‘High Fidelity’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Joanna Robinson, and Rob Mahoney

8:01Bill Simmons:Yeah, and I think you could say in singles, as like Bridget Fonda as a co-protagonist? Would you put Heathers in this group?

8:06Rob Mahoney:Or is that...

8:07Bill Simmons:I wouldn't, but it's close.

8:09Rob Mahoney:I think Heathers and Say Anything to me are a different kind of high school movie than the ones that I had gotten previous to that. So they're different than John Hughes. But what is Heathers

8:17Joanna Robinson:teaching us about Gen X? I guess is the question.

8:22Bill Simmons:So when you were younger than Gen X, CR was right at the tail end and I was like head first in the middle of it. So when you both look at Gen X, what do you see?

8:30Joanna Robinson:I'm a cusper. I like to claim Gen X

8:33Chris Ryan:I mean, obviously the jadedness, I think, is part of it. And clearly just like the such a strong pushback against any kind of like sellout culture or enfranchisement in any way. Like there's such an independent spirit. And with that, I think just comes like a cold, hard, honestly, bitter shell to a lot of these movies and stories. And you can see that with Rob through and through. Like he is closing himself off from the world in this book, in this movie. And just like, you know, fiddling through his record collection as a way to keep warm at night. But I think that's kind of what sticks out to me the most about these Gen X stories.

9:05Joanna Robinson:It's funny that you went through these, like, Gen X signposts because I was thinking about this. I think this is a great retail movie.

9:10Rob Mahoney:Yeah.

9:11Joanna Robinson:Like a hang at the store movie. Yeah. And you've got Clerks, 94. Empire Records, 95. You've got Mail, which I was a bookstore clerk, so that's what I would count, 98. I think that counts. You know, and then you've got this 2000. It was like a nice little run for, like—

9:26Bill Simmons:And even throw mall rats in there, sort of, kind of. at least the head-toe-ball shopping.

9:31Joanna Robinson:But yeah, exactly. So like hanging out in your retail job is, you know, I think this is all comes from clerks. But that's my favorite part of this movie. Like Rob and Laura is interesting to me, but the guys in the store. Well, in a slacker kind of,

9:47Rob Mahoney:the bookstore in slacker kind of works for this as well

9:49Bill Simmons:as like a retail hangout place. One other thing with Gen X that this movie hits perfectly is you're kind of stuck with the people you were stuck with wherever you lived. And they weren't exactly... It's like, you're not on the OKC Thunder this year. You're not winning 75 games. You're kind of on a play-in team. But you have all this content you want to talk about. And it's like, well, these are the people I guess I have to talk to about this. These two guys showed up to work and I never left. Don't stop. Name names. But he's with these two guys that I'm not even sure he really likes. And they're not that likable.

10:21Bill Simmons:But they're all just kind of together every day doing top five. And he's just almost like a stand-up doing a beat.

10:27Joanna Robinson:But that's the joy of the retail job, especially like based around, like, I would say music or books or something like that, where it's just sort of like you have this base thing in common where you love books or you love music or you love like people worked. I worked at a movie theater. You love movies. Yeah. And so even if you like different genres, there is this sort of you wind up becoming friends with a weird group of people where you have this core thing in common. But otherwise, your paths would never cross.

10:52Chris Ryan:So you're saying what you like is more important than what you are like.

10:54Joanna Robinson:I actually agree with that. It's at least kind of true, right? And I found myself sick to my stomach when I was like, I know we're not supposed to agree with this, but I kind of...

11:03Rob Mahoney:It's like the Dark Finstock Award. It's like, it doesn't matter. I agree with Joe. I mean, like, I remember the names of almost everybody I worked with at a record store, but like, forget names of people that I met last year, you know? And there is also like, it's a very important time in your life when you're kind of in college, coming out of college, or if you're just like entering the workforce, the retail jobs that I had and the record store jobs specifically that I had, I was like, you know what? If nothing ever else happens to me, I'd be good. Like, I kind of would still work at a record store if I could.

11:39Rob Mahoney:I get nostalgic for it.

11:40Joanna Robinson:I'm like, can I do that on the weekends?

11:42Rob Mahoney:Can I go into the bookstore on the weekends? Intellectually stimulating while being physically mechanical. So like, you just don't have to do that much. You just bullshit with people all day about stuff you're interested in. And then like the things that you're quote unquote responsible for are like alphabetizing. and moving things. That actually does sound very stupid.

11:59Joanna Robinson:A lot of shelving. And then you close the store door at the end of the day and then you're done with work. Yes.

12:05Rob Mahoney:And lots of cigarette breaks.

12:06Bill Simmons:Yeah, I remember my buddy Gus from high school, we used to play this game called The Name Game where you said Joanna Robinson and then I had to say the next name had to have Joanna or Robinson in it. And we would just keep going until you could try to stump the next person. So we did a Robinson Cano and then Frank Robinson. We did a ton of rope. We'd be driving somewhere for three hours. This sounds like a road trip game. We didn't have podcasts to listen to. It's like, let's play the name game. And you'd eventually get to some crazy name like Trajan Langdon. It's like, fuck, I have nowhere to go.

12:37Bill Simmons:I don't know another Trajan. But that's the kind of shit you did in the 90s. You're just killing time with content. And you'd hear somebody's theory or take on some movie or music album or something and be like, that's fucking amazing. Oh, yeah.

12:50Rob Mahoney:Well, there was also... You can find it on the internet anywhere. There was no comment section. So people would be like, I'm going down in flames with this take.

12:57Joanna Robinson:Yeah.

12:57Rob Mahoney:And the only comment section is the bar. So I don't have to worry about this following me around for years if I want to say this band is better than Pavement or this band is a better movie than Apocalypse Now or whatever. Yeah, yeah. You could just have one glorious night and then be like, oh, I had four beers. That's why I thought that. But now, if you're like High Fidelity is better than Nashville today, people will freaking at you for a while. and you'll be like, well, that was miserable. Yeah, drunk takes were huge

13:27Bill Simmons:back in the day.

13:29Rob Mahoney:I think drunk takes still exist.

13:30Chris Ryan:They're just, you know, experienced and documented differently. They have consequences.

13:33Rob Mahoney:I love your point about the people you're stuck with, though. Like, that is one thing that this movie gets really right is the Barry and Dick and Rob trio. Yeah. Is like, they spend more time together than anybody else in their lives. But like, Rob is just like, they just started appearing here.

13:52Bill Simmons:Right, it was supposed to be three days a week.

13:53Rob Mahoney:He says that, but he goes out every night with them. Of course. You would go out every night with your coworkers from the store. Because that would be the people who are getting off work at 9.30 or 10. And you'd be like, okay, let's go see a band. Let's go to the bar.

14:07Bill Simmons:But then Dick moves to, I don't know, Austin with Anna. And would never talk to these guys ever again. Never again. They would never connect ever.

14:15Joanna Robinson:I moved a lot. I worked in a bookstore all through my 20s. And I moved a lot in my 20s. And every time I went to a new town, I worked in a new bookstore. and then you just have built-in community. And it was so easy to move to a new town when you have that sort of like retail fam.

14:30Rob Mahoney:Or were you like the Patrick Swayze of Roadhouse of bookstores? The cooler. The cooler of the bookstores, yeah. Hey, Joe Robinson's in town.

14:38Joanna Robinson:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can't pin me down, man.

14:41Bill Simmons:Who was there? Sam Elliott. The Gen X blueprint I wrote down. I might have missed a couple of things. Turning pop culture into therapy. Yeah. reading way way way too much into music or movies caring way too much about a relationship because you didn't have enough else to care about that was 100 true you're just missing like three things hanging out with people you didn't really like that much we talked about that being tortured that you're not doing what you thought you'd be doing i think probably is still the case now but in gen x was like a badge of honor that i don't want to do this i don't know how i got into this like almost like proud but not willing to change it but it was almost like

15:19Joanna Robinson:there's something virtuous about working like retail or something like that where you're just like I'm not making a ton of money I'm doing this for the passion XYZ I feel like millennials when they complain about not being where they want to be it's like because the economy screwed me right and with Gen X it's like because I have principles because I don't want to sell out yeah yeah yeah

15:37Bill Simmons:wouldn't it be nice to have principles you know but think about Rob he he was a good DJ allegedly he probably made money from it like he was getting complimented and he was the happiest he'd ever been And then he did it. But now he's like in this record store that nobody goes to. And that's just what he decided.

15:54Rob Mahoney:That was also like a very, I don't know if this happened with you in the bookstore, but like the moment you get any recognition from within the sort of business side of working in a store, you're like, wait a second, this is my life plan. Yeah, I was also a manager

16:09Joanna Robinson:and I'm like, I don't want keys.

16:10Rob Mahoney:You should think about doing this for a long time. I'm like, whoa.

16:14Bill Simmons:Two more blueprint things. settling with someone solid when you're not sure if you can do better, which was big. Even in like Beautiful Girls, he was dating.

16:23Joanna Robinson:Oh, especially Beautiful Girls. They're doing the ratings

16:25Bill Simmons:and it's like, what is she? And he's like, she's solid seven and a half. And they're like, seven and a half. And they're like, yep, solid seven and a half. And he can't decide if that's good enough. That was a big Gen X culture thing. And then you're the same person you used to be and I'm not. Which Laura says to him. Yes. Was a classic Gen X thing of somebody's like, I'm 32 and I'm doing the exact same things I was doing when I was 27. What happened? Five years just went by.

16:52Rob Mahoney:And this is like, if you were going to continue the sort of jumping the lily pads from this movie onwards, the man trapped in a boy's mind thing is essentially the template for like the early Apatow movies, you know, like for Knocked Up and like, I just want to hang out with my friends and just fucking play D &D and watch movies. And it's like, yeah, but grow up, right? Like you're almost 30.

17:17Joanna Robinson:When you, to go back to the settling for someone in this movie in high fidelity, who's settling? Do you think? Well, I think it's Laura. It's both.

17:28Chris Ryan:I think it's both sides on that one.

17:30Joanna Robinson:It's definitely Laura.

17:31Chris Ryan:When she says like, I'm too tired not to be with you. There's something kind of romantic about that. I don't know. There's something about the comforts of finding your 7.5 out of 10 person.

17:42Rob Mahoney:This is the big weird curveball that this movie throws is that there is not a gesture in this movie the way there is in singles where he's like, I want to be Mr. New to you. You know, like there is none of that here. It's basically like have sex with me after my dad's funeral. And I guess we're back together.

17:59Chris Ryan:I guess the gesture is I didn't. I made the tape for the reporter, but it didn't mean anything to me. I told you about it. I disclosed it.

18:05Joanna Robinson:Even though I proposed, even though I was pretty sure you wouldn't say yes. Yeah.

18:08Bill Simmons:Wasn't the gesture have sex with me or I'm going to go home and put my hand in a fire or you can put some cigarettes out on me? Those are my three options. Those are the options. Sex it is. ABC. This is not a romantic movie in the traditional way. Yeah, no boom boxes

18:22Joanna Robinson:in the rain. Just pay phones and piles of quarters.

18:25Bill Simmons:Yeah, I was going to do this on Unanswerables later but these two do not actually get married. No chance. Yeah, this is a wrap. Craig, can you give us your Gen X thoughts?

18:34Rob Mahoney:About the generation? Yeah.

18:36Bill Simmons:When you see Gen X represented in movies and TV. What do you see?

18:41Rob Mahoney:Well, I don't want to spoil my... That factors into my entire opinion. All right, save it.

18:45Bill Simmons:Okay. I intentionally didn't learn how to pronounce Laura's real-life name because I knew I had Joanna here and nobody pronounces names of actresses and actors better than Joanna.

18:57Joanna Robinson:Great. I'm going to... Picture me last night in my hotel room wandering around just muttering this over and over and over again to see if I can... I came up with Ibn Yala. That's what I got. Is that what you got? I heard yala.

19:08Chris Ryan:I heard something like yala. Like it just depends on the... Ibn Yala. How much Danish spice you want to put on that last pronunciation? What do you have to say?

19:17Rob Mahoney:Yala. But like that was just one version of the internet's response to how to pronounce this one.

19:22Bill Simmons:Well, for the rest of the pod, we'll be calling her the lady who played Laura.

19:25Chris Ryan:I think Ibn is doable. Ibn is doable. You can do my word. Come on.

19:29Bill Simmons:Well, she said...

19:30Chris Ryan:Also, this is a Scandinavian podcast. I need you to be very careful about this one situation.

19:34Bill Simmons:I don't want the Swedes to come after me. she said I knew tons of guys like Rob where it was ages before they understood that relationships and committing and having kids is a good thing and it doesn't mean you have to lose yourself for who you are or what you like to do and then she said Rob is the sort of character I would fall for to me he symbolizes a whole generation of what matters is not what you're like but what you like so that was an interesting way to put it

20:00Joanna Robinson:I mean well that's the movie

20:01Bill Simmons:the things you like but my question is is that now too the things you like are what you like are what you are like

20:08Joanna Robinson:what's the difference between podcasters and these guys in the record store it's a great question

20:12Bill Simmons:I don't know

20:12Chris Ryan:I mean we're here because I'm not happy about it

20:18Bill Simmons:I'm not happy about it yeah then there's the with the Gen Xers this is a whole different era of hopeless romantics of courting and standing outside somebody in the pouring rain I don't know if this happens in the same way anymore now somebody would just call the police or take a cell phone video

20:32Rob Mahoney:or you'd just be on Hinge being like eh Sorry, dude.

20:35Bill Simmons:I'm on Tinder. My next question. Did this book slash movie create the top five list? Like for real? Because I'm going to say no, but I also can't think of what did.

20:47Chris Ryan:This is a pre-Apex Mountain for top fives? Maybe, yeah.

20:50Joanna Robinson:Like Casey Kasem? Casey Kasem? Yeah.

20:55Bill Simmons:No, that's... The countdown. His countdown might have been it. Yeah.

20:59Rob Mahoney:When does PTI start? Later. After this. I know they weren't doing top fives, but they were doing that like the idea of a countdown and the idea of like a sort of menu for the day. We would do more arguing one thing against another thing.

21:14Bill Simmons:Yeah. Versus lists.

21:15Joanna Robinson:We weren't doing a lot of lists. We were doing what's the best.

21:18Bill Simmons:Like you do like, I don't know, best Harrison Ford movie or you do Barry Sanders versus Emmett Smith. Yes.

21:24Rob Mahoney:Right.

21:24Bill Simmons:Perns versus Hagler. It was a lot of that. It was a lot of 1v1, not lists.

21:28Rob Mahoney:There was, and there was also like a, I think this movie or this book kind of introduced the idea to me at least of or like i don't remember a time before it of top five track one side one like very specific lists and then also adding like sublists into the list or giving excuses for it i

21:46Bill Simmons:would say that was really influential at least for me like thinking about like writing columns and being like how far is too far and be like the answer is like especially when i was doing like the first year of the mailbag or something like every question's on board no answer can be detailed enough and fuck it let's go for it because that book is like the lists are crazy in

22:04Chris Ryan:the book yeah in a good way the only reason i think this is not the outset of the top fives is that barry in particular has all these like second and third wave opinions about list making yeah it's like oh you can't do the four safe ones in the one modern classic or else i'm gonna call you a pussy so it's like it's it's been happening somewhat for a while at this point right yeah there's like it's

22:23Rob Mahoney:been iterating a couple of there's a couple of like big bangs there's like tarantino in sleep with me doing the Top Gun speech. I'm so glad you brought this up. It's like where I first saw the guy in the bar who's like, I have a fucking take that's going to blow your mind. And it was like to see that on screen and to know that there were satellite dudes like that in every town.

22:46Joanna Robinson:Well, this is what the Kevin Smith Uber is too. It's like just an assemblage of those hot takes.

22:51Bill Simmons:And kicking and screaming too. And what was the top eight, whatever movies when they did? It's like, ding. Yes. Ding, which was before this movie. but anytime I would see that in a movie I'd be like, oh like the Tarantino thing is the ultimate example. That was so great and so random in that movie and it was like it became the most memorable part of the movie but to see somebody do that in a movie, it was like, that's what me and my friends do. We do weird shit. Like there's more of us? Like it was constantly trying to discover that there was more out there than just this little weird group you had.

23:22Bill Simmons:And it turns out it was everybody.

23:24Rob Mahoney:Funny thing. Because I think that this is actually similar to what goes on now because we have so much access to streaming stuff but back then from the 90s to the 2000s like in 95 especially on i remember this huge flood of like used stuff then like you you could basically build up a record collection for like a couple of dollars per lp and you could start being like i listened to funkadelic and i listened to industrial music and i listened to public enemy and I listened to the Beatles. And it wasn't that expensive to have that kind of breadth of taste.

24:00Bill Simmons:Yeah. Which is why Barry's so interesting because he's got like hipster taste in some ways,

24:07Rob Mahoney:but he's also like, I listened to Katrina and the Waves and Rob, obviously, like the kind of variance of people's tastes was really interesting for those kinds of arguments and those kinds of lists.

24:17Bill Simmons:I thought of a better top 10, top five thing. It was Letterman, the top 10 list. Sure. Of course. That started like 85 and that was my show. First he did it, ironically, he was making the stupidest list possible. And then they became one of the staples of the show and became a serious thing.

24:34Joanna Robinson:And he's like the Gen X Sherpa, is David Letterman.

24:38Bill Simmons:But I wonder with Nick Hornby, did he even know about Letterman? I'm sure he knew about Letterman. He must have, right?

24:46Joanna Robinson:Rob, can I ask you? Please. Is this Rob the top pop culture Rob?

24:51Chris Ryan:The top Rob?

24:53Joanna Robinson:because I couldn't like... Top five Robbs? Rob Roy.

24:56Chris Ryan:Rob Lowe is pretty big. No, but that's like fictional Robbs. Oh, fictional Robbs? Fictional Robbs. Fictional Robbs. Yeah.

25:03Joanna Robinson:There aren't that many. I was looking.

25:04Chris Ryan:Are there fictional Robbs? I honestly can't look at that many. Rob Roy was the only other one

25:07Joanna Robinson:I could think of.

25:07Chris Ryan:What do you mean? Rob Stark.

25:09Joanna Robinson:Rob Stark has two Bs. It doesn't count. No, two Bs doesn't count?

25:12Rob Mahoney:You were in your hotel room being like fictional Robbs and how to pronounce your name.

25:16Joanna Robinson:Even Yala. I have a normal existence here. Don't worry about it.

25:19Bill Simmons:How do you add the second B with Rob? Did we ever figure that out? Where does the second B come from? It doesn't make any sense.

25:24Joanna Robinson:That's just George R.R. Martin's way. He likes to add consonants.

25:26Bill Simmons:Now, does anyone else do the double Rob? Does who? Like, who else does double Rob? Double B? Anybody? Well, there's the Rob report,

25:33Rob Mahoney:but that's not Rob. Like, that's the, yeah.

25:36Bill Simmons:Jen with two N's was always at least understandable because it was Jennifer, but it was always suspicious because Jen should have one N. Yeah. So anytime someone added the second N, they were usually on the real world or a show like that. It's like, oh, Jen with two N's. when you were bartending

25:51Rob Mahoney:it was like don't give Jem with two N's any extra shots Jem with two N's

25:55Bill Simmons:like oh she's here today

25:59Bill Simmons:the cast of this movie that includes Cusack who I can't wait to talk about Jack Black Todd Luiso yeah I never knew his name until the research of this movie I just knew him as the Manny and the guy from this movie Manny and Dick I didn't know he had a name in real life but he also directed Love Liza which I found out yeah Yeah. It's like directed multiple movies. Couldn't believe it. He's so good in this too.

26:23Chris Ryan:I know Jack Black is all the shine, but like having the like nebbish guy off to the side is like so anxious. He can barely contain himself as he's getting the taste. You need him.

26:32Rob Mahoney:I need to talk to him about. So I'll talk to him about that

26:34Chris Ryan:when I talk about those other things.

26:35Bill Simmons:You need him to make like Barry work.

26:38Joanna Robinson:Yeah. They have a beautiful thing going.

26:40Bill Simmons:It's a good combo. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lisa Bonet, Sarah Gilbert.

26:46Joanna Robinson:Chris Bowers in this movie? Cut from the movie. oh he was cut I know he's on IMDb but he was cut he's briefly in it which deleted scene is he in it I thought he was in it for a split second so I think his initial scene

26:57Chris Ryan:got cut and then you see like a two second dinner party sequence after they get back together where he's like bringing a plate to a table Frank Sabaka's here Frank Sabaka barely made the cut

27:06Joanna Robinson:okay

27:06Bill Simmons:Lily Taylor Joan Cusack Tim Robbins and one of my all time favorites Natasha Gregson Wagner always dug her

27:19Joanna Robinson:way to go a primo nepo baby one of the best

27:23Bill Simmons:just had some moments never sure why it didn't fully come together but I was always and she was married to one of the screenwriters for a while yeah great job by her okay so we'll talk about Jack Black here this is a really important Jack Black performance he steals the movie

27:39Joanna Robinson:this is the Jack Black like this is to me

27:41Bill Simmons:this leads to School of Rock everything else is this the best Jack Black performance

27:44Joanna Robinson:I think so he said this is his best performance.

27:47Chris Ryan:School of Rock is carrying more though. You know, he gets to come in and be heat checking constantly in this. School of Rock, he has to be the emotional center of the movie and the Jack Black of the movie.

27:57Bill Simmons:Would you rather have this version of Jack Black coming off the bench?

28:02Chris Ryan:Yeah.

28:02Bill Simmons:And just shooting threes or do you want Jack Black in the Jalen Brown Celtics role right now? I kind of want him in the Jalen Brown role. Really?

28:08Chris Ryan:I mean, only in a specific kind of movie. I prefer this version of him,

28:13Rob Mahoney:sixth man Jack Black. but the streets have spoken. And like he is one of the most reliable movie stars in the world now.

28:20Joanna Robinson:I think he's the number one movie star of Gen Alpha, wouldn't you say?

28:24Rob Mahoney:Probably, yeah.

28:25Joanna Robinson:Yeah, maybe even Judd Z.

28:27Rob Mahoney:Yeah.

28:27Joanna Robinson:But like Minecraft, Mario Brothers, Jumanji, like all these things that are directed for kids, Goosebumps, like he's the king of the kid franchise. And I think for generations of people, Jack Black is the biggest movie star in the world. Super Mario Brothers.

28:39Chris Ryan:Like I guess there really is a straight line not just to School of Rock, but to like Bowser singing ballads. Like it's a very strange world we live in.

28:46Rob Mahoney:I went to a pre-Luca Lakers game last year and he got a bigger round of applause courtside than anybody else like on the floor. And I think like Wemby was playing.

28:55Joanna Robinson:I mean, he's easily the biggest like thing to come out of this movie without question. And then thinking about...

29:01Bill Simmons:Well, I didn't know who he was before I saw this movie. Same. Like he came out of like a fucking canon. You're like, what? Especially his first scene.

29:08Joanna Robinson:Tenacious D was already on HBO, but like I this was like his calling card like this was

29:13Bill Simmons:which show was he at?

29:14Joanna Robinson:there was a Tenacious D yeah Tenacious D show with his band HBO show

29:17Bill Simmons:that's sad

29:18Rob Mahoney:do you remember him in the Day of the Jackal remake with Bruce Willis and Richard Gere where he gets his arms blown off I 100 % do

29:25Joanna Robinson:he's also an airborne yes a very important movie famously an airborne

29:28Rob Mahoney:you know if you were ever going to let me pick a rewatchable it wouldn't be Sicario it would be the Jackal it would be Day of the Jackal yeah

29:34Bill Simmons:I saw Tenacious D at some point after we moved out here when it was the right time to see them and it was like really amazing. He's just such a great stage performer and captures it. But I still think his best scene is the first scene.

29:48Rob Mahoney:It's one of their great characters. When he comes in and he's doing the stuff with his hands

29:51Bill Simmons:and there's just nobody like that.

29:53Joanna Robinson:I also just think there's like soul to Barry. Like his ambitions, his disappointment that Rob is willing to back like the teenagers instead of him and all this stuff like that. I just think, I think Jack Black has talked about how he was so nervous to make this movie. And so I think he's just just a little bit more restrained. And I like off the leash Jack Black, but I like just like a little bit of restraint. I'm not sure I can go to 11 in every single moment. I like that balance inside of this movie.

30:21Bill Simmons:How about Zeta Jones? Where does this rank for her? Because for me, it's like... What's that? Way up there!

30:29Rob Mahoney:I wish she had done more movies like this. Yeah, just come in and... I wish she had just played more, quote unquote, normal people. Where, you know, obviously she just gets cast in a lot of like, really big blockbusters and pretty like comic comic not comic book roles but like really out there roles and this is just like charlie this is like a lady that you would know she's great

30:50Chris Ryan:and if i can borrow a dobbinsism it's very important like her in a pretender's t-shirt

30:54Bill Simmons:is a very important thing this was a specific type of woman that i'm sure still exists that i

31:01Joanna Robinson:always had my number which which like the the college version or the terrible had your number

31:07Bill Simmons:The terrible version. No, just, you're annoying, and I don't even want to put the two hours in here, but you look great, and I'm just glad I'm here. But God, you're annoying. But God, you're great. And just that kind of battle. Yeah. And she's not in this movie that much, but she's so good in the parts. And she's so, so, like, just phony. And I just knew people like this. But you couldn't stay away from them.

31:32Joanna Robinson:But I just love that revelation he has, because you get the flashback version of her, and you're like, you believe Rob that she's the most fascinating person that's ever existed. And then he meets her now and he's like, wow, she's the worst. She's absolutely the worst person.

31:44Chris Ryan:I mean, she probably was when he was 22. Exactly.

31:46Joanna Robinson:But we're just seeing the horny haze.

31:49Bill Simmons:The great thing for me is that some of these people are still on Instagram now and they just don't change.

31:57Joanna Robinson:I would say this is the core.

31:59Bill Simmons:The real life Charlies. I would say they are the core of Instagram. But I mean, they're like in their 50s now. Still making all the type of nod.

32:07Joanna Robinson:They poured the concrete upon which Instagram is.

32:09Bill Simmons:Yeah, they really did. They started it. There's a Lily Taylor cameo. Always fun when the Cusacks are in a movie together. Yes. And then.

32:18Joanna Robinson:How mad do you think Piven is that he's not in this movie? Oof.

32:22Bill Simmons:I had that in Unanswerables. Like, I don't. They were their best friends. And it's a Chicago movie. I don't know what happened. And then my queen, Lisa Bonet, is in this movie.

32:33Joanna Robinson:Incredible casting. Really, really good work.

32:36Rob Mahoney:Unreal. Pre-LA law Susan Day, but black. Yeah. It's a good description. Honestly, it kind of works. Post-partridge family pre-LA law. Shockingly accurate. The way he delivers that is so crazy. It's really good. So distracted.

32:53Bill Simmons:I'm just going to move on. Just like offhand.

32:54Joanna Robinson:Tosses it off. Yeah.

32:55Bill Simmons:Want to do some Stephen Frears?

32:58Joanna Robinson:I'd love to do some Stephen Frears.

32:59Bill Simmons:He does Dangerous Liaisons in this movie.

33:02Joanna Robinson:You love Dangerous Liaisons. I love Dangerous Liaisons. I know. We talked about this. One of my favorite things, like doing research for this, is how many people lost their shit about working with Stephen Farris because of Dangerous Liaisons. You skipped The Grifters, right? Yeah.

33:16Rob Mahoney:The Grifters is in between.

33:16Bill Simmons:That's the thing. If you put his best movies all next to each other, it's crazy. Where do you rank? It's like just all over the place. Where do you rank Mary Riley? I never liked Mary Riley. I didn't like Too Skinny.

33:27Joanna Robinson:You have to say it like that because that's how they said it in all the trailers. Did you like it? No. Nobody liked Mary Riley. Julie Roberts doing it bonkers. Irish accent

33:34Bill Simmons:what was the other one the big Steve Bufres well the Grifters My Beautiful Laundrette

33:38Joanna Robinson:My Beautiful Laundrette yeah did he do the hit is that him no I don't think so but after this he just veers really into like sort of Miramax fuddy-duddy British costume drama

33:48Chris Ryan:period piece a lot of very British movies that's like the most American thing you probably ever

33:53Rob Mahoney:I always wondered whether I was trying to figure out who Jim Broadbent is supposed to be in J. Kelly you know the British director. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like, it has a little bit of Frears, a little bit of Mike Newell, who was also originally attached to this, or Bogdanovich.

34:10Joanna Robinson:Do you think Frears makes a good sandwich? What do you think? I bet. Yeah, I bet it does.

34:14Bill Simmons:Liaisons is on the 26th rewatchable slate.

34:17Joanna Robinson:It's gotta be.

34:19Bill Simmons:Watched it just randomly two weeks ago, and I was like, I forgot this movie's amazing. This is like an amazing movie. Anyway, this movie is based on the Nick Hornby book. Obviously, they gave him 500K.

34:31Rob Mahoney:Wow. I struck a change back then.

34:33Bill Simmons:Yeah. He is a fan of the movie. It was developed for three years with somebody named Mike Newell, who's the director, and beautiful girl Scott Rosenberg. Yeah. Who was the guy who was dating Bridget Moynihan or maybe even married to her before Tom Brady started dating him. It was a Boston guy. And it was always like the all-time conundrum. You're like a giant Pats fan.

34:56Rob Mahoney:I'd watch it. But you lose your girl to Tom Brady,

34:59Bill Simmons:your quarterback. it's the great rom-com nobody ever made yet Cusack got a hold of it and they moved it from London to Chicago I can't wait to talk about some of the Cusack oral history performances just wait

35:19Chris Ryan:on the edge of our seats

35:20Bill Simmons:just wait but he said when I read the book I knew where everything was in Chicago I knew where American Rob went to school and dropped out where he used to spin records I knew that he does the whole thing. He knew. He just felt like it could all switch over and be a transition. He was right. To me, this movie actually is like

35:39Rob Mahoney:one of the rare examples of a hipster movie or like kind of cool movie that actually got in under the wire before all the stuff it was talking about was sort of over. Which is sort of the criticism people love at singles, which is like, it feels like they're like a year behind everything. this was like actually a great time in Chicago music all these venues were like iconic like all my friends who would tour to Chicago be like do you think we'll be able to play lounge acts or whatever and the bars we'll get to all the locations but it's a great Chicago movie

36:11Bill Simmons:30 million dollar budget made 47 million dollars it's fine Roger Ebert four stars

36:19Joanna Robinson:Raj?

36:20Bill Simmons:Raj came in hot came through? he loved this movie what a shock that Raj liked this movie he said watching high fidelity i had the feeling i could walk out of the theater and meet the same people on the street and want to which is an even higher compliment

36:35Joanna Robinson:roger's in the number of people probably roger even included who read this book or watched this movie and said i am rob is really fascinating to me probably disturbing as well yeah but like the number of guys were like that is me that that is exactly me and i was like that guy's an asshole like an asshole and an arc but an asshole okay

36:54Bill Simmons:you're missing the other piece of that I'm not missing what am I missing that is the arc that is the movie there was that group but there was the other group who was like I'm not Rob why do you think I'm Rob right yes and the people who were defensive that they weren't Rob even though they probably were more Rob

37:10Joanna Robinson:than the other guys by the way

37:12Bill Simmons:that's Chuck Close to me because he literally said like people come up to him and be like you must love high fidelity you're just like Rob and he's like I'm not Rob

37:19Chris Ryan:yeah just about the meanest thing you could say to somebody Especially Chuck.

37:23Bill Simmons:Chuck doesn't want to be pigeonholed by a movie character. But yeah, so those were the two groups. Sure. I remember I left singles.

37:29Joanna Robinson:And then the women saying, I've dated Rob. Yes.

37:31Bill Simmons:I left singles.

37:33Rob Mahoney:Guess I dated him and I'll do it again.

37:37Bill Simmons:I left singles at the Chestnut Hill Mall and was with a female friend of mine and we left and she thought I was like, eh.

37:46Rob Mahoney:Okay.

37:46Bill Simmons:I thought, she thought I was like the Campbell Scott character and it really threw me off for the rest of the night. Because you thought you were the Matt Dillon character? I was like, I'm not any of those characters. What are you talking about? She's like, no, you're just like that guy. And I'm like, what? And there's nothing worse than being compared to a movie character when you don't feel like you're the movie character. You know what I mean?

38:05Joanna Robinson:But if I wanted to be anyone in that movie, it might be Campbell Scott in singles. If you had to pick. If I had to pick. Yeah.

38:11Bill Simmons:I've just ruined transportation in Seattle and I just ordered Chinese food every day. Dramatically improved

38:18Joanna Robinson:transportation in Seattle.

38:19Bill Simmons:My thing I spent a year on, it was a huge failure. It was like a connection with Xavier McDaniel.

38:24Joanna Robinson:What are your thoughts on garage door openers?

38:27Bill Simmons:A lot of them. We're going to take a break, and then we're going to do most rewatchable scene. Most rewatchable scene. The beginning. What came first? The music or the misery? What came first, CR? The music. I think the misery came first.

38:45Rob Mahoney:You think that there's something inside of a person? about the misery which then it became

38:48Bill Simmons:a cycle

38:49Rob Mahoney:but when you're young and you're like I don't know what I am yet maybe you have lots of different feelings but you can't put words to them yet and then you see like look at this really like my friend's older sister who likes the Smiths what's up with that like that's dark I get it that's me you know like there's a certain kind of like you're basically molding your personality to the things that you like

39:11Joanna Robinson:I think there's nothing stronger when people talk about music there's nothing stronger than the song you listen to when you broke up with the breakup song. And what is the song that got you through this breakup? Or what is the song that always reminds you of that breakup? And so that's like the epitome of misery and music together. But the misery came first before the music. The music to the misery. I'm just thinking about... For a lot of people to break up songs... You're thinking day one, Adam and Eve, music was second.

39:38Chris Ryan:I'm thinking the kids people were not like, Morrissey, let's go. It's just not the vibe.

39:42Bill Simmons:That would have been amazing.

39:43Joanna Robinson:But maybe with their various instruments, they created a percussion version. Initially, misery was first.

39:50Bill Simmons:But then I think as we evolved as human beings, probably the music puts a face on the misery.

39:59Chris Ryan:Well, so much of our modern lives is how do we simulate danger? We watch sports to get the adrenaline rush, but it's not actually dangerous. And it's like we tap into sad music to feel something immense that's not actually harmful to us in a way. It's like they're just feelings. they're just emotions but it taps you into something different I don't know

40:17Bill Simmons:I remember it's funny because they play this song in the movie The River the acoustic version of The River by Bruce Springsteen one of the great concert album moments of all time when he tells the five minute story and I remember driving to Boston to go to a Celtic game listening to they put out that concert album and he's telling this the first time I heard this story and he's like when I was growing up there were two things my dad hated me and my guitar and he does this whole Bruce Springsteen thing and he was just driving like this is the and then you would hear things like that and they would really resonate and they'd say, you mean Bruce Springsteen was going through stuff in high school?

40:54Bill Simmons:It wasn't just me?

40:55Joanna Robinson:Why do you think they called Jeremy Ellen White and not you for the Springsteen biopic?

40:59Bill Simmons:You think I could have done it, Joanna?

41:01Joanna Robinson:I think you could have gotten that gold nomination as well.

41:08Bill Simmons:Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable or was I miserable because I listened to pop music was the other part of this. I would say that's probably 50-50. I like when he says, if you really wanted to mess me up, you should have gotten to me earlier. It's a great line.

41:21Chris Ryan:Very normal thing to say to somebody.

41:24Bill Simmons:We know right away we're dealing with somebody who's messed up. All right, more rewatchable scenes. Jack Black's first scene we mentioned. Charlie, you fucking bitch, let's work it out. Just that little piece. When he's going to see Marie play.

41:35Chris Ryan:Yes.

41:37Bill Simmons:This is so funny when he does the John Doe Joe was shot dead. You know who tipped him off? His fucking girlfriend. And he just walks in. We get to see Lisa Bonet. Next one, Laura tells his sister the four reasons they broke up. Oh my God. Junky Suck didn't really enjoy that much.

41:58Rob Mahoney:She may have told her two,

42:00Chris Ryan:but perhaps all of the following pieces. If your list is four or five, like it's bad.

42:07Rob Mahoney:Well, because he does the like, I slept with somebody else. while she was pregnant and he's like, that's one. I was like, that's one. That's two. Where do we go from there?

42:15Bill Simmons:Rob plays the beta band in the store for everybody and that gets robbed. I liked this whole thing about playing the beta band and looking to see who reacted. It's a real thing. Classic record store move. Yeah, exactly.

42:29Bill Simmons:Charlie calls Rob back but then Ian shows up and then we get the four versions of how he handles Ian. It's great. Laura reading the top five jobs. Did you have some notes on that? The top five jobs?

42:41Rob Mahoney:I honestly felt very seen by that list. Rolling Stone, 76 to 79.

42:47Bill Simmons:Producer, Atlantic Records, 64 to 71. Singer, director, and architect. The top five.

42:53Chris Ryan:Seemed like a real invasion of privacy, I gotta say. Like, that's his list. It was in a drawer somewhere. Why did she even find it? I think all bets are off with Laura and Rob at that point. In terms of invasion of privacy. When you go have a tape, I mean, I get it.

43:04Bill Simmons:Rob and Laura get back together, but you know something's missing. And then my pick, which would be DJ Rob doing the concert, introing Sonic Death Monkey, who coming off that album with the two kids, their song, I Sold Mom's Wheelchair. Kinky Wizard, too. Yeah. Then Let's Get It On and the Jack Black, and then we get the ending. The last eight minutes of this movie is fantastic. That would be my pick. What's yours, Joanna?

43:29Joanna Robinson:I mean, I think you hit most of mine, but I will say that I want to expand on the beta band and say it's just that whole entire hand-selling sequence, right? Like Jack Black is hand-selling, you know, the Jesus and Mary chain. And Dick is hand-selling stiff little fingers, you know, and we're just like...

43:44Rob Mahoney:Just Joe casually dropping hand-selling right here is just unbelievable.

43:49Joanna Robinson:That's what they're doing, hand-selling. If you work in a bookstore, music store, you're just sort of like... And I like the different styles, right? Like Rob just plays it passively and he knows he's going to hook people, right? Jack Black is emotionally manipulating this guy into buying a stack. and then Dick is making like a very personal like connection with somebody.

44:08Chris Ryan:Yeah, you make it so craven for him. He's making a genuine effort with Anna, you know?

44:12Joanna Robinson:Right, but he's catching some of the strays while he does it, right? Is this the new Green Day? So I think that because I think this is such a good retail movie, I think the whole busy Saturday hand-selling vibe is my favorite. Do you have a favorite

44:26Rob Mahoney:hand-selling story? Favorite like...

44:28Joanna Robinson:Yeah, because, well, you can stack anything on staff favorites. and it'll fly out the door. Yeah. You can put something at point of sale. It'll fly out the door. You know, yeah.

44:41Bill Simmons:CR, I might have been more in it than you, but the bootleg CD culture in the 90s. Sure. The live stuff, yeah.

44:50Rob Mahoney:There was a store, actually in Kenmore Square,

44:52Bill Simmons:there was a store that had a whole bunch of great ones, but they would do the move of, it would be behind the counter. It's the only one I have with the high price. I can't sell it.

45:02Rob Mahoney:It's like what Jack Black does with Captain America. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

45:03Bill Simmons:And you would go back. It really worked. You would go back and be like, it's still there. Are you going to sell that yet? I don't know. And then eventually the fifth time they would sell it to you for$20. My favorite.

45:13Rob Mahoney:Yeah, what's your favorite? I was recreationally high on Adderall and a mom came into Newberry and was like, my kid really likes corn. Do you have any recommendations? And I was like, your kid doesn't like corn. And I like walked her through like the entire store. You pulled the, I just called to say I love you. And I was like, you got to get him for Gazi. You got to get him this. And I was just like, Like, I just changed that kid's life and that mom's life. But in retrospect, I was so high. She was probably like, I'm going to call the cops.

45:42Joanna Robinson:I had a woman come in. She was returning Hunger Games or something like that. And she was like, this is too violent. And for my kid, I'm bringing my kid up religiously. I don't like this. So I sold her His Dark Materials trilogy, where basically, like, they kill God. I was like, but she won't know that. So that's my favorite hand-selling story.

46:04Bill Simmons:I did the wine version of that when people order Pinot Grigio and I was like, you don't want Pinot Grigio. It sucks. Get a Chardonnay. Please try the Chardonnay. And if you don't like it, I'll get you the Pinot Grigio. Your favorite rewatch?

46:18Chris Ryan:I think it's when they go see Marie de Salle play. It's got the Dillinger trivia. It's got the Peter fucking Frampton, which is the only way I refer to him by his full God-given name now. It's got daydreaming about liner notes. It's got everybody swooning. And it's got Lisa Bonet in it. The whole movie kind of stops for a second. And everyone is just kind of marinating in it together.

46:38Bill Simmons:It's a great call. He's making me rethink my choice.

46:41Chris Ryan:I know.

46:42Bill Simmons:What do you have, Sierra?

46:42Rob Mahoney:I'm tied between Jack Black entrance scene, which culminates with Cosby's sweater.

46:46Bill Simmons:Yeah.

46:47Rob Mahoney:And the side one, track one, list making with the Captain Beefheart vinyl problem. And that whole sequence. Because that is Jack Black being like, oh, a new classic casually slipped into the end of the top five so that you don't look so boring. Interesting. And I just like, that is, you would just have that fight about like the nature of your own list making at that time. And it was just so perfect.

47:13Bill Simmons:Do you remember before we started Grantland, we went to New York because I still had to meet a couple of people and we all hung out at this bar. And it was like me and you and Katie Bakes and Klosterman. Maybe like two other people. Yeah, sure. Yeah. And all we did for four hours was shit like this where we're just arguing about all this. Is this a job interview? Like, what is happening? No, I was just like, oh, this is what Bill's actually like. It wasn't a job interview. Yeah, but it was like, this is what we did. It was like, it was kind of the vibe that I think was going to, we thought might be the website.

47:44Bill Simmons:But it was like, oh, all these people kind of get it. But that came out of like this weird era.

47:50Joanna Robinson:I do have to say the Tim Robbins fantasy sequence, the get your patchouli stink out of my store, as someone who worked at Bay Area bookstores for a decade, is my most... Thoughts about patchouli? that's my most quotable line from this movie get your patchouli stink out how many people did you bash

48:05Chris Ryan:over the head with an air conditioner

48:06Joanna Robinson:in my mind endless

48:08Bill Simmons:that was a good job by him the way he held it up yeah what's the most 2000 thing about this movie I have a few things but we'll go around what do you got Sierra

48:14Rob Mahoney:it's really weird but I noticed it this time is that when Laura first comes back to pack up her shit that's when she gets her laptop and it reminded me of like yeah I leave my computer at work you know like when I leave work I'm not checking my email I'm not like checking the internet. Oh, right. And it was just sort of like, if that was now, the laptop would be in her bag first. You know what I mean? She'd be like, I'm taking my computer, I'm taking my phone and all this stuff. So that jumped out at me.

48:44Chris Ryan:What do you have, Rob? That's a hard look in the mirror. I mean, bands, rock music. I think all that stuff is right there. But also calling the operator to get somebody's home address.

48:53Rob Mahoney:Oh, yeah.

48:53Chris Ryan:Absolutely not. Directory assistance. Definitely not. What do you have?

48:59Joanna Robinson:Rob's sunglasses, which I believe are Oakleys and they're just like right on the edge of 90s and into like 2000 style. They're just like right on the cusp.

49:09Bill Simmons:That's good. I have the last days of mixtapes.

49:13Chris Ryan:Yeah.

49:14Bill Simmons:Describing someone as Cheryl Crowish combined with Partridge Family pre-LA lawsuits a day but black. I don't know if that would fly now. Yeah. Like Craig wouldn't understand any of that. Being tortured by answering machine messages. It's the tail end of that era too. Yeah.

49:30Joanna Robinson:Smoking indoors?

49:31Rob Mahoney:Well, I was going to say...

49:32Bill Simmons:Smoking indoors is always in here.

49:33Rob Mahoney:I was going to ask if any Chicago listeners could just hit us up and let us know, could you still smoke at your workplace in 2000? Because I don't think so. If you owned the store? That is the twist. That was kind of right on the edge, though. But if you walked into Championship Vinyl and you were just like, these guys have been smoking darts in here with no windows open.

49:52Joanna Robinson:Don't you know that Championship Vinyl reeks of cigarette smoke and it doesn't matter when they stopped? It's a vice.

49:58Rob Mahoney:The only single person I've ever worked with at a record store were like inveterate chain smokers. But we did it outside. Sure, sure.

50:05Bill Simmons:Two more. Being afraid you'll end up someday working in a virgin megastore. Very 2000s. And then a guy in his late 20s, early 30s named Dick. That guy doesn't exist anymore. He's named Scout now. Craig, do you know any dicks?

50:21Rob Mahoney:Not a single dick. Bring back dick, I guess.

50:24Joanna Robinson:Bring back dick. Yeah, bring back dick.

50:25Bill Simmons:That's what we're going with? That's what I'm going with. All right. We're going to cut that out for social

50:30Joanna Robinson:Rob Mahoney Quick question Have you ever made a mixtape?

50:33Chris Ryan:Mixed CD, yes

50:34Joanna Robinson:But not a mixtape

50:35Chris Ryan:I mean, this will shock no one But after seeing this movie in high school I'm like, well, I got to follow Rob Gordon's advice For you got to start with the banger You got to lead it off Then you got to bring it back down Because you don't want to blow your wad It was like, there is a philosophy to it I was very bad at it But no mixtapes, only mixed CDs

50:50Rob Mahoney:There's just nothing like messing up a mixtape And being like, shit, I got to start all over again It's so madman

50:57Bill Simmons:I actually found my

50:58Joanna Robinson:I found an actual mixtape

51:01Bill Simmons:I made in 1993 That I made as a Spotify playlist And here was the order Feed the tree by belly Cantaloupe Flip Fantasia Fuck with Dre Day Let Me Ride Geppetto, Into Your Arms, Mr. Jones Time Capsule by Matthew Sweet Cannonball Make You Sweat by Keith Sweat I don't know why he's on this. This is so good. Ordinary World by Duran Duran. Remedy by the Black Crows. Let Me Go by Cake. Anna Begins. Mmm-mmm-mmm by the Crash Test Dummies. Loser. Get Off This. Amazing by Aerosmith. Uncertain Smile by The The. Human Behavior by Bjork. And it ends with Indigo Eyes. And I have no idea. I must have been hammered.

51:45Bill Simmons:Human Behavior by Bjork. 93 Bill.

51:48Rob Mahoney:Just vibing out.

51:49Bill Simmons:93 Bill. I think just trying to prove he had a lot of layers. I can't. I don't know who he was trying to prove it to.

51:54Joanna Robinson:I can't tell for me if it's the Counting Crows into Matthew Sweet or Cake into the Counting Crows. Like, what is the most quintessentially bill? Yeah, that's all of Rosetta Stone.

52:03Bill Simmons:That we would have been friends when I was 24 is what you learned. Best friends, yeah.

52:08Rob Mahoney:He would be like, you don't want Pinot Grigio.

52:11Bill Simmons:Joanna, just try this shirt. What's age the best? Mixtapes. Have they? Because of playlists? I think the mixtape is better than the playlist, and I'm going to make the case. I can do it now.

52:23Joanna Robinson:it takes so much longer.

52:25Bill Simmons:Yeah, I get it. Playlist, easier. Yeah. Pop them in. Digital. I get all of it, but there's something about the mixtape. No, I always agree with you. And not knowing.

52:34Joanna Robinson:The blood, sweat, and tears you put into the tape.

52:36Bill Simmons:Yeah. Well, but also not knowing where the mixtape's going to go is the art of the mixtape. And somebody's listening the first time and they don't know the order.

52:45Joanna Robinson:You didn't write out the tracks on the little thing?

52:47Bill Simmons:You tell them, don't look at the things. Just listen to it and take a ride on it.

52:51Rob Mahoney:Would you do cover art on the cover of the mixtape? No, I just would write the songs.

52:54Bill Simmons:What did you do?

52:55Rob Mahoney:Sometimes I would make like zine style like proper art.

52:58Bill Simmons:That's beautiful. CR. Fucking renegade. Renaissance man.

53:02Rob Mahoney:Jesus. Goddamn CR.

53:06Chris Ryan:But how is this not a Spotify feature where you can hide the track list? And so you could be surprised

53:11Rob Mahoney:You can make your own art on Spotify but you can't hide the track list. It's tough.

53:15Chris Ryan:That's the next frontier. We gotta mixtape this shit.

53:17Rob Mahoney:So it's almost like

53:18Bill Simmons:the vanished text that Apple has but for a playlist. You gotta hover over if you want to see the playlist.

53:23Rob Mahoney:You should request an emergency meeting with the top two guys at Spotify.

53:28Chris Ryan:Gustav. Have you seen High Fidelity? I have this great idea.

53:31Bill Simmons:Yeah, Gustav.

53:31Joanna Robinson:We're going to revolutionize playlists and it's mixtapes.

53:34Bill Simmons:I have a shitload of what's age the best, so give me yours. I was going to...

53:38Rob Mahoney:So I didn't know whether to do this here or Apex Mountain, but this is the best breaking of the fourth wall in cinema history. It's really great. And with the exception, maybe Ferris Bueller. Alfie. Sustained. Okay, yeah. I mean, Alfie's up there. I would say this is my favorite.

53:55Bill Simmons:What else is on the list?

53:56Rob Mahoney:Singles did it. Yeah. Singles did it. There's a lot of fourth wall breaking momentarily, like in Spaceballs or something like that. But to have it be, I am just addressing the camera. As your narrator. On the L.

54:11Bill Simmons:Ironically, it was Klosterman's biggest nitpick with the movie. Really? He doesn't like the staring into the camera.

54:16Joanna Robinson:I love it because they're using swaths of the book in that he's just reciting the book. but also one of my favorite parts of the movie is when Laura comes back and she hears the fourth wall break a very fleabag moment you know

54:27Chris Ryan:and when he wakes up the morning after Marie he's like whispering it so he doesn't wake her it's like all that stuff I think works texturally so well

54:33Rob Mahoney:the time when Joan Cusack calls him and is like I don't know how I feel about this Ian guy and then Marie comes in and he goes out of his office for a minute and talks to Lisa Bonet and then comes back and he goes what? fucking Ian? yeah yeah

54:47Joanna Robinson:that was just like in the back and percolating in his brain a hole scene yeah yeah could you have done this movie blind uh i'm

54:54Rob Mahoney:i'm finding that i don't need to look at my yeah

54:58Bill Simmons:what else do you have for what stage is the best

55:00Rob Mahoney:um there's a very very cool cusack moment which is uh like i'll give him some honor a dap for smoking here but the beat that he takes between taking a drag on a cigarette and revealing the four pieces of information that laura might have told liz is like it's everything you need to know about Rob where he like takes this drag and he's like okay and he's like you're an asshole but not without your charms and also probably uh Probably getting laid off the back of a parent dying because we call this the Jesse from Reality Bites. That was a move back then. Classic move.

55:42Chris Ryan:What do you got, Rob? Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On. I mean, only gets better with age, to be honest with you. I think vinyl relative to 2000, to your point, Chris, it has boomed way beyond my wildest expectations to the point where I never thought I would own a single record. It seemed inconceivable. When I was 15, I would ever buy one. And now you've got your tidy little collection of your favorites And it's like a nice analog way to experience

56:05Bill Simmons:What do you have, Joanna?

56:06Joanna Robinson:30-something white dudes talking about records and books and movies What are you talking about?

56:11Bill Simmons:Welcome to the ringer Exactly

56:17I have dickheads working in a record store

56:21Bill Simmons:Who don't actually care about customers or selling records It's a fucking staple This is what's the best? because that's the way it was

56:29Rob Mahoney:and the way it probably still is this is a perfect balance that we had in this country somehow these places could stay in business

56:37Bill Simmons:I don't want to name the store but I was in a store with Ben and they were just not interested in selling us anything because they were deep in a conversation behind the counter this has been a thing that's gone on for 30 plus years of like can you hold on a second I'm in the middle of this meaningless conversation with somebody I work with

56:54Rob Mahoney:or were you like I'm going to get on fucking Yelp and kill these guys.

56:57Bill Simmons:No, I think it's just the culture. The people that are in the store aren't in the store to make money for the store. They're in the store because it's a cool job and they get to hang with their whatever and it's like... Exactly.

57:06Chris Ryan:Hell yeah, comrade Bill. Power to the people, power to the working man.

57:09Joanna Robinson:You don't make enough money to care. You also don't make enough money to run down shoplifters. Rob does, but the fact that Barry goes, I'm like, you don't make enough money to do that.

57:19Bill Simmons:The concept of a grown-up Charlie I just thought was really well executed. To... what's aged the best two great theories from this movie the is it better to burn out or fade away is just a great question with elite Jack Black hand acting as he does it but that is

57:36Rob Mahoney:his Stevie Wonder point is like one of those like we're gonna fight about this for five hours because now it's like I don't think anybody really wants to hear anything negative about Stevie Wonder but like a dude throwing a Molotov cocktail and being like Stevie Wonder's greatest failures of the 80s is like yo alright man you're a takes man

57:53Bill Simmons:that was a classic Molotov cocktail fail point. You're right. Which you wouldn't do on the internet in the same way. The other one I loved was Rob's theory about how he tried to move up in weight class with Charlie and how guys have to punch their own weight. It's like one of the great theories that I've always been jealous of. He's like, what did he say? Is it welterweight or a middleweight?

58:15Rob Mahoney:I think he said he's a middleweight.

58:17Bill Simmons:He's like, I'm a middleweight. What was I thinking going up in class? I was like, that's fucking great. Katrina and the waves for What's Aged the Best. I think this was their only song. And it's probably a top five, the happiest song that anyone's ever made. And you just hear it and it's like, hey, let's go. Sad bastard music. I just like the phrase. How about movies where there's a cute lead actress and she really belongs to this movie and I don't know what else she was in. I'm sure she acted in a bunch of stuff. Like Danish stuff. Yes. But she belongs to this movie and when I see her, I see her in this movie.

58:55Bill Simmons:In America, yeah. Like, I'm glad this wasn't like Gwyneth Paltrow. Sure. You know what I mean?

59:00Joanna Robinson:You mean Ibn Yala? Ibn Yala.

59:03Chris Ryan:She's the Gwyneth Paltrow of Denmark, though, you know? True.

59:08Joanna Robinson:Well, did you read what Frere said about casting her?

59:10Chris Ryan:Yeah.

59:11Joanna Robinson:That he was like, if we cast an American, she would seem too much like Rob's mom, so we need someone who's like European. Just because Rob is such a man-child, and he's like, I need someone who won't feel like she's babysitting Rob.

59:23Bill Simmons:The problem is she still feels like she's babysitting Rob. It sure does. Busy coffee houses with people pounding cigarettes, CR? Yes. I know you were getting the shakes. I miss it. Overqualified stars doing small cameos. I just wish there was more of them. Like, just let's get Tim Robinson when he's red hot. It's going to be in, like, two scenes. At Hulu Remake Show, I think has aged the best. I liked it.

59:44Rob Mahoney:It's so good. This is just such a durable property.

59:47Bill Simmons:I just can't believe

59:48Rob Mahoney:that they gave up on it. And Zoe Kravitz was like, I would still be making that show today. She was fighting for it.

59:54Joanna Robinson:would

59:55Rob Mahoney:that's a weird one have her Oscar though if probably not but she's like me and Joey Kravitz text each other about how we wish we were still making High Fidelity

1:00:03Bill Simmons:alright here's my best what's age the best there's an Entertainment Weekly 2020 oral history about this movie and Cusack's on a heat check in it to the point that I decided to create a new award for the rewatch ball it's called the John Cusack hero ball award for biggest heat check in an oral history anniversary feature it's unbelievable

1:00:24Rob Mahoney:this could only go to like three movies

1:00:26Bill Simmons:it might never be given out again the cousin to this is the Wikipedia where somebody involved with the movie clearly wrote a lot of the Wikipedia which is also one of my favorite Cusack has quotes in his oral history these are actual quotes I knew that Jack Black would be my secret weapon he had made a movie with Tim Robbins and there was this sort of actors gang I knew the secret was that he was a great musician and a great comedian and hadn't gotten a role with High Fidelity yet. He's got like 10 of those in this where it's like everything was his idea. He knew this. He knew that. He pulled this off.

1:01:03Bill Simmons:He got Bob Dylan to give them most of the time. I was lucky enough to be friendly with him. So I called him up. And I said, do you want to be in this movie? Blah, blah, blah. And then he has this quote. My movies, at least the ones where I've been involved than producing or writing or co-creating it. A lot of times they don't get seen or loved right away when they come out. So that's pretty common. But I am proud of it. I put an enormous amount of effort and care into this film. The whole oral history is like that. He's just heat checking it. I sent it to CR.

1:01:36Rob Mahoney:It was such a bracing read. Doesn't he also just like, I had Springsteen on speed dial. I got him. He does that. Just called him up.

1:01:44Bill Simmons:Yeah, it's a spotty reputation for Cusack. I think Piven being his best, Best friend says a lot, I think.

1:01:51Joanna Robinson:Did you read the Frears quote where he was talking about working with him on The Grifters where he's like, I only had two good hours a day with John on The Grifters, so we had to schedule around that. He's like, by the time we did High Fidelity, he had figured it out and he could show up for a full day of work. But on The Grifters, he only gave me two hours a day and that's it.

1:02:08Rob Mahoney:It's one of, it's him and Nicolas Cage where it's just like, it feels like the world is at their feet and then they go on to make six movies a year that are on Amazon Prime.

1:02:20Bill Simmons:Ironically, they were in Con Air together.

1:02:22Joanna Robinson:Is this John Cusack's last great movie?

1:02:25Bill Simmons:No. I mean, Hot Tub Time Machine was a massive movie, but that's probably nine years after this.

1:02:29Joanna Robinson:Are you stumping for serendipity? What are you stumping for? Is Malkovich after this?

1:02:32Chris Ryan:No, Malkovich. I was thinking Malkovich 2, but it's 99. This is the end of the run for him, though.

1:02:37Rob Mahoney:Well, yeah. No, I guess like terms of being spare.

1:02:38Chris Ryan:I mean, adaptation he's thoroughly in. Yeah. Maybe it is. I think it is.

1:02:43Bill Simmons:I meant to do this before we did the categories about Cusack. Just like going back to the sure thing. he's in a couple 80s movies even before the short thing like he's in class he's in one of the Hughes movies maybe 16 Candles

1:02:56Joanna Robinson:where he's just a party goer

1:02:57Bill Simmons:he's just in the background and then he became like a main guy and he did his short thing and he was better off dead and then Say Anything kind of minted him and then I think he had a good 90s but Lloyd Dobler I think was a really important character for an entire generation so I think people gave him a lot of leeway for a long time and then this movie helped but I don't think he sustained it in the way I would have predicted.

1:03:21Joanna Robinson:He just did a bunch of I think bad rom-coms. He took the wrong lesson from High Fidelity where he's like, I'm a rom-com guy now and that's not what he's good about

1:03:31Bill Simmons:It was like, I'm a rom-com or weird psychological thriller guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he probably actually would have been better off he had a good career but he probably would have been better off some sort of HBO show and being the big love part and Bill Paxton part. Something like that. Yes, yes, yes.

1:03:50Joanna Robinson:Definitely big love.

1:03:52Bill Simmons:The big sabaka in The Wire. Take a swing, John Cusack.

1:03:56Chris Ryan:I don't think that's the one.

1:03:58Joanna Robinson:Take Chris Bauer's legacy.

1:04:00Bill Simmons:What do you have for Great Shot Gord or CR?

1:04:03Rob Mahoney:I don't really. This is a very subtle visual film, but I like this shot of him walking with the Metrograph movie theater in the background and talking about Dillinger. Yeah, okay. There's not a ton of blinding visual stuff in this.

1:04:16Bill Simmons:What'd you have for Kid Cudi Pursuit to happen and swear for Best Needle Drop Rob?

1:04:19Chris Ryan:We could do a whole bracket I think for this movie. It's hard not to pick Stevie Wonder. Like the close out song with Stevie Wonder but I think Bob Dylan coming out of the funeral is also that's a fucking powerhouse.

1:04:31Bill Simmons:What'd you have Joanna?

1:04:32Joanna Robinson:It's a beta band.

1:04:33Rob Mahoney:Dry the Rain. Dry the Rain. Although we'll say puts the CD in and the song starts four minutes into the song. I was gonna say the exact same thing. It starts with a hook. Yeah. Which is like nitpick?

1:04:44Joanna Robinson:We can't do it. Yeah. I mean, A, you wouldn't do it in the record store with their such purists, and B, you can't do it on a CD. No. Because it's not even a vinyl, it's a CD.

1:04:52Bill Simmons:I have Katrina and the Waves because Black switches it and it's like a pure needle drop.

1:04:56Joanna Robinson:Can I go back to Cinematic Shot?

1:04:58Bill Simmons:Yeah.

1:04:58Joanna Robinson:And say when he's on the Kinsey Bridge and the camera's hand panels. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, yeah. And he's going back and forth. I think that...

1:05:05Rob Mahoney:The five things he loves about... Or misses about Laura. He misses about Laura, yeah. Did you try to pay tribute to that shot when you did your walk-in talks in Chicago? You know, I didn't,

1:05:12Bill Simmons:but I can claim that I did. All right, we're taking a break and then we got a flex category for CR. CR, flex category. What do you got?

1:05:20Rob Mahoney:The Den of Thieves Benny Hanna Award for scene-stealing location when Rob is going through the four things that Laura might have told Liz. It's the Green Mill, which is the bar from Heath. Thief, sorry.

1:05:30Chris Ryan:Blows the fuck up at Thief.

1:05:32Rob Mahoney:Oh, shit. Wow. Yeah.

1:05:36Bill Simmons:That's a good one. Yeah. I'm surprised I didn't notice that. Butch's Girlfriend Award, weak link of the film. What do you have, Joanna?

1:05:43Joanna Robinson:I think it might be Lily Taylor, who's an actress who I love.

1:05:46Bill Simmons:First of all, how dare you?

1:05:47Joanna Robinson:I love Lily Taylor.

1:05:49Chris Ryan:She's so great in this.

1:05:50Joanna Robinson:I think that character's too real for this moment. Like, too sad for this moment. And I needed more, like, Elizabeth Banks and 40-year-old virgin energy, I think, from her. I don't know.

1:06:02Chris Ryan:I love the heartbreak. Like, her performance messes me up every time.

1:06:05Rob Mahoney:Her grabbing him when they sit down and it's like, are you seeing anybody? I would say, to piggyback off of that, I don't know that Rob reckons with like the wreckage of his, you know, going back through his back pages interviews with these women where it's like, Penny's like, I was basically like sexually assaulted after we broke up and then Sarah being like, I'm off my meds and unemployed. And he's just like, great, okay, moving on. We got, yeah. That's what I have for

1:06:34Joanna Robinson:What's Age of the Worse. When she's like, it was basically rape and he's like, yes, I rejected her. And you're like,

1:06:42Bill Simmons:Yeah, not creep. I think he just ended up with the wrong girl in the movie. So do you think he ended up with the wrong girl? I think he should have been with the girl from The Reader. Really?

1:06:55Rob Mahoney:My girl Natasha Gregson-Wagner.

1:06:57Bill Simmons:Late-breaking Gregson-Wagner?

1:06:57Joanna Robinson:I think he should have chosen himself. I don't think he should have wound up with anyone.

1:07:03Bill Simmons:Yes. I think he should have kicked the tires with The Reader girl. I thought... But he's already back together with Laura when that starts.

1:07:11Joanna Robinson:it's your girlfriend but that should have been the sign though also he was only with her because he didn't have someone new

1:07:18Bill Simmons:he was only with her because he couldn't think of what else to do then he clearly had this other person who was like this is like my soulmate here but that's the same thing that is not his soulmate

1:07:28Rob Mahoney:his whole point is that of course you're gonna meet somebody and they're gonna be distracting and they're gonna be like the tantalizing new thing what was distracting about her she was great what was the downside

1:07:39Joanna Robinson:He has seen her everyday underwear. Only her lingerie. They only have the cute problems

1:07:43Chris Ryan:like buying each other the same Christmas present. You know, it's not a real thing.

1:07:46Rob Mahoney:What's going to happen when the Chicago Reader negatively reviews the CD single he's put out? And he's just like, what the fuck? You know?

1:07:52Bill Simmons:I thought she was a good calming presence for him.

1:07:55Joanna Robinson:No, but I feel like if he hops to the next woman, there's no lesson learned. Back with Laura is a lesson learned, but I think the real lesson should, Laura should not have come back.

1:08:04Bill Simmons:Well, so I had that in answerable questions. Is this a better movie if he ends up with nobody at the end. And I think if they make it 10 years later, I think that's how it ends. I don't think it ends up.

1:08:13Joanna Robinson:It's 500 days of summer.

1:08:14Bill Simmons:Right. It's Mink and Kelly. Well, in the last 20 years, we have shifted to, we actually, it feels like a rom-com, but we are not going to give you the happy ending. We're going to actually give you the...

1:08:26Chris Ryan:The problem now is like, we have so many movies in which they choose themselves at the end. And I think it's like, it's so therapized in terms of the robs of the world now in films and TV, like have to work out their problems in a real way. this is so incremental guys should not be

1:08:39Rob Mahoney:in therapy they should DJ well this is

1:08:42Chris Ryan:this is a man's journey to thinking about a person for literally the first time who is not himself it's like the revolutionary ideas I'm gonna make a mixtape of stuff she likes versus what I like

1:08:51Joanna Robinson:can we bring back crazy can we bring back the hottest take so CR can do a whole mention be in therapy they should DJ episode I mean you know who created

1:09:01Bill Simmons:I choose me Joanna knows

1:09:04Joanna Robinson:I know it's Kelly Kelly Taylor

1:09:05Bill Simmons:90210 sent Dylan and Brandon Pack and she's like, I choose me.

1:09:10Joanna Robinson:I think it should be a category. The Kelly Taylor, I choose me category.

1:09:13Bill Simmons:Do you guys think that

1:09:13Rob Mahoney:the Rob and Laura getting back together works within the context of the movie being satisfying even if you don't think that they belong together? I do.

1:09:22Joanna Robinson:What I think is interesting and I think this is true, I did not reread my copy of High Fidelity in the last 48 hours, but...

1:09:28Rob Mahoney:If you just had one more night in the hotel. Yeah.

1:09:31Joanna Robinson:Even Yala. Even Yala. As I turn the pages. Rob doesn't do his career shift in the book. Like Laura comes back, but he doesn't have this like, and now I'm a music producer. And I think that's an interesting ad of just like,

1:09:43Bill Simmons:this is another area of growth for Rob

1:09:46Joanna Robinson:as he is sort of like growing in his career and Laura comes back. So it's like he's evolving in multiple ways.

1:09:56Bill Simmons:It's just, what's funny is we all had the couples in our lives where they got back together like this and we're like, they're not going to make it, but then they end up getting married and having kids and then getting divorced.

1:10:05Joanna Robinson:There's a deleted scene. There's a lot of great deleted scenes. There really is. But there's one where Laura is talking to Liz, to Joan Kiyosak's character, and she's like, maybe I should go back just so that he can break up with me and then it'll be easier. And Liz is like, that's demented. And she's like, I know, but that would just calm everything down if I just go back, let him break up with me.

1:10:26Rob Mahoney:That is something that people used to think back then, though, where it was like you just didn't have enough feedback. so we're like maybe what I'll do is like we want to have sex for three weeks

1:10:37Joanna Robinson:and see what happens so there's an interpretation if that scene stays in the movie there's an interpretation of the ending of like that's just what Laura's doing what was the other deleted scene

1:10:44Bill Simmons:that's the famous deleted scene well there's a couple

1:10:46Joanna Robinson:there's Beverly D 'Angelo with the with the

1:10:48Bill Simmons:the record collection

1:10:49Joanna Robinson:the record collection which in the TV show was the Parker Posey episode which was so good and and then there's Harold Ramis Harold Ramis is his dad yeah

1:10:58Chris Ryan:there's one where when the reporter asked him to give his top five records It turns into like a full-blown nervous breakdown where he goes home and has to like revisit and keeps like calling her back to add more records to the list. There's a lot of really fun stuff.

1:11:10Joanna Robinson:There's a direct address that I kind of miss, which is like, he's talking to the audience and he's like, yeah, you think I'm an asshole. He's like, okay, take a moment, write down the five worst things you ever did to your partner or never told your partner. And then he like, next scene, he's like, do you write him down? All right, who's the asshole now? you know and so it's just this like interesting relationship he has with the viewer where he he keeps saying like yeah i'm an asshole but to your point earlier it's just like i feel like he wants the viewer on his side yeah and that's that's really demonstrating that i think they

1:11:40Chris Ryan:do a really good job of not like almost not quite needing that because the movie undercuts rob all the time like he'll go on some super self-indulgent tangent and then like a dead body at the funeral goes underground it's like this fucking guy like there's so many ways where they point at him and so many characters who are constantly making fun of him for who he is, that the movie is judgmental of Rob, even if Rob himself isn't calling stuff out directly.

1:12:04Rob Mahoney:In the oral history, the actress who plays Laura, Ibn Yali, talks about the sex scene with Tim Robbins.

1:12:11Joanna Robinson:Yeah.

1:12:12Rob Mahoney:And how it was fun because they were like, this is what's happening inside of Rob's head. So it's not like a real sexy. It's supposed to be what's tormenting him. And I was like, I wonder how many of these scenes you could view as like an unreliable narrator telling you about them. That being said, I don't think the film itself tips its cap towards that very often. Yeah. So I do take the movie at face value when it's depicting events.

1:12:37Joanna Robinson:I think the flashback stuff, you're like, that's through a lens. For sure. Also, age the worst. Yes.

1:12:45Bill Simmons:Also, for what's age the worst, the semi-stalking, the mean-spiritedness, the misogyny, we've got to throw that in, but that was the 90s. Rob?

1:12:52Joanna Robinson:Rob, age is the worst? Rob as a character?

1:12:54Bill Simmons:Rob as a character.

1:12:56Rob Mahoney:Charlie, you fucking bitch. Let's work it out. What's the funniest and most disturbing thing in this movie?

1:13:04Bill Simmons:We got to talk about Cusack's hair.

1:13:09Bill Simmons:Every time Joanna's on, somehow we get into the hair piece thing.

1:13:13Joanna Robinson:The last time it was Robert Redford and your cross hairs. Now it's Cusack. Tell me.

1:13:17Bill Simmons:Never really answered.

1:13:18Joanna Robinson:No one has definitely answered the Redford question.

1:13:21Bill Simmons:sending me different screenshots to him in the early 70s. But nope, we'll never know.

1:13:25Joanna Robinson:I stand by it's a dying problem, not a piece problem.

1:13:31Bill Simmons:Well, Cusack had the combo of he's wearing wigs in the movies for the throwback scenes, but then it's the real Cusack and it's like, are we... Oh, no, that... It's a lot of that. I don't know what's going on.

1:13:42Joanna Robinson:You think he has fake hair just as Rob.

1:13:44Bill Simmons:In present-day Rob. Well, he definitely added hair from the say anything kind of... Con Air was when it was... We talked about in the Con Air podcast. He comes in with the full mane in Con Air.

1:13:55Rob Mahoney:There's a lot of, not continuity problems, but stuff shot out of order in the sense that you can tell he's changed his hair since they shot the exterior to the interior. And I wonder if it was just like, that's not a huge concern of this movie is how his hair looks.

1:14:10Bill Simmons:I have another What's Age the Worst. Springsteen's cameo just isn't that good. I just wanted more from it. I like it. It's fine. Bruce Springsteen, can you come up with better than... whatever he says.

1:14:22Joanna Robinson:Sounds like you guys read an EW. Did you read The Consequence of Sound? I did. Yeah, which was like constantly reloading. Did you have that issue? I also had that issue.

1:14:30Chris Ryan:We got to talk to the server people on The Consequence of Sound. That's just all websites right now.

1:14:34Joanna Robinson:But they talk, a couple of things about the Bruce Springsteen cameo. One, they claim that Bruce himself is the one who punched up that line where he's like, oh yeah, you'll feel better. They might feel better. That that was like a Bruce ad. Maybe they feel better. Yeah. Definitely feel better. Where he's like, no, it's not that they'll feel better. And then also for copyright reasons, they had to have Bruce noodling something unidentifiable so they could use it. Yeah. Because they didn't have to pay for it. Oh, that's interesting. And they made him say on camera, I'm just making this up as I'm playing it so that they could send it to the record company.

1:15:10Rob Mahoney:Because I figure if they paid for the river, they would have just paid for...

1:15:14Bill Simmons:All mishandled. Have him actually play one of his songs. Play something from Tunnel of Love.

1:15:18Joanna Robinson:Well, then your budget goes up from$30 million to something higher. Yeah, it's fine. And you're$47 million taking margin. You're fucking Tim Robbins in this movie.

1:15:25Bill Simmons:You're fine. Scott Rosenberg wrote the original draft set in Boston, CR. Yeah. How crazy would that have been?

1:15:33Rob Mahoney:That would have ended our lives.

1:15:35Bill Simmons:And then they moved around and then somehow he ended up getting a writing credit anyway. And then my last one for It's Age to Worse. This movie did pretty well, which led to Fever Pitch and Jimmy Fallon being on the fucking infield grass as the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years and I'll never forgive anyone for that but if this movie doesn't do well maybe that doesn't happen so what's age the worst for me Joanna get Jimmy Fallon off the fucking field my team just won the World Series keep Fever Pitch

1:16:01Joanna Robinson:in the UK

1:16:02Bill Simmons:punish Nick Hornby we'd already made Fever Pitch why are we making this again the Ruffalo hand Rubenek Partridge overacting word it's Jack Black but I'm also it's not an insult it is Jack Black

1:16:12Rob Mahoney:don't take it the wrong way I mean Joanna Moore Saul Rubenek we're fans Yeah, we're fans.

1:16:18Joanna Robinson:Complimentary. It's also Tim Robbins, but I'm also not mad about it. Tim Robbins is good, too. Yeah, it's all fine.

1:16:22Chris Ryan:I do think Natasha Gregson-Wagner, who plays Caroline Ford, is the reporter. She...

1:16:29Joanna Robinson:This is your first time.

1:16:30Chris Ryan:Don't make your last time. I'm just like, her flirt dial is cranked up so high, she forgot how to be a normal person.

1:16:36Rob Mahoney:Yeah, that was a definite, like, it's happening in Rob's head kind of thing.

1:16:40Joanna Robinson:Some Olivia Nizzi, like, journalism ethics questions.

1:16:44Chris Ryan:Wow. Wow. We're getting topical. She got to know we have current affairs here. Jesus, that was great. She's been relieved from her post as West Coast editor. Yeah.

1:16:56Bill Simmons:Oh, Joanne has got a flex category.

1:16:58Joanna Robinson:Okay. I was tempted to do the category that I invented, which is would a cell phone ruin this movie? I would say social media would ruin this movie. Yes. We all know too much about our exes already or whatever. But I'm actually going to give it to the Big Kahuna Burger, best use of food and drink, is when he says Laura's dad died and Jack Black goes, oh, drag, and then just chomps on a burrito and it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Oh, drag. And then just like a massive chomp of like a$2.99 burrito, I would say.

1:17:32Chris Ryan:Barry's whole reaction to her dad dying of like top five songs about death, a Laura's dad tribute list.

1:17:37Rob Mahoney:And then all the guys in the record store are like, okay, yeah. A solid acceptance.

1:17:42Joanna Robinson:I mean, tell Laura I love her. absolutely bring the house down

1:17:45Bill Simmons:CR what do you have for this CR thinks Luke Wilson could have been Harrison Ford hottest take award

1:17:49Rob Mahoney:I have two I wonder if Joe and I are circling the same thing which is kind of the TV show I don't know if it's better than the movie but it has I think it had legs my hottest take is that there's just no way Rob and Laura even get back together much less stay together and that first of all the Marie stuff comes out fucking one day Barry's like hey this is Marie DeSalle remember when you were sleeping with her for like a couple weeks when you and Laura broke up? You fucking asshole! And I just don't think that I'm making a mix CD for the Chicago Reader music critic.

1:18:23Bill Simmons:No, it's a rap. She's getting her stuff again. She's just like,

1:18:26Rob Mahoney:oh, cool. It's done. Like, that doesn't, that's not happening. It's done.

1:18:29Bill Simmons:It's a rap when he's caught making the tape.

1:18:31Joanna Robinson:I don't know that I would say the show is better, but because by the nature of television, it just has more time to luxuriate in the side plots like I'm selling my terrible ex-husband's record. I'll say it.

1:18:43Bill Simmons:None of you guys have the balls to. The TV show is better than this movie. And I like this movie. The TV show is better. It's not a balls issue. It's absolute crime that they canceled it. It was fucking bullshit. That show was good.

1:18:56Chris Ryan:The show was good.

1:18:56Bill Simmons:And it had to have been COVID.

1:18:58Rob Mahoney:And it was also the best possible like Zoe Kravitz got to do like you just got to see her do everything. Also, no offense to Hulu,

1:19:05Bill Simmons:but I'm going to offend Hulu. Like, you're not exactly the 96 bulls. Great use of Jake Lacey in that show. It's not like, oh, we have to cancel this because of all of our other awesome shows here on Hulu. Like, what the fuck are you guys doing?

1:19:19Joanna Robinson:Lizzie Moss needed more money for Handmaid's Tale season seven.

1:19:22Bill Simmons:It's ridiculous. They have like three good shows a year, max.

1:19:25Rob Mahoney:Do this to Iger next time you see him at a Clippers game. It's ridiculous.

1:19:27Bill Simmons:How do they cancel this? Zoe Kravitz?

1:19:29Chris Ryan:They fucking blew it. Like, they really had it in their hands. And again, there's no reason to not let it play out.

1:19:34Bill Simmons:Also, not a lot of people at Hulu in 2019. Like, it was still... I don't think Hulu is where it is now. Handmaid's Tale was like one of their first hit shows.

1:19:42Joanna Robinson:You were not normal people on Hulu during COVID. I certainly was. Yeah.

1:19:46Bill Simmons:Absolute bullshit.

1:19:47Joanna Robinson:You're not a normal people head? I don't know.

1:19:50Bill Simmons:No, I don't know the story behind it, but I guarantee it's like whoever ran Hulu got fired and it was their show and the new person came in and it's like, well, that's not my show. I don't get credit if it does well. And they just got rid of it. That's what always happens.

1:20:01Chris Ryan:I think in terms of scope too, one way that the show would work better, I saw this quote from Ryan Coogler this morning about like he's adapting the next files thing. And he was talking about how someone in TV had told him TV is about like the most important journey In somebody's life And a movie is about the most important moment In somebody's life The most important moment for Rob Is at the end When he's like I cannot believe I've been putting everyone at a distance I haven't committed to anything my entire life It's this huge revelation in the rain And his life changes from that point forward But he needs more time To actually become a not shitty version of Rob Yeah, you don't need to hear Jack Black Playing music for two minutes To be like, I found the light And so if you play it out over multiple seasons In a TV show format Like this is a journey story, not a moment.

1:20:43Rob Mahoney:There's also like, it would have just been cool if they were more realistic where it's like, well, okay, after he covers Marvin Gaye and you do one record release party, like now what? Now what? Now what?

1:20:53Bill Simmons:Your take, did you have a hottest take?

1:20:56Joanna Robinson:I agree. Just like Laura should say, Laura should not have come back. I will say this movie does some things for Laura that the book doesn't like. We're at least in her POV sometimes. Like there are scenes of Laura without Rob. And the moment where he's crying for her at her dad's funeral does a lot of work for me. But in general, Laura should not have come back, I think.

1:21:20Chris Ryan:Did you do yours? I have one. The top five, you were talking about earlier, Chris, the top five side one, track one debate in the record store. The problem...

1:21:28Bill Simmons:Thunder Road not being on it?

1:21:30Chris Ryan:Well, no. The problem with Smells Like Teen Spirit being on the list is not that it's like a cliche pick. It's that that song kind of sucks and nobody wants to talk about it. This is your hottest take? This is my hottest take.

1:21:39Rob Mahoney:Holy shit, Rob.

1:21:42Chris Ryan:At the risk of never coming back on the rewatchables?

1:21:45Joanna Robinson:Remember when you were like, you were like, comment sections have killed the hot take, essentially? Here comes Rob with Smells Like Teen Spirit is bad, actually.

1:21:52Chris Ryan:Look, this is the Gen X divide. Honestly, it's like... Wait a second. Yeah.

1:21:55Rob Mahoney:I've been listening to you on room chat for like four years, and you're just like, yeah, you know, there's a lot to like about the bulls, but you're coming for fucking Kurt Cobain.

1:22:03Chris Ryan:I have better things to say about Ayo Desumu than I do about Smells Like Teen Spirit, to be honest with you.

1:22:09Joanna Robinson:Tell me more about why that song sucks

1:22:13Chris Ryan:I mean, I think there's like the emblematic bigger thing Which to me, grunge feels so put on To me, the ethics of grunge do not feel authentic They don't feel lived or heard

1:22:24Rob Mahoney:Wait, now you're coming for the entire ideology?

1:22:26Chris Ryan:I'm starting big and then we're zooming in We have to dig on this takes, yo Like we start there And then if I were to pick a grunge song, it wouldn't be Nirvana If I were to pick a Nirvana song, it wouldn't be like the nonsense radio play Nirvana of all things. I just do not like that song. Wow.

1:22:42Bill Simmons:I'm speechless. I don't know. Well, that's it for the Craig. What did you think of the movie? Wow, that was great. Oh my God.

1:22:50Rob Mahoney:We may have to rename this category to Ramahoni. Nirvana smells like teen spirit. It's wildly overrated. I'm sorry.

1:22:58Joanna Robinson:Not even overrated, just sucks.

1:22:59Chris Ryan:I think it kind of sucks. Dude, you would have done very well.

1:23:01Rob Mahoney:Passed the category over. You would have done very well in bars in the 90s. Rob Mahoney. Rob Mahoney. Team spirit sucks actually. Team spirit sucks. I feel like Rob is like, Rocky's been fighting right-handed this entire time.

1:23:17Rob Mahoney:Rob is like, oh, what's Rob's hottest take going to be?

1:23:21Bill Simmons:It was funny because I thought I had a pretty hot take and now I just feel like... Tepid. A tepid take compared to what Rob does. I just don't think the music's good enough for this movie. Whoa, what? Yeah. I think it's the biggest reason it was. it was a rewatchable for me but not like one of my movies because I thought it got too deep cutty

1:23:41Rob Mahoney:did you own the soundtrack? I did but I actually now probably prefer listening to like there's a lot of playlists of I agree all the songs mentioned in the book and in the movie and also in the TV shows

1:23:54Joanna Robinson:here's me wandering around saying even y 'all in my hotel room and I listened to the official and I was like this isn't satisfying and then I listened to like one of those playlists that

1:24:03Bill Simmons:It's just not that good. I think it could have been one of the great soundtracks of all time, and it's not.

1:24:09Rob Mahoney:To the movie's credit, a lot of the music is diegetic, where it'll be playing in the store at a certain volume. They could have had the greatest collection of songs ever, but I think they used music functionally in this movie rather than Dazed and Confused, where it's just like, this is the fucking best song at the best moment.

1:24:29Bill Simmons:I just think these guys would have been listening to more music from the last 10 years. They're doing this in 2000. I think the 90s, that was like one of the great decades of all time.

1:24:38Rob Mahoney:I know, but like at a record store, you're trying to sell the new shit. I get it.

1:24:41Bill Simmons:But this is one of my pick and nits though.

1:24:43Rob Mahoney:Okay.

1:24:43Bill Simmons:I'll do them now as part of my hottest take. The Smashing Pumpkins not being in this movie is outrageous. They're a fucking Chicago band. It's 2000.

1:24:53Rob Mahoney:They just had this crazy run. There was a touchy relationship between the Chicago music scene and Smashing Pumpkins.

1:24:58Bill Simmons:Yeah, but here's the thing. Billy Corgan in the Springsteen spot, I don't know makes more sense you want Billy Corgan

1:25:05Rob Mahoney:in for the boss that's the sage advice

1:25:07Bill Simmons:you want yeah I want Billy Corgan in here hey the world is a vampire I want anything

1:25:13Joanna Robinson:from Billy Corgan no he's so weird

1:25:15Bill Simmons:it's a better cameo oh my god so you don't think the Chicago Pumpkins piece

1:25:19Rob Mahoney:I just think that there's like the bands that they're championing are like Touch and Go and Drag City bands I get it so the Pumpkins

1:25:26Bill Simmons:are like the sellout band kinda yeah well they're only one of the best bands of the 90s I don't know Billy Corgan

1:25:31Joanna Robinson:I will say that Billy Corgan would not have aged well. They picked the boss. And anyone watching now knows who Bruce Springsteen is. But anyone young watching now does not know who Billy Corgan is.

1:25:43Bill Simmons:But that's the thing. In 2000, I don't think these guys are listening to Bruce Springsteen.

1:25:47Rob Mahoney:But if they're rock critic adjacent geeks who care a lot about music history canon stuff, The River is a very important record.

1:25:57Joanna Robinson:He pulls up his Fleetwood Mac album.

1:25:59Bill Simmons:You know what I mean? He's talking about landslides. You guys don't think he wouldn't have cared about the 90s stuff too? I feel like he would have.

1:26:04Rob Mahoney:But he does care about the 90s stuff.

1:26:05Bill Simmons:He's playing beta band. He's like... Yeah, but that's my point. He's going like... The old stuff is like the most famous people possible. And then the new stuff is like the deepest possible... So you want an older, deeper cuts... I don't understand his taste.

1:26:17Joanna Robinson:You want older, deeper cuts or mainstream current is what you're saying.

1:26:22Bill Simmons:Whatever he's doing are two separate things at the same time. And I didn't understand it.

1:26:26Rob Mahoney:new a lot of older music genres and like bands were getting kind of rediscovered and re and like appropriated by younger people because you could buy their albums for three bucks so i remember like for most of my life i thought fluid mac was like soft rock that i didn't listen to but then when you can get their records for like three of them for 10 bucks and you're like oh shit there's like really good songs on rumors and and tusk like you that's how like that stuff kind of like was

1:26:51Bill Simmons:yeah but i'm gonna say manches is the guy in that movie and by the time you're 30 you're not listening to The River anymore. You're listening to For You by Springsteen. You've moved on to Deeper Cut Springsteen. That's the part. He's still like basic Springsteen, but Springsteen's been in his life the whole time. Isn't that kind of the formula

1:27:08Chris Ryan:though? It's like the old stuff is the canonized stuff. And then the new stuff is like you are digging deep into the bins to find what is hyper-specific to you. That feels coherent to me.

1:27:16Rob Mahoney:I hear what you're saying though.

1:27:17Bill Simmons:I don't know how your mass appeal on one side and then deep, deep, deep cut on the other side. Seems weird. He contains multitudes. I'm just glad that whoever they picked isn't massively canceled now.

1:27:27Rob Mahoney:So that I'm dealing with it.

1:27:32Bill Simmons:Casting what ifs. Jack Black passed. And they just basically bullied him into doing it. The role of Dick was originally offered to David Arquette. I'm going to give that a small scale yikes.

1:27:44Joanna Robinson:That's way worse.

1:27:45Bill Simmons:Liz Phair. That's the one. Was considered for Marie Dessau.

1:27:50Chris Ryan:We'll never know. That's a totally different movie.

1:27:53Joanna Robinson:what about Bob Dylan for the boss if it's Dylan instead of Bruce Springsteen

1:27:58Bill Simmons:yeah I just don't think he ever does it no he wouldn't

1:28:02Joanna Robinson:but like would that have Billy Corgan or Bob Dylan is my question

1:28:06Bill Simmons:if that's the binary I just think Billy Corgan is so weird Springsteen wasn't weird enough I think Bob Dylan is weirder so he's probably better than Springsteen

1:28:14Rob Mahoney:Lisa Bonet is one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen in my life I probably would still throw my life away for Liz Phair I gotta say

1:28:22Bill Simmons:CR's like fucking run This is my jam

1:28:24Chris Ryan:They talked about how hard that part was to cast And I think there is something about Lisa Bonet specifically Versus Liz Phair Which is Liz Phair's great But she needs to feel Marie does like an alien to Rob She needs to feel like from another planet And that's not Liz Phair's whole deal

1:28:39Bill Simmons:CR who are your 90's female musician Throw my life away Who's in your inner circle for that one

1:28:47Rob Mahoney:Well I think Liz Phair's definitely The number one seed she's Gonzaga

1:28:51Bill Simmons:number one

1:28:52Rob Mahoney:I think so

1:28:57there was a lot of like

1:28:58Rob Mahoney:fleeting like the this is a strange conversation to be having in 2025 Sarah Shannon from Velocity Girl I'm saying

1:29:05Bill Simmons:in the mid 90s who were your throw the live Oazers that's not a strange conversation Liz Phair was up there

1:29:12Rob Mahoney:yeah okay yeah the girl like this lead singer from Velocity Girl would be another one I don't know if you liked them

1:29:19Bill Simmons:did you well, Julian Hatfield was from the Boston area, so she was a big one for us. Just a couple others. We really sidetracked big time.

1:29:28Joanna Robinson:Bill, do you have any other names that burning a hole in your pocket that you want to get out there? That feels like a question you want me to ask.

1:29:33Chris Ryan:We need to reflect it back to you. Bill?

1:29:36Rob Mahoney:Tanya Donnelly? Would you care to go to therapy or just become a DJ?

1:29:40Bill Simmons:I'm going to move on. Lost track. Lost track of where we were. You mentioned Harold Ramis, Beverly D 'Angelo. Rob Cusack said he wanted I'm so tired by John Lennon for this key scene when Rob finally proposed to Laura and they couldn't clear it John Lennon was also dead at that point but also I think would have told John Cusack to fuck off would be my guess best that guy Todd Luizzo counts right? I think so does anyone know his name's Todd Luizzo? I see him and I think he's the Manny from Jerry Maguire and he's from this movie and that's how I know him.

1:30:17Chris Ryan:I actually to this point think he's such a, that guy, his name is Todd the Wiseau, I think. At least that's how John Cusack pronounced it.

1:30:22Joanna Robinson:Even Yala.

1:30:23Bill Simmons:But there's a better, there's a better that guy than him.

1:30:27Joanna Robinson:Alex Desert.

1:30:27Bill Simmons:Yeah. Alex Desert. Yeah.

1:30:29Joanna Robinson:From Becker.

1:30:30Bill Simmons:From PCU.

1:30:31Joanna Robinson:From PCU, yeah.

1:30:33Chris Ryan:He needed two more scenes in this movie. Swingers. Like why is he a part of all the arguments?

1:30:36Bill Simmons:He's in for two minutes and I'm like, can he come back? And then, I don't know, he got cut. This place is dead anyway, CR. Dion Waiter's a word Alex Desert Catherine Zeta-Jones Lisa Bonet Tim Robbins or Natasha Wagner I think it's Catherine Zeta-Jones I think it's Catherine Zeta-Jones Strong agree What do you think?

1:30:55Rob Mahoney:Yeah Yeah

1:30:57Bill Simmons:She's great Did we talk about Lisa Bonet enough?

1:31:02Joanna Robinson:Lisa Bonet is amazing in this movie and I was watching this movie with someone who's younger than me and she was like is that Zoe Kravitz? I said no Zoe Kravitz is not old enough to be in this movie. But yeah, she's just, she's absolutely smoke show in this movie. I don't think anyone's ever looked more like their parent than Zoe Kravitz.

1:31:23Bill Simmons:It's funny because we did this last week with...

1:31:25Rob Mahoney:Exactly alike.

1:31:25Bill Simmons:We did this with Cameron Crowe. We were talking about Kate Hudson, Goldie Hawn. How crazy was that a mother and daughter that could have played each other's roles. Ky Gerber is like the one for me. I can see that one for sure.

1:31:35Joanna Robinson:Ky Gerber. But I think, interestingly, in the Nepo baby world, that Zoe Kravitz has cultivated looking like her mom. Because when she first starts in X-Men and stuff like that, she doesn't really look as much like her mom as she does now.

1:31:51Chris Ryan:This is the new frontier. You got to lean into it. You got to lean into it super hard. You got to wear it. You got to style yourself similarly. I think it pays off more than people think.

1:32:00Bill Simmons:She's one of my true queens, CR. Zoe? Or Lisa. Lisa. Yeah. along with Michelle Pfeiffer do you think she was aware

1:32:06Rob Mahoney:of the Cosby joke in this movie Diane Lane the Cosby sweater joke yeah

1:32:09Chris Ryan:great question oh we'll side swipe

1:32:13Bill Simmons:she probably supported it

1:32:15Joanna Robinson:yeah what if what if it had been Cosby instead of Bruce Springsteen I think they may they may have re-edited that

1:32:23Rob Mahoney:they would have been like can we get Corgan still it's Corgan available

1:32:28Bill Simmons:recasting couch director Sidney I'm just throwing this in quick can we test drive just take hop in the car with me for Samantha Mathis as Laura? Oh, Jesus. Just quick drive around the block with that thought. But then I get very defensive.

1:32:39Joanna Robinson:Who comes up in this category more than Samantha Mathis? I know.

1:32:42Bill Simmons:I keep trying with her. I just thought it was a little throwback to the early 90s of Gen X. We were talking about her because we were talking

1:32:48Joanna Robinson:about River Phoenix on the sneakers pod and their country music movie that they made together.

1:32:53Chris Ryan:What about Laura Linney? I was trying to think like how... Early Laura Linney.

1:32:57Rob Mahoney:She's in Congo by now, right? So this is like you can count on me era.

1:33:01Chris Ryan:Like I'm already like she's already babysitting Mark Ruffalo.

1:33:04Joanna Robinson:Yeah, early 90s.

1:33:04Chris Ryan:Oh, so she's in the mix already. I think she could really nail this part. The question is, can she be the partier Laura?

1:33:10Joanna Robinson:She's like a whisper away from Love Actually.

1:33:13Rob Mahoney:The only other one, if you're going to keep Laura being from Europe, what about Famke Johnson? Wow.

1:33:24Chris Ryan:That's powerful. That's a lot for one movie.

1:33:27Rob Mahoney:She's gene-grating really hard at this moment. Rounders and high fidelity. and a few year run.

1:33:33Bill Simmons:I think you're bringing too much firepower to that car, Sierra. Oh, Craig, you got a flex category.

1:33:41Rob Mahoney:I have the cell phone, same thought as Joe, and that this movie makes, like, not knowing what happens to your ex seem torturous when in reality it's actually, like, the beauty of it. Yeah. And that now, I mean, Rob would be on a list now if he had an institution. He'd be a fucking psycho. Yeah, they wouldn't let this dude on commercial. No, if he knew that, like, somebody was, like, across the street at a cafe or was posting photos with like a different guy who would have completely lost his mind. But the other category I want to give, which is kind of odd, is the Sasha Jenkins Award, the actor you can't believe didn't become a bigger star.

1:34:11Rob Mahoney:Jack Black, although you are right, he is literally probably the most dependable box office star right now, but he is a kid star. And I think it's kind of crazy that Jack Black never really was like an adult comedy movie star. And for how funny he is, he was never even like the top five of like, that's my favorite comedy star. He never really had like the big movie. He had Shallow Howl. Which kind of ended it, right? They tried Nacho Libre and things like that. He's really funny in Tropic Thunder. But like, it's crazy that he never had an Austin Powers or an Ace Ventura. He's so physically gifted.

1:34:45Rob Mahoney:And he like never became an adult comedy star. Like a big one. And I think that's really weird.

1:34:49Joanna Robinson:Would you not count School of Rock as like one of those? It's a kid's movie.

1:34:52Bill Simmons:Yeah, but he's saying like he never got in the Apatow crowd. Yeah, yeah, no. I agree with the larger take. He never had his franchise comedy. It's a good point. Like, there should have been, like, probably five school rocks. It's weird that they're not thinking of that now.

1:35:05Rob Mahoney:Like, you could just base—I mean, like, it's strange that, like, somebody wouldn't make a movie with Jack Black now where it's like, what's your Ace Ventura? Like, could it have been, like, Jim Carrey?

1:35:13Bill Simmons:Like, had, like, a 1994 Jim Carrey year.

1:35:15Rob Mahoney:Because he was so gifted physically as a comedian. Yeah, definitely. And it just never—I mean, he was so good in Tropic Thunder, and he's really good in the roles he's given, but I can't believe he never had his own franchise.

1:35:24Joanna Robinson:I mean, stay tuned this holiday season for Anaconda. It's true. It's true.

1:35:29Chris Ryan:also The Holiday a perpetual rewatch for a lot of people I think he's maybe the weirdest part of that movie though he's so out of place he's like the weak link of The Holiday

1:35:37Bill Simmons:I think part of the problem with him was the Tenacious D thing was pretty all consuming sure he was like on the road half the time with them

1:35:44Joanna Robinson:he has said that like he was worried about making this movie some people have the theory in this consequence of sound oral history that he was worried because he was too scared and he said that as well but he was also like but my music career was kicking off and that was something that I was really interested in as well. So, yeah.

1:36:02Bill Simmons:Half-Fight Center Research. Not a lot, except for you can, if you want to know the Marie de Salle CD, what was on it. Yeah.

1:36:12Rob Mahoney:This is really funny.

1:36:12Bill Simmons:After Baby, I Love Your Way. It includes Ghostbusters, Beat It, Baby Got Back, I Will Survive, Mbop, My Heart Will Go On, The Time Is Now.

1:36:22Chris Ryan:I will kickstart the Marie de Salle Ghostbusters cut. I need Lisa Bonet singing Ghostbusters In my life I just need it

1:36:30Joanna Robinson:You should turn it up

1:36:31Bill Simmons:Turn that thing up You should turn it up Tim Robbins said he agreed to take the small roles In High Fidelity and Anchorman Because he didn't care about the money But he wanted to keep the custom made wigs And that was part of the deal That he got to keep the wigs

1:36:47Joanna Robinson:Do you think Susan enjoyed the Ian Gray ponytail wig? He was still surrounding her Right

1:36:55Bill Simmons:got to give it up was the original Jack Black song for that scene and he really wanted to do the other one so they did the other one how many movies do you think Joan and John Cusack have appeared in together so many career

1:37:06Rob Mahoney:not only how many but are they the best brother sister actor tandem to appear in film who are they competing against Gyllenhaal together how many Gyllenhaal movies are there

1:37:16Joanna Robinson:Donnie Darko yeah

1:37:19Rob Mahoney:how does one suck a fuck

1:37:21Joanna Robinson:How exactly does one's like a fuck rock?

1:37:23Rob Mahoney:You didn't guess. How many?

1:37:24Joanna Robinson:Five.

1:37:25Rob Mahoney:Ten.

1:37:25Joanna Robinson:Ten. Wow.

1:37:26Rob Mahoney:There's a bunch that they're just, yeah, they're both sporting. Not very big in it. Because she's also in that Hughes movie that he's in.

1:37:35Joanna Robinson:Yeah, 16 Candles.

1:37:37Rob Mahoney:She's incredible in Gross Point Blank, too. Oh, yeah. Has that been a rewatchable yet? Gross Point Blank?

1:37:42Joanna Robinson:Because she's like, I like that this is sort of her, like Girl on the Phone is like kind of her role in this movie, too.

1:37:47Rob Mahoney:Well, and the scene at the funeral between the two of them is one of the best scenes in the movie.

1:37:52Joanna Robinson:She's like, we are talking about someone else. Laura.

1:37:56Bill Simmons:There's a theory that there's five albums that you can see in Rob's apartment that that's his top five albums. Yeah. And it's Funkadelic, Neil Young, Beach Boys, Sonic Youth, and The Minutemen. It's pretty good.

1:38:08Rob Mahoney:Checks out. It's a pretty good five.

1:38:10Bill Simmons:Good theory.

1:38:10Joanna Robinson:Which Beach Boys album?

1:38:12Bill Simmons:It's got to be PetSense. Wild Honey. Oh. See? A little curveball. Yep. Classic Rob.

1:38:17Joanna Robinson:Classic Rob.

1:38:18Bill Simmons:Rob got us again. Speaking of Rob, Rob, you have a flex category. Your first one. Probably your last after you get banned from the Rewatch most.

1:38:26Chris Ryan:I'm going to go out in flames then. We're coming for great.

1:38:29Bill Simmons:You took over the hottest take category. Once we send that clip to Courtney Love. Absolutely screwed. I can't wait for fantasy for that clip. I know. Top three people who will go nuts for that clip.

1:38:42Rob Mahoney:Definitely Yassi and Sean are going to lose their minds when they hear that. We're going to make that show to Yassi.

1:38:47Bill Simmons:Keep that away from Yassi.

1:38:50Joanna Robinson:Rob, you were establishing yourself as a music guy. I love it.

1:38:53Bill Simmons:Listen, as Avi knows, we need more hottest takes than live. Craig tried to bring back cannibalism. That cannibalism is in pluribus. It's true.

1:39:02Joanna Robinson:Thanks to Craig, I heard.

1:39:04Chris Ryan:Rob, what's your flex? I'm going to attempt the double Seagal. So we've got Steven Seagal shitting on himself for the most unbelievable anecdote from the actual film shoot and the Steven Seagal Hard to Kill Award did this movie need a better intimacy coordinator. Apparently, the Tim Robbins dream sequence that we've been talking about. It wasn't really directed by Stephen Frears at all. He went and gathered all of the women on set who were just like working in hair and makeup or working in craft services and were like, can you guys just tell us what to do? And the result is that Eva Niala said, this was the best sex scene I've ever shot and the most comfortable I've ever been.

1:39:40Chris Ryan:So I put it to you. Do they need another intimacy coordinator or did they crowdsource an entirely new model we should be taking advantage of?

1:39:46Joanna Robinson:She said Stephen Frears was essentially like in the corner with his hands over his eyes. Turn to the corner

1:39:51Chris Ryan:shielding himself.

1:39:52Joanna Robinson:As the women of the wardrobe department

1:39:53Rob Mahoney:were like, grab her ass. Yes, that's hot.

1:39:55Chris Ryan:That's funny. Crawl your hand down her thigh.

1:39:58Rob Mahoney:Wasn't Tim Robbins kind of like, I have like a small window to do this, so we gotta kind of like, we gotta go.

1:40:03Bill Simmons:Well, maybe this would be a new blueprint for intimacy coordinators that will go terribly wrong on some other movie set would be my guess. Yeah. So maybe don't crowdsource the crew.

1:40:11Chris Ryan:Maybe not. Or be very careful about who you're hiring in the crew. But it turned out to be a hilarious scene. Fun fact,

1:40:16Joanna Robinson:the cinematographer of this movie, Seamus McGarvey, also was a cinematographer on Fifty Shades of Grey. Was he inspired by this sequence? Who's to say?

1:40:23Rob Mahoney:I don't think so. Based on what we know about the Fifty Shades of Grey intimacy coordination.

1:40:28Bill Simmons:Apex Mountain, Cusack, no. What's the argument for no?

1:40:34Joanna Robinson:Gross by Blank. I don't think it is. But this run,

1:40:37Rob Mahoney:like 97 to 2000, that run. He doesn't like these. You don't like the run? He doesn't like the run. He likes the exact moment. Trust me, I've tried to unlock this door so many times.

1:40:45Bill Simmons:It's fun when a new rewatch of this person comes in.

1:40:48Rob Mahoney:What's Apex Mountain?

1:40:49Bill Simmons:It's the most juice He didn't have the most juice In this movie Is it?

1:40:53Chris Ryan:They literally called him To be like Can you bail out our script Because it doesn't work Can you make this movie work And he's like Yes I will do it I will star in it I will make an unlikable character Quite survivable Within the context of the movie Like you want to spend time With Rob Despite the fact that he sucks I think he's got a lot of juice here

1:41:11Bill Simmons:Maybe he never had An Apex Mountain

1:41:13Rob Mahoney:I think 96

1:41:14Bill Simmons:Just a couple of mini-mounds

1:41:15Rob Mahoney:96, 97 is his Apex When he's in Con Air I think it's City Hall, Gross Point, Blank, Con Air.

1:41:19Bill Simmons:Yeah, I agree. All right, Sarah.

1:41:21Rob Mahoney:That's like Blockbuster, Prestige, Pacino.

1:41:25Chris Ryan:But you stretch out a little bit and you go Thin Red Line, Malkovich, this.

1:41:28Rob Mahoney:Yes. Although he probably doesn't even know he was in Thin Red Line. I'm not sure anyone does. No one knows they were in Thin Red Line. You could have been in it, guys. I don't know.

1:41:35Bill Simmons:I was cut out of Thin Red Line. The Weeded Smith singles.

1:41:39Joanna Robinson:Microbangs.

1:41:40Bill Simmons:Love Thy Neighbor. Oh, yeah. Oh, Microbangs.

1:41:43Rob Mahoney:I was thinking about that. That was very attractive to me at the time.

1:41:46Bill Simmons:Jack Black, no. No. Beta Beat, definitely.

1:41:50Rob Mahoney:Beta Band?

1:41:50Bill Simmons:Beta Band, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Bonet, no. Seda Jones, no. Katrina and the Waves, maybe? Probably just... That or when the song actually came out? I think that, yeah. Ibn Yala?

1:42:03Joanna Robinson:Ibn Yala. Yes. And her microbangs.

1:42:07Bill Simmons:Sad Bastard Music, maybe. Breaking the Fourth Wall in a Movie. CR brought that up earlier. Possible.

1:42:15Rob Mahoney:I guess he does like they do it in Annie Hall I'm trying to think of like when that would have been like I think Ferris Bueller was probably the most like I was ever like shh

1:42:23Bill Simmons:that might be the one but this is this is Ferris Bueller that's you're right that's what it is it's Ferris or it's Stanley Roper on Three's Company or it's Fleabag Fleabag is great or Fleabag would you go for Todd of the Wiseau is it the Manny or is it this I think it's this it's this I think more people know him from the main

1:42:44Joanna Robinson:ABC show that has the name Ted in it it was like a workplace comedy do you know what I'm talking about that

1:42:50Rob Mahoney:better not better off Ted no that's a thing

1:42:53Joanna Robinson:he wasn't one of the light guys in the lab I'm maybe confusing him for another guy who looks like him

1:42:57Bill Simmons:Chicago movies no book movie combos from last 35 years in terms of both are good yeah 35 last 35 years we'll go back to 1990 I think the answer is Fight Club.

1:43:12Joanna Robinson:Let's just do 25 years. 2000 on. Why are we involving the 90s?

1:43:16Bill Simmons:Because I want to bring Fight Club into it as the answer.

1:43:19Rob Mahoney:What about Mystic River? Atonement. What? Is that my daughter? Atonement. Atonement. Really good. Fight Club. When was Bridges of Madison County was in the 90s? Bridget Jones.

1:43:35Chris Ryan:Bridget Jones.

1:43:36Rob Mahoney:Holes, obviously. Obviously, Holes.

1:43:38Chris Ryan:50 Shades, we already cited. Yeah, exactly.

1:43:43Bill Simmons:Cruz or Hanks This is tough

1:43:46Joanna Robinson:This is tough I think this is Cruz

1:43:49Bill Simmons:Hanks I'm never buying Cruz Running a record store in Chicago I'm pretending he likes music It's Cruz as Ian That's the myth

1:43:56Joanna Robinson:Yeah, I don't think Cruz Yeah, exactly

1:43:58Bill Simmons:Cruz as Ian Raymond Unreal

1:44:01Joanna Robinson:I agree

1:44:02Bill Simmons:So is that doable? Can Cruz win on that? Or does he have to be the lead?

1:44:05Rob Mahoney:No, it has to be for the lead It has to be the lead You don't think that I mean, yes

1:44:08Bill Simmons:It's Hanks then It's Hanks as the lead I guess it's Hanks

1:44:10Chris Ryan:Hanks is Rob, but Cruz is Ian slash Ray.

1:44:13Bill Simmons:What role would Philip Seymour Hoffman have played? I think Barry.

1:44:16Joanna Robinson:So Frayer said that Philip Seymour Hoffman auditioned for this movie. It seems like Dick.

1:44:21Rob Mahoney:They were trying to figure out where to put him. Do you think he would have been good as Barry? He basically does that. I thought he would have been...

1:44:26Bill Simmons:His version of Dick, I think, would have been pretty good. It's like a Scotty J cross-tooth.

1:44:30Joanna Robinson:I don't think you could put him with Jack Black, though.

1:44:33Bill Simmons:No.

1:44:33Joanna Robinson:But him... Because he basically does a Jack Black role in Twister, I always think... Can we talk that out for a minute? Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jack Black

1:44:41Bill Simmons:You don't think Philip Seymour Hoffman would have laid back And been counterpunched her for Jack Black?

1:44:46Joanna Robinson:I don't think he's capable of fading That much

1:44:49Rob Mahoney:I feel like it would be like Philip Seymour Hoffman's punch drunk love character Shut the fuck up! Shut up!

1:44:58Joanna Robinson:It's like hey man we're just talking Side one track ones He's like you put some respect on Anna's name Yeah

1:45:06Bill Simmons:So Jack Black's character I think we would all agree was fantastic as a performer. Just not ever playing music in any capacity. Never got a chance. Just working at the store.

1:45:16Rob Mahoney:Yeah.

1:45:17Bill Simmons:Couldn't have gone to karaoke night and belted it out a couple times. This guy never sang.

1:45:20Rob Mahoney:I do like the idea that when he's just like, how come you're not putting my record out? And he's like, you just won't let anybody hear your stuff. That being said, the influences that he has up on the flyer for his band has got nothing to do with the music that he plays at the end. Like, it's as far from, like, classic soul. Like, Palehead and Primal Scream and Warp Records is, like... All over the place. Laura, being with Ian, this was, like, a 90s trope.

1:45:48Bill Simmons:It was the same guy in Singles with the ponytail guy that Keir Cedric's character ends up with. Why do they do this? Sometimes.

1:45:59Joanna Robinson:You're interested in understanding what tantric is. Sometimes you're like, have I tried tempeh? I don't know. Maybe I want some stir fry.

1:46:06Chris Ryan:But how many earrings does this man have on his ear? You know, it could be four, it could be five.

1:46:10Joanna Robinson:Something I said while watching this movie is I'm upset that my ear jewelry and his ear's jewelry is essentially the same. I was not happy about that.

1:46:17Rob Mahoney:There was also like a trend back then because they would like the genre of world music was so kind of popular. And it was a very like.

1:46:23Joanna Robinson:Jack Black wearing the Yanni T-shirt, the Yanni tour T-shirt. This is John Corbett's character in Serendipity too, right? Because he's essentially Yanni in that movie.

1:46:33Chris Ryan:I do think Rob referring to him as some Super Tramp fan is offensive. That's rude for no reason. Do you like Super Tramp? Fine. But like Evan Nirvana? No comment.

1:46:44Joanna Robinson:He's a Magnolia soundtrack guy. What other nitpicks do we have?

1:46:49Rob Mahoney:The band that they use as a stand-in for, what is it, Vince and what's the other kid's name? Like the two Kinky Wizards band. They play Royal Trucks' music as like, this is what they sound like. but Royal Trucks would be a band in the high fidelity world because they were on Drag City which is a Chicago label so that just is like breaking a seal there sorry to get nerdy about that and the way that Louis the Alex Dessert character holds the Captain Beefheart record shows that he does not hold

1:47:19Joanna Robinson:getting kicked out of that store

1:47:20Rob Mahoney:$40 LPs because he's like holding it by the corner of the sleeve and bending it and like you're

1:47:26Joanna Robinson:you're like get your patchouli stink out of my store well no but it's like

1:47:29Rob Mahoney:it's like that record is now worth like$5 less because of the way you're holding it. So that was the secret sauce right there from CR.

1:47:37Joanna Robinson:I think it's really good stuff. I'm going to go with Rob can't afford that apartment.

1:47:41Rob Mahoney:No chance, no. Nor can he afford to pay Dick and Barry. Is he paying them only for three days a week even though they show up full time? Like Evanston? How does that happen? What's the ratio of people

1:47:50Bill Simmons:who couldn't actually afford the apartment they're in in the movie? It's usually 50-50.

1:47:56Joanna Robinson:I believe Marie could afford her apartment, possibly.

1:47:59Bill Simmons:No, I'm not saying just this movie in general with movies and TV shows we like, the apartments are always nicer.

1:48:04Joanna Robinson:I would say 75-25.

1:48:06Chris Ryan:Even 75 feels low. I feel like overwhelmingly it's like you just need enough space for one to film in these places a lot of the times and then there's just no way they'd be realistic for a record tour.

1:48:15Bill Simmons:This is a big thing with my wife when we watch stuff. It bothers me a lot. She's always really upset if they don't get the real estate. I mean, I think especially

1:48:23Joanna Robinson:because in this movie he's like, look at my shithole apartment and I'm like... And it's like, it's pretty cool. I will say, the other thing about Laura moving in with Ian slash Ray is when he tells the story of their story, she moved in with him right away. So I think this is just something Laura does.

1:48:39Rob Mahoney:Serial monogamous. Also a little weird because Ian's living in Rob's building but moves out and then Laura moves in with him. Right. I think that's a sequence. I would need a minute to kind of process that.

1:48:50Bill Simmons:It's a move. It's a ploy. The My Lisa's expiring move. Does it work? You know who it worked for? My wife.

1:49:04Bill Simmons:what's her version she said to you

1:49:06Joanna Robinson:my lease is expiring might as well move in yeah

1:49:08Bill Simmons:she's like I'm here all the time anyway next thing I knew I had a roommate yeah Bill's like hold on

1:49:13Chris Ryan:let me turn down my world music for a second we gotta move you in I'm like hold on I think I was like six or eight months

1:49:17Rob Mahoney:into a relationship and a girl I was dating got evicted and was like I can either leave Boston or live with you and I was like well I'll live with me then

1:49:24Joanna Robinson:there's just like

1:49:25Rob Mahoney:as long as you know there's four other guys

1:49:27Joanna Robinson:working in retail in San Francisco in the early odds.

1:49:32Rob Mahoney:There would be couples

1:49:32Joanna Robinson:who would break up and they would have to stay there. Yeah, that's tough. Someone has to sleep on the couch or whatever because you just can't afford to move.

1:49:41Bill Simmons:That's like an Apple news story you'd read on the side of your iPhone where it's like the divorced couples who still live together here on Harper's Magazine. The real story of the housing crisis.

1:49:51Chris Ryan:Six-minute read.

1:49:52Bill Simmons:Any other picket nits from anybody?

1:49:54Chris Ryan:After the funeral, Rob jumps over the white picket fence into the mud. He's covered in mud Immediately goes into her car And they have sex Just vile Absolutely disgusting No, but he's also

1:50:06Rob Mahoney:Completely cleaned off When he gets into the car But how? I don't know

1:50:10Joanna Robinson:Well, I would say It's a torrential downpour For about like 40 % of this movie True So that rain was coming down Also, he was shaking the mud Off his hands Everybody has pneumonia

1:50:20Chris Ryan:Disgusting

1:50:20Bill Simmons:Any nitpicks, Craig? Nothing brewing for you? No, not yet Okay I'll let you know

1:50:27Chris Ryan:just to be clear about the movie's statement on this sorting your collection autobiographically

1:50:32Joanna Robinson:is deranged right like it's meant to read as deranged no but kind of cool no it's how do i

1:50:38Rob Mahoney:explain this it's crazy it's a crazy thing dude though there's this is this is i gotta tell you there's nothing more satisfying than reorganizing your cd collection or your records i agree with just taking them all out seeing what you got yep and cleanly putting them back away but don't

1:50:54Joanna Robinson:Leave them stacked because the pressure.

1:50:56Rob Mahoney:They'll compress.

1:50:58Joanna Robinson:Rob, if you took your movies, your DVDs, your Blu-rays, your 4Ks, could you put them in autobiographical order?

1:51:05Chris Ryan:No chance.

1:51:06Joanna Robinson:But wouldn't it be fun to try? I remember I watched this when I was in fifth grade at the mall. Maybe you should open your heart to it.

1:51:12Chris Ryan:Maybe. I'm just thinking about like, who's to separate the one time I went to like CD Warehouse in 2006 from the other time I went to Movie Trading Co. in 2005? Maybe you're not a real one like this, Rob. I guess not.

1:51:23Joanna Robinson:Maybe you're not a true fan.

1:51:24Chris Ryan:Is it meant to be autobiographical by when you first listened to it or when you bought the record?

1:51:29Rob Mahoney:I think it's supposed to be every song has a story. So every record has a story. It's like, oh, I listened to Super Chunk when I broke up with my girlfriend, blah, blah, blah. So I have to find it in this year.

1:51:39Chris Ryan:The soundtrack of your life stuff.

1:51:40Rob Mahoney:I don't think you can do that. That is when I would listen to Super Chunk.

1:51:43Bill Simmons:Yeah. Any other nymph picks? Because I'm going to move on to the Wayne Jenkins Award. Do you have a Wayne Jenkins Award? We can skip it. I could also be talked into doing one.

1:51:53Rob Mahoney:I was wondering. I don't have any other nitpicks.

1:51:55Joanna Robinson:It's Rob's first time. Don't you think you should do it? I would love one.

1:51:58Bill Simmons:You want to do a Wayne Jenkins? I don't want to do one. I would love to experience one. Okay. I had Stephen A. Smith as Rob in the scene when Ian slash Ray shows up to the store as a fifth scenario. Because we have four scenarios in there. This would be the fifth. I'll pretend you're Ian slash Ray in this.

1:52:25Bill Simmons:Ian slash Ray you know I like you you know we're friends but I did not appreciate how you came into this record store that's how I'm I was doing that Stephen A on YouTube does a very low voice

1:52:44Rob Mahoney:I'm warning you not to cross this line

1:52:46Bill Simmons:Ian slash Ray you know I like you yeah if you want to do whatever you want to do with Laura I hope y 'all are very happy just don't come in this record store again because if you come in a second time we're going to have a problem that's Stephen on YouTube really nice really nice work pregnant pause low voice honestly you were really hitting it build threat

1:53:12Chris Ryan:also an important part of the formula Rob I'm working on it and now he'll go to answering fan mail where he like ranks Pokemon or something

1:53:22Bill Simmons:Just one Oscar. Who gets it? I think Cusack, right? I was going to say Jack Black supporting.

1:53:27Joanna Robinson:Production designer.

1:53:29Bill Simmons:Oh, I like that. Good call. Especially like the record store

1:53:31Joanna Robinson:they built from scratch.

1:53:34Bill Simmons:Unanswerable questions. Is this movie better with Ethan Hawke?

1:53:40Chris Ryan:As Rob? Aren't most?

1:53:42Joanna Robinson:No. No, because you're taking... Troy from Reality Bites and you're putting him in this movie.

1:53:51Bill Simmons:Or I'm zagging from Troy from Reality Bites and doing the evolutionary older Troy from Reality Bites.

1:53:57Rob Mahoney:Like a self-aware Troy.

1:53:58Bill Simmons:A little more self-aware. His dad already died. True.

1:54:01Joanna Robinson:Froggy already went a cordon and now he's doing this.

1:54:04Rob Mahoney:Hey, that's my bike crashed and burned. He's moved to Chicago and opened a record store. You know? No.

1:54:11Chris Ryan:I'm in for it. Like, I think Cusack is really tremendous in this movie, but I don't know many Cusack movies that Ethan Hawke couldn't also do.

1:54:18Joanna Robinson:No, well, here's the deal. I think Ethan Hawke is a way better actor than John Cusack. I think John Cusack has a likeability that Rob really needs that Ethan doesn't inherently have.

1:54:30Bill Simmons:That's my next question. Did Ethan Hawke mark it correct John Cusack? Yeah.

1:54:35Rob Mahoney:Well, they're pretty parallel, right? I think he's a little

1:54:37Chris Ryan:younger than him, but... I mean, maybe that's part of the reason Cusack started doing so many other weird roles. It's like Ethan Hawke grabbed all the sensitive boys and then Cusack had to hit it and do weird drillers. And then John Cusack's like,

1:54:49Rob Mahoney:I have to make a movie in Bulgaria with like three UFC fighters.

1:54:53Joanna Robinson:Ethan Hawke could do Must Love Dogs.

1:54:56Rob Mahoney:Absolutely.

1:54:57Joanna Robinson:But John Cusack could not do Dead Poets Society. No doubt.

1:55:00Bill Simmons:Must Love Dogs, not a bad movie.

1:55:02Joanna Robinson:It's a bad movie. It would have been cool.

1:55:03Bill Simmons:Not a bad movie.

1:55:04Joanna Robinson:That's your Diane Lane head talking, I think.

1:55:08Rob Mahoney:Sure. That's just a normal human brain. It would have been interesting if they put Ethan Hawke in the Tim Robbins role and made that character like much more down like it would basically be like choose your fighter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Laura had to choose between the two icons of Gen X. That's just reality bites at that point, isn't it? Yeah.

1:55:27Bill Simmons:I mean, that's probably a better... Actually, Stiller is better in that role. That's a better Ian slash Ray thing, right? He owns like a the biggest comic book store in Chicago or something. He's not even a threat. Why would she be with this guy? True, yeah. What piece of memorabilia? Oh, we had a couple other possibly answer questions.

1:55:42Rob Mahoney:Who should Rob wind up with?

1:55:44Bill Simmons:Nobody. Nobody. Or the reader. You know, I'm already in with the reader lady.

1:55:48Chris Ryan:Well, sub question, not is it better to burn out than fade away, but why doesn't he call Marie to Sal?

1:55:54Rob Mahoney:I love that you also did the answer.

1:55:55Chris Ryan:It's part of the move. Like when he and Marie part ways, he's like, I'll call you. And she's like, yeah, whatever. Why wouldn't he call her?

1:56:02Joanna Robinson:Because both of them knew what that was, which was not an actual beginning of anything, but just sort of like, we're both not over the person, the exes that we're talking about.

1:56:10Chris Ryan:I just don't believe that that guy does not call her again.

1:56:14Rob Mahoney:Even though he's trying to play it real cool. More out of his league than Charlie. Maybe. That's like more of my, like...

1:56:19Joanna Robinson:How about he has a better reaction to Penny's story. Yep. And he winds up with her because he's like, we're having a great date. She has a light up pen. Yeah. And that's what I thought film critics had to have, a light up pen because of this movie. But he's like, we're getting along. And if he has a better conversation with her in the restaurant that doesn't end with her storming out on the word rape, then maybe those two crazy kids make it work.

1:56:41Chris Ryan:All he had to do was not bring it up. All he had to do was not be going through a what does it all mean thing.

1:56:46Rob Mahoney:We never talked about the Allison Ashmore, the one in like seventh grade, the first kiss when he's just like, she married Kevin. I'm fine now. He kisses me.

1:56:57Joanna Robinson:Yeah. Marries Kevin. I'm fine now is such a good, like such a funny delivery.

1:57:02Chris Ryan:That's the thing. Could Ethan Hawke do the like, I am alone in a room screaming. Cause that is half of the Cusack performance. Yeah, you're right. I'm not sure he has that. Anymore.

1:57:13Rob Mahoney:Just what do you, what do we think the ceiling on Rob's DJing is? You know, like...

1:57:18Bill Simmons:Oh, you had some thoughts on this.

1:57:19Rob Mahoney:Well, so in the early 2000s, I would go see Hollertronics DJ and that was Diplo and his partner Low Budget and they would play a lot of stuff. But like it had that same kind of like, I'll play the Neptunes and then I'll play like an 80s New Wave song. And so like that kind of like variety was emerging as a DJ choice. But I don't know. Like they make it seem like Rob is just selling clubs out with his DJing. And I was just like I'm not so sure That's like a viable

1:57:46Bill Simmons:He also didn't have The DJ type of personality Yeah Like did you believe He was a DJ DJs have a certain vibe To them That I'm not sure John Cusack has I can't see him being like DJs gotta do a lot of that To get the crowd going

1:58:02Chris Ryan:When famous enough That Caroline would remember him But not so famous She wouldn't remember That he's Robin Not Bob It's like it's It's a weird fine line You have a weird thing about

1:58:11Joanna Robinson:Robin Bob? Yeah I think we all do you know

1:58:14Chris Ryan:but like it's nothing offensive it's just like I am not a Bob

1:58:18Joanna Robinson:yeah or a Bobby definitely not a Bobby

1:58:20Chris Ryan:I mean nobody wants to be a Bobby but you could be a Rob but you could be a Rob

1:58:25Joanna Robinson:or a Robert but not a Bob or a Bobby

1:58:27Chris Ryan:I mean I literally am a Robert and I'm definitely a Rob okay Bob is just like they grew up on the other side of the river you should develop a group chat character

1:58:35Rob Mahoney:called Bob Mahoney that's where you save your real takes

1:58:39Joanna Robinson:Chris have you ever considered Topher no no

1:58:42Rob Mahoney:okay

1:58:44Bill Simmons:that's in the chess camp

1:58:45Joanna Robinson:that wasn't in the mix until Topher Grace I didn't it took years until I figured out that that was short for Christopher I just found that out

1:58:54Rob Mahoney:right now

1:58:55Bill Simmons:and Liam's the other one Liam's didn't exist for the first 30 years of my life I'm just glad

1:59:00Rob Mahoney:I got past the era of my little league coach calling me Chrissy you know that was like tough I was just really worried that was going to stick that's real tough

1:59:08Bill Simmons:Tony Soprano calling Christopher Chrissy a couple times that's the last time that's

1:59:12Joanna Robinson:happened yeah what about will simmons like your alter ego will simmons i just never would have

1:59:19Bill Simmons:no i was billy for the first like 20 years and went to college and dropped the y oh wow because my dad was always bill and i was billy separated us so did you just never

1:59:29Chris Ryan:introduce any yourself college i'm like i'm bill you're bill now yeah i'm bill a rebranding

1:59:35Bill Simmons:yeah i'm now bill oh okay uh what memorabilia would you want or not want from this movie what one thing

1:59:41Rob Mahoney:to be completely honest it's not quite memorabilia I want the record store all the entire record store I just want a storefront smoking indoors is allowed we listen to records all day and argue with each other

1:59:53Bill Simmons:probably live stream it there's a Marie DeSalle poster that I think would be pretty great the black and white one? yeah the one you see outside the club there's a poster of her thing I thought it was good what about

2:00:05Joanna Robinson:the Dickie shirt that he wears and Zoe Kravitz also wears in the TV show. Oh, quite good. Also, great coat. John Cusack, perhaps, top five coat actor.

2:00:17Rob Mahoney:The leather jacket? Yeah.

2:00:19Joanna Robinson:The long leather jacket, but he's like a really good coat jacket actor. He knows how to like swing a pocket, et cetera, et cetera.

2:00:25Chris Ryan:I like that.

2:00:26Joanna Robinson:How about you, Rob?

2:00:27Chris Ryan:I would love the flyer for the record release party, which, I mean, it looks like a woman is giving birth to the name Kinky Wizards in space. But most importantly to me, at the risk of doxing myself, The party's happening literally on my birthday. So I got to have the flyer. You know?

2:00:44Rob Mahoney:Just more fuel for the Nirvana fans. I know.

2:00:47Joanna Robinson:For Courtney Love to steal your identity.

2:00:50Rob Mahoney:Life lesson. It's not what you like. It's not what you're like. It's what you like. Yeah. That's a pretty good one.

2:00:56Joanna Robinson:For all the physical media collectors at the Ringer, fetish properties are not unlike porn.

2:01:01Chris Ryan:I mean, it's true.

2:01:02Rob Mahoney:I'd feel bad selling to these guys if I wasn't one of them.

2:01:07Chris Ryan:How about when Rob is going through What he misses about Laura Talking about how she has character And it's like character is not taking it out on people When you're having a bad day I think there's some truth to that

2:01:16Joanna Robinson:But more importantly it's what you like I mean that's the movie

2:01:21Rob Mahoney:Double feature trace Joe got me thinking about Clerks But I had Empire Records written down What about

2:01:30Chris Ryan:So if you flip the formula And you make a movie that's basically from Laura's perspective it's also another Nick Hornby book which is Juliet Naked where she's like dating a guy who is like a rob. And has Ethan Hawke in it, right? Has Ethan Hawke in it.

2:01:42Bill Simmons:I like that movie.

2:01:43Chris Ryan:The movie's pretty good. I think it could work as a double feature.

2:01:46Joanna Robinson:I would say either Gross Point Blank or About a Boy.

2:01:49Bill Simmons:I would do Say Anything bookend it with Cusack the beginning and end of Gen X. Yeah. Who won the movie?

2:01:56Joanna Robinson:Jack Black.

2:01:59Bill Simmons:I think Jack Black as well.

2:02:01Joanna Robinson:His entire career.

2:02:02Chris Ryan:I mean, it's hard to argue. I think what Cusack gets out of this is pretty powerful. And all the iconography of the movie, the cover, the poster, him in the record store is all Cusack.

2:02:12Bill Simmons:But Cusack wins because he knew that Jack Black, this was the perfect part for him. He made Jack Black.

2:02:19Joanna Robinson:He wins out of this. I told these guys Jack Black was going to be great.

2:02:23Bill Simmons:I told Dylan when I was on the phone with him.

2:02:25Chris Ryan:Picked all the songs in the movie. Yeah.

2:02:27Bill Simmons:What do you have?

2:02:28Rob Mahoney:I think I have Cusack. I think that there was a road here where he could have done like an iconic generational role every 10 years. And he kind of did it in his teens and his 20s and gets right up to the precipice of his 40s. And it just goes direct to video.

2:02:45Bill Simmons:Yeah. Too much time with Jeremy Pittman. Producer Craig.

2:02:50Rob Mahoney:Yeah.

2:02:50Bill Simmons:What do you got?

2:02:50Rob Mahoney:Never seen this film. Oh. Yeah. But your wife likes it though. Yeah. She saw it a while ago. and I think she saw it when she was really young and was like, now I'm realizing that I completely didn't get that movie and I need to watch it again. But there's a lot I liked about this movie but there's no way I could like it as much as the people who actually fit the demo who saw it when it came out. Like, I just think you kind of can't get there unless you were there. It's just not for me. It's not mine. Like, I feel like you guys were like the people in the record store in the movie like working there and then I was the dad who walked in the store.

2:03:21What, are you in a coma?

2:03:23Rob Mahoney:Yeah, I'm like, I'm not going to point out the scenes I like You guys are like, you weren't fucking there. You don't understand. But it's funny. This movie being in 2000, I feel like I knew less of the names you guys talked about today than a movie that came out like 1980. Of the actors or like the bands? Just like the cultural references are just like gone. I don't like, when you were just naming all the singers that you were like attracted to in the 90s, like I don't know any of the names you're talking about. Half the bands over my head. It's crazy that, you know, I think I was born in 1994 and it's like your parents, you know, right when they have kids, Like that's the time in your life where you like stop consuming new things.

2:03:58Rob Mahoney:Right. And so from probably from like 94 to 2000, my parents probably watched the least amount of movies they had ever watched, which is when kind of this comes out. And then when I come to in like the mid 2000s, I was completely getting ingested into like the Apatow era. So I think there was just like, it's like there are these blind spots and it's why I saw 80s movies before these movies, because my parents love the 80s movies. So I think there's like a blind spot from like 94 to 2000 that I just like to have no cultural reference for.

2:04:25Bill Simmons:And you never read the book? No. Yeah. The book's really good. It's worth reading. It really is.

2:04:30Joanna Robinson:My copy is all water damaged because I accidentally left it on the lawn of my dorm and the sprinklers came on. And so it's all like crunchy and wavy. And I was just like, I'm going to keep it that way.

2:04:42Rob Mahoney:I also struggle with the like the emotionally stunted, like angry at the world. What was me? Like reality bites Troy type. I don't there's something about that that's never called. I don't love that. but that is the Apatow guys too

2:04:55Chris Ryan:like that you know in a slightly different they're just making fun of each other there's more stone that's true yeah

2:05:01Rob Mahoney:it turns much more raunchy and slapstick it's just that I was trying to do Mr. Skin yeah instead of having a record story yeah and it's like it's not as clever like the writing is not as clever deliberately like there are still lines in this movie that are very reality bitesy like John Cusack looking at the camera and being like it was a state of ill-advised blah blah blah and you're like nobody in an Apatow movie talks like that and it's still very it's very lyrical in this movie which is like kind of an example of that 90s style

2:05:30Joanna Robinson:except for my guts have shit for brains which is a line I would cut from this movie

2:05:36Bill Simmons:I'd like to apologize before we end the pod that I didn't mention the lady from Mazzy Star as one of my throw my life away people

2:05:43Rob Mahoney:you did that classic thing where you shoved the boat out and you didn't come up behind me it's like who is your Rushmore so the lady from Mazzy Star who else Julianna Hatfield no like who are these people Liz Fair okay you got it I don't know who that is you don't know fade into you

2:06:02Bill Simmons:you would know

2:06:02Rob Mahoney:maybe yeah

2:06:04Bill Simmons:who was the who was the one that dated Evan Danda Evan

2:06:09Rob Mahoney:Julianna Hatfield did didn't she yeah yeah

2:06:10Bill Simmons:yeah she's on there I feel like we're missing somebody I'm not prepared for this well you

2:06:16Rob Mahoney:you asked me I know I asked you but I didn't keep a list on you yeah but I didn't like I didn't it wasn't like I'm going to talk about who I was attracted to for a decade. I just forgot. You're always doing that in the office though.

2:06:29Joanna Robinson:Cracking a cold poppy can. It was also like

2:06:32Rob Mahoney:there was just like it was more like types of women and it was like you know it was more like women in Hal Hartley movies or Noah Baumbach movies or whatever.

2:06:42Bill Simmons:Yeah like the girl and kick him and scream. Rob how was it for you?

2:06:48Chris Ryan:It was great. Yeah. This is the kind of initiation I was hoping and dreaming. You did a great job.

2:06:52Joanna Robinson:Hoping to just burn your career with a latte. Oh, yeah, this is it.

2:06:55Chris Ryan:It clearly can't be invited back.

2:06:57Bill Simmons:Joanna, a pleasure as always. That's real. CR, you're the best. Thanks to Craig Worldbeck, Gahau as well. Who else is back there? I don't know who's back there now. CT, Jack Wilson. Shouts out to Eduardo. Yeah. All right. We'll be back. How many more? What's today's date?

2:07:13Rob Mahoney:Today is like the 8th or 9th or something. Today is the 10th. We have two more in the month of December.

2:07:19Bill Simmons:Yeah. Wow. There you go. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Bill. Thanks.