Oscar Movie Roundtable: Uncut Gems

Casey, Paul and Noel sit down with Chuck today to talk about the movie that should earn Adam Sandler his first Oscar, The Safdie Brothers' Uncut Gems.

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Episode Transcript

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

(00:29):
Hey everybody, and welcome to Movie Crush. Oscar round table
a dish. We are talking uncut gems. On my right,
I have Mr Ksey pet grum, that's it, that's the intro.
On my left have nol p p p. He's getting interesting.
Finger and wait to see what across from me. That's
my new thing for the year. By the way, his

(00:50):
finger and sound effects corresponding, you're stealing with thunder. Hello Paul, Paul.
Hey guys, that's so Paul. The quiet restraint, I love
it is. This is class In fact, Casey was classy.
No one's the only one who guttered this up. Pew
pew finger. I missed my cue one time. So now, well,
I try to be on top of that. Casey to

(01:12):
kind of a Fawns kind of thing. That's sort of
a yeah, and I'm trying not to do that. I
don't want to do the A and I don't want
to do the what I read you want to be like, hey,
well that's weird, straightforward. Almost every time I see you
in the office, you go your favorite song comes on
the leather jacket. Every year, al right, Casey. I guess
I'm not eve gonna who you are anymore? Real show

(01:32):
boat over there. So, dudes, we are here to talk
about uncut gems. Uh. And I will go ahead and
spoil by saying it was my favorite movie of the year,
my number one movie up there for me. It was
everything about it. It was fucking perfect. It was my
number two, but it was neck and neck with my
number one. Hold your thumbs. So we all liked it.

(01:55):
Unless Paul's like me. It was kind of okay. I
thought the acting was not so great. Was always the
wild card act. You never know what that beauty. We
had a Richard Jewel discussion at the question Mark table
yesterday and I was there was a good discussion. Yeah,
I respect your opinion as always. Yeah, thank you, I
respect yours usually. Thanks. Okay, that's fine, I'll take that. Uh.
So the Safty Brothers, uh, the only movie I've seen it.

(02:16):
There's a Good Time or is it good Times? Good Time?
Good Time? Which was great. Yeah, I've not seen the
one with the young junkie woman who heaven knows what
ye did anyone see that? It seems very unpleasant. I
meant to get around to it. I actually saw a
deleted scene from it on YouTube. But I have not
seen the Straightforward Future yet. I just knew, I knew,

(02:36):
I knew in advance that it involves cutting, and I
don't like. I'm not I don't like cutting. Cutting freaks
like suicide. That's start of triggering from me. So I've
avoided it. Um cutting in Heroin Addiction and all that.
It just seems, like I said, very unpleasant some Sammarial
pink music. Well, I mean the Safty brother is. One
thing they're not out to do so far in their
career is make anyone feel comfortable and smiley in a

(02:58):
movie theater. Yeah, yeah, they're They're very much. Watching one
of their movies is like having a panic attack or something.
So especially and I would argue it a perfectly enjoyable,
exciting experience, like I can't wait to see this again.
It's not one of those are like that again, I'm
going tonight. Yeah, it's fantast I've seen it twice already.
So another thing too, that has just hit me. There

(03:19):
are so many great filmmakers out there right now. Then
we're really lucky. But to be like our age, of course,
I'm much older than you guys, we don't need to
say the obvious, but you know, to be a movie
going person and to be seeing their career at the
very beginning at this juncture is like, I just feel
so excited about what's to come. Although they've they've been
doing it since mid two thousands, I want to say

(03:42):
they have like yeah, Pleasure, Pleasure, being robbed, and Daddy
long Legs a k A. Go get some Rosemary. I
think those are the four features they've done that in
Good Time and uncut gems. They might have one more
in there, but shorts, yes, tons of shorts, and also
some documentary work and you know they're there. I DVS
is quite full of stuff, but they're only now. Like

(04:03):
good Time was kind of like the moment where they
really popped, and then as far as big mainstream American films,
and then certainly like that like Good Time was the
thing that allowed them to get Sandler for this movie.
And so it's just all kind of snowballing. And we
had briefly talked on the last Mini Crush episode we
recorded about how they had this script like right at
a film school, and I think I read that it

(04:23):
went through like over a hundred revisions and they had
kind of been nursing it for about ten years and
they wrote it for Sandler, but they weren't famous enough
to get him, uh. And they got it to one
of his reps and they you know passed or just
you know, just sat in a stack or something. And
then when Pattinson, you know, was it was involved in uh,
good Time and you know, made such a splash. I

(04:45):
think Sandler saw it like a venice or yeah, and
he like, there's Uh. I was listening to one of
the mini podcasts that the Staftis have been doing to
promote this, and um, one of the I forget if
it was Joshua Binny, but got a text. They're just
saying like, hey man, you was great. And he wrote
back like hey, who's this. He's like Sandler and he's
like what so and so Sandler like you know some

(05:06):
guy that he knew. He's like, no, no, no, the
famous one. And he named some other guys like an
architect or something. He's like, no, dummy, the comedian, the
famous guy. He's like, oh ship, you know that. And
what's interesting too about the way Good Time came about
was that Robert Pattinson saw Kevin knows what. Apparently he didn't.
He saw still from like a screenshot from the movie,

(05:28):
and he loved it so much that he got in
touch with the Saftias and said, I want to work
with you guys from from a screen shot, you know,
like some some purple and they that they at that
time they were trying to get I mean for a
long time get uncut Gems made, but then when Pattinson
came along, they were like, this isn't really something that

(05:50):
works for him. Let's just put uncut Gems aside and
we're going to write something totally new for him. We
got somebody like a big star. It's crazy that they
the genesis of that was kind of like, let's write
something that they did and they bust out good time,
which is amazing. That's crazy. And who was the one
that was in that movie, which Benny? Oh yeah, Benny

(06:11):
is the brother brother boy. He was good too. It's
almost like an of Mice and Men kind of that
movie where it's like he's the younger, kind of super
conniving kind of huckster that's trying to protect his brother
but ultimately puts him in harm's way. You know, I mean,
what A what a movie. Yeah, highly recommended. I think

(06:31):
you can watch that, Uh yeah, as well as Annie
in the City A and then E Y in the
City Amazon Prime. There you go right now, uncut. Jim's
uh little background. They wrote this film a long time ago,

(06:51):
like you said, but apparently they grew up with a
father who worked in the Diamond district and that's why
this film feels so authentic. Um. They read one article
where they spent a lot of these years getting in
on the inside, because apparently the Diamond district and these
dudes are just very protective and very skeptical, and it

(07:12):
took him years to get access and to get behind
these doors. And they finally sort of and this is
like their father worked in the Diamond district and it
was still hard for them to get sort of the
insider look, and they did and they used you know,
they're there. I think, next to the Cohen Brothers, the
greatest directors we have so far about using real people

(07:34):
as actors. Um. It's and I always wonder why more
directors don't do that, because it makes such a difference
when you have someone that's clearly not an actor doing
a good job. And I think it's hard. Yet I
think it's a real skill. It's a real long process
of finding those people. Number one, finding somebody interesting who
comes from that world, but then also somebody who has

(07:55):
all those characteristics but can also still be natural on
camera and not panicked that they're in his scene with
Adam Sandler. For success. It's in fact that the lead
actor in this where is she what's her name? I
got it right here in front of me, Julia Fox. Yes,
she was the first time actor. Yeah, yeah, she's I
was not familiar with her, but I guess she's got
a rep as like kind of a in uy C socialite,

(08:18):
like means kind of person. Yeah, it's sort of like
that that woman in the Florida Project who was like
an Instagram model or something and she just crushed. And
again that's another great example of like that's about being
a good director. Like that's about like, how do you
put this person in context? And then like and actually
you know you have to you know how you know
how many cuts there are in scenes, and how so

(08:40):
many of them are pieced together from little fragments and stuff.
You've got to like direct the hell out of these people.
A lot of the time I imagine, you know, maybe not,
but she was fantastic. So Kevin Garnett was good. He's
a non actor. I'm such a sports non person. I
didn't even know he was a real bad and you
don't even know how to say that you're not into sports. Yeah,
exactly a sports and non person on person. But it

(09:02):
makes sense after the fact, cause all those games were real,
all the best basketball games, and like the stats were
all real stats. And because guy can imagine how much
it would it costs the stage those just to have
them on TV, you know, like, but he like they
were Obviously he's been out of the game for a while,
so he's retired. Yeah, finals, And I was just reading
there's a great New Yorker profile on the Safteas and

(09:24):
the movie, and one of the most fascinating tidbits about
it is that they did not license the NBA footage
that they used in the movie. They just they just basically,
quote unquote stole it. And they're going to defend it
as fair use because they didn't alter the outcome or
change any thing of the order of what happened in
it is the NBA made a statement, I don't think,

(09:45):
so it's just insane to me, Like, you know, professional
sports to me is like when it comes to licensing
footage really, especially like say the NFL, Like I don't
know the NBA specifically, but the fact that the Saftys
were just like, you know, what fun it, We're just
gonna do. It's pretty that the studio was like standing
behind them for it, which is crazy. That's like trying

(10:06):
to use an Eagle song in your movie because Don
Henley will fucking sue you're ask if you look at
them sideways. Yeah, I don't understand how fair use supplies
to that, because it's not. I mean, I guess part
of a fair use argument is that you're transforming it
or making it like satire or something like that. But
like if they're just using it as is in their movie,

(10:28):
I guess if it's if you regarded it as almost
like history or something. But I don't know, I don't
know if that's like, I don't think, I don't think.
I mean, they're not really commenting on it either. They're
kind of they're building a story around it, but they're
not like saying, this is the story of what happened
in that series. But that's right, they're they're fictionalizing, you know.
But also fair use usually has to have some sort
of newsworthy element to it as well, which this obviously

(10:50):
doesn't either. I mean, it's good for the NBA, fascinating,
it really gets people talking about basketball, and yeah, I
mean it's a central part of the film absolutely, And
how it like ruins people those lives and sports betting? Man,
Oh my god, I don't know what I'm saying that, dude,
let's get into that just well. I have a little
history there does anyone else overbet on sports? I didn't
even know if I didn't even I mean, is that

(11:12):
how like you know you could bet on sports. I
thought you had to have like a bookie or something.
I didn't know you could just walk into a casino
and do it Vegas. Yeah, it's called the sports Book. Yeah,
I didn't in a room with five hundred TVs And
it's the greatest place. Was there not a time where
that kind of betting was not legal? Well, I mean
it depends on It's illegal in Georgia, but there's still
bookies in Georgia because I used to bet. I've had

(11:34):
two experiences with gambling, well, let's say three in college
I bet on college basketball when uh, I don't know
if if you're into basketball a little bit, right, but uh,
the UNLV Rebels in the in the nineties with Larry
Johnson and Stacy Augman, it was it was like a
like infamous legendary college basketball team. So during that era,

(11:56):
I bet on college basketball, but it was always like
college book, Key's twenty bucks on a game or uh.
The flash forward to when I lived in New Jersey,
I bet on sports with my friend James, and I
got a little more serious and it built up to one, uh,
uncut gim z moment when I was down a thousand dollars,

(12:19):
which was a really really big deal to me at
the time. It was pretty catastrophic. I don't know if
I had a thousand dollars, I don't know if I
would have gotten like my legs broken. Was that kind
of deal. But it was a big deal. And I
that weekend do not advise us anyone placed three And
this was all bet so like hundred fifty bucks. Maybe

(12:41):
it just I kept getting, you know, I kept losing,
and it's on a weekly thing. So I lost a week.
Going into the weekend, I was down a thousand and
I placed three fifty dollar bets and one of them
all and didn't bet again after that that. I was
out after that. Then. The only time I've bet since
in the third wave was I hate Vegas, but occasionally

(13:05):
I've had to go. When I was living in l A.
And I would I would always go into the sports
book with like two bucks and put some money on
some games. I like just walking through that room because
you can feel the energy. You can feel kind of
that and it's fun to just kind of like cruise
through there for a minute and kind of observe that world.
It is really interesting. And I will say this as
a as a big sportsman, um, gambling on sports is

(13:27):
really like invigorating. How to make it count, right, that's
how to like the stakes and get involved in the
game big time. It's a fucking rush, Like I get it.
When I was watching this movie, I totally got it.
And the end, I don't bet anymore. It's been a
long time. That was like the most I've ever understood
watching sports was watching Sandler watch that game and just

(13:47):
every every victory, like the fucking tip off, the sickness
of parleying the tip off into the other stomach ache
when he made that the opening because just so you
don't so you know, a Parlaby, you have to win
all three bets it to win the bet, right, and
the first one is just nonsense. But but but he's so
confident that's going to happen, and then it does and

(14:09):
it's like that could have tanked everything. That was the
hardest one. Yeah, that was the hardest one. Guys, Everything's
good from Everything's Good. Yeah, maybe smile spoilers right, um yeah.
Man again, I'm not a sports guy. I don't really

(14:31):
get get it, but I got it when when there
are those steaks. And also but the way he behaves,
he's like a drug addict. He's like a junkie and
he's just you know, he all rhyme. A reason goes
out the window and he starts to like you start
to almost develop this weird kind of admiration for him
where you're like, he knows something that I don't know

(14:53):
and this is a skill for him. But then you
also realize he doesn't but maybe he does. And the
way he's talking to Gardnette, when he's like he gets
worked up into this frenzy where he's like, you know,
this is how I win the big big line for
the movie where he talked he he thinks he's got
some sort of insight into this guy's mind and how
he's gonna behave because of his Jim. He's like his totem.

(15:15):
Now that this mystical quality, you know, So I think
I think there's something there's an element of something valid
there because I know, like a lot of athletes are
are very superstitious, and it's like I gotta have my
special glove and my special pants, my special socks or whatever,
and you know it may bee bs in the kind
of material objective domain, but if it's affecting the psychology

(15:39):
and the confidence of that player, it is as real
as anything else. So he knew that that Jim was
like the thing that was gonna make KG crushed that game.
He could feel it, and so that gave him that edge.
It's almost like insider trading, Like he knows this guy
is going to go out there and just like go
go nuts. Insider trading, but like, how are you going
to enforce Like you know, you knew that he had

(16:02):
the magic stone, that there is ging like that is
all about trying to get as much insider information as possible,
like in in Casino when de Niro finds out, you know,
is the quarterback's girlfriend pregnant? Like what what kind of
wood is on the court? All that kind of stuff,
Like any edge you can get, it's gonna move. The

(16:24):
idea of edge, it's nonsense, like on a on paper
kind of way. But to the person in their mind,
and if you think you have an insight into that,
it's it's money in the bank, I guess theoretically, but
it's all bullshit. It's bullshit to the guy who thinks
this is a magic rock, but he believes it, therefore
it's not. Maybe he's playing better, you know. So I

(16:44):
like what you said about you as a view you
kind of developing an admiration for Sandler's character. Um, and
right before we came in here, I pulled up the script,
which you can find online, and the cover page of it,
under the title, it just says, in all capitals in
Howard we try. And I think there's a sense that
I mean, obviously, you know, the movie was probably loosely inspired,

(17:06):
like we said, by their father, but there's a sense
of like, even though he is kind of a scumbag
in some ways, the Saftis clearly have a lot of
love or admiration for them, even though they still acknowledge
he's he's in a downward spiral, you know, in all
the negative qualities of him, there's something I don't know.
It's sort of it almost relates to like the American dreams.

(17:30):
You're rooting for him, Yeah, you are, even though you
know this is only gonna end one of two ways.
You know it can only go the most that you
can only have the best possible outcome or the worst
possible there's no middle ground. And what I love about
the lead up to the very ending when he's watching
the game is how his the sort of antagonists of
the movie are no who also happens to be his

(17:51):
like brother in law. Yeah yeah, yes. When he's locked
in that that entryway, he's so fed up with Sandler's actor.
But as the game is going on, he's getting in,
he's getting into it, and he's sort of you know
this might actually happen. He's asking his henchmen, like what
does this say on the screen? Are we winning? What's
going on? Like he can't start to lighten up, and

(18:14):
he can't help but be drawn in just the way well,
and that's why, I mean, we can go ahead and
talk about the ending of That's why the ending is
such a fucking good tragic because he wins. He's happy, guys,
let me let you out of your little prison. We
did it, We did it. Boom shot, unceremonious. And then
the fact that Arnold gets off. Yeah, man, I didn't

(18:38):
find it sad per se. It's not in a way
because you think, like, realistically, what's this kind of guy
gonna do with that million? He's gonna go fucking bet
that too, like like anything's gonna happen. What did any
of that? Like, I mean, it's just like you know,
he's he's gonna keep doing it until he can't do
it anymore. Right, So at least this way he goes

(18:59):
out like on top up, he's experiencing this moment of
like pure extasy and victory and so on. It isn't
happen before that. He's not laying there thinking like, oh
my god, I've been killed because of my actions. Like
it's just he's sitting up in heaven going what happened?
That was great? And what I love too is, uh,

(19:19):
the person who actually ends up with the money is
Julia Fox's character, and you know, who knows what's going
to happen after the fact, but I like the idea
that she kind of might end up with all this money.
She's kind of the the unsung hero, you know. And
it was so interesting too, because at first you think
that she's like using him, or that she's some sort
of like here, that she's using him, or that she's

(19:42):
in some way playing him, you can realize that she
genuinely I think they do love each other. Is that
the take think? I think I think that, and I
heard there's a deeper theme of like she's kind of
the only one in a way that sees the true
potential maybe of Howard, that that he is this sort

(20:02):
of uncut gym, that he has this thing within him
that is, you know, um, worth loving, worth caring about,
where everyone else just sees a complete screw up, you
know man, his family, his daughter and his wife, it's
just they just fucking loathe him. It's so cutting both
of those scenes, the one with a daughter at the fridge,
he's inconsequential, and then the stuff with a wife at

(20:23):
the end when she's laughing in his face. Yeah, I
want you to hit me and she fakes it whatever.
The thing too that was really striking about like the
different environments that he kind of inhabits. When he's at home,
he feels so out of his element. It doesn't make
sense for him to be there. When he's at that
school play, so out of his elements, always trying to leave,

(20:46):
he's well, yeah, and he's always on his phone. That's
that was a thing that resonated with me. Actually, just
the obsession with like go go, go, constantly update, update check,
you know, all even about his social stats and you know,
tag me on Instagram and that whole ship. Like he's
so obsessed with that too. Yeah, well again, he's he
is this embodiment almost of like a certain American nous,

(21:07):
you know, of of like contemporary americanness, let's say, like
the the obsession with the kind of um narcissism, the
the sort of like obsession with online, the obsession with
just what's new, what's hot, what's what's coming in, you know,
in status and and and winning and and um novelty
and and and you know, he's he's on this sort

(21:27):
of like it feels like with with the Julie Fox character,
He's not really. I mean, I guess he's into it
in some ways, but it almost seems like he's just
kind of going through the motions in a way of
having this like apartment and like this kind of like
mistress and um, it just feels like he he doesn't
really derive any pleasure from anything other than the gambling,

(21:48):
you know, other than like yeah, and everything else is
just kind of like you know, um, just what he
feels obligated to do, I guess in some weird way.
And it's the It's that it's the thrill in the
high from like you said, the constant hustle, not just
of the winds, but also of the loss. You know,
it's like he he loves both of them, just to

(22:10):
be in it and you know, being able to sort
of craft some high stakes life for himself. You have
a chance to dig yourself out if you're losing. Yeah,
and what's more in big I mean, I had my
stupid little story and I gotta tell you dudes, when
I won those three bets, I that was better than
my wedding day. Yeah. It's a high, you know, to
feel because you feel like you've beaten someone. Well, it's

(22:32):
like Howard says, you know, he said he wins one,
or maybe it's it's when he gets the gym, I think,
and he says, holy sh it, I'm gonna come. Yeah,
it's really funny. There's there's this moment where the saft
he's actually you c g I to shrink his eyeballs
down and make them smaller. Nobody nobody noticed this, but
um somebody compared a screenshot of like the same shot

(22:52):
from before and then after. If you do it side
by side, it's like, yeah, you like physically shrunk down own.
There's this really funny thing on Twitter where somebody tweeted
that at the Safty's and they replied like, you know,
good good eye, like nice catch. But then they were
also like, how did you get the screenshots because it's
not in the trailer. It's not funny, it's from a screener.

(23:13):
That's wait a minute, and then then they went, oh, yeah,
well you stole from the NBA exactly. It's interesting too,
because like by all accounts, like by any metric that
anybody like like like the four of us would have, Um,
he's successful, he's got the apartment in the city, he's
got Long Island or whatever. He's got the Dina Menzel's

(23:35):
his wife. You know, he's got the kids, he's got
the car, he's got the successful jewel shop or whatever.
I wonder is is it, like, is he maintaining I
think it's just about the obsession in the high I
don't think he's I think he doesn't need the money
per se. I think the like the passover sne especially,
I feel like is really showing that to somebody else,

(23:56):
this could be just a great life, just to be
content with what he has, this family, this tradition, his success,
and so on. But to him, it's like nothing. He
takes it all for granted, and the only way he
can feel alive is to just up the stakes and
risk it all and almost throw it all away or whatever.
That sort of gets to the contemporary American nous of
the whole thing, and and the fact that too, like

(24:18):
the reason he's doing all this is probably because he
sees it as an escape from kind of the boring, suburban,
mundane life of being a husband and a father. Like
I love when he's at home and his his wife
keeps telling him to go, uh, talk to his son
in bed, you know, put him put in bed, and
then he finally does, and then he's just on his

(24:38):
phone watching the game the whole time breath and then
his older kid, his older son has basically become him.
He's he's already bet on the game too, but you know,
he's got all the basketball memorabilia and he's clearly like
thinks his dad as the coolest person in the world.

(24:59):
You know, Well, let's jump back real quick to the beginning.
One of my favorite things about this movie is, and
they didn't have to do this, but they started out
in the mind and the gym mine and it was
just like there's something about that sequence and following that
gemstone that really and and you know, and then how
it ends to which we'll get to. Um, just really

(25:22):
like knocked my socks off added a lot to the
movie and a sense of scale, a sense of scale,
and I think it it reminds you of the sort
of the class and racial context of the movie. Much
like a lot of people have talked about how Good
Time is very aware of how Robert Pattinson's character is

(25:42):
this white man who's able to do all these things
at the expense of people of color. Uh, this movie,
with that opening kind of reminds you of where all
this is coming from and the exploitation of labor and
all that. And it gets addressed in the movie when
him and KG are talking about the gem, what did
you pay for it? Vers? What are you going to
being honest there? Do you think he paid a hundred

(26:03):
grand for it? And I think, actually I didn't notice
this until the second time watching it, but it's a
hundred k that he owes to Arno in the first place,
So I think that's the hundred k that he borrowed
from him to buy the opal in the first place.
So it's all circular. And the crazy thing about it
is is that you know, when it goes to auction
it finally sells for what one judge her, he's going

(26:24):
to have to pay him back. I think it's almost
forty grand on top of just giving the money back.
So now he's only made what like one that makes
it one what thirty five or something? Well, and that's
when we're talking about when KG asked him, yeah, that
was kind of one of the and then and then,
like you, you think about all this other money that
he's got tied up and like pawning the watch or
planning the championship, bringing everything, like he's probably gonna break

(26:47):
even at the end of all. That's like if he lives,
you know, if he doesn't place that, which is a
win for him though. Addict is a gambling addict and
break you and you're like, all right, I'm not out
any money, but that's and I gotta rush for a
few days. When he when he gets that money, you know,
he gets like the he's finally got it. He can
just give the money over to Arnold in the in
the Goons and the many moments where I mean, it's

(27:07):
a movie about a character who does nothing but make
the wrong decisions. Starting from the very beginning, I was like,
oh God, don't let him leave without sucking Jim like
it's Kevin Garnett. But still just don't do it, man,
this is gonna be a bad thing. And do some
paperwork or something. Yeah, bare minimum and he lets him
walk out like he Stanfield is so good. Yeah, yeah,
he's great and everything. He was really instrumental. It's great.

(27:31):
Great to compare his performance in this and his performance
and like, yeah, he's two adversaily different characters. And first
of all, I think he's he's brilliant. He feels like
one of the like he could be one of the
non actors that they cast or something. He's he just
fits that role so like he just he just seems
like a natural thing. Yeah yeah. Or the non actors

(27:52):
in this were great. Some of those creeps. The one
guy that heavy kind of popping up, Oh yeah. I
mean I can't remember how much he owes him. It's
not even that much, sort of a small time, but
he's always there. Just sort of I think to drive
home that thing of like this guy walks a block
down New York and there's not gonna be someone that's like, hey, hey, wait,
come on, like what do you owe me? I actually
thought I thought this was really smart. I kind of

(28:14):
thought they were planting the seed for that guy to
like take him out because him he was being so
like dismissive to him because he only owes him thirty
k or whatever, and he's like fucking funk out of
my face. I think I think it was too, you know,
I think it definitely was because he kept popping up
and like knocking on the door, and I figured there
was gonna be that one time or he just walks

(28:34):
up and shoot him in the face. You know. There's
there's there's a bunch of miss tres in the movie.
Like there's that scene where Adam Sandler and his family
get home and his wife tells him to take out
the garbage, and it follows him for a really long
time while he's rolling these trash cans down the driveway
and the la it feels like he's going to get
down to the end of the driveway and Arna is
gonna be there or whatever, something's gonna happen. Similarly, when

(28:56):
he goes to the apartment and like the Madonna long
as playing and you think she's gonna be dead or something,
and that's what I thought. She's gonna be, like hanging somewhere,
dead in the bathtub or something, and nothing happened. She
just had taken her stuff very orderly, you know. But
there's there's there's several moments like that where we're trained
as a viewer to get really tense and expect the

(29:16):
worst and then just nothing happened. They the Safeties are
playing the audience like a fucking fiddle because they give
you those little reprieves every now and then, But other
than that, it's just, uh, the passover scene was probably
the quietest, longest quiet sequence. But other than that, it's
just a wire that they just it's like a guitar
string you keep tightening and you're like, oh god, when

(29:38):
is that? Even the stuff at the house is tense,
just the dynamic between him and his family and his
wife and his constant obsession, and you realize, dude, you
are fucking up as a family man, like you are
a terrible father and and you know me as a
as a father, I see that and that's triggering for me.
I'm like, do you suck like you're you know? And
it made me see like maybe I'm on my phone

(29:59):
too much, maybe I not being president enough for my kids.
But this guy is the extreme version of that, and
he felt like a pretty good dad walking out of
It's so sad too, like when he's he's never gotten
shoved naked into a trunk and it's it's so sad
when he's he's he's telling his kids like, hey, I'm
going to go into the city, feel like tonight is

(30:20):
this guy the weekend? You know? And they're just like,
you're not cool, dude, Like you shouldn't be tried to
be cool with your kid does. He isn't cool, He's
a joke. He's a bummer. Yeah, and he's we're wearing
this goofy outfit and everyone else is young and sexy
and cool, and he's just so out of place and
making a scene and like gets thrown out on his ass.

(30:41):
Got the sequence where he, uh where la Keith Stainfield
shows up. He doesn't have the gym, and he's like,
you're fucking driving me to Philly right now, and they
go down there. He gets all the way to Philly
and gets because he goes to take a layup and
like play around for a second and then gets locked
out of the locked out of the locker room, and
Laki Standpielle is just like Nope. I kept thinking like, oh,

(31:03):
he's gonna come back and get him, but no, he
has to get on the plane to go back to
New York. Unbelieve you make it back to his kids recital.
He did it all do themselves. You know, he shouldn't
have given him the gem in the first zone Worst
Enemy in that way. That does remind me of the
scene or when he's watching the basketball game at the end,
there's a shot of Cage Kg like in the locker

(31:24):
room at halftime, and you hear the coach's voice like
giving them the pep talk and they actually got Doc Rivers,
Like in the credits, it's actually Doc Rivers. They got
to do the voice of that. Did he That was
an a d R line? Yeah? Interesting? Yeah, which is
pretty awesome. And I think it was meant to be footage.
Was it meant to be, Like, well, no, it's a
shot they recreated the locker room. Yeah, but you hear

(31:47):
like the coach kind of giving the remember that pep
talk about that is the actual the guy who's the
actual page. I mean, if you know you know Doc
Rivers voice, then I see I didn't. I didn't know
his voice. I like, I wonder if that was And
then the credits like, yeah, that's pretty great and uh
that that reminds me of the way the film weaves
actual history with this story, which is pretty great. And

(32:08):
you know, if you read some interviews with them talking
about how they got the movie made, like one of
the reasons they kept rewriting the script was because depending
on which basketball player they might be able to get,
they would have to rewrite it, you know, to take
series different years, different different series, different finals or whatever.
Like at one point they were talking to Amri Staudenmeyer.

(32:28):
I think that a few other people and so, you know,
me watching it, I didn't. I didn't remember the outcome
of of the finals. I didn't either, man, you know,
and I remember that series. And that's interesting because I
was thinking, I mean, that's part of the great you
know thing about that sequences. You don't know which way
it's going to go and the way it sort of

(32:49):
rewrites history. It's high at all to the gem and
then how the actual NBA footage at the end the
interview KG and he's like, it was just me and
the rock and of course he's talking about the basketball.
But it's funny. My friend from Boston, Mark Finney, he's
a filmmaker. Um, good dude. I know him through Emily
beck In in the l A Days. He uh, great

(33:11):
small independent film he made called Fat by the Way.
You can seek that out. But Finny is um obsessed
with this movie. Favorite movie, like of the year for
sure on Facebook. But he's a big Boston guy, So
I'm curious if he remembered the outcome and how that affected.
It's got to take something out of if you're like,
oh no, I remember the Celtics one and KG had

(33:33):
like whatever, definitely covered his point total maybe, but you
don't know, you may not remember that he made the
tip off or something. You know, there's little like the
kind of nonsensical parley stuff the problem. Ye, nobody would
remember unless and I had never heard that bet where
everything counts as a point, like a basket, a rebound.
He's just gotta cover twenty six like whatever. Yeah, yeah,

(33:56):
so nerve wracking. Um, let's talk about the score for
a second, because maybe my favorite score of all time.
Now it's it's way up there. I mean it's it
was like classic and like uh and and sort of
shouted out to like Vangelis and some of this. Uh
there's one of these one that's very very much like

(34:16):
something on the Kia soundtrack. Yeah, but yeah, but it's
just in the one with it like the chanting, which
is very kind of class like that. Yeah, there's a
kind of coral minimalist that you know. Daniel L. Patton
the composer, he's he's remixed Philip Class, he's remixed Steve Reich.
He's you know, he's he's very very very aware of

(34:39):
a lot of trends in in twentieth century composition, you know,
classical experimental pop as well. Um, yeah, he's he's a
very very um important figure I think in contemporary music overall. Well,
he's essentially credited with inventing the vape, which is sort
of like a re contextualization of like esoteric eight He's

(35:00):
in nineties um easy listening type music or video game music,
and and it'll sample things from like old TV commercials,
and it's all this kind of mash up but ultimately
danceable and kind of fun chill wave, kind of like
you know, sound almost it's like a commentary on like
the the emptiness of of that. There's there's stuff. And

(35:25):
then his his solo stuff is as Tricks one of Tricks,
Point never really takes that even further and gets even
more like I don't know, it's he's forging his own
kind of mash up genre. And then his film work
is much more are Peggie. It's synth driven and percussion
and much more like like you said, like a Van
Gellis or like a Tangerine Dream or something. It's very

(35:46):
much the eighties. There's there's a track of contemporary but
very very much. So, Yeah, there's a track in this
that's also quite similar to one of the tracks on
Sorcerer that Tangerine Dream scored for WAYA Friedkin, which I
think Friedkin is a big and fluence on the saft
teas in general clearly, and I'm a huge fan of
that sound like Georgio Moroder, Tangerine Dream, all that stuff, like,

(36:07):
I really really love that and it works in this
movie so well. I mean, part of being a good
score is working with the film and not just being
like some awesome piece of music, and it just it
just really provided the perfect sort of background to all
this stuff. I read a thing where the ratio of
music parts to non music parts is very high. It's music,
I think, something that I haven't listened to it yet,

(36:30):
just I've been listening to it a lot. He did
the good Time soundtrack as well, which is this is
almost like a jacked up version of the good Time soundtrack,
very similar, but this one clearly there was more budget,
Like it's more orchestral and as much more of these
huge well and the chanting sort of recalled the early
stuff the gym mind. It just sort of work together. Yeah,

(36:52):
I was listening to yet another podcast, I think with
the Safteason UM. But Daniel L. Patton was there as well,
and he basically was say that what they were trying
to do with the score was almost bring out the
inner life, the inner feeling of the Howard Rattner character,
something that not to just reinforce what's on screen, but
to give it like another dimension, and I think it

(37:13):
really really works. There's some of these UM tracks you
wouldn't necessarily um they're they're not the obvious way to
score the scenes. Let's say, um, they are certainly driving,
but a lot of times they're these kind of like
major key, like upbeat sort of things, and you know,
you may be feeling like this guy's destined for like
tragedy as you're watching it, but you're feeling this this

(37:36):
kind of lift and it's kind of giving you insight
into his own internal kind of state that he's in
a state of kind of ecstasy or something in these moments,
even though we as viewers know that he's kind of
maybe doomed. Um. It's just a very very interesting way
that that they work with music. It's not you know,
traditional film scoring. That's really interesting. It almost puts you

(37:57):
in his mindset exactly. Yeah, and they druggy movie somehow, yes, yes,
well good time as well, maybe even more so. The
mixed lighting and it's kind of psychedelic but also obviously
super speedy like that. It's there's a couple of druggie feelings.
And yet no one does drugs in this movie. Actually,
well the weekend does coke in the Yeah, there's but

(38:17):
that's that's a very quickward. How would never do drugs? No,
this is his drug? I don't think he does. I
don't think. I don't think either. I don't think he
does an you never know. Even that party to party,
he's there to like get his sole and get his
gem back and just kind of make the scene. Make

(38:38):
the scene. Yeah, how Howard got his gem back? The sequel, Wow,
I think my favorite let's name our favorite non actor
in the movie, because mine, hands down, Helicopter Pilot is
the fucking dude that helps out Julia Fox. That guy's
name is I forget the name, but his last name
is literally diamond really, and he's a real guy. He's
like a real billionaire, like spray Tan kind of do

(39:00):
man that hair and and in the end he like
legit helps her. That's misdirection too, because you think he's
going to do something super sky and then he ultimately
just like helps her out. You know. Yeah, I think
he's the way I read his character sort of afterward,
because the whole time I was thinking the same thing, like, man,
she's going to go to his room and he's going
to do something really bad. I think he just likes

(39:22):
the company of of a young hot woman like that.
He's like the he's kind of the old sad guy,
like they don't have to sleep together. If they do, great,
but if not, like come and hang out in my suite,
orders some shrimp, cocktail and a lobster, and like have
a good time. It's so interesting. He just wants the company.
Probably he was perfect. He was my favorite by by
a mile by him, and that not not like not

(39:45):
get to side track, but like that was an thing.
Like nothing aside from Howard getting killed obviously and his brother,
which is tragic, nothing really horrific happens to anybody in
this movie, well in a way like win it for
the end, No one gets their fingers smashed. None of
those like like like gambling movie cliches full and like

(40:07):
that was That was the thought that I had watching
at the first time, was kind of like, these guys
are a little soft on him, Like I think, like
a real life, you know, heavy and booky situation, they
would be. He got his break kicked at one, but
you don't realize that minute. And that's why he's that's
why he's able to push the envelope so much, is
because he does have that family connection and Arnold's not

(40:28):
going to just take it all the way there? Did
you get the sense that Arnauld was over and over
his head time through. You can really see the fear
in his when he's just like, these guys now are
way more hard for Yeah, it's like spiraled out of
control for him too, which is what's so scary about

(40:48):
the ending, when you know he shoots him in the head,
and then that the panic that Arnold has in that
moment and he's he's got the gun against his head,
he's on the counter, he's saying, let me out, I
want out, you know, and then he walks away from
him for a second. He makes that one last desperate
dash for the door, and then he just shoots him
in the head. I think too, there's this this sense
of you know, like you said, there isn't much violence

(41:10):
in the movie. To me, there was this sense of
with Arno and Howard, like these very well to do
you guys sort of feeling like they can dip their
toes into quote unquote the criminal underworld without having to
like get dirty and get dirty and really suffer the
consequences of how it would be for for most people
who are deep into this world. And again that speaks

(41:31):
to the idea of like class differences. I do think
Howard understands it way more than probably. Yeah, that's the
good point. Arno probably just out of desperation, because Howard
was probably just going to blow him off forever, you know,
like my brother in law, what are you gonna do?
And and that's probably it was out of desperation that
he probably turned to these guys in the first place

(41:51):
and set the whole train in motion. I was another
bit of misdirection, is I thought that Julia Fox was
going to funk up the bet somehow. Yeah, because he
gives her these you know, it's so explicit, And what
I thought was gonna happen was he was gonna think
he won the bet, but she had put it in wrong.
But they already did that, ye, Like he thought he

(42:12):
was one big and then and then and his brother
stopped the beat, Like, but you're right now, there's so
many things that could have gone wrong. She seemed like
a little bit of an airhead kind of like like
maybe she wasn't gonna you know, follow through or like
like funk up or something like that. But she was.
She's perfect. She did it exactly. She aside from Wayne Diamond,

(42:33):
she's she was my favorite, Like you said, she wasn't.
This was her first acting role, so she's gonna be
Oh my god. I think she was just great in
this for all the reasons. I think of her as
that's acting, like Wayne Diamond is sort of a character
like a true true. But but I watched a few

(42:55):
video interviews and things with her, and she's you get
the sense that she's very much kind of just being
herself on camera, Like I mean, she is acting, but
her personality is definitely a little bit like this. Yeah,
and that the Safti seemed that someone's strength. Yeah, the
Saftys seem to if you read interviews with them, they
meet somebody interesting. And in New York, there's plenty of

(43:16):
people like that, and they'll start a conversation with them,
and then maybe that person will get a call a
few weeks later and say, hey, you want to be
in this movie? You know. And I think they're really good,
like we said, and not just identifying people who would
work well in those situations, but just directing them really well.
I think, you know, that's something that you could easily
overlook with sort of the powerhouse performance of Sandler. You

(43:38):
know that they're so good at directing all these these
people in smaller roles, especially like somebody like KG, like Be,
you know keep Yeah, yeah, people who who are in
the public eye. Is almost painful. They get a really

(43:58):
good performance out of honest seems he really has to,
like Be. It's not like a cano. He is like
one of the central characters that really needs to work
for this whole thing to it could have fallen apart.
And I love Mesican thing where they could have had
to stop shooting if it didn't well right. I love
that Kevin Garnett's willingness to sort of have this narrative
revolve around something that actually happened to him that he's

(44:21):
so stoked, dude, he's gonna be going to the Oscars
and he's gonna be the most noticeable guy there. Like
and you think that was his actual ring he used
in the movie. Probably they probably would have been. They
would have insisted when he immediately could set ring and
goes and ponds it eight away. It's like the junkie
going to get his next fix. He had to do it. Um.

(44:44):
One of my favorite motifs was the double doors to
get into what was the name of the shop again,
I never caught a name. It didn't think of the
initials or something. You're right, it's like KM or kate whatever. Um.
The dormotif of the double doors. You gotta get buzzed
to get in. You're in that little vest of you
or you gotta get buzzed again. Uh, it doesn't work.

(45:06):
Sometimes people are outside trying to get in there on camera.
They they worked that for They milked it for everything
they could. That where they show up and they can't
get it to open, and they're trying everything. Everyone's open everyone.
You know, you've been stressed for these arrival in the
first place. Finally they're here and you can't get in.

(45:27):
But they're they're brilliant at creating that kind of like
that that sense of just being overwhelmed with like too
many things happening at the same time, and being like, no,
stop doing that, that's not going to help, and and
all that kind of stuff, like they're they're so good.
It reminded me actually of certain moments and Punch Drunk
Love with Sandler as well, where he's walking around his

(45:48):
warehouse and and like stuff's falling off the shelves and
and and he's he's trying to talk to somebody, and
somebody else's BUGGINGHI about this other thing, and he's got
a phone call from his sister. You know. It's that
sense of again, just like overload, sensory overload complete, just
like panic and and and anxiety, and they're they're they
capture it so well here, but he thrives on it. Yes,

(46:10):
he's he's not. Another bit of misdirection there that just
I just remembered is the shot of the the the
magnet or the whatever that it shows that shot of
it on the floor, and I'm like, obviously, like someone's
gonna get stabbed with that thing right through the eyeball.

(46:31):
That's how this moke is gonna end. You know. He's
like they're they're going to leave right when he's placed
the bet. They're piste off at him, and and they're
just like, you know, Arnod says to him, like you're
an idiot, and and and they go to leave, and
there that's what they're gonna do. They're gonna walk out
of the building. And he gets them buzzed in the
first part, and then the second part that thing falls
out purely by chance, and then he he looks at

(46:52):
it and he has moment. It's a parlay. It's like
it's like it's like, oh, I could I could up
this even first ride. Yeah, whereas he could have. They
could have just gone and then maybe they intercept her
on the way to the casino where she gets the
bet in and who knows that's why he trapped him,
because they were they were going to get right right.
But you know, it's like things could have played out
so differently. It wasn't like he had the plan in

(47:12):
his mind that he's going to trap them in there
again in his mind, you know. And it's not like
he cared about the girl. He cared about the bet. Yeah, yeah,
I think he cared about her a little. I don't know, man,
I don't give him much capacity for caring about anybody
other than himself. There's also that moment where Um, the
other the big heavy I think his name is Phil

(47:35):
in the movie and the actor's name is Keith. First time. Yeah,
he's he's amazing to um. But there's a moment where
he's on his cell phone to somebody you don't know
who's talking to her what he's saying, and Sandler sees
that happening, and then he goes over to his phone,
calls his wife and makes up the story about a
gas leak because he's just saying, get goes somewhere safe,
because they might send somebody to kill you. But he

(47:56):
can't say that, so he makes up the thing about
the gas leak. But he he's getting some sense of
the stakes are this high that they might just start
killing my family or something, but he's still willing to
do it. Of course it's not gonna stop. Course another
one again, he doesn't care about it, Yeah, exactly. Another

(48:19):
One of my favorite scenes acting wise, even though the
whole movie is just acting Powerhouse, is the fight between
he and Julia Fox outside the club with a taxi. Um,
if you've ever been to New York City, like more
than once, like a Friday or Saturday night and you're
out late, chance you have seen a couple of fighting
outside of the club, exactly, like I've seen it dozens

(48:40):
of times. And then when it was so real when
she's doing the Walk of Shame back kind of she's
just talking, you know, like that's real. It's so you're
the one standing on the side. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's
a great moment. Well, let's pay honor to Adam Sandler
here for a second. We've talked around a lot of this,
but it's just if it would be one of the

(49:03):
and there was a lot of great acting this year,
but it will be one of the great crimes if
he doesn't win the Oscar. Right now, he's a lot
right Sandman, And like, in terms of the casting, it's
so important that it is somebody like Sandler that is
like inherently, intrinsically unavoidably likable. You just want to root
for the guy you just talked about that no matter

(49:26):
what you do, no matter what he does, you're there's
still a part of you that's kind of rooting for him.
And it's so important. There could be so many other
actors that might be excellent in other ways, but they
don't invoke that sympathy from the audience or somebody. Right,
you know, he could he could do in the face anyway,
could be very convincing, degenerate gambler, but you would have

(49:48):
less sympathy. You'd just kind of be like, well, you
made your bed and I sleep in it kind of thing.
But how are you don't want to see that happen?
You don't think Sandlers squandered or so much social like
will because he's made so many terrible jokeing for me,
he's still Yeah, he'll always be opera man. Yeah, there's
he he has like a real apparently he's he's one
of the nicest people in Hollywood. Is extremely loyal to

(50:10):
his very hard work. That's it's like a good point.
You know you look at like the whole orbit around
him of all these guys that pop up in like
every movie he does, and a guy for wanting to
make twenty million dollars, yeah, like a dumb comedy. You're right.
And also, like I was, I was listening to a
podcast where they were saying, like, he does this so
he can hang out with his friends make the next way,

(50:31):
what is it the one with Spade and all those
grown up and like another grown up so we can
go to Cabo and just kick it with our families.
He like he has in his contract like that he
has to kind of you know, take his kids to school,
pick them up from school every day, like when they're shooting.
So he really likes to have this kind of like
very um, let's say, like traditional conventional family life. He

(50:54):
had a tuxedo made for his goddamn dog for his
wedding made. But he just was like a phenomenally well
adjusted person given how famous and how rich he is,
you know what is he good in this? I mean
just vanishes from your consciousness And yeah, he's not. He's
not doing what we think of so sort of the

(51:14):
Adam Sandler stick, you know, whereas even Punch Trunk Love,
which he I'd say just as good in He's still
he's still a little more channeling that traditional yeah where
this one he just like you said, he disappears into
this role even just the way he walks and the
way he delivers lines and the way his voice. He
sort of has an accent, like a little bit of

(51:35):
an accent, which is yeah, he disappears into it. He's
wearing a prosthetic teeth. Oh yeah, and um and and
he the only time that I kind of see maybe
a little bit of his of his other performances in
this is when he has those flare ups of anger
when he starts yelling or something. That's when, yeah, that's

(51:57):
what I can kind of think back to other other things.
But his his kind of just like you know, baseline
in this movie is something we really haven't seen him
do it before. No. And then he also gets the
you know Oscar Bates scene, you know, where he finally
breaks down, which this movie needed. I think it was
because he's so just sort of up here and consistently hustling. KG,

(52:20):
come here, come come on over here, let me show
you what I got here. This is the most fantastic
thing is that for just so long and then he
finally breaks down there and that scene just like Seal
the dealing for him for this offesome. I love that
they they let that scene play out. But then they
also have the kind of like comedic element of her
getting the tattoo and sort of being like because it's funny,
Like it's funny, but it's also sad. When he he's

(52:42):
just sort of like, no, I'm not worth it. I
don't deserve that. Like he's the self loathing that's kind
of buried underneath all that stuff. And then he even
has that that greatest side about like now we can't
even be buried next to each other, which is a
Jewish tradition. You know, if you're tattooed, you can't be buried,
and like oh yeah, yeah, which is it's just the
funniest side. Um that That's something that I think is

(53:02):
if you want to talk about the subtext of this
movie or or some of the deeper themes, there's a
lot in there about you know, Jewish identity in America. Um,
you know, obviously the source of the of the Opal
in the first place, or the Ethiopian Jews that are
kind of stranded and and um yeah, and and like
the obviously like this this movie has a scene that

(53:23):
takes place during Passover. But when they talked about their
other contingencies, if they had to go with a different
basketball player and it's going to be a different time
of year, there was always going to be some Jewish
holiday that was going to coincide with that, you know,
the whole story happening. So it was very important for
the Safti's to kind of work that in work that
kind of like I don't know, like the sense of

(53:44):
like trying to assimilate into American society and become quote
unquote fully American, but still maintain um the tradition in
a way. Yeah, Like he's he's this one miles an
hour full time hustler, but he still stops for passover. Yeah,
like he has to be the honor that. Yeah, he
even does the reading right right, and and and it's
probably the most present with family that he ever is

(54:07):
an any other point for that three minutes, not really
not really on his phone for one. That's what I'm
saying that because he clearly respects the tradition and that
element of family and being part of that crew, even
though it's so weird to see the guy that's literally
been chasing after him trying to be his ass, sitting
across the table from him, and like it was being
so good jud hirsh so good to see him. Yeah,

(54:29):
he's fantastic. I was. I think we share a birthday,
so every since I was a kid, I was like, hey,
me and jed Hurst I was big. I was a
big taxi fan. Was that sequence kind of when you
really realize they were family, or there's a cuts down,
like mean mugging across the table, you're like, oh, I see,
and then you're still not sure it makes sense. That's

(54:50):
why he's being a little Their relationship always seemed a
little strange. Yeah, in the very big right, it's not.
It's not really until the scene right after where he's
you know, it's sund Or and Jed hirsh And and
Jed hirsh is saying to him like, yeah, I don't
know about this guy, you know, like he's he he said,
you know, happy holidays to me, like it's fucking Christmas,
and you know he's he just he doesn't like the guy.

(55:11):
And said I was like, ah, he's all right, I
don't worry about you know. He's like, well, hey he
didn't marry your daughter, you know, so good. Uh. And
then the end um shot to me is the thing
that like takes in sort of the beginning to and
that all this psychedelics use of color, that's what takes
this movie and elevates it to something better than just

(55:33):
your standard street hustler kind of thing. They really just uh.
And in fact, I sentenced to Noel, I'm gonna read
it because I was very curious, have you guys read
any of the script he had it. We looked at
the last page and I pointed out, I pointed out
what you had sent me. Read that for the benefit
because the very ending, and I had a great shot
zooming in and they didn't make it super bloody or gross.

(55:55):
This tiny entry his cheek. Uh. I can't imagine what
the back of his head books. Um, but you know,
there's that pool of blood that kind of spreads, but
it's still pretty subtle. It's not like brains everywhere or whatever. Yeah,
the traditional trophy pull of blood had a little small
hole under his eye, right in the cheek. And then they,
you know, they push in on that wound and go
inside of it. And this is how they wrote that

(56:15):
in the script. Listeners, The zoom closes in on the
bullet hole in Howard's face and continues onward into the wound.
Swirls of red, pink, and white engulf the frame. As
we travel through blood, bone, and tissue. The zoom pushes
through this material plane into a landscape of kaleidoscopic abstract
shapes and flickering iridescent light. The digetic audio in the

(56:38):
km A gems that's the name showroom decays and a
wash of reverb overtaken by a vast soundscape of crystal
tinkles and warm electronic tones. That's great. I mean, that's realized,
fully realized vision. Man, Like they didn't get this idea later.
That was from the beginning then of of And it's

(57:02):
so funny too to kind of like zoom in on
the diamond and you're seeing like all these colors and
so on, and then it becomes Sandler's colin, you know
what I mean. And you realize as you retroactively pull out,
you're like, oh, I've just been inside the guy's ass.
Like it's very it's very like juvenile and funny but
cosmic joke. Yeah, And it also puts you in the scene,

(57:22):
which is another important point of a misdirection. If you
think he's going to have colon cancer and the doctor
just don't want nothing to worry about. Well, that reminds me,
like a lot of people have drawn comparisons between this
movie and the Cohen Brothers. A serious man, I'm just
going to say that that that sense of like, you know,
the kind of book of job idea of like somebody

(57:43):
who's just like doomed and tested and like nothing can
go right for you, and you're just kind of cursed,
profoundly cursed, and and yeah, so to have that red
herring of like he's getting his coal and checked and
you're not sure what the results are going to be,
and then he's just fine. He even says that like
a lot of movies, I think that would be a
constant thing that keeps coming up. And it's just like

(58:04):
a random phone call later where he's like everything's clear,
and as when the doctors say, like calling cancer, paid
for my house in Hamptons, Like he's like, you, I
don't know what it is, jusing calling cancer. I don't know.
He's like, yeah, I just paid for my beach house
or whatever. Um. And that's that's in the middle of
when when Lucky Stanfield is freaking out and like I
think there's probably one or two other things happening at

(58:25):
the same time, Like he puts the whatever the drink
is in the fish tank and all that's going down
at the same time, and the doctor is finally just
like all right, I'm gonna hang up now, Like I
love how important the fish are too. He wasn't. I
was waiting for him to be like, oh, you fucking asshole.
He's like, oh, come here, I'm gonna get let me
get you out of there. But does have a sweetness
to him. Actually that's yeah, you're right. It may be

(58:48):
arbitrary and it may be kind of misplaced, like he
cares more about the fish, and it seems like he
hears about his family. Perhaps he's more, he's more immediately
concerned for them, but it's still relatable. But yeah, I
want to go back to to the last shot it
again because I feel like the first time I saw it,
I was okay on this two shots it reminded me
a little bit of like fight Club or something. We're
kind of like flying around brain the synapse. It's like, Okay,

(59:12):
I've kind of seen this before, but it's still pretty cool.
But in a way I didn't really know what it
was necessarily doing in the movie, and the second time
watching it, thinking more in terms of his character being
this person that that lives this hyper um materialist, hyper
superficial existence to then go inside him at the very

(59:33):
end to see like the kind of like the uncut gym,
the opal within him in a way, and then for
that to become you know, blood, and then for that
to become like space like stars in the sky and
so on. To me, it kind of it had like
a on almost like spiritual dimension where it's saying that
this guy contained multitudes, he contained all this you know,

(59:54):
depth and and uh, parts of himself that he never explored,
that he never knew about because he he's living in
the society that's so superficial, but that it's a sort
of idea, you know, Buddhist or something that we all
contain within us. Like I think Julia Fox sees that too. Yeah, exactly.
They don't play it up too much. But he's not
just a sugar daddy. Yeah, yeah, he's a lot more

(01:00:16):
than that. Yeah, and his wife does not see that.
She hates his guts for good reason, for absolutely well,
you know she said either way, like financially, so yeah,
she wants him gone. I love that scene where like
she doesn't even say a word when he's in the
trunk of the car naked and she just looks at

(01:00:36):
him for a minute. It's like, I don't even need
to say anything. We know what a screw if you are.
And the thing two is it doesn't get into like
the kind of over the top verbal abuse you might
normally see. She just says, you're the most annoying person
I've ever known my entire life. And that's more cutting
than Moucker slapping him or like you know, screaming or whatever.

(01:00:57):
That is more and you see the puppy dog hurt,
and that would have been the trophy way to play it,
I think is for her to blow up and you
know what the fund is wrong with you? You don't
care about your family, and she steals herself and he
doesn'tee her, don't you know? He doesn't mean my anger,
he merrits. Three years ago she might have had that
reaction and she's gone. And that's the funny thing, too,

(01:01:19):
is that when she laughs at him, I think it's
because she realizes he has such a superficial understanding of
what a relationship is and that she's been just completely
detached for however long and he still thinks like, oh,
you look good in your what is your bottress? I've
been thinking, you know, maybe it's just because things have
gone south with Julia Fox that he's like, oh, maybe

(01:01:40):
I should go back to my wife and there. Yeah,
it's it's the way he puts Julia Fox down to
his wife was like she's trash. I know, she's trash. Yeah,
you know he's elevator scene when yeah, he tells her off,
I don't want you my life and the door closes
and he's in there full of people. It's like, oh,
you know, what does he say? It's a great line
about just like my life or something. He's just like, yeah,

(01:02:00):
it just like you guys know the half of it. Yeah,
such a trial with this person. Oh man, um, all right,
I think we get to the rating now. If you're
new to the show, we give ratings between one and
five thumbs. Uh yeah, I know. You know what I'm
gonna say, five thumbs. My favorite movie the year Lights
Out with a bullet same five thumbs, four and a

(01:02:23):
half thumbs and nothing. I mean, there's nothing that I
can say to criticize the movie, but just more so
comparing it to the other movies I saw this year.
Like I recently did my like top ten of the year,
and this was on the list. Yeah I saw that,
but it wasn't quite at the top. So that's was
it Silver Tier for you? It was Silver Tier by

(01:02:44):
Silver Silver Brown rather than just a simple one through ten,
I make it overly complicated and it made the Silver Tier. Okay,
so it's yeah, great movie, though, Casey, I will go
with the full five. This wouldn't be my number one
of the year. That would be The Irishman by Martin Scorsese.
Heard of that, but yeah, that was That was Scorsese's
second best movie of the year documentary I need to

(01:03:08):
I've heard that's really interesting, Like it's got characters that
were actually there at the time. Interesting. What was So
what was your favorite movie the year? Irishman? Yeah? What
was your Parasite? Oh, that's right, that's right, we discovered
that and none Cut Gems was my second. But they're
they're just two very different kinds of movies, even though
they're both interesting social commentaries, but they're just like, to me,
parasites more of like almost a who done it? Like

(01:03:29):
hitchcocky kind of stylized thing, whereas this is just pure grit,
just like you know. And by the way, I just
looked up amazing article on interview. Um it's uncut Gim's
handsome older man Wayne Diamond establishes a new legacy, and
he is apparently a very wealthy New York socialite type dude.
And he um got his start in the dieting and

(01:03:53):
on the Diamond district, in the garment district. Um and
used to be a really weird drugge clubby kind of guy,
what you could imagine. And then reviewers sits down with
him at some bar and he drinks like five vodkas
and two red wines at like two o'clock in the afternoon.
Ramsey a producer, let's hear your thumbs five films, any

(01:04:14):
other comments? Uh favorite movie the year? All right, yeah,
there you have it. I do before we go, we
should we should also shout out Darris Kanji, the director
of photography, who is legendary in his own right and
doing something very very different here than he normally does
in his films, where he likes to work on much
wider lenses typically. He he's he's sort of like a

(01:04:37):
you know, the Victorious starar idea of like painting with
light is very much what what Kanji is, uh, you know,
more more comfortable. And let's say he did delicate tests.
He's done. He's it's my favorite look at everything he's done, saying, yeah,
UM just a massive, massively talented cinematographer and for him
to adapt that kind of fastidious, like perfection based style

(01:05:01):
to this film, which is so much more about UM
being able to shoot in any direction, which cinematographers usually
hate because you want to light to the shot, not
to the room. UM working on way longer lenses. They
had a lens on this that they talked about on
the podcast with UM Paul Thomas Sanderson actually, who also
just worked with Darris Kanji on Animal Tom York podcast.

(01:05:26):
They were highly recommend checking that out. But there's like
a three fifty millimeter lens that they found, UM anamorphic
lens that you know that that's a ridiculously long lens
and you put that on the camera and it's like
you're not gonna be able to like track the Actually yeah,
exactly exactly, and it it works beautifully in this film.
And UM yeah, there's there's there's so much more to

(01:05:49):
say about just the technical aspect of this film. That's
that's very very impressive. UM. It's it's a mix of
film and digital. UM mostly film, but some of the
nighttime exteriors are digital. Um, but it all feels completely
you know, seamless, and uh yeah, um it's I feel
like we should mention the cinematographer Sean Price Williams who

(01:06:09):
they worked with previous to this and Kanji to come
in and kind of like step up the game or
just bring them to that next level of glossiness but
still being gritty at the same time. I got to
imagine that other cinematographer was bummed out. I know, I
wonder a little bit about that. I feel kind of
bad because because it sort of bit his style at
Yer pushed it over the know, but the whole thing

(01:06:32):
was a more over the top version or a more
dialed in version of good time. Yes, because because Sean
Price Williams is very well known for his his handheld
in his like super telephoto close ups of faces and
so on. Yeah, different different ones, yes, bad joke. All right, guys,
Almost perfect score except for Paul my opinion and you're

(01:06:56):
half a thumb. I got a place for your half
a thumb, my friend. What can I say? I got
to be the contrary? No, I love it. I love it.
That's that's great. Almost a perfect score. Go see it
uncut Jim's can't wait to see it again again. Emily
was like, what I like it? I went new you
would not. Emily does not like anxiety and using films.
I was like, stay far, far away. I'm taking my
girlfriend tonight. I'm not sure if she's gonna like it

(01:07:19):
or not, but I really hope she does all right. Well,
thanks guys, this is great one. Thank you for more

(01:07:39):
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