Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / Asteroid City (2023) - Wes Anderson | Houselights #205

Transcript

Asteroid City (2023) - Wes Anderson | Houselights #205 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the NED party.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hello everybody at home, and welcome a two house lights.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: House of Anderson revisited. We are taking a side step
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: here where we're stepping away from our current house and
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: are going back and revisiting Wes Anderson films by talking
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: about twenty twenty three's Asteroids City. And I am your
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: co host, Tristan Rudel, and with me as he always is.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Is John Mills.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: That's right, I am here. And in case anybody is wondering,
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Tristan and I were around for House of Anderson, and
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: it's sort of a tradition that every so often when
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: we need to, we'll revisit a house and let Darren
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: take a little nap in the corner of there. He
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: needs his beauty rest, and we try to respect that.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Doctor sci Fi is always busy, he's always creating, So
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: we figured we'd give him a break and we'd go
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: back to the quirky, quirky House of Wes Anderson and revisitotis. Yes,
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: we see what color he painted the new room. Is
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: it turquoise? Is it teal?
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Is it possibly a pale yellow? We don't know until
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: we explore sunflower. Perry Winkle if you will.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, Yeah, this one came out at the time of
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: this recording came out in the previous year. It is
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: one hour and forty five minutes right at PG thirteen standard.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Wes Anderson Roman Coppola film, again starring oh so many people.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: We got Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Maya Hawk, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Steve park Leev Schreiber, and I think what did I mention?
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Steve crell Is in there too.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: We got Margo Roe in there in a small role.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: We got Tilda Swinton. Jeff Goldbloom of course makes an appearance.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: I think by by contractual obligation or something. He's he's
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: like you know what he's like. He's like the Robert
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: Downey junior of MCU but of Wes Anderson.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: So I was gonna say, like, the the Michael Kane
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: of Yes, Nolan, there you go.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I like that. That's better.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Yes, he's he's the Michael Kane of the Wes Anderson verse. Yeah,
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: that works, that totally works.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: So this was your first time watching this.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Yes, it was correct.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: In preparation for this podcast this I had seen this
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: once before, like this came out, I did not see
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: this in theater and this was so this was my
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: second time watching it. I don't seen it once before.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Wait, was this this was released in theaters? I thought
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: it was straight to streaming? Was it straight to streaming?
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: I can't. No, it can't be. It can't be because
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: it had box office. It had a box office.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, this one was had a budget of twenty
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: five million and it made back almost fifty four million,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: So it just barely doubled its budget, which is like
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: the low hanging fruit of trying to make a profit
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: in terms of box office. But as we were saying
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: before we started recording, you don't make a Wes Anderson
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: film to make money, Very.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: True, very true.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: You you make a Wes Anderson movie in the hopes
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: that you're going to get praise and adulation and you're
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: gonna be known as the hip studio. Hey what's up,
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: fellow kids, I too make clever indie movies that you
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: can relate to. They're quirky and they're funny. Hey look, yes,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: that's why you sneak it.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Just as a review like as John was talking about,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: we did the House of Anderson a long time ago,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: and we like to revisit it, and we'll probably revisit
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: House of Nolan sometime in the future.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: We must.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, so we can talk about Oppenheimer. But for Rushmore,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: I gave a two and a half, you give a five.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Royal Turn and Boums I give a five, you give
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: a four. Life Aquatic I gave a five, you gave
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: a four point five. Darginian Limited was three and then
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: two yep fandas to mister Fox was four point five
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: and a three point five Moon Riight's Kingdom was three
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: and a two point five. Grand Budapest two point five
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: and a five.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: When we differ, we really differ there, Tristan, we really do.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: I love Dogs was three across the board. And this
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: was another one that pissed you off. I gave it
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: the French dispatch of four and you gave it a
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: two and a half.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: Still mad, actually still very angry about that. Actually not
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: as angry as it turns out about rushmoren and Grand
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: Budapest Hotel, because like we both we fancy ourselves Wessey
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: Anderson fans. Yes, it took me a long time to
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: get around to this one, but I have very fond memories.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: Like I'm audience if you want to go back and
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: listen to the Rushmore episode where I just effusively talk
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: about all of the wonderful memories I have of that movie.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: I saw that movie h two times. I saw it
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: one night and then I went back the next night
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: with my girlfriend and we watched it again. That's how
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: much I loved Rushmore right out of the gate, Grand Budapest, All.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: That's like, absolutely, I'm a Wes Anderson fan. But we differ,
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: and it's weird how we differ, because when we differ,
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: it's drastic, Like it's really drastic. So I'm actually very
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: interested in where this is gonna go because I already
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: know where I landed, and I'm just waiting to see
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: where you landed. Because if we follow a trend, well
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: we're in for humdinger, folks.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: So here's the thing is that, like we often use
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Darren as a buffer when we either like a movie
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: or don't like a movie, or we try to play
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: at koy where we talk about what we like and
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: what we didn't like, but we don't really let on
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: if we liked it or hated it or was in
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: the middle.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, I see, with.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: It just being the two of us. You were texting
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: me while you were watching the film. Yes, I was
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: about how much you hated it. Yes, yes I was.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: I like, you hate having my phone anywhere near me?
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: And I was having such a miserable time by about
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: thirty minutes into the movie that I walked up and
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: I went and I got my phone so that I
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: could just I think I think a part of me
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: was just trying to blame you for it. Was trying
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: to take it out on someone, and I couldn't. You know,
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: my wife, great soul that she is, if I went
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: over and started complaining, she'd be like, I didn't tell
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: you to watch it, what's wrong? And I'd be like,
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: you know what, there is one person I can I
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: can take this out on, and it's Tristan, and I
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: could just reach out and touch it through text message.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: And that's the way.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: So that's the thing is that like I don't have
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: to pretend like I don't know that's.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: True how you thought about that. The pretense is gone.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: And so when I first.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Saw this movie, when I saw Asteroid City, so like,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: here's how it's described, and I'm to be following a
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: writer on his world famous fictional play about a grieving
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: father who travels with his tech obsessed family to small
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: rule asteroid city to compete in a junior stargazing event,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: only to have his worldview disrupted forever.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: There's a lot.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Going on that and in that sentence, I mean, and
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: that's the thing, is that like this this movie is,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: it's it's layered very oddly, where we have it's narrated
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: by Brian Cranston like a TV special talking about how
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: the play was made, like the writing process behind the play,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: and then in some we see some behind the scenes
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: of the play, but then we actually see like the
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: movie version of that play. So it's almost like Inception
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: if Wes Anderson did it.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: I hate that you put it that way, because I
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: love Inception and I want to keep this movie far
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: away from it for fear that it might poison it somehow.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: I get what you're saying with that, I don't think
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: it's as artfully done as Inception.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Well that's not what I was saying.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: No, I know, but I'm going to purposely misinterpret just
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: so I can start kicking the movie now. But the
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: entire conceit I think turned me off from the beginning
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: because it is way too much of a self referential wink.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: The very opening where Brian Cranston and his magnificent voice
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: and delivery tell me, we're going to tell you the
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: behind the scenes thing, I nothing started unraveling at that point,
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: but my reaction was uh oh, because it was a
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: director signaling to me, I know how to be clever,
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: and that instantly set me against it. Did that poison
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: my reaction through the rest of the movie, possibly because
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: I just thought the conceit was an error. I think
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: that if you want to have a conceit like this,
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: it should be done much more along the lines of
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: stranger than fiction, where you're going through and it's weird,
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: and then suddenly you find out that it's being constructed
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: by these people who are at an arm's length. So
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: I think there was a way to do this, but
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: it wasn't this way. I think that the whole thing
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: immediately is a paper tiger, and I'm just waiting for
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: the wind to blow it down from the get go,
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: and I think that's unfortunate because I always want to
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: give the benefit of the doubt that there was a
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: kernel of an idea there, like I can see it,
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: I can see the clever idea, and I think that
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: if anything, this movie is guilty of overthinking it and
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: trying too hard. So and that opening immediately told me
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: it was going to try too hard.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: This was this was a solidification of what is now
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: neo Wes Anderson, where we had, you know, we have
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: retro Anderson with Rushmore ten and Balums and Life Aquatic,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: and then he starts branching out a little bit more
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: with a and type of style with Dardealing Limited, and
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: it's completely different with his animated works like Fantastics, Mister
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: Fox and Isle of Dogs. That's just a that's a
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: separate style all all its own. But then like Dardealing
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Limited was kind of like was was what I you know,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: was the beginning of what I say was modern Wes Anderson,
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: and Moonrise Kingdom was much more of that. I think
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: that was that was the solidification of modern Wes Anderson,
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: where it has that presentational narrator to it. It's like
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: the guy just standing in front of the camera talking
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: about it kind of awkwardly in the scene, not in
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: the scene kind of thing, and it's it's much more dardealing.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Limited was was very much rooted in reality, but Moonrise
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: had the animation aspects to it, like the the crazy
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: tableaus and miss on scenes of of just like two
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: D flat vistas that were clearly like trying to look
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: like animation or paper and everything like that. And then
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: you have a Grand Budapest, which was kind of going back,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: kind of blending that presentational, you know, theatrical style of
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Moonrise and our deealing, and then French Dispatch is like, oh,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: this is need. This where we abandon modern Anderson and
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: we're going into that neo territory of everything's disjointed, everything's presentational.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Things are like we have an animation within a story,
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: within somebody retelling that story, and it's really segmented. And
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: then Asteroid City is just off the rails. Yes of
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: him saying I have this idea and it's going to
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: go in fifteen different directions.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Yes, I think it is.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: I think that is an incredibly good way to put it.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: It's like a brainstorming media at work where everybody keeps
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: talking and nobody stands up at some point and says, okay,
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: stop I need to start writing down some things, and
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: we need to pick a direction here. I think the
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: way you just put it is exactly right where it's
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: nobody says no at any point. There's no focus, there's
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: no there is no guiding principle to this story, and
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: I think that additionally there is I'll just go ahead
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: and say it. It's it's a horrible word to throw
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: at somebody, But there's a pretension about this film that
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: absolutely really gets under my skin because it tries really
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: hard at the end to force like this profound observation
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: about the nature of life, and it so unearned.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: You don't call asleep?
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: Is that that is one of the worst lines I've
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: heard in modern film. Like I haven't seen that many
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: films in the last five years, but of the films
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: I've seen in the last five years, that is I
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: will throw a dart right at the board, and that
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: is the line that I'm going to hit with the
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: line I enjoyed the least.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Of all of them.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: All of them, and I've seen some bad movies, folks,
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: But like, that line got under my skin so badly
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: because it was it was just like when I was
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: in college and one of the other theater students thought
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: they were a lot deeper than they actually were, and
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: it just it just sets my teeth on edge. It
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: just it's this faux intellectualism that absolutely grinds my you know, now,
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: Peter Griffin, I got to tell you what grinds my
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: gea is. It just really did. It got under my
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: skin so severely. It was just it was like the
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: final slap in the face at the end of it all.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: I was like, of course we did this.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Sure. Do you remember the seventies movie Love Story. No,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: I've never seen it. I've never seen it, but yeah.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: There's a line in it. You probably have heard the line,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: and they repeat it a few times in the movie.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: But like the hook of the movie is, I mean,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna get this wrong. It's love means never having
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: to say you're sorry. And like they just repeated that
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: all the time. It was in the marketing material. It
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: was like known for that. It's like, love means never
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: having to say you're sorry. I'm like, not only is
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: that patently false?
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: True, I'm gonna agree with you on that one.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Like, not only is it wrong, it's it's the opposite
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: of of correct. Like, you know, love means you say
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: sorry all the time. It doesn't make any sense, and like,
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: you know, you know that when the writer stumbled upon that,
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: he's just like, oh my.
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: God, I'm such a good writer. This is amazing. I have,
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: I have behold truth in the human existence and that
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: it's the same feeling that I got when they started
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: chanting that at the end about I'm sleep and waking up.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: That is a brilliant line to draw. That is a
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: brilliant line to draw between them. I applaud you. You
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: are exactly right because that line also gets I may
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: have never seen Love Story, but I am familiar with
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: that line, and every time I've heard the line, I
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: have the same reaction.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Like, that's complete ball. What are you talking about never
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: having to say you're sorry? Yeah? Okay, sure, yeah, try
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: that one out. Let's see how it works for you. Sure, okay.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: So you you talked about how you got a little
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: grazed at the beginning, You're just kind of like, oh,
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: I don't know about that one. When did you start
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: rocking in your chair? When were you going like, oh okay, okay, Wes,
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: what are we doing here? When do you think that
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: happened for you?
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: I gave him a lot of grace, a lot of
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: grace all the way up to like I was even
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: holding off when you know, you have the car thing
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: and it's going on in the in the in the
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: service station, I'm still holding on. And I think, probably
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: and this is one of those things where I think
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: it's going to be an odd moment to pick, but
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: I think the moment when the car races through the
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: road that goes through town with the cop chasing them
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: and the you know, you hear the gunfire, and I
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: think to myself, oh, no, that's never going to have
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: anything to do with.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Anything, is it.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: It's just a love mark to say, wasn't that quirky?
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: That I think is the exact moment when it went
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: by the first time where I went, oh, oh dear, Nope, nope,
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: I size this up correctly.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: That's pretty early on. Yes, it sure is.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Price it hour early on.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: That is because for me, I can't remember exactly that
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: it was around like either thirty five minutes maybe forty minutes,
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: when the kids were all sitting outside together and they
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: during the name game like where they had to remember
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: all these famous people and like all these scientists and
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: everything like that, and they kept the scene just kept
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: going and kept going on. That's when I was like,
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: what the hell are we doing here? This scene is
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: still going on? And I understand that these kids are precocious. Yes,
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: I've seen a Wes Anderson film before, I get it.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: And one of my favorite films of all time I'm
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: talking about a top ten film is The Royal Teneboums.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: I get it, like it's entertaining, it's fun, but you know,
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: it just felt like such a departure. It just when
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: there's you never want to think in a Wes Anderson film,
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: why are we still in this scene? And not often
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: do I feel that way, because there's so many times when,
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: even if something is not integral to the plot, in
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: an Anderson film, you can still sit back and be
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: entertained by hey whenever I use this word, but the
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: vibe of it and the feeling of it, you can
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: just lit it. You can just little Sanderson film wash
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: over you. You're like, I'm sitting down. It's gonna be quirky,
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: it's gonna be nonsensical, it's gonna be its own thing.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: I'm just gonna I'm just gonna go into Wes Henderson's
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: mind for about two hours and then it'll be fine.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: But with this, with Asteroid City, there were so many
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: times when I was like, what are we doing? Yes,
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: what are we doing here? And that was the biggest one.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: I think that's when we still had an hour left,
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: I was like, man, why I didn't even make it
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: to the halfway mark before I gave up. And that's
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: the thing to me is I was like he had me,
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: like I was. I was in with the uh with
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: the Brian Cranston thing, even though I didn't really dig
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: on the voice that he was doing, you like the
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: voice that he was doing more than I did, but
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: I dug the whole like, oh no, these are the
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: stage act. We're seeing the movie version of the stage play.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Like I'm in on that, like you and you and
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: I both are big theater people, and I love the
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: idea of that, and like seeing the writing process behind it,
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: like you know, like I was just like okay, cool, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: you have me, you have me. But then when we
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: meander so much within the film of the film, and
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: I think that's what really got to me is that
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: if that scene, if I was seeing that scene live,
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: the kids sitting around doing the names. It probably would
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: be interesting and impressive, but I'm not seeing it live.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: I'm seeing it, you know, on a in a movie.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: It's two different mediums. And so I think that's the
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: risk that you pull, is that, like some of this
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: stuff would have worked really great live on stage, but
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: not in a movie.
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: I think that's fair. This is going to sound weird.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: But I think another thing, as so long as we're
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: talking about specific stuff that didn't work for us, and
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: you know, like it gives us trouble latching on is
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: I think it's very obvious that Tom Hanks is in
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: what I would call the Bill Murray roll, and it's
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: much more suited to a Bill Murray performer than Tom Hanks.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Are you Are you trying to be funny? Or that
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: was that was supposed to be Bill Murray?
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: I can I could tell I didn't know.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: I didn't know that, But I'm like, if if Bill Murray,
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: I can honestly tell you, probably this this movie gets
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: a whole other star.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: If Bill Murray's in that role.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: He got COVID right before they started filming, ah jeez.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: And and so this was this was made in the
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: in the middle of the pandemic and uh and so
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: he like and this was when this was this was
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: I think this was shot like early on when they're like,
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: holy crap, and Bill Murray is a is a man
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: of a certain age and uh and so he was
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: really of course, you know, he was really chagrined that
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: he couldn't do it. And so and I mean not
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: saying that Bill Murray's name is is a slouch, but
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: like to get Tom Hanks to fill in for Bill Murray,
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: that's that's a huge get. But that's it was a
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: totally Bill Murray roll like you could. Like it almost
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: makes you angry, even though I'm a huge Tom Hanks
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: fan because who isn't because I'm an American, But uh,
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: it's just to not you can see Bill Murray. But
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: it would have would it would have made it so
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: much better.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: But see, this is where you also get the opportunity
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: to be a little bit George Lucas. Because if you're
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: a little bit George Lucas, then what you do is
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: you just use somebody to read the lines on set,
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: and then you take a portable blue screen when the
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: actor is available, and you film them and then you
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: comp them in, just like Ceo Bibble in episode two
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: where they had somebody on set in case it didn't
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: work out. But then Oliver four Davies, they're like, oh,
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: you got an opening in your schedule. Cool, and they
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: fly out with a portable blue screen. They're like, walk
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: this far as you say the line, and then walk
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: this far when you say this next line, and we'll
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: just put you in.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: And I had no idea they did it until.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: I watched like the making of and I was like,
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: oh my god, he wasn't even on set.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: They could have done that here. They could have done that.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Here, which is really interesting because with the triplets, yeah,
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: they filmed them like if you notice, like when you're
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: watching the movie, the triplets never touch each other m hm.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: They're never like shoulder to shoulder. They're never like linking
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: arms or hand in hand or anything like that. They're
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: always separated because they filmed them at different times so
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: that they could make sure that the lines were had
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: a certain rhythm because Wes Anderson film films are all
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: about the rhythm. It's all about the rhythm of delivery,
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: and you can't do that with young triplets. And so
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: they would they would crop the the performances together to
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: get that rhythm. And there's this one nighttime scene. Actually
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: texted you a picture of it. It's this nighttime scene
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: of the of the triplets and Tom Hanks together talking
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: about burying the ashes. And if you look at it,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: like Tom Hanks is not there, like it he is
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: green screened in and so you're so they totally could
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: have done that. And if you think about Tom Hanks
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: in this movie, like there's so many times when he's
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: he's separate from like you know, like the opening phone
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: call totally could have done you know at a later time. Yeah,
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: or even the conversation that he has with Schwartzman when
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: Shortsman is sitting on the car and Hanks is off
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: on the side. Again, I'm not saying that they should
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: have done this. I'm not saying like, oh, we should
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: have like asteroids that he revisited. Just it's something that
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: you totally could have done if you wanted to. Although,
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: like a one poor example is when Snyder Zack Snyder
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: put Tig Nataro in that god awful zombie movie he made.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: All right, full stop, that was not a god awful
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: zombie movie. But yes, I agree with you that dropping
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: in Nataro. That was a tough call a time.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: I'm a huge, huge, huge tig fan, huge, one of
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: the biggest, but that was because you could she's stuck
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: out like a sore thumb in the movie. Like visually
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: and auditorily.
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: It didn't play as well as it could have. I
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: will give you that much. It didn't play as well
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: as it could have. But I think, yes, I I
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: I don't. The thing is that it does feel disrespectful
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: to come at Tom Hanks like that.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: But I'm not coming at Tom. I'm not coming at
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Tom Hanks.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: I'm just saying I look at that, and I say, oh,
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: that's Bill Murray's part.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Why wouldn't like, why wouldn't you, Why wouldn't you go the.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: Extra mile and say, okay, soon as you feel better, right,
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: just come on down and we'll film you a solo
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: on the set and we.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Can watching Godfather Part three and you're like, that's totally
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Robert Duvall's part.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: What is going on? Yeah, I know, maybe a little different.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: It's a little different, but the same idea. More tan,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: little more hair.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: What did you think of Scarlett Johansson in this because
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: she's a wes Anderson newby.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: I don't.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: I don't think that she brings the the energy that
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: a wes Anderson movie wants. I answer, I applaud her
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: for try. Scarlett Johansson is a fine actress. I'm not
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: saying again, I am not dragging her at all. I've
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: seen her in a lot of stuff where I enjoy her.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: But I think that there's a certain artifice that's very
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: tricky to pull off in a wes Anderson movie. Jason
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: Schwartzman has been working with Wes Anderson for three thousand years.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: He knows how to play that. Wes Anderson calls him up,
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: He's like, Jason, I got it.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah. They don't even need to have.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: A meeting beforehand. Schwartzman can just walk on like read
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: the script. He's like, I know how I'm supposed to
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: do this. Not fair to compare to him, but there's
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: a she has a much uh there's like, if you
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: look at it in terms of arcs, in terms of energy,
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: she has a much more understated energy than is necessary
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: for this. There needs there's a slightly caffeinated aspect to
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: a wes Anderson character, and she's a little too mellow,
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: and it's not her fault. It's the type of energy
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: that she brings. She's got great screen presence. If this
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: were a naturalistic role, if this, if I were looking
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: at this and somebody else makes Moonrise, or sorry, ooops,
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: if somebody else makes Asteroid City and they strip away
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: the Brian Kranston part and it's just this quirky little
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: thing about people in the desert. That's Scarlet Johansson and
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: that's how she was playing it. And it would have
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: been perfect for that movie. It's not perfect for this one.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: It needs that that slightly restrained for neticism and awareness
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: of the fourth wall breaking. Whereas she's playing it a
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: little too earnestly, I guess, is what I'm saying.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: You think she's playing it too earnestly. Really, maybe I'm
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: using the word wrong.
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: I don't know, but I donest is the right word
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: performs because I think I think you had it correctly
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: when you said, like it needs to be a little
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: bit more caffeinated, like there needs to be a little
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: bit more jittery.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Energy to it. But I have to say Asteroid City
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: is probably the most dead pan of West centers in
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: film in terms of delivery because I felt like everybody
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: had super low energy compared to previous works. Now I
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: know that that's a staple, like the kind of dry delivery.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Matter of fact, delivery is very Wes Anderson, but this felt.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: Even see I would turn it around. But the thing is,
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: it won't work for you. When I reference Grand Budapest Hotel,
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: because I would look at Ray Fines in that and
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: Tony Revelori in the Grand Budapest Hotel. Everybody in the
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: Grand Budapest Hotel actually brings that delivery that is dead
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: pan and very not dead pan per se. I disagree
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: with dead pan in that movie, but that's the type
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: of thing that I'm looking for in Somebody in Here.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: You're saying you see everybody as sort of more Scargo's
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: level here in terms of the energy or.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, that's not what I was saying.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: I was saying. I was saying that not.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: I think she was definitely the lowest out of everybody
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: on set. I think she had the lowest energy, absolutely,
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: But in terms of other Anderson movies on a whole,
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: this movie had much deador delivery. Like I think if
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: you if you look at Schwartzman. If you look at Hanks,
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Hanks absolutely had had dead pen delivery maya Hawk. Even
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: Rupert friend Leev Schreiber was straight laced. I think the
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: only person who kind of had energy was Jeffrey Wright
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: when he gave his speech.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: You know, I'll actually I'll give a nod to Adrian Brody.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: I think he gave Yeah, he gave the most strangely
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: appropriate performance for this movie.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: He did. He really did.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: And also Hope Davis, I think who was I think
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: she She had a very thankless role in and I
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: thought she brought a lot of a lot of humor
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: to it, like the I think the scene that really
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: worked for me between it was between her and Scarlett
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Johansson when Davis was waiting for the shower and Johanssen
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: comes up to her and she says, like.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: I really liked to in that movie. Oh thank you.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: I really thought you did. Oh thank you.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: You know, she just kept saying like she kept cutting
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: her off and saying thank you, thank you, thank you.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: And it ends with, you know, like I liked it
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: even though nobody else did.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: She's like and then there's this pause, Yeah, well other
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: people did like it.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: That kind of rhythm and that kind of deadpan delivery
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: was I think very appropriate for the movie and what
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: I would have liked to have seen more from Scarlett
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: Johansson m h. And instead we get this on Wei
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: state of Mind when she's when she's sharing those conversations
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: between the windows with her and Jason and Schwartzman, which
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: I do like, which I do enjoy, but the tone,
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: the tonality was very different from what you normally see.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: I didn't enjoy it at all.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: That's oh my gosh. When she says, like, I do
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: a nude scene, do you want to see it? And
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: he goes, he doesn't say anything, and she goes, what
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: it's like?
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Did I not say anything? Did I? Did? I say? Yes?
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: I know I didn't. It didn't work for me. I
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: didn't get on that wavelength at all. I think Anderson
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: movies are known for having that sort of quirky, nice relationship,
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: and I didn't. I didn't feel any energy between Johanssen
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: and Schwartzman through the entire thing.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: I think I have to agree with you on that.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Even though I like the reports, Hey, between the two
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: of them, the chemistry wasn't quite there between the two
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: of them, especially when they said that they they we
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: find out that they had a sexual component to the relationship.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that felt weird.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: I was like, why, Like it felt out of place? Yes,
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: and it was yeah, Like yeah, it's like there's so
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: much of this movie that I want to like and
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: that the pieces are there, but then when they're when
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: they're put together, you're like, I see what you were
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: going for, but m m, it didn't didn't quite land.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's it's uh, I like the way
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: you put it. I see what you were going for.
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: It's like an art project where you know that the
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: person who put it together can put together like a
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: really good you know, I don't know, some type of
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: craft sculpture or you know, display piece or or painting
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: or however you want to say it, and you can
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: see the talent behind it. But the work itself is
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: just flat. It doesn't gel in the right way. And
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: if somebody comes to you and says, in what way
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: didn't it gel properly? Usually I would say, oh, well,
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: I can't quite tell, but I can tell you right
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: off the bat. Schwartzman and Johansson, I don't buy any
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: chemistry between them. Is that supposed to be some sort
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: of meta commentary because Schwarzman is also playing Jones Hall,
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: who had the relationship with Conrad Erp, who was the
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: playwright who was putting the play, who was writing the play.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: Is that supposed to be some sort of meta commentary
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: about somebody playing a role whether they love that. Well,
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: if so, then all of the charm of that part
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: of the movie is kind of gone because you never
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: double back to the whole thing between Irp and Hall.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: So why, yeah, like why did you even introduce it?
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: That was really strange that we didn't go back to
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: that or we didn't have some sort of bookend with it, right,
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: it was It's just it's just like why do we
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: have that there? Like it's it's that's an interesting dynamic,
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: you know, like the writer having a lover in the show, right,
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: and you know, like it was just as interesting as
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Adrian Brodie, you know, like living you know on the
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: set or like live like and right, because he's separated
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: from his wife. That was that was a nice scene
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: that we had, like even though they were separated, they
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: still loved each other. But it wasn't enough. She still
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: had comments on the play like, oh have her say
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: this at this line, like, that's that was a very
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: real moment. And you know, like having a lover who's
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: an actor then putting them in the play. That's that's
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: a very real human connection. And and also on top
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: of it, you know, like having it take place in
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: the past and being gay or or queer in some
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: fashion in itself is interesting. But to not go back
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: to it or reference it, or like just have it
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: kind of just hang in the air. It was very confusing,
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: and I felt like an idiot when like when Swartsman
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: first came on and he's like Edward Norton and Swartzman
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: are together and they have the ice stream together, and
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: I'm just like, I'm kind of a gay vibe going on, right,
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: I'm like, well, yeah, you you idiot. You wonder why
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: you're getting a gay vibe. And then all of a sudden,
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: you know, like he they feed like he's feeding am
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: ice cream and then they kiss, and I'm like, oh, okay,
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: well yeah, there's a reason but.
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: There yeah, I mean, and there's a whole way they
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: could have done it, because if Conrad Orp is writing it,
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: then the scenes where Scarlett Johansson and Schwartzman are interacting
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: with each other in that moment. You could have even
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: done a like a contrast sort of thing where you
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: see Schwartzman much lower energy interacting with Scarlett Johansson quote
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: unquote on stage, but then you suddenly see Norton there
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: and you get this idea of there's more energy and
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: connection in the scene when the two people that have
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: the connection are there. However you wanted to arrange it,
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: or like it wouldn't have mattered.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: Or like Joehanssen's character is the stand in for ERP himself.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what That's what I'm saying. Oh, that's what
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: you're saying. Okay, So you get like a.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: Flash of Irp at a certain point, and then you
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: see Schwartzman more energetic and more engaged, and then it
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: cuts back to Joe Hansen and you see how much
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: harder he has to work to get to that point.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: That's an interesting way to approach it, but I think
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: it would have broke. It would have been you know,
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: this thing is, this thing eats itself on all of
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: the sort of fourth wall breaks that it builds, and
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: it just this thing is like a black hole. You
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: mentioned Nolan earlier I'd much rather go back and watch
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: Oppenheimer again, because this thing is a black hole that
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: collapses on itself. I think, is it starts spinning around
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: this Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola Core, and then it just
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: keeps spinning faster and like it's just a it's the
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: top that's spinning faster and faster until it falls down.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: But it never falls down. It's like the end of inception. Hey,
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: look another Nolan reference that we made earlier, right when
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: it like, I'm watching this thing by the end, waiting
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: for it to fall apart and then frustrated that it
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: never comes together instead, which is a completely different type
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: of frustrat with a movie. If a movie falls apart,
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: I can distance myself intellectually in a way and approach
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: it like a textbook case and sort of at least
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: enjoy it from a Oh I see where you should
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: have moved that. I see where you should have done that.
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: Whereas I look at this and you're like, well, what
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: would you have done to fix it? Because that's the
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: favorite game anybody that talks about movies loves to play
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: how would you have fixed this? And I look at
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: it and I'm like I don't think I can. I
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: don't think anybody can. This is just doomed from the beginning.
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: And it doesn't make sense to me why it is
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: doomed from the beginning, specifically because, like I look at
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: Grand Budapest, I've forgotten about French dispatch. I've been assured
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: I should try it again. But that's the problem I
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: think for me is if no one were ever God
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: forbid to have a misfire of a movie, I'd be
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: very puzzled because I'm like, look what you just did?
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: How did this happen? And so you know, it's one
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: of those things where it's a frustrating watch for me
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: because I can't tell you how it should have been done.
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: I can't figure out what's wrong with it. I'm the
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: mechanic at the beginning of the movie. Oh, if it's
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: just this, then it's no big problem to fix. But
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: if it's not that, it's a bigger problem to fix.
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: And then something goes wrong, well, what is it?
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: This is a third type of problem. I have no
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: idea what's going on here? That's absolutely that.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: I think that that's a really good analogy for this
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: movie overall, where you're just like you're on board, and
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: you're like, okay, this is a West sentence in Films
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: said it like it's like there's gonna be something wrong
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: with it, but it's only gonna cost you seventy five
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: cents to fix it. And then you're like you get
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: further into it, you're like, oh damn, okay, no, we're okay.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: We're forty minutes in and we're still stretching it like
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: this is this is gonna this is gonna take, this
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: is gonna be expensive, this is gonna be expensive fix
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: and then all hell breaks loose and the movie just
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: kind of ends and you're like, yeah, this is this
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: is a third problem. I think that's the thing is
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: that the movie just ends. It doesn't really say anything.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: It doesn't have I mean, it tries to say something
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: and fails, but it doesn't have anything to say. There's
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: there's nothing behind it. We don't feel like, really there's
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: been any journey for some of these characters. And you know,
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: the Margot Robbie scene was kind of a breath of
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: fresh air and then it was just kind of over
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: and done with it. You're like, oh, oh that was nice,
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: and then we move on and I guess and the
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: Adrian Brody scene, so you have the like that that
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: whole section right there, we go from Adrian Brody to
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: Margot Robbie and you're like, man, that was that was
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: really cool, Like that was real. That was really well done.
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: But at the same time, like, if we wanted to
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: quote unquote fix this movie, if we like, I think
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: one way to try to fix it is just make
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: it linear. And like, if we make it linear, we
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: just keep it as an destroid city like just the film.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: But or if we go with what they did with
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: like Grand Budapest, where just stick to it where it's
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: like we see the behind the scenes making of the
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: quote unquote play kind of like okay, here we go,
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: all right, here we go. You remember in White Christmas
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: when they're at the general's farm and his hotel, his
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: resort or whatever, and there they do these huge Hollywood numbers.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: We're talking like gigantic sets. Everyone's dancing around like crazy
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: and and we're talking like a million dollar room. And
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: then the dance number is over and they're just like
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: in his show space in his barn. So have them
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: put on the play that is Asteroid city. We see
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: the behind the scenes with Adrian Brody, we see the
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: behind the scenes with Margot Robbie, like that all really happens,
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: Like we see these people go about their lives trying
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: to put on the play, but when the play is
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: going on, it's the movie that we see.
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: And if we just stick to that stuff, you would
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: work the two of us. I think I had a
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: reference fire in my brain as you were saying that,
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: is there's sort of a noises Off opportunity where you
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: have you're familiar with noises Off. Oh, it's an incredible comedy.
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: It's great live. It's one of the best shows you
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: can see. It's one of the funniest things you'll ever
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: see if you see a live production. And the movie
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: version has Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve in it and
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: John Ridder too. I think it's that's well worth it.
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: And the whole thing is, at one point a play
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: is going on while the drama backstage is going on,
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: and I think that's I think that that you're describing
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: the same sort of vibe where you can have a
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: real world while the play is going on, and the
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: play and the real world work with each other, so
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: you have a fourth wall break without breaking the fourth
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: wall sort of thing going on. And I think that's
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: where I think you're right, and I would encourage you
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: or anybody else listening if you ever say, you know,
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: should I watch Asteroid City. Trust your friend John, he's
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: going to say no, go ahead and seek out a
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: copy of Noises Off, the film Version's fine, go and
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: watch that instead, because that is that I think is
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: a distillation of maybe what Anderson was trying to go
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: for with this, And when you started describing that, that's
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: what I immediately thought of. So I would encourage not
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: to tip my hand still being coy if you haven't
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: pieced together how I was reacting to the movie, But
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: go watch Noises Off instead.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: You'll like that better.
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: All right, I think we've gotten to that point. Now
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: it feels wrong to do the Lance Reddick without Darren.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll skip that part this time. Yeah.
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: So I think we're just gonna go right into ratings,
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: and I'm actually I'm actually gonna go first.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: Please by all means.
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: So when I watched the movie for the first time,
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: I like my I watched it with my wife and
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: I was like.
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: Okay, all right, you know that's you.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: Know it's fine, like it was entertaining, it wasn't great,
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: and my wife was like really like okay, like like
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: she said, like, what would you give it?
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: I was like, I'd give it three stars.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: She's like, wow, that's really generous, and so like on
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: my letterbox it was three stars. And then in preparation
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: for this podcast, I watched it again. I was like, man,
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: I was really generous with those three stars, Like there's
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: a lot wrong with this movie. Okay, I'll give it
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: two and a half. And then as I'm looking back
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: at my at my ratings and talking about it with you,
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: I was like, wait, I gave Rushmore two and a half.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: I gave French No, No, I gave a Grand Budapest
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: two and a half. Monster, Like that's the thing is
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: like Grand Budapest, like Rushmore is not my thing, but
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: it's a well made movie. Grand Budapest is fine, but
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: it's not my favorite. There's no way I can give
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: Asteroid City the same ranking as Grand Budapest or Rushmore,
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: and so I think I'm gonna have to give it
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: two stars, even though there are things in it that
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: I enjoy and I hate giving two stars and I've
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: never given a two star to a Wes Anderson film before.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: But I think that's where I'm going to have to land,
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: is that there's forty minutes of great stuff in this movie.
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: I have given a two star to Wes Anderson movie
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: before Darjeeling Limited, and before I go forward, I'm gonna
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: go ahead and throw out there that Actually, the Hollywood
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: Critics Association Mid Season Film Awards nominated this for Best Picture,
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: so as did the Indiana Film Journalists Association, as did
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: the Indie Wire Critics Poll, as did. Okay, I know
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: there was somebody else that. I mean, it got a
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: few best Cinematography things from some of those Fringe Awards
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: sort of thing, but I oh, Best Science Fiction Fantasy
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: Movie from the Critics Choice Super Awards.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: I was an acumination right there.
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: I would say, I disagree with that wholeheartedly. And this
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: is a one star movie. Not only did I dislike
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: this movie, not only will I never watch this movie,
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: but if I were to encounter this movie in a
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: darkened room, I would slap it because there would be
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: no video evidence that I did. And I really cannot
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: stress enough how much I did not enjoy watching this.
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: I was sorely sorely disappointed that Wes Anderson movie fell
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: this flat for me, I will point out just for fun,
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: because I was doing that bit for fun. According to Wikipedia,
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: this list is where it appeared on the best Films
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: of twenty twenty three on different publications New Yorker, Esquire, Indiwyer, Ign,
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: The Atlantic, Rogeriber dot Com, The New York Times, The Independent,
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: The Film Stage, Vulture, Vanity Fair, IndieWire, Slant Magazine, cit
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: and Sound, and Mashable. My question is this, I don't
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: think twenty twenty three was that crappy a year for movies?
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: Am I wrong? Just throwing it out there?
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: Well, okay, So here's the thing, folks, is that I
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: did my research because I knew how much John hated
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: this movie boy, and so I went back and I
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: looked up the other movies that he has rated as
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: one star or even one and a half on house Lights.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: So here here are the movies that he has given
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: one star. Yes, The Burbs, The Howling fourteen ninety two,
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: Guy Ritchie's King, Arthur, Oh Yes, Windle and Wild Oh Yeah,
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: and Moon forty four and Last Action Hero Because You're
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: Dead Inside.
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: True there I am mad. Max was one pretty sure.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: Oh that's right.
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Mad Max terrible and uh. And then here's the
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: one that he gave one point five. He gave mystery
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: Man sure thing, yeah, James and the Giant Peachy and Medicine.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: Man, oh yeah five.
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: So you liked Medicine Man more and mystery Men more
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: than than this thann Asteroid City.
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: Mystery Man at least tried to make me laugh, and
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: Medicine Man has Sean Connery, So Sean Connery walking on
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: screen gets you an extra half star.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: So there you go, There you go.
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: All right, folks, thank you so much for listening, and
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: thank you so much for reopening the door of the
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: House of Anderson. We are looking forward to going back
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: to our regular scheduled House Lights episodes next week, and
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: maybe we'll revisit the Wes Anderson Netflix shorts for our
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: next time that Darren goes on vacation. So until then,
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: thank you so much. And this has been Houselights. Join
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: the Revolution, Join the Net Party.