Oscar Movie Roundtable: Uncut Gems

Hey guys, that's so Paul. The quiet restraint, I love it is. This is class In fact, Casey was classy. No one's the only one who guttered this up. Pew pew finger. I missed my cue one time. So now, well, I try to be on top of that. Casey to kind of a Fawns kind of thing. That's sort of a yeah, and I'm trying not to do that. I don't want to do the A and I don't want to do the what I read you want to be like, hey,

well that's weird, straightforward. Almost every time I see you in the office, you go your favorite song comes on the leather jacket. Every year, al right, Casey. I guess I'm not eve gonna who you are anymore? Real show boat over there. So, dudes, we are here to talk about uncut gems. Uh. And I will go ahead and spoil by saying it was my favorite movie of the year, my number one movie up there for me. It was

everything about it. It was fucking perfect. It was my number two, but it was neck and neck with my number one. Hold your thumbs. So we all liked it. Unless Paul's like me. It was kind of okay. I thought the acting was not so great. Was always the wild card act. You never know what that beauty. We had a Richard Jewel discussion at the question Mark table yesterday and I was there was a good discussion. Yeah, I respect your opinion as always. Yeah, thank you, I

respect yours usually. Thanks. Okay, that's fine, I'll take that. Uh. So the Safty Brothers, uh, the only movie I've seen it. There's a Good Time or is it good Times? Good Time? Good Time? Which was great. Yeah, I've not seen the one with the young junkie woman who heaven knows what ye did anyone see that? It seems very unpleasant. I meant to get around to it. I actually saw a deleted scene from it on YouTube. But I have not

seen the Straightforward Future yet. I just knew, I knew, I knew in advance that it involves cutting, and I don't like. I'm not I don't like cutting. Cutting freaks like suicide. That's start of triggering from me. So I've avoided it. Um cutting in Heroin Addiction and all that. It just seems, like I said, very unpleasant some Sammarial pink music. Well, I mean the Safty brother is. One thing they're not out to do so far in their career is make anyone feel comfortable and smiley in a

movie theater. Yeah, yeah, they're They're very much. Watching one of their movies is like having a panic attack or something. So especially and I would argue it a perfectly enjoyable, exciting experience, like I can't wait to see this again. It's not one of those are like that again, I'm going tonight. Yeah, it's fantast I've seen it twice already. So another thing too, that has just hit me. There are so many great filmmakers out there right now. Then

we're really lucky. But to be like our age, of course, I'm much older than you guys, we don't need to say the obvious, but you know, to be a movie going person and to be seeing their career at the very beginning at this juncture is like, I just feel so excited about what's to come. Although they've they've been doing it since mid two thousands, I want to say they have like yeah, Pleasure, Pleasure, being robbed, and Daddy

long Legs a k A. Go get some Rosemary. I think those are the four features they've done that in Good Time and uncut gems. They might have one more in there, but shorts, yes, tons of shorts, and also some documentary work and you know they're there. I DVS

is quite full of stuff, but they're only now. Like good Time was kind of like the moment where they really popped, and then as far as big mainstream American films, and then certainly like that like Good Time was the thing that allowed them to get Sandler for this movie.

And so it's just all kind of snowballing. And we had briefly talked on the last Mini Crush episode we recorded about how they had this script like right at a film school, and I think I read that it went through like over a hundred revisions and they had kind of been nursing it for about ten years and they wrote it for Sandler, but they weren't famous enough to get him, uh. And they got it to one of his reps and they you know passed or just

you know, just sat in a stack or something. And then when Pattinson, you know, was it was involved in uh, good Time and you know, made such a splash. I think Sandler saw it like a venice or yeah, and he like, there's Uh. I was listening to one of the mini podcasts that the Staftis have been doing to promote this, and um, one of the I forget if it was Joshua Binny, but got a text. They're just saying like, hey man, you was great. And he wrote

back like hey, who's this. He's like Sandler and he's like what so and so Sandler like you know some guy that he knew. He's like, no, no, no, the famous one. And he named some other guys like an architect or something. He's like, no, dummy, the comedian, the famous guy. He's like, oh ship, you know that. And what's interesting too about the way Good Time came about was that Robert Pattinson saw Kevin knows what. Apparently he didn't.

He saw still from like a screenshot from the movie, and he loved it so much that he got in touch with the Saftias and said, I want to work with you guys from from a screen shot, you know, like some some purple and they that they at that time they were trying to get I mean for a long time get uncut Gems made, but then when Pattinson came along, they were like, this isn't really something that works for him. Let's just put uncut Gems aside and we're going to write something totally new for him. We

got somebody like a big star. It's crazy that they the genesis of that was kind of like, let's write something that they did and they bust out good time, which is amazing. That's crazy. And who was the one that was in that movie, which Benny? Oh yeah, Benny is the brother brother boy. He was good too. It's almost like an of Mice and Men kind of that movie where it's like he's the younger, kind of super conniving kind of huckster that's trying to protect his brother

but ultimately puts him in harm's way. You know, I mean, what A what a movie. Yeah, highly recommended. I think you can watch that, Uh yeah, as well as Annie in the City A and then E Y in the City Amazon Prime. There you go right now, uncut. Jim's uh little background. They wrote this film a long time ago, like you said, but apparently they grew up with a father who worked in the Diamond district and that's why

this film feels so authentic. Um. They read one article where they spent a lot of these years getting in on the inside, because apparently the Diamond district and these dudes are just very protective and very skeptical, and it took him years to get access and to get behind these doors. And they finally sort of and this is like their father worked in the Diamond district and it was still hard for them to get sort of the insider look, and they did and they used you know,

they're there. I think, next to the Cohen Brothers, the greatest directors we have so far about using real people as actors. Um. It's and I always wonder why more directors don't do that, because it makes such a difference when you have someone that's clearly not an actor doing a good job. And I think it's hard. Yet I think it's a real skill. It's a real long process

of finding those people. Number one, finding somebody interesting who comes from that world, but then also somebody who has all those characteristics but can also still be natural on camera and not panicked that they're in his scene with Adam Sandler. For success. It's in fact that the lead actor in this where is she what's her name? I got it right here in front of me, Julia Fox. Yes,

she was the first time actor. Yeah, yeah, she's I was not familiar with her, but I guess she's got a rep as like kind of a in uy C socialite, like means kind of person. Yeah, it's sort of like that that woman in the Florida Project who was like an Instagram model or something and she just crushed. And again that's another great example of like that's about being a good director. Like that's about like, how do you

put this person in context? And then like and actually you know you have to you know how you know how many cuts there are in scenes, and how so many of them are pieced together from little fragments and stuff. You've got to like direct the hell out of these people. A lot of the time I imagine, you know, maybe not, but she was fantastic. So Kevin Garnett was good. He's a non actor. I'm such a sports non person. I didn't even know he was a real bad and you

don't even know how to say that you're not into sports. Yeah, exactly a sports and non person on person. But it makes sense after the fact, cause all those games were real, all the best basketball games, and like the stats were all real stats. And because guy can imagine how much it would it costs the stage those just to have them on TV, you know, like, but he like they were Obviously he's been out of the game for a while,

so he's retired. Yeah, finals, And I was just reading there's a great New Yorker profile on the Safteas and the movie, and one of the most fascinating tidbits about it is that they did not license the NBA footage that they used in the movie. They just they just basically,

quote unquote stole it. And they're going to defend it as fair use because they didn't alter the outcome or change any thing of the order of what happened in it is the NBA made a statement, I don't think, so it's just insane to me, Like, you know, professional sports to me is like when it comes to licensing footage really, especially like say the NFL, Like I don't know the NBA specifically, but the fact that the Saftys were just like, you know, what fun it, We're just

gonna do. It's pretty that the studio was like standing behind them for it, which is crazy. That's like trying to use an Eagle song in your movie because Don Henley will fucking sue you're ask if you look at them sideways. Yeah, I don't understand how fair use supplies to that, because it's not. I mean, I guess part of a fair use argument is that you're transforming it

or making it like satire or something like that. But like if they're just using it as is in their movie, I guess if it's if you regarded it as almost like history or something. But I don't know, I don't know if that's like, I don't think, I don't think. I mean, they're not really commenting on it either. They're kind of they're building a story around it, but they're not like saying, this is the story of what happened in that series. But that's right, they're they're fictionalizing, you know.

But also fair use usually has to have some sort of newsworthy element to it as well, which this obviously doesn't either. I mean, it's good for the NBA, fascinating, it really gets people talking about basketball, and yeah, I mean it's a central part of the film absolutely, And how it like ruins people those lives and sports betting? Man, Oh my god, I don't know what I'm saying that, dude, let's get into that just well. I have a little

history there does anyone else overbet on sports? I didn't even know if I didn't even I mean, is that how like you know you could bet on sports. I thought you had to have like a bookie or something. I didn't know you could just walk into a casino and do it Vegas. Yeah, it's called the sports Book. Yeah, I didn't in a room with five hundred TVs And it's the greatest place. Was there not a time where

that kind of betting was not legal? Well, I mean it depends on It's illegal in Georgia, but there's still bookies in Georgia because I used to bet. I've had two experiences with gambling, well, let's say three in college I bet on college basketball when uh, I don't know if if you're into basketball a little bit, right, but uh, the UNLV Rebels in the in the nineties with Larry Johnson and Stacy Augman, it was it was like a

like infamous legendary college basketball team. So during that era, I bet on college basketball, but it was always like college book, Key's twenty bucks on a game or uh. The flash forward to when I lived in New Jersey, I bet on sports with my friend James, and I got a little more serious and it built up to one, uh, uncut gim z moment when I was down a thousand dollars, which was a really really big deal to me at

the time. It was pretty catastrophic. I don't know if I had a thousand dollars, I don't know if I would have gotten like my legs broken. Was that kind of deal. But it was a big deal. And I that weekend do not advise us anyone placed three And this was all bet so like hundred fifty bucks. Maybe it just I kept getting, you know, I kept losing, and it's on a weekly thing. So I lost a week. Going into the weekend, I was down a thousand and I placed three fifty dollar bets and one of them

all and didn't bet again after that that. I was out after that. Then. The only time I've bet since in the third wave was I hate Vegas, but occasionally I've had to go. When I was living in l A. And I would I would always go into the sports book with like two bucks and put some money on some games. I like just walking through that room because you can feel the energy. You can feel kind of that and it's fun to just kind of like cruise through there for a minute and kind of observe that world.

It is really interesting. And I will say this as a as a big sportsman, um, gambling on sports is really like invigorating. How to make it count, right, that's how to like the stakes and get involved in the game big time. It's a fucking rush, Like I get it. When I was watching this movie, I totally got it. And the end, I don't bet anymore. It's been a

long time. That was like the most I've ever understood watching sports was watching Sandler watch that game and just every every victory, like the fucking tip off, the sickness of parleying the tip off into the other stomach ache when he made that the opening because just so you don't so you know, a Parlaby, you have to win all three bets it to win the bet, right, and the first one is just nonsense. But but but he's so confident that's going to happen, and then it does and

it's like that could have tanked everything. That was the hardest one. Yeah, that was the hardest one. Guys, Everything's good from Everything's Good. Yeah, maybe smile spoilers right, um yeah. Man again, I'm not a sports guy. I don't really get get it, but I got it when when there are those steaks. And also but the way he behaves, he's like a drug addict. He's like a junkie and

he's just you know, he all rhyme. A reason goes out the window and he starts to like you start to almost develop this weird kind of admiration for him where you're like, he knows something that I don't know and this is a skill for him. But then you

also realize he doesn't but maybe he does. And the way he's talking to Gardnette, when he's like he gets worked up into this frenzy where he's like, you know, this is how I win the big big line for the movie where he talked he he thinks he's got some sort of insight into this guy's mind and how he's gonna behave because of his Jim. He's like his totem.

Now that this mystical quality, you know, So I think I think there's something there's an element of something valid there because I know, like a lot of athletes are are very superstitious, and it's like I gotta have my special glove and my special pants, my special socks or whatever, and you know it may bee bs in the kind of material objective domain, but if it's affecting the psychology and the confidence of that player, it is as real

as anything else. So he knew that that Jim was like the thing that was gonna make KG crushed that game. He could feel it, and so that gave him that edge. It's almost like insider trading, Like he knows this guy is going to go out there and just like go

go nuts. Insider trading, but like, how are you going to enforce Like you know, you knew that he had the magic stone, that there is ging like that is all about trying to get as much insider information as possible, like in in Casino when de Niro finds out, you know, is the quarterback's girlfriend pregnant? Like what what kind of wood is on the court? All that kind of stuff, Like any edge you can get, it's gonna move. The idea of edge, it's nonsense, like on a on paper

kind of way. But to the person in their mind, and if you think you have an insight into that, it's it's money in the bank, I guess theoretically, but it's all bullshit. It's bullshit to the guy who thinks this is a magic rock, but he believes it, therefore it's not. Maybe he's playing better, you know. So I like what you said about you as a view you

kind of developing an admiration for Sandler's character. Um, and right before we came in here, I pulled up the script, which you can find online, and the cover page of it, under the title, it just says, in all capitals in

Howard we try. And I think there's a sense that I mean, obviously, you know, the movie was probably loosely inspired, like we said, by their father, but there's a sense of like, even though he is kind of a scumbag in some ways, the Saftis clearly have a lot of love or admiration for them, even though they still acknowledge he's he's in a downward spiral, you know, in all the negative qualities of him, there's something I don't know. It's sort of it almost relates to like the American dreams.

You're rooting for him, Yeah, you are, even though you know this is only gonna end one of two ways. You know it can only go the most that you can only have the best possible outcome or the worst possible there's no middle ground. And what I love about the lead up to the very ending when he's watching the game is how his the sort of antagonists of the movie are no who also happens to be his

like brother in law. Yeah yeah, yes. When he's locked in that that entryway, he's so fed up with Sandler's actor. But as the game is going on, he's getting in, he's getting into it, and he's sort of you know this might actually happen. He's asking his henchmen, like what does this say on the screen? Are we winning? What's

going on? Like he can't start to lighten up, and he can't help but be drawn in just the way well, and that's why, I mean, we can go ahead and talk about the ending of That's why the ending is such a fucking good tragic because he wins. He's happy, guys, let me let you out of your little prison. We did it, We did it. Boom shot, unceremonious. And then the fact that Arnold gets off. Yeah, man, I didn't

find it sad per se. It's not in a way because you think, like, realistically, what's this kind of guy gonna do with that million? He's gonna go fucking bet that too, like like anything's gonna happen. What did any of that? Like, I mean, it's just like you know, he's he's gonna keep doing it until he can't do it anymore. Right, So at least this way he goes out like on top up, he's experiencing this moment of like pure extasy and victory and so on. It isn't

happen before that. He's not laying there thinking like, oh my god, I've been killed because of my actions. Like it's just he's sitting up in heaven going what happened? That was great? And what I love too is, uh, the person who actually ends up with the money is Julia Fox's character, and you know, who knows what's going to happen after the fact, but I like the idea that she kind of might end up with all this money.

She's kind of the the unsung hero, you know. And it was so interesting too, because at first you think that she's like using him, or that she's some sort of like here, that she's using him, or that she's in some way playing him, you can realize that she genuinely I think they do love each other. Is that

the take think? I think I think that, and I heard there's a deeper theme of like she's kind of the only one in a way that sees the true potential maybe of Howard, that that he is this sort of uncut gym, that he has this thing within him that is, you know, um, worth loving, worth caring about, where everyone else just sees a complete screw up, you know man, his family, his daughter and his wife, it's

just they just fucking loathe him. It's so cutting both of those scenes, the one with a daughter at the fridge, he's inconsequential, and then the stuff with a wife at the end when she's laughing in his face. Yeah, I want you to hit me and she fakes it whatever. The thing too that was really striking about like the different environments that he kind of inhabits. When he's at home, he feels so out of his element. It doesn't make

sense for him to be there. When he's at that school play, so out of his elements, always trying to leave, he's well, yeah, and he's always on his phone. That's that was a thing that resonated with me. Actually, just the obsession with like go go, go, constantly update, update check, you know, all even about his social stats and you know, tag me on Instagram and that whole ship. Like he's

so obsessed with that too. Yeah, well again, he's he is this embodiment almost of like a certain American nous, you know, of of like contemporary americanness, let's say, like the the obsession with the kind of um narcissism, the the sort of like obsession with online, the obsession with just what's new, what's hot, what's what's coming in, you know, in status and and and winning and and um novelty and and and you know, he's he's on this sort

of like it feels like with with the Julie Fox character,

He's not really. I mean, I guess he's into it in some ways, but it almost seems like he's just kind of going through the motions in a way of having this like apartment and like this kind of like mistress and um, it just feels like he he doesn't really derive any pleasure from anything other than the gambling, you know, other than like yeah, and everything else is just kind of like you know, um, just what he feels obligated to do, I guess in some weird way.

And it's the It's that it's the thrill in the high from like you said, the constant hustle, not just of the winds, but also of the loss. You know, it's like he he loves both of them, just to be in it and you know, being able to sort of craft some high stakes life for himself. You have a chance to dig yourself out if you're losing. Yeah, and what's more in big I mean, I had my stupid little story and I gotta tell you dudes, when I won those three bets, I that was better than

my wedding day. Yeah. It's a high, you know, to feel because you feel like you've beaten someone. Well, it's like Howard says, you know, he said he wins one, or maybe it's it's when he gets the gym, I think, and he says, holy sh it, I'm gonna come. Yeah, it's really funny. There's there's this moment where the saft he's actually you c g I to shrink his eyeballs down and make them smaller. Nobody nobody noticed this, but um somebody compared a screenshot of like the same shot

from before and then after. If you do it side by side, it's like, yeah, you like physically shrunk down own. There's this really funny thing on Twitter where somebody tweeted that at the Safty's and they replied like, you know, good good eye, like nice catch. But then they were also like, how did you get the screenshots because it's not in the trailer. It's not funny, it's from a screener. That's wait a minute, and then then they went, oh, yeah,

well you stole from the NBA exactly. It's interesting too, because like by all accounts, like by any metric that anybody like like like the four of us would have, Um, he's successful, he's got the apartment in the city, he's got Long Island or whatever. He's got the Dina Menzel's his wife. You know, he's got the kids, he's got the car, he's got the successful jewel shop or whatever.

I wonder is is it, like, is he maintaining I think it's just about the obsession in the high I don't think he's I think he doesn't need the money per se. I think the like the passover sne especially, I feel like is really showing that to somebody else, this could be just a great life, just to be content with what he has, this family, this tradition, his success,

and so on. But to him, it's like nothing. He takes it all for granted, and the only way he can feel alive is to just up the stakes and risk it all and almost throw it all away or whatever. That sort of gets to the contemporary American nous of the whole thing, and and the fact that too, like the reason he's doing all this is probably because he sees it as an escape from kind of the boring, suburban,

mundane life of being a husband and a father. Like I love when he's at home and his his wife keeps telling him to go, uh, talk to his son in bed, you know, put him put in bed, and then he finally does, and then he's just on his phone watching the game the whole time breath and then his older kid, his older son has basically become him.

He's he's already bet on the game too, but you know, he's got all the basketball memorabilia and he's clearly like thinks his dad as the coolest person in the world. You know, Well, let's jump back real quick to the beginning. One of my favorite things about this movie is, and they didn't have to do this, but they started out in the mind and the gym mine and it was just like there's something about that sequence and following that gemstone that really and and you know, and then how

it ends to which we'll get to. Um, just really like knocked my socks off added a lot to the movie and a sense of scale, a sense of scale, and I think it it reminds you of the sort of the class and racial context of the movie. Much like a lot of people have talked about how Good Time is very aware of how Robert Pattinson's character is this white man who's able to do all these things

at the expense of people of color. Uh, this movie, with that opening kind of reminds you of where all this is coming from and the exploitation of labor and all that. And it gets addressed in the movie when him and KG are talking about the gem, what did you pay for it? Vers? What are you going to being honest there? Do you think he paid a hundred

grand for it? And I think, actually I didn't notice this until the second time watching it, but it's a hundred k that he owes to Arno in the first place, So I think that's the hundred k that he borrowed from him to buy the opal in the first place. So it's all circular. And the crazy thing about it is is that you know, when it goes to auction it finally sells for what one judge her, he's going to have to pay him back. I think it's almost forty grand on top of just giving the money back.

So now he's only made what like one that makes it one what thirty five or something? Well, and that's when we're talking about when KG asked him, yeah, that was kind of one of the and then and then, like you, you think about all this other money that he's got tied up and like pawning the watch or planning the championship, bringing everything, like he's probably gonna break even at the end of all. That's like if he lives, you know, if he doesn't place that, which is a

win for him though. Addict is a gambling addict and break you and you're like, all right, I'm not out any money, but that's and I gotta rush for a few days. When he when he gets that money, you know, he gets like the he's finally got it. He can just give the money over to Arnold in the in the Goons and the many moments where I mean, it's a movie about a character who does nothing but make

the wrong decisions. Starting from the very beginning, I was like, oh God, don't let him leave without sucking Jim like it's Kevin Garnett. But still just don't do it, man, this is gonna be a bad thing. And do some paperwork or something. Yeah, bare minimum and he lets him walk out like he Stanfield is so good. Yeah, yeah, he's great and everything. He was really instrumental. It's great. Great to compare his performance in this and his performance

and like, yeah, he's two adversaily different characters. And first of all, I think he's he's brilliant. He feels like one of the like he could be one of the non actors that they cast or something. He's he just fits that role so like he just he just seems like a natural thing. Yeah yeah. Or the non actors in this were great. Some of those creeps. The one guy that heavy kind of popping up, Oh yeah. I mean I can't remember how much he owes him. It's not even that much, sort of a small time, but

he's always there. Just sort of I think to drive home that thing of like this guy walks a block down New York and there's not gonna be someone that's like, hey, hey, wait, come on, like what do you owe me? I actually thought I thought this was really smart. I kind of thought they were planting the seed for that guy to like take him out because him he was being so like dismissive to him because he only owes him thirty k or whatever, and he's like fucking funk out of

my face. I think I think it was too, you know, I think it definitely was because he kept popping up and like knocking on the door, and I figured there was gonna be that one time or he just walks up and shoot him in the face. You know. There's there's there's a bunch of miss tres in the movie.

Like there's that scene where Adam Sandler and his family get home and his wife tells him to take out the garbage, and it follows him for a really long time while he's rolling these trash cans down the driveway and the la it feels like he's going to get down to the end of the driveway and Arna is gonna be there or whatever, something's gonna happen. Similarly, when he goes to the apartment and like the Madonna long as playing and you think she's gonna be dead or something,

and that's what I thought. She's gonna be, like hanging somewhere, dead in the bathtub or something, and nothing happened. She just had taken her stuff very orderly, you know. But there's there's there's several moments like that where we're trained as a viewer to get really tense and expect the

worst and then just nothing happened. They the Safeties are playing the audience like a fucking fiddle because they give you those little reprieves every now and then, But other than that, it's just, uh, the passover scene was probably the quietest, longest quiet sequence. But other than that, it's just a wire that they just it's like a guitar string you keep tightening and you're like, oh god, when

is that? Even the stuff at the house is tense, just the dynamic between him and his family and his wife and his constant obsession, and you realize, dude, you are fucking up as a family man, like you are a terrible father and and you know me as a as a father, I see that and that's triggering for me. I'm like, do you suck like you're you know? And it made me see like maybe I'm on my phone too much, maybe I not being president enough for my kids.

But this guy is the extreme version of that, and he felt like a pretty good dad walking out of It's so sad too, like when he's he's never gotten shoved naked into a trunk and it's it's so sad when he's he's he's telling his kids like, hey, I'm going to go into the city, feel like tonight is this guy the weekend? You know? And they're just like, you're not cool, dude, Like you shouldn't be tried to be cool with your kid does. He isn't cool, He's

a joke. He's a bummer. Yeah, and he's we're wearing this goofy outfit and everyone else is young and sexy and cool, and he's just so out of place and making a scene and like gets thrown out on his ass. Got the sequence where he, uh where la Keith Stainfield shows up. He doesn't have the gym, and he's like, you're fucking driving me to Philly right now, and they

go down there. He gets all the way to Philly and gets because he goes to take a layup and like play around for a second and then gets locked out of the locked out of the locker room, and Laki Standpielle is just like Nope. I kept thinking like, oh, he's gonna come back and get him, but no, he has to get on the plane to go back to New York. Unbelieve you make it back to his kids recital. He did it all do themselves. You know, he shouldn't have given him the gem in the first zone Worst

Enemy in that way. That does remind me of the scene or when he's watching the basketball game at the end, there's a shot of Cage Kg like in the locker room at halftime, and you hear the coach's voice like giving them the pep talk and they actually got Doc Rivers, Like in the credits, it's actually Doc Rivers. They got to do the voice of that. Did he That was an a d R line? Yeah? Interesting? Yeah, which is pretty awesome. And I think it was meant to be footage.

Was it meant to be, Like, well, no, it's a shot they recreated the locker room. Yeah, but you hear like the coach kind of giving the remember that pep talk about that is the actual the guy who's the actual page. I mean, if you know you know Doc Rivers voice, then I see I didn't. I didn't know his voice. I like, I wonder if that was And then the credits like, yeah, that's pretty great and uh that that reminds me of the way the film weaves

actual history with this story, which is pretty great. And you know, if you read some interviews with them talking about how they got the movie made, like one of the reasons they kept rewriting the script was because depending on which basketball player they might be able to get, they would have to rewrite it, you know, to take series different years, different different series, different finals or whatever. Like at one point they were talking to Amri Staudenmeyer.

I think that a few other people and so, you know, me watching it, I didn't. I didn't remember the outcome of of the finals. I didn't either, man, you know, and I remember that series. And that's interesting because I was thinking, I mean, that's part of the great you know thing about that sequences. You don't know which way it's going to go and the way it sort of

rewrites history. It's high at all to the gem and then how the actual NBA footage at the end the interview KG and he's like, it was just me and the rock and of course he's talking about the basketball. But it's funny. My friend from Boston, Mark Finney, he's a filmmaker. Um, good dude. I know him through Emily beck In in the l A Days. He uh, great small independent film he made called Fat by the Way. You can seek that out. But Finny is um obsessed

with this movie. Favorite movie, like of the year for sure on Facebook. But he's a big Boston guy, So I'm curious if he remembered the outcome and how that affected. It's got to take something out of if you're like, oh no, I remember the Celtics one and KG had like whatever, definitely covered his point total maybe, but you don't know, you may not remember that he made the tip off or something. You know, there's little like the

kind of nonsensical parley stuff the problem. Ye, nobody would remember unless and I had never heard that bet where everything counts as a point, like a basket, a rebound. He's just gotta cover twenty six like whatever. Yeah, yeah, so nerve wracking. Um, let's talk about the score for a second, because maybe my favorite score of all time. Now it's it's way up there. I mean it's it was like classic and like uh and and sort of

shouted out to like Vangelis and some of this. Uh there's one of these one that's very very much like something on the Kia soundtrack. Yeah, but yeah, but it's just in the one with it like the chanting, which is very kind of class like that. Yeah, there's a kind of coral minimalist that you know. Daniel L. Patton the composer, he's he's remixed Philip Class, he's remixed Steve Reich. He's you know, he's he's very very very aware of a lot of trends in in twentieth century composition, you know,

classical experimental pop as well. Um, yeah, he's he's a

very very um important figure I think in contemporary music overall. Well, he's essentially credited with inventing the vape, which is sort of like a re contextualization of like esoteric eight He's in nineties um easy listening type music or video game music, and and it'll sample things from like old TV commercials, and it's all this kind of mash up but ultimately danceable and kind of fun chill wave, kind of like you know, sound almost it's like a commentary on like

the the emptiness of of that. There's there's stuff. And then his his solo stuff is as Tricks one of Tricks, Point never really takes that even further and gets even more like I don't know, it's he's forging his own kind of mash up genre. And then his film work is much more are Peggie. It's synth driven and percussion and much more like like you said, like a Van Gellis or like a Tangerine Dream or something. It's very much the eighties. There's there's a track of contemporary but

very very much. So, Yeah, there's a track in this that's also quite similar to one of the tracks on Sorcerer that Tangerine Dream scored for WAYA Friedkin, which I think Friedkin is a big and fluence on the saft teas in general clearly, and I'm a huge fan of that sound like Georgio Moroder, Tangerine Dream, all that stuff, like, I really really love that and it works in this

movie so well. I mean, part of being a good score is working with the film and not just being like some awesome piece of music, and it just it just really provided the perfect sort of background to all this stuff. I read a thing where the ratio of music parts to non music parts is very high. It's music, I think, something that I haven't listened to it yet,

just I've been listening to it a lot. He did the good Time soundtrack as well, which is this is almost like a jacked up version of the good Time soundtrack, very similar, but this one clearly there was more budget, Like it's more orchestral and as much more of these huge well and the chanting sort of recalled the early stuff the gym mind. It just sort of work together. Yeah, I was listening to yet another podcast, I think with

the Safteason UM. But Daniel L. Patton was there as well, and he basically was say that what they were trying to do with the score was almost bring out the inner life, the inner feeling of the Howard Rattner character, something that not to just reinforce what's on screen, but to give it like another dimension, and I think it really really works. There's some of these UM tracks you wouldn't necessarily um they're they're not the obvious way to

score the scenes. Let's say, um, they are certainly driving, but a lot of times they're these kind of like major key, like upbeat sort of things, and you know, you may be feeling like this guy's destined for like tragedy as you're watching it, but you're feeling this this kind of lift and it's kind of giving you insight into his own internal kind of state that he's in a state of kind of ecstasy or something in these moments, even though we as viewers know that he's kind of

maybe doomed. Um. It's just a very very interesting way that that they work with music. It's not you know, traditional film scoring. That's really interesting. It almost puts you in his mindset exactly. Yeah, and they druggy movie somehow, yes, yes, well good time as well, maybe even more so. The mixed lighting and it's kind of psychedelic but also obviously super speedy like that. It's there's a couple of druggie feelings.

And yet no one does drugs in this movie. Actually, well the weekend does coke in the Yeah, there's but that's that's a very quickward. How would never do drugs? No, this is his drug? I don't think he does. I don't think. I don't think either. I don't think he does an you never know. Even that party to party, he's there to like get his sole and get his gem back and just kind of make the scene. Make

the scene. Yeah, how Howard got his gem back? The sequel, Wow, I think my favorite let's name our favorite non actor in the movie, because mine, hands down, Helicopter Pilot is the fucking dude that helps out Julia Fox. That guy's name is I forget the name, but his last name is literally diamond really, and he's a real guy. He's like a real billionaire, like spray Tan kind of do man that hair and and in the end he like

legit helps her. That's misdirection too, because you think he's going to do something super sky and then he ultimately just like helps her out. You know. Yeah, I think he's the way I read his character sort of afterward, because the whole time I was thinking the same thing, like, man, she's going to go to his room and he's going to do something really bad. I think he just likes the company of of a young hot woman like that. He's like the he's kind of the old sad guy,

like they don't have to sleep together. If they do, great, but if not, like come and hang out in my suite, orders some shrimp, cocktail and a lobster, and like have a good time. It's so interesting. He just wants the company. Probably he was perfect. He was my favorite by by a mile by him, and that not not like not get to side track, but like that was an thing.

Like nothing aside from Howard getting killed obviously and his brother, which is tragic, nothing really horrific happens to anybody in this movie, well in a way like win it for the end, No one gets their fingers smashed. None of those like like like gambling movie cliches full and like that was That was the thought that I had watching at the first time, was kind of like, these guys are a little soft on him, Like I think, like a real life, you know, heavy and booky situation, they

would be. He got his break kicked at one, but you don't realize that minute. And that's why he's that's why he's able to push the envelope so much, is because he does have that family connection and Arnold's not going to just take it all the way there? Did you get the sense that Arnauld was over and over

his head time through. You can really see the fear in his when he's just like, these guys now are way more hard for Yeah, it's like spiraled out of control for him too, which is what's so scary about the ending, when you know he shoots him in the head, and then that the panic that Arnold has in that moment and he's he's got the gun against his head, he's on the counter, he's saying, let me out, I want out, you know, and then he walks away from

him for a second. He makes that one last desperate dash for the door, and then he just shoots him in the head. I think too, there's this this sense of you know, like you said, there isn't much violence

in the movie. To me, there was this sense of with Arno and Howard, like these very well to do you guys sort of feeling like they can dip their toes into quote unquote the criminal underworld without having to like get dirty and get dirty and really suffer the consequences of how it would be for for most people who are deep into this world. And again that speaks to the idea of like class differences. I do think Howard understands it way more than probably. Yeah, that's the

good point. Arno probably just out of desperation, because Howard was probably just going to blow him off forever, you know, like my brother in law, what are you gonna do? And and that's probably it was out of desperation that he probably turned to these guys in the first place and set the whole train in motion. I was another bit of misdirection, is I thought that Julia Fox was

going to funk up the bet somehow. Yeah, because he gives her these you know, it's so explicit, And what I thought was gonna happen was he was gonna think he won the bet, but she had put it in wrong. But they already did that, ye, Like he thought he was one big and then and then and his brother stopped the beat, Like, but you're right now, there's so

many things that could have gone wrong. She seemed like a little bit of an airhead kind of like like maybe she wasn't gonna you know, follow through or like like funk up or something like that. But she was. She's perfect. She did it exactly. She aside from Wayne Diamond, she's she was my favorite, Like you said, she wasn't. This was her first acting role, so she's gonna be Oh my god. I think she was just great in

this for all the reasons. I think of her as that's acting, like Wayne Diamond is sort of a character like a true true. But but I watched a few video interviews and things with her, and she's you get the sense that she's very much kind of just being herself on camera, Like I mean, she is acting, but her personality is definitely a little bit like this. Yeah, and that the Safti seemed that someone's strength. Yeah, the Saftys seem to if you read interviews with them, they

meet somebody interesting. And in New York, there's plenty of people like that, and they'll start a conversation with them, and then maybe that person will get a call a few weeks later and say, hey, you want to be in this movie? You know. And I think they're really good, like we said, and not just identifying people who would work well in those situations, but just directing them really well. I think, you know, that's something that you could easily

overlook with sort of the powerhouse performance of Sandler. You know that they're so good at directing all these these people in smaller roles, especially like somebody like KG, like Be, you know keep Yeah, yeah, people who who are in the public eye. Is almost painful. They get a really good performance out of honest seems he really has to, like Be. It's not like a cano. He is like one of the central characters that really needs to work for this whole thing to it could have fallen apart.

And I love Mesican thing where they could have had to stop shooting if it didn't well right. I love that Kevin Garnett's willingness to sort of have this narrative revolve around something that actually happened to him that he's so stoked, dude, he's gonna be going to the Oscars and he's gonna be the most noticeable guy there. Like and you think that was his actual ring he used in the movie. Probably they probably would have been. They would have insisted when he immediately could set ring and

goes and ponds it eight away. It's like the junkie going to get his next fix. He had to do it. Um. One of my favorite motifs was the double doors to get into what was the name of the shop again, I never caught a name. It didn't think of the initials or something. You're right, it's like KM or kate whatever. Um. The dormotif of the double doors. You gotta get buzzed to get in. You're in that little vest of you or you gotta get buzzed again. Uh, it doesn't work.

Sometimes people are outside trying to get in there on camera. They they worked that for They milked it for everything they could. That where they show up and they can't get it to open, and they're trying everything. Everyone's open everyone. You know, you've been stressed for these arrival in the first place. Finally they're here and you can't get in.

But they're they're brilliant at creating that kind of like that that sense of just being overwhelmed with like too many things happening at the same time, and being like, no, stop doing that, that's not going to help, and and all that kind of stuff, like they're they're so good.

It reminded me actually of certain moments and Punch Drunk Love with Sandler as well, where he's walking around his warehouse and and like stuff's falling off the shelves and and and he's he's trying to talk to somebody, and somebody else's BUGGINGHI about this other thing, and he's got a phone call from his sister. You know. It's that sense of again, just like overload, sensory overload complete, just like panic and and and anxiety, and they're they're they

capture it so well here, but he thrives on it. Yes, he's he's not. Another bit of misdirection there that just I just remembered is the shot of the the the magnet or the whatever that it shows that shot of it on the floor, and I'm like, obviously, like someone's gonna get stabbed with that thing right through the eyeball. That's how this moke is gonna end. You know. He's like they're they're going to leave right when he's placed

the bet. They're piste off at him, and and they're just like, you know, Arnod says to him, like you're an idiot, and and and they go to leave, and there that's what they're gonna do. They're gonna walk out of the building. And he gets them buzzed in the first part, and then the second part that thing falls out purely by chance, and then he he looks at it and he has moment. It's a parlay. It's like it's like it's like, oh, I could I could up

this even first ride. Yeah, whereas he could have. They could have just gone and then maybe they intercept her on the way to the casino where she gets the bet in and who knows that's why he trapped him, because they were they were going to get right right. But you know, it's like things could have played out so differently. It wasn't like he had the plan in his mind that he's going to trap them in there again in his mind, you know. And it's not like

he cared about the girl. He cared about the bet. Yeah, yeah, I think he cared about her a little. I don't know, man, I don't give him much capacity for caring about anybody other than himself. There's also that moment where Um, the other the big heavy I think his name is Phil in the movie and the actor's name is Keith. First time. Yeah,

he's he's amazing to um. But there's a moment where he's on his cell phone to somebody you don't know who's talking to her what he's saying, and Sandler sees that happening, and then he goes over to his phone, calls his wife and makes up the story about a gas leak because he's just saying, get goes somewhere safe, because they might send somebody to kill you. But he can't say that, so he makes up the thing about

the gas leak. But he he's getting some sense of the stakes are this high that they might just start killing my family or something, but he's still willing to do it. Of course it's not gonna stop. Course another one again, he doesn't care about it, Yeah, exactly. Another One of my favorite scenes acting wise, even though the whole movie is just acting Powerhouse, is the fight between

he and Julia Fox outside the club with a taxi. Um, if you've ever been to New York City, like more than once, like a Friday or Saturday night and you're out late, chance you have seen a couple of fighting outside of the club, exactly, like I've seen it dozens of times. And then when it was so real when she's doing the Walk of Shame back kind of she's just talking, you know, like that's real. It's so you're the one standing on the side. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's

a great moment. Well, let's pay honor to Adam Sandler here for a second. We've talked around a lot of this, but it's just if it would be one of the and there was a lot of great acting this year, but it will be one of the great crimes if he doesn't win the Oscar. Right now, he's a lot right Sandman, And like, in terms of the casting, it's so important that it is somebody like Sandler that is

like inherently, intrinsically unavoidably likable. You just want to root for the guy you just talked about that no matter what you do, no matter what he does, you're there's still a part of you that's kind of rooting for him. And it's so important. There could be so many other actors that might be excellent in other ways, but they

don't invoke that sympathy from the audience or somebody. Right, you know, he could he could do in the face anyway, could be very convincing, degenerate gambler, but you would have less sympathy. You'd just kind of be like, well, you made your bed and I sleep in it kind of thing. But how are you don't want to see that happen? You don't think Sandlers squandered or so much social like will because he's made so many terrible jokeing for me,

he's still Yeah, he'll always be opera man. Yeah, there's he he has like a real apparently he's he's one of the nicest people in Hollywood. Is extremely loyal to his very hard work. That's it's like a good point. You know you look at like the whole orbit around him of all these guys that pop up in like every movie he does, and a guy for wanting to make twenty million dollars, yeah, like a dumb comedy. You're right.

And also, like I was, I was listening to a podcast where they were saying, like, he does this so he can hang out with his friends make the next way, what is it the one with Spade and all those grown up and like another grown up so we can go to Cabo and just kick it with our families. He like he has in his contract like that he has to kind of you know, take his kids to school, pick them up from school every day, like when they're shooting. So he really likes to have this kind of like

very um, let's say, like traditional conventional family life. He had a tuxedo made for his goddamn dog for his wedding made. But he just was like a phenomenally well adjusted person given how famous and how rich he is, you know what is he good in this? I mean

just vanishes from your consciousness And yeah, he's not. He's not doing what we think of so sort of the Adam Sandler stick, you know, whereas even Punch Trunk Love, which he I'd say just as good in He's still he's still a little more channeling that traditional yeah where this one he just like you said, he disappears into this role even just the way he walks and the way he delivers lines and the way his voice. He sort of has an accent, like a little bit of

an accent, which is yeah, he disappears into it. He's wearing a prosthetic teeth. Oh yeah, and um and and he the only time that I kind of see maybe a little bit of his of his other performances in this is when he has those flare ups of anger when he starts yelling or something. That's when, yeah, that's what I can kind of think back to other other things. But his his kind of just like you know, baseline in this movie is something we really haven't seen him

do it before. No. And then he also gets the you know Oscar Bates scene, you know, where he finally breaks down, which this movie needed. I think it was because he's so just sort of up here and consistently hustling. KG, come here, come come on over here, let me show you what I got here. This is the most fantastic thing is that for just so long and then he finally breaks down there and that scene just like Seal the dealing for him for this offesome. I love that

they they let that scene play out. But then they also have the kind of like comedic element of her getting the tattoo and sort of being like because it's funny, Like it's funny, but it's also sad. When he he's just sort of like, no, I'm not worth it. I don't deserve that. Like he's the self loathing that's kind of buried underneath all that stuff. And then he even has that that greatest side about like now we can't even be buried next to each other, which is a

Jewish tradition. You know, if you're tattooed, you can't be buried, and like oh yeah, yeah, which is it's just the funniest side. Um that That's something that I think is if you want to talk about the subtext of this movie or or some of the deeper themes, there's a

lot in there about you know, Jewish identity in America. Um, you know, obviously the source of the of the Opal in the first place, or the Ethiopian Jews that are kind of stranded and and um yeah, and and like the obviously like this this movie has a scene that

takes place during Passover. But when they talked about their other contingencies, if they had to go with a different basketball player and it's going to be a different time of year, there was always going to be some Jewish holiday that was going to coincide with that, you know,

the whole story happening. So it was very important for the Safti's to kind of work that in work that kind of like I don't know, like the sense of like trying to assimilate into American society and become quote unquote fully American, but still maintain um the tradition in a way. Yeah, Like he's he's this one miles an hour full time hustler, but he still stops for passover. Yeah,

like he has to be the honor that. Yeah, he even does the reading right right, and and and it's probably the most present with family that he ever is an any other point for that three minutes, not really

not really on his phone for one. That's what I'm saying that because he clearly respects the tradition and that element of family and being part of that crew, even though it's so weird to see the guy that's literally been chasing after him trying to be his ass, sitting across the table from him, and like it was being so good jud hirsh so good to see him. Yeah, he's fantastic. I was. I think we share a birthday, so every since I was a kid, I was like, hey, me and jed Hurst I was big. I was a

big taxi fan. Was that sequence kind of when you really realize they were family, or there's a cuts down, like mean mugging across the table, you're like, oh, I see, and then you're still not sure it makes sense. That's why he's being a little Their relationship always seemed a little strange. Yeah, in the very big right, it's not.

It's not really until the scene right after where he's you know, it's sund Or and Jed hirsh And and Jed hirsh is saying to him like, yeah, I don't know about this guy, you know, like he's he he said, you know, happy holidays to me, like it's fucking Christmas, and you know he's he just he doesn't like the guy. And said I was like, ah, he's all right, I don't worry about you know. He's like, well, hey he

didn't marry your daughter, you know, so good. Uh. And then the end um shot to me is the thing that like takes in sort of the beginning to and that all this psychedelics use of color, that's what takes this movie and elevates it to something better than just your standard street hustler kind of thing. They really just uh. And in fact, I sentenced to Noel, I'm gonna read it because I was very curious, have you guys read

any of the script he had it. We looked at the last page and I pointed out, I pointed out what you had sent me. Read that for the benefit because the very ending, and I had a great shot zooming in and they didn't make it super bloody or gross. This tiny entry his cheek. Uh. I can't imagine what the back of his head books. Um, but you know, there's that pool of blood that kind of spreads, but

it's still pretty subtle. It's not like brains everywhere or whatever. Yeah, the traditional trophy pull of blood had a little small hole under his eye, right in the cheek. And then they, you know, they push in on that wound and go inside of it. And this is how they wrote that in the script. Listeners, The zoom closes in on the bullet hole in Howard's face and continues onward into the wound. Swirls of red, pink, and white engulf the frame. As

we travel through blood, bone, and tissue. The zoom pushes through this material plane into a landscape of kaleidoscopic abstract shapes and flickering iridescent light. The digetic audio in the km A gems that's the name showroom decays and a wash of reverb overtaken by a vast soundscape of crystal tinkles and warm electronic tones. That's great. I mean, that's realized, fully realized vision. Man, Like they didn't get this idea later.

That was from the beginning then of of And it's so funny too to kind of like zoom in on the diamond and you're seeing like all these colors and so on, and then it becomes Sandler's colin, you know what I mean. And you realize as you retroactively pull out, you're like, oh, I've just been inside the guy's ass. Like it's very it's very like juvenile and funny but cosmic joke. Yeah, And it also puts you in the scene,

which is another important point of a misdirection. If you think he's going to have colon cancer and the doctor just don't want nothing to worry about. Well, that reminds me, like a lot of people have drawn comparisons between this

movie and the Cohen Brothers. A serious man, I'm just going to say that that that sense of like, you know, the kind of book of job idea of like somebody who's just like doomed and tested and like nothing can go right for you, and you're just kind of cursed, profoundly cursed, and and yeah, so to have that red herring of like he's getting his coal and checked and you're not sure what the results are going to be,

and then he's just fine. He even says that like a lot of movies, I think that would be a constant thing that keeps coming up. And it's just like a random phone call later where he's like everything's clear, and as when the doctors say, like calling cancer, paid for my house in Hamptons, Like he's like, you, I don't know what it is, jusing calling cancer. I don't know. He's like, yeah, I just paid for my beach house

or whatever. Um. And that's that's in the middle of when when Lucky Stanfield is freaking out and like I think there's probably one or two other things happening at the same time, Like he puts the whatever the drink is in the fish tank and all that's going down at the same time, and the doctor is finally just like all right, I'm gonna hang up now, Like I love how important the fish are too. He wasn't. I was waiting for him to be like, oh, you fucking asshole.

He's like, oh, come here, I'm gonna get let me get you out of there. But does have a sweetness to him. Actually that's yeah, you're right. It may be arbitrary and it may be kind of misplaced, like he cares more about the fish, and it seems like he hears about his family. Perhaps he's more, he's more immediately

concerned for them, but it's still relatable. But yeah, I want to go back to to the last shot it again because I feel like the first time I saw it, I was okay on this two shots it reminded me a little bit of like fight Club or something. We're kind of like flying around brain the synapse. It's like, Okay, I've kind of seen this before, but it's still pretty cool.

But in a way I didn't really know what it was necessarily doing in the movie, and the second time watching it, thinking more in terms of his character being this person that that lives this hyper um materialist, hyper superficial existence to then go inside him at the very end to see like the kind of like the uncut gym, the opal within him in a way, and then for that to become you know, blood, and then for that to become like space like stars in the sky and

so on. To me, it kind of it had like a on almost like spiritual dimension where it's saying that this guy contained multitudes, he contained all this you know, depth and and uh, parts of himself that he never explored, that he never knew about because he he's living in the society that's so superficial, but that it's a sort of idea, you know, Buddhist or something that we all contain within us. Like I think Julia Fox sees that too. Yeah, exactly. They don't play it up too much. But he's not

just a sugar daddy. Yeah, yeah, he's a lot more than that. Yeah, and his wife does not see that. She hates his guts for good reason, for absolutely well, you know she said either way, like financially, so yeah, she wants him gone. I love that scene where like she doesn't even say a word when he's in the trunk of the car naked and she just looks at him for a minute. It's like, I don't even need to say anything. We know what a screw if you are.

And the thing two is it doesn't get into like the kind of over the top verbal abuse you might normally see. She just says, you're the most annoying person I've ever known my entire life. And that's more cutting than Moucker slapping him or like you know, screaming or whatever. That is more and you see the puppy dog hurt, and that would have been the trophy way to play it, I think is for her to blow up and you

know what the fund is wrong with you? You don't care about your family, and she steals herself and he doesn'tee her, don't you know? He doesn't mean my anger, he merrits. Three years ago she might have had that reaction and she's gone. And that's the funny thing, too, is that when she laughs at him, I think it's because she realizes he has such a superficial understanding of what a relationship is and that she's been just completely detached for however long and he still thinks like, oh,

you look good in your what is your bottress? I've been thinking, you know, maybe it's just because things have gone south with Julia Fox that he's like, oh, maybe I should go back to my wife and there. Yeah, it's it's the way he puts Julia Fox down to his wife was like she's trash. I know, she's trash. Yeah, you know he's elevator scene when yeah, he tells her off, I don't want you my life and the door closes and he's in there full of people. It's like, oh,

you know, what does he say? It's a great line about just like my life or something. He's just like, yeah, it just like you guys know the half of it. Yeah, such a trial with this person. Oh man, um, all right, I think we get to the rating now. If you're new to the show, we give ratings between one and five thumbs. Uh yeah, I know. You know what I'm gonna say, five thumbs. My favorite movie the year Lights Out with a bullet same five thumbs, four and a

half thumbs and nothing. I mean, there's nothing that I can say to criticize the movie, but just more so comparing it to the other movies I saw this year. Like I recently did my like top ten of the year, and this was on the list. Yeah I saw that, but it wasn't quite at the top. So that's was it Silver Tier for you? It was Silver Tier by Silver Silver Brown rather than just a simple one through ten,

I make it overly complicated and it made the Silver Tier. Okay, so it's yeah, great movie, though, Casey, I will go with the full five. This wouldn't be my number one of the year. That would be The Irishman by Martin Scorsese. Heard of that, but yeah, that was That was Scorsese's second best movie of the year documentary I need to I've heard that's really interesting, Like it's got characters that were actually there at the time. Interesting. What was So

what was your favorite movie the year? Irishman? Yeah? What was your Parasite? Oh, that's right, that's right, we discovered that and none Cut Gems was my second. But they're they're just two very different kinds of movies, even though they're both interesting social commentaries, but they're just like, to me, parasites more of like almost a who done it? Like hitchcocky kind of stylized thing, whereas this is just pure grit, just like you know. And by the way, I just

looked up amazing article on interview. Um it's uncut Gim's handsome older man Wayne Diamond establishes a new legacy, and he is apparently a very wealthy New York socialite type dude. And he um got his start in the dieting and on the Diamond district, in the garment district. Um and used to be a really weird drugge clubby kind of guy, what you could imagine. And then reviewers sits down with him at some bar and he drinks like five vodkas and two red wines at like two o'clock in the afternoon.

Ramsey a producer, let's hear your thumbs five films, any other comments? Uh favorite movie the year? All right, yeah, there you have it. I do before we go, we should we should also shout out Darris Kanji, the director of photography, who is legendary in his own right and doing something very very different here than he normally does in his films, where he likes to work on much

wider lenses typically. He he's he's sort of like a you know, the Victorious starar idea of like painting with light is very much what what Kanji is, uh, you know, more more comfortable. And let's say he did delicate tests.

He's done. He's it's my favorite look at everything he's done, saying, yeah, UM just a massive, massively talented cinematographer and for him to adapt that kind of fastidious, like perfection based style to this film, which is so much more about UM being able to shoot in any direction, which cinematographers usually hate because you want to light to the shot, not

to the room. UM working on way longer lenses. They had a lens on this that they talked about on the podcast with UM Paul Thomas Sanderson actually, who also just worked with Darris Kanji on Animal Tom York podcast.

They were highly recommend checking that out. But there's like a three fifty millimeter lens that they found, UM anamorphic lens that you know that that's a ridiculously long lens and you put that on the camera and it's like you're not gonna be able to like track the Actually yeah, exactly exactly, and it it works beautifully in this film. And UM yeah, there's there's there's so much more to say about just the technical aspect of this film. That's

that's very very impressive. UM. It's it's a mix of film and digital. UM mostly film, but some of the nighttime exteriors are digital. Um, but it all feels completely you know, seamless, and uh yeah, um it's I feel like we should mention the cinematographer Sean Price Williams who they worked with previous to this and Kanji to come in and kind of like step up the game or just bring them to that next level of glossiness but still being gritty at the same time. I got to

imagine that other cinematographer was bummed out. I know, I wonder a little bit about that. I feel kind of bad because because it sort of bit his style at Yer pushed it over the know, but the whole thing was a more over the top version or a more dialed in version of good time. Yes, because because Sean Price Williams is very well known for his his handheld in his like super telephoto close ups of faces and

so on. Yeah, different different ones, yes, bad joke. All right, guys, Almost perfect score except for Paul my opinion and you're half a thumb. I got a place for your half a thumb, my friend. What can I say? I got to be the contrary? No, I love it. I love it. That's that's great. Almost a perfect score. Go see it uncut Jim's can't wait to see it again again. Emily was like, what I like it? I went new you would not. Emily does not like anxiety and using films.

I was like, stay far, far away. I'm taking my girlfriend tonight. I'm not sure if she's gonna like it or not, but I really hope she does all right. Well, thanks guys, this is great one. Thank you for more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.