Blank Check with Griffin & David - No Other Choice

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Join Pulp Men (and Woman) of the Year Griffin, David, Ben, and Marie as they discuss Park Chan Wook’s latest offering, the silly and sublime No Other Choice. We’re talking about paper, AI-proof jobs, the handsomeness of Lee Byung-hun, the possibility that Director Park is the Michael Jordan of dissolves, and the fact that this is likely Griffin’s favorite film of 2025. Plus, David breaks down over the finale of Stranger Things, and we all apologize for a bunch of stuff. Read the Chevy Chase New York Times profile. Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm fighting a war for our podcast. Great. We just spent approximately four and a half hours. We mostly did the March Madness bracket, but it was also looking for a quote. No, all four and a half hours were spent trying to find an opening quote for this movie. A movie I love, one of my favorites of the year, possibly my single favorite of the year. I'm chewing on the idea that it might be my number one. It jumped up majorly for me on second viewing.

after loving it the first time, I found it. For the year 2025. This, of course, is an episode in 2026, but I'm talking about my 2025 film rankings, and I think this film has an excellent script, and the internet is just not letting me find those quotes. But he does constantly say,

I'm fighting a war for this family. I'm fighting a war for this family, and I turned into I'm fighting a war for this podcast. Yeah. No other choice. That's all you have to say? To that quote, I mean, he is. Would you fight a war for your?

your family? I mean, sure. Would I murder other people to get a job? I don't think so. That's not what I asked. I asked, would you fight a war for your family? Well, that is a very vague and leading question. It's a yes or no question. No. No. I don't think so. Wow. Unless it's some sort of metaphorical war that's like, okay, getting a job. He's fighting a metaphor. He's fighting a metaphorical war for his family. Let's say, let me reframe the question. That's fair. Marie. I'm sorry, what? Marie, Marty. Who? Salinas. I'm sorry. Mayor. Mayor the woman of Blank Check? Mayor of Blank Check. Thanks for the introduction, Griffin. Anytime. David, would you fight a philosophical, metaphorical war for your family? Yes or no? Sure.

Let's do it. Follow up question. Would you murder people in order to get a job? I don't think so. Okay. I would. Follow up question. Would you get into like an airplane, like a fighter jet?

What am I doing with it? Flying really fast. No, that's fine. But also fighting a war. And shooting people with missile. No, no, that's really not my thing. But David, what if all the enemies you were fighting and firing against just had generic Power Rangers helmets and there were no flags of any kind to imply which country you were at war with?

A Top Gun Maverick situation, yeah. What if there's some plausible deniability of are these robots? It would be funny if John Hamm was like, our enemy is the robot nation. If they just fully leaned into that, like, they're not people. Or Tim Robinson comes on and he goes like, they don't matter. He just does a little speech. It's just Power Rangers Dino Force. What if it's like a thing where it's a stealth mission impossible move where they're all the entity?

Oh, they take their masks off and underneath it's just the glowing. It's like some scrambled code. The blue eye of Sauron. Speaking of fighting a war for one's family. Please. And again, this is somehow relating to my family, this is battle I'm doing with a robot. Yes. Isn't that the plot of Mitchell's versus the machines?

Ask you major questions. You have to filter through your own life. I saw that movie once. And obviously, the director of Mitchell's versus the machines is a fan of our show. It's been on the show. Past Future guest. I know. I know.

He's a great guy. And I loved him. And I loved that movie. But I watched it once. And my kid was my first kid, my daughter, was if that. She was very young. And I remember she had like a witching hour, sort of like, screaming. time during it. And I'm so scarred by that. And I've never gone back. I'm so sorry. I remember that.

And this is in exact science. But in my memory, that was the first movie I heard you run through the filter of as the father of a daughter, even as an infant where you were like, this triggered certain things emotionally in me as a father. As a father. As a father. You turn to the mother, your child and said, as a father. Hello, mother. I feel like that movie would probably eviscerate you now. Interesting. And we'll continue to eviscerate you. I remember it being just very charming and funny.

I think it's really, really good. And the animation being good. I think it. Are they doing a sequel or is that kind of a maybe? I believe that has been announced. Yeah. I believe that is officially announced. Marie, would you fight a war for your family?

So what I was going to say is that my husband has become obsessed with this, like, it's a TikTok. A single TikTok? Yes, but when I say that he's become obsessed with it, like, I mean in an ironic way. Like, he doesn't actually subscribe to this worldview. But it's a guy who's like one of those like alpha male influencers. Sure, sure, sure. Who... Smart guy.

Sounds like. The phrase was, when I walk into a room, my wife knows I'm a predator. Jesus Christ. And he means it as in like men should be like alpha predators. out there going to war for their families. But whenever I hear a man call himself a predator, I think of, like, I don't know, rapists. Yeah.

That comes right to mind. I think of the yautja and I think of... I was going to say, rapists. If the movie Predator Badlands taught us anything, it is possible to overcome your programming. It is. You can be a sensitive predator. You can be a smarter, more emotionally intelligent predator.

There's a... And he does kind of end up fighting a war. Like, he has a chosen family. that he then goes to war for at the end of the move. And he fights a war against his biological family. Can I say, that yowch's dad is a little toxic. A little toxic. He's a little trying to behead his child.

Masculinity. There's some TikTok I have. It's so buried deep in my babe somewhere, but just of a wife going up to a husband with the sort of like, would you hit me in the face with a shovel for like a million dollars? And he goes, I think you in the face for a million dollars. He'd have trouble keeping me off of you. Oh, my God.

Staged because it's like Barry, like, Pat, but it is funny. I mean, she's like, okay, I get it. He's like, a million dollars. I would, well, how hard would he do it? Well, I mean, that's what's funny. I mean, all these questions you're saying. I used to have a stand-up bit about that. You would hit a woman in the face for a million dollars.

No. I'm questioning if I should say what my specific was. I think this episode should include more of you talking about stand-up. We're continuing on from the no other... Is this thing on? But just that when people say, like, would you do this for a million dollars? Of course, the answer is always yes. The only part you need to think about is how you would explain to people that you became a millionaire.

Sure. Right, right. You take the money. But then how do you communicate? That was what the bit was. Right, right. That sounds like a good bit. Yeah.

What's the podcast? This podcast is called Blank Check with Griffin and David. I am Griffin. I'm David. Hey, it's Ben Hosley. Wow, our producer. And I'm women. Okay, well, we need to address

if we're going to keep referencing this. So someone on our Reddit, a normal place for normal people. Yeah, a good place for good people. Right. Posted a thread. What was the title? I'm new to woman.

Question mark, question mark. I'm new to blank check. Who is woman? Look, Marie, you're part of the family. Yeah. Although I will say, I have had people say to me in my life, like, hey, I'm always looking to listen to your episodes,

but you're not searchable. because we don't put my name in the... I think this is a thing we should... Here's up. My first bill I'm presenting and putting before the house of blank check in 2026. The early Marie appearances

we did do with Marie Barney. And then we started being like, you're just the fourth chair. Right, you can never... We don't need to put you in the title. I think we got to read... You're not special. I think we got to add Marie back into the title.

See, but my thing is that it's because even this is a great example of where we're at in the schedule where Marie has done three episodes in a row, I find that having your name three times in a row kind of clutters it a little bit. Maybe I should change the episode

descriptions to just include my names. Yes. Possibly. But I'm also just like, now there's a fuzzy... Here's my real thing. We gotta get Yoshida and Lawson feeling more competitive again. I think they're not clocking the fact that you're running circles around them. It's the start of a new year. We're doing all this inside-re business. I've got some hot takes.

Our new year started with... Is this thing on? An episode that, look, people got mad at us about that, too. Look. David's holding a flower pot over Griffin's head? I want to talk about that for one second because there were some people, you know, not just on the Reddit, just being like,

oh my God, this movie's barely out yet, and they put it out of the episode. And I'm like, look, man, they schedule the release for mid-December. They don't tell you, you know, when they set those dates, when they're going to expand it. Because they don't know. This is a good thing to address.

You know, the studios don't totally know because they don't know what the landscape's going to be. It seems to be expanding, I believe, this weekend. Yes. So hopefully more people can see it. We do our best with the schedule. We do our best. I had to travel for most of December.

It was a real kind of like crunch to get all those new release episodes. A to see those movies and get them recorded before I flew out. And at the moment, like in December 10th that we had everything scheduled, it was like, is this thing on is going wide. nationwide Christmas Day limited the week before

and no other choice is getting a limited release Christmas Day it makes more sense to put Is This Thing on First and instead now like no other choice at the time we were recording this the same week the episode's coming out is currently on more screens than is this thing on which they've been going really slow on the rollout with We try our best but these distributors fuck with our plans I mean and God bless them I know it's a weird landscape out there I have some other hot takes, topical hot takes.

Okay, go for it, David. Chevy Chase. What's going on with that guy? Did you watch the doc? No. No, I've only seen some clips in which he seems, I don't know, like a little acerbic. I don't care about that, man. I do have a little bit of it.

I don't know how much I care. I'm fascinated in the train wrecky way. I'm a little less interested in what I understand is the psychology of his background and being raised by somewhat abusive parents and all that. The doc is less about that. Yeah, it touches on it. I'll say this. I think the doc is worth watching,

but I think the interview press tour he's been doing for the dock is meatier than the dock. Yeah, you described it as like near Quincy Jones level. Yeah, some of these interviews are amazing. I only read the Times one. That's the best one.

That one's pretty wild. Pretty wild. I'll link to it in checkbook today. You know, it is interesting, as many have noted, that it's like, everyone who ever worked with this guy barring the occasional Goldie Hawn

who he seems to have treated well because he knew she was a star, right? I'd say there were like... There's like a handful of people who were like, I always got along with him. Didn't Beverly DeAngelo like him? I was going to say, there were like four blonde comedians

of a similar age range who he made multiple films with who were like, he's always been a sweetheart to me. Right, right. And his family. But that's the thing. Everyone else is like working with him was I'd speak to it about my therapist

to this very day every single day. And then, but you're like, he has a stable family life. All those kids seem to like him. Weird. That's a little interesting. I don't know if there's no answers. I know this.

I have a take from watching the doc. Sure. Which is, I think he is just one of the least internally resolved people in the world. It doesn't see. He just has put a lot of the bad stuff over there and then some, you know, the family stuff over there. To be as blunt as possible, it just feels like he really values his family. and is really protective of them and is like so caring and present. And then when he's dealing with his career and his front facing persona,

he both has his guard up where he's like, everyone's trying to fuck with me. I have to defend myself. And isn't this what people want me to do be a Chevy Chase style asshole? Would you say? Like there's a combination of him thinking, this is me honoring you by saying something mean to your face. And also that he is like super paranoid.

When you bring up how, like, intensely protective he feels about his family. He has no other choice. He got a war for his family. That's what I was going to say. He's holding the flower pot above Dan Harmon's head. I'm just, I'm looking at your newsletter, Newmarie. That's what I'm getting some of my hot takes from. Housemate, haven't seen it.

Love that it's making money. Me too. Do more of that, please. It's a bestseller. I want to give a shout out to my friend Ellen Tamaki, who is in that movie. Shout out. Shout out to Ellen. I think she plays like a bitchy friend.

In that? Have you not seen it yet? I haven't seen it yet. Okay. There's a, there's a, there's a, bitchy friend group.

Yes, I think she's part of the, like, the other moms. The Stranger Things finale. No other moms. You know, I haven't checked in with Stranger Things since Barb died,

RIP, Barb. People were saying, they were like, the gang is being so defensive. They're glazing avatar and fighting a war to protect the most

popular highest grossing films of all time and then being dismissive of Stranger Things. I want to be clear. I've just never seen it. It's just the thing I've never engaged with.

I have also never seen it. I don't take some oppositional stance taking an oppositional stage. You're allowed to do that. The Algo is showing me things, right? And mostly it seems like a lot of people were complaining about the finale who liked the show. I haven't seen the show.

She fucking 11, right? That's her number. Yes. Millie Bobby Bon Jovi. Millie Bobby Bon Jovi. I saw a clip on Twitter of her jumping into... Marie, this is what I'm talking about. You're stepping on my hot tank.

Sorry. Go for it, David. She's fighting the big monster. She jumps into it with her psychic powers. Somehow kind of opens its flesh. spider body up. It looks like the spider from Wild Wild West, but flesh. Major spoilers. I was about to start the show this week.

She lands inside of it. There's a floor. Like, there's not like a sort of organic inside. Like, she's not even on, there's like a sandy floor, Marie. Inside the tummy. Yeah. Have you seen this? Yeah, I saw the clip.

I didn't even read. I was like, why is there a floor? And he was like, oh, everyone's always nitpicking. And I was like, you know what, David? To be honest, I've watched that clip several times. I didn't register that Is that the name of the monster? No, Vecna is the guy.

The mind flayer is the big thing. Okay. All I knew about this fucking show was that there was something with egos and she got a noseblee. That's season one shit, right? How do we get to a big monster? What?

Barb. Stranger things. So there's a floor inside. You're saying that's quite a strange thing to happen. The show promised you that. Yeah. Right. Like I should be.

I should be like, that's strange. It's what it says on the bottle. Yeah, it promised you from the start. It's quite strange. Why is there a, why would it, a beast, why would it stomach me like a sandy floor? Perhaps it's almost weird. You're telling me this one episode of television is two and a half hours long and cost $5 billion. That is quite straight.

I mean, that is the other thing that you're like, this is expensive and it looks like Lincoln Park. But, I mean, everything has that problem. Wait, no, you're so right. They should fucking score that little clip. I'm sure if they're going to... Like, crawling in my skin, a floor it will reveal. Look, she jumps in. Okay, they're all like, oh my God.

And one of them, by the way, stouts look exactly like... Why is she wearing a uniform? Why is she wearing this? Look how fucking terrible this looks. This looks like shit. I just want to say... Okay, she's going to jump. Right, she jumps into this fleshy beast.

Look at this beast. Yeah. Okay. These wounds. Right. And it's going to eat. her and then she goes inside. Uh-huh.

It looks like a portal is opening inside the stomach. You know, it's like ripping open guts. And then there's just a floor. That is quite strange. What the fuck? Man. David, that is empirically one of the strangers things I've seen

in a long time. I had a like decorator, like sand it. It's just, I'm just like, if you're doing a D&D influenced fantasy adventure, design your creatures.

We're doing some grab-back right now. Because this is our second episode of 2026, but our first record of 2026. And I had to get off my hot day.

I want to get a couple grab bag things off the ground. Okay. El Makee, pin on L. Makey. We're putting a pin in L. Makey. They're putting a pin. I have a thing to say

about L. Makey. In fact, I'm going to take the pin out because I forgot the other thing I was going to say. That was an episode. As mentioned, we were in a crunch to get those December episodes out.

We saw that film before it was released before El Makeeke fever swept over the land. and thus we were a little ahead of the discourse. We didn't quite know what people were going to land on in their discussion of Ella McKay. And woefully...

You didn't talk about the sex scarf. The sex scarf was not discussed. Yeah. Now, I want to say... The sex scarf were referring to the fact because, of course, 14 people saw this movie. All of them listeners with this podcast, including Celine's song.

Yes. Who listens to this podcast? Well, she said this. Ella McKay was her favorite movie of 2020. She has sex with her loving husband, sauce boy. played by... Sauce magnate.

Yeah, right. Jack Claus. He waters his sauce. And post-coital, she has a scarf wrapped around her neck in a styling choice that is unaddressed. Now, in my defense, the reason I did not bring this up is I had put a note in my head to bring something up in the episode

that I did forget to bring up. But for me, it is the larger issue above the sex scarf. She sits up in bed. She's got this scarf. on untied kind of like thrown backwards. Right? And there's the classic kind of romantic comedy studio film L-shaped bed sheet.

Right. The lady's got the sheet over the boobs. They fall back in bed. Yes, yes. Right? And like the guy, the bedsheets are down to his navel and the woman the bedsheets like up to her neck. She sits up and not just as the shape of the bed sheet remained L-shaped while

she's sitting up and he's lying down. But it's like the bedsheet is. held across her back, like there's a strap in it. The bed sheet looks like a tube top. And I could not stop marveling at that, which I thought was the most, like, conservative thing I had ever seen in a post-sex screen shot. I didn't even notice the scarf. The scarf was secondary for me.

Wow. Well, it's a movie that rewards, you know, 30 to 40 viewings. And it's going to need them if it's going to be blackhead of the box office. It's crazy that they were doing a promotion, widely advertised, two-for-one tickets for Ella McKay, and the weekend of two-for-one tickets, it made like $50,000. I don't want to overstate the importance of this podcast or the reach of this podcast, but the weekend box office numbers came in, and I did say to David, this is the first time in history. I really wish there was exit polling to find out what percentage of opening weekend ticket buyers

were blankies, because it truly might be 50%. I went, I went, like, the Thursday night, like, 7 o'clock at L. M.K. opening screening in Manhattan. And there was, like, a huge crowd of Blank Check fans. And I even, I was in the concessions line with a guy wearing the desk t-shirt. And I said, I said, cool shirt. And he said, thanks. That's awesome. You know, oh, hey, you're the woman of Blank Check.

Who is the woman? But, you know. How is Babi formed? Remember that old name. It just felt like it was such a historically bad opening weekend. Here's my gag. There's a tick-taker and then like a tumbleweed comes up and the ticket, and the tumbly gives a ticket and then blows into the LMK screening.

That'd be good, right? I just feel it's anecdotal. Screen 18. But the amount of texts I got from friends and listeners of the show who like saw it within 36 hours of release. And then also our Reddit was exploding. And I was just like, when we cover new release, lockbusters. It doesn't feel like there's this much of a, we have to go support this movie

immediately thing. Alan McKay. Well, it's made 4 million domestic, 524 international. Now, it was going to make $400 million in France, but then they canceled that release. How much did it make in the UAE? I sent you the stat the other day. Current UAE breakdown. $10? Can't see. Oh, rest of worlds. I know. Okay. I don't know.

$20,000. There we go. $20,000 in the UAE. Pretty good. I'm just seeing this news that James Wan gave some interview where he said he wants to take over directing the Avatar franchise. But I mean, like, Amor feels like they said like, well, you're from the Australian subcontinent. He's like, I'll take a crack at it, mate. I'll say this.

I see that. That's what he talks like. It's one of the only people, if James Cameron announced, I'm stepping back. I'm handing it off. Do they have any relationship? No. I'm just saying that's one of the only people where I will. would immediately go red alert.

Do you know what the connection is? What's that? In the canon of Entourage, James Cameron directed the Aquaman film. This is true. They both know from CGI Water. Yep. That is so true. And of course we see a clip of Aquaman and Entourage that I think about all the time

where Binnie Chase is like in a tux and he like runs down a dock and he's like taking the tucks off. What if I like get really into rewatching entourage in 2026? A couple of people have told me they're doing. that. And I'm like, Entourage belongs where it is. I don't know. Let's bring it back. Nope. Belongs where it is on HBO Max, ready for the watching. This was the, oh, I was going to

say this about the Chevy Chase doc. I read that interview. I was like, got to watch this fucking thing. Pull up HBO Max not on there. And I'm like, isn't it a CNN doc and CNN owns Warner Media? Apparently, I have to say up for CNN watch. And then I like sign up and it's like,

you don't have the right tier to watch it. What? I spent an hour figuring out how to watch this fucking. They really, I think they just don't want anyone to see it. We live in hell. Now, Nick Weiger of Doe Boys, friend of the podcast, just by chance within the last couple of hours, texted us, watched is this thing on and no other choice back to back yesterday. And it's kind of amazing, both technically qualify as, quote, movies, end quote. What does that mean?

Well, it's just like. That one is, you know, great and the other one isn't. that's crazy to compare them. Well, I mean, you know, the one is sort of very, this is, we're talking about Park Jamwok's no other choice here. These two new release movies we're kicking off the year with to settle the balance before we start our first proper mini-series of 2026. And it's kind of a movie where, like, he makes like six camera moves.

He can't believe how did he even pull that off or whatever? The narrative complexity of it, like the thematic depth of it. I would say Park Chanwick is the Michael Jordan of Cross Disalt. Who's the woman? This is why it's important to let women. speak. And I know people are constantly questioning our choice to do that. But we're going to stand by it.

We think it's important. No other choice. I just want to let listeners know that I did pitch opening this episode introducing the show myself because I killed Ben and Griffin and David off so I

could just be the only host of Blankshire. But would you admit to that? How would we... Well, no. Okay. So I was trying to think like what would I All right. So I think David killed Griffin. Then went missing. David went missing.

I went missing. I buried myself in the sand just like a fucking nap. Then went missing. And then Ben died under mysterious circumstances. Right. Okay. It would be like that kind of like it's weird. All the people around you keep like having these weird deaths.

Right. But all of the, you know, there's like a neat and tidy explanation for everything. joke about like the guy who's friends with people in Final Destination who's like, like talking, he's like, yeah, I don't know. And then my friend, like a bucket landed in a toaster and it popped a knife and, you know, like where it's like, it's weird. It keeps happening to everyone. You know what's great about Final Destination?

That monologue would end with that guy getting killed. A train runs him over. Right. Yeah, sure. David. Yes. We speak of the great struggles. Uh-huh.

Godzilla v. Kong. I prefer Godzilla X-Kong. Well, this is the point. Okay. Sometimes these things can work past being struggles. And become X. They become X, which means together. Sort of a combo with some friction.

Adjacent. I guess so. Multiplied. Right, a compounding. It's a compounding. Listen, often in our wacky world, it starts to feel like your life is centered around me, X, my finances. Amen.

Well, no, that's what you want. You want to stop being me be my finances. and I need to, the new empire of me ex my finances. And the next one's going to be called Supernova? Sure, why not? It's the second Godzilla X-Kong movie. Do you think Dan Stevens will do more Kaiju dentistry in that film? I think so.

He is back, right? And Jack O'Connell? I think so. The reason we're talking about this is because Monarch within the Monsterverse has a legacy of monsters. But Monarch within our universe is a company that can really help you get your finance. is in check. That is true. Maybe a little less exciting.

Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell not involved, but... Yet! But with Monarch managing your money doesn't have to be a struggle. Okay? Monarch is the all-in-one personal finance tool designed to make your life easier.

It brings your entire financial life budgeting, accounts and investments, net worth, and future planning together in one dashboard, on your laptop, on your phone. Start your new year on the right foot financially and you can get 50% off your Monarch's subscription with the code check. Wow.

Get those financial skulls skull crawlers out of here. Look, push the Scar King away. These are Monsterverse characters, deeper cuts. Maybe you got New Year's resolution. You want to, like, get your, you know, finances in order, make some goals, have an app that sort of personalizes like your all your money for you in a way where you're kind of like, okay, this is the kind of thing I can achieve this year.

Yeah, my main resolution is to remove one of King Kong's molars, but you're right. Responsibly, I should add some of those to my resolution. Then you need the kind of crazy dentist who wear sunglasses and doors. But also significant capital. You can't use usual tools on a King Kong mouth. No, you needed like a crane or whatever he uses. Look, monarch has helped users save over $200 per month on average after joining. Eight out of ten members feel more in control of their finances with Monarch.

Eight out of ten members say Monarch gives them a clearer picture of where their money is going. I feel that Monarch is not giving me a clear picture on where the Monsterverse is going. It's felt little, the world building's been a little muddled. But they're going to the hollow Earth. I guess so. And then coming back. Come back out and finding more stuff in there. Going back down there again.

But Monarch, finance, very clear, world building is crisp. No problems there. Here's another thing that's interesting. As you said, eight out of ten members say Monarch gives them a clearer picture. I feel like eight out of ten single-build actors in any Monsterverse movie never appear in another one. They're always exactly two carryovers. I'll tell you their finances, though, are probably in order. They are.

I think Millie Bobby Brown cut a check or two. do one and done and you're still happy. Millie did too. Millie did do too. I know. I said, yeah. This new year, achieve your financial goals for good. Monarch is the all-in-one tool that makes proactive money management. Simple, all-year long use code check at monarch.com for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code check. And whisper the word monarch if you want to go to the hollow earth. It's a finish introducing this podcast. It's a podcast about filmographies. Directors do a massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make. whatever crazy passion products they want

and sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce baby. Three years ago now, Park Chanwick won our March Madness competition. I think an incredibly cool fucking win. It was awesome.

One of my favorite living filmmakers and someone I transparently don't think I personally ever would have had the courage to be like, we can put this guy on main feed. He is the rare. Often our March Madness winner will be someone who are like,

right, that makes sense. That's a big name. That's someone. And he was, you know, he was in our international series. So obviously the choices were a little different. But he wouldn't have been in my top five of like, I think this guy's going to win. He beat out, like, did he beat out Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson? He beat Steve McQueen, Peter Jackson, Peter Weir, well, and Guillermo del Toro.

And then Bong Joon Ho, of course, by one vote. By one vote, which was, that was really, that was really fun. And we remind you all that every vote matters. But going into that, Bong felt like, well, he'll probably steamroll, you know? Fong certainly felt like a big one. Again, those legacy guys like PJ or... Yeah. I want to...

I rewatch another. Hot take. I rewatch those Lords of the Rings because I do it every Christmas. My wife. Middle Earth, yeah. You gotta do that Peter Jackson series sometime. I agree, my friend. I know he keeps saying like, oh, could he make another movie?

I just, you know... I also rewatched all three. Dan, da, da, da, da, da... The fucking ends, man. They're talking ass true. Yeah, the ends rule. They are pretty good. I like how the one guy's on the...

fire and then he's like... Then he's... Oh, one of the best moments. He takes a little bath. It's just so funny that Saraman is like, I've thought of everything except maybe that if I cut down some trees, the trees will march on my tower. Can I say it?

Yes. I think Saraman is funny. I know he's not woke. Oh, but he pushes boundaries. I just... Have you seen his like Kill Tony set? He was really good. He came out with like the floating orb.

Uh-huh. Keep going with this. It had an eye in it and then it turned into like a dick. 2023 was our Park Chin Wift series. Yeah, so that is, oh my God. Two and a half years ago. Yeah, and we did him in the summer too. So it was, yeah, yeah, it's been a little while.

But I thought that was a great series, a rewarding series. Really great series. I really enjoyed going through his filmography, you know, along with the podcast, because I'd only seen like old boy and the handmaiden. This is also, knock on wood. guy who is in the prime of his career, the prime of his life. What is most exciting for me is now this moment where for the first time we get to do a follow-up new release Park Jam look, something we will hopefully get to do many, many more times over the next couple of years.

It certainly seems like the guy's working. And this movie, I think, fucking rules. Marie, Ben, and I went to a screening about two months ago, and then I went a second time over the weekend right before recording to refresh myself on it because it's a naughty film. and I know you just saw it again, Maria, as well. I went last night. It jumped way up for me. The first time watching it, like I do with a lot of park movies, I spend the first half at least going, where is this going?

I'm not enjoying this, but I'm struggling to, like, prioritize the threads and understand what this is all building towards. And then it gets to the end, and I'm like, holy fucking shit, I see it all now. And then watching it the second time, knowing everything from the beginning, I just thought this thing is like a fucking, it's a knockout. It's a knockout, in my opinion. I think handmade will probably forever be my favorite film of his,

but I think this is quite possibly my number two now, and it's in serious contention for my number one on the year, and I think it's like a masterpiece. What was your second viewing, like, Marie? I, too, you know, enjoyed it more on rewatch because I was less concerned with, like, I guess, the structure of it and wondering how, like, okay, he killed this person. Now I'm waiting for, like, how is that aspect of the film going to pace itself out?

It does some interesting wrong footing, too, that the first time can throw you a little off balance. And I think that he has, there is, like, he has a sense of humor. But there, I think some of his films deal with more, like, shocking or upsetting things in them. And so sometimes when, I think, I didn't know this movie was going to be as goofy. I'm a cyborg, but that's okay. It was. I think is his closest thing to an out-and-out comedy and does seem to be the film that Americans have seen the least of his ove. And I would say, after that, this is like his second most overtly funny movie. It's like an insane tonal juggling act movie where he's constantly keeping three different balls in the air simultaneously and switching

which tones he's mashing up. And, you know, what's interesting is, like, the first, the first viewing, I wasn't expecting it to be as silly as it was, and then I think I kind of was stuck on that. The second time, while I do think I laughed more than anyone else in my audience, like, I was surprised that the other people watching the movie with me weren't connecting with the comedy as much, but I actually was a lot sadder this viewing, because, I thought about what is, like, what was lost by these men not having solidarity with one another and how not having solidarity with your, like, your peers is what has led us to the world that we live in.

I mean, I think, like, at almost all moments, this film is simultaneously operating as, like, a social statement tragedy, a, like, a, like, a, like farcical comedy and like a screw-turning thriller, which is insane. And it's not even doing like tone management switching off between those. It is like within each scene you're choosing which one you're almost prioritizing in your read. I also felt like I saw it with like a sold out Saturday night crowd, which was just very exciting to see this movie doing well at the screening I was at. I saw it at the Alamo downtown Brooklyn.

But, you know, I felt like neon has had this crazy year where it now looks quite possible, if not probable, that they're going to get all five Best Foreign Film nominations. I wouldn't be surprised if this one missed. This is, I was going to say, this feels like the least secure of them. And also people now think that at least two or three of those

will probably get into Best Picture as well. I think they're going to get three Best Picture nominations. Sentimental value. Secret Agent. It was just an accident, secret agent. That's right. And then people are now assuming Sarat is in fourth place and no other choices in fifth place for international film. Yeah, it's funny.

Serat is clicking more. I would assume that maybe one of those misses for like sound of falling or there's, you know, there's some sort of like prestige or voice of Hindri Shah. The president's cake is a movie I liked a lot. Yeah. Oh, the president's cake? Have you seen it? No. I know it's from Iraq.

It is. I don't know anything else about it. Yeah. It's not about the orange buffoon, is it? It is not. Okay. It's about Sodom Hussein. What?

The beret wearing buffoon. No, it's quite a good film. I liked a lot, highly encourage people to check it out. When did you check that one out? Went to a screening a month or two ago. Wow. Yeah. Did you get the neon screeners?

Yeah. I get it over here. I get their beloved box. Yeah. Well, David Ehrlich will not let me borrow the Surat screener. Why? Because... He's cranking it to Surrano.

No, because he's like, you're not allowed to watch that at home. Why? What? Because it's like, the thing about Syrat, which is another film, you have to be in a full cedar and the noise needs to be really loud. I'm like, bro. Gatekeeper. Stop it. Oh, okay. But so he's saying, like, is the music. I mean, I guess so. Because like, people are like, wow, Surat's really intense and gnarly. And I watch it.

And I'm like, well, yeah, intense and gnarly things happen in Surat. But that's a very, like, sort of absurd and strange movie. I don't think it's like avatar. where, like, if I watch it on my TV... You can watch it however you like. Thank you. I certainly do not agree with it. If you want my neon box, you can have it.

That was kind of the... I just want to watch the... The point I'm trying to make here. Yes. When this film was announced, I feel like fairly early in 2025, this is happening. Neon is partnered, right?

And we will talk about how... We can briefly talk about how, you know, this is a Parktime work project that has long gestated, and he would keep saying, like, that's one of my future things. things. I want to do that annotation of the act. It has been 15 years of him saying, this is my potential masterpiece. Like, not Babe Ruth calling a shop, but he's just like,

I have located this book that to me feels like the vehicle for me to make my grand statement about everything that animates me. He has called it a lifetime project. He's said it could be his masterpiece. Yeah. So yes, long gestestating. So it was like announced, this is finally fucking happening. Neon is on board. It's going to get a significant American distribution, presumably, because they're co-financing and not buying it after the fact, and it's going to play festivals this year. And we were just like, holy shit, this fucking thing is happening. Well, according to Wikipedia, the poor man's JJ Burch, this was supposed to be in English. We'll get into all of that. Okay. But that was part of it, I didn't know that.

The part of the announcement was it's happening and he's decided to make it a Korean film. Obviously, this film is based on a Donald Westlake novel called The Axe, which is a American... You say obviously, and I did not know that until last night. Wow. Well, I know because I've read many a dossier by J.J. Burchard dossier maker... Oh, the rich man's Wikipedia? When we did the Park Jamwook series in which you talked about, this is a potential... There's the book.

And you may not also know that, of course, that book had prior... By Costa Gavras. 20 years ago. Yes. as Le Coupee. Which is French four. The Axe. The Axe.

Yeah. Coupéry. And Custer Gravus' widow and one of his sons are credited as producers on this movie because they still held rights. All three are different. I've not been able to track down the French movie. There seems to be no way to watch this film. Even with VPNs, I could not figure out a way to watch it anywhere. It has only ever been released in an out-of-print Blu-ray Costa Gravis volume 2-Bi.

said. They don't got this shit on Carragaga? No, it's like insane. I couldn't find it anywhere. If anyone has a link, please let me know. But yes, this has been a long in the works thing. It's announced. Neons on board. It's happening. It's going to come out in 2025. Then it plays Venice.

I feel like got a really strong initial burst of excitement. It got a very, I feel, a very strong reputation. Even going into the festival, there was this feeling of, like, Park is kind of one of those filmmakers where you could see it just being his moment. Here is a parasite kind of crossover moment.

Here's a guy who's had films that have, like, connected here in the States before, and is this the year that an increasingly international academy puts their arms around him and starts taking him seriously as a major filmmaker. And then it, like, didn't win any of the major awards of Venice. And then it has kind of felt like this movie was on ice between the beginning of September and its release at the very end of December. And from the moment I saw it, I was like, on its face, this feels like the most commercial and accessible of the movies

Neon has. Look, it got three indie spirit. Oh, no, no, Gotham not. It got two gold globes for picture and actor. Yeah, it did pretty, I thought that was... Nominations. It got Glove, though? Because it's a comedy.

Because it's a comedy. Right, right, right. So there you go. Yeah, I just think it's like... Okay, so I'm just going to push back a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, because, I mean, I think this movie is very long. It takes kind of a...

It's got, like, such a killer premise, literally. Mm-hmm. But it takes a long time to actually start executing, literally, on that premise. And it's got the tonal switching and all that. That I actually think audiences can handle, and other Korean movies have broken through that also had that kind of... I've seen people compare this to parasite in terms of subject matter and tone. A little simplistic. I agree.

But I think that, they are filmmakers who are very closely tied or close friends have come up together. There is a part of me that imagines knowing that this is a book he wanted to adapt for so long that he sees Bong making parasite and he's like, is it finally time for me to make this? You know, there are similarities in the material. Did it help motivate him to be like, fuck? I got to prioritize this.

But they feel like very different films dealing with similar themes. Yeah, no, sure. But I've had it, multiple people text me saying like, I liked it. Had a little bit of a hard time crack. and into it, like, whatever. Like, you know, I've definitely gotten some vibes from people of like, yeah. And that is not quite how I felt.

I had a great time watching it. I was very engaged. I thought it was funny. It hasn't, it didn't quite stick with me. Where do I have it on my list? You know, I have it in kind of like the 20s. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, like 20s, teens. Kind of close to like, Sirot. I'm just like, it is. My question truly is like, is it? It was more like a four-star movie to me. One. Yeah, no, you have it right at the top there. Yeah.

And I was more just like... Yeah, my first watch, I had it like five or six, and now it's moved up to like three, two, one. I was recently at the Criterion office. You were, too, but... Yeah, let's say we. Well, no, because you were a little late. What are we talking about this?

Well, I had a meeting a criterion with Griffith. We had a meeting criterion, and you were waiting for me. That's a better way. Wow, you were 20 minutes like. You were 20 minutes late to your criterion meeting. It was 15. You were 15. Wow.

A lot of things were going on. It was in a chaotic week. And as I walk into the lobby of their building, like not even the offices, Li Biong-Hung is just there. Like checking in at the desk. Like signing, you know, like you have to do to a Manhattan office building. Just like on your name here and a signature here, please. I love how multiple times in the movie people are like, you know you're really good looking.

He is just a shiny motherfucker. You're just like, whoa. Like, you know, he's such a movie star. Like, it's surprising, considering the character you're playing, how good looking you are. The movie kind of frames it as, like, is it a little past tense? The guy has aged unbelievably when we did our... Obviously, he's all the way back in Joint Security Air.

He's worked with... When we did that episode, it boggled my fucking mind where I was like, this guy's 15 years older than I think he is. You know, like, how could he have been in this movie this early? And he's just starting to show age in a kind of Paul Rudd way where he still looks great, but you're like, the guy no longer looks 35 forever. Right, he's a, right. He's a mid-50s guy. He's 55.

I know, man. I think the movie weaponizes it so perfectly and such an incredible choice I think it makes is that they give him like a weirdly just a little bit to a natural die job. That it's not that they die out his grays. It's that he's got that aging guy thing where he starts putting colors in that would never be in hair. Yeah, his hair is like, there's sometimes when the sun shines on his hair. It's a little light brown. Yeah. Right, right.

And like this guy being like, do I have a mustache or not? Like, you can start to feel the crisis of him being like, are my looks gone in five years? Are these the last years of me being able to use that as a tool in my life? Right. But he's an astonishingly hitting. And I think it's a really good performance. It's a tremendous performance. He's got so many good facial reactions during the sequence.

during the sequence when he is like, you know, stalking out the gummo, bummo, the first guy he kills and his wife. The record collector. Yeah. The analog man. All of the snakes and stuff. Yeah.

You know, it's just so, he's funny. It's that thing I associate with a lot of Korean cinema, especially where, like, you know, you see these actors in these movies that crossover. You're like, God, this is such a lot. an incredible, like, this guy's, like, you know, I see this guy. I've seen this guy in like five movies in my life, but he's always so dramatic. Right. Of course, he was Storm Shadow.

He was, and Libyan Hung, of course. And GI Joe, Rise of Cobra, and GI Joe retaliation, a performance that swept the nation. And he's in, um, uh, Terminator Genesis. He's the T-1,000. And was he also in, no. He was not a magnificent seven? He is. He is. He is. Okay. He was one of the seven. Yep. Yeah. You know. I've never seen that. I know. But then you, like, look at there. And it's like, yeah, but also they do like a bunch of like crazy comedies. And like, you know, in their native country, they're doing all this stuff that would never translate. He's a bit of a Mads-Mickleson type where like he has been in many major American

studio films basically always hired to do the exact same thing. And then you're like, oh, in his home country, he does everything. In his home country, he is like the most versatile, powerful movie star. And we always kind of hire him to be a kind of stealthy. Is he also in Red 2? Let's see. Yes. Right. Red, too. So he had like five big video films.

He did a bunch of action movies in Hollywood. But it was always kind of being icy intense action guy. Definitely often, I feel like not being handed even much dialogue. Just like, right? Because that's what Storm Shadow is just like a silent assassin. Cool, deadly presence. Right. Supporting character.

But yeah, I feel like he's such a comedic talent. And this spotlights that in all kinds of fun ways. Even just the way he plays his. tooth problem in this movie. A thing I relate too deeply as someone who spent a year of his life tangled and fucking dental nightmares. And he plays it almost

in like a pantomimey way. They like establish this visual language of him tapping the side of his mouth to try to relieve the pain at like his back jaw. That feels like how you would illustrate in a pamphlet at a dentist's office what tooth pain looks like.

But it makes it so easy then to have any scene get heightened by him starting to tap the jaw and be like, oh, right, and that's also part of it. This can be a recurring visual. Speaking of tapping, they do the tapping as a psychological exercise in the beginning of the movie. Yes. Have you done that in therapy? I've done versions of that, yeah.

Yeah. Marie and I share a therapist. We do. So I sometimes will do that. I feel like I don't do the head one. Oh, I do the head one. Which they do in this movie. There's a forehead tapping that's a center.

that you see this movie has, shows both alcoholic recovery groups and also unemployment recovery groups that are so twinned and almost overlapping and intertwined. But yes, there's a forehead tapping that's a centering, and then there's a jaw tapping

that's a sort of like redistribution of focus and pain. I don't know how that's showing up on Mike Ben, I apologize. Now that we're all tapping. Tap, tap, tap, tap. But I just, I love anytime a movie can do that,

where it's just like, oh, there's now this really clean sort of physical gesture that can just as shorthand in a scene add another layer. So, let's talk about that way. Okay. Donald Westlake publishes the Axe in 1997. Yes. Westlake, you know, gigantic, like, crime writer has like hundreds of books. He's the Richard Stark guy. Is that, yeah. Right, which is Spencer. Dispenter, the Parker series.

I'm sorry, not Spencer Parker, yes. But, you know, he wrote a bunch of other, you know, heroes and all that. I'm not a crime fiction guy. It's always such a deep world, but I know the name, obviously. So the act comes out in 1997, guy to paper companies laid off, looks for employment for 18 months, and starts to hunt down the people who could take the job that he thinks should be his. Donald Westlake wrote point blank. Yes.

Yes. Right, because that's also part of the part. Parker series. I'm looking, yeah. Parker books have been adapted so many times, but half the times they're adapted as Parker books and half the times they're spun out to be different things. So like, uh, what? They're, the play dirty, the recent Shane Black Amazon movie, which I regrettably still

haven't watched is a Parker adaptation. But then there was a Taylor Hackford, Jennifer Lopez fucking, uh, Statham Parker. Yeah, called Parker. Right. Anyway. He wrote the screenplay for the Grifter. but did not write a book, because I think that's an original...

No, it's a Jim Thompson book that he adapted. It's published in 97. It's adapted by Casas Gravis. Costa Gavros. Excuse me. I apologize. About eight years later, and then Park gets to it,

like, 20 years after that. The decision to keep it in paper... Yes. The passage of time, it is one of those things that, like, just pays off so greatly that you're like,

in 1997, there's not as much of an existential threat to paper. And paper is the perfect thing for me because it's not like, oh, this is a technology that's going to be completely replaced. Well, is that true, though? Because, like, 97 is like the beginning of, like, the internet and email.

But people are still very far away. I mean, people are reading books and newspapers and all that still. I just think that, like, paper. There's no iPad. Paper will never not exist. Yeah, we do need paper. I do feel like it will always exist, but it's the perfect industry.

because you're like, it's only going to shrink. It will never shrink to zero. It's never going to be nothing. But it's clearly on the downturn. Have you guys thought about, like, what your, like, AI-proof job would be? Wait, what does that mean? Like, I'm looking at AI copy and...

No, like, what... No. Like, what job... Because... Oh, oh, AI-proof. My answer is... Like, I'm a plumber and no AI can fucking figure that out or whatever. My answer is just... Keeping this podcast sloppy and unstructured enough that AI can't do it.

Can't do it. Can't get this sloppy. Because I'll see some of these other AI podcasts and they're good. And people try to, they try to do the AI blank check and they're like, these guys are so unprofessional. There's no way to replicate this. You mean you'll see like an AI replica of a podcast? People have done AI Joe Rogan with dead people and it's like 99.9% spot.

Well, isn't that because Joe Rogan is most just going like, yeah. Correct. Like he's not really like. But here's what, like, AI can't figure out which episode we'll talk about Becker for 20 minutes. That's true. I'm trying to make this show AI proof in that way. That's so true. Who thought we talk about the floor and the belly of the stranger things creature?

Why does it have... It should be like a stomach. It's a strange thing. With like a lake of acid. But I think they're, like, trying to switch things up on you. Yeah. In a strange way. That would be pretty normal if it was a stomach like of acid.

Even circling back to the belly, that's another thing that AI wouldn't do. AI would be like clearly put that tangent to bed. You're actually talking about the movie in question now. No, if AI... I might like AI actually. Maybe we should ring it. It's going to shut him up. Jesus Christ.

Suddenly a show is hosted by AI and David's happy because it has a quote ready to go. Exactly. It starts a lot to nine minutes. Right, it obeys the clock. No, I would never. I decry AI. Look, it's heightened and it's more extreme, but watching Blue Moon, I did have a couple moments where I'm like, it's kind of like the Griffin and David dynamic, the working relationship of Lorenzen Hart.

Yeah, a little bit. Oh, so you're interesting. Are you... I'm the little guy. What do you think? You said Lorenz and Hart, but that's... No, it's Lorenz. I'm sorry.

Lorenz and Rogers. Lorenz and Rogers. I am Richard Rogers, I suppose, in that. scenario in that you're coming up and you're like, big idea. Okay. What if we, and I'm like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, maybe. We could also not do that.

The C-I-I-I-N-R-Grescott very empathetically is like. That seems fucking incredible. Will you actually commit to a schedule? I would say, I was like, yeah, but. You know what, Griffin, I will. I will say you're not as, you're not as toxic. I said it's a more extreme version. I think that character is both more toxic and less functional than I am.

I don't think you have like an alcohol problem. No, no, I don't. Yeah, no. And you don't like, you're not like relentlessly talking shit to anyone who listen. No, I also got like five inches on Lorenz's heart. You do. Yeah. Because he was like under, he was under five feet.

Yeah. Was he really? Yeah. Like, he was like medically. The movie rules. Really short. Like, he wasn't just normal. He was around five foot tall, which is a divido size.

I could fucking dunk on that guy. Yeah, you could. Especially because in the movie makes this very clear. He had this weird medical condition. where he couldn't move in place. He could only take steps if he's being filmed from the shoulders up. Well, people are like,

I can't believe they cast hockey's too tall for it. I'm like, well, there's not a lot of people who are that short. Like, I guess, are we getting DeVito? Low Cam. I mean, it's funny to him, but you can't put Tobito at a bar because then I'm just thinking

if it's always sunny. Oh, that's so true. And why does the mind flare's stomach look like a floor? Why isn't it? You know what I mean? Ben, have you seen Blue Moon? No.

So it's... Ben, I think you'd like it. You'd love it. I would be really interested in Nellie's take on it because it's very much about show people. And it takes place at the after party for the opening night of Oklahoma. Is Ben Hammerstein or is he...

No, Ben is Bobby Kenevali. Yes. So who's Hammerstein? Hammerstein is whoever I kick your ass out or replace you with someone good. Who we got? Hammerstein's the Mets podcast. Good luck with that.

God. I don't think you've listened to my Mets podcast, but not a highly structured hour, I would say. I would not, I would not call that my Oklahoma. And I'm Margaret Quali, because I'm the woman. Yeah, you're a woman. I'm woman. And when you show up, everyone's like, how's woman? How is woman?

Who is woman? Just before we move on from this. From the movie? No, from what would your AI job be? Because I actually spent a lot of time, my AI proof job. I spent a lot of time thinking about this. I would get into mortuary services. Interesting.

I actually thought about this during COVID. Like, embalming or just like helping organize the funeral as an event? All of it. All of it. So you're going to have a big house. You'd be pumping like the green juice into the bodies and shit. I would do the makeup. Okay. But like there are always dead people.

So this to me feels like that is a job that there will always be room for. You know, with your humans. I hear you. I mean, but what if it's just a robot that does it? You say that. A robot won't, because there are two. It's two fault. They always say, well, a robot won't do it.

Well, maybe it will. Marie, you say they'll always be death, but I'm friends with a certain tech billionaire who keeps injecting young penis blood into his face and has promised me that he will never die. And he has so many stats about how many erections he gets. And he has all of them to show you. I'm good friends with that guy.

Oh, my God. This episode is already so funny. You look at pictures before he decided to cheat death, and it's like, oh, it's a regular person. Then he looks like boo from super murray. He's just the whitest ghost you've ever seen. Did you see that clip of he did some interview recently? And the interviewer goes, true or false?

You will die someday. And he goes, false. There's a hesitation of how slowly he tries to be like, no, but he can't say it confidently. Just for those who may not know who the fuck you're talking about. Me included. Who is this? His name's Brian Johnson. He's some fucking tech monster.

I don't know what I don't think he's even affiliated. with any sort of like noteworthy website. He started some company that sold for a billion dollars that we've never heard of. So Ben, that you're like... Here's a guy. Looks like a normal sort of tech guy to you.

He like created like the semicolon on the keyboard or whatever. What if I told you he's done so much sheeting death work and spinning his blood and whatever? Then now he looks like this. Hottie. Wow. Wow. Wow.

He's like, I'm trying to be the first person to not die and not age. And one of his things is he's got like a teen son or like a 20-something son. And he does like daily. blood transfusions of the young blood and he's like, this is one of the way. Yeah. Like, he's just got all these weird treatments

he does and he just like the fucking poison tech bro brain people will be like, look at how, can you believe this guy is 55? And I'm like, he doesn't look 25. So he's what you're arguing. He's not even...

He just looks like a different species now. So this is what's fucking crazy. He's not even 50. He's 48. And he only... You know what? That fucking guy is person for me. Yes.

It's crazy. Leave Hong Kong looks younger. 100% than this fucking dude. Yeah. And that guy's murdering people. Yeah. David? Yes.

Burr. Chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter. Is there a polar express going by? Rubbing arms. I wish. I wish I could get inside because on that train, they serve drinks that are hot, hot, hot. They never let them cool. Never, ever let them cool.

No. Unfortunately, I have not acquired a ticket to the Polar Express. No. I am stuck. Because you do not believe. in freezing winter or lead. It's a new year with colder days. And this is the moment, David.

This is the moment your winter wardrobe has to deliver. This is true. It's been quite chilly in NYC. Those feels like temps have been low. And you know what I've been relying on? What? Some premium outerwear from quints. Well, well, well, if you're Craven a winter reset,

like Craven the Hunter. You can start with pieces truly made to last season after season. Quince, we know, brings together premium materials, thoughtful design, and enduring quality so you stay warm, look sharp, and feel your best all season long. What you've been getting, Dave? To quote, dizzy rascal, it is time to fix up and look sharp. And to quote the conductor. Hot, hot, hot. Quince has got everything you need.

Got men's Mongolian cashmere sweaters. I've got one of those in zip form. Maybe I should get another. Yeah. Well, coats, leather and suede outerwear. This stuff is going to hold up to daily wear, but it's also going to. going to look good. Outerware especially impressive. Down jackets, wool coats, Italian leather outerwear,

keeps you warm when it's actually very, very cold. It's all made from premium materials by trusted factories that meet rigorous standards for craftsmanship and ethical production. That's right, because Quince cuts out the middleman and traditional marks up. They're going to give you luxury brand quality at a fraction of the price. Classic styles that are going to hold up year after year. I say it every time. You're beside yourself.

I own a lot of Quince stuff. You own a lot of Quince. Like, I got my discount code from them way back when. Ain't no one anymore. I'm just buying it. You just buying it. Full price. Although, almost, they've almost always got some kind of sale going on.

I mean, $50 cashmere. That's its own tab on the website right now. Yeah, yeah, no, they've got really cool stuff. Big fan of their polos, as I've said before. I've definitely admitted to this. Got some sheets and a comforter, a full comforter. From Quince. From Quince.

You listening to me? Of all places. I was going to share, actually, my wife's mother. So my mother She recently, through Quince, purchased some jewelry. Oh, my goodness. Is it cashmere jewelry?

It is not cashmere jewelry. But she got herself a vengeance-inspired ring. It's really beautiful. So, I mean, Quince has got it all. Yeah, seriously. Quince has got it all. Well, we said that simultaneous

sounded planned. It was not. It's almost like Quinth has got it all. It's almost like, I should go to Quincy and just like get some raspberries. I just start saying what else they got. They got it all. Okay. refresh your winter wardrobe with quince.

Go to quince.com slash check for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. Oh, thank God. Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash check. Free shipping and 365 day returns, quince.com slash check.

David? Yes. I got a challenge for you. Okay. Do your best impression of a chime. Bing. This is interesting, right? Like, if I say the word chime,

how do you vocalize that? B'am. I'm like, is it like, bring, ring. Or is that, by making it multiples, does that define? I feel like now we're in ring territory, not chime.

Pring. Is it like a pring? Do you know what I'm saying? Ben, do you have any opinions on this? It's interesting. I'm trying to think of my take on a chime. Yeah.

Kind of like, you're more of a tring kind of thing. Here's my kind of unconventional impression of a chime, okay? I'm hearing. I'm listening. Hello, I'm chime. I'm changing the way people bank. Yes.

There's a. company called Chime. That's so true. And they're sponsoring this episode. Chime's got fee-free and smarter banking built for you. It's not those old school banks that charge you overdrafts and monthly fees. Built for you, not the 1%. Chime unlocks smarter banking for everyday people with products like my pay, which gives

you access to up to $500 of your paycheck anytime, and getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Some old banks still don't do this. Here's my impression of one of those old banks. Here's another fee for you. And here's my impression of Chime. Hey, what's up, man? No fees, baby.

Yeah, forget overdraft fees. Forget minimum balance fees. Forget monthly fees. Chim turns every day spending into real rewards and progress. You get paid when you say up to $500. You can earn up to 3.5% APY on your savings, which is eight times higher than a traditional bank. That is pretty high.

That is pretty high. It's rated five stars by USA Today for customer service. got real humans on the line 24-7. Many a bank cannot say that. I can definitely confirm that. Very true. The last time I called my bank, I think I got like a wildebeest on the line.

There's just something barking at me. Some banks actually just have plant sent to the phone. Yeah. Yeah. Look, they've got a new card that unlocks safer credit building and cashback with everyday spending. So imagine cashback and credit building with your own money, finally on the same card.

That's kind of cool. No annual fees, no interest, no strings attached. And when you get qualifying direct deposit, you get 1.5% cashback on eligible time card purchases. So I think my younger self would have benefited from this, Griff, when I was getting used to banking.

Yes. As opposed to the babe in the woods that I was going to wherever I went. I can tell you, but I probably shouldn't say it on this app. Bank of the woods. I banked with a woods witch. It was weird. Just run by a wallabies.

She just put my money into a tree. To a hole in a tree. And to go get the money from the hole. Listen, you can switch to Chime in just a few minutes. It's going to be one of the easiest moves you ever make. You don't just switch banks. You upgrade to a smarter fee-free. I like saying that.

Fee-free. Free way of managing your money. You'll never feel more in control of your paycheck. Chime is not just smarter banking. It is the most rewarding way to bank. Join the millions who are already banking fee-free today. It just takes a few minutes to sign up. Head to chime.com slash blank check.

That is. Chime.com slash blank check. Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services, a secured Chime Visa credit card and my pay line of credit

provided by the Bank or N.A or stride bank N.A. My pay eligibility requirements apply and credit limit ranges $20 to $500. Option. See chime.com slash fees info. Advertised annual percent and yield with Chime Plus status only.

Otherwise, 1.000% APY applies. No mean balance required. Chime card on time payment history may have a positive impact on your credit score. Results may vary. See chime.com for details and applicable terms. No other choice. No other choice.

So it's, yeah, so ParkChamwick, the great Korean director, Park Genwick, as far back as 2009, says I want to remake the acts, I want to, or I want to, you know, adapt the novel. The book feels much more kind of like capital-ass satire, and it's more kind of like American corporate rat race thinking. And also, as you called out, Marie, in the very setup, it's like, this guy goes through 18 months of unemployment and is just like, fuck, nothing's working. I guess I go to murder. And it feels a little bit like a sort of Dr. Strange Love-esque heightening of an anxiety, if that makes sense, versus this movie that is sort of about how short a walk it is for someone to start justifying those things.

I feel like this movie also is probably, you know, it is definitely about the crisis of AI a little bit. Like, you know, it's sort of woven in a little thin, you know, like, but the end of the movie, the robots. Yes. Like, I certainly was thinking about it. the crisis of whatever, I'm not, I cannot speak to Korea's current economic situation, but knowing the economic situation of most countries, I'm guessing it's tenuous. And that there's like, you know, sort of employment crises. Yes, there's also like a decline in unions and employee protections and this sort of,

this attitude, which is, is unemployment is like record high. That is very much, I feel like it's an American thing of the sort of like every man for himself. sort of ethos, which is now spreading outside of America to other countries that used to be more community-based. Yes.

I think it's about AI, but I think the ending certainly hammers at home. I think the larger thing it's about which all these things are tendrils of is this sort of like a point of no return too far down the road

path we have put ourselves on to like self-inflicted redundancy. Right? Sure. And, and, like, being, like, have we, are we outmoding ourselves? Are we making ourselves obsolescent as a species? And also, I think, this extension of, he, for a long time thought he wanted this to be his, like, big American debut.

I think because he was like, this is a book about America. And specifically, like, the American idea of capitalism and corporate culture and endless growth and all these sorts of things. he hires Don McKellar, who is Canadian, but is an English speaker, to write it for him. And then he gets offered Stoker. And Stoker has suddenly served on a plate. Here's a Hollywood movie.

Here's big stars attached. He goes and does that. And then he goes through years of like, well, should I do this? Should I do that? And he keeps it on the kind of back burner. He and McKellar end up doing the sympathizer together. There was a story that I feel like

got a lot of traction, whatever months ago, that both of them were, like, kicked out of the WGA. And if you read just the headline, the sympathizer was the HBO show, the Robert Dine Jr. was on that kind of came and went, despite getting some Emmy nominations. The two of them wrote it together every episode and part directed the first two, I think. And it was sort of framed as if they had scabbed during the writer's strike. When in fact, and it speaks to the murkiness of all these things, what they had done was in editing while the strike was happening and production had finished made certain narrative changes in the edit.

Yeah, no, it felt like a little. The WGA's panel ruled that they had not... Right. But the headline about the original accusation was louder than when they were sort of absolved of it, if that makes sense. It was all just sort of like weird corporate stupidness of like the way you're defining writing is wrong. It's all about what constitutes, quote, writing services.

DGA does not think what they were doing is writing the WGA does a WJ trial committee recommended a censure the board decided to expel them unsure why everyone was a little baffling an incredibly stupid thing I just wanted to acknowledge

quickly but I mean maybe But as you said for years it was always this like well does he want to make another Korean film before he makes this big Hollywood film he wants no other choice to be a Hollywood film does he then need stars does he then need financing what scale does he want it to be

And then there was this sudden announcement of like, he's doing it as a Korean film. He's reteaming with the star of his first movie ever. Or I should say, his breakthrough film. Yeah, not as first. I forgot the two movies that we clumped together. And it's happening right now, which was just a really fucking exciting announcement.

And it does feel like one of these movies where you're like, unlike certain directors' dream projects that they sort of stew on for 20 plus years. And when it ends up coming out, you're like, fuck, is it a little overcook now? did they miss the window, you sort of feel like if he had made this any earlier, it wasn't going to be ready.

This movie kind of had to meet the moment, which I think is, as we're saying, that there's this notion of, did we finally sell other countries on the success of our societal system, on the functionality and the value of capitalism? We're talking about capitalism, baby? Yes.

And then just in time. Rugged individual. Just in time for us to start, like, collapsing. What? And everyone else to look around and be like, why did you fucking trick us into this? We're doing great. Things are good. I think it's more impactful to not have this movie be set in America

and have it set in a place where, like, the movie starts with him being fired because an American company has bought his South Korean company. And the whole thing is like, so, like, our whole sense of, like, tradition and civilization, we basically allowed to be transformed by the, this Western way of thinking that is now crumbling on us as well. Like, we've handed everything over to these sort of self-appointed geniuses in, like, finance and technology. And now we're all just kind of, like, placing ourselves on a conveyor belt to be

chopped up for bits. I would, like, though, to, I don't want maybe complicate or add more, like, shading to that thesis is I do think that outside of, like, a nationalistic, point of view, I do think there's a lot in the film about, like, masculinity and the, like, need to sort of present this image of masculinity that doesn't feel necessarily, like, American to me. I think it's a universal idea of masculinity that... Yes, I think this movie is very much about a crisis of masculinity and how it relates to being employed, you know, and being the breadwinner and all that.

idea of, I think, a larger emphasis on a sociological level, on a psychological level of your identity is your career. And to a secondary degree, your identity is sort of like what you do with the spoils of your career, right? You are what you do, and what you make from that funnels into the second aspect of who you want to be. Whether it's you define yourself by look, I'm a provider with a family with a nice house and a beautiful wife, or like the final guy he has to go to whose wife leaves him, but is like, but I always wanted a house like this and a barbecue like this. I want a pit like this, you know?

He wants to be on Instagram showing all his hobbies. Did that, did you have any notes on his pit pen? I thought it was interesting. I mean, it speaks to him being a little green and a little novice. Yeah, a little bit of a... New viewers, a new listener should know, not viewers. He's a barbecue tourist. That Griffin is apparently a really experienced pit master.

I've never actually seen him run a pit. He's buying for optics rather than for function, I would say, which is you get into a lot. I mean, look, this is the problem of social media, barbecuing, you know? Oh, yeah. Is it's like what's going to look good versus what's going to taste good, which for me, I just care about. The look on my friend's faces when I serve them, my delicious cue. That's the only thing I care about. And it's actually the only thing I've ever cared about.

I do. Which just makes sense because you're over. serving us barbecue as you consider as good friends. Correct. And we're always going over. Yes. I've been to Griffin's house so many times. I love having guests.

Zero. Zero. Yeah. Because this is a real slow cook. Yeah. That's why we can't come over. The brisket I'm working on right now. It's still,

it's still, it's been a couple years. Also, the apartment is just, five degrees. It's just a cloud of smoke. It's really hard to even see in there. I will say that this, like, South Koreans, they have a barbecue culture of their own,

which feels distinct from the American barbecue tradition, which Griffin is an expert in. Yes. No, I love Korean barbecue, but I would not profess to understanding. I'm just an enjoyer. In that case, I'm just a consumer. I agree with you,

and I think it's sort of this feeling of, like, how do you define the value of a man in a society that basically has evolved past the core skills? of what a man should be doing, you know? Like this, the kind of, this is the general, like, masculinity and crisis stuff of, like, men feel like they're pointless now. Well, yeah, and the whole, even the fucking title,

no other choice, which I, like, I made this list of things that I liked in every movie that I saw, which I think is... I read it, and I thought it was great. Thanks, David. I think it's a really fun exercise and more people should do it. But I love how many different times,

different characters utter that they had no way. other choice in a situation. I think, and I could be wrong here, I think everyone who says it is a man. And there is a difference in, like, flexibility between the way women are presented and men are presented in the film. Whereas, like, the wife in this movie is like,

well, here, I'm, this is the situation that we're in, and I'm going to adapt to it. And she is very proactive. She gets a job. She is willing to change immediately. in order to, you know, help her family and a death. He doesn't want to tell her what's going on

because that is more uncomfortable to him than, you know, having a, yeah, having a proper conversation. He'd rather murder. It is one of my favorite things in this movie and one that the second viewing really unfolded for me, not falling for its misdirect, right?

I feel like roughly the first half of this movie, it's putting you into his headspace of, the ultimate stakes here are she will leave him. He's going to get cucked. She's going to fuck someone else. The second he doesn't have a good career, she's going to leave him for someone back.

Right, which a lot of these movies do operate this way. They introduce like a potential love interest for her. Immediately. Immediately. Like he's on the phone with her telling her that he lost the job and then the dentist walks over to her on the tennis court and here's this handsome guy standing above her and you feel like the movie is telling him.

telling you, uh-oh, clock is ticking. Like, he has to prove his worth. And it ends up to be a complete red herring. Right? Like, that is never really at risk in the movie. And in fact, the only thing that even potentially puts it at risk is his lack of transparency with her. Which starts to just look like he's having an affair or whatever because he's so suspicious. If he had just realized that she's, you know, she's not the volleyball player that she used to be.

But she's still a whole person. If we've learned one lesson. Talk to balls about marriage. From the films of 2025, it is, guys, stop taking photos of your wife from behind. Take photos of them from the front. Faces. Faces.

No one wants to see their back, despite how impressive the spike is. Show me the face. I tried to keep track on the second viewing of every time no other choices said, and I think I got the complete list in my head. Marie, you were saying right before record,

it's not a direct translation. The title is sort of transliterated, literally, as it cannot be helped. Now, I don't understand the nuances of the Korean language well enough to know if that's just like, whatever, how that sounds literally. I don't know. My analysis, the through line of every time it is said by someone, is the lie they are telling themselves. They are convincing themselves. It is why they are going through the trouble of saying it out loud. they have to convince themselves

of what they're about to do possibly a terrible thing that they're about to do is in fact this is the only option There's no other choice There's no other choice In every case there is

many other choices They could make at that moment The first time it is said This movie opens Here's this guy Mansu Two kids, two dogs Beautiful house

Beautiful wife Works at a paper company Yep Underbiffel They've been bought out by a larger American company Stanley shows up Do you think it would have been

an easier sell. Oscar. If they called this movie, The Paper. Yeah, they should have called it that. They should have called it that. The paper now only on Peacock. That's the name of the film.

The American bosses want the senior employees Meredith to create the list of potential redundancies. Creed first to go. Creed's got to go. Creepy vibes. Meredith.

A drunk. Yes. A partier. Wow, she's crazy. Yeah. Angela. A Flander. Tight ass.

Yeah. He has this big, moral grandstanding speech to his underlings. I refuse to do that. That's not the character of this place. It's not the history of this place. I'm going to go to that American, these fat American cats, and I'm going to tell them what for, and I'm going to explain to them why they cannot do this. And I refuse to do this. He gets half a sentence out before the American guy goes, sorry, there's no other choice, closes the door on him, and then he finds out that he is fired. Right? So it's like this big stance he was taking up, I'm not going to be this kind of guy.

is irrelevant. He doesn't get the chance to try to prove what he thinks he needs to prove to himself. Then he's out the door. The second time no other choice is said

is Bumo, the first guy who ends up dying. Mr. Analog. Yes. Who says, why can't you get a job in another field?

And he says something like, I'm a paper man. There's no other choice. I cannot do anything but work in paper. It fulfills him. It is my life. It is intertwined

with my sense of self. So inexplicably. The third time, he says it is when he's, we're obviously going deep in a spoiler territory here, about to kill a shoe salesman, and he's doing the tapping on his forehead. It's the first time that he's really going to just unequivocally murder somebody, and he's telling himself it's what he has to do. And then I think the fourth time is the guy with the house at the end is talking about stealing a competitor's product and their process in order to survive. And I think we should just spell out,

but why is there no other choice? He's, he's like, like whittling down the candidates that he is deemed, who will be a better suited for the one position. The premise of this one open job. No, the job isn't even open. Right. He needs to kill. Yes, he needs to kill everyone ahead of him

in terms of like kind of a job score. And then kill the guy who's currently holding that. Right. Well, no. So it's like, let's say I want David Sims' job at the Atlantic. So I can kill David Sims. and then I'll be hired, right? Wrong.

Because I'm going to be competing with thousands of other people for that job. Well, there's also another problem, which is David has signed up for Project Phoenix an experimental initiative in which his consciousness is being backed up onto a Navee avatar. And if you murder him, a taller David Sims will arrive.

It's a potent mix. He says it in the first episode. Yeah, he doesn't say it in the second one. You said he says it, it's the first. I think he says it in the second. I think he repeats it in the second possibly as a callback. But he says it the first time. I just rewatch Avatar 1 because, you know, I like

to have a good time and party. Yeah. I'm imagining David with a party had a noise maker watching Avatar 1 a long. He's fucking having a great time over here. His wife comes out. What are you doing? Watching fucking Avatar.

Having a good time. Party animal. And he's throwing confetti into the air. I'm a cool dude. Happy New Year. And it's when Jake is saying to Quarich, like, So, you know, this is the situation. I've gotten kind of taken in by, you know, and like,

and I'm going to interrupt it. And he's like, oh, a Marine and Avatar body. Kind of a potent mix. Potent. He does say it in the second one as well. I'm going to figure out when it is. He loses this job. And there's this immediate.

clocking. And this is one of those things that makes it a little bit hard to track the movie on the first go. It introduces like 15 primary characters in the first 15 or 20 minutes of the movie. The vast majority of whom our main character hasn't actually met yet.

And might not really matter for a while. Some of them you don't circle back to until 90 minutes later. So they're front-loading so much kind of like landscape information because this guy basically immediately surveys the the sort of paper industry landscape in Korea.

And there's this feeling of like, all these companies are getting bought by larger, older American companies or Japanese companies. They're being consolidated. They're being folded. They're being merged. Like, the number of jobs is just constantly being cut in half. And all these companies are using technology

to also then further eliminate jobs. And so he's like trying to do the math on basically, how do I get on one of the last lifeboats off the time? Titanic. It is part of for me the like supreme kind of satirical greatness of this movie is that like all of his mechanations are for something that might barely last. What are you laughing at, Marie? Did you just send us something? Marie just sent us a tweet. I'm sorry, a Ziet. Okay. This is from the Avatar Wikia, which I've been spending a lot of time on. I find it really funny that because of Avatar the last

airbender. The domain name is like James Cameron's avatar the wikia.com. Verong aliases. Cupcake, lady, baby, sugar, which, I'm sorry, cupcake, lady, baby, and sugar are all credited to recon porridge, which credited to Nate Thierney. And bitch. Credit to kidding. Yeah, but I just feel like it's, it's kind of how I feel about myself, you know? I'm a witch. I'm a cupcake. I'm a lady. I'm a sugar. I'm a sugar.

I'm a witch. I think there's this sort of satirical thing at the heart of no other choice of him thinking like, right, if I can just kill everyone off and kill this guy, I'll get his job. It's like there won't be any jobs. Like you're saying, like the jobs are just all going to go away. It's an inevitability. You can't keep killing people. They'll just keep getting rid of jobs. They don't want to hire you or employ you or employ anyone.

But symptomatic. They're sick of humans. symptomatic of a larger issue that's just like this guy goes like if the 20 years I've spent in this one industry doesn't matter right then who am I my entire sense of self it's gone and then I assume my wife's gonna fuck a younger guy and I'm like I'm gonna lose my house I don't know look in the mirror because I see a handsome guy we can't but yes no of course it's his sense of self's been devastated but like

the the Donald West like thing strikes me as more like it's a corporate satire doggy dog world you do have And I feel like Parksham Wook's arriving at this like, yeah, that even that's not really going to work for him. And all these guys want is to have absurd houses filled with champagne and cigars and whiskey and fucking hot tubs and like all. And just to live the most absurd like kind of exodus. And look, that's what I want. That's why I do this shitty podcast to collect your money so I can build my mansion. Excuse me.

What? The podcast. Ben cut all that out. The podcast is shitty only so that AI can't replicate it. We're outfoxing it. Anything you think is bad about this show is just future proof. That's what Donald Trump does is our president. He's so shitty.

And all his decisions make no sense. So no one can think what he's doing next. Because he knows that the Democratic Party is going to run a language learning model against him. Anyway. 2026 is going good. Great. Got Mayor Zohan in there. Here's a detail.

That's good. It's great. He's going to do our league of their own episode. Here's the other thing I was Another thing I was tracking on the second watch Yes Griffin The ways pigs are invoked and win Right and this association with them being like

The lowest class the thing you want to avoid being When it's used this derogatory term When it's spoken of a people's past Of needing to work with pigs And his father who is spoken of sparingly There's sort of the one big scene where he talks to his son later who was a pig farmer. And this sense of like,

I was born into a class that I have spent my entire life trying to pull myself out of, right? And he has built this big house that is very nice and modern. Well, he didn't build. It was his family's home. But they talk about how...

But he, like, added the greenhouse and fixed it up. Right, because there's the moment, he loses the job. Immediately the wife is like, let's just do fucking hard math. What has to go? I don't take dance. lessons anymore. I don't take tennis lessons

anymore. And we're getting rid of Netflix. We're getting rid of Netflix. We're scaling back all this shit, right? They have this... How expensive is Korean Netflix, by the way? There's fucking... $5,000. And that's with ads. That's a line item for them. The streaming services are too expensive. Well, this is how they get you. They make you sign up. And then they're like,

hey, well, it's going up. And you're like, oh, how much? And they're like, and you're like, oh, $20. Is that $28? Yeah, technically $28. I should like, I need, this is my new New Year's resolution.

Okay. I got to unsubscribe. Wow. From a lot of these things. Hurry, do not promote unsubscribing on the podcast. Never. Sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm going to consciously un-couple. Okay. From, I think Paramount Plus, it's like about time. You're going to hang the pick-ax up? You're going to stop scaling the mountain?

I. Did you read? The summit? Picard's up there and SpongeBob. Did you freeze it? They showed you Picard, SpongeBob, and Cartman standing next to each other. What more do you need?

And also, maybe like a fifth tiered Dunn. What are you doing here, Kotman? I don't know. That's what Picard would say, right? And John Taffer's like, I'm shutting this up. No rescue needed. You know what I subscribe to is MGM Plus. David?

Deep movie library on that one. I'm going to dial 9-1-1. That is. Hey man, I had to get the winter break somehow. That is a red alert situation. They got a great movie library. I have so many like weird fucked up like Amazon Prime add-ons that like I use once. Where it's like like broad.

Broadway world. I have like four different like brick box services. Hello governor plus. I have I have something called like. Hello governor. ad free. It's either called like Bad Moon or Blue Moon or something that's like I signed up

to watch some like Jean Rolan exploitation movies. Blue Moon is Lorenz Heart Streaming service where he just bishes to you about all the other streaming service. He just appears at a bar smoking. He's like in another thing. Netflix is such a slut.

No, it is funny when you're like oh, I wonder can I watch like you know, you know, the chamber of flying death, you know, and you look up, it's like Yeah, it's actually available on like shit feel. Yeah. So that's my fucking heavy chase dog thing. I'm like, why am I not signed up for anything that one that we want to.

I just got to get rid of all this shit. I'm keeping shutter on Amazon. That's a really good service. Shutter is a good service. You know, but I watched Love Story, which Griff, we've talked about this. Because Love Story is one of the most financial and successful films ever made, right? Big phenomenon, early 70s, but weepy. And we had a brief where we were like, like, it's never seen it.

It was a hit. Is it good? It's on MGM Plus. I was like, I'm gonna fucking watch it. Two stars. Sucked. But, you know,

at least I've knocked that one off. Are you happy for me? No, I'm thrilled. I watched Inherit the Wind. I'd never seen it. This is what you did over? No, because it's like one of those kind of homeworky movies

that like, if you don't get in school. I was going to say, I think if you had stayed in school in the United States of America, you would have seen. I would have seen Spencer Tracy's sweaty shoulders. He's got some sweat. What's his name?

J. Fred Mugs, the Monkey? Yeah. He's one of my favorite actors. He's on the... I have to, you know, give you a little bit of shit. You watched Love Story and inherit the wind

instead of saving Silverman this break. What the fuck? Right, why would I want to watch those... You had one job. You said on whatever episode we talked about saving Silverman that you would fucking watch

saving Silverman over break. I'll do it right now. I'll watch it right now. I'll watch it right now. In the time since we said that, I watched saving Silverman again. Yeah. And again, you're calling the police on me.

I called the police and they were like, here is a medal. Sounds like the kind of thing the police would do. Here's a key to the city. Eric Adams shook my hand. Oh, yeah, look at that there. Look at that there. Time is flying. No other choice, Greg.

No other choice. His wife says we need to cut the budget down. We need to cut down the streaming service. Their youngest daughter. We need to sell the house. Yes. And he's like, we can't. Yes.

There are too many mouths to feed. We've got to get rid of the dogs. The grandparents take the dogs. It is sort of this like... Even though they're like allergic. Yes. But it's this kind of emotional core to the movie of like, if we get the dogs back, it will feel like everything is right in the world again. The second we can afford dog food.

And there's this thing where the kids' names are R1 and G1. R1 and C1. And then the dogs are R2 and C2. Yes. So they named the dogs like nicknamed me versions of the children. And the wife is like brass tacks. We got to just like focus down. But the big thing is, their daughter is seemingly a cello prodigy.

The daughter who barely communicates with them, who seems sort of spectrumy. She's like neurodivergent in some way. And it's like the cello is the only way she seems to be able to express herself. She rarely talks. She draws these complicated multicolored symbols. And they never, they'll see her practice, like her fingering of the instrument on like a table, on other objects. But she never plays in front of them. She has this expensive tutor.

and the tutor is like, your daughter is too good for me. Right. You need to get like an even more expensive tutor or whatever. And basically says to them, like, you don't understand she is like superhuman. She is once in a generational talent.

You need to up her training. She is someone who will play in like the National Symphony or whatever. And they're like, we're going off of this woman. Is this like a con? She says that the cello she's playing isn't expensive enough.

She needs to get a better cello to practice on it. Musical instruments are so fucking expensive. We don't even hear it. And there was this notion of like, here's this guy who prides himself on how much he was able to like climb the ladder of class from his father. And yet they look at their daughter as like, she's the only way we continue to move up. We have to bank everything on her. And so they cut all of this down, right? And there's a scene where a couple comes to go look at their house.

And their house is like uniquely designed. It's like a very special seeming house. I love the house. It's so, like, modern but still, like, tasteful, not gaudy. I loved it. The real estate agent says, like, isn't this place impressive? And it used to be such a dump, what they've done with it. And they're really talking about how this is his family home, but it used to be run down.

It felt haunted. It was a janky. His dad committed suicide there. But then they also say that he had this larger pig farm that they sold because he didn't want to be seen as a pig farmer after his father died. and they now live on a house that is partially the land that he had the pig farm for and the real estate agent or... I thought it was...

The pigs all got sick and then the father killed himself. That sounds right. Yeah. There was some sort of pig bite. So it wasn't like he sold... It wasn't like the pig farm was at the top of its game.

I'm saying that after the father died. Yeah. There's this throwaway line where they're like if he had held onto the land that the pig farm was in, he'd be so rich right now. which I thought was really interesting. Right. Like if he had only just, yeah,

giving himself over to, yeah, no, I get that. Right. But you get the sense that's like, I don't want to be fucking associated with pigs. That was my father. That is what I'm working past. And they're like, if you just still were renting that land out to other people, you'd be set for generations. And this guy makes a pass at the wife. And there's this sort of like, we're not fucking renting the house.

So now we're like doubled down on. We're not selling it. We're not ranting it. We're staying here. We're getting the dogs back. She's getting the better cello teacher. This lifestyle creep has affected them where they now, like, cannot figure out how to scale down their lives.

And all the families you're seeing here are, like, absolutely driven insane by keeping up with the Joneses to some degree. Right. Right. They're all competing with each other in, like, an invisible competition. You cannot move down the ladder. You fight so hard to get where you are, you cannot move down the ladder. And I do think Korean society is very stratified.

Yes. Even more so than some places or whatever. And a lot of their movies seem to be about, you know, class. He gets the hot tip of the company that he should be working at. He goes and gets on his knees and begs outside the bathroom, these higher-ups, who are just like, this is embarrassing. It's moon paper, right? Yes.

And they've cracked the Japanese market. That's the big thing. And this is when he consider, this is where he has the kind of spontaneous after the humiliation. Like, should I throw? the fucking potted plant on this guy. Right? Like where, you know. The moon paper man.

I think I love about this movie. Where I thought the movie was like, okay, we're going into like murder, satire mode. I'm like, he's just going to keep killing people one by one. The movie doesn't do the thing of having the scene where he sort of like out loud explains his thinking of how he gets from point A to point B of justifying murder, right?

It's sort of like he has this embarrassment. The guy tells him to go to a bar. He's drinking apple juice because he's a recovering alcoholic. He's like looking up these guys on social media. and then he's just so angry at this guy that he like impulsively gets up on a rooftop is ready to throw a potted plant at him and then he like takes a step back

and starts to formulate like wait a second doesn't he get the idea from his wife his wife calls him no they're like laying they're cuddling on the couch together they're looking at like the guy's social media he's showing her the guy's Instagram and then she's like oh man if only you could get struck by lightning

you could have his job And then the look flashes across his face. But there is kind of the chancy, like, he has the potted plant of like, could I just do this? There's also the moment when he's on the rooftop where he's looking at the shutdown paper factory. Like he starts to formulate, like, what if I create a fake job? Identify who the other people are who would be in the running for any job like this that would open up. So that if the job opens up, I have eliminated all the competition. and then I need to figure out how to get that job to open up.

And so he starts this triangulation of like, he calls these guys up, he gets a burner phone, he gets resumes, he buys a model gun because he has his father's, like, framed, encased gun as a military veteran. He swaps it out, so he has a real gun that no one's ever going to notice. He puts a plastic gun in the case, and he identifies all the core skills of the other guys. He's basically like, there are five other guys,

at my level with my history who would be competitive for this type of... They're all winners of Pulp Man of the Year. Yes. And then he like, kind of does the math circling, like, what do they have over me? I'm maybe third in line.

How do I get here? The thing that I love is that it's not just paper. They all are in charge of specialty paper. So they are even super specialized within an already specialized like industry.

You will have these moments where guys will like grab a piece of paper and go like fuck, that's good. You know, like they're like impressed with the recipe. I do. Right. Yeah, with the kind of... There's that moment where Gummo and his wife are like reminiscing about when they first met. Not Gummo,

bummo, whatever. Guammo. Gubomo. Where he's like, she remembers that he touched her lips and were like they're as soft as this type, this brand of paper. And then he was like, you said that you're, that's like a, you're said the wrong name. It's actually this brand. And then he cuts to Li Bian Hung, like, watching them eavesdropping on this conversation,

touching his own lips, thinking about the paper and being like, yeah, that paper is really fucking soft. He's just like a guy who fell into this and wanted to define himself by understanding the field as thoroughly as he could, right, in the industry and the product. Versus like, Gu Bummo is like a fetishist and like a zealot. And it like speaks to his record, all his collecting, all his like fetishization of physical objects. He gets this resume that's like, you don't understand. It's like a way of life for me. You know, like I consider the materials of everything in my home.

I only listen to analog record. I am analog only. Right. And here is this guy who's got this wife who he just like will not acknowledge that he is so caught up. Who's hot? Yes. And he ain't hot. No.

Sorry. And I like that they're, the flag. Back to their meat cute is like, this guy is still kind of not focused, but it's charming enough when he's young. And then when he's older and he's gone to seed. I mean, it's our fucking future. And he's drinking. Yes. I mean, it's me.

It ain't going to be cute age 55. I'm like, this radiant set came in of this like fucking 70s Hong Kong movie. I'm like putting out on a giant pile. That's what the group text is for. Yeah, I know. It's a safe space. Yeah. But yes, she's just like.

like, fuck me. And he's like, paper is the only thing that has ever mattered. Well, she's also, he's, she's also like, why don't, you're passionate about other things besides paper. Why don't you open a cafe where, like a music themed cafe because that's something that would do well, like my father would invest in it. Like, this is a great option. And once again, it is the first time no other choice is said in the movie.

He's like, I have no other choice. I am a paper man. I am a paper man. I can't just pivot like that, you know. And then. I love when Li Bionhung actually goes to kill him. Well, he observes them having like a picnic

where she's coming on to him so hard and trying to go down memory lane and he just is like not with it. And only wants to eat his chicken. They're eating fried chicken. And then Li Bionhung gets bit by a snake and she has to come like rescue him and give him the wrong advice.

And you're like, oh, so this is the tone of this movie. It's going to be a thing in which like it's really hard to kill him. He keeps fucking it all. Right, right, right. that we're now in like full slapstick mode. Right. That picnic looked really uncomfortable.

Even before the snake. I liked their box, though. Their little picnic box and the chicken much good. But they're in like the Blair Witch Woods. Yeah. It's like they picked a kind of weird location. Yes. Have you guys?

I'm assuming no one here has ever been bitten by a snake. No, no. No. I thought you were going to ask if I've been to Korea. I'd love to go. I have nothing. I don't like snakes. I got to say.

As a northeastern person, you know, northeast America, like where they're, less of a thing. And, you know, there's other parts of the world and country where they're just like, oh, yeah, there's snakes. I would be like, no, there's no, wait a, that's not allowed. Yeah. Just like poison ropes

that just slither around and they could be fast. Poisoning around is a pretty good place. I used to be very anti-snake. And then I saw Zootopia too. Of course. You met Gary to Snake. I met Gary to Snake. And now I feel like I was, you know, my former prejudices have walked away.

I was very charmed by Gary. His grandma, Agnes to Snake. We need to start asking more questions about the weather walls. Yeah, what's up with those? Who built them? The links, I assume. Well, it's debatable. I like that, well, no, I want to say.

No, what? Come on. It's just very funny to me that, like, David Strathurn has one of the main villains in that movie. He's good at it. He's very... But it's such an undisney voice to have Frithern doing, like, a very, like, sort of unctuous...

Me too. He was good. That was him until the final credits. I spent the whole movie trying to figure out who it was. I was like, I don't recognize this. I, I, with Utopia, uh, two, and with the original, but going into two, I know, I was like, I know there will be a charming end credit sequence set to a bump and Shakira song in which I will see all of the voices labeled clearly. While they all do a dance.

Character does a dance next to their name. The villains will be imprisoned watching the concert on TV and I'll see their names too. And they like point to the credit. And I was satisfied. Got exactly what I wanted. Yeah. I enjoyed the hell out of the Utopia. I liked it.

Yeah, Griff was a little more measured. Yeah. I liked it. I thought it was fun. David? Yes. Hello. Hello.

Nope. You cut me off. Hello. Hello. Whoa! That was funny. I like that. Finish speaking.

I've so rarely cut you off. 11 years in, I still have some new tricks. Hello Fresh. Hello. Fresh, this new year, nothing hits like home cooking. Boy, do I know it. Hello Fresh brings back the joy of the kitchen, and the kitchen's been joyless

for far too long, with recipes that feel good and taste delicious night after night. Feel good and taste delicious. That's a potent mix. Isn't your kitchen super delightful because your ovens filled with action figures or whatever? That was an earlier era. Okay, okay. An earlier error. Yes, please. Look, Hello Fresh. It's a very, very

I feel like it's the number one meal kit service because like I'm always, whenever you see one of those kind of recommendation websites with like, here are all the options. Hellifresh is always at the top. They've got over 100 mouthwatering recipes each week. I'm going to take a look at some. I've got something.

A loaded swarma-style chicken and rice bar. 30 minutes it takes to make this. High protein. Beggy packed. Difficulty medium. Okay. What's the easiest? Okay, you want an easy one?

Give me the easiest. All right, listen. One pan cheesy chicken. tortilla melt, dark meat, chicken, green pepper, spicy, cream sauce. 20 minutes, difficulty, easy. This looks pretty good. I like every one of those words. I love how, like, the menu, it tells you, like, what are the allergens?

What may be, you know, little things might you need extra, like some butter, some cooking oil, but almost everything else is there. Different people eat differently. And with Hello Fresh, you can choose from 35 plus high protein weekly recipes, including new Mediterranean and GLP-friendly options made with whole. some ingredients like sustainably sourced seafood and 100% antibiotic and hormone-free chicken. Wow. They got steak. They got seafood. Surfing turkey. Three times more seafood options at no extra cost. Seasonal produce, don't fruit. Corn on the cup. It feels more summary, but it's okay. Yeah, but look,

maybe you want to eat for the season you want. Want to hear this tagline? Yeah. Because when dinner tastes this good, nothing hits like home cooking. Hmm. Yeah, so Hello Fresh. I've used this, you should too. Go to hellofresh.com slash check 10 FM. That's check 1.0 FM. Yeah, I know this. This is a deal they've had for a long time and you can

finish speaking because there's no added bonus onto this deal. To get 10 free meals. Right, exactly. And what? A free Zwilling knife? A free Zwilling knife? That's a $144.99 value. You are correct. On your third box, offer

valid while supplies last, free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only varies by plan. But hellofresh.com slash check 10 FM for 10 free meals and that freeze willing knife on your third box. Goodbye. Fresh.

Where do we leave off? So he has this like total fumble, right? And you're like, okay, this is going to be in the line of the kind of classic thing we often talk about. Like the snake bite and not being able to We've talked about on this show because a lot of these times, a lot of times when big directors make these, these end up being their greatest funnlies, the sort of like pitch black mainstream murder comedy that tends to turn audiences way off.

And it feels like this is what this is going to be down to when he goes back to actually do the thing in a scene that is like such a pure distillation of like, the part jam walk is the only filmmaker on the planet who would conceive of the scene this way. he goes back in a full suit wearing four gloves over the gun being wrapped in ceramic Not just gloves, they're like oven mitts. But like I'm increasing size

to go in and murder this guy who's in his like record room like fucking drunk off his ass blasting Korean pop music. His wife is cheating on him with a guy who's got a tarantula tattoo? What's the tattoo? I don't remember.

But this is the whole thing he's trying to balance. is like he tries to stop, he goes to try to kill the guy, he walks in on the wife, fucking the young dude. And then he's sort of like, I need to block him from discovering them. But then he fucks up. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He calls and says there's a job interview, can you come meet me? Because he sees him going home. This is what I'm talking about this movie. It's a little exhausting. This whole sequence is a good example of it. And he's like, well, then I got to go change. Then he walks and sees the wife. The wife doesn't know that he's seen him.

he's in a despondent state and then he's like, I guess I gotta go kill him now. So he goes in while he's in the stupor and he's so drunk and doesn't understand what's going on and thinks that he's the guy, his wife is fucking. They're yelling at each other over

the record player at full volume. So the scene is all happening with like subtitles, but I have to imagine even in the Korean version it's subtitled. Because you wouldn't be able to make out what they're saying. So just a, there were like two little, I guess you could call them Easter eggs that I pulled up from my second viewing.

The first is that I listened to the soundtrack on my walk over here. That song that's playing is called Red Pepper Dragonfly. But it's notable because the fake company that he invents

to get all of these applications is called Red Pepper Paper. Yeah, because of the potted plan. Yes. So I thought that was cute. My other Easter egg is in the scene where they go to the dance party, where they all have costumes, there's a couple that's dressed as like an NFL player and a cheerleader.

And the name on the back of the NFL players jersey is Boucher. And it's the colors of the team in the water boy. It's a Bobby Boucher cosplay? That is my reading of the fact. It's an orange, blue, and white football jersey. Does Park love Adam's thing? Well, I was about to say, is Waterboy like a really, you know, big movie in Korea somehow? It just introduced a lot of questions for me.

I will say someone else on threads noted a blink and you'll miss it reference to the Waterboy. Okay. So maybe this is true. Maybe we're all, you know, crazy. I don't know. Yeah. Interesting. He has this confrontation with the guy

where the guy thinks this is the guy cucking him. Then the wife... Also shout out, though, in the sequence where he has, I don't know, seven different gloves on? I think it's at least four. It's so funny. To reveal the gun.

Yeah. Because the guy at first is like, why are you pointing an oven mitt at me? Yeah. And then his wife comes in... Do you like to bake? You like to bake motherfucker? His wife comes in

and thinks that he's just like a home inviter takes the paper trophy that he won. Yes. And his Ray knock him up with the head and then recognizes that he's the snake bite guy. And like all three of them

are yelling at each other and no one understands what's going on. It's like such a perfect and the music doesn't stop. And then they all start inflicting violence on each other. He like shoots him by mistake

because the wife hits him with the trophy which like causes him to like pull the trigger but it's not a lethal shot. No, the wife kills him right? Yes. And then she takes the gun away and then shoots him out of the trophy. of anger and says something to the effect of like,

I wasn't angry at you. I don't hate you because you lost your job. I hate you because you gave up trying or something like that. This sort of core thing of like, Lieberhan doesn't understand what the actual threat to his existence is, which is like absolutely unraveling like this guy, right? That all three guys he murders are kind of like

Ghost of Christmas future versions of best and worst case scenarios of how he can handle his current situation. But here you have this first death down that he's not totally responsible for. There's a lot of misunderstanding and because the fact that she's the one who delivers the lethal gunshots, it's like she's now covering up the crime for him in a way that helps him. So he's kind of gotten away from this one, Scott Free, which means the second killing is super surprising because it is just like incredibly cruel and vicious. What were you going to say, David?

No, I was the second killing That's exactly what I was You know, I think I had that sort of That after the first murder That one, like, okay, am I watching A very high slapsticky Black comedy where Every death will be this convolutic

Where there will be this emotional Rube Goldberg-y Well, he keeps not being short But then like a fucking bunch of final Destination shit happens to And yes, and then I feel like Park is like, no, no, no, that's not quite it because the next death is the opposite. It's sort of like you have to look a man in the face and shoot it.

Well, I actually, when I said that my second time watching the movie, I felt sadder, I did, like, they really, he really hammers home the, like, personal connection with the second guy. And that's pretty devastating when he ends up killing him. But I did, like, for every other paper man in this movie, you do recognize that. these guys all would probably be friends and would be stronger together if they weren't competing with each other. The shoe sales is the most of their own business. Exactly.

But instead of like, you know, have, teaming up together, they're competing with each other in a way that is, you know, ultimately super destructive. Yes. Well, so he goes to this guy who has taken a job at a shoe store. Right. And he's done with, or he's at least trying to move on or whatever. He has taken pride in a shoe salesman job that he is trying to do to the best of his abilities. You feel this guy being a little bit desperate, and there's a sort of dangled out that he's gotten the call about this fake job that Li Bianana's set up.

And he says something to the extent of like, I'm unemployed, but I'm looking to get back into the paper industry, that to a certain extent, even though he has regular employment now, it doesn't feel like he has a career. he won't feel like he's actually employed again until he's got a paper job. But this guy is doing the hard work of like, you know what? I just have to go out and get a job and support my family. And he starts talking,

his daughter comes to the store to borrow money. He talks about what it's like to raise a young daughter. You're like, this guy is fucking locked in as a parent. He seems locked in his marriage. Like his life is not easy, but he is showing up and doing what he can one day at a time. And Libyanhan has this moment

where he starts talking to him like a therapist. In sensing that this guy has a very similar setup to him, starts talking about his difficulty with his daughter, how she doesn't talk, how expensive the cello lessons are, and you're like, this guy, he should fucking hold close as his, like, tightest ally in the world.

And in that moment, it's like, I want the last moments of empathy from this guy before I decide to kill him. Like, it doesn't change his path, which is so fucking upsetting. Yes, this is the sort of dark turn point of the movie. We're out of silliness. But it is also another, like, when the gun does go off,

it is not as, like, intentional. No, in the exact moment, but he's, like... No, he's, like, resolved to do it, but again, it's not... He's not, like, cold-bloodedly shooting him in the face. No, and he's panicking and he's, like, dry heaving on the side of the road. and he's like tapping the forehead. That's when he's saying no other choice to, I got to go through with this.

Of like, this is the moment I become like unequivocally a murderer. What's been going on the side plot here, of course, is that like the wife gets, you think kind of proposition by this hot young dentist who's clearly trying to like make a play for her. But in fact, she's just getting a fucking dental assistant job. One of the women from her like sort of class of mothers and wives

comes as a patient and is sort of like looking down on her as like, I didn't know you were a nurse now, you know, and she's just fucking taking it. Like,

she's just like, this is what I got a good deal. She is not having the male crisis. She's like, they were in the same dance class together. Are you going to come to the show? I can't because I can't afford the classes anymore.

You should still come to the show. It's totally fine. And everyone thinks this dentist is so fucking hot. And you're like, well, clearly there's this looming threat of the dentist is going to fuck the wife.

And it amounts to, after he kills this guy on the side of the road, he, like, pulls over to a phone booth, calls the kids at home, and they're like, mom's going to be so fucking angry at you. And he's like, why? Realizes the dance show is that night.

So he, like, rushes home, puts on the costume, which looks like a naval captain, like an American or British naval captain. It's giving Horatio hornblower, in my opinion. Goes to this dance show. Our favorite guy. Sees her dressed as a Native American woman

dancing with the dentist, who's dressed as a, a Native American man and like spirals out and goes home she gets home he's like ransacked her closet he's taking all her bras and panties out

he's like you're wearing the good panties that means that you're fucking him you love to fucking cars smell them she's like are you drinking again you start kind of unraveling how much work this guy has done that his drinking problem used to be major that his emotional mood swings

used to be like dangerous. He was abusive to his stepson. That his wife was a single mother. He meets her. He takes the son on as his own. The son was young enough that he doesn't even know that it's not his biological father. They have this conversation of didn't we say that we'd always tell him when he's 16? And he's like, he thinks I'm his dad. I'm his dad.

I've been here the whole time. What reason is there to even change his reality? The wife brings up in this scene that he, in his drunken days, beat the son in a sort of show of favoritism towards his biological daughter and like super unprocessed, like incredibly terrifying emotional distortion. And like they're suddenly hashing everything out. And she like comes clean with him basically of like, I'm not fucking anyone else. You're clearly in crisis.

Something's fucking going on. Let me know so I can help you. Like it is, why are you pushing me away? I'm ready to serve along. you in the war of our family's engaged in. You just got to tell me what to do. He's such a fool. I mean, he thinks he should fucking murder people.

But from that moment on, they're totally aligned, except he's always giving her like 85 to 90%. He's trying it feels like to give her the plausible deniability of the worst stuff. Yeah, sure. Well, also like, towing just up to the line of like, you got to talk to this person, you got to distract from this. you find out that their teenage son, throughout this, has been, like, running a scam with his friend

whose dad owns an electronic store. It's the same guy who's going to buy their home. Who makes the pass at the wife? And they've been stealing iPhones. They get caught by the cops. And they're, like, we're fucking ruined. If our son is sent to jail, if we're, like, hard and feathered in our community from this.

But also, the cops show up, the day after he has buried the second person he is murdered. After bonzying him instead of... Which I thought was so cool. It's so good.

Yes, he brings him into the greenhouse. He's ready with like a chainsaw to just like hack him to bits. The sun sees what he thinks is a glimmer of human flesh, right? It happens in that one? Yes. Which is also part of when they bust the sun

and they go up to his little hiding space where they find all the iPhones. he finds a pack of cigarettes. And he goes to the son, and he's like, here, while your mom's not looking, take this back. And the son's like, I quit. Don't worry about it. Throw it out.

And he goes like, you throw it out. You're good with me. It's your decision. And then the next thing we see is the son on the rooftop smoking. You do get the sense he would have let the dad throw out the cigarettes and would have been so ashamed that he might have tried to avoid smoking after that. But his dad gave him the like, it's cool.

Like us men have to stick together. We're in the secret club kind of speech. And then only because he's, on the roof smoking, does he see his dad carrying in a body? And I hate in movies like this where a character sees something way too clearly and then the movie tries to sell us this,

they're not sure? Right, right, right, right. I think there is plausible deniability. The shot is so good because he's put these tarps up in the greenhouse. You only kind of see a foot. It's a second before it moves. And you could fully believe, like,

was I wrong about what I thought I was seeing? Well, yeah, we all slaughter pigs in our greenhouses sort of late. into the night. Especially when they're like, our family is defined by the fact that we got out of that pig shit.

Oh, yeah, he is a pit master. He does kill his own animal. That's true. But I like how much the line they're selling the son goes against everything he would know

about his family, which is like, well, you know, my father went crazy with a pig disease. And then we sold the land and like disassociated our family

from that like lower class field altogether. But yes, they blackmailed guy because they know he's having affairs. The white takes a bra off. They're trying to like seduce him. They're like doing like a two pronged

attack at the same time. We should mention, of course, also his tooth is hurting more and more as the movie. It's kind of like that Joaquin Phoenix is getting more and more COVID or the I like movies with that. Where you're kind of like the whole time you're like, and his tooth hurts more. He's not

dealing with the fucking tooth. But this is what I was saying. I know, I know. Anytime he taps, you're like, oh, right, that too. Because it's Tom Hanks with the cold. And the cold and bridge of spies. I agree with you. I always love this as a device.

And so when he has the big showdown with Cian Chol, I think is, you know, the guy in the fancy house. Right. Where he just gets drunk and pulls his tooth out. It does feel like, yes, we've been building to like this kind of grand guignoll, this insanity. Like, yes, I found that very fun. On first viewing, I, I averted my eyes during that. This stuff's a little gross. It's a little gross.

But this time I watched it and I felt really proud of myself. I'm proud of you, too. I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. Yeah. You got a strong stomach. I want to shout out.

Where's the woman who hid inside her coat watching Skinnery? Exactly. She's, she's dead. We left her in the past. Yeah. We bonzied her. Yeah. I want to shout out the boiler maker shot where they show inside the cup with the shot like coming down.

It is the best beer has ever looked on screen. Incredible. I agree. And this movie is like everyone's worried about him falling off the wagon, you need it to look that good. And once again, he taps his forehead and goes no other choice. He has convinced himself after this whole scam was, I'm going to make him do rounds and rounds of shots with me, but I actually have a bowl here and I pour my shots out into the bowl, so I'm not getting drunk at all. But he is. And then once the guy makes the boiler maker,

he's like, I guess there's no way to fake this. And I'm like, it would be harder to fake this, but he's pretty quick to surrender. It looks so good. The sound of the pouring is so good. I just want to bring up because the tree is important. They say, like, let's just bury all the iPhones so we can just settle this. If we return to the store, to the police, or whatever it is, it makes

this more of like an open case. One quick more thing before burying is there's the scene where the mom tries to barter with the, like, lecherous other dad. They're both bartering at the same time. She's trying to use

his attraction to her and then he comes in and just tries to, like, fucking scare him. And she's, like, kind of turned on by that. That she has the power. Yeah. Powerful. Yeah. Powerful. Like, involved in we need to do whatever it takes to get ahead, to stay alive.

But they bury the phones under the tree. He's going to butcher the guy with a chainsaw. He can't do it. He keeps on, like, crying and hyperventilating and puking. So then he just bonsize him, buries him under the phones. Like, part of it. of the thinking is no one's going to dig because this is already a secret plot of a crime

that we're covering up. And now, digging doesn't always have to be shameful. It can be celebratory. No, but it does fall into your well-established theory, Ben. If you're digging at night, nothing good is happening. Nothing good has ever come from digging at night. The sun has said in your digging. It's time to think about what you're doing, for sure.

So he goes to the final house of the guy who's the Instagrammer. Yeah, the guy that he almost dropped the potted plant on, the guy that kind of started this sort of wave of jealousy and why don't I have his job. He clearly views as kind of like a silly dilettante, like hype beast. I'm better than this guy. He's never one Pulp Man of the Year. He's not.

Yeah. I was Darvis Cocker? That's a really, really good question. He has this sort of like tricking the guy getting into drunk that turns into a bonding, this moment where the guy talks about how overwhelmed he is by his job and he can't handle all of it. That's the thing. You're shooting for this. position.

Yeah, and it sucks. Right. A, the position sucks, and B, he's like, oh, well, maybe you convince them to hire another person. Right.

Maybe you need help. Maybe I don't have to kill you. Maybe you get me hired. You know, but then, you know, he jokes to death, jokes him to death, and he doesn't go for that. He gets him super fucking drunk.

Then he, he wants to stage it. Right. Where it's believable that this guy who sort of got shit-faced and joked in his own vomit. Right.

He had a wife who left him because all of his sort of self-created mythology of wanting to be must like Justin Timberlake, a man in the woods, you know, work in the pit.

Like, the entire thing he's selling on Instagram is like a big truck. It's an aspirational, I want to be this type of guy that his wife was like, I hate living in the country. I hate this.

Like, everything about this sucks. And you get the sense that he just like let her walk away, you know, because he wouldn't surrender this shit. And like, right, here's the guy who just, like,

lost it all to retain all the things that Li Bian Hung thinks he needs to keep. But what if you have all of that alone? And, yeah, he, like, buries him in the dirt, then, like, wraps, saran wrap around his mouth after he's already started puking

from alcohol poisoning, then puts a funnel in his mouth and puts a bunch of porous. in it and then pours more liquor over the pork to get him to basically choke to death on his own vomit. Yeah. It's a little nasty. His wife calls while he is doing this. Yeah. He tries to like FaceTime with her.

His mouth is bleeding and swelling because he's just pulled his own tooth out. He has. With pliers. And he is drunk. He is drunk now. Which is a problem. Yeah. And he's sort of saying to his wife like, I just need you to trust that this is almost over.

This is the path and we're almost done. I'm not showing you what's happening, but everything that's happening right now looks suspicious on your end and I just need you to trust me. At the same moment that she has successfully killed her son's

concerns. Right. About the burial. Because she's figured out. She's figured out, but the son in the backyard. Doesn't want to believe.

She starts digging and like there's a great shot. It's another great, like just the right amount where she's digging down hoping that she's not going to find a body down there. but she needs to know for certain.

And you get to the moment where there's like dirt over an object but only a thin layer and she touches it and is just kind of like, okay, and then starts putting the dirt back on top. There's not a moment where she like pushes dirt away and you see a person's face. Yeah. You know, like it's she's constantly trying to be like, how do I maintain one percent denial of what's going on here? But then comes up with the story for the sun. She thinks the son bought it. She wants to. He does such an interesting thing with the like, the.

Cross-cutting. Well, the swing, but also just there's like a cross-cutting between like the wife and the son having that conversation but in two different places and it keeps cutting between those things. But it looks like they're watching each other from afar. There's like, and then it also cuts to leave Yong Hong, like digging a ditch and burying the guy at the country house. I think it like could be very disorienting but instead I found it like I don't know fucking cool

there are like a million things that he does in this movie that I think I truly did not know how he did some of them there's stuff that like the first time I was like why am I getting confused by this and then I watch it the second time and I'm like oh there are sequences in the first like act of the movie where he is going from like

basically within like sort of a montage a present tense conversation that is then like flipping back to flashbacks to have set up how things got to this place and like hypothetical flash forwards or his visions of the people he's talking about where you're moving within like time and space like so quickly to kind of communicate things to the audience rather than the character's own knowledge or perspective. And he has the moment where there's like this hallucinatory connection of the sun. Yeah, it being like in the bonsai tree. Yes.

Or it's not a bonsai tree. It's like an apple tree or whatever. Which he buys from the rooftop when he's going to murder the other guy that he's placed now in his greenhouse. And it's like he's talking to his son at this small scale. But yeah, no, he's just like, I did what I have to do. The cops who came to the front door after the iPhone store break in when he's ready to be like, they got me. And it's like unrelated thing happens to be the next morning. morning, they circle back, I want to say slightly earlier.

They come in a few times. They notice that there's this weird pattern of these two guys who are both in the paper industry. There's the one, there's the main kind of partners. There's the detectives working on the missing paper men cases. Yes, sorry, sorry. The paper men detectives are like, we have noticed that these two guys who both work in the paper industry died. Isn't that a little suspicious? And he says something like, or they don't say died.

They go, these two guys have gone missing. And he goes, that's scary that both of them have died. And they go, why did you say died? And he says, like, well, the way things are in the world today, if you hear someone goes missing, unfortunately, it probably means they're dead. They immediately buy that. It almost endears him to them, where they're like, this guy gets how it works. It's a tough world. It's a tough world.

And we have to deal with it. And their conclusion is just like, looks like someone's targeting paper men. You should keep your head on a swivel. Right. And at the end, they come to him. And they're like, yeah, it was the lady, you know, and she implicated that the guy she shot, you know, Arra, I can't say the name from bed with the names. Right, but like. The woman, the wife of the first. The wife of the first murder victim implicates him as the gun owner, right?

Implicated her husband. Yes. And that he murdered the second guy. Because they find this connection that there was an attempted merger between two companies that those two guys were trying to negotiate together that when Arraud. that obviously Lee Bohn knew nothing about. But that's plausible enough reason for them to present each other. And so one murked the other one. But the wife, she is the one who's killed her husband, has buried him. So she's covering her own ass in a way, too, that benefits. Right.

There's an usually assured destruction. Accidental, but suddenly everything fits together perfectly. And they're like, you're so lucky that he didn't get to you next. And damn it, don't we love it when everything works out? This is what's great. Is it like here is a classic Ben, everything works out, right? He had a crazy plan and it all worked out. He goes in for the meeting and this is my favorite kind of movie ending.

Anytime a movie can successfully stick this kind of landing, I'm fucking hooden and hollering in the theater. He goes in for the interview. They're like, so it's our new warehouse. It's a new interesting thing. It's a dark warehouse. And they were like, what do you mean? And they're like, well, we can save X number of dollars a month by keeping the lights off. Right.

Because it's all machines anyway. They don't need lights. They don't need lights. Machines don't need lights. And then he's like, it's all machines. And they're like, yeah, you would just be the one person overseen the machines. Yeah. So the first order of business would have to be you laying off a ton of people.

You don't mind, do you? And he's like, no other choice. Makes perfect sense. And then we see this guy who is just feels so triumphant. He is falling to his knees and, like, laughing. celebration. He gets the... I've won.

I've made it. You know, the dog's back and the, you know, the daughter's going to be better. You know, like, everything's going to work out. She finally plays cello instead of her family members. She's even better than they thought. Yeah. They realize the symbol she's been doing is her way of writing music notes. She's a genius.

It's like all there. And he grew his mustache back and he's comfortable, right? And you're like, here he is just being like, I fucking did it. I won. And you're like, you're in a giant dead warehouse with, the lights being turned off. You have ear plugs in because, like, you're constantly surrounded by just like, so you're just, like, in silence, in isolation all day with the lights off.

I love that this is, like, you're seeing him his first day on the job. You see him have to, like, jump around to avoid being run over by three separate machines. You're, like, the rest of this guy's life, for as long as this job exists before, they also decide he's not necessary, is trying to make sure. machines don't kill him by accident. They go like, the industry's changed. No more tapping on paper, which one of the first things you see at the beginning,

he's got his little wooden stick. You tap the paper to make sure it's all good, right? And he shows up on the... That's so crucial. It's part of the magic of paper making. And instead, they got this like fucking Tony Stark arm that's like, yeah, and it has a laser and it cuts the sheets.

And he shows up on that first day with his little wooden stick. And he's tapping it just to be like, it's good to be bad. fucking little iPad where he like has to like turn on like different segments of like it's a good life it's so pathetic you're just like how long does this fucking last and and for what so what do you mean he has Netflix back he has Netflix he's got Netflix back he can see the floor of the beast the mind player yeah and it ends with him hugging his family them deciding that they're never going to move because they planted the tree and that's an investment in the future

but also it's like they got a fucking they got a dead body in a bunch of eyes they don't need anyone doing remodeling now that the dogs are back they're starting to dig it up right right right she panics that they're sniffing at the tree but it also I feel like they're

you know she will never feel the same way about her husband we are a family like a giant tree that's the tree right there's a big poster for this movie what is the line like we fertilizer is made from the most rotten disgusting things like that you know we use feces and piss and dead animals to make our, you know, plants grow.

Get that's up. To pay for it. David Harbor? Winona Ryder's still there, right? Yeah, thank God. Phew. Well, they're all. They're all out. Maya Hawk.

It's all over. Yeah. No other choice. CD-Sink. I love it. Barb. Stranger Things are no other choice. I have no other choice.

I have never seen a second of an episode of Stranger Things outside of clips being played. in the context of other things. So the one I showed you just now where the guy had a floor. That's the longest clip I've seen. I feel like I've only seen stranger things in the context of people cutting to like, of course, Netflix is big as

big as heck. Right. Right. It's going like rolling dice. Yeah. Christmas. Griffin. This had a good opening weekend. Very strong in one very limited release.

How much we were talking about $650,000 on one screen. Embarrassment of riches with their international slates. this year. It also made like 20 plus mill in Korea. Yeah, it's a big hit. Yeah.

But it basically opened in one weekend and limited release with a crazy per-screen average. It is outgrossed. I think Secret Agent. Surratt has basically not gotten a release. It's done half of what sentimental value has done in like three months. Like it does seem to be a breakout. Who knows if it will continue, bro?

I think that the, you know, Korean and Japanese films like, you know, younger audiences are a little more plugged into those cultures, like they're, like, you know, whatever. Instead of like, hey, you want to see fucking this like Bergman knockoff? I mean, I like, so I'm not. But you know what I'm saying? The kids are, maybe they're rushing to it. I don't know. It's about the difference between plays and movies.

Well, El Fanning did wear that shirt that said Yokin Cher Summer. Yeah, we love that. That was a moment. No, wasn't it like, Dua Leeper did that or someone? No, it was El Fanning. I think she wore it at Cannes. I think that's right. No, I'm sure you're right. El Fanning had a good year. She did.

Yeah, she's great. I think she's really, really good and sentimental value. Charlie X-CX also. Well, she had her thing at, like, Coachella, where she had, like, Sean Price-Williams summer. She had Jokem's summer. Charlie X-C-X is following David on Letterbox.

Charlie X-X's, yes, that's right. Your close personal friend, Charlie. So I can simply... Comment on a review. We should have her on. I could do that. Absolutely. I hear her movie's pretty good.

I mean, maybe I shouldn't turn... Oh, the moment? Yeah. This isn't the moment to say, that, yeah. I'll see it. But no other choice to open to like one point. Well, it's made, it's limited release was on one screen. It's

currently made $2 million in two weeks of release. So it's doing pretty good. It's not in the top 10, but in the top 10, number one is a film that we liked and covered on this podcast, Griff. It is called A Potom Mix. Iyer and Ash. I've now seen it twice. I saw it 40X. Same. Oh, how was the 40X?

Wonderful. What did they do for the space drug segment? Just kind of like a kickback But there was no like fog Like a random person on Twitter tweeted like Saw Avatar without a bra Don't do that Yeah

Everyone's like quote treating And then in her section She's like I saw it in 40X But she didn't specify that in the first I thought that it was because It like blows your clothes I would suggest Because she was so horny

Because of her own No it's just I think the 40X Perky Nips Jocelyn Wow I thought I mean Once again That's the only 40X movie you've ever seen

his avatar. Yeah. The re-release. That was enough for me. Still have never seen any 40X. I think those movies, especially because they're long, they keep a pretty strong control of the dial on the 40X. Right. So it's not to completely burn you out.

Okay. Right. Yeah. But they do get your nips card. They do. Apparently, it's made a billion dollars so far. A bu, but, but, but, but, a billion. And it is only January 5th.

And, like, I mean, I think everyone knows the film is a success. I've seen somebody being like, is it. And I'm like, guys, it's made a billion dollars and it's January. We are in an interesting position where it's like the movie is going to end up somewhere between $1.5 and $2 billion. If it ends up at two, no one can say shit, even if there's a drop off. I don't think anyone can say shit in any scenario. I agree with you, but it's like we're possibly getting to the first time ever that a movie

makes $1.5 billion and people go, is that good enough? you can just feel it already happening, which it's like, I don't, I don't know. Nothing makes sense anymore. It's a hit. It's a hit and it's a fucking awesome movie. And I'll say a lot of my little gripes were resolved on the second watch. There's still stuff, I think,

there are a couple things that hold it back from like true five-star greatness, in my opinion. But I think it's an excellent movie and a ripper on thrill, right? Remember true, the box office, Gary to think. It jumped up in like week. Family films at Christmas. Five? Week five, that's right. And it went up 20%.

34% my friend Pretty good Yeah so the two highest grossing domestic films Of 2025 at this point Are a Minecraft movie and Lee Lo and Stitch Leland Stitch ended Like $200,000 behind Minecraft But both are obviously done theatrically

Zootopia is now at 350 365 And Fire and Ash is currently at two Fire and Ash is at 2 something at 220. No, no, no. Domestically, it's at 305. Okay. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So 423 is the thing to cross. Great, let's do it. Get Lilo out of there. And if, if Avatar can make it to 500, then I think everyone stops fucking complaining. But, yeah. Anyone complaining. I would just love to get Lilo and Minecraft both knock down a little bit. Number three, the box office is? The housemaid?

Nope. Marty Supreme. Oh, yeah. Marty Supreme is number three. the housemaid is number four. The housemaid quietly is going to make $200 million worldwide and at least $130 domestic.

Just a big old hit because people like to go see movies. Marty Supreme similarly. Or what's 824 thinking making a Josh Safty World War post-war pay table tennis drama. Why did this movie need to cost $70 million?

Why do you need to talk to me? I don't know. Maybe because they shot it in fucking New York City with a bunch of real extras. It's got like 200 extras. Yeah, I mean, don't... No one actually understands how much movies cost. And what costs money in making a movie? I think we've now gotten tricked into only understanding certain actor salaries

and the idea that CGI is expensive. And if a movie doesn't have a lot of apparent surface level CGI, people are like, why the fuck did that cost more than $5 million? Didn't they just shoot their set for table tennis place? Come on. It's the same with one battle after another where people are like, owners don't know it cost this much. And they're like, he filmed it in California.

Well, beyond, that, that is half of it. Sure, but beyond that, I mean, one battle has so much fucking elaborate shit going on. Jesus Christ. That was what. So does Marty Supreme. Yeah, I know. I know.

I'm just saying, but like, these people are like, why do these movies? We got a stuff getting mad at Twitter. Most of that movies. We don't know. Great movie. Great movie. Just be happy this film wasn't shot in like a green screen in Bulgaria. Number five of the box office.

Best film in 2025. It's a huge hit. People love it. Everyone's talking about it. It's a new this week. It's David? No, it's Anaconda. Oh.

Which has made $45 million domestic, almost 100 worldwide. It is chugging along basically on the back of its stars. They're saying that movie has a $45 million production budget, which I don't quite understand. I think it has some very aggressive tax credits. Okay. From Big Snake. I don't know. From Gary?

I'm also like, did they get Jack Black and Paul Rudd to do like fucking Blumhouse deals where they're getting like money off the back? percent of first dollar? Maybe. Yeah, so Anaconda is out there. I haven't seen it. I won't see it until I see the quest for the blood orchard or whatever it's called. Or the blood orchid? The last sequel to Anaconda.

I can't be going out of order on these. There are also like three direct-to-video sequels in between. We got to watch them all. And of course, there are our next Patreon series. You and I just keep saying, like, if they had just been like Christmas Day, here's a movie. It's Jack Black. It's called Guys. And Paul Rudd.

It's called Guys. They live in a fucking house. It takes place in a city and they drink beers and they fart one time. It's truly like I'm Switch in the fucking Matrix. They're like comedies are back and I'm like not like this. Not like this. But truly like showing her the Anaconda trip. Show us two comedy stars we love in a movie called Guys.

They don't have to pick up any guns. Two comedy stars who have not been able to make just a kind of pure grown up comedy in a decade have been stuck in see. BGI shit, and we still love them. And you're like, what if we promise you they're really funny in this? We'd be like, yes. And then the pitch for Anaconda is like, what? They were kids when Anaconda came out.

I'm like, let me stop you right there. No, they weren't. I was alive when it came out. They were out after Clueless. The fuck are you talking about? Oh, boy. Number six of the box office, of course, is my film that I made in my image.

David. I hope you all enjoyed it. David! Speaking of Reddit, do you guys got the movie theater employee

subreddit serve to you? Good. No. So what did they say? It is a fascinating. But I was reading

some thread where they were talking about like, so like which crowd is the worst of all of the Chris. The movie,

the movie theater employee subreddit, they all agreed that the David crowds were by far the worst. Oh, wow. They say that the, because they all

brought slings with you. I did notice that that they all say the church group crowds tend to be the most entitled interesting

I started reading the subreddit because of Minecraft and chicken jockey and everyone being like sharing the war stories and it's been interesting since then to see them

talk about like which movies are a problem and also for them they're like frustrated by Hollywood scheduling where they're like for six weeks

no one's been coming in and then like three big movies the same weekend And we're all just going to have to work like 20 hours. What can I tell you? I mean, it's the thing about Avatar where, you know, this movie's doing well. It's not, you know, and you're like, oh, the comp wise, it's a little below way of water. And then you look at way of water and you're like, damn, it was the only thing out there when that can.

And like this is a more, I mean, there's great stuff in theaters like David and Anaconda, you know? But there's house made. There was a great stat which was like the weekend that Way of Water opened, the like combined top 10 box office that weekend was like 90% way of water. Right. It was, yeah, it was the only game in town. Versus Fire and Ash had like four movies performing above $20 million. It was the first time it happened in years. Right. And Avatar, of course, had the like first weekend to itself, second weekend, Sherlock Holmes and Squeak will come out. That was at the time the biggest weekend of all time where you had like multiple movies.

But it's just generally better if multiple things are doing well. We love product, such as the SpongeBob movies, search for square pants. The ultimate example, I've been saying this for fucking months. Why didn't they release that in September, October? There was a dirt. That's a dumb movie to release right now. There was no family film for months. They would have gotten such easy, automatic money.

The number of parents who have texted me over this winter break, I guess I'll go see SpongeBob. I'm like, you would have been doing that. Yep. In right, when there was no movie. Instead, it's competing with like scenes utopia for the second time. Well, and kids love song sung blue, which is number eight. I went to the last Nighthawk trivia of the year. Congratulations.

Thank you. Shout out Shane and Kevin again. Shout out again. Shave. There was a question that was, what is the subtitle of the new SpongeBob movie? The SpongeBob titles are so annoying. And we did not get it right.

Yeah. I have watched that fucking Ice Spice video like 20 times. Here's what's annoying. And I still didn't know that this. No, I'm not. The first one is called the SpongeBob Square Pants movie. And then clean. Over a decade later,

the second one is called. the SpongeBob movie Spunge Out of Water. Yeah. The third one is called the SpongeBob movie Sponge on the Run. And the fourth one is called the SpongeBob movie Search for SquarePants. But at some point they just decide the titling structure is the SpongeBob movie, drop SquarePants, and then the subtitle always reuses Sponge or SquarePants. Yeah, the fact that they reused SquarePants really threw me for a little. so murky. There are no numbers. I hate it.

I still have not seen the fourth, and I like SpongeBob, and I saw the trailer defend the movies. In front of Zootopia, too, expecting my daughter to like it. She didn't like that there was a pirate in it. I think the first two movies are both quite excellent, and the third movie, which was planned for theatrical and went straight to Paramount Plus, I think is quite stinky. And so I've been a little dubious about this one. Everyone sort of mixed on this one. I also, I hate that they fucking jump to CGI. The first one is all 2D. The second one is 90% hand drawn

and then the final set pieces they come out of water and they're CGI in our world and then three and four are just entirely CG. Mr. Crabbs, he's there. He's great. Mr. Crabs is so great.

Number eight, Song, Sung Blue, haven't seen it. Griff's a big fan. I enjoyed it a lot. K. Hudson is pretty good in it and it's pretty nice

to see her deliver. Beyond pretty good. She's very good. Shout out to Eddie Vedder. Yeah. The guy who plays Eddie Vedder is not as good. Real Eddie Vedder rules.

John Beckwith. Wow. Calling him out. Balushi's in this? No. Oh, Jim? Yes. I thought you were saying,

John's not in that one. I thought you were asking if someone plays John Belushi in the movie like Eddie Vedder. No, Jim is in it. Jim is giving quite a large performance. I don't know why I thought

that was so funny. I don't either. It was funny. Number of Pirioli is in and he's a delight. Yeah. It's got good people in it. Number nine of the box.

And Kate Hudson's really good. Is Griffin's favorite film, You're Wicked for Good. It took me a while to catch up with that one. I saw it finally in anticipation of us doing our Patreon episode on it. I cannot get over how bad they fumbled that. It's a bit of a tough thing. I'm excited to watch it.

It was a bad idea to begin with. I still haven't seen it. I would like to be on the Patreon. Insist. You will be. You'll get me through it. Your mind will be blown. Because we were like, danger ahead.

Bad idea to split them up. Well, good idea and bad idea. Yeah, made more money. They really benefited from it. They fucked it up so much worse than I anticipated. It's that Simpsons gag where Homer's holding like all of his back. Yes. You know, and like the front looks good.

Truly. Yeah. Number 10 of the box office, Griffin's favorite film of the year. Five Nights at Freddy's two. I did watch the first five nights at Freddy's. Here it's not so good. For the first time. And? It's not good.

I hear this one's really bad. I'm excited to watch. two now. This one cleared 120 domestic despite I don't think I've seen one positive reaction to this film. Like, even the like brain dead teenagers seeing it are like kind of disappointing. I have heard

it is barely legible. The war of those movies is so strange. Yeah. The lore of, I guess, the whole Freddy verse. But you know what? Directed by a woman, Emma Tammy. Yeah, she did both of them. So there you go. Yeah. We support ladies. Making

films. Mayor. Mayor. me, woman. Of Easttown over here. And we got Hamnet. No other choice. Eternity.

A film I find, people have been very like sort of mixed positive on. I watch it and I was like, I don't like this at all. The trailer made my teeth hurt. I kept seeing the trailer for months

and I was really turned off by it. I could not vibe with Miles Teller. He was, to me, a terrible casting decision for like this kind of like, I'm an ordinary Joe. Like, you know, like, and then Callum Turner

as the sort of one who got a, way. I was like, so it was a real where I was like, are there no men? Do we not have, like, charming men? Where are the men? Wait, you don't like Callum Turner? No! So you don't want him to be the next

James Bond? No! Fuck off! I mean, look, I'll give the guy, you know, if he's James Bond, like, I'll give him a shot to convince me or whatever, but I am not convinced. I don't get him at all. No. Okay. I don't think he's a bad actor, but I just, like, I do not get it. He, like, bounces off me. Do you guys know how he met Duelipa?

No, how? Did he follow her on letterbox? No. Is he like a king poster? I think they met, they met through friends. Wow, so far, I'm gripped. And then, no, got this. They both found out they were reading the same book.

Okay. What book? Everybody poops. You know what? You guys are being assholes. What is the book? What is the book? What is the big price for American literature?

The National Book Award? Yeah. Yeah. What won the National Book Award? word last year. I'll find out for you. All right. I'll get right on that.

Trust. Yes, trust. Okay. By her non-dea. Yes. So they both were reading trust. They saw that they had, they each had the books on them. And then they realized that they were at the same part in the book.

And he said, well, he's starting off on the right page. I'm duly, but I'm like, remove this man. No, I love it. I think it's so cute. She's so pretty. both really hot. And I... I don't see it.

Okay, you know what? Fine. He's not for you. He's for me. I guess so. I mean, well, apparently he's for Duolipa. And I like Duolipa. I'm a woman. No, I said I'm like her. Oh, we're both women. You like Duolipa are a woman. What's the Duolipa song?

The song? She's got multiple. She's a talented singer. Well, she's got the one from the Barbie movie. It's like, dance, dance. I like that one. My daughter fucking loves that song She loves that song

That's the best one of the songs Yeah That's the one that should have won The Oscar Solid pop song Yeah She's got a lot of solid pop songs I just

I know it's like I know of her But I just feel like Levitating Levitating is really Bouncing The album that she released During COVID

is like No Skips Pure like discoy pop Bops Her most recent album Kind of a flop Um but she's, I like her.

I think she's very unproblematic. She's from West Hampstead. Yeah. Not that far from where I grew up. She went to, when I went to Hampstead Heath, I walked by a- I walked by a school and I was like,

ooh, what cool kids go to this school? Because I saw some, like, kids outside like smoking cigs and looking hot, and I'm like, oh, do A-LIPA went there. David, I was, sorry, no, finish your thought. The thing with Parliament Hill. Okay, fine. It's in a sort of consortium with four schools

Acklen Burley, William Ellis, and the St. Union. My brother went to Acklen Burley, so he was in the... Anyway, what was your... I was working... I did this little part in a film sheet that will go unnamed. And there were... Draft Day two. Always be drafting. There were several British actors working on it.

And they were, like, making small talk about, like, where do you live in London? And one of them said, I'm in Islington. Sure. And the strength it took... to not say dislington. To just literally close my throat

so the words couldn't jump out. I live there from 95 to 97. That's a very, it's a very fancy place to live these days. Wow.

A very cool neighborhood. You made it hip. You gentrified it? I think I moved in as, what, what, well, I was just gonna ask,

what episode did that come up on? It's fucking totor. Oh, God. Don't listen to that one if you've never heard of this inside. Dislington? I bring up Islington.

I don't even know, is it just that it's sound, it's a funny word, Islington. the whole thing, it's where Tony Blair was lived. And the fucking day he got elected, Prime Minister, so that's 97, so we'd probably live there for two years. You know, in England, when you get elected, you just move the day that it happens.

Like, there's no transition. And I remember my mom being like... That kick you out. And it'd have been 17 years of Tory rule was this big deal. Like, Labor won Tony Blair, you know, mixed record. But, you know, this is the big... Oh, he got elected, yay. My mom was like, we're fucking going.

Like, let's go watch it. move. And I, and I got, I shoved my way to the front because I was a kid. Mm-hmm. So they let me, like, go to the front to watch him. So you watched him, I watched them, like, you know, wave to ever all the, the crowds. Was he like carrying boxes? Yeah, he was, she was there, all his kids. Big ears. He had big ears. Big ears. Big ears. Big ears. I was sticky out of years. Yeah. Wait, so you lived in England when, like, the spice girls were, like. I lived in England when the spice girls were happening. Yes. And I had, I had this I can't even imagine. VHS tape. And when, like, Bripop was happening. I mean, well, yeah, I know, but.

People, Britannia, England. Oh, David, I'm familiar, but I really, Spice Girls. I had, so I had this VHS tape that was sort of like a behind-the-scenes spice girls thing. It came with the first album, like, it was like, I watched over and over again. It was just like talking head interviews with them and shit. It was like the most slapped together. Were you up scary? You were scary?

Obviously. I was going to guess sporty. Oh, I always looked at. I was going to say ginger. No, I was ginger. You were ginger? You're a baby. I was ginger on Maine.

I was a little bit too ginger. I always insisted on playing. Like, we would like role play Spice Girls. Yeah. And I always insisted on being baby. Yeah. Okay. To be clear, I was saying I had a crush on Spites.

That's what I was saying too. No, I know. I know. We didn't so much role play. No, I know. But everyone has like their favorite Spice Girl. Mine was baby, but people would be like, but you have brown hair. You have to be posh.

The girls of my school would roll play Spice Girls. And I would role play being the manager. I was like, who's the guy? They must have a manager. You're Richard. I would, like, pretend to, like, it was before the movie came out, but I'd be like, Oh, get your mic, founds. No, I was a big, I was a big, I was a big scary, you know, scary got a lot of guff.

You know, people were mean to, sorry, sorry, sporty got a lot of guff and people were mean to Malsy. And I was, I think even as a kid, I felt bad about, I didn't like that. You know, I felt like that. She was ugly. But she's not. She also had the best voice that of anyone in the group. She was the best singer and dancer. I'm just, I'm just.

She had the biggest solo hit. I turn to you. She had some bangers. That song was so big, though. Yeah, yeah. Melby and Mel C, I feel like both release like a couple records that charted. Isn't it crazy that Mel B

had a baby with Eddie Murphy? It's crazy. And she had to like fucking chase him. Eddie Murphy was like, I swear to God, that's not my baby. She was like, prove it. And she was like, here. Her baby was like doing the laugh and sticking bananas. Jerry had like a genuine solo hit,

but it was while the Spice Girls were, it was after she'd left while, you know, in that kind of overlap. I don't think it was a U.S. hit, though. No, but in Britain, it was like a solid seller. And Victoria did like the one release, and everyone was like, okay. And she was like, you know what? I know, forget it, forget it.

I won't, I won't try that again. I'm so glad we got Spice Girls talking. I was very obsessed with the Spice Girls. They were humongous. And I was, you know, obsessed with Oasis and were. Ben is holding up his Pulp Man of the Year award. Yes, of course. No, Spotify was.

gracious enough to send us a bunch of junk. Excuse me, a bunch of worthwhile merchandise. They sent over a water bottle with an included mag safe stand. Well, right. And it has the name of the show branded on it, which is cool, but it had like a manual. And we're like, why? It's a water bottle. It's like put liquid in and sip.

Like, what the fuck is it going to say? Put water in mouth. Swallow. Don't spill on body. No, it has like a mag-safe ring at the top of the bottle. And I was like, oh, is it like a water bottle that charges your phone? No, you can just tilt it up to get like a good selfie angle. To make content with.

Yep. And also then included a trophy that has my name on it for some reason. And it says, the crate digger. Rapped Awards 2025. What does that mean? I have no idea. We don't know. Who knows?

We don't know. AI is probably just doing this without. you've been telling anyone with Spotify. But I do want to just share... Sending packages. Having previously worked for Spotify for a couple of years, I had pitched a show

because, you know, Spotify at this point, I feel like there's maybe a couple of ringer shows that still do this format, music, and talk. Yeah. Where they're, you know,

able to play a full song. That kind of classic radio... Why not? Right. Take advantage. I pitched a show called crate digger. Okay.

Wait. So then that must be... That must be related to that. It's definitely not because I heard on the Seth Myers and Lonely Island podcast. That they also got a crate digger award? One of them also got a random award with crate digger. What the fuck?

Crate Digger? Yes. It's also interesting that the award is addressed only to you. I don't know. I got to go. It has Digger in it. Someone gets in the bottom of this. 2026.

I also love that I was like, hey, just double checking. They only sent one water bottle and you guys were like, yeah, you can have it. the water bottle says the inscription is blank check with Griffin and David. So the water bottle acknowledges that at least two people do the podcast. Maybe it thinks you guys will share, you know? That'd be cute. We stick two straws.

Have you seen Anne Lee yet, Griff? No, Anne Lee's my next view. I thought. You've seen the plague? No, that's also, I might see this. I've been doing some hyper ketchup. I was behind for low wall because of a... Plague, got watched, but I don't like going to IFC center.

Why not? David's got the plague. They don't have, like, a lobby. It's a lot of NYU students. I just don't fuck with it. I'm sorry. I look at the morning. I look at the UFC Center.

I work. It is nice that IFC does tend to do really early screening. Sometimes you can sneak in like a fucking 9.30 a.m. at IFC, especially for movies that have been out for a while. Yeah, but that means I have to commute at peak commute time into Manhattan. The plague. I need to see Testament of Anne Lee. I need to see resurrection. I need to see the Jarmouche.

I need to see the voice of him. Rejab, those are my major ones, I feel like, that I'm trying to knock out right now. I have yet to see the Jarmouche, uh, or resurrection. Those are kind of my only two big remaining ones. You got a moosh. I think I'm going to stop watching movies. No. They're arguably the only good thing we have left.

I don't know. It's like a big commitment. You can, you can redefine your rules. Do you know what I did? All break. Slept? It's not going to be a good answer. You watched that fucking hockey blowjob show.

I watched. I watched the hockey blowjob show. Yeah. Which, by the way, you don't see any penis in the fucking show. It's all bunch of these shows. You know, that's the terrible thing. And, uh... That's the terrible thing.

I played the Sims. Marie. Which is the sign? Maybe we should take this off, Mike, but are you depressed? Definitely got to wrap up. Take us out, Grimm. Hey, next week! Yeah.

Start a new miniseries. I've been playing a lot of Siv-6, by the way. So no judgment here. Is that what you call your, or I guess you're the Sims 5? Your family. No, no, Civ 6, Civilization 6. Oh, I think said Sims set. Another video game that is old.

You know what? You could be the, you're literally the Sims. That's why you don't play it. We are the Sims. I certainly do not need to imitate being at home on my computer. That's not an experience that I'm longing for. Sorry. What, what is it Griffin?

A roofful smile. A roofful smile. Rufel. The developers who made my beloved dearly departed Disney Infinity, a game I was obsessed with 10 years ago in which all Disney IP was mashed together, have a new game that's been a giant flop called Funko Fusion. Oh, no. In which everything is mashed together through Funko and Funko pops,

but they only have access to Universal. So it's the weirdest collection of things. It is Wicked Scott Pilgrim, Hot Fuzz, The Thing, Jurassic World only, I want to say, Back to the Future, He-Man is in there. The Umbrella Academy and maybe one other thing I'm forgetting. Anyway, that's the terrible video game I'm playing right now. I'm a little funco-pop and I collect coins and shit.

Oh, I certainly say in Hades 2. It fucking rules. I've cracked away at Hades 2. Good time. Yeah, I never was able to beat Hades 1, but I do just enjoy. You just get in there, muck up some skulls. Yeah, having a little fun. Learning a little bit about Greek mythology.

Learn a little bit, exactly, about these high. Gods and goddesses. Yeah, goodbye. We'll see you next week. Rat Catcher. Lynn Ramsey kicking off our five week, six week, Lynn Ramsey, mini series, five week Lynn Ramsey mini series from my favorite filmmakers on the planet. Turn your subtitles on for Rat Catcher.

Heavy accents. Yeah. Follow by Peter Ware. After that, but we'll do five weeks of Lynn Ramsey and we will do Sam Ramey's new film as well. People were so, like, we had the episode where we were like in our next mini series is Lynn Ramsey, we tricked you. you all thought we were doing Peter Weir next. We recorded that and then we started teasing Lynn Ramsey.

So by the time it came out, everyone knew it was Lynn Ramsey. And then we're like, you fucking idiots. Peter Wheel all along. Over on the Patreon, actually, on this date, our episode on The Wiz was released. Oh, good, good. Honestly, a fun episode, a cool movie. Yeah. It's got, it's got, you know, little foibles, but cool movie.

No, I think a great episode and, you know, it was, tough with like the holidays and breaks and everything that my therapist was off duty. So the whiz episode got to function as kind of an on-mic therapy session. Oh, I can't wait to listen. We dig a lot into my childhood and why do I like this movie so much? There are some discoveries made. Nothing sensational. No, it's not like a, yeah, right, like a wrenching episode.

But there was a real, why did you watch this 40 times and cry kind of thing going on? For that kind of bonus content and so much more, please, you know, sign up for blank check special features. $5 a month. Or if you want an ad-free, you got an ad-free tier, $10 a month. And listen to Critical Darling's? Critical Darling's, which I should mention is the only thing that happens

on our main feed that will not be going on to the ad-free tier on Patreon for a number of reasons that are too complicated to get into with our partnership with Vulture. I understand if you are supporting this show and paying for the premium of the clean feed, a thing I value above all else.

I totally get it and I apologize for the annoyance. It would be appreciated if you could support critical darlings by just downloading that one episode every Thursday. That's what I do with shows that I cherry pick. I don't subscribe. I go over to the feed and I just hit the save button and I just keep those episodes. That's what I'm doing. I understand your frustration. Don't ask me.

I don't care. I'm not asking you for anything. Do we have any more things we need to apologize for? Definitely. And sorry for the audio cues that take you in and out of the ad breaks. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry we do this thing. It's supposed to be.

Jarring for you. Oh, boy. Even though so many other shows do it. I'm going to go. But, hey, you know, my bad. Festivus delayed. Grievances getting aired. I'm sorry that this podcast is about movies.

Movies are problematic. Bad people have made movies before. Film used to be projected on nitrate prints. Those caught on fire. Those would cause accidents. I'm sorry that I called out my parents for getting Wyclef Sean and Will. I am confused when I got Vigieg. Mentsa and Vince Staples confused.

Yes. Sorry for AT aliens. A.T. aliens. Which we called alt aliens. The Outcast album that we all profess to love and didn't know how to pronounce. We are white. It just goes...

I'm sorry. We're worried. I'm sorry. I apologize for it every day. I'll keep apologizing for it. I assure you I'm not proud of it. Hey, we're human. We make mistakes. We make mistakes.

Always seems like only other people get the breaks. It's like what are you freaking want for me? Are we going to keep all of this in the episode? This is all absolutely in the episode. Oh, I'm a freaking guy. I'm making a mistake. Come on. This guy is great and I'm promising you

that he's going to be a big part of the show in 2026. Thank you all for listening. And as always, we're sorry. Sorry. We're so sorry. Sorry. Blank Check with Griffin and David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Sims. Our executive producer is me, Ben Hossley.

Our creative producer is Marie Barty Salinas, and our associate producer is A.J. McKeon. This show is mixed and edited by A.J. McKin and Alan Smithy. Research by J.J. Birch. Our theme song is by Lane Montgomery and the Great American novel, with additional music by Alex Mitchell. Artwork by Joe Bowen, Ollie Moss, and Pat Reynolds. Our production assistant is Minnick. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production help.

Head over to Blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit. Join our Patreon, Blank Check Special Features for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social at Blank CheckPod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Checkbook on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by Blank Check Productions.