The Sub-Substack

← all The Weekly Substandard episodes

#93. The Substandard on Paul Thomas Anderson, Favorite Restrooms, and Eagles Fanfiction

2018-01-18 · 01:00:02

Listen to this episode ↗on Substack, where the show lives now

Dudes Chatting — Phantom Thread and a Paul Thomas Anderson career deep dive: JVL opens in a state of Eagles-beat-Vikings euphoria and performs a bit of "Eagles fan fiction" involving Ricky Watters and Andy Reid. The main segment is Sonny's review of Phantom Thread — Daniel Day-Lewis as a fastidious London dressmaker with a peculiar relationship to a new muse, allegedly PTA's final film. Sonny finds it very funny in a subtle and deeply strange way, likening its psychological architecture to Hitchcock. The hosts then rank PTA's entire filmography: Sonny's order is There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights, Phantom Thread, Punch-Drunk Love, Magnolia, The Master, Inherent Vice, Hard Eight; JVL would put Boogie Nights at number one. PTA trivia is covered — he quit NYU after two days when a Mamet pastiche received a C+; he served as the designated backup director on A Prairie Home Companion. The Alfred Molina firecracker scene in Boogie Nights earns a spirited discussion. Vic, as Gene, weighs in on the Aziz Ansari MeToo controversy of that week. Vic also tells the story of discovering something living under a hole in his bathroom floor during renovations — a rat-related incident that will recur in subsequent episodes.

Box Office: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle holds at #1 ($28M), The Post opens at #2 ($19M), The Commuter at #3 ($13.7M); Phantom Thread is in limited release ($1M across 62 theaters).

Spirit of the Week: Tin Cup American Whiskey.

Full transcript
Guest00:00:00Coleman, a fullback, flanked out to the left, Ryan rolling to the right, Ryan in trouble, Ryan flips him into the engine with a prayer incomplete. Man, come on, I had a rough night and I hate the f***ing Eagles, man.
Vic00:00:26Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Substandards. Sponsored by Casper Mattress. I'm Victor Matus, along with Sonny Bunch and Jonathan V. Last. I'd like to remind you The Substandard is available on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher. Just look at our podcast and search for Substandard. You'll easily find us. Please subscribe, tell your friends, leave a review. Gentlemen, how are we? JVL, why the dark circles under the eyes? As Jack Nicholson said, and as good as it gets.
JVL00:00:53It was an early call this morning. We had a kid in a little bit of distress at about 1.30. And so I have been up since then. I'm sure it's fine. I'm sure it's fine. But I'm okay. The show's over. Because my spirit is buoyed. The body's weak. What spirit is that, JVL? But my spirit is soaring like an eagle.
Vic00:01:14Oh boy. All right. So excited. Let's hear it. Go ahead. Share your thoughts. This is an hour show, so just keep that in mind.
JVL00:01:25So I'm sitting there watching the game with my nine-year-old. And I'm assuring him that the Eagles are going to lose, because this is what they do.
Vic00:01:33All the time. In the playoffs. You're in the playoffs. This is what they do.
JVL00:01:36We lose in the playoffs. And he's saying, no, no, they're going to be fine. They're going to be fine. He said, no, they're not going to be fine. This is just what happens. So we're in the fourth quarter. And the Eagles score to go up 15 to 10. And he says, they're going to win. Look, there's a minute 13 left. And I said, no. No, they're not. Let me explain to you, my son, my child. Let me explain to you the facts of life. here's what's going to happen the atlanta falcons are going to march down the field in the course of this march they are going to face a fourth and long the eagles fans are going to think they have them the atlanta falcons are then going to complete and convert a fourth and long then they're going to wind up in a four in a first and goal situation and from the first and goal they're going to have three shots at the end zone that are going to fail completely and it'll be fourth and short and the eagles fans will think we did it i can't believe we did it i can't believe we held them and then atlanta will score a touchdown it'll be a walk-off touchdown and everybody in philadelphia will throw batteries because this is how it has been since the fall of adam and eve i can totally visualize all of that i have seen this movie before and yea verily as i had prophesied everything came to pass except fourth and two and they actually held them it was amazing i have not been i have not received this much joy from the outcome of a sporting event probably since the eagles went to the super bowl which is now 10 years ago fourth and 26 uh that was that was the year that was more than 10 years that was is it 14 years yeah so that was the that's and that super bowl was on the first weekly standard cruise you and i watched that game if you remember vic from the bar we were still in port
Vic00:03:25and we was this 2005 or a few years later uh i don't know i'd have to go look in 26 was the 2003
JVL00:03:352004 season season that sounds about right that's right and it was i am so in i'm so i went out and procured for myself a brian dawkins official game level jersey in black dock weapon x the wolverine one of my favorite eagle players ever it should be delivered tomorrow or the
Sonny00:03:55day after i'm unbelievably excited wait you just bought this jersey so you can wear it in the
JVL00:04:01championship for the championship for the championship game assuring now that they're going to lose yeah because now that i have gone out and procured myself my first ever life first ever in life eagles jersey i have all but assured that they're going to lose i can't believe you've
Sonny00:04:18never bought a jersey for the eagles before this you're a pretty big eagles fan i am in fact a very big eagles fan would you all right if you were ranked ranking philadelphia sports teams would it be 76ers eagles uh phillies ranking them by what what is our criterion well just who you like the most who you eagles eagles okay and it's not even
JVL00:04:41close and i would say i have not loved the sixers since iverson was traded and the phillies were always i didn't really like baseball until college and so my first baseball love do you
Sonny00:04:55quite a lot do you maybe you've picked up on that but do you like do you like the phillies or do you
JVL00:04:59like the gnats i don't like the gnats i 100 don't like the gnats why don't you see the gnats because this city does not deserve a team that good this city this city is a bandwagon city and that's the guy who just bought his first eagle well look it's not like i've never paid attention to the eagles i used to before trick-or-treating at randall's house the national champion sat and lived and
Sonny00:05:19died national national nfc championship game i i will have you know that at the the the the
JVL00:05:25famous white house correspondence dinner when tom brady was there and this this is true tom brady and donovan mcnab were both there i stiff-armed tom brady to get past him to get to don mcnab to hang out with him what uh what year was this uh who could say it was yeah so it was amazing and i i have done a little bit of eagles eagles fan fiction writing oh boy i mean i don't have to
Sonny00:05:55you don't want to hear it sounds great it's okay let's do it okay like everyone knows that the
JVL00:05:59eagles aren't allowed to win a super bowl what this novel presupposes is maybe they are ricky waters ran over the middle like a stallion frisculating the turf and shredding defenders as a cornucopia dispenses delicatations he caught the ball an oblong concoction of flinty leather and common air he caught the ball and cried out vamonos amigos we do this for us for now
Sonny00:06:25that's wow great wow that's really now in chapter two i get to the part where andy reed now you're telling me this is worse than jonah reading bigfoot erotica on his on his so-called
JVL00:06:43podcast in chapter two andy reed dies during a bout of autoerotic association oh my gosh does he at least i can't i can't say it i don't want to bleep it i don't have time to bleep today
Sonny00:06:54does he at least pass along his clock management skills to his his scion on the team
JVL00:07:00that guy and what's funny is the eagles coach right now doug peterson do you remember him from eagles lore he was the guy who andy reed brought in as his first quarterback after having drafted uh donovan mcnabb and mcnabb was not allowed to start and is it because he was black and philadelphia's racist so the feeling i noticed you didn't answer he just you didn't answer that one so the philly fans wanted mcnabb playing and reed was such such a bald-faced liar that he refused to admit in public that mcnabb was the quarterback of the future he said yeah doug peterson's our quarterback yeah we'll see if mcnabb can play down the line he has gone out and selected with the number two overall picked on mcnabb and he then spent the entire first season insisting that mcnabb might never actually play because doug peterson was the quarterback of the future for the philadelphia eagles and that's when i first realized how much i hated andy reed because just a liar just a bald-faced
Sonny00:08:09liar you can't you can't but as i don't care anything about andy reed i have no interest in sticking up for him but in the defense of of andy reed as a head coach don't you have to say that the guy that you're playing right then is your quarterback because then you invite all sorts of you know quarterback controversy you don't want quarterback controversy you know what kills
JVL00:08:29teams quarterback controversy but there was a quarterback contract it wasn't a controversy doug peterson was a journeyman quarterback who was who's brought in specifically to just be a caretaker for 10 or 16 games the quarterback of the future you know what i hate i hate being treated like an idiot and so did everyone so did the philadelphia sports media and this is why people i would say this was quite a look as you know what to be and we don't need to get into in chapter two where andy reed dies while wearing a gimp mask and being sodomized by terrell owens in that chapter that chapter is lit that lit af
Vic00:09:10lit af wow okay smdh thank you thank you jvl that was lovely i feel like this you know in a therapy session the person's done talking and sitting in a circle sonny how was your weekend and week i i did i
Sonny00:09:24actually watched more football this weekend than i have basically the rest of the year uh or at least since aaron rogers went down um with his his shoulder injury uh and it was a great weekend of football i mean the the that minnesota game i it's the first time all year i've literally made an exclamation like an involuntary exclamation i just went like oh yes that's basically the noise i made
JVL00:09:48it was like oh same as it as like as as not only as the catch happened but the the the real moment was
Sonny00:09:54when the defender just whiffed on the tackle i mean just took out the other defender who could make the tack i mean it was actually it was i it was it was the sort of thing that if i i mean i obviously don't think this but it looks like a play that was designed to make his team lose like if there was a mobster somewhere in the basement of that building with a gun to his
JVL00:10:16kid's head i wouldn't be shocked did you see what chris deaton did the mashup so chris deaton the call from the bill buckner game six world series thing matches up as a time stamp exactly perfectly from the hit and the snap together then the ball goes through buckner's legs at exactly the moment that the tackle misses and then the and the guy hits the end zone at exactly the moment
Vic00:10:43that the run scores oh that's great it's crazy does he do a split screen or is he doing no just
JVL00:10:47does the audio over over he does the vin scully audio over the the minnesota miracle play so
Sonny00:10:53anyway that was that was uh i'll put that in show notes best oh good oh good uh best best weekend of football that we've had so far i don't know and the steelers lost too which is kind of awesome yes
JVL00:11:05no blake portals yeah blake portals portals say it four times fast blake portals blake portals
Vic00:11:11blake portals no great it felt like they were ahead but they weren't ahead for a long time well they were i mean they had that feeling the momentum shifted in the third quarter they were
Sonny00:11:19up i think 28 to 7 at one point right and i was convinced i was still like yeah the steelers are going to score 40 points in a row easily i could see that happening almost happened almost did
JVL00:11:28almost did so they they held the line it was really good it's always sad when the rapists lose oh sorry is that allowed accused well accused alleged alleged yes so uh at least he didn't do what aziz ansari is alleged of having done oh wait let's not get into that right now served white wine instead of offering red she wanted red damn it boy that was uh he didn't even ask
Sonny00:11:51i mean that's just he didn't even ask it's
JVL00:11:54said here's your line okay uh monster what sort of monster let's see we'll say um oh yeah okay
Vic00:12:03so that was your weekend that was good okay good do we actually want to talk about i i could i so
Sonny00:12:08here's you know all right fine i don't want to i don't want to get too deep into the me too times up but you did a thing that blew up today there was a for the washington post it went what did you do i just wrote a piece on i wrote i wrote a piece about how the aziz ansari story was nothing like the harvey weinstein story or the louis ck story or the kevin spacey story it's exactly the same sonny see this is but but i get a lot of responses like this because it's true and why do you hate women well i got a lot of reasons we gotta we gotta we how you have a
Vic00:12:43daughter sonny how dare you no no but but sir but go ahead sonny say your piece i think it's i i do
Sonny00:12:51think that we are kind of like we are we are at the point where we are now looking for ways to continue the story and i don't think that that means that the story is done for instance look at the eliza dushku allegations that came out this week you know she said one of the stunt coordinators molested her and you know he's been dropped by his talent agency other people have been i noticed by the way james
Vic00:13:18cameron came out talking about the courage and jamie lee curtis as well schwarzenegger has not said anything
Sonny00:13:24yet no he tweeted something today he did or maybe okay well i don't tuesday monday tuesday but anyway the point is the point is i like i do think that we are we are like yeah kind of the story is it should not be running out of momentum because there are still tons and tons of these stories to be told but i i do think that we are kind of like reaching a point where you have a lot of uh very questionable news sites making very poor editorial judgments um in ways that will undermine the whole narrative
JVL00:13:54are you saying that the people at babe.com babe.net babe.net not even babe.com
Sonny00:14:00i said babe.com is like a porn porn site of some sort
JVL00:14:03i will never forget the the afternoon when fred barnes came rumming over to my desk and said go to whitehouse.com go to whitehouse.com i said fred it's it's whitehouse.gov you guys i know but go go see what whitehouse.com is very funny he was so titillated by it was hysterical anyway babe.net no that was
Sonny00:14:24a very brave piece of journalism by them i mean it just is it's the worst did you read the caitlin flanagan piece oh yeah well i quote i i mean i think i think caitlin flanagan made the key point about this whole story which is that this is the story at babe.net is just straight up three thousand words of revenge porn designed to humiliate a person who took a woman out on a bad date i mean that's the whole reason that this thing exists yeah and in and if that is what like if it clicks well also for the click sure high engagement mean 2.5 million they got photos 2.5 million clicks the evidence of the photos she took a picture of him see it happened I don't I actually believe every every single literally every word in that story I believe it was all like you know down to the weird claw the claw that's that's not a thing that we all do I
Vic00:15:18don't understand Vic right huh you know there's somebody sent on us to me on Twitter a reminder that yesterday was the 45th anniversary of of Jean Chalet joining the Today Show as a movie reviewer and joining a panel rather is drawing a panel with Barbara Walters and the interesting thing about the article was that he contributed he did he did not just movies but he does book reviews he did book reviews but keep before he came the critic and he they would do it they said occasional commentary and the interesting thing is I think Jean Chalet might have an occasional commentary about the Aziz Ansari situation today what and you could edit this out if this turns out to be what
JVL00:16:04holy crap Jean's here everybody buckle up your chin straps comedian Aziz Ansari
Vic00:16:17has been accused of sexual misconduct and unwanted sexual advances but I will not be giving you the blow-by-blow today no one is accusing Aziz of rape but talk about men behaving badly Aziz Ansari more like Aziz I'm sorry and it's not like I thought the girl was from a convent if she was Aziz would truly be the master of none and you end I actually didn't get it at first that's
Sonny00:16:52good I'm glad you spelled that out Jean oh Jean oh bye Jean I had wanted to ask Jean how many of the books he reviewed for the Today Show he read just as a percentage I actually I want to circle back to this because the idea the idea of the Today Show doing book reviews it was a different time is the most it like is a kind of mind like 60s or 70s I mean like
JVL00:17:14even the Today Show in the 1960s they do book reviews today it's look what somebody tweeted yeah like this is we're gonna do seven minutes on a Twitter let's talk
Vic00:17:23to a porn star it's something unfathomable for any sort of TV show to talk about books like that I mean people will hawk a book but in terms of like
Sonny00:17:30reviewing a book right right right just like doing a book review mm-hmm yes I
Vic00:17:34took out all sort of they were there the rumor had it that Jean had some various ethnic jokes but he took it out at the last second he got scared you know what I don't believe that Jean would do that he wasn't trying to you know what it's not like he was trying to curry favor with his ease speaking of curry you know what you know what's disgusting coconut flavor curry oh that's for the people who can't handle the real curry I need that when I when I went on my spot that the other stuff is too spicy when I went on
Sonny00:18:01my auntie coconut rant on Twitter two days ago a lot of no well on Twitter so like five days ago Oh coconut shrimp I got a lot of I got a lot of angry tweets from South Asians who are like well don't ever come to our countries I was like first off I'm not planning on it not planning on it no but I was some sex tourism no but I oh there's more to it come on my people than that but I was but I was just like I have no I have no interest in your garbage cuisine I don't know what I don't need it honey you might
Vic00:18:31you're talking about the cuisine but it's like you're saying the entire Asian Pacific Island region is some giant asshole or something I would never say something like that okay when Dick Durbin was around Vicki Vicki Durbin okay okay so moving right along just a really quick update the renovation on my bathroom the drywall is up the painting has begun can't wait for the vanity and the shower to be
Guest00:18:57installed how long has this taken? not yet it's you know where did you go to pick out your
JVL00:19:02tile did you go to doll tile no Foster's remodeling did you go to Home Depot no
Sonny00:19:07I got all my tile at Home Depot do you live in a trailer
JVL00:19:12Wow yes oh you get tile at Home Depot now there are some things that Home Depot is good for what else tile is not where else do you get tile from at a tile
Sonny00:19:23specialty store where I don't even know what that I don't know what is that this
Vic00:19:26is that you know what I mean I my wife is full she's about Lowe's is that what you're talking about Lowe's are you gonna say you people okay talking about but it made me think about I can't wait till this thing is done because that's gonna be my new office and talking about great favorite bathrooms right what is do you have a favorite I love fancy bathrooms yes Xanadu thank you JVL do you remember
Sonny00:19:48this or is this after your time the old office yeah at the hotel right there the
Vic00:19:53st. Regis oh no no no before that there was a so there was a term I believe it was coined by Joe Lindsley who used to work at the week no I remember it being Joe I trust you what happened was in the old office of the weekly standard you know you have the the men's room on your floor but then Joe had discovered a common men's room yes I call the entire floor mention there was a secret bathroom on level 2 like sub-basement like level 2 that almost nobody single stall bathroom
JVL00:20:23single stall is a handicapped stall it was the size of my first apartment
Vic00:20:28all right it was huge it was as big as this studio yeah it was literally as big as this studio especially if you're working late night and somebody ordered Indian for dinner or something and not and beyond you know I need to go to Xanadu which only happened 50 times a year it's only 50 times a year so anyway so you know it was a great bat and I thought about that when when we're they're coming along with this bathroom and other great bathrooms in the city. Who's christening your bathroom? Oh me it's my... easily, easily, I'm gonna be taking...
Sonny00:21:00Are you gonna order some Indian food the night before it's time? He's taking prima nocte on that one I mean come on
Vic00:21:05no the best one up in the house and I'm ready to go like clockwork I see but if we're in it as soon as I wake up are you gonna be day no I've never I've never used I've never used one I've seen it I've been in rooms where they have it I've never used it I'm not sure you know it's it sounds like there's too much
JVL00:21:20splashing going get the four thousand dollar Toto that has the bidet built-in and the heat and the wireless crap ability you get one of those from
Vic00:21:26Home Depot not dignifying it here's a question do you have right here on the spot worst bathroom opinion which bathroom you've ever been in in the
Sonny00:21:37world well I don't know about where the worst bathroom is like is is because all terrible bathrooms are terrible in the same basic way they're dirty and they're no no filthy don't work but I do have my favorite bathroom in the city I said this is what I thought you're gonna mention let's talk about was the one that's like on the side of the Mayflower like you know that side and oh yeah - the Mayflower what is what's the sales there and you would go in there and it would be on the right before you got to town and country like the back entrance it was a private the louvre doors this is a really fantastic conversation for the six of you who have been to the Mayflower but it was but it but the but the but the thing about this place this bathroom was that it was like heated especially so it was like it was very warm and and the the doors went all the way to the floor
JVL00:22:27all the way to the ceiling and it was like concrete you could probably survive
Vic00:22:31a nuclear blast I'm willing to share this now because I don't use it as often anyway because I thought I don't work in the city the Jefferson Hotel on 16th Street has an amazing bathroom in fact we would walk all the way over there to you from here to there yes it was a it was a hot sweaty walk JVL sometimes I thought I'm not gonna make it but the handicaps just destroy it the handicapped stall is actually its own bathroom its own bathroom sink everything I mean you could go you could go naked if you wanted to I'm not saying I've ever done that a few times I'm just saying and marble you know I mean the marble and all the fancy fixtures the Jefferson Hotel is great with worst bathroom I think I've been on I was going to I always say growing up it was I had caught a glimpse of the bathroom at Port Authority in New York in 1980 1980 my mother had to use the bathroom and I said I'm not going in my sister's like I'm not going in my mother opens the door there was a bag lady sitting on a sink no the two of us as kids I remember standing alone like my mother's all right don't talk to anybody in 1980s you don't talk to anybody I'm using the bathroom it's just horrific okay but it explains so much yes and there was also one I remember there was a bathroom in the middle of a jungle in Costa Rica and that was basically just a hole anyway speaking of jungles Jumanji well welcome to the jungle took the top spot at the box office again with 28 million dollars followed by the post we had expanded from like 20 screens to 2,500 yeah it was 19 million and what do you know what's in third place the commuter with thirteen point seven million dollars let me ask you a question I have not seen this movie but I'm wondering does this commuter have a special set of
Sonny00:24:16skills yes yes it's but again this is the wrong comparison it's not it's
Vic00:24:22not taken on a train it's non-stop on a train have you seen the commuter no I
Sonny00:24:27have not seen the community if if God is good if he exists and he is good he will allow me to get through the rest of my life without ever having to see this
JVL00:24:38movie Star Wars is behind even the greatest showman yeah it's down well it
Sonny00:24:43lost a thousand screens this week because it was so like this is one of the reasons why its numbers have been so inflated during the week is because it has been it's Disney signed a forced all theaters that were showing it to show it in their best theater for four weeks in a row and or in their best theaters and like so if they had multiple they had to show it in their best theaters for four weeks in a row lost a thousand screens this week because finally the theaters are like let's get this out of here Jumanji is gonna do slightly more than half of Star
Vic00:25:13Wars's business well okay how about Jumanji versus Justice League Jumanji's
Sonny00:25:18already gross more than Justice League domestic I don't know about international but definitely domestic yeah by a lot to buy like 40 million or something like that I think so far I mean yeah oh yeah it's gonna keep going I mean it's good I like you know we were talking about huge box-office surprises a couple episodes ago JBL and I think it is still the biggest box-office surprise of the year but I I think Jumanji doing 330 or 340 million dollars worth of business is
JVL00:25:44also a pretty I would say yes except that I started reading six months ago that Sony was incredibly high on Jumanji and that it had gone from being a project that they weren't super excited to to upon seeing the rough cut of it thinking that it was gonna be a monster so Sony it is holding that it was really well it had something
Sonny00:26:05special what was it can you can you pull up Jumanji just real quick and what was
JVL00:26:08the opening weekend opening weekend is so 36 million it's down to 28 million
Sonny00:26:22so it's gonna do it's gonna do a solid multiple of 10 yeah it's going to do a multiple of 10 basically domestic I mean that's that's an insane figure that's an insane is something about Mary level well it's avatar level avatar did about 700 did about 70 to 74 something like that on its opening weekend and none of us has seen it yes I've seen it we're doing a real good job staying up to up
Vic00:26:45to date on the culture you got to go all the way down by the way you have to go all the way down to number 20 on the list only because it's in 62 theaters to see phantom thread phantom thread which did a little over a million dollars over the weekend but it's just coming out now is phantom
Sonny00:27:02thread going to other platforming it it's it opened in on four screens and then I think expanded to seven or it eventually becomes something more wide I don't know I don't think it's gonna I don't think it's well it's certainly never gonna do the post numbers it's not gonna be in 2,500 screens I could tell
JVL00:27:16you that this is a movie about a seamstress it's Daniel Day-Lewis it's a this thing it's it's gonna wind up grossing 200 million easy it's a movie about a
Sonny00:27:26dressmaker starring a guy nobody could pick Daniel Day-Lewis and a Hungarian
JVL00:27:31actress and nobody's ever seen yeah yes shockingly it's not a woman I'm not doing
Vic00:27:34I was not familiar with her Vicky Kreps I what's her name Vicky Kreps she's not Hungarian I don't know what she is she's like Latvian or Luxembourgian or something she's the oh my goodness twice now but the but Daniel Day-Lewis is not portraying like you say they're wrong no he's very
Sonny00:27:56he's very it's very toned down his role here it's uh he is a well should I do the you've seen it should we actually just do the ad read first because we're already at 30 minutes I mean um and then we can come back and do ah yeah speaking
JVL00:28:11of somebody who hasn't been getting much sleep love to boy Casper is a sleep brand that makes expertly designed products to help you get your best rest one night at a time boy do I wish I had a Casper the experts at Casper work tirelessly to make a quality sleep surface that cradles your natural geometry in all the right places after all you spend one-third of your life sleeping so you should be comfortable the original Casper mattress combines multiple supportive memory foams for a quality sleep surface with just the right amount of both sink and bounce its breathable design helps you sleep cool and regulates your body temperature throughout the night Casper now offices now offers two other mattresses the wave and the essential the wave features a patent-pending premium support system to mirror the natural shape of your body and the essential has a streamlined design at a price that won't keep you up at night all Casper products are designed developed and assembled in the United States and the prices are affordable because Casper cuts out the middleman and sells directly to you every Casper mattress is delivered right to your door in a small how do they do that size box plus there's free shipping and hassle-free returns in the US and Canada plus plus you can be sure of your purchase with Casper's 100 night risk-free sleep on it trial we have a special oftener offer to substandard listeners you get $50 towards select mattresses by visiting casper.com slash substandard and using the promo code substandard at checkout that's casper.com slash substandard and use promo code substandard for $50 off select mattresses terms and conditions may apply lovely great now I believe
Vic00:29:58Sonny you are the only one who's seen Phantom Thread yeah tell us so Phantom
Sonny00:30:03Thread is about a dressmaker in London who's very fastidious and very persnickety and he as the movie opens he is dumping one live-in lover and getting ready to find another and the movie is kind of all about his relationship with his various obsessions as much as his relationship with with with the woman the Daniel Day Lewis plays Reynolds Woodcock the dressmaker and Vicky Kreps creeps whatever plays his his his new live-in lover they they are joined in their London townhouse by Reynolds a sister who is kind of you know the she runs the business and keeps keeps all the trains running on time and again it is very it is it look it if you're if you're going into this movie expecting a strong narrative or you know a real story a lot of action a lot of action direction if you're looking for a CGI best this is this is probably not the movie for you but it is it is it look is there a twist ending yes they're actually they've been dead the whole time I knew it sorry I concept sorry everyone talk about phantom well this is you know that's you're you're given the hint oh on the way in the theater that's true anyway I I like it a lot it's very funny and it's but it's very funny in an extremely subtle way it's very funny we don't like subtle you hear right right the humor as you have just right yes the humor the humor comes from all the fart and dick jokes so it's very subtle okay well then it's a very subtle movie no but it's it is you know it's a movie that where you it is it is deeply deeply funny but it's funny in the ways that Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicki Kreps kind of interact with each other and the kind of faces they make in the back-and-forth and push-and-pull and it is not a movie that has anything like a you know typical joke it's not it's not
Vic00:32:00a jokey movie but it's funny the trailers and the trailer makes it look
Sonny00:32:04so serious well the trailer wait and it is kind of a serious movie but it is also it's again it's it's it's very it's deeply weird if you if you're really into figuring out what it's about you should just go see it if you like Paul Thomas Anderson movies you can probably talk yourself into liking this yeah which
JVL00:32:20is what I would which I would like to see
Vic00:32:21you could talk yourself into I hear that yikes did you uh did I hear correctly this is Daniel Day-Lewis's he says it's
Sonny00:32:29his last movie but I you know actor retirements are like wrestler
JVL00:32:32retirements or boxer retirements you know it's a get-out-of-town match he lost to Ric Flair he has to retire and leave wrestling for forever I also
Vic00:32:41wonder if it's a kind of thing where he thinks you know ahead of time I'm gonna leave on this movie but of course if it's not a great movie in the end or he doesn't feel like it and there's a better scope then he'll end on something else
Sonny00:32:51his his his performance and it is great and it is very it's very subtle in a way that his recent work has not been like Lincoln is kind of you know Lincoln is is kind of over the top and you know Bill the Butcher is extremely over the top and there will be blood again was very you know kind of very very affected and pronounced this is a much more subtle thing it's very it feels much more real than than any of those movies and
Vic00:33:21and with regard to the director Paul Thomas Anderson this is obviously he's not going he's he's continued to make movies but he makes him at a fairly slower pace pretty slow he's cranking out a movie every well he went it kind
Sonny00:33:33of depends on what period of his career you're looking at but you know he made there will be blood in 2008 and then the master I want to say was 2012 to them there's five years and only two years to inherit vice than three years right in thread but then before there will be blood there was a six year gap between that
JVL00:33:51and there was a three-year gap between Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love he works at
Vic00:33:59a deliberate pace and he's now what 30 he's 30 years old now Paul Thomas I know he's our age he didn't know he literally he's our age I remember JVL how I didn't know you knew about Paul Thomas Anderson before Boogie Nights because you liked heartache you were familiar with yes okay and I think I might have only heard about Boogie Nights because of you at the time and I think we maybe we saw it at a screener it was hard to say it was home so to speak but no it was hard to find it it's not like again like many of his movies were the exception of those to say yeah you and I want to say together you know like everywhere and so but I remember how amazing it was and you were a huge you were or you are a huge Paul Thomas
JVL00:34:40Anderson fan both oh I would say his career is not maybe what I had thought it would be had hoped it would be had hoped it would be but it is still intensely admirable I think I mean he's he might be the purest auteur filmmaker working period the end right now so he he directs these very strange quirky movies him and no one just works more regularly in a larger so regularly larger scale but the other so he writes all his own stuff he is now taking over cinematographer duties as well so he is now directing and direct and director of photography in his movies which is the most pure expression of auteurship I think you could possibly have in cinema yeah and he's he's just really injured do you know that he's never spent more than 37 million dollars on a movie well that sounds about right it's okay I don't know I mean his movies look great yeah I mean he makes movies that are loaded with great actors that look unspeakably beautiful and he does it cheap he's obsessed with budgets I think he does love weird way
Sonny00:35:55Eastwood same thing in a weird way what was his most expensive was that there
JVL00:35:58will be blood I believe it was there will be was it the master I think it was there will be blood in a weird way you could almost see him as like a Gen X Woody Allen which is making these intensely personal movies because his movies are pretty personal you know that's one of things which I think is not well appreciated about him he's obsessed with budget and none of them are giant hits but they all basically come out even you know he's not he's not losing money for anybody the reason he says he's so obsessed with budget is because he says if you are under budget or on budget the studio leaves you alone they said the key to gay being able to make the movie you want to make is to is to stay within your budget yeah he's just he's a fascinating guy I mean how much do you guys know about him do you
Sonny00:36:46know about his NYU I I know he went to NYU was you know how long he was at NYU
JVL00:36:50how long two days so first day at NYU is a tish school you're talking about the tish school films first at NYU one of the instructors says anybody who is here to make Terminator 2 you should just leave now and Paul says to himself huh I don't know Terminator 2 is a pretty great movie I mean it's it's full of original stuff and it's technically groundbreaking that tells a very coherent story and it made a bazillion dollars why should this guy be telling
Sonny00:37:20people who want to do that to leave and so this it must have been like what 92
JVL00:37:23was it yeah I think so I think so so he is given an assignment that that night to write a one page of script and submit one page of script and so because he's and so when you look back through his his life and he is a piratical kind of guy he is always coloring outside the lines as a adolescent he and his friends were running all over Southern California with video cameras sneaking onto studio lots he was hanging out with Robert Ridgely and Tim Conway or his dad's two best friends and so what he does is he takes a page from a David Mamet script and turns it in under his own name he gets a C+ from the teacher and then quits the next day he says if this if a teacher can't tell like you know David Mamet from a C+ undergraduate thing then there was there was nothing for me to learn here and he walks away and gets his tuition back and uses it to make an indie film is that what he used my card eight no that's what he used to do cigarettes and coffee so he's he's just a fascinating character and he is one of the few artists we often talk about how the work is the work right you have to judge the work on the work and it doesn't matter what the person is like or any of that right he is one of the few directors in America today who I would argue your appreciation of the work deepens the more you know about him and the more you read him because he's very accessible he's very public he talks a lot about this stuff and he thinks very deeply about it and sort of shares it I mean he you go and read his come listen to his commentary track his commentaries are legendarily good right and the reason is because he so he went out and bought a Laserdisc player when Laserdisc came out because he believed as a teenager that the commentaries from directors were like film school in a box and so when he does a commentary he preps for it and treats it as if he is teaching a class on a movie yeah and he's just I know all of those things I find unbelievably admirable and even if the movies he makes today are not my cup of tea exactly there they're still great they just don't hit me where I live no and and his career is amazing I just wish he worked a little a little
Sonny00:39:40more briskly yeah so JBL you you're a big fan of heartache right huge can I
JVL00:39:45Sydney do you know where that comes from so you know where the movie comes from
Sonny00:39:50the genesis of the movie well I know the short cigarettes and coffee no no so so
JVL00:39:55the the Phil Baker Hall character in in the heartache his name is Sydney hmm so in midnight run Oh very he's Phil Baker Hall is in that he's a very very like four bit scenes in it and he is playing a character named Sydney who is a consigliere to the mob to Dennis Farina and so he what happened was he saw that Anderson did and wanted to he said this character is amazing we should have a whole movie about him and so he but this is why the studio then balked at calling it Sydney because it sounds like questionable IP yeah and but that's the the origin of the story and the origins always say I mean the origins of boogie nights start when he's like 15 you know he makes the landers story yes with his Betamax camera and his friends now so it starts as a Brock Landers so the first thing he's
Sonny00:40:49I thought it was called well okay well the first thing he shoots is a Brock
JVL00:40:52Landers style parody of Miami Vice he then does the Dirk Diggler story and all of these elements are fusing together and he's like telling his high school English teacher I'm gonna make a movie about the porn business I'm really it's gonna be fantastic I mean this is I don't know who doesn't love this stuff if you if you love movies and love cinema you have to love Paul Thomas
Vic00:41:10Anderson and prior to it becoming an actual movie he had Robert Ridgely the Colonel as the Burt Reynolds part right I don't know is that true that's what I heard I didn't know that time that he had
JVL00:41:19because he's a family friend yeah so he grew up in the house again Robert Ridgely and Tim Conway were his father's two best friends and so the they were always at the house he was always hanging around with those guys he was loved them and he gave had Robert Ridgely's last performance yeah I love
Vic00:41:34Robert Ridgely he does cameos in Mel Brooks movies and he the executioner the executioner yes in that would be high saddles and also in high anxiety he plays a flasher and he's just the trenchcoat sir come with me and takes him into the men's room and then of course he saw all sorts of inappropriate and you know things that wouldn't work today but very funny it's just a very funny guy do you have thoughts on your favorite Paul Thomas Anderson movies are we gonna ranking we haven't done any rankings we have so many people are complaining that we haven't done a ranking rankings we
Sonny00:42:09should I'll go first I'll go first JBL and then you can you can jump all right here's my here's my official Paul Thomas Anderson ranking I'm gonna go I'm gonna start at the bottom I'm gonna start with hard eight I really this is very interesting and this is this is this is what I was gonna ask you what I there's a lot of that movie that I respect I actually just watched it for the first time like a week ago just I just because I wanted to have the whole thing and there's a lot of that maybe that I respect I like I like the way the camera moves I like what he is doing on the set the whole thing doesn't quite hang together for me I don't know I don't know how to put it I mean this for instance the Samuel L Jackson character feels like a cardboard cutout in a way that a lot of in a way that is almost unheard of in the rest of his movies I feel like it just he's just kind of there to move the plot along which is very un un Paul Thomas Anderson but I but I also there again it's it's like I would still say it's probably for me would be like a two and a half star movie I just I didn't love it I didn't I didn't love it can I ask what you really loved about it
JVL00:43:19it's been too long for me to tell you I'm sorry I literally haven't watched it in 15 years like the first 15 times I watched it I just liked it I liked everything about it sorry yeah are you watching it at work really oh you know
Vic00:43:35what how it wasn't DVD no no no no in the office yes a DVD and you know who it was actually I'm thinking of our a Catherine Ryback Torres you had recommended to her and we had one of those late nights and I just remember she popped it in I don't know if we were all watching in the same room or or what but isn't that the old dark art room anyway
Sonny00:43:53continue Sonny next up would be inherent vice which I think is if you are if you're looking at Paul Thomas Anderson movies you know this is basically his Coen Brothers movie it's kind of it's kind of quirky and funny but not that funny not haha funny like oh okay funny but also like very very tight it's overly plotted my problem with this movie is it's just overly plotted there's too much stuff going on in it so much is unfilmable right I mean it's well no the book is well it's not unfilmable because he filmed it I mean it like it but no but no but I mean but I mean like he filmed it very much beat for beat and and that's why I think the movie doesn't quite work because he basically filmed the book and I I'll be honest I couldn't quite make sense of what was happening through large portions of the film the first time I saw it then I read the book then I watched it again and I was like ok well this all kind of makes sense but without the book to guide you it's it's a bit of a mess the master would be number six which I like mostly for Philip Seymour Hoffman and also for Joaquin Phoenix but again as a as a piece of narrative filmmaking I don't I don't love I just I think it's it's it's very there are a couple of very interesting performances in it but after that would be Magnolia which I know is one of JBL's favorites I I like it a lot and I would watch it more often if it wasn't a billion hours long this is
JVL00:45:23like he said he said actually that if he would he loves the movie he's proud of it if he made it today the edit would be very different and one of these he said is but he would probably make it 30 minutes shorter it needs to be 30
Sonny00:45:34minutes shorter cuz it's just it's just too long I like I can't go back and watch it after that would be pieces of that are amazing yeah oh I mean every every every component part of it is fantastic every from Tom Cruise staring down the interviewer for just like minutes at a time to William H Macy William H Macy it's all perfect but it is just too long I like I can't it's a movie that I can't sit down and watch so how can I have it higher Phantom Threat I think would be my next punch drunk love which I love a lot and I think is a perfect deconstruction of the rom-com form it is like if you made a romantic comedy in the real world this is what it would look like and it would be actually kind of terrifying and scary and the characters would look autistic and creepy and that's so I I really love I really love what he's
Vic00:46:24doing there can I ask you really quickly what do you think Adam Sandler was better in punch-drunk love or mr. deeds tough question because mr. deeds is
Sonny00:46:34underrated oh it's very underrated that's one where he becomes he goes back he becomes the rich guy was with John McEnroe's in it when I know the writer love that movie Boogie Nights would be would be my next would be number two for me I love Boogie Nights it's his it's his I I saw somebody described Paul Thomas Anderson on Twitter as basically like Boogie Nights is his Scorsese movie Magnolia is his Altman there will be blood which is number one on my list is his Kubrick and Phantom Threat is his Hitchcock and I'm not I'm not a hundred percent sure on that last one I don't think that quite works because it's Hitchcock was much more interested in plot and Phantom Threat is it it's not a no no no but but it but it's it's an interesting idea and then number one would be there will be blood which I think is the best movie of the 2000s and like the 2000 just 2010 period and is in many ways it just a very it's a very strong film about America it is a movie about the triumph of commerce over religion in the American psyche I mean literally at the
Vic00:47:38very end brutally so there will be blood or no country for old men there will be
Sonny00:47:44blood but no country for old men was very close second that year I have no problem no no cut I mean that it's very interesting that 2008 right gave us two of the probably 10 best movies of that decade within like three months of each other that's
JVL00:47:56right JVL you mentioned Alton Magnolia's his Altman movie do you know about his strange relationship with Altman he so he was hired as a requirement of the insurance company to be the stand-in director for Prairie Home Companion huh in case Altman died oh really because Altman was old and his health was failing at that point yeah and so they knew each other a little bit they went to him they said you know just you won't have to do it but just come as me and do the stand-in director and he came and hung he spent the time basically just hanging around the set because he wanted to learn from Altman which again is the guy who just he loves
Sonny00:48:40cinema that's pretty I had no idea that's pretty cool yeah so it's actually
JVL00:48:44one of his credits like he is enlisted as stand-in director Paul Thomas Anderson my list would be very similar to yours actually it wouldn't be radically different I would flop Heartache higher although I couldn't tell you why but I would and I would probably I would probably swap Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood I I think of Boogie Nights as one of my favorite movies ever top 15 top 20 movies ever it is also a movie about America yeah it's a movie about America in a very particular place in time but also part of the American spirit and it is unlike There Will Be Blood it is a movie with an enormous amount of love for its characters I mean it is it's so it the the norm in in all narrative storytelling be it you know TV movies or novels is to have characters that you like as you know that the writer likes and then the characters that the writer doesn't like and almost all the time those things are really clearly demarcated you could tell who oh well you know so this is Dolores Umbridge Dolores Umbridge is a really bad person and so JK Rowling hates her and you could he loves all of his characters even the ones that are flawed even the ones that are the bad guys and you can almost feel him as a filmmaker rooting for them without ever turning into schmaltz and I find that to be such a wonderful trick one I would say one
Sonny00:50:17exception to that William H Macy's wife Nina Hartley I don't know I I think she is
JVL00:50:26terrible she's bad but again is still had it coming so to speak and the other thing is so Boogie Nights is a I think the price tag on the movie was 15 million dollars which again is it just astonishing for what it looks like and be he was 27 years old when he made that I mean that's just astonishing I don't I this is gonna sound like hyperbole I think you might have to go back to Citizen Kane to find another epic piece of filmmaking by somebody that young in the directors chair and that marked him as such an enormous prodigy I mean just in the being able to imagine as a 27 year old being able to wrangle those actors and like tell Burt Reynolds what to do and move them around and ever who hates the movie who does hate the movie for ways I've never quite entered if you ever if anybody's on wants to see something interesting overlooked from Paul Thomas Anderson hop onto YouTube and look up the music video for Michael Penn's song try it is Paul Thomas answers and directs it Phil Timmer Hoffman is in it and it is a single shot moving backwards down the longest hallway in America so he found the office building with the longest straight hallway in the country in the entire the entire music video is like three minutes of pulling backwards as you move down the hallway it's just again just as a piece of filmmaking it's just bravura it's fantastic and he's he's the best I have not seen that many
Vic00:51:58Paul Thomas Anderson movies so I'm just going to say I think I would put Magnolia in three there will be blood at two and boogie nights at one but what is your favorite scene in boogie nights I'll give you two words Alfred Molina actually that's a great scene that's unbelievable with the sister Christian sister and then it transitions I think Jesse's girl and then I think at the very very end I think it's 99 Luftballons and Red Balloons and it's Cosmo he's Chinese and yes and so the things are loud in the theater the fireworks that go off are loud and they're jumping you feel like you're jumping and an Alfred Molina doesn't even flinch during the entire
JVL00:52:41scene and he's the only one yes so when you see the the guys on the couch the three guys on the couch are all you know herky-jerky
Vic00:52:47piece I saw I listened to the commentary too many years ago but I remember he did have some sort of earpiece but for the music I think so he can be in sync with the music yeah and the other thing is of course a Ricky J another great performance and then of course Burt Reynolds in it which got him the Academy Award for best oh no way that went to a Robin Williams of course that was Patch
JVL00:53:08Adams here right no wasn't it I was a good one time they should have won for
Vic00:53:13patch if you go if you go for Bicentennial man you should go for Bicentennial
JVL00:53:17was it a makeup was that a makeup award for not having gotten go to YouTube and
Vic00:53:22look at the announcement for the best supporting actor and it's brute and it's the one that goes to Robin Williams and you'll look at space he's the only one he's not even pretending to be like oh thank god I'm so happy you know no you
JVL00:53:36know what that was his that was his same fast forward to the Magnolia year and then watch the announcement no no of best song best score and watch Amy Mann's face when Phil Collins is getting the and what's funny is Tarzan I think so I listened to it every day before that she was done an interview with like movie line or something and they said you know he's in a great honor you know you're like you should win that she goes I won't win it'll go to whatever crap Phil Collins made this year and she was right terrible there was no one Phil Collins was great okay I think we are ready to move on do you have anything else on Paul Thomas Anderson you know I had one thing to say and I think the this scene the firecracker scene in Alfred Molina's drug den is emblematic of one of his maxims as a filmmaker and he says that the most important thing you have to do as a director you stay ahead of the audience he said if you ever let the audience get in front of you that's when they're gonna stop caring and I think this is basically right in everything he's made I don't know if there's a moment in any of these movies where you as the viewer can actually get ahead of where he's going now you can often see where the tracks are turning ahead of you but sometimes you can't and that is one of the things that when I think back to movies that leave an indelible mark on me they are often movies where in a moment or a scene I feel like I am on Space Mountain which is to say I know I'm on a roller coaster ride but I can't even see the tracks in front of me you have no idea Pulp Fiction you know when they when when Bruce Willis winds up down with Zed and the Gimp and all that the first time you see that you have no idea what's
Sonny00:55:17happening so while the Gimp moment which I forget who in there's a great line about this but the Gimp moment is the moment where you realize that you have no idea what's gonna happen in this movie anything can happen anything can
Vic00:55:28happen anything can happen it goes on all of such a all of PTAs movies it's
Sonny00:55:33just a part of this is because he is not a traditional narrative filmmaker he's
JVL00:55:37not making a murder mystery or romantic comedy or whatever and like you know
Sonny00:55:43even even the ones that have like clear arcs and kind of clear kind of from point A to point B like Boogie Nights or to a lesser extent even a Punch Drunk Love something like that it they're so weird and so or like Inherent Vice which again is just it's kind of like messily overly plotted but like it is done in such a way that you just have no idea what's gonna happen next until you've seen it and and kind of know what's yeah yeah
Vic00:56:07okay spirit of the week is tin cup American whiskey from Colorado courtesy of Captain Bill Dwyer I think we'll go back to some Diageo next week some other surprises corrections additions guys anything nothing me too nothing very
JVL00:56:23quiet I have a correction oh boy JVL not from the show no yeah please I made a furniture purchase without consulting my wife how big is the furniture so it is a beanbag chair filled with memory foam we were wondering what this was about it's called the love sack oh my god which makes it sound like it's perverse yeah I think it should be an Alfred Molina's den basically yeah something you wouldn't want to use a black light so it is five foot diameter like three feet tall when public when fully fluffed and you just like sink into it and you never want to leave and when you are watching the Eagles winning a playoff game at home while nestled in a love sack and drinking a shuffer huffer
Vic00:57:17okay yeah okay yeah but does everyone in your family feel the same way about the love sack all but one hmm all but one your your infant baby actually he took a header out of it this morning one of the things possibly no no like was was in it and sort of all over to the edge and then like fell three feet down on the ground I'm sure it's fine okay that's all the time we are giving to this episode questions comments complaints compliments tweet us at Victorino Mattis at Sonny Bunch at JV last again be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes Google Play or stitcher just type in some standard under podcasts we're there leave her a view tell your friends until next time that was my that was my Aziz Ansari impression oh no no no no no that was when Jean came in oh it's when Jean came in
JVL00:58:17sorry you have any outtake thoughts I have just I mean I always I always have something to say but you know don't say I mean I'm just not logged for this whole episode with how much I love no no that's good I forgot to mention you know
Vic00:58:29everyone's so sensitive about what's happening these days out there and everyone's having these experiences with people saying politically incorrect things this is a very nervous right now me too no so I forgot to mention when I was in New Jersey over the holidays just for a couple days I was I pulled into the Exxon station in Toms River with my wife sitting in the front and of course it's New Jersey so you know you can't actually pump your own
JVL00:58:56gas you have to you mean you don't have to you don't get gas because New Jersey is a place of civilized people civilized animals and jobs JVL right we're giving
Vic00:59:05jobs so the guys coming but he comes over on the passenger side so not on my side so I roll down the window and he looks in and I said you know filler up there credit you get the card and okay he does it and then he comes back and he looks at me he goes are you oriental what was his ethnic national oriental that was the crazy part so I said what flavor well I said yes I said yeah you know a Filipino or my parents were the Philippines he goes oh me too and then he starts so he says to me in Filipino how are you kamustika and I was struggling oh how do you say I'm fine oh I'm a booty and then I was thinking how do you say Merry Christmas in in in Tagalog and I'm like oh my guy Pasco and then he goes actually I don't really speak did you know how to say I'm sure it's fine

Spot something wrong in this episode? Suggest a correction →

Comments

Loading…