Latest / the arc.fm / My Life As A Dog - Celebrating Virgo Season with Robby & Kurt Vonnegut's Favorite Film

Transcript

My Life As A Dog - Celebrating Virgo Season with Robby & Kurt Vonnegut's Favorite Film · the arc.fm

0:02
Is Virgo season a thing?
0:04
It's a big thing, a total thing.
0:06
You know what's amazing is we are recording this at the peak.
0:10
No joke. Literally right now it's happening.
0:12
The peak of the Virgo full moon is like, right now.
0:15
This is a powerful podcast.
0:18
*Children chanting
0:21
in Swedish*
0:28
Robby and I, for our respective birthdays,
0:31
we brought these two movies to the three of us.
0:34
I chose My Life as a Dog because you said choose your favorite movie.
0:38
It's exactly the type of.
0:40
It's exactly the type of movie or play or whatever I want, I want to make.
0:44
And you saw it at 16.
0:45
Yeah.
0:46
I saw it at 16.
0:46
Did you like it then? I loved it.
0:50
Our next guest of Live At Five has sweetly
0:52
said to me that I should speak slowly because he speaks another language.
0:56
And so we'll try to do that.
0:57
We went to the Detroit Institute of Arts to see it with my parents
1:01
and my friend Keith.
1:03
I didn't know anything about it like I'd seen foreign films before.
1:07
And I grew up in a pretty sheltered environment, but it was packed theater
1:10
and there was laughter throughout, but I don't remember reading the subtitles.
1:15
Before you made the movie, before it came over here, did you know that
1:18
America has a tougher time, accepting
1:22
a movie with subtitles or dubbed?
1:25
Yes, I know that,
1:30
Everyone
1:33
are talking about, American,
1:38
who don't like movies with subtitles.
1:41
And this is very profound because I also had
1:43
never seen, like, a movie that was like that,
1:46
like it was about nothing, and it was about everything.
1:48
And so well done.
1:50
Like using a child and a dog and dealing with death and dealing with,
1:54
you know, all the big, huge themes and in art and in life.
1:58
I enjoyed that.
1:59
I really enjoyed it and doing it in a way that wasn't it didn't feel heavy.
2:04
It felt like it felt like it was it was giving it to you and the birthday cake.
2:08
We should have asked you this in real life.
2:10
But, If somebody had not seen this or not even heard of it, where like 1 or 2
2:17
things that you would tell them about it so that they're like acclimated going in.
2:21
The first one is that if you have problems with like children in peril,
2:26
kind of things like movies, then this is like, yeah, this is
2:30
I mean, you really you really need to know going in that this is like
2:34
it's from the point of view of a child, probably around 9 or 10.
2:38
Because Emily, when we started watching this together,
2:42
she was like, I don't know if I can watch this
2:44
because she has like a thing about children suffering.
2:47
It's kind of my number one thing.
2:48
It's my number two thing after dogs suffering.
2:50
And I know, yeah, I messed up. But then yeah, both of us.
2:53
So thank you, Robbie, for this delightful viewing.
2:56
I'm so glad you watched this first. Then
3:00
what I would have needed to have known
3:02
is that, like, like
3:05
a was a dog that was sent to space and basically left to die for scientific
3:11
purposes, and everybody who would have seen it
3:13
originally would have been like, oh, yeah, it's a thing I know, and I.
3:16
I have been to Russia and I've been to like their space museum.
3:19
And I burst into tears learning about Laika.
3:23
They have like a stuffed Laika in a capsule.
3:25
It's awful.
3:26
I did, you know. Yeah, I knew about it. Growing up.
3:29
And I, you know, I was like, I grew up during the Cold War, so.
3:34
The. Dog came first, and then the Americans put a man
3:37
on the moon kind of thing.
3:38
And then the second thing I would say is that it's a memory.
3:41
It's a memory movie.
3:42
So like like a memory play, it's like, it's it's
3:46
definitely from that child's point of view, like that child is going,
3:50
like even though it's narrated by the actor, the, the connector themselves.
3:56
It is very it's glossy.
3:58
It is it's very specific in this point of view,
4:01
and it is very fun in that way, but also incredibly sad.
4:06
When I think of it like that.
4:07
It actually felt
4:07
very like my memories feel like it's like, I bet if I took a time machine back
4:12
to like Cherry Lane, Denver at age four, it would look very normal.
4:17
But in my head, it's like this bright colored circus that I lived in.
4:22
You know, I was really struck by a set design.
4:25
I laughed at it a little because it felt a little of like, a little overwrought
4:30
a little, you know, like there's a unicycle now we're like, I don't know.
4:33
It's felt very like we have picked these things in this moment.
4:36
But as a memory film, it also feels like
4:40
you're experiencing what the child remembers and how everything looks.
4:45
And everything has a bit of a like show and circus to it.
4:48
And like the things you would remember is this, you know, zip line.
4:53
Station, the. Space.
4:54
Station.
4:54
He's going to remember the unicycle in the factory.
4:58
He's going to remember the woman with the nice breasts.
5:01
Right.
5:02
And it's all going to have a bit of a card, like all of my memories
5:04
of childhood definitely have, like, a bit of a, like, cartoon flavor to them.
5:09
Like, everything's a little taller and a little bigger and like, I,
5:12
I yeah, like, I remember the silly things.
5:15
The scene where he where he falls through the skylight
5:19
when the woman is, is, is naked and he wants to get a look at her.
5:23
And I was noticing this morning I didn't realize it before,
5:26
but when he falls, the camera focuses on the on the artist.
5:31
And then there's like, a boob running across the screen and then, like,
5:36
the woman's vagina, you know, like, like running across the screen.
5:39
And it's all the reaction of the artist.
5:42
And it was like, it's so kooky.
5:44
It was very cartoonish to me, and it was very funny.
5:47
And, you know, and then you get the next scene
5:49
where he's like a bloodied shoulders
5:50
and she's taking care of him and looking down at him.
5:53
And so you did recognize it was sad.
5:55
Oh my God. Yes. Okay. Yeah.
5:56
I was a little away
5:57
afraid I read some stuff online and everyone's like, it's the gentlest,
6:00
sweetest movie. And I was like, it is.
6:02
But it's so it's really not. No. Thank you.
6:05
Yeah.
6:05
It's really not a sweet movie.
6:06
It's, I mean, it's very funny.
6:08
I like I found it very funny,
6:10
and I find that I find that kid to be compelling as hell.
6:14
He is the star of a Swedish film that opened last March
6:17
and has been showing to sell out theaters here in New York ever since.
6:21
He is Anton Glen's alias who plays the role of Ingemar
6:25
Johansson in the movie My Life as a dog.
6:28
Don't let this derail anything, but I think it might help. But.
6:31
Feared the future part of this conversation for my life as a dog.
6:34
But tiny detail.
6:36
When the kid in the beginning is drinking
6:39
milk and swirling around and he, like, throws it in
6:43
helix swirls it around until you're like, is he having a seizure?
6:47
But then he ends up very seemingly intentionally throwing it in his own face.
6:51
Is that
6:53
help?
6:54
Help us understand. That's great.
6:55
I what.
6:56
If how weird this person is or if they.
6:59
Have.
7:00
It seems like trauma.
7:02
Yeah. What?
7:03
What is this person? I do not know.
7:06
Honestly, Emily asked me that question as well, and
7:08
I remember seeing that for the first time and just thinking like I was
7:11
I was 16 the first time I sat and, and we were
7:15
and I remember seeing that and just thinking it was hilarious.
7:18
And the brother also thinks it's hilarious.
7:20
And the I thought it was a sign of neglect.
7:22
I thought it was like that.
7:23
Nobody cares that this kid has like a neurological disorder.
7:26
It might be trauma. It might be.
7:28
It might be neurological.
7:29
And what the movie does or skillfully is it is is it is it cloaks it in this very
7:35
I think the reason people think it's sweet is because it seems like
7:38
a very light movie.
7:38
So the kid you believe is aware of just
7:43
how effed up and how intense their circumstances are.
7:47
When it comes to kids in movies.
7:49
The precocious child you see in movies or in TV, right?
7:52
Like the knowing ones and The
7:54
Well was so smart about this movie is that he's not self-aware.
7:58
Life is happening to him, and he responds in a certain
8:02
way, like he's he's still a kid and he behaves like a kid.
8:05
I thought the opposite.
8:06
I think a problem reason I had trouble with it was he's
8:09
so self-aware who's narrating it?
8:12
Adult him?
8:14
No. No, I kid him. Yeah.
8:16
And so it's like he's so aware. He's like, well, it could be worse.
8:18
It could be worse, which is a hyper awareness of how bad it is.
8:21
Right? It could be worse. I wasn't this person. I wasn't like.
8:23
He's constantly reassuring himself that it could be worse.
8:28
And so to me, it was just an extreme awareness of how bad it was
8:31
and a real attempt to control in a way that like, felt like a lot of,
8:37
self-reflection for a 12 year old who's still living it right.
8:42
So I actually thought the opposite.
8:43
I thought he was extremely self-aware, but it's still acting like a kid.
8:46
I mean, he is being a kid.
8:47
Yeah, and he doesn't have any power.
8:49
And that's the whole, you know, the whole the whole thing of the movie
8:52
is, you know, that powerlessness and being tossed around like he's
8:56
the dog getting sent to the kids.
8:57
Yeah.
8:58
I agree that
8:58
there is a certain level of awareness, but I also think that as a child
9:02
I kind of I don't know how to articulate this,
9:04
but there's a level of like, I remember being a kid and
9:08
and to a certain extent, there was definitely trauma in my childhood there.
9:11
Wasn't it like an awareness that it was happening.
9:14
But there was also I don't know how to feel better.
9:17
Yeah. Right. Right.
9:18
Like like I don't know how to do that. And so.
9:20
That's clearly his.
9:22
His explaining is like is an attempt to,
9:26
to like to say, okay, this is fine, this is fine.
9:29
I can handle this. My mom is sick.
9:31
My and and later in the movie and actually like I was
9:35
I was in tears at the end of it
9:37
when I was watching it.
9:38
Like he thinks he killed his mom.
9:41
He thinks it's his fault.
9:42
And so that's the thing that he is trying
9:45
to like, like he's trying to push away.
9:48
Like I grew up with stutter and, you know, and the stutter had a lot
9:52
to do with that.
9:52
So interesting.
9:53
Because my, one of my trauma responses is like class clown, right?
9:57
Like I'm like, yeah, gonna make a joke.
9:59
And I did wonder,
9:59
is part of him going upstairs was he was like, don't do it right now.
10:03
Don't, don't, don't talk about your face.
10:05
Don't.
10:06
And like being unable to not do it.
10:08
Like I totally identify with that where I'm like, don't don't make the joke
10:11
Jaclyn. Don't make don't do it.
10:12
Just walk up and like, having to like, walk upstairs by myself and being like,
10:16
okay, I didn't do it. Yeah, yeah.
10:18
And so it's funny because it's like if it is a trauma response,
10:21
I of course mapped it to be like, here's an inappropriately time joke.
10:25
Like here was my stutter. That's right.
10:28
Just for fun I really want to point out
10:31
that I've never seen or heard Jacqueline not say what's in her head.
10:38
I mean it's really I
10:39
would have to walk up a set of stairs and find in the lone moment.
10:42
Like we've been very intense high pressure situations, like with the president
10:48
of saying yes or no to whether or not we could do the next shot in this film.
10:53
And Jacqueline, feel like you got a really long beard.
10:58
What's with that beard?
10:59
What's the beard, bro?
11:03
Oops.
11:04
I, I, I learned to scull when summer road crew really?
11:09
And I did a lot of flip tests, so, like, I kept flipping the boat
11:13
and I'd have to get back in,
11:14
and it meant that I had bruises up and down my entire body
11:18
and multiple people that summer came up to me, strangers, and said.
11:22
Are you okay? Are you safe?
11:24
Are you in a DV situation?
11:26
And the first woman who asked me, I said I am
11:29
in an abusive relationship with rowing and.
11:35
I. Would just
11:35
like you to know that that is not the time nor the place.
11:39
Make that joke.
11:40
Don't do it, don't do it, do not do it.
11:42
It was awful.
11:43
It was terrible.
11:43
Somebody comes concern for your safety.
11:46
Genuinely concerned. Don't, don't.
11:49
Did she. Do. What did she say?
11:50
She didn't.
11:51
She just. Was just. Walk. Away. Yeah.
11:54
She just. Kind of was like. Shocker.
11:57
Okay. It was not. It's not. It was awful.
11:59
I would like to personally apologize to her right now.
12:02
I'm sure she's not listening.
12:04
Shout out to oh she is.
12:05
So she has not forgotten.
12:07
She'll like that was me.
12:08
I know that woman. Yeah. It was just a nice stranger on the street.
12:11
And I was like, I am in an abusive no, don't do it.
12:14
Not funny.
12:14
Not a funny joke.
12:15
So anyway, yeah, I yeah,
12:17
I, I probably have never actually walked up the stairs and gone away
12:20
from making the bad joke, but I identify with the fact
12:23
that, like, if I didn't leave, I couldn't not say it.
12:28
That's why
12:28
I have you to his friends and not that many others.
12:31
Okay.
12:33
Cool just nodded.
12:34
You're supposed to nod.
12:35
I'm sorry guys.
12:38
Anyway, yeah, so that's what I think of that.
12:41
Like you. Right?
12:41
Like I don't disagree with you.
12:42
I just the movie is so good about showing
12:46
what he is going through and also building the world.
12:49
That sort of comes down on him.
12:51
And this and the, the shots of the
12:54
of the sky, as he's saying things like, it could be worse.
12:58
I could be the guy who jumps over the busses.
13:01
I could be the woman who went to Ethiopia and preached, and the guy
13:05
who crossed the track and field and got a javelin in his jester's belly.
13:09
My life as a dog is a funny and poignant story coming,
13:13
a coming of age story of a young boy in Sweden in the 1950s.
13:17
Before we talk to Anton, here's a clip from My Life as a dog.
13:20
Hey Mark, on this.
13:23
Car. Oh, hold on,
13:26
we might want to know why are you barking at the end of the scene?
13:31
His dog are dead.
13:34
And, it try to don't understand that.
13:39
So he try to be the dog herself.
13:44
I mean, my God.
13:47
Did you did you to like it?
13:49
I was just hoping this question won't come up.
13:50
I mean, if my question was bad, we can totally bypass. No it's not.
13:53
I just didn't want to tell you that. Something you loved, I didn't like.
13:55
Oh, that's okay. Cool.
13:56
Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
13:58
It's, it's not a question of. Okay.
13:59
This movie is is about a young boy
14:03
who sees his mother getting sicker and sicker every day.
14:07
I think she's dying of tuberculosis.
14:09
And what happens is that you get sent away to relatives who take care of you.
14:15
And the relatives are a little,
14:18
not well.
14:21
You don't understand. No.
14:24
All right, well, let's just take that as fact instead of a question.
14:26
It did deal with childhood trauma and a child in peril,
14:29
which is my least favorite thing.
14:33
Second least favorite thing.
14:34
Because my least favorite thing is dying or suffering dogs.
14:38
Yeah.
14:39
Also, the dog in it looks like one of my favorite dogs.
14:43
So then I now I have to watch Angus suffer and I love Angus.
14:47
Yeah I'm an escapist viewer.
14:48
I don't always have like the best taste
14:50
because I like to escape and it just made me sad.
14:53
But if I'd watch this like in college
14:54
it would be my favorite film and I would have talked about for years
14:57
because it's the kind of movie I feel like I should like.
15:00
It's artsy. It's yeah, it's important.
15:02
It's doing a lot of things I wish I could do as a writer, but
15:05
I love a metaphor, and this was just metaphor on metaphor.
15:09
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
15:11
How did you not love this with all the metaphor?
15:13
So much metaphor.
15:15
I know, like, I love metaphor more than anything except experiencing
15:19
childhood trauma on a Saturday and dog is suffering.
15:23
But yeah, I love a metaphor.
15:24
And it was I mean, it was metaphor for.
15:27
So it did.
15:27
I can't not like it because of that.
15:29
And Robbie, I adore you.
15:31
And I love experiencing something that you loved and understanding more about it.
15:36
Okay.
15:36
Yeah, I sense. That for an answer.
15:38
If my I want you to like me.
15:39
So I want to like everything you write. Yeah.
15:41
And then I experience that as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
15:43
We'll get to Hobbs and Shaw. Yeah.
15:44
You can be as honest as you need to be.
15:47
When we get there.
15:49
What were you going to say?
15:51
You wrote down your response.
15:52
My life is a dog is the exact type of movie that I want to love.
15:59
It's the exact type of movie I want to be like.
16:02
This is what I watch all the time.
16:05
It's the exact type of movie that I want to make.
16:08
One of the biggest shorts
16:10
that Jacqueline and I have done together was in the vein of this film,
16:15
where it's like it's supposed to be a slice of life and
16:20
why are you laughing so much?
16:22
Because I think I know going.
16:25
Supposed to be a slice of life.
16:26
It was beautiful. We had all these theories. Yeah.
16:29
If I had made references for it and I had seen my life as a dog prior to,
16:34
it'd be like, oh, we're doing my life as a dog, but it's 2001.
16:38
And it's the last 50 minutes before, oh.
16:42
Oh before. December. Right. Okay.
16:46
Oh yeah.
16:47
Oh wow. Yeah.
16:48
That sounds. Amazing.
16:49
Yeah I thought so too. Yeah.
16:52
It was met with a real man.
16:56
It is one we've like
16:58
pulled favors to get minor celebs in it.
17:00
We spent months on it.
17:03
There were times where it was like the universe said, you should just stop
17:06
because three actors quit two days before one day before two hours before.
17:12
Oh, God.
17:14
But it was just like, no, we're making this slice of life.
17:17
You will persevere. Yeah.
17:19
And before it, everything into it.
17:21
I was prepared.
17:22
We also had a there was a ranger in it.
17:25
One of the New York Rangers was in it. Really?
17:27
I was pretty prepared. Oh, shout out Craig.
17:30
We are taking down ex-boyfriends one at a time.
17:34
Cut to chit play.
17:37
Oh, no, don't apologize.
17:40
People break up here all the time.
17:42
Honestly, it's kind of like the perfect spot.
17:44
You want to break up in some fancy restaurant?
17:49
It's going to cost $1 million.
17:50
The food is just going to taste sad.
17:54
But at Chipotle,
17:55
you can spring for the go get a diet doctor Pepper and get on with your day.
17:59
Get up.
18:02
I know it doesn't feel like it now, but ten years from now,
18:07
today is just going to feel like some dumb story
18:10
for a podcast.
18:13
It's thank you for choosing Chipotle.
18:17
Have a great rest of your life and go Rangers!
18:21
Shout out Craig, I just set up for you.
18:26
I was so prepared to be like, God, he's going to really regret
18:30
not still be in my friend because I'm about to party with the new York Rangers.
18:33
Because we're going to be famous.
18:35
Because Sean Avery was in it.
18:37
Oh, yeah, I am.
18:39
Nothing happened with it. He's in.
18:42
Do you know this? Right?
18:43
He's literally in Christopher Nolan movies.
18:46
No, I didn't know that. Sean Avery, he. Is a.
18:48
He was an Oppenheimer. Yeah.
18:49
His Oppenheimer.
18:50
He shut up.
18:51
Barbie Heimer and Colin, I went Wally.
18:53
Kind of like in the middle of the film.
18:54
I was like, nobody knows.
18:55
Where it just seen in Oppenheimer. Oh, boy.
18:58
When they get to the testing part and they start to go into the shed
19:04
and people are saying, me like, do I leave these glasses on?
19:07
Do I take them off?
19:08
Yeah, this is like a big effing deal.
19:10
He is the one who's, like, running the shed, being like,
19:13
and now we're doing this and now we're ready for this.
19:16
And you guys, he does have. A huge part in it.
19:18
He like communicates so much in like 4 or 5 lines.
19:22
Yeah he our ABC's Matt Damon I don't know how Sean pulled that.
19:27
That's a heist.
19:28
Anton Glenn's alias.
19:29
The movie is my life as a dog.
19:32
It's now playing in various theaters throughout New York.
19:34
It is a, sweet, a poignant and very funny film.
19:38
We thank you for coming by.
19:41
It's exactly the type of movie or play or whatever I want to make.
19:45
If you were to ask Emily what type of person I am,
19:48
I don't think she would say that. I'm a ray of sunshine.
19:50
What would she say?
19:51
I'm, like, extremely anxious.
19:53
I get, I get very like I worry constantly.
19:57
This is the type of thing that it really articulate.
20:00
Something that I have a very difficult time articulating in, in my own life.
20:05
And I don't watch this every day.
20:07
I must have told you, like I have this grandmother who grew up
20:10
in Poland and escaped Poland before World War two,
20:13
and all of her side, like most of her side of the family, died in the Holocaust.
20:17
As a kid, I used to go over to her apartment and spend time with her,
20:21
and there was depressing woman you would like, you know, Yiddish.
20:25
Yeah.
20:25
And, you know, and just talked about her family dying and, you know, and was like,
20:30
what's so sad? And I loved her.
20:32
Like, I really loved her. I loved her so much.
20:34
And the reason was, was because there was like,
20:36
there was a melancholy in her that I recognized.
20:39
I love that because I recognize it in myself.
20:41
So, like, I can just hear her being like, life is suffering.
20:43
Yeah, yeah.
20:44
It's like it's like it's.
20:46
A beauty and life is suffering.
20:47
Yeah.
20:47
It's the older woman in that movie, you know, like in it
20:51
after after her husband dies. Like.
20:53
And it's not to say like there's no recognition of the joyful thing
20:58
and, and the funny things, but like my grandmother, this is a really sweet movie.
21:02
It's a very funny movie.
21:04
It reminds me a lot of life in general.
21:06
And it also reminds me a lot of the things I want and I wish life
21:11
was, or that I want to surround myself with the scene at the end
21:14
when everyone is listening to the to the boxing match
21:19
and and everywhere, like, like everyone
21:22
is having a hard time with each other throughout the entire movie,
21:26
but it cuts to different, different people listening to the match.
21:31
And it's like at the glass factory,
21:32
the artist is there and nobody likes the artist.
21:34
But everyone loves the artist.
21:36
There's the
21:36
family who's listening to the radio and and they've gone through some stuff.
21:40
And then there's the man on the roof who everyone has sort
21:43
of rallied around, even though they like it's knock, knock, knock.
21:46
And he drives everyone crazy.
21:48
Everyone has conflicts and everyone is a community.
21:51
And that was very touching to me.
21:53
And and what was so sweet to me about it was that at the end,
21:56
it's, saga is her name is Floyd Patterson.
22:00
Yeah.
22:01
And they're just asleep.
22:02
Yeah. That was and that was like.
22:04
It was like
22:05
they've gone through this entire thing, and now they just get to rest.
22:08
Yeah, and and so there's something about that
22:10
that is so beautiful to me and so touching to me without
22:15
discounting all the stuff that life throws at you,
22:18
all the other crap that life throws at you,
22:20
all the death and the confusion and, and the things that we carry.
22:24
I just never seen anything like that.
22:26
I never recognized like a kindred soul and a piece of.
22:29
You know, like, I have these things that, like,
22:31
I love now because they were the first time I saw myself in something.
22:35
And that's where I was like, I didn't have a lot of self-awareness
22:37
of what my challenges were as a child. And.
22:40
But now having me come through, I don't know, a ton of therapy.
22:43
And like,
22:44
not feeling so like that, it's hard to put myself back in it.
22:47
But what it does
22:48
is it does feel he feels so powerless and so trapped and so thrown around.
22:53
And you just really feel his, like, lack of autonomy
22:56
in his lack of control and like, all of the weight
22:59
and how he feels like he's responsible for everything.
23:01
I mean, it just does it brilliant.
23:03
It does what it does brilliantly on so many levels.
23:06
So it's like, I didn't like it, but that doesn't mean it's bad.
23:10
And I also like me not liking something is really
23:12
I like some real dumb stuff and I don't like some great stuff.
23:16
So it's a tricky question because I think I'm glad it exists.
23:20
I think it's beautiful.
23:21
I couldn't make it, and I love anything that like really combines
23:25
the like darkness and suffering of life with levity.
23:28
I should love it. Honestly.
23:30
I love that combo and I do love a metaphor, but childhood trauma and dogs?
23:34
Cool.
23:35
We still haven't read your reaction. So.
23:41
I guess one way I want to talk about it
23:43
being such a great story and so well made is that,
23:49
and I'll explain this after, but it's basically going to become my new
23:53
My Dinner With Andre
23:55
because I'm not on like the biggest sets in the world where we're doing
23:59
like extremely expensive, important art that millions of people will see.
24:03
I have to do like a lot of shoots where somebody is paying us.
24:07
Gotta make it. Good.
24:08
Yeah, we. Gotta go home after this.
24:10
But at the same time, on most of those sets,
24:13
we're all artists of some sort.
24:16
Yeah.
24:17
And we can't stop ourselves from caring.
24:19
And wanting to make something great.
24:21
Yeah, it's like we're all really trying.
24:23
But there there's a level of, like, physical and mental
24:29
and physical exhaustion where you just have to work.
24:33
Somebody has to chime in and say, guys, what you're doing is no longer worth it.
24:38
The diminishing returns
24:40
have kicked in with how good you're trying to make this thing.
24:43
And like, the shorthand for that is,
24:46
hey, we're not making my dinner with Andre.
24:51
So everyone's like, all right, let's go see this.
24:55
So now we are like,
24:57
we're not making my life. It's a dog.
24:59
You guys.
25:04
I mean, it doesn't seem that high budget.
25:07
No, but it was so.
25:08
But it was perfect. It's perfect.
25:10
Like when you can say Q unicycle and someone has to ride a unicycle.
25:14
I mean, I will have a movie like that, but it won't have the same.
25:17
It won't have the depth.
25:18
I'll be like, wow, she really put a unicycle on it.
25:22
I swear I did things a lot about how I would never
25:25
I could never write it
25:25
because I was like, I can't imagine, like sitting down
25:27
and writing this scene and being like, yes,
25:29
this is an important scene in a movie because it is. I think you're so right.
25:32
It does such a nice job about being about nothing.
25:35
Yeah.
25:35
And it's about everything.
25:36
Like it really, it really does something.
25:39
But like some of the scenes, I was like, well,
25:40
if really nothing is happening and like having the confidence
25:43
to write like that, to just sort of have it be so subtle and quiet.
25:47
Like I think about movies
25:48
where we've discussed before about like planting seeds,
25:51
and this movie really does well with like the toaster, for example.
25:56
Like, oh. I like that.
25:58
Like that was the perfect gift.
26:00
Yeah, it really was.
26:01
It was there would be a perfect.
26:02
Gift and it was and and it was because like in that in the first scene
26:06
he was burning toast
26:07
and then his mother comes out and just throws away the burnt toast.
26:10
And him understanding.
26:12
That that was all that was.
26:13
Yeah, yeah.
26:14
And there's so many little things like that.
26:16
Were you the construction of the Summer house
26:19
and like it starts with like, the frame.
26:21
Yeah. Yeah. Yes.
26:22
Yeah. It's just the frame. There's no walls. It's just an idea.
26:25
And then the construction goes further and further until it's like an actual house.
26:30
And in which he locks himself in a like.
26:32
Yeah, yeah.
26:33
And it's like.
26:34
Having no, no walls to being what, like in trouble.
26:37
Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
26:39
And a lot of it is just like relationship building and character building
26:43
to where you ultimately come to know these people
26:47
and you come to know this town and you come to understand
26:50
why the area that he's been placed is, like, perfect for him,
26:55
you know, and show it like that.
26:57
Uncle is like the perfect person for him at that time because they, you know,
27:01
he actually cares and takes them under his wing
27:04
and gives him something that he can't get before.
27:07
And then you understand when he has to go back after his mother has passed away,
27:11
and he finds out that he's not gonna be able to spend time
27:13
with this guy, like you understand why he's so upset?
27:16
I like, he's a dumb.
27:18
I'm sorry.
27:19
I love doing that to drive. Cool. Crazy.
27:22
I mean, you threw up now saying there was so much.
27:25
Of my favorite.
27:26
I'm sorry, I don't. I don't know why you're my friend.
27:29
I spent our whole friendship just trying to annoy you.
27:32
And that's the friendship.
27:35
Goodness gracious.
27:36
And then cool.
27:37
You just, like, pour your heart into your creative endeavors.
27:39
And I'm just like, here's here's the thing that's going to annoy you.
27:42
That's what I was going to say.
27:44
You're welcome.
27:45
In this entire film, no one says I love you. Yes.
27:49
No, that you're right.
27:51
There's the the hug between,
27:55
Saga and Ingmar right before he leaves for the first time.
27:59
And then there's.
27:59
Noticeable
28:00
because because of the lack of it, it's like, certainly a tight community.
28:04
Even if.
28:05
Yeah, I did really notice the lack of I love you, though.
28:07
Yeah.
28:08
But the cathartic there it is very cathartic to see.
28:11
Cathartic. It's very.
28:14
Gently.
28:15
It's going to go into an a quest
28:18
to the cathartic.
28:25
Get your snowshoes.
28:26
Set up, boys.
28:29
Okay,
28:31
now I'm never going to be able to say it ever again.
28:34
And a spelling bee.
28:37
I lose,
28:39
you can say.
28:41
Oh, I forgot the letter C once in Arctic.
28:43
Oh, did you? In which C did you forget.
28:46
The first C?
28:47
I forgot the first c in Arctic.
28:51
Attention, everybody.
28:54
It's before we officially get this year's.
28:57
Meyerowitz Global Holiday party started.
29:00
I just want to welcome a few new team members onto the stage
29:03
to introduce yourselves so you can chit chat later.
29:07
Y'all go ahead and tell everyone your name, your department.
29:10
And how about this?
29:11
Tell us one interesting thing about you.
29:16
Up first, give it up for Chris.
29:20
Hello.
29:21
I, I my name is Chris.
29:25
Chris Sheridan
29:28
s h e r
29:29
I'd 8NI will be on the quality assurance team.
29:35
And one interesting thing about me
29:40
is that one time
29:42
I was in a spelling bee.
29:46
I have a question for the both of you.
29:48
When I watched it
29:49
this last time, I was actually watching it a little bit with YouTube in mind.
29:54
I didn't realize how much sex was involved in this, like I really did not.
29:58
I did call it out as a single childless woman.
30:02
I didn't love it, but I was also a very like innocent kid.
30:06
So yeah, it was like I also didn't have like, oh wow, this feels like me
30:09
as a kid, or I didn't have this, like real nostalgic.
30:12
It didn't remind me of my childhood in any way.
30:15
So it didn't feel like I was an avatar of me as a child.
30:18
Neither of us knew whether or not kids were just that horny or kids.
30:23
That was a natural part of childhood.
30:26
The way that I justified it was one.
30:27
It was simpler times.
30:28
I was very struck by, like seeing a topless saga,
30:32
like I was like, oh, that feels not consented.
30:34
And I think I turned to call and I was like, I'm just going to have to
30:38
tell myself that there was an adult body double for that moment, right?
30:43
Yeah. Different time. But what did you think about it, Robbie?
30:45
It made me uncomfortable, like watching it.
30:47
I was like, oh, my God, I don't remember,
30:49
I don't remember, like, I don't remember this.
30:50
And I remember feeling like I do.
30:52
But it's also when I grew up, especially 11, 12 year olds
30:56
getting into middle school, like there was obsessed with sex, like kids
31:01
my age were obsessed with sex, obsessed with, like, kissing and making out and
31:05
not necessarily intercourse, but but like everything that everything up to,
31:10
I think also Americans tend to be more puritanical
31:14
and less permissive and less positive about about sex, about puberty, about
31:18
I mean, I'm sure it's uncomfortable in Sweden as well, but there's also like.
31:22
It is odd that like, men cannot wear a top and women have to live like,
31:26
what is what is boobs versus like it is a weird, silly standard.
31:32
Also, to have a
31:33
question for both of you because I don't believe in metaphor.
31:37
But metaphor doesn't believe in you.
31:41
For it.
31:42
Could you please explain to me
31:43
all the metaphors that you saw in it, especially in the title?
31:47
I would have missed the that I think I would have missed the whole thesis
31:50
of this story, if not for them literally titling it as the whole metaphor, right?
31:55
Yeah, yeah. Bobby, do you want to start?
31:57
Sure. Yeah.
31:58
The I mean, the most obvious one is like, is, is the dog
32:01
being shot into space without any food, and that's exactly what he is like.
32:05
He's released
32:06
into this world that he doesn't necessarily have any resources for it.
32:09
I cannot too, I thought when they took the dog
32:11
to the kennel, I thought it was like very
32:13
it was like the dog goes to the kennel, the kids
32:15
go to the go to two different spots, so they split them up.
32:18
They don't care if they're going to be happy.
32:19
They don't care if they're. Yeah, yeah.
32:21
Yeah, I. Like that.
32:21
Both both the space dog and the kennel. Yeah.
32:24
And I mean it continues with like you notice every time there's
32:28
a bit of stress at home the dog is barking is barking is barking.
32:32
And then as it gets closer to as the dog goes away, there's like he becomes the dog
32:37
who starts barking and barking and barking like, especially at that party
32:41
when the two girls are fighting over him and his his.
32:44
His response is to bark.
32:46
And then when he's in the summer home
32:48
and the uncle is knocking to see if he's there and he's like again,
32:51
he barks at him again, like it's the metaphor of he is the dog in space
32:55
and he does not have the resources he needs, and he's developed.
32:58
No one cares. Yeah, yeah. Nobody cares.
33:00
Nobody's. And nobody's going to bring him home, right?
33:02
Yeah, yeah. Do you know how I know this was written by a man?
33:06
Because
33:07
there's this, like, weird kid that two women are fighting over,
33:11
and he starts barking and they continue to fight over him.
33:14
You know what that is?
33:15
It's called a nerdy man's fantasy.
33:20
He's losing patience.
33:24
All for me to say
33:25
that my favorite chapter in any novel is.
33:29
I'll quote the entire chapter for you.
33:31
The whole chapter? Yes.
33:33
It's highly related to this film. And it is.
33:35
My mother is a fish.
33:39
Which is just about burying your.
33:41
Your dead mother.
33:42
Similar to
33:45
my dog is dead.
33:46
My mom is dead. Yeah. Yeah.
33:49
You've talked about that before.
33:51
But novels that.
33:53
As they lay dying, I should probably say Faulkner for.
33:57
For those of us who didn't.
33:58
Yeah I did, but only because I'm your friend, not because I'm so.
34:01
Well read.
34:03
I had a job for many years.
34:05
I worked retail
34:06
and got to be the person who wrote the chalkboard sign in front of the store,
34:10
and me being unable to stop myself
34:13
every day, I tried to write something more and more and more and more obscure
34:18
on the side, with no explanation, just to see who would come in and.
34:22
Say your trauma response
34:24
class clown stutter.
34:26
Unable to just have the most obscure reference.
34:30
Could not. Stop yourself.
34:31
The one where I made the most best friends was from writing
34:36
my mother's official on the sign, because like 12 people are like.
34:40
I actually feel like that's a fairly well known.
34:42
Okay, I didn't I. Didn't read.
34:45
And I have a master's degree.
34:47
In library sciences, I assume.
34:49
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
34:50
Feel like. Those librarians. Yeah.
34:56
Sorry.
34:56
We were too busy having life.
34:59
Sorry.
34:59
We were too busy having people like us.
35:05
Are we good?
35:06
We have to say, I have to pee.
35:08
Oh, and we're at, like, two hours, so I feel like,
35:10
you know, we got a lot to talk about with Hobbs and Sean.
35:13
Oh, we. Do.
35:14
We can break and I can read off some pretentious bull crap
35:18
that I wrote down for my own sake. I mean, I do want to hear it.
35:21
Yeah. You do. I'll get through it really fast then.
35:23
You know, dude, take your time.
35:24
I'll keep my commentary to myself.
35:26
I love you more than anyone.
35:28
I really need to look at why I'm so mean.
35:30
This is why I'm in therapy.
35:32
Robbie wanted to hang out with the two of us,
35:33
and I feel like today's the first day.
35:35
He's like, I don't know if I. Know this time.
35:37
Well, he's making out with me.
35:39
I mean, it it sounds good, doesn't it?
35:43
Try and.
35:44
Pay attention.
35:47
Oh, so I found out
35:48
this was one of Kurt Vonnegut's favorite films. Yes.
35:51
Oh it is.
35:53
Yeah, it's well known.
35:55
Well. I mean, if you like.
35:56
If you like her. Vonnegut.
35:57
Yeah. Yeah.
35:58
The, that made me feel so good because he's one of my favorite writers,
36:01
and he he was like, yeah, the best movie ever made is my life is the.
36:05
Best movie ever made. Yeah.
36:06
It's like anytime Albert Einstein.
36:08
Like something like a new it.
36:10
Yeah. Genius that you like.
36:11
Then you're like, yeah, because.
36:13
I'm a genius. Yeah.
36:16
Thank you.
36:16
I still think about, I quote the story you told it.
36:20
Where did you tell it.
36:20
It must have been, I think it was an, an Armando Diaz experience.
36:24
But sometime at the magnet you told a story about Connor's birth and.
36:29
Oh yeah, it was scary and it was like uncertain.
36:31
And it was, you know, it was like, we didn't know
36:33
if this, like, child would live. And I just loved that.
36:36
You take us through the story. It's really tense. We don't know.
36:38
But you know, that
36:39
we kind of need to know that Connor does live to be able to enjoy the story.
36:43
And so you start to say, we didn't know then
36:46
that, like, my child would da da da da da da da da da da.
36:48
And then you go, we didn't know then that we'd be on a flight at 17 hour
36:52
flight, and we'd want to throw the child out of the airplane.
36:55
It's like my favorite story.
36:56
It was. It was a Ben show.
36:58
The class that you took.
37:00
I asked you if you'd all stay after and just listen to the story
37:02
because I needed some I some ears on it, and I didn't include that before.
37:06
And everyone in the class said, we need to know.
37:09
Felix.
37:10
That's a great story to you, Robbie. Yeah. Thank you.
37:12
Robbie's a great storyteller.
37:14
But yes, yes, to answer your question.
37:15
Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
37:17
Could you say just very plainly, Robbie teaches storytelling.
37:21
And Robbie teaches storytelling, and he's a phenomenal storytelling teacher.
37:24
He's turning red.
37:25
He wants to runaway right now, but this is factually accurate information.
37:29
I've taken more than one of his classes.
37:31
I've asked him to direct my own solo show.
37:33
I've worked with him
37:34
many times and consider him a peer, but also consider me a director and a teacher
37:38
and a person who has made my stories and my performing so much better.
37:43
Shout out Robbie!
37:44
Not an ex-boyfriend, just a shout out to Robbie.
37:48
Not a
37:50
yeah, and Robbie
37:52
was a minor celebrity in the like, New York theater.
37:56
Oh yeah. Robbie is not none.
37:57
I wouldn't call it minor.
37:59
Like a minor. Truly one of like, truly like.
38:02
I'm not saying you're like a mass market celeb.
38:04
No, no.
38:05
But you. Are a you are known as one of the best storytellers the city knows.
38:11
That's just factually accurate.
38:12
Yeah, I can I can drop Robbie's name. Yeah.
38:15
In an artistic context in New York or Los Angeles.
38:18
Yeah. And people go oh yeah. Yeah, yeah.
38:21
Oh I know you're kind of a big deal Robbie.
38:25
Wow. This is like a Robbie advertisement.
38:29
He's like he's like doing the like cut cut.
38:32
He's like what is it. What would you describe that.
38:34
Like cutting across it like a cross
38:37
cut cut cut the scene stuff right.
38:39
Read.
38:40
He's giggling but just nervous giggling.
38:43
Not because he thinks it's funny.
38:45
He's spinning in his chair.
38:46
But there are people all over the world listening to this who may know words.
38:50
We have listeners in Australia and we don't want Sophie to not know,
38:54
and all the other listeners in Australia to not know how great you are.
38:57
Robbie. I'm sweating
39:02
so it's just suffering is like.
39:06
These are all just fat.
39:07
Like, like it's going to make it all go away.
39:09
You're not using any adjectives. They're just noun.
39:11
We're just facts. Yeah. Just facts. He did just covers Mike.
39:13
You know how like when a little kid covers her eyes playing peekaboo?
39:16
Like, where did I go if maybe if I cover my own make,
39:19
they'll stop talking.
39:22
Like.
39:27
Is it even
39:28
okay to say, like, the phrase favorite lines for the story?
39:32
If it's so.
39:33
I think you can certainly have
39:34
a favorite landing a well-written movie, even if it's sad. I.
39:38
I loved the when Ingmar and the little girl,
39:42
the blond girl were talking and she's saying to him
39:46
that his dad should come home and he says, oh, who's going to load the bananas?
39:50
That was cute. Who's going?
39:52
And so telling.
39:53
It's like, well, who's going to take care of you?
39:55
It was funny and sad, very economy of phrase.
39:58
I think I liked it more as a device than as a quote, but
40:02
every time and every different way that he said things could be worse.
40:06
There was one of those it could be worse where the guy is jumping over the busses.
40:10
He did 31 and he says, well, if he just kept to 30,
40:15
he would he would have been alive or something like that.
40:18
That was really great.
40:19
The one I liked is it was it true that, like, the kid's name is Ingmar?
40:23
Yeah.
40:23
And then one of the boxers was Ingmar, one of the famous boxers?
40:26
Yeah, the Ingmar Swanson's Francis.
40:29
He was like.
40:30
Yeah.
40:30
So then they, like, nicknamed Saga Floyd.
40:33
So then it was Floyd and Ingmar when they were boxing. Because.
40:36
Because, yes, Ingmar already shares the name of one of the main boxers.
40:39
Great New York, 26th of June, 1959, when Floyd Patterson
40:44
enters the ring to defend his title against a Swede, Ingabire Hansen.
40:48
He has already confirmed his place in the record books
40:51
as the youngest heavyweight champion in the history of the sport to date.
40:55
I love to they they called Saga Floyd Patterson
40:59
without any sort of explanation or context, to the point that I was like,
41:03
oh, there's
41:03
this tiny girls definitely named Floyd or last name is definitely Patterson.
41:07
Oh yeah.
41:07
It took me longer than it should have because I was like, whoa, they grew up.
41:11
Like, we literally turn to cause like they grew up in their boxing.
41:14
And now the whole community is like listening to their boxing.
41:17
And he was like, no.
41:19
And then they're like, asleep on the couch is still kids.
41:21
And I was like, right?
41:23
Johansson's awesome right hand is known as the hammer of Thor.
41:27
So it's like when they're all around, everybody's listening to the radio fight
41:31
and like and like you hear the announcer voice of the radio
41:33
and everybody's listening to it.
41:35
The Swedes speed of foot and quick reflexes are becoming apparent.
41:39
Yeah, but it says it through the lens of, like, the radio announcing the boxer.
41:42
Yeah, the winner, the new heavyweight champion of the world.
41:47
And you know, you want some.
41:49
Will you give me a recording of this?
41:51
And it just says, Ingmar didn't let us down.
41:53
That's right.
41:54
That was like a really nice like, oh, that's wink wink, you know.
41:56
Yeah. Like it sort of says it all.
41:58
On the body. You must be a good
42:03
on the body.
42:03
You must be a good, good.
42:05
Hey, you must be good.
42:07
There's no
42:09
you're just things for sure. No, Robby.
42:10
Yeah. Yeah.
42:11
Thank you. It was happy birthday. Thank you.
42:14
Oh, happy earth and happy Virgo season.
42:16
Happy Virgo season after. Season.
42:18
I'm hanging on. There.
42:20
Guys are so intimidating.
42:21
Yeah,
42:24
you're such some small, thin people.
42:26
But you're the personalities.
42:28
Like we don't have any muscles in our arms.
42:30
Our people are often.
42:33
Does this happen?
42:33
Do people often think I'm a lot taller than I am sometimes?
42:37
Do I think it's my attitude?
42:39
Nice. Yeah.
42:40
I want to alarm for five five guys like I'm under average size.
42:43
I think it's just because I. I'm kind of a bitch.
42:46
I have a story about that.
42:47
But we could. Write about me being a bitch. No, no, no,
42:50
but. I know that's the other thing.
42:54
Taller.