Boyhood and Project Hail Mary - Talking Pondo

 In this episode, Marty gives Clif the movie Boyhood to watch and Clif gives Marty the movie Project Hail Mary to watch. 

First up is Boyhood, Richard Linklater's ambitious coming-of-age film that follows Mason from childhood through his arrival at college and is filmed over twelve actual years with the same cast. Clif and Marty dig into the film's unique production, it's time-capsule quality and it's great technical achievement. The question at the heart of their discussion: is watching someone grow up enough to make a compelling story? Marty finds plenty to appreciate in Linklater's experiment, while Clif has a few more reservations.

Then it's off to space for Project Hail Mary, the new sci-fi adventure starring Ryan Gosling as a science teacher who wakes up alone aboard a spaceship with no memory of how he got there. As his memories return, he discovers that saving Earth may depend on solving an enormous scientific mystery and an unexpected friendship. Clif and Marty talk science, storytelling, the film's visual choices, Ryan Gosling's particular brand of likability and how a big, expensive space movie can still feel surprisingly warm and human.

Along the way: Ethan Hawke's questionable parenting choices, Beatles mixtapes, Ryan Gosling's Mickey Mouse Club past and Rocky the alien.

#TalkingPondo #FilmPodcast #Boyhood #ProjectHailMary #RichardLinklater #RyanGosling #SciFiMovies #MovieReview 

Transcript

Clif: 00:00
I do I do love the mu I think you're right. The music cues were great. I love the fact that they call him George and Ringo and then they do On Our Way Home. It's a little on the nose, but it's kind of perfect.

Marty: 00:12
Now what do you think of that weird Beatles mixtape that Ethan Hawke made the kid in the boyhood movie? Is I liked it. I was gonna say I almost feel like looking up the playlist and just listening to it to see if she's talking about really flows, you know.

Clif: 00:33
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 special guests.

Marty: 00:56
Already in progress. Oh, see, I'm figuring out a new way to introduce each other without saying our name. I'm just to say hello to you.

unknown: 01:09
Hello, Marty.

Marty: 01:11
We're back again. It's Talking Pondo. It feels like forever for recording, but you heard us last week, so that's right.

Clif: 01:19
That's right. You don't understand you don't know that we record these in weird orders and out of sequence.

Marty: 01:26
It just sounds all natural to you. Yeah, you don't understand the struggle. Struggle is real. You know, when you record things in advance, and well, it's kind of like today's movies in a way. What are today's films?

Clif: 01:40
Ah, today's movies are Boyhood and Project Hail Mary.

Marty: 01:46
That's right. Doing some epics today.

Clif: 01:53
Uh uh yeah. What was that? Seven hours? Seven and a half hours of my life last week?

Marty: 01:59
Oh, at least. Oh. We do have a little bit of listener mail we can kick things off with here.

Clif: 02:05
Uh hit me with it. Uh some of our some of our usual um Den of Thieves hitting us up.

Marty: 02:13
Uh yeah, we'll do that one, the usual. So on last the usual shenanigans. Last stop in Yuma County in Streets of Fire. Uh we got Joe Palmer writes in and says, Ooh, Streets of Fire, my all-time favorite movie soundtrack. The movie is okay, but that soundtrack, love it to bits. Oh, okay. So he must be a big Meatloaf fan then. Oh, okay. I keep forgetting about the Meatloaf connection to Streets of Fire. Joe, keep glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife, sir. Or Streets of Water in the uh short that we posted that has gotten well over a thousand views. It's our most successful short. Really? We got a thousand views on a short? That's ridiculous. 1,300. Still going as of the time of this recording.

Clif: 03:00
I look at us.

Marty: 03:02
Hopefully they'll come over and listen to the full episode. There's Yeah, that'd be great.

Clif: 03:07
That'd be great. And then uh while you're here, you know, smash that like and subscribe button. Right. Woohoo!

Marty: 03:14
Sorry, had to. Like, smash, subscribe. Something like smash, subscribe, like. Smash burger. And you told me that Smash Mouth was in one of these movies, and you were just joking. Oh my god. What else? You got any other mail? Uh I want to so we have mail for the next episode. Don't want to burn them all through. So that one. And uh we normally let the guest decide, but there is no guest unless you count you the listener as your guest. So, listener, what do you want to start with? I guarantee you you have a 50-50 chance of being right. What's that listener? What is it?

Clif: 04:00
We should go in chronological order. Yeah. I mean, what they want us to do boyhood first? I I guess so. I mean, uh we could do Project Hail Mary first if you just want to tell the audience to just I mean, we can delay that gratification, you know? I could probably use the practice anyways in this digital age.

Marty: 04:20
Yeah, either way is totally fine with me. So, as a child, did you ever have a haircut that you hate it? What is boyhood?

Clif: 04:33
Uh Boyhood, uh, radar from 2014, two hours and forty-five minutes, written directed by Richard Linklater, stars Eller Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawk. Uh, is there a log line for this one? The Life of Mason from Early Childhood to His Arrival at College. Uh, storyline. Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater's boyhood is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason, who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawk and Patricia Arcade as Mason's parents, and newcomer Lorelai Linklater as his sister Samantha. Boyhood charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescents from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations, and all the moments in between become transcendent, set to a soundtrack spinning the years from Coldplay's yellow to arcade fire's deep blue. Boyhood is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting.

Marty: 05:30
See, I did good. I didn't say one word. I'm I'm I'm controlling myself here. I appreciate you, brother Mike, so much. Trying to refine every week a little bit further. See, look at me with self-control.

Clif: 05:46
Um opening with cold play is not a great song.

Marty: 05:49
I'm gonna say we're gonna start at the beginning. Uh, you know, say what you will about the song. It is that year, it is the 02, it's the beginning. It was new at that time, and so it does have the feel of that time period. But what I thought was more interesting than the song is the opening shot. Both of the movies today kind of start at the beginning of life in a way, the opening shot of the movie. The other movie is uh the graphic you're waking up from a cryosleep kind of beginning of your life. And this one, when I see the kid laying in the grass, staring off into the sky, and everything is kind of peaceful for a moment, it reminds me of like the earliest memories of life. Right before life grabs you by the hand and pulls you off and shit starts going. There's that moment where you're just you're you're just a kid, and it's just you laying in the grass, staring off into the sky with your own kid thoughts before life kind of starts up. And so I thought that was a pretty neat opening shot, and I like that they used it for the poster originally too, because it's like, oh yeah, that's that's like the beginning. Like we all have our first memories, and that feels like a like Mason's first memory to me.

Clif: 07:03
Um, okay, I can see that. Uh I um yeah, I I just it I struggled with this one, I think. Um I liked a lot of this movie, and then I really didn't like some of it. Um and I think I think what I really like about it is, and I think what what it is is is um, you know, it's a it's a technical achievement. You know, filming a sh a movie over 12 years is I mean, it requires a shitload of commitment. It requires a lot, you know, you have to keep people locked in. You know, I read a story about he's you know he put his daughter in a film because she, you know, was always singing and dancing around a house, and I imagine he was like, and she's gonna be with me for the next fucking 12 years, so I can put her in the you know, right? So there's that. And apparently at one point she was like, I'm fucking over this, I don't want to do this anymore. And he's like, too, yeah, too fucking bad. And then she kind of came back around to it, right? Um but and that's real. Yeah, I I didn't really I the movie didn't really resonate with me. You know, I found the the book ending of because what he does is he goes, here I'm gonna open on this kid's life where he's contemplating his future, and then I'm gonna end the movie where he's fucking stoned off his ass with some girl he's just met, and he's contemplating his future. And everything in between is kind of it's it's just moments or snapshots of tropes of of of a of a life, right? There isn't a lot of connectivity between it, and there isn't a lot of um depth to it. I just didn't I didn't feel like there was a lot of depth going on. You know what I mean? Like you could I you could smell the the sh her hooking up with her professor, could see it coming from a mile away. They get together. You could see him as soon as the fucking alcohol thing came in, it was like, oh, yep, there we go. And it just seemed to kind of be very surface in that respect. You know what I mean? Like the there weren't a lot of big highs and there weren't a lot of big lows. There were just kind of these quick snapshots of his life. Um but at the same time, I think uh it was a hell of a technical achievement. I really admire him for taking the swing and and uh doing something like this for 12 years. I just wish that he had told a different or more unique story.

Marty: 09:22
Well, I think that's what a lot of us feel about when we look back on our life that we wish it had been a more unique or interesting story, but that's just life. That's what life is sometimes, you know.

Clif: 09:34
Well, but I mean, when I look back on my life, my life, I don't see my life as a series of like uh I don't know. I don't it just it seemed like I know we all have common experiences, but the thing that makes those experiences different is that we are experiencing them and and influencing them with our own input, right? Uh and it just didn't seem like that was what Mason was doing at all. Mason seemed to have life affect him instead of him affecting his life at all. And I get it as a little kid, that's definitely what happens, right? But even in his teenage years, right? Like what happened with the fight in the bathroom? We don't know. Did he fight those kids? Did he did he avoid it? We don't know because there was never any kind of follow-up. It was just the trope of, well, I had, you know, I had a problem at school with some kids. Um but that's the thing you remember. There's substance to it.

Marty: 10:20
When you think back, I know for myself, that would be the part I the that time I would remember as that initial being fucked with in the bathroom. I might not remember as clearly everything else that happened later. Like to me, this movie it's made up of moments that are essentially like the memories that you have, like being fucked with in the bathroom, or the first time you found something dead, or uh if you had a life anywhere close to what I've had to deal with with alcoholic stepparents, and you know, where you know that it's all just going to come to a head, or like uh I didn't have this life experience, but I I bet there are some people who are like, and that was the last day I ever got to see my adopted siblings type of thing. And that day would be the day that you'd remember as those moments. To me, it's like he captured memories on film in a way that I've never seen anybody capture. It feels like how I store memories. So for me, it worked exceptionally well.

Clif: 11:26
I I mean it it it it seemed to hand wave it so much, you know, that he moves, right? He moves with his mom, and his best friend he doesn't even tell his best friend. His best friend doesn't know his best friend's just like bye, waves at him. And that's that memory of her.

Marty: 11:41
That was the last time he ever saw that kid and that flash in his head. I have memories like that.

Clif: 11:46
Well, that's great. But I mean, for a two-hour and 45 fucking minute movie, I'd like to see more than just snippets of memory. I'd like to see an actual story. And this isn't a story, it's just 12 years of, like you said, snippets and memories of somebody's life. Um, and unfortunately, it's not really the highs and the lows. It's just kind of the, oh, I bumped into those kids. Did you fight them? Oh, you know, I well, let's move on to something else.

Marty: 12:09
Well, because that's what it's about. It's about as soon as things settle in, it's the next year, and that's how fast life goes. To where you the most poignant part of the movies at the end where Patricia Arquette was just crying, saying, I thought there would be more time. Because even as an audience member, it's like, damn, we're over to here. And I I almost feel like a parent having watched all of this happen. And now it's like, now he's grown and he's out of the house, and you always thought there would be more time, but there isn't as time goes so far. But that's but that's an adult's perspective. Well, it's when you're a kid, when you're a kid, shit takes forever.

Clif: 12:42
Yeah. When you're a kid, shit takes forever. Getting from first to second grade takes forever. Getting to high school takes forever. Getting through school takes forever. It fucking takes forever, period. Because kids are kids are all about immediacy, immediate emotions, trying to control their emotions, trying to figure out socially where they are, right? And so everything takes forever and everything's immediate, and everything's, you know, all these massive crashes and these massive highs, all this drama. Where the fuck was that? And it's all I all I got all I kind of got was just, you know, Mason kind of bumbling through fucking life with these, you know, incidents. You know, his dad being the fucking rock and roller with the fucking hot rod was just so goddamn, it's just such a trope, man. I I just, you know, and it seemed like honestly, it seems like a trope from the 80s that he kind of it it would really feels a lot like self-insertion, like link letters like, this is actually my life. I'm just gonna tell it through a new lens. Here's what I experienced. And I it it's weirdly, it's very like, I'm the main character. This kid is me. Um, which I I I just didn't really enjoy it.

Marty: 13:47
I also feel it's like it could be called girlhood or motherhood or fatherhood or sisterhood, because it's all their stories, too. It's not always just from Mason's perspective. Like there's a spot early on where Ethan Hawk is talking to uh I guess what is it, his grandmother, and Mason's not around, so obviously it's it's more of just the whole story and not just not just him. The things I find the most fascinating about the movie is you can't buy this level of production value because people try to make movies about the past and they have to recreate the past, but what we're have have happening here is the past as it's going. I mean, in year two, look at that computer that he's using. Because that was real at the time. You can't recreate that Astros game, you can't recreate that midnight Harry Potter.

Marty 2: 14:42
That's an it's a very neat, that's what I'm talking about.

Clif: 14:47
From that lens, it's very neat. Like I the the achievement of that is very, very fucking cool. And that's right, like you can you can go back and watch 12 years of that, you know, and I think that's what resonates with people a lot with boyhood is that it there's a lot of nostalgia to it. There's a lot of accuracy, like you said, in the production because they're shooting it in real time through the 12 years. We're watching the kid grow, we're watching them get older, you know. That's great stuff. Like, but it just the story just kind of lets me down. It the the writing choices are adult choices foisted onto a character who's a little boy. Divorce doesn't suddenly make you smart or give you wisdom, it mainly confuses you and leaving you wondering if it was your fault, if you're the reason that so-and-so left, right? And so I just I never saw anything like that. I never saw Mason deal with his divorce, I never saw Mason uh deal with a lot of the things that kids have to fucking deal with.

Marty: 15:40
Mason's a millennial, right? See, he's a different age group than us. It's funny. I look at my 30-year-old co-workers and I feel a different light to them now. I'm like, oh my god, you're like younger than Mason. And you know how a lot of them don't, their emotions are different and how they connect with things or don't talk to people, and maybe there's a slight generational difference with him, too. It's weird to think it's been 12 years since it came out. So now Mason's like in his early 30s. They're actually putting the theater, the movie back in theaters briefly this year for the 12-year anniversary. But yeah, it's it's pretty crazy. I like the 2008 Star Wars discussion about they're not gonna make any more Star Wars movies and stuff. And it's like, oh, how funny when you look back at some of that stuff of how things have changed, you know. And I also thought, you know, maybe they did find their estranged siblings again one day through social media and stuff, you know, because it's like, oh shit, we're never gonna see them again. We live with them for a couple years, and then suddenly, oh shit, they're just fucking gone. But the movie never taps into that. But I always wondered, did they ever find those people again?

Clif: 16:53
Um that's funny.

Marty: 16:57
And it always seems like it's the present, but then the next thing you know, it's a memory before you realize it. Just like life. I mean, this is a movie that I always wanted to make and never knew how to do it, and never would have had the ability to do such a crazy thing. And so when I saw this movie, I went, oh my god, I'm glad somebody did this. Because I wouldn't have been able to do it. And I guess it's kind of like how some people love David Lynch and other people don't understand some of his work, and it's because, well, it's somebody somebody else's different dream or somebody else's memory, and it might not connect. But there's something with this movie that just feels like it sprung from my subconscious.

Clif: 17:36
Uh it's you know, I again I I I like what he did technically. Uh, I think you can see this story coming from a mile away. I think this the tropes are are obvious.

Marty: 17:45
Yeah, I don't think it's about the story.

Clif: 17:47
I think it's about the experiment of the 12 years. Yeah. No, I mean, but again, at damn near three hours, you gotta give me some story. You know, I I just I I mean I could I could see maybe 145 doing this memory thing, two even. But at 245, give me something to latch on to. Give me some give me some story, give me some characters, give me something going on, right? Um it's fun to see the liquor store clerk from Days and Infused in it. Uh to me, it was it was, you know, again, angry white, racist liberal, the white Obama loving lady. It's all these just kind of trembling. The more things change, right? There's when you think about the mom who's got terrible, terrible taste in men. Well, that she does have bad men, yeah. Mary's the abuse, yeah. Well, fuck they're both they but I mean, both these there's not really a decent man in this fucking movie.

Marty: 18:38
No, no. Even Ethan Hawkins is still kind of shitty. Yeah, yeah.

Clif: 18:41
Yeah. I mean, he's not that great of a dad. I I guess. Uh the format seems to be that life with mom is the reality, and the story time with dad is about you know, charting and personality reveals, you know. Uh, and that that became kind of tiresome where it was like any kind of growth we'd see in the kid would usually come from hanging out with dad, and then any kind of trauma or any kind of life shit was being living with mom. Well, that's that's how he remembered it, I think.

Marty: 19:14
Yeah, it makes sense because she was always do she wasn't there because she was supporting the kids, right?

Clif: 19:20
She either had to go to school or become a you know or work or I think she I think she and again it would have been nice to have some fucking context or some talk about it, but I think that she intentionally dove into her work because she didn't want to fucking deal with her two kids. And she married this fucking guy because he had money and it was supposed to be, you know, he had two good great kids and he turns out to be a fucking asshole. Um because because of course, you know, I don't know. It it I I have a note here that says it's not boyhood, it's tropehood. It's just a lot of tropes, you know. And I I'm starting to realize that link later for me, when he hits, he really hits. And when he when he misses, he really misses. And you know, that when I connect with him and his work, it's great. And when I don't, I really struggle with it. And this this one was kind of half and half, where I was like, okay, I really like what some of what you're doing here. I like your concept. This is fucking cool watching this, like you said, watching the tech and watching the you know, the years go by, watching the kid grow up, all that stuff is very, very cool. But I'm also not seeing a story here. I'm seeing flashes of a life. But that's what the story is. It's the flashes of the life. But there's there's no substance to it.

Marty: 20:30
There's no plot, there's no storyline, it's just flashes of a life. But there's plenty of substance in flashes of a life, I think.

Clif: 20:39
I I I I mean It's a series of memories. Yeah. Yeah, I guess. But that's not a series of memories, isn't a move, it's not a story. I think it is. I I came to watch a story about a kid going through boyhood, not to see flashes of his life. Yeah, I I just I don't know.

Marty: 20:57
It just didn't connect with me. One of the things I really like about the movie is when it changes from year to year, sometimes I think it had switched, but it's really hadn't it had switched three minutes ago or it switches right after that, where it like it kind of for me anyways, it kind of tricked me into thinking, oh, is it the future or is it the past still? So I like kind of the seamless transitions. I also appreciate that they don't write the year on the screen every time it switches, it just switches.

Clif: 21:23
Fuck, I I wish they had, honestly, because because uh honestly, it's hard to tell this, it's hard to see this kid kind of growing up for a while.

Marty: 21:30
I think they're that's why I'm saying like suddenly he's 12 and then you can tell by the hair a lot of the time, especially if you look at Patricia Arquette's hair, it's a real dead giveaway a lot of the time. So it's like, oh, she'll have a drastically different haircut and spots. I guess she shot all of medium in the time that the show that this movie was filmed. It's kind of bizarre.

Clif: 21:56
Yeah, I just it I don't know. If it felt like you know, a lot of the television shows. Shows I watched growing up, you know, um bits and snippets of things only without the story. You know, the the the Alice's the One Day at a Times, the you know, the the single mom struggling to find the good man, you know, the the kids trying to cope, you know. I don't know. I just really wish that we had seen something else about this kid, something else that was different other than I don't know.

Marty: 22:28
Yeah, I I thought it was uh and it's not 12-minute chunks, that's roughly 12-minute chunks. Sometimes it's longer and sometimes it's shorter. But they're basically these chunks that are about the chunks of life that make you who you are, the standout parts in your memory. It's almost like watching your life flash before your eyes in a way. I thought that was pretty fascinating because especially the in real time. No other movie can replicate that the past that way. Another good example is uh fever pitch, right? Because they were there and then suddenly the Red Sox broke the curse, and it's like, oh shit, that's real. And that that is just you you can't buy that level of production value. It's pretty fascinating, I think.

Clif: 23:12
Well, I mean, it's I mean, you're filming in real time in real situations. So I don't I wouldn't say it's production value, but I understand what you mean. It would capture you tried to recreate capturing it, yeah. Um it's also that's the cool part. I I that's the part I like. You know, I mean, that's the part of the of the the stuff I really like.

Marty: 23:31
Um it's funny because Birdman beat it for best picture, and that's another experimental movie, right? It's all one long shot. But I'm like Birdman shit. Whip class should have beat Birdman, I think, but that's just me.

Clif: 23:46
This thing did the this thing did the Birdman moving from scene to scene and not giving a fuck even more than Birdman did. Or it's like, figure it out, you know.

Marty: 23:54
And it's an IFC movie because it started in 02 when IFC films were still a thing. So that's kind of strange, too. Like I they're very lucky that nothing happened to anybody while they were making this, or because it would have just derailed the entire thing. Then they managed to get 12 years and get everybody to come back every year. It's like shooting 12 mini movies. Such a crazy experiment.

Clif: 24:20
One of the things I've been I, you know, and finally I got a little bit of it was at the end. There's a kitchen scene at the end where the parents actually talk and have a conversation. And that's probably for me the most substance of the movie that didn't feel that felt real and had some real substance to it and felt like real people talking in real life and not a trope or a thing, you know. Uh that worked really good for me. You know, but I mean, two hours and ten minutes into this movie, and I and I'm I'm kind of exhausted as a viewer, and here we are going into the city for college nightlife and all this shit. And what are we doing? We're going to see a blue a bluegrass band. It's like, oh boy. You know, uh it it was uh it was a it was an exhausting movie to get through, honestly. It it would took a while for me to to, I mean, I watched it all in one go, um, which I it was it was it was tough to get through. Because by the end of it, I'm just like, man.

Marty: 25:24
Um it does take a lot out of you getting all that 12 years all at once, you know. It's just yeah, it's a ride. Yeah.

Clif: 25:35
I was ready for it to be over. You know, I mean, it felt longer than 245. It felt three and a half.

Marty: 25:40
Well, there's that takes forever when you're a kid, right? So I guess it is kind of in there a little bit.

Clif: 25:47
Not really. Um it's it's also it's a weirdly voyeuristic film. I find it very strangely voyeuristic for the director to put him to self-insert and uh, you know, do that with this kind of once-in-a-lifetime type of project. It's um it feels a little indulgent. Like I said, I liked it, but I didn't love it. Um and the length of it will probably keep me from future viewings, probably. Because I'm not one to I'm not one to break movies up and watch them in pieces usually. Um and so if I'm gonna watch 245, it's gonna have to be something I really, really want to watch again.

Marty: 26:23
Yeah, this is only the second time that I've watched it too.

Clif: 26:26
So um but I mean it it I've been pretty negative about it. I apologize. I I I do like some of the movie quite a bit. Um there were some really great, there were some great moments, but I just really, really wanted more substance to my story. I wanted it to be a little less predictable, a little less tropey. Um, it just felt like I'm just like, I've seen this movie, I've seen this story before, I've seen these moments before in other stories. Why can't I I've seen these moments in my own life. Sure. I mean, I but I don't go to the movies to watch the same, you know. I don't want to go to a movie and just kind of watch a kid go through the same shit I went through. I want to see him do something a little bit different and maybe overcome it. And I definitely like would like to see some resolution at the end instead of just the bookend of him staring off into the fucking distance, you know.

Marty: 27:12
Well, we all want resolution in life sometimes, right? You don't always get it.

Clif: 27:17
But that's that's why that's one of the reasons we make movies is to tell stories that resolve themselves, right? Not always. Um and I get that this was a bit different.

Marty: 27:26
Um, but so yeah, it is did anybody they didn't do it to me, but did anybody ever force you to get a haircut that you didn't want? Because I knew people that it happened to that showed up and it's like, oh fuck, they usually cut my hair off. Now, obviously, we knew in the movie that guy was a dickhead and he didn't like Mason. They always had argumentative relationship, but I just remember things like that. I guess the closest we can think of is one day we went home and my brother suddenly had that haircut and it scared the shit out of us. You know, we're like, what the fuck? You went extreme with that haircut.

Clif: 28:00
Yeah, I think I think my stepdad shaved my head when I was like a little kid, but I don't remember it. Honestly, it was so I I think I was three or something.

Marty: 28:07
Nobody ever threw a glass at me at the dinner table, but I've certainly had moments that were equal trauma.

Clif: 28:14
Sure. But you but you know what I remember about those moments? I remember them being way more fucking terrifying. Where was I mean, it that scene is not terrifying. Where's the fucking where's the terror terrify? That is a terrifying fucking thing for a 12-year-old to go through, 10-year-old to go through. And instead it it plays almost I think that it plays flat. I thought it was it plays flat.

Marty: 28:36
I I just it it I didn't feel like it was there at all. It gave me a little PTSD, actually. So I it it it felt so um That's okay.

Clif: 28:47
Not everybody is had you know the same emotional surface. It it I just yeah, I don't know. I mean, I get that it I mean again, yes, when I saw it happen, I was like, oh yeah, I've I've dealt with, you know, I had alcoholics in my family, I've seen that type of shit, but I also remember it being much more traumatic and much more frightening, you know, not oh, let me throw a glass and walk away. Fucking drunks, drunks don't throw glasses at people and walk away. That's not how it fucking works.

Marty: 29:12
How about you know hanging out with the uh slightly older kids and all that bullshit, right? Where they're throwing the sharp things into the wood and telling the stories, and it's like I know it is a little tropey, but it's still very kind of realistic in that way. And the first kid that gave you the beer or whatever.

Clif: 29:29
Well, and the key is look, I don't mind like I get it, tropes are building blocks for storytelling, and there's a commonality in our experiences. That's why we tell stories, and that's why you see a lot of that type of stuff. But the job is to kind of overcome it and make it something unique or different or new. Well, that's it. And I I feel like I don't I I feel like the reason the only reason that it feels new is because of the gimmick of the 12 years. If you don't shoot this over 12 years and you put this story in as a as just a two-hour and 45-minute movie shot in three fucking months with different actors, you couldn't or you know, aging them and shit like that.

Marty: 30:03
Sure you couldn't. Well, that story was evolved over the 12 years, though. It wasn't a script that they came in and shot all at once. Like you're saying if somebody remade boyhood based off of the movie and shot it all at once, it probably would be a little dull. But that's movies need their certain frameworks for them to work, you know. We can't reshoot Project Hail Mary as a rom-com for little kids, it's gonna feel different, right?

Clif: 30:28
Um well, I'm not talking about changing the feel of it, but I'm just I'm just talking about the fact that I I think that the reason that everybody that a lot of this story the st problems with the story, in my opinion, get overlooked, or at least that the film is working is that it's done in this 12 12-year fashion. If this story is if this story is two hours and 45 minutes long and and shot over six to nine months using multiple kid actors and aging the adults, I don't I don't think it gets this kind of recognition.

Marty: 30:56
No, because it doesn't it its feel is gone. It's realism of the the real time is what does propel it a lot.

Clif: 31:06
It just didn't work for me. Uh but I again I admire I admire the swing, I admire the technical achievement of it. Um I don't think anybody was bad at, you know, there were not like any bad actors or bad cinematography or anything. I just I just really wanted more story, and I was really hoping to see something with a little more high and low.

Marty: 31:27
Well, I wrote a review of this uh six years ago when I first watched it. And I'll go ahead and read that because I still kind of feel the same way about it. Two hundred years from now, film historians will look back on boyhood and recognize it as the truly single greatest masterpiece ever laid to film. Life in real time, capturing time and motion, the combination of narrative, documentary, and abstract. Link later has achieved the ultimate and filmed expression. For boyhood is the essence of life. It's not my favorite film, but I can't deny its utter brilliance. I still think this is the greatest movie ever made. Five stars. Like I said, it's not my favorite, it's not something I can revisit, but the way it touched me on such a deep level that I know it's not gonna hit everybody that way, but it did for me.

Clif: 32:17
Yeah, um I'll give it three. Um, I would probably give it two and a half because I'm probably not gonna watch it again. But your choice is not that unusual. This movie is kind of polarizing, so for me, it's it's a film of little to no actual consequences. And by the time you actually see any consequences, the film has moved on from them to move on to something else. And that's life. Boy, I wish we had a little more time to make sure that is consequences. That isn't life. Life has consequences, and those consequences affect your life. What we what we we don't see that here.

Marty: 32:50
Well, we do, though. Because everything that happens leads to the next year. You might not be able to wrap it all up in a boat. We most elements do move on.

Clif: 32:59
We move on, we move on to a new year. But what we don't see is how the consequences from the previous year affect the new year and then affect the year after, and so on. I think we just see new snippets. Um, and that's that well for me, that's that I felt like that's where they're just in work. Um, but I I again I can see why people like it. I can see where they feel like it resonates, I get it. Uh I just uh for me it'd hope for more. And and again, I I'm starting to realize with Link later that like for me, when he he hits, he really hits. And when he doesn't, it just doesn't work for me. You know? Ends up being ends up being a well-made film that doesn't for uh have any kind of emotional resonance, you know what I mean?

Marty: 33:41
Oh, I'd like to agree with you know what I mean, but I can't, because I don't know what you mean. I feel differently about it.

Clif: 33:47
So well, you know, no, I'm just talking about movies in general. You've had movies that have no emotional resonance, right? Like where you're just like nothing, right? And so that's somehow for some of Link Later's movies, that's that's what I'm saying is they do that.

Marty: 33:59
But you lived through those years. It didn't affect you revisiting those 12 years in any way. Um take you back to where you were in different times in life, either as a kid or through those Obama years or anything.

Clif: 34:15
I no, I mean I the Obama years and stuff, no, that that didn't resonate with me. But you know, being a being a kid and and going through some of that stuff resonated, sure. You know, like the like you said, being in with the older kids and throwing shit, you know, um that type of stuff, sure. But I just felt like storytelling-wise, I didn't get the follow-up and the impact that would that would allow it to really emotionally resonate with me. I'm not saying that the elements weren't there. Again, you know, tropes and storytelling blocks are there for a reason, but you gotta make them, you know, work. This worked for a lot of people, including you. It just didn't work for me. You know, I just I found it very tropey. It was weird. I was just like, yep, trope. I can see that coming. Yep. Like I could see the dude coming with the drink at a mile away. I could see I could see her, I could see her hooking up with her professor the minute that he gave her the nod when she came into class late, like up there fucking. Oh, well, we knew that was gonna happen. It's just it's one easy guess after another, right? So it's not surprising, it's not giving any real twist, it's just kind of like, well, here's what happened.

Marty: 35:21
Well, you always did used to say been there, done that back in the day, so it makes a lot of sense to me, actually.

Clif: 35:28
Uh um, but yeah, I mean, look, it's not that I'm emotionally dead and didn't feel anything for the movie, it's just that I I uh it just didn't really well for me, you know. Um I would watch that over before the before series.

Marty: 35:47
If you were like, which one do you want to watch? I'd be like, put that fucking boyhood back. It's better than the before movies. And strangely enough, Midnight was made while boyhood was being shot. Yeah, that's weird.

Clif: 35:57
So he's so Ethan's making a movie.

Marty: 35:59
That's that's really strange. Totally strange. And no, he did not make boyhood part two over the last 12 years and surprise us with it. They he's moved on to things like Where'd you go, Bernadette, and stuff, so which was also a good movie. Well, I'm glad we waited to do that one. I didn't want to bring that one on very early. I wanted us to talk about a bunch of movies, and then finally, and then Moonlight was like, okay, because Moonlight kind of was that boyhood S. You see what I mean about how our Yeah, I do. I do. Well, now's the time to talk about it, yeah.

Clif: 36:31
That's a perfect, that's a perfect extraction because uh in Moonlight we get to see the consequences, right? We get to see how he got to where he was, but in boyhood, I feel like there are real highs and lows missing that formed that kid.

Marty: 36:45
Moonlight won the best picture and boyhood didn't, but they gave it to fucking Birdman over boyhood. That seems weird to me. Birdman's not bad, but you know Birdman's great.

Clif: 36:56
Yeah, we may have to bring it on. I'll also say this it is human nature to try and block out the good, the really low, and try and remember like the good stuff and that type of thing, right? Like there's a thing there. But I feel like as a filmmaker, he needed to give us the highs and the lows to really make it that for me, right? Um but I also understand, again, I understand why you like it.

Marty: 37:16
Yeah, I do, I really do. People are gonna look back at that and go, that's a real half-blood prince midnight sale. I remember people from my job going to that midnight sale to buy that book. It's just so weird, snapshotty memory. But anyways, we could talk for two and a half hours about this.

Clif: 37:36
Well, it's it's yeah, it's a it was a long movie. It is a three-page movie. Um and I don't think yeah, I think we basically Yeah, I think we did well on that one. We did pretty good. I I I uh I mean, you're right. You know, if this had been the first 10 episodes, I probably would be like this fucking goddamn thing, you know. We weren't ready to go into something like that earlier. Go back and listen to the early episodes, kids, if you really want to hear me uh tear into something. I'm I've I've I've learned some of my manners have greatly improved since uh episode 138. But, anyways, that brings us to Project Hail Mary, right?

Marty: 38:11
So, what happens when you cross the right stuff with 2001? The answer could be what is Project Hail Mary?

Clif: 38:21
Uh Project Hail Mary 2026, PG 13, two hours and 36 minutes. Uh, science teacher wakes up alone on a spaceship. As his memory returns, he uncovers a mission to stop a mysterious a mysterious substance killing Earth's son, and realizes that an unexpected friendship may be the key. Uh, this is directed by Phil Lord, Chris Miller, uh written by Drew Goddard and Andy Weir, who wrote The Martian. Uh, stars Ryan Gosling, Sandry Hewler, and James Ortiz. Middle school science teacher Rylan Grace wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission to solve the riddle of the mysterious substance that is causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on earth from extinction. But an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.

Marty: 39:13
Oh, I think I watched the wrong movie. I watched Half Nelson, where he plays a crack addicted middle school teacher. No, I didn't. I have seen that one before, but I did not watch that one instead. I watched Oh, that's the one where he teaches wrestling. Yeah, right. I and he got a nod for that, I think. He's a good actor. So we're back to shifting aspect ratios again, your favorite. But they do it in a weird way this time, where it's like his memories are streaky through the widescreen, you know. I thought that was kind of neat.

Clif: 39:44
Yeah, I like a lot of the choices they made here.

Marty: 39:47
Spider-Verse people, aren't they? The directors.

Clif: 39:49
I believe so. Yeah. Um, I read this book, and I'll say that uh to me, the Martian is a simpler story. Uh you know, guy fucking gets injured on Mars, his telemetry is cut off, they think he's dead in a sandstorm, he wakes up, he's alive. Okay, gotta figure out, gotta figure out how to survive on Mars. How do I get hard? Um but Project Hail Mary is very different where they're like, all right, we got these weird little things, the sun's dying out, uh, they toot scoot, so you can use them for propulsion. We're gonna build a big fucking ship, it's gonna take forever. Oh, by the way, you're gonna run into an alien. Oh, it's not our star, it's it's it's a whole different star in a whole different solar system. So, of course, you're gonna be in a coma for three fucking years. It's a whole thing to get to. But it's the the smart part is how they decide to tell the story. They wake him up right in the beginning on the ship. He's fucking can't remember who he is, he's got no motor function, and so you kind of get to laugh at him as he gets his shit back, and then we start to understand slowly who he is, right?

Marty: 40:48
Yeah, slowly is right. 22 minutes in, I'm bored to tears because it's so samey. Just send him off. I the part where he's flashing back until up until he they you find out how he went. I really think that could have been trimmed down so much. Because the interesting part is once he's up there, I thought. And so every time we go back, they have more of the oh yeah, we're gonna, it's just like, come on, come on. But once they get back up there, I'm really enjoying that part.

Clif: 41:18
Well, I think I think they did that to kind of share arrival.

Marty: 41:22
Yeah.

Clif: 41:23
One of the things that they uh one of the things that they do what that that Andy Weir does with his stories, at least the last two, have been that he tries to apply some hard science to it, right? And so I think this was the opportunity, because in throughout the book, it you know, like it explains you know a lot more in detail about some of the stuff he's doing in the lab on the ship and all that shit. And I think I feel like they felt like they rather than have Ryan just narrate what he's doing on screen while he's in the spaceship, they they put the science in the beginning, right? But I agree, I think they could see that I could see cut in five or ten minutes. I really, really liked the part where she sings. I thought that was really kind of a cool moment. Uh I think she had a pretty good voice, and uh, I thought that was a pretty good scene. Um and especially the fact that like uh I I like her because she's in the book, she they don't say it in the in the, I think in the movie, but in the book she's like, you don't understand, you're gonna go to space and I'm likely gonna be prosecuted for in five years for everything I've done. Like I've broken so many fucking laws to do what we're doing, you know, and I've been you know, had world leaders, you know, uh bent to my will and shit to get this done. So you're gonna go off to space to try to save the universe, I'm gonna go to prison.

Marty: 42:39
You know, um, but she also understands that that's the price you pay to save humanity. Exactly. You know what this has in common with the other movie? What? The Beatles. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's kind of strange, huh? Because he makes Dom Beatles mix tape, and then you got your yeah.

Clif: 42:57
Yeah, yeah, that's great. Um, and hey, at least the music isn't disco.

Marty: 43:02
Yeah, right way in really nice use of Sunday morning coming down. I I agree. I was like, oh this is yeah, you're picking the difference, and yeah.

Clif: 43:12
I was wondering if you were gonna like that cut or not, because I I I think you and I both in our past have heard that song a lot.

Marty: 43:18
I still like that song. I like the Christofferson version too, so it was cool that not to be the Johnny Cash and to be the other one. Yeah. And then he used to be the janitor at that studio, and one day he showed Johnny Cash Sunday morning coming down, he never had to work another day in his life. Chris Christofferson, star of Blade. Star Blade. He's in Blade 2, but I thought he died in blade one. But, anyways.

Clif: 43:44
It's nice to see that can't science runs on candy and crazy experiments. Um I I literally can't imagine being that far out in space alone and trapped in a fucking small can. I just I I well, it's even even the astronauts who go to the Moon and come back. I can't fucking I can't imagine, dude. Yeah. Like I'm claustrophobic as it is. I can't imagine being in some small can where I can't, you know. What do you mean I can't watch my fucking Blu-rays?

Marty: 44:13
So didn't isn't there the urban myth that the Winds of Change song by the Scorpions was written by the CIA? You ever heard that story? And that song is in this movie. Yeah, so I thought that was really funny.

Clif: 44:26
That's fucking hilarious. Um was like it was maybe that was for uh what's her name, Velania wine show.

Marty: 44:34
This is like a palatable dark star, right?

Clif: 44:37
Yeah. Oh, that's a good call. That's a good call. Yeah, like a palatable dark star. Um, what did you think about the alien?

Marty: 44:45
Oh, the alien's fun. And apparently a lot of puppeteers used to bring the little Rocky guy to life. And I realized halfway through, I'm like, oh, this is kind of like a almost a young adult tween-ish kind of movie. The book might be a little more adult-ish, but the film felt more like I'm like, oh, once I realized that, I settled in a little more and kind of went with it.

Clif: 45:06
Yeah. Yeah, they really leaned into anthropomorphizing Rocky and and making him likable and all that type of stuff. Right.

Marty: 45:13
It's that E.T. thing, right? Too. He's not gonna die. Of course he's not gonna fucking die. Of course he's not gonna fucking die.

Clif: 45:18
But uh, in the it's funny, in the book, so you know, Rocky saves him and then you know, crawl back into his little habitat that he's made in the ship, and he's not moving in the book. And the uh Grace is like, fuck, dude, I he's I think he might he might die. And he sees like he's got fins on the back of his back, like they're like he thinks they're like breathing apparatus, right? And they're covered in black, and he thinks it's carbon from having to breathe oxygen and being in this different atmosphere. And so he gets a high-prower tank and he somehow figures out how to use it to spray those fins off. And Rocky, three or four weeks later, comes to and they're talking, and Rocky's like, Did you spray me with something while I was out? And he's like, Yeah, I cleaned off your fins to save you. He's like, Yeah, that that damn near killed me. Like those that black covers them when I'm damaged for a specific reason, and he's like, Oh shit. So, yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Marty: 46:17
Um what I really like about this movie? What no loud bass. It puts it so far ahead of things like Arrival for me, because it there's none of that no, it didn't play that way. And I'm like, thank you. I maybe we've gotten past that era of obnoxious loud bass to create the film, yeah. Different atmosphere attempt, right? I thought maybe it could go that way and they don't. The subwoofer kicks in a few times, but appropriately. I like I like the mix.

Clif: 46:50
I like the score a lot, the drumming, the sci-fi-like tone at times. It's fun, yet it's also grand and and sort of hopeful when it needs to be. You know what I mean? I thought that was really, really well done. Um I and I really what I really like is again, this uh when he finally meets Rocky and again some of this hard science where they're talking about how would you communicate? Well, you'd start with math, right? You'd start with numbers, you start and this brilliant idea to just be like he's just pointing at shit and going, you mean and just recording what what it says and assigning words to it, right? Until he finally gets it right. Um, in what's cool is that in the book, he he actually during one of the uh mishaps that they have, he has become so proficient at just listening to Rocky's trills, because Rocky kind of sounds like a bird whistling and all that shit, that he just communicates with him. Like he doesn't need the laptop anymore, he can just listen to Rocky talk and he understands what he's saying, which I thought was pretty cool. Like R2D2. Yeah, kind of like yeah, exactly, like C3PO and R2D2. That's a great fucking you're on fire tonight with these comparisons, man.

Marty: 47:55
Well, here's another comparison. Uh prestige television as a theatrical format. You know, the the the lines between Prestige TV and a blockbuster movie, they're kind of blurred nowadays. And this film, I felt like it had a little bit of that long form content in it, which is such that long form kind of five-act-ish. Yeah, yeah. And then you get to the end credits, and it's like Amazon pictures. I'm like, these in credits feel like it's made for video, but it wasn't. Maybe this is the fancy version of a made-for-video movie nowadays. You know, we've got it's a lot better than Dragon Heart, a new beginning, as far as I mean, I mean it's not like that anymore.

Clif: 48:37
Yeah, it's a $200 million budget. Yeah.

Marty: 48:39
Uh so that's a that's a lot for a made for made for video, but but yeah, so are Game of Thrones and things like that, right?

Clif: 48:46
Just those end credits had that kind of this feels made for like prestige television.

Marty: 48:52
Yeah, I can see what you're saying. Oh, okay. The lines are blurred here.

Clif: 48:57
Yeah, we can't just my one of my favorite lines in the movie is we can't just show up in a space ball unannounced and move into someone else's spaceship, right? Like, I love that you know, Rocky gets to a point where he's like, dude, no, we're we're doing this. I'm living on your thing, right? Give me space, get the fuck out of here, you know.

Marty: 49:13
Yeah, it's the only way they're gonna be able to make it work. So it's just like he's like, he can't talk without it. Who are you talking to?

Clif: 49:21
That's fucking great. That's the stuff I'm loving.

Marty: 49:23
Look how far, look how far away I am.

Clif: 49:25
You know, you so you can seriously hear me. I can hear you.

Marty: 49:28
Yeah. And I guess they need to break that up a little bit, you know. But yeah. But as it went on, I started to enjoy it more and more. But in the beginning, I was like, what's going on here? And then I'm like, okay, I caught the tone.

Clif: 49:40
So it's nice that uh I love the tape measure bit where where he gets in the tape measure, and and like he realizes, like, oh, you can't see that. That's cool. Okay, I understand that you your your vision's different than mine. Um, but I love that he, you know, I think of course he would be fascinated by that. What the fuck is this? He's an engineer, so he's like, Well, look at this, it's cool, you know. Um, I I I thought that's really neat. I also like the trying the different voices bits where I was like, Oh, I don't like that. No, I don't like that.

Marty: 50:10
I'm like, and then they're gonna make you cry later with this voice, just watch, you know.

Clif: 50:14
Yeah, yeah. Well, and the the the saddest thing to me is the whole sleeping thing. Yeah, it's right, where he's it like there's a that's a really poignant thing where he's turned gray.

Marty: 50:26
Yeah. I'm like, you're not gonna get me a movie. You're not making me cry over a rock creature because I know he's gonna pop back up, you know. Yeah, yeah.

Clif: 50:34
But it works. I mean, the the emotionality is there, I think. Uh, and especially if you're like if you like you said, if you're 10 or 11 and you go to see this with your dad, you know, like when I like I did with ET with my dad, yeah, you're crying.

Marty: 50:47
Well, the emotionality, right? It's like it reminds me of the deacons I was listening to this week. It's the principality of it, man. Emotionalities. The guy who was saying, you know, you gotta have your budget, your lookbook. And one of the other things he said one of his uh instructors told told him was uh, what's your character's wound? What's the wound of the character? Because every character has a wound that they're carrying around with them, and that's where you get your development from. And so it's like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense, actually, the more I think about it. You can apply it to everything, and this guy's got all sorts of wounds.

Clif: 51:19
So well, he's in in you find out later on he's a coward, right? Like he's he even he in the book says like when he finally hit the memory hits him, because the book does the same thing, like you'll be reading, and then suddenly he flashes and he's his memory is kicked in and he's remembering another piece. And you know, you find out that the shot she gave him is that it does that intentionally, right? Right. But you know, he flashes to that moment where she says, you know, you've got two hours to decide, and he goes, Yeah, I decided I'm not doing it.

Marty: 51:49
And then he fucking tries to climb the walls and run and all that shit, and they taser him, and you know, she condemns him to death, like you know, and uh but he doesn't though because it brings up some interesting questions like, Oh, we got your ship ready, we can send you back home. Well, does that mean we can go like back and forth? Can we communicate with each other? Can we like meet up again? Or well, I guess you'll find out in Project Hail Mary 2. Yeah, I've heard two's already in the works. Oh shit. Well, it's like E.T. in Close Encounters if you got to go to their home world, you know. Yeah. Like this is what Richard Dreyfus is doing. Don't feel so bad about him. He's teaching rocks how to read.

Clif: 52:26
And there's a great close encounters, uh, there's a great quick close encounters moment, remember where he goes, Mike immediately goes and he's like, No, you're pointing.

Marty: 52:36
You're pointing at the thing back to you. Yeah, he's oh oh I mean okay, I'm pressing along with you. He's like, he thinks I'm dumb, you know, he thinks I'm stupid.

Clif: 52:45
Oh yeah, there's there's that one where he's like the first throw to to him, he's like, they think I'm stupid.

Marty: 52:51
Yeah, it's great stuff. Yeah, that that was that was a pretty fun movie. I can see why you know people like that so much, and yeah, it sticks with you. The more you think about it, the more fun it is. Watching it again, I'd probably enjoy it even more because I'm not I'm realizing why that flashback stuff is there, and it's like, okay, this is just for the structure, and of course you can't reveal things uh until it's time, but yeah, yeah. That's one of those movies where the more you watch it, the more you're gonna get out of it, I think.

Clif: 53:19
So yeah. I I I do love the I love the look of the planets. I love the put the Petrovaline shot. Remember where he's standing outside of the of this of the space vehicle and they change to see you see all those patrols.

Marty: 53:31
Oh, that's why I say it's 2001 mixed with the right stuff, right? Because it's like space running, but it's trippy space, right? And then you got a little ET sprinkled in there for good measure.

Clif: 53:41
Well, and just and you know, visual, the the planets look great, you know. The visuals look amazing.

Marty: 53:47
Yeah, I never saw Spider-Verse, but I take it it's their type of yeah, you we'll have to bring that on the show.

Clif: 53:54
You haven't seen Into the Spider-Verse? No.

Marty: 53:56
I was afraid it's gonna make me sick.

Clif: 53:58
Yeah, well, we may have to try it because it's a it's a it's not 24 frames per second, it's like 18. We all take to give it all a mean book style. Yeah, so it might it might I don't know if I'd mess with you or not.

Marty: 54:09
I've heard it's great, and after watching this, I'm even more interested in it.

Clif: 54:15
Um, well, I'm I'm glad you like this. Now I feel bad I didn't enjoy his boyhood as much. Uh no.

Marty: 54:21
Movies are movies, you know. You don't feel bad or good, or it's just that's you we come on here to say what it what the movie made us feel. And you're speaking your truth, and that's what makes the show interesting, I hope.

Clif: 54:32
You know, that's right, people. Don't don't get mad at me because I didn't like your movie. I'm speaking my truth. Yeah. Um I I really enjoyed this. I want to say this. I I think Ryan Gosling, I get it. Some people say that you know he's he tends to play kind of a lot of the same characters in movies at times. Um but I think I think all actors do that. Yeah. But I think Gosling is like she's he's like Emma Stone. He's a triple threat. Oh, you mean law? Well, I no, I just can't theaters. Yes. He can sing, he can act, he can dance. Which are old school, those are old school Hollywood traits. And like if you came up Yeah, if you came up through vaudeville, you knew how to sing, how to act, how to dance. You're probably all three, right? And even in the 40s and the 50s, it was damn near required if you were going to be a star. And so these triple threat actors don't exist anymore. They there aren't a lot of dancers that are actors that you can put in on a stage, you know, and just go, okay, dance for me, and it looks anywhere near realistic.

Marty: 55:34
He'll always be young Hercules to me. I hear you. I hear you. Among many other things.

Clif: 55:40
Um I mean, he's always gonna be that kid from from Mickey Mouse Club who was on uh I think he was on, what was it, uh the rising star movie showed. Oh, he was a Disney kid? Yeah, he was a Disney kid.

unknown: 55:53
Yeah.

Clif: 55:53
And I think and he was on um crap, uh, what's the Ed McMahon show? Star Search. Star Search. Yeah, I think he was on Star Search. Wow. With Geechee Guy? Geechee Guy. So 200 million for Project Hail Mary. Uh Boyhood was four million. I have to say, for a four million dollar movie, that's pretty impressive. Yeah. I didn't realize it was four million dollars. That's a fun job.

Marty: 56:26
Scraping that thing together every year to get our little project that turned into something. That's crazy.

Clif: 56:33
Yeah. I just, yep. I just wish it was just a slightly more, you know I just wanted a little more. Yeah, I wish we had more time. And I got it from Project Hail Mary, right? Which was like it gave me those highs and lows. Um I do, I do love the I think you're right. The music cues were great. I love the fact that they call them George and Ringo and then they do On Our Way Home. It's a little on the nose, but it's kind of perfect.

Marty: 56:59
Now, what do you think of that weird Beatles mixtape that Ethan Hawk made the kid in the boyhood movie? Is I liked it. Is I was gonna say uh I almost feel like looking up the playlist and just listening to it to see if he's talking about really flows, you know.

Clif: 57:18
Yeah, I mean, I again there there are parts of that movie that really work, and then there but I just I wanted, I guess maybe I'm just greedy. I wanted more of the highs and lows and just show me this kid's real struggles, right? And instead it he seemed to kind of smooth through his life, right?

Marty: 57:34
Mason was kind of shut down a little bit emotionally, yeah.

Clif: 57:37
Yeah, emotionally kind of shut down and kind of just went through it. And and and and again, he he things sort of happened to him rather than him making taking steps. Like there's a there's a point in the movie where I didn't bring it up, but he says it was basically like I I want to be an artist, but I'm afraid people will laugh at me. And it's like, bro, okay, that's probably the most honest thing I've seen in the movie so far. Build on that a little bit, give me a little bit more of that, you know what I mean?

Marty: 58:01
And and I really like when his boss at the when he's doing dishes and he basically tells him, like, no man, you gotta fucking focus, you know. And it's like, oh, somebody's giving him some real good advice here, finally.

Clif: 58:13
Yeah, the other one is the hard work speech. Yeah, I think that that's the one part of the movie I would tell my own kid to sit out and watch and be like, listen to this motherfucker right here, because this dude is spitting truth. The most truth in this entire movie is coming out of this guy's mouth about hard work. Period. Period. You know, opportunity is hard work, or luck is opportunity and hard work, fucking beating, right? Like you got if you don't put in the fucking hours, yeah, why should you get the fucking brass ring, man?

Marty: 58:41
I also another part I thought was uh kind of humorous in a way is when the second alcoholic boyfriend is giving him shit on the porch and he just kind of walks in because he's like, You're gonna be fucking gone, dude. We've been through this before, and sure enough, it's the next year, and that guy's fucking works, man.

Clif: 58:57
That was good, yeah, that was good shit. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, but again, I could see it coming. Yeah, but I did like that piece. I really did like that piece. Um, but yeah, so but back to uh Project Hail Mary. I like the Martian better, but I definitely I think this is right up there too. I like this more than the Martian, yeah. Really? Okay, interesting. Yeah, this was even with that first 20 minutes or something.

Marty: 59:21
Yeah, yeah, because overall I felt like it was like he took that and he improved on that type of story, I thought, you know. Like I still like the Martian, but I like this more, yeah.

Clif: 59:33
Yeah. I will say that he has a he it does have a an affinity for writing these uh endlessly optimistic people, or people who tend to persevere with a certain level of gallows humor. They don't seem to the the the the op the odds don't seem to ever make them truly crumble, right? They always seem to come back with with renewed determination and a and almost a sense of humor about it, you know, which is an admirable trait. Very admirable trait.

Marty: 01:00:04
It's funny because a lot of time in life doing the right thing ends up fucking you up. But in the in those movies, doing the right thing always works out. Well, and the Martian doing the right thing does end up fucking him a few times, like when that tent blows up and shit. But you know, yeah, you gotta have some obstacles. But ultimately going back to save Rocky ended up helping everybody.

Clif: 01:00:27
So yeah, it did. And and I I I love that ending. I I was really I was wondering.

Marty: 01:00:34
Like the Martian, we gotta slingshot back around, and so yeah.

Clif: 01:00:37
Yeah, but I just this idea that uh okay, we we we're going home, we're gonna save Rocky. We could have just ended the movie right there. We could have just said they and they and they go home.

Marty: 01:00:47
Yeah, that's anticlimactic, though, right?

Clif: 01:00:50
But instead we go to the we go to Rocky's planet and we see that they've basically put built a zoo for him. You know, he lives in a big zoo and he's teaching, and it what is he doing? He's teaching the same thing he did on Earth, right? Um I thought that was really cool and kind of uh uh again, almost like boyhood, bookends, right?

Marty: 01:01:09
You can skip Avatar, just pick this one up instead. Much more. Yeah, yeah. This is way better than Avatar.

unknown: 01:01:15
Yeah.

Clif: 01:01:18
What do you what do you give this one? Give it a four. I'm gonna give it a three and a half. I think it's right up there. Look at me, like I might even go four in the offseason. I'm and talking to you about boyhood, I might even go three and a half in our review talking to you about it. I I I I think some of the things that I wanted it to do overshadowed some of the things that I that were good about it. Yeah, it's just such a crazy achievement that it came out good at all. It's a cinematic achievement as far as yeah. I mean, that part is like Richard Linklater. If you ever hear this, you think I'm a dick and I don't like your movie. I I'm I I absolutely admire the shit out of what you did.

Marty: 01:01:54
Well, you gave it a three. I mean, it's not like a shitty rating.

Clif: 01:01:58
No, no, no, no. It's just I wanted more from it. And and and again, I think there are times when he really resonates with me, and then there are times where I'm like, meh, like, where did you go, Bernadette? And then there are other times where I'm just like, nah, this doesn't work.

Marty: 01:02:10
Yeah, when I think back to boyhood, I think of probably about a dozen or so, those flashes, those moments, and how I'm like, oh yeah, I've got those moments too, and it's just so weird to see that captured so accurately to my own brain. I just it's just it's almost eerie. But I can also imagine somebody who's not from this country might have a weird take on that film, you know, it might not relate to them at all. Or maybe it would, right?

Clif: 01:02:37
Because there are some similarities in life, but I think its greatest gift probably is going to be uh assuming that people watch this type of entertainment in the future, say 100 years from now, they can look back and say, this while this is fake, here's a kind of a decent representation of what a kid's life was from 2002 to 2008. That's true. Right down to the cold play. Yeah. As as as far as the as far as the culture, the music, the story, you know, yeah, some of that stuff may, you know, may have been universal. But that's not the important part. The important part is look at every look at his surroundings, look at listen to the music, look at what he's wearing, look at what's being driven. All of that is accurate. Yeah.

Marty: 01:03:21
It can't help but be the colour. Exactly. It's exactly to the time period.

Clif: 01:03:25
A weird company ancient max.

Marty: 01:03:27
Yeah.

Clif: 01:03:28
It's a strange time capsule that he's given the future. Yeah, it is, and that's a very cool thing.

Marty: 01:03:33
It is a it is a strange film, definitely. Yeah.

unknown: 01:03:37
Yeah.

Marty: 01:03:38
And in a and in a good way, not in a bad way. And yet, still elements of Slacker are still in there too, which is funny how dude.

Clif: 01:03:50
I I I I tell you, I the my my biggest laugh was seeing the fucking the uh guy who runs the liquor store in days to confused in this movie.

Marty: 01:03:57
I was just like, yeah, he's in here all the time, you know, that fucking check all. And I'm like, oh my god, just the flashback of shit that, you know.

Clif: 01:04:07
With me, it was with me, it wasn't liquor, it was cigarettes. My I my my babysitter, when I was eight, she would sometimes run out of cigarettes and drive me across the street to the store, and she would hand me a note with money. Well, she would just hand me money in the beginning, and I would go in, and finally, after three or four times, the manager's like, We can't you're a kid, we cannot fucking sell you cigarettes. And she got pissed.

Marty: 01:04:29
She came in here and gave me a fine earlier today for selling a minor cigarette.

Clif: 01:04:34
She stomped in there and bought the cigarettes, and then she came back out bitching. And then the next time we went, she wrote me a fucking like a handwritten note and gave me the money, and that worked. Like they were just like, Oh, sure. Like, yeah.

Marty: 01:04:46
You could have just gone somewhere with a cigarette machine and pulled the knob and got them out that way.

Clif: 01:04:51
Yeah. Just take me to the hey, Mrs. Grace, take me to the bar real quick. I'll just run in there and grab grab some smokes. They were they were more expensive at the bar though. Ah.

Marty: 01:05:00
Well, that you you pay for the convenience, yeah.

Clif: 01:05:03
Yeah. And you know, they may not have her Virginia Slim 100s that she liked to smoke. Um, well, that was a good episode, man. I I uh I I I have to say I I enjoyed watching both the movies. I I I I wanted more from boyhood and I kind of struggle with it at points, but I it's not like I hated watching it, you know. And then Project Hail Mary is just a likable fucking movie. Yeah. You know, you put it on and you're like, this is a likable piece of shit. God damn it.

Marty: 01:05:32
So what do you got for me next time?

Clif: 01:05:35
Let's do Married to the Mob. Okay. Little dimmy.

Marty: 01:05:41
Yeah, I remember not liking that, but we'll see what I feel about it now. Well, then you can sit there and bitch about it for maybe I'll go, hey, I was completely wrong. This is delightful.

Clif: 01:05:53
Yeah.

Marty: 01:05:54
This was this was wonderful. Michelle Pfeiffer is a joy. It's more Matthew Modine.

Clif: 01:06:01
We love us a Matthew Modine on this show.

Marty: 01:06:03
Okay, so I'm gonna give you comedy.

unknown: 01:06:10
Okay.

Marty: 01:06:11
The wrong missy.

Clif: 01:06:13
The wrong missy?

Marty: 01:06:15
Yeah, it was a David Spade movie for Netflix. But I can't remember her name, the actress, but she plays Denise on Big Bang Theory. You know, Stuart's co-worker at the comic book shop, and I always heard that it was supposed to be pretty funny. Like she's supposed to be pretty good in it. So I'm curious about that one.

Clif: 01:06:34
Well, cool. Alright, so The Wrong Missy and Married to the Mob.

Marty: 01:06:38
Yeah. See what kind of connections we get there.

Clif: 01:06:41
I wonder, yeah, I was gonna say, I wonder what kind of connection. I'm already thinking there might be some sort of connection there. You want to get out of here on a quote?

Marty: 01:06:48
I think I'm the only girl in the whole school who doesn't like the Twilight books. I hate squash! Later, man.