The Way Way Back (2013)

Load up the wagon and take a road trip with Brian and Cargill as they sit in The Way Way Back!

Batten down the hatches and prepare for Hurricane Janney! 


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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a meaning junk and watching Rabbi s you gonna
come out.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
And stop me? All right, this is Dick Miller. If

(00:24):
you're listening to junk food cinema, who are these guys.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Here in the middle of the summer, summer summer time.

Speaker 4 (00:53):
You've just cannonballed into junk food cinema, brought to you
by Wagonmaster dot com dot com dot Accept it and
move on. This is, of course, the weekly Culton Exploitation
film cast. So good it just has to be fattening.
I'm your host, Brian Salthburham, joined as per usual by
my friend and co host.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
He is a novelist, he is a screenwriter, a.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
Lieutenant of Mega Force, and at nearly twenty years of friendship,
I can officially say that I go way way back
with mister c Robert Cargill.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
We gotta start having faster conversations.

Speaker 4 (01:27):
Do you know when I revisited the movie for this
recording and I heard that line and thought, there's so
many people in my life that I need to start
using that particular phrase with.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
We're gonna start having faster conversations.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah, it's kind of like the new skip to the
end from Shawn of the Dead, you know what I mean,
Like it's it Sometimes you just gotta drop it in.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yes, yes you do, ah Man.

Speaker 4 (01:48):
And if you want to drop into the last what
eleven years? Eleven fucking years, this podcast goes way way
back on your favorite podcatcher. You can also follow us
on social media at Junk Food Cinema. And if you
really like the show, I.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Mean you really like the show, you.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
Like it as much as the last couple of weeks
of Junk Food Cinema have not been pro swinger, you
can go to patreon dot com slash Junkfoodcinema for as
little as a dollar episode.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
You're financially supporting the show. We greatly appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
Car Gill, speaking of financially supporting the show, there is
a tier, there is a payment level. There is a
window of lieutenants of megapores. These brave souls give us
one hundred dollars in a single month to be able
to request a film. And this week's film is both
a patron request and perfect for the season we're in.

(02:35):
I mean it's mid July ish and as such we
are in the pitch perfect season to watch and celebrate
twenty thirteen's The Way Way Back Down Gay.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
This is Peter finally fixes lazy. I now it's even worse.
Boo to star at the bridge of his nose. That's
what I do, and the worst parent critics are joining
the party. I'm just thought the dash are so stupid
that I win. Candy Land Transit. Way Way Back is
way way wonderful. They must go on. It's a summer tree. Wow,
it's way on with something for everybody.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Have you been all night? Young man?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Woman the Way Way Back? Reading now playing?

Speaker 3 (03:14):
How excited are you right now?

Speaker 2 (03:15):
By the way Well, I mean very You know this
is this and I may have talked about it in
the past on episodes especially I think on our mail bags.
We haven't done a mailbag in a while.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
We need to do a mailbag. Thank you for reminding me.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yes, yeah, yeah, we need to do a mailbag. But
one of my annual rewatches, because everybody has their annual
rewatches and most people in our sphere on fourth of
July rewatch Jaws. That's their movie. Me and Jess we
rewatched The Way Way Back and Adventureland as a back
to back movie.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
They are It's.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
An amazing double feature. These are two coming of age
movies set in theme parks that really exist out in
the wild, that are both very reminiscent of a certain
period of time. They're both really incredibly written, made by
incredibly talented filmmakers, and they both have scenes that take

(04:14):
place over Fourth of July weekend, and so they go
just to peas and carrots. I like to start with
Way Way Back and then go a few years down
the road and come back from college and have adventure
Land and Man Alive. Is it a great double feature?
But we're not talking about the double feature, and we're
talking about The Way Way Back, that on its own

(04:34):
stands as one of the best and most interesting and
interestingly pedigreed coming of age films of the modern era.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
I feel like we need to say something right now
that our listeners are longtime listeners already know Cargill loves
him some coming of age movies.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
I would go so far as to say coming of
age movies make the aged Cargill come like. That is
the level of excitement that he has for them.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
That is a considering the ages involved. That is not
an appropriate play on words.

Speaker 4 (05:06):
Too late, it's a T shirt, but The thing is
when we cover coming of age movies, they are almost
entirely programmed by Cargill. And that's because while oftentimes I
find things to appreciate about them, I'm not always as
hyped in jazzed, you know, to use lingo that your
grandparents would use for coming of age films. That being said,

(05:28):
this is one that when I saw it on the
patron request list, I remember really liking it, so I
put it forward because I knew also the time period.
You're right, that fourth of July viewing Jaws is one
hundred percent on my list. I have three movies, Jaws,
Independence Day, of Course, and Blowout. I have to watch
those three movies on the fourth of July because there
is no better firework scene in cinema than in Blowout,

(05:50):
and it's horrifyingly beautiful.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Any And ironically we don't know anybody though, that's just
born on the fourth of July. On fourth of July.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
That is really interesting that no one watch is born
on the fourth through July.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Nobody, you know what, I think, that's fine, but I
don't want to.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
I don't wanna throw all over stones, but I just
that's not a movie that's in my my rotation.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
You're not ready to cruise with it.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
I'm not ready to cruise with it.

Speaker 4 (06:14):
Uh, not at all. The movie doesn't have all the
right movies. Now I don't know what we're doing.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (06:18):
But the problem I now have, car Gill, is, after
rewatching this in preparation for the episode, it's gonna be
really difficult to squeeze in four movies in one day
when there's also a lot of family things going on.
But I'm gonna have to because, as it turns out,
I don't just like The Way Way Back.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
I fucking love.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
This movie and how could you not?

Speaker 4 (06:40):
How could you not? How what's not to love? As
as as a character says in the movie. But it
hits different now, Like I must have seen it right
when it came out, and it hits completely different now,
you know, you know, initially when you see a movie
like this, you think about what it was like to
be that kid, And now I think about what it's
like to, you know, be an the step parent position.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
Because okay, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Speaker 4 (07:03):
Let's tell people who might not have seen The Way
Way Back what The Way Way Back is about. This
is a twenty thirteen coming of age comedy about a
fourteen year old kid whose name is Duncan, who is
traveling with his parents or I'm sorry, his mother and
his mother's boyfriend played by Steve Carell. And I want
to stop right there for just a second, because I

(07:24):
I feel like Steve Carell in this movie is one
of the few non murdery stepdads in cinema who earns
every ounce of the disdain The movie harbor's for him.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Here's the thing about him. And I've been saying this
for years. I don't know if I've had a chance
to say it on this podcast or not. Said don't
know how many of his movies we've covered. We've only
covered a handful at most. Steve Carell is the best,
most underrated actor working in Hollywood. Every time he's in
a movie, he's fucking phenomenal. He's just great. He steals

(07:57):
the show. But he never does it in a showy way.
He does it in a very amazing actory way, like here.
He is fearless in how unlikable he fucking is.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah, like so.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Good at it. Just you want There's a moment in
the movie where another character stands up to him and
it is kind of a fist in the air movie,
even a moment, even though it's such a tiny moment
and such a tiny thing that person does. But when
they do it, you're just like, mmmm, can take that, bully? Yeah. No,
he is an incredible actor and he does so many

(08:33):
great roles. If you look, I guarantee you pull out
the twenty tens of his career, you pull him up
on IMDb, you are gonna find that there's not a
bad or mediocre performance in that entire decade, the entire thing.
Every movie is watchable for him, as well as the
incredible cast that he's around. But I mean, it's it

(08:54):
is just a hell of it. Let me, let me
just give it, just lay it out. He's on the
office at the time, and he does crazy stupid love.
You can I say twenty tens twenty ten he does
dinner per Schmucks, and that is that one's debatable.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
Now, what you didn't say is that every movie he
did in the twenty tens is great.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
What you did say, yes, is you don't get it.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
It phoned in performance from him in anything in the
twenty tens.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
But he goes in he's got crazy stupid love Seeking
a Friend for the End of the World, Hope Springs, incredible,
Bert Wonderstone, where he's did the movie's not great.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
He's very funny, but I sure did see it.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yep, then You've got You've Got Neighbors. It's an uncredited thing.
He's in Fox Catcher.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
He's amazing in Fox Catcher.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Oh my god, is great in Fox Catcher, the big
short Battle of the Sexes, which criminally undersen very good
movie Vice Last Flag Flying, which is a really great
underseen link Ladder, like It's Welcome to Marwin. Like he's
just so fucking good, just so good. And and here he's

(10:09):
just despicable, like absolutely fucking despicable.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
No, no, no, no, no, Kevin Mina, do it speak a.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
Far more despicable me. Oh, he's he's he's not the stepdad.
He's he wants to be the stepdad. And he's trying
to step in and he's trying to mold this kid
into a man in the way that he knows how
to do it, and he doesn't know how to fucking
do it, which is why he has a total bitch
of a daughter. And that's his only child. And it

(10:39):
is amazing his performance is so good, and he is
so punchable.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
He's very punishable. He's a complete piece of shit.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
And like I said, like, normally for you to hate
I mean, you're right, he's not technically a stepdad, but
he's in the stepdad.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
Role in this movie.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
Yes, And usually for you to hate a stepdad this much,
he has to be Terry O'Quinn and literally murdering people.
But no, like this, dude, I gotta tell you, like
right off the bat, if you're dating a woman with
kids and she doesn't explicitly ask you to do so,
don't give her kids sobering life advice, Like how like

(11:14):
what do you think you are a scale of one
to ten?

Speaker 3 (11:15):
The kids says six and you say three.

Speaker 4 (11:17):
Just don't do shit like that, like maybe just don't
do oh oh oh. And under no circumstances do you
talk about fucking their mom in front of them. It's like,
I feel like I could write a book on The
book's just called don't fucking do that, And it's just
everything Steve Carell does in this movie.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
After these messages, We'll be right back, Hi.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
This is my new Chevy Wagon. We flipped down seats
seventy four Caprice of State and this well, she's my mother.
The divide is second sea pulls right down, and when
you pull a lever, the third seat backflops over. And
Chevrolet mat is so you can operate all the seats
from the same door. And this is the gladaway.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
Tell me what we ordered.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
You just turn the key Ta dahs.

Speaker 5 (12:01):
The seventy four Capriza State Wagon from Chevrolet.

Speaker 4 (12:06):
But it is It is funny though, because the woman
that he's in a relationship here, Duncan's mom, is played
by the amazing Tony Collette, and her character's name is Pam.
So literally the year the Office goes off the air,
we've got Steve Carell yelling and a woman named Pam.
That was a little bit upsetting to me. I just

(12:27):
I found that hard to swallow. Yes, but yes, So
they're on a trip out to the East Coast. They're
coming down from Albany, They're going out to Massachusetts. And
the relationship here, as you said, he's traveling not only
with this woman he's in a relationship with and her
son Duncan, but also with his own daughter, who is
just just an awful human being and clearly has learned

(12:49):
it from somewhere. And then you know, they get to
this house that they're renting at the beach and it's
right next door to Alis and Janny maybe the absolute
star of this movie. Like how much I love Alice
and Jenny in this movie?

Speaker 2 (13:01):
Oh well, I mean, how much do we always love
Alison Jenny? Alice and Jenny another actress never funt like
this entire cast, and we get through it, We're just
going to, you know, be heaping praise on everybody because
everybody in this it is one of those casts. And
I want to interrupt this for one second as we
go through, because what's important to understand about this movie

(13:22):
is this movie was written by Matt Faxon and Jim
Rash and it was also directed by them. They are
coming off the Academy Awards success of The Descendants, the
George Clooney movie. Weirdly, the Descendants was their big hit
and big with the Academy. The Way Way Back is

(13:44):
the far better, more memorable movie that gets way too
ignored one thousand and it's a master I consider this
a masterpiece. I think as far as coming of age
movies go, it is an absolute masterpiece. We'll get. But
it's important to understand this because here are two guys

(14:04):
who are going in to make a coming of age
film coming off of an Oscar win and then you
get all of these Oscar nominated actors and actresses going, well,
fuck yeah, I want to be in the next Descendants.
And so they just get this incredible cast who come
and no one phones it the fuck in. Everybody comes
to fucking play.

Speaker 4 (14:24):
And Alison Janny in this movie is her character is
a drunken force of nature like it is. Oh yes,
it is hurricane season and Hurricane Jenny is blowing and
off the coast.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
Hoy, who hoo, whoo I have I can talk about
Alice Jenny in this movie for four hours. She is
She is incredible. Again. Here, here's the thing about this
movie that I love. First of all, it is one
of the best written coming of age films. You're see
every line is it just hits. Every line is clever,

(14:55):
every line is smart, Every line defines character. Every character
in this movie that gets dialogue has their own shit
going on, and you fully understand it. Every character is
broken in their own way. There is no even even
the people you hate in this movie, even the obnoxious.
People have their own backstories going on, and you can

(15:17):
watch it happen through the whole fucking movie. Every like
I watch. This is one of those movies I watch
every year, and you just every year, I just soak
in how good and well written every character in this
movie is. Even characters that only get a few lines
are just so well crafted to where we understand why

(15:39):
every person in this movie is broken. It's weird because
this movie is a perfect center of the Venn diagram
between coming of age movie and a subgenre that was
really popular in the late night nineties early aughts that
I like to call fucked up suburbia, which is, hey,
we're white, we're affluent, but we have problems. Everybody's depressed,

(16:03):
and in most of the other movies, it's watching how
everyone's depressed and then something tragic usually happens, and this
is I'm gonna get out of it. This is how
we This whole movie is kind of a reaction to
that era of filmmaking and showing you don't have to
be tied to your bullshit. You can get over it
and become a better person and you can learn from it.

(16:24):
And that's Duncan's journey in this movie, it's so true.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
And you mentioned the dialogue. There's a great moment where
Alison Janny's talking to her son Peter, and her son
yells at her, you're the worst parent. And Alison Jenny's
response is, well, that's just your father talking.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
And he goes, yes, yes, and then it's a watch.
She puts her arm around him and pulls him close
because that's how they deal with each other. And they're
just like brutally honest with each other and always yelling
at each other, but they do love one another.

Speaker 4 (16:54):
She has got, you know, pursuance of last week's episode
on Night Moves and our discussion about you know, seventy
sive actuality, she's got big fund pot energy.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
Oh yeah, everyone in this movie. But that's again, there's
a lot going on here. So this is not just
they're going out to Massachusetts. They're going out to the
rich person part of Massachusetts on the beach. These are
wealthy people who own beach houses for the summer, they

(17:23):
own boats, They go out and uh and uh spend
time out there. And there's these two very normal, very
urban folks who are brought into this world that clearly
don't belong there. And that's Tony Collette and uh and
her son Duncan, Pam and Duncan and they just don't

(17:44):
belong and there, and and Pam wants to fit in.
She she's you know, fallen for her new boyfriend. She loves,
she loves the idea of this. You know, Duncan doesn't
want to be there. It's clearly he doesn't. He doesn't
like the guy, he doesn't want to be in a
place he doesn't know. He feels alienated. His possible future
stepsister is nothing but a bitch to him. There's never

(18:07):
a kind word that comes out of her mouth. And
he's stuck there. And ultimately what he discovers is he
meets the townies and that's where he belongs and that's
who he is. And it's a very kind of upper class,
lower class movie without ever saying that out loud. And
he falls in with the townies and gets a day

(18:31):
job that no one in his family knows or seemingly cares,
working at a water park.

Speaker 4 (18:37):
So this is an East Wareham, Massachusetts. I hope I'm
pronouncing that correctly. I hope it's not a what'sta situation?
But the one thing I really latched onto in this
viewing is the performance of Liam James as Duncan this.
I felt for this poor kid so hard, like he
is seemingly despised by everyone for the unforgivable crime, everyone

(19:02):
in his family that's not his mom, for the unforgivable
crime of just trying to quietly exist.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
You weren't awkward, Bud.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yeah, exactly, like he just like he's just a little
socially awkward. That's it. He's not He's not a creep.

Speaker 4 (19:15):
He's not like doing anything to fuck with anybody's dynamic.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
He's just there.

Speaker 4 (19:20):
He's literally sitting in the way back of the station
wagon and fucking side bar. I realize that I don't
have much experience in my own life sitting in the
way back seat of a station wagon oh shit, which

(19:41):
is uh for those of you who don't know, is
like the third seat that's usually all the way in
the cargo area of a station wagon. But I also
realize Cargil that this might be another tangible demarcation between
gen X and millennials, because I feel like gen X kids,
there is no way you could escape at one point
in your life, whether your parents owned this car or not.

(20:02):
At some point in your life you were sitting in
the way back seat of a station wagon.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
And there were one of two ways you were doing it.
You were either banished there because the other kids got
the other seats up front, or you jumped back there
because you were with a friend and you guys wanted
to sit and talk and not be not have to
deal with anyone else.

Speaker 3 (20:21):
Well, I think that's really what the what the title
is referring to is just yea this inherent alienation of
sitting in the very back of a station wagon and
yet at the time it yeah, it does.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
But at the same time, that's also the place where
at the beginning of the movie he seems like he
felt the most comfortable. It's like, this is my space
over here, away from y'all, and I'm happy here, like
leave me the fuck alone. And then by the end
of the movie you realize like there is a little
bit of an escape for him, there a little bit
of an oasis type of feeling in that way back
and it has you know it. It is the setting

(20:52):
of what I think is one of the greatest, understated
but most powerful endings of all time. And we will
definitely talk about that, but it was just one of
the things, like I think maybe once in my entire
life did I get to ride in the way back
of a station wagon. It's one of those ones too,
where the I remember that. I don't remember whose car
it was, maybe a friend of my parents or something,
but the way back seat faced the other way, so

(21:15):
you were looking out the back, just like in this movie.
It didn't face the front of the car. It faced
the back, and I always thought that was fucking amazing.
But I feel like Gen X kids probably rode in
every iteration, whether it was facing forward, facing back, facing
the rare sideways way back of a station wagon, like
what what the fuck?

Speaker 3 (21:33):
Man?

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, it's that in riding in the back of pickup
trucks at sixty miles an hour. It's things millennials really
didn't get to do because eventually they said there should
be a law and they made them. I heard many
memories in the eighties and nineties of riding in the
back of riding back in the back of pickup trucks
through the Texas hill country at sixty five miles an hour,

(21:56):
and it was fucking rad.

Speaker 4 (21:58):
Maybe the easier DeMar between our generations is just those
seven words. There should be a law against this.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
And your generation had the law.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
It's just it's true.

Speaker 4 (22:12):
But I feel like it's a it's a marvel of
modern engineering, and maybe it's something we need to bring back.
I don't maybe put a seat belt back there and
then it satisfies both camps. But I'd like to see
station wagons come back in fashion.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah yeah, I mean they're not terrible.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
The family truckster should hit the roadways once again, Stargrove,
So yeah, we get here and again. Like Steve Carell
as Trent is just like it's it's tough, man. It
really is tough when you're in that position to not overstep.
But Trent seems like a character who is completely unconcerned
with whether or not he's overstepping. He doesn't give a fuck.

(22:49):
He he absolutely is just like, I'm gonna tell you
everything that's wrong with you, kid, and I'm gonna, you know,
insert myself into this dynamic without any And the thing
is this, like I feel like I got off light here,
Like I cannot imagine coming into this dynamic with a
fourteen year old, because a fourteen year old is what
I have now, and you know, when you you know,

(23:11):
get to your teenage years, it's it's tough, like it's
it's the relationship between parent and child, regardless of biological
versus step is strained a little bit because of that,
that independence that starts to form. Right, So coming into
that at fourteen, I can't even imagine how tough that
would be if you were trying to do it right,

(23:32):
which once again, Trent is not.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
No, he's not, and it creates such an awkward position
in the household that he Dungan just doesn't He doesn't
feel like he belongs there. People don't even want him there,
and he doesn't want to be there. So he goes
out and he finds his you know, pseudo stepsister's old
pink bike in the garage, at her bike she clearly

(23:58):
had when she was eight, hops on it and just
bikes into town, and that sets the Domino's falling of
him having what he will probably look back on as
the greatest summer of his life.

Speaker 4 (24:12):
And by the way, this screenplay was on the two
thousand and seven Blacklist Cargo, I can't imagine what happened
between twenty seven and twenty thirteen that maybe cause people
to rescue this from the Blacklist and get Oh yeah, no,
you already mentioned it. It was the massive fucking oscar
success of The Descendants.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
But I agree with you.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
This movie is so much stronger, it's so much more affecting,
and it's it should be remembered way more than The Descendants.
It's kind of the way that, you know, to relate
it to something else Jim Rash was involved with. It's
kind of the way the Paintball episode of Community very
much overshadows, like the My Dinner with Andre episode, which
I think is technically a better episode, but people only

(24:51):
talk about the Paintball episode, So you know, it's it's
it's a similar situation.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (24:59):
They go to the He goes to this water park,
and the water park is called did you Did you
catch the name of this water park? It's the the
water Witz did?

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Did Did I catch it? I watched this movie every
year and have donezo for a decade. Yes, I know.
It's called the Water with water whiz like and you
got to get the whiz pass.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
Of course, you got to get the whi that.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
You can you can whizz in the front of the line.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
The whiz Pass is absolutely printed on yellow paper, right
like it just it has to be. It absolutely has.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
To You could hear that. You could hear the satisfaction
in Maya Rudolph's voice when she talks about the whiz
pass over the over the intercom.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
I fucking love Maya Rudolph, Like my Rudolph was so
good on SNL that people forget how good she is
in indie comedies.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Like this as a as a keyboardist for a touring
touring band. Yes, yes, also they were called the Rentals
Ask your grandparents.

Speaker 4 (26:00):
But like I know, I just kept thinking about it
because in addition to loving her in this a very
like I don't want, I don't know if it's underappreciated
Underseene or what. But away we go with her and
John Krasinski, I think is fantastic and she's amazing in it.
So yeah, you put her in indie comedies, man, and
she will absolutely shine. And she's wonderful in this. But
of course, the overwhelming star of this water park is

(26:26):
played by Sam fucking Rockwell.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Does he dance in this movie? This movie?

Speaker 4 (26:33):
He dances like he's on fucking Jim Jimmy Kimmel, like
he is all about putting in those steps man, and
I appreciates that about him.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Is that what you appreciates about him?

Speaker 3 (26:43):
I also appreciates that.

Speaker 4 (26:44):
On the Evolution of Man chart for this type of character,
he's right between John Cusack and Joel McHale, Like, do
you know what I mean? Like that low effort, cool
smart ass who doesn't seem to give a shit but
is also like fully plugged into everything.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
I love this type of character.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
He's the most popular towny in the small town.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yes, he is king towny.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
I mean, that's who he is.

Speaker 4 (27:05):
And as such, by the way you bundle all this
together with the fact that he works it at water
Whiz and he is like the living embodiment of regional
water park energy.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (27:17):
Like there is something about a regional water Like we're
not talking about Splash in Safari. We're not talking about
one of the Disney water parks. We're talking about one
of those side of the highway slash Splashtown. Patrick Swayzee
is no longer on roller skates. He has a lifeguard.
A splashdown us.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
A wait, wait, have you not taken your kids to
Splashtown yet?

Speaker 4 (27:38):
I don't know I've taken them to some of the
roadside possibly dangerous, definitely infested with bacteria. Water parks I
don't remember.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
Oh, Brons, you gotta do it.

Speaker 6 (27:50):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (27:50):
I have definitely been to Slitterbond though, Schlita. That's the
one thing missing from reach water parks, Like when you
take your family to the water park, the one thing
you're missing is that it should be infused with German culture,
like so many times like how do I take Octoberfest
and smash it into a water park?

Speaker 2 (28:10):
See? The thing is is we're getting very very regional
Texas right now, and there's like twelve people listening that
are following every real It's like, the fuck are they
talking just a water park that I grew up going
to in the summers. That was my action park, schlitter Bond, that.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
Was definitely an action park. And then there's somebody else
listening going, hold on Champ, there's a new Bramfels Now.
This place fucking yeah, it absolutely sings of Like the
season pass is probably like eight dollars.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
And it's a real it's a real place. I have
the basis I have friends who said, oh, yeah, no,
my family vacation there. I went there every summer. Also,
since we're talking about the park itself, one of my
favorite things is they have one of the hundred hot
dogs there and you can see it in multiple.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
Scenes, one of the hundred hot dogs.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yes, next time you rewatch this movie, notice that in
the background of many shots there is a statue of
a hot dog grinning maliciously pouring mustard all over its head.
And it is a disturbing thing. And there's a hundred
of them, and they're spread out all over the world,
and I've seen three of them in person, and I

(29:22):
am fascinated by them.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
This is almost as creepy as the filthy Johnny Appleseed
who went across the country putting porn in the woods.
Like this is a conspiracy I'm not aware of. Every
once in a while we do this this podcast, Cargil
mentioned something that I think he's just fucking with me.
I don't know if it's a real thing or if
Cargil's just yank in my chain.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
Google it right now so you can see what I'm
talking about. A few moments laterw what the fuck is
that it's all over the movie you just watched.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
Why is it in the shape of a shit. Why
is the hot dog putting a shit on its own head? Cargil, cargil,
what is happened? This is? What the fuck is this?

Speaker 2 (30:02):
Why is he so excited to make himself delicious for us?
And why, as many people would argue, is he putting
ketchup on himself? Ketchup doesn't belong on a dog, does it? No?

Speaker 3 (30:13):
It does, absolutely does not.

Speaker 4 (30:14):
But I also feel like I'm having a hardcore moment
right now, like I'm just George C.

Speaker 3 (30:18):
Scott at movie, like, ah, what is that?

Speaker 2 (30:21):
Ah? If you watch, there's numerous scenes that that the
hot dog appears because the hot dogs at the water park,
because Waterways has one of them.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
Okay, but first of all, it's you you mentioned them.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
I saw one in person in London, in London.

Speaker 6 (30:38):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
When I say they're all over the world, I didn't
mean you can find that like eighty of them in
New Jersey. I mean they're spread out all over the world. This,
this thing is fucking weird.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
What Why does this exist? Why does this food version
of the toy and bee tiles fucking exist on this planet?

Speaker 2 (30:56):
I don't know, but every summer I'm reminded of it
when I watch this movie, and it.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
Should be in the shape not of a hot dog,
but of a middle finger, because it's not pouring the
mustard on itself. It's just holding the mustard as it
puts ketchup on itself in clear defiance of God's law. Yeah,
ketchup does not belong on a fucking hot dog. That's
That's the second most disturbing thing about this weird worldwide

(31:22):
conspiracy I just learned about.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yes see. See, by the way, I don't have anything
against ketchup on a hot dog. I think if you're
gonna eat ground up piganuses, you can put whatever the
fuck you want on it. You're eating ground up piganness.

Speaker 3 (31:33):
It is important to have principles cargil. That is what
you do not understand.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
On ones you've consumed ground up piganuses. I think principles
are out the window.

Speaker 4 (31:42):
Principles cargil are what separate us from the animals. That
and putting mustard on our hot dogs, not fucking ketchup.
Find to put ketchup on a hot dog when you're
still getting the you're getting into Whiz World for free,
water Whiz, when you're getting into water Whiz for free
because you're still under the age of six, then five,
put ketch up on a hot dog. After that point,

(32:02):
the only acceptable condiment is mustard.

Speaker 3 (32:06):
Don't remember how we got here, stargirl stub food cinema.
Staying on topic, Let's don't be silly.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
After these messages. We'll be right back.

Speaker 5 (32:19):
Hey, what's a nice family like the veng Groves doing
in a place like this.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
We're going on vacation.

Speaker 5 (32:25):
The four wheel drive Toyota to cell wagon is on
the move again. Destination fun because this tur cells which
is from front wheel to four wheel drive on command
and gives the best gas mileage of any four wheel
drive car. But that's just a chip of the iceberg.
It's also spatial smooth to.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
The friends, like when we get to this this rich
part of town, right and Tripp and Joan, Yeah, let's
let's talk about Kip and Joan played by swingers played
by the upside down pineapples and human form that are
Rob Quadrey and Amanda Beate.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
See I I you know, I gotta be honest. I
was shocked when you did the opening because when I
rewatched this today, I said, Oh, he's definitely gonna say
it's time to carry a laser and talk about the
way way back.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
Listen, listen. I'll be honest with you right now.

Speaker 4 (33:22):
I love that mister, mister song, and I too, never
knew what they were fucking saying.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
What I also never heard was carry a laser. Now
that she fucking said that, I can't hear anything else.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
You cann't hear it. It's it's that bell has been wrong.

Speaker 4 (33:42):
I mean, I I mean, first of all, it's gonna
be shocking to most people listening to this that mister
mister had more than one song. But Kiri is a
song I've always fucking loved it. I never knew what
the fuck they were saying in the chorus. I was
always just doing that that clap that you do, like
the triangle above your head, like you're at a concert
begging for an encore. I didn't give a what the
lyrics were. But now that she said carry a laser,

(34:03):
that's all I can hear. And it reminds me so
much of when my wife gets lyrics wrong, because then
you tell her like, why do you think that we
would be this absurd thing that you're saying, and instead
of going, oh, yeah, you're right, that's probably not the
right words. She'll just come up with an explanation like
a man to Pete does, like, well, they must love
sci fi.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
It's like, no, that doesn't make any fucking sense. But yeah,
I should have opened the show that way.

Speaker 4 (34:26):
But these two are They're at one point in the movie,
somebody describes this part of Massachusetts and this like this
trip as spring break for grown ups, and that is
exactly how they treat it. But it's you know, that
moment when Duncan, who's already not a fan of Trent,
is at the barbecue and stumbles stumbles into the wrong

(34:48):
you know, alley way and sees Trent and Joan making
out and is just put in that really horrible position
that you realize that Trent isn't just a bad father fit,
he's just a complete piece of shit in general. And
I think that was the thing, Like this character is
what made the movie hit so different from me now

(35:10):
because when I was a kid, my family and I
we would go to Florida, but we would also go
to New England a lot. Like my great grandmother had
a cabin in Connecticut, so we would go up and
down the entirety of New England. In the East Coast,
and I remember as I got older, you know, I
had to grapple with that coming of age while also

(35:31):
being expected to share experiences together, you know, again just
trying to explore my independence. But again, plenty of people
can relate to that, right, but these settings in particular
spoke directly to me. But now you take all of
that in this viewing, and how the movie truly breaks
my heart is that I'm not so arrogant or self

(35:51):
deluded to ever pretend that I am and or have
always been, a perfect step dad. And the idea that
on my worst day garrenting wise, as I was navigating
like the intricacies and you know, struggling to get a
foothold and beat what being a stepdad and coming into
a family after the fact, was that I ever acted
the way Steve Carell did toward Duncan, like even a

(36:14):
slight you know, version of that. And it haunts me,
like that really spoke to me in this viewing is
the fact that, like Steve Carell is doing everything wrong,
but even when you have the best intentions and you're
trying to do everything right, that you can still fuck
up and overstep and you can still say the wrong thing.
And I'm not making out with a Manda Pete behind buildings,

(36:35):
but just the the aspect of him being such a
terrible father figure and how easy it is sometimes when
you're a step parent to to overstep or make the
wrong decision, Like it really did. Like, man, this this
movie kind of hit me like a truck in that way.
So it was a completely different viewing this time around.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Yeah. Yeah, but the weird relationship that he has with
Amanda Pete rob qudry. Yeah, because there's that moment where
when it gets called out that that that Joan and
Trent have had a thing every summer and that this
has been happening, and she exchanges a look with Kip
and she just kind of like shrugging, like yeah, and

(37:17):
and Kip's Kip has that look that's not like I'm
angry at my wife but likes, fuck now, our ship's
out in the open.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
Yeah, Kip absolutely knows this and is complicit in this
and is.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
Fine with it. Yeah, you know, and that's the and
that's the thing, and and it's uh. Also I love
the moments where Kip pushes back on Trent for being
hard on Duncan, where he's like, he's like, no, no, no, no,
the kids fine, leave him alone. Like he's like, just
be cool. And but but Trent can't be cool. Trent

(37:51):
is cool guy with everybody, but Duncan, and he's clearly
zeroed in on him, and and you get that very
I imagine if this movie were made today, Trent would
listen to be somebody who listens to at least one
mandom podcast on the regular, if not a crypto bro podcast.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
He's taken some questionable supplements absolutely absolutely, like he's not
a conspiracy theorist or anything like that, but he definitely
has that whole I'm the big swinging dick in the
room and everybody needs to listen to me. He's gonna
become a conspiracy theorist when hears about the hundred hot
dog statues.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Though more and he starts dragging him down and needing
to get photos with them.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
Yeah, Like, where's that episode of Joe Rogan where they
just go and they track down all these statues And.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
Then, I mean, Joe Rogan kind of looks like a
hot dog at this.

Speaker 4 (38:39):
Point, and that motherfucker is pouring ketchup on himself.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
You just know, Oh, you know he's using ketchup on
hot dogs, Like abs of fucking lutely, that guy, I'm
going to elk meat hot thugs.

Speaker 4 (38:54):
Dude, I'm gonna leave the most confusing iTunes review where
I'm like, I'm not listening to this fucking show anymo anymore,
because if he was a hot dog, you put catch
upon himself and people be like, what the fuck?

Speaker 2 (39:02):
Even for Joe Evans, the people who have been there
who are like, oh, he's seen the statues? Is there
people out here right now that know exactly what we're
talking about that they've seen them, and they're like, oh,
I know the statues Gargo's talking about. One is located
near my house. Yeah, they're deeply fucked.

Speaker 4 (39:20):
This guy hasn't been red pilled. He's been red hotted,
do you know what I mean? Like you, he has
seen some shit. Oh that's all I'm gonna be thinking
about for the rest of the day, these fucking one
hundred hot dog statues. And you know what, And I
just watched Joey Chestnut shoved seventy of them into his
fucking face on fucking Coney Island, And now all I
can think about is is there a statue there that

(39:43):
I've been missing when I watch the Nathan's Hot Dog
You Need contest every year.

Speaker 3 (39:46):
Is Joey Chestnut? Holy shit? Is he just one of
those statues made flesh? Is that why he's so good
at this shit?

Speaker 6 (39:55):
That?

Speaker 2 (39:56):
No, that was He's Joey Chestnut, not Joey Cannibal.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
It's it's a false flag Operation Cargil. That's all I'm saying. Oh,
that belt does look good and yoh and by the way,
what color is the belt?

Speaker 3 (40:09):
Is it catch up red?

Speaker 4 (40:10):
No, it's fucking mustard yellow and it's called the mustard belt.
Just saying, guys, I'm very angry about this for no reason.
Don't worry about it.

Speaker 3 (40:22):
Oh my god. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:24):
The way that this completely unravels, like in that moment
where Duncan has like you watch this, You watch Duncan
go through this thing of like, I don't like this
guy in general. He opens the movie, like I said,
by asking him, how would you rate yourself one to ten,
forces him to give an answer he doesn't want to,
and then tells him, no, you're only half that good
like he's Duncan says, I think I'm a six, and

(40:46):
Trent says no, you're a three like, motherfucker, then why
did you ask, like, what what do you like? First
of all, don't ask that question at all. Secondly, don't
make him answer, and thirdly, don't undermine his answer, you
fucking asshole. So he already doesn't like the guy. And
then when he witnesses this, you see Duncan, who's fourteen,
grapple maturely with I hate this guy. This could get

(41:07):
him out of my life, but it would also hurt
my mom, played by again Tony Kollett, who's just a
fucking warm hug in this movie, but she.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
Is also flawed.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
She's afraid, she has you know, she has insecurities as well,
and of course that's what the Trent character is feeding on.
But there's a moment right after this where she's like,
you were going that long? You only got marshmallows, and
Carrel says, Joan has the rest, and she realizes, and
you see that moment she slowly realizes that Trent was
off with Joan alone for so long and that something

(41:37):
probably definitely happened, and that moment is devastating enough. But
then like when he's out and he's like, oh, I
was on the boat, and then they're at that barbecue
and you hear you hear Kip say, all the boat's
been broken for a week, and Tony Kollett gets up
and now now Duncan knows that Pam knows that train
is a piece of shit, but she's not saying anything,

(41:58):
and that makes Duncan mad. And so like this barbecue,
by the way, that moment has the tension and the
emotional savageness of you know, anything in Night Moves. It's
crazy that we're doing these movies back to back, but
just like, why won't you Why won't you fucking say it?
Why won't you admit that this guy is cheating on you?
And she's like, you know, I'm afraid people. You don't

(42:20):
understand why people do things, and that like he's just
so bad for this family in every single way, and
watching Duncan have to be the one to try and
grapple with all this, you completely understand why he needs
the escape and why the escape would be water Whiz
in East Wheream, Massachusetts, where he meets h Sam Rockwell

(42:42):
and learns about this supposed uh these people that supposedly
learned how to pass each other in the tube of
the water slide. It's its own little urban legend going on.
But I just you talk about this movie being well written,
Every line of dialogue that comes out of Sam Rockwell's
mouth is pure. I think Joe Lynch I read his
letterbox review of this movie, and he compared Sam Rockwell

(43:05):
in this movie to Bill Murray and Meatballs, And I'm like,
I totally fucking see.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
That without all the sexual harassment, without all.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
The sexual harassment. But he's a great linehere'.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
A little sexual harassment actually.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
Just a little a little susson of sexual harassment.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
You know, a little extra with extra privileges.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
Sure, for sure.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
But he's telling his life story and he's clearly just
being a wise ass. And he says, I joined the
circus to become a clown fighter. I know about forty
six ways to kill a clown, like just like going
off on these riffs. And then like he also another
thing I'm obviously going to appreciate about this character is
he's very concerned and plugged into doing bits. And he like,
he'll do this whole bit with Duncan and Duncan doesn't

(43:45):
pick up on it, and then he just goes, wow,
do you get comedy, Like, I just I fucking love
that he knows he's doing bits the whole time.

Speaker 3 (43:51):
He's like a self aware Bill Murray from Meatballs.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (43:55):
No.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
In fact, the great scene when he meets Peter and
sees eye because he's got a lazy eye, and he's like,
oh man, I wish I had that, and Peter's like,
shut up. He's like, no, I do. Do you know
how many bits I could do with that? Instantly you
hear them all in your head. He doesn't have to riff,
he does one little bit, but you know that guy
would make every joke imaginable about his own eye, and

(44:18):
he does, and in fact, he makes a lot of
jokes at his own expense. And then when he's not,
when it's not a bit, you see how sad and
lonely and depressed a guy he is, and that he's
just trying to make other people laugh because it makes
him feel better.

Speaker 4 (44:34):
And that relationship he has with Maya Rudolph, where she
is kind of at her wits end with all of
his bullshit and his inability to grow up. At the
same time, there's a lot of love there. I mean,
that's the thing that's so fantastic about this character is
as much as he is a wise ass, as much
as he's immature, and as much as you know he's
constantly riffing and all that, like, there is a genuine

(44:55):
heart here. There is genuine caring for the people in
his life. There is real abiding love not only for
Maya Rudolph, but you know for Duncan as it goes
burgeoning through the movie. And I love that, and like
even that line with Peter. At the one hand, yes
he talks about how he could do a lot of
bits with it, but in doing that makes Peter feel
better about having that lazy eye, So you know there

(45:16):
is a genuine level of caring that he has for
these people.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
There is also one of the things I love about
this is it is a coming of age movie for
more than one character. Because Sam Rockwell is a child
coming of age. Tony Kollett is an adult who falls
in with a bunch of adult kids, yeah, who don't
want to grow up, And amidst them who don't want
to grow up, you see Sam Rockwell being given one

(45:43):
one break, one talk from Maya Rudolph, and all of
a sudden he wants to change his whole fucking life
because he needs to grow up.

Speaker 3 (45:52):
It's Maya Rudolph, I totally understand.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
I mean, but that's the thing. Their chemistry is so
good and palpable and honest that it's such an honest
relationship that you see why he wants to be a
better person. He's helping Duncan along to become a better person.
He sees that this kid needs something, and he throws
him a rope and brings him in and gives him
a job as a floater at the water park to

(46:15):
help him because he realizes this kid's got nothing else
going on, let's, you know, maybe this will help. And
then watches him flourish and then gets called out for
you know, being a kid and not growing up on
his own, and then decides to start growing up. And
then when he decides to man up, BOYD, does he
man up. Also, I love how responsible he is about
his irresponsibility. Oh h Like the minute the kids walk

(46:38):
into the party and go for the beers, He's like, no, no, no, no, no,
He's not that irresponsible. He's just hazardous, not dangerous.

Speaker 4 (46:47):
Hazardous not dangerous. That is the important distinction here. I also,
I just I love that he is that character that
we mentioned, Peter with the lazy eye, who's Alice and
Janney's Sun. There's a moment earlier in this movie where
he's playing with Star Wars figures and Duncan's like, how's
the battle going? Like, trying to engage with this kid,
and he says, Luke and Layer hooking up, and he goes,

(47:08):
you know they're brother and sister, right. He's like, yeah, okay,
cool and just walks away.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
And the line and the line he doesn't say, is
you've met my sister who we have not mentioned. Anna
Sophia rob Yes, who's fucking great in this having her
own coming of age story as she's out there again
for a summer and realizing the friends she spends the
summer with they aren't who she wants to be hanging

(47:35):
out with. She wants to sit and read a book
and they want to be mean girls and she doesn't.
And there's a little mean girl part of her that
comes out earlier when she first talks to Duncan and
totally shuts Duncan down in a way that Duncan is
just like, okay, yeah, the girl next door is just
you know, she's just like, you know, Steph, my pseudo stepsister,

(47:56):
and she then turns around and tries to connect with
him the rest of the summer because she realizes she
really whiffed it, and you really kind of dig into
her character and what's going on with her, and she
like really exposes herself to him emotionally and they have
this connection, and it's this very interesting misconnection where he

(48:17):
finally he makes a move on her and she rebuffs him,
but it was just because she wasn't really ready at
the moment, and when she is, she gives him this
big validating moment. But also in that moment, you realize
that she's met this guy, that she could really have
a real relationship with somebody who really is cool and

(48:38):
gets her, and that she gets and he's leaving and
she's probably never going to see him again. And it's
that that you know, anyone who has been that age
and gone on vacation and been there for a couple
of weeks and fallen for somebody and only to never
see him again. It's that relationship. And you see her
own little heartbreak at the end as she met this

(49:00):
guy that she's gonna probably remember for the rest of
her life as this guy that she met and got away.
Uh so you she by the way, you can she
was just in rebel Ridge where she's great. So she's
still around in acting.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
Mcbreak is playing Uh is.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
It Varu Bridgie to Tabythia.

Speaker 4 (49:23):
Oh yeah, I was thinking in the Tim Burton Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory. I believe she's uh Violet Beauregard
or she.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. But she's one of the main
characters in Bridge Tarabithia and then had had a big
breakout with Soul Server in twenty eleven. Uh and then yeah,
and is still still around to one of those child
actresses that is still acting after these messages, We'll be
right back.

Speaker 6 (49:46):
This is the dawn of a new day for the
station Wagon, introducing the all new nineteen eighty seven Toyota
Camri Wagon. Camri now combines the wide open spaces of
a wagon, the passing power of a new fifteen vow
fuel of fission engine, and the Toyota quality that is
Nate Camery the most trouble free new car domestic organ

(50:10):
boys told in America.

Speaker 4 (50:13):
And there's this really interesting subtle running theme throughout the
movie when Alison Janny is trying to force Duncan to
hang out with Peter. Like neither one of them is,
you know, a bad person, They're they're not completely ill

(50:33):
suited for friendship. But it got me thinking about how
a lot of this movie is about the idea, Like
if you extrapolate out the idea of being set up
for a playdate or being forced to hang out with
kids close to your age on vacation, you don't know
that kind of applies to a lot of different people
in the movie, Like you have Anna Sophia Robb's character

(50:54):
of Susannah, who's Alison Janny's daughter, realizing that the other
people in her friend group are almost people she was
expected to hang out with more than people that she
actually connects with, which is literally the issue you run
into sometimes with a playdate. Is just expecting that proximity
equals affection, like proximity in age, proximity and location just

(51:16):
means oh, you'll be friends. And it's the same way
with Tony Kollett's character and people like Kip and Joan.
It's like they're just here, they're Trend's friends, so I'm
expected to be friends with it. Like so many different
characters in this movie figuratively are being set up on
play dates and realizing that being able to choose the
people who you connect with and kind of picking your

(51:39):
own community is is a far more ideal scenario. And
I just I love it because that's, like you said,
it's Duncan realizing that the Tawnies are his people and
the people like we watched, you know, we've got that
great sort of obligatory in a coming of age movie,
but done really well here that that montage. As we're watching,
Duncan start to gain that conce.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
And that confidence comes from performance, a little bit of
bronzer and adjusting his hair, and all of a sudden
he goes from being so fucking awkward to be in
the coolest guy in the fucking room. There's a moment
in that montage where Steph looks at him and is
just like he's just sitting there happy, he's smiling, he's
eating his breakfast, and she gives him a weird look

(52:21):
and he gives her a wink and she has no
idea how to fucking be that.

Speaker 4 (52:25):
But it's like he's happier in this job that he
went out and got himself. So it has nothing to
do with, like, oh, just hang out all summer with
this person who's kind of your age. No, I would
rather go get a job with a bunch of weirdos
who live in town because I connect better with them.
Like it's literally the difference between being set up on
a playdate and picking your own friends, which so many

(52:46):
characters in this movie you're dealing with.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
And one of my favorite little moments in there of
his transformation is when Sam Rockwell finally gets his shit
together when Owen goes out and he starts setting things
up and like, yeah, I'm going to try to open
the park and see what all the fuzz is about
when you really know it's all about, you know, Caitlin
dressing him down and uh, and he Duncan is like
second guessing him on everything because Duncan's worked there for

(53:12):
like three weeks and he already knows the park so
much better than no one ever does. And he's like,
we usually put them in rows, I know down Like,
oh shit, give me a coffee, ha gotcha, we don't
sell coffee, Yeah, we do.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
Well, we do in one week. Knows the place better
that Sam Rockwell ever has.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
Because also he's really good at what he does. That's
how he becomes employee of the month. It's from popin lock.

Speaker 3 (53:40):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (53:41):
That brings me to a point about this movie. Car Gill,
you can tell I love that Nat Faxon and Jim
Rash cannot help themselves, like, this is a movie that
is contemporarily set, but there is so much fucking eighties
nostalgia in this movie.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
Oh yeah, that is never fully addressed.

Speaker 2 (53:59):
No, that's why it pairs so well with Adventureland because
venture Land is a similar movie set at a theme park,
but definitely set very much in the eighties, whereas here
they're like, we're gonna set in the and I'm almost
I almost think since adventure Land came out a few
years beforehand, that they're like, well, we can't set this
in the eighties anymore because everyone's just going to compare
it to adventure Land. So let's let's keep the eighties

(54:21):
and ness of it, but set it, you know, contemporarily.
And it works.

Speaker 3 (54:29):
Yeah, it definitely does.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
But it's interesting how it's not just the parents in
this movie that have affection for the eighties.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
It's not a big chill situation. It's the kids too.

Speaker 4 (54:37):
Like Peter's got this collection of Star Wars figures and
Duncan's listening to Ario Speedwagon on his iPod.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
He's got this this.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
And Susannah recognizes that it's Ario Speedwagon without having to
be told yes.

Speaker 4 (54:49):
And then Duncan has not doesn't just know what pac
Man is, but has like esoteric knowledge of how.

Speaker 3 (54:54):
The boards work.

Speaker 4 (54:55):
Like this movie is deeply infatuated with the eighties in
a way that I it's not really addressed at any point.
I mean, there's a cargo mention that there's an honest
to god break dancing sequence, like all of a sudden,
we're trying to save the water park and the rec center,
we're just breakdancing at the water park.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
I don't understand it, but I love it.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
And I having dug too deep into the background of it,
but I am. I have been convinced that either Faxin
or Rash or maybe both worked at a water park,
if not water whiz in their youth.

Speaker 3 (55:26):
Had to be that has to be the case.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
And by the way, both of those guys play fun
supporting roles in the movie.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
Yes, they directed, they wrote it, and they're both two
of the most fun characters you've got Roddy, just the
kind of burnout who's working there, who's kind of the
the the junior Owen. And then you've got Jim Rashes Lewis,
who is just the sad guy who just hates life
and is just there working at a water park, and
he's got all these big dreams, but he never has

(55:54):
the balls to get, you know, get off his ass
and leave and go do the things he keeps saying.
And that is a great mirror for both Owen and Duncan,
who could be stuck in their lives but choose not to.

Speaker 4 (56:13):
I am going to say something that I don't think
has been said too often. There is a direct comparison
between Jim Rash and Vin Diesel in that neither one
of them should have hair. Ever, it is unsettling to
see either one of them with hair at all.

Speaker 2 (56:27):
So he went back to the nineties and saw Jim
Rash in his in one of his sitcoms.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
No, I mean he's got hair in this and that's
what was unsettling to me.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
Oh well, yes, yes, he actually used to have a
full head of hair back in the nineties. And if
you ever look back at it, it's like well that
is Jim Rash, but this looks wrong, like for those
who by the way, for those of you that don't
know the name Jim Rash right offhand, if you don't know,
he's the principle on Community, the Dan the Dean, and

(56:57):
he's amazing comedian and a Academy Award winning screenwriters.

Speaker 3 (57:03):
It's amazing.

Speaker 4 (57:04):
But yeah, it's kind of like when The Rock first
debuted in the WWF and he had that weird like
like weird, I don't know, like a pineapple of hair
on top of his head, and nobody liked him like
he was a face, but no.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
He was a baby face. Yeah that year where he
was he was just yeah where they're like, oh, we're
gonna sell him as this beautiful like Samoan guy, and
it's like, no, no, no, he had to turn heel
for everyone to fall in love with him.

Speaker 4 (57:26):
He's from this long lineage of this great Simoan wrestling family,
and nobody wants that we'll never be able to make
that work. Jump ahead twenty years and they absolutely made
that fucking work. But The Rock as just Rocky myavilla
didn't get over. And then he joins the Nation of
Domination and goes down to you could literally track Cargill
how over the Rock was. It is inversely proportionedate to
how much hair he has, So the more hair the

(57:47):
Rock has, the less over he is. As the hair
goes away as his as his hairline recedes, his popularity increases.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
Can you smell that the Rock has no product?

Speaker 3 (58:05):
It's true. Palm Ade should have been uh, the people's
palm Aade should have been his finishing move for sure.
Oh my god, I don't know what the fuck we're
doing in this Hot Dog. I'm in the best episode.

Speaker 4 (58:19):
But yeah, like when he runs away, like, duncan you
know now that his family's completely imploded, The infidelity is
out in the open, and yet Mom's refusing to leave,
And that really kind of pushes duncanto the limit, like
why why would you choose to be with this person
who's doing this to you? And that's when Tony Klett's like,
I wouldn't expect you to understand. He needs to get away.

(58:39):
He goes and spends the night at the water park.
They're having a going away party for Jim Rash's character,
who is never actually going away. But then you know,
they come back from that and there's so many great
moments between him and Sam rock While at this party
where you know, he's like, you do have people who
care for you.

Speaker 3 (58:56):
It's like, how do you know?

Speaker 4 (58:57):
Like it like in any other common in any other
drug like this Cargo. I feel like the moment where
Duncan pushes back against Sam Rockwell, when the whole movie
he's just been this sort of willing patawan of cool
the entire time, when he gives it back to Sam
roqu was like, how the hell would you know, Sam Rockwell.
I feel like in any other movie, the easier choice
would be to have him get upset and drive it

(59:19):
like a little wedge between them, and then it's like
made up later. But here he's just like never mind,
how I know? I just fucking know. And it's just
such a brilliant little moment. I love it so much.
But then yeah, he comes back and it's like we're
we're all leaving, We're leaving here together, and and you
start to really simultaneously, no I wouldn't say dislike Tony Kolett,

(59:41):
but you start to really judge her decisions a little bit.
And then just the end of this movie that is
so fucking amazing. The end of the movie, you know,
where he runs out of the way back of the
station wagon. He goes back to the water park for
one last time because he's gonna attempt to pass somebody
in that tube.

Speaker 3 (59:58):
He's gonna pull off the lead.

Speaker 4 (01:00:00):
And you know, there's that great interaction between Sam Rockwell
and Steve Carell where Sam Rockwell is being cordial, but
in that way that's like what they call Midwest nice.
It's just like you're you're clearly saying fuck you as
you're saying nice.

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
To meet you.

Speaker 4 (01:00:14):
It's it's all just rolled into one phrasing, and you
know there's all of these things going on.

Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
But before that, right before that, when he wants to
go down the when he's going to go down the
tubes and pass, you know, you can see on Owen's
face and he's like, what.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
Are you doing?

Speaker 6 (01:00:29):
Man?

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
And then you know when one of the kids says, uh,
how are you going to how do you plan on
doing it? And Dougie just looks at him and goes,
don't die wondering man, and Sam Rockwell just laughs and
he's like, Oh, I'm all in, let's fucking go. It
was just such a great moment man, because in that moment,
the student has he has he has learned a lesson

(01:00:50):
and he's you know, he over the course of a summer,
this awkward kid is now has the exuding confidence and
believes in himself so much that he's gonna t something
he doesn't even know how he's gonna do. And that's
not the kid he met, you know, weeks or months before.
And it's just such a great moment. They go down
the tube, he does it, he becomes the legend. And

(01:01:12):
then Trent shows up and he's like, can we go now, Yeah,
And that's where you get this amazing moment, the only
scene in the movie where Sam rock Wall and Steve
Carell appear on screen together and it is chef's kiss.

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
And then from there we're just in that station wagon.
You're looking at the clock thinking there's no way this
is how it ends. There is no way.

Speaker 4 (01:01:32):
Tony Kaletz just fine with Steve Carell and Duncan's going
to be forced to put up with it, like, there's
no way this, this can't be how it ends. And
then that final moment when Pam looks at Steve Carrell
and you can see the contempt in her face and
it's not just contempt but like, oh wait a minute, no,
And then she doesn't say a word. She just climbs
into the way back with Duncan and they just sit

(01:01:53):
there together. It's one of the best show don't tell
resolutions in a movie I've ever seen. You know in
that moment that she has chosen Duncan, she has chosen
to break away from Trent, like it's it's a physical
distance that also represents her severing of their relationship without.

Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
Having to say it. It is such a beautiful moment.
I love it so much.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
Yeah, and then they make an amazing choice. They've got
this great pop song playing. It just really sets the
mood of what's going on. You know, they're in the
back together and it goes black and they just hold
on the song for a moment and just let you
drink it in because the movie just wants you to
sit there and stew in the happiness in your belly.
And you know, it's just such a great, beautiful, perfect

(01:02:40):
choice of you know, editing where you just you're sitting
there going, oh, That's why I love this movie.

Speaker 4 (01:02:48):
It's it's great too because it's one of the few
songs in the movie that's not a razor and tie,
awesome Madies box set song. There's so many great eighties
hits in this movie, but then you have this song
at the end that it fits so perf And speaking
of music, the composer on this movie is Rob Simonson,
who is one of the hardest working composers currently. I mean,

(01:03:08):
he's done like Deadpool and Wolverine, He's got that Leo
movie coming out, he did The Whale, Ghostbusters, Afterlife, Fox
Catcher with Steve Carell, five hundred Days a Summer. But
the thing I loved most about digging into his IMDb profile,
he also has the distinction of scoring both The Way
Way Back and Ben Afflex The Way Back. Like, I

(01:03:29):
just love that both of those movies are in his repertoire.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
And that's a series of films that just don't make
any sense to me. You know, it's in terms of franchises,
The Way followed by The Hard Way, followed by The
Way Back, followed by The Way Way Back. It's just
a series that doesn't make sense to me.

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
See, you weren't even further. I thought I thought you
were gonna say.

Speaker 4 (01:03:51):
The first movie is just called the back, and then
the next one is the way back, and then the no, no,
the hard.

Speaker 3 (01:03:56):
Way is in there too.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
I love it. That was for you.

Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
I appreciates that so much. Oh my god.

Speaker 4 (01:04:03):
And by the way, another junk food alum of this
movie that doesn't get talked about enough, John Bailey, the cinematographer. Uh, just,
I'm only gonna mention the movies he's done that we've covered,
like Silverado, in the Line of Fire and Groundhog Day.

Speaker 3 (01:04:17):
Can you imagine shooting Groundhog.

Speaker 4 (01:04:19):
Day having to repeat those exact moments in those exact
angles that many like I tip my end.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
Oh god, are you kidding me? I would love that,
no you laugh, But not having to do setups and
be able to get like, you know, ten to fifteen
minutes of footage out of you know, the same setups
fucking rad man.

Speaker 4 (01:04:43):
Yeah, but I mean he's having to do that in
like anytime the weather change, they'd have to shoot all
the scenes again in that weather.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
Just oh, that part is problematic.

Speaker 4 (01:04:50):
Yeah, yeah, just I guess they use that take on
a sunn of your day now that all now, all
the days have to match up like it is, like
it had to be Vietnam for a DP. It absolutely
had to be as great as that movie is. It
had to be a nightmare for John Bailey, who we
just lost in twenty twenty three. So tip of the
hat to John Bailey. But yeah, he's shot some great
movies and some junk food cinema movies and some great

(01:05:11):
junk food cinema movies. But yeah, I fucking this is
the viewing that made me realize that I didn't just
like this movie. I really really love The Way Way Back,
and I'm so excited that we get to talk about it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
I don't know that I've mentioned the patron's name.

Speaker 4 (01:05:24):
Classic Material is his online handle, But thank you very
much for requesting this movie because it works so well
for this season. I knew Cargill was gonna be on
board for a coming of age movie, and I'll call
this movie.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
But like, now you understand why I watch it every year.
And even though I've watched it every year, I did
not have to do my research at all for this
fucking movie. To do this episode. I fucking sat down
and watched it again, and Jess was like, wait, you're
watching The Way Way Back without me, because normally we
watch it on fourth of July weekend. But it rained here.
I don't know if you've heard about it, but it

(01:05:59):
came down awful here and it's been. When it's not raining,
it's fucking muggy with mosquitos. So we normally watched this
in the backyard and I was watching it. She goes,
you're watching it without me. I'm like, I'll watch it
again with your baby, and she goes, but you're just
and I'm like, yeah, I'll watch it again. You don't
have to twist my arm on this one. I love
this fucking movie. I will watch it as many times

(01:06:19):
as I can get away with. It is on my
list of last one hundred films I want to watch
before I die. Absolutely just one of my deep fried favorites.

Speaker 3 (01:06:29):
And just so you know, Cargo, watching this movie one
hundred times does not count as seeing all of the
hundred hot dog statues.

Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
It does not, which is why I'm trying to see
them in person. But I do have photos of myself
with some of those hot dogs.

Speaker 4 (01:06:40):
I think we've just invented the junk food cinema road trip.
So coming to a town near you possibly the hundred
hot dog statue trip, and that brings us to the
junk food pairing cargo. I'm gonna let you go first.

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
This one's you know, I'm gonna go with you. Gotta
have a clam bake.

Speaker 4 (01:06:59):
Okay, okay stop. The reason I let you go first.
The reason I let you go first speacause I thought,
with all the fucking hot dog talk in this episode,
there is no way the junk food Cinema wasn't going
to be hot dogs. But that's not the junk food
pairing that I wrote down. The junk food bring that
I wrote down was fried clam strips.

Speaker 2 (01:07:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:07:19):
So this conversation tried so hard to derail us and
push our collective consciousness toward making the junk food pairing
a hot dog, which would make sense fourth of July Summer,
the one hundred hot dog statue conversation. Nope, we both
are sticking to our guns and going with clams.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
Dude, I eat a lot of wonderful junk food. I
you know, I stuffed my face with a lot of
unhealthy things. I haven't had a hot dog in over
thirty years.

Speaker 3 (01:07:45):
It's I feel sad for you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
They're just not my thing. I do sausages, you know,
I'll do a nice brot, you know, give me a
fucking brot. I will do a brot summer Bronz kill basa,
fucking love kill basa. Hot Dog's not my thing.

Speaker 4 (01:07:59):
Brots are just Midwest bougie, and I appreciate that about
them because I'm a big broad worst person. But come on,
that's just Wisconsin bougie.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
And the immortal words of Pedro Pascal, I'm a lazy,
fifty year old bougie bitch. Sorry, I'm gonna stick with
my fucking brats. You can keep your.

Speaker 3 (01:08:16):
Dogs, okay, but that's not your junk food pairing, so
go off. King.

Speaker 2 (01:08:19):
Yeah, no, you gotta do a clam bake. You gotta
do the proper you know, East Coast to baked you know,
baked clams or fried clam strips. As you're mentioning, you know,
you just got to go with the clams. They are
so integral to the culture of this area, the bougie
nature of where our characters have been dropped into, the

(01:08:40):
kind of you know, uh, and it's very East Coast.
Clam bake is not a thing you do in Texas, don't.
We don't fucking do that here. We have barbecues, you
have clam bakes, so this is definitely a clam bake movie.

Speaker 4 (01:08:52):
See, I went with a slightly different form because you know,
when I would take these trips out to New England
every summer, one of the things I loved most about
owing to New England was going to these little places
on the water and getting plates of fried clam strips.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
M h.

Speaker 4 (01:09:07):
You know, as we've mentioned many times, the water park
in this movie, Water Whiz, is in east Ware, Massachusetts,
in New England. And if there's one thing New England
does better than anywhere in the country, it's fried fucking clams.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
Like it's literally, Clams in.

Speaker 4 (01:09:20):
General are such a staple of the region that it's
a story point in this movie. But I cannot tell
you how much I would love to watch The Way
Way Back Again with a massive plate of golden, fried,
whole belly clam strips. That would immediately take me way
way back to the summers of my youth.

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
Good stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:09:37):
We went with clams.

Speaker 4 (01:09:38):
We tried so hard to mandela ourselves into making hot
dogs the junkle.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
Oh, I didn't try it at all. I just went
with the hot dog statue, my man, and gave you
that hot dog statue is gonna hunt your nightmares tonight.
I promise you.

Speaker 4 (01:09:52):
I already see it when I close my eyes, that
that shit shaped dollop of ketchup on that weird hot
dog man's head.

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
Cargill just smile and the look in his eyes. Man,
that's what's gonna fuck with you.

Speaker 3 (01:10:05):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:10:06):
I when I was a kid, I had food fight
action figures. How don't you remember that toy line food
Fights where it's like they literally made like little soldiers
out of like anthropomorphised food. And it was weird because
it was that time in the nineties when especially boys,
toys were allowed to be gross and weird, and I
loved it. But even the hot dog soldier I had
of that toy line was not as disturbing as the fucking.

Speaker 3 (01:10:26):
Hot dog statue I just saw on my computer.

Speaker 4 (01:10:28):
God damn it, it will be what I see when
I close my eyes at least for a month.

Speaker 3 (01:10:32):
Fuck you, Cargo, How dare you? And how dare.

Speaker 4 (01:10:36):
You not listen to Junk Food Cinema on your favorite
podcastcher and follow us on social media at Junk Food
Cinema And if you really liked the show.

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
I mean you really liked the show.

Speaker 4 (01:10:45):
You like it as much as I could absolutely run
a train on some clamstrips Right now. You can go
to patreon dot com slash Junk Food Cinema financially support
the show.

Speaker 3 (01:10:53):
We greatly appreciate it. Cargill. Where can people find you
on the interwebs.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
You can find me on on Blue Sky, I see
Robert Cary Old Blue Skide Out Social. You can find
my latest book, All the Ash We Leave Behind on
Subterranean Press. You can order it there. It is shipping now.
You can have it in your hot little hands as
a p coming soon on audiobook if that's your thing.
You can find my latest film, The Gorge on Apple

(01:11:18):
Plus streaming now. And my next movie, The Black Phone,
is coming up this October, and I should have some
interesting news about appearances coming up as well. So this
is a it's a good year to.

Speaker 4 (01:11:32):
Be Cargial fantastic. Well, we're gonna get out of here
with advice. I'm going to implore you right now to
google the hundred hot Dog statues because if you haven't
seen it before, don't die wondering. Man, he is a

(01:12:03):
cow