Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Movie Crush, a production of I Heart Radio.
(00:28):
Hey everybody, Welcome to Movie Crush. Charles W. Chuck Bryant
Here at the l A Studio right here in Central Hollywood.
I came out for my annual jaunt to Max fun
Con at Lake Arrowhead, and I always try to squeeze
in episodes, as you know by now, and this week
I asked the great and then the wonderful Alex Fernie
UH to sit in with me. Alex I actually met
(00:51):
at Max Funcon a few years ago and he is
part of he has one third of the of the
comedy improv troupe Convoy out of You CB here in
l A. And Uh Convoy is one of the best.
You guys, if you ever get a chance to check
out Convoy when you're in l A. Do it, do it?
Do it? Uh, Todd, Todd Fasten, Alec Berg and Alex
(01:12):
Fernie just really thinking with a singular mind. Three really
really funny guys that have been doing this together for geez.
I think Alex said like seventeen or eighteen years now.
UM really really have their craft down and it's some
of the best improv I've ever seen. UM So I
met all those guys a couple of years ago there
(01:32):
and kind of kept up with Alex over the years
through Facebook and stuff. Um he's also director. Uh he
directed a lot of episodes of Children's Hospital, one of
my very favorite all time comedies uh in TV history.
His Children's Hospital is just such a fun, silly show.
And we got to talk a little bit about that
as well, and um, a little bit about his background
(01:54):
and performing for kind of a shy guy is another
one of those cases of someone who uh was probably
an introvert who found their voice on stage, and that's
the case with Alex and really good dude, great taste
in films, very smart guy. And he picked the awesome
Steven Soderbergh film from Out of Sight. Uh. We go
(02:16):
back in time too, when George Clooney was not even
George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez before she was j Lo,
and it's kind of hard to remember all those many
years ago when they weren't big movie stars. So uh,
we talked about out of Sight, We talked about Steven
Soderbergh a lot and what a master craftsman he is,
and we we had a really good time. So here
(02:36):
we go with Alex Fernie on Out of Sight. I
do want to talk about, Uh, well, where are you from?
First of all, I grew up in New Hampshire, Chicago. Yeah,
uh yeah, New Hampshire, But I lived kind of all
over the Northeast. I lived in I grew up in
New Hampshire, and then I lived in Rhode Island and
(02:57):
a little bit in Boston and which school in the
mid Hudson and so. But like so I just kind
of say the Northeast because I want to surprise people.
I say I grew up on a horse farm, because
I did. People wouldn't guess that from me. For like childhood,
I lived on like this, like not like oh it's
up every more and I'm working horses. It was just
a farm where there were some horses. How many horses
(03:19):
h it ranged like sometimes it was like three or four.
But then at one point I think it was very young.
They were like fourteen horses. Yeah, who did what with them?
My mom grew up with horses and like like to
ride them and had some that like like her dad
had and stuff, and so that was mainly I think
where they came from. I think some of them might
(03:40):
have belonged to other people, because I don't know how
we would have had thirteen or fourteen horses, but so
we would like hang out on this beautiful sort of
farm that in that you know eighties, my my dad,
probably my mom made into a sort of I think
I would bet if you could go back, it looks
very like whatever Home and Garden magazine was, those like
(04:02):
those like bleech wood wickery chairs, everyonew with like the
bent metal and then that like like I don't know
what those are called, but everybody had them in like
the middle eight eighties. Just listening to Grace land on him?
Are you are he still in the horses? No? I
never was. Also, well, the other part of that was
(04:23):
I was allergic to horses sucking. Sucks to grow up
on a horse, fright, So like I would ride a
little bit, like Alex always sick. It's just like a
little boy in a bubble. I was like allergic to
tons of stuff and I was a kid and then
I just grow it. But horses were the most annoying
one because I was on the horse from so I
would ride a little bit, but I was never that
good at it um and I never like cared enough.
(04:45):
I was like an indoor kid pretty much, but then
my outdoor version of it was like I would want
to set my Ninja turtles up in a tree as
if it was a tree for you know what I mean.
So it was less going around and riding. And I'm
also except really noncompetitive. I just had I'm not competitive,
and a big part of my horse righting was like,
you go do these horse shows. This is I don't
(05:07):
like this, this is dumb. You're ribbon for like bouncing
properly for the right amount of times. Just I don't
even is unappealing. I rode my first horse only like
five years ago, and then I've only written once since then,
and this is like walking through like a winery type
of thing, and that's kind of that. I think that's nice,
lovely there they are. I think it's kind of interesting
(05:30):
that they have such like like the American mystique round
horses and people bond with them because they're also a
lot of horses are so inbred that they are just
the dumbest things like people are, like they're they're so soulful,
But a good amount of horses are like big dumb
dogs that like get scared by everything you clap and
(05:51):
they'll just like freak the funk out. That doesn't seem
like this human soul and a big body that was
like a big dumb animal. It still cracks me up
that we'd use horsepower as the the reigning unit. Had
to make sense when it was like four and you're
like wow, four horses and now you're like, yeah, right,
sixty horses. At a certain point, he's just gonna trip
up each other. That's going to be. It's a bell
(06:13):
curve of of what horses can do. So you were
an indoor kid, I imagine. I always like to talk
to people about sort of their formative movie years. Um,
do you have siblings and stuff? Where you have I
have a sister significantly younger than me. She's five and
a half years younger than which is like just enough
to not really like I wasn't old enough to take
care of her. But we weren't ever really ever at
(06:34):
the same school or anything. Uh So we were in
a lot way of good relationship, but it wasn't ever
we had no interest in common at any point, right,
So who was? Um, I'm always interested in who's like
where people get their culture from, Like, who was feeding
you in if anyone. Early on, like going to a
movie was a huge treat. Uh, and it was probably
(06:55):
my mom never really like going out to movies or anything.
And every and then my dad would um and I
can remember him doing one of those they would do
like those Columbia House but for VHS is oh yeah,
And I can remember him doing that one point and
getting like Aban Costel meet Frankenstein. I'm trying remember what
else there would have been. Um, but it was like
every now and then there would be I think Bad
(07:16):
News Bears was one of them, and it was like
those sorts of things. I remember watching that, but I
don't know. I got really into movies in like high school,
but before then, before I moved to Rhode Island, it
was like the movies I can remember watching besides like
big like yeah, of course I had a little Mermaid
was as a as a kid, became obsessed with Back
(07:36):
to the Beach. Have you ever seen Back to the Beach?
No retrospect. I haven't watched it in years. We Uh
it is a oh wait, I think I know. Was
it like in the It's almost not quite but it's
almost what Wet Hot was to like the eighties can
movies to Beach Blanket Bingo, but without it being like
(07:57):
David Wayne and Showalter. So it is there jokes, but
it's not you know, there are jokes, but like Petere
Herman shows up and sings the bird like bird Bird Bird,
and like Fishbone and Fincello do a song called Jamaican Skall,
which is Fishbone. Yeah, it is really something. They filmed it,
you know, I think not far from here, but the
it is. I would rent it all the time and
(08:19):
like it's this weird camp movie that as an adult,
I was like how did I find that? And why?
My poor parents like that's all that I would watch. Well,
they were probably into the original Beach Blanket Bingo stuff.
I don't think they were. I think they were just
like our kids found this movie that he is referencing
movies he's never heard of. It just sits inside, watches
(08:44):
this and doesn't finish Super Mario Brothers. That's all he does. Um,
so you were kind of in charge of your own
cultural consumption. Probably, Yeah, it was. It was very I was.
I was like a quiet and shy kid. It was
a long time before I kind of like like him,
have a shell and I, I would you know, uh,
watch these amount TV play these member video games do
(09:06):
a lot of like like drawing and playing with like
action figures a lot of uh like I I didn't
have a ton of friends, so I would like read
like the old Marvel role playing game books but not
ever be able to play it because there's no one
to play with, like that sort of stuff. And then
when movies my parents were always the only movies I
(09:27):
can remember being told I couldn't see were Indian Jones
and The Temp of Doom and then later Terminator Too.
I don't know Indian Jones makes sense. It did burn
into my kid brains like this must be the scariest movie,
and then I saw it and I was like, oh, yeah, okay.
I guess at the age it was right to be like, hey,
some of the large about child slavery, and then the
targets pulled out. But then Terminator two was weird. I
(09:50):
don't know why my parents or my mom was like,
you can't see this one, and I did it a sleepover,
but that was like the only one I can really
remember being like this might be too violent, but then
I would that was the only one, so that faded
away very very fast. Well, when did you get into
performing as a shy kid? I can There was a
uh like every year in my the second elementary school
(10:12):
I went to. So I went to this school in
fourth and fifth grade and they would do every year
like this sort of like themed show and one year
and like everyone would do it, uh. And one year
the theme was I want to say space. I think
of space because there was like we sang age of
Age of Aquarius and like there's like a dance to
(10:32):
uh Starman by Bowie, So I think it was space.
But in that and they dressed all the kids up,
and because they cress, all the kids dressed like hippies,
and like, I guess I get like really into it
to the point whe people like who is that kid
in the wig? Was like really excited about it and
it was me, and it like surprised all the teachers
because I was just as quiet, long, very kid. Uh.
And then I started doing plays, and I did plays
(10:53):
in middle school, and then I started doing improv in
high school and I moved to Rhode Island and like
those plays, like those middle school plays, which I'm sure
which is god awful, kind of helped me that That's
how I sort of learned how to perform. And I
still think in a lot of ways, like on stages
the easiest place to be. It's very It's still much
easier for me to even like introducing a show or something.
(11:14):
There's still like a element like this is way easier
than just initiating a conversation with it. Right. What So,
were you like legit acting in plays? Were they like
dramas and stuff like that, acting would be generous like
in high school like we did Inherit the Wind, you know,
like so like the high school sort of stuff, and
I'm sure it took it very seriously. Uh like we
(11:37):
did uh the Pajama Game, and inexplicably we did Camelot,
which is ambitious for a high school production. Um. And
then in college I did some like quote unquote like
real plays. But then I think also it was like, oh,
I think comedy is my thing, improv and sketcher my thing.
Uh so what does high school improv look like? Whose
(12:00):
line is anyway with squeaky boy? Sixteen year olds? Yeah?
I moved and when I was I guess I was sixteen.
So when my mom got remarried, we moved to Rhode
Island from New Hampshire, and I went to this like
Artsie Farzi kind of like private school. Um and I
coming from a public school, and again I was I
was still very shy, but like it's still this a
couple of kids, like on the second day, these basically
(12:23):
theater kids, we're like, oh, hey, you should come and
do this improv club with us. Like there it was
very nice of them just to be like, hey, this
kid is new, come do this thing. And then a
bunch of them were like my friends all the way through.
And I did that throughout high school and then into college.
UM and I had seen whose lines anyway, and I
had seen some live improv and I liked it. It It
was like okay, yeah, I'll try that. UM. I would
(12:45):
love to have a tape of that. Um. It was
it was a club like I think in the first year,
like you didn't really perform. You were just like, go
do improv in this basement room. It's almost like training
kind of. I wasn't even like no notes, it's just
this is a fun thing to do. So it was
like there was it wasn't even really about performing. It
was just sort of like we liked this thing, Well,
(13:05):
let's do it and probably do it badly without even
like an eye to getting better, just sort of a
purely just to do this thing almost as a social element,
which is which it was very like I haven't actually
thought about that in a little while, Like how unusual
that is. I think that's kind of interesting. Kind of
it was. It was cool to do because also then
(13:26):
there was no real being bad at it, because who
cares when did you first start? Like when did it
get serious for you? As far as like, hey, I
really want to like start something late in college? Is
that where you meant the guys? Yeah, I met Alexberg
and Todd Fast and we all went to Vassar College
together and we all didn't prop together and some sketch
together and that sort of stuff. And I was a
(13:47):
history major. I was going to be a theater major.
And then I took like a semester's worth of classes
and I was like a lot of these people, I
can't spend four years with their so serious um like
just no humor or joy. So I was like, this
is gonna make me not want to do this at all. Also,
I switched to history, which I've been thinking about anyways, uh.
And then I would do sketching improv and we perform
(14:07):
and it vass or if you've ever been to Poughkeepsie,
New York, uh it is. It's a little bit nicer now.
But when we were there in the early two thousand's,
I mean like it was a milltown. Everyone went south
and it just remained and it was like parts of
it like burned out. It was like not a great place.
So people at the college just stayed on campus. Uh.
So there wasn't a lot to do outside, so people
(14:29):
would just happily come and bring forties and drink. At
this college, we were the only improved team and they
would come and watch. Um. So we would do it
there and started to get like, uh good is probably
too generous, but like confident, you know. Um. And then
my and my junior year a friend that we performed
was kind of convinced Mainburg to move out here and
(14:51):
be like, well, let's do like improv and sketch and
right and see if we can do something. And I
had never thought about it here being l a and
so we did. Now was that, like, uh, did you
always want to have career aspirations in the industry? No,
I would have probably were't not for that conversation, I
probably would have moved to New York after college, and
(15:13):
I probably would have just like made my way into
more school. And I probably would have followed history because
I do love really yeah, um, and I don't know
where that would have gone. I didn't have any like, oh,
let be a lawyer, a lawyer, but I would have
been this. I probably would acceptionally happy teaching history. That
would have thrilled me. M My parents were both teachers,
and I always sort of had that bug. I think
(15:33):
my mom is a teacher of like little kids, but
it just seems that seems fulfilling to me. Um, So
I probably would have stumbled that way. I think I
thought about it, but I honestly don't think I could
have ever done it. I think I just didn't think
that was like I think I was ever going to
be like good enough, or even if I was, like,
(15:55):
how do you do? It's impossible, at least for me
to be a twenty one being like and then you
go and you make things and people pay you to
be that's crazy to me. Uh. So you guys have
been performing together, the three of you for how long now, uh,
probably since I think all three of us together since
two thousand one. Wow, long time so college that explains
a lot because man, I mean I haven't seen the
(16:17):
most improv in the world. I've seen enough though to
know that you're you guys just like some of the
best should I've ever seen. It's just it was so
like it was just so tight and like, uh so
rarely do you feel that that one brain thing coming
from multiple people. Yeah, we know. I think you know,
(16:38):
knowing each other for as long as we do, uh
is very helpful because we can kind of be birds
of a feather. And also there's I think, uh uh,
there's an element of like when you know people that well,
then like you can Hey, there's just no there's never
gonna be a sense of panic, right, I trust Burg
(17:00):
and Todd to whenever it's not going to fall apart.
It might not be the best show we've ever done,
but we can find it. We can fix it. Um
And like that is I think all those like high
school and college shows helped me when I moved out
here in my early twenties, just to all three of
us have like a certain level of confidence in like, well,
(17:20):
I think this is funny, So I want to do
this thing, um, and if other people don't think it's funny,
that's okay. Yeah, And I think that that is something
that it takes a while to learn, and I think
I was lucky to learn early. Are you guys at
the point now where you um, I mean, imagine after
that many years together, there's got to be some like
not messing with each other, but like sort of like
(17:42):
you can't get stale, so like you you are you
pushing each other as a threesome? Yeah, I think so.
Like I mean, I'm sure we fall into like ruts,
and I'm sure there's stuff like oh, convoys doing that again,
But like, I think all three of us are probably
each individually our own individual worst credit, and I think
we all get if we start to get bored, we'll
(18:04):
have conversations about it and we'll go, yeah, you know
what this is, like, let's try to mix it up
in this way. Sometimes it's like real like improv in
the weeds e ways, and sometimes a few years ago now,
but we're we do our show ever we could usually
be and we're like, well, let's just once a month
do this entirely different thing or our shows normally like
very fast and like lots of scenes. So once a
(18:25):
month we do a show that's just the whole show
is one scene. Um, and like that we're in like
a little bit of a red that moment that like
bumped us out of it. Just do something cool, and
I think push each other and yeah yeah, And I
also think like none of us are quote unquote successful,
which I think also helps because like this thing's we
can't fully coast on sometimes very easy when you're a
(18:49):
famous person or like people like yeah, no matter what
you do, we're gonna reward it. Uh and what that
that's not even like coming on the people. That's just
what a Sirens song. Yeah, if you know something's gonna work,
it's real hard not to do it. Yeah, you guys
have a good following here though, I would imagine. Yeah,
it's I mean like the I feel like in improv
(19:10):
your world, you know people people probably I would hope,
like us a lot of respect for Convoy in the
improv in ner world. So, um, I want to talk
a little bit about Children's Hospital, which, um, you've directed
that uh quite quite a bit, right, Uh yeah, the
last two seasons, Like so like I did I think
six episodes and like, yeah, just one of my favorite shows,
(19:32):
And um, like what when did you start directing? How
did that come about? That came about very accidentally. I
got hired by Funnier Die um as a writer because
of an improv because whoever hired me saw improv shows
I was in, which I think is a weird thing
to assume you can probably write. But it was also
like whatever at that point Funnier Die, there was no
(19:54):
structure to it whatsoever. It was just like rooms where
people like made web videos and it was in the
moment where it was still like what an actual famous
person did a video on the internet. That's what That's
how fund your eye worked. Uh. And because of that,
there was no structure whatsoever. And when I got hired
on I got hired as a writer, and then like
within a week, I was like, oh, nothing will ever
(20:15):
get made that I write unless I directed, because everyone's
just kind of on their own there. You just gotta
like be your own advocate. So I just started like
being like, Okay, this will be my me teaching myself
how to do this. Then uh, like I shot like
little sketches on my own that that looked like garbage
and stuff, and so I started doing that. Um there uh,
and I was there for three years and then over
(20:38):
the amount of time, like I I the way I
was able to kind of like jump out of fund
your Die and start doing like stuff like ants and
Children's Hospital was basically I had done some shorts with
Paul sheer Um and then here last year he's great,
He's awesome. I see. He really really helped me by
bringing me over to work on myself and Nick Wager
to work on his show that used to have called Antia.
(21:00):
It's like a like cop psual kind of proof. And
so I I wrote a couple of those and then
directed a couple of those and it's and it's last season.
And then you know that's a very small like Children's Hospital,
indias F and you know, uh, Hot Wives and all
those shows are all very a lot of similar faces
and people involved. Yeah, and so that's sort of like
(21:21):
how I I got into into that. Now, did you
write any Children's Hospital or is that scripted? Yeah, that's scripted.
It is, yeah, and it's pretty like like obviously you
have like Ken Marino or somebody, it's going to be like, yeah,
you beat it, great, then we're gonna go with that.
Kn's my hero. Very asked him four times to be
on the show through his people, and uh, it's sort
(21:44):
of like my annual plea. I'm like, hey, it's me again.
Um well, not annual, I guess because I haven't been
doing this that long. I guess bi annual plea. Hey
it's Chuck again. And they're like, oh, hey Chuck. Uh
you know, and they're like, he wants to do it,
but like it just hasn't worked out for one reason
or another. He's great. He intimidated the hell out of me.
So the first season I had done like I weirdly
(22:05):
just through different ways of like met different members of
the state now like watching This Day when I was Grandpa,
which is which is great, but like for some reason,
just like his energy is so he's got big energy
and like it intimidated me so much. And then from
working with them is like, oh he's really nice. He's
like being very nice and generous, like like spooked of him. Yeah,
(22:26):
he's one of the guys that like, uh, when you're
talking about like anything that someone says is funny, Like
I can't nothing he does doesn't just slay me. He's
also part of it is I think children's works, and like,
like I I can take literally zero credit for it
because it worked before me and it continued to work
while I was there. But what children like? Uh in
(22:47):
the kind of way. So many of the jokes are
so dumb. It's the best dumb show. The cast is
so good. Everyone on that cast is an incredible actor,
and none of the play it anything besides the fact
that they're incredible actors. So like, you know, Ken is
a great actor, and Lake obviously is a great and
Aaron and and and Cordrey are all so good that
(23:12):
you could mean they just throw the humble that they
all throw themselves into these things and it makes it
work so well because it doesn't. It's winky. But it
never feels like we just fucking like made this thing,
you know. It always feels like we took this seriously.
You know. It was insane schedules and no one's like
making a ton of money and everything. And it started
(23:33):
as a web series just during the strike. They were
just like, let's make a thing, and then turned into
something where it is they could get away with it
being like honestly, half is good and people still be
like I love it. Yeah, it's it's I think it's
just it was like, I'm so happy I get to
work on it so good and there there's something about
that fifteen minute uh show link that they It's just
(23:56):
the amount of jokes you guys fit in and and
arcs like story arcs. It was just like, as as
a writer, it's really like super impressive to see. It
was really that one of the episodes I got to do,
uh in the last season. Uh, it was like called
Sigus Tenure. It was sets tenure at the hospital, and like,
(24:16):
what's going on in that episode is it's it feels
like an hour long because Henry Winkler gets tenures so
he invents a jet pack. Meanwhile, uh, Rob Hubill has
stolen the DJ gig from Coardry somehow and his life
is spiraling out, and Megan Malally is stuck on the
Go Go pedestal like everyone's gotten about here and she
(24:39):
has to like hunt rats for food and it's twelve
minutes long and it's so insane. I remember who wrote
that one, but the fact that like it all worked clicked,
and then there's still bon room for bonkers side jokes
like that just come out of nowhere. It's not all
peace moving lately, they had that down to uh, I
(25:00):
think to like a real science on that show. About
that last season was that Cordrey's Baby to begin with
Quadrey and Wayne. I think John Stern is one of
the producers. Yeah, like that they all were doing that
during that writer's strike when they were just like we're
gonna make this thing for us, right, like that's that's
uh straight for yet, but um, that was there all
their sort of thing. I think that spirit kind of
(25:21):
carried through where you like, you know it's a show
where no one's getting rich on it, and you know
some of these people are big stars and uh like
legends Henry Winkler, for God's sakes, and you could just
sense the fun and the sense of play and because
there would be no point if you didn't want to
be there, Why would you do this? You know, like
(25:41):
sometimes you'll be like, well, because you're making a gazillion dollars,
that's why you're here. And now this was like oddly
long days and typically like it's very ambitious show rushed, yeah,
and it usually looked like a million bucks great where uh.
The first three seasons before I was involved. It was
at the Scrubs hospital. Then they tore the Scrubs Hospital down.
Maybe it's the first three or four. Then there's a
(26:03):
season that like is basically a mash play where they're
working out of like uh. And then the fifth season
we were in a uh plastics like factory in Simi Valley,
I think. And then the last season it was in
this like building, this beautiful brutalist building that you drive
(26:24):
by on the one oh one that used to be
the sun Kissed Building. Now I don't know what's there.
And they would just build building sets on the inside
of spaces that had no business looking that good. And
and I think also because it was such a parody
of the specifically of these TV shows. Those TV shows
don't look real. They never look like real hospital, right, Uh.
So it was helpful to then go like, oh, well,
(26:45):
I'm not bumping because yeah that I buy that as
much as I buy grays And it's so good, Um,
what's the light? I mean to walk on that set
as the director, that's got to be pretty intimidating. Yeah,
it was. It's helpful that like it was, it's all
very nice people. It was intimidating, especially cause a lot
of those people are people that I I had watched
(27:05):
and like, you know, like like again The State, David
Wayne and Ken and also like Henry Winkler, which is insane,
but he is also so nice. Um that it was
like intimidating until you're there and then it's so fast
that you're just doing it and you just you don't
have time to be scared. You just kind of make
(27:27):
decisions and go with it. And I think because you know,
people are were like very like sort of like open
and collaborative and everything. You like punch stuff up and
people would like chime in. I was like what about this? Uh,
And I think like that's how I like to work.
I like to be super collaborative, and so that was
(27:48):
very very good and like pretty quickly you're like, oh
this is fun, Like this yeah, great, no problem. And
it was very similar to NTSF in how it was shot,
in the type of show. It was like the speed
and everything. Yeah, that's awesome. Man. Um, what are your
ambitions for directing? I've always like, uh, again like as
a performer and then a writer, and uh as a director,
(28:11):
it's always been like writing is more fun for me um,
and so like the goal would be do get to
sell something that I've written that I get to just
make as well? UM specifically honestly more in TV, Like
I was just talking about this another thing, but like
I like I did a low budget movie that then
just like disappeared from existence, like you directed one huh
(28:34):
yeah that we shop in Vancouver, and then the company
that produced it, like everyone I know who worked there
left while we were in post and I don't even
have a copy of it and screaming everything and so
like that was interesting. It was very educational for me
to just to do that and see how that was
different than TV. UM. But ideally it would be something
that like Iron mean bergn Todd or something like that
(28:56):
would would create this like oh, this is what we
think is funny and then I and kind of see
that all the way through. That would be my ideal
because I've always everything I've done so far has been
like helping people make their things, which is great and
I love that, but it would be fun to have
people help, right, uh, TV or film. I think if
(29:17):
if you I actually think if you were like, hey,
you can you can do a season of a TV
show or make a movie. I think I'd probably go
TV show because I think I could. I wouldn't trying
to say here, I think I would have more I'm
more confident I could do that well, right, Like, I
think I could probably do a good movie if I if,
(29:39):
I hope I can, but I think I could see
more likely the path to being like, hey, that was
a good TV show. I also think maybe part of
that is I can just I feel like the chances
of anybody seeing any given movie that has made is
so low unless it's, uh, you know, unless Captain America
(30:01):
is doing something. Yeah, it's interesting. It's like it's never
it's been a better time as far as like there's
so much out there, but it's also the hardest time
to get anything seen. And there's like great stuff out
there to there obviously garbage and there's obviously great stuff
just like forever. But I don't know how you I
I also have no idea how you get people to
(30:22):
see a movie that isn't like even like I saw
Book Smart. Book Smart is great. It's super super fun,
uh and people talked about it and it was good
and it like didn't make a ton of month, you know,
like I but to me it was like book Smart
you should have been a big all hit, you know,
and everything. Then you find like, for whatever reason, john
Wick has become a you know, the whole cultural phenomenon
(30:42):
because it's a really well done I was like, oh,
well it happens where no one knows what john Wick,
what the fund is this? And it's good. And that
wasn't very I mean budget wise for what it was.
The first movie was not a very like I remember
the ads being like this looks like everything, Yeah, you
know this, why why would I? Okay, like Cannery's fine,
but I'm not going to rush out. And then you
started hearing about how good it was. And then now
(31:04):
we got a fourth one common Yeah, yeah, I just
saw the first two. Um, I was very late, so
I just saw those like a month ago. Yeah, And
I finally I was like, all right, I'll watch the
John Wick movies. And it was like, these are great.
You think it's going to be much fun. I think
because I I remember assuming when people were talking about
I was like, oh, this is the way like I'm
(31:25):
not knocking fast in the Furious, but the way people
love that and talk about that, those are basically Marvel
movies and they're big and silly and fun, and then
the the craft to the John Wick movies is like insane,
Like there, did you see the third one? There is
a there's a knife fight that is very early on
(31:45):
that is like Buster Keaton like it is just they
keep heightening it without ever tipping over, and you're just
sort of like, that's I don't understand how you craft
and plan something, especially at the speed it's going. Um,
these are stunt guys, right, It's like yeah, it's like
coordinators all stunt It's dude, who that I mean, I'm
sure they boarded out, which is why the stories make
(32:07):
no sense. Yeah, like you don'tcause see John Wick for
the yeah, this thing and you're like okay, and then
he does it and then like the end with the cliffhanger, yeah,
and it works. It's great because do I want a
bunch of that? Like no, it's like some fun world building,
amazing fighting and stunts and stuff, but I don't need
to be like yeah, like yeah, okay, his dog died
(32:27):
and he is sad, let's not mix it up. I
did think all the world building that was something that
surprised me that I did not know was a part
of that um and it's just like that's one of
the coolest parts of it to me. They do a
bunch of in the third one too, Yeah I heard.
It just gets even sort of deeper and deeper, And
for some reason sometimes that would annoy me, where I'm like, yeah,
(32:48):
you're on ask but and then I'm like, yeah, I
think I think we're all having fun. Like I think
everybody knows exactly what's going on, and no one's being like,
here's what John Wick is saying about the world. I
think I like, what's the most fun It's It's it's Yeah.
It was almost one of those movies where afterwards, like
you and your friends look at each other and you're like,
that was great, right, Like this the first one that's
gonna admit that. We fucking love that. Yeah, And the
(33:09):
fact that the movie just goes like, uh, all the
world building it presents like you already know it, and
I love that be like okay, and if you make
a swear you have to cut your thumb on this
thing and hand over this pendant and they do it
like it's never something like people know you, you all
know this. We don't always time explain it. So anyway,
here he did the thing and you're like, wait, wait, wait,
what is that? You've never mentioned that before? What is this? Sure?
(33:31):
I guess okay, right, So did I fall asleepers? Yeah,
well let's talk about out of sight? Uh, let's I
think the entryway here. Maybe we should chat about Soderbergh
for a minute. Um, I grew up. I'm older than you.
So I was like, I saw Sex Eyes and Videotape
(33:55):
when it came out, and King of the Hill and
Kafka and like all these early The Underneath which is
so great and like criminally underseen, and he was like
the little the indie guy. And then I was looking
at his filmography today. He did all those early films Schizophilist,
which is just crazy, and then Gray's Anatomy, and then
(34:15):
all of a sudden he explodes with uh maybe one
of the best, like five movie runs. It's insane that
run out of Sight the Limey, which is very I
can't wait for somebody to pick the line one of
my favorite movies Aaron Brockovitch Traffic and then Oceans eleven.
I think that is he is. And this was within
like eight years or something. Crazy and it's like also
(34:38):
at a time when like the industry was starting to change,
because it's he's he's straddling two thousand there, so late
nineties into the early two thousands, and those movies are
so good and he is, but he's one of those
directors where like when it doesn't work, it doesn't work
(34:59):
because he wasn't trying, you know, it does it doesn't work,
but there's an interesting attempt there and like he is,
so I don't He's never phoning it in. He's never funning.
He's always trying something. And I would argue in a
like for the most part, like deeply nonpretentious way, you know,
like it's not that sort of like well, hell, we
(35:19):
we only did like we only used the microphones available
in nineteen four and like okay, I don't care, uh,
but it's always something in the actual final film that
he's that he's trying to do, even when he's breaking
down in these weird like what is a movie? I'm
gonna make this thing that we have to go on
an app and everything, Like I just he I find
him fascinating. I think out of Sight is like it
(35:44):
is just I think it's perfect in how like fresh
it feels, but also being like yeah, it's it's a
it's a cops and robber story. Yeah, it's a cops
and robber story. Um, but it's also like the relationship,
like that's the undercurrent of the film, is this uh,
(36:08):
super hot relationship. It's just like one of the most
like scintillating scenes in movie history is that, well a
couple of scenes, the trunk scene and then then the
bar scene, and I think, like those scenes are you know,
like it's been say million times, but the bar scene
is like like the here, learn how to edit. Just
watches for the rest of your life. It's it's so
(36:29):
beautifully the way he crawled and he he was he
editing his stuff then or I forget if he was
at that point or if he had so I see
he used fake names, right, and he like shot his
own movies and edited his own movies. Like so I've
always lost track of like who's the real person? Who's
just also Stephen Silver exactly? I think there was. I
I think he had an editor who came up with
the cross cut, Like I think there were certain things there, um,
(36:52):
But like those there's so many things about the movie
that I love that. It's I stumble over my words,
but like those two scenes are particular, which are I
think fucking incredible. Um, and they each there a movie
apart and getting an end and they make each other
work in a way that is incredible. Where that first
(37:12):
trunk scene uh he uh if someone hasn't seen it,
he's breaking out prison him being jack full. He's played
by George Clooney. Uh, and his buddy's picking him up.
Uh and just by a fluke, Marshal is there. Um.
Karen Cisco played by Jennifer Lopez, who is great. She's great,
I mean this was pre j Lo. This is when
she was Jennifer Lope is so good in it. Yeah,
(37:34):
and proof that when she has the material she's really
really great. Uh. And she accidentally shows up, sees them
breaking out, pulls a gun, um and one thing that
they grab her and put her in a trunk and
with him hiding out, so they're like kind of cramped
together like each other. And there's a way in which
this is gross because it's played romantic and it's played
sexy and be like, hey, this dude just grabbed a
(37:56):
woman and showed her in the trunk and we're trying
to be like how sexy, Like okay, so that could
be troubling. And then that second scene comes at the
bar later where they meet up at this bar, and
for the first half the scene, they're they're kind of
doing this role play thing, pretending to be someone else
because she's a cop and he's a bank robber, very
kind of old school movie making. It felt like bogeal
(38:16):
or something, and it just writes the power like like
it just anything about that trumps and you're like, no,
this is mutual and this is real, and like this
is this isn't she honestly wasn't ever in danger? Like
I just think it's so smart the way they do that.
And then that first scene to the way it's shot
is they're in the trunk. There's not you don't get
a ton of angles, so they're all this red light
(38:38):
is just above them and it just holds. And then
you go to that bar scene and it's like, uh,
she's sitting there. Um, they've kind of fallen in love
in love from afar and these like douche bags keep
hitting on her, which the part is great, very funny,
and she dismisses them one by one and again she's
incredible and then he comes up, uh and pretends to
(38:59):
be like a dish bag and she plays along and
they had this whole conversation and it's held in this
like to two shot against the snow falling outside this window.
So beautiful. It's so beautiful. Uh, And like those like
the just the confidence to hold when he holds also
with two honestly like untested actors. Yeah, I mean even Cluny,
(39:22):
you kind of forget this is And I read the
Ebert review and it said something about, like, you know,
forget e er, like this is his and like he's
going to be a movie star. Made I think single
handedly made George Cluney a movie star. Yeah, and he was.
I didn't know that, but he was attached to this
film when the property came to Soderbergh, and he Soderberg
(39:43):
was kind of like, I don't know, man, I'm not
sure about this. And apparently like the head of the
studio said, hey, hey, kid, listen, opportunities like this are
not going to come your way a lot, Like you
really need to think about this. Yeah. It's so like
that is one of the many of the I think
his great work is like his ability to work with
actors because like, until that moment, like Clooney is a
(40:04):
TV actor because I think he had done one fine
day before uh if on the rom com with Michelle Feiffer,
right right, right, Um, But he's he's in the arm mode,
you know, and he's like kind of he's filming for
a small screen. Yeah, well sort of mid to late thirties.
Uh and just this man and then he does this
and you're like and again, like I excited, like sort
(40:28):
of made George Clooney a loser. Jack Foley is a loser.
He is, and he's kind of doofy. Like in the
trunk scene, it's it's it's kind of cute because she's
the one that knows it's Network, and she's the one
that knows is Peter Finch, and she knows that he
got the quote wrong. Yeah, I'm not gonna take any
more of your ship and she kind of laughs at him,
and she's just been throwing at a trunk with this
(40:49):
this like you know, she just got a gun that
just out of reach that she's about to grab. There's
so much going on there, and he's he plays a
loser without a lot of times when movie stars play losers.
You get the vibe of like, can you believe if
people didn't like me? Uh? And in this I like
and I believe that George Clooney is a funk up.
(41:14):
Um he's also around beer funk ups. That Steve's on
is so funny in this movie, and and started it's
Glenn is incredible, like is so good, oh man up around? Well,
the the cast in this movie is just ridiculous. Like
you've got Farina, You've got Michael Keaton in a playing
(41:34):
the same role he played there in the same universe.
Let me ask you, you got one that says undercover.
It's incredible, so many great lines. Um. But then you
have being Ryan being Rheims. You have Steve's on Cheatle,
got cheatle like Max maximum cheatle in this movie. And
then just like throwing Albert Brooke Brooks for Christ's. Yeah,
(41:56):
it's so insane and it is like I'm also a
I think I saw this in high school and I
saw it twice in the theaters, and I think I
saw I saw it because I even I've always really
loved Elmore Leonard's books, and this is based on it,
as is Jackie Brownich is based in book called rumpunch
Um and those are my two favorite, uh adaptations, two
(42:18):
of the only good ones. The only other like good
ones are the show Justified and Get Shorty is a
different thing, but the works Get Shorty is one of
my very Um but like this that that vibe of
criminal criminals are dumb. There's that I forget the exact quotably,
that over learned thing of being like, no one becomes
a criminal if you're smart, like right, Like so he
(42:40):
writes criminals as believably stupid and that's normally what adaptations
of his stuff funk up. They make them goofball Central
yeah uh and this you believe everyone like the most
cartoonish is Steve's on and god, he's funny in it. Um.
They make the point of he has a horrifying scene
seasons don't make him kill somebody, and it is like
(43:04):
tastefully done, and it's all on Zen's face and you know,
oh he's the goofy stoner and the scene happens and
you're like, oh, I'm sympathetic now to this guy. It's
like there's not a most like a frame of the
movie I would change. Yeah, I mean the symp sympathy
for these characters, like you want, like Clooney is he's
a loser, but he's also kind of slick, Like he
(43:27):
walks that line perfectly, like that first robbery where he
walks in and he just kind of he robs it
on a whim. We find out later on after he
leaves Ridley's place and doesn't you know, gets offer the
security guard job and then just fucking decides to go
in there and rob that bank with nothing. Yeah, And
I think there's a thing in the book where like
he's robbed all these banks, but he's never used a gun,
(43:48):
Like I think that's like his I think, well he
kind of says something about that, um because at the
end when he does use the gun, it's it's clearly
the first time he's ever like shot someone, and it's
so and I mean that also the clim to the movies,
him trying to die, he's trying to get her. He
doesn't want to go back to prison. He's like this
lifer and he doesn't want to be a loser and
he would have to die. Is that why he puts
(44:09):
the masks back on. You think you make it easier
for make it easier for her because and the I
think truly the Scott Frank rote, I believe, And and
there's a thing in that where I don't know, you
can never tell really what comes from where, But it's
a combination of script and directing where there's these moments
(44:30):
that happened throughout the movie where it freezes on a
random frame then and it fades away and moves away,
like him throwing the tie. Sometimes it's a time jump,
but sometimes it's just a freight freeze and it will
continue on. It happens during the bar scene, um, and
you know, it just feels like a stylistic choice. You're like, okay,
we're being cute. And then in that final in that
scene where he pulls the mask down, like it all
(44:51):
comes together where he says, no more time outs, um.
And they have that conversation in the bar too where
he's like, well, let's just call time out and they
sleep together and then they go there set for ways
by at the end he says, no more time out, Um,
we just have to kind of keep living. And like
that that that that dialogue coming back and addressing why
they had made this choice, I think is so good.
(45:12):
Like you watch it again and you're like, oh, these
are all these big moments in this person's life. Um.
And now he's just going like, no, we don't we
don't get bad. Now this is real, Like I can't
do this anymore. It's wonderful. Yeah, there's another callback that
I've never realized before either. Is um about the midway point,
ving Rahim says something about, uh, you know, you don't
(45:32):
have a choice when you got a gun on you,
and Cluny says, you still have a choice, and that
that's like the whole thing at the end. You know,
you still have a choice even when that guns on you.
It's yeah, basically, and he makes that choice and then
again she just shoots him in the leg. Because he's
kind of a dope. He does not think, he can't
(45:52):
even think of there being this other choice. She shoots
him in the leg and it sends him off to jail.
With Samuel Jackson, Dan came. He was a guy who's
really good at breaking which is like a fun oh yeah, happy.
She had to do her job, and she got to
do her job. And that's the one kind of cool
thing about Karence Cisco is Um. She had her time out,
but she's still in pursuit of him and not you know,
(46:14):
it's they leave. It's sort of ambiguous, like is it
because she loves him? But no, she's a federal marshal
that's like good at her job, and it's like she
meanwhile like mixed into with like all this stuff. There's
one of the hardest I've ever left in a movie.
That point I can remember it now twenty years later,
is when white Boy Bob slips on a frozen steak
and shoots himself in the head. It is it is
(46:37):
so fucking shocking because it's this big climatic thing and
he's got this gun on him, like this is where
the climax happens, and he slips on a frozen steak,
falls and just shoots himself in the head, and they
live in this beat of looking at Clean's face and
the movie just continues on. The end is so violent too,
and then it's weird most like there's the I mean,
(46:57):
I guess there's a couple of scenes of violence, but
the Steve On thing is all off camera camera, and
so that end is kind of shocking when that gun plays.
The only other thing I think really hints towards it. Uh,
And I think it's again a really smart choice is
Cheatles Shanks a guy in prison, and it's pretty bad.
Like the sounds like it's not gory, but the sound
gets you, uh, and it is a way of going, Okay,
(47:22):
there's big rains and this clooney and there's one he's
snoopy is something different. Um. And so then when we
get to that end they're doing that, like we can
sort of like I think we buy that he's always
been this way, but he's also still funny that there's
that whole sequence with them just admiring the suits and
trying to figure out how to open a safe, and
(47:42):
it's very funny. Yeah when they I mean it's funny,
like I don't know anything about safe, but when you
take one look at that safe and they're pointing their
guns at it, you're like, there's no way they're gonna
blow that door off. Yeah, absolutely, Like someone that's gonna
rickish you off and kill one of them is what's
gonna happen, which I'm surprised it didn't. Actually he crushes
the fish too, which is also real gross. Yeah, Like
that that always stuck with me as being like what
(48:03):
a sociopathic thing to do to have a fish in
the bag. Yeah, but he's small time though, Like he
even says early on he says when he said, when
I came in here on credit card fraud, He's like,
it wasn't very well respected. He's like, but ever since
I shank that guy, he's like, my my stock has
gone up. Basically my done in broad Street because he
had been known for throwing fights. That seems so funny
(48:28):
to look on his face when he's boxing that guy.
He's going all right now, like you're gonna hit me.
It's also where like that movie you can see some
of them. I love Oceans of leven. My wife not same.
For the last few years hosted a similar show to
this at UCB where we would just talk to someone
about movie they love and then and then what shows up.
It's called require viewing. This is that we're actually wrapping
(48:50):
it up because we got ten month old. Now it's
you're not doing anymore. It's literally I know. So you
messaged me. I was like, oh man, well, horrible time here. Yeah?
What um we did? Uh with? Uh? DEMI? Did you
a bay last month? Did Oceans eleven? Um? And like that?
In traffic you can see the DNA that of the
(49:12):
stuff he was working on in the Sight, like the
color schemes of Miami versus Detroit. In Out the Sight,
he just brings over the traffic to help you keep
the different storylines straight. For sure, Miami is warm and
orange and Detroit is cold and blue. Um. And he
does a lot of that um and then some of
that little like those editing tree He goes nuts with
that notions eleven, all the wipes and that sort of thing,
(49:35):
and it works really well. Um. But it feels like
Out the Sight was, we have real money to make
a movie, and I can still do what I want
to do. Okay, let's figure it out. And then since then,
every time he's had budget, he's been he's been extending
and playing with those ideas. Yeah, I think one of
the reasons Suderberg has always just spend One of my
favorites is the um just his range, like he does
(49:57):
all those indie films at the beginning, which were I
was just such a and and uh then Out of
Sight was the first one where you know, it was different.
It was flashy, and it had style, and it had
that that score is so great, and I was I
was like what is going on with Soderberg? Um, like
where where's he headed from here? And then Aaron Brockovich
(50:17):
comes out, which was just this like gut wrenching character piece. Uh.
And then like he comes back and does stuff like
Oceans and Traffic, which was just like holy shit, they're
all covering like at the top of his game and
Oceans eleven is is I think a like that is
what in like a just world popcorn movies would be
(50:39):
totally understand Like it's the beautiful people being fun and
it's a grown up the popcorn movie. And I love
I really like Marvel movies. I like all this. You know,
I'm not judging that, but it's when that's all you're getting, Yeah,
and it shows you how hard it is to do it.
Funny people like they've been a ship a ton of
people trying to do their oceans and leaving sense that
they don't work. Um, but that movie is just like
(51:01):
pure crowd pleasing, you know, and Aaron Brockovich is a
different type of crowd pleaser, right, there's like more depth
to it, but it is still being like fun. Yeah,
like you know, we're gonna fix this. Uh. But then
it makes in with that we've got the Limey, which
you're never gonna be like, here's our tent pole um.
And even Traffic, which is a very like serious movie,
like like Brockovich is serious but fun. Oceans is just
(51:22):
fun um, but Traffic is something different. Uh. And then
he's kind of continued in that, like he did Logan
Lucky last year two years ago. You know what, Man,
I like Logan. I wouldn't put it in the top five,
but it was certainly worth watching. And I again I
think I was like, this is what these mid I
want more mid budget movies like this where it's like, yeah,
(51:44):
like a heist at a race track, like this is
a great premise. There are things I don't like about
and things I really like about it. It's like when
we were growing up, those were like if you go
back and look at any given week in the nineteen eighties,
there were that was just flooded with good movies like
that and like plenty of bad ones too. But it's
you like, by, I know, what is this because how
(52:06):
are you going to sell that overseas? How do you
make five million dollars off of that? Uh? It's becomes
so like uh, but there there are I mean, like
all I I try to when movies like that come out,
go see them, even if I'm like, I might not
like this, because I would like to say I would
like to be able to see Endgame and then the
next week Logan Lucky or you know, fingers crossed out
(52:30):
of site. You know I want both of those things,
or book Smarter or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, um, And we
didn't even mention Contagion, which is so good. Yeah. I
had totally forgotten out about that movie and we we
were recording and stuff you should know the other day
and it came up and I was like, oh god,
Contagion was so good, so good. Um. I have a
(52:53):
lot of my favorite lines in here, and I don't
want to just spend the show saying my favorite lines,
but I'm gonna piffer in some of them. But Steve's
on uh oh, I see you guys are cynical. That's
one of my favor It's he it's one of the best. Like,
he's one of my favorite characters in film history, probably
Glenn and just the with the sunglasses and the business
(53:15):
he has. I think when you first meet him, maybe
the second time you see him, when he's trying. He's like, yeah,
I get some big lined up out north, and he's
like making his way down the weights in the workout
place because he can't get any of them up, and
it's just business. It's just it's so funny. Yeah, and
he's just like that little drawl he does. Oh yeah.
And it's like you talk about the dumb criminals in
(53:37):
this movie. I mean, Steve's on is the dumbest of
all of him. And I love the interplay between him
and Jennifer Lopez how she's like he's almost like a
puppy to her. She's not going to arrest him. It's
just pity and justin yeah, and because she knows, like,
this guy's way more valuable to me as someone I
can just like milk information out of. And his last scene,
(53:57):
that the scene with her, just like in the Yeah,
it's just like I already stole the car. How can
I steal a car if I already stole it? Uh
So he's so upset because he murdered somebody. He's going
to get murdered, but it's still like, I don't I
truly watch that as like someone who like writes and
(54:18):
and directs him wants to make stuff that I like
as much as I like that, you know, like, I
don't know how you do it where you juggle those things,
because I just I don't maybe I don't have the
confidence in myself that, oh I can do both these things.
I have no idea how you make those things work
so close to each other. Because in that same scene,
Jennifer Lopez is dealing with the fact like I might
(54:38):
have to shoot this guy that I that I just
spent the night with, I am like falling in love with.
And they're in it's character wise, they're in two different
movies in their own heads, and they and she knows
he has no idea and the movie where it's so great, Yeah, yeah,
it's it's it's like a bit of a magic trick,
but it is. Steven Soderberg, don't like, be too hard
(55:01):
on yourself. Another great scene early on is the library
scene when with the fish, when he's uh, he's shaken down.
Albert Brooks's character and the fish were like two thousand
now three dollars, and Brooks is just like, and you know,
once George Clooney starts advising him, he's like, this is
a dumbest shakedown he's telling the funk off and he's
(55:21):
like five pillow and he's like, it does seem a
little high, so meek. And that scene too, ends with
like the guy in the cage banging to let them
know that he's coming. Right after uh he hit uh
Snoopy's face buddy in the face with a huge book
and they all just cluster around the book and they're
just reading through him, like, oh yeah, sorry, we got
all riled up. And well there's some really good prison ship. Ye.
(55:43):
It's really and against while still like being he never
drops the stakes while remaining fun. And that's what gets
me is a lot of times it's like, oh man,
this movie is just a it's just a blast like
Oceans eleven, it's just a blast um or it's serious
and in this movies like I think I can do both.
He didn't like, that's that I love. Yeah, I mean,
(56:05):
you can definitely see the DNA of this and Oceans.
But Oceans was just fun and this had a lot
more going on, which is not a knock on it
like a blast for sure. We didn't even mention when
we were going over the cast the great great Louis Gooseman,
who doesn't happen. You are Mean is such a funny
lineary that's what I have in here. You are mean?
(56:27):
And then you know when he uh, he gets taken
down and while he's getting handcuffed, he wants to know
the secret to the salt and half magic check. Fake Legs,
of course, another great like character actor, and she's in
like two scenes. Yeah, she's so good. Yeah, Fake Legs,
I think one of my favorite lines. And it's like
(56:49):
the moment where you're like, I uh, she's really gone
very successful to good for her, but I wish this
is where Jennifer Lopez is career teacher was she's trying
to track them down and she's trying to find Don Sheel.
So she goes to like his friends and this dude
always wears like this weird like fireman jacket. Yeah, what's
his name, Washington. Yeah, he's great and he's he's the
(57:13):
most threatening person and he she sits down with him
and he's all threat and he's basically being like um,
like basically basically saying I want to fuck you not
and like in a very gross way, and she's just
like okay, and he's telling this long winded story about
his dead dog about tough. They should get down on
the street, on the floor, and they used to tussle.
And then he like looks at her and he's like,
(57:35):
you like to tell so a, but you like the
bone like that sort of stuff, and she's okay, uh,
And she stands up to leave and he grabs her,
and she like in one move pulls out this like baton,
breaks his arm, knocks him down, hits him in the
eye yet and has this line of like you want
to tussle, we tussle, and then puts the baton away
and it frees frames on and it is so cool,
(57:57):
Like she looks like she launching that should launch franchise
after franchise. Uh. And I because she became a world
famous musician, I'm sure that the money is better. But well,
she became j Loo. She became Jlo. And then looking
back after that that high colored leather jacket, man, she
looked great and tough and smart. Yeah, I mean she was.
(58:20):
She was the smartest person in the movie, the only
smart the only intelligent people. Um, you'd like to get
down the floor and tussled like Toffy. Another one of
my favorite lines is from Clooney when he's uh. When
he's um goes to meet Ridley and he gets offered
the security guard job, and he goes, you were ice
(58:43):
cream for freaks. Yeah, in prison, you were a dumpling.
It's just like to type those words you were ice
cream for fruits, like like this will sound like a
human being when they say, like, yeah, I mean I
had to be Leonard, right I would That does sound
like something that would come straight from Leonard, Like yeah,
like straight from the book. There's also uh uh that
(59:04):
Cheetle has a line I love when they're taking Zon
to go murder this person man uh and he goes,
I think it's in the scene and he goes a
situation like this has a high potentiality for a motherfucker
to bitch out, and it just rolls off his tongue
in the way that I don't do justice too. But
it's so like there's so much character in that of
(59:25):
like he's trying to sound big enough, but like situations
high potentiality for a common motherfucker to pitch out. This
line is incredible and he's all over the map on it.
It's great. It's so fun. Yeah yeah, he uh god,
I feel so bad for Glenn in this movie, because god,
he's said the biggest dem wit of them all. And
(59:46):
and you know when he's in the car, he's he's
stole that car, and he's and don Cheatles just like, no, man,
you know, if I say this is my car, this
is my car, just go steal another one. And there's
nothing he can do about it. He's just completely he's
just a big mouth who like found out about this
thing because another big mouth, Altbert Brooks, told him, and
then that got all these other people involved, Like how
(01:00:08):
did he survive prison? That guy? Also, I think to like,
we don't he's a less flashy roll, but Ving Rahims
he's also in one of his more like restrained, like
not crazy rolls, like and he's just this like super loyal,
nice guy. Yeah, he's the conscience of the film. The
(01:00:29):
reason jack fully went away in jail is because every
time he just breaks a law, he calls his sister fesses.
But he wanted to get ahead of it, so ving
Rams ving Rams want to get heavy, so he called
his sister before they did the job and they got
picked up and they're still friends. Like that's that's really
fun and lovely. It is they're they're they're very sweet
with each other, and uh, they are good guys. Like
(01:00:50):
at the end they could have gone away at the
end of the Ridley robbery, but you know they're sitting
in the van and Clinic goes, they're going to rape
that that housekeeper and gonna kill Ridley, and you know
he knew what he had to do. He goes back in,
goes back in and like knowing what he's either going
to die or go to jail. There's a thing that
Leonard does in a lot of his books that I
(01:01:13):
really really love, where like it's almost always overreach that
tears these people down. Like there's one of my favorite
numbering books is called Swag, and the hook of it
is it would be a great movie. Is uh, this
guy steals a car from a dealership and gets caught
um when the own dealership owner just sees him do it,
(01:01:34):
and he goes to jail. But then in trial, the
ownership the guy owns the dealer goes like, oh never mind,
I want press charges. It's fine, finds him later and goes, hey,
I think I've come up with the full proof way
to rob places where you won't get caught. I ten
steps and they drink together. They go over and they
go okay, and they start doing that. In the first
half of the book is the like following these rules
and it works. And then the guy just gets a
(01:01:56):
big head and he starts breaking one rule after the
other and like to get a little bit greedy. Of course,
they end up get caught and it becomes falls into violence.
But like that inevitable progression of a bad idea that
you think is smart and then you don't know to
not push it and then it falls. Like that's sort
of the pattern of his books. And Out of Sight
does that really well, even without the time jumping is there,
but it's they don't need these diamonds, but they're gonna
(01:02:19):
fucking do it. Like that results in a bunch of
people dead and him going back to jail. Yeah. I mean,
the whole time you're watching this, you want um, you
want Cluny to walk away from it all. But he
even has the line it's that trope he says to
to Ving, he says, have you buddy, He's like, have
you ever known anyone that did the one big job
and then walked away from it all? He's like, that
(01:02:40):
doesn't happen like guys like us go until we get caught,
and then we go again until we get caught, and
then eventually we go until we die. And he tries
like when they when we realize what The first scene
is that first robbery where he he just smooth talks
of the robbery that right before that is when he
goes and he tries to go straight and Ego doesn't
let him, but also Ripley, being a dick, doesn't um,
(01:03:00):
and so he freaks out and he snaps. He goes
back side, and then he tries to rob this bank
and he goes back into prison and that I love
that moment so much because it tells you everything you
need to know about him, like, yes it's Ego and
yes it's him, but also it's like, what the funk
am I gonna do? Because I'm not going to wear
these khaki shorts and stands his securit yard there right,
although Ridley is right, like seeing it, I hadn't seen
(01:03:24):
it in a while, and seeing it, like with a
few years under my belt, in that scene, I was like,
Ridley's right, he He's not gonna let this guy walk
in and give him some great job because what does
Ridley say. He's like, I will give you the good job.
He's like, you'll get it. He's like, but you gotta
show me first. You gotta earn it and show me
that you can change. And I was watching it on
the plane on the way here. I was like, oh,
(01:03:45):
funk man, He's right on the money. That's exactly how
he should do. His mistake is that like rich guy
attitude of being like I'm better than you, you know
what I mean, Like, and that's the and that that
sends fully off because there's a way to make that
argument of being like okay, and you might be able
to get fully but he does that like powerful rich guy.
He's he played the that role he based on like
Michael Milken. He was like like a remember that guy
(01:04:07):
you have like an inside trader, got busted and everything,
and like that's what they based that version of that
character on. Like right over to that the hair thing
that's like yeah you see him and you're like, oh yeah,
I see it absolutely, Like I love that little Like
everyone has an angle that never becomes stick. But every
single character has a thing that's weird to make some pop.
(01:04:30):
But it's never being like, well, I always have a puppet,
you know, like it's always just enough that you can
tag it and like talk about improv a bunch, But
like I think about that sort of stuff a lot,
like in comedy improv of being like, you have your thing,
but you also have to be able to be a
normal person, even if you're the weird one in scene,
and if the context changed, you have to also be
able to order a sandwich. And like that's what they
(01:04:50):
all have is being like steve'son is so fucking dumb
that I believe you could order a hamburger if he
needed to. And like so you're like, okay, yeah, then
then I accept this world. Oh interesting, I never really
thought about it that way. That's good stuff. Um so
the very end, you know, uh, I think he had
to leave you with some hope, like because the core
(01:05:12):
of this film isn't the crime stuff. It's like this
relationship and this weird um thing where they're like, she, well,
she's shown a history of falling in love with the
wrong guys first of all, because she falls in love
with or she's at least dating who Yeah totally who
who Farina? Um I haven't done Midnight running here by
(01:05:35):
the way that is also one of my favorite movies ever.
Speaking of Farina r I P. But he uh, he
says that, you know, he's married, and like he kind
of makes reference to the fact that she's continually falling
in love with the wrong guys. And then when she's
talking to the her superior, who she totally puts in
his place, which is great, that's a great scene. Have
you ever been primary through the door? Um? But he
(01:05:57):
says something about the fact that she dated bank robber before, right, Yeah,
there's something like that where like or someone who she
shot him, yeah, like, which is total foreshadowing of course, yeah,
what happens. I always forget about that. Then, like, so
there's someone else. She's always falling the wrong guys, but
Clinic is kind of the right guy. Yeah, and he's
like and he's different, you know what I mean, Like
he's he's not like he's a loser. He's not a
(01:06:19):
bad boy, you know, Like it's not that sort of thing.
He's he's just this I think probably that trunk scene.
He's so dopey and excitable and puppy ish like that.
Like she ends up being like, Okay, well, this isn't
the sort of person I'm normally like sending to jail uh,
And then they kind of fixate on each other and
it's so like again, like that that bar scene I
(01:06:43):
think is one of the most like romantic and sexy
scenes I've ever seen, because it's not so much heat
in that scene, and like like there's no nuty and
it's there's like not like it's it's romantic like them
sitting there with that snowfalling and the moment where he
snaps out of like that sort of like, let's pretend
we're different people. How are we going on with this?
(01:07:04):
And she looks so sad that that they can't just
keep doing it for a little while. And then when
it starts inner cutting with them back in the room
and she's it's freeze framing, she's staying on the dress
and he's like bumbling around kind of it is just
like I I there are very few scenes like that
that stick with me to the way to the degree
that that scene sticks with me. Yeah, And then the
(01:07:25):
next day, the next morning, that scene is really great
when he talks about, you know, the fact that she's smart.
He's like, why would you think that I thought you
were dumb? Yeah, you know, Yeah, it's like the way
they played that was really great, and it is a
big part of it is you know, the script is
great and sort is great, but you know, Clooney and
Lopez are so good and I really don't think it
(01:07:48):
can be said enough about how much and that sort
of performances from them would not be Yeah, it's hard
to kind of remember back before they were like the
Superstars where it's just sort of like because it's small
and grounded and it's it's a pretty egoless for she
looks really cool, but like for both of them, they're
(01:08:09):
like in it. There. You don't feel the vanity sometimes
you get from super famous people being a right, especially
when George is one of the most famous people in
the world, you don't get a glimmer of that. I
actually think George Clan in general has really good taste
and stuff. He's clearly a smart guy. But I think
it took Soderberg to get him to be like, hey,
let's open up this thing, like oh, okay, yeah, you're right,
(01:08:31):
I'm not hunky doctor, I'm something else. Yeah, and they
I mean, you know, he was attached, pre attached. When
Soderberg got it but they obviously they went on to
work together. Uh kind of right afterwards, they did the
Solaris remake, which wasn't great, but again reaching for the
like swinging for the fences absolutely like, you're not gonna
(01:08:51):
fault soder for remaking because it's never gonna be like, oh,
you made a movie that like I fully just forgot
about the second I watched it. It It will be like
I didn't enjoy that. Um, but it's never gonna be like,
oh he Soderberg did that. It was gonna be like
when you were if it's a movie, didn't like He's like, yeah,
that was a movie because it's always and it always
looks like he he there's that thing people pass around
(01:09:15):
every now get on social media, but like that idea
of uh he was talking about Fury Road and how
like he he still pulls apart other movies to try
and figure out how people did it, this wonderful thing
about how like I don't know how George Miller did
like because I cannot do this, I can't figure out.
I've watched this so many times and try and apart
but just like he stump Soderberg, and I admire that
(01:09:36):
so much of being like he could fucking coast, he
could make anything he wanted. He could he could make
big movies. Just get rich, rich rich. Um. But he's
still going, I'm gonna pull apart this movie that I
enjoyed because I need to understand how it works, and
like true nerd um there um, but like I find
that so goddamn admirable, and I think that's what leads
to him doing things like was it mosaic? What was that? Like? Weird?
(01:09:58):
I didn't see it? Was that the iPhone one? That
was the one that was like on I think HBO
and then also and everything I might be with Sharon Stone,
I forget who's exciting? I think I think I know
what you're talking about. And I did not see that, um,
but it was like, that's an experiment that can only
come from someone like constantly learning, right, And I think
that is incredible to have made. I think things are
(01:10:20):
basically masterpieces and be like and I still I am
not done learning is Yeah, a lot, not a lot
of dudes are able. Dude in particular, to let the
ego go enough. I think, yeah, I think you're right,
and you know, I think he said he was retiring
and then just why would I do that. I don't
make these weird movie about dolls. I didn't see that
(01:10:42):
one either. Bubble Bubble, Yeah, that was a little Yeah,
there's a few of his I mean, just because it's
who he is. I like, I think I owe it
to him to see everything a lot. Sometimes there'll be
stuff that I was always doing that I was like, man,
I'm glad he did that, and I probably won't get
around to it, but like, like that's kind of my
take of like so cool that he did that sort
of thing. But also, uh, you know, yeah, only so
(01:11:02):
much time. Um well, yeah, I mean so the end
that you know, you have to end on that hopeful
ending because the undercurrent of their relationship, like you want
them to be together, um, but you don't necessarily want
to see them running off into the sunset. Like that
feels fault. Like she lets Glenn run away. Yeah, and
that last of him just running through the snows, he's
so pathetic. But like once they get to the house
(01:11:22):
and all these people have been murdered and everything, like
the movie wouldn't work if she was like get out
of here or like and then we'll run away to
a beach. Yeah, no one wants to see that, but
he because and it's not true to he has to
go to jail. He's a loser. He has to go
to jail. But that optimism of maybe he's probably going
to break out of again because he keeps breaking out
(01:11:44):
of jails is like such a great van just drives away.
Oh and it's Sam Jackson And it's just the way
they play it, you know, like how many times he's
like nine times he broke out of jail. And then
that just shot of her kind of grinning. It's like
she orchestrated this whole thing so great. Yeah, actually become
them in that jail for a week to team put
them together and it's great. Um, you got anything else
(01:12:08):
about the movie? Yeah, hours and hours, but the absolutely
Uh there's one other moment that I love, uh so
much and it's the elevator moment when they're it's right
before they Like. The music in the movie is great.
Dave Holmes did the score, but it's also got a
bunch of great stuff in there. Some Isley Brothers song
and the hard cut to Detroit Um, and it's as
(01:12:30):
Brothers Fight the Power, which is a great song any times,
and Hard but there's a moment right before that where
they're like, um packing light there in this hotel in
Miami and bing rains trymbly, we gotta get out here,
we gotta get and he's like, I want to hear
one more time. And they're going down to the car
and these sort of like chauvinistick cops are like, Okay,
we figure where they are, we're gonna go up and uh, yeah,
you have to to Jennifer Lopez a character to Francisco,
(01:12:53):
wait and watch the lobby, which is like the ship jobs.
There's my case and there's the whole thing about it.
So they go down, uh and as these cops shaking
the stairs up and the doors open so this little
lady can get off and it takes forever and it
cleanly looks up and sees her and she's on the
couch and she sees him and they just stared at
each other and as the doors closed, he just does
this set a little wave and the doors closed. Uh,
(01:13:17):
and she goes, I saw her. She's in a lobby
and being raves like what they like, Okay, let let's
go Detroy hard cut out. But just that her just
watching him and that little wave is and then it
cuts back to her where and she's just still sort
of frozen. Yeah, just she freezes up, and it's isn't
it's another way of showing well, those like kind of
like timeouts, I think, But it's so fucking fun where
she like lets him go, but it doesn't feel it
(01:13:41):
just feels like what do I do? I'm ten impulses
right now. It felt real Yeah, and and and it's
it's it's so And the way he played it was
just so great. And that part actually reminded me of
the earlier the very first bank robber. He's seen as
a great moment where he's robbing the girl and he's
just been so charming and he he still tells her
have a nice day, and she goes you too, Yeah,
(01:14:02):
and she like catches herself like with the customer service.
Still there's another moment talking about the ending to having
to have that nice ending. There's a great moment where
he fakes it out early on where like after the
first robbery and she's like onto him and they escaped
in the trunk and everything in there in Miami, and
it cuts with like no hint that something different is coming,
and talking about clue. He's taking a bath with these
(01:14:25):
candles around here, um, and Karencisco's coming down the hall
alone with a gun and she's going to bust him.
And she comes in and he's in the tub and
she climbs into the tub with him. And I remember
when I saw in the theater, like in the twenties,
remember people going like what So it's like because it
feels like a bullshit Hollywood thing to have happened, and
very like like like dude centric, like she gets in
(01:14:47):
the tub and it cuts and it's a dream. Secret
is her waking up? It's her fantasy. Yeah, he fancy
she's been in like a coma because she got into
a car accent with he was on um and that
all that was. Yeah. I think that is kind of
a way of going like we're not don't worry, we're
not doing this in this movie, because it sells it
(01:15:08):
like they've done all these time jumps and it's treated
the same way, so like, oh, this is not what
human being does, is go oh, none do It's just
like a fever driver having well and it's a bit
of misdirection and that it wasn't his fantasy, so it's
the first sort of indicator like that he is on
her mind, like they're both sort of obsessed with each other.
Like he calls her on the phone. That's right when
(01:15:30):
she's sitting there with Deniscreen and Michael Keaton, She's like,
give me five minutes. She sets out because and you
know when when being Rams brings over the newspaper, Oh
it's Karen in there, does it say what she's doing now?
I mean he's like a little schoolboys such like a
high school crush sort of thing, and it's so so.
And then while that seems going on, also there's a
great like Dennis Frena just dismantled Michael Keat, like I
(01:15:52):
love because he's such like he's willing to look the
fool so much and he's say his cocky, gum chewing
piece of ship and it's just this for you, a
very confidently holding icon tent and just basically calling him
out for cheating on his wife. And it's a shame
we never got to move with just those two people. Yeah,
just like headlining, Yeah, that what that would have been
(01:16:13):
a delight. I did a TV I was a p
a on a TV commercial out here in the early
two thousand's and we're shooting in this neighborhood and Brentwood
and well, you know how it is on set, like
everyone's just sort of hanging out outside while they're shooting inside.
This Porsche wheels around the corner and parks, not doesn't park,
like just stops sort of sideways, half in the street,
(01:16:34):
half in the driveway. Michael Keaton jumps out to check
his mail, and it was such an agree just like
there's someone shooting across the street from me, I'm gonna
keating this thing up and jump out like to check
the mail in the most like obnoxious way possible. And
he entertained us all for ten minutes. We I was like,
Michael keats down there, and he kind of gave the
nod of like come on down, PA's and he just
(01:16:57):
sort of talked to us for ten minutes. That's so.
And he's like the nicest guy. And this was a
while ago, like before like the big comeback, but uh,
like you know, to us, he was Beetlejuice and he
was he was Batman for God's sake. He's like one
of the biggest stars in the world and also one
of the most like, uh, like I sometimes you like
I get why George Clooney like fills the frame and
(01:17:18):
like I'm watching Oceans eleven, Julia Roberts has like a
nothing part and when she's on screen, you're looking at
her like she's such a good damn movie star and
you watch my look and you're like, why can't I
not watch you? Like like if you're on screen, I'm
looking at you and it's and I can't put my
finger on what it is about him. There's that scene
in that like a Spider Man movie where like that
(01:17:40):
see the best thing the movie people talk about where
he figures it out and he's driving them to the
dance and the back seat and he's not doing a
lot and you're just getting dams of information off of him. Gorgeous,
just his self confidence. Yeah, stunning, Like and that's why
Beetlejuice works too, because that's a different version. Was like,
(01:18:02):
what if I do it all? But if I go
to a hundred and I again, I'm blown away by
someone who's like, I can be beles juiced, I can
play I can play these things small he tested Mr Mom. Yeah,
of course the most grounded of small characters. What if
a dad had to clean. I'm so I'm so nervous
about the Beetle Juice sequel, A very thin they're still
(01:18:26):
doing it, I know. I would imagine that the musical
will help, like that, like Anthony King, like he's a
very talented writer, USB guy like wrote and like and
I wanna I want to see the set looks incredible.
It seems like it's change. It's not just here's the
movie like thematically connected more, but like I would be
(01:18:48):
that Bill just goes to Hawaii thing that they kept
almost making in the early nineties. It was like the
original sequel they want to do. It was like it
was like he, I don't know how, I don't know
what exactly was, just goes to why it was a
is the hook of it and it does. It works
so well. Just living alone because I think of the
diets Is because of the dietz is in the maitlands
(01:19:08):
like they are the movie because Juices such a small part,
and be like, what are they gonna do in a
sequel that isn't just build Juice walll to walk because
I don't really want to ninety minutes of Juice, the character.
I want Lydia to cut it. Yeah, yeah, I never
really thought about that. That was sort of the secret
sauce of that movie, because I mean some of the
funniest stuff in that movie is I mean, like Kthern
(01:19:29):
O'Hara is a worldwide treasure. Uh, and like everything she
does is just so good. Have you ever worked with her? Oh?
Gosh no, why wasn't finding you die? There's some people
I was constantly chasing. She was one of them, but
she lives in Canada, so I could never get her.
Um and uh the um the weirdest person I I
(01:19:51):
would always try to get David Byrne for something, but
he lives lived in New York right here. The weirdest
thing I tried for years the whole town was ark
gett was I wanted to do with Patti Duke and
I wanted to do um uh great gardens, but with
her as the two Petty Dukes from The Petty Duke Show, which,
like to be fair, this new media streaming comedy company
(01:20:12):
in two thousand eleven wasn't like, yeah, let's do a
video about a nineteen sixties sitcom. The only other reference
point is in nineteen seventies documentary like It was a
Hard sell and then also to Petty Duke, who I
did get them to like reach out a couple times.
I'm not sure. The will you do a free Funnier
Dive video really hit with like an eighty year old
(01:20:33):
woman who what no, right, It's funny that I'm like,
she could either be totally game for that or just
totally and I think it was just sort of like
I'm sure whoever her people are or al sort of
like yeah, we'll running buyer and then no. But I
still that was like, my she's still with us years ago,
that's right, because I've inexplicably love paid because a kid
(01:20:54):
despite not being eighty years old. It was on nickd
Night and I was like Troop and the Patty Duke Show.
Oh God, I loved F Troop. Yeah so good. Larry story, Yeah, man,
he's the best. There's something I actually think you could
remake F Troop and have at work. There are some
very culturally insensitive things without Kin, but the core idea
(01:21:14):
of both sides are pretending to be at war just
so that their bosses don't funk with them is very
funny and I think you could update that and have
it be yea greatly all right, man. We finished every
episode with five questions. Um, what is the first movie
(01:21:38):
you saw in the movie theater? Oh? My goodness. Uh,
you know it might be Stop Making Sense. Otorians took
me to see Stopped Making Sense. I don't remember it, um,
but they have stories of me dancing in the aisles.
I still love talking this to this day. Um. But
so I think probably because that would have been eighty four,
so I would have been two or three, So Stop
making Sense. I think it's probably it. Did you see
that last David Burn tour? Yeah? Utopia? That is good.
(01:22:00):
That was one of the best shows I've ever seen. Same.
I've seen him a bunch because I just love talking
so much, and I like some of his soul stuff.
But that tour, yeah, like legit inspired me. Yeah. Same.
My wife and I went to that and I had
a couple of moments, one where I literally almost passed
out from euphoria. Did you see in Atlanta? Yeah? I
think my mom was at that show. I bought our
tickets when I saw, I was like, and she lives
(01:22:22):
in Atlanta, and so what part of Atlanta like Sandy Springs? Okay, Yeah,
so I got our Yeah, man, I was there, so
I almost passed out from euphoria, um little booze, little weed,
but um during once in a lifetime and there was
this the music in the the spectacle, everything just like
got to you know, you know that live show thing
(01:22:42):
where uh you sort of leave your body. That happened
and I almost fainted and I'm not a fainter. Um,
so that and then just leaving just thinking like this
guy and his uh I guess sixties like still innovating
to that level. Well, just so fucking stagecraft was. I
don't get um, I don't like freak out around famous
(01:23:05):
with that much just because I think like they were
used to be and then fund your die. I just
met incredibly famous people and so I'm pretty competent, Like
that doesn't apply to musicians, and like if I'm gonna
melt down, it's going to be around a musician, And
like I got to meet him once after a show,
and I just like the Fanta bumbled my way. Like
so like when I melt down, it's always like someone
it's like, yeah, I'm in a room with Karen Brownstein
(01:23:28):
and Leslie or Kenny and I can't function. Um, And
like he was the the most bumbling I've ever been
in the room with because and like he's a weirdo.
He didn't like like, you know, Corrin Tucker and Lance
Bangs were at Max vun a couple of years ago,
and I was sort of the same way. I was
like a sort of unfringed new Lance somehow, And so
(01:23:51):
I went up and said hi to him, and Corn
came up and I was just like, oh my god.
And she was like, she's like, oh, Chuck, She's like,
my family loves stuff. You should know. We listened to
it in the car, me and my kids. I was like,
are you kidding me? And she's like the nicest lady
and a mom and a wife, and I'm like, you know,
she's great. There, we'd be pals. Yeah. I love that
band so much and they're so smart and human and
(01:24:11):
great and wonderful and I can't wait for the new album.
But like I, I would assume that they would be
very nice to interact with similarly, like I truly love
ted Leo and ted Leo and the Pharmacist and I've
like a lot. I've never met him, but I have
a lot of mutual friends with him. Uh, And I've
been going to Max fun tomorrow is he He's another
one where I just like I've been in places with
him and I just kind of like stare at the
floor because like some of those albums meant like so
(01:24:35):
much during part like tough times in my life and everything,
and like so I just go like I can't, I will.
I will melt down if I try to. It's literally
going to be me tomorrow because you know that the
cabin hang that happens after everything, ted Leo is going
to be with us, and I'm just gonna be like
if I would, I would not talk to him. I
would not I would I would spend however long is
(01:24:57):
going on, wanting to and not being able to think
of anything worth while saying. I've met him two or
three times over the years through mutual friends, and every
time he says like it's nice to meet you, and
I never have the you know what are you gonna say, like, oh, no,
you've met me before, Like I'm the guy you never remember.
There's a good reason. Dog above us floor above us
(01:25:19):
on the ceiling is is the glass flower and the
dog ran across. I didn't even know that. Um boy,
we got sidetrack there get the dog back up, creep
on that dog some more. I do have to say, though,
to just through your Facebook the thing I always, uh,
I sort of love reading your feed because of your
music stuff. You always do the end of the year,
like favorite albums and stuff, and I always know I'm
(01:25:40):
going to find like good new stuff through you, because
I've just in the last couple of years, I've gotten
to the point where I'm not discovering as much new
stuff anymore, which is like you never thought, like I was, like, no, man,
I'm always gonna be getting in the new bands and
even though like I'm forty eight and they're like twenty three,
I'll go to those shows. And I did up until
a couple of years ago, and I stopped discovering bands
(01:26:02):
except through you and your in your end of your lists.
Oh thank you that in your in your politics, you're
post too much about politics, Huh. I do post too
much about politics. No, I think it's great because you're
you're one of the few, um, like you're one of
the great liberals in my feed. That's one of the
great liberals that's doing it right. Like I have a
(01:26:24):
lot of friends that are liberals that are doing it
wrong on Facebook, and then I think are hurting the
cause and I think you do it right, well, thank you,
so well, that's very nice. It's always reasoned and intelligent.
And I say, I think it's that lack of that
hatred of competition, like people be like screaming, like all right,
that's fine, scream away alright. Number two, first R rated
(01:26:46):
movie you saw theater or home? And like was that
a thing for you? Was that a big deal? Uh?
At home? I'm not sure because I remember like or
like sleep Oh, I bet I just watched stuff with
my parents. It didn't matter, like so like sleepovers. I
mentioned Terminator two like that was early on. Also for
some reason in my fairly rural New Hampshire upbringing, like um,
(01:27:08):
like boys in the Hood was really big in our
like third and fourth grade class. Like if you got
to see boys in the Hood, that was like a
big deal. So it was probably something like that. And
I remember in the theater seeing die Hard with a Vengeance,
which might have been the first Star Rady movie I
ever saw in the theater. I assume that's R rated.
That was Sam the same Jackson one that was the
Sam Jackson one was good and the one that was
(01:27:30):
originally movie called Simon says, and they're like, well, if
it's a die hard movie, And every time they start out,
its just the premise of like a cop has to
go over and s riddles and then they just made
a die hard movie, so like and if you watch
next time it's on TV and it's always on, watch
it for the ham fist and being like, well this
thing happened in l A okay, And then they just
go back to the movie dam in these like weirds
(01:27:54):
and the like, and what if he's Hans Grouper's brother
and the movie does not care about that, like it's irrelevant.
But they're like, yeah, we got tied in somehow that
sort of makes sense. Now, Um, will you walk out
of a bad movie? Uh? And do you remember doing
so recently? I? I it would. I can't imagine what
would make me walk out of a movie, like, I
don't think I've ever done it? Okay, yeah good? Uh?
(01:28:17):
Number four a tailor to the guests. So, since you're
a director of comedy, what what I was gonna say?
What movie do you wish you would have directed? But
that's kind of not fair. Who would be your dream?
Like comedy duo to direct? Oh, um, or not even
duo just uh oh that's interesting? Um the Living or dead? Sure,
(01:28:42):
yeah the uh. Give a couple of mini answers. One
the one that's terrifying to say because he is a
genius director, but is and we talked about much as
like Albert Brooks obviously is uh is massive and wonderful
and so fun funny, but also like I guess I
wouldn't want to because is how in my own head
I'd be the whole time trying to tell Albert Brooks
(01:29:03):
how to be fine? Like what a nightmare that would
be for me? Um? Oh you know what? Um? I
love Flay of the Concord so much that show, and
I I find those guys so funny that I would
I think that would be if I could just pick
any one to like something with him, would probably be uh,
either or both of them. It feels like something that
(01:29:25):
could happen, maybe New Zealand okay uh. And then finally,
movie going one on one, what is your movie ritual?
Where do you where do you sit? What do you eat?
I almost always do popcorn, and creatively I tend to
like there's there's I do a lot of the arc
light here in l A. For l A, people know
what it is. But there's also the theory the vista
(01:29:46):
that over which he talked a lot about the vista.
Love it, love it, love it. More leg room than
I've ever seen in a movie theater. It's ridiculous, absolutely incredible,
and I love that place so much. Um So, like
that was like going there normally in the middle and
uh like uh front backwise and then weirdly, I've I've
(01:30:09):
noticed just recently it's like you have to buy tickets.
I air on the side of like to the left
of the theater if I can't get dead center, Like
I'll always prefer that over the right. And I don't
know why I kind of do to actually, I don't
know if that's the way I enter, and I just
don't like going to the other side. But because here
there's so many place where you have to buy the seats,
even for him, So like I'm thinking, some part of
(01:30:30):
my brain is gonna go left, go left, and like,
I don't know what let's pushing me. It might just
be I started doing it and then now it's like
DNA baked in by right and popcorn, yeah, and and
always but wish I'm like, my wife makes fun of
me because, like I eat, I don't understand how people
eat popcorn without being horrifying popcorn monsters Like I like,
I shovel popcorn in my mouth and it's horrifying, and
(01:30:52):
I'll be like, I'm not going to do that, and
then I'll be like I hate this, like I hate
eating it slowly, I don't enjoy it. I'll just really shovel.
But it is basically starble right right awesome, Alex, thanks
a lot, man, Oh, thank you so much for having me.
There's a lot of fun, all right, everyone. Hope you
(01:31:20):
enjoyed that as much as I did. Always fun to
sit down and talk with Alex. I'm super sad that
he has stopped his UCB movie show because I always
wanted to be on it. But maybe he'll bring it
back one day once his cute little ten month old
baby grows up a little bit and they have more
time on their hands. But we had a great time
talking about Soderberg and Out of Sight and the craft
of directing and editing and directing actors. Really good insight
(01:31:43):
from Alex. Check out Children's Hospital, go see Convoy if
you're ever in l a h. The shows are cheap
and uh uc B that's the great things. You never
ever have to spend more than a few bucks to
get in see some of the greatest comedy that you're
ever going to see with convoy and UH support al
X and everything he does. I hope to see him
get that TV show one day that we talked about.
(01:32:04):
It would be great. I guarantee it so big. Thanks
to Alex and thanks to you guys for listening. And
until next time, why don't you get in a trunk
with George Clooney Because I Sherwood. Movie Crush has produced,
(01:32:25):
edited and engineered by Ramsey unt here in our home
studio at Pont City Market, Atlanta, Georgia. For I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
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