Steve and Anthony grow old ungracefully with Thelma.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
00:19 --> 00:24 [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to Properly Howard, a podcast that reviews classic films and other folk fiction.
00:25 --> 00:29 [SPEAKER_01]: Today we take a look at our final movie in the newlywed game series, Thelma.
00:30 --> 00:35 [SPEAKER_01]: Thelma is a sweet and funny tale that takes on topics such as aging and internet scams.
00:35 --> 00:38 [SPEAKER_01]: It might also be suggesting that Tom Cruise is a mortal.
00:39 --> 00:42 [SPEAKER_01]: With me to discuss this as always is Dr. Anthony LaDon.
00:43 --> 00:45 [SPEAKER_02]: Tom Cruise, maybe, maybe so.
00:45 --> 00:50 [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe we need to do an interview with a vampire part two.
00:50 --> 00:53 [SPEAKER_01]: 63 years old Anthony was the last time you ran fast.
00:54 --> 00:55 [SPEAKER_02]: About two weeks ago.
00:56 --> 00:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Really?
00:57 --> 00:57 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
00:58 --> 00:59 [SPEAKER_02]: And it was one of those things.
01:00 --> 01:03 [SPEAKER_02]: It was one of those things where I knew it was a bad idea.
01:03 --> 01:04 [SPEAKER_02]: What did you run toward?
01:06 --> 01:07 [SPEAKER_02]: I was running away from a dog.
01:08 --> 01:10 [SPEAKER_02]: And it wasn't that the dog was chasing me.
01:10 --> 01:15 [SPEAKER_02]: It's that my dog hates like just hates my neighbor's dog.
01:16 --> 01:18 [SPEAKER_01]: And so you were trying to, you're trying to prevent a situation.
01:18 --> 01:23 [SPEAKER_02]: I know that if I start sprinting my dog will think that this is fantastic.
01:23 --> 01:25 [SPEAKER_02]: I just want to do this.
01:26 --> 01:29 [SPEAKER_02]: And so I thought if I can just run half a block,
01:31 --> 01:31 [SPEAKER_02]: real fast.
01:32 --> 01:36 [SPEAKER_02]: I can avoid this entire situation with this hellhound.
01:38 --> 01:41 [SPEAKER_02]: And I did, and I thought this is a bad idea.
01:41 --> 01:45 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to ruin someone down.
01:46 --> 01:49 [SPEAKER_02]: There's going to be a part of me that doesn't recover from this one.
01:50 --> 01:52 [SPEAKER_02]: No, it all worked out okay.
01:52 --> 01:55 [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, one's the last time you pooped your pants.
01:56 --> 01:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.
01:57 --> 02:01 [SPEAKER_01]: One more reason then the last time I ran that.
02:01 --> 02:06 [SPEAKER_02]: Did you have any strong feelings on movie run times?
02:06 --> 02:10 [SPEAKER_02]: Like do you feel like there's an ideal for movie genres?
02:12 --> 02:13 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I feel.
02:13 --> 02:16 [SPEAKER_01]: I feel like most of the time.
02:18 --> 02:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Comedy is in horror.
02:20 --> 02:21 [SPEAKER_01]: I think 90 minutes.
02:22 --> 02:23 [SPEAKER_01]: is about my sweet spot.
02:24 --> 02:25 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, why is that?
02:26 --> 02:40 [SPEAKER_01]: Ah, I think, well, so I think maybe with those two, specifically is when it comes to jokes and it comes to scares, you wanna each one to matter.
02:41 --> 02:47 [SPEAKER_01]: And so the longer the runtime, the more you might end up like sort of overdoing it or underdoing it.
02:47 --> 02:49 [SPEAKER_02]: You can overstay your welcome.
02:50 --> 02:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and like maybe, you know, and if you have too many scares, then like, then you have almost no scares, right?
02:57 --> 03:03 [SPEAKER_02]: Sure, and I think with comedy, like, I think you're playing the expectations game.
03:03 --> 03:06 [SPEAKER_02]: How long are we gonna hold these people with this premise?
03:07 --> 03:12 [SPEAKER_02]: Right, because I think comedy movies like, you're basically elaborating on a premise.
03:13 --> 03:20 [SPEAKER_02]: and then you hope that the jokes are good enough to keep people buying into the same premise.
03:20 --> 03:41 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so I mean obviously you want to have a plot and you want to have a reason to care about some of the folks but then sometimes that becomes like because it's an afterthought maybe in the overall thesis of what is you trying to do that like I have any comments you know that's like yeah kind of bogged down once it got to the love story or once it tried to resolve certain things
03:43 --> 03:52 [SPEAKER_02]: Because this movie is, you know, covering film on the day, this movie is just over 90 minutes, which I think is probably what people would expect for a comedy.
03:53 --> 03:57 [SPEAKER_02]: For some reason, that's the right, that's the right length for this movie.
03:59 --> 04:06 [SPEAKER_02]: And I don't, like I think, can you think of a comedy that is notoriously long?
04:11 --> 04:14 [SPEAKER_02]: Don't look up as two hours and 20 minutes.
04:16 --> 04:21 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and again, it's a comedy, but it's also trying to say something right.
04:22 --> 04:24 [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, right.
04:24 --> 04:32 [SPEAKER_02]: So maybe you get forgiven, I think, but I think don't look up as maybe 20 minutes too long.
04:33 --> 04:38 [SPEAKER_02]: I think that you can forgive a longer comedy if the laughs keep coming.
04:40 --> 04:42 [SPEAKER_01]: Like as Wolf of Wall Street considered a comedy.
04:43 --> 04:51 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I think you could definitely make the case that it is a comedy, but I doubt it would be.
04:51 --> 04:54 [SPEAKER_02]: I doubt most people would consider it as such.
04:55 --> 04:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's in the three hours.
04:58 --> 05:02 [SPEAKER_01]: Looking at it, it's a mad, mad, mad world is over three hours.
05:03 --> 05:11 [SPEAKER_01]: also as way too many mad in the time of half half of the extra runtime is just the title
05:11 --> 05:37 [SPEAKER_01]: just trying to say it now all right bad bad world no nothing we were that one all right so anyway I am I think this is movies just the right length I'm a big one you're dealing with an older cast I mean you you have like how much can you film I think at least the actors had to take naps right and you're like if we if we try to get one more scene what if that's it
05:40 --> 05:40 [SPEAKER_02]: Oh goodness.
05:41 --> 05:41 [SPEAKER_02]: Now, all right.
05:41 --> 05:45 [SPEAKER_02]: So I like this movie a lot.
05:45 --> 05:58 [SPEAKER_02]: I think part of me was sort of sold on the idea that this entire thing is a send up of the action film, the Tom Cruise film, the Mission Impossible franchise.
05:59 --> 06:02 [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's, you know, we talked to a sort of genre crossing of late.
06:03 --> 06:17 [SPEAKER_02]: this movie is definitely comedy and yet it is almost I mean you could you could say it is a comedy that is a spoof of your garden variety Tom Tom Cruise film.
06:18 --> 06:27 [SPEAKER_02]: Sure and you know maybe specifically a mission impossible film and you probably heard about this through me right?
06:28 --> 06:28 [SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
06:30 --> 06:36 [SPEAKER_02]: would this be something that you think that you might have settled into without any kind of recommendation?
06:36 --> 06:45 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, you know, I mean, maybe I am more anxious than I realize.
06:45 --> 06:46 [SPEAKER_02]: I could see that.
06:47 --> 06:49 [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's mostly self-hatred at this point.
06:49 --> 06:50 [SPEAKER_01]: will sure.
06:50 --> 06:51 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't need to be reminded.
06:51 --> 07:01 [SPEAKER_02]: I just I absolutely do enjoy like older folks comedy.
07:01 --> 07:05 [SPEAKER_02]: I think sometimes sometimes the things you hate children.
07:05 --> 07:11 [SPEAKER_02]: I know for sure I think that we've established that the less you are a child the more I will enjoy you.
07:12 --> 07:13 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, you'd rather watch old
07:14 --> 07:18 [SPEAKER_01]: playing off-type than children playing off-type.
07:19 --> 07:20 [SPEAKER_02]: I thought this was a really smart movie.
07:21 --> 07:28 [SPEAKER_02]: I thought it was, you know, in terms of a spoof, like it had all the right tropes, and I think it employed them in the right way.
07:29 --> 07:32 [SPEAKER_02]: I think that there's some genuinely funny moments.
07:33 --> 07:36 [SPEAKER_02]: If you've ever hung around old folks in general,
07:37 --> 07:40 [SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot that's just like right on the nose.
07:40 --> 07:58 [SPEAKER_02]: Like the director of this film is Josh Margalin, which I think this is the first film and kind of based off this true story of how his grandmother almost got scanned.
08:00 --> 08:05 [SPEAKER_02]: And um, but to do to do that real-life event,
08:07 --> 08:11 [SPEAKER_02]: using most of the beats that you'll find in a mission possible movie.
08:11 --> 08:13 [SPEAKER_02]: I just thought was really well done.
08:14 --> 08:15 [SPEAKER_02]: Did you enjoy this movie?
08:16 --> 08:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I did.
08:17 --> 08:21 [SPEAKER_01]: I enjoyed it on for several reasons.
08:23 --> 08:25 [SPEAKER_01]: It certainly works as a spoof.
08:25 --> 08:30 [SPEAKER_01]: It works as a character piece.
08:37 --> 08:57 [SPEAKER_01]: establishing her surrounding family like you get a you get a really good glimps into this entire family in a very efficient way and I I feel like it doesn't belabor a lot of the point because there's a lot of time spent on on sort of this arduous journey
08:57 --> 09:01 [SPEAKER_01]: But it really doesn't spend as much time as they just, the pacing is really impressive.
09:02 --> 09:17 [SPEAKER_01]: It's funny, it's, I do like the topical nature of sort of the scamming of the elderly, because it's like, it's become such a thing we know that you almost kind of forget about, like, it's kind of a, maybe it's just a pretty awful thing.
09:19 --> 09:34 [SPEAKER_01]: that has just been invented like yet one one more thing technology has has right that is just this is just an awful creation yeah representing the worst of humanity like oh you know who's really easy to trick trusting old people
09:35 --> 09:37 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
09:38 --> 09:44 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that was recently talking with a couple of friends of mine who were pretty closely with AI development.
09:46 --> 09:50 [SPEAKER_02]: And you know, sort of, call up my buddy who does AI training and
09:53 --> 09:58 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, shall I be worried how these things going to like take over and ruin the world?
10:00 --> 10:03 [SPEAKER_02]: Is this humanity going to be driven to extinction?
10:03 --> 10:10 [SPEAKER_02]: He's like yeah, but you should be more worried about human humans will do to each other with this technology
10:13 --> 10:22 [SPEAKER_02]: And the character in this movie is 93 years old, she can't tell the difference between, you know, a life insurance ad and a bank website.
10:22 --> 10:24 [SPEAKER_02]: And so she's already being fooled.
10:26 --> 10:29 [SPEAKER_02]: She's been fooled because the X isn't red.
10:30 --> 10:33 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, you don't have to close up the advertisement.
10:33 --> 10:56 [SPEAKER_02]: So you don't need technology to do this, but what I'm told by people who are pretty well in the know here is that most of these billionaires that are developing AI technology are doing so so that they can more easily fool people out of their money and get younger people more addicted to screen time.
10:57 --> 10:58 [SPEAKER_02]: And they're just thrilled.
10:58 --> 11:02 [SPEAKER_02]: They're just thrilled with their ability to do this shit.
11:03 --> 11:09 [SPEAKER_02]: And I thought that this movie was kind of like, you know, each saying like, don't look up is trying to say something.
11:09 --> 11:26 [SPEAKER_02]: I feel like this movie has a more realistic portrait of what technology is in the real world than most spive films or action films that like were technology is kind of a major conceit of the film.
11:26 --> 11:27 [SPEAKER_02]: you know.
11:27 --> 11:36 [SPEAKER_02]: Tell me a story about this heroic character and make technology fundamental to his superpower.
11:37 --> 11:38 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, we talked about James Bond.
11:38 --> 11:41 [SPEAKER_02]: He's usually got a few gadgets like that or mission possible.
11:42 --> 11:47 [SPEAKER_02]: And what this movie says is, yeah, but the stuff we have right now that's
11:53 --> 12:15 [SPEAKER_02]: And anyway, in addition to that, you know, anything from like posting on social media on accident, to not not knowing emails from emails, but then also kind of putting film in a position where she's using her technology to her advantage, like using the hearing aid
12:22 --> 12:23 [SPEAKER_01]: Right, exactly.
12:23 --> 12:27 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, very, but yeah, it's your, uh, you're being arranged for mission possible.
12:27 --> 12:28 [SPEAKER_02]: That's right.
12:28 --> 12:35 [SPEAKER_02]: And then the other thing about this is that it kind of shows you early on that technology is both alienating and comforting because.
12:37 --> 12:40 [SPEAKER_02]: She needs a grandson to help her manage her email, right?
12:40 --> 12:42 [SPEAKER_02]: And then you wonder, like, is this actually improving your life?
12:43 --> 12:48 [SPEAKER_02]: But then she gets to use the email to watch this old video for deceased husband, right?
12:48 --> 12:49 [SPEAKER_02]: So that's right.
12:49 --> 12:55 [SPEAKER_02]: So her ability to access her email is actually going to bring her comfort at some point.
12:56 --> 13:02 [SPEAKER_02]: And just a really great economy of space, it shows you how utterly
13:05 --> 13:09 [SPEAKER_02]: and how it's absolutely ruining our lives at the same time.
13:09 --> 13:13 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, yeah, I mean, but yeah, like, and I think your point is this is very apt.
13:13 --> 13:26 [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, it easily could be an anti-technology film, but like, it's demonstrating, it's like, look, there is an advantage to typically, you know, technological advancements are made
13:26 --> 13:30 [SPEAKER_01]: to improve life to some degree, right?
13:30 --> 13:36 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, obviously everything is commodified in blah, blah, blah, but like the idea of being the reason why there's appeal is because it's adding something.
13:37 --> 13:41 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, it, but there's a trade off, right?
13:41 --> 13:44 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there's a trade off for just about anything, right?
13:44 --> 13:49 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if she's, she's living alone, and she talks about how she likes to live alone.
13:50 --> 13:52 [SPEAKER_01]: And so if that is something that a,
13:52 --> 14:00 [SPEAKER_01]: 93-year-old woman who has a history of health problems would like to do in order for that to even be conceivable.
14:00 --> 14:12 [SPEAKER_01]: She needs to have access to the outside world in a way that's fairly immediate and connection to people that are, you know, for better or for worse, they're busy.
14:12 --> 14:12 [SPEAKER_01]: They're working.
14:13 --> 14:14 [SPEAKER_01]: They have their own lives.
14:14 --> 14:17 [SPEAKER_01]: And so the ability to have a life alert type
14:22 --> 14:28 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, if you want to be, if you mean, she can't go on this cape or walking.
14:29 --> 14:34 [SPEAKER_01]: So there she needs a scooter, she needs a high-tech scooter, you know.
14:34 --> 14:35 [SPEAKER_01]: So there's a lot, I mean.
14:36 --> 14:41 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's, so it is, it is not anti-technology.
14:42 --> 14:51 [SPEAKER_01]: No, but it is, you know, it kind of shows this, it's, and I don't even know that it's a commentary on the technology, just that it's just, the technology just is.
14:51 --> 14:53 [SPEAKER_02]: It, it's smart about technology.
14:53 --> 14:56 [SPEAKER_02]: It's like, okay, you're gonna have to wear this life alert bracelet.
14:57 --> 15:00 [SPEAKER_02]: But what are the cool things that we can do in this movie?
15:00 --> 15:04 [SPEAKER_02]: Like, what are the gags that we can use this life alert bracelet for?
15:06 --> 15:09 [SPEAKER_02]: and how can we use it to the most comedic effect?
15:09 --> 15:11 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, you're basically turning into a tracking device, right?
15:11 --> 15:13 [SPEAKER_02]: Like, and you're like, yeah, exactly.
15:13 --> 15:15 [SPEAKER_02]: It becomes a tracking device, or something like that.
15:16 --> 15:21 [SPEAKER_02]: Or, you know, it's like, Ben's titanium hip.
15:22 --> 15:24 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, that's amazing.
15:24 --> 15:30 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, it plays with, it plays with common, you know, spy tech tropes.
15:31 --> 15:33 [SPEAKER_01]: And what it also is kind of saying is that, like, this is,
15:34 --> 15:56 [SPEAKER_01]: were becoming that right like where we are the future is now, you know, and I kind of had this thought yesterday as I was driving in the city, and there was like this whole, like this bus had an advertisement on it and said, and it had like this picture of an augmented woman on it and it said, your next hire is not human.
15:58 --> 16:00 [SPEAKER_01]: And, and the crazy thing is is that
16:04 --> 16:09 [SPEAKER_01]: It was, it was like a good news, you know, and like I'm like, and that moment I was like, wow, I've
16:10 --> 16:13 [SPEAKER_01]: My car's not flying, but it's sort of felt like it was.
16:13 --> 16:14 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
16:14 --> 16:19 [SPEAKER_02]: Well, and all right, so this movie is smart and termed a technology.
16:20 --> 16:27 [SPEAKER_02]: It's smart in terms of kind of an intergenerational codependency, but also need for independence.
16:28 --> 16:31 [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm a huge fan of Parker Posey.
16:31 --> 16:32 [SPEAKER_02]: I think she's fantastic.
16:32 --> 16:34 [SPEAKER_02]: I love her and everything she does.
16:35 --> 16:46 [SPEAKER_02]: I think I've ever seen a movie with Parker Posey that I disliked and she was fantastic in this movie, but she played it just a very hateable person.
16:48 --> 17:00 [SPEAKER_02]: Um, and then to put to put our opposite Clark Greg, who was people will recognize from the Marvel movies as, uh, this is the name Agent Phil.
17:00 --> 17:11 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, Phil from shield, uh, and his big action moment is that he's able to turn left in in Los Angeles.
17:12 --> 17:13 [SPEAKER_02]: All right, exactly.
17:15 --> 17:16 [SPEAKER_03]: We got a monster.
17:16 --> 17:18 [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, Steve, you got me.
17:18 --> 17:19 [SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to speed limit.
17:20 --> 17:22 [SPEAKER_03]: We're a law-abiding family.
17:26 --> 17:28 [SPEAKER_03]: What's been a mental last week?
17:28 --> 17:30 [SPEAKER_00]: This is why I've done these things.
17:30 --> 17:32 [SPEAKER_00]: I wish you make all these crazy turns.
17:33 --> 17:35 [SPEAKER_00]: Mercy Winner's husband was obsessed with ways.
17:35 --> 17:38 [SPEAKER_00]: Space's psycho-left ends up in Vaughn.
17:38 --> 17:40 [SPEAKER_00]: Testimits are very echoed.
17:40 --> 17:41 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that was fantastic.
17:41 --> 17:43 [SPEAKER_01]: Which, by the way, is not.
17:44 --> 17:45 [SPEAKER_01]: that nothing just needs it.
17:46 --> 17:55 [SPEAKER_02]: Parker Posey just, you know, just her relationship with her husband, her relationship with her mother, her relationship with her son.
17:55 --> 18:00 [SPEAKER_02]: Just everything, everything, everything that he made her mouth graded on me.
18:01 --> 18:03 [SPEAKER_02]: And it's not that anything she was saying was wrong.
18:03 --> 18:04 [SPEAKER_02]: It was just like,
18:06 --> 18:14 [SPEAKER_02]: like leave this 24-year-old kid alone, like, let him live his own life, man.
18:16 --> 18:33 [SPEAKER_02]: So it was interesting that both the grandmother and the grandson are kind of mirrored in that they're not trusted within the independence and therefore not allowed independence and therefore they're both kind of stuck because of that.
18:34 --> 18:34 [SPEAKER_02]: Right.
18:34 --> 18:39 [SPEAKER_02]: And in order to kind of take that next step, they have to rebel.
18:40 --> 18:45 [SPEAKER_02]: And in the same way, that kind of a film will get her money back in the end.
18:46 --> 18:54 [SPEAKER_02]: Her grandson, which is named in the film, Daniel, he's able to take that next big step into manhood, which he was unable to do before.
18:56 --> 19:04 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, and the thing is is that I don't necessarily get the sense that it is ill-meaning, you know, and I mean, and there's, it's just well-observed.
19:04 --> 19:08 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm sure that this mother-means, she's like, she wants to take care, she wants to take care of these people.
19:09 --> 19:12 [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't believe it was a necessarily a control issue.
19:12 --> 19:23 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it could be, it could be inadvertently, it's the idea that, you know, we have terms by which we can diagnose things that we just didn't in the past.
19:24 --> 19:50 [SPEAKER_01]: And so it can be nice to know like if you've got like if you have some some sort of an issue whether whether it's something along the spectrum or whether it's like some level of anxiety or whatever it is like the idea of being diagnosed with something is is helpful makes you feel less alone and like you know maybe how to how to treat people.
19:51 --> 19:59 [SPEAKER_01]: whether not not even just necessarily treating them with any kind of medication, but also how to navigate your relationships with them so that you have a better understanding of the art.
20:00 --> 20:11 [SPEAKER_01]: And that's value, but also with that comes potential for stigma or not moving somebody, forward or past it.
20:11 --> 20:12 [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not looking for a way around.
20:12 --> 20:15 [SPEAKER_02]: So when it gets put in a box, and now you relate to the box.
20:16 --> 20:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, not looking for a way around it, but instead of just looking for a way to manage it.
20:20 --> 20:23 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, so it's like there's only, that's only one step of it.
20:23 --> 20:31 [SPEAKER_01]: And I think there's, we are becoming an increasingly diagnostic culture where we will, you know, we're like, hey, cool, good news.
20:31 --> 20:33 [SPEAKER_01]: We have, we have a word for that.
20:33 --> 20:34 [SPEAKER_01]: And that's fine.
20:34 --> 20:36 [SPEAKER_01]: And that can be very valuable.
20:36 --> 20:39 [SPEAKER_01]: Again, but it's what you do with that information.
20:39 --> 20:41 [SPEAKER_01]: And if just being like, well, I'm this.
20:42 --> 20:44 [SPEAKER_01]: So therefore, that's how I am.
20:44 --> 20:45 [SPEAKER_01]: That's not enough, right?
20:46 --> 20:48 [SPEAKER_01]: And so I think that we see that when his,
20:50 --> 20:58 [SPEAKER_01]: like he sort of strips away all of the like any any kind of
20:59 --> 21:07 [SPEAKER_01]: medical therapy type talk and just refers to himself as it's just like he's just a worthless bitch or whatever.
21:07 --> 21:20 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, he thinks he can't do anything right, you know, he can't even accomplish a simple task and he calls himself a bitch several times and and that's because that's and that's it flips the script, right?
21:20 --> 21:22 [SPEAKER_01]: It flips the idea that like, oh, maybe in the past we would
21:26 --> 21:50 [SPEAKER_01]: But now there's a term for it, so therefore it's like, okay, now we know it's a real thing and that adds a validity to it, but then this is how he's internalizing it, which is like sort of strips it back and just says to say it's like, well, so what, so what this is what I am and this is all I can do, I don't want to be like this, like he feels trapped, like he feels trapped with, you know, in the same way that maybe
21:51 --> 21:54 [SPEAKER_01]: Thelma feels trapped in her house for safety reasons.
21:54 --> 21:57 [SPEAKER_01]: He feels trapped in his in his label.
21:58 --> 21:58 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
21:58 --> 21:59 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, well, it doesn't matter.
21:59 --> 22:01 [SPEAKER_01]: No matter where I go, I'm still this.
22:01 --> 22:07 [SPEAKER_01]: I still have my, I have a life alert bracelet of ineffectiveness that follows me everywhere.
22:08 --> 22:12 [SPEAKER_02]: So this film has it represents a great generation.
22:12 --> 22:29 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't think that we get an actual boomer in this family, but then we have sort of older Gen X in Parker Posey and Clark Gregg, and then Daniel older Gen Z.
22:30 --> 22:35 [SPEAKER_02]: You can just see the world that the great generation
22:38 --> 22:42 [SPEAKER_02]: is so utterly different than the world that Gen Z grew up in.
22:43 --> 22:51 [SPEAKER_02]: And in many ways, Gen Z is sort of better equipped to navigate this world because they're technological natives.
22:52 --> 23:00 [SPEAKER_02]: They're fluent in the online world in the way that, you know, a gray generation grandma is never going to be fluent in that world.
23:01 --> 23:04 [SPEAKER_01]: And technology moves so rapidly for them that they don't
23:04 --> 23:07 [SPEAKER_01]: It's almost like they are not married to any one particular platform.
23:07 --> 23:08 [SPEAKER_01]: They're actually ready for what's next.
23:09 --> 23:12 [SPEAKER_01]: Whereas I think for us, I think that's like Gen X.
23:12 --> 23:15 [SPEAKER_01]: We started to see things go kind of quickly.
23:15 --> 23:17 [SPEAKER_01]: I watched CDs, be born and die.
23:18 --> 23:20 [SPEAKER_01]: And that's kind of wild to me.
23:21 --> 23:22 [SPEAKER_01]: It's still kind of a novelty.
23:22 --> 23:25 [SPEAKER_01]: But like to my kids, it's like, well, yeah, that's just what it does.
23:26 --> 23:28 [SPEAKER_02]: Right, it's it's it's odd to me.
23:28 --> 23:29 [SPEAKER_01]: They're not afraid.
23:29 --> 23:31 [SPEAKER_01]: They're not afraid of this type of change.
23:31 --> 23:32 [SPEAKER_02]: That's right.
23:32 --> 23:36 [SPEAKER_02]: And yet maybe they're maybe they're so online that the idea of like
23:39 --> 23:50 [SPEAKER_02]: Figuring out how to go get a vehicle and go to your friend's house and sneak into there house to get the gun and then going and hanging outside of a post office box it's like I don't think you do analog.
23:50 --> 23:53 [SPEAKER_02]: I think my son knows what a post office box is.
23:54 --> 23:54 [SPEAKER_02]: Right.
23:54 --> 24:01 [SPEAKER_02]: So it's So so so stake it out the post off the idea of waiting for papers in sand.
24:05 --> 24:11 [SPEAKER_02]: So anyway, you've got this, this grandma, you know, she, she grew in a generation of action.
24:12 --> 24:18 [SPEAKER_02]: She may not be able to navigate the internet very well, but she just had a steak out of post office, well enough.
24:19 --> 24:23 [SPEAKER_02]: And she knows she doesn't have to bring her her, her, her macromé with her.
24:24 --> 24:26 [SPEAKER_02]: What she's writing.
24:26 --> 24:31 [SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, yeah, that generation was was just bread for steak out.
24:35 --> 24:35 [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, goodness.
24:35 --> 24:44 [SPEAKER_02]: So, um, man, I was trying to come up with like a trope device or cliche that I liked in this movie.
24:45 --> 24:50 [SPEAKER_02]: There's so many, you know, there's the, you know, there's the stake out.
24:51 --> 24:53 [SPEAKER_02]: There's the, the listening device.
24:53 --> 24:59 [SPEAKER_02]: There's the trope of, you know, using the tracking device and using the tracking device to like fool the person who's tracking you.
25:01 --> 25:10 [SPEAKER_02]: there's the the trope of you know taking the cigarette and throwing it in the garbage can having the explosion go off as the heroes are walking away toward the camera.
25:11 --> 25:11 [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
25:12 --> 25:22 [SPEAKER_02]: The one that I kind of landed on was when Ben and Thelma are kind of having a falling out and he says, we're more alike than you think.
25:23 --> 25:25 [SPEAKER_02]: This is fantastic.
25:25 --> 25:26 [SPEAKER_02]: How many times have you heard that line?
25:27 --> 25:29 [SPEAKER_02]: You and I, we're not so different.
25:31 --> 25:43 [SPEAKER_02]: And he's representing an older gentleman who has kind of succumb to the Assistant's living facility.
25:45 --> 26:01 [SPEAKER_02]: And he's looking at her, and he's saying, look, we're both old, we're the same, you and I because really what what is her her Nemesis is not necessarily this guy on the other end of the phone, it's just father time and she's got to decide whether she's going to give up or not.
26:02 --> 26:09 [SPEAKER_02]: And so when he looks at her and says, you and I are more like than you think, I think that she's got to decide in that moment.
26:09 --> 26:28 [SPEAKER_02]: Like am I just going to go softly into the night or am I going to be a woman of action, the same story that they tell the very end, you know, the is she going to be like Mona who's letting the roaches take over or she going to be like fucking Tom Cruise and destroy the all the roaches in her house.
26:30 --> 26:42 [SPEAKER_02]: So I like that little trope cliché or device, I guess it's a cliché, but it's a cliché used, it's used in an interesting way that I hadn't seen before.
26:43 --> 26:46 [SPEAKER_02]: Do you have a trope of cliché or device that you liked in this movie?
26:47 --> 26:48 [SPEAKER_01]: I like a chicken fight.
26:50 --> 26:51 [SPEAKER_02]: A chicken fight?
26:59 --> 27:02 [SPEAKER_01]: I what thing I really liked about don't tell me good luck.
27:02 --> 27:04 [SPEAKER_02]: Don't tell me good luck if you still my son.
27:05 --> 27:09 [SPEAKER_01]: So there's a there's a lot there's a lot to really like about this.
27:09 --> 27:27 [SPEAKER_01]: I also one thing I really do enjoy is that when as they kept with the spoof the I was a little concern going into this that it was going to be like you know John Wick but old right like it was going to be like mom work because I don't know like yeah yeah and because it was still I mean
27:29 --> 27:54 [SPEAKER_01]: you know outlandish but still like grounded in like in the reality of who they are and when what their ages are like I really appreciated that and so that that was for me a nice take on it because it's so easily because it's been like I let's just let's just do this thing and make it like you know super absurd and and you know and it is it's like it's it's like
27:59 --> 28:00 [SPEAKER_02]: Well, all right.
28:00 --> 28:01 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we're talking about cliches.
28:02 --> 28:12 [SPEAKER_02]: So it's pretty cliche to have the villain kind of finely cower and look at the hero and says, you're crazy.
28:12 --> 28:13 [SPEAKER_02]: You're insane.
28:13 --> 28:14 [SPEAKER_02]: Right.
28:15 --> 28:19 [SPEAKER_02]: But it's clever to have her like how is she?
28:20 --> 28:21 [SPEAKER_02]: how was she able to get it him?
28:22 --> 28:25 [SPEAKER_02]: She just she grabs his oxygen tube and just squeezing it.
28:28 --> 28:36 [SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, I mean, just so many tropes in this movie, but really smart to use to use them in ways we haven't seen before.
28:36 --> 28:39 [SPEAKER_02]: Yours, the chicken fight was fantastic because
28:40 --> 28:46 [SPEAKER_02]: The look on her face when she is determined to like, run him down.
28:46 --> 28:48 [SPEAKER_02]: That look my mom has that look.
28:49 --> 28:52 [SPEAKER_02]: I've seen that look on my mom's face so many times.
28:53 --> 28:56 [SPEAKER_02]: And in that moment, like, oh no, that's totally.
28:57 --> 28:58 [SPEAKER_02]: That's totally my mom.
29:01 --> 29:03 [SPEAKER_02]: Is there a tweak you'd make for this movie to improve it?
29:04 --> 29:07 [SPEAKER_01]: Um, it's, it's pretty solid.
29:07 --> 29:13 [SPEAKER_01]: I, uh, I don't really know that I would have changed a whole lot to be honest.
29:13 --> 29:15 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, because it's just so economical.
29:15 --> 29:16 [SPEAKER_01]: It's so efficient.
29:17 --> 29:22 [SPEAKER_01]: Um, I found it to be remarkably sweet.
29:23 --> 29:24 [SPEAKER_01]: Um, and, uh,
29:26 --> 29:38 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I was locked in on a lot of things and it made me start thinking about like age and mortality, and it was doing so in such a way where it was not, it was just embedded.
29:38 --> 29:47 [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't like there was not this moment where it became like super saccharine, even the scene where the grandson is melting down,
29:49 --> 29:52 [SPEAKER_01]: felt fine and authentic and all of that.
29:53 --> 29:54 [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm not really sure.
29:54 --> 30:01 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think it just hit so many beats and that I did was never a moment where I was like, I don't know about that.
30:03 --> 30:10 [SPEAKER_01]: I do like that throughout this whole movie is that you've got, you know,
30:13 --> 30:28 [SPEAKER_01]: essentially seeking revenge for being taken advantage of because she's a trusty and holder woman and then in order to do so she has to try to take advantage of as many old people in her life and they're easy to take advantage of yeah like she's got inside working knowledge.
30:30 --> 30:38 [SPEAKER_01]: The rolling around on the bed is like the slow roll is just one of my absolute favorite things.
30:39 --> 30:40 [SPEAKER_02]: I love that.
30:40 --> 30:45 [SPEAKER_02]: I have a tweak, but before I do it, I want to, there's this moment.
30:45 --> 30:47 [SPEAKER_02]: I want to just call up this one moment that I like to let.
30:48 --> 30:54 [SPEAKER_02]: There's this moment where Ben is making this impassioned plea for the assisted living facility.
30:56 --> 31:03 [SPEAKER_02]: And like you could come away from this movie thinking like was a sort of like anti old folks communities.
31:04 --> 31:05 [SPEAKER_02]: But Ben makes a pretty great case.
31:06 --> 31:08 [SPEAKER_02]: And he's like, don't the melons alone.
31:08 --> 31:12 [SPEAKER_02]: Just don't the melons alone.
31:12 --> 31:18 [SPEAKER_02]: He has his moment where he says, my wife used to pick up my socks.
31:18 --> 31:20 [SPEAKER_02]: And she used to make me food.
31:20 --> 31:24 [SPEAKER_02]: And now she's gone and I will take whatever help I can get.
31:26 --> 31:49 [SPEAKER_02]: And that almost says it's not the same because I was the one picking up the socks and it's that little window into like the greatest generation general gender roles and how they're so entrenched and so, you know, it's a pretty, you know, you could say that you could almost view this as a commentary on the various generations, but you have that that little value added moment where
31:50 --> 31:56 [SPEAKER_02]: It just feels like the director really observed these generational differences pretty well.
31:57 --> 32:01 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because like to some degree, she was like, well, that was kind of part of my purpose.
32:02 --> 32:07 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, you want to take and we can make judgments on whether that's purposeful living or not.
32:07 --> 32:13 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, but that but that doesn't change the fact that at 93 it's going to be kind of hard to maybe get her to be have a more progressive mindset.
32:14 --> 32:35 [SPEAKER_02]: Well, on top of that, it's like, all right, so she gets scammed and now because she's scammed, now she gets punished, you got fooled and the way we're going to solve this is now we're going to put you in a facility and so now she kind of has to take matters into her own hands, you know, if I don't fix this, there's more at stake here than just the money, that's right.
32:36 --> 32:57 [SPEAKER_02]: The tweak I would make to this kind of gone back and forth on this, but toward the end of the movie, the climax and you kind of winding down, you got that moment where Thelma's in the car and she's looking at the tree roots and she's just in total wonderment at the spirit of these trees that should be dead, but you know, look at these trees that are still alive.
32:58 --> 33:00 [SPEAKER_02]: And I just thought that was a bit saccharine.
33:01 --> 33:10 [SPEAKER_01]: I felt, yeah, that's a great point because I did feel like that was the point where it may have gone on too long because I'm like, I don't, this message was already conveyed, you don't need to do it.
33:11 --> 33:36 [SPEAKER_02]: you don't need to do it artfully trust trust this is this is the rat at the end of the departed that's right and then of course they show you that what that it felt at a place it felt like this this should be cut from the movie and then you see that clip of the actual gram on on whom film was based and she's you know she's basically saying word for word that scene
33:37 --> 33:43 [SPEAKER_02]: in the same way, and the passenger's to the car, and I think, oh, okay, that's why he included it.
33:45 --> 33:46 [SPEAKER_02]: So I kind of forgave it.
33:47 --> 33:51 [SPEAKER_02]: But then this watch I thought, yeah, you still don't need it.
33:52 --> 33:52 [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
33:52 --> 33:56 [SPEAKER_02]: And maybe that's maybe that's the director's favorite part of the entire movie.
33:57 --> 34:06 [SPEAKER_01]: But as someone who didn't know this, oh, you know what you could have, I mean, here's how you could tweak that and still, if this matters that much of the director, for example, start the movie that way.
34:07 --> 34:08 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I see that.
34:09 --> 34:29 [SPEAKER_01]: Start the movie that way where we're maybe her and the sun are on or the grandson are on a walk or they're in a car and just have that statement and then you know but then have enough things and then then cut to the part where they're now working on the computer and all that stuff so then that becomes sort of a I like that sort of I like that tweak.
34:29 --> 34:33 [SPEAKER_02]: I do however like the part in the movie where she's like going through a drawer and she's like
34:34 --> 34:35 [SPEAKER_02]: Do you want this?
34:35 --> 34:36 [SPEAKER_02]: This is a marble.
34:37 --> 34:37 [SPEAKER_02]: If this one.
34:39 --> 34:44 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, that, I mean, the constant, do I know you?
34:45 --> 34:47 [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I think I know her.
34:48 --> 34:50 [SPEAKER_03]: No, five, five, three, blender.
34:51 --> 34:52 [SPEAKER_03]: Maybe it's her soul.
34:52 --> 34:54 [SPEAKER_03]: So, Gary's kiss.
34:55 --> 34:56 [SPEAKER_03]: Gary knew me.
34:56 --> 34:57 [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I don't know them.
35:00 --> 35:00 [SPEAKER_03]: Did you go to sign up?
35:01 --> 35:02 [SPEAKER_03]: No, we were fed off.
35:03 --> 35:05 [SPEAKER_03]: You just look so terribly familiar.
35:05 --> 35:06 [SPEAKER_03]: How do you know where she'll go?
35:07 --> 35:08 [SPEAKER_03]: I guess we don't.
35:09 --> 35:13 [SPEAKER_03]: It's impossible, Alas, have a lovely day.
35:17 --> 35:18 [SPEAKER_01]: So great.
35:19 --> 35:26 [SPEAKER_01]: I think one of my absolute laugh out loud moments as she's going through all of the different,
35:28 --> 35:32 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, just super sad in a way, it's funny, but it's sad.
35:32 --> 35:36 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, everybody's dead or they're stroke.
35:36 --> 35:37 [SPEAKER_01]: And then like, accepts this.
35:37 --> 35:39 [SPEAKER_01]: And the next one, he moved to Cleveland.
35:39 --> 35:41 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, that was so funny in me.
35:41 --> 35:47 [SPEAKER_01]: that amongst strokes, sepsis, dead, all it was Cleveland was right there.
35:47 --> 35:49 [SPEAKER_02]: Cleveland was the worst fate.
35:50 --> 35:50 [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
35:50 --> 35:52 [UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
35:53 --> 35:53 [SPEAKER_02]: That was great.
35:53 --> 35:55 [SPEAKER_02]: And you know, all of friends are dead.
35:56 --> 36:05 [SPEAKER_02]: And then you kind of forgive her for like bumping into someone at the gas station and having a five-minute conversation figuring out that they don't know the person.
36:05 --> 36:05 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
36:06 --> 36:06 [SPEAKER_02]: It's almost like,
36:07 --> 36:11 [SPEAKER_02]: Hey, you're from my generation and there's not many of us around.
36:11 --> 36:13 [SPEAKER_02]: So let's figure out how we might know each other.
36:13 --> 36:16 [SPEAKER_01]: What I love is that she's never met with her like, why are you bothering me?
36:16 --> 36:18 [SPEAKER_01]: It's always like, oh, let's find out.
36:19 --> 36:29 [SPEAKER_02]: And then they they pay it off because of the you know when they most need it they're sitting on the on a bench and they actually two women actually drive by that they know.
36:31 --> 36:32 [SPEAKER_02]: So that was fantastic.
36:34 --> 36:38 [SPEAKER_02]: Is this movie better worse or on par with a Ron Howard film.
36:39 --> 36:41 [SPEAKER_01]: This feels properly Howard.
36:41 --> 36:42 [SPEAKER_02]: I was going to say the same.
36:42 --> 36:45 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because I do think that.
36:45 --> 36:48 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if you had told me this was a Ron Howard flicker, I'd have bought it.
36:48 --> 37:00 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I would think that maybe he might have played up just a touch more of the feels, but I mean, it feels like this feels like a Howard shark.
37:00 --> 37:09 [SPEAKER_02]: I was going to land on Howard plus one just because I think I've seen this movie three times and I I've enjoyed it more every single time.
37:10 --> 37:13 [SPEAKER_02]: Modern comedies have troubled feeling original.
37:14 --> 37:30 [SPEAKER_02]: I think this may just be my boomer moment but it does feel to me like comedy's kind of hit their peak in the 90s and early in early odds and we haven't really been able to match that.
37:32 --> 37:45 [SPEAKER_02]: And I feel like this movie is original and definitely rewatchable and it's, it's a comedy, but it's pretty tight, man, it's, it's pretty original.
37:46 --> 37:48 [SPEAKER_02]: So, I don't know what's, what's the last great comedy?
37:50 --> 37:52 [SPEAKER_02]: We both like friendship a lot.
37:53 --> 37:53 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
37:53 --> 37:54 [SPEAKER_01]: Not a lot of people did though.
37:55 --> 37:58 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, and it doesn't, I mean, it doesn't purely play like comedy, right?
37:58 --> 37:59 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's.
38:00 --> 38:03 [SPEAKER_01]: because it is, it is a kind of an anxiety-ridden type.
38:03 --> 38:03 [SPEAKER_03]: Uh-huh.
38:04 --> 38:06 [SPEAKER_01]: But, but I love it.
38:06 --> 38:07 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a sitting in line with how many times I've watched it.
38:08 --> 38:09 [SPEAKER_01]: But I laugh every time.
38:09 --> 38:11 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, maybe that's a last-great comedy.
38:13 --> 38:19 [SPEAKER_02]: Steve Isera, half the battle, one-to-grown moment in this film.
38:21 --> 38:23 [SPEAKER_01]: Gosh, it's, like, it's so funny.
38:23 --> 38:28 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I, I really was feeling a certain type of way
38:30 --> 38:50 [SPEAKER_01]: in this and so like there were so many things like so so many things I ever take away is like just the idea of like whether it's thinking about the people that are aging around me or my own you know like I mean hey I got here it aids now of course I've
38:56 --> 38:56 [SPEAKER_01]: I do.
38:56 --> 39:01 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I've used my app to spy on things in the other room.
39:02 --> 39:05 [SPEAKER_02]: Have you ever like shut up the world by just turning them off?
39:06 --> 39:10 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes I like, yeah, I'll turn off certain things.
39:12 --> 39:15 [SPEAKER_02]: Do we need to take an oopsie upsy class together?
39:17 --> 39:20 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, if there was ever a person I'd oopsie upsy with, it's you.
39:24 --> 39:32 [SPEAKER_01]: I would say that the biggest one that you could take away from this like you have to battle is take time to enjoy the melon.
39:34 --> 39:40 [SPEAKER_02]: I was going to say life too short delete that message about the mangoes.
39:46 --> 39:55 [SPEAKER_01]: when he's telling everybody about like the it's just can't stop talking about how good the fruit is at this place and I'm like, and I'm not that far away from this.
39:57 --> 39:58 [SPEAKER_02]: So that actor played shaft.
39:59 --> 40:07 [SPEAKER_02]: Yep, Richard Roundtree in the 70s television series and I love to see Richard Roundtree getting work.
40:08 --> 40:13 [SPEAKER_02]: But I love that he's just got the best, most souped up cherry red scooter.
40:15 --> 40:17 [SPEAKER_02]: That was fantastic.
40:17 --> 40:22 [SPEAKER_02]: And when they're out, you know, they're first like breaking out of the assisted living facility.
40:24 --> 40:41 [SPEAKER_02]: It was a very 70s, you know, 70s jazz drums with the jazz flute over, I'm thinking, man, this is just fantastic, I think this is one of my more recent favorite movies.
40:42 --> 40:46 [SPEAKER_02]: And it might be because I'm getting old.
40:53 --> 40:56 [SPEAKER_01]: And I was on my phone, and then I got an admin.
40:56 --> 40:59 [SPEAKER_02]: Nothing says middle age, been, yes exactly.
40:59 --> 41:03 [SPEAKER_01]: And they back to the open at a best apartment.
41:03 --> 41:07 [SPEAKER_01]: And I was playing a game on the toilet again, because I'd like to party.
41:08 --> 41:15 [SPEAKER_01]: And an ad came up, and there was an ad for an app for like exercise, like an exercise app, right?
41:15 --> 41:17 [SPEAKER_01]: And it had like all these different categories.
41:17 --> 41:19 [SPEAKER_01]: And they had the categories broken down by ages.
41:19 --> 41:19 [SPEAKER_01]: And it was like,
41:21 --> 41:28 [SPEAKER_01]: 30 to 50 and then 50 plus and I'm like that's somebody who's going to be 50 soon.
41:28 --> 41:43 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm looking at this going like 30 to 50 and 50 plus and I'm like man I'm you trying to tell me I'm I'm on when I'm 50 I'm going to feel way closer to 30 than I am say like 80 and then I went to white and I got through my back out and said now they know
42:57 --> 43:01 [SPEAKER_03]: That's she my pants at me that can't walk at home, Dr. Pornchap out.