Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Hello. My name is Ray Salazarand you are watching and or listening the
Morning Reel. If I watch it, I review it. I don't know
if that catchphrase is good or not, but welcome, good morning. Thanks
for taking time to listen to myshort podcast. It's about films that I
review, all kinds of ages,genres, black and whiter, technicolor,
(00:21):
and you name it, most likelyI'll review it. You can send your
requests at Official Morningreel at gmail dotcom. You can check out my website,
Morningshopfilms dot co for all kinds offilm related activities, stuff that I
shoot, you know, because I'malso a video guy. I'm a photographer,
you know, I do it all. Anyways, I'm here to talk
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about the Coen Brothers. A seriousman. I hadn't seen this film in
a long time. I'm talking maybemaybe even five years, you know,
which for me is too long togo without seeing this film. This is
a really good film, and Iremember seeing it when it came out in
two thousand and nine. I didn'treally understand it. And it's not because
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I'm not Jewish. I think it'sand that's the thing about this film.
I think this film is a veryJewish film, like it was kind of
It's a challenging film, you know, and that's the most challenging thing about
the film. Really. It's likebeing knowledgeable on the Jewish faith, you
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know, like Judaism, and likewhat a GOI means? I don't know
what a GOI means, dude,Like I had to look it up.
This is one of the few filmswhere I actually had to look up certain
words or phrases because I actually didnot understand its meaning. But I had
a feeling of what it was oris. You know, when they said
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GOI I was thinking, like,are they talking about somebody who's white or
something like that, And I'm like, oh, no, it's a person
who is not Jewish. So I'ma goy basically. So I find that
hilarious because once you put that intothe how the Corn Brothers wrote this film,
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it's a pretty good word to useman because of the whatever it's being
referenced to. And a serious man, A serious film. Nah, even
though its topic is a very seriousit's a very serious subject. You know,
it's the subject of life, subjectof faith, and you know,
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even though this is going towards revolvingaround the Jewish faith and all that stuff.
It can be applied to anything,really, and I think that was
I'm not saying that was the wholepoint of the film, but I like
that this film kind of if youwere to challenge it, this would be
a good exercise and challenging that anythingcan happen in your life, even if
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you're like a really good person ora person who is who goes to church
a lot, who is faithful asa man, you know, a married
man or whatnot, does his bestto raise children and to you know,
keep a marriage and to like makemoney, you know, especially in the
sixties in Minnesota. Yes, thisfilm was filmed in Minnesota, even though
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there's really not much of a referenceto it. I was surprised to know
that it was in Minnesota, andyou know, Minnesota being the Midwest,
shots, Bolton by the Way andthe Mighty Dougs, just witnessing where it
was shot at really intrigued me.The scenery itself in this film is a
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character. You know, it's alot of loneliness in some weird way.
Because Larry, who's the main characterof the film, he experiences loneliness and
we all know that because things happenin this film man, his wife all
of a sudden just wants to geta divorce because she says things aren't going
well. And that's a thing wherelike we as the audience don't know,
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you know, it's like the bigmcguffin of sorts, you know, because
it drives the story. We aswe watch it, we try to figure
out exactly what's going on in thisperson's life for her to say that.
And I don't know if it's thefact of the events that are happening in
Larry's life, especially the people whoare closely connected to him, and how
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their situations kind of affect his It'skind of weird in film. And you
know, when you watch films,there's a lot of films where it all
revolves around a certain character and youhave supporting cast and then they go through
similar situations or they do stuff inregards of the main character situation. And
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in this case, the Sun's goingthrough his own thing, like he's smoking
weed. He's supposed to learn theTorah because he's getting you know, bar
mitzvah and all that stuff. Thedaughter, she likes to go out,
she's thinking of getting a nose jobbecause I mean, because you gotta see
it, and when you see it, you'll be like, oh, I
get it. And even even whatI'm talking about, I'm sure it makes
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sense as to what I'm saying,but that is the whole point from her
point of view, the wife.We don't really know what the wife is
going about. But it turns outthat, like I guess, their marriage
between the wife and Larry isn't itjust isn't going well. I don't.
It just kind of seems that Larry, he's just this guy who's very introverted,
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really follows the rules like he reallydoes, and doesn't seem to get
angry about stuff. And maybe whenyou see that from Larry, I guess
we get to see the sense asto why the wife doesn't want to be
with this guy, and it sucksbecause she's leaving him for this guy named
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Ci who's a family friend of overfifteen years. And the diner scene where
this all goes down like it's oneof the best scenes and almost film history,
because you get to see gaslighting athis fucking oh my god, in
that curse, at this fucking finestman. You don't see no gaslighting like
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this man. This gaslighting is likeyou can actually appreciate the gaslighting if you're
that person. And oddly enough,Larry's the guy to be that guy or
to just be so centered but atthe same time just freaking the hell off
on the inside. And I justlove that this film, like almost every
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other Coen film, the dialogue.The dialogue is good. It pushes the
story forward, and it's kind ofhard to write comedy to actually for the
dialogue to push the story forward.Because things happened to Larry's life. He
tries to get blackmailed by one ofhis his students because they got an f
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on the tap and gave him alot of money. But it's funny that,
you know, you don't watch thissong for the hilariousness of it.
You know, you watch it becauseyou try to Well, you're seeing a
man trying to figure his life out, you know, at this very like
harsh times, you know, likeI think it's the first time where this
guy had to really struggle or something. And it's really this film's not really
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about struggle, but it's just likethe struggle to find meaning, the struggle
to find how life works and whyare certain things happening to you, you
know, like, why is thishappening to me? You know, you
everybody's asked themselves that question. I'msure they We've asked ourselves that question so
many times, man, like almostHey, there's people out there who question
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it every single day, you know, and it sucks. And to see
this man finally, like because he'seventually going through a divorce. Man,
this guy's going through it like emotionally, financially he had he you got to
see the because after that diner scene, honestly, like he really just sets
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the where the film's gonna go.It's almost like the perfect first act.
You know. I'm not saying thisis the perfect film, but it's the
perfect first act. And I reallydig how the comedy is dark. It's
dark. They're they're saying very funnythings, but the things that they're saying
are not so like funny in likereality, you know. But because of
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the way these characters operate, theway they talk to each other, it's
like a swing and it swings reallygood and you can't keep your eyes off
it. I love the cinematography ofthe film. There's a scene where Larry
he's having a phone call with theColumbia Record Company because his son bought records
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that he didn't know about, andhe's just like, what the hell's going
on? And then in the midstof that, like all the other stuff
that's been just piled on top ofhim, and also like he might get
ten, so it's you know,he's just freaking out, man. And
I love how the camera just goesinto a tight shot. I mean it's
already tight as it is, butit just slowly just goes in there and
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you can not only see it,but you could not only see the shot
right, but you're watching a manunfold, like just getting into rage,
and you love it. You wantit, you want to see it because
this guy hasn't raged in like probablynever in his life, you know.
And it's about time that this guywho says he's a serious man finally gets
serious about like how to like it'snot about like talking to people, but
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it's like how to assert yourself,how to stand up for yourself, you
know. And then that scene isvery key because it really kind of puts
him in a place where like,fuck, like the shits really get into
me to the point where like I'mdone with this shit. And he goes
to different rabbis ask for advice forthis very like on it's a very unique
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situation because all the all the otherrabbits are like whoa like what like,
like, what's happening? How doesthis make any sense whatsoever? And the
first rabbit is pretty hilarious because playby the dude who comes out in the
Big Bang Theory, the one withthe fucking with the bull cut, the
engineer, you know what I'm talkingabout. He goes into space. But
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that guy, he's really good inthis film, even though he's there for
like less than ten minutes, right, and he tells him a story about
like how you know what, LikeGod's like this person who he just shows
up even if you don't see him. He just shows up. Like sometimes
I look at the parking lot andI just know that he's there, you
know, He's just there. Andthat's funny because this film does play into
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that thing where God works in mysteriousways, or in their case, Hashim,
you know, he works in mysteriousways, you know, and you
it's funny how this film can likebe very spontaneous and calculated at the same
time, and they do it reallygood, really good writing. Just like
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how Larry makes a decision right atthe end of the film, Like right
at the end of the film,he makes a decision, right and as
if you see the film, I'mgoing to spoil it. He makes that
decision, he makes the mark,and it was a hard thing for him
to do because he's very in touchwith his like morale, you know,
because he's very he was just builtthat way, you know. And not
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only that, like the Jewish faith, you know, it keeps him that
way, you know. And that'sthe thing about also is in the character
sense, like when can you letgo? When can you question? And
why can you question? And howdo you question? And he does other
things where it kind of answers thosequestions for him. Just like what I'm
saying right now, Like he madea decision, he made a mark of
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sorts, and as soon as hemade a mark, something suddenly happens,
and you can tell he's freaking outbecause it's like he knew that something was
gonna happen, but he just didn'treally expect it because all of a sudden
things are just sing things like becamenormal again for him, which is what
he kind of wanted. And wedon't see him pray about it, but
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just by living the struggle that helived in This film says so much about
like, hey, God, likelisten to me or husham, listen to
me. Man. I'm I'm afreaking suburban man with a nice, cool
teaching math job. Just help meout, dude, please just help me
out. And boom, it happens. We see it, and then he
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does something crazy, something that's actuallylike not like him, and he does
it, and then something happens,and then we don't know what happens after
that, and it's a it's areally good cliffhanger. I mean, we
hear what happened, we see whathappens but we don't know what happened next,
and not only that, something happensto Danny, and it's it's a
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really good ending to a film.And I'm kind of realizing it right now
because as I'm talking about it,because I've always wondered about this film.
I always wonder it's meaning, andwe're just watching it as it goes and
there is no answer to it.It's there's a there's a theory or there's
a like a certain problem where youcan't even there is no way that you
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could explain everything. And you can'texplain everything to its fullest. There's always
a sense of mystery. You haveto just accept it. Got to accept
life with what it gives you,even if it's not fair, sometimes even
if you're mister toody good mister goodytwo shoes man, And honestly, there
is none And that's the whole pointabout the film too, Like everybody is
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eft, everybody, everybody's fed up. The kids in that film, Saableman,
Larry's wife, Larry himself, thelawyers, the well. I don't
know about the rabbis because we don'tget too much. But everybody is just
like in this thing where like youknow, no one's safe, you know,
And that's the whole point. Noone can be safe, because if
it was safe, then nothing wouldhappen, really, nothing crazy would happened.
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We don't we wouldn't get films likethis. We wouldn't get, you
know, situations like that, youknow, and the Coen Brothers are really
good at just creating different situations andsomehow tying it into other crazy situations but
making it funny and not only funnybut introspective at the same time, and
I got to give this film aperfect Oh not a perfect film, but
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a complete four out of four tokes. I urge everybody to watch a serious
man. I'm serious, y'all.It's on Max. It's free if you
have Max. If it's not onMax, it's not Max. But if
you don't have Max, it's onthe free website. And if it's not
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on the free it's on the freewebsite. All right, I'm serious.
Watch this film, really good film. If you're if you're one of those
people who like are trying to findmeaning in life, watch this film.
Man. I'm not saying it's gonnagive you. It's gonna give you something.
It's not gonna give you the answer, but it'll give you a certain
direction or a certain counsel of sorts, you know, because everybody needs to
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be consoled, man, Otherwise thewhole world will be more fed up than
it is now. My name isRay Salazar. Following me in Morning Show
Films on IG. Check out mywebsite Morning Shop Films. I'll ceo on
my YouTube. It's Morning Shop Filmson OH. I got some slight news
here, Eric Romer. I'm gonnareview the rest of the Seasons if you
(15:45):
enjoyed the last one that I didwith the Xavier of a Tale of Summer,
which you should go see because it'sa spicy film and it's summer.
Damn it a summer film. Thisis a really good summer film. But
anyways, I am I'm gonna sayit now, I'm gonna announce it.
I am going to review One Nightin Paris with Xavier Guerrero. If you
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all know, well, if youknow, you know, you know right,
And I'm thinking of reviewing The Canyons. Yeah, it's a Lindsay Lohan
film. It's a very spicy film. I'm appreciate. It's I actually want
to reveal with Xavier. Man.So if Xavier viewer listening to this one
The Canyons, bro, it's theit. And I'll say this, The
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Canyons is gonna be Xavier's favorite filmwithout even having to see it. That's
all I'll say, thank you andon to the next one.