All right, here we go. Quiet fat man. Roll up. Hello, and welcome to the Big Picture Podcast, where we take a look at the latest movie news, the films of today and yesterday, and put them all into some sort of context.
Seated across the microphone from me is film buff online editor in chief, Richard Rees. And seated across the microphone from me is film buff online contributing editor and coffee achiever, Natasha McCutzy. I was trying to do my best Kevin Smith impersonation. How'd I do?
For a man who smokes as much pot as Kevin Smith does and professes to do, he is awfully energetic. I know. I do not understand that one bit. He's like Dan Radcliffe.
He's pores espresso ahead of everyone else. So he has to slow the hell down. Yes, very much so. Yikes.
How'd I do that? Okay. Okay. Yeah, not too bad.
I've been in interview situations with him. Okay. Okay. I can get a second question before my times up, please.
In fact, I saw him back on one of his first speaking tours, and it was right before they started shooting Jane Silent Bomb Strike Back. And like the first, you know, he comes out, talks a little bit, opens it up to Q and A. First person asks a question, and I swear the answer was like 45 minutes long. And this was supposed to be just like a two hour thing.
And everybody in the line is like, oh, fuck, I didn't get my question answered at all. Am I? But he went like three hours or something like that and then stayed signed autographs for like another hour, hour and a half for everybody there. So I give him a lot of credit for his energy and his interaction with fans.
And as a fan, I say I still think some of his output is a little up and down, but we'll get that. We'll get to that. Is that your way of saying Tusk? Yes.
Begin with at least yoga Hoosers. Less said the better. But Chasing Amy, Chasing Amy and Dogma are fantastic. Clerk is fantastic.
I have a soft spot in my heart for even Mall Rats because I understand what he's trying to do there in terms of, like, making an homage to 80s teen comedies like Fast Times of Ridgemont High and stuff like that. Some of his other stuff at Clerks 2 I really like, too. Jane's on the Bob reboot was not good. It was more nostalgic than it was good.
And the thing was, it could have been brilliant, the idea of Jay having a kid somewhere and him kind of coming to terms with growing up. But then we get to Clerks three and and we'll get to that in a few minutes, though. We'll get to that in a few minutes. But first, did you see the news that just broke this morning as we are recording On a Sunday?
No, it's a Sunday. I should be in bed right now. It's 9:30. Exactly.
Fair enough. Woody Allen has announced that he will be retiring from filmmaking after the release of his next film. What? 86 years old now.
Never thought that motherfucker was ever gonna retire. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who look at Woody's private life and wish he retired a long time ago so we never would have to deal with him again. And that's completely understandable as long as he was able to get Midnight in Paris out first. Because that movie.
I know you love that movie. It's incredible. I think that was his last good piece of work. You are probably right.
And I know I haven't seen anything that's enthused me since that movie of his. Yeah. I mean, I've seen one in Rome. I've seen Cafe Society was.
Okay. Yeah. Cafe Society was kind of like, I sort of see what he's doing here. A rainy day in New York.
Yeah. Is. I wanted it to be good. I really did, and it just was not.
I watched it for Timothee Chalamet at this point. Yeah. And I didn't even get to see Rifkin's Festival, so. And let's not even talk about the shit show that was Wonder Wheel.
But, yeah, maybe if he did Midnight in Paris as his last film, he would have gone out on a lineup there. But sometimes directors don't know when to quit, which is why, you know, Tarantino made that thing of like, I'm doing 10 films and then I'm out. And we're just waiting to find out what number 10 is going to be. I wish it would be that Star Trek film.
But, I mean, Tarantino has dabbled in so many other genre things. I'd like to see him, A, do something straight up science fiction, and B, do something that's a licensed property. You know, it's a corporate piece of ip. And I'd like to see, you know, how much he could play within those confines and what he could do with that.
Even if, you know, we're saying, oh, this Star Trek movie, Tarantinos exist outside of the regular continuity of Star Trek in as much as Star Trek has regular continuity. I would be like, yeah, let's do this. I would be really interested to see what he does there? In fact, I'm interested to see what he does with anything, really.
But I'm interested, But I don't want to see him do a Star Trek film. Really. Really. And I think that's mainly because it has a certain level of the way I see it.
Okay. Star Trek is a story about hope and exploration. It wasn't until a few years ago that they became action movies. I don't want to see Tarantino come in and fuck with that idea.
I would like to see him do something that feels maybe a little bit more hopeful because I think most of what he does has a slightly cynical edge to it, as I'm thinking about it, that, you know, people are bad, people can be violent towards each other, things like that. I would like to see, you know, what he might do to say, well, humanity is going to keep going. I mean, yes, obviously the idea of Star Trek, just the basic concept, implies that we get our shit together. We don't nuke ourselves.
We, you know, come together as a race of human beings. That's just why people are popular. It's just we are all human beings and we're all going to be cool with each other and go out and explore the universe together. Which sounds a little heavy.
Dippy. Ish. Very. But I think by the time that Star Trek was created.
Yes, 1966. Okay, then. So I'd like to see Tarantino maybe. I don't know if it's within him to be able to explore that, but I'd like to at least.
Maybe I'd like to just sit down and talk to him about this concept. Can we get on the phone or is it too early in LA right now? Maybe too early. Okay.
But it's always interesting when we see directors being brought in, established directors, who have good, clear, clearly defined sensibilities in their work, brought in to work on corporate properties like, say, like Sam Raimi with Dr. Strange in the multiverse of madness. I mean, that movie, 70% felt like a Sam Raimi movie. I mean, you had the zombies at the end.
Zombie Doctor Strange's at the end, with the design really looked like Deadites from Evil Dead. You know, you had some other things, the obligatory Bruce Campbell pop up. And I'm trying to think of some other directors, though, who really had, like, distinct styles. And Rose, kind of pulling a blank here.
No, I'm still stuck on Dr. Strange. He came in and, yeah, he delivered Sam Raimi, but I'm not quite certain he delivered Dr. Strange.
Dr. Strange is a movie. Yeah. Okay, interesting.
Because I know we never wound up reviewing that here. I think we were going to. At some point in it, kind of got recording dates, got away from us. I think more people were.
People were interested in a Doctor Strange movie, and instead what they got was closeted WandaVie. And if that was the case, then give Wanda own fucking movie. True, true. Yeah, that was definitely a problem with Dr.
Strange. If you hadn't watched WandaVision, you were going to be lost a bit as to what was compelling her as a character, what was driving her as a character, what her goals were, who those goals were. Like, who are these kids? What.
Stuff like that. Yeah, and that's, I think, a danger of the MCU in general, that it can be a little bit too interdependent. I mean, I'm enjoying everything I'm watching so far. I'm lucky enough that I have time to catch up with all that I need to catch up with.
She Hulk. I'm like, two or three episodes behind, and I didn't watch any of Ms. Marvel apart from the pilot, because I was just like, yeah, no, I'm good. Okay.
Well, I mean, we are gonna be seeing her in the Marvels, like, late next year, early 2024. I can't remember. They've been bouncing dates around on their schedule for a while, so I'm not. I might not be remembering everything properly.
And I think we are gonna see, like, her and her family and some interaction there again. And I love the family interaction in Ms. Marvel. I thought it was great.
And I also like the fact that they kind of dug into. I even liked her brother. Yeah, he's a man of faith, but he's not, like, dogmatic and crazy about it. No, I mean, like, I love the interaction between her and brother.
I like that she kind of feels like a redhead stepchild of the family kind of thing. Like, there was things there to commend it. I just wasn't enough invested in the story to keep going. Okay, okay.
She Hulk. I love Tatiana Maslany. So that was my main reason for watching it in the first place. I mean, I knew she Hulk was.
I was excited to see she Hulk happening. Her and that role made it all the better. Last couple episodes. I'm like, at this point, I think I'm sticking out right now for Daredevil because I know he's getting ready to show up.
I saw your eyes. That would have been great on a video podcast. I know, I know. A little shifty item.
He's probably going to show up this week. I figured because did the helmet pop up last week? This week? Yeah.
This past week? Yeah, it did. I didn't know if you knew that or not. I was trying to.
Like how do I dance around not spoiling. I saw that one point at the end of the episode, so. Oh, anyways, spoilers for this week's episode of Shehog. Sorry.
Wow, we saw a helmet. Well, still. Still, some people just like to discover that within the show themselves and not. I mean, it's a fun moment.
I mean, I was sitting here Friday morning on my couch, and when that, that moment popped up, I was like, ooh, fun. Yay. It's gonna be next week. Maybe.
Probably. So anyway, speaking of spoilers or. What? Did you have something first?
Yeah, I had a question I wanted to ask. Cause you mentioned Friday morning and technically she Hulk comes out on Wednesday, so Friday morning. Oh, wait, no, I'm sorry, Wednesday. No, no, no, don't edit that out.
No, no, no, no, I don't. Okay. Because I have a question based around Friday morning. Fridays are when Rings of Power drops.
Yes. Well, I have a question for you. Okay. At the end of Rings of Power and the end of House of the Dragon, which one do you think is gonna keep going?
Oh, you mean the first season? Yeah, well, Rings of Power already has been ordered to a second season and Amazon said they're committing to five. Okay. So.
So unless Amazon were to suddenly decide mid course to say, yeah, no, you know what, forget it. Nevermind. It's going till 5. House of the Dragon is probably gonna go at least another couple of seasons because it's, you know, it started off super strong in terms of ratings.
It's a big HBO crown jewel. It's. It's really fucking good. It's pretty good.
Yeah, it looks good. It's expensive as all hell though. And that's my biggest question right now. Does David Zaslav, the new head of Warner Bros.
Discovery, who has been slashing things left, right and center in an effort to save money, will he make the calculus that what is being expended on House of the Dragons equal to the worth that is bringing into the channel? It's definitely worth what is bringing into the channel. We say that on an artistic level and kind of like anecdotal level. We don't have access to the.
Oh no, we don't have access to the financials. We're not the accounting department. But I would definitely say it gets a lot of social media buzz literally after every single episode. My fans and new viewers and such.
So just that alone is free publicity for the show. And it just keeps rolling after every single episode the next couple of days. I mean, you can see my Facebook was showing me memes. Let's not even get started on TikTok and Twitter.
Like, they're going to say that this is not just a crown jewel, but it's a property worth investing in because it's bringing in a lot of new viewers. And those who were jaded by the last season of Game of Thrones are finding that they can lick their wounds on the show, but at the same time, social media cachet is just kind of a microcosm of the rest of the viewing public. True, but it is a form of marketing. It can be.
Yeah. And I think for a negative flip side, let's look at, unfortunately, what happened to Batgirl. You have a movie that at least fandom was interested in, was excited about. You had the return of Michael Keat, which everybody was excited about and talking about.
You have Brendan Fraser as the villain in that. And just this past week at Venice with the premiere of the Whale, people were like, let's talk about Brendan Fraser for Oscar. And I feel we're gonna start seeing a larger and larger resurgence of interest in him as an actor as we go. And all of that would definitely have helped Batgirl.
And I think that Zaslav kind of prematurely pulled the plug because even he said, well, they were gonna make an HBO movie, but it's too much for an HBO movie or HBO Max movie. So we wanted to maybe put it out in theaters, but then we looked at it and was like, well, people expect big, giant spectacle in there in their superhero movies. And this didn't have the big, giant spectacle. And I'm like, not necessarily.
I don't want to see a superhero save a whole world of the universe every single movie. That gets tiring. I. I prefer maybe like, the low level stakes of the street crime in the original Daredevil movie with Ben Affleck.
Not a great movie, but I at least appreciate that, you know, Daredevil wasn't stopping an alien invasion by hand of the goddamn movie or something like that. And I think that, you know, even if you look at some, like, Marvel stuff, they're not, you know, it's not always dealing with, you know, things that are gonna crack the universe into. They're dealing with smaller issues. So if, you know, Batgirl is a movie about a girl who is inspired by Batman to become a superhero, and she tangles with an arson supervillain arsonist who's burning down Ghetto slums.
I'm fine with that. That's a. I mean, if this was a movie that wasn't a superhero movie. It was just, you know, say, like a vigilante movie and put Liam Beeson in there as the person who goes out to stop this arsonist who's burning down the slums or whatever.
That movie would be out in a minute. People would make that movie, and it would make money. So I don't think that people reject the idea of, like, low stakes action movies or even low stakes superhero movies. I think that's an amazing misread on the part of Zaslav.
I think there's another. Yeah, I'm rattling on too much. No, I think there's another reason behind it that no one really kind of wants to talk about Michael Keaton as Batman returning. I know.
Why are we saying let's not do that? Because we don't know if it's gonna connect to Flash, and they don't know yet what they're gonna do about Ezra Miller. Well, Ezra did have a meeting with the studio heads. He said, okay, I'll seek help.
I'll make some apologies. And, yeah, whether he can behave himself for the next eight months, nine months, or however long it's gonna be until Flash comes out remains, of course, to be seen. But, man, I hope he gets his shit together. I like it as an actor.
Me too. You know, but I think he's a little big on. But I think his. His public image has been seriously tarnished in the past couple of years.
I don't think the public trusts him. So. So I don't think the public will go see the movie. If they do, they will see it only for Michael Keaton.
And the question is, how much of the audience cares about Michael Keaton? Well, I think, too. I mean, again, we both exist in this bubble of film nerds, and I think, you know, does the Ezra Miller story really play outside of that? It does.
Okay. People are okay. Okay, good. I think that was one of the kickers for Secrets of Dumbledore that you had the Johnny Depp thing, which is not good.
Nope. And then you had Ezra Miller. And you also had two other movies that weren't that great either. Yeah, but that's more of a critic side.
I'm talking from fandom side. Fandom was going. But we like Johnny Depp as Grindelwald. Mads Mikkelsen.
Yeah, he's gonna be fantastic. Because it's fucking Mads Mickelson. But then you had Ezra Miller's issue. And that was.
That was just another kick in the teeth. You got J.K. rowling, you got Johnny Depp, now you've got Ezra Miller. It was just a big fucking snowball of all this horrible, toxic humanity.
Yes. Around a franchise that is built on humanity and hope, which I think especially makes it galling and frustrating when you see, like, the shit coming from J.K. rowling. But in terms of the movies themselves, yeah, replacing Johnny Depp was a no win situation.
I mean, yay, Matt Mickels. I think we win because we get a good performance there at least. But overall, it's still a. You know, the movie itself is a clusterfuck.
Warner has been plagued not just by Zaslav, not just by the person who was in charge before, but, you know, the person who was in charge before that even I think, you know, they just had a series of bad leadership. And it's been frustrating as fans of some of these properties, you know, oh, my God. I've been at DC Comics for you for about, oh, 40 years or so. And, you know, I know you're a very big Harry Potter fan.
And I recall once again, we will mention your utter disappointment coming out of the. Was it the screen for the first or the second one? Second. The second one.
I thought you were gonna murder the advertiser rep. Yeah, I was like, don't hurt him. He's a nice guy. Really?
Honestly, I thought you were about to mention the exhibit that's closing on Tuesday. I can't get to that. I feel so bad about that. Yeah, we weren't gonna look at that.
Honestly, that's just a kick in the teeth because I tried the last time I was in New York, last couple times I was in New York to get to the Harry Potter store, and there was always a line around the goddamn block and I couldn't get there in time. So now I'm missing out on the fucking exhibit and I just want to fucking scream about it. I know, I know. I'm keeping my eyes open, though.
Hopefully that comes somewhere nearby, like Philly maybe, or something as well. Hopefully, like, the next stop isn't like, Chicago for a year and a half. Well, it's just. It's getting.
This is Philly and it's done, so. Oh, okay. Yeah, it was at the Franklin Institute. Yeah, Yeah, I know that.
But usually those type of things move around the country, so maybe. Yeah. You wanna do a road trip to Chicago? If it goes to Chicago, I'll be down for a road trip to Chicago.
This is why I go to Chicago. Yeah, I do wanna go to Chicago. There's Blues Brothers and Ferris Bueller locations to go and look at and take pictures at. And then there's also people that make fun of their bad crappy pizza.
Deep dish. What is that bullshit? I agree on that. What the fuck is deep dish?
It's a casserole. Yeah, exactly. It's tomato casserole. It's not pizza.
It's all cheese and tomato sauce. It's like if I wanted a mouthful of tomato sauce, I would just go eat a tomato. And I do that regularly. I eat them like fucking apples.
I know. I've seen you and you've seen the weird face I make. Cause you're like, what the f. Anyways, we are really.
It's all being mushy. So anyways, as you were saying. Holy Allen's retiring. Yes.
How's that for wandering all over professional broadcasting? Anyways, we suck at this. No, we don't. We have fun.
And I hope people enjoy listening to this. We have listeners. Yes, we do. Craziness.
This is what, episode 408? No, it's like 109 or 108. Something like that. Anyways, let's get back to the other thing we kind of teased at the top of the episode.
Clerks Clerks 3. Oh, yeah, we did tease that, didn't we? Yeah, we saw that. A lot of people saw that.
Kevin Smith is doing a roll out of that as a Fathom event. That was through this weekend and now he's touring. Speaking of touring movie, I think he's touring it around the country, doing a Q and A with it, similar to what he did with Chains and Pop Strike Back. So check to see if he's coming to your area.
If not, this will eventually be on dvd, Blu Ray, video on demand, laserdisc, smoke signals, what have you. It's going to be out on all sorts of video and movie watching. Smoke signals, Laserdisc. How old are you?
I would laugh if somebody actually said, you know what? Just for fun, because reasons, let's put out our movie on laserdisc as well. Just kind of like maybe the movie's like a throwback thing to like the 80s. And they said, okay, we're going to put our movie on VHS and laserdisc just as like a little special collector's item.
Like 98% of the people who buy it are just fans of the movie because they don't even have a laserdisc or what have you. I would be down for that. It'd be like, yeah, that sounds like A fun idea. Do it.
That's one of the things I loved about the box set for first season of Stranger Things. It's dvd, but it's in the shape of a vhs. Like a double disc vhs, and you have to actually crack it open. Like a double disc vhs.
Double tape. Vhs. Yeah, double tape. Thank you.
Sorry, I was trying not to belch off sparkling water while talking. But anyways, Kevin Smith. Video stores, videos, books, three. See how that all works?
Yeah. But the video store is gone. Now it's marijuana shot. That's pot shot.
Okay, basically, we're. Because of the nature of this movie, we are going to need to talk about spoilers. So hopefully, if you're Kevin Smith and you've already seen the movie, and if you haven't, be warned. We're talking spoilers here.
And I'm not just talking about a couple of jokes. I'm talking we need to talk about the third act at some point. And we will. But that said, Jay and Silent Bob running a pot shop in the strip of stores with a quick stop is hilarious.
I think it's more hilarious, though, the fact that they're still standing outside dealing. Exactly that. They have the storefront, but they still stand in front of the store and deal it like they've been dealing for, like, the past 25 years of their life. Oh, my God, this is beautiful.
I think it's a hilarious idea. It's one of the few new funny ideas in this movie. Because I think my major problem with this. I don't know, can I call this Austin Powers and Gold member syndrome?
No, because I actually like this better than Clerks two. I think it's better. I just think in this film we're seeing the replay of. Replay of jokes.
And I'm like, yes, I remember this joke. It was funny, you know, and some of it's okay, you know, like, oh, okay. They threw in, like, a reference to a line from the Clerks animated series, the Hoth line. When they go into the freezer in the back.
Oh, it's hoff cold in here, or whatever it is. That's a line from the second episode of the Clerks animated series. It felt like very like, okay, here's what you like again. And it didn't feel like there was a lot of new things there in terms of the comedy and the jokes.
Now, you could argue maybe, or maybe I'm just making an excuse here that no matter where you are in terms of working a retail establishment, whether you're just a hired registered jockey or you're the Owner of a store, it's always going to be the same thing over and over and over and over and over again. I would agree with that. And maybe that's an argument to be made, but, you know, it just kind of felt a lot of member berries to me with some of these jokes, some of these callbacks. I think here the callbacks needed to be there because we're talking about reliving one's life and the monotony of it happening over and over and over.
It's their version of Groundhog Day. It just doesn't fucking end. Is always the same. And for poor Dante, it causes him ptsd.
It's. He doesn't want to have to go through it anymore. He's tired. It's exhausting.
He can't get out of grief. And so I think using that as a plot device of the jokes are still the same 25 years later because we haven't changed. And the world around us that we are stuck in, in this bubble doesn't change. It's always the same.
We're always playing hockey on the roof. Jay inside the bob are always next door dealing their pot in front of the store. Then they fucking own this time. It's, it's, it's just.
It doesn't end. The customers that walk in 25 years later are still the same. They're just 25 years older. And then the script for the movie about their life, that's insult to injury.
It's dirt in the wound. It's just more shit piled on top of the day to day life. It's going back and replaying the best and the worst of the 80s 90s. Well, I mean, I do like how this movie is basically Kevin Smith acknowledging and thanking his filmmaking roots.
And if that leads him to go on and do something in a different direction, that'd be awesome. You know, definitely this movie has a this chapter feels closed feeling to its ending. Yeah. Even though it does kind of have.
Even at that final shot, when you pull back and you see Kevin's daughter, who's playing Jay's daughter and not in this one. No, she is. Yeah, she is. Definitely.
That's Jay's daughter. Oh, really? Yeah, she's playing. I can't remember the name of the character now because I've only seen reboot once, but yeah, that's because.
Remember Millennium? Millennium, yeah, that's her at the end. She's doing the milkmaid thing. Yeah, that was hilarious in the original movie.
Do you know who that is? That's Kevin's mother as the milkmaid at the end. So that's Kevin acknowledging, you know, kind of like the family thing. And it's gonna keep going.
There's a sweet acknowledgment there. But at the same time, yeah, this movie definitely feels like it's closing a chapter, which also I kind of a little disappointed in because I thought the idea that the Clerks movies could be, like, Kevin kind of comedically checking in on his generation, which is also my generation, two years apart in age. You know, kind of like the seven up movies, that series of documentaries from Britain. Yeah.
And that's. It doesn't feel like that's gonna be happening like that anymore, unfortunately. But again, let's hold off discussions for the end till the end. Overall, though, I think you like this movie a lot more than I did.
I loved this movie more than Claire's 2. And I watched Claire's 2 the first time the night before. I did like that Clerks 2 showed that, you know, these characters had a lot of promise. And then we open up with this one, and they're right back where they were before.
That promise is gone because. Okay, spoiler. Becky's dead. Yes.
Rosario Dawson didn't even make it the full term with a baby killed by a drunk driver while still pregnant. I was like, oh, that's rough, Kevin. Even for you. Dude, that's dark as shit.
You're right, it was. And that was always in place, as we may or may not know. A couple years back, Kevin wrote a draft of Clerks 3. This is before his heart attack of Clerks 3 that he couldn't get everybody on board for.
Rumor is the whole night was Jeff Anderson. And it did have one table read. And I did talk to somebody who had a table read who said, yeah, it's dark because it starts off with Becky being dead. So that's that.
I know it was a holdover from the original script. I thought that was a genius idea, though. Obviously, the heart attack for Randall is new to the material. And I don't know what they did after where it's in that original script.
But here they go on to random sides. They've talked about movies. I'm gonna make a movie about my life at the quickstop. And what we see is basically a very fictitious retelling of Kevin Smith making Clerks.
But let's look back. Why do you think that was a very good storytelling move there to kill off Becky off screen beforehand? Because one, Rosario Dawson was probably also shooting at Ahsoka at the same time. So getting her in Just for a couple of days.
Literally. She could have shot out her stuff in two, three days max. So for scheduling purposes. That's great.
2. We never really see Kevin deal with incredibly serious matter like that. Like the idea of losing someone close to you and the grief and everything it causes around you as a whole. And I like that we were stepping away from something that wasn't dick and fart jokes and romance.
The last couple of movies that he has made are about growth. Clerks 2 is about growing up, you know, creating a life, creating a family. And even if that family does happens to be your heterosexual life mate, it's all about that. And then, yes, reboot had its problems.
However, Jan Silent Pop reboot had something to it that none of the prior films had before coming to terms with being a father. We're talking to Jersey Films because I think. I think his view of CFMs, I think Jersey Girl also talks. Yeah, deals with him because that's very much him writing Jersey Girl is very much him exercising his issues, fears about becoming a father himself, which he had just done.
So anyways, I'm sorry, but here it's. It's kind of being an absentee father. And how do I pick up in this child's life? Just what do I do?
Particularly when they are to an age where I have no say and I have no control over that life at all? So where do I fit in? And then here it's, how do I come to terms with losing the people that I care about the most? And that's why I think those jokes need to be there, is Dante has never been able to move on.
And Ramble's only ever been living vicariously for Dante. Okay, so when Dante becomes stagnant and everything around him is played on a loop, of course the same jokes are going to be there. He doesn't move forward with the world, for God's sake. Randall's the one talking about tech talk.
It was just like, how do you know what this is? And Dante doesn't like it's. It's. We start to see a growth of Randall in this movie.
He's tired of just staying where he is. And I think the heart attack really kind of just jump starts that. But then you realize that when he takes off in his world, he leaves Dante behind. It's not, hey, buddy, you're coming with me.
Just like Dante would do with Randall. It's no, this is my moment. And yeah, I'm going to drag you in on it whether you like it or not. But you're not my partner in this.
You're. I'm giving you the producer credit. You're going to do all the work. But there.
There's a disconnect there. And I like that. Shows the amount of selfishness that Randall has at that moment that he's not thinking about internally what it's doing to his best friend. Okay.
Which is why that ending is so fucking powerful. It's still a Dante story. Lurks is always going to be a Dante story. Yeah.
But here it's about a person. It's about Dante kind of losing his way, Randall finding his, but realizing their way is kind of each other and letting go. I think letting go is the hardest part of the lesson that has to be taught here. And I don't think Randall really does at the end, in that last shot.
Does he or doesn't he let go? I think there was a sense of calm, a sense of, all right, this is. This is my next chapter. This is.
This is my new reality. Dante's not here. Elias is with me. I am now Dante.
And I don't know what to do. I don't know whether or not there, that means he is fully letting go. I mean, the grief is still rather fresh. She just buried him.
Yeah. But there. There was a sense of, now it's up to me. That's what I got from it.
I got. This is up to me. Now what do I do? But the quickstop's not gonna change, so he has to create his own world within it.
The customers are coming. Are still gonna be the same 25 years later, and they'll be the same pretty much in another 25. And that's why I thought it was hilarious to see Harley doing the milkmaid session. I'm like, okay, I find it funny that there's always gonna be a fucking milkmaid.
Yes. And, you know, I like how Kevin kept it within the family, you know, grandmother to granddaughter. And I do think, you see. Yeah, you see Kevin's mom in the.
The audition sequence. She's the older woman complains who wrote this. This foul, filthy stuff, which I think is cute. We need an old lady cursing and shit.
My mom. I think, though, I think for me, a problem with this film is Jeff Anderson and Brian o' Halloran are nice guys. I'm not sure they're strong enough actors to really hit what this film is asking for them. I think Jeff was.
With all due respect to Brian, I think Jeff was hitting up better than Brian was. Yes, yes. Brian had his moments. When he goes off On Randall, that was perfect.
But this movie asks a lot more of Brian as an actor. Yeah. And I think, you know, and I told you, I didn't tell you anything about the movie because I saw it on a screener like a month ago and I didn't tell you anything. But I did say there was like one part that was like.
And which part was that? Outside of the movies, I don't think where Dante has that breakdown and he runs away. I don't think that works at all. I think that's.
I don't think that's. I'm sorry. I like Brian, but I don't think that was really good. That was not good.
I don't think it was well directed. It felt weirdly awkward when he turns and runs. There should have been better coverage of that scene. Well, I need a better coverage.
That's not up to Brian. Yeah, I know, but I'm not sure he quite got to where the scene needed him to be for that. Which. Which is a shame, you know.
Again, I like Brian. I think, you know, most of what he does, you know, through the whole franchise has been good. And so it was kind of a disappointing to see. It was like, oh, damn it.
And there was some other stuff too where that were like some weird choices. And I wonder if it's because they didn't get the performances quite right or they didn't get the right coverage. There was like one or two exchanges between Randall and Dante where one character would be kind of like a medium and the other would be in more of a close up and going back and forth like that. And then it seemed like then, you know, when they cut back the character, they would be in a medium, they would be in the close and the other person would be a medium.
And it makes me wonder if, like he was building the performance out of a series of takes and some of the takes and he's like, well, the best is this. And you know. So it also might have been a style choice too. It might have been, but if it was, it felt weird and choppy and I don't think really kind of served those scenes because I found it distracting.
I do like some choppiness every now and then, particularly in indie films. I think that's kind of. It's sort of experimental and I really enjoy that. After I got done with Clerks, I came home that night and watched Breathless Jean Lucaut, who is famous for jump cuts and close ups and close ups, close ins and close outs and just kind of speeding things up and stuff.
He's very famous for that. I think he does it more with purpose than maybe I saw here. I think it depends on the film. I do like sometimes when people get stylistic and they're like, well, let's try this and see if it works.
Whether or not it does, I think that's more up to the viewer. Obviously working Kevin's mind. Speaking of, do you remember that? Beautiful.
And I'm constantly referencing this to you. Every time we're Talking about a 180 rule piece from Moulin Rouge where they're spinning the cameras around, then they come back in and it's in a close up version from the other side of the person. Kevin used that same move in Clerks too. In what part?
Outside of movies, when Dante and Randall are having the fest. I think. I think it's about I have Becky's pregnant or something like that. And the cameras just go in around them and it cuts at one point and on one side of them and it cuts to a close up on the other side.
And they were still going around. I was just like, you son of a. You stole that from Baz Luhrmann. And I don't fucking care.
Because that's just a move I always love. Oh my gosh. I don't think I ever connected that. Oh, gosh, I have so much to do today.
Now you make me want to go back and watch Clerks 2 for goodness sakes. Just to see where you took something from Basil Luhrmann that direct you absolutely spy. Do not appreciate. Yeah.
So it must be a camera move that works. I guess. Crossing the 180. You can do it.
Yeah. You don't have to convince me about it. You have to convince your director of photography on our project. Yes.
And that's the tough argument there. As you know, one day I'm going to pay homage to that particular scene and I'm going to do that camera move. But let's. Let's get on to the end.
Yeah. Do you think this movie earns ascending? Yes. Okay.
I didn't like this movie overall. And it's not because of the ending. In fact, it's in spite of the ending, because I thought the ending really does work. But then again, I'm bringing some baggage into this.
And not as a Kevin Smith fan, as somebody who is roughly these characters ages, who had a good friend who you would talk about Star wars all live long day with, who had a massive heart attack and died, you know, about two years ago now. A little over two years ago. And when I first saw this, I Was not expecting what happens with Dante dying. In fact, even when we get the shot of the funeral home and the hearse going by, I was like, okay, is this the lead up to some kind of joke reveal that he survived?
So they're driving in a hearse to the premiere of the movie as kind of like, hey, we couldn't die. This movie couldn't kill us. Kind of a joke kind of thing. Bit of promotion for the movie.
Until we got to, like, the actual shot of the cemetery and the coffin and everything and the open grave. Then I was like, I lost it. I actually had to go back and rewatch the movie, like, 20. The end of that, like, 20 minutes later.
I just. So, well done there, Kevin. Thanks for making me feel like shit for a day and a half. But, yeah, so, you know, that's entirely, you know, personal, subjective.
It's what we talk about sometimes, about bringing our own lives to criticism and just to movies and how we filter art. So, yeah. I mean, even now, I'm just like, a little. I see.
Yeah. And, you know, the second time, I mean, when we saw together theater, I knew this was coming. All of a sudden, in the middle of the scene with him and Becky in the theater watching the movie, holding hands. Let's get out of here.
And all of a sudden, you heard me go, no, I know you. I could probably hear your heart shatter into a million pieces. The only way. And it works because Brian and Rosario Dawson have a great chemistry together.
Yeah. I think that's one of the highlights of Clerks, too. And that's what really helps that movie work. And.
Yeah, so that's another thing. When we find out, like, literally in the first minute, minute and a half, that he's dead. That's another thing that kind of stacks against the movie. It's not in the movie's favorite.
It's like, fuck, I was looking forward to more of that fun chemistry between those two. And. Nope. And the fact that we do get, what, three scenes, basically, with them together as dream sequences?
Maybe she's visiting him in his dream, actually. Maybe he's just conjuring her up out of his subconscious. We don't know. I think.
I don't know if I like that ambiguity or not, because I think the best way to have capped off that. That last scene where they're walking up the steps of the theater and leaving, presumably, going on to the afterlife together. I think to make it unambiguous to know how you do that, you have an usherette there who opens the door for them. And the Usherette is Alanis Morissette.
Oh, that would have been good, right? That would have been fucking good. Yeah, that would have been amazing. That was like my one thought.
I was like, oh, man, this is so good. Right now I'm like a mess. I'm sobbing, and yet I'm still trying to figure out how to make this back. What is wrong with me?
Is this an ability to process my emotions? I don't know. Probably. Yeah.
You're looking at me like, yeah, it is. You suck. I would never say you suck. I know, I'm joking.
But no, I do think that this movie definitely earns its ending and delivers its ending. I think it needed to be that way, too. I think it delivers its ending very much so. Again, personal reasons, the ending needed to be the way it was because Dante was never going to move on.