Cole Stratton on Defending Your Life

on the show, I'll say that much. So before we get going in to the movie coal, we want to talk a little bit about you know I talked to when the first time you were on the show. For those of you who did not hear that episode, we met at San Francisco sketch Fest. Uh to me, for my money, the greatest and best, most robust comedy festival in the country, and I guess in the world, because

America is the only country where anything funny happens. And um, that's where we became pals and where we first met. And you you're one of the co founders and run Sketch Fest is a big part of your job. But very sadly, UH, this year. Uh, there are Yeah, I guess this year there's no sketch Fest going on. It should be going on right now in January. Obviously you guys aren't doing it because of COVID, but you have something else going on, and I would love to turn

people onto this. Yeah. So it's weird because we would be in the middle of the festival right now, right and then in fact, this would probably be my weekend. I'm usually the second week end. Yeah, this will be the second weekend. We always notice the three day weekend because of Martin Luther King Day and stuff. This is gonna be weird that this will be the I realized this will be the first January I've spent in Los Angeles and twenty years. Oh wow, that's crazy. Yeah, it's not.

It's well, I guess eighteen years because it was year two that I moved down or whatever. But still, like, I've never been here for January. I've always been up there for the bulk of the month. So it's a little I don't know what to do with myself, So there's that. But yeah, we're doing this. We realized that we weren't gonna be able to do it in person, festival pretty early on last year. We kept like delaying making the decision because every week would be different information

about the virus and what was happening and stuff. So finally, like late summer, we decided to officially pull the plug because we figured there's just no what it was gonna happen. Um, so we did. So we're hoping to do another live show like festival next year, which that's crazy to say next year and we just went into this one but two.

So we try to figure out what we could do to kind of mark the festival occasion this year and also raise some money for us so we could operate going into next year and have some capital to you know, put down venue deposits, et cetera, go over to the next one. I mean it's a business, you know. Yeah, it's uh as everybody knows there's a lot of money at festivals, so uh yeah, there's not. But so yeah, it would also be our twentie year. That's one of the biggest bummers too, is you know, it will be

the big celebration of making it to twenty. So um, what we decided to do instead was do like one giant kind of we are the world ish online benefit show with a ton of alumni from the festival. Um. So they ended up being over a hundred performers, which is crazy. It's amazing. It's gonna be a little over three hours. We're editing everything and it's gonna be long, but it'll be funny. Um, and that lineup is pretty insane. We you know, we're looking at the kids in the hall.

We have the State all eleven of them, which is around Yeah, so they're doing something. Um, Bobo and Kirk and David Cross, Upper Citizen's Brigade, triumphty and Cel Comic Dog weird Al, John Ham, Aisha Tyler, Margaret Choe, Uh, Doug Benson, Uptown Showdown, Debates, Judge John Hodgman. Um. This is just off the top of my head, so I'm sure I'm missing tons of great people, but UM, music from like Paullen Storm and Jonathan Colton and Rhet Miller

and UM, it's gonna be pretty amazing. So tickets are over at s F sketch Fest dot com, guest f and then sketch Fest dot com. Uh. They started twenty bucks uh for a live stream on January five o'clock pm Pacific time. Eight o'clock PM Eastern and whatever PM wherever you live or am. I don't know where you're gonna be doing this from UM, but it's gonna be pretty fantastic and everything goes to helping the festival move forward and be a festival UM next year. So that's great.

Come check it out if you can. Well, I'm gonna buy my ticket. Twenty dollars is not a lot of money to spend on some great comedy. I would pay. Don't tell anyone this, but I would paid twenty dollars just to see the state reunion getting. I mean, that's it's there, some of those legendary UM Sketch performers and I don't know, man, they just hold a very special

place in my heart. I was a big fan UH in real time from the MTV days, and you know, they're one of the ones who, like every single one of them, went on to do something great and continue to do great things. It's pretty crazy. Like we did a reunion with them in like I want to say where we got them all in person to San Francisco, all of and them, and they did a new Sketch show and they very intimate. UM then Eureka Theater, which is two hundred seats. They just did two shows. Wow,

that sketch Show and that was it. So they sold out in a minute, of course. And then we also did like a big tribute conversation thing with them the next day. Um, so that was really cool just to get you know, us with all love and them, which is like that doesn't really happen that often that they're in the same room together. So we're honored that they're taking part. Yeah, that's so cool. I would pay twenty books just for that. I do like knowing that I'm

not among the top one hundred alumni. That's fine, hurt I did you were on the table for that, and it's for reels. Like I was like, we gotta figure out something for Chuck to do. And then we also looked at our lineup and we're like, oh boy, a lot of white men are saying, yes, you gotta keep this diverse. It's fine. I love the diversity. And uh, you know, Josh and I kind of as far as I mean, stuff you should know would be the biggest draw.

Um And I don't know, man, we're not into I don't think we would translate well to a virtual thing like that. So I'm genuinely did not have my feelings, sir it I was just givving a hard time. Okay, cool, because I love you and seriously you were you were discussed so and there's like the room. There's also like a ticket that gives you to this virtual after party thing which is like through gather Town, which is pretty

interesting software stuff. Are you kind of a build an eight bit version of Cano Fight which is a theater in San Francisco, And then everybody gets a litt avatar when you move in and when you when you move close to somebody, your video and audio move on so you can have a conversation sort of like on zoom. And then when you walk away, you fade away and there's stuff happening within the theater and stuff like that

too and stuff. So I we should get you into that involved in that because some of the performances will be hanging out and stuff and it's man, that is amazing. You should have posted it that virtually at Adam Savage's warehouse. I know, God, that would be amazing if they could

build that out the old Man Cave. Yeah, for those of you listening, Adam Savage of the Missbusters has myth Busters has a sort of this legendary warehouse man cave in San Francisco that is, I mean he has parties there and stuff around the time of Sketch Fest, and it's just sort of like a nerd paradise. Uh. You know, whether or not you want to see like a life size Bubba fette or a real perfect recreation of the Blade Runner gun or like a little R two D

two whirling around the party, it's pretty insane. It's like the good kind of hoarding. Yeah, it's just wall to wall props from things that either he traded for or he built himself. Um, it's pretty amazing. And you know, we have photos of like I'm sitting in Captain Kirk's chair, I'm holding a Hall Boys gun Like it's unbelievable, pretty phenomenal, very cool. So one more time, When is it in?

What time? And where can you get tickets? So it's Saturday, January thirty five o'clock PM Pacific, eight o'clock Eastern and whatever time wherever you are. Um, and you can get tickets at s F Sketch Fest dot com. It's gonna be really great. That's great. And is it one of those things where if you pay per ticket you can watch it a couple of days later or is it

only live? Yeah, so it'll be live stream, but you have access if you buy a ticket to um watch a replay of it for like twenty four hours or forty eight hours afterwards, I believe. So you have a little bit. It's great. So yeah, yeah, no, that's that's a great way to do it, because in I've done a couple of little concerts like that where I could not necessarily be there right at the time, but then I watched it the next day. Right. Also, you know, three hours of one sitting of anything, it can be

a little hard. So you know, I'm sure some people will break it up. But well I can't wait. Man, I'll be there, thanks in as an audience member. All right, So we're gonna move along to your latest movie, Crush, which is the Albert Brooks written, directed, and starring film from Defending Your Life. Great movie, classic movie. And until I watched it today, I didn't realize that I had never seen this movie. You've never seen it? No, man,

I caught I thought I had. I caught bits of it on HBO here and there, And it's one of those movies like that I thought I had seen, but as I was watching it, because I knew all about it, was like, wait a minute, I don't think I've actually ever sat down and watched this. It's probably it's my favorite Brooks movie, and I love them all pretty much. Yeah,

I don't know. There's just something about it that, like, his neuroses are still on display, but it's not necessarily the driving force of the entire picture like it is in his other things which I started like that. It was definitely the air and it you know, obviously deals a lot with fear and and things like that, but and like how you're still judged even after you die. But but it's you know, I don't know it's for me. It's just like it's his only real like romantic comedy.

I guess you could say. Yeah, I mean it is a love story at heart. I mean we're gonna get into the sort of allegory of the whole thing with being judged and your acts on life and and fear. And one thing I thought was really interesting was the notion that the the goal in the afterlife is to to keep gaining knowledge. Uh, and to get smarter and smarter and to use more of your brain. And that's

sort of kind of the only like they met. Two things really is your goal is to keep gaining knowledge, and then the one great thing is you can eat however much without gaining weight, which is just funny. I think that's sort of everyone's idea of like a perfect afterlife, right to be sort of like what we're all doing the pandemic now, but we don't have a pandemic twenty

pounds after Uh. So it was you know, it's considered a cult classic, like so many of his films, and he's only made uh she's what like five or six yeah, something like that. Let's there's real life. There's lots of America mask in your life, looking for comedy in the Muslim world, mothers mother, Um, I think that's right. Yeah. So, I mean he's a filmmaker and this is over the course of I mean since I think his first movie is like the early eighties, so he's I think real

life was like seventy nine or something. Yeah, So he's judicious with his time and he's not a filmmaker who wants to make movies every two or three years. He takes long gaps in between, and like most of his movies, they don't this one included. They don't perform terribly well at the box office. Uh, they're always reviewed kindly and they usually are cable TV and sort of DVD cult classics. This one only made like. I looked up the box

office on it because I'm always curious like it. In its entire theatrical run, I made sixteen million dollars, which was still not that much funny. Um, and when it opened, um, it was kind of unlimited release at first, so the weekend it opened it was against Okay, this is just even an idea of what was happening in the world of cinema the week it was released. Here's your top ten movies. Uh, the live action Teenage Mutant, Ninja Turtles Okay, I didn't see it. Um, I kind of love it.

But Silence of the Lambs, Oh Boy, Dances with Wolves. Number four was New Jack City Okay. Five class Action, which is that Gene Hackman, Mary Elizabeth Mastro Antonio six Sleeping with the Enemy. Seven in its nineteenth week of release, Home Alone, that thing was nuts. Uh. Number eight The Doors number nine, The Perfect Upon that Jeff Speakman action movie. I had no idea what that is. It was like he was a guy that put out like one or two action movies, like they're trying to bring him the

next new thing. And ten was Guilty by Suspicion, which I think was a Denero thing. I'm not Yeah, I think that was about the McCarthy era. I think it's a Hollywood screenwriter in the Blacklist eraff and that that sounds right. So the most I ever did was in its like third weekend. It was like I kind of went wider and it was like it was number six and it made like four million that weekend or something.

So I'm looking up the Perfect Weapon now. And I definitely do not know this movie, but I sort of recognized that guy. Was he trying to be um obviously trying to be like a Steven Seagal type. Yeah, that's Kevin Pollock was a whole bit about it on his UM one of his old comedy specials where he's like sal and Jeff Speakman. So I got two quick little asides to tell you. Um. One is when I lived in l A, my friend John was a uh dated the personal assistant to meet Loaf's wife. We all did

Hollywood story. Yeah, you know how that stuff happens in LA that's like these weird things. So I ended up hanging out at Meats House, which is what you called them by the way, um two or three times. He was never there, but um Steven Segal lived in the house behind him, and there were, you know, these big fences and stuff. But if you kind of walk up the stairs to Meats House, you can see over the fence.

And he had all these little um Asian gazebos. They all look like sort of Indian miniature Indian temples sort of all over his backyard of his property, which I thought was very interesting. It's so weird for somebody that's like his whole persona is just like he's peaceful, he's serene, he's spiritual, but he's a total prick from what I understand. So, like, I don't think he's a nice guy. Right, So where did where does all that? How does that fit in there?

I don't know. On SNL, like he was really upset about the Hans and Franz sketch about him. He's just like kick these guys, ask Like he was mad that they're dunking on him, when that's the whole ideas. It's just like he's he's humorless and not a nice guy from what I understand. Yeah, humorless is one of my least favorite character qualities in a celebrity. And he's here today. Let's Oh my god, you're great. I love you. Uh

and the other quick story. And I think I've told this before on the one of my favorite murder ladies joined me for Silence of the Lambs. But I saw that movie as a double bill at my student center. How they would in college, they would show a movie and then say, hey, if you want to stick around

and watch this other new movie, you can. So I went to see Dances with Wolves and they said, if you want to stick around and watch this new movie with Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster called Silence and the Lambs, then you can do so. And I was like, all right. And I thought it was like a because I heard Jodie Foster and Pinny Hopkins and Signlence of the Lands.

I thought it was going to fully be like a merchant ivory thing, right, nothing about it, And like cut to fifteen minutes later when I'm just like you know, terrified sitting in my seat. Uh, and it definitely overperformed

Dances with Wolves at Night. I left, and I was like, oh man, I have like a new favorite sort of thriller movie that is kind of magical those days in college when they like host screenings on campus because they have to because they have that budget and stuff, and like I remember seeing like Strange Days that way, and then Trapped in Paradise, that Nicholas Cage Dana Carvey Lovetts movie where they're like bank robbers sort to get out of some all time and uh Shawshank Redemption and Frank

Darramant was there. This is like three months for it actually opened because his niece went to s S State San Francisco State where I was. So I have like a signed promotional Shaw shankate by ten that he signed for me backstage at that thing. But yeah, that's like I got to see that for free before it opened. And of course that movie is magical. So you strike me as the kind of person who might have worked

at the student at theater. Did I worked at Video Stars any video starts for like a decade, but yeah, yeah I did do. Uh So yeah, Cult Classic Defending Your Life. Um. If you don't know about the movie, a go and watch it at streaming on HBO Max if you have that. But it is a movie about Albert Brooks. He plays a um AD executive who five minutes into the film dies. He gets hit by a bus in his brand new BMW and UM and goes to his immediate afterlife, which is uh, what's it called

the Judgment City? Where the idea is that you have to defend your life in a sort of UM court where they pick out days of your life, examine those and then decide whether or not you should be allowed to go on uh and gain more and more knowledge, or the hell which is to be sent back to Earth, which I thought was pretty interesting. How did you love that line when he's talking to his layer ripped arm where he's like, is this heaven? No? Doesn't happen? Is

this hell? No? There is no hell? Though here Los Angeles is getting pretty close? Yeah, uh yeah, you know, the Great Ripped Horn. I think it's interesting. Aside from a cameo by Shirley McLain and uh kind of a cameo by Buck Henry, the really only few recognizable characters are Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep and Ripped Horn. I guess if you sort of know your movies, he would recognize Lee Grant as the prosecutor. But otherwise it's just sort of peppered with these sort of no names and great

little supporting roles too. He's Albert does a good job of like writing bits for people to do. I mean that has comes back from like his days of you know, work, stand up in the clubs, and his dad and all that stuff like that too. So I feel like they're they're biddy things in these movies, but they are great, you know, because everybody a little something to do that's really fun and aren't necessarily plot devices, but more so just something kind of interesting to move the plot along

but be fun. Yeah. Mean, Albert Brooks always struck me as a sort of a Woody Allen adjacent filmmaker, and that is, like I said, his movies don't make a ton of money, kind of like Woody Allen's movies. But I think Albert Brooks could always get a movie made. Um. I'm sure he would laugh if I said, you know, with Little Trouble. Um, you know, behind the scenes, there's probably a lot of trouble trying to get films finance.

But it seems like he's just one of those filmmakers with the credibility in the cache where when he's ready to jump back in, someone will say, sure, we'll make the next Probably he has his fan base that love him and his movies are so funny and that he does such a good job in this and every movie does kind of poking fun at the industry in Los Angeles and stuff too. So anybody that has any experience in the industry or like interest in it, um will

love it. Little side jokes and things here and there, Like I remember, I think it was a muse where um, he's taking a meeting with Steven Spielberg's cousin or whatever. But he's on the lot or whatever, and he's talking to this kind of power agent guy and um, and he's got like a office just kind of full of little props and things like that, and he's like, oh, you love saving Private Ryan and he's like, yeah, I do. That's the couch from the movie, which just kills me.

It's like so funny that what couch would like is there a couch in that movie? And he just bragging about the fact that he's sitting on the couch and saving private Ryan, Like it's that's pretty funny. Like in the background of the scene with the mom where they tell her that her sons have died or something, it's like the only couch in that movie. Uh. And you know, even before he dies, in that first five minutes, there's so many funny little lines. When he's going to buy

the BMW and Uh. He's just so great at that sort of skewering satire, whether it's a car salesman or someone in the industry. And the car salesman's case keeps telling him how much weight he's lost, and he goes, I saw you three days ago. He's like, what is this weight loss? And he went, oh, I wrote you a check for thirty nine thousand dollars. That's what it is. Yeah. Doing that first five minutes, it's great too with the whole like what is what these jeeps? What's the fascination

with these things? Are floods coming? Yeah? What do you know that I don't know? Uh? And even the car wreck is pretty funny, like he gets this a compact displayer in his car that he didn't ask for. He's got those long boxes. It's really dates in and he's listening to Barber streisand uh, is that yentle? What is that? Well, the song Something's Coming, but exactly what was from it might be, but yeah, I mean it's the irony of

that whole thing too. Something's coming. I don't know what it is, and that's a bus because you're serving into the other lane. Yeah. For like a really kind of hysterically long period of time. He he's goes down into the floorboard of the passenger seat trying to pick up the CDs that have slid off for like seven eight seconds, that great shot of the car fully going on into the other lane, and then you know it's a bus. It's all over your six minutes into the movie and

just launching into the premise that quickly. I loved. It didn't need to be one of those things where the whole first act you kind of get to know this person, and I think that's kind of the point is you shouldn't know that much about what kind of person he was going into this Judgment City, right, Yeah, I make us right to it, which I definitely appreciate, um because a lot of movies, like you said, like takes, so like take the first act or take the first three

minutes or whatever, you get into the meat of it, and it's sort of like okay, but like the meat is what we're here for, so there's gotta be ways to get right into the action, as they say, um, which this movie is a good job with. Yeah, and you know this, it's a familiar concept. People have made movie like Heaven Can Wait and uh, or you know The Christmas the Christmas one where you see your life

flash before your eyes. I'm blanking on everything today, it's a wonderful life, or sure The Family Man, uh and uh, well sure, I mean all these movies. It's a familiar conceit, but he he does something a little different with it. And it's kind of proof that you can use a familiar concept and still make a great movie if you have a little bit of a spin and there's just good writing in good performances totally, which is definitely does amazing on all fronts. I want him to make another movie.

I know me too. He's I think it's like seventy three years old. Uh and I think him like good health, so he's could. But his last movie, I mean, I didn't see it the Muslim world. It's it's okay, it's not bad. It's it's not it doesn't deserve the skewering it gets, but it's not good like it's you know, it's definitely one of those like two and a half star movies like it's is that his least good movie? Probably. It's definitely watchable, and there's some really funny things in it.

It just doesn't quite work as a whole. Gotcha, but that was like fifteen years ago, wasn't it something like that? Yeah, he needs to get going. Um, I love the part. And you know, of course some of this because it's such a funny movie. It's just gonna be like the

funniest lines and funny of scenes. But right with her on the tram, you know, one of the gags is he's he's the only person under the age of like seventy five, like everywhere he goes, almost and the lady on the trams, how many of you like to play golf? And everyone just sort of sits there and you don't know at the time that they're still adjusting to their afterlife body. I guess because no one raises their hand. She says, you won't be able to get your hands

up just yet, but good. And just that whole conversation he has with the old lady on the tram a little bit later just kills me to like, you remind me of my little poodle, so young aids No, No, I was in a carrect. Okay, I'll tell you about my dog. You have a while. Yeah, And she feels his hair. It's a little curly afro. Uh. That is a funny bit though, that he's always surrounded by old people and that's why he and Meryl Streep, you know,

get they sort of lock eyes at that. That comedy club comedic, that comedy of sequence to is like such homage to his dad. And like a lot of people realized that as his dad died on stage, like that's uh, you know Harry really literally um like Harry park or Parky artists was I think that's what he's called. He was a Friar's Club roast for Lucille Ball and he did his act, and right when he was done with his act, like somebody said like, oh, he should be

on primetime, way isn't he? And he turned to Milton Burl only, yeah, why is that? And then he just collapsed in Milton Burle's lap, and they took his heart failure and they took him backstage and tried to revive him and all this stuff, but um, and they weren't short to do because the friar's roast. And so they're backstage. I think Milton Burle said, is there a doctor in the house? And people thought he was kidding what he wasn't And then they tried to revive him backstage and

they you know, couldn't do it. And meanwhile they're like, what should we do? And they asked Tony Martin to sing a song, but he he chose unfortunately there's no tomorrow. Um, that's happening. And yeah, so like he really did die on stage. So like that whole sequence is like, it's really funny where this comic is just kind of hacky on stage doing his bit and he's like trying to do his crowd work and he's like you, how did you die? And Albert says on stage like you yeah, wow,

that was a slide nod. Then and then when they go into the alley, him and Meryl Streep and they're walking together, he's like, I had to go back in that's my father. She's like, oh my god. Really He's like, no, how sad that would be for me, But really, like, that's what happened to his dad, and so it's like

very much. You wouldn't know it, but I think he's worked little references into his movies about his father in the past and stuff like that too, just kind of deal with how that went down, because you think he's eleven when his dad died. She Sai's terrible. Yeah, I mean he came from a show of his family and grew up in Beverly Hills and his dad, I mean he wasn't like the biggest star in the world, but

very much a working comedian and well respected comedian. I think his mom was in the business too, right, you know, I'm that I'm not sure if it's very possible. It feels like they're very Hollywood from the beginning. Yeah, and you grew up with Rob Reiner and there was one other, um god who was it, kind of famous comedian. You know, these Beverly Hills kids sons of legends. Right, It's a very interesting way to grow up. I guess what do

you think the statement of this movie is. I mean, there's a lot going on here, sort of metaphysically speaking, Yeah, I mean there's a lot of things. I think one it has it's sort of the messages that like you only live once and face your fears, like do things and take you out of your comfort zone. Do things

because only extraordinary things will happen if you do that. Um. I think that's kind of one of the underlying things and the kind of whole reason that everybody's having their lives looked at as if they haven't overcome those things, they send them back until they do. Um. And that's actually like a big kind of running joke between him and Meryl Streep is that like she lives a like

perfect life and everything she's staying. He's basically staying at a kind of okay motel, sick kind of looking hotel, and she's basically the Four Seasons and she's like, where are you saying? He's like, the Continental, come over, we'll paint it. Yeah. He's so good with just those. I mean they're very quick jokes, you know, like sometimes just a couple of words that he just nails. It's it's a real talent to be able to write a funny joke like that totally. I mean, he's so good at

little aside. It's a very quotable movie. I mean most of his movies are quotable to me, but this one especially, I think it's just so many good little asides and quips and stuff. So, yeah, Mother was always one of my favorites of his. It was I mean, it's just one of those movies where there're certain moms and and if you have one of them and you see that movie, it's just like there was a lot of my mom in uh in Debbie Reynolds in that movie. It was

pretty funny. I love it. Go ahead, and I was just say, it's just like Debbie Reynolds and that whole thing, Like it's just kind of funny that. I mean. That's how Meryl Streep got on this movie was that they were doing Postcards in the from the Edge around the same time, which you know is Carrie Fisher and Honor and something like that and carry they were all friends. So Herr. Albert went to dinner with Carrie Fisher and Meryl Streep and talked to me about the new movie.

And Meryl Streep was like, well, is there a role for me in that? And he's kind of laughed and then he's like, well, do you want to be in it? And she's like yeah, So like that's kind of how like it wasn't she was never targeted for that role. It was just one of those things where like she said she wanted to do it, so he's kind of rewrote it a little bit and tailed it to tailed or tailored it to her, which is very phenomenal. Yeah,

I saw that that. He was very um obviously even you know, in her reputation was just so cemented as like one of the great leading actors of all time, and uh, he was. He would he said he never would have thought, like did even try and get somebody like Meryl Streep, But he said once he met her, he said she was just so funny and cool and

like so not what he thought she would be. And he said that he had never really seen her the movie where she could just kind of beat herself in fun and uh and smiling and you know, uh and just sort of laid back, and so he wanted to give her a part like that. And it's my favorite Meryl Street performance, to be honest. I mean she's great and everything, Like she's argue with the greatest living actor

right now. Like she's pretty phenomenal, but it's just something about like the charm and the easy going but she's totally in control of the performance and has great chemistry with Albert, which you know, I don't know on paper, i'd be like, oh, those two definitely a couple, But in my mind I thought about, like, it actually would have been kind of cool if her part was Holly Hunter to kind of sort of rekindle the broadcast news angle. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

that would have been cool. Yeah, but definitely, I think Meryl is so good in this and yeah, I love it. Yeah, I mean just physically the way she carries herself in this movie. I mean it's not a flashy performance at all. But um, you know, Albert Brooks does one face kind of uh in the best way possible, which is just uneasiness. Basically, he just has a face that always reads like he's a little worried about something, and he's he plays a sort of a stiffness an anxiety in this movie. But

it's not overdone at all. He's not, like you were saying earlier, not supermanic about you know, everything that's going on.

It's not like to the Woody Allen levels, but it's just enough to play against her complete comfort in her body and in her life, and even the way she pulls her feet up on the couch when she sits, or in the scene in the scene where she is he pops in on her trial where she's defending her life and she's sitting in that chair with her kind of legs pulled up and just smiling, and it really is sort of a stark difference, very subtle, but very stark,

especially when, like, you know, his trial is very contentious with like you know, Bob Diamond and well that's the lawyer five ever of torn and Lee Grant are just really going head to head and there's a lot of like he just feels he has a hard time defending everything that they show and the footage is very damning.

And then you know the moment that he's in Meryl Stream staying as they show her like rescuing people from a fire or whatever, and then then judged cat out of the fire, right, and then the judge is like, I just wanted to watch that again, but it's already a preconceived notion that she's moving on. Everybody loves her.

She calls her lawyer Sam like it's yeah, yeah. And at the end of that scene, it's great too because the two judges, um, one of them says like, well, let's meet back tomorrow mainly just to uh, mainly just to enjoy it again, like like they know she's going on, there's really no need for any more days, but they really just like being around her totally. It's really great. I love the fact that kids don't have to defend themselves. It's sort of a small touch, but a very sweet one.

And then he's you know, ripped torns, his kids don't have to defend themselves, and then albre Bronks immediately goes, what about teenage two? Roundbunctious trying it um um. He's so good in this movie, Like this is my favorite

ripped torn thing too. Um so good And it's actually kind of funny Tay read that, like so you know, as you know, Albert's a little obsessed with Easy Rider, which is like kind of the whole thing with in um Lost in America, which the whole thing like let's just pick up and live on, you know, live free.

So for the role Bob Diamond, he wanted um Dennis Hopper at first, who turned it down to the scheduling, and then he was offered to Jack Nicholson and Nicholson passed on it, and then he thought about Easy Rider, which originally Ripped Torn was on in the Nickelson role, but he got fired from it because he pulled a knife on Dennis Hopper, so so that he just thought about that, like, oh, there's there's my next easy writer connection, and then then he hired Ripped Torn from this. You know, Yeah,

I did see the Ripped Torn was. He said something about him not working a lot that much preceding this movie, I think, and I really didn't get it, and the knife kind of explains that he was sort of problematic in some ways, But was that this deal was he just kind of hard to work with. I think he's kind of hard to work with and just really I think he was kind of paranoid and a bit of a drunk from what I understand, So he had definitely

had substance to use problems and things. Um, but yeah, I mean, you wouldn't know it from this thing, like he's he's playing such a charming blow hard. Yeah, it kind of against type. If you're you know if you know ripped torn from Larry Sanders. Uh, and just that face of his, Like he's got one of the great scowls in movie history. And I think we're used to him playing the heavy and kind of the asshole, so it was nice to see that flipped here. Yeah, totally.

It's Yeah, he's so good. Uh. And Lee Grant, who played the prosecutor, she had been in a lot of stuff, but I didn't know the she was a filmmaker. To she she was blacklisted for twelve years and then came back and she directed a lot of TV a lot of TV movies, but also a lot of documentaries. Um that we're about causes very important to her, which is really cool. Yeah. And she's really good in this too, Like how tough she was you wouldn't sleep. Yeah, that's right.

Also like sort of the non religious aspect, and I imagine that was something. You know, if you go to make a movie about the afterlife, you gotta decide that's one of the first things you have to decide is how how religious is this going to be? And this

wasn't at all. I mean the whole the whole basic concept of how they did it is it just kind of looks like kind of a suburb like you know, holiday ends kind of place that kind of drab um and made to be that way so it would be something that people would feel comfortable in because it's basic plane earth stuff, um, which is you know, it goes whole idea of like you know, if you got, you know, kidnapped by aliens, they would probably put you in something

like that because they you wouldn't be as alarmed as then if he's got different like places to look so to speak. Yeah, um, so, yeah, it's made that way to keep them comfortable, and it's just so drab and pouring everywhere they go. Yeah, and he has I mean, he always gets in a couple of little um shots here and there, a commentary about just the world and

in this case about Earth in the United States. When he says kind of early in the movie, they take suggestions in the suggestion box about how it could be more comfortable and more earthlike, and he said, you should put in some of those mini malls. And the lady's response was something about, uh, she likes to do her own nails and and doesn't need a tax accounting or something like that. She doesn't like frozen yogurt or yeah,

likes to do her own nails. Um, I guess let's talk about the you know, everyone is has a certain amount of day days that are plucked from their life that they have to be judged against. One of the running jokes is he has nine days, and he's constantly he's constantly trying to figure out if that's a lot of days or not, because you know, rip Torn is always very stingy with the information, and he's like, some people have more, some people have less, you have nine.

But most people's reaction is like, whoa nine days? It seems like a lot everybody who like lives or works there, so to speak, in the area. And it's really funny too,

because it just always gets like a little reaction. Like there's a whole scene in the sushi restaurant where um, you know, they do the sushi thing where they call the orders out and everybody repeats it and says in yeah, that too, but he did sushi chef asked, you know how many days you're looking at and he says nine days, and he goes, oh my god, nine days, and then everyone starts repeating nine days, And especially like with probably My favorite side character in this movie is Eduardo. The

Italian Waiter's great. He's so funny and when they ask him, you know how many days we're looking at nine? It makes so good. Yeah, I mean there's some you know, these are all very much ethnic stereotypes, but they are pretty funny. Um. And the Italian restaurant scene is great because again, like what could be the best thing in the world is to eat everything in the world, to have three pounds of pasta or thirty shrimp and I'm gonna bring you nine pies each day? What nine pie?

And just the whole idea too that in that scene, like he's embarrassed in front of Julia of like having all this food come to him when like, you don't need to be. She's loving this, like it's the whole thing. But he's still paranoid and he's still like is afraid of what she'll think of him, which is kind of the whole thing in the movie is like he's very concerned with what people will think of him, like yeah, the fear, Yeah, how does he live up to this thing?

Or what were other people doing? How can I live up to that? Which is shown a lot and stuff he does in the past two and like that's one of the moments where it's really display as like, you know, she's slurping noodles out of her mouth and he's just kind of like, ever gonna end, Bite it off, Bite it off, bite it all off, bite down, bite down. And I love Edwardo's line to or her. He's like, I'm gonna bring you thirty shrimp and he's like they're so fresh to they're crawling it up under your plate,

aren't shrimp? Aren't they hiring cholesterol? I don't know what you're talking about, but they had and everything. You believe me,

don't worry about it. Yeah, And you know, they use that against him, the fact that he's still carrying around that fear of what people think, um or just fear of taking that leap, uh, and they use it against him on that final day when he when he doesn't he chooses not to sleep with Meryl Streep kind of for all the good reasons, uh, it seems like, and they use that against him, saying like he's still afraid to take that leap, right, which is like totally It's

that's a tough moment because like, really he is trying to be like gentlemanly and not rush it and try to you know, ruin it all those things. But yeah, I mean it's and then has a nice little you know ending to like the way they do finally resolve all that stuff is pretty pretty nice, pretty good for a Brooks movie, because they often just kind of I don't want to say peter out, but they just kind of end a lot of the times that they feel

that this one's wrapped up in a little bow pretty nicely. Yeah. I mean it's a very satisfying ending. Uh. And you're right, he doesn't because that's sort of a I think he never wants to do sort of the cheap, sort of feel good movie ending, but he allowed it in this case because they had such good chemistry. You really do want them to be together and to for him not

to get sent back to Earth. Uh. But you know, as far as let's get back to those nine days, he they're pulling up these scenes from his childhood, and I love that they're not too overdone, like he could have made them really uh super super awful or indefensible, but they're all sort of normal things that kids go through. Uh. And that that one brutal scene where that he's a baby in the or like a toddler in the crib

and his parents are fighting. Is just bawling. Is like that, especially now as an adult and apparent really kind of hard to see. Oh totally. I mean it's it. It borders on melodrama, but it also hits all the right

notes at the same time too. Of like them this totally heated argument and them just he's about to strike his wife or so it seems like, as dad, and then they see the kid out of the corner of their eye who's just kind of crying, and the pen looking at them, and they just kind of realized in that moment, like what the hell are we doing? And Grace like it's yeah, it's tough and ripped, torn always has his back, which is great. Yeah, he's always like listen,

this guy's is trying to do the right thing. And then Lee Grant as a prosecutor, will come in right behind him and say we have it. Then let's fast forward to later that day when he doesn't do the right thing and it's just it's so unfair, you know, it really is. I Mean, there's the whole thing where like his classmate forgot his paints and is um, you know one of those kids. It's like they're gonna suspend me, They're gonna kick me out. I can't. Oh my gosh,

I don't have my paints. And so Daniel decides in that moment to be like, you know, I'll use mine and then tells his teacher like I lost him, I forgot him or whatever. And so it's like like a wonderful little act. And then of course Lee Grant throws it in his face later on when he's talking to his dad and his dad's like, I can't believe it. No TV. And then he's like, I didn't do it, Steve lost it. Yeah, you want to punish him. Punished,

punish you punish him. So it's the whole like he made a nice act to try to help his friend, but then he's a kid, so obviously when he's threatened with you know things from his father, back pedals and throws his friend under the bus. So it's you know, double sighted. Yeah, great casting there too is for the kid and his dad totally. You know, they just basically said give me someone with a brown afro. Um. There's

so much comedy. One of My favorite things in funny movies is when you can get multiple laughs out of the same um like sound effect or something um that's

not like a line. And in his uh, in his trial scenes, I laughed every single time that chair turned around and it's on you know, he's sitting in this chair and it's on a on a an electric spindle that will turn him around and then watch the screen, and then after it's over, it turns him back around to face judges and just the sound effect they use every single time, and you're waiting for the reveal of his face even though you know exactly what his face

is going to be, which is that Albert Brooks face of unease. But somehow it was just it was funny every single time. Yeah, and you gotta wait for it. Like it's not a fast swivel, it's just kind of time. And he slumped down his chair and he's just so like uncomfortable with having to look back at his life at all, much less defend it. There's that funny and you know it's a movie with allegory and some sort of heavier themes, but it is Albert Brooks, so you're

also going to get some fun stuff. Like the Blooper real basically of of his kind of dumb things he did in this life, and that it's the only time this movie kind of veers into that kind of comedy. But that's a pretty fun sequence. I know, it's like there's no reason for them to show it, but they just do. Anyways. It's kind of embarrassing and I just love like the chainsaw on the parasol on the outside

the world. So stupid, but so it was great. Yeah, he just you know, his car is uh, sort of rolling out of the gas station and instead of trying to jump in the door and stop it, he jumps on the hood of the car. It's all like very broad comedy. It's pretty fun stuff, really silly, but so good. So we talked a little bit about the chemistry between Meryl Streep and Albert Brooks. Uh. It's really very natural.

It happens pretty quickly, and there's the idea that maybe they may have known each other in a past life and the past lives pavilion. She was a he's a dressmaker and dinner right, and she's like Prince Valiant. Yeah, like she did all these great things. Um, but they you know it culminates in what I think is really one of the better first kiss scenes in movies. It's really really great. Yeah, if they're so sweet together, it's like,

that's the thing is. It feels very like an old fashioned courtship, but under extraordinary circumstances where and a very abbreviated timeline you're only there for a couple of days or whatever. So, um, they're just so sweet together. I love it so much. And the whole Past Lives Pavilion too,

Like that whole sequence cracks me up. Like surely McClain is the one in introduces it, which you know, at that time she's very much known for like out on a limb and like all those like weird spiritual things. And just the fact that when she says welcome to the past a Pavilion, you hear off screen some woman go, oh my god, it's so good. Like just little moments like that. It just cracked me up. Yeah, And I

saw where he was talking about using special effects. He had a big a little bit bigger budget for this movie than he normally had, and um was able to do some things that now, you know, look very sort of rudimentary, but back then it was it was a bit of cutting edge stuff showing those kind of hologram like people in the past lives, and he talks about the trams were all miniatures except for the ones that

they were writing on obviously. Uh and they used you know, uh Matt paintings and stuff, which is not special well it is special effects, but not c G I. And those trams are the same ones that they use at Universal Studios, so that really I wondered where they got those. I thought it was kind of cool too, how they all had to wear these were the same outfit um, which is this sort of just white smock basically. Yeah, they call him what tupas or two guys tupas. Yeah,

that's not how comfortable they are. Yeah, there's it's just like the lounge where that they're basically all walking around and and when he tried to tip the guy early on, that shows a mystery. Right before he can really like speak, right, you can't really move, He's reaching for his pockets that aren't there and stuff. Just yeah, it's so good. I read a Rolling Stone um twenty five years after article, which was in where Albert Brooks basically wrote a piece

for Rolling Stone and it's cool. It's like he really you can tell he cares a lot about this movie and that he loves that it is. Um had a second life sort of as a cult classic. He talked about this one kid whose parents his parents wrote him and said that he was like a twelve year old who'd memorize the movie. And he said, you know, I

know not obviously people aren't out there memorizing it. And he said, but he said, it's interesting that it played really well too young younger people, and that that's something you never thought would happen. It wasn't a movie made for young people, but in the when they did the test screenings, it performed best in people eighteen, which was kind of surprising. I think, I mean I was I think, wasn't any one. So I was like fifteen or sixteen at the time when I came out and then I did, Yeah,

I saw it right away. But that also helped that, Like my dad was a big out Brooks fans, so and that was like it was PG Brooks so of chrsty All went and saw that. But yeah, I loved it then and it resonated with me then. But like also like I just I love like clever dialogue and quips and stuff like that too, and this movie is just full of it. So it's one of those things

that I just gravitated towards it naturally. But I'm not surprised it resonates with people because I feel like a lot it's very family friendly and it is um it's even I think it's PG. Thirteen, but there's not really anything I don't see why that in it. But um, you know, it's the kind of thing you would watch, you know, you show to your kids and they would probably find the concept kind of funny or whatever if they're old enough. I think you have to be at

least you know, seven, eight, nine years old. But I think it's one of one of those things that would resonate with kids. It's it's very funny and very charming. Yeah, and also a movie I think that a kid could watch and get one take from it and then an adult you know, or if you watch it years later, like you you know, it's one of those movies that kind of can change what you get out of it as you get older. Totally. It's got a great score too, Like I think that's one of the ones that's really

talk about but the music is pretty phenomenal. Um. Michael Gordon, the music who like he did scores for like Pretty and Pink and Fame in terms of endearment and stuff, a lot of anis he's still doing music producing stuff today. Um. But I really really enjoyed the score on the field of it too. Yeah. It's sort of a good, old fashioned eighties nineties movie score. It's not too flashy or anything, but I like movies that have scores. Um, I think it's a bit of a lost art other than big,

big sort of epics. Obviously you think about the score. But um, that's one thing I always loved about Alexander Payne movies is he has very little popular music or songs, and he's a sort of a modern filmmaker who uses these kind of old fashioned feeling scores. And I don't know this, there's something about it from our childhood. I guess it just it feels like a movie. Yeah. I like that. I mean I think it's a nice, like good theme that kind of recurs throughout and then obviously

incidental music in between. Um. And I think a lot of that had to do with like John Williams and the eighties and all those iconic scores that he did and James Horner and people like that too. Yeah, you know, it's just it definitely is I mean, obviously we're both like eighties movie people that grew up on that stuff, so it definitely does sort of take you back to the field that kind of feel on the movie instead of like a freaking like scrillic score like they had

in The Mandalorian one week. Um. But yeah, it's so good. Yeah, I don't even know. I mean, I know who scrillics is, but I know just enough to laugh at that. You know. It's just, you know, dub stuff isn't necessarily the best choice for something, but I mean I don't mind it in certain scenarios. But um, so yeah, let's you know, let's hit the ending again, because I think, like I said,

Brooks isn't known for doing these sort of saccharin endings. Um. But and I'm curious if there was ever a different

ending written for this that's a little more cynical. Yeah, I wonder about that because it would kind of seem like they would if it was typical Brooks thing, they would just send him back down and just be you show him in a minimal or something right and uh, but it does get that happy ending you want, and it doesn't in a nice little kind of twist in a sense too, because basically, like she's leaving and he

finally overcomes his fear to try to go be with her. Yeah, and um, he's you know, running and trying to get inside the tram. And if you guys don't know want this ends, then don't listen to this. But it's not a huge revelation. But he's trying to get inside this tram and like it won't open and there's kind of electricity on the ground. It's kind of shocking him as he goes trying to get into this thing, saying I love you, want to be with you. And he said,

She's like, I want to be with you. Two and and then the camera pulls back and it's inside the courtroom and that the judges are watching him, and then they look at each other. They all kind of the grant stuff do They all just kind of nod, And then the one judge goes let him go, and then the tram doors open and he gets on the tram to go into the you know, the next step with her, which is it's just really nice. Yeah, it was super sweet and I thought that, like, I didn't see that

part coming with the court. I thought it was sweet enough that he was going after the woman he loves and in the scene that we've all seen a million times, whether they're chasing a train or a bus or whatever, and in this case is the tram, which was kind of a funny little spin on it, right, But um, I thought that was sweet enough. And I didn't even know that he was going to get in for a second there. I thought that he was not, and he would just see her drive off, but it would have

been enough that he showed that bravery. So when they pulled back to the court and showed it in real time, I was like, oh, I did not see that coming. Very cool. Yeah, it was a nice little twist and a good little bow from the movie, which you know, it doesn't always happen, like I said, And it's pretty well. I mean, it was pretty well acclaimed, but like not overwhelmingly so like Roddery, but really liked it a lot.

Um but like Owen Glieberman said, quote a lackluster affair, so boo oh and Glieberman, um, and I actually read his review because I was curious. But he said that like he's a he was a big Albert Brooks fan, which is prized me that he would then say that this is a lackluster affair, because I feel like, I feel like this is typical Albert Brooks cannon just a little sweeter totally. It's right in the wheelhouse right exactly. So that surprised me so, but um, you know, it

wasn't It wasn't really panned by anybody. The worst reviews are just like it's okay, it doesn't have enough bite or whatever, which is like, I don't understand that argument either, because I don't think that's the point of the movie. Yeah, I think if it would make if it were made today,

it would be so much more overdone. From the sets, in the costumes, and what the afterlife it would look like, to to just what happens and in the in the days that they go back and look at for each of them, I think they would be way more overdone and sort of sensationalized. It's a subtle movie in a

lot of ways. Yeah, And it's also one of those movies that's just very sweet and fun to watch, not a chore, not not a homework movie, is I call some movies that come out there just like but it's two and a half hours and oh boy, Um it's just a pleasant diversion, I guess you could say, And especially nowadays when things are so like all the time, it's just nice to have something, which is I think that's the reason I love ted Lassa so much, which I know you guys have talked about recently. But it's

just like it's just his unwavering optimism and positivity. It is really good, feels really good in especially you know, going into this issue. So I when we watched the whole thing twice once with my parents, and um, I don't know, it's just like something about entertainment that's a little more not saccarin, but like just a little more positive and a little more sweet that you know, it's entertainment.

It's to do you away from things, which is like I never understand the argument when people are like this isn't realistic because blah blah blah. I was like, yeah, it's a it's a fucking movie, like there's life around you, Like it's not it's not a documentary Like I get it. But yeah, I mean, you know, I love my uh my dark serial killer content and a good black comedy. Um,

and there's a time for all that stuff. But like you said, especially this past year, like give me better things, give me catastrophe, give me ted Lasso, uh one, Mississippi Master of None. Like these movies that just have so or TV shows that have so much heart. Defending your life, you know, put me in that same zone. I just I'll take all that stuff right now. Yeah, me too, as much as like it on me. I mean, I love I loved Sound of Metal as well as you did.

But like, like that's that movie is. It's a little tough, but like it's rewarding. It's super super rewarding. I didn't feel tough watching it, but like there's just a lot of stuff coming out of that vein that are just like I guess because it's like now it would be Oscar time so speaking. So there's just a lot of like really heavy dramas with like characters going on very harrowing journeys and tough situations. So it's just kind of nice to see sing sometimes that are just a little

more sweet. I totally agree. Defending your life is that. Uh, I got nothing else do you have anything on your list? Um, I don't think so. And we didn't talk about how Meryl Streep died. Her little monologue about how she passed on because everybody else is you know, old, she's one

of the youngest people there. But yeah, her. It's just just kind of funny that this person who's super altruistic and just you know, so on charge of everything died by like tripping next to her pool and hitting her head and then just rolling into the pool, I guess, and drowning. And she was angry. She's angry, Yeah, how did you die? Pissed? You mean you're pissed. And Albert of course equips it's like, well, what do the East German judge give you? You gotta negotiate the patio furniture.

They take that very seriously. Yeah, I thought that wasn't interesting because she uh, I mean, that's sort of one of the little mysteries of the movie. You wonder what she did and how she died, And I thought it was an interesting turn to have her die angry because she's such a pleasant person in uh in the afterlife, right, Yeah, it's kind of funny that that's what, you know, It just goes to show you that, like, you can be as in control of your life as you think you are,

but you never are. Like that's that's one of the things that they kind of saying this thing too, is like you gotta do the best you can. Like you're not in control. No one's in control. It doesn't matter how together you are, how good you are, Like, you are not in control life. Life happens around you. You don't control life. Yeah, absolutely, Uh well those are great parting words, my friend, Go watch Defending Your Life on HBO, max Um, go watch any Albert Brooks movie. Let's hope

he makes another one soon. I want to hope. I don't know. I wonder if he's got something in the in the work, so it would be great, awesome. I would like to see him to do at least, especially if the Searching for Comedy The Muzzlemoor wasn't great, I'd like to see him go out on a better note than that. I mean, you should don't take a look at it. It's it's definitely watchable, and it's Albert, and

it's got good, good Albert moments in it. But well, there's always gonna be great lines, all right, dude, Well, go to what's the website, s F Sketch Fest s F sketch Fest dot com. Yes, by your tickets. Yeah, they're all up there. Jan is the day. But it's gonna be it's gonna be pretty amazing. There's some really fun surprises and things cooked up because in addition to the hundred performers, there's like some surprise guests that pop on into things too, So there's gonna be there's gonna

to be some fun surprises in there as well. That's awesome, all right, Thanks buddy, Yeah, thanks Chuck, and thanks everyone for listening. We'll see you next week. Movie Crash is produced and written by Charles Bryant and Meel Brown, edited and engineered by Seth Nicholas Johnson, and scored by Noel Brown here in our home studio at Pontsty Market, Atlanta, Georgia.

For I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.