May 22, 2024 • 46 mins
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Picture yourselves amidst the glitz and glamour of a perfectly executed heist, where wit meets action, and camaraderie seals the deal. That's where Marissa Tandon and I take you in our latest episode, where we explore the captivating world of "Ocean's Eleven." Together, we pull back the curtain to reveal what truly makes a heist crew tick—beyond the shiny veneer and into the heart of nuanced character dynamics and storytelling finesse. Marissa, with her delightful blend of humor and insight, brings to life her childhood misconceptions and ponders how F1 drivers might fare in a filmic getaway, creating a vibrant tapestry of discussion around this cinematic masterpiece.
We delve into the emotional heart of "Ocean's Eleven" and its depiction of the relationships that are the film series' true heist. Reflecting on how these bonds mirror our lives, we consider the weight of loyalty, the currency of trust, and the sacrifices we make for those in our innermost circle. Whether you're a film buff or just a seeker of heartwarming tales of friendship, this episode promises a kaleidoscope of perspectives on how cinema intertwines with our personal narratives and the cherished ties that bind us all.
Notey Notes:
Grid Chat
You Are What You Love
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Clip (00:00):
Because the house always wins.
Play long enough.
You never change the stakes.
The house takes you, unlesswhen that perfect hand comes
along, you bet big and then youtake the house.
Been practicing this speech alittle bit.
Did I rush it?
It felt like I rushed it.
That was good, I liked it.
Marissa Tandon (00:19):
This movie is one of the first movies that I
was able to kind of understandhow magical a story can be.
Ocean's Eleven is the moviethat I show people and if they
don't like it, there's generallysomething that's like not great
about our relationship movingforward.
Actually, like, if you can'tfind something that you like
about this movie, we just are somisaligned in taste Doesn't
(00:42):
have to be your favorite movie,but it does have to like strike
some sort of chord.
Taylor D. Adams (00:50):
Hi, I'm Taylor and welcome back to the Film
Nuts podcast, a show about whywe love what we watch.
So if you were going to rob acasino, let's say who would be
in your crew.
Don't say it out loud in casethe feds are listening, but in
general, you're probably notgoing to bring anybody into your
(01:11):
crew that you don't get alongwith, right?
Maybe it's a few of yourclosest friends and maybe it's
some folks who have a veryspecific skill set and who have
a trustworthy reputation, andthere's probably a wild card or
a newbie in there somewhere.
Just to round things out,whoever you bring on, you gotta
have great chemistry if you wantto be successful.
(01:32):
Ocean's Eleven, starring GeorgeClooney and Brad Pitt,
showcases a prime example of thechemistry that I'm talking
about.
This revamp of the 1960s heistfilm of the same name spouts
quick and clever dialogue thatkeeps pace with the heist action
itself.
Through all of this, ocean'sEleven conveys that level of
bonding that happens betweenpeople with shared experiences,
(01:55):
which, for my guest today, is amajor highlight.
Marissa Tandon is a podcaster,content creator and writer who
was captivated by Ocean's Elevenfrom an early age.
Since then, she has basicallymemorized every line of dialogue
in this movie and examined theways that storytelling works
best.
Marissa has applied what she'slearned to Tandon Productions,
(02:17):
which produces fiction andnonfiction podcasts, including a
show about F1 racing calledGrid Chat and a show called you
Are what you Love, which, ifyou're a fan of what we have
going on here at Film Nuts, youwill love that.
Marissa was even kind enough tohave me on an episode of you
Are what you Love, talking aboutone of my favorite TV shows,
psych.
But today on our show, marissaand I chat about the value of
(02:41):
close relationships, the appealof heist movies and which F1
driver would make the perfectgetaway driver.
It's a ton of fun, so get yourcrew together.
Here's Marissa Tandon talkingabout Ocean's Eleven on the Film
Nuts podcast.
Marissa Tandon (03:00):
I will say a fun fact about this movie is that
because I saw it so young, Ithought for years Don Cheadle
was British Dude when I tell youI forgot he had a British
accent in this movie and hestarted talking.
Taylor D. Adams (03:13):
I was like Don, what are you doing?
Marissa Tandon (03:16):
He's British and to this day actually less than
a month ago I talked to someonewho thought Don Cheadle still
was British.
I was like you know, he was inlike he's been in a ton of
movies they were like, yeah, Ithought he was doing an American
accent.
Yeah, I was like great yeah, uh, that's my fun fact about that.
Taylor D. Adams (03:37):
You have your own, is it?
Is it a podcast productioncompany?
Is that what you specialize in?
Marissa Tandon (03:42):
Yeah, we specialize in audio, so it's a?
Um.
You know, we've been doing itsince 2018, which every time I
say that I'm like oh gosh, it'sbeen so long.
Um, we're coming up on sixyears in September, so awesome
Congrats.
Thank you yeah.
Taylor D. Adams (03:59):
And what?
How did you get started doingthat?
I'm always curious people thatpivot into it's almost like a
pivot sometimes into podcasting,like I don't think a lot of
people start off like I'm goingto be in podcasting.
Marissa Tandon (04:10):
I don't think.
I think this coming generationthere may be people who feel
that way, like where they, youknow that's what they want to do
.
They want to be a podcaster oror write specifically for audio.
But I think this will be, in myopinion, the first generation
that will really feel that way,like it's been a thing long
enough mainstream wise, um forme.
I went to school for film andTV writing, um, and yeah, it was
(04:35):
, you know, fun, I guess.
Taylor D. Adams (04:38):
Where'd you go to school?
Marissa Tandon (04:39):
I went to Emerson in Boston.
Taylor D. Adams (04:41):
Um yeah.
Marissa Tandon (04:45):
So I was like, let me leave, you know, the town
where they make all the moviesand TV shows go to the coldest
place on earth, and then maybeI'll come back to do the thing
that I go to school for.
So, um, you know, real logicalat 18.
Uh, hey it's some.
Taylor D. Adams (05:00):
Sometimes you just need to change the scenery.
Man, I get it too.
Marissa Tandon (05:02):
Yeah, and it's just.
It's just long enough to makeyou certain that, like snow's
not for you.
You know what I mean.
Taylor D. Adams (05:06):
Like oh, okay.
Marissa Tandon (05:07):
I hate it, Um, but yeah, I went.
So I went to Emerson, I movedback to LA.
I was working in TV development, so I I always kind of look at
it.
I was like I had like the dreaminternships and Cartoon Network
my last semester oh, awesome,Very cool.
(05:28):
Um, and so it was like at MTV,the last season of.
Teen Wolf, which was like theshow that made me want to work
in at MTV.
Clip (05:31):
It was like yeah, um so it was great.
Marissa Tandon (05:34):
I had really great mentors.
I worked in development for alittle bit, um, and then it's
sort of, I think, the same storythat everyone has when they go
independent, which is like onceyou work on the network side of
things, you work where they'remaking all of the business
decisions.
You get frustrated becauseyou're just sort of watching the
(05:55):
decisions getting made.
And then you're trying to putyour own scripts out there and
you're realizing, like, how muchof it is like business
decisions and there's nothingwrong with that because that's
what's required to be able tomake art.
You know, someone has to makethose business decisions.
But at a certain point I sort offelt like I see why certain
things aren't getting made.
Um, and it's frustratingultimately just to like be on
(06:16):
this side, like I want to be awriter, I want to take the
things that I've learned how todo and maybe tell the stories
that they're saying no to in theroom, um, because they don't
feel so profitable, um.
So I went to the Austin filmfestival the last year that I
was working in kind oftraditional television, um, for
the script competition, and thatwas the first year they had a
(06:38):
fiction podcasting competition.
Oh cool, yeah.
So I learned a lot there.
And then I had a couple ofscripts that people were like
this would make a really goodpodcast, um, and it's sort of
like that age old story, likewhen you're young and you get
your friends to kind of workwith you and do things as
quickly as you can, um, so wemade our first podcast super
ordinary and that went reallywell.
(06:59):
So at that point it was like,can we find a way to do this
seriously?
And and so I left uh, I left mydevelopment job to start the
company and, um, we've beengoing ever since.
Taylor D. Adams (07:11):
That's awesome, that's really cool.
Uh, yeah, it's as someone whoalso runs a small business like,
yeah, it's tough to tough tostay afloat, but that's that's
really cool.
I'm super excited for y'all.
Thanks, yeah, it was really fun.
(07:32):
So you know, there's good days,there's bad days, but yes, Um.
So, yeah, one of the reasonswhy I wanted to have you on the
show was you were graciousenough to have me on your show.
Uh, you are what you love,which is a very similar concept
to what we're doing here at filmnuts, but could you please give
us the elevator pitch, for youare what you Love.
Marissa Tandon (07:43):
Yes, you Are.
What you Love is a nonfictionpodcast.
It's a talk show podcast, justlike this one where I have
guests on to talk about thepiece of media that changed
their lives for the better, forthe worst.
It depends on how you feel, butwhichever piece of media, I
think that I always say, if youlook at it and you say this is
the one, that if I hadn't seenit, things would be different.
Taylor D. Adams (08:09):
That's the best way to determine which piece of
media that you're going to talkabout.
Yeah, I uh, yeah, during thatinterview that last question,
the one you just said I thoughtthat was really good and I stole
it and I used it on ScottPilgrim that just came out and I
thought it went really well.
Um so, thank you for that.
Um so, I guess, like because ofthat show, the, the concept of
(08:30):
it and the concept of this showas well Uh, I'm very curious why
you wanted to talk about oceans11.
Marissa Tandon (08:38):
Oh boy, um.
So you know, I think it's sohard when people say, like,
what's your favorite movie,which is why I ask people that
every week, um, so it's so hardto like kind of narrow it down.
But oceans 11 is.
I was, when you asked, I wasvery torn between oceans 11 and
space jam.
Oh, wow, very different.
Yeah, very different filmsobviously, but those are the
(09:01):
first two movies I remember likeI have a core memory of seeing.
But Ocean's Eleven I have seenso many times that when I went
to college we had like our youknow script library and one of
them was the Ocean's Elevenscript that had been donated and
I could tell you which partswere changed in filming from the
(09:22):
original script by the dialoguelines and it was like the final
script.
It was just like I know the adlibs that well you guys are pros
, the best.
Clip (09:30):
I'm sure you can make it out of the casino, of course,
lest we forget, once you're outthe front door, you're still in
the middle of the fucking desert.
You're right.
He's right, ruben.
You're right.
He's right, ruben.
You're right, our eyes werebigger than our stomachs.
That's exactly what it is Pureego.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah,blah.
Thank you for lunch.
(09:51):
This one was delicious.
Sorry, we bothered you.
Look, we all go way back and Iowe you from the thing with the
guy in the place and I'll neverforget it.
That was my pleasure.
I've never been to Belize.
Marissa Tandon (10:02):
So I saw that movie when it came out in
theaters, so I was too young togo there, but I went with my dad
and I love that movie.
I think it is a perfect exampleof perfect dialogue
relationships where you knoweverything about the characters
without any of them telling youanything about their
relationship.
(10:23):
There's very little expositionin that film and it's just.
It's like the type of moviethat, when you think about
really really good demonstratedrelationships, I think it's one
of the ones that does it thebest and the most economically.
Taylor D. Adams (10:40):
Yeah, I honestly I had never really
thought about that Like, to meit's always existed as the fun
heist movie and I'm like, ohyeah, heck, yeah, I'm gonna
watch that movie and then I'llwatch 12 and 13 and then I
didn't watch any of the othersthat came after that.
Um, but I don't.
It's funny.
I think I've only seen thismovie like once really.
Yes, but when I was re-watchingit I was like I like I
(11:02):
remembered everything and justyou know, there's like memeable
stuff that's kind of like justexisted within the ether since
it came out.
But this was a movie that itwas just like firing on all the
cylinders, like I didn't realizehow tight it was.
When you said you talked alittle bit about you.
(11:23):
You went to see it for thefirst time.
You, you were not eligible togo see it, so your dad took you.
Um, talk to me, do you remember, like, what that experience was
like as a kid?
Like were you recognizing therelationships of it, or was
there something else that youremember that really caught your
attention?
Marissa Tandon (11:41):
Well, so that movie came out in 2001.
So I would have been, oh gosh,five or six when that movie came
out.
So I don't know that I can saythat at five years old or six
years old, I was watching themovie and I was like those guys
really have a great emotionaldynamic, but I, I used to go to
(12:04):
the movies with my dad, with mydad, like that's been our thing
since I was old enough to likenot fall asleep through a movie.
Um, so I've seen, I saw thematrix, I saw, I saw so many
movies that you like shouldn'tsee as a child, because they
were what my dad wanted to gosee and it was what was out.
Um, and so I don't necessarilyremember like, obviously, like
breaking down the, the filmitself, but I remember loving it
(12:28):
a lot, um, and then the it, Ibecame very obsessed with it, in
the way that kids become veryobsessed with things.
Um, and obviously back then you, you have to wait for the movie
to come out on DVD, and so oncethat did, I could you know I
could see it over and over again.
Um, and I know we'll get intothis later, but obviously
(12:48):
there's that scene where they'reat the Bellagio water fountains
Um, and the first time I wentto Vegas as a kid, my dad
obviously took me to see thefountains, cause I was obsessed
with the film.
Um, and also you take any kidto go see the Bellagio water
fountains, um, but it was thefirst time I saw something that
I had seen in a movie in reallife, um, and so it was like
(13:12):
this moment where I was like, ohman, like it's.
First of all, it's so muchbigger than it is in the movie.
Cause I was, I was little soit's uh, yeah, it was, it was
really cool.
It's like I have a very corememory of like standing in the
same place that they stand whenthey film that scene and being
(13:33):
like movies are real, movies aremagic, um.
So yeah, it was a little sappy,but that's.
That's the thing.
Taylor D. Adams (13:37):
Yeah, don't well don't excuse the sappiness
at all.
I think that's really cool.
I don't think I've heard thatkind of experience often of
seeing something in a movie andthen you know, not necessarily
like experiencing the movie, butgoing to a place where you
recognize it from the movie andbeing like, holy shit, I'm here
(13:58):
seeing that thing.
Um, so yeah.
So you went to see a lot ofmovies with your dad.
Do you continue to do so if youcan?
Marissa Tandon (14:06):
yeah, yeah, my dad and I, and my sister as well
, that's like our thing.
It's whenever we're together wesee a movie, we all have amc
stubs, so we're uh, you knowit's.
If it's out, if it's a movieand it's not a horror movie,
we'll go see it okay is.
Taylor D. Adams (14:21):
Is it the horror movie?
Is that your version or his?
Marissa Tandon (14:24):
mine, I hate.
Okay, hate hates a strong word,I think it's like you know what
it is.
It's like there's very few.
There's a couple that haveworked really well for me but, I
don't like the like.
I think movies are aboutescapism a lot of the time and
so it's hard for me to want toescape into a movie that has
(14:44):
like a real life potential fearattached to it.
So like movies where they'relike home invasion or, um, you
know, like the purge or allthese little things that you're
like this could really happen tome.
I don't feel relaxed or like Idon't enjoy it.
Taylor D. Adams (14:59):
It's not cathartic for me, um you're
wearing a jaw shirt, though, soyeah, but you know what I mean.
Marissa Tandon (15:04):
That's so different.
It's like when was.
When was the last time a giantshark took over?
Taylor D. Adams (15:10):
a town.
Yeah, the odds, the odds are,you know, it's a little less
likely to happen.
So when you've, obviouslyyou've seen oceans 11 more than
once is there, and also goingwith how you are working in the
entertainment industry is theresomething that you've noticed or
appreciated more the more timesyou've seen it?
Marissa Tandon (15:33):
The dialogue.
I think the dialogue in Ocean's11 is something that, like, I
really strive to be able towrite as, um, when you look at,
I think a lot of people, whenthey talk about dialogue, like
the first name that comes tomind is, like Aaron Sorkin.
There's like fast paced, likereally good speeches and that
type of thing, and that's onetype of dialogue.
But the thing about Ocean'sEleven's dialogue is that every
(15:57):
line feels like something a realperson would say, and I think
there's always this perfectbalance that you have to strike
of feeling like the charactersthat are talking, feel like
people you would talk to, butwithout all the boring parts, um
, but without making you realizethat we cut out all the boring
parts.
There's a.
It's a really hard balance tohit and they do it perfectly.
Taylor D. Adams (16:21):
Yeah, uh, one of my, one of my favorite scenes
from it just going withdialogue is when George Clooney
and Brad Pitt's characters areat the bar.
Clip (16:32):
Saul makes ten.
Ten ought to do it, don't youthink?
You think we need one more.
You think we need one more?
Taylor D. Adams (16:45):
All right, we'll get one more so that's an
in-depth conversation withstakes and rewards.
Happens with only one personsaying something yep, it's I.
Marissa Tandon (16:53):
That is the scene I point to when anybody
asks like what is the best pete?
Like what's a really greatthree second scene where you
know everything you need to knowabout two people, and that is
one of them.
Again, he doesn't say yes, hedoesn't say no, he blinks and
that's the end of the scene.
It's like you, you watch thatand that scene tells you okay,
these two guys have been friendsfor so long, they've worked
(17:14):
together for so long that theyknow what the right answer is
without talking to each other.
But rusty knows that danny'sgonna get there on his own.
He he doesn't actually wantRusty's input, he just wants to
hear himself talk.
He wants to walk all the waythrough it.
And why should he dignify witha response when he's going to
come to it anyway?
Taylor D. Adams (17:32):
Yeah, yeah, it's really stuff like that.
It's just it's clever, likeit's something we don't really
notice because I think we justcaught, get caught up in the
fact that it's working and sowe're just like experiencing and
having fun with it.
But if you compare it with, youknow, other movies that will
kind of wear everything on itssleeve, just dialogue wise it's.
You know, it's okay, it happens, but there's a like a I don't
(17:55):
want to use use the termartistry, because you know it's
got like high flute and whatever, but I think it.
But it feels it feels a littlemore like, uh, elegant and fluid
and fluid and organic and itallows, uh, I think it allows
the audience to kind of laugh inthe silences, like because they
kind of they understand theaudience knows what's happening
right now.
(18:15):
Yeah, um, so I think that'sreally cool, uh.
And speaking of audiences, soand you mentioned escapism
earlier why do you thinkaudience audiences love heist
movies?
Marissa Tandon (18:27):
that's a good question, I think.
I think heist movies give you acouple of things that you hope
for in life, which are are bigadventures, right, like some,
everybody wants something coolto happen to them without you
know the consequences ofsomething cool happening to you.
So I think there's that.
I think there's by nature of aheist.
(18:48):
There's always a nature of likea friend group, which everyone
sort of wants.
And also, I think in a heististmovie, each person is really
good at one thing, um, and soit's easy to find and pick the
character that you are mostattached to, because you feel
like that would be the thingyou'd be good at.
So you know you can.
(19:08):
Uh, don cheadle's character isgreat at explosives and that's
all he does, and so if you wantto be the explosives guy you
love, don cheadle for the restof your life all right, chaps,
hang on to your niggas I thinkit gives you that like easy way
(19:30):
to connect to someone, kind ofin the same way like superhero
movies do, where you can veryclearly pick that one
representative characteristic.
Taylor D. Adams (19:40):
No, so in in the heist movie that you're in,
what's your skillset?
Marissa Tandon (19:46):
Oh, it's a good question.
Um, unfortunately, I've thoughtabout it way too many times.
Taylor D. Adams (19:50):
I so when you go to Vegas, you're scoping the
joint.
You're not going there to lookat the fountain.
Marissa Tandon (19:56):
Oh gosh, I want to say that I we should not say
that online.
They're going to put me onevery camera.
Um, every time I walk inthey're going to be like isn't
that that girl from the podcast?
She's thinking about heistingall the time.
Taylor D. Adams (20:08):
If we make it that big, great.
Marissa Tandon (20:12):
Um, yeah, no, I think I always am like oh, I
want to be a rusty, but I thinkI am a Danny.
I think like in your core, butI think that's a.
Taylor D. Adams (20:22):
Everybody wants to be rusty you know, I mean,
everybody wants to be able tomake eating look that good.
Marissa Tandon (20:29):
So true, so true .
Taylor D. Adams (20:35):
I don't know what I mean.
I hate to say that it's justBrad Pitt, so whatever he's
doing looks good.
But like I watch, I waswatching him specifically eating
.
I was like why can't I stop?
Marissa Tandon (20:47):
watching him eat like he's just like eating
chips or doing whatever, andhe's flawlessly delivering his
have in the film is when Rustyis talking to Linus in the lobby
of the Bellagio about Tess's orabout, you know, the?
Oh my God.
I just blanked on his name, thevillain, the one that Andy
(21:08):
Garcia and.
Clip (21:09):
Benedict, oh my goodness who those?
Marissa Tandon (21:12):
That was scary for me.
Taylor D. Adams (21:14):
Am I losing my mind?
I've seen this movie so manytimes um.
Marissa Tandon (21:18):
So when they're talking about benedict's
schedule, he's been tailing him.
Clip (21:21):
Uh, rusty's eating shrimp cocktail that portfolio contains
the codes to all the katestores in two minutes after
they've been changed.
He's got him in his hand.
I'll tell you, you guys reallycan't pick.
This guy is as smart as he isruthless.
The last guy they caughtcheating in here he not only
sent him up for 10 years but hehad the bank seize his house and
(21:43):
then he bankrupted hisbrother-in-law's
Brother-in-law's tractordealership.
I heard he doesn't just takeout your knees, the guy goes
after your livelihood and thelivelihood of anybody you ever
met.
Marissa Tandon (21:56):
And in one angle he's eating it from a cup and
then it switches to a plate.
So it's uh, they, it's like ayou know script.
He missed it right yeah, theone flub that's in the film.
So I it made me think about howmany things they had to make
sure in each take he was.
If he's eating every time, doyou know how many like times
they're like no, take a newburrito.
Like, oh my gosh yeah, I wouldthere.
Taylor D. Adams (22:13):
I'm sure there's some kind of behind the
scenes on the diet of Brad Pittfor the movie, cause I know a
lot of uh.
The one thing that I know about, uh, when actors are eating ice
cream, they don't eat all theice cream that's on their spoon,
like.
It's just something I've alwaysnoticed, like you'll see it,
they'll bite it, but like halfof it is still on the spoon when
(22:34):
it comes out of their mouth.
Marissa Tandon (22:35):
How interesting.
Taylor D. Adams (22:37):
Yeah, and I was like, why is it?
And then I learned I was likeif I'm doing a scene for three
hours, I'm not going to eat icecream for three hours.
Marissa Tandon (22:43):
So true.
Taylor D. Adams (22:45):
So sorry for the interruption, but I will be
brief.
I am so grateful that youdecided to listen to the Film
Nuts podcast today.
If you are enjoying what you'rehearing, please consider
supporting the show on Patreon.
With a small monthly amount,you can get access to behind the
scenes goodies, early access tofull episodes and you can vote
on what movie we watch the firstMonday of every month on the
(23:06):
Nuthouse Discord.
The Nuthouse itself is free tojoin and is full of other film
and TV lovers, so you'll fitright in.
You can check out info on allthese things in the show notes.
And if all of this sounds like abit too much, that's totally
okay.
But if you want to keep up todate on all of our episodes,
please be sure and subscribe onyour favorite platform of choice
.
And if you're listening onApple Podcasts, go ahead and
(23:29):
leave a rating and review so wecan get in front of other
awesome people like yourself.
Okay, enough of me ramblingback to the good stuff.
Okay, so I'm super fascinatedto learn.
Amongst the plethora ofpodcasts you produce and host,
you have an F1 racing podcast.
I need to know where that camefrom.
Like, where your fascinationcame from and like, tell me
(23:52):
about the show itself.
Marissa Tandon (23:53):
Yeah, so, uh, grid chat is, um, all
motorsports.
So we actually cover F1 IndyCarand specifically F1 Academy,
which is the all female kind ofum feeder series that they're
doing for formula racing.
Yeah, um, so it's super cool.
My kind of obsession withmotorsports uh, started because
(24:16):
one of my really good friendsfrom high school got into it,
and what I'll say about F1 isthat I think it's the perfect
sport for anyone who's been afan of fandom-related behavior
in life.
So I've been a sports kid mywhole life.
I played basketball growing up.
I love sports.
Um, I didn't start talking aboutthis, about sports on the
(24:38):
internet, until the strikeactually last year when we
weren't allowed to talk about TVor film, so I guess we're
talking about sports now, um, soI started talking about sports
at that time, which was great.
But I started watching formulaone and, uh, my friend was like
you're just, you have to, you'regoing to love it.
It's just high stakes, there'sso much drama, there's so much,
(24:59):
um, sort of like gossip involvedin the sport as well.
So, if you, if you're evergetting into it, there's a
Netflix made a docu series whichI think has really popularized
the sport in America.
Yeah, um, called drive tosurvive.
So a lot of people watch thatUm, but yeah, I just I got super
obsessed with it because thereare so many layers to it,
(25:19):
because there's only, uh, 20drivers um in the entire grid,
so like 20 worldwide.
Um, there is no separation ofgender, so, technically, women
can compete at the highest levelwithout um having to compete in
another league or somethinglike that, uh, and so that's one
movement that's been really big.
They're really starting tofocus on bridging that gender
(25:41):
gap, because we haven't had awoman in the sport for a really
long time.
Um, but there are so many likepersonalities, there's so many
things where you feel like thereare these big hero stories or
big narrative points that playout so well in Formula One, and
I love it.
I think it's so great so Istarted doing a podcast about it
(26:04):
because I do a lot of shortform media.
So TikTok and Instagram aboutsports, which really started as
just geared towards people whofeel left out of sports spaces,
which can be like film nerds,can be fandom girls you know, Um
, so explaining it in a way thatlike felt welcoming and
(26:25):
building that community forpeople, Um, and people really
have started to to enjoy it, soI was like I'd like to talk
about it for more than 90seconds at a time.
What if we did a podcast.
Taylor D. Adams (26:36):
That's really cool.
We can talk sports off micbecause I have a lot of stories
and stuff in common with whatyou're doing right now.
But anyway, so to tie F1 backinto this movie, all right, I
don't know anything about F1.
I know it exists.
I know cars cargo fast.
Marissa Tandon (26:55):
All right, I don't.
Taylor D. Adams (26:55):
I don't know anything about F1.
I know it exists, I know carscargo fast, but, like, can you
tell me what F1 driver would bethe perfect wheel person in
Danny's crew, should they?
Should they need it and alsoexplain why?
Cause, like I said, I knownothing.
Marissa Tandon (27:06):
So there's, this is a great question.
That would be very inflammatoryin a group setting of different
fans, I think, because you'realways going to say your
favorite driver, right?
Taylor D. Adams (27:17):
But I can't wait for the comments.
Clip (27:19):
I know everyone's going to be like oh, she's so obvious.
Marissa Tandon (27:22):
Whatever, I don't care.
I Lewis Hamilton is my favoritedriver, but I also will say
he's the only driver with filmexperience, so he knows how to
be in a movie.
Um so he is.
Lewis has been.
He's a seven time worldchampion.
He's been in the sport for areally long time.
There's only one driver who'sbeen driving longer than him.
Um, but also the thing aboutLewis that I'm going to say
(27:45):
would be relevant and make himthe most suited, because I know
people are going to be like MaxVerstappen he's faster, whatever
.
Um, the truth of the matter isLewis Hamilton is the only one
on the grid who has the level ofcool that would be necessary if
he needed to become a part ofthe heist, like as a forward
facing individual.
Um, he's got charm, he's gotwit, he's got personality, he's
(28:09):
got connections.
I think he'd be able to do it.
Taylor D. Adams (28:13):
You mentioned.
The name of your podcast isGrid Chat, and you said the term
grid earlier on.
What do you mean by grid?
Marissa Tandon (28:19):
Oh sure, so the grid is literally like when you
line the cars up, there's likespaces, right?
So you're on the grid.
So we refer to like drivers onthe grid.
There's 20 spots on the grid.
Okay, so we're chatting aboutthe grid.
There's 20 spots on the grid.
Um, so we're?
We're chatting about the grid.
Taylor D. Adams (28:38):
Got it Okay.
I love it when I learnedsomething, so this is great.
Um so, okay, Going, I'm goingto do a hard pivot to the one of
the other podcasts that you do,the one that I've been on, I'm
going back to it.
Uh, so if you had to guess whatthe favorite piece of media is
(28:58):
for Ocean's 11 characters, Iwould love to know.
So I'm going to start withDanny Ocean.
Marissa Tandon (29:06):
Okay, this is hard, but actually maybe it's
not hard.
Danny Ocean is like not even acloset romantic.
He's very visibly like it'sreally his fatal flaw is romance
, and so I think he is like hehas to be the type of person who
cries at the notebook.
You know what I mean.
Taylor D. Adams (29:32):
Oh, oh, that's a great answer.
I'm just.
I'm picturing George Clooneyjust weeping watching Ryan
Gosling and Rachel McAdams.
Marissa Tandon (29:38):
I'd buy it.
You know what I mean.
Taylor D. Adams (29:41):
That's great.
Okay, what about Rusty?
Marissa Tandon (29:44):
Rusty is a Top Gun guy, I think.
That's like the movie that hewas like that's me.
I'm changing my life.
I'm getting the mustache.
The aviators that's my guy.
Taylor D. Adams (29:54):
That's solid.
Oh, that's really good.
I love that.
You didn't hesitate with thateither.
You're like that one.
Top gun, that's the one.
Marissa Tandon (29:59):
I know it in my heart.
Taylor D. Adams (30:01):
And then Julia Roberts's character.
Marissa Tandon (30:04):
Ooh, julia Roberts's character.
That one is hard because Ithink, as much as I love this
movie I love it we don't get somuch about her, and oceans 12 is
the worst film and of the three, um, and so it's like that's
(30:25):
more of the time that you get tosee her, but it doesn't really
feel like right.
So it's hard to say, but I dothink she probably has some sort
of like art documentary thatshe makes everyone watch.
Taylor D. Adams (30:39):
You know what I mean.
Makes everyone watch.
Marissa Tandon (30:41):
Yeah, it's like one of those things where she's
like have you seen this?
It'll change your life.
And it doesn't change mostpeople's lives, but like the
people who you learn somethingabout her watching it.
I don't know if about enoughabout art documentaries to point
to one, but I know there's one.
She's got she's a documentarygal.
Okay, got she's a documentarygal.
(31:03):
Okay.
Like um exit through the giftshop.
I don't know that it's somainstream as banksy.
Clip (31:05):
You know what I mean, I think she's.
Marissa Tandon (31:06):
There's something like maybe, um, I
don't know if you saw that moviewhere they did uh, I can't
remember the name of it, butit's the entire, um, the entire
thing is painted frames and it'sabout vincent van gogh.
Van gogh, I know you're talkingabout.
Taylor D. Adams (31:17):
Yeah, like something like that where it's
about Vincent Van Gogh.
I know what you're talkingabout.
Yeah.
Marissa Tandon (31:19):
Like something like that, where it's like she
can tell you every little craftand tell you what was right and
wrong in the history of it.
Taylor D. Adams (31:26):
Okay, I like that.
I like that.
That's really good.
Uh, so we talked a little bitearlier about some favorite
moments or scenes from this film.
Um, is there one that is also afavorite that you haven't
mentioned so far?
Marissa Tandon (31:38):
scenes from this film?
Um, is there one that is also afavorite that you haven't
mentioned so far?
Oh, good question.
Um, I love this movie acrossthe board, so there's a lot of
really good moments.
Um, but I also think like thescene with Ruben, rusty and
Danny when they're talking aboutum, the different heists that
(32:13):
have been pulled.
Clip (32:14):
Better not know you're involved, not know your names or
think you're dead, becausehe'll kill you and then I'll go
to work on you.
That's why we have to be verycareful, very precise,
well-funded.
Yeah, you got to be nuts too,and you're going to need a crew,
as nuts as you are.
Marissa Tandon (32:46):
And then we roll into, like the thing everyone
remembers of meeting everycharacter.
So I love that setup.
But I also love that it tiesthat core relationship into
Ocean's 13 where Rub Rubenbecomes.
For anyone who hasn't seen itit's not really a spoiler, it's
just the opener of the movie.
But the core issue in 13 isthat Ruben and Al Pacino, of all
(33:10):
people, decide to open a casinotogether and Al Pacino kind of
screws him over, which Ruben hasa heart attack and is in a bit
of a you know he's in a coma andall of the guys kind of come
back together one more time.
Um, and Ocean's Eleven is aremake of Rat Pack film and the
Rat Pack film was only one Um,so they had to find these ways
(33:31):
to like give you an emotionalcenter to make two more movies.
And the second one is really um, I don't think it works as well
.
But the third comes back tothose core guys and that core
relationship.
And if you don't have thatscene which hints at this
previous relationship, itdoesn't tie you back, you don't
come back for it in the same wayfor so this movie, as well as
(33:53):
13 that you talked about.
Taylor D. Adams (33:54):
You you're really stressing kind of the uh,
relationships or the, theimportance of relationships at
the centers of these.
Um, it's a vague question, butis is that something that's
important to you, like in yourlife, and was there a point
where you realized that neededto be an important part of your
life?
Marissa Tandon (34:14):
Oh sure, yeah, I mean I think you know my family
has always been reallyimportant to me.
My dad, uh, and my sister havejust always been my core um
family unit, and so that isreally important to me.
Um and friendship is reallyimportant to me and, like I
think I mentioned earlier, likethis idea of a group of friends
who support each other in thatway, um has been sort of a core
(34:37):
tenement of my life in general.
So, yeah, I think relationshipsand like what I would say in
terms of the film relationshipsversus like real life personal
relationships the thing I loveabout the relationships
portrayed in these movies isthey are the type of people that
leave each other for a longperiod of time, come back and
understand each other for a longperiod of time, come back and
(34:59):
understand each other, no matterwhat Um, and that's my favorite
type of relationship in general, whether that's like someone
that you grew up with and youcome back home and you see and
it's like you never left, orit's someone that you meet and
you feel like you've known themfor your whole lives, like
that's, I think, like the coretype of connection you can have
as a human.
Taylor D. Adams (35:19):
Do you think that there's something to be
learned from that?
Like?
Do you think somebody watches amovie like Ocean's 11 and goes
I need to be nicer to my friends, or I?
Need to like keep them closerto me, or something along those
lines.
Marissa Tandon (35:33):
I don't know that it's a conscious thought,
like I don't know that you leaveit in the theater and you go
gosh, I wish I were nicer to theguys I knew in high school,
type of thing.
We could have been robbingbanks, um, but I think it's the
same way.
I think a heist movie is verysimilar to kind of like a larger
scale, uh, genre film, and Ithink both of those movies or
(35:57):
those types of movies do thesame thing, which is they let
you look at real life problemson a scale that are so much
larger than real life that youare able to kind of process your
own emotions and your feelingsabout things without having to
acknowledge that they're yourown, versus movies that are much
(36:21):
closer to reality or aredealing with, like big human
issues that are very clear, andsomething like A24 is Civil War
that just came out right.
That's much more like.
Here's the issue.
It comes from the current stateof life and these are the
things you should be thinkingabout.
I think genre you go to themovie you sit down to watch
Ocean's Eleven or the firstAvengers similarly has these
types of relationships we'retalking about.
You sit down to watch Ocean'sEleven or the first Avengers
similarly has these types ofrelationships we're talking
about, um, you sit down and youwatch it and you go to watch you
(36:43):
know a heist people.
You're not sitting there tolearn something about yourself
or the world, but generally Ithink a good movie makes you
connect with one characterbecause you see something of
yourself in that character, um,and then, whether it's conscious
or unconscious, you do processsomething about yourself.
So I think, depending on whichcharacter from Ocean's Eleven
you see yourself in, youprobably in some way have
(37:07):
learned something about yourself.
You just may not want to admitit.
Depending on which character itis.
Um, like, if you're Danny, likeyou look at Danny and you say,
like, oh, that's me.
Like, okay, are you allowingyourself to choose relationships
over your own, you know, toyour own detriment?
Is love the most importantthing to you?
Um, is it more important thanother people?
(37:27):
Because, uh, danny's characterdoesn't just sacrifice himself
for romantic love, he sacrificeshimself for the love of his
team as well, um, and while hedoesn't say, like man rusty, I
really love you, like you're mybest friend, you do know from
the very opening of the film tothe very end of the film that
this is something that he's donemore than once.
(37:47):
He gets himself caught to keepother people from getting caught
.
He serves the time andeverybody's waiting for him when
he comes out.
Um, so it's like you know youcan.
You can learn those thingsabout yourself without
necessarily sitting down andjournaling about them or talking
to your therapist about them,but film is giving you that
ability to be a littletherapized.
Taylor D. Adams (38:07):
Would you sacrifice yourself for anything
or anyone?
Marissa Tandon (38:11):
I think, yeah, like I think my family, my
sister, my dad, like I thinkthat's definitely a situation
where that's something I put, Iput very high.
If you're in that core circle,I think that's sometimes.
That's what it's about.
Taylor D. Adams (38:24):
Yeah, so you, you would do the time, as long
as they got away with the money.
Marissa Tandon (38:28):
Yeah, as long as they're holding it for me when
I come out.
You know what I mean Perfectyeah.
Taylor D. Adams (38:32):
There's gotta be some level of accountability.
I understand.
Marissa Tandon (38:34):
You're going to have to pick me up at the jail,
okay.
Taylor D. Adams (38:40):
I have to twist it on you.
Okay, what kind of person doyou think you would be if you
hadn't seen this movie?
Marissa Tandon (38:46):
That's a great question.
Taylor D. Adams (38:48):
I know because you came up with it.
Marissa Tandon (38:49):
I know I guess a really smart person wrote that
one down.
I think Ocean's Eleven.
Ocean's Eleven is the moviethat I show people, and if they
don't like it, there's generallysomething that's not great
about our relationship.
Moving forward, actually, and Ithink it's one of those movies
(39:11):
where I'm like, if you can'tfind something that you like
about this movie, we just are somisaligned in taste.
It doesn't have to be yourfavorite movie, but it does have
to strike some sort of chordwith humor or style or things
like that.
Um, so I think, having seen thismovie as young as I did, I
don't know that I can say like,oh, I wouldn't have been a
(39:32):
filmmaker, right.
But I do think this movie isone of the first movies that I,
first unconsciously and laterconsciously, um, was able to
kind of understand how magical astory can be.
Um, and also, I think, for me,those films being these types of
(39:53):
movies versus movies like notto pick on it, but just because
we I mentioned it earlier versusa 24 civil war which is out now
, um, I've noticed, for me itreally has changed the way I
want to tell stories.
So, oceans 11, when I've, like,had a bad day.
That's the movie I turn on, um,and so I find a lot of comfort
(40:14):
in watching these 12 guys do thesame thing over and over again
um, and to choose each othereach time.
And I think so.
I think there's that.
I think there's like a level ofunderstanding kind of
relationships in film andrelationships in life through
this movie.
Um, it's a comfort piece forwhen I have a bad day and it's
(40:37):
also definitely something that,like I look at it, and it's the
way I want to tell stories,which is, I think I've talked a
lot with people about howrelationships between women on
screen and relationships betweenmen on screen are treated very
differently.
When we're talking about, likeplatonic relationships, and when
(40:57):
we see two men on screen, theynever have to like objectively
say how they're feeling, likethey're never.
We're never expecting two malecharacters talking to each other
to say like I love you.
I hope we make it out of thisalive.
I'm scared, you know, let'stalk about it.
They never.
They never do those things.
Um, and women female characters, I think very often in in film
(41:21):
are expected to put that outthere.
They're expected to say thethings that that either the man
that they're talking to won'tsay or that they feel more open
to say to women.
And for me, I've never felt verycomfortable putting my you know
emotions out there, like juston the on the plate, um, and I
think the dialogue becomes moreinteresting when you try to
(41:41):
write it in that way, when youwrite around what you're trying
to say, as opposed to directlyto what you're trying to say.
There's these little momentsthroughout these films which I
think have taught me like theway that you can make
storytelling better is by tryingto write it the way that you
would try to say it if you weregetting it out there without
(42:03):
having to say it.
Um, they do goodbyes reallywell in this movie.
So I think, I think that Ithink I think I would really not
have the same level ofunderstanding of like
communication in in this filmthat you have, um, and also I
think I try to write women theway that I would write men in
these movies, like.
I think one of the reasonsoceans eight, for example,
(42:25):
didn't work for me is that theyreally tried to do something
very different with the waythese films work.
It wasn't the same type ofsnappy dialogue talking around
things, and it's a.
It's a very different style andit felt like the only reason it
was different was because theychose to make the heist women Um
, and they didn't really thinkthrough what that meant.
(42:46):
So, yeah, I think I write.
I think I write verydifferently because of this
movie.
Taylor D. Adams (42:50):
Yeah, I think that that's great.
I think one of the things thatyou're really touching on is
this kind of like sometimes lostart of subtext, like you can
say you can say the things youwant to say without actually
saying them.
Yeah, as long as you're liketaking advantage of the medium,
and I think that's uh, when thatgets noticed and appreciated,
and then like like done again inlike later movies, I think
(43:13):
that's a really powerful thingfor a lot of people to really
witness.
Yeah, agreed marissa, this hasbeen great.
Thank you so much for coming onand talking about Ocean's
Eleven with me.
It was really fun to read, asit was movie.
Marissa Tandon (43:24):
Yeah, thanks for having me, Taylor, this was
great.
Taylor D. Adams (43:29):
I think it's healthy to have goals to strive
for or behavior to emulate.
I know that's not a hot take,but here's why I think it's cool
.
It can be part of this kind ofinfluential cycle.
Danny Ocean had the goal ofstealing $160 million.
Marissa saw this story and tookthe way it was written, which
she liked a lot, and applied itto her own work.
(43:51):
Then my appreciation for herwork led me to invite her onto
the show and now, maybe afterthis episode, there's something
you can take from it to apply toyour daily life, like how to
plan the perfect heist.
A huge thanks to Marissa forcoming on the show today and
$160 million worth of thank yousto you for joining us.
(44:14):
I mean, if I had that much, I'dprobably keep some of it for
myself, you know, for like billsand whatnot.
But seriously, thank you all somuch for joining us.
If you want to check out someof Marissa's work and I highly
suggest you do peep the shownotes below for links to that
and be sure to subscribe to hershow.
You Are what you Love, so youcan see an appearance from yours
(44:36):
truly.
New episodes of her show dropWednesdays, starting in June.
If you enjoyed the show today.
Please go ahead and subscribeon your favorite podcast
platform of choice.
It really would mean the worldto me.
And if you happen to belistening to this on Apple
Podcasts, go ahead and leave arating and review.
That helps us get in front ofmore awesome folks like yourself
.
If you wanna really support theshow and help it grow and maybe
get something back in return,please consider becoming a
(44:59):
patron of the show.
You can find links to that inthe description or check out
patreoncom slash.
Film nuts Our theme this seasonis brought to us by the deep end
.
Our artwork is designed byDungua Sipohudi and all episodes
of the film nuts podcast areproduced and edited by me,
taylor D Adams.
If you want to get in touch,you can email film nuts podcast
(45:19):
at gmailcom or follow us onInstagram, tik TOK and Twitter
at film nuts podcast.
And don't forget to join thenut house discord community
Absolutely free, by checking outthe link in the show notes as
well.
Thank you all again.
So much for joining us todayand until next time, stay out of
Barney Like rubble, like youknow.
Trouble, barney.
You know whatever.
(45:40):
Don Cheadle did a better job ofexplaining it.
Because the house always wins.
Play long enough.
You never change the stakes.
The house takes you, unlesswhen that perfect hand comes
along, you bet big and then youtake the house.
Been practicing this speech alittle bit.
Did I rush it?
It felt like I rushed it.
That was good, I liked it.
Marissa Tandon (00:19):
This movie is one of the first movies that I
was able to kind of understandhow magical a story can be.
Ocean's Eleven is the moviethat I show people and if they
don't like it, there's generallysomething that's like not great
about our relationship movingforward.
Actually, like, if you can'tfind something that you like
about this movie, we just are somisaligned in taste Doesn't
(00:42):
have to be your favorite movie,but it does have to like strike
some sort of chord.
Taylor D. Adams (00:50):
Hi, I'm Taylor and welcome back to the Film
Nuts podcast, a show about whywe love what we watch.
So if you were going to rob acasino, let's say who would be
in your crew.
Don't say it out loud in casethe feds are listening, but in
general, you're probably notgoing to bring anybody into your
(01:11):
crew that you don't get alongwith, right?
Maybe it's a few of yourclosest friends and maybe it's
some folks who have a veryspecific skill set and who have
a trustworthy reputation, andthere's probably a wild card or
a newbie in there somewhere.
Just to round things out,whoever you bring on, you gotta
have great chemistry if you wantto be successful.
(01:32):
Ocean's Eleven, starring GeorgeClooney and Brad Pitt,
showcases a prime example of thechemistry that I'm talking
about.
This revamp of the 1960s heistfilm of the same name spouts
quick and clever dialogue thatkeeps pace with the heist action
itself.
Through all of this, ocean'sEleven conveys that level of
bonding that happens betweenpeople with shared experiences,
(01:55):
which, for my guest today, is amajor highlight.
Marissa Tandon is a podcaster,content creator and writer who
was captivated by Ocean's Elevenfrom an early age.
Since then, she has basicallymemorized every line of dialogue
in this movie and examined theways that storytelling works
best.
Marissa has applied what she'slearned to Tandon Productions,
(02:17):
which produces fiction andnonfiction podcasts, including a
show about F1 racing calledGrid Chat and a show called you
Are what you Love, which, ifyou're a fan of what we have
going on here at Film Nuts, youwill love that.
Marissa was even kind enough tohave me on an episode of you
Are what you Love, talking aboutone of my favorite TV shows,
psych.
But today on our show, marissaand I chat about the value of
(02:41):
close relationships, the appealof heist movies and which F1
driver would make the perfectgetaway driver.
It's a ton of fun, so get yourcrew together.
Here's Marissa Tandon talkingabout Ocean's Eleven on the Film
Nuts podcast.
Marissa Tandon (03:00):
I will say a fun fact about this movie is that
because I saw it so young, Ithought for years Don Cheadle
was British Dude when I tell youI forgot he had a British
accent in this movie and hestarted talking.
Taylor D. Adams (03:13):
I was like Don, what are you doing?
Marissa Tandon (03:16):
He's British and to this day actually less than
a month ago I talked to someonewho thought Don Cheadle still
was British.
I was like you know, he was inlike he's been in a ton of
movies they were like, yeah, Ithought he was doing an American
accent.
Yeah, I was like great yeah, uh, that's my fun fact about that.
Taylor D. Adams (03:37):
You have your own, is it?
Is it a podcast productioncompany?
Is that what you specialize in?
Marissa Tandon (03:42):
Yeah, we specialize in audio, so it's a?
Um.
You know, we've been doing itsince 2018, which every time I
say that I'm like oh gosh, it'sbeen so long.
Um, we're coming up on sixyears in September, so awesome
Congrats.
Thank you yeah.
Taylor D. Adams (03:59):
And what?
How did you get started doingthat?
I'm always curious people thatpivot into it's almost like a
pivot sometimes into podcasting,like I don't think a lot of
people start off like I'm goingto be in podcasting.
Marissa Tandon (04:10):
I don't think.
I think this coming generationthere may be people who feel
that way, like where they, youknow that's what they want to do
.
They want to be a podcaster oror write specifically for audio.
But I think this will be, in myopinion, the first generation
that will really feel that way,like it's been a thing long
enough mainstream wise, um forme.
I went to school for film andTV writing, um, and yeah, it was
(04:35):
, you know, fun, I guess.
Taylor D. Adams (04:38):
Where'd you go to school?
Marissa Tandon (04:39):
I went to Emerson in Boston.
Taylor D. Adams (04:41):
Um yeah.
Marissa Tandon (04:45):
So I was like, let me leave, you know, the town
where they make all the moviesand TV shows go to the coldest
place on earth, and then maybeI'll come back to do the thing
that I go to school for.
So, um, you know, real logicalat 18.
Uh, hey it's some.
Taylor D. Adams (05:00):
Sometimes you just need to change the scenery.
Man, I get it too.
Marissa Tandon (05:02):
Yeah, and it's just.
It's just long enough to makeyou certain that, like snow's
not for you.
You know what I mean.
Taylor D. Adams (05:06):
Like oh, okay.
Marissa Tandon (05:07):
I hate it, Um, but yeah, I went.
So I went to Emerson, I movedback to LA.
I was working in TV development, so I I always kind of look at
it.
I was like I had like the dreaminternships and Cartoon Network
my last semester oh, awesome,Very cool.
(05:28):
Um, and so it was like at MTV,the last season of.
Teen Wolf, which was like theshow that made me want to work
in at MTV.
Clip (05:31):
It was like yeah, um so it was great.
Marissa Tandon (05:34):
I had really great mentors.
I worked in development for alittle bit, um, and then it's
sort of, I think, the same storythat everyone has when they go
independent, which is like onceyou work on the network side of
things, you work where they'remaking all of the business
decisions.
You get frustrated becauseyou're just sort of watching the
(05:55):
decisions getting made.
And then you're trying to putyour own scripts out there and
you're realizing, like, how muchof it is like business
decisions and there's nothingwrong with that because that's
what's required to be able tomake art.
You know, someone has to makethose business decisions.
But at a certain point I sort offelt like I see why certain
things aren't getting made.
Um, and it's frustratingultimately just to like be on
(06:16):
this side, like I want to be awriter, I want to take the
things that I've learned how todo and maybe tell the stories
that they're saying no to in theroom, um, because they don't
feel so profitable, um.
So I went to the Austin filmfestival the last year that I
was working in kind oftraditional television, um, for
the script competition, and thatwas the first year they had a
(06:38):
fiction podcasting competition.
Oh cool, yeah.
So I learned a lot there.
And then I had a couple ofscripts that people were like
this would make a really goodpodcast, um, and it's sort of
like that age old story, likewhen you're young and you get
your friends to kind of workwith you and do things as
quickly as you can, um, so wemade our first podcast super
ordinary and that went reallywell.
(06:59):
So at that point it was like,can we find a way to do this
seriously?
And and so I left uh, I left mydevelopment job to start the
company and, um, we've beengoing ever since.
Taylor D. Adams (07:11):
That's awesome, that's really cool.
Uh, yeah, it's as someone whoalso runs a small business like,
yeah, it's tough to tough tostay afloat, but that's that's
really cool.
I'm super excited for y'all.
Thanks, yeah, it was really fun.
(07:32):
So you know, there's good days,there's bad days, but yes, Um.
So, yeah, one of the reasonswhy I wanted to have you on the
show was you were graciousenough to have me on your show.
Uh, you are what you love,which is a very similar concept
to what we're doing here at filmnuts, but could you please give
us the elevator pitch, for youare what you Love.
Marissa Tandon (07:43):
Yes, you Are.
What you Love is a nonfictionpodcast.
It's a talk show podcast, justlike this one where I have
guests on to talk about thepiece of media that changed
their lives for the better, forthe worst.
It depends on how you feel, butwhichever piece of media, I
think that I always say, if youlook at it and you say this is
the one, that if I hadn't seenit, things would be different.
Taylor D. Adams (08:09):
That's the best way to determine which piece of
media that you're going to talkabout.
Yeah, I uh, yeah, during thatinterview that last question,
the one you just said I thoughtthat was really good and I stole
it and I used it on ScottPilgrim that just came out and I
thought it went really well.
Um so, thank you for that.
Um so, I guess, like because ofthat show, the, the concept of
(08:30):
it and the concept of this showas well Uh, I'm very curious why
you wanted to talk about oceans11.
Marissa Tandon (08:38):
Oh boy, um.
So you know, I think it's sohard when people say, like,
what's your favorite movie,which is why I ask people that
every week, um, so it's so hardto like kind of narrow it down.
But oceans 11 is.
I was, when you asked, I wasvery torn between oceans 11 and
space jam.
Oh, wow, very different.
Yeah, very different filmsobviously, but those are the
(09:01):
first two movies I remember likeI have a core memory of seeing.
But Ocean's Eleven I have seenso many times that when I went
to college we had like our youknow script library and one of
them was the Ocean's Elevenscript that had been donated and
I could tell you which partswere changed in filming from the
(09:22):
original script by the dialoguelines and it was like the final
script.
It was just like I know the adlibs that well you guys are pros
, the best.
Clip (09:30):
I'm sure you can make it out of the casino, of course,
lest we forget, once you're outthe front door, you're still in
the middle of the fucking desert.
You're right.
He's right, ruben.
You're right.
He's right, ruben.
You're right, our eyes werebigger than our stomachs.
That's exactly what it is Pureego.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah,blah.
Thank you for lunch.
(09:51):
This one was delicious.
Sorry, we bothered you.
Look, we all go way back and Iowe you from the thing with the
guy in the place and I'll neverforget it.
That was my pleasure.
I've never been to Belize.
Marissa Tandon (10:02):
So I saw that movie when it came out in
theaters, so I was too young togo there, but I went with my dad
and I love that movie.
I think it is a perfect exampleof perfect dialogue
relationships where you knoweverything about the characters
without any of them telling youanything about their
relationship.
(10:23):
There's very little expositionin that film and it's just.
It's like the type of moviethat, when you think about
really really good demonstratedrelationships, I think it's one
of the ones that does it thebest and the most economically.
Taylor D. Adams (10:40):
Yeah, I honestly I had never really
thought about that Like, to meit's always existed as the fun
heist movie and I'm like, ohyeah, heck, yeah, I'm gonna
watch that movie and then I'llwatch 12 and 13 and then I
didn't watch any of the othersthat came after that.
Um, but I don't.
It's funny.
I think I've only seen thismovie like once really.
Yes, but when I was re-watchingit I was like I like I
(11:02):
remembered everything and justyou know, there's like memeable
stuff that's kind of like justexisted within the ether since
it came out.
But this was a movie that itwas just like firing on all the
cylinders, like I didn't realizehow tight it was.
When you said you talked alittle bit about you.
(11:23):
You went to see it for thefirst time.
You, you were not eligible togo see it, so your dad took you.
Um, talk to me, do you remember, like, what that experience was
like as a kid?
Like were you recognizing therelationships of it, or was
there something else that youremember that really caught your
attention?
Marissa Tandon (11:41):
Well, so that movie came out in 2001.
So I would have been, oh gosh,five or six when that movie came
out.
So I don't know that I can saythat at five years old or six
years old, I was watching themovie and I was like those guys
really have a great emotionaldynamic, but I, I used to go to
(12:04):
the movies with my dad, with mydad, like that's been our thing
since I was old enough to likenot fall asleep through a movie.
Um, so I've seen, I saw thematrix, I saw, I saw so many
movies that you like shouldn'tsee as a child, because they
were what my dad wanted to gosee and it was what was out.
Um, and so I don't necessarilyremember like, obviously, like
breaking down the, the filmitself, but I remember loving it
(12:28):
a lot, um, and then the it, Ibecame very obsessed with it, in
the way that kids become veryobsessed with things.
Um, and obviously back then you, you have to wait for the movie
to come out on DVD, and so oncethat did, I could you know I
could see it over and over again.
Um, and I know we'll get intothis later, but obviously
(12:48):
there's that scene where they'reat the Bellagio water fountains
Um, and the first time I wentto Vegas as a kid, my dad
obviously took me to see thefountains, cause I was obsessed
with the film.
Um, and also you take any kidto go see the Bellagio water
fountains, um, but it was thefirst time I saw something that
I had seen in a movie in reallife, um, and so it was like
(13:12):
this moment where I was like, ohman, like it's.
First of all, it's so muchbigger than it is in the movie.
Cause I was, I was little soit's uh, yeah, it was, it was
really cool.
It's like I have a very corememory of like standing in the
same place that they stand whenthey film that scene and being
(13:33):
like movies are real, movies aremagic, um.
So yeah, it was a little sappy,but that's.
That's the thing.
Taylor D. Adams (13:37):
Yeah, don't well don't excuse the sappiness
at all.
I think that's really cool.
I don't think I've heard thatkind of experience often of
seeing something in a movie andthen you know, not necessarily
like experiencing the movie, butgoing to a place where you
recognize it from the movie andbeing like, holy shit, I'm here
(13:58):
seeing that thing.
Um, so yeah.
So you went to see a lot ofmovies with your dad.
Do you continue to do so if youcan?
Marissa Tandon (14:06):
yeah, yeah, my dad and I, and my sister as well
, that's like our thing.
It's whenever we're together wesee a movie, we all have amc
stubs, so we're uh, you knowit's.
If it's out, if it's a movieand it's not a horror movie,
we'll go see it okay is.
Taylor D. Adams (14:21):
Is it the horror movie?
Is that your version or his?
Marissa Tandon (14:24):
mine, I hate.
Okay, hate hates a strong word,I think it's like you know what
it is.
It's like there's very few.
There's a couple that haveworked really well for me but, I
don't like the like.
I think movies are aboutescapism a lot of the time and
so it's hard for me to want toescape into a movie that has
(14:44):
like a real life potential fearattached to it.
So like movies where they'relike home invasion or, um, you
know, like the purge or allthese little things that you're
like this could really happen tome.
I don't feel relaxed or like Idon't enjoy it.
Taylor D. Adams (14:59):
It's not cathartic for me, um you're
wearing a jaw shirt, though, soyeah, but you know what I mean.
Marissa Tandon (15:04):
That's so different.
It's like when was.
When was the last time a giantshark took over?
Taylor D. Adams (15:10):
a town.
Yeah, the odds, the odds are,you know, it's a little less
likely to happen.
So when you've, obviouslyyou've seen oceans 11 more than
once is there, and also goingwith how you are working in the
entertainment industry is theresomething that you've noticed or
appreciated more the more timesyou've seen it?
Marissa Tandon (15:33):
The dialogue.
I think the dialogue in Ocean's11 is something that, like, I
really strive to be able towrite as, um, when you look at,
I think a lot of people, whenthey talk about dialogue, like
the first name that comes tomind is, like Aaron Sorkin.
There's like fast paced, likereally good speeches and that
type of thing, and that's onetype of dialogue.
But the thing about Ocean'sEleven's dialogue is that every
(15:57):
line feels like something a realperson would say, and I think
there's always this perfectbalance that you have to strike
of feeling like the charactersthat are talking, feel like
people you would talk to, butwithout all the boring parts, um
, but without making you realizethat we cut out all the boring
parts.
There's a.
It's a really hard balance tohit and they do it perfectly.
Taylor D. Adams (16:21):
Yeah, uh, one of my, one of my favorite scenes
from it just going withdialogue is when George Clooney
and Brad Pitt's characters areat the bar.
Clip (16:32):
Saul makes ten.
Ten ought to do it, don't youthink?
You think we need one more.
You think we need one more?
Taylor D. Adams (16:45):
All right, we'll get one more so that's an
in-depth conversation withstakes and rewards.
Happens with only one personsaying something yep, it's I.
Marissa Tandon (16:53):
That is the scene I point to when anybody
asks like what is the best pete?
Like what's a really greatthree second scene where you
know everything you need to knowabout two people, and that is
one of them.
Again, he doesn't say yes, hedoesn't say no, he blinks and
that's the end of the scene.
It's like you, you watch thatand that scene tells you okay,
these two guys have been friendsfor so long, they've worked
(17:14):
together for so long that theyknow what the right answer is
without talking to each other.
But rusty knows that danny'sgonna get there on his own.
He he doesn't actually wantRusty's input, he just wants to
hear himself talk.
He wants to walk all the waythrough it.
And why should he dignify witha response when he's going to
come to it anyway?
Taylor D. Adams (17:32):
Yeah, yeah, it's really stuff like that.
It's just it's clever, likeit's something we don't really
notice because I think we justcaught, get caught up in the
fact that it's working and sowe're just like experiencing and
having fun with it.
But if you compare it with, youknow, other movies that will
kind of wear everything on itssleeve, just dialogue wise it's.
You know, it's okay, it happens, but there's a like a I don't
(17:55):
want to use use the termartistry, because you know it's
got like high flute and whatever, but I think it.
But it feels it feels a littlemore like, uh, elegant and fluid
and fluid and organic and itallows, uh, I think it allows
the audience to kind of laugh inthe silences, like because they
kind of they understand theaudience knows what's happening
right now.
(18:15):
Yeah, um, so I think that'sreally cool, uh.
And speaking of audiences, soand you mentioned escapism
earlier why do you thinkaudience audiences love heist
movies?
Marissa Tandon (18:27):
that's a good question, I think.
I think heist movies give you acouple of things that you hope
for in life, which are are bigadventures, right, like some,
everybody wants something coolto happen to them without you
know the consequences ofsomething cool happening to you.
So I think there's that.
I think there's by nature of aheist.
(18:48):
There's always a nature of likea friend group, which everyone
sort of wants.
And also, I think in a heististmovie, each person is really
good at one thing, um, and soit's easy to find and pick the
character that you are mostattached to, because you feel
like that would be the thingyou'd be good at.
So you know you can.
(19:08):
Uh, don cheadle's character isgreat at explosives and that's
all he does, and so if you wantto be the explosives guy you
love, don cheadle for the restof your life all right, chaps,
hang on to your niggas I thinkit gives you that like easy way
(19:30):
to connect to someone, kind ofin the same way like superhero
movies do, where you can veryclearly pick that one
representative characteristic.
Taylor D. Adams (19:40):
No, so in in the heist movie that you're in,
what's your skillset?
Marissa Tandon (19:46):
Oh, it's a good question.
Um, unfortunately, I've thoughtabout it way too many times.
Taylor D. Adams (19:50):
I so when you go to Vegas, you're scoping the
joint.
You're not going there to lookat the fountain.
Marissa Tandon (19:56):
Oh gosh, I want to say that I we should not say
that online.
They're going to put me onevery camera.
Um, every time I walk inthey're going to be like isn't
that that girl from the podcast?
She's thinking about heistingall the time.
Taylor D. Adams (20:08):
If we make it that big, great.
Marissa Tandon (20:12):
Um, yeah, no, I think I always am like oh, I
want to be a rusty, but I thinkI am a Danny.
I think like in your core, butI think that's a.
Taylor D. Adams (20:22):
Everybody wants to be rusty you know, I mean,
everybody wants to be able tomake eating look that good.
Marissa Tandon (20:29):
So true, so true .
Taylor D. Adams (20:35):
I don't know what I mean.
I hate to say that it's justBrad Pitt, so whatever he's
doing looks good.
But like I watch, I waswatching him specifically eating
.
I was like why can't I stop?
Marissa Tandon (20:47):
watching him eat like he's just like eating
chips or doing whatever, andhe's flawlessly delivering his
have in the film is when Rustyis talking to Linus in the lobby
of the Bellagio about Tess's orabout, you know, the?
Oh my God.
I just blanked on his name, thevillain, the one that Andy
(21:08):
Garcia and.
Clip (21:09):
Benedict, oh my goodness who those?
Marissa Tandon (21:12):
That was scary for me.
Taylor D. Adams (21:14):
Am I losing my mind?
I've seen this movie so manytimes um.
Marissa Tandon (21:18):
So when they're talking about benedict's
schedule, he's been tailing him.
Clip (21:21):
Uh, rusty's eating shrimp cocktail that portfolio contains
the codes to all the katestores in two minutes after
they've been changed.
He's got him in his hand.
I'll tell you, you guys reallycan't pick.
This guy is as smart as he isruthless.
The last guy they caughtcheating in here he not only
sent him up for 10 years but hehad the bank seize his house and
(21:43):
then he bankrupted hisbrother-in-law's
Brother-in-law's tractordealership.
I heard he doesn't just takeout your knees, the guy goes
after your livelihood and thelivelihood of anybody you ever
met.
Marissa Tandon (21:56):
And in one angle he's eating it from a cup and
then it switches to a plate.
So it's uh, they, it's like ayou know script.
He missed it right yeah, theone flub that's in the film.
So I it made me think about howmany things they had to make
sure in each take he was.
If he's eating every time, doyou know how many like times
they're like no, take a newburrito.
Like, oh my gosh yeah, I wouldthere.
Taylor D. Adams (22:13):
I'm sure there's some kind of behind the
scenes on the diet of Brad Pittfor the movie, cause I know a
lot of uh.
The one thing that I know about, uh, when actors are eating ice
cream, they don't eat all theice cream that's on their spoon,
like.
It's just something I've alwaysnoticed, like you'll see it,
they'll bite it, but like halfof it is still on the spoon when
(22:34):
it comes out of their mouth.
Marissa Tandon (22:35):
How interesting.
Taylor D. Adams (22:37):
Yeah, and I was like, why is it?
And then I learned I was likeif I'm doing a scene for three
hours, I'm not going to eat icecream for three hours.
Marissa Tandon (22:43):
So true.
Taylor D. Adams (22:45):
So sorry for the interruption, but I will be
brief.
I am so grateful that youdecided to listen to the Film
Nuts podcast today.
If you are enjoying what you'rehearing, please consider
supporting the show on Patreon.
With a small monthly amount,you can get access to behind the
scenes goodies, early access tofull episodes and you can vote
on what movie we watch the firstMonday of every month on the
(23:06):
Nuthouse Discord.
The Nuthouse itself is free tojoin and is full of other film
and TV lovers, so you'll fitright in.
You can check out info on allthese things in the show notes.
And if all of this sounds like abit too much, that's totally
okay.
But if you want to keep up todate on all of our episodes,
please be sure and subscribe onyour favorite platform of choice
.
And if you're listening onApple Podcasts, go ahead and
(23:29):
leave a rating and review so wecan get in front of other
awesome people like yourself.
Okay, enough of me ramblingback to the good stuff.
Okay, so I'm super fascinatedto learn.
Amongst the plethora ofpodcasts you produce and host,
you have an F1 racing podcast.
I need to know where that camefrom.
Like, where your fascinationcame from and like, tell me
(23:52):
about the show itself.
Marissa Tandon (23:53):
Yeah, so, uh, grid chat is, um, all
motorsports.
So we actually cover F1 IndyCarand specifically F1 Academy,
which is the all female kind ofum feeder series that they're
doing for formula racing.
Yeah, um, so it's super cool.
My kind of obsession withmotorsports uh, started because
(24:16):
one of my really good friendsfrom high school got into it,
and what I'll say about F1 isthat I think it's the perfect
sport for anyone who's been afan of fandom-related behavior
in life.
So I've been a sports kid mywhole life.
I played basketball growing up.
I love sports.
Um, I didn't start talking aboutthis, about sports on the
(24:38):
internet, until the strikeactually last year when we
weren't allowed to talk about TVor film, so I guess we're
talking about sports now, um, soI started talking about sports
at that time, which was great.
But I started watching formulaone and, uh, my friend was like
you're just, you have to, you'regoing to love it.
It's just high stakes, there'sso much drama, there's so much,
(24:59):
um, sort of like gossip involvedin the sport as well.
So, if you, if you're evergetting into it, there's a
Netflix made a docu series whichI think has really popularized
the sport in America.
Yeah, um, called drive tosurvive.
So a lot of people watch thatUm, but yeah, I just I got super
obsessed with it because thereare so many layers to it,
(25:19):
because there's only, uh, 20drivers um in the entire grid,
so like 20 worldwide.
Um, there is no separation ofgender, so, technically, women
can compete at the highest levelwithout um having to compete in
another league or somethinglike that, uh, and so that's one
movement that's been really big.
They're really starting tofocus on bridging that gender
(25:41):
gap, because we haven't had awoman in the sport for a really
long time.
Um, but there are so many likepersonalities, there's so many
things where you feel like thereare these big hero stories or
big narrative points that playout so well in Formula One, and
I love it.
I think it's so great so Istarted doing a podcast about it
(26:04):
because I do a lot of shortform media.
So TikTok and Instagram aboutsports, which really started as
just geared towards people whofeel left out of sports spaces,
which can be like film nerds,can be fandom girls you know, Um
, so explaining it in a way thatlike felt welcoming and
(26:25):
building that community forpeople, Um, and people really
have started to to enjoy it, soI was like I'd like to talk
about it for more than 90seconds at a time.
What if we did a podcast.
Taylor D. Adams (26:36):
That's really cool.
We can talk sports off micbecause I have a lot of stories
and stuff in common with whatyou're doing right now.
But anyway, so to tie F1 backinto this movie, all right, I
don't know anything about F1.
I know it exists.
I know cars cargo fast.
Marissa Tandon (26:55):
All right, I don't.
Taylor D. Adams (26:55):
I don't know anything about F1.
I know it exists, I know carscargo fast, but, like, can you
tell me what F1 driver would bethe perfect wheel person in
Danny's crew, should they?
Should they need it and alsoexplain why?
Cause, like I said, I knownothing.
Marissa Tandon (27:06):
So there's, this is a great question.
That would be very inflammatoryin a group setting of different
fans, I think, because you'realways going to say your
favorite driver, right?
Taylor D. Adams (27:17):
But I can't wait for the comments.
Clip (27:19):
I know everyone's going to be like oh, she's so obvious.
Marissa Tandon (27:22):
Whatever, I don't care.
I Lewis Hamilton is my favoritedriver, but I also will say
he's the only driver with filmexperience, so he knows how to
be in a movie.
Um so he is.
Lewis has been.
He's a seven time worldchampion.
He's been in the sport for areally long time.
There's only one driver who'sbeen driving longer than him.
Um, but also the thing aboutLewis that I'm going to say
(27:45):
would be relevant and make himthe most suited, because I know
people are going to be like MaxVerstappen he's faster, whatever
.
Um, the truth of the matter isLewis Hamilton is the only one
on the grid who has the level ofcool that would be necessary if
he needed to become a part ofthe heist, like as a forward
facing individual.
Um, he's got charm, he's gotwit, he's got personality, he's
(28:09):
got connections.
I think he'd be able to do it.
Taylor D. Adams (28:13):
You mentioned.
The name of your podcast isGrid Chat, and you said the term
grid earlier on.
What do you mean by grid?
Marissa Tandon (28:19):
Oh sure, so the grid is literally like when you
line the cars up, there's likespaces, right?
So you're on the grid.
So we refer to like drivers onthe grid.
There's 20 spots on the grid.
Okay, so we're chatting aboutthe grid.
There's 20 spots on the grid.
Um, so we're?
We're chatting about the grid.
Taylor D. Adams (28:38):
Got it Okay.
I love it when I learnedsomething, so this is great.
Um so, okay, Going, I'm goingto do a hard pivot to the one of
the other podcasts that you do,the one that I've been on, I'm
going back to it.
Uh, so if you had to guess whatthe favorite piece of media is
(28:58):
for Ocean's 11 characters, Iwould love to know.
So I'm going to start withDanny Ocean.
Marissa Tandon (29:06):
Okay, this is hard, but actually maybe it's
not hard.
Danny Ocean is like not even acloset romantic.
He's very visibly like it'sreally his fatal flaw is romance
, and so I think he is like hehas to be the type of person who
cries at the notebook.
You know what I mean.
Taylor D. Adams (29:32):
Oh, oh, that's a great answer.
I'm just.
I'm picturing George Clooneyjust weeping watching Ryan
Gosling and Rachel McAdams.
Marissa Tandon (29:38):
I'd buy it.
You know what I mean.
Taylor D. Adams (29:41):
That's great.
Okay, what about Rusty?
Marissa Tandon (29:44):
Rusty is a Top Gun guy, I think.
That's like the movie that hewas like that's me.
I'm changing my life.
I'm getting the mustache.
The aviators that's my guy.
Taylor D. Adams (29:54):
That's solid.
Oh, that's really good.
I love that.
You didn't hesitate with thateither.
You're like that one.
Top gun, that's the one.
Marissa Tandon (29:59):
I know it in my heart.
Taylor D. Adams (30:01):
And then Julia Roberts's character.
Marissa Tandon (30:04):
Ooh, julia Roberts's character.
That one is hard because Ithink, as much as I love this
movie I love it we don't get somuch about her, and oceans 12 is
the worst film and of the three, um, and so it's like that's
(30:25):
more of the time that you get tosee her, but it doesn't really
feel like right.
So it's hard to say, but I dothink she probably has some sort
of like art documentary thatshe makes everyone watch.
Taylor D. Adams (30:39):
You know what I mean.
Makes everyone watch.
Marissa Tandon (30:41):
Yeah, it's like one of those things where she's
like have you seen this?
It'll change your life.
And it doesn't change mostpeople's lives, but like the
people who you learn somethingabout her watching it.
I don't know if about enoughabout art documentaries to point
to one, but I know there's one.
She's got she's a documentarygal.
Okay, got she's a documentarygal.
(31:03):
Okay.
Like um exit through the giftshop.
I don't know that it's somainstream as banksy.
Clip (31:05):
You know what I mean, I think she's.
Marissa Tandon (31:06):
There's something like maybe, um, I
don't know if you saw that moviewhere they did uh, I can't
remember the name of it, butit's the entire, um, the entire
thing is painted frames and it'sabout vincent van gogh.
Van gogh, I know you're talkingabout.
Taylor D. Adams (31:17):
Yeah, like something like that where it's
about Vincent Van Gogh.
I know what you're talkingabout.
Yeah.
Marissa Tandon (31:19):
Like something like that, where it's like she
can tell you every little craftand tell you what was right and
wrong in the history of it.
Taylor D. Adams (31:26):
Okay, I like that.
I like that.
That's really good.
Uh, so we talked a little bitearlier about some favorite
moments or scenes from this film.
Um, is there one that is also afavorite that you haven't
mentioned so far?
Marissa Tandon (31:38):
scenes from this film?
Um, is there one that is also afavorite that you haven't
mentioned so far?
Oh, good question.
Um, I love this movie acrossthe board, so there's a lot of
really good moments.
Um, but I also think like thescene with Ruben, rusty and
Danny when they're talking aboutum, the different heists that
(32:13):
have been pulled.
Clip (32:14):
Better not know you're involved, not know your names or
think you're dead, becausehe'll kill you and then I'll go
to work on you.
That's why we have to be verycareful, very precise,
well-funded.
Yeah, you got to be nuts too,and you're going to need a crew,
as nuts as you are.
Marissa Tandon (32:46):
And then we roll into, like the thing everyone
remembers of meeting everycharacter.
So I love that setup.
But I also love that it tiesthat core relationship into
Ocean's 13 where Rub Rubenbecomes.
For anyone who hasn't seen itit's not really a spoiler, it's
just the opener of the movie.
But the core issue in 13 isthat Ruben and Al Pacino, of all
(33:10):
people, decide to open a casinotogether and Al Pacino kind of
screws him over, which Ruben hasa heart attack and is in a bit
of a you know he's in a coma andall of the guys kind of come
back together one more time.
Um, and Ocean's Eleven is aremake of Rat Pack film and the
Rat Pack film was only one Um,so they had to find these ways
(33:31):
to like give you an emotionalcenter to make two more movies.
And the second one is really um, I don't think it works as well
.
But the third comes back tothose core guys and that core
relationship.
And if you don't have thatscene which hints at this
previous relationship, itdoesn't tie you back, you don't
come back for it in the same wayfor so this movie, as well as
(33:53):
13 that you talked about.
Taylor D. Adams (33:54):
You you're really stressing kind of the uh,
relationships or the, theimportance of relationships at
the centers of these.
Um, it's a vague question, butis is that something that's
important to you, like in yourlife, and was there a point
where you realized that neededto be an important part of your
life?
Marissa Tandon (34:14):
Oh sure, yeah, I mean I think you know my family
has always been reallyimportant to me.
My dad, uh, and my sister havejust always been my core um
family unit, and so that isreally important to me.
Um and friendship is reallyimportant to me and, like I
think I mentioned earlier, likethis idea of a group of friends
who support each other in thatway, um has been sort of a core
(34:37):
tenement of my life in general.
So, yeah, I think relationshipsand like what I would say in
terms of the film relationshipsversus like real life personal
relationships the thing I loveabout the relationships
portrayed in these movies isthey are the type of people that
leave each other for a longperiod of time, come back and
understand each other for a longperiod of time, come back and
(34:59):
understand each other, no matterwhat Um, and that's my favorite
type of relationship in general, whether that's like someone
that you grew up with and youcome back home and you see and
it's like you never left, orit's someone that you meet and
you feel like you've known themfor your whole lives, like
that's, I think, like the coretype of connection you can have
as a human.
Taylor D. Adams (35:19):
Do you think that there's something to be
learned from that?
Like?
Do you think somebody watches amovie like Ocean's 11 and goes
I need to be nicer to my friends, or I?
Need to like keep them closerto me, or something along those
lines.
Marissa Tandon (35:33):
I don't know that it's a conscious thought,
like I don't know that you leaveit in the theater and you go
gosh, I wish I were nicer to theguys I knew in high school,
type of thing.
We could have been robbingbanks, um, but I think it's the
same way.
I think a heist movie is verysimilar to kind of like a larger
scale, uh, genre film, and Ithink both of those movies or
(35:57):
those types of movies do thesame thing, which is they let
you look at real life problemson a scale that are so much
larger than real life that youare able to kind of process your
own emotions and your feelingsabout things without having to
acknowledge that they're yourown, versus movies that are much
(36:21):
closer to reality or aredealing with, like big human
issues that are very clear, andsomething like A24 is Civil War
that just came out right.
That's much more like.
Here's the issue.
It comes from the current stateof life and these are the
things you should be thinkingabout.
I think genre you go to themovie you sit down to watch
Ocean's Eleven or the firstAvengers similarly has these
types of relationships we'retalking about.
You sit down to watch Ocean'sEleven or the first Avengers
similarly has these types ofrelationships we're talking
about, um, you sit down and youwatch it and you go to watch you
(36:43):
know a heist people.
You're not sitting there tolearn something about yourself
or the world, but generally Ithink a good movie makes you
connect with one characterbecause you see something of
yourself in that character, um,and then, whether it's conscious
or unconscious, you do processsomething about yourself.
So I think, depending on whichcharacter from Ocean's Eleven
you see yourself in, youprobably in some way have
(37:07):
learned something about yourself.
You just may not want to admitit.
Depending on which character itis.
Um, like, if you're Danny, likeyou look at Danny and you say,
like, oh, that's me.
Like, okay, are you allowingyourself to choose relationships
over your own, you know, toyour own detriment?
Is love the most importantthing to you?
Um, is it more important thanother people?
(37:27):
Because, uh, danny's characterdoesn't just sacrifice himself
for romantic love, he sacrificeshimself for the love of his
team as well, um, and while hedoesn't say, like man rusty, I
really love you, like you're mybest friend, you do know from
the very opening of the film tothe very end of the film that
this is something that he's donemore than once.
(37:47):
He gets himself caught to keepother people from getting caught
.
He serves the time andeverybody's waiting for him when
he comes out.
Um, so it's like you know youcan.
You can learn those thingsabout yourself without
necessarily sitting down andjournaling about them or talking
to your therapist about them,but film is giving you that
ability to be a littletherapized.
Taylor D. Adams (38:07):
Would you sacrifice yourself for anything
or anyone?
Marissa Tandon (38:11):
I think, yeah, like I think my family, my
sister, my dad, like I thinkthat's definitely a situation
where that's something I put, Iput very high.
If you're in that core circle,I think that's sometimes.
That's what it's about.
Taylor D. Adams (38:24):
Yeah, so you, you would do the time, as long
as they got away with the money.
Marissa Tandon (38:28):
Yeah, as long as they're holding it for me when
I come out.
You know what I mean Perfectyeah.
Taylor D. Adams (38:32):
There's gotta be some level of accountability.
I understand.
Marissa Tandon (38:34):
You're going to have to pick me up at the jail,
okay.
Taylor D. Adams (38:40):
I have to twist it on you.
Okay, what kind of person doyou think you would be if you
hadn't seen this movie?
Marissa Tandon (38:46):
That's a great question.
Taylor D. Adams (38:48):
I know because you came up with it.
Marissa Tandon (38:49):
I know I guess a really smart person wrote that
one down.
I think Ocean's Eleven.
Ocean's Eleven is the moviethat I show people, and if they
don't like it, there's generallysomething that's not great
about our relationship.
Moving forward, actually, and Ithink it's one of those movies
(39:11):
where I'm like, if you can'tfind something that you like
about this movie, we just are somisaligned in taste.
It doesn't have to be yourfavorite movie, but it does have
to strike some sort of chordwith humor or style or things
like that.
Um, so I think, having seen thismovie as young as I did, I
don't know that I can say like,oh, I wouldn't have been a
(39:32):
filmmaker, right.
But I do think this movie isone of the first movies that I,
first unconsciously and laterconsciously, um, was able to
kind of understand how magical astory can be.
Um, and also, I think, for me,those films being these types of
(39:53):
movies versus movies like notto pick on it, but just because
we I mentioned it earlier versusa 24 civil war which is out now
, um, I've noticed, for me itreally has changed the way I
want to tell stories.
So, oceans 11, when I've, like,had a bad day.
That's the movie I turn on, um,and so I find a lot of comfort
(40:14):
in watching these 12 guys do thesame thing over and over again
um, and to choose each othereach time.
And I think so.
I think there's that.
I think there's like a level ofunderstanding kind of
relationships in film andrelationships in life through
this movie.
Um, it's a comfort piece forwhen I have a bad day and it's
(40:37):
also definitely something that,like I look at it, and it's the
way I want to tell stories,which is, I think I've talked a
lot with people about howrelationships between women on
screen and relationships betweenmen on screen are treated very
differently.
When we're talking about, likeplatonic relationships, and when
(40:57):
we see two men on screen, theynever have to like objectively
say how they're feeling, likethey're never.
We're never expecting two malecharacters talking to each other
to say like I love you.
I hope we make it out of thisalive.
I'm scared, you know, let'stalk about it.
They never.
They never do those things.
Um, and women female characters, I think very often in in film
(41:21):
are expected to put that outthere.
They're expected to say thethings that that either the man
that they're talking to won'tsay or that they feel more open
to say to women.
And for me, I've never felt verycomfortable putting my you know
emotions out there, like juston the on the plate, um, and I
think the dialogue becomes moreinteresting when you try to
(41:41):
write it in that way, when youwrite around what you're trying
to say, as opposed to directlyto what you're trying to say.
There's these little momentsthroughout these films which I
think have taught me like theway that you can make
storytelling better is by tryingto write it the way that you
would try to say it if you weregetting it out there without
(42:03):
having to say it.
Um, they do goodbyes reallywell in this movie.
So I think, I think that Ithink I think I would really not
have the same level ofunderstanding of like
communication in in this filmthat you have, um, and also I
think I try to write women theway that I would write men in
these movies, like.
I think one of the reasonsoceans eight, for example,
(42:25):
didn't work for me is that theyreally tried to do something
very different with the waythese films work.
It wasn't the same type ofsnappy dialogue talking around
things, and it's a.
It's a very different style andit felt like the only reason it
was different was because theychose to make the heist women Um
, and they didn't really thinkthrough what that meant.
(42:46):
So, yeah, I think I write.
I think I write verydifferently because of this
movie.
Taylor D. Adams (42:50):
Yeah, I think that that's great.
I think one of the things thatyou're really touching on is
this kind of like sometimes lostart of subtext, like you can
say you can say the things youwant to say without actually
saying them.
Yeah, as long as you're liketaking advantage of the medium,
and I think that's uh, when thatgets noticed and appreciated,
and then like like done again inlike later movies, I think
(43:13):
that's a really powerful thingfor a lot of people to really
witness.
Yeah, agreed marissa, this hasbeen great.
Thank you so much for coming onand talking about Ocean's
Eleven with me.
It was really fun to read, asit was movie.
Marissa Tandon (43:24):
Yeah, thanks for having me, Taylor, this was
great.
Taylor D. Adams (43:29):
I think it's healthy to have goals to strive
for or behavior to emulate.
I know that's not a hot take,but here's why I think it's cool
.
It can be part of this kind ofinfluential cycle.
Danny Ocean had the goal ofstealing $160 million.
Marissa saw this story and tookthe way it was written, which
she liked a lot, and applied itto her own work.
(43:51):
Then my appreciation for herwork led me to invite her onto
the show and now, maybe afterthis episode, there's something
you can take from it to apply toyour daily life, like how to
plan the perfect heist.
A huge thanks to Marissa forcoming on the show today and
$160 million worth of thank yousto you for joining us.
(44:14):
I mean, if I had that much, I'dprobably keep some of it for
myself, you know, for like billsand whatnot.
But seriously, thank you all somuch for joining us.
If you want to check out someof Marissa's work and I highly
suggest you do peep the shownotes below for links to that
and be sure to subscribe to hershow.
You Are what you Love, so youcan see an appearance from yours
(44:36):
truly.
New episodes of her show dropWednesdays, starting in June.
If you enjoyed the show today.
Please go ahead and subscribeon your favorite podcast
platform of choice.
It really would mean the worldto me.
And if you happen to belistening to this on Apple
Podcasts, go ahead and leave arating and review.
That helps us get in front ofmore awesome folks like yourself
.
If you wanna really support theshow and help it grow and maybe
get something back in return,please consider becoming a
(44:59):
patron of the show.
You can find links to that inthe description or check out
patreoncom slash.
Film nuts Our theme this seasonis brought to us by the deep end
.
Our artwork is designed byDungua Sipohudi and all episodes
of the film nuts podcast areproduced and edited by me,
taylor D Adams.
If you want to get in touch,you can email film nuts podcast
(45:19):
at gmailcom or follow us onInstagram, tik TOK and Twitter
at film nuts podcast.
And don't forget to join thenut house discord community
Absolutely free, by checking outthe link in the show notes as
well.
Thank you all again.
So much for joining us todayand until next time, stay out of
Barney Like rubble, like youknow.
Trouble, barney.
You know whatever.
(45:40):
Don Cheadle did a better job ofexplaining it.
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