Latest / Spooky Season Podcasts 🎃 / HOLLYWOODLAND: Bonus Episode: The Screening Room – A Ghost Story

Transcript

HOLLYWOODLAND: Bonus Episode: The Screening Room – A Ghost Story · Spooky Season Podcasts 🎃

0:18
Speaker 1: Well, what's going on, you beautiful people, you good people
0:21
Speaker 1: of Hollywoodland? My name is Seth Lundy, writer, showrunner, and
0:24
Speaker 1: good doctor here at Double Elvis, and it's Friday, which
0:28
Speaker 1: means it's Time yet again for another installment of The
0:30
Speaker 1: Screening Room, which is our weekly episode of the podcast
0:33
Speaker 1: in which we watch a movie that has something to
0:35
Speaker 1: do with our main episode's subject and themes of the week,
0:38
Speaker 1: and then we talk about it. This week, we featured
0:42
Speaker 1: our fully scripted and sound design episode about the Poltergeist
0:45
Speaker 1: franchise and the so-called Poltergeist curse. And while I think
0:49
Speaker 1: that Poltergeist is a cool movie, certainly a cool relic
0:53
Speaker 1: from the 80s, you know, that whole Did Steven Spielberg
0:56
Speaker 1: actually direct this and not Toby Hooper conversation and all that?
0:59
Speaker 1: Not to mention a piece of my origin story in
1:02
Speaker 1: terms of being traumatized by horror films early on in
1:05
Speaker 1: my life. I felt like the episode itself and then
1:09
Speaker 1: the wrap party episode from Wednesday of this week kind
1:11
Speaker 1: of covered what I wanted to say about it. I
1:14
Speaker 1: thought about covering Poltergeist 2, The Other Side, just because
1:18
Speaker 1: I feel like that's a pretty horrible film and it
1:20
Speaker 1: would have made for interesting, I don't know, Would have
1:24
Speaker 1: been interesting to talk about, and it also would have
1:26
Speaker 1: made for a fascinating mixtape. I thought about this for
1:29
Speaker 1: a hot minute. You watch Jo Beth Williams clip the roses,
1:33
Speaker 1: and you think of Weens, Roses Are Free. You watch
1:37
Speaker 1: Craig T. Nelson say or do anything, and you think
1:41
Speaker 1: Put Me In, Coach. You think of Centerfield by John Fogerty.
1:44
Speaker 1: You watch sweet Carol Ann once again get haunted by
1:47
Speaker 1: those damn ghosts, and you think of Whiskey Town's The
1:50
Speaker 1: Ballad of Carol Lynn. But Ryan Adams has that southern
1:55
Speaker 1: drawl of his, so his Carol Lynn sounds like, oh,
1:59
Speaker 1: Carol Ann. You watch the family run from house to
2:03
Speaker 1: house and try to outrun the spirits that have it
2:06
Speaker 1: out for them, and you think of running by the
2:08
Speaker 1: far side. But we're not going to talk about Poltergeist 2.
2:12
Speaker 1: We're not going to talk about Poltergeist 3, which I've
2:14
Speaker 1: never seen. But we are going to stay within the
2:17
Speaker 1: ghost zone here, given our themes this week. And given
2:21
Speaker 1: that we are one week out from Halloween, so let's
2:24
Speaker 1: talk about a 2017 film called A Ghost Story. A
2:28
Speaker 1: Ghost Story is the fifth feature film from director David Lowery,
2:32
Speaker 1: who also wrote the screenplay. It stars Rooney Mara and
2:35
Speaker 1: Casey Affleck, both of whom Lowery had worked with on
2:39
Speaker 1: his second feature, Ain't Them Bodies Saints, which was like
2:42
Speaker 1: a retelling of the Bonnie and Clyde story. Lowery's got
2:45
Speaker 1: a fascinating career because between Ain't Them Bodies Saints and
2:49
Speaker 1: A Ghost Story, He makes Pete's Dragon for Disney, a
2:54
Speaker 1: contemporary update of that film, which I will say, I
2:57
Speaker 1: quite liked it when I came out. I saw that
2:59
Speaker 1: with my kids, and I remember thinking that it was great.
3:03
Speaker 1: And then after this film, A Ghost Story, he makes
3:06
Speaker 1: The Old Man and the Gun, which was Robert Redford's
3:08
Speaker 1: final leading role. Then he makes The Green Knight, this
3:11
Speaker 1: incredible fantasy film set in the times of King Arthur.
3:15
Speaker 1: Then he's back with Disney again. He makes Peter Pan
3:18
Speaker 1: and Wendy, one of Disney's live-action remakes of their classic
3:21
Speaker 1: animated films. And then this year, he went back to
3:24
Speaker 1: original non-Disney storytelling with Mother Mary, in which Anne Hathaway
3:28
Speaker 1: plays a pop star with new songs written for the
3:31
Speaker 1: film by Jack Antonoff and Charlie XCX. I have not
3:35
Speaker 1: seen Mother Mary yet, and I have not seen the
3:37
Speaker 1: Peter Pan movie. But Lowry is a fascinating filmmaker with
3:41
Speaker 1: an incredibly high hit rate, in my opinion. especially when
3:44
Speaker 1: he does his own original stuff. And he has an
3:48
Speaker 1: equally compelling and unique take on cinema, and nowhere is
3:52
Speaker 1: that better exemplified than by this film, A Ghost Story. Now,
3:57
Speaker 1: if you check out the poster for this movie, you
3:59
Speaker 1: might think this is some goofy, it's the Great Pumpkin,
4:02
Speaker 1: Charlie Brown kind of nonsense, because the poster just shows
4:07
Speaker 1: someone under a white bed sheet with big holes cut
4:10
Speaker 1: out for eyes. But this is not a comedy. And
4:14
Speaker 1: very soon, as you live with the main character of
4:16
Speaker 1: this film, which is, you know, in essence, the ghost
4:19
Speaker 1: of Casey Affleck's character, who has only just recently died
4:23
Speaker 1: and left behind a grieving widow, whose face is hidden
4:26
Speaker 1: behind this white sheet. It's a conceit from a cartoon
4:29
Speaker 1: that once played as broad comedy, but it's now playing
4:33
Speaker 1: as this great longing. There is a weight to the sheet.
4:37
Speaker 1: There's the weight of loss and grief, but also of time.
4:42
Speaker 1: I think more than anything, this film is about time.
4:45
Speaker 1: It is about the passing of time, how time can
4:48
Speaker 1: feel painfully slow, and then how it can pass by
4:51
Speaker 1: so quickly, you feel like you've lost a few years
4:54
Speaker 1: in the blink of an eye. Now, Casey Affleck had
4:57
Speaker 1: just won the Academy Award for Best Actor a few
4:59
Speaker 1: months before this film came out. He won the award
5:03
Speaker 1: for his devastating performance in Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea,
5:07
Speaker 1: which when I first saw that, As the father of three,
5:11
Speaker 1: I saw it in the theater. I was pretty much destroyed.
5:14
Speaker 1: And for the longest time, I referred to that as
5:16
Speaker 1: the greatest film I'll never watch again. Years later, I
5:19
Speaker 1: wound up putting it back on again. And I was
5:21
Speaker 1: struck the second time around by how funny it is.
5:24
Speaker 1: And yes, it still completely levels me. But knowing the
5:27
Speaker 1: details of the great tragedy at the center of the
5:30
Speaker 1: film made it easier to handle when that happened the
5:34
Speaker 1: second time around. You know what I mean? And I
5:35
Speaker 1: was able to really appreciate the movie even more. This performance, though,
5:41
Speaker 1: in A Ghost Story, completely the opposite of Manchester by
5:45
Speaker 1: the Sea. Casey Affleck is practically in a mumblecore movie
5:49
Speaker 1: in the scenes where he's alive and not hidden by
5:52
Speaker 1: the white sheep. And then Rooney Mara, who, you know,
5:55
Speaker 1: kicked so much ass in David Fincher's The Girl with
5:57
Speaker 1: the Dragon Tattoo a few years before this, she is
6:00
Speaker 1: equally subdued, sublimely subdued even. Her grief in this is
6:05
Speaker 1: so inward-looking and so the opposite of what has long
6:09
Speaker 1: been considered, you know, to be a great cathartic performance.
6:12
Speaker 1: You know, the screaming, the howling, the performative, like my
6:16
Speaker 1: character is in pain. This film becomes her film for
6:21
Speaker 1: like most of the first half. And it's so internal
6:24
Speaker 1: and so private and so intimate. She crushes it. Rooney Mara,
6:29
Speaker 1: nominated for Best Actress for Dragon Tattoo, nominated for Best
6:33
Speaker 1: Supporting Actress for Carol, but nothing for this. In fact,
6:36
Speaker 1: a ghost story got zero Academy Award nominations. It is
6:40
Speaker 1: a small movie. This is A24, back when A24 was
6:45
Speaker 1: really starting to build its cool-as-fuck reputation. The budget was
6:50
Speaker 1: dirt cheap, $ 100, 000. It grossed $ 2 million. Now, not many
6:56
Speaker 1: people have seen this movie, as the numbers tell you.
6:59
Speaker 1: At least not as many people who saw some of
7:02
Speaker 1: the biggest movies that year, 2017. Movies like Star Wars,
7:05
Speaker 1: The Last Jedi, Spider-Man Homecoming, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
7:10
Speaker 1: The top 10 grossing movies of 2017 are all either
7:15
Speaker 1: franchise sequels or remakes, and four of the 10 are
7:19
Speaker 1: comic book movies. But I would hazard a guess that
7:23
Speaker 1: every single person who saw those big budget films would
7:27
Speaker 1: find more in common with this tiny little movie, A
7:31
Speaker 1: Ghost Story, because everyone's been there. We've all lost someone.
7:36
Speaker 1: close to us, and later felt like we could feel
7:40
Speaker 1: that person's presence next to us. You hear things around
7:44
Speaker 1: the house. There's a strange noise. Maybe something falls from
7:46
Speaker 1: a shelf and makes a sound when it hits the ground.
7:49
Speaker 1: But more so, at least in my experience, it's not
7:52
Speaker 1: these strange occurrences. It's more of a feeling. It's an
7:55
Speaker 1: overwhelming feeling that is hard to describe. This film tries
8:00
Speaker 1: to describe that, but it tries to describe that from
8:02
Speaker 1: the ghost's POV as well. Everyone can also relate to
8:07
Speaker 1: this film, because as I mentioned earlier, this is a
8:10
Speaker 1: film about time. And it's about how we experience time
8:15
Speaker 1: in moments of tragedy and grief, and how we navigate
8:19
Speaker 1: through trying to make sense of the past and the future,
8:23
Speaker 1: and also how we see our place in the grand
8:25
Speaker 1: scheme of things, which is to say, in eternity. Just
8:30
Speaker 1: this past weekend, I read this great little book called
8:33
Speaker 1: Conversations on Faith by Father Antonio Spadaro and Martin Scorsese.
8:37
Speaker 1: It's basically just transcript of these conversations that these two
8:41
Speaker 1: guys had together. And in the book, Scorsese talks about
8:44
Speaker 1: this concept of time. So I've been thinking a lot
8:46
Speaker 1: about this these last few days. This was kind of like,
8:49
Speaker 1: you know, synchronicity, that this film is about these same
8:53
Speaker 1: ideas I've been thinking about. In the book, Martin Scorsese
8:57
Speaker 1: mentions watching this talk online by a spiritual teacher, and
9:01
Speaker 1: someone asked him a question about eternity. And this guy says,
9:05
Speaker 1: that eternity isn't this place that's off in the distance somewhere.
9:08
Speaker 1: It's not a place we journey to when we die.
9:11
Speaker 1: He said that the past is always behind us, the
9:14
Speaker 1: future is always ahead of us, and it's also unknowable
9:17
Speaker 1: that the past, quote unquote, and the future, quote unquote,
9:20
Speaker 1: are merely ideas created by us humans in order to
9:24
Speaker 1: give ourselves a sense of structure. And then Scorsese says,
9:29
Speaker 1: yet all that really exists is right here and right now,
9:32
Speaker 1: which we can never grasp, So in essence, we dwell
9:36
Speaker 1: in eternity. David Lowery's 2017 film, A Ghost Story, dwells
9:42
Speaker 1: in eternity. That's exactly what this film is about, and
9:45
Speaker 1: we're going to get into it right after this. A
10:10
Speaker 1: ghost story opens with a Virginia Woolf quote. Whatever hour
10:13
Speaker 1: you woke, there was a door shutting. This is a
10:18
Speaker 1: line from a short story called A Haunted House, which
10:21
Speaker 1: informs us what we are about to see, even if
10:23
Speaker 1: we don't fully understand it yet. The film opens with
10:27
Speaker 1: Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck, who are never named, by
10:30
Speaker 1: the way. Casey Affleck, we know, is a musician or
10:33
Speaker 1: a composer who works from home. They are there on
10:35
Speaker 1: their couch. It's a very intimate scene, very domestic. They're
10:37
Speaker 1: wrapped up. each other having this conversation. It's a fairly
10:40
Speaker 1: innocuous conversation, but the score, the music behind it is
10:44
Speaker 1: very dramatic, very tense, almost as if the score knows
10:48
Speaker 1: more about what's going on than we do. The couple
10:51
Speaker 1: hears these weird noises in their house from time to time.
10:55
Speaker 1: And at one point, Casey Affleck's eyes follow this glimmer
10:59
Speaker 1: of light that's dancing around. It rises to the ceiling.
11:02
Speaker 1: Then the camera follows it as it drifts heavenward all
11:05
Speaker 1: the way up into the galaxy above. where it settles
11:07
Speaker 1: in a cluster of stars. The couple continues to hear
11:11
Speaker 1: strange noises. One night, it sounds like something huge has
11:14
Speaker 1: landed on the piano out in the living room. So
11:16
Speaker 1: they both rush out there in the dark. He's opening
11:20
Speaker 1: doors that are nervously creaking in the silence. What was that?
11:23
Speaker 1: They don't know. There's nothing there. So they go back
11:26
Speaker 1: to bed, and they share a moment of intimacy as
11:29
Speaker 1: she is trying to settle down from being spooked. And
11:32
Speaker 1: this is something the film is interested in. It's interested
11:35
Speaker 1: in these moments, moments of waking eternity that would otherwise
11:39
Speaker 1: appear banal. David Lowery holds these moments and these shots
11:43
Speaker 1: for longer than you would typically expect, and then he
11:46
Speaker 1: cuts between moments also in ways that you wouldn't expect,
11:50
Speaker 1: which also serve to move the story along in this
11:53
Speaker 1: patient way. For example, we're here with the couple in bed,
11:57
Speaker 1: he fades out of the shot, and the next thing
11:59
Speaker 1: we see is an exterior shot of their very modest
12:03
Speaker 1: house the next day, And all we can see beyond
12:05
Speaker 1: the house is what appears to be smoke drifting into
12:08
Speaker 1: the shot and then drifting out. The camera very slowly
12:11
Speaker 1: pans to the right. And as it does, it reveals
12:14
Speaker 1: a car crash that's just occurred between two cars right
12:17
Speaker 1: there on the side of the road outside the house.
12:19
Speaker 1: And eventually we see that Casey Affleck's character is dead
12:23
Speaker 1: behind the wheel of his car. None of this is explained.
12:28
Speaker 1: We don't know what happened in the accident. We don't
12:30
Speaker 1: know who the other person was, if they survived. All
12:33
Speaker 1: we know is we find ourselves at the hospital. Rooney
12:36
Speaker 1: Mara is standing at a table next to a nurse.
12:38
Speaker 1: There's a white sheet covering the body of her dead husband.
12:41
Speaker 1: The sheet's pulled back. She has a moment after which
12:44
Speaker 1: she pulls the sheet back up and she leaves. Once again,
12:47
Speaker 1: Lowry's camera just waits there and it waits and it
12:51
Speaker 1: doesn't move. And then after a few moments, the body
12:55
Speaker 1: rises beneath the sheet. It comes to a sitting position,
12:58
Speaker 1: still obscured behind the fabric. And the next thing we
13:01
Speaker 1: see is the ghost of Casey Affleck's character still hidden
13:05
Speaker 1: under a sheet, which now has two holes cut out
13:07
Speaker 1: for eyes, wandering through the halls of the hospital, walking
13:10
Speaker 1: past doctors and patients, but no one can see him.
13:13
Speaker 1: There is no music during this entire stretch, by the way.
13:17
Speaker 1: The ghost leaves the hospital, walks through a giant green
13:19
Speaker 1: field outside, and eventually makes his way back home. He's
13:23
Speaker 1: all alone. He looks at a single photo tacked on
13:26
Speaker 1: the fridge of his former self with his wife. And
13:29
Speaker 1: though the exterior sheet can make no expression. We can
13:33
Speaker 1: feel the pain. Eventually, Rooney Mara's character returns home, and
13:39
Speaker 1: the ghost of her husband watches her go through these motions,
13:43
Speaker 1: completely unaware that he is there. Someone has dropped off
13:46
Speaker 1: a pie for her, some sympathy food, and she begins
13:48
Speaker 1: to eat it directly from the pan that it's in.
13:51
Speaker 1: She sinks down to the floor, sitting there, her back
13:53
Speaker 1: against the kitchen counter, and she eats, quietly crying as
13:56
Speaker 1: she does. Then she goes and lies down, and the
13:59
Speaker 1: music now returns. as the ghost follows her, touching her
14:03
Speaker 1: back to comfort her, but she's not aware of the gesture.
14:07
Speaker 1: There's a great shot soon after this of the ghost
14:09
Speaker 1: standing in the living room, and he's watching as his
14:12
Speaker 1: widow emerges from the bathroom and heads out the front
14:15
Speaker 1: door to get on with her day. But we stay
14:17
Speaker 1: there in the shot. Shot does not change. And all
14:21
Speaker 1: of a sudden, she comes out of the bathroom again
14:23
Speaker 1: and walks out the front door. And then again, she
14:25
Speaker 1: comes out of the bathroom. And every time she does,
14:27
Speaker 1: she's like in a different outfit, right? Suddenly, time is
14:31
Speaker 1: moving faster than it has been up to this point.
14:33
Speaker 1: Time has moved so slow, but now we're moving fast.
14:37
Speaker 1: The ghost and his widow stand side by side in
14:40
Speaker 1: one shot, watching as the rain falls outside. Soon, snow
14:45
Speaker 1: is falling, winter has arrived, and then like a passing storm,
14:48
Speaker 1: it's green again and spring is here. At some point,
14:51
Speaker 1: the ghost looks out one of the windows of the
14:53
Speaker 1: house at the neighboring house and sees another figure under
14:56
Speaker 1: another bed sheet This one also with eye holes cut out.
15:00
Speaker 1: The neighboring ghost raises a hand beneath the sheet and
15:03
Speaker 1: the subtitles say, hi. And this conversation starts in subtitles
15:08
Speaker 1: as ominous music begins to build. I'm waiting for someone,
15:12
Speaker 1: the neighboring ghost says. Who? Our ghost asks. I don't remember. Later,
15:18
Speaker 1: the ghost watches as his widow comes home with another man.
15:22
Speaker 1: They kiss in the doorway. The ghost becomes angry. The
15:25
Speaker 1: lights in the house start to flicker and books come
15:27
Speaker 1: crashing off the shelf. It's here that we flash back
15:30
Speaker 1: to an earlier conversation between Mara and Affleck when he
15:34
Speaker 1: was alive. He's telling her he doesn't want to talk
15:36
Speaker 1: about it anymore, whatever they're talking about, and he deflects
15:39
Speaker 1: this conversation by playing her a song that he's working on.
15:43
Speaker 1: When the song finishes, she just hands him back his
15:45
Speaker 1: headphones and walks away. And back in the present, with
15:51
Speaker 1: this conversation, this moment of conflict probably still on her mind,
15:57
Speaker 1: Rooney Mara's character is packing up the house. She's painting.
15:59
Speaker 1: She's preparing to leave and to move on. Before she does,
16:03
Speaker 1: she writes something down on a scrap of paper. She
16:05
Speaker 1: sticks it in a crack in the wall, painting over
16:07
Speaker 1: the spot, and then she's gone. The ghost is left behind. Instantly,
16:14
Speaker 1: his attention turns to that crack in the wall, and
16:16
Speaker 1: he's trying to dig that scrap of paper out to
16:18
Speaker 1: read it. But before he can, suddenly the front door
16:21
Speaker 1: swings open and kids run inside. Once again, time's moving
16:24
Speaker 1: quickly as these new tenants fill up the house. The
16:27
Speaker 1: ghost is moving from one room to the next, and
16:28
Speaker 1: the weeks and the months are just flying by. It
16:30
Speaker 1: seems like it's a new season every time he enters
16:32
Speaker 1: a new room. The ghost resorts to what we associate
16:37
Speaker 1: as ghostly activity by making the lights flicker again. He
16:40
Speaker 1: grabs a glass of milk from the table, drops it
16:42
Speaker 1: on the floor, it smashes, the family screams, and then
16:45
Speaker 1: they all recoil in horror as he starts to throw
16:47
Speaker 1: dishes from the cupboard. To this family, these dishes just
16:51
Speaker 1: appear to be flying out of the cupboard on their own.
16:54
Speaker 1: The family is ultimately replaced by younger tenants, these people
16:58
Speaker 1: in their 20s or 30s. They have a house party.
17:00
Speaker 1: There's a downer of a guest played by Bonnie Prince Billy.
17:03
Speaker 1: He's going on and on about how everyone's going to die,
17:06
Speaker 1: even your kids, and the plates on the earth will
17:08
Speaker 1: shift and the oceans will rise and the mountains will fall.
17:11
Speaker 1: Cut to the house is empty and in disrepair. The
17:15
Speaker 1: walls are ripped. The floor is torn up. The ceiling
17:17
Speaker 1: is falling down. The ghost continues to claw at the
17:20
Speaker 1: spot in the wall for that note. that she left there,
17:23
Speaker 1: and at last he gets it, but just as he does,
17:26
Speaker 1: a front-end loader comes crashing in through the window on
17:29
Speaker 1: the opposite side of the house. The house is leveled,
17:32
Speaker 1: reduced to rubble. We can only assume that this scrap
17:37
Speaker 1: of paper has been dropped in the process. The house
17:39
Speaker 1: next door is also torn down, and the neighboring ghost
17:45
Speaker 1: stands in the rubble of their house just as Casey
17:48
Speaker 1: Affleck's ghost stands in the rubble of his. And they
17:50
Speaker 1: look at each other, and via the subtitles, this neighboring
17:53
Speaker 1: ghost says, I don't think they're coming, right? This person,
17:56
Speaker 1: whoever they've been waiting for. And just as they say that,
17:59
Speaker 1: they have that realization. The body beneath the sheet is gone,
18:02
Speaker 1: and the sheet deflates and just falls to the ground.
18:05
Speaker 1: Our ghost stays. Construction builds up around him. A skyscraper
18:09
Speaker 1: is part of this epic urban renewal that swallows up
18:12
Speaker 1: the whole area. The ghost goes up to one of
18:14
Speaker 1: the top floors of this new giant building, walks out
18:17
Speaker 1: to the into the neon city below. But the ghost
18:24
Speaker 1: is not dead, of course. The ghost finds himself back
18:28
Speaker 1: on this plot of land where his house once stood.
18:31
Speaker 1: But now there's a farmer hammering stakes in the ground.
18:36
Speaker 1: And as we see a wagon pull up with all
18:39
Speaker 1: these homesteaders, we realize that we have gone back in time, that,
18:43
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know, time is a flat circle. Yeah.
18:48
Speaker 1: Eternity continues to soldier on with the quickness, I guess.
18:52
Speaker 1: The ghost is once again back inside of his own house.
18:55
Speaker 1: He watches as Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara first step
18:58
Speaker 1: foot inside the house, decide to buy it. He watches
19:00
Speaker 1: them settle there. He watches them argue. He watches them
19:03
Speaker 1: make up. We see the scene where the ghost slams
19:06
Speaker 1: on the piano keys late at night, and we get
19:08
Speaker 1: that scene again where the couple runs out to investigate,
19:11
Speaker 1: and they can't figure out what's going on, what's making
19:14
Speaker 1: these noises. We even get to the spot where the
19:17
Speaker 1: Casey Affleck character dies again. And now there are two
19:19
Speaker 1: ghosts inside this house, right? Follow me here. When Rooney
19:22
Speaker 1: Mara moves out and at long last, our ghost goes
19:26
Speaker 1: to the hole in that wall, pulls out the scrap
19:28
Speaker 1: of paper that his widow wrote on and reads it.
19:31
Speaker 1: And immediately after he does, the body disappears and the
19:35
Speaker 1: bed sheet crumples to the floor below. Built to Spill
19:41
Speaker 1: has this song called Randy Described Eternity. I thought of
19:46
Speaker 1: that song because that's what this film does. It describes eternity.
19:50
Speaker 1: in 90 minutes, no less. We are eternity, guys. And
19:55
Speaker 1: there are other songs this film makes you think of
19:59
Speaker 1: beyond Randy Described Eternity. Let's talk about them, and let's
20:03
Speaker 1: make a hypothetical, theoretical, metaphorical, potentially possible mixtape coming up
20:08
Speaker 1: right after this. All right, guys, we're back here in
20:23
Speaker 1: the screening room in Hollywood land. My name is Dr.
20:26
Speaker 1: Lundy and talking about a ghost story, 2017 David Lowery film.
20:33
Speaker 1: What's make a hypothetical, theoretical, metaphorical, potentially possible and mixtape
20:36
Speaker 1: inspired by this movie. My mind went to the police
20:42
Speaker 1: right off the bat because the police had this album
20:45
Speaker 1: called ghost in the machine. Early eighties comes out right
20:48
Speaker 1: before synchronicity. First of all, I love the police. The
20:53
Speaker 1: police get dumped on a lot. I know Sting is,
20:57
Speaker 1: you know, kind of a dork. And, you know, the
21:01
Speaker 1: whole like tantric sex of it all and the whole
21:04
Speaker 1: like playing the fucking lute or whatever he likes to
21:07
Speaker 1: play these days. And I know he's got a big
21:09
Speaker 1: ego and all that shit. But like, and I also
21:11
Speaker 1: know this whole argument about cultural appropriation and like, you know,
21:15
Speaker 1: that they're whitewashed reggae or whatever you're going to argue about.
21:19
Speaker 1: but I fucking love the police. I love the interplay
21:22
Speaker 1: between these guys. I love their songs. I love their albums.
21:25
Speaker 1: Always have, always will. This is like a Dark Horse
21:29
Speaker 1: favorite of mine. I love this album. And it would
21:32
Speaker 1: be obvious to include Spirits in the Material World, which
21:34
Speaker 1: is the first track from this record, but that's so overplayed.
21:37
Speaker 1: I'd rather choose a track like Secret Journey, in which
21:41
Speaker 1: our guy, Gordon Sting, sings about this secret journey you
21:45
Speaker 1: must take to become a holy man, whatever that means.
21:49
Speaker 1: But I think what that means is that it's the
21:51
Speaker 1: kind of journey that this ghost is on in this movie.
21:54
Speaker 1: I think it's the kind of journey that the ghost's
21:56
Speaker 1: widow is on. I think it's the kind of journey
21:58
Speaker 1: we're all on, guys. Martin Scorsese knows this. You know this.
22:03
Speaker 1: I'm getting metaphysical here, so buckle up, all right? Next song,
22:08
Speaker 1: thinking about that car crash near the start of the film,
22:11
Speaker 1: let's put on a David Bowie song called Always Crashing
22:15
Speaker 1: in the Same Car. This is from his 1977 album, Low,
22:20
Speaker 1: produced by Brian Eno. This is one of the famed
22:23
Speaker 1: Berlin albums, a trilogy of albums that includes this one, Low, Heroes,
22:28
Speaker 1: and Lodger, recorded, all of them recorded, I believe, in
22:31
Speaker 1: Berlin Hansa Studios. This is when he's over there hanging
22:36
Speaker 1: out with Iggy Pop and making Lust for Life as well,
22:40
Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken. The first half of this album,
22:43
Speaker 1: by the way, might be the greatest album David Bowie
22:47
Speaker 1: side of an album of all time. But then the
22:50
Speaker 1: second half has got all these, like, weirdo instrumentals, all these, like, cold,
22:55
Speaker 1: synthetic instrumentals. And I dig it. I like them a lot.
23:00
Speaker 1: But it's a wicked tough hang when you go from
23:02
Speaker 1: side A and you flip it. Like, when you commit,
23:04
Speaker 1: you know, you're having a, I don't know, you're playing
23:06
Speaker 1: fucking cribbage, or you're playing skipo with the family, whatever.
23:11
Speaker 1: And you're like, hey, let's put a record on. You
23:12
Speaker 1: put on low. And like, everyone's grooving to that first half,
23:15
Speaker 1: you know, like, Sound and Visions on there and Breaking
23:19
Speaker 1: Glass is on there and Speed of Life and Be
23:21
Speaker 1: My Wife. And it's just like great song after great song.
23:24
Speaker 1: And then you flip the record and it's like, you know,
23:26
Speaker 1: like record scratch. Like what the fuck is this, right?
23:29
Speaker 1: The whole like instrumentals. So tough hang to put this
23:35
Speaker 1: on and listen to it side by side. I, you know,
23:38
Speaker 1: I almost want a record. I want Low to be
23:41
Speaker 1: songs on both sides and I want it to have
23:43
Speaker 1: like an accompanying instrumental album that's its own thing. But
23:47
Speaker 1: of course, we don't get that. We get Low the
23:50
Speaker 1: way it is, which I guess is what makes it unique.
23:52
Speaker 1: Funny thing about Low too, when this came out, Nick
23:55
Speaker 1: Low had this joke where he saw that the album
23:59
Speaker 1: was named Low, L-O-W, and Nick Low's name is spelled
24:02
Speaker 1: with an E on the end. So Nick Low thought
24:04
Speaker 1: it'd be funny if he released an EP called Bowie,
24:07
Speaker 1: but instead of writing it B-O-W-I-E, he got rid of
24:10
Speaker 1: the E and it's just spelled B-O-W-I. So that's a,
24:14
Speaker 1: I don't know, pointless piece of trivia there for you.
24:17
Speaker 1: All right, now, if you try to think about songs
24:22
Speaker 1: about eternity, your brain comes back to you with cheese. Cheese, cheese, cheese.
24:27
Speaker 1: Eternal Flame by the Bangles, or Cheap Trick, take your pick.
24:31
Speaker 1: Because while eternity should be this very profound thing, and
24:36
Speaker 1: it is when you hear Martin Scorsese and a Catholic
24:39
Speaker 1: priest talk about this, It's inherently very saccharine and very
24:43
Speaker 1: greeting card-esque. However, the song As by Stevie Wonder is
24:50
Speaker 1: the exception to the rule, right? This is a song
24:53
Speaker 1: about eternity. This is a song which states, I'll be
24:55
Speaker 1: loving you always until the ocean covers every mountain high,
25:00
Speaker 1: until the dolphin flies and parrots live at sea, until
25:03
Speaker 1: we dream of life and life becomes a dream. Damn,
25:06
Speaker 1: Stevie Wonder was on a fucking tear in the 70s.
25:10
Speaker 1: It goes on and on like this, just like the
25:12
Speaker 1: song goes on and on, the refrain goes on and on,
25:14
Speaker 1: and I believe to my soul that this is what
25:17
Speaker 1: eternity feels like in a pop song, and it feels
25:21
Speaker 1: damn good. Again, this song is called As, A-S. It's
25:26
Speaker 1: one of the most badass songs you will ever hear,
25:29
Speaker 1: and it will lift you off the floor. It will
25:33
Speaker 1: make your ass shake on its own. I'm telling you guys,
25:37
Speaker 1: It's the best. Stevie Wonder as. All right. I'm thinking
25:40
Speaker 1: about tearing down the house in this film and building
25:45
Speaker 1: this huge urban hellscape, right? So let's include Big Yellow
25:49
Speaker 1: Taxi by Joni Mitchell off her Ladies of the Canyon record.
25:53
Speaker 1: This is from, I'm going to guess 71. This is the,
25:57
Speaker 1: you know, they paved paradise and put up a parking
25:58
Speaker 1: lot song that, you know, you don't know what you
26:01
Speaker 1: got until it's gone. Joni Mitchell, known for these really
26:04
Speaker 1: complex melodies and funky tunings and unknowable chords, but this
26:09
Speaker 1: is one of those rare Joni Mitchell songs that's just
26:12
Speaker 1: straight down the middle. It's so catchy, and I think
26:14
Speaker 1: she was so ahead of her time in that she
26:17
Speaker 1: was hip to the uber-commercialization of everything, how paradise would
26:22
Speaker 1: one day literally be turned into a site for a
26:25
Speaker 1: dollar general. And now here we are in 2026, and
26:28
Speaker 1: there's a so-called dollar store on every block, just like
26:31
Speaker 1: there used to be a Starbucks on every block. And
26:33
Speaker 1: Joni Mitchell is over here strumming her funkily tuned guitar
26:36
Speaker 1: being like, told you so, right? Sidebar, Joni Mitchell just
26:40
Speaker 1: became an American citizen. Congratulations. I sound like I'm Bugs Bunny.
26:47
Speaker 1: Joni Mitchell, American citizen, about time. Speaking of singer-songwriters, Randy Newman.
26:53
Speaker 1: Have we done a Randy Newman song before in a playlist?
26:55
Speaker 1: I cannot remember. This is a song called Losing You.
27:00
Speaker 1: thinking about the themes in this movie about losing a
27:03
Speaker 1: loved one. This is called Losing You. This is from
27:06
Speaker 1: a later period Randy Newman album called Harps and Angels
27:08
Speaker 1: from 2008, which is a really great record. This is
27:11
Speaker 1: just strings, piano, and Randy's voice. This song destroys me, guys.
27:17
Speaker 1: Every time I hear it, I don't think I can
27:18
Speaker 1: make it through the song with dry eyes. And I
27:21
Speaker 1: say that with all sincerity. I was a fool with
27:24
Speaker 1: my money and lost every dime. Sun stopped shining and
27:27
Speaker 1: it rained all the time. It did set me back some,
27:30
Speaker 1: but I made it through, though I'll never get over
27:33
Speaker 1: losing you. It's so simple, but it's a dead-on bullseye
27:39
Speaker 1: to your heart. And it does this funky thing at
27:42
Speaker 1: the end where the chords change slightly on the refrain,
27:44
Speaker 1: and the strings swell along with it, and the music
27:47
Speaker 1: of it, the unexpected shift, it's like this emotional punch
27:52
Speaker 1: that comes out of nowhere. This dude cooks, guys. I'm sorry,
27:55
Speaker 1: Randy Newman cooks. And for those of you who don't know,
27:58
Speaker 1: if all you know is the the Toy Story songs
28:01
Speaker 1: and the songs that he gets nominated for an Academy
28:04
Speaker 1: Award every fucking year. There's this other side of Randy Newman,
28:07
Speaker 1: his solo records that is so subversive and so wonderful.
28:12
Speaker 1: And if you don't know those songs and those records yet,
28:14
Speaker 1: I envy you. Check them out. Harps and Angels is
28:17
Speaker 1: a great record. You could also start with some of
28:19
Speaker 1: his classic stuff from the 70s. Check it out. And,
28:23
Speaker 1: you know, with that in mind, what do you guys have?
28:25
Speaker 1: Songs that you could put on a mixtape if you
28:27
Speaker 1: were so inclined. Songs that it, evoke a ghost story
28:31
Speaker 1: in some way, get at me and let me know.
28:33
Speaker 1: You can call me. You can text me, 617-906-6638. You
28:39
Speaker 1: can also email me at disgracelandpod at gmail.com. While you're
28:43
Speaker 1: doing that, I'm going to take a quick break here,
28:44
Speaker 1: but don't go anywhere. I'll be right back just after this.
29:00
Speaker 1: All right, Hollywoodland Gain, a ghost story. See this movie
29:04
Speaker 1: if you have not. It is a gem. David Lowery
29:07
Speaker 1: is a talent. I can compliment him better than that, right?
29:14
Speaker 1: David Lowery, again, I said it before, he has a
29:17
Speaker 1: very unique point of view, and I always welcome his films.
29:22
Speaker 1: Although I will say, I am oddly not interested at
29:26
Speaker 1: all in the subject matter of Mother Mary. I watched
29:28
Speaker 1: the trailer and I was just like, yeah, I don't
29:30
Speaker 1: think that's for me. So I haven't seen it yet. Although,
29:33
Speaker 1: you know, in deference to him, I will watch it
29:35
Speaker 1: at some point. But A Ghost Story, The Old Man
29:37
Speaker 1: and the Gun, The Green Knight, Ain't Them Bodies Saints. great,
29:40
Speaker 1: great stuff. I also recommended earlier this week, if you
29:43
Speaker 1: missed it, in the wrap party, movies like Peeping Tom,
29:46
Speaker 1: Hour of the Wolf, and Diabolique for potential movies you
29:50
Speaker 1: can watch during this month, during October. Not your typical
29:54
Speaker 1: Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Jason, whatever his name is from
29:58
Speaker 1: Friday the 13th, but You know, maybe some ideas for
30:00
Speaker 1: off-the-beaten-path movies that are freaky-deaky for this time of year.
30:05
Speaker 1: Maybe that's what I'll start calling spooky season. I'll start
30:07
Speaker 1: calling it freaky-deaky season. That works a little bit better
30:09
Speaker 1: for me. Give me your thoughts. 617-906-6638. That's how you
30:18
Speaker 1: get in touch. You can email me, disgracelandpod at gmail.com.
30:21
Speaker 1: Or if you are a member of Disgraceland All Access
30:24
Speaker 1: over on Patreon, you can just jump in the chat,
30:27
Speaker 1: hit me up there. I check that out as often
30:30
Speaker 1: as I can. If you're like, what are you talking about,
30:33
Speaker 1: Disgraceland All Access? Well, you know, our sister show is Disgraceland,
30:36
Speaker 1: the first and still, I believe, only music and true
30:39
Speaker 1: crime show. And we kind of joined forces over on
30:42
Speaker 1: Patreon to create a video podcast called This Film Should
30:47
Speaker 1: Be Played Loud. We drop a new episode every month.
30:49
Speaker 1: Episodes are about an hour. It's video, so it's very cool.
30:52
Speaker 1: We're doing funky stuff over there we can't do anywhere else. And,
30:55
Speaker 1: you know, Jake and I are just there talking about
30:58
Speaker 1: the great music from some of our favorite movies of
31:00
Speaker 1: all time. We just dropped a new episode on Gross
31:02
Speaker 1: Point Blank, starring John Cusack. That's from the late 90s.
31:06
Speaker 1: We just recorded an episode, a Halloween episode on Shaun
31:09
Speaker 1: of the Dead that we'll drop this coming Wednesday over
31:13
Speaker 1: there on Patreon. And we've got many, many other episodes about,
31:16
Speaker 1: you know, Goodfellas, The Big Lebowski, Days of Confused, High Fidelity,
31:21
Speaker 1: Boogie Nights, so much more. So, disgracelandpod.com, right there on
31:26
Speaker 1: the homepage. There's info for you to sign up and
31:29
Speaker 1: become a member and check it out. And you get
31:31
Speaker 1: all kinds of other perks as a member. There's no
31:35
Speaker 1: ads on any of the episodes, Disgraced Land or Hollywood Land.
31:39
Speaker 1: There's bonus content, bonus video content in Patreon. And you
31:43
Speaker 1: can chat with your fellow discos over there, 24-7-365. Coming
31:46
Speaker 1: next week here in Hollywood Land on Monday, our fully
31:55
Speaker 1: scripted and sound design episode from the archive all about
31:58
Speaker 1: Jane Mansfield and her surprising relationship with the founder of
32:03
Speaker 1: the Church of Satan, Anton LaVey. Coming next week in Disgraceland,
32:09
Speaker 1: Jake's got this story about Reggie Watts, which, shocking story,
32:15
Speaker 1: which broke only recently in the news. And, you know,
32:19
Speaker 1: Jake kind of like shuffled around our programming, our immediate,
32:23
Speaker 1: our programming in the immediate future here in order to
32:25
Speaker 1: cover the story while it was still fresh and relevant.
32:27
Speaker 1: So that's going to be a wild, wild episode. You
32:30
Speaker 1: don't want to miss that. And if you missed it,
32:32
Speaker 1: this week in Disgraceland, we dropped an episode on Alice Cooper.
32:37
Speaker 1: What do you guys got going on this weekend? I
32:39
Speaker 1: hope you got some good shit lined up. I am
32:41
Speaker 1: planning to go see the new Nathan Fielder, Lance Oppenheim
32:45
Speaker 1: documentary about Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos called You Can See Everything.
32:51
Speaker 1: This has been like one of the most talked about
32:53
Speaker 1: movies of the year. It's sort of dominated the conversation
32:56
Speaker 1: in all the things I listen to and read over
32:58
Speaker 1: the last few weeks. So I'm excited to go check
33:01
Speaker 1: that out. Maybe you guys have some good movies in
33:02
Speaker 1: your future. If so, give me a holler. Let me
33:04
Speaker 1: know what you saw, what you thought of it. 617-906-6638.
33:09
Speaker 1: Perhaps I will read or play your message next week
33:12
Speaker 1: in the wrap party. But until then, I'm going to
33:15
Speaker 1: leave you guys with this. Here's what America was watching
33:18
Speaker 1: at the movies in July 2017, the month that A
33:21
Speaker 1: Ghost Story was released in theaters. Number one, Spider-Man Homecoming,
33:27
Speaker 1: directed by John Watts. Number two, Despicable Me 3, directed
33:32
Speaker 1: by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda. Number three, War for
33:37
Speaker 1: the Planet of the Apes, directed by Matt Reeves. Number four, Dunkirk,
33:43
Speaker 1: directed by Christopher Nolan. Number five, Baby Driver, directed by
33:48
Speaker 1: Edgar Wright. Number six, Girls Trip, directed by Malcolm D. Lee.
33:54
Speaker 1: Number seven, Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jennings. Number eight.
34:00
Speaker 1: Quit talking and start mixing.