Green Card with Esther Zuckerman

The story of two friends who got a podcast, did bits, and then fell in love. So true. It's a really great tagline. Do you know the tagline? No. I'm going to read it. Was that it? That was a riff. That was a little riff on it. It's the story of two friends who got married. Not two friends, because we're the two. No, yeah, no, obviously. That's a competitive advantage. Two friends. Two people. The story of two people who got married, met, and then fell in love. Yeah, it's good. Kind of gets you. That's how the fucking film industry used to work. If you could walk into a room now and say, I will say. I will say the poster does look like Obelix is kidnapping a woman. David, I like this movie a tremendous amount. I had never seen it before. Look at him. He's like, I have her. She's mine. This is a thing we're going to have to keep talking about in this movie, where this movie is super charming and sweet and exquisitely made. And yet it is part of the study of what is the weird charm of this guy? Totally. And part of it is this guy is. Why no Shrek? Is he a emotional terrorist? You know, like. I thought you were going to do something like I wanted you to do something like in a French accent, like I am a beast or the beast will come out. Right. Or something like that. Right. This movie is trying to present to our depra do as like the Walt Disney version of the beast, who's not actually that bad of a guy, but obviously has this kind of like rough, o-fish personality. And then you're just like, you know, it's really close to like just we took all the bad things out of Gerard Depardieu and left the baseline. I mean, I'm sure. Gerard Depardieu was hot and sexy guys. I hate to, you know, I hate to break it. I do not get it. And that's fine. We will discuss that. I think we will discuss that. But it was not like a. No, I know it's not like a. A shocking proposition in 1990. This is the thing. Times change. Or do they? Well, yes, but also. I think times change for Gerard Depardieu. This was the real project. This was the do we get? How do we make Americans get Depardieu? And I think this is the one time that Americans really got him. Yeah. I guess so. As like a romantic lead. Yeah. I mean, I think the other stuff. My not in a. Oh God. 1492. Right. Like his other stuff later. But like, didn't Americans, it was the same year, but like, didn't Americans get him even though in Sierra? That was that was. Which is like, obviously a French film. But that's an Oscar nomination. Yeah. It was just a huge crossover. Right. Yeah. But like, here's this guy who's in his third decade of being a movie star in France. Yeah. Yeah. And had worked with Bertilucci, had sort of like touched the membrane of Hollywood without fully crossing over. I mean, he was a French actor. That was the most crossing over international films that existed. Right. Yeah. And he was in like the lot. We'll talk about. And in the nineties, there was this push of like, are you ready to meet Francis Robert De Niro? Got that baguette for you. Well, he got a fucking hand job next to Robert De Niro. And that's where De Niro said, you know, you should try being me. I wish there was a French Fockers trilogy with Depardue. There must be something approximating that. Sounds like there's so many crazy movies. Yeah. Like he made a bunch of silly kind. Like he probably did something. Also, French comedy is I know, I don't want to offend someone who is French. My mother is French. Yes. Yes. Are some of the most insane stupid things on the planet. Well, right. I mean, isn't it always like, oh my daughter, she married an immigrant. Oh, second blood. Like it's like a lot of that. A lot of that. Let's also acknowledge that Depardue's breakout was in the movie Going Places, which is basically just about a fucking contest. I'm sure a bunch of French listeners are going to explain how I'm not paying proper respects to going places. No, I don't think so. Going places in, you know, what in French it's called, like, you know, that was the American title for going places and then we'll introduce our pocket in France. It's called leave a loose, which means the ball. Yeah. Yeah. It's like slang for the balls, but like that's what it means. That's what it means. Every year I can. I've been going for three years now and every year there's some movie that sort of pops up that's like the French pick and it's like often there's like a French comedy and you're like, oh, wow, this is just playing so much differently here than it would. You see the French response. Yeah. Yeah. But there's French comedies that are like based on very retrograde cultural socioeconomic racial stereotypes. Right. And then regional stereotypes as well. Bonvenue, L'Occitie, which is like the biggest French comedy of all time. I think it has not been beaten since. But then there's like you will go to France and there will be giant billboards for a movie that is just like four firmly middle aged actors wearing like suits and dresses, making faces. And you're like, what's that? And it's like, it's been number one, five weeks in a row. It's called like, you know, the fucking fart family. No, no, no, no, it's like it's called about like a cash on. And you're like, what's it about? And you're like, um, it's kind of just about like two couples have a dinner. But then it finds out that they've all slept with each other. There's a lot of puns, but you wouldn't understand because it's French puns. And so there's a lot of, you know, double meanings. But some of them are like these kind of classical, almost like stagey French farce is just for characters. They haven't really gotten over that. No. I remember when I lived in Paris, there was a movie called Patty made in 2008 starring Julia Pinoche that I believe was sort of like the, you know, Valentine's Day or New Year's Eve of like French movies, because it was like a big ensemble movie with a bunch of stars that was just called Paris. And the only thing about it was that it was set in Paris. Oh yeah. And I was like, is it? No, is it? Have you seen it? The Cedric Clipage? Yes. Correct. Yeah. And I remember when I was just like looking at that, I was like, is this like the biggest French movie? It's just called Paris. Is this the biggest French movie of all time? Or is everyone in Paris? What if we had like New York? Because there was Perry and Dom Perry were around the same time and Dom Perry is much better. Dom Perry is Louis Guerrero and Roman D'Arise. Yeah, that one's fun. That's about like some, you know, shaggy boys. It's about depression. Yeah, it's about two brothers. That movie rules. And then Perry, I'm trying to remember, but I have seen as well. It's got a huge cast, man. A lot of Frenchies. Roman D'Arise is in that one too. Yeah. What's he up to these days? Yeah, I realized because he's so good in all the money in the world. Oh yeah, that's right. He's excellent in that film. Sort of a movie I forgot. And I was like, yeah, he doesn't do enough like American films. And I looked and I think that's literally the only one. Yeah, I guess it's just not. Well, you know what? He was the French voice. This is so fun when you learn this of the Edward Norton character and I love dogs. I'll tell you that much. There we go. Yeah, but he does a lot of, oh man, and he did a movie called Eiffel about Gustave Eiffel, like a bio pic. Oh, OK. We're like, that doesn't even make it to America, but in France, they're like, please. Also in that really big three. They told him he could not make the tower. Yeah, he's a great actor. Like he's one of the best movie actors working and he's yeah, but it's just. And he's got he's got a hanger. I've seen it. He does. And like 50 movies. But I even feel like his biggest French movies haven't crossed over super wide here. Not since like beat the my heart sketch, you know, but in those early days, he was having some. Yeah. What can you do? I'm sure it was he in deep personal or whatever it's called. You know, is he in call my agent ever? Yeah, it just felt like Depardieu was the one male French star. They really tried to make work. There's a history of here's the most beautiful woman in France. Sure. And we try to make a confer. And that usually does work. But for a period of time, you know, you have your Sophie Marceau, you have your Isabella Johnny, you know, I'm certainly Bardot and like Maryam Koutillard has probably had a better, more sustained, fully French and American career. Laissez-du. Laissez-du. Yeah. I mean, you're forgetting the Queen, the number one. Yes. No, no. Benoche. Benoche. Benoche. Benoche. The whole thing with Juliette Benoche is anytime you see her in a movie, you're like, this is the best movie I've ever seen in my life. I had this experience. Also, mothers around the country were captivated by a chocolate. Yes. Well, that's true. And you wanted a bite. Love her. Yeah, of course. Right. You just named her one. The French actors who've crossed over, it is an interesting list because I'm thinking of like Vincent Cassell, right? Yeah. It's like he crossed over, but in America, mostly he plays the weasel. I was going to say with the men, it's usually kind of that where you're like in it's a little Madsman. Jean Renault, he plays the living cigarette. But the Mads Mikkelsen effect where you're like Hollywood has accepted this guy doing one kind of thing. Maybe two. Garell has sort of had a little. But in you, if Garell shows up again, you're just like, who's this molester? Right. I know in little women, he has the, but you know, that's sort of a rare role. Right. Sort of exception to the role. There was one French actor who accepted an Oscar with pleasure. And what was his name? Jean. Jean-Vous J'en veux d'un. Jean-Douvastre. Oh my God. Jean-Douvastre. Doujard. I'm going to help you out here. Who did he beat for Best Actor? George Clooney. I guess he just recently won. Brad Pitt. Yeah. Right. For Money Ball. He beats. Um, I just like, I recently watched his like, win. And the other four guys were like, heavy hitters. One of them is Demian Beshear, who's a great actor. Oh yeah. He's a big snuck in our, in our, in our, in our Chris's film. And then the other one, Gary Oldman, Tinker Taylor. Yeah. I mean, pretty good. Pretty good. But that's my example of like, we, we've talked about too many times, but Jean Doujardin, a name I know how to say, wins Best Actor. And you're like, you know what? This is kind of a little ready made for Hollywood. He's making it easy for them to cast him. He's weird cartoon version of a Frenchman. On the other hand, it's weird that he has an Oscar and a bunch of the guys we just mentioned don't. And he basically does not do any American productions anymore. But also he doesn't speak in the movie. He doesn't. And Monuments Man. He's more bilingual now than he was when he was doing the Oscar campaign. Also that movie, like, doesn't exist. Truly is a memory hold film. But he has this small collection of like, I'll do a two scene role in Wolf of Wall Street. I'll do a couple scenes in Monuments Man. And I feel like there's one other film in that period where it was like a supporting ensemble role. And then he has not made any sort of American film in over time. Yeah, I think those might be the only two. Yeah. He's made plenty of other films. He works in France. He's there. He's a big star. Biggest star. Yeah. He's a big star, certainly. And he did another O.S.S.117 finally. Right. Yeah. And he did Zorro recently. Did you know that? Yes, I did. A French Zorro. Yes. Jean-Touche Ardain. Yes. He's like a Chris Pratt. He's stealing all the characters. He was already Lucky Luke. He, of course, originated Brice D'unis. What's that? Brice D'unis. What's that? He's a surfer from Nice. Oh, that guy sounds silly. That was kind of his Wayne's world that broke him out. Is that like their version of like a kind of, right, like a Venice Beach kind of dude? Like, I am from Nice. This is the douche Ardain. I have tan. My sunglasses, though, so it's white around my eyes. Any time I would go to Paris and there'd be a poster for a big comedy film and I'd ask someone, what is this? They'd be like, it's a very specific type of person who lives there. I mean, that's like we have stereotypes too. I mean, as a child, I was obsessed with asterisks books, as I've talked about, I'm sure before. And those are all about ethnic stereotypes, mostly of internal French ones, where I would be like, I don't get the joke on my dad would be like, people are from Bordeaux or like that. And I'm like, they are. And he's like, I think so. I think that's the joke. And I'm like, OK. Like, Bonvignu Lechiti is like, big businessman has to move to small town to like take care of the operations there. And 90% of the jokes in that movie are the people in this small town say SH at the end of every word. And it performs like Avatar. Are French people going to be mad at this episode? Probably. What are they not mad about? Probably. Ah, yeah. I lived in your great country. It was nice. But it is it is an example of like, right, Dapper do if American audiences had familiarity with him, it was like, here's this big like fucking burly man who's doing historical epics and intensity and playing the great characters. And they're like, but in France, we find him charming. Would you believe in France? He's something we wish to kiss. He's what we call a kiss we sure. What's our podcast? Our podcast is called Blank Check with Griffin at David. Check Don. Je suis Griffin. Je suis David. I'm giving up the French. This is a podcast about filmographies, directors who have directors who have massive success. Derecton. Realisateur. Realisateur. Cinema. This is the worst episode we've ever done. This is a podcast about filmographies, directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. And sometimes those checks clear and sometimes those checks get interviewed by immigration agencies. By Mieleks from Star Trek Forger. Baby. Yes. Today we are talking about a motion picture called Green Card. It is written, directed and produced by Peter Weir. Uh, yep. I believe it's got a big hunk and fucking final opening credit card. It's a flex. And this is kind of his first, in a way, this is his first American blank check. He basically says that he took witness to figure out how to break through to Hollywood. That this was the dream, his passion project at this moment that he really wanted to make. And the success of witness granted him. And certainly dead poets as well. Granted him the freedom to make this. It's just so funny. If you look at his career as we will discuss, you don't really see a, I've just been waiting to make Green Card in there. And get you read that was like exactly how he feels. Right. Yes. I really liked the script and I want to make it. Which I think is correct because it's a great film. But he's just taken like two assignment jobs. Mosquito Coast and Depots Society. I start to be clear. Well, I'm witness. So really. Yeah. And he's like, have I proved myself enough that a lower budget with my casting choices, you let me make the one I want to make. And you're right that it is funny because and so often in these cases, you're like, now can you let me make the ambitious thing with the scary budget that you wouldn't grant me unless I proved myself in other arenas? And he's like, no, I want to make like a pretty contained. Right. Pretty cheap. $20 million. I have to imagine 20. The budget is listed at $12.5 million. Okay. So is that USD or francs? USD. I had to ask. I had to ask. Our guests today returned to the show to talk about this romcom and we can discuss the balance of rom versus common this movie, which I think is an interesting story point for conversation. Okay. The gray ester, Zuckerman. Hello. Something of an expert on the subject. Yes. I have never seen this movie. Neither die. Oh, you guys are crazy. We're not. We're going to do the wide weekend. I think just definitely. I just I'm just inspecting the box office choices here. Okay. So just establish that tab and then place it two hours from now. Sure. Esther, you wrote a book on romcom. I did. Is it now available on paperback? No, it's never going to be available. It's never going to be available on paperback because it's sort of the form factor. Yeah, it is more like a little hard back for yeah, but yeah, you can still buy it. It's still available. And one should. Yes, but did not watch green card. No, it didn't really come up in my research like I because I did try to like fill in a lot of like blind spots and somehow green card never came up. It's a great film that I was introduced to Eddie young age by my mother because it's a great New York romcom. But I do feel like it's not part of any particular or particular movement. No, or like sort of star narrative or anything like that. And certainly it's by a director who never made a romcom again. Yeah. So it's just kind of like a funny little thing. It was Oscar nominated. It was a solid hit. Like yada, yada, yada, you know, like it's not like it was a forgotten movie. That's the wildest thing is sort of forgotten now. I think it is. That's crazy. I think I mean, it's interesting. I was right here. That's what we're here to do. David and you were sort of carrying the torch. I feel like my mom showed me this movie and I was like, this is just like a Sims family classic. But I was like, for instance, I was at a, I was watching the Super Bowl with some friends, some very film oriented friends. Okay. Yeah. A friend Rob was there. Rob was there. Alison was there. Spike, Margie, Francis. I mean, and now our friend Rob is someone who was seen literally everything. Like Rob here. Rob here. I mean, God bless Rob. Who is our friend? He is, you know, certified. Psychotic. Yeah. You go to see movies where I'm like, I've never heard of this. He's like, well, let's do one show time at like the Regal S6 at 11 a.m. He's like movie going Pac-Man. Yeah. He is like the king of cinematrix. Like he sends me his grids every day and I'm like, are you cheating? And he's like not cheating. He just has like an insane memory and he had not seen it and Alison had not seen it. And, you know, I think it is sort of memory holds a little bit. I agree. I think David's a little right that it might have to do with the fact that this basically becomes just like a blip in the 90s Andy McDowell kind of arc. But it's before. There's so many. That's what he's like, which I honestly didn't even like really clock. It's before her rom-com arc. It is after. We're going to put a pen in this. Yeah. But I agree with you. I'm just passing and I just want to be able to fully zoom out and talk about the Andy McDowell thing. The Depper do thing is so much what selling this movie of like we're trying to make you like this guy, which worked at the time. But then because it did not last, that also feels like a weird dead end. And then as you said, David, like we're didn't make a movie before this with this kind of vibe, never made a film after this with this kind of vibe. Not really. Despite coming from comedy. This is a very gentle comedy is not one hard on laughs. And his movies that have comedic elements tend to be harder comedic elements than this. Yeah. It's, um, yeah, I'm looking at McDowell again. Very interesting career. I had completely let's just do McDowell now then. So the film stars Andy McDowell. I had completely flipped in my mind that the reason that she is so bad in four weddings in a funeral is because it was before she kind of figured out her thing through working with better directors after. No, no, it's the exact opposite. No, the whole thing with Andy McDowell in four weddings is that it will never be explained. You can, I'm serious. I'm just laughing because I thought you were going to explain it and then you were like, I will run it for you right now. Quick. Okay. She breaks out in Grace, stroke cars. Tarzan legend in the Apes where she is. But it's still a family. She's gorgeous. And it's like, okay. Ben producer Ben, she has cast as Jane in a live action Tarzan movie, big Warner Brothers production because of her look. Yeah. And she's very young. So bad in the film that they hired Glenn close to redub all of the time. Well, it's also cause she's like, if you know, she's got the next other thing. Yeah. But, but she's landing immediately with this framework of like, well, she's nice to look at. I guess so. Sure. She has small role in St. Elmo's fire, which is a big, you know, movie for that generation, but it is obviously a stupid movie. In 1989, she's in sex lives and three years later, probably. Yeah. She did a little TV in between, but not much probably kind of her best role. She's amazing. Yeah. So to Berk look like a huge movie. She's so effective in it. Yeah. Then she's in green card, which she absolutely rocks. She's a grunderous 82 points. I agree. Kobe, she's all fucking crazy. And then she's in the object of beauty, which is right over Hudson Hawk. No, I am not. Okay. That's next object of beauty, which I've never heard of, but it's a rom-com with Malovich with the poster looks like this. Yeah. I'm not turned on. Me neither. I don't really know. It might not be a right. It might be a wrong. No, it says it's romantic comedy about the fine art of thievery. Okay. Then Hudson Hawk, which is a huge bomb. I've never, I've never seen. I have seen Hudson Hawk. How is it? I think it's pretty fun. I think it's fun. I think it's fun. I think it's fun. I think it's fun. I think it's fun. I think it's fun. Yeah. I mean, it's not. Is she good at it? I mean, she's barely. Right. I mean, she's, she plays a nun who falls in love with him. He's not, he's saying, you know, he and Danny I. I was saying, she's only people in the movie who doesn't get to be fun. Yeah. Like so much of, She just gets to have a crush on embarrassing reputation is that everyone's like swinging for the fences and every character is over conceived and she's kind of playing the straight character. She plays herself in the player, little, little funny cameo. She's in a movie called deception, pretty forgotten movie with Nisen sort of like a thriller, whatever. She's in groundhog day. Incredible. Phenomenal. Incredible. She's in a movie called out in groundhog day. You're in love with her. Yeah. She's in shortcuts, really incredible in short. Agreed. Like, and everyone's good in that, but she's kind of one of my favorite parts. And you're like, great. And you make that was totally figured out how to act. She's a ride. She is in one of the most important romantic comedies ever made. Like where everyone is on fire. Good. That is a huge hit and gets nominated for best picture. And she's weirdly flattened. Like, it doesn't make it. She's a contest winner plucked off the street. I don't think it's entirely her fault. I don't think it's, I mean, I, my point is it's clearly not her fault. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, I love four weddings in the funeral like two or more than any other movie. And I think it's just part of it is that she's up against Christmas on Thomas, who is just like, again, you know, like, I don't know, slam dunking the ball. And she's just so out of place in it. What's it about? Four weddings in a funeral. Have you never seen? No. It's about, it's, are you, are you, are you setting us up to say four weddings in a funeral? I sure am. It's about, it's about a group of friends. It's about the lives of a group of friends set over four weddings in one funeral that they attend. Those are the only events you see. Oh, yeah. Couple years of their life connected by, yeah. And she is an American. And it's like a will they won't they romance that you grant in her house. Yeah. She's an American. I think she works for Vogue and she's very stylish and she shows up at the first wedding and they sort of, they, they have sex actually that first wedding. I sure do. And I kind of assume they'll never see each other again. And then one of the, yeah, no spoilers. And she's hot like, and the whole point is she's this sort of mysterious object of affection, but she and Grant just don't really have much chemistry. And it's sort of weird. And it kind of doesn't matter. The movie rules. Yeah. It weirdly doesn't affect the movie badly. But yet everyone comes out of it going, wait, why is she so bad? And then she, her career dies. Yeah. Like she keeps making movies, but like she never was like a big deal again. Yeah. When it should have been like, great, you were just in a huge hit. Like get rid, and she's in, of course, Michael, a film we've covered on this podcast. Yes. She's in the muse. She's in your favorite film of all time, Muppets from Space. Yeah. She's pretty good in it. First of all, do you like, do you actually like my movie? I have a lot of issues with that film. But she plays a rival new local news reporter who Miss Piggy is trying to beat to the scoop of alien existence. She's never stopped working. Like she's, you know, working all the time. She has produced, of course, a Hollywood's grade on Janu now, Margot Quali. I thought she was excellent in Magic Mike XXL. Loved her in that. Did you like her in Goodrich? She had a couple scenes there. We talked about that movie on the show. We did. I do feel like every time I see Annie McDowell show up in that size of role in like a dramedy, I'm like, she's really kind of aged into something interesting. I remember liking her in Ready or Not. The horror film. Same. Very fun. Obviously she's in Beauty Shop, your favorite film. Not. Your favorite film? Not my favorite film. She says for your FYI, or does Alicia Silverstone say that? I think Alicia Silverstone says that. Yeah. She is quite good in the limited series. I'm sure you guys don't watch Made, which was a role for Margaret that she plays her mom. She's very done. I mean, I think the beautiful thing about... MAID. Yes. I remember that. I think the beautiful thing about, you know, I mean, she looks incredible. Yeah. She looks incredible and she has gone totally natural. Like she has gray hair. If she's had work done, it's like super barely. She is aged incredibly. It is one of the things. She feels, and she now has this, I mean, I guess she always had it, but she feels so earthy now in a way that's very interesting. One of the things I like most about seeing her show up and stuff now. Yeah. It is crazy that it's just a crazy weird career. She also has the best hair of any human that I've ever lived. I mean, there's that moment in this movie where she puts her hair up to go to dinner and he's like, your hair looks better. Here's another reason I think this movie is a little forgotten. Yeah. What year did it come out guys? 1990. What's another movie that came out in 1990? Pretty woman. There was actually, I was doing a little bit of research and I'm sure that. Which is in my opinion, far inferior film to this film. No, I think, yeah, I don't like pretty woman that much. I appreciate the phenomenon. I'm not, you know, I'm not here to deny it. I didn't mean to step on JJ's toes, but I did do a little Googling. I didn't do that to you. JJ, are you going to have to fire you? We've been trying to get JJ to Google. We've been asking him for use since. But there was a story in the New York Times, literally about how Green Card, I can't remember which came first, but like green. Well, that, yes, I think pretty woman came first because there was a story in the New York Times that was basically like, oh, this is trying to do the pretty woman thing and it's not working. Like, you know, it's not working. It's like, well, and it's like, it was almost framed as they were trying to copy it, but it was like. Pretty woman was March 1990. Yeah. It's like this runaway success for like the whole year and Green Card comes out Christmas time 1990. Yeah. Yeah. It's a funny article. I read it sort of confused almost like, why would you even compare these two movies? You know, well, it's got two people in it. I mean, it doesn't have two people and they're green card. The literally, oh, Karen James wrote this. Okay. And James, Karen James, our colleague at the New York Film Critics Circle. Green Card Apes Pretty Woman was the headline. Green Card was not conceived as daughter of pretty woman, although it seems that way now. Pretty woman, she's walking down the street. You know? Also, they were both touched. I've been like that. Yes, they're both touched. They're both touched stone and part of it was that it wasn't that, oh, the movies were the same, but the touchstone was trying to market it the same way because they were like, you know. But I also think there was this codification of what a touchstone movie was, which was really important to the film ecosystem for a while. I remember a Mad Magazine article in the early 90s. A kid who devoured that. You read it for the articles. I read it for the articles. I only read it for the articles. Sergio Aragonius, you tore it out. I don't want to see it. Sorry. Those spies are up to no good. We cannot support the spies. Get out of here, Antonio Projas. There was an article that was what if Walt Disney was awakened from cryosleep. And it was a multi-page illustrated comic story of Walt Disney being shown around the 90s. Right, like how it changed. State of Walt Disney by Michael Eisner. And it's saying, and here we have touchstone pictures and he goes, what's touchstone pictures? And he goes, touchstone pictures that are labeled for films with more adult themes that we could never release under Walt Disney pictures. Like for example, Pretty Woman, a movie about like a financial maven who falls in love with a prostitute. Right, right. And he goes, oh, and at the end she's like sent back to her life of struggle. And he's like, no, she basically like marries her and makes her a princess. Like the bit that they were sort of found a way to make movies that almost had a Disney arc to them. Right. Just piping for grown-up. I think of touchstone films with a lot of warmth. Yeah. Because there was not just because of the air it represented, but it did feel like touchstone had a lot of good mid-budget kind of gooey movie star comfort films. I think of the warmth because when lightning strikes. Chot. And that's what touchstone. You don't want to touch the stone if lightnings hit it. You don't. I think that was some of. No, I do too. You see that logo and you're like, 100%. I think that's sort of maybe what people were starting to comment on is like, is this just going to be their fucking beat now? And, you know, up until that point when they found it, Eisner and Katzenberg, their whole strategy was like get diminished value stars. Yeah, sure. Like a sort of a B level guy. Right. They were like that midler five picture deal. Richard Dreyfus five picture deal. It was so easy. No, it was either people who had flops. They were too afraid to recover from or had just kind of like alienated too much of the industry and you could get them at a bar. Richard Dreyfus wasn't either of those. Right. He hadn't had any flops or alien. No, it's I think it's down and out in Beverly Hills is Dreyfus, Nolte and Midler who were all like fucking bargain basements. Clearance must go movie stars and that movie opened to number one at the box office and they were like, see our fucking thing works. The trailer for Green Book, which is very deranged. I see me mean Green Card. Thank you. Yes. Because nobody does an accent in Green Book. You're right. That film. No one's doing a kind of like a big ethnic sort of accent. Let me correct myself. I was eating a pizza. The trailer for Green Book is sensitive, profound, uproariously funny. Right. It has a beating heart beating heart at the center named Linda Cardellini. Yes. The trailer for Green Card is insane. I haven't seen the trailer. It's a peak 90s trailer. I don't watch the trailer. It was on the Blu-ray. It felt like it was 12 minutes long. She's a horticulturalist. He we actually it's hard to fucking tell what he does. Who knows who he does. He's maybe a composer. But maybe he's not. It's a lot of that, but there's so much voice over talking through every plot. He's in the pie. She needs the apartment. But this is the one the part I want to call out. The Watchtower Pictures presents France's most acclaimed actor, Gerard de Bardoux and America's newest film sensation, Andy McDowell, in the story of two people. Yada, yada, yada. Like the wind up on that fucking trailer. I mean, I guess I get it because it's like neither of them are household names, but they are both. You know, you can present them credibly. It's like this. These are new, exciting. We need to explain to you why these are movies. She just won the fucking, you know, in a movie that won the Palm door. And he is from France, which is cultured. But do you think like the sex... I'm not a handy-gidding hero. Like, do you think the sex lies in videotape was at all of a selling point for her at this point? Definitely. Okay. I know it was a big hit, but it's interesting, I guess, to... Sex lies in videotape would mean more money than green card. Like that... Sex lies in videotape was a big old hit. It's interesting also, though, to like transition from that into sort of like sweetheart territory. Which is also why I think they're not... That's sort of what I'm more mean, which is like, you know... Little sugar to the salt. I think that's why they're not naming. But that's total sugar. They're not going, and from sex lies in videotape. Yeah, I'm filming people who fuck... Right. They're saying America's newest film sensation. Yeah. And you're like, oh, right. They let you fill in the blank because they're trying to frame her a different way. They did a good job. We love Andy McDowell for about five or six years. And then we kind of get sick of her. I just think the tagline for this title, which I put shirt... But it's a great tagline. But is the thing that like 90 studio exec dreams were made of? Absolutely. Of like walking in and you're like, here's the poster. One movie star holding another movie star and you're like, you're promising me two movie stars? And then you're like, yes, TBD. Probably. And the title is green card. And the tagline is the story of two people who got married, met and then fell in love. And you're like, you've just told me all three acts. I see the movie in my head. And it's like everyone knows what a green card marriage is. No one's thought to do the movie yet. No. I will say though, I think what's interesting about the movie is the three acts come are more subtle and not exactly what you would expect. Not trophy. Yes. From that tagline. I'm expecting, I was watching and I was expecting like, you know, oh, there's one night when they, you know, they... You get drunk on the beach, confess your secrets and then when it's a raft it says fuck you, Linda. Sorry. Keep going. Sorry. Was that sent help? Have you sent help yet? Oh yeah. I sent help with David. What a movie. Yeah. I sent help with David. I sent help. But yeah, you're expecting, there's that scene where they each go to bed in her apartment for the first night and, you know, he's bare-chested and burly and he asks her what side of the bed she sleeps on and you, and she looks at the door and you sort of, you know, in a more trophy movie, you know, she walks out the door, she sees him, they, you know, they kiss, they maybe do something else, but it doesn't, but it doesn't happen that way. And I think that's a good thing about this movie, but it also makes it a little bit more of an honor duck than you're expecting. I found this movie odd. I loved the ending. I had... The ending is so good. The ending is incredible. The ending is kind of like, oh fuck, this whole thing made sense. Yeah. But any sort of reservations I had went away, but I still have my problems. I also have problems with DipR2. That's my thing as well. It's a little bit of a hurdle for me to get over. And it's not just because we know now he is a bad person. He is a bad person. He's a bad person. He's quite a terrible person. It seems fairly definitive that he's... It's now when I can... It's become quite the ogre. Yes. Can I now tell my story about... My most recent DipR2 story was I was in Cannes last year and I got an email from an editor at The New York Times asking me to write a story on... His conviction has just been announced. When you say conviction, he has been accused and put on trial several times for various things. But he finally got... There was one that got happened. His sexual assault conviction actually. But then... He actually was convicted. It's happened decades of stories about Gerard DipR2. And even in this moment, in 1990 where it's like Cyrano's getting him in a Best Actor nomination. He's starring in Green Card. He's doing his American press, like his first real run of like, are we ready for France's biggest movie star? He says like seven insanely objectionable things in interviews that were litigated for weeks in the press in a way that feels like our modern discourse cycle. Back then people would kind of move on... He was found guilty of sexual assault in last met. And was he getting a pass because he was foreign? Well, this is what Esther's about to tell you. Well, this is like... Yeah, so they were like, can you write a story about like Cannes reacting to it? And obviously, he's the king of Cannes. Like, you know, you walk down the street, there are pictures of him. He's been in like so many movies that were at the festival. So basically my task was to go around and find people to talk. I got the side of it. I went to a party and I was like, I'll shirt on the beach. It was very fancy. It was very can. Surely I'll find people. And I sort of started putting out feelers with American colleagues. Like, do you know any French colleagues that would like be willing to speak it? And a lot of the thing was like, no, no, no, no, like we cannot speak about it. And I finally just sort of was like going around listening and seeing if I heard French accents and going up to people. And I profiling people asked her. Well, yeah. And so I found, you know, like a publicist who's like, you know, and the quotes were exactly what you would expect, which is like, he's probably guilty. Probably I found the quote, probably guilty, probably been a very bad man. But he's also been he has been also more respectful. A man who has achieved an unbelievable work in many demands. And it's just like it was so like walking around and everyone's blowing cigarette smoke in my face. It was just like the most. But I think there's been a years and years and years of this happening and being like, oh, but he's too high. This is this is what your heart does. He's this is fine. France's whole response to me to made America look like fucking work point 10. You know, like it's just like where they're always just like, yes, but he's good actor. You know, and I'm being I'm doing a dumb accent and I'm being like silly and dismissive about it, but it is true that when you like like artists would just like sign petitions randomly defending people and it's like, why? And they're like, well, he is such a celebrate. Like how can you attack art? Yeah, this is, you know, you are lynching this man, you know, residents. Right. The tone is very often like, you know, who knows if these things are true. And even if they are true, such things happen. Boys will be boys, you know, but we cannot deny is that Gerard gave us 50 years of film history and how dare you threaten to erase that? Like the French's response, they do not care. Like he was found guilty and they were like, I think it's getting a little more serious. That like, I do feel like there's been genuine cultural like sort of facing up to an incredible stand like Adele Hanel. But it's basically only this current younger generation of French filmmakers and actors who are actually pushing back on the thing and even so have experienced insane career repercussions. But yeah, no, their attitude is just like it felt like what they saw was, oh, so what? People say a story about Kevin Spacey and now Kevin Spacey movies no longer exist. They cannot do that to our culture and they get so defensive about. Honestly, they feel that way about like Kevin Spacey. Yeah, he was all over can last year. The other thing is that he became this like comical like cube of a man. Yes, who not only was like credibly accused of basically just being a total creep, you know, for decades, but also is like, and I will pay no taxes. And I can piss anywhere on an airplane that I want. And, you know, it's just like he was just this like cartoon villain. Like, but he was given like such cultural indulgence, right? That you're like this guy is just like he randomly like wrote a letter about how Putin is good like he was really freelancing out into other areas of evil, like in the 2010s and 2020s, like kind of like the sort of Steven Seagal approach of like I'm flooding the zone. Yes, bad in every direction. And also like my my uncle, who's an actor in France is just like, yeah, it's like one of the open secrets that Gerard has used in Earpiece for like 25 years. Even when he's doing like stage, when he's doing TV, when he's doing film, like he's a lazy piece of shit and he doesn't learn his lines. That is me quoting an angry working actor in France at like how much they let Depardieu get away with. And basically would say like he shows up and he doesn't know the character is in the audience of plots, like he just became so deeply tied reputationally to the idea of French cinema. Like this is our living legend and nothing he could do would distort the sort of enormity of all of it. So just made so many fucking movies. And a ton of movies. It's like a bunch in Hollywood way more in France. Yes. And he's sort of right. He's sort of successfully morphed from young, you know, interesting actor to leading man to like older comic actor supporting. If you know, like he even I mean, when they were making the Astrix movie, they were like, there is one obelisk. And it is Gerard. I remember no one else can play this man. I remember reading an Astrix book in like the early 90s. And in the front page, they had a caricature of Gerard Depardieu as obelisk. And I was like, why did they make it Depardieu? And I'm almost like, because they just know he's going to play him in a movie. It'll happen. Because like the Astrix keeps changing in those movies and Depardieu is obelisk for the first four, like he didn't change. Here's how I would put it, Ben. OK. Imagine if the biggest star in Hollywood. And I know in your head, you're probably thinking John Goodman, right? Yes. Was not asked to play live action. Fred Flintstone was basically asked to play live action Barney Rubble. Yeah, he did it like this for the Barney 10 times. And the guy playing live action Barney Rubble had over decades been seen as the nation's greatest heartthrob, our most intense, dramatic actor. I mean, like all of it. And you're like, now kids are like, yeah. Oh, Alex. David, yes, you look like a man who doesn't know that fast growing trees is America's largest and most trusted online nursery with thousands of trees and plants and over two million happy customers. I had no idea. Yeah. Well, David, they have all the plants your yard or home needs, including fruit trees, privacy trees, flowering trees, shrubs and house plants. My home is littered with all of these. And they're all grown with care and guaranteed to arrive healthy. It's like your local nursery, but anywhere you live with more plants than you'll find anywhere else. 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I'm going to open the dossier before we can return to the sort of where Depardieu was in his career for green card, but I want to open the dust. Witness Peter Weir. He's transitioned to Hollywood. He made a massive hit called witness wins two Academy Awards. John Book. His name is John Book. His name is John Book. He's got to go to Amish Country. He witnessed something. You like witness? Yeah. Oh yeah. Witness the fitness. Witness the fitness. It's a British song. People will understand. Oh my God. His follow up. I thought I was like what? His follow up the mosquito coast. Not successful. I like that movie. I do too. But you know, you know, sort of went over a little tepidly at the time. Doesn't really get awards and so on and so forth. Peter, we are very frustrated by this. Thinks about getting out of Hollywood altogether. And you know, he hasn't written a movie since you're living dangerously. That's the last time he's credited on a screenplay. But so then he's just kind of like, I think I should just write something for myself. It can be something commercial. But like maybe this is what I'm frustrated about right now. Green card is kind of, he says, it's like, it's I got to get back in the game. His movies have been getting more epic too. He was working in extreme landscapes, period, different cultures. Yeah. The way he puts it. I was reviving something Frank Capra had perfected. The romantic comedy, a light snack. I do love a light snack. Girl dinner, as they say. Is our romcoms now girl dinner? Our romcoms girl dinner. Now, of course, romcoms have to be about FBI agents who are rumbled. And it turns out they're going to do a spy mission. There was one. Is there another one? There was one announced, I think yesterday, a new Eddie Murphy. And I'm astonished to say this. Streaming movie. Oh, wait. What? Eddie Murphy wants to make a straight to streaming movie. It won't be anonymous. He has some weird medical condition where if they project him onto a big screen. He melts. Yeah. Like Alex Mack. Yeah. A bottle of metal. I'm just waiting for him to start to become the first actor with an exclusive deal with Delta Airlines. No, he's going to be the first actor who's like, they AI'd me. I'm a fucking AI now. Yeah. They can just put me in anything. I watched his last one, the drop, which sucks. Evil on Goria plays his wife in it and is quite good. They've announced that of course they now need to reteam. As if the public's demanding another. Wait, he made a movie called The Drop or it's called The Take. There's another movie called The Drop. Yeah. Because the drop is the one with Tom Hardy. Maybe it's called the pick up. And then there's drop. Right. Which is the phone one. Yes. Looks like Pete Davidson's in this one too. Uh-huh. Kiki Palmer. Was Pete Davidson. Evil on Goria. Was he playing a character that's like really different from like his general vibe as a guy? David, you joke. I would argue the problem with that movie is he is playing a character that is way too different from his general vibe as a guy. Okay. Fair enough. It is Pete Davidson as I can't get laid. I don't know how to talk to girls. And I'm like, are you fucking winking at the cameras? This whole movie. But I feel like Eddie Murphy looks at him and is like, is that his deal? Like Eddie Murphy is just like so on planet famous. He's like, what's this nerd's deal? That's the energy of the movie is like Pete Davidson making Eddie Murphy look at text exchanges. And he's like, I don't fucking know. Shut up. So you didn't like it? No, it sucks. Okay. It's a movie for idiots and losers. But he's announced another streaming film, of course. Yvonne Gory is kind of good in it. Okay. And then it's like they got a reteam. The chemistry was so undeniable on Amazon Prime that they're making a new movie and it was called like a parental attachment style or something like that. I saw, I believe I saw it. It's a dead body of a car. Okay, relationship. Attachment parenting. Attachment parenting. And I was like, okay, okay. That's like sounds low concept enough. It's like a green card as title. Is it just about the two parents empty nesting? No, it's about the get. Couple who's tied into the mob. Right. A relationship was put to the ultimate test when they're forced to cancel a crime boss's family while being held hostage. Great. Sounds like it has a bunch of fucking guns in it. Probably has a lot of guns. Like the first sense of that I was like, is it just going to be Yvonne Gory and Eddie Murphy have to figure out what their marriage is like now that their kids have left the house. Professional comedy. Yes. Right. And then just let them talk to each other. A light snack. A light snack. It sounds like a light snack. Can we talk a little sort of like larger romcom theory here at Sir? Okay. What do you mean? Well, I just like the modes of romcom and sort of like what we each believe in in terms of like what makes a fruitful romcom. Okay. There is a thing this movie does that I value greatly and I realized while watching it how few examples I could think of of this being utilized, which is I am often frustrated by the romcom that is predicated on a lie. Yeah. People meet. You know the lie is going to get busted. They fall in love and it's just kind of an annoying tension till they get to the conversation and they blow up and someone has to come apologize for being mad about a thing they should have been mad about in the first place. Yeah. Right. This movie is they're in the same lie. Yeah. Yes. Right. Right. They meet each other for different reasons. Basically forming a lie. Right. Right. But they're 100% on the same page within that, which is so much better as a kind of like pressure cooker for tensions to develop. Yeah. I mean, I think do you think there are other examples though nothing is coming to my I'm sure if I thought about it harder. But I think the situation with the like the romcom of deception is always hard because then somebody needs to forgive. Someone sure. And you always have and then and sometimes it works and sometimes it like absolutely doesn't and that's like but it's been I mean and that has been like for instance like the the Doris Day Rock Hudson romcoms like two of them, not the last one but like are all like he's pretending to be a Texas guy and she's like a working woman and like literally, you know at the end of pillow talk he literally like carries her out of bed and like, you know, bring us some more and it's like, okay, she's fallen in love with him. But do we really believe this and the movie has to end so that's what we have to do. The movie has to end so that's what we have to do. And obviously it always seems more fair when either the lie is so outrageous or there's so much of a double sort of standard. Like, I think like I think sometimes the lies work when you know it's for instance a like Lady Eve where she sort of double crosses him and then double crosses him again and triple crosses him. I don't know. I don't know numbers. But how many crossing. I'm going to give you some other ones. Yeah. While you were sleeping. The most insane built on the lie things ever where you're like, I love this movie except for she will eventually have to reveal. I am a psychopath like you're right. You've got mail. You've got mail and you've got mail both have this. Yeah. I'm trying to think what else. Well, just sleepless in Seattle actually has it have it outside. I guess that she it doesn't really she's like stalking him but like, you know, she doesn't really lie to him. No, that's more she's just being insane. That's more she's being insane. You've got mail is more the like he actually lies to her. He's not telling her something. What's interesting to me is Lady Eve, which I think is as good as any rom-com ever made. Yeah. Does the triple lie at least and yet it almost feels like it pushing it that far is a commentary on how many rom-coms were already built upon lies at that point. Yeah. Like it feels like the postmodern version of like they're just going to keep fucking lying to each other. And then spoilers. The end of that movie is the guy being like, I don't even fucking care what reality is. Well, I mean, but the thing is, is they break up in the first place of that movie because he is mad. He actually is mad at her for lying to him. And then she gets pissed at him. So she get because she actually does fall in love. So then she lies to him again to back and then he's just so confused. And that's the screwball thing that happens all the time, which is like, they just get so confused at the end. Like someone just gets so confused at the end that they're like, whatever, let's fuck. But his takeaway is also like the energy of you as a person is who I want to be with and who I am in love with. I'll work out whoever the fuck you actually are later is kind of, yeah. Yeah. And I feel like there's some, you know, I mean, this is a shitty movie. Well, it's not a shitty movie, but like this movie. No, the movie you're about to say. The movie I'm about to say. I do think there are some that try to do like double deception. Like, you know, I don't like this movie very much, but like how to lose a guy in 10 days. That's a classic. They're both lying about different things. They're both lying about different things. And so you're sort of like, but I mean, I just don't think that movie is that good. No, I think the unified lie is an underused power move. Yeah. And I think it's also because the best rom-coms are there is a circumstantial reason these two people need to be together. Yeah. There's a reason they can't leave. This is like forged in fire and you can have the arc of like they're driving each other crazy and then they start to connect and then they realize their feelings and they hurt each other in a way that doesn't feel like, hey, why wouldn't you walk out the front door? Why are you still bothering with this guy? Right. I mean, there have been some more we have to date, you know, to like more recent ones. It's such a romance novel trope. Yeah. Like we have to think dating to in order to. But I think what's interesting about this is that also they don't, they don't getting into it, they don't think they have to spend any time together. Whereas the fake dating thing has is often, oh, we have to pretend like we're in love. And so then we actually fall in love. This gets there eventually, but they literally are like, bye. They did it. Once again, it's why the tagline's good because they meet. They fucking, no. I mean, they get married. They get married. Then they meet. Then they fall in love. They exchange pleasantries until after they marry. And it's like so long for the road. I guess I should know what your name was. Peter Weir. Great quote. I thought Green Card was a film that should be seen at five o'clock in the afternoon. The perfect sort of late matinee. I never thought of it as a night out sort of film. Initially he wrote it for an Englishman. Right. Like that was his, that was his concept. Right. You know, it would happen one night. He put it in a bottom drawer because he said just kind of felt irrelevant, felt like it'd been done before. Like I was writing it for like a Dudley Moore, you know, Jared Depardieu. He's told many different stories of how he sort of first noticed him. But it's basically like I kept seeing this guy in movies. Now the movie he cites the most often is Danton, the great Andre Wajah movie about the French Revolution, which is mostly, which rocks, especially if you love the French Revolution like I do, but is a lot of sweaty, hot Depardieu as George Danton in his final days. Basically like going like, they are going to execute me. This is so bad. And then yelling and everything. Why would you do that to me? This was part of the riddle for American audiences is they'd be like, they think he's hot. A little bit, but I look, I'm sorry. Like I think Jared Depardieu is so hot. I like, you know, 90s, 80s and 90s Depardieu. Yes. Absolutely. Like he, I find him incredibly magnetic. I couldn't get it in this movie. You don't care. I super get it in like last Metro and shit. Like that, like all that stuff. Yeah, earlier in Depardieu, I think here he, here he feels inches inching to- That's a quasi-moda. I mean, the hair is a little- He's slouching towards quasi-moda. He's full. He's full. Because he's always got this like cloak on. It just makes him look like someone- I know. I mean, just like it's- We've said this about other actors before and I just want to say as a hyperbolic person, I'm about to say it and mean it as the ultimate. He has the most face of any person ever. Yes. There's so many crevices and contours. It's insane. So many directions it goes in. And it's just like there's no way you can point a camera on him and that face not taking up like the full frame. No. It's just like- It's like a fucking- It's like a Frank Gehry building or something. You're trying to figure out how it's like set up. It's interesting, his son, you know, Guillaume Depardieu who died very young, right? But like, you know, who he had with Elise Vontre, right? His sort of very beautiful wife was sort of like what if you kind of programmed a computer to make a sort of more conventionally handsome Depardieu, but you don't lose the nose? Like you still see him in it, but it's kind of like this is like the sanded off Gerard. I think it was Let the Sunshine in. That's sure. The Clare Denis movie. The film where he comes in at the very end. I mean, a movie about how French men are normal. A movie I love. Great movie. And ends with France's most normal man being her therapist, her like spiritual. Yeah, yeah. It's a good twist. And he shows up just in a close up like jump scare cut in. He's like a psychic. He's like reading her fortune. Like 80, 90 minutes in, I swear to God for a second I went like, is this movie in 3D? Looking at his face in 2015 or whatever. And you saying like Peter Weir was like, who's this French man who keeps popping up on my A little bit. We should clarify. I can't shake this guy. He wasn't buying tickets for Depardieu movies. There were just Depardieu movies playing on the screen next over and his nose slid in. I invade. So he writes this screenplay with Depardieu mind doesn't tell the actor I'm thinking about you or anything like that. He's just kind of like, all right, the Englishman thing is not sparking for me. What if I wrote it for a Frenchman? He's afraid of calling him up to say that he did this. So instead he took a picture of him that ran with an interview he gave in the local paper and he kept it on his desk and he would just look at it. And I guess probably just go, whoa, like every time he looked, whoa, there is again. Danton, he likes the picture. The Frenchman, Charity of Depardieu had never given an English language performance. So it's not even like, you're not even automatically assuming he'd work, you know, in a movie where he's has to speak English. Here's how, here's the things that he was interested by his masculinity, his vulnerability, his mysterious contradictory quality of child and man, beauty and beast. I mean, yeah, sure. Here's the thing I'll throw out that I think it's worth considering as well. He's just done Peter Weir three big A-list Hollywood movie star movies in a row. Two Harrison Ford's and then Robin Williams. He gets along with these guys really well. Yeah. But that's a level of stardom where the plus side is automatic green light, big budget given to you, confidence from studio. The downside is you're kind of, you've got some co-authoring with those guys. And you're on their rails. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And like obviously he, with Mosquito Coast, he went against type with Ford and Ford's there with him. But then the reaction from everyone is like, this doesn't make sense for Harrison Ford. At the time, everyone's just like, nah, he's trying to do something he can't do. It does feel like he is strategically here trying to make a movie where he, it can be his movie and he is selecting actors. And unlike those guys who are going to command a big salary, but also an automatic green light, the alternative way to go about this is to basically bet on movie star futures and get two people who are in a transitional state where you can point to, here's what's worked up until now. And if I can get them over this line, suddenly you have a movie star who's worth more than you paid for that. There's also, but that's such an interesting thing in the case of Depardieu, I think, because I think usually when you're betting on movie star futures, it's that people haven't fully figured out their persona yet when you're betting on. And here the movie does have to be so catered to the Depardieu-ness of it all because he's so, he like there's no way for him not to be that. So it's just an interesting thing because he, he's, yes, he's not Harrison Ford, but. You ever do like an action movie? Harrison Ford? No, it's Gerard Depardieu. Yes, it was, I don't know. Genuinely was wondering. He's buying a fucking piece of ham. I don't know. No, I don't know. I don't know. But he never was that. I guess what I'm saying is that he has such a star persona. You know? Yes, he does. He does. And that's just an interesting sort of. And his star persona is like. And obviously it's untested in the United States, but it's also just so, like, you minute you say you're like, okay, I got it. You know? Like. Star persona was inherently a little lascivious. And it starts with him making these like really edgy sex comedies where he's a young man. And it's just sort of like, man, this like young, dumb, full of cum guy who's got this life to him. You know, and he's like built like a fucking rugby player. And then, yes, as it goes on, it's like he becomes this more legitimate, like versatile, heavyweight leading man. But there is always that like sexual charge to him, which is like some of the stuff where I struggle with this movie where you're like, this character is not presented in a way that makes me uncomfortable. But the movie is pointing to a character and I can't stop thinking about how right past that line, real world Gerard Depradoe starts. Well, yeah. No, and I, and obviously again, it's, you know, trying to think of where we were then and where we are now. At the same time, I think one of the interesting things, and I agree with you, maybe I wouldn't say troubling, but one of the things hurdles you have to get past is people keep talking about how dangerous this man is and how he's, you know, it's baked into the text that this guy seems like he could something unpredictable. And obviously we get to the point where it's like, oh, he just did like kids stuff, whatever. And yet you're sort of like, oh, did he do something real bad? Because I feel like this guy could have done something real bad. That's the innate dangerous energy Depradoe has. And I think Weir was really smart to make a movie that leads with that. Right. You're worried and then the chips start to, the layers fall away. And he's, I mean, there's that moment where he gets mad and he slams the thing and her picture falls down and breaks glass. And I don't know, there's a weird, it's an interesting thing. And it's obviously modern opinions versus now, but there's an interesting thing to reckon with too, where I don't know if a man ever did that, like that freaks me the fuck out, like a little bit, you know, and I think it gives the movie, I think this oddness that you have to reckon with now. Which also, I like this movie a tremendous amount as well, but it is kind of predicated on Annie McDowell keeps not being satisfied by these kind of hyper woke liberal Greg Edelman New York soft. I mean, yeah. Him out of here. Oh, I know. But this movie sets up like a series of like. He's the big one. Indefensible Baxter. Yeah. And the way she talks about her past relationship. And you're like, this guy doesn't even eat meat. All of this is not stuff I hold against the movie. It's the no oil, no salt is where else I lose this meat. Yeah. Or no butter, no salt. But it does, it does feel like in doing that, the framework is anything you might find on savory about Gerard Depardieu is just a byproduct of him being quote unquote a real man. Real men do get angry. Edelman gets the fucking call for this. It's like you're playing a chinless loser. Depardieu is going to throw you through. And also Depardieu like fucking clocks you for being too sexually pushy. Like that's the worst case scenario as an actor is Depardieu is like, you are not respecting women's boundaries. Throwing out of flight of stairs. Playing George Farrell. Yes. So Depardieu reads the script finally, loves it, says for me, this is a great situation. You can make a comedy with this, but you can also make the truth. He likes the, you know, the setup. He's committed to make two other movies, so he can't shoot Green Carp for the year and a half. We are is like, ah, fuck, like I want to make this. Katzenberg's like, what year is this? We're talking probably like 88 or whatever because Katzenberg at Disney goes like, it's fine. We'll put the movie on hold. We can start in 18 months. Here's the script by the way in the meantime, Depoet Society goes off and makes Depoet Society. And so Katzenberg is, and then Katzenberg is like, you can have final cut on green card. I like this script. It's not going to be expensive. Like go for it, you know, which cool. Like, like God bless. Like they don't do that much anymore. And we're, I think somewhat convinces Disney to basically just be a distributor. Gets a lot of like independent financing. Like makes like an Australian French co-production. There was still like a big profit from the like, we were made like a ton of money off this movie because he had like a genuine cut. Yes. He got the Australian film board to partially finance this movie. Because he's making it essentially. No Australians are in it. Right. I guess at that point in time, there was still a lower tier kind of level of support you could get if it is a Australian filmmaker and some number of Australian crew people, even if you don't film in Australia or with any Australian cast. So he really built this movie in a way that is closer to modern film financing and kind of made out like a bandit. Yeah. While having the full support of Disney in the United States. He, Devergys barely spoke English. They would translate the screenplay into French for him and then translate it back in English. So he understood what he was saying. Devergys famously like completely lost in 1492, which is the Ridley Scott movie in which he plays Christopher Columbus. It's one of the worst Ridley Scott movie ever made. It sucks so, so hard. And I think part of what happened there was he truly did not know the lines he was saying. It's like what he's supposedly, you know, and Ridley Scott was probably just like eating cigars and just being like, just get on with it or whatever. I mean, this movie benefits from leaning into his like rough franglays. Right. Exactly. Yeah. It's sort of, it doesn't even, right. It doesn't even matter. No. David. Yes. Got an intentional air about you today. Well, I'm more intentional about what I wear day to day. Oh, I like to lean into pieces that feel easy, comfortable and put together. Well, I'm sure you could get those from anywhere. Right. No, Quint. Look, I mean, really, I am. Oh, he's showing tag. I'm literally wearing Quint right now. Listeners, he's showing tag on main. It's been my go-to because very clean fits. Very nice fabrics. Yeah. Don't, they don't feel like cheap fabrics. I hate dirty fits. I hate cheap fabrics. I admit we're in, you know, the weather's getting warmer. I really rely on my Quint's polo shirts for the kind of like exactly like a formal enough piece of clothing that I can go to the office, but it's comfy. Yes. Because we do have a dress code here at Blanket Productions. So they got those 100% pima cotton tees with a softness. They got a feel. Oh, enjoy. And for the lizard home, David is touching the fabric. Pants hit that same balance, relaxed and comfortable. I got to tell you, I recently had a birthday and my in-laws sent me a Quint's gift card because they know I like Quint so much and I am itching to spend it. That's a really strong endorsement. Is that an endorsement? Right? Yes. Everything at Quint's, it's priced 50 to 80% less than what you find in similar brands because they work with those ethical factories. They cut out the middlemen getting premium materials without the markup. I've got the cashmere zip. Hey, David is showing me a, oh, nice. Cashmere zip sweater. I like that sweater. It's very nice. Yeah. I wear it all the time. It's got pockets. So, refresh your every day with luxury you actually use. Head to quints.com slash check for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's quints.com slash check for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.com slash check. Defard you didn't really have a desire to be a Hollywood actor. Didn't feel like he was ever going to become one based on how he speaks. Right? And like I do feel like though he made a lot of Hollywood movies after this, he largely just sort of plays villains or comical oaths. My father, the hero is the year after this. That's certainly comical oath. Then like what's the Dalmatian? 1492 is the year after that. The Dalmatian? He's in 102 Dalmatians. Oh, he's in 102. Yeah. Isn't he the villain in that? He's Cruella's right hand man. Right. I saw that film in the years. I'm sorry. The French, my father, the hero is 91. The American remake, which he also starred in, was three years later. And then there, I feel like there's one other big, well, there's like bogus, which is insane. Never, never even heard of that one. Bogus is Norman Jewison's last theatrical film, I believe. Unless no, no, the hurricane. The big three. Whoopi Goldberg, Jarod Depecheur, and Haley Joel Osmond. Exactly. Haley Joel Osmond is an orphan boy who's taken him by whoopi as his godmother, and Jarod Depecheur is his drunk, French, invisible friend named Bogus. What? So far, it sounds like a role he's suited for. But then, right, he's in Branagh Hamlet. He's in Man in the Iron Mask. Right. Well, he's obviously right. In Man in the Iron Mask, that's kind of where they found him. Correct. That kind of like, yeah, you could play a drunk, French musketeer. But then also, most importantly, in 1999, he does a film called Astrix and Obelix, and he's like, I don't need this American bullshit. I got an Astrix movie every three years, no matter what. Yeah. And like, I mean, Griff, you and I have certainly both seen Le Placar, you know, like that gigantic hit. Like he made, you know, he made Giant French Roses. A movie where you cannot believe Disney didn't remake that in 2005. Do you know this movie? I do not. It's Daniel O'Toole as a man who's going to be fired from his job as an exec at a condom company. It is at a condom company. It's the most French-esque. And his next door neighbor is like an old, sad, gay French man who was like, I could never come out, but I tried to march in this and that. But the times have changed. And now, if I were gay, they wouldn't have been able to fire me. And it inspires Daniel O'Toole, and he tells everyone that he's gay, and he's fired by discrimination. Well, and it's like, because they're a condom company, they cannot fire a gay man, is the implication. But then they basically make him like the spokesperson for the company. They keep traveling, like pushing him around saying, like, look at our gay employee. Jarrod Depardue plays the boss who has to do the Seinfeld-y, like not that there's anything wrong with that, and then starts to be like, am I in love with... Yes. Depardue is incredibly funny. He's very funny. It's like perfect. It's a really dumb movie. Yeah, but it's fun. He made like one trillion francs. It was like a giant smash. It won the Olympics that year. France submitted it in track and field. But yes, like that's the kind of stuff he then gets into where it's like, he's playing obelix, he's playing like funny supporting guy. He does art movies or whatever. Two scenes behind a desk and a cop drama or whatever it is. It does feel like he kind of never did a movie where he was running around holding a gun. But even like him showing up in like Lovey on Rose was just sort of like, if you're going to make a legitimate French movie, you need three minutes of Depardue. He's like blessing your production. Maybe, but I do feel like he stopped like the whole thing with him in the 70s and 80s is he is a true collaborator with like a lot of the like giant French filmmakers. And that kind of goes away. He's still like a mainstay in French cinema, but he is not being picked up by like the newer names in French cinema at all. He stops being collaborative period. And I think he becomes a shut up and creamy guy. Who's right. It's possible to work with and is the sex offender. There's one I really like called when I was the singer and it's him in Cecile de France. When I was a singer. It's called something like that. Conchettation tour by Hazavi Argianoli. It's sort of an attempt to do a sort of fabulous Baker Boys thing. Like he's one of the few remaining dance band singers in France. It's that plus loss in translation. Yeah. It's the sort of like weird is this guy sad stuck in the middle in a loop kind of movie that I thought he was very good in. Yes. But it definitely feels like the 2000s are the last time where he even kind of gives a shit. I mean, true. Like if you look at his yeah, it's like I just have not heard of many of these movies and I've not heard of many of these filmmakers. Whereas in the 70s, you know, she worked with Renee. You worked with Bertolucci, obviously. He works with Truff. Yes. I mean, that last match was incredible. Like he worked with, you know, Bertrand Blier, you know, under the son of Satan is a big movie that is right. Marcus B. Pliat. You know, he's a zillion things. And obviously, Chante de Floret is like kind of a big breakout. Oh yeah. You know, all the way to America. It's another thing that helps push him to America. Yeah. But like 2022, which is the last year before his legal troubles completely consume him, he has seven credits. And I think what you're talking about Esther of like the act of trying to introduce a star, right? Or like explode them in that way, getting someone who has the potential and the juice potentially was so different at this point in time with international stars. Yeah. Because it's like it is insane. I think it is one of the few things where I feel the need to constantly give Netflix credit. Netflix figured out how to get people over subtitles. Right. It is fascinating. Right. Right. That it was just always like even people would struggle with British shows and you'd have to fucking remake them in English, you know, in American English. And Netflix has just made it like we are an international company. Everything goes on the same site. It catches on with this audience. And you watched it with subtitles. You watch everything with subtitles. Totally. And so if like someone pops in Squid Game, Hollywood isn't like, oh, I watched this weird thing. This guy is good. How do we find a new way to introduce him to a new audience from square one as if to them he hasn't done anything? It's like, no, put the Squid Game guy in Star Wars. Like there is a kind of open playing field in that way. Even I feel like Omar Sy who was like one of the last guys where it's like this dude's become the biggest star in France. Let's put him in Jurassic World. And you're like, he's in this. He hasn't really made an impact. He's in a couple other American action films. Then he does Lupin French series and everyone's like, oh, cool. Yeah. Show us the real fucking thing. Yeah. I mean, I do feel though that there are still hurdles for a lot of these people in the sense that what it was sort of what you were talking about earlier. So I don't want to repeat anything, but it's like it's the Mads Nicholson thing of what they're getting in the United States is still like third lead in a Star Wars thing or sort of some villain role. I think it was like it was sort of what you were talking about with Libyan Hong on your No Other Choice episode, which is that like, the American roles have not been. And this is I mean, I guess this is not really post his is not really post squid game, but like still it's still he's still getting better work in South Korea. No, he's he's had like six franchisee big budget movies in which he played a principal character and all of them are basically exactly the same and did nothing for his career other than normalizing his name above a poster in America. And then you're like, yeah. And then in his fucking homeland, he gets to do whatever the hell he wants. He's got like infinite range of versatility. And like, I mean, I was just looking up because it was like, what has Omar Said on like post? And it's like he's doing a, you know, upcoming, he did the John Woo remake of The Killer and upcoming he has. Some people tell me that was kind of good. Yeah, I never watched it, but I heard it was directed. He directed it. Is it Adelie Emanuel? Yeah. But I mean, John Woo doesn't have a perfect track record these days. No. Right. What was that Christmas movie? That movie was Silent Night. Terrible. Or should I ever saw? But Omar Said's next big thing is Shadow Force, a Joe Carnahan, like I think direct to something. Yeah. I think that's been a big fan for a while. I think that came out. Am I wrong? I don't know. No, it's, I mean, it says it's in post. I'll say this. I don't know. Whatever. I went. Well, maybe that did come out. It came out last year. I went to see Thunderbolts and they were holding us. We couldn't leave the theater because. You were so excited. Because the Thunder Force. Shadow Force. Shadow Force. The Shadow Force premiere was happening at the same time. Right. And they held us in the lobby of the AMC Lincoln Square so that Omar Said could get to his. Right. Like, oh, the Shadow Force is here. Loop-a-loop-a. I don't know. It still feels very hard for that true like crossover. It does. I tell you. It does. In a leading role. I think the only thing that's changed is it used to be like Gerard Epperdue has been one of France's biggest stars since 1975. And now we are going to present them to you and explain to you how historic they are and ask you to just buy in here in his third decade, right? And that's like what would sometimes feel like a PSYOP of like the way there was so much energy behind trying to get Robbie Williams to connect to America. Well, you make him a monkey. Yeah, it took him too long to figure that out. But everyone's response to that was just sort of like, why do you keep telling me how big this guy is? Let me form my own opinion. I think that tends to fuck people a little bit. And when Gerard Epperdue's whole thing is so strange to begin with, you're like, are you tricking me? The hair is just, I don't know. You don't like my hair? I don't like it. He's too mushroomy for you. He's too mushroomy. So Andy McDowell, he took a year to find her. Not that she was nobody, but like, you know, like he auditioned people for a long time, but he liked her. I assume he saw Sex Lies or was it? Yeah. And Gerard loved Sex Lies and videotape. Weird. Which parts of that title do you think he liked? He was like, he was like, I too, film people. I love to lie. He might have added like five more words to that title. So Peter Weir really enjoyed making the film. He had Final Cut. He had a great, you know, incredible amount of control. Katzenberg did want the ending to change and was basically like, if you reshoot it, if they don't separate, if they humiliate the wreckage hit immigration officer, I think you're going to make like double your money. And Weir was just like, I thought about it, but I was just like, no way. Like the ending is the ending. Like, which I also think Katzenberg is kind of wrong. I agree. I mean, maybe Jeffrey Katzenberg is wrong. Jeffrey Katzenberg make the sort of wrong decision. I mean, what about if he comes up with an idea for vertical short form? It's crazy you say that, Esther. I'm reading here in the dossier. He also pitched to Peter Weir, what if the ending is five minutes long, doesn't play at the end of the movie. It plays as the final installment of a quippy original you can only watch after sundown. He was right about many things, obviously. He was once a very savvy executive. I mean, I guess he's just kind of going for the like, you need a happy ending for good word of mouth. But I think the green card ending leaves you feeling pretty satisfied. It's very satisfying. They're going to figure it out. That's all my quibbles with Depardieu and Howie Cunning. I was just like, I love it. I love the ending so much. And it's perfect. I mean, I think that's another rom-com thing that we talk about a lot. It's the perfect sort of bitter, sweet ending that I think some of my favorite rom-coms do that it's like, you know. And you're watching the whole movie thinking, all right, so what are they going to pick here for the end? Because you know the sort of roads this movie can take. And they pick the right one. That's how I feel watching them. I'm like, yes, good, good job, guys. Because it's because I think, and again, this is sort of the thing that I like about the movie. It's all of these beats that don't happen exactly the way you would expect them and don't feel perfectly tied up in a bow. They don't have like some amazing sacks and then are like, oh, I have to be with you. And they aren't like, and they don't get their happy, their perfect happy ending, but they do find that they're in love with each other and you don't have to go back to France. It's just like, it's the sort of... The big moment is he gets it wrong, you know, in the interview. And that's when he realizes like, oh, but there are actually million things I do love about her and who cares that I'm fixing up. I would love to call up Bob right now and ask him if he could name the face cream that I use though. He's serious. I feel like, I don't know, it's like in a blue container. I don't have a fucking name of it. Yeah, I mean, it's funny that like that is the one it hinges on where like, and obvious and then I mean, his bigger fuckup is that he says that he, I memorized all of them. That's how he messes up. If he had just not remembered it, he would have been fine. But it is funny that it's like, I guarantee you Bob would not be able to name the face cream that I use. Hans Zimmer did the score. Young Hans Zimmer in his sort of more synthy days. Very good score, in my opinion. But the composer... Just have a little bit of that Hans Zimmer, sort of exoticism that people sometimes get out of that. His early scores were very world music. Yeah, totally. Do you revisit this score? Yeah, absolutely. Those early Zimmer scores are really good. The Rain Man, this, there's a third one. Like I'm a big fan of Lion King. It's just visualizing you putting this on. Remember when Jeffrey Katzenberg almost got bit by a lion? Yes. I mean, no, but yes. Do you know this? Do you know this video? I do. Yeah. Yeah, wait, wait. I want Ben to finish his thought and then, oh, I just find it very weird to be like, what did I do today? I listened to Green Card soundtrack. That's why we love David though. There is a video of a promotional event for the Lion King, where they brought out a real lion or maybe it was like the illustrator. I can't remember exactly what it was. Somebody can correct me, but basically the long story short of this is that it seems like Jeffrey Katzenberg might get eaten by a lion in this video. Right. The lion gets aggressive in the lion has to be. The lion gets aggressive towards Jeffrey Katzenberg. So when this film, I want to say, begins with, RIP to her, we love her, we miss her, the nine train. Little shot of a nine train disappearing. Yeah, you need to tell us about the nine train. You don't know about the nine train. I don't know about the nine train. You're kind of pre-nine train. Back in the day, Ben. I was born in 1990. Yeah. Well, the nine train was still existing then, but it was on its way out. So back in the day, Ben, you know, on the seventh avenue line, the red lines of the subway, right? There's the one, two and the three, right? The two and the three are express in Manhattan. The one is the local. There used to be a nine train on that line too. And it was a local as well. It was the same as the one in every way except there's no eight train. There used to be an eight train, Ben. What the hell? Yes. There used to be an eight train as well in the Bronx. Let's not talk about that right now. But the nine was skipped stop with the one north of 96th street. So like when the one is on its own. And the idea was just like, oh, a rush hour, like just to speed things along these trains kind of like hop. And it was too annoying. And I think people who lived in Upper Manhattan in the Bronx didn't even like it that much. For me, who lived on the, on that line, but not in the skip stop area, it did nothing different from a one train, but I was just still always, if we got a nine, I was like, look at nine train. It was so funny to get to the platform and be like, what's here? One, two, three. Okay, cool. I bet I can guess what the fourth train is. Nine! Skipping all the way over. Yes. So when Peter, we're, this movie has great New York, I would say energy in general. I would agree. Is navigating a subway station. He hears a chorus of voices led by the unhoused singer, Harry Stewart and the Erasmus group, sorry, the Emma's group singers named after Harloes, Emma's house for the unhoused. And he was like, I love this. I want this to me in the film. So that's why those guys are in the opening. Yeah. I do want to call out cause I know it happened while I was in the bathroom. Uh-oh. I do think Hans Zimmer score in this is great. I agree. Oh yeah. Yeah. I just, I just wanted to second. Do you hear us or did you just think? I heard David saying this was an early Hans Zimmer score. I think a lot of the early Hans Zimmer comedy scores have aged to varying degrees. Some of them age better than others. I was just talking with Esther about his kind of early like world music. Yeah. But also the, Hey, it's still there on the same. It's still the same. Dune. I think this is like kind of one of the better comedy era Zimmer scores. I like, I like that era of his career. It's interesting to hear it now, obviously knowing what he like turned into. Correct. Which turned into something interesting as well. It's just like completely different. But this is like, it's, it's so much my problem of the modern rom-com, which barely exists, but what does exist feels like it is just trying to be one step elevated above the like hallmark Christmas movie churn, which is this could have been shot anywhere and we're pretending it's anywhere else. And rom-coms benefits so much from like a place of specificity from the feeling of like neighborhood haunts and like the, the rhythm of whatever the city or the town is. And like just the fact that I put this movie on and immediately it's like subway drummer, people getting on and off the train. No, I mean, I'm so. I'm like, this is set in a place and it speaks to very quickly what is kind of actually the biggest point this movie is making. We talk a lot about the cinema of men will literally blank to avoid going to therapy. One of your favorite, right, tropes. Yeah. This is, and I think this movie is dead on the money. Can I say it? Yeah. Women will literally get married for to get a great apartment. I think it's women will literally do anything to get the right apartment. Amen. And I mean, in New York City. Yeah, I was going to ask, would you get green card married to get that apartment? To fucking. And I would marry to you now. Same. Same. We pay his legal fees. Same. But that's, that's to be specified. That's the thing this movie gets so right that has only aged better with every successive year. The opposite of Gerard Depardieu who ages worse every year is you're just like, yeah. Yeah. So now you could justify almost anything in the reality of the movie if there's an apartment this good on the market. Now I did look it up and it is, it's a shout. It's a sound stage. I'll tell you. I'll tell you. I'll tell you. I'll tell you. But imagine if that happened. Can I tell you? Imagine if there was, is there a greenhouse in an apartment? I mean, maybe somewhere. Yeah. Like, so I'll tell you. The first garden that they use that's a community plot, that's a real place. That, you know, there was another garden that's like a tree garden. The one that in the, in BB New Earth's parent. Correct. That they basically moved a bunch of crabapple trees in Central Parks and Servantry Garden, which is on 5th and 105th over to like a, a sort of terrace to create that kind of like, yeah, fakey. It's sort of like the Frick or whatever, like this weird kind of. Yeah, it looks sort of, it looks so yeah. The main apartment. It looks like the part of MoMA outside of the modern. Right. Yeah. So yes, like that too. Exactly. And the, the main apartment, yes, they built it on a soundstage because they were like, we are building paradise here. Like we, we, like it's such a specific vibe. It's supposed to be basically out of her dreams with the arch and the wall fountain and the tiles and all this stuff. But very cool. I'm sure there are places in New York. Yes. Like, we are, don't you think so? I'm sure. We're pre-war buildings that are like, oh yeah, there's the weird conservatory apartment. I love that it's also not just, man, there's a great apartment. She wants it really badly. No, it's really important too. That it's so specifically tied to her interest in her behaviors. To her interest, yeah, to her, and, and I love the fucking co-op board, by the way, being like, the one lady who's like, well, I like the couple from the bank of the other because like, she's a horticulturalist. Yeah. She'll probably be good for this place. I mean, my, my best friends often mentioned on this podcast, Sophie Fader and Hawken Lens. Yes. He is a ceramicist. Cool. And it's like, living in the kiln? Living in New York City, he's constantly having to like, calculate everything based on what kind of work he could legally do within a New York living space. Right. Right. Am I allowed to have X in this house? Right. Right. Sorry. I literally just googled greenhouse, New York greenhouse apartments. And there was, there's a street easy thing. And honestly, this is like, it looks like a dream apartment. Yeah. And like, I mean, it's very expensive, but it's not as expensive as I thought it would be. Okay. Can I ask a couple of questions? Because you're trying to figure out why it's so cheap. Upper west side, upper west side. You're trying to figure out why it's so cheap. Washer dryer included? Yeah. Walkup? Yes. In-unit Depardieu? No. Because that would drive the price down. Yeah. I was going to say that knocks about $200,000 off your list. If there is a non-negotiable... Unfortunately, a French ogre lives here. In-unit Depardieu, they might pay you to live there. Yes. He's just there being like, your coffee is bad and I like butter. I don't want to keep going back to the same joke. Well, but it is crazy how much he looks like Shrek. He is Shrek. He is Shrek. And he only becomes more and more Shrek. Do you know who voiced Shrek in France? It was the dry Depardieu. No, Alain Chabot, because they were like, that's too fucking on the nose. It's too on the bulbous nose. Does the French guy voicing Shrek do a regional accent? You know, like a show of it. He says you do the French version of Scottish. What's the French version of a Scottish accent? We're back to French stereo tears. Yeah. I believe he does. You know Alain Chabot. Sure, Alain Chabot. Yeah, I mean, sure. I mean, I don't know him personally. Really? You know Alain Chabot. It'd be funny if I did. Yeah. Let me see if I can find what kind of accent keep going through the Dacier. One of my favorite films that Alain Chabot made, where he was, because he would direct in Star, is just called this. Not kidding. That's what it's called. It's called Rrrr? What's it about? I don't know. It sort of looks like holes. Okay. He also made a movie called DDA about a dog. Sounds great. It's a dog who turns into a person. He plays the dog. Sounds like good shit. Made one trillion dollars in France. DDA is on their money. Shrek 5 got moved, right? Yes. To summer of 27. I think they had to redo some of the voices or something, or maybe redo like- People thought they were redoing the animation because people didn't like the new character designs. I think it also might be script things. They're taking some big swings on this one. Was it that people figured out what Shrek 5 is about, didn't like it, and so now they're scrambling? It's maybe. Interesting. I don't know. I heard what Shrek 5 was about a couple of years ago. What you described to me didn't sound great. But it was a big swing. It was wild. Well, off mic, you gotta tell me. I will. I could see them either panicking and going, do we have to rethink this, or saying if we're going to do this, we have to get it. Right. Yeah. So the plot of Green Card, which is a tidy, you know, hour 45, this film. And it's a film with, you know, some great, it's got a great cast, but like pretty much all of the supporting players. One scene. It's like a couple scenes. But Krosky comes in, just knocks it out of the fucking heart. He must have had more like, I'm doing Krosky right now. He must have had more scenes. I'm sorry. I can't believe you broke the lock. His character's name is Bronte's lawyer. We should mention. Her name is Bronte Parrot. Because all of her, because all, because her dad named all of her siblings after all of her. So it's Bronte Austin. Austin Elliott. Elliott, right. Collette. Collette. After female. Yeah. Yeah. And then who's the fifth one? I don't fucking remember. Coontz. In Coontz. Yeah, there you go. My name is Coontz. Sometimes he's just... Coontz Parish. Like to pick up a trashy airport paper bag. Nothing wrong with it. Oh, it's fun reading. Yeah, Robert Prosky crushes, I would say, in his one scene. You've got the great John Spencer. It's like a nice horticulturalist. You've got Lois Smith, his Bronte's mother. It's like when she bad. As you mentioned before, Nealix, Dr. Nealix. The Spot and Down. You think Phillips... And out is Peggy. Yeah, Quick and Down. Yes, a young and out. Not a bald one. Nope. Nope. Quite a head of hair on this one. What if... And I'm sure that Bald and Down, who I know... Friend of the show. Yes. As interactive with And Out in some way, in some right at this point, I'm not actually sure. But like what if one day And Out does take it all off for a role? Just to kind of complete the circle. Yeah. You know, it shows that like does a THX remake or something? Like something where she's bald, I don't know. I mean, my favorite performance in this movie. Yes? Bebe Newworth. Bebe amazing. Oh my God. Just... And it's just like illegally hot. That's what I was going to say. Can we talk about how Bebe Newworth is the hottest person... I want to talk about Bebe. Ever. And I just want her to throw me into like a sewer and just like spit on her. Also, she has these little like rat earrings. Did you clock her? I did clock her cool rat earrings. I clocked her cool rat earrings. I clocked everything that was going on here. Like what's she... Because she's... This is her second film role. Period. Period. Her first film role is Say Anything, which she has a small role in. Yes, very small. Obviously she'd been on Cheers for years in that kind of like quasi-supporting role. You know, like sort of quasi-guest, quasi-supporting, you know. She went from she's got like two standalone guest appearances, then they decided to bring her back, then she becomes a recurring, then she becomes a regular, and then she goes back down to recurring. Right. She got... She wins two Emmys? Two Emmys. Does she have both of them by the time she does this movie? She has one. And she's got another one to come. And she has one more the next year. That's what's crazy. But she had already won a Tony for Sweet Charity. I mean, she's a big theater actor. But she won a second Emmy for the final season when she demoted herself to recurring. But she did enough episodes to count. Back then, they were very like fungible about it, I think. She has two Tonys, of course. Can you tell me her second Tonys for? Chicago. Of course. Chicago. I recently saw a clip from the current production of Chicago. Yeah, because it's the secret life of a Mormon wife. Oh, I see. Yeah. I was kind of getting the vibe where I was like, if I paid for this, I think I would call it the better business bureau. No, I mean... It looked pretty shocking. Yeah. Because she's obviously doing nothing, and the other ones are like, let's just swim around. They're like flapping their arms around. They were on E-Track or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. What's going on over there? Is it time to wrap it up with Chicago? I think it's time to wrap it up. But I think they keep making money by throwing all these reality TV stars in there. I also feel like all of their runs are pretty short where they're like, if one of them sucks, they're out in 10 days, and maybe the next one's better. And then the other thing about Chicago is there are stand-bys who are... Right, they can cycle in. ...have done it for years. I believe Charlotte Dambois does it, who's a legendary dancer, and does it all the time. Like there are people that can always do it, and Bianca Merrick, like there are people that can always do it, and they always just throw them back in. But also, like, do twice a year, do they pick up the red phone and go, Wayne Brady, we need you back? Yes, I believe so. We should get Wayne Brady on this show. At the King of Podcasts. Whenever when he crushed it on Comedy Bang Bang, he was so good. Wayne Brady's awesome. Plucking that Heggum show that no one listens to. Yes. But he was so good on... His WTF is amazing. Back to Bebe. Yeah, Bebe. The big, big, big... I mean, not like this is her best work ever, but it is such a great time capsule of Bebe at kind of... Also when she... She's power? ...is like when they go over to dinner at her parents' house, and she shows up, and she's just like, oh, I like Sardays, and it is so... And you're just like, well, everyone should just like fuck Bebe, because she's the hottest person that has ever lived. She's like two foot negative five. Yeah, yeah. She's a small woman. She's so cool. And yet she appears in anything, and you're like, this is the funniest, smartest, coolest, and hottest person who has ever lived. Very debonair, very funny, very rye. She's very, very, very, very, very cool. Also, you just want to hang out with her. She's so fun. Like this character, you sort of expect like, oh, is she going to be sort of like a villain? And she's like, no, she's just like a fun hang. Esther, that's exactly what I like about it. Yeah, is she going to cause trouble? Right. You're like, is she going to make a pass at Departure, and it's going to cause all kinds of problems? She's sort of just like, no, she just likes to party. She's got rich parents, and she's an artist, and she just likes to party. I think there's a really another real positive function of her character, which is you're set up to think, oh, she's going to stir some shit, or she's going to try to steal Departure, and she's going to make a bigger mess or any of this stuff. No, it's like, you understand that this is, Annie McDowell's closer friend, that this is someone who can call Annie McDowell out on her shit, knows her well, cares about her, and also is like, this guy is interesting. The co-sign of, I don't know, there's something kind of going on there. It's less about that she's going to make a move on Departure, and more that it forces Annie McDowell to reconsider. Wait, you're interested in him? Like maybe I should take a second look at this. Yeah. And I also feel like, I mean, it's another way in which the movie sort of subverts the tropes that you're expecting, which is, you know, hot, brassy lady comes along and steals the guy, and then he realizes that's not right for her, you know, and like that's not right for him. And it's like, no, she's just, again, she's hot and fun and having a great time. Do you know what this movie feels like to me? It's like eating a birthday cake, and then being told after the fact, this cake is entirely vegan. There were no eggs, right? Like it's soybean frosting. And you're just like, huh, it tasted good. I didn't question it at all. And the more I study how you were able to make this without doing the usual things, the more I have to like applaud you. Right. Without doing, as Esther said, like the trophy things you would imagine if I told you it's about a green card marriage, and then they have to pretend to like each other, and then they do like. It removes all the unhealthy ingredients in a way that is so unshoey that you're taking it for granted of like, yeah, it's like doing a rom-com thing. And you're like, no, it's actually like harder. I also think the other thing is when they're studying, you know, when they're doing sort of the part where they're studying each other and studying up on, there's something very earnest about it. Like, especially there's something very, you know, they do the montage of them taking photos, but there's something so sort of like the genuine facts of like, how do you get to know a person as opposed to the sort of Hollywoodized version of like, let's just blast through this and like make it all a joke. There's something very genuine about like the way, you know, though I did. I don't know if that is Gerard Depper do's actual handwriting, but it looks like a serial killers. Interesting. Yeah, I think there's personally just, and she's asked anything like that, and just sort of backstory way behaves. I think you're right though, Esther, that like this movie deprives its characters of kind of like, snappy small talk, get to know you banter because of the language divide. So it's so often them communicating through actions or struggling to get the other one to understand their meaning, or then like basically leapfrogging to deeper, more direct questions, because the formality of needing to study for this test means that you're just like asking things you would never ask on a date. But I will say that's also the thing that unsettles me a little bit about it too, which is like there's something unnerving about it to like, what's the deal with this guy? Yeah, like what's the deal with this guy? It's also just his presence. He's so in addition to being like, you know, his face is sort of funny and his hair could have been insane. Like he's so looming. He's so sort of terrifying and seems kind of quick to anger, even though it doesn't explode that many times. And he's got some level of criminal history that he explains as like boyish shenanigans. But also this series of tattoos that are all these kind of like impactful moments of his life that he can't really unpack. Well, there's also, I mean, there is a thing that like doesn't never is resolved, which is, you know, which is sort of scary where he has the knife and it's like, you draw the knife on one side. If it's like, if the knife is drawn and then you, then you should put it back in its shaft once you've gotten your regent. Did I say that? You said shaft. Okay, I think, sorry. John shaft, of course. Yeah, you put it back in its hilt. No, it's sheath. It's sheath. Once you've gotten the revenge and he hasn't gotten the revenge. So he's kind of giving you a Sean Connery Chicago way. It's just like there is a sense of danger to him. And I am not opposed to like romcom leading men having that sense of danger. Yes. But maybe it's just the Depper do of it all. You guys are getting hung up on the real guy, which I understand. Yeah. Yeah, but it's not just the real guy and his real actions. It is like, what is his energy on screen? And I do think Esther, there's something to perhaps in this type of character, often you cast a charming person and have them as an actor work to affect a layer of edge on top of that that can then melt away. And Depper do is the opposite side of the equation, which is here's a guy who feels a little dangerous and he's working to show you the charm inside of it. But so the edge never melts away. But it's not really like, it's not like a Heathcliff thing of like, this is a monster that she must hang out with the calico cats or anything. That's so true. Here's the thing about that joke, which every person I know has made or at least just three men that I know have made with the new Weather High. It's the joke of the season. It's a joke of the season. I think we maybe have to have a moratorium on that joke. On that. Wow. You're calling for an end to Heathcliff joke. You're saying specifically calico? No, I think you did a good job with it. I'm just saying that like. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. I'm saying the other men you're talking about, were they just making jokes about Heathcliff the cat or did they go for a specific? No, I have not heard the calico angle yet. No, I haven't heard the cat. And so I'm fine with it. I just think everyone thinks they're so fucking clever making a joke about the fucking cat. But you know, sorry, Bob. What if Emily Bronte was hearing about this? How do you think Emily Bronte would feel about Heathcliff the cat? Oh, the cat, I think she would be bemused. I don't think she'd mind the cat. Guys, what's up? I'm sorry. What's going on? I need to. They're not called the calico cats, are they? Retire bit myself. It's not calico. Poisoned by your own. You're always seeing yourself in the ceiling. He's orange. No, no, no. But there's he's referring to the calico critters, the line of toys, the little fuzzy animal. I was confusing them with who Heathcliff hangs out with, who are the cat-alack cats. Cat-alack cats. This is from the Heathcliff like animated series. Yeah. The one that was recorded while Mel Blanc was dying. Right. They kind of like flew a drone into his hospital room. And we're like, I don't know, say some shit into the safer corner. What's up, dog-hits? Wow, he really was on his way out. The cat-alack cats. Anyway, sorry to derail us. Everyone is banned from making this joke now. Everyone is banned from making this joke. You're right. You're right. I do think there is a thing where if I had seen this movie when I was younger, prior to knowing the whole Depardieu of it all, I think I might have been more purely charmed. And just been able to get over my shit with that. You know? And now, and it's again, I think I'm pretty good as a, you know, watcher of things to be like, to separate myself from, to put myself in the time period in which it was made. And to like, I mean, like it's something you have to do for your job and like all this stuff. But obviously, I do think if I had seen this when I was just before I knew all about, maybe if I was just an American moviegoer in 1990 who is like, I want to see this in Serenel and I'm just like charmed. I think he's just different. I just like, there's nobody like him. There's nobody like him. And it's the whole appeal. And it is, I do think that is a thing to the movie's credit, which is like, you can't, Matt, you can't like recast it with someone else. You can't. And like the movie, but also that the movie is not like this is a stunning, no, like fucking babe. It's more like, this is what is this? What is this? I got to look at this from 10 angles. Like what's going on with this guy? Yeah. But it's just the whole thing is that like, but there is a whole thing where his energy is so off in a strange way where like, like when he goes and plays, when he's asked to play the piano and he just like bangs on the keys and then plays like a lovely thing. Kind of rocks. It rocks, but it's so weird. Like the first scene where they go to the, was that a real restaurant? They meant to look that up the All Nations restaurant. I couldn't, I didn't think so. I couldn't quite tell what the vibe was. Where it's like, you just are like, hey, we have the Swiss dish and we have the, you know. But let's even zoom out here for a second, right? The piano scene. We can dig in the piano scene as kind of emblematic of the whole thing. This movie set up on the idea that he wants to become an American citizen because of the opportunities that could provide him in his career as a composer. And whenever she sort of asks him about it, because his English is so broken, he responds strangely and I watched the movie the first time and like, is the composer thing a lie? Right. Is he truly making this up? Right. Because we don't really have any sense of it. Is he making it up? Is the friend? Her, we know she wants to fucking have a husband so she can get this apartment. This board won't approve. The modern woman living single. Right. That doorman, what a fucking rap. What a fucking rap. I'm going for this women's limay. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. Yeah. Also, that is what's sort of so strange about it is that like, is he a composer? Is he not? Is he actually, you know, they talk about how he's, you know, he's got stuff in his past. Like, is he actually trying to be in America? On the run. Because he's on the run. Like, he is a composer, but there's no sort of, he gets fired from his restaurant job and he's like, well, that's fine. You know, he says, I quit. Yeah. And he says, I quit. Everything's a little. Everything feels a little like he's lying to you just in his persona. And then that never fully, he is a composer. Right. Some impression. Can we unpack the scene for a moment? So like, Bibi Newworth takes a liking to him, brings him to the party. Right. Yes. When you're meeting Bibi and she's so big, part of you is going like, is she doing this to make her friend jealous? Yeah. Or is she just sort of such a like wild. She's such a fun girl. Pre-rolling that she's like, I don't know, this guy's weird. Let me figure out what his fucking thing is. Everyone at the party is kind of a little confused, but like, oh wow, a Frenchman. How interesting. Comes up that he's a composer. They ask him to sit at the piano. He sits there very intensely and then just starts like mashing the keys with his fists. And it's. The point that you're like, he's been rumbled. Like, you know, he's making something up because he doesn't know how to do this initially. That's what it feels like. And then you're like, it's just like there are moments of tonality within it. I still don't know if that was supposed to be a real piece. I don't either. I think it is. But like, you don't totally know. He's saying, fuck you. Is it this is the kind of composing I do. You don't know. And you wonder like, is this him revealing that he's never touched a piano before in his fucking life? And then he like comes around and like plays this beautiful piece and does the spoken word poetry over that is like translated in real time. And it's Depper do in close up while playing a piano, basically looking down the barrel of the lens with tears in his eyes. And I'm like, this is undeniably effective. Right. Like, yeah, this is the whole movie is built around this, which is you're just like, why am I drawn into this? Right. This guy has not made sense to me up until this moment. And something is happening here that's emotionally affecting. And BB Newworth goes, I think you just got your flowers. And that's what happens. He fucking, she got the trees because whatever's your are Depper do just did. Charmed the shit out of everybody. Then like 30 minutes later, when they're going through the studying for the test, he brings up or she repeats, they filled in this information at some point that he stopped playing music because he was in love with a woman. They got married. She died and he couldn't hear the music anymore. And he realizes the way to explain in this interview why they fell in love to make the case in the most ecstatic way without overly explaining that their love is real is to say, when I met her, I heard the music again, which is so kind of beautiful and poetic that you see her get charmed by that, even if it's only a strategic lie. The notion that he could think that way. I'd be trying to open her up to him a little bit. It is the rom-com leap that I think you have to make with a lot of rom-coms, which is like, if this were real life, how would I react to this? And there's something for me that is still... I don't... By the end, I get there, but for a lot of it, I don't know if I fully... There's something still like that creeps me out about the mystery that is written into the character. And the fact that even at the end, it still feels like I don't fully know this guy. And she is willing... And she has fallen for him and he's written her this thing and she's willing to do it. But like... But we don't even know what she's totally willing to do. Yeah, I mean, yeah. They're just... They know... Well, and that's the thing. They know something's going on that they can't ignore anymore. Like in the last scene. To make a very dumb comparison point. Make sure this is very dumb. Please. If you were to try to watch the Cosby show... And apply... Whoa! Let me say this. Let me say this. Whoa! Let me say this. Let me say this. Let me say this. Go ahead. And try to apply cognitive dissonance and go, look at just this show. History, nostalgia for me reminds me, right? You are in an episode of the Cosby show pretty unlikely to butt up against something that directly reminds you of everything you now know about Bill Cosby. I'm not even... At this point, I'm not even talking about the Depardieu of it all. Genuinely. I'm genuinely talking about the way this character is written. This is my problem. He is like, is that there is still something that feels odd about him and off about him in a way that feels either potentially dangerous or potentially... If David's shaking his head. Yeah, I'm not with you on this. Yeah, let me finish my bridge here because I think Esther and I are feeling the same thing. Right. Which is like, if Cosby show episodes... Oh my God. I don't want to talk about Bill Cosby. Honestly, I think you have to stop. You have to... I appreciate you defending me, but also I don't want to hear about the Cosby. Because it's not defending me. Or you. This is me just like how I think about it, right? Okay. If Cosby episodes had him regularly going like, I'm going on a date tonight, I'd be like, well now I can't stop thinking about what would happen on that date, right? And I think similarly... No, no, no. That's not what I'm doing. No, I just think the fact that there is mystery to this character and the mystery is coded as being a little bit dark, it's hard not to let your brain go to darker things. I don't even think that's it. I don't even think that's it. I just think there is... I understand what you're saying, Esther. Yeah, I don't think I have to say it again because I'm just like... Yeah, and we can just agree to disagree. I just... I think there is something in the writing of the character that leaves me at arm's length. Then you gotta decide. You gotta weigh in your take on Green Card, which we haven't heard yet. Anyway, it's still Mary Him for the apartment. Yeah. I mean... Did you like this movie? I mean, you haven't weighed in. It was okay. Fair enough. I'm not a huge rom-com guy. You know, what's your favorite rom-com? I have no idea. What? I guess I never thought about this, do you? Yeah. Yeah. You never really talk up a rom-com. No, nothing comes to mind. Nothing comes to mind. Nothing. No. Not a single thing. No. Fair enough. I'll look. Maybe there's one. But here... There's gotta be one. But here, this is what I'll say. I watch Des Parges do and I'm like, there's definitely moments three is effective. No question. For sure. Yeah. He's got a great face, great nose, big old nose. I don't see the Rizz. I just... It's not popping for me. Society really. At the time and now. It's the hair. The hair is such a problem. He looks like a old ass painting come to life. What you just described is to me is the Rizz. Really? Well, yeah, because how many people look like that? I know, but it's like... He should be wearing one of those like Shakespearean weird colors. Well, he did it on a movie or two where he's done that. Right. Right. I mean, if you want to see him in period dress, certainly. Allow me to speed around a couple things. Yes, please. One, this is kind of a... You're allowed. Thank you. I appreciate it. No Cosby. That's true. With one corollary. Okay. Allow me to speed around one thing. Yes, go ahead. No, I'm joking. First of all, this is a really strong invisible craft movie where has done so much at this point that he knows exactly how to service whatever type of film he's making that having been said, there are two camera moves in this movie that I thought were so fucking classy. Yes. Is it the... What are those things called in the door? Oh, well, that's good. Yes. The kind of peephole in the door and the click. Yeah. That's a great shot. No, it's two moves. Classy camera moves. Yeah. Where I was like, this is using the movement of the camera for storytelling and for emotional connection in a way that is so unshoey. One of them is when he's talking to Ann McDowell's dad, her parents show up unexpected and he takes on the role of the handyman to justify why he's there. And her dad, you feel like as sniffing him out as a fake. Ann McDowell is saying, go, you're done. And he wants to stay because clearly he's interested in her enough that he's kind of curious to secure her parents to eavesdrop in on this. And the dad goes into the kitchen after him and he's going in, you worry, motivated by suspicion of who is this fake. When in fact, what's motivating him is, I kind of sense the heart of an artist inside you. I sense an artistic spirit inside you. I used to work jobs like this when I was writing poetry. What are you really? I'm a composer. They're having this whole talk. They're having this male bonding thing. He notices that her dad has his arm on a table atop a bunch of papers, including their marriage license. And Depper do is like, I got to get that fucking away from him so that he doesn't see and this whole thing doesn't explode. And he tries to grab it and it kind of is too aggressive. The dad freaks out a little bit or is a little shaken, falls to the ground. They both go to pick it up and it's a Polaroid from their faked honeymoon. They stand on the roof of this apartment that is absolutely worth marrying Gerard Depper due to get with skis. And they fake like three different vacations they've taken together, put in a scrapbook. And the camera move is these two men are both holding the Polaroid on opposite sides. And it's basically the POV of her dad. And the camera just like dollies up with Depper do of the two of them, the feeling of maintaining eye contact as they're holding this object that they know says a tremendous amount that now needs to be acknowledged in some way. And Depper do holds that close up really fucking well. And it's that feeling of you are stuck in a moment as you two would say that you can't get out of. Yeah, that's so true. And then there's another one which is when it's a beautiful day. He basically drops Annie McDowell off with a fuckhead boyfriend. Yeah, Greg, what's his fans? And Depp Depp Depp like halfway down the block with Envy realizing for the first time he jealous he is. And rather than walk the opposite way as he should, he walks towards them to basically challenge her. Are you going to break reality on this? Or are you going to treat me like a stranger? Either way, I get a closer view of whatever's going on with you. And the camera tracking with him as he does that is really, really. I think you're speaking to what we're brings to so many of the movies we've discussed so far and will continue to discuss, which is that kind of like quiet, classy, non-showy, but stylish, like visual storytelling. It is. What does this moment need to convey? And what is the best technique to get that feeling across in the story? And it's not as slick and over the top or like what else? You know, like it's not going to pop in the way that certain big stylish filmmakers do. Here's another thing I like about this movie that I feel like doesn't happen often enough. It's like a rom-com that isn't very funny. No, it's a good point. It would be false to categorize it as a rom-drom. Right. But it's certainly not like a screwball movie with a bunch of lines. It is funny. It has jokes. It more than anything, it has a sustained like comedic wavelength to it. But I think it's very concerned with... It's not over the top. It doesn't want to break its own reality. Well, and the reality of it is something interesting that I wanted to bring up, which is that it is very rooted in like 1990 and 1990 in New York. And some of that, some of that feels a little creaky now. You know, the, I think the talk about, I mean, obviously some of it's just the time periods, but like the garden argument and like the under, oh, the underprivileged kids, we just bring such joy to their lives of chaos. I mean, it's also funny that's the lower side. And now, you know, even just this energy of, you know, some people don't eat meat. Right. And also some, there's this moment... You will have fish, of course. No, I don't eat that either. There's this also, there's also a moment where she tells him he's being very right wing right now. Yes. Sure. Because I am no wing. You are wing. Yeah. And I don't want to pay taxes to be clear. NIP, any airplane I want and not in the bathroom. No, no. In fact, I avoid it. They copied it. Your cup of coffee. It does. It is a version of New York that is very rooted in the real world of the time, as opposed to even, you know... Pretty woman or whatever. Yeah. Well, pretty woman, of course. But like, you know, even the Nora New York, which is its own form of... She's got this sort of snow globe. She's got a snow globe of New York. Less of a curated bubble. I mean, even just down to like starting with like fucking subway musicians and shit. It's like, this is like real New York. We're not doing your kind of... And some of it feels a little clunky. I think in... But I think it's interesting. I think the weird thing about romcoms is there are a good number that have this feeling of, you know... You know, David put it... His letterbox, which I saw, but like the gentleness. And like, I do think there are a couple that, you know, get this like... It's not really that funny, but they get the romantic-ness, right? And they're really tied into the characters. They are well-observed. Yeah. My letterbox review refers to a list of gentle movies that I curated for my wife after our first child was born, where she was basically like, I cannot watch any movies with a lot of like peril or stress and certainly no like danger for two children. And so I like kind of like, I was like, all right, let's really narrow the focus to movies where it's like pretty low, like straight stakes. A lot of romcoms, obviously. But you know, some other stuff too. 27 dresses. Where you're just like, who gives a shit the whole time? But I'm a little worried if she's going to hit it 28 or not. Morning glory. At the best. Yeah. Serendipity. The paper. Hate Serendipity. It sucks. You hate Serendipity. I hate Serendipity. The paper, I do think kind of fucking rolls. The paper is so good. The only issue with the paper is that you're like, why isn't this a master? Agrees. Yeah. Because like it's totally good. Everyone in it's having fun. You have fun. Papers like- But you're like the ingredients are incredible. It's a three star general. And the whole time you're watching it, you're like, shouldn't this just be perfect? What is it not pulling together? David, did you only rate working girl three and a half stars? I don't like that movie that much. That you are- Fucked up. I think that movie has huge flaws. There are things about it, I love. I would say working girl is kind of the patron saint of the thing we're talking about. Where it's like a rom-com mostly with dramatic actors who have comedic chops. But it's not that funny. But comedy is more tonally. I mean the funny stuff is like Jon Cusack going, Right. And it is kind of doing characters. What? No bows? Kate and Leopold, one of my favorites. Someone like you, a movie for nobody that I have seen like five times. Made in Manhattan, terrible. Forces of nature, hugely underrated. Leap year, two weeks notice. Fever pitch, the British. Leap year definitely was a modern, semi-modern attempt to do this in a kind of thing. It's not that good. Yeah, it's all that good. It does have, there's no room at the end, which we always love. You know it's another one that I was thinking only you is another one that sort of does this. Which one is that? That's the Norman, Jewish sin, Marissa Tumay, Robert Downey. Oh yeah. I don't want to. Is that good? I was going to squash that. It is one of those you have to like get over the hurdle that she seems fucking insane. Because it's like she's going to get married, even though her destiny is to marry Robert Downey Jr. Like it's like, I am trying to remember the exact thing, but it's like the night before her, there's like a fortune teller who's like, you're. You're definitely going to marry Robert Downey. No, you're going to marry somebody with this name. Oh yeah, that's right. And so then she goes to like Robert Downey Jr. So then she goes to Italy and he thinks trying to find this guy and then Robert Downey Jr. lies to her that that's his name. And then it's like, you know, right? It sounds pretty good. It's like. And by good, I mean, sounds kind of insane. Yeah, it's very insane. And you have to get over the fact that it's like insane and they lie to each other, you know, all that. I want to, no, no, no, no, you finish your thought because I'm pivoting. Often. My thing is a little bit of a pivot as well. It's a mini pivot. I want to shout out Mary Louise Boston, the only actor in this we have in cast a true legend. Like a face you guys all know has a Tony great theater actor. She's so good. Lois Smith as Annie McDowell's mom. Yeah, we said that we showed everyone else out. I think yeah. Prosky, of course, we've always we but we must give him many flowers. It is crazy that he doesn't have one more scene, but whatever it is. Yeah, they're probably, I don't know. It's a pretty economical movie. It is. But the billing on it is also weird. Like Prostky's like high billing. John Spencer's like single card and he's in like one scene, but he was sort of a name, I guess. He's a great actor. I have great John Spencer story. I'm going to tell you guys off, Mike. Is there anything else we want to talk about? I just want to do this, this, this soft. Yes, yes. What's your offer? What we were talking about of this kind of modality of romcom that is one that's really hard to execute. And especially now we live in a fucking desert where we're only getting like the dumbest, most synthetic romcoms or they have to also be gun movies, right? Like either they're like $2 movies. Our buddy Amanda Dobbins on Big Picture was making this case recently where I think they were talking about the people we meet on vacation. That movie. And was saying how like Hallmark and Netflix have made people think that romcoms are designed to be really cheap programmers, right? And she was like, you know, there are entire Instagram accounts now with millions and millions of followers based off of travel and based off of look at how nice the sweater I bought was and this face cream I'm using was, right? If it's just about the access to the luxury events, locations, items, like people can get that. They don't need it delivered to them in a movie. And yet if you're not actually putting that level of like production value on screen and those things are production value tantamount to like a Marvel movie not investing enough in CGI, then you're like, then what the fuck am I doing here? I mean, I think the other issue though is that for me, the appeal of the romcom location is not the same as the appeal of someone's Instagram or TikTok. You just want a romcom to feel like it exists in the real world. I think it needs to exist in a specific place. Yeah, for the fantasy to work, at least for me, the fantasy has to be rooted in the reality of a place and has to be rooted in the tangibility of that place. And then I can forgive some of the romcom, trope some of the romcom ridiculousness that you have to get over because I feel like it's in the real world. I was talking about this with somebody another day where it's like, I always have trouble, like I love romcoms and I have trouble reading romance. I've tried romcom novels and I have trouble with them because they're so tropey and also because the writing is just not good enough for me to like glom onto. But also not to dismiss a genre that I know people enjoy. Yeah, I get not to dismiss a genre that I know people enjoy, but I just don't feel like I can latch on in the way. And I feel like when I latch onto a romcom, it's because the fizziness is in the dialogue, is in the writing, and the reality is in the world. I think it even goes beyond that, which is just like for me, it's the magic act of the chemistry that two people are creating. And then when that's working in tandem with the writing, with the location, with the supporting cast, all that stuff, when it feels like you've created an ecosystem. But I do agree with you, it needs to feel like it is grounded in the specific. And the specific can't just be the tropes of the characters or the plot beats. It also needs to be like a sense of place, even if that place is made up or heightened. And I feel like we're stuck in a lot of streaming movies that are based around vacations, where the characters have no relationship to the place they're in, and the place is being rendered very artificially, which is like the worst of all worlds. We're in a fake Maui, and they just happen to meet here, you know? And it's like, great, so now you get a fucking surfing sequence? The fuck is this? It doesn't mean anything. And I think, you know, you want some level of like, tactility. You want a level of like, time and place in that specificity. A movie I love, which I will continue defending for the rest of my fucking life, is Materialist, which I think has been so wildly misunderstood. David is making the rudest face a person could possibly make. I don't like that movie. I know you don't. You've made that very, very clear to me. But I think Materialist is- I like Materialist. I don't love it, but I don't. David is now making the rudest face with us. We sat next to each other. Yeah, we did. We sure did. And David is making a face that says, don't talk to me ever again. But I feel Materialist is, with like a pitch black heart and a real cynicism, more attempting a movie on this kind of wavelength than a proper rom-com. It is. I think so much of the hyper-negative response to Materialist, which I fully understand is a very acquired taste movie that's not going to work for most people, is that it felt like 824 successfully marketed to people were bringing the rom-com back, and people were so ready to just see a fun love triangle movie. And then it was this kind of movie digging into is all of dating bullshit, which then made people feel like you offered me a cookie and then like threw acid in my face. They made the money. Yeah, no, I was proud of them making their money. I was happy I made money. I want to hear Ben's rom-com. Yes. Well, you know, I look up this list, I don't know, there's a bunch. I just went to IndieWire, like 100 top rom-coms. And it's a reminder that this subgenre, what comes to mind is the stuff I remember as a kid that we're very much leaning into the tropes. Okay. And that's like all of the McConaughey movies. Yep. So I forget when I look and I'm like seeing stuff like Breakfast at Tiffany's, I'm like, yeah, I guess. McConaughey did a lot of damage. The McConaughey run was quite bad and kept getting worse. He knows it. No, and that era was the death of it. It was. And it felt very cynical. And the, like the McConaissance was all about him being like, yeah, I agree, those movies sucked, which kind of left those movies even further in the dirt without anyone stepping up to try to reclaim or recontextualize. There's also just the big thing, which is basically like knocked up, skewed everything. When knocked up hit, people went, oh, can you make a rom-com that's dude perspective first and has this kind of like harder comedy edge in it? And women will be more willing to see a dude rom-com than dudes are to see like a more female perspective driven rom-com, which I think had always been seen as a bit of a hurdle. And then that leaves you with like nothing. When that goes down, they did. Yeah. And they felt like they had contempt for themselves where it like embarrassed to be rom-coms and had to be like, but it's not really a rom-com. Okay. But I'll say 500 days of summer, moon struck. Well, yes. Harold and Maude. Yeah. And then Roman holiday, which I just saw recently. I watched with my wife because we were going to Italy and it was great. Yeah. And a bit of a Roman holiday. We did. That's true. I mean, for the first 60, 70 years of cinema, like wild percentage of the greatest movies ever made could be classified as rom-coms. And it's really when they start to nail the formula down to the wall in the 80s. And then like kind of 90s, touchstone like just fucking goes like, here it is, it's math. Yeah. It's a little bit of a like take actor A, actor B, you know, add situation C. Right. There are wildly successful movies that come out of that era and ones that have stood the test of time and even the middling ones are fun to watch now. But it does feel like, you know, it's like what fucking happens to Marvel where people go like, oh my God, I get it. I know what's going to happen. I've seen 20 of these. They never change. I get frustrated like when I was in the process of writing this that like rom-com fans have this idea of the rom-coms sometimes as being only this like 2000s sort of. There's a lack of history. Oh, like they think 27 dresses is the apex. Right. And she did have 27. She did have 27. And that I find very frustrating. And I think the problem with reviving the rom-com a little bit is that that stuff will still maybe looms a little too large. Did you see your Christmas or mine? What was that? No one's seen it. Your Christmas or mine. They made a sequel as well. You know, even thinking about movies that we've covered on the show that came up, broadcast the news, all of the Nora movies. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy, totally. Did we like classify them as rom-coms during those series where we like hammering? I think you did. Yeah. Yeah. Because I don't, I don't know. I don't even think of them as really that. Maybe the Nancy's. Well, and look. No, I mean, Nora is the queen of it. Like Nora is the like. And she's always at the top of the list. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't know why. I just, I'm like, those are funny movies. Whereas rom-coms, I also equate kind of in my head as being like a little bit schlockier. But I think that's the problem. I think that's like, that's like, been a herit like. Is that it used to be like these have to be high thread count movies. Like people want to see movie stars looking incredible. Yeah. You know, they want to see. And I think this is how the. This is a huge problem with materialists. Nice homes and outfits. You think that's a huge problem with material. I think every actor is so wrong for it. And then it's styled wrong is like just like they not locked into whatever character she wants. Like that's the biggest thing with that. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I. I disagree on that. Yeah. I have some issues with the casting in that movie, but I will say it. But I think that's the thing that bothers me, which is that rom-com. God. That's the point. That's not. No, wait. Let me. The Pigeon Pascal and Dakota. I have a point to make. That is the point. Stop it. I have a point to make. You go ahead. Rom-com's got equated with chick flicks. Yes. Sure. And that is the big and that's sort of a 90s thing. It's a 90s thing and into the 2000s thing. And I think it's a problem on multiple levels because I also don't think like. The term chick flicks should not exist because. Look for tricks. It's in another self-reductive. And then you factor into now that rom-com has been like so inundated with the Netflix shock and the Netflix, you know, and. And the Netflix is ripping off the Hallmark. The Hallmark shock and that is the problem and it's all been denigrated. And I mean, I think it's all comes from like a sexist place, which is that like. At a certain point they start, they stopped realizing that everyone likes these movies and they thought that only women like these movies, but it's like a very frustrating thing. Well, that's also just right that we don't have to make an effort. As long as it's your Christmas or mine and then their Christmas, this gets long. That's the problem with the Hallmark and the Netflix stuff is people go, oh, if they'll watch it and we put. Yeah. $2 into the budget and it stars Joe fuck and Alice. Who gives a shit. Yeah, right. Then right. Then then no one fucking matters. I also think you're right that it's one of those genres that in the 90s and the 2000s, where it was financially very, very lucrative. It was never treated with a lot of respect by the industry itself. It was like, this is one of those things we have to fucking make. We thank Julia for keeping our industry afloat, but we're not going to take her seriously until she does her own block of it, right? Right. Whatever it is. Even that arc between like 90 and 2000 where it's like, they cannot ignore her in Pretty Woman. They have to give her a best actress nomination. They do because it's such a phenomenon. It's seismic. But by 10 years later, they're like, you're not getting one again until you actually break the genre. And it was always just, well, if they keep making money, we'll keep making them. Even if we don't really respect them. The second the fucking obsession with overseas grosses blew up. Yeah. It fucked everything up because. It hurts all the companies. These movies are super culturally specific. And it's like in the same way that we don't fucking want to watch the French movie called Cal Cuchance about like four people drinking wine and finger banging each other. They don't want to see our movies, even if they are our stuff. They don't want to see our movies. It's rare. Those aren't the movies they want us to export as much, right? And they rarely would connect. Your friend really brought it around to Cal Cuchance. Unless the premise is like so gold. But even then you look at the best rom-coms and they tend to be remade in every country where they're like, we'll do our version of that premise. Like what? Well, there's so many French comedies that were remade as American comedies, like three men and a baby and stuff like that. But even like, what was the, Olivia Wilde's new movie? The Invite. Yeah, it's a remake. The Invite, that's Sunday. Is like, it was a Spanish film originally. Kota. Kota. Sure. That was from a French film, right? It's a Spanish film and I believe it's the fourth remake? Like three other countries remade it before we did? It's called The People Upstairs. I haven't, yeah, I'm excited. Olivia Wilde though, she's made a film, directed it? No, no, she's an actor. Oh, okay, right. That makes more sense. Yeah. And she's in the film. Yeah, of course. If you're directing a movie, I would have heard about it. The story ends there. I would have heard about it. I pay attention to such things. Green card was released, limited, Christmas. We're done. We're wrapping up. I'm wrapping us up, guys. Do you have something you want to say? This has been a spirited conversation. Oh, sure. It's a good reminder though, I need to revisit how I think about The Rom-Com. Any of you know what I'm going to do? What are you going to do? I'm going to pick a Bessar's book. Oh, my God, Olivia! She's got some great, great wrecks in that book. Seriously, if you just like watch along with her, like I highly recommend. Thank you. Her other books are trash though. Not true. Thank you, Garbage. But Falling in Love at the Movies. Yes. Well, yes, but we're not at the plugs. I mean, we should plug Esther's book, plug away, but I mean, also. We can talk about it not naming it. I thought it was good to name it. Oh, that's a good point. Yeah. David, box office. Yeah, it comes out Christmas, expands wide-ish February 1st. Okay. Made $30 million domestic, I think more worldwide. So like we are made some good movies. It gets a best screenplay nomination. I think it makes you good money. So that I wanted to point out. Golden Globe, it wins best musical or comedy. I have all this queued up. So. Do you want to say it? Yeah. So it wins best musical or comedy at the Golden Globes, which is shocking because the other nominees were, this is crazy that it won. I don't know how they must have paid someone off. Or maybe it was the class of your movie. I'm going to give you the nominees for best comedy musical. You can't remember Euro voting base. You're right. But listen. Because Gerard also wins best act. He does. He does. But at least he's sort of, you know, listen to this. Yeah. Dick Tracy. Okay, fine. That wasn't going to win. Pretty funny though. Pretty fun. Yeah. Ghost. Yeah. I mean, ghost is, feels like it's slam dunk. Home Alone. Yeah. But they, they may not be about it, but it had made a billion dollars. And Pretty Woman. Yeah. It beat all of those out. Like was there almost like a weird, like the bigger movies were sort of splitting votes or something? It's crazy. I think it's a Euro thing. And I think Pretty Woman being released at the beginning of the year and green card at the end of the year. I think it was probably positioned as this is the headier Pretty Woman. But this is the rarefied, the upper class. And I think it's the Euro thing. Jeff R. G. beats out Macaulay Culkin, Richard Gere, Patrick Swayze. Again, you'd think the clothes might be going for these guys. Yeah. And Johnny Depp and Edward Cishan hands. It was the Hollywood foreign press. So they were like, oh, no. I guess so. But like, you know, Andy I think was nominated, but she, she lost to Julia Roberts. They at least for that one were like, I think Julia Roberts maybe should win the Golden Globe. And what were the other screenplay nominees? I'm going to tell you because it is, it's quite a bunch. Now the winner is Bruce Joel Rubin's screenplay for Ghost, which is a stupid winner. But obviously that movie was such a phenomenon. And I think there was that Hollywood of like, you know, you wrote the movie that was sort of out of fashion. Yeah. And it worked. It's also like he invented Silly Putty where you're like, I don't know if we needed this, but really it caused a sensation. And no one else was going to think to write this. The other reason he won is you look at the other nominees and none of them really feel like winners. It's Woody Allen for Alice, which is like a weird fucking movie. Kind of doesn't exist. It's a really interesting movie, but certainly not going to win an Oscar. Barry Levinson's Avalon, which is, I feel like a movie that everyone thought was going to be like, his big like next Oscar epic and everyone was a little tepid on it. It's a pretty good movie. It's a pretty good movie. It's a pretty good movie. It's made though with this kind of like, you know. It's very historically. It's like his fable men's or whatever. Exactly. Yeah, it is. And then Whit Stillman for Metropolitan, which is a feat of writing. Yeah, it should win. And then Gotti got in there, but like, but that feels like you're lucky to be nominated. We're giving you that level of respect. Yeah. It's a weird one because it's the 90 Oscars. So it's dances with wolves and good fellas are like the big, you know, sort of awards contenders and then shit like, you know, fucking Bugsy. A shit like fucking Bugsy. Is that because it bugs? No, it's not the Bugsy year. No, Dick Tracy is the big movie. Yeah. So it's the following year of shit like fucking Bugsy. I guess, I mean, Misery wins best actress, best actor, Jeremy Irons for Versa La Fortune. You know, they, all the comedies we just noted, which are like memorable smashes. Yeah. Ghost, homo and pretty woman. It's like, yeah, take your noms. I mean, Ghost got some wins, right? Yeah. You know, but like at the end of the day, this was an Oscars that, right, that tended to ignore that stuff. I don't know how much of it's the 10, but I've just been thinking a lot about, are we a little past the era of like the Oscar winning performances are the only nomination for the movie? Yeah. It doesn't happen much anymore, but partly cause right, 10 best picture nominee. I mean, were there any this year? I mean, weapons. Weapons, yes. Yeah. Could quite possibly pull off that exact trick. But like, you know, I feel like a historic one is that Michael Douglas was the only nomination that Wall Street got. Yeah. It's a weird. Reversal of fortune didn't get a ton of nominations. Did it? Or am I wrong? I might have gotten a few though. Let's see. Yeah. Let's great movie. Cause misery, I think similarly was just the one. A reversal of fortune got weirdly got three numps. Director actor screenplay. Oh, wow. Well, Glenn is truly in a coma for most of it. Um, I mean, she has to be any fucking putter there. Let me ask you though. Or did he? Did you see her blink once? It's pretty good performance. Made a choice and stuck to it. But, um, misery, I think just got the one not misery is the rare truly, which is a little rude cause like it's actually really good adaptation. Exactly. But I think it's a very, uh, And con is great in here. Yeah. Con is great. Yeah. Con is great. Con is great. Sound insane right now, but he is. He's con is great. Yeah. Box office. So I'm giving you the February 1st expansion. It's still only number six. It was a slow grower this one. Number one of the box office. We've mentioned it a few times already. It's a phenomenon, a Christmas phenomenon. It's been number one for three months. Home alone. It's called home. RIP Catherine O'Hara. That's absolutely right. Yeah. But it was one of the 10 highest gross films. And get the wet band. It's still at large. They're still at large, unfortunately. Uh, one of the 10 highest gross films of all time upon release. It made $285 million domestic insane. He's so long. He's a remake it. I mean, they've tried so many shitty versions of sequels and remakes and reboots and like, it never, it's nobody cares. I think also, isn't there like a Johnny Hughes thing? Like he is very specific. Like the no, because they've done other ones. I think, I know. Sorry, Esther, I was not saying that in a dismissive way, just that they've done shitty runoff home alone stuff in a way that I think maybe because he didn't direct it. The contracts were in his. Maybe. Yeah. Cause I know he wouldn't let something like Ferris or Right. Although they were about to make a fucking Ferris Bueller spin off at Paramount plus and it got shut down the last second. Thank God. Thank God. The fucking Super Bowl ads obviously are horrendous now. Yeah. I hate all this shit. Yeah. The one with Broderick where he's like, I love AI because it helps me like do spreadsheets and shit. I'm just watching and I'm like, Broderick, you've never done a spreadsheet. What is this? You don't work in an office. The only good Super Bowl ad was from. The one with the toilets. I didn't even see that but it sounds like my kind of thing. I saw that one and I mean it was okay. I laughed. But there wasn't like a, you know, a single tier, like, you know, kind of Super Bowl ad that you were looking for. There's like the two to three shitty post McCauley, Home Alone, the sequels and then the reboot attempt. And I feel like McCauley more recently started being like, what if we did like a legitimate one and it was me as the dad? Right. I think Catherine O'Hara dying kills that. That kills it even harder. I think it kills it really fucking hard. In the weird way, of course, like her like later in life, like fifth wave of success probably would have made it easier. Totally. Like and now it's sort of like, I'll forget it. Right. And people wanting to see the two of them together if it's just him. You just, Griff, you just know if they do a Home Alone now, it's like he'll, we have an app. He'll like, you know, swing the cans with like an app. Yeah. He'll do, he'll like put a TikTok filter on his face to order the pizza. And he's not even swinging cans. He's taping older iPhone models. And then he's using an app to, it's all be apps. Number two of the box office is the best picture winner. Dances with wolves. So these are, these are just like fucking juggernauts running the box office that are gonna. I mean, just three months. Month long campaigns. Yeah. Number three is a film I didn't see in theaters, but definitely saw as a boy. It's a, an adventure film for, you know, for young people. It's not for young people. It's not Homer bound. No, it's more like grown up and dramatic than that. But it's definitely still like for, you know, kids and teenagers to Disney film. It's a major great actor as a young man, you know, you know, New Zealand. Nope. But I don't know. I kind of, you know, that level of prestige. I don't know what. It's not, it's not the cul-sac one. It's not the Ethan Hawke one. It sure is an Ethan Hawke one. It's the Ethan Hawke one. Oh, what's the name of this movie? I get all these titles can use. It's not. Something with a G. Never cry wolf. No, but it doesn't involve a wolf. It does involve a wolf. It's not a wolf dog. White Fang? White Fang. There we go. I thought that before him. Yeah, you nailed it. White Fang, Esther Zuckerman! Esther? And I say this, look at me. I say this from the bottom of my heart. Points. Thank you. Based on Jacqueline's novel, you know, he's in Alaska or wherever the fuck he is. There's a wolf dog that go on an adventure. I saw it as a kid. I can't say I remember it very well. Ethan Hawthorne. Yeah. Randall Klyzer film. Yeah. Who made Honey I Blew Up with the Kid. And Grease. Did you know there's a new TV show where Elizabeth Banks is shranked? What's up? What's shranked? There's like a Honey I Shrunk the Kids TV. Well, it's not it's not Honey I Shrunk the Kids, but it's called A Miniature Wife and Matthew McFaddy shrinks Elizabeth Banks. I just think it's funny. I'm gonna say this from the bottom of my heart. Oh my God, this is coming up. Yeah, it's coming out. He made her tiny. He made her small. It's literally Honey I Shrunk the Kids, but it's Elizabeth Banks. But it's not like... You can just imagine McFaddy going like, oh. Which platform is this on? I believe Peacock. I'm gonna say this from the bottom of my heart. I think we need to create Skynet and use it to destroy the servers that all of these streaming platforms use. I think we need to wipe this shit out. Enough is enough. Whatever the algorithms are that are making it, like they've got to go. Yes. We need to do a movie about your mission to tear out servers in Hollywood basements or whatever. I'm like, I'll just, I'll get a sledgehammer right now and just start. We fucking ran the number McFaddy and Elizabeth Banks see shrink sir, it's enough. It gets, you know, like the profit loss, it gets us there. And I don't know. We have to create an entity. We have to create, we have to find a PodCova. I don't know what we have to fucking do. Man, remember how often they say PodCova in that movie? Yeah. We saw that film together. I still have so many questions. Yeah. Number four. I tried to work through, I've gotten somewhere still waiting on Christopher Macquarie's remaining 800 hours of explaining why it's good. He tapped out after four. He did. I would love him to come aboard. I wonder, I truly wonder how he feels about it. I genuinely want him to go through a couple years of therapy. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe write like a book. Even make another movie and then like be like, okay, you know what? Fine. In retrospect, I've made a couple of them. Right. I'm opening the final reckoning files. Right. Three million will remain redacted, but three million will be released to the public. Maybe I didn't mean to do that many flashbacks. Number four is a best picture nominee from a director who we will cover on this podcast one day. You're always saying we're going to cover her. I'm always saying we're going to cover her. Her. Penny Marshall. That's right. It's the motion picture awakenings. Awakenings. Wake up. Kind of just like ultimate sturdy Oscar bait movie. Why is Penny Marshall a joke? Like I would genuinely think you should do it. No, great question. And I'm glad you're saying me out for this because I think the longer it's been a joke, the more people think. You're making fun of Penny Marshall. We would never do it and we don't think she's worthy of a series. But like she is. Absolutely. 100%. I actually want to do her as a series. Yeah. I need to do a penny episode. Which penny would you want to do? A penny for your thoughts? I mean, you can't just call League of Iran. So come on. You can. What? I'm not asking her to call one. I'm saying which one would you want to do in your heart of hearts? You can say what you want. I mean, obviously I would want to do a League of Iran. But you get someone more famous to do that. Sorry, you guys are big time now. Well, just A-Rod had told us he was interested. A-Rod's become a blankie and a checkmate. I mean, obviously, I mean, look, riding in cars with boys would be fucked up to do. That's fun. Yeah. It's more fun than League of their own, dude. League of Iran is kind of like, yeah, it rocks. I mean, it would be fun, but like the weird ones are funner. Also, A-Rod has like a lot of takes on that one. He said he has some personal stories that he thinks would be a good place to share. No, the actual answer is it was a bit very early into our run when we had been covering kind of like more obvious people and landed on that as the joke answer to throw people off our scent. It's a grift. And then now it has circled back to just I can always say we're doing Penny Marshall next to divert people's attention from what we're actually doing. But to be clear, which is Roman Polanski. And Esther, you're on every episode. To be clear, I would very much like to do other people have signed petitions and supportive. I would very much like to do Penny Marshall. And I'd like to do it sooner rather than later. How's next week for you, David? Yeah, let's do it. Number five of the box office is a romantic comedy drama. Uh-oh. About a young woman who falls forward eventually marries an overbearing older man who proceeds to rub her close knit family the wrong way. Would you believe that this film stars Richard Dreyfus? No, this is not a movie I really know. It's a Lasse Hallström movie. It's his first English language film, the great Swedish director Lasse Hallström, who became a very mediocre Hollywood director. Yeah, he did make a good couple of good. We're coming back around everything civil circle. Look, I watched Chocolat for the first time like two or three years ago after mostly knowing it as like ultimate Oscar villain. You took a bite. And I'm like, this shit rules. Yeah, it's pretty good. Obviously being nominated for best pictures, the worst thing that ever could have happened to it. I wish we had three Chocolats a year. I think that like, what is Chocolat about? Dude, it is about what if you were a stuffy French town and Julia Benoche like at her peak performance showed up and started making Chocolat and everyone just got so horny. And then Johnny Depp is there too, but he's on, you know, Johnny Depp is like a Romani drifter who like steals her heart and then returns it to her. Alfred Molina seemingly coming straight from the set of Dudley do right. He's just a nightly witch. It's bad. He's got the mustache and the tape and everything. Her daughter's ponettes, the saddest girl in the history of movies. Right. Right. All right. I gotta watch this. Pretty silly movie. Judy Dentress, an old lady who's like, the chocolate. The chocolate makes them horny. I will report back. I think that like Gilbert Grape, Chocolat are the sort of, I guess the two best Hallstrom Hollywood movies. I've never seen something to talk about. No. The Julia Roberts movie he made. Is there another 90s one? Sider House. Sider House. It's a movie that is, again, it's like if you remove the Oscar nominations, like the unjust wins that it got. Yeah. You're kind of like, oh, this is interesting. There's things about this that work. Like it's just. My princess of New England. Yeah, I'm pretty nice. I think Sider House rules. I had to do it. I liked it. Sider House rules. But you know, my life as a dog is like incredible. Like he made great movies. Anyway, this movie I've never heard of. I'll tell you the stars. Richard Dreyfus, Holly Hunter, Danny Aiello, Laura Sanjiakomo. So Andy McDowell's co-star. Yeah. Also, In Pretty Woman. There's like a lot. General Rowland's a center. Roxanne Hart, Tim Gunny. I don't know this movie. Do you not guys know this movie? Is the title a sentence? No. It's like a very generic sounding title. It's called Broken Hearts. No. It's called Once Around. Produced by Griffin Dunn. I wonder if he ever considered directing or something. I have no idea. He was producing a lot in that era though. He produced Running on Empty. Griffin Produced. In Chili Seans of Winter. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the top five. Number six is Green Card. Number seven is It's Not a Thuma. Kindergarten Cop. Number eight is a movie called Popcorn. That's a horror film. Isn't it about a haunted movie theater? Yeah. I've always wanted to see it. I've seen this poster. I've never seen this movie. Yeah. College students hosting a film festival stalked and murdered by a serial killer. Sounds fun. Number nine is The Grifters, another Oscar holdover. Great film. Great film. And number 10 is Hamlet. I think the Mel Gibson Hamlet. Sure. Which is a very solid kind of like. I think I remember what Mel Gibson said. What did he say? It's clueless. She's reference. Oh, oh, oh, got it. You got a lot of the kings of the 90s in that 10. True. For being. True Trifes, you mean? You got McCauley and Arnie and Costner and Gibson. Totally. It is like it's a snapshot of a movie star era. Definitely. Yeah. I mean, hell, number 11 is Scott Father, part three. Well, look at that. Pachino's there. Number 12 is Jacob's Ladder. Tim Robbins. The biggest. Tallest. He is tall. One of our tallest actors. I just saw Howard the duck for the first time recently because I'm trying to watch that movie from 1986. You know what? I know this because you liked Ross Loupold's review of it. I thought it was funny. During, and it was, he got that notification during our Super Bowl watch. Was he excited? He was like, well, no, because you liked it. And then a bunch of people started like it. If I like a review, I don't mean to do this, but because I have a big following in the letterbox, it right. He was like, he was like, what the fuck is happening? I mean, his review to me nailed. I know, I, you've discussed Howard the duck many times on the George Lucas talk show. I'm sure. Yes. Yes. Duck Tits. Yes. Duck Tits. Right. But his review nailed the whole thing to me. He was like, what bugs him is the duck is not funny. He's not trying and failing. He's not even intended to be funny. He's just grumpy about being a duck in the real world. The whole movie. Where's the point of the comic book characters? He's like, eh, my wife's cracking duck. And this one, he's just like, what the fuck's up with me not being in my duck world? It feels like real Lucas influence that if he had been like, I read the comic book and I liked it and I hired funny filmmakers and I let them do whatever they wanted to do. Right. I'm not sure the movie works, but it's probably more of an out and out comedy. Right. I kind of went into it because of its weird status now, thinking like, this is going to be interesting. And then I put it on and I was like, this is like sludgy. Like this is really slow and boring. Yeah. I prefer garbage full kids movie to Howard the duck. I mean, and it fucking has Leah Thompson who I would like run a thousand miles for and she looks great. It also has a duck in it. Howard the duck and Tim Robbins, isn't it? I just remember. And Jeffrey Jones. He's really good. Yeah. Legally. In the movie. What am I supposed to do about the back of the, half a Hollywood or sex criminal script? What do you want me to do about this? Stop inviting me to your birthday party. That's all I'm asking. I haven't had a birthday party. Well, I haven't last year. What should I do this year? Invite Jeffrey Jones or just text him and ask what he's up to. Oh my God. 1,800 Jeffrey. Cosby, Jeffrey Jones. Yeah, we got a. Who else? We already in a Kevin Spacey. Cosby runs maybe cut out. We mentioned it's a tripled. I was thinking it is kind of nice that they got Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice made while Catherine Hera was still alive. Not knowing that we were going to lose her so soon. Yes. Like that that movie ends with her being reconnected with her dead husband whose top half has been bitten off. So you don't have to look at Jeffrey Jones anymore. But the movie ends with you being like she seems happy. Yeah, totally. She rocks in that movie. She's really fun. She's so good. Not a movie I like remember that well otherwise. Watch it again. And it grew for me a little. It's a fun. It's fun. It's pretty fun. It's fun. I definitely was not like, like watching that movie. I was like, yeah. No, you know what movie rules Beetlejuice. Sure. Well, a little bit less as for anything you want to plug my writing. Well, obviously my book has been plugged from comms. So falling in love with the movies rom coms, Miss Gribble era to today. I write many places, including the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. So you can read my writing around there. I'm working on a new book that will be out by this time. But are you allowed to say what it's about? Yeah, it's about the television show girls. Hey, and people are talking about it. People are talking about it. It will not be out by the time this is done. And maybe not out by the time I come back on the show. So we will see. Well, you're doing great. Thank you. You're the best. I appreciate you guys. In fact, I would say you are the best. Never forget anything. Thank you. Esther, I've rewatched Aloha in the last year. And do you know that it secretly rips now? Okay, we should. I should rewatch it. I've been trying to get David to rewatch it. But if you get around to rewatching Aloha, please touch base with me. I will. I would rewatch because I really I should we do a reunion pod. That's not good. Crazy. Only an hour 45. It's not like a big task. Let's say Aloha to our previous episode on Aloha. And meanwhile, say Aloha to our new episode on Aloha. Here's another thing. I bought the blue rain and dug into the special features. There's a 20 minute alternate opening with J. Berruchel is Bradley Cooper's brother, who is entirely cut out of the movie and has multiple scenes. Sounds like they really had a handle on that movie. There's also like a 15 minute alternate ending. Yeah, it's insane. Sounds like they definitely knew what was going on in that movie. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review and subscribe. Thank you, Destra Zuckerman for being here. Tune in next week for We have our episode on Fearless with guest Timothy Simon. Hitmaker. You mean hitmaker. And over on the Patreon just a few days ago, we released a special Ben's Choice episode on the film Edge of Tomorrow. Slash Live, Die, Repeat. Yep. Slash All You Need is Kill. Love that movie. Excited. Well, I mean, we haven't recorded yet, but I'm sure it went great. Or have we recorded it like 150 times? There's going to be so many bits. So many bits. Let's have like two. But anyway, if you're interested, you can sign up for Blank Check special features over at patreon.com slash Blank Check. Hell yeah. Esther, you could just get in front of David's mic for one second here. I'm just trying to remember the movie Aloha. It's about the sky. Where is Maria? Blank Check with Griffin and David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Sims. Our executive producer is me, Ben Hosley. Our creative producer is Marie Barty Salinas. And our associate producer is AJ McKeehan. This show is mixed and edited by AJ McKeehan and Alan Smithy. Research by JJ Birch. Our theme song is by Lane Montgomery in the Great American Novel with additional music by Alex Mitchell. Artwork by Joe Bowen, Ali Moss and Pat Reynolds. Our production assistant is Minnick. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production help. Head over to BlankCheckPod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit. Join our Patreon, Blank Check special features for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social at BlankCheckPod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Checkbook on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by Blank Check Productions. Okay, ready?