Barry Jenkins & Medicine for Melancholy (2008)

On this week’s moving episode of Dear Movies, I Love You, our hosts Millie and Casey discuss the work of director Barry Jenkins and his debut feature MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY (2008). Plus, they answer some questions for their Film Advice segment including one about whether it’s OK to make out at the movies. 

Follow, rate, and review Dear Movies, I Love You wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on Instagram: @dearmoviesiloveyou.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Casey, how's it going, Millie? It's going, well, yeah,
how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
I have really good news.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Actually please we need.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
It tomorrow, which is technically May seventh.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Uh huh.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
I am finally finally graduating from my master's program.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
My god, how does that feel? Does it? Do you
feel unburdened?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Listen? I it has been I don't know if you
know this, but I started this program in I started
this program in twenty fourteen. That's eleven years ago, like
literally eleven years ago, almost, like yeah, maybe to the
month at least. It's been like these master's programs are

(00:49):
supposed to only take like two years, right, Like it's
supposed to be a two year program. It took me
eleven years.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
I mean, you can't you. I hope you don't feel
any you know, pain about that, because you've had a
lot of stuff going on.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
A huge part of it is that I made the
decision to, like, I guess, like informally leave the program
in twenty sixteen because I moved to La So I
told myself, Okay, well I'm gonna have to like put
this on hold for a while and then come back
to it later. And that's exactly what I did. I mean,
there was it was up in the air whether I

(01:22):
had actually finished. And then I felt like when I
got laid off at TCM, which was the end of
twenty two, I was like, well, now I got no excuse.
I got to finish this shit. Yeah, and I had
gone so far in the program that I'm like, why not?

Speaker 1 (01:37):
So absolutely, I just.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Like bit down and finish it. I am. I mean
I feel accomplished. I just you know, it's just like goal,
you know, like degrees are like goals, right, Like these
like markers of a chief, which I feel like I

(02:01):
don't have, Like what are some markers of achievement beyond
like and I'm not talking about like marriage and children,
not achievements. Okay, those are like life things, but you.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Know, like any old idiot can do those things.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, I mean it was like, well, as an adult,
like what can you do to like, I mean, what
are you gonna do, like climb Mount Everest or High.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
That's a kidney stone, start a dad rock group with
your like buddy, Yeah, there's not much you know, in.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
That very formalized way that I don't know if you
can see in the background, it's like my cap and down.
I was like, damn, I have to actually wear a
thing like it's like a real thing to graduate.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Exciting. Well, I'm thrilled for you, million I know this
has been something you've been working on for a long time.
It's kind of exciting because it kind of opens up,
you know, not to look totally to the future, but
now you can be like, now, what's my next thing
I'm going to accomplish. What's the next project I'm going
to tackle?

Speaker 2 (03:07):
You know? Oh, I know, I feel like I need
to start a dad rock band or something.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Here you go, that's an idea. Well, Millie, We're thrilled
for you, and I'm also thrilled for this episode that
we have ahead of us.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yes, we are going to talk about the director, Barry Jenkins,
the wonderful Barry Jenkins. Underrated, underrated, I feel too, And
maybe that's going to be a big part of what
we're going to.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Talk about today.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, but I wanted to talk about I want to
kind of focus in on his first film, which was
made in two thousand and eight. It's called Medicine for
Melancholy Because I mean, listen, folks, I might get a
little deep. I'm just throwing it out there, but I
feel like that movie is about cenophile culture and we'll
talk about it.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Oh yes, be warned. Depth might be happening this episode.
And also we're going to dive into our mail bag
and answer some film advice. I'm very excited. We've took
an episode off, so now we're back at it, and uh,
we're excited to answer all the things that you've written
into us about, so look forward to that as well.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
You were Jones and for I mean you were like
in the corner, shaking on a bear mattress, wanting to
give film advice.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
I wanted to, Yeah, I had. I was Jones and
for it man. Uh yeah, just thrilling. So much happening
on this episode.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
So stay tuned. We'll be here. We hope you'll be there.
This is Deer Movies. I Love You, Dear, I love you,
and I've got to know you love me too. Check
the boox. Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Deer Movies,

(05:00):
I Love You. This is the podcast for people who
were obsessed with movies to the point where they feel
like their heart would just stop beating if they weren't around.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
My name is Millie to Jericho.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
I'm Casey O'Brien, and.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, this episode's gonna be a lot of fun. It's
gonna be very thought provoking. Maybe, I don't know. We'll
see what happens. I think I think it's just gonna
be a riff a riff fest.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yeah, I think it's gonna be something. I hope things
are provoked from this episode. Merely. I have some very
minor news.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Oh sure, sure.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
I said on a previous episode that my one car
Y box set, my Blu Ray twenty forty six didn't work. Yeah,
emailed Criterion. They're replacing the whole set. See how I believe.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
I actually can believe because I feel like somebody else
that I knew that happened to them too.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
But I bought this like three years ago.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
That's what I'm talking about. Though. It's like the early
listen no shade to Criteria and of course, but like there,
I felt like there was this rumor or those like
thing that happened. We're like the first batches of the
waldcar Wi box set that came out were like nGy,
no good.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Well, I had heard people were like, oh walk car
Y made some adjustments to the movies and now they
suck like they were like recolor graded, and like one
of the movies has a different aspect ratio than when
it was released. So it's a little bit like, you know,
Steven Spielberg removing the rifles and et and replacing them
with walkie talkies. That's what you know, people were saying anyway,

(06:36):
But I didn't really notice that. I thought it looked great,
but it just didn't fucking work right.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Maybe it's both, I don't know, yeah, maybe I Well
that's good though, because I'm thrilled.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
You know. It's like so few good things happened to
me in my life, and this was just one of them,
you know.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
So well, let me let me ask you now that
you're thrown out in this damn minutia as you call it,
although I think that's actually a pretty big deal. Have
you heard or read or seen reviews of Bradley Cooper's
new Cheese Steak restaurant?

Speaker 1 (07:16):
What? No, you didn't tell me we were doing a
Bradley News segment. Oh my god, wait, I gotta look
this up, really look it up.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Now. I don't know much about it. I just was
I think it was in the New Yorker or something
like that. But basically they were like, Bradley Cooper co
owns a sandwich place. The cheese steaks are phenomenal, and
that's all I've heard.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
It looks good, do you think so? Yeah? But I mean,
is this one of those things? Though? It's like, I
feel like a Philly cheese steak is like a food
of the people. Is this like the elevated Philly cheese steak?
It sort of seems like that bit. But it looks good, man,
it looks fucking good.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
The bread looks damn krusty, which I love.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
I love too. It's eighteen bucks for a cheat and
a cheese steak. I don't know that, Bradley.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
I mean, if this is okay, if you look up
Bradley Cooper cheese steak, folks, you will probably go to
Helen Rossner article in the New Yorker where there's a
giant splash photograph of this cheese steak. Now, if this
is the size of the eighteen dollars cheese steak.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Fuck six inches?

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Okay, A six inch cheese steak is not eighteen bucks,
and no planet is that allowed.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Okay, Millie, this is where we really need our listeners
to help us, because if there's any listeners that are
going to go to the cheese, please, somebody out there
go to the Bradley Cooper's Philly cheese steak spot in
New York, I don't know where it is and record
a voice memo with your review. We will play it
on the show. Please. We need to know what the sandwich.
What is going on with this sandwich.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Because if you scroll further down the article, there is
a twelve inch okay, but it's not It says this
is the sandwich that's the inspiration for the one that's
being served at the Bradley Coop's Cheese steak bonanza. Like,
it's not even it. I gotta tell you, I I'm

(09:11):
real fired up about this six inch, eighteen dollars cheese steak.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
We need to get to the bottom of these people. Millie,
thank you for bringing Bradley Cooper news. I didn't even know.
I didn't know I was in for such a treat
on this this episode.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
I feel like if he if his name just like
pops up in the in the ether. Yeah, as a
news item, like rest assured that one of us will
pick up on it and talk about it.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
I just feel like it's you know, I need to
set my Google alert, I mean to Bradley Cooper so
I can stay up to date.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
I need to find out how to set a Google alert,
and then I set it.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yes, anyway, fabulous, Thank you Milly for bringing that to
our attention. Well, we start every episode this same way.
We open up the film diary and we talked about
the movies, and we dusted off. We talked about the

(10:10):
movies that we saw in the past week. I have
some interesting ones, I think, but merely I'd love to
hear what you've been watching.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Okay, So if you must remove the films that I've
watched for this podcast for research, I only really watched one,
but I will say it was an elevated experience because
I actually did the Q and A with a director
at the Plaza Theater in Atlanta, and it was the
director of a documentary called Goodbye Horses The Many Lives

(10:44):
of Q Lazarus.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Amazing. Yes, how's the doc I'm so intrigued because Q
Lazarus is kind of a mysterious figure for those who
don't know Q Lazarus. They wrote the song Goodbye Horses,
which is famously featured in Silence of the Land, but
they were sort of a mysterious musician, were they not?

Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yes, So this is this documentary will It was such
a ride Now. It was directed by a Mexican woman
originally from Mexico City. Her name is ava arihis Fuentes,
and she's lovely. She lives in New York now. She's
she's worked on She worked on Marcos like she was

(11:26):
a writer on Marcos. She's done many other documentaries. She's
really sweet, really talented, and the craziest thing about this
documentary was that she I think she came to the
song Goodbye Horses much like everybody else did, which is
like again through Jonathan Demi. Right, So it was in

(11:46):
that huge buffalo bill scene in Siala to the Lambs,
but was also actually originally featured and married to the
Mob for the first time. And that song you could
only find on the Marriag to the Mob soundtrack for years.
It was the only place that you could find it.
And it's because Q Lazarus essentially never got a record deal, like,

(12:08):
was never on a label, was like kind of self
publishing music with her like music collaborators, and this was
like Essentially the tempo of this documentary was the you know,
the nuts and bolts of it is that Ki Lazarus
grew up in a like a gospel singing kind of tradition. Family,

(12:29):
moved to New York City before I did a bunch
of like queer people and other people in the kind
of the New York club scene was sort of into
rock and roll and goth and stuff like that made
the song good Bye Horses. Then tried to move to
Europe to make it with a band and was basically
a black woman doing rock and roll like almost kind

(12:52):
of like it was weird. It was like a mix
between like Cynthie, I don't know, almost like shoegaze, but
then there was kind of hard rock elements.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
It was so interesting, like, yeah, it's a very que
unique sound.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah. I mean, if they came out today, they would
fucking be on four eighty or something. They would be like,
they'd have a fucking record deal, no problem. But back
in the late eighties, nobody knew what to do with
a black woman who was in a rock and roll band,
you know, and so essentially they didn't you know, get

(13:25):
a record deal, didn't nothing happened her career fizzle, and
then she just kind of disappeared. And it wasn't until
essentially that she met Jonathan Demi in a taxi cab
because she was driving a cab as her job, and
you know, he put her song in both Married to
the Mob Sounds in the Lamps. And then she was
actually in Philadelphia. She was in a she did a

(13:47):
cameo in a singing scene. I guess her the band
was playing live as part of the scene. But beyond
that she was just vanished essentially, and she had lot
of personal problems. She got really into drugs and it
was really really sad. But that's the thing is that
over the course of the documentary, it's like you're kind

(14:08):
of like Ava basically is embedded with her and her family,
and she's like explaining about things that have happened to her,
and you're just kind of like, oh my god. Like
it's it's kind of a testament to the idea of
someone making art but like nobody like having no distribution, no,

(14:28):
like nobody like knowing that they exist in that way,
Like there's no rights, there's no distribution deals, there's no
copyright you know stuff I mean, And that was what
happened I think over the course of the years was
that as she went away, her music was kind of
like out there, but like she wasn't getting money for it,

(14:50):
you know, anyway, And then of course the ending is
very sad because obviously qu Lazar has passed away semi
recently and and that was a big part of the
end of the documentary. So anyway, fantastic if you want,
if you can find it. I know that she's trying
to get a streaming deal right now and hopefully somebody

(15:12):
will pick it up. But if you're she's been touring
it essentially, she's going to different cities and playing it,
and so if you if she shows up in your town,
you've got to see it. It's really good.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Cool. I'll have to check that out. Sounds amazing. I'm
very interested in this. I think it's very interesting, the
idea of an artist just putting things out there, it
not being received, and then it being received later, but
like it's been detached from the artist in a way
that they can't get it back. I don't know, that's
sort of that's very fascinating. My diary, dear Diary. I

(15:47):
watched a little movie called Black Narcissus from nineteen forty seven,
directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Presburger. I am obsessed
with this. This movie's incredible. It's a group of nuns
who open a convent in a Himalayan abandoned palace, and

(16:07):
it's sort of it's not haunted, but it's kind of
like sort of haunted, not by anything specific, but it's
just the vibes are off, very off, and one of
the nuns, sister Ruth, gets sort of possessed, not in
any sort of like literal sense, but she becomes like
sex crazed and insane. And she's played by the wonderful

(16:32):
Kathleen Byron. And there's a shot of her emerging from
the palace now that after she's like taken her habit
off and have put on makeup and like nice clothes,
and she looks insane. It's incredible. She looks incredible, And
I'm like, she looks like a she could be a

(16:52):
woman from now the way she's dressed. Ye, And it's incredible.
I love this movie.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Oh, it's one of my faves. I don't know if
you knew that. I didn't know that absolutely one hundred percent.
I Love. Kathleen Byron Gene Simmons is insane in this movie.
Like it's problematic.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
I guess it's problematic. She might not have any lines, yes,
but she's like a sexual temptress. She's like feral in
the I mean it's like feral. Yeah, it's a and
it looks incredible. I know it was like shot in
a studio, but I'm like, it feels like they're on
the a mountaintop with these like matte paintings. It was incredible.

(17:32):
It was a cinematic experience.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
David Farrar David Farrar wearing those tiny little booty shorts.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
It's funny because they're like it's freezing up here. And
then his character comes in and he has the shortest
shorts you've ever seen, and his like shirt is completely unbuttoned,
and uh, he is not bothered by the cold.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Well that's that's the magic of this movie is that
he's like the thought running around and.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Being a big hoe that hoe over there.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
Making all these women want him and go crazy.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
Makes yes, makes Kathleen Byron go insane, I know.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
And like that's the thing is that, like the Deborah
Carr character, she plays kind of like the most level
headed one, right, she's the one that's basically like Sister Clauda, Yeah,
stop being so horny, but she's she's even like not
like basically it's like a spell. Like the whole idea

(18:31):
is that this place is this like crazy horny environment
where all these chaste nuns are going crazy. And maybe
it's the air, maybe it's the short shorts, maybe it's repression,
we don't know, but it's Catholicism. It's part of one
of my favorite I would call it a nun'sploitation movie.
I'm just throw it out there, but it's one of

(18:51):
my favorite, uh horny nun movies for sure.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
Oh yeah, it's great. And you know, yeah, Deborah Currcy
plays Sister Clauda, and she's the most buttoned up for sure.
But you think she's not horny too, She is, certainly,
but she's powerful and strong and can you know, push
away David Farr or however you say his last name,
David Farrarr. So that was great. Loved watching that movie.
And then I watched this movie from twenty twenty three, directed, written, directed,

(19:18):
and starring Melanie Laurent, and it's titled Wing Women and
it's an it's a Netflix action movie and it stars
adele Xrpolos from Blue Is the Warmest Color You Might
Remember and Isabelle Audjohnny from Possession. And it feels it
feels like Melanie Laurent was given like a billion dollars

(19:41):
to make a move like an action comedy movie and
she received no notes, and it was like, it's kind
of fun. But it sort of feels like it feels
like in the vein of like Ryan Reynolds or the
Rock movies, where it's like an action but they're kind
of like smirking and making jokes the whole time. And

(20:01):
I don't know, and I don't French people. You know,
my friend Patrick Mallin and I always used to say
this on our old podcast Fart House. Uh, the French,
they've got a real comedy problem. I feel like sometimes
I do not understand when they're trying to be funny,
and sometimes they're very humorless. And I just this, this
was not for me. I'm sorry, very very subtle, the French,

(20:24):
in their sense of very subtle.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
I have not seen this. Although every woman you mentioned
I'm a fan of.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Oh me too. I love Melanie Laurent. I love adele
Xar Pelos, I love Isabella Johnny, but it was just
kind of like, of course, there's a blooper reel at
the end. It just felt like of course, and it
just felt like it felt like, let's just have fun
with this one. That's like what the whole movie felt like.

(20:52):
And uh yeah, have you have you googled Melanie Laurent
right now?

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Why is her disembodied head the main photo of her?
I would have my publicist fucking take that shit down.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah, she looks like one of those songs that sounds
up at the fucking Green Bay Packers game.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, it's a select. It's at Celebritycutouts dot com, dot co,
dot UK. Uh yeah, that's the number one thing. Wow.
Very interesting. She's actually directed quite a few movies in France.
I feel like she has a lot of power there,

(21:34):
but this one, yeah, not for me.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Okay, sorry, I hate when it's a stinker.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
I mean I still had fun, it's still kind of fun.
But at one point I pause a movie in the
middle of the movie, maybe to go get some popcorn
or something, and I was like, what needs to happen
in the rest of this what's the conflict? I don't
even understand, like what they're trying to overcome. At the end,
I was like halfway through the movie. You've ever had
that when you're watching a movie and you're like, what
else is to happen here? I'm not exactly sure where

(22:01):
we are? So that's what it felt like while watching
the movie.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
That's how I felt during the last four seasons.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Of vander Oh, where are we? Where are we going?

Speaker 2 (22:13):
What is this?

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Oh boy? All right, that's it. That's all I got
for my film diary. Let's close them up, shall we?

Speaker 3 (22:22):
God?

Speaker 2 (22:23):
How dusty and smoky and dirty? This book was? All right, everybody,
This episode is going to be about, like I teased

(22:46):
you earlier, the movie Medicine for Melancholy from two thousand
and eight, which was directed and written by the great
Barry Jenkins, And we're going to talk about it. We're
going to talk about him. Actually, Casey, if you wouldn't mind,
would you do that synopsis up front?

Speaker 1 (23:01):
I'd be very happy to. So Medicine for Melancholy two
thousand and eight, we are at the height of indie
sleeves and indie culture, and we're in San Francisco, This
is a mumblecore movie. We'll get into that in a
little bit, but it is about Micah played by Wyatt
Sanak you might know from The Daily Show, and Joe

(23:24):
played by Tracy Higgins. They wake up together in a
stranger's bed because they're at some party the night before
and they had a one night stand and slept over
at this party, so they kind of wake up with
some confusion, and at first, Joe's like, Joe wants to
kind of like run away and get away from Micah,
and Mike's kind of like, oh, let's get breakfast blah

(23:44):
blah blah. After a few awkward missteps, they end up
spending a romantic day and night together, filled with conversations
about the changing face of San Francisco, the racial politics
of the indie scene, and tanks. Also, Joe has a
boyfriend that she lives with and he is out of town,

(24:06):
so there's a little bit of I don't know at
tension in that way throughout the entire film, but that
is basically medicine for melancholy.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
So I just went into my photo cloud where I
store all my photos, and I just typed in two
thousand and eight because I wanted to see if I
could find a picture of myself from two thousand and eight.
So this was me in two thousand and eight. Can
you see that?

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Oh? Wow?

Speaker 2 (24:32):
I really I was a DJ during indie sleeves. Okay,
I've talked about this on my Instagram before. What a time.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
I at the time, I.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
Didn't realize it was being going to be called indye sleives.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
No, this that's a term that I feel like has
only come out in the last couple of years, but
it to like describe this era, right.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
That's kind of though, to your exact point is, and
this is gonna be contentious, I'm gonna just throw it
out there and I don't care. I kind of feel
that's the same thing with the term mumblecore. For me. Sure,
I am very unclear about the when mumblecore the word

(25:19):
was created. Yeah, what makes something mumblecore? To me, I'm
gonna be straight up honest with you. It feels like
there was a shitsd of movies that I were watching
and then all of a sudden people were saying, Okay,
this is mumblecore, and I'm like, no, it's not. It's
just independent films.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
Well like mumblecore, I think its signature is that it's
shot on a lower quality camera, it's very cheap, it's
you know, I think it's called mumblecore because the actors
are a lot of times non professional actors, and they're
kind of like mumbling on camera and it's sort of yeah,
and it's a very low budget. I feel like a

(26:01):
lot of times it's sort of stories about people just
like meandering about and uh yeah, but like.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
But I questioned to you though, I mean, go ahead, sorry, just.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Cant no, no, no, no, Well I was gonna say the
Duplas brothers kind of got their start in that. But
you're right, it is kind of like, well, it is
sort of I don't know, insulting to those filmmakers to
belittle it, to like, oh, you're doing your like cute
little mumblecore thing, when it's like, can't this just be independent,
flow budget independent film? You know what made like Stranger

(26:32):
than Paradise by Jim Jarmish. Yes, that that that feels
like a mumblecore movie, by the terms that you've just
iron out for us.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
So I'm like, why now, why are we calling this
now a thing?

Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Know, Maybe that's just my like old person kind of
grape for this, but I just was like, mumblecore. It
feels like something that is not, like it's I don't
have any understanding of it. That it happened kind of
after I've already like process and distilled film information and

(27:10):
that like somebody has retroactively gone back and been like, Okay,
this is mumble court. I'm like, well, I don't know
what that means because I only thought they were independent films.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
So yeah, I mean, like if Clerks came out during
this period, they'd be like total mumblecore movie. But it
comes out ten years earlier and it's like it's an
independent film.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Yeah, you know, yeah, So I.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
Think you're right, there aren't really like it is sort
of after the fact that we're labeling it that. I
just sent you a picture from my Facebook of me
working at Intelligency at coffee in Venice, California. I'm wearing
suspenders and a tie and this was my indie sleeves era.
I was a snobby, snobby barista at the height of

(27:50):
like fancy comf coffee in Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
Look at those cheekbones. Dog, you were in it, Dog
in it? Dog, Let me ask you this were you
going out like a lot, Like like what was your
life Like, Okay, so you're working intelligencia, you were wearing
suspenders and serving muffins to people. Uh huh, But like
what was your other Like were you drinking, were you smoking?

(28:14):
Were you having fun?

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Oh? Yeah, I mean I was. I mean I kind
of related to medicine for melancholy because I was sort
of bumming around, you know, I was drinking, partying and
going to indie shows and like during this time, you know, Coachella.
I feel like this is when Coachella got really big
and a lot of these music festivals got really big.

(28:36):
So I would always go to Sasquatch Music Festival every
year and see like Arcade, Fire Ya Sayer, No Age,
Animal Collective, LCD sound System, this, this type of music
was happening at that time, and so I was very
and I was a fan of all that music. And yeah,

(28:58):
I mean I was kind of doing the meta for
melancholy thing.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
Okay, Well that's that makes sense because that that, to me,
I think is a big part of this movie, and
it's it's about this kind of I don't know, I
actually think it's like a hipster era and that word
hipster to me drives me crazy obviously.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
Well that's what we called. That's what people were called
at this time, A great hipster. Yeah, that's that was
the predominant term. Like I would have been deemed a hipster,
Yes I was, but hipster is a bigger term. That
didn't I don't know. That was like skinny jeans, American apparel, mustaches,
fix the bikes which you see in Melancho medicine for melancholy,

(29:42):
that type of person tattooing a mustache on their finger,
that type of stuff was hipster. And that was the
term we used, which I feel like they don't use
about They don't use as much to describe that time
as they did during the time. Sure, because I'm in
these TikTok streets me too. Have you heard about the

(30:04):
Heady Boys? No, let me look this up.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Got to look it up. It's basically a resurgence of
what we've just talked about. I think it's Indy Slee's
hipster ism. Okay, it's very informed by like the Libertines. Yeah,
you know what I'm saying, And it's the and hetty
is h E d I And I think it's based
off of Hetty Slamine, who is the photographer and fashion

(30:31):
designer who I think he used to work at Dior.
I think he's now at East Saint Laurent. But he
was kind of like if you if you google Hetty Sliman,
he's like the epitome of like this fashion style. Like
he was the guy that brought like the skinny jeans
and like the tight little suit jackets with the skinny

(30:52):
ties and like, yeah, you know, like the strokes if
you want to remember what the strokes look like. Uh.
But I was on TikTok and I was like, I
saw this girl interviewing a guy that literally look like
he walked out of two thousand and eight, and he
was like and she was like, what do you think?
What do you think about the Heady Boys? And I
was like, what is happening? Is happening again?

Speaker 1 (31:15):
So it's happening again. To quote the giant from Twin.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
People, aber eyes peeled for that God.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
The Heady Boys. I'll keep my eyes peeled, certainly. But
I was I was really you know, I was hanging
out in silver Lake and Venice in Los Angeles. I
was really in that scene. But I didn't feel like
a scene. At the time, it just felt like going
to see popular bands and being a young person. Yeah,
you know, but looking back, it's a very specific time,

(31:46):
you know.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
Well, okay, so now that we've like set this whole
thing up.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
We set the scene.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
Part of like what I think is so deeply interesting
about Medicine for Melancholy, right, is that this is a
movie that takes that scene and takes sort of the
satellite scenes, which I think would be art film whatever,

(32:13):
and talks about it in reference to people of color
and black people.

Speaker 3 (32:18):
Right.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
Part of what I think this the question is being
asked in this movie, and this is directly what Wyat's
Snax's character asks, is how come being indie quote unquote,
being a hipster quote unquote means that we have to
like white things? Right? Yeah, And he talks about it

(32:43):
in a very specific way, like he basically asked the
question of this woman, and he's just like, I mean,
we have like TV on the radio, but like, how
come everything else? How come if we're indie, if we
like rock and roll, if we like hipster culture, this
kind of stuff, how come we have to date white people?
How come we have to have white friends? Hock? Come

(33:04):
we can't have this experience as black people. We just
have to buy into the kind of dominant white culture
that's doing all the stuff right, being in all the bands.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, it's and it's an interesting question. It's interesting when
watching this now because at the time, like we were
talking about, there was this very defined indie scene where
it did feel removed from mainstream culture. It felt like
to the side of that, but it also was a
huge movement to call it indie. It's so big, it's

(33:39):
almost not indie, you know. And I feel like we
don't have music culture or like indie culture in the
same way now than we did in two thousand and eight.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
There are still people out there who are the only
black person at the heavy metal concert or whatever. It's like,
it still exists, right, And I think I think part
of the question of this movie, and I think that's
like kind of a bigger question obviously, but it's one
that is specifically asked again by White's Neax's character to
this other woman because basically the two of them live
in San Francisco. They're riding bicycles, they're going to like,

(34:13):
you know, hipster indie rock nights, and you know, they
love like foreign films, and you know, she wears a
T shirt in the film that is the name of
Barbara Loaden. She's wearing a Barbara Loaden T shirt, who
we talked about a couple episodes ago. Right, I feel
like the two of them have dated white people, and

(34:35):
it's you know, basically.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
It's her boyfriend is white, her.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
Boyfriend is white, and then we find out through her
snooping that white snak just was dating a white woman
that they just broke up because she like snooped on
his Facebook. By the way, watching old Facebook, Oh good
made me sick to my stomach. But anyway, this is
the old frame the pages. But it's but you're so

(35:03):
you're putting all these things together, and I think it
culminates in that conversation where he's just basically like, how
come we can't date each other? How come because we're
in the quote unquote or we're hipster's quote unquote, we
only can date white people, you know. Yeah, And that
to me was like really thought provoking because I thought

(35:23):
about it also in terms of cinophile culture. Right yeah,
So to me, I know you've said this movie is
a mumblecore. I feel like this movie is basically a
French new wave movie.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
It totally is.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Now. I don't know, a French new wave has now
been called mumblecore. I don't know if that's happened. I
don't know if the United Nations has weighed in on
that French mumbling. Yeah, but to me, the cadence of
the film feels very French new Wave, right.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
You would expect that a director like Barry Jenkins would
obviously be very well versed in cinema and he would
know French new wave. It feels like the Tracy Higgins
character feels very like John Sieberg in Breathless.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
The hole in the haircut.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
The haircut is absolutely spot on, but also her The
thing that really I guess cemented it for me is
the way that her character Joe is very ambiguous about
her feelings like the entire movie, and the same way
that John Sieberg's character is in Breathless, where she's just
kind of like bopping around hanging out with this guy

(36:34):
who obviously wants her and like wants to be with
her on a certain level, and she's just kind of
like following her bliss. She's being very like ambiguous about
her feelings and what she wants and who she's with
and so and the way that the romance kind of
unfolds over the course of like the day or whatever
that they spend together is very French New Wave to

(36:56):
me totally. And so again, I think dot it is
also rolled into this bigger conversation about the implication, the
racial implications of like sitiphile at indie culture aka white culture,
and like how people of color approach those concepts in
those worlds.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
Right, yeah, it is. It's such a big question. I
don't even know how to grapple with it because when
he asks, why do we have to you know, date
white people or basically like act like white people to
be a part of this indie scene in order to

(37:37):
and with the centophile scene too, in order to become
a part of these larger structures that have been historically
dominated by white people because of the oppression of people
of color and the you know, not allowing people of
color to participate inherently becoming a part of this you

(38:02):
need to interact with white people in a major way,
right you know. And yeah, so, I mean it's it's
a really big question that I don't have an answer to,
but it's making my head spin.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
I know, I'm sorry that I've I've done this and
I've opened this this vault because I think about it
a lot and I have forever because again, I think
as a woman who you know, has who is a

(38:40):
woman of color, but has you know, immigrant parents and
grew up in the Deep South. You know, I've always
been like weird about my place in you know, kind
of the things that I like, right, because you look
around and it's like you don't even think about it
until you actually look around, and you're like, fuck, I'm

(39:02):
like the only woman of color around. I'm the only
woman around normally, Like I'm only the only woman around
a lot of and a lot of stuff I like,
you know, yeah, certainly like cult film, uh, and being
in those kind of like film like deep deep hardcore
like film spaces. So so like Barry Jenkins, for example,
I mean, he's making movies about black love. This is

(39:24):
like his entire filmography, right, Yeah, But it's also that
he is a part of like a film culture that
is primarily white. Yeah, and we all are as film people,
like the film Cannon is white and you and you
know that's true. That's what we were taught in film
school that you're supposed to revere people like you know,

(39:46):
Jean Luke Guitar and Hitchcock and fucking Serche Eisenstein, like
even want to go even.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
For the back.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
But it's like, you know, obviously, like this is the
cannon that you grew up in, and so you're sitting
there being like, well, I want to make a movie
about something that's inherent to me as a black person
or a person of color, but then the influences from
white people, and how do I do that? You know,

(40:16):
I feel like it's only I feel like, only now
do I feel like this is a topic that's being
talked about through the art of people of color, right,
because I think a lot also about Jordan Peele, Right,
Jordan Peele's movies are also about blackness within these black
pockets of like white culture that's not you know, sometimes

(40:41):
it's countercultural. Sometimes it's you know, like in the case
of Nope, like people who are you know, cowboys, people
living in the desert. It's like these spaces that are
traditionally white and sort of like how like how you
are in those spaces in the world, you know, like
just places that like black people or other people of

(41:02):
color would just like have traditionally like we've never seen it,
I guess in a movie in that way. And I
feel like that's the way it has been like for
a long time up until now. I feel like it's
like it's nice that we do have directors like Barry
Jenkins and Jordan Peele and you know, Ryan Coogler and
like other people who are you know, I'm saying, there's

(41:24):
so many others, But it's like there's just so many,
like now different stories that are sort of coming to
the surface that it's like, Okay, yeah, like maybe this
is like a thought provoking idea of like who created
a canon, who got invited to the canon? Yeah, there's
all these these all these people who are learning from
the canon. They're not always white, and how do you,

(41:47):
you know, as a person of color, just make sense
of it all. But that's what I love about Medicine
for Melancholy because it takes that and it talks about
it in the context of romance and and I just
think it's like, to be honest, when I first saw
it back in the day, I was kind of like, Okay,
this is cute. Maybe it is mumblecore. It is like
a little indie movie, but I swear after seeing it

(42:09):
over many years and now just like thinking about it,
I just I feel like it's a lot better than
I initially thought it was, and it's really thought provoking.
And of course I had to go back and watch,
you know, Moonlight, but then I actually just saw if
Beale Street could talk. First time watch fucking destroyed me, dude,

(42:33):
like destroyed my ass. Like I was crying within the
first maybe four minutes of that movie. It's so tender
and beautiful and like I mean, I just could not believe.
I actually told myself, thank God had see this in
the movie theater because I'd be a fucking disaster. Yeah,

(42:55):
I was like sobbing in my living room. I can't imagine.
It was kind of like when I watched Past Lives.
I was. I was so distraught that I was sobbing
in the movie theater. Like the people that I was
with were like, are you okay? And I was just
like it. Actually went to the bathroom to like have
my own moment because I just couldn't fucking take it.

(43:15):
I was so emotional. But anyway, it's amazing to me.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
I feel like Barry Jenkins I mean, he won Best Picture.
I feel like he should have a new movie every year.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Maybe, and like, you know, I don't know, I want
I want more more Barry Jenkins.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
Well, and it's interesting because if you go to his Wikipedia,
I mean, this is it's Wikipedia, so do what you
may with that. But there's like an entire section that's
just called Unrealized Projects, and it's like a shit ton
of things like it's you know, and so maybe, you know,
I think that he's such a good director and he's
very care full and he doesn't want to make bullshit,

(44:01):
like he's like, you know, very I think it makes
total sense that he would, you know, not make a
shit ton of films.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Yeah right, did you you know? It's funny one little
thing about medicine for melancholy. At like near the beginning
of the movie, she's like, you stink. Did you shower?
And he's like no, he doesn't shower for a really
long time. And I was like every scene he was in,
I was like, he stinks. I don't know if you
had that feeling, but I was like, this man needs

(44:35):
to take a shower. I mean.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
I had a weird feeling about that part. I was
like he he writes, he rides his like fixed gear
bike in San Francisco. He probably doesn't shower very often much.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
Skis no.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
However, I really saw it more as sort of a
function of her upitiness. Perhaps does that make sense, because
you know, there's so many points in the movie where
she's just basically like megging him essentially, Yeah, and you
know she's and she her world is this like art
world where her boyfriend is. She's going to the gallery

(45:13):
for her boyfriend, and she lives in a nice place
and you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
Yeah, But also he I feel like he was like
kind of pushy, and I was kind of turned off
by him, like sort of like not not leaving her.
I don't know I was. I was like turned off
by him at first after they start like getting more

(45:39):
romantic and because she's like, you need to leave, and
he doesn't leave. I don't know. Maybe he could, maybe
he was picking up that she didn't really want him
to leave, but I don't know. I was sort of.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Well, like again, I think a lot of it. It
feels very breathless to me in that way where it's like,
oh yeah, like Sean Pelleball mom, those characters is just
as annoying. Yeah, Like he just wants to be around
this hot woman and wants to like lay in bed
with her all day, you know, and he's just kind

(46:09):
of like following her around type of thing, you know.
And I feel like that's kind of the vibe of
this and this in the same I mean, you know,
if we're gonna make the comparison that this is a
French new wave movie essentially, but like that's kind of
how I felt. And also too, I mean, it's totally
possible that you can have a one night stand and
not want it to end.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
Yeah, that's true, you know.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
And you like, at first, I was like, oh, he's
trying to be a nice guy and he's like, okay,
do you want to get breakfast? Like it's weird, this
is awkward, But I think I think it's just kind
of like, I don't know, I kind of like hanging
out with her and yeah, I don't know. I think
she's weird it out, but I'm gonna just try to
see if my persistence will change her mind.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
It was interesting watching this movie now because I was like,
this is obviously a time when there's a lot of
young artistic hipster people living in San Francisco doing their
hipster things, riding fixie bikes all around the city. But
I like, do these people exist anymore in San Francisco?
Like have they been totally you know, pushed out because

(47:09):
of Silicon Valley Bros? Like are there young people there
trying that are like in their small little apartments trying
to make it that aren't rich? You know? I don't know.
It was interesting to see the San Francisco of two
thousand and eight when in the movie they're talking about
how Silicon Valley is ruining San Francisco, but it seems

(47:31):
even worse now. It seems like it's been ruined. Well.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
Yeah, And I actually think that there's that conversation that
the the you know, they kind of like listen in
on this like community meeting.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
M H.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
I thought was so interesting. Have you ever seen that
movie with The Last Black Man in San Francisco?

Speaker 1 (47:50):
Yeah? I have.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
You know, San Francisco is such an interesting town because
and I've been there multiple times. I have really good
friends that live there. It's such it's so different than
Atlanta for me because of the wealth that's there and
just about in the historical like the people that were

(48:14):
living there pre internet, you know, and sort of what
the Internet did out to the town, to those people
and everybody around it is just I think it's very
unique in America specifically, And I know there's other towns
that experience that, like Austin and you know, wherever, like
of a kind of like a tech boom kind of

(48:34):
soiling the you know, counterculturalness of an area type of thing.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Yeah, is there even counterculture there anymore? It sort of
feels like I think it's interesting because I went to
college in Los Angeles, that's not San Francisco obviously. Yeah,
but I know a ton of people who moved to
New York after college from LA. I don't know a
single person. I don't have any friends in San Francisco really,
which is sort of strange. I have a lot of

(49:00):
friends in San Diego, but none in San Francisco. Don't
you think that's sort of odd? That just don't you
think naturally some would have gone there from Los Angeles
after college. I don't know. Maybe that means nothing, but
I just find that odd.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
Well, I mean yeah, I mean I think it's extremely expensive.
I think people of our station life could never afford
to live there, although one of my really good friends,
one of my best friends in fact, lives there. He
also lives in the Tenderloin. Just like why it's an
next character.

Speaker 1 (49:32):
Have you ever seen the movie The Wild Parrots of
Telegraph Hill from two thousand and three documentary. No, it's incredible,
and it's basically about this guy, this unhoused gentleman who
sort of takes care of these feral parrots in Telegraph
Hill in San Francisco. And I feel like it's sort
of an interesting intersection of you know, counterculture and super

(50:00):
preppy people and this one guy like lives in like
kind of the shack of these rich people near Telegraph
Hill neighborhood, and it just sort of illustrates the disappearance
of a certain San Francisco. But it's a really great
and moving documentary. It's fun. The Wild Periods of Telegraph

(50:21):
Hill from two.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
Thousand Yeah, I'll definitely check it out. Yeah, it's a
it's a fascinating town, but it's like, you know, I
don't know. To me, I think that's a big part
of the movie also, but I think it's also talked
about in the It's kind of like the way in
which the Mica character feels like he has a steak

(50:45):
in the town, like he yeah, Like it's obviously about
two people, one very keen into the surroundings that they
live in their place as a black person in America
in San Francisco, and one who is you know, yeah,
and there's all there's obviously, like so many things like that,
Like like it's like now when you meet people in

(51:08):
your life maybe that like have no concept of what's
going on politically whatsoever, don't think about it, don't care,
Like it's just kind of like I don't know, like oh,
like and they just kind of like exist, and you're
kind of going, like what the fuck? How is it
even possible that you don't even know what the hell's
going on?

Speaker 1 (51:27):
You know? Yeah, Like but it's interesting for her character
too because she is like, yeah, kind of out to
lunch when it comes to like greater political and racial
issues going on in the indie scene. But she's also
a part of the indie scene. She is a part
of a scene, so there is sort of this she's
dialed in in one way and completely shut off another way,

(51:49):
whereas like how and I feel like why it's The
next character is like to be engaged in this indie scene.
How can you ignore these issues that are there?

Speaker 2 (52:00):
Right? No, right, because like our involvement in the scene
is politicized naturally, yeah, because we're black, you know, So
it's interesting. And again, this is stuff. I mean, I
think I've I picked up on it when I first
watched it, but I really picked up on it this time,
and I just think it's it's underrated. I feel like
this movie is a bit underrated. I definitely think that

(52:22):
Barry Jenkins as a director is really underrated. I feel
like Moonlight is still good, still.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
Really really good, amazing and amazing film.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
And it's funny because I feel like a lot of people.
I don't know if you feel this about Best Picture winners,
but you know how like there's just so much attention
that gets thrown onto like Best Picture winners that you
just after you know they win or whatever, you're like, Okay,
put that on the shelf. We don't need to talk
about that shit for a long time. And then sometimes
you go back and like that movie actually blows. This

(52:55):
is a movie that you're like, oh, that one, it
deserves to win. You should watch it again. Still just
as good as it was when it came out.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
Yeah, so I feel like, you know, I don't say
this about all filmmakers, but I feel like Barry Jenkins
is a true poet with his films, like they like
they are so moving and elegant, and I mean I
kind of think of him as like the American Wang
car Why in the way that like you just kind
of fall into this world of these movies and they're

(53:26):
so potent and beautiful and he's incredible.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
Agreed, Agreed, And he's my age. So I'm very proud
of my generations.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
You got to catch up, Millie. You need to get
a few more. You got to get a few movies
under your belt.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
Please, I leave that to the experts. I'll just talk
shit about him, how about that?

Speaker 1 (53:46):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (53:46):
Sure? Sure?

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Sure? All right. This is our film advice segment where
we answer advice, you know, questions from you guys. We've
gotten so many great emails and voicemails and Millie, is

(54:08):
it okay if I play one for you right now?

Speaker 2 (54:10):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Voicemail?

Speaker 2 (54:11):
Yes? Please?

Speaker 4 (54:13):
Hey, Milli and Casey, this is Emily. I love your show.
I'm so glad that you're making it. You both make
me laugh every week and I love hearing you talk
about movies. So my question is, I was wondering if
you were stuck in a movie world for a week,

(54:34):
which movie world would you want to be stuck in
and why? For example, I love the movie Amily and
I would love to get just stuck in that beautiful,
wonderful world for a week. So that's mine. I was
wondering what yours would be. Thanks for everything, Bye, Emily.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
A fabulous, fabulous question, Millie. Did anything pop into your
head listening to that?

Speaker 2 (55:05):
Yeah? I mean this is like insane because I want
to be in so many different movies.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
I mean it's like one day I want to be
in I don't know, like.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
The Terminator mm hmm, and then one day driving the
La River with Arnold.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Yeah, and then one day I want to be in
like fucking Steel Magnolia's or something. I don't know. It's
just like every movies are always about the world to me,
Like I just the vibe of the world, the play,
the time and place, the costumes, everything. I mean, it's
funny because I we talked about wondkar why when I

(55:51):
was growing up in the late nineties in film like
I was in film school, and I was getting into
won Car. Why I just wanted to live in a
wankar why movie? Like, Yeah, I wanted to like live
in that shitty, weird apartment that Tony Long lives in
in Chunkin Express that's like underneath the staircase or whatever.

(56:11):
I was like, I want to work at you know,
Fey Wong's like little Deli or wherever she's working. And
it is like, depending on my mood, like one day,
I want to be in a shitty apartment, the next day,
I want to be in like, you know, wherever, like
a huge mansion with like or like in that Royal

(56:31):
Tenebaum's house or like you know whatever.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
I was thinking about the Royal Tenebom's House when they
asked this question. Absolutely. I went and visited it one
time when I was in New York, and then I
looked at it. I was like, all right, there, it
is time to go.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
It's a place to visit.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
There's an actual house. The exterior I checked out. I
didn't go inside.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
Huh. I don't know. That's not an answer, sorry, but
I just know it change, it changes by the minute.
I think that's kind of mine.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
The mood, the weather can affect. What movie world you'd
want to dive into. Yeah, I you know what. I
was thinking about this question, and I feel like I
watch movies sometimes and I'm like, I wish I had
a restaurant like that in my town, or I wish
there was a bar like that that I could go to,

(57:19):
you know. And so I was thinking about Alan Rudolph's
Choose Me. Oh, Yes, Eve's Lounge. There's a great bar
in that movie, and I'm like, I want to go
to Eve's Lounge. I want to hang out there. I
want to be a regular.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
I want Jean Lerichett to like, serve you a drink.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
I want John Larrichette to lie to me and serve
me a drink. And then I was thinking, I really
like the movie Patterson by Jim Jarmusch, Yes, from twenty sixteen,
and he goes to a bar every night and kind
of has his buddies there, shades bar, plays chests with
one of the guys there. I'm like, that seems great.

(57:57):
I want to go there. I want to live in
that world, you know. And then I was also thinking
of the movie Adam mcgillian's Exotica from nineteen ninety four.
The Exotica Club, be cool to go there? Anyways, those
are some like I sort of like, was like restaurant
and location specific places I wanted to go to, which
world I would go in and how I would enter

(58:20):
the world of those movies. So that was sorty.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
What about would you want to go have a drink
at Big Tuna at Wild at Heart David Lynch as
well The Heart, Dude, would you be out in the
be out in the desert with Willem Dafoe's character, like
having a beer?

Speaker 1 (58:35):
What's Willem Defoe's character his name?

Speaker 2 (58:36):
And that.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
I'd be too scared? Was the desert scares me? That's
why that movie scares me. I don't like nothing good
happens in the desert.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
Let me tell you right now. When I was in Marfa, Texas,
which is one of my favorite places in America, but
it is out we out there, it's out there. There
was a place that I went to that was it
was like an outdoor kind of bar that had you know,
these like little Christmas lights that were going across the
top of the poles and stuff, and it was very

(59:06):
Big Tuna having a beer with Bobby Peru. I mean,
it was and I was like, oh, I know exactly
why scary people drink like this out here. That's we're
all remote.

Speaker 3 (59:24):
Goodness gracious, even sometimes I want to go to what
was that haberdashery place in The Hateful Eight that seemed
like a cozy little venue when it wasn't overrun by criminals?

Speaker 1 (59:34):
You know you remember that place something Haberdashery? Uh, all right,
great question, Emily, Thank you so much. I have a
film gripe that I'm going to read to you here.

Speaker 2 (59:44):
Oh boy, boy.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
This is a good one. Okay, okay, Hi million casey.
Several years ago, my sister and I went to our
local cinema that has always had a fun lineup of movies.
You want to see Diehard and Gremlins at Christmas time
or attendant nineties boy band sing along This is where
you go. We were seated at a two top table
in the second row. Right as the lights went dark,

(01:00:06):
a couple sat directly in front of us. They then
proceeded to make out for the majority of the movie.
Occasionally they would look back at us, who are trying
desperately to ignore them, but of course we were looking
at the screen, which means looking in their direction. It
was so bizarre, especially because this couple were in their
late twenties at least. So my gripe is, do not

(01:00:28):
sit in front row of a theater and make out
during a movie? And the movie we were watching Jim
Henson's The Dark Crystal. Corey. Now, what's your stance on
fooling around in the movie theater, Millie.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
I only think you should. Okay. First of all, I
want to I want to preface by saying I feel
like there are people who are deep nerves for The
Dark Crystal, that they would somehow feel around Horney and
horny for the the nerdy partners during The Dark Crystal.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
I'm not that fantastical puppet movies, but.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
Far from you know, far be it from me to
like yuck yeall's yum. I suppose yeah. I mean, although
I do think being hoarny during animatronics is kind of strange.
But whatever, Like I said, I'm not judging, not judging.
I feel like the only time you can, you know,

(01:01:32):
make do a little makeout, sesshon, is if you're the
only people in the movie theater, if you're watching Nosfaratu
at ten thirty pm on a Sunday night and you're
like in the second of the last row and there's
literally nobody in the movie theater and you want to
like make out. I was saying, make out. Don't maybe
like first base? That's it? Nothing after first base?

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
Well, you know, I don't know. I don't think it
has to be an empty movie theater, but I do
feel like you need to be in the back grow,
you need to be out of like sightlines and not
have anywhere near you. You know, I think it's.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Gonna be empty. I don't like, like, I feel like
making out like that in front of other people at
all is weird. Like I'm just like, I don't know
if you're really making how it's somebody you really want
to do that, like even with like one or two
other people. Plus if it's like another couple, then they
start processing their own relationship and it's it becomes like

(01:02:28):
a thing.

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
Maybe like should we be making out in this theater.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
And maybe we haven't been doing this and that's why
we don't like each other. Maybe we should divorce.

Speaker 1 (01:02:36):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's a slippery slope. It's a
slippery slope. So there's a Lamberto Bava movie from nineteen
eighty five called Demons. I believe it's produced by Dario
Argento or was written by Dario Argento. Have you seen
this movie?

Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:02:50):
Yeah, I think I have the Blu Ray. It's also
on two b I.

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
Okay. There is a scene where a woman and a
man go to a movie theater and the man is
blind and the woman is having an affair with a
different guy, and they're making out in the theater next
to the blind husband and he's He's like, what's going on?
I can hear moving? What's happening here? And that move

(01:03:16):
that scene is sort of ingrained in my brain. I
don't really have a point to bring up that that.
I just enjoyed that. That's a common reference for Tricia,
and that's that scene.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
That's my life basically. Maybe everybody's making out with each
other and what's going on? How come?

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
Yeah, that is worthless.

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
I forgot about that scene entirely. But so you think
I'm just gonna reiterate this point. You think it's okay
to make out with someone with other people in the
movie here.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
I do go in the back row. That's what I think.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
I'm gonna say. Absolutely, it must be just the two
of you or three of you, I don't know whatever,
but just everybody in your party. That's that's who's the
only people in the theater. That's when you can make
out in my mind.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
Okay, well what I think we have a differing of
opinion here. But you know, in.

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
Terms of the movie the Dark Crystal.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
Again again that is sus I'm a little turned off
by that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
Now, it wouldn't be me, wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
Be met Yeah, it doesn't get me hot and heavy. Fabulous. Well,
that was our film advice section. I hope we were
helpful to you. If anybody has any questions for us,
wants to seek our advice, email us at Dear Movies
at exactly rightmedia dot com or send in a voicemail.

(01:04:43):
We love voicemail. Also, really, I really hope people try
the Bradley Cooper Philly cheese steak and send us a
voicemail about it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:51):
I can send us a cheese steak, how about that?

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
Or send us a cheese steak even better? All right,
moving on to our employees picks. This is our recommendations
based on our discussion today. Milly, what do you got?

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
Well, I'm just gonna tell you this is so boring,
but I'm gonna tell people to watch if beal Street
could talk. I mean, it's like it's well boring in
the context that I just talked about it, but you know,
like I was devastated, as you have just heard. The

(01:05:28):
two people who play the couple in this movie, Kiki
Lane and Stephen James, are beautiful. They have a beautiful
love for each other in this film that's so tender
and adorable. I'm crying just thinking about it. Brian Tyree
Henry is in this movie. Who's a fantastic actor by

(01:05:52):
the way, from Atlanta if you remember the show Atlanta. Yes,
Regina King, the Queen Regina King. I think I to
say absolutely firing out all cylinders in this movie. And
then who I love Coleman?

Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
Who wanted an oscar for that movie?

Speaker 2 (01:06:06):
She? Yes, she did? And who I love Coleman Domingo
whom again. I don't know if we talked about this.
It feels like we might have brought it up in
an episode about how he met the love of his
life on Craigslist misconnections.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
I don't know that. Maybe that was brought up on
this show. I didn't know that though you did.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
Yeah, okay, maybe we talked about it. Maybe we didn't,
but that was going on on TikTok about how basically
he met his partner on he's in a Craigslist misconnection.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
How does that even happen?

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
Yeah, in two thousand and five. This is again two
thousand and five, like twenty years ago. And because I
was like, you know, I used to love those misconnections,
because I was always like, is somebody reading about me?
But I was like, I don't know anybody that's ever
met from a misconnection.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
Ever, so the idea that this guy had it worked
for him is fantastic to me.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
Fabulous fabulous. Okay, so my recommendation follow me here. I
wanted to do a film about San Francisco that's low budget,
that is about the changing face of the city. And
one of my favorite movies of all time is a

(01:07:25):
movie called Chan Is Missing from nineteen eighty two, directed
by Wayne Wange. It was also made low budget film,
low budget film, but it is about these two guys
who are looking for this guy Chan because one of
the guys lent him money to get a taxi cab

(01:07:47):
license and Chan disappears, and basically these two Asian men
are wandering around San Francisco, much like Medicine for Melancholy,
Looking for and a lot of the movie is just
sort of about, you know, the Chinese population there, the
Asian the overall Asian population and their place in the

(01:08:11):
city and sort of what people think of the Chinese
in San Francisco. And it's an incredible film. It's a
funny film and it's just great. I love it. It's
in black and white. It's one of my favorite movies
and you should all check it out. Chan is Missing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
Yes, love Wayne Wang. He looked so cool in the eighties.
By the way, if you ever see old pictures of
Wayne Wang, he looks so amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
If you see even his Wikipedia picture, he looks incredible.
He's got these cool glasses, he's got cool hair. He
looks amazing. No, he's awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
I think Chan's Missing is on Criterion right. Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
I actually don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
I feel like it might be, or maybe it was
on the channel.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
I feel like there might be he might have been
on the channel. But Chan is missing. It's so fun
and it's great. I love it, and you really get
to see San Francis.

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
It's a blue ray. It's a blue ray.

Speaker 1 (01:09:06):
Great, great, checkout Chan is missing. Alrighty well that's us, Millie.
We did it again. We recorded another episode of this show.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
Yes, we did well. Next week we have another great
show for you. We are going to talk about one
of my passions, passion, which is uh smoking in the movies.

Speaker 1 (01:09:31):
I thought you were going to say your passion was
because we're talking about the Samurai from nineteen sixty seven
starring a lend A Lawn and I seem to see
a large human sized cutout of a Lendo Lawn the
star of Les Samrae in the background of your zoom.
Oh yeah, so I that might be another passion.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
Oh it's simply a passion. I'm just saying. I actually
my double passion, my absolute bone breaking, orgasmic experien spence,
is a lend Along smoking. But yes, I do have
a kind of a cardboard cutout of him from Rocko
and his Brothers that I stole from Turner Classic Movies
before I got laid off.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
So no one deserves it more than.

Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
No fuck, no fuck that you think any of those
fools deserve that shit. I can't wait to talk about
this topic because I feel like you and I have
kind of danced around are uh our sort of fascination
with with cigarette smoking in the movies, so we got
to talk about it, go.

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
Real hard, much like a pack of cigarettes. Will put
a warning at the top of the episode, do not
promote smoking but uh or we.

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
Would never promote it publicly. How about that? Yes, but
listen if you want to email us for any reason
film advice, if you have a gripe right in at
Deer Movies that exactly right media dot com. You can
also leave a voicemail. So what you do is just

(01:11:04):
record a voicemail on your phone, on your like notesap
or whatever, make sure it's under a minute, and email
it to that address Dear Movies at exactly rightmedia dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:11:14):
That's right, And please follow us on our socials at
Dear Movies I Love You on Instagram and Facebook. Our
individual letterbox handles are Casey, le O'Brien and m de Cheriico.
And please listen to Dear Movies, I Love You on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 2 (01:11:38):
Well, Casey, congratulations on another great show.

Speaker 1 (01:11:43):
Thank you right back at you, Millie.

Speaker 2 (01:11:45):
Yes, see you guys next time.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
Bye.

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
This has been an Exactly Right production hosted by me
Millie to Cherico and produced by my co host Casey O'Brien.

Speaker 1 (01:11:59):
This episode was mixed by Tom Bryfogel. Our associate producer
is Christina Chamberlain, our guest booker is Patrick Cottner, and
our artwork is by Vanessa Lilac.

Speaker 2 (01:12:09):
Our incredible theme music is by the best man in
the entire world, The Softies.

Speaker 1 (01:12:14):
Thank you to our executive producers Karen Kilgareff, Georgia Hartstark,
Daniel Kramer and Millie to Jerico, We love you.

Speaker 2 (01:12:21):
Goodbye Beker