May 2, 2025 • 58 mins
It's episode two. Martin and Gretchen talk about the film Dinner in America. One of the best films made in the last few years and an absolute joy to watch. I (Martin) describe it as the sweetest kick in the nuts. Go watch this film or buy it to own for yourself and have in your library.
Martin and Gretchen talk Dinner in America. https://martinvavra.me
Martin and Gretchen talk Dinner in America. https://martinvavra.me
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I don't even feel like there's like a redemption arc
from the asshole that we found. No, I just found
that he's a lovable asshole who was kind of right
the whole time, or in a good way the whole time.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
There is he makes their lives better, which I think
is kind of spectacular.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
But with a couple of bumps, it's not.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
It's never perfect.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Hey, Gretchen, welcome back, Thanks, and welcome back everyone to
check the Gate podcast. Yeah, and I am so excited
to talk about this film.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I love this film. I saw it in the theater,
but not when it first came out.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
It came out in twenty twenty and really sort of
just disappeared and died during the pandemic. I saw it
in a movie theater in twenty twenty four. It played
at a movie theater Cinemagic here in town. Oh, people
are been craving about it.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So I was dying to talk about this film so badly,
and here we are, and I was so excited to
be able to show it to you. The sweetest kick
in the nuts ever, which is.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
An apt description, honestly.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, So this was this was kind of out of
your box you want to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So normally I'm a big well let's be real, I
watch a lot of horror films because I judge films
for film festivals, especially specifically a horror film festivals, and
mainly I'm I'm always I'm more apt to watch like
something with supernatural elements or whatnot. If I'm going to
watch that's something out of that element of like of
(01:33):
the horror genre. So this was a great introduction film
for me for this kind of because I have to
be honest, Like the very first thirty minutes of it,
I'm like, oh boy, this is very indie and has
that like those long quiet moments that make you go, oh,
it's just going to be any good, and then it
(01:53):
just ramps up and I was wildly impressed by me.
I would say that the way you described that as
perfect that is break your heart, but also is is
like hot, like heartfelt, and Earnest has these moments of
uh where you you're like you're rooting for what would
(02:15):
normally be like the bad guy. Yeah, that's kind of
scenarios not a bad guy. Yeah, yeah, he is. Well
I think we should start with that, right, Like, so
break down that character tell us about.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
The film, Well, it's yeah, so we'll introduce the film
and oh, my goodness, I love this film so much
so uh.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Dinner in America is directed by Adam Reimer and it
stars Kyle Goltner and Emily Skaggs, who is just fantastic.
And so this is kind of a it's a middle
of America punk love story, yes, and it's I find
it to be rather very untraditional in how it's set up.
(02:58):
You had said, Indy, I guess it could be, Indy.
I've seen a few other mainstream films trying to have
this where there is not necessarily a clear plot that
is derived right at the beginning, where you know what
the threat is supposed to be, and we're just following
all of that. It borders on slice of life that
(03:19):
turns into something that has a cohesive narrative to it.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yea, and so we follow.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
We've got this punk person that we really don't know
much about, but they're definitely just like this punk against
the system who seems to be kind of bouncing from
crash pad to crash pad until they bump into and
that's Simon, and then they bump into Patty and so
Simon and Patty begin to develop this relationship. He's hiding out,
(03:48):
she's been fired from a job, and they're starting to
kindle this punk rock relationship. To find out that he
is actually the secret identity singer for this punk band
that she is a huge fan of has been sending
love letters.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
To Oh yes, her love letters. Oh yes, he like,
I thought, well, at first, so this character has these
he's kind of a ship right, like, So we're introduced
to him by him being he's in the he's in
a like a drug study or something like that. It's
(04:26):
a drug study, and he's we kind of see him
as like he's really aggressive, and but he's that overly
aggressive where it's it's like it's unpleasant to be around him.
I think he's the kind of person you would expect
to be, like to steal your wallet while you're like
going into the bathroom kind of thing. Does he probably
(04:47):
kind of does, But he also steals your heart. No,
it's a I I liked how first of all, Kyle
Gowner like is having his moment meant right.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Right now, strange darling that just happened.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
That was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
And he's in smile too.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, I think he I think I think he's.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
In Smile Too. I haven't seen Smile or Smile Too.
I've been recommended those, but I haven't yet.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Smell Too is way better than Smell One.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Oh okay, well there you go, way better.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
You don't even need this first movie.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
It's more I feel like, okay.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, yeah, But that aside, like he he this character.
Remember when I first said to you, I was like, wow,
he's good like the German tourist haircut, because it was
just like he had the side shave and it was
very like indicative at times.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
But I want a mohawk. But I really don't want
a mohawk.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I have to have like a job maybe.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
With a little tails.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
In the back. Yeah it's great, it's great. Yeah, But
I think that this character, like, for at first you
have this, your first gut reaction is like, what a
fucking shithead? What a guy? I don't even want to
I wouldn't even like talk to this guy. You know,
he's that intense and we it only made sense for
(06:11):
him to be a punk rock musician, right because at
first you don't know this about him. The only thing
we know about him is that he's like he sells drugs.
He kind of works on the side and doesn't really
and like it seems to be very aggressive and he
talks to like authority with aggression and so you don't
really get like anything about him until we meet Patty.
And then when we meet Patty, she is I guess
(06:33):
she's like intellectually just like developed, like delayed, I think,
but not like not disabled like she's delayed, I think
because I get the impression that because the way that
she interacts with people, I think that she's like maybe
has a lower IQ or whatnot. But that isn't that
is not but that's what kind of thrives. This is
(06:55):
a story and.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
It's a little bit of like arrested development.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
And yeah, she's in her mid twenties right, still living
at home, and her parents are still treating her like
she's a fourteen absolutely, so whatever could possibly be there
is really arrested by the parents and the structure of
their home.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Which is spectacular.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
This is so good.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
And I love the fact that it's called Dinner in
America too, because it's such a sideline, but it's there,
and the story wise, we have this these scenarios and
throughout this film where people are having dinner together, like
when Kyle meets her family, they have dinner together, Kyle Simon,
Simon meets her family, they have dinner together when she
(07:40):
meets Simon, And.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
It was like a frozen meal too. She didn't even
like make it from scratch.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
It was like so.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Good, it's so good. I mean, I've never I've only
had I don't think I have ever had chicken quarter blue.
I don't think so. I don't even think. I don't
even know what it is. I think it's like cheese
and ham.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I think it is ham placed inside of a chicken
breast that is then breaded and cooked.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Oh and then there might be a sauce.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I know I've had it, but you know, I haven't
eaten meater chicken in like twenty years or so never.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I don't think I've ever had corn on blue. I
think that is like no, I think it was something
I always thought.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Was like it's the off season turn ducan.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
That's exactly it. That's exactly it perfect because it's like
shoved inside of meat meat.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
And just in case this meat wasn't working out, we've
covered in bread and cheese.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah, oh boy, Oh but no it's like, but I
love those little moments. And then we have like there
and then Patty and him have meal a meal together,
and there's those those like those coming together moments. There
was another dinner that happened.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Well, we start out with a meal when Kyle leaves
from the drug testing facility and he leaves with the
other person in the drug trial, and she invites him
over to doing her in.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
A blowjob, which he.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
How can you say no?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I could probably list a couple of reasons how I
mean or should, but but he didn't in.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
A drug study. I mean, it wasn't like they were
in rehab for multiple days too.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
So yes, yet Thompson our brief moment of Leah Thompson
so good.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
She looks great.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Leah Thompson looks great.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
She's like four or five years three or four years
older than I am, which is amazing to believe because
she's been in this industry for so long. And I
think about her back in Back to the Future and
playing these older characters and then younger characters, is like,
holy cown, what age was I when I was watching
this stuff? And here's Leah Thompson who.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Still looks smoky and hot on when I was.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
That young and then to realize, holy cow, we were
so close together in age.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
She's smoking hot like he's totally a milk in this
and I and she is definitely which was kind of
spectacular in that moment like where she's she's like trying
to seduce him, and it reminded me of a little
bit of that scene with in Edward Scissorhands with like
(10:28):
in the right why is it always a redhead? What
the hell? What is happening? But there is a moment
of like where she's she's like playing a record and
she's like like going dance with me, and he's like,
oh yeah, like I'm totally gonna And it's.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Not any kind of like random song that I just
wanted to play. This. This was like little little soft
sexy time great. It was really perfect.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
And then we have her husband the other room being
like listen, watching like a football game with their son
and what Another thing that I noticed about this film,
and we talked about it when we were watching it,
was that it has this timelessness. Yeah, but because there
isn't anybody using a cell phone, but there is one
mention of a cell phone, because there was time where
I was like, what year is this film? Because everybody's
(11:22):
using like they say jam box, they have CDs or
they have.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Tapes, have cassette tapes.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah, and so that made me wonder, like, is this
like they're in the nineties.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Or tracksuits there's the guys that have Yeah, it's like
I don't know anybody who wears a track suit like
that on the regular, like that was of the eighty
nineties thing.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Yeah, yeah, so it it.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
You're right, it has this timeless feel to it because
when you asked me, I actually I had said, well,
this is modern day, but then I started to really
doubt myself and you had a really good point where
you where you were pointing out all these things, and
I'm like, oh, yeah, I get it wrong, and it
was like, really, what it came down to is like
I didn't care.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Well, I think what's happening is that because we're showing
like suburban Michigan and this is not a very wealthy state,
and so I think that a lot of the things
are that's kind of part of the background of this
is that we're seeing this state of like suburban decline,
(12:26):
and so I think that there is like the that's
why the TV was like ten years or twenty years
out of it day. Yeah, and like she's using a
jam box.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
It is one of those old console TVs that's in
like the wooden box around so well.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Because I had one of those when I was a kid.
I remember I've been Oh man, I messed ours up
one time. I took a pacemaker magnet to it.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Whoo oh the old cathode ray tube and screwed it.
That nice.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Oh yeah yeah, times had a perfect like Telly Savalas
had like an orange spot on his space forever.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, it was, it was. I mean those moments made
me think like maybe didn't take me out of it
because I was like my brain was too busy trying
to figure out like what is what era are we
in or whatnot? But I definitely thought that added to
the independentness feeling of it of this film. Does if
(13:22):
that make sense?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yeah? Absolutely well.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
And like I said, I hadn't questioned it the first
time I had watched it, I didn't place it in
an era. Yeah, And I guess I feel that because
of the punk rock attitude and what it's trying to
what I feel that it's trying what I at least
got out of it is that it kind of doesn't
matter what the time is because our character is supposed
(13:47):
to be anti social and anti establishment, but and not
even having like, I don't even feel like there's like
a redemption arc from the asshole that we found. No,
I just found that he's a lovable asshole who was
kind of right the whole time or in a good
way the whole time.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Well, he also seems to weirdly enough, what is it
he seems to do this thing? He has this effect
on people around him, the people that he is that
he likes. There is he makes their lives better, which
I think is kind of spectacular, but.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
With a couple of bumps. It's not it's not a
gentle thing or no, it's.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Never perfect right exactly. Like for instance, like the younger brother, right,
she has oh boy, she has a younger brother. What's maggie,
Maggie Patty Patty Patty has a younger brother, And she
reveals to Simon that he's adopted, but the kid doesn't
(14:50):
know it. So at the dinner table when they're having
dinner and the younger brother's being a shithead, he's all
like reading the parents about the fact that he's adopted
and like.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It's it's all news to him. He's finding out in
real time over court on Blue.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Oh my god, what that was that moment. I was like, Oh,
that's the way, like I eternally grinch, because you know,
that's like everybody is. You could see that on They're
written on their faces. And then the young the son's
face is like reading this moment of like, what, I'm adopted.
(15:30):
And then but he was kind of a kind of
a schmuck. The kid is like kind of a jerk,
and well.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
He's just wound tight, and yeah he does.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
And so it's interesting too with all that, Like there's
the hints of I guess the religious and the Christian
aspect of it with the way Simon ends up playing them,
but it never becomes overly stated that this is a
religious family.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, well it's Middle America.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
It's Middle America.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
So they are, they're wound tight, and they're really trying
to uphold a very specific image of what it means
to be middle class, prosperous, enough white family, yes, progressing
through whatever time period that we're in. And so there's
very much this veil that Kyle starts to that, Simon
(16:24):
starts to yank off of them, you know, and it's
we kind of we don't see what the after effects
are the veil are going to be until it does it,
until everybody starts, you know, getting their good doses of
Simon in there.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
But he like he sees it.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah, and that's I think that's what's he. I don't know,
there's just kind of this sense about him because he
is this antisocial anti system punk like he is a
punk rock.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
He is absolutely punk rock.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
But he doesn't read to me like that was the
one thing about his character that he doesn't remind me
of like the punks from the eighties and nineties that
I that I hung around, But he reminds me of
like more modern, like more like more millennial, not millennial.
That's not right. I would say more like more gen
z more millennial type punks, because his challenge to authority
(17:18):
is way more aggressive, and he, I mean to the
point of where like there's a scene where he's where
Patty tells her tells him to kiss her in the
restaurant and again at dinner and of some sort, and
there he starts making out with her and he sees
these two women looking over at him, He's like kind
(17:39):
of comes out of him a little bit, and you're.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Like, WHOA, come there, mind your business.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Right, I mean, like you're making out with this chicken
the mill of restaurant ship.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Yeah, if you don't want, I'm able to watch the
show aggressively making it out.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Well, but it was it was.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Like pinned at the wall, yeah, Madham, Yeah, ma'am. Yeah,
but it's so.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
But that's a great meal, and we've come back to
that dinner, America. There are all those meals, and you
had started to point out we had the first one
with the woman that he was in the drug testing with, Yes,
and that one goes awry. And then the next time
we see him he's with Patty. So he's with Patty
and their family. And then we do have uh, there
(18:23):
is the burger restaurant after they successfully beat up the jocks.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
And have their moment.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yes, there is the dinner with Simon's family when we
start to kind of uncover a little bit more about
Simon's past. Even though we know that he is the
leader of the punk rock band, yeah, but now we're
starting to see that he comes from a family of
some wealth, like not typical Middle America. They are definitely
upper class and worried about some status.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
And except for his older brother, which which kind of
made me a little said that we didn't get to
examine that a little bit. More like we didn't get
to we didn't get much story in him, but we
also didn't need it. He wasn't the main focus. But
I just thought it was kind of great that he was.
We get to circle back on him at the end.
But other than that, he doesn't have much of a
role other than just kind of standing up for him,
(19:13):
which I thought was great. You know, there were these
I've met people like this where these like people that
come from great backgrounds and or like upper class families
and then just being very anti establishment in comparison or whatever.
And I'm like, it's to me, it's easy to do
that if you have you come from wealth. So that
(19:35):
to me took down his like punk rockness a little bit, yeah,
because I'm like, well, it's easy to to rail against
the system if you have a back, if you have
something to back you up, but you kind of learned
that he doesn't always doesn't really have that because of
his family are on like their last their last leg
with him or whatnot. But I mean that is a
(19:58):
thing with that kind of I hate to say it doesn't.
It doesn't make him less of an interesting character, but
it definitely lets you see a little more insight into
why he's what he's railing against, because it's railing against authority.
(20:20):
I think it comes from the fact that his parents
were trying to control him, just like Patty's parents. We're
trying to control her, but she kind of fell into
line until she doesn't fall into line anymore. And one
of the things I appreciate about him is that he
teaches her to stand up for herself. And I don't
think she would have ever had the opportunity to get
(20:41):
out of that cycle because she was just accepting because
of her delayed, delayed starter, arrested development. She isn't able
to stand up for herself, protect her own resources and
things like that. Because clearly there was this moment where
(21:02):
we find out that she hasn't been paid by her boss. Yeah,
that he tells her that her last job, the reason
why he's firing her is because they were raising the
minimum wage in Michigan, only to find out he hired
a hot girl.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
What, and commented on Patty's supposed ability to process information
in the timely way that he wanted it to be
done right.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, but I appreciate that about him, like being teaching
her to stand up for herself in that respect, I mean.
And he even like calls people out, because that I
thought was also very cool, Like he calls out her family,
he calls out her boss or ex boss or whatever.
I liked. Those are the things that made me go
(21:56):
when we were watching it. When I had said that,
these are the things that made me go, everybody is
better for meeting him in a way.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I don't know if it was their intention or not,
but it's the commentary that I get out of it,
and it's one that I've recognized in life about myself
and other people. But this idea that there is a
system and you can rail against it, and you can
want to fight the system and change the system, and
even be someone likes Simon who is kind of out
(22:25):
of the system mostly, but you still are dependent on
the system. Your ability to fight the system or even
live out of it is completely dependent on the system
being in place and you being able to tap into
it from time to time. Agree, and so Simon really
doesn't like the way our current set of cultural and
(22:46):
social guidelines are there for this is what you do
at these periods of time. This is when you get
married and you make money, and you graduate from college
and you like everything is these gradual steps to death
that are set up, and you're supposed to be very
happy about that. But he's doing things like he has
to go to the drug trial to go and make
some extra money so that they can finish their album. Well,
(23:07):
he wouldn't be able to do that if the system
wasn't in place for him to be able to go
to a drug trial and make two thousand dollars off
of it. But if the system wasn't there, he might
not have needed the two thousand dollars from that system.
So it's an interesting commentary that the system that he
fights against is sometimes there for him to fall back on.
He goes to his family's house and still has a
(23:29):
key to the place. He could have done that along
the way at some point in time, but he didn't
until he was with Patty, and I guess he was
feeling calmer at the time. It gave him access to
the recording equipment and the instruments. So this idea that
you're fighting the system, but then you also have to
participate in the system. I mean, it's even a meme.
(23:50):
I've seen people who have even pointed that out, where
you know, folks have said, this.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Isn't a good system and it's not.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Oh, but you're participating the system, aren't I smart for
pointing out it's like, no, we're stuck in the system
and we have to work off of.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
It, especially dealing with like family like well to do
families and whatnot, and trying to have a traditional like
because they have like a traditional relationship where their boy
meets girl and boy meets girl's family, girl meets boy's family,
and so those those traditional roles, but they also kind
of like pivot them a little bit by being pro
(24:26):
one another and having each other's back, which I loved
when Patty stepped up and was like, hey, no, like
he's amazing to Yeah, I loved that, And that's what
made me immediately fall for this story because it was
they really have each other's back, They solidly love one another,
(24:50):
and they loved each other without knowing each other before
they met each other. Yeah, which I thought was just
that to me, was the love story there, Yeah, I mean,
because he was like, I've been jerking off to your
letters like for the past you know what, how many years,
And she's like, oh my god, I've been sending you
love letters and jerking off to them as well well.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
And he rejected initially, he rejected the idea of a
fan being in love with him and trying to run
away from it.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
But he also was like accepting of it too, because
he said he was like he had been jerking after
her pictures.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's correct. So yeah, he
was I think, yeah, I think he was thrilled by
the idea of a fan until he met the fan. Yes,
when he was yeah, and it wasn't even like, well,
I don't he.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Puts two and two together first when he realizes that
she's his fan and he's like, oh boy, yeah. And
I think, like you said, he kind of rejected it
at first because he was like, he was like, well,
I you know, why would anybody be like this for me?
You know, this is a punk rock man, this is
not rock you know, whatever the case. I mean, like
we all get into that, like, I mean whatever. But
(25:59):
I think that when he realizes when he puts the
two and two together, he's like, oh, okay, and these
he kind of falls for her. And then they sing
a song together and he asks her to sing from
the poems that she writes, yeah, and to him, and
it is this darling of a song, like it's very
(26:23):
catchy watermelon tongue tungue cute. Yeah, it's just sweet, sweet,
a sweet little moment that made like set my heart.
What can I say? And I'm like, ah, it's not
a horror film, but I love it anyways.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Yeah, yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
And I did the little IMDb search on a couple
of things, looked for some stuff, and Emily Skeggs worked
with Adam Ramer to write that.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Song oh cute.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
So they they had done that together, so that when
we get to our moment where she's singing that in
the film and we're watching them write this song, Simon
puts the instruments together and then she takes one of
her letters and turns it into lyrics.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Yeah, it's so I mean.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
You're so right, it's so powerful, it's wonderful, it's it's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
It's punk. Uh, it's very punk loving. Yeah, yeah, I
guess it is.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
I'm so, I will admit I'm a person who is
I don't always know my bifurcations in music. I just
know when I like something and when something speaks to
me and something doesn't.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Oh, that's fine. I mean I don't I think that
that we've left those kind of genre names behind in
the nineties, right, Like we're like the goth this is
you know. Yeah, yeah, I mean, but I'm only hearkening
those back because it's like familiar terminology.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Oh for sure. Yeah, and it's but it's not.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
It's not so it's not it doesn't feel pop punk
to me, Like it doesn't feel like it's a What
were some of those bands in there? I'm even trying
to like remember some of the late nineties or lead
two thousands kind of pop punk of no, like outside
of the Green Day or like Green Day was popular,
they were pop punk.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
But there was a bunch of others.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
That like Goldfinger. No, those are like, I don't know,
you're asking the wrong person.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, there was some of those just kind of like pop.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Pop, Operation Ivy or something like that.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
No more than well, I don't even know who that is.
I'm thinking the ones that actually had like top chart
hits that were like so they were so poppy, but
they had their punk aspect to it. I can't even
think of I can't even think of the band's name,
but Travis Barker was the drummer for them. That's how
That's how much it affected my life. Like I don't
(28:40):
even remember their names that I was busy.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
In the nineties. Yeah, I just thought that was like
to me, that was there was there was a few
moments that was one of them that would maybe go like,
I just I just love these characters. Yeah, and that
they're a little sharing their song and then that kind
of like rockets there love story further or furthers our
love story because that's when we have like the kiss
(29:05):
scene and then we have the scene where they're the
dinner with the family and yeah, I just I'm thanks
for introducing me to this film. It was a lot
of fun to watch. Again, I would have never probably
watched this on my own. I would have been like
and doing a little meta on it. I'm shocked, like
and it unfortunately has had a release in during twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Yeah, twenty realistic.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
It looks like that is that would be that that
was a tragedy of this film that it didn't get
seen at all, but reading that it's getting now having
like an uptake and interest. I even read that the
that Kyle had written about it, it's like saying that
he was shocked now that audiences was like selling out
theaters now that people are responding to it, because I
(29:55):
feel like it's very topical now, Like I think that's
what this is the kind of film we needed now
Unfortunately shot. You know, it was a release in twenty twenty,
but I think it would definitely do good now if
we saw if I got a new release, especially because
now he's gotten so popular specifically.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yeah, well but it is I mean to be honest,
it was the film that we needed and deserved in
twenty twenty, but the system didn't allow which.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Is so yeah, the system.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
The system didn't allow for it.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
But it's it's because of word of mouth and digital
releases and people talking about it going holy fuck, this
film is amazing, and then people wanting to see it
in a theater. Like I said, I saw it in
a theater I think in November twenty four, you know,
a couple of months back. I saw it in a theater,
and I had heard about the movie, and I had
heard about how good it was, and I had wanted
(30:48):
to see it. And you know this about me, So
this is really more for the audience. But like I
like watching movies in a theater. Same if I can
watch a movie in a theater first, I will do it.
I don't feel distracted in a movie theater. Even when
I don't like a film, I'm not enjoying it, I
can still write out that film and I have my
(31:10):
phone is turned off, I'm in the dark, and to
some degree I can be engaged enough with it even
if I don't like it, to stick with it and
then watch the credits because I want to support every
person that made the film. And so this was a
film that I had kind of hesitated watching it home,
and then it came to this this theater watching it again,
(31:30):
and Emily Skeggs was supposed to be in person, so cool,
and I was so excited for that. I just it
was so exciting and cool. It turned out at the
very last minute she couldn't make it. But then she
shot a video like that day or maybe the day before,
of thanking everyone being there, and she had a chombie bear,
(31:52):
oh wrapped around her for the whole thing, which was
one of those moments where I haven't seen the film yet.
So here she is in a bedroom with this bear
suit on her that looks like the chombie bear that
she wins at the carnival, and she's saying this.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
And I'm like, I don't know what this means.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
It didn't mean anything to me at all. And by
the time the film was done, I was like, that
was so sweet. It's so wonderful. She I want to
talk about Emily Skegg so much, but well we.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Should say, well, well, how the cho ever happened? Like
she this was their their wonderful date. Yeah, they had
this day together when they went to the arcade. Again,
That's one of those things to make me go, what
era are we in, because like I mean, I'm a
I love an archaide, but I'm also a gen xer,
so yeah, I love going to like play ski ball
and like you know, do those things. And so that
(32:44):
they have this like kind of carnival date that's endearing
and loving and you're watching their warmth with one another
and it's just again it was.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Like it's genuine.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Oh it feels so like their chemistry is so spectacular,
and the that he wins, she he's like, what do
you what do you want? And she goes, I want
that Chompy bear or I want that bear. Yeah, and
he goes over and breaks into one of the machines
and steals all the tickets and I was like, this
is exactly like the punk rock aspects of it, Like
(33:18):
this is one of those moments. I was like, yeah, yeah,
he busted in the machine, breaks out all the like tickets,
and then wins. There win's the bear for her right,
so great, It's so good, and it's like she loves it.
She goes, I'm gonna name him Chompy and I was like,
this is this, This is a girl from my heart.
I mean, like, I like my pleasies too. I got
(33:38):
a few guds, a little ones from my Valentine.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Well, and that moment too of him being like a
punk rocker like that, Yeah, it's so perfectly done. It's
so perfectly well done because I don't feel like they're
trying to over explain it or have him say.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
I'm so punk rock, I'm punk rock.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
He's not no, and he's not mean to her like
they're no, he's her. He's so protective of her, And
I think that's like where people get that wrong when
they do like a punk rock character in a film
that they're like an asshole all the time to everyone. Yeah,
Like clearly he has his favorites, like he's so good
with her brother and he's so good with her and
(34:18):
I just and he is also like good with like
one of the members of the band, but the other
two members that want to sell them out, he's not.
He's not super happy with them, which we touch on.
I suppose that part of the story.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yeah, well, and that that gets into that whole punk
rock aspect of you know, when are you punk and
and not sell out? I hate that, hate the idea
of sellout. I hate to do it too, and they
and they bring that up in there too. And it's
so difficult because you're trying to navigate a culture that
requires you to be able to pay rent, pay for food,
and do all of these things. And then when you
(34:52):
get an opportunity to be more popular or to sell
more stuff or to have that to to you know,
then then you're a sellout or you're not. So it's
just it's really weird. I guess I don't believe in
the idea of the sellout. I think that's a really
cheap blow it is and.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
It's like it's a reduction because it's like, what happens
is they have they have this concert right that's coming
up that she told him about that he didn't even
know he was in. Yeah, and he's like, we're playing
with the Alliance, and she was like, well, I'm not
there to see the Alliance. I'm there to see this band,
the which is his band, And this is reeling back
(35:29):
to this is when he kind of figures out. He's like,
oh yeah, she's sing oh boy, yeah, and he's looking
around and looking at all of her stuff and he's like,
oh ship. But yeah. There. She says that she goes
going to the show. Would you go to the show
with me? And he's like, yeah, I'll go to the
show with you. And then when he reveals that he's
you know that he's Johnny cue her punk her what
(35:55):
was it her music boyfriend?
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (35:57):
I thought that was goode too. Oh God, there's just
so many great things about this.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
I'm sorry, I'm pleased that you love this.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
I'm pleased that you love it.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
That that makes me feel really good because my taste
is not always going to be other people's taste.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I have a sap. I have a sap for this.
What can I say?
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Yeah, it's it's I'm not a romantic comedy guy. Yeah,
And I don't have anything against them, but they're not
necessarily my thing. And there's some of them that are
that are fun and delightful. I don't know if you
remember the film from the late eighties, Roxanne with Steve
Martin love that Sereno to Bergerac. Now, I love that film.
I think it's a wonderful romantic comedy. I absolutely love
(36:39):
the adaptation of seren Oda Bergerac into that whole thing.
Darryl Hannah is magnificent in there. It's such a lovely,
wonderful film.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Is that a romantic comedy? Though? Yeah, you're right, it is.
And I'm now that like we're I'm starting to be
like watching. I'm watching more films like I've watched like
a few more like romantic movies, and I'm like, oh,
I gotta like some of these, but there's there has
to be a compelling story for me to live. Yea,
And this again. Like at first I was like, oh, Martin,
(37:08):
we get ourselves into this thirty minutes, that first thirty
minutes is long.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
It is, and then when we get it's unconventional.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
But when we get when it gets rolling, it's like
that's when the Yeah, you're like, can't look away watching
this heartfelt story have in there. Yeah it's not a
train wreck but a being hit by a bus.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Yeah, I love yeah an a door.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
It's so adorable.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
It's so adorable and it and it is very unconventional,
you know, and you usually have your three act structure, yes,
and you've got something where we get our introduction and
then we have something that kind of kicks off what
the story is. There is that initial action that seems
to set the stage on what's going to be happening,
and then we have our characters play out through a
(37:51):
variety of of usually anticipated roles that lead to them,
you know, falling in love and then coming apart and
then coming back together again.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Romantic comment didn't do that, and I appreciate that because
that I think is idiotic and I hate that bright well,
I don't hate it. I don't that will draw me
out of a film. Sometimes I did watch a love
story recently that it had that formula, but it worked
out and I was okay with it. Yeah, but like
there are but that I hate that structured in general,
(38:23):
like the like we have to have somebody's got to
learn a lesson and then when we come back and
everybody feels better and it's like there was none of
that then this. Yeah, And I think that I endeared
me more to this film because of that, because I
wasn't forced to go through a morality lesson of some
sort and or like somebody had to be redeeming themselves.
(38:45):
Nobody redeemed themselves. They were exactly who they were the
entire time, and there wasn't any redemption arc or a
hero's journey or whatever the case may be. Ye, So
I appreciate that and about this honestly, thanks for pointing
that out, Yeah, because honestly, that was probably one of
the more endearing aspects of this film.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
And did you see them coming together as a couple
at you know, like, what with what happened?
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Did you did you expect that? Did you see it happening?
Speaker 2 (39:17):
I had my suspicions, Okay, but I think this is
because they left us a bit of a crumb trail
for that, like generally with like with her stuff and
like her love of music. I was like, oh, I
have a feeling he's going to be the lead singer
of that band. That's I think that's the only crumb
trail that I really kind of picked up on. But
other than that, like there, I mean, we have the
(39:41):
notion that he's that they're going to be warm to
one another. With that, I mean, but other I didn't
see that as a It wasn't so much of a
tell that it was that it took me out of
the story. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
So there's a very interesting way about how I consume
my films. If I I'm really involved and invested in
a film, Yeah, even though I know film structure, I
work in the film world. I have executed films at
various levels above and below the line.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
When I'm invested in a film, I can actually check
out enough where I'm not watching the beats anymore, where
I'm so invested in my characters that I'm literally along
for the ride.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
I That's exactly, That's perfect. That's the perfect way to
put it, because that's kind of how I feel too,
when because I break down films for film festivals, right,
for podcasts, hundreds of films, so much and so like,
so it's hard to surprise me, right, But I'm not
always looking. I don't but I don't want to be
always be surprised anyways. I'm not looking for that. It's
(40:46):
not what I'm like. My goal is I think that
what this When I say something takes me out of
a film, that's what I mean, is like it makes
me hyper aware of the I'm looking at formulaic structure
and I see that so much a modern horror that
makes me bonkers because I can't enjoy it. And there's
(41:08):
been some good ones lately, but you know, obviously for
another show, Strange Darling's actually being one of them.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
I know, Strange Darling. I really want to see that.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
When film Fantastic filmed in Portland with people that I
know and have worked with who worked on that film
and Giovanni Rabisi's DP photographer debut, yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
And our boy Kyle he's in and he's great in
it and he I mean, I didn't realize, like until
you said that, that that's something that when I say,
people will go, oh, what did you think of this
film and I'm like, oh, the third act, like they
always shit to bed and now I'm I'm like hyper
(41:50):
aware of that's now my critic brain and my like
my dissertation brain taking movies apart while I'm watching them.
This one didn't do that to me. So it didn't
make me feel like I had that I was in
that position where I was super concerned about like how
the story was going to unfold, because the story felt
(42:11):
a little bit more natural and a little bit that's
I think that's part of why I now I am
like a big fan of this film.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Yeah, it felt like so I felt like I was
participating in the story.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Yes, without being taken away from it, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
I wasn't, but I was participating in this We saw.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
This couple, We saw this couple of the arcade. We
totally saw this couple at the restaurant, you know. That's
those moments are very like we saw them in the alley,
like he'd smoking a cigarette. But the best, the cutest
thing about this is when we get towards the towards
the end of the film where unfortunately our boy gets
(42:52):
arrested and he gets put in jail and she she
becomes like a muse position and I just the.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Lead singer for that female punk band.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Yeah, for a girl band which has another thing. Let
me me go, wait again, what era? Because like I
was a riot girl and you know, like I had
a shave Chelsea and all that stuff and punching in
windshields and oh.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
My god, that's yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Yeah. I was very an activist for like an executive
clemency for Leonar Peltier, which we just got, yes, but yeah,
that was one of my being like that one an
act up the the AIDS organization. Yeah. So when she's like,
I'm joined a riot girl band, I was like, say
(43:42):
what you did? Those are around still does rad Like
I just I was. I loved those moments, and she
obviously came into herself and seemed to like she was
wearing lipstick and she's smoking cigarettes. Yeah. I love it.
I loved that she became herself and was able to
(44:06):
get away from what her parents wanted her to be.
I mean, we don't know, like if she got another
job and she got successful or what the case may be.
We don't need to know that, but I just love
that she was. Her success was found in loving, like
loving herself.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
But I love the fact that Simon did not turn
into something else exactly. And it's not that he remained
the same, because he does fall.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
In love with her, and there's some growth there, and there.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Is some growth there, but he is still an anti
establishment person. So there are values that he maintains that
are worthy of staying with a character. Yes, And again,
I don't find this film to have like a redemption
arc in him, which I'm great, so great with that.
He's not having to redeem himself for what he did
(44:59):
with all of that, but.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
What he sticks.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
With those values, but then changes inside of those values
to open up to her, and he's really he's delicate
with her family in a way that he's not delicate
with the First family in the beginning, after he gets
out of.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
The drug trial. You know, he really sees those folks
as kind of terrible. You know, the father.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Drops the N word, watch sports. There's definitely this dysfunction
in the marriage. And if you look at the relationship
between the husband, wife, and the brother and sister in
that first family, it's very indicative of what we later
see with Patty's family, with the husband and wife.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
And the brother and sister.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
But he sees a difference in between the folks in
the beginning and how terrible they are and tries to
burn their house down and wrecks everything, but then doesn't
do that with Patty's family. So he's maintaining this value
system as a punk yeah, with pushing the limits of society,
(46:00):
but he's willing to introduce them to things that open
up their mind with Patty's family, as opposed to the
full rejection of these terrible people.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
Uh. With the personally weren't terrible.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
They weren't. They were suppressed by it.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
They were very, very suppressed. But and they were like,
but I feel like they all loved each.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Other and they did and they but they also weren't
brave to recognize that they were suppressed. They were really
doing the best they could. Yeah, that first family was
clearly not doing the best that they can.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
Know they there was no love for one another, right,
I love the Uh you check your tone or was
that what it was?
Speaker 3 (46:40):
Wait?
Speaker 2 (46:40):
What was the line?
Speaker 3 (46:42):
You got to bring it down, got to bring it
down a notch.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Forever. Hey, you bring it down a notch. I even
say that to my own Like I said to my
kid I'm like, take it from here to here, and
you have what.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
I forget her name too. She's a wonderful act her
she is and stand up comedian.
Speaker 3 (47:02):
Yes, yes, she's so good.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
She was in twenty four. She's been in a ton
of stuff. She's a she's a really wonderful actor. And uh,
and it bothers me so much. And I'm I'm purposely
not gonna look it up on IMDb because if I'm
failing my name's that bad, then I deserve to take
the hit for it.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
She was also like on Mad TV. I think she's
been in a ton of stuff.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
She is a fantastic actor.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
I don't know that she's ever necessarily gotten in the
lead of anything that is particularly mainstream, but she's one
of those actors that if I see her in a trailer,
if I see her name pop up and something, I'm like,
that's gonna be good. They at least know that that
moment is gonna be good, because that person is always great.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Well. I love that moment where the parents eat the
brownies so the brother, we can't they bury this lead
of making us think the brother is gonna be gay?
And I was like, oh shoot, this is all, what
I have is gonna come out, it's gonna be it's
gonna be great. He even has like a T shirt
with a hot dog in a bun and like he's
got to be And then we realized, oh no, he's
(48:04):
just like a jerk.
Speaker 3 (48:05):
He's just pent up.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
He's just he's pent up by a family who is
pinned up and culture that has them trying to perform
in a very specific.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Way taking it down a notch. And they aren't.
Speaker 3 (48:20):
You wearing any pants?
Speaker 2 (48:21):
Why aren't you wearing pants? I don't know. They the
parents eating brownies, like eating the pot brownies. But that
was spectacular because I have done that. I've eaten pot brownies.
Oh boy, I wore pants, but I felt like I
was vibrating out of my skin. Was like, oh boy,
(48:42):
it's the TV on.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
I don't think so yeah, I uh yeah, I've never
had edibles like that before.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Oh boy.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
I actually for marijuana was controlled right. Well.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
I actually took a bong rip once that put me
in the couch the way it put Patty's family in there,
and I had I did have my pants on.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
I'm I'm pretty certain, but just that zoned out gone.
I was gone.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
Because their eyes looked so glassy unless there's like an
effect they can do with contact.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
They probably put drops in them or something.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
They did such a good joke so glassy. I was like, yeah,
that is the weed. I so good.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
I wanted to talk about Emily Skaggs and her performance
of Patty real quick, and obviously Kyle Gallner is fantastic.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
He's like, so those two people are absolutely perfect.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
There are times when I watch films and I watch
characters performances by actors where they're great and I'm into
it and that was awesome, this was you know, But
there are times where I watched something happen where it's like,
nobody else could have done that, And Patty with Emily
Skaggs is one of those where and the same with
(50:05):
Simon and Kyle Callender, nobody could have done those roles.
There is nobody else on this planet that could have
played those two characters and created what they created. There's
no way they are so perfectly cast and so perfectly
executed that nobody else could have done it. And you know,
(50:28):
since then, we've talked about stuff that Kyle has gone
on to do, and I think Emily's been in other films,
but nothing that's garnered the same kind of attention. Yeah,
but Emily is so perfect, She's so perfect. Patty is wonderful,
so good.
Speaker 2 (50:46):
You want to protect her, I mean immediately, And that's
kind of the what the energy she gives as that
character at the beginning is like he immediately is like
protective of her, which I think is adorable.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Yeah, daring, I want to Yes, I want to protect her,
but there is a.
Speaker 2 (51:04):
Part I also want her to be her best self.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
Oh, yes, absolutely there is.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
There is There is something about So it's almost like
we find this story gives us this very fortunate moment
of two characters who are able to come together, who
do protect each other and bring out the best things.
Because that same Patty character who goes through those same
things that doesn't have a Simon come in there, may
(51:29):
not come into that same person.
Speaker 3 (51:31):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
There's just something about Obviously this is all written in
its fiction, but there is something about all the things
that play out in that world, even the terrible stuff
that happened with the jocks, that turns that Patty evolves
into this wonderful, magnificent butterfly of a punk rocker at
the end where it's like this person is so fantastic,
(51:54):
that last moment with her when she puts the sche
mask over her face that he's been sweating in for
years and as shows and she puts on uh the
uh walkman and listening to her song she's doing, and
she's out there in the field just doing it like
we just I don't want her to go through all
of the garbage she has to go through. But she
(52:15):
went through all of that garbage and then and the
person that she becomes is so magnificent that I just
wish I could stand in her shadow all the time
and just let that happen.
Speaker 3 (52:26):
It's so good. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
One thing I did want to say is that this
film has elements of other films that I love. SLC Punk.
Speaker 3 (52:36):
I've never seen SLC Punk. I've never seen SLC.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
This has definitely has some reminiscence also Heathers.
Speaker 3 (52:43):
Love Heathers Right. I never saw the remake, oh no, but.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
I love the original There is there was a remake
a few years back.
Speaker 2 (52:50):
Oh No.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
I haven't rejected its existence like The Crows.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
Clearly, but like these are those films, this has the
this is I hate the term to call out a
love letter. But it's kind of like has those elements
of these two other films that that I also find
very endearing, that have these kind of characters that are
these anti hero kind of style characters. Nice.
Speaker 3 (53:15):
Well, I want to see SLC Punk.
Speaker 2 (53:17):
You said, I think you'd enjoy it. I think you'd enjoy.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
It's it's been one of those films where I haven't
watched it because I didn't want to watch it. I
haven't watched it because there's so many films I just
I watched so many things, and sometimes it's like the
books on the bookshelf.
Speaker 3 (53:32):
I got books I haven't read yet. I've got films
I haven't seen yet.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
And you know, if I lived in my perfect world
where I could have the effects of going to the
gym have been with me sitting and watching movies and
eating popcorn, that would be the perfect world. I would
have ripped abs and I would have seen every film
that I've wanted to see so far.
Speaker 2 (53:53):
Same as well as like I try to read books
from the gym, that's not as easy. You do it,
all right.
Speaker 1 (54:03):
I am so thankful for you, Gretchen, not only doing
this show, but having watched this film I love this
film so very much, and it's so new to my
lexicon of everything too, and yet I can't let it go.
I was this way about promising young woman, and I
still am about promising it.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
I haven't seen that.
Speaker 1 (54:23):
It is a magnificent film that can be one down
the road. I could write if if life alowed, I
would write a dissertation about promising young women. It's magnificent.
It's magnificent, and it's one that breaks a lot of
I feel like structure rules too to give us this
magnificent story.
Speaker 3 (54:42):
It's phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (54:43):
So thank you for joining me for dinner in America,
And do you want to tell me about coming up
for the next month.
Speaker 2 (54:53):
So next month we're going to talk about the I
wouldn't call it. I would say I wouldn't even call it
a hit. It's not but the Bava film Danger Diabolic.
It's a sexy James Bond meets speed racer. It did
get a little hit on from MST three K, but
(55:17):
it is. Yeah, so it's got the treatment. It's not
I'm not gonna get anything away. It's just say it's
a lot of fun to watch. And I had just
got introduced to this film, and then I fell in
love with it immediately because I have a like a
like a low key love of like action films like
(55:38):
you will find later. I love action films like a lot,
especially like Martial Art One. I'm a band damn fans fan,
So yeah, I have like a low key like love
of action films. And I got introduced this film and
found out as part of a series that was based
on a comic and I read I've been incessantly like
(56:01):
like and like taking in all of this, like digesting
all of this about danger, are about diabolic, It's very Italian.
Speaker 3 (56:10):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (56:10):
So, yes, that's what we're gonna talk about next. I
can't wait for you to watch my film.
Speaker 3 (56:15):
I'm excited to see I've never seen a Bava film.
Speaker 2 (56:17):
Oh what yeah, so Boba Normally I get into it
because of horror, but yeah, we'll talk about that also nice.
Speaker 1 (56:24):
Yeah, I'm I'm super excited about this. And as everyone
should know, typically what is happening with our films and
these conversations is that we're watching these films, We're going
to be trading back and forth with all of these things.
Speaker 3 (56:37):
Yeah, and the.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Conversation starts with the film, but you just kind of
never know where it's going to go because this is
what I love. Really, This is about talking about films
with people that are dear and just seeing where the
conversation goes. We've covered so many different things, but we've
stayed in here with Dinner in America. It's going to
be the same with Diabolic.
Speaker 3 (56:55):
I'm so excited change. I gotta remember it. So it's
danger is it? Danger?
Speaker 1 (57:00):
Is this dangerous name? I've danger Diabolics? So yeah, I'm
And that's from when what years? I like sixty three?
Speaker 2 (57:09):
Yeah, yeah, sixties, late or mid sixties, I think.
Speaker 1 (57:13):
Yeah, So we're kind of going back a little bit.
We had some going back stuff when we were talking
about Godzilla because obviously we were starting, you know, we
had talked about some of the fifty four and through
all of that, but this will be our first full
fledged film that's kind of older and.
Speaker 3 (57:28):
Black and white.
Speaker 2 (57:29):
No, it's color, Oh it is color.
Speaker 3 (57:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:31):
Yeah, it's definitely has the hypercoloration of like of a
Italian film.
Speaker 3 (57:37):
This show interesting.
Speaker 2 (57:39):
It's not like you know, not dari Argento, thank goodness.
Speaker 3 (57:42):
Not super saturated, but it's still good.
Speaker 2 (57:44):
But it has those like those great cuts nice. You'll
love it. Okay, from a filmmaking standpoint, You're gonna love it.
Speaker 3 (57:50):
Oh good. So I'm super excited, like hyper in.
Speaker 1 (57:53):
And yeah, well, Gretchen, thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 3 (57:58):
Yeah, I really enjoyed this.
Speaker 1 (57:59):
And and we will see all of you, and we
will see you on the next film and all of
you on the next episode.
Speaker 2 (58:04):
Thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 1 (58:09):
The Check the Gate podcast is hosted by Martin Vavra
and Gretchen Brooks.
Speaker 3 (58:13):
The show is directed, produced, and edited by Martin Vavra.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
Produced by Galaxy Sailor Productions twenty twenty five. The show
is filmed and recorded at the Propulsion Zone Studio in
downtown Portland, Oregon. Special thanks to Adam Carpinelli and Aleandro Barragan.
I don't even feel like there's like a redemption arc
from the asshole that we found. No, I just found
that he's a lovable asshole who was kind of right
the whole time, or in a good way the whole time.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
There is he makes their lives better, which I think
is kind of spectacular.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
But with a couple of bumps, it's not.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
It's never perfect.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Hey, Gretchen, welcome back, Thanks, and welcome back everyone to
check the Gate podcast. Yeah, and I am so excited
to talk about this film.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I love this film. I saw it in the theater,
but not when it first came out.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
It came out in twenty twenty and really sort of
just disappeared and died during the pandemic. I saw it
in a movie theater in twenty twenty four. It played
at a movie theater Cinemagic here in town. Oh, people
are been craving about it.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So I was dying to talk about this film so badly,
and here we are, and I was so excited to
be able to show it to you. The sweetest kick
in the nuts ever, which is.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
An apt description, honestly.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, So this was this was kind of out of
your box you want to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So normally I'm a big well let's be real, I
watch a lot of horror films because I judge films
for film festivals, especially specifically a horror film festivals, and
mainly I'm I'm always I'm more apt to watch like
something with supernatural elements or whatnot. If I'm going to
watch that's something out of that element of like of
(01:33):
the horror genre. So this was a great introduction film
for me for this kind of because I have to
be honest, Like the very first thirty minutes of it,
I'm like, oh boy, this is very indie and has
that like those long quiet moments that make you go, oh,
it's just going to be any good, and then it
(01:53):
just ramps up and I was wildly impressed by me.
I would say that the way you described that as
perfect that is break your heart, but also is is
like hot, like heartfelt, and Earnest has these moments of
uh where you you're like you're rooting for what would
(02:15):
normally be like the bad guy. Yeah, that's kind of
scenarios not a bad guy. Yeah, yeah, he is. Well
I think we should start with that, right, Like, so
break down that character tell us about.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
The film, Well, it's yeah, so we'll introduce the film
and oh, my goodness, I love this film so much
so uh.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Dinner in America is directed by Adam Reimer and it
stars Kyle Goltner and Emily Skaggs, who is just fantastic.
And so this is kind of a it's a middle
of America punk love story, yes, and it's I find
it to be rather very untraditional in how it's set up.
(02:58):
You had said, Indy, I guess it could be, Indy.
I've seen a few other mainstream films trying to have
this where there is not necessarily a clear plot that
is derived right at the beginning, where you know what
the threat is supposed to be, and we're just following
all of that. It borders on slice of life that
(03:19):
turns into something that has a cohesive narrative to it.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yea, and so we follow.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
We've got this punk person that we really don't know
much about, but they're definitely just like this punk against
the system who seems to be kind of bouncing from
crash pad to crash pad until they bump into and
that's Simon, and then they bump into Patty and so
Simon and Patty begin to develop this relationship. He's hiding out,
(03:48):
she's been fired from a job, and they're starting to
kindle this punk rock relationship. To find out that he
is actually the secret identity singer for this punk band
that she is a huge fan of has been sending
love letters.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
To Oh yes, her love letters. Oh yes, he like,
I thought, well, at first, so this character has these
he's kind of a ship right, like, So we're introduced
to him by him being he's in the he's in
a like a drug study or something like that. It's
(04:26):
a drug study, and he's we kind of see him
as like he's really aggressive, and but he's that overly
aggressive where it's it's like it's unpleasant to be around him.
I think he's the kind of person you would expect
to be, like to steal your wallet while you're like
going into the bathroom kind of thing. Does he probably
(04:47):
kind of does, But he also steals your heart. No,
it's a I I liked how first of all, Kyle
Gowner like is having his moment meant right.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Right now, strange darling that just happened.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
That was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
And he's in smile too.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, I think he I think I think he's.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
In Smile Too. I haven't seen Smile or Smile Too.
I've been recommended those, but I haven't yet.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Smell Too is way better than Smell One.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Oh okay, well there you go, way better.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
You don't even need this first movie.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
It's more I feel like, okay.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, yeah, But that aside, like he he this character.
Remember when I first said to you, I was like, wow,
he's good like the German tourist haircut, because it was
just like he had the side shave and it was
very like indicative at times.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
But I want a mohawk. But I really don't want
a mohawk.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I have to have like a job maybe.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
With a little tails.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
In the back. Yeah it's great, it's great. Yeah, But
I think that this character, like, for at first you
have this, your first gut reaction is like, what a
fucking shithead? What a guy? I don't even want to
I wouldn't even like talk to this guy. You know,
he's that intense and we it only made sense for
(06:11):
him to be a punk rock musician, right because at
first you don't know this about him. The only thing
we know about him is that he's like he sells drugs.
He kind of works on the side and doesn't really
and like it seems to be very aggressive and he
talks to like authority with aggression and so you don't
really get like anything about him until we meet Patty.
And then when we meet Patty, she is I guess
(06:33):
she's like intellectually just like developed, like delayed, I think,
but not like not disabled like she's delayed, I think
because I get the impression that because the way that
she interacts with people, I think that she's like maybe
has a lower IQ or whatnot. But that isn't that
is not but that's what kind of thrives. This is
(06:55):
a story and.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
It's a little bit of like arrested development.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
And yeah, she's in her mid twenties right, still living
at home, and her parents are still treating her like
she's a fourteen absolutely, so whatever could possibly be there
is really arrested by the parents and the structure of
their home.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Which is spectacular.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
This is so good.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
And I love the fact that it's called Dinner in
America too, because it's such a sideline, but it's there,
and the story wise, we have this these scenarios and
throughout this film where people are having dinner together, like
when Kyle meets her family, they have dinner together, Kyle Simon,
Simon meets her family, they have dinner together when she
(07:40):
meets Simon, And.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
It was like a frozen meal too. She didn't even
like make it from scratch.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
It was like so.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Good, it's so good. I mean, I've never I've only
had I don't think I have ever had chicken quarter blue.
I don't think so. I don't even think. I don't
even know what it is. I think it's like cheese
and ham.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I think it is ham placed inside of a chicken
breast that is then breaded and cooked.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Oh and then there might be a sauce.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I know I've had it, but you know, I haven't
eaten meater chicken in like twenty years or so never.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I don't think I've ever had corn on blue. I
think that is like no, I think it was something
I always thought.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Was like it's the off season turn ducan.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
That's exactly it. That's exactly it perfect because it's like
shoved inside of meat meat.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
And just in case this meat wasn't working out, we've
covered in bread and cheese.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah, oh boy, Oh but no it's like, but I
love those little moments. And then we have like there
and then Patty and him have meal a meal together,
and there's those those like those coming together moments. There
was another dinner that happened.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Well, we start out with a meal when Kyle leaves
from the drug testing facility and he leaves with the
other person in the drug trial, and she invites him
over to doing her in.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
A blowjob, which he.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
How can you say no?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I could probably list a couple of reasons how I
mean or should, but but he didn't in.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
A drug study. I mean, it wasn't like they were
in rehab for multiple days too.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
So yes, yet Thompson our brief moment of Leah Thompson
so good.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
She looks great.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Leah Thompson looks great.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
She's like four or five years three or four years
older than I am, which is amazing to believe because
she's been in this industry for so long. And I
think about her back in Back to the Future and
playing these older characters and then younger characters, is like,
holy cown, what age was I when I was watching
this stuff? And here's Leah Thompson who.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Still looks smoky and hot on when I was.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
That young and then to realize, holy cow, we were
so close together in age.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
She's smoking hot like he's totally a milk in this
and I and she is definitely which was kind of
spectacular in that moment like where she's she's like trying
to seduce him, and it reminded me of a little
bit of that scene with in Edward Scissorhands with like
(10:28):
in the right why is it always a redhead? What
the hell? What is happening? But there is a moment
of like where she's she's like playing a record and
she's like like going dance with me, and he's like,
oh yeah, like I'm totally gonna And it's.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Not any kind of like random song that I just
wanted to play. This. This was like little little soft
sexy time great. It was really perfect.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
And then we have her husband the other room being
like listen, watching like a football game with their son
and what Another thing that I noticed about this film,
and we talked about it when we were watching it,
was that it has this timelessness. Yeah, but because there
isn't anybody using a cell phone, but there is one
mention of a cell phone, because there was time where
I was like, what year is this film? Because everybody's
(11:22):
using like they say jam box, they have CDs or
they have.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Tapes, have cassette tapes.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah, and so that made me wonder, like, is this
like they're in the nineties.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Or tracksuits there's the guys that have Yeah, it's like
I don't know anybody who wears a track suit like
that on the regular, like that was of the eighty
nineties thing.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Yeah, yeah, so it it.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
You're right, it has this timeless feel to it because
when you asked me, I actually I had said, well,
this is modern day, but then I started to really
doubt myself and you had a really good point where
you where you were pointing out all these things, and
I'm like, oh, yeah, I get it wrong, and it
was like, really, what it came down to is like
I didn't care.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Well, I think what's happening is that because we're showing
like suburban Michigan and this is not a very wealthy state,
and so I think that a lot of the things
are that's kind of part of the background of this
is that we're seeing this state of like suburban decline,
(12:26):
and so I think that there is like the that's
why the TV was like ten years or twenty years
out of it day. Yeah, and like she's using a
jam box.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
It is one of those old console TVs that's in
like the wooden box around so well.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Because I had one of those when I was a kid.
I remember I've been Oh man, I messed ours up
one time. I took a pacemaker magnet to it.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Whoo oh the old cathode ray tube and screwed it.
That nice.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Oh yeah yeah, times had a perfect like Telly Savalas
had like an orange spot on his space forever.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, it was, it was. I mean those moments made
me think like maybe didn't take me out of it
because I was like my brain was too busy trying
to figure out like what is what era are we
in or whatnot? But I definitely thought that added to
the independentness feeling of it of this film. Does if
(13:22):
that make sense?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yeah? Absolutely well.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
And like I said, I hadn't questioned it the first
time I had watched it, I didn't place it in
an era. Yeah, And I guess I feel that because
of the punk rock attitude and what it's trying to
what I feel that it's trying what I at least
got out of it is that it kind of doesn't
matter what the time is because our character is supposed
(13:47):
to be anti social and anti establishment, but and not
even having like, I don't even feel like there's like
a redemption arc from the asshole that we found. No,
I just found that he's a lovable asshole who was
kind of right the whole time or in a good
way the whole time.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Well, he also seems to weirdly enough, what is it
he seems to do this thing? He has this effect
on people around him, the people that he is that
he likes. There is he makes their lives better, which
I think is kind of spectacular, but.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
With a couple of bumps. It's not it's not a
gentle thing or no, it's.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Never perfect right exactly. Like for instance, like the younger brother, right,
she has oh boy, she has a younger brother. What's maggie,
Maggie Patty Patty Patty has a younger brother, And she
reveals to Simon that he's adopted, but the kid doesn't
(14:50):
know it. So at the dinner table when they're having
dinner and the younger brother's being a shithead, he's all
like reading the parents about the fact that he's adopted
and like.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It's it's all news to him. He's finding out in
real time over court on Blue.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Oh my god, what that was that moment. I was like, Oh,
that's the way, like I eternally grinch, because you know,
that's like everybody is. You could see that on They're
written on their faces. And then the young the son's
face is like reading this moment of like, what, I'm adopted.
(15:30):
And then but he was kind of a kind of
a schmuck. The kid is like kind of a jerk,
and well.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
He's just wound tight, and yeah he does.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
And so it's interesting too with all that, Like there's
the hints of I guess the religious and the Christian
aspect of it with the way Simon ends up playing them,
but it never becomes overly stated that this is a
religious family.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, well it's Middle America.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
It's Middle America.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
So they are, they're wound tight, and they're really trying
to uphold a very specific image of what it means
to be middle class, prosperous, enough white family, yes, progressing
through whatever time period that we're in. And so there's
very much this veil that Kyle starts to that, Simon
(16:24):
starts to yank off of them, you know, and it's
we kind of we don't see what the after effects
are the veil are going to be until it does it,
until everybody starts, you know, getting their good doses of
Simon in there.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
But he like he sees it.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah, and that's I think that's what's he. I don't know,
there's just kind of this sense about him because he
is this antisocial anti system punk like he is a
punk rock.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
He is absolutely punk rock.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
But he doesn't read to me like that was the
one thing about his character that he doesn't remind me
of like the punks from the eighties and nineties that
I that I hung around, But he reminds me of
like more modern, like more like more millennial, not millennial.
That's not right. I would say more like more gen
z more millennial type punks, because his challenge to authority
(17:18):
is way more aggressive, and he, I mean to the
point of where like there's a scene where he's where
Patty tells her tells him to kiss her in the
restaurant and again at dinner and of some sort, and
there he starts making out with her and he sees
these two women looking over at him, He's like kind
(17:39):
of comes out of him a little bit, and you're.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Like, WHOA, come there, mind your business.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Right, I mean, like you're making out with this chicken
the mill of restaurant ship.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Yeah, if you don't want, I'm able to watch the
show aggressively making it out.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Well, but it was it was.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Like pinned at the wall, yeah, Madham, Yeah, ma'am. Yeah,
but it's so.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
But that's a great meal, and we've come back to
that dinner, America. There are all those meals, and you
had started to point out we had the first one
with the woman that he was in the drug testing with, Yes,
and that one goes awry. And then the next time
we see him he's with Patty. So he's with Patty
and their family. And then we do have uh, there
(18:23):
is the burger restaurant after they successfully beat up the jocks.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
And have their moment.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yes, there is the dinner with Simon's family when we
start to kind of uncover a little bit more about
Simon's past. Even though we know that he is the
leader of the punk rock band, yeah, but now we're
starting to see that he comes from a family of
some wealth, like not typical Middle America. They are definitely
upper class and worried about some status.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
And except for his older brother, which which kind of
made me a little said that we didn't get to
examine that a little bit. More like we didn't get
to we didn't get much story in him, but we
also didn't need it. He wasn't the main focus. But
I just thought it was kind of great that he was.
We get to circle back on him at the end.
But other than that, he doesn't have much of a
role other than just kind of standing up for him,
(19:13):
which I thought was great. You know, there were these
I've met people like this where these like people that
come from great backgrounds and or like upper class families
and then just being very anti establishment in comparison or whatever.
And I'm like, it's to me, it's easy to do
that if you have you come from wealth. So that
(19:35):
to me took down his like punk rockness a little bit, yeah,
because I'm like, well, it's easy to to rail against
the system if you have a back, if you have
something to back you up, but you kind of learned
that he doesn't always doesn't really have that because of
his family are on like their last their last leg
with him or whatnot. But I mean that is a
(19:58):
thing with that kind of I hate to say it doesn't.
It doesn't make him less of an interesting character, but
it definitely lets you see a little more insight into
why he's what he's railing against, because it's railing against authority.
(20:20):
I think it comes from the fact that his parents
were trying to control him, just like Patty's parents. We're
trying to control her, but she kind of fell into
line until she doesn't fall into line anymore. And one
of the things I appreciate about him is that he
teaches her to stand up for herself. And I don't
think she would have ever had the opportunity to get
(20:41):
out of that cycle because she was just accepting because
of her delayed, delayed starter, arrested development. She isn't able
to stand up for herself, protect her own resources and
things like that. Because clearly there was this moment where
(21:02):
we find out that she hasn't been paid by her boss. Yeah,
that he tells her that her last job, the reason
why he's firing her is because they were raising the
minimum wage in Michigan, only to find out he hired
a hot girl.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
What, and commented on Patty's supposed ability to process information
in the timely way that he wanted it to be
done right.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, but I appreciate that about him, like being teaching
her to stand up for herself in that respect, I mean.
And he even like calls people out, because that I
thought was also very cool, Like he calls out her family,
he calls out her boss or ex boss or whatever.
I liked. Those are the things that made me go
(21:56):
when we were watching it. When I had said that,
these are the things that made me go, everybody is
better for meeting him in a way.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I don't know if it was their intention or not,
but it's the commentary that I get out of it,
and it's one that I've recognized in life about myself
and other people. But this idea that there is a
system and you can rail against it, and you can
want to fight the system and change the system, and
even be someone likes Simon who is kind of out
(22:25):
of the system mostly, but you still are dependent on
the system. Your ability to fight the system or even
live out of it is completely dependent on the system
being in place and you being able to tap into
it from time to time. Agree, and so Simon really
doesn't like the way our current set of cultural and
(22:46):
social guidelines are there for this is what you do
at these periods of time. This is when you get
married and you make money, and you graduate from college
and you like everything is these gradual steps to death
that are set up, and you're supposed to be very
happy about that. But he's doing things like he has
to go to the drug trial to go and make
some extra money so that they can finish their album. Well,
(23:07):
he wouldn't be able to do that if the system
wasn't in place for him to be able to go
to a drug trial and make two thousand dollars off
of it. But if the system wasn't there, he might
not have needed the two thousand dollars from that system.
So it's an interesting commentary that the system that he
fights against is sometimes there for him to fall back on.
He goes to his family's house and still has a
(23:29):
key to the place. He could have done that along
the way at some point in time, but he didn't
until he was with Patty, and I guess he was
feeling calmer at the time. It gave him access to
the recording equipment and the instruments. So this idea that
you're fighting the system, but then you also have to
participate in the system. I mean, it's even a meme.
(23:50):
I've seen people who have even pointed that out, where
you know, folks have said, this.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Isn't a good system and it's not.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Oh, but you're participating the system, aren't I smart for
pointing out it's like, no, we're stuck in the system
and we have to work off of.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
It, especially dealing with like family like well to do
families and whatnot, and trying to have a traditional like
because they have like a traditional relationship where their boy
meets girl and boy meets girl's family, girl meets boy's family,
and so those those traditional roles, but they also kind
of like pivot them a little bit by being pro
(24:26):
one another and having each other's back, which I loved
when Patty stepped up and was like, hey, no, like
he's amazing to Yeah, I loved that, And that's what
made me immediately fall for this story because it was
they really have each other's back, They solidly love one another,
(24:50):
and they loved each other without knowing each other before
they met each other. Yeah, which I thought was just
that to me, was the love story there, Yeah, I mean,
because he was like, I've been jerking off to your
letters like for the past you know what, how many years,
And she's like, oh my god, I've been sending you
love letters and jerking off to them as well well.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
And he rejected initially, he rejected the idea of a
fan being in love with him and trying to run
away from it.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
But he also was like accepting of it too, because
he said he was like he had been jerking after
her pictures.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's correct. So yeah, he
was I think, yeah, I think he was thrilled by
the idea of a fan until he met the fan. Yes,
when he was yeah, and it wasn't even like, well,
I don't he.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Puts two and two together first when he realizes that
she's his fan and he's like, oh boy, yeah. And
I think, like you said, he kind of rejected it
at first because he was like, he was like, well,
I you know, why would anybody be like this for me?
You know, this is a punk rock man, this is
not rock you know, whatever the case. I mean, like
we all get into that, like, I mean whatever. But
(25:59):
I think that when he realizes when he puts the
two and two together, he's like, oh, okay, and these
he kind of falls for her. And then they sing
a song together and he asks her to sing from
the poems that she writes, yeah, and to him, and
it is this darling of a song, like it's very
(26:23):
catchy watermelon tongue tungue cute. Yeah, it's just sweet, sweet,
a sweet little moment that made like set my heart.
What can I say? And I'm like, ah, it's not
a horror film, but I love it anyways.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Yeah, yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
And I did the little IMDb search on a couple
of things, looked for some stuff, and Emily Skeggs worked
with Adam Ramer to write that.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Song oh cute.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
So they they had done that together, so that when
we get to our moment where she's singing that in
the film and we're watching them write this song, Simon
puts the instruments together and then she takes one of
her letters and turns it into lyrics.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Yeah, it's so I mean.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
You're so right, it's so powerful, it's wonderful, it's it's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
It's punk. Uh, it's very punk loving. Yeah, yeah, I
guess it is.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
I'm so, I will admit I'm a person who is
I don't always know my bifurcations in music. I just
know when I like something and when something speaks to
me and something doesn't.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Oh, that's fine. I mean I don't I think that
that we've left those kind of genre names behind in
the nineties, right, Like we're like the goth this is
you know. Yeah, yeah, I mean, but I'm only hearkening
those back because it's like familiar terminology.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Oh for sure. Yeah, and it's but it's not.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
It's not so it's not it doesn't feel pop punk
to me, Like it doesn't feel like it's a What
were some of those bands in there? I'm even trying
to like remember some of the late nineties or lead
two thousands kind of pop punk of no, like outside
of the Green Day or like Green Day was popular,
they were pop punk.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
But there was a bunch of others.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
That like Goldfinger. No, those are like, I don't know,
you're asking the wrong person.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, there was some of those just kind of like pop.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Pop, Operation Ivy or something like that.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
No more than well, I don't even know who that is.
I'm thinking the ones that actually had like top chart
hits that were like so they were so poppy, but
they had their punk aspect to it. I can't even
think of I can't even think of the band's name,
but Travis Barker was the drummer for them. That's how
That's how much it affected my life. Like I don't
(28:40):
even remember their names that I was busy.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
In the nineties. Yeah, I just thought that was like
to me, that was there was there was a few
moments that was one of them that would maybe go like,
I just I just love these characters. Yeah, and that
they're a little sharing their song and then that kind
of like rockets there love story further or furthers our
love story because that's when we have like the kiss
(29:05):
scene and then we have the scene where they're the
dinner with the family and yeah, I just I'm thanks
for introducing me to this film. It was a lot
of fun to watch. Again, I would have never probably
watched this on my own. I would have been like
and doing a little meta on it. I'm shocked, like
and it unfortunately has had a release in during twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Yeah, twenty realistic.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
It looks like that is that would be that that
was a tragedy of this film that it didn't get
seen at all, but reading that it's getting now having
like an uptake and interest. I even read that the
that Kyle had written about it, it's like saying that
he was shocked now that audiences was like selling out
theaters now that people are responding to it, because I
(29:55):
feel like it's very topical now, Like I think that's
what this is the kind of film we needed now
Unfortunately shot. You know, it was a release in twenty twenty,
but I think it would definitely do good now if
we saw if I got a new release, especially because
now he's gotten so popular specifically.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yeah, well but it is I mean to be honest,
it was the film that we needed and deserved in
twenty twenty, but the system didn't allow which.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Is so yeah, the system.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
The system didn't allow for it.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
But it's it's because of word of mouth and digital
releases and people talking about it going holy fuck, this
film is amazing, and then people wanting to see it
in a theater. Like I said, I saw it in
a theater I think in November twenty four, you know,
a couple of months back. I saw it in a theater,
and I had heard about the movie, and I had
heard about how good it was, and I had wanted
(30:48):
to see it. And you know this about me, So
this is really more for the audience. But like I
like watching movies in a theater. Same if I can
watch a movie in a theater first, I will do it.
I don't feel distracted in a movie theater. Even when
I don't like a film, I'm not enjoying it, I
can still write out that film and I have my
(31:10):
phone is turned off, I'm in the dark, and to
some degree I can be engaged enough with it even
if I don't like it, to stick with it and
then watch the credits because I want to support every
person that made the film. And so this was a
film that I had kind of hesitated watching it home,
and then it came to this this theater watching it again,
(31:30):
and Emily Skeggs was supposed to be in person, so cool,
and I was so excited for that. I just it
was so exciting and cool. It turned out at the
very last minute she couldn't make it. But then she
shot a video like that day or maybe the day before,
of thanking everyone being there, and she had a chombie bear,
(31:52):
oh wrapped around her for the whole thing, which was
one of those moments where I haven't seen the film yet.
So here she is in a bedroom with this bear
suit on her that looks like the chombie bear that
she wins at the carnival, and she's saying this.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
And I'm like, I don't know what this means.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
It didn't mean anything to me at all. And by
the time the film was done, I was like, that
was so sweet. It's so wonderful. She I want to
talk about Emily Skegg so much, but well we.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Should say, well, well, how the cho ever happened? Like
she this was their their wonderful date. Yeah, they had
this day together when they went to the arcade. Again,
That's one of those things to make me go, what
era are we in, because like I mean, I'm a
I love an archaide, but I'm also a gen xer,
so yeah, I love going to like play ski ball
and like you know, do those things. And so that
(32:44):
they have this like kind of carnival date that's endearing
and loving and you're watching their warmth with one another
and it's just again it was.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Like it's genuine.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Oh it feels so like their chemistry is so spectacular,
and the that he wins, she he's like, what do
you what do you want? And she goes, I want
that Chompy bear or I want that bear. Yeah, and
he goes over and breaks into one of the machines
and steals all the tickets and I was like, this
is exactly like the punk rock aspects of it, Like
(33:18):
this is one of those moments. I was like, yeah, yeah,
he busted in the machine, breaks out all the like tickets,
and then wins. There win's the bear for her right,
so great, It's so good, and it's like she loves it.
She goes, I'm gonna name him Chompy and I was like,
this is this, This is a girl from my heart.
I mean, like, I like my pleasies too. I got
(33:38):
a few guds, a little ones from my Valentine.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Well, and that moment too of him being like a
punk rocker like that, Yeah, it's so perfectly done. It's
so perfectly well done because I don't feel like they're
trying to over explain it or have him say.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
I'm so punk rock, I'm punk rock.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
He's not no, and he's not mean to her like
they're no, he's her. He's so protective of her, And
I think that's like where people get that wrong when
they do like a punk rock character in a film
that they're like an asshole all the time to everyone. Yeah,
Like clearly he has his favorites, like he's so good
with her brother and he's so good with her and
(34:18):
I just and he is also like good with like
one of the members of the band, but the other
two members that want to sell them out, he's not.
He's not super happy with them, which we touch on.
I suppose that part of the story.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yeah, well, and that that gets into that whole punk
rock aspect of you know, when are you punk and
and not sell out? I hate that, hate the idea
of sellout. I hate to do it too, and they
and they bring that up in there too. And it's
so difficult because you're trying to navigate a culture that
requires you to be able to pay rent, pay for food,
and do all of these things. And then when you
(34:52):
get an opportunity to be more popular or to sell
more stuff or to have that to to you know,
then then you're a sellout or you're not. So it's
just it's really weird. I guess I don't believe in
the idea of the sellout. I think that's a really
cheap blow it is and.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
It's like it's a reduction because it's like, what happens
is they have they have this concert right that's coming
up that she told him about that he didn't even
know he was in. Yeah, and he's like, we're playing
with the Alliance, and she was like, well, I'm not
there to see the Alliance. I'm there to see this band,
the which is his band, And this is reeling back
(35:29):
to this is when he kind of figures out. He's like,
oh yeah, she's sing oh boy, yeah, and he's looking
around and looking at all of her stuff and he's like,
oh ship. But yeah. There. She says that she goes
going to the show. Would you go to the show
with me? And he's like, yeah, I'll go to the
show with you. And then when he reveals that he's
you know that he's Johnny cue her punk her what
(35:55):
was it her music boyfriend?
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (35:57):
I thought that was goode too. Oh God, there's just
so many great things about this.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
I'm sorry, I'm pleased that you love this.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
I'm pleased that you love it.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
That that makes me feel really good because my taste
is not always going to be other people's taste.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I have a sap. I have a sap for this.
What can I say?
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Yeah, it's it's I'm not a romantic comedy guy. Yeah,
And I don't have anything against them, but they're not
necessarily my thing. And there's some of them that are
that are fun and delightful. I don't know if you
remember the film from the late eighties, Roxanne with Steve
Martin love that Sereno to Bergerac. Now, I love that film.
I think it's a wonderful romantic comedy. I absolutely love
(36:39):
the adaptation of seren Oda Bergerac into that whole thing.
Darryl Hannah is magnificent in there. It's such a lovely,
wonderful film.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Is that a romantic comedy? Though? Yeah, you're right, it is.
And I'm now that like we're I'm starting to be
like watching. I'm watching more films like I've watched like
a few more like romantic movies, and I'm like, oh,
I gotta like some of these, but there's there has
to be a compelling story for me to live. Yea,
And this again. Like at first I was like, oh, Martin,
(37:08):
we get ourselves into this thirty minutes, that first thirty
minutes is long.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
It is, and then when we get it's unconventional.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
But when we get when it gets rolling, it's like
that's when the Yeah, you're like, can't look away watching
this heartfelt story have in there. Yeah it's not a
train wreck but a being hit by a bus.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Yeah, I love yeah an a door.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
It's so adorable.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
It's so adorable and it and it is very unconventional,
you know, and you usually have your three act structure, yes,
and you've got something where we get our introduction and
then we have something that kind of kicks off what
the story is. There is that initial action that seems
to set the stage on what's going to be happening,
and then we have our characters play out through a
(37:51):
variety of of usually anticipated roles that lead to them,
you know, falling in love and then coming apart and
then coming back together again.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Romantic comment didn't do that, and I appreciate that because
that I think is idiotic and I hate that bright well,
I don't hate it. I don't that will draw me
out of a film. Sometimes I did watch a love
story recently that it had that formula, but it worked
out and I was okay with it. Yeah, but like
there are but that I hate that structured in general,
(38:23):
like the like we have to have somebody's got to
learn a lesson and then when we come back and
everybody feels better and it's like there was none of
that then this. Yeah, And I think that I endeared
me more to this film because of that, because I
wasn't forced to go through a morality lesson of some
sort and or like somebody had to be redeeming themselves.
(38:45):
Nobody redeemed themselves. They were exactly who they were the
entire time, and there wasn't any redemption arc or a
hero's journey or whatever the case may be. Ye, So
I appreciate that and about this honestly, thanks for pointing
that out, Yeah, because honestly, that was probably one of
the more endearing aspects of this film.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
And did you see them coming together as a couple
at you know, like, what with what happened?
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Did you did you expect that? Did you see it happening?
Speaker 2 (39:17):
I had my suspicions, Okay, but I think this is
because they left us a bit of a crumb trail
for that, like generally with like with her stuff and
like her love of music. I was like, oh, I
have a feeling he's going to be the lead singer
of that band. That's I think that's the only crumb
trail that I really kind of picked up on. But
other than that, like there, I mean, we have the
(39:41):
notion that he's that they're going to be warm to
one another. With that, I mean, but other I didn't
see that as a It wasn't so much of a
tell that it was that it took me out of
the story. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
So there's a very interesting way about how I consume
my films. If I I'm really involved and invested in
a film, Yeah, even though I know film structure, I
work in the film world. I have executed films at
various levels above and below the line.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
When I'm invested in a film, I can actually check
out enough where I'm not watching the beats anymore, where
I'm so invested in my characters that I'm literally along
for the ride.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
I That's exactly, That's perfect. That's the perfect way to
put it, because that's kind of how I feel too,
when because I break down films for film festivals, right,
for podcasts, hundreds of films, so much and so like,
so it's hard to surprise me, right, But I'm not
always looking. I don't but I don't want to be
always be surprised anyways. I'm not looking for that. It's
(40:46):
not what I'm like. My goal is I think that
what this When I say something takes me out of
a film, that's what I mean, is like it makes
me hyper aware of the I'm looking at formulaic structure
and I see that so much a modern horror that
makes me bonkers because I can't enjoy it. And there's
(41:08):
been some good ones lately, but you know, obviously for
another show, Strange Darling's actually being one of them.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
I know, Strange Darling. I really want to see that.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
When film Fantastic filmed in Portland with people that I
know and have worked with who worked on that film
and Giovanni Rabisi's DP photographer debut, yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
And our boy Kyle he's in and he's great in
it and he I mean, I didn't realize, like until
you said that, that that's something that when I say,
people will go, oh, what did you think of this
film and I'm like, oh, the third act, like they
always shit to bed and now I'm I'm like hyper
(41:50):
aware of that's now my critic brain and my like
my dissertation brain taking movies apart while I'm watching them.
This one didn't do that to me. So it didn't
make me feel like I had that I was in
that position where I was super concerned about like how
the story was going to unfold, because the story felt
(42:11):
a little bit more natural and a little bit that's
I think that's part of why I now I am
like a big fan of this film.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Yeah, it felt like so I felt like I was
participating in the story.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Yes, without being taken away from it, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
I wasn't, but I was participating in this We saw.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
This couple, We saw this couple of the arcade. We
totally saw this couple at the restaurant, you know. That's
those moments are very like we saw them in the alley,
like he'd smoking a cigarette. But the best, the cutest
thing about this is when we get towards the towards
the end of the film where unfortunately our boy gets
(42:52):
arrested and he gets put in jail and she she
becomes like a muse position and I just the.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Lead singer for that female punk band.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Yeah, for a girl band which has another thing. Let
me me go, wait again, what era? Because like I
was a riot girl and you know, like I had
a shave Chelsea and all that stuff and punching in
windshields and oh.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
My god, that's yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Yeah. I was very an activist for like an executive
clemency for Leonar Peltier, which we just got, yes, but yeah,
that was one of my being like that one an
act up the the AIDS organization. Yeah. So when she's like,
I'm joined a riot girl band, I was like, say
(43:42):
what you did? Those are around still does rad Like
I just I was. I loved those moments, and she
obviously came into herself and seemed to like she was
wearing lipstick and she's smoking cigarettes. Yeah. I love it.
I loved that she became herself and was able to
(44:06):
get away from what her parents wanted her to be.
I mean, we don't know, like if she got another
job and she got successful or what the case may be.
We don't need to know that, but I just love
that she was. Her success was found in loving, like
loving herself.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
But I love the fact that Simon did not turn
into something else exactly. And it's not that he remained
the same, because he does fall.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
In love with her, and there's some growth there, and there.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Is some growth there, but he is still an anti
establishment person. So there are values that he maintains that
are worthy of staying with a character. Yes, And again,
I don't find this film to have like a redemption
arc in him, which I'm great, so great with that.
He's not having to redeem himself for what he did
(44:59):
with all of that, but.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
What he sticks.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
With those values, but then changes inside of those values
to open up to her, and he's really he's delicate
with her family in a way that he's not delicate
with the First family in the beginning, after he gets
out of.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
The drug trial. You know, he really sees those folks
as kind of terrible. You know, the father.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Drops the N word, watch sports. There's definitely this dysfunction
in the marriage. And if you look at the relationship
between the husband, wife, and the brother and sister in
that first family, it's very indicative of what we later
see with Patty's family, with the husband and wife.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
And the brother and sister.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
But he sees a difference in between the folks in
the beginning and how terrible they are and tries to
burn their house down and wrecks everything, but then doesn't
do that with Patty's family. So he's maintaining this value
system as a punk yeah, with pushing the limits of society,
(46:00):
but he's willing to introduce them to things that open
up their mind with Patty's family, as opposed to the
full rejection of these terrible people.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
Uh. With the personally weren't terrible.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
They weren't. They were suppressed by it.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
They were very, very suppressed. But and they were like,
but I feel like they all loved each.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Other and they did and they but they also weren't
brave to recognize that they were suppressed. They were really
doing the best they could. Yeah, that first family was
clearly not doing the best that they can.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
Know they there was no love for one another, right,
I love the Uh you check your tone or was
that what it was?
Speaker 3 (46:40):
Wait?
Speaker 2 (46:40):
What was the line?
Speaker 3 (46:42):
You got to bring it down, got to bring it
down a notch.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Forever. Hey, you bring it down a notch. I even
say that to my own Like I said to my
kid I'm like, take it from here to here, and
you have what.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
I forget her name too. She's a wonderful act her
she is and stand up comedian.
Speaker 3 (47:02):
Yes, yes, she's so good.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
She was in twenty four. She's been in a ton
of stuff. She's a she's a really wonderful actor. And uh,
and it bothers me so much. And I'm I'm purposely
not gonna look it up on IMDb because if I'm
failing my name's that bad, then I deserve to take
the hit for it.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
She was also like on Mad TV. I think she's
been in a ton of stuff.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
She is a fantastic actor.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
I don't know that she's ever necessarily gotten in the
lead of anything that is particularly mainstream, but she's one
of those actors that if I see her in a trailer,
if I see her name pop up and something, I'm like,
that's gonna be good. They at least know that that
moment is gonna be good, because that person is always great.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Well. I love that moment where the parents eat the
brownies so the brother, we can't they bury this lead
of making us think the brother is gonna be gay?
And I was like, oh shoot, this is all, what
I have is gonna come out, it's gonna be it's
gonna be great. He even has like a T shirt
with a hot dog in a bun and like he's
got to be And then we realized, oh no, he's
(48:04):
just like a jerk.
Speaker 3 (48:05):
He's just pent up.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
He's just he's pent up by a family who is
pinned up and culture that has them trying to perform
in a very specific.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Way taking it down a notch. And they aren't.
Speaker 3 (48:20):
You wearing any pants?
Speaker 2 (48:21):
Why aren't you wearing pants? I don't know. They the
parents eating brownies, like eating the pot brownies. But that
was spectacular because I have done that. I've eaten pot brownies.
Oh boy, I wore pants, but I felt like I
was vibrating out of my skin. Was like, oh boy,
(48:42):
it's the TV on.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
I don't think so yeah, I uh yeah, I've never
had edibles like that before.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Oh boy.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
I actually for marijuana was controlled right. Well.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
I actually took a bong rip once that put me
in the couch the way it put Patty's family in there,
and I had I did have my pants on.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
I'm I'm pretty certain, but just that zoned out gone.
I was gone.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
Because their eyes looked so glassy unless there's like an
effect they can do with contact.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
They probably put drops in them or something.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
They did such a good joke so glassy. I was like, yeah,
that is the weed. I so good.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
I wanted to talk about Emily Skaggs and her performance
of Patty real quick, and obviously Kyle Gallner is fantastic.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
He's like, so those two people are absolutely perfect.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
There are times when I watch films and I watch
characters performances by actors where they're great and I'm into
it and that was awesome, this was you know, But
there are times where I watched something happen where it's like,
nobody else could have done that, And Patty with Emily
Skaggs is one of those where and the same with
(50:05):
Simon and Kyle Callender, nobody could have done those roles.
There is nobody else on this planet that could have
played those two characters and created what they created. There's
no way they are so perfectly cast and so perfectly
executed that nobody else could have done it. And you know,
(50:28):
since then, we've talked about stuff that Kyle has gone
on to do, and I think Emily's been in other films,
but nothing that's garnered the same kind of attention. Yeah,
but Emily is so perfect, She's so perfect. Patty is wonderful,
so good.
Speaker 2 (50:46):
You want to protect her, I mean immediately, And that's
kind of the what the energy she gives as that
character at the beginning is like he immediately is like
protective of her, which I think is adorable.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Yeah, daring, I want to Yes, I want to protect her,
but there is a.
Speaker 2 (51:04):
Part I also want her to be her best self.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
Oh, yes, absolutely there is.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
There is There is something about So it's almost like
we find this story gives us this very fortunate moment
of two characters who are able to come together, who
do protect each other and bring out the best things.
Because that same Patty character who goes through those same
things that doesn't have a Simon come in there, may
(51:29):
not come into that same person.
Speaker 3 (51:31):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
There's just something about Obviously this is all written in
its fiction, but there is something about all the things
that play out in that world, even the terrible stuff
that happened with the jocks, that turns that Patty evolves
into this wonderful, magnificent butterfly of a punk rocker at
the end where it's like this person is so fantastic,
(51:54):
that last moment with her when she puts the sche
mask over her face that he's been sweating in for
years and as shows and she puts on uh the
uh walkman and listening to her song she's doing, and
she's out there in the field just doing it like
we just I don't want her to go through all
of the garbage she has to go through. But she
(52:15):
went through all of that garbage and then and the
person that she becomes is so magnificent that I just
wish I could stand in her shadow all the time
and just let that happen.
Speaker 3 (52:26):
It's so good. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
One thing I did want to say is that this
film has elements of other films that I love. SLC Punk.
Speaker 3 (52:36):
I've never seen SLC Punk. I've never seen SLC.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
This has definitely has some reminiscence also Heathers.
Speaker 3 (52:43):
Love Heathers Right. I never saw the remake, oh no, but.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
I love the original There is there was a remake
a few years back.
Speaker 2 (52:50):
Oh No.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
I haven't rejected its existence like The Crows.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
Clearly, but like these are those films, this has the
this is I hate the term to call out a
love letter. But it's kind of like has those elements
of these two other films that that I also find
very endearing, that have these kind of characters that are
these anti hero kind of style characters. Nice.
Speaker 3 (53:15):
Well, I want to see SLC Punk.
Speaker 2 (53:17):
You said, I think you'd enjoy it. I think you'd enjoy.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
It's it's been one of those films where I haven't
watched it because I didn't want to watch it. I
haven't watched it because there's so many films I just
I watched so many things, and sometimes it's like the
books on the bookshelf.
Speaker 3 (53:32):
I got books I haven't read yet. I've got films
I haven't seen yet.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
And you know, if I lived in my perfect world
where I could have the effects of going to the
gym have been with me sitting and watching movies and
eating popcorn, that would be the perfect world. I would
have ripped abs and I would have seen every film
that I've wanted to see so far.
Speaker 2 (53:53):
Same as well as like I try to read books
from the gym, that's not as easy. You do it,
all right.
Speaker 1 (54:03):
I am so thankful for you, Gretchen, not only doing
this show, but having watched this film I love this
film so very much, and it's so new to my
lexicon of everything too, and yet I can't let it go.
I was this way about promising young woman, and I
still am about promising it.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
I haven't seen that.
Speaker 1 (54:23):
It is a magnificent film that can be one down
the road. I could write if if life alowed, I
would write a dissertation about promising young women. It's magnificent.
It's magnificent, and it's one that breaks a lot of
I feel like structure rules too to give us this
magnificent story.
Speaker 3 (54:42):
It's phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (54:43):
So thank you for joining me for dinner in America,
And do you want to tell me about coming up
for the next month.
Speaker 2 (54:53):
So next month we're going to talk about the I
wouldn't call it. I would say I wouldn't even call it
a hit. It's not but the Bava film Danger Diabolic.
It's a sexy James Bond meets speed racer. It did
get a little hit on from MST three K, but
(55:17):
it is. Yeah, so it's got the treatment. It's not
I'm not gonna get anything away. It's just say it's
a lot of fun to watch. And I had just
got introduced to this film, and then I fell in
love with it immediately because I have a like a
like a low key love of like action films like
(55:38):
you will find later. I love action films like a lot,
especially like Martial Art One. I'm a band damn fans fan,
So yeah, I have like a low key like love
of action films. And I got introduced this film and
found out as part of a series that was based
on a comic and I read I've been incessantly like
(56:01):
like and like taking in all of this, like digesting
all of this about danger, are about diabolic, It's very Italian.
Speaker 3 (56:10):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (56:10):
So, yes, that's what we're gonna talk about next. I
can't wait for you to watch my film.
Speaker 3 (56:15):
I'm excited to see I've never seen a Bava film.
Speaker 2 (56:17):
Oh what yeah, so Boba Normally I get into it
because of horror, but yeah, we'll talk about that also nice.
Speaker 1 (56:24):
Yeah, I'm I'm super excited about this. And as everyone
should know, typically what is happening with our films and
these conversations is that we're watching these films, We're going
to be trading back and forth with all of these things.
Speaker 3 (56:37):
Yeah, and the.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Conversation starts with the film, but you just kind of
never know where it's going to go because this is
what I love. Really, This is about talking about films
with people that are dear and just seeing where the
conversation goes. We've covered so many different things, but we've
stayed in here with Dinner in America. It's going to
be the same with Diabolic.
Speaker 3 (56:55):
I'm so excited change. I gotta remember it. So it's
danger is it? Danger?
Speaker 1 (57:00):
Is this dangerous name? I've danger Diabolics? So yeah, I'm
And that's from when what years? I like sixty three?
Speaker 2 (57:09):
Yeah, yeah, sixties, late or mid sixties, I think.
Speaker 1 (57:13):
Yeah, So we're kind of going back a little bit.
We had some going back stuff when we were talking
about Godzilla because obviously we were starting, you know, we
had talked about some of the fifty four and through
all of that, but this will be our first full
fledged film that's kind of older and.
Speaker 3 (57:28):
Black and white.
Speaker 2 (57:29):
No, it's color, Oh it is color.
Speaker 3 (57:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:31):
Yeah, it's definitely has the hypercoloration of like of a
Italian film.
Speaker 3 (57:37):
This show interesting.
Speaker 2 (57:39):
It's not like you know, not dari Argento, thank goodness.
Speaker 3 (57:42):
Not super saturated, but it's still good.
Speaker 2 (57:44):
But it has those like those great cuts nice. You'll
love it. Okay, from a filmmaking standpoint, You're gonna love it.
Speaker 3 (57:50):
Oh good. So I'm super excited, like hyper in.
Speaker 1 (57:53):
And yeah, well, Gretchen, thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 3 (57:58):
Yeah, I really enjoyed this.
Speaker 1 (57:59):
And and we will see all of you, and we
will see you on the next film and all of
you on the next episode.
Speaker 2 (58:04):
Thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 1 (58:09):
The Check the Gate podcast is hosted by Martin Vavra
and Gretchen Brooks.
Speaker 3 (58:13):
The show is directed, produced, and edited by Martin Vavra.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
Produced by Galaxy Sailor Productions twenty twenty five. The show
is filmed and recorded at the Propulsion Zone Studio in
downtown Portland, Oregon. Special thanks to Adam Carpinelli and Aleandro Barragan.
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