Don’t Say Good Luck and the Evolution of Happy Madison Productions | SVU - Filmspotting

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
A teen girl lands a plum roll in her high
school musical. Unfortunately, the drama on stage has to compete
with some very real drama at home. It's Don't Say
Good Luck on Netflix. I'm Matt Singer.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
And I'm Jordan Hoffman. With more movies, more series, more
stuff going straight to streaming than ever before, it felt
like the right time for a podcast that keeps track
of it all. And that podcast is FilmSpotting SVU, the
streaming video unit. This week, we've got a review of

(00:39):
Don't Say Good Luck. Plus, we've got some streaming recommendations
and the rec seg and this week's new VOD titles
and a new game.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Maybe it's an old game.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Oh, a return. The Revenant is back. It's exciting.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
You'll find out if you stay tuned because it's all
coming up on FilmSpotting SVU.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Welcome to a very special episode of FilmSpotting SVU. I'm
Jordan Hoffman. With me, as always, is My partner in crime,
Matt Singer, reporting from a different bathroom. Usually he records
each episode in a bathroom.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
That is true. I'm not in the bathroom now. I'm
in a bedroom.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Oh, you're in a bedroom.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
I'm in my office, in air quotes, which is literally
the desk next to my bed in my bedroom.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
I see. It's a tight frame on the Zoom-like system
we use because normally he does it in the downstairs
bathroom area. But remember not that long ago, maybe six,
eight months ago, Netflix put out a documentary called Poop Cruise.
And that's what's going on in poor Matt Singer's house.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
They just came to me asking for the sequel rights.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
This has happened to us all. Of course. You go
into your bathroom.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
And you discover that it's been pumping water for hours.
Thankfully it wasn't ours in this case, but yes. It
was our. And the last time you used the bathroom,
you used it. And you used it for what it
was good for. And now it's horrible. But he marches on.
And we're recording anyhow, despite the filth beneath him. I'm

(02:27):
a professional. While you wait for the plumber to come.
It's not just it was a leaky toilet. There's some
kind of real mishigas going on.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
There's some sort of clogged back up.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yes, yes. More so than just a plunger. There's something
going on down there.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yes, yes. Okay.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
We don't need to get into the details.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
No, no.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Thankfully, it's an audio-only experience here.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
So whatever's going on right now in your life, it's
probably going a little bit better than that. So that's good,
I guess.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Suddenly watching The Last House didn't seem so painful anymore.
I had a comparative experience that was worse.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Oh, The Last House. That was last week's show. But
this week, we've got a new one, actually. And unfortunately,
we're going to have to switch gears a little bit
because this is kind of a serious movie, much to
my surprise. The movie is called Don't Say Good Luck.
And I didn't check the numbers, but I would imagine
it's doing very well on Netflix. It was when I
looked the other day. A lot of people are talking

(03:27):
about it online, and I understand. And it is a
movie that is produced by Happy Madison, which is Adam
Sandler's production company. And it stars Sonny Sandler, who is
one of the two Sandler daughters who are now pumping
out Happy Madison product at the same rate as their
old man. They're now a three-pronged beast making movies with Netflix.

(03:50):
So when we think about Adam Sandler, we think about
Billy Madison and the Waterboy and more recently UB Halloween
and all those moronic voices that he did on Saturday
Night Live. He's one of the all-time great clowns. like
Jerry Lewis. And he also seems to be a genuinely
nice guy, unlike Jerry Lewis. Now, as his two daughters

(04:14):
are starting to star in their own movies produced by
their father's company, their work hasn't been quite so zany
as their old man's. But movies like Roommates and another
one called You Are So Not Coming to My Bat Mitzvah,
they are, like I say, not as wacky as The Waterboy,
but they're still pretty lighthearted films. Now I know that

(04:37):
the Sandler dad has made some quote unquote real movies,
punch drunk love, the Meyerowitz stories, uncut gems, et cetera,
et cetera, et cetera. Well, guess what? Sonny Sandler, the
younger of the two daughters has made what can essentially
be called a quote real movie with don't say good luck.
It's directed by Julia Hart, whose previous work includes fast

(05:00):
color and I'm your woman and And it was co-written
and produced by Jordan Horowitz, who is the guy who,
with steam coming off the top of his bald head,
announced through clenched teeth that it was actually Moonlight who
won Best Picture and not himself with La La Land.
That guy. He makes real movies, is what I'm saying.

(05:22):
So Don't Say Good Luck is a bona fide film
and is also an old school weepie. The premise, young Sonny,
who was just 16 during production, is trying out for
the high school play, a production of Waitress. And it's
the most important thing in her life, as these things
are to 16-year-olds. But there's something else. Her mother's cancer,

(05:45):
which has been in remission, has returned. And it's serious.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Hi, Dad.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
Can you please stop butt-dialing me?

Speaker 1 (05:55):
When do I tell him?

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Sophie Bierenbaum. Melanie Linsky plays the mom. Max Greenfield plays
the dad. B.B. Neuwirth and Steve Buscemi play grandma and grandpa.
Stephanie Beatrice is the theater director, and the music from
the actual show Waitress is a big co-star of the film.
This movie could have been, easily, basic Lifetime Network crap,

(06:24):
but I feel that its frankness... And its surprising light
touch are actually quite extraordinary. What's more, Sonny Sandler is
a dynamo of a singer and an assured performer as well.
This little movie, from which I expected absolutely nothing, is
something of a gem. And I have to say that

(06:46):
I really was quite taken with it. What do you say,
Matt Singer?

Speaker 1 (06:53):
I might have liked it slightly less than you, but
it is a good movie. And it is at times
a powerful film. And the ending is just a real
punch in the gut.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
Actually, that's not true.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
It's about 50 punches in the gut, just over and over.
Just getting pummeled just over and over in the gut.
It hits you real hard. It is kind of devastating. Um,
so yeah, it is, it is a pleasant surprise in
that regard. It is, it's an unpleasant surprise, I suppose,

(07:28):
in the sense that it is, you really do need
to know what you're going into. I would say to people,
I recommend the movie, but I also recommend read a
very basic plot synopsis or you're listening to us. You'll understand.
But like, I wouldn't recommend this movie to, to people
to go in cold because if they are affected by
stories about people, they're going to go in cold. with cancer,
if people have trauma around like they're losing a parent young,

(07:52):
this could be a very, very hard movie to sit through.
It doesn't mean it's bad. In fact, it's quite good.
It's the opposite. It's a little too good in a way.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Guess who watched it without knowing a goddamn thing other
than it was Sandler's daughter? Right.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
I'm guessing it's one Horton Joffman had that experience. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
And I'm watching it and it's like, hey, a wacky
Sandler movie, gonna have a good time. And then like,
Why is Madeline Alinsky going to the doctor? Why is
she so nervous? Why is the doctor closing the door?
Why are we cutting the sound out? I'm like, oh, crap.
This is a cancer movie, isn't it? Ah, jeez. How
much longer? An hour and 42 minutes of hell. Oh,
my God. So it was a little bit of a... But,

(08:35):
you know, this is the business we have chosen, as
they say, so I did have to stick with it. Yes.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, it is... I will say, it is not... It
is anything you want to call it. It's a tearjerker.
It is a weepy. It is a melodrama. All of
those things. But I will give it credit for underplaying
some of those moments. There are a lot of scenes
where you are looking at Sonny Sandler... As she is

(09:03):
listening to music in her room while in the next
room you can overhear an argument, a conversation. You know,
there are a lot of moments where they kind of
elide things.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
Because I think you don't– you get it. You understand.
And it's also the movie is told from her perspective.
And I think while there are some scenes that she's
not privy to that the audience is privy to with
her personality. You know, her mom and her dad talking
about what are we going to do? Are we going
to tell the kids? A lot of the movie is
how this 16-year-old is processing it. And the movie kind

(09:38):
of approaches it that way. And I really– I respected
that decision. I thought it was very– you know, handled
very delicately. And so– Even the ending, as impactful as
it is, it is not going for the most potentially

(09:59):
devastating or the most potentially manipulative version of this, I think.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
It's not a gross out. There was a mom cancer
movie called James White that came out maybe a decade ago,
which really went for the throat. That was with Cynthia Nixon.
And that was just like, you know... all the vomiting,
all the diarrhea, all the pain, all the suffering. This
is not that. This is more, you know, not as gory,

(10:22):
so to speak, but it is still pretty emotional. And
what you said about seeing it through her point of
view and how, you know, the show that she's doing, Waitress,
rehearsing for Waitress and getting the part and all that,
that's the most important thing to her. But we also
see things, and this, I think, is really the smartest
part of the movie, is we see the parents... trying

(10:44):
to like schedule life, the remainder of this woman's life
in a very practical way. They crack out the calendar
and it's like, should we still, should we still do
the beach house or will, will, will I be dead
by then? You know, that's the question. That's the question.
And that's like heavy shit. And, and at the risk
of getting a little bit emotional when I watched this film,

(11:07):
these are things that I have had to deal with
in my life, um, with, uh, with when my sister was,
had cancer and eventually passed away from it. And that
last year really was a lot. I saw a lot
of what I went through on the screen here. And
because I avoid these movies, I haven't seen too much

(11:28):
of that before. And I thought that it handled it really,
really smartly. Like, how do you go on with your life?
So for me, it was, you know, do I go
to the Cannes Film Festival this year? Do I fulfill my,
I've already told, uh, CBS that I would host at
the Las Vegas Star Trek convention. Do I, do I go,

(11:49):
do I cancel my ticket? When do I do that?
And you have to make these, these very brutal calculations,
but you kind of have to as crazy as it is.
And then you stop yourself and you go, what the
hell am I talking about? How could I think this way?
And that's, what's in this movie, which I think is
really quite interesting. And then the other part is the stuff, uh,
kind of the three generations. Cause you have Melanie Linsky,

(12:09):
who's the one who is, uh, you know, facing her, her,
her demise, her parents are still around. And that's B.B.
Neuwirth and Steve Buscemi, who gets some really good scenes.
And Buscemi gets a moment that's such, again, kind of
underplays it. He throws it away. It's like, it's not
a big line. It's not a big cry and hug grandpa,

(12:32):
but it's a little thing he does. And it's like,
that's when you have a real director and a real
actor like Steve Buscemi, that's what elevates a movie like
this from what could just be a, you know, a
nothing film. Yes.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
I think I know exactly the scene you're talking about, too.
Is it the one where he, you know, he tells
Sonny Sandler's character, you know, you should talk to somebody,
you know, and she pushes away and he's like, not
with me. I get it. You should with somebody. Yeah.
A beautiful scene. A beautiful scene. Buscemi, of course, has
had to deal with plenty of this sort of thing

(13:02):
in his own life as well.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Sure. Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
And so that's in there as well, baked into the stew,
as it were. But yeah, so underplayed and such a lovely,
authentic moment. And, you know, thankfully I haven't had to
deal with that exact moment, but I'm a dad with
daughters and I know intimately that there are a lot
of times where I try to help and I, I

(13:26):
am not, I'm not acceptable. They need a mom, they
need someone else. And so like, I like that resonated
with me. And, you know, it was like a glimpse
potentially into my future of, you know, the thing that
I'm going to be saying to maybe my grandkids someday.
Who knows? Yeah. But I thought that was such a
beautiful moment in a movie with a lot of beautiful moments.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
The other side of the movie, although, yes, this is
very much a movie about this family dealing with the
mom's illness. A big chunk of the movie is in
the high school with the musical.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
I don't know, Jordan, if you were a theater kid
in high school.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, but never musicals. We didn't have the budget for musicals,
so we did plays. So I was part of the
theater troupe with plays.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Well, I did musicals all four years of high school,
and a lot of this, I thought, also, again, really
rang true. There was a couple parts that I thought
were a little questionable. I did think their set was unbelievable.
No high school, like ordinary public high school would have the...
looks like it's a broadway set it's like no i

(14:33):
mean this is the.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
Sandler family they're in a very wealthy neighborhood with good
good education but but then of course the dad he
owns a bagel shop he's not a zillionaire you know
no no yeah and and john lovitz works for him
by the way that's another.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Funny part now my kids my kids are into theater
now but they're younger but but i do wonder like
when they're a couple years older would their high school
put on waitress the musical seems like A little risque.
A little risque for a public high school, maybe. I
will say that it fits perfectly thematically with the movie.

(15:08):
So I understand it 100% on that level. And they
use one of the songs from Waitress at the climax
of this film so beautifully that I'm not upset about
it one way or the other. I forgive it because
it fits the movie. It fits what they are saying.
It fits the story about mothers and their children. I'll

(15:28):
allow it, as they say. But it was something that
I did as I was watching it. I did think
about that in the beginning. I was like, would a
high school put this on? But ultimately, I think whether
they would or not, I appreciated the thoughtfulness of the
choice because it really does reflect perfectly on the storyline

(15:49):
between Sonny Sandler and Melanie Linsky.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
But she's kind. She is lonely most of the time.
Let's pause.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
What are you feeling right now?

Speaker 1 (16:11):
I need a lot more practice.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
Wow, that's Sophie. You're Jenna.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
And keep in mind, she was 16 when they shot this.
I thought her singing was quite good. I mean, she's
not Barbra Streisand, but I thought she was pretty damn good.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
She was good. I do think... Now, let me ask
you this, the Sonny Sandler of it. Did you chuckle
to yourself when the movie begins with her character auditioning,
as if this child has ever auditioned for anything in
her life?

Speaker 2 (16:37):
You know, at that point, even though the movie was
only two minutes in, I had already suspended disbelief. I mean,
you're right. These two gals have been handed a career, but...
I feel like at least Sonny, no disrespect to the
other gals, she's definitely earned it with this. This is
like I've said at the opening, this is a real movie.
She's now officially an actress on her own. If I

(17:00):
was a producer, I would be considering hiring her for parts.
Like right now, the Sandler girls have only worked for dad,
but I feel like Sonny could get work outside of dad.
The other one, no disrespect. I've yet to see it. Roommates,
I barely remember. I don't think it was bad or good.
It just was. So who knows? But I think she's

(17:22):
fledged her wings or whatever the ornithological expression is.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
Let's put it this way. I'm going to ask you
this question. Let's say this movie, the exact same movie,
but was not produced by Happy Madison. Do you think
she is getting that part? Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, she's really good.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
Even if her name was Sonny Smith?

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah, Sonny Smith. I think she's really quite good in this.
I mean, listen, I don't know. She's 16. And may
the FBI be listening. I don't. have too many 16
year old girls top of mind so uh you know
i don't know who her competition is i would say
zendaya and zendaya is 30 so what the hell do
i know you know right i don't watch too much

(18:03):
uh teen tv i don't know whatever the glee is
of today i don't watch so i would cast if
i was making a I would say get me Sonny
Sandler and nobody else. I think she's really very good.
She underplays the scene. She's cute. When she got emotional,
I felt I was there with her. I give her

(18:25):
high marks all around. Okay.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
I thought she was good. I don't know. If her
name was Sonny Smith, I don't know. I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
I'm not 100% convinced yet.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
She holds up her end of the bargain. She's not bad.
And she does have a lovely singing voice. So credit
to her for that. I just don't know. I'm waiting.
I'm in a holding pattern to see. I want to wait.
I want to see a little more of a sample size.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Well, that's fair. That's totally fair.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
I do think.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Well, you know, I feel guilty still because a month ago, Well,
I gotta say, I gotta get it off my chest.
Go ahead. A month ago, we covered Redux Redux. Yes.
And there was a teen star in that, and I
said that she was no good, and I still feel
guilty about that. So I have to now, any teen actors,
I have to- They're.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
Getting a pass. Okay, that's fair. She's, no, I mean,
it's not, she's not, she is, she is good. I'm
just not, you know, like, I'm just not sure how far,
I'm curious, maybe she will be a huge movie star.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
Who knows? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
I will be curious to see. To me, though, the
performance here that's really the standout is Melanie Linsky, I
thought was absolutely incredible. I mean, she's always good in everything.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
Just so charismatic in not doing very much. I don't know,
you know, like she's just because her character is, you know,
is ill, deathly ill.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
And she looks like a mom even before she's sick.
What happened? Everyone's accent sounds so good and I sound like.

Speaker 3 (20:15):
A cartoon rooster. Mom, it's not funny.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
Sorry.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
Maybe Miss Parker made a mistake. You know what?

Speaker 1 (20:28):
I think I have an idea. She's convincing and she's
sweet and she's, you know, I just was like, it's
just devastating watching her suffer in this movie. I mean,
you take one of our most likable actors and then,
you know, you invite us to just watch her suffer

(20:49):
and suffer for 90 minutes. It's painful. It really is.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a tough, parts of it are tough.
I gotta say, about her looking like a mom, let
me bring up a touchy subject that'll get me canceled.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
Oh boy.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
There's another movie out there right now called The End
of Oak Street.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
And Anne Hathaway is in it. Yes. And she does
not look like a mom. She looks like Anne Hathaway.
And she's a mom of teenage kids also. And she's
running around having problems.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
But the real Anne Hathaway is a mom. That's what
she looks like.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
I think everybody knows what I'm saying. Melanie Linsky looks
like a mom.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
Sam has his head in his hands. He's covering his face.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Melanie Linsky looks like a mom in this movie and
it works great for the movie. Anne Hathaway looks like
Anne Hathaway and it's, The only thing about the end
of Oak Street that doesn't make perfect sense. Everything else
in that movie.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
Everything else in that movie about dinosaurs and wormholes.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
Traveling into the past.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yeah, it's all vetted science. I'll give you that.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
I'll give you that. Everyone knows that I'm right. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
I do want to say, I think we're winding down here.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
The whiplash.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
The whiplash of going from The Last House to this.
Two Netflix movies, two weeks in a row on this show.
both about families in crisis. And you see this movie,
which is so lovely and sensitive and thoughtful and made
with a lot of heart and with great care and sensitivity.

(22:20):
And it could be maudlin. It could be schlock. It
could be an excuse to get a nepo baby, a payday,
all of those things. It is none of those things.
It is beautiful art. It is sensitive. It is thoughtful.
It's well put together. It's small. And you just think,
the same company in two weeks put out both of
these movies. How does that... I get that they're for

(22:43):
different audiences. I get that they are in different genres.
But you look at the amount... One of the things
that my complaints about The Last House was that it
was like this family is trapped in a house and
we don't learn anything about the family. The whole movie
is them just sitting around. How do we not know
anything about them? How do they not become characters? How
do we not get their relationships here? You understand the

(23:04):
relationship between. Sonny Sandler's character and Melanie Linsky's character and
the dad and the grandparents. There are these people there,
even some of the kids in the, in the musical,
you really get a sense of them.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
Um, you know, I loved, I loved the fact that
at the beginning you think there's a blonde kind of
Tracy flick gal, of course, and you think she's going
to be the mean girl, but she's not the mean girl.
There are no villains in this movie. No, no, no.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
Well, other than cancer, I guess is the.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Villain, but yeah, sure.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
That's the only villain, but yes, but, but, Yeah, I
thought that was a nice touch. Yes, these are kids.
They don't know what the heck they're doing. The adults
don't know what they're doing either, which is, I think,
one of the things that Melanie Linsky says, which is
another very true moment where she's like, I don't know
what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
I know. Look at Matt Singer. He's got a toilet
exploding right beneath him right now, and he's doing a podcast.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
All I know what to do is podcast, which is
why I'm here. So that was Don't Say Good Luck,
highly recommended. Certainly one of the better things we've reviewed
on this podcast so far.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
I think it's a good movie. It's very, it's very good.
It's a tough watch though. It'll make you cry. It
is a tough watch.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
You have to know that going in, but I think
if you're up to that, it's, it is a very,
very good version of, of this kind of thing. It
is currently streaming on Netflix. And if you have some
feedback for us about this review or anything else, you
can send us a note feedback at filmspottingsvu.com.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
Am I allowed to say good luck? Just say break
a leg.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Okay. But I would be so sad if you broke
your leg. You'll get over it.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
So, Matt, joking aside, you clearly liked Don't Say Good Luck.
It's a good movie. What do you recommend in the
rec seg?

Speaker 1 (24:44):
Recommendation segment.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Something that is related to this film that you recommend
as a part two.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
In the rec seg. the recommendation segment. I'm not yelling
it because I don't want to, people are listening. I'm
not in my usual basement because it's covered in filth.
I'm not going to yell. But this is the Rex Egg.
And we did talk about Sonny Sandler as an actor

(25:13):
and in relationship to her father, Adam Sandler. And we debated,
you know, her chops and whether we think she's got
a career outside of movies, Happy Madison movies. I do
think it is fair to say, though, that she would
at this stage would probably not be headlining Netflix movies
if not for her father was. I think that's very unlikely.

(25:36):
And so, you know, there is I think I might
have mentioned in the last segment, there is that term
Nepo baby, which became a big thing online a couple
of years ago and made targets of a lot of
very successful people. Personally, I think. There are some very
egregiously untalented Nepo babies. I also think there's some very
talented people who have inherited something from their parents. And

(26:00):
arguably that might be as helpful.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
Who are some of your favorite Nepo babies?

Speaker 1 (26:04):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
Who's your favorite Nepo baby?

Speaker 2 (26:08):
I got two that I think are great.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
I love Jack Quaid. He is Dennis Quaid and Meg
Ryan's son. Very good. And he deserves all of his success.
He deserves all of it. He's very handsome and very funny.
And he's also in Star Trek. And the other one
that I love. Red alert.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
The other one who I love is Carl Philip Emanuel Bach.
He is Johann Sebastian Bach's son. And he's a brilliant
composer in his own right, even though his old man
pretty much invented the art of the fugue.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
He popped Sam with that one. Sam liked that one
a lot. Sam is laughing. You can't see him, but
I can see him. He is hysterically laughing.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Sam is thinking, which C.P.E. Bach etude will I put
underneath when I post-produce this episode? No, he's the best nepo, baby. C.P.E.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
Bach. Okay, well, I will give you the one that
I always think of. I didn't want to spoil it
because it's my... recommendation.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
Yeah, go for it.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
So that, and that is my thing is I thought
I would recommend something of value from a quote unquote
Nepo baby. I don't really use that term generally.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
No, it's too gauche.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
And for, for good measure, I thought I would try
to pick a film that's like, don't say good luck.
And that it is a coming of age movie about
high schoolers at a crisis point in their lives. The
movie is Jordan's thinking the bling ring. From 2013, directed
by Sofia Coppola, daughter of filmmaking legend Francis Ford Coppola,

(27:44):
who had to deal with her own accusations of nepotism
long before that term Nepo Baby was coined when she
was in The Godfather Part 3.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, she's OG.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
She's the OG. Huge controversy. And then she became a
director in her own right, and very quickly it became clear,
an enormously talented and gifted director. And so I don't
think that those complaints have kind of gone by the wayside,
at least from serious film lovers and critics and things.
But The Bling Ring is not one of her most

(28:14):
beloved movies. But one of the things– I always liked
it when it came out. And one of the things
I liked about it was that it in some ways
explores that perspective, the perspective of a privileged upbringing because
its protagonists are these kids of these wealthy people. And
they are so safe. ensconced in their lives as the
kids of these incredibly powerful and wealthy people. They can

(28:35):
just break into celebrities' homes and steal from them and
wander around and, like, rummage their closets. And it's all
based on a real group of teen burglars who did
this in Southern California in the 2000s.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
Paris Hilton's hosting a party in Vegas tonight. Where does
she live?

Speaker 1 (28:53):
Do you think we could find a way in? I
don't know.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
Come on, let's go to Paris's.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
I want to rob her. I always liked this movie.
The movie came out, didn't do all that well. It
got pretty mediocre reviews when it came out, especially for
a Sofia Coppola movie. I looked on Letterboxd. It is
her lowest rated feature on Letterboxd and by a wide margin.
And I looked at it again this week and, you know,

(29:20):
looking at it again now about 12, 13 years after
it came out, to me, it seems like kind of
a prescient film. It is about compulsion for fame and
money as the ultimate goal rather than a by-product of
success in a, in some other field, whether that's filmmaking

(29:41):
or acting or whatever, these kids that she is chronicling
in this movie, they're, bad criminals, but they're very good
wannabe celebrities. And it's like sort of exists in this
moment right before they could have just become TikTok stars,
which you feel like a few years later, that's what
all of these kids would have done, right? That they're
looking at these people on their, on Facebook. Facebook is

(30:03):
a big part of the movie. They're looking at sort
of the early days of social media and they want
to emulate what they're seeing, but it hasn't quite crossed
over to that point where they can use it as
an outlet as you know, just to get fame on
their own. And so what they do is that they,
they steal and rob from these people who have fame

(30:23):
and success, but aren't really all that famous for doing any,
you know, like Paris Hilton is a presence in the
movie and it's, they're robbing her house. And it's like, look,
no disrespect to Paris Hilton. She's not famous for being
an incredible singer or an actress. She's famous for being
Paris Hilton, for being herself. She's like the prototype of this.
And so I always thought that was interesting about it. Like,

(30:45):
I vaguely recall that was a complaint. They're such bad criminals.
They don't really even try. They're robbing these people, but
they're so dumb. And it's like, that wasn't really the point.
It was about this vicarious.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Seems like a good one to revisit and also amazing
to think that it is really a period piece from 2013,
as scary as that may sound, but it's from another time.
2013 is really long enough ago for this type of
culture to be very different.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yes. And I think they, she even hired some of
the people, some of the young women in the film.
I was looking at like the, the Wikipedia or whatever.
It was like, I had forgotten, like, I think Wally
Pfister's daughter, the cinematographer, Wally Pfister, his daughter is one
of the actors in the film. So like, there's a
lot of meta nepotism flowing through this movie in a

(31:36):
strong way. And I think it holds up. I rewatched
it this week and I was like, yeah, I like
this movie. I really do think it is one of
Sofia Coppola's underrated films. So that's my recommendation.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
That is a cool pick. I saw it just the
one time, and it's on Netflix, actually.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
It's on Netflix until September 2nd. That's the one thing
is you only have a couple of weeks to rewatch it,
and then you could rent it after that, or maybe
it will pop up somewhere else. But that's my pick,
The Bling Ring. On Netflix. What do you got, Jordan?
What's your recommendation?

Speaker 2 (32:07):
Well, I just want to say, you were talking about
Sofia Coppola and her quote-unquote nepo baby status. There was
a funny thing a little while ago where her daughter
was becoming an Instagram slash TikTok star. I forget the
daughter's name. And she was very funny. And she's very young.
She's like 14. She would do stuff and then she

(32:29):
would get punished. And the punishment was she couldn't make TikToks,
but she would like borrow her friend's phone and make
a TikTok anyway. But what was interesting is that when
she wanted to talk about her famous parents, it was
never about her mom. It was about her dad, because
her dad is the guy in the band Phoenix, whose

(32:50):
name is, I don't know, Joe Phoenix, whatever his name is. Sure.
And she would be like, Thomas Mars is her dad.
And there was like one of her little TikToks that
I saw. I was like, you want to see my
dad's Grammy? And she went and got the dad's Grammy.
So I thought that was very cute. So isn't that
funny that Francis Ford Coppola's granddaughter's nepo-ism is going to

(33:11):
the other guy, not even him. So that's how big
of a failure Megalopolis was. It's screwing up even the granddaughter.
All right.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
What's your recommendation, Jordan?

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Okay, so I'm sticking with cancer, and I have another
movie about someone kind of similar. What I liked about
Don't Say Good Luck is that it didn't pull its punches,
but it ended, it didn't end up in any regard,
but it ended real, and it ended whole. And there's

(33:46):
a movie that actually won a bunch of awards that
nobody really talks about anymore called The Barbarian Invasions. Now,
this movie is from Canada, but it still somehow won
the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2003. How did it
do that? How? From Canada. Don't they speak English there? Well,

(34:06):
some Canadians speak French. Lunatics. And these people are known
as French Canadians. And so it was the only... Canadian
movie to win the foreign language Oscar because they were
weird enough to speak French. No, it's a French Canadian movie.
Denis Arcand is the director. It also did very well
at Cannes that year. It won best screenplay for Denis

(34:28):
Arcand and best actress for a woman whose name I
can't to a film that I saw after. I did
it backwards, and I didn't really like the original that much.
The original's from the mid-' 80s, called The Decline of the
American Empire. I thought it was okay. But in 2003,
he made this one called The Barbarian Invasions. And basically,

(34:51):
the premise is this. Central guy. Imagine Quebec's version of
Timothy Spall, right? That kind of a character. He is
a big, bon vivant, gregarious, larger gentleman who And he's
got ex-wives, ex-lovers. He's got a strange son because he's
such a wine-drinking bon vivant. And they're all intellectuals and

(35:14):
professors and whatnot. And he's dying. And that's basically it.
So it's him and his friends preparing for his departure.
And they rent a house by the lake. It's very photogenic.
And they drink wine and they talk and then eventually
he dies. And that's basically the movie. But there's one

(35:34):
little twist, which is he's in a lot of pain
and they get him heroin because the drugs that are
legal aren't enough. So there's sort of like a caper
element and they get in touch. It's like one of
their friend's daughter's is a junkie or something. It's like, well,
I know where I can get heroin. It's from my
junkie daughter. And in a way it helps heal that

(35:55):
bridge also getting the junkie daughter in there. And, and, and, and,
you know, the movie came out in 2003. He wrote
the script in ER con and like, he was just
about to finish. And then September 11th happened. And he's like, well,
this changes, I mean, change the whole world. So it
radically changed, the movie, because the movie are all about

(36:16):
these sort of like intellectual college professors all talking about stuff.
So it had a very much, it was very much
top of mind for the characters. And there's a lot
of talk about, you know, they're French Canadian. So they
talk a lot about America and, And they're all, and
George W. Bush and how they hate Bush. And there's
a lot of anti-Bush stuff. And, you know, thinking about
it now, it's like, boy, just you wait. Just you

(36:38):
wait till the president that's coming around the bend, this
guy named Trump, is going to make Bush look like
a Boy Scout. So it's a very interesting movie. I
don't know, did you or Sam, did you see this
one when it came out?

Speaker 1 (36:50):
I don't think I have ever seen it. I certainly,
I know the name. I know Denny Arcon. I have
not seen it.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
I just remember being swept away by it. I've seen
it more than once, actually. And just thinking, what an
incredible group of characters and what a well-made film. And
Denis Arcand is not... He's made some clunkers. He made
a movie called Stardom, which was terrible. I then went

(37:16):
and watched decline of the American empire, which is all
the same characters, but younger kind of more of the
like with nail and I age. And I thought it
was kind of annoying, but he also made a movie
called Jesus of Montreal. I think Jesus of Montreal is
probably his most famous film. And that is a flat
out masterpiece. That is a weird movie about the, I
can't even talk. I don't even, who the hell knows

(37:36):
what Jesus of Montreal is about? That's how good it is.
So anyway, my rec seg this week is the little known,
but yet still won the Oscar for best foreign language,
won best screenplay at Cannes, best actress at Cannes that year.
And where is it streaming?

Speaker 1 (37:50):
It's streaming on Canopy and Hoopla, or it is available
to rent to Apple and YouTube and assorted places. So
those were our recommendations this week. We have The Bling
Ring on Netflix, at least until September 2nd. And we
have The Barbarian Invasions. That's streaming on Canopy and Hoopla.
Or you can rent it on the usual sites, Apple

(38:12):
and YouTube and such. And if you want your own
personalized recommendation, you can, of course, send us a note.
Feedback at filmspottingsvu.com. Tell us what you're looking for, what
kind of movie you want to watch. Tell us what
streaming services you use. We love to give personalized recommendations
to listeners. And if you want to see a running
list of all the things we've recommended on the show,

(38:32):
go to Letterboxd and search for the list now streaming
on Bazooka. It's a running list of all the titles
we have recommended and talked about on FilmSpotting SVU. Bazooka
When you gotta scream.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Bazooka It's cream of the crop.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
It's right at the top of your favorite streaming app.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
All right, it's time for the game. And I won
last week's game on FilmSpottingSVU, which means I host this
week's game, which means it is my prerogative to bring
back America's fastest growing corporation. sensation, Portmanteau to Toe. No!

Speaker 2 (39:35):
Yay!

Speaker 1 (39:35):
Now, we have done this before. Here is how it works.
I have made nine Portmanteau movie titles. For listeners, a
Portmanteau is a new word formed by blending the sounds
and combining the meanings of two distinct words— in practice,
in the game, I give you the plot synopsis of
an imaginary movie I create by smooshing together two movie

(39:57):
titles into one, and then Sam or Jordan have to
buzz in and give me the portmanteau title. So, just
as an example, this is not part of the game,
as an example, if I said, a suburban family finds
their entire neighborhood mysteriously transported back to the time of dinosaurs,
at which point, the movie becomes a rock and roll

(40:18):
fable about a guy trying to rescue his rock singer girlfriend,
you would say... The.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
End of Oak Streets of Fire.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
The End of Sing Street.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
That's close. But The End of Oak Streets of Fire.
That's what we were looking for. So to make it easier,
there's always kind of a clue. And so in this round,
this version of the game, one of the two films
in each portmanteau is a movie starring... The father of
Don't Say Good Luck star Sonny Sandler, Adam Sandler.

Speaker 3 (40:49):
Ah, I like this.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
So every movie has at least one Adam Sandler movie
in it, but none of them have two Adam Sandler
movies in it. So it's just one Adam Sandler movie
and one other movie. Also, the Adam Sandler movie does
not have to be the first of the two titles
in the portmanteau. Keep that in mind. Although it is
in most cases it is, but not every time.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
All right, we ready?

Speaker 3 (41:11):
Yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
Mm-hmm. Let me move this over so I can see
you both clearly. I can see who buzzes in. I
want to be very fair.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
Here we go.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
Movie number one. Portmanteau number one. In an elaborate nesting
doll of stories, audiences learn the history of a faded
but once glorious resort. One that was populated entirely by
famous movie monsters.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
Jordan. The Grand Budapest Hotel Hotel. Transylvania.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
That is correct. The Grand Budapest Hotel, Transylvania. Very good.
Jordan is on the board.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
All right, here we go.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
I'll just grunt occasionally, just so you know that I'm here.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
You got this. You got this. I'll mute Jordan's thing
so he can't buzz in.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Don't worry.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
Here we go. A married couple of amateur detectives are
drawn into a case that leads them to uncover... shocking
proof of alien life in the universe. One that stretches
from the dawn of man all the way to Jupiter
and beyond the infinite.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Okay. I'm probably wrong.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
The saddest buzz ever, but go ahead, Sam.

Speaker 3 (42:26):
So is the first movie Murder Mystery 2 and then
it's Murder Mystery 2001 A Space Odyssey?

Speaker 1 (42:33):
That is correct. I'm so good at this game.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Sam is on the board.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
Murder Mystery 2, 2001 A Space Odyssey.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
Very good. Amazing. All right.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
Quest movie number three. A family adopts an adorable talking mouse,
but then later discovers their mouse son is actually the
son of Satan, sent to Earth to... Jordan.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Stuart Little Nicky.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
That is correct. Jordan regains the lead, two to one.
Stuart Little Nicky sounds like a good movie, too.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
I would watch that. Yeah, not bad. All right.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
During a celebration of Hanukkah, We follow a sex worker
living in Rome, and she encounters a famous Italian movie star, Ghost- Jordan.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
Eight Crazy Nights of Kiberia.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
That is correct. Jordan is good at the portmanteau-to-toe. I
forgot how good he is at this. I blacked out
at the beginning. I need to really lock in here.
But I believe in you, Sam. You're on the board.
There's still plenty left. And this one, I don't think
you can get this one.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
These are very creative.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
I love this. All right.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
All right.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
This is number five of nine.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
Here we go.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
The spoiled son of a rich businessman must prove he's
mature enough to take over his parents' company. But while
he does, he discovers he's actually the illegitimate son of
a bumbling French detective. It's all there. It's all there

(44:14):
for you.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
Don't know that i know the.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
The sandler movie is the first of the two in
the portmanteau it is also one of his early hits
it is also the name of his character in the.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Film yeah no i know the first one i just
don't know the second.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
One remind me what is the second half i'm i'm
i'm uh he.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
Discovers he's the illegitimate son of a bumbling french detective
perhaps an inspector even.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
Oh, wait. So, yeah, I guess I don't know the
first one then. Oh, wait.

Speaker 3 (44:50):
Okay. Billy Mattis' Son of the Pink Panther?

Speaker 1 (44:55):
You got it. Billy Mattis' Son of the Pink Panther.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
I was trying to make Madison the first title of
a movie starring, you know, Professor Clouseau.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
Son of the Pink Panther, the one where I think
it was, what's his name, right?

Speaker 2 (45:11):
It was Roberto Benigni.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
Was the illegitimate son of Inspector Clouseau.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
I was thinking it was Mr. Deeds somehow. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
Oh, no, no.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
Billy Madison. I guess there is a similar plot. But yeah,
Billy Madison.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
Number six. Jordan is in the lead, but it's neck
and neck. Three to two.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
Yeah, yeah. Here we go.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
A hugely successful movie star discovers he is dying of
a rare disease, making him rethink his priorities. until he
falls for his platonic best friend, who he goes on
glamorous trips with every single year, where their sexual tension
is obvious to everyone but them.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
Sam.

Speaker 3 (45:52):
Funny people we meet on vacation?

Speaker 1 (45:54):
Correct. Funny people we meet on vacation. A movie we
discussed on FilmSpottingSVU. Oh, that's not fair.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
Why is that not fair?

Speaker 3 (46:05):
That's not a real movie.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
Funny people, people we meet on vacation. We are all
tied up.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
I like that. You know, that gal. Oh, yeah. What's funny,
Emily Bader is the actress in People We Meet on Vacation.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
She's not that famous. But when we did that that week,
I loved her. In fact, I got a little crush
on her. Yes, we raved over her. This is funny.
So I started following her on Instagram. And just like yesterday,
I was putzing through Instagram and I came across, I'm like,
who is this lady?

Speaker 1 (46:36):
Who am I following?

Speaker 2 (46:37):
Because I tend to just follow people I really know
in real life or like very famous people. You had
forgotten who you were following. And I'm like, who is
Emily Bader? Why am I following her today? Did I
used to work with her or something?

Speaker 3 (46:46):
Just like that.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
A fleeting crush. Is she a film critic that lives
in LA? Who is this lady? I'm like, no. I'm like,
oh yeah, she's an actress. All right. Hats off to her.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
We're tied. We've got three left. It's now a best
two out of three.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
Here we go. Oh my God.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
Oh God.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
This is exciting.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
This depressing ensemble study of the dangers of online addiction.
takes a turn toward full-blown horror when it is the family's, sorry,
when the family's children become possessed and go on a
murder spree as part of a pact with a demonic
entity who ensures a successful harvest in exchange for blood sacrifices.

(47:26):
Am I, is this?

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Oh, oh, oh.

Speaker 3 (47:28):
Is this, okay, I'm trying to remember the order this
goes in, this title. Men, women, children of the corn?

Speaker 1 (47:35):
That is correct.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
Am I?

Speaker 1 (47:36):
Men, women, and children. Oh. Of the corn. Children of
the corn. Very good. I almost had it.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Sam has come roaring back.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
He is now in the lead. Four to three.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
This sucks because I never saw Men, Women, and Children,
but there was another movie called You and Me and
Everyone You Know.

Speaker 3 (47:53):
Oh, Miranda Johan.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
Hold on a second.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
I might be getting a call from a plumber. Hold
on one second.

Speaker 2 (47:58):
All right. You and Me and the Plumber We Know.
Keep this part in the show, Sam.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
Well, this is staying.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
This is just you, me, and Alyssa.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
How are you? This is Alyssa. How are you?

Speaker 3 (48:07):
I just can't believe you overlooked the London Bach, Johann
Christian Bach, giving all your love to Carl Philip Emanuel.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
Give me like two minutes to see if I can
get all this sorted, and then we can at least
finish this, and then I'll go. All right.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
We'll finish the game. Should I read the letters from
the listeners in the middle of the game?

Speaker 1 (48:26):
That's up to you. I'll be back.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
I will be right back.

Speaker 1 (48:29):
I will be right back. I'm going to mute my thing,
so just in case you don't hear.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
Yeah, mute it. All right, great.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
Do it.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
Yeah, go for it.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
Go for it, Jordan.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
You know what, Matt? Once in a while, mute yourself
a little more once in a while. It might be
good for everybody. Just got a big middle finger. So
just so you know, the listeners, this is great. This
is the most realistic episode of SVU yet. Matt Singer
is now racing around like a chicken without a head
because the plumber, he got a plumber at 9.20 PM

(48:57):
in New York city to show up because he's got
feces spewing out like the Bellagio hotel downstairs. So he's
running downstairs. It's just me, you and Sam. Yeah. And, um,
Let me read the letters in the middle of the game.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
That way we don't have to do the letters. We
got some nice letters.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Let's do the letters. Real quick.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
Are you going to do the.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
One that is very, you know, like Matt should be
here for? Or is this, we're going to save that?

Speaker 1 (49:20):
One?

Speaker 2 (49:20):
It's better if he's not here. That way we can
talk about him behind his back. Number one, I got
a text from a friend of mine. Please relay to Mr.
Singer that, quote, I'm sure the elder gods appreciate you
paying it forward. Made me laugh for five minutes. That
was in reference to last week when I left my...

(49:42):
If you didn't listen last week, I printed out a
copy of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness on
a company printer because I was too much of a
cheapskate to print it out at home. I read it
on a plane and I left it in the pocket
ahead of time. So there was that.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
Matt, he's very quick on his feet.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Well done. Yeah, I got a letter. We got an
email from a guy named Adis Perez. It's just a
very nice thing. He says that he's been listening to
FilmSpotting forever. All the film spotting shows. He also says
these are the things he loves about film spotting SVU.
He loves Matt's nerdy, well, actually act. And honestly, Sam,

(50:21):
does Matt do that a lot? Does he say, well, actually?

Speaker 1 (50:24):
Well, actually, I say it quite a bit.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
I guess he does. He's back. He's back. Is the
plumber dealing with it? He's downstairs?

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Yeah, they're on it. Our main sewer line is clogged,
so they've got to clean it.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
Oh, so does that mean it's the city's problem, not yours?

Speaker 1 (50:41):
No, of course not. It means they've got to clean
it out.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
Well, no, but I'm just saying, meaning that in terms
of who's responsible, either the village line or your line.
It's your line or the village line?

Speaker 1 (50:51):
I mean, it's inside our house. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
It's inside the house. Okay. Here's what you call Zoran
at AOL.com. Dear Zoran.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
Finish reading this thing, and then we can do the
rest of the game.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
All right.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
There's nothing I can do. I mean, it's fine. There's
nothing I can do now anyway. They're here. They already
diagnosed it. It's like they just got to do it.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
We just got a nice email from Listener Otis who
lists all the things that he likes, including the way
I mispronounced the word Grogu. He's a big fan of Bazooka.
He likes listening to Matt squirm when he loses a game.
He likes Sam's omniscient presence. He likes when Matt gets
frustrated when I mentioned Star Trek. He likes my tangents

(51:34):
and the harps introducing these tangents. And he likes the
Rex eggs. So hats off to Addis. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (51:40):
Thank you, Addis.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
He's an aspiring film snob. He's only going to get better.
All right. Is the game tied, Matt Singer? Is that
what's happening?

Speaker 1 (51:46):
Unfortunately, no. Unfortunately for you, no. I think you're trying
to fudge the score.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
No. No.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
All right. It's four to three. Should we get back
into the game?

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Not intentionally. Not intentionally. Okay.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
So I'll reset. I'll give a score.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
Let's get into the game and then I'm going to
read another big letter later. A big, big letter. All right.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
Let me reset and I'll give the score and an
update and here we go.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
We have two... Portmanteau is left, and the score is
Sam four and Jordan three. Sam has come roaring back here.
He's gotten, I think, three in a row.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
Oh, but this means that there's room for Jordan to
come back and take it.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
It's not over.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
It's match point.

Speaker 3 (52:22):
Do you have to win by two?

Speaker 1 (52:22):
Jordan needs to get the next two correct. Can you
do it, Jordan? What do you think?

Speaker 2 (52:27):
I do, and I will. Okay, here we go. I
can and I will. I have my eyes closed. All right.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
Here is Portmanteau number eight. A peculiar race of aliens
who claims to come from France are pressed into service
to rescue both the President of the United States and
the Prime Minister of England after they go missing when
Air Force One is shot down. Jordan.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
Coneheads of State.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
Jordan is correct. We are tied. And you did not
let me finish my plot synopsis. Can I give the
last line of this plot synopsis?

Speaker 2 (53:02):
Please do.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
The film becomes Jordan Hoffman's top film of 2026.

Speaker 2 (53:11):
Heads of State is not terrible. And I actually wrote
an essay for it. I wrote about it for Foreign
Policy magazine, a very erudite magazine. It's not bad. I'm assuming...
I don't remember Sandler being in Coneheads, but I.

Speaker 3 (53:24):
Guess he is.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
I think he might play... Yeah, he must be because
it was on, I did it by looking up, you know,
like his films on Letterboxd. So I don't remember him either.
I was going to say he was the boyfriend, but
I think that was Chris Farley. So I don't, I
don't know who he plays in it either. It's been
a while since I revisited Coneheads.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
I mean, he was still, yeah, he was still on
SNL when Coneheads came out. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
Well, we'll have to look it up.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
All I can say is.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
We'll fact check it. We'll look it up and we'll
find out who he played, but we have, this is
the most exciting. I'm so glad we brought this in.
It is, it is tied. We have a tie game.
Adam Sandler, it says, plays Carmine in Coneheads. That doesn't
help me.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
I believe it.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
It's the name of his character.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
What do the Coneheads say when they're stressed out? Do
you remember what they say?

Speaker 1 (54:07):
Maintain low tones.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
Well, I guess they do that also. But what's their...
Instead of saying, ah, or shit, or damn, what do
they say? They say, mebs. Mebs.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 2 (54:21):
Matt Singer's gone.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
We can hear you, Matt.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Okay, I can hear you again. I can hear you again.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
All right, you're back.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
This episode needs to end quickly because there's... I'm just
picturing the plumber downstairs knocking on giant tubes.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
Yeah, he's going to destroy the Wi-Fi line in the process. Right.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
Here we go.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
This is it. This is the end.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
King Koopa is coming.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
I'll reset again.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Here we go.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
Ready?

Speaker 2 (54:39):
All the marbles. All the marbles.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
All right. It all comes down to this.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
Oh, boy.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
Four to four, and we have one left.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
Here we go. All right.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
Last portmanteau for all the bragging rights.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
Here we go.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
A single mother... and a single father have an unsuccessful date,
then wind up trapped together at the same resort. The
single father is desperate to return home so he can
resume his job as the inspirational teacher to a group
of impressionable young men at a 1950s boarding school.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
Yeah. Um.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
I mean.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
Save the toughest for last.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
I didn't see the first one, I guess.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
Um.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
Uh... Oh, wait, no, no, okay, maybe it's a different one.

Speaker 1 (55:27):
Would you like some hints? Would we like some hints?

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
The Adam Sandler one is the first part of the portmanteau.

Speaker 3 (55:37):
Yes, yes, I know that.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
And it is one of his films with Drew Barrymore.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
One of his films with Drew Barrymore. I'm trying to
think of another clue that won't just give it away,
but there's not too many. I can look up the year, perhaps.
This is for all... We can't have a tie!

Speaker 2 (56:05):
No, and I'm blanking on.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
Yeah, the name of this movie.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
There's two of them that fit in with the second part,
and one of the movies clearly can never work, and
the other one I'm blanking on the name.

Speaker 1 (56:20):
Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. Yes. I'll read the rest
of it. It's from 2014. It is directed by Frank Karasi.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
Recently divorced mom Lauren and widowed dad Jim let their
friends push them into a blind date, which goes disastrously wrong. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Okay. It's... Shit,
but then I don't know the second one. I know
the first one, but I... This is... Give me a
little clue about the second one, will you?

Speaker 1 (56:54):
I mean, I thought I made the second one pretty obvious. Oh, wait.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
Okay. Is this.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
Okay. I just couldn't make it work.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
Is this....

Speaker 2 (57:04):
Is this.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
Blended Poet Society?

Speaker 2 (57:07):
Blended?

Speaker 1 (57:08):
Oh, come on. Sam has won portmanteau to toe. Blended
Poet Society. Read the second part.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
I thought it was Blackboard Jungle. That's why I've been
trying to make this work. Read it again.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
Inspirational teacher at a boarding school.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
Boarding school. Boarding school. Man, that's my own fault. It is,
but I... Oh, fifties.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
Not, not a film from the 1950s. Not, not Mr. Not, uh, Mr.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
Chips.

Speaker 3 (57:40):
This isn't Mr. Chips or whatever, but, uh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
Okay. When is Blackboard Jungle?

Speaker 1 (57:45):
When did that movie come out? That came out in
the fifties.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
Blackboard Jungle.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
Yeah. That was the last one because it was the
hardest blended poet society.

Speaker 3 (57:51):
Well, I was trying to make the dates, 51st dates
for some reason at first.

Speaker 1 (57:56):
I was trying to be a little cute with that
last one.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
I did. I will.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Very quickly. Sam, congratulations.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Sam wins fair and square.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
I will say I did have some other ones that
I'm just going to throw out the other portmanteaus I
made as I was putting this together. Hubie Halloween Ends. Yeah.
Big Daddy Daycare. Bulletproof of Life. The Ridiculous Six Days
and Seven Nights, and perhaps the most powerful film of all.

(58:26):
I think this won the Oscar this year. Reign Over Me, You,
and Everyone We Know. Those were the other ones that I...
Those proved more difficult to come up with synopsises to,
so I left those out.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
Wow, you outdid yourself. Congratulations to Sam. That was very impressed.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Good job, Sam.

Speaker 3 (58:45):
We're essentially inviting listeners to come up with the plot
descriptions for those titles that you weren't able to but
came up with the titles. So there we go.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (58:54):
We await those.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
Sam, you have won. Congratulations.

Speaker 3 (58:57):
So that means I won hosting next week's game?

Speaker 1 (58:59):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
I'm looking forward to it. You win the ability to
create more work for yourself. Congratulations. Can I just read
a quick email that came from one of the readers?

Speaker 1 (59:14):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
I'm going to do it. The reader writes, I don't
do very well on the games. My movie knowledge can't
compare to Jordan, Matt, or Sam, but when you talk
about Broadway, you are in my wheelhouse. In the discussions,
Of James Lapine's Impromptu, which was my rec seg last week,
Jordan correctly pointed out that Lapine directed Sunday in the

(59:37):
Park with George. However, his reference to the song Weekend
in the Country was incorrect. And this will not stand
with the reader. He was compelled to bring pen to
paper and let me know. It was not from that show.
It was from A Little Night Music. I could easily
make a Send in the Clowns joke here, but I

(59:59):
will resist the temptation. This guy's a kidder. Act one
of A Little Night Music closes with the song Weekend
in the Country. Like its score of Sunday in the Park,
it was written by Sondheim, but Lepine had nothing to
do with night music. He probably enjoyed the show, but
Hal Prince, he's doing, what's it called when you're writing
fan fiction about James Lepine? He probably enjoyed the show,

(01:00:22):
but Hal Prince directed both the original Broadway production and
the movie. By the way, the original production won six
Tony Awards, including Best Musical in 1973. The movie starring
Elizabeth Taylor sits at a mere 17% on Rotten Tomatoes,
far worse than Cleopatra, so it will probably never show
up as a rec seg. So that's a really great

(01:00:44):
email from a listener. Oh, should I mention the name
of the listener?

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
I didn't actually... The name of the listener is Howie Singer,
Matt's dad. I'm getting dissed via email. By Matt's dad,
which I thought was terrific. Matt, does your dad send
you a lot of corrections? Because you write on the
internet all day. You're blasting out news and reviews.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
I never say anything incorrect, so there's never anything to correct.
But I suppose, yeah, once in a while I might
get something. I might get a little typo or here
or there. Yeah, it's been known to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
Well, it's great and it's awesome and thank you. By
the way, I've met Howie Singh. I've met all the singers.
They're all terrific and I'm very happy to have gotten...
this email from him, but I am, you know, a
little nervous now that I know that he's listening. I
really gotta, I gotta be sure.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
You better know you're James Lapine.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
Howie Singer, you didn't really mention if you'd seen Impromptu
or not. If you have, let us know in your
next email because it's a good movie and it's one
that we recommend. So anyway, those are the great emails
we get at feedback.com. at filmspottingsvu.com. Matt, should we very
quickly run down what are the new streaming titles coming

(01:02:06):
this week?

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
Melissa is telling me I should come down and help out.
So I think I should go.

Speaker 2 (01:02:12):
You know what? I'll do that along with Sam.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
Yeah, you guys can handle it. You can just say
that I had to, you know, duty calls, so to speak.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
Literally, literally.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
You can steal that joke.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
And I will talk to you guys later. Harry, are
you in there?

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
Be right out!

Speaker 1 (01:02:29):
I hope you're not using the toilet.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
It's broken. Let me tell you, listeners and Sam, that
the new theatrical releases coming to rent or buy online
is something called, oh, Hadestown the Musical.

Speaker 3 (01:02:43):
Speaking of musicals, speaking of the whole theme of the show.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
This was in theaters. I saw the ads. I didn't
actually go. I think it did well.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
It did very well. I think it made almost $ 20
million over a couple weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Yeah. Amazing. That's incredible. I mean, I think more of
those specialty things, you know, concerts, you know, obviously Taylor
Swift when she did her concert, but I think more
of those should go to theaters. Well, this is great.

Speaker 3 (01:03:06):
I mean, I've actually seen three productions, all high school
productions of this show. And I have to tell anybody,
if this show is playing anywhere near you in any,
you know, high school or above, go see it. It
is like bulletproof of a show. If it can be sung,
it will knock you out. It's a terrific, terrific show.

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
And that'll be on to rent for probably $ 14.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
99.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
And then eventually the price point will go down. Nicholas
Winding Refn, a filmmaker I do not like, has a
new movie that got terrible, terrible reviews called Her Private Hell.
It's with Sophie Thatcher. who was actually in a very
good movie. She was in that one with Hugh Grant, right? Yeah, Heretic.

Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
She was in Heretic.

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
Yeah, Heretic. Love that film. And Charles Melton, who was
in May, December with Stanley Portman. But her private hell
is supposedly terrible. Did you see it, Sam?

Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
I didn't, but I will watch it because I am
a fan of his stuff and I've been looking forward
to his new feature. He hasn't done anything in a while.

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
You're going to be put to the test. If you
liked it, then that's good news. And then finally, another
theatrical release coming to Rent or Buy. Is it... An
interesting movie on paper called Motor City. It's a Detroit-set
revenge thriller in the 1970s with Alan Richeson and Shailene Woodley,
directed by this fellow by the name of Patsy Ponceroli.

(01:04:25):
And there's no dialogue. It's all wall-to-wall music. And it was...
The music was actually selected by someone I really admired,
Jack White, who... I love Jack White, but... I gotta say,
I hated this movie. I was just, I was, it
just didn't work for me. It was annoying. It was

(01:04:46):
an annoying film. No, it's too bad. It's like a
big video and it's like not even, the point is
like he didn't even pick interesting music. It's like very
top level, like, you know, Fleetwood Mac, Never Break the Chain.
It's like, I kind of know that one already.

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
So obviously it's kind of pricey. These are pricey needle
drops as well in addition to being obvious. Yeah, it
sounds like.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
A very weird movie. I'm very curious to see if more,
if anybody likes it. I just, I could not get
into it. I actually went and saw that at the
AMC Screen Unseen program, and I went for free, and
I still wanted my money back. I really didn't like
it at all. Okay, but theatrical releases coming to streaming channels.
Desert Warrior, set in 7th century Arabia, starring Anthony Mackie,

(01:05:33):
Charlton Copley, and Ben Kingsley, directed by Rupert Wyatt, who
did Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and the
remake of The Gambler with Mark Wahlberg, which was good.
It's not the original. That's a masterpiece. But it was good.
So I like Rupert Wyatt. And he's doing a big
budget action film set in 7th century Arabia. You know,

(01:05:54):
I don't know. I do know that the movie was
shot on location in Saudi Arabia. There's a lot of
Saudi money in there. So it's a little bit of
a question mark. But I'm curious to know more about it. Also,
something called, this is coming direct to streaming.

Speaker 3 (01:06:09):
Yeah, so that goes to Hulu. Desert Warrior coming to
Hulu on the 28th.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Yeah, on the 28th, so pretty soon. Direct-to-streaming, we've got
The Last Sunrise. A college student with chronic illness escapes
to Majorca for the summer with her mother, played by
Eva Longoria, where she unexpectedly falls for a local and
begins to embrace living in the moment. Oh, that sounds lovely.
That's on Prime Video. That comes Wednesday, the 26th of August. Also,

(01:06:39):
on the 28th of August, which is a Friday, on Shudder,
we've got the 80s set Australian horror film Penny Lane
is Dead, which is funny because I happen to know
someone named Penny Lane.

Speaker 3 (01:06:52):
The director and the documentary director, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
Yeah, she's a very, very good documentary director, and I
would call her an acquaintance. She's very much alive and well.
She's doing fine, but this movie, I'm sure, is causing
her much consternation. A celebration at a beach house turns
into a blood-soaked fight for survival when a prank goes
horribly wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:07:14):
I have to ask, I always assumed Penny Lane, the
documentary director, that could not possibly be her real name,
but is it?

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
It is her real name.

Speaker 1 (01:07:23):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
Her website is Penny Lane is my real name. And
what's funny is that one of her very good documentaries
is something she did for HBO about Kenny G. Yeah.
It's called Listening to Kenny G. And I had the
good fortune to interview her and Kenny G side by side.
And it's a very interesting movie. He's an interesting guy.

(01:07:46):
She's an interesting gal. And at the end of the interview,
I said to Kenny G, you know, you've got a
saxophone in your hand 95% of this movie. Your director's
name is Penny Lane. Did you ever annoy her with
the song Penny Lane?

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
And he says, wait, which one is that again? I mean,
classic Kenny G did not know anything. I'm like, Penny
Lane by the Beatles. He's like, yeah, how does it go?
How does it go? So she had to sing it
to him.

Speaker 1 (01:08:12):
No, no.

Speaker 3 (01:08:12):
And it's on tape? Did you get it?

Speaker 2 (01:08:14):
Yeah, it's on tape. You can read it. And you
can read the article on Vanity Fair. But I do
have it. And then he's like, oh, yeah, that's how
it goes. So then he starts playing it for her.
And she's like, this is my life. I have Kenny
G playing this song. Previously, I'd interviewed her more than once.
I asked her if... you know, if that song haunts
her and she's like, yeah, it's kind of annoying when
you're in the supermarket and you hear that song and

(01:08:35):
you're like, yeah, that's my son.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
But her parents must have done it to her on purpose, right?

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
I mean, you know, what are you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:08:40):
I mean, it worked. It made her hardy because she's
a feature film director. She directs feature length documentary films.
That's tough. So she's able to do it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:50):
It's a boy named Sue kind of situation you're saying.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
Exactly. Something else coming is the Whisper Man. When his
young son vanishes, a widower, Adam Scott, enlists help from
his estranged father, Robert De Niro, a retired detective who
put away the serial killer now linked to the case.
That's on the big red one, Netflix, Friday the 28th.

(01:09:14):
Sounds like a serious movie. Has Adam Scott done too many?
He's done one or two. Yeah, serious films. He did
a horror film earlier this year, actually. So he's not
just a jokey guy. So that's what's coming soon. Next week,
we're not quite sure what we're going to cover on
Film Spotting SVU. You got to tune in. We may

(01:09:34):
cover Desert Warrior, actually, because I'm intrigued. We might end
up covering The Whisper Man, which is the De Niro,
Adam Scott. There's also something else coming to Netflix which
has intrigued me, a documentary about Ray Gunn, my favorite
Australian competitive breakdancer. It's kind of one of these classic
Netflix documentaries where you're just looking at kind of like

(01:09:58):
the poop cruise to bring it all back to Matt's bathroom.
Poop Cruise came out earlier this year, maybe the end
of last year. It's one of these, like it was
in the news and we've moved on and what's, what's
going on. So I, you remember Ray Gunn, right? The
break dancer.

Speaker 1 (01:10:13):
Oh my God.

Speaker 3 (01:10:13):
I mean, what a story. So yeah, part of this
untold series on Netflix, but, uh, made by, uh, McLean way,
Chapman way. They, uh, they made the battered bastards of baseball. Uh,
another one of the old untold series, untold crime and
penalties about, uh, hockey team and hockey team ownership. He
made this Wild Wild Country documentary too. Is that on Netflix?

(01:10:35):
That's on Netflix too about a cult leader. So yeah,
they're real directors and their stuff gets... We have a host.

Speaker 2 (01:10:40):
So we have a lot to choose from and we're
going to decide sometime between right now and seven days
from now, we're going to decide what we're going to watch.
Please tune in. Thank you again to Sam for... producing
and stepping in as co-host while matt deals with matt
deals with.

Speaker 3 (01:10:56):
I hope we painted enough of a picture about what
matt's going.

Speaker 2 (01:10:58):
Through right and thank you to matt and thank you
to howie singer you know i joked around before i
have met matt's parents before they're very very nice i've
met his brother his sister-in-law his wife his daughters the
whole family what a nice family the boy the poor
matt singer does not deserve what's going on right now
in his bathroom so big You know, say a prayer,

(01:11:18):
light a candle for Matt Singer. We'll see you again
next week. My name is Jordan Hopp, and you can
reach us on social media, on Facebook, FilmSpotting, FilmSpottingSVU. Follow
us and subscribe and hit like and thank you.

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The Breakfast Club

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Don’t Say Good Luck and the Evolution of Happy Madison Productions | SVU