Speaker 1: Hey, film Spotters, Josh and Adam.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: Wednesdays are when we usually drop something into the feed
Speaker 1: from the Film Spotting Archive, but this week we wanted
Speaker 1: to celebrate our sister podcast, big milestone. The Next Picture
Speaker 1: Show just published it's five hundredth episode, so we're going
Speaker 1: to share it right here in our feed. Five hundred
Speaker 1: episodes comes out to Adam, ten years of podcasting.
Speaker 3: How about that?
Speaker 4: So excited for these four that ten years later they
Speaker 4: are still pumping out great podcasts, great film criticism. Talking
Speaker 4: about the movie that inspired the name of their show,
Speaker 4: it is Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show, and it's
Speaker 4: a movie Josh, I've seen. I've seen even more than once.
Speaker 4: That means I can listen. I can hear their in
Speaker 4: depth conversation about this film, and now you can too.
Speaker 4: Here is The Next Picture Show, number five hundred. Scott
Speaker 4: to Bias, Tasha Robinson, Genevieve Cosky, and Keith Phipps.
Speaker 5: Very difficult to keep the line between the past.
Speaker 2: And the press.
Speaker 6: You believe that someone out of the past can enter
Speaker 6: and take possession of a living being.
Speaker 7: We may be through with the past, but the past
Speaker 7: is not through with us. Welcome to the Next Picture Show,
Speaker 7: a movie the Week podcast about a classic film and
Speaker 7: how it shaped our thoughts on a recent release.
Speaker 3: I'm Scott Tobias here with Tasha Robinson, Keith.
Speaker 5: Phipps, and Genevieve Cosky.
Speaker 7: Ten years ago, in early July twenty fifteen, our beloved
Speaker 7: movie site That Dissolve was shuttered after two years under
Speaker 7: the Pitchfork umbrella. It was a site that was simply
Speaker 7: too beautiful for our blighted digital media world. But we
Speaker 7: were not ready to scatter to the winds, not after
Speaker 7: working so closely together for so many years at the
Speaker 7: Dissolve in the av Club. So we conceived one group
Speaker 7: project no one could fire us from, a self produced
Speaker 7: knee movie podcast called The Next Picture Show. And now
Speaker 7: we have reached five hundred episodes, which to me is
Speaker 7: kind of a miracle because it took us an eternity
Speaker 7: just to figure out when we could all get together
Speaker 7: for episode one. Gang, what do you all remember about
Speaker 7: this formative time in our lives?
Speaker 8: I mean, I remember it being easier to get together
Speaker 8: because I was a semi employed at that point in time.
Speaker 8: I think I was like doing some freelance work, so
Speaker 8: it was actually much easier for me to make time
Speaker 8: for the podcast, but also I started out in a
Speaker 8: purely behind the scenes role. So my biggest memory of
Speaker 8: those early days is the giant bag of chords and
Speaker 8: cables that I lugged to the physical space where we
Speaker 8: recorded together and had to spend a half hour setting
Speaker 8: everything up before we could record.
Speaker 5: It was a different time pre.
Speaker 8: Zoom, and when we all still lived in the same
Speaker 8: city and a very nice studio space that we could
Speaker 8: record in together. So the setup was definitely different and
Speaker 8: my contribution was different, but you know, we all grew
Speaker 8: together and evolved.
Speaker 9: I definitely remember thinking this is going to be short term,
Speaker 9: like this is going to be something that we're going
Speaker 9: to do for a little while, and then, like every
Speaker 9: group of people who work together and then go elsewhere
Speaker 9: and get separate jobs from each other, like we're going
Speaker 9: to drift apart. We're probably going to move to other cities.
Speaker 9: We're definitely not going to continue doing this free project
Speaker 9: to give free entertainment to the internet, given how time
Speaker 9: consuming it is, and given that we're all probably about
Speaker 9: to become freelancers, which is very time consuming. So call
Speaker 9: me wrong, I mean I still think, you know, ten years,
Speaker 9: it's kind of a short term, probably not going to
Speaker 9: make it to eleven.
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, No, I mean I didn't know how
Speaker 2: long it would last. But then, but so I wanted
Speaker 2: to hang out with you guys and work on some
Speaker 2: I wish we mentioned Rachel Handler or Dozoco Worker was
Speaker 2: part of this in the early days, and then then
Speaker 2: did leave for another city and got too busy and
Speaker 2: too famous too. But yeah, I've always loved working with
Speaker 2: you guys. I'm glad to keep working with you. And
Speaker 2: I'm glad that we have, you know, plug for the Patreon.
Speaker 2: I'm glad we have the Patreon now, so it is
Speaker 2: like a little bit of income for us. But you know,
Speaker 2: when the days we were doing it for free, I
Speaker 2: still wanted to do it, you know, so, and I'm
Speaker 2: glad we kept going. My memory of that studio space
Speaker 2: was somewhere on my phone. I have a picture of it.
Speaker 2: It's a fairly horrifying bluegrass band or traditional very scary
Speaker 2: banjo player. A picture from from the studio space, like
Speaker 2: a statue. No, it's a those people think, oh.
Speaker 7: It was a photo of Okay, Yeah, like when did
Speaker 7: when did zoom come along because it really felt like zoom.
Speaker 7: Plus the pandemic actually kind of made the show possible
Speaker 7: long term in a way because you because you moved
Speaker 7: away Genevieve and then you know, and then and then
Speaker 7: it woul was like, I think the idea of us
Speaker 7: having to get together physically in the same room or
Speaker 7: when you were away initially physically in the same room
Speaker 7: and have some kind of an awkward camera set up,
Speaker 7: Like getting rid of all of that and being able
Speaker 7: to do this all remotely made it so much easier
Speaker 7: to pull off.
Speaker 3: When we needed to pull off, I think, I.
Speaker 8: Mean, I do miss my giant bag of cables and
Speaker 8: you know, setting us all up around the same table together,
Speaker 8: but yeah, we did. We actually started with Skype as
Speaker 8: I recall, yeah, but right around pandemic different services for this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean remember the friends to app that we used. Totally.
Speaker 3: It was the clunkiest thing, you know, it was very clunky.
Speaker 7: It is kind of astonishing we've made it this far
Speaker 7: and yet not and I think about part of it
Speaker 7: is the Patreon I mean not just the money, but
Speaker 7: just knowing that which is obviously super helpful, but having
Speaker 7: that support from our listeners. This whole time. Is very motivating,
Speaker 7: you know, you do what you do this for the fans,
Speaker 7: you know, and not.
Speaker 9: Just motivating, you know, in the sense of reminding us
Speaker 9: that the people out there listening and people out there
Speaker 9: that you know, care enough to throw three bucks our way.
Speaker 9: It's also motivating in that we pay our guests, you know,
Speaker 9: which is something that not every podcast does. In fact,
Speaker 9: every time we ask a colleague of ours to be
Speaker 9: on the podcast that's never been on the podcast before
Speaker 9: and tell them what the fee is, they say, wait
Speaker 9: a minute, you pay your tests.
Speaker 2: We pay them a lot.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean, we don't pay them a yearly salary
Speaker 9: or anything. But it's nice to be able to, you know,
Speaker 9: to support people in that way and to compensate people
Speaker 9: for the time that they give us, because it's always
Speaker 9: a delight when somebody wants to like give up like
Speaker 9: four hours of their time to come and sit and
Speaker 9: talk movies with us. But everybody's schedules are very very
Speaker 9: busy these days, so you know, it's nice to be
Speaker 9: able to both compensate them in that way and to
Speaker 9: lurere in some of the just incredible talent that we've
Speaker 9: gotten to come talk movies with us, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 7: So for this a special five hundredth episode, we have
Speaker 7: a fun little surprise for you Dissolve podcast fans from
Speaker 7: back in the day. Well that's for a little bit later. First,
Speaker 7: we're going to talk about a movie that we've selected
Speaker 7: just for this occasion. Genevieve, can you tell our listeners
Speaker 7: about it?
Speaker 8: Certainly the name of this podcast was inspired by Peter
Speaker 8: Bogdanovitch's nineteen seventy one classic The Last Picture Show, but
Speaker 8: we've never actually found the opportunity to talk about it
Speaker 8: until now. And given that this is a standalone episode,
Speaker 8: we don't have to wait around for a new movie
Speaker 8: with some connection to The Last Picture Show, so we're
Speaker 8: free to dig right into Bogdanovitch's adaptation of Larry McMurtry's
Speaker 8: novel about a dying Texas town in the early nineteen fifties.
Speaker 8: Timothy Bottoms, Chloris Leachman, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burston, and Sybil
Speaker 8: Shepherd are among the familiar faces in this slice of
Speaker 8: life in anering Texas, where a group of high school
Speaker 8: seniors are graduating into an uncertain future and the older
Speaker 8: residents are presiding over a town whose best days are
Speaker 8: long behind it.
Speaker 7: Man that sounds depressing Genevieve. Well, at least Bogdanovich didn't
Speaker 7: shoot it in black and white and load up the
Speaker 7: soundtrack with old Hank Williams songs, Right, Oh Boy, do Mine.
Speaker 9: And Melt your cold, Cold Hat.
Speaker 6: Tony Bennett's Cold Cold Heart was on Everybody's Hip Parade.
Speaker 6: Elizabeth Taylor was getting married, boys were duck tails. The
Speaker 6: police action in the Far East was Korea, and Anerine, Texas,
Speaker 6: like other small towns, is approaching the end of an era.
Speaker 10: I reckon. The reason why I always dragged yat here
Speaker 10: is probably I'm just as sentimental as the next fellow
Speaker 10: when it comes to old times, old.
Speaker 6: Times Anrene, Texas, nineteen fifty one, nothing much has.
Speaker 10: Changed, Cold Cold.
Speaker 7: There's no greater shame in Texas than a subpar high
Speaker 7: school football team, especially in a small town where there's
Speaker 7: nothing to do on the weekends and not much else
Speaker 7: to talk about. From the very beginning of the last
Speaker 7: picture show, we can see with our eyes, and here
Speaker 7: with our ears, the town of Anrene, Texas is in
Speaker 7: its death throws. Adapting Larry McMurtry's novel Peter Bogdanovitch shoots
Speaker 7: in black and white and fills the soundtrack with a
Speaker 7: howling northerly wind that's unbroken by any signs of life.
Speaker 7: When Sonny and Dwyane, two best friends played by Timothy
Speaker 7: Bottom and Jeff Bridges, turn up, the older generation in
Speaker 7: town are unified in their open disdain for the team's performance.
Speaker 7: The friendliest bit of mockery they get is from Sam
Speaker 7: played by Ben Johnson, who owns most of the town's businesses,
Speaker 7: including the diner, the pool hall, and a movie house
Speaker 7: called the Royal. He tells Sonny quote a few football
Speaker 7: teams have had luck with tackling keeps the other team
Speaker 7: from scoring too often. It's a sign of Sam's decency
Speaker 7: and love for annerine that he foolishly bet on the
Speaker 7: team winning anyway, but otherwise Sunny's failures as a two
Speaker 7: sport athlete, which continue later in a basketball game the
Speaker 7: team loses one twenty one to fourteen. I like a
Speaker 7: bell Weather for the entire town. If you're like me
Speaker 7: and you've ever driven through small towns in Middle America
Speaker 7: that some industry or another has left behind, anreine looks
Speaker 7: quite familiar. You see a lot of older residents who
Speaker 7: have stuck around their whole lives through thick and mostly thin,
Speaker 7: and a smattering of young people who would do well
Speaker 7: to find their way out, and in the case of Anaerine,
Speaker 7: Sam's weakening heart is the only thing standing between him
Speaker 7: and oblivion. They're hanging on by an artery. While the
Speaker 7: old timers and Anareine probably reminisce about the days when
Speaker 7: the football team won state championships, the teenagers are bored
Speaker 7: and looking for a way out. As an aside, I
Speaker 7: think we only see one child in the whole film,
Speaker 7: and the context for it is alarming. Sonny and Dwayne
Speaker 7: don't seem to have thought much about what they're going
Speaker 7: to do after high school, so they're mostly focused on
Speaker 7: getting a second and third base beyond with whatever girls
Speaker 7: they have access to. Sunny has reached an impass with
Speaker 7: his current girlfriend, while she'll go as far as topless
Speaker 7: necking and the cab of his truck, but they're both
Speaker 7: so bored that they break up on their anniversary. For
Speaker 7: his part, Duwayne is dating Jayce played by Sybil Shepherd,
Speaker 7: who's the prettiest girl in town and part of the
Speaker 7: richest family too, which creates its own set of obstacles.
Speaker 7: Jacey has eyes on another guy who's more in her
Speaker 7: country club class, but getting with him is a humiliating
Speaker 7: ordeal that starts with a midnight swimming party where she
Speaker 7: has to disrobe, and continues with his refusal to sleep
Speaker 7: with her until she loses her virginity. In this world,
Speaker 7: girl's virginity is a strange and treacherous kind of currency
Speaker 7: and perhaps the film's most complex and ultimately heartbreaking relationship.
Speaker 7: Sonny starts seeing Ruth played by Chlorus Leachman, the deeply
Speaker 7: dissatisfied wife of his football and basketball coach. Sonny initially
Speaker 7: agrees to drive Ruth through an appointment as a favor
Speaker 7: to his coach, but the two have a surprising chemistry
Speaker 7: and a mutual interest in easing their loneliness. Soon enough,
Speaker 7: they start having an affair, not unlike Dustin holl In
Speaker 7: Anne Bancroft and the Graduate, with the older woman bringing
Speaker 7: her inexperienced young partner along while addressing an itch that
Speaker 7: her oath of a husband could never scratch. As Ruth
Speaker 7: explains to Sonny, she was twenty years old when she
Speaker 7: got married, and in that time quote, I thought Harry
Speaker 7: chested football coaches were about it. There are many deaths,
Speaker 7: literal and metaphorical in the Last Picture Show, including the
Speaker 7: night where the movie theater finally closes down with Dwayne,
Speaker 7: Sonny and few others watching the Howard Hawk's Western Red
Speaker 7: River American self mythology is built on the idea of
Speaker 7: thriving little bergs like Annaerine, which are flush with Ma
Speaker 7: and Pa diners and movie houses, and multiple generations of
Speaker 7: residents who have turned their hometown into a happy community.
Speaker 7: This film is black and white like a tombstone, and
Speaker 7: the Hank Williams Senior songs hang over every melancholy interaction.
Speaker 7: It's like Bogdanovitch is standing by a worlitzer with a
Speaker 7: pocket full of quarters, and he's plugging away all night.
Speaker 7: And yet as bleak as the Last Picture Show gets,
Speaker 7: there's some faith here in the dignity and decency of
Speaker 7: these characters, who show each other some compassion and mercy
Speaker 7: when they need it, whether it's Jase's mother Lois played
Speaker 7: by Ellen Burston, consoling her after a bad night out,
Speaker 7: or justifiably angry Ruth recognizing that Sonny's pain rivals her own.
Speaker 7: In the film's touching final scene. They may live in
Speaker 7: a ghost town, but they're human. We'll talk about it
Speaker 7: after the break.
Speaker 10: Which one of you blooded his nose. I've told you
Speaker 10: all not to fight with Billy because he don't understand
Speaker 10: bout fight. What happens, Sonny.
Speaker 6: They weren't none of us saying nah, It was Jimmy Sue.
Speaker 10: Jimmy Sue. How do you get messed up with her?
Speaker 5: We all chipped in, bought in piece ass.
Speaker 6: Thought he was getting tired of being a virgin.
Speaker 10: She got mad about something and blooded his nose. You
Speaker 10: boys can get on out of here. I don't want
Speaker 10: to have no more to do with you scaring a poor,
Speaker 10: unfortunate creature like Billy just so as you could have
Speaker 10: a few laughs. I've been around that trashy behavior all
Speaker 10: my life. I'm getting tired of putting up with it.
Speaker 10: You can stay out of this pool, all out of
Speaker 10: my cafe and my picture show too. I don't want
Speaker 10: no more of your business. We didn't mean for anything
Speaker 10: bad to have to say it. We didn't even have
Speaker 10: the decency to WASH's face.
Speaker 7: The funny thing is we the last Picture Show has
Speaker 7: been part of our lore all the way back to
Speaker 7: the Dissolve, because I was always I was attached to
Speaker 7: the idea in many different occases, both for both for
Speaker 7: The Dissolver and for the newsletter that Keith and I
Speaker 7: have of calling the publication the Royal, which is the
Speaker 7: name of the theater in The Last Picture Show. That
Speaker 7: did not take, but it is something that it's something
Speaker 7: that we've focused on. But I actually don't know what everybody,
Speaker 7: anybody thinks of this movie. So I'm actually I'm just
Speaker 7: curious to know if you know, to what degree of
Speaker 7: folks on here share my affection and love for the
Speaker 7: film The Last Picture Show.
Speaker 9: I mean, i'd never seen it before this. This was
Speaker 9: my first time with it.
Speaker 8: Oh that's exciting. I actually I hadn't seen it before
Speaker 8: we started this podcast, but I figured it would be
Speaker 8: good to be familiarize myself with the movie the podcast
Speaker 8: is named after. So this is what's my second time
Speaker 8: seeing it. But I want to hear about Tasha's experience first.
Speaker 9: I mean, there's kind of the emotional experience and then
Speaker 9: the intellectual experience, and the intellectual experience. It's just it's
Speaker 9: one of those movies where you spend every five minutes
Speaker 9: going Oh wow, was that person ever this young? Oh wow?
Speaker 9: Is that person in here too? How is there any
Speaker 9: role in this movie not played by somebody whose name
Speaker 9: I know and who I've never seen, you know, this
Speaker 9: fresh faced, unlined and dewey before. That's sort of the
Speaker 9: thing that was going on in the background of my
Speaker 9: mind the entire time I was trying to quote unquote
Speaker 9: enjoy this tremendously tremendously sad story. It's just oh, it's
Speaker 9: such a pylon. I mean, it's it's so well done,
Speaker 9: but it's just so grim in terms of watching this
Speaker 9: town just lose one institution after another, in terms of
Speaker 9: people and places and gatherings and relationships, and just like
Speaker 9: watching it all fall apart piece by piece, I mean,
Speaker 9: as portraits of kind of the passage of time and
Speaker 9: what it does to people and what it does to communities.
Speaker 9: It's really terrific as a feel good booster movie to
Speaker 9: kind of like bring the light back into a weirdly
Speaker 9: early Chicago winter. I don't know that I would recommend
Speaker 9: it to many people.
Speaker 3: In that regard.
Speaker 7: It's grim, but we just we did they shoot horses,
Speaker 7: don't they? It's not don't they grim?
Speaker 2: It's not. I mean on the Audio Conventary, Peter Bardonovitch
Speaker 2: talks about like this you know my phrase, but like
Speaker 2: I think his idea like this kind of weird disconnect
Speaker 2: of a film that shot in its very old Hollywood style,
Speaker 2: but the material is so new Hollywood and so frank,
Speaker 2: and its depiction of sexuality and it's glumness, and it's
Speaker 2: like sort of refusal to push people toward a happy ending.
Speaker 2: I think that's part of what makes it so. It
Speaker 2: is kind of a one of one movie in a way,
Speaker 2: because it is there's so much going on that, you know,
Speaker 2: such a mix of styles and material that you just
Speaker 2: don't really see anywhere else. I whant I think about
Speaker 2: this movie? I think I think about the wind I
Speaker 2: think you mentioned you mentioned that before, But it's just
Speaker 2: just this constant, you know, soundtrack in the background. It's
Speaker 2: sort of eerie, and and it just the sort of
Speaker 2: the sense of emptiness. I mean, what's the most crowded
Speaker 2: scene in the film is that the graduation scene?
Speaker 3: Is it?
Speaker 2: Maybe the swimming party? I mean it's just not a place.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think it's a dance party before the swimming party.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true. But even that you're talking like what
Speaker 2: a few dozen characters. It's just it's almost kind of
Speaker 2: like a Martian landscape in a way, and there's just
Speaker 2: not that many people there.
Speaker 9: Yeah, the moment where somebody says, you know, there's there's
Speaker 9: only one pretty girl in town and she's taken. The
Speaker 9: moment that you see as soon as somebody breaks up,
Speaker 9: somebody else is going to be ready to swoop in,
Speaker 9: and you just realize like how small the group of
Speaker 9: young people is in this town. You know, the young,
Speaker 9: unattached people all know each other and kind of have
Speaker 9: an eye on each other in case anything changes, because
Speaker 9: there are just there's so few social slots. Basically, there
Speaker 9: are so few places to be. The whole image of
Speaker 9: Sonny and Duane sharing a pickup just kind of to
Speaker 9: some degree typifies the way this town just doesn't seem
Speaker 9: to have enough of anything, and people in space and
Speaker 9: places and things to do are all like high on
Speaker 9: that list. But the sense of like two boys social
Speaker 9: lives both revolving around the same truck, for me, is
Speaker 9: just so emblematic.
Speaker 5: The scene that.
Speaker 8: Really stuck out to me on this viewing was the
Speaker 8: three of them, Sunny, Dwayne and j C.
Speaker 5: R driving and.
Speaker 8: They start singing the school song, which I think was
Speaker 8: actually a director's cut edition, but I think only the
Speaker 8: director's cut is out there now, am I right? You
Speaker 8: all watch the version.
Speaker 2: I think there's a blu ray that has both cuts
Speaker 2: on it, but it's the more you're more likely to
Speaker 2: see the director's cut, which I which is not that
Speaker 2: different but I think better in its additions.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and I'm really glad it has that scene of
Speaker 8: them singing the school song because it feels just to
Speaker 8: me like it really encapsulates the almost like borderline cynical
Speaker 8: nostalgic feeling of this movie, like because you know, they're
Speaker 8: singing this song and they're being kind of like ironic
Speaker 8: about it, but they're also being kind of genuine about it.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 8: It's this really interesting middle ground of kind of what
Speaker 8: you would expect of a you know, a nostalgic, warm
Speaker 8: look at the past and a realistic lens on what
Speaker 8: you know, the reality of this situation really is. And yeah,
Speaker 8: it's I think Keith you said it's like a one
Speaker 8: of one film, Like I can't think of any other
Speaker 8: movie that has this sort of tonality between feeling nostalgic
Speaker 8: but not feeling warm toward.
Speaker 5: The nostalgia in any way. But the film.
Speaker 8: Kicks off in you know, November December, you know, with
Speaker 8: that wind, and people comment on how cold it is,
Speaker 8: you know, and this is Texas, and obviously it spans
Speaker 8: a you know, a lot of time, so it doesn't
Speaker 8: stay that cold. But I think introducing this story in
Speaker 8: this very like desolate, cold, black and white feeling, but
Speaker 8: you know, on the this presumably really exciting stage of
Speaker 8: life for all these young adults, you know, like transitioning
Speaker 8: into the people they're going to become.
Speaker 7: Yeah, when I see this movie, you know, I always
Speaker 7: I think this movie anytime I you know, we're here
Speaker 7: at Illinois.
Speaker 3: I often have occasion.
Speaker 7: To drive through the middle of Indiana and you go,
Speaker 7: you go through some of the are just generally some
Speaker 7: of it through Ohio, Ohio, Indiana machine these sort of
Speaker 7: roust belt towns that have long since we're downtown, has
Speaker 7: mostly shuttered.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a pretty common thing to see.
Speaker 7: And I always think, think about the last picture show,
Speaker 7: and then think again about like who populates this town.
Speaker 7: And then also, you know, particular to this film, you know,
Speaker 7: the burden that the you know, so the young people
Speaker 7: have to carry, I mean just you know, and it
Speaker 7: starts out right away with all the comments about how
Speaker 7: bad they are in football and basketball, but like how
Speaker 7: many can there be? I mean, like sure, this is
Speaker 7: a town that had its glory days, where where the
Speaker 7: older generation remembers triumphs and the grid iron, and it's
Speaker 7: like this is that they don't have enough kids left.
Speaker 7: I mean, you know, there's only one, I think, only
Speaker 7: one child in the entire film, and the context in
Speaker 7: which we see this this little girl, is rather disturbing.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: So so this is a this is a town that
Speaker 3: is you know, is literally dying off.
Speaker 7: And then and we're we're seeing it oftentimes from the perspective,
Speaker 7: you know of these high school seniors who are who
Speaker 7: then have to figure out, you know, what their next
Speaker 7: step is because the notion of staying where they are,
Speaker 7: staying where their parents are it may be maybe comforting
Speaker 7: to a degree, but it's it's almost like not tenable too.
Speaker 2: There is one other child. It is the naked boy
Speaker 2: swimming along with the in the swimming party. That's True's
Speaker 2: by that one of the more disturbing details.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, the sense then nobody is really all that
Speaker 9: excited about graduation. The sense that it doesn't feel like,
Speaker 9: you know, this exciting liminal state where they're going off
Speaker 9: into into some kind of future that kind of haunts
Speaker 9: so many high school stories. I think just comes from
Speaker 9: the sense of, like where are they supposed to go?
Speaker 9: We kind of watch Dwayne go through the options, you know,
Speaker 9: leave town, get a job elsewhere, become a rough neck,
Speaker 9: go into the military, Like those those are just kind
Speaker 9: of he runs down the whole list. There's certainly a
Speaker 9: sense that JC is kind of enjoying the last period
Speaker 9: of her life where she's going to be important to
Speaker 9: maybe anybody outside of whoever she suckers into marrying her
Speaker 9: next and her parents. The tiny fame of like maybe
Speaker 9: the police will come after me because my parents will
Speaker 9: be mad at what we did is like the biggest
Speaker 9: thrill that she's got in her life. There's just not
Speaker 9: a whole lot going on for anybody in terms of
Speaker 9: a future, and the fact that the whole movie is
Speaker 9: basically about the town dying emphasizes that. Like there's certainly
Speaker 9: a moment where you kind of feel like Sonny is
Speaker 9: going to be the next Sam. He's going to maintain
Speaker 9: these institutions that have kept the town alive, that have
Speaker 9: kept the community coming together, that have meant something to people,
Speaker 9: and the fact that like even that lasts such a
Speaker 9: short period of time, it's just tremendously sad.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I had the same thought about, like, you know,
Speaker 8: Sonny could be the next Sam. But we also hear
Speaker 8: from Sam during that lovely scene at the tank where
Speaker 8: he's kind of telling Sonny about his past, like he
Speaker 8: had multiple lives before he was Sam the Lion. You know,
Speaker 8: he had other opportunities to become the person he is.
Speaker 8: He didn't just kind of roll from adolescents into adulthood
Speaker 8: in the same situation, which is what is happening to Sonny.
Speaker 8: And it's depressing for Sonny to just like not have
Speaker 8: his life expand in any way. And you get the
Speaker 8: sense that Sam is someone who had a somewhat more
Speaker 8: expansive life.
Speaker 7: And I think there's kind of a sense from Sam.
Speaker 7: I mean, you know, various characters, including Sonny and I
Speaker 7: can't remember the woman who inherits the movie theater, but
Speaker 7: there's there's that sense of like there's not much to
Speaker 7: that inheritance, like like like these businesses are going to
Speaker 7: die out pretty much with Sam. I don't think there's
Speaker 7: you don't get a sense that he's making a profit
Speaker 7: of any of this. It's just all of these institutions,
Speaker 7: the cafe, the pool hall, the movie house are probably
Speaker 7: operating at a law and then when you actually lose
Speaker 7: Sam himself, then what you know, how can they really survive?
Speaker 5: But at the same time, I think I believe in Genevieve.
Speaker 5: Genevieve could have kept that tyner going.
Speaker 3: That is true as Genevieve's do.
Speaker 7: And then one of the things that I couldn't help
Speaker 7: but think about is like the Last Picture Show seems like.
Speaker 3: It's in this world of the.
Speaker 7: Pretty comfortable slash distant past. But if you were to
Speaker 7: make it but years wise, I mean, if you were
Speaker 7: to make The Last Picture Show in twenty twenty five
Speaker 7: and set it back when a comparable number of years ago,
Speaker 7: it would be set after nine to eleven.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
Speaker 7: So it doesn't see it seems like there's this huge
Speaker 7: distance in time between when the film was made and
Speaker 7: when the film was set. But it's only it's it's
Speaker 7: not even twenty years, right, What do we make of that?
Speaker 2: It's about twenty years yeah, but I mean, I think
Speaker 2: it's also kind of like there's certain I think, you know,
Speaker 2: it's on the other side of the sixties. What you
Speaker 2: think it makes to be different. I think it's why,
Speaker 2: you know, American Graffiti feels like it's going looking back
Speaker 2: a lot further than it actually was, which is actually
Speaker 2: about ten years, you know. But it does seem to
Speaker 2: be like a lost world though, doesn't it.
Speaker 8: It also like just evokes an earlier period of film,
Speaker 8: Like there's so much like classic Western illusion here, Ben
Speaker 8: Jonson being one of them, but also like the final
Speaker 8: movie that they watch and forgetting red River, yes, you know,
Speaker 8: and just that you know, the vistas. It does feel
Speaker 8: visually like it is calling back to an earlier era
Speaker 8: of film as well, not just like the actual events
Speaker 8: of our world at that time.
Speaker 9: One other aspect I think of it technically being such
Speaker 9: a short time period, a twenty year gap, is I
Speaker 9: feel like this is maybe one of the more unsentimental
Speaker 9: looks at the fifties that I've seen in terms of
Speaker 9: especially in terms of sex and sexuality. There just isn't
Speaker 9: any of that sort of eighties reconstitution of everything that
Speaker 9: led to things like blue Velvet you know, scraping at
Speaker 9: the dirty undersurface of an idealized suburban neighborhood, and you know,
Speaker 9: the callback to the version of the fifties that we've
Speaker 9: made up in our mind. This is just a very
Speaker 9: i don't know, kind of like plain spoken, in realistic
Speaker 9: kind of setting. It really took me back that first
Speaker 9: shot of two teenagers necking in their car and the
Speaker 9: girl's got her top off and he's got one of
Speaker 9: her bare breasts in his hand, and I was just like,
Speaker 9: wait a minute. You know, it's just it's so rare
Speaker 9: to see that kind of casual sexuality in movies today.
Speaker 9: And if we were making a movie, any movie set
Speaker 9: in the fifties today, you wouldn't see casual topless listen
Speaker 9: like that. But the way this movie approaches sex in
Speaker 9: particular just seems like so of its time in terms
Speaker 9: of a kind of like practicality, and again just so sad.
Speaker 9: There are there are some people having really awful sex
Speaker 9: in this movie. Oh that bed is so squeaky and
Speaker 9: he spends they both look so uncomfortable about it. But
Speaker 9: even more so, there's just sort of a sense that
Speaker 9: nobody has ever taught any of these women that sex
Speaker 9: should be pleasurable, and nobody has ever taught any of
Speaker 9: these ment anything whatsoever. So sex is always a process
Speaker 9: of the woman looks uncomfortable, the man climbs on top.
Speaker 9: They both try not to look at each other, and
Speaker 9: then there's some wiggling and uh, then they're both very,
Speaker 9: very uncomfortable of what they've just done.
Speaker 2: So I think Ruth and Sunny, Yeah, figure it out
Speaker 2: as they go along. Yeah, I feel like you see
Speaker 2: Ruth kind of blossom and and turn for like, you know,
Speaker 2: I don't know how course course used here. I think
Speaker 2: the character has supposed to be in her thirties.
Speaker 9: But she she's forty.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, yeah, that's right, forty. It's an itchy age,
Speaker 2: I think is what is Yeah, but such she looks
Speaker 2: she just looks looks much older and much like worn out.
Speaker 2: And then she's kind of revived by this affair. You
Speaker 2: could just you know, she Leechman just looks so much
Speaker 2: more vibrant, and you know, if you get the feeling
Speaker 2: that they figured something out, you know in the bedroom. However,
Speaker 2: you know, awkward their relationship might be to the people
Speaker 2: around them, though everyone knows about it.
Speaker 9: I guess given the complete lack of like attempt to
Speaker 9: instruct him in any way that we see in that
Speaker 9: first encounter or even ease his discomfort, especially with the
Speaker 9: squeaky bed, just did not lead me to to hopes
Speaker 9: for that. Like, you look at the sexuality of something
Speaker 9: like The Graduate and how it approaches, you know, a
Speaker 9: relationship between an older, experienced woman and a younger man,
Speaker 9: and there's that feeling of like of instruction of something
Speaker 9: forbidden and maybe inappropriate, but you know, also attempting and tantalizing,
Speaker 9: but also just sort of an opportunity for a young
Speaker 9: man to learn and heard to that this just sort
Speaker 9: of feels like, you know, she's carrying how sex is,
Speaker 9: she's learned it in this just incredibly dry and depressing
Speaker 9: an environment. I feel like that blossoming comes from attention
Speaker 9: and connection more than you know them necessarily having achieved
Speaker 9: any kind of satisfaction in the sack.
Speaker 2: Well, here's something. One of the things that just strikes
Speaker 2: me in this movie every time I watch it about
Speaker 2: this time is like when Leechin's character says when he's
Speaker 2: when he when Suddy's saying, you know you must miss coach,
Speaker 2: you must be looked forward to the seasons sitting so
Speaker 2: you can spend more time with them. And she says,
Speaker 2: my god, you don't know a thing about it, do you.
Speaker 2: And I was to me, that's just sort of like
Speaker 2: she's talking about life, right, I was just talking about
Speaker 2: how you know, how you know their marriage is soured
Speaker 2: and you know a lot of marriages, you know do
Speaker 2: And but one thing that that Bogdana I haven't read
Speaker 2: the book. I really should want these days. But one
Speaker 2: thing but Bogdanovitch suggests is that Coach is gay. M Yeah,
Speaker 2: which I came across. Yeah, I'd never picked up with
Speaker 2: that at all watching this.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think it's more from the book maybe than
Speaker 8: in the movie. But but yeah, I think that, you know,
Speaker 8: talking about sexuality in this movie, it kind of goes
Speaker 8: hand in hand with this movie's view of marriage, which
Speaker 8: there is not a really successful or happy.
Speaker 5: Marriage in this movie.
Speaker 8: And it almost feels like sex is something that stops
Speaker 8: happening when you get married, you know, and jac is
Speaker 8: certainly like kind of positioning marriage is something that you
Speaker 8: know has to happen in order for there to be sex.
Speaker 8: But it's all moved from the idea of desire and
Speaker 8: you know, like people, you know, all these characters are
Speaker 8: sort of chasing the idea of desire and to the
Speaker 8: extent that they you know, achieve it or pleasure as
Speaker 8: a result of it, is like outside of marriage, you know,
Speaker 8: And I think we do. I think Ruth and Sunny
Speaker 8: do get there. We don't see them actually experience like
Speaker 8: a sexual connection like that, but I think you know,
Speaker 8: her wearing his shirt and then you know, kind of
Speaker 8: like being on the floor casually together, like ixtrapolated them
Speaker 8: out that out to like like you said, Keith them
Speaker 8: figuring it out, you know. But again it happens like
Speaker 8: outside of a context where marriage is even a question,
Speaker 8: you know. And I think just the idea of the
Speaker 8: nuclear family is like entirely is the other thing that
Speaker 8: has like died in this town, you know, Like neither
Speaker 8: Sunny nor Dwayne have both of their parents around. Sort
Speaker 8: of the only traditional family structure we see is the Pharaohs.
Speaker 8: But you know that's a big old mess, you know,
Speaker 8: in its own way. So it kind of feels like
Speaker 8: again to go back to the time period of this
Speaker 8: sort of that classic fifty idea of the fifties nuclear
Speaker 8: family is also just deteriorated and wasted away in this movie.
Speaker 9: I mean, it just kind of feels like nothing is
Speaker 9: left in this town. Nothing is holding together, no no institution,
Speaker 9: no relationship, no sense of community, no connection. That dreadful
Speaker 9: scene at the end with the trucker and a bunch
Speaker 9: of people like standing around Billy's body, you get the
Speaker 9: impression as they're talking about him, you know, the the
Speaker 9: out of towner who has just killed a child and
Speaker 9: doesn't feel guilty about it, and the rest of the
Speaker 9: community just kind of standing there shrugging and saying, you know, well,
Speaker 9: you know he was always he was always dumb and slow,
Speaker 9: and we don't really know what he was doing out
Speaker 9: in the middle of the road, like it's no big deal.
Speaker 9: I think that's where maybe you just get a sense
Speaker 9: that there's no human feeling left in this town anymore,
Speaker 9: you know.
Speaker 8: If I think that's where Sunny gets that sense too.
Speaker 8: I think that's like the final straw for.
Speaker 9: Him, oh for sure, which you know he and he
Speaker 9: pushes back against it, you know, he comes in with
Speaker 9: this level of emotion and anger against their complete inhumanity.
Speaker 9: But I mean in the end, if like if a
Speaker 9: small town can't rally around one of their own, what,
Speaker 9: you know, whose life was carelessly lost. If if they can't,
Speaker 9: if a small Texas town can't rise up against an
Speaker 9: outsider that killed one of their own, like what even
Speaker 9: is this town anymore?
Speaker 3: That's a good point.
Speaker 7: I would make somewhat of a distinction here because I
Speaker 7: think you're absolutely right about the town as this organism.
Speaker 7: But I think that the film is also has so
Speaker 7: many moments of great humanity where characters as individuals, you know,
Speaker 7: show each other some mercy and some sympathy and affection.
Speaker 7: I mean, obviously, you know, I think that the key
Speaker 7: scene being that last scene that we get with Sonny
Speaker 7: and Ruth, where Sonny, you know, is about to leave
Speaker 7: town and he gets to the city limits and comes
Speaker 7: back and sees her, and she's of course furious at
Speaker 7: him for you know, abandoning her, and and and then
Speaker 7: kind of start slowly kind of it comes to recognize
Speaker 7: that that he is feeling a degree of pain that
Speaker 7: she recognizes, and the scene kind of takes on this
Speaker 7: other tone. And then and then I think also you
Speaker 7: get a you know, on a smaller scale, I think
Speaker 7: the scene when Jace returns home from losing her virginity
Speaker 7: to her mother's lover, and like there's a there's a
Speaker 7: certain amount of care that her mother shows her at
Speaker 7: that moment of kind of knowing what that feels like.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 7: Again, it's it's all, it's all incredibly sad, but at
Speaker 7: least there's a certain amount of warmth that's present in
Speaker 7: the film.
Speaker 9: Still, Okay, wait, back up, I don't think she loses
Speaker 9: her virginity to Abilene. Like there. First of all, we
Speaker 9: see her going like back to the hotel with Dwayne
Speaker 9: and saying that, you know, she still doesn't think he
Speaker 9: did it right, and she should he shouldn't be proud
Speaker 9: of himself, but he seems pretty smug and she needed
Speaker 9: to lose her virginity in order to go be with Bobby.
Speaker 9: So that she goes to be with Bobby, but then
Speaker 9: eventually he leaves. But I think we're meant to take
Speaker 9: from her smugness that she's been him with him for
Speaker 9: a little while before he runs off. Oh I don't.
Speaker 9: I don't think she losing her virginity to Abilene.
Speaker 8: I mean, it's still it's still a pretty upsetting scenario.
Speaker 9: That said, when she does have sex with Abilene, I
Speaker 9: wish there was a little more grace from him, because again,
Speaker 9: this is somebody who you know is coming to the table,
Speaker 9: the pool table, as it were, with with sexual experience,
Speaker 9: and with sexual experience with her mother. Who if if
Speaker 9: there's anybody in this movie that one would think would
Speaker 9: demand pleasure out of sex, it would be her mom.
Speaker 9: And yet he really treats her like a wooden doll,
Speaker 9: and she responds like a wooden doll. It's again, just
Speaker 9: like a breakdown of social norms and human feeling. I certainly,
Speaker 9: I mean, I agree with you about that last scene
Speaker 9: between Sonny and Ruth, which it's just incredible to watch
Speaker 9: the journey she goes on during that encounter while he
Speaker 9: stays in the same place the entire time, physically, emotionally, mentally,
Speaker 9: just you know, inert as she travels through all of
Speaker 9: the different steps on her personal journey through the stages
Speaker 9: of grief over their relationship, I think, and the fact
Speaker 9: that she's then able to come around and you know,
Speaker 9: take his hand when he takes hers is a moment
Speaker 9: of sweetness. But it's such a parroic moment of sweetness
Speaker 9: just given everything that she says that's true and all
Speaker 9: the water under the bridge. I think there are moments
Speaker 9: of human connection. I think we see, you know, Sonny's
Speaker 9: delight at jac reaching out to him, even if she's
Speaker 9: doing it for all the wrong reasons. There is just,
Speaker 9: over and over kind of a little spark left in
Speaker 9: him of friendship for Dwayne, I love for jac I
Speaker 9: hope for Ruth. He keeps trying to reconnect to people,
Speaker 9: grief for Billy, anger at those drivers, like almost everything
Speaker 9: has died in this town and he hasn't, and maybe
Speaker 9: that's the ultimate tragedy as movies. By the end, he's
Speaker 9: so broken down because there's just so little left that
Speaker 9: responds to that spark in him.
Speaker 8: I also want to highlight an earlier scene, which is
Speaker 8: when Genevieve welcomes Sonny back into the diner and gives
Speaker 8: him a hamburger after Sam bans them for you know,
Speaker 8: messing with Billy that night, and you know, it's just
Speaker 8: sort of the forgiveness that Genevieve and then by extension,
Speaker 8: Sam gives him and sort of the recognition of him
Speaker 8: having messed up and realizing he's messed up, and recognizing
Speaker 8: this moment of growth in this young man and rewarding it,
Speaker 8: I guess, and I kind of feel like the last
Speaker 8: scene with Ruth is a much sadder mirror of that scene,
Speaker 8: that recognition of a young man sort of facing his
Speaker 8: own failures.
Speaker 9: Man as a Jenny, if you and I have talked
Speaker 9: about the experience of getting emotional over structure or just
Speaker 9: over quality, I'm getting a little emotional thinking about that
Speaker 9: Sam moment because it's just it's so well done. You know,
Speaker 9: there isn't a big confrontation. He basically just says, your
Speaker 9: band get out. You don't have access to the any
Speaker 9: of the community things that I run, which is all
Speaker 9: of them in like just realizing how completely they could
Speaker 9: be shut out of the life of the town. And
Speaker 9: then the fact that Sonny comes back not to protest
Speaker 9: to that, but kind of to see Billy again, and
Speaker 9: then the way Sam is ready to kick him out,
Speaker 9: and then he just looks at Billy and Billy is
Speaker 9: still smiling at Sonny, and Sonny has done the taking
Speaker 9: his hat and turning it around backwards thing, and Billy
Speaker 9: responds to that with the warmth he always does, and
Speaker 9: Sam just very clearly, like without any dialogue, sees in
Speaker 9: that moment whatever I was angry about Billy isn't angry
Speaker 9: about it, Like Billy still loves and trusts this other boy.
Speaker 9: And if I cut him out of the community and
Speaker 9: separate him from Billy, I'm punishing Billy for what Sonny
Speaker 9: and the boys did and I can't do that. And
Speaker 9: then he just says, your sandwich is getting cold.
Speaker 3: The thing about Sam generally is that obviously kind of
Speaker 3: holding the town together financially, I mean in the sense
Speaker 3: that he's got these you know, he's got these.
Speaker 7: Whatever vitality he can claim to have is because these
Speaker 7: businesses that he owns and keeps open. But also he's
Speaker 7: also the glue, you know, emotionally as well. And you know,
Speaker 7: you think about a moment like that, or a moment
Speaker 7: when he gives Dwayne and Sonny a little bit of
Speaker 7: money and some good advice for the little trip to Mexico.
Speaker 3: I mean, he's able to just.
Speaker 7: See people in a deep way, like really understand where
Speaker 7: their head is at and and kind of respond accordingly,
Speaker 7: like he he like like that gesture, you know, I
Speaker 7: think speaks to his insight, you know, into how these
Speaker 7: boys are feeling at this specific moment in their lives.
Speaker 9: It's also just a very you know, giving you some
Speaker 9: money to make sure you have a good trip is
Speaker 9: also just a very dad move. And given what we
Speaker 9: see of, you know, the relationships that those boys have
Speaker 9: with their families, the relationships families have in general, Sam
Speaker 9: stepping in as kind of an everybody's dad figure in
Speaker 9: general just kind of leads us back to the point where,
Speaker 9: you know, when he dies, the town loses. It's not
Speaker 9: just its central figure, but kind of its father figure.
Speaker 8: I was thinking this while watching at this time, is that,
Speaker 8: like this actually is a really good movie for us
Speaker 8: to have named ourselves after, because so much of this
Speaker 8: movie is just built around, like the relationship between the
Speaker 8: old generation and the new generation. You know, like obviously
Speaker 8: it's a story about these young kids, but I feel
Speaker 8: like all of the most meaningful scenes, the ones we're
Speaker 8: all talking about, are between the older generation and the
Speaker 8: younger generation, and maybe the older generation, you know, recognizing
Speaker 8: the echoes between them, but also sort of like this
Speaker 8: if something is being lost in the new generation or
Speaker 8: in the younger generation.
Speaker 7: I don't know, I love it, Like you know, JC
Speaker 7: and her Mom. It's like the like a classic film
Speaker 7: and a new release, those two right, lots of connections
Speaker 7: between those two right, good good good contrasts and then
Speaker 7: and then experiences that mirror each.
Speaker 8: Other and Sonny and Sam. You know that's a good pairing.
Speaker 8: Lots of connections.
Speaker 5: There, did ye see?
Speaker 9: I was just thinking in terms of, yeah, this is
Speaker 9: a very appropriate movie for like the death of an
Speaker 9: era and what comes next for the people involved. This
Speaker 9: is a pretty trenchant movie to have named ourselves after.
Speaker 7: Well, so, which brings me kind of this question, was
Speaker 7: it was it a good idea for us to name
Speaker 7: our film site after an editing process where image disappears
Speaker 7: in the name of our podcast after a movie where
Speaker 7: the only theater in town shuts down.
Speaker 8: What usolve isn't is it something disappearing? It's something transitioning
Speaker 8: into the next stage exactly.
Speaker 3: What's what's another? What's another? What's the other? What's another
Speaker 3: word for death? Transitioning?
Speaker 8: Well, and okay, I'm I'm I'm going I'm going to
Speaker 8: be firm that, like I think this this is not
Speaker 8: as cynical a connection as we are making it out
Speaker 8: to be, because you know, the in the end, Sonny
Speaker 8: and Duayane they do go see a movie together and
Speaker 8: it's a movie they've seen before, you know, a good, good,
Speaker 8: good movie. Yeah, I've seen it here before, you know.
Speaker 8: And they do connect at the movies, you know, and repeatedly,
Speaker 8: and it's not necessarily even about the quality of the
Speaker 8: movie that they're seeing. It's just the shared experience of
Speaker 8: the movie. So I think it is a great choice
Speaker 8: on our parts.
Speaker 2: You know, they're behind us. Details for the making of
Speaker 2: this movie is that Baldanavich said that that McMurty doesn't
Speaker 2: like movies, and in the novel it was just some
Speaker 2: some crappy bee Western and he, you know, Bodanovitch, wanted
Speaker 2: to be something really good. So that's why it's red
Speaker 2: River in the film.
Speaker 7: Well, The Last Picture Show is available for digital rental
Speaker 7: on Apple TV, Amazon, and weirdly no place else. It's
Speaker 7: also on Criterion DVD and Blu Ray. We'll be right
Speaker 7: back with a game, all right.
Speaker 3: So we would normally.
Speaker 7: Wrap up our episode about a classic film with feedback,
Speaker 7: but this isn't any old episode, so we're doing something else. Genevieve,
Speaker 7: let me pass the mic over to you on this one.
Speaker 8: So those of you who have been with us since
Speaker 8: the Dissolved days may recall that on the podcast we
Speaker 8: did at the Dissolve, the cleverly named the Dissolved Podcast.
Speaker 8: We would frequently engage in some games, trivia based games,
Speaker 8: and back in those days, we were all like sitting
Speaker 8: around a table together, you know, and we had these
Speaker 8: lovely barnyard buzzers that we used to ring in for
Speaker 8: the game. And so in honor of our very first
Speaker 8: podcast together, we have not only brought back again, we
Speaker 8: have brought back the barnyard buzzers fresh, a fresh set
Speaker 8: of barnyard buzzers. So can everyone please check in?
Speaker 5: Scott?
Speaker 3: Okay, this is I am a cow. Here we go, Tasha.
Speaker 9: I'm not saying what I'm I am. If you can't
Speaker 9: get it from the sound, I want. I want everybody
Speaker 9: to be sure to like hear that sound, because they
Speaker 9: might not hear it again because I'm terrible at these games.
Speaker 5: All right. And of course Keith.
Speaker 2: So a little behind the scenes detail jenf who ordered
Speaker 2: these for us, like, yeah, I drove over to Scott
Speaker 2: to drop off his and and and he's taking Tasha's
Speaker 2: and I was like, well, I don't need to choose one.
Speaker 2: I realized I always chose. I had forgotten this until
Speaker 2: I looked at it. I was like, no, I have
Speaker 2: a favorite. I always chose the horse, so I have
Speaker 2: now the horse again.
Speaker 9: So you should maybe specify, like we always referred to
Speaker 9: these as the barnyard buzzers. I assume that this is
Speaker 9: a brand name. Like the box sitting on the floor
Speaker 9: behind me is completely unmarked. You know, it might have
Speaker 9: come from like any wharehouse anywhere. It's as anonymous as possible.
Speaker 9: But I assume that you call them the barnyard buzzers
Speaker 9: because that's like what they what they are on the
Speaker 9: listing when you buy them.
Speaker 8: That's what they were when I bought them the first time.
Speaker 8: And then when I looked them up for this, I
Speaker 8: wrote in barnyard buzzers, and this is what came up.
Speaker 8: So but I think it's like they are very much
Speaker 8: the same ones, but but they came in like an eight.
Speaker 9: Pack, right, so like original additional barnyard buzzers for people
Speaker 9: to potentially buzz in.
Speaker 8: I think like the generic name is just like learning
Speaker 8: aid or something like classroom learning aid.
Speaker 9: Oh geez, you know what really helps me learn?
Speaker 7: I would love to have, Like, yeah, just I wish
Speaker 7: this were You're almost heading towards the story about having
Speaker 7: gotten these on the black market, like black market Barnyard
Speaker 7: buzzers that would have been cool, like you on the
Speaker 7: dark web.
Speaker 9: Somehow whatever Chinese factory is churning these out like it's
Speaker 9: very clearly using the same pattern, because I, I mean,
Speaker 9: I remember the rooster was read previously, and this has
Speaker 9: to be the same, the exact same, like very simple
Speaker 9: line art cartoon of a rooster on it. I definitely
Speaker 9: recognize Scott's like simple smiling.
Speaker 8: Cow yeah, And I recognize Keith's buzzer stands too, like
Speaker 8: he always always held it right right there. But that
Speaker 8: means that we are ready to play a game. I
Speaker 8: have created a game based on this podcast, on the
Speaker 8: history of our podcast. I have scoured through five hundred
Speaker 8: for well four hundred and ninety nine episodes to come
Speaker 8: up with a ray of questions.
Speaker 5: So bear with me. I tried to make this difficult,
Speaker 5: but not too difficult.
Speaker 8: So I'm aware that none of our memories are what
Speaker 8: they once were, but hopefully, hopefully we'll be able to
Speaker 8: squeeze a point or two out out of each of you.
Speaker 8: So everyone ready, Barnyard Buzzer is locked and loaded.
Speaker 3: Locked and all right.
Speaker 9: So we're gonna have mine is cocked and loaded, all.
Speaker 8: Right, So we're gonna have a few different rounds here.
Speaker 8: And for this first round, I will ask you a question.
Speaker 8: I will give you all five seconds to buzz in
Speaker 8: and answer the question for two points. If no one
Speaker 8: buzzes in, then I will give you multiple choice options
Speaker 8: and if you get it for that, if you get
Speaker 8: the multiple choice, then you get one point. Makes sense,
Speaker 8: So yeah, yeah, five seconds to answer off the top
Speaker 8: of your head for two points, and then you can
Speaker 8: try again.
Speaker 5: With multiple choice for one point.
Speaker 8: Okay, first question, what is the oldest classic film we
Speaker 8: have covered on this podcast?
Speaker 9: Tasha, I'm gonna guess it might be Carnival of Souls.
Speaker 5: No, it is not, Tasha.
Speaker 9: Did we do the original Frankenstein at once and didn't
Speaker 9: I pronounce it Frankenstein like every single time?
Speaker 5: That is it Frankenstein?
Speaker 9: I truly don't know Frankenstein. Frankenstein?
Speaker 5: It is? It is not Frankenstein, Tasha.
Speaker 3: Scott invisible man.
Speaker 5: Nope, Oh my.
Speaker 2: God, we haven't done any silence.
Speaker 8: All right, I'm gonna get I'm gonna give you guys
Speaker 8: multiple choice now a Frankenstein, B King Kong C. M.
Speaker 5: D The Thin Man Tasha.
Speaker 9: Of those four, if it isn't Frankenstein, I think King
Speaker 9: Kong is the earliest. It is not you know, I
Speaker 9: said nobody was going to hear this rooster again, and
Speaker 9: then I've buzzed in like three times and been wrong
Speaker 9: every time.
Speaker 3: Am I am?
Speaker 9: I cruing negative points.
Speaker 5: The Thin Man, guys, it's m and is the oldest
Speaker 5: movie on that.
Speaker 8: Older I'm pre dates Frankenstein by a few months.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yep, I'm was in.
Speaker 8: May of nineteen thirty one and Frankenstein was in November
Speaker 8: of nineteen thirty one.
Speaker 7: Wow, that's really hard, Holy cow hard. It's really hard
Speaker 7: to crap out, to crap out as badly as we
Speaker 7: did on that.
Speaker 3: We just literally guess everything. But I'm so excited about
Speaker 3: the visible.
Speaker 2: Nay, we gonna do some silence at some point, I
Speaker 2: get what we haven't.
Speaker 5: It's kind of hard to come up with clips for
Speaker 5: a silence.
Speaker 1: True, this is true.
Speaker 9: Yeah, that opening montage is difficult, and it's just some
Speaker 9: some rollicking piano music and then dead dead air.
Speaker 8: All right, moving on to the next question. Let's hope
Speaker 8: this goes a little better. Among our classic films, what
Speaker 8: has been the most frequent release theater five seconds to
Speaker 8: buzz in.
Speaker 2: Wow, Keith, I'm just shot at d say, nineteen seventy two,
Speaker 2: No I was born.
Speaker 9: Just to clarify once again, we're not getting negative points
Speaker 9: for well, yes, that's.
Speaker 5: Right, you can, Tasha.
Speaker 9: Wasn't it nineteen fifty five that Scott wrote up for
Speaker 9: like the greatest movie year of all time? For the Dissolve?
Speaker 7: I did, But I don't know if we I don't
Speaker 7: know if we ever if we cover that. We've covered
Speaker 7: that as much from that from that year, I.
Speaker 2: Think I did, you know, I think I did seventy
Speaker 2: two for that. Actually, I think I was pretty eighty
Speaker 2: club actually that now that I think about it.
Speaker 8: Okay, we have covered one We have covered one film
Speaker 8: from nineteen fifty five, and we have covered three films
Speaker 8: from nineteen seventy two. Okay, I made a whole spreadsheet.
Speaker 9: Guys, Oh my god, you.
Speaker 2: Way too much. If you said, how many films we
Speaker 2: cover it from this year?
Speaker 3: In question?
Speaker 5: I can do that or I can give you multiple choice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do that.
Speaker 5: The most frequently release year, was it nineteen eighty two,
Speaker 5: two thousand and one, nineteen seventy three or nineteen ninety.
Speaker 3: Nine, Scott, which one was not eighty two?
Speaker 5: Noe, Jennery?
Speaker 9: If you just broke my heart. You you are saying
Speaker 9: that movies released in two thousand and one are now
Speaker 9: considered classic movies.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say. I'm going to say nineteen ninety nine. Nope,
Speaker 2: the subject of a book called the best movie year ever,
Speaker 2: but apparently not by our standards.
Speaker 5: Wow, Tasha, would you care?
Speaker 9: Two?
Speaker 3: Yes, it's one of us.
Speaker 9: What was the what was the nineteen eighties?
Speaker 2: It was?
Speaker 9: It was an eighties?
Speaker 3: I guess that one. That was wrong.
Speaker 9: What are retaining choices?
Speaker 5: Nineteen seventy three or two thousand and one?
Speaker 9: Knowing us, I'm going to say two thousand and.
Speaker 5: One, it is two thousand and one, with a heavy heart.
Speaker 2: Classic films.
Speaker 8: We have covered eleven films from two thousand and one.
Speaker 8: I'm not going to tell you what they are, though,
Speaker 8: because they might come up in other questions.
Speaker 2: Okay, wow, eleven.
Speaker 8: Tasha is on the board, barely going.
Speaker 9: Great like this point two thousand and one classic movies.
Speaker 9: This is this is like when I'm in the grocery
Speaker 9: store and I hear a ninety song and then some
Speaker 9: DJ comes on and says, you know, classics one oh one,
Speaker 9: playing the classics, I.
Speaker 5: Mean, if it makes you feel better.
Speaker 8: Nineteen ninety nine, we did ten, so we only have
Speaker 8: one fewer from nineteen ninety nine, so at least you know,
Speaker 8: oh yeah.
Speaker 2: Well that's that's two years older than.
Speaker 7: I think in another ten years nineteen nine, I don't
Speaker 7: catch up because there's a ton for that from that year.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 8: Next question, which of our pairings had the shortest span
Speaker 8: of time in between the classic and new film?
Speaker 3: Scott John Carter?
Speaker 5: That is it? John Carter and the Martials. Oh nice,
Speaker 5: one of our very first pairings.
Speaker 7: It was very, very controversial for us to call that
Speaker 7: a classic film come back.
Speaker 2: We probably could have done, could have done better Carter Defender,
Speaker 2: but but yeah, that was a little that was a
Speaker 2: bit of a stretch.
Speaker 9: Yeah, so we just wanted to talk about John Carter
Speaker 9: of Mars.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 9: It was a fun discussion, it.
Speaker 8: Was, and for fun, I will share the other one
Speaker 8: on the multiple choice and how far apart they were,
Speaker 8: because they're the next smallest span of time. Dog Tooth
Speaker 8: and Kajillionaire had eleven years between them. Rachel getting married
Speaker 8: and Shiva Baby have twelve years between them and Under
Speaker 8: the Skin and No One Will Save You.
Speaker 5: Has ten years between them?
Speaker 9: Oh wow, not even close.
Speaker 5: Really, the John Carter in The Martian at a three
Speaker 5: year separation.
Speaker 3: Okay, three years? Oh my god, I'm all right myself.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 8: Now, this next question you can get a lot of points.
Speaker 8: This is a two part question. If you answer the
Speaker 8: first part correctly, you have first shot at accruing bonus points.
Speaker 8: But the second part of the question, okay, part one,
Speaker 8: which director is responsible for the most films covered on
Speaker 8: the podcast, both classic and recent?
Speaker 2: I got Spielberg given that description. Nope, hmmm Steven Spielberg.
Speaker 8: To clarify, nope, No, you're close though, Okay a long
Speaker 8: June ho B, Spike Lee, C Steven Spielberg or D
Speaker 8: Steven Soderbergh.
Speaker 9: Tasha, Well, only one of those is close to Steven Spielberg.
Speaker 9: Steven Soderberg.
Speaker 5: That is it. It is Steven Soderberg.
Speaker 8: So now, Tasha, you get first chance at the bonus
Speaker 8: points question, which, for one point each name as many
Speaker 8: of the nine Soderberg films we've covered as you can.
Speaker 8: If you guess incorrectly or go five seconds without guessing
Speaker 8: another film, it opens up to the rest of the
Speaker 8: group to buzz Benny Lee.
Speaker 9: And go, I know we did presence recently. Didn't we
Speaker 9: do Logan Lucky?
Speaker 2: We did?
Speaker 9: Did we do sex liizes in videotape?
Speaker 5: Nope?
Speaker 2: You're out all right?
Speaker 11: All right, Keith Scott, all right, okay, the limey Yes,
Speaker 11: that's three mm hmm, Oceans eleven, Yes.
Speaker 2: That's for I got five seconds. Huh, but they keep talking.
Speaker 2: It's fine, right. Do we do King to Hill? Do
Speaker 2: we do King of the Hill?
Speaker 5: We did not?
Speaker 2: Incura, did you do that some day?
Speaker 3: Can I Can I do some stuff?
Speaker 7: Yep, yep, Scott Magic, Mike XXL Mike last Dance.
Speaker 5: Yes, I'll give it to you and uh.
Speaker 3: And then also Aaron Brokovic.
Speaker 5: Nope, we never did Aaron brock.
Speaker 9: Does it come back around to me?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 5: I think I think for the sake, Sorry, I've got angry.
Speaker 3: I've got a very angry Coyle right now. I thought
Speaker 3: we did some sort of like thing with.
Speaker 7: That and maybe the uh the Todd Haynes uh environment environmental.
Speaker 9: No, That's why I wanted to we talked back in
Speaker 9: because what didn't we do?
Speaker 7: Uh?
Speaker 9: Didn't we do? I'm not there, but.
Speaker 7: I mean, I mean connecting with the Haynes though, which
Speaker 7: is more recent anyway.
Speaker 8: No, well, you we talked. I believe we entertained that,
Speaker 8: but we never actually did it. So in the interest
Speaker 8: of moving on, I'm gonna call it there. But the
Speaker 8: ones you missed are contagion.
Speaker 9: Nothing that happened during COVID counts for anything. Nobody's expected
Speaker 9: to remember anything that happened during a two year time period.
Speaker 5: High Flying Bird.
Speaker 3: Kimmy Jimmy damn it experiments black bag stuff not the
Speaker 3: old stuff facility. Geez.
Speaker 8: All right, all right, so current score bonus points helped
Speaker 8: a little. Tasha's in the lead with four, Scott is
Speaker 8: at two, and Keith is also at two.
Speaker 3: I have three, I have three.
Speaker 7: I buzz didn't for one without going to multiple choice,
Speaker 7: and then I did one of the sods three.
Speaker 8: All right, now we're moving into around. There are multiple
Speaker 8: answers to each of these questions. You get one point
Speaker 8: per correct answer. Once you buzz, you have ten seconds
Speaker 8: to answer as many as you can, and then it
Speaker 8: opens back.
Speaker 5: Up to the others to buzz.
Speaker 8: We have done three pairings based on a new TV show.
Speaker 8: You at one point for each TV show you can name.
Speaker 2: It's been a while.
Speaker 7: It's west World, yes, and then also a new television
Speaker 7: show called.
Speaker 3: Nope, that's I got nothing. I got west World.
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 2: We've done three yep, and it's been a while. I
Speaker 2: think we kind of like let that idea fut the wayside.
Speaker 5: Not that long, Keith, you should be getting one of these.
Speaker 9: Maybe West World was the only one of those that
Speaker 9: I was on.
Speaker 2: All right, yay, wait, wait, no, we did. We did
Speaker 2: the the uh Lord of the Rings TV show.
Speaker 5: We did do the Rings of.
Speaker 2: Power, Rings of Power, right, Rings of Power. That's that's two.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 5: I'll give it to you even though time is very expired.
Speaker 5: Sorry slipt Okay.
Speaker 7: This is this is like old people playing game shows
Speaker 7: very slow.
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 8: The last one was The Last of Us, which we
Speaker 8: paired with Children of Men. Oh yeah, oh wow, I
Speaker 8: would if anyone had guessed Watchman, I would have given
Speaker 8: it to you on a technicality because we also did
Speaker 8: a bonus like third episode with our Dark Knight.
Speaker 5: And the Joker pairing of the Watchman TV show.
Speaker 9: Oh wow, I'm so proud of that version of us
Speaker 9: from the past that I don't remember at all.
Speaker 8: All right, next question, There are quotes from three films
Speaker 8: in our intro music for one point each. Name those films.
Speaker 2: I haven't actually listened to a live episode in a
Speaker 2: long time.
Speaker 9: You know what, I don't know that I couldn't. I could.
Speaker 9: I think I could name all three quotes, but I
Speaker 9: don't think.
Speaker 5: Don't get any One is from Buzz Buzz.
Speaker 3: Magnolia.
Speaker 2: Correct the Graduate where he goes we're going to talk
Speaker 2: about art? Oh no, this film's funny. Never mind.
Speaker 9: What kind of a show are you running here?
Speaker 3: Damn? That's all I got, all right.
Speaker 5: The other two are Gray Gardens and Vertigo.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's great, but I love her intro, but I
Speaker 2: haven't listened to it, so.
Speaker 5: It's almost like you guys don't listen to it every
Speaker 5: single week when you medd the podcast.
Speaker 2: True, true, All right.
Speaker 8: Well, Scott has pulled into the lead with five points,
Speaker 8: and Keith and Tasha are tied at four. I'm almost
Speaker 8: afraid to ask this question.
Speaker 7: But.
Speaker 9: If they go up in complexity, were doomed.
Speaker 8: This is pretty complex, but I do want to ask
Speaker 8: it because I think it's an interesting data point. There
Speaker 8: are three directors who have made more than one feature
Speaker 8: film who have had all of those films be part
Speaker 8: of appairing on this podcast. So we have covered their
Speaker 8: filmography and they have made more than one movie.
Speaker 5: Name those directors. There are three of them.
Speaker 3: That we've covered, all of their movies.
Speaker 5: All of their future films, all of.
Speaker 2: Their feature films made more than one mm. Hmmm mmm, wow,
Speaker 2: it's interesting data point. You're correct.
Speaker 3: It has to be at least three films that they've.
Speaker 5: Made, no, just more than one.
Speaker 9: More than one, so at least two.
Speaker 2: There aren't a lot of like two film wonders out
Speaker 2: there that I can think of.
Speaker 8: I guess Scott Gerwig.
Speaker 7: Nope, oh really, shoot, I should have guessed the one
Speaker 7: that I thought that the other one that I.
Speaker 3: Knew thought I knew.
Speaker 2: Damn it.
Speaker 3: What do we not do with Gerwig's.
Speaker 5: All right, I'm cutting you guys off there?
Speaker 7: Oh, no kind of guess one just now that I
Speaker 7: know I eliminated myself by Buzzy.
Speaker 3: Is Emerald Fennel one of them? Nope, we do need
Speaker 3: to sell Burned, all right.
Speaker 5: They are Jordan Peele Okay, oh sure, Celine.
Speaker 8: Song who has only done who has only done two films,
Speaker 8: and Emma Seligman, who has also only done two films.
Speaker 3: Wow, is that interesting? Yeah, that would have been a
Speaker 3: real poll. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I thought I thought you guys might get Jordan Peel.
Speaker 9: Yeah, that would have been good. I was stuck on
Speaker 9: Cogonata and trying to remember what his first film was,
Speaker 9: because I knew it was, you know, much beloved to
Speaker 9: some people here. But I don't think we ever did
Speaker 9: Columbus Columbus, and we.
Speaker 3: Do the big, big Beautiful Journey either.
Speaker 9: Yeah, but no, that's that's only been out for three seconds.
Speaker 3: To Beautiful Journey.
Speaker 8: All right, Well, this is a multiple choice question, multiple
Speaker 8: choice only for one point, and it's hopefully an easier
Speaker 8: version of that last question.
Speaker 5: So taking those.
Speaker 8: Three filmmakers in our one hundred percent club out of
Speaker 8: the equation, as well as again filmmakers with only one film,
Speaker 8: which filmmaker has had the highest percentage of their overall
Speaker 8: filmography discussed on the show A David Lowry, b Akiva Shaffer,
Speaker 8: see Chloe Joo or d Greta Gerwig.
Speaker 9: Oh my god, Tasha, I'm gonna go with David Lowry.
Speaker 5: Nope, we've only done four out of his eight.
Speaker 9: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 7: Uh, I'm just trying to think of percentages here.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say, I think we've done two.
Speaker 8: Thirds of we've done three fourths four, three out of
Speaker 8: four and it is it is Gwig. We have done
Speaker 8: Little Little Woman, Ladybird, and Barbie Movie.
Speaker 2: And we're not counting nights and weekends when she co directed.
Speaker 2: I guess, but yeah, yeah, man, I know trivia. I
Speaker 2: know trivia.
Speaker 10: There.
Speaker 3: I was there for that. I was there. I was
Speaker 3: there for that. The last answer, I just didn't realize that.
Speaker 9: And we were there for all of this. That's the
Speaker 9: whole point of this.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 8: All right, Next question, This requires less memory on your
Speaker 8: guys's part. More more vibes. Another multiple choice. Which of
Speaker 8: the following pairings has the biggest differential in Rotten Toto's
Speaker 8: score between the old and new film oh A Rear
Speaker 8: Window and The Woman in the Window, B, Jaws and
Speaker 8: the Meg C, Jurassic Park in Jurassic World, Dominion or
Speaker 8: D The Brady Bunch Movie and Baywatch.
Speaker 9: Keith, I think it's.
Speaker 2: A because everyone hated Woman in the Window.
Speaker 5: It is a too rare.
Speaker 8: Window has ninety nine percent on Rotten Tomatoes and Woman
Speaker 8: in the Window has twenty five percent. All Right, Keith
Speaker 8: pulls ahead.
Speaker 2: Hey, it feels like old times. All right.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I can't remember any movies that we've ever covered,
Speaker 9: but I do remember Keith running away with every game
Speaker 9: we would report.
Speaker 8: Oh all right, all right, Well, now we are moving
Speaker 8: into the lightning round. This is the Rotten Tomatoes lightning round.
Speaker 8: And I would like to issue a disclaimer up front.
Speaker 8: I know we do not love Rotten Tomatoes.
Speaker 5: In this house.
Speaker 8: We observe a critic, but Metacritic does not have as
Speaker 8: many reviews of older films.
Speaker 2: What you know, what though, I am a top critic
Speaker 2: on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic does not host the reviewals reviews,
Speaker 2: so I have I've switched my allegiance on pro A
Speaker 2: great Prota.
Speaker 5: All right, all right, well then screw that disclaimer.
Speaker 9: This is the just out of curious, just out of curiosity?
Speaker 9: Are we all top critics on Rotten Tomatoes?
Speaker 3: I don't. I'm a top critic? No you're not, top,
Speaker 3: Tasha Robinson?
Speaker 9: No, No I am, we are, But Metacritic also hostsmiring
Speaker 9: my reviews.
Speaker 7: They just got to get with a newsletter revolution. Here
Speaker 7: we are leading the Keith and I are up front on.
Speaker 8: All right, So this one you are not going to
Speaker 8: need the buzzers for because we are just going around
Speaker 8: the horn. Okay, okay, what I am going to do
Speaker 8: this is dedicated to our director director pairing. So we
Speaker 8: do two films by the same director, and I am
Speaker 8: going to give you the two films in that pairing
Speaker 8: by the same director, and you tell me which has
Speaker 8: the higher Rotten Tomatoes score.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, all.
Speaker 5: Right, Keith.
Speaker 8: Since you're in the lead, we'll start with you from
Speaker 8: our Sam Raimi pairing. Does Army of Darkness or Doctor
Speaker 8: Strange and the Multiverse of Madness have a higher Rotten
Speaker 8: Tomatoes score.
Speaker 2: I'm going to say based on I think Army of
Speaker 2: Darkness got fairly mixed reviews of the time, so I
Speaker 2: think it's going to be Doctor Strange in the Multiverse
Speaker 2: of Madness.
Speaker 9: You are correct, that's good.
Speaker 3: That's good. Touff.
Speaker 9: Keith, all right, deduction bad result though, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: And it was close.
Speaker 8: Army of Darkness has sixty nine percent and Multiverse has
Speaker 8: seventy three percent. That's all right, Scott, Moving on to
Speaker 8: you our bos Lureman pairing.
Speaker 5: Okay, Mulan Rouge or Elvis.
Speaker 3: Oh no, I think Elvis.
Speaker 5: You are correct.
Speaker 2: Critics have gotten softer between a lot.
Speaker 9: I mean, they've definitely gotten more numerous.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's that too, all.
Speaker 8: Right, Tasha, from our David Cronenberg pairing, the Fly or
Speaker 8: the shrouds.
Speaker 9: Oh, now, see, I'm going to feel like such a
Speaker 9: sucker if I if I if I go with my
Speaker 9: heart here and it turns out that I should have
Speaker 9: learned from like the last two examples. But I think
Speaker 9: the shrouds critics were kind of like pro on it,
Speaker 9: but also kind of baffled, whereas the fly was was
Speaker 9: met with just such enthusiasm. I'm going to say the
Speaker 9: fly on this one.
Speaker 5: You are correct.
Speaker 8: The fly has ninety three percent to the shrouds seventy six.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't see it was it seemed like a
Speaker 3: trick question just to ask.
Speaker 7: It was like, I pretty much, look, people like the fly,
Speaker 7: this chroud founds a little more mixed.
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 8: This one will also probably be pretty easy. But Keith,
Speaker 8: back to you from our m Night Shyamalan pairing. We've
Speaker 8: done a few of them, but this one was unbreakable
Speaker 8: and glass.
Speaker 2: I mean, I know Unbreakable wasn't as warmly received as
Speaker 2: sixth Sense, but it definitely. I think I got better
Speaker 2: reviews overaw than class.
Speaker 5: Yes, you are correct.
Speaker 8: Unbreakablle has seventy two glasses thirty seven.
Speaker 9: I don't care how so yeah, all right, Scott R.
Speaker 8: Nicole Holli Center pairing Yay Lovely and Amazing versus you
Speaker 8: Hurt my feelings?
Speaker 3: Oh wow, that's tougher. That is tough.
Speaker 7: I actually just wrote about you hurt my feelings in
Speaker 7: reference to Pluribus, believe it or not. But I am
Speaker 7: going to say, boy, this is really tough because I
Speaker 7: think they're probably pretty damn close.
Speaker 3: I'm going to say, you hurt my feelings.
Speaker 7: You are correct, that's close, though, right, They're tight, not
Speaker 7: as close as I would have thought.
Speaker 5: Lovely and Amazing is eighty six to you Hurt my
Speaker 5: Feelings ninety five?
Speaker 3: Oh whoa.
Speaker 7: I think I think respect for her just generally has
Speaker 7: as climbed as people have gotten to know her, Like
Speaker 7: Lovely Amazing was just like was a pretty early one
Speaker 7: from her.
Speaker 8: Yeah, all right, Tasha, this is a gimme from our
Speaker 8: Pixar pairing.
Speaker 9: I will take you can give me.
Speaker 8: This is not a director This is a Pixar pairing
Speaker 8: toy story versus the Good Dinosaur.
Speaker 9: Okay, let me let me, let me let me go
Speaker 9: back historically, think about like different aspects of this, like
Speaker 9: you know, leading critics, so like like believe, what do
Speaker 9: I remember about the reviews? My own feelings at the Yes,
Speaker 9: we can move on.
Speaker 5: Now you gotta say it Toy Story Okay, yes, slightly,
Speaker 5: I am.
Speaker 9: I am assuming like one or two points higher than Good.
Speaker 8: Toy Story has on Rotten Tomatoes to the Good Dinosaurs
Speaker 8: seventy six.
Speaker 3: Wow, it's generous to the Good Dinosaur.
Speaker 8: Keith are A George Miller pairing Mad Max versus Furiosa.
Speaker 2: Original Mad Max huh hm, okay, okay, I think it's
Speaker 2: going to be the whole like more review. I know
Speaker 2: Furiosa wasn't as warmly received as as Fury Road, but
Speaker 2: I think Mad Max wasn't really taken all that seriously
Speaker 2: with the initial reviews. But then Rotten Tomato does like
Speaker 2: retrospective reviews. Oh that's tough, this is tough. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go with my gut and say that furios Is rating
Speaker 2: is higher even if Mad Max is more revered as
Speaker 2: a classic filmic.
Speaker 8: Correct you correct, Furiosa has ninety percent to Mad Max's
Speaker 8: eighty nine percent.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, Well gimme though, was it?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 9: Impressive?
Speaker 5: All right, Scott?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 8: Are Chris Smith pairing okay, nice American movie versus Fire?
Speaker 3: Wow? Damn the fire.
Speaker 7: I'm gonna say fire because there was always like people
Speaker 7: are making fun of those guys in an American movie.
Speaker 8: American movie has ninety four to fires ninety three?
Speaker 3: Oh all right?
Speaker 8: And last last one, Tasha, I actually don't think you
Speaker 8: were on this pairing unfortunately, but you might still be
Speaker 8: able to figure it out. Are Jonathan Demi cont movie
Speaker 8: pairing Stop Making Sense versus Justin Timberlake and the Tennessee Kids.
Speaker 10: See.
Speaker 9: Based on how these questions have been going, it feels
Speaker 9: like the margins have been narrowing, so I'm going to
Speaker 9: assume that this one is like half a point between
Speaker 9: them or less. But the fact that Stopped Making Sense
Speaker 9: recently got a retrospective release, like an anniversary release that
Speaker 9: would have been an excuse for a lot of current
Speaker 9: people who didn't review it back in the day to
Speaker 9: review it from the perspective of this is an all
Speaker 9: time classic makes me think stop Stop making Sense.
Speaker 8: You are correct, although both have on Rotten Tomatoes, But
Speaker 8: stop making Sense has seventy reviews to Justin Timberlakes fourteen reviews.
Speaker 9: So when I said they were only half a point
Speaker 9: apart from each other, I was actually more accurate than
Speaker 9: I realized. It's great, congratulations narrowing.
Speaker 3: People disliked either one of those.
Speaker 2: I like themblike movie the Youth. I do, I do.
Speaker 2: It's just it's not something I think.
Speaker 7: What we were right, What we revealed here is how
Speaker 7: flawed a metric Rotten Tomatoes is because I think if
Speaker 7: you actually go on the it doesn't do a good
Speaker 7: job of measuring passion.
Speaker 3: And I think, and I think.
Speaker 8: There were only fourteen of reviews.
Speaker 7: But just like in terms of like, but even stuff
Speaker 7: like like if you were to say, I wonder what
Speaker 7: Metacritic would say was the difference between those two films.
Speaker 7: I think it would be more significant because because people
Speaker 7: feel more passionately in favor. But everyone likes both films.
Speaker 7: You know which you should? They're good films, all right.
Speaker 5: So that was the Ron Tomatoes lightning round. That was interesting.
Speaker 8: Keith is still in the lead with nine points and
Speaker 8: Scott and Tasha are tied at seven apiece. Oh man,
Speaker 8: So now we have individual bonus questions, one for each
Speaker 8: of you, each worth three points. These our tailor to
Speaker 8: you specifically.
Speaker 7: Wow.
Speaker 5: So I'm going to start.
Speaker 3: With Scott scot I know about myself.
Speaker 8: Which of the following Martin Scorsese films have we not
Speaker 8: covered on the show? A Taxi Driver, b Silence, see Casino,
Speaker 8: d Rolling Thunder Review, A Bob Dylan's Story.
Speaker 3: Okay, go go through those again.
Speaker 8: Please, Taxi Driver, Silence, Casino, and Rolling Thunder Review.
Speaker 3: Okay, we've definitely done. Shoot, have we done it? I
Speaker 3: know we've done it. Rolling Thunder Review. I can't.
Speaker 7: I can say that that that has happened. Why it
Speaker 7: feels like we've done casino?
Speaker 3: Maybe?
Speaker 7: Holy Cow, taxi Driver, it seems yes, surely, surely we've
Speaker 7: had it some occasion to do that. I'm gonna say Casino.
Speaker 5: That is wrong. We have done Casino.
Speaker 3: No, what's the one we haven't done?
Speaker 5: Silence?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 7: Shoot, I thought maybe we would have found something to
Speaker 7: pair out with when it came out we just.
Speaker 5: We paired casino with hustlers.
Speaker 2: Oh, okay, there you go. Thought about that.
Speaker 3: Okay, shoot, I didn't didn't know my own guy.
Speaker 8: Yeh, all right, Keith, which of the following, thank you.
Speaker 8: Which of the following Nicholas Cage films have we not
Speaker 8: covered on the show?
Speaker 5: Wait?
Speaker 9: Wait, wait, why is Keith's question regarding Nicholas Cage.
Speaker 2: It's still in stores Age Caged. You know, there was
Speaker 2: a rumor that it was pulled from the shelves. You
Speaker 2: couldn't buy any more. That's not true.
Speaker 9: Banned in thirteen states so far, but the rest you
Speaker 9: can still you can still get it or get it.
Speaker 3: Through the mail.
Speaker 2: And add to our Japanese listeners, there's a Japanese version
Speaker 2: coming out at some point. I've been I've been seeing
Speaker 2: them corrections and things like that, so that's super cool.
Speaker 8: All right, Well, let's see if you can tell me
Speaker 8: which of the following Nicholas cagels we have not covered
Speaker 8: on the show. A Raising Arizona, B adaptation see Long
Speaker 8: Legs D The Wickerman.
Speaker 2: All right, I know we did Long Legs. Yes, looking, okay,
Speaker 2: I know we did Raising Arizona. Mhm. And what was
Speaker 2: that leaves the other one? Right? The adaptation we've never
Speaker 2: done the wicker Man.
Speaker 8: We've done the original wicker Man, not the Nicholas Cage.
Speaker 7: Yeah, there would be really absolutely He's interview a pairing
Speaker 7: with the Uh.
Speaker 9: All right, all right, Tasha, but the memes? All right,
Speaker 9: let me guess, is this Pixar?
Speaker 5: It is.
Speaker 8: Which of the following Pixar films have we not covered
Speaker 8: on the show? The Incredibles to, Inside Out, to, Toy
Speaker 8: Story two or Finding Dory Toy Story two?
Speaker 5: Correct?
Speaker 3: Damn yeah?
Speaker 9: I feel like if we like, I know, we covered
Speaker 9: the original Toy Story as a pairing, and like the
Speaker 9: more recent ones would have been within our window. But
Speaker 9: I the kind of circumstances that would be necessary for
Speaker 9: to come up with a movie that we would then
Speaker 9: pair with the second movie in a series that would
Speaker 9: be complicated.
Speaker 8: I mean, we've we've done Incredibles, to, Inside Out, to
Speaker 8: and Finding Dory. So this was the Pixar sequels.
Speaker 12: Memento, Mementa, No, it was right, But I think the
Speaker 12: other three we covered as they came out, as each.
Speaker 9: Of them came out. And I don't remember when Toy
Speaker 9: Story two was, but it was before twenty fifteen, I believe,
Speaker 9: So I would say, God are covering it new.
Speaker 8: Good deduction all right. So our current score is Keith
Speaker 8: with twelve points, Tasha with ten points, and Scott still
Speaker 8: with seven all right, this is our last question. Final
Speaker 8: question A questions. This is our final question. It is
Speaker 8: a winner takes all catch the snitch situation.
Speaker 5: Point.
Speaker 2: Guys, it's five.
Speaker 8: It's five hundred points in honor of our five hundredth episode.
Speaker 8: Oh nice, without looking at the script, please tell me
Speaker 8: the phone number. Listeners can call to leave us a
Speaker 8: voicemail for feedback.
Speaker 9: Oh, I hate you. I barely know my own phone
Speaker 9: numberge monster.
Speaker 2: Oh well, I don't know my daughter's phone number. By
Speaker 2: the way, she didn't she has a phone writer. Put
Speaker 2: it in the contact.
Speaker 5: That's why it's a five hundred point question.
Speaker 3: Guys, can I can I guess five? Five?
Speaker 10: Five?
Speaker 3: Shall?
Speaker 7: No?
Speaker 3: I got it wrong?
Speaker 2: Wait, all right, just do random, Just do random. Nine.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say the number and if I beep it
Speaker 2: out if I get it wrong enough, beause somebody's phone
Speaker 2: number in my life? Is it seventh?
Speaker 9: Oh?
Speaker 2: You know what? I think it's scott'stubborn.
Speaker 9: No, definitely put Scott's personal sell on the podcast.
Speaker 2: Positive Scott's all right.
Speaker 8: I feel sorry for you, guys, so I'm going to
Speaker 8: give you. I'm going to give you the first the
Speaker 8: area code and the first three numbers.
Speaker 5: If you can talk me about.
Speaker 3: It's a rhythm thing. It's a rhythm thing. I wrote this.
Speaker 8: Okay, all right, you can leave us voicemail at seven
Speaker 8: seven three two three four.
Speaker 7: Nine seven three zero Scott you us, Oh baby, yeah,
Speaker 7: yeah I was. I was just feeding the little hamsters
Speaker 7: in my brain. The wheels started moving.
Speaker 5: Thank you guys.
Speaker 2: Wait wait wait wait wait wait you know the round
Speaker 2: of buzzers real quickly. Just let him fly.
Speaker 7: So my my own little, my own, little uh piece
Speaker 7: of trivia. What classic film divided us most along gender lines? Actually,
Speaker 7: because I think we all know that one.
Speaker 8: I actually did write a question about this. I did
Speaker 8: write a question about this and decided not to include it.
Speaker 8: But why not, we'll do it now. As we all know,
Speaker 8: mash was early and early divisive film. Name the other
Speaker 8: film in that pairing, and at least two people who
Speaker 8: starred in it.
Speaker 9: Oh, I think I could get to the film.
Speaker 2: It was with Tango Fox Trot, starring Tina Fey and
Speaker 2: Christopher Abbott as a Middle Eastern man like the whole
Speaker 2: like you know, which which is like this whole thing
Speaker 2: where it's like, I love Christopher Abbot's really good performance,
Speaker 2: but I don't think it actually exists.
Speaker 9: You know, I would not have gotten to Christopher Abbot if.
Speaker 2: You remember I think its remember it because of the
Speaker 2: whole like sort of like you know, that sort of
Speaker 2: uncomfortable to it.
Speaker 9: We were also accepted a we could also accept a
Speaker 9: trivia question. What is the letterboxed review that Tasha still
Speaker 9: gets the most absolute shop for on a week to
Speaker 9: week basis? Oh, it's it's mash. I mean, it's interesting.
Speaker 9: It's really I feel like I've talked about this before.
Speaker 9: It's about a two thirds split between you know, thank
Speaker 9: you for being the person who finally said it. This
Speaker 9: movie is terrible and you need to die. Here's a
Speaker 9: description of how you should die. Like I probably get
Speaker 9: you know, some like creepy bit of hatred out of
Speaker 9: that thing about once a month. It is still to
Speaker 9: this day and it kind of makes me laugh.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 5: Well, I'm glad you can laugh about it, Tasha.
Speaker 9: It's just so you know, there there have been movies
Speaker 9: that I have felt, I guess more hesitant in my
Speaker 9: response to, or you know, movies while where I felt
Speaker 9: intimidated to speak my truth to in the face of
Speaker 9: other people's strong disagreement. But I know how I feel
Speaker 9: about that movie and why, and I know why a
Speaker 9: lot of the haters are coming for me on it,
Speaker 9: and I have no sympathy for them. So I'm all good.
Speaker 2: Jenevieve. I have a question for you to be a
Speaker 2: question time the fact that you're drinking at Doctor Pepper.
Speaker 2: You got Doctor Pepper figures problem and last picture show
Speaker 2: what three numbers are on the vintage Doctor Pepper bottles
Speaker 2: and why what do they mean?
Speaker 5: I have no idea.
Speaker 8: Okay, well, why would I know that it's not on
Speaker 8: my spreadsheet of all of our.
Speaker 2: Ten two and four because the advertising campaign was you
Speaker 2: were supposed to have a Doctor Pepper three times a
Speaker 2: day ten at two four zero zero dentist. Actually that
Speaker 2: as as.
Speaker 7: I had, I have never, even even in my darkest moments,
Speaker 7: have not considered cracking open to dr Pepper at ten
Speaker 7: o'clock in the.
Speaker 2: Morment man, well, you know dropping coke zero and I
Speaker 2: cannot make that same, cannot say I.
Speaker 9: Have definitely had that. As somebody who does not drink
Speaker 9: coffee and never has, and whose only caffeine consumption pretty
Speaker 9: much comes in the form of diet Doctor Pepper, there
Speaker 9: have been days when I actually want a ten am
Speaker 9: Doctor Pepper. I don't let myself have that. I have
Speaker 9: never had a piping hot Doctor Pepper at ten in
Speaker 9: the morning or otherwise.
Speaker 8: Piping hot Werners, which is a local brand of ginger Ale,
Speaker 8: is an old wives cure here in Michigan. It's supposed
Speaker 8: to help an upset stomach.
Speaker 5: Offers.
Speaker 7: You kind of just don't necessarily know where this podcast
Speaker 7: is going to go sometimes, Geneviev, thank you for that quiz.
Speaker 7: It was elaborate and impressive and exciting and it was
Speaker 7: fun to do that again. And that actually is it
Speaker 7: for this very special edition of The Next Picture Show.
Speaker 7: But we'll be back next week with a new set
Speaker 7: of episodes. Genevieve, can you tell us about our next pairing?
Speaker 5: Set in the Pacific Northwest during the early twentieth century,
Speaker 5: the new film Train Dreams, based on Dennis Johnson's novella,
Speaker 5: is an American epic told on an intimate scale, following
Speaker 5: a logger and railway worker from Idaho played by Joel Edgerton.
Speaker 5: The film is about an ordinary man who lives quietly
Speaker 5: and in obscurity, but nonetheless has a hand in shaping
Speaker 5: the country. He is like a dot in a point
Speaker 5: to list. Painting the scope and beauty of train Dreams,
Speaker 5: along with its down to earth point of view, calls
Speaker 5: to mind Terrence Malick, specifically nineteen seventy eight Days of Heaven,
Speaker 5: his depression era romance about transient laborer is doing seasonal
Speaker 5: work on a farm in the Texas Panhandle. So for
Speaker 5: our next set of episodes, we'll step outside and experience
Speaker 5: magic Hour along with them.
Speaker 7: For now, we welcome your feedback on the Last Picture Show,
Speaker 7: the Next Picture Show, and anything else firm related. Do
Speaker 7: you like to talk about Email us at comments at
Speaker 7: next pictureshow dot net, or leave us a voicemail at
Speaker 7: seven seven three two three four nine seven three zero
Speaker 7: that number that you've memorized.
Speaker 3: Before we close out this week's episode. Where can we
Speaker 3: find everyone these days?
Speaker 9: Tasha Robinson, Well, you can find me at the phone
Speaker 9: number seven seven three. I am the entertainment editor at
Speaker 9: Polygon dot com. You can find my my writing and
Speaker 9: my curation of other people's writing there. You can find
Speaker 9: me on Blue Sky at Tasha Robinson Keith what about you?
Speaker 2: You can find We'll start with social media first. You
Speaker 2: can find me at mostly at blue Kay at k
Speaker 2: fifth three thousand. I'm on other social media sites there
Speaker 2: as well, uh, under that handle as well. You can
Speaker 2: find me contributing sometimes to places like TV Guide and
Speaker 2: The Ringer and Vulture and Slate recently, but you can
Speaker 2: mostly find me at the Reveal the Reveal dot film,
Speaker 2: which is the movies newsletter that I co author with
Speaker 2: Scott Tobias. Oh, and one quick plog I can talk
Speaker 2: about it now. I assisted in the creation of a
Speaker 2: book called Reflections on Cinematography by Roger Deacons which is
Speaker 2: now in stores. It is Roger Deakins, the famed cinematographer's
Speaker 2: a story of his life and career in his own words.
Speaker 2: I contribute some to the some to the words end
Speaker 2: of it. But I've seen the finished book now with
Speaker 2: the pictures of it and everything, and it's and it's
Speaker 2: really cool. So that is a good good gift item
Speaker 2: for uh for people. Scott, you can find me at
Speaker 2: the Review film. Where can we find you?
Speaker 3: Same place? Yeah, That's where I'm doing a lot of
Speaker 3: my writing. Of course. You can find me on Blue
Speaker 3: Sky at Scott Tobias.
Speaker 7: You can find me on GeoCities. Now you can't find
Speaker 7: me there MySpace. You can find me also in a
Speaker 7: Vulture or the New York Times or a Guardians, also
Speaker 7: the Los Angeles Times. I've done a couple of things
Speaker 7: for Los Angeles Times and other other fine publications. What
Speaker 7: about you, Genevieve, I am the.
Speaker 5: TV editor at Vulture, editing TV things and occasional movie things,
Speaker 5: and I am on social media posting rarely as Genevieve Kowski.
Speaker 7: You can stay updated on the Next Picture Show at
Speaker 7: Next Picture Show dot net and I'm Blue Sky at
Speaker 7: the Next Picture Show. Get bonus content and opendiscussion at
Speaker 7: Patreon dot com slash Next Picture Show, and as always
Speaker 7: we appreciate your rating and reviews on Apple Podcasts or
Speaker 7: Spotify or wherever you listen to the show. Thanks to
Speaker 7: Dan the Bake Jakes for his assistants producing this podcast,
Speaker 7: The Next Picture Show is proud to be part of
Speaker 7: the Film spot family of podcasts. Please tune in next time.
Speaker 1: Congratulations again to the Next Picture Show. As someone who
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