Look out, there's only films to be buried with. Hello, and welcome to films to be buried with. My name is Brett Goldstein. I'm a comedian, an actor, a writer, a director, a paleontologist, and I love films. As jose N Harris once said, tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They're a sign of a pure heart. And if another person in real life doesn't make you cry, try watching the film All of Us Strangers. It's fucking beautiful. If you're not a rex, seeing that,
you're probably a sociopath. So good luck finding out. Every week i'mvite a special guest over. I tell them they've died. Then I get them to discuss their life through the films to mend the most of them. Previous guests include Barry Jenkins, Sharon Stone, Jamila Jamil and even Cleed Blambles. But this week it's the brilliant comedian writer and actor
Joel Kim Booster. Head over to the Patreon at patreon dot com forward slash Brett Goldstein, where you get extra chat, you get a secret from you get us talking about the beginnings and endings of the film. You get the whole episode, uncut and adfree. And there's a video checking all of that out over at patreon dot com forwards slash Brett Goldstein. Also, I have extended my American stand up tour. So if you're in America and you're in a place I'm probably playing it, look it up on
the internet. Come and see me. We'll have a rides old time. So Joel Kim Booster is a brilliant stand up movie star and writer. He wrote the brilliant film Fire Island. He's very good at every single thing he does. You know him, you love him. We recorded this on Zoom very recently. He's got a new show coming out, which we talk about on the podcast. I really think you're going to enjoy this one. So that is it for now. I very much hope you enjoy episode two
hundred and eighty two of Films to be Buried With. Hello, and welcome to Films to be Buried With. It is I Brett Goldste and I'm joined today by an actor, a writer, a producer, a podcaster, a stand up comedian, an award winner, a legend, a hero, a looter, a fire islander, a big mouth, a everything. There's nothing he can't do here he is. I can't believe he's here. Can you believe he's here? He is? So get used to it. Here he is is here right now. It's mister joking, bister.
Oh wow, what an intro. I don't you know people always say this when they're being insured on podcasts, but I don't think I've ever had a better one. I did get a littles frightened. I didn't realize what you were, what you were going with. But when you said he's a louter, I was like, oh my god. I was like, why did I get caught on camera doing? How does he know?
Let's talk about January sixth? But then I caught on. So it's been good. I'm so happy to be here. It's lovely to I will say right off the bat, though.
So I have had the flu all week, and I had the best of intentions of like coming in here like super prepped with an answer, like with a really thought out answer for every one of the movies. But aside from listening to a bunch of episodes of your podcast, I did none of that work. So a lot of these answers will be fully off the top of my
head and just by instinct alone. So if you're listening to this and you have our work done one of the movies or love one of the movies that I talk about here, please know that it is just my gut going with my gut here for every answer.
I love it. What I will say is, if you choose to do it this way, and some people do, it's brilliant. It'll be brilliant. But in four days, I guarantee you're going to text me, oh my god, why didn't I say? Yeah, it's true. I know people are going to think, I don't know about that film. How are you? What are you doing? Have you been doing more late? What are you doing? Where are you? What's happening in your life?
We finished with Lupa for the break. Obviously we only I only have like five days left to shoot on it after post strike because we got most of it done at the beginning of last year, and the strike of course had other plans. But no, I mean, let's see what I do. I was in Mexico City for New Year's had a friend's wedding there. I spent New
Year's there. Incredible city, beautiful city, like one of the most beautiful North American cities I've ever been to, just like truly remarkable in every way, food, culture, shopping, you know, just like the aesthetic of the city itself is so beautiful and wild and urban at the same time. It's really really great. And then this is sort of I think I was telling you before we got on this is kind of the first thing I've done I've had
to do since getting back. I went to the Creative Arts Emmys, the shmemmis over the week.
How was its?
Yeah, I'm what that's where we think we where we think I got it. Yeah, it was interesting. It was interesting to be at the non television Emmys and just like the different vibe is it? Yeah, it's the wild wild West compared to the televised Emis. You know, No, everybody knows that there aren't really cameras on them for this one, and so everyone's sort of letting loose in a way they wouldn't normally. Not really obviously.
I will say it was.
Funny they gave you know, the Creative our Semis. I'm so glad that they exist to honor people in departments that don't normally get honored at award shows or you at least don't see them televised at all. But then they proceeded to give every like costume designer like roughly twenty five seconds to speak before they started playing them off, and so it felt sort of like a double I don't know, insult to injury sort of situation where they're like,
we're not going to put you on TV. And also for this this event that could technically go as long as we wanted it to be, we're only giving you twenty seconds before we play you off.
We're here to honor you. We don't want to see you and we don't want to hear you, but we're here to.
Yeah, which ultimately, like you know, after I've been for most of my life and I obviously have seen a lot of acceptance speeches because of that, and honest, at this point, I would like to hear what the production designer for the Last of Us has to say over you know, I don't need to hear Laura Lenny give another speech. I love it, but you know, let me hear what the ladies who costumed Beef have to say.
You know, you made the film Fire Island, which is excellent. Are you going to do more films? Right? Have you? Got more films that you have written.
Yeah, actually, so I am working on my next one right now, and it is technically sold to a place, a studio, and we're working on whether or not it's actually going to happen. You know, that ar choice process right now, and I'm excited about it. It's this one's a wedding comedy, and so it's actually much smaller and scope than Fire Island. But what I hope to do, because you know, everybody is up my ass about you know, oh,
is there going to be a Fire Island sequel? Which I think people think they want because you know, and I'm so appreciative of it because it means they like the first movie, the Fire Island in general. But I don't think you can name a lot of great comedy sequels, you know, Like when I think of comedy sequels other than the I can think of one good one, one standout one. But I tend to think of like Miscongeniality Too, or legally.
Blonde, Red White and Blonde Austin bower Is check me, you know that.
That could be an example of a good one. I think they work better when they're sort of cartoons to begin with. You know, like they're not like Austin Powers Too is not necessarily concerned with continuity with its other movies, you know, like that's not the kind of movie it is. And so I think when you can be a movie that sort of exists outside of continuity, it's a little bit easier. And I think most of the but like in terms of like grounded comedies, it's really hard to
jump back into those worlds. Like the one that I can think of that is really good, that surpasses the original maybe is distract.
To Yeah, well, I guess because I was just thinking about like Bridge Giants's Diary, which is also a take on Pride, and yeah, and I guess the issue with a sequel you sort of have to break everyone up again. So yeah, and we like them being together. It is tricky.
Yeah, I've always said that, like if I if I ever had like an amazing idea for this story for a sequel, then I would consider it. But I'm not gonna you know, because like Fox ritually and Hulu they were down. They were like asking me about sequel stuff when the movie first came out, and I was like, well, I'm not going to reverse engineer it. I'm not gonna be like, Okay, I have to write a sequel. What should it be? You know, Like if I come up with what it should be, then I will write the sequel.
But I think what I ultimately hope to do that I think will scratch a lot of people's that itch for a lot of people is I'm just going to keep casting the same people.
Oh yeah, that's great. That's the way I did have it, like Troop.
Yeah, like I you know, Christopher Guest didn't. I think, like nobody needs a equal to Best in Show, But we have, you know, for your consideration, and Guffman and all these other movies in a Mighty Wind where we get to hang out with essentially the same people again. And I think that's what people were drawn to about Fire Island. And I think like the chemistry of those characters and us as real life friends and actors, Like, I think that's what people really appreciated about that movie.
And I think I can better honor that by just making better like continuing to make new movies, new stories, and just reusing the same people that I love to work with so much.
And that's fucking smart. That is smart. I really like Fire Island and I really like respected. How I hate to use this word, but I'm going to use it raunchy. It was raunchy. Yeah, r raunchy film. That's so rare. I'm really interested in how rare sort of sex stuff is in mainstream cinema. And I wondered if that was something you had to fight for or if everyone was on board from the beginning or it was a problem.
You know, there were at least like two sex scenes cut out, all right, but we're still the first orgy on Disney Plus internationally, so you know, you we lost some battles, but we we won the more. I think it is funny people have said this what you just said to me before. But I also get a lot of fuck for it not being sexually enough, which is so funny to me. Like, for as much as my characters talk about sex in that movie, no one's fucking
really out of the main cast. It is like periphery and like it's like little hook ups here and there. So yeah, I hope I hope to include even more explicit X rated red band sex in my next movie.
Yeah, last place I saw you was it Laga where it was your excellent stand up shop you did forty five minutes, which you said was new, but it was so good. I was like this, Yeah, it's too good, But are you guying on Tory? You didn't you too?
Yeah, I just did a show in Seattle last weekend, and I'm going to San Francisco next weekend and doing a lot of like I'm doing like a little mini Pacific Northwest tour in February where I'll probably hit like Portland and Vancouver and just trying to hit all of the Pacific Northwest really for now. And then, Yeah, it really depends on what happens with this movie. I guess it sort of shapes the rest of my year as
a stand up. That's like the most frustrating thing. And I'm sure you understand is that, like I came up as a stand up and that's all I ever did, and then the more successful I became as a stand up, the less I'm able to do stand up, Which is the funny sort of catchup being successful in this industry is you come up as a stand up and then suddenly, as soon as you hit a certain level of success,
everybody asks you to do everything but stand up. And don't get me wrong, I'm really grateful for all the work outside of stand up that I'm able to do. I love to write, I love to act, and those other things unfortunately happened to pay a lot more than stand up traditionally does. So yeah, it is funny. But I will continue to do stand up until I have nothing left to say, I guess, But for now, it's definitely like sort of a privilege to find time in my schedule to be able to do it.
I don't think you're ever gonna run out of things to say. I keep thinking about this. This is Billy Joel, right, the greatest Billy Joel. He wrote a song called Famous last Words on his River of Drames album, which is the last song, and in Famous last Words he says, these are the last words I have to say. And then ever since, he's only written classical music. He hasn't written a new song with lyrics since. And that was like twenty years ago or something, And I'm like, you, really,
you didn't have anything else to say. I don't believe it.
I wonder if he regrets that now, Like I wonder if part of him is like, I do have a couple songs.
But yeah, I always think, I bet you guys. Fuck, I shouldn't have said that.
I said the thing so put the nail on the coffin prematurely.
And he's a man of his word and I respect it. Yeah.
I don't know, though, because here's the thing, Like I will say this, like it's already the way my life has shifted in the last five or so years, it's already become harder to find things to talk about that I think will be universal or relatable, you know, because like the more like when I was coming up in New York and I was working fifty hours a week and then going to open MIC's at night, and like I had a regular desk job, I was paying rent,
I was miserable, I was broke, you know, I was desperate, and like those were the golden years for me in terms of joke writing. Like I think like all my best jokes came from that period of my life. And now that I'm like comfortable and not fighting for my life every day and don't have a regular job anymore, Like I can feel sort of the zone of interest sort of shrieking and shrinking around the kinds of things that I want to talk about, and I just don't
like you. See you do see some of these uber wealthy comics get to a certain point where it's like, oh, you're not even been dealing with regular human beings anymore. Like you, you obviously don't have anything pertinent to say to speak to the average person's you know, life experience anymore. And I don't want to be one of those comics, like I actually do want to. I want to bowl a Billy Joel and be like, Okay, I think I've
I've I've got it. I've reached that point. I'm too rich, I'm too successful, I'm too comfortable to have anything interesting to say anymore. And I'm just going to enjoy that. I'm going to enjoy my my time and my money and my comfort instead of trying to pretend like I have any basic understanding of the suffering that's going on in this country anymore.
J Yeah, I love it, joking Booster. I've forgotten to tell you something. It's really annoying because I should have told you at the beginning of the of the podcast. Oh fuck, And I should have told you what I love doing that. I'm so sorry. I just have to say, because otherwise it's going to be awkward. You've died, You're dead?
No, oh yeah, Oh that's so sad.
It is sad. It is sad. It's so much to do. I know you hadn't pulled your Billy Joe yet.
Yeah.
How did you die?
I died in It was a car accident and I was in an uber I wasn't even driving. It was an uber pool I was. We weren't even on the way to my destination. We were on the way to someone else's destination. Yeah, and I bet you still get five stars. Oh, always, always, Yeah. In the car it was packed to the gills. There were four of us, four passengers, four passengers in a in a Corolla.
Did it happen quick?
Oh no, it was painful and it was long and I had to wait for two other people to die before I was allowed to die.
Oh my god.
Yeah, it was terrible. Thank you.
That's terrible. Do you worry about death?
I worry about death constantly. And it's weird in so I I've been dating my boyfriend for coming up on three years now, and it's weird when you are in love with someone. How I've always I've been so death neurotic my entire life. Like since I was a child, I think about my own death constantly and that, but like in the last couple of years, it had just shifted entirely to me thinking about his death constantly and like worrying about.
Like that's living him and like, yeah it is.
It's so morbid, but it is. It is a sign for me that I am deeply, truly in love with this person. Is because I am thinking so much more about his death than mine. And it's like bad because I was I'm always like I don't should I be putting this out into the universe, like.
This energy, No, this is safe, this is give me it safe.
Yeah, but yeah no, I like I could make myself cry in front of you today if I thought about him dying, which I do constantly. I am like, I'll like sit, I'll wake up in bed, I'll like see him there sleeping, and I'll just stare at him sleeping for like twenty minutes, running through all the way so he could die that day, and then just weeping silently while I wait for him to wake up. And then he'll like oftentimes like wake up and be like what is wrong with you? What's going on?
What is the spot that I'm waking up into what's an average amount of whys you imagine him dying in the morning? Like, do you keep coming up with more and more obscure ways to die?
Oh? More elaborate every time, more ridiculous every time, Like it is, there is no end to my creative imagination around the ways my boyfriend could die or be maimed.
Well, that seems like a good use of your at a time and brain, Yeah, I get it. Do you then follow it through to like what you'd say at the funeral?
And yeah, oh absolutely, Well, you know I have a document on my Google drive that is frequently updated with all the information for what I want to happen at my funeral.
Tell me everything, please, It's just like.
The music choices, hallbearers people. I want to speak people. I want to perform and or sing and or read.
What's the song as you as your coffin is brought it?
So? I want it all to be house music, like disco house music, And I think it would be sort of it would be sort of funny, sort of cringey, sort of corny, but so appropriate. If they played last Dance as they're bringing in my coffin, It's like a little too on the nose, but also because it was so prominently featured in my movie and it's one of my favorite songs of all time. I think that is like that's sort of where we're at right now. But again,
in a couple of years that could change. There could be a more iconic song that I would like associated with my death. But this is a fun thought exercise.
Yeah.
I like to stop sometimes and think, like, if I were to get married today, who in my life would be in my wedding part? And it's a really clarifying thought exercise because it really makes you think of like the people not only that you're close to that would want to do something like that, but like sort of the symbolism around the people that you choose, Like who am I choose today? And if you're already married and can't do this thought exercise, do the same thing but
with your pallbearers. If you were to die today, who would be carrying the casket? Really think? Yeah, and would it be the same people that you would have stand up for you in your wedding? That's another question because then with pallbearers you have to think about, you know, height differentials, who's strong enough to do it? You know all that?
Are they the same people you would code to bring a shovel to meet you in the desert?
You know, that's a really Actually, that's a wrinkle to the thought exercise I had never thought of before. It's definitely going to be added into daily thought exercise now because.
It might not be he might actually go like that, I don't want to let those people know about what happened in the day.
No, absolutely, And like, honestly, like I was talking to my boyfriend about this recently, where I was like, the person that I would have be my best man now isn't someone that I would consider necessarily even my best friend, but just like the person that I trust the most to be able to handle all of the shit jobs that go along with being best.
You know, surely it's like the best comedian, you know.
Yeah, oh absolutely, who's going to get the best speech, but also be able to handle organizing a bachelor party and like the duties of being a best man and all of that. Because it's not always this, It doesn't always align the way you think it will.
What do you think happens after you die? I think that's enough to life.
Oh, it's so tough because I grew up very very Christian, very evangelical, very conservative, and so like, there's always this part of my brain that like would love to believe that heaven and Hell exists, but I don't. I don't think there is necessarily an afterlife. I do think that, like, you know, it's funny. I once interviewed for a comedy show this ghost debunker who like goes around and debunks ghosts and things like that. But his thing isn't that like,
oh it's the pipes or the electricity or whatever. His thing is that, like, when something really awful happens surrounding your death, if it's like emotionally traumatic or violent and full of hate, you know, as a lot of murders are or something like, that leaves an energetic imprint on the space, and so what people are experiencing is often not like someone's consciousness that is living on past death, but sort of like an echo or like an imprint
of energy that was left in that space when something really really traumatic or violent happens. And like, I don't know, as that is certainly what I sort of buy is that we might not live on our consciousness and I might not live on completely intact, Like I might not be a conscious ghost walking around being like this is my unfinished business and I'm gonna like observe everything that's going on in the meantime. It might just be like a feedback loop of whatever emotion I was feeling surrounding
my death. And that is like being played over and over again in this space because I've experienced things before in the past that I can't quite explain, you know, in quote unquote haunted spaces, and like I'm hard pressed to believe that ghosts exist, but I do believe that, like energy does a spaces like that.
Can you tell me one thing that happened in a haunted place.
We were in the hotel where the shining took place, and we were staying there, and we were staying in like specifically one of the rooms that entrip Advisor was widely to believe to be haunted. And again this could be an electricity thing, but like you could just feel something in that room was off, even before we knew
that it was one of the haunted rooms. And I just remember like washing my face, turning off the light, going to bed, and then the full switch just flipping up and turning on, and it wasn't an electrical issue. It wasn't like the switch had always been up. And then like I don't know, it was just like really weird and you could just and we never fell alone in that room.
I love it.
It was very very creepy, and I remember going to the front desk and being like, the room thirteen, like no, this is what we asked. We were like, oh, like this hotel isn't really haunted it, and he was like, no, no,
of course not. Like the night manager was like, that's ridiculous, Like this hotel isn't haunt well unless you're talking about room thirteen, which is of course the room we were saying, and you know, I don't remember it was room thirteen or what number it was, but he's just said, verbatim, are room. And I was like, oh, this is fucked.
I love it.
But again, really really violent murder suicide happened in that room.
Yeah, it'd have to be. Yeah, well listen up, there's news. Okay, there is a heaven after all, and you're in it. They're very excited to have you there. You get right in, They love you there. It's filled with your favorite thing. What's your favorite thing?
Drugs?
Okay, it's absolutely filled with drugs. There is drugs as far as it's like a candy shop for drugs. Drugs. You're sitting on drugs. There's so many drugs.
And I'm already dead, so nothing bad can happen to me.
Nothing bad could happen. There's no come down. This is just all come up.
The one downside of drugs gone amazing.
It's amazing. It's just like and it's like pure shit, like this is good drugs. And everyone is very excited to see you, as they will be. They're all high, and they want to know about your life. But they want to know about your life through film. And the first thing these druggies want to know is the first film. You remember seeing.
The first film. So there's a couple of answers to this. Two answers to this. One answer is like the first movie. I can like consciously remember watching a scene from which is Beauty and the Beast, the Disney movie.
One of the time greats.
I remember specifically being terrified by the opening, yeah, the prologue to that movie with the Witch and everything like that. I remember being terrified by like the pane glass windows depicting what happened one went down. So that's the first movie I can remember seeing, the first movie I remember seeing in theaters, So that was the Santa Claus with Tim Allen. Great film, and that I think is the first movie we saw in theaters that I Do.
You remember thinking I went in on this.
I don't think so quite yet, especially not with Beauty and the Beast, because I wasn't a moron and I knew I couldn't be in that film because it was cartoons that were in that film.
Well, you were very ahead of your time.
I didn't understand about voice acting yet, had no idea what went on to get those cartoons on the screen, but just knew it couldn't be me. And then I found Tim Allen to be pretty repulsive from the jump. Even as a child. I knew something was off there, and I had no interest in being in sharing a space with him, even as much as I love that film.
It's a great film. What is the film that made you cry the mice? Are you a crier?
I am. I'm a big triumph crier. This is not my answer, but this is a good example of a film that a moment that I've cried in a movie that like, this kind of moment will always get me, and that is when they save Matt Damon in The Martian, when it like when the plan goes off without a he it like when that moment happens, and like they're all like, yes, we did it. Sob full, sobbing in the theater, cannot control myself. The movie that I cried the hardest to and it's because there's like a lot
of contextual things that are surrounding that. A. I'd just been broken up with. B. I was on an airplane. See it was the first time I'd ever seen this film. When Harry met Sally. Oh at the end, lost my goddamn mind on that flight, to the point where the woman sitting next to me was like, are you okay? Like it was so it was such an awful time
in my life romantically. And I just remember, like I was flying to LA for a job, like my second writing job ever, and I was like, oh, I'll check out this when Harry met Sally bullshit, I love Nora Ephron whatever, and I just like could not compute the romance and the happiness and the you know, all of it in the midst of my own heartbreak and the altitude, which I've heard I've since heard like maybe not might not be a thing as much as people say it is that like the altitude makes you cry easier.
Then why is everyone grind?
I don't know, but I just anecdotally will say I haven't cried that hard in a movie ever since, So maybe it was all breakup. But I do think it part of I'm gonna blame the altitude. I'm part of it.
There has to be I'm always crying on a plane. It has to be selling in it.
Drop a hat. One movie that I cry at that was like super embarrassing. I think it was like Bumblebee or like one of the Transformers movies. Yeah, fully cried. I think like Pacific Rim two. I got a little misty eyed. You know, like there are certain movies that you only watch on planes, and like I would only watch on a plane, and when those types of movies are getting me, I'm like.
Fuck the altitude, that's something. What is the film that scared you the mice? Do you like being scared?
I do like being scared. I love horror movies. Right, there's again like kind of two answers to this the first movie that ever made me that I remember being like, oh god, this is like really scary in a way that was like kind of unique for the time because we were coming out of torture porn era in around like two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, and I hated like when I was in high school in the early two thousands, like everything was about like this
is a horror movie where we watch a young model scream and pain and agony for forty minutes while someone like cuts off their leg and I fucking hated that shit so much. I think Saw is like maybe gets a slight pass because there is interesting, like narrative stuff going around it, but like hostile, I think like that is like peak that kind of movie that I fucking hated. And then as we were coming out of that era, though, there's a lot of interesting stuff coming out of your
neck of the woods. And this movie The Descent. Do you know this movie?
I fucking love The Descent. I think it's a masspace.
I fucking love this movie. And it was a movie that like at the time, I remember it taught me a lot of patience because it takes a while to get to the scary parts of the descent. It is like, yeah, it's very like these women listening to Indogo girls in a cabin, like about to girl boss their way through a cave, and you're like, Okay, this seems fine, and then that's the second that fucking face creature pops up
behind that woman. It's you're off to the race and it's so scary, and I remember it was like such a nice reprieve from the kind of horror movies that had been coming out that I had been seeing it at that time, and I fucking love that movie. I tell everyone to watch it. It's still it holds up so well, so good. It was interesting, complicated characters, but like simple storytelling, you know. It really was just I'm trying to get out of that fucking cave.
And he does a thing. I'm sure I've talked about this before, but I really I'm like, why is that film so good? And it's one of the things he did is he doesn't cheat where the light comes from. There's no fake light in the whole film, so it's it's a flight. If they're holding a torch, that's the light, and if they're the screen from ever, and that's the light. There's no like, where's this light coming from?
Yeah?
Yeah, really great? What is the film that you love? People don't really like it, the critics hate it, but you love it.
This is what I actually do think about while I was seeing twenty Year episodes recently, because this is I think like, this is one of the markey questions of your podcast. I think like this is one that I think is really really telling about where a person is
in their life. Yeah, and for me, this movie is Jupiter Ascending, amazing anset the lakowskis like they honestly, in my mind, they can't do any wrong, because the thing is, I would much rather a creator take a huge swing and miss and whiff the ball completely, like the ball is like in another county at this point. But they
took me in. Do they make big fucking swings? And that movie is so fun and so dumb and Eddie Redmain is giving one of the most insane performances ever committed to film, and like the fact that people didn't see it, didn't appreciate it.
Channing Tatum is a dog.
Channing Tatum is a dog. Mila Kunis is Queen of the Bees, yeah.
Can you do an impression of Eddie Redmain in it?
I can't now because I'm sick and I also don't want to blow out my microphone. But the way he unhinges his jaw to scream most of his lines is really amazing. Those little dragons with the little tiny wings that are the henchmen are like they'd never really explain where they came from, where they're going, what they're doing, Like it's so much more than a bad Star Wars rip off, but it is like in that realm for sure.
And I just find their world building so funny and fascinating always and just goofy as hell and the like the rollerblading, uh, the anti gravity roller blades, like it's just so fun and so visually fun and stupid, and like, yeah, it's it's It's a movie that I have a lot of trouble convincing people to watch with me, for sure.
It's that is in the realm of cloud at List, which I feel, oh yeah, swing in swinging away.
The thing is about cloud House that's even more difficult though to get keep people on board with, is that it is like a three hour long movie. Yes, and so when people when it has a bad rap as being a bad movie, and it's three hours. It's like really hard to convince people to go on that journey with you.
Yeah. What, on the other hand, is a film that you used to love, you loved, and then you watched it recently? Anyone? Oh No, I don't like this anymore for whatever reason that might be.
This is kind of a cheat because I haven't watched it all that recently. But for me, it is the blind Side. I used to be such a staunch like defender of the blind Side. I really did, Like I was like so like, yes, Sandra Bullock deserved for that fucking wig work that she did in that film. Yes, it is a lifetime movie, but is so beautifully done.
And I think the thing that you have to understand about me is I was sort of half kicked out of my home at seventeen and moved out and was taken in by another family that like didn't really know who I was, and I was not gifted at football. That's where the story is sort of diverged. But I was really drawn to the story of this, like you know, and I hate to say it because I said it
so many times during the press too. From my movie but chosen family, Like I was really sean to this idea as like both an adoptee, someone who lived with a different family than theirs for the latter half of high school and was like really loved and accepted by that family and found the support that they couldn't find at home in that family. Like I really loved this movie hmmm when I was in high school and early college.
Now have I sense sort of come to understand sort of a lot of the problematic nature of like the white Savior narrative. And also now the stuff that has come out recently with Michael Orr coming out and being like it was not you know, they like took advantage of me, and it wasn't all like the movie portrayed it to be, and all of this stuff. I have come around and been like, no, this movie is bad and it should be burned in a big bonfire.
It's nice that you related to it.
That, yeah, And also like, clearly, listen, I'm the biggest Sandra Bullock stan Like, if I had to pick an actress and only watch their movies for the rest of my life, like Sandra Bullock would probably be at the top of my list. To be honest. But yeah, she didn't deserve it. She didn't deserve not for that. I think it was. I do think she did deserve a career win, like I think the Blindside was rewarding her for an illustrious career where she gave us a lot,
especially in movies that aren't Oscar Bait. And yeah, so she did deserve it in that sense, but not for that role. But that happens a lot.
That happens. I think the OSK is often is giving an award for previous work. Yeah, that was missed out on What is the film that means the most to you? Not necessarily the film itself is good, but the experience you had watching it will always make it meaningful to you.
Kim Based this is probably this could probably be my answer for a lot of these questions. But for me, it is my best friend's wedding. Yeah, and it is. If we were playing the Newlywed game, Okay, my boyfriend would accurately guess this as my favorite movie. And it's like such a you know, because that game, the idea of having a favorite movie so silly and dumb, you know, like it's really hard to pinpoint, Like if you watch more than fucking you know, twenty five movies in your life.
Like it's so hard to pick a favorite one, you know, because like there's so much of it met is like what your mood is, and like what you're looking for and like genre dependent and all this stuff. But for me, I tell people, if they really press me, that this is my favorite movie because it does. It is the movie that I watch with people to sort of like
check them a little bit. I remember watching this with my boyfriend and like it was one of the few, like one of the many cultural exchanges that we did where I was just sitting on the couch watching his reaction to all these moments in the movie and making sure that and I didn't tell him beforehand, but I think he instinctually knew, like he needed it to love his movies for us to continue. And it's a movie that like has had this place in my life since
I was like in middle school. Basically I saw it way too young, well before I understood what was going going on, and then throughout my life like in high school and in college, in my early days in Chicago, in my early days in New York, Like it is a movie that I continually returned to as like a way to connect with other people, Like this is the thing that I share in terms of movies, to connect with someone and to like sort of give them a peek at my brain and like the things that I
like because it does have it has so much going for it. It is such a funny movie. It's a romantic movie. It's a beautifully shot movie, incredible performances, sort of the first time, like a revolutionary move to make Julia Roberts the sneaky villain of the movie because she
was America's sweetheart at this time. It was really like this performance could only have been pulled off by Julia Roberts in that moment in history, because you had to take someone who was literally beloved by every single person in America and the world and then make them do some of the most despicable things that you could ever
believe a person would do in a romantic comedy. Still have the audience like find a root for you throughout the most of it, Like it's a it's a it's a magic trick, and it's like there's like there's magical realism in it too, Like I love the singing at the fucking restaurant, Like when the movie decides to become a musical for a brief moment for no reason, and it never pops up again. And it's like this moment that is not like addressed by anybody else in the
film as being weird. And I think also like written by a gay guy. Obviously you can tell because the gay character in it, George, is so it is for especially for the time, well rendered and like, yes it is trophy because he is the gay best friend whatever, but gay best friends exist. That's so like you know, like and if you're gonna have a gay best friend in a movie, this is this is a really good
starting off blueprint for how to do it well. I think there's ways to push the form now, but this, especially for the time, I think was really revolutionary for the way that like it gave that character had agency. That character is smart and funny and all of the things that you want to see in a gay best friend and not necessarily all sort of buy the book at the stereotyme. So yeah, there's a lot of things
I love about this movie. And it is a movie that I will show people in my life to make sure that they're cool.
It's the test. It's a fantastic perfect answer. What is the film we must relate to?
What if I said the blind Side the film that I I was. I actually did think about this one a little bit because this is a difficult one for sure, and there's some recency bias I think in my answer,
and it's a little it's a little odd. But like As Lives was a movie that came out this year that I found myself really really relating to on a lot of different odd levels, you know, because I think, like, so, I'm adopted, my parents are white, so I had very little contact with my culture or heritage growing up, and I think, like, obviously, this is so much about dysphoria surrounding your identity as an Asian American and like having roots in a different country and then also be experiencing
you know how you experience that when you're sort of drowning in whiteness surrounding you. And also I have a white boyfriend as well, who will never truly fulfill me on a deep level because he's white, but.
He did like my best friend's wedding, So.
Yeah, no, true, but yeah, I just I haven't watched a movie in a long time that didn't sort of beat for beat try to recreate my own life without like actually, like I have not experienced with this character his experience, but I felt so deeply simp like a kinship with this character. And also Return to Soul is
another talk about recency bias. Both these movies came out this year, and both of these movies sort of explore the experience and a return to Soul even more than Past Lives is like really explicitly about an adopted Korean adoptee returning to South kore and not having like this life changing like e prey love, like you know, full circle moment to their experience of that culture, and that I related to on a really deep level too, because I find that like people love to tell you, like
just wait until you go back to Korea, it's going to change you, and like maybe it will. I haven't done it yet, but watching this movie, I was sort of like, oh, finally, like a depiction of this experience that isn't about like oh this I feel complete now because I I've touched down on my ancestral homeland, you know, like it dealt with it in a way that felt real and complicated, and that is how I feel about my own adoption. And so those two movies, it's a
tandem answer. Definitely are our movies that spoke to my experience in different ways that I really related to and I'm really grateful to that they came out now at a time when like I'm able to process those stories in a way that is helpful to me.
You you said you weren't prepared for this podcast. This has been some of the most throw out brilliant answers. This is like you said, it was new material. I don't believe you. What is what is the sexiest film you've ever seen?
That's a tough one because like there's so many different layers to that question, Like you could mean like what, oh, I mean, I guess for me, the sexiest movie that I've ever seen in sort of the pinnacle of of like sex and movies for me is Short Buss by John Cameron Mitchell. Like I mean, famously, the sex in that movie is a lot of it is not simulated. It is real, like when they're going when they're giving head, they're giving head and very brown bunny Vincent Gallo whatever.
But like for me, that movie treats sex as this like beautiful, funny, not all that sacred. Like there is a like a sacred nature to sex, but it doesn't like treat it as this like holy thing that like you know, has to be special and like handled with kid gloves, like it. A lot of the sex in that movie, and this is true to my own experience
having sex is very funny. You know, they're laughing it is because like when you take away a lot of the bells and whistles to it, it's like you're fucking naked doing what you did, what with what and put it where, you know, Like it is so funny. And like, especially the trappings around sex, the things we do to get sex are so funny. And I love the exploration
of that in that movie. And I just loved for me growing up very with a very puritanical house, watching this movie in college that I'll never forget where I was when I first saw it. I was like it was a summer between my freshmen and sophomore year, and I was in a dorm because I was performing a summer stock theater and I remember watching this movie and
it shaping me. I mean, it's not only the sexiest movie that I think I've seen, but it is it really did like shape a lot of my conceptions about sex and movies and how should be handled and not handled, and sort of the goal for me, if I, ever, you know, continue to have sexy movies is to you know, model it after the way John handled it in his film He Could.
There's a sub category to this question traveling by and is worrying why don't what's a film you found arousing that you weren't sure you should?
There is going to be a little too revealing, and so I'm not gonna elaborate too much on it. But funny Games, Okay, that is a really good answer.
That makes a lot of sense. I think I can fill in the blakes. Yeah, really really good answer. What is objectively the greatest film of all time? Might not be your favorite, but it is the pinnacle of films?
Yeah, I mean, this would have been an easy slot in for my best friend's wedding as well, certainly. But I guess for me, I'm going to go with the other answer that I often have to this question, which is what hot American summer? I think it's I mean, for one, it's sort of it's a nice catch all because it is so many movies at once. There's so much going on in that movie. And again, talk about
a movie that like shaped me. I tell I say this often that the two movies that shaped my aesthetic and like my you know, conception of what a comedy movie and a sex movie should be as Short Bus and What Hot American Summer. Those were the only two DVDs I owned the summer between my freshmen and sophomore year, and I watched both those movies like at least a couple times a week for like three months straight. And you put those movies together, and that is exactly what
I want to accomplish. But my what Hot is like part of it for me is not even the product itself.
But One Hot was also another movie where I watched the making of featurette for that movie over and over and over again because it really sold me on wanting to make movies because I was like, look at these people, They're all friends, you know, they pulled from this like cadre of like comedians, UCB performers that all knew each other and all were in community together, and it so shows on yeah in the final product, like how much fun they had making this and how like grungy it
was to make, but at the same time, like because they were all friends and knew each other in Peers that like it was okay and like that was like honestly, like I thought about it a lot while I was making Fire Island because I felt very similarly because like watching that feature at the making of What Hot Future atte like it made me want to make movies. And then the whole time I was making Fire Island, I
was like, oh my god, I'm doing it. I'm making like sort of a small budget movie where the conditions are not always ideal, but I'm here with some of my best friends and people that like our people that I came up with, and it just like it was such a nice full circle moment for me. And so that is why for me, because it made me want to make movies and got me really interested in making movies. What Hot is my answer?
Goddamn god, damn a good at this? What is the film? You could or have watched the most op and over again and it might be short best, it might be short best.
Uh, yeah, it's definitely it's probably short bust or what Hot? But I think outside of those movies, the one that I weirdly have watched the most is Rachel Getting Married.
I fucking love that film. It's a great film.
As an adult post college. It is by far the movie that I've watched the most over and over again because for a couple of reasons. A it's my writer's
block movie. Like when I'm having writer's block writing anything creative, I will watch Rachel Getting Married because for me, it's like it's kind of like the platonic ideal of like writing, like those types of movies, like movies that are plays, but movies movies where people are talking, you know, because that is like, really what I write and write well and want to write is movies where people are talking, movies that could and should probably be plays, you know,
because dialogue is in and the rhythm of conversation is so much what I'm interested in as a writer or what got certainly got me interested in writing. And I think what I is probably one of my best bigger
strengths as a writer. And Jonathan dem just like does that in that movie so well, and like right, it's Anne Hathaway has like one of the greatest performances of her career I think in that film again, like I love how small you can feel the budget is, but what they did with it, And like, I obviously love a wedding movie. Two of my favorite movies of all time our wedding comedies, drama, dramedy. In this case, I
guess drama maybe fully. But the other reason I love it, and the reason I watched it so much is I worked at a video rental store for four years, started in high school and then worked on it, moved to my college branch, and I got fired for checking out Rachel getting married without paying for it. And this was this was a practice that most of the employees at Family Video were engaged in the entire four years that
I worked there. No one said boo, No one gave a shit if you took out a dollar movie for a couple of days without selling anybody. But I was working with like this new kid who was very Christian and like rated on me immediately no, and then like texted me and was like, you put me in a horrible position when you did that in front of me, And I was like, okay, fucking loser. So I got
fired for having this movie. And so for a while it was like again one of the few DVDs that I had, and it was just the source of like I or And I was like, well, if I got if I fucking lost my job of four years for this movie, I'm going to watch this shit out of this movie. And so it was this movie that I had to return to just out of Spike for a lot of years. Yeah, I would watch it so very special.
Yeah it's a great film. What's the worst film you ever seen?
That's tough because I like, obviously I've brought up like bad movies that I find enjoyable and I tend to so it's like for me, a bad movie has to like say absolutely nothing and be sort of surface level, and like I don't know, like movies that say nothing are sort of the answer to this. I'm trying to see. Now, this is where the lack of preparation is bite me in the ass, because I could have had a really
wonderful answer for this. That wouldn't that would have pissed off nobody, you know, I'm trying to think, because like all of the quote unquote bad movies that I've seen recently were Oscar Baby movies, and even those movies, like even like when you're just like sort of judging them based on like the pack of Oscar movies for that year, are like still even the ones that you're like, oh, this movie was so bad, are is still like something
that is like, yeah, pretty good. When I'm just like talking to cover as I think of a movie title that again like this is the hardest one because like you don't like the rest of the questions. You're like, oh, like how do I seem cool and like chill? And like how do I construct this personality around my taste in movies? And now suddenly I'm like, how can I what movie can I say that won't piss people off? Hmm, I'm gonna say, oh, I guess like for me, we've
revisited this movie recently. Scary Movie, the first one. Now before you get in up in arms, I think the Scary Movie three is still holds Up is such a funny movie, Regina Hall Alzheimer. You know, like there's so much in the later part of that series that still
holds up and is great. Scary movie one. It's not even like the woke mind virus has destroyed my brain or anything like that, but it's just not funny It's just like it is playing on sort of like the most surface level ideas of like stereotypes, stuff pushing anything. It is like stuff that I have, I heard other middle schoolers say, and then doesn't really push beyond that, Like it's like, oh, we hit a woman, isn't that funny? Without commenting on like why hitting a woman might be
funny or not funny. It is just like as sort of base as that, like, oh, we this character is gay, isn't that funny? Isn't it funny that this person is gay? And it's just like doesn't it doesn't ask you to think beyond those terms, And so in that way, I just don't think it holds up as we really wanted
it to hold up. I really wanted to like reclaim Scary Movie is like and be sort of provocative about like ooh, yeah, you thought I would want you cancel me, cancel me because I love Scary Movie the first one. But it was a dark time. It was a dark time for movies, and like a dark time for that specific kind of spoof movie.
That's fair, I'd say that's very fair. Now on the errand you're in comedy, you're very funny what's the film that he made you laugh the most?
I will say that the movie that has made me laugh the most is I. You know again, like I could have said what wet hot for this answer, but I'm gonna go with the one that made me laugh the most in the last couple of years, which is Love.
Actually a horrendous film by almost every like almost everything about it is detestable, and yet I cannot stop watching it every year like clockwork and just sitting there and the way it's like so abrasively bad, but like you cannot help but laugh at it, like it like the way my boyfriend and I will sit and watch this movie and laugh at every terrible thing that happens in this movie. Not terrible thing that happens to the characters, but terrible thing the movie tries to do to us.
You know.
It is just it is so ridiculous, and like, how can you watch this movie and not remember that Kiera Knightley was like seventeen when she shot this movie and not want to laugh and just laugh at this fucking stalker, you know, Like, yeah, it is the movie that recently made me laugh the most.
It's just it is outregious Okay, okay, So look, here's the thing. You've been excellent. Your answers have been unbelievably I mean unbelievably thoughtful and wise, and I don't for a second belief that you didn't give this any thought. And if you did it, you're beyond a genius. He's
been really brilliant. However, when you were in a car pool with four other people and your car got hit by another by truck and you lay there in excruciating pain, dying very slowly, but you couldn't die until two of the other people died. They took ages to die, and then eventually, once they died, you very slowly, very painfully died. And I was walking past with a coffin, you know what I'm like, and I'm like, they weren't seeing Joe Kim where is he? And they said, I think he's
in that wreck. He was dying very slowly, and I went slowly, Oh god, no, that must be off, and he went, yeah, no, it's about four days. You just left it there for four days. You didn't even take it to us to and they're like, nah, it was such a mess. It just seemed like too much work. So we just sort of waged it out, and I was like, oh fucking hell, give us a hand then, So we're sort of pulling bits of you out of this car, getting bits of metal, all sorts, stuff it
all in the coffin. There's more of you than I was expecting, what with all this fucking stuff. The coffin is absolutely jammed. It is round. There is only enough room to slip one DVD into the side for you to take across to the other side. And on the other side, it's maybe night. Every night. What fucking movie are you taking each other? People? The Druggies of Heaven when it is your movie night, mister Joel kim Bister.
And this ideally would be a movie that I haven't already brought up.
It can be whatever you want. You're you're presenting this.
Film because I obviously, like I brought up, you know, showing people my best friend's wedding.
Is that?
So that is like part of the answer, but for the sake of saying something a little different that still works, that is still honest. Is the Garden State DVD, but not the movie, just the making of feature atte that's what we'd watch every night. The movie doesn't hold up that well, and it's certainly not as much as you'd like it to if especially we're around the same age. I think like it was a pretty big deal of
movie for a lot of people at the time. But the feature at the making of featurette holds up really, really well. And I again, it is another example of
this movie. It's much longer than the Wet Hot one, but it is another example of a featurette really making me interested in the art of filmmaking and like the community around which movies are made, and like that the community that comes together to make a movie and the solidarity and the just the fun and the intricacies and like the breadth and like scope of what goes into
making a movie, you know. Like I think like that was a huge watching that feature at in high school, I was like, Wow, there are a lot of people, even on this little tiny movie that work on this. It's not just the director and the actors and the writer, you know, and like understanding that I think is a really important part of learning how to digest movies. And yeah, so I would want everybody in on that. So we would watch The Future Atte over and over again.
That is a fucking great answer, jo Kim Booster. Is there anything you would like to tell people to look out for to watch to come see you in coming up?
I am on a new show called Christine Dave Diane Out that's on Free Forum and then Hulu the next day. That comes out at the end of January. I think like twenty four. It's a quick, five episode little series where we eat it a lot of different restaurants around LA and then I am the second season of Luke comes out in April or somewhere around there, So keep your eyes peeled for that that's coming, and then hopefully I learn a lot of other stuff.
So and guys see guys, see you stand up joking boost it. Thank you so much for doing this. You've been absolutely brilliant.
Thank you.
I hope you have a wonderful day and I will see you soon. Okay, good day to you, sir. So that was episode two hundred and eighty two. Remember to head over to the Patreon at patreon dot com Forward Slash break Goals team for all the extra stuff with Joel look up dates for my stand up show. If you want to come see me and you're in America. Thank you so much everyone for listening. I really hope you're all well. Thank you to Joel for giving me his time. Thank you to Scrupius Pip and the Distraction
Pieces Network. Thanks to Buddy Peace for producing it. Happy birthday, Buddy Peace. Thanks to iHeartMedia and Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network for hoisting it. Thanks to Adam Richardson for the graphics and Live Lie Them for the photography. Come and join me next week for another banging guest. That is it for now. In the meantime, hope you all have a lovely week and please, now more than ever,
be excellent to each others. Back back by the bus backs and says a transacted by the bat backs and backs bass back bas backs out by back back back