187. The Old Straight Story

Tune up that tractor and pack that pasta salad! On this perfectly thematically tied episode, Christine and Emily explore aging with two wildly different films. First up is M. Night. Shyamalan's OLD, which...doesn't go well. We redeem ourselves with the absolutely astounding feat that is David Lynch's THE STRAIGHT STORY. Spoilers abound everywhere, and all this is best enjoyed with a Miller Lite and can of braunschweiger.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
We are you way media, when you see the shameful
world is in when the way it is what's man?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
When thank God, when you take the band atone, when
you do the langgage people against boy Son, I don't bandy.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Dad time. Welcome to another episode of the Feminine Critique.
I'm Amily, I am Christine. Uh, and you'll excuse me
as my hands are full with pasta salad that I
am jamming into my mouth Scause one of the movies
we're talking about today is m Night Shamalan's Bold. It

(00:59):
is Old. And the other movie we're talking about is
older than Old. It is nineteen ninety nine David Lynch
is The Street Story.

Speaker 4 (01:09):
Yes, that is another movie that we watched.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yes, And as if anybody listened to the last episode
knows Old came up. I couldn't believe Christine hadn't seen it,
so I kind of said, you know what, I think
we have to do Old. So then it was a
matter of figuring out what do we pair with old?
And we could have obviously gone in a whole lot
of directions, but I think the one that made the
most sense was The Street Story.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
Thematically, Yeah, I would, I will say because honestly, there
was a part of me that really wanted to push
for Lady in the Water for some reason, because I
don't I don't know that it's good, but I've seen
it so many times.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
But which is how I felt about Old.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
And in hindsight, I am really glad I didn't because
I don't know if I would have been able to
handle like A yeah, I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
I don't know that I would.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Have had the kindness in my heart to be able
to well, I will.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Say because I think in my mind the other one
I threw at you Shamalanian style was the Happening because
it felt to me, I'm like, the Happening feels like
the most paired with like it just seems like the
most like tonally similar too old. But also thinking back
to that movie, which I have not seen in years,
I think some of the things that are I'm guessing

(02:23):
that you did not like. Maybe I don't know, I
so so spoiler I know Christine didn't like Old. Some
of those things I feel like it would be like
very amplified with like other Shamalan that is doing a
similar thing. Probably because I think because you had said
on the last call, I think or one of the
recent conversations that like, I feel like you think more

(02:46):
highly of Shyamalan as a filmmaker than maybe I do.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
I am, I think maybe a little more forgiving than
some people might be. I I think I said when
you we were talking about the fact that I hadn't
seen this, is that I've seen every other shamal On movie,
which isn't actually true. I haven't seen Avatar the Last Airbender,
which from anyone, but like so that might be his worst,

(03:11):
like objectively, I don't know, because I haven't seen that one,
and I think a lot of people would tell you
that it's just awful, but I I never I didn't
hate the happening. I think very early on I knew
that I personally couldn't take his stuff very seriously. It's
almost like cartoonish. It's very broad, his dialogue is very

(03:34):
stand and deliver a lot of the times. It's not
nuanced stuff, even though I think it feels like maybe
it is nuanced, but it just wasn't something I could
take seriously or take like to heart. I guess like, oh,
I'm offended by this clunky filmmaking because it just felt
like that's not the type of thing that I'm being delivered,
so I'm not gonna critique.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
It that way.

Speaker 4 (03:58):
So I find a lot of joy in things like
Lady in the Water, which is maybe not sensical and
maybe not even good, and the happening is like a
camp classic. At this point, I think this that being said,
I might my opinion might be different.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Now mm.

Speaker 4 (04:17):
I fucking hated this movie.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Oh my gosh, Okay, this is exciting. So obviously, everybody,
we're gonna talk about Old first, we are gonna spoil
because of Shyamalan. You can't talk about the movie without
talking about all of it. And then we'll take a
break and we'll come back for the straight story. So
if you're like waiting for the straight story, wait for
music and you'll hear it. I am okay, I am
so eager because I I'm Old. I feel like when

(04:40):
I watched it, I approached it with I know, I
have to take Shyamalan silly like, kind of like the
way you're saying you see him as he's not, And
I think, what an interesting like career? What's the word
I'm looking for? He his first film that breaks through
is a sixth sense and it like it is a

(05:01):
good film, Like I don't think anybody you know, people
very obviously on a lot of my liege, but nobody
comes back to the sixth sense and says, well, that's
a bad film or that's bad filmmaking. It is atmospheric,
it is spooky, it has it is spooky, yeah, and
it has great performances who are directed really well. The
dialogue feels real, which is weird because it never does again.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
It never does again. And so is he is he
left to his own devices on the sixth sense.

Speaker 5 (05:29):
I don't know a lot of crowds, and I think
he is I because it it wasn't like a huge budget,
but I mean that was like I mean you had
Bruce Willison there in ninety nine, Like that was not
a that had to have been something that went through
other people, like studios.

Speaker 4 (05:48):
I'm not a sixth sense person. I was one of
the people that it got spoiled for in nineteen ninety nine,
and then I waited like sixteen years to watch it,
like I just did because I like I I don't know.
It was a little bit of an unfolding my arms
about this and being stubborn, but I finally I finally
did see it, and I thought Tony Colette was amazing

(06:09):
and it was like, oh, yeah, I guess I get it.
It's but but the but the critique of once you
know the ending, it's it loses a lot of its rewatchability.
I think that critique is overused but not untrue, Like, yeah,
it kind of does hurt its rewatchability when you know,
because I knew when I watched it.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
And it just takes no, well it takes away it's
you know, similar I think like that was me with
Fight Club. I knew the end because a kid's high
school class. And it's not that the movie can't work
outside of you knowing what it's about, because if you
read the book you would have known that too, But
I think it does rob you of the experience that
movie was intended to pull the rug out from you.

(06:52):
It is crafted in a way that you are supposed
to go at that moment of the reveal. And I mean,
I know people who who I believe when they say, no,
I watched it and I kind of thought maybe that
was it, and that's fine, but it's still like it
just means you watched it differently than the intended audience
was supposed to have watched it, and it I think

(07:15):
the movie still works after the fact. I haven't sat
down and watched the beginning to end, I think since then,
but I just think it's it's a good movie. But
it's fascinating because it comes out it's a huge hit,
and it's a huge critical hit. It gets all these
OSCAR nominations, so it's like, oh, here's the guy. This
guy is gonna take cinema in a different direction. And
by his third film, you realize, like, this guy's strange,

(07:37):
Like there is something different about how he tells stories,
and it's this strange thing where you just wonder, like
is he taking himself too seriously or not seriously enough?
Is he camp be without being like clever about being
campy or what? Because then throughout the years, like you
get like wildly mixed things, and I think, I mean,

(07:59):
I think The Happening is bad, and I think The
Happening tries to be a good movie and I think
it just fails miserably. But that's my opinion of it.
I haven't rewatched it. I don't know how it ages today.
Whereas the Visit I love. I think the Visit does
something really smart in being about kids and being through
their eyes, and the kids are charming and you're you're

(08:20):
into it. And if you didn't know the visit was Shyamalan,
I don't think you would necessarily figure that out because
it's kind of like free because maybe it's found footage,
like it's kind of free of his terrible dialogue. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (08:33):
So yeah, A lot of people had problems with the
younger brother's performance in that movie, and I think that's
them problem.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
But there's I defend that kid to my death. I
think he's great.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
There's there's a lot of, like to your point, a
lot of very naturalistic performances in that movie that are
absent and say old.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
No. Speaking of no, I had seen this movie, as
I had said, many times, not many times. I'd seen
it once in its entirety, and then since then it
just always shows up on cable, and whenever it's on,
I find it really watchable. I as I said, I
don't think it's a good movie, but I think it's
a very entertaining movie. You had never seen it, So

(09:17):
tell me everything that went through your head watching this
stuff movie.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
Oh okay, So we made a conscious choice to not
watch it, which I think I did mention I didn't
like Glass, the last one in the Unbreakable.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
I watched Glass on a plane, and that is exactly
all I will ever remember about it. It it I.

Speaker 4 (09:42):
I didn't like Glass. I have a lot of feelings
about it. I didn't really like Split.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
I didn't.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
I didn't.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
I get that.

Speaker 4 (09:49):
McAvoy was doing a lot and it was like good
or whatever it was, he's good all the time, but
it was still goofy to me, O great because we
both Zach and I both thought it was goofy. And
then Glass I saw the theater was very disappointing and
not what I was hoping for, and kind of right
after that is.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
Old like old hits.

Speaker 4 (10:10):
So we made the conscious choice. Once I started hearing
kind of more what it was about, like just rumblings,
and also that people weren't didn't seem to enjoy it,
it was kind of like, you know what, I'm.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Okay with this.

Speaker 4 (10:24):
I'm okay never seeing this because there was the threat
too that it might for me be mild body horror,
which it isn't.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
It's not. It's just the thing about it's good enough
to be really disturbing.

Speaker 4 (10:34):
I think, so well, I'm going to disagree with you.
I found this movie very disturbing, So then I seek
Not at the Cabin, which I didn't enjoy.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
Oh god, I forgot he made that.

Speaker 4 (10:48):
So then I liked Trap because it's absurd.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
I did finally watch Trap a few weeks ago, and
I found it fun. It was a little overhype for me,
and I think once you kind of got it, I thought,
this movie's going feels like it's going on forever. It
was enjoyable, and it's kind of charming in its own way.

Speaker 4 (11:06):
I'm a sucker for stuff with like a musical element,
and it's just like, okay cool. But I was fine, Emily,
I was fine not having seen this movie.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
Fault.

Speaker 4 (11:17):
No, it's not your fault.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
I think my mom. I gave you a choice.

Speaker 4 (11:21):
My mom might have actually hated it. And that was
another thing that was like keeping me out from it.
So the movie starts, I would say about fifteen minutes in.
If it wasn't for the show, I probably would have bailed.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
Oh wow.

Speaker 4 (11:38):
I couldn't stand any element of it. It was so
heavy handed. I made notes. My first notes is all caps.

Speaker 6 (11:47):
I can't wait to hear what your voice sounds like
when you're older, old old, growing up old, growing up
as part of being old, old old.

Speaker 4 (11:58):
It's like, guys, we got it. The movie's title is
fucking old. Huh, So, right out the gate it was
not a subtle affair. And knowing that, and knowing the
subject matter, and knowing that there were children involved, I
kind of wanted to jump out the window. I was

(12:20):
so deeply disturbed by the treatment of the children in
this fucking movie that I wanted to run into traffic.
It made me sick to my stomach to see the
way they dressed that girl with her boobs hanging out
with the camera on her ass for extended periods. I
get that the actress because they transitioned from the little girl,

(12:42):
like the eleven year old little girl to an actress
who is obviously of age. But that's the only transition.
It's from the eleven year old small girl to this
woman who's playing like, I think you look like you've
aged to fifteen or fourteen, and then they just like
and then Shyamalan's like, yeah, but I'm gonna aggressively film

(13:03):
her big fat ass hanging out of her swim trunks
and her giant boobs hanging out of her tiny little top.
Are you fucking kidding me? What the fuck was this bullshit?
This pseudo pedophilia bullshit? What the fuck was I looking at?
And why did two six year olds have sex? What
are we fucking doing here? You can edit all of
this out if you want. I was disgusted by this

(13:26):
fucking movie.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
Well, and there's a moment where the mom says like, oh,
let me give you a different bathing suit, and she
gives what's worse? So much worse. I mean it could
have been like keep the bottoms and change the top,
or keep the keep the top and change the bottoms
that you should have done that situation.

Speaker 4 (13:42):
So Sack and I talked to about it and and
he was like, well, what would have made you happy?
Because that's what we do sometimes it's like a fun
little exercise. But I was getting like, I got like
grossed out. Like I know, I'm yelling and being dramatic
and christine like about it, but I did genuinely as
an over sexualized girl growing up, I got grossed out.

(14:03):
It made me, it made me sad and uncomfortable. And
so Zach said, what would what would have made this
better for you? And the there's literally a big flowy
shirt involved. She could have just wearing the big flowy
shirt buttoned up for like, I don't know, a couple scenes,
you know, and then like, oh, look she's got like

(14:24):
a more womanly body now growing up aging. No, it
was from I'm not I'm an eleven year old in
an adult body and I and we're leering at it.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Is how it was.

Speaker 4 (14:36):
That's how it was filmed. That's how it was filmed.
I I'm not making that up. And if you didn't,
if you watched it and you didn't see that, I
think that's fantastic. But I am very sensitive to that
because I was a young girl who was overly sexualized
and it makes me uncomfortable. And I know that there's
throwaway stuff in here about like and my brain is
different too, So she's not eleven. She's actually like like

(15:00):
she is like brain only fifteen or eighteen or whatever.
But like, come on, guys.

Speaker 3 (15:05):
Well, and that's inconsistent too with the movie, because it
seems like she does seem to be like I don't.
I gotta hate using the word maturing because I feel
like that's also a word that can be very, very misused.
But it seemed like from the beginning, I mean, she's
kind of, you know, as an eleven year old, like
when you're eleven, like you don't know everything, but you're

(15:26):
on your way towards being an adult. So sure, she
seems to be consistent in kind of interpreting things and
talking to people and seems like well like no matter
like this kid would have turned out okay like this she,
but it's hard to know at any given point how
old her brain is. Where is the other two kids,
So I'm just gonna call them the Alex Wolf kid

(15:47):
and the Sharp Objects kid with them like they start
there much younger, right, they're both I think like six
or five going on six, and then like the next
moment we see them, they're again eleven ish, but yet
they're still five or six. And then the next time
we see them, when they are again like who they're
going to be for most of the movie, same thing

(16:09):
they're supposed to be, I guess fifteen sixteen, but like
and Alex Wolf in particular clear and I mean again,
I think Shyamalan is somebody who can get really good performances,
especially out of kids. But I think he is also
a director who can absolutely hang his actors out to dry. Yeah,
and The Happening is the prime example of that. John

(16:32):
Lake Wuzamo is a good actor. What the hell is
he doing that movie? Mark Wahlberg is not a good actor,
so it makes sense that he is terrible in that movie.
But there are so many other things going on that movie.
You're watching it, you're like, nobody. People might have been trying.
But if you're trying something in a different and in
your brain, you're in a different movie than your co star,
that's what's gonna happen. So in this case, you have

(16:52):
like I feel like Alex Wolf is playing it as
if he is still has the brain of a five
year old in the body of a fifteen year old,
which could work if that's what all of them were,
but everybody else seems to not be. So it just
makes it like then by the time we get you know,
half a day later, when they're in their forties, and

(17:14):
he is talking like he's a guy in his forties,
and he's like, but how does that work? Like I
need the logic you're even in this very illogical movie.

Speaker 4 (17:23):
Well, and that's that's kind of the thing, Like it's
so it's a totally made up set of like spake
science circles.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
So completely right, because they're that's why they're aging, but
their hair won't grow because their cells are done right bait, So.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
That's that's the problem. So there's again to your point,
like yes, one hundred percent, you've set up rules, so
if you don't adhere to your own rules, Like I
know it's a fantasy situation, but why are there so
many rules if you're not gonna adhere to your own rules?
Like I'm confused now and I'm thinking way too much

(17:56):
about that, right, And and that's not fun because it's
like if the this is what I spent a lot
of this thinking about. So if your hair isn't growing
and your nails aren't growing because dead cells are are
changing rapidly, then why was the decomposition of the body
so rapid.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
That's a very good question.

Speaker 4 (18:15):
And I just spent the whole time like thinking about, like, oh, well,
her body's like never going to decompose here then and
then and then it was bones in like four minutes.
And I I.

Speaker 3 (18:26):
Think it's because the movie needs you to fully understand
because that's the way they get their like math, I
think right there, like, okay, well that would have taken
ten years, which means that was two hours. And this
is how every every minute you know, this long. I
feel like that is absolutely why that moment is there.
It is purely so that the characters know exactly how

(18:46):
much time they have. But yeah, that's that's bad writing.

Speaker 4 (18:50):
It was confusing and I and I will say another
thing that I didn't like and was pointless was the
and I do wonder and I guess I'm asking, do
you think this was just to kill time in this
closed setting? Was the baby because it was.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
Also pointless nothing. Yeah, I it absolutely has no bearing
on anything.

Speaker 4 (19:14):
It doesn't affect anything.

Speaker 3 (19:16):
No, because and even the characters themselves. This is one
of my biggest And again, like I enjoy this movie
as absolute dumb entertainment, but in terms of like is
it like, oh, but do you like it? Like no,
it's a terrible movie, but I enjoy it, but it's bad.
And one of the things that I think bothers me
the most is the the Doctor family. I'll just say

(19:40):
it that way. Oh boy, because that entire valley dynamic,
what you know, let's take it back. Just the daughter
in particular is a Sarta's name is Kara, Like, so
she has the baby, she kind of like has no
time to process anything of what's going on. The baby
dies because they look they turned away for ten seconds
and that's you know, the equivalent of not looking at

(20:03):
a baby for two days or whatever it is. And
she then is kind of you don't really know what's
going through her head. And then she starts climbing the
cliff to help everybody to get to the other side
of it, and she falls asleep and dice or she
gives up and dies. Why does she fall off? What
is that? Why does she die? Is that her choice?

(20:23):
Or was it just time?

Speaker 4 (20:25):
I think her finger just slipped and she fell off.

Speaker 7 (20:29):
I don't and I don't, Or she got to wait, oh,
hold on, or she got too high because there's always
the possibility of getting out of the radius and passing out.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
Okay, that's right. Maybe because it seems like it's just
it's a moment that I don't feel like the movie
answers it. And I've seen that part in particular a
few times, because again, it's just always on TV, and
every time I'm like, wait, so did did she make
the decision? I don't know, maybe because it seems like
this are cheering her on as if like no, don't stop,

(21:02):
like you're close, as if she is going to stop,
versus her reaching the point where physically she can't do it,
Like it seems like she stops, not that she blacks out,
so and I but again like why and not why?
Because I get it if I'm a kid in that's situation.
My brain is everywhere. But it just I don't know
that the movie knows, or the movie has not made

(21:24):
it clear. And then the Abby Lee character is her mother,
and they're like, really could have been something interesting?

Speaker 4 (21:31):
She was really, she was really Honestly, she was confusing,
so similar similarly to your confusion around the daughter and
her climb. I had no idea what was going on
with her the entire time. I know she has like
a calcium deficiency, Like they make that very clear.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
Everything in this movie is made very clear.

Speaker 4 (21:50):
To be clear, we're projecting for the back of the room, including.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
My favorite line of dialogue, which is when the dog
dies and rufus Sewell says it was only just alive, yeah,
which is the most unnatural way of saying, but he
was fine a minute ago. But no, just in case
you didn't know, the dog was only just still hive. Sorry. Yeah.

Speaker 8 (22:12):
No.

Speaker 4 (22:12):
There was a lot of stuff like that. And I
have a note that says so much talking, Uh, yeah,
everyone's distracted by weird things. But I think with a
movie like this, there's a lot of built in fallback
of like, well, god, how would you react. You've never
rapidly aged in like in a gully or.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
Whatever, and how would you react if you were happy?
And clearly like, you know, your looks are very important
to you. So but that's what.

Speaker 4 (22:40):
So there was some in my household. There was a
little bit of a back and forth where I said,
she's fine, what is she so upset about? She's just
getting old? And Zach was like, no, no, no, she
looks like hideous. Something bad is happening to her face
because of the calcium thing. And I was like, no,
it's not, she just looks old. We could not decide

(23:01):
on that.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
We could not get no agreement. I'm actually really glad
you because I have never been able to have that
conversation because my husband will never watch this movie. But
I often try to figure the same thing out too,
because I'm like, clearly this woman, the way she is introduced,
the way she talks to her daughter, like she not
say O trophy wife, but like, no, she is clearly
a woman who's who values the way she looks. And

(23:22):
this would be her nightmare, would be being somewhere where
she cannot control her body and what she looks like.
But yeah, because maybe in part it's because they're you know,
their hair isn't changing and her body is still her body.
I'm like, same thing. I'm like, I think her make
it's just her makeup is miard, right, And then there's
a line where Siewell says to her, put makeup on
your face, as if he is looking at her and saying,

(23:44):
you don't look like you're supposed to look, and like
then she you see her like touch her face, like,
oh my god, I'm hideous. But again like, but you
still look like abby lady.

Speaker 4 (23:54):
Yeah, I think there's an aspect of this. And again,
when you're critiquing something I like to the thing where
it lives, there is an aspect of this that is
truly unfilmable, which makes me angry that I even need
to have been put in the position to think about
these things because they would have never been well or
accurately represented.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
In a movie.

Speaker 4 (24:15):
I know that this is like a graphic novel that
I did not look into or read it all because
I was angry about this movie. But that's a great
place for this idea to live, because you can never
really visually tell this story. Something shouldn't be movies, and
I feel like this idea shouldn't be a movie because
you can't. I don't know what She's just a human

(24:37):
woman played by the same person the whole time. I
don't know what is happening to her because you're not
depicting it well like that, just like you only switched
actresses on the eldest daughter, the original actress her kind
of midpoint, and then the forty year old woman. That's
not an accurate representation of aging. And that's not the

(24:59):
movie's fault per se, but it is because the movie
chose to exist and it couldn't do it well.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah. No, I think that's an absolutely good description.

Speaker 4 (25:08):
Of that, and it makes me angry because it's all
these resources on something that you're never gonna visually depict
in a satisfying.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
Way well, and yet at the heart of it. I
think it is an interesting idea for a movie, and
even the reveal being obviously, if you've come this far,
you know we're spoil but the did you which did
you have any inkling on it?

Speaker 4 (25:35):
Like that? It was it was like a drug test.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
Dracutical, you know, drug testing.

Speaker 4 (25:41):
So to say that I literally knew that would be
a lie. But I do believe that I had enough
context clues because this has been out for like four
years to know that it's something like this. And this
is also kind of similar to the end of in
my opinion, what is that one called Glass? Is that
the third one?

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (26:00):
Glass? It was the end like the end of Glass
in a lot of ways, where it feels like there's
just like rolling reveals that never stop, and that you
don't know when the movie's gonna end, and are we
gonna are we gonna find out something else like and
and so no, I wasn't surprised, But also by the

(26:21):
time we got there, I.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
Don't know that I cared that's fair and it's.

Speaker 4 (26:25):
Boring and weird and also doesn't live in reality. I
didn't realize we had already got gotten to the point
where we have drugs that we can give you one
dose up.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
Right, one dose, one cocktail.

Speaker 4 (26:36):
For the equivalent of fifty years. It'll just last. Like what,
that's a pretty big.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
It's still a little iffy on all of this.

Speaker 4 (26:45):
So again, but you're making up these rules, so I
have to live in the world where this is the reality,
and I just can't swallow some of these things. And
also is like a chronically ill person. There's a lot
of like dodgy shit in here that I didn't like either.
This is a very bad movie for me person. My
temperament is not well suited for this movie.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
Understood, Yeah, whereas me being the like they're on a beach,
weird shit happens, it's kind of fun. It makes sense
that it is how we we take it very differently,
Like I think the treatment of the first of all,
like there should be a law about casting some people
if you're not going to make like the right use
of them. And like Aaron Pierre, who I think should

(27:29):
be the next James Bond, who is just reeking in
charisma and is this handsome, very good actor, like the
way his character just is in this movie. However, I
do think naming your rapper mid size sedan hilarious is
one of the best things this movie does.

Speaker 4 (27:46):
They they, uh, what's the thing? There's a pitch meeting
if you watch the YouTube. Oh noo, yeah, there's it's
which which is very funny and very accurate, I think.
But that's the thing about m Night right, Like sometimes
there's a lot to grab onto for me.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
Like I think the.

Speaker 4 (28:07):
Visit is amazing, Like I genuinely think it's good, and
the happening is interesting and ends up being really weird,
and there are some really like well filmed parts of
that movie specifically, like there's stuff there. But for this one,
for some fucking reason, it was like adul thud. Everything

(28:27):
was nothing landed, nothing hit. I thought, like when when
the Alex Wolfe character was a little boy, I thought
that little boy character was very cute and charming and
I liked his little friend and I was excited for
that to pay off that cute little relationship. Yeah it does,
and so like they're like I was looking, I was like,
all right, because he'll leave breadcrumbs, because even like in

(28:49):
something like the Village, there's aspects of that I really like.
But man, there's just nothing here.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (28:58):
I really didn't like it.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
No, that's totally again, like I don't think this is
a good movie. I just find it enjoyable, I think.
And again, there's a lot of actors I like here.
I love what is his name?

Speaker 9 (29:10):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (29:11):
How can I forget his name? Now? Kat ken Lung.
I love him. He's a character actor.

Speaker 4 (29:15):
He's been on the best Lost, just the best person
in this movie completely is he is the best actor
in this movie.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (29:25):
When he showed up, I said, oh, thank you god
Miles is here, because he's Miles on Lost.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yes, yes he is.

Speaker 4 (29:31):
I said, thank god, Miles is here. And then I
was like, oh god, Miles is gonna die really quick,
isn't it. He's gonna be one of the first people
to die. But he's like the only one making plans.
He's the only one going in any type of direction
without him rudderless. And I guess there's like a class
thing going on, because like the doctor is pretty awful
and ineffectual the whole time, and his whole family is

(29:52):
actually and then like the Miles character, who's that's not
his name, but he's he's a nurse and he's like
actually competent and capable.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
Yeah, which is convenient because you have like you know,
a pregnant woman and a lot of other shit going
on here.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
So like there that was kind of cool. But then
like snap your fingers and he's gone mid size today
and gone with some and like the dude, the awful
doctor father is like a racist and that's just there
in the movie for us all to deal with. And
he's like infirmed and falling apart and he's going after
people stabbing and I know that like at that point

(30:29):
everyone's old the name of the movie, but like just
walk away from him and he's stabbing like that. I
just was so confused.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
Yeah, it's not a good movie. It is not. I mean,
you have Gail Garcia Brunelle, who, like we know, is
a really good actor. That's the thing.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
Like everybody that you recognize in this you're like I
like you from saying I know you can do.

Speaker 3 (30:53):
Better, and I feel like him in this movie, Like
it's I just get the sense, like I can picture
the set and it's the same way a picture like
other Amni Chamalan movies that end up this way. We're
like I could see him kind of being like okay,
we're gonna do another take, right, like I feel like
I kind of got it, but I think I need
a little more. Can you tell me which direction to go?
And like I'm Night's like no, no, We're gonna keep going,
keep going, And because it just never feels like he

(31:16):
knows what he's doing. And I think there I am
guessing just based on like a little bit of what
I read that this was in part like a fairly
personal story for m Ni Chramalan about like his kids
growing up, because it does feel like that aspect is there,
like the most if you had to like pinpoint, is

(31:36):
there any like real relationship in this movie you kind
of have between I guess Guy and Prisa, the parents
of the two main kids, right that, like they have
issues in their marriage and so on, but like they're
kind of growing old, like the idea of growing old
together in a day, like seeing where your life would
go as an old couple. And then he can't see

(31:57):
and she can't hear, and isn't that cute? But there
something to like the way and even like you're saying
how dumb it is, but like it's a little bit
pointed of them seeing their kids grow up, Like I
think that is there is heart somewhere here where I
think it is a story of a father watching his
kids grow up and realizing like, oh, I want to
kind of capture some of these moments. But it's just

(32:20):
not done well.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
I think. And there was a when you were saying that,
I don't think you're wrong. There was a point where
I was like, oh, well, man, maybe I shouldn't have
gone so hard. No, I'm gonna go even harder. That
makes the things that are where you sexualize somebody that's
a child in a movie makes it even fucking worse.
M night, it makes it worse. Sorry, I'm so sorry.

(32:46):
Put a fucking shirt on her. Yeah, that's all. And
it's just so it's just such bullshit and it's his movie.
He could have controlled that.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
Yeah, it's a weird thing for nobody to have kind
of pointed out to him.

Speaker 4 (33:00):
And like the sex between the two little kids was
just unnecessary. Yeah, it could have been handled different. I
know that you want it to be a shocking reveal
where just two kids are together and they're just too stupid,
but they also have adult bodies so oops, they get
pregnant immediately, and you just wanted that shock value, But
that it's also very tasteless.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
There's so many moments in this movie that happen purely
so that his camera can slowly pan over people, and
as soon as that happens, you know, oh, it's gonna
end on something crazy happening. Yeah, it's gonna end on
a reveal of somebody walking up from behind and then
being old. And that happens like eight times in the

(33:42):
first forty five minutes, where it just becomes so expected of, like, oh,
here's the thing that's gonna happen because they're old, and
it's so dumb. But yet again, to me, I can
just go back to thinking like I can't think of
another movie quite like this.

Speaker 4 (33:59):
I mean, you're not wrong there.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yeah, which I mean for better and worse, But I
just I do app as much as again, I don't
think this is good. I do appreciate the fact that
he Mna Champlin does not seem to be getting less
weird in his filmmaking.

Speaker 4 (34:21):
That's true. I think we can all appreciate that, right, Yeah,
and for.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
Better and worse, because obviously, for you this is much worse.
For me, this is weirdly better, but it's it's a
swing and it doesn't land but like I don't know,
I'll go along for the red uh.

Speaker 4 (34:35):
And now I don't ever have to watch it again.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
This is true, So don't ever turn on the Sci
Fi channel because it's probably on right now. Deal, yay,
all right, we're gonna take a quick break and come
back and talk about a different kind of movie. Also
about getting old with the street story.

Speaker 10 (34:53):
Every year a dear season ed big oh comes to
town to consider buying some new equipment, a lot to
choose from, and Ed can get up to three hundred
and fifty dollars off looking here about each year, it says,
maybe he'll wait till next year. After all, his twenty
three year old John der mower still works just fine.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
I d.

Speaker 10 (35:14):
Oh, yes, Ed does always get.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
A new hat. It's now for a change of pace,
you know, rather than aging really quickly in you know,
two days, I think we're gonna slow down, maybe go
as fast as I don't know what, like twelve miles
an hour something.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
Like that, if we're lucky.

Speaker 3 (35:38):
Nineteen ninety nine, David Lynch is the straight story which
neither one of us had ever seen. Correct. Okay, what
was your like? Because I mean, you're a bigger Lynch
kind of a ficionado than I am. So why had
you never watched it?

Speaker 4 (35:53):
Uh? I guess I should tell the truth. So I
didn't know this, no no idea that this existed.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
Wow, it's funny because I was talking to Brannan about it,
who watched it with me, and I'm very glad he
did because he also really got a lot out of it.
But when I said, you know, oh, hey, I'm going
to watch this, so you know you want to watch
it with me for the show. We can watch it,
you know, Saturday night before it gets late, and he
looked at me and he's like, I have never heard
of this movie, and I'm do you? Were you not

(36:22):
watching the Oscars in nineteen ninety nine, And of course
his answer was no. I stopped watching after Kate Lynchett
lost to Gweno Paltrow. So that was his Oscar story.
But for me, I remember really well because it was
that era where I was reading Entertainment Weekly that was
my bible, so I was very very up to all
of the Oscar news and this was how I always
had this situated. Was I remember when it came out.

(36:43):
I think I even remember the ciscull and Ebert review
of it, or was Ciscle might have been dead by then,
but it was definitely, like I remember Ebert talking about it.
This is I think famously the first David Lynch movie
that they were alive, because it's the first movie where
they gave it thumbs up, which Roger Ebertt had never
liked David Lynch movie before this, so I remembered it

(37:06):
very well. I always knew it was there. Richard Farnsworth
was one of those people that because he was in Misery,
which was a movie I saw when I was very young,
one of imprinted on me as like this is the
man I want to be my old neighbors. So I
always felt very like protective of him. So when he
was omnive for the Oscar, I was really excited for him.
I remember just seeing him at the like being like,
you gotta give it to this guy, like he's by then,
I think people knew that he had cancer, but it

(37:28):
was very like everybody knew like this guy is old,
like he's not gonna get another chance here and instead
that was the year of American beauty. So Kevin Spacey
won instead. Was one of those things that you could
go back in time and rewrite history. I think we
would all rewrite it so that Richard Farnsworth could have
wheeled up there to God his oscar. But it didn't happen.
This movie, I think was not It kind of went

(37:48):
away for a while, which makes sense for different reasons.
But it is on Disney Plus now and also like
Rentable wherever, and I am gonna say this is one
of the most moving I have ever seen in my life.
I fucking loved this movie.

Speaker 4 (38:04):
So this is and I think I'm prepared to say it,
this is Lynch's best movie.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
Maybe maybe this.

Speaker 4 (38:16):
Is Lynch's best movie.

Speaker 3 (38:19):
So I there is a very.

Speaker 4 (38:21):
Good chance that I will not be able to talk
about this without crying.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
I get you watching this.

Speaker 9 (38:30):
Yeah, So I think it's really cool that David made
this movie and that I didn't know it existed, because like,
that's one of the things that strikes me about Lynch's work,
specifically Twin Peaks, because it's the world I'm most familiar with,
is how much.

Speaker 4 (38:46):
He loves everyone.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
Yes, he just loves everyone, but I.

Speaker 4 (38:51):
Think I think he also comes from a place of
realism and that that people are aren't terrible sometimes and
the situations aren't great, and I think he's a very
honest filmmaker, and a lot of the times we see
that honesty applied to not great situations, because I would
argue that a lot of the times you can get
the most out of not great situations. There's a lot

(39:14):
more allegory to be found and metaphor and depth and
character stuff. And that's why I write from there too,
and I get it. But seeing him tell a story
about people just overwhelmingly about people that love each other. Yeah, here,
it's like beautiful honesty about how and it's so clear

(39:35):
how much he loves this country, he loves the people
that live in this country, and.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
It was so much Yeah, no, I'm with you, I'm
with you on this. It I found. There are moments
in this movie and there is, and I mean, for
those who don't know this is there's an old man
who h his brother has a stroke. He hasn't talked

(40:02):
to his brother in ten plus years, but he decides
he has to go see him, and the only way
he can get there. There's other ways he could get
there if he really kind of decided to, but he
is a proud man who does not want to take
a handout from somebody and doesn't like being in control,
in under somebody else's control. So he doesn't want to
take a bus, and he doesn't want to accept a ride.
He doesn't want He only has so much money. He

(40:23):
can't pay for so much, So he gets on a lawnmower.
That lawnmarer doesn't work, so he gets on another lawnmower
that big head sells him, and this one's going to work,
and it does, by golly, and he rides I think
it's two hundred and forty miles from Iowa to Wisconsin
to see his brother. And along the way he meets people,

(40:44):
and he talks to people, and he is the kind
of he is not a perfect man. And I think
there is things between the lines here that were really
really interesting to me the more I thought about it,
of that this guy is not a like adorable little
old man who has the wisdom of the world on
him and we can all stop and talk to him,

(41:05):
and everybody's gonna be better when they walk away from him, Like, no,
he's it's not quite that. But he's just this this simple, honest,
straight man who and I say straight is his name
is Alvin Straight, who like sees people when he talks
to them, and so he's able to kind of just

(41:25):
be honest and people understand that and they see it
and it does something to them. My favorite moment in
this movie does not actually involve Alvin straight doesn't is
not the Richard Farnsworth. It is the moment where he
has he has car trouble, he has tractor trouble, and
he ends up staying with a man named Reardon and
his wife I think it's Darla, and he's like staying

(41:48):
like on their property, but he won't come in their house.
And you know, they say you can come in, like
he just doesn't want to, and you get a little
bit of this cup like you see they're nice enough
people who say like, no, please stay stay here. And
there's moment where just uh, mister Reergan goes into the
house and his wife is just kneading bread and he
starts talking to her about about Alvin. He's like, you
know this guy. He's like, I don't think he's gonna

(42:09):
make it there. Maybe I should, I don't know, it's
not that far. I could drive him. And the wife
the entire time is just kneating bread and she just
has like one or two words to him. She's like,
I know you were gonna drive him. That's why I'm married.
I know what kind of man you are. And they
just have a little kiss. She can't touch him because
she's neeting bread. I have been there. You cannot take
your hands off of it. And it's just this like
beautiful human moment between two people who look like real people.

(42:32):
And it feels so like I saw myself in that scene.
I'm like that that's me and Brannan right there. Like
it's just lovely. And the movie stops for it. And
it doesn't even matter because he doesn't drive him. Alvin's
not gonna accept that ride. It's barely a conversation. But
it's just this moment that like can only be made
by somebody who, like you say, loves people.

Speaker 4 (42:58):
Oh gosh, yeah, it's so I'll let me change, let
me change the tone real quick, so I cannot cry.
My favorite part was obviously the woman who hits the deer, because,
oh my god, because it's the most lynch part that's
not true because.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
This movie is filmed this entire it's like it's such
as it. Oh my god, if somebody told you, oh don't.
I don't like David Lynch. I saw a Holland Drive.
I didn't get it. I tried to twin peaks. It
doesn't work for me. You could still say to them, like,
you know what, that's fine. This this isn't really his movie,
Like his name is on it, but he didn't really
direct it. Just watch it anyway. And I think somebody
that didn't like Lynch could still love this movie. But

(43:35):
anybody that knows Lynch would watch this movie and within
five minutes be like, obviously, this is David Lynch.

Speaker 4 (43:40):
It's it's such a it's to say that the lady
that hits the deer is the most David Lynch thing
in the movie. It's completely not true. It's it's just
steeped in him.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
It's the most Lynch thing that nobody else would have
had in this movie. Like you could have had the
same screenplay with and somebody that was and he didn't
write the screen And then that even that's a very
interesting story. But like that scene, I feel like another
if this movie was given to Christopher Columbus, let's say
Ron Howard, maybe that deer scene gets cut.

Speaker 4 (44:12):
But it and I think the way that it's so
Lynchian is that it is also so it's the thing
that he does sometimes his characters are just absurd caricatures,
but that doesn't make them any less like truthful. Yeah,
And I think the lady with the deer her basic messaging.

(44:33):
I felt like she was maybe the most trapped in
humanity that anyone else in this than anyone else in
this movie. She's just she has to drive down this
road every day, forty miles each way every day, and
she keeps hitting deer, but she can't fucking stop, and

(44:54):
everything she does to keep the deer away doesn't work.
She is so at the mercy of exist since it
was so deeply upsetting but comical, but also and also
like but it kind of worked because Alvin ended up
benefiting from it. Like it it was just so strange,
but so like that's who I was. I felt like

(45:16):
her like just trapped on.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
This wheel and that there are two appers to that scene, right,
because it's this monologue of just what you're saying. I
drive here every day and I can't there's no other
way to get here. And it ends with her storming
away saying I love deer, which I have said like
eight times since watching this movie last week. I've just
found a way to work it into a conversation and

(45:38):
that's funny. But then a cut later it's Richard Farnsworth
sitting there with eating deer, and then cut one more
like I forgot one more cut to the fact that
he has mounted the antlers on his tractor.

Speaker 4 (45:52):
It's just like I and he. So one could argue
that everyone he comes in contact with he is additive
to their life in some way, and even he is
with her too, And I think that that's on purpose,
and I think it's important because he is additive even
when people don't know it. He he ushered that deer.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
On to a new use.

Speaker 4 (46:17):
Yeah, he has made use of its existence. He has
made use of the tragedy that she cannot avoid for
some reason. So he's, like, I don't know, like a
guardian angel.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
In a lot of ways.

Speaker 4 (46:29):
Even though this lady, he didn't do anything for this lady.
This lady's life is just as miserable and frantic and
hectic as it was when she hit her last dear,
it's not because he's kind of come in behind it
in smooth things back out.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
Yeah, And it's a really beautiful way of looking at
it that I hadn't thought of.

Speaker 4 (46:47):
It's just really it's really sweet and like it is
on a place but like everybody's coming at life from
a different place, and she is not at peace with life.
She is the character that is. And he will later
talk to the old veteran and they're bo.

Speaker 11 (47:00):
Not at possible because yeah that but like this, this
is just a woman who's not at peace, and even
though she's not aware of it, he lays down peace
in her wake.

Speaker 4 (47:10):
And I really appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
Yeah, there is this like very very deep sense of
like connection of humanity in this movie with this stoic
man who I think too something that really hit me
watching it, because I watch this movie and I'm just

(47:34):
enthralled by it and I'm crying and I'm really feeling it.
And then the next day I go to the gym
and I'm swimming, which is like where for me, I
do a lot of my thinking because I can't I'm
not listening to music, I'm not doing anything. So a
lot of times that's when I'm like working through something
i've read or something i've watched, and like it hit
me way through, I'm like, Wow, this character really reminds
me of my dad. And I come home and I

(47:55):
tell Brannon that we're like sort of like, oh, like
we didn't talk about the movie, and he felt the
same way. He felt it really loved it. And he's like,
you just you weren't thinking that the entire movie. I'm like, no,
it just it. I wasn't because I was very into
this movie, but afterwards just realizing, like my dad, who's
around the same actually he is probably older than this
character at this point, but he is also a widower
and is somebody who he has done these kinds of trips.

(48:19):
My dad loves a road trip. He hops in his
car and he will drive he's a friend to Montana.
He drives to Montana to see him. He like, we
have family in West Virginia. He'll just drive to West Virginia,
knowing he can make some stops along the way. My
dad is also a veteran, so he has like different
people that he was Vietnam with around the country that
he'll have these these conversations with that he doesn't cheer

(48:39):
with us, that are very like this different part of
his life. And when you find out it's about I
guess about thirty minutes into the movie, when you when
Alvin is talking to kind of his the first person
he really needs on the trip, which is the young
pregnant girl, and he's telling her about his wife, and
you figure he's a You kind of assume that just

(49:01):
because he has a daughter and he's living alone, and
it's he's living in Iowa, and that's kind of the
way you'd expect this to be. And he says, my
wife had fourteen pregnancies and seven kids, And did you
and did that like kind of jaw drop you because
did you realize in any way that he had other children,

(49:21):
that he had six other children aside from Sissy's bafac.

Speaker 4 (49:25):
I didn't assume she was the only one, because it's
quite clear the reason she's there is so that they
can kind of take care of each other. Yeah, so
I kind of assumed there might. I thought maybe there
was going to be more estrangement, like kind of explored,
like right, right, So I thought there was maybe gonna
be another shoe to drop on a.

Speaker 3 (49:45):
Kid, right, get like one more visit or something.

Speaker 4 (49:48):
Because Sissy's basics character was in contact with someone clearly
her peer on the phone, right, right, And I wasn't
sure if that was like a cousin or if that
was a sibling or something, but like it, it was
definitely when I think I first realized, like, oh, this
is gonna be like kind of an like a raveling

(50:09):
of character, like a blossoming of character. We're not gonna
get We're not gonna get big info dumps. This is
just going to kind of slowly reveal as it goes well.
And I appreciate it because men like that.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
And I say this as somebody looking at a man
who had a wife who probably did everything with the kids,
and he worked and he did his stuff, that like
his kids are not something he talks about every day
to anybody, because his children are grown and again six
of them presumably are out of the house, living their

(50:43):
own lives, and on this journey he will occasionally talk
about He talks about the war, he talks about drinking,
He talks about these things that are almost more like
on his mind now than his children are. And it
just it's not a like, oh, because he was a
bad dad. It's just no, it's just because this is

(51:04):
very honest of this man at this point in his life,
Like these are the memories that are there. He's closer
to the end of his life, and what happens to
a lot of people as they were closer to the
to their life. You're not really thinking about being in
your forties. You're thinking about being a kid, right, And
that's why he's I think his brother is so important
to him here because he talks so much about like,

(51:24):
this was my life as a child, was my brother
And I have to get back to him and say
this to him because this is like, this is where
my brain is now. And I just think it's a
really honest, interesting look at a man of that age.

(51:46):
Oh did I lose you? Nope, I'm here.

Speaker 4 (51:48):
Oh there you are. Oh yeah. It's tough because I
I've never had a positive male role model in my life.
I've never I never had a father or a stepfather
or grandparents that.

Speaker 3 (52:02):
You just had Richard Farnsworth and misery like but.

Speaker 4 (52:05):
Like that that made me a little bit more protective
of the character because like, I, oh, you mean, people
men can be this way. They don't have to be
the worst people on the planet that have no self
awareness and lack the ability to look back and feel regret.

(52:27):
So it's great and for honestly, for that reason, obviously
you would agree that we need more stories with people
that cover different age groups. But also there is just
very few really positive, realistic depictions of masculinity in media,
like just period. And it's kind of wild to see

(52:51):
this because at no point is this man ever depicted
as anything but like strong and determined, but he's also
so vulnerable just.

Speaker 3 (53:01):
Justtically, I mean physically, he is has to use two
crutches at two canes at all times. He cannot do
a lot of things when and he towards the end
of the movie when he is when it looks like
he has stopped and he's like a mile away that
is insurmountable to him. He cannot get off his tractor
and walk a mile mm hm.

Speaker 4 (53:24):
And as a chronically ill person that was very present
with I was I had anxiety watching this, but like
I was never like really nervous or uncomfortable, right because
I trust the I not only trust David, but I
trust the g rating. Like I knew that everything would
be cool, but like when he first got on that

(53:45):
trailer that the tractor and he had to get out,
like the literally the first time I thought I would
have trouble with my hips right now, sitting on that
thing for that long, and it made me so fucking
worried for him. Yeah, and that's why when when we
when we meet the girl who's like the first one
who reminded me a lot of Laura Palmer. But when

(54:07):
she shows up the first and it's just like, oh,
this is what it's gonna be. Okay, I'm so glad
people are there to help him. Oh my god, Jesus,
I'm so glad there were people there to help him
because I was just so worried about his hips.

Speaker 3 (54:22):
Yeah. Well, and like from there, it's just it's a
couple of more moments like that. At one point, like
the most action comes when there's like a bike race
right next to him. Yeah, and so he has to
pull over and watch and just and I love this
moment because it's just this like it's such like a
David Lynch thing to do of just him like looking

(54:42):
at it and then like smiling and then like giving
them the thumbs up, like realizing, like, you guys are
doing a race. That's great, Like you're in my way,
but I'll just wait it out and look at you,
look at you. But then as you're watching that, you're
realizing too what it must be for him when to
sit back and watch that and realize, like this person
is on a bicycle and they can do this and

(55:02):
I cannot. And then right after that, he's kind of
partying with these with these racers. He's just a party
and they're a bunch of like young guys and they're
having baseball catches and they're just you know, like just
elemental like young men, and the you know, the one
says to him like, hey, what's the worst thing about

(55:23):
getting old? And the like the line of the movie,
remembering what it was like to be young?

Speaker 4 (55:29):
Yeah, it it's it's just honestly, something that strikes me
is we could talk about like every interaction at length
and it was still not be spoiling this at all
because it's not really what it's about. I wouldn't call
this like a vibe movie, but like it's you just

(55:51):
need to sit and experience it because like you're on
a journey with him, and it is a journey. It's
got like Disney energy in that way, like.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
That like follow that Bird energy.

Speaker 4 (56:02):
Yeah, like that one Cusack movie that we watched with
the dog sac and the dog, I don't know, like
a wolf dog. Oh the Journey of me Agan, yeah,
like that, or like a homeward bound style thing, but
like with adults and like adults themes, which is always
really satisfying, and honestly, why don't we make movies like

(56:23):
that anymore? Now?

Speaker 3 (56:24):
I love when we make movies like that. We do
every now and then, but it's it's been a bit.

Speaker 4 (56:28):
And sometimes it's the Green Book.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
Right. Yes, it can go wrong, it can go very wrong,
but like, this is not that.

Speaker 4 (56:34):
So while it is like saccharine in a lot of ways,
it's not. And it reminds you that like a really
good script and a really good character study doesn't have
to be mean or gritty or action packed even it
just has.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
To be honest. And it's beautifully shot. Oh h there
are there's a shot. It's like early. It's like I
think when he first hits the road, that the camera
is doing this thing on the like yellow paint on
a road, and then it like moves up and it's dizzying,
like it is actually dizzy, and then you realize, like,

(57:09):
but he's going five miles an hour, yep. And it's
gorgeous and weird, and I wonder also, like I know,
everybody always goes on about like David Lynch's wizard of
OUs thing. I'm like, was that yellowbrig road? Is that
this yellowbrick road? Like, well, he's.

Speaker 4 (57:20):
Right there the lines in the road. And Lost Highway
is a huge yes thing too, So I mean he
loves that as a visual storytelling device, right, oh yeah,
it's like and then that's so cool to see it
employed like differently, Whereas in Lost Highway it's something very
ominous and treacherous, and in here it really feels like

(57:41):
it's like our guide, like Yep, we're going this way
and we go into the wild blue yonder.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
We're doing it and it's where it's really really great
and the music is great. It's yep, it's what's his name?

Speaker 4 (57:56):
Yes, yeah, angela Italian guy.

Speaker 3 (57:59):
Yeah, it's it. Also like it isn't And again this
movie is very much you're right. It's it's like the
if you have what you have the red room and
you have like them, thinking of like the rooms in
Twin Peaks. This is like, this isn't the green room,
Like this is a different room of teaks. This is
a black lodge, This if the.

Speaker 4 (58:17):
Black Lodge is like the the hell you parallel dimension
of Earth, then this feels like the like the heaven,
the Garden of Eden, Like it feels like everyone's so
open and nice and neighborly and and like it just
feels like a hug Like it's it's so good and
once you realize that everybody's just gonna help him and

(58:40):
it's not gonna be awful, it's just really life affirming.

Speaker 3 (58:43):
It is. It totally is the you mentioned the like
America ness of it, Yeah, and it really is like
there there is I haven't really been to this part
of the country. This is like kind of my big
American blind spot. Is that like the what do you
call the breadbasket the Rustbelt? Like, what do you call

(59:04):
that area like Iowa, Idaho?

Speaker 4 (59:06):
I I would just say the Midwest, the Midwest. Yeah,
my my mom lives in Iowa in.

Speaker 3 (59:12):
That that's right.

Speaker 4 (59:13):
Yeah, I've never been.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
Yeah, it's like I've been through Field of dreams if
you will.

Speaker 4 (59:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, Like we know what that looks
like from a cinema.

Speaker 3 (59:24):
Movies, because it is cinematic. It's cornfields and it's it's
dark skies where you actually do see every star and
that's something that you know, kind of repeats throughout. So
there is this love of like the country, this is
a beautiful country, and even the like one of another
touch that feels just like a weird Lynching in touch.
And I don't know if it was in the screenplay

(59:45):
or not, but when he has his like near accident
right when his his brakes don't work and he's coming
down a big hill and he's to stop in this town, Like,
what's happening in that town? Do you remember the reason
people are all out at about Oh.

Speaker 4 (01:00:00):
The when the track, when the mower is like going
crazy down the hill. Oh, they're doing like a fireman's
uh training thing on an old abandoned house or a house. Yeah,
which seemed really cool.

Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
It did, like and it's just this thing like I
think of, Like, I mean, obviously every country has firemen,
but I think there's something very like Americana about a
fireman putting out a fire in house.

Speaker 4 (01:00:25):
Well, I think too, Lynch is not a dumb man.
He there is a way to show like American masculinity
and responsibility that isn't a police force. And we and
I think the smart way to do that is with
with like a with firemen, Yeah, because they're they're see

(01:00:48):
I did. Actually my grandfather on my father's side was
a fireman. He died when I was very very young,
so we didn't really have much interaction. But like I
do fetishize firefighters, I will say, they're true heroes. They're
American heroes. They're the best of us. They're amazing because
they actually risk their lives for people.

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
To help people.

Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
And so that to me was very like, like up pointed,
there's no cops coming to help the soul lie. Nobody
pulls them over, nobody hassles them. But like he that's
not where he's getting his help. Yeah, because to me,
like firemen have often felt more embedded in the community
than like a police presence would. And I liked I

(01:01:30):
liked that a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:01:32):
And speaking of smoke, So this movie is rated G.
But I don't know if your movie had the warning
on it that mine did, because obviously even a G
rated movie will have like, you know, mild language or
you know, sexual content, and this one the only warning
you get is I think it's like the actual warning.
It's like excessive tobacco use. And we laughed about that
when the movie started, and then by the time it ended,

(01:01:53):
Brannon looked at me and said, can you get secondhand
smoke from a movie? Because I think we just did.

Speaker 4 (01:01:58):
There was there was a lot of smoking in it,
much smoking. And I noticed it too, because this is
from ninety nine. Like now you really, unless it's like
a plot reason, you really don't see just casual smoking
in movies.

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
And then it got me down this rabbit hole of
like remembering and I know for me, no, I grew
up in New York and New York was on the
early side of adapting like non smoking laws, and ninety
nine to two thousand was the year that in Long
Island they made really strict smoking zones for indoor dining.
Because remember people, you used to walk into a restaurant

(01:02:33):
and the first question was smoking or non And it
wasn't even like non smoking, right, it was no like
the default was you want to be in smoking, right
or not? Non what non smoking? Obviously, And around ninety nine,
I remember they made these rules about like you had
to have more ventilation, you had to have separate rooms.
So a bunch of diners and restaurants like redesigned their
whole systems, and then a year or two later, I

(01:02:55):
think by two thousand and one or two thousand and two,
you couldn't smoke anywhere indoors in New York basically, So
this was right at the end of when you would
still have like a lot of smoking by normal characters
in movies. Yeah, and then you had nothing. I think
it's kind of making a comeback, which is not really
a good thing. But again I get it because it
people look cool when they smoke.

Speaker 4 (01:03:15):
That's the problem though objectively people look cool and hot
when they say yeah, So that's the problem.

Speaker 3 (01:03:21):
Everybody solve that, right, find us another way to look cool.
I mean I've never looked cool and and I've never smoked,
so it doesn't But like, what is the thing other
thing we could be doing?

Speaker 4 (01:03:31):
I mean drinking, that's what. Other thing? That's another thing.

Speaker 3 (01:03:34):
But it's like not because you need like it's just
like two fingers, right, this is the beauty of smoking.
It's not even a whole hand like you can do
other things, Like what's something like you can hold in
your hand and like blow incense. I don't know, find
a way somebody out there, some influencer, figure it out.

Speaker 4 (01:03:50):
I mean, vapes, right.

Speaker 3 (01:03:52):
I guess that was the idea of it. Yeah, but
I got it.

Speaker 4 (01:03:55):
I was gonna say, I gotta break it to people.
Vapesn't look they do not look cool at all.

Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
No, sorry, folks. You know who else is cool though,
Harry Dean Stanton, Oh my gosh.

Speaker 4 (01:04:04):
So I was very excited when Big Ed showed up.
Everett McNeill showed up. Yeah, I screamed, Big Ed still
ninety nine, looking handsome. He'll still look handsome in the
return to But I was like, oh, I wonder who
else we're gonna get. I wonder if we're gonna get
anybody else. And then Harrydan Stanton shows up at the

(01:04:26):
end of the very end. I was very, very excited,
and I think Zach mildly spoiled it for me. He
was like, oh, yeah, Harrydean showed up and something you
were watching too, And I was like, I guess he will.
I'm not done with it. So I kind of figured
because they had kept it not close to the vest,
but we didn't know who is.

Speaker 3 (01:04:46):
Yeah, there's no cat in the beginning, there's nothing who.

Speaker 4 (01:04:49):
His brother was gonna be. So once Zach said that,
I was like, well, his brother's probably going to be
hardy stand, which which he was, which was great, and
it was, oh my gosh, the cosmic implications. So we
start on on like the stars in the universe and
the galaxy, and then we end on the stars. And
they used to look up at the stars, and even

(01:05:12):
his daughter says, they look up.

Speaker 3 (01:05:14):
At the stars.

Speaker 4 (01:05:14):
I don't know, there's just something so beautiful and they're
all connected, we're all one people. Let's be nice to
each other again.

Speaker 3 (01:05:20):
Not to go back to follow that bird, But wasn't
that one of the things. Isn't the song One Little Star?
Because they're looking up and it's like a star and
you're looking at a star and we might not be
near each other, but somewhere now I'm doing American Tale
somewhere out there, Like.

Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
It's all kind of the same stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:05:37):
We should tell beautiful stories well, and that it's like
I think it's Marry Dean Stanton. He doesn't need to
say anything. He has that face. You see that face,
you see those eyes, and you're like, oh, I know
everything going on in your brain, and I know you're
a good person and I know you're and just like
the dialogue in that scene, which is so it's so

(01:05:58):
it's you ride that thing, yes, while all right, yes,
like that's it, and you know you're like they're gonna
be okay, Like they probably won't even talk about whatever happened,
Like who knows exactly what happens from here, but this
like Harry Dane Stanton looks at that lawnmow where he
looks at his brother and he understands exactly what has
what his brother has done to be with him. Yep,

(01:06:20):
and it is beautiful and god, this is a fantastic
fucking movie.

Speaker 4 (01:06:28):
It's really it's really something. And I think that it's
because it's less about like it's not about the destination,
it's about the journey. I think that it's very rewatchable.
So I watched it solo during the day because I
just felt like I couldn't pay enough attention, like because
we tend to watch movies at night, which I don't love.
But I watched it and Zach was like, well, how
was it? And I was like, there are no words.

(01:06:50):
I can't talk about it without crying.

Speaker 3 (01:06:52):
Yeah, And he was like, oh, well.

Speaker 4 (01:06:53):
That's a bummer. I guess I'll have to find time
to watch it alone. And I was like, oh no, no, friend.

Speaker 3 (01:06:57):
I wouldn't watch it tonight. I would sit down.

Speaker 4 (01:06:59):
And watch right now because now that I'm not so
worried about him that yeah, or that he's I kept thinking,
like what if he gets there and his brother's said
already dead because nobody can get in contact with him.
And then I realized how mean movies are sometimes.

Speaker 3 (01:07:14):
Yeah, I My only moment of that because I think
once I remembered this is a g rated movie and
it's considered like very cozy viewing was early on when
he's when the again the first interaction with the young hitchhiker,
there was just a moment of like he's gonna wake
up and she's robbed him. Like that was I'm like,
he's gonna wake up. There's gonna be no hot dogs left,

(01:07:34):
and that's gonna be a shame. But like then I'm like, no,
it's not, that's not gonna happen, and it doesn't. And
from that point on, you know, like not everybody is
a friend you haven't met, but like, this is a
movie just about people who, at their core, people I
think are good. And I know that's really hard to believe,
especially right now when there's so much evidence that goes

(01:07:57):
against that. But in your daily interaction, if you, like,
I don't know, you're at the grocery store and somebody
drops something, or you drop something, somebody picks it up
for you, Like there's just that moment of holding a
door open for somebody, or like the you know, the
the nice thing you say to somebody, or the people
are good. Deep down, people are good and just need

(01:08:19):
to give them a chance to remind us of that.
And this movie does that in such a lovely way. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:08:24):
I think that that's a great a great angle to
recommend from. Like, if you haven't seen this, or it's
been a while, or you don't maybe think you want
just feel good vibes, I'm gonna tell you that you do,
and that it would probably be helpful with our current climate.
So like, look at how beautiful this country is and
how beautiful the people that live in it are.

Speaker 3 (01:08:44):
Yeah, it's just this is all so stupid.

Speaker 4 (01:08:49):
It does It doesn't have to be this hard. Yeah,
Like you really can just person to person make a difference.

Speaker 3 (01:08:55):
Yeah, yeah, I'm with you on that. Oh god. Yeah,
So it's sorry I made you watch old but no,
I'm very happy I did because that made us watch
both watch The Straight Story.

Speaker 4 (01:09:06):
And it's a fee of filmmaking.

Speaker 3 (01:09:10):
Yeah, just so fucking good.

Speaker 4 (01:09:13):
And for if you're a Lynch fan, just the cinematography,
the way it looks that man knows how to whip
a camera around. It's gorgeous mm hmm like and it's
so domestic. He loves domesticity. He loves houses and people
in houses.

Speaker 3 (01:09:28):
It just like you feel like you're home.

Speaker 4 (01:09:30):
Where you watch it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
It's so good. Yeah, I can't. It's funny because I
want to recommend this to my dad, but it's my
only caveat and like I need to get him to
like watch get past the first like ten minutes. He
needs to understand, like or anybody watching this like that.
The beginning feels very like the opening of Twin Picks
season two when Cooper is shot and it's like a
ten minute scene of the uh, the hotel giant like

(01:09:56):
very slowly or the old No, it's the old man,
like very slowly moving. Like that's kind of what the
first eminents are and you have to accept it, like
stay in your seat because at a certain point and
you won't realize that this movie is over. Because you
have given yourself to it and it moves so beautifully.
But yeah, I cannot there's nobody that should not watch
this movie.

Speaker 4 (01:10:14):
Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 3 (01:10:15):
All right, wellmore.

Speaker 4 (01:10:19):
No, I don't think. So we're gonna try it. We're
gonna have to top this one, and I don't know
that we can.

Speaker 3 (01:10:23):
I don't know either. I think the next time we'll
come back with the ketchup of some sort. We can
talk about what era we should do, okay, and then
we'll then we can maybe you know, come back with
a list and so on.

Speaker 4 (01:10:35):
Okay, Well, boy, In the meantime, this is a real
breakneck whiplash situation.

Speaker 3 (01:10:44):
In the meantime, people can find you on Blue Sky
at X teen make Peace.

Speaker 4 (01:10:48):
I think so.

Speaker 3 (01:10:49):
Yeah, I think I'm a Blue Sky at Dadley Dolls
or Deadly Doll's House. I don't know. There's nothing going
on there. It's a thing. But keep listening, folks, and
we'll be back and by Christine's book at Christine Makepeace
dot com.

Speaker 4 (01:11:00):
Yeah or whatever. I don't care. I mean you should Okay,
all right bye, everybody, goodbye.

Speaker 12 (01:11:22):
One little star, all alone in the sky, do you
ever get lonely?

Speaker 13 (01:11:35):
As the Twilight drifts by.

Speaker 14 (01:11:50):
One little spar in the darkening blue? Do you long
for no.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
Just away that I nad barkley.

Speaker 15 (01:12:21):
Scy begins to fill.

Speaker 8 (01:12:26):
Arknish and day.

Speaker 15 (01:12:31):
Someone who I love is for always.

Speaker 14 (01:12:40):
One little starf reaching far through the night. Do the shine.

Speaker 3 (01:12:49):
On my side?

Speaker 16 (01:12:53):
Why are we sharing your love? One little star shine
on us goes to light.

Speaker 3 (01:13:10):
Gee.

Speaker 8 (01:13:12):
I wish Olivia was here to sing me a lullaby
and Snappie was here and we'd be together. I wonder
what they're doing tonight. One little start storaching.

Speaker 15 (01:13:27):
Bar through the war, through the You shine on my shide,
on my shop selware, sharing.

Speaker 14 (01:13:38):
Your life, Oh, one

Speaker 15 (01:13:44):
Little star shine on us all to