Is This Thing On?

23:59I think it has to. I would agree. I mean, I would agree. But we live in hope that some Qatari prince will furnish Kevin Costner with whatever millions he needs to get that accomplished. And I say this without revealing. I love Qatar. He's in Qatar right now. I say this without revealing any privileged information. The vibe I keep getting of why this thing is bottlenecked is anytime anyone offers money to buy the film away from Warner Brothers, he's like, can't we put that money into part three? that his priority anytime money is made available to him, even as a notion, is what about three, four, and five?

24:35And they're like, Kevin, can we just get two out? I thought there were only four. Well, he started being like, I've got some five ideas. This is what's incredible. He absolutely is like, right now I'm really excited about this five idea I just had. And people are like, get two out. Well, you say people are like, it's a handful of people My name's struggling with like three lawsuits. I know. But it's just one of those things where it's like there's no mob storming any Warner Brothers gates being like, hurrah. No, the people I'm speaking of are the people who invested in two, the people who worked on two.

25:13I'm not saying the public is demanding it as much as everyone surrounding him directly. So the people who invested in Kevin Costner's two-part epic saga about the American West, I say thank you and I salute you. I thought he was just himself, right? It wasn't just himself. He put up a tremendous amount of money, but it was not just him. He also, Taylor Sheridan just checked his wallet, and it's empty. Oh, boy. Costner's running away. We're here to talk about Is This Thing On?, which is Bradley Cooper's third film as a director. Yeah. I don't know how many movies he's done as an actor. I could count if you want.

25:46Yeah, give a quick count, because I'm going to just quickly, since this is... Because he is in it. And this is just how the podcast works. We're 11 years in. This is technically our final episode in our Bradley Cooper miniseries for now. Unless he makes something else, which I believe he is. Yeah. So let me just do a quick ranking of Bradley Cooper films. Number one, Maestro with a bullet. You love Maestro. Number two, A Star is Born. Number three, The Cheesesteak. Space, space, space, space, space, space. Number four is this thing. Point made. A movie I really did not like. Yeah, so just to table set for everyone.

26:19Oh, please. Oh, I am excited for this thing. David is licking his lips. So David saw this film independent. I saw it at the New York Film Festival where it premiered. Yes, David saw it before us. And the three of us, Ben Griffin and myself, were supposed to go to a press screening. Kindly offered to us by the folks at Fox Searchlight. Yes. And it was packed. People wanted to know. On? Off? There was a tension. Just media? There was a tension in the city. People were getting really antsy. People are, I was like, are you voting for Zoran? And they're like, I don't care. I just want to know, is this thing on?

27:00Has anyone seen the switch? What position was it in?

27:07I mean, I haven't been to as many press screenings as you have, David. I have certainly been to a lot of them. But to me, this was like the most, it's a bright, this is the first press screening I've ever been to where they didn't have enough seats. I do think what you experienced is a little rare. I also think they probably just, right, They should have scheduled more screenings. This was not at a movie theater. This was at a private screening room. It was at 500 Park, which is a small room. But, you know, there's a real dearth of screening rooms in New York City these days. I think, and like come awards season, I am not a publicist.

27:41I don't have to deal with this. I think it becomes this nightmare, a jigsaw of like everywhere is booked. Yeah. Like all fucking day, you know, from October to June or whatever. I was running late and they hit capacity like 10 minutes before the movie started. Yes. So you basically were like, there's no way you're getting in here. And they weren't letting you hold seats. No. So Ben and I didn't sit next to each other. Kind of like the cellar. A little bit like the cellar. A little bit like the cellar. And really high cover charge. They made Marie get chicken tenders. It's a four drink minimum, ma 'am.

28:12And Cokes cost$18. How much is like a Diet Coke at the Comedy Cellar? Oh, my God. But yeah, Griffin missed the movie. I saw it at the same screening room about 10 weeks. 10 weeks. 10 days, two weeks later. Good bathrooms there. Big mirror, so you can really see everything that's happening. I love the bathroom. And in fact, maybe I'll rank the shit I took in that bathroom above this movie. Okay, but just to put it out there. I'm taking some shits at the 500 Park bathroom. David saw the movie first, and you were like, yeah, it's smaller, but it's fine. I was sort of like, flawed, mixed, some moments, which is where I am at.

28:49And then Ben and I, we get out of the movie, and we're like, it's kind of a nut. We shrugged. We're like, eh. You know, and I'm like, oh. Which seems to be the somewhat general critical. I know a couple people who love it. Katie Rich, a huge fan of this movie. You hate this movie. Let me just take a step back here, right? They announced this movie. Well, keep on the mic. Oh, okay. Take a step back, but bring the mic with you. Hello. And Ben, do you have a second sandwich you want to eat right now? Unfortunately, no. But I do have dessert. Tiramisu. No, I'm joking. And Ben, do you want to? That's too soft.

29:16You would need a crunchy dessert. Rice Krispie Treat.

29:23kind of bland but funny uh ben uh do you want to tell everyone what you googled and look up on your screen i from the positioning of our desk i have the view of ben's google and sometimes i just see what ben has silently pulled up on his computer screen and it makes me happy i was just trying to find an answer to your question how much does oh what's the menu at the comedy he's got the menu he's got the full menu pdf on his they don't have listed soft drinks but i'm actually kind of surprise reasonable-ish pricing. Like, for example, a Bud Light,$5. That is pretty reasonable. Not bad at all. Okay.

29:56Shout out. So, you know, and I will say the cellar is a totally fun place to go. I'm not trying to diss the cellar. No. Yeah. No. None of this, these movies' sins are not on the comedy cellar. I would say it has some insane representation of the comedy cellar. Well, what do you mean, Griffin? When we were coming up in comedy, we would always go to the open mics at the comedy cellar. Well, it's the only way to avoid having to spend$15 to drink at a bar above the comedy cellar with no view of the stage. Of course. That's just what you do. Listen, let me step back. They announced this movie. Yeah.

30:30This movie, as it proudly proclaims in its end credits, is based on a true story. It is. I can speak to this. It's some real Britney Runs a Marathon shit. A little bit, but I would say it does not do the Britney Runs a Marathon thing. It is ostensibly based on the life story of John Bishop, but as Bradley put it to me, because I was talking to him about adapting. We were talking about Jeremy Strong because he had just done a Q &A with Jeremy Strong for the, at this point in January, well-remembered Springsteen, Deliver Me From or To Nowhere, From. Evil? Yeah, I did typo twice in the same day, Deliver Me From Evil.

31:07And I told him, like, oh, I just interviewed Jeremy Strong. We talked about playing real people, yada, yada, yada. And I was like, this must have been interesting with like, you know, you got the real person. And he's like, oh, no. And I was like, no. And he was like, I took two things that he'd become the stand up in that way. Yes. Where he put his name down for fun. And then he gets back together with his wife. No, no, no, no, no. Just that his wife was then at a show like that. He was like, those are the only two things about that that interested me. But in real life, what the guy's name is?

31:34John Bishop. I believe. Yes. He reunited with his wife. But he's like, but the marriage in this is not based on the marriage or anything like that. He's just like, there were just two plot points I liked. The initial thing. Yes. And then the twist of like, and then when he's finally finding his feet at the comedy show, one day his wife is there. Yeah. That was it.

32:02David? Yes. This episode is brought to you by MUBI, the global film company that champions great cinema. it champions it. Unlike the others. No, they... Decry it! Barbarian it? From iconic directors to emerging auteurs, there is always something new to discover. With MUBI, each and every film is hand-selected so you can explore the best of cinema. You can log on to MUBI and check out all the movies they got. You know, Art House, you know, cool indie stuff, foreign stuff. Okay, this is awesome. What? There's a Movie Star movie, now streaming on MUBI in the US, covered on Blank Check soon. Well, I think that's the headline.

32:41Yeah, Die My Love. Yes. You're going to need to watch it if you want to keep up with the show. True. True. I mean, I guess, you know, do what you want. You don't have to, but we recommend viewing the film. Please view the film. Die My Love, Lynn Ramsey's film. Great film. It came out last year. It was a canon that came out last fall in 2025. It's a visceral and uncompromising portrait of a woman engulfed by love and madness starring Jennifer Lawrence, who was nominated for a Golden Globe. Robert Pattinson. It's kind of Mostly those two. They're very heavy on the two of them. Yeah, some top shelf.

33:13Nolte? I was going to say, some seasoning of Nolte and Spacek. Like dry age, let me tell you. Oh. Yeah, you've got them in there. But yeah, it's a lot. It's a big showstopper movie for J-Law. And R-Patz. Yeah, even R-Patz knows. He's playing sack and fiddle. Sure, but then there's like a lemon pepper dry rub of Nick Nolte. I love Lemon Pepper, guys. I love Nick Nolte. I love Nick Nolte, too. Look, it's Lynn Ramsey making her eagerly awaited filmmaking return. Obviously, that's why we're covering her on the pod. We've been waiting for her to make another movie. And it was on the shortlist for cinematography at the 90th Academy Awards.

33:56I didn't even know that. That's awesome. It's a passionate, complicated, destructive love story between two major stars in Lawrence and Pattinson, who'd never been together on screen before. I know. I guess that's not that surprising, but they are quite a pair. The Bat and the Cat. K-A-T-N-I-S-S. Oh, Cat Nis. Yeah. The Bat and the Steak. Mystique, that is. Oh, sure. Yeah, it's an awesome movie. The Steak and the Freak. Is that something he's played a lot of Freaks? Sure. Sure. Spoiler alert for the episode, but I was a big fan of the film. I know you were, Ben. Have you seen it yet? I haven't seen it yet, Ben.

34:29Whoa! I think you're going to like it a lot. It's also based on a book by Ariana Harwitz. Mm-hmm. Anyway. There's so much good stuff to watch on movie, There's also awesome other good stuff. Look, if you're not a member, this is a perfect month to sign up in order to keep up with the show. To stream the best of cinema, you can try MUBI free for 30 days at MUBI.com slash blank check. That's MUBI.com slash blank check for a whole month of great cinema for free.

35:07This film is announced. It's announced kind of quietly. Very quietly. Bradley Cooper's working on a new thing. He's noodling around. It's a script by Will Arnett. Will Arnett would star in it, and it's maybe something about the comedy scene. And then at some point it comes out, oh, it's based on John Bishop? And people are like, what does that mean? Right, but it's also like, you start hearing, like, he's in New York, because he lives in New York. He's testing out material. Right, they're shooting stuff, and maybe comedians are involved. Right. That's like what's going on here? Subreddits are going like, I saw Will Arnett do 10 mediocre minutes last night.

35:42Right. And then people are like. And you're like, but it's Will Arnett. Like he could be funny. Right. Like, but no, he's doing this like stilted thing. But then people are also like, I keep seeing Bradley Cooper at the audience at the cellar or like I saw five real comedians last night. But Bradley Cooper was just standing in the back with like a 16 millimeter camera. Right. Like there was just this sort of like something's happening here. We all are a little befuddled by this announcement. We're like, this is kind of a weird swing. We know that he is very good friends with Will Arnett. They live together, which I did not know until he told me at this dinner that they live together in Venice.

36:17And it took me, I would say, six to 12 days to clock that he meant Venice, California. I was like, why did you poor struggling actors move to Italy? That actually sounds kind of cool. I don't know what to do about that. You live together. Yeah, what's that? But then I realized he meant California. When was this? My guess is like the 90s, like because, you know, like when is Arnett? Arnett's already like, I mean, Alias is 2001, which is Bradley Cooper's big break. I believe he meets Arnett because of doing Wet Hot, his first movie with Amy Poehler, which is like 99 or whatever. Right. I don't know when exactly they lived together, but it was certainly when they were both struggling.

36:58Nobody. Did Wet Hot come out in 2000 or 2001? 2001. It's a famous 9-11 failure. So then it's shot in 2000. He gets wet hot like a week after he graduates from the actor studio program. Right. So I think he's there like 96 or 97 to 2000. And they're right. They're in L.A. as the century turns. The millennium approaches. You know, the Y2K bug. Everything okay with that? Everything worked out great. Good, good. And perhaps I'm wrong about this and there was some other reason they had met before. Bradley has said they knew each other in New York. Okay. But that he was kind of intimidated by Will Arnett.

37:36Because Will Arnett, I can confirm, and I think you guys know, is kind of big. Yeah. He's like this tall kind of broad guy. Yeah. Which is funny because I guess I just associate him with like playing a loser. Yeah, but also disarmed by having this kind of light, soft voice. This very tender kind of, hey, how you doing? I'll take your coat. So he kind of talks about Will like we were all intimidated by Will, but then I guess they lived together and whatever. Had a good time. Things I know for a fact, right? He does this acting program. He loves comedy. He gets wet hot off a straight audition. He's not in that scene, but he's always been kind of intimidated by New York comedy people.

38:16Right, right, right. And loved comedy and felt like I'm too much of a serious actor. That's like a straight audition. He is severed. He gets that part. He becomes friends with all those people. he was one of these guys much like Jon Hamm in the LA comedy scene where in the years where he's just kind of a working actor it'd be like do you know who's actually really funny? Right they all know him he hangs out and they're like yeah he's actually he's actually really funny but he becomes very close with Will Arnett this period of time the big thing he always cites is that Will Arnett is like one of the first people who helped him get clean that in the early 2000s he had a big coke issue and that he was being very abrasive with people in social settings and Will Arnett pulled him aside one night and said like you know everyone thinks you're an asshole right?

39:01Like I get that you think you're being funny and that you don't know because the drugs are like giving you this confidence and that you think you're being this like awesome kind of like shit talking badass guy but like everyone is like really really fucking annoyed with you and then I think as these two guys have had their respective substance issues, ups and downs over the years and I think alcohol is big thing Both to sobriety. I know he had a prescription pill thing that Flaked was sort of about. I thought Flaked was about alcoholism, but yeah, I don't know. Maybe after that, I don't know. I know there's also been, they've had journeys over 25 years of friendship, and friendship has very much been forged in them sort of, I think, to some degree being accountability buddies and what have you on top of everything else.

39:45A hundred percent. And Bradley put it, Bradley, my friend Bradley. Your friend Bradley. B-Rad. Yeah. I call him. B-Rad Coops. B-Rad Coops. very much said, like, I made this movie. Like, he was like, I'm very lucky that I'm successful and I make movies and I get to make movies and I made this movie for Will. Like, it's just like, give him the star vehicle to, he didn't say this part, but it's clear, you know, to adapt his screenplay. This is me doing something for Will. Not it being perhaps a straight favor movie, but this is a movie I'm doing because I love my buddy. It's interesting usage of a blank check.

40:20I agree. I also detect more than a hint of another Bradley Cooper collaborator in this film. God Phillips. Cameron Crowe. Oh. Like, so obviously to me. And like, this movie is so close. Oh my God, I forgot about Aloha. I'm like, what do you mean? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I've rewatched it in the last year. Where's David pointing, everyone? The sky. The sky. I regret to inform you that I have fully come around to Aloha being good. I, one, know that. And two, I'm happy to hear it. I've just been digging in deeper, and I gave Elizabethtown another watch recently. Right, and you were like... Here's my experience.

40:56The stove's still hot. First half of it, and a lot of this is, and this is why I really wanted to like this movie without putting pressure on it. As much as I'm like, this is a weird choice for Bradley. Do I want him spending his time as a director kind of servicing Will Arnett, who I like at times, but I'm like... You're making Will Arnett sound like an old jalopy. Servicing Will Arnett. Just kind of rolling under. I mean he made this quickly so I certainly don't mind but yes I know what you're saying but I'm like especially because we kind of fucking call our shot with him right and we're just like here's a guy who seems to be like developing a career as a filmmaker with intentionality right and I'm on the record loving Maestro I feel like the three of you like it with more qualifications I'm a huge fan of Maestro I love Maestro M, I think it's like one of the most underrated movies of the last five years.

41:50Yes. And I get why people bump on it. It is like a very bizarre film. And it's like a huge swing movie. Yeah. And this movie, to me, feels like a reaction to some of the guff he got from Maestro in a way that bums me out. Well, it feels to me like his first two films were the work of a filmmaker filmmaker, not an actor filmmaker. Yes. And this to me feels like one of those like Tribeca movies that an actor does a one off, you know, and it goes. Tribeca movie. Back when Tribeca had a little more juice. But yes, I think. But I mean, to me, that's fine. I'm like, you know what? Take your foot off the gas a little bit.

42:29Maestro is a very hard act to follow. And you don't want to do the next mind movie will be about Alexander the Great. You know, you don't want to keep escalating. He had to reset at some point. And I think it's nice to have variety. Like every great filmography has big and little movies. And he's a New York guy, as you told me. And then I was like, yeah, because Hollywood sucks, right? And he was like, no, no, no, I don't feel that way. And I was like, no. Not in a way where I was like, I'm mad that he thinks that, but I was just like, oh, I failed to bond with Bradley Cooper in this moment. And you were like, and you love the Mets, right?

43:03And he was like, more of the Yankees guys. No, no, he's a Phillies fan. We talked about that. I'm joking. Just about you. But yeah, I love the Mets. Let's go Mets. and I hope by this point we have re-signed Edwin Diaz and re-signed Pete Alonso and if we haven't, I'll cry. Look, if we were covering Bradley Cooper as a filmmaker 10 years after, right? Right, right. And we're just like, that's weird. We have to do a, is this thing on episode? I'd maybe be less frustrating than like - Sure, maybe if you know what like his eight films are, his 12 films are. But I, finish this point. I give Elizabethtown a re-watch because I realize my girlfriend has never seen, I made some reference to it And I'm like, fucking, let's watch Elizabethtown.

43:42And I watch it, and the first half of it, I'm like, God, in the nine years, now ten, since we've covered this movie, we have been living in such a dearth of not just Cameron Crowe, but of anyone even attempting to really do the Cameron Crowe thing. I think, I do think, right, there was, his vibe became kind of radioactive in a way. Yeah. Elizabethtown, of course, being the ultimate manic pixie dream movie and all that. Yeah, yeah. I just, it felt like everyone got scared off of everything like that. And there was even a period. And no one even fucking buys zoos anymore. No one buys zoos. No one buys zoos.

44:18I'm going to Google if there are any zoos for sale. This is the thing. No one's having kids and no one's buying zoos. And this is why our economy is failing. We used to have hope and cash and tombs and zoos. 11 years, David. I'm all for it. I love you. I love you very much. Oh, God. Marie, I love you. Love you too. I love you guys. Ben, I love you. Ben, I love you. And I love chicken parmesan. Who doesn't? Can we make a promise to our listeners? We're not getting divorced. No. The four of us are not getting divorced in our four-way marriage. Absolutely. The first half of Elizabethtown, I was like, God, Orlando Bloom is even worse in this than I remember.

44:58I truly, like, was I being too mean? No. This is like one of the most disastrous movie star tests I have ever seen. It is. And yet, everything around him in the movie was suddenly working for me. And even in some like long tail, like nostalgia way, I was like kind of loving peak dunst manic pixie dream girl of like, right, this is like fucking. She's a wonderful, charming actress. And this is ground zero of the whole thing. It's the purest version, the most extreme thing. And I was like, I was way too down on this movie. And then like the halfway point, it like amps the crow up to like 11. And I was like, this movie has broken me.

45:36It's not a good movie. But there was certainly like more stuff in it I liked than I remembered. And I think that is more representative of being like, we kind of kicked this whole thing out of the bloodstream of Hollywood, out of the movie culture. This movie has some Cameron Crowe energy. I love it. I mean, this is where I was starting to get excited. There are moments in this movie that I really liked, such as I think the best moment in the movie, the Amazing Grace scene, where I'm like, I love this. And this is Cameron Crowe defined. Why am I already forgetting what this is? Dude, there is a scene in the movie where I was suddenly, like, it's one of those scenes where I was like, I'm fucking Chaz Palminteri.

46:14They're setting up breakfast and it's just completely out of nowhere and they just all match. And it just feels like Bradley Cooper being like, I just have an idea. I just want to do something to demonstrate how you guys used to be in sync as like friends and stuff. And aren't really anymore, but you still unconsciously have it. And I'm fucking Chaz Palminteri in The Usual Suspects in that moment, dropping the coffee cup, being like, am I gonna have to love this movie? And then it's back to like I just you weren't just a volleyball player and I'm like oh I don't care. First of all I blocked that scene from my memory.

46:47Second of all I had the opposite response which I was like this is some second half of Elizabeth Town shit. I liked it because it didn't have any like I just felt like it had no reason to really exist so I was like this is like a decision that I'm interested in. This is part of the weird Cameron Crowe thing, right? And obviously it like ends up biting him. Old double C's? Right. But he would do these scenes where you'd go like, how the fuck? 100%. Do you have the courage to put that in a movie? How dare you? Right? Where he'd break form. How very dare you? Or he would do some like incredibly like aesthetically emotional expression of an idea.

47:23Like Tiny Dancer? Is that what kind of works on that? That's a great example of it totally working. Yeah. Right. And you're just like, Jesus fucking Christ. And I think in re-watching The Lesser Crows as I've been doing lately, I have more affection for those moments even when they don't work because I think there's still, even when it's not consistent, the balance of him being able to like identify these incredibly precise, incredibly small moments of humanity and human connection, right? I want to shout out my friend Colin, Colin of the Can I Kick It podcast who also was speaking to the crow thing.

48:01We were texting about it. Yeah. And I think in the later half of his filmography, it perhaps becomes imbalanced. Oh, with double C. Where he's doing too much of the I can't believe shit and less of the well-observed human relationships shit. Right. And I felt like the human relationship shit in this movie, which is like 95 % of it, you know? I mean, people were like, oh, is it like really all about stand-up? And I was like, I'd say it's like 30 % a comedy movie, 70 % a divorce movie. Absolutely. If not 80-20. It's a marriage movie, yeah. And the other question I got from a lot of friends when I was telling them how much I hated this was like, oh, is it one of those movies that annoyed you because it's a movie about comedy that gets all of comedy wrong?

48:44And I was like, I do think that's a sin. And I can go off and nitpick some of these things, but they're not my primary concern. Sure, and any movie about anything will annoy an expert. My primary concern is it feels like it's a movie about divorce that doesn't understand people. Well, that was one of my issues with it. I don't really understand. We get put in media res into their divorce. I know that he works in finance, but again, completely nondescript. We don't know why they split up. We don't really know anything about them. Gradually, I still don't understand why they split up. Because I have to do my turn.

49:24Because you only saw me as a volleyball player. This is my whole problem with the movie. The entire relationship is horribly rendered. Well, the history of it, the present of it, what we're working towards. It feels very nonspecific to me. And it feels like a collection of like screenwriter. Like, I don't know. What's like an interesting thing that was like her past career? Olympic volleyball player. I don't know how they got there. I mean, it's fine that they did, but I don't really know how they got to volleyball player. I the movie is depicting I think in a way kind of just a chiller divorce by and large they are not fighting over the kids they are not fighting over money no one cheated no one cheated no one's being acrimonious just all the energy and the passion just kind of dissipated slowly and that's an interesting thing to make a movie about but it's a hard thing to make a movie about and it requires like in my opinion incredible perception and location of like specificity.

50:23Well, volleyball, she played volleyball. I do think that's good casting. Yeah. Dern? Laura Dern as an ex-volleyball Olympian. She's so tall and blonde. I'm not mad at Laura Dern. If you pitch this movie to me as... And she keyed my car. What? I'm joking. I'm just imagining a reason to be mad at Laura Dern. Is that a movie reference? Does she like do that in Blue Velvet? Yeah, probably. I just want to point out before I forget to bring it up later, absolutely insane, like, post-screening Q &A. Laura Dern talking about how working with Bradley Cooper on this film where he's directing, he's operating the camera.

51:02She was the beat camera operator. And she's like, it was the creative partnership I've had since David Lynch that felt the most similar to working with David Lynch. I was like, Laura! I'm just trying to think of how many directors are dead in a ditch hearing that. Like, Bombak. Steven Spielberg? He's probably feeling fine. He's like, who cares? I've worked with everything. Yeah, Bombak won her an Oscar. Yeah, right. Like, who else would be mad hearing about that? Well, Trevorrow. Dominion. The locusts. He really helped locate that character. Throwing locusts at her. Yeah. Licks her finger. Feels like there are a lot of big locusts in the air.

51:38Ryan Johnson, he was like, hyperdrive now. You go to hyperdrive. He gave her a maneuver. No director had ever given her a maneuver before. Oh, no. No, if this movie was like, Bradley Cooper has decided to make a film about Laura Dern in middle age, a former Olympic volleyball player trying to figure out her next move after divorce. I'd be like, there is no way you can convince me I won't eat that shit. Yeah, I thought she was a way more interesting character than Will Arnett. She gets a fair amount of time in the movie. It's not like the movie blarps her. No, it doesn't blarp her. We do get some of her.

52:16I mean, Blarp might have done some fun bits. We do get some of her. He might have done punch-up. I wish we had some of Blarp's outrageous comedy. Sorry, Marie. No, we do get some of her perspective in the film. Yeah, we do. Which is, I appreciate, and that's, yeah. It's not a my wife left me me. No, correct. No, it's about both of them. It is, and that's fine. Like, surprise when they announced that they were running her in lead, which this is a classic, like, you know, we always complain about this, like punting the female lead of a movie with a male lead to supporting, especially if it's a suffering wife character.

52:53Right. Even if she has the screen time. And they're just like, no, this is like very much a two hand. Yeah. Which it is. It is. It is. It's not for lack of screen time. and I think she does good work in this, but I just kept being like, I don't think this movie is speaking from a place of like identifying the real kind of what you want from the Cram and Crow magic of just like there is honest comedy coming out of the recognizing of a moment that feels so true and you've never seen someone put on screen before or at least not in that way, you know? and there is stuff that's interesting in the setup of this and I do like that it's trying to be a divorce movie that isn't about a fucking fight yes the kind of Kramer versus Kramer you know again there's so many pitfalls you can avoid and it does not do those things but when in the final act of this movie and we can sort of go through the plot but like you know she's they're having the heart to heart in the attic or wherever they are and she's like you know you just kept seeing me as a volleyball player and he's like, you know, whatever, like you weren't in love with me or like that line about like the difference between being miserable because of someone or miserable with someone miserable in the marriage.

54:15And I'm like, this is all interesting. You guys are catching me up on something I didn't see. Yeah. So I'm not that like these are these are things that could be insightful. But because I met you having decided to get divorced, I just don't know that I care too much about why you got divorced. You already got divorced. They also have really great chemistry right off the bat. That scene when they go to their friend's loft. They're played by Andra Day and Bradley Cooper. We're going to get divorced, but let's go to this fucking thing without telling them. And then, so like, Will Arnett is already living in an apartment in the city, and Laura Dern and the kids are in the house upstate.

54:58Right. And they're at Grand Central and they're like, you know. We got to say before we pass that Bradley Cooper does trip and fall onto a carton of milk. And that might have been the only moment I laughed. I mean, basically everything he does. I laughed at everything he does in this movie is really funny. He has like an along came Polly entry. And he's got like a big ass beard and super long hair. And he's like an alternate in not Jesus Christ Superstar, but it's a John the Baptist play. Yeah, it's some sort of religious play. and he grew the beard so he'd look more like a disciple, but he's like, yeah.

55:31It's just kind of one of those, I mean, he's smart to be like, I'll just play this fun supporting role, but then anytime he's on screen, I'm like, I think I want the Balls movie. Like, what movie is this guy? Not only do I think I want the Balls movie, but I'm also like... no disrespect to his buddy, but Will Arnett could play balls well and Bradley could play the lead much better. But you're, I mean, I think maybe you're right, but I do like Bradley as balls though. I do too. I love Bradley as balls. Ideally, it's a double casting. Bradley as both. And you know, most people have two balls. Not everybody.

56:06Let me just zoom out for a second here, right? We're all confused by this. The trailer comes out. You're like, I like what he's going for. I'm like, I really don't see it, right? Then you see it first. and you're like, it's fine. Yeah, I just couldn't get there with it for the reasons I just said. But then there were little moments I liked. Then Marie and Ben see it. They kind of have the same reaction. Yeah. Your line I remember was, I think I won't remember it in two weeks when we record. Sure. Right? Yeah. And then I see it. I will say candidly, I saw it on the day. We're about to get a classic Griff new movie.

56:44Okay, go ahead. You saw it on the day. It's not a new movie thing. I just have to be honest about this. What life-changing advice? Or was it the election? It was the election. A hundred percent. I did not like this movie. I would never like this movie. I will admit, and I had to clock this once I felt the relief of Zoran winning. When I stepped into that theater and the movie progressed and I wasn't liking it, and I was just so terrified of like, and then I'm going to fucking get out of this theater and turn my phone off and I'm going to see that Cuomo is like in the lead. Well, why would you think that?

57:14Because I don't believe anything good can ever happen again. I will admit, I was also feeling very stressed about that. I don't trust anything anymore. Because obviously I'm a Cuomo sexual and I want him to win. You were rubbing your pierced nipples. Yeah, I was about to say, do you guys remember when everyone thought he had pierced nipples for a couple weeks during COVID when he would give those press conferences? I don't prefer to think about that. Do you remember when he like obliterated a retirement home and then did like six months of victory laps on TV with his brother being like, now listen to me.

57:45I figured out how to beat COVID. Right. Only I know how things work. Normal guy. And then wrote a book like by the end of 2020 being like how I beat COVID. I'm like Cuomo the COVID God. None of us have gotten the jab yet. And you're declaring yourself. I think Cuomo's never made a public misstep. I don't know what you're talking about. The winner by knockout. July 2020. You were stressed. It's just funny. Sometimes we do these episodes about a new movie. Yeah. And you're like, you know, something about this movie I didn't like. I did see the film and someone did shoot me with a gun as I entered the theater.

58:24I feel very resolved in my opinions on this. I'm sure you don't like the movie, but it's fair to acknowledge, right? You were very in a bad mood watching this movie. Every moment the movie irked me. It irked me twice as much being like, It was like when we saw Here. But that actually ended badly. Had anything happened when we saw Here? I don't understand. I was just like, fuck, Trump is present and we have to watch Here now. And I would love nothing more in both cases to be like, this movie took my mind off of everything and transported me. Have you seen Sentimental Value yet? Yes. That made me think of Here a lot.

58:56Here's another thing I'm going to say. Here. Here. I see Sentimental Value just... That's how Will Arnett buying a ticket to Here. Here. I only build in black and very dark gray. Lego Batman, good movie, five stars. Love Lego Batman. I see sentimental value the same week as this, right? And one of the first shots of that movie... Joachim Trier's film. Quite a good film. Yeah, good movie. One of the first shots of that movie is just a shot of the family house. It's not my favorite either. I agree. Interesting house, of course. Yes. House is... Architecturally. House is like the starring role in the film.

59:32There is what in almost anyone else's hands would just be a perfunctory establishing shot of a house. And I look at this shot and I go, God, he is somehow making the shot feel emotional. It is not because of swelling strings. He has somehow in an image without doing any fancy trickery. Put some feeling into a shot of a house before we built the characters into it. And what jumped out to me was I was like, this is the part of the thing that Cameron Crowe can do that other people don't get right. It's not just the dialogue. It's not just the working with the actors. But Cameron Crowe somehow knew how to visualize the emotions of his films where you watch them and you're just like, even when he's doing a weird thing, right?

1:00:17You're like, the films have a texture and a feeling and a color palette that feels like the melancholy. I just feel that way about Bradley Cooper's movies, too. and I think he had an idea with this one. The Cameron Crowe thing, I don't really think of him. Maybe this will change if I spend more time with his filmography. I don't really think of him as a super visual filmmaker. Have you seen Jerry Maguire? You know, shut the shit out of that thing. It's a wet movie. No, I mean, it's a... I'm not saying that the movies don't look good, but I think when we talk about moments that I have a particular emotional resonance, it's because of the music.

1:00:50He picks really good songs. Cameron Crowe doesn't really... No, I don't know what you're talking about. He doesn't really use music in any way. No, it's not really his thing. He worked at Rolling Stone as a music journalist, but famously every week he'd file, haven't listened to a song yet, see you later. He would review how the record looked. And not the cover. He'd go deep grooves on this one. Black. Not to derail us even further, did I tell you guys about my experience seeing Sentimental Value? How was your seeing of sentiment, your view of Yoakam's Sentimental Value? I saw it at a Q &A screening that David Ehrlich was moderating.

1:01:24Right. So I got to go for free. Sure. Wonderful. And I got to sit in the comp section. Nice work if you can get it. Yeah, who else was sitting in the comp section? Directly behind me. Both of us there by ourselves. Zoran, I'm done. No. John Turturro, who I see quite often at various things in New York. A New York celebrity. A New York celebrity. Francesco Bernoulli himself? Indeed. Carmine Falcone? Carmone. Carmine Falcone? Carmine Falcone? Carmine Falcone. The fading gigolo? Catwoman's daddy. Right? That's the twist. Yeah, but then it was Mark Strong. Okay. But it was like watching the movie with running commentary.

1:02:05Was he responding vocally? Vocally. What would he say? Okay, so first of all, during the trailers, Paolo Sorrentino is making another movie. I don't know if it's a sequel to The Great Beauty, but it's the same guy. Okay. Most of them are Tony Cervita. Yeah, this guy. Yeah. And then the trailer plays, trailer ends. He goes, incredible actor. He's by himself. He is by himself. That's what rules. So then when we get to trailer number four. Oh, my God. How many fucking trailers are there? All right, John. All right. I'm with you. This is a car commercial. Yeah. So I really enjoyed that. And then probably the most notable John Turturro reaction to the film itself was during the sequence where people have seen the movie by the time it comes out.

1:02:54It's early January, I would say. There's a moment where Stellan Skarsgård gives some There's a birthday present. There's a birthday present. It's like an 8 or 9 year old child's birthday. Let's not ruin the gag, but there's a birthday present. If you've seen the movie, you know what it is. There is a birthday present that is wildly inappropriate and John Turturro just lost it. Like knee slapping. it. And I was like, you know what? I love that. And then at one point he clenched his fist and went, Lightning McQueen, I'm gonna win the race. We never forget that he was in Cars. I forgot he was in Cars.

1:03:29Francesco Bernoulli. Did you reset the clock? No. Ben put it as an countdown mode. I set it to two hours and I counted it down. Because Ben wanted this to be a short one. Let's see. We started about an hour late. Yeah, we started kind of late, but we're suddenly felt a bit peckish. as we were beginning. Eat the sandwich. Chekhov sandwich was eaten. I got hungry.

1:04:05David. Yes. I am so excited about this episode's sponsor. Yes, me too. Might truly be the most excited I've ever had for anything to sponsor this podcast. Today's episode. More excited than sponsors that tell you how to help your finances. Hey, easy. Okay, okay. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Easy. Today's episode of Blank Check is brought to you by Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. Marie's here too because everyone's so excited. Yeah. I love this movie. I mean, I love this band, this show, this movie. Yes. Important correction. This film is finally coming to theaters.

1:04:41February 13th is the start of the theatrical rollout. Yeah. From our friends at Neon. Neon's bringing it out. We have been waiting impatiently. Almost a year. We saw this at South by Southwest. One of the best screenings of my life. Truly. Truly. It was an unbelievable experience. Ben, you were there. Had a blast. And I had never seen or engaged with this show previously. Me neither. Most of the group. Don't really need it. No. It was like seven of us. You don't need the context to enjoy. Absolutely. It's a big thing. I think you need to know what Toronto is. Because you knew nothing other than us hyping you up for you.

1:05:15Well, this was the problem. And we should say it's a city in Canada. Yes. I went in, you guys had just been like, it's the best thing ever. And not just you, other people. I can't believe how good. And I was like, this is so overhyped. And here's the great thing about David. I'm walking in, like, I felt mad about it. I was just like, they've primed it too much for me. I like that you acknowledge this. Because sometimes if we tell you something's good, I see you go, like, put your fists up. Well, I'm just like, relax, because I need to, I can't go in with too much hype. Because that's not good for my critical experience of a movie.

1:05:44And then I thought it was better than the hype. This is the thing. This movie is truly a miracle. I think it is the funniest movie of the last 10 years easily. And listeners of the show know I am often bemoaning the state of the theatrical comedy. And this is a movie that provides the thing I've been longing for, which is you go see this with a crowd. It is just electric every five seconds, rolling laughter. And the movie just builds and builds and builds. This is a movie for Matt Johnson. Yes. Director Blackberry, one of my favorite movies the last couple of years. Him and Jay McCarroll started as a web series, became a TV series, and now is a movie.

1:06:23But you don't need to know any of that. This works as a clean entry point. It's a movie about two friends who are obsessed with their band playing at one venue. They want to play at the Rivoli. They want to play at the Rivoli. That's all you need to know about these guys. Before the lights went down at the South by Southwest screening, I believe you turned to me and said, what do I need to know? And I said, all you need to know is they want to play the Rivoli. They got to play the Rivoli. You know, I've been to Toronto many times. Have you been to the Rivoli? Never. I've stayed on Queen West, though, and I've certainly walked by the Rivoli many times.

1:06:51And I've always been like, oh, yeah, the Rivoli. There it is. It's not Carnegie Hall. No, it's a fucking bar. And you never see these guys. What do you mean? It's the most important music venue in Canada. You never see these guys practice their music. But all you know is that every episode starts with, here's the plan. Here's how we play the Rivoli. Right? We got to play the Rivoli. And this movie starts from there and explodes in unbelievable ways. I think this movie is truly like a magic trick. beyond just how funny it is and for how much it's caked in the deep lore of this Nirvana, the band, the show universe that's existed for 15 years.

1:07:22You can just go in knowing nothing and be blown away. And for a movie that seems kind of slapdash and roughly made from the start, it starts to pull off genuine, like cinematic magic tricks where you cannot believe how this thing was made. What was my Letterboxd review, Griff? Did you see it? No, please tell me. LOL, how did they make that? Truly. That was how I thought. How did this get made? I was also just like, how did they make this? I don't get it. You don't understand how they're getting away with it legally. You don't understand how it was cleared for release. And there is a melding of scripted and non-scripted, them engaging with real people on the street where the line between what is planned and what is not boggles your brain.

1:08:06It was my favorite thing I saw all of 2025. And now it's coming out in 2026. Now, listen, I do have to do some talking points. Okay. Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie is in theaters February 13th. Get tickets now. We must say this. Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. They're very clear that we have to say the title of this thing a few times. Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. Why? It's a really simple, easy title. Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. It really is a kind of like going cold, expecting something fun. I don't think you need too much more than that. I know it sounds unwieldy or whatever, but just like, I think you're going to have a pretty good time.

1:08:43If you trust our opinion at all, take this recommendation. Yes. Don't look it up. Go in. And I really, really doubt there is any chance you will be disappointed. In theaters, February 13th. Get your tickets now. Get your tickets now. Nirvana, the man, the show, the movie.

1:09:09Ding dong, ding dong. Oh, my God. Hello, Creed. Hey, how's it going? And who are you? Mack Black. And what's that? That's my name. You asked who am I and that's my name. What are you doing here? What do you want? I'm a construction worker, obviously. As you can tell from my general demeanor, temperament, and this hard hat here. Yeah. I'm sure you've noticed the interruption, the sound. Yeah, I guess I... Jack cameras. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. We've been hearing some construction noise. In the building. Mm-hmm. But I've been struggling. Yes. This construction project's not going well.

1:09:46I have no idea what's going on. I explained to you my name is Mac Black. I'm a construction worker. I've been working in the building. He's winding up. He's winding up. He's winding up. Literally. I don't know what's going on in your life. I knocked on the door. I open. I'm interrupting. I don't know what's going on in your life. You're struggling. What's going on? This construction project's not going well. Okay. Okay. I've been trying to build a better wardrobe. There it is. Yeah. And so what you're referring to, of course, is the sort of the furniture. the physical thing. Incorrect. That's a weird assumption for you to make.

1:10:16I'm talking about pieces that work together and hold up over time. Well, Mac, we've got news for you. Come on in, take a seat. I have a pair of pants and I've been jackhammering them for months and nothing's coming together. We have ad copy people can't see with prompts that are a little esoteric. And one of the people who works for our show responds to those prompts in interesting ways, but nobody knows what, like, it's like going to an improv show where you didn't hear what someone yelled out. David, excuse me. I'm sorry to interrupt. Mac doesn't know any of that. He's living his own life. You're right.

1:10:47Mac is such a thoughtfully realized character. Thank you. I'm a construction worker, surly demeanor, hard hat, and I've been taking the jackhammer. Is Mac short for Macintosh? Absolutely. Macintosh, Blackintosh. That's pretty funny. Thank you. Quince has the everyday essentials. You got to go to Quince to get a good wardrobe. Well, that's the recommendation I've been waiting for. What took you so long? Shut your chest. I said fast. Turn his mic off. Quince has the everyday essentials I love with quality of the last, organic cotton sweaters, polos for every occasion, lighter jackets to keep you warm in the changing seasons.

1:11:21List goes on. I love Quince. I've got a nice quarter zip that I've been sporting around. Well, well, well, you're looking pretty smart if I dare say so myself. You know, they got obviously very, very cheap and comfortable cashmere stuff, merino stuff, a lot of good. I got myself a cashmere scarf from Quince. It's cold in New York City. You need to bundle. Now, I'm a little bit wary. Quince sounds good, but is this one of those companies that works with bottom factories and cuts in the middlemen? No, they're top only. Top factories cutting out the middlemen. Oh, that's the exact opposite. Just to be very clear.

1:11:59Yes. That's what I was worried about. You're not paying for brand markup. It's just quality clothing. Everything's built to hold up to daily wear and look good season after season, okay? And let's not forget that, of course, every night I sleep under a Quince comforter and Quince sheets. So it's not just your wardrobe. Everything. Everyday life. Ben, can you say how much I appreciate that I feel like you're making the effort to communicate with me? You're making eye contact. You're giving me recommendations. What can I say? Unlike Silver Spoon Sims over here. Refresh your wardrobe with Quince.

1:12:29Go to quince.com slash check for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash check. Free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince dot com slash check. That's great news because I live in London, Ontario. Mac, see you later, man. By the way, big fan of the pot.

1:12:55Is this thing on? I just felt some of the Cameron Crowe shit I wanted from sentimental value. and I do not, like, I like the ambition. I know the Crow thing's been stated a lot, right? In a weird way, this felt like Bradley Cooper specifically trying to make, like, a 2006 Fox Searchlight dramedy. Yes. It felt like a weirdly specific evocation of a kind of, like, dead, forgotten, middling, like, Sundance dramedy. It is a Tribeca actor making a movie shooting in New York. With bigger actors. Yes. It's like, you know. And we had this conversation when the Star is Born trailer came out where we were just both like, holy shit.

1:13:39Yeah, it feels like a real movie. When I hear that like Bradley Cooper is now directing Star is Born after every A-list director in Hollywood has flirted with us for 10 years. And now he's doing it with Lady Gaga. We were like, okay. And you see the trailer and you're like, holy shit. This is a real movie. And it doesn't much in a Cameron Crowe way, Maestro and Stars Born look very different, but are both like beautifully shot and look very emotional and are very like ecstatic and expressive. And I see this trailer and I'm just like, I don't know what this is. I don't get why he's doing this. and this movie, let's just say, much like the game I loved of like, ask someone, give them a million chances, they will never ever in a million years guess what the final shot of Tar is.

1:14:29You could do the same challenge with this movie of how do you think Bradley Cooper's Will Arnett stand-up divorce dramedy is this thing on opens? while, of course, with a ceremonial Chinese New Year lion. I really like that. I like that, too. It's just like, where is this movie? And then it's, you know, the two of them at their child's recital. And then it basically goes into this point of what we're saying. The two of them standing in the bathroom mirror, doing their nighttime routines, standing in just kind of like complacent silence. And then she turns to him and says, do you think we should call it?

1:15:10Yeah. and you're like okay this is kind of interesting that they're choosing to just be like this thing just ends in like a poof you know there's no dramatic blow up absolutely I think it's a realistic portrayal of this stuff I mean the Chinese New Year thing comes back it does at the end of the film right yeah under pressure yeah but they also talk about like a lion like the difference between a lion and a dragon yeah I think that made me roll my fucking eyes well you look Griffin you were hostile to this film I cannot deny but I'm just saying like the Chinese New Year thing is not, that is woven in.

1:15:43Right, right. I'm not saying it has nothing to do with anything. I'm just sitting in the bed. It worked for me in that kind of thing of like, you are a grownup having a crisis. You had to show up to your kid's thing. Your kid's thing is a loud, bizarre, echoey gymnasium thing where you're just like, oh my God. The camera swings around to him, like his head against the wall and it looks like he's going through a hangover, which he's not, but it's just like, this guy's at nothing. I found that quite resonant. And then you have this, right, like there's that. Should we call it? And then the next thing you see is them standing outside the son's bedroom.

1:16:17And they're like, so do I stay here? Do you? Like they're trying to make the immediate plans, right, before even figuring out the larger untangling of everything. The son comes out the bedroom and he's like, are you guys fighting? And they're like consoling him. And they're going out of their way. I say like, no, of course, we never fight. We never fight. You know that we never fight. And the kid is accepting that. And you're like, OK, this is kind of interesting in what we're saying. that this movie is setting up like this thing just fizzled. Something clearly just like slowly leaked out of them.

1:16:45They're in the least dramatic way possible, just going like, I guess it's over. And they're acknowledging that there hasn't been a strain on the kids of them fighting. And then you basically go to this, right, their friends, their group of friends who they've been friends with for decades. It's Sean Hayes and his real husband. Yep. Oh, that's his real husband. Oh, that's nice. Because I'm like, I don't know who that actor is. Two of the three smartless guys in this movie. Andrew Day and her husband Balls Bradley Cooper who is a struggling actor and then Will Arnett and Laura Dern they I feel like don't really drop the volleyball reveal until like 40 minutes in because he makes a joke that feels like it's a random like where he's like why don't you go train for a fucking gold medal and then in her getting insulted by it she explains like you know that that's behind me and I'm like wait what What?

1:17:37All I'm saying is at like minute 50, he says something about I think it's the scene where he says to Bradley Cooper, like, I've been doing stand up because the kind of a running joke in this movie is that everyone thinks he's got like a secret girlfriend because he's being mysterious about what he's doing at night. But he's actually going and doing these infamous comedy cellar mics with packed warm crowds. And I didn't like I've only been to the comedy cellar like once there. Yeah. I'm going to just come out and say it. Louis C.K. is your favorite comedian. I really don't like stand-up. What? Right.

1:18:12You like his personal life when he's your favorite comedian. No, you like his novel. Did you see the author photo? Yeah. Oh, wait. Is this a new thing? He wrote a novel. Yeah, but everyone's ripping on his author photo because it makes it look like he's fucking Tolstoy at his desk. He's like at a typewriter, right? Oh. It's the most jerk-off. Oh, wow. It's a novel literally about like a Dust Bowl child. Wow. Oh, my God. Wait. Is it? I don't know. He looks fucking old, too. Well, he's not a young man. It's like a character study of, I want to say, a young boy in Oklahoma who grows up to work on the railroad.

1:18:44Wow, that's crazy. Does the young boy get jerked off?

1:18:50Okay, so wait. You don't like stand-up? Why don't you like stand-up? It's mostly divorced dads, kind of just like... Stand-up makes me really uncomfortable. Free-flowing, not really hitting hard jokes, just kind of doing a therapy session on stage. I don't mind... I know. I don't mind like watching clips of standup. I don't like being in the audience. Like. Is it because of the trend of crowd work? It's the crowd work thing. You're worried. It makes me deeply uncomfortable. Crowd work sucks. I think crowd work. This trend. It also seems to be like, right, it's a growing thing. It has become a play.

1:19:21Because of TikTok. This sucks. Right? Yeah. It's like you need like a viral clip where you're like. Like, I'm not coming here to be roasted. I'm not. Like, I'm not. I'm not interested in that. I also feel deeply uncomfortable with. I don't know. people bombing like well it's not fun to watch it's right i mean i don't think a lot of people take pleasure so when i say like everyone i don't like stand up like the idea of going to what about like a comedy club sure in new york that to me is not like i don't enjoy that but what about like a you know very established stand-up doing like a show at like a theater or whatever is that of interest?

1:20:00Maybe. Okay, well, fair enough. Honestly, the only major stand-up show I saw was Louis C.K. at Madison Square Garden, which is the absolute worst venue for that stand-up. MSG's great for stand-up. I love it. The acoustics are great. You're right on top of the guy. Ben and I, do you remember in our 20s, we used to always do the MSG open mic? Oh, yeah. Well, you wanted to see the Knicks games. And then you didn't have to pay the$50 cover charge by popcorn. You could just get up on stage. When we got out of the movie, I was like telling Ben, I was like, I really want to talk to you guys. Like, cause I have a, I don't know this world that well.

1:20:36You were asking me a lot of questions and you were like, but you, did you do shit like this? And we're like, yeah. But like they do. At the depths of our depression. You can just do, you can just do the comedy seller as a complete rando. No. No. Yes, you can. You can do it. No. You can do it. No, right. Obviously the real guy this is based on is a British comic. Can you talk about him a little bit? I mean, And sure, John Bishop is his name. And yes, I mean, obviously, the Brits, what do the Brits love more than a fucking, you know, stand-up comedy? They adore it. And there's open mics everywhere.

1:21:11And he did an open night at the Frog and Bucket in Manchester, which I assume is not as esteemed as the comedy cellar in Greenwich Village, New York. So I think that may more be a place where, yes, if you put your name down, you can, like, get a seat at the bar and then you'll get to do your open mic or whatever. I saw there is a interview. It was a four pound entry fee that he didn't want to pay. He did an interview on the Graham Norton show recently in the last couple of years that is a pretty good encapsulation of the real life story that inspired this movie, right? And I'm not holding this movie to that, but like the changes made within it destroy any internal reality of understanding of how the comedy scene works versus what he describes.

1:21:53First of all, it was 30 years ago. Second of all, he was in, I think either his late 20s or early 30s. He's telling this story as like, I've been in comedy for 30 years and you'll never believe how I got my start. It's a really bizarre story, right? Right. He got married young. He like married a childhood sweetheart. After a couple of years, they had a sort of fizzle out in the relationship like this. They broke up and he was just like, I'm super depressed. I think similarly, they had a bunch of kids fast and it, you know, whatever. Their marriage ossified. Can you double check that? That they had kids.

1:22:25The quote is after having three kids so quickly. Got it. Okay. And he's just sort of like, I don't know what to fucking do. I like made my bed in this and now I have nothing. Right. I have no sense of self. He just wants to drink. It is not a comedy club. It is a bar that has an open mic. No, it's a comedy club. It's the Frog and Bucket Comedy Club in Manchester. Frog and Bucket. Is it their open mic? He performed well in front of an audience of seven people, was encouraged to return every week, which he saw as a form of counseling. one of his regular jokes is about how he missed his ex so much that he kept her severed head in the fridge.

1:22:59Bit of a dark joke. The comedy? Yes. And then one day he says this joke and he realizes his wife is in the audience. She meets him after the gig and she's like, wanna fuck? No, I don't know. They laugh about it and he says it saved their marriage. They got back together and they've stayed together since then. As far as I know. I wanna make a distinction on a thing here, okay? In the Graham Norton interview, he said that he goes up, it's seven people, which is what open mics are like. It's not a real audience, right? You're either performing for like less than 10 people or there are a bunch of other comics there who are all impatiently waiting as one of 40 names on a list who had to like camp out hours earlier to get on that list.

1:23:44And they are all so in their head about their own material, so jealous of how everyone else is doing. very few people play well at mics and no one like brings like a non-paying friend audience obviously it's like rare British clubs in the 90s the scene might have been different I can't speak to this with authority right but he is saying definitively I performed for seven people I did not get a big response you know like that line got a laugh but it was a form of therapy like you said I just kept going and that's something really raw came out of him as shown by like him making a joke that dark right And this guy comes up to him and is like, you should do this again.

1:24:25And he was like, oh, you thought I was funny? And they were like, no, but like, there's something kind of interesting that just happened on stage. And the conversation that happens pretty late in this movie, after he's already seemingly become like a comedy seller regular and is hanging out with the guys upstairs every night where someone goes like, you're not good, but you're interesting, was basically what was said to him the second he walked off the open mic and gave him the encouragement to be like, let me figure out how to actually do this well. versus this movie basically has him stumble into the most coveted stage in New York City to a crowd of people who just seem like a regular comedy-going audience who give him a pretty fucking polite response in a way that feels totally inaccurate for what I think is, like, an incredibly mediocre set.

1:25:13Like, that set should be received more harshly than the set that turns the Joker into the Joker on the same comedy-seller stage. That is a little extreme. No, I, you know. It's very awkward and embarrassing and like this guy's having like an emotional breakdown. No one really laughs. I mean, I thought that like it was a polite response. I mean, this was another question I had is like, because again, haven't been to a lot of open mics. Do people boo? Yeah, but not even that. It's like. That would be wild if someone did that. But no one's going to be like, get off the stage. But someone would be like, ugh.

1:25:49Like if they made something really off color. Or if someone's like running the light or if they're like really like stirring people up. And I think, Ben, you'll agree with me on this. Like the polite response is not a fucking thing. No. Like now there are more. Because that's not helpful. Now there are more comedian curated. Like I made a deal with a bar to get like an afternoon in a back room. And I'm working really hard to try to make this a positive mic. And that feels like a peer to peer thing. but these sort of club mics it's like especially in New York City and even going lower than Comedy Cellar it's like you're probably paying to get up on stage or there's a drink minimum right?

1:26:28Well there's bringer shows Yes but that's a real audience That's a real audience Almost feels more like he's doing a bringer show Yeah But it's like no he's drunk stumbling after like a night when he goes out with the old friends they hide the fact that they're getting divorced And then his wife gets on the train He has a little piece of a weed cookie. He does. And he's just like, oh, what am I doing? He puts his nose up against the glass. It's this famous restaurant that exists, The Fig Tree. Yes. That is owned by the same people at the Comedy Cellar. It is upstairs. Upstairs. It's upstairs from there.

1:26:59Upstairs. It's upstairs from the Comedy Cellar. It is connected, but you cannot see the show from the restaurant, right? And the guy's like, 15 buck cover charge. And he's like, why? Because there's comedy in there. So I have to pay $15 to have a drink? Yes. Jordan Jensen walks by. Or I think it's Chloe Radcliffe at first. Very good comedian. And he goes, why didn't she have to pay? Because she's performing. Well, how do I do that? You just put your name on a list. Why the fuck is anyone paying$15 to go to that bar? And that it's a sign up for what seems to be like a weekday night at a legitimate stage with a packed house.

1:27:37And you guys are saying, well, it doesn't feel like he does that well. But I think Ben and I would agree that like Like, it doesn't pass the sniff test. No one is that polite at an open mic. No one is that polite, and especially that kind of stage. I mean, even at these club mics, they don't even turn the same lighting on for what you would have if you were to go to a regular show. They put on, like, the worst, like, fluorescent lighting. Yeah. Like, they don't even bother with, like, you know, creating the ambiance for those kinds of mics. It is so much more depressing than this. it is like so much more like no one is putting a good face on this right if you get like a huh you're like oh fuck that joke's a keeper right the idea that he could be up there and be this sloppy and not go into something that is so raw and so dark that it would get some kind of shocking response from someone like my wife's head is in a fridge right and would get this much of a like polite thing i'm just like no one starts out that well and what i wanted to grant them the like the kindness of assuming they were doing is a lot of comedians talk about being like i was the funny guy at the office and one night we were at a bar and open mic started and they all pushed me to get up and i got up and i kind of killed like it wasn't like amazing but i like ripped a bunch of shit and i got some laughs right and i thought it was good and then i went up the next day and i bombed and i bombed for a straight year i didn't get another laugh for a year and a lot of people talk about that dead cat bounce thing where it's like you have some beginner's luck and then you can't replicate it and now you're like fuck well i've had a taste i'm addicted to this and now i have to learn the craft of knowing how to do it and he never bumps and the movie tries to explain to him the process of iterating you got to go up six times a night you need to work a bit out to get it honed every set we do see him do is entirely new feels like a stream of consciousness.

1:29:30We see his binder full of notes. I understand the movie doesn't... Yeah, Griffin, it would be so boring if we watched him do the same material over and over again. And it's not what the movie's about. Yeah. The comedy scenes are just him exploring his feelings for the viewers. I've seen other people say this on Letterboxd, but it is literally a men will literally do stand-up to avoid going to therapy movies. Yes, they will. And that's something that's interesting to explore. That's what most stand-up comedy feels like. Can I bring up another film which I would like to recommend? Please. that I think is a really nice exploration of like...

1:30:02I love you, Daddy, directed by Lucy. Of like a middle-aged straight guy decides to get a hobby that he like kind of keeps separate from the rest of his life and then how that ends up affecting the rest of his life. The film is called Trap. Sorry, it was a good joke. Is Josh Hartnett middle-aged? He is. I regret to tell you he's 45. Oh my God. 47. Oh my, he's almost 50. He's going to get there. I am so old. You're not. It's fine. It's just like these guys who were famous when we were teens. It's like they're 10 years older than us. I'm going to be 37. That's great. No, it's not. It is. Is this thing on?

1:30:41Oh, my God. I should start doing stand-up. It's a good time. It's a good time. So the movie. The industry is in a really good place. The movie is called Shall We Dance. Oh, yeah. Yes. I love that movie. You just saw this for the first time. The gear. Well. The original movie. The original movie. It's a Japanese movie with Koji Yoshiko, who's in Cure and Perfect Days. Yeah. But he's like a salaryman who decides to start taking ballroom dancing lessons. Look, there's no country better than Japan for that vibe, too. Yes. The sort of broken down salaryman having a... But it's such a nice exploration of like, I don't know, sometimes it's nice to like start a new project that's just for you.

1:31:21And like interrogating that and also like, why can't you bring other people in your life? into it. Like, why are you hiding this from your wife? Like, you're not having an affair. You're just exploring. Right. Why wouldn't you say this? Right. Why wouldn't you admit you're doing this? That to me is, like, so interesting. But this movie, it's like, okay, she finds out about the stand-up a lot sooner than I thought. And then the second half of the movie is... And then she's just like, I'm horny for you. Truly, the full second half of this movie is, they sleep together again, and then they're like, so are we back together or what?

1:31:56and then starting to have like a little bit of heat between them, they finally start having the conversations about like what went wrong and there's some like very charged back and forth of like... He breaks their thing open. Right. Was I sad in the relationship or was I sad in a relationship? Did I fall out of love with you or did I fall out of love with you falling out of love with me? Like a lot of that kind of litigating. The thing that's happened, it's the therapy thing that you just said. It's like, right, she's finally watching him process and talk about how he feels. and I guess that wasn't happening, which makes sense.

1:32:29People just, things go unspoken or whatever, right? And that's exciting for her. She's also very angry at Slash turned on that he does stand up about having slept with another stand up. He does. He does. But he also acknowledges that he misses his wife. Yes. I think there is. He sleeps with Jordan Jensen. He does. This all happens. Another stand up that appears in this movie. I do like that every other stand up in this movie is a real stand up. Bradley Cooper loves stand up comedy and goes to the cellar all the time, I believe. Right, so he knows these guys. This all happens while fucking Laura Dern is on a date with Peyton Manning.

1:33:05The most insane. Playing a character. Oh, he's not playing himself. He's not. I thought he was actually quite good in this film. I think he's incredible in this movie. I thought he was fun. I wanted him to stay in this movie. I ran into Patrick Willems. How many movies can you do? And Dave Weskus, head of Nebula, who works with Patrick. Yes. at this screening sat with them. It cuts to this date night, right? There's this whole parallel thing. Oh, Bradley Cooper's been getting deeper into this. Comedians are letting him hang out with them. He's performing only there. They say this thing, you need to go up six times a night.

1:33:37You see him go to one open mic, just put his name in a bucket. But otherwise it feels like this guy's just doing the cellar every night. At some point pretty late, I think when he admits to Bradley Cooper, he's been doing this, he goes like, so what? Now you're just gonna like be a standup? And he goes, well, I'm not gonna quit my job. and I think that was the first moment in the movie that I clocked he had a job. Yes, he has some boring financial job. You see that he wears a suit sometimes, but the movie can't even bother to be like, what is his job and how does it affect his life? It does feel like this is a guy who can kind of just drop everything and then like knows when to show up for his kids, right?

1:34:13Yeah. But there's this one thing where they call him and they're like, we got a show tonight. There's the one dilemma of like, you're going to get an actual slot, but you have to which I think the movie fails to in any way present how this slot is in any way different from what he's been doing the entire movie I think it is very understandable that you're hung up on all these details I do think most viewers don't care I'm not even calling out like lack of realism based relative to what I know about comedy I'm like shouldn't that show feel different if the energy around it is this one matters the other ones were all fucking training wheel shows that worked for me just fine all the stuff you're complaining about I'm like none of this bumped on super fucking hard he goes to her he's like I know it's not supposed to be your night can you take the kids they also have Irish twins is the joke in vitro they had them very late because clearly Bradley wanted to cast his two friends in the movie and then they were like huh the math on them having kids who are under 10 they're 58 and 55 right but the idea I guess being she was an athlete honestly it doesn't make a lot of sense I like a lot of the kids stuff the one thing I don't the one thing I didn't like was the musical performance The Under Pressure.

1:35:22Those kids would not be that good. It also just kind of felt like a movie in need of an ending. It felt like a force came across. Which I'm like. We love actually. A lot of movies are like. Kid plays the drums. You'll love it. Right. But even the Aloha ending. Which is the most successful part of Aloha. With Bradley watching her dance routine. That shit rocks in Aloha. Yeah. How embarrassing when the kid finds his stand up. I was going to bring that up. That gives me shivers, Griffin. To think about. like having to explain to any child that age just the madness that I've written down. It is a moment that rang true for me when he's like, these are just jokes and they were like, they're really sad.

1:36:00Yeah. What do you mean jokes? These are not funny at all. I loved that part because I think that that happens before Laura Dern's him. And so I'm like, oh, this is interesting. I'm expecting it to be about the wife finding out about the standup, but it's actually way less well-tread ground and more interesting to me to talk about the kids discovering that part. Right, I'm talking about you a little bit. Because it's just like there's no easy way to explain it. But it's not about that. So I was like, oh, okay, we move past that real fast. They do that, but then, right. Compared to Shall We Dance, right, where you're like, it makes sense in the 90s, culturally, that this character would have a secret shame about the idea that he's doing ballroom dancing and doesn't want people to know.

1:36:45Right, right, right. And he's finding some form of self-expression. Right. And there's like a little kind of dancing around like and it's the Bradley Cooper scene I think is good where he's like, fuck, I'm annoyed that you're going for it. Like everyone always thought you were funny and talented. And my thing was just that I'm the only person who decided to like be pot committed to living the artist's life and that the rest of you gave up and took boring jobs. Right. but there's a degree of like shame and hiding he has around the stand-up thing as if he is like doing ballet no i think it's just that he's talking about his personal life i think i think that's it right that's the conflict i feel like whenever it comes up with people they're like stand-up what do you mean stand-up and i'm like kieran heinz says that and he says that is how I would react.

1:37:37While he's like drinking juicy juice out of a... Yeah, that was a weird character detail. No offense to people who have practiced stand-up comedy in a professional way, but if I had a random friend, you know... Tell me, I would be like... I'd be like, hey, I've been starting to do open mics. I'd be like, are you okay? Like, there's something wrong with you. And I think you'd be like, oh God, I don't want to see their show. It's probably really awkward. But I feel like this movie has everyone be like, what is stand-up? What are you talking about? When I'm like, we are arguably living in a time where the problem is that stand-up is too culturally powerful.

1:38:07And this movie kind of treats it like this weird, shameful, underground thing. It's in a cellar. At a time where, like, it dominates all of social media. Just to reassure you, look, okay? I feel really good. He won, okay? It's okay. He won really hard. I would say more if, like, if someone was like, I'm actually becoming an influencer. That would be more scary. I started a YouTube, you need to follow you need to subscribe and like that is what I'm living right now oh your husband's become an influencer no my dad oh yeah your dad's got a lot of projects kind of the Bradley Cooper of the podcast my dad is kind of the Bradley Cooper of playing check your dad is actually a great follow yeah my dad considers himself an influencer on social media he's pitching 10 he'd be posting yeah your dad went to the Vatican my dad went to the Vatican we shouldn't laugh we shouldn't laugh no we can laugh about it We have to laugh about it.

1:39:02I feel like your family listens to this. They do. And you know what? Hey, shout out, John. John didn't get to meet the Pope, right? I felt bad for him. So he was supposed to meet the Pope. He was supposed to get a handshake. And he was supposed to do the backpack dance with him. And instead the Pope was like, hang on, got to pop off five more fire tweets about how J.D. Vance can suck my dick. That would have been the funniest thing. I love woke Pope. If your dad was in line to meet the Pope and he was like, hold on one second. I just have to meet J.D. Vance quickly. five minutes later to bitch slap his fucking ass dead yeah no my dad oh right that was the old guy that was the other guy oh this was you this was new pope Chicago Pope my dad Chicago Pope my dad was going to meet Chicago Pope there was like something where it's like a bunch of people get to go to the Vatican it's like they did this they did this for comedy they're doing it for they did for filmmakers and actors this is only underlining my point the idea that the Vatican is like we must invite the comedians is like this is seen as like one of the most powerful forces in communications.

1:40:04But yeah, my dad gets to go to the Vatican. He's supposed to get a blessing. It doesn't happen because of security concerns. Okay. Because they knew my dad was going to try and like take a fucking like TikTok video with the Pope. But he was also holding a giant chicken parm sub. Taking big crunchy bites with steam lines coming off. My dad had never been, we're like, we're Italian American. My dad had never been to Italy. That's so crazy. He'd never been. He'd never been. And so we had been talking. Your dad is a real mystery wrapped in a riddle sometimes. There's a lot of stuff going on. Bradley Cooper's next movie will be about my father.

1:40:40Really? It feels like he's trying to get your dad's attention. I know. There's like so much rich thematic material there. Now I'm imagining I'm like, just check out this guy's Instagram. We're going to watch some stories together. He did post pictures of him meeting Will.i.am. Yes. Who is, to be clear, Deputy Pope currently Leo XIV was like I'm number two Pope now, Will.i.am Apple DM is unavailable You didn't finish his name then It's Will.i.am the Pope Will.i.am the first Is it the XIV that he is? Leo XIV? Yes The Will.i.am story, just to add This was not posted on social media But this is like really fucking embarrassing So during COVID when they would have musical performances on late night, but they would be like, they'd film weird things for them.

1:41:29Yeah, pre-taped. Yeah. Yes. So I did a Vince Staples performance for the Colbert show. What? This is the first time I'm hearing this. Major lore drop. Wait, really? Are we not? No, sorry, not Vince Staples. Vic Mensa. See, whatever. You just haven't heard of this. Rapper guy. But he, Wyclef, like, guested on the track. So Wyclef was there. Okay. And so I like, I told, you know, my family, because I'm like, they won't fucking know who Vic Mensa is, but they will know who Wyclef is. You also called your family and said, someone please call my mom. Wyclef, Sean. I was trying to think, like, what's the best one?

1:42:08Someone please call my mom. But my mom told my dad, she got Will.i.am and Wyclef confused. So my dad starts talking to Will.i.am about how his daughter worked with him on a film shoot. That's tough if he's like, no, I swear to God, my daughter knows you. Right. So that was pretty embarrassing. But also my dad was like FaceTiming the whole family from the roof of like St. Peter's or whatever, whatever the Vatican building is. Marie, your family's going to get really mad. Yeah. No, it was great. but I was like, isn't this amazing? Look, I'm on the roof. I know, but more at you being like, yeah, wherever the Pope lives, whatever it's called.

1:42:51What does he live in? A Chick-fil-A? Whatever. But yeah, but all of a sudden my dad was like, sorry guys, gotta go, I'm not supposed to be filming. I'm sure, right. That rules. Yeah. Anyway. Breaking news, LeBouBou movie in early development at Sony. Interesting. And Scorsese is signing on or is he just circling? No, he's attached. There's a lot on his plate. Well, I feel like Scorsese is a LaBubu. He is turning into a LaBubu. He is. Turning in? He's been a couple different types of LaBubu, but I'd say he's always been a LaBubu. I say that with all love and respect for the wonderful, wonderful, great Martin Scorsese.

1:43:28Yeah. You saw the George Lucas LaBubu thing? Yes, I saw. He was on a red carpet with his lovely wife, Melody Hobson, and he was holding a LaBubu dress like him in a little flannel shirt and jeans and stuff. Oh, sorry, Ben. Ben, thank you. So Ben's just sending us the screen grabs that he took of my dad's Instagram story. Which I had meant to send to the group text and then I got distracted and I just was looking through my photo roll. If I sent every funny John Barty Instagram story to the group text, the group text would be flooded. Had a chat with John Legend and his wife, which is another good one.

1:44:01Is she even visible? Okay, she is. There's a lens flare. JJ Abrams shot this one. Her name is Chrissy Teigen. She's quite famous. She is quite famous. That was fun. But yeah, shout out to my dad's adventures. My dad would do stand-up. I bet he'd be good at it. I think the clock is ticking on him going to the comedy cellar and somehow getting on stage. It's going to happen. When I did the fashion show, your dad was lovely enough to volunteer to be a participant. And he was eating it up on stage. The man is a ham sandwich. He's a performer. Well, hey, don't say that too loudly. That's going to get hungry.

1:44:39Griffin. Have you performed at the Seller Griffin? No. It's incredibly difficult. What do you mean? Isn't it just some old lady called Mitzi or whatever who's like, all right, kid, I'll give you a shot. Mitzi Shore was Pauly Shore's mother. And she was, whatchamacallit, not the improv, the comedy store. The comedy store. In L.A. She's an L.A. person. No, it's like one of the hardest places to get past. It is not a place that has open mics. You almost have to graduate from other clubs to get there. I completely understand. Now, do you think maybe that Bradley wanted to use it because it's, you know, cinematically, it's an interesting space and all that?

1:45:16I think the story would have been exactly the same. Everything in the movie tracked for me in a sort of logical way, even if it's not real. If they did this at, like, Old Man Hustle, Brooklyn Comedy Club, R.I.B. I think they should have done it at Old Man Hustle. Or, like, the fucking— What's it called? Or Eastville. The Grizzly Pear, any of these fucking places. Yeah. The Grizzly Pear is really where you would do open mics that was basically, like, a few buildings down from the cellar. It's like, what if we have comedy every night because it helps bring in an audience. And it smells like a urinal cake.

1:45:44You're not getting paid for any show. Crashing obviously did it best. Sorry. Hold on. Let's all just take a moment of silence. A moment of applause. And there's a show where the actor was the correct age for the role he was playing. One, I know we're doing fucking like, you know, grumpy inside baseball shit. Yes. But I also think if you're going to do this, despite the fact that Comedy Cellar is like a good space to depict visually, it looks as comedy clubby as a comedy club could look. It is the comedy club. Right. The kind of like collective unconscious idea of going down to a basement in New York City.

1:46:19I feel like every comedy club I've been to, except maybe the weird ones in Bushwick, just replicate that. Right. Yes. Absolutely. It's like you need a fucking brick wall. Or they're like way too shiny and kind of like corporate looking. Right. But I think it's like a mistake to depict the one comedy club that gets depicted in media. To your point, it's like that's the club that Crashing uses. That's the place that Marie's best friend, Louis C.K., is walking up to at the beginning of every episode of his TV show. like if you are someone who does not live in New York City and you visually know one New York comedy club it's that one and every other depiction of that it is the place where the Joker bombs every other depiction of it is like this is the ultimate stage you want to get to and this movie makes it the entry point which I think is kind of stupid walked the those steps he walked the well he danced them and then in the sequel he walked up them to be told fuck you don't remember remember when God got Thompson?

1:47:14that's a movie I saw in a fugue state I'm focused I had a question for you what do you think is the worst open mic that you would go to? because I have my answer so I'll go first while you think about it is the Alligator Lounge I've made out with people there but I don't think I ever saw a comedy show I feel like I did a bar show there let's applaud David in his 20s I feel like I did a bar show there but I never did a mic there. So it's the location in Manhattan, right? Yeah, it's on 14th Street. Yeah. It's on 14th Street. And so the deal is you could go there as a regular person and you get a beer and then you get a free pizza.

1:47:53The terrible pizza. Terrible. Terrible. But people you know. Like airplane pizza. Yeah. It's food. Truly, you're right. Airplane, like not cafeteria pizza actually makes this look like gourmet, right? So I would go to that mic occasionally. It was like a weekly mic, I believe. And so you would get, though, actual people, audience members, not just like open micers. But here's the deal. They were essentially your prisoners. Yeah. Because they were there to eat cheap pizza, drink beer, hang out. And instead they were, you know, it's like you go to a bar and it's like, all right, it's trivia night.

1:48:29You're like, get me the fuck out of here. But this is 10 times worse. I think it is a failure of the movie to not depict this. when I don't want to see the same set six times, but I do think the movie doesn't give you the sense of how he is building or developing. They should have had a fucking Rocky montage. A, there should be like one montage of him doing six mics in one mic. Where you see the same line getting refined, right? But I even feel like every set is so holistically different and he basically starts at a point and stays exactly there the entire time where he's just kind of okay. You told me when you saw it, you were like...

1:49:04I was like, he goes from being bad to being like maybe okay for 10 minutes. I was relieved that he's never killing it. But he starts way too. At no point does he go viral and have someone say, you're going viral. Right. Thank God. He starts way too warm and gets like 5 % better. Like instead of like people laughing or clapping, there should just cut to like the audience and the sound of a glass bottle falling on the ground and kind of just like rattling. It's obviously not. That's more true to what I think. It's obviously not the main concern even though that's where the movie started. We should also acknowledge this film has a screenplay credit story by Will Arnett, John Bishop, who it's based on and another man I'm forgetting the name of.

1:49:42Mark Chappelle, who also got a screenplay credit. Right, inspired by John Bishop. But then the screenplay credit... Mark Chappelle did that show, The Increasingly Poor Decisions. Oh, Todd Margaret. Which Will Arnett was a part of. The screenplay credit is Bradley Cooper and... Will Arnett and Mark Chappelle. So they wrote a script together and Bradley rewrote it. It makes sense that Bradley was like, I really only took a couple things. Bradley really liked my friend Brad. Took it even further in a different direction. Your friend Brad. But I think it's not this movie's primary concern. Bradley clearly pushed it even more towards the marriage and the divorce, right?

1:50:18But I feel like it is a waste to even set it in stand-up at all if you are not showing some arc of how he comes to understand A, how to be better at doing it, and I don't need it to be fucking brass tacks accurate, right? and be like some greater emotional understanding of what he's expressing and like how he is gaining emotional intelligence through doing this, which is what the movie is really trying to do. And he starts out getting out there just kind of making soft, barely above take my wife, please jokes about being sad and divorced and just kind of stays there. And she sees him and she's like, it's kind of like attractive to see that you were on stage confident and that you mentioned you had sex with somebody and the audience was laughing and she's a little turned on by like you have the ability to speak, which is certainly the starting point of the movie is this guy is so closed off.

1:51:11They don't know how to talk to each other. All the passion's gone. Really what she seems into is this guy can say what he's feeling. Right. The stand-up, it's not about him learning to be good stand-up. It's not what the movie's about. It's just the therapy scenes in The Sopranos. It's just us being leveled up on his journey through his marriage, through his feelings. It's just a way to dramatically reveal that in my opinion. It's just, that's just not what the movie's about. I agree, but to relate it back to Shall We Dance, you're like, you want the dancing to be good. He doesn't need to be Fred Astaire at the end of the movie, but I think it being translated through a new hobby, a new form of expression.

1:51:46I don't find that stuff in the movie that bad. I also don't think that, again, I talk about a movie that not a ton of people have seen, but the dancing, he doesn't become like, he's not the best dancer. It's more about him getting a hobby and what that means to get a hobby and how that affects you emotionally. I just think this film absolutely fails to show any arc of what is happening through him doing stand-up until the moment where Laura Dern sees it. And then it's all just about what she's receiving from it. What I loved about Peyton Manning's performance is he impressively plays a guy who's just getting a drink with an old friend, realizes halfway into the date he's going to fuck her.

1:52:27I was like, great actors could not do what he is doing right now. The way his eyes shift, it's like Peyton Manning is like reading an offense or a defense. And he's suddenly like, wait, this pocket's open. I think I'm going to fuck Laura Dirk. I thought I was just saying hide her. And then she's like, I am, you know, getting, you know, we did break up. But she also is realizing that too. And she went, Laura Dern, very good actor. The whole thing with Peyton Manning in this movie is, I'm seeing this at the New York Film Festival. Cut to Peyton Manning on the date, but he's sort of from afar. And I'm like, is that fucking Peyton Manning?

1:53:02Did no one else know who that was? None of these virgins at the New York Film Festival. And I go like, is that Peyton Manning? I like say it to Emma. I was with Emma Stavansky. and she's like, huh? And I'm like, goddammit, nobody knows who the most famous football player of my lifetime is. I clocked up immediately. You know Peyton because you love SNL. Exactly. And they talk about him so lovingly on the Lonely Island podcast. I think the best regarded athlete host of SNL. Yeah, he's a good actor. He's fun. And that digital short with him and the kids and being such an asshole. People for the United Way or whatever.

1:53:36They're like, this is like deceptively difficult. Yes. And they do a good job on that episode breaking down, like, right, why it's hard. His skill set. As I was sort of 40 minutes ago before I got waylaid by seven other ideas I had, was setting up. I run into Patrick and Dave Wiskus there, right? I'm sitting next to them. My level of frustration with the movie is growing, right? Will Arnett's like, I need to take the kids tonight. She's like, I can't. I have a thing, right? He drops off with his parents, Christine Ebersole, who I always love. We love to see it. Kieran Hines, who's super solid and is doing something in this movie I couldn't quite pin down.

1:54:11It was his casting. It felt like the Andrew Dice Clay thing where you're like, did Bradley just sort of like have a vision and kind of just wanted him there? Like the juice box and his like little toy soldier, like train set. There's got to be a guy, maybe Bradley's own father. I don't know. Are there 20 minutes cut out? Because it felt like he came in with a bunch of ideas and none of them come across on screen. Captivating always. He's like an immigrant. Right. They try to like allude to a lot of backstory there. Coded as like very virile still. But also like Eastern European? They make it very clear he's an immigrant and I could never pin down.

1:54:51He's not doing his own native dialect. No. No. But whatever. Okay. So then they both have these parallel nights out where they're not letting the other one know about the thing. Right. And we cut into the restaurant. I immediately like the sound of his voice being fun from the distance, three quarters. I like turn to Patrick. It's Peyton Manning. He's like, what? What are you talking about? And then they cut in and he's like tilting his head. And I'm like, that's Peyton Manning. This is so bizarre. And I was feeling the way you were feeling during the Amazing Grace scene where I was like, Bradley's doing something weird here.

1:55:24Right. And then I'm locked into how good Peyton Manning is, as you're saying. And you hear her on the phone with Andra Day. there's this whole side plot that Andrew Day and Bradley Cooper's marriage like sucks. Yeah. And they kind of actively hate each other. Right. But make a bit out of fighting all the time. They're having a parallel crisis and not acknowledging it in a way. And they, unbeknownst to them, as Dern and Arnett are about to rekindle things secretly, they're looking at them and going like, man, they seem pretty happy being divorced. We should get divorced. We should get divorced.

1:55:55So they're starting to like buttonhole them separately. Right. Right. So she says to Andrew Day, like, it's not a date. He's married. He has kids. I'm just thinking about getting into coaching and he's going to give me advice. And then you're like, oh, fuck the cast. Peyton Manning, this guy wants to fuck her. Right. But then the surprise is. Right. He's playing it like, no, actually, you know, this and that. She gets a job. She gets a coaching job. She gets the coaching job. It's nice that she feels like she's found this new avenue. And then they both realize in real time that the other one is divorced and he's locked in.

1:56:28And his suggestion is, she says, do you want to get another drink? Because I'm actually not tired at all. And it's like open for business, right? Neon sign. And I'm just like, okay, I'm down to watch this happen, right? And then he goes, he says, oh, I know a good place around the corner. and I turn to Patrick and I go, I swear to God, if the place around the corner is the comedy club, I'm going to arrest this movie. Why? In what universe? He basically says, do you want to go get a nightcap? I know a good place. Right. And the good place is taking her to a show? Like, you know, if he, like, I guess knows the owner and you can just get in, that's kind of a cool look.

1:57:13It's kind of a cool thing. It would be just as insane if he went, yeah, I'm down to get another drink. I actually know a really good place around the corner, hard cut to them at Film Forum seeing a movie. That sounds like a great place to see a movie. Hard cut to them. They're at a noise show. That's where you would go. She sees him perform. You think she's going to flip out and revenge fuck Peyton Manning. I think it's a really good scene because of that, right? I think it's good because of their two performances. And their performances, yeah. And then she like... And the way it swerves in an interesting way.

1:57:45And he does have kind of a good joke about her in that set. It all works fine. Chloe Radcliffe. That's when I was energized because I'm like, the movie's doing something. Who had clowned. Then they're back to. Had literally done a clown routine at their son's birthday party. Yes. So met Laura Dern, sees her on the way out. Yes. Peyton Manning goes, do you want to leave? And she goes, no, I'm not leaving. I wouldn't leave for anything on earth right now. Right, right, right, right. And then she storms out the second the set's done. Yes. Chloe Radcliffe's like, cool of your wife to come. He's like, what?

1:58:15What's going on? Goes upstairs. Bojack Horseman. She's put Peyton Manning in a car. Right. She's chain smoking. Or is he coming out with a cigarette and she asked for a puff? This I cannot tell you. They're sharing a cigarette. That sounds right. And just immediately the vibe is like, so are we going to fuck? And then it cuts to them in bed. Right.

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2:01:09He was the little Kong baby. Suko. Suko. Suko.

2:01:27and now you're like huh second half the movie is is is is is it then like coming back together which it is It's a little, it's complicated. It's a little, the lovers, a movie I like quite a bit. The Tracy Letts. Tracy Letts, bad bitch. Yes. But that's a movie that's like just tired, loveless marriage. They're both having affairs. They find out about each other's affairs and it kind of turns them on. They start to have an affair with each other. And it's fun that they're like keeping secret the idea that they've actually reconnected. It's very, it's complicated. Yes. It's a good, very spare little movie.

2:02:00Yeah. Is Basil Jacobs the Lovers. This is like area where I was like, okay, I'm a little more interested in the movie going in this direction. Me too. And then it just felt like kind of the same conversation getting repeated over and over and over again. This was the thing where I was kind of like, am I about to be in on this movie? I like that. And then, yes, I do think it's interesting to try and mundanely portray the sort of stuff that sets in with marriage. That's fine. But at the end of the day, it's just kind of them talking about stuff where I'm like, oh, I don't know. I suppose you both are a little right this is a little boring you guys are both like well off like I don't feel a crisis here their lives right their lives the amazing Gracie and I loved we have these three friends these two couple friends and oh my god how is you getting divorced going to affect our like timeshare cabin weekend getaway kind of thing it's not really a cabin it's like a mansion pretty big I keep like mixing up details of this movie and Splitsville because I love but loved it both of we saw that together we did both those movies are like about New York people getting divorced there's like a Long Island home there's also a child's birthday party so I'm just like wait and that movie is very exaggerated Nicholas Braun is in which movie he's in Splitsville but he's playing a magician he's playing a mental yeah right so it's yeah yeah yeah yeah that movie gets into more exaggerated territory it goes into sort of like that movie's very stylized yeah and it goes into almost like magical realism at times which is what those guys do which I like right but I was like I kept feeling like the bigger they swung the more they were kind of identifying interesting human dynamics where I'm like huh haven't kind of seen that which I just kept wanting this to burrow deeper like the whole thing not deeper and heavier there's a whole thing where he blows up the poster of her being a volleyball player yeah and he's like look at this awesome thing I did He doesn't even say it in that way.

2:03:59He shows her on his phone. She goes, what's that? He goes, it's an old picture I found of you in the volleyball days. And I blew it up and I got it the size of my wall in my bachelor pad so the kids can see how awesome their mom was. And I turned to Patrick. That's the most insane thing a human being has ever done. Now narrowly beating Peyton Manning saying, I know a cool place around the corner. It was like an eight or nine point victory. It took another two hours to have that relief. They announced it three minutes. after the polls closed. I got off the subway and I heard people cheering as I was walking up the stairs and truly it was like heroin had been injected into my veins.

2:04:36But unfortunately you were in the Upper East Side because Cuomo had won and the Cuomo sexuals were out. Yeah. No, actually Sliwa won. You heard the cats screaming. And the annoying part was my red beret was at the cleaners and I couldn't even celebrate. I can't even go on the subway with this thing. I'm sorry, Marie. Kind of a hot take. I get why she was upset. No, I do too. But I also was like, oh, that's kind of nice. So she says, like, I understand, but this is not who I am anymore. You can't see my face. Like, this is making me feel like you loved the person I was. Not the person I am now.

2:05:16That's interesting. If I'm her, I'm kind of like, you went to a store and got a thing done? Good job, buddy. We're making some progress here. You want, like, our two young male sons. You made a decision about decorating? Right, good for you. But also, like, you want, like, you're our boy. I'm so concerned about the crisis of, like, raising young boys right now. Sorry, David, to, like, you know. I ain't worried. It's fine. He's only got two. You got two of them. Only. But, no, I think it's nice to be like, look, your mom was an athlete. She was super badass. And she's a woman. And she's also your mom.

2:05:52And she does all this stuff. And we're going to celebrate her. And I was like, that's nice. Right. And then she's like, it hurts my feelings. And I was just kind of like, at that point, I was also just like, you know, this movie ain't short. I'm kind of ready to go. I think they both just need to, why don't they just go figure this out privately? I had this larger thought of like, you know, all the shit against Maestro was like, this is so pretentious. What is he doing with this? Is this self-indulgent? Right. What is he saying about himself or not saying about himself? He wants an Oscar so bad.

2:06:23Which I, you know, we push back on so many times of like, if you want an Oscar, you don't make a film that strange. Right. I completely agree. But it feels like he actually got wounded by this narrative that happened. And it was a similar thing that happened to like DiCaprio in the J. Edgar period. Right. Where it feels like his Oscar movies start becoming weirder because people were making fun of him doing these kind of straight down the middle Oscar baby things. And it's like, I got to win an Oscar for doing a thing that's different than what I've done before. Right. And Bradley Cooper is getting dinged as if he made Bohemian Rhapsody, but also for being pretentious and like, you know, inaccessible and whatever.

2:06:58And this movie feels like a real like, oh, I'll show you how unpretentious I can be. Right. And I'm just going to make something that's small scale and focused and character based. And yet I just feel like this movie feels very representative of being like the byproduct of a bunch of older, very rich people who have been successful for a very long time, who just like cannot totally relocate normal human behavior. I agree a little bit. And Star is Born and Maestro, you're just like, he can say shit in these worlds that other people can't access. He has an experience. I'm not even talking about like, write what you know.

2:07:34But those are also operatic movies. Which I think is what he's so good at. I agree. And they're very different types of operatic. I don't mind him trying other stuff. I don't either. This movie didn't make me angry. Right. This movie was an interesting try. It was fine, you know? So this scene with the poster, I'm sure there is a version of this in which it's like her birthday or whatever. And he goes like, hey, I want to surprise you. I got you something cool. And he unwraps this frame thing. And she's like, what is this? And he's like, I thought you'd like this. I found this photo. And she's sort of like, why are you giving me a photo of the back of my head?

2:08:08Right. The notion of him delivering it to her as like, can I show you something cool on my cell phone? I've had this hanging up in my apartment already for two months. I found it and blew it up because I want it to be an inspiration to your sons. And I haven't told you. And she just in real time gets so mad and processes everything about what's weird about it, where I'm just like the way in which that happens is so bizarre that I wouldn't even understand what the fuck he was saying. You know, where I'm like, there's an idea in that I agree with you that I think is like kind of dramatically interesting.

2:08:39And I keep feeling this movie like absolutely botch the execution of how these events play out, of how people interact with each other, where I'm just like feeling any sort of like Cameron Crowe moment of magic being strangled out by like logic bumps of just like, I don't think anyone talks like that. I mean I hear you I was a little I do think it's really funny When Bradley Cooper says It just He goes like Just flip it And he's like What do you mean So it's the front of her face And he's like Just flip it Take it to the store I just love If As someone said Someone said this to me I forget who That if Will Arnett is You know Bojack That Bradley's playing Mr.

2:09:22Peanutbutter Yeah you said that to me And I was like That's great The guy who's just kind of like In another dimension Like you know Got a different way Of looking at things I was talking to a friend about this movie and saying, like, it is really fascinating as a sort of study in, like, what is a movie star and what isn't a movie star, right? And I love Will Arnett at doing the Will Arnett thing. And I'm not someone asking him to just do the same thing over and over and over again. But I was like, is he the right person for this? Can I, like, buy this sort of, like, depth and nuance of emotion?

2:09:50And this guy who's putting on a brave face but is kind of quietly crumbling inside. Podcast is over. Episodes going into OT. Two hours. We're almost done. It's tied. The episode's tied. I gotta go home. And then I remember fucking BoJack, where I'm just like, I actually feel the pain of that fucking cartoon horse more than I do this guy. I did, at least for a while. That show really got on my nerves at a point. I just was like, I don't think Arnett, I don't know if he's not vulnerable enough. I don't know if there's an ego he's protecting here. I don't know if the material isn't diving deep enough.

2:10:24But I just like never cared about this fucking guy. And I did not feel like the movie was letting me in. And if the point is this guy doesn't let anyone in and he's a brick wall, I don't think it's playing that well enough either. And and on the opposite end, like Lord Dern is someone I basically like can never not love. I think she like never misses. And she is always engaging and has just kind of like an automatic, perfect balance of like comedy and like human realism. and I'm just sort of like, this feels like a waste of her energy. She's doing everything you're asking her to do here well, but you're really not going to ask her to go deeper than this.

2:11:02So you love the film Five Stars? They get back together. Yeah, they get back together. The kids learn how to play under pressure. Yeah, that I was just like, can I get up? You haven't earned this. I mean, I was just like, it's time for me to go. Yes, you have not earned a transcendent decline. Can this thing end? I had a question. A little bit. What do we think about Balls and his wife who are also equally having marital issues? There's a scene later where I guess Bradley Cooper's character got cast in some cowboy thing. I like this bit. And he stole the hat from costume and they killed his character off.

2:11:37It seems like he's in a Taylor Sheridan show or something. But it was like a two episode arc that for him was just like the magic. and then he stole the hat because he thinks if they have to call to ask for the hat back, they'll also be like, maybe there's a way to bring the character back. I'm confused about, like, in what world are Bradley Cooper and Andra Day and Will Arnett and Laura Dern friends? And Sean Hayes and his husband. Well, Sean Hayes, I get. Like, she was a fucking Olympian jock. So? Maybe they all went to Penn. Yeah, I don't know. No, he's too stupid to go to Penn. I agree with you that none of them feel like friends.

2:12:15None of them feel like friends. Like, you know? But it's the same as like, oh, he's wearing a suit, so you know he has a job where I'm just like, the movie asks us to believe, like, of course, they were friends when they went to college 30 years ago. And I'm like, I have no sense of history between these people. There's no sense of, like, ease and familiarity. But I guess what I'm saying is like, Will Arnett's character influences Bradley Cooper to kind of consider maybe separating from his wife. Yes, and then later they have a conversation. Where he's like, oh no, we bended everything. We're great.

2:12:45That to me felt so deflating. But at the same time, I'm like, is that realistic? Maybe. Or like, what's the juxtaposition? There's no way they're getting divorced. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It just, it stuck with me in a way where it wasn't like I was annoyed by it. I just was like, I don't know what to feel. Divorcing balls. Yeah. Everything. You kind of can't do. He's too hot. And they have like an 18 year old son who's a basketball prospect. They're not serious people. like they're just not serious people so it's just like okay you are not a serious person but maybe to this point of like what I want to see Bradley Cooper write about and what I don't I'm like this movie feels so locked in and perceptive about the kind of unserious people they are like it's not just that like Bradley is playing like a struggling actor I'm like oh he knows this guy everything that character says and in a movie that he wrote and Will Arnett also has a screenplay credit on, everything he says feels improvised and feels like this guy could go off for fucking six hours in this character.

2:13:47He knows those people. I don't know if Bradley Cooper knows finance guys who live in Westchester whose fathers drink from apple juice boxes. I felt the same with Andra Day and I was more interested in like what's going on with their relationship, honestly. I definitely thought that Andra Day and Will Arnett were going to hook up. He's sleeping on the couch where she's like insulting him, but it's like, it's a shame because I used to think you're so fucking hot. I'm like, oh, great. They're going to make out. Right. This is going to be the wrinkle in everything. That's an interesting fucking like French farce.

2:14:20They're all in the house together. No one can talk about who's sleeping. They all have sex with Sean Hayes at some point. Did you also feel like Arnett was kind of playing Bateman in this? Part of it's the hair and the stubble. Oh, the hair was bad. That's what his hair looks like now. It is his hair now. which is identical to like, that's what Bateman looks all the time like. But Jason Bateman looks good. Bateman looks great. Bateman looks pretty terrific. The floppy sort of like getting a little grade, salt and pepper, perpetual kind of like one sort of beard. Like kind of cowlick thing where it's like more, whereas Bateman has the.

2:14:56And a very different shaped skull. Sure. And I did try to measure his skull at the dinner, but they wouldn't let me. It was weird. I was at him with some calipers. You got the calipers before I did. no I just even felt like the energy of what he was trying to go for in the performance is this kind of like world weary winsome kind of sadness that Bateman can do really well yeah I mean maybe Bateman's a better actor although sometimes Bateman will phone it but like Bateman gives performances every so often where I'm like yeah you know Bateman can be good yeah and obviously I bank with Smartless so I do need to acknowledge that Of course.

2:15:35They're my financial services provider. Right. And they're my health care provider. Right. I'm on SmartList Dental right now. That's why I had to have two teeth removed in the last year. My fucking dentist is a podcast producer. He's engineering while he's doing the surgery. What's Bradley Cooper's next directorial effort going to be? Do we know? There's certainly things. The little boo-boo movie? Oh, no. He's circling the little boo-boo movie. There are certainly things that I feel like he's kind of called dibs on. But has anything been lined up to be next? It seems like he likes to pick a certain creative occupation.

2:16:09So what's next? And dig into it. Plumber. And a different kind of... He's directing Super Mario 3! A different kind of tense romantic relationship. Well, of course, it has recently been rumored that he would do the Ocean's prequel film... Right, but he's not directing that. Directed by Lee Isaac Chung. Right. There's the bullet movie that Spielberg would do. Right. But what's he going to direct? Was Matt Helm supposed to be him directing when they announced that? What is that? Matt Helm is like a classic, like a pulp paperback. Oh, yeah, I think I heard about that, right? So that's him sort of like trying like a kind of action-y thing.

2:16:46Yeah, but it's like a little bit more of a real world kind of, yeah. Dime store, paperback, secret agent. I'm trying to remember if that was supposed to be him directing. Yeah, it's at Paramount. That might be something. Tom Shepard attached to write. No director announced. And then wasn't there the CIA one that got announced? That was like a big fucking hot property. Well, that was called Alias. And it was, you know, it's one of her aliases. No, I don't know. I think there's another one. But it doesn't seem like there's a clear next thing lined up. Yeah. Well, I'm excited for whatever it is. Best of enemies, Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale.

2:17:29MGM bought it after a battle two years ago now. Is that the Gore Vidal? No. I mean, it's the same title, but... What is that about? It's a spy thriller. It's a CIA movie. Oh, okay. But I think there was a rumor. I don't know. All the stuff he's attaching himself to as an actor, every time there's another story, they're like, maybe Bradley might direct this. It feels like he's weighing his options. I just want him to... you know, I think maybe one of the reasons why I really loved balls is because he's a great actor. Well, he's a great actor, but he also, he had the beard, he had the long hair and he had the hat.

2:18:11And I just feel like I miss Jackson. We all miss Jackson. I do miss him. He's dead though. But somehow he returned. What if him and Ben solo? Yeah. What is the hunt for Jackson? How crazy is it? I heard that like four or five months ago. A listener of the show told me in confidence, like, hey, don't repeat this on mic. But I worked at like Lucasfilm for the last like seven years and you wouldn't believe the shit I've seen. And I was like, like what? And he was like, like in the last year, they killed both a Fincher movie and a Soderbergh movie. And I was like, that's nuts. Wait, so you knew about the Soderbergh thing before?

2:18:48No one will ever know about that. And now both of those things have come out in the last month. Wait, I didn't know. I didn't read the Fincher thing. I saw the Soderbergh. It came out that, like, yeah, he was also trying to develop stuff and that they were like, I don't know, too much control. Right. And they need to fucking, well, look, I think Mandalorian and Grogu is going to underperform. And it might lead to a bit more of a come to Jesus, but we'll see. I don't think it'll underperform. Because Grogu is a little baby. You know when he eats things? So he takes a ball. He takes a ball. He throws the ball.

2:19:18He got big ears. Not to bring things back to Fernasco Bernoulli. Oh? You're always doing that. They won't make a billion dollars in Grogu merchandise in 2026. It's like the Cars franchise, where even if the movie underperforms a little bit, it's so good for Disney corporate. I certainly think it could kill excitement at a time where they don't need people getting more cold on Star Wars. I just wonder if the universal reaction to the Adam Driver, Stephen Soderbergh thing of everyone being like, why wouldn't you fucking do that? Why not? Like, what do you have to lose? Like, it's not like episode nine ended so well that you're like, and yes, his canonical death was so good.

2:20:01Especially when they're like, we just can't get past this. I'm like, it's fucking Star Wars. You'll figure it out. You just did somehow Palpatine returned. Well, especially if it's like. Announce it in Fortnite. Just announce it. especially especially when it's like oh they passed on it but what it was just like Soderbergh going in with a rough pitch and they were like no finish script and they were like but the script wasn't good they were like no everyone really liked it and they were like but driver was on the fence and we're like no no he was the one who really oh and we checked and they were like but Soderbergh's schedule was busy no no he was ready to go it was gonna be really expensive though right pops right right he's the one who stuck but But that they were also like, we think we figured out how to make a Star Wars movie that feels exciting without a burdensome budget.

2:20:49Where you're like, they made the risk lower. The fuck is your problem? And beyond the fact that that character is popular, they've invested so much into, like, Kylo Ren permanently being in theme parks all across the world. These are, like, the reasons that, like, fucking, like, How to Train Your Dragon got rebooted immediately, you know? And you're telling me that, like, the corporate side of Disney is the one who's like, I don't know. You guys? Yeah. I think I could fix him Kylo Ren? Yeah I could fix him Does that mean blow him? Sorry David What? But he's got the cross saber thing It's hard to blow him Oh his dick is three ways?

2:21:26Yeah it's a three way thing Alright Ew That's insane That's an insane visual A virgin's in the force I'm sorry for reporting the truth Don't shoot the messenger I don't like it It's just his body And that last movie I'm learning because I've started watching all of the series and I've watched the, not the advocate. What's the? The Acolyte. Thank you. The Advocate is coming up though. It's just about Star Wars court. They would do that. Oh, I thought you were going to make a gay joke. No. I already did. I was about blowing Kylo Ren and it was great. I'd love to do it. Let me at him. LGBT. He's technically in the Star Wars universe.

2:22:08in Palpatine's like fucking dungeon whatever are all references to past Sith past Sith Lords Sifo-Ds bro I'm kind of interested yeah I want a Sith series I've been saying this yeah there's a Louis C.K. statue there's a Bat-Pekki statue an Alu-Gashu statue Jeff Ross Darth stupid idiot I'm combining like two different silos of bits here Silo-Ren can I ask you a question Griffin yep what's wrong You didn't like talking about this movie? I'm doing great. Did we answer the question, by the way? Is this thing on? It's on, kind of. I don't know if you guys saw my letterbox. This thing's off. It was like, turn it off.

2:22:49I said, please turn it off. I wanted to ask. You want to ask? I wanted to ask you, but also open the floor to everyone else. What films have gotten comedy right, in your opinion? We're wrapping this episode up. Funny people. That's interesting. I like that movie a lot I've only saw it once I rewatched it recently The stand up in it is not good I agree It's sort of somewhat realistically bad Yeah I think it's part of what it gets right I do love that movie It gets the dynamics of it And the energy of it correct I think Big Sick does a good job Yes Big Sick I'm trying to think of anything else I like would I mean king of comedy gets it right in that most stand up comedians are crazy psychopaths now if it was made now he would have a podcast those are most of the people you meet at open minds oh can I end the episode with my open mic story because I already teased it yeah and then we'll end there there's no box office game obviously this is coming out up against Avatar I'm sure it's going to beat it yeah they're predicting 200 mil domestic we're recording this a little bit the tracking is fluctuating Laura Dern would be such a good Navi.

2:24:07She would. She'd be so fucking good. Marie, this episode might have to go on a little longer now. Because I don't know how soon I'll be able to stand up. Some very powerful imagery has entered my head. A kind of cross-section of things that bewitch me. I ate all of my Hiroshima carp nuts. They're good. Congratulations. I'm so proud of you. Yeah, but I didn't do this. I didn't do this on mic. but I gave everyone little presents from Japan. You got me my samurai Woody. Griffin, pull the string. He's so handsome.

2:24:45And they got Tom Hanks to do that. That's the craziest part. Not even Jim. He said, let me do the Japanese one. Call me Shiwa Buzz. What was your question to him that was going to end the episode? He said worst open mic, right? And I'm sure I could think of like a one-off of like a bad room. I did at some point. But this is like the best bad open mic story. You know, there's just many times I bombed, many times I would do okay and then the five guys after me just got up and made gay jokes and everything was good. The early 2010s were great. Really, really healthy. Time in now. We fixed everything and comedy is set right.

2:25:20We've made them our thought leaders. Can you imagine now like open mics, people test out crowd work on other comedians. I'm sure that's happening. It sounds like an absolute fucking nightmare. It's great. It's great. the Eastville mic was the main one I would do. Eastville. Eastville, which would basically have mics, I want to say, four days a week. Yeah, I used to go to that room as well. It was a terribly depressing mic, but was one that, like, you know, it was a very long sign-up list. You would see people. You know, I was regularly seeing, like, Anthony DeVito, who's a really good comic, you know, and, like, Microsine, whoever.

2:25:53Like, people who've become successful. So there would be, like, bright spots in it, but it tended to be a list of, like, 30-plus names. and the people who get there first are lining up before noon to come back at three. So you have to structure your entire day around it. And if you're not getting in that early, you're like, oh, fuck, I'm probably waiting two to three hours before I do my bad five minutes. But I go, I guess they must have had a Friday mic too, but it was usually less attended because people were trying to get good bar shows on Friday night. And I went to the Friday mic one time and there were only like three other people there.

2:26:28and whoever it was who was hosting it was just like yeah it's just casual we're all just like do our five minutes and leave you know let's just try to be like good energy supportive and there was like one random guy there who wasn't performing that maybe someone brought as a friend right and like the host gets up he does okay other guy gets up does okay i get up and i felt like i did really well all considering and it was one of those moments where i felt kind of proud where i'm like there are four people in this room if a joke gets like two hats i know how to convert that right And I know how to like perform with the energy as if there's a real crowd here and not be like deflated by it and like take the notes I need of what I'm doing well and doing poorly.

2:27:07And it was a moment where I felt like I think I understand the machinery of how to get better at doing this. Right. And I walked off and this the one guy who was like not a comedian was like really laughing. He was like, hey, man, that was really great. And I was like, thank you. It was like really, really funny stuff. I'm like excited to see you like perform more. And I was like, oh, thanks. And then the final comic gets up and this is a strict light at four minutes. You're off the stage at five, Mike. Right. Even when there are only four people, they're like, let's stick to the time. Sure. This final guy gets up.

2:27:39Never seen before. Never see him again. Big burly guy and gets up and just basically starts exclusively doing material about pussy juice and equating himself to Popeye and how he gulps it like spinach. and his muscles pop out and he gets strong. And the guy who had just been so kind to me is like, yes! He is laughing harder than anyone has. Finally, someone says it! I have never heard anyone laugh harder at anything. He is losing his mind. He is like roflcoptering on the floor. Oh, no. I think he was the host of the mic. I'm sorry. And then at like seven minutes, he goes like, But they want to remember to like time me.

2:28:24I must have blown the light already. And that guy goes, keep going. Never stop. And I watched this guy do 20 straight minutes just about pussy juice to this dude basically like in real time calling up at the Kennedy Center and being like Mark Twain prize now here. Were there any women in the room that night? Absolutely not. Very often it would be like two. and it was a very, very male-dominated space that felt very... I think it's gotten better since we did it. I think the Brooklyn sort of art scene opened up a lot more. There was a joke that I did laugh at. Which is? And I think it was a Jordan bit in, is this thing, where she's talking about getting a bikini back, and she folds the paper, and the triangle gets smaller, and I was like, oh, that's funny.

2:29:18That was a really clever use of a prop. It's weirdly in her special. Like her Netflix special. I'm only familiar with her from this movie and being a TERF on Stavis. Getting kind of shut down by Stavis. A huge L on Stavis' world, but she is a good comedian. And it's frustrating, and it's a whole complicated discussion about the ecosystem that I don't want to get into. She's not like an outspoken, that was just like her trying to be contrarian. There's fucking herd mentality shit with this collection of five guys in Austin who are the kingmakers. And what rocks is that Stavi's like not just like, you know, correcting her and talking to her in a way.

2:29:54Not correct. You know, like, you know, addressing what she's saying. But then he's like, you just are fucking Austin brain. Right. This comedy poison. It's like you're a real fucking comedian with real material. What are you doing here? There's like no punchline. You're just being like ignorant, you know. But she she has good material. Yeah. I thought that. No, I think like it's another way in which mics have changed is I think that the common mics were very hostile environments for women, like similar to the fucking like slurs guys would throw at me, like despite being a straight male performing at these things that women would basically notice stay away.

2:30:31And if like someone like Ali Wong dropped in and just like a machine gun destroyed, you were like, oh yeah, they know not to touch her. Right. Yeah. And she's going to destroy them too. And I think over time as like there was a comedy upswing that Ben and I were sort of like getting out of right before it got big, more women came to it and were just like, fuck this, we're going to start our own mics. And these like better mics that exist now where they like find a bar and they're like, this is a warm room and we're actually trying to like be a good crowd and not be antagonistic assholes. It sounds like woke bullshit.

2:31:03What I need is for people to be mean and racist. David beat me to the conclusion of my story, but go woke, go broke. Comedy is ruined now. Well, I thought woke was back. That is actually true. Woke is back. You better put those pronouns in bio. It's weird. Woke is back, but comedy is also legal again now? I'll tell you one way Woke is back. Dasha just got dropped by her fucking agent for interviewing Nick Fuentes on her normal podcast. Her getting dropped by her agent is a little bit Claude Rains going, like, I'm shocked there's gambling. Well, thank you all for listening. Tune in next week for the new Park Chan Wook film.

2:31:35No other choice with our guest, Nick Fuentes. Fuck! Don't joke, guys. No, we denounced Nick Foynton. I'm going to be on that episode. I really liked that movie. Night and day experience. I think it currently sits at my number three for the year. I fucking love this movie. Although I will say Ben and I. Hooten and hollering. Hooten and hollering. Ben and I sat together in the back of the screening room and someone ripped a fart in the middle of the movie. So multiple times. It was stinking. And we both were looking at each other like, So the fart detective made an appearance, you're telling me.

2:32:04Yeah. What was the screening room? Which, where did you see it? It was in Chelsea. Oh, you saw it at Postman. It was in Chelsea. Yeah. Did you get candy? I did. Hell yeah. Raisinets. I got raisinets and I got popcorn. And then I started reclining my chair, but it made a fart noise. Dude, when you recline your chair at post-point, it's like... You're telling me someone ripped a nasty fart, but also you kept making fart noises? No, but the person who actually... We can hash this out on another choice. I've got to go home. Okay, I know. I'm sorry. But I'm just saying it was a silent but deadly fart.

2:32:37I didn't hear the part. So it wasn't right. We just smelled it. And this is a detective situation. For sure. But I don't think I really. Marie looks over a little mustache pipe cap already on. But I also like it was like one of those things where both Ben and I are looking at each other kind of like suspicious of each other. Like it wasn't me. And I was like I thought it was Ben. And I wasn't going to say anything. Because it smelled like sour patch kids. but then we you know we exchange a look like okay it wasn't us we need to find out who did this it's kind of it's like a 20 seat room I mean how many people could have ever been it's kind of twisted mystery out of a Park Chan-wook film only from uh yeah I can't wait to talk about that one next week Park Chan-wook's No Other Choice and then we're doing Lynn Ramsey and we will start with her film Rat Catcher Ben have you ever seen it?

2:33:27no get them subtitles on Ben let me tell you you think that movie's in English? It is. It's written in a form of English. It's real Scottish. I think you will like it. But Ben, I mean, just the title alone, what are you thinking? I mean, I'm into it. Yeah. I'm into it. You know why? Because I'm like, is this a job? Yeah. It's a dark movie. It's a very good movie. I haven't seen it in years. I saw it when it came out, which is rad. That's wild. How old were you? I was 13 or 14. My mom interviewed her and yeah, I saw it. Wow. That's cool. I'm excited to do the series. Over on the Patreon, we're in the midst of doing our commentary series on the films of The Wizard of Oz.

2:34:10Getting ready to ease on down the road, right? In a week or so? Yeah, we just kicked off the year with The Wizard of Oz, obviously. I'm kind of low-key hyped to watch The Wizard of Oz, I gotta say. Do you know that movie rules so fucking hard? Why aren't we going to the sphere? Marie, Marie, Marie, get the fuck in here. Yeah, you guys have fun. This thing on. When are you recording these Oz episodes? We'll loop you in. Yeah, we'll loop you in. We're doing some right before Thanksgiving, I think. Oh, well, then I'm gone. No, you might be here. But it's The Wizard, The Wiz. Is that the order? Return to Oz and The Two Wickets.

2:34:44Yes, that's what we're doing. But The Wiz is about a week out, so around the time that our part-time episode comes out. I'm excited to listen to you get excited about The Wiz. I think you have an interesting relationship to that movie. that I think is cool. Up there amongst the films I have watched the most. You love that movie so much? Who's who? Oh, tag yourselves? Well, clearly I'm Dorothy. Yeah. David's the lion. David's the lion. The cowardly lion. You're the scarecrow and I'm the dream man. I am not the lion. You are the lion. No, I'm the lion. You big scaredy puss. I'm not. Oh my God. I'm definitely not the lion.

2:35:20Let's see what happens when you get on a plane. We'll figure it out. You're going to start lioning really hard. In front of a phobia does not make me the lion. Just to stick up for myself a little bit. But you also are the most lion - Yeah. Like, looking. I kind of think maybe - Yeah, but I don't have a Burt Lair thing going. I'm sorry. It's just not what I'm like. Do you have a Ted Ross thing? Am I the Ted Ross? Because I'm kind of goofy, maybe? Who are you? The lion? Because I'm goofy. Yeah. But here's the thing. We have no Tin Man. I'm the Tin Man. You're the Tin Man? Yeah. You're the Scarecrow.

2:35:50No, Ben's the Scarecrow. I'm the Scarecrow? This is becoming a strange conversation. Why is Ben the Scarecrow? Ben's not the Scarecrow. First of all, Ben is loyal as hell. I am loyal. Sure. But he's not like Wiley, you know? You're saying Ben can't be Wiley? Not in the way that you are. You're like Mr. Rubber Bones. Why are you the tin man? Broken hearted. Oh, my God. You have a girlfriend. Yeah, I'm doing great. Jesus. All right, well, anyway, this is the end of our episode. Sad clown. You know what? It's probably not a very good tag yourself foursome, I'm realizing. because you're also basically like, who's brainless?

2:36:31Who needs a brain? Yeah. Sure, he needs a brain. Anyway, this episode was supposed to end four hours ago? About a half an hour ago. Yeah, but we did okay. Two and a half hours? I gotta go. It's so good. Everything's so good. All right, close this out, and then you'll hear a clip of me eating a sandwich at the end. And as always. And as always, I hope you all enjoy what David wanted to start the episode. It was funny. A recording of Ben eating a sandwich and us fighting about it. No, it's him saying I wasn't hungry. They all hear it right now.

2:37:06I'm not saying we need two. I'm just saying we might want one. Well, who? What mama? Mama's out here doing it for themselves. Uh-huh. I'm just eating a chicken parm before we get started. Ben, why did you do this? Yeah, it's the perfect timing. Who's this? You said I'm recording. You're like, anyway, I'm ready to go. produces a gigantic sentence. Well, because you guys talked for so long. You couldn't have eaten like we were talking. Let me just read. I wasn't hungry. Let me just read. Ben Bosley. Are we recording right now? I'm recording this show. Are we recording right now? Are the mics rolling right now?

2:37:39Can we put this at the end of the episode? I think we should put it at the start of the damn episode. No, no, no. This should go in the clip, the clip show. I really think this is the start of the episode. It's not. Why not? Because he's eating a fucking sandwich on mic. He can mute his audio. I'm just going to have a couple bites. It's good. It's not the start of the episode It's not the start of the episode Why? It's incredibly funny Unlike most of the things we'll be discussing this week It can also not be the start of the episode What are you talking about? What is this argument here? I think Ben is allowed his own moments of misophonia Because he's normally so good Like, he's not Ben is never the problem, in my opinion Sorry I love it Ben is never the problem

2:38:49them. production assistant is Minnick. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production help. Head over to BlankCheckPod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit. Join our Patreon, Blank Check Special Features, for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social at Blank Check Pod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Checkbook, on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by Blank Check Productions.