The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along

Hey, it's Brian Curtis from The Ringer, and I want to tell you about the PressBox Podcast. The PressBox is a podcast for anybody who likes news, whether it's about sports or politics or pop culture, and wants to understand how that news really gets made. We have new shows every Monday and Thursday, we have long interviews with everyone from John Crackour to Joe Buck, your social media feeds are bursting with information every day. Let us help you sort it out.

Join us on the PressBox. I'm Sean Fennese. I'm Amanda Davens. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about who wants to see my dad fight a fucking snake.

Chris Ryan is here. We're coming to you live to tape to watch Damien Chazelle's maligned, misunderstood masterpiece Babylon. We want you to watch this movie along with us. You may be wondering why are we doing this right now.

Maybe it's because this 2022 movie still resonates deeply in our hearts, or maybe it reflects a Hollywood that remains brought into the core. Or maybe this was the Margot Robbie Snub we should have been talking about. Either way, this is one very long, very fun movie we're glad you're along for the ride with us. If you want to literally watch along with us, you can stream the movie right now and listen.

The movie is available to stream for subscribers on Amazon Prime Video as well as Paramount Plus, and of course available to rent on Apple Amazon. Who will play YouTube wherever you watch your movies. I'm also willing to bet many of you listening right now. I'm going to do this movie in hard media.

So pop it in and sit down and watch with us. So when I count us down to begin the movie, join along and press play when we reach the end of the countdown. If you prefer not to watch along and just listen, you can do that too. Of course, we do think that that is psychotic behavior.

Okay, here we go. Five, four, three, two, one. Sorry. Hello, everyone.

It's Amanda. I have a view of what's on CRS laptop right now. There was a Washington Post book controversy and now something called Mountain Tough, but that's MTM Tough where Chris is going to join the bodybuilding. I'm already part of the community.

Yeah. Oh, you're part of it. Yeah. Well, then why is it asking you to join again?

No, I see. You can see my counselor there. Oh, that is true. Yeah, there it is.

I'm already into the bodyweight on it. How are you? I'm good. I'm here to watch a film.

Are you ready to watch a film or are you thinking about it right now? I think I'm going to have to think about my body because we're about to sit here for three hours and change and it's this movie is the perfect manifestation of we're so back. It's so over. How so?

Because it's like everything that's good about Hollywood, everything that's bad about Hollywood, the promise of the 21st century movies and perhaps the dark doom that we all face. Do you, does that resonate with you? I wasn't listening. I was trying to figure out where they are right now filming.

So this is like this is Bel Air in 1920. Right. But actually in Los Angeles now, we think it's like on the way to Santa Barbara looks like Bakersfield to me. Okay.

Could be farmland in the Northern part of California. It's North, right? Yeah, but I feel like this is kind of the fields and towards where you're going to like Ventura, you know, Oxnard Central Valley. That's not quite central valley.

You think this is central valley? No, I think this is like in beautiful California is beautiful then and now incredible commentary from you thus far. Thanks so much. I'm talking about the film.

Being a man, the star of this film, the protagonist of this film is played by Diego Calva. First time I'd ever seen Diego Calva. That's not a whole heck of a lot since this movie. What do you think that's about Chris?

One and done. You think he's just like, I can't be Babylon? Yeah. Could be.

This was an incredible way to open his career. This is the legendary infamous elephant scene that opens the film. Nice little tidy metaphor for the experience of trying to break into Hollywood. What happens?

What do you have to endure? Uh oh. So I feel like this is cracker Jack filmmaking at its finest. He does a great job with this.

He should make like an Indiana Jones style like action movie. Oh, that's an interesting idea. Damien. Because I figure we will talk about what he's going to do next.

This is, Babylon is his fifth film and he's talked recently about how maybe he's not going to get quite the budget that he would want for his next one because of it. Oh, that's poop everywhere. Yeah. This is what it's like.

This is what CR is going into those general scenes. Like my big idea is Damien Chazelle's action movie and like Sir, please leave and leave the bottled water we've given you. I don't know. I think, I think Zaz would give me a blank check for that one.

You do. I think that's a good idea. I think Damien Chazelle was like what we need is like a die hard or, you know, Indiana Jones, like throwback, stunty action movie. They have to be sick.

Tell me about you and Zaz. We'll have your time together then. You guys connected? We have.

Yeah. What's your passion for the sea for yachting and for vests? Apparently neither of you likes the Looney Tunes either. That's something I've learned.

That's true. Man, you're pretty Looney Tunes. Yeah, sure. Yeah.

How would you feel if you put me in charge of Turner Classic movies? David Zazloff? Yeah. Pretty good about it.

Would you, would you, would it sting a little? I mean, because I would want to be in charge? Yeah. Yeah.

I think that's how your mind works. Yeah. I do think it would skew less classic, more Q-Shaman. No, I don't think it would be like that, but I do think I would be like, we've watched now victory like enough.

You know, we can, we can like put the Betty Davis movies in a box. Wow, that's rude. They can come out every once in a while. Yeah.

Okay. There's like a whole- Because you want a silent swimmin'? No, I just think that the 80s are where it's at. See, this Oscar season, I can't remember who like asked all the nominees, what classic film star you would want is your date to the Oscars.

Betty Davis was the winner. Really? Yeah. Yeah.

Interesting. I think that's the one who picked her. Bradley Cooper. Well, yeah.

Yeah. I certainly buy that. I'm just putting that out there. It's very interesting.

We think it's favorite. All that Eve. This is a very famous scene in the movie where a woman gets a stride, a fat or a buckle tight and begins urinating on him. Well, when you saw this for the first time, Amanda, you thought what?

Sorry, I have some dripply in my mouth. I think at this point, I famously really like the middle two hours of this movie. So right now I'm focusing on Carve seriously. I was like, okay, they're peeing.

You know, what's the elephant shit happened? I was like, oh, I see what you're going for here. And the next 20 minutes, it's just like a lot. Right.

And you know, they're all doing a lot. I'm happy for them. I don't think I would want to go to this party. I don't think I'd want to go to a party with an elephant.

I think John and I have been to this party. It's a little bit of a little Cobra snake energy. It's got a little proto vice. Yeah.

I definitely feel like I was at a couple of parties. Not quite as naked as this party, but similar energy. A lot of drugs, a lot of music. And yet nothing can capture the hard of all of it.

I guess what the stills are playing. Yeah. Not quite as good as this Louis Armstrong stand in that you wanted to depot was playing in this movie. This is cool.

I think more movies should have like overtures sections like this. You know, I like the idea of like, oh, nice easing you in stretching out for 20 minutes and throwing a lot of different like virtuosity at the screen. Yeah. There's the world storytelling to it.

But like, there's also like a, you get a sense of like, just how these people are treating their nervous systems. It's also pretty classic storytelling structure through the eyes of a naf, you know, a young person who's not really familiar with this world who's been thrust inside of it. It wants to be a part of the club, but it's just the help. Here's Eugene Smart.

Yeah. Interesting timing of Gene Smart blowing up again with hacks simultaneous to this and it's still not mattering because she's such an important character in this movie. Still nobody cared. Nobody saw that one.

With a little bit of distance. Why do you think that was Samantha? Why do people not? It's three and a half hours long.

So it took us at least two months to know to be able to organize the three of us being in a room watching it together. You know, so it's sort of a logistical thing. Oh, is that a chicken? It is.

Yeah. So I think the general parties with animals is not something I don't really want to interact with animals, you know. What about a petting zoo? No, thank you.

If you're at like a party and there's a cat house cat. That's okay. I'm like the zoo makes me pretty nervous. Even though, well, for another reason, I'm just like humanitarian.

I've witnessed you face to face with an ostrich. Didn't go well. Yeah. Ran away from that.

I really hate it when the peacocks are just roaming a venue, you know, which you could see at this party. You know, we went to a, here we go. Oh, there she is. This is the great Margot Robbie.

Guys, I know what it was interesting. I was listening to the town podcast. Matthew Bellany and Lucas Shaw was on the set. They were talking about juice who has juice in Hollywood.

Sure. Yeah, I listened to that on the way here. Great episode. Very fun.

I was listening to the executive class, the one exception aside from Taylor Swift, of course, is incredibly powerful, who was listed was Margot Robbie. Now if you had said that one year ago, I think people would be like, what are you talking about? So I wonder was there a little bit of a reactionary bent to that because in fact, I feel like after this movie came out, people were like Margot Robbie, a sheep box office poison. Well, it was this plus Amsterdam in the same fall, which were, which was one just like deeply catastrophic on all level movies and this was a box office failure and critical.

Chris is standing behind David O'Rourke's about his autonomy for weeks. I actually have an interesting series of what ifs that come out of this film. Okay. But one of them, I know pandemic aside and everything.

But Barbie had come out before Babylon. How big is Babylon? Bigger, definitely bigger. Although might have been held to an even higher standard than it was from the man who brought you La La Land.

This is from the man who brought you La Land and the woman who brought you Barbie and Brad Pitt comes Babylon. So maybe it's for the best. Maybe this can now be the kind of cult fetish object that we wanted to be in safety. Yeah.

I mean, the other thing is also this fall with those two movies was sort of a blip for her. Like, you know, our 35 under 35 list is sort of conveniently timed to skip that fall because before she was number one and she may be number one again. Right. And it was like these just didn't pan out.

That's coming up very soon. We're doing that. So to me, you left your challengers. Chris, any, any names in the hat on 35 under 35?

The awesome baller. Yeah. Yep. Where'd you net out on Masters of the Air?

I think it was had some cool moments, but was ultimately like a mishandled, I guess, is the best way to put it. All right. For 35 under 35, are you just like casting around and being like, keep an eye on this person? No.

Okay. It's got to be like this person has a legit resume already. Yes. There's like a lot of people outside what they're about to do.

25% what they could be car power. That's a lot of cocaine. My last, my only like scouting report for you then on that outside of Kayley Spaney would probably be Anthony Boyle, who was in Masters of the Air as like the third guy besides count and awesome bother. And is, Oh, yeah, I forgot to live be wild.

Is it this? Oh yeah, and this was right after Don't Marry darling was tough. All for her as well. I continue to be a fan of Olivia Wild the actor, the filmmaker has some questions you like your in Richard Jule.

Um, characterization, not with standing of our journalism class. I thought you gave it all. Yeah. She always comes to play.

I think she's a very spirited performer. And this is a funny cameo. Let me close the idea. There's Brad.

There he is. How's the, the fast cars movie with him coming? The Kizinski. I've been talking to Kizinski all morning about it.

He seems like it's going well. A lot of room for room. I don't know. I hope great.

I did read some reporting that there were some troubles with the story. That they're working on the script. It's amazing this town, you know? Funny that we're watching Babylon.

You hear stories every week that are like, we are eight weeks into shooting a $300 million movie. We've replaced three actors and brought in a new show runner or a new director or whatever. Yeah. It is really quite crazy.

That man has a penis drawn on him. So John Gillbert. Basically. Like who's he playing?

Brad Pitt is playing, which is like his historical kind of mirror, right? Is John Gilbert? John Gilbert is a big influence. Yeah.

I mean, I think that there's fair banks or whatever. Fairbanks. Fairbanks. This is the program we can expect on your TCM.

Do you ever when we did the real life comms video for one time in Hollywood? Why did you not recommend we do that for Babylon? I think everybody saw Babylon. I didn't even have content about it until like over Christmas break.

You know, until it was like already done. I saw it in between Christmas and years myself. That's beautiful. And then I walked down and I texted both of you.

I think Babylon exclamation point. You did. Yes. I think Rudolph Valentino is the other one that is was a big influence on the writing of this character.

And I mean, you've been doing a thorough revisit of the Valentino catalog. What do you take away on him as a performer and big fan? Yeah. As you go.

Quite tashing. This is a very smart utilization of Brad Pitt's skills. I wonder if he can he still do a part in which he transforms. Because of the level of.

Do you mean physically or where he's not doing Brad Pitt? His persona has his persona fully become embedded in every performance he gives. Like I think him winning an Academy Award for one time in Hollywood oddly may work against him because it is such a strong utilization of his like an odd review. Yeah.

Do you feel like I got to be honest, nine times out of ten, the Brad Pitt performances that I really like are ones that sort of explored the perfect version of Brad Pitt and it weren't him being a character actor. Like with the exception of like Camio's like Floyd and Drew Mance and stuff like that. But it's not like I love California or the devil's own or I don't know what are we thinking your legends of the fall like the ones I like are his performances in Ocean's 11 and Moneyball at one time in Hollywood. This which is basically the flip side of the corner.

But on 12 monkeys. Yeah. That's okay. He's cool in that I guess.

Would you consider Tyler Jordan a character piece or a Brad Pitt piece? I think it's clearly playing with the expectations of a matinee idol of the coolest guy in America what if he was your double guy. He's been messing with that for like 30 years. This feels like one that is like uber self conscious.

Yeah. So we see many of Marcus characters exploring drugs and cocaine. Yeah. Lots and lots of drugs.

Now it's been this movie was criticized as a movie made by someone who's never done drugs. Does that feel accurate to you guys? Who criticized him about that? I think it was Donald Trump Donald Trump's an emissive little Damien.

Never done any global. Little Damien. Little Damien. You put me in a long strong space but you never did any cocaine.

You work on your Trump huh? You're ready for turn two. Oh my gosh. Little Damien is going up there.

Little Damien. Stick to dancing. Little Damien. Well, that was a little bit shameless.

I'm not trying to say that I have in any way. Yeah, I don't have any Trump Trump. I don't have any Trump notes to play that haven't been played before. Okay.

But you play them so well. I think it's what it's really opportunistic. You know, I'm trying to illustrate where Damien's himself finds himself. We're a little Damien finds himself.

I hope that Damien's house is listening. Sorry. Damien, you're big to me. I love this movie.

It's the movie that got small. Yeah. I think this is also something that was happening at those vice parties circa 2006. A man and a woman retire to a boudoir and they stand before a giant pile of cocaine and Hoover all up.

Yeah. And the guy starts talking about French new disco outfit justice and their 12 inches that he has. So the first time I saw this movie, obviously the elephant shitting scene made me perk up and pay attention because it's a different tone. But this sequence with Legion Lee as a kind of stand in for anime Wong is when I felt like this was a real fusion of the things that Chazelle had done to this point.

This is kind of La La Land and Whiplash blending together. This is the one character I wish we had more of in this movie, even though I know it's quite a long movie. I think we could have spent a little bit more time. Anime Wong's story, if you're listening, not really familiar with her, was a silent star.

I often type cast movies, but was an incredible performer and very unusual and was rumored to be a lesbian, which is crazy. I think about someone who was a screen star 100 years ago. This part of the movie and also just sort of like this table setting sequence where you get to meet up to words of 10 people who are going to have relevant storylines throughout the film. There's a bunch of people you'll end up with.

You mentioned kind of reminded me a little bit of Chazelle's dalliance with Long Form Television and doing the Eddie for Netflix, which was essentially forgotten upon arrival. I re-watched the pilot because I couldn't even remember if I'd seen it before. Andre Holland plays a jazz musician living in Paris. Yeah, he has his own nightclub.

That is Ky Gerber. Sorry. But that was... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I forgot. And yeah, so there's always that interesting tension in this film where it's just like, is this like a five episode or six episode show that he's got like the story for? But he's kind of trying to... I think that the momentum of it and the pure cinematic energy of it obviously lends itself to a film.

And it would be ironic if he did a six part series about saving cinema. Yeah, I don't think you could ever make this particular movie into a TV show given what this movie is ultimately about. But I'm sure someone tried to convince him to do that because this movie was greenlit at the time when the great streaming race was off. So I made the movie for Paramount.

Probably got a greenlit right around when Paramount Plus was launching. I'm sure they were looking for fresh content for their service. I'm very thankful we got this movie for him. This is a very similar issue to me as the killer of the fireman debate, which is that for some people, this is just too long.

They just don't want to sit through a movie this long. Obviously, I feel quite the opposite. I like something that digs into this world this deeply. I know you guys have waited on this a lot.

I'll just make an official statement for my office on it, which is that it's not the long movies that bother me in a sense of like a long Martin Scorsese movie, a long theme which is all movie, a long whoever movie. It's the long bad movies that are like blockbusters that feel the need to be two and a half hours long to wrap up stupid, super hero plots that actually wind up making me feel like overall we've got a running time problem. Yeah. And we saw Immaculate, the city's sweetie film.

89 minutes, perfect. Like, did you need another 40 minutes of Immaculate? No, but I did green light at the ringer, a 12 episode series about the origins of Immaculate. And so it's just about the convent and the previous 500 years of the convent where it takes place.

I hope you'll watch that. No, I mean, of course I agree. I was reminded recently that Transformers colon age of extinction, which is either the fourth or fifth Transformers movie is two hours and 45 minutes. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

That's insane. I like Transformers movies and that's insane. Margot's about to black out right here. Here's a question for you.

Margot's character is obviously very influenced by Clairbo, so legendary screen siren, sex symbol. And she's probably as a sex symbol in our modern era. Yes. You think she's a wolf of Wall Street?

I mean, come on. That is her introduction. And I know that was what 10, whatever you want to go. That's true.

But she brings her scene as a sex symbol for sure. And she's obviously tried to evolve her career for a variety of reasons taken on her from challenging parts. But beauty is still at the center of most of the parts that she takes on. An Amsterdam and this movie in Barbie, like her beauty is a feature nod bug, as they say.

This is the best. I mean, the interesting thing about her is, at least in the projects she's producing, well, I guess in Barbie, and then in the things she's been rumored to be going after since she is going for a predominantly female audience. So how she markets herself as a sex symbol changes a bit there, just because in the presentation. But I don't know if you saw Wolf of Wall Street.

Are you saying she can have it all? Like Euro to win men? Yes. At the gynecologist's office.

This is of course Voodoo Mama, Justin Hurwitz's composition that is the signature motif of the movie, an incredible score. Hurwitz, I think this is his fifth movie, fourth movie with Shazelle. That's flea. Here's five red actually peppers.

That's the cool thing about what we just watched was I feel like that's one of those scenes where it's just like, I think only one person on planet earth could have done that. Where it's like that athletic, that sexy, that kind of damaged and tragic and also like still nail choreography. Yeah, she's learning like nine things to do that sequence. So yeah.

Yeah, she's genuinely exciting. And I think the same goes for him. You know, I think one of the reasons why I responded to him is very cliche film bro. But the same way when you when I watched the commentary track for Boogie Nights and Paul Thomas Anderson explained how he just ripped off images he saw in Mean Streets or in Good Fellows or in all the Scorsese movies, Shazelle's weight of influence is very apparent.

And it's something that I was responding to that sequence in particular. The whole party is him doing a very showy, very bravora kind of filmmaking. There's a little I don't want to say it's out of fashion, but it's harder to get made. And he was able to get the budget to make something like this happen and also be able to pull it off creatively.

Flee has a great musical in Los Angeles. My son's a student just sharing that. So that's this is what Knox is learning. Hopefully not too much in the vein of urinating on dead prostitutes at parties.

Chris, where are you on? I'm pegging with bottles. Something you're sitting on. Not publicly.

Okay. We'll take it off. We wouldn't do it at a party. You wouldn't.

I just wouldn't. I would start with no parties and then we could talk about like between two and two. It's all perspective. Yeah.

Any point where you like, I don't know about this one, like in this opening 30 minutes. This movie? This opening 30 minutes. I was like, I don't know.

And even I haven't seen it since I saw it. And right now I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, great job. You can move the cameras all you want. You can choreograph everything.

You can bring an elephant and max out the production design. Like all of that is immaculately done and it rings hollow to me, which is perhaps the point, but I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you are a virtuoso. I don't feel anything. Is that because you're no longer in the play hard phase of your life?

Because this is the play hard side of live hard and live hard is coming up soon when the work starts. Sure. But it's like, it's so try hard, which is again, intentionally, possibly intentional because these are all Hollywood is all surface and fake and performative, but and that is a theme of this movie. But you know, you said athletic as a, I guess you're talking about Margot Robbie, but you could also describe the filmmaking and I, you know, I always raise my eyebrows at that.

Would you describe Barbie as an athletically made film? No, Chris, take us back. You're in your 20s. You've moved to New York.

You're trying to make it not make it as a screen star. No, but you want to, you have a voice that you want to be heard. Yeah. I'm like, people need to know what I think of built to spill and dip set.

I mean, honestly, yes. Yeah. Did you ever have a conversation like that with someone where you said, I'll do whatever you need to do. I'll, I'll clean the floors.

I just want to get in the biz. No, I mean, I don't, I don't think so. I think I had more of a like, I'll just have a day job while I write kind of attitude, which is, you know, I mean, like it's a different industry, but so she's not an actress yet. Well, she says she's a born star.

She's not in the system yet. Yeah. She needs to get a job. Great shot.

I mean, yeah, absolutely beautiful. I ask because, you know, this is a story about a young Anjaniu from the East Coast with a foul mouth, the big dreams. I say who comes west and makes a big. I wonder if you relate to this movie at all.

Oh, do you think I walked up to Bill and like Mr. Simmons? If you ever have maybe something for me on set. I'm serious.

Um, I kind of, so we deal, deal with Calvin. What was he in before that? Narcos Mexico. That's it.

I think so. I remember watching Narcos Mexico. Yeah. I mean, he was in a Mexican film in 2015.

That was pretty much it. He's in a couple of Mexican TV series. Okay. On Netflix.

One called the inmate, one called unstoppable, and then he was in, he was one of the stars of Narcos Mexico. So this is Bel Air in the 20s, but there's just no one, nothing as far as you can see. Nothing's been built up. I mean, yeah, I understand that, but like from the mountain or from the hill at the top of Bel Air, number one, you can see the ocean and like surely you could probably at least see something from, you could see Hollywood or one of the studios further west, right?

Like most of those places were not built. Even in the 20s, like MGM, the big studio lots are really nascent at that point. You know, they don't, they don't even own much of the property that they would come to own at this point. Really?

Yeah, but it's like a, okay, what year is this? It's 1926. Okay. Many houses in Los Angeles, including the one that I live in currently were built in like the early 20s.

So I'm just saying. Just think Bel Air is much further north before the land was really developed. I guess so. I don't know what to say.

You want to check the veracity of the research? There is some, there is some flubbing of the timelines. I mean, their paramount wasn't really fully paramount until after this. It was like a much smaller studio previous to this.

I think Warner Brothers was built in 1923 and it didn't really get going until sound in the 30s. So it's still pretty early, but like here, I mean, here's a home. I don't know where this home is located in a structure. It's beautiful.

This home looks like it's in Santa Barbara. Yeah, I mean, that's what I'm saying. I'm just going to let Brad stretch out here. Just talking about Bauhaus.

See Beverly Hills is developed. Right. And Beverly Hills is not that far from Bel Air. Are you able to see?

Is he on the other side of the hill? It's possible. Okay. Should we call them?

Well, but maybe back then it was Bel Air. Not to get, not even serious, but just have a question for you. I was wondering because he just, you know, the Brad pick character just said that, you know, people go to the movies to feel less alone. Yes.

Do you go to the movies to feel less alone or to have privacy in the dark to watch movies? Well, that's a very good open discussion to have. I like both. I like going to the movies at 10 o'clock in the morning on a Thursday by myself in a big beautiful theater sometimes, but I also like not to bring up immaculate again, but I liked being in a crowded career.

Elbow to elbow with other Sydney's. Sick goths, you know, who are there to see her. That was pretty fun. So we went and like there was obviously like a, if you want to go to some after party or another, it's goth, it was like, goth was the dress code.

Are you sure? Or were you just among those people? We maybe were just among those people, but it seemed like even like people who were working for the studio would all dressed up like that. And then there was also like a lot of like theatrical kind of elements to it with like pre swearing red masks and fires and stuff.

I was like, you know what? I like a little bit of old old fashioned show business thrown on top of this like this. Like you like the event aspect. Everyone's in a while, make switch out, put Nicole Kidman and get a choir in.

I mean, that was really cool. There was a choir. They sing the AMC speech with it. Well, it was interesting.

Yeah. Oh, wow. Here we go. The credits.

What? How many minutes are we on like 30? How far into the movie right now? 31 minutes and 45 seconds.

It's a flex. He goes for it. I enjoyed it. Many people do.

I don't know about costumes, but it is fun to be a part of a thing. A couple of years. That is like the, that's the joy of it. It depends on the movie, you know, like if it's like Terrence Malox hidden life.

I don't need to be around 300 people to watch that movie. Yeah. I mean, sure, but it's, if I'm just watching it by myself, there's a discipline that other people bring. You know, it's like, okay, now we're showing up and we're like taking a movie seriously together.

And you feel even if there's no interaction, you like that. You like that church like respect for the experience. Yeah, I do. There's like a.

It'll be cool to it. Exactly. And it's okay. So it's like, if you're at home and you know that no one's holding you accountable, you know, your lesser instincts can.

Completely agree. I was like, I was thinking about this because you know often we're like, you must see Dune Two in theaters, which is true. But I would also probably argue that you should probably see driveway dolls in theaters because driveway dolls is like kind of the kind of movie that you'd be like, I'm going to go see what's in the cabinet. Did you watch that movie in the theater?

Oh, you did. Yeah. And you liked it enough in the theater. I thought it was like a totally fine movie.

More people having fun. Give them some chuckles. When we saw it, you think people were having fun? Yeah.

No, it's a very rowdy response at crowd, which like definitely added to it. I thought it was like, oh, some of this is funny, but you know, the fact that other people were really enjoying it while also just checking their Instagram and having like a tremendous number of likes and mentions. Did you notice that guy in front of us? I know, but it was like, I mean, it was really obnoxious.

You hated that because he had more engagement. And he had clearly posted a picture of being at the premiere of a movie right before it started and then left it out with his pocket. And he had notifications for every single like a driveway doll. Yeah.

And was just going through all of them. Yeah. Oh, I like this scene. Well, this isn't incredible.

Yeah. No, I mean, this is when it's just like here we go. Yeah. I just turned away from the screen.

She was told to show about set at a certain time, right? Yes. Right. And I don't think she late.

She might be late. I mean, I think there was like kind of a two hour window here between when the party was over and when she was supposed to be on set and they did show her sleeping. So you know, some questions there, but it's okay. It's the magic of movies.

Oh, that's right. This is where she cries every time. Yeah. Yes.

And this is intercut with this extraordinary making of this war epic that Brad Pitt is making with Spike Jon's character. And can you imagine if this movie started with this sequence? I mean, it could. Wow, that's a great call.

Like, it starts with Margot Robbie, that's breaking up in a pool of room vomit and then showing up to set and then it's just like this scene and then the Spike Jon's scene. Well, I mean, I wonder obviously a big part of the movie as you already mentioned is like, this is a bit of a thumb in the eye of Hollywood. And so the shitting on Diego Calvus head and the party sequences meant to show like the under belly before the magic. But this scene, you know, this launches not just her career, but we have that amazing moment where Brad Pitt shares a kiss on camera.

Yeah. And those two things together, there's Roy Scovelli, a comic is really funny in this movie. You're right. This is, this is, it would be, it would probably be understood differently.

I think that's a really simple. That's Olivia Hamilton, Damien Chazelle's wife and one of the producers of this movie also very, very funny as the, as Ruth Adler, one of the stand in filmmakers. It's hard when you do the watch long, because sometimes you just want to watch the movie. You generally go for works better because there is a kind of, he's supposed to be really special.

Eric Von Stroheim. Yeah. EVS. We call him.

Who calls him that? You guys at TCM? Yeah. Over at TCM we call it EVS.

It's their favorite Stravon Stravon film. Well, he's in rules of the game, right? No, he's in rules of the game. Isn't he?

Or Grand Illusion. I think it's rules of the game. Okay. So, yeah, sure.

Shanghai Express. He didn't direct that. Oh, wait. No, I'm thinking of Lady from Shanghai, my bed.

No, no, no, no. Is he supposed to be, you know, Cefan Sternberg, who directed Shanghai Express? I mean, Cefan Sternheim is in Cefan Stravon. I think it is Cefan Stravon.

He's in Grand Illusion. Yeah. And he's also in Cefan Stravon. And he directed Greed.

Okay. That's kind of his signature silent film. It's so good background. It's amazing.

Lucas Haas, man. This inception. Are those great works? Yes.

What about all the time? I was going to say, I was going to say, cut to it. Have you ever been on a set like this? Either of you guys?

No. No, this is not what it was like making Briar Patch. Did you visit the set of Briar Patch? I did.

What was that like? Much calmer than this. How so? They were just shooting an interior scene with a senator and another character.

They just shot it over and over again to get it right and get the stuff that they needed coverage wise. And you just really, I think one of the things that this movie in a strange way, it's like it can't help but being romantic about filmmaking. You know what I mean? It's the thing that obviously Shizelle is more in love with something like this than he is Hollywood.

But I think filmmaking is a lot of waiting and a lot of like, drudgery. Which is what we see Brad Pitt's character do through the bulk of the sequence. I mean, this is just really good. I mean, this is how they had to do it.

I know. Before CGI, you know. Yeah, damn straight. And before the, for PETA got involved, right?

We do lose some horses here in the sequence. Do you think it was worth it to give their lives for cinema? I think that, you know, my stance on horses and their relationships with the screen. You believe they should have had nine seasons of the show.

You like horses? Were you a horse girl? No, I wasn't a horse girl. I'm not brave enough.

Again, animals, you know, and horses are very... Are you afraid of horses? I have the proper respect for them. I think they're smart and strong.

Sure. And they're up to their own shenanigans. And we use them. Sure, but I don't anymore.

Or, and I didn't really ever. And I wasn't going to like try to make them jump over a fence or whatever. But you know, I have to feed them like with your hand flat so they don't eat your finger or whatever. That's not like, I'm out.

You know, someone else can feed them. I see. What do you think accounts for your fear of wildlife? I don't know.

I both respect it, but don't trust them, you know? Sure. So you don't know what's going to happen. Is there a majestic creature of some kind that you do want to spend time with?

I can't think of it off the top of my head. It's no. I'm surrounded by animal interests all day long. I mean, as am I.

Not as fascinated. I'm so ready for you to be put in the corner and have to get a cat. No, fuck no. It'll be it.

This is what happens to me if I get a cat. I'm going to have to check the pole in my chest. You did have a drinking problem. That's good.

I want a dog at some point in my life. I need a dog, but I need a bridge dog. So here's the bridge. Have you heard the bridge dog theory?

No. One, I don't want to get a dog that is bigger than my child. So I want my child to be big enough to be able to take the dog for a walk, able to help navigate the experience of the dog, which means he probably got to wait eight, nine, ten. Okay.

Two, I want bridge dogs. Oh, there's a guy. Oh, yeah. Max Wingela.

He's like Irving Folberg here, the rare real person who's character in the movie. Max friend of the pod, shout out to Max. I want to have a dog so that when my daughter goes to college. You don't feel alone.

Yes. Okay. What do you think I'm here for man? Are you going to be at Alice goes to college?

What are we doing? That's what EPMD is back together, man. That's what we're leaving. We're leaving.

We're already going to a vacuum. No, no, no, no. Friday night. What more can we do?

What if you start to eyelid and was like, don't worry when Alice goes to school. Chris is moving into the 80. We're just going to crush Dave. Will you be the full time curator of the Museum of Sean?