Blank Check with Griffin & David - Praying with Anger/Wide Awake

Episode Date: January 26, 2016

In the debut episode of the newly rebranded ‘Blank Check’, Griffin and David look to another director of supersized ego and skill: M. Night Shyamalan. Similar to their investigation of George Lucas’ Star Wars, the hosts aim to discover where exactly in Shyamalan’s filmography did this artist lose touch with his unique vision and become the “twist” guy? Starting with 1992’s Praying with Anger (set in India and filmed while he was still a student at NYU), as well as, his first major-motion picture Wide Awake, join the hosts as they try to understand how these early attempts would affect his future films and the recurring themes Shyamalan would continue to explore.

Hello and welcome to Blank Check with Griffin David presents Pod Night Shyamacast. Woo! Victory! I'm Griffin Newman. I'm David Sims. This is, we gotta set the table here because this might actually be an entry point episode for new listeners. Yeah. This is a podcast called Blank Check.

Blank Check. Blank Check. Hosted by the two of us. The two friends. Two friends. That's what they call us. The two friends. Friends. Griffin Newman, David Sims.

I'm a comedian. I'm an actor. Yeah, I'm a critic and a writer for The Atlantic. For the last year, we did a series of investigative miniseries overanalyzing the Star Wars franchise. Yes. And this now, 2016, we're stepping forward into expanding our brand to be more just about passion projects in general. Blank check.

About filmmakers. Filmmakers. Who lay it all out there on the screen, whether that's good or bad. Yeah, and people who have experienced a huge amount of success at some point in their careers that gives them kind of a blank check for the rest of their career. Or at least, yeah, yeah, exactly.

To keep doing something. For a lot of their career, yeah. You know, whether or not they keep on getting big budgets or big talent, they keep on getting to work. Yeah. And charting sort of the relationship between... Directors who have a lot of personality that's evident

in everything they do. Yeah, and also people who have enough of a sort of public paper trail that we can chart their narrative as a person along with the films. So that's all the formal business. We love movies! We love movies! Yeah, let's keep the formal

business to a minimum. We're two friends. We're two friends. We talk about movies. We're the two friends. We talk about movies. That love movies. Yeah, let's keep the formal business to a minimum. We're a couple of- I think we said that. We're two friends. We're two friends. We talk about movies. We're the two friends. We talk about movies. That's the through line. So this is our first miniseries of 2016, and it is about the films of M. Night Shyamalan. Yeah, our first section is going to be about the great filmmaker, the terrible filmmaker,

the man, the mystery. Well, that's what we're going to be trying to answer. Is he a great filmmaker? Is he the terrible filmmaker, the man, the mystery. Well, that's what we're going to be trying to answer. Is he a great filmmaker? Is he a terrible filmmaker? Is he somewhere in between? Do you have to have made mostly good films to be a good filmmaker? Sure. Is it possible for those two things to exist independently? Does money corrupt?

Now, the show is called Blank Check. Yeah. And if you're subscribed to Blank Check, previously Griffin Day Present, which was a bullshit name that didn't imply anything. It was just a made-up name. Yeah. I'm sorry to the people who wanted us to keep that name. Oh, did anyone really? Yeah, some people did. Okay. Blank Check,

if you subscribe, you're here for the long haul. You're gonna get every miniseries. Yeah. We're just gonna keep going. But much like Serial, this could be a series of little sort of investigations, right? Much like Serial. Yeah. Multi-part investigations with some one-offs in between. Yeah.

And we want to name each of our miniseries a different thing. Yeah. Blank checks the overarching title, but then, you know, colon, and then what's the name of the miniseries? I really want to call this miniseries PCAST Shyamalan. Yeah. Stupid name. David's-

It was bad. It got a thumbs down. Roommate. Yeah. My roommate, Alex Schierenbeck. Props. Pitched Pod Night Shyamacast. Woo! And right off the top of the dome. It was right off the top of his dome.

I took it to Twitter for a vote. My choice got 36%. And Pod Night Shyamacast got 64%. It's an overwhelming majority. It's almost a super majority. It's a super majority. Now, I concede because I took it to Twitter. The people have spoken.

Yeah. You didn't like my bullying tactics, though. I didn't like your bullying tactics. I thought you were being a brat. That's not cool because we're the two friends. We're the two friends. That's what we're known as. Yeah. Hashtag the two friends. Of course. We're known as the two friends That's what we're known as Hashtag the two friends

We're known as the two friends Our listeners are known as the blankies Emily Yoshida Named our fans We're sticking with that Off the top of her dome She didn't have to bully anyone Until liking that idea

No passive aggression. Here's what I don't like about the name Pod Knight Shyamalan. And we're stuck with it now because the people voted. His name is not pronounced Shyamalan. It's more, it's Shyamalan. It's like Shyamalan. Shyamalan. Pod Knight Shyamalan.

Sure. Look. Pod Knight Shyamalan. Yeah. Okay. That's Pod Night Shama Cast. Yeah. Okay. That's the name of this show. So we're here to talk about M. Night Shyamalan.

We're here to talk about M. Night Shyamalan. And with us, as always, is our producer. Oh. On the ones and zeros. You might know him. In another room. In another room. He is a disembodied voice right now.

We cannot see him. We can hear him breathing and puffing. He's giggling a little bit to himself. You might know him as Producer Ben. Producer Ben. You might know him as Purdue or Ben. Oh boy. You might know him as the Ben-ducer. Ladies and gentlemen, sometimes you might see him on the street and wish him a hearty

hello fennel. Sure. You might call him Birthday Benny if it tore his birthday or even tore it not. You might call him the tiebreaker because sometimes he breaks ties when we vote on things. Oh, boy. You might call him the poet laureate because he speaks well, but also because he writes stuff out, prepares in advance, and reads it on mic, making us look like dummies even though we're just going off the top of the dome. You might know him as producer Ben Kenobi.

That was a holdover from the Star Wars days. You might know him as Kylo Ben, which is also a holdover from the Star Wars days. Yep. And ladies and gentlemen, you might know him as the peeper. Although he can't peep on us right now. He can't. We've built a wall. He's locked away. Ladies and gentlemen. Big Ben as I addressed him.

The Haas himself, producer Ben Hosley. Hello, Fennell. Hello, Fen I addressed him. The Haas himself, producer Ben Hosley. Hello, Fennel. Hello, Fennel. All right. Gentlemen, it's a pleasure to be starting another miniseries. 2016. Always nice to start a miniseries. To a new year and a bunch of new fun episodes.

Although I got to say, I tried to watch these two movies and were terrible, and made it about five minutes in. Yeah. These are the only, I think the only two movies that we're going to do that are readily available to watch. Yes. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to go get a DVD. You don't have to rent it on Amazon. We even set the two films. Let's set the stage a little bit.

Yeah, we're going to talk about his first two films tonight. Most people think The Sixth Sense was his first movie. I feel like most lay people think Sixth Sense was his first movie, because it was such a bold entry onto the scene. Sure. He was only 29 when he made The Sixth Sense. his first movie. I feel like most lay people think Sixth Sense was his first movie because it was such a bold entry onto the scene. Sure. He was only 29 when he made The Sixth Sense. Like, he was young. Right. And he's only, what, 44 now?

He's not that old. I think I looked up, he's like 47 maybe. But he's young. He's very young. His first two films, one he made when he was 22 years old. Yep. Right out of NYU, he went to Tisch. Went to film school.

He's 45 years old, Griffin. Wow. Directed, produced, starred in a film called Praying with Anger. Correct. Saw a very, very limited theatrical release. No, it saw no theatrical release. I read a New York Times review that referenced it playing at the Villages. Okay, fine. I read a review. I read something that said it

was never actually released, but maybe I'm wrong. That's what I thought too, but Stephen Holden said it was playing at the Villages. Who knows? Stephen Holden's been around that long. Yeah. He was reviewing it in 92. Damn. Yeah. And he talked about how this young director showed a lot of promise.

And then he followed it up in 1995. I think that movie was 1992. Is that correct? Praying with Anger is 92. And then he made Wide Awake. In 1995. But it wasn't released until 98. Correct.

Yeah. And that was a Catholic school comedy, dramedy. Yeah. Yeah. It was like a kind of a kid's movie, but like not really. Well, we'll go into them. But that was released in 98 and a year later, Sixth Sense happens and it changes everything. But I mean, just like Wide Awake made $280,000 at the U.S. box office,

and The Sixth Sense, which came out a year later, made $293 million. So, you know, Wide Awake didn't, it appeared at its height 43 feet. Yeah. Didn't really make much of an impact. Now, most people haven't seen these films. A lot of people haven't heard of these films. They're both readily available. Wide Awake is the only Shyamalan film playing on Netflix right now.

Playing on Netflix. It's on Netflix. It's on Netflix. Just go to Netflix. There it is. If you type in M. Night Shyamalan, it's the only thing that comes up. You'll get that one. You'll get an empty page, a lonely page with Wide Awake in the middle. Rosie O'Donnell, Sideways Smirk. Yes.

And then Praying with Anger is available on YouTube. Has it ever been? It's just on YouTube. It's never been released on DVD, I think, in America. Terrible quality. No, no. But it can be watched you also don't have to like me well you could just listen to the episode and i could be a representative i can be

the like yeah the voice of non-watcher sure non-watchers yes ben is the audience association figure if you're a lazy you know bum who doesn't want to do the work required for the podcast. If that's if you want to just skateboard through life high-fiving people with your cool red beard, then you can be Ben. Wide Awake only was in theaters for three weeks. I know, and I saw it. You saw it in theaters? I saw it in theaters. Why?

A huge Rosie O'Donnell fan. That's the honest reason. I saw any Rosie O'Donnell film opening weekend. They tried to sell it on the back of Rosie O'Donnell fan. That's the honest reason. I saw any Rosie O'Donnell film opening weekend. They tried to sell it on the back of Rosie O'Donnell. She's not in it a lot. Worked for this guy. All right. The poster was just her in the board.

I know. With like a baseball. And she gets Anne Rosie O'Donnell in the credits. She does. Okay. Ben, do you want to set the stage a little? Because you didn't watch the films, but actually did a lot of research into the early life of M. Night Shyamalan.

Yeah. I mean, I pulled up a Rolling Stone interview from 2000. So this was about a year or so after Sixth Sense had come out. Just to give people who have no familiarity with Shyamalan's background, he was actually born in India. Right. Malan's background, he was actually born in India. Right. But his family were Philadelphia residents for many years,

and Philadelphia as a city plays a big part in a lot of his films, it seems like. His parents are doctors, I believe. His parents are doctors, and let's see. Let's see if I can pull up a tasty quote. Their son was expected to be a doctor, but he also showed an interest in making films. He used an 8mm camera and made over 45 films as a young man. Yeah, he's sort of in that like J like jj abrams or um what's another one like these guys who loved spielberg movies when they were kids and like got super eight cameras and just started like making like kind of their own little move now he uh told a guidance counselor

uh that making movies this is a quote making movies is not only my hobby, not only my primary interest, not only my extracurricular life. It is my future, not only. Can I say something quickly? Yeah. I'm starting to get really spooked out by hearing Ben's voice and not seeing him. I know to the listeners it won't have any change because they've never seen him. They've just, you know, it's a radio drama. Ben is like the shadow and they're hearing his voice and they're making images in their brain.

But for me, it feels like Ben is a ghost that's haunting my mind. Anyway. All right. Yeah. I mean, let's see. He's a NYU graduate of Tisch. His parents funded that film. His parents were very wealthy.

They put out a lot of money, too. They were very wealthy, and I think the other thing was they might have wanted him to be a doctor early on because that was their path that they chose in their lives. But they encouraged his filmmaking passion. Very hard. I think more than anything,

he was sort of raised being told that he was a genius, brilliant child all the time. He was given a lot of support and was told by his parents that you're better than everyone else. I mean, I'm extrapolating here. Yeah, you're putting a narrative on it. I've read pieces.

His parents loved him. He has described, I think, Raiders of the Lost Ark as being his eureka moment. I think you saw that at a young age and was like, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen. Yeah. I'm just saying, like Abrams, there are these guys who are now in their 40s who got started as Spielberg fans. Yes.

And they started making Super 8 movies because that's what Spielberg did. Right. And that was their whole visual language. This brings up, I think, a very interesting point. M. Night Shyamalan is predominantly known as a horror director. It's true. Yeah, or thrillers and horror and kind of suspense movies, you would call them. Yes, right.

But people very quickly put him into like a Hitchcock-y category after Sixth Sense. Hitchcock-y. Right? He made made four straight horror movies in a row. I guess Unbreakable isn't quite. But Unbreakable still has the tone and the structure of a thriller. That's what's interesting.

It's not a horror movie, but it has that vibe to it and that pacing and everything. Even the composition of the frames and everything. The color palette. Early M. Night is not seemed to be aggressively influenced by horror. Nope. He's a Spielberg guy.

And these two movies are about as far away from horror as you could possibly get. True. And there's an interesting shift that happens after Sixth Sense becomes humongous. One of the top ten highest grossing films of all time. At that point, gets nominated for like eight Academy Awards, including three for him. Yep. He becomes the horror guy and sort of doesn't look back to a degree.

No, it's weird. Because even the non-horror films he's made, I would identify those as being The Last Airbender, Lady in the Water, and Unbreakable. Isn't After Earth not, that's not a horror movie. Oh, After Earth 2, you're right. But After Earth still- They're all genre movies.

After Earth is very dour in a way that feels influenced by horror movies. Yeah. is very dour in a way that feels influenced by horror movies. Yeah. Rather, where you look at that movie and you're like, oh,

I've never seen it, so... This could use a young Spielberg. This could use that kind of pop and verve and fun, you know? You will see After Earth. I will. I know.

You're going to see a shit after. I know. I'm going to see... I haven't seen all of his films. I've seen most of them, but I never saw After Earth. Same here. So let's get started with this first one.

Let's get, come on. All right, so we're talking about M. Night Shyamalan. Yeah. We've talked about, you know, I mean, Praying with Anger is the thing. We just have to talk about this movie to introduce him as a person. 22 years old, his parents finance it, he makes it. This is a thesis. $750,000 or $800,000.

This is his thesis to graduate from NYU. Right, and like, you know know this is back in the day you couldn't just pick up a phone or like pick up a cheap digital camera you know movies even little movies they cost money you needed to fucking rent a camera like you know and this movie is

set in India and it has all this gorgeous photography of India which I wish I could have seen in a little better quality we watched it in And it has all this gorgeous photography of India which I wish I could have seen in a little better quality. We watched it in terrible terrible resolution YouTube quality video but I think it's available on video. Really? On VHS? In the

US. I mean sorry in the UK it definitely is because I found a video cover for it. It was rated 15 which is a British rating. I don't even I guess people swear a little bit. A little bit. It's almost a plot point how little they swear there's like an intense scene of violence even though no actual violence happens

that I think would be too much for kids I think it must have been the BBFC's thinking shout out BBFC but this movie looks like it was shot on 35mm I'm sure it was and he went all the way to India to shoot it maybe it was 16 but I mean it was shot on real film.

Like, you know, with a real camera. And Ben, you said $750,000? I had heard that Wikipedia is saying $800,000, somewhere in that range. Yes, I'm seeing about the same range as well. Yeah, I mean, we're talking at least three quarters of a million dollars. And this was, it was like you say, it was his thesis film. Yeah. It was his calling card movie.

Yes. This was the film that got him entree yes uh into hollywood i think some producer noticed him it went around the festivals this movie and he had written a bunch of scripts and he sort of that like you know that that sent him on the path he had this script wide awake and then you know they they they took notice of him he also gets a lot of uh ghostwriting rewriting jobs including she's all that which he claims he did a heavy rewrite on which has been disputed yes by the writer the credited writer but then he but then he deleted his tweets about i remember so yeah and and uh screenwriting craze notoriously like oh according

to bbfc it's a PG. So I take it back. Anyway, and he wrote the Stuart Little. He wrote the Stuart Little movie. He's one of only two credit writers on a Stuart Little movie. So he gets hired to adapt things. Which is a cute movie. He gets hired to rewrite things. Cute movie. Hugh Laurie?

Yep. Isn't it? Isn't it? Geena Davis? Geena Davis. One of our finest. It's a weird movie because it doesn't. It's a weird movie if you've read the book Stuart Little.

Very different. Very different. Very different. It's basically just a movie about a little mouse who wears a sweater and is the child in a family. Yes. Much better, though, than Stuart Little 2, which is about a little mouse who loves shredding on a skateboard. Oh, I forgot about that. Right. And he fights an eagle played by James Woods.

I've not seen it. Stuart Little 2 blows. It's a fucking desecration. It's a fucking slap in the face to us little heads. Oh, and I forgot Jonathan Lipnicki, your favorite, is in Stuart Little. Yeah, he's really good in that. But let's get back to Praying with Anger. Okay.

So Praying with Anger feels very autobiographical. Yeah, of course. I don't know how literal it is. I have a theory as to which elements were invented, but it is a young man. Young man named Dev Raman. Of Indian descent who grew up in the States. Yep, grew up in Philly. Is sent to India.

Yeah, I forget if the uh city is named i think it's set in south india yeah because tamil is being referenced all the time which is a language that's spoken in sri lanka it's spoken in south india it's not like the predominant language so but everyone speaks in english the entire time uh yeah they're like maybe overheard dialogue is in another language but yeah there are no subtitled scenes so everyone speaks to him in english and in the scenes where he is in another language, but yeah. There are no subtitled scenes, though. Everyone speaks to him in English, and in the scenes where he is in a classroom and people are mocking him for being American, they are teaching their lessons. It's all in English,

but that is actually, I think, pretty typical in India because India has many languages, and it's this colonial nation that has a lot. The British education system is sort of prevalent in India. Worth noting. But it's about this American. Now, the weirdest thing about this movie is like, and it's about this American now the weirdest thing about this movie

is like and it's like the first scene in the movie is like they're like oh this guy he gets in fights

okay so this is the part I think was invented I think this was invented and then M. Night Shyamalan who is he's quite handsome and like yeah he looks good in this one

he's got a very sweet open face and like you just you're just like this guy's, come on. This guy is the least threatening guy I've ever seen. I would also describe his performance as mild-mannered to a fault.

Incredibly subdued. He's not a bad actor per se. Not very good. He's not doing much. He's doing very little. He doesn't overact, I guess is what I would- He doesn't overact, but some of the scenes where he needs to have a larger emotional range... I mean, yeah.

I mean, he's playing himself as a mild-mannered guy. I'm skipping ahead here, but there's a scene where he talks to a woman he has a crush on, and he has to convey five different big emotional shifts from his love for her, his support to her. None of this makes sense, because they have four conversations. His confusion, his outrage, but he goes, like, I think you'd make a great dancer. What are you talking about? That's not fair. Right.

That's bullshit. What I'm saying is he never botches a line reading because it always sounds natural enough, but there's just no range. He never nails one either. He exists comfortably in a middle zone. He's fine when he's bantering. When there's light comic banter, he's all right. We can say unequivocally he exists on camera.

I just like, I mean, I'm sure something we'll talk about week after week is the fact that he kept putting himself in this movie. Yes, he's in most of his films. No, he stops at a certain point and then he's never in them again. Is Lady in the Water the last one? No, I'm going to check. Because that's also his second largest role after this. After Lady in the Water, he plays a voice in The Happening,

and he's uncredited, tiny, tiny, tiny role in The Last Airbender. So The Lady in the Water is the last, and then nothing else. Okay, because Lady in the Water, he made himself like the fifth. Yeah, of course, Lady in the Water is the, we'll discuss that. We'll get to that. But this is the only time he made himself the lead character. This is the only time he made something that seemed this autobiographical. All the other films after this feel pretty distanced from his own life experience.

And I was talking to Sonia Soraya, previous guest on this show, friend of the show, about this movie and saying it is fascinating that this movie is all about the immigrant experience of returning to the motherland and recon reconciling that with you know it's this it's a personal movie yeah and he never ever wades near this territory again no he also never really uh in any way represents uh indian people in the rest of his films to any degree last airbender does but yeah yeah uh oh but almost to a fault because they yeah we'll get into it yeah we'll get into that yeah no it's true and uh there's something that feels very cynical about this movie yes in that he is playing on this thing that would make his movie stand out like but at the same time like you know props to him and it's set in india and it's kind of cool it's a it's very few movies about this subject it's a film about indian culture for westerners it's a like, he's very much the audience's eyes where it's like, what?

This is crazy how this works in this culture. Right. My M. Night Impression's pretty good. It's excellent. What? This is crazy. I can't believe this. So here are the main things in this movie.

Because we're going to talk about both movies, so I guess we should. The main things are- There's a lot of overlap in these two films, which is interesting. There is. Because they're both about religion and they're both about- Crisis of faith. Abs figure yes this movie the technically this movie is about like he's like trying to see his dad and then it turns out his dad is dead the movie kind of misses the like emotional weight of that information yeah because i always thought

his dad was dead and then i realized later like no i think it's like that he didn't know that at first oh i'm just realizing now that we weren think it's like that he didn't know that at first. Oh, I'm just realizing now that we weren't supposed to know that. I don't think we were supposed to know that immediately. I'm not sure. So this is before he's figured out how a twist works, is what you're saying. I mean, look. At this point.

But here are the main things in this movie. He didn't realize the order. Here are the main things in this movie. One, every Indian person, upon hearing that he's american asks him who uh if he knows michael jackson yeah funny joke this is like the one joke in the movie that recurs yes for some reason he anyway yeah and i assume it must be anecdotal he must have been like he must have had this experience right um is he playing a high school student this or college college student okay he's playing i think a 22 year old yeah Maybe doing a a year at an Indian university

or a year at an Indian like postgraduate thing or something. The Indian education system is very stern. That keeps going they keep going back to that. Yes.

Like they see him as being rebellious when I mean he does almost nothing I mean he asks questions occasionally in class. Very little rebellion. There's this one scene

where the teacher can't like admit that Shakespeare. I don't I can't. It's stupid. He like has a fight with his teacher about Shakespeare's intent. Oh no. This scene is fascinating because this seems kind of a Rosetta Stone because they're analyzing the text. And then he he the argument he brings up is like well well, but weren't these plays meant to be performed?

Yeah, he's talking about how they were meant to be performed, right, yeah. And the teacher's like, yeah, and he's like, so then wasn't there an explicit purpose to entertain the audience? Right. And the teacher gets offended that he's implying that, the teacher interprets that he is belittling the work by saying that it's meant to entertain an audience. Right.

And he's like, what better purpose is there for art to exist? Right. Like, it's M. Night Shyamalan defending the idea of making populist work. Yeah, I guess so. It's weird. I read this as, like, a very telling scene. No, I get you. Especially growing up as a Spielberg fan, you know?

Yeah, sure. Like, he's going, like, not diminishing the works of Shakespeare, but he was saying, like, we shouldn't... The fact that he was able to make these things that people want to pay their money to go see is as important as like the subtext of whatever he was trying to say. But I want to continue on the motives in this

book. So, Stern education system. Women can't be like touched or interacted with in the way he thinks of as like flirting and you know like romance is a totally different topic. The unfair treatment of women, I'd say. Just in general. Yeah, right, because there's other things

where there's a girl who has a boyfriend her family doesn't approve of. But he's South Indian. I can't even remember. Right, yeah. A lot of information is not clearly conveyed. I also was not paying the most attention because this movie was not very good.

Agreed. It's also very hard to watch because- It's literally hard to watch with your eyes. The YouTube quality is so bad. Yeah. You could totally just not do it too. Okay, Ben, we have a contract for a year on this podcast. No, I know.

No, I'm just reminding the listeners, they don't feel like they have to. They can just listen to this. Okay, but strongly encouraged. But encouraged. Guys, let me finish. Jesus Christ. Sorry. So there's the, yeah, the woman.

There's some stuff about the treatment of women. A lot. It's pretty mild. There's like happy endings in all cases. But I'd say it's 33% of the screen time in this movie is devoted to how unfairly women are treated in this culture. Then there's a little bit about Indian life in the country. There's this whole segment where they go to the countryside and they get robbed. Right.

And like they're looking for his dad and then his dad appears as like a shadow on the wall yeah out coming out of Shyamalan's body's shadow which is quite a scene and then there's this like awful digression at the end into like a Hindu Muslim tension where this kind of like riot and almost like lynching breaks out. Like someone's going to get like doused in gasoline and lit on fire. And is he like the bully from class? Yeah, right. It is the bully from class. Isn't the guy who like takes you out of class and beats us around? And so it's like supposed to be a redemptive moment where it's like,

oh, look, we're not different, you and I, and like here I am protecting you. And he shows that by lighting up a single match. Right. There's all this bullying stuff, too. He's, like, bullied all the time in school. Yeah. And he's told just to take it. They're his seniors.

Right. They're a bunch of guys with facial hair, and they, like, want him to show respect. Right. They talk a lot about... It's all old school British public school shit where it's, like, yeah, like, sort of institutionalized bullying.

But he says that whole thing about, like, you know, it's the greatest strength and the greatest downfall of their culture is respect they have so much respect for their past and where they came from and all of this but they also are so obsessed with respect right that they become you know blindsided to the present right um and he he says at one point like all i want is for them to respect me. Yeah. And the best friend character, who I think this is the best performance in the movie.

Without a doubt. I believe he is played by a character called, an actor called Mike Muthu. Really charming. Plays Sanjay. Pretty good. Yeah. He's like the native showing her around. I don't know if he's like a buddy of Shyamalan's or. I don't know.

I know the people who play his parents, I think, are like old Bollywood stars. Interesting. One of them is linked on Wikipedia as, yeah, like, you know, an Indian actor. Yeah. Look, the movie's not good. It's not a good film. It's not the worst movie I've ever seen. No, and you know what?

I was, like, watching it. I wasn't crazy about it. And then I went and Googled the Stephen Holden review, which I might read a line from now. And when he pointed out that he was 22 when he made it, I was like, oh, you know what? I can grade this on a curve. And also, he gets some nice shots in. It looks really nice. It is well-constructed.

Where's the line he said? If Praying with Anger is an astonishingly accomplished movie for such a young director, it is also emotionally immature. Dev, whom one might reasonably assume to be a directorial alter ego, churns with... Intuate? Longings? I don't know what that word is. Oh boy, come on. And hostilities that the story resolves far too easily.

At moments of revelation, the screenplay lapses into vague sentimental hyperbole about learning quote-unquote respect and the sense of being quote-unquote home. Yeah, it's... This is what I mean when I say this film feels cynical. It's like he's making this sort of quasi-coming-of-age movie, this quasi-Spielberg absent father movie, and he's layering over this immigrant experience thing. Yes.

And I assume that's drawing from his own life. Yeah. The weirdest thing. And like, it's fine. It just, it all feels a little like a formula. I don't know. Agreed. Well, you know.

Outside of the Indian stuff, which is the coolest stuff. I think the thing that you see here, and it follows into Wide Awake, and it is the through line across all these films, you know, because you go, what? How did this guy end up making these thrillers these suspenseful movies he's very very

interested in like audience reaction and manipulation and payoffs you know like he's into building moments I mean and horror is the clearest cinematic model for that if you get the audience in a certain place and you are going for a specific reaction from everybody, you know?

Building up that tension, bottling it, releasing it, what have you. That's a very Spielberg thing. Spielberg was one of the guys who was able to have these Spielberg moments of awe, of sadness, of excitement, of terror. Spielberg's first movie is better than Praying with Anger. No question.

Whether it's Duel or Sugarland Express, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, both of them are great. This film feels like someone who has sort of synthesized a lot of the things that Spielberg was good at without figuring out how to get to the meat of how to make a movie actually engaging, you know?

Yeah, that's fair. But I mean, I suppose, like you say, for a 22-year-old, that ain't so bad. But it's very algorithmic, you know yeah that's fair but i mean i suppose like you say for a 22 year old that ain't so bad but it's but it's very algorithmic you know and there's like an alternation between scenes of like big emotional payoff like the father shadow scene there are like 10 scenes like that in the movie that happen interspersed that feel like they would be the one big payoff scene of a movie that was leading up to that moment the father shadows so dorky so dorky and then there's also his dad people haven't seen we'll never watch this movie no it's like he's at at the countryside at his dad's home his dad is dead and it's this pretty sparse place and i guess it's

like he realizes his dad actually did care about him by like looking at a things his dad had it's all very like and then he's like, his shadow is reflected on the wall by a candle, and he sees this vision of another male shadow figure exiting his shadow and standing. And he says, like, thanks dad. Yeah, Shyamalan also

doesn't nail this scene as an actor. No, he doesn't. This is one of those scenes where you need someone with a real subtle, steady hand to be able to pull this off. And he does not. And the weirdest thing about this movie is that it's called Praying with Anger. Yes. And it is very much supposed to be about his temper. Right.

And there's this scene where he loses it and starts wailing on some guy who was bullying him. Never seems angry. Super even killed the whole movie. And the moral at the end of the movie. God, I'm so angry at you. I could punch you in the face. There are these scenes of prayer and devotion in whole movie. And like the moral at the end of the movie. God, I'm so angry at you. I could punch you in the face. There are these scenes of prayer and devotion in the movie

and it's like he's saying like, you know, there's so much emotion in prayer and like I pray with anger. That's the end payoff of the movie is he realizes

you have to pray with emotion. It doesn't have to be respect. You can pray with anger. You know, you can be at odds with your culture and with your religion and what have you.

So I'd say if there's the biggest letdown, we agree, it's Shyamalan's performance. He's hurting the movie there the most. Yeah, and I was watching this. I mean, look, it's not a great film. You know, it's far off from being a great film. Yeah. But I did watch this and go like, oh, if you'd maybe even swapped the two lead actors, this

movie would improve 25%. Would you say that this movie is better than Revenge of the Sith? Another film we reviewed. Oh, God. What about The Judge? I think it might be better than The Judge. It's better than The Judge, no question. Better than Revenge of the Sith, that's really tough.

I mean, it's two difficult movies to compare. Yeah, and it's two people at absolute opposite ends of their career, too. True. You know? I mean, I'm just messing around. Yeah. I don't know. Like I said earlier, and we should move on.

How long have we been going, Ben? 30 minutes. Yeah, so we should move on to Wide Awake. But, you know, there's no movies about this. The Namesake is one that I think of with Cal Penn based on the Jim Pellehery book. Yeah, I mean, on the Wikipedia entry. Even that i think of uh with cal calpan based on the jim palahiri book like yeah i mean on the wikipedia even that got like almost no release on the wikipedia entry for um praying with anger i think they list like the only six yeah they do yeah and like all of them are films that got no release right you know that were probably more just like home video releases

but that's what's kind of frustrating about this movie is because you feel him taking it out of a more specific detailed area to try to make it more accessible to american audiences you know like here he is making like a 750 000 myu thesis film and you already see his like crowd-pleasing instincts in play right where he wants to make something that like frames it all in a way that's very easily digestible. Right. And it's like you'd rather see the film that's like more quiet and introspective. Yeah.

And more character-based. Instead, it's like this hook of the anger thing, which is like, I feel like has to be an invention. I cannot imagine M. Night Shyamalan ever getting in a fist fight. And like scene three of the movie, right? Like the first two scenes,

people go like, oh, this kid's angry. Scene three, he explains himself, which is like he got in one fight. Yeah, he's like, it was a total misunderstanding. A guy like tripped over and hit his head

on something else. He got so badly injured that he got stuck with the rat, but it was an accident. Like he was like, oh, I pushed him once and then he happened to fall. It's a monologue

that is eerily similar to the awful monologue in Garden State about the like paralyzing the dishwasher where he's like one in a million chance that he lands this way.

Zach Braff was clearly a big Prangler Anchor fan. They are somewhat similar movies actually. There is the scene in this. Is it better than Garden State? I really dislike Garden State I think it's a bad film I'm not even trying to pick whenever I have an epiphany

I go to the dump and I yell you know what scene I thought was weird in Praying With Anger when he's like he has the moment with the shadow dad and he's like thank you dad and then he takes his headphones and he puts them over the shadow and he's like this song will change your life you know what I never got like

that was the scene that pissed everyone off in Garden State because it was the scene that pissed everyone off. I mean, there were others as well. I just think it's such an underwhelming song. It's not like I dislike the shins. It'll change your life and it's just like, yeah. I don't know. If you say this song's gonna change your life,

it should be like Beethoven's Fifth. Garden State is a movie made by and about a person who thinks that song by the shins will change your life right that's the problem that's the problem that's the problem it feels like the most transparent moment of the filmmaker like speaking to the audience okay so m.i. shawmalan already the crowd-pleasing instincts in making a small independent thesis film he wants to make something that appealed to everyone yeah and it hamstrings the movie and he steps back. His next film, Wide Awake, he does not appear in at all as an actor. And we should say,

according to Wikipedia and according to... Praying with Anger made $1.4 million at the box office. Really? That's what they say. I'm guessing mostly

overseas. It was barely released here. I don't know. I don't know. It made more money than Wide Awake is what I'm saying. Yes.

So Wide Awake was barely released. I don't know the full nature of the story, but Harvey Weinstein at this point was becoming sort of a real power player and would buy up a lot of things, especially if he saw someone who had potential. It was a script he'd written. Right. And he'd just go like, oh, this guy's got some heat. Let me sign him up. And if he wasn't happy with how the movie turned out, he would shelf it. Well, apparently he

interfered on set a lot. Yes. With filming. Yes. He interferes on set, he would shelf it. Well, apparently he interfered on set a lot. Yes. With filming. Yes. He interferes on set, he interferes in the editing room, but if he looked at the end result whether it was his fault. And in the marketing.

And in the marketing, hardcore. If he wasn't happy with how it turned out, he would just fucking shelf that shit. So there are a ton of, like, wine scene movies, Miramax movies,

that come out between 95 and 2000. Yeah. That were shot two to three years earlier. And also, like, he would three years. And also like, uh, he would make,

uh, foreign acquisitions like junking express. Like there were a lot of situations or hero where he would like buy a movie that was a big hit overseas and then refuse to release it forever. Yeah. Because he wanted it to come out in a more condensed form. Like he wanted to edit it for an American audience or something. It's so weird

because i don't want to just like whatever harvey weinstein they called him harvey scissorhands yeah they did i mean like cut everything out he has such a reputation in the 90s as this monster yeah and like now that's kind of receded because now it's just like oh harvey you know he works with quentin tarantino he does you know he does sort of he is also a lot less powerful than he used to be i mean his company there was a new york times article recently about how they barely have the money to mount the oscar campaign for carol that he wants to it used to be the whole the whole thing about miramax was that they would get you oscar nominations yes they throw their weight behind you they campaign like crazy they won shakespeare in love best picture like yeah in a feat, like, on before.

It was crazy. They got Chocolat nominated for Best Fucking Picture. They got some movies nominated. I mean, there was a thing where literally, I think, for 10 years, they never didn't get a Best Picture nomination. Correct. And even something like Chocolat, it's like, okay, you got Chocolat in, but also Judi Dench got in for Supporting Actress? Like, Chocolat got, like, six nominations? She's charming. Yeah, she's always charming.

She's one of our most charming screen presidents, David. All right, no need to yell. I just don't like you implying that I'm not susceptible to the charms of Judi Dench. I get it. She's real charming. She's a lovely lady. Love Judi Dench. She is not in Wide Awake, but Wide Awake has an all-star cast.

Really good cast, actually. Here are who is in Wide Awake. Okay. Dennis Leary. First build. First build. In one of the most perplexing performances I've ever seen in a Hollywood film. Yeah.

He is playing a character who is clearly in the grip of a major depressive episode. It is never referred to or spoken of. His character does nothing in the movie. It's supposed to be his father, right, who has died? Or is it Dandelion's father? Is that ever clear? I believe it's supposed to be his father right who has died or is it dandelion's father is that ever it's her father okay there is no no i think that he hates his marriage and his children and his life and like every day thinks about just like turning the car on in the garage and killing himself like he is so subdued this is dennis leary who this is 95 he's like the live wire comedian you know the guy who comes out and starts like barking at

everyone asshole yeah he's out of that smoke 80 cigarettes a day you know and like in this movie it's like i don't know if shyamalan is saying like you're you know you're sad or you're you're a bit of a you know nebbishy guy and you should just but he is crazy okay can i throw an alternate theory it's crazy this performance like boggled my mind. Mind-boggling. Also, he is maybe the 10th most important character in the film. He's first built. Yeah, I don't know why he's first built, except that I guess Rosie O'Donnell gets the and, and I think Robert Loja gets, like, a with or something.

So it's like... No, I think Robert Loja's just straight up third. Interesting. Yeah, so I don't know. I mean, like, obviously Joseph Cross should be first built, but he's a kid, so he gets shut down. So it might have just been Dennis Leary was the highest paid. I think they go Leary, Delaney.

It was Leary, Delaney, Joseph Cross. Dan Delaney plays the mother. No, then Robert Loggia. Oh, yeah. The way it was in the opening credits, I believe they take Joseph Cross and the other young actor. The other young actor. I believe his name is Timothy Reif Snyder. They give them a split and introducing.

Timothy Reif Snyder. They give them a split and introducing. And then they go on to Cameron Manheim. Dan Luria, who I thought was very charming in this film. The dad from Wonder Years. Yeah, he's good in his one scene. In his one scene of dialogue. He's got two.

He's got the one where he talks about the pews and the one where he's giving the sermon and he tells him to sing loudly. Oh, yeah, that one. He's got two good scenes. And Julia Stiles is in this movie. Oh, right, Julia Stiles, one of her first film performances. Playing the older sister of our main character,

Joshua Beale, played by Joseph Cross, who now is like, you know, he's like a working actor. He was in Milk. He's great in Milk. He played the photographer really great in Milk. He's a thin sort of little guy. He's like a little guy. He's a little guy. He's a thin sort of little guy. He's like a little guy.

He's played a lot of gay characters. He was the lead of Running With Scissors, which is a movie that no one talks about anymore, but existed. Yes. The Ryan Murphy's adaptation of the Augustine Burroughs. It did arguably exist. It's crazy. It totally existed and people were like, oh, and Benning's getting an Oscar nomination for this.

This is Ryan Murphy's. And then it just bombed, bombed with critics, with audiences, and just disappeared from memory. They definitely thought it was going to be a nine major categories film. He has a ton of sex with Joseph Fiennes in it. He was in Lincoln too, I forgot. Yeah, he's in Flags and Her Fathers.

He's in Lincoln. He's around. He's a good actor. He's a decent actor, I think. Yeah. I like him a lot. He's not a big star's around. He's a good actor. He's a decent actor, I think. I like him a lot. He's not a big star. No, he's a good working actor.

So this movie takes place at a Catholic school. Yep, in Philadelphia. In Philadelphia. A gorgeous school. Amazing. The best thing this movie has going for it is the school set, which is all these big wooden staircases and all these places for kids to run around and these

big open green landscapes. Can I throw out a theory right now? Shoot. I think Shyamalan's strongest skill set as a filmmaker is location. His sense of environment.

Especially in these early films where he's really using sixth sense, unbreakable, for sure. But all of early films where he's really using like six cents unbreakable for sure. But all of them, whether he's building them or he's locating them, he gets amazing locations. He builds really good environments. And they're very much about the characters in relation to those environments. Interesting. Yeah. Okay.

So, Wide Awake, little boy, Catholic school, Philadelphia, Dennis Leary plays his father. My theory on the Dennis Leary performance is they went, Dennis, hey, straight offer, they want you to play the dad in this movie. He's like, great. And they're like, okay, they're offering you this much money. And he's like, great. And they're like, one note from the director, he doesn't want you to do any of the Dennis Leary stuff. Yeah. And then Dennis Leary was like, I can't do any of the Dennis Leary stuff. And they're like, nope.

Don't be Dennis Leary at all. And then he was left with nothing else to do. So I think the performance reads as someone going through a complete existential breakdown because he's a husk of a man because Leary was like, I don't know, what do people who aren't Dennis Leary do? Do they walk? Do they wear glasses?

What do non-Dennis Leary people do? Also, there's movies like The Thomas Crown Affair and these movies he's making around the time. No, well, he makes it later. I'm saying this is the first film. He made a lot of movies where if he's not being funny Dennis Leary, he seems a little lost and he's really quiet. Agreed.

And more so than him not being funny in this, they're like, be the opposite of your stage persona. Yeah. Like, you could get Dennis Leary in a serious performance playing an irascible hothead. Yeah. You know? As he does in, like, Small Soldiers or whatever. Where it's like, he breezes in and does three crazy seats. Right.

And he's not super funny in that, but he's not trying to be, but they use his anger. Yeah. Just energy. Just energy. Right. Yeah. And this, they're like, be as milquetoast as you can possibly be but i want to say something else this movie is milquetoast it makes the milquetoast choice every time yes every time yes like it this is the weirdest

fucking movie this was one of my favorite movies when i was a child i saw this in theaters because i was a huge rose o'donnell fan i pray. Wait, you saw this movie more than once? No, you just saw it once. I just saw it once. Okay. I just saw it once. I mean, growing up, I think we had literally

three VHSs. So there were very few movies I'd watch multiple times. Oh, so you had it on VHS? No, we didn't. I'm saying. I saw it one time in theaters, but I loved it when I saw it.

Wait, what were your VHSs? Toy Story. Sure. My Brotherhood Space Jam. And then the Muppet movie. Yeah. Well, there you go. Those are the three big ones. That kind of Space Jam. And then the Muppet movie. There you go. Those are the three big ones. That kind of explains it.

Mary Poppins. I could name like a couple other. But like, yeah. Okay. So. I was a huge Rosie O'Donnell fan. I would pray to get sick so I could stay home and watch the Rosie O'Donnell show. That was like a big thing.

Every morning I'd be like, I think I'm sick. I think I'm sick. This is when she was not on The View. When she just had her talk show. The Rosie O'Donnell show. Right right the morning syndicated koosh balls motherfucker she launched tickle me elmo do you know that i do yeah she was a fucking trend maker and this was before i believe she was even out right yep and so she was and it was before the view where she became more of a political figure yep and this was probably before I knew that gay people existed.

Possibly. It's when Rosie O'Donnell was like the kid friend, one of the like 10 kid friendly actors. She was the Billy Crystal of the Kids' Choice Awards. She hosted every year. Oh, yes, yes. And it was like, there's Rosie O'Donnell again.

And like Tarzan is kind of the end of that where she plays the buddy in that. But she was like a friend to kids. She was like the adult, like what's the word I'm looking for here? She was almost like the intermediary between adults and children. She was like, I'm a grown-up, but not really. You know? She plays a small role in this movie.

She does, but that's all they needed to take me out of my apartment. I see, so that's why you saw it wide awake. Yes. And at this point, I was sort of primed for this because Harriet the Spy also, she was at the forefront of the marketing campaign for Harriet the Spy.

She plays Harriet's babysitter. She gets fired at minute 15 and comes back at the end. She's in maybe 10 minutes of the film, right? But they present the movie as like, Rosie O'Donnell, like the poster was Rosie O'Donnell holding a magnifying glass,

you know, and it was like, Rosie O'Donnell and Harriet the Spy. The poster is just Harriet and Rosie O'Donnell. Sure magnifying glass, you know, and it was like, Rosie O'Donnell and Harriet the Spy. The poster is just Harriet and Rosie O'Donnell. Sure. It was the first Nickelodeon movie. Rosie O'Donnell was very tied to Nickelodeon at that time, was hosting the Kids' Choice Awards. The show was like, I mean, that was the big thing.

She would sort of dub what the next hot Christmas toy was going to be every year on her talk show. So I think, you know, the years between 1995 and 1998 were when that really blew up. And so by the time Weinstein decided to release this movie,

he really pushed Rosie O'Donnell on the campaign. She is the only other person on the poster. Right. The TV ads were all the Rosie O'Donnell moments cut together.

And it was like, it's a movie about a little boy and his crazy nun teacher. Well, yeah, who loves baseball. Loves baseball. Really pushes the fact that she loves baseball, which is in, I think, one scene in the movie. She uses a very broad baseball metaphor to describe the apostles.

The opening scene, she's like, so Judas is on the mound. Jesus is here pitching. Right. Whatever. Which I think is funny. No, I think it's not funny. David, I think it's funny. But the other thing is, like, the posters.

She's blowing bubble gum, is that right? No, he's like, it's more like it's like like well let me try and find an actual poster there's the poster where he's standing on a crate and she's next to him and like giving him a hug yeah uh you know like and i think the ads too they focused on sort of like do you remember your first kiss or here here's a tagline here's a tag here's the tagline okay meeting your best friend finding your favorite teacher remember your first kiss? Here's a tagline. Here's the tagline. Okay. Meeting your best friend. Finding your favorite teacher.

Having your first crush. Remember what it felt like to be wide awake. A comedy that will raise your spirits and keep you laughing. Eh. No. This is another tagline I found here. First kisses. Yeah.

Outrageous pranks. A teacher with a killer fastball. To survive this year, Joshua Beale will have to stay wide awake. So both of these taglines heavily incorporate the teacher, the relationship to the teacher. Yeah, there's... She's got like three scenes.

She's not presented as his favorite teacher. She's presented as a teacher he has. Yeah. I mean, she's a nun who is, you know, nice to him. There's the one scene where she really reaches out to him about his grandfather. Okay, so this is the plot of this film. In so much as there is a plot. This is a kid's movie.

Yes. And I'm not even talking about the marketing. This is a kid's movie. This is a movie for children. And M.I. Shyamalan was quoted as saying that his goal was to make a comedy that could make you cry. Yeah. Well, he failed. Because it's not funny and it doesn't make you cry.

I loved it. As a child, I cried six times. So this is a movie about a kid who lost his grandfather to cancer. Played by Robert Loja in Flashback. Yeah. Who we recently lost here in the real world. That's true. R.I.P. Robert Loja.

Robert Loja, one of the most irascible, difficult actors, apparently was fired from The Sopranos almost immediately because everyone hated him so much. I love the guy. But I also love... Notorious for being quite a wise ass. As is Dennis Leary. As is Rosie O'Donnell.

It's true. A lot of big personalities. He hired three people who are known for being outspoken, hard asses and was like, by the way, tone it way down. Yeah, I mean, Loja's fine in the movie. I think he's nice. He's like, son! I'm scared too. So he has died of cancer.

And little Josh that's his name, right? Yeah, Joshy Cross, right? Well, it's Joseph Cross. I think the character's called Josh. Yeah, Josh Beale is sad about that. And he goes to Catholic school. So he wants to figure out if his grandpa went to heaven, I guess.

He wants to get in touch with God. The main character of the film is- It's this sort of extensible idea. He can't get over his grandfather's death. His grandfather was his best friend. And he decides in September that year, the film, much like Rushmore, has month placards. He is 10 I think

10 years old yes he decides his goal is he wants to find God and he's very literally find God very precocious

and then there's all these references to things that we don't see which is like apparently he's exploring a lot of religions and a lot of rituals at one point

he tells Rizzo Donald that he's not free that night because he has to light Hanukkah candles. Yeah, and like he teaches kids how to meditate at a party. To the Easter, you know, he's doing like Muslim prayer. I mean, but it's

all, we don't see it. Yeah, we see them meditating at the party. I forgot about that. Yeah, you skipped the most important part, David. Did I? Yeah, which is the beginning of the film. His parents try to wake him up and he goes right back to sleep. Yeah, there's the beginning of the film. His parents try to wake him up, and he goes right back to sleep. Yeah, there's these sequences. I think there's two or three of them.

Maybe like five or 12. They walk him around like a little sleepy robot that's falling asleep. They wake him up over and over. He keeps on falling back asleep, so they have to drag him over by his arms, like Weekend at Bernie style. Are you saying this was a scene that you liked as a kid? Because you're smiling. Loved it. Because I watched this scene stone-faced, baffled at why this was included in the film.

David, they weaken it, bring him over to the sink, and then they have to put the brush in his hand and then hold his hand and then brush his teeth. But the movie's called Wide Awake and he's not. He's fast asleep, David. He's fast asleep. Be quiet. This movie has a lot of whimsy. Oh my God, it's so whimsical. But it is not whimsical.

It's so whimsical. But like, now do you think it's whimsical? No, I think it's a bad movie. But as a child, I loved it so much. It's good to hear that as a kid you liked it, because I guess that was the idea. I think I was the one person target audience for this movie. Can I tell you the things I liked as a child? Yeah. Okay, I was obsessed with Rosie O'Donnell.

Okay. Fascinated by death. Haunted by it. Could not stop talking about it. I was a little bit too.inated by death, haunted by it, could not stop talking about it. I was a little bit, too. All the time. All the time. Would not stop talking about death. I remember waking my parents up in the middle of the night to ask them questions about what happened when you die, what dying feels like.

All these things, right? Boy, what a kid. Terrible. A nightmare. My mother, when she dropped me off at preschool, the other mothers would be like, we don't know how you do it. You have such a tough job. That kid's a fucking handful.

He never stops overanalyzing movies and talking about death. They were like, you should have a podcast. Your son should have a podcast. She was like, I don't know what podcasts are. They were like, just wait 15 years. It'll make sense as a person. Move on to whatever you're going to say. Obsessed with death, very precocious. Drove my teachers

crazy. And like Kind of like Joseph Cross' character in Wide Awake? Yes. 100%. So you're saying you saw yourself in this character. This was like the only movie in which I was like that's me. This no fun movie. Yep. That is short but feels

long. Yep. Much like my childhood. Much like my childhood. Because I think the running time is 88 minutes. So, you know, not a long movie, but it felt like four hours. When I think it's telling that I watched as a kid, I was like, this is the first time I've seen me reflected up on screen. I watch as an adult, and I'm like, this kid's driving me crazy. This kid is so annoying.

This kid's driving me nuts. Cross can read the lines. I think he's very good. I do not think he's very good, because he doesn't seem like a kid at all. This is exactly what I acted like as a child. Well, you sound like a real piece of shit. I was a real piece of shit. But I mean, Shyamalan really burdens him with all this dialogue, which is crazy because he has all these other actors around who could probably take some of the dialogue and he doesn't give him anything the structure of almost every scene is he sits there looking like consternated and then someone comes over to him and they're

like what's up and then he says something very profound in quotes like he's his existential musings on like right well but if this happens then what about this like every scene is him wrestling with a deep thought and the adults are like kid kid, just be a fucking kid. Just be a kid. Also, every scene, like you say, is just a boring dialogue scene. Okay. Where there's some, maybe sometimes there's action happening like they're at gym or they're in class, like, you know, school things are happening, right? But like nothing, nothing is happening. This is where I disagree because I think my biggest complaint against the movie is the

exact opposite of what you're saying i think this movie is going like even further in the direction of this very like strategic algorithmic like manipulate the audience kind of like goal that shamalan has in his career to be this spielberg level like you know puppeteer of audience emotions uh after the first 30 minutes where they set up most of the basic stuff, I would say, what, this movie's like 80 minutes long? 88. 88. Probably about 85, you know, minus credit.

Right. Probably about 80 minus those fucking intertitles where it's like, December answers or whatever. Go on. Which, I mean, clearly Rushmore, you know, Wes Anderson was tipping the cap as an homage to Wide Awake. It feels like that was really his big influence there but um the remaining 40 so minutes of the film are just a series of

emotional catharsis scenes back to back to back to back like for the last 40 minutes of this movie every scene feels like it would be the last scene of a different movie yeah so they set up all these different things to pay off. So he's got this best friend who's a daredevil, and he's not afraid of anything. Right. And he's the one who pushes him to do everything. This character who's played by Timothy Reichshänder

is called Dave. Dave. Dave O'Brien, is that right? Dave O'Hara. Dave O'Hara. You know what I liked in this movie, too? All the scenes where they're taking roll call or lining up the students,

they keep on calling out one kid whose name is Newman. You noticed that? I did not. I noticed that. I mean even if I noticed it was fully locked into that fact the movie is already just like bled out of my mind so I yeah. I was having a ball. I watched it over the weekend. I was having

a ball. Dave O'Hara turns out to be epileptic and so there's like the big scene where then he goes to check in on him, sees him passed out bloodied underneath the stairs where his parents don't notice. That scene is insane. Insane. Because it comes

like one hour, twenty minutes in. Let's go back a little in this movie. Should we? I mean, let's barrel into the epilepsy scene. I don't think we need to go back. He... I'm so creeped out by the dis. I don't think we need to go back. I'm so creeped out by the disembodied voice of Ben Hosley. He's obsessed with his grandfather who's dead.

He wants to find God. The basic threads that are set up, like these 17 different things, are like, okay, his constant searching for God in some form. Asking every adult around him questions about what death is like, about where God is, what form he exists in. Right? Right. Right. Then there is his best friend who's this daredevil who's not afraid of anything, who pushes him to do a lot of stuff. There is this fat kid at school.

Yeah. Who really wants to hang out with him. Yeah. He keeps asking, is it tomorrow? And you're like, what? It's this thing he keeps saying to him. It is weirdly profound in a sort of there is no spoon kind of way where it's like, it's not actually profound, but like it is kind of. Hit me so hard as a kid.

Is it tomorrow? Is it tomorrow? It becomes clear that what's happened is every day this fat kid asked Josh, hey, can we hang out today? And Josh is like, no, tomorrow. Yeah. Like, can we play? He says, can we play today? He wants to hang out with the kid.

And Josh is like. Tomorrow. Yeah. And so he's like, can we play? He says, can we play today? He wants to hang out with the kid, and Josh is like... Tomorrow. Yeah, and so he's like, is it tomorrow? And then every day the kid asks him, is it tomorrow? And he goes like, no, it's today. Tomorrow's tomorrow. There's this really weird scene where he squishes himself into a turnstile with Josh. They're at a museum on a field trip.

And it's like they can't get them out of the turnstile, even though it's very obvious that you could just sort of pull them out. He sees two skinny kids going together. And then the fat kid's like, I want to be friends with Josh, goes in after him. You're right. The thing you need is an adult who is taller than a child to reach under the armpits of the child and lift the kid up vertically.

But instead, they have to get... A handyman has to comment on screw the thing from the hinges. We don't see this happen. Everyone's laughing at him, but they do say that, that they need to get two people 30 minutes of hard work. Everyone's laughing at them. And then the fat kid's like, oh, he's like, what? He's like, I think I'm going to blow chunks.

Right. You think there's about to be like a stand by me like barf scene, but then that doesn't happen either. Right. And so the following scene. Things don't happen a lot. No, but there's so much payoff that's what's weird so the following scene right after this is the fat kid sitting on a bench alone and i say i you know i refer to him as just the fat kid because that's all this character is he's a fat kid they constantly he's i don't remember his name caked in sweat right they just like applied glycerin to his forehead at the beginning of every

single shot and um he's sitting on a bench alone and you hear like ADR of other kids going like, man, look at him. What a fatty. Oh, my God. How fat's he going to be when he grows up? Stupid fatty. Fat kid. And he's like crying. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then that's when Josh is nice to him. Yeah. Joseph Krauss comes up and he's like, hey, you know what? It's tomorrow. It's tomorrow. Today is tomorrow. Didn't like that scene. Loved it.

Made me cry as a child. Here's a scene I did kind of like. Okay. So the idea is he keeps trying to get in touch with God. Now, the real idea of this movie is his fucking parents, who are having their own crisis, I think. Yeah. And they're just like, this kid is so annoying. Like, he's in such a daze.

He needs to get over this. How do we help him? There's a scene where they go to a toy store to buy annoying like he's in such a daze. He needs to get over this. How do we help him. There's a scene where they go to a toy store to buy a present for his friend for the birthday party. And he goes like I used to think this place was like a world of wonder and magic where anything could happen. And now and she's like what is it now. And he's like it's just plastic and paint.

That is verbatim a thing I totally would have said when I was six. I mean it's just anyway. I'm not defending that. I was so annoying as a child. They're bummed out because they're like, what's the matter with this kid? And, um... They all sleep in a bed together. All four of them sleep in a bed together. In one scene, Julia

Stiles is in the bed with them too. Julia Stiles is otherwise, who's terrific in the film and easily the best performance, is just playing kind of... She's like rolling her eyes and like... She calls him Smurf. She's constantly chatting on the phone with her friends. She says one point like, oh, he liked the outfit. No teenager has ever said outfit.

Really? He liked the outfit? Outfit. Yeah. I don't know. It seemed like he liked my outfit. That's a great outfit. Anyway, there's a scene where she's at the girls' school,

the corresponding girls' school, which is like across the way from the boys' school that he goes to. Yes. And a cardinal comes to speak at the school. And so Josh sneaks in to talk to this cardinal, I guess thinking the cardinal will be a direct line to God. Right. And he sneaks into the bathroom, and the cardinal is in there, and he's shaky, and he needs pills. I forget what it is.

He needs some kind of stabilizing medicine. They don't say what it is, yeah. And Josh is horrified at the sight of a mortal religious figure. It's a weird scene. It's kind of good. Yeah, and I liked that scene earlier. There's a lot of flashbacks to Robert Loggia and there's one where they're... Loggia.

There's one scene where they're sitting in the pews together and the priest says like, okay, and whoever might be sickly right now, come up and get your communion or whatever. I don't know how religion works right? Yeah. He's like if you're sick come up we'll give you a wafer we'll pat you on the head. And a woman gets up and walks over and he's like Mrs. Wilkinson from next door I didn't know she was sick. My god I couldn't tell. And then Robert Loja stands up walks over and that's when

he realizes that his grandfather who's his best friend who he idolizes he starts playing football because his grandfather loves him. There's catch. There's a scene where they there's a race. Which is talk about a big emotional catharsis scene. Talk about a scene that made me just fall asleep. That would be the last scene in most other movies. That'd be what you're building up to. So they keep on even though you know he's dead at this point. We're gonna get to the last scene of this movie.

I know. And guys, if you're bored by us talking about this, please listen and wait for us to talk about the last scene of this movie. And this episode might seem boring, but the twist is that this is going to pay off on nine to ten incredible episodes in the rest of this miniseries. So insane. No, because we're laying the groundwork

of who this guy is. I really do think this is going to be a great miniseries. This seems very academic, this episode, but it's like we're looking at the roots of the tree. Keep talking. Okay okay flash back to a day where i don't know field day whatever for the catholic school and there's a race and he falls down on the ground and his grandpa is real sick and old at this point and the nun gets up

and she's like okay and the first place winner of the race is and robert Loja taps her and he's like, my grandson hasn't finished the race yet. He doesn't say it as scary as you're making it sound like. I wish he had done it in Lost Highway voice, you know, where he's like, hey. Hey. My biggest, because I loved Robert Loja because he was in Independence Day. Right. And he has the best line reading of the movie, better than anything Will Smith or Jeff Goldblum says, which is crazy.

When he says, welcome to Earth. When the alien is invading Bill Pullman's mind. And, no, actually, he doesn't have the best. It's Adam Baldwin who says it. Isn't it? Yeah, I think so. Because it's, is this glass bulletproof? And I think Adam Baldwin says, no, sir.

And then they shoot the, yeah, yeah. Which also, like, the glass should be bulletproof or whatever. Yeah, right. This is Area 51. It's underneath the White House. Come on. Robert Lozier's like, my grandson hasn't finished yet. Yeah, right.

And so they finish the race. And the whole point is his grandfather makes him feel like, I don't care. Like, he's definitively lost. Because everyone else has crossed the finish line. He's on the ground crying. And he, like, runs into his grandfather's arms. And it's like, this is the last moment I ever want to see i'd ever see him i knew i was running towards whatever it's a good yeah it's a good scene of like a man i mean it's not a good scene but like

it should be a good scene of like right this is this is my memory of this man but that scene doesn't have that much emotional impact because we know he's dead at that point we've seen like 17 different flashbacks of him showing like heroism and how he faces his mortality you know i guess so and there's a scene where he's like don't worry about me i'll be fine i'm in the hands of god he's like aren't you scared that you're gonna die he's like aren't you scared and he's like all right i am scared yeah and you're like they cry together yeah okay fine this is the weirdest kids movie so it's a kid's movie it was just designed for me. I was the only person meant to see this movie. It's a kids movie that is far too, I think,

like, dark in content to be for kids. Not that there aren't kids movies, obviously, that deal with this kind of stuff, but they tend to deal with it in a more metaphorical way that I think kids would have more access to. Right. Like, this is a kids movie for weirdos like Griffin, or maybe I guess for kids who have had this

experience of losing someone when they're younger. Maybe. Yeah, I lost no one when I was younger. I was just obsessed with death. I think those kids might find this movie

to be cheap and cloying. I think they'd be able to deal with it. Right. I was a kid who was trying to wrestle with death as an abstract concept that I had no immediate

relationship to. There are movies like My Neighbor Totoro that are about like children being confronted with mortality at a young age. Or The Road Trip

is also another film that I think Walt Becker's obsessed with mortality as an auteur that's one of his dominant themes David I just taken a break while you said all the road trip stuff there's another problem like I think you legitimately threw Emily off last week when you started

talking about the road trip yeah I think she couldn't tell if I was being serious or not and the answer is I was being serious sort of so there's answer is I was being serious. Sort of. So there's a scene when he breaks into the girls' school to try to see the, what's his... Where you think hijinks,

the Cardinal. Yeah, the Cardinal. Cardinal Law from Spotlight. No, it's not him. The scene earlier, right prior to that, he and his best friend are looking at

Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue. Yeah. Oh my God. Where he and Dave are talking about the models, and Dave says something like, you have, like, a biological reaction. There's this line about a biological reaction.

He's like, what are you supposed to do? I don't know if I'm into girls yet. And he's like, you'll know when it happens. You're supposed to feel a biological reaction. He's like, what does that mean? He's like, I don't know, but I think you know it when you feel it. And then he breaks into this girls' school

to try to meet the Cardinal Law, and he runs headfirst into a girl, and she's like, what are you doing here? And he's like, uh, uh. And she's like, is something wrong with you? And he's like, I think I'm having a biological reaction. This girl is very, whoever this actress is, she's very charming. Winning, charming, nice little girl. He keeps on saying this.

He becomes obsessed with this girl. He goes to the birthday party. He gets into this deep talk about death with her. He says the biological reaction thing a couple times. Oh, there's that scene. Guys, what's the biological reaction? No idea. A big stinking boner.

Oh, it's a boner. I was kidding when I said no. He's got a big stinky boner. Nice. Kids got to learn about boners sometime. Yep. Very weird to just hear you say that that not look at you in the eyes when you say kids gotta learn about boner sometimes he talks to this girl and she's like what is it and he's like i couldn't tell you and she's like what and

he's like i think you're the prettiest girl in the whole world i get a biological reaction whenever i see you like he says something like that i hate this scene he like confesses his love to her they are 10 that's totally something i would have done when i was 10 um and then later in the film they go like they send them over the boys over to their sister catholic girl school and they're like this is the big ceremony they prep all year to do right be respectful and the girl walks out and uh dave is like is that your girlfriend he's like yeah she's beautiful. And at the end of the ceremony, which is like they're rubbing flowers on a tree. I don't know how Catholic school works. He comes out. You rub flowers on a tree, apparently.

You rub flowers on a tree. They wear nice dresses and they rub flowers on a tree. It's another movie about religion, but maybe he went to a Catholic school. Yes, according to his Wikipedia, he did. He mostly went to Catholic school. That makes sense. Because that's like a nice school in Philadelphia, which has a lot of tough schools. Yes.

The girl comes over to him, and she's like, I think you're going to find God. And he's like, I gave up on that. I'm done with that quest. And she's like, you shouldn't, because I think you're going to do it. And that's like,

every scene is like some big emotional moment where like, and then the music swells. The music swells. By the same guy who did a music to bring with. I was going to say they're very, very similar scores. Very similar scores. Uh,

Rosie O'Donnell plays a teacher who's obsessed with sport. She relates everything back to that in one, maybe two scenes. She's wearing the hat and all the scenes, not all of them. Some of them, some, maybe only one of them's wearing the hat in all the scenes. Not all of them. Some of them. Maybe only one of them, actually. She's wearing a filly's hat in one scene.

It's not like then she's wearing an eagle's hat in another scene. Okay, so what happens? We've described the entire movie, but there's one major thread we haven't described. We didn't talk about the epilepsy much, but there's this whole epilepsy scene. So Dave's a daredevil. He'll do anything. He

hides in a garbage can. He really looks like a lot of kids I knew when I was that age. That kid was well cast. That kid looks like such a kid. Such a kid. He's such a fucking kid, this kid. That kid where you're like, you know what, this kid's probably gonna grow up and be a pretty handsome guy, but he's dorky in all the right ways.

Right now we need the kiddiest kid we could possibly kid. Anyway, go on. Okay. So there's this weird dangling thread of a couple times in the film when like Joshua was like sneaking away to try to find God. There's like a weird little like cherubic blonde boy. There's this cherubic blonde boy who Josh identifies as like almost the new Josh. Like the little kid who's going to get picked on.

Yes. And he sympathizes with him. This boy doesn't ever talk. Oh, he's got the bully thing too. It's not that important to talk about. There's a bully. There's a bully and then he realizes the bully is poor. He's poor.

I swear to God. I used to, I wanted always for him to get in trouble. All of these scenes are so heavy handed. Because every scene is like him being the bigger man and having some catharsis or realizing how the world works and the next scene it resets back to zero. But the big point is he realizes that the bully's sad too and that's why he bullies and then he reaches out, shakes his hand and goes like,

it's been nice knowing you or whatever. So there's this little petite blonde kid. His best friend has epilepsy and he saves his life. Little petite blonde kid. Epileptic friend says like, I believe in God now. You're a miracle because you saved me. I didn't used to believe in God.

Now I know that you're a miracle. There's this little blonde kid. Doesn't talk, but he'll occasionally help out. He's like a little friendly helper guy. He points to shit like, if you're going to sneak out, remember to turn the alarm off or whatever. And he's like, and Joshua will say what the kid was implying. Like, it'd be like, oh, good point.

I should turn off the alarm. Otherwise, the door will go off. Thanks, kid. But the kid never speaks at all. So, at the end of the movie, they're getting a class picture taken yeah and josh is like oh that fucking kid he has a name rosie o'donnell's like let's let's see we're one kid short 17 18 19 yeah we're missing one and he and he's like oh he looks out he sees the kid walk by he sees the blonde i'll go get him right and then the second he walks out o'd'Donnell goes, 17, 18.

Oh no, everyone's here. Josh? And so Josh says to the kid, like, you know. Chase him down a hallway. The kid's standing in a pool of light, a Janusz Kaminski-style pool of light through a stained glass window, right? Mm-hmm. Beautiful hallway.

You guys have figured this out already, but... Even though we just presented this idea to you. The kid has some line along the lines of like, you're really noticing me for the first time. Something like, I forget exactly what the line is. You're seeing me for the first time. You're seeing me for the first time.

And he's like, no, I've seen you a bunch. You were there, you pointed at the thing. You appeared once every 15 minutes in this film. So it was just peppered in enough that we'd remember you, but not too heavy handed that we start to presume that something was off or that it was,

you know, breadcrumbs for a larger plot point. And he's like, no, but now you're really noticing me for the first time. And he's like, I guess so. And then he says, like, he's happy, John. Right. And he's like, yeah, my friend Dave, the epileptic, I know, I visited him in the hospital last night.

And he, like, starts to walk away. And then he turns around and says, do you mean Grandpa? With a huge smile on his face. And the kid's gone. The angel from God or whoever this kid was. Yeah, and he goes like, I learned that day that not all angels have wings. The angel from Allah. Yeah. The angel from...

That is the line though, right? He goes like, I learned that day. Oh, and there's also a scene before that where they make you give a speech in front of your class about what you learned that day. Oh, that's where he says I feel like I'm wide awake. Yeah, I've been sleeping this whole time and I'm wide awake. Oh, because that's, David, that's the funniest part. So there's like seven scenes

where Dennis Leary's carrying him around. It's definitely not the funniest part. And putting him into clothes. And then there's one scene. The funniest part is where Dennis Leary, he suggests, the kid suggests going to Rome. Yeah. And Dennis Leary's character

seems momentarily interested in going to Rome as if like, maybe that'll shake me out of my suicidal reverie. And then he's like, wait, you just want to go to Rome to meet the Pope, don't you? We're not going to Rome as if like maybe that'll shake me out of my suicidal reverie and then he's like wait you just want to go to Rome to meet the Pope don't you we're not going to Rome oh the Pope lives there huh anyway go on what's the funniest scene okay so like they keep

on Josh can't stay awake he keeps on falling asleep and so sometimes they're like Josh go to the bathroom brush your teeth and they're like okay and then the doors close and then they knock on the door 10 minutes later and he's asleep on the sink and so at the end of the movie it's the last day of school and they're like okay and then the doors close and then they knock on the door ten minutes later and he's asleep and he's asleep on the sink and so at the end of the movie it's the last day of school

and they're like Josh last day of school and Dennis Leary and Danny Delaney stand outside the door and they're like oh boy and they look at each other and they're like

we're gonna open this door and Josh is gonna be sleeping and they open the door and Josh is wide awake yeah I am honestly and he goes like what

I like missed all of this ready for school you miss this it's very subtle so here's the thing josh is always really tie tie i think at this point i was like playing inside out on my phone such a good game such a good game i'm stuck on level 124 uh i'm stuck on like 167 but i've been stuck on it for like three weeks uh not a humble brag because uh i've been playing longer than david david's's doing better than I am in all aspects of life. No.

David, the point is that he is asleep spiritually, but also asleep literally. Yeah, he's sleepy. Right. He's a tie-tie boy, and they gotta wake him up. Well, yeah, he's sleepy, and it's like, yeah, he's asleep religiously. He has a religious awakening. Yeah. And M. Night Shyamalan's twist in this movie

and it is a twist is that God is real. God is real. And the little boys and angels. He's asleep romantically I guess and he has like an awakening. It's a lot of awakenings. This movie could have been

called Awakenings but there was already a movie called that. Yeah but he says that he's like this year was big I realized my best friend is invincible. So it's about growing up.

I realized I like girls. I realized Rosie O'Donnell got high billing and was prominent on the poster because she was a big star at that time not because her role was of that much importance i mean yes griffey newman 10 year old griffey newman number one star in the world yeah um my big revelation i had from this film is is just uh how bad i feel for my parents having to deal with me for the first 10 years of my life. That was my big revelation. Is your dad like Dennis Leary? A little bit.

Is your mom like Danny Delaney? A little bit. There you go. My grandpa was not like Robert Logan. He didn't die until I was older. But I was obsessed with death. I would wake my parents up in the middle of the night and be like... I had those phases too when I was a kid.

But maybe not quite as intensely as you. My parents were not religious, but they like just were telling the company line of like what the basic sort of things we all believed in were. And so I was like, wait, but how do you balance on a cloud in heaven if the clouds isn't solid? Oh God, you sound so annoying. I was, yeah. I was honestly written by M. Night Shyamalan as a child. I was like, everything I said was that mock profound.

What if a baby came out and they're like, oh, I'm sorry, we've done a test and unfortunately this baby is written by M. Night Shyamalan. And you're like, fuck! Well, so my big takeaway from this movie is that I'm going to adopt. Insummation. Both films are kind of about religious awakenings. Yeah. But also just about guys who are stubbornly stuck at certain points.

Yeah. And Wide Awake feels like, again, I think like a bit of a movie where there is some impersonal content from him. Yes. But he's also trying to make like a pretty generically crowd-pleasing movie. I also do think, according to everything we read, that Harvey was on set. This movie was smoothed out a lot.

Yeah. I mean, it's a Weinstein, a Miramax movie, but it feels more like a Touchstone movie. It feels very, very broad and sort of family-centric in a way that Miramax wasn't doing at that time. Well, it feels like a lot of the movies that would be marketed to me as a kid, like The Great Panda Adventure, those Morgan Creek movies where it's like, this is a movie for children yeah and it's like live action

and things happen in this is third tier this is yeah what was it called uh gold diggers the legend of bear mountain absolutely all those i mean a lot of them had animals now that i'm thinking of it a lot of them were about a boy and his you know animal yeah exactly exactly. Or a girl. Yeah. But this film, by the time this film is being released in 1998, three years after the fact, M. Night Shyamalan has then disowned it, but is unhappy with how... He's practically disowned it. I'm saying at the time of its release.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I read someone tweeted recently was talking about M. Night Shyamalan and remembers that they were doing a press junket for Wide Awake. Oh, Joe Gardner was talking about this. Yes Shyamalan and remembers that they were doing like a press junket for Wide Awake or Joe Garden was talking about this they cancelled the junket yes but they were trying to

solicit people to take interviews with M. Night Shyamalan that being like this guy's gonna be big his next movie he's filming right now has got Bruce Willis so by the time this movie came out he was already like well underway becoming the Amit Chomlan we know. But the thing is,

the Sixth Sense came out when Bruce Willis was at one of his many fallow periods. And it was a career revival. It absolutely was. And we're going to talk about that next week. That's what we're going to talk about next week. But the motifs that we're seeing,

obviously it has this fucking crazy twist ending, which is like, I did not know that there was going to be a twist ending. I thought the movie was going to end with his speech where he's like I feel wide awake now and you're like ah the kid grew up good for him he says the words wide awake at the end yes death is scary but it is a part

of life and we must you know whatever whatever he did it maybe he gets a kiss at the end or something it wasn't structured like a twist movie but you realize he's a guy who's really interested in audience payoffs you know emotional manipulation I don't mean that in twist movie, but you realize he's a guy who's really interested in audience payoffs, you know, emotional manipulation. I don't mean that in a negative way, but he wants to get specific responses out of his audience. It's similar to the end of Bedazzled.

Yes. The remake, where God appears. But I do think that all of M. Night Shyamalan's films end up being crisis of faith movies. These two movies more literally than most of the others. Absolutely. Signs is also religious. Signs is also religious but the other ones are all about people

coming to terms with like most M. Night Shyamalan movies are people stuck in a sort of malaise. Yeah. We're laying the groundwork here. This is the thing because yeah.

Right. But every M. Night Shyamalan movie starts with someone in a malaise who finds the will to live again. We're laying the groundwork. We're going to come back

to this movie this movie more than Praying With Anger. Yeah. Almost every week I bet because yeah. Yeah. The seeds are here. And guys We're laying the groundwork. We're going to come back to this movie, this movie more than Praying with Anger, almost every week, I bet, because, yeah, the seeds are here. And, guys, the rest of these episodes are going to be so funny. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

We will laugh and laugh. They're going to be like, when I wake, he's asleep. The movie's called I Don't Wake, and he's sleeping. Okay, okay. So I have an excerpt from the Rolling Stone interview I'd like to read to end the episode.

Please do. So in 1988, before M. Night was accepted at NYU, he turned a full page in his high school yearbook into a mock-up cover of Time magazine, featuring himself sitting on a bar stool, snapping the suspenders of his tuxedo with the screaming headline, NYU grad takes Hollywood by storm. So he's similar. He has the same, what's the word, hubris as Spielberg did in his early years. Where, you know, there's that famous video of Spielberg finding out on tape that he didn't get nominated for Best Director for Jaws. That Fellini beat him. When they were filming him because they figured he was about to find out he did.

Yeah, so early hubris. And Spielberg also famously just snuck onto the, I believe, Warner Brothers lot and found a vacated office and went there to work every day so that he had a Warner Brothers number and people could call him. Right. And then backpedaled his way into getting contract there. Go on, sir. I'm realizing we didn't do a performance review and I think we should. I think we should too, quickly.

For wide away, forget Praying With Anger. Praying With Anger, the only performance I like is The Best Friend. Yeah, he's good. Maybe the teachers were okay. Yeah. What's interesting about that though, Ben, is that come 2003, M. Night Shyamalan actually was on the cover of Time magazine with the headline, The Next Spielberg. write a great script that will sell for over two million bucks and will star bruce willis and will finally allow me to fulfill my destiny to take hollywood by storm and then he fucking did it which is crazy i mean he will talk about it later he was the most canny screenplay seller

yeah uh lady in the water i believe he sent the script to every studio and said there is a one-hour, time-locked, $5 million price on this script if you want it. Everyone's getting it at the same time. First person gets it. And it sold. And every film between Sixth Sense and Lady in the Water was released by Disney. He had, like, a deal with Disney, which at that point owned Miramax. He jumps up from Miramax to Touchstone and is a Touchstone guy. He's like under contract to Disney.

Not under contract, but he's like, yeah. Puss in Buddies. Performance Review. Okay, I'm going to read out the IMDb order. So Joseph Cross. Great thumbs up. Thumbs down. Timothy Reif Snyder

as Dave O'Hara. Great. Thumbs up. Yeah, I give him a thumbs up. He's a kid. Dana Delaney as Mrs. Beale. Yeah, I liked her. She was a mom.

She was a mom. She's fine. Thumbs up. All right. Yeah. Dennis Leary as Mr. Beale. Thumbs down. Yeah, sorry, Dennis.

What are you doing, Dennis? Dennis, what are you doing? You're a fine actor. David and I, we are two of the biggest fans of Dennis Leary as a dramatic actor you will ever find. I would have nominated him for an Oscar for The Amazing Spider-Man. Me too, and I hate that movie. It's not a great movie. He's so good.

I despise that movie. He's so good in it. That's at a point where he knew how to do that. Anyway. Anyway. Thumbs down. Robert Loja as Grandpa Beale. Thumbs up.

He's a grandpa. He's pretty good. He is. Thumbs down. Robert Loja as Grandpa Beale. Thumbs up. He's a grandpa. He's pretty good. He is. He's fine. Rosie O'Donnell as Sister Terry. I mean, gotta give her a thumbs down. I give her a thumbs down. It's wooden, but it's Rosie.

David, come on. It's Rosie. The koosh. Come on. Think about the koosh balls, David. I lived in Britain. I didn't see no Rosie O'Donnell show. Oh, God.

I would just pray to get sick. I would eat Windex. I would eat Windex so I could get sick and stay home and watch Rosie Adonis. Cameron Manheim as Sister Sophia. I don't think she has a scene where she's the focus of the scene. No, it's like you hear her teaching in the background. She's just taking attendance. Dave and Joshua are talking about boners, and she's in the background going, Newman?

Newman? Newman? Cameron Manheim, I don't think the practice was on yet so maybe she just wasn't famous yet Yeah I don't think so either She does look a lot like a nun It was on by the time the film came out She looks like a nun

She's classic casting for a nun, stereotypical casting So I'll give her a thumbs up Thumbs down Julia Stiles as Nina Beale Best performance from the movie Dan Loria as Father Peters Thumbs up Best performance in the movie Yeah no question A star is born Dan Loria as Father Peters Thumbs up

Actually maybe my favorite performance He's really winning in two scenes He's the one guy who seems annoyed with Joseph Cross in a way that I think is funny Where he's just like I don't know kid I don't know where God is This is my job

I work here I like him a lot now Yeah I'm fine with a thumbs up. He also was an independent, say, as a commanding officer. He was a dad on Wonder Years. Yeah, I know. And he played Vince Lombardi on Broadway. Yeah.

Yeah, he did. That's right. In Lombardi, the musical. Yeah. It wasn't a musical. Anyway, so. It was called Lombardi, the musical. I'm going to stop it there because I don't remember any of the other characters.

Yeah, I don't either. So, in conclusion, two great movies that we love. David's not paying attention. It looks like performance review-wise you have one, two, three, four.

Ooh, it's almost kind of tied. Oh, it sounds like we need the tiebreaker to jump in. Ben, did you watch any of this movie? No. Okay, so do you think the acting in Wide Awake is good or bad? I think it's garbage. I win. It's a day of victories. Fuck this.

Thank you all for listening to Pod Night Shyamacast Please keep listening to Blank Check Yeah Blank Check Thank you for listening to Blank Check Yeah

Our podcast Our new old podcast Thank you for being Our favorite blankies Yep Thanks to all the blankies And here's something crazy We're part of the

UCB Comedy Podcasting Network Yep They got other shows, David. They do. Ménage à Trois, Murph Meyer, Dan Akolsky. UCB Digital, Nathan Russell.

Yeah. I don't remember which other ones are happening. What else we got? What else we got, Benny? New year, new season. Yeah, we're launching actually tomorrow. What? Shannon O'Neill, the, tomorrow. What? Ooh.

Shannon O'Neill, the artistic director. Love Shannon. For UCB here in New York. And a performer, Keaton Patty, have a show they do called What Else? Where they interview comedians to talk about their careers or just interests outside of comedy. Sounds great, because I hate comedy. Please listen and subscribe and rate and review to all those shows and to our show. Keep reviewing us.

Keep reviewing us. We've got some great reviews and probably in a couple episodes we'll maybe dive back in and read some of them on air. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Hells yeah. So yeah, I hope everyone can

stick with us in this post-Star Wars world. Tune in next week. We're going to be discussing The Sixth Sense. Yeah, a little known movie called The Sixth Sense. With Katie Rich. I think Katie Rich is going to be our guest. Editor of VanityFair.com's Hollywood section. Yep. Fantastic person. Very exciting. Also, you guys

should follow us on Twitter. Blank Check Pod. Yeah, at Blank Check Pod. As well as email us at... BlankCheckPodcast at gmail.com. I believe that's right. Boom. Yeah.

Maybe we'll have a Facebook page or something as well down the road. We're trying to go brand crazy. Guys, guys. It's going to be great. We're going to be branded. It's going to be great. But yeah, email us if you have any ideas of pitches of future miniseries or one-offs that you want to do. We have some more planned out after this, but we're always accepting ideas.

I want to throw this out to you guys, and then we can also open this up to the fans. Okay. We've done a lot of merchandise corners. Oh, yeah. But I'm thinking since we've recently branded the show, we should probably come out with our own merch. We should 100%. Wow. I like the idea of maybe doing a stress ball.

Ben, I am rock hard right now. I got a big stinky boner for what you're talking about. Can I do just a very quick merchandise spotlight? Sure. Sure. I'm still looking for a Rey action figure from Star Wars The Force Awakens. If you find one, please email me at blankcheckpodcast.gmail.com. Are they going to make more, though?

Aren't they sort of pushing more out now? They are, but there's one specifically that I'm looking for. It is a six-inch Black Series Rey with BB-8. And here's the important part David The first run of the figures Did not have a dry brush Paint wash on the BB-8 I'm looking for second run

With a dry wash I have nothing to say A dry brush paint wash on the BB-8 So if you see a 6 inch Black Series Ray action figure With the BB-8. So if you see a six inch black series. All right. Ray action figure. We got it. We got it.

With a BB-8. It's a podcast. They can listen back. Looks dirty. I want to repeat it one more time. No. No. You can't repeat it one more time.

What kind of inch? Six. I will turn your microphone off. What series? Black. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. Ben, I'm going to pull this microphone off.

What run? The second run. We get it. All right. All right. Let's end this. I will Venmo you money if you find that because i've been i've maybe checked 30 stores in the last month um great email us about that or any suggestions about some merchandise you'd like to see down the road yeah we'll open

up like a cafe press we'll put our logo on everything we'll put our faces on everything so just we'll have like hello fennel shirts yeah i kind of want to have my face on a stick with eyes, so it's like the peeper. You could wear a mask. Ben, do you just want to create a lot of Ben Hosley branded merch? That's what it sounds like. No. Your stuff isn't even podcast themed.

No. I want to make a... What about a thermometer that's Ben's face so it gets scarlet with rage when it's hot outside? All right. Okay. Email in. Merchandise ideas. Thanks for listening, guys. that bends face so it gets scarlet with rage when it's hot outside. All right. Okay. Email in merchandise ideas. Thanks for listening, guys.

Email in ideas of things you want us to cover. Email in action figure finds, second wash, dry brush, dark wash on the BB-8. Okay, and with that, as always. And as always, 6-inch Black Series Ray BB-8 second round. God damn it. Bye. Bye. six inch black series ray god damn it bye