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Transcript

"I contain multitudes" · The Kulturecast

0:04
Speaker 1: Weir in way he's about gosh the day.
0:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, gold let me shake about him both good pantastic thing.
1:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yes, there's a probably.
1:16
Speaker 2: The exact They can uther upkeep us in their head
1:23
to occupas Shahad.
1:26
Speaker 1: Or ki.
1:29
Speaker 2: Under the lay. Yeah, it's up put fly you say
1:40
any here the archy, what's up to your arney?
1:44
Speaker 1: They can't he.
1:50
Speaker 2: Hers Alkisa or Jamata.
1:59
Speaker 1: I think this, you can the mind who got okay
2:23
put me here? So the end of the world, huh,
2:32
it's here le apocalypse as they would call it. I
2:35
believe the French call it le up. I don't speak French. Boy.
2:41
Let's bring some levity to an otherwise dark Hey, Ryan,
2:45
it has been two months since I recorded an episode.
2:48
I had actually planned on recording an episode of the
2:50
show right before, and then the tenuously held together existence
2:55
that is the framework of my life further crumble over
2:58
the holidays, which was always great. How have That's not
3:01
why we're here? Well, what sort of his life of Chuck?
3:03
Is a pretty, I would say, life affirming film, and
3:06
I think it's also a felt I think it's important
3:09
that we're talking about this film, but I think more
3:11
important because you know, time does continue and things forward.
3:14
Regardless of whether or not things in my life or
3:17
your life, life does move forward. Time does, Ryan, January
3:20
twelfth has come and gone, and now you are the
3:23
proud owner and I guess public recipient of a physical
3:28
distribution company. That's a big change since the last time
3:30
we talked, isn't that right? Disconnected z own Ryan Viral?
3:33
I guess I could say disconnected own Ryan Viral, but
3:35
not more importantly, Antenna Releasing's own, and.
3:38
Speaker 2: Not just physical distribution, but full film distribution, releasing in
3:42
theaters and streaming and VOD and physical media and anywhere
3:46
else that people will let us throw films at them,
3:49
because that's what we will try to do. Yeah, it's
3:52
been a hell of a busy period and stoke to
3:55
finally have it where we can talk about this and
3:58
have you helping behind the scenes a little bit too.
4:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what they say. So sometimes when when
4:03
one door shuts another doors wide open. Before we talk
4:06
a little bit about life. But Chuck, it has been
4:08
a while since you've been on the show, Ryan, So
4:10
what what what? What was I alluding?
4:12
Speaker 2: What is I mean?
4:13
Speaker 1: Because again, like you know, let's just use this as
4:15
an opportunity to let the people know because again I
4:18
have not talked up unto this for me, obviously you've
4:21
been life putting it. What what what can my listener
4:26
respect from Antenna? Me? For you? And I like, what
4:30
what what can they expect from that? What is that?
4:33
Speaker 2: Sure? Antenna is a full scale film distribution company that
4:36
will work with filmmakers to put out their product to
4:40
the world in a way that makes sense for that
4:43
specific film and for that specific filmmaker, because we're going
4:46
to do our best to take a full filmmaker forward
4:49
approach to every single release, and we've noticed many other
4:52
distributors are not doing that. So in a way, we're
4:54
attempting to disrupt the industry and being a little more
4:58
open and friendly and transparents and lead with integrity in
5:02
what we're doing. The reality is the relationship between filmmakers
5:05
and distributors is a troubled one over history. It used
5:09
to be a very necessary thing, and nowadays it's not
5:12
super necessary for some films because for like for streaming,
5:15
for many people you can literally upload your film, click
5:18
a button and get it on to be but that
5:20
doesn't do anything for you. And the reality is many
5:24
of these films are genuinely at a possibility of getting lost,
5:27
and so we're gonna do our best to rescue as
5:29
many of those as we can that are coming out
5:31
of festivals or maybe not even premiered at festivals yet
5:33
and they just want some help. And then the other
5:35
thing is we're gonna be working on some rep catalog
5:38
titles as well, things that have come out in the
5:40
past and never had a full featured spotlight that they deserve.
5:43
So we're gonna be getting those out with home video releases,
5:46
some theatrical releases for those, and just doing what we
5:49
can to get film into the hands people that desire it.
5:52
Speaker 1: For me, when you and I were talking about this opportunity,
5:55
the thing that I was the most excited person well
5:58
a obviously more important be I think the opportunity to
6:01
really disrupt the industry in a positive way, because I mean,
6:04
I don't know how many of you, the dear listener
6:06
know this, but like Ryan, a relationship between distributor and
6:10
filmmaker is one that has not necessarily been a relationship
6:14
that isn't positive. I'm not saying they're all negative, but
6:18
there's a lot of these relationships that are rather fraught
6:20
for good reason, because of the expectations because of just
6:23
and you you more to this Ryan, more to just
6:26
the way things have always been done, have always been done,
6:29
kind of setting the tone for the way things are
6:32
being done now doesn't have to be the case. Most
6:35
industries don't hold themselves to a higher standard because expected
6:38
one way, nobody does anything else. And you know what,
6:42
we're not trying to do that. We're trying to hold
6:44
ourselves to a higher standard, trying to hold ourselves to
6:46
being more transparent, which I know for some people in
6:49
this industry might make them even more uncomfortabause transparency in
6:53
this industry is also not a guarantee, and it's definitely
6:56
not an expectation, given that we know about the term
6:59
create of Hollywood bookkeeping, that is the Lacevincy. So I mean,
7:04
I mean when movies don't make money, even though we
7:08
know they make money, but because of creative bookkeeping, they
7:11
are not making money. I again, I don't want to
7:13
be part of that system anymore than And that's why Antenna,
7:16
I think, is such an important opportunity because I think,
7:19
like you've said, we have an opportunity to really do
7:21
something interesting and do something really novel and game changing
7:25
and setting a tone and precedent for the future of
7:28
the industry. And that might be a lofty goal, but
7:30
someone has got to change the way to send because
7:33
this industry, if it continues to be this way, it's not.
7:35
It barely survived the fucking pandemic. I'm sorry to tell people,
7:40
but this industry barely. This industry like it exists now
7:44
solely because people want to go to the movies. But
7:47
there was a time where going to the movies was
7:49
not a guarantee. I remember it just as well as
7:52
you did. There were You and I weren't really friends
7:55
at the time, but I remember having conversations with people
7:57
about whether or not the theater going experience would survive
8:00
a pandemic. And it has, I mean, and it hasn't changed.
8:05
That's one of the things that really bugs as someone
8:07
is a film goer, just like someone who gets on
8:10
an airplane. You know, we bailed these industries out and
8:12
they have done nothing make it more anything for us
8:16
as the people enjoying it at the end. And so
8:18
you have taken it upon yourself to do something about that.
8:21
With Tenna and I am very much in the same
8:23
camp of trying better better hold ourselves accountable, and the
8:26
way that the industry has refused to and the industry
8:29
refusing to hold itself accountable.
8:30
Speaker 2: Is not new.
8:31
Speaker 1: All industries do that. I mean, if you have a job,
8:34
the industry that you're in is probably not holding itself
8:36
accountable because most industries don't. That's not. Part of what
8:39
most companies care about is I have friends that work
8:42
for companies that do the right thing, but it's few
8:44
and far between, just like you know. My thing that
8:46
I'm excited about is hopefully getting to introduce more Americans
8:49
to India because this is an opportunity as far as
8:52
I'm antenna is an opportunity, and so that's that I'm
8:56
very excited as an opportunity more Westerners Indian centup, which
9:00
you know has not been something that has been a
9:01
big push even for the Indian film A whole host
9:04
of rince that I've talked about ad nausea on Bollywood.
9:07
All this to belabor the point that there's a lot
9:09
more exciting stuff coming that I will be bringing up
9:12
more frequently in the future that I have in the past, because,
9:15
to be fair, in the past didn't even have this opportunity.
9:18
So now that the opportunity exists, I probably won't shut up.
9:21
So keep your ear to the ground, because we'll probably
9:24
be bringing up, especially if Ryan bringing up more antenor
9:28
releasing stuff, and more opportunities for you to engage directly
9:31
with some things in person as opposed to just podcasts.
9:34
So you know, being able to go see a movie
9:37
in theaters that you know you do got to distribute
9:40
or I helped with the distribution in some way is
9:42
a lot different of an equation than listen to my podcast,
9:46
as you know, I mean listen watch my YouTube show
9:49
is a lot different than please buy this, please spend
9:51
money like it's It's a very different value problem. So
9:55
I'm very excited to see where this goes. And you know,
10:00
with the press release that came out on the twelfth,
10:02
we already have our first film in that announcement, which
10:06
is one that I am personally very excited about because
10:08
as someone who loves theme parks and theme park history,
10:12
not so much true crime, because I've unfortunately been true
10:14
crimed out because of the amount of true crime I
10:16
covered with Scary storytell But I'm a huge Disney I
10:20
wouldn't say I'm a Disney adult, thank god. But I
10:22
would say that I enjoyed Disney and Disney and a
10:26
hell of a lot. So to be able to work
10:28
on a film project that is all about the stealing
10:30
of the buzzy animal is one that I'm pretty excited.
10:34
And so the fact that that was the first thing
10:36
that we announced is also pretty excited. Stolen Kingdom coming soon.
10:39
If you don't know what it's about, it's literally about
10:41
an animatronic being stolen from inside of the Magic Kingdom,
10:44
out from under the nose of Disney. Which that's just
10:47
putting it mildly. There's a lot more going on. If
10:50
that piques your interest, keep your ear to the ground,
10:53
because that's coming soon. That's a pretty big thing to
10:56
get out of the way. Just right at the top here,
10:59
I mean, you know, to you know, this is you know,
11:02
for me, this is of the caliber of what I
11:04
worked on with Alan. You know, this is an opportunity
11:07
that I get to talk more openly about because the
11:09
thing with Alan, I couldn't talk about it.
11:11
Speaker 2: This has only been like and you already get to
11:12
talking about one movie like that's that's pretty cool.
11:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well that's the other thing. Like, you know, I
11:17
haven't talked about this a lot on this podcast, but
11:20
I am a child of the world of startups. I've
11:23
spent a decade now working on startup. This is the
11:25
first quote startup. I wouldn't even call it a startup
11:28
because most of the startups I've worked for have had
11:30
less than this to show for in terms of like
11:35
a physical product. I mean, some of the startups I've
11:37
worked for have had more money upfront but less but
11:40
less to show for it. And it's just like, oh
11:42
my god, this, Yeah, there is a movie, it's coming out.
11:45
We're directly involved in the distribution.
11:48
Speaker 2: Wow.
11:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is not something. Yeah, startups are a dime
11:51
a does. This is one that I'm, like I said,
11:53
I'm very much looking forward to, and it is exactly
11:56
in the world of the things we're already. This isn't
11:58
like we're starting a company widget make in a company
12:00
selling other people's widgets. But you're right, we're not making
12:04
the widgets yet, so waiting some day. We're not widget
12:07
make we're widget seller. But all of that to say, man,
12:12
Stephen King, huh the person you and I just keep
12:15
talking about speaking of widget makers, speaking of a guy
12:19
who likes to make small widgets into a big widget.
12:22
That's my Stephen King widget. I like when he makes
12:25
little widgets and puts him together. I don't like the
12:27
big widges. I don't think well anymore. Stephen King, Ryan,
12:30
We've talked about him at nauseum, but I'm going to
12:32
give you an opportunity once again to talk about Stephen
12:34
King before we talk about the Stephen King thing that
12:37
we're here to talk about, which is going to go
12:38
a lot because it's a lot as but thoughts on
12:41
mister King.
12:42
Speaker 2: Would you say this episode will contain multitudes?
12:44
Speaker 1: It would shout and it could, so.
12:47
Speaker 2: Yeah. Stephen King was probably the first thing, like many
12:50
of you listening, that got me into like big boy reading.
12:55
It's one of those those authors that is a very
12:58
transitional type of of author for people where you can
13:02
still get the enjoyment of like genre fair and mixed
13:06
in with the adventure of young I don't want to
13:09
say young adult because that is specifically a genre, but
13:12
like young adult focused stories primarily. That's mostly what he's
13:16
written about throughout his career, and you know, a lot
13:19
of that has led to me appreciating things like good
13:22
dialogue for the first time and understanding complex stories and
13:25
also when they're stinkers, also when there's stuff from somebody
13:29
that I appreciate that aren't great. But it turns out
13:32
that he's mostly great, and most of his stuff has
13:35
adapted in ways that we have appreciated through film and
13:39
through TV and lots of you know, huge swaths of
13:44
pop culture been dedicated to this man, and it's just
13:47
amazing to see. So doing what I can to continue
13:51
to appreciate his work throughout my career.
13:53
Speaker 1: You know what they say, there aren't enough people talking
13:55
about Stephen kay, so we'll just drop in the book.
13:59
I I kid only because I don't think anybody talked
14:02
about this movie, because I think this movie was like
14:05
unfairly railroaded. I guess, like I don't know, unfairly, but
14:09
a lot of the stuff that I saw was like
14:10
I don't like.
14:11
Speaker 2: Well, not only that it's not a typical Stephen King movie,
14:13
And that's the big thing.
14:14
Speaker 1: Sure, right, there's no sorry to tell everybody, but if
14:18
you want to go see the Life of Chuck, there
14:20
will be no penny sorry. I mean, I'm not sorry,
14:23
because that's clearly not the point of the movie. But
14:25
like Ryan said, if your expectation is you're going to
14:28
sit down and again scared, I don't scared by things anymore.
14:31
You get a you'll get in your car and get
14:33
shot while you're driving. Isn't that scarier than a fucking
14:35
fake clown? Like? Come on? I don't know. Maybe it's
14:38
a scarier for me, But this movie has none of that,
14:40
which I appreciate because I think to your the expectation
14:43
with King, at least for let's say, the majority of
14:46
the people that don't read start the majority of the
14:48
people that are interested in reading Stephen King but have
14:50
never embarked on rereaden King. He is a horror He
14:53
writes horror story. However, Heart's in Atlanta horror. Shawshank Redemption
14:57
not horror. The Green Mile not horror. You'll notice two
15:01
of those three things I mentioned are widely considered to
15:03
be some of the best film adaptations of his work
15:06
ever adapted. And mind you, all three of those not horror,
15:10
not even close to. There are some fantastical elements in
15:13
those stories. In Green Mitt and not so much in Shash.
15:17
I mean, in the Life of Chuck. There are some
15:19
fantastical elements in the Hearts of Atlantis, there are some
15:21
fantastical elements Stephen King. I really I struggle with the
15:25
idea of Stephen King because he is a horror But
15:28
I would also say his because of his preponderance of
15:31
horror stuff that he write. A lot of his horror
15:34
stuff also tends to not be great, right, But when
15:37
he writes stuff like this, like Life of Chuck or
15:41
Hearts in Atlantis or something that you and I have
15:43
spent a lot of time recently talking about on writing,
15:46
or Dance Macaban like again, another thing that's just like
15:49
not a horror story. Yes, Dance macabb and on writing
15:53
are kind of horror a. Jason is talking horror genre
15:56
in Dance macab or in on Writing, he's talking about
15:59
being a horror but more importantly being a writer. I
16:02
just struggle with the idea that Stephen King is a
16:03
horror because I think for me, calling Stephen King a
16:05
horror writer is kind of missing the point of Stephen King.
16:09
I think Stephen King is a writer who has a
16:12
unique ability, and I think any of the quote great writer,
16:15
he just taps into the human experience like unlike anyone else,
16:18
and he taps into a certain kind of human unlike anyone,
16:22
and like you said, a lot of the stuff for
16:24
me that Stephen King has written that I think resonates
16:26
with most people that I assume resonates with most are
16:29
stand by me. It the stand I mean, we could
16:32
go back and forth. I mean, you know again, I
16:34
know I'm missing stuff, Kujo.
16:35
Speaker 2: Stand by me's the biggest one, probably for most people.
16:38
Speaker 1: Which, by the way, it's like to point out here
16:40
you'll notice I didn't mention it when I was mentioning
16:42
the non horror I've never seen. I know it's a
16:44
problem that I've never seen, and I mean everything. Look
16:48
it bothers some people that I admit that I haven't seen,
16:50
and I frankly don't care. I would rather be honest
16:53
and upfront. And it's okay to say you haven't seen.
16:55
It is actively okay to say I haven't seen. I
16:57
will change that at some point, but it's okay to
16:59
say you haven't things. If you had the ability to
17:01
watch every single movie ever made, congrat you must have
17:04
more free time than the rest of us. And I
17:06
don't know what you do in a day, but it's
17:07
not being productive in a substantive way, just sitting and
17:10
watching shit all so good for you that you can
17:12
watch everything. We don't have that opportunity, so we have
17:15
to be a little bit more judicious with what we watch.
17:17
And this movie, for all intents and purposes, was not
17:21
one that I think people were It's not that they
17:23
weren't ready for. But again, when you see King in
17:25
the title, you have an expect of what the movie's
17:28
going to be. And I think when people saw this
17:32
movie and saw the trailer for it, I don't think
17:34
anyone thought, well, this is a Stephen King first inform
17:37
and then I think, and you might be inclined to
17:40
agree here. I think the film's subject subject matter is
17:44
almost intend to make right and yeah, absolutely yeah, And
17:48
then couple that with the fact that, like we've already
17:51
alluded to, have King, who the expectation is horrible, and
17:54
then you have flannagain, who the expectation is also right.
17:58
Mike Flanagan. I mean, look, I think you would agree here,
18:01
Mike Flanagan, the premier Stephen King adapt I.
18:04
Speaker 2: Would say he's top two act Okay, Okay, yeah.
18:08
Speaker 1: That's what I mean. I guess that should have been.
18:10
That's kind of what I was angled. He's actively the
18:13
only one who's adapting Stephen King's with any sort of frequency.
18:16
And I'm okay with that because he gets Flannagan, who gets, Look,
18:20
there are, like you said, they are clearly other people adapting.
18:22
I mean, we get. I mean, look, we've gotten other
18:24
Stephen king things adapted every goddamn year since he's been writing.
18:29
I mean, he, I think, at this point, is one
18:31
of the most adapted writers. He's probably the most adapted
18:34
writer at this point. I mean, at the level of
18:37
which his adaptations have exists, in the amount that we
18:41
have seen our lifetime. I mean this year alone, he
18:43
had three movies, or last year in twenty five, The Monkey,
18:46
The Long Walk and The Running, and the year before
18:48
it was the Life of Chuck and Salem's Lot. The
18:51
year before that it was The Boogeyman, and then the
18:53
year before that it was Firestarter in Mister Harrigan's Phone.
18:56
Speaker 2: Well, and technically Life of Chuck only at a festival
18:58
premiere in twenty four so even that, if I would
19:00
be four films, if you want to count that way.
19:02
Speaker 1: That's true. Yeah, yeah, that is yeah, that's right, because
19:05
Life of Chuck was technically a Yeah, like I'm looking here,
19:08
there has been one year in the last decade that
19:11
he hasn't had a move That was twenty eight. Every
19:13
other year he's had something come out that's been an adaptation,
19:16
And yeah, Mike Flanagan shows up a couple times. You
19:20
also have Edgar Wright obviously and Andy Muschietti, but Mike
19:24
Flanagan's name shows up a lot. And I would go
19:27
as far as to say, I don't think Mike Flanagan
19:29
has really done a bad adaptation. King.
19:31
Speaker 2: I almost go so far as I don't think Mike
19:32
flanningan has done a bad anything. But that's for a
19:35
different show.
19:36
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know if it's for a different show,
19:37
because I don't know if I would go out of
19:39
my way to do a Mike Flanagan. I don't go
19:41
out of my way to talk about his movies. And
19:42
the last time I talked about one of his movies
19:44
I didn't like. The last time I talked about one
19:46
of his movies was Doctor Sleep, and I didn't like
19:49
Doctor Sleep when I saw it. I have since returned
19:52
to it. I have since rewatched it. I have since
19:55
rewatched the extended which I think is the far superior
19:59
version of the film. Direct, which you know, again, conversations
20:02
can be had about director's cuts, in the quality of
20:04
a director's cut versus the quality original what have you.
20:07
That's fine, But I think Doctor Sleep's actually a much
20:10
better movie. And I have an episode. I did an
20:12
episode on it in nineteen I didn't like it when
20:14
I saw it. I have since watched it and I
20:16
enjoyed it immensely. I actually think it's as good of
20:19
a movie as we're gonna get in terms of being
20:20
a Shining sequel that's based on the Shining sequel that
20:24
for look, for all intentsive purposes, Doctor Sleep should have
20:26
never Doctor Sleep should have never existed as a movie.
20:28
But the fact that it existed as a book and
20:30
was pretty good and existed as a movie and was
20:32
pretty good and didn't feel like a complete waste of time.
20:35
Given again the Shining being such a monumentous film in
20:39
terms of pop culture, in terms of just the cinematic
20:42
language that exists around that film, I would never in
20:45
a million years want to even embark on making a
20:47
fucking seek. So kudos to flann again for taking that
20:50
upon him. But also from the balls, Yeah, I mean
20:53
really like all that. To say, I do respect Mike
20:56
Flanagan a fair amount because to go from in two
20:59
thousand making a film like Make Believe to then twenty
21:02
five years later being the pre eminent Stephen King adapter,
21:06
and not only did pre eminent Stephen King adapt I
21:08
think this is the thing that actually Mike Flanagan should
21:10
really hang his hat on. He made what I consider
21:13
to be one of best ten episodes of television of
21:16
all time, and it was like, there's three shows it
21:20
could be at this point, Yeah, I don't know which
21:22
of those three shows you would hit your wagon too.
21:24
I think I know, based on the conversation you and
21:26
I had the other evening, the one that I hitch
21:28
my wagon to is one hundred percent The Haunting of Hillhouse.
21:31
I think that is it. For my money, It's one
21:33
of the top five best single seasons of television I've
21:37
ever seen. It's up there with True Detective in terms
21:39
of the quality of just a singular seat. But I
21:42
mean Midnight Midnight Mass. Midnight Mass, I think could also
21:46
make that same.
21:46
Speaker 2: Kick with you saying that about Haunting of Hillhouse. He's
21:49
made one of the greatest episodes of TV ever. Thinking
21:52
of Hillhouse, there's probably three episodes I could say that
21:54
about in that series.
21:56
Speaker 1: Oh you mean in terms of just like the best
21:57
tea Okay, yeah, I would say, what is it? The
22:01
the episode the bent neck Lady.
22:04
Speaker 2: Beneck Lady is probably number one.
22:06
Speaker 1: Uh.
22:06
Speaker 2: The the wer episode where the first twenty minutes are
22:11
a one shot that he did is another one that
22:14
just the feet of that is incredible. And then I
22:16
mean even the first episode is pretty incredible to set
22:19
up the story of the show.
22:20
Speaker 1: And then I actually think the finale is like spectacul
22:23
as well, like I I look very good. Oh, the
22:25
whole fucking show is great. And look all this to
22:27
belabor the point, Mike Flanagan is a fantastic dre and
22:30
so I trust that he is going to take Stephen
22:32
king source material and adapt it in a way true
22:35
to the tone of the source material but also true
22:38
to Mike Flanner as it and as a writer. Because again,
22:41
that's the other thing that we kind of haven't mentioned.
22:43
Not only is Flannigan the one directing, he's most of
22:45
the time the one writing it. I mean he wrote
22:48
The Haunting of Hill House, he vowed the Life of Chuck,
22:50
he wrote, I mean he's he is actively engaged in
22:52
the filmmaking process in a way that I am envious
22:55
because if I were a director, I would also want
22:57
to be writing the things I did, because that's I mean,
23:00
if you're gonna do it. So just getting out of
23:02
the way here, Mike Flanning, Ryan, now that we're here,
23:04
at what do youth? Because we have been trying to
23:06
get this episode going for almost and rescheduling and other
23:09
things just kind of getting in the way. So you
23:11
clearly have a want to talk about this. I clearly
23:14
have a floor. Is yours?
23:15
Speaker 2: What do you think of the life of the life
23:17
Chuck is a very unique film that is going to
23:23
be polarizing, no doubt, because it is a deep film
23:26
telling a lot of different stories, all combined in a
23:29
way that is not not really like a mainstream motion
23:34
picture in any sense of that word. And based on that,
23:37
combined with very mainstream names attached to it, I guarantee
23:41
you a lot of people went into this with the
23:42
expectations that we're never going to be met. No matter
23:46
how you look at it, whether that be focused on
23:48
horror or you know, looking at the names being in
23:54
the film, You're not gonna associate most of the names
23:57
in this with horror really, so when you see that,
23:59
you're thinking it's gonna be something else, And this film
24:02
is so different no matter how you're looking at it,
24:06
that it could be it can be seen as disappointing
24:09
if that's what you were like truly after. But I
24:11
think if you just go into this open minded, not
24:13
knowing anything about the movie, not knowing anything about the story.
24:16
This not to be schmalty about it, but the joke
24:19
I've already made, this movie contains multitudes and the depths
24:23
that you could pull out of this film are kind
24:25
of limited to your imagination in a very unique way.
24:28
I watched this movie and there, I mean, there's a
24:30
scene in this movie that I never have seen be
24:32
carried out the way that it was in this and
24:35
I definitely felt things. This is one of probably about
24:38
five or eight films this year that I truly was
24:41
like sobbing in the theater when I watched.
24:43
Speaker 1: I meant to ask you because I'm curious this something
24:45
you brought up, and we're bringing it up here at
24:46
the top, So I'm how often does that happen?
24:49
Speaker 2: Well, twenty twenty five, five or eight times. Usually it's
24:54
not that bad. But I don't know if it's you know,
24:57
my kids getting older, the world getting a little more
24:59
tougher to live in daily, I feel like it's it's
25:02
gotten a little easier to get me. And I think
25:05
I like that. I think I sa the last couple
25:07
of years, it's just gotten it's gotten simpler. It used
25:11
to pretty much never happened maybe in like just the
25:15
most emotional films or something that is root or something.
25:20
But yeah, I got this. Last year there was The
25:22
Long Walk got me twice in one movie. I think
25:25
this year, Wow, Yeah, yeah, I mean Judy Greer's performances
25:29
as a mom in that movie alone was like god,
25:31
heart ranching.
25:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I haven't watched The Long Walk yet. It was
25:34
one of those Stephen King things where I was like,
25:37
it looks every I mean I've heard, I heard various things,
25:40
so I was the story didn't catch me, it didn't
25:43
get me. But I saw all the stuff and this
25:46
is getting some people are going. And yeah, I think
25:48
it's weird when I think about the things that resonate
25:51
with specific and and and in a way ten it's
25:54
not films so much, I think because I've probably like
25:57
exposed myself to it on such a constant and frequent
26:00
in daily basis, Like I don't know about you, but
26:02
I don't A day doesn't go by that I don't watch.
26:04
Speaker 2: I try not to, but it's certainly been happening more
26:07
and more lately.
26:08
Speaker 1: Right, I always have something on in the background when
26:10
I'm working or doing something unless I'm like writing, just
26:13
like the only time I'd hired otherwise give a little
26:15
bit of focus or a little bit of mental space.
26:18
So I try to watch something at every and you know,
26:21
and and and in in watching something every day, I
26:25
feel like I'm slightly desensitized. Film getting me because again,
26:28
like there are films that get me. I can tell
26:30
you one that will probably make you laugh. Elf gets
26:32
me every time I watch good movie, and it's It's
26:35
I think it is a genuine Christmas classic. Good for
26:37
Jon Favreau for doing a thing that's seemingly impossible. It
26:41
gets me every time. It's right at the end when
26:44
Peter Dinklice is in the office and con is like,
26:47
oh that's my son, Like, oh, that just always gets me.
26:49
It always get Life of Chuck got me as well,
26:51
but for a different and the reason. Life of Chuck
26:54
got me is And you know I joke about this
26:56
with my there because you know, go to therapy here
26:59
and because I was diagnosed last year with borderline personality,
27:02
and so going to therapy is important. And I think
27:04
anyone who is listening to this, if need to hear
27:07
this from someone in your life who is safe, you
27:10
should go to therapist. Go. Don't want to ask questions,
27:12
don't think about it twice. You don't feel like you
27:14
have people that you can talk to in your life,
27:16
go to therast Go you can afford it, go and
27:18
if you can't figure out a way, because it's important
27:20
and having someone to talk to me, and it's toime.
27:22
It's a good way of putting it is. And if
27:24
and if and if you're in therapy now, and if
27:26
you've been in therapy before considering. I think the thing
27:29
for with a film when I watched it, Got because
27:33
it's not it's not not trying to get you. It's
27:35
almost set up as a trap. It's set up as
27:37
a very complex mouse to get you and then not
27:40
only get you, but whack you with that bar like
27:43
eight more fucking times when you're trapped in the mouse.
27:46
This movie is intentionally emotionally manipult. Okay, I don't have
27:50
a problem nope at all, because rarely are movies that
27:55
act this way, this nuanced when they do it. This
27:58
movie is in so many way it reminds me of
28:02
an arid ast. This movie gives you nough literally, it
28:06
gives you. If you watch this movie without the context
28:10
of understanding what's going on, this movie, I kid you
28:13
not will make zero fucking like even the narrat like
28:16
this movie has narration by Nick Offer, who's fantastic. He's
28:19
good in this so good never shows up on screen once,
28:22
is just completely the narrator, the disembodied voice, narrative movie.
28:25
Just the narrator doesn't even the narrator doesn't say here,
28:28
let's take a pause, let me explain to the point
28:31
of the movie. Oh, let me explain to you the
28:33
fact that the movie is going in reverse like there's
28:37
none of and I think for me that is I
28:40
think one of the sticking points that I feel like
28:42
people don't. Oh, I don't like that this reverse chronological order.
28:46
I don't like that the is kind of not it
28:48
doesn't have kid, it just doesn't like all no, And
28:51
I think that that really is scary for some peopy
28:54
because a movie that just kind of is and lets
28:57
you watch it and experience it and doesn't tell you
28:59
what to feel, I think for a lot of people
29:02
is really uncomfortable, especially in this day, because I know
29:05
that you would probably agree. I don't think people, I
29:07
don't think, but I hate just assuming. But I think
29:09
the content that we have been given in the last
29:12
decade is treating people and is it's making people feel like, oh,
29:16
maybe I am dumb because the content is you know,
29:19
with like the New Stranger Things, there was there was
29:21
an initiative to, uh, explain what's going on in the
29:25
show because people are looking away on their phones like
29:28
that was a literal initiative from that. There's none of
29:31
that here. This movie explains so little that by the
29:34
end of the movie, if you haven't gone and looked
29:37
up what's going on on your phone or gone and
29:38
given yourself an understanding of the kind of context of
29:41
the film, I'd be surprised. I feel like people who
29:43
went and watched this movie walk out of the theater going, uh,
29:46
what did I just watch? Right, And they would be
29:48
justified in that sentiment, because again, the intention of the
29:52
movie is kind of to just be and to get
29:55
from it what you're putting into it. If you're engaged
29:58
with the movie directly and you're meeting it on its life,
30:00
I feel like the movie gives you enough to understand. However,
30:03
if you're not engaged with it directly, it's gonna be
30:05
kind of hard because, Yeah, there is no moment where
30:07
it's like explaining what's going on or telling you exactly
30:11
how things are meant to happen. I mean, there's the
30:14
movies told in the reverse order. The main character in
30:17
the film does he talk at all? Other than like
30:20
one two scene. Tom Hiddleston really has no dialogue in
30:24
this movie.
30:24
Speaker 2: Like he's got some, just not enough that you would
30:27
think that he would be the marketing for.
30:28
Speaker 1: The Yeah, he has some. However, can you imagine if
30:32
in Spider Man he just was in the movie but
30:34
he didn't talk or I mean, like that's I mean,
30:37
and I mean, what's so strange about this movie is
30:40
we're seeing the life of Tom Hidleston's character described to us,
30:44
but he is not the one described it. He is
30:47
not the one who has done. He is the one
30:49
who is doing, and we are seeing him do these things.
30:52
We aren't hearing him talk about the things. So it's
30:54
very much again like very fairy tale or like I
30:57
wouldn't say like fairy tale, but you know, like you're
31:00
an allegory even but it's just it's it's such a
31:03
story that this is a character in a store, not
31:06
the kind of thing where it's like I'm being told
31:08
the story by the characters, Like no, you're just watching
31:10
him in this world and the context of what is
31:12
happening He's being given by a narrative. That's not an
31:15
easy film just on the face of it, especially for
31:17
Western audience and especially again for people that are going
31:20
into it expecting Stephen King and like which you know, boy,
31:23
you'd be really disappointed.
31:25
Speaker 2: Like moment one, that is true.
31:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, So if you haven't seen the film, I would
31:29
say go out and watch so that you can have
31:31
a better understanding of the conversation and how it's going.
31:34
But the film is about Tom Hiddleston as the titular Chuck.
31:38
Life is being played out in reverse. We see end
31:42
of the universe as it were, and then we see
31:45
a monumentous event in his life, and then we see
31:49
I would say the most non straightforward part of them
31:53
is the third act, but technically, the as the movie
31:55
presents it, it's the last act, but title wise it's
31:58
it's the one that I think expl lanes the most
32:01
as it were, but it is still doesn't explain. I
32:03
would say the third act is probably for me, the
32:06
act that kind of is the most all over the place.
32:08
The other two acts are kind of the most straight.
32:11
But the first act we have Chuweto Lga four character
32:15
and the Karen Gillian character are a nurse and teacher
32:18
respected essentially talking about and experiencing the end of the
32:22
world and the end of the world in a way
32:24
that feels very relatable in this because it's not just
32:27
one bad thing happened. It's like all the bad things
32:31
happening at the internet, natural disaster. They're making Matt Lillard
32:35
say okay, and that's that's not something I know. We
32:39
get to see him crying, Matthew Lillard, which just for
32:41
me is just it's the most heartbreaking because that man
32:44
should never true. Hey, Matt Lillard is just he's such
32:47
a treasure and I love him so much as an actor.
32:49
And he's in one scene one one, but it's it's
32:54
he plays the everyman. So well, that's just like I
32:57
don't understand what's happening anymore. I just hear and every
33:01
bad thing is happening all at once, like yeah, pretty much.
33:05
And I love that. That is just to twetl alge
33:07
four character there and he just is there in that
33:10
moment with him, and they're sharing that moment together. Neither
33:13
one of them can do anything about it, neither one
33:15
of them can change it, neither one of them is
33:17
able to do anything other than just exists within the
33:19
framework of the world that they're living in. And yet
33:23
those conversations that they have are so honest in a
33:27
way that like again, they're honest in a way that
33:29
we don't see in these kinds we see them in
33:31
like end of the world films or disasters or apocalyms,
33:34
where the characters are talking about the hopes and wants
33:36
and dreams that may not come to pass and the
33:39
things that may be stopped in their tracks because of
33:42
external things that you have no and that is something
33:45
that's really hard, I mean to look in cinema. It's
33:48
one because for us cinematically, we always want and you know,
33:52
I think filmmakers for the most part are always engaged
33:54
telling us why things happen. But in life, things just happen,
33:58
and there is often no xplt nation, no reason, not
34:01
any reason that you want to accept, not any explanation
34:04
that you want toternalize. I know that all too well,
34:07
and I think that, and I think that that's what's
34:09
in this first act of the film. It's it's really
34:13
characters coming to terms with the end of the world
34:15
in a way that I really haven't seen. And I
34:18
think rarely, or if ever, will we get a film
34:21
that does it like this, because this story is uniquely
34:25
suited to have this kind of Because yes, the framing
34:28
device is the universe is ending. However, what's really going
34:32
on here is Chuck is not and when he dies,
34:34
his universe is effective. He will not be able to
34:37
exist within that framework any longer, and the universe is over.
34:40
Is the universe actually no, not in reality, it is
34:43
not over, but in the fantastical framework and existence of
34:47
this film and the way they presented it, yes, the universe.
34:49
And I love that about this movie, that it takes
34:52
something that feels not literal but metaphorical end of the
34:56
universe and turns it into a literal thing. And puts
34:59
other characters inside of because again, like when I'm on
35:02
my deathbed, I'm not necessarily sure I'm going to be
35:05
worrying about what the other people that were in my
35:07
life are up. However, in this movie we get to
35:10
see that from the exterior perspective of Chuck, and I
35:14
find that to be so novel and strange, because you
35:18
tell me another.
35:19
Speaker 2: Film no, and that's why, you know. One of the
35:21
things that I said was, we don't There was something
35:23
that I've seen in this that I'd never seen other things,
35:26
and I don't really want to spoil it because it
35:28
kind of takes you in that moment. But this movie
35:31
has so many, so many it's not even twists. It's
35:35
just novel things that kind of come out of nowhere,
35:38
and if you are open to it can mean so
35:42
much more to you than a lot of other movies.
35:44
And I think what you touched on earlier is one
35:45
of the most important things about this for me is
35:47
they assume that you are entering of this movie in
35:50
good faith as an intelligent human instead of we need
35:53
to even set the scene at a level of understanding,
35:56
because you start this movie completely lost, having no real
36:00
clue of what is going on. And I know that
36:03
part is not new, but it really does set the
36:06
stakes of the film itself. It sets you up as
36:08
the viewer to go listen, I just because I'm lost here,
36:12
I need to be on by Toes a little bit more.
36:14
And that means that everything else that comes after that
36:16
you are not ready. Like a non non linear storyline
36:20
is something that you just you you kind of after
36:23
the first five minutes, just let it roll over you
36:25
in a very unique wor.
36:26
Speaker 1: And you're you're totally right. I mean, that's you know,
36:28
so many I think so many important films require like
36:32
the audience to come into it in a genuine good nature,
36:36
Come in in in honesty, come in getting ready to
36:39
sit and watch the film. Engage with the film on
36:42
its where it wants to be met. Don't don't spend
36:45
time fighting the film, because if you fight the filmmaker,
36:48
you're not gonna get it. The filmmaker is presented a
36:50
film the way that they want you to. You don't
36:52
appreciate it that they wanted you That's fine, That's that's art.
36:55
Art can be appreciated multiple differences, and the artists know, however,
36:59
the artist is expecting that you, as the audience or
37:03
receiver of content, will come into it in good faith.
37:06
And I do think that some of the reasons movie
37:08
didn't resonate with people is because there was no there
37:11
was no good faith coming into for a host, for
37:13
a number of for all kinds of things that neither
37:16
you nor I could control about what makes this movie inherently,
37:19
I think so. And you know what that first act
37:22
having you know, Chueta algefor and Karing Gillian as the
37:25
and the you know they it's just talk. So much
37:27
of this movie is talking. I would say, like very
37:29
little in this movie really happens in a way. I mean,
37:31
there are things that happen, but like you've alluded to,
37:34
there's no like grand things that keep happen. Big things
37:37
do happen, but even the big things that happen are
37:39
kind of they just kind of happened. The moment at
37:42
the end of the first act that kind of is
37:45
this the end of the universe is so I had
37:48
to rewind it several times because I was just like,
37:50
this is how we're doing this, Okay, Like that's wild
37:53
and you know, to again have these like one off,
37:57
you know, character interactions like you have the character in
38:00
inaction with Carl lumbles also also and him and chuetl
38:03
Eljefor are talking about, you know, twenty four hours in
38:07
a day. You know, there's actually more than twenty four hours.
38:09
You know, all of that. I don't think this movie
38:13
has any right working as well, because so much in
38:15
people king and talking, which feels like a book, like
38:17
it feels like a novella, and this movie gets away
38:20
with it because I think the actors, like you've said,
38:23
the actors that were cast are so good, the actors
38:25
that were cast are only being asked to really, for
38:28
the most pot do one or two scenes of heavy
38:30
I mean the people that do a lot of the
38:31
heavy lifting. In the first actor Chuette and Karen Gilly.
38:34
Everybody else is just one like Matt Lillard, Carl Lumbley,
38:38
Like they're just in one scene and that's it. Like
38:40
they get a lot out of the act which I
38:41
also really appreciate because again as someone who is very
38:45
much interested in the act and art of acting, this
38:48
is an actor's dream. And you're just sitting and talking
38:51
to another actor, walking and talking or sitting on a
38:53
bend and having just like genuine interesting conversations in a
38:57
film setting with another actor. I mean, the Carl Lumbley
39:00
and Chiueto Aljefor scenes are really again, they're really the
39:03
conversations that they're having are really interested, and so it's
39:06
engaging for you as an audience. But again, what they're
39:09
talking about also has a massive kind of impact on
39:12
the greater world, because every conversation that any character has
39:15
is essentially explaining the ideology of and what the movie
39:19
is kind of dry and what the movie is getting.
39:21
And I think that the first act, obviously there's there's
39:25
the least amount of hand in the entire and you know,
39:27
to go for almost a half an hour, a little
39:30
over a half an hour, I guess with the you know,
39:33
thank you for thirty nine years chuck with no explanation,
39:36
and yet we keep having characters acknowledging it over and
39:38
over again. I think it's very smart. It's again it's
39:41
alluding to there's more going on. But I like that
39:43
the characters never figure out what. I like that the
39:46
characters at the end of that first act, it's just over.
39:49
They never knew the darkness, they never knew, they never knew.
39:52
And again, if you take it literally, that the universe ended. Okay,
39:56
they never knew. However, the universe did not Chuck Dot.
39:59
But because Chuck is dead, his universe is over, his
40:01
ability to the universe is over. And look, the universe
40:04
around us is only as much as we're able to perceive.
40:07
That is the truth about the world is our perception
40:09
dictates so much of what FeelA. That's why people with
40:12
mental health problems struggle so hard, because their ability to
40:15
perceive things is at a disadvantage because they perceive things
40:19
a certain way that maybe is not the right way
40:22
or the healthy way to perceive. And so it's hard
40:26
sometimes to have a conversation about perception and film because
40:29
this movie is in a lot of ways about character's
40:31
ability to perceive their place in the world. And in
40:34
the first act, they can't perceive what place in the
40:37
world they have at all, because they don't even understand
40:39
the world that they're in. The world that they're in
40:41
is tearing itself apart of no fault of their own.
40:44
It's tearing itself apart because Chuck is dying. Man, and
40:48
Chuck dying is the end of the universe, but it's not.
40:50
But I like that they've characterized it in like a
40:53
literal I like the literalization of what the character because
40:56
that is a thing that is you and I both
40:58
know is very hard to do. Not only is it
41:00
hard to do, it's very hard to do well and
41:02
in a way that doesn't feel saccerin and modeling, because
41:05
this movie kind of verges on it at times, but
41:07
I think it definitely avoids it pretty much every every
41:10
opportunity it has to really like fall into the trap
41:12
of being saccerin and Maudlin like it avoids it, but
41:15
it verges on it.
41:16
Speaker 2: It certainly does. And I completely understand why some people
41:19
thought it was schmaltzy, because if it is sch malzy,
41:23
it is, but in a very calculated way in a
41:28
way that makes you question your everyday life. It is
41:31
a quite philosophical film without being overly intelligent about the philosophy,
41:37
and I love that aspect just like you. The literalization
41:41
of the end of this first act is the part
41:43
that I'm talking about that I have never seen on
41:45
film like this, and I.
41:46
Speaker 1: Love it either.
41:48
Speaker 2: It is such a uniquely dour and sad moment to
41:52
make like almost feel hopeful, and I don't even know
41:55
how to explain that in that moment. But it truly
41:58
does make that feeling resonate in such unique way. But yeah,
42:03
the performances here are the main thing holding it because
42:07
it's such a it's such an interesting thing that you
42:10
can't just like pan the camera around and hope for
42:12
the best or anything. It's literally two people talking in
42:15
a moment that is just like, oh so this is it, okay, right.
42:19
Speaker 1: There's there's no fucking clowns running around, there's no none
42:23
of the nonsence, like it's just this, in my mind,
42:25
is like Stephen King's id boiled down to its like
42:28
barest of bearment. This is who Stephen King is at
42:31
his At his he is a person who walks around
42:34
his life thinking about every single interaction that he's had
42:37
and how it's going to affect every other subsequent interaction.
42:40
And if I think Stephen King is unfortunate cursed with that,
42:43
I think as a human being, and I think as
42:45
someone who's a writer, I think as a writer, I
42:47
think that's inherently something that he probably does. You know,
42:50
if you write and you create these fictional worlds where
42:53
you live in there was probably a person like Chuck
42:56
in Stephen King's life if he isn't chuck himself frank,
42:59
you know. And and that's the other thing that's kind
43:02
of wild about this again, to take someone who is
43:05
so well known for something else and have him do
43:07
something like this that works so well, it does, once
43:11
again feel a little unfair. Because Stephen King is such
43:14
a good writer, he can definitely travel within multiple genres,
43:17
including whatever genre this is. That's the other thing I
43:20
think that's probably hard for people who don't have an
43:23
understanding of the source material for this story. What would
43:27
you call that a d I'm a fantasy drama is
43:30
what I would call it. Again, it's like a fantastical
43:32
It does live within a fairy tale fantasy logic because
43:36
a universe ends because one character dot But at the
43:38
same time like it, this is so much more like
43:41
the things that Stephen King isn't known for. That again,
43:44
it's hampered from the get by being a non horror,
43:47
serious Stephen King thing because you know, running man.
43:51
Speaker 2: King and Mike Flanagan thing. It really does exacerbate it.
43:55
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, it really does, because again Mike Flannagan as
43:58
someone who is uniquely suited to it, afting Stephen King
44:01
is going key into the things that Stephen King is
44:04
just present. That's the thing about Mike Flannigan. He's keyed
44:07
in to Stephen King, I think more than anybody else
44:09
ever has been maybe And look, I know everybody's like, yo, Kubrick,
44:12
this Kubrick that, Like, I don't think I was gonna
44:17
agree with you, Like I don't think Kubrick is the
44:19
guy that was keyed in on King. I think Darabunt
44:22
is the other guy who's like so keyed in on
44:25
I mean, he's so keyed in on Stephen King to
44:26
the point where he adapted the Mist and made a
44:29
better version of the Mist than Stephen King. Like his
44:32
version of the myst is a is a superior version
44:35
to the short story and the ending of the Mist,
44:38
I think for me will always be a thing where
44:39
I'm like, Darabunt, applause to you, like round of applause,
44:43
because he understands King almost better than King does. And
44:46
I think again, this is that same thing where Mike
44:49
Flanagan just understands what Stephen King is trying to do
44:52
as well as anybody, just as well as Stephen King,
44:55
and it it comes out in what he presents on film,
44:59
because that first act works so well because I think
45:01
Mike Flannagan understand the expectation of the story, and look,
45:05
the story the Life of is presented the same way
45:09
in the book novella as it is in the movie.
45:11
It's presented act three, act two, act. So that's Flanagan
45:15
deciding that he's going to tell the story the way
45:17
King wanted it to be told, which again not easy.
45:20
Could have told it any other way and made this
45:23
easier on him, and he chose not to because I
45:25
think for me, the presentation of the story in the
45:29
format that it is is as important because the ending
45:33
for so many people, death is so scary, and death
45:36
is something that I don't think should be. It's going
45:39
to happen, and that's all you can say. It's gonna happen,
45:41
and there's nothing you can do about and there's nothing
45:43
any one of us can do about it. It will happen,
45:45
even for all of us. Be it today, be it tomorrow,
45:48
be it next. There's someone dying right now, as you're
45:50
listening to this podcast, as we record this podcast, as
45:53
you're listening to this pod, as this podcast sits in
45:55
a audio container on the Internet. In perpetuity, we will
45:58
continue and that is, yeah, just a reality of the world.
46:01
And at some point your number will be called and
46:03
you will go up and continue just like I will,
46:06
just like Ryan will. And that is not something that
46:08
I think people think about. I don't think it's something
46:10
that people even talk about. We as Western civilization, Western culture,
46:14
have a very obvious aversion to the conversation of death,
46:18
to the point where people are so afraid of death
46:19
all the time that they want to live forever and
46:21
they want to be immortal, and they write stories about immortality,
46:24
and they yearn for immortality, and people look for the
46:27
Fountain of youth and they look for death. At Williams,
46:29
you can cry fucking freeze yourself like there are ways too.
46:32
There are so many externalizations of how people are afraid
46:36
of and afraid of, afraid of the unknown. And it's
46:39
not really death that they're afraid of. It's just afraid
46:41
of the unknown because it's the ultimate. And I like
46:44
that Stephen King is just like, nah, it's just gonna
46:45
happen and there's nothing you can.
46:47
Speaker 2: Do, right, just pure darkness. You don't know what's going
46:49
to be there after you, just like you didn't know
46:51
what was there before you.
46:52
Speaker 1: And not only that, if you're chuwelo Eljaphor and Karen
46:55
Gillian in this movie, there was nothing you could have
46:56
done to prevent it. Right, you are just there and
46:59
no HEMI No amount of hemming and hawing and crying
47:02
and screaming and yelling and making you know resolutions or
47:06
bargaining or compromising is going to change. And there is something.
47:10
I think if you can get yourself to the point
47:12
where that is something scept willingly and it's not gonna
47:16
be easy, but if that's something you can accept, life
47:18
will be a lot fuller because you won't have to
47:20
constantly worry about these things happen. It's just gonna happen,
47:24
and someday it'll happen to you just like it'll happen.
47:26
And that's again, to learn that through a Stephen king
47:30
story is kind of hard for to be confronted with
47:32
that through at Stephen King's story is not to go
47:34
to a film in an American theater in twenty twenty
47:37
five and sit down and have a filmmaker say you're
47:40
gonna die some and there's nothing you can do about
47:42
it would probably ruffle some feather, would probably make some
47:44
people feel very and then you get twenty minutes of
47:47
Tom Hidleston dancing.
47:49
Speaker 2: Wow, wow, Wow, what a transition there, I.
47:52
Speaker 1: Mean, what a transition that the movie does. It goes
47:54
from these characters die to fucking you never had a
47:58
friend like me for ten minutes. It's great, don't get
48:03
me wrong. Buskers Forever is a is a great interlude
48:07
in the story, and it serves its purpose, but it
48:10
is a like stark contrast from the story being presented
48:16
before to go from two people just blipping out of
48:18
exist him dancing is just talk about tonal fucking whip.
48:23
Speaker 2: Which, honestly, in a story like this not a bad thing.
48:26
You kind of need that levity after that moment because
48:29
if you, oh man, if that was the end of
48:31
the movie where it's just pitch black, I don't get
48:34
up from my seat for like ten minutes, and I
48:36
just feel the weight of that. Oh god, that is
48:39
existential death.
48:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, like that's it's you know, it's such
48:43
a smart choice to not leave the audience with them,
48:47
because that moment is overwhelmingly sad and overwhelmingly just not negative,
48:53
but just like it's overpowering in a way. Like you
48:55
said that, I have not felt in cinema really or
48:58
and most filmmakers aren't able to get get so it's
49:02
so smart to be like, no, we're not gonna end
49:05
the movie on that. Okay, we're gonna We're gonna end
49:08
it on a much. I mean, I think it's just
49:10
as Sad and Dower a note, but in a different direction. However,
49:13
that's the third act and we're still talking about the
49:15
second act. What what are your thoughts on the second
49:17
I mean, I love the second act of this movie.
49:20
It serves its purpose as like, this is the moment
49:22
in life that life is made for? Is this moment?
49:26
And I man, I think about that because you don't
49:29
know what those moments are.
49:30
Speaker 2: It is also the moment in the film where we
49:32
get what the actual like crux of the film is.
49:35
For the most part, it's it's the narrative portion of
49:37
the film really right. And I mean, first of all,
49:40
love Tom Middleston in this. I think he was perfectly
49:43
cast this act. He is really great in just God
49:48
being charismatic and charming as.
49:50
Speaker 1: He right and and human too just like like I
49:53
don't know, like Tom Hddleston for me is a really
49:56
naturalistic act like he is. He look. I I know
50:00
that this is not going to be this is not
50:01
a controversial statement, but he's really good as what What Right?
50:06
And like he's really good in like everything. He's really
50:08
good as Hank Williams Senior in that Hank Williams Senior
50:11
movie like and he's singing in that movie too, Like
50:14
Tom Middleston, both is a great actor and a talented
50:18
singer as well. Like Tom Middleston is a great act
50:20
This movie I think shows that Tom Hddleson can do
50:22
a lot of acting without talking. Acting is not just
50:25
dial acting doesn't have to I mean, you know, we
50:28
really only get one scene of him in this entire
50:31
movie talk as Tom Hidleston, and it's in Buskers Forever.
50:34
After they perform and then they kind of all leave together.
50:38
We kind of get that moment with him and the
50:41
woman he danced with and the drummer. Like, we get
50:44
that moment, and that's about it in terms of Chuck
50:46
in the movie. That's the only time he's really We
50:48
get the agency that he has, We get to understand
50:51
who he is as a character, and that's the only
50:54
that's the only moment. But I think that that speaks
50:56
volumes because, like you said, Tom Hidleston in that moment
50:59
is so so and you feel for him as a
51:02
character because you see this guy who's wearing a suit
51:06
and tie and Nick Offerman says it blue suit, gray
51:09
gray shirt, gray tie. But all of that belies like
51:13
this person who likes to sing and dance and is
51:17
not like living a life of a lie. But he's
51:19
not living the life he thought he but he has,
51:21
in that one moment, felt that thing that he had
51:24
pursued and hoped for for so long, and unfortunately, like
51:28
so many he's unable to do anything about. He's unable
51:31
to take it one step further because life is not
51:34
the way he had planned life. Life didn't work out
51:37
the way he had expected.
51:38
Speaker 2: This is the life affirming moment that tells you to
51:40
grab the bull by the horns base and feel present
51:43
everything that you're doing. I mean, with knowing the narrative
51:45
of the story. This is the part where the hope
51:48
really comes.
51:48
Speaker 1: From, right And the conversation that he had with jan
51:52
and woman that he danced is you know again like
51:55
they don't know each other, they've just met each other,
51:58
that they don't know anything about each other other than
52:00
Chuck always wanted to dance for a living and do
52:03
something like that, and she just got broken up with
52:06
by and everything in that moment that they're dealing everything
52:10
in their life isn't that falls away, And the narrator
52:14
talks that nick Offfer nick Offerman says, you know in
52:16
that in that moment, you know, this is all that matter,
52:19
This is all that matters. This is that moment in
52:22
Chuck's life that like that his life was made. Is
52:25
that and it has nothing to do with his family.
52:28
It is nothing nothing, And that's and that, I think
52:32
is the thing that's hard I think for anybody watching
52:35
is there will be moments in your life that will
52:37
have nothing nothing. At the time will seem like they
52:40
are important in that moment, but after that it will
52:42
be like something that never capture right.
52:45
Speaker 2: The moment of watching this movie as a whole is
52:48
so unique because it's that feeling while watching that movie,
52:52
like I don't know that I can recapture that moment.
52:55
I mean, so much of the journey through this and
52:58
God are both the us. Over the last year have
53:01
had so many moments off Mike where we've been discussing
53:04
the beauty of life, the beauty of death, the tragedy
53:08
of death, the the growth from loss and from learning.
53:12
And you know, as as somebody that's you know, trying
53:15
to help a family right now who just had a
53:17
loss just within the last couple of weeks, there's no
53:20
script for how we handle it. There's no script for
53:23
how we grow from it. There's there's not even a
53:25
script for how we cope with it. I mean, even
53:27
like the steps of grief are different for everybody, and
53:30
the way that we talk about it with each other
53:32
is one thing. But the ability to continue living after
53:36
moments of not wanting to. This movie is like a gratifying, satisfying,
53:43
fulfilling the embodiment of like despair and hope on a
53:49
unique roller coaster of ups and downs because you can
53:51
flip flop back and forth in almost every scene that.
53:54
Speaker 1: You said it the last has been And you know,
53:57
I talked about it four or five that they thought
53:59
I thought I was back. The Patreon, the listeners out
54:02
to me and saying, oh, I'm so glad you're back.
54:04
Thank you for coming back. Glad to hear a new
54:06
format and you know you're it's different, but I appreciate
54:10
that you're being kind of more open and honest. It
54:12
is a different field. And then at the end of
54:14
December person I was with for a year and I
54:18
broke up, and like Ryan said, you know, I the
54:21
last year and a half's already been Like I was
54:24
married a year and a half. I had three dogs.
54:25
I don't have any, and you know, I alluded to
54:28
having worked with Alan Sachs he passed away. Like There's
54:30
been a lot that's happened in a lot last year,
54:33
a lot of negative stuff, I mean overwhelming amounts of
54:35
negative stuff, to the point that I have had people
54:37
say to me, I don't know how you're taking. I'm
54:39
not take, but I don't really have a choice in
54:43
a way because unlike Ryan, who has family that relies
54:46
on you know, you have whites everybody I think so
54:49
well they as long as they don't know that you're
54:52
not Ryan, you are not the father. I knew it.
54:56
I don't have anybody that relies on me, So my
54:59
connection the world feels a little bit more tenure. It's
55:02
a little bit harder to ground myself at time because
55:05
there's not that direct reliant I don't have a wife
55:08
kid that are like, hey, we're here, we need X,
55:11
And so that connection to the world when you're a
55:14
single purse is a lot harder than when you're in
55:17
a relation. Relationships do tend to ground there is another person,
55:20
someone else, you have to navigate the wants and the
55:23
needs of that person along with your own wants and needs.
55:25
So it does ground you. In reality, being single, you
55:28
can kind of just you know, I know people like
55:30
to hear this, but you can just do whatever you want,
55:32
good and bad. But you see in this movie, in
55:35
the Life of Chuck, that yes, being able to do
55:37
whatever you want is a good thing, but also the
55:40
responsibilities that we have are the things that ground us
55:43
in the world. Because we see Chuck Janie dancing together,
55:47
but yet Chuck's headaches are still. But yet Janis is
55:50
still feeling the effects of her boyfriend breaking up with
55:54
her through text mess Wow does hit a little bit
55:56
closer to home Now, wasn't a text message, but it
56:00
was over the phone. So you know, the magic of
56:02
technology will never evade me. The thing that I love
56:07
about that second act life, even though we don't want
56:10
life to get in the way, and even though in
56:12
those moments of life, reaffirming that moment where Chuck is
56:15
danding and this is what his life is let up
56:18
is essentially what the narrative is telling. Even in that moment,
56:20
he can't get out of them. Even in that moment,
56:23
the headaches are still there. Even in that moment, Janis
56:25
is still feeling the effects. And that's important because life
56:28
cannot be You can't ignore life at some point, can't
56:32
I know that there are people in the world that,
56:34
like we've already alluded to, they can ignore the fact
56:36
that death, They can ignore the fact sickness exists. Bad,
56:39
then you can put your head in the sand and
56:41
pretend for as long as at some point the chickens
56:43
come home. At some point, you have acknowledge the fact
56:47
that bad. Be it you get sick, be it someone
56:50
in your family, it an unexpected law, be it a
56:53
number of that I can't even begin to look. In
56:56
this movie, in the third act, Chuck's grandma goes to
56:58
the grocery store and die. You tell me how that's
57:01
it ain't.
57:01
Speaker 2: It's not even It's not even just that that is
57:04
not fair. It's that life was already hard, there was
57:07
already lost, there was already tough situations, and just like
57:10
we've talked about so many times over the last year
57:12
and a half. It's like these things know when things
57:16
are vulnerable, and they just happen on top of things happening,
57:20
on top of things happen. And like you just said,
57:23
you know, life can't get in the way. And the
57:25
reality is, and we you and I have talked about
57:27
this off air multiple times, life can't get in the
57:29
way because life is the way. There is no way
57:32
for us to just ignore these things. It's something that
57:36
we have to contend with and know that it's all coming.
57:40
I mean, God, not not to make it political or
57:42
anything like that, but now that people are literally getting
57:45
shot just from sitting there and being an active person
57:50
being alive, literallyatively.
57:52
Speaker 1: Care and that is actively caring about others.
57:55
Speaker 2: And so I mean, this movie really magnifies the fact
57:58
that in those moments, those those things, those things that
58:03
you and I have talked about so many times over
58:04
this last year and a half, the smallest of things
58:06
will feel huge and insurmountable those times because you were
58:10
already you already clip, You're already you're already stuck, You're
58:14
already sitting in a position where you can't defend yourself
58:16
where you can barely stand up. And yet in any
58:19
in any moment from that, uh, you could go pick
58:23
up an order at the grocery store. They can miss
58:24
one item and your whole world could feel like it's
58:26
falling them. And this movie does everything that they can
58:29
to highlight the fact that even in those moments, there
58:32
will be hope at some point, there will be a
58:34
light at the other end at some point, and uh,
58:36
there's also the inevitable fact that for for some people
58:39
there won't.
58:40
Speaker 1: Be And that's you know, to transition to the third
58:42
So the third act kind of lets I would say,
58:44
it lets the cat out as to what's going. It
58:47
becomes very much a haunted house Stephen Kings. It leans
58:51
definitely in the fantastical element of the store I think
58:55
is definitely presact. You get ostensibly the haunted attic from
58:59
any story, haunted attic with a haunted attic with something
59:03
something to hide that needs cover. And once discoveries this, uh,
59:07
it forever changes the character. President Hamill's charac Fucking Mark
59:10
Hamill is such a good act just like I I
59:13
know everybody loves him for his voice work. He is
59:16
the joke amount of joker content. He is right, but
59:20
he is such a and he is such a good actor.
59:22
In the third again get you get to see the
59:25
way grief affects in a way, in a way that
59:27
doesn't feel fake. And I don't think anyone other than
59:31
Mark Hamill could have done it because I think we
59:34
as a society all have a shared experience as to
59:37
who Mark Hamill is. And I think for a lot
59:39
of us, Mark Hamill is you know, Luke Skywalk. He's
59:41
a person who many of us grew up. And so
59:43
in that scene where we have Mark Hamill talking about
59:46
how he went upstairs to the attic and saw his
59:48
wife in the aisle at the grocery and then she
59:52
walks in because she's still alive at this point in time,
59:56
is fucking heartbreak and it's awful, And it's more because
1:00:00
it's fucking Mark Hamill. And look, Mia, Sarah is great.
1:00:03
Don't get me well, Mark Hamill, I think steals the show.
1:00:06
I mean, he's so just he's so believable in the
1:00:09
way that crays mea Sarah. And it's and you know
1:00:11
that's one of the things, but it's also and you know, again,
1:00:14
the whole cat being led out of the bag. In
1:00:16
the attic of the house that Chuck is a room
1:00:19
that if you were to go into that room, you
1:00:22
will see how someone dies. Might be you, might be
1:00:25
somebody else, but you will see how someone dies. When
1:00:27
Chuck goes up to the attic, he sees himself, he
1:00:29
sees himself in a bed, and he knows it because
1:00:32
of the scar on it. However, when his grandfather went
1:00:35
to his grandfather saw other things, including, but not limited
1:00:38
his grandmother dying and then a child from the neighbors. Well,
1:00:43
and I like that there is a little bit of
1:00:45
the fantastic kind of weirdness in this movie because I
1:00:48
think it does kind of once again belabor the idea
1:00:51
of Chuck knew this hold right, he knew. And that's
1:00:55
a question that we have struggled with is humanity, which
1:00:59
is what do you do with the information of how
1:01:01
you're going to die? If you could get that information
1:01:04
if you wanted, and what would you do it if
1:01:06
you could do any We see that Chuck's grandfather in
1:01:09
the movie, knowing that Chuck's grandmother is going to die
1:01:11
when going to the grocery, pretty much never lets her
1:01:14
go to the grocery. Store is like, I'm going to
1:01:16
go to the grocery store and get whatever it is
1:01:18
you need. And it's like, some I'm wrong with the
1:01:19
grocery store there, Grandpa, And it's like, uh, well sort of.
1:01:23
I love that we get to see how different people
1:01:26
react seeing what the future because Chuck doesn't really fight
1:01:30
it at all, and Chuck just goes, I'm just going
1:01:32
to live my life. He's going to live his life
1:01:34
to the fullest. And that that is insane to me
1:01:37
because I ask you, Ryan, if you were Chuck and
1:01:39
you knew how you were going to would respond in
1:01:41
that moment. Mind you, this is in that moment that
1:01:43
that's Chuck's response. This isn't like five days later he said,
1:01:46
I am wonderful. I deserve to be wonderful, and I
1:01:48
can see says it brand and I believe.
1:01:50
Speaker 2: I mean, the reality is I'll never know, but my
1:01:53
hope for it would be that, yeah, it would be
1:01:55
something that I would uh embrace in a way that
1:01:58
is stoke and strategic and not hysterical, but fulfilling what
1:02:05
I felt like was a purpose in a way. And
1:02:08
that's where so much more of these multitudes and philosophy
1:02:11
comes in. Because at that point, what is the purpose?
1:02:14
Is the purpose to properly say goodbye to people? Is
1:02:17
the purpose to leave things tidy? Is the purpose to
1:02:22
tie everything up with a bow that not only makes
1:02:24
sense for your shared experiences, but the life of those
1:02:28
that you will truly be affecting. And that's where so
1:02:31
much to this movie comes in to play. As it's
1:02:33
like looking back, Oh, it was kind of there the
1:02:35
whole time, because the whole idea of Chuck retiring is
1:02:39
the basis of this whole movie, and we don't really
1:02:43
get that until we start to really get that. Yeah,
1:02:47
this movie is one of those things that is asking
1:02:49
eight hundred and fourteen questions and answering two of them.
1:02:52
And I appreciate that so much.
1:02:54
Speaker 1: No, I'm I'm I'm with you. I mean, you know,
1:02:57
the third act of the movie really does, I mean
1:02:59
the act of the movie. It's it's it's no surprise
1:03:02
that the third act is called I contained. The third
1:03:04
act is about that. It is about the idea. Yes,
1:03:08
you you can know that you're going, but it not
1:03:11
affect it not affect the way that you live, It
1:03:13
not affect the way you decide to not affect. Shoot
1:03:16
when Chuck goes to ask teacher as always by the missus, Mike,
1:03:20
and she's great. By the way, I would like to
1:03:22
point out Mike Flanagan one of the great like casting directors.
1:03:25
I think, I mean, you know, look, it helps that
1:03:29
you're married to a beautiful, immensely talented woman and Kate Siegel,
1:03:33
who also happens to be so good in everything that
1:03:36
you cast her in where it's not a and look,
1:03:38
I we've derived afore and it's picking it's low hanging frough.
1:03:41
Oh god, Sherry Moon Zombie, I know, to quote, to
1:03:45
quote Matthew Lillard, Sherry Moon Zombie is no Kate Siegel.
1:03:52
But I love that scene between her and Chuck because
1:03:56
that's the scene that kind of just gives the movie away.
1:03:58
That's a scene that gives and I think, look, is
1:04:01
it Is it a little on the nose that Mike
1:04:03
Flanagan gives that scene to his babe, But I think
1:04:06
it works because she is given something to do that
1:04:09
she hasn't really been given to do in any of
1:04:10
his things, which is be like the hopeful, like positive
1:04:14
guiding light of the story and in everything else, she's
1:04:17
not really been given that opportunity. He's been given other
1:04:19
things to do in those roles, and in this role,
1:04:22
she's like, Chuck, here's what's going on, and here, here
1:04:24
is the world and the world is contained within your
1:04:27
head and all. Like I love that scene and I
1:04:29
think it's so smart that he gave it. Genuinely, I
1:04:31
think one of the smartest things is giving that scene
1:04:33
to his wife, because she fucking nails it. And it
1:04:36
doesn't seem again smaudlin or saccharin or like you said,
1:04:41
kind of sappy, like it doesn't it does it could
1:04:43
have gotten and except she just does it in a
1:04:45
way that I again like I know that her and
1:04:48
Flant again definitely sat for a while and tried to
1:04:50
figure out the best way to do it without it
1:04:52
seeming fucking sap. My god, that scene again, Like there's
1:04:55
so many scenes in this movie where I'm like, just
1:04:57
watch this scene and you'll get what the you'll get.
1:04:59
Speaker 2: The not only that if I was if I was Flannagan,
1:05:05
the gift of having my wife on camera doing what
1:05:08
she does in this scene, like I would just clip
1:05:11
that and have that like ready to play for me,
1:05:14
like as an inspiration. Genuinely, I mean, my wife is
1:05:16
my best friend, and I've got things surrounding me all
1:05:20
the time reminded me of things that she said or done.
1:05:24
I'm literally looking at right now a sticky note from
1:05:27
three and a half years ago that the first line
1:05:29
from her says, thank you for giving me more chances
1:05:32
than I deserve. I hope to continue to be the
1:05:35
person you've been needing and wanting for several years now,
1:05:37
Like those sort of inspirational things that my wife and
1:05:41
I have done for each other throughout the years is
1:05:42
one of the main reasons why we've worked. And God,
1:05:46
it's to have the joy in this moment of you
1:05:49
creating this film with your wife. I can't imagine the
1:05:52
overall like just relief of understanding who you have made
1:05:57
a life right then.
1:05:58
Speaker 1: Well, and I'll say this much man. All the actors
1:06:01
genuinely feel like I'm doing this because Mike Flanagan are
1:06:05
not good friends, but I believe in at least like
1:06:07
the main role because they're like so many of these
1:06:10
actors aren't given much to do. Fucking Heather Langham campus
1:06:13
in this movie for one scene.
1:06:14
Speaker 2: Barely barely, but she's in here.
1:06:17
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, David Dostil Mockin and Harvey Gehan
1:06:20
are in this movie as well. Like there's a lot
1:06:22
of people that are just in this movie, but yet
1:06:24
they all I think make an impact. The I mean,
1:06:26
even the girl who is checking Chuck out at the
1:06:29
grocery store when he goes in to ask about where
1:06:32
his grandma is so like the pivot in that scene,
1:06:36
that act. She's so like everybody in this movie is
1:06:38
so well cast. And again, when you have a movie
1:06:40
that is really just a character study, it has to
1:06:44
be can't get away right. I will say the kid
1:06:47
who plays eleven year old Chuck, I think is given
1:06:49
probably the most heavy lifting to do in the movie,
1:06:52
Benjamin Paijack. I think he's given a lot to do,
1:06:55
and I think he really rises occasion. I think if
1:06:57
this movie had come out maybe four years earlier, you
1:06:59
could I had Jacob Tremblay in the entire film, which
1:07:03
is clearly what they wanted. But you know, I'm glad
1:07:07
that Jacob Tremblay is in the movie in some capacity,
1:07:10
even if it is just right at the end. But
1:07:13
he's a welcome face. I kind of at this point
1:07:16
expect that if Flannagan does something, Tremblay will show up
1:07:18
at some point similarly to his wife kind of. But yeah,
1:07:22
the third act is heartbreak because Chuck goes up to
1:07:24
the attic and the first time he goes up he
1:07:27
doesn't see anything because the lights, and then the second
1:07:29
time he goes up there he sees himself and that
1:07:32
scene is just I don't know, Like I've watched this
1:07:35
movie six times now, three of those times because I
1:07:38
was like, I'm gonna watch it again before we record.
1:07:41
It's like subjecting myself water. This movie is somewhat of
1:07:45
an emotional like I wouldn't say an emotional roller coaster,
1:07:48
but he is emotionally exhaust if you're actually engaging with
1:07:51
this movie where this movie, like, this movie is exhaust
1:07:53
because by the end of it, it's asking you to
1:07:55
like really commit to the bit as like it wants
1:07:59
you to being engage with it the way it's engaged
1:08:01
seriously and honest and with with no there's nothing, there's
1:08:05
no there's no sarcasu, which is like there's no like
1:08:09
marvel moment where the character apes to the fucking camera.
1:08:12
There's none of that. And I well, but here's the thing,
1:08:14
like think about why Marvel does Marvel does that because
1:08:17
it knows that people are inherently uncomfortable with a genuine moment,
1:08:21
a genuine sharing of emotion between characters. That's why they
1:08:24
always undercut those moments, because people, the mass world as
1:08:28
it were, is very uncomfortable with real, genuine emotions being shown.
1:08:32
I mean, that's why you know, we're having to sit
1:08:34
here and belabor the point that this movie is doing
1:08:37
these things intentionally, so you can't really hate the movie
1:08:40
for doing that when that is the intention of it
1:08:43
is being emotionally manipulative, intentional, because that's the point of
1:08:47
the film. There are people that don't like that about
1:08:49
I don't care because that's that's you complaining about having.
1:08:53
That's you complaining about eating a cheeseburger when that's what
1:08:56
you ordered one. You're eating one. If you didn't want one,
1:08:59
you should not have. And there are other things go
1:09:01
about having that aren't that. If you don't like that,
1:09:04
don't do that. This is not a horror. I get it.
1:09:07
If you watched this movie thinking it was going to
1:09:09
be that and it wasn't that that's kind of an
1:09:11
issue again with But if you're on board, I think
1:09:14
if you're on board with this movie, there's no way
1:09:15
that they can't. It's somewhat success. Some will heat your engagement.
1:09:19
But at the same time, these kinds of conversations aren't
1:09:22
had in cinema at least, not in cinema. That's main
1:09:24
t not not at.
1:09:25
Speaker 2: This level at least. I mean, they're like very surface
1:09:28
level touched on sometimes, But that's.
1:09:29
Speaker 1: It, right, Which is why I think movie is so
1:09:31
uncomfortable for so many people and so and why so
1:09:34
many people didn't resonate. It's because it's actually asking you
1:09:37
to engage with it where it's standing, and where it's
1:09:40
standing is very uncomfortable ground for a lot of people
1:09:43
in this country already have a hard time will help
1:09:45
people in this country hard time talkie feelings and open
1:09:48
and being honest, trust about it.
1:09:50
Speaker 2: It is.
1:09:51
Speaker 1: It is not a given that even if you're in
1:09:53
a relationship that they're going to be honest and upfront.
1:09:55
So why would we expect that people on the stre
1:09:58
and why would we expect that people on the street
1:10:00
are going to want to have an honest and open
1:10:03
conversation with you about their emotions. And if they're not
1:10:05
willing to do that, why would we expect that if
1:10:08
they go and watch a movie about it that they
1:10:10
would resonate as opposed to it just making them feel
1:10:13
immensely uncomfortable, which is seemingly what this movie did for
1:10:16
a portion of the audience is make the audience very uncomfortable,
1:10:19
even though the intention of the movie is exactly it's
1:10:22
achieving exactly what it intended, and yet in doing that
1:10:25
that is not a success for some people because they
1:10:27
don't want to be challenged in this way. And if
1:10:31
you don't want to be challenged in this way, by
1:10:32
what is in fact challenge? Like? How are you being challenged?
1:10:35
Because for me, this movie is the reason I watch film.
1:10:39
Finding a movie like this one is the reason I
1:10:41
watch because it actually is challenging as a film watcher
1:10:45
to ask myself important question about what the human experience.
1:10:49
And I think the best kinds of challenge are experienced
1:10:53
humans and what we are combined experiencing together and what
1:10:56
we are experiencing separately. I mean, I know it might
1:10:59
be a bit of a stretch, but the house that
1:11:00
Jack built is effectively talking about the same thing that
1:11:03
Chuck is. It's just talking about the human experience. It's
1:11:05
just a different kind of human experience. But it's no
1:11:08
less of a valid one. It's just a very different one.
1:11:10
But it's also having a very serious and honest conversation
1:11:13
with the audience the way this which is why in
1:11:15
a lot of ways, House that Jack Built also made
1:11:18
people uncomfortable because it's a very honest movie. It's a
1:11:21
very serious and honest movie. Life of Chuck also a
1:11:24
very serious and honesty just in a different brank. It's
1:11:27
a little bit more palatable, a little bit more palatable.
1:11:30
I think for most people, I could show this film
1:11:32
to my family and they might not enjoy it, but
1:11:34
I think they would get out of it what the
1:11:36
film is giving to you. I think the House that
1:11:38
Jack Built is a little less, a little less transparent
1:11:41
with what it's doing. It's making the audience. I think
1:11:43
that's the thing I do appreciate about this. This movie
1:11:45
is not making the audience work any harder than they two.
1:11:47
I think it's making the audience work just about as
1:11:50
hard as they have. But it is I mean, for
1:11:52
a movie that is a Mike Flanagan Stephen King film,
1:11:55
it is very much not what anyone who would go
1:11:58
to be based on those You're made and look in.
1:12:01
Speaker 2: And of itself isn't the problem, I get it, but
1:12:03
it it does have the elements there, which I think
1:12:07
is super rare for a movie like this, because if
1:12:09
you're gonna, if you're gonna make something like this, you
1:12:11
wouldn't have that supernatural third act on most stories you
1:12:14
would have. You would have something that starts off maybe chaotic,
1:12:18
gets a little sackered in the middle, and then ends
1:12:20
with like an attempt at at like an epic, super obvious,
1:12:28
like very service level. So live life to the fullest.
1:12:31
Let's say you still looking directly at the audience, right
1:12:35
Instead it's like, oh, yeah, your grandma just might die
1:12:37
in the hospital on the way to the hospital and
1:12:40
the ambulance or something, and uh yeah, this movie's this
1:12:43
movie's a trip.
1:12:44
Speaker 1: It takes life doesn't arrive with Pompins, And that's what
1:12:47
this kind of getting right. Yeah, your grandma went to
1:12:50
the store to get some bread and dyed and you
1:12:51
know what, You went on a business trip and you
1:12:54
danced with a bunch of people and you thought about
1:12:56
leaving your life to be with them, and you didn't.
1:13:00
When you went back to your normal life, you got
1:13:01
cancer and you die, and you thought back to that
1:13:04
moment over and over again as a inflection point in
1:13:08
your life, and instead of making a choice to change,
1:13:10
you made a choice to internalize the life affirming nature
1:13:14
of that moment, which is an important thing to do.
1:13:16
Like you've already alluded to, sometimes you don't have to
1:13:18
make a change. Sometimes it just reaffirms to you in
1:13:21
that moment that life needs to be lived at all
1:13:23
times and being present. Grief is insurmount Grief is a
1:13:27
beast with many arms and many leg with many backs.
1:13:30
That's a different but with many arms and many legs,
1:13:33
and it can't be conquered all in one day. If
1:13:36
it can be conked all, but you had to fight
1:13:38
it at the same time, you're living life. You can't
1:13:40
let one stop and the other over. And like you said,
1:13:43
life continue even when people pass, even when people are gone.
1:13:47
While Chuck's universe ended, the world continued. Chwetel Algafor and
1:13:51
Karen Gillian still exists. All the things that were existing
1:13:54
in the world. Karl Lumbley still exists to Chuck there,
1:13:57
but to the world writ large, it's still existing. And
1:13:59
that's hard for people to understand that. When your story
1:14:03
is over, the grand story continue. Your character has just
1:14:06
been taken off the pave and for so many, I
1:14:10
think that's really hard step, and I think that's really
1:14:12
hard to internalize. And I think when a movie presents
1:14:15
to you that kind of conversation, that kind of argue,
1:14:19
that kind of idea, when it presents that to you,
1:14:21
it becomes uncomfortable, It becomes really hard. And then when
1:14:24
the movie continued, press you press and goes. And not
1:14:26
only did this character live his life to the fullest,
1:14:29
he knew that he was gonna die, He knew that
1:14:32
he was not going to be an old man. Even
1:14:34
if even if Chuck inherently knew that it was him
1:14:37
in that bed, which and it didn't have to be
1:14:38
confirmed to him that he had a Scarns, which didn't
1:14:40
he could tell that that person in the bed was
1:14:42
not an eighty year old, it was a very middle
1:14:45
aged person. And even in knowing that fact, Chuck still
1:14:49
lived his life. Chuck still lived his life to the
1:14:53
fullest of his own ability. And I think that that
1:14:55
that is the message from this movie, that the one
1:14:58
that we should all to. Even when a character knew,
1:15:01
even when a character knew how things were going to
1:15:03
play out, and again, maybe not entirely, but enough to
1:15:07
know that I'm sitting in that bed, and I am dying,
1:15:10
and I am close to death, and I do not
1:15:12
look like an old man. It never says the movie,
1:15:14
this is just what you have to assume based on
1:15:16
the way this story is written. Chuck rejects the fact
1:15:19
that that is if he knows it's the few, but
1:15:21
he rejects letting that become all that dominates his life,
1:15:25
because that is a level and despair that look someone
1:15:28
breaking up with you over the holidays when you're back
1:15:30
home to bury your dog is one. Knowing the future
1:15:34
of how you're going to die is something that you
1:15:37
would never be able to get out from underneath. I
1:15:39
genuinely don't know if you were not if you or
1:15:41
I knew how we were gonna die within some reasonable expectation,
1:15:45
I don't know if it would not be something that
1:15:47
wouldn't drive one of us nuts.
1:15:49
Speaker 2: Not only that, uh, the ability for you to live
1:15:53
outside of that without going nuts, That in itself would
1:15:57
be nuts. It would be something that would not, like
1:16:00
logically or mental health wise, make any sense, because it's
1:16:05
obviously something that humans don't have to contend with any
1:16:07
real world scenario. But I mean, well, I guess in
1:16:10
a way, I mean, one way to discuss that is
1:16:12
what about cancer patients who are told, you know, you
1:16:14
got three months to live, and how many of those
1:16:16
people go a little bit insane in those last ninety
1:16:18
days and then live, you know, they're told three months
1:16:20
and then they live two and a half years, And
1:16:22
imagine the like in a way like that creeping dread
1:16:25
knowing well, it's supposed to happen any day, and I
1:16:27
can't be surprised if it happens tomorrow. So here we go,
1:16:30
better go to the store now, Like.
1:16:32
Speaker 1: What Yeah, yeah, I hope that neither one of us
1:16:35
ever have to experience that firsthand. I know, and I'm
1:16:39
sure that at some point in both of our lives
1:16:42
we're getting sick and passing away and loss if we
1:16:44
haven't already had to experience that direct the way you
1:16:47
know Chuck's family in the film. But to your point,
1:16:50
unless people are taking care of you, yeah, you gotta
1:16:53
live like life has to continue to be lived even
1:16:56
in spite of the terrible things that have happened. I
1:16:58
mean again, I have one to just sit down in
1:17:01
the mud for the last and no one has let me,
1:17:03
and I haven't let myself, and that's not I mean,
1:17:05
not letting yourself is the hardest part other people. You
1:17:08
can disappear from other people's lives, especially in this day
1:17:11
if you don't live near people, Block on Facebook, block
1:17:14
on message, block on whatever, and be done and goodbye adios.
1:17:18
It's so much harder in this day and age to
1:17:20
connect and stay connected with because it's so easy to
1:17:23
be away from each other. But staying connected and staying present,
1:17:26
staying in each other's lives is very, very hard, especially
1:17:30
when people are dealing with things that aren't necessarily pleasant
1:17:34
or positive and you can't do anything about that. I mean,
1:17:37
anyone that's talked to me in the last month and
1:17:39
a half has had to hear about what I've been
1:17:41
dealing with. But at the end of the day, click
1:17:43
the phone turns off and you go about your life
1:17:45
with the problems that you have, and I go back
1:17:48
to my life with the problems that I have. And
1:17:49
if you don't share with me the problems that you have,
1:17:52
I don't know what you're dealing with, and I can't
1:17:53
speak to that or help or even offer comfort and
1:17:57
kindness and care. And that's again, we as a society
1:18:00
are not told to share how we feel with people.
1:18:03
We're not told to open up, we're not told to
1:18:05
be part of each other's lives in a way that matters,
1:18:08
because everybody is out for themselves. Everybody's trying to do
1:18:10
their own bottom line, everybody has got their own things
1:18:13
going on. But in being there for each other, I
1:18:16
think we're able to diffuse away some of this inherent
1:18:21
I think stress and anxiety that we all have about
1:18:23
feel like we all are so worried about dying and
1:18:26
death and the unknown, but we're not able to be
1:18:29
present in the now because of constantly worrying about the
1:18:32
un And Chuck in this film knows where the unknown is,
1:18:36
he knows what the unknown will be, and he rejects
1:18:39
that and goes, I am gonna be I am going
1:18:41
in this moment and I am going to be present
1:18:43
in my life with the people that And that's the
1:18:46
point I think of the movie is be more like
1:18:49
Chuck if you can, because he knew what the future
1:18:52
held and he still lived his life tills what fucking
1:18:54
excuse do we serious?
1:18:55
Speaker 2: Light?
1:18:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, and life has to be lived. Is if you sit,
1:19:00
you know, if you sit and you just are a
1:19:02
passenger on life. Then you have no ability in my
1:19:05
mind to complain. You have no right to complain if
1:19:08
you've done nothing to change. And look, this is coming
1:19:10
from someone who has had all kinds of terrible things
1:19:13
happen in the last eighteen months. And I have wanted
1:19:16
nothing more than to just not be present. And I've
1:19:19
wanted nothing more than to just blip out of existence
1:19:21
and not be And you know what, even I can't.
1:19:23
And that's okay, because to your point, life is life
1:19:28
is inherently needing. You know, I have a quote on
1:19:31
my Facebook. Sometimes I go about in pity for myself,
1:19:33
and all the while a great wind carries me across
1:19:36
the sky. It's from the Sopranos. And regardless of whether
1:19:39
or not you want to, life is going to happen.
1:19:41
Time pass, and in time pass if things happen. Look,
1:19:45
it's like January fifteenth, and so much has already happened
1:19:47
in the last two weeks, the beginning of this year like.
1:19:50
And God only knows what the next days or months
1:19:53
or week lie ahead for us. But I know that
1:19:56
you and I will continue to be here for one
1:19:58
another and work together and be a part force in
1:20:01
each other's lives, both emotionally and in all kinds of ways,
1:20:04
because you and I are very close as friends, but
1:20:06
also we work very closely together as well. And I
1:20:09
think you know it is hard to be present. It
1:20:12
is hard to because it's hard to be there for ourselves.
1:20:14
I think it's so hard to be there for yourself
1:20:16
and to admit I need help, or I need to go,
1:20:19
or I need I need something more than I'm getting help,
1:20:22
reaffirm them, reaffirmment whatever. And I think that in people
1:20:27
being so afraid of death, is so afraid of the unknown.
1:20:30
We just work ourselves into a corner where we don't
1:20:33
feel like we can share how we're feeling, and we're
1:20:35
having to worry about all the time, whether or not
1:20:38
we're gonna diet, or whether or not our parents died,
1:20:40
or whether or not our dogs. Look, my dog just
1:20:42
died one day this year, and that was just a
1:20:45
day that I had to deal with. It just happened,
1:20:47
and that's it. And I have no explanation, I have
1:20:51
no anything. It just happened. And you know what, I've
1:20:53
had to deal with it for the last two and
1:20:55
a half months. And I will continue to deal with it,
1:20:57
probably forever. That's the other thing about this movie. Grief
1:21:00
never really goes. You just kind of internalize it. It
1:21:03
becomes part of you. It stops sticking out so much.
1:21:06
It just kind of becomes part of who are. You
1:21:08
integrate it into self and you move forward because, like
1:21:11
you've if you stop for too long to grieve, kind
1:21:14
of just miss all the other things you gotta And
1:21:16
there's a lot Take it from me, I almost missed
1:21:20
some pretty big opportunities because of the level of grief.
1:21:22
And even I, who has had a lot of bad
1:21:25
things happen, knew that I can't let my grief get
1:21:28
in the way of things because grief is all. And
1:21:30
you see that with Mark Hamill's character, Key goes from
1:21:33
an up, positive, happy character to a character who is
1:21:36
essentially just I mean, the amount of grief that he
1:21:39
feels is understandable, but at the same time, what do
1:21:42
you do with that grief when it's all and you
1:21:44
can't get out of it? And that's and that's his character,
1:21:46
you know, I mean, you see you see almost the
1:21:48
way Chuck doesn't want to deal with and that's the
1:21:51
way he's looking at is because the Mark Hamill character
1:21:53
just gets consumed by the grief of the loss of
1:21:56
his wife, and again it's understandable, but at the same time,
1:21:59
containing multitudes means you have to be able to handle
1:22:02
all things at all time, and it's not easy, and
1:22:04
it's not fun and it's frankly, again, it's exhaust you're
1:22:07
dealing with these things. If you are struggling, take it
1:22:10
from me, Go talk to a therapist. Go get yourself
1:22:12
psychiatrically a value. Go talk to your doctor if you
1:22:15
have anxiety, because I did, and I'm getting the help
1:22:18
that I need. I have been so grateful to have
1:22:21
people other than a therapist in my life and spend
1:22:23
time that take care of me. Like Ryan. Ryan and
1:22:26
I are friends outside of this pod where this is
1:22:28
not a Pen and Teller situation where we are just
1:22:30
we worked her, you know. I mean, hey, man, I
1:22:32
always think about that because I always assumed that pen
1:22:34
and Teller were like best buddy and they don't even
1:22:37
commiserate outside of them, No, and like you know what,
1:22:39
some professional relationships are like that ours is not. And
1:22:43
being part of each other's lives, I think is something
1:22:45
that was important for the two of us. Clearly and
1:22:47
I understand why it's not for a lot of other people,
1:22:49
because it is a lot. Dealing with each other's dealing
1:22:51
with our own stuff is a lot, but being present
1:22:54
for other people's stuff can be just as much, especially
1:22:56
if you're the kind of person like I am, who
1:22:58
genuinely gets really invested, so you know it's watching a
1:23:02
movie like this is very hard because you're almost it's
1:23:04
hard not to become emotionally invested in Chuck the character,
1:23:07
but then to see yourself as Chuck the character, and
1:23:10
you know, to think about the moments in your own
1:23:12
life that reaffirming, or the moments in your life that
1:23:15
you recontextualize to make more sense or to you know,
1:23:18
to to change. Like when Chuck cuts his hand on
1:23:21
the barb. You know that moment doesn't really matter that much,
1:23:24
but it matters more than anything else in his entire
1:23:27
life because of because of the meaning ascribed to it
1:23:30
by the vision that he ends up having later. And
1:23:33
that scar on his hand is the confirmer of everything,
1:23:37
even though he rejects it, still is the confirmer of like, no,
1:23:39
this is you and this is what's gonna happen, and
1:23:41
you have to sit with that every day and you
1:23:44
never get to hear what Chuck has. He never really talks.
1:23:46
And I think that, for me is maybe the smartest
1:23:49
thing about the entire movie is that that ultimately is
1:23:52
left our interpretation is whatever you get away because Chuck
1:23:56
Chuck never lets never lets you see him sweat, not
1:23:58
one Sky has a fucking brain tumor dying, and he's
1:24:01
fallen apart. Nick Offerman even says at one point he
1:24:04
will literally lose the ability to walk, and there is
1:24:07
no point where he's like, I knew this was never
1:24:09
says that it's I mean again, it's the Yes, it
1:24:13
is a story written by but though that we as
1:24:16
even if should allow our present, those things in our
1:24:19
head are just in art. But being in our head
1:24:21
is the world. The world is in between our really,
1:24:24
it really is.
1:24:25
Speaker 2: Do you mean I'm not an idiot sandwich? Like Gordon
1:24:27
Ramsey says.
1:24:28
Speaker 1: No, But boy, he sure wrote a book called Idiot Sandwich,
1:24:32
And isn't it also slightly ironic that Gordon Ramsey just
1:24:34
apparently doesn't know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich.
1:24:37
I don't know if you've seen that or not, but
1:24:39
Gordon Ramsey's grilled cheese recipe is just like not grilled awful.
1:24:43
It's just the worst. The cheese isn't even melted. It's like, no, no, Gordon,
1:24:47
I think you're the idiot sandwich here, my friend. Yeah, no,
1:24:50
you're not an idiot Sandwich. I would say. Anyone who's
1:24:52
an idiot Sandwich would be someone who's not willing to
1:24:55
give a movie like this one a chance. Now, go
1:24:57
watch this movie. Don't expect it. Don't expect the Running Man,
1:25:00
which I have heard was not great anyways. So it's
1:25:03
all right, is I that's what I heard? Yeah, it's fine.
1:25:06
Speaker 2: It wasn't a it wasn't an egger right movie. That's
1:25:08
the problem.
1:25:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, Which is.
1:25:10
Speaker 2: Funny because we started saying that this shouldn't be expected
1:25:13
to be a Stephen King and Mike Flanagan film. But
1:25:15
the Edgar Right of it all like he is a
1:25:17
style first sort of director and we needed more of that.
1:25:20
Speaker 1: Well, you know what they say, if you want to
1:25:21
adapt Stephen King, maybe don't adapt Richard Bach. I don't know.
1:25:24
I mean, look, the Running Man is as a movie
1:25:26
that's great because it's got Schwarzenegger in it, Like nothing
1:25:30
to do with the goddamn story of that one, I owe.
1:25:32
Speaker 2: So I disagree that the story itself is great, and
1:25:35
even the new one it's it's good. It's just some
1:25:38
of the more important aspects it does not.
1:25:40
Speaker 1: No like Schwartzen A just yeah, I'm gonna belabor that point.
1:25:45
Speaker 2: It does have Michael Sarah though that's always.
1:25:47
Speaker 1: You know what. It doesn't have that Arnold Schwartzen or
1:25:49
Richard Dawson.
1:25:50
Speaker 2: That's true, although I would Coleman Dimingo is better than
1:25:53
Richard Dawson.
1:25:54
Speaker 1: Coleman Dimingo's wall. He's a better actor. Yeah, he is
1:25:57
an actor. I guess it was kissed far less people.
1:25:59
I bet against their will definitely. Well, I guess I
1:26:02
don't know. If Richard Dawson was such a looker back
1:26:04
in the day, I don't think that's against Anyboddy's will. Yeah,
1:26:08
what a different time when women were just lining up
1:26:10
to be kissed by a game shows. Can you imagine
1:26:12
Steve Harvey doing that? Now? No? I can't. Or who
1:26:15
are the other ones? Yeah? I don't know who Guy Fiery.
1:26:19
Doesn't he host a show minute to win it or
1:26:21
flavor toown express Flavors'. That's the train that goes from Pittsburgh.
1:26:27
Speaker 2: To what a Guy's Grocery games? That's what it is.
1:26:30
Speaker 1: Triple G. Hey, everybody, that Guy Fiery sounds like the.
1:26:34
Speaker 2: Host hosted Triple D. Now it's time for Triple G.
1:26:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty much. God, you know, I love Guy Fiery,
1:26:41
but his shtick has uh has outgrown It's welcome probably
1:26:44
about a decade. You know, Ryan, I'm so glad we
1:26:47
finally got to talk about this movie. I am really
1:26:50
hopeful for to six. I hope that I can stay
1:26:52
consistent with this. It's been a lot. It's been a lot.
1:26:55
It's been a lot. This last year has been a
1:26:56
lot less.
1:26:57
Speaker 2: Well, and anybody listening knows it's been a lot, because
1:26:59
this is like the fourth or fifth time that you said,
1:27:02
hey guy, it's been a while.
1:27:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been a while. Feel like a fucking stained
1:27:07
song song.
1:27:10
Speaker 2: I got me good.
1:27:12
Speaker 1: I am not Aaron Lewis, I promise no, A mean seriously,
1:27:16
Like you're right. The amount of just like shit that
1:27:18
I've had to deal with and like overwhelmingly negative thing
1:27:21
emotional turmoil, I've been and has been a a a
1:27:25
you know, the Indiana Jones ride. It's like you're just
1:27:27
like being jerked around all over the place for like
1:27:29
a year, and except jerking, it.
1:27:31
Speaker 2: Also hard for me to fit in, So that'll s right,
1:27:36
not anymore though, Well, just being six foot five in
1:27:39
that tiny ass ride is not an easy trip.
1:27:41
Speaker 1: That's true. That's true. Yeah, I would be afraid of
1:27:44
like the things that aren't supposed to hit my head
1:27:46
hitting my.
1:27:47
Speaker 2: My big thing is like fitting my feet into the compartment.
1:27:49
I've wear size sixteen shoes.
1:27:51
Speaker 1: Holy shit, I wear size twelve, sometimes thirteen. And I
1:27:55
thought that was well.
1:27:56
Speaker 2: And when at my heaviest the first time I lost weight,
1:27:59
I wore an eight mi my feet of shrunk.
1:28:00
Speaker 1: My sister's husband wears a size twenty. He's six foot ten. Yeah,
1:28:04
so you thought what you were dealing with.
1:28:07
Speaker 2: It's true.
1:28:08
Speaker 1: I mean it could get worse.
1:28:09
Speaker 2: He doesn't ride the Indiana Jones ride. He has. He
1:28:11
has to ride the State of Indiana.
1:28:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, he just pushes the cart from behind. I always
1:28:16
ask I always ask my sister's husband how many bones
1:28:19
he needs to grind to turn into bread. He doesn't
1:28:23
find it nearly as funny as I do.
1:28:25
Speaker 2: All I wanted to say was it's a perfect chance
1:28:27
to make up a great pun and say, like, well
1:28:29
at YaST five or cent.
1:28:31
Speaker 1: Fee five four five, anything else we want to say
1:28:36
about the life of chill Uh.
1:28:39
Speaker 2: I mean, we didn't really dive too deep into it,
1:28:42
but I really want to hammer home how kind of
1:28:44
perfect all of the cast is in this. We mentioned
1:28:48
most people by name, but even like Tremblay and Mia
1:28:51
Sarah and Mark Hamill and she would tell Edgi four
1:28:54
and Matthew Lillard for like twenty seven seconds, and everybody
1:28:57
that is in this is truly doing like some of
1:29:00
their best work. It's just never going to be recognized
1:29:03
because none of them are for longer than like three
1:29:05
minutes at a time, except for our man Hitelbitch and.
1:29:10
Speaker 1: Other than him.
1:29:12
Speaker 2: Like it's the camera doesn't even linger long enough for
1:29:15
you to walk out of the theater experience and be like,
1:29:17
oh my god, Jacob Tremblay was so great in this,
1:29:20
or Mia Sarah we haven't seen her in twenty three years,
1:29:23
was so great to see her, while true, like we
1:29:26
barely saw anybody in this movie, and yet you walk
1:29:29
away feeling devastated and gut punched by so many different
1:29:32
things that it's hard to really understand how great everybody was.
1:29:35
So yeah, just hats off to everyone I'm with.
1:29:37
Speaker 1: The casting is great, the film is great. I understand
1:29:41
the malty, the small schmalty qualifiers that are being leveled
1:29:45
against the movie. However, I reject the schmaltiness one hundred
1:29:48
percent because I think that was the intention. We can
1:29:50
also we can acknowledge a movie as doing this right
1:29:54
and that movie also be successful because we are acknowledged
1:29:57
that it is doing it and that is the intent.
1:29:59
If the movie he did it and was not successful,
1:30:01
that's a different issue. Cannot tied a for doing something
1:30:05
and succeeding at that thing it is trying to. Just
1:30:08
because you don't like it, just because you don't vibe
1:30:10
with it, doesn't make it bad. It just makes it
1:30:12
a thing you don't vibe you don't However, I vibe
1:30:16
with this movie pretty hard. Ryan vibes be hard, and
1:30:18
I think more will if given the opportunity and look
1:30:21
cinema like time will's out. This movie will find its audience.
1:30:25
This movie will find the people that love it. This
1:30:27
movie will have people banging the drum for it for
1:30:29
the next twenty thirty forty just like other movies, just
1:30:32
like fucking people were doing for maximum overdrive, just like
1:30:36
people were doing for all kinds of lesser Stephen King
1:30:38
things than not lesser in what they are, but lesser
1:30:41
in terms of the visibility of the source material, because
1:30:43
the life of Chuck is not it or the shining
1:30:47
just by definition. So I am definitely a huge proponent
1:30:51
of adapting Stephen King's stuff that isn't horror, appreciating Stephen
1:30:55
King things that aren't horror. But also I am a
1:30:57
huge proponent of watching movies that challenge, lend the human
1:31:01
dish and ask us to think of what in this
1:31:03
movie I, in a lot of way is a perfect
1:31:06
distillation of that, And it hasn't. It has a conversation
1:31:09
with me as a viewer that I have with myself
1:31:12
quite oft and I appreciate that. And Frank reaffirmed to
1:31:16
know that I am not the only one habit because clearly,
1:31:18
Mike Flannagan A clearly clearly you are. And it's reaffirming
1:31:22
me that presented external because it makes me realize, yeah,
1:31:25
you know what, life is hard. But everybody's strung, whether
1:31:28
or not they want to admit it, whether or not
1:31:30
they want to open up about it, whether or not
1:31:32
they want to acknowledge. We're all strugg we're all we're
1:31:35
all in it living it. And if you live life,
1:31:37
there's going to be good moments and there's gonna be bad.
1:31:39
Most to think that life is going to be all
1:31:41
positive is infantile, But to expect that it's going to
1:31:45
be all negative is nai. It's the middle grid. It's
1:31:49
positive and negative. Someone recently asked me, would you say
1:31:52
our relationship was all good or all and my response
1:31:55
was it was a bit of and life is a
1:31:57
bit of life will always be a bit of. Life
1:31:59
is now all good and all bad. If it's all good,
1:32:02
I would question the world that you live in. If
1:32:04
it's all bad, I would also question the world because
1:32:07
all good and all bad all the time is a
1:32:09
very non binary or a binary world. And I live
1:32:12
in a non bumk. That's not I'm life. Life is
1:32:14
not one way, and to think that it is not
1:32:17
health and to assume that it will be one way
1:32:20
and it is the other, and you get upset about these. Also,
1:32:23
you need to take life the way it comes at you,
1:32:25
take life the way that it's meant to be lived.
1:32:27
And you need to take life as it comes at you,
1:32:29
not what because sometimes you will get out of life
1:32:32
not what you need, but what have and need and
1:32:35
have to get are two very different. A need is
1:32:37
sometimes a one. Having to get is just a thing
1:32:39
that's put in your end. So many of us just
1:32:41
have to deal with things happen, some of us have
1:32:43
very little control. The way we handle those things is
1:32:46
the defining moment, not the things that have happened, but
1:32:48
the way we And you see Chuck in this movie.
1:32:51
He doesn't let what he finds out at the beginning
1:32:53
of the movie us make him sweat at all. He
1:32:56
lives his life to the fullest. And I think you
1:32:58
would agree by the end of the movie he has
1:33:00
lived his life to the fullet.
1:33:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I could not have said it much better. And
1:33:04
hard agree on everything else. I mean, even the question
1:33:06
was our relationship all good or all bad? No offense
1:33:09
meant here, but God, what a dumb ass question, right?
1:33:12
Speaker 1: I agree? I agree, it's it's never gonna be one
1:33:15
or the other. And that's a movie like this hammers
1:33:17
that point home, like life is a lot of thing
1:33:20
and looking back on the positive moments will bring up
1:33:23
the negatives. When Chuck was dancing, you had the fucking
1:33:26
headache right, and that and the woman he danced with
1:33:29
was still dealing the heartbreak of her boyfriend leaving her
1:33:33
Like that's those things can exist at the same time,
1:33:35
And yeah, it is. It is a dumb question to
1:33:37
ask because at the end of the day, life is
1:33:40
a mick and to assume it's going to be one
1:33:42
where or the other is not real And in in
1:33:45
unreality is what film we live in. The sole's all
1:33:48
acknowledge because the sooner we acknowledge the reality of things
1:33:50
that are going on, I think the quicker we can
1:33:52
all get on the same fucking pay and figure out
1:33:54
how to get ourselves out of this situation.
1:33:56
Speaker 2: Totally hope.
1:33:57
Speaker 1: So Ryan, I think the interesting opportunity when you're not
1:34:00
here talking about the life of Chuck with me, where
1:34:03
can people find.
1:34:04
Speaker 2: You and the things that you work on? Jesus, do
1:34:06
we have enough time?
1:34:08
Speaker 1: I mean we took like the first twenty minutes of
1:34:10
this episode to talk about it, so technically we did
1:34:13
have time still do. So.
1:34:14
Speaker 2: The biggest thing, obviously is brand new venture called Antenna Releasing.
1:34:18
You can check out Antenna Releasing dot com or anywhere
1:34:21
on social media under antenor releasing or if you're still
1:34:23
on Twitter antenna for films. One of the big things
1:34:26
that we're going to try to do is hit letterboxed hard,
1:34:30
so look up in tenor releasing on Letterbox. We are
1:34:34
going to be putting things into theaters, so sign up
1:34:36
for our email newsletter on the website.
1:34:38
Speaker 1: We are.
1:34:41
Speaker 2: Looking to put out our first release, which is Stolen Kingdom,
1:34:43
as mentioned earlier, should be around April or May ish,
1:34:46
I believe. I think we're looking in early May for
1:34:49
that first theatrical release, and then we're gonna be announcing
1:34:51
titles pretty much every month, whether that be for physical
1:34:54
media or for theatrical acquisitions or going to streaming or
1:34:58
what have you. And in the span of the next
1:35:00
few months, we're probably gonna be announcing multiple things every month,
1:35:03
So get ready for that because there is there's a
1:35:05
lot of stuff coming, lots to cover, but also everything
1:35:08
else I've ever covered on here. You can still find
1:35:11
so like The Disconnected everywhere on social media, YouTube, Someone's
1:35:15
Favorite Productions, home video, you can look up the Physical
1:35:18
Media Advocate magazine and about eighteen hundred and four other
1:35:22
projects that I'm doing, So please check me out if
1:35:24
you're into it.
1:35:25
Speaker 1: Ryan is a very busy man. Ryan took the mantle
1:35:27
of me being the busiest man that I knew and
1:35:30
ran with. At some point I just burned out, and
1:35:33
I just burned out really hard, and then you were
1:35:36
just like, I'm just gonna keep running with it. I'm like,
1:35:37
all right, have that. Yeah, you can find all the
1:35:41
things that I'm seemingly working on at Weirdingwaymedia dot com,
1:35:44
Patreon dot com, slash culture cast, where you can go
1:35:46
to kick a couple dollars my way. I am going
1:35:48
to everything in my power. But you know, life is
1:35:51
what life is, and life comes at you in a
1:35:53
way that you just have to keep So thank you
1:35:55
for being a loyal audience member, thank you for listening
1:35:58
porting what I've been doing for the last decade now.
1:36:01
And like Ryan said, you know, be kind to one another,
1:36:05
be good to one another. I think it's important given
1:36:07
the state of the world right now, to you know,
1:36:09
I wouldn't say give everybody the benefit of the doubt,
1:36:12
but you know, some people deserve the benefit of that,
1:36:14
and I don't foresee things getting any better without us
1:36:18
coming together acknowledging our shared experience species. So be kind
1:36:23
to one another, be good to one another and come
1:36:25
back to the next episode, where I will not be
1:36:27
joined by Ryan. I'll be joined by my dear friend
1:36:29
Mike White to talk about French comedies, because hey, hell
1:36:32
of a pitvous buddy. We'll catch you on the next episode.