#149. 'The Fabelmans'
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Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans splits the panel. Sonny gives the most generous take, arguing the film has been marketed as a magic-of-movies picture but is really about someone who can only process the world through a camera lens; he praises a Zapruder-style sequence where young Sammy edits home-movie footage and pieces together that his mother is having an affair with family friend Bennie, singles out Judd Hirsch's one-scene cameo and David Lynch's turn as John Ford as highlights, but finds the film self-indulgent, overlong, and Michelle Williams's much-buzzed performance bizarre and overpraised. JVL is far harsher, saying he dreaded the trailer, would rather have watched The Eternals, and uses the film to argue that Spielberg (his "most important American artist of the last quarter of the 20th century" case notwithstanding) has wasted his late career on unworthy projects like Ready Player One and the West Side Story remake. Vic, back from his surgery, is more forgiving, scoring it on his Quadrant system — plot an 8+, action/violence a C, sex/nudity a D, duration an F, netting a C/CC- overall — and the three debate whether the film hints Bennie is Sammy's real father. The episode opens with its usual long banter block: JVL nursing a day-four flu and recapping a brutal 14-point loss (and general uncoachability) for his girls' CYO basketball team, Sonny explaining soccer's offside rule and flopping culture amid World Cup fandom, Vic recounting a German-embassy visit gone wrong with Kate's beat-up Camry and his Thanksgiving deep-fried turkey and rye Manhattans, and a box-office segment where Sonny eviscerates Disney's Strange World as an ideologically muddled, diversity-checklist-ticking bomb. They close with corrections about a New Jersey Shake Shack and a callback to a prior "rest stop" draft that Vic won going away.
From the show notes
A movie about movie makers. Kinda.
Full transcript
JVL00:00:00Family art, it'll tear you in two, you stopped making movies, it'll break your mother's heart, I don't know what to do anymore, you do what your heart says you have to.
Vic00:00:25What was your favorite part? What was your favorite part? What was your favorite part? Are we it people, you know, it turns out a lot of people I've spoken to about their Thanksgivings a lot of people were under the weather neighbors relatives colleagues JVL. How are you?
JVL00:01:16Yeah, everybody in my house was sick for the last two weeks. We had flu a going around and you know, your body can only fight it off. So so I feel like my body. Is like the Death Star, you know, and I've got the tower turrets to tie fighters and all that stuff. But at some point, the rebels come in there and some virus switches off the targeting computer and just uses the force and down the exhaust port and the proton was a proton torpedo. Yes. So I think no photon torpedoes are Star Trek. That's Star Trek. It must be proton. Anyway, yeah, that's right. I now feel like Matt Damon in the duel where, you know, everybody else in my family around me looks at me and it's like, oh, he's got a little cough and inside me. It's like, oh, I'm dying, dying. I'm dying here. I've had 107 fever and I can barely stop shivering and it's not actually that bad. I just feel like ass and I'm now on like day four of this and it keeps getting a little bit worse every day instead of a little bit better. Anyway, whatever. Nobody. That's always fun. What do you what do you take in day? Will Advil Nike will suit of all of the things all of them. I just reach into the I don't even look at the labels and I just like take a fistful of pills Elvis style. I'm just like, you might overdose on centrum silver. Yeah, I remember when it was going around in our house and it happened. I was fortunate that
Vic00:02:59Um, it didn't happen before my surgery because boy, do they make you jump through a lot of hoops for an elective procedure? Uh, yeah, I mean, that's practically like the the Apollo 13 mission. Oh, it is. It is as what did they say of the roses bloomed or whatever? And they know they have not negative. Uh, Ken was his name played by Gary Sinise. That's correct. So, uh, I took I tested negative for COVID RSV and flu. And then I think shortly after, like, the day I came at, well, the day of the surgery, I think people already were getting sick in the house, particularly, um, the kids and stuff. Uh, and so I was worried about that because the last thing I needed to deal with was, uh, coughing and runny nose because it was already a mess up here in the, uh, as they call it, the triangle of death. Uh, but, uh, I was on, yes, that's what they call it, Sonny. Uh, the nose to the mouth area. Uh, but I was on, I was, I was alternating every three hours between three Advils, two Tylenols, plus prednisone and amoxicillin. So I think that was everything.
JVL00:04:03That's clear. You're clear. I'm clear. Yeah. All right. I want to give you boys an update on my basketball team. Yes. How is your season on the brink? So I, uh, I really, I understand now the angry basketball coach. I never used to get it. I now get it. And, uh, we scored 14 points in our loss last Sunday. Not, not. 14 points in the first half, we scored 14 points. We, uh, we, in fact, we're leading eight to two after the first quarter.
Sonny00:04:38Oh man.
JVL00:04:38And, uh, and then we're shut out for the second quarter and third quarter. So for half of the basketball game, we scored no points. And it sounds like Georgetown. It, uh, it isn't that we weren't, weren't shooting the ball. We were, we were shooting the heck out of the ball, nothing further away than 10 feet. Almost everything we took, we shot were let it fly. And, uh, and yet just couldn't, couldn't find the bucket.
Vic00:05:07Is it like it's hitting the rim and then spins out like the, like I, you know, how that happens
JVL00:05:14is hitting it. You're making con top of the backboard, the, uh, side of the backboard under the underside of the backboard. Uh, one point we hit the, uh, hit the ceiling in this gymnasium. And like the, so the, the refs blow the ball dead. I looked at the ref as he's walking by me and I said, who knew that the ceiling was out of bounds, people did the ref laugh.
Sonny00:05:44Uh, how did, how did a ball go so high that it hit the ceiling?
JVL00:05:49How does any of this happen? Sunny? I don't understand. I mean, I just don't understand
Sonny00:05:54the physics of it. Like how did one of them, like, did one of them like throw, just throw up in the air as hot, as high as they could panic, panic, panic. I think it was panic.
JVL00:06:04It was, it's, it's a real look, this is just seventh and eighth grade CYO basketball. None of the outcomes matter. I should not be upset about it. I shouldn't care. All this importance that the girls have fun and learn, but is God is my witness. This is gonna destroy me. It makes me so angry to lose. And I, I, I want listeners to know you should write it. I am tamping all of that down. The girls see none of this. Like this is all internal. I am not classic. I am like the happy, the happy go lucky. We, you know, we have one point got a couple free throws. And as, uh, as Gianna was heading up to the free throw line, I called out to her. I said, remember, remember only your entire self worth is riding on these. So no pressure. Everything's cool. How many, how many bags?
Sonny00:06:59How many bags of live goldfish did you buy from the pet smart and put in a blender after the game? I was so angry to get your, to get your anger out. I was so angry and I don't,
JVL00:07:09I don't know what to do about it, but it just, the whole thing, watching them go out there and unable to execute even like a simple stack in bounds play from the sideline. I don't know what that means. Like it's just where one person stands, you can't get the ball and everybody else literally like lines up in a line. And so that when the in bounds inbounder slaps the ball to say break, everybody just like goes in a different direction. It's called a stack. It's like literally the simplest inbounds play in the world. They can't even do. I, I just, I don't. And here's the conundrum. Maybe you guys know something about this or, or not. So I coached middle school boys baseball and on a team with similar experience, which is to say more than half the team had never played baseball before at any level. They were branded to it. And in terms of emotional maturity and intellectual maturity, those boys were much less mature than these girls. These girls are, they're, they're lovely human beings. They are bright. They are emotionally mature. They're they're great. But in terms of coachability, the boys were, and this was not like a special group of boys, the boys were like 50 X what the girls are.
Vic00:08:28Isn't that the part where if you were listening, you'd be saying careful, careful.
JVL00:08:33I don't know. Oh, so I don't know. Look, I mean, these are small sample sizes, right? I had like 11 kids on a baseball team. I have eight girls on desks. But, but what I'm saying is that I wonder, maybe there is a thing about that. Like the, with the boys, you would just tell them to do something once and they would mostly do it. And it isn't that the boys are smarter because they're not, these girls are smarter. Isn't the boys were more mature. They're not, these girls are way more mature sort of as human beings. But the girls, the coachability of the girl, like, you know, say saying like, Hey, do X, you've got to say it 50 times. And then even the 50th time they don't do it. And it's, I don't understand.
Sonny00:09:12Are they, are they like chatting amongst themselves? Are they not paying attention or do they simply not understand?
JVL00:09:18I don't know. Maybe, maybe the, maybe it's the problem is the coach. Maybe the fault is the coach. Maybe a good coach would make things clear. So they'd be able to, I don't know.
Sonny00:09:27Well, I mean, you're, you're, I mean, it sounds like you're out there running, you know, professional play stack inbound. What is, I don't know what any of these things are. I would be very simple.
Vic00:09:35If you were the coach of the Yukon, uh, girls basketball, women's basketball team, you would not have this problem.
JVL00:09:45Well, sure. Because so it's not a, it's college. I'm just maybe at the, but maybe at that particular age level, between age level and sports, I wonder if, if boys are more coachable. In a sporting environment, even though they are like less mature in a classroom environment.
Vic00:10:05I don't know. I'm just asking. I'm just asking questions. Okay. Well, I don't have an answer, but I have a question.
JVL00:10:09Mary Catherine is probably throwing things at her dashboard right now. She's listening to this. I don't Mary Catherine. I don't mean to be sexist. I'm just literally just asking questions.
Vic00:10:18Do you, do you, uh, what is the, what is the, um, the level of motivation among the girls on this team? Do you get the sense they want to be there? Or is there a feeling that some do? Some don't?
JVL00:10:32I think they all basically are happy. I want is a strong word. I would not say they want to be there, but they're happy to be there. It is not like they would be rather be doing something different, but they're not, you know, like, again, these are girls who've made it to seventh grade in life without ever having touched a basketball before. Ah, so this is like most of them, not all of them, but most of them. And so this is like, uh, you know, like a fun activity to try.
Sonny00:10:57Have you tried. Running, making them run suicides until they do it, right? I haven't done that. Have you tried? Have you tried?
JVL00:11:06I have not done those things. No.
Sonny00:11:08Have you tried? Like, I, I mean, I'm not a punitive coach. Like that's not how you might have to do a lead Tasso and, and go do the evil coach and, uh, you know, start really yelling and whistling and, and running suicides and that sort of thing, you know, come in with your aviators on one day.
JVL00:11:27Yeah. Yeah. Well, I don't know. Maybe, maybe somebody out there has some wisdom in differences between boys and girls at this age. Uh, I don't know. Anyway, how, how are you boys doing?
Vic00:11:37Oh, I'll hear. I have a question for you, JVL. What about the girls on the other team?
JVL00:11:42Well, so the, the girls we played on the other team this time around were, uh, almost all of them play travel basketball in addition to CYO. So they were like serious basketball players. Like the, you know, these girls were, yeah. Um, they were taking three point shots and they made half of them. And when they only scored two points in the first quarter, uh, yeah, they had a rough first quarter. Um, they, they didn't quite figure out our zone in the first quarter. Uh, but you know, and they were, they knew how to run. They, they were fast breaking on everything. How long
Vic00:12:18is the quarters? Do you see you take 10 minutes and then it's a break and then another 10
JVL00:12:22minutes, eight minutes, eight minute quarters. I did not know that. Um, so anyway, uh, so the, you know, the other girls are, but again, all the other girls we've, we've played against so far seem to have played organized basketball at some level before taking the court. And whereas three of my girls have played organized basketball and the other five have not. Right.
Vic00:12:46So I, I think this is really just at any level that you drew a, a bad lot in this particular,
JVL00:12:51not about the lovely lot, a great lot of great kids who, you know, sometimes they teach me as much as I teach them.
Vic00:12:59I think of yourself as Walter Matthau, bad news.
Sonny00:13:04You gotta start, you gotta, I, I don't know, man. I think, I think, uh, I think one, I think one led Tasso practice just to, just to see if that, that works is, is worth it's worth a shot.
Vic00:13:14Pushups. Yeah. One of those. And a lot of phone calls from angry parents. Sure. That's a great idea.
Sonny00:13:20And then you can quit. Then you can quit. You'd be like, I tried, I tried. I think they're uncoachable. I have thought about dissolving.
JVL00:13:27They're uncoachable. Honestly, I've thought about dissolving the team. Say, look, well, I don't know what would,
Vic00:13:32you know, it's like, what would, what would Jean Hackman's coach from Hoosiers do? You know?
JVL00:13:38I mean, he'd like kick off the team and he'd start drinking. I mean, he, he punched, he's there in Hoosiers cuz he punched a kid at, at, in his college.
Sonny00:13:46Oh, right. That was the story, right? That was the story, right?
JVL00:13:50The kid probably didn't know how to run a stack.
Sonny00:13:52Didn't, didn't know a stack.
Vic00:13:54Anyway, what, what are you doing? Something every episode, Sonny, what's going on?
Sonny00:13:58Not much. I, I felt some of JBL's frustration when I was watching the American men's soccer team, uh, in the world cup. This, this, as, as long time listeners of the show now, I'm, I'm very fond of, of, uh,
JVL00:14:12Yeah, it's brilliant. They scored two goals in the round robin round. And they're going to the, they're going to the knockout round.
Sonny00:14:18That's enough.
Vic00:14:19The round, the sweet 16.
Sonny00:14:20Sweet 16.
Vic00:14:21This is it. This is single elimination now.
Sonny00:14:24Uh, but it, it's very similar.
Vic00:14:25Against my brother-in-law's people, the Dutch.
Sonny00:14:28Similar to, to JBL. I watch a lot of these, uh, like corners that they're taking and I'm just like, have any Christian Pulisic. I'm glad that you, I'm glad that you scored that goal, but maybe you could learn how to take a corner one of these days. That would be great. Stop just crossing it into the box at ground level. Terrible, terrible work. Uh, no, I, I, I'm fine. Uh, everything.
JVL00:14:50Sonny, I have a question for you because I, I've been thinking about your soccer fandom and it doesn't make sense to me. Why not? And the reason it doesn't make sense to me is because 90% of American soccer fans are people you to test the Sonny Bunch that I know and love would be rooting for the American men to lose just to annoy those people.
Sonny00:15:13Wait, but again, I, why explain this last week? I explained my whole theory of, of soccer fan last week.
JVL00:15:20You did, but that was about the rest of the world. I'm now talking about like the near group, like all the people on Twitter who want to talk about the, the world company, American men's team. You hate every single one of those people. Don't you want them to be upset?
Sonny00:15:32No, but I hate the rest of the world more than I hate. Um, I, I hate, I hate foreigners more than I hate Americans. I hate, I think that is the best way to describe it.
JVL00:15:40Normally it's the other way around. It's the near group, the near out group versus the far out group.
Sonny00:15:44That's not true with me. That's not true with me. I've always hated foreigners more than Americans. I I'll tolerate a lot of nonsense from Americans. It's the foreigners that I like to see miserable. I don't care for them. Don't care for them very much. Vic were people watching the world cup in the. In the free beacon office. Was there, was there, you know, the boss was away, but he
Vic00:16:04just turned on the big screen and then, uh, watch it even though, you know, Hey, I have the office, you know, uh, professes to, uh, much like, you know, we do that. This is a silly sport as you know, a ridiculous sport. And yet it's on cheers. I mean, one of the
Sonny00:16:20writers was a soccer player, but what was that Sonny? Cheers when America scores against the hated Iranians. That's right. Although it was
Vic00:16:28really crazy because it was unclear until the very 98th minute or whatever, if they were going to actually pull this off, it was, it was, it was, you know, you wanted to pull your hair out. It was so frustrating. Uh, and so, I mean, like, again, it's not quite like other sports. You have to suffer one nil. Great. It's good. That's a good, that's
JVL00:16:50a good result. One nail perfect result. I have a dumb question, Sonny. Yes. Uh, the offside rule. Sure. I mean, I just assume that soccer would be 50 times more interesting if there were no offsides. Mm. But what is the genesis of the offside? Has the offside, where does the offside rule appear in the history of the beautiful game? Because like the three point line appeared like reasonably recently in basketball, the infield fly rule, right? The designated, we know when these things appear in baseball, when did, cause I can't imagine that offside was always part of soccer.
Sonny00:17:28I have no, I couldn't possibly begin to tell you that I, I'm not a, I'm not a historian of soccer. Um, no, I mean, I think it, they, they, they do that. Uh, I mean, I, I don't know. I don't, I don't know why they do that. I don't, it, it, you, you just don't want people camping out in the other, the other half of the field, I guess. Uh, you, you end up, you end up it, it re it would. All right. So if I'm, if I'm trying to think of an actual reason not to do that, it would greatly reduce strategy in the mid game. Could you explain to some of our viewers? You know, passing, you just be, you just have people like kicking the ball down the field all the time.
Vic00:18:03Can you explain what offsides is to those of us who don't know what this is?
Sonny00:18:07Offsides. I don't know if I can't, I don't know if I can do it. Not unvisually. Basically the rule of offsides is, uh, you cannot, you, the offensive player cannot be, um, behind the final defender in his half of the field, uh, before the ball is in play. So if you're sort of moving like this, yeah, it only, it only, it only goes up to the halfway line
JVL00:18:32before the ball is passed you, right? Before the ball is passed you, the ball has to move
Sonny00:18:36past you. So you can, you can, you can start in front of the last defender and then run behind him after the ball is kicked. You just have to be in an onside position, which again is, it is in front of the last defender on the field, uh, before the ball is kicked. And it's, it's a, I mean, it's, they, they have a whole system. Now they have a automated video assisted replay system. It's, it's dumb. And I don't think it actually quite works as well as everybody else seems to think it works. Um, what about the, what about the,
Vic00:19:08what about the flopping of the players and you know, the faking, oh, you are a basketball
Sonny00:19:13fan. I don't want to hear anything. I don't want to hear anything from basketball fans.
Vic00:19:16No, no, no, no. Same question. But it's like, uh, do they actually think they can convince
Sonny00:19:20refs like, oh, I'm really, it works. Flopping works. It's it's again, it's just like in basketball. Anybody who's ever watched LeBron James play. Knows the flopping works. It's a, it's a thing that you go back to the camera. It's a little
JVL00:19:32brush. And then the guy, but isn't it true that some, some nationalities are better at flopping than others? Like the Italians, Brady, good floppers, the Germans, not so good. Uh,
Sonny00:19:45national identities in a way that's that's yeah. South Americans are generally a little
JVL00:19:51bit better at flopping. Uh, Asian military history is being a bitch. Then it turns out you guys flop pretty well. The French flop. Okay. Wow. That is a really deep dark take.
Sonny00:20:05That's that's it's true though. It's true. Uh, Vic, uh, have you been invited to the
Vic00:20:10German embassy? No, I football matches. That's right. Cause I went, were you, did I, you
Sonny00:20:17weren't with me? Yeah. I went with you to a, that was, I don't know when was that 2003 or four. That must've been the 2006 game. Yeah, that's, that's right. Cause they made it either 2006 or 2010. I forget.
Vic00:20:33That's right. In Germany one, if I'm not mistaken, uh, it was a better team, uh, than the current, uh, German team. Uh, no, I don't, I, you know, I don't have anything to do with the Germans anymore with exceptions of a couple of think tank people and friends, but the embassy I lost complete. I, I used to be, I was really good friends with the ambassador. You used to be there all the time, not just the embassy, but the residents. And then I remember going to a party there. And then inviting Kate to the ambassador's residence and it's, it's, it's on a hill, uh, on Fox hall and reservoir road in Georgia, just north or west of Georgetown. Um, it used to be the property of Avril Harriman and then they knocked whatever Harriman's, um, mansion was, and they built this unsightly box Bauhaus style thing and very German. And it's just a giant box, but very modern inside. Uh, and this was, um, this is when we still lived in DC and I invited Kate. So she was running late cause she was still working. She comes in and we had a lovely time and we go out and I said, oh, uh, where did you park? She goes, oh, they let me park over here. And I realized she had, uh, driven her 1992 Camry with the missing hubcap and the rusted trunk. And it was parked right there, uh, on German soil, just in the embassy, in the embassy grounds next to these, you know, gorgeous Mercedes and in the 92 Camry. Oh, here we, that's our, that's our ride. See ya.
JVL00:22:00Is the residence also foreign soil or is it just the embassy itself?
Vic00:22:04I, I assume that, I assume it's both. I have always assumed it's both, but very serious terrifying gates.
Sonny00:22:11That's a good question. I don't know that that's actually, I don't know what the answer is there.
Vic00:22:16Yeah. I mean, they're connected in this case, the embassy and the resident for the Germans is one giant property. Oh, well in that case then, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But it's not always the case. That's true. Uh, okay. Good. Good for you. How are you Victor? Uh, I'm, I'm fine. I'm battling my weight loss because it's the weight gain. Now after Thanksgiving, I made a good number of Manhattan, Manhattan's Sonny. You'll appreciate this. Uh, a Mictors rye and Dolan sweet vermouth and Walnut bitters. I gave it a little bit of a, you know, a, a, just a little hint of nuttiness. And uh, uh, and by the end of the night, I think there was just a little bit left in that bottle of rye. I don't know how many people drank, but it was, was it just you where you might've been a couple of people at home. I don't know. And I like to see, you know, there was ice, so it waters down over time. It waters down. But, uh, uh, the, the food was good. This is, we went to Kate's cousins, which is great. Cause it's just like down the street. So it's really, really great for me. I'm not driving. Um, and they had two different kinds of Turkey, the regular one and a deep fry. I've never had a deep fried Turkey before.
Sonny00:23:28You got your first time. Did you watch them deep fry? I did. I did. And of course, captain
Vic00:23:33Bill Dwyer was there to supervise. So nobody acted like an idiot and you know, like drop
Sonny00:23:37it, drop it in the house down. Yeah. So I love those videos so much. It's one of my
Vic00:23:42favorite parts. Well, Kate's cousin was showing the video like, oh, you're going to love these. Look at these guys, you know, they're on fire, you know, it's like, well, we felt, we filled
Sonny00:23:53it with oil to the top and then it spills over and then your house burns down. That's how it works.
Vic00:23:58Oh yeah. There are people who do it inside. There are people who do it on wooden decks. You know, it's really, that's really just, it takes, it's a lot of oil, it's bubbling and you got to, you got to lower it just very carefully. You can't, people drop. It's insane.
Sonny00:24:11Well, you also just have to, you also just have to like make sure you have the proper amount of oil in there. Cause you, you can't forget about displacement. Like the real problem is people fill it all the way to the top. People fill it all the way to the top and then they put the Turkey in and it spills over and they're like, oh my God, I'm on fire.
Vic00:24:28The reaction is just run away. You notice this? Nobody's trying to contain the fire.
Sonny00:24:32They're just like, I mean, I'm out of here. I mean, at that point I'm like knocking old ladies over to get out of it. Cause you're, you're, you're, you're going to die. You're
Vic00:24:41pulling the, you're pulling the Costanza. No. So, uh, so that, that, that's how I am doing.
Sonny00:24:46Wait, how'd you like the, how'd you like the deep fried Turkey?
Vic00:24:49Ah, I, it was so juicy. The inside was really surprised about how juicy it was. Like I'm not that, I mean, Turkey's fine. You know, it's a tradition. It's, it's, it's a holiday. You'll eat the bird. It's not like I go out of my way to eat Turkey, even Turkey sandwiches, but you know, for this occasion, you know, Turkey gravy, great, whatever. But once you go through, uh, have a fried Turkey, it's hard, I think to go back to the other. And in fact, everybody went for the fried Turkey. Yeah. Like there was nothing left because the, it would, the difference between the two is so stark, you know, but everything's better fried. Everything is better. Fried, fried Turkey, fried chicken. Uh, I don't have a, uh. A transition. So over the weekend, black Panther, Wakanda forever remained at the top of the box office with 45.9 million followed by strange world with 11.9 million and third place glass onion, a knives out mystery with 9.4 million box office thoughts. Sonny, you saw strange world. I don't think it did too well. And I don't even know what it's about.
Sonny00:25:54Strange world bombed very, very badly. I mean, strange world is. Is a disaster on virtually every level. It's a, it's a financial disaster, right? This is Disney. No, it's, it's Walt Disney animation. It's Walt Disney animation studios. It's not Pixar. What happened? Well, the first off the movie is not very good. I mean, it's, it's not terrible. It's not like it's the worst movie I've ever seen or anything, but
JVL00:26:16it's not very good. The trailers for it were impenetrable and looked horrible. No kids
Sonny00:26:23wanted to see it. Yeah. So the, the setup for the movie is that it's basically being pitched as like a, it's basically being pitched as like a 1940s adventure, a sci-fi type movie where these explorers go searching through, through, you know, strange world, strange outer inner space realm. Um, and I, I don't know if, I mean, is it okay if I spoil, I'm going to, I'm going to, if you don't want to leave your spoilers, skip ahead a few minutes because, so, uh, it turns out, it turns out that, uh, all of the exploring that is being done there, they're actually, they're living on, they're living inside of a living creature. And, uh, if they, if they don't, uh, if, if they, if they try to cultivate their power source, they're going to kill the living creature. So it's becomes this, it becomes this metaphor for like climate change and, and it's, and it's just, it's the whole lesson, the whole point of the movie. And this is what I said on, on, uh, on Letterboxd, just, I wrote like a one sentence thing. It is the, um, it's the anti-interstellar. This movie is like, it's, it's interstellar is all about like, we need to, we need to expand the scope of humanity. We need to go, we need to explore, we need to get beyond our, our limited, you know, and, and this is the opposite of that. And Lightyear is actually kind of the same way. It is similarly the, it's a, it, the, both of these movies are about, you need to settle for where you are, take the standard of living that you have and deal with it and just don't try and better yourself and just stay there. Don't, don't. And I find this like really offensive on a, just on a ideological level. I like, I get, I get vaguely annoyed by it. Um, anyway, that, that's neither here nor there. The movie's just not very good. The, the, it's totally uninteresting to the kids. The kids were, I mean, my, my daughter will watch it cause she'll watch basically anything. My son was not that into it. Uh, and the, the, um, the animation is fine. I mean, it looks okay, but it's not, it's not spectacular. The voice work is fine, but it's not spectacular. Are there famous actors doing voices? Yeah. I mean, it's like Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid and like what I, but who cares? Cause it's just animated. They're just animated. It doesn't, it doesn't matter. Um, so anyway,
JVL00:28:40it's not working for kids like this. I don't understand. No. Is Disney animation in trouble? Cause I thought that the light year was, uh, the problem with light year was the Pixar, right? Cause Pixar is clearly in trouble. Uh, this is, but maybe it's a Disney animation
Sonny00:28:55problem. I think Disney as a whole, is in a very weird place right now where they are like, uh, they are, they are not committed to telling good and interesting stories. I'll put it that way. Um, and, and some of the stuff that they do is at least some of the stuff they do is at least golden age is over. I mean,
JVL00:29:14I don't know. I don't know. I do. The Marvel golden age is over. Look at the, the eternals Dr. Strange and the mysterious of madness, black Panther. And apparently,
Vic00:29:27a sequel to the eternals, right? Coming up, they're working on that.
Sonny00:29:33I think technically, I think technically a sequel has been green lit, but I would be pretty sure I would be frankly pretty shocked if we get one of the saddest things is much
Vic00:29:43like with star Wars. Uh, the initial sort of, they were, they were events, right? To go see these movies. It was a big deal. You'd go, you'd look forward to it. You're thinking about it. You've got to wait in line. JV and I, and I know about this very well, this experience and then to be let down and then to be repeatedly let down. And then the whole thing that is for me is always very sad is you would get excited from the beginning of any of these movies because of the music and the intro. And it was a, here we go. And then now you're seeing this as JVL was just talking about with Marvel, you're, you're, they're, they're just, you know, uh, they're, they're wasting it now. They're just, you know, they're just using up all that magic. There's nothing left when you have an opening with the music and oh, and it's a Marvel movie. All the good stuff is behind it. And the stuff that they
Sonny00:30:32have now is like, blah. Yeah. So anyway, strange world. I mean, again, strange world's a disaster on virtually every level. It's going to lose somewhere between a hundred and $140 million. It's going to, it, it, it got a B from cinema score, which breaks no Walt Disney animated film has ever gotten below an a minus. Wow. Um, in the, in the 30 years that they've been doing cinema scores and yet not surprising to me, honestly.
JVL00:30:57If you had told me after looking at the very first trailer, this is going to be the first Disney movie to, to break that. I would have said, yeah, okay. I can see that. Yeah. Right.
Sonny00:31:06Um, didn't do anything. Yeah. And the critics, even the critics, you know, are very Matt on it. I think it's a 74% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. It definitely got a, uh, look, I, I, I, I am, uh, on the record as, as being very critical of the, you know, Oh, Disney, Disney went, went woke. Now they're broke, uh, crowd. I think those people don't have any idea what they're talking about, but I do think that this movie like is so, it is just so comically diverse. Like it literally made me laugh out loud. Like at one, the, the moment that made me laugh out loud was there just, there's just a scene of people walking through a street and there's like, you see, you see like, you see like every race and then you see, is this on earth or is this another planet? Well, no, it's like, it's, it's, it's in this mystical realm. I mean, like it doesn't matter, but it, but it, and then, and then there's, there's a lady in a wheelchair and I'm just like, okay, come on, this is ridiculous. It's literally just checking every box. Um, and I think that they are more focused on that than they are in telling good stories. And that's, that's a real problem. Uh, but the whole thing though, just everything about it was, was, was not good. It's, it's a, it's a, it's a bad film. Um, and, uh, Bob Iger needs, really needs to come in there and clean house needs to, needs to shake things up. Yeah. So, yeah, um, John Lasseter. Well, he's in, he's doing the Apple animation studios or whatever. He
Vic00:32:35just liked to hug. Is it, is, is that so wrong? He just, and he liked to pretend to be a train engineer or the some other stuff hugging quote unquote. Uh, you know, it's funny. Uh, on, uh, if you do the Disney cruise, I remember this back in the day in 2018, you get dropped off on the Disney Island. Uh, cast away key. And it was very soft. Kids don't notice these things. What was that? No, no, no. I'm not that lucky, but we go out for that. I'd like to go to the adult one with the descendants cast. You get off the boat and as you're walking towards the beach and all the other things that they have there, and it's very nice, it's very clean. Everything is great. Um, it has all sorts of Disney tchotchkes. And one of them is a little welcome sign on the side with a little bench. You can sit down or whatever, but it's a little sign and it says, welcome to cast away key, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It tells you this. And then on the bottom it says, captain Bob Iger. It's very subtle.
JVL00:33:40And I always wondered, did they take that out and captain Bob Chapek? Is it like, yeah, I wonder if they changed it. Welcome to New York state with the governor name of the governor.
Vic00:33:49They change it whenever. Right, right. And then now did they have to change it back again? Did they, did they keep the old sign? Just put it back in there. They never changed it. Yeah. Like what were the odds that Bob Chapek went to cast away key in 20 the last, well,
JVL00:34:02he's a perks guy, so I don't know. I mean, I bet he pays attention to that stuff. Interesting.
Sonny00:34:06He's not, he's not nothing anymore. No more. He's out. He's rich. Okay. Yeah. He, he got a hundred million dollar parachute. I think he'll be all right. Yeah. That's nice. Uh,
Vic00:34:16okay. So, uh, this week, uh, we're actually talking about a movie that I believe is actually not a wide release yet. I don't know when it's on 600 screens. Yeah. It's small. Uh, it's the fable mins, which is, uh, Steven Spielberg's Spielberg's, uh, return as a director since I guess West side story. I don't even know if you want to count
Sonny00:34:38that. That was last year. It's not like he's been anywhere. I feel like it's been ages. I think he's made a good movie. Yes. I feel like last year, I think the post was the year
Vic00:34:48before that. I don't, I don't think he's ready player one. No, I feel like it was ET and then the fable mins. That's it. That's where he's been. That's right. It's like, can I just say nothing, nothing in between. It is like, it is like my in-laws. They keep on saying anytime they're like, they'll see something drew Barrymore's like, Oh, that poor drew Barrymore, you know, ever since, you know, after ET, she never did anything. And actually she did a lot, you know, because of the drugs and the drinking, I go, yeah, it's true, but she got better and it becomes a recurring thing where they'll forget all that poor drew Barrymore, you know, a lot of good movies. Okay. So, um, the JVL, I'm con you, you were, you were not doing well. I don't know If you were able to get to a theater for this, I, I saw it. I guess we'll have to add it. I'm sure you were fine at the time. Uh, let's move right along. Sonny, how about a big boy review of the Fableman's?
Sonny00:35:44So the Fableman's, uh, as Vic mentioned, directed by Steven Spielberg, uh, written by Tony Kushner. It's a semi autobiographical, really fairly autobiographical, uh, story of Steven Spielberg growing up and you know, uh, his, his relationship to the movies. And the, I wanna, I wanna explain to people, uh, how this movie has been sold. This movie has basically been sold as a, this is a magic of movies movie. This is, this is, this is, you know, you, you're going to this. I think the opening line from, uh, from what's her name? Uh, Michelle Williams is something like a movie is a dream you hold in your hand. And she even has that really annoying Lilton, her voice. I don't know what's happened to her, but she has, has, uh, I think that's an intentional accent. Anyway, whatever's going on there. It's very annoying. She's very annoying in this whole movie. Honestly, I, she's getting a lot of Oscar buzz and I don't, I don't get
Vic00:36:40it because I, I find she's convincingly she's convincingly bad, but I'll wait for you too.
Sonny00:36:44I'll find, I find her performance in this very weird. But anyway, so this movie is being pitched as a, this is a magic of movies, movies, and it's not that exactly it's, it is kind of that. I mean, it is about, you know, the Steven Spielberg. Stan and Sammy Fableman kind of like finding his place in the world through, through movies, but what it really is, and I, maybe this is going to sound offensive and I'm, I apologize in advance if this sounds offensive to anybody, but what it is is it is like an autistic person trying to figure out how to handle the world and doing so only, only being able to understand the world while looking through a movie camera or watching a movie on the screen. Does that to you, does that description that I, I, I, again, I don't, I, I'm not, I'm not trying to be offensive here. I, I, but I, but it, it comes across as a person who has like a mental deficiency and when they are, when they are like making a movie or watching a movie, he does a kind of a rain man thing and is he able to piece together how the world
Vic00:37:46works? Yeah, I could say that. Am I, I know what you're saying, but I, I didn't think that at all because I didn't think he acted. I don't think he, I don't think he interacted
Sonny00:37:57in that way. No, no, I mean, it's, it's, it's not exactly, it's not, it's not exactly the same. He's not, I mean, he's not, you know, he is not autistic like Dustin Hoffman and Rayman. I mean, he's like, he's like a more or less normal functioning person. He just like, like reaches a sort of like, I got a state of Zen
Vic00:38:13or something when he's doing things are bad in the real world, in his real life, he withdraws
Sonny00:38:18back to behind the lens. Yeah. And so, and, and as such, I think the movie does have sequences that really, really work. Like for instance in this, in this film. So you know, very, very basic bones set up here. Sammy Fableman is the a third of four children. His dad's a computer scientist. Mom is a pianist, an artist. She is, you know, she feels stifled in her life. He is, he's moving the family around the country going from, you know, go to GE then IBM. They have a, there's a family friend who works with us with Mr. Fableman as played by Seth Rogan in the film, who is a kind of a, you know, buddy uncle figure. And when the movie works and it does, it does work. Whenever they're doing stuff with movies, the movie works, if that makes sense, like whatever. So for instance, there's a very good sequence in the film that is reminiscent of the film blow out or the film blow up. Where Sammy Fableman is putting together a home movie of the family on a camp out and he realizes as he's putting the footage together, oh shit, my mom is having an affair with the Seth Rogan character. You know, maybe it's just, you know, supposedly it's just an emotional affair. I don't know. But the, but the he's, as he's like editing it together and as he's like winding the eight millimeter film back and forth and back and forth, like doing a, you know, kind of a Zapruder, Zapruder film. Uh, you know, thing here, he's, he's realizing he's putting it together in his head that the, his mother is cheating on his father. Um, when that sort of thing is happening in the film, I think it's actually very good and it's very interesting. And again, it's, it's like, this is how, this is how, and it's, it's interesting because Steven Spielberg is arguably the signature American artists of like the last quarter of the 20th century. I think you could make a very real case. He is the signature American artist. Mm-hmm from like 1975 to 2000 or so. Mm-hmm maybe. I don't know. I don't know. And that's why this is interesting. We see how he is putting together his understanding of the world. He does it through film. He, this is how he pieces his life together. And I, I like, I find that kind of interesting because it's about Spielberg because it is, I like it. That's that may be masturbatory, but again, he is an important figure and I am, uh, it, it is more interesting to watch this than to read a, an autobiography by him. I would rather see Spielberg make a movie about Spielberg than read a book that Spielberg has had ghostwritten for him.
Vic00:41:06And as a kid, he really did do a, a war pick movie. Didn't he just like this?
Sonny00:41:11Yeah, this is, I, I, my understanding is that this film is very autobiographical.
Vic00:41:17The idea for example, and I was trying to figure out there's a scene where he's doing this when he's younger, when in Arizona, which seems like such a happier place to tell California for him. He had friends who were normal. They were nice, nice kids in Arizona, uh, and with the boy Scouts, but, um, the gun, the, um, the gun fight, and it just wasn't working for him obviously. And even if you had caps with little smoke coming out, it still is not the same. And then he comes up with that, you know, the light bulb hits right.
Sonny00:41:47The epiphany that is for special effect really. It's like figuring out how to do the, he puts the pinpricks in the film and that creates the flash of the muzzle. Um, anyway, uh, the movie is self-indulgent. It's too long. Um, uh, it drags in places. I, I, again, I found, I found the whole mother character who he, again, he, he's very attached to, and I think this is meant to be a very nice portrayal. I think for the most part, I found it totally
Vic00:42:14miserable to watch. I just didn't, I totally sided with Paul Dano. Yeah, totally, totally.
Sonny00:42:19Um, but, and then when, when the movie works again, it works when it's, when it has these scenes that is dealing with the making of film. Films and how he relates to it. And it, and there are a couple of very great short, almost parachute in one-off scenes. Uh, the one with Judd Hirsch who plays, um, uh, I guess plays the father from independence day. Yes. He put, he's yeah, he basically just plays the father from independence day, uh, who, who comes in and he is like, he, he's a, he is a Carney, uh, turned film guy. And he, you know, he, he tells young Sammy Fableman like art and family, they're gonna take you apart. Yeah.
Vic00:42:58And he's sure enough. He also said, he also said, go to California, go to Hollywood because we will be welcome
Sonny00:43:04there. See Kanye West was right. He was just, I think, I think I, I actually wrote that in my notes. I was like, wait a second. Are we, is this movie allowed to say this right now? Uh, but the, uh, but, and then, and then the scene at the end where David Lynch is playing smaller, I guess, so good with this scene at the end where David Lynch is playing John Ford. It's just fantastic. It's, it's, it's fantastic. And, and there's, there's like, there's even the nice little, uh, touch at the end with Spielberg moving the camera very conspicuously to get the, uh, get the horizon, you know, uh, lower, higher, I forget even which it does matter. But the, uh, like I, uh, I kind of liked this movie. I didn't love it. It is, it is interesting. It is self-indulgent. It is masturbatory. Uh, it is. It is, uh, overacted and like simultaneously kind of underacted. I don't know.
Vic00:44:01It depends. There, there are scenes that reminded me of like the high school and back to the future, you know, but, uh, you know, at the very.
Sonny00:44:08Oh, totally. I mean, he was an executive producer on that, right? I mean, I guess it's, it's, it must've been intentional. It's like picking out all the references in this movie would be, I mean, it'd be a full-time job. You'd have to go through it frame by frame and
Vic00:44:21JVL. Thank you Sonny for that. JVL. Uh, what, what did you think?
JVL00:44:26You know, I, maybe it's not fair, but after we said we were going to do this, I went and I watched the trailer and I don't think we have ever done a movie that I wanted to see less. Oh, I would rather have gone to see barbarian. I'd rather have gone to see smile than this piece of shit. Wow. I thought, you know what I thought? I was like, this is what
Vic00:44:50it feels like to be Vic. Yeah. Doing on every episode, almost doing a Marvel movie. Uh,
JVL00:44:56right. You know, like we're, we're doing, uh, we're doing the eternals. You know, this is what Vic feels like when he's told, Oh, I gotta go to a theater and watch the eternals.
Vic00:45:05There's two hours. And I, I figured we would see it though, because I, like, I didn't know what it was going to be like about until, but I just knew it was Spielberg. So it's
JVL00:45:13Spielberg is, that's kind of a big deal. So I'm not, I'm not complaining. I'm not, I'm merely saying that I, I am sour on this to an unbelievable degree. I was going to say,
Vic00:45:23so you didn't like the trailer, but, and you went to the movie and it confirmed, it
JVL00:45:26did not like, uh, that again, you know, I'm, I'm a little sick. Maybe I'm under the weather. Maybe, maybe this is me bringing my own stuff, but, but fuck this. And I, with every passing year, I feel like Steven Spielberg is lessening his case for being the most important American artist of the last 20 years. So if he had died 20 years ago, then I think, uh, there's absolutely no question that he would be regarded as what Sonny says, the most important American artist.
Vic00:45:57You think that he's in danger of, uh, a Francis Ford, Coppola, Jack mobile for the record,
Sonny00:46:03for the record. What I said, I want to, I want to be clear. What I said was most important artist of the last quarter of the 20th century was very specific.
JVL00:46:12Oh, okay. Well, yeah. Okay. So from 1975 to 2000, sure. Um, I think that that's, that is safe, but I mean, you look at, he's done so much stuff. That is like this click ready player one and West side story and fable moons. And these are just, they're masturbatory. Like they're, this is a guy who is making these big, handsome American movies that I don't know, like aren't good. And also like, shouldn't even be made. It's not even the execution. It's like the project selection. Like you gotta, you gotta do better. Right. You know, surely there is some middle ground between being Quentin Tarantino, where you direct one movie every five years or seven years and being Spielberg. We're just shitting out stuff constantly. No, like couldn't, isn't there where you can, you know, be a little
Vic00:47:16bit more auteur like, well, it's weird, you know, he's 75 and I'm like, oh, this movie could be like his, you know, but it's not, of course, because Clint Eastwood, you know,
JVL00:47:26Clint Eastwood is still directing movies. Yeah. I, you know, I, I mean, you look at the last, really since 2002. So in 2002, he does Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can, which I think are probably his last two really good movies, like really good movies. Bridges
Sonny00:47:40Fize is a pretty good movie. It's not great. I think Lincoln is probably a great movie. Lincoln. Lincoln is great. Oh, Lincoln. I like Lincoln. Yeah. That's a big movie. It's
Vic00:47:51an important movie, right? As they say. It's another handsome American film. And, uh, but
JVL00:47:56I don't know, like the rest of it is just, eh, like why, if you're Steven Spielberg and you were late in your career, why are you making the BFG? Why are you making Ready Player One? Right. And also why are you remaking West Side Story? I, I hate West Side Story. Sorry, John. I, I, I, I just fucking hate it. But you know what? For the people who love West Side Story, West Side Story is already a perfect movie. Right. Right. So, you know,
Vic00:48:22like why, why would you remake that? That doesn't make any sense. It's like,
JVL00:48:26remaking the in-laws or whatever. Yeah. And since I don't understand Spielberg's career, especially like since he was like 50, like, what is this? Yeah. Um, I don't, I mean, I,
Sonny00:48:40I don't even, I don't disagree with a lot of this. I, I, I do think that I, like even a movie like the post, right. I can understand, you know, why, why make this, but it has,
Vic00:48:52which is weird because why make a movie if you're doing the Pentagon papers, wasn't the New York times who broke it? Not the Washington post. It's that's, I, that's a dumb complaint
Sonny00:49:00because, because the, the post is actually interesting because it is like, it's a movie where people were trying to have the Washington post not publish that story internally and externally. Whereas the New York times, everyone was just like, we're publishing this. Well,
Vic00:49:12I just, I'm just, I'm just, I just like talking about movies I've actually never seen.
Sonny00:49:18I, but no, but the, uh, but the, uh, but I, like, I, I, I'm with you, JBL. I, I, I feel like, you know, even, even the thing, even the movies that I think are very good, uh, like I think Lincoln is very good. I'm with Vic. I think Vic, I, I think, you know, that is, that is a, an A plus movie. Um, uh, really, really good. Munich is Munich is a very good movie. Uh, you know, um, but yeah, why is he making, why is he making Rin Tin Tin? Why is he making the adventures of Tin
Vic00:49:53Tin? Rin Tin Tin is the dog. Well,
JVL00:49:56he is a director the way, like, uh, I don't know, like British thespians are actors, right? Like he's just always working. Just work. Right. And actors do that. There are actors who do just like, look, they want to be working. Right. You know, and, and I, I respect that. I really do. But on the other hand, like if you are a big, important director, you gotta be a little bit more selective, right? This is, again, I, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just looking for a happy medium. Don't, don't become, uh, I dunno, pick, you know, who is it who makes like one movie every 17 years, like Terrence Malick, but you know, like, don't, don't do that. Right. Don't. And they don't all have to be big, important movies. You can do, you can do bridge of spies, right? You catch me if you can is not a big, important movie, but it's a lovely, a lovely movie. Uh, Munich is an interesting movie. It's good.
Sonny00:50:56Warhorse. Really? Do we need Warhorse? Don't really need Warhorse. I'll stop. At least
JVL00:51:04he's out of his way. He did go through a phase where all he could do was important movies, right? Yeah. Like we did like the Schindler's List, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, like,
Sonny00:51:15Oh God, no. I will make, I will make, uh, I will make, I will, I will, they are, they are, you know, I actually, I don't think I've ever actually seen Amistad. It's not, it's
JVL00:51:25a pedestrian. I liked it. But the, uh, you and I saw that together and you did not like
Vic00:51:31it when we were in there. I did not watch that with you. That's false. I saw it at Roy Rogers together. We saw, we had a, I did not see Amistad with you. I saw it at home. I
Sonny00:51:42never said, I didn't see this in the theater. Uh, all right. I don't, I don't know where, I don't know where you, but the, I will make, I will make, I will, I will make one, I will, I will make one case for ready player one. It is, it is about, uh, it is about the great American audio, uh, artist looking at what he has done to the world of art and lamenting the world that he has created. That is, that would be the one case I would make for ready player one, but it's neither here nor there. Vic, what,
Vic00:52:10what were the quadrants? Interesting. I gave the plot an eight plus. It was very easy to
Sonny00:52:16understand. Question, question. I have a plot question. Oh yes. Do you think it is hinted that Seth Rogan's character is Steven Spielberg's real father? Oh wow. Geez. Where he gives him the camera and he like hugs him and he kind of like his face changes and he's like, no, I never, I know I had not thought of like moments, moments later in the film, the mother says like we knew it was never physical, you know, it was never anything like that, which, which felt to me like Spielberg realizing, oh shit, it looks like I'm suggesting that Seth Rogan is my dad.
Vic00:52:55I, uh, I was just, I was just happy that I figured out from the very beginning when you first see Seth Rogan, that there was something going on. Okay. He makes it very easy for you in this movie to know, Hey, there's this thing happening. And because you know, the grandmother who she's an actress, I absolutely love the old lady who, uh, she's also in succession. Uh, she's like the editor of their version of the New York post. Um, uh, she knows something's going on. Everybody does. I mean, I don't actually thought if it was an emotional or a sexual relationship, but to think that he, uh, that Paul Dana was not the father. No, that's news to me. JBL. Did you, did you,
Sonny00:53:33did you, did you get those vibes? No, no. Okay. It doesn't mean I wasn't there, but I didn't pick
Vic00:53:39up on that. Right. Uh, action and violence is a C high school violence. I always find that very unnerving, very scary, very scary high school violence. Uh, sex nudity is a D I give a couple of points for Michelle Williams, a silhouette. Okay. And then duration is, an F. Uh, so it gets a C, uh, CC minus. Uh, and yet I still found it very interesting. I think
JVL00:54:02I was willing to want, what was that JBL? Has Spielberg ever done sex nudity? Once.
Vic00:54:10Schindler's list. There's an amazing scene with Liam Neeson and like the secretary or whoever. And, uh, one of his workers has to come in and interrupt, uh, to let them know there was an issue at the factory. And, uh, and it's in black and white, but this, the woman's gorgeous and they're just, it's the full thing. It's the full thing that he was such a terrible Flander or Oscar Schindler, but you know, you had to show that it was very important for history to get the full effect. Um, there was nudity and there was new nudity in Munich as well. And jaws and jaws very briefly. What was the brief opening sequence? The opening sequence. I remember. Yeah. Also, if you're watching it on like cable, you're not
Sonny00:54:55going to see it. I watched it. I watched it like on, uh, you know, on Blu-ray on my, my plasma, not even the 4k, the 10 ADP. And I was like, holy shit, there's a naked chick just on in the middle
Vic00:55:06of the screen of this PG movie. There are sex scenes in Spielberg movies like catch me if you can, but there's not actual like nudity in the full deal. It's not his thing. It's the same, but it's not as bad as Amy Adams. Yeah. Yeah. That too. Uh, uh, but it's not as bad as like Scorsese, who's clearly uncomfortable. I always thought doing filming the sex scenes is much more comfortable doing violence as people say. Uh, in any event, I, I thought, uh, parts of this movie, as Sonny said, parts of it, I thought were very interesting. Um, I, uh, I thought the, I liked the cast. I think they're all great, including Spielberg while Spielberg, um, uh, Sammy's, uh, sisters, once again, Julia Butters, who we first saw in once upon a time in Hollywood is here and she's great. Um, and, uh, let's see here. What else do I have? Um, yeah, I think that's about it. I mean, you know, the, the, the scenes with the camera, you know, where he, he, he's, you, you talk about this thing being very masturbatory, the, the, the scenes of him caring for the camera and putting it together, you know, that's like camera porn per se, you know, he's opening up, you could almost smell it, you know, the, the camera I'm talking about, but you know, like the, like the film and all that stuff that you put in. I mean, and that, that actually is, um, as Sonny says, the movie parts are great. And it's sad because that's lost art. You know, everyone could just do everything on a phone now, but you actually had to get these really interesting, um, very different types of cameras. And you see, uh, a bunch of different ones in this movie in culminating in the one he gets to use for the high school, um, picnic summer scene, uh, and all the amount of work you can do. But it's very interesting because you can do your own editing with that kind of real film and you would, you know, cutting and piecing it together.
Sonny00:56:59It's, yeah, I mean, that's like there, there's the, the, but you could not do on a camcorder
JVL00:57:04editing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, let me make a, I'm just sitting here staring at his filmography is part of the problem that he's not a writer because even his bad movies, like they look good, right? The lost world looks gorgeous. The lost world has quality problems out the ass, but you know, it looks good. Uh, hook not so much. Um, kingdom of crystal skull, not so much.
Sonny00:57:36No, but even, even, even, even, even those movies have like, he, he has a fluidity of movement to the camera and the visual sense of it that like there's, there's nobody. I don't think there has ever been a filmmaker in history who has a better intuitive sense of how to move a camera around a space. To, to keep from doing something boring, just shot, reverse shot, shot, reverse shot stuff. He knows how to move. He knows how to visually see and move around a space with a camera. And I, I don't think anybody else in the history of filmmaking has done it as well or as naturally as him, but you're right. He, he has these scripts that are sometimes not great.
JVL00:58:19And he's, he's, I'm looking at right now. He's only got three writing credits. One of which is this one of which is AI, which is a mess, right? I mean, AI is an absolute mess as a piece of writing. Uh, and then close encounters, which I hate. Oh, I think I like close. I know you like that's a really close. It's great. I do not
Vic00:58:44like those encounters. A really interesting movie. Uh, although again, uh, Richard Dreyfuss made a very funny joke some years ago about, you know, the sequel where he comes back to explain to his family why he left them, abandoned the kids. I mean, it was really kind of terrible. Uh, speaking of AI JVL, do you remember, uh, when we, uh, worked at the standard, uh, I always got a chance. I always, one of the perks of my position was I got to work with Peter Steiner a lot, the cartoonist. Yeah. And he did, uh, and he was a cartoonist for the New Yorker and he did a, uh, a car. We, we picked a cartoon once for him and it was the AI image. You know, uh, you remember how it looked like the movie poster where the kid walks from the A to the I, but instead it was B to the S it was because Peter Steiner was like, this thing is bullshit, you know? So anyway, uh, yeah, but that, uh, anime bodysuit, oh wait,
JVL00:59:42you mean the woman, the half, the half, uh, girlfriend, intriguing. It was played by Les,
Vic00:59:49Leslie Bibb maybe. Wow. Good memory. I think it was Leslie Bibb. I'd have to go look. Very, very good. Okay. Let's, uh, let's, let's move along. Uh, spirit of the week corrections, shout outs. I, I do have a, not a, a kind of a correction, which is multiple listeners, including Tom Abella and Adam Schmidt pointed out that there is in fact, Sonny, a Shake Shack at a New Jersey. You mentioned, I think we mentioned Shake Shack and I think I dismissed it. And I said, there's no way you're not gonna, why would Shake Shack, why would, um, Danny Meyer want to open up a, uh, you know, a Shake Shack, uh, at, at a rest stop, let alone one on a, on a turnpike or wherever there is in fact, a Shake Shack at a New Jersey rest stop on the garden state parkway, which is the more scenic of them. You wouldn't find Sonny would not find himself there, but it's a beautiful parkway. And they, do you know, you know, this JVL, obviously, since you're back up in, in, in, in, in the, in the homeland, the mother country is, uh, the, the, the parkway rest stops have been renamed. Yes. And the Shake Shack is at the Judy Blume rest stop. Oh, yeah. Which is towards the south. I believe that is correct. That is correct. It is towards the south. Um, okay. That we'll talk about,
Sonny01:01:10we'll talk about the results of the, the, the draft after the, after the, in the, in
Vic01:01:17the, yeah, the stinger stick around and that's all the time we're given to this episode questions, comments, compliments, tweet us at Sonny Bunch at Victorino Matus. Again, be sure to subscribe to us on Patreon. Just go to subbeacon.com. We're there. Tell your friends until next
Sonny01:01:30time. So results, uh, Vic blew it out of the water, 75%, 75% of the, as soon as we were done with
JVL01:01:49that, it was clear to me that he, that's the rest up. I wanted to go do I, well, I had to, you know, I had to think quick because you did me the
Vic01:01:57courtesy of getting to pick first, but then I'd have to wait for, uh, uh, like one, two or three. I then, you know, like it would be like the fourth selection when, by the time it came back to me and I really thought, what was I going to pick for the main thing? And the first thing that came to my mind, obviously is Popeye's. But in fact, uh, Dunkin donuts is, is, is a good, is a solid one for at least people in our part of the country.
JVL01:02:22Sees some garbage. And I can also have a sort of grassy section with some rushes and bushes where you could park down. So, you know, if the parking lot by the main section is full, you could park down, down by the rushes and just, you should have picked your lights.
Vic01:02:38You should have picked that JVL as your special feature by the woods. You said you have a
JVL01:02:43parcel of land, very dark, lot of trees. This is, this is a Jim McGreevy joke. I know. Yes.
Sonny01:02:52I'm ignoring, I'm ignoring all this. It's in poor taste. Uh, but the people who don't people who did not grow up in the North East or the I-95 corridor were very confused by this whole, this whole thing. They were like, why didn't you just pick Bucky's? I was like, I was like, that's, that's, that's a different sort of thing. It's just, that's just like a Wawa. That's just a, it's like a Walmart on the highway. It's just, it's, it's an enormous performance. It's like, they have like 50, they have like 50 gas, you know, uh, Stan, you know, 50, I don't know. What do you even call those pumps? Thank you. Wow. 50. They have like 50 pumps and like they're, they're like, it's like an actual department store inside with like multiple types of restaurants. You can get like barbecue or burgers or whatever. I mean, it's like, it's like a whole rest stop complex in and of itself, but it's just one thing. It's just called Bucky's. So like I was trying to explain to people like that doesn't really count. That's not, that's not.
JVL01:03:52Did you just say Beaver Nuts? Beaver Nugs. Beaver Nuggets is the signature Bucky's food item.
Sonny01:03:58Yeah. So anyway, the, the, I still think, I still think, you know, Dunkin Donuts overrated.
JVL01:04:05But this is not like, I don't know when I've driven out to the Midwest as you drive across like Ohio and Pennsylvania and Indiana, they have rest stops off of their turnpikes.
Sonny01:04:15Yeah. Yeah. Pennsylvania does kind of, but even there it's like they're, they're like, there's one like every hundred miles or something. It's like you're, you're, you're, people are mostly getting off the highway.
Vic01:04:28I do think that the, the main reason why I did so well, finally, for the first time in my life in this, in this, in this poll is not so much the Dunkin Donuts or the Popeyes. It's really that mini mart because you can get all sorts of things in there. Totally key. Yeah. It's totally key. You can get. I've, you're profan, uh, and newspaper or birth control. I'm sure it's fine.
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