how successful that movie is about, you know, handling this concept than this movie
is because with fight club just simply put, we don't have to get into the weeds there, but like,
he is envious and spends time almost becoming that person, you know, because that is in a
figment in his mind of what he would like to be. It's almost like a complete opposite.
And in every way, including the negative ways as well, you're just going so far
against what, what you are or something that you, and you've actualized this, this version.
But where that's drawn from, I guess is, is different in all these different kind of stories.
There's that TV show. I like that TV show. He's watching that anytime that came on. I was like,
whoa, is that what's his face from House of Dragon to it is. Yeah. Yeah. The main father guy,
Reese, if Fonz, or whatever, like Viseron, Viseron, Viseris.
He that that in like, you can see maybe, because that's where I'm looking for in this movie
is that. Yeah, that kind of like, where is he drawing that?
That idealized version of himself from, I guess you don't have to go so far with that. I'm just,
I'm kind of curious about the attributes of this other guy and why he wants so much and desires to
be, you know, that version because, and I'm going to bring it, I'm just going to bring it up right
now because I thought the homophobic thing was weird. Yeah. But he like laid on and that was
just like, that's just one layer and everything in that just was outside of all the stereotypical
things of him being like, cocksure and very like, you know, just I want my fucking eggs and all
this shit. But then all of a sudden he's just like so against. You can't be gay. Like you can't,
if you do that, then you're then you like guys and all this and being very like,
and I guess that's maybe part of like, he's just so hetero. That's what I was going to say.
Fucking hetero. And he wants the idealized version of him is really like a guy that can get that can,
you know, have like can that can get women essentially. Yeah, which in bed? Totally. And
this movie. Proposes a lot of things. But I think as we talk through this, it's really the like
execution or that's the problem, you know, because there obviously is an interesting idea here
because of like movies that you've already mentioned with our movie like Fight Club,
but we can mention other ones. I know you wanted to talk about enemy and I would like,
I haven't seen it, but I would like to hear from you about like comparisons and what work
and what to work, you know, things like that. But ultimately, it's just this movie.
This movie needs more meat and needs more growth and characters, growth and relationships.
But this fundamentally, this whole movie is a fever dream. It's like in a different time and
place. And it leans on that. I would argue too much to its detriment is that it's trying to be so
yeah, like a theory or a dream like that. That's what it kind of leans on as an excuse to not
get into more realist, not realistic, but like get into more of relationships or things like that.
Because it just it tends to keep things way too surface level when it needs more development and
substance below this, you know, the plot. The ball starts rolling much too late. So you know
that it's like possible for them to get at least some like action going or like some movement,
but it's not super coherent when it finally like needs needs to happen in the act three or whatever.
But I don't know if this contributes, but there's only like five sets in this movie as well. And
they are fucking like aggressive sets, like maybe not the outward the the apartment building. Okay,
you see like every angle of that fucking apartment building and the place you work. So my god, but
the sets are just like in the subway, of course, the subway, and they use them so repetitively and
actively and maybe to an effect of his life being, you know, this this in this dystopic sort of
there, going, you know, doing the same thing every day. And yeah, and then I get what they're
trying to do. It does the sets is one thing and I'll leave that aside that that was just kind
of bothering me that it was and it doesn't have to be there are movies that have low budget and
they have not that many sets that maybe they're they're able to work it in. But the way that
this movie does with editing, like the editing is rough. And then the lighting is like,
why are we on a stage play right now the sets and the lighting
such harsh is a fucking stage play and I don't know if
yeah, it's all spotlights. It's all spotlights. So like, it's either fully dark or fully lit.
And so you see characters like walk into their light constantly. And you see a scene starting
where a person's walking in complete darkness and then they walk to the foreground of the screen
and then full light on their face from like a light from above or whatever. And that's a
stylistic choice. They were very intentional about that. Sometimes it looks okay, but most of the
most of the time it looks harsh over satire over contrast, like just not pleasant for me to look
at any but occasionally it looks good. And occasionally some there's some fun editing
things because they're taking some bigger swings. But most of the time, it's creating and doesn't
doesn't work for me and is trying really hard to be stylistic and artistic. So I'm trying to
not get too hard on it in some senses, but it does not make a good story does not make an
enjoyable overall enjoyable experience, unfortunately. So yeah, leaving that there. I don't know if
you have anything to say about that before we move on to like maybe performances and stuff like that.
Yeah, absolutely. Because like, what you're talking about speaks to I'm sure what I'll mention
in other ways. When talking about this movie is there, there is a concept in an idea that
obviously Richard is interested in for like, presenting. And one of those ideas is since
this is based off of a doze I have scheme. Like novella, wanting visual representation of a very
harsh reality and a very oppressive life that is and just yeah, and I'll just leave it there
like and communicate that visually, you know, why the sets are what they are is because it allows
you it's so hermetic in a way that it's this this individual Simon slash James is just doing the same
thing over and over again, diner every time. Same diner every time that he can.
Same diner every time that he gets treated like shit at and he gets treated like shit at work.
And so the idea I get why to visually do that but then to your point is
it's not done with like, I don't know, a level of competency or a level of flair and
I don't know, like it's, it's just not quite getting to, you know, getting to a place that it's
maybe just at a base level interesting, because I feel like if you were to talk about movies like
I don't know, like a racer head in relation to this movie, that's a great goal. I mean,
but it's very obvious. Yeah. Yeah. Right. But that's like a movie that's also very like lit in a way,
a lot of farseness to it. It's a lot of claustrophobic kind of setty feel to it.
So I'm curious of this like in a black and white cut. I'm curious what that would look like.
It would probably look better, I would say, because yeah, then then weirdly,
that's it's the cake and eat it too. It's like if you're going to want a visual representation
of a oppressive society, a society of void of joy or a life devoid of joy.
Yeah. Then to also saturate and have certain, I don't know, have certain things.
These yellow lights, man. I don't know. And that's
it's interesting because I mean, the first mention of enemy is there's a lot of yellow in that
movie too, but it's a haze and it's like a filter that they put on it almost.
That almost is like early like you're going to Mexico or something in like an early 2000s
movie or something like that or in like traffic and Soderbergh's traffic or something.
But in this in this one, yeah, it's just that there's no natural daylight in like the movie,
it feels like. And there's occasionally some parts where he's with her like on their date.
I remember thinking like, oh, things like evened out. There's like a softer tone over
over the scene and like, oh, this is possible. And to know that it was possible and that could
have been a little bit more purposeful in between the moments like, I don't know.
And almost comes across as like overcompensating a little bit. I don't know if that maybe that's
being a little harsh, but it comes across as like trying to make up for knowing that there are
there's a lot of repetitious content in a lot of the same sets that they do have to get interesting
with how to shoot it. I agree. But it's difficult to make a frenetic fast-paced movie in such a small
environment like taking more purposeful edits and longer takes with between them.
And in such a confined like you're saying like hermetically sealed environment like
makes being in those places more bearable. Because I find myself like liking those movies,
like I don't know, obviously hateful eight is coming from someone who's obviously an amazing
filmmaker, but I can watch a movie stuck in one location and be all right. But yeah, that
and you mentioned eraser head, I think that poll is a great comparison because you can tell
he's just trying so much to use those sort of audio editing techniques, which the audio editing
editing at moments is really cool. Very obviously like pulled from that sort of, you know,
lynch Ian sort of sort of way of filmmaking. But also it's like, it's a sort of that's why I say
over compensating maybe because it's the attempt to be surreal when it's so heavy handed that
it doesn't everything else is so heavy handed too. And when you put those surreal elements in,
it doesn't work as well. And another mention of enemy where that movie uses surreal elements,
surrealist elements very well, I think. And I do like like that one, but try not to try my best
not to mention it. But it coming up, I do have to say like, that movie came out the same year,
that's a pretty pretty bonkers thing to happen. I wish I had more of an answer on the show for
and research as to why, you know, two things come out at the same time on based on this on the same
exact story. You know, there's a Duff Sasky, but then there's like the other Jose Saramago,
I believe is the author's name of the other version of that's inspired by Duff Sasky as well. So
a copy of a copy and it's a double of a double. So I guess it works to be inspired by inspired
by different things. Like this is an interesting idea, doppelganger and Lynch has David Lynch has
plenty of doppelganger shit and his movies are in his sort of shows and movies as well. So you can
tell he's to wrap up any sort of point I'm trying to make, you can tell he's like coming up, coming
through with a lot of like influences to his filmmaking. And he and it's it becomes frustrating
as an audience member to see those, but then I haven't not be like satisfyingly notched in and
fit in and to the puzzle that is a movie that that works in like an evenly evenly paced way because
this movie is very unevenly paced as well. And I feel like I've been railing on it for a for a while
now. So is there anything you want to mention that I just said? Yeah, I was going to mention like
Eisenberg's performance at some point. I wanted to transition based off of what we're talking about
of the unevenness in relation to the dark subject matter, but also having a lot of comedy in this
that this movie weirdly made me after watching it. I was like, there was a lot of quote unquote funny
stuff in this. But I just, you know, as I ruminated with, you know, what I just saw.
I just I don't know I came to the conclusion the reason I wasn't laughing or with it comedically
is because the subject matter is so fucking heavy. You know, it's this isn't.
I don't know. They're at a base level. I just thought about like the overall interactions
relationship between Jesse Eisenberg, the doubles, none of it is has moments that kind of allow you
to laugh and to have fun with it because their interactions from the jump are so serious.
You know, it's even like, you know, going to the diner together. There's this weird tension that
immediately happens where you're on edge where obviously he's uncomfortable, but then the double
I don't like yells essentially at the waitress and.
Yeah, there's.
Yeah, there's. After watching interviews with Richard, like he is a very funny guy and he finds
dark things very comedic, you know, just solely like in an interview he was talking about the
idea of the double itself. In particular, the idea that, you know, like the scene when you first
meet the double in this movie where people don't recognize that he's a copy of it and finding
so much humor in that. And so that's an example of that's supposed to be played in the director's
mind as being funny, but it's not because the lead up and every and the way that Jesse's playing it.
It's no Taylor plays it pretty well, but beyond that, yeah.
Yeah. I agree. And time and time again, it's like a lot of the comedy in this movie isn't
like what it's directed at is Jesse Eisenberg's character getting shit on, you know, losing
over and over again, and it's supposed to be really funny how a lot of it's like bureaucracy
stuff. You know, at times this movie reminded me a little bit of super troopers and it's
like satire approach where it has this kernel figure that exists and everybody's just making
reports. Do you know what these reports are? No. And then the way that people talk about it, it's
like he's so good at doing reports and there's not you don't get any sense of like what that
company actually makes. I do like how big that is. Yeah. It's comedy. Like that's satire. That's
comedy. But like it's just passed by it's so like it's so just like shuffled, shuffled by
it's never you don't get to absorb it as as much as you want to.
Well, because I think I just always came back to the fact is that it's because Jesse Eisenberg's
character is getting tormented. And to Jesse's credit is he's a good actor. So you really feel
a sense of this like, you know, loneliness, this disconnected, this, you know, despondent, this
down and out this. This guy that really is going through a hard time. And it's, yeah, it's, it's
really tough to let the comedy to laugh at the comedy because just a minute ago we had people
committing suicide. We had, you know, and even that suicide scene has like this weird like the
not cops, but they're like that's their whole thing is to like clean up suicide bodies.
And that's supposed to be played for comedy. But what the subject matter is is you're like,
I'm not laughing at this. This is horrendous. You're telling me that, you know, it's almost
like a part of the joke in the dialogue is suicide business is booming and that should be funny.
That's not the whole thing about the net and the foreshadowing there.
Right. Where yeah, they just explain like, man, if he only fell a couple feet to the left or
whatever. And there's no other net. There's just like this one tiny little net.
Mm hmm. Then he would have still been made. How do they say this? Like he still would have been
mained by would be alive. Uh huh. I was like very like clear like what's gonna happen to him later,
I guess. But yeah, and this is where I don't know. This is maybe not the answer for everything,
but it's like very British. It is very dry and like a lot of the dark, dark humor that doesn't
explain everything. Obviously, but a lot of that plays like snappy. Everything is just so snappy.
And whether it's a joke you can't absorb or it's just even a line. It's not in every scene,
but there's a lot of scenes where it's like, I say my line. Now you say your line, right? And then
it just is like quipped back and forth, back and forth. And sometimes the conversation is like,
are these people even in the same room, which is part of the surrealist attitude towards
filmmaking, which I get where they're going for it. Why it feels almost like a fever dream,
because these people are like saying things that don't even address what the last person just said.
And especially between him and Mio, uh, was a Kowski or whatever. However you say your name, but
I agree with the writing. They set up certain situations that end up being funny because
some of the, some of the actors pull it off. But even then it's like, I like the guy that
is telling him that like you're not in the system and you can't get back in the system. And like
that's it. Uh, and you say he was like, he was on the IT crowd as well. He does this thing at the
very end where he takes his computer and he smiles and he like, yeah, like that has nothing. I feel
like maybe he pulled down on one of the takes and Richard was like, yeah, do that. Cause that seems
like very much just him doing something fun. And it's like, how like good we need more of that
kind of life. And even if it's weird, sort of put on, uh, you know, sort of fake nice for the
corp, for the, whatever you call them, the sergeant, corporal, whatever, the colonel, the colonel.
And, but then you even get the other guy from IT crowd later as the nurse and his whole scene,
wasn't that funny either. I don't know. That didn't really come across super strong, but I think I
laughed like three times. And one of them was, was the guy taking the computer away. The other one
was when he, he comes out and there was such a weird scene going into this, but like he's,
he's visiting his mom and then like the other lady with like the pigtails is like, pulls a knife out.
And I forget exactly why she says she needs to perform some ritual or something. And he gets
freaked out cause he's like, and it's like, like a rite, like a ceremonial knife. And then he goes
to the front desk guy and he's like, are you aware that people have weapons here? Uh, oh,
should I should pull out? Do you know people are carrying weapons? Yeah. How long has this been
going on a while? And he opens his jacket and he has a gun. Cause that guy is a comedian.
Deadpan funny, like everything. A lot of, there's a lot of deadpan stuff. And that was one that,
that did work for me, but I didn't expect it. And that's a great example too.
Cause it just makes me think of why it's not that funny is because of how Jesse's also playing it
too. Well, that's, yeah, I've been meaning to get into the performance there. And I mean,
if we want to move on from, from writing and all that, cause I do, I do put a lot on the writing
and there's performances that do break through, but overall it is dour and it is
putting everyone in a situation where, uh, there's not a lot of time to relish in any sort of humor
or levity and it is all very down on the, on the main character, which I think Jesse Eisenberg
does play well. I think he does play like the main character. Well, I just don't think he
plays the other part very well. I don't think there's enough of, and I don't, I almost don't
even blame him either. I feel like it's a cast just casting him, but he does the physicality.
Okay. Me and the, the facial expressions, but his voice is so fucking monotone that when they're
in a conversation together, like I'm done. And this movie is a movie called the double where
they are, there's two of them. There really shouldn't be many scenes with them together,
in my opinion. And that's what enemy does really well is refrain from, there's like a big,
big buildup to them finally being in the same room together and then it, and then they kind of back
off from that. Them being in like going back and forth on each other is already tough for me to get
into a movie like that, but it's like, back and forth just on the same and them sitting at the
diner. It's like, yeah, he is emoting with his body and his face and he's pretty good with that,
but he is deadpan and, and monotone and even he's like, we'll give me some fucking eggs.
Well, why don't we, it's, it doesn't change. Not saying it should or whatever, but I think
it would help a lot to, to add a little bit something different with the voice. I don't know.
I don't know. Maybe it's just a different, different actor. Maybe it's my own thing with
Jesse Eisenberg. No, it's definitely a different actor would be better because,
you know, to Jesse Eisenberg's credit is his whole career has been picking interesting movies
and using his cash aid to get projects going. And I do like the fact that he hasn't done a lot of like
Lex Luthor Superman or now you see me movies and he does a lot of movies. And a lot, you know,
and a majority of them are, yeah, in, in the ish movies. Yeah, the just, I'm sure benefit
getting made from him being attached to it. And it really seems like he is an active participant
in the roles that he picks. So he really brings it, but it is miscasting for him here because
at a fundamental level, I think the James version of Simon needs to just be likable and he is not
likable because of Jesse Eisenberg. That's a great point. Like neither of them really,
really are. Unfortunately, you feel for the main character, of course, but you're also kind of like
he's the you get introduced with him looking through a telescope to his to his, he's a peeper
right off the bat, right off the bat. Exactly. You're already just like, this guy.
Sure. And I can give a little bit of concede a little bit of again, this is an individual that is
so inept at, you know, having real human relations. So him being interested in seeing other people's
lives through with space in between makes sense. But absolutely. But again, the problem is, is that
they're just not likable enough where it made me think of the fact that George McFly, when you
meet them in the future, is a peeper, you know, but you it's crazy how weird, I will say, how easy
you're able to move in that movie because he just has such a like, it also makes sense. The way I
like to look at that, and it is like a weird thing, but it makes sense why Marty wouldn't have
heard that story. And I like that idea of like, there's this like kind of like seedy underbelly of
like the story of your parents getting together. Maybe you don't fully know. And then you find it
out this way is in my mind with the mind with the movie is going for of like digging up those things
you didn't know about your parents history of their relationship and themselves. And I yeah,
it doesn't have to be a perfect, you know, celibate whatever sort of character like that's
that's chess and all that shit. And it doesn't especially in a gritty movie. But I gotta give
me something. I mean, gotta give me gotta give me something even when Wallace Sean doesn't get get
a moment to be like, I know. Yeah, like his usage in this movie is so underutilized. I really I spent
like 30 minutes trying to figure out why Wallace Sean did this in the same thing every scene. He
doesn't do anything. He just constantly says the same fucking thing every scene. Right. He just
berates him about not being a good worker. It's just over and over again. It's like,
you need to be better. You you're not a good worker. Let me call you know, always calling
him the wrong name and stuff like that. And it yeah, it's just so it's not funny. And it's just
overall unenjoyable to just see a such a well known actor be subjugated to this where yeah,
you're just a smarmy asshole that has such a little to do and such a little effect on almost
everything. Yeah, I mean, those are those are I think Mia is doing what she can in the movie.
But also that is an opportunity for there to be more life as well. But it just this is the movie
that I wanted to make and the tone that he wanted to set. But I'm not really rooting for the main
character. I'm just I'm like rooting for things to just like people leave him alone a little bit.
The thing about people not recognizing him and the guy that like, and every single time he goes in,
they don't know who he is. That's supposed to be really funny too. That doesn't they do that every
every single time is like the new day will start and then it'll start with that is how you know
it's like a new day, I guess, that's a signifier. But that got old really quick and was never really
that funny in the character that had to stop him at every at every point. Yeah, even at like the party.
But yeah, I mean, barreling to the through this movie, like just to bring up like the the end,
and I couldn't even like really put piece it all together. And there were moments where I'd pause
and go back a little bit and try to keep track of everything that was going on because like,
there was a moment where even Mia was like, about to kill herself and then you find out that it was
and that she then he stops her then you find out because of that she has a miscarriage.
And that is blown by there's like a throwaway line for all of that. And she's just and then
she's like upset at it. And then like that leads into the rest of the movie like right from that.
And that's that was such a thrown in thing to propel us through the end. And I don't I didn't
feel good at the end of this movie. I felt confused. I felt used. No, I just like it threw me around
like a like a like a blender like those blue drink blenders. I felt like I was in one of the which
looked really tasty. I want one of those blue drinks, but I felt like I was getting blended
around in there at the end here is nonsensical and too much at once when there was not enough
leading up to it. Yeah. Yeah. No, what do you think of that? Like, how did you react to all
the stuff at the end there? Like where you were like, Oh, good things are happening action or
like for me, I was at first like that. But then I was like, it's not coalescing. It's not all
edit. Is that the editing? I don't know. How do you feel about it? I mean, I at this point
of the movie, it just there was such a like I was so disinterested in what was going on.
Because at the end, like you could really see the I know that the ending is odd. And I obviously
didn't see it coming. But like I also kind of saw it coming. And so there's just this malaise
and also to the movie is really propagating the malaise that I felt with viewing this because
it's just so much of like his mother treats him like shit. Mia doesn't love him. Then the his
boss treats him like shit. Then his his double treats him like it's a show is a new thing that
he's working on some regression model that's going to be great. I don't know. Yeah. The kernel.
Oh, yeah, I'm sure the kernel. I don't know. Anyways. But so to the ending to your question was,
I was honestly more just focusing on the where the camera was, because that's honestly the
most enjoyment that I got out of the movie because the he did put the camera in really
crazy places like that once like where the camera does the fall and then like goes onto the ground.
That was very Wes Anderson in that shot. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I felt like I don't know.
Yeah. But nonetheless, there's also, you know, the whole scene of the grave for his mother where
there's a lot of like really interesting shots. There's one where like Mia runs out to
like because Simon just tried to commit suicide. And then like the camera like ratchets way,
way back. And then you get this really large POV of that that you know, scene going on. And that
stuff was honestly the most interesting part of this whole movie was some of that stuff. And
the hallway with the lighting there like with the different colors, some of the different colors
were like, like, oh, I almost I almost see like an interesting thing they're trying to do here.
Or like, Oh, it's a blue. It's a they could even done a little bit more with that. Oh, it's a red
color. Oh, interesting. Oh, colors and colors are fun. Yeah. I mean, we talked about what was it?
You're gonna die tomorrow. What is that? You're gonna die tomorrow movie or whatever.
That was a great use of colored lights. Like there was a whole like monster. I was like the
monster in that movie was colored lights. Yeah, just like look at it. And then it depended on
that they're acting like, oh, my God, we're all like, I'm fucking die. What a subtle way of
explaining and communicating an idea and an idea. Yeah. Right. Just communicating a thematic idea.
Yeah. Or yeah, just like communicating an idea through those elements of yeah, color and also,
yeah, in that movie that you referenced, like being so close on them and really just
like for long, I remember like for a while, so you could really see so much internal stuff happening
because you're just so close to their eyes. So yeah, like this movie had some of that.
Yeah. But the ending, yeah, it's just, again, there's so much suicide in this movie.
I know. For it to be a also trying to be a comedy seems, I don't know, like.
I didn't expect the Mia one that did that. Like to just short credited that character,
that moment, everything like and to go right back into his stuff that the climactic moment maybe
would be when he's like, he's on my face. That's my face. With the with the arm, you're talking
about that scene. Oh my God. That was the third part I laughed at. Yeah. That's the third part.
Oh my God. Thank you. The prosthetic. That's my last note. I can't give Rudolph his arm back.
In conceivable. I was like, where'd he get that army? And then the line was so perfectly
time. I was like, give Rudolph his arm. That's like taking the shit out of the dramatic moment.
They could have done a little bit more. I think with that is like if you're going to have this
intense dark things like, yeah, and I think they were trying, but maybe it just didn't land.
I'll go through some. Let me see if there's any other notes I wanted to look at. It took almost
no notes. The only one I really was like right at the beginning, then I just trailed off. But the
first part of this movie reminded me so much of paper, please. Because he gets there and then
there's that whole interaction guard to get him into his office. And then it's like, no, you'd
need not only just this ID, but you also need this other piece of paper. And I was like, wow,
this is so like paper. This is for you. Minded me of and I'm trying to be short with this.
But the Andrew Callahan Channel 5 News Channel 5 did a documentary on Las Vegas and the people who
live in the tunnels in Las Vegas. And it was like an hour and a half long got taken down for
bullshit reasons. Try not to get into that. But I had the opportunity to watch it. And it's amazing.
One of the big struggles of people that live in the tunnels of Las Vegas is getting an ID.
It's it was it's they it sounds very difficult for them to get an ID when you don't have like
you need an ID to get an ID sort of thing. And I need an address to get an ID and that can that
can be difficult. And that whole scene of him sitting down with the guy of like, okay, well,
how do we fix this? How do I get back in the system? You say I'm not how do I get in like, no,
it's like you need an ID like, well, how do I don't have one in that it just it was maybe a stretch,
but it was I'd watched it recently enough that kind of reminded me of that and that humor of
beer, the bureaucratic system that doesn't make sense. You sit down to someone face to face who
goes pretty much by the rules of everything. And there's no humanity left. It's all just these
systems that we live and die by. And it's like, well, that's what it says. So it takes this computer
and smiles and walks away. It's like, you know, right. But it also kind of I exist, right? Like,
you know, I'm standing here, like I exist. Yeah, you know, I you know, I am like,
I existed before in the system. So put me back in and that's the thing is that yeah,
I'm gonna arrest them for trespassing know exactly how they are put them in prison.
They're in that system, but you can't put them in, you know, to get them get in my
absolutely. All right, I'll try not to get too into that. That it's, it's a scary one.
A dystopia reminds you of reality. But that's why that's part of like sci fi right. I always
like sci fi writings and those kind of things because that's where it's drawing from. It's
like, oh, you're gonna go down this. This is like the most extreme version of this path that our
society can go down or something. Yeah, my first two notes are lighting is harsh,
and everything aggressively looks like a set. And that's like the very first thing I noticed.
And it just carried through all the way through. Melanie is playing that duck hunt game with like
the kernel, the way she's sitting on the couch and playing this duck hunt game was kind of funny.
That was a weird character. It did nothing for me as well. Nothing. So the whole thing about
taking the key to his room, I don't know. Because the only reason she was there is to
be the foil that me that Hannah kills herself, essentially, because Jane sleeps with her and
then Hannah finds out, which then triggers that. And it also was like leverage for the kernel
and leverage. Yeah, it was the leverage to yeah, yeah, because Jane sleeps with her and then takes
pictures of it and then obviously just like uses that as leverage to which again, how it's so crazy
and so stupid and so like simple that all of that leverage was for him to use as a partman to fuck
chicks in or something. Yeah, some key that he like who cares? Like this movie needed to move
along and it's like, let's just spend 40 minutes just with this whole like, yes, James is an asshole.
Like, and he's just hooking up with even the going so far as hooking up with the diner woman.
That was kind of funny. He brings her back. Then he just kind of gives it away. Well, he nearly
is like, I'm going to tell him and then he he's like, fine, I won't, you know, I won't. I forget
what the letter like what he says he wouldn't do. He's like, and he says he's not going to tell him
and then he just goes and tells him anyways. And it just seems so haphazard that part too much time
spent to these repetitive things when, yeah, the last portion had had a lot to get into and absorb
and take in. I never seen an old lady with pigtails. That was interesting. Yep. Yep. Peep and Tom
torn up that torn up picture thing. I don't know. And then our hands because of it. Like the journal
at the end of all of them. I was like, this is supposed to be a big moment. They're both crying.
I'm like, I feel nothing. Absolutely nothing in this moment. That's not good, right? That's not
good. That's terrible. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. TV show looks awesome.
Why didn't you notice you're unnoticeable? They're both monotone. Are you a flamer is what he asked
him? That was like blue miles. Like, whoa. Whoa. Why is this an attribute for him?
They're recording lives is what they mentioned is their job at one point. So there's like a little
bull hand. There's the thing with like her rubbing the cups together like, oh, they changed the cups.
The other ones made it sound like crickets. And then this scene ended. I was like, okay.
Okay. All right. Moving on. Never mind.
Some of my notes, my judge had very few of them were really about quotes from like stuff that
was on TV in the movie, you know, because there's this whole like monologue about that commercial
about how like people are our business and business and people and people do business and we are
about business and just like doing that whole thing. It's like just a bunch of yeah, like generic
shots of people doing business. Oh, yeah. That whole like, that was okay. It's something where
that's like, that's that term I, I feel like I've never heard it anywhere else, but I feel like
I've mentioned other times where it's that contrived camp where it's trying to be this retro and this
is the whole retro futurism thing that this movie is trying to do. Maybe a little cyber punky, but
it's kind of the retro futuristic sort of sort of thing and in a little bit of the Eastern European,
I guess with Dostoyevsky and like how the apartment blocks and where they work. But
style, yeah, I don't know if the style fully works. Oh, the date, I hated that man. I hated that they
did that the fucking microphone trick with him in the bathroom and him going on the date. I'm like,
are we really fucking doing this right now? I'm really fucking doing this. And the stupidest part
is the only reason you would ever do that is because they don't look the two people wouldn't
look the same. If you look the same, you don't need to do the microphone thing. You just have
to go on the date and then switch later when you're about to do the deed or whatever. But you don't
need to do the microphone thing. You guys look exactly the fucking same, except when you don't
need to the narrative hinges on that. Depend like it depends on that sometimes and in a annoying way.
But that bug me so much is like, you're really fucking shallow howling it right now. Oh, I
cannot believe I'm watching shallow howling. And I like that movie. But now knowing a little bit
more about, you know, I don't know, Richard's approach to this or his sensibilities. Like in
his mind, he probably looks at that is also a joke. The fact that that's happening and they're
the same person. Yeah. Right. Like that's also isn't that so funny? Because to your point,
like typically it would be and I'm the idiot for not. Yeah. For criticizing it. James, you're not
stopping. You're not an idiot. No. Oh, no, just like that. That's how you like it's like,
it's very intentional. But I'm not getting is what you might say to me is like, oh, you just
don't get it. But even if I did, I don't think I'd like it. It's just not a good joke. Yeah,
it's not that you're an idiot. It's just not a fucking good joke. Yeah, which this movie has
a lot of not good jokes. And then on top of it, you're layering so much of the plot and so much
of the other stuff is so fucking morose. So incredibly morose. Yeah. Like I can express enough
the relationship he has with his mother is so upsetting. There's no arc to that relationship
either. He gets a knife out of that. That's how that loop ends is like he gets a knife from
her friend. Friend. Right. I don't know, maybe like a nurse or yeah, anyways,
but pigtail. She just had that. Yeah. No, I'm glad you're really stressing that because there is
not a light at the end of the tunnel with this movie. No, this movie leave us is him laying in
the ambulance and like what is there's the his one version in the bar that you get the head,
the blood coming out of his head and then you get the version on the ground. You know,
it's the same person or whatever, but on the ground with the blood come. But then he opens
his eyes and his arm comes up, I guess, and then she's there. I feel I feel nothing. I feel nothing,
Brad. And what do I do? Totally. I mean, it's yeah, and it's understandable because, you know,
not well, mainly because I also felt the same way watching this is that I don't feel anything because
I'm it's almost like my nerves are shot. You know, like this movie is so all over the place and also
very intense. And like right from the go, it doesn't really let off and it just numbs you a
little bit where you're like, think about how many fucking suicides are in this goddamn movie?
Yeah, like this is a movie that has like four suicides in it. Like,
they talk about it to talk about it endlessly with everybody. And it's like, how can I?
It's to me, it's equivalent to in Star Wars, The Last Jedi. In the beginning of it, there's the scene
where Poe is crank calling a Dom hell Gleason's character and just having this whole fun, you
know, just commuted banter and whatnot. And then zip. People are dying in space. Like,
oh, Jesus, like, I mean, at least that movie benefits from doing the funny stuff first before
the intense stuff. So at least you're like a little bit more like this one's all at the same
time, baby. All the same time. And then also, but also front loading, not humor and front
loading a lot of grim realities and grim sci fi, you know, satire of what the world could become
where it's all about just companies, you know, doing business. And then everybody that works
there is the soulless person who just clicky clacks on a keyboard and does reports. And it's
like, oh, this man, I know we're not there yet, but man, it's just crazy how
unsuccessful this movie noticeably is in like, you see what it's trying to do.
And so many ways along the road, you're like,
I get what you're trying to do, but this isn't working. It gets worse as the movie goes on.
Unfortunately, like everything that I had issues with like got just worse and worse and worse
as it as it went on. I think that's essential. That's pretty much all my notes. I know there's
this point where Mio was like saying something about like, I forget why he was watching her this
time. He always does, but he she finds out and then she says like it's reassuring to be watched.
And I was like, did I catch that? It's okay. It's reassuring to it's reassuring to be watched.
And immediately after he like hold very casually, whatever, in a flirty sort of way, whatever,
he puts his hand out to touch her arm. Right after she she's saying, fine, watch me all you want,
baby. And then he touches her a little bit. He's like, just fucking touch me. And I was like,
yeah, what is happening? I can't track characters in this. I don't know who people are and what
they want. And that's tough in a movie, especially in that was much later on in the movie. I don't
know who these people are what they want and their goals and their wants and needs and what the arc
needs to be for them. And you can end on a darker note too, if you want, but fuck, it just,
I think is hard to grasp onto the straws. And I mean, and to that too is like, in my mind, like,
if I could just try to like simply put it is that Hannah Mia's character,
she kills herself just because a guy she just met doesn't want to date her.
I guess dude, that part was blown over.
That's go to jail material. Yeah.
Movie wise, like, it's very close.
Fuck you movie for her whole entire life. Yeah.
Is predicated on whether or not a guy she just met is into her, which she's never even had a
relationship with. It isn't like they, you know, we get this whole thing of like, they're having
maybe an assemblance of like a real relationship. It is.
I guess. And then she had his she's having his kid. Is that the deal?
Yeah, that's what we are supposed to think is that in the in the one hookup session that they did
have that she got pregnant. And that's where the man, this is things to do in Denver.
When you're dead type of a powerful semen.
Right. Yeah. Right. And just, holy, it's quite the reference, but you know, if you know, you know,
if you're listening, go to bed, go to bed. Yeah.
Very potent, but yeah, fuck. I don't know.
This is tough because it is a movie. Yeah. I think I was very curious about very interested in
the comparison between this and enemy. I'm happy that we didn't go in. I didn't want to bring up
that movie too much, but fascinating. They both came out the same year. And now having
not just that comparison, but this movie alone, it's like, Oh, I like this movie. I should like
this one. Wow. Did not enjoy myself in that spoiler alert for my review, I guess. But before we get
to our reviews, we should get into some critics and audiences reviews on round tomatoes before we
did. We do that. Let's take a little break and we'll be right back.
Yeah.
That is the song he chooses to play on jukebox. Right.
That had like a jukebox to have that. That is the one that is this go to jukebox song. Yeah.
Yeah. Why? That was such a big moment because he goes to the bathroom on this date.
I'm not sure. I think this is later when they kiss and everyone applauds.
It's a weird moment. This is a weird movie. It's supposed to be weird. But it's trying to be weird.
But God, what was I just saying? Fuck. Sorry.
Yeah, she comes back from the bathroom and then it does that whole cutaway
of her reading the note that she leaves. And it's such a kooky sort of quirky sort of thing for
someone to do in a movie that is also fun in that way, too. Like something like some Zoe
Deschanel would do in five hundred days of summer or something. It's cute. It's like a cute little
moment. And it does that zoom in on her face, which is a fun camera move. And she's like play.
Like she leaves them a quarter like had to go play something happy on the jukebox fun. Fun.
I don't know. I don't play something fun or something like that. And then you see the cool
flipping of the coin. She throws it. And then it's like this unrecognizable coin, which is a
little clue into the this is a universe that we don't know. And it's like, oh, this is fun. But
then yeah, OK, this is the song I'm going to pick. And I was like, oh, I'm not mad. But you're
also kind of think that it's going to be like a little bit more recognizable, maybe, but this is
the universe that we're in. And the song is a big deal on this universe. Yeah, because I mean,
just fundamentally, you're like, is he just listening to like 70s Japanese R&B artists?
Like, yeah, is that retro future? I don't know. And that's his jam. It's just I don't know.
Is he going to put on like city pop music? Is he going to go to a cocktail lounge and some swingers?
Does he? Yeah. Does he like chill lo-fi beats, too? I don't know. Like, yeah, fucking.
That would be so you put a lo-fi beat on that song. I'd be into it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. All right.
Let's check out some reviews from the poo-poos over on the critic side. They gave an 83 percent
certified fresh movie is a spicy movie. And it's a 59 percent audience. It's not like completely
poopy, doopie, snoopy, but it's definitely sub par, sub certified fresh.
Let's get into some thoughts and feelings from the critics side of things.
Let's take a look at Kate Muir from the Times at UK says British director I.O.
Adé's second film is jam packed with witty references from cheesy sci fi soap operas to
the long suffering men who populate the Coen Brothers films. John Seamley, family from Globe
and Mail. The film's bleakness is almost satirical. It's Brazil drained of the daydreams.
Hmm. I mean, God, he's yeah, he's a little bit more tuned in than the one before. Well, here are a
few I think Brazil references from these critics, which is a movie I'm not super familiar with.
But I did a little bit. I've I've seen I haven't finished it the time I watched it. But I get the
I get the reference. You can you can see all the references that this guy is pulling from from
Tiber Boston Globe. The double is a striking piece of work, but it's nostalgic for a kind
of paranoia that may no longer exist. There are different things to frighten us now.
What does that mean? Yeah, what are you implying, Tiber?
Yeah, it's a little cryptic. From Evan Williams, that the Australian says,
at some point, the double begins to look like a critique of a regimented world of docile consumers
enslaved by dehumanizing technology. But nothing feels heavy or pretentious.
I would not agree. I'm going to have to say, yeah, I'm going to have to say cap.
Oh, man. That is so cab. I'm going to have to throw a little cap in there.
OK. Dana Steven slate. I already creates a uniquely stylized dystopia,
lit and dusty tones of olive and okra and scored mysteriously, but somehow perfectly,
to vintage Japanese pop. That's a vintage Japanese pop.
This score is good. Yeah. There's another song for the credits.
It's pretty pretty good, too. There's like this band that these a couple,
couple songs from this, yeah, like 60s Japanese pop band.
I want it from Kyle Smith, New York Post.
I want his breathtakingly realized oddity will appeal to fans of David Lynch and the
comic surrealism of Derry Gilliams Brazil. Here we go again. And we'll do one more from Bob
Mandelo from NPR, eight and a half out of 10. Sorry, I haven't been given all these scores.
Some of them they don't say, but they just did a little fresh tomato there.
Bob Mandelo says this workplace as healthscape is not new territory. Exactly.
The story is based on Dostoevsky plays like Kafka and looks like an Orwellian nightmare.
But who'd complain since it lets Jesse Eisenberg offer what amounts to an acting master class?
It's a master class brandy. Get over it.
I mean, yeah, I can I can understand those references that they were making for sure.
Yeah, these these critics, that's where they whether they like it or not, they know the
references and they appreciate them for that. And it's it's interesting how it can kind of go
either way in that department. Because for me, that did not work as well. And speaking of not
working well, let's hear what the audience audiences have to say for the 59 percent range of thinking.
What's that? You're like, speaking of not working well, let's talk about the people that loved it.
Oh, no, the audiences hate it. Oh, that's right. I'm so fucked up. You fucked up my transition,
Brad, Dini, the emperor's group right there. Emperor James, Dini from Vi Vibehov, Agarwal, one star.
They say, don't watch it. If you want your brain to be in one piece, just don't frickin watch it.
It's a very, very depressive and just nonsense, utter nonsensical movie.
Yeah, yeah, from Sunil Sinj, one star. I think the screenwriter stole it from
Stas Tiavsky's novel by the same name. They should have at least not taken the whole credit for it.
They took all the credit. Not all heroes wear caves. Gotta give it up for Doss.
Yeah, hey, don't let's not forget. Yeah, let's say, yeah. Let's go to Carlos Carlos Restrepo,
one star. Definitely movies in which the good guys dies are deplorable and viewers hate them.
Don't waste your time. Francisco Ibanez, the third one star. They say nonsense and boring
movie one hour and 30 minutes of my life wasted. Thank God this movie was that long. Yes, that's
one thing I appreciate 30 minutes longer. Oh, scary. From Ninja one star. This movie is incredibly
boring from first second to last second. You won't see anything interesting.
From Jamie Kaye one star. Geez, this was a trial to sit through. I consider leaving the
cinema several times but held out till the end. Richard I. Oade's brand of oh so cool kooky
stick just does nothing for me. And I found this to be interminably boring and it ultimately
pointless. British Wes Anderson. Give me a fucking break. From Markella one star. Why Richard I. Ode?
I odd a rock. Why? I was going to guess this was a French film, but English was my second gas.
Sandwich next to movies like City of Lost Children and something that was meant to come out between
99 and 2001. Boring meant to be a dark comedy, I believe one of those desolate European future
films where it's always night, possibly because the sky is filled with soot. I'm sure the double
is for someone, but not me. That review was great because it's like first off, it just makes me
think that the person in every movie is like what country is this from? Like that's always a blank
slate every time you watch a movie, even though maybe you clearly know it's from a certain country.
There's a few different accents getting flown around here. Yeah. But then also to that ending is so
funny where it's like, yeah, still they don't know where it's from because they call it like European.
And they admit that it's, yeah, anyway. It's like, yeah, it's probably one of those European
future films. Right. But you admitted in the first half it's not European.
I was going to guess it was French, but English was my second. Yeah. We'll do one more from Danny
Boyo. Boyoyo one star. The ultimate cuck movies to be cucked by yourself. All right. That's
audience reviews. Let's wrap it up. I love ending on a
yep. Hell yeah. You know, you just give your keys away to yourself to
say how to be a bang room that you don't have access to. Whoa. Oh, a bang room. Holy shit.
Yeah, man. Smell. You want my key? Let's wrap up the ideas for polarization. I just like any
feelings on that. Why the critics liked it as much as they did, I think is a surprise to me.
I don't think this movie, obviously, through our opinion and what you've heard today,
don't think it does for me what it does for these critics. I get the polls and the references to
better films and better directors. Unfortunately, I'm sorry to be mean, but for me, it just didn't
work in the same way. And I for the audience, like sampling there, I get the boring thing. Like,
I had a hard time getting through this for an hour and a half long movie, especially
I watched the enemy like before. And I am sorry to do that. But like that movie barely has any
dialogue. It's very visual and slow, but not fucking boring. And that it is a slow movie. And
it and not a lot happens, but it is not fucking boring. And I am like enthralled and like, I
kind of have to stop and just like fully soak it in. And that did not bode well for the double for me.
But to give it an 83% from the critics and founding is is too high. Yeah, it's this is one of those
movies where yeah, both of us are on the same page of like, wow, that's so crazy that the critics
don't recognize the what we've discussed as being very like apparent like issues and very
fundamental problems of the movie and overlooking that. And really my yeah, I would just say the
reason that this is polarizing is because critics muscle, you know, recognize Richard as an up and
potential up and coming director that at times in this movie do interesting things with the camera.
And then also the themes of doing a doi soyevsky in this day and age, but adding more comedy to
it and him being a comedy guy, being something that they want to herald and being, you know,
more on board with again, it's just so weird because I feel like this always happens is like,
I think that they're more into the idea and the context and of this movie than the movie itself.
Because yeah, this it's, I just doesn't make sense how critics are able to not recognize
so many blatant issues with pacing characters, plotting, just, you know, the basics.
Yeah, it's tough because I feel like I like movies that don't necessarily adhere themselves to a
plot or a narrative and more of a vibe, if you will. And this was such a weird uneven sort of
type of pastry or something where you like it's burnt on the outside and raw in the middle.
I don't know how to put it, but it's very uneven, everything about it. And I'm glad that we were
able to try to coalesce our thoughts. And I think we had to talk more big picture about what it's
trying to do. Syllistically, because that's such a big part of why it wants to exist. This movie
is for the style because the story obviously has been done before and is done again in the same year.
So yeah, the conversation went better than I expected because I after that movie, I was like,
I don't even know if I can tell you what happened in it. But this helps kind of bounce enough
with you about our ideas of it and our feelings. And I'm glad where it seems like we're in
the general ballpark. And to get an idea of really, really where we land in that ballpark,
what do you think you'd rank this bad boy, Brandini, and any other final final thoughts you
want to give it? Yeah. This is an interesting one because
what's interesting about this, well, also too, I just want to say that I'm still reeling from our
Roadhouse episode. Classic, classic app people. Classic app. But I've just been reeling from
that because at the end of it, when we were giving our reviews, you know, our guest, Evan was like,
really saying to us like, you're not being critical about this. You're almost operating on
vibes with this movie. Because to his credit, like, it's not like he didn't like the movie at all.
Like we had such a great discussion. There was things that he loved about it. But yeah,
it was like a 54 movie, but I think he gave it like 70 or something for vibes.
He did. Yeah. But you know, so I'm still reeling from that. And I think about and I thought about
it multiple times outside of that episode leading up to this, because like, he's not wrong. Like
when it came to that movie, so much of it is like, this movie just makes me feel good. I get that
there's problems with it. And if you are to be critical of it, he was amazing at giving like
his summation and saying why it's a 50. And it's almost like he's approaching scoring. Like I was
just thinking about this too. And, you know, or in relation to what I'm talking about with his
scoring method with a video, I saw on TikTok rating movies. And there's a tendency just in our
generation and online where everybody just gives things like eights and eights through tens. Like
no one's ever like coming to this being very like, how do I say this? Like coming at it from a
perspective that if you just give everything tens, then what like, you know, then everything
can't work out for that. Yeah, you can't work out for that. So you're saying if it did like 15%
more, it's like the best movie ever. It's Citizen King. He made that point too. Yeah. But then I
don't deny that. Like I don't deny that it was an 85% experience for me. And that's where it
comes to down to like experience over objective content maybe. And but that's exactly where
you have every right to score it. How you want. And my whole thing was that's kind of how you and
Danny felt about the things to do in Denver when you're dead episode. And I was more on the heaven
side of things where I was like, I get why you guys enjoy this. And I even enjoyed myself watching
it with you. But I understood. Yeah, it was like, it's not the content is bad for me. And it doesn't
go over that hill of being maybe so bad. It's good. Roadhouse is a weird one. Because that yeah,
can't even crack crack that, you know, can't, can't worms open again. But that that has it all for
me in a lot of ways as a as a movie going experience. Sorry, your review off. No, no, no,
no, you're adding. Yeah, I kind of want this to be a dialogue because again, I've just been thinking
so much about, you know, what he said, because there's we're giving scores to these movies.
And it is interesting that how much emotion or feeling can play a part of that as opposed to
other movies where we're very critical of. So that's why I bring this up in relation to this
movie. There's examples like, spy kids, you know, for me. Yeah, there's a bunch of them, man. I mean,
also to like one of our first episodes with Lion King, like I wasn't like a history thing. That
was more just like a taste. But yeah, it just comes out. It's like that's what I was with the
vibe of it. Yes. I think it was still like a 60 years something. I think I sold it like
60 or 70 fresh, but I understood the problems and I was like, sure, I sat with my cat, we snuggled
and he watched it intently. And I was like, this is a good experience for me. And I also like
enjoyed it in the movie theater. I'm sorry, keep cutting you off. No, no, no, you're good. And it's
the way that I've thought about, you know, why, you know, giving Roadhouse, for example, such a
high score is there's also this thing at work to where this movie is a really great example of it is
that the critics giving this such a high score, it's I don't know, it comes off as being very
pretentious and you're looking at movies in this sacred way that at times you're incapable of just
letting it kind of wash over you and just letting the vibe of it and the enjoyment of just a movie
being a movie, you know, exist and you have to be so critical about it. And yeah, this this movie
elicits that where there I can understand to a small degree why critics gave this such a high
score. But when you talk about or not when you talk about when watching this movie and how I felt
about this movie, I did not feel good about watching this movie. I felt pretty shitty watching this
movie. And yeah, again, it's just it's such a good example of critics being at by and large unable to
shift over into that a little bit more of the audience mode of instead of being so like, oh,
look how interest, you know, look how different or look how artistic all of these things are,
instead taking a step back and going like, was that an enjoyable movie? And this is not an
enjoyable movie. I would not recommend this to people at all. Like it's just so there's so little
redeeming. So terrible. I feel bad. But man, there's so little redeeming about this movie that I just
yeah, again, it just it blows me away that critics give this such a high score and aren't able to
to take their heads out of their own butts and go like, regardless of the camera work, regardless of
the source material, regardless of the burgeoning actor, director, whatever, like, is this an enjoyable
movie? And it's not. And so yeah, I'm because certain things landed with me.
Just style wise, and a little bit of the comedy very little. Yeah, I'm going to give this movie
like a 23% is where is how I'm feeling about it. For everything we've said and you and you
finished with right there, that sounds completely fair. And you've given every given every reason
to give it that low of a score. And what's frustrating for me and these kind of movies where
I don't enjoy is it ends up being almost lower for me because I'm so frustrated at like the
potential a little bit. And I resonate with the critics where it's like, hey, I am excited about
the source material. It sounds interesting. Not maybe I'm not the biggest fan of like,
doubling up an actor and having them interact with each other. Not excited about that. Even
going into this movie, I'm like, I hope there's not too much of that. There was a little too much.
And that's where enemy was a little better where it's like, I don't need to be seen in the same
place too much, but just the idea of them being in the same existence is interesting enough.
Sure. This one, I was confounded almost immediately with the choices and the stylistic
direction. The lighting threw me off instantaneously. Like I think that that is my first note. And then
the set thing was like the first thing I took in and like, and like if we are talking about
feelings and vibes and everything like that's that sort of stuff of just sensory parts of sound
and video, you know, parts of watching anything. And those were already affecting me in negative
ways. So that was something I had to crack through a bit. So I'm so I'm I'm weeding through that
trying trying to find the good stuff hacking through, you know, the bullshit. But I find I
find some good stuff. I find, you know, like the audio editing and throwing in those sounds
during the drain, seeing the close up of the drain with like the the combination of the sound of
I forget exactly what that was. It was almost like just a mechanical thing. And then like the
wind blowing, I think during a moment between him and Mia, you know, is something where I'm
almost hanging on for dear life in this movie, because I'm just trying to find something to
to enjoy and to hang to hang my hat on. And that would be also, yeah, like Jesse Eisenberg,
I'm not like going to go see a movie because Jesse Eisenberg isn't it. I'm not going to I'm
not he's not that kind of actor for me. I don't hate him, but I'm never going to be like, oh,
it's Jesse. It's a new Jesse Eisenberg picture. But he is when he's utilized well,
it I see how good he can be. And of course, that social network and he's watching that again
recently is like an amazing performance. And in this one is like half of an amazing performance,
you know, and I and that's I don't put it all on him completely because he tried something. And
it seems like him and the director got along well. But that other side of him did not work for me,
like at all, really. And having them in the scene together, the scene together, two of them,
which is the point where you should be like, oh, now we're cooking in the movie. I'm like,
oh, like I'm like, hit, hit, get me out of here, hit the brakes or get get them out of the same
scene. I can't handle that's too much too much Eisenberg. So and then we reached the end of
the movie and I'm about to just like give up because the only I'm pausing and rewinding because
I'm doing this podcast and I'm trying to take in the material and I'm giving this is the movie
that I think it wants me to do that. It wants me to be like, oh, what's going on here? What's
going on there? And I do that and it's not satisfying. And I write these notes and I'm just
they trail off at the end because at the end I give up, I give up on the movie. I give up on
everything it's giving me in the way that it resolves it. I don't find myself caring by the
time it gets there. But there's some stylistic things that that work in like the brief sort of
moments in between other things going on. There's like, Oh, that one was kind of cool or Oh, that
one was kind of interesting. But overall, yeah, that that lighting, whoa, whoa. And this just felt
like a stage play. So I will give it a 33. I guess it's like, yeah, that's like, yeah, ballpark.
But I want to do some sort of double up on the numbers. There's like a double. Oh, fun. There's
a double three. It's a double three. That was our double episode. If they come out with the sequel,
really hope it's the double double. Or the trouble. Double trouble. That's it. Now,
mind you, that's a joke Richard made. He's like, yeah, they made another one of the trouble.
Okay. All right. Well, he's a funny guy. Of course he would come up with that. He's like,
I've been I've been cooking on cooking on this. Yeah. I watched somebody feed Phil
last night, the Iceland episode before we wrap up this episode. Sorry. But there's this joke that
someone said, he's like, so why did you move to Iceland? And she was like for the weather.
And I was like, I would make that joke every single fucking time anybody asked me when I
lived in Iceland of like, why do you move here? Like, for the weather. That's like,
good one. You just got to do that every time. Oh, yeah. Every time.
Thank you so much everyone for joining us here on this, the double episode.
Despite our feelings of the movie, I always say that I thoroughly enjoy our conversations. And it
is for these ones that we don't like so much. Very cathartic for me to get get things off my
chest. Thanks for anyone out there listening and thanks brandini for going on this journey with me.
James Dini. It's been a true pleasure. And for our next venture into polarizing movie
town kingdom, if you will, we are going into 2006 for a romance comedy.
It is called John Tucker must die. PG 13. PG 13. So, you know, if he does die,
it's not going to be too gruesome. Don't worry about it. I have not seen this movie. I remember
when it came out as a as a young young young man in 2006, but I did not see it. It is a critically
panned. Yeah, I remember it. It's like that movie is not for me weirdly. I don't think it was. Yeah,
I was like, I don't know. I don't see a lot of movies at that time, too, but
I'm very curious how it holds up. Critics did not like it at the time. It was a 28% for them.
It is a 69. And for the audience, we're going to we're going to check it out next next time on
this very fine program of polarized pod. We have some very special guests returning guests.
It'll be a be surprised when you get there. And let's read the synopsis here for this here movie.
After discovering they are all dating the same. Oh, it says the same same guy.
Oh, type. Oh, we need to edit this in one two minutes after discovering they're all dating
the same guy three popular students from different clicks band together for revenge. So they enlist
the help of a new gal in town and conspired to break the jerk's heart while destroying his
reputation. John Tucker must I sorry, Jesse Metcalf, Sophia Bush, Ashanti, Jenny McCarthy,
Britney Snow, looking Ashanti's in this movie. That's nuts. These know Taylor Kitch is in here.
Written by Jeff Lowell, directed by Betty Thomas.
All right, Penn Badgley, is that the is that the you guy almost looks like him? No, it's not.
All right, I'm going to shut up now. overstated or welcome. Thank you for
welcoming us into your ear holes once again. It's been a true pledge. I have been James.
This has been brandini. If you'd like to see us live twitch.tv slash polarized pod,
send us a line at gmail.com slash polarized the pod. You can reach us those ways you can
rate review subscribe. Yes, on Apple podcasts. That would be awesome. More more of that is
big for a little tiny podcast like us. Every single one counts if you if you take a little
moment if you're on Apple podcasts to do that. We'd really appreciate it. We love you all.
And we'll see you next time. Bye.