Cole Stratton on Searching for Bobby Fischer

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Movie Crush, a production of I Heart Radio.

(00:29):
Hey everybody, welcome to Movie Crush Friday Interview Edition. Here
well not here with Cole Stratton. You are in Los Angeles,
right's right at home of earthquakes and judging my last
You guys had an earthquake last night. Tell me about it.
I was gonna ask you about that. It wasn't that big.
It was like three point one or something, but I

(00:50):
was only a couple of miles away from the epicenter,
so it felt pretty legit. Or just sitting on the
couch watching the first episode of Lock and Key because
we decided to dive into that and and just sing
where you know, Swede for about fifteen twenty seconds. There's
been quite a few in the last like year or so,
so that's getting slightly alarming, but they've never really scared me.

(01:10):
But it was legit, you know. Man. I lived there
for about five years and I never felt so much
as a tremble, and that was It's kind of one
of those things where you obviously don't want anything bad
to happen, but you kind of want to know what
it feels like. Yeah, I mean, I usually don't feel
them up to this past year, when they've become like
a lot more prevalent and like have happened during the day.
Like I just don't feel them half the time. And

(01:32):
of course you just go to Twitter or whatever to
find out if legit had happened, because then everybody in
the world's tweeting about it in the l A area.
But but yeah, I mean I I didn't feel them.
I usually don't feel them, but the last couple I have,
I think mostly because they've been pretty significantly rocking. So
and the other ones you just feel emotionally. Yeah, you bet.
It gives me right here. So Cole is a an

(01:55):
improv comedian. Um, you do some acting as well, right, Yeah,
a little bit here and there. And you are someone
who I met through San Francisco sketch Fest. You were
one of the co founders of sketch Fest along with
Janet Barney and I think one other person, right, yeah,
David Owen, where the three that started it in two
thousand and two. So that's crazy, man. I don't know

(02:15):
if I've met David. Um he is. He's still a
part of it. Yeah, he's around. We're just because we
have a billion shows happening. It's at odds are we
have not you guys have not been in the same
building at the same time. Yeah, it is crazy big
and really successful. For my money, the best comedy festival
in the country. And I would love to hear a
little bit about how that started out in your relationship

(02:37):
with Janet as well. Yeah. Sure, so we're we're coming
up on our twentieth festival in Theory in January. Who knows,
with the way things are going in the world right now.
But back in two thousand two we started it. Janet, me, Dave,
and this other guy, Gabe. We're in a sketch group
together called Totally False People. We all met at San
Francisco State We started doing sketch together and there wasn't

(02:59):
really a lot of places to do sketch in San Francisco.
There was a couple of kind of jankie venues. One
was called the Mock Cafe that had like a beam
in the middle of the room, So they're not great. Uh,
if you did sketch like comedy clubs, it was very
confusing for people. Remember we did uh, we did a
gig in Rooster Ti Feathers because Gabe's mom owned it
at the time, and we did like a twenty minute

(03:19):
opening up or something, and I remember some guy like
called and left a message on the voicemail and being like,
I don't know what they were doing, stage acting or something.
So so it was kind of hard to find a
place to do this stuff. So there was a couple
other uh sketch teams in town that we're kind of
in a similar boat. UM, So we kind of banned

(03:39):
together and we rented a theater because you couldn't do
a one off in the theater, you had to like
kind of rent for a month. So we rented the
Shelton Theater and Union Square, which was seventy five seats,
and the six teams decided to kind of do to
like two groups of night co head lining with an
intermission and then the last week like kind of cabaret style.
We're all six teams tod like fifteen minutes sets instead

(04:00):
of forty five minutes sets like that. Um, And we
had no idea if it would work, and we just
decided to give it a shot. And thankfully the San
Francisco Chronicle ran a date book story on it back
when print like really did a lot for you and
it was front page on the Thursday date book section,
and it kind of took off. We sold out every

(04:21):
single show but one, and then when we didn't sell
it had like ten tickets left. So that's where we
kind of figured like, oh, this thing could actually be something.
We had really no intentions of it becoming an actual festival.
That was just kind of the the guys to put
it under an order for all six of us to
kind of cross pollinate our own audiences and find some
new ones. Yeah, that was kind of my My question
was whether or not you guys were like, you know,

(04:43):
maybe we should try it again next year. I mean,
did it kind of grow organically? Yeah. The next year,
we just decided we could kind of go to a
bigger venue, so we rented the Eureka Theater, which is
not the Gateway, but it's been one of our venues
since here too. It's the longest tenured venue at this point,
and it's two hundred se up from the seventy five
and Shelton, and so we decided to do that and

(05:04):
we pursu we like, we kind of opened it up
to other sketch teams in the country. You could kind
of submit send a video and back when everybody's sent
in vhs, s UM, and we went after some headliners
like just thinking why not, can't hurt to ask, and
we managed to somehow get um UCB the three guys
to come and do a sketch show and an impropt
while UM and uh Fred Willard and his Hollywood Players,

(05:27):
which is a sketch team that Fred was kind of
in charge of. So those two were like kind of
the first to really take a chance on us, and
then we just kind of built it out from there.
Just every year kind of added a few more venues
or a few more headliners, and after five or six years,
we just realized that sketch was very finite. So we
decided to open it up to hall forms of comedy

(05:47):
and just kind of went from there. And that is amazing.
I mean, if you've never been to Sketch Fest, you're
missing out. It is a is it just in the
month of January, now, Yeah, that's when the festival's self
is proper. We sometimes do programming throughout the year, a
little bit here and a little bit there. Sometimes we
we usually book the comedy tenant outside Lands, which a
big music festival there, and we were working at Clusterfes

(06:09):
the last couple of years too. We've done some summer
events at the Castro Theater and things like that too,
but yet the bulk of what we do is in January. Yeah,
it's amazing. Um, if you've never been, you should go.
It is a month of some of the best. I mean,
you guys have gotten to the point now where you
just kind of owned the city of San Francisco for
a month. Um. Just I feel like, dozens of venues.

(06:31):
How many venues do you have going we have? It
kind of varies per year, but I think we're usually
around twenty. We've had as many as three. Um, Like,
on any given Friday night, say like at eight o'clock,
they're probably twelve shows going on at the same time
against each other. And you know that's the only shitty part.
As a performer, It's like, oh man, I want to
be doing this, I want to be doing this, and

(06:52):
it's just you can't get it all in. So you
go and you see what you can see, and you
you sacrifice by doing your own perform princes when you'd
rather be going somewhere else to watch somebody. And you
guys are getting I mean, you do these big tributes.
Now you've had these legends like Carol Burnett and I
know Jeff Goldwin was there last year, I think or
two years ago. Yeah, he's done his kind of fun,

(07:15):
weird music jazz thing he does where he sings songs,
but then he also comes out and does like music
trivia or movie trivia in his own movies and stuff,
and it's really funny and silly. But yea, at this point,
like early on, we were just kind of like, there's
no way anybody would do this thing. You know, in
our minds, it's like we're just a bunch of college kids,
which is really all we were. We're just we had
no knowledge of this stuff. But I think the reason

(07:37):
we've been able to survive and actually thrive as long
as we have is that the three of us came
came out, came out there as performers, but we all
have good heads for business. So it's that combination of
knowing what the performers want to get out of it
and the audiences want to get out of it. So
hopefully the performers come and have a good time, the
audiences have a good time, and it's kind of symbiotic
and it goes from there. And I think Fred Armison

(07:59):
once said is like many summer camp, which we kind
of lean on that quote because it kind of is
like any given weekend because of the volume shows we have.
There's so many performers in town, and so many people
are friends with each other, and then I just don't
get to hang out that often because they're not in
the same town. So that's kind of the fun part
of it is at the end of the night at
the parties, you know, at midnight, there's like a hundred
people in a room that all barely see each other

(08:21):
and are excited to come together and kind of cross
polity to each other's shows and stuff. So yeah, yeah, man,
it's um I think stuff you should know has been
there for maybe five years straight or at least four. Yeah,
and it's always, you know, one of our favorite things
to do every year, and we get to see all
of our friends because you guys are kind enough to
book us of the weekend where you know, word Colton

(08:45):
and Hodgeman and beIN Acker and the guys are all there,
and and Adam Pranica and Ben Harrison, so we're all
of our buddies are kind of all there at the
same time, Paula Tompkins, and it's just it's just sort
of a fun weekend of celebration with each other. It's
really great. Yeah, we love it. We were pretty cognitive
of that, like when we put stuff together of like, okay,
well that'll be the weekend of all the thrilling people,

(09:07):
all the podcasts on Maximum Fun, all that kind of stuff,
because you guys all want to be at the same time,
which is cool. Um, And that's always the weird thing
is like everybody's there's three kind of weekends, so we
have shows on weeknights to we only stayed dark on
Mondays if we can. Sometimes we can't. We could do
Carrol Burnett and on on Monday because that's when she could do.
So it's kind of like a different weekend for each
of these performers that are coming through. So yeah, we

(09:28):
try to put the same kind of folk on the
same weekend, which also sometimes sucks because we have to
program shows that have a very similar audience base at
the same time, and it's kind of, yeah, you gotta
choose one, sorry, audience or whatever, you know. I mean,
it's a it's an embarrassment of riches. When you get
to that point, you know, yeah, um, who's the biggest
I know, Carrol Burnett was a really big deal. Who
who for you has been kind of the coolest, biggest

(09:51):
person in your life that you've been able to meet
and work with? Their how it's been crazy? I mean
early on for us it was Kids in the Hall
because they were kind of our heroes and and that
was kind of a goal of ours just to get
the Kids in the Hall to a festival. So we
kind of got them individually first, like Bruce McCulloch can
did one of his solo shows and fully I think
came into that too, and then Scott came in did something,

(10:13):
and then Kevin did something, and then I think Mark
was the last one we got when we did a
full Kids in the Hall like Sketch Live Sketch show
and a tribute where we had them in conversation and
I remember there's a moment where um, they had a
big suite over at the Marriott, which was like our
sponsor hotel that one one year only, but we used
them that one year, and I remember all of us
were up there hanging out in this big like sweet

(10:34):
at the Marriott with the kids in the hall and
being like, okay, um, we're here now. So yeah, that
is amazing. I was on the elevator with Bruce McCullough
one year and I just like, I couldn't even say anything.
And I'm usually pretty good about that, but I, uh, yeah,
I just I froze up. It's funny because like he
he and Janet are pretty good friends. And I remember

(10:56):
once we went and saw the National at the Hollywood
Bowl and Bruce came with Janet and afterwards we were leaving,
he was he had a backpack on in a ball
cap and he looked just like Gavin his character and
it was just hard to not like the National ways
eight and a half pound. Um did he have cabbage
on his head? Pretty much? So yes, that was early on.

(11:17):
That was a big one for me. Since then, like
we've gotten so many of our heroes, and Carolman obviously
was huge. Um, Alan Arkin was one of my like heroes.
So we've had him, Like my white whale right now
is Albert Brooks because he's my comedy hero. Never had
but we've been trying and I think one year we will.
I mean, he's interested it just hasn't worked out yet.
But um, yeah, it's been crazy the amount of people

(11:39):
we've gotten there, and it's gotten I don't get star
struck anymore because of the volume in which we get
these people over. I mean, obviously there's some people that
I'm a little more like I'm just gonna say hello
and shake their hands and that's it goodbye, Like I'm
not going to try to strike up a conversation. But
it's pretty crazy. It's very surreal every year. Yeah, man,
that's awesome. I mean just what you guys have managed

(11:59):
to put together or it's just amazing and um, it's uh,
it's one of those festivals. It's just there's a good
vibe everywhere you go. It's staying in that hotel is
fun because like you never know who's going to cruise
through that lobby or be on the elevator with you,
and it's all very chill and you know, probably because
it's San Francisco, and um, it's just a great vibe.

(12:21):
I have a have a great time every single year.
I hope you guys keep inviting us that we definitely well,
that's one of the wonderful things about the festivals. We
finally get somebody for the first time, and then most
of the time they want to come back, and then
they become staple the festival year after year. So yeah,
it's cool and um our our listeners look forward to
us coming every January at the Castro and Janet his um.
I've told her this too. She has always pushed me

(12:43):
to do things that I didn't think I could do.
And I got to do the in Conversation with the
Baskets UH TV show and so I you know, I
was on stage with Zach and Louie Anderson and just
like that was a huge career moment for me and
I just thank you guys for letting me be a
part of it. Of course. Yeah, it's crazy how far
Janet's com I mean, like I just remember back when

(13:03):
we were doing sketch together, she was selling furniture, like
that's what she did and going to school she had
transferred from Arizona where she's from and stuff, and so
she was very very shy about it, like she didn't
have a lot of confidence at first. And I just
remember I wrote for her a lot because I thought
she was really funny and like she it took her
a little while to like believe it and then what

(13:24):
she did. She's amazing and she always has been and
lo and behold, she's the one that really took off
and has has an amazing career and I still get
to work with her all the time. I see her
less here in l A, even though we both live here.
Then when we're in San Francisco, because she's in the
East side. I'm on the west side, which so you
might as well be like New York l A at
that point. It's so far but yeah, yeah, how far

(13:44):
west are you? I am in Century City, so kind
I'm kind of near that mall. Uh yeah. So I
like it a lot. It's like central West Side. The
only thing that's hard to get to is like Burbank
because there's no real I gotta go around her over.
But it's pretty easy to get to Cinema. I got
pretty easy to get into Hollywood. So I like it
a lot. Yeah, that's awesome. Man, Um, where are you from? Originally?

(14:06):
I was born in East Lansing, so I grew up
in Okamist, Michigan. UM lived there till I was nine,
and then my mom she worked at Michigan State and
then she got basically the same job, but at U C.
Davis for like double the salary or whatever. So it
was like, okay, pack up the camper, here we go
to California. We moved out to Davis, California, which is

(14:27):
where my folks still are and where most of my
formulative years are from nine through you know, the end
of high school, and that's where I still go back
for holidays and stuff. And was San Francisco after that? Yeah?
That that's um interesting you mentioned that age range because
that's sort of where I like to talk to people
about their formative movie going years, which for me are
like ten or eleven through you know, seventeen or eighteen. Um,

(14:52):
what what movies were you into? Was this something that
you were always because I've seen, you know, we're on
face Facebook together and I see you have an amaze
in collection of movie posters that you display regularly on
Facebook and it's it's truly impressive, and so I know
you're a really big movie buff. Was that always your bag? Yeah?
I always? Um, I like to say I'm a child

(15:13):
of HBO um because because like you know, I was
born in seventy six, so like, you know, mid eighties
was really like when my film stuff started happening, and
my dad was like really into movies and stuff too,
when he passed down a lot of classic films, so
I was getting both the HBO things that I watched
all the time. So there's a good twenty movies or

(15:34):
so that, like, I will defend at the end of time.
I know they're not great movies necessarily that I've seen that.
I've seen girls just want to have fun and cloak
and dagger in the Pirate Movie, in the Last Unicorn
a million times. Um, So I love those things to
death and I get that, you know, for me, the
eighties are the sweet spot. That's all the stuff that
like I have such romance for, so to speak. And

(15:54):
then the nineties is really where I started to kind
of go into explore wearing all sorts of film. I
worked in indie video stores for like fifteen years, uh
in San Francisco and then even down here when I
first moved here, so I was really into physical media.
I still have like two thousand blue rays and DVDs,

(16:14):
So which is you know, they're not all on streaming people.
I know you think that they are, but they're not. Yeah,
I think you're speaking to the heart of many movie
crush listeners, because there are a lot of people that
have vast libraries and take it pretty seriously. Um, I
know what you're talking about. With the HBO. There were
I called them HBO movies. I mean they were there
were movies. They weren't made by HBO, but there were

(16:35):
movies that I watched just incessantly just because they were
on and in that same gap. I'm I think I'm
about five years older than you, but it's it's that
same window of time where uh, HBO came into your
house and between that and MTV, like it changed my life.
Oh yeah, fully, I mean that. I mean it's it's

(16:56):
funny because I don't watch cable that much even anymore,
even though I have a billion annals and I'll flip around.
I'll just put movies on if I'm working because I
work from home for the festival. Sometimes I'm just doing
a lot of busy work on my computer, and like,
if there's certain movies out they're just on cable. I'll
just leave them on in the background. I just won't
ever change off, like Mr Monto or Major League or whatever, like,
they just will constantly be on because Silverado, Like, they're

(17:18):
just things that I just love and it doesn't matter
what part it is, because I've seen him a bunch
of times. It's like, oh cool, I'll just pick it
up right here. Awesome. So yeah, but HBO definitely was
the one. I still like love. I have that theme
song stuck in my head still, no no, no, no,
oh god. So yeah, that was the best, that flying

(17:40):
Hbos symbol that would come over town. Yeah. Someone posted
that on our on our Facebook page the movie Crush
on the other day, and it's just it's impossible to
see that and not just be awash in a wave
of nostalgia. Yeah, And I think what was great about
that time and what's confusing about this time is you
didn't have choices. And I like that, like you had choices,

(18:01):
but you didn't have what you have now, which is
like needles and haystecks of needles, whereas before it's like,
you know, you had a pitchfork, so you could at
least bay all through the hay um. So like not
movies come out and it's like you don't you look
at the cashmick, how have been heard of this? How
is this not in the theater is that kind of
thing or back then, it's like movies came out in

(18:21):
the theater. There was like three or four that opened
on a weekend, and then it used to take like
six months to a year for it to come out
on vhs. Like you had a legit amount of time
to wait for the movies. Now it's like if you
don't see in the theater, you're like, oh, I'll be
on demand in like three weeks or whatever, which is crazy.
So like that was, and when vhs came out, they
cost so you had to wait for them to get

(18:42):
to price to own, so it was so crazy like that.
It was just like a different pace of living. Everything
was slower and if you think about it, even though
at that time the generation before was saying like stop
living so fast with your VCRs and whatever. But it
used to be that you would call somebody, you'd leave
a message on their message machine, and then when they

(19:03):
called you, you called them back the next day, or
they called you back the next day. You're like, thanks
for calling me back so quick. Right now, it's like
I texted you fifteen minutes ago. Are you dead? Know
what the funk is wrong? Right? Do you have do
you have COVID nineteen exactly. So that's just I kind
of missed that time. I missed that kind of like
slower pace of everything, even though there's still a lot happening.

(19:24):
But and I think that enabled me to like watch
movies and not think about it, just like enjoy them
and be able to relax. Now it just feels like
there's something I should be doing. There's something I should
be doing, and it's harder for me to, like, I
want to sit down and watch movies as much I
feel guilty when I do it. I still watch a
ton of movies, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't
have the same kind of childhood glee that it once did. Yeah,

(19:46):
and I talk a lot about um, certainly great movies
in the nineteen sixties, in nineteen seventies, some of the
most iconic films ever. But I talk a lot about
just like nineteen eight two or nineteen eighties. If you
go back and occasionally someone will scan in like the
newspaper movie section from that one of those years, and

(20:07):
it's staggering the quality of of the movies that came out.
We're just really good movies. I mean, they might not
be the biggest blockbusters or these iconic films, but movies
like you know, Absence of Malice or The Verdict like
these call them adult films, like adult dramas that you
just don't see enough of anymore. It's really and and

(20:30):
I don't want to be the old guy that's talking
about how you know, things of my day were so
much better. But I think week to week, every Friday
there were a couple of really good movies that would
come out. It felt like, yeah, for sure. I mean,
I think movies were built different then. I mean, if
you go back to the old Hollywood system, they're all
built kind of on a formula. But the formula was
like take your time, hit these marks or whatever. Um.

(20:52):
And then the au tour stuff happened with you know,
Easy Writer and and Godfather and all that stuff Scorsese
and then the kind of studio system kind of got
freaked out. Um. But so then it was kind of
a clash between that where the indie film and and
and the system and stuff after that. But I just
feel like they're if you, yeah, you look like a
two four. I mean, eighty four is kind of when

(21:12):
all the blockbustery stuff started happening because you had Grandus
and Ghostbusters and all that kind of stuff. I think
Raiders was at eighty four. Was that I think it was.
There might have been eight. I think that was a two,
but like that's kind of I mean, obviously Jaws was
the first, like the thing that set the whole Blockbuster
chain going, But I just kind of feel like then
it was more tentpole summer event movies from that point on. Um,

(21:34):
and then like the art films are still open or
they still be there because the studios had prestige films
they wanted to get out there in addition to their
popcorn movies. Yeah, and now it's like every weekend, it's
like you're lucky if you live in a town that
will get the movies that aren't the big studio movies
that planned three thousand screens. Yeah, that's where you kind
of have to look these days. I think you're Um,

(21:56):
I mean, there are still some good studio films, but
there are a few and four between that aren't Marvel movies.
I mean, I love those movies, but you have to
kind of look to the indie world a little more,
do a little more curating and searching. Um, I feel
like you could write a book about this kind of stuff. Yeah,
I mean I thought about that. I've thought about I
thought about doing some sort of podcast on eighties movies

(22:18):
and stuff, especially where I thought I would like take
a movie and really deconstruct it and be like, here's
here's the audio from the trailer, this is how they
did it, here's the marketing, here's that stuff. Because it's
really fascinating, especially if you like most of those old
trailers are on YouTube and other places too, if you
just look them up or if you end up down
the rabbit hole Systel and Ebert reviews. That's always fun
because like it's just fun to see what they thought

(22:39):
of things at the time because time and distance from movies.
It's just good weird to see how things were received
initially versus now movies that are classics are like panned
and that kind of stuff too. But yeah, it's just
it's weird to look back and all how that all went. Um.
But the trailers are great too, and that like they
did voice over on almost all of them, and they

(23:00):
don't do that anymore. It's just like music, you're lucky
if you get in a world, even in a world
is an old true now but most of like if
you look back on those eighties movies especially, it's always
just like Charlie Babbitt is a wonderful lawyer, but he's
about to have the Weekend from Hell. Like they literally
spell it all out for you. Yeah, you're great, and
they just don't do it anymore. And then like the

(23:21):
voices used to be, not the not the Fred Melama
is not the like the low like in a world
where it was more conversational, it was like different. It's
just different. And it's just interesting to see it now
because if you play one of those trailers now before
a movie, people would laugh at it. They'd be like,
that's so cheesy. Doesn't mean you want to see it.
I don't get it up, but that's what it was like.
It's just weird how much things have changed to be

(23:42):
slick and evokes certain feelings and not actually tell you
kind of what the movie is half the time. Yeah,
and this leads me to the movie posters in your collection.
I think we can both agree that movie posters nowadays
are awful and yeah, they're there's fucking terrible and and
so formulaic and with all the faces. And you've got

(24:05):
a really great collection of both foreign not foreign films,
but foreign versions of American movies, which is really fun. Um.
The first time I traveled to Europe, I took a
lot of pictures of of American of you know, European
versions of American movie posters and the titles. But when
did that start? And what is your collection all about

(24:26):
to you? So? I mean, I love the alternative, any
alternative art. Orc for posters, I love because there's a
certain thing you've seen a billion times, but when you
see us, different countries take on it are different. I
just love it. And how the titles are different stuff too.
I just find them entertaining as well. But for me,
like I worked, I was obsessed obsessive movies growing up.
So my room was just covered in movie posters that

(24:47):
I got, like free from the video store that I
would just frequent And I even had a couple of
the cardboards standis, like the big ones because they when
they were going to toss them out, they would given
to me. So in my room I had Willow broadcast
news and dy dancing. And you don't you don't see
a lot of like you know, ten year old kids
of the broadcast news standy. But that's why that's my

(25:08):
second favorite movie. Like I love it to death, but
it's just one of those I just loved it all
and like I would just like the room I was
given we moved into our replace in Davis. I think
was like a little girl's room at the time. So
I had like strawberry wallpapers. Is weird? It wasn't. I
didn't love it, so I just just like covering it
up with movie posters. I just plastered over it. So
I had so many and then I would just you know,

(25:28):
get something new and replace it. But I didn't like
like protect them. They were just taped up there like
there's no thought and about value. It was just like
this is cool, and I just think back they're so
weird too, Like I hadn Deane up there with Jeff
Bridges and Convintion, like what is that? But it was
just like, I like those actors, this is a cool
looking poster. Why not um? And I would just keeps
constantly cycle through it. So I think I always kind

(25:50):
of have that. And then as they started to kind
of really get serious about movies because I technically went
to San Francisco State four film. I was enrolled in
the film program there. My degree is in cinema with
an emphasis on direction. Fat a lot of good I'm
doing with that, but um, but it was different then
too because the film I was I learned to edit
on a flatbed, like, it wasn't digital, So it was

(26:12):
just different. It was just you know, you'd you'd go
back and you look at the film and what you
thought was fast wasn't wasn't fast because you were cranking
it too fast. And then you look at it and
you're like, oh my god, this is the slowest cut
thing in the history of the world. Um. But it
was just a different like feelings. So as I started
to go through that, um and I started to work
at indie video stores and stuff too, I would start

(26:33):
to get posters that were like I had a I
used to get reproductions because I didn't really think much
like about value of it. So I had like a
gold Finger poster on my wall, like the British UK
Quad version, that kind of stuff. And then I just
started kind of getting excited about these like foreign film
posters I would find for American movies and stuff, and
I just started collecting them. And at first I would

(26:54):
put them up, but now I have hundreds. So a
couple of years ago I realized these are just sitting
in a closet. I just take these all out, photograph
them and then periodically post them on my socials as
a way of hanging them without hanging them. Um, and
I still have at it. Thanks. Thanks, And it's not
hard to find them, Like you can go on eBay
and just you know, literally just look at originals non

(27:17):
US years or whatever and just kind of scroll through
and some stuff is ridiculously expensive. But I'll order like,
you know, twenty from Australia that are arranging from like
three d ten dollars each and then ends up being
just like you know, a hundred fifty bucks or whatever.
And I got a much cool posters. So they're all
out there, and they're not They're undervalued a lot of
the time, especially if you like movies that aren't the
big blockbusters. Yeah, what is your what is your most

(27:40):
prized possession? I know that's a tough one. Or do
you have a oh that's stuff. I think it might be.
I have some that are are signed by people that
I got either through the festival or my podcast or whatever.
I have a Swedish Young Frankenstein posters signed by Gene Wilder. Um.
We did a uh kind of a tribute to him.

(28:02):
Ended up being a post festival event because he can
only come in March to time with the book release.
So he did like a book release signing and a
screening of Young Frankistein and then like a conversation Q
and A with him, and it was just like magical.
And while the film ran, we all went and got dinner.
And that's like probably the most surreal night of my life.
Sixth top of Us. It was like Jean and his

(28:22):
wife and me, Janet and Dave and Sydney Goldstein who
used to run City Arts and Lectures who pass away
a couple of years ago, her husband and we were just,
you know, stare chatting and I wasn't there's somebody between
me and him, so I wasn't talking to him that much.
But we rode over together and you know, what do
you talk about on a car ride with Gene Wilder.
He just kind of pressed about the rates of houses

(28:44):
in San Francisco, I think, and expensive is the answer. Um.
But it was crazy, and there's been a few nights
like that like we went and we got beers with
Terry Jones after we did Holy Grail and stuff, and like,
you know, he this is about five or six years
before them and just set in and then he passed
recently too. So there's just things like that that are
just like these are things that people nowadays would like

(29:06):
have to win and like one of those like by
three worth of things and one person will win this thing.
And these are just things we got to do. And
it's just crazy to me. And I'm just glad that,
like I'm somebody who would appreciate it, because there's people
that get that ship all the time that don't, which
is crazy to me. Yeah, that's unbelievable. Gene Wilder, boy,

(29:26):
that's special. He's he's up there for me, that would
have been, uh intimidating. Everything I've heard about him is
that he was the biggest sweetheart of a man in
the history of the world. You know. Yeah, he was
very soft spoken and gentle and sweet and funny. Still
very very sharp and funny. Then he I think it
had already retired from acting, or I think he was
doing a couple of those like TV mystery things for

(29:48):
that character. Like he liked to do, but that was it.
He hasn't done any features after that. I know Spielberg
was trying to coax him out of retirement to do
Ready Player one. Um wow, yep, which would have been crazy.
But he I think he was an ill health then
and I don't think they wanted that to get out
because think he died like six months or a year
later or something. But um, yeah, he was trying to
get him out for that. That That would have been crazy. Yeah, cheez,

(30:11):
that's unbelievable. He um, yeah, he would have been. I
don't know what I would have said to Gene Wilder.
I would have been super intimidated. It's crazy because you
don't want to talk about their work because obviously they've
talked about their work a billion times. Even though you
would love to be like, what was it like working
with Prior? What was it you know whatever? Like Brooks.

(30:32):
You know that you like Mel didn't find putting on
the Rits funny, but you did. How did you fight
for that or whatever? But you know, you don't want
to come at them as a fanboy. You want to
come out as a peer at the best, you know,
like Or's just somebody that he can talk to, he
can be free, he can take he can take off
his persona that a lot of actors and stuff have
to do, and just like chat about whatever you want

(30:53):
to chat about, you know, whether that's other movies or
whether that's whatever, it doesn't matter. I think I would
have to break proto call a little bit though, because
I wouldn't want to come across as indifferent to who
he is as well, So I would have to sneak
in something about Blazing Saddles or Willy Wonka or or
speaking of HBO movies of that era, The Woman in

(31:16):
Red was a movie I probably saw thirteen times as
a youth. All the Charles Grodin blind stuff in that
movie just oh man, it's so good. He was just
so good. I mean even in his like movies that
were kind of pan his lesser works that are speaking,
like Haunted Honeymoon, Hanky Panky, like those were HBO movies.
I watched the hell out of Haunted Honeymoon. So yeah,

(31:37):
now I totally did too. There's people you're watching anything,
it doesn't matter what they're is just joy to see
them on screen, and he was one of them. That
is amazing. So before we get going with the movie.
I do want to cover really quickly. I saw on
Facebook the past few days, you have you have watched

(31:59):
the Add Boys movies? Movies that I have never seen. Uh.
I worked with Michael Bay one time. I was at
p A on a TV commercial that he directed, and
it was one of the most interesting, enjoyable and surreal
commercial shoots I've ever been on. UM, but what were
those movies? Like? Are they any good? You know, it's weird.

(32:22):
I've seen most everything in that era, you know, working videos.
Was I just push it on in the background if
but I somehow I just never seen the Bad Boys movies.
I was always aware of them, but just had never
put him in. I think I missed the first one,
and then when the second one came out, I was like,
why didn't see the first one? And at that time
it was a little harder to kind of they weren't
playing a TV and I didn't really want to rent
it or whatever. So I just finally decided. My wife

(32:44):
and I were just talking and I was like, you know,
I've never seen the Bad Boys movies. She's like, I
haven't either, and I was like, well, I guess we
should watch the Bad Boys movies and how was the time.
I was like, yeah at the time, and they're on Netflix,
the first two and the third one just just became
rentable on iTunes, so we watched them. And it's weird
because you know, I'll get people will write about my

(33:05):
movie picks and I put them up there and my
posters or whatever, and like, right now I'm doing this
Quarantine film fest thing that I just decided to do.
Or I'm like picking like thirty your favorite movies one
movie a day. I'm not necessarily watching them now. I'm
just like posting one a day just to be like,
I love this movie and whatever. But those would get
some responses. But the Bad Boys thing has caused a
lot of conversation on my wall because people love those movies,

(33:28):
like and I realized it's for people a bit younger
than me that like the nineties were their HBO movies
so to speak, and so that for them was huge
because the first one came out in ninety five, which
means I was like my second year of college, and uh,
it's two thousand three, two thousand twenties, like most trilogies do. Um,
So the first one to me, like that's everybody kept

(33:52):
saying watch to watch two two is the best one
watched to watch too. Um, which it's always annoying when
you get that for series or things like at to Like, oh,
the first season of Buffy's terrible, but season two is great,
but you need to watch season one. But you know so,
so I gotta I gotta suffer through twelve terrible episodes
to get to where it's good. We'll do appreciate where
it's good, okay, whatever. So we watched Bad Boys, and

(34:13):
like I thought I was okay, Like I didn't. The
has a conceit in it, a plot mechanic that I hate.
It's one of my pet peeves and movies, which is
mistaken identity and it goes on for fucking ever. It's
one of those things where like she only will deal
with Mike Lowry and that's that's Will Smith, and like

(34:34):
she gets Martin Lawrence and he's like has to pretend
he's Mike Lowry and takes her back to his apartment
and it's pictures of him, of Will Smith everywhere, and
she thinks he's gay because you know, gay panic still
happening in the nineties, and um, it's three company, Yeah, exactly,
and three companies fine? For what three company is? No?
I love but sure, I get I get what you're saying.

(34:55):
But this drags on for over an hour of the
mistaken identity thing, and I was like, this would have
been a good scene or two. This would have been
a good ten minutes. And I always get frustrated in
movies where a simple conversation clears things up. I just
hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it when like,
like I always think about Shrek as an example of
like he's about to tell her how he feels, and

(35:17):
he goes to the door to knock, and then she's
saying something out of context and he hears that, and
so he doesn't knock and he watch Like I hate
so much it makes me. It frustrates me. It frustrates
me so that so watching that movie, I just just
getting frustrated with it. I was like, okay, just say
like I'm his partner, like he will be here tomorrow.

(35:38):
Do would you rather go ouside and get shot at?
Like that would have sufficed, But they wanted to mind
the comedy out of it, which then took away the logic.
And like, I'm fine with things being brand less action movies.
I love them, but at a certain point when you're
this is just going on and on and on, I
was just like, oh my god, cleared up. Please let's
move forward to the third act. Um. So I didn't
love the first one. I thought it was fine. I didn't.

(36:00):
I thought their chemistry was good and stuff, and I
could see like, okay, this is potential. But then everybody
was saying watch to watch, to watch two. So we
watched two. It's like two and a half hours long,
which the movies are way too long, does not need
to be and um, it's way over the top. It's better,
it's shot better, the action sequences are more exciting. The

(36:20):
camaraderie is better in a sense too, but it's still
like very uneven and like still ridiculous lapses in logic
per usual. But that's fine. I don't mind that. Um.
But then I felt like, okay, we should watch three.
Three just got rentable yesterday, so we should complete the trilogy,
um and watch that one. And honestly, I might have

(36:41):
liked it the best, only because I saw them all
at once, and it's a little more of a modern sensibility. Now.
I think it's a little more grounded and logic, even
though it's still ridiculous. But I don't know, I thought
it was pretty good and and I would give them
all like two and a half stars out of five,
like that's kind of where they said, that's kind where
they stay with me, you know, like moments, good moments.

(37:02):
But I don't have the same emotional attachment to them
as people that were raised on them or grew up
with it, right, And we'll forgive those things because it
meant a lot to them when they were twelve, you know.
I didn't have that. But there are definitely little holes here,
and there are movies like that that I haven't seen
and periodically realizing like, all right, I'll go I have
the time, now, I'll go back and check them out
and see what I was missing. Yeah, I've got a
lot of those holes. There's a whole uh spade of

(37:24):
movies from the nineties that because those were you know,
uh my college years as well. And I certainly went
to a lot of movies and I worked at the
cool video store, but I didn't go see everything that
came out because you know, when you're in college, you're
just doing a lot of other stuff and I never
saw any of those movies. I never saw any of
the h and people can't believe that. I've never seen

(37:47):
any of the Happy Madison movies or the the Spade
Farley movies. I've never seen any of those. I never
saw the the Jackie chan Owen Wilson stuff. What were
those Shanghai Neon and Shanghai Nights? And I didn't see those?
Are they good? I think they're really good. Yeah, I mean,
at least the first one is. I think it's it's
a fun comedy. Um. And like the Happy Madison, like

(38:07):
Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, all that stuff, like I those
were in college. For me, I watched was in college.
I love them. I still have a spot for them,
but I know I realized they're not great movies. I
recognize that, but I don't know why I didn't see those. Well.
It's also weird too because like Tommy Boys fantastic. I
think it still holds up. It's very funny, but then
Black Sheep, which is right afterwards, is pretty abysmal. And
so it's just weird how things can be like really

(38:28):
hit and missed with the same you know, set of people. Um.
But yeah, I can see like, if you just miss those,
it's hard to want to go back and watch those,
though people will quote them around you all the time.
Then you feel like you get a little bit of Bomo. Yeah,
I think I should probably go back and watch Tommy Boy.
I've seen parts of a lot of these movies. Um

(38:50):
was which was the Gulf? One? Was that Happy Gilmore's.
I feel like I've seen most of that, but I
never definitely never just sat down to watch that or
saw it in the theater. Uh. And I like Sandler.
It's certainly like what we're getting these days from him
a lot more. But um, now is the time. Maybe
I should just go start watching all this sort of
popcorn Hollywood movies from the nineties. Sandler had such a

(39:12):
weird trajectory to me, and that like, you know, he
all the college bros and stuff loved those movies and
they first came out, and like those two, especially Billy
Madison Happy Gilmore, are like so goofy and so silly,
and so many non sequiturs and things that don't make
any sense whatsoever. They're just bits or whatever, but they're
funny and they're very juvenile. And then wedding singer happened,

(39:33):
and he started to get a little it's a little
more serious in a sense. It was still accommoye that. Yeah,
it was still a comedy, but he was kind of
acting a little bit in it, you know, water very
silly too. But then punch Drunk Drunk Love happened and
it became like, oh Sandler as an actor, He's not
just like a goofball, right. And then for a while
after that he was in the gym carey thing of
like serious stuff only and then you were kind of

(39:54):
like make goofy movies again. And then he went to
seriously goofy, like maybe the worst goofy movies and like
the Netflix ones. He was doing Ridiculous six and all
that kind of stuff. And Little Nikki I never saw,
but that was supposed to be really bad, wouldn't it. Yeah,
that though is nineties and a time capsule. That is
like probably the most nineties movie that exists, Like, watch it.

(40:16):
It is so nineties. The soundtrack alone, like just go
song and song to song. It's just it's it's, it's,
it's it's Incubus was a movie. Um, it's it's Little Nicki.
Oh that's good stuff, man. I feel like we could
just talk about random movies forever. Maybe you can become
like a regular guest and we could do some more
fun stuff like this would be great, man, that'd be

(40:39):
a lot of fun. Um. I think we will move
on to Searching for Bobby Fisher. Which was your pick?
Is your favorite film? Uh? This is a movie from three,
I think right that I saw when it came out,
um in ninety three. I was in college and Athens,

(40:59):
and it's not a movie that I don't I'm not
sure why I saw it in the theater at the time,
because it's, um, it's not a college movie that I
would have that would have drawn me to the theater
for some reason. But I got to watch it again
this morning, and it's just purely magical in every way.

(41:23):
It's great. And I don't know why you would see
in college. It's not like you're like, bros, you guys
want to go see this, Uh Father's Son Bonding Chess
Prodigy movie. Oh, there's there's no reason you would do that.
I don't know why I did. I'm pretty sure I
saw in the theater, but I know I definitely saw
it very soon on VHS. If that wasn't the case.

(41:43):
But um, tell me about your first experience with the
movie and why before we kind of dig into it,
what it means to you and why it's your favorite movie. Well,
it was definitely VHS for me because I missed it
in the theaters. Um because it didn't I mean I
looked up some stuff on it, and like it opened
at number nine in its first weekend. It had the
third highest per screen average, but it was not on

(42:04):
a lot of screens, and that's when like Fugitive is
ruling the box office and like Jason Goes to Hell
open that weekend, So that was number two, like it
was nineteen, So like it wasn't really widespread and I
didn't think to go see it, even I love all
these people in it, especially now if you look back,
like character actor Bonanza, Oh it's ridiculous, But um, I
think I just we've rented it and I put it

(42:25):
in and it was just like from frame one, I
was just like my jaw just dropped, like the whole
The feel of it to me is like the most
like consistently magical. There's no tone issues whatsoever. It has
a tone and it just nails it and it's just
like it's perfect because it gives. It has every emotion
in it to me, like it's it's it's sad at times,

(42:46):
it's funny at times, it's very touching, it's very it's
feel good. It's just like kind of everything. And you know,
I'm not like a chess guy, you know, like I
was gonna ask you that if I had anything to
do with it. I played us a little bit, but
like I'm just okay at it. Like I never bothered
to learn theory or like you know, moving and stuff.
It was just like, let's just play and if somebody's

(43:08):
too good, I'd be like, well this is pointless. I'm like,
I don't care about learning that much. But uh, you know,
I like chess fine. I played like battle Chess on
my PC and whatever else. But I think it was
just like I always tell people that, like, well, really
it's a father son movie with chess is just a
vehicle for it. Um. And that's not to say that

(43:29):
there's all sorts of things in it too. Obviously, Joan
Allen's amazing as his mom and stuff too, and like
everything with his buddy Morrigan and his sister and like
and also this movie gets kids right, Like it's so
goods kids right, and so many movies do not so good,
just like just the feeler. I think little scenes, it's
it's it's got little beats in it, so many little

(43:50):
beats that when you watch it again you'll be like,
that is so good. That is so perfect. And you know,
I think people I've never met anybody who didn't like it.
If they've seen it, they're like, oh I like that movie.
They've never any met this be like oh what a bore,
or like it's just I feel like it grabs you
immediately and it doesn't let go, and it it's a

(44:13):
combination of everything, the acting, the script, the score is
beautiful to James Horner is so great, and the cinematography
by Conrad Hall is so great. How do you make
chess look good while you put it in the park
in the rain and it looks amazing? It does, And
he got nominated for an Oscar that year for cinematography,
but he lost to Janie Kamiskey for Schindler's List? So

(44:36):
what are you Gonna Do? Exactly and amazingly Shy a
beautiful movie too, but um, it's just there's just nothing
in it that I don't like. There's nothing in it
that I can say I don't like about that movie. Yeah, jeez,
there's a million things I want to talk about. Um.
What occurred to me today for the first time is
that it's a sports movie. Yeah it is. It is Rocky,

(44:58):
it is karate Kid, it is Hoosier's Um. But it's
also goodwill hunting and finding Forrester and Dead Poets Society.
It's got elements of all and those are all movies
that are just so dear to me, and it has
elements of all those films. I feel like it. It
does such a skillful job of dancing around tropes without

(45:22):
fully going trophy. But but trope tropes are are comforting,
Like that's why there are tropes, because they work, and
we make fun of them a lot, but especially on
movie Crush. But I think it veers towards trophy at times,
but it knows just when to pull back. Um. And
there's a couple of instances that I can think of specifically.

(45:42):
One is just as a general plot device, they didn't
make Joe montanea uh. He had his carrecter arc but
it wasn't he wasn't living his life through his kid.
He wasn't the guy that almost had it all but
didn't quite make it, and now his son has to
do it and they could have very easily done that.

(46:03):
And the other the other big moment was at the
end when he beats and it's okay, we're gonna jump
all around. But at the end when he beats the
jerk kid. Um who By the way, that guy died
of cancer at eighteen. Did you know that? I did
not know that. Yeah. I looked him up and I
was like, where where did that kid go? And he
very sadly passed away as a teenager. But um, after

(46:27):
he loses he you see it through uh glass that
is um frosted this sort of moment with his dad
where he's sort of pulling away from him. But in
another movie that would have been sort of front and
center in this big scene where he pulls away from
his dad and it's like you made me do this

(46:47):
and I lost now and all, and so it sort
of dances toward that line, but just sort of hints
at it, which I thought was really smart. Yeah. I
think that's what one of the reasons I really love
it is like I don't like unnecessary conflict in movies.
I don't like things that like. I don't like tension
for the sake of attention. I really don't like. One
of my biggest pet peeves in movies in general is
like I embarrassment humor. I just can't. I can't get

(47:10):
behind it, I think because I have anxiety and issues
like that too. Like I don't find me the Parents funny.
I'm always just like, leave him alone, he's trying his best.
Like that to me, Like that kind of stuff is
hard for me to watch. There's not really moments of
this in here. Like whenever the adversity happens, it happens
in a way that like, this feels like it should happen,
and it doesn't send characters reeling into a thing for

(47:32):
an x amount of time. That's my problem with music
biopics is like they almost always have a twenty to
thirty minutes section of rock bottom when they're in rehab or.
I was like, we know that that's going to happen,
and there's no there's no way to show it in
a fresh, new, exciting way. It's just an awful thing
to watch as they push their friends and family away
and do all the others too, Like how how about

(47:53):
we just like this gloss over that maybe go to
like show one instance to say like three years later
or whatever. I get to the stuff that's more interesting
to me unless that's what the movie is, fine, but
in general, like that kind of stuff makes me crazy.
And you're right about that, Like through the through the
window from far away, it's not like really dwelled on
and with his dad with Fred like he hes he

(48:14):
there's never that thing too. It. I also hate when
often is like this kid has a gift and he's like, no,
he has to work on his studies or he has
like there's that whole thing instead, Like at first he's
just like okay, kind of dismisses it initially until it's
very early proven to him. When you want to go
to the lake and his kids beat beats him without
even being in the room, he realizes like, oh okay,

(48:35):
I get it now done as a gift, and it's
my job to cultivate that but not make it the
thing he does. And that's I think it's great about
it too. It's a way to like like cultivate it
and stuff like that too. But they have like rules
of like there's no chest talk this weekend. We're just
gonna go swimming, or we're just gonna want to be
a kid. Like that's what's amazing about it is the
protege kid obviously doesn't have be a kid. He just

(48:57):
has a Rocky Ford destroy I will break you attitude. Yeah,
whereas like like Max Promac's character, like he never Josh
never has a mean bone in his body ever, Like
he's just a sweet kid. He's always a sweet kid.
And that's what I like about it. And like when

(49:18):
it's when Morgan his best friend is like not at
the same level of him and chess, but you know,
he's a chess player just like the whole like the
last line in the movie, and this doesn't speak like
don't see it, puts his arm around him and just says,
you're a much stronger player than I was when I
was your age. Like it's so it's such a sweet
little moment to leave the movie. God, it was so great.

(49:39):
And they're just two little boys with their arms around
each other and he says that, and I'm just like,
you know, ten fifteen in the morning, I'm just like
bawling in my bedroom. At the end, of that movie.
It was just so perfect and and the kid, uh
it was such a good actor, has had such an
expressive face, and you're right, they get kids, right, he doesn't.

(50:01):
There's not a moment that feels false in this movie
with him, or really at all, but especially with these kids,
it's all so pure. They don't ask him to overact.
A lot of times, it's just his face that's conveying
that what would normally be a line, and he has
those eyes, and it's just it just works on every
single level with these kids. One of my favorite moments

(50:23):
of the whole movie is when they kick the parents
out of the tournament and basically lock them in a
jail in the basement, and all the kids start clapping
because yeah, because they just get to be kids. It's
just a wonderful moment. I think that's what's so good
about his performance is just like he's just being it's
so natural. It's so natural. There's no precociousness to it,
there's nothing like it's just the worst. He's just a kid.

(50:45):
Like when he's playing in his room and he's reaching
under like his bed defined things and he disappears on
there and stuff like that. It just feels so authentic.
My daughter just broke in. Hey, you want to say
hi to Cole? Hey there, this is Ruby. Hey, Ruby.
She's been busting in lately and I've just been kind
of leaving them in the episodes. I heard you banging

(51:07):
on the door to do you want to say? Hid?
Everyone again? All right, Well you can't come in from
that way, and I'm gonna have to ask you to
go back upstairs now, just because it's not a it's
not an episode where I can feature you. I'm very sorry.

(51:30):
Thank you. She was banging on the back door too,
all right. I think maybe we'll just leave that in
there because these have been Quarantine episodes and everyone knows
her by now, she's made appearances, so um, thank you
for indulging that. It's funny. It's just we're literally talking
about kids being natural and being kids and then and there.

(51:51):
I love it. Um yeah, the whole thing, just like
that whole everything is so natural to me in that movie.
And like you're right about the tropes, like because you
have like the street Wise Teacher and you have the
book Wise and like, I mean, the formula is there,
but formulas are okay, Like the reason that people write
screenwriting books. Is because screenwriting is a super duper strict

(52:13):
formula for the most part um. But like the Larry
Fishburn character, uh, like pre Matrix, Larry Fishburn is my favorite.
I love the Matrix, But before the Matrix, he was
just a different guy, I feel like, and he, uh,
he manages to pull off this role. Like they don't
have that trope of I won't say what they normally

(52:35):
call it, but sort of the magical black man that
comes into the movie. They dance towards that, but he's
not that, and the movie is much much better for that.
I think. Yeah, I agree. Like there's that one little
wonderful scene to where like Josh asks his mom like
where does Vinnie sleep, Like he just doesn't know, like
he doesn't doesn't know about him, and she's like, I don't,

(52:57):
I don't know. That's just kind of how it's a
dryst and like he's his character is great, Like he
definitely like I love the thing was like what's your name?
Don't tell him your name. Your kid's got you know,
he's got talent, and write his name down right now.
I saw him one, you know that kind of thing.
It's just yeah, and you know it's gonna end up
being the like he has to put together both styles
to become the kind of player that he is. And

(53:19):
you know he's going to bring his queen out too
early if he wants to. It's great though, it all works,
like the Ben Kingsley character and the Larry Fishburne character,
Like he said, they're headed for a collision course in
a way. But I think in the hands I mean
Steve Zali And we haven't even mentioned the writer and director,
one of the greatest writers in the in the history
of writing movies. Um has only directed a few, but

(53:42):
I think in anyone else's hands, this movie could have
been uh really really smalty. But he has such a
such a deft hand as a writer. I think he
did not let it veer into those lanes. And it
was his directorial debut, so obviously, like it was all
his kid. And when I found out about the movie,
didn't realize about Alien is like I was just reading

(54:02):
the liner notes of the soundtrack because I bought it
on CD at the time because I loved it and
like as weird as like I don't love classical music,
but I love film scores, and I think it's because
classical music puts me on edge because that was always
it was playing in the waiting room at like dentists
and like doctors and something as a kid. So like
I don't, I don't have pleasant memories associated with it,
whereas film scores I do, and some really good ones

(54:24):
I just like, I love and I'll listen to over
and over. It's it's weird which movies do. Like Gatica
has a great score, but you wouldn't say that grad
gadic has a great you know, it's a great movie, boever,
But like this movie to me has one of the
best scores, like James Horner scores great. And I was
reading the liner notes that Steve's Alien went to San
Francisco State, which is where I went, and I didn't know.
I did not know that. So I used to do

(54:45):
a thing back in college too where I would write
a lot of actors and filmmakers and stuff like that too,
and they would often send me back, like you know,
signed photos. Have a bunch of signed photos and stuff
like that too, because I was definitely an autograph collector
early um and some some people would actually write me
back and write letters. And I wrote him about like,
you know how much I loved the movie and it's
my favorite film. And I'm I think at the time,

(55:05):
I was at San Francisco State or I just graduated
from it, and you know, I just found this out
and it's so great and I love it. But I
just wrote him and he wrote me back and sent
me a nice handwritten note which I having a thing someplace,
but um just basically saying me's a lot, I love
my time in San Francisco whatever. So cut to me
working at Second Spin here in Los Angeles, which was

(55:26):
used in new CD and DVD like Blu Ray place, um,
like Wilsher um where we would buy stuff, use things
and then sell them or whatever. That's how I built
up my collection because I would get things that like
very cheap, a lot of DVDs and blue rays for
a dollar or two dollar or whatever. Um. But he
sometimes people celebrities would come in there because it's you know,

(55:47):
like Los Angeles. And one time this kid, teenage kid
was like buying something and he gave a credit card
and the credit card said Steven's Alien on it. So
I was like, Steve's Alien, like the director writer, and
He's like, yeah, that's my dad. And I was like,
please tell your dad hello for me, and tell him
that Searching Before a Bobby Fisher was my favorite movie,

(56:07):
and I thank you so much. He's like he was
really excited about it. And then like a couple of
days later, he brought Steve's Alien in with him, like
brought his dad just to say hello, what I mean,
like to meet him, so like that was amazing. I
mean we just talked like a minute or two, but
it was still really cool. Like it's just crazy the
stories of people that would come in there, because one
time Janice Kaminski came in and was buying up box

(56:29):
sets and I just looked at it. I didn't know
it was him because I didn't know what jan Komiski
looked like. But I saw his credit card, and you know,
Jannis Kaminski was like, you you lends movies beautifully. I
love so much of your stuff. And he's like, oh,
thank you, Like he was very nice about it, Like
I didn't famboy and I don't think he gets it
that often, you know, so um. That was one of
the weird benefits of like working at a retail store

(56:50):
in Los Angeles in a sense there Cinophiles would come
in sometimes, so yeah, so that's when I meant alien
and stuff too, and through his kid initially, which is
kind of funny too because Father Soun's story met my
filmmaking hero through father sound connection. So yeah, it's crazy. Yeah.
So I'm just gonna read through some of the movies

(57:10):
that he's written. His The first movie he ever wrote
was The Falcon and the Snowman. Amazing. Yeah. Uh. He
follows it up with Awakenings, Schindler's List, Bobby Fisher, Uh,
Clear and Present Danger, Mission Impossible, Civil Action, Gangs of
New York, Moneyball, American Gangster Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,

(57:33):
The Irishman. It's just that's an intimidating list, all great movies.
I Mean, you can argue that Awakenings might be the
smalty place that this could have gone this movie, but
I love Awakenings to we can definitely like slightly manipulated.
But I don't know if that's so much about the
writing and more so about the Witch like done directed.
I love that movie though, Like it gets me every time. Oh, totally. Yeah,

(57:56):
He's he's amazing. He's one of the best writers out
there for sure. Um, I have a quick Conrad Hall story,
one of my favorite cinematographers of all time. And when
I was at p A in Los Angeles on TV commercials,
I worked a lot for his daughter. She was a
commercial producer, Naya Hall, and Iah was just amazing and
I always just nerd it out with her, and she

(58:17):
loved how much I loved her dad's work, and I
really meant a lot to her, and she was just wonderful,
and she when he passed away, she asked if I
wanted or she asked for my help. But to me,
it was an opportunity to go um before his memorial
service and kind of help help her out and help
put everything together and put up these posters and put

(58:38):
up the flowers and all that stuff. And so I
and she said I could stay. So I went to
Conrad Hall's memorial and just uh and very much just
hung back in the background and like Tom Hanks was
there and Spielberg was there, and it was it was
a room that I never thought I would be in.
And I literally didn't speak to anyone. I just just
sat there like a fly on the wall and watched

(58:59):
everybod It was. It was pretty cool. It's amazing. It's
hard to not want to call him Connie Hall because
I know that's what they all his friends called him.
Was like, I don't know. I can't call Marty's Connie.
I can't call him a Bobby de Niro into my head. Yeah,
but you mentioned, um, how do you make chess exciting?
And that that opening and those opening scenes in the
rain in the park. Uh, the sound design is really

(59:22):
important in this movie too, how they're slamming those pieces
down and hitting that clock and it it really gives
the It gives chess an energy that it might as
well be Rocky or Karate Kid. It might as well
be a prize fight that you're watching or the final
of a karate match. It's that thrilling, and it's totally
due to the way he shot it in that sound design.

(59:44):
And it's also like especially then too, it's it's his
way of of doing a difference between street chess and
like textbook chess, because like Vinnie's whole thing is like
you gotta attack, you gotta attack, you gotta attack, you
can't sit back, and Bruce's thing is more like don't
move until you see it, don't move into take your time,
don't move until you see it, that kind of thing.

(01:00:04):
So it's very two different approaches and Vinnie's things like
move fast, catch your guy off guard, you know that
kind of thing. Um. And so it definitely has that
energy and the kind of streen energy to it too.
And you know, it's like Washington Park in New York
and that kind of stuff too, and um and did
you know about that stuff then? By the way, that
because that was my first introduction to the fact that

(01:00:24):
there were people like on the street playing chess in
Washington Square Park, it really sort of brought it to
me in a different light that I hadn't seen before.
I definitely had seen people play chess and parks, but
didn't think about it, like I didn't really pay an attention, like, oh,
these guys are playing chess, like I didn't realize that.
Like it's the same card kind of thing, is like
people doing three card monty in the corner or whatever.

(01:00:46):
Like it's kind of has this kind of hustler energy
to it. And these guys that were either chess pros
or ranked at some point now that just I've kind
of fallen out of favor that are trying to just
like earn a living by going out there, like the
Russian chess master or whatever that he's with early, who's
like will give him a lesson for five dollars and
like that kind of whole thing. It's it's kind of
really thrilling to see that, and like it just kind

(01:01:06):
of opens up the whole world that you don't you're
not aware, like spelling bees or whatever, like this is
that kind of thing of like like like just seeing
the tournament footage too and that kind of stuff and
realize that this is a whole world. This is just
like anything else, um. In terms of his competition. It
could be a pageant, this could be horse raising, it
doesn't matter. Um. And like I said, like two and

(01:01:26):
they locked the parents up. It's like that so many
of the parents are like living by karisy through their
kids in that and it's not so much like Fred
and Josh's relationship, which is what I like a lot. Yeah,
I mean you you briefly mentioned Ben Kingsley, and holy
sh it, Bing Kingsley's in this movie too. Like it's
a murderers row of actors, uh in the main roles

(01:01:46):
and then all the way down like Tony Shalube has
a one minute scene. Young Laura Lenny has has one
of the best scenes in the movie, and she's in
it for like a minute. William H. Macy's in it
for a minute, Like it's crazy the cast that he
was able to Austin Pendleton and um Danadea, oh yeah,

(01:02:08):
David Paymer, like, it's just it's just chock full of
people that and I think a lot of them came
out of the New York Theater scene, probably Jone Montania
on that Center stuff too. But they're so good and
it's kind of interest to too if you read up,
Like a lot of those guys are playing versions of
real people. And this is a true story, right, It's
based on a book that the Joe Montania character, but

(01:02:31):
his dad, uh Fred Wayskin wrote about his son and
that whole thing. Um, But Austin Pendleton in his one
scene where's kind of talking to himself and he's doing
the board thing, he's playing a real chess master and
that chess masters like didn't like the the version of
himself in it or whatever too, which is interesting to
hear about that. Like, but they interviewed Bobby Fisher at
some point about it. And he never saw the movie

(01:02:53):
and he was upset that, like he feels like he
should be gotten paid something because they used his name
and that kind of stuff too. But it, um, I
was like seeing the movie, dude, like he's not playing
you and if anything, like, I think it gives a
lot of humanity to Bobby Fisher because it kind of
like totally interstitials about kind of what his journey was like. Too.

(01:03:13):
Then how it mirrors like Josh and Friends a little
bit too, Like I think it's a it does a
big service to himself and paints him in a positive light.
But yeah, I hear your cat, dude. I see your
cats on Facebook. Your cats are the best. Thank you.
That's Sydney. He's the redheads in the other room. Sidney's
usually pretty chill, So I left him stay in this
room because I did a thing on Zoom the other

(01:03:34):
night where, of course, one of the red heads popped
up on the computer and completely ruined. So I was like, hey,
I'm not gonna chance that right now. Oh man, I
love it. We call her we call cats are rotten
because we have two rotten cats, and rotten cats are
the best. They're always We have two very weird cats. Now, yeah,
they're awesome. Sydney's the he's the old man, he's fourteen.

(01:03:54):
And then the Redheads are now Rudy and uh, Lucas
are year and a half. Now I think, oh, yeah,
they're great. So they have that kitten energy still, but
they're starting to calm down a little bit. Did they
get along with the with the old one? They do?
We did it in the right way. I think we
isolated out the kittens in one room and they gave
them another room and then reintroduced them slowly to each other,

(01:04:17):
and they get along the um. So the narration, you
know you mentioned the Bobby Fisher parts. Uh boy, that
really just is the through line to this movie. That
narration is so great. It always comes in at the
perfect moment and I can't imagine this movie without that stuff.

(01:04:37):
I'm so glad that they, I guess, risk getting sued
or whatever by showing that footage, the black and white footage.
It just it all works so perfectly. Yeah, it totally does.
And it always say like movies and narration are lazy,
you know, like that's a screen trope they don't like
like a lot of filmmakers do. But like it's not
really narration. It's just like they're just these little moments

(01:04:59):
that helped feel lynn the gaps of everything else that's
going on. It's it's you know, they could have started
with like all my life I wanted to play chess.
That's differently or whatever. Like it's not that it's not
good Fellas or whatever, but right, um, And I think
that's what's so great about it, is like he's he's
he's narrating his own story in a way without really

(01:05:20):
narrating his own story. That's what's really cool about it. Yeah,
it was great. Um. One of my favorite shots in
the movie is uh and it just like it gives
me chills when I see it and I rewound it
like three times. Is early on when he does when
he sets those legos up as the chess characters in

(01:05:42):
his castle and opens the castle door and the camera
goes through. Oh man, what a shot. It's such like
it's just like a little glimpse inside of kid's mind.
It's just it's so great. Yeah, That's what I think
is is so wonderful about this movie is it just
straddles like here's the adult side, here's the kid's side.
Here's everything he me And it doesn't treat anybody with contempt.

(01:06:02):
It doesn't judge anybody, you know, even like the villain
so to speak of like the the Grandmaster and his protege.
Like if anybody complains about anything, is that those characters
are one to mentional. I don't think that they are.
I think that they're the least drawn of the characters
in the film. But I think it's because they're not
meant to be known, Like they're not they're not part

(01:06:24):
of Josh and Fred's world. Like what you see is
what they see. It's just these little glimpses of them
in tournament time, and like you actually learn a little
bit about the guy he's against when he offers in
the draw and how he's kind of stuck in that
moment of like why are you? Why are you offering
me this? Like I don't understand what a great moment
in the movie if his little hand reached out like

(01:06:45):
a little kid didn't even know how to shake his hand.
It's all like kind of stiff and straight. Uh. And
and that was the one moment like they gave they
gave that kid that one moment where he said trick
or tree eat, which is kind of out of character
for him as as as a really sweet kid to

(01:07:06):
kind of use that back against him. But that moment
where he says like you've already lost, and like I'm
offering you a chance to draw. And I don't know
if I remembered when I watched it this morning, because
I just saw this in ninety three if he took
him up on the offer. So there was genuine suspense
again when I was watching that scene, and I was

(01:07:28):
going to take the deal in hand. Yeah. Yeah, that's
what's so great about it. Like I feel like when
he does do the trick or treat thing and he
says it back and he'd be like, whoa, Okay, shots fired,
it's almost like he realizes he has to stand up
for himself and that thing and he has to dish
back a little bit. That's him channeling Vinny a little
bit in that moment. That's him being like, Okay, you've

(01:07:50):
been trash talking me and everybody else you're playing against.
I'm for real, I'm gonna trash hockey back just for
a moment, just just so you know that I can
go toe to toe with you and I can dish
out whatever you're gonna dish out, yeah, and that that
final matches, it's so great. There's the shots of him,
there's so many great opportunities for a chessboard with the
wreck focus shots and there's so many great ones. But

(01:08:13):
when they would rack from the chess piece back and
there's so much tension there and Ben Kingsley is saying
out loud what the moves are? I think it was
like twelve moves or something like that, and he sees
you see his all you see is his eyes darting
around that board and bing bing. Kingsley's like, man, he's
working it out, and he's working it out. And Joe
Montane he's like, what's he working out? What's he working out?

(01:08:33):
Like when they when Banks goes that's a mistake. That's
a mistake, and he realizes it and then you can
see him just trying to like communicate with Josh mentally
being like it's there. It's he moves away, but it's there.
It's there, just don't move in to see it. It's like,
this is this is my teaching now, like and you
can see that Josh is actually like, oh, yeah, I'm
gonna this is what Bruce did for me, and I'm

(01:08:54):
gonna wait until I see it, and I see it
and so that's when the draw thing happens and all
that stuff. So it's just so it's like, how do
you make chess exciting? They do? How do you put chess? Like,
because you to the so many watching, you can't tell
what's going on. You have no idea unless you have have
an advanced knowledge or chess, you don't you can tell
them like somebody's like if the camera shoots in a way,
they're like, well, the the king's open, we know that

(01:09:16):
that's going down or whatever. But you don't know, and
you don't want to do a play by pay announcer
being like, oh Josh's castling on the first move. We're crazy,
Like you can't do that, So how do you? How
do you do it in a way that the audience
will have an idea of what's going on, at least
enough to know. And I think Zillion was smart enough
to know that, Like, I don't need to explain the
mechanics with chess. I don't. People don't need to know

(01:09:38):
how he's beating them or what he's using a gambit
or whatever. That doesn't matter what I had to be
able to communicate to them, is that like, is he
doing well? Is he not doing well? What are the stakes?
Where are we in that? Yeah? Absolutely, And I think
a lot of other I think this in the hands
of other people, it would have been way too on
the nose, way too telegraph. They probably would have had

(01:10:00):
a fucking announcer in the room, like you said, like
spelling out exactly what was going on. But you know
exactly how much you need to know to follow the
match and the and these these peaks and valleys of
that match. Kind of the same as um Karate Kid,
which I think is a great, great movie. Uh. And
and that's what I think the best sports movies do

(01:10:23):
is you don't have to know anything or be a
fan of the thing if you make a great movie. Uh.
If if someone says, I don't I don't like basketball,
so I've never seen Hoosiers, Like, no, you should see
Hoosiers because it's a great, great story. The same with
boxing or karate or chess or anything else. Um, if

(01:10:43):
you do it right, you transcend the thing that the
movie is about because the story is there. Or even
like Moneyball, which is alien also wrote like you know
that's absolutely about math baseball. I know, I'm a big
baseball guy. I love baseball, and I was actually at that.
I've said this billion times in general rolleris and she
hears it. I was at that Wayne in Oakland when

(01:11:04):
they won their to really straight, so it was like
Giants as more than Giants. I think it's because when
I was in Davis we would drive to see A's
games sometimes, but I like the Giants too, like I've gone,
I'm just I'm a Tiger guy. Like it's because of
my Detroit roots, so with Tigers, but I definitely would
go to Giants and A's games. And it's definitely the
first like sporting event that I've seen re enacted on

(01:11:25):
screen that I was at that that was really surreal
to me too. But again, like that's the thing, like
how do you make trans baseball transactions like fascinating And
like when you just see him working his magic on
the phones in that movie, it's just like this, it's crazy.
It's like it's almost Bobby Fisher again with chess, but
now it's now it's numbers, baseball numbers. Yeah, I'd like
to see Moneyball again. That was a great movie. Yeah,

(01:11:46):
real good. Um, So, a couple of my favorite this
that you were talking about the small moments in this
movie and these small beats. There are a few lines
and moments that just really are so touching and so great.
One of them is when again outside in the rain

(01:12:10):
after I think it's after he throws the tournament, uh,
And there's a great moment before that when he's in
bed talking about not wanting to be the best, and
you kind of know what's coming, you know he's gonna
throw it, but he's outside and he looks up at
his dad and says, why are you standing so far
away from me? That's just the most heartbreaking moment of

(01:12:31):
the entire moment, and that's what gets Fred to like,
that's what it gets Joe Montanie where he's like, oh,
what what am I doing? Because that whole sequence too,
it's like I love how they handle it when the
little girl runs out of the room and he's like, oh,
that was that was fast, Like because he's supposed to cheat,
he's supposed to destroy her, and it turns out the
other way around, and like goes to her dad far

(01:12:53):
away and starts celebrating, and he's just like no, yeah,
like it's just like his jaw just drops and then
it's like a rainy day when you're yelling at your
kid about losing, like yeah, and that's when, yeah, he
realized it's not about winning, you're losing. Yeah, And that
line just it's, um, I don't know if Zalion had
kids then, but my daughter is almost five. He's supposed

(01:13:16):
to be seven in the movie, and that's what a
kid would say because they don't have the emotional processing
ability at that age. All they know is dad is
standing far away from him right now, and that's doesn't
feel good, and like that's It's such a simple line,
but just nailed it on the head, you know, Yeah, No,

(01:13:38):
it's crazy. Another one of the best lines is the
great Laura Lenny scene where she's sort of condescending about
this chess thing and he's being the you know, the
sports dad sort of, but when he says, you know,
he's better at this than anything I've ever done and
anything that you will ever do, it's just such an

(01:13:59):
aniviscary line. So yeah, it's so crazy. I mean, I
especially love it too, like when even Joan Allen has
her moment when Laura Lenny's like, I had this chest
thing and like he's like chest thing and he wanders
away and like that, it's just that whole thing. I
think that whole moment. Um. Laura Lennie's like John Allen
is so good in this movie, and like she is,

(01:14:21):
you think you could be a thankless role because it's
more so the mother um or the father's son part
of the thing. But she she holds her own. She's
amazing moments of this movie. And her little sister is
so cute too, like such a good little character. I
love it so much totally. Um. And then the other
two big moments for me is the scene where Ben

(01:14:42):
Kingsley is telling him that he has to hate his
opponents and he said Bobby, Bobby had contempt for everyone,
and he just said, I'm not him. It's like a
three word line and and just sort of a masterclass
in and not overwriting I And that's like so devastating too,
and like he like tears up all the master class

(01:15:04):
certificates that, Like that's like the one thing he's like trying.
He's doing this because he wants the praise too, and
he's working so hard for this. And then to realize
that in the eyes of his coach, it's nothing, You're
nothing in a sense, like that's just that's like one
of the most heartbreaking moments too well, and that pays
off so well when he um frames that really nice

(01:15:27):
masterclass uh A certificate and he gives it to him
before the last match and he says, I've never been
so proud of anyone in my life. I'm proud to
call it, call myself your teacher. And the kid goes,
I'm scared, and he says, I know. And again, it's
just not overwriting. Like I like to with some of
my favorite screenplays in lines, I like to picture it

(01:15:48):
on the page and it's so sparse but just pitch perfect.
And also the scene when they first started working together
and they're playing games and you think they're playing chess
and he's like candle secred over and he's like rope
or what was and he's like they're they're playing clue.
And then he's like, so you guys talking about chess
in there? No, it didn't come up, like they're just

(01:16:10):
playing games together, getting to know each other or whatever,
and he's perplexed about why is he in they're playing
board games with my son at three an hour or
something whatever it is. Yeah, which again sort of dances
in that trope of like Karate Kid. He's standing the
floor and waxing the car, but he's really learning karate.
It's that it's sort of that it's tried and true

(01:16:31):
in movies like this, and it works every single time
if you do it right. Yeah, it's so beautifully done.
I mean this movie is just like it's just like
I said, moment after moment. It's just little little vignettes
in the sounds, like little things. And that's why I
think it rewards you with like repeat viewings, because you're
gonna pick up on things you didn't notice the first

(01:16:52):
time through, because you're gonna get caught up in different
aspects of it. Um. And you know, I don't think
it hurts to actually like listen to something like this
or like watch um or read about it or read
about Bobby Fischer himself, or like I've heard the memoirs good.
I have not read it, but I don't think it will.
I think it will change your perspective in some ways
to like think of approaching it from a different viewpoint,

(01:17:13):
to like watch it like you're like a kid, or
watch it like you're a parent or whatever. I think
it's just different every time you see the film. Well, yeah,
I mean I watched it when I was in college,
and then I watched it with a five year old
in my life, and it's definitely had a more residents.
I loved it back then, but it had a lot
more meaning and it was a little deeper for me today.
And it's not on Blu Ray. It's a shitty DVD

(01:17:36):
released from a long ast time ago. Like that just
kills me. It's it's at least thank god it's wide
screen on there, because there are some DV releases earlier're
all full screen. You're like, what are you doing? Like,
I just remember working at the video store and having
to explain to people because we had letterbox vhs is
for some movies, and we'd have a section called letterbox,
you know, and we put them there. We put a
thing on the side and said letterbox or whatever, and

(01:17:57):
we would like when people would bring it up, we
would explain it to them. And sometimes people will be like,
so what is this and be like, well, when films
are shot, they're shot. They're not shot in the four three.
They're not shot like a square there shot like a
rectangle and this basically shows you the entire picture. There's
black bars with the bottom on the top of the
screen so that you're not going to computer panning back
and forth. So people are like walking down the sidewalk
from far like different size of the street, ge see

(01:18:19):
them both the same time and go through the whole
rig and roll and they go okay, and then they
bring it back an hour later being like, yeah, it's
the top and bottom or cut off, and you're just like,
you can't. There was no way to explain this to
these people. They could not get their head around it. No.
I think the easiest way to set it back then
was like compare your television screen to a movie screen

(01:18:40):
and that's the difference, and still couldn't. He couldn't wrap
their heads around it. So most things are full screen,
and then they started to come out white screen, and
then thank god TVs just started being manufactured why and
now that's the norm and there's no way around that.
But you can watch old DVDs and stuff from like
movies from the eighties and never got a good like
version ever put out, Like Short Time I have like
a boot version of which is a great movie, but

(01:19:01):
like it's not out there, and it's a shitty little
four three grainy awful like version of that movie. But
at least I can watch it. But you can put
those things in it, and it just looks so god awful.
But I can't imagine watching anything not wide screen anymore.
Let's me shot that. I mean a lot of old
movies weren't shot wide but right, and now the fight
we have to fight is the motion smoothing it to
the in law's house. Oh god. I every time I

(01:19:24):
go home, I turn that off and somehow it resets.
Sometimes it just needs no crazy Like I did that
for years at my father in law's when we would
go for Christmas. Now they live here, so I don't
bother because I don't watch TV over there, but I
would sneak over and grab that fucking remote and it
would somehow be changed back the next day. Oh my god.
Like when the movies would start that way, I was like,

(01:19:45):
you've realized, this doesn't look like a movie anymore, And
it looks like somebody who's recording a soccer game with
a camcorder. Right, you realize that's what this looks like. Now? Yeah,
they don't get it. They think it looks super clear,
and I'm like, it clear isn't necessarily great awful, Like
I get it if you were watching football, but it's
terrible for movies. Movies should look like movies. Yep, anything

(01:20:08):
else on Bobby Fisherman, I think that was a good discussion.
Thoroughly enjoyed that, thanks man. Yeah, it's hopefully people will
go find it. It's been cable lately, like it's been
on I think like Showtime or Stars or it's been
playing because I've caught it a few times. So when
people do check this out, they might be able to
find it someplace. I don't know if it's streaming or whatever,
but it's not. I got it on iTunes movies and uh,

(01:20:28):
you know it looks it looks fine. Cool. They should
definitely seek it out because I think a lot of
people haven't seen it, and people always find it weird
that it's my favorite movie because I'm a big comedy guy.
I mean that's how I'm making my living is in comedy,
and like I love comedies, like going on about comedy,
but like, this is the movie that touches me more
than anything else, and I'll defend it till the end

(01:20:49):
of time, and it's just like it's great, a little
sleeper of a movie that more people should have seen
and it should have done better than it did. But
at least they do think it is appreciated with those
who have seen it and who love it. Yeah, I
totally agree. I get your stuff on Facebook. I'm not
on Twitter, but I'm sure your Twitter handle is a
fun follow because you were especially for our listeners, because
you're a true movie buff and movie nerd and connoisseur.

(01:21:11):
And I have a lot of great stuff. So where
can people find you? They can find me. I have
both Instagram and Twitter, which I mean, obviously with the
movie posters and stuff, I usually put them on both,
but I definitely put them all on Instagram, which I
believe is Stratton Cole, and then Twitter is Cole Stratton,
so it's pretty pretty easy one or the other. Um alright,
But yeah, they're all kind of up there and stuff,
and I'll continue to post movies ship all the time.

(01:21:35):
That's great, man. I appreciate you coming on. Janet was
my inaugural guest on this show, and now I've gotten
you in here, and I would love to just have
you back to talk about anything. At some point there's
I can talk movies forever, so theyre all right. Well,
thanks Buddy, awesome, Thanks jack Man. He's a lot all right.
Bye bye bye. M Movie Crush is produced, edited, and

(01:22:05):
engineered by Ramsay Hunt here in our home studio at
pont City Market, Atlanta, Georgia. For I Heart Radio. For
more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Cole Stratton on Searching for Bobby Fischer