Welcome, everybody, to the Polar Eyes to podcast.
This is one of those movies.
Movie podcast movies, movie podcasts, where we talk about
certain movies.
This podcast in particular, we talk about polarizing movies
and polarizing movies in the sense of rotten tomato scores.
Sometimes critics love it.
Not audience, hate it or vice versa.
And yeah, those are the movies that we talk about.
So I'm like, fucking get ready.
This is going to be a very cool episode.
And mind you, so if you're just, you know,
tuning in for the first time, good on you, because this is going to be a
very groovy time.
We're talking today about in her advice, speaking of groovy.
This is a Paul Thomas Anderson movie.
This was made in 2016.
And then for those numbers, we got critics like in it.
Seventy four percent.
Not that surprising.
Audiences not liking it.
Fifty three percent also not surprising.
And yeah, we're we're going to get into it today.
We're probably going to get real into it.
It's going to, yeah, it's going to get a little more crazy, I think, maybe.
But yeah, I'm not the only one here.
You're not going to just be.
Listen to this voice.
I know I know maybe some people were like,
oh, that would be kind of good.
But, you know, it's that's not going to be the case.
Sorry to break it to you, those zero people.
I am going to be joined by.
Well, I'll just OK.
I'm going to I'm going to legit on this.
Not just one person, but two.
But before we get into that, I would like to introduce my cohost.
We also refer to him as the forever guest.
Mr. James Lindsay, how's it going?
I'm going off scripts. That's what I'm doing.
You mentioned two people and I want to bring us in together.
Danny, can we hold hands together as we walk into this?
I don't think this is happening.
I'm breaking formula. I'm president.
And you already mentioned, and I just I feel like it would be wrong
for me to walk out on stage in front of all these people alone.
Yeah. Yeah. No, hand in hand.
We go with God. OK.
I love this approach and hey, Danny, welcome back.
For people who don't know, he is like the specter of this podcast.
That's some of the podcast.
He is like the Mickey.
Mickey Burge.
Mickey will never kind of this podcast.
You know, the Jersey Devil, the Jersey Devil, the two.
I like the.
Yeah, you're a class.
You're a class. Yeah.
No, you're a force of nature.
You're a force of nature.
And we don't know what, you know, what form you're going to take at which time.
But there's been tales in the polarized kingdom of one
Danny Burge who started the kingdom and people worship the idols.
So you guys, you guys started it.
I'm the same.
You're acting like a blessing bride right now.
Yeah, you're the you're the Oracle.
You're yeah.
You were the godfather of this podcast.
And so I wasn't expecting the.
Podfather, the Podfather.
I wasn't expecting the intro of both.
But I don't think that's ever been done in podcasting.
So I want to commend us for doing that.
This is a cool.
I had a thing, though.
I had a thing, though, that I wanted to say before.
But Danny was introduced.
And now I'll just say it now is Danny.
Keep the shenanigans to a minimum.
OK, you got me.
You got me. You got me. All right.
This is a real.
The fact. This is a real big foot dog dynamic here.
You want to do this one by the books, man?
Like, you know, I like I dig what you're trying to do.
But, you know, you can't you can't tell a sheep to not buy, you know,
you can't can't tell what you could.
You can't tell the big dog to not eat, man.
Like, wow.
You know what, Danny?
Give me your badge.
Give me your badge and give me your gun.
Right. You're off the force.
My badge and my joint.
No, you're gone.
That's for later.
You know what, man?
Like, I I I I don't need these anyway, you know, like my kind of justice
is you can't you can't you can't contain in your little book over there.
Yeah. Well, you shouldn't be telling us that.
And it's a very big book for your information.
Look at how big this hardcover book of lies.
I have many leather bound law books.
Why would a well read person?
Well, what's a law book to a loose cannon?
You know, what's it got to a nonbeliever?
A rocky paper, baby.
I wait. No, no.
But it'd be scissors and you know what I'm going with this.
Like, I mean, you put a cannonball to a book and like, so.
All right.
You're going to always.
All right. Here's your badge.
You're right. Like I was saying, the should be your back on the policy.
We're going to have to because in the read and here's the thing, man,
is I love the shenanigans and that's in I think everybody loves the shenanigans.
But we have a lot of to get through.
You know, this is this is a lengthy movie that continues to just pause it.
Wackadoo ideas and interesting characters all the way throughout it.
And it's a goofy ride. Yeah.
It is silly. No, it's not.
Wait, did you watch a goofy movie?
Oh, God.
Did you fuck?
Because I watched an extreme like goofy movie.
All right.
That's more goofy.
Sounds like we're all on the same page.
OK. Well, cool.
Yeah, very cool.
I'd say Danny's.
I'd say Danny's kind of the inherent vice of this podcast.
I would say the same thing. Yeah.
That's totally true.
Or words have never been spoken.
Yeah, you know, I am the reason why you can't ensure this. Yeah.
We do remember what the advice means, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, I was thinking like, you never know, like just just us doing a podcast,
you might just show up and be a be a part of it.
You're an inherent like there's a there's a possibility that you just might be here.
You know.
And you're we're not sure what form of you could you're the
and then in the same way, you're the Phantom of the Podfather.
I like the Phantom of the Podfather.
That's, you know, that's it's cool.
Yeah. I mean, it sounds like there should be like a whole opera.
But you're something.
Well, I hate to break it to you, but there kind of is.
Oh, well, I mean, I'm writing an opera about about about the Podfather.
I've I told you this already.
Yeah, I've been writing it for like two years.
Fuck. Is it just parody?
Is it like the Phantom of the Podfather?
No, no, no, no, no.
You talk about inherent bias.
Not at all.
You know, the right music.
You know, it's original.
Oh, you're doing original tunes.
Yeah.
And Lloyd Webber signs off.
I grew up in a time period in which there was, you know, the disaster movie,
the parody, this parody, that.
And if I'm going to make something, it's not going to be as bullshit
and as lowbrow as those types of things.
It's going to it's going to be something great.
It's like go off.
King. Moving the moving the art forward, you know, not just resting on laurels.
So yeah, you're no laurel, right?
Still.
I'm not well, I'm no laurel wrestler.
Yeah. Yeah.
Or is this a stage play?
This is an opera.
You're making like a legit opera.
It's going to be multimedia.
Whoa. Nice.
Yeah, people like that.
Yeah. And this day and age.
Yeah. And this stage, I mean, if you're not making a multimedia production
of your thing, then you're not with it.
Can you have like a skin on Fortnite, too?
Yeah. Yeah.
So it's going to be the skin on Fortnite is going to come out simultaneously
with the first showing of the show.
So we're I prefer the rise of Skywalker effect, where you reveal a plot
detail in Fortnite before the movie comes out.
I didn't like that.
Really? I didn't like that.
So I yeah, I wanted.
Oh, you didn't like that?
Oh, I think what?
And Epic was like, can we get a hot goss on the story so we can, you know,
put it in the game sooner?
And I was like, no, I don't I know.
I don't like that.
They revealed Danny.
They revealed Emperor Palpatine has somehow returned in the dead.
That's pretty big.
That's the dead.
That's that's huge. Yeah. OK.
I guess I mean, it's also not huge at the same time, because I couldn't give a
fuck less.
I mean, I just mean, a movie that has a lot of bad stuff that might be the worst
part of it is the fact that Palpatine is is the whole whole.
Yeah, like I'm just saying, like it is a big thing that they shouldn't have done
that like that's don't do it.
Don't want to do it.
Yeah, you don't do it.
I'm going to do that.
Something you don't do.
You don't.
I've been pitching to Danny that he should train his daughter
to do a Dana Carvey being George Bush impression.
And I think it would be really funny, especially if you do it before Halloween
and you just get her out there like when she's trick or treating a door open
stricter treat, she just like goes into her fight like her quick quick one minute
little because I mean, her political humor is already great.
But then like, you know, she needs to start doing more.
Yeah, I mean, character work.
So that way, like, you know, it's a whole nother layer.
It gives you it gives you.
Now that you five, like, you know, like it puts a face on it.
Yeah, yeah, because I mean, her political satire is just I mean, it's fighting.
It's really biting.
Yeah, she can do more than just be a talking head like a weekend update
like a show like a John, you know, how last week tonight, she can.
She can bring can laugh.
Yeah. Yeah.
I think, yeah, it's like this is like Patreon material, you know,
like she doesn't put it out there for free consumption.
It's like it's going to be from the jump.
It's going to be going to pay wall.
Right. I mean, because the height.
The hype is going to be there.
Yeah, is there a lot of offers?
So we're we're, you know, we're trying to just, you know,
make good content and then from there, you know,
we'll deal with the millions and the, you know, the offer, the contracts and stuff.
You're the father after all, I understand.
Yeah.
It's, you know, it's it's a long route, you know.
Yeah. Somebody's got to do it.
I mean, somebody's got to be doing this day to day grind, you know, speaking
of the day to day grind, let's talk about this movie.
Lawless.
I mean, that might as well be the transition in this movie of one thing to the to the next.
One thing to the next. Yeah, absolutely.
It's a fever dream of a movie and of a plot and of a book.
It's not.
Before we get into the movie proper, I want to direct us to movie adjacent
and get off our day becoming a data job and, you know, managing his again,
biting humor, her her ideas of the world are interesting.
Interesting.
Yeah.
But to get into this movie, so P.T.
Anderson, we're all fans of it.
I think we can get past our relationship with P.T.
And I'm curious, where would you guys rank this amongst his?
I know that kind of buries the lead for the score, but I think people will still be
surprised by what you give the score at the end of it.
But like, after viewing this, where would you put this in P.T.'s?
Yeah, because he is such an amazing director.
And I do like so many of his movies that could be.
Yeah, this could be a Sophie's Choice thing, you know, where it's like even
even some of his lower stuff I saw really like.
But that being said, it is.
Yeah, it would probably be a bit lower.
I don't know if I have a definitive ranking.
That's fine. Would you say like if you were to break it up in the middle,
would it be on the bottom or on the top?
Shit.
Maybe a little closer to the bottom.
Mm hmm.
But still, I mean, the dude makes fucking amazing movies, amazing movies.
Like so many amazing movies.
I have to I have to see a list of his as well.
But that's I feel like that's kind of maybe where I would put it amongst
those other movies.
I'd say watching it like a second time, I enjoyed it even more.
And so I would I would say that like.
And like movies like like his and Coen brother movies, like
I would say you don't get enough out of it.
Watching it's a lot of line.
Yeah, they're interesting filmmakers.
They're fun.
Yeah, they're fun movies to rewatch.
But so I would say he would probably this one on his out of his movies
that I like, like I'd say this would fall into like, you know,
fifth or sixth in like line.
So I mean, as far as bottom of the list, I don't know.
I mean, there might be a few if you were to imagine the middle of this
filmography, would you put it on the upper middle or the bottom?
I would rather watch this than Magnolia as far as a rewatch or something, though.
So like that's.
Oh, wow.
That's where I rather watch this than Likrish pizza as well.
I'm interested, but I feel like I'd rather watch Magnolia in a way.
But see, what I'll say is that all.
I would rather watch how familiar and how recent things are with Likrish pizza.
I would actually stand to watch it again.
I've only seen it probably once, but with this now I've seen it twice.
I would say it's it actually kind of turned into for me like this is his.
This is his big Lebowski in a way.
Yeah.
For sure.
And yeah, totally.
And so like I but I actually enjoy like because also the second time I was
taking a shower, but my shower faces the TV.
So I was able to like watch it while I was showering really quick.
Such a dog move.
And and well, I just started like I don't mind this movie on in the background.
And so and it's good.
Look at me.
And I realized like every scene, I'm actually like it's pretty fucking compelling.
Like it's got great people everywhere doing fucking Phoenix is a very goofy.
Yeah, shit.
Yeah.
And he's a good person to run a vehicle.
Yeah.
Like, you know, he he can subtly do things or, you know, make big moves and still
stay within like, you know, like good parameters as a character.
Like, yeah.
Absolutely.
So I thought it was fun.
I enjoyed it.
So I would yeah, like I would say it ranked fifth out of like movies.
It is of course, you know, Boogie Knights would be more fun to watch than this, I guess.
I get you.
Yeah.
It was more of a yeah, looking for a hot take.
But yeah, no, I can.
So he has nine movies, eight of which I've seen.
I haven't seen hard eight.
Where would you rank him?
Brandon?
Because yeah, even looking at these now, I feel like yeah, it's like still like
middle to swim around there, but I love every single one of these movies.
He's moving.
I like I just like like fuck, fuck, fuck, man.
I definitely should make a list at some time.
But where around where would you put it?
I would put it right around the middle.
Oh, right around the middle.
I would probably put it like if I were to in my mind without knowing, like without
ranking them one by one, I would say middle the next one in the bottom half of the middle.
So better than Magnolia, you said better than the master or you drink it.
No, master is way, way better.
Master.
Yeah.
You drink it.
How about licorice pizza?
I feel like I like licorice pizza more than this.
But they're so, so, so.
We have kind of different, different feelings of it.
But I think we all could put any one of these movies on and have a great fucking time
or, you know, have the intended hard time with some of the other things that are difficult to watch.
But I still circle back around to I think there will be blood is my favorite.
And even that's a hard time to watch at moments, but also it's transfixing like a lot of those
movies are.
And I get so locked in from beginning to end.
And I feel like anytime I've watched, I just lock in and just watch the whole thing.
And I feel like that's the best Johnny Greenwood score as well.
And then that whole.
Then that whole.
Is Johnny Greenwood score, though, in this movie?
It's amazing.
I know.
Amazing.
I know.
Believe me.
I know.
The master.
Oh, my God.
I'm like, I'm loving the way this movie fucking sounds.
Yes.
So much.
Oh, everything flows so well together.
Like it's a it's seamless transitions.
I guess you could kind of like, you know what I mean?
And that's also where it reminded me a little bit of Big Lebowski is, you know,
it's a it's like dreamlike flow between, you know, one one place to the next.
And yeah, yeah, it's a it at times it leaves you like, how did we get here?
Yeah, it's as if we what how what happened in particular for me, the him going to
what seems like a construction site for a new housing development, but then turned
into a sex it's a massage parlor.
Or like a massage sex store.
And so when he enters in something else, you saw those guys creeping in from the
fucking from the you saw the guys in the fucking creeping in from the from the field.
Well, but also to he rolls up that and it's nothing, but there's like 20 something
motorcyclists like motorbike gang guys leaving it.
And his and his reactions to everything in this movie.
Are great.
Like I love Joaquin Phoenix so much.
This is a movie that shows like him.
Understand he understand it like he is such a lived person in this.
And so all of these experiences that happen to him, he's such a good audience
surrogate because he reacts so naturally to things.
And so the whole time like his confusion becomes your confusion.
And that I would like to get into later, but like could be somewhat of a detachment
to this movie that it is so like.
Almost like prides itself on confusion because the theme of that is the hippie
movement being in this like so idealistic, not understanding certainty and rate
and like the friction that it has against capitalism.
I think it's just such an interesting thing that like Joaquin Phoenix
represents hippies and Bigfoot Bjornsson represents a capitalism
and all of their relationship and then all of his friction with this new US
and this new world like he handles it so incredibly well.
I really fucking dug the shit out of this.
You yeah, you highlight a lot of amazing aspects of it.
Definitely. And even before that, I think you mentioned the Big Lebowski thing.
And I just had to mention this movie is is in a lot of ways combination
of a lot of different types of inspirations from different movies.
And some from the 70s that I haven't seen.
Like I've heard like Altman movies and stuff like that.
But when you mentioned Big Lebowski made me think of like as if Chinatown
and said you had Jake, you had the dude doing his best.
Yeah, like solve solve the case and everything.
And it's it's kind of it's it's a little just a little bit past.
Or I guess it's 1970.
So it's just right.
Well, when the hippie movement died, you know, I guess.
Although it's happened right right right before.
Well, we're also watching like we're Big Lebowski.
It's some guy who has no means and no like he has no
this is instead of that.
Like, yeah, but in this like this guy really no motivation, like some degree.
It appears he's a seasoned hippie P.I.
And right, but he still falls into it because all the rest of this is
he is good at his job.
He is very good.
He's pretty good at like, you know, he shows himself as a capable P.I.
And so as you watch what he's doing because he's he accomplishes a lot
of what he sets out to do. Yeah.
Well, and he knows where to go and who to talk to and what what in each situation.
He how to pass himself off to get what he needs.
Because I mean, you have him.
I love that.
So many different things by like the one place he goes into the insane
asylum pretending to be like a guy that might work there.
But like like like he's like auditioning the place to be a like where he wants
to be a physician.
But then before that, he goes to that one lady's house pretending to be
the the bank or whatever or like pretending to be like whoever they
like we're investing in.
So to get like her bank account number, he claims that, you know,
he has money that he needs to give her back because they made an investment
and it's now like her husband's missing.
I can't remember why, but he like makes up some reason to give her money.
So she gives him the bank account info and like each time like, you know,
he just puts on a suit and comes his hair and shit.
I love the hair change.
But then he sells himself.
And each time also he's goofing around, though, he's like hooking up.
He starts to kind of like hook up with that ladies, like
Mexican maid or whatever in the closet after he gets information from her.
And all the laughing gas and the martin I mean, Martin Short. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then yeah, with Martin Short.
I mean, he he has some like vague ruse each because of these people's
houses, but what it's also seasoned with everybody that he comes in contact with
is to some degree getting theirs and getting fucked up in the process.
And it it kind of, you know,
P.T. Anderson seems to love this decade for these this like
passage of time for a big bad reason.
And, you know, you could say that each time he he makes something set in this time period,
he also has been hitting on kind of different pockets and places
in those and like different people's stories in that time.
And with this one, I mean, you're looking at very much like
people that just are very quick to like just meet each other and be ready to like, you know,
you know, like here, share drugs, hook up, whatever.
And like it's you're seeing a whole nother scene.
Then he's shown you, you know, you saw the porn industry get started in Boogie
Nights. You saw this, this, this is, you know, his kind of showing you the
like the temperature of the the heads and like the the counterculture.
Yeah.
And yeah, but also you're looking at a fucked up version of the counterculture,
because it's all these heroin junkies and shit like that.
Like so he gets to kind of go go into the gritty detail of that.
And I mean, I could see why this was not people's favorite when thinking they're going to just see.
I think, you know, no, the general movie going public goes to see a movie
and probably thought this would be more of an action movie or something like that,
not knowing what to think of it.
And I don't think I don't know.
I don't know. I enjoyed it probably more than a fucking Marvel movie or something like that.
But, you know, that's that's that's where that audience rating comes from.
You know, yeah.
My opinion on why people don't like this movie is because it is very
self-indulgent like P.T. can do.
And is more concerned about
themes rather than plot.
And in my mind, general audiences
enjoy a more clear plot.
And this is very convoluted purposely.
So, you know, I'm not trying to
say that I agree with the audience necessarily, but
yeah, this is an incredibly self-indulgent movie.
And to your point, though, by and large, Danny, which is really interesting to me, too.
And this movie does a great job of adding context and color to
P.T. Anderson's worldview that because I hadn't really watched this before this.
And now I really watched it for this podcast.
And this provides more context to this idea that P.T.
has in so many of his movies that.
It reckons with romanticizing the 70s and the late 60s because of certain things
of it, but then it's really aware and makes a point of how things transform
and why everybody's kind of at fault for it.
And it's not like the hippies are better than the capitalist or like the
conservatives or whatever.
It's like both parties are at a point where it's like, you know,
both parties are at fault for their own bullshit.
Well, and you see it just destroy people.
And that's P.T.'s big thing that I loved about this as well, is there's so many
characters in this movie that get so much time of day to understand where they fit
in this world. Like every single like major interaction that dog has with.
And the great thing about this movie, too, is it's a lot of like fun
character actors and shit.
Yeah, like the stuff with Owen Wilson is amazing.
In his character in general, I would love to get your guys' opinion on him,
is I thought was so great casting, such great casting, so fun.
Absolutely.
The casting in this movie overall is impeccable and every single scene,
it gives you that feeling of like, oh, my God, this person's here.
And they just kind of casually walk in, do their thing and it moves on to the next
thing, introduces another person and another person.
And it is an overwhelming experience.
But as you said earlier, is he is the perfect audience surrogate.
And it became very clear.
I have hardly, I think, fell asleep.
Watched it the first time.
This is my third, like two and a half, I guess, time watching it.
And it becomes so clear, the intended viewing of the movie of really putting
your mind into is it Doc Sportella, whatever his name is, Doc?
Oh, yeah.
And that.
Ability to embrace that and put yourself in his mind
in the similar way of like reading a book like, I don't know,
like a fucking caroac book or whatever sort of sort of jam right.
This is so caroac.
And this is where this is where I haven't read a Thomas Pynchon.
I'm so glad I've read it.
I haven't read a Thomas Pynchon book, so that would be the better example.
I'm sure if I had actually read one, but there is an element of letting go
and not trying to be bogged down with every little detail.
But just as with the road, I sound so pretentious, but you just go
with the flow and you just run with it and you just don't get bogged down.
And then it just starts to wash over you in a fun way.
And you really start to embrace the characters, the scenes, the themes
and just those living in the present moment of the scene that you start
to enjoy it so much that this is definitely going to be a very rewatchable
movie for me in ways that like maybe I wouldn't rewatch Magnolia as much.
But I might. Yeah, I might rewatch this one more.
So which one is better?
I'm not sure. But yeah.
And you guys brought I was trying to go through.
You guys said a lot of a lot of great stuff.
And you you brought up the set like this fascination with this time.
And I watched this interview with him where
someone kind of brought up that up with him.
And at least in this case, he was like, well, maybe you should ask
Tom Thomas Pinchin as well, because I he wrote this book much later on.
I want to say it was like in the 2000s later on in his career.
And.
He PTA's point was like, there's been so many things made
about the 60s, about this time.
And it's been such a strident, tried and true territory 2009.
And for Thomas Pinchin to go back into that well
and go into that same place and tell another story within it.
His point was like there must be there must be a lot there for him
for him to want to go back there at such a later time, like all the way in 2009.
So that it is such.
Yeah, it is such a feelings based sort of sort of thing from both
author and filmmaker, I think.
And what I've heard about his novels are, yeah, it's just it.
You in a William S. Burroughs way, too.
You just kind of have to get a get a find that rhythm to to move through it.
And also like Hunter Stomson, Hunter Stomson.
I would love to know.
Yeah, Vinicio on this movie.
And I mean, he's got a very, yeah, fucking.
He's the lawyer.
It was so amazing.
It was.
Right.
He shows us all.
Like.
Yeah.
OK, he's a maritime.
He's a maritime lawyer.
He's like some.
Maritime.
The lawyer.
I love that scene so much because you get to carry all guys back together as well.
Brolin and Brolin and Vinicio back together.
Yeah.
Or do you think about heroin cartels?
Do you guys remember how in that scene, they're at the restaurant
and the whole interaction that they have the waitress
need to get fucked up?
It's like, are you guys trying to get fucked up right now?
Is it isn't that waitress like it like it didn't really show her face,
but she's she's isn't that from workaholics?
Oh, yes, yes, it is.
I looked it up with her face.
And I was like, so I was looking at the cast list and I saw her and I was like,
where was she?
Even show her face.
Well, that's what I love about the filming of this is there's a lot of shots
where you're he's he uses the camera to just give you exactly like the these
people's perspective on what's happening.
So like, you know, that's where, you know, you see, you know,
you're only seeing this person, this girl's ass and like that she brought
a tray and then she walks out of the room.
You never see her face until they get to the fucking closet.
All that is like, you know, all just giving you Doc's perspective.
And you get to see a good perspective too, because there's so much stuff
that people are ready to show and present to Doc that they don't want
everybody else in the room to see or that they like, you know, that they
they meet some on their level so easy.
Yeah.
He is he is on this vibration on this wavelength.
Nobody's scared of them.
Everybody's not going to die.
I'll a little bit and he's like, this is how I connect to this person.
This is how I connect to that person.
I really like everybody opens up to him.
That's where we're what's her face walks into the from like in her bikini,
like from when he first walks into her house.
That's that's a great example of what you just said to Danny, where it's like
you it's you're in his perspective and she slowly just walks into frame
and then like focuses on her close up and the camera doesn't move at all.
And it's just and then it versus and shows him and it's he's right
in that spot where the camera is and then also you're right down the
bed on the lens and you're like, and I don't know, you kind of get that sort
of sense of his paranoia and is being a little too high to handle this right now.
The focus is so wrapped like wrapped up to her that everything else just
like washes out behind her and it's just her. Yeah. Well, and then like that
one guy, the the fucking personal trainer, whatever, walks in and makes a joke.
And all you see is his fucking huge cock.
No, he's like he's just in these tight shorts and you just see his package
like walk by as and it's like the shots just on like over.
It's I think it's over docked shoulders or something or like you see his face.
But then it sets up the the female like Mrs.
Wolfman or whatever Sophia or something like that.
But it's a Roberts. What's what's his name? Who is Wolfman?
It's Eric. It's Julia Roberts, brother. Yeah, brother. Yeah.
Yeah. But yeah, so it's just his wife and fucking dog.
And so then you hear that guy walk in and he's like, yeah, consecutive bills
unmarked. This is this is this. And she's like, oh, he just always like you don't
see that guy until a little bit later. But like it's also you don't need to.
You're like you immediately know who that guy is and what he's all like this.
And this and then for some reason, all the cops in town are in this pool
partying, getting pre catering.
They're having like a bookie night's pool party.
Yeah.
So cops are just grill in in there in there fucking.
So I'm just like, yeah, hot dogs.
But no, there are.
His wife is just blowing all of them.
I couldn't give a fuck about what's going on.
Like, yeah, like I love that they're out there fucking little police out
uniforms are still on there like, oh, take my shirt off.
But I'm just going to roll my trousers up and dip my feet in the pool
and put my aviators on.
But there are like, like every you put it perfectly is like, you know exactly
what this character is about, and that goes for pretty much every single
character in this movie.
Every and that's necessary because you're introducing so many at such a
quick, quick pace that you need to know exactly what this person's deal is
like right off the ballot.
What's your deal?
And.
Like consecutively, every domino falls and all these character
character scenes where these all these people that have been leads
in all their own movies are just doing crushing these scenes.
Like Reese Witherspoon and Martin and her scene and Martin Short
scene, I think is one of as weird and fucked up as it is.
This is one of my favorite scenes of this.
Of this.
Like, the mayor.
Yeah.
Yeah, totally.
That's a great.
Definitely.
Like, like, like flaunting how much he's fucking in front of this guy.
Oh, that is like.
He's never been like, yeah, I'm just like fucking boning.
Oh, look at the greedy hippie.
Like, that was one of your flying looks the greedy hippie.
Oh, they have that interaction where they're like leaving and then he's
like, and they both run back and they're like, yeah, let's do some more.
And then they're in the car together.
Yeah.
Just have a whole night together.
And then when they get pulled over and he's like, oh fuck, we're fucked.
He's.
He is so unhinged and I love it like that.
I love that.
That was the best Martin Short.
That's why you leave later that night.
That's crazy.
Dude dies off.
We that was my favorite performance of Martin Short.
Short.
Like that was the best cameo.
I know.
He was having fun.
Everybody was having fun.
That was a good time.
He nailed it.
He absolutely nailed it.
There's there's that there's a point where I just forget it's him as well.
Like it's just one of those things.
Totally.
And there's other people like Benicio or it's like that is the perfect role and you've
done things like that before and other people like Reese Witherspoon where it's like, man,
you should do more stuff like this.
She's like, oh, yeah, it's so cool to see her in the period setting like this and in
a well made script acting opposite walking Phoenix.
And she had really good chemistry with them too when they were on the phone together.
Like when she was like had her clothes off and they were smoking weed and she was like
asking him about something that was such a necessary.
Oh, it's very cool.
I'm not just pumping the scene up because it's also very cool.
But I'm just saying like those are the kind of moments that this movie does take its time
with that are nice that it like if you give yourself into the movie, you're like, oh,
I'm so glad I get to see the scene because that wasn't necessarily a necessary scene,
but it provides even more context to that rigid character of like and also adds to the
I think the pros of this movie, which is he is a like conservative works for the government
person, but she's like getting stoned and fucking this dude.
Yeah, she also had a little fun.
And that's again, so much of this like tumultuous relationship that is on display in this movie
between the hippie movement and this like Reagan era shit are Nixon because Nixon's
even in this, right?
We do the.
Yeah, and it's all like the what are they?
What is the fucking group called that that are like Nick's and diehards?
No, not the gold dragon like the like the like the GOP.
There's so many different factions in this movie, but there's like the GOP like it's
the anti-communist thing that you're extreme.
Yeah, like that.
Oh, and snitching for yeah, the the red squad.
What the fuck?
There's there's called like things.
The vegan something movement.
Like it was like the yeah, like counterculture movement.
No, it was like no, I mean, it was like the it was like the Nixon people's like no, I
was like, concert like more conservative.
That's right.
Infiltrating that.
Because he's there's a lot.
There's a lot of organizations he was infiltrating.
And the funny thing is this whole bit is like he's tired of it.
Yeah, he's like, you want to get out, but they keep pulling them back in for life and
all this.
That moment towards the end where Doc shows up.
God, what is that?
Oh, the like rehabilitation center.
And then Wilson has like this almost KKK looking hood on in this like sweat launch that they're
all in.
And all it is is a slow mo of him being like, what the fuck?
It's great.
It's a really good time.
It's a good time.
This is a great movie.
I just would say again, like do your best to like to let go when you're watching it and
don't get too bogged down with it.
Because even as I enjoyed it, I would have to kind of like take a second and maybe pause,
walk around for a second and come right back because it's it's a lot to take in.
And I'm sure it's great in a movie theater in all one setting, but I would I would recommend
you just just just working through it, you know, and feeling it kind of wash over you.
And I know we mentioned all the character actor like most of them, Eric, Eric Roberts,
again, like his brief scene is so important to the movie as well.
There are these other ones like like you're talking about Reese Witherspoon, like and
they have they have these nice and all the Shasta scenes and everything.
Those are very important as well.
But then they have the less important quote unquote, but you know, like the more relationship
building stuff.
But the Eric Robert scenes where where he finally comes face to face with him on that
balcony how it's shot is when he comes up and he's on these still like he's on the stairs
and it's just his head is his head like sticking up.
And then it goes full close up on Eric Roberts and him the rest of the scene.
And it's just it's it's so kind.
These are like subcont these are subconscious filmmaking decisions.
And this is the PTA episode, everyone.
So I'm going to get up my own ass about some of this shit.
Do it.
Get so up your ass.
This is one of the it's a subconscious sort of effect that it has on you and and the walls
are fucking closing in at this point where it's like it's all is there's so much dedicated
to his face in that moment because and it lets you know visually.
Listen and pay attention to this moment because there's a lot of other things that are muttered,
mumbled or whatever, but then they pause and like boom, like pay attention to this part
right there.
And it's very satisfying in like this is actually what's happening sort of way.
But then yeah, you get shots to kind of weaving this web of like information as well through
his brain throughout the whole movie that is like almost like a nice little reminder.
You get the Joanna Newsom narration.
There's a lot.
There's a lot going on.
And she actually shows up and speaks with them as well.
It's like there's a no disney and level quality to this.
A hero's journey sort of quality to him working through this, but it's absurdist and it's dark
and it's very specific to an era and place and time and energy and to have somebody that's
so well versed in all of those things and able to serve you that up on a silver platter.
It's it's pretty great and then the narrative whether you like you can agree on that it's
hard to follow whether you like it or you don't.
And it's just whether you choose to kind of let go a little bit, right?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Like you surrender to it.
It is in your surrounding yourself into such capable hands, you know?
Yeah.
I think this cast is one of like there's people that he uses a lot.
And I think this was a step.
This is him using a different set of like he grabbed a lot of people that you don't see
him use a lot or that he hasn't used before that all or this has such a banger of a cast
of cameos from like every direction.
And like newcomers as well.
There's people in this like that that the girl that he talks to in the gas max scene.
She's she's a X porn star that became like a producer.
And then this is like I haven't seen her act in any like big movies or anything, but she
did a hell of a job in like her little cameo and stuff.
But you're seeing him get I think him as a director.
He can get people like he can direct people to do some amazing things and make some like
very easy small choices that you kind of don't it's it's unnoticeable as and seamless as
like a movie because it doesn't feel like a movie.
It feels like you're looking at, you know, a conversation between, you know, you know,
you're in gross in the story to a to a level that I think makes him one of the best directors
like of our time like absolutely.
Yeah, man.
Looking at that list kind of blew my mind was like, fuck banger, banger, banger, it's
a banger.
And he gets all I know.
Bangers.
He gets all those people to do, you know, you were saying each person has has very limited,
you know, people that just have a couple minutes of screen time here and there.
But each one of them tells you exactly who they are and what's going on with them in
such a deep and rich way that it all feels like a very, very like immersive fucking world
that you're in it flawlessly.
And that execution is fucking very tricky to do with how many there's probably 40 fucking
people that they introduce and you each one of them.
Oh, such cool names.
Yeah, let's read out some of those names, baby.
One part I want to say they said where he got his training for his P.I. license was
the office of Voorhees and Kruger.
And they said like the sub names where it's like, you're just doing fun shit now.
So we got walking Phoenix is Larry Docs, Portello, Josh Brolin as Lieutenant Christian F. Bigfoot
Bjornsson, Owen Wilson as Koi Harlingen, Katherine Watterson, Shasta Faye Hepworth, Joanna Newsom,
Sordelae, Sordelae, Mickey Wolfman, Sloan Wolfman, Petunia Leeway, Dr. Buddy Tubeside,
Michael Kenneth Williams, RIP fucking shows up for a hot second as Terrick.
He loves his ass.
I know, man.
That was rough scene.
He was great on this.
Fuck, I miss miss him.
Yeah, and fucking Hong Chow, they found they they just they discovered Hong Chow essentially
for this movie.
And yeah, it was great.
She's so and she's everything.
She's as well as as banger after banger.
So yeah, she's like that.
I'm talking about the massage part of the massage.
I love her voice.
Her voice is super great.
She's so funny and then she shows up later because of that, like it seemed like it was
on a canal, like it was a smoky background, like on a talk about the band party that he
goes to.
There's like a meeting point that he has to ride with you because I'm really uncomfortable.
Okay.
That band was called Spotted Dick.
Oh, yeah.
That's right.
We got the spotty dick merchandise in the back.
We got spotted dick hats.
We got spotted glasses.
There's so much shit going on that it's hard.
It's hard to track everything.
But then when you yeah, like there's some really fucking funny stuff too.
And most of it for me is in walking Phoenix's face, just watching his face react to everything
and go to the world is his best is the funniest thing.
His best reaction.
The best thing to sum that up is like, all right, when he goes to meet Owen Wilson's wife,
like he goes to talk to her.
Yeah.
The conversation.
Yeah.
What's the actor's name?
Yeah.
Jenna Malone.
She was incredible.
So she goes into that story.
Jenna Malone.
She says, oh yeah, the way we met.
She's like, so I was running into the bathroom with my finger down my throat to throw up a
bag of heroin and he's sitting on the toilet about to take a massive shit because he has
gringo digestion and I stumble in and we're nailing us.
At the same time, I puke into the ice between his legs and to make things, you know, worse
or better, he just has a heart on one thing leads to another.
And you know, a little few months later, we have anathesis.
She's all wistful and like smiling as she tells this disgusting, junkie nightmare of
a story.
And then she hands him a picture of the baby and he looks at it and he just as a check
and like, but it's the funniest moment of the movie.
So funny.
That was the craziest reaction.
You didn't see a picture of it of the baby and you didn't need to.
It just and she's like, yeah, they said the heroin was seeping into the breast milk and
it's like the most nightmarish conversation.
And she's also looks like the most normal like house mom out of anybody you meet in
the whole fucking movie.
She's got those new dentures because the golden fang has got that vertical integration.
Well, and one thing you could say is the whole movie.
There is so many different pieces to this puzzle that come out in every scene.
It was so to that point.
Anything that seems incidental still all plays in in a in a way to be woven into like the
spaghetti web that is this fucking, you know, right?
This delicious meal.
And it's and it's so funny too.
There's also another payoff on that like bit essentially about the kid being because the
heroin and stuff being not well is then when Joaquin Phoenix meets Owen with a little later
on this and particularly ask.
Just sums it up as a little kid.
A cute little name for like this massive fuck up of like like him as like a fucking parent
and all this like that kid down a little stuff.
Like yeah, man.
Like it's pretty fucked.
No, no.
My other favorite.
No, he plays it off like oh, the kids good.
Like yeah.
It's great.
Oh, he just moves it over.
But yeah, it's my other favorite funny reaction was when he sees Owen Wilson at the.
What is it?
The psych hospital, I think, right?
Or where that that place where he goes in there on the robes.
And then I think that's where that scene is.
It's a it's a ragu, as we said, but right when he clocks Owen Wilson, Owen Wilson looks
at him.
He just does a silent.
What the fuck?
You do it.
Yeah.
We just like a very like clear like.
What the fuck?
And I don't know.
Owen Wilson has such a good way of doing the subtle little whisper reactions.
Who's the place?
Gee.
Oh, that's Eric Roberts.
Eric Roberts.
Eric Roberts like gave me like deep like David Carradine vibes in this.
Like Eric Roberts is incredible.
Yeah.
Well, didn't didn't he kind of remind you of like like a very like he felt cute bill
like fucking like I just I saw like I don't know why, but it was like the lighting and
like he looks all leathery and like yeah.
And like he just reminded me of David Carradine a lot in this.
Like not to put that juju on him or anything like.
Jesus.
Okay.
Do you guys have anything to say about the Chick Planet massage menu?
Oh my God.
So my wife said specifically that we had to change.
Oh wait, hold on.
I didn't realize.
Before we talk about that, let's talk about the fact that Eric Roberts is also
Valkoni in the Christopher Nolan Batman's.
Right.
And yeah.
Yeah.
And he's awesome as that.
I I remember.
He's got such a like sleazy vibe to him.
It's crazy.
He just has that face where it's like you're saying he's like today's Michael Douglas.
Oh yeah.
Like Michael Douglas also has that where he's got such a sleazy face.
Actually, I'm going to get a refill on my drink alone.
Okay.
So I'll vamp.
Here we go.
So what I really, really like wanted to tell you guys now that they're out of the room
is you know Brandon and James don't talk about it.
They such nice guys like you can't have a better podcast and you guys need to like and
subscribe.
Hey, hey, what's going on?
I had to vamp.
I was holding down the fort.
Oh, I should have just cut to break.
It's okay.
I can just edit edit at some point.
Well, you might want to leave that in.
You know, all right, then we're leaving it in folks.
Hey, I'm back.
I'm sorry.
I'm going to walk away and I ditched these guys and I guess Brandon decided to do the
same instead of covering me.
You got it dude.
You know, it's a problem.
I should have just I should have just went to break.
I figured my co-host would cover me as in the moment that yeah, I would walk away.
Hey, you're in safe hands.
You know, I held down the fort.
Thank you very much.
Thank you man.
So many times I see this guy go to the bathroom and I'm holding on the fort but Jesus, I guess
I just can't do my phone, you know, but all areas.
Okay.
Well, anyways, I hope you had a good time with Danny.
That's the pod father.
You're in you're in good hands.
Welcome back Brandon.
Hey, hey buddy.
What happened?
I came back and nobody was here.
No, I was I should have went to break between me and the polar bears like you know, you
guys.
You left the polar bears with the pod father alone.
Yeah, dude, I took care of it.
I took care of it.
You know, don't worry about us.
Great.
Yeah, we had a good little talk.
You guys are gone, you know, and and and I think we I think we're all on the same level.
Everything's got to be said again.
All right.
Well, now that you're with soldiers now we're a big happy family again.
I have I don't know.
I was I had this breakdown of the five plots of this movie.
It might be too much to go through all of it, but I thought it was really nice.
Can I before actually I don't mean to stall you for a second, but can I say that like
is there a way that this movie also in a way is a allegory or a statement statement?
I mean, geez, I meant on like the opioid opioid crisis.
What you're doing is you're you're watching a breakdown of, you know, people saying we
could sell heroin and then at the same time what we could invest in the the like we could
invest in the recovery and treatment centers for it and we could get money coming and going
from that.
If you look at that and then apply that from not shipping in heroin from and selling it
on the street to PCP as well.
What I'm saying is if you look at that and then bump it up to, you know, what happens
after healthcare and pharmaceuticals is the oxy cotton crisis and all that.
And like, I just wonder if like the writer of the book you were talking about before,
I wonder if this was his, you know, in a way period piece and statement on the opioid crisis
while also being about precursors to it and, you know, how you have a group of dentists
that are syndicate.
In my mind, it really is.
It's this and it's that and more and it's just I think there's a lot of there's a lot
going on and it's it's definitely that and in my mind it's yeah, forget it, Danny.
That's a but it really is in my mind, capitalism seeping in seeping into every every aspect
of our society and culture and everything so much so that like I was saying, the vertical
vertical integration of like, we're going to get them hooked on smack.
Yeah, we're going to have the psych psych ward as well.
And we're also going to have to give them new teeth and all this shit.
teeth and psych work.
Yeah.
All that stuff.
And it's all a complete circle that that they have full full control of.
And so even something like the illicit drugs can be used in a capitalistic sort of way and
in the found foundations are being set up there.
And I think that is an interesting place to set the story when you're leaving the 60s
and moving into the 70s and things are more craven and more.
Yeah.
And then it's also kind of an.
It's like the road to the road.
I think I just want to say one.
Yeah, go.
Yeah, please.
I think it's an indictment though on capitalism in a big bad way.
It's like they talk about communism like communism while they're showing the system that
just turning people into fucking junkies to fucking, you know, get in my mind.
It's just absurd.
It's like it's like a very darkly comedic way of showing a satirical point of what's
what's going on in the real way.
But it's like it's joking about it, but it's also real as well.
Like it's so funny.
It's funny because it's true.
Well, you know, yeah, totally.
But please, Brandy, yeah, say your piece, please.
Sorry.
No, no, but I mean, the it's like a black comedy, you know, it's just it's showing you.
Yeah, it's showing you what's what's going on, what the situation is showing you your
problems.
And so the base of this right is Shasta tells Doc that she's fucking Wolfman and Wolfman.
It's Wolfman.
Jack is in this movie too.
Hey, folks, how we doing?
Whoa.
But Wolfman knows that his wife and lover are trying to commit him to a mental institution
to get his money.
Yeah.
Yes.
And oh, no, you continue.
I can know that.
No, I was thinking that I am my interpretation.
Meanwhile, Wolfman Jack is also addicted to drugs.
Well, before they get him addicted to drugs, but meanwhile, Wolfman Jack has been systematically
buying up the real estate of all the section eight housing of all like every Latino, the
black and Asian community.
She's basically like he's put in like high rise housing development around the what was
it the housing development around the aqueduct?
What was that?
Yeah.
You've worked into a real challenge.
I was like, I was like, yeah, but like so.
But he also so and they are yeah, they're trying to get it to.
So they fucking get him hooked on drugs probably like from.
Yes.
What appears right.
And and that's and it appears like then that is a syndicate of dentists or something that
I like bringing heroin in from a boat called the Golden Fang.
And the or like it sounds like they're bringing in multi like the Golden Fang.
Yes.
Multiple things.
The other thing is it seems like they're talking about heroin and dope.
They say they use a lot of ambiguous terms because, you know, once what they're doing
in the office does not seem like they're doing heroin.
It seems like they're doing blow.
But for sure.
But I mean, like honestly, it seemed like crushed up just narcotics like.
Well, but what the medication because like there wasn't even really communicated that
well, that on Martin, she was on the table.
You know, bottles were getting emptied and he was just like grinding up this enormous
mountain of like just yeah.
Absolutely.
Then there's that one dude, what puck or whatever the fuck that guy's name was where the guy
from the dude with all the bats in his office, which I fucking loved that whole.
Oh, well, who's who's the actress named the guy that is behind the desk with all the bats
I don't who is that guy?
I don't know.
Well, that guy was fucking awesome.
And like, I just loved that.
That was a five second thing or he just talks to him walks out of the room when he started
talking to the big guy.
And then that guy gave him a big guy because he's wearing a necklace that was a huge that
Shasta was wearing when she went on the boat ride.
Yeah.
Right.
And then he was also wearing a mesh shirt and then has an enormous swat stick a tattoo
to his face.
And then he has the heart of our heroine that they've been talking and then change.
He goes with.
Yeah.
And then it wants to just give him PCP.
Well, first he smokes.
Yeah, they spoke to the PCP.
Fucking nuts, man.
This was also when when Doc is smoking the PCP, he's also really enjoying it.
Like he was enjoying that.
That was the one of the most one of the most horrifying scenes I've ever thought like imagined
in in in a way to experience like if I ever experienced that, oh my God, that just seems
like the scariest fucking thing not only to realize that you've been dosed, but then to
get locked up on PCP and chained up to a pole and just like be fucking tortured.
That's that.
That was a horror movie by that guy to that guy.
Yeah, that was an enormous dude.
No, he's just at the sign of the sign of the peace.
That's Hindu problem.
That's a real which came up earlier in the movie, which is again, accredited to this
movie where they're not seeing when they're like, oh, it's a it's a Swastika.
He's like, no, it's a Hindu symbol.
I swear.
And that's what we're talking about.
Yeah, that's when it came out.
Oh, I thought.
Yeah, there's I just thought it was the worst thing I could possibly imagine to ever experience.
And then they get into the brief moment of action as as well.
And that guy's at the fucking the the the cult, the cult like retreat thing, isn't he?
Yeah, when when one does the what the fuck thing.
Yeah.
And then he calls attention to it and it causes him problems a little bit more too.
Like he the the movie though sends a lot of a lot of like fun fucking vibes.
In my opinion, though, like to a PI film noir kind of like movie like it.
I get really into any sort of like detective kind of shit.
And you are so awesome.
It's a slow burn.
Yeah, you take.
Have you seen the Maltese Falcon?
Yep.
We watched it together.
I remember seeing it a long time ago.
Like I can't.
Amazing.
I remember.
New Wars, but like also Blade Runner as well.
Like one of my favorite movies of all time.
I love Blade Runner so fucking much and Ringo.
Yeah.
Ringo too.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
The great mouse detective.
The great.
Yes, all right.
So I was I'm just going to do this real quick because I think it's been really fun to talk
about like all our favorite parts and everything.
And the plot is not something that I think is very difficult to kind of go through everything.
But I thought this was kind of interesting.
It goes through the five plots of the movie and this is actually taken from the book,
but it helped me a lot.
So first plot, the Mickey plot, when billionaire real estate developer Mickey Wolfman has an
affair with hippie actress Trasta Faye Hepworth.
He discovers his conscience and decides to give away his fortune, his bodyguards, his
wife, her lover and the Justice Department plot against Mickey to prevent him from divesting
his billions with the help of the LAPD and their civilian militia.
Vigilant California.
That was what I was trying to think of.
As well as they kidnapped Mickey and send him for psychological reprogramming at the
Christ Gladen Institute, a high end rehab facility.
That's one plot.
The Shasta plot.
Doc Sportello's ex-girlfriend Shasta Faye Hepworth tells him that she's romantically
involved with Mickey Wolfman.
Shasta claims that Sloan and Riggs want her help in their scheme to put Mickey in a mental
institution.
Shasta believes she's being followed and asks Doc for help.
Then Shasta goes missing and Doc must find her.
The Koi plot.
Heroine addict Koi Harlegan has hit rock bottom.
His wife Hope Harlegan is also an addict and they can't give their toddler daughter the
care she needs.
Koi desperately needs a break in life and help comes from an unlikely source, Vigilant
California.
The LAPD's civilian militia who are described as GOP activists.
Vigilant California helps Roy kick his heroin habit, replace his rotten teeth with new
choppers and provides financially for Koi's wife and daughter.
The catch.
Koi must fake his own death and assume a new identity, working as a counter subversive informant
for the police.
This new start in life means he will never see his family again.
Koi is grateful for the new start but wants nothing more than to be reunited with his
family.
The Bigfoot plot.
LAPD cop Vincent and Delacato was shot dead in the line of duty.
His partner, Lieutenant Bigfoot Bjornsson, knows that the murder wasn't an accident.
One on the police force contracted the murder to Adrien Prussia, LAPD's civilian killer
for hire.
Bigfoot wants to avenge his partner's death but knows he is being closely watched and
informed on by his fellow colleagues on the force.
Instead, Bigfoot sets up hippie private eye Doc Sportello to kill Adrien Prussia and his
employee Puck Beaverton and perhaps to reveal who hired Adrien Prussia to kill Vincent and
Delacato.
And finally, the Golden Fang plot.
The Golden Fang is a vast international organized crime syndicate.
Some of its activities include smuggling heroin and counterfeit US currency, illegal arms
deals, murder and dentistry.
The Golden Fang has a carefully calculated way of maintaining control while staying out
of sight.
Doc tries to determine the existence and the nature of the Golden Fang.
That helped me immensely.
That is great.
In a way that like, I'm excited to watch the movie again after getting, and that's from
like Spark Notes.
Like this, essentially Spark Notes about the book.
So that just kind of like really sets the premise for all of our characters and the
stage.
Mild spoilers, just about Bigfoot kind of concocting the plan to have Doc kill these guys that
he couldn't.
Right.
But that was very brief and helped me so much after watching the movie too to kind of
piece all of it back together in my mind.
That being said, I think it is good to go and dry too and figure it out for yourself
and have this experience of reading up after all of those kind of experiences with movies
too.
But this is a movie you could watch and then still need that to like be like, what the
fuck did just happen?
Because like it is, it's cohesively explained to you, but there's so much happening everywhere
else in the scenes that it's happening in.
And you're so reeling from what just happened that it's tough to process all of this movie
at once.
But I will say it also does a really good job.
Yeah, it does a really good job of doing it.
It's just that's what and that's what all of his movies do to some degree where there's
so much being said without being said that you watching it over and over again can enjoy
all of the aspects of the movie.
Plus he films it flawlessly.
Absolutely.
So everything is perfectly set up to be absorbed.
I guess it's like how I would say it like, you know, he makes sure how the camera is
or how the people are blocked are put in a way that you the viewer can like get the most
out of it every time you see it.
And still gives the people room to be creative.
I feel like I the people that he brings on to his sets, it just must be just the absolute
best at their game and every single person from down down the line.
It just seems like everyone's bringing their absolute best work while still maintaining
a naturalism to everything as well.
Be that I feel like there's you got to give walking Phoenix room to fucking slapstick
and fall on the ground and however many sort of ways and uses physicality and and the blocking
of scenes and everything to you strikes me as a filmmaker that is willing to accept those
creative changes on the day rather than be so dedicated to whatever storyboard or whatever
whatever sort of thing that it has to be that that blows my mind that you can still
have something so artistic and beautiful that is improvised or created and it seems more
in a in a rush sort of guerrilla sort of warfare sort of not warfare but guerrilla sort of
way.
Yeah, that you know as well that they put a lot of time and energy into every little aspect,
but there's still a little bit that's a part of it that is imperfect and I and I love that
I love that part of that there's an imperfect side of it.
I think it's it's to build on that like also the way that with that plus the how natural
and and rich the world that it gives you and how much of a noirage like a mystery kind
of type movie that it is or like him playing all these different parts by the time there
is violence and stuff like that it's it is like to some degree a payoff but it's not
like it's it's like I like he builds tension and everything before the it's not violence
that just happens right away and like I think there's not a lot of movies that like take
their time and use use danger and and all that to make something punctuated.
I think like Brandon said earlier you're in good hands you know with whatever he films
but this was dealing kind of darker than like some of his his more recent I guess like you
have licorice pizza what did you have before that.
I think this is before licorice pizza.
Yeah I mean his his filmography is oh it is.
You know it is like yeah again like nine films I think and then whatever he's doing
next Phantom Thread was maybe the thing before that maybe it was inherent by some Phantom
Thread I couldn't easily find out but I'm just gonna go with my intuition.
This has been an excellent conversation I was gonna say if you guys know what would you
got Danny.
Yeah I was just saying I haven't played on the background like while we're talking and
like I also just want to say you have a movie playing on the background.
That's a good move.
Wow.
When he has when he has all of those jugs like when he has like all this jugs it's just
such an enormous like he has just sitting in the apartment.
Yeah yeah yeah he's just yeah it's just all bundled up in like 12 giant like blocks and
they do a good job of just sitting there and it's just feeling like oh god like this is
like I think just that builds such a big like tension to like oh man like this is a nightmare
like like you don't you don't want no part of like what you know somebody is about to
be really mad about this or you know how you navigate that.
And I think it has a smooth kind of landing from that tension that they build of you know
what he gets himself into and how he you know by just knowing all these parts and pieces
ends up having to be the the centerpiece of this fucking pile of shit that that he got
into and he does also end up like smoothly getting out of it and it's like that interaction
of him getting out of it he ends where he starts.
But he navigated it better than like somebody else you know anybody else would have gotten
their fucking neck broken like you know halfway through.
I think you know him like being exactly who he was was what made a lot of things pay off
or plan or pay out in different forms.
But also it's like satisfying being who he was and this is something that was like another
kind of special unique part of this movie that's different from noir movies where there's
definitely an element where they see the person investigating it whoever's in charge of whatever
who whoever has a stake in this in this whole plot sees the person investigating it and
tries to see if they can use that person as a pawn in their own game and they try to take
advantage of Jake from Chinatown and try to try to see if they can use him in their own
means whether it's for information for actually doing something for feeding him misinformation.
The way that they treat docking this is like aggressively like trying to take advantage
of him because he's a dumb fucking hippie and so every single person that you feel like
he comes in contact with it has some ulterior motive that he's fucking stupid to realize
sometimes he does realize and he uses that to his advantage to like oh they don't think
I know but I know and other times he actually doesn't and I thought that was a special part
of this noir sort of and I think that's kind of the PTA trying to trying to get out of that
sort of energy of of how the hippie is treated in this in that in that time and in there and
everything and very strongly from Brolin at first but then everyone else too.
It's like yeah yeah it's like Joanna Newsom said about how he's
done like what how does she frame it it's like you you haven't done yeah yeah yeah it's
you've done bad things in your life but you've also done good things in your life
and so it doesn't mean that you're a bad person you're just a person yeah like yeah he's a good
things but you've done you've done good something it ends with like you've done good yeah you're
not a good man but you've done good yeah something like that oh that's it is it's very well played
because he does do things that are out of the goodness of his heart he does he does do selfless
acts and throughout throughout the movie to help people and that just makes for a very interesting
deep character at the heart of it who could be a straight man or something but no he's got his own
weird flawed things going on and he's constant like his whole deal and what he's chasing as well is
the specter of this old ex that keeps appearing at at his doorstep at like you know almost like the
Christmas of ghosts of past present future because he shows up like three times throughout the movie
to give him like a little bit more information or have another have another scene and each each time
it's just like pushing him a little bit further yeah I'm not third time geez
I do like when they were drinking those old-timey beers too that was fun
yeah that was a note I made to myself of like the do you guys wipe your cans not like that maybe
if I see something there if it was maybe in the cooler or something I don't know I'll say that
like the sandy cooler back then it probably made a lot more sense to because there's just metal
shavings all over the place who knows yeah like because I feel like that's the end really rubbing
the motive for the people that I've met that do that every time they get a can but it's also funny
that's their thing it's like there's a lot of like production like there's a lot of stuff in the
production that just gets on top of the can so you're drinking like whatever but but I mean
it's really gonna do anything but if I see actual dirt like if I see fucking dirt I'm like I'll just
give a little wipe then that's me okay okay I mean that's that's a good idea I mean like give me a
monster if you don't like you know I love the dirt but maybe I do but you see in dock really wipes
like a dude who like seems like he's barely wearing shoes most of the time and like yeah he's he's
worried about the candor and like that's so funny that's funny yeah yeah it's he has these
idiosyncrasies that are really great and one thing I think overall that I found so fun is
his moral compass is pretty like I don't know uh no no no it's you understand what that moral
compass is he has righteousness yeah like he operates with a code it's kind of you know weird
and he is selfish sometimes but you know it right right but you're like but he's loyal he's honest
like yeah he has integrity yeah and he doesn't change throughout the movie he really stays the
same and he ends exactly where he starts like the and there is like that same shot of the beach like
right at the end kind of to that lets you know that he's he's went through this whole journey to be
right where he is again but he is kind of the harbinger or like the what are you the arbiter
of anything of of the story like the forest gump I really love the golden thing like I really love
the way to introduce him and understand him a lot more yeah yeah that was a really good forest gump
yeah forest gump yeah yeah sorry daddy sorry but you know very cop right total forest gump man
I got some notes here if you guys want to sorry oh I'm sorry we talked about Neil Young
oh yeah oh we still got we're still what do you got I love to I love to talk about Neil Young
man just like I was gonna I was just gonna say no I mean man I was just gonna say yeah now it's
what you're gonna say better than Neil Young just ask yourself this Danny ask yourself this question
comparable I don't know man okay okay then let's hear it if it's comparable then let's hear it
first of all how dare you put that on me but but uh you know you know what you're doing
Crosby stills and I was gonna say I really liked that like as we're building his character the one
of the scenes that really did it for me was like when he walks into that doctor's office and he walks
by that one doctor he's like doctor and then they have a doctor and then he and then I read off oh
oh and she was great too but like he walks by that one as he walks in and then and like he like
why is he going into the doctor's office but he walks in he walks by that doctor the doctor calls
him doctor he walks in he talks to uh Michael K Williams and has that interaction and like just
him having this doctor's office that is like his kind of base of operations for is like every PI
like it's it's built into like every PI story that like they all have different they're working in
an office building they're they're breaking mortar place where they like drink they got their name
name door and it's just yeah but him having it as a more of a strip mall like uh yeah strip mall
complex yeah you have to go up like a enter a door and then go up a weird all the way and
his being like a actual a doctor's office and then like he's smoking the joint with his head
feet up in the stirrups like in some like birthing chair for some reason and then he's got he's doing
nitrous in that one scene and like just that being like his base of operations was just such a
fucking like fun interesting like uh like little foible that all that also like gave him like very
much like this guy's been doing this PI thing a long time yes it's like I guess under the table
deal with like some doctor's office he makes good relationships with people he he knows what he's
doing there yeah he's he's so embedded into this world and uh I think that that between like you
know something like like big big libousy where that guy has no idea what's going on he's just
stumbling around this one is it's very fun and with him having such deep connections and you know
being able to like you know break break down all the uh what's happening very quickly so
it's all educational everything that's happening for for finding out what's what the storyline is
it kind of reminds me of have you ever seen the movie brick with uh yeah I brought that one up
early to talk about all the noir movies yeah yeah that is actually one of my favorite like
examples at least of a noir movie but like in such an interesting way doing it put into like some
sort of parameters like that one being like high school but uh I would say like how there's a lot
of just the fact scenes but also has a lot of like goofy shit happening in the background or
or in the foreground of the just the fact scenes that gets in the way of it which makes this movie
feel meandering but also I think is the fun part of it uh it's essential in a movie like this and
in an actual noir movie I feel like it serves as not only color but in a lot of cases like red
herrings too when you have extra stuff going on it diverts your attention to uh the real core of
it all and and trying to keep your mind on track like the the main character and everything too so
it kind of it it trips you up a bit and this is one where everything everybody knows more than him
and everyone is telling him exactly the information that he needs to know maybe not there's there's
some misinformation for sure there's some people there's some people fucking with him for sure but
it's because everybody's there but it's like it's it's up to him to put it together and watching
him try is is the humor it's the he has to learn why they're trying to use him so that's that's
what I would say about it is it's so funny to just see everybody immediately clocks him as a moron
and then so it thinks they're smarter than him and so then they divulge information and talk to him
in a certain way that that he just is allowed to just ingratiate himself into all of these worlds
and he's also too a thing that uh yeah something I thought about where a good example of this is uh
him going to it's like a really uh it's well to do family I count the wolfman's I think
yeah his wife his speech changes he like uh he like responds to things in a way that he thinks
that person like that's how you should say things it's absolutely fantastic the doctor too yeah when
he's like that the guys asking him all these follow-up questions like well why'd you come out here
we're not really big or whatever and he's like well you know as this whole like tone that's so
that's so funny that just carries him through uh through the scenes in the moments and uh
that's some of the funniest stuff where where it is almost like a heist or a con movie at that
that point where you're seeing this guy kind of work through it I love disguises disguises are fun
yeah he put the infiltrate on and everything too all like it's yeah and oh that guy that you're
talking about too where he shows them the like indoctrination almost that like cinema that they
have in there that they're just showing I can't remember the actor's name of that period but
it's all about like anti-communist stuff yeah right yeah and then I forget the name and then he knows
the line and and there's just a moment where it's on him and he's just seeing the every line of the
of the movie uh and yeah just being like you know so anti-communist and that all the that looked very
Scientology that that building and all the walls and how they're painted like a certain kind of weird
indigo color um yeah I don't know man everything is a texture like that you can see the texture on
your skin on the walls and and the haziness and then the sweat and the grime and and it feels
from an era that I never lived in but it feels accurate in a weird way because it just seems so
much that he knows what he's talking about and yeah we're in good hands um I was going to work
through some of my last notes here and see if there's anything else I I missed when uh Brolin
was like in the commercials that could only be described in two words radon that was pretty good
the vagina door uh was excellent it was like the wizard of Oz like little door but it was just
it was a vagina and then they opened it up and yeah that was funny was that supposed to be like
a glory hole or something or like glory what was the purpose of it though it was so weird it was
like to go to the back area of the well it's probably where they do massages in that room but
like so bizarre it was like why would you have like I don't know yeah what is the purpose of
that vagina door geez all right I took it as like a glory hole I don't know man I wish I could
I was moving off to feel that was a big glory hole dude uh wow that was like for a massive
put of someone's head through it right it was probably for elephants or something yeah yeah totally
when Brolin is eating the chocolate bananas throughout the movie oh man what was going on
there I thought it was a musical but he's like yeah he's like oh his partner was it implied that
like maybe maybe maybe it was something I think that's going on there because then when he was
eating that banana I was like no that's some gay shit and then like with how his relationship
with his wife was like dude he started like deeped up in that banana like in like a little bit of
way like he was and like then hilarious whole part maybe I think maybe second funniest with his partner
and like him and his wife clearly were not working and so like I I I there seemed to be a thing that
like they didn't explain they didn't go into it but I could totally see it yeah but what do you
think about like that was implied but I is it just me or like you know it was somewhat implied but
I can see that yeah what do you think about frozen chocolate bananas though because I think those
are pretty good yeah I mean oh yeah I don't know when you have to bite into it is kind of tender
on your teeth sometimes if it's if it's so frozen you're like oh now I got to bite into this thing
or you just can just like hog it down you want to let you want to let it stop a little bit you know
but not too right because you're right just what he was doing and then it's a hot day yeah yeah yeah
and he had it as desk it's like he's at the station where is the freezer that he's keeping all
these frozen bananas at the but these policemen you know they're having pool parties who knows
they feel like he had a lemon frozen bananas out of the freezer there was that like a common thing
like everybody did frozen bananas back then big foot's got a freezer full of bananas yeah yeah
I mean yeah I was I really thought it was a relationship with his wife too was so funny
that conversation where he's uh his wife is yelling at both of them and you never see her face
either you never see her face but she just dresses both of them down yeah there's a there's that
moment where Joaquin just gets one word in and he's like he called me though
and his son is just like pouring him whiskey all the time you're the reason why we're paying so many
therapy bills in his house he's household god she's like one day a week like I was like oh fuck
yeah no I definitely think like that he eats an entire plate of weed shit what yeah that was in
my notes as well yeah that shit is nuts that whole scene is like oh my yeah I was I was doing the
same thing I was like oh this is what I'm doing too but he's the first thing he says is like after
that he's like are you are you okay man he just eats his eats all these roaches and fucking papers
and all it just goes down it's like gnarly he's gross and those are crazy funny and absurd and surreal
at it's he's it's a great scene I I I haven't said I love it I don't I don't think we've said on the
on the pod yet um the pankeko scene if anybody wants to give give their best uh Josh Brolin and
this movie impression of the scene that okay you go for a daddy daddy do it do it I kind of I'm
trying to like get get the exact word you guys want to watch it you can watch it yeah yeah yeah yeah
yeah yeah it's very funny it is very funny um let me see what other notes I have too while I bring
this up um midday refresh goes it's a refresh goes we'll have the midday refresh goes on the in the
veranda that's another name also he was on the I think is what they order when she's trying to get
them fucked up oh take it take he was on the he was on what the fuck dude was living the fucking
life adub is living the life he had all those ties of all those naked girls yeah he had like
the most damn thing I've ever seen in my life that's that's I love that you have a guy that
does custom pose naked lady ties for you I feel like that point is so I just oh
the balls you have to wear that out naked lady and tie embroidered on speed dial
oh I'm missing the Shasta one there's like 500 different specific two ties with different
women on them it's just such a good plot point it's such a weird thing it feels very la it feels
very campy kitschy sort of it it works so well in the great in the grimy sort of world you hear
so much about this guy before you meet him right that it's like shit like that makes him such a
rich character that he doesn't have to do anything by the time you see him the more casually plays it
the better because like you now know everything about this guy to a weird degree uh I think it's
such a great way to introduce a major character and like that guy was on screen for like fucking
10 minutes like you never so memorable it was so memorable and that whole wall of the ties and
him being able to flip through and each one having a specific look was like I my mind just registered
like wow wow that's a lot of work however you did it like to get all those ties to set this all up
for the scene that lasts 30 seconds to two minutes it's like wow I'm somewhere out there James it makes
out there what our ties with I know no but just like what that does to me it makes me want to
invest in the movie further as it goes it's like wow there's a lot of work being placed in this I
should really like hone in and try to take it all take it all in uh because they're trying to do
something here because it's a lot of time and energy to do that I also realized like we don't
wear ties that much anymore you know just depends on yeah but I guess it is a lot of
here we are no cap
yeah we're all wearing caps here today all right let's watch the moto pen penecucco scene
Motto pen and cake
pancakes aren't quite as good as my mother's but what I really go for here is the respect
moto penecucco
so that so that song is uh we listened to it in our double episode the double episode as well
because that's a that's a plot point of the double that that song um is very very good very good
song I'm trying to remember the the name of it I haven't had it somewhere I can find out um but
that is a silly fucking scene that is that is that is a silly silly scene there's some other
man I'm trying to think of the other movie that never mind um if you if you uh if you
want to link the song in the chat I can I can bring it up it's a it's a movie info movie info
oh yeah that's right it is um also I have the pictures of comparing zoot from the muppets to
the outfit of oh I love that what do you kneel young we gotta do kneel young after the very
clear the saxophonist from the muppets and the in the band is uh very much the saxophonist
that uh coy is in dr teeth and the electric yeah uh huh yeah uh owen wilson is very much like
costumes after that yeah totally and I see it now and then yeah of course docks fortella is very
much uh costumed after kneel young uh very much so and yeah this is a movie that one that's
that was nominated for two oscaras one for screenplay and it I I think it won maybe not but I know
it was nominated for costumes deservedly so because the costumes are insanely good incredible um
absolutely amazing so let's you know and then yeah the kneel young song there's just amazing
soundtrack sukiyaki by key uh can you sake mada let's uh oh this song ribs tanny wait
should I watch the screen
I've listened to the song quite a bit after the double
it's the best thing that that the double did was give me the song
um
such a sweet voice
a little bit goes on
so similar to this song I know we need to get into kneel young but I just want to comment on
how wonderful everything about the almost the last scene where he is dropping off the um
I don't know the drugs the barrels of the hay barrels of drugs to that um uh the wife and the
daughter and they're pulling up and you can and then for that scene it's got sam cooks oh what a
wonderful world of all time playing and it was their interaction was so great because the girl
just like flips them off and stuff and he does like peace sign but then all some flips are all
yeah and I just like I love every about what's going on right now
I I I think like yeah the this movie puts a smile on your face the whole time
um uh dude if you let it it's funny it's so funny and it's so biting uh it has an interesting point
of view uh so some of my other notes here um I was looking at when he was uh trying to take notes
when he was I think he was on the laughing gas or I forget exactly what scene he's trying to
do he's taking information in he's got his notebook and his pen and he's like uh huh uh huh and they're
like they give him some I forget I forget the name of what they what they tell him but it's a
Spanish name and what he writes is like something Spanish in the notebook because he doesn't remember
the name he's like his notes are shit like his face is like yeah uh huh and it's like you see the
notes and it's just something Spanish I don't forget yeah like uh every time he goes to write down a
note it's like the most unhelpful thing to like probably look back to and one time he was just
like hallucinating yeah yeah weird okay well and then the second after he says that the guy's
hallucinating about what he's talking about then it breaks down how exactly what he's talking about
is happening yeah that's the Wolfman broke down the property and like that it's just like how much
what he just wrote down is completely off and wrong like it he has like uh like a very bad
like a bad like uh like foresight foresight about procedure but but he picks up on what's
happening once it happens like but he every time he clans or looks out for it what when they ask him
about like when he's at the fucking uh the the clinic and he's they're asking them why he would
come down there he's like oh well my clients have uh they think that this place has it aligns with a
planetary chakra like nods and like keeps looking forward and then he turns back and looks at one
of the like buttons or something like that and he's just like right and then like turns around and
that his commitment and and like fucking way that he moves through this world makes this movie
fucking a blast I think like uh 100% hell yeah big time walking walking Phoenix knows
how to run a vehicle dude he rips it's one of those things like yeah right if he's in the movie it
definitely perks perks me up a bit more and makes me want to see it see it more the fact that he's
in it uh my last night was like when they were referring to someone like being dead or something
was calling the Buenos Notos Express and I'm gonna start using that in my own lexicon now
when I'm going to bed now I'm taking the Buenos Notos Express
could have been a brolin like police room or something too oh yeah
that is so cavalier
that's so good oh like man I'm really glad you got the sling is great at that time um well
that's yeah that's that's been uh that's been our discussion before we get into some reviews you
guys want to take more more break yes okay we'll be right back and uh
thank you all right so let's let's I was gonna talk about this like as soon as or as much as I
could so I want to say that that like what a while this really puts you know where we're at as a
as a as a economy in perspective yeah I mean it's 2024 this is a great example of inflation right
I mean you're looking at all right so blowjobs 1495 $14.95 pussyfeast 1495 $14.95 old-fashioned
fuck 24 dollars 95 cents you actually technically get a discount two girl fuck 48 dollars and 95 cents
hmm man all you hear old people say is oh I remember frankfurter's cost to nickel and this is this
look at what we're looking at here man like the value of the dollar has significantly decreased
like look at these rates man like honestly like you know uh is this all these poor women or is this
oh man the times have changed like like like how did they get different fonts for each like
there's like different fonts for every like for some of the letters the fact that it says pussy
feast on it is hilarious pussy fees it's under the menu my wife why is blowjob under the pussy menu
that's such a good question james he doesn't very good question it's such a good question yeah okay
then it starts with blowjob chick planet hello hello chick planet get him on the line get him on the
line dude and then that flyer the flyer that he gets and like the look on my a rudolf's face as
she's like yeah here she's like must be rough deal about you gotta do like she says some shit to him
as she has in this fire and it's like a chick planet flyer and it's got like just tits on it
it's like all this stuff which is like here it's like here you got some chick drop this off
hand you and it's like and it's it's got pussy feast written on it as like a promotional thing
and on the back then it says and like then you get a nice voice over and that's what I was saying
is I like that chick's voice is like Joanna new zoom in she I call her chick I'm sorry
sorry now that that's Andy Sandberg's wife and then my rudolf is uh paul thomas and her wife
she was amazing uh everybody was so good and then she and then Joanna knew some like shows up as
as well and I think she's you know not a real person she just is like a figment you know of his
of his like inner conscience or whatever yeah psyche but seeing her in in a movie was so cool
and seeing the heim girls and uh the heim chicks in uh in licorice pizza oh no oh no
it's fucking awesome to see the type of people that he surrounds himself with uh it's and then
finding that talent in in those places um let's uh let's check out some maybe reviews finding talent
in those places I love finding talent well yeah I mean the Hong Chao thing is is is so cool
long chao ribs and then seeing hearing him describing the interview was like yeah we have all these
opportunities like oh it'd be cool like reach out to Anicio see if he's available all the stuff but
then like oh we have this opportunity to find a young asian woman to fill this role where there's
so many people out there that amazing it's how he said it was young young asian woman that they
can't that they auditioned I mean and for them to have that opportunity to be able to highlight a new
talent must feel pretty cool to be able to that casting process must be pretty exciting I feel
like yeah yeah in a laundry list of A-list talent to throw she stands out absolutely
multiple roles to people that are just up and coming or you know I have like just like you're
doing you're hitting all across the board's good things like uh it it must be fun also for those
people to you know you're the one person in the room that like hasn't done a lot of film and like
the people that you're sitting with with just two people have done you know tons and tons of films
like you're you're giving somebody an easy education to uh you know their next film uh
uh uh yeah his his style and directing is is so flattering I think like and uh there's
there's a lot of hope that I see in like the way that he like makes movies and what what he's
going to do next like every time he makes something I'm hungry for it yeah and see those rough
around the edges kind of younger actors like Paul Dano and like There Will Be Blood or like all
like a lot of the boogie nines class is is awesome and to maintain that energy as a as a filmmaker is
priceless and just can't wait for whenever he comes out with his his next thing um I'm here for
it always always lining up uh it was a 74 74% by the critics it was a 53% by the audience
pretty middling but I definitely subscribe to the polarizing um description I feel like in
in this movie I feel like you you kind of love it or you don't or you like it or you don't what
do I it is it just people I've discussed this movie it's good description it's uh yeah that seems
to be more than what the ratings suggest as well Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian gave it a five out
of five a delirious triumph a stylish squared meeting of creative minds a swirl of hypnosis and
symbiosis with pensions prose partly assigned to a narrator narrating character and partly
diversified into funky dialogue exchanges dialogue exchanges hey that's like what we do here
I don't exhaust this that's what we should have called the podcast I mean that was a lot welcome
to funky dialogue exchanges are you doing out there folks welcome to funky dialogue exchanges
I was down at the party one night
I was doing that he flipped me a coin and it was tails
he was all right all right all right all right all right
cool cats funky diet why have you guys been doing this this whole time no you're absolutely right
okay that was lightning with dynamite and on a fire like guys holy shit
from Ian Nathan empire magazine the less you try to figure out Anderson's rambling
mesmerizing mystery the better just relax and let this beautiful haunting hilarious
chaotic irritating and possibly profound tragic comedy wash over you he didn't mention sexy take
away this guy's the sorus
she just took him to town and bodied him right there
we can always count on Danny reviewing reviewers
from Katie Kilkenny the Atlantic if the adaptation is a little too faithful to
sustain a cinematically tight story there's still a lot to admire in the sheer
uninhibited folly of the whole thing the gall to get groovy while the oscar watchers are on
high alert yeah baby yeah
do I make you ready
yeah that's okay we'll do one more from David Jenkins little white lies I don't know anyone
that is five out of five as rich and strangers we've come to expect from the late Anderson films
but doesn't quite achieve the digressive wackadoo mystery of the novel he used the word
wackadoo okay that was an editorial now he used the word wackadoo I never seen it spelled out like
that I thought it was fun hey wackadoo and wackadoo wackadoo
what I did though was he said if you haven't read the novel then you can't really say you can't
really tell me I'm not wrong I saw quite a few like I would go through the audience reviews here
which I'm about to get to and I'm sure there's current reviews out there so I saw some long
negative audience reviews of like he did not get the book right and this is why and it was a whole
fucking essay about it so there's some of those out there that's always gonna be there if it's
based on the book for sure yeah there's always gonna be those people from our boss Shroff on
letterbox like the letterbox reviews are fun give it a half star says thankfully I'm not
a film bro and hence not one shred of me feels compelled to say anything nice about this
thank god thank god you're not
oh geez half a star we're film bros what have we become
clip it half star from you like movies you're a film bro you
screw you guys I love how it's like I don't like this movie yeah I love those reviews where it's
like I don't like this movie and if you do you're an assholes essentially is what that review is
not only saying that you don't like it but like and if you do like it like fuck you
that shows a lot about your character in like such a cool way you know so cool like
I wish I wasn't a film bro it sucks instead of talking about this movie I'm gonna insult people
that aren't talking about this movie like I'm gonna attack somebody else while
I'm gonna make this whole thing about me and what I don't like hear me hear me
hear me hear me stay on my soapbox give it half star uh my half star
my soapbox my little soapbox look at me I sell letter box letter soapbox
uh and my says hour 20 minutes into this I still had no idea what was happening everyone
was mumbling and there were no subtitles I thought Joaquin Phoenix was a shrink and then I thought he
was a PI then I stopped caring my patience was thin and I gave up also this is the last time
I'm watching a movie with Joaquin Phoenix in it everything he's been in say for gladiator which
I loved has been an utter time waster for me I would sooner write a 10,000 word thesis on my
most hated topic than subject myself to another one of his thims I mean him making bo was afraid
like that person would we should show that person was afraid recommendation be like let me redeem
him for you let me let me walk in Phoenix for you man like this will say you know if you I get
why you didn't like him here but you'll love it can you imagine that person being like okay I made
it an hour 20 minutes into this movie what's next it's like a lot more a lot more pays off you'll
see man you're not you're almost halfway you'll get it you'll get it you're almost uh are you
afraid yeah did you know this movie was made by
Bridget gave it half star she said I will never understand why y'all like this guy are y'all
okay I watched this because I told I was told it was similar to the long goodbye and the big
Lebowski both of which I love but instead I just got two and a half hours of characters nobody cares
about dumping a bunch of information nobody cares about onto walking Phoenix who was giving a poor
man's the dude performance and finally from Claire gave it a half star would rather shit my pants in
front of my whole middle school class geez that girl has weird priorities on my list of things that
I wouldn't do right that I'm making right now that like how did we ever have to like make that choice
these are the options yeah like why did she go to that like that's like well it's like that's
experience yeah she's experienced it yeah that's yeah that's she's like I know what that feels like
and I'd rather do that again yeah I mean wow that's powerful that's what I'm saying between the two
things I've experienced which is I've seen in here advice I've shit in front of my real school
class I'd rather do the latter I'm hearing like does people that leave like really negative reviews
like I'm just hearing trauma and like I want I wish a big hug like I want to like go that's it yeah
and that's the advice of negative reviews that's the advice yeah you can't can't can't ensure that
shit that's the inherent vice of making an rt-40 movie you're gonna get polarized baby
that's right but but maybe baby get polarized I think we're like are we are we ready to give
our ratings this stuff give us give us that rating sweet sweet Danny boy yeah give it to us I mean I
don't mean to rush I was just like no we are at that point it's perfect this is exact that's exactly
where I was gonna transition you've been on this podcast enough that you're a master now
yeah you know so yeah I mean I'm just feeling the bottle like let me just let me just yeah if I'm
going first let me give my piece of like I would say I am a sucker for detective PI fucking movies
and shit like that and so as far as this one goes putting it against those things in that category
I really really enjoyed it I think it did a lot of good work to keep you guessing like keep you
engaged in all of the stories and plotlines while also doing like incredible character studies on
all these different random pieces to this puzzle I think it was you know a fun intricate experience
to have the watch of rewatchability of it like I didn't recognize until I went to watch it again
for the podcast and starting to rewatch again I was like man this is a blast like it is a fun
fun ride there's not a moment that I'm not interested in so many different ways of the plot
of the people what they're saying also how it is shot how it is filmed like you can put it on mute
and enjoy the movie yeah you know it's enough too yeah but uh you could not even watch it
listen to Johnny green soundtrack tune be okay too I've done everything you know I could go I could
go on and on about it because like I love the cast I love uh how he made this and like you know I
he I think is up there and high in the list of directors that you know I can you know always
trust to hit it on the park so it's part of our eyes I would put this very high um you know what
breaks my heart is very break your heart just how I broke the scale with malignant uh because
like it's your own scale what are you what are you so you have to rate it out of zero to 140 I
think it was what are you doing well I like it better than the movement oh no we're going to 150
geez what's gonna happen well like I don't know guys because I like it better a lot better than
you dug yourself into this hole this is the burden you have to bear okay okay so I am going to
propose like I'm gonna break my scale off it's like uh and like one scale that is the ironic scale
whoa okay okay okay and then one scale that is serious film and that is still zero to 100
putting like like filmmakers that I put into like the top tier of like you know this is
you know good quality do you want ironic scale or do you want just like malignant scale like just
just for me like man full malignant and then maybe there will be another movie similar to malignant
you can break it again yeah I hate to do this he's got two scales he's got two scales I get it I'm
a man with two scales I get it I'm just saying that like I want to go back to the zero to 100
thing that's fine it's appropriate it's fine we respect that we respect this I will wait okay
wait so before you give your score if we're gonna go back to the scale should we get malignant on
that one what would you get malignant actually right now what would you give malignant he's giving
you a big opportunity here a 91 nice okay okay we're absolved your sins are given
you're saying yep and then this I would give like a 97 damn we just yeah re broke the scale you broke
it then broke it again hell yeah you broke it to fix it yeah had to do it I love it that that is a
healthy hardy good score and I think 91 is also a healthy hardy good score for malignant
yes that's that's extremely fair for how excited and much I loved it but this shows what I needed
to give malignant in the first place as far as like you know what am I doing this gets a what
I say for this 97 yeah yeah that's appropriate I want to give you know but and also but there is
probably very few very few movies he's made and I haven't seen all this stuff but like very few that
I would probably go lower than that 97 for yeah straight up I appreciate it man because I just
what I would what makes me happy like he does does good film yeah and so I'm hanging on is every
word and James that's mine let me pass the ball yeah no I appreciate yeah I can take it from you
I appreciate the retroactive because I do I've done it a couple times and I still feel like I
could do that to other movies we've covered in the past been healthy exercise really excited
forcing myself dude I again I get it I just gave 100 to the fountain last week you know
and I still I'm thinking like it's fine though because I that's how I feel that's my heart is
full when I watch that movie my heart fills up to 100 so what I got 15 minutes and I'm trying to
listen to your episode about because Brandon told me guys did that and I was like dude I love that
movie and he he explained your two oppositions in reviews of it and I was like now I gotta listen to
it I that movie like I fucking really enjoyed too I need to read the book because like I
but I was excited to hear in that that makes me excited to hear you say that yeah my conquistador
yeah yeah yeah yeah I love it all I conquist it all yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
what was that what was that nap expression again when is the when it's not just express
it's a nap but also I'm gonna use it for taking an actual nap because it's great
it's great the horizontal express
your blanket
oh man it feels the movie about the polar express is the nap express about getting a nice good
Tom Hanks gives you the blanket which one which Tom Hanks there's a bunch of them yeah
it's fun it's I had a lot of fun with this movie this movie was great um and it just gets better
and better each time I watch it like it's it's hard almost even to be even sure about yeah like my
my score now as well because I know that it's gonna be one of those beautiful things that I think is
gonna change um each time I watch it it is strangely rewatchable it is a lot to fill in one setting
and you and you really gotta yeah you gotta you gotta really lock in and and it's not difficult
because he he makes it so aesthetically pleasing and the music and all that acting like top to bottom
as far as movies go this just like checks a lot of boxes uh for me and um I I've I've learned to
just shed a layer off of the plot a little bit each time uh and and find little new things about it
and I continue I will continue to do that and then even in my rankings of of PTA movies as I said
it's like maybe mid mid to bottom it's like I can't put any of these movies I feel like below 90
so it's it's gonna be at least that so I I'll do a 92 I'll do I'll do a 92 that feels good and
because I just think 90 wait are you saying 92 like 92 or 92 percent yeah okay
in case you were saying 90 as well oh 90 yeah oh gotcha I got you 90 92 percent is is my score for
inherent vice it's uh it's an excellent movie and it can even grow even from a 92 and in my
scene it could grow up the PTA ranks of his movies I enjoyed a lot a lot this time um
and the this the the time I watched it before this time I remember just it was like a hungover
like lazy weekend day and and yeah just a little wake and bake and threw this on and we didn't
mention that they play the entirety of of the of the can song um the entirety of it for that for a
lot of of exposition a lot of shit going on and it fucking gets you going into this movie and when
that shit starts going I'm like I'm like locked in so I was I think I was eating a breakfast
burrito ripping a joint you know it's seen doctor and then can starts playing um and then Kara comes
out of the bedroom like I'm too tired to pay attention but it sounds really cool and I just
want to be out here and it just is a fucking cool movie and that and that they that's a long song
they played all the way through and if that doesn't by the end of that can song if you're not in
that it might not be for you yeah thank you for okay so I just first why am I not remembering
the name of the song that's fucked up but it's vitamin vitamin c vitamin c yes um I just want
to say thank you james for making room for in this podcast for that song because hell yeah that song
to me is one of the most important songs ever like I that song came out in 1972 that blows my mind
every single time I hear this song because it is literally a song that sounds so contemporary
this day listening to it again before I entered into this podcast like I love love love love love
love that song it is one of the coolest songs you could ever hear in your life everybody
go listen to that song again um last loudest isn't it to the names to the band again vitamin c by
can c can big a big bendasi whatever that out that whole album is fucking amazing and they have
multiple amazing albums taco mago and different singers and and one of the singers just died
recently as well our rip but he I think he like came up with like his own language for some some
of the music and stuff too and it's just it's psychedelic trippy fucking jam jam out freak
out sort of music that is perfect for this movie yeah it is um there's a lot of things about this
movie that I really really enjoy and fundamentally the marrying of a new war which I have such a
strong connection to because like growing up that was the thing my dad was really into was
chinatown was his favorite movie um and that is such a like we've said multiple times uh
through the course of this discussion is that a new war movie is so great like it's a thing that you
really want and it's a kickback like it's a you know a particular type of burn
particular type of like telling a story that is so fucking enjoyable and the marrying of that with a
modern postmodern really approach to chinatown is so wonderful because it highlights a lot of
the issues on both sides of the culture and no one like no one is really coming out of this
unscathed and a big issue is we're hurting each other and that's a problem and the way
that we're treating people and commodifying people as a problem and it has some really great
points about you know like the fact that dog doesn't change throughout the whole thing is
also in my mind propping up the idea of his type of thinking is the right way to think about things
and that's why it's unchanging because if anything he's affecting everybody else to just like
I don't know think differently or maybe not think differently but in their response to him
they change a little bit and provide some more context to another way of thinking about things
and this movie was wonderful I really fucking enjoyed the shit out of this I would put this
movie I'm gonna do it 94% is how I'm feeling on this bad boy. Oh yeah wow. This is an idea this is
one of those special apps where it is a very artistic movie that is almost above my pay grade
I think at sometimes to to feel like I fully grasp everything that's going on but also the beauty of
it is you're not meant to grasp everything all at once you're meant to get something a little
different each time and this is just one of those times that that we saw and we in three people got
together and talked about some of some of our favorite parts and I think there's going to be
big moments like him looking at the picture and the motopan to pankeku sort of stuff that's going
to kind of that's going to hit everybody and so it's just like to have that the dumb silly humor
of walking fiend is getting knocked out by cops and stuff and then the cops being at the pool party
very obvious funny humor and then just so much depth as well and I feel like we could talk another
you know five hours about it and find find more things to bring out a whole podcast about this
movie. It also that being said that we gave such high marks it like you know sorry if I go off on
you know some of these like small like star critics but man it blows my mind like I just like
you know we all we all think highly of certain directors and stuff and it's like you know for
so many people to kind of like not have the patience I guess or not like under not have the like uh like
level of like uh depth to like see the at least somewhat enjoyable parts of this movie. You know
it's okay like this is not for you but there is something I think in so many ways so many different
levels of enjoyment to this movie that if you don't like this thing it's interesting is it not like
at a fun level like yeah create some level interest in just like there's some you're like there's
there's a concept I'm trying to solve here but if there's parts of it that are not for you that's
understandable but also the way that it's executed the way that it's done and and and all the people
that are showing it to you are enjoyable enough that there's something to take away so uh you know
I uh if the critics thought highly of this and the public didn't as far as like you know just to
look at it in the polarizing sense I I feel weird sometimes agreeing with the critics
because I usually like to like feel like I'm you're the man of the people you're a rabble rouser
you're a rouser you're a rapscallion you're a freedom fighter but but also I will say like
you know if we go back I'd be curious to see how many times I've probably got far back Danny are we
going just all the episodes we've done Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull how
many times have I voted with the critics versus the audience oh I question ourselves a lot too I
feel like we go a little bit more critics but there's a lot of times to her like those critics are
up their own tushy butts they need to chill out yeah I mean also it depends on what year of film
you're looking at because I think in later years I probably do disagree with the general public
versus the critics and this is like a more recent film 2014 is when it was made right
uh yeah but uh 2015 sorry so like a more recent film though I will say I probably start to lean
more towards the critics because I think after 2000s there's a little bit of a split of like what
everybody else wants to see and I think also like the film going public changes to a little bit more
an inclusive audience uh suddenly younger people are able to weigh their voice in on how they feel
about movies and just and and also old older old old people can weigh in on how they feel about
movies I don't think I would like this movie which exactly so then that would be why the audience
score starts to get lower is they're like you know I don't want to watch it some guy smoke
weed and walk around and talk to maybe some prostitutes I mean they're it's it's fun people
that didn't like it did not get get get it at all it's it's yeah it's kind of for myself and
they're shoes and I can't I think that's like a lot in our podcast it's like it's fine if you
don't like it and everything but to find these extreme examples of opinions has been kind of
interesting of like these are the people that and even the people that really love it sometimes
we're like okay calm down and the people I hate are like okay you will too much like we're a lot
of times in the middle you know a lot of times we just like we could we try to like just be the
disc figure out the discourse of it all well that's why I really sometimes or somewhere a little bit
something that worries me sometimes and I catch myself where I end up being like these people
that I just preached about like oh why do you hate on people who liked it or hate on people who
hated when you do is you know where I get concerned a little bit about like people understanding
media a little bit and being able to take it in properly is when right is when poor things came
out and I get it like you don't like poor things that's fine but people are coming out these like
really like this movie is fucking like I'm sure terrible in other ways that aren't just a bad
movie they're like bringing it down for society for other reasons and I'm like oh I'm sure this
like this bums me out that people that people are finding this in such a obviously like not
everyone's supposed is gonna like that movie or enjoy it maybe but I loved it and I thought it was
hilarious and it was a great movie but the discourse over that was like people don't even
understand how to digest media properly is where I start to get a little concerned of like
something like inherent bias is like we could I could put it on mute and walk by it and be like
that is a beautiful image and I appreciate it three stars at least like I fuck to give it a half a
star is like how do you how do you see all the all the beautiful things happening in this and just
like write it off like that I agree is upsetting a little bit but then I carry on my day and you
know try not to write a review about fuck all you guys you just don't get it oh you feel gross
that's right I want to get uh I want to get on letterbox brand was talking to me about that and
like it's fun it's nice to make lists of movies you want to see too well and I also think like
uh voices about I think a lot of people that are like just rational normal like conscious human
beings don't always like aren't always sitting there making reviews and comments about movies so
then like yeah like the loudest voices get the most you know takes and so then like yeah we we see
you know people who have all day long to be psychos online like we can get like spotlight but
like I think there's a lot of people who you know have a chill it's fun and that's why I want to
check out letterbox because like that's where I uh if there's more fun than rotten tomatoes kind of
but you know but if there's a medium where there's like poignant and good conversation and people
that gravitate towards that that would be nice and I think the more building of something like that
sounds like I need to get behind that I'm into it would be your letterbox review of this movie so
like one sentence essentially my one sense review you need it too if you need it a review of it try
to do it in one yeah do it one a one sentence review a one or a one off you know what I
I did a with it so are these reviews right I read it it's a review and not a summary right one sentence
one sentence Danny this movie how does it yeah what do you what do you take too long I'm gonna drop
to one word a pleasurable stroll through a confusing time while describing what
how about a pleasure you had it you had it yeah but I mean I gave it through a troubling time that's
good uh pleasuring yeah it is good but probably time while uh depicted with good characters
from a film noir that could be uh watched again okay that's maybe a sentence and also like the
sense that should describe that movie because that movie just deserves a run-on sentence I was gonna say
I was like get out of my mind abomination this was a fucking blast gentlemen thank you for having
me just want to yeah go through all of Paul Thomas Anderson's movies and just talk about those just
just to do it um if there's gonna be a polarizing one I guess this is the one that he would that
would be for him because I think all his other ones are just rated well um but this is this has been a
true pledge and I think Danny thank you most of all for joining us the pod father for gracing us
with your presence on this the day of your daughter's wedding uh I asked you one favor but to join us
uh another time please and none none taken thank you so much like I I I I many many many many thanks and
and and before we take that Buenos Notos Express let's uh go into our reveal our next movie uh
we're taking a little side step a brolin side step a little uh a little auteur auteur side
step these are the auteurs of our era I would say is a is a somewhat maligned movie of an auteur's
filmography rather than a pta these are uh Joel and Ethan Cohen doing a uh 2016 what is the genre
what would you call this a comedy it's just described as a comedy on Ron Tomatoes Hale
Caesar Hale Commissar exclamation point in the early 1950s Eddie Manix is busy at work trying to
solve all the problems of the actors and filmmakers at Capital Pictures his latest assignments involve
a disgruntled director a singing cowboy a beautiful swimmer and a handsome dancer as if all this wasn't
enough Manix faces his biggest challenge when Baird Whitlock another funny name gets kidnapped
while in costume for the swords and sandals epic Hale Caesar if the studio doesn't pay a hundred
thousand dollars it is the end of the line for the movie star 86 certified fresh by the critics
44% poopy doopie snoopy by the audience we're getting a get into it it's got a big cast like this
movie and um pumped I am pumped and uh filled with life from this discussion uh thanks to you
fine gentleman and appreciate fully pumped right now appreciate you guys cheers cheers to you one
final cheers before the bonus note just express I gotta get one more and it's just too good I'm
it's gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna abuse it I'm gonna abuse it mm-hmm yeah and if you'd like to see us
goofballs live or on twitch.tv slash polarized pod send us a line at gmail uh polarize the pod at
gmail.com please rate review subscribe on apple podcast that would be the biggest help uh for
real for real for us real for real would be to put a little uh star uh rating there and maybe
a little blurb would be ooh would be awesome and uh yeah we love you all and we'll see you next
time for heel scissor bye bye
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