#135. 'Licorice Pizza'
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Sonny, Vic, and JVL finally review Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza (2021), newly arrived on Amazon Prime, and land in a fond-but-conflicted place: Sonny has rewatched it twice and, despite finding it shaggy and episodic, says the ending hits him "like a ton of bricks" every time; Vic scores it on his Quadrant system as Plot: NA ("there was no plot"), Duration: B (adjusted for the Paul Thomas Anderson scale), Action/Violence: C, and Sex/Nudity: D, calling himself "conflicted" but intrigued; and JVL, delighted that the film has zero CGI, talks himself into liking it more than he expected even as he confesses two hangups — a sad sense that he's "aging out" of the film's youthful magic, and real skepticism (bolstered by a Paul Schrader Facebook post) that a hustling teenage con man like Gary Valentine grows up to be anything but a sociopath. Along the way they dig into the movie's two controversies (the Alana/Gary age gap and the John Michael Higgins "fake Japanese wife" restaurant-owner scenes), rave about Bradley Cooper's John Peters and the Cooper Hoffman/Alana Haim chemistry, and riff on 1970s Hollywood hangout spots. The episode opens with its usual long runway of banter: JVL narrates, in loving detail, the installation of a massive in-ground basketball hoop at his new Jersey house (including the local custom of paying cash to skip taxes and hiring a snow-plow guy named Anthony for "protection"), plus a callback to friend-of-the-show Mary Katherine Hamm buying her husband the same SimpleHuman trash can JVL raved about last week; Sonny recounts historic flooding in Dallas that prompted worried texts even though it barely touched his hilltop house; and Vic complains about getting scammed out of a $5 Korean-food discount before recommending a new Japanese spot, Yuraku, in Rosslyn. There's also a lengthy box-office tangent about Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero topping the weekend charts and what that says about anime's growing theatrical pull. Mail-in reviewer "Jean" returns with a rhyming four-star verdict, and the episode closes, characteristically, with Vic recounting an unidentifiable gummy raw-squid appetizer he choked down rather than be rude.
From the show notes
Your four favorite hosts talk Paul Thomas Anderson's coming-of-age comedy.
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00What are your plans? I don't know. What's your future look like? I don't know. How do you like working at Tiny Toes? I hate working at Tiny Toes. You should start your own business. What business should I be in? I don't know. What do you like? I don't know. You're an actress. You should be an actress. So how'd you become such a hot shot actor? I'm a showman. It's my calling. I don't know how to do anything else. It's what I'm meant to do. I mean, ever since I was a kid, I've been a song and dance man. Come on. Ever since you were a kid. Song and dance man. Where are your parents? My mom works for me. Oh, of course she does. Yeah, she does. In my public relations company. In your public relations company? Because you have that? Yes. And you're an actor? Yes. And you're a secret agent too? Yes. Well, no, I'm not a secret agent. That's funny.
Vic00:01:13Hello and welcome to another edition of The Sub-Beacon. I'm Victor Matus along with Sonny Bunch and Jonathan V. Last. Just a reminder, The Sub-Beacon is now available through Patreon. Go to subbeacon.com. You'll easily find us. Please subscribe. Tell your friends. And don't forget about The Sub-Beacon merchandise store at teepublic.com. Gentlemen, how are we? JVL, what is going on?
JVL00:01:34Very exciting news. Hugely exciting news. First of all, I would like to thank all of the people who reached out to offer me support after last week's show because they, too, are devotees of The Simple Human. The number of people... Friend of the show, Mary Catherine Hamm. Oh, she texted me to say... I couldn't believe that she did the exact same thing. She, in fact, bought The Simple Human for her husband's birthday a few years ago, and it was one of the best presents he's ever received. My sister should take note of this.
Sonny00:02:07I feel like that's a gift you can give a guy and not a girl. Yes. Like, if I got, for instance...
JVL00:02:13You can give any human, any Simple Human, you can give that gift to. So, anyway, again, every... You know what I have never heard? I have never heard somebody who owns one of these things say, "Ah, forget it. It's a scam." Well, anybody who has one will sheepishly tell you, "Yeah, yeah, it's amazing."
Vic00:02:35No, we mentioned it on the show and I just... Because it was the night before and I said, "Oh, we had this long discussion about garbage cans." And then all of a sudden, she was off to the races. And then sure enough, she mentions that she had gotten the Simple Human. Is it simply or simple? Simple. Simple, okay.
JVL00:02:51But all one word and all lowercase. It's not like simply safe.
Sonny00:02:54No. Simply Human is the robot. Simple Human is the robot from Ex Machina.
JVL00:02:58Oh.
Sonny00:02:59The sex robot. Oh, okay.
JVL00:03:02Sex robot. Yeah.
Vic00:03:04Yeah.
JVL00:03:05Anyway, it was uncanny. Continue. So here's the big news. I had today installed in my driveway the concrete anchor for my massive basketball hoop, which is going to be in ground. Jack hammering cement. I want to say like 400 pounds of cement into the hole. How deep does it have to go in? How deep does it? I think they dug a hole that went down a good four feet. I was going to say four. And then poured some concrete into it. Are cement and concrete the same thing? I don't even know. And then mounted this.
Sonny00:03:48I think slightly different. Slightly different.
JVL00:03:50This steel. It's like, I don't know, like five gauge steel plus. Steel plate on top of it. And the concrete has to cure for three days. You can't touch it. And then three days from now, once the basketball system is delivered. Then they can just pop it right on. Now, one potential potential snag. The delivery company says that they will deliver the basketball system to the curb. To the curb.
Sonny00:04:25But not install it.
JVL00:04:28I don't care about the installation. I have I have a professional installer who's going to install it. But the problem is that my my driveway right from the entrance to the driveway up to the house. A it's pretty long and B it's uphill. And the basketball system packed weight, I think, is around 800 pounds.
Sonny00:04:50So if they're just going to leave.
JVL00:04:52Leave it right there at the curb. That's going to be a problem. Yeah. So, yeah. Question is going to be, does it? Am I going to have to grease the palm of Sal, Sally or Vinnie? Worth it. Or Antony when they when they pull up to deliver this thing? Because in Jersey, hey, that's how these things work. You know, the guy I was talking with today did my install. Great guy. And he said, I said, you know, you want me to pay his use today?
?00:05:21Or do you want to work?
JVL00:05:21He's used today. Or do you want to wait to come back and do the install? And he says, yeah, you just do it when he comes back. But but, you know, just to understand, we could take credit cards or checks. But if you're paying cash, we don't got to do taxes or nothing. So I said, oh, OK, thanks, buddy. Pay cash. Take care. You know, by the way of each other in Jersey, you save like JBL.
Sonny00:05:41What's that like? Ten percent.
Vic00:05:43Twelve percent. Hey, JBL, your accent has gotten so much more sharper.
JVL00:05:48So have you noticed you've been off up there? This is this is a thing. And this is not the first or second or third vendor who I have used for things who has just matter of factly said, yeah, if you'd like to do cash, then I don't have to charge you, charge you taxes for anything. I thought, man, this is my these are my people. This is something which literally never once happened to me in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Oh, no.
Vic00:06:10Oh, my God. Never once. You try to suggest that the report. Yeah.
Sonny00:06:15All right. I have a lot of questions about this whole basketball. Yes, I have. I have one. So. All right. So. So does it come as does it come as like one piece? Oh, no. No, no. It has to be assembled. No, no, no. Okay. So. So. But.
JVL00:06:34But the the. The anchors. The hole that goes in the ground is one. One. One big steel. One big steel pole. Six by six or six by eight inch steel pole. I mean, just mammoth. And again, five gauge steel. So. Yeah. You know.
Sonny00:06:46And then and then they put the you put the hoop on with it. Does it have like an. An adjustable.
JVL00:06:51Yeah. So it's got arms. Right. So it's got these steel arms that come out that then adjust to go up and down all the way down to five feet all the way up to ten feet. And then the tempered glass, half inch thick tempered glass back. Oh, it's a glass back for sixty inches. I didn't go the full seventy two for complicated reasons that more have to do more with the overhang than the than the width of the of the backboard. I want to. One foot less. Less than regulation. But, you know, so it is shorter than NBA regulation. So if you are in a gym with like regulation backboards, this back will be a little bit smaller. It will be larger than any backboard you have ever played on at any basketball court outside, like any court you've gone to at a playground. Yeah. Yeah. This is like a court of dreams.
Sonny00:07:43And so so it's like an all weather thing like you can. This will this will last through, you know, negative ten degrees. Are you going to do?
Vic00:07:50Lifetime guarantee.
Sonny00:07:51So you could do the team lifetime guarantee.
Vic00:07:53You could do the tape measure test like in Hoosiers, like in Hoosiers, like one of your kids on your shoulders and they can.
JVL00:07:58But I'll bring it all the way down to five feet now. I'll say to G Money, I'll do it with G Mass. I see that it's only five feet. Same is normal. You can dunk on that there, big guy. Just like in Hinkley.
Sonny00:08:10So Hinkle continuing, continuing the question. So are you putting this like in your in your driveway? Yeah. Yeah.
JVL00:08:19Is this going to be a half court?
Sonny00:08:21Are you going to? All right. Now, is it flat enough? Can you make like an actual half court there? Could you paint out the lines?
Vic00:08:28You said it goes down. That's not the driveway.
JVL00:08:30That's well, eventually it goes down, but the top of it is this large plateau, which is the size of a half. All right.
Vic00:08:37So just don't just don't let the ball roll all the way down, because that would be the
JVL00:08:39norm. You know what they make? They make retractable little fences that specifically for this type of thing. So do you? It's like, you know, it's like a quick quick install. Little tennis fence. Right. That you just, you know, like a tennis net. Anyway, the point is, I have already begun looking into how would one really spec this out with a full key and half circle and three point line? And maybe maybe I'm going to do it up with the Duke logo because he plays the right way. We could call this Coach K's Court or something. K Court. K Court, New Jersey. I don't know. I don't know.
?00:09:18Who knows?
Vic00:09:19It would be a nice little touch.
JVL00:09:21Who knows what we could do with it? But I'm thinking about how we're going to put the key in.
Vic00:09:26Kate's cousin did that in his backyard. So instead of it's like it's like it's now it's just half grass and the other half is this. It's green. It's like a dark green, almost like a tennis court surface. And then but it has the the markings and everything for the key.
JVL00:09:43Oh, that's very nice. Did he do it himself or did he hire a? Oh, I think he must have hired. I yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure he had professionals do it.
Vic00:09:52But this is the kind of thing where you'll be able to hang now and then it won't shatter
JVL00:09:56on you, although that would make a good ESPN highlight. It won't shatter. And I have the NBA pro style 180 degree breakaway rim. So there are two two styles of breakaway in college. The breakaway rim only goes up and down. You're right in the NBA. They have another spring that goes side to side. So like any way, if you pull it up from the side, it'll go like this from the front. It goes. So basically, when I'm throwing down when it's at seven and a half feet, when you're when you're throwing windmills, I'm throwing down windmills at seven and a half feet. It's going to be it's going to be epic, super excited.
Vic00:10:35Well, I think that's probably why do you think that's why the glass shatters in some of these college games because they're coming at it from an angle and it snaps it? Is that what happens?
JVL00:10:43I don't do that, does it? Do they shatter anymore?
Sonny00:10:45I feel like I don't think the basketball. I haven't finally done that. I haven't seen too many. I've seen a couple in relatively recent times where they break like the whole. Yeah. Backboard system like it like I've seen it come down like the the the hinge in the back is down. I've seen that. I've seen that. But I don't think I haven't seen too many like Shaq style like explosions. Right.
JVL00:11:09Basically ripping the rim out of the back because that's what I was always impressed
Vic00:11:13that they they were largely unscathed by the glass. It wasn't like, you know, Tony Goldwyn at the end of Ghost. It's not plate glass. I know.
JVL00:11:22I know. It's not plate glass. It's literally windshield glass. So if it just. If it shatters, it just shatters into a million nuggets. Right. Right. Like nuggets, not shards. Yeah. Yeah. Like the end of Ghost. Man, I'm excited about this.
Sonny00:11:35So are you are you going to put down like proper soft the soft, soft concrete stuff on the on the. I don't even.
JVL00:11:44I'm just going to keep. Not asphalt. I'm just going to keep the asphalt of the driveway.
Sonny00:11:47Okay.
JVL00:11:48Just going to keep the driveway. It's asphalt. It's a new driveway. The drive was only a year and a half old. I think they had the whole thing just like dug out and reapplied the driveways like four thousand or five thousand square feet. It's a it's a lot of driveway. Yeah.
Sonny00:12:02That's going to be a lot of driveway to in the winter. Are you going to get a are you going to get a snowblower?
JVL00:12:06I have to have a plow service is what everybody tells me that you that the people who live over and where I live, who have ten long driveways. They said it's really you can't do it yourself. You got to just get a guy and so I got to get a guy.
Vic00:12:24His name. No, they that's a bit. That's a big thing in Jersey.
JVL00:12:27I believe his name is Anthony. I believe his name literally his name is Anthony. And the deal is that Anthony will come out and just I don't I don't exactly sure how this works. To be honest, I don't know the the more you pay him yet or the he does it.
Sonny00:12:42He does it. And then he sends he sends Jimmy to collect.
Vic00:12:46Whether or not you want. How do you drive way plowed by the way?
Sonny00:12:49So wait a minute. Sal comes over with the with the envelope would be like, oh, there was only a quarter
Vic00:12:53inch of snow on here. Oh, we did it anyway. That'll be 500 bucks.
JVL00:12:57So I I think what I do is I just write him a check before the like in the fall to just cover protection. You think of it this way? I'm I am paying him for protection from the snow.
Vic00:13:10If you think of it that way, Victorino, you're so yes, you know, it's just I'm not paying.
JVL00:13:15I'm not paying him per. For the act of of plowing. That's just a service. He provides me as part of his general protection, a racket, if you will, a protection racket that is a racket is an ugly to make sure that my home and my driveway are safe.
Sonny00:13:30It's like insurance.
JVL00:13:31Any unfortunate weather events that may come down from the sky, you know, you fully ensconced
Vic00:13:41up there. It's only now. Oh, by the way, next week I got a gold chain that I'm going to start next week and I have pink rings. Pinky. You got it. Yeah, that's you know what? It's it's gradual and you won't even realize it when it starts happening like that. It's just very bad.
JVL00:13:55I got a boy. Can I tell this on? Yes, you can.
Vic00:14:00Once you go down that looks like saying, oh, I was. Oh, I can't tell you.
Sonny00:14:03As soon as you say that, you got to tell there I was with on Ana de Armas. I'm sorry. I can't.
JVL00:14:10Let me tell you this, but we you may have to bleep some of it, Sonny. So my one of my uncles now departed. Uh, his wife passed away, uh, predeceased him.
Sonny00:14:23She she will on 9/11 actually, and uh, the 9/11 or a different 9/11 that one just on
JVL00:14:30September 11, the uh, and uh, and he was living in Brigantine. They lived in Brigantine at the time, and the entire town rallied to him very nicely. And he fell in with a bunch of a very nice gentleman, uh, a friend. The group who really took him in for, for golfing and drinking and stuff like that. Uh, very nice people from the Italian American community and, uh, and this, this one of them looked like a bull, like one of these guys who just can't like that. The shoulders were like, you know, four and a half feet broad, uh, no neck whatsoever. And they, you know, like all of a sudden my uncle. I was driving this Lexus convertible that, uh, that Tony had like picked out for him or something. It was not clear to me, like if Tony had bought it for him or picked it out for him or gotten him a good deal. Cause if maybe this Lexus fell off the back of a truck or something and, uh, and you know, it was just understood though, that every once in a while, Tony would need to borrow it. And so Tony had a set of keys and, uh, you know, like Tony would come over and like some morning just borrow the car some mornings. The Lexus wouldn't be there because Tony had gone and taken it out. I'm sure this is all totally legitimate and he was not using it to dump bodies or avoid being tracked by easy pass system or anything like that. But it was just a, you know, a normal arrangement the way one does, does that happen in Virginia? I don't, I don't sense that those arrangements happen in Virginia. No, no, no.
Sonny00:16:14Does not happen in Texas. No. Does not happen in Texas.
Vic00:16:18Very good. Very good.
Sonny00:16:20Sonny, what's going on with you? Uh, not a whole lot. You survived the flooding? There's been a lot of, there's been a lot of rain. It's funny. So I got, I, I've gotten three or four random text messages from people who were like, are you okay? It's all over the news. I saw, I saw, I saw what's going on. And I like, I, I'll be honest, it is so totally separate from my experience of the last two or three days that I wasn't, I wasn't sure what was, until I actually looked at the local news because I don't watch. It's a big city. I don't watch the local news very often. But, and I was like, oh wow, there's a lot of, there is in fact a lot of flooding downtown in, in Dallas. Uh, I mean it, it rained, I think, I think in like a, over a 12 hour stretch, it rained something like seven inches at Dallas Fort worth airport. I mean, it was like an enormous, enormous amount of rain. It, it was really coming down, um, which I mean, we ha it hadn't rained in like two months, so we needed it, you know, uh,
JVL00:17:11Is Dallas one of these cities, which is not built to accommodate rain?
Sonny00:17:16Well, I mean, Dallas is built, so Dallas is at the intersection of, I think, two rivers, uh, and there's, there, there's a lot of like land that is kind of low lying to the river. Um, and when it rains that much, it can be, it can be, it can be bad. I mean like where, where I live, we have, you know, we have storm drains and stuff and like for instance, this weekend when I, when I was driving by it, um, there were actually lights flashing. That said, don't come this way, water, high water, because like the water might've been over the, the, but it wasn't, I went down there, I drove through it. Yeah. I went, I drove through, I saw the, well, I was already there. I, I was like, I was driving there. I saw the lights flashing. I was like, oh shit, I'm already there. I could see, I could see the bridge. I could see that there wasn't any water on it. So I just, I was just like, oh fuck.
Vic00:18:05Because you reached a certain level and the engine would just shut off.
Sonny00:18:10You know? Yeah. You can't drive through standing water, but I mean, there was no standing water. I could see, I literally could see it. Okay. So it wasn't, it wasn't an issue, but there, but there are, but there are other places that are if you, so where I live, there's a, there's a neighborhood that's right off of a little, a little tributary into the, to the lake that we have around here. I can't remember what the name of the actual little stream is, but when it rains and like, doesn't, it doesn't even have to rain a ton. It doesn't have to rain a ton. You know, if it rains like an inch they will shut down roads all around it because it's just, it's just too low lying. The water comes up and, and, and floods it out. Um, luckily I live at the top of the hill. I live at, I live basically on the, I live at like the precipice and you look down on
JVL00:18:55everybody.
Sonny00:18:56That's what you're saying. I live, I live on the Highlands of Lake Highlands and I, when I, when the rain comes, people
Vic00:19:02come to me. I thought you were in Preston Hollow.
Sonny00:19:04People, people come to me and they say, please, sir, let us in to your keep. And I slam the door and I say, get out of here, bums, go get in your boats. No, uh, it's it. So anyway. I, several, several people texted were like, Hey, are you okay? And I'm like, I'm like, yeah, I'm fine. I don't. What's what's the deal. Oh, the rain. Yeah. Yeah. The rain. It was, it was, I mean, it was like governor Abbott was walking around in this, you know,
JVL00:19:30boots.
Sonny00:19:31Well, I guess he wasn't walking, but yeah, he, he had somebody pushing him around. He's going to say, but, but the, uh, but no, but like the, uh, the, the, I wasn't, I wasn't even trying to make a joke here. I was like, he was touring the, he was touring the site. He was touring the site. I wasn't. I was swearing. I swear to God, I wasn't trying to make a joke. Uh, but the, um, but yeah, no, I mean, it was like, it, it, it rained an enormous, enormous amount and places downtown were flooded out and it was, uh, you know, pretty bad.
Vic00:20:00You know, you know, uh, this happened to a former colleague of ours, Ethan Epstein, when he was doing some piece for Politico and he was like out west somewhere, was it in Arizona somewhere? And he tried to make it through. Yeah. And it got bad. And it, and the amount of time he said that the water, the water level rose so fast. He act, he got out of his, through the window.
Sonny00:20:26People died. People. This is how people die. Like, I mean, like you don't, you don't drive through, you don't drive through standing water. I mean like, that's like one of the number one rules of the road. I don't know.
JVL00:20:38No, he's gone on to a better place. Ethan's in Philly. Yeah. I know. That's right.
Vic00:20:44He said, Hey, that's a whole other. Yeah. Anyway. So you're fine.
Sonny00:20:49Otherwise, Sonny. Yeah, we're fine. Uh, fun, fun, exciting. The fun, exciting news in our house is that, uh, I, with my seven year old had been doing, uh, a giant millennium Falcon Lego, which version that no, not the, not the $800 one. There's like an $800 home record original, I guess. Yeah. But I, we're not doing that one. We're doing it. Uh, it came out when rise of Skywalker, I think. Oh, that version. That's a nice one. That's a nice one. So it's, it's a newer one. It's a newer one.
Vic00:21:19It's did you get the home record Lego or the Lepin version?
Sonny00:21:22The Lego. We got the Lego version.
Vic00:21:24Not the question. This, this, this, uh, home record version that you talk about for 800 or whatever it is. Uh, is it, is it a big deal because it's basically to scale? Is that what it is in terms of figure?
JVL00:21:38It's not to scale, but it's, uh, if you've never seen this in the Lego store, it's probably four feet long. Uh, yeah. Okay. So you need a coffee table to display it on basically. Yeah.
Sonny00:21:50Yeah. Yeah. This one, the one that we're doing right now is about and a lawyer to handle your divorce papers.
Vic00:21:55Right. So do you remember, uh, the Kenner, uh, millennium Falcon from the original Star Wars, I didn't have it. Oh, you did, but you had an app. I was like, you know, pressed up against the glass, but it was clearly smaller than like it would actually be.
JVL00:22:13It should have been.
Vic00:22:14It was because it was basically.
JVL00:22:16The same size as the X-Wing. The X-Wing was almost as long as the Falcon. Yes. No, the, that's exactly right. Yeah.
Sonny00:22:23That's exactly right. The, uh, they, you know, where there is a, to scale millennium Falcon is at the galaxy's edge, like at galaxy's edge, they actually have the, they, they have, uh, what amounts to a scale replica of the millennium.
Vic00:22:37Can you go inside or no?
Sonny00:22:39Well, one of the rides, one of the rides is you're it's like, you're going inside the millennium Falcon and you're piloting it. Wow. That's firing what the ride is. Right. From the like firing. Yeah. You're supposed to be, you're supposed to be flying it and shooting it. And let me tell you, if you have people in your party who have never played video games before, that's a fun adventure, you know, that's a fun adventure.
JVL00:23:04I had a question for you now, the Aegis system in the ship ship born, uh, surface to air defense, point defense, like actual naval vessels. You're talking. Yeah. That's all. Those, those guns are all computerized. There's a radar and they're tracking incoming missiles and the little mini guns on turrets spent. Mm-hmm they don't have human beings in, you know, in, in leather chairs.
Vic00:23:32It's not, yeah, it's not, it's not like the Yorktown in the, in the, in, in the, the galaxy
JVL00:23:38in which interstellar travel is possible and you have computers which can make calculations so complicated. They allow you to jump to light speed. We're still, we're still doing point defense manually tail gun, all being handled by actual tail gunners.
Sonny00:23:55Long time ago. Okay. Well, that's a good point.
JVL00:23:58It was a long time ago. That's a good point. Fair. We have droids who are fully artificially intelligent, but we're still having the point defense cannons be manual, human intuition.
Vic00:24:10It's like when I play civilization and I get to the point where I have, you know, developed and discovered plastics and I've got infantry and, uh, and then at the same time, uh, we have yet to discover the railroad, you know, sort of like completely balanced, you know, how are you Victorino? I'm okay. I was a little annoyed the other day because, uh, I got in my email, one of these, I don't know how they got my email, but anyway, uh, a promo for a place I sometimes get, uh, for Korean food, soul spice, soul S E O U L. Spice. Uh, I mentioned this before, Sonny, this is, it's basically where the old poke bowl was on North wind street, right? So it's like, it's the same system as chopped and Kava, where you just go down the line, you tell them what you want.
Sonny00:24:58Let me ask, did you, did you pay with a, uh, with one of the square?
Vic00:25:04Do they, I know what you're talking about square. Maybe that's what it was.
Sonny00:25:08Cause that's, that's how they, that's how they get you. I get receipts. I get receipts every time I use one of those now, cause they got my email address somehow.
Vic00:25:14Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's crazy. Uh, and so, um, uh, you go there and you can, you know, tell them if you want your bib and bop, bulgogi, if you're into that sort of thing or whatever, I love bulgogi, uh, all over.
JVL00:25:28It's very messy though. Sometimes you can get it in your eyes. All right.
Vic00:25:31I mean, if you get it the wrong way. So yeah. So, uh, uh, you get, I got an email five, $5 off your next purchase. Your next ball $5. That's a big deal. Cause it's like $13 where I'll get the, I'll pay eight, you know, that would be a big deal. I go there. And they said, okay, well, you know, you do it at the end at the, with the cashier lady does it. So I get my thing. I'll go all the way down. And I said, I have this thing for $5. She goes, oh yeah, I'm not sure. The girl says, I just, um, put your credit card in there and then they'll tell you what to do. Uh, here, I guess it says, yeah, just press that button to, to pay. Oh, you just paid for it. I go, yeah. So I didn't get the five. Yeah. Sorry. I don't know how that works. This is all the time.
Sonny00:26:16They got you. That's how they got you.
Vic00:26:19Yes. And there's, you know, all these people on. So I'm not going to be like, let me speak to the manager to get my five.
Sonny00:26:24I'm like, I want my $5, you know, how many, how many mochi balls did you steal?
Vic00:26:28Well, that's the thing. Because in the spirit of poke bowl, uh, I was like, let me, what can I steal from here? I got some extra chopsticks. That'll stick it to them. The chop. 500 pairs of chopsticks. She took the whole, the whole box in order to exact my revenge.
JVL00:26:42And I take the, I'm just taking $5 worth of chopsticks, ma'am. Yeah. Don't mind me.
Sonny00:26:48Yeah. Take the napkin distribution system, just walk out with the whole thing of napkins. This is mine now. I keep it.
Vic00:26:56Yeah. The dispenser itself. Cause you know, the napkins are cheap, but I get the dispenser. Well now I'm in business. I'm not here now.
Sonny00:27:02That's right. I shouldn't have gone. You could be the napkin king in the office.
Vic00:27:05I should have. Yeah. They're, they're hard to find. You know what? You can have a shortage. Uh, I should have gone instead to, uh, you'd love this place. Your Raku. It's called your, it's a new Japanese place in the, um, in the. The lob in not lobby on the ground level of the turnberry tower in Roslyn, the fancy condo on Fort Meyer where remember there used to be a Mexican restaurant. Yeah. There used to be a Mexican place. Great Japanese place. It's so good. And like only people are only now beginning to discover it. So when you go there, they give you a lot and the prices are reasonable and the quality really, really, really good.
JVL00:27:39Is it operated by a husband and wife team where she's Japanese and the husband is a white guy. I'm going to discuss this by the way. That's also okay.
Vic00:27:48A little jumping ahead of here, a little jumping ahead about our movie. I'm sorry.
JVL00:27:52As many of you said that all I could think of was that is the most bizarre thing I have
Vic00:27:56ever seen. It was hilarious. Okay. Uh, but anyway, I should have gone to Yuraku because I love, I love all things Japanese, the food, the drink, the robots, and the anime and the anime, speaking of which over the weekend dragon ball, super superhero, I was like, how do I get a transition out of this was at the top of the box office with 20.1 million dollars followed by beast with 11.6 million and in third place, bullet train with 8 million. These are really the, the, the, the, the, the dog days of summer here. Box office thoughts. I'm like dragons balls, super superhero.
Sonny00:28:36This is like, I'm, I'm, I'm fascinated by this. No, I'm fascinated. But so, so dragon balls, I like, I grew up watching dragon balls. He, I, when I was, I believe it's.
JVL00:28:4610 or so. Dragon ball Z.
Sonny00:28:48Dragon ball Z. Where, where, what network? What is this?
Vic00:28:51Super Saiyans.
Sonny00:28:52Uh, no, the, uh, so the, he Kakarot. That's what the, one of the, the heroes is called. He would, they would yell his, the villains would yell his name and it would be anyway. Um, so dragon ball Z, uh, it was on, I want to say it was, I want to say it was on, uh, like Saturday morning cartoons when I was 11 or 12 or 13. Um, and then, uh, at a certain point in, in the, in the mid nineties, 96, 97, 98, something like that, it switched to adult swim in the cartoon network. And it was a huge, it was an enormous hit for the cartoon network. It was, it was like the number one show on adult swim for, for, for years, years and years. It was, it was an enormous hit. People, people were tuning in. They, they would show two episodes a day at like five and five 30 or six and six 30, something like that. Um, and they were, they were just enormous, enormous hits.
Vic00:29:45Uh, so JVL, this sounds like Sonny Starblazers, doesn't he very, very, very much so except
JVL00:29:52like bigger, except way bigger Sonny, was there a card game collectible component to it? Like with Pokemon or was it purely just an anime series that you consume?
Sonny00:30:03It was, it was a, it was a, it was a, it was a manga, uh, that was, that was turned into an anime. Um, and the, and the, and the, and Dragon Ball Z is actually the sequel series. There was a whole show and series of comics. It's called Dragon Ball, uh, that came out years before that. I think, I think the series debuted in 83 or 84, something like that. Anyway, Dragon Ball Z, big, big hit. Um, but like, you know, it's, it's like anything else, like I, you know, kind of stopped paying attention to it once I was in college and, uh, done with college there, there were sequel series that I never watched Dragon Ball GT, um, but in recent years and like th there's a, there's a whole series of video games, fighting games that are Dragon Ball, uh, brand and that are hugely popular.
Vic00:30:46This is a sort of a, a competition. This is you've.
?00:30:49It.
Vic00:30:50Uh, yeah.
Sonny00:30:51What's happened? Well, it's, uh, do you want me to explain the plot of Dragon Ball Z? Is it like Quidditch? Is it a sport? I'm not doing that. Is it a sport? I'm not, I'm not doing that, but like the very short version is the very short version is there's, there's an, there's an alien, uh, named Goku slash Kakarot, who, uh, is the, the, uh, who has to defend planet earth from various villains who come to destroy it. Very, that's the shortest possible. Okay. I'm not, I'm not going, I'm not going any deeper into it than that, except to say that it's amazing. Okay.
Vic00:31:24Um, but the, but the, uh, but you left out the tentacles, but go ahead, but the, uh,
Sonny00:31:29but so the, the cartoon, obviously the cartoon series was, you know, popular, very everyone really liked it. And that kind of died down as people, you know, aged out, whatever. And then they started showing these movies in theaters and this is the second or third such release. They, the, the folks at Crunchyroll, which is the, the studio that, that puts, puts these out, um, there's this and there's, there's a couple of other, uh, there's a couple of other, uh, titles in this, in this vein, uh, I, I can't remember the name of them, but like, whatever, Naruto, stuff like that, I don't know, something, something Academy. I don't, I like, again, I, not my world at all, but they have, they have created, they have created a whole little community, a little, little micro community that they can very effectively, uh, act. Activate for these, for these, you know, two or three weekend screenings. So it made $20 million this weekend, a bunch of, uh, several other of these anime releases have made $20 million. I find it very fascinating. They're also hugely front loaded, like this gross $20 million in its first weekend, and it will probably gross like 35 million total, which is the sort of number you don't hear. These are like event. These are almost like fathom event type screenings, except they're on 4,000 screens and they play for, for two weeks.
Vic00:32:43Um, and the budget on this must be. Fairly modest then.
Sonny00:32:47Yeah. The budget on it's not huge. I like Sony is real excited to, they're, they're trying to turn this into, they're trying to be like the home for anime and the United States. I don't know. The whole thing is really, really interesting to me to the extent that I was trying to get somebody from crunchy world to do full work goes to Hollywood. We'll see if it works out. Uh, but I'm, I am like, I think, I think it's actually a really neat and interesting, uh, box office story in a, in a season where it is really the doldrums, I mean like the new, what's the new real. Movie, right? Quote unquote real movie beast beast comes out, it makes about 11 million bucks. Wouldn't really expect it to make, make much more than that. It's an Idris Elba starring movie. Everybody loves Idris Elba, but he's not a big, big, big draw at the box office. Um, you know, I top gun Maverick is still in the top five. Like I, you know,
Vic00:33:31let me ask you this with the dragon ball, uh, uh, the people who are going to see it, are they, is there already like a younger generation who now goes or is it mostly people? Do you think there's a lot of older people who are going to see this for, you know, nostalgia reasons?
Sonny00:33:45Yeah. So the stats, uh, so the stats are 70, 70% male.
Vic00:33:49Uh huh. Oh, that shocks me.
Sonny00:33:51Sure.
JVL00:33:52I, frankly, I, that number feels, you thought it was 70% male and 30%, uh, school girl sailor costume.
Sonny00:33:59Yeah. Uh, 70% male frankly strikes me as, as, as a low estimate, but, uh, but the female robot, yeah, but, but yeah, it's, I think, I think, I think, I think the number I saw was something like 55% of the audience was male. The age of 35. Um, so they break it down 35 and under 35 and over in the, in the poll that I saw, most of them were under the age of 35, but I would guess it's probably like in, I would say it's probably like 28 to 35 range if I had to guess. I don't know. I didn't go. I didn't go.
Vic00:34:34I, I might actually go the next time they do this just to, just to watch it itself for you.
Sonny00:34:38Yeah. It's, I mean, it, it is fascinating. Uh, and again, not really my, uh, cup of tea anymore. But it, but I would, I actually do kind of want to just go to experience it and see, eh, these aren't really kid, kids events so much. Is it violent? Um, yeah, it's very, it's funny, a friend sent me, a friend sent me a, uh, a, a photo of a wall street journal, a scare piece from like 2001 when Dragon Ball Z was like in its initial run of popularity that was like, what is up with this horribly violent show that all your children are watching? The hero is getting choked to death by a villain with horns, who's stabbing people in the hearts.
JVL00:35:22Super predators.
Sonny00:35:23Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It was very, very funny to, to read, uh, but, uh, anyway, uh, I'm, I actually find, I find the whole Dragon Ball, uh, Z story to be, or Dragon Ball superhero, whatever, whatever this was called story to be really, really interesting and like a rare, like box office innovation slash win. It's like, it's a, it's a. It's a tough time out there.
Vic00:35:46This is the big surprise for most of our listeners is that this episode is actually about a Dragon Ball super superhero. That's the whole.
JVL00:35:53Yeah, we have one. And that's.
Vic00:35:55Bait and switch.
JVL00:35:56That's all the time we have for this episode. All Hollywood needs to do is get 200 more of those films performing like that in theaters per year. And everything will be fine.
Sonny00:36:04Every, every weekend needs a, every, every weekend needs a new Dragon Ball.
JVL00:36:07If every weekend has four Dragon Ball like performers. No, no, no.
Sonny00:36:11You just need, you need one Marvel movie, one Marvel movie a month. Uh, and then, uh, four Dragon Ball movies a month and then we'll be fine. Well, everything will be okay.
Vic00:36:22Uh, the, so this week, uh, we're not actually talking about that. Well, then we just did. So I guess I'm wrong, uh, but we're actually talking about a movie that finally made it onto Amazon, uh, prime, uh, that we did not discuss at the time it came out. We almost did, but for other various schedule reasons, we were not able to, uh, so we're able to now see it in the comfort of our home. And that is Paul Thomas Anderson's licorice. Pizza. Uh, Sonny, uh, did you end up rewatching this because it's been so long?
Sonny00:36:53I did because I watched it, you know, nine months ago and I was going to, this is something
Vic00:36:58for you to answer later. You guys to answer later. But I, I just wonder if this is the kind of movie that bears repeat watching, but how about a big boy review?
Sonny00:37:06So licorice pizza is set in the, uh, wait a minute.
Vic00:37:10I forgot to ask JVL, uh, did you, did you, you saw. Oh, you watch, you watch licorice pizza. Okay. Just checking.
JVL00:37:19Just want to make sure all four of us saw it.
Vic00:37:22Oh, jean licorice pizza is the latest film from Paul Thomas Anderson. And while there's no roller girl, there is Alana Haim, man, oh man, a chef. She sells water beds, smokes pot, falls in love with a 15 year old Gary, not exactly kosher. Pretty sure she shoplifts. How do I know? Check out the movie poster. She's smuggling raisins. It's it's a Hollywood, it's a Hollywood love story. And I'm pretty sure she makes Gary into a mensch. Licorice pizza is a slice of life. I give it four stars. Jean.
JVL00:38:08It's been so long.
Vic00:38:09I'm glad to know that he's made it through. He's not dead. No, no, no. He's healthy. He's healthy. Sonny. I knew the format is usually we do that and then review it. I forgot because it's been many years.
Sonny00:38:22It's been so long. You haven't. You ever wanted to do it. Since he's visited.
Vic00:38:26I had some other joke about it, but there was, Jean had some other joke that involved the hamantaschen, but it didn't work out. So go ahead. Sonny, tell us what's happening in Licorice Pizza.
Sonny00:38:37Licorice Pizza set in the San Fernando Valley circa 1973. Stars the sun. Of. Philip Seymour Hoffman. Philip Seymour Hoffman. Thank you. His name is Cooper Hoffman. As Gary, who's a kind of precocious 15 year old actor slash, you know, con man of various stripes. He falls for Elena, who is played by Elena Haim of the Rock Trio Haim. They and what happens, what the movie is essentially the way I kind of describe this movie to people is that imagine. Um, um, oh, I'm totally spacing on the, uh, the, the name of the movie. I'm trying to 500 days of summer. No, no, no, not 500 days of summer. Punch drunk love this. No, the 1970s, uh, ensemble shortcuts, comedy. No, uh, no. Terminator Texas with Richard return to the sink.
JVL00:39:44Seven.
Sonny00:39:45I can't.
JVL00:39:46Oh, you're, you're, you're, you're way above your way beyond me, Sonny Richard Linkland. You lie.
Vic00:39:50I can't help you.
Sonny00:39:51Daisy confused. Oh. Daisy confused. What it, what it reminds me of is dazed and confused. If dazed and confused, instead of taking place over the course of one night takes place over the course of a year, basically. Um, and that creates all sorts of problems. Uh, this, this movie is very much a hangout movie. It is a S as you say, as Jean said, a slice of life movie. You are basically just spending time with these people as they grow up and kind of figure out what they want in life. And, um, all of the discrete segments within it, uh, are very entertaining, uh, or, you know, somewhere between entertaining and very entertaining. There's a, there's a great, uh, sequence where they, uh, meet Barbra Streisand's, uh, boyfriend at the time, John, John Peters, John Peters, uh, which that's right. Hairdresser soon to be studio head producer of the aborted 1990 Superman movie that Kevin Smith did a treatment on. Um, but he. He, he plays this like kind of coked out, uh, you know, uh, Los Angeles figure to the hilt, just, just an absolute perfect performance. Um, uh, you know, I, I, I, Sean Penn plays a kind of scuzzball actor who, uh, gets directed by Tom waits into doing a stunt on a golf course.
Vic00:41:04It's supposed to be, it's supposed to be William Holden, right?
Sonny00:41:07So there, there are all of, there's like a, there's like a, a series of discrete events. Um, and the whole thing is very. Very shaggy and very shambolic, uh, episodic it's episodic in a bad way. Um, and, and, and despite all of that, I, I've watched it twice now and both times the ending has kind of hit me like a ton of bricks. I mean, I like, I, I'm, I'm like not totally with it, not totally with it. And then, and then there's, there's running and love and happiness at the end. And I'm like, oh, I like this. I like this whole thing. Um, I don't know.
Vic00:41:44That was the most earnest I've ever heard.
Sonny00:41:47I don't know how to, I don't know how to explain it, but something about it just works. Like I, I, I find these people like vaguely ridiculous, but also entertaining and real in a very, in a very real way. Like the, the way, uh, Alana is like yelling at her sisters early on in the film, the, the, her real, her real sisters, the, the Heim sisters, um, just again, it, it feels, it feels like a very real movie. It also, it feels very much like a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. Since then, it's kind of shaggy and, and a little episodic and shambolic, but it also has some fun little Easter eggs. Like, did you guys, did you guys see who that was playing, uh, John C. Riley, John C. Riley, and you can only really tell cause the voice, cause it's just John C. Riley talking. Um, uh, but it's, that's, that's a great little, little John C. Riley sounds put upon in the
JVL00:42:35way that Herman Munster always sounded put upon within the show. It's actually a nice little five second piece of business.
Sonny00:42:42Yeah. Um, I. I, I don't love this movie, but I do like it a lot. I do like it a lot. And uh, I don't know, like I totally, I could, I can totally, I can totally see, I mean JBL is just sitting here like massaging his forehead. I could see hating this thing. I could see like being annoyed by all of these people and being annoyed by the, the, the structure of the picture and all that. But I just find, I, I just get, I sit back for the, and, and go on the ride and, and, and kind of love it.
Vic00:43:12Right. So, uh, JBL. I was wondering about you because you loved Paul Thomas Anderson. I remember in the year. I mean, obviously we, even though there was heartache, but then there was, you know, um, obviously boogie nights with you. And I think we saw together, I think we did see that together and then, and then Magnolia as well. I think we saw that together.
JVL00:43:31Yeah. Um, we saw Sydney together actually on DVD at my place, heartache, which is referred
Vic00:43:37to as Sydney because it's his that's right with, um, his title, but I wanted to, I want
JVL00:43:41your thoughts first because, uh. Yeah. This is the first movie we've seen in a very long time with zero CGI.
Vic00:43:48Yes. Yes.
JVL00:43:50Although it's four hours, it doesn't feel a minute over three hours and 30 minutes. Like it really, for the length it is, it moves really quickly.
Vic00:43:58And so I was curious as to what you would say about it. Yeah. The quadrants versus how I feel. And I'm actually quite conflicted the way Sonny is because it does not do well in the quadrants. First of all, the plot, this is the funny part of the plot. I gave it an NA. It's not like I don't understand a plot. It was, there was no plot. Just no plot. Just no plot. Okay. Uh, duration. I jokingly say it's a C because, but it's, it's, it's actually a B on the Paul Thomas Anderson scale of movie length.
JVL00:44:23You have to adjust it for Paul Thomas Anderson movies.
Vic00:44:26Yeah. Yeah. For Paul Thomas Anderson. Oh wow. That was not three hours. Okay. Um, action of violence. I, uh, I gave it a C and I'll tell you what's interesting. Um, the truck in reverse scene, Paul Thomas Anderson has this weird way of building up this tension in your world. I'm worried having, having seen boogie nights and the awful scene with the F the awful and amazing scene with the firecrackers and Alfred Molina, and you're like this pit in your stomach, something awful is going to happen. And in fact, it does happen. I felt myself, there were two moments in this movie where I thought something bad was really going to happen. And it was driving the truck in reverse, which was just fascinating to watch, you know, without the engine on and, and she's such a pro at this. But the other thing was the almost taxi driver level of guy outside. Stalking the campaign office. And I thought something really awful is going to happen and it's going to come with a loud bang. Didn't happen. Uh, and sex nudity is a D because you see a lot of skin, but the St no boogie nights. And that said, I still was intrigued by it. Like I, at some point, middle, midway through, I'm like, wait, I don't think anything's actually, that's not like there's a point to this. We're just going through it a day, a day or a year in the life of a young Gary Getzman, right? Is Tom Hanks, his partner. And, uh, yeah. I think Paul Thomas Anderson is what it was like for him. You liked it. I did.
JVL00:45:50And, and I see it. I see it in the eyes there.
Vic00:45:54Yes. Uh, the act it, it, it's like the child actor aging out and the, it was very, and I guess Paul Thomas Anderson does it on purpose when he's auditioning and Maya Rudolph is there and the amount of time it takes him to change the outfit for this little thing. For a clothing commercial is awful.
JVL00:46:16Sears suit, right.
Vic00:46:18And they're waiting for him to do this thing. And he's still trying to be the kid. He's not a kid. He's a big fellow. And she says, oh, you've been eating your vegetables.
JVL00:46:26You got huge, huge.
Vic00:46:28So, uh, I was, I, I, I mean, I found the movie, I found the movie intriguing. I was, somebody had mentioned, uh, that the ending, uh, there was something really bad about the ending and, and, and disapproving about the ending. And so I thought for sure, two things. Uh, there was a scene where she was passed out on the water bed and I thought, you know, he was gonna make some move on her right then and there. Then I realized this is not the movie kids with, uh, this isn't fully. Yeah. Right. Right. And then the second thing is, uh, the end and they don't actually show them doing it, but you know, it is weird. I, it is, I will concede it's weird for a 25 year old, uh, woman, clearly not sure about her own life and what she's doing and very insecure to be wanting to be with a 15 year old kid who is obviously, as Sonny says, very precocious and you know, people make a good people. Let me just say this. Let me just say this. People make a good point about this, which is that if it were the other way around, we would be disgusted and disapproving. And I really believe there should be no double standard. Which way am I going with that JVL? Which way? No, I'm not. I'm just leaving. I'm just gonna leave it at that. But you know what I mean? It's just, I'm just gonna say, I'm just gonna leave it at that. I know. I see what you're saying.
JVL00:47:52I see what you're saying. You are taking a stand on principle.
Vic00:47:54On principle. On principle.
JVL00:47:56They, they should be treated the same. No more hypocrisy. They should be treated the same. You know, in the multiverse version of this.
Sonny00:48:01So there, there were, there were two, there were two, there were two big controversies around the, surrounding this movie. The first is the age gap there were, there was a lot of talk about age gap and whether or not she was a predator. It was the seventies baby. And like that's.
Vic00:48:17It's the seventies.
Sonny00:48:18It's the seventies.
JVL00:48:19I mean it's true.
Sonny00:48:20This was everywhere. Yeah. I am, I am. So it's, it's one of these things where I am, I, I, I, I, I can see it. I can see being uncomfortable about this and I can see, I, I like the last, that last shot with the, I love you kind of in the internal voiceover. I love you. Cause she doesn't say it. She thinks it. Oh. She doesn't, she doesn't actually say it. And on, on screen it's like a thought in her head, which is interesting. And I like it is, I can, I can, I, I am totally under, I understand people who are made to feel uncomfortable by this. I, it is not, um, it is, it is, uh, it's, it is a very borderline. It's borderline.
Vic00:49:04The second thing that, uh, did you, did you feel uncomfortable watching it?
Sonny00:49:10A little bit. Oh, I mean, honestly, a little bit like it.
JVL00:49:14It's 25 is too old if she had been 19, right. You can, everything could be the same. If she's 19, he's 15 and it is at least 70% less icky, right?
Sonny00:49:27She's 25 and she might be 28. Remember there's a line where she says she's 28 and then she knows that she's, oh no, I am 25. There's a, there, there was an interview where Paul Thomas Anderson said, well, in my, in my mind, she's actually 28, which, so like, I mean, it like, there's a, that's a, that's a big age gap. It's a, it's like, I can, I can understand people being made to feel uncomfortable by it. Um, so, you know, whatever, it's not, but it, but it's also like, here's the other thing is that, is that it is also an incredibly chaste movie really for a movie that is about
JVL00:50:01in a movie that's set in the 1970s because let me tell you that relationship in 1970 in the 1970s is not going to be chaste.
Vic00:50:08No. And then this is 1973 and considering like four years or five years later, it's boogie nights. Yeah.
Sonny00:50:15Yeah. Like, you know, she, they, they have like one kiss at the end of the movie and that's it. That like it, you know, it's, it is very much an emotional relationship, which makes it a little bit better, whatever I, I, again, I can understand why people would be made to feel uncomfortable about that. The other, the other big controversy we hinted at it earlier was the, the scene with the actor who was doing the Japanese voice, John Michael Hagan, when he's talking to his wife. Yeah. Michael Higgins, you know, who is doing the, like, I'm not, I am not gonna do it.
JVL00:50:49He's not going to, he's for people have not seen this. He is sitting with a, a woman who is Japanese, who is presented as his wife. They are business partners opening a Japanese restaurant and she speaks only in Japanese. And when he speaks to her, what he does is he raises his voice and yells at her in Japanese accented English. And then she responds to him. And then he just translates what she has said to, to our two main characters. And this is crazy and weird, but then the second time we meet him and he's got a new Japanese wife and this happens again, then Alana says, what did she just say? He says to her, oh, I have no idea. I don't speak Japanese.
Vic00:51:37Right.
JVL00:51:38It just, that killed me. It was so funny.
Sonny00:51:42It's very funny. And that's the thing is that it's, it is very funny. And there's also. Was that controversial?
JVL00:51:48Were people angry about that? Because that was just really riot. Oh yeah. People, people, people. I was, I watched this with Kate. There were several. We were both laughing. Cause the joke is about him. There were. Being culturally incented. Like the joke is. Exactly. Yes.
Sonny00:52:01He is the butt of the joke. That is the joke. Yeah. You have, you have figured out the joke JVL, but a lot of people said it's very problematic to have any sort of humor of this sort at all. This othering of the Asian community in the 1970s would never. Yeah. Be the subject of fun.
JVL00:52:16Yeah. I'm sure that never happened in 1970. It's like making, this is like making fun of clan members, like w you know, this is.
Sonny00:52:24But there's also, he is, he is portrayed. All right. So I'll take, I'll play devil's advocate here. He's he's portrayed relatively, uh, sympathetically, like humorously, like he's obviously kind of an oath, but he is portrayed sympathetically throughout the movie. And I, I will say that there, there's an interesting, there's an interesting thing that happens in that first sequence. So in the first sequence, the, uh, they're, they're reading. So he is meeting with, uh, Gary and Gary's mom talking about ad copy for the, for the restaurant. And while the mom is reading the ad copy, she mentioned something about the little doll waitresses. Yes. And you see the face. You see the face of the Asian woman.
JVL00:53:02Yeah. She understands.
Sonny00:53:04What's going on. She does not like that. She, she understands that this is bad. And when, and so they have the, so he does the Japanese accented English to her. She responds in Japanese and he says, we need to get rid of, we need to focus on the cuisine and get rid of the, the waitress talk, the waitress doll, which, which shows that he understands that this is offensive to her, to his wife and wants to get rid of it. So like there's, it's, it's interestingly nuanced and layered and still funny and it's very funny. I mean, that's the thing is that it's actually, it's I'm like, I'm sorry. It's a funny sequence. Yeah. And like, I, I. That's funny. So anyway, those were the, those were the two big controversy.
Vic00:53:47That's funny versus like the other, uh, week breakfast at Tiffany's was on and Mickey Rudy. It's so awful. It's so awful. Is that Mickey Rooney?
JVL00:54:00He's got the teeth. That's Jerry, Jerry, uh. No, it's Mickey Rooney. It's Mickey Rooney.
Vic00:54:04That's not.
JVL00:54:05Yeah.
Vic00:54:06And he's got the teeth. No, you're thinking Jerry Lewis. It's not Jerry Lewis. I'm thinking Jerry Lewis. But he's got the teeth. Uh, yeah.
JVL00:54:12In any event, JVL. What did you think filled with really funny stuff when, when, uh, Lana Hames character brings home, who's also named just Atlanta in the movie brings home a, the, another child actor to Shabbat and, uh, he is very, you know, he's like, oh, I'm, I'm sorry. I can't really do the prayer because, uh, you know, I'm an atheist because, you know, I mean, Vietnam, again, hysterical, so they go outside and she's fighting with him and she says, what does your deck look like? And he says, what did she use? Is it circumcised? And he says, yes. Then she goes, then you're a fucking Jew. It's hysterical. Right. Right. There's a, there's a throwaway line during one of the waterbed sales pitches when, uh, when he, when he says, uh, it's made of 100% Arabian vinyl. I don't know if I, I, I just died 100% Arabian vinyl. Right. And then the best. So I, I honestly think that, uh, so Bradley Cooper's John Peters was fantastic. The, the Streisand, you know, Streisand bit that business was given a lot of attention. I thought the funniest part of it was when he starts like, he's like, oh, I didn't pick that up at first. You're from the streets. I'm from the streets. You know how much tail I get all of it, all of it. It's the way of the streets. I, I died. It was very, very funny. And Alana Cooper, Alana and Cooper Hoffman have very nice chemistry together. They both feel like amateur actors, which for this really works. So there, there are two things that I, there, there are two things that don't work about the movie for me. And one of them makes me sad. Uh, the one that makes me sad is that I, I, I am positive. If I had been 24 or 26, when this movie came out, I would probably be watching it once every two weeks. I would have devoured all of the commentary tracks on the blue ray.
Vic00:56:27And I would really appreciate at Sheffield court.
JVL00:56:30Yeah. I, but I really would have appreciated all the things that are happening in this very tiny, intimate, playful, real movie. Now at middle age, I look at it and it just, that magic doesn't spark for me anymore.
Vic00:56:49And I remember cause you used to take all the, you love visiting, you love visiting LA.
JVL00:56:55Oh, love it. You know, loved it. You know, go out and go to the Brown Derby and tool around with Amit. I'm sorry.
Vic00:57:02I interrupted you. I stepped over your, uh, what you were saying, but it's the, the problem is not it's you
JVL00:57:07is it's me. Right? This is like, you're aging out. That's that's. I feel like I may be aging out. I'm aging out of movies like this and that's not good. That's a bad thing. I mean, I, I remember, God, it was this girl I sort of saw a little bit who was the daughter of a reasonably famous director who was a childhood friend of our friend, Jackie. And I remember like being at a bar with her and Amit Zappa one night, and she had just read the script to Magnolia cause she was, you know, they're all friends of Paul Anderson, you know, anybody who's within 10 years, either side of his age. Who grew up in the valley as part of showbiz world knows him. And it's like, you know, it's like a tiny little, it's a, it's like DC political journalists or something. Right. Um, you know, and she was telling me about this script and how great it was going to be. And, uh, and I just, again, it doesn't say anything about the movie. It says something about me and that makes me sad, but here's my, my, my slightly more substantive, uh, my slightly more substantive criticism. And this may be an industry thing, uh, Victorino, you and I have known a lot of precocious hustlers in the political world, in our world, in our world. Yeah. And I would say 100% of them have turned out to be sociopaths, right? Uh, you know, I, I, I won't like cause people to fight by naming names, but people who we ran into when they were in high school and college who wanted to, you know, jump to the head of the line, but, uh, all literally all of them. Yeah. Turned out to be sociopaths. Yeah. And this idea that there, there are these charming hustlers out there who are actually just really, you know, people with hearts of gold and good work ethics. I don't know that I buy that, but maybe it's different in entertainment. Right. Well, this is why as a hustler, right? I mean, he, he was out stealing Panavision cameras at age 16, right. He literally would break into, uh, the studio lots, grab the cameras and you run out and shoot for three hours in the middle of the night and then drop them back off. And maybe in the entertainment world, there's such a thing as hustlers who aren't psychopaths, right? I mean, you have like the John Peters types who are hustlers, who are, you know, just bad people. Maybe there are plenty of good people like that too, but in our world, in our context, everybody who is like Gary Valentine is, is an evil sociopath.
Sonny00:59:55Uh, so the, it's interesting that you say this when Paul Schrader, when the writer director Paul Schrader saw it, he wrote on Facebook, uh, licorice pizza, uh, it's tempting to see the film through the prism of a bill bill buildings, Roman, uh, buildings, Roman buildings, uh, imagining Gary Valentine, Cooper Hoffman will grow up to be a hip and sophisticated man like Paul Thomas Anderson. But given the evidence of the film, Gary will be every inch, the asshole at 30 that he is at 15 or worse, he'll be a celebrity asshole, the likes of John Peters and bill Holden.
JVL01:00:28And I, I do think that I like, I mean, I think it's, I think it, I think it's a fair read
Sonny01:00:33on the movie. I, I don't think that that's wrong exactly. I don't know that that necessarily, I think Anderson loves him.
JVL01:00:40I think Anderson sees him as ultimately being. Just sort of an old soul. Who's out hustling, trying to just to make his place in the world a little early. I think, I think that's what the authorial vision of the character is.
Sonny01:00:53I think, I mean, I think that's, I think that's possible. He certainly doesn't see him like a, uh, uh, you know, I'll drink your milkshake. No, no, no. He's not, you know, he's not, or, you know, uh, well, I mean, if you assume like it's
Vic01:01:05based on Gary Getsman and he, Gary Getsman seems to be from where I understand just to,
Sonny01:01:11you know, uh, well, he's got the Tom Hanks. Yes.
Vic01:01:14You know, he could have 17 things now and he could have 17 hookers in his basement and
Sonny01:01:20everyone would be like, well, yeah, it's Tom Hanks's guy. So he's probably fine.
JVL01:01:23That. Yeah. Um, and so maybe it's just different. And aren't you freaked out Victorino? I mean, you know, like all the people I'm talking about, right? Sure. The two, the three. Yeah. Right. People I knew in college, you know, the one who ended up in jail. Yeah. They, they all turn out to be sociopaths. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe it's different. Different. I don't know that they have this in other industries. Like, I don't know. And this, I think because in the world of the law, I mean, you, there aren't people like this.
Vic01:01:52Right. But I mean, this is the thing. I mean, Sonny would know more about this and you would know more about this for me. Uh, you know, that, that whole world with the exception of knowing somebody like Larry Miller, that whole world is completely alien to me. And that's why it fascinates me because there are similarities that I find with Washington culture, but obviously it's better in every way. Yeah. There are things that, for example, one of the things that I found totally, just like I was intrigued by was, um, hanging out at the tail of the cock, uh, which is, you know, there are these great restaurants that, you know, I mean, another one is, uh, the cock and bull, but I mean, the, there's these great restaurants where you see famous people, the people that we would be like, I would be like, oh my gosh, here's that actor. And he's, oh my gosh, I can't believe we could see them. And for them, it would be, it was like us. Seeing, you know, me seeing who are Carl Bernstein at the Palm or whatever. Oh, right. It's like, oh, more contract. And for them, it's like, it's, it's, it's normal, but it's not for me. So I find, and I find it fascinating. And of course they have these great, uh, the mater D is their friend and he's helpful. And it's just, I love that. And it's like, there are places like that, that I've always wanted to go to like Musso and Franks or back in the day. And this is from the time of, this is like after the time ago, yeah, this is after the, this is before Spago. It's after the time of like Mike Romanoffs. And it's like, you get into the world, like Dan Tana's and places like that. Those were the places, right. And Chasen's and it's like, oh, I would have loved to have been, you know, a regular at one of those places. And I love being a regular where I'm a regular, but I mean, it's just a different world. It's a different world. And it intrigues me.
JVL01:03:33I, I appreciate the, the look and Anderson is, you know, the, the mechanics of show business are in the back of a lot of the, the movies he, he does. And the stories he tells, and he does a very nice job of showing how unglamorous it is. It's just factory work in the same way that politics in DC is factory work, right? It's not, nobody is sitting in a glass framed conference room. That looks like it's in a set from CS, you know, NCIS or whatever, right. Right. Right. Everybody's got flat panel and we're arranged the generals in the back. That is not what it looks like passing a piece of legislation or. Running a magazine.
Vic01:04:14And same thing with newsrooms and movies versus real news.
JVL01:04:16Right. And you know, like what, what does it look like to be doing a PR tour for some, that backstage scene where like the kids are all in their pajamas and the talk show, like that's what that looks like. Lucille Ball. Right. Yeah.
Vic01:04:30Right. That's what that looks like. It's not. Yeah. It's not glamorous. It's just. All right. So I have a, I know we're running a little bit over, but I have two questions. One, I feel like there were scenes in the trailer that barely made it into the movie or did it make it at all. Where I think Gary is. And so there must be a version of this, that's going to be a director's cut. The three, the actual three hour version JVL of this, because you know, where like Gary's siphoning off the gas with his mouth, you know, on, on, uh, you know, and, and then the other thing was, it was just a very brief couple seconds of, uh, Bradley Cooper as John Peters smashing the windows of those cars. And that's figures in my mind, that's a bear deal in the trailer, like, oh, what's happening here. You can literally see it. So what's happening here, Sonny?
Sonny01:05:15Yeah. A lot of that stuff. I mean, I, I, I, I think that first off, this is the Paul Thomas Anderson director's cut. I don't think there is a, I don't think there's going to be like a, um, but I mean, I, I, you know, they put, you put the trailer together and then you end up cutting and rejiggering and things get, things get lost. This happens all the time. I mean, it happens all the time in all sorts of movies. I remember seeing, uh, Thor Ragnarok and like the, the scene where Mjolnir gets destroyed is like clearly it's clearly set in New York city. It like gets blown up in New York city. There are big buildings everywhere. And in the movie, it just happens on like a green grassy field, you know? Uh, so like this, this, this sort of thing just happens.
Vic01:05:53Do you remember the extended, uh, cut of, um, in boogie nights where Alfred Molina, uh, ends up getting killed?
JVL01:06:02The shot, the shootout.
Vic01:06:03Yeah.
JVL01:06:04Yeah. Right. You get a full, the police helicopter. Helicopter. You know, that, uh, that scene remains one of my favorites. My favorite scenes. In all of movies, it's everything about that is so remarkable. And I, I had to say Paul Thomas Anderson's career has not been maybe what I had hoped it would be, but it's been just interesting, like, you know, punch trunk love, uh, there will be blood. He did the adaptation of the Miami movie with, with the master, which was a Scientology. And this is a guy who has really been a true auteur. Yeah. And, uh, I dunno, I just, I love it. I love it. So this is again, why it makes me feel a little bad that maybe I'm aging away from, from his work. Yeah.
Sonny01:07:00Maybe who knows. Did you like phantom thread?
JVL01:07:02I forget that we didn't even see phantom thread, didn't haven't even seen it. Uh, would I like it Sonny?
Sonny01:07:11I think it, I, I. I think it has some of the same problems as this movie does in terms of just kind of meandering. Um, but it, it, it is a tighter story. There is an actual story there and it is, it's about a middle-aged guy, which is, you know, it's, you know, a little more in our, our wheel houses.
Vic01:07:27Yeah.
JVL01:07:28Okay. All right. Any other thoughts? I hope we weren't negative about it. Weren't we negative?
Vic01:07:33No, no, no, no. I think we were fine.
JVL01:07:35Are there people out there who love it? Like did John love, love, love licorice pizza? I think he did. Yeah. I think, yeah, John, I believe. That would make me happy. Yeah. If John loved it, are there other people sunny out there in film world who, who championed
Sonny01:07:49it? Yeah. I mean, there are people, there are people who love it and there are people who hate it. And like, it was, it was, it was a little more divisive than I thought it would be considering
JVL01:07:57that. I think it's.
?01:07:59If you love movies, how could you hate it?
JVL01:08:00There's no multiverse.
Sonny01:08:01It's got prob. It's got problematic elements. There's no CGI fire.
Vic01:08:04It's got that.
JVL01:08:05It's. Yeah. No, not a single CGI fire.
Vic01:08:08Anywhere to be found. It was so visually delightful and, and, and so refreshing to watch. Kate loved it a lot. And she said, one of the things that she kept thinking about was just being there at that. If you were there at the time, the sense of freedom that you had, if you were a young person, you know, you weren't held hostage by your phones. We led the way we are now. And it was almost Charlie Brown adults.
JVL01:08:31They were high all the time. They were high all the time. The kids were sexually active by age 12, but you know, aside from that. But other than.
Sonny01:08:38Yeah.
JVL01:08:39I will say this. It was cast with very 1970s. Faces.
Vic01:08:43Yes.
JVL01:08:44Yes. Because this is a, you know, you, you watched once upon a time in Hollywood and it, it is remarkably set in that period, except that it is still full of beautiful people. Yeah. And, uh, nobody in the seventies was beautiful. I'm sorry. Even the beautiful people in the seventies looked like they were in the 1970s. One of the things that Kate mentions is seventies bodies.
Vic01:09:05Yeah.
JVL01:09:06Yes. Yeah. And yeah. So I, I appreciated that. I don't know. I'm talking myself into liking it more than I did.
Vic01:09:14I think you just did. Okay. Uh, corrections, shout outs, everything. We're okay. Great. Uh, that is all the time we're giving to this, uh, lengthy episode questions, comments, compliments, tweet us at Victorino, Matt, a set Sonny bunch again, be sure to subscribe to us on Patrion. Just go to sub beacon.com where they're tell your friends until next time. Uh, I just have one question and then I'll throw it to you guys. If you have anything else, I, I never figured out why they call it licorice pizza
JVL01:09:51name of, uh, it's like a, uh, it's a name of a record store, uh, in the Paul Thomas Sanders. And I think frequented as a kid in the valley.
Vic01:10:03Yeah.
Sonny01:10:04Oh, okay. Yeah. If you, I mean, look, think of a vinyl LP, right? It looks like a black pizza, licorice pizza.
Vic01:10:10Ah, thank you. And so many things on this show, uh, you got, you guys got anything else? No. I really don't. Do you have something? Okay. Well, I have one, I have one thing, which is, uh, when I, you know, I was raving about this place, Yuraku, because I like most things, you know, uh, sushi, I'll eat everything in there. There was one thing they served and I was, I forget who I was with, but I didn't want to be rude and spit it out. So I just ate it and it must've been some sort of a, a raw squid. It was white and it was like. It was like gummy. I don't think it was octopus. I think it had to be like a squid, but you know how it's like, I'm sure it's fine.
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