Memento (2000) / Nolan Nostalgia #2
In this installment of our Nolan Nostalgia retrospective series, hosts Nathan, Sam, and Bee dive deep into the mind-bending labyrinth of Christopher Nolan's iconic 2000 film, Memento. Joining us today is a very special guest, Nathan's longtime friend and multi-talented creative force in the film industry, David Merrill. Get ready for a journey through memory, perception, and narrative twists as we unpack the enigmatic layers of this cinematic masterpiece.
David Merrill on board to share his unique perspective and delve into some of the fascinating projects he's currently involved in within the film industry. Whether you're a die-hard Nolan fan or experiencing Memento for the first time, this episode promises to be an immersive exploration of one of cinema's most intriguing works. So grab your pen and paper, or better yet, your trusty Polaroid camera, as we embark on this unforgettable journey through the fractured memories of Leonard Shelby.
03:17 Introducing today's guest David Merrill
16:39 Memento: Main Review
01:14:22 Deciding the Fate of the Film: Save or Purge?
01:16:30 Movie Pairings: Shutter Island, Angel Heart, The Hateful Eight, Run Lola Run
01:28:23 Recent watchings: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Gone With the Wind
01:36:42 Eclipse Plans, Road Trips
01:44:48 Wrapping Up: Thanks, Recommendations, and Goodbyes
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Transcript
The dying embers of human existence.
Speaker:As the asteroid, a behemoth the size of Texas, hurtles relentlessly toward Earth,
Speaker:the world braces for an apocalyptic end.
Speaker:Deep beneath the bunker, a refuge plunges into the bowels of the Earth.
Speaker:Here the chosen gather, their purpose clear, to preserve the
Speaker:very soul of our civilization.
Speaker:The 35 and 70 millimeter prints that encapsulate the magic, the emotion,
Speaker:and the dreams of generations past.
Speaker:These masterpieces, each frame a testament to the human spirit,
Speaker:are carefully cataloged and cradled confines of the bunker.
Speaker:Perhaps there was room for more.
Speaker:For friends and family yearning for salvation, but sacrifices must be made.
Speaker:The movie nerds stand united, the keepers of a flame, promising a future where the
Speaker:art of storytelling endures, transcending the boundaries of time and space.
Speaker:God help us all.
Speaker:Welcome to Rate Frame The Two Back, part of the Western Media Podcast Network.
Speaker:Join us as we watch and discuss films on VOD and streaming platforms, deliberating
Speaker:on whether each one is worthy of salvation or destined for destruction in the face
Speaker:of the impending asteroid apocalypse.
Speaker:I'm Nathan Shore, and accompanying me are the extraordinary movie
Speaker:mavens Brianna Butterworth, Sam Cole, and our very special guests.
Speaker:Joining us is Dave Merrow, Who is not just an incredibly talented person
Speaker:working in the film industry, but also my great friend for almost 25 years.
Speaker:Welcome to the show, David.
Speaker:Nathan.
Speaker:How the hell are you?
Speaker:It
Speaker:should be Nathan, Nathan, right?
Speaker:It should be Nathan, Nathan.
Speaker:Go for Nathan.
Speaker:It should be.
Speaker:It should be.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:To begin the episode, I've sort of made this a tradition.
Speaker:I'd like to ask my co host, David, A question.
Speaker:If one were to listen to an episode of back to the frame rate, I'm
Speaker:sorry, rate frame the two back backwards, what subliminal or
Speaker:hidden message would they hear?
Speaker:And who would be the voice speaking?
Speaker:I think the subliminal message would, the voice speaking would be Jack Burton
Speaker:from big trouble and little China.
Speaker:And the whole point of the show is to secretly enlist us as a sidekick
Speaker:of his to help him fight the bad guys and ghosts in the Chinese underworld.
Speaker:That's what I think.
Speaker:That might be a perfect answer, Sam.
Speaker:Yeah, what Sam said.
Speaker:That's my answer.
Speaker:I, look, I love it.
Speaker:I think there should have been, there should have been a, there should have been
Speaker:a cable series based off that character.
Speaker:Just, just, just because, just because you, you just, you just, you just love, I
Speaker:mean, just, you know, Jack Burton, that's who, you know, he goes, when he, when
Speaker:Kurt Russell goes into that characters, Jack Burton, that's who it's like, Oh
Speaker:shit, I know, I know who this guy is.
Speaker:I have a
Speaker:like perpetual smile on my face when I watched that movie,
Speaker:like all the way through.
Speaker:Oh, it's
Speaker:great.
Speaker:That
Speaker:movie is so fun.
Speaker:It's one of my favorite
Speaker:Kurt Russell movies.
Speaker:It's awesome.
Speaker:Oh man.
Speaker:It's fantastic.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well like I said, we have a special guest here, Dave Merrill, welcome
Speaker:to our, our, our humble podcast.
Speaker:You, as I mentioned before, we've known each other for a long time,
Speaker:longer than we probably want to admit.
Speaker:It will probably reveal a little too much about how old we are
Speaker:if we talk about it too much.
Speaker:But, but we go back to days of working in the, the Hollywood system back then.
Speaker:And first though, I'd like you to introduce yourself and tell
Speaker:our audience, what Who are you?
Speaker:What do you do?
Speaker:What do you, what is what's your bread and butter?
Speaker:Well, Oh, that, that's, that's the question, you know, that was, you
Speaker:know on, on the minds of like my, my parents for a long damn time.
Speaker:And you know, many a friend and many a girlfriend.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Let me, let, let me think.
Speaker:I mean, I guess if I take people quickly through the thing, you know and we talked
Speaker:about this before I found myself, in Hollyweird back in the early 2000s along
Speaker:with Nathan and you know I had, I had in college I had worked in short term risk
Speaker:management or actually what that means is I actually worked in the casino industry.
Speaker:This is a true, this sounds like a joke, but truthfully, you know, I was
Speaker:a blackjack and craps dealer in in the casinos in this little town in
Speaker:Mississippi called Tunica, which is about about an hour south of Memphis.
Speaker:But then, you know, sometime in the early 2000s, I found
Speaker:myself living and working in LA.
Speaker:And I was, I first went to work for a a film producer still in the
Speaker:business, a gentleman by the name of Etchy Stroh, a very successful film
Speaker:producer, Moonstone Entertainment.
Speaker:And I worked for him for a couple of years.
Speaker:And then I found my way over to a slightly larger company and network universal
Speaker:NBC worked at universal NBC for a while.
Speaker:But I wasn't getting, I kept like getting like these, you know, like
Speaker:these executive office jobs that didn't have any film production experience.
Speaker:And I was really frustrated by this.
Speaker:Cause I didn't, I didn't go to film school, but I desperately
Speaker:wanted to work on film sets.
Speaker:And I went back to Etchie, who'd become a mentor for me at that time, and I was
Speaker:like, you know, what do I do, and Etchie has an accent that's a little bit like
Speaker:Henry Kissinger, if you know who that is.
Speaker:And so he's, you know, he was originally, he's this Israeli guy, and he was
Speaker:like, Very David, what you got to do, you got to get onset experience.
Speaker:It doesn't matter.
Speaker:It doesn't matter what you do But because if you but if you don't get the
Speaker:onset experience, then you're forever gonna be seen as like this You know
Speaker:creative non entity, you know, just like the office guy, you know, you
Speaker:don't want to do that So, you know, which I realize now it's really bad.
Speaker:It probably sounds like, you know, like Arnold Schwarzenegger's grandfather,
Speaker:but But so then I really started, I really started like looking around and,
Speaker:and, you know, and I was working in recruitment at, at Universal and Corporate
Speaker:HR and a production job on the staff of the show that Nathan and I worked on.
Speaker:Can I mention it by name?
Speaker:Please do.
Speaker:I've, the public, I've, I've mentioned it before.
Speaker:The public needs to know we both worked on Fear Factor.
Speaker:I would add another, a superlative for that, but this is for
Speaker:the kids, so I won't say it.
Speaker:But, because it would be effin fearful, but so there was, it came up in a,
Speaker:in a meeting and, and somebody's like, well, do we have a, do we have
Speaker:somebody who's going to interview?
Speaker:I was like, yeah, me.
Speaker:And they looked at me like, what?
Speaker:I'm like, no, I want to go over there.
Speaker:I want to talk to the producer.
Speaker:I want to try, I want to try for this position.
Speaker:They're like, why would you?
Speaker:I'm like, because I want onset experience, you know?
Speaker:And I went over there and I, I talked, I talked to, what was it?
Speaker:Hurwitz, Matt Hurwitz.
Speaker:And I'm trying to think of the other guy's name that we worked with.
Speaker:Well, I remember the, the name of the the second AD who I'll never forget.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:How could you forget?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We won't, we won't drop this name because you never know
Speaker:who you're going to work for again.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You never know.
Speaker:You do never know.
Speaker:Although I would say that, I would say that our, our Our, our first
Speaker:direct, our first AD was a pretty damn good, he was a pretty good guy.
Speaker:He was pretty cool.
Speaker:And he actually wound up, later on in another incarnation of my career
Speaker:wound up he wound up helping me out with, with some stuff, with some
Speaker:commercial projects that I worked on.
Speaker:But yeah, so, so we both worked at FN Fear Factor you know, on
Speaker:NBC for several seasons and Well,
Speaker:I did one, I thought we were both on there just for the second season.
Speaker:Oh, was it?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:My, my simple mind is a little You know, because like all the snakes and
Speaker:worms that we had to eat, it probably jangled my, my neurons up or something,
Speaker:you know, the, you know, incidentally, they were always, they were always
Speaker:trying to get us, you know, like the crew to test out the food stunts.
Speaker:Do anything.
Speaker:Never.
Speaker:None of the cool stuff.
Speaker:Just the food
Speaker:stunts.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The food stunts.
Speaker:I think that I had Perry Barnt talked into one time, one time I nearly talked him
Speaker:into letting me do one of the car stunts.
Speaker:But at the last minute, it got, it got taken away from me.
Speaker:Tom only
Speaker:knows that I was helping out.
Speaker:Mm-Hmm.
Speaker:wash, doing the wash down of like smooshed Madagascar, hissing cockroaches,
Speaker:and a lot, lot of, I remember
Speaker:that episode.
Speaker:I remember that episode.
Speaker:A lot of
Speaker:regurgitated worms.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:A lot of
Speaker:regurgitating
Speaker:worms because my, my thing was like when the, when the Madagascar
Speaker:hissing cockroaches first showed up.
Speaker:It was a security guy that came and found me because none of the producers were
Speaker:there, but I was there a little early.
Speaker:This really cute girl comes hopping up, you know, she's got this
Speaker:nice little cute little cooler.
Speaker:And she said, I've got a delivery for the producers.
Speaker:And I was like, okay, well, I'll sign for it.
Speaker:Would you like to see what they are?
Speaker:I'm like, okay.
Speaker:So she opens it up and there's this, this bucket of this Playmate
Speaker:cooler just writhing with these.
Speaker:And I'm like, okay, close it, please, please close that.
Speaker:And then she's like, Oh, they're perfectly clean.
Speaker:I'm like.
Speaker:Lady, I don't care if they've got tuxedo and tails, close that damn
Speaker:lid, I, you know, and anyway, yeah, that, that was my memory of
Speaker:the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach.
Speaker:But please tell us a little bit more, I mean, the, the whole, our
Speaker:podcast is all about my fear factor days, but tell us a little bit
Speaker:more about what you're doing now.
Speaker:Well, okay, so what I'm doing now is I'm working on, I'm working on
Speaker:several projects as most producers are.
Speaker:But, but, and sincerely, what, probably, probably something, this is something
Speaker:that came to me that, that's, that I'm really excited about and I really
Speaker:feel like it's got, it's got a lot of potential to really, to, to do
Speaker:a lot and to help a lot of people.
Speaker:An older friend of mine who is a, is a visual artist from Memphis, but he
Speaker:lives in Europe now, came to me summer before last and he said, he, so he's
Speaker:African American and he says, I want to do this project centered around the
Speaker:untold story of African American women.
Speaker:Inventors and technologists at the turn of the century.
Speaker:We're talking about men and women that were like, you know, they were
Speaker:recently freed slaves, or the children were recently freed slaves, and he'd
Speaker:got these, these books written by this gentleman, Henry Baker, who was
Speaker:like one of the first African American patent clerks in Washington, D.
Speaker:C., that documented over 800 of these inventions, which formed the underpinnings
Speaker:of the Industrial Revolution.
Speaker:And I was like, you know, so he starts telling me that, and he says, well,
Speaker:what I'm going to do is I've got all these artist friends and I'm going to
Speaker:have them create original works of art.
Speaker:And so we have this like, museum exhibit that will have the technology
Speaker:and the invention and the bio, but then the original work of art or
Speaker:the design based by that, by that original technology or design.
Speaker:And I was like, you know, I was like, my God, that's fantastic.
Speaker:AV component.
Speaker:And he's like, what do you mean an AV component?
Speaker:And I was like, well, you know, you need an introductory film or you need
Speaker:little films and bios or interviews.
Speaker:And then immediately he comes back with, well, can you do that?
Speaker:And I was like, well, not all of it.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:So, you know, we started talking about developing it as, as maybe, you know,
Speaker:as maybe like a, you know, an anthology series where we would do something
Speaker:for a streaming platform, you know, in every week or every month there would
Speaker:be interviews with, You know, with writers and, you know, and artists or
Speaker:designers and they would talk about this and there would be either, you
Speaker:know, something like animation or, or even recreation, you know, of some
Speaker:of these key moments in these people.
Speaker:And this summer I was at the the Nantucket Film Festival and the occasion to meet
Speaker:this, there's a very well regarded documentary filmmaker by the name of
Speaker:Joe Brewer, Nikki Giovanni Project.
Speaker:Is this film that's currently out on HBO?
Speaker:So, he is this really, you know, we, we met at like this there was a, a
Speaker:producer, screenwriter party, and we were talking about stuff, and, you know,
Speaker:he's like, what are you working on?
Speaker:I mentioned this project.
Speaker:And he really just, you know, it caught his attention.
Speaker:He was like, that's great.
Speaker:And I said, but look what would you think you know, what would you think
Speaker:if there was a series in anthology?
Speaker:And he's like, well, I, he goes, I think you've answered your own question.
Speaker:I think it's a great idea.
Speaker:But then I was like, okay, well, but, you know, would you as a, you know, as a
Speaker:writer producer, would you participate, you know, like if, if any city goes, well,
Speaker:why wouldn't I, you know, why would I not do this, you know, so there's over,
Speaker:I think it's like the figure something it's, it's over 800 of these stories.
Speaker:So, you know, there's like, this is a huge opportunity to tell
Speaker:this largely untold part of.
Speaker:You know, American history, African American history, but, you know, but
Speaker:history and so we're, we're kind of, you know, we're honing in on, we've got
Speaker:a non profit formed and we're honing in on getting the funding for the exhibit.
Speaker:And then we started talking to like young filmmakers, filmmaking students
Speaker:about participating, you know, in creating the, the first iteration
Speaker:of the AV part of that platform.
Speaker:The other, the other, I'm working on a couple of things that, you
Speaker:know, cause like Nathan and I are both are frustrated writers.
Speaker:So I know he's laughing, but it's like we, we both, like, you're,
Speaker:you're always working on it.
Speaker:So there's two, there's two cable show or, or, or streaming show ideas that I had.
Speaker:One of them is based off of my parents experience living in Memphis.
Speaker:The basic pitch for this is, is that it's, it's, it's Memphis 18 months prior
Speaker:to the Martin Luther King assassination.
Speaker:And and so my, just to put this into personal context, and this is, it's
Speaker:not entirely based on my parents, but my dad, who was married to my mother,
Speaker:who was an Asian woman at the time.
Speaker:was a young, fresh out of the army, rookie cop in 1968, the year that Dr.
Speaker:King was killed.
Speaker:And my mom was this, you know, not exactly fresh off the boat, but immigrated
Speaker:from, from the Philippines, you know, woman living in the south at that
Speaker:time, so it was kind of precarious.
Speaker:But Memphians of a certain age, they all, a lot, a lot of them have memories of that
Speaker:time, so there's this idea that You know, that you would have meet these characters
Speaker:that were, you know, sanitation workers or people working for the mayor's office,
Speaker:people working in the police department.
Speaker:And then we track forward in their lives through those turbulent months.
Speaker:But on April 4th, the day of the assassination, boom, you know where
Speaker:everybody is and you know who they are.
Speaker:And I pitched this like this to a woman at HBO at a film event.
Speaker:You know summer before last.
Speaker:And then she just looked at me.
Speaker:She said, Well, what, what, what happens after that?
Speaker:And I said, you greenlight season two, you know, and then we move,
Speaker:you know, we kind of move forward.
Speaker:The other one that that's also been really frankly, you know, it's, it's
Speaker:something that's like driving me crazy is I had this idea about a series
Speaker:that would it would be sort of like a form of the X files, but taking
Speaker:it back to the, the early 19 aughts.
Speaker:And it would be.
Speaker:In the years, the, the, the couple of years leading up to the
Speaker:outbreak of World War I in Europe.
Speaker:And the protagonist is an African American priest who's been assigned to the
Speaker:office that does exorcist investigation, paranormal investigation with the Vatican.
Speaker:But it's centered around Europe.
Speaker:And so, you know, so it has this like, there's like a little bit of a, you
Speaker:know, a little bit of a, of, of a racial component, because he's, you know, he's
Speaker:African American, but he's traveling through Europe, and he's investigating,
Speaker:you know, all sorts of like, Signs and wonders and strange things.
Speaker:And then there's also, there's a, there's a, a conspiracy involved and
Speaker:then it's, it's tracking towards, you know, tracks towards, you know
Speaker:the outbreak of world war one.
Speaker:And anyway, I see you, you had me at X Files around the aughts.
Speaker:I was just like, yep.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Well, thank you, there's a, there's a, cause there's a lot of, there
Speaker:was a lot of strange, strange stuff.
Speaker:And I would say that you start peeling back these layers.
Speaker:Like if you look into the into the roots of, of the, I don't know if I can say
Speaker:this on a part, the National Socialist German Workers Party, there was an occult
Speaker:society, the Thule or Thule society.
Speaker:that was in operation in Germany at that time.
Speaker:There was the, there was Alistair Crowley in England.
Speaker:There were certainly diabolists in that is to say devil worshipers
Speaker:in all throughout Europe.
Speaker:So there was a lot of really, you know, as much as I thought I was inventing
Speaker:this world of strange fiction, I started delving into the research and you find
Speaker:out, you know, no, there really, there was a really lot of, you know, the
Speaker:Dan Brown stuff is really, it's good, but it doesn't even, it doesn't even
Speaker:really touch the surface of some of the strange that was happening in Europe.
Speaker:And so I had this idea that this, this priest, you know, who is really
Speaker:gifted and from America, you know, he travels to Europe and suddenly he's
Speaker:a little bit of a fish out of water.
Speaker:And he finds himself, you know, involved in, you know, a lot of strange
Speaker:things, everything from like, you know, demonic possessions and, you know,
Speaker:hauntings to, you know, to like you know conspiracy, you know, on a global level
Speaker:of, you know, cultists and occultists.
Speaker:So that's the other series idea that I'm trying to, I'm trying to work on.
Speaker:Well, those are some awesome ideas, David.
Speaker:Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:I think we should get to our Our, our movie review this week though.
Speaker:And, and maybe later on we can you can please give us some information
Speaker:about where we can find you and any links or any, any other further
Speaker:plugs that you have at the end of the show, that'd be wonderful.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So if you hadn't guessed already by some of our teases up front, we are
Speaker:discussing the Christopher Nolan film, Memento, I believe was released in 2000.
Speaker:Release wide in 2001.
Speaker:David, we haven't mentioned this, but we saw this in the theater.
Speaker:We did.
Speaker:We did.
Speaker:Whoa.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Together.
Speaker:I
Speaker:think one of one of the first movies I think we saw together was
Speaker:shortly after we left Fear Factor, I
Speaker:think.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But I
Speaker:have a plot synopsis somewhere buried here on my desktop.
Speaker:Here it is.
Speaker:I'll share this here first.
Speaker:So we have Leonard.
Speaker:Played by Guy Pearce is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife.
Speaker:The difficulty, however, of locating his wife's killer is compounded by
Speaker:the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of memory loss.
Speaker:Although he can recall details of life before the accident, Leonard
Speaker:cannot remember what happened 15 minutes ago, where he's going, or why.
Speaker:And yes, I do have a plot synopsis for your children,
Speaker:which I really enjoy doing now.
Speaker:David, I started doing this thing where I insert into chat GTP, write me a plot
Speaker:synopsis if you are a six year old, and it comes out hysterically all the time.
Speaker:I would imagine,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Once upon a time there was a man named Leonard who wanted to catch the bad
Speaker:guy who did something really mean to his wife, . But here's the funny part.
Speaker:Leonard's brain is like a gold fish's memory.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He can remember things from long ago, but anything recent, poof, it's gone.
Speaker:So every 15 minutes he forgets what he's doing or where he's going.
Speaker:Imagine trying to catch a sneaky bad guy when you keep
Speaker:forgetting what you're doing.
Speaker:That's Leonard's Wacky Adventure.
Speaker:Exactly how that pitch meeting went.
Speaker:That
Speaker:really captured the tone.
Speaker:It, doesn't it though?
Speaker:It just needs, you know, it just needs like an 80s soundtrack.
Speaker:You know, like a, a sitcom soundtrack and you're fine.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's kind of like a Pee Wee Herman show.
Speaker:And I have a, a few like 30, 40 seconds from the trailer.
Speaker:Here we go.
Speaker:Is it a good room?
Speaker:I have this condition.
Speaker:A condition?
Speaker:It's my memory.
Speaker:Amnesia.
Speaker:No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker:It's different from that.
Speaker:Since my injury, I can't make new memories.
Speaker:Everything fades.
Speaker:If we talk for too long, I'll forget how we started.
Speaker:And next time I see you, I'm not gonna remember this conversation.
Speaker:What's the last thing that you do remember?
Speaker:My wife.
Speaker:That's sweet.
Speaker:Dying.
Speaker:Lenny!
Speaker:I guess I've already told you about my condition.
Speaker:Oh, well, only every time I see ya.
Speaker:You don't remember where you've been or what you've just done?
Speaker:No, I can't make new memories.
Speaker:It's like waking.
Speaker:It's like you just woke up.
Speaker:This guy, what are you gonna do?
Speaker:I'm gonna kill him.
Speaker:Maybe I can help you find him.
Speaker:Are you sure you want this?
Speaker:My wife deserves vengeance.
Speaker:Do not trust her.
Speaker:She's gonna use you to protect herself.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So that was a good trailer.
Speaker:It was good.
Speaker:There was, there was a few floating around on YouTube and I had to
Speaker:make an executive decision there.
Speaker:I felt like I couldn't find the right one.
Speaker:That may have been the original trailer.
Speaker:There's a lot.
Speaker:That's the funny thing about YouTube.
Speaker:Now there's so many remixes in trailers that are made for like a modern audience.
Speaker:It's very difficult to find sometimes an original trailer of
Speaker:a movie that's like 20 years old.
Speaker:Sam, do you have some movie facts for us?
Speaker:Yes, indeed.
Speaker:I do have some movie facts and away we go.
Speaker:Hidey ho neighbor.
Speaker:So this is a Memento is a 2000 American neo noir mystery psychological thriller
Speaker:and it's actually based on a short story.
Speaker:Called Memento, might be pronouncing this wrong, Memento Morti, that his
Speaker:brother, Jonathan Nolan, actually wrote, and this was later published in 2001.
Speaker:Famously now, the story goes that brothers Christopher Nolan and Jonathan
Speaker:Nolan were on a cross country drive from Chicago to Los Angeles and Jonathan
Speaker:pitched the idea Of that he had to his brother, Chris, Chris loved it.
Speaker:And when he got to Los Angeles and Jonathan went back to
Speaker:Chicago or somewhere else, Chris begged him for the first draft.
Speaker:Of the screenplay, which he took a while to deliver.
Speaker:But when he finally gave it to him, Christopher Nolan was very impressed
Speaker:and continued working with it.
Speaker:And it was actually in July of 1997, Christopher Nolan's girlfriend, and
Speaker:later on wife, Emma Thomas who also produced knowing, I mean, sorry,
Speaker:following, which we saw last she actually showed his screenplay.
Speaker:To an individual named Aaron Ryder, who was an executive for New Market Films.
Speaker:And to quote Aaron Ryder, direct quote, he said, Perhaps the most
Speaker:innovative script I've ever seen.
Speaker:Soon after it was optioned by New Market and even a budget of 4.
Speaker:5 million.
Speaker:Which is just a, you know, a new director's dream to have that as a,
Speaker:It's like a magical story right there.
Speaker:Pre production lasts about seven weeks.
Speaker:During which the main shooting locations, they were actually going to shoot in
Speaker:Montreal, and then in Quebec, and then they moved to Los Angeles, California.
Speaker:To create a more realistic and noirish atmosphere for the film,
Speaker:which totally makes sense casting wise, Brad Pitt was initially slated
Speaker:to play Leonard which would have been totally different, but I honestly, my,
Speaker:I don't think he would have been bad, but he was interested in the part.
Speaker:But he passed due to scheduling conflicts.
Speaker:And so there were other actors considered like, you know, Charlie Sheen, Alec
Speaker:Baldwin, Aaron Eckhart, who would actually later work with Nolan on the dark night.
Speaker:But the role went to Guy Pearce, not only because it impressed Nolan the most, but
Speaker:after Pitt passed, the studio decided to.
Speaker:not go with, with A list actors and try to find someone who is more
Speaker:affordable to keep the budget down.
Speaker:So I think, you know, Guy Pearce was really meant to be in the movie.
Speaker:Other than that, this film stars 70 percent of the cast of The Matrix
Speaker:Carrie Anne Moss, and Joey Pantolioni, who I much prefer to call Joey Pants.
Speaker:Joey Pants!
Speaker:Joey Pants!
Speaker:Joey Pants!
Speaker:The best Goonies villain ever.
Speaker:And Let's see.
Speaker:And this film was profitable.
Speaker:It I believe it cost between five and nine million.
Speaker:It made 25 million in the U.
Speaker:S.
Speaker:and, but 40 million worldwide.
Speaker:So this was a success.
Speaker:Mm hmm.
Speaker:I really think, I mean, Following was a great start, but clearly this was
Speaker:a real springboard for Nolan's career because one, it was positively reviewed
Speaker:by a lot of critics, but two, more importantly, sadly, the business side
Speaker:of it, this was a successful film.
Speaker:So this is really The beginning of Nolan's adventure.
Speaker:And as Nolan loves to play with time and narrative, I mean, this
Speaker:is the ultimate playing with time film of his, especially since it's
Speaker:based on a real medical condition.
Speaker:So very, very auspicious Nolan start.
Speaker:If you guys want to add anything, that's basically the gist of it.
Speaker:You mentioned that Brad Pitt was originally.
Speaker:Thought to be the, the the character of later than this.
Speaker:I, I happened to go off on a tangent.
Speaker:I was like, well, what was Brad Pitt doing?
Speaker:He was doing so much in like 2000, 2001, he was doing snatch, the
Speaker:Mexican spy game in oceans 11.
Speaker:It was like a one year period.
Speaker:He was busy.
Speaker:I'm not surprised.
Speaker:He did not have time.
Speaker:Yeah, I actually, there's a few things I just want to throw on to that.
Speaker:This this, I, I think this got its official release on March 16th, 2000.
Speaker:It did.
Speaker:It did.
Speaker:It came out in March 2001, but first it premiered, I think, at
Speaker:the Venice film festival in 2000.
Speaker:So festival 2000, but wide release 2001.
Speaker:I like to also see what else came out on that day.
Speaker:Cause what were your other options?
Speaker:Also coming out on that day was Exit Wounds, starring Steven Seagal and DMX.
Speaker:Were you there?
Speaker:Anyone else?
Speaker:I was, I was not there.
Speaker:I do remember that though.
Speaker:And Enemy at the Gates with Jude Law and Joseph Fiennes.
Speaker:Those were one and two at the box office.
Speaker:Number three at the box office was C Spot Run.
Speaker:What number four was Hannibal, which I know that's right.
Speaker:Yeah I think David we may have seen that I think we saw that too.
Speaker:I think down number five was down to earth Number six was
Speaker:crouching tiger hidden dragon.
Speaker:So that that was in the theater for a long time.
Speaker:Do you see our
Speaker:movie?
Speaker:Oh, yeah, seven was
Speaker:on graphic Number eight was chocolate.
Speaker:I
Speaker:think I confuse exit wounds with glimmer man But it could be the
Speaker:same movie number nine was get over it, which I don't know what that is.
Speaker:And number 10 was recess schools out.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:It was a weird week.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't
Speaker:know.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Go for the summer blockbuster.
Speaker:I don't know if you want to mention we just want to mention a few of the awards
Speaker:before we get into our thoughts on this.
Speaker:This did get nominated for two Academy Awards Best Original
Speaker:Screenplay and Best Film Editing.
Speaker:Did not win either.
Speaker:Gosford Park won Best Original Screenplay that year and Black
Speaker:Hawk Down won Best Film Editing.
Speaker:So, I mean.
Speaker:Blue.
Speaker:Blue.
Speaker:Blue.
Speaker:Blue.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah,
Speaker:but in retrospect,
Speaker:I mean, come on, I can
Speaker:see that.
Speaker:I mean, Blackhawk down was unbelievably like impressive in terms of just like
Speaker:the battle sequences and the cutting.
Speaker:And it was, I've
Speaker:never revisited it.
Speaker:I remember seeing it.
Speaker:Aren't you so bored of battle
Speaker:sequences?
Speaker:I mean, not, I mean, I, I personally, I thought it was the best one since
Speaker:yeah, it was shortly after Saving private ride and it was different.
Speaker:But I mean, he directed really Scott did that like right after
Speaker:Gladiator and I was just like, wow.
Speaker:At this, like there was no promotion for it.
Speaker:It just came out of nowhere.
Speaker:And it was like, wait a minute.
Speaker:I remember,
Speaker:I remember it just being an exhausting war film where like it just did not,
Speaker:it was relentless.
Speaker:Mm-Hmm.
Speaker:. I also feel like there was just.
Speaker:Like you couldn't escape that kind of movie at that time.
Speaker:Like, isn't this around the Jarhead era, Pearl Harbor era?
Speaker:Like there's, isn't this all coming?
Speaker:Jarhead was 2005,
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:That's like
Speaker:the same few years though.
Speaker:Like we just couldn't escape this life.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it was, it was still like five years later, but I, I loved the
Speaker:relentlessness of Black Hawk Down.
Speaker:I just, I felt like shell shocked, but you know, I'd never
Speaker:seen a movie like that before.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:That particular one, just my opinion, I was impressed by, but I hear
Speaker:you.
Speaker:Well, let's get to our thoughts on this.
Speaker:You know, I forgot to do our little random number generated before
Speaker:we could do this on the fly or just, how about, how about David?
Speaker:You, you, you, who do you want to go first here?
Speaker:You could throw us into the bus.
Speaker:No, I don't want it to be me.
Speaker:You
Speaker:don't wanna, you
Speaker:don't wanna?
Speaker:I don't want it to be me.
Speaker:I want it to be you.
Speaker:Look, I, I, I listened to, I listened to somebody, I was telling him before,
Speaker:I listened to some of your podcasts and, and you guys are you know.
Speaker:We're gonna just,
Speaker:we're just gonna do this on the fly right now.
Speaker:Real professional style.
Speaker:Sam pick a number.
Speaker:Twelve.
Speaker:Twelve.
Speaker:B.
Speaker:Twenty.
Speaker:Twenty.
Speaker:I will go with I'll go with one.
Speaker:Ha ha ha.
Speaker:And it is 20.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:wow.
Speaker:Oh, man.
Speaker:I thought I was doing something slick there.
Speaker:If you pick
Speaker:20 and I pick 12, that's 2012.
Speaker:A Roland Emmerich picture.
Speaker:Aye.
Speaker:It'll go B, Sam, me, Dave.
Speaker:All right, B, tell
Speaker:us about Memento.
Speaker:Okay, so first thing to get out of the way for me with Memento, am I the only
Speaker:one who had never seen this movie before?
Speaker:Only one on the planet, probably, yeah.
Speaker:On the planet?
Speaker:That's not true.
Speaker:That's not true.
Speaker:I mean, maybe.
Speaker:But people have, this is a relatively, you know, small film, so no.
Speaker:A lot of people have not.
Speaker:I feel like I have been living under a rock and by the time I was finally about
Speaker:to, I've been so excited to watch it all week and somehow I managed to go my
Speaker:entire life with no memento spoilers.
Speaker:So I was thrilled about that.
Speaker:I thought this was great.
Speaker:You know, sometimes you see movies that have sort of like culturally in the canon
Speaker:become really hyped up and then they don't quite live up to your expectations.
Speaker:But once in a while you see one where you're like, Oh, yeah, I get it.
Speaker:This is a classic for a reason.
Speaker:And I totally felt that way with Memento.
Speaker:You know, I think I sort of clocked into Nolan's career and,
Speaker:and Trying to watch his movies as they come out later in his career.
Speaker:And so I've had a lot of problems with his writing.
Speaker:I tend to fall in like the Nolan critic camp.
Speaker:I don't think he writes women characters very well.
Speaker:Hey, why don't you come in with Nolan?
Speaker:Well, I saw, I did see the prestige, but I don't think I
Speaker:like realized that it was him.
Speaker:It was probably the Dark Knight series.
Speaker:Probably like the Batman stuff that I came in.
Speaker:And so I, I really understood all the criticism when people were saying, like,
Speaker:his characters seem a little bit cold and he seems a little bit more focused
Speaker:on production than character stuff.
Speaker:And that really rang true to me, especially as I didn't see people like
Speaker:me very well developed in his films.
Speaker:But, you know, then we watched Memento and I was like, Oh, this is great.
Speaker:This is some of his best character writing that I've seen.
Speaker:I thought everyone in this movie was bringing their A game.
Speaker:Guy Pearce was like, he knocked me out of the park with this.
Speaker:I thought he was perfect casting.
Speaker:You brought up all the other potential actors.
Speaker:I don't think they could have done it as well as he did it.
Speaker:And same for Carrie Anne Moss.
Speaker:I just loved her character.
Speaker:And it, it made me think, I was really glad that I saw a following before we
Speaker:saw this because there was so much of following in this movie, you know, and I
Speaker:listened I talked about in the pod last time about Nolan Nolan talking about,
Speaker:he wanted his movies to have like Easter eggs if you watch them again, he wanted
Speaker:them to read differently if you watch them a second time and you really get
Speaker:that in the relationship with Carrie and Moss's character and Leonard, so I
Speaker:thought that was really interesting yeah.
Speaker:I thought the movie, I, I liked the structure of the movie.
Speaker:You know, an issue I had with following was that it sort of got fuck you with
Speaker:the time for the sake of it, but I really liked it structured in like, this is
Speaker:about memory or this is about a dream.
Speaker:So I thought it having a purpose that it hinged on just
Speaker:made it more salient for me.
Speaker:And I liked the whole, I liked that the central arc of the story, this
Speaker:mystery that you're trying to figure out doesn't really matter in the end.
Speaker:I really like that you get to the end and it's not.
Speaker:about who killed his wife, and it's not about if he solves the murder.
Speaker:It's about himself, and it's about his own moral compass, and the lies
Speaker:we tell ourselves, and the uneasiness that we, that we live with, and I
Speaker:think that's something that, like, having gone back and watched this, now
Speaker:I see that through line in his male characters going forward in his career.
Speaker:So, yeah,
Speaker:what's your rating be?
Speaker:I gave this one a four, four out of five,
Speaker:four out of five.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:Sam.
Speaker:So I I enjoyed this movie.
Speaker:I'm, I'm of two minds on this movie.
Speaker:There's, there's two sides of me that will sort of merge into one review.
Speaker:The like histrionic critical side acknowledges that this movie
Speaker:is a technical masterpiece with a very original storytelling.
Speaker:And for that.
Speaker:It's definitely going to get high marks because it is innovative.
Speaker:I can't quite think of another movie like it.
Speaker:And so I have to acknowledge that this is a quality film for me as a viewer.
Speaker:I am an an emotional audience member that when I respond to things emotionally
Speaker:for characters and for me, there is an element of tedium watching this
Speaker:film of, I really appreciate the structure and I really appreciate.
Speaker:What's going on, but, but the back and forth, which brilliantly mimics
Speaker:the actual condition that he has for me, counteractively works against
Speaker:my brain where I'm going, wait, but I want, nope, just, just hold that.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Backwards, forwards.
Speaker:And so that being said, however, at the beginning, I thought, okay,
Speaker:I just, I got to get through this.
Speaker:But to be fair, as the movie progressed, I love.
Speaker:And I'm grateful for the, the, the kind of dark humor that's in it.
Speaker:Then yeah, great job.
Speaker:And my favorite line in the movie is.
Speaker:When Guy Pierce is voicing over and he goes, okay, so what am I doing?
Speaker:I'm chasing this guy.
Speaker:Nope.
Speaker:chasing me.
Speaker:And I love it when the guy at the hotel like, like, you know,
Speaker:rips him off in the two rooms.
Speaker:And I love it and thought it was really scary that Carrie Ann Moss
Speaker:was just like, really messing with him and was like, evil.
Speaker:I was like, wow.
Speaker:Like that was, that, that scared me when she.
Speaker:Gets in the car, he's looking at her out the window and you see her face.
Speaker:And she's like, I got you.
Speaker:I was like, Oh my God.
Speaker:Like it actually made me nervous.
Speaker:So overall this movie, like it's, it's, I, I only saw it once and back
Speaker:in like 2001, actually, I didn't see it in the theater, but I think we
Speaker:saw it in, it came out on DVD or in film school or something like that.
Speaker:I saw it again this time.
Speaker:I would definitely watch it.
Speaker:Again, because I think the clockwork nature is, is really good.
Speaker:And unlike tenant or tenant, which I think is kind of like showcase, like
Speaker:circus, there's an actual point to this.
Speaker:So even though.
Speaker:I don't have the best, like, even though it's, this is not
Speaker:a movie I would go to myself.
Speaker:If I'm like, I want to be entertained tonight, which I watch, I acknowledge
Speaker:that this is a good movie.
Speaker:So for me, I would give it three and a half stars, even though I,
Speaker:the experience of watching it.
Speaker:frustrating, but that just says more about me, but I have, I usually,
Speaker:I just go with my gut, but I have to step outside of myself for this
Speaker:review because it is a quality film.
Speaker:The acting is good.
Speaker:I do have to acknowledge that if I just said how I felt, I think the acting
Speaker:deserves
Speaker:better than that.
Speaker:So I'd give it three and a half.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Sam, do you think if you watched a linear edit, like how I did for following, you
Speaker:would Connect with it more or do you think it would be even more tedious?
Speaker:No, I think a linear edit would help, but then I would want to go back
Speaker:and see the, see the production.
Speaker:It's not tedious in the sense of like, Oh, this is horrible.
Speaker:It wasn't like that.
Speaker:It's just, for me, It's, it's like, I, I, watching it is, is like,
Speaker:it's, I have to like, work at it.
Speaker:I'm not like, swept away into the story.
Speaker:I'm like, okay, oh, oh, so he, oh, he went to the, he thought he was drunk,
Speaker:but then he went back to the bathroom because he went to the bathroom before.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And then, and I did, it did help me beforehand that all the color
Speaker:sequences go backwards and the black and white goes forward.
Speaker:And I, that actually would help me, of course, you can just watch the movie.
Speaker:You don't have to research it before.
Speaker:It's well enough made that you'll be able to follow it.
Speaker:It's very clever.
Speaker:That's just my emotional response as a viewer, but high mark on the list.
Speaker:It's a good movie.
Speaker:Like it's, it's, it's basically the blood brother.
Speaker:It's following on steroids.
Speaker:Yeah, it's what, it's what you wanted following
Speaker:to be.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you can tell, I mean, the difference in the, with the 9 million budget, you
Speaker:can hear the sound design and that this, I mean, it's so, it's, it's, it really is.
Speaker:It's like if following was like rubber soul.
Speaker:Then then Memento is Sgt.
Speaker:Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Speaker:You know, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's a perfect
Speaker:analogy.
Speaker:I'm hearing you say, Sam, this is a good movie.
Speaker:This is not a good movie, Sam.
Speaker:This is a great movie.
Speaker:I love this so much.
Speaker:I've always loved this movie.
Speaker:I'm in awe of this film.
Speaker:I I've seen this maybe.
Speaker:I don't know, six or seven times in my life.
Speaker:And every time I do, I'm, I'm constantly gobstopped by of the genius that
Speaker:it took to conceptualize this film.
Speaker:There are actually spreadsheets, diagrams, graphs online from Nolan, from the
Speaker:Nolan's where they visualize, there's a visual representation of the story.
Speaker:It's, it's a deep rabbit hole.
Speaker:And I would probably need a degree in astrophysics or
Speaker:something to understand it all.
Speaker:And I, Don't fully, I can't comprehend it all.
Speaker:We we've talked about this on recent episodes how I love movies where
Speaker:we're guided by unreliable narrators and playing multiple timelines.
Speaker:And we all know my strong affection for film noir.
Speaker:So yeah, this movie is catnip for me.
Speaker:I've never experienced a movie before or since that so effectively puts the
Speaker:audience in the shoes of a character.
Speaker:Nolan.
Speaker:just destabilizes us by physically putting us inside Lenny's headspace.
Speaker:And he does this through the medium of cinema and through the editing of,
Speaker:of the story to make us actually feel the suffering of, of his condition.
Speaker:And I can't think of another movie that employs a technique this effectively,
Speaker:it puts in the character's shoes.
Speaker:And I also think that this movie is just a chilling study of grief.
Speaker:We'll get more into that in our discussion, I'm sure.
Speaker:I'm not going to say much more about this because I really want to get into
Speaker:a group discussion on this, but this is a five star movie for me all the way.
Speaker:This is in my all time pantheon, so I'm going to leave it at
Speaker:that and pass it to David.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So, so, you know, I would, the interesting thing about your comments is that, is
Speaker:that I think you actually pushed me from, from, I was kind of, I was kind
Speaker:of somewhere in the, in the, what is it?
Speaker:Is it a 4?
Speaker:Is it a 4.
Speaker:5 or is it a 5?
Speaker:I think you've actually pushed me towards thinking, too, that it is probably a 5.
Speaker:You know, and my, my hesitation, my hesitation in, in previous years about,
Speaker:about, you know, about, you know, the 4 to 5, it's like, well, and it's some of
Speaker:these, like, little indefinable things, like like B's comment earlier about, you
Speaker:know, about, you know, but the characters come across at first as, you know, is
Speaker:like the, you know, are any of them You know, do you feel like they have good
Speaker:arcs, or are they likable, or whatever?
Speaker:And, and then, you know, my first inclination was like, well, he's
Speaker:an English director, so, you know, maybe, maybe there's that, you
Speaker:know, because British, but, but that's, but that's kind of unfair.
Speaker:And, and then, and also we've, by now we've had a couple of decades,
Speaker:you know, of, of Nolan films.
Speaker:You know you know tenant and then and I just, I just lost the name of the
Speaker:prestige, you know, of, of seeing films like that, you know, and, and, and
Speaker:realizing that no, he is, you know, or he and his brother are capable of
Speaker:writing characters that, you know, that do have, you know arcs and they have good
Speaker:internal, you know, internal emotional lives, you know, they're not, you know,
Speaker:and, and the, the stories take place, you know, as Nathan was saying, it's
Speaker:like, Not only are they, are they two dimensional, but maybe they're even fourth
Speaker:dimensional, because it's kind of odd.
Speaker:You go back and revisit them, and like, I went and revisited this
Speaker:when, you know, when Nathan first contacted me, because it had been, it
Speaker:had been years since I last saw it.
Speaker:I have seen the film probably half a dozen times, but it was one of those,
Speaker:like, no pun intended, but it was like, do I remember this film properly?
Speaker:You know, or is, or is my memory playing tricks on me?
Speaker:That I think that I remember, but the thing that, the thing that I, that I
Speaker:thought rang true first when I rewatched it was like, no, I did remember that in
Speaker:the first, in the first sequence, you know, the first shot is you're seeing
Speaker:a Polaroid not or go out of focus, you know, not, it doesn't, it doesn't
Speaker:come into focus, you know, so, you know, it was like, do I remember that?
Speaker:I was like, but that's not the way that works.
Speaker:You know and then I was thinking about, you know, about other films, you know
Speaker:other films that, you know, that sort of follow Gaspar knows Irreversible
Speaker:from 2002, which Nathan, did you
Speaker:see that together?
Speaker:I have seen it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:It's been a long time, but yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's a
Speaker:crazy movie.
Speaker:That's a crazy movie.
Speaker:It's a, it's a, it's a beautiful movie.
Speaker:Well shot.
Speaker:Well, well, I should say well shot film, but because of the, the, the
Speaker:middle part, you know, and, and is it okay to do a little bit of a
Speaker:spoiler or, okay, well there's, okay.
Speaker:So there is, I'll just frame it.
Speaker:I just put it this way.
Speaker:There is a, there's, there's a horrible attack on Monica Bellucci's
Speaker:character in the middle of this film.
Speaker:And it is enough that, you know, and I don't say this about many films, but
Speaker:there's a few films that I've seen.
Speaker:I've seen them once, and I'll be like, that was a fantastic film.
Speaker:I will never see that again, or I have no need to see them ever again.
Speaker:But the making of the film itself, in Irreversible, it is, you know, much
Speaker:like, everything occurs in reverse.
Speaker:You know, like the plot and everything also happens in reverse, so it's got that
Speaker:similarity to it, which is, you know, which is hard to do, but very well done.
Speaker:The other film noir aspects of it, you know, like the, you know,
Speaker:the Carrie Ann Moss character, or the Natalie character, is.
Speaker:You know, I mean, I just kept flashing to thinking about Barbara Stanwyck's
Speaker:character on Double Indemnity.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I mean, cause it's like, here she's, she's, she's pushed, you know, she's
Speaker:pushed, you know, she's pushed people towards, you know, murder, you know, a
Speaker:couple of times, but at first it's like, you know, the character comes across as
Speaker:this, innocuous kind of like, Oh, well, is this person, you know, really capable?
Speaker:But then you find out, yes, they are.
Speaker:They really are capable of pushing people towards, towards murder.
Speaker:And then the, the do we want to do the, the, are we talking about the comparisons
Speaker:or the, or the art house double bill?
Speaker:Oh, we'll get there.
Speaker:Or is it, we'll get there.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Well, okay.
Speaker:But let's see.
Speaker:But the other film that I have to compare it to, which is my, okay, now I've
Speaker:just spoiled my spoiler or whatever.
Speaker:But Alan Parker's Angel Heart because on so many levels, you know, you've got
Speaker:this, you've got this unreliable narrator.
Speaker:Who is, you know, acting, who is a detective, and, you know and there's,
Speaker:but there's also this motif of, you know, the uncertainty of his identity, and
Speaker:he's always, you know, and it's always this thing of creeping up on his, you
Speaker:know, creeping up on his reflection.
Speaker:And then at one point, there's even a scene where, you know, he,
Speaker:he, for some reason, you know, you don't really know, but he, he looks
Speaker:into a mirror and he smashes it.
Speaker:And, you know, and as we know, you know, from, you know, from this film.
Speaker:You know, that's what happens to Leonard, you know, is that he, his head gets
Speaker:smashed against, you know, against the mirror and it, it, it fractures his
Speaker:identity, you know, he, he, he's no longer, he's no longer the Leonard that,
Speaker:You know, we believed or that he believed he was or the normal Leonard, I guess.
Speaker:And then he becomes this other, this other identity, you know, this
Speaker:person, you know, this detective that's fervor on this quest.
Speaker:So, you know, it felt like that's a, there's a, you know, there's
Speaker:a, there's some, you know, there's some good, good similarities there.
Speaker:Nolan, you know, the thing is, is that Nolan is, is, I mean, like all of his
Speaker:films, he's truly a craftsman filmmaker.
Speaker:I mean, this man has, he has really studied the masters.
Speaker:But he's taken, he's taken those lessons and he's gone,
Speaker:you know, he's gone, definitely gone farther, you know, with it.
Speaker:And, you know, the, the, the whole idea that, you know, that his films, you
Speaker:know, they inhabit this space of film, like film, like the great film or is
Speaker:where there's this dreamlike quality to them so that you're seeing the film and
Speaker:you're certain of the, you're certain of the story of the plot until you're not.
Speaker:And then it becomes this, this, this kind of wonderful conscious questioning moment
Speaker:where you're like, You know, you're, you're, you're, you're thinking, okay,
Speaker:but, you know, but is he, is he playing this trick on me or is this how I'm,
Speaker:is this how I'm perceiving it, you know and he does this, you know he, he did
Speaker:it in Tenet and and Inception, you know, so it's this, it's always this question
Speaker:of like, is this the, is this the dream within the dream, you know, or, or,
Speaker:or what is it that we're experiencing?
Speaker:And he really can't, and in this, You know, like Nathan said, he really puts
Speaker:you in the headspace of that protagonist to where you're just, you know,
Speaker:you're starting to question, you know, everything, you know, from the beginning.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:and there's so much paranoia that is stemming from that because as
Speaker:you're, you're, you're in this perpetual dance between the, the,
Speaker:there's this apprehension of what, of Lies ahead in this entanglement
Speaker:of what's already behind us.
Speaker:So you're, you're trapped in this like paradoxical web of like future worries
Speaker:and, and, and past burdens through this.
Speaker:So you feel like you're constantly pulled in this.
Speaker:And I never had a problem with the, the editing of this.
Speaker:I know, Sam, you, you mentioned that you were kind of like of dual minds in some
Speaker:ways, and I care what you're talking about, but I, I, I love, I, I love the.
Speaker:The black and white storyline that's going forward and the
Speaker:color that's going backwards.
Speaker:And I think it's, it's perfectly balanced.
Speaker:And
Speaker:I do think it's, it's technically good.
Speaker:It's like having the mental condition, you know what I mean?
Speaker:And that's, and that's the point.
Speaker:I mean, I, I don't have a problem with the editing.
Speaker:I just think it, it makes me detached from The story.
Speaker:So if he were to suddenly live or die, it, it makes me care less.
Speaker:But, but I acknowledge that I think this is a really good movie
Speaker:with a technical impressiveness.
Speaker:It's the precision of it.
Speaker:Cause it's also just not, it's not just like running in parallel.
Speaker:It's coming to, to a head, a head, everything.
Speaker:So it's,
Speaker:but I think like the.
Speaker:the skill that makes that, that balance is that it's paced really well.
Speaker:Like this movie just moves and it doesn't really drag.
Speaker:And I think the thing that maybe causes the detachment for Sam, but makes it maybe
Speaker:more, you know, technical, technically proficient about the condition is we're
Speaker:not really sympathetic towards it.
Speaker:And, you know, earlier, Nathan, you were like, this puts us
Speaker:so much in the headspace.
Speaker:And I agree of someone who has this condition, but it's like, we just, it's
Speaker:very matter of fact about it, which I think is, you know, for better or
Speaker:worse, a very Nolan quality, but I don't feel like it's, It's mawing at all.
Speaker:I don't feel like it's it's weepy or sympathetic about the condition.
Speaker:It's this is what I
Speaker:really, really liked the humor because it alleviates it and brings
Speaker:attention to the fact that like, if you're on board with this, somehow
Speaker:we're going to make sure you're having at least somewhat of a good time.
Speaker:And so it's so funny.
Speaker:Talking about sympathy, I think some of the sympathies are supposed to come
Speaker:about in the story of Sammy Jenkis as well, which I think we need to talk about
Speaker:because that's a big part of this movie.
Speaker:Sammy Jenkis played by Stephen Tobolsky, somebody I actually have met one time,
Speaker:beautiful man, lovely guy, tall, six foot five or something like that.
Speaker:Really tall.
Speaker:He's a really nice guy.
Speaker:And, do you think he remembers it?
Speaker:He does not remember.
Speaker:I have his autograph though from that, from that meeting.
Speaker:Stephen
Speaker:Tobolowsky had the most emotionally humorous line in the movie where his
Speaker:finger gets pricked and he's like, Oh, what the fuck test that way.
Speaker:You fucking quack.
Speaker:I was like, yes.
Speaker:I think that's, I think that.
Speaker:That is, we're in full territorial territories here, by the way, now,
Speaker:so, but what I'm saying is, I mean, that is kind of the emotional heart
Speaker:of this, him and his wife as well.
Speaker:And that's all tied to the storyline that Leonard used
Speaker:to be like insurance investor.
Speaker:Insurance adjuster.
Speaker:Insurance adjuster.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And there's this whole other timeline, the backstory that he is telling
Speaker:which I, I, I just love how that's brilliantly weaved into this whole
Speaker:thing and it's all, it's part of this phone conversation that, that Leonard
Speaker:is on as well in, in a, in a motel room.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:It's I just, I really loved it.
Speaker:It's
Speaker:beautifully told.
Speaker:And another one that's just really beautifully acted.
Speaker:Just the performances really carry it.
Speaker:It's interesting, too, that most of this movie is, like, medium close up shots.
Speaker:Like, we don't get a lot of wide, established tracking shots.
Speaker:We get a few, but it's mostly told in kind of a medium like, almost like
Speaker:television framing, which is, which is interesting because it is a really, really
Speaker:great wide shot.
Speaker:It's actually when the whole time during those like flashback shots where
Speaker:Leonard's on the phone, he's telling the whole story about Sammy Jenkins and, you
Speaker:know, the whole time he's like, Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Pulling on his, like, the, the tattoo sleeve.
Speaker:And when it finally, it's revealed, like, never answer the phone.
Speaker:There's this really haunting shot, which is almost like surveillance
Speaker:camera shot, like in the upper corner of it, which is like this wide shot
Speaker:of the whole room, which is like the horror moment of this whole movie.
Speaker:It's like, which I really want to
Speaker:go back and rewatch
Speaker:it.
Speaker:I did like the
Speaker:there were some decent wides at the abandoned That like abandoned
Speaker:tower, like desolate location.
Speaker:That was, that was some decent cinematics.
Speaker:Do you think that the, that framing sort of mimics a Polaroid a little bit now
Speaker:that you say it, I feel like I kind of
Speaker:see it.
Speaker:Maybe, maybe it does.
Speaker:I think Christopher Nolan likes that.
Speaker:I noticed that framing a lot in Batman Begins where it's like, he's
Speaker:always kind of close on fights.
Speaker:And some, sometimes it works for me.
Speaker:Sometimes it doesn't.
Speaker:I, for, for some reason, it's a totally different movie, but I thought his
Speaker:framing is at its best and incredible in Oppenheimer because he's, he just,
Speaker:the canvas goes like that, like the canvas opens really, really wide.
Speaker:Whereas for a lot of his earlier career, he's, he's more.
Speaker:Zeroed in on character moments.
Speaker:It's definitely a style and television is the wrong.
Speaker:That's I that's the wrong.
Speaker:It's it's above, you know, like a television framing obviously, but
Speaker:but he's he's close and intimate.
Speaker:I like it in his later films when he backs up and paints his hands more like Cecil B.
Speaker:DeMille later on.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, for me, Oppenheimer just like blows me away in terms of, in terms of that.
Speaker:I mean, Oppenheimer was awesome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It was fantastic.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I
Speaker:just want to follow up on a couple points about that story with Sammy Jenkins.
Speaker:And I feel like that's, the gate, which is the heart of the crux of this, of this
Speaker:film I thought was very, I, the irony of this is that Lenny, he, he, there's
Speaker:the tattoo says, remember Sammy Jenkins.
Speaker:You know, the irony is because Lenny, Pretty much all remembers, you know, many
Speaker:of the details about Sammy Jenkins, but what this movie is about, and I think what
Speaker:the tattoo is really there for him is a reminder to Lenny not to end up like Sammy
Speaker:Jenkins, to become a man without agency.
Speaker:And I think this is what the movie is really about.
Speaker:You know, he's making these decisions.
Speaker:So that he can always will continue on this mission to find his wife's killer.
Speaker:If he acknowledges the victory, then there's nothing left to live for.
Speaker:So to remember Sammy Jenkins is, is, is that reminder, you must always
Speaker:have this, this agency in your life.
Speaker:And I think that's what Is motivating him for this.
Speaker:So it's it's, it's, it's just another brilliant stroke, I think, for this film.
Speaker:Do you think it was also like, do you think there was a shred of truth in what
Speaker:Teddy was saying at the end where he was like, No, some of that Sammy Jenkins story
Speaker:was you and you've like, reimagined it.
Speaker:Like, remember Sammy Jenkins is like, remember that it's you,
Speaker:you know, cause that's the part.
Speaker:He only gets things tattooed that he, Forgets.
Speaker:I totally, I mean, I don't know if anyone else can chime
Speaker:in on this, but I, I think so.
Speaker:I think that all those, there's those little vignette snippets where you see
Speaker:pinching the thigh, all the, all those things, which I love those shots of that.
Speaker:You know, what's also really cool.
Speaker:I don't mean to hijack this whole topic here, those, those moments of where
Speaker:you see those memories of his wife.
Speaker:I love those because that's where these emotions of grief, I think,
Speaker:really come in this movie, I think is such a study of, of grief.
Speaker:All those moments.
Speaker:It's, it's not your typical, like moments where like they're, They're
Speaker:laughing and they're having a good time.
Speaker:They're smiling.
Speaker:And that's kind of what you might think that he would remember, but all of
Speaker:these memories are quite melancholy,
Speaker:you
Speaker:know, and I, and I really kind of, I really like that.
Speaker:And, and I think, I think that's a really nice, nice touch.
Speaker:That's a really good point about the grief.
Speaker:Like I think it does that really well.
Speaker:I also think it's a really good, Character study of Guy Pearce, because in the end
Speaker:he chooses to give himself, he's like, well, I'm just going to make it like this.
Speaker:I'm going to, this, this is my quest.
Speaker:This is what I'm going to do.
Speaker:That's his character where I was thinking about myself watching that scene.
Speaker:If it was me with that condition, I would design everything to erase all memories,
Speaker:all trails, and I would create a totally fictional, I would take the Move to
Speaker:some beach somewhere and create false memories that everything is just about
Speaker:I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm living on a beach.
Speaker:Life is great.
Speaker:What I would do is try to avoid all pain and it's interesting to me that
Speaker:he creates a quest for himself to go after the pain, which is, yeah.
Speaker:He's
Speaker:going for like absolution.
Speaker:He's going for, yeah.
Speaker:And you could do that live on the beach thing, but you also
Speaker:will need to avoid Adam Sandler.
Speaker:I do think, you know, talking about this in like relation to following a lot, I
Speaker:do think his, Lenny's marriage is sort of the prototype for Mal in Inception.
Speaker:You know, I, I sort of think that like perfect dead wife and unreliable narrator,
Speaker:you know, we see
Speaker:that show up again later in Inception.
Speaker:It's interesting because, because Inception deals with dreams and
Speaker:reality within a reality, you talk about an emotional connection.
Speaker:I, I love Inception infinitely more than this film.
Speaker:I like this film, but I like it on its, I think it's a good like technical magic
Speaker:trick, but I feel like Inception goes into like the depths of the human soul.
Speaker:And it also has these set pieces that, that like, rival James Bond movies.
Speaker:So I just, it's, but that's just, again, I'm talking about myself
Speaker:as an emotional audience viewer.
Speaker:Same.
Speaker:And I think like the, the takeaway there is Nolan's like telling
Speaker:the same, finding new ways or, or deeper ways to tell the same story.
Speaker:It's dealing with the same themes.
Speaker:Anything else about Liddy's character?
Speaker:Condition itself that I, I, I think is, again, this is apparently
Speaker:something that really exists.
Speaker:I
Speaker:never, I never hear a grade amnesia and
Speaker:all I know is that someone that wrote an article, they said that
Speaker:the movie did an incredibly accurate job of what the condition was like.
Speaker:And just a random shout out to like the art director or continuity
Speaker:people that worked on this movie.
Speaker:I was just felt exhaustion when it like showed.
Speaker:All his notes and everything.
Speaker:I was like, Oh my God, all those notes have to be thought out.
Speaker:They have to have the right notes.
Speaker:They have to know where the, like, I was like, Oh my God, like what a headache.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So like I said, it is a real condition.
Speaker:I mean, I can't, so it would really be this way.
Speaker:It would be like, after like a certain amount of time, you would just reset.
Speaker:I always picture, I mean, there's the analogy of like the Polaroid in
Speaker:reverse where it would just fade.
Speaker:So it wouldn't be like memories would fade.
Speaker:Like if I joked before, like a goldfish or perhaps that
Speaker:you only have like 15 minutes.
Speaker:Like I always picture like it would be like a rolling Fifteen minutes
Speaker:ago, but I guess it's not like that.
Speaker:It would just be like you reset.
Speaker:I think in the, either an interview with Christopher Nolan in the
Speaker:commentary, he mentions that it was designed so that it's not necessarily
Speaker:a science where it's every 15 minutes.
Speaker:It also is affected by the amount of stress that Lenny is under, how
Speaker:quickly he would reset as well.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:That makes sense in the Carrie and Moss in the car scene where he's like desperately
Speaker:searching for proof in her apartment.
Speaker:Cause that I think is the fastest we see him reset.
Speaker:When she looks at him through the car windshield and it's just like, that
Speaker:gives me the chills because like that taps into my greatest fear of like
Speaker:people being like manipulative and evil.
Speaker:And I'm like, see, it's proof.
Speaker:People are like that.
Speaker:What a
Speaker:fascinating character though.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's the thing.
Speaker:I was thinking of you B because like she was.
Speaker:Fascinating.
Speaker:I thought she was really interesting and not just like a Nolan, like
Speaker:female window dressing when it with his bad writing towards her fake dead
Speaker:wife.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:right.
Speaker:Natalie also in some ways, is she a victim here as well?
Speaker:I mean, her boyfriend was just murdered, right?
Speaker:If I'm trying to do the, Put this in order.
Speaker:If we were to watch this in chronological order, I mean, her
Speaker:boyfriend was just murdered and, and Teddy and Lenny were involved in this.
Speaker:Is she also out for revenge as well?
Speaker:So is she really the bad person here?
Speaker:I'm trying to also put this all in context.
Speaker:We are obviously on the protagonist's side, Lenny's side here, because
Speaker:we're with him this whole movie.
Speaker:But I'm also trying to.
Speaker:figure out like, if we were watching this movie from Natalie's
Speaker:perspective, would this be a completely different, would our sympathies
Speaker:be, would align with her in this?
Speaker:It's possible.
Speaker:I also think it would, I mean, and I'm being kind of ridiculous, but it would
Speaker:be funny if the guy that worked at the hotel was like the mastermind behind
Speaker:everything and he like that'd be amazing.
Speaker:But, but, but to your point, maybe, maybe I, it's hard to, it's hard to, I
Speaker:mean, I, it's something I need to watch it again because all the plot things
Speaker:we're talking about, I followed it, but like, it's it's, it, It requires
Speaker:multiple viewings, which is brilliant because if you watch it multiple
Speaker:times, the movie makes more money.
Speaker:It's like, yeah,
Speaker:it does require.
Speaker:And I, I think that I think there was like a missed opportunity there that, that,
Speaker:that maybe, you know, that maybe there could have been a tie in with tenant or
Speaker:even inception, you know, I mean, it's like, if, I'm right at the universe.
Speaker:Well, because like if they stumble through one of those hotel rooms and then
Speaker:suddenly it's like there are three guys asleep but they're all hooked into like
Speaker:the machine in Inception or something.
Speaker:Right, or they just walk into
Speaker:one hotel room and it's Eugene Levy's character from American Pie.
Speaker:It's like, whoa, Jimbo, whoa, oh, you got a gun, I'm scared.
Speaker:Oh my god.
Speaker:I thought there could have been a tie into like Eternal Sunshine of the
Speaker:Spotless Mind would have been a more.
Speaker:I also agree.
Speaker:Perhaps.
Speaker:That
Speaker:too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There's a lot of these like.
Speaker:I love Eternal Sunshine.
Speaker:That's a great movie.
Speaker:I love that movie.
Speaker:That gave me motion sickness in the theater because it was like
Speaker:the camera was always moving.
Speaker:Same with a movie called Open Water where you're just like bobbling up and down.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the same thing happened to my mother, but a really Eternal
Speaker:Sunshine, really good movie.
Speaker:I enjoyed it a lot more when I watched it on a smaller TV cause, cause the,
Speaker:the effect of that, of the movement for some reason made me get motion
Speaker:sickness and I never get motion sickness.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Quality movie.
Speaker:I,
Speaker:I often get motion sickness, but I thought that was a great movie.
Speaker:I also love Elijah Woods character in that movie.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I that enough.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Did anyone notice the Amazon escorts?
Speaker:It's perhaps a failed.
Speaker:Extension of Jeff Bezos that just did not, did not land.
Speaker:Well, I don't know.
Speaker:Talk about next Ray shipping.
Speaker:Nobody saw that.
Speaker:I miss, I miss.
Speaker:Read in the phone book.
Speaker:Only run escorts.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I'll shut up now.
Speaker:I missed it, but that's the kind of detail like that, that, that's
Speaker:How many times have you seen this?
Speaker:I've only, I've only seen this twice.
Speaker:See, here's the thing, though.
Speaker:I know if I see the
Speaker:escorts,
Speaker:I'll say this because, you know, even in spite of the, my, my
Speaker:review is generally positive.
Speaker:I'll say this.
Speaker:If I watched this movie a few more times, I believe I would
Speaker:like it more and more with each time because it's clearly the end.
Speaker:It's all there.
Speaker:Like, it's incredibly well done.
Speaker:So, like, my, my review is positive.
Speaker:It's, it's not a negative review.
Speaker:It's, it's, it's just how the move, how the movie makes me feel when I watch it.
Speaker:That's all right.
Speaker:I get it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Happens to me all the time.
Speaker:Don't worry.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm very, very, very worried.
Speaker:No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker:Don't worry.
Speaker:Don't worry.
Speaker:Hakuna Matata.
Speaker:That was a joke, but yeah.
Speaker:It didn't land.
Speaker:A line from another older movie two characters, also an old, an old film about
Speaker:old, about older times or older films.
Speaker:The phrase is, yeah, there's, you know, there's a word for people that
Speaker:think that everybody's got to get them.
Speaker:Yeah, perceptive.
Speaker:It's from
Speaker:Woody Allen's Curse of the Jade Scorpion, you know, where he incidentally
Speaker:plays an insurance detective.
Speaker:So, Not exactly film noir, but maybe film neurotic, not film noir.
Speaker:Quick
Speaker:humorous cast quick humorous question.
Speaker:Who would be the worst?
Speaker:What's the worst possible cast casting that you could pick for
Speaker:for, you know, guy Pierce's role?
Speaker:Like just someone who, Jim Carrey
Speaker:pretty bad.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Jim Carrey would be pretty bad.
Speaker:Martin Short.
Speaker:Oh yeah, that's, I'm gonna,
Speaker:I would've to go with, with with Arnold Schwarzenegger because even,
Speaker:I mean, I, I love him, but he'd be like, but I, I can't remember.
Speaker:I keep trying, what's, why am I at this hotel?
Speaker:What are you doing here?
Speaker:This feels
Speaker:like a really good time to bring up, who would you replace with Mark Wahlberg?
Speaker:Oh man Oh, oh definitely Joey Pants.
Speaker:Yeah!
Speaker:Oh yeah, oh my god, yeah.
Speaker:Because he'd be like, he'd be like, you're so stupid, he's like, your wife
Speaker:was already, you didn't know that?
Speaker:I've been following you around for a month, you fucking idiot, like, where
Speaker:do you think you got the Chevrolet from?
Speaker:That's my car, I let you borrow it, you stupid fuck.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:He would just be so over the top.
Speaker:He would, he'd be like, oh, really?
Speaker:Now I need a wall burger and some fries.
Speaker:That's our agenda.
Speaker:Let's see if we can just quickly summarize how this movie wraps up.
Speaker:It's a little confusing because, you know, the movie ends at the
Speaker:beginning, or the beginning at the end.
Speaker:I don't even know how to summarize it, but I like, I just really like
Speaker:how, I don't know if anyone caught it because it's almost, you almost miss it.
Speaker:We go from black and white to, To color, you know, in a moment that
Speaker:I, I don't think I ever, I've seen this movie six or seven times.
Speaker:I never caught it in the moment where we've gone from the one
Speaker:storyline to the other storyline.
Speaker:It's, it's a beautiful moment.
Speaker:And I, I finally caught it for the first time.
Speaker:When we go from black and white to color, it's when, when he's
Speaker:dragging, I think Jimmy out.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Jimmy out into the light and it's, it's really cool.
Speaker:But I think this is a, it's a very tragic moment.
Speaker:Cause it'd be, you mentioned it before, you know, Lenny is, you know, he, we
Speaker:find out, cause I think Teddy mentions this, that, you know, you killed the
Speaker:real real James G, but we, we don't even know if that was really his
Speaker:wife's killer, who we even know if his wife even, was really killed or not.
Speaker:But anyways, this person was killed a long time ago and there's even proof of it.
Speaker:There's a picture of him and he's like the only time we've ever seen him
Speaker:smile in the movie in this Polaroid.
Speaker:He's like pointing out like his heart or something like that.
Speaker:And, and and then he decides that this is, he, he, he's not, he can't, well,
Speaker:I don't know how to really describe it.
Speaker:He's not, he can't accept this because he knows that if he, If he does
Speaker:accept this, he has no agency in his life and he must continue this, this
Speaker:submission to avenge his wife because I think, like I said before, he's scared
Speaker:that he can't, he cannot end up like Sammy Jenkins, a man without agency.
Speaker:I mean, that's my interpretation of it.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:So he creates the, the, the narrative, the mystery all over again, pinning the next,
Speaker:creating the next John G, James G, Jimmy, whatever, which I think is just such a,
Speaker:It's just a really sad, tragic moment.
Speaker:I mean, Lenny is such a tragic character,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:because it is one of the most tragic characters I've seen in cinema.
Speaker:I mean, we haven't really even talked about the ramifications of
Speaker:somebody that cannot process time.
Speaker:I mean, that's insane.
Speaker:Here's a man who wakes up every day or perhaps every 15 minutes or so and comes
Speaker:to the realization But did you also
Speaker:I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker:That, but that his wife was raped.
Speaker:And murdered.
Speaker:And the main thing that helps us process grief and eventually move on is time.
Speaker:And Lenny has no concept of time.
Speaker:Every 15 minutes, he relives the worst emotional pain of his life.
Speaker:So how does a person with this condition ever move on from tragedy?
Speaker:And this is going to be his existence until the day he dies.
Speaker:And that makes him just, I mean, one of the most ultimate tragic.
Speaker:Characters I've ever seen in a movie.
Speaker:I, that, that's an amazing point.
Speaker:And that now it makes me want to see the movie again.
Speaker:Cause I, I never thought about that.
Speaker:And you're right, Nathan, like that, you know, time, you know, what's that quote?
Speaker:Time heals all wounds or, you know, the past and, and.
Speaker:And the whole entire journey of, of, of all of our lives.
Speaker:I mean, time is, is, is everything what I've learned over time, who I
Speaker:was, where I'm going, where I've been time is what is, what it's all about.
Speaker:And our perception of it.
Speaker:And to be robbed of that, that is the ultimate tragedy.
Speaker:And maybe on a, Oh, this is good.
Speaker:Maybe on a deeper level, maybe that's why.
Speaker:The movie is a tough watch for me because I like in general, starting somewhere.
Speaker:Moving ahead, ending somewhere else and feeling like I'm on a journey.
Speaker:And because the movie is about a character that struggles with
Speaker:the nature of time itself on a subconscious level, I think that's.
Speaker:Painful for me because it's, it's brilliant, but it's painful because I,
Speaker:I like to go from A to B2C i, I like, and, and so when you're denied that
Speaker:it's going from A to B to a , it's, it's brilliant, but it's, it's like.
Speaker:It's like being in a spin dryer, you know what I mean?
Speaker:Like, so that's a fascinating point.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And in any of these films, you feel like there's a, there's a, you know,
Speaker:the, the journey, you know, the journey in some way, you know, whether they
Speaker:ride off into the sunset or whether the character dies, you know, you feel
Speaker:like there's a, you know, there's, there's some sort of completion.
Speaker:But with this, it's this haunting realization that, you know, somewhere
Speaker:in the multiverse, you know, you know, Leonard or Lenny is out there.
Speaker:Forever trying to kill, you know, John G, you know, exactly one thing that I
Speaker:know is too is that is that so there was a There was a moment now whether it's a
Speaker:false memory or real memory, you know, he has a he has a thing where his his wife
Speaker:is there in bed and she's reclined on his chest and You know above his heart Is
Speaker:the, is the tattoo, I did it, but then, but then what you find out the reality
Speaker:is, is, is that there is literally, there's a blank spot above his heart.
Speaker:It doesn't have, he doesn't have that tattoo in reality, or at least in
Speaker:reality, it's not, it's not there.
Speaker:The I did it tattoo is not there, it's only in his mind, it's only in his, a
Speaker:false memory, a dream, I don't know.
Speaker:You know, exactly.
Speaker:And I
Speaker:just realized now that like with what I was saying earlier, where I would
Speaker:try to erase everything and just live a peaceful, like forgetful existence.
Speaker:The problem with that, though, is that the memory of the dead
Speaker:wife would keep coming back.
Speaker:So my theory wouldn't work.
Speaker:I couldn't do that.
Speaker:Like, yeah, so there's no escape.
Speaker:I think it's interesting when we talk about the ending.
Speaker:It seems like everyone's taking Teddy at his word.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:That like, I think we're so hungry for answers at the end of this movie
Speaker:that Teddy just like fits them all very neatly and seems to provide them.
Speaker:And I, I like that version.
Speaker:I like that ending where it's, you know, Leonard's wife did survive the
Speaker:attack, did survive the break in, but he killed her by insulin overdose.
Speaker:He is the Sammy Jenkins of his own story.
Speaker:And I think he.
Speaker:You know, whatever story is true, he wakes up in this, like, loop of violence
Speaker:that he just sort of can't overcome.
Speaker:He's just stuck inside that loop, which I think is it's just really interesting.
Speaker:But it's this you know, this lack of closure, like he just
Speaker:can't get closure for whatever.
Speaker:I
Speaker:don't think he really wants closure.
Speaker:I don't think it's the lie he tells himself.
Speaker:That's the whole thing.
Speaker:I forgot to mention too, in the, in the end credits, there's a David Bowie song.
Speaker:And I actually read this fact and I wish I'd written it down, but
Speaker:Christopher Nolan wanted a different song in the end credits, but it was
Speaker:too expensive to get the rights to.
Speaker:And so the, the David Bowie song was the second choice.
Speaker:I actually really liked the David Bowie song.
Speaker:I forgot what the other one was, but I got to remember that because
Speaker:those end credits has a real feeling to it, that, that I actually liked
Speaker:because if it started playing this.
Speaker:Somber classic music.
Speaker:There, there, there's something about that.
Speaker:It goes into this pop song that I, that I kind of liked.
Speaker:It's like, you just watched Memento and you took a crazy ride, man.
Speaker:Like, I like that.
Speaker:I like how it's like, you're getting off a roller coaster at the end.
Speaker:And you're like, holy, what the hell was that?
Speaker:You know, like, I like that.
Speaker:So there's another little thing that I came across that I want to say that
Speaker:it's, how do you, the, the gentleman played Sammy Jenkins Steven Tobolowsky.
Speaker:So he said in an interview that he had actually also experienced
Speaker:amnesia after being given painkillers for, for a for, for an operation.
Speaker:Now this was, it was temporary.
Speaker:His
Speaker:neck.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, was that what, was that what it was?
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Jesus.
Speaker:That is
Speaker:the only experience I've had with that and where the drug actually
Speaker:does, this was when I had to get four wisdom teeth out at once.
Speaker:And so they gave you a drug that, that perpetually like erases your
Speaker:memory through the course of the day.
Speaker:And so.
Speaker:I was in the car being driven there.
Speaker:And then I was just kind of like, dit, dit, dit, And I don't remember this, but
Speaker:they said that when I was on the operating table, they were taking my teeth out
Speaker:that I was quoting the whole entire time.
Speaker:Captain Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek, they were like, they were like,
Speaker:okay, your is, I was like, excellent.
Speaker:Proceed number one.
Speaker:Well done.
Speaker:You're a great, you're the best commanding officer ever.
Speaker:And the whole time I was just like in Star Trek land, but
Speaker:like my, my memory just went.
Speaker:Out the window, but it wasn't a side effect.
Speaker:I can't remember the drug, but it literally.
Speaker:Like it just turned the day into a series of images that I woke up later
Speaker:and I was like, ow, but, but during the experience, it was a blast.
Speaker:Like I had fun.
Speaker:It was crazy.
Speaker:I have never heard that.
Speaker:That sounds actually sounds kind of awesome.
Speaker:Yeah, I was conscious during the thing.
Speaker:It just, it was like, obviously, you know, it was numb.
Speaker:But I was awake and I have like bits and pieces.
Speaker:I could hear it.
Speaker:But there was, I was completely detached.
Speaker:Just like,
Speaker:woo.
Speaker:Good times.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Well, I think we can or at a point where we can take a quick break before
Speaker:we come back and make our decisions on whether we save this film or purge it.
Speaker:Wait, quick, Nathan.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Hey, is me your good friend, B?
Speaker:What would you do a double feature with this movie for?
Speaker:Because I'm going to watch it again.
Speaker:Well, I was going to get to that after our quick break.
Speaker:Oh, we didn't say it.
Speaker:Can we do it?
Speaker:We want to do it now?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, then we, well, I want to save that for after our break.
Speaker:This is like a good time to do the My House.
Speaker:Fine, fine, fine.
Speaker:Maybe then this is a good, the halftime show.
Speaker:B, there's a time and a place for everything.
Speaker:It'll come in good time.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:You're going to get there.
Speaker:You're on the way.
Speaker:Fine.
Speaker:And David,
Speaker:congratulations for not staying in the office.
Speaker:You went to the set.
Speaker:You're a producer.
Speaker:You're, you're, you're Mr.
Speaker:Winner.
Speaker:You're not Mr.
Speaker:Loser.
Speaker:I'm very proud of you.
Speaker:We got to get to the chopper.
Speaker:We got to get to the chopper now.
Speaker:The chopper in Black Hawk Down.
Speaker:Take a quick moment and thank you for dialing into our transmission.
Speaker:We'd love to get your feedback and you can do that by sending us an
Speaker:email at backtotheframerate at gmail.
Speaker:com or finding us on Facebook, Instagram threads or TikTok with the
Speaker:handle backtotheframerate or through Twitter by finding us on backframerate.
Speaker:We have a monthly newsletter.
Speaker:Frame rate monthly, where you can see what films we're going to be reviewing
Speaker:in the future, which is helpful.
Speaker:If you want to watch along with us and compare notes, we often have polls
Speaker:and other interesting, interesting content that we think you'll enjoy.
Speaker:Best way to sign up is to email us at back to the frame rate at gmail.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:And lastly.
Speaker:We're a humble podcast here, not really able to throw money around
Speaker:for advertising and marketing.
Speaker:And as you know, we're trying to grow organically, but a wonderful way you
Speaker:can help us is by rating and reviewing our show on Apple podcasts, Spotify,
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Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Now, B, we can do our movie pairings.
Speaker:Finally.
Speaker:And you know what?
Speaker:You can go first.
Speaker:Finally.
Speaker:This is the part of the show where we you know, we envision like
Speaker:a double feature night, David.
Speaker:So if you, if you, you know, we're watching Memento, what would you
Speaker:recommend watching it with, you know, as a complimentary film?
Speaker:B, you can go first.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:David, you brought up some great parallels to older films when talking
Speaker:about this and it did make me think of Ava Gardner in The Killers.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, that's another, I think if you liked her in that, you'll like
Speaker:that, or even Amy Dunn in Gone Girl.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:That's a great character that reminded me of this, but I think if you
Speaker:really like Memento, a great double feature is 2010 Shutter Island.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:See Obvious Pairing, I don't want to spoil it if folks haven't seen it
Speaker:because it is, you know, It's pretty twisty, but if you like film noir, if you
Speaker:like unreliable narrators, if you like memory as a concept and, and struggling
Speaker:with mental health as a concept, then I think this is the movie for you.
Speaker:And it's you can rent it.
Speaker:Unfortunately, you can't stream it for free anywhere, but it's,
Speaker:it's worth a few bucks, I think.
Speaker:It's a very good film,
Speaker:very good.
Speaker:Sam, what's your movie pairing for?
Speaker:So my movie,
Speaker:my movie pairing, and I would say it's, it's a kind of distant
Speaker:comparable, but I would not watch the two of them in the same night.
Speaker:Cause then you'd be up till like six o'clock in the morning.
Speaker:But I'm going to go with a hateful eight because even though it's not,
Speaker:Entirely an unreliable narrator story.
Speaker:It's one of those movies where you meet characters.
Speaker:You don't know their motivations are or what they're doing until it
Speaker:shows who they are much later on.
Speaker:Kind of a what's the word?
Speaker:People are divided on this movie.
Speaker:I, I, I really like it, but man, do you have to be in the mood to watch that
Speaker:movie because it is talking and talking and talking and I just, I think the
Speaker:cinematography, this, the blizzard, like I'm actually a big fan of the film, so.
Speaker:It's a, it's a stretch.
Speaker:When I went to online Google and was looking at comparables to Memento, a lot
Speaker:of these films are films I haven't seen.
Speaker:And we'd already discussed Gone Girl.
Speaker:And so this was kind of the closest thing that I could find with just
Speaker:nothing is what it seems type film.
Speaker:So very thin, but, but big, big fan of the movie.
Speaker:If you haven't seen it, beautiful movie to look at.
Speaker:Just gorgeous.
Speaker:I remember this being, I saw this, I, this is not one of my favorite Tarantino films.
Speaker:I remember there was such a backlash.
Speaker:Like why did he.
Speaker:Why was this shot in like 70 millimeter?
Speaker:And then the whole thing's inside of a room.
Speaker:It
Speaker:is kind of funny because it's like,
Speaker:everyone went crazy over it.
Speaker:Oppenheimer and IMAX, which is just people talking in a room
Speaker:and people have said, that's
Speaker:brilliant.
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:Someone said they felt like they'd, they'd been like, You know, like
Speaker:Hoodwinked or like they've been joke is like Quentin is like 70 millimeter and
Speaker:then the whole time you're like hanging out inside like a haberdashery just
Speaker:people sitting around and it's like Kurt Russell like It's a fun movie though.
Speaker:It also weirdly would work for our snowy survival series.
Speaker:It could have.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I just, it's one of those movies where the, I, it's definitely not Quentin
Speaker:Tarantino's best, but it's the, it's that, if you're in the movie, you just
Speaker:sit there and hang out with these people and watch this like brutal evening unfold.
Speaker:It's a lot of fun.
Speaker:It's brutal.
Speaker:It's brutal.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:My movie pairing to accompany Memento is the 1998 film from director Tom, I guess
Speaker:it's Teichwer, Teichwer, cause he's, I
Speaker:guess
Speaker:maybe German.
Speaker:It's Run Lola, Run Lola Run.
Speaker:Great movie.
Speaker:Everyone seen this?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I have not seen it.
Speaker:Oh, it's great.
Speaker:Oh, it's a great movie.
Speaker:Gotta check it out.
Speaker:I selected this movie because it, too, was an independent film from a
Speaker:relatively unknown director at the time that would eventually go on to a larger
Speaker:career, not quite as big as Nolan's.
Speaker:Run, Lola, Run.
Speaker:I can Kind of described as Groundhog Day, but as a German crime thriller.
Speaker:It is also heavily steeped in the use of nonlinear timelines.
Speaker:The plot revolves around a woman, Lola, played by, I think, Franka.
Speaker:Potenta?
Speaker:I guess that's how you say her name.
Speaker:That could be right.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Some may remember her as Marie from the first couple of Bourne films.
Speaker:I don't know if I've seen her in anything else.
Speaker:Those
Speaker:are films that gave me motion sickness.
Speaker:In
Speaker:the film, Lola is trying to recover money that belongs to a local gang.
Speaker:And the story structure, like I said, without spoiling, You know, any of the
Speaker:film details, because some people may have not seen it out there is something
Speaker:that could remind you of, like I said before, Groundhog Day or even more like
Speaker:Edge of Tomorrow, the Tom Cruise film.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:You know, it's a high, it's a high, it's a high energy film that has a lot of action.
Speaker:It's got a really cool soundtrack.
Speaker:Actually, the soundtrack might even be more popular than the film.
Speaker:I had the CD at one point since, but back in the day, you know, it's just an
Speaker:amazing slice of high voltage techno.
Speaker:The whole movie in many ways is an 80 minute music video, you know?
Speaker:So, so yeah, it's, it's, it's a short film.
Speaker:It doesn't overstay its welcome around the same length as an
Speaker:average episode of an HBO show.
Speaker:So you have no excuse.
Speaker:So catch you can catch Run, Lola Run on, on VOD.
Speaker:So yeah, check it out.
Speaker:It's a great call.
Speaker:Good call.
Speaker:Mm
Speaker:hmm.
Speaker:David, do you have something for us?
Speaker:Well, yeah, and I actually, I, I, I, you know, I probably spoilered or, or
Speaker:previewed this earlier, but Angel Heart, Alan Parker, 1987 in which, you know,
Speaker:Mickey Rourke plays a, plays a detective hired by an enigmatic, and I'm, I'm
Speaker:struggling not to, But, you know, in 1987, to spoil anything, but he's hired
Speaker:by a really enigmatic, strange figure played by Robert De Niro to track someone
Speaker:down and, you know and, you know, as we move along and it is, even though the
Speaker:storyline is linear, we, we jump, there, there, there are, there are jumps back
Speaker:into time because you're going into, you know, like the faulty narrator,
Speaker:faulty memory, you know, kind of trope.
Speaker:So, you know, so there's that and it, there's also, there's a, there's a heavy.
Speaker:Supernatural or occult element to it and it takes place in one of my favorite
Speaker:one of my favorite cities, New Orleans.
Speaker:So you get to see a lot of, you get to see a lot of New Orleans Alan Parker.
Speaker:But again, it plays with these, with these, you know, with this,
Speaker:with this motif of, you know, of identity and loss of identity.
Speaker:And, you know, are, are we who we think we are or are we who we are?
Speaker:Because, you know, We are who we think we are anyway.
Speaker:Yeah, there's a there's a metal pretzel for for our listeners enjoy extra salty,
Speaker:so You know, there's there's there's that and then and then if I had to pick one
Speaker:from you know, just like noir Because you should with a strong femme fatale Double
Speaker:Indemnity from, from Billy Wilder from 1944 and Barbara Stanwyck, because there
Speaker:was, we were talking about like, you know, the scenes with Carrie Ann Moss,
Speaker:you know, as the, as the Natalie character in, in Double Indemnity, there's several
Speaker:scenes, but there's one in particular where Stanwyck, her character doesn't
Speaker:have, she doesn't have any dialogue, but there's this character change
Speaker:that's just written across her face.
Speaker:And it goes from like this mild expression to like this one where you,
Speaker:you feel like incredible strength and resolve, but incredible menace, you
Speaker:know, and it, it sounds, it sounds strange to say this, but it, you know,
Speaker:when you're, when you're watching the film, if you're really watching it it
Speaker:happens and you're just like, you know, you're, you're, you know, I w I was
Speaker:struck by, Oh my Lord, this woman did this, you know, it's, it's lighting
Speaker:and cinematography, but also acting.
Speaker:And there's largely no, I mean, so largely no special effects.
Speaker:But you get, but you get the very, the very sense that this is, you know,
Speaker:this is a black widow, you know, this is this femme fatale character that
Speaker:is like, you know, she's like, you know, she's like, you know, spring
Speaker:steel inside with like sharp knives.
Speaker:And, you know, she, she comes across as like this velvet character, but,
Speaker:you know, but by the end of the film, she's got, you know, she's got these
Speaker:people, you know, she's got people murdering each other, you know?
Speaker:So anyway, I think she's the
Speaker:femme fatale.
Speaker:She is.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Angel heart, double indemnity.
Speaker:You've made
Speaker:a triple feature.
Speaker:You cheated.
Speaker:We'll let it go, let it go.
Speaker:You're the guest.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Now, the moment that everyone's been waiting for,
Speaker:how come no one mentioned jingle all the way?
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:no we're going to get to our, our verdict.
Speaker:Any, by the way, any, any final thoughts on memento and before
Speaker:we get to our verdict or I think we've talked, we've said everything
Speaker:there is to say about memento.
Speaker:I have a final thought.
Speaker:Wait, I can't remember.
Speaker:And I'm fired.
Speaker:I'll see you
Speaker:later.
Speaker:That's what I was about to say.
Speaker:Honestly, I don't think we did that enough.
Speaker:This is the part where you tell us if Memento is going to be saved for future
Speaker:generations after the impending asteroid apocalypse, so the future generations
Speaker:can enjoy this film for the next generation, or do we lose it forever?
Speaker:Dun dun dun.
Speaker:If it's up to me, save it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:By the way, it's a majority.
Speaker:It's a majority.
Speaker:If, if we don't get three outta four votes, it gets lost forever.
Speaker:Mm-Hmm.
Speaker:. So safe.
Speaker:Well count me in for one.
Speaker:Alright, Sam.
Speaker:I, I would say it's page, I would save it.
Speaker:Even if it's not my favorite film, I think it's, it's worthy to watch and be
Speaker:revisited, so I would definitely save.
Speaker:This is absolutely, hell yeah, we saved this movie, this is one of the, I think
Speaker:one of the most unique and greatest movies we've had, ever, ever made.
Speaker:So yes, a hundred percent.
Speaker:David,
Speaker:what
Speaker:would you have thought it?
Speaker:It must be preserved, and even if we have to destroy all of, you know,
Speaker:like, all of the works of Pauly Shore in order to save the space
Speaker:for that, then I'm okay with that.
Speaker:Even
Speaker:in Seattle, man?
Speaker:Yeah, I would, I would have to let that go.
Speaker:I would, I would shed, you know, maybe half a tear, and then, yeah.
Speaker:Is
Speaker:it true that Pauly Shore is gonna do the the Richard Simmons biopic?
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:wow.
Speaker:It's a thousand voices cried out and an entire, no, no, I'm sorry.
Speaker:I'd just be happy as long as 1979's The Muppet Movie makes the list,
Speaker:then I'm happy to save everything else because that's imperative.
Speaker:Let's officially save Memento.
Speaker:Save Memento, yes.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:That's the vault door.
Speaker:That's the vault door.
Speaker:Locked away.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:We locked, we sealed ourselves in.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:There's only one bathroom though.
Speaker:We gotta, you know.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:This is really gonna
Speaker:suck for me.
Speaker:I
Speaker:can't.
Speaker:Oh boy.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:No soft cheeses, Nathan.
Speaker:No soft cheeses.
Speaker:We'll just emphasize that.
Speaker:That's what my wife says.
Speaker:This film really is almost as good as Bicentennial, man.
Speaker:I mean, it's just, you know, it's, it's
Speaker:give it another 20 years, you know,
Speaker:all right.
Speaker:Before we, we closed it out I just, you know, maybe no one else has any interest
Speaker:in this, but B, you and I just wanted to, to hobnob for like a minute or two.
Speaker:Cause we both watched Ghostbusters Frozen Empire.
Speaker:And You have maybe 30 second thought on this, as do I.
Speaker:Yeah, that's about all I have on this.
Speaker:Pretty good.
Speaker:You know, better than Afterlife, I thought.
Speaker:I was glad that it was just a, I feel like they just got to shake
Speaker:out the rust and then we finally get a straight down the middle sequel.
Speaker:And that's all we ever wanted.
Speaker:Where would, where would you rank this in the the oeuvre of Ghostbuster movies?
Speaker:Oh God.
Speaker:Like Ghostbusters, then to, then I guess Frozen Empire, then Afterlife,
Speaker:then the 2010 or whatever it was.
Speaker:2016.
Speaker:2016.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Anyone else?
Speaker:I,
Speaker:I haven't seen it.
Speaker:I will say really, really briefly.
Speaker:I watched a movie two nights ago that I, it's like a famous classic film
Speaker:that I actually had never seen before.
Speaker:And in spite of its incredibly being on the wrong side of history and just really
Speaker:like cringe inducingly racist From the 19.
Speaker:That's so fun.
Speaker:Late 1930s in terms of, of filmmaking, A masterpiece I saw Gone
Speaker:With the Wind for the first time and I was blown away by the film.
Speaker:Mm-Hmm.
Speaker:. Is that like a, a pun a joke in there or two?
Speaker:No, no.
Speaker:I just, I I was like, I, it was one of, it's, it's like a four hour.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's one of the, it's like the grandfather of like epic films.
Speaker:The good news is you know, some modern films you know, if you watch things
Speaker:on Disney plus some things come with a warning that sometimes can be ridiculous.
Speaker:We're like goonies.
Speaker:It's like, Oh, there's depictions of tobacco in this movie.
Speaker:And you're like, come on this film though.
Speaker:There is, there it, it opens with an an an African American scholar.
Speaker:And this is the most appropriate.
Speaker:warning label on this film because The whole movie has
Speaker:this rosy view of the south.
Speaker:It's based off a book.
Speaker:And so that is problematic.
Speaker:But but but like, you know steven spielberg, I mean lots of directors
Speaker:like love this film like vivian leigh clark gable Judging it just as a
Speaker:movie by itself fully aware of the problems my god God, it was incredible.
Speaker:Just, so one of the hugest, most gargantuan films
Speaker:I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker:Just an enormous
Speaker:hit.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:I have seen it a long time ago.
Speaker:I can't wait for your review of Birth of a Nation next week, Sam.
Speaker:Oh God, no.
Speaker:I'm not going
Speaker:to be watching that one.
Speaker:I
Speaker:do.
Speaker:I do just want to follow up on B because I also did see Ghostbusters as well.
Speaker:I also I did enjoy it.
Speaker:I, I liked it more than Afterlife.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I thought it was decent.
Speaker:Now that I thought it was funnier than afterlife.
Speaker:And I think that's why it was better.
Speaker:And I think I, what I do think this is the only thing I will say,
Speaker:then we'll drop ghostbusters until who knows, ever, whenever I think
Speaker:that they need to officially.
Speaker:Retire the old cast.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think, I think they're hanging on.
Speaker:Aykroyd, Bill Murray.
Speaker:They do, I do not feel like they want to be in these movies.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They
Speaker:don't
Speaker:feel like it.
Speaker:I don't, and I'm not coming from Ghostbusters.
Speaker:Like, I don't think it's a revered text.
Speaker:I didn't, I didn't grow up or love the original.
Speaker:So this one, cause I'm like, it's, it's better.
Speaker:Afterlife was technically a movie.
Speaker:So this beats
Speaker:that I think Paul Rudd and Carrie Coons are wonderful together.
Speaker:I think the young cast, I'm sorry, totally blanking on, on the young actress's name.
Speaker:That is really the star of this movie.
Speaker:She, I hope that this movie gets a third film in the franchise.
Speaker:It tanked in its second week at the box office, it went down like 65%.
Speaker:And unfortunately we got Godzilla versus Kong empire, something, some dumb shit
Speaker:happening which made like 80 million this weekend, which buried everything else.
Speaker:Ghostbusters Frozen empire.
Speaker:We have two movies with the, with a subheading of Empire, which is weird
Speaker:did terrible in the second weekend.
Speaker:And it's, it's unfortunate because this movie costs a hundred million dollars,
Speaker:25 million more than afterlife did.
Speaker:And I think it's really trying to recapture that.
Speaker:Mid eighties, like Amblin type of feel, you know, that we had back then, but
Speaker:it's, it's trying to live in two worlds.
Speaker:It's trying to have that, that, that Bill Murray, Ackroyd kind
Speaker:of old guard comedy, but it.
Speaker:Doesn't, it doesn't want to fully embrace the new cast all the way.
Speaker:And I think Paul Rudd's great in this.
Speaker:I think Gary Coon's great and the kids are great in it.
Speaker:And I just want them to like fully embrace the new regime.
Speaker:And if they can do that and do the movie for half the cost because they
Speaker:don't have to pay these, these old guys, I think they could do something.
Speaker:And I'm really worried that they're going to run this franchise into the
Speaker:ground because they're not doing it.
Speaker:So what you're saying, Nathan, is they really need to give up the ghost.
Speaker:Anyways, that's all.
Speaker:Bustin made me feel
Speaker:fine.
Speaker:One to see it, I want to see it.
Speaker:After B's endorsement,
Speaker:I want to see it.
Speaker:I've seen all the other ones, and I was actually a big fan, but like Nathan, I
Speaker:was like, you know, with the one, I'm trying to remember, I can't remember the
Speaker:title of the one with all the female cast.
Speaker:Just Ghostbusters.
Speaker:Okay, so Ghostbusters, and then, you know, and then Ackroyd is in it.
Speaker:And then like you, I was like, he really doesn't want to be here.
Speaker:He's really, he's really do it's like, you know, he's like, you know,
Speaker:it's almost like you can, you can feel him seething in the scene.
Speaker:Like I've really got a big paycheck, so I need to get through this stupid
Speaker:scene for this film, which, you know, and people treating the original
Speaker:movie with all this reverence, but, you know, I was a kid when it came
Speaker:out, it was a summer popcorn movie.
Speaker:It was a fun popcorn movie with a pop song, and you went to see it, and
Speaker:it was like, yeah, it was fun, and you enjoyed it, but it wasn't this
Speaker:sacred thing, you know, and I think the young actor you're thinking of
Speaker:is probably Finn Wolfhard, the guy,
Speaker:that's the older it's the younger, the girl.
Speaker:I haven't seen
Speaker:it yet, but I feel like Dan Aykroyd is like in interviews.
Speaker:Dan Aykroyd is like so enthusiastic.
Speaker:I feel like he, he like really wanted to do it, but maybe.
Speaker:Aykroyd,
Speaker:yes.
Speaker:Bill Murray, no.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:God, no.
Speaker:Any, any Wizard of Oz fans here?
Speaker:I was on a 1939 kick this week.
Speaker:Both directed by Victor Fleming, multiple directors gone with
Speaker:the wind, Wizard of Oz, two 1939 films going back to old school.
Speaker:I love,
Speaker:I love Wizard of Oz.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Wizard of Oz
Speaker:would be in my top 10.
Speaker:I watched it and I almost like teared up because it's so good and it does not have
Speaker:a wink wink like self, like, Hey, look how it's, it's so like wholeheartedly
Speaker:It just is, goes for it, man.
Speaker:In the best
Speaker:way possible, Wizard of Oz has real theater kid energy.
Speaker:Yes,
Speaker:definitely.
Speaker:And, and I have a friend who was actually, they did a, they did a live
Speaker:stage production version here in Memphis.
Speaker:A couple months back and a friend of mine played the wizard.
Speaker:So me and a bunch of friends went to see it.
Speaker:It was pretty cool.
Speaker:And I had an older friend that we, we brought it up, Wizard of Oz.
Speaker:And then he said, he goes, you realize that's one of the
Speaker:first science fiction movies.
Speaker:And I was like, what?
Speaker:You know, it's like, think about it for even a minute and you'll
Speaker:realize it's science fiction.
Speaker:It's James Cameron's favorite film.
Speaker:Actually.
Speaker:He's said that it's his favorite movie.
Speaker:Yeah, it's, it's, it's had a bizarre.
Speaker:Cause like, if you look at David Lynch, you know, David Lynch's stuff, you know,
Speaker:has got stuff that calls back to, you know you know, Wizard of Oz and somewhere
Speaker:over the rainbow and a bunch of, you know, a bunch of films have these little,
Speaker:like You know, Easter egg y things, you know, that harken back to that film.
Speaker:It's real Shakespearean in the way that it's just a classic story.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Like that, you know, fish out of water.
Speaker:Let's shift gears quickly.
Speaker:What, does anyone have any plans for the solar eclipse?
Speaker:This episode's going to drop on April 8th, the same day as the solar eclipse.
Speaker:How about that?
Speaker:Anyone have any plans?
Speaker:I I do actually on either Thursday or Friday, I'm in L.
Speaker:A.
Speaker:right now.
Speaker:I'll be driving to Texas Austin, Texas.
Speaker:Gonna check it out.
Speaker:I'm giving myself maybe a day or so extra to get there because assuming,
Speaker:I'm just assuming there's going to be cloudy weather, so I want to have
Speaker:enough time that when I arrive, that I'll have enough time to get to sunny
Speaker:weather, however far I need to go.
Speaker:I have some friends in Austin, so maybe I'll meet up with them,
Speaker:but yeah, I got my plans really, really looking forward to it.
Speaker:Getting my, got my Subaru Outback all past its inspection and checked and tire
Speaker:pressure is good and everything's good.
Speaker:So come Thursday or Friday morning at the latest.
Speaker:I'm on my way to Texas to you're traveling, what, 1, 300
Speaker:miles, 1, 200 miles, 13, 1300.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:It's almost exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Which for me, I love driving.
Speaker:So it's just like, Hey, you know I would have been in, in, in Rhode
Speaker:Island but it's actually logistically easier for me to go to Texas than
Speaker:it is to go back to Rhode Island and then get it for a bunch of reasons.
Speaker:Cause I'm going there later on in the summer, too much back and forth.
Speaker:So I'm like, I'm just going to stick to my vehicle and.
Speaker:Go the Texas route this time,
Speaker:David, this doesn't go far from where you are.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You're going to be almost already like 90 percent coverage, right?
Speaker:We're, we're going to be, yeah, we're going to be in an area
Speaker:where there's, where we'd be able to see a lot of the coverage.
Speaker:And if we want to see the, to be in the totality, we probably have to drive
Speaker:an hour, probably drive an hour East.
Speaker:I believe, into Arkansas.
Speaker:And I would say that it's, it's this, it's, you know, it, it, it kind of
Speaker:depends because we actually went to in 2017, went to an area of totality
Speaker:in Kentucky and, and experienced it.
Speaker:And it is, if you've, If you, if you've never experienced it, let
Speaker:me tell you, it's really eerie.
Speaker:I mean, it is one of these like eerie, eerie things.
Speaker:And you think, you know, like I was, we were talking about the
Speaker:other day and I was thinking just objectively like, well, big deal.
Speaker:I mean, it's like this one disc in front of another disc and it's
Speaker:just this thing and it's just a trick with passing in front.
Speaker:And so what's the big deal?
Speaker:But then you get out there and then, you know, we were out in the countryside.
Speaker:And, and then in that moment of totality, you know, like all the animal sounds
Speaker:and all the nature sounds really just kind of stop or drop near nothing.
Speaker:And it was, it was really very, very strange.
Speaker:I mean, you actually, you, you know, it's, it sounds strange to tell
Speaker:you this years later, but there was a, there was like a, a, a.
Speaker:A feeling, you know, a momentary feeling where you literally feel this, like
Speaker:this, this eerie momentary stop of time.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:It's
Speaker:almost like there's like a feeling of like air pressure changing or something.
Speaker:2017 I was in Charleston, South Carolina and it was just like, it was one of
Speaker:those all stop moments where you know it's going to be okay, but everything
Speaker:feels so weird and your body goes.
Speaker:What the hell is it?
Speaker:Should I run?
Speaker:Like is what's happening here?
Speaker:Like,
Speaker:and
Speaker:this one is going to be more total totes more totality than the 2017 one.
Speaker:The good news is, is that, you know, if you've guys in new England, if, even
Speaker:if you don't go anywhere, Rhode Island is still 90 percent Massachusetts.
Speaker:So it's like, it's It's going to be, it's, I am so excited.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:Our family is planning it.
Speaker:We're driving Northwest toward North, the Northwest corner of Vermont.
Speaker:Not
Speaker:all the way to like Burlington area, but probably like Stowe Waterbury area.
Speaker:Cause Burlington is going to be disaster.
Speaker:We're not the traffic and all that.
Speaker:That's the one thing I'm worried about is the people from Massachusetts,
Speaker:Rhode Island, taking all those little highways up to Vermont.
Speaker:So, because it will be bad.
Speaker:It's not until like 3 30 in the afternoon over where we are.
Speaker:Does anybody here know the story about, it was one of the conquistadors
Speaker:that used the knowledge of an eclipse with the Aztecs or the Incas.
Speaker:And he was able to tell them, you know, I think it was a thing of, he
Speaker:was actually able to use it and say, You know, like, oh, I have great
Speaker:power can make the sun go away.
Speaker:And then, you know, of course, do you know this?
Speaker:I think that was
Speaker:badly written expository dialogue mentioned briefly by writer David
Speaker:Kiyop in Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull But that's
Speaker:the extent of my knowledge of it
Speaker:Don't tell me any more about Indy.
Speaker:You don't have to worry about the fourth film.
Speaker:Fair
Speaker:enough that I would mistake something by David Kipp as actual history.
Speaker:So you got me there, but I do believe.
Speaker:No, I think it is actual real
Speaker:history.
Speaker:What I'm saying is David Kipp.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:Like, I'm saying that my knowledge only comes from the film, but
Speaker:what you're saying is, is it's the film borrowed from research.
Speaker:Cause George Lucas is like, Oh, I got to research it.
Speaker:Oh, I got to research.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:But that's, that's, that's very valid.
Speaker:I feel like, I feel like there's probably going to be several political rallies,
Speaker:you know, and at one of them there's going to be somebody, Probably a guy with,
Speaker:you know, like with with cotton candy hair and then, you know, he's probably
Speaker:going to get a bunch more monies for his, his Bibles or his golden sneakers.
Speaker:But then maybe on the other side of it, you know, there'll be, you know, there'll
Speaker:be a guy, you know, standing next to Joe Biden, you know, making an eloquent speech
Speaker:about, you know, humanity and democracy.
Speaker:And then, boom, it will go, everything will go dark, and we'll go like, Oh,
Speaker:holy crap, we gotta change our votes!
Speaker:You know, no, okay, that's enough, sorry.
Speaker:That's why I'm
Speaker:giving myself extra time driving, because I'm a little nervous about what
Speaker:I'm going to do, plus I'm going through like, twister territory in the spring.
Speaker:So it's like, if I see a tornado, I'm going to chase it.
Speaker:Because if you feel it, chase it.
Speaker:Twisters, July, 2024.
Speaker:If you feel it, chase it.
Speaker:You know, face your fears.
Speaker:That movie's already a classic in my mind, and I've never seen it.
Speaker:And like, if it sucks, like, man, am I going to I think I might
Speaker:love it even more if it sucks.
Speaker:And be careful while you're traveling through a part to Texas, Sam, if you
Speaker:get those roadblocks where they ask you, you know, where are you from?
Speaker:You say, well, I'm American.
Speaker:They might ask you, what kind of American are you?
Speaker:Jesse Plemons is going to be in the road.
Speaker:He's going to be like, what part?
Speaker:I'll be like wrong answer, but wrong answer.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's a great fear.
Speaker:Just Jesse Plymons with the, with the, with an assault rifle.
Speaker:That's scary.
Speaker:That that's truly going to be the film to see.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Are we all going to go see that?
Speaker:Is there really?
Speaker:Yeah, I am.
Speaker:I'm
Speaker:scared though.
Speaker:I'm so close to like, I don't want to go to the theater and like have fights break
Speaker:out, I'm going to watch it in the back and just run out the door when it's over.
Speaker:You know, I used
Speaker:to work in political campaigns, so it will be painful, but it's scary.
Speaker:I'm afraid you should, you should go watch it in Texas.
Speaker:I, I, oh my God.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:that's a good idea.
Speaker:That's what I'm going to do.
Speaker:I didn't think of that.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:Bring a gun.
Speaker:Hey, I don't have one, but yeah.
Speaker:Well, Nathan, bring, bring, bring.
Speaker:What bring?
Speaker:They'll hand him one when he walks into the theater.
Speaker:It's Texas.
Speaker:We've
Speaker:just eliminated our entire Texas audience.
Speaker:Probably.
Speaker:I'm just
Speaker:going to, I'm just going to bring like chewing, chewing tobacco
Speaker:and be like, the earth is flat.
Speaker:Fuck you.
Speaker:No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker:You sound
Speaker:like real co
Speaker:solidus right now.
Speaker:Yeah, we are.
Speaker:We have just eliminated, how, what percentage of our audience?
Speaker:I'll bring them back.
Speaker:Guys, you have Houston, the spaces and must protect out.
Speaker:So we love you.
Speaker:Texas is amazing.
Speaker:Texas
Speaker:birthed Beyonce, you know?
Speaker:So it's got something.
Speaker:And look, and
Speaker:just because you marry your cousins, I have no problem with that.
Speaker:You know, I'm assuming.
Speaker:Stop it.
Speaker:Yeah, it's not West Virginia.
Speaker:Stop it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I
Speaker:retract my comments.
Speaker:I'm joking.
Speaker:I'm joking.
Speaker:I love El Paso.
Speaker:El Paso.
Speaker:I love the Joan Crawford
Speaker:movie.
Speaker:Let's, let's wrap this up before anything else.
Speaker:But
Speaker:I know we pissed off more audience.
Speaker:I want to say, so David, thank you for joining us tonight.
Speaker:I want to give you a chance to mention anything that you
Speaker:want to say before you go.
Speaker:Plug anything.
Speaker:Where can people find you, please?
Speaker:Well, I'm like most of the kids you know, I'm, I'm on Facebook because
Speaker:you have to, and I can feel the eye roll of millennials and Gen Zers, but
Speaker:you know, but hey, I'm It's there.
Speaker:It's a stable platform, whatever.
Speaker:So I'm there right now.
Speaker:I think there's probably a picture of me at a birthday sometime ago where
Speaker:I'm, I'm wearing a dinner jacket and I'm toasting it with a martini glass
Speaker:because it was a Casablanca birthday party because that's another film that I love.
Speaker:And yeah.
Speaker:And so, you know, so you could, you could find me on, you could find me on that.
Speaker:I am on LinkedIn, but I never check it except now, I guess I will have to, and
Speaker:I will probably also have to now update it because I've mentioned it here.
Speaker:But other than that, all social media is, is evil, except for when it's not,
Speaker:and it, you know, can be useful at times.
Speaker:This was a lot of fun.
Speaker:I, I just say that, that, you know, this is, this is really great.
Speaker:You know, Nathan knows that I'm a, I'm a cinematic, Cinematic
Speaker:cinephile from, from way back.
Speaker:So, you know I love doing this.
Speaker:I love talking about film.
Speaker:I'll find you on
Speaker:Facebook and I love Casablanca.
Speaker:It's incredible.
Speaker:I love that movie.
Speaker:Please, please.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It was like, we had a, we rented a, we rented an old school bar
Speaker:in downtown Memphis that already kind of looked like the set.
Speaker:And then we kind of decked it out with Moroccan lights and then asked
Speaker:everybody to dress up in forties gear.
Speaker:And it, Best
Speaker:Casablanca joke, it's so stupid, but Naked Gun 2 12, Leslie Nielsen is
Speaker:like, Sam, play our favorite song.
Speaker:And he goes, okay.
Speaker:Ding dong, the witch is dead.
Speaker:That's amazing,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:And that reminds me, I totally forgot this memory.
Speaker:We also saw Casablanca.
Speaker:At a theater in downtown Memphis, when I visited you, it was a beautiful sculpture.
Speaker:The Orpheum.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Oh, I forgot about that too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What Nathan is talking about is there's an old school, huge theater.
Speaker:It's both like live performance and, and, and movie theater.
Speaker:And they do a summer, they do a summer film series.
Speaker:And as a part of the, that they, you know, they, they show Casablanca.
Speaker:Yeah, Casablanca is one of those classic movies that you watch it
Speaker:and you're like, yep, I get it.
Speaker:Classic for a reason.
Speaker:I'm going to watch it.
Speaker:I'm going to 30, 1930s, 40s kick right now.
Speaker:So that's, I'm just going back to the day.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Sam, you should watch some of the David Lean movies.
Speaker:I've been watching.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:I love,
Speaker:I mean, I've seen, I got to see more of them.
Speaker:Lawrence of Arabia would be in my top 10 hands down.
Speaker:Yeah, his brief encounter.
Speaker:Oh, oh, you guys, you guys are talking about language.
Speaker:This is awesome.
Speaker:This is awesome.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:We can talk more offline, but let's wrap up the show.
Speaker:Next week we are into our third film and our Nolan nostalgia series.
Speaker:We're going to watch 2002's insomnia.
Speaker:I have not seen that since.
Speaker:Actually, you and me, David, saw that in the theater back in 2002, a movie
Speaker:that made me feel tired and cold, but I am really excited to revisit it
Speaker:because at the time I I, I, I remember it was kind of like nonplussed by it.
Speaker:I was like, yeah, this is okay.
Speaker:This is the same guy that did mementos like, ah, this is kind of,
Speaker:kind of very conventional, but I am really excited to revisit this
Speaker:for the first time in a long time.
Speaker:By the way, I know, I think.
Speaker:B, you've seen this or not?
Speaker:Nope.
Speaker:Okay, so the rest of us have seen this.
Speaker:I know that.
Speaker:Has anyone here seen this, the original Swedish version of
Speaker:this, starring Stellan Skarsgård?
Speaker:I have not.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:I don't, I'm not saying we have to do this, but I would say, if anyone has the
Speaker:time in the next week and I'm Telling the, asking the audience as well.
Speaker:It is totally worth your time to watch the 1997 original Swedish version.
Speaker:I forget the director's name offhand, and I'm sure it's, I think it might be on
Speaker:Criterion or movie or something like that.
Speaker:It's out there.
Speaker:But it's from 1997, also called Insomnia.
Speaker:Stellan Skarsgård is the lead in it.
Speaker:It's, it's very good.
Speaker:I actually liked it more.
Speaker:At the time, but it's you could watch it.
Speaker:And if anyone else wants to watch it and we could maybe talk briefly about
Speaker:how these movies compare, I'm game for that as well, but we don't have to do
Speaker:that, but just throwing it out there.
Speaker:Nathan, you were right.
Speaker:It's criterion and to be it's on.
Speaker:Okay, great.
Speaker:By
Speaker:the way, I'll last a quick, I'll say that this podcast is
Speaker:exactly one hour and 53 minutes.
Speaker:No joke.
Speaker:Memento is one hour and 53 minutes.
Speaker:So it was meant to be.
Speaker:That is true.
Speaker:That's only helpful if we can end this now.
Speaker:Stop the
Speaker:insanity.
Speaker:Let's end it now.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Oh, I haven't, I have to do my outro.
Speaker:So we're going to go over.
Speaker:I want to discuss refinancing my mortgage.
Speaker:Sounds good.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:That's the show.
Speaker:Back to the framerate as parts of the West immediate podcast network.
Speaker:We wish to thank Brian Ellsworth for joining us.
Speaker:for our show opening on behalf of all of us.
Speaker:We bid you farewell from the fallout shelter.
Speaker:Your presence in our underground sanctuary is truly appreciated.
Speaker:We are truly sorry.
Speaker:You cannot join us, but we want to express our gratitude for your company.
Speaker:If you are finding solace in our discussions, we kindly ask that
Speaker:you please subscribe and leave a rating and review your support.
Speaker:Port is the beacon of light that brightens our confined space.
Speaker:Head on over to Apple podcast, iTunes, Spotify, whichever portal connects you
Speaker:to our broadcast and share your thoughts until we emerge from the fallout.
Speaker:Stay with us, keep hope alive, and keep those reviews coming.
Speaker:This is the end of our transmission back to the frame rate signing off.
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Speaker:Bye.
