Hello, Hi Millie.

Hey, what's up?

Are you alone?

Hold on?

Hold one second, let me let me put my he have phones in really quick because I can't even really hear you that well, hold on, hold on.

Can you hear me?

Hello?

You can hear me.

I can hear you.

Okay, cool, this is better probably, So what what's up?

I have a question for you?

Uh okay, all right?

Sure.

Do you like scary movies?

Uh?

Yeah I do?

Mm hmm oh cool, yeah, yeah, I love I love scary movies.

Have you seen them?

Did you?

Did you?

Did you see weapons?

Uh?

Yeah?

I Actually it's not pretty recently, you know.

They filmed that here in my town, which I think is really cool.

Oh that's yeah, that's really it's iought it was really effective.

And I also I also just recently watched Nightmare on Elm Street.

The Dream Warriors, the third one, which is my that's my favorite one.

I think that was like really.

Cool, absolute classic.

Yeah.

Who who is this?

By the way, I have to know.

Oh this is this is Casey?

Oh what what's up with this?

The scary guy voice at the beginning then I didn't know was my.

Dad was There's just something in my throat I don't know.

I wasn't doing any scary voice, just I just wanted to know if you like scary movies.

You really fooled me, dude, because I totally thought you were the killer from Scream for a moment.

There.

Oh that's weird.

I guess he does.

He did call and ask do you like scary movies?

And I guess I did the same thing.

But really, I mean, I like, I also want to call.

I'm excited for our next episode.

You know, we're talking about a movie I really love, which is Jennifer's Body from two thousand and nine.

Another movie you've never seen.

Another movie.

Yes, this is the second week of our horror month here at Dear Movies.

I Love You, and we last week's Midsommar episode that was the first watch for me, and this week's film, Jennifer's Body another first watch, and quite honestly, I can't believe any of these have flown by me.

There.

I mean, I feel like I've been missing out on so much culture by not having seen these movies.

So great episode.

We're also talking to James or Banniac in another installment of our segment my area of expertise.

We're going to talk about.

My man Godfree from nineteen thirty six, the original, not the remake, and Screwball Comedies, and yeah, we're huge fans of James or Baniac and it was great talking to him about that stuff.

So make sure you stay tuned to listen to that conversation.

Yeah, dare I say, we were both nervous as fuck when he came on.

We were quaking in her boots.

And he happened to be like the nicest dude ever and we were just like.

Immediately.

So well, please stay tuned.

It's gonna be a fun one.

You are listening to Dear Movies.

I love you.

Dear, I love you, and I've got to know you love me to.

Check the box.

Hello, folks, you are listening to Dear Movies, I Love you.

This is a podcast for those who are in a relationship with movies.

My name is Chili de Cherico.

And my name is Casey O'Briens.

That's right, Halloween, ouen.

That's why we're doing it.

We're doing it.

How's it going so far?

Any any changes to the candy regimen from.

Last Yes, my discipline of eating lots of candy.

Now I would say, I housed quite a few Reese's Peanut Butter cups this week, which I would say are my favorite candy of all time.

Yeah, have them, I would agree.

I think it's definitely the top three.

MM.

Love that.

You know what kind of candy I've kind of come back around the bend on.

No, heath bars.

Those are good, but man, they get stuck up in there.

They get stuck in my teeth, I.

Know, I mean kind of the downside to it.

But the taste, Yeah, they're good, undeniable.

You know what I think is also really great about heath bars.

They kind of stay true to the OG form.

They're not like making weird shapes.

No, you can't do it, alternative color wrappers.

Like they're kind of like, you know what, we're fucking old man, candy bar.

We're staying that way.

Yeah.

Don't you respect that about certain candy bars?

Yeah?

I like it.

Yeah, absolutely, respect is the word I would use.

I respect it.

One hundred grand.

Have you ever had one hundred grand before?

Oh?

Yeah, I love one hundred grand.

Yeah.

The design has not changed in like many decades.

Do you think it's because these are less popular candies and they're not getting called up to the varsity team, you know during the holidays.

Yeah.

I think it's because they got to stay lean and me and they know their place.

I just hope that they can continue making them because I don't want them to, like, you know, be put out to pasture.

I'm gonna want a heath bar.

I think you're safe with the heath bars because I feel like that is a very common like cake topping or dessert, Like it's used elsewhere.

Sure, like, have you ever had a better than sex?

Have you ever heard of that cake?

No?

What is this some la thing?

It's some la thing.

No, it's I think it's like a Midwest thing.

It's kind of like a It's like a chocolate caramel cake with whipped cream frosting, I guess.

And then they broken up heath bars on top.

Oh it's good.

I would die.

I love it.

It's good.

Well, and the thing about a one hundred grand is that it's effectively a Nestley crunch bar that just has caramel.

In it, right, Yeah, yeah, and it's good.

I think it's fantastic.

And I just am like, I don't see any of these like zoomers running around with one hundred grands in their pocket.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying, Like, I'll keep buying them if you keep buying them.

These zoomers, they got a bunch of you know, milky Ways and Skittles popping out of their pockets, but never heath bars.

Well I think that was I'm glad we checked in about candy again.

Of course, Millie, we got to open up the film diary.

Oh it's light again.

Oh, it's like two sheets of paper stick.

Like two sheets of paper.

I tried to find a sound effect for this last time, and I couldn't find something that, you know, really sounded like two pieces of paper moving.

You know, maybe I'll need to do some field recordings of my own.

You should have been the audio from American Pie of the like feather that's like dancing on the breeze.

Does that have a sound effect?

I can't.

Yeah, probably not.

It's probably just thora birch being like, wow, this is so beautiful.

The garbage bag in the wind.

Oh was it a garbage bag?

Well, that's what the neighbor.

The neighbor.

I think there is a feather, but there's the neighbors like, this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen remember you, like, filmed The Garbage Bag.

Of course I remember because I was so turned out by that stupid character.

Like I was like, oh, what a fucking intense weirdo.

Yeah, I mean that character put a spell on me too, because I was like, not only is this who I want to be, this is who I am now.

I haven't seen American Beauty since like two thousand and two.

I might might I just realized, I said, American Pop.

Yes you did.

Maybe That's why I was sort of convinced.

Oh god, what a fucking awesome state.

Imagine if the characters from American Pie were like watching a feathered Hits.

Oh shit, Oh it's funny.

I think those like came out in the same year.

That is odd.

Oh god.

Anyways, Okay, why don't you go first and then I'll go.

Okay, Well, as you alluded to the two shades of paper of the film Diary this week, is because I always saw her in The garbage Bag.

I saw I always saw one movie and I don't want to actually talk about it because I just can't talk about it right now.

Let's just say.

That that's right.

I'm gonna talk about this soon.

Yes, So I did see the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie One Battle after Another, just came out recently.

Yeah, so I won't talk about my thoughts.

How about that, I will say, Yeah, I will say that the screening I went to was in seventy millimeter here in Atlanta.

It was completely sold out.

A lot of guys, a.

Lot of God, of course it's pta, He's our hero.

I was gonna say, who, Like, I wanted to bring this up with you simply because there were a lot of men, to the point where I was like, why are there so many guys here?

Is it because Paul Thomas Anderson makes movies about dads.

I'm asking you as a father.

I've never really put that together, maybe because I'm an idiot, but a lot of his movies do deal with the relationship with the father, and which is interesting because I don't think he necessarily had a bad relationship with his dad.

His dad was Gulardi.

Am I wrong about that?

Yeah?

His father was the voice of ABC and played a Cleveland late night horror host known as Gulardi, after whom Anderson would later name his production company Wow And He died in nineteen ninety seven.

He was the voice of ABC.

I didn't know that, but yeah, he does have a lot of movies about dads.

You know, if my dad was a horror host, I'd probably have a lot to say about that too.

But yeah, I was just curious because I just felt like, God, there's so many guys here.

He's our father now, Paul Tomas Sanderson is our film father.

Yes, and I would also encourage everybody else that isn't a straight white guy to rise up and come see pta movies in the theater opening night.

Okay, for me, it was funny because I saw a lot of guys around me and my friend Matt Booth, who owns Videodrome, the local video store here.

I said, God, there's a lot of guys around here, and he's like, yeah, that's because there's no money in mom's which was like the saddest wow fact.

That's interesting, And then.

I started thinking about it.

I'm like, yeah, I don't know.

You think these guys would show up for Ladybird in this way.

You think I'm going to be sitting in a room with like three hundred other dudes like watching a woman and her mom haven't have a fight.

No, Yeah, that's interesting.

That is interesting, I will say too.

Maybe this is a film indic question that we should bring up at some point.

But man, there was some stinky dudes.

Ooh, I'll tell you right now.

We don't even have to get into it.

You gotta smell.

Here's my Also one of my rules film etiquette.

I wear close toed shoes to the movie theater.

Oh god, of course what.

I would never wear a sandal.

Absolutely not.

It's like you can't even see the floor, and there's no way I'm just gonna leave my toes exposed.

Yeah.

I have seen people take off shoes before I put bare feet on the ground, which is awful.

That they should not be allowed to vote if they do that.

And I saw it in New York City, which is even worse.

Narseteer.

Yeah, uh.

The smelliness was I think just when you get a lot of men in one room, that's just the higher potential of stinkiness.

And bo oh, it was awful.

The boh was awful.

Yeah, it was very distracting and I just felt like I was trapped.

So anyway, I hope the movie was.

It didn't hurt the movie too much.

No, I mean, you know, there were other things it was really loud in there too, which I'm assuming it was because it was sold out.

They thought, oh, we should probably jack up the audio.

But I also have been told that the particular theater that I went to has like hot spots of loudness oh sometimes, and I probably was sitting in one of them because it was really loud.

So but I survived three.

Hours, no one through, no one through a firecracker during this screen.

No, this is our rep cinema.

They have better sense than that.

So very good.

Well, I did a bad job this week.

I didn't watch a single movie.

Jeez, I'm losing my bloom.

You might as well quit.

I might as well quit.

My co host is telling me, I might as well quit.

Well, I thought in place that I could play a voicemail from a listener.

Great, because I love I love hearing from our listeners, and.

We haven't done this in a while either.

We haven't done this in a while, so I thought this would be a good opportunity.

Hey, Millie and Casey, it's me.

It's Weezer face.

Hi, I love you guys.

Quick question here.

I wanted to see what you guys think about this.

So let's say you're at the movies.

You're watching a great movie and all of a sudden, even though you took precautions, you went to the bathroom before.

You haven't been drinking the big gulp or whatever.

You have to go to the bathroom, you got to take pee, whatever.

And you know it's not a five hour long movie with an intermission or anything like.

That, but you got to go do this.

Do you wait until like the absolute moment where you're like, I got to go to the bathroom, let's go, or do you kind of like watch the movie and wait for like a slow moment to happen, Like what's your what's your approach to this?

Like you have to go to the bathroom and you're gonna have to miss like maybe a minute in the movie.

What's your what's your vibe there?

How do you approach that situation?

It's happened to me quite a few times this year.

The only movie I didn't go to the bathroom during with Sinners.

Saw all of that, but plenty of other times I missed vital parts because I thought, oh, it's going slow, I can take a quick bathroom break, but then boom, what do you know?

Like I miss seeing no Sarati's penis and stuff, and I'll never forgive myself except you know, I obviously watched it streaming, But like, how do you.

Vibe out when to go?

So that's the question.

Okay, love you fye, this is a great question.

Weez her face.

I love weserface, me too, glad they called in.

Yeah, now this is a really ideal I this is the thing that stresses me out the most about going to see movies is pete because I have to pee all the time.

And I remember when I went and saw Avengers Endgame, which is like three and a half hours, and I was stressed, like driving over there about how am I going to handle this?

And the movie started and I was all worked up, and I would say within the first three minutes of the movie, I went to the bathroom because I was like, I just gotta I have to go.

So well, first three minutes.

It's probably a good bet because.

You're probably but I mean, I feel like I feel the to answer the question.

I think I wait until a lull or I feel like there's a lull it like in the story where I can sneak away to go to the bathroom.

Okay, what about you, Millie, I hold.

It until it's about to come out of me.

God doesn't that kind of color the movie going a little bit?

Because I feel like there are movies where I look back and watching it and I'm like, I had to pee for half of that movie.

Uh huh, I mean it does.

Okay, I'm not saying that I'm not literally running out there.

It's like when the screen goes black and you know that that first credit is going to pop up, I'm already gone.

You're out of there.

Oh hell, it happened at one battle after another.

Jeez, Louise.

Don't you think think though you would enjoy it more if you're like, went to the bathroom during the movie.

I mean to enjoy the pe, or to enjoy the movie.

The movie and the p I guess.

I mean sometimes it is a nice feeling to expel all the liquid after you've been holding it for so long.

You're like, oh God, this is incredible.

I the movie.

See.

I'd like to think that, you know, I have like a zen sort of demeanor when it comes to pain, where I can just sort of be like, you know what, I know, I got a pee, but I'm focused.

I'm interested I'm pushing away my own needs and wants for the experience of this film.

And then the minute any letters pop up up screened with any person involved in the movie, I am out of here.

So you're not waiting for that post credit sequence.

Okay, So this is what this is.

The downside to my technique, sure, is that fucking all these movies have post credit sequences where they're like teasing sequels and all this bullshit, which I actually think is lame.

I hate it, And a lot of times I'll go home and it's like, oh, what did you think of the post credit sequence.

I'm like, I didn't know there was one.

No, because you told me the movie was over when the credit started rolling.

That's the sign that I'm done, okay.

And the idea this is I swear, and I think it's actually I'm going to say it's not necessarily.

Maybe it's a little gen X, but it's definitely a millennial thing.

Y'all love this shit.

Y'all love blind boxes, you love fucking easter eggs and like weird little inside jokes after the credit.

I'm like, come on, I really do we love them?

Yeah, you're like.

Weird candy and flavored soda and all those things.

That's interesting, that is sort of a millennial love.

Oh that love to be on the inside.

You know, I've never had more conversations about limited edition sandwiches than I have with people of your age group.

Wow, limited edition sandwiches.

Yeah, y'all are the ones that are lighting up for these fucking you know, one time only sandwiches, And like.

Where are these one time only sandwiches You've never had?

Like you've never stood line in la for like a one time that you know they're making a ruben at the you know whatever shop something about.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I'm not a I could never.

I was never jumping on food, like the trendy food.

I don't like to wait that long for food.

But you love, you love a unique you know see, not year round experience when it comes to things.

Yeah, I do.

Come on, I'm admitted for your generation.

You know, my generation, we love them us millennials.

No, but you're right.

I feel like that has become such a thing.

It's like educates that little Easter egg, that little reference to that other thing.

Like, no, what am I twelve?

Why do we need an Easter egg?

I don't have.

Yeah, stupid, But anyways, I think we answered the question.

Thank you, weezer face.

I know that you've written before, and I just want to say I appreciate it because I think you wrote me a fan letter once and I got a lot of self esteem from it, So I appreciate that.

I'm glad you went back and watched nose Rotto to make sure you saw his dink on the screen, because that was important.

I know.

I mean, honestly, I probably would have peed my pants waiting for that.

My concern for you, Millie.

You're going into a movie and you know there's a post credit sequence, so you're like, I will wait for that, but the letters come up on the screen, and your body is so programmed to go to the bathroom when you see the letters that you're just going to start peeing your pants in the movie theater.

Don't show Nosferatu's dick after the credit sequence.

Yeah, Like, if you know, if that's the kind of game your plan as a filmmaker, If y'all are like, guess what we're gonna like do some crazy shit, you're evil.

Yeah, you're simply evil.

All right, Well, let's close up the film diary.

God, that's beautiful.

It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

All Right, we're moving on to our main discussion.

Jennifer's Body from two thousand and nine, a movie that Millie just saw for the first time.

Thrilling, Millie.

Do you feel like we're killing enough?

We're slaughtering enough teens and movies these days?

It feels like that trend is kind of going away.

Yeah, I mean I feel like we're probably not.

We're opting to instead watch middle aged diva actresses be pulled in by witchcraft.

Yeah.

I do think that's part of the elevated horror A twenty four effect, is that we don't have as much teenage carnage going on.

Yeah.

I mean, maybe there is something to that from a sociological perspective.

Maybe it's that these young people don't want to see their kind getting ripped to shreds in the same way that we did when we were growing up.

Yeah, it's interesting.

I don't have anything else to expand upon that, but I've just noticed that trend, and I was kind of a joy to watch, you know, these teens get their guts ripped out in Jennifer's Body.

Yeah, I mean, I guess we're gonna say spoiler alert if you haven't seen Jennifer's Body.

It's crazy to me this came out sixteen years ago.

We got to put a pin in that because there was so much to talk about when it comes to the style of this film that I need to discuss with you.

But yes, in the.

Same way though that the movies of my childhood were.

I mean, there was the one of the huge tropes of sort of slasher films was the concept of like popular kids getting killed first.

Yeah, a lot of times, yes, And that is something I actually appreciated about.

A moment in Jennifer's Body that we'll probably talk about was that the head football player got shocked and I was like, cool, Yeah, it's been a while since I've seen some like this.

Yeah, well it is interesting, yeah, because usually I think the final girl is the more virginal, nerdy one.

Typically, you know, that's kind of a classic trope.

Even though I think Jennifer's Body does really well by subverting a lot of that kind of stuff, which we'll also talk about, because I will say that before I watched this film, I had always heard about this film, and I had always heard about it being a feminist horror film.

Yes, And I don't know what your thoughts are about that.

You might have none, which is fine.

You don't have to have feminist thoughts.

I mean, actually you do.

It is important for you to have feminist.

Thoughts, but just as it pertains to this specific movie, correct.

Like I guess it's not.

I guess it's more that, like, not every movie needs to be discussed socio politically.

I guess.

Sure, my mind just goes there because that's just my brain.

But there was moments in this film.

After seeing it finally I was like, oh, I see this is actually kind of cool.

There's a lot of cool things because to your point, just now, like these girls are not necessarily squeaky clean, even the one that is supposed to be isn't.

Yeah, isn't one hundred percent, which I think is really cool.

And they actually make some jokes to things like that in the movie.

But well, I mean, listen, why don't we get into maybe the synopsis and yeah, we go a little bit beat by bet because it actually would love that.

Sure, let's do it.

Well, Okay, so the movie is about the characters Needy, Anita, Needy, Les, Niki played by Amanda Sefreed and Jennifer Check played by Megan Fox.

They are unlikely best friends.

Needy is more of the bookish, quieter one and Jennifer is the hottest, most popular girl in school.

Now they live in a small town, Devil's Kettle, Minnesota.

More on that later, and Jennifer wants to go see this band from the cities named Low's Shoulder.

They're playing at like a local beer hall, and she wants to, like, you know, hook up with them.

But they go to this concert and the place burns down and Jennifer kind of disappears with the band in their van, and Nidia is left wondering what's going to happen to her friend.

Like I said, this was a Minnesota movie.

I like Diablo Cody a lot.

I love her.

She has kind of this Minnesota trilogy.

Juno, Jennifer's Body, and Young Adult all take place in Minnesota.

Diablo Clodi spent time living here for a long time, and I like that.

It's like, are just some Midwestern representation in the movies?

Like I don't feel like I feel like the Midwest is typically portrayed like Fargo A lot of the times and Minnesota specifically, and so I like that they have the in her movies, the characters are very smart and very funny and clever, and I feel like they don't always Midwest movies, aren't.

They don't always typically portray people like that, you know what I mean?

So interesting giving some resentation to your folk, That's right.

What do you think about?

What do you have any opinions on Diablo Cody because some people don't like the way she writes characters.

I actually like Diablo Cody.

There might have been a time where I was like, I felt like there was so much energy in the culture behind Juno and I was like, okay, like and we were at like peak Michael Sara too, which yeah, sorry, sorry about it.

It was just that moment, and that is peak I guess you could say indie sleeves with like peak hipsterdom.

Yes, like at that time.

Yeah, And so there was just like at general annoyance with that kind of stuff I think in the time for me.

But then subsequently I liked things that she's made.

I loved Young Adult, I loved Lisa Frankenstein.

I logged that movie on this podcast, I believe, Yeah, And it feels like she and I are probably around the same age.

Actually she's a year older than me, so referentially it's like I'm in sync with her.

And sure, that's kind of how I felt about Jennifer's body as well, even though I have much, like I said, I have much more to say about the style of this film because of the era that was in.

But yeah, I do like and enjoy her work so well.

I mean, why don't we get into the the era and the style of things, because that was something that I really when I was watching this, because I probably for the first time in like twenty eleven, and then I watched it like five years ago again, and even watching it five years ago, it didn't feel as much of a would you say, relic of its time or it didn't feel as dated.

But watching it this time, I was like, holy hell, this is like so squarely two thousand and nine.

Just the style of it, the music, you know, the dialogue.

It was just like it.

Really felt like from the past, Like it felt distant to me, which I mean it was.

It made me nostalgic for that time, but it also just felt like a really a bygone era.

I don't know, if you had a film similar experience watching.

Yes and part of what I probably shouldn't spend any time parsing out, although I literally can't help it.

I have to sure and being that you're a little younger than me, this is probably going to be good intel you're because I feel like you could explain this better.

I am extremely confused about EMO and the Emo eras that have happened in our lives because when I was in my late teens early twenties and I graduated high school in nineteen ninety seven, Okay, Emo to me was this like midwestern bald guy Jadetree Records thing where it kind of felt like an offshoot of like hardcore.

But the people involved in EMO, as I knew it, were bands like The Promise Ring and like Texas is the Reason, and you know, like jets to Brazil and things like that.

Like I remember when the album Nothing Feels Good came out by the Promise Ring in nineteen ninety seven.

I I that was the first EMO album that I bought that I and I was like, oh my god, I feel like I'm hanging out with is like a different crowd of people, because it really wasn't my thing.

I was really more like in a punk rock but it was like, it just felt like it was more kind of guys and like, you know, Dicky's pants and like tight little Dicky's jackets and like button ups.

So as the years went on, I started realizing that a lot of what kids were calling EMO was more like what this movie was, which is like kind of the like Fallout Boy, Pete Wentz, like jagged black hair, fingerless gloves, like eyeliner thing, And I'm like, when did that happen?

I guess I'm yeah, you know, I'm not an expert when it comes to EMO, I do, but there are like these little like offshoots, and I'm not sure how to label them because there's like music like Dashboard Confessional and American Football, which are not hardcore, right, they're not.

They're very but they are still very much in the EMO genre.

Yes, it's confusing, it's confounding, but I agree in this movie it is more.

Would you say it's like more.

Of the Fallout Boy style of emo.

Well, that's the thing is that there's actually certain references to EMO in the movie.

I don't know if anybody explicitly says it.

Maybe Adam Brody's character says it because we'll get into Adam Brody plays in a band in the film, which I think upon first look and definitely by the song, you would consider an emo band, I think generally.

But that's the thing is that all these kids that are these emo kids in the film, which by the way, Jennifer aka Megan Fox, aka the most popular girl in her school, also has emo posters on her bedroom wall, which is another branch that I refuse to climb on this fucked up culture tree.

But I'm just saying I look at the kids in this movie, especially in one in particular, which we'll get to later.

I look at it.

I was like, he looks like he's in a nine inch nails.

He doesn't look like he's into emo music.

You're right though, that like, well, the guy I think that I can't remember who the character's name, but he's the guy with the lip ring right that yes goes So he's like very emo fied with the spiky hair and stuff.

But that is how the That's how like Fallout Boy fans dressed or My Chemical Romance fans dressed, and I think they adopted the like nine inch Nails fan look, but had much more mild music taste, you know.

I mean they looked like they were like the viral video of those like crazy German people who were doing the dance under the ridge, like they look like industrial kids.

They don't look like emo kids.

But then again that's me just being old.

Well, I think I think it's the hot topic, the hot topicization of fashion, like that there were there there became kind of a commercial place that is selling this stuff and making it more available, this type of fashion of making it more available to the masses, you know.

Well, And the only reason why I even talking about this and why I guess it feels relevant is because that's the world of this movie is really kind of that like high school emo kid late two thousand's early twenty tens kind of vibe.

And the close the music, I mean, they're actually like talking about it.

It's kind of self referential in that way too, of the of the era.

And so I'm just like this missed me, Like I feel like this entire era, I was already a working adult, so I was like, I don't know, like when all the kids started wearing like, you know, arm sleeves with stripes on them, and you know, Shane wallats and stuff.

And that's not to say like it's not to say that I didn't enjoy it on some level.

It just was like I just wasn't nostalgic for it because it wasn't like something that I was deeply a part of.

Sure, But I will say it was really fun to be with high school characters in a movie like this because they were also like saying all their lingo and all their words, which was so hilarious to me.

Yes, I think I think people get mad at Diablo Cody sometimes not mad, but like especially with Juno, because they're like high school kids don't talk this way.

They're speaking too cleverly, and I think they thought Diablo Cody was being like too clever with her lingo.

But I I really think it's so funny.

I think she's very funny, and it's like the things like the one liners that Jennifer has are like really good.

I don't know, and I all felt like believable y'or not maybe not believable, but in this world it felt appropriate for the characters to be speaking this way.

And I feel like there's a lot of bad versions of this type of movie.

But dieblo Coti is able to do it well.

Yeah, like we did a movie on I Saw what You Did called Disturbing Behavior from nineteen ninety eight.

Uh huh, and the lingo in that movie is appalling.

Sure, so it could definitely be bad.

But then there are times too where that that seems cringe quote unquote at first, but then it becomes part of the culture.

I mean, I think Mean Girls did that where yeah, I think Heathers did that.

Heathers absolutely did that where you listen to a movie and you listen to the kids talk and it feels like clunky, but then eventually people are saying shit like fetch or what's your damage?

You know?

Well, I do think it takes a certain type of actor to be able to say that stuff convincingly and with good comedic delivery.

And I feel like Megan Fox is really good in this movie.

Listen, Megan Fox can say literally anything she wants in this era, but.

She also is doing it what I feel like she's delivering it with such dead pan she's doing I don't know, I just I thought she was great in this.

Of course you did, And this is what I don't do that I want to get into this a little bit, because Okay, I'm going to be one hundred percent honest with you.

I also missed Megan Fox alongside most movies of the two thousands and Emo.

Apparently I was not around for her rise to Bemence.

You weren't buying Maxim magazine?

Was Maxim Magazine?

I guess it was still being published.

Oh yeah, two thousand and nine.

Have you ever bought a Maxim magazine?

I don't think I have.

You didn't want to get like tips on how to be like a stud.

Here's how to pleasure your woman.

All you do is bring her flowers.

I don't.

I hate to burst your bubble.

I don't think they were.

I don't think Maxim Magazine was as thoughtful as like how to pleasure your your how to get your partner to come.

You know, I don't think that was happening.

I don't think they were concerned too much about that.

But anyways, I don't want to talk about Maxim magazine.

You don't you really don't want to keep going, But listen, I missed Megan Fox.

She in this film is kind of like bionically good looking.

Yeah, Like she doesn't even seem like she's a real person sometimes h And I think that's probably why she was in Maxim magazine for all those years and why she continues to be like one of the hottest ladies ever.

But I feel like because some of the criticism I think that I was reading online and on letterbox specifically was the dance of, you know, being a feminist film but also having this extremely beautiful woman in it who's, you know, sort of a sex symbol for straight males, right, Yeah, But I also think that that's I think part of I think it's by design is basically what I mean is that, like, she had to be that hot in a lot of ways for the plot.

But I also think too, I mean part of the story here.

I mean, the reason why the movie is called Jennifer's Body, I feel like is because we're actually seeing it, at least this is kind of my read on it.

We actually see her body and her sexuality through the lens of her best friend.

Interesting, yes, which.

I feel like it is something I don't think it's been brought up necessarily in this specific way in a lot of American films that I've seen about female friendships, about the idea of in some friendships with females like there is sometimes an undercurrent of desire and of a closeness that kind of becomes a physical closeness too.

Yeah, that is really I want to just say some plot stuff and then I want you to pick up exactly where you're talking, just so we can bring people up to speed real quick.

Sure, But so basically we left off.

They go to the concert, it's on fire, they escape, Jennifer goes with the band, and then we see Jennifer later and something has happened to her and she starts killing high school boys and eating them, and we're like, what's going on?

And like you said, this is all seen through the lens of Needy.

Needy is watching Jennifer.

She's like, what is going on with Jennifer?

And then it is revealed that Jennifer was killed by the band Low's Shoulder in a sacrifice to Satan.

And because like we referenced earlier, she's not a virgin, but she in order to be attractive to these guys, she's like, oh, I am a virgin, and so they sacrifice her and it goes wrong because she's not a virgin, and a demon takes over her body and she is feasting needs to feast on the flesh of boys.

Like you said, Millie, Needy is like, this is all through Needy's let the lens of Needy, and I do think this is like a really fascinating female friendship movie.

And there's even like a makeout scene between them, which was not meant to be a publicity thing.

It's sort of supposed to be like representative of the closeness of female friendship, wouldn't you say?

I agree?

And it became a publicity thing because of you guys, basically.

Of us of maximum subscribers, yes.

Lifelong subscriptions, all of you, because it's like, oh cool too, hot chicks making out not a fantasy.

Yeah, but obviously it has a way kind of deeper meaning an implication in the actual film, right, And you know, part of what I like about the idea that this was directed by a woman Karen Kusama and written by a woman Diabolkati, is that they're able to make that even though y'all ignored it, it's still in there.

The context is essentially like you said in the synopsis, right, Needy is a bookish nerd and Jennifer is the hottest, most popular girl in school, right, So there's a power dynamic between the two of them since childhood.

There are flashback sequences in the film where they're like sitting around probably like seven eight years old, and you can tell that Needy is reverent towards Jennifer, right, because Jennifer is more outgoing, more dynamic, better looking, like whatever.

That stuff gets established super early.

And that is the thing that I've found always so fascinating about female friendship movies is that some of the better ones, you know, I'm thinking of movies like made by Nicole Holoffen Center and you know, many many other films not just in America but also internationally that can really drill down into that power dynamic between two female best friends.

Because very believe there's always like the one that feels like she can't say no to her friend, and she knows that her friend is more popular and more beautiful and more dynamic and is sort of being like dragged around on a leash by her, yeah, in a lot of ways.

And I mean this is something that Media's boyfriend Chip also clocks about their friendship, like He's like, what's the big why do you follow her around?

Why is she so?

But then you know, in the movie you look at Jennifer aka Megan Fox and you're like, holy fuck, Yeah, I would do anything for her too.

But it is interesting because I feel like I've seen that in real life.

Now.

I'm not gonna tend to know about the intimacies of female friendship, but I have seen that where it's like a friend will be like, no, I've got to take care of her, like I it's like my duty.

Like Amanda Seafreed's character Needy, it's almost like she feels this duty even though she has this really complicated relationship with Jennifer.

She feels this like it's a she needs to be a part of whatever is happening to Jennifer, and she needs to like not take care of her necessarily, but like figure out what's going on with her, you know, like so much of her identity is wrapped up in that.

Yeah.

And also there I feel like is queer undertones here too, Like yes, where maybe Needy is is in love with Jennifer, not just from like a friend perspective, but also like wants to kiss her and wants to be physical with her and admires her and all that stuff gets like kind of convoluted in a ways, especially as young women, because you're kind of working it all out, you know, and you're kind of hanging out with this one girl constantly all the time, and you're in these very intimate settings like sleepovers and showers in school and like things like that, and this is something that you know, is I feel like a lot different between female friendships and male friendships where I mean, you're like, I've I can't even tell you how many times I've been I've slept in bed with women.

I still sleep in bed with women when I'm on trips and stuff if I have to.

And there's a physical closeness sometimes between us that we're able to kind of handle.

I don't know if that's the hard to say, like we can handle being physically close with each other, Whereas I feel like in a lot of male friendships that's kind of a taboo thing.

Yeah, I mean I don't feel like men see each other naked ever, Yeah, And I feel like women do.

Yeah, And like you in a much.

More right you would never sleep in your underwear next to like a male friend necessarily, no, whatever, you know, Whereas that's happened to me, like I've done that even though I'm not interested in women at all.

But it's almost like it's kind of just like, I don't know, it doesn't seem like a big deal to me and to us maybe yeah, sometimes, but I will I don't want to like take away the queer reading of Needy like either.

I feel like, you know, there could be feelings there that she hasn't explored yet, and there's probably a lot of things in the movie that point to that too.

But yeah, all this to say, though, it's like, I feel like the point of Megan Fox being Megan Fox and being in this movie is that she is supposed to be the ideal right, like the ideal high school popular girl, gorgeous, perfect body, all of the things.

Yeah, and everything kind of swirls around her in that way.

Yeah.

I mean, the movie goes on and you know, Needy realizes that Jennifer is pure evil.

She's trying to protect Chip from Jennifer, but she's like, we need to break up basically because it's not safe for us to be together, which also feels like kind of like maybe she's making way for more like Jennifer to be in her life more.

There's a little bit of a reading of that, like, yeah, using this as an opportunity to get away from Chip.

And she tells him don't go to the homecoming dance because she Jennifer's gonna eat everyone at the homecoming dance basically, But he does not listen to her, and he goes to the home coming dance anyway, and on the way there, Jennifer intervenes and she's like seduces him and unfortunately kills our suite Chip and thoughts on Ship, Well, I really like that actor Johnny Simmons, and I feel like he's very representative of this time.

He was in Scott Pilgrim as Young Neil, which I know is a movie that you loathe, but I love.

And he he was in Perks of Being a Wallflower.

He just has that like perfect sweet face with the swoopy hair.

I mean, he has hair I would have killed for.

I'm sure, oh yeah, I would have liked.

That was like the kind of hair I would pray to God for.

But I really like and he was the He was originally in the short film version of Whiplash, but then they recast his role with Miles Teller for the feature film.

But I Chip is a little sweetie.

Yeah, he felt like pretty evolved as a high school kid.

I will say absolutely yes, without being like too unrealistic.

I felt like he was kind of a good, good guy in that in the movie, right, Yeah, absolutely.

I did think it was really disturbing that Jennifer like seduced him, like she sprinkled that earlier in the movie too, being like he's looking really good lately.

Yeah, because that is the thing too about this movie being a tale of female friendship high school of female friendship, is that Jennifer sucks as a friend.

She's not a good friend, and she knows that she has power over nity.

She knows that Needy is her kind of like dutiful little nerd friend, and that she can get all the boys that she wants, and she uses that for evil, And it just was like, I mean, you knew it was going there, and I mean I knew it was going there first time watch.

I was like, oh, man, she's gonna try to fuck this guy, isn't she?

Oh this awful?

And also because I feel like he did, he's never seduced by her or i mean until the end, but he does not find he does not have eyes for her.

You know during the movie.

Yeah, I will say that they're Oh my god, I don't even know if I should reveal this.

This might be too personal.

You can do it, Millie, up to you.

Well.

I once had a friend who made out with this guy that I was dating or seeing or situationing with by a dilapidated, half empty pool, and it was awful.

It felt awful to me.

Yeah, and I was like, is she about to fucking rickroll this motherfucker by the pool?

I feel like I've been here, baby, this sucks.

This sucks, and like that's the thing to your point.

At first, he's like, I can't believe I'm making out with Jennifer.

She's like the hottest girl.

But I mean, eventually he pulls away and he's like, dude, this is weird.

But they got into some lots of smooches before.

Yeah, and she's like Sam better than Needy?

Why?

Oh that was awful.

That was the villain turn of villains.

I was like, oh, I can't believe it, Like this is exactly what I did not want for Needy, but it happened.

Yeah, I don't care if she was a suckubist, that's just mean.

It's just mean, and it's something she might have done even if she wasn't killing and eating boys, you know, but she does get I feel like that is when she gets most pissed off at Needy, when she when like Needy's like, did you have to go after Chip?

Are you that?

Like?

Are you that insecure?

Like she flies off the handle at that point.

Yeah, I know, And that's when, I mean, that's when it becomes like, Okay, you must yeah, you must destroy.

I will say I feel like the end of this movie could have been tightened up a little bit.

I know, we're not really you know, this isn't really necessarily like film criticism, but it felt like there were a few There was like three endings to the movie, and it feels like those could have been all put together.

Yeah, but I mean I get that you have to you would have to put the Suckubist in the ground.

You need to do that.

And I definitely feel like you need to have killed low Shoulder in some way, yes, But that did feel like two distinct endings that I don't know if it worked.

And then there was the.

Insane Asylum stuff too, like it just was like, Okay, we need to get out of here.

I just think we needed to get out of there a little faster.

But that's that's that's a very small criticism of the movie.

Speaking of Low Shoulder, Yes, horrible name for a band, even in a movie.

Horrible name for man.

Sorry, couldn't stand it.

I was like, who the fuck would go see Low Shoulder?

Adam Brody is the lead singer of Low Shoulder.

Adam Brody was giving Brandon flowers from The Killers.

There are times where I literally was looking at him on the movie going are we sure that that's not the lead singer of The Killers.

Yeah?

I like Adam Brody.

I'm an out Adam Brody fan.

I think he's funny.

Yeah, I mean who didn't like him in this era?

His peak era?

Yeah?

But uh yeah, that's that when the whole when that whole band thing came into play, I was like, Oh, yeah, we're gonna we're gonna see these Satan worshiping emo guys reek havoc on a town with their stupid fucking song, which became the funniest part.

Was it it a lot?

It's a lot like Heathers the movie Heathers in His Way, where a song becomes the like National Mourning Cry for like a tragedy, and.

That song really got I don't think it's a good song, but it was stuck in my head since I've watched it.

Through the Trees, yes, but like there was like this, I mean, this is so dark, but it's like there was the scene of the people at the candlelight vigil and they were all like mouthing the words to the song cheese.

Yeah.

I mean that is obviously like something that has happened in other movies before, just the criticism of the whole like grief culture of yeah, you know, teenagers and that kind of stuff.

But it's like, yeah, that band, holy shit, they were terrible and uh but perfect for Adam Brodie to be that.

Yeah.

Right.

You know, it was interesting watching this.

You know, this is like a comedy horror essentially, and so and the kills are like so outrageous, but I found myself feeling very disturbed, like affected by the killings and like particularly like when Jennifer gets killed.

Yeah, and like I was kind of joking at the top when I was like, we need to have high schoolers killed more often.

And maybe it's just me getting older, but it made this movie weirdly as like over the top as it is did make me think about like school shootings in a way that I feel like movies that are trying to address that more straight on don't make me feel as much as like this type of movie.

So I thought it was effective.

I thought it was pretty gnarly.

Like.

There was a couple of really not only parts.

I mean, the first part being something that happens kind of early on in the movie, where Jennifer comes to like Needie's house, and yeah, this is so funny.

So like, first of all, Amy Saidara's plays Needy's mom, which is nice.

I wish she was in the movie more.

To be honest, you have to think there's some stuff on the editing room floor.

Might it's really funny?

It might have been, But like Nabi's mom brought home a chicken from Boston Market, Yeah, which my mom used to do a lot.

Oh yeah, me too, where Tistry chicken was a very big part of our lives.

Do you remember that boss still is?

Do you remember that Boston Market corn bread?

Oh delicious?

I remember their mashed potatoes are really good too.

Yeah, they used to make these little mini corn breads.

I'm like yo, mom, get like twelve of them shits.

I can't get enough.

But then she, you know, basically Jennifer reveals herself to be a demon by way of this rotissery chicken and she pukes up all this crazy black stuff and I was like, oh my god, this is pretty gross.

And then there was the sequence after she killed the jock, the popular football player yeah in the woods, viscerated him, like pulled out all of his parts and was like literally drinking his blood from his like chest cavity.

Yeah, And I was like, goddamn, yes.

I do appreciate that because I feel like it became such a thing, especially with horror movies where they're like, this horror movie needs to be PG thirteen so high schoolers will go see it.

And I liked that this was a hard r yes, so it made it more effective well anything else about Jennifer's body.

Actually liked this movie a lot more than I thought I would.

That's great.

I think this was sort of thrown on a trash heat for a long time, and it's gotten a lot of people, like there's a big reevaluation of it, and people are like, actually, this movie is awesome.

But at the time it was a failure and people thought it was bad and stupid.

But I feel like it's aged well well.

From what I read, it was mismarketed.

And that's the problem is that they made, you know, women made a very thoughtful horror film with feminist subtext, and then it got marketed as a mechan Fox movie, or they try to market it to young men.

Yeah, and so I mean those two things are like not they are mutually exclusive.

So it's like, I see what happened obviously, Yeah, but I'm glad that people are reevaluating it, honestly because it plained.

When I was living in LA used to play at the New Beverly all the time, and I'm like, oh, man, I should go see this, and I never did.

Even like the poster.

It's like, this looks not that interesting.

It looks like American pie presents, you know, like j Jennifer's Body.

Uh.

But like after you watch it, you're like, this feels like a movie for women.

And I say that in a complimentary way, but it's like funny that they're like, we got to take this and make it for men.

But I know, and that's the power of Megan Fox.

I suppose unfortunately.

I mean it's like, I'm glad she was in this movie.

I mean, honestly me too.

Like she is.

You know, there's probably a lot of like film theory, the star theory or whatever about her, but it's like, I mean, she is absolutely like the star, Like she really is extremely hard to not watch when you're in the movie.

And it's not just her looks.

I mean, it's just like her, like you said, kind of her countenance, her I mean, the ways that she's killing and like devouring these guys in this movie.

Is Yeah, it ain't pretty like and I think she's when she's like seducing them with the intent to kill them.

I thought she was scary.

She's locked in, Yeah, I mean she is.

It makes me sad though that this was such a because I just feel like she's not offered roles like the like you just wonder if this had been a bigger hit or like, I don't know, people took her more seriously, yeah, because I don't know.

Yeah, I feel like she should have like a big second act, like she should come back and just be in some fucked up art shit, Like.

I feel like she was really funny in the movie.

This is forty two.

If you ever saw that jutt Apatam movie, she's really good in that, but that's like a supporting character, you know.

Yeah, it would be great to see her do some more stuff like this or just more kind of like challenging.

Yeah, I mean she.

Was.

She was up and them goods, she was eating shits like no tomorrow, and I was like, this is awesome.

Yeah, like this is so awesome to see something this gnarly.

So yeah.

And I liked the song by Hole and it's not even in the movie.

M oh yeah, because it ends on Violet.

Which sounds like which sounds like a gun club song, but that's not for neither here nor there.

Yeah, I all in all, I think I rated this like at least four stars in my letterbox, Not like that means anything, but did you rate it?

I feel like you don't frequently rate on letterbox.

Yeah, I really don't, afraid.

I don't like committing to a star system that I feel is inherently flawed.

But I gave it a high rating, and because I think I just wanted to like give it something.

Yeah, But I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, And I actually think it's really textured and complex and interesting, and I love the female friendship stuff that to me was fantastic.

So well, I think Karnkusam is a great We didn't haven't really talked about Krnkussam at all, but she's a great director and she's done some really great stuff and I want her to keep making movies.

I feel like she's like had a few movies that like were marketed wrong, and I just feel like she's kind of been fucked over, like with Ion Flux, that was the movie she did.

But she's awesome.

Yellow Jackets, right, did she do yellow?

She did a lot of Yellow Jackets too.

She did a great movie called The Invitations.

You ever saw that horror movie?

That one's really good.

She's great.

Yeah.

AnyWho, moving on, all right, everybody, now it is time for another one of our segments, my area of expertise, and we've got a great guest today.

We're thrilled to have him.

You may know him from Difficult People.

You may know him from the wonderful Hal Hartley films, Henry fool Faye grim Ned Rifle.

Plus he's popped in some huge movies lately.

Oppenheimer, The Fableman's James Urbaniak, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

Glad to some fellow cineasts as we say.

Yes, well, so you're a part of this section we call my area of expertise, which is where we bring on a guess and we have them bring their area of expertise or something that they're just extra passionate about, and we like it when it's really specific.

And I personally love your area of expertise because this is a great film and just broadly the genre is one of my favorite genres, and your area of expertise.

Is, oh well, I mean I chose my Man Godfrey as the.

Film, the thirty six version, right, not.

The only version that matters.

Yes, I've never seen the remake.

Actually I haven't either, have you, Milly?

Okay, oh you haven't.

I have not, But I guess that certainly.

I don't want to say I'm an expert, but that era nineteen thirties Hollywood, the sort of Golden Age, is something I'm very interested in.

So I guess inadvertently I've become an expert just because I've watched so much of that.

I certainly have a pin.

Sure but that way, well, on this show, that's what makes you an experts.

That's an expert.

Yes, yeah, so i'd say, yeah, thirties, well, whatever you know, classic Hollywood era, whatever you know, screw early twentieth century, screwbat.

Comedy is certainly an area that I love very much.

And this is just one of my favorite movies.

I think it's a perfect movie.

So and when when did you first see this movie?

How old were you?

I was around eighteen when I first saw this.

And the story is I was in college and I met a guy named Anthony, and this is in New Jersey.

And I wasn't particularly into movies when I was a kid.

I mean I would enjoy movies.

And when I was a kid, there was lots of old stuff on TV, local TV, you know.

And one significant thing was there was a local station in New York.

I lived in New Jersey, but we got New York stations, of course, and there was a local station that every Thanksgiving they would play King Kong during the day.

Now, there's no Thanksgiving theme in King Kong.

I mean, the main characters are thankful they've found this giant chase to profit from before things go bad.

I think it was just they thought, oh, families will like this because older people know the movie, kids will be into it, and it probably did great ratings one year, and they were like, let's to show King Kong again.

So sure that was the first And I probably first saw this when I was like seven or something on this local TV station, loved it, watched it again next year, and then quickly became kind of obsessed with the movie King Kong.

And looking back, I think that part of what compelled me so much was it's a great movie and obviously very appealing to kids.

But I think part of it was even the disc of it being a movie from nineteen thirty three, the fact that it wasn't black and white, the fact that the stop motion is a little jerky looking, the fact that, by the way, sidebar, not all nineteen thirties acting is like this.

There are streams of acting in any given era, but there is a stream of say, what are you doing acting on that movie?

That's not the movie.

That's not the kind of activists in Mimagafrey, by the way.

But I think even that the sort of oddness of some of the performances by contemporary standards intrigued me.

So it was the whole package anyway.

So that was the first time I was really interested in an old movie.

But it was only that movie.

I really wasn't looking to watch other movies from that era.

And then when I went to college, I met this kid.

They became good friends.

This is like the early eighties.

His dad worked for RCA, and in the seventies, because his dad worked for RCA, they got one of the first chess machines.

They were early adapters, like before most people had them.

And the first tapes that were available were like old movies because back then there was no pipeline.

It wasn't like the Sting would come out and that would be on VHS in two months.

That just wasn't a thing.

So a lot of it was older stuff where the rights were easier to get.

So his dad just started bringing home all these old movies on VHS's and then this kid, Anthony, just got into this stuff.

He just liked it.

And by the time I met him, we were like freshmen in college.

He already had like an encyclopedic knowledge of classic Hollywood cinema because he lived in a house where they watched these old movies, and we were just hanging out when he's like, hey, you want to watch something, and I've got these old movies, and in one of those early times that we hung out, he put on My Man Godfrey and I freaking loved it.

I just got very into I really loved it.

And meanwhile Anthony was like, that actor's name is Franklin Pangborn, like he's pointing out the supporting actors and then moving.

So he actually gave me this guy, Anthony gave me my first film education.

And then actually years later he ended up working at Eastmanhouse in Rochester, New York, which is a film preservation institute.

So he's actually doing what he loves, which is great.

But so he's the one who kind of opened the door on this stuff.

And then it just so happens that I was also disposed to like this stuff.

Not everybody does, and that's fine, you know, but I just got into it, and then that's never ended.

I continue to be fascinated, but that also remains.

That was an early classic Hollywood movie that had a real effect on me.

But you know, I watched it again this week to prepare for this, and sure, it just holds up big time, like it's still one of my favorite films.

I mean it feels so you know, not every like you said, not every movie from the nineteen thirties feels modern or feels the comedy in it.

I was surprised it felt very modern.

I totally feel like nineteen thirty six whenever it came.

Well, you've got a great director, Gregory Lecava and Gregor ar Lekava is interested in various things, but one thing that's interesting to him is sort of a kind of naturalism.

He kind he kind of goes against like conventions of the time where there's sometimes there's a sort of presentational quality to nineteen thirties acting because the conventions haven't been established.

Talkies have only existed for so many years, so there are some movies where people are doing a more sort of presentational kind of acting.

But his thing is always get everyone to be very natural and even there's a there's a couple performances which are some of my favorites in mymc godfrey that are very heightened comedically, like Alice Brady who plays the mother the sort of hair brained, you're upset and calm though, yes, but even she that is not a realistic character.

That's a very heightened comedic character.

But there's a kind of crazy freedom that Alice Brady has in that role that's spontaneous and within the reality of that character, it rings true.

It doesn't seem forced, it doesn't seem fake.

And then my god, you can just go Carol Lombard and William Powell are just so wonderfully natural.

Carol Lombard is so effortlessly funny.

No one seems like they're putting on an act, even though the character of Godfrey is kind of putting on an act.

But everyone just seems spontaneous and the emotions seem very real, and the script is really tight and really funny, and I think it's one of the least dated movies of that era.

I agree with you one hundred percent.

It holds up big time.

I would say every I would say in this film.

The one thing that feels, at least for me personally, at all unbelievable is the idea that dapper William Powell is an unhoused person at the beginning of this film, right, yes, and Forgotten Man.

We find out more about that later, but when you first see him, I mean, for me, William Powell is gonna be Nick from the Thin Man movies for the rest you know, this is just who I see.

He's always a dapper guy to bow tie with a martini.

And so when you first see him at the beginning of My Man Godfrey, you're like, oh, wait, what has a beard?

Like, Yeah, I don't think I'm seeing William Powell with a full beard.

This is crazy.

Yeah, I like him.

I mean he gets uh, he gets Willim powells pretty quickly.

He shaved the beard.

Yeah, he cleans up.

He cleans up within the first ten minutes of the movie.

Absolutely.

Actually kind of like him with the beard.

I thought.

I was like, huh, looks pretty good.

Actually with that, I agree with you.

I like him with the beard.

It's actually like when I was doing some research, there's like an old some movie.

It's probably some period thing that takes place like in another century where he's got long hair, and he actually looks kind of cool with long hair.

It's a wind obviously, like it's supposed to be old timy times or something.

But yeah, and I love him because he has he has this wonderful rye quality and in a way I think he sort of resembles it is almost the forerunner of Donald Sutherland or even Jeff Goldblum, if you will, who both have a kind of rye attack.

You know, they seem really bright, but they they have a kind of rye even sarcastic default, and they're also very attractive leading men.

I think he's in that tradition.

They kind of have the they're kind of have like an observ they're they're kind of above the scene.

They're kind of looking they're outside of it a little bit, sort of reacting in that all all those guys.

Absolutely, and the character of Godfrey is sort of outside reacting to all this.

And last night I was thinking, well, Donald Sutherland would actually be really good in this, but would have been really good in this like seventies Donald telling absolutely.

Now when you saw this movie, James, you know you were saying you had kind of you were disposed to this type of movie at a very young age.

Was there any recognition on your part that you're like, it's sort of maybe I don't want to say odd, but like unusual for a like an eighteen year old to be like loving a movie from the nineteen thirties at this time.

Yeah, I don't know, I know, I know, Yeah, I didn't think it was that unusual.

I think part of it was, I think there was a hard wire and me, this is when I was eighteen.

I did not think I wanted to be a professional actor.

I was sort of leaning towards the arts, but I was leaning towards like graphic design or being a cartoonist or something like that.

Yeah, but I think I had some sort of, you know, incipient interest in acting and performing because the acting in this movie is so beautiful.

Some of my favorite performances of all timer in this movie.

And I think before I even understood that, I think part of me was still responding to that.

For me, it was just about a sort of very intense sort of fascination and interest in this stuff.

But I mean I always, you know, I was a skinny, little arty guy.

I always felt like a bit of an outsider when I was younger.

So that was just that was just part of the package.

Yeah, I can I ask you a little bit about screwball comedies and like maybe, yeah, but it makes them so appealing to you and maybe like some of your favorite screwball comedy films and apps.

Oh yes, I mean, my gosh, I mean one of my favorites is Nothing Sacred, directed by William Wellmans During Frederick Marsh and Carol again.

I think, right, isn't it Carol Lombard, Yeah, yeah, she's really good at this.

It's really fun because it's their rom coms, but their rom coms with a sort of heightened comedic element to them.

I think you could count His Girl Friday's as screwball comedy because that, of course, is based on a play that was about a boss and a guy, and they made it into a boss and a girl, so they rom commed it.

But the play itself is this kind of hilarious, very heightened farce.

It's those two elements sort of I kind of over the top comedy that sort of pushes the boundaries of naturalism, but then with the sort of romance set in center, and somehow that bland just really works.

I mean, in the forties, Preston Sturges and stuff is I think you could count that as screwball because there's this farcical kind of structure, but then there's always these romances.

So Miracle Morgan's Creek and the Palm Beach story, his stuff is incredible.

I would say Joel McCrae is maybe my favorite of the screwball comedy actors, even though he was not specifically a screwball guy.

I mean he did westerns obviously later, but it's like his vibe in those Preston Sturgis movies is so great because.

He's so so great, just.

Like he's tall and gorgeous, but he's like kind of weirdly monotone, sarcastic.

He like has this vibe to him that is so he's just like an avatar for whatever is going to happen in the film.

And he's just reacting to stuff like a regular guy.

And he doesn't his performance isn't particularly heightened.

He's not acting.

He's just sort of there and behaving and reacting.

And that makes it all the funnier because if you have a crazy farce but you ground it in some sort of reality, it's just going to be funnier.

And that's the same effect that Miman Godfrey has.

The bulk of the cast are actually very grounded and real within a heightened comedic universe.

And those two, those two fronts meet and it's a shower of pleasure.

Thank you A.

Little metaphor there.

I got to take that one back.

I don't like the way it came out, but it's too late now.

And like I wanted to ask maybe to you specifically, James about I mean, something that I just love about screwball comedy is in particular and especially My Man Godfrey, are like the character actors that are always in these films My Bread but I know, I figured, I love Gene Dixon in My Man Goffe.

She plays the kind of the housekeeper who's just like perpetually over it and it's just sort of like reading everybody to filth all the time, which is great.

And then Eugene Palette, who has in The Lady Eve but like you could in the minute you exactly you hear him talk, and I just I think that's what I love the most about screwball comedies is that you're constantly getting these like side characters that are in in there, and then you find out that a lot of these people have been like two hundred films or something they teached are in tons of movies.

And then another thing.

Misha Auer, who plays the mother's protege's young he's this young leech.

Also, the Great Depression is a major part of the story.

Yes.

So he's this young sort of pseudo artiste guy who just hangs out with them, who was like the mom's companion, not sexually.

I don't think they're really suggesting that, but they just go out together.

They go to shows, to god to eat together.

Pet he's a little pet and he there's one point where he's also very he's very theatrical too.

And at one point, another great joke is the father is talking about their financial issues and then he goes, oh, money, that's Frankenstein monster that destroys souls.

Carlo says that mitche haaris Russian, he's a Russian act and he is off.

And then the mother's like, oh, Carlo, have some a dirts and then he immediately comes over and starts eating a dirts.

You knows where he knows where.

He's so good being fed.

And then I got to say again, Alice Brady, who's a veteran actress.

She she was a Broadway actress.

She did theater and she's in a lot of films.

She has like a very serious dramatic role.

And Young Mister Lincoln john Ford's movie about Lincoln with Henry Fonda.

There's like a court case that he does, and she's the mother of this family that he's helping out.

It's very serious, but her performance in this is not only one of my favorite comedy performances of all time, but one of my favorite performances of all time, because I just find her endlessly hilarious as this completely idiotic rich lady sort of where Kyl Lombard's character might be heading if she doesn't find the right person.

Alice Brady.

Also, that performance I don't think has dated a second.

You could if you had a comedy, that performance would just seem perfect if it was shot yesterday.

And it's again, it's a very heightened performance, has completely beyond the parameters of realism, but it totally works.

Like I said before, it just rings true.

It's so funny because what I want rewatch this movie again.

I started thinking, I was like, I think that's how my mother would act if she had like just completely like no street smarts, completely clueless, just like having you know, this guy kind of play piano and eat or dervs around her all the time.

It's also a love about my man Godfrey.

The idea of this kind of like how the rich people live type of vibe where it's like their prote like like rich people have proteges, which is an interesting concept to me.

But then also they do scavenger hunts where there's like tons and tons of people involved and they're in teams and they're like, you know, I don't know.

It's like this big party where they're all in, you know, which is how William Powell gets involved in this family to be.

The inciting incident is these rich people during the depression in Manhattan are on a scavenger hunt and they have to find things like whatever a Japanese goldfish and a goat the mother brings in a goatate down somewhere, and then one of the items is a forgotten man, which of course was a phrase there's you know about the generation of young men who went to World War One and then suddenly the fucking economy falls apart and now they can't get a job, Like we went out here, we put our lives on the line, and many of us died, and those of us who lived are back and now we can't get a job, like America has fucked us over, and they was afraid.

There's a song culture remember my forgotten Man.

It's like in an old movie, so that was a phrase.

But it's also showing the depraved indifference of these rich people to just go out and grab a homeless guy basically for their own amusement.

It's disgusting.

And of course and the you know Godfrey, it's not a major spoiler if you haven't seen it, but semi spoiler.

We learned that he's actually from the upper class but because of a romantic problem.

Yes, he had a very very bad breakup.

A girl broke off with them.

Get into that too much, and he had a major.

Downward spiral and he basically was going to throw himself into the East River and then sees these people who are still staying alive and is inspired by them.

But he's kind of a guy who's in a as as Samuel Jackson says in pulp fiction, he's in a transition.

You've caught him in a transitional period.

Well, I do love that.

I mean, it really did make me laugh that they turned the Dump into a nightclub called the Dump, and I would love to go have a beer.

People still do that, they'll there was a there was an old pharmacy in New York that became a barcle pharmacy there we go, like they still had the pharmacy counter there except drinks.

I just think it's like, to me, I think screwball comedies are so like they're just such a rich text and it feels like they really influenced you and you know, as a young person, but also as an actor, and they're kind of timeless in that way where I.

Mean it's yeah, you know, it's not just that genre.

It's like all there's lots of great acting from that period.

And the thing is another thing that this is a whole other episode to talk about.

But the other thing that really interests me.

I'll just touch on this quickly is, like I said before, in every era, there are different streams of acting.

So there is the kind of acting in King Kong, which is a little presentational.

There is the Greatest Wonder of the World, you know, and they're kind of talking like that for some reason.

And then you have Godfrey, where you have some very natural performances and some very heightened performances, but they're all kind of on the same page.

And that's always really interesting to me, is the different styles of acting.

And I think sometimes and there's also a thing I wrap this up soon, but it's related to this because I'm fascinated about this era.

If you look at a movie like The Grapes of Wrath by John Ford, it's a great movie and it's a drama, but the dramatic acting in that is very good, and at the same time it's dated because the bulk of the cast, with the notable exception of Henry Fonda, who could have been shot yesterday, the bulk of the cast is doing a kind of theatrical presentational dramatic acting where they're kind of spelling it out for you a little bit about as opposed to the more modern post war convention of more behavioral based acting that seems more naturalistic, the method, etc.

You know, the Brando school.

They're a little more at the lines.

You're clean and they're and it's got a sharpness.

And the thing is it that particular kind of dramatic acting.

It's not even out of fashion.

It doesn't exist anymore.

That kind of acting exists in comedy.

Like in comedy there'll be a lot of like Will Ferrell, he's always kind of commenting on the character.

So if the anchor man is vain, he's kind of showing you that he is, and even the way he moves his body very specifically, and sometimes the lines come out and kind of inverted commas.

But that style used to exist in drama again while the conventions are still being figured out, And I think some people can watch an old movie like that and as soon as they see this sort of dated acting, which again is not bad acting, it's actually of a very high quality.

But it's almost like music.

It's like an old form of jazz, like from the twenties before bebop or whatever.

Well, they're both great, they're just different styles.

But I think sometimes people and this is not a problem, by the way, I'm not trying to convert anybody, but I think sometimes people will see an older style and immediately a wall comes up.

They just can't quite they just can't quite get there.

But if you look at it, it's really not that complicated, and the emotions are timeless, and often the stories are very timeless.

It's just the style of performing changes.

And I got to say, we can look at some of these old styles and go, why are they talking so funny?

But my hand to God, I would say in fifty years, people will watch Game of Thrones and they'll be like, why are they all talking like this?

Like what is that?

While all the guys talking in this raspy quiet voice, Like no one talks like that.

So that's a convention.

Because it's our time.

We're not seeing the farest of the trees, but there are conventions of our time that in decades will seem strange.

Yeah, but I think Godfrey is a great sort of movie for people who maybe aren't as versed in that period, because again, I think the acting really holds up.

It seems very contemporary, absolutely and wary, which is great.

Well, James, thank you so much for my man Godfrey.

This is great.

Is there anything you'd like to plug?

Oh, well, I'm on an Apple show called Palm Royal.

That's actually a really funny comedy.

It's set in Palm Beach in the sixties.

It stars Kristen Wig and lots of great people.

Alis and Jenny and I have a little part in that.

And the second season I think premiere is in November, so I recommend it.

It's a really fun show.

It's also a sort of a period piece set in the sixties.

Lots of beehive hairdes and stuff like that.

And yeah, and then there's like a handful of independent films I've done in the last couple of years that are in various states of post production.

There's a guy named Mickey Reese who is sort of a genre of filmmaker, makes these interesting horror movies.

And he's got a movie called Every Heavy Thing, which is actually premiering in LA next month that beyond fest amazing sort of a it's sort of it's almost like Mickey's version of a Brian the Palmer thriller from the eighties, like Dressed to Kill or you know, one of those sort of the area that he's exploring there, and I play a psychopath bad in that, which is always.

Fun, cool, fabulous.

Yeah, so stuff is out there.

Everybody go check that out.

And James, thank you again, Thank you so much.

Oh, thank you anytime.

All Right, that was a great chat with James or Baniac.

Such a fan, such a fan, huge fan, even more so now because it was so nice.

And I love talking to movies, talking movies with people who love movies.

Uh.

Now it is time for employee picks film recommendations based on the theme of today, Millie, what do you got?

Well, here's the thing.

I'm not even gonna recommend a horror movie, and I know that that is stupid because it's Halloween.

I can't get this off my mind because when I watched this movie, it immediately took me to the movie I'm about to recommend, which is a movie from two thousand and one.

It was directed by Sandra Goldbacher and it's called Me Without You.

There is an episode of I Saw What You Did About.

This movie is a very early episode, so feel free to check it out.

I think it's called foot cigarettes.

I think that's where the term foot cigarettes came from because there's a scene in Me Without You where the two main characters, the best friends, who are played by Anna Friel and Michelle Williams.

They're like hanging out in Anna Friel's bedroom and they're laying in bed together and Anna Friel is smoking a cigarette through her toes and then passes it to Michelle Williams and she takes a drag of the cigarette through her foot to Anerfriol's foot and I was like, absolutely not.

I was like, I don't care if my best friend was Megan Fox, I am not smoking a cigarette from her foot.

That is disgusting to me.

Never I'm never gonna be that close to someone.

Sorry, that's an intimacy.

I don't think you know that's that's a that's a whole other level.

I wouldn't even do that with my true love.

Let's just like if my husband or anyone, I would not I would never smoke a cigarette from anyone's foot.

But the reason why this movie came up for me is because much like Jennifer's Body, right, there's this power dynamic that is happening in me without you about the two women, and it's basically or the two girls that become women, because the movie takes place in England in the nineteen eighties and they're like kind of these punk rock chicks up coming of age together and it's clear that one of them is a nerd and the other one is the popular girl, or at least the more dynamic, free wheeling, sexually liberated one, right, And the movie is essentially about whether or not you can sustain friendships like this throughout the years, like whether or not at some point you can continue to be kind of like a sidekick or second fiddle to someone who puts you in that place honestly, like they, you know, in the same way that Jennifer does this too needy, you know, like they're kind of codependent on each other, and it's fucked up because obviously one person sort of slightly terrorizes the other, the nerdier one the quieter one.

So anyway, it immediately was like when I saw Jennifer's Body, I was like, fuck, I gotta see me without you again.

It's actually, to me one of the best movies I've ever saying about female friendship.

Wow.

And it's a small kind of indie movie, like no one, no one really mentions it, which bothers me because I really love it.

I really love it.

I'd never heard of it.

Oh my god, I've seen it probably like ten times.

Wow.

The music.

The music is fantastic.

I mean it's like all amazing eighties British bands, like I mean punk rock stuff, but also like cool like Mute Records type of music.

I don't know, it's fantastic.

Anyway, cool.

Yeah, I need to watch it.

I'm gonna recommend a movie that influenced Jennifer's Body, and they spoke about this.

It's a two thousand Canadian film called Ginger Snaps, and it's about two sisters and one of them is attacked by a werewolf and goes through some changes and they're you know, they were very close before the attack, and after these changes, they start to grow apart, and one of them can't quite figure out why the other person is changed.

I mean, beyond the werewolf thing, there's some emotional distance as well.

And it is also a very bloody movie.

Wow, it's like gnarly and it's a high school movie, so it's kind of similar and vibe to Jennifer's Body in that way.

But it's a great, great horror movie and check it out.

Yeah, I have never seen Ginger Snaps any of the sequels, because I know there's a couple of sequels.

Haven't seen any of the secrets may have prequels.

I love, I love and hate the idea that it's called Ginger Snaps.

I'm like, yeah, I like the movie seems a lot deeper than that name.

I guess it's really.

There's a character named Ginger and she snaps.

Yeah.

But there was like this whole of movies that felt like they were kind of these like dark films that were named like Poison Ivy.

Yeah, yeah, you should make a movie called Fig Newton's Fig Newton.

It's about a troubled teen named Fig.

Who goes on a killing spray in the town of Newton, Pennsylvania.

Sure, yeah, that's good.

There we go.

I'm gonna watch it.

I'm gonna watch it.

You should it good good.

It's like an indie horror too, and those always have like a certain feel to them, and it's it's good.

It's good.

Alrighty, that's our show, Millie.

We did a good job, I think.

Uh, if you'd like to write in if you want film advice, if if you if you have a gret, film regret, a consensual grope or a gripe right into Deer Movies at exactly rightmedia dot com.

You can also leave us a voice smeil just record it on your phone under a minute please.

Someone sent in a voicemail and they apologize for it being a minute and six seconds and I thought that was cute.

That's okay.

I just you know, sometimes you'll get these five minute voicemail they're just too long.

So but yeah, try to keep it on a minute if you can.

And you can just email those two Deer movies at exactlyrightmedia dot com.

Also follow us on socials we're at Deer Movies.

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We always love that.

So Millie, I couldn't.

I can't tell if you're excited about next week talking about what the hell?

I was like, I was like, would you mind if we did a hell Raiser episode?

And you said, I don't mind?

What was I supposed to be?

Like, Holy fucking shit, bro, I love Pinhead pin Heads hot.

Bro speaking of industrial guys, My.

God, oh boy, Hell Raiser nineteen eighty seven.

I'm excited.

I love this movie.

I love Clay Burker.

Yeah.

Actually I'm about to go see there's like I don't know if this is like a reworking or like a restoration, but Candy Man's coming back to theaters.

I don't know why hold on the.

Be my victim.

I love candy Man, huge fan of candy Man.

Yeah, it's playing again, and I don't know why.

There's always it's always a good time for Candy Man.

Well, I don't know if you worked on the Candy Man restoration.

You can email us at Dear Movies, Exactly Right Media.

Yeah, but I'm gonna go see it so I'll be all up in those Clive Barker's goods.

Nice.

Oh, thank you Millie for a great episode talking about Jennifer's body.

Thank you for talking about Jennifer's body.

See you later, Okay, bye bye.

This has been an Exactly Right production hosted by me Milli to Chercho and produced by my co host Casey O'Brien.

This episode was mixed by Tom Bryfocal.

Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain, our guest booker is Patrick Cottner, and our artwork.

Is by Vanessa Lilac.

Our incredible theme music is by the best band in the entire world, The Softies.

Thank you to our executive producers Karen Kilgareff, Georgia Hartstark, Daniel Kramer and Millie to Jericho, we love you.

Goodbye Beker.

When you don't mean te