Talking Pondo: American Fiction and Weapons

 In this episode, Marty gives Clif the movie American Fiction to watch and Clif gives Marty the movie Weapons to watch. 

First up, Marty and Clif break down Weapons (2025). A bizarre and polarizing horror film where an entire class of kids disappears at the exact same moment… except one. Is it smart, experimental storytelling or completely off the rails? They dig into the nonlinear structure, tone shifts, and why audiences are so divided on this one.

Next, Marty and Clif jump into American Fiction, a sharp, satirical film that sparks a deeper conversation about storytelling, perception, and what audiences actually respond to.

#TalkingPondo #MoviePodcast #Weapons2025 #AmericanFiction #FilmDiscussion #MovieReview #HorrorMovies #IndieFilm #Filmmaking #Screenwriting #NonlinearStorytelling #FilmAnalysis #PodcastClips #MovieBreakdown 

Transcript

Clif 0:00
He's aping, he's aping the shining so much in this. It feels like the shining Yeah, the Shining Roshimon and Strange Darling all had a baby and its weapons. And then Amy Madigan pops out and starts doing blood magic everywhere.

Marty 0:14
Don't you go feeding the entire uh uh works of Stephen King into an AI while the Dewey Cox don't you do it?

Clif 0:26
Get out of here, Dewey! You don't want nothing to do with this.

SPEAKER_02 0:29
So Welcome to season four of Talking Pondo. Talking Pondo is a podcast where Cliff and Marty give each other a film to watch and talk about them in detail. Some episodes will include a special guest.

Marty 0:58
Soup magic. Yikes. Blood sugar soup magic. She has it. Yeah, it reminds me of that classic red-hot chili pepper song. Blood sugar soup magic.

Clif 1:13
She has it.

Marty 1:14
Soup magic. Dark magic. Soup magic. Hey kid, where are you going with all that soup? It's talking condo. We're back. I'm Marty. Yeah.

Clif 1:27
I'm Cliff. And we got two more for you. We do, and it's all chicken noodle on this episode. There's there's no variety. Just chicken noodle. Skim some broth, some chicken noodle. Just shove it in their mouths, too. That like don't don't take any kind of care or give or give you any sort of bite that you can kind of handle. I'm just gonna shove a giant spoonful of chicken noodle into your fucking mouth. Sorry.

Marty 1:55
See, it's a it's funny. And the people who made that movie were comedians before, so I feel like there's a little bit of the funny coming through. But anyway, it's talking pondo. We got two movies for you. We're talking about one of them kind of already. We're talking about weapons. That's right. Weapon X? No, not Weapon X.

Clif 2:15
It's not Weapon X, it's just weapons. No Adamantium claws today. No, there's no ad. We w but actually that might have improved that movie because you know, the way all those kids were running, if you had put Adamantium claws on all of them, they would have looked like Wolverines everywhere. Wolverine Naruto run. The Wolverine Naruto run. I would pay a lot of money to see Wolverine do a fucking Naruto run.

Marty 2:45
He almost did. If you use your imagination when you watch weapons.

Clif 2:49
Yeah. Sorry, I was gonna say we've also got this movie American Fiction, which um I mean strap in. I I I uh I have a few notes on that thing.

Marty 2:58
Strap in, people, strap in.

Clif 3:01
Strap in, what do I know, interesting, and um other crazy shit that we say over and over again.

Marty 3:09
Fascinating. Fascinating.

Clif 3:12
What do you want to start with? Do you have any uh do we have any uh no?

Marty 3:15
There's no there's no feedback or anything this week. Okay. Uh let me see.

Clif 3:21
One of the things I wanted to say was that we just did our um episode with uh uh the guests from It's Just a Show. And I just if they're listening, uh Chris and Charlie, uh thanks for coming on the show. It was an awesome episode. I just got finished uh finished editing it and and uploading it. It's gonna come out in a couple weeks, and it was a blast. It was an absolute blast. It was a really fun episode, and probably one of the better episodes we've done.

Marty 3:46
Yeah, I mean, you all at home have already heard it, but as the time this recording, it's still in the cloud for us. But I thought it was pretty awesome.

Clif 3:54
Yeah, and they uh and Chris and Charlotte are just they're very very, very gracious guests, and uh, we really appreciate them coming on. I mean, it was really nice of them to come on, and they were just a lot of fun. So thank you.

Marty 4:05
Yeah, that was good. Hopefully we'll have them back before too long. We have so many guests, and so many of them are like, when am I coming back on? And it's like, uh, as you may have noticed, we're still plowing through the first timers here, but we want to get everybody into the mix, and then we can start bringing the repeat guests back, and then that's what season four is all about getting a lot of these first timers in. So we got some more hopeful, hopefully heavy hitters coming for you soon, or just people who want to be on the show.

Clif 4:34
So well, I think we tried to lock Chris and Charlotte down with some some mixture. I can't remember what it was, but he was adamant that there was no way in hell he was gonna watch that movie. And I don't know.

Marty 4:44
But it's funny because he's the one who brought it up. He brought up uh Ford Fairlane because of Morris Dave being in it, and then we're like, oh, you want to watch that? And it's like, uh oh. But the thing was, he agreed with us that it's good to use the podcast to plow through the never-ending to watch list. Absolutely. Absolutely, and that's oh, I gotta do a pod, I gotta watch this movie now.

Clif 5:06
So yeah, and that's literally why we started the pod was like, dude, you know, have you seen this? When are you gonna watch this? Because I want to talk to you about it. So and we're doing that today. Movies from the last five years. Mm-hmm. And I honestly, both of these, uh, I think I've seen American fiction, but it was so long ago I completely forgot about it. It was like watching it all over again. And I've never seen weapons. So uh brand new to me here. Yeah, I think this is gonna be a good season because there's a lot of blind picks coming up.

Marty 5:35
Mm-hmm. A lot of picks that you wish you were blind. Yep. Hopefully not. Very true. Uh we gotta start with weapons. Yeah. Okay. Orion, Orion Pictures, New Line Pictures? What year is this? These movies start with these old logos, and you're like, what? That's strange. This was the new line one. Orion was the American fiction, and it's just like, okay. Trippy. But here we are in the house that Freddie built, New Line Cinema. Correct. And uh I haven't laughed this hard since I finally understood why Red Zone Cuba was funny. What is like weapons?

Clif 6:24
Well, a weapon is something that you use to harm No, I'm kidding. Uh weapons 2025, rated R, two hours and eight minutes, when all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time. A community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance. Um, this is written and directed by a pretty hot prospect guy named Zach Kregger. Um, he's done some other things like Barbarian. Um he was part of the white interest. Which we haven't watched. Um Here is your storyline. Reviewers say Oh, that's the summary. Sorry, where's the storyline? Anyway, uh so weapons, storyline. At exactly 2 17 AM, 17 kids from Miss Gandy's class at Maybork Elementary School walked into the darkness and disappeared. All but one. Their parents never saw it coming and point the blame against the teacher, Miss Gandhi. After all, she seemingly knows more than she's letting on. After an entire month of investigation, there has been no progress, and none of it makes any sense. Refusing to take the rap for something she claims to have nothing to do with, Miss Gandhi attempts to solve the case on her own while also grappling with her own inner demons. Why did Alex Lilly stay behind? And what force made his classmates disappear? All right, let's get into it. Let's get into it. I first off, I just want to say this before we even get started. Uh watching this movie, I knew that you were going to have an earful for me from it. Like, I'm an hour into this movie, I just stopped and it was like, oh shit. This is gonna be good. This is gonna be good. So, so let me have it.

Marty 7:55
If you don't want to know what happened to Alex, turn the podcast off. Because we always spoil things. Yeah, we're gonna spoil it. You can't talk about this one and not disclose everything that's going on. Uh so like I said, I watched this after the other movie. Oh, okay, I did too. And I started within the first you know, few minutes.

Clif 8:21
Did you watch the back to back? Like just one after the other.

Marty 8:26
Not back to back, though. Uh but it was uh I'll talk about the beginning of that one when we get to that, but the beginning of this one was like, what is what is going on for a couple minutes, and then I started laughing uncontrollably for about five minutes straight. And I thought to myself, it's all zoom ins and back of people's heads, and this little kid narrating talking about, well, you know, like the kids disappeared, like, and then they never found the kids, like, and then and I started laughing. I lost it. I'm like, this is like one of those I didn't know they made movies like this anymore. Hey man, you get really high and you go see this movie, and it's like, what am I what's going on? And like the kids are running, and wow, man. And so I was like, oh, okay, this is supposed to be funny, even though it's obviously not, but there was a lot of it that I approached the rest of it that way, and I think I enjoyed it a little bit more, going, This is like so borderline, it's like so bad it's good, then goes back to bad, then goes back to good. You know, it's like teetering that line of like, haha, you thought we were making something clever, but then we went, this is just silly. And of course, since the guy has a comedic background, it felt like there was a little bit of that that seeped in, but right from the beginning. And they do get away from it, but it's all zoom-ins and back-a-heads over and over. It never stops for like the first five minutes. And you go, that's just 101. Every teacher told me, do not do these things. And here they are just doing it over and over, and I'm just like losing my shit. Now, of course, a teacher told you not to do zoom ins. Oh, every every film teacher told me zoom-ins were bad. And of course, you never focus on the back of somebody's head, but I do believe on that one. The back of the focus on the back of the back of somebody's head.

Clif 10:31
Well, it it depends what you're doing with it. But uh, yeah, I mean, if you you don't want to just kind of put a scene where you first. I had never heard of the zoom-ins bit because to me, zooming in on a slow zoom-in is a very is a technique to build tension and to build. You know, to build to build to build tension and to you know stretch a scene a bit. You you know, and we uh I mean, they're not even zoom-ins anymore. They're like these slow um what do they have? Those those motorized like, you know, uh sliders, you know, that they put these cameras on and they just slowly motorize, you know, the computer controlled sliders that slide them in slowly over 20 or 30 seconds so you can kind of fuck with the focus and all that stuff. Um I had I hadn't heard that one, but um uh yeah, I definitely agree with you. There's a lot of that in the very beginning of the movie for sure.

Marty 11:19
And uh so here we are again. Let's talk about linear filmmaking.

SPEAKER_02 11:27
Oh Lord.

Marty 11:28
Repeat it with me, kid. Linear. Unless you really got something going on with the way you're telling your story out of order, it is a gimmick. And in the case of this story, if you told it in order, you'd probably learn things you shouldn't learn before, and then you start pulling at the straws and the whole thing falls apart. But for me, the biggest thing about the uh telling it out of order is I'm I'm kind of interested in the the teacher's story, right? And I'm kind of interested in Thanos' story. But then we suddenly switch to this cop and Josh Brolin. Well, you know, the cop the cop and the drug dealer story, and I'm like, oh man, I don't really care about these guys, and I have to kind of sit through their story in the middle to get back to the you know, it gets up to that heightened thing, like, oh, she's getting attacked. Now let's cut right to the other story. And I'm like, oh my okay, okay, I see what you're doing, but that's I'm I'm always so hard on that technique.

Clif 12:26
You know, there's a there's a very so look, it I think that this is different than uh I you know, I think what you're trying to, you're trying to, you know, you're tying them kind of to um Strange Darling, right? This idea of telling a story out of order. This one isn't necessarily told out of order per se. It's just it's Russia, it's Roshimon, yeah. It's from multiple perspectives, right? And and yes, as you get different perspectives, you get more of the story as it moves along for sure. It reminded me a bit of um, I don't know if you saw that movie, The Duel, with uh uh Matt Damon and and what's his name? Uh, but it's it's it's that same thing. It's about a knight and a squire and a woman, and she claims that the squire rapes her, and uh the squire claims that it's consensual, and Matt Damon plays the knight, challenges him to a duel, because of course, back then, you know, if you won, that meant God was on your side and shit like that. But it tells the story the same story from three exactly different perspectives, very Roshimon-like. So I don't know, it's there's a bit of both, right? It's like it, I don't know, you could call it Roshimon Darling, maybe strange Roshimon. No, it's more Roshimon, yeah, than anything. It also it does have a little bit of that out of out of sequence, like you were talking about, but I think it's more perspective-based, right?

Marty 13:48
And I also feel like it's uh it's very Stephen King derivative in a way, the storytelling. Like you build up all the interesting, weird people in the neighborhood, you're telling all of their stories. It's very novelistic, right? And then they start mixing with each other, like the Salem slot or an it. And I think this is because the young generation rediscovered Stephen King when the it be makes it. Completely agree. And now we're completely agree. Now we're getting their kind of versions of a Stephen King type story. So I was like, okay, I can see what they're doing there, but that's you know, I was like, it's a trip how that keeps going. Like we have the whole of his uh written work, and we can kind of absorb it all now and then come out with Salem's Lot Light, kind of or or something like that, you know.

Clif 14:41
Well, I and it honestly it gives me hope because if there's a master of written horror, it's King. You know, not just not just you know, horror in writing, but just he's a great storyteller in general, you know. If you can go all the way from Stand By Me all the way up to the shining and so on, right? So if these new filmmakers are trying to emulate him and his storytelling, that gives me some hope, at least.

Marty 15:06
If only the movie had given me that hope. So after I finished watching it, I went to Letterboxd because sometimes I like to see what the general public thinks of things, you know? And I went to the half-star reviews, just start, and I scrolled for five minutes to get to a one-star review. There are thousands of half-star reviews for this movie. There's also a lot of reviews. Yeah, I'm sure it's a polarizing film.

Clif 15:38
It's the same as it's the same as centers or one battle. It's not de polarizing.

Marty 15:44
It's not the same because those don't have thousands of half-star reviews. I could not believe the absolute vitriol and hate. It's not, it's not a bad movie. It's not a great movie, but I don't know why people jump on it that much. I mean, I almost gave up scrolling. I'm like, is it ever gonna stop? And then finally, some one stars came in. I'm like, okay, but my god, people, this really, this really aggravated people. I thought it was kind of funny. I'm the guy who thought whiplash was funny. You gotta remember, you know, I got weird sensibilities on this stuff. So I was enjoying it from the ridiculousness factor of it all, you know, because it is kind of over the top in parts. But boy, some people are really against this thing.

Clif 16:33
Sinners on Letterboxd has 7,000 half star ratings. How many does this have? Okay. So so I'm trying to tell you that's a ton of half-star. These these films are these films in particular are very I which is I'm glad why we're having having weapons on, because I I do feel like it's a polarizing film. It's one of these films that you either like or you you're either gonna like it, or you're gonna, you know, I don't think there's gonna be a lot of people in the middle that were just kind of like, meh. Yeah um 11,000 weapons. Twice all the 7,500 for sinners, 11,000 for weapons. So again, but I I would consider those very polarizing films, right? I wonder what one battle after, I wonder what one battle after another has. Just out of complete curiosity. One battle after another. Uh let's see here. Oh my god. There it is. Um, because these things are going up for the Oscars tonight. Okay, so it's got 8,200 half-star ratings. Well, yeah. So I think they're just I think there's people out there that are just straight-up fucking haters. Weapons, uh, yeah, it's nominated for um one Oscar. Best performance by an actress in a supporting role by Amy Madigan.

Marty 17:51
Oh, okay, that makes sense. Yeah, they're pushing. Yeah, it totally makes sense.

Clif 17:54
Um, I want to say that the George Harrison track at the beginning of the movie, uh, while the kids are disappearing, is is gives it a very good creepy vibe. Um this is a movie that isn't this isn't a movie that's necessarily scary um like your your traditional horror movie, like your, you know, it's trying to do more of a shining type thing. It's trying to do more of like implied horror and things of that nature than it is trying to do a lot of jump scares and a lot of effects and a lot of you know throat slashes and chases and you know, there's no final girl in the film, that type of thing. Um so it's a different type of horror movie. Uh it's definitely not a slasher. Um there's a line in the film that says you're either negligent or complicit, you know, where because at the very beginning she's you know, the the town thinks that she has something to do with the disappearance of these kids because it's only her and this other kid that you know are left of from this classroom, you know. And and maybe we should investigate the kid, not the teacher. Sure. I adore it. I admire people, I admire people who can see things so black and white and just go, well, obviously you're one of the fucking people, so you must know either you don't or you know, one of these things.

Marty 19:09
We'll team up later.

Clif 19:10
It's like, what the fuck? Um, and the so the town thinks she's a witch, right? And and the town thinks she's involved with all these kids disappearing. So what does she do? She follows the only surviving fucking kid home on foot, right? Like to know, yeah. Well, yeah, sure. But I mean, is there no other way to is there no other way to do that other than to walk down the middle of the street in a neighborhood following a kid all the way up to his front fucking door and then peeking the side of his fucking window? Like it's just really I mean, especially if the whole town is suspicious of her, what the fuck? You know, it just seems like a like a I don't know, operating in broad daylight kind of thing. It's very weird. Um it the her fear of the town's reprisal abates very quickly in the film. Within 30 minutes, she's not worried about the town coming after her anymore. You know, she may be, you know, it uh until Josh Brolin shows up, she's not super worried. She is in the very beginning, there's all this tension about the town coming after her, and she's worried, and she calls the cops about the you know the paint on her car and all that type of shit, and then suddenly she just doesn't give a fuck and she's gonna follow a 10-year-old home. It doesn't make a lot of fucking sense to me.

Marty 20:24
And then the Rashimon switching, that by the time you switch back to her, we've completely hoped that you've forgotten about those details, so we won't go back to it. And that was another one of my like things with the way they were doing it, kind of like don't question a lot of stuff, or it's really not gonna make any sense, which is a lot of what I have to get into.

Clif 20:45
The um the Amy Madigan jump scare on the ceiling the first time we see her is is really well done.

Marty 20:51
Um I thought it was curry for a second, you know.

Clif 20:54
I'm like, what the It's weird to me to uh for me personally to for to be able to see the front door from your master bedroom is a weird thing. Like, you know, at one scene in the movie, the the teacher is laying in bed, she's drunk, and she hears something, and she's got her uh master bedroom door open, and she can see her front door. And to me, I don't know. I maybe that's the literal definition of a shotgun shack. I don't know. It's just very strange. There's a lot strange about this movie. And then they and then suddenly they start naming the chapters, Archer. And this and that we don't get a we don't get a name chapter for the teacher, do we? I don't think that they don't start the movie with a name chapter, do they?

Marty 21:38
Oh, it might. I think it might be a Miss Grady or something. Miss Grady, okay, maybe. Whatever her first name is, perhaps. She's I think she's the first one. Yeah. Could be wrong.

Clif 21:48
I do like I do like the scene where Brolin shows up and he goes to the the cop and is like, Why aren't you investigating her? And why aren't you investigating this? And the cop's like, We have. You know, we've done we've we've looked into that. Look to that. And there's a great line where he just looks at me and goes, What are you seeing that I don't? What do you think that you see in this case that I don't see? Tell me. Because I, you know, I I I want to help you. I want to I want to help these kids, but what do you see that I don't? I thought that was a really like there's a couple of moments in the movie that are really good like that. I really uh thought that it was very realistic in a situation like that, or a cop to be saying, trying to get through to this obvious this parent who is completely distraught over the missing child. And what does he say? You know, uh what are you seeing that I don't tell me so that I can help you anyway? I thought that was really, really good. I see everything. This is how you this is how you get a two-hour and eight-minute movie, though, dude. You overlap the fucking scenes and you retell shit over and over again and you take a rational part for yourself.

Marty 22:47
Yeah. Yeah. Things I did appreciate about the film, I have never seen a movie with a retron system in it. When the drug dealer's going through the house looking for things to steal, you can see one of those multi-cartridge game systems. I'm like, holy shit, look at that. And then he's like, Oh, Willow. And that really made me laugh because there was a time where that was an out-of-print DVD and it was an expensive one at one time. So it's like you're gonna get something at the pawn shop for that.

Clif 23:15
Dogma Blu-ray, that's a hundred bucks.

Marty 23:17
That was pretty cute.

Clif 23:18
Uh uh the giant air rifle in the sky was a weird symbol. It's weird symbology to me. It didn't make it.

Marty 23:29
I don't know. But yeah, well, they're weapons, right? So let me ask you this. Yeah, let me let me ask you a question.

Clif 23:40
So, you know the scene where Brolin shows up at the uh house and he's and he's talking to the mom and saying, you know, there's that weird interaction, and he's trying to get her to let him watch the video footage of her ring doorbell, right? And she's like, I'm not comfortable with that. And so he ends up hanging out all day and waiting until the dad gets home and then he gets the footage. Why was she not on why was she uncomfortable with him watching the footage? And it seemed to me like in the brief second of that ring doorbell footage when the you know, when they cut to him actually watching the footage with the dad, like it seemed to me like the kid might not be clothed, and like maybe that she's has a problem with him, you know, like the maybe the kid's just in his underwear or whatever and runs out into the street or whatever. But I couldn't, I couldn't, that was the only thing I could come up with was like, why wouldn't you let him? You're all parents, you're all concerned. Why wouldn't you let him look at this footage? Did it make any sense to you?

Marty 24:36
It's just bad writing. It's you know, it's it's trying to set up tension where there really isn't any, and yeah. If you if you start asking too many questions like I did, you start uh finding some pretty funny things to talk about, but you realize, oh my. So why did that kid show up to school? Isn't that really like painfully obvious that something's up with this kid doing here? You know, he's just crazy and made him, you know? Yeah, that is true. We crazy aunt made him. Okay, so how come nobody noticed that all the signs were missing from the kids' lockers and the whole investigation that that might have been something intriguing because he took all those, you know, but let's not focus on that. That's not important. Also, we see the story told out of sequence sometimes, right? And there's a scene. There's a scene where he's walking down the street, the kid, and he runs into the teacher, right? And then he runs back to his house. Where's the soup, kid? Shouldn't you be carrying soup? That's weird. And also, how come nobody in the town is questioning how much soup this kid is buying? Kid, you're here buying all the soup every day. What are you doing with all that soup, kid? And aren't you the only kid that was from the thing? This is really suspicious. But let's not question the soup. Haven't seen your parents in two weeks. What's going on, kid? Uh yeah, uh, you know, uh the the both of the parents of the only kid that's still around, suddenly both stopped going to work at the same time? Not suspicious at all. No, no. Because that's how Cephas works, you know. That's how you know child protective services work.

Clif 26:26
Now and then suddenly wait, wait, and then suddenly it's Justin Long. Yeah, well, it shows up out of nowhere in this motherfucker.

Marty 26:35
Anyway, he was a barbarian, so I figured he's like much like this guy like Kevin Smith. I'm like, hey, make another movie, dude. Put me in there somewhere, you know. You know, I like doing it. Maybe he's a good luck charm or something. So I figured, yeah. And he he is no stranger to bizarre horror films being in tusk and things like that.

Clif 26:52
This dude's in Tusk, man. Come on.

Marty 26:55
Come on, you're making a weird one. I gotta be in it. So this is the I don't have a whole lot to say about this movie. I've said most of it already, but there was this is the crux of my argument here, I guess you would say. This is uh a quote from uh Derek Slender when he was prosecuting this movie on Reels of Justice. I went back and I listened to the episode again because I I knew he made up some good some good points. And after I saw the movie, I was like, Well, what did he say? I want to make sure that I'm not leaving any stone unturned here because I thought this was pretty damn funny. So here's the quote from that episode. And I don't think there's anything more lazy than Archer wondering if he draws two straight lines on a map that the kids ran in, maybe he can figure out where they were headed. Literally, literally draws two straight lines, draws an arbitrary circle, and he's like, the answer must be in here. Oh wow, 30 days of police, FBI, and canine units get fucked because nobody knows how to draw a bunch of lines. Two lines of trend eye insulation, right? Yeah, that cracked me the fuck up. It's like you're saying, you know. We what do you know that we don't? Well, it's been 30 fucking days, man. Wouldn't you be losing your shit after like a week?

Clif 28:11
To be to be sure, the film's internal logic is jacked, jacked from here to the juvenile story, right?

Marty 28:18
It's like a young adult thing. Yeah, it's it is, it's it very again.

Clif 28:22
It's like an early, like a Stephen King book that's written for kids, you know, written for the young adult type.

Marty 28:28
It's gonna be a little uh silly like that. And and then my last note is uh at the end during the chase sequence. Now, Ryan Luis Rodriguez recommended yakity sacks over the chase scene at the end. My selection was oh yeah. If you if you sync that up to that, it's like even funnier because like she'll close the door running away from the kids, running past the people's houses, running through the houses like Ferris Buellers. What the fuck's going on? I'm like, this is comedy. I'm cracking the fuck up here. So but I was also saying to myself, please end, please just end. But anyway, so you can have your thoughts here.

Clif 29:11
Well, thank you. Um so 47 minutes in, I have a note that says, This is remote piloting. That was my guess. And it kind of, I guess, is remote piloting, basically. She's taking those kids over and and and she takes these people over and remotely pilots them through curses, basically. She's a witch. She's literally just a fucking witch. It's a it's a witch story. You know, oh, your aunt's coming to visit. Well, she's old. Well, be nice to her. Oh, she's a scary old woman. Oh, she's actually a witch. This is not fucking anything fresh or original at all from that perspective. Um, let's see here. That scene with Paul and the boss, the Paul, the cop, and he's trying to talk to his boss. There's a scene where he approaches the chief of police and he's trying to talk to him and just have like a normal conversation, and it's so awkward. And it's so tough to be out of sync, I've I had this thought of like, it's so tough to be out of sync with leadership, right? Like when your boss doesn't like you and you know there's not fuck all you can do about that, that is a that's just a tough situation to be in. And if and I would recommend to people who are in that situation, go find another job. Because eventually it's not gonna work out anyway. Your boss doesn't like you. Your boss is eventually going to find a reason to fire you. Just just get out on your own terms. Or you're just gonna end up possessed and stabbing yourself at the floor or something. I just kept thinking of I just kept thinking of poor Dan from Sayufi, right? Like this dude shows up from another, you know, uh state where he, you know, at another theater where he was, you know, in trouble and then moves to this theater in Tucson and his boss didn't like him. Where did he end up? He ended up on a bike pedal around the parking lot, you know, being fake security. So anyway. Tough. I just thought I don't know why that hit me like that. But anyway. Uh let's see. One of the other things is is the whole sticking things in the face. There's a lot of sticking needles in your face in this movie. I don't know why that's I guess it's just to freak people out or whatever. A lot of pricking going on. A lot of yeah, like a lot of pricking going on. Um But yeah, you know, I I I feel bad for the Paul character. You know, this poor guy who's a recovering alcoholic, and you know, he's got a obviously a girlfriend who's desperately trying to put him on the hook with a baby in a marriage, and then he's got this other girl that's like a siren song of temptation, you know what I mean? Come just come drink and have sex and come on over here. And he's like, Yeah, I don't know, that's terrible for me.

Marty 31:50
Yeah, and then that guy ends up having a bad end usually in those type of king stories.

Clif 31:54
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but I kind of feel bad for it.

Marty 32:00
Bad part of the horror, right? The tragedy. Yeah.

Clif 32:03
This this very much feels like it's aping Kubrick and the shining.

Marty 32:06
Oh, yeah, here's Johnny.

Clif 32:09
It it just feels very much like that. Uh one of my favorite lines is I really don't like police stations. I'm uh I'm phobic, which I think is hilarious. Yeah, I'm phobic to police stations too, guy. The first time I saw Gladys, you know, when she shows up and she's actually in a scene for longer than just a second, I'm thinking, that fucking wig is so obvious. Like, dude, holy shit. And I'm laughing because the wig is so obvious. And then, of course, later on we find out, oh, it's just it is actually a wig in the movie. And I was like, oh, that's a good play because my god, that was a bad prosthetic.

Marty 32:44
Because that's what he uses as her item at the end.

Clif 32:49
Yeah, and so one of my notes is she's a witch, really. Is this supposed to frighten me? And I I I I guess I'm more curious who this Amy Madigan character is. We got no backstory on her at all. Who is she? They're making a prequel, I think. You know, where did she get these fucking powers from? You know, why is it about kids? Why is it about adults? Like, there's a lot. I have a lot of fucking questions.

Marty 33:11
It's yeah, since you don't know, it makes her creepier. Was she really related to them? Is that why the kid can do the blood magic? Uh, what's you know, I don't know. Or can anybody do it? Did she have an extra stick on her in the basement to turn Josh Brolin? I mean, what was going on here? Yes.

Clif 33:26
Is is she taking revenge? Yeah, is she taking revenge? Why is she doing this? Because she just fucking shows up and it's basically like, yeah, she's like, I'm gonna take over this kid. These parents are fucking bullshit, and here come and now the town is mine.

Marty 33:39
It's it's just a weird Yeah, the parents couldn't recharge me. Now I need the kids, maybe they'll recharge me, is what it seems like. Anyway, but they don't really answer.

Clif 33:48
They just But there's no but there's no recharging. I mean, it's just a bunch of kids in a basement staring at a fucking wall like it's the Blair Witch project.

Marty 33:55
Yeah, eat and soup. You know, and there's soups in the Blair Witch project. That's why I was like, they took that and they like made a movie out of it rather than just a bunch of shaky camera footage, kind of.

Clif 34:06
This is another movie where it takes the person 20 seconds to start their car. Um, that's a RAV 4. Like that that that fucker, I have one. They'll start immediately. Mine starts with you just push a button. But jamming a key into a lock, an ignition lock and turning it is not that hard, and it doesn't take that long. It's it's just yeah. When did staring off into the distance horror start, Marty? Um Do you do you know do you know it's do you know its origin? That that origin of like, you know, where the the character just stares off into the distance and we're supposed to have all this dread and creepy fear.

Marty 34:42
Well, I I I'm not positive, but I think you mentioned it. It's the the Jack Nicholson and the Shining with the 40 yard stare comes to mind and then the full metal jacket. Hey, this is Kubrickan.

Clif 34:54
Mm-hmm. It's very Kubricky. He's aping, he's aping the shining so much in this. It feels like the shining yeah, the shining Roshimon and Strange Darling all had a baby and its weapons. And then Amy Madigan pops out and starts doing blood magic everywhere.

Marty 35:10
Don't you go feeding the entire uh uh works of Stephen King into an AI while the Dewey Cox Get out of here, Dewey!

Clif 35:23
You don't want nothing to do with this. So here's my other problem. Give me a witch story, please.

Clif 35:30
Here's my other problem with this movie is multiple times I see people get stabbed in the face, but I don't see any blood.

Marty 35:36
No. Well, she's got some interesting powers, yeah.

Clif 35:39
Yeah, I guess that's a conscious choice to make it more creepy, but I just if I see somebody get jammed in the face with four hypodermic needles, I expect a little blood.

Marty 35:49
They're probably trying to prevent the unrated from happening. Even in this day and age, there's still gonna be a thing where they're like, nope, that's too much for an R.

Clif 35:59
That's my what if Alex had just walked into the police station instead of going home? What if he had just gone to school, gotten out, and immediately just walked into a police station and started talking? Like and subscribe. They go in, they they they nuke Amy Madigan from orbit, and then you know the movie's over in 20 minutes.

Marty 36:27
And then it's like, wait a minute. Is this funny all of a sudden?

Clif 36:37
It's it's it's so weird to me how shitty Alex is about feeding his parents. There's no there doesn't seem to be any care or affection or concern. He's just literally like, again, like I said at the beginning, he just has this giant fucking spoonful of noodles and soup, and he's just jamming it into their mouths, and what goes in goes in and what doesn't fuck it.

Marty 37:01
So if he had properly fed them, they would have regained consciousness, but they're malnourished. That's why they're not talking still. The curse is we have no energy left because you fed us nothing but fucking soup, and you probably didn't even put water in it to make the condensed, you know.

Clif 37:19
No, yeah, no, it's just the same you know, not not no chicken and stars either, just shitty ass chicken noodle soup. Thanks, dude.

Marty 37:25
This is uh dear diary. This uh this this local town is like buying a lot of soup, and uh, we gotta send even more there. For some reason, it's just flying off the fucking chart. So the prequel to weapons, weapons two, chicken noodle.

Clif 37:44
Uh one of my notes is one of my notes is LOL and Marty bitched about Strange Darling. Because I knew you were gonna have, like I told you, I knew you were gonna have a problem with this movie. Because I uh I do too. It makes makes a lot of sense.

Marty 37:57
Um well they greenlit the sequel. It's gonna be called Fuck Weapons. It's the new movie from Stagar Lee based on his hit novel, Fuck Weapons. Fuck weapons.

Clif 38:13
Oh, what was the budget on this thing? It was uh 38 million, it did 151 in the US, and it did 27, 270 worldwide. So it's a hit.

Marty 38:23
Yeah, he's gonna he's gonna have a whole franchise off of it.

Clif 38:25
Good for them, you know. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, no, uh it's just not for me. Um, it ain't for me either. Dear Diary, my aunt moved in, and good Christ is she weird. And I'm not talking about that wig she's wearing. My parents are totally intimidated, intimidated by her, and now she wants to bring me to bring trinkets from all my friends. Yeah, I don't think so. Whatever, witch lady. I'd rather fry flee fry flea like a bird, hands out.

Marty 38:51
You either did it or you're implicit, kid, and you're implicit. That's right. That's right. You were into it at some points. You were like getting along with Gladys.

SPEAKER_02 39:03
Were those kids CGI? I feel like some of those kids were CGI.

Marty 39:08
But it's so funny because you know, he draws a straight line, but those kids are turning corners, jumping over shit. There is no straight line. And they can use their arms when they want to. I do think it was creepy as hell when fucking dude runs out to the service station and starts attacking her. It's like, what the fuck? And then we cut away.

Clif 39:29
Show me that it's it has its moments and it does some cool things, but for the most part, it's just so unbelievably goofy. It's like a bad Ariaster film, which is literally all of Ariaster's movies, but uh, it's just it's that we'll have to get him on the show too.

Marty 39:49
It's the future Stoner classic. Yeah, it's like, oh what, you've seen weapons, man? You gotta be high to watch. You gotta watch weapons, man. You just gotta do it otherwise, man. The kids are like they're flying, man. I give it one.

Clif 40:05
One. What's that movie by Aronofsky? The fucking tree movie by Aronofsky. I've heard people tell me that one too. Uh, the fucking uh The Tree of Life by Darren Aronofsky.

SPEAKER_00 40:15
Yeah, have you seen that one, man? Man, if you get really fucking high, it's like totally just means so much to you, man.

Clif 40:25
I give weapons two and a half. You know, it wasn't it wasn't terrible, it wasn't great. It was, you know, I'd watch it again. It was fine. I wouldn't. I mean, I I I I mean I wouldn't put it on myself, but if somebody had it on, I wouldn't be like, oh my god, this is the worst thing.

Marty 40:38
Yeah, I sit there and have a good time riffing it. I mean, because I feel like they they made something that's a little goofy, and I think the more you watch it, this could turn into like the next room or Rocky Horror, you know, if with the right amount of curation, people running around the theater with their hands behind their back and shit, you know. Because, like even you said, the George Harrison song, they are trying to be out there.

Clif 41:02
Oh, yes, they're yeah, yeah, and it's and there are good creepy moments. There's it's the the film shoots some good atmospheric moments, and some of the stuff's creepy, and there's some good jump scares. And uh my wife absolutely loved this. She was like, Oh my god, it was so good, you're gonna love it. And I was like, uh Yes and no. There are things about it I really liked, and other things that I was just kind of like, eh. Yeah, yeah. There was just so much, yeah, that I'm like, it's some of it's just too easy. It's just too easy. It's just too pat, you know what I mean? Um anyway, so moving on to American Friction. American fiction.

Marty 41:42
Uh a movie that had proper Tucson bashing in it for a change. What is American fiction?

Clif 41:50
American fiction from 19 or from 2023, rated R, one hour and fifty-seven minutes. A novelist who's fed up with the establishment profiting from black entertainment uses a pen name to write a book that propels him into the heart of the hypocrisy and madness he claims to disdain. Uh, this is written and directed by Cord Jefferson and stars Jeffrey Wright, Skylar Wright, John Ailes. Um debut confronts our culture's obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes. Jeffrey Wright stars as Monk, a frustrated novelist who's fed up with the establishment profiting from black entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, Monk uses a pen name to write his own outlandish black book that propels him into the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain. Right away, I want to say that this feels like uh black version of Sideways or the Holdovers, tone-wise. It just has that sort of tone to it. Smart, sharp intellectual comedy, you know, just dealing with a more black-centric subject matter. I got tar from Tar, okay. That's I can take that too. Yeah. I I thought it was way funnier than tar, but I can see what you mean. Of course, yeah. Yeah, but I can see what you mean. Because there's parts of that movie where she's kind of yeah, she's skewering kind of the the yeah, yeah, yeah.

Marty 43:16
Not even two minutes in. And if I got over that word, you can get over it. And I'm like, Oh, I'm not even two minutes in, and I'm like, this is so fucking good. Yeah, it never stops. Yeah.

Clif 43:27
It's sharp. It's it the writing is sharp, it's funny. The fact that he sends that poor girl out of that out of his classroom crying and then is immediately in a meeting where he's being told off. Yeah. You know, it's like fuck. And that's why it feels like that holdover is a little bit, right? Where it's you know, you've got this this strange teacher, you know, this this you know academic setting. It's very smart and witty and funny, and it's kind of skewering some pro some preconceived stuff. Yeah, people say he's very Giamatti like. And so, that's I see what you mean. Yeah. Weeze lives in De Ghetto. I I was just like, my note just says goddamn with an L O L right next to it. Like holy shit, dude.

Marty 44:09
He's standing in the back of the room, Billy Shaw style, after being in a panel that only had a few people in it with these other authors. And my God, we know that this is all true. We've all been there. We've all seen it so real. And it's like, oh, the Tucson connection. This guy's Tucson and it's like I feel the Tucson cynicism and bite in every line and every scene. And it's like, like I said, proper Tucson Bastion. Why are you still? And I still live in Tucson. I'm like, oh, okay, now we're gonna get it right. And he's like, but what's so bad about Tucson? And then his uh brother Cliff, who is the one who lives in Tucson, not Marty, who he plays in another movie, strangely enough. Uh-huh. That was weird. There's only one gay bar in Tucson and it only has college kids in it. And I'm like, oh my God, proper Tucson bashing, not some Rome and Michelle or Hamlet 2 where the Hollywood's just hating on us because we canceled our tax incentive, but proper from somebody who actually lived here who knows what this place is. And my God, that was so fucking refreshing. Uh, I mean, I just I love a good biting satire. And I love things that send up, you know, Hollywood, and this one has the literary world and Hollywood mixed in with a slice of life movie all thrown together and it somehow works. And I tell you, I I absolutely adore movies that show that all of humanity is full of shit. I love it. I love when it's just showing that everybody is just, you know, it's just a crock of shit, man, especially in show business. And we're doing this just to make a buck. And it's so funny to watch this after things like America's Sweethearts and SOB and a few of the others we've done, because they're all kind of in that same vein of the, you know, that that biting satire. But this one was just like, hmm. I'm just so fucking happy I watched this.

Clif 46:07
I uh uh one of my favorite lines early on is Cliff's not in a good place. Yeah, no shit. Uh he's in a very bad place. He's such a good ear of that guy. Yeah, he's good. His it's really well written. I I think his sister's death speech is amazing. Oh when they're when they're you know, she has that heart attack at the restaurant, and then they're I I love it how they're they're at the beach and they're gonna put her ashes in the water, and and and he reads that speech, and then one of these one of those guys is like, is that a human remains? And like, fuck you, buddy. It's not like fucking what you can't do that. Like, we're gonna kick your fucking ass. They start running after him and shit. It's it's fucking hilarious. And that's very feels very holdovers, very sideways, you know what I mean? That that sort of uh interaction. I I really love it. And the line, I still live in fucking Tucson.

Marty 46:54
It just lived here forever, it really got the vibe of what it's like to be here in the cynical, even though it's set in Boston and he's just the brother that lives in Tucson. There's still enough of that feeling in there. And it's based on a book, but I feel like the screenwriter put enough of his vibe in it, you know.

Clif 47:12
The the my pathology thing is, you know, you can see him thinking like, how do I write myself out of this? Like, you know, I my sister's dead, my mother needs money, I'm broke. How do I I'm a writer? How do I write myself out of this? And he he lean, he's like, I give up. You know, I've tried making intellectual work, and I'm watching this woman write the most terrible black culture fiction, the most pandering, ridiculous, tropish ass black culture fiction, and she's making tons of money. Fucking, I'm gonna lean in and do it. And he writes my pathology, and it's fucking brilliant. Like it's just it's so goddamn funny. And he's just the movie continues to kind of skewer black culture, but also skewering white guilt about black culture. Like, that's my favorite part, is how it just skewers white guilt to death from the very beginning. Of like, I don't think that I that's just an offensive word all the way to later on in the movie where he's still taking taking uh shots at that. It's love I'd love it.

Marty 48:15
In his uh publisher, it's like the ultimate where it's like race, uh kind of what and he doesn't say anything like this, but it's kind of like the race doesn't matter. We're just trying to make a fucking buck, and it's you know, it's other people who are hung up on that shit. We're just opportunity and money, you know.

Clif 48:33
It's like it's not even about any of the well and and and his his thing is like I wrote the fucking thing to point out how stupid you people are. It was a joke, right? Like, I wrote this to fucking point out how dumb you people are to think that this is good work, it's terrible work, it's garbage.

Marty 48:49
He pulls a tootsie.

Clif 48:50
How could you think this is good? Yeah, he pulls a tootsie.

Marty 48:53
He pulls the persona, you know, and has to deal with the ramifications of it later.

Clif 48:58
Yeah, it's kind of like what is it? Is it kind of like Melvin Band People's Watermelon Man a little bit?

Marty 49:03
I mean, I know that's a complete shift of I'd have to watch that again, yeah.

Clif 49:08
I think there's another one where that's like that, where there's a work of art created to kind of skewer the culture. I can't remember. Bamboozle. Maybe, yeah. Yeah, bamboozle, okay. I want to call it fuck.

Marty 49:23
It's also reminded me of uh it's always sunny in Philadelphia when they get up to making Lethal Weapons 7 because they've already race swapped the character several times, gotten canceled for it, and then they're like, okay, now we have to hire actual, you know, people of color to be in the Lethal Weapon 7. And then it the whole movie gets taken away from them is retitled White Saviors and put out. And so it's this whole satire skewer on it. And at the end of the episode, they're like, Well, I guess there's only one thing left to do. I'm gonna go make Lethal Weapon 8. And it's like, no, Mac, no, Mac's gonna go back into blackface, they've learned nothing at all. But it was kind of it's like that type of biting satire where even like a Tropic Thunder in a way where it's like some people would watch this and be offended by it, but that's the whole point is that this point of it. The reason you should be offended is not by the thing itself, it's by the machine itself that peripherals all of this garbage towards you. That's why like the whole everyone is full of shit angle of it, you know. And and it's so crazy to have a satire movie like this that has a genuine slice of life story going on simultaneously, and it all ties in. It's usually one movie or the other, you know. And wow, how his home life is it's so cleverly written because the home life with his mother storyline, it kind of cleverly diverts you away from realizing that the movie is clearly going towards he's gonna end up judging his own book. So when it happens, you're like, oh, I should have seen that coming, but I was too busy focusing on the other subplot uh subplot, substory line. I'm like, that's fucking that's so clever. It's just yeah, I if if you couldn't tell already, I really, really like this one.

Clif 51:13
Um I I I enjoyed it. I uh I like how his rep kind of talks him into actually submitting the book, you know, because it because when he submits it and he starts getting responses back, he's like, You're fucking kidding me. No, no, no. I put the book out there to to get the responses and so I could flip them off and tell them that they're fucking morons, right? Like, you know, I mean, there's that great scene in the bookstore where he's talking to that guy and he goes, Yeah, hey, do you know who this writer is? And he's like, uh, I mean, I I know, uh, no, not really. And he's like, well, can you tell me why he's in the um uh uh the African American section? Well, I believe that's because he's black. Yeah, but the book is not about black people, it's about blah blah blah on the style. And he's like, I don't know, man. I just fucking work here. They just tell me where to put the books. He's still frustrated with how his work is being stereotyped when it isn't even, he's like, I'm just black. I'm not writing black literature. Why am I in the black? You know, it's it's it's it's great back after you leave, sir.

Marty 52:14
Then he goes over and that other woman's display is there, and he's just like, oh, like why does she have to be out of there? Oh Jesus, it's so something real, and you're doing the stupid shit and getting fucking noticed. Yeah.

Clif 52:26
I can't think of other movies that that do this sort of thing and kind of skewer this sort of type of racial kind of social politics, but I I think this one handles it really well and does it in a very funny and smart way. Um, you know, I I at no time did I feel like it was trying to make, you know, whatever, white people feel bad for being white or whatever. It's too much. It's just kind of it's just poking fun at how everybody's just fucking dumb with this stuff. And you just, you know, it's um one of my favorite lines of the movie is I've only been gay for like five minutes, I gotta make up for lost time. It's like, dude, that's all you do in this movie is you just, you know, I just kept waiting for him to yeah, I kept waiting for him to be trapped somewhere in like a you know, with like a house with six gay men, they're all smoking meth. You know, it's like, oh there you go, Pentacle with it.

Marty 53:16
Congratulations. They keep it very real. Like he showed he they show up and he's like, Oh, the wedding, I forgot about it. And he's all fucking tweaked out of his mind, and he's they're you know, they're trying to throw him out. And then the the couple that are getting married are like, no, you're family. And he's like, Oh, I guess I can just keep partying and hang out with you guys. And it's like that's more of a of a real way of handling a situation, and then it's getting more to the heart of it instead of your stereotypical kick him out, and then there's the fight, and then it's like you were saying earlier, like this m this movie does a lot of clever things. Uh it shows you a lot of things so it doesn't have to repeat them to have a conclusion. That's why it doesn't have an ending per se. It has the series of endings instead, because he's already showing you I wrote this as a joke to sh send you up. What am I gonna do? Come out at the end and say the same speech? You've been watching the movie. It's basically like, okay, I deal with the ramifications, you know what? Life goes on. And that's kind of how it just stops, because it's a slice of life, right? And so all of your answers at the end, you already have them from watching the whole movie. So that's why we don't get a fight with the Cliff character and stuff like that. It's more realistic. And the the relationship with the mother, as she's slipping in and out, and I mean, there's so many just strong, heartfelt moments. It's just yeah, I mean, and then there's ridiculous stuff like Chris Rock smoking crack. They use that clip from New Jack City in this movie. I was laughing so fucking hard. That is like the perfect fucking example of the send up, is what I'm talking about. And you're just turning the TV off. And I love his characters coming to life when he's typing them. And now what do I do? Oh, you do this. Why'd you do that for? Like, why'd you shoot me?

Clif 55:12
Well, and he literally asks one of the characters, What do you think? And the character goes, Well, I think I'd do this. And he goes, Well, then you should do that. Uh buried in this little silly parody of white guilt are some deep themes. Uh, fear of aging, imposter syndrome, family alienation. You know, I I I love that stuff. It's not just about which it does really well, this exposure of white guilt and authenticity and and black black victim mentality. There's a lot of that going on, but there's also these deep, deep themes of like that's why you know, one of the things that hit me really hard about this movie was how I was like, fuck, you know, I I gotta be honest with you. I'm kind of scared of getting old. Because watching this movie, it's like it's not, it doesn't, it doesn't look all that fucking great, to be completely honest with you, man. It looks kind of terrible. And who the hell's gonna watch out for you? And who the hell you know, anyway. Um and it does that, it handles that deftly while also navigating this guy's, you know, career and all that stuff. And what happens to him? You know, he ends up creating art he hates, but that the masses love. Yeah. You know, he ends up this guy, because you know, they go smash to black and he goes, wait, smash to black, hang on. And then they're on set trying to figure out how to finish the fucking thing. And he he's like, fine, whatever. And he drives off, and you realize, oh, he doesn't even care about this stuff anymore. Like he's he's just creating it to make the cash, to make the money. He's figured it out.

Marty 56:40
That's just what that's gonna be. You know, you're not redeeming the uh stagarly books, they are what they are, but and we drive off the lot.

Clif 56:50
Fucking it's got a little bit of bowfinger in it, too, I think.

Marty 56:53
Yeah. And it's not saying the whole thing is a movie. No, we've seen this is all real, but this is how he's trying to figure out the movie version of it because he's like, set up another meeting with Wiley. I got a I got a new idea for him, and so that's what we're seeing. So it reminds me of our our love song movie in a way, where we have the stepping out from it kind of, and I'm like, oh, it must be that Tucson thing, right? There's just something in there, yeah. To be completely vague about it all, but you know. Movies in the movie, yeah.

Clif 57:28
Yeah, I I was very happily surprised by this movie. I thought I was gonna get one thing, I got another. Um, and what I ended up getting in general was just a movie I really enjoyed watching. Oh, yeah. It was funny, it was sharp, it had something to say, it had a point of view. Um, it didn't go overboard with that point of view. It, you know, I I it was really deftly handled, really well written, really well made.

Marty 57:53
Yeah, he he he won't open up to them, right? And then like he's yelling at his girlfriend, like, why are you reading, you know, this? And it's like she doesn't know that he wrote that fucking book. Yeah. Of course he has. It's like he's wrong, but he's right, you know. And then he realizes he's gonna start opening up to people. And because like his brother tells him, you know, people want to love you. You got you gotta let them. And it's just like, oh yeah, that's that's that's so that's so good. The story.

Clif 58:22
I agree. Yeah. It's it's it's like that's what I'm saying about it's being deftly written. He really he really handled the plot well, the subplots, everything ties together nicely. You don't really see any kind of threads being tucked away. There's that doesn't seem like it's it doesn't seem like there's any heavy lifting going on. Everything just seems to kind of make sense and flow and work really well. It's really well done.

Marty 58:46
Yeah. Uh we've watched a a lot of movies for this show, uh, as of this recording. This is the 198th film. And uh we have uh watched a lot of movies that I hadn't seen before that I've really, really liked. And uh this is probably my favorite one of all of those. Really? I mean Dinner in America is right up there. But unfortunately, that one's got some gross stuff that I couldn't share it with just everybody because there's some things in it that are gonna turn some people off, because it's got a little, you know, there's the dead animals and all sorts of things like that that can be a bit much. And like even Hope and Glory, I really like, but that one's can be a little stodgy, a little slow, but I still love it. But this one, I feel like I could show this one to anybody, and there's not gonna be anybody who's really gonna get, you know, turned off by it unless they have some issues that they need to deal with, I suppose.

Clif 59:51
But what I'm saying is people who are people who are sensitive to racial politics or that stuff in general will probably have something to say about this movie, whether it's positive or negative. Yeah, the negative rules are quite interesting on this. Overall, I would think you're right. It's it's it's you know, pretty innocuous for the most part. I don't I don't feel like it's really, you know, it's not like uh do the right thing by Spike Lee, where it's really trying to make this really hard statement or whatever. That's not what it is.

Marty 1:00:22
He's like it's smart and it's subtle in what it's doing. I'm not saying that these other stories don't happen and they're not important to tell, but we're more than just that. It's like that, you know, and that's kind of like the theme of the whole movie, in a way, is just like we're not trying to hit you over the head, but we're saying, can we get past some of this shit? If we're gonna keep perpetuating things forever, then you know, but it also goes into his relationship with his with his family and everything else. So it's just I mean, love it, love it, love it. Five, five, five, five, five. All the way five stars, really. So fucking good, man. So good, so good. Okay. So it was funny that I watched the beginning of this and go, I love this, and the beginning of weapons and go, what is going on over here? You know, both enjoyable in their different ways, I will say, but I love this one.

Clif 1:01:17
I'm not uh that far over the moon over it, but I do think it was better than weapons. I would watch it over if you gave them both to me, I would say, let's put on American fiction. Um, I give it three and a half stars for sure. Uh, and I think that I really like Jeffrey Wright as an actor. Um, he's got he gets better and better and better as he goes, and I do think that there's a a bit of a like like you said, kind of like a Paul Giamatti type. Yeah. Um but yeah, I I truly enjoy his I enjoyed the role, I enjoyed it in it quite a bit.

Marty 1:01:49
Yeah, probably in my top hundred of all-time movies now, somewhere. Uh rarely do I feel like I see part of myself in a movie, and I felt very, very seen in this movie, not since uh some other movies where it was like this obviously it's not me, but there's enough of the way I feel about things and my personality, and just I it was there. And uh that's pretty rare that I come across movies that I can relate to so much, even though you wouldn't think, how the hell am I relating to this? But I feel like it's just an overall kind of thing. And I love the whole satire stuff too. So yeah, five all the way. I I am gonna recommend this to everybody, and I'll probably keep watching it over and over again. I think it's gonna give more from me each time I watch it. And I didn't know anything about it, so it was really cool to go in and just be like, holy shit, here we go, here we go.

Clif 1:02:46
I know it did well, you know, I know it did well and during Oscar season, and it was it was liked by critics and that type of thing, but it wasn't a million dollars, right? Yeah, but it it wasn't the type of movie that really resonated, I feel like, with the public to a to a point where it was it, you know, it went really big or whatever.

Marty 1:03:05
Of course not. That's why if it did, I probably wouldn't relate to it. Or vice versa, because I know I'm the outlier, but it is nice to see that some people really appreciated it. And and then when uh they showed it here at the loft, our local art house, he cord Jefferson did a little introduction for it. And apparently, during the introduction, he said, Now you all go out and get a carne asada burrito from Nico's for me. So I'm straight.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:35
Damn straight carne asada burrito from Nikos.

Clif 1:03:38
My favorite my favorite memories of Tucson are driving around with Wes at two or three in the morning on a Friday or Saturday night looking for a fucking taco truck. We just look for the busiest one. It'd be 20 or 30 people outside of it, and just pull over two or three in the morning, get some carne aside burritos, man. Get some salsa on that motherfucker and just go to town. Um, anyway, three and a half stars for me. So um Tucson screen writers. Yeah. What do you got uh for me next time? So what is movie 199, sir?

Marty 1:04:10
That is right. Movie number 199. Okay, I've gone back and forth many times. And then uh recently I decided uh let's do a pick that probably is gonna be more beneficial to us selfishly than any other reason, right? And it's a movie I've only seen parts of, so I haven't seen the whole thing. It is 10 years old, still new enough, right? Your movie next week is The Love Witch. The Love Witch Witch. Yeah, so we can look at the cinematography. Because remember, I told you I like the look of it from what I've seen. That applies to the work. That's why that sounds familiar. Wow, that's so let's give that a shot. Alright, different.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:54
For one night, for a hundred and okay.

Marty 1:04:56
Well, I had I had a many different things, but I'm like, that is an interesting pick.

Clif 1:05:01
Written and directed by Anna Biller. Okay, why not?

Marty 1:05:06
Uh like one of those movies we'd find on Cinemax in the middle of the night, and halfway through, you're like, turn the sound up on this. What is this? What is this?

Clif 1:05:18
Okay, um, so for the 200th movie, I thought, well, it's 200. Maybe I should do something huge, like Lawrence of Arabia. Maybe I should do something like Bridge on the River Qui. Maybe I should do something like maybe I should do something that's just completely inoffensive than everyone everyone wants to watch, like The Martian, because you haven't seen that shit either. Um I've decided to do something. I'm I'm gonna go with a classic. It's one you've seen. I know you've seen it. But for the 200th movie, it's a science fiction, it's a classic. I'm gonna give you Blade Runner. It should be an interesting conversation. Yeah, well, what cut are we watching? We're watching the final watching the final cut. The one that Ridley says is the one to watch. Yeah.

Marty 1:06:06
Okay. Well, alright. That'll be an interesting conversation. That's for certain. And maybe throughout the years, viewpoints might change once again. I know I've certainly gone back and forth over that one throughout the years.

Clif 1:06:23
And I every time I watch it, I wait. I don't watch it much because I like to watch it every three or four years. Because every time I watch it, I get something different out of it, or it says something different to me. It's like visiting an old friend who has gone off on an adventure for three or four years and comes back and tells you something different, right? He's still your friend, you still know him, but he's got a new story for you. Anyway, uh that's what I got for you. It was either that or it was going to be Lawrence, and I didn't want to do a three-hour movie this week. I'm traveling to see you this week, and there's no way I can watch a three-hour movie. We're recording one in person.

Marty 1:06:57
It's just as well I didn't give you my other choices too, because we would have been sitting around for a while. So I think the Love Witch is relatively short. Yeah. Blade Runner's not too bad. I think it's what, hour fifty?

Clif 1:07:09
Yeah. Watch it in my sleep. That will probably be one of the only movies this that I give you this season that you've actually seen. That's an older because I have a whole slate of stuff you haven't that we've been talking about. Yeah, that's mostly what I'm focusing on. But this is the 200th. It deserves to be something that's kind of iconic and a classic. And I thought Blade Runner, it was either that or I was also going to give you Raiders. And if you prefer Raiders, I'll give you Raiders instead. But Blade Runner's been it's in the slot.

Marty 1:07:39
It's there now. It's loaded.

Clif 1:07:41
Okay. Just saying. I have no problem talking about Raiders for 45 minutes. Oh, we'll get the Raiders at some point. Yeah, we can do that shit all day long. Oh, you mean the greatest one of the greatest movies ever made? Sure. I mean. Anyway. You want to get out of here on a quote?

Marty 1:07:58
You know, I don't even really believe in race. Yeah, but the problem is everyone else does. I want to call it fuck.

Clif 1:08:10
That's a great name. We can do it. All right, man. Till next time.