Blank Check with Griffin & David - The Truman Show with J.D. Amato

Episode Date: May 17, 2026

Good morning! And in case we don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night! JD Amato - often the Christof of Blank Check - joins us for a super-sized episode about Peter Weir's The Truman Show. We're getting into the history of reality entertainment, the implications of Christof's methods, the insanity of this movie's Oscar snubs, Jim Carrey's historic 1990s, and Matt Gaetz's childhood. Did you know that Matt Gaetz grew up in the Truman Show house? Really makes you think. Anyway - we hope you join us for a spirited conversation, but not before you pour yourself a mug of Mococoa Cocoa. ⁠Read David's article with Ed Harris - A New Way of Looking at To Kill a Mockingbird ⁠ ⁠Buy J.D.'s Book The Endless Game⁠ ⁠Watch The Undercovers ⁠ Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Griffin. Griffin. You can speak. I can hear you. Who are you? I am the creator of a podcast that gives hope and joy and inspiration to millions. Millions sounds a little high. Then who am I? You're the star or the sidekick to some people. was nothing real? Was this all bits? You were real. That's what made you so good to listen to. Listen to me. Griffin, there's no more truth out there than there is in this world that Ben created for you. The same lies, the same deceit. But in our world, you have nothing to fear. We know you better than you know yourself. You never had a microphone in my head. You're afraid. That's why you can't leave. It's okay, Griffin.

I understand. We've been listening to your whole life. We were listening when you were born. Ew. We were listening when you took your first step. We were listening when you showed up late the first day to work, and the second day. It was...

It was a soft noon. It was kind of... We all know. It's more like 12.15. It's not. The episode of the podcast, where you lost your first two. tooth. You can't leave Griffin. You belong here with me and David and Ben and sometimes Marine. Yeah, mostly new releases. Come on, talk to me.

Well, say something, God damn it. You're on a podcast. You're live to the whole world. In case I don't see you. This is Blank Check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin. It's a podcast about filmographies, directors who have massive success. early on in their careers and are giving a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want and sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce. Baby! This is a mini-series on the films of Peter Weir.

It is called Podnick at Hanging Cast. There you go. Normal. Normal. And today we are talking about the Truman Show. And I swear, I know people aren't going to believe because there's editing involved, but I swear to you, that was the fifth take.

That was, that took so long. No joke. the time to which we agreed to start recording this episode and the time it is now, there was an hour difference between those two numbers. Many things happened. What things happened? I was early. J.D. was late.

Oh, Mike. We had much to discuss off, Mike. Griffin calling out a guest for being late is the height of hypocrisy. I don't like the framework of this episode starting an hour late because of the intro. It took a while. It took a sec. Intro took a sec. I can't believe.

what's happening here. I'm just saying. I'm with you, J.D., and I'm going to let you handle it. I'm just saying. The first time, you have been 45 minutes late to this recording. Impossible. Impossible. When I have been here.

Impossible. And sweet David and Ben, I'm sure they have numerous stories of that. The one time that I'm 15 minutes late, I get called out immediately. It's a dangerous road to go down. If you being 15 minutes late was turned into a Griffith slam. This is insane. David texted, we'll probably get here before Griffin.

And I said, here. Yeah. You were here. You were watching the show. Good job, Ben, getting, uh, Griff to watch special features with you. What are you? No, he was here watching.

What are you talking about? Griffin, I know. I, I'm baiting you. You have to relax. I swear to God. You, Griffin, are chronically late to blank check and thus we make fun of you. This is the first time you're hearing of it. You have to bear.

Wow. You are chronically late to this show. We've been doing it for 11 years. And I'm going to jump in. Decade of dream. Okay. That's it. You simply have to.

accept that you will take some hits on that one. But, J.D., what were you saying? I was just going to say, you're accounting for blank check. I'll represent the rest of Griffin's life outside of Blanchech. This is not a blank check phenomenon. So, me being called out. It would be really insulting if it was blank check. Only everyone else is like, I don't understand.

I feel like I'm being Truman showed. I feel like you motherfuckers are Truman showing me. Can I admit something because I didn't do it? What? But I had made plans to Truman Show each of you. you over the past month that fell through. Oh, you were going to, like, film us from afar and... I was going to have people walk up to you and talk to you on microphone.

It would break two-party consent laws from recording in New York State. It sounds a little creepy. Yeah. Well, the big one that I was going to do fell through that involved... It was going to happen while Griff was abroad. Oh, okay. Okay. We could probably piece together. Oh, sure.

Okay, that's an obvious. I can figure that out. But what about me? I'm more interested in how you were going to begin. I had ideas for each of you. And then when that fell through and then life got crazy, I didn't do it. You were going to mic all three of David's children. Exactly.

And then I decided not to do it. Can you not hit each other? I could push and yell and okay. Well, and then I decided not to do it because I felt like also morally, ethically it was not as fun to me in a way that I'm like, that was me doing it with friends. What they did to Truman. What they did to Truman.

Let's be very clear because sometimes people consider discussion endorsement. We are not platforming Christoff on this episode. We in no way condone his actions. We don't think the Truman show was moral. Just because we were devoting an episode to it does not mean we co-sign the actions of Crystal. No. Yeah, no, I don't co-sign.

This is a, yes, this is not a movie that co-signs him either, right? I'm doing a bit. Have we forgotten how bits work? Good bit, good bit. I like a version of, this is actually. so fun. I think there's people for whom the Truman show could be an entry point episode. And who knows? So I do think there's a fun dynamic that today we have chill happy David and worked up. Guess what I did right before I came here. Took a swim? I guessed that. Feeling good. Simply never.

Filed an article. Took a swim. Here I am a blank check talking about one of my favorite movies ever made. Truman style, I'd be doubled over on the fucking diving board. I would never touch that water, simply never. Truman probably doesn't even swim laps, right? Like, he doesn't go to the pool. I heard he doesn't drink milk either. No, I mean, in the fiction of the universe, they would keep him far away from being comfortable in the water. Yeah.

Right, that would be bad. That would right for him to learn how to swim. Yes, go ahead. What you just said, this is one of your favorite movies of all time. Absolutely. Huge David movie. I think it's a movie that is. possibly without flaw.

You texted me last night without a flaw. I think that might be correct. Well, here's the thing. I'll say this under the guise. Which is a different sort of review than like, it's my favorite or it's the best or whatever,

but it is a movie where you're like, yeah, everything went perfectly here. Like, you know, or everything I'm being presented with. Oh, oh, he's got a flaw. One thing did jump out at me. What's that? No chance.

I haven't watched this since I saw it in theaters and I was a younger man and was a different time. But this was basically, basically your first watch in 19 years. Yes. Yeah. The stuff where he is freaking out and he puts a knife to his wife up to her throat,

the way that domestic- It's not a knife. It's the slicer-dicer. It's a sharp thing that could hurt her. Yeah. And she says, do something. The domestic violence of it all was really shocking. And that it didn't play for me at the time as,

as being so scary and like how there is almost violence committed. Yes, this is a man who's not okay. Yeah, right. The movie has to hit that breaking point. And his wife is an actor and he's gone mad.

And it's just the thing where then it doesn't feel like, whoa, he almost just really hurt her. I think it does. I don't really take about it. I disagree with that. I think it does. I think the movie carries that way.

Just the thing that jumped out to. I mean, she has to scream do something. Right. Like, the point is like, that's the moment where she breaks. And she starts brandishing. Because there's a moment where all of them break.

Yeah. The moment where Noah Emmerk breaks is when he goes like, he's gone. Like, which is when they're like, cut transmission. Like the wall is broken, right? You know, and that's when she says do something. She also is the one. She starts branding it. Not that it's like self-defense move on his part.

You know? He grabs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's leading to the break in reality of like, he's already sort of like, what's the fucking deal with this knife? You know, he's like called out the like her selling products. Like earlier. in that conversation.

Who are you talking to? I agree with Ben, though. I think it's terrifying. Yeah, it's scary. It shows that this is not a well man, and it's not a heroic character in that sense. It's someone who's going through great turmoil. Yes.

Just piggyback onto that comment as well, as when I say this is a movie without flaw, I mean, in terms of the story elements, as I see them today in 2026, obviously, I can imagine that years from now, there might be stuff that even, right now you could look at and say there's flaws. I just sort of mean, it's a really,

I meant that in a way that it's a very tight movie that everything seems to be accounted for. Not that it's a movie without the ability to close to... I get what you're trying to say. Let me help you here. J.D. does endorse the behavior of Truman in the kitchen scene when he holds the knife to his wife. I'm sorry, slice or dicer.

Yes, that's what I was... Thank you, Griffin. I appreciate it. You said, imagine this might be an entry point for new listeners. I think Blank Check is. now like the Truman Dome where there's only a door in an exit. I think we've trapped a lot of people in our ecosystem. How do people enter? Blank check?

No. True. What's it called? This town. I think truly. The elevators, you see it. You see behind backstage. Oh, sure.

Right. But like. But also, maybe partially. How many entrances are there? Maybe partially through that door. There are probably many entrances. No, it's not through that door. because that door is just a little

It would be insane. If every day to go to work you had to take a sailboat from it. No, that's my question. Because it's like if it's a town of what do we think, like a couple thousand people or something. Obviously they live there. Like the people who are there mostly live there. The main cast, the regular.

But they got a regular contract. No, I think, no, no, no, way more than that because they say they sell property. You can live there. Oh, sure. And like, I think the idea is like you're allowed to live here as long as you agree to not like run up to Truman and yell at him.

But they also clearly. will cast people for new roles. Right. But any of these people are being sorted out. I'm just like, how do they get stuff in? How do they get food in? Well, here's the interesting thing. You know, how do they get all the ecosystem in? You guys were just talking about watching the special features. Right. Like the making of thing.

It's one of the privileges of being early to this podcast. You can throw on a couple special features. Oh, my God. I'm talking with Griffin and David. There's people who are listening to this episode of the first time who they think Griffin's whole thing is that he's on time. It's the second decade of dreams. punctual griff.

But Peter Weir talks about a lot of the world that they built and how they envisioned this coming to be. And something I thought was fascinating that they hint at in the movie. And once I heard Peter We were explaining, it's like, oh, right, this is what they're hinting at. Originally, the Truman show, as they saw it,

started with just an infant. It was a way to sell baby products. Yeah. And so it was just... Because you are like, who watched the show when it was just a baby? But then I'm like, at every pass with the Truman show, I'm like, now I'd watch.

it. Like every single time, you know, when I was a kid, I used to be like, no, we would watch it. Now I'm like, everyone would watch this. The brilliant thing about this movie is that the internal logic is really tight on. It starts and you're like, how could they have constructed all of this? And the answer is what Christoph had to pitch to someone originally was really small, contained in cheap. We pick, whatever they say, four or five pregnant mothers. We follow them. We follow a baby. If a baby's awareness is so low, we don't have to construct fiction around them in the same kind of way. And then at every age he gets older, the bigger the show becomes, the more money they can raise, the more they can build around him.

Well, and then what Peter Weir said was that in their internal logic was that they added a garage that you could see the dad coming home so they could sell garage products to men. And then they started like, oh, well, we'll just keep increasing it. We'll make a town. And they sort of hint to that and they have the flashback when he's a kid. You hear like construction going on over the 100% over the hill, which where they're like Truman get off those rocks. The most scary image. in all in that montage, is when he's in the crib and he sees the cameras

in the moment. It's so good. I think about it. It freaks me out so much. Yeah. Because it is the like the innocence of a baby like where they're like,

yeah, they wouldn't know what that is. You know what I think is. Of course, I do watch my child through a camera. I do. Yeah. But I don't broadcast it.

And your children listen to blank track. So they're... No, they do not. Hearing they are certainly not allowed to do that. Through AirPods or Raycons, maybe if they prefer. David's children won't know podcast exists until they're 18. I love the.

idea of David. I've thought about it. Out of professional shame, needing to create his version of a we don't have TV in our home. Yeah, you can watch as much R-rated movies as you like. Radio goes out over broadcast signals.

And you have to listen to it at the time. Ben, don't you put this out of any broadcasts, okay? No AM. All right. No FM. I promise. I think the single best choice we are makes in a lot of ways with this movie is that Christoph isn't

the obvious route one, crass TV entrepreneur, sleazeball, that he is buying his own bullshit of, this was like a conceptual artist. Right. The way he dresses, exactly,

that he's like some fucking Soho art guy. And you're genuinely, like this guy was probably doing performance art and large installations and whatever for like 20 years. I mean, he's based off the fucking Gates guy, which when the gates happen in New York,

I was like, oh, retroactively, that's what Ed Harris was playing. But then he comes up with this idea, that's like, this is such a big project, but also I could make money doing it. And he, and his final speech, Truman is like really buying his own shit.

That this is the most profound work of the human condition. He's been waiting to tell Truman this for his whole life. Yes. Like, he's excited to do it. And he thinks, obviously, that Truman will be happy to hear it. And he thinks he has done something kind for Truman and made humanity better at the same time while also making the most profound work of heart in history.

Maybe he did. Maybe it's good. Maybe I'm reversing my opinion. Truman's so good. Yeah. Truman Show good. Truman Show good. And I think especially the casting of Ed Harris, you could cast someone to say those exact lines into that exact thing that plays it more like a, hey, I'm a TV director guy. And it would come off. Big cigar. Which was a big 80s trope, right? Of the like the like, listen, I'm just like a TV guy. And it's all about ratings, ratings, ratings. And like, even the running man is doing it again in 2025 in a way where you're sort of like, this isn't really the archetype. anymore? No, and I think the more evil than

the ratings go up guy is the, no, no, no, what I'm creating is actually important art. Because that guy's just like, it's business baby. Like people want it. I'm serving them the slop. This guy is so pretentious. And there are also other people, and we'll get to like the hopper

thing, but there are other people who could have played the character in this form once we're identified the shape of him. And it would have read more like parody versus Harris is so incapable of being sort of tongue-in-cheek and sincere that he's lending everything he's saying with the most gravitas it could possibly be given. Yes. I mean, it's, God, this is such a wonderful movie. I love this movie. I also think it's a movie that I don't even know how to

categorize this. And maybe you guys can help me conceptualize this. There are movies that just, when they come out, they become their own conceptual entities that feel like they've been around forever. It's like the Matrix, you know what I mean? Where it's like, but when the Matrix comes out, you're sort of like, oh yeah, like that idea that there's this world beneath the world that is operating above and beyond, you know,

that it becomes so like, yeah, of course that's a trope in whatever. Right, you live in a simulation. Yeah. You texted me last night. The Truman Show Matrix 1-2 Punch was the season-ending philosophical cliffhanger that brought us the mess that was the 2000s and set the stage for the 2020s. I agree with that. Now, here's a bigger question.

that sparked in me. Has there been an idea that big in movies that has burrowed that deeply into our collective consciousness since those two? Like, has there in the 21st century... So I'm just... Well, Ernest goes to jail was before that.

I'm just going to hit pause a little bit because I'm like, the Matrix idea, I think is the idea you're talking about. The idea that we live in a simulation. I just mean... I know it. I want to finish this thought. Like, and I feel like the Matrix, like you say,

but they became like a cultural. The Truman Show idea, yes, there's the, oh, what if your life was a TV? But I think it speaks to the much deeper feeling that everyone has had at some point, which is, am I the protagonist

of reality? Like, everyone's had that sort of fantasy nightmare. It's such a part of being a person. 100%. Especially being a growing person. It's in the dossier that Andrew McNickle was like, that's where it came from.

Andrew Nicol. Sorry? No, Mick. I was going to make a joke in the night. I realized if you just spotlight that part of the name that I got wrong, it sounds like a slur. For the Irish. Ben Hosley, right here. Easy. Wow.

I'm not saying it. I think everyone needs to settle down. I think you really saw it. You really saw it by pointing it at someone directly. Is there an idea since the has entered the cultural consciousness? So I would have to think. I don't know. I was just reading through the dossier and how Andrew Nicol came up with this idea and talking about it

being extension of when you're a child and you reckon with that, like, am I the center of the universe, you know? Your awareness, your understanding expands, but they're always, it lingers as like a paranoia. And that he was just like, I wrote this down on a piece of paper and knew I had a fucking bulletproof idea. You know, I send like one page out to all the studios and people were like, you have struck gold. And I don't know, even just in like, you and I, David, reading fucking.

deadline and everything. And when there's like the new hot project in town, like the bidding war over this, I can't remember the last time a movie had like a sentence like this that immediately everyone went, holy shit. I would have to think there's got to be something. Well, I also think to what I meant even more so than just the premise of the, the Matrix and the Truman show being similar in the sense that there's these sort of alternate universes of just them as artistic objects feeling so primarily.

to culture, like in a way that I think you could throw Titanic in there or something. What if Batman begun? Yes, exactly. We'd only seen him middle before. Exactly. Well, because here's the thing. With the Truman Show, it's not like this idea hadn't been done before in some ways, right? There had been a lineage of TV shows and movies that were sort of like,

Oh, what if a channeling show is a guy knows that his life is a TV show? What's the BBC series? Seven up. Seven up. Sure. Right. That had been around. Of course.

Yes. They're still around. which I every seven years and I also rewatched it after because I watched the Truman show of whatever a couple months ago when we agreed to do this

I was like I watched the Truman show then because I was excited and then I was like I want to watch the Seven Up series again because I was also going down the sort of philosophical rabbit hole of like how does it mean

to point a camera at someone and document their life? Yes and how does it change their life and all that? In what ways have we attempted to do things like this and succeeded in a family what were the real

ramifications. I feel like the seven up series is the closest thing to the closest thing to this that we have do you find having when you watch so you watch seven up which is just I just found find the most like profoundly moving document it's so interesting it's such a portrait of Britain you know at the time and the class system and all that and then you watch 14 and 21 and you're like I can't watch this it's so uncomfortable these poor kids I would argue and then you get past that and then you're like now it's pretty juicy again like now it's

really interesting to see how shit shook out. It's those middle ones that are tough. That Linklater's Boyhood has this exact problem where there are a couple years in the middle where you're like, it is too painful to watch. Get a camera off him. Anyone at that age. Yeah, it's tough. Yeah. And boyhood just ends when you're like, maybe this guy's

chilling out of it. There's a French movie called Etra Eivore, a documentary to be in the house. That's a very good film. It is, but there is, which is about a one-room schoolhouse in like rural France taught by this very like engaging interesting teacher. We forgot about that movie.

It's a great movie, but it is one of those movies where you're like, I think it was fundamentally unethical to make this. I think this is like, this shouldn't have been allowed. I was just listening to Our Friends, the Big Picture. It will be months old at the time this episode comes out, but they did an episode where

they were talking through the 2026 best documentary nominees and how they were like every one of these movies feels potentially unethical to me. Sure. Yeah. Maybe we're all being too woke. Well, but they were sort of just like in this weird world we live in where now everyone is like public.

Everyone is like to some degree front facing. Cameras are everywhere. Somehow also it feels like the lines are more blurred than ever in what is supposed to be a sort of controlled, ethical, delineated documentary form. And especially for these like highbrow Oscar docs that are like issues movies. They're like, all five of these are like very, not self-righteous, but like, this matters and we need to bring light to the subject. And they're like, every one of these I watched tensing up about like, is this actually moral to do to these people? And that just feels like an extension of life at large now. Yeah.

And I think, I mean, listen, that pointing a camera at something is a subjective action no matter what you do. Yeah. And that subjectivity is radioactive, no matter what, because it's something that people would. projecting onto. When they pointed a camera at Ed, you know, for his TV, his mom, you know, reveals the affair. I'm trying to think what else happens in Ed TV. I don't remember all the TV. He sleeps with his girlfriend's, his brother's girlfriend, Jenna Elfman. Yes. Dennis Hopper plays Ed's dad in that. And Martin Landau's his stepfather. Correct. Uh, uh, uh, uh, Hopper comes out of the woodwork. Like, you know, it's just interesting that this is a movie where Truman's dad comes out of

the woodwork and Hopper was originally cast a play at Harris. We can talk about that, but of course, the big difference is that Truman's dad is not his dad. I know, but I'm just saying, interesting parallels. That's the only difference between EdTV and the Truman show. Well, I mean, I think NTV must be discussed, obviously, when you're talking about the Truman show, but it's right, it's the other, NTV's the opposite. There's another, there's another, Pleasantville. All three of them were lumped together. Interesting.

They're very different, but there's like a tapestry there where you're like. Because Pleasantville has the right. They sort of the American small town. like fantasy thing. Pleasantville was full, magical, like, you know, at one end, what if you lived in a 50s TV show? At TV is just,

what if a guy allowed people to film him all the time? And then Truman's show is, what if they constructed a fake reality that kind of was inspired by 50s sitcoms? And that was televised unnotes to this man.

It was just fascinating that all three of these movies came out and it was seen as this real, like, what feels incredibly, like, naive in 1998, we need to reckon with how much cameras are part of our lives, not knowing how fucking insane things we're going to get over the next three decades. But that it felt urgent enough in 1998 that it's like our relationship to media, to watching other people's lives, to our lives,

to the 15 minutes of fame thing to all of this is hitting a crisis point. And it was abstracted into like three different takes. Yeah, 100%. And I also think there's something interesting that after that period of time, what transpired, especially in television, was an exploration of all these concepts that actually took it, you know, in... In great ways, great directions? Perfect.

In really problematic directions, obviously. Like, you don't endorse the actions of television? I mean, I'm one to speak. You know what I mean? Look, I'm not going to talk in a term, but I've been... J.D.'s been known to make a TV show or two in his day. But you know what I mean?

And like, I think what's interesting is that a lot of projects start with this idea of observing reality. Yeah. And the thing that people find is that reality itself can be both the most fascinating thing, but also is not controllable in the ways that you want. I think that's one of the fascinating things about the seven-up series, right? Is that the seven-up series is not the Truman Show, right? It's not necessarily, it's not aspirational.

It's not intruding on them much either, obviously. But I mean, in terms of the thematic what you feel, right? right? Because you feel this great melancholy. There's this, there's this beauty that, you know, can bring you to tears because you're seeing that life has these twists and turns and a lot of the beauty of it comes from the simplicity of it and the moments of calm, right? It's not, it's not the big, you know, story moments that are the thing that make that interesting. But also, like, I'm someone who doesn't cry a ton at movies, despite loving movies and being a very emotional person. But if I were to try to actually take a tally of all the movies that, like, made me shed a tear or got me within that

zone, I would guess a disproportionate amount of them are documentaries because there is an added juice to me of being like, I can't believe they got this. In documentaries, I feel like it hits me when I watch a documentary that doesn't feel manicured and manipulated and something happens that feels so raw and can often be a tiny moment, but I'm just like the fact that this was actually caught. Is it the Harvard Ethnography Lab? Which I'm assessed with. So one of

a film that I put in my top ten films of all time. Big Sam. And it's a result of Griffin was that Griffin and I went and saw a screen of monocomona when it came out in theaters. You've talked about this on the show before. Nepali's cable car movie. And honestly, it's a movie where I have not laughed

as hard with an audience. We all shed tears at this. Like, For something that is, you know, 10 shots doing its best to observe and curate reality in some way. I brought it up before, but just to fill in listeners, because also anytime I say the name, people are like, what the fuck is the title? It's called mana, ma-a-man, essentially is how you would say. M-A-K-A-M-A. Correct. Which is, it's a cable car in Nepal.

They placed a camera in a cable car in Nepal that goes up and down this mountain. and they literally just, it was months of, you know, doing trial runs and casting other people and whatever, but what you watch are just 10 unbroken takes.

Five trips up, five trips down. Yeah. Of the loops of this thing. And it's one roll of film, no editing, single shot. And yet,

the curation of those 10 trips told the story about the human experience that is still subjective because it's curating those 10 shots. They're trying to make it as. Exactly. And the film

Leviathan, which is also by the sensory ethnography lab. Is it a film I really like? Stanford. Is it Stanford ethnography? No, it's Harvard. It's called the sensory ethnography. It's the program you're referring to. It's led by Lucian Kusting Taylor, who's very interested in all this kind of hidden camera, kind of, can we just document life? But I went to see Monica Monica because I was like,

I'm hearing good things about this, and I buy my ticket. I go see it at IFC by myself, and I'm three minutes in, like, have I made a mistake? Was this me being high-minded and I'm about to be fucking bored? No, you're, it. I forget I don't like. this stuff. You got to, it's the meditative thing of like, you just got to, you got to, you got to give yourself over to a chill out for a minute. You guys are floating in a tank?

No, never. Yeah. So I, I did an isolation tank for the first time recently. Do you go to vessel? Yeah. Yeah, that place is great. It was excellent. I think that, how did you like it? I, it, I only did 30 minutes. Sure. Do you go full black? That's what I was going to say. I had to kind of slowly ease into it. So I started initially with light, while also having some ambient sound, but then removed the light, had a little bit more time with the sound, and then, you know, my goal was to do

30 minutes of just complete darkness, no input. It was crazy, but I got into it. I got really lost in it. That's what Griffin's talking about. Sorry, finish your thought, Griffin. I see this. I totally get on its wavelength. I walk out. I have like one of the most profound, like, feelings

leaving the theater I've ever had from a movie. What's best about my name? I text you almost immediately. And I'm like, J.D., I just, I just saw this thing. I need to see it again, and I really think you need to see it. Can we figure out a day? We go see it again.

I see it like twice in one week. And I'm there with JD, and I'm sort of like, was what happened here collectively with this audience, a one-off experience? I need to test if the exact same arc of this will happen. Watch the first one.

There's like no talking. And you're like, is this literally just going to be fly on the wall of people not communicating in a cable car? And then I think it's the second ride. There's an old man and a little boy. That's what's on the poster.

Yes. And minutes into it, the entire audience all starts laughing at the same time. And nothing funny has happened. But it's like your brain is adjusting to what's going on. And suddenly you're asking all these questions about the two of them. And it's like, what is their relationship? Are they like grandfather and son? Are they strangers?

Like, how do they know each other? Have they gotten here? Are they silent because they have no familiarity with each other? Because they have profound familiarity with each other. the little boy, I think, is wearing Tom and Jerry hats. Yes. And you're like, wait a second, does he know what Tom and Jerry are? Tom and Jerry exist in Nepal.

Why am I asking that question? What don't I know about, like, Nepalese relationships to American media? And suddenly you're projecting all this stuff onto it, asking yourself all these questions. And there is just kind of the funny awkwardness of the two of them sitting there in silence. And then you're like, oh, right, every movie I watch is communicating like 80,000 things to me at once, whether intentional or unintentional, the choices of the music and the image and the performance and the costuming and the set dressing and the writing and the dialogue is working like over time to convey ideas, story, feelings to me. And I'm watching like two people

sitting in silence and suddenly asking incredibly wide-ranging questions. And that experience is kind of like, you know, ghost hunters listening to static, right? Where if you just listen to static for a long You start to pick up on. But because our life is so full of noise, you don't pick up on these little changes. So those changes seem unusual when you focus on them. Totally. And then like five rides in, it's like two American tourist girls. And they're talking, but you're, you've readjusted to how you listen to people speak because you've been deprived of that. And then there's a ride that's just a bunch of goats.

And suddenly it's the most captivating thing you've ever seen because you've met the movie on its level. And now you're like, now you're like, wow. The way goats interact is not that difference with the way humans interact. And, like, we are just animals and what's the difference? Like, you go into all of these places. You imagine Christoph being like, we're just going to film a baby. And people are like, film a baby. Well, I got to tune in to see what this is like.

And then they just can't stop watching. But here's what I think is interesting that Truman Show taps in on, right? Is Christoph is not just observing reality. No, he's doing the thing that we have done through the history of media, which is we take the beauty of life that we see, which is a bunch of goats riding a cable car. and instead we go, well, surely, I know how to make that better. I know how to control that.

Yeah, he's doing the village. Which is the history of what happened to documentary and reality TV. I mean, we're in a place right now where documentary film is in a really, really dark place because it's been taken over by this sense of control and ownership. We also, and this is something I've been talking to my therapist about. We make our own stories up to process her own lives. like the way that I'm remembering things but even experiencing things,

I've like built up these stories. Well, also the psychological phenomenon that if you tell a story to someone about something that happened to you, your memory of the actual event is immediately replaced with the story you just told. It basically overrides it. So the more you tell a story of your life,

the more you're actually remembering your own telling of the story, which is how these things iterate. We're like, we were texting the other day, David, in the blank check thread about Robert Altman losing Best Director for Gosford Park because Marie was asking, how in the world did Apollo 13 not win Best Picture? And David and I swing in with our, like, we're ready to answer this. We're thinking about this all the time, right? And we're like, well, Apollo 13, it was like this, and then that. And then, of course, like, Braveheart's this sort of surprise. And it spoke to how powerful Mel Gibson was at that moment. And Marie was like, so is that why Beautiful Mind won so

big. And we were like, there was definitely that element of him being overdue, but also the crow thing and this and that. And then I said, remember how Robert Altman was seen as the front runner for Best Director that year for Gosford Park, because it was kind of a lifetime anointment. And then he made a speech at the Golden Globes that was anti-Bush and, uh, anti-war. And immediately his campaign was tanked. And David was like, yes. I was like, yeah, that sounds right. And I put it up the, no, I didn't quote back a thing from it. Looked up the, no, I didn't quote back, I think, but I looked up the, then I looked up the speech and I was like, no, this speech is totally normal. You said chickens come home to roost.

No, no, I wasn't quoting him. I was just saying like, didn't he do like a chickens coming home to roost thing? Yeah. But he did, but not at the golden quotes. Right. But I said that and you accepted it and we're like, yeah, 100%. Yes, we are, yes, we are our own myth makers. David's a bit of a Christoph. Wait, so what have you, what have you been exploring in therapy about that? I feel like you didn't finish your... Well, it's just like how I thought of myself as a kid and felt like an outsider. A perfect example is I have this memory of being invited to a birthday party by a cool girl.

Okay. And flex on us, King. And I felt humiliated and I still showed up, but I felt like she was taking pity on me. And now I'm revisiting and I'm like, what if maybe this girl was interesting? in me. What if she actually was like kind of thought I was funny and I was so in my head and telling my own story

about who I am like I'm an outsider I'm an uncool kid. Right, that was your little myth. Like, is a, right. Can I ask, was she wearing a how is it going to end button? Fuck, she was. And do you still have her cardigan? Of course. You keep it

in your basement next to a collage. You've tried to construct of her face from women's magazines, taped behind a portrait of your wife. Yeah, I mean, it's normal. And of course, I'm going to pick up a wet garment. When did you see the Truman Show? And you saw it in theater?

I did. Griffin, I assume as well. I saw it in theaters. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My family, we've talked about this before. He hated Jim Carrey so much. Yes, they rejected him. Fell into the classic sort of, this guy's an overactor.

He's so obnoxious. He's so annoying. It was like, when that run of Jim Carrey movies is happening, where he's the dominant comedy star, they were like, we don't see Jim Carrey movie. movies. Sit there and watch your Steve Martin movies for the 40th time. We went to see this opening weekend. My parents took my brother and I. My brother would have been six. It felt like a profound cultural moment where even for like Jim Carrey haters, it was like, that's such a good idea for a movie. Peter Weir's a good director. And we all want to see if Jim Carrey can actually

tone it down, which was so much of the marketing hook of this movie. Like, don't you want to see if he can pull it off? Sure, he's leveling up to a more serious project. Can he do it? And at that moment, Hanks is kind of like the reigning king of Hollywood. Jim Carrey's sort of overtaken him as the box office king. But everyone's like, that's the model. Can he like speed run the Hanks thing? You saw this in theaters, I assume? No. I feel like I saw this.

I mean, you're probably how old were you? I was probably younger than me. And like, I was 12 when this came out. You know what I mean? It's like at that point, that's a big difference. Well, so it's a funny thing because also, Ben, I relate to what you're talking about. You know, my family moved around a lot

when I was younger and then we landed. On the run for the law? Yeah, there was a lot of law stuff we were trying to get away from. And when it finally caught up to us, we were in the suburb of Chicago. And the thing that was consistent in that was that we would have these like family movie nights. And this was an era of the like video store era, right?

Of course. We're all going to go to the store and we're going to pick one movie we can all agree on. Yes. And with ease. Or often. it would be my mom or dad coming home from work with, you know, the bag of the, you know, the blue plastic case VHS is and you being like, oh man, what did they get? And it would be like, well, two of these are for mom and dad, but one of these is for the kids.

You might like this. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I feel like the Truman Show was a movie that we watched on. It probably would have been VHS at the time. And I think because of my age, the Truman Show might have been one of the first movies that I remember watching that I was like, this is a grown-up movie.

Sure, right. It's on that edge. That was another feeling of, like, this was released in the summer. It was, like, a big box office play, but I had the distinct feeling of my parents taking me to see this opening weekend and feeling like,

this is the kind of movie they nominate for Oscars. Did they like it? They did, but they were like, I still don't know about Jim Carrey. They kind of were like, maybe Peter Weir tricked him, and some of it he's still over the top. What's so interesting is...

Did I see this with my dad? I feel like I may have just, have seen this by myself. How? So I know Griffin, you're, you know, you. He's over there. Our guest today, by the way, is J.D. Amato. He is the writer of the endless game.

We got to plug his book. The endless game. We're holding copies of his new, do we call it a middle grade graphic novel? It's a middle grade graphic novel. It's out now. Sort of a Scott Pilgrim size. Now, this is an advance of you were copy.

That's what you're holding. But I'm being told that final interiors will be full color. Yes. It's so it's, whatever. For a 250 page. Turns black and white, very pleasant, Phil. Well, that's, this is, this is the advanced copy only. That's the advanced reader copy.

It's an uncorrected proof. The actual, the book will be, it's like it's a 250-page middle-grade graphic novel, full-collar, illustrated by the great Sophie, Sophie Morris, who is an amazing illustrator. It's like beautiful. What's the show? Did she work on a TV show that, the art stylist? No, this is her debut. Okay, okay. It's a double debut for both her and I.

Simon Schuster in stores now available wherever you buy books. Is it available digitally? It's available. Actually, I don't know if it's available to digital. I don't believe it is. Tactile. Sure. Physical.

Physical media. Hard copy. And it's a paperback. Yeah. But get a hard copy. But this is the debut. So I please buy a copy. Read J.D.'s book.

And I think it's... And buy it too. We've been getting very positive reviews and very positive feedback. And I think if you have... If you're an adult that likes graphic novels, it works, but also if you have someone that is seven to 12, or if you're a voracious reader that's younger, that's fine too. I think it's a very good intro. The middle grade graphic novel space is kind of something that didn't exist when I was a kid, which is that sort of the step between, you know, comic books and like

prose storytelling. So it's a place to sort of explore a story, but not have it just be a wall of pros. David. Yes. They say that the eyes are the window to the soul. They do say that. What does that make our glasses? Uh, the windows.

The window frames? I don't know. The curtains? Uh, yeah, the curtains. The point is, if you are glasses where, like, I am or like our own producer Ben is. True. It's a big decision. Sure.

Because this is how you introduce yourself to the world. This is to engage with other people. You make eye contact through the frames. Sometimes it's just time for a refresh. Totally. I agree. All right. Well, so what about

Zeni optical? Oh, the fine folks is Zinny glasses? The eyewear. They got fun, shapes, sizes, and colors. They got a lot of colors. Right. Statement pieces. Bold statement pieces, they call them.

And they're inexpensive, I would say. They're an online eyewear shop with prescription glasses, sunglasses, blue light lenses, all starting at under $30. That's crazy. That is very low. I feel like glasses often cost more than $30. Way more.

But you go to Zinni.com, you pick a frame, you upload your prescription, they ship it to your door, no appointment, no store, no upsell at the counter. Easy. At that price, something kind of shifts. You're not like, do I need new glasses? You're like, why don't I try something fun, right? Sometimes you've got an old pair, they got a scratch on them. It's annoying, but you're like, am I going to go through the hassle?

Or the screws start to get loose and you find yourself taking out that microscopic little screwdriver over and over again to tighten them up. At this price, why not just get another pair? Ben, I ordered a pair of the Magoo. I think this is funny. Okay. We all know from Mr. Magoo, the cartoon character who can't see. And Zeni is saying, let's solve that problem. Let's give you glasses called Magoo. They're blue and green. Two of my favorite colors. A nice boxy frame. You're not agonizing over one pair that has to do everything for the next two years. Get the ones for work. Get the fun ones. Get some options. Get the pair that only

matches one outfit at under $30. You don't have to justify it. Exactly. They've got a hundred and fifty thousand five star reviews. Yeah. And if you've never won glasses online before, they have a virtual try-on so you can see how it's going to look on your face before you commit. If your glasses are overdue for a refresh, now's

the time. Go to zeni.com slash podcast and use code podcast 15 for 15% off your first order. This dial out, so don't sit on it. That's z-e-n-n-n-i. slash podcast promo code podcast 15. The question that I have is that I know Griffin grew up with movies and cinema fluency. Yeah, talking about it constantly. I would ask questions and they would explain it to me and I was constantly searching for more answers.

The idea of a director is not something that I even understood, I think, until, you know, George Lucas or Stephen Spielberg. Sure, sure. Once early. What was your guy's childhood? Because again, in my family, it was, you'd watch a movie and you'd talk about, was that a good movie? Like, was that a good movie or not? And that was kind of it. It's a good question. Like, when did I first become aware of directors or whatever? I'm not sure. My dad was very into movies, but both my parents were.

But my dad was very into movies. And I feel like I was so obsessed with the Oscars. So I start watching the Oscars where I'm like six or seven. So it's already very present to me. The idea of the director and like the people behind the movies because of that, I guess, would be the first thing. But, like, I saw the Truman Show because of Jim Carrey. I definitely had not seen a Peter Weir movie. Well, I also think Peter Weir, and you guys are in the Peter Weir series, is I feel like he is a director that through my... Maybe I'd seen Dead Poets. But yeah, maybe.

Through my adult eyes, I can look back and go, oh, my, you know, see his career. But he was not someone who was a name director. The movies were not sold on him. Not really. I mean, this one sure wasn't, but that's obviously. a Jim Carrey movie. You guys, Ben and I assume also were like, you were, you know, it was a big Jim Carrey movie. That's why you saw it.

Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. I remember having a profound, almost light coming out of the sky, reality being changed from a moment. This very year, 1998, when I, my two favorite movies of 98, unquestionably, would have been small soldiers and there's something about Mary. Probably followed closely by a bug's life and then this.

but I realized, despite now being so obsessed with, like, Joe Dante and the Farley brothers as directors. And my idea of, like, there's a sensibility now that I can track across multiple movies with these guys who I like, paying attention to the credits and a rewatch and being like, wait, what the fuck? They didn't write these movies? Oh, sure. And asking my parents, like, what does a director actually do then if they're not writing it?

Because in my conception, up until this point, probably through seeing this movie, I'm like, well, it's like Christoph. He's like whispering in a guy's ear like, say this. Kind of a classic question. What does the director? Like you're improvising a movie in real time and just going like, my ideas are perfect. Go do this. Pull this.

Like, yeah. And I think I, you know, for me, I feel like I had that same experience where when I was a kid, what interested me in movies was that, you know, you got to be Luke Skywalker. That that world existed, right? And when you, I understood movies were made. but I think that, you know, when you're a kid, you have this sort of fuzzy line between reality and fiction

where you're like, right, I get that Star Wars isn't real, but it was, they made it. So, like, it's real somewhere. And they're like, yeah, yeah, people made that. And so those people get to live in that world. And I feel like there's this, you know, that childlike version

when you're, you know, very young where you don't totally understand it. I think that's what led me down the interest of making movies. I need to learn more. And then I think once you actually start learning the process, It's a very tedious, detail-oriented, very slow methodical process. And so I feel like for a lot of people, the people that end up in the industry of people

for whom those two circles overlap, for whom a tedious methodical process is fulfilling in the same way that living in a fantasy world is fulfilling. Right. It can't be to actually follow through on doing it. It can't just be an obsession with the final product. You also kind of have to be obsessed with the process. But the process has to be a match. But I think the thing that a lot of people are always in seek of, in seek of, in search of.

Seeking. In Seek of. The thing that people are in Seek of is an experience that feels like you get to live in that universe. And what's interesting with the Truman Show is if hearing a lot of the actors talk about their experiences is that they basically just lived in that town. And they would be shooting stuff so much and pulling things that like they got to live that experience a little bit that was Truman Show S. of you never leave set. You never, you're always in this universe, which is, I think, for some people, that is a thing that you sort of hope for, which is I think why you get the Christophs of the world

that want to try to control these universes because there is something interesting. I know for myself, as someone who grew up very anxious and very, you know, having moved a lot, I just always felt like I didn't know the rules of wherever I was. And so I sort of felt like an outsider in that way. And so the idea of a limited universe where you can understand the rules feels very, very exciting. It's a feeling. It's intoxicating even. And I think that's part of what.

And he gets a boss Paul Giamani around. Yes, which that's what I've been trying to figure out. And I got there once. You did. You said, get in that dumpster. And he was like a little nicer, please. and you're like, oh, I'm really sorry. No further context clues.

Boss. That was a beg. That was a beg, and it wasn't, I didn't even have the status to make that ass. You bring up Star Wars, though, right? That's almost like the definitive cultural touch point of now. There have been, like, five plus generations who talk about seeing that movie, it exploding kind of their consciousness in a way, and having this, like, how could I be inside

of this, right? Whether or not they end up working in film in any way, it does feel like Star Wars remains this kind of like switch flip of like, wait a second, I'm trying to understand what the reality is that I'm seeing here. Well, that was the puppets and how this was made. And Star Wars for me. Because I was like, okay, this is, you know, being very young, being like, what is real and what is not real if I'm seeing all these puppets? Right. And Star Wars is the classic you read or listen to interviews with anyone, particularly the actors who worked on the original film and are filming in like Tunisia in 1976.

And like the space between a kid watching that and just being like, I just want to be Luke Skywalker and I want to exist in this world. And then Mark Hamill being interviewed about it 50 years later

and being like, everything felt ridiculous when we were doing it. Yeah. You know, like the sets ended two inches over here. Darth Vader's voice

is like a British bodybuilder. Everything's falling apart. We're hitting each other with sticks. Like the reality of making something like that doesn't reflect the final feeling that you convey onto people who want to live in that world

and the world is not livable in that sense. And part of what Truman Show's providing is like, what if that world was created for you? Isn't that actually a benevolent act? Like, that's what Christoph's saying is like, what if I could just fine tune a reality for a person? I mean, he's right. And create almost a psychological experiment

to give someone the influences to be a good person. He's right. Like, he's not, I'm not saying he's morally right, but he's like, I have created a sense, safe world for you in which you are like, you know, your every need is taken care of. And of course I had to lie to you

because if you knew about it, it would destroy your sense of reality. Right. And so you're going to leave and you're going to go into a world that's much more hostile and all that. Like, he's not wrong about that, but it's like, hey, baby, this is why we live life, right? Yeah, but it's also, I think that's the thing with all of this, right? We can't keep our grubby fingers off reality. And so

as much as we try to observe it, document it, no matter what, we start putting our spin on it, Just our fingerprints alone are enough to suck. Should give it back to the bugs. Ben. So I want to answer your question. I am, I think, different than you guys, right? Where for me, I am not engaging with a movie and then afterwards being like, how did they make it?

I'm just like, this is beautiful fantasy. I wish I could live in that fantasy. I want to pretend. I want to imagine I'm in that world. I definitely not being like, well, how did they make it? Yeah, I'm like, how do I throw on the spawn? I was also a little less how did they make it

than you guys. What I was trying to describe is that I wasn't how do they make it at all. Yeah, you were like, I want to be able to. That wasn't, my dad was a college football player and that was, there was no. What do you play? What's that? What position?

He was a quarterback in high school and then he was a receiver. He hated football. Sounds like a fucking Chad, though. Yeah. I mean, if I showed you a photo, what's that? Big tall guy. Big tall, strong. My dad was the serious.

My dad was. I would say my dad was the scary dad among, you know, and like, I feel like a group of friends. You're like, that's the parent that you're like. I don't want to piss that dad off. He might be like too grumpy or stern or whatever. Yes, I know what you're talking. But my dad was also very goofy. But I only, I say that not to disparage him saying he was a college, but to say that there was zero.

I would say there was zero level of like, let's talk about the art and craft of this. And it was like, man, it would be cool to have the spawn cape. And it wasn't until teenage and adulthood that I got into. My parents, look, were providing that. And I was talking to Phenasy. And he was like, it's interesting the way you talk about your dad on the podcast and make it sound like he was disappointed that you weren't a sports kid. But then yet, he had like an understanding and the language to talk to you in the thing that you were obsessed with.

And I like don't want to make it sound like I was like, They're like, God, fucking damn it. Hopefully the next one's a jock dynamic in my childhood. But there was that thing of like, it's not, it was never his greatest passion. And my mother had like sort of felt defeated by trying to pursue a career in the arts at the time that, like, I was born. But there was almost a sense of like less than, I'm so happy to share our passion with you. It was more like, thank God we happen to know the only fucking thing you want to talk about. Right.

We can at least answer your question. You know? And like my siblings are like more savvy about the industry than most kids would be because they grew up in a household where that was a language. But it truly felt like my parents were like, God, if he were just like fucking into animals and that was the only thing he wanted to talk about, we'd be fucked. Yeah, I feel like for me, I grew up with parents who my dad was a reluctant college athlete who I think wish he could engage more in the weird arts and music. and that I think, you know, I think that's the stuff that he was actually more interested in. You know, the movies that were on the pedestal in our household were, as I've joked, the earnest movies, all the Muppet movies. My mom was a huge Star Trek fan. She was the type of kid who, like, she would sit outside in her yard and, like, wait for the Enterprise to pick her up.

Oh, yeah. It was like, that was our universe. And then, you know, we would, once a week or every couple weeks, you know, we'd get pizza and rent a movie. and that was like, you know, sacrosanct. But, J.D., the only reason your father wasn't a movie guy when you were growing up is because Real Steel hadn't been made yet. Yes. The Griffin's referencing the fact that my... That's a big guy.

I would say that's an understatement. Yes. My dad... Yes. I just talked to this on Podcast The Ride, but my dad did, for my birthday, get me all the action figures of all the real steel robots. It's a real Griffmoot to be like, I got you a present. It's that thing that I like. I'm going to open the dossier, guys, about the Truman show, because we should look at it.

Because JJ did do all this work, I assume. Maybe he didn't. Maybe he fucking thrown this one in. Can I front load one thing? I just, I want to say to Ben, because I've been wanting to say this. And it's like part of what's fascinating about how kind of like airtight this movie is and it's world building. This movie is this very bizarre set of circumstances. We're in, and then we'll jump back to the beginning of the dossier.

1994, Jim Carrey has his crazy year that we've talked about many times where Ace Ventura, the Mask, and Dumb, and Dumb, are all come out in the same calendar year, and he immediately becomes the biggest star in Hollywood. He is so in demand that he lines up so many projects right away. So he basically, by the end of 95, beginning of 96, has agreed to Batman Forever, Ace Ventura 2, they're trying to get him to do Mask and Dumb and Dumber sequels. Lyer, liar, end this.

And so Peter Weir basically knows He has Jim Carrey Who is an automatic green light The studio is 100% behind it But he's not going to be able to film for like Two and a half years And so rarely has someone been given This much runway to just fucking fine tune a thing

Before filming With full studio backing Where you got Carrie as long as you're willing to wait Before any of that Makes Fearless, this is prior film After Fearless, what do you think Fearless? I have not seen

Fearless. Should check it out. Excellent. I think it would resonate with you. Major influence on David's recent sunglass purchasing.

That's true. They're in my other jacket though. Peter Weir picks up a bad case of the attachies. It's tough. Or perhaps a case

of the circlese or the mentionees. All right, JJ. What is that? So the attachies is basically like you make a movie people like or maybe, you know,

like suddenly you're attached to a bunch of stuff that never had happens. Gamututoro has terminal attaches. Well, he's shaking it a little bit but posts like, like Pan's Labyrinth, it was so bad.

Right. Where he was like attached to like 18 super ambitious projects. Every other week. How could you do this? Yeah. So most serious of these is called The Playmaker based on a novel by Thomas Canali. Keenoli? I can't remember. Knieely? Yeah.

Which is about the first play ever performed in Australia in 1789 after the year after the colony was founded. So sort of like an Australian historical drama because post, when he comes to Hollywood, he never returns to Australia really

to make movies about it again. And he made movies about like Australian, like life and identity. Well, which I think is interesting because we're talking about so much of our discussion here is about, been through an American context. And I feel like that's also something you can't, you know, discount about people.

No, you can't. But it feels like what he never quite got to make the one more sort of like, I really want to make another movie about Australia project. This sounds like that might, have been it. We talked about this in our episode with Jennifer Kent on Gallipoli, but he is an interesting case of a filmmaker who feels like he has a really bifurcated career, but it's not that the second act of his career is like a disappointment. And we were like, it's sort of like

Fritz Lang, who has like all these insane bold German films and then goes over to Hollywood. It makes great noir movies, but it does feel like kind of two distinct things. There's themes that are, you can tell he's gravitating towards the same themes of these. sort of Yeah, sure, sure. Right. And a lot of the Australian films I'd never seen before,

there's so much dealing with the weirdness of the reality of Australia as this kind of like overtaken prison colony, you know, like building a culture on top of the Aboriginal and sort of denying it and all of that. And his movies always have this kind of like realities budding up against each other.

Some other stuff. He was briefly the top choice to replace Ron Howard making the chamber John Grisham movie. Eventually that got made by Jim Foley, bad movie. He was attached to the Alienist, which was the Caleb Carr book that was like in development health for 20 years before

it turned into a like TNT miniseries. One of the ultimate attachy bait projects. Exactly. He was, I don't know. There's a lot of these are, yeah, a lot of these are kind of variety articles that's like Peter Weirmey direct. The movie goer, the Walker

Percy novel. Moviegoer, just fascinating because so many major filmmakers have been attached. Had Julia Roberts and Tim Robbins attached, Altman was at one point going to do that, Bruce Barrisford. I don't know. Malick almost made that the movie he came out of retirement as well,

which is fascinating. Yeah. But I think he's just in that classic place where he's like a really established name who makes good movies, so he's looking at so many scripts and he's bored by most of them. And Fearless was seen as kind of a flop

but not in a way that puts him in movie jail and it still gets an Oscar nomination. Yeah. But he doesn't have... a weird movie. Right. He's not holding like a blank check power necessarily at Apple. Maybe not. The way he puts it though is when people ask what are you looking for, he'd say, I'm looking for trouble.

Wants to be scared. That's kind of a cool way to play. And he said, like, all these screenplays I read, they're remakes. Even if they're not actual remakes, they feel like remakes. There's a lack of what I call unconscious writing. There's very, you know, scripts are very conscious. They're designed to please financiers. Luckily, Hollywood has been cured of all that, none of that pervades in the industry anymore. No, it's good. We fixed it.

Scott Rudin, famously normal guy who was holding for applause. Sends him the Truman Show. Andrew Nicol, of course, who is from New Zealand. People forget. So another person from that side of the

globe, you know, is a guy who left New Zealand in his 20s. He became a commercial director. Starts writing screenplays. He's mostly writing screenplays to try to pin to his aspirations to to direct, which he mostly is a director.

Totally. It's just interesting that I feel like he becomes known as the incredible one-sentence pitch guy, where you're like, that feels like an obvious, this guy just has an endless well of ideas. Right. But he really was just like, can I come up with hooks that are so good they have to let me direct? You were going to say the best? The best thing he ever did was the Truman Show, which he didn't direct, which might weigh on you if you're Andrew Nicol, I don't know, because he made good movies and plenty of bad ones.

well we're all entirely in control of our careers at all times it's completely hotanra's decisions yeah he pitched this idea to his manager in the early 90s the malcolm show it was called back then but it is it is the Truman show you just have to imagine that everyone literally like fucking starts jumping up and down without one sentence uh he wrote this before he wrote Gattaca which is of course his directorial debut which comes out before the Truman Show because he wrote this first the Truman Show period is so long off the heat of having carry attached he's able to set up Gattaca and get it made as a director before this even...

I can tell you. Scott Rudin buys the screenplay for a million dollars in 1993. Paramount comes aboard. He does a screen test. Nickel directs a screen text with tests starring Gary Oldman. He's trying to convince him he can do it. They look at the screen test and they say, Andrew, you will not be getting $80 million.

I'm sorry to tell you this now, but like, no, we will not let you direct this. This is too big for a first time to record. As he puts it, I made the mistake of writing my most expensive film first, which is a good way to put it. And another example of how Hollywood has fixed itself. Now, they don't make the mistake of even letting a first-time director do a screen test for an $80 million movie. They just give $200 million

to first-time directors right off the bat. Like who? The Milfzhenkai. Joseph Kaczynski. Disney was really kind of very guilty of doing it for a while. Right, right. Yeah. So we're, so some of the people are considered, Brian DePalma.

Makes sense. Make sense. Boyerism. Cameras. Brian Singer. Uh-oh. Camera surveillance. David Kronenberg.

Again, makes sense, although you cannot imagine it being handed a big budget. The cameras are in your nipples. Kronenberg Truman Show would be fascinating. Yeah. It would be interesting. Yeah.

And the Brian Singer-Triman show would have gotten 10,000 people arrested. We're reads the script, thinks it's interesting, and it's like, I think it's too challenging. I think suspension of belief is just too challenging.

Like, I don't think I can convince people that this would exist. Which is the, that is the trick with Truman Show that it kind of does, like, get you on board with like, yeah, yeah, this is real. And if you're off by a hair, this financially sustains itself. The whole thing is going to collapse. If people are too busy getting hung up on questions

that the movie can't answer, the answers aren't satisfying. But he can't get it out of his mind. Can't stop thinking about it. So he says they went through 14 drafts. Original draft is much darker. in the original script there was an innocent passenger

attacked on a subway as a way to test his courage he has a relationship with a sex worker who he dresses up as Sylvia like they make the magazine thing more literal the original movie

script that he has a drinking problem like you know it was grimmer and Weir was just like no one would watch this show like it's too grim the whole point is the show needs to be attractive to people

well also beyond that like when he pitches it to his manager, the quick log line is like, Malcolm is the star of a 24-hour continuous soap opera in the future, but he doesn't know it. He has been filmed by hidden cameras every second of his life. The Malcolm show has been running since his birth.

The show has 16 producers, all his family and friends are actors, all the strangers that he sees in the streets are extras. And he immediately goes, obviously, this should be a paranoid thriller. Paranoid thriller set in New York City. Right, starts writing it as. And like pretty quickly,

even before directors are coming on, Rudin is like, is that really the tone? And there's like versions of it where it's like, it's a twist that's revealed to the audience halfway through, you know? I think he just kept thinking of it in the most serious execution of that idea. It's funny, though, hearing this, because reality television, the ecosystem of it, isn't it just all basically alcoholics misbehaving? Wait, what?

Those guys are up to no good? They're in trouble? And, like, physically attacking each other. Exactly. Well, what I think is... Like, it's just so delightful that it's like, well, reality, television, people would love to see people being nice to each other. Right.

And a quaint little town. It's like, couldn't be completely the opposite. Giant pin in this. Yeah. Yes, giant pin in this. Giant pin in this. But it's also funny that, like, they're like, they had this whole plot line where Truman is, like, having a sort of non-physical affair with a sex worker who he makes wear the cardigan of

the Natasha McEllone character and, like, act like her so he can pretend he's still with her. and he thinks it's his dirty secret, but he doesn't know the world is, like, seeing him have this sort of emotional affair, and they were just sort of like, this feels like too much for the audience to be, like, watching, would they root against Truman?

And then I'm like, wasn't Scandival the single most important thing, I guess, that happened in America in the last 10 years? I have so many thoughts on this. Certainly was treated that way. Anyway, go on. So...

Another giant pen. Sure. Justin's Scandval. Weir starts thinking harder about like Christoph, you know, like we've talked about this a little bit already. And the vanity of this guy, how he feels like he's creating the ideal human being

the true man and making a ton of money at the same time. True man, you say. Exactly. And so, you know, he doesn't want it to be like a polemical movie. He wants it to be an entertaining movie, which is great. But I think that's the right approach. Like, I think if it was too hectoring,

which I think is the problem with every single Andrew Nicol movie. When Nicol is just, in charge of it, that's the problem. What if time was money, though? Sim One or Simone, you know, like, you know, like all these movies where I'm like, great pitch. And then he's like, do you get my pitch? And I'm like, I got your pitch.

Lord of Orr, he's made of bullets. Like, you know, just, shh, Andrew, quiet. This is why I'm like pinpointing spotlighting the thriller thing, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that like all of his movies he directs. I like Gattaca a lot. Gattaca is his best movie.

Right. Obviously. Yeah. But otherwise. you're like, what an incredible concept and you kind of have the exact wrong approach to what the most interesting version of that story is.

The concept is like so powerful and then like dramatically he's like attacking it from the wrong angle and it's not like he's always taking the same wrong approach. It just always feels like his direction was off. And I think this is one of the best examples of

good Hollywood development. Like this is the rare case of every starting idea was powerful but off and every choice they make off of that and massaging it for three years is like what fixes it. Well, there's a funny meta thing too

because like the discussion you're having right now about that is like in its own way a play acting of the discussion TV executives might have over the development of a show like the Truman show. And what's I think interesting

is that no matter how much you try to put a veneer of like, no, no, no, no, it can't be that. It has to be, we have to, We have to make it happy and good and whatever. As we discussed the beginning of this, like that darkness will find, you know, life's going to find a way

through the cracks of whatever you try to patch over. Okay, Ian Malcolm. Okay, you've called me Ian Malcolm so many times. You have a bit, five o'clock shout out. He's called kind of an Ian Malcolm thing going on right now. Well, listen. Lanky, handsome. I just don't understand why you keep calling me Dennis Nedry.

Yes, I'm wearing a raincoat and I'm covered in dinosaur ink all over my face. Yes, you're wet for no reason. Scott Ruden. Stay away from me. Before Scott Ruden even starts talking to Peter Weir, he's circling Jim Carrey. But then he does say to Weir, like, look, you might not know who Jim Carrey is. And Weir is like, no, no, no, I like Jim Carrey.

It would be funny for Peter Rue to be like, I've never heard of this Jim Carrey. Well, I think Scott Ruden, because remember, it's the earlier 90s. I think Scott Ruden's thinking, like, you're too crass to have seen like a Centro, right? I mean, like, sorry, you're not, like, that movie's too crass for you. But it's also, it's like within that year when he's exploding. He's hot. Like, is that guy paying attention to, like,

what are seen as juvenile comedies? As Peter, to quote Peter Ware. To quote Peter Ware. Okay. I'd seen a poster in the video store of Ace Ventura,

and I liked the look of the guy in it. I sense an energy I was to see in the film. He says, four minutes into Ace Ventura, it was apparent this man was remarkable. And I thought how fascinating he's interested in the Truman show. Like, I guess he's basically like,

he's got live energy I want to tap. I imagine that Peter Weir is still. staring at a poster of Jim Carrey talking through his butt. The poster of Ace Ventura is him holding up the cards. The first four minutes of Ace Ventura, which are one of the best parts of the movie, is him with the box.

Yeah, he's the fake... There's some rough stuff in that. In the opening? In the opening, there's some rough stuff. Wait, really? Yeah, I rewatched it. I mean, I can't remember. I remember rewatching it in the first four minutes going,

uh-uh. Interesting. The box, I remember just, that's just like pure carry comedy. That's so good. It's him going. full blast. Him getting the blowjob from the client, like,

come on, what are you talking about? There's just a handful. Yeah, listen, who knows? Why I like The HVentcher and now is because it's such a dark, nasty movie. It's so weird. Like, it is, and like, it doesn't, yes, it's problematic. It's a movie without flaw, as we'd

established. But you're like, I can't believe this was a four quadrant hit. Because it's like a nasty movie. Yes, and I'm I'm sure I, a little nine-year-old Jay was watching it. And, like, all the nasty shit just flew right over my head. Truly.

They made a Sunday cartoon out of it. It was a Saturday morning. They wouldn't put it on the Lord's Day. Yeah, that doesn't belong there. You're right. Ace needs his own day. I mean, this is the other stupid stat I love to bring up when we talk about how big Cary's 95 was. He has three ginormous hits in one calendar year, all three of which were so big that a year later they all have Saturday morning cartoons.

There was Masked Dumb and Dumber and Ace Ventura cartoons airing simultaneously on three different networks. I truly challenge our listeners to clip out the amount of times Griff has said that on this. I hope it's a five times. It's a lot. What's the last movie? What's the last adult movie? The last movie. Oh, that's it?

Yeah. Okay. Great. The last adult movie did become Saturday morning cartoon. Oh. You know, not, because obviously I'm not going to count like boss baby or like whatever. The Saturday morning cartoon basically doesn't exist anymore. It kind of doesn't exist anymore, right?

I would say the answer is Netflix did do like 60 episodes. of a terrible CGI fast and furious cartoon. Another thing Griffin's brought up, I would like people to clip out several times. I'm very disappointed with that show. I wish they had brought me in. I had a lot of big ideas. So Peter Weir's interested in Jim Carrey.

You know, says he's like a wicked, naughty boy in a man's body. He has a real electricity that could crack glass. I mean, that's all interesting. At first, you're like surprising. And then what suddenly becomes clear and perfectly fits vocabulary I've just been gifted. Is Ace Ventura a bit of a lyricant? Is Jim Carrey

A bit of an American laricon Laricon? To be clear, J-Kee in case you don't. J-T. J-T, J-D. J-Kee. I thought you said J-King. J-King.

I'll take. Well, there's only one king, and it's sort of an Australian word for like a rascal. Like, kind of like a near-do well. Jennifer Kent told us, and now I'm going to use it

the way Nick Wager uses Ungapachka. That's great. I love it. So first meeting, Jim's kind of nervous. And so he says, let's go to the bathroom. Let's fuck around. And he does the soap thing. No, like, Carrie's like, can it?

You know how normal meeting goes. Hey, let's go to the bathroom, fuck around. Carrie pitches like, weird pitches, carry. Like, I think your character would be doing weird things in the mirror. And Carrie's like, okay. And they go to the bathroom mirror and he does the soap thing. I walk in. I'm watching deleted scenes.

Ben goes, man, this is why you hire Jim Carrey here. And it's just raw footage of him doing extra. mirror stuff. And I'm like, Ben, literally, I'll tell you on Mike, but it was the first thing Carrie came up with and, like, shows him in real sense. Yeah. There's the thing in here that, uh, we said that makes so much fucking sense to me beyond just like the energy and his talent and his box office viability, but that he's like, there is a kind of like uncanniness to Jim Kerry. He feels kind of like a fake person where even if you tell him to tone down the theatrics, it feels like someone doing an impression of a normal guy. Which I think is why.

why this is such an excellent first foray into non-primarily comedic acting work for Jim Carrey is because Truman Burbank's a weird guy. He's not a normal guy. No, how could he be really? Exactly. And so any inconsistencies in the performance that feel sort of like a little extra fit right in with this character, which is why it's like a perfect casting is because he can be Jim Carrey and bring that Jim Carrey energy.

And you're like, yeah, that's how a kid who grew up in a weird faux 1950s on TV all the time universe would act and behave. And so it fits right into the pocket of excellent performance because even if he veers into Jim Carrey stuff, you're like, yeah, Truman Burbank's a weird guy. Jim Carrey is also just like a peak kind of raised by TV guy, right? Yes, sure. He talks a lot about his parents. It's not like they were absentee. But it, you know, it's like that generation of people who were. just like we learned the world through media.

We had more media than anyone had ever had before. And here's a guy who like becomes a comedian getting up on stage and doing impressions of like 70 different actors. And making his name off of that, he's clearly in this loop of like referencing and warping the media he grew up. And yeah, it's like what we're smart about is I, you know, I'm fascinated by like any time a comedian tries a big dramatic performance for the first. time, especially if it's not.

Like, we're going to put, like, John Candy in one scene of JFK, it's, like, still a vehicle. And the people who survived that translation, people who don't, is that often, I think, without a steady hand behind them, comedians will just be like, got it, I just need to turn down the energy. And then people are just boring, right? Sure. They're like, well, I need to play it serious. And then they just, like, crank their motor down to one.

And then they're just kind of giving a sleepy performance because they're so. Steve curl. It's the ultimate example where I'm just like all, I don't, I think he's a very good actor. But it feels like he's self-conscious about not letting the comedy creep into his performances anymore. Whereas, like, Little Miss Sunshine is like, to me, an excellent dramatic performance where he's recognizing that that guy has humor in him as a person without being a sketch character. And Truman is like such a smart use of him where it's like, you're not taking Carey's energy away. You're sort of redirecting it. Well, I also think we're going to start seeing that less and less because we're in a period of time where, as we're discussing...

Comedy is illegal. Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. Yeah. No, but it's what we're discussing before this, which is the state of the television and film industry is such that, you know, being in a movie or on a TV show is not a life-changing step up in your career. And for a lot of comedians especially, it's actually more of a fun thing they do on the side that is separate from the thing that actually. actually makes them their money and is their main career. Because, you know, there was a period of time in the 90s where it was like, you know, the dream was you're this comedian who has this comedy career and then you get absorbed

into the mainstream world of film and television and now you're on Easy Street and now you're like a big celebrity. And, you know, that's turned on his head. I think, I think if anything, that exploration to film and TV is more of like a side hobby or an exploration more than it's a chance to level up because for a lot of comedians, they're, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they make a better live in doing the thing that they do. Right, which can be any number of things. But like the A-list thing too of, and there are like two, three people left who have this, I would say, where it's like every year I am making one big chess move on the board. I am thinking thoroughly about the weight of what I pick.

And that represents like, this is the Jim Carrey movie of this year. And people are waiting and is it going to be building on what we already like from the guy or is it going to be? be a subversion. And like part of the whole like weird cable guy backlash was people being like, I don't like this darkness put on top of manic carry. And it's like got it, got it, got it. We're switching. Lire, liar, liar. Scary part is gone. He's just doing funny stuff. And so it is part of like this movie being announced of like, Carrie wants to like do something different. Everyone is leaning in to see what that is. It means something rather than like, Jason Bateman has done like four different TV shows where he plays a psychopath.

And it's never treated as like, holy shit, Jason Baveman went dark. Well, yeah, because he's really plausible as psychopaths. Well, yes. But I don't think there's a single person who could do that today, and it would be mind-blowing. And part of that is we don't have like a-list comedy movie stars. Yeah.

Right. Yeah, it's interesting because you're right. Back then it wasn't even, oh, you're a stand-up, you're a this, and you're going into movie and TVs. he was a comedic movie star who was just changing genre. But he's a very fresh one. Like as much,

you know, so he's still pretty fresh. It's, this is this first batch. Like, 95 is this weird, like parallel thinking. The industry is like coalescing around him as...

No, 94. Sorry, thank you. 95 is Batman Forever. We have good scripts. This guy's talented. He doesn't cost much. And suddenly all of those movies like hit, right?

And then, right, to test like, okay, every move I make now is going to have the eyes of the world on it. A little bit. Well, 95 is Batman Forever when nature calls. When nature calls, he's like, ugh, I don't want that to happen to me again. No more sequels. Bows out a mask and dumb and dumber too.

Right. Cable guy, people don't like it that much. A bit of a cult hit. He does liar, liar. He becomes the first $20 million star in Hollywood. He becomes the symbol of the top of the pyramid, the guy who, yeah, is covering half the budget. just with a salary. Lyer, liar.

We have to admit it. You can't lie. I feel like he barely... Don't lie to us, David. He barely ever lies in that movie. David? He barely ever lies. Trust me.

Trust him. Trust me. We're doing that. Your Honor, I object. Why? For what reason? Because it's devastating to my case. That's my favorite joke in liar, liar.

Like, he's so good at all that shit. Like, he's compelled to say the truth shit. I feel like we've talked about this and forgive me if we've done it before on the podcast. podcast, but like, especially in the, like, early... And he says overruled, and he goes, good call. Yeah, especially in the early 2000s, there's lines from trailers that are stuck in my mind, and that's one of them, is I feel like there was a trailer where that line pops up. There's also, like, the one that I always love referencing is the, like, you put the wrong

and fastest on the wrong syllable, which is a movie that, like, pause listeners. I mean, I think blank check listeners will know, but, like, the average person's like, I know that line, But what movie is that from? And you're like... Bruno Barreto's a view from the top, obviously. Yeah, a view from the top, duh. Yeah. The Golden Age of trailers.

But that's another example of like, that's not a holy shit. They struck like gold Truman Show, like deep premise. But the second America was told, here's the movie. Jim Carrey can't lie. He can't lie. He was a lawyer.

And he can't lie. People were... What are lawyers do? Oh, my gosh. They were sending money to the theater in advance. It was, that's all I need to hear. I can fill in the blanks. He's just going to do shit for 90 minutes.

He can't lie. But then what happens if he gets a speeding ticket? Oh, my God. Surely in that situation, he'd lie. I like that they were like, everyone loves Jim Carrey for his physical comedy. But this movie is premised on a verbal trait. And they were like, don't worry.

Am I crazy that there's like three movies of that with him that are like, it's like that, me, myself and Irene. Correct. And then there's another one. Yes, yes, ma. Which are like all very like. I can't say no. got to say yes.

Yes man sucks because yes man. Yes man does suck. Yes man is like there's a guru. I think it's Terrence stamp. Yeah, who he's just like listening to the advice. He writes a book. That's like philosophy of yes. And he's like, I'm going to do that. Yes.

But what's good about me and myself and Irene, which is a flawed movie. I don't like that movie. Right. But like the physical comedy is strong because it's like it is beyond his control. What's happening. Right. And Kerry can play that very funny. Right.

Like that's what he's always been good at. His performance is fair. His body is overtaken. Right. Because, you know, like. Me and myself and Irene. is like... It's a nuanced portrayal of split personality.

Yes. Right. Yeah. It was a nice one and a mean one. Disassociative identity disorder. It's Charlie and... Hank. Hank is not a nice guy.

Okay, wait. And the premise of Yes, man, is that this is like more of like a self-help thing that he's doing. He goes to a self-help seminar. This guy wrote a book on the power of yes. And he's like, I'm going to do that. And then the rest of the movie, everyone's like, just stop. And he's like, no. Well, I guess he says...

He refuses to answer to... The movie stops right there. Okay, here's a pitch. There's a point in yes, man, where he's gotten himself into, like, immense legal trouble. And his best friend is Bradley Cooper, who's a lawyer. And he has to show up and say, I'm sorry. He made this stupid deal with himself that he's going to say yes to everything.

And remind me, liar, liar, what's the magical? It's like a birthday. It's a birthday wish. When he blows out the candles on his birthday cake for the party that his father didn't attend, his father said, of course I'll be there. And then meanwhile, he says, I wish for one day, like, you know, my dad could not lie. Okay, I got a pitch. Go ahead.

He goes to this self-help seminar. This is going to be my year of yes. As he is starting that journey, suddenly, it's birthday time. Candles go out. He gets liar-liard in the middle of the year of yes. Yeah. You're like, this man can only say yes to things and he cannot lie. So he's saying no to everything?

So it's chaos is going to unfold. He doesn't want to say, yes. You're like, it couldn't get any crazier than this. And what does he see on the ground? What? A green mask. Oh, my God. What happens when the mask can't lie and can't say no?

This is really good. What would it be called? It would be called. No, honestly, smoke him. No, honestly, smoke it. That's what he's, that's his catchphrase. I'm good. All right, okay.

Everyone shot. Steve Corrie. Wait, why did this make you bad? Because we're so off the rails. Why did this make you bad? We're good. Carrie, I want to say this. Okay.

I think this is important. Yeah. Carrie's biggest inspiration for his performance in the Truman show is his father, who he says was very much like that. The kind of like, hi, how are you? You know, starts laughing before, like, you even tell him how things are doing. That kind of like, a mega-friendly ray of sunshine, affable kind of guy. He said his whole family are like,

you're doing debt. Yeah, he almost drowned in the water tank. That's a big part of the lore of this movie. Well, he did, and that was when they were placed him with the first Jim Carrey clone. Right, exactly. Who runs from 99 to recently. We're not quite sure when, right?

No, because Poppers was a new guy. Yeah, yeah. And he was settling in. That one was not well caliber. Poppers is like the bond who did one and then was that last. Poppers is a last week. He fucking chucked this one out. It didn't work.

Originally cast as, Christoph, as Griffin noted, is Dennis Hopper. Very different energy. Very different. To imagine, like, Hopper. Yeah. Come on, you fucking assholes! Like, just screaming at everyone. Truman, talk.

You can hear me. I can hear you. Weir says, I cast him before I really had an idea of who Christoph was going to be. When, you know, by the time he came to filming, differences arose is how he put it. He says that Dennis was... Dennis Hopper? He says that Dennis was understanding and gracious. Hopper did film.

I think so. they started filming. Yeah. Release the hopper cut. He toyed, we're toyed with playing the role himself, which is really interesting. Because he's like, as director,

it did kind of occur to me that like, there's like that kind of God complex, right? That would have been fascinating. It's also the... What director hasn't wanted to say Q the Sun is what is like his joke. There is, yes.

This surprising thing about weird that we found is that he like basically started in sketch comedy. Yeah, he did. Although it's because in Australia, that seemed to be the only way to do anything in the 70s. Well, it's funny because I'm not that. I wasn't that tapped into Peter Weir in his whole life and universe. And the more I heard about it, I was like, kind of parallel to you.

Yeah, I was like, is this kind of, is Peter Weir kind of the career that I wish that I could have? It doesn't sound like he was one of the most incredible directors. It doesn't sound like he ever had like designs on performing professionally, but it does sound like he was performing as much in comedy as you were at like around the UCB and everything. And then so you're like, you have to imagine there's some innate ability he would have to just kind of like hold the camera. He's also so fascinating in interviews. Like he does have such an interesting energy. Good energy. But it's the Tootsie thing. The Tootsie dynamic where Hoffman like begged, uh, fucking Sidney Pollock to play his agent because he was like, I,

want to have these scenes be with someone who actually holds power over me. David? Yes. Ah! Oh, God. This is life throwing another thing at me. Oh, no. Did you catch it?

No, I got hit with it. I got pelted it pretty hard. It's going to leave a bruise. How's that to do with? It's tough. It's tough and life keeps throwing more things at me. Okay. Well, is there maybe something that we could take off your plate,

have someone else help you out with? perhaps a trusted Tasker from TaskRabbit. David, I would love nothing more. My ideal life is to do as little as possible, as much as can be off my plate, the happier I am. I have children.

I have logistical responsibilities often of like, I need to build a piece of furniture. I need to whatever. You know, learning about this for the first time, but sure, I'll buy into the premise the bit of this ad. And I've used TaskRabbit multiple times for it. It is literally always like, that is the best money I ever spent in my life. You know what I mean?

Where you're basically like, it would have been six hours of me building this bookcase. And instead, like, I did whatever the other task I had to do, you know, like. Sleeping. Could be sleeping. Eating a meal of food. Shopping for food or whatever. But, like, while that got done and it's like, it's always just so rewarding. I had a tasker come and build a grill for me when I bought my grill.

Oh, well, my ears are burning. Or should I say smoking? And that was one of those things where I was, not only was like, this will be, this will take a long time, I was like looking at all this, you know, masonry. All these like been where I was like, I will mess this up. Like, I just won't do this. Hey, David, no need to speak in generalities. To me, what kind of bad boy we talk about here? What model you buy?

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ran Universal at the time, I assume, wanted a bigger star. Ed Harris is... This is Paramount. Is it Paramount? Yeah, it's Paramount. Of course it's Paramount. So, Sherry, yeah, sorry, Paramount. Ed Harris, it is truly, like, he's like, I got a phone call on a Friday.

I started working on Monday. You know, like... And he's incredible in this? It's obviously, it's an incredible performance. Best performances? It is. He probably should have won the Oscar. I was thinking the same thing. Is this the Coburn year?

It's the Kevin. It's basically is the first year. It's the Coburn year, which is, you know, honestly, Affliction is a bit of a forgotten movie. Coburn is good in it. Obviously, Coburn was a well-known, you know, like it's a bit of a career award, but he's really good in that movie. And he doesn't make many films after that.

James Coburn? Yes. No, he was a. he was on the way out there. I'm just saying it was like there wasn't going to like three years later be another chance to give it to him. The other thing, I know, but I look, this is so rude of me to say because James Cooper's a good actor. James Coburn is not the level of actor where I'm like he had to have an Oscar before he died. I agree with you. I also think Ed Harris was in this zone at this point in time where people were like, he'll win. He's going to win like any day now. And then it's like he hasn't been nominated in over 20 years, close to

25. But in the 90s, he got four noms total, because it's, so it's Apollo 13 before this, which he also should have won for. Truman Hours Pollack? Then Truman, then Pollock, then the hours. Yeah. The hours, I don't like that performance very much. The others, he's an arguable winner every time.

But that's... When I interviewed him, he looked like Christophon was so scary. He was notoriously one of the scariest men. What's the most scared you've been in an interview? That one. Really? Without a doubt, I was so scared to interview because I've always heard how scary he is. Uniformly, everyone says he is like the most intense.

It's also just like he's got Ed Harris energy all the time. If you're like a PA and they go like, hey, can you tell Ed we're like five minutes away from camera up? They're like shivering just because you have to walk up to that guy. What's your interview for play? Like how when someone's... I just kind of like caress the thigh, you know, and then I just kind of am like, is this okay? And then I sort of start to... No, you said four play.

I don't know. I just chit-chat. And, like, Ed Harris was not interested in chit-chatting with me. But he wasn't rude. He was fine. Luckily, Aaron Sorkin was also there. Who likes to talk? Gap, gap, gap, gap.

But, like, all of his answers were interesting, and he was super chill. He just looked like Christoph. Do you write down your questions before you do an interview? No. I write down questions that I can refer to if I get stuck. Because I was going to say, sometimes if you get scared, you just like, want a piece of paper, and you're like, okay, here's the question that I get up to. Yes, but I find that.

Um, so I'm, like, that makes people, like, uncomfortable. Jump out the window. Has it felt like that would make Ed Harris bite your head off? Possibly. What were you interviewing them for with Sorkin? To kill a mockingbird. Oh, for a job. I was interviewing them to work at my Dunkin' Donuts that I owned.

The Fulton Street Traces. That's a thing that people don't know about David. He does have a Dunkin' Donuts at the Fulton Center. I do have a Dunkin' Donuts. He won't. He was for, Harris was taking over from Jeff Daniels and To Kill a Mockingbird. And they pitched me on. on like, can you interview Sorkin and Harris

about like the process of him playing Atticus? And I was like... The mockingbird. I was like, yeah. Bring out the mockingbird. I was like, honestly, I just want to interview them so sure. It did rock because we were at the theater,

which is one of the greatest, you know, one of the biggest theaters on Broadway. And it was empty. And Sorkin comes out first. And then he's like, check this out. And we walk over. I've said this before on the podcast, I think, to the little step.

Because people come in through. the audience in that play and in many plays, the tiny little step that gets you from the audience to the stage that's like half your foot max. And he was just like, how do they not fucking fall on this thing? And then like we get up on the stage

and he's walking around. He was just so energetic and like excited about theater, which was cool. And he had just finished shooting Chicago 7. Oh, sure. And so he was talking to Ed Harris about that a lot. Because it was like he was coming back because he's not on, you know,

the play was running. Harris was the one who was. like getting into, and he played Etika Sfinch like a terrifying motherfucker. It was a weird performance. It wasn't bad, but it was definitely not like Gregory Peck energy. Anyway, I would give Harris Best Supporting Actor for a Paw 13,

which is one of my favorite screen performances of all time. I mean, the problem is... But he's incredible. It's what you're saying of, he would have been a good win in any of those four years. Probably. And he was in borderline auto-nomination territory where it's like,

we're going to have so many chances to give it to him, and there kept being some kind of emotional choice above him. And now I, not that he's take it for granted, but I think people like almost autocorrect and assume he won an Oscar 20 years ago. The weird Coburn stat is that he had like debilitating

arthritis and basically disappeared for all of the 80s and then found some miracle cure and comes back in the 90s and there was a big emotional kind of like Coburn's back. Now he's like a steady elder state's been supporting hand. Now he's given this like dramatic showcase role.

But he, I mean, Coburn won zero precursors. Ed Harris was not even nominated for the SAG. Like, it was a weird supporting actor field. I should dig in. I should dig it. But he did lose and he shouldn't have lost. I think it should have been him or Billy Bob, but Billy Bob would just want an Oscar.

But Billy Bob is obviously amazing and a simple plan, which is that year as well. I don't know. You know what? I'm sorry. Golden Globes gave it to Ed Harris. SAG gave it to Robert DeVall for a civil action. Great performance. And then the Academy gives it to James Coburn.

Laura Linney He'd seen We had seen her in Primal Fear Which she's very good in And she did an incredible audition Obviously having Laura Linney in this role Is just like having like fucking Tim Duncan On the like 99 spurs or whatever

We're just like well we just got her early Like being not like seeing this movie as a nine year old The amount of actors I'm exposed to for the first time Where I'm just like well these are people who aren't in movies for children I'm seeing Laura Linney and Paul Giamatti And Holland Taylor and Noah Emrick like all these fucking like heavyweights and like character actor greats who I love

who I just still kind of associate with like Laura Linney, yeah, of course, the wife from the Truman show. Well, I was watching that behind the scenes feature out thing. And one of the things I think is fascinating that comes through in the performance, but until you hear her talk about it,

I did not zero in on, is that Peter Weir wrote for Christoph an entire sort of like backstory and history of Christoph. And then he had the actors for themselves come up with their own backstories. And her backstory was that her, the actress that she was portraying that was cast to be on the Truman show

was like a... I can tell you. I have it here, but you want to... Go for it. Failed child actress, someone who always wanted to play Annie and never got to play Annie, had become like an Oprah-esque

kind of shrewd businesswoman who is like really behind the product placement stuff. Yeah, so she said like, in her mind, on the show, she'd be at like a conference room working with people to like deal, figure out product placement and all this stuff. She was like a business person first and foremost.

So she basically like secures her position as you are the permanent Truman wife through selling her value to the show in all these other ways and being like so locked in on the whole business model in a way? Or like the flip where she uses that role to then become a huge like person, you know, a product spokesperson. But I mean, she just plays it like a living animatron. It's so good. She's just so unreal.

I also love that the movie opens with, like, the opening credits to the Truman Show, the show, rather than the movie. And we're watching these direct address statements. And you're like seeing how kind of pretentious she is about the art of what she's accomplishing. And you're like, there's this innate sadness to you being like, it's the greatest role of all time. And being like, you don't have a life. What are you talking about? You're like in a loveless marriage. And she kind of doesn't respect or even really like Truman.

No, she's disgusted by it. She knows he knows she hates him. Right. Which is to that scene that we were talking about that's so disconcerting is this the first time you see her mask drop where she's like, she's not concerned about him. She's concerned about herself first and foremost and this whole thing. And that's why she's willing to...

If you loved him, you would tell him he was on a TV show. Yes, exactly. Right away. It's not to justify the action, but it's... part of what drives him is that he's increasingly, like there is no universe and what is happening isn't also, that you're not also a party to what is happening. Right, you have to be a part of it,

which makes it even scarier. I mean, the thing that we never actually see him confront totally is that Noah Amrich is part of it, which is the most devastating because he has this feature, where he's like, I've been your best friend since we're seven years old. And that was his- and it is the most chilling thing. And that was his character story,

he was like a child actor who then got cast in this role and because they kept extending it, he kept becoming more and more grain. He becomes his best friend. And it's actually more villainous in a way that he is unwilling to drop that. And in fact, weaponizes it against Truman at some point. Like, at least with Laura Linney,

she immediately, the moment things get weird, she's like, I'm out, I'm done, this unprofessional. I can't work like this. I would say things got weird before, such as when she married him and lives with him every day. Yes, but I'm saying, sleeps with him, and it's just, it's so wild. And clearly is like, if I'm going to get pregnant, you better fucking love it.

Well, and that's what she says in the thing is she's like in my mind. Every time I sleep with him, I get a pay bomb. Right. The way you're describing her character, I just wanted to say, is sort of like an influencer. Yeah. Like in the 90s shopping channel kind of way. Sure. Sure.

But I also think that Noah Emmer character, what's fascinating is that like he's a little tragic and that it does feel like these lines are genuinely blurred for him. Whereas she's like, this is a role I'm playing. and I'll cross my fingers when we kiss at the altar. I think Noah Emmerich would be like Truman, of course, is my best friend. Because he is. And because it seems like in the world of this film, he was with Truman since they were like, Toddlers, whereas she was cast into the role when they were like.

And you see the scene where she's trying so hard to be like, how do I pop here? You know, at the high school, the marching band. Right, maybe it's late high school. But like the idea is Natasha McElhone is an extra who falls in love with him. but of course anyone who actually liked him, again, would be like, well, I have to take care of you. And the first thing we're going to do is get you off of the Trubin show. Yes, which is what?

And so they have to find someone who's, you know, at cross purposes with him. Which is why this movie is so good is because we're able to have this discussion within the bounds of its reality. And for a lot of movies, the moment you start discussing it like this, it falls apart because you're like, well, you got to take some leaps of logic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so fun because you can talk about it with such depth.

I think you have to make leaps of logic on, of course, course, this would not be, you could not. Wouldn't be financially viable. But, like, I think that's a leap of logic you can make, and it's partly satirical anyway, the whole idea of, like, you can see it from space or, you know, like, and what I love the most about the

Truman show is that the audience watches and loves it, but is rooting for him to escape it at the end, because that is what, like, watching sports is or watching almost any reality TV is where you're like, this is great and it entertains me,

and then when like the scales start to fall off and people are like, I don't like this. People are like, I love that you're saying that. Like Alyssa Lou just now, winning the Olympic medal, which I have watched her skate many times and cried, I don't know what's going on with me, where she's like, I love that I did that and it was great,

but this world sucks and I quit it because it was so horrible. And I wasn't allowed to drink water because of water weight. And people are like, we love that you're doing that. We also love watching you skate. I don't know how to reconcile those two things. I love Truman. I love watching him be Truman.

I want him to overthrow, though, as well. This last Olympic run basically had the Truman walking through the door moment. Totally. What if I do it my way? I'll try to do it my way. I would like to believe that's exactly what she did. It seems like it is.

But I think that's the aspirational beauty of the Truman show, right? Is that it represents this thing that even within the, even within the fictional construct of what this show represents within the fictional world that it exists is this idea that we all live in this life that part part of what we seek in media sometimes is the idea that maybe we're going to be able to overcome whatever our whatever the boxes that we are put into. And so like we just keep trying to find these boxes and see people overcome them in some way. And so even if you find escapism in the comfort of Truman, the fact that he's trying to escape becomes something that

you're like, well, that's also engaging to me because I also want or hope or believe that my life larger than whatever this, my version of a town square is. It is part of the like developed backstory thing, but I also, people have said it was part of the script at one point, like it was developed into the film proper. But the Noah Emmerich character, his sort of established backstories that this guy has had a years-long drinking problem, the actor, largely because of the guilt of how he is being used to contain Truman and that like part of his job being. being like, I have to fill vending machines around the world

was that he'd have to be justified to disappear for rehab trips and things like that. But also that there's this married thing that he's used as a mechanism to sell beer for the show. Of course. So that there's kind of like the running segment of, well, when Truman needs like a trusty ear, of course Lewis is going to show up with a six pack,

which then becomes like part of their behavioral mechanism where he's over drinking to deal with the guilt over the advice he gives Truman that is actually Christoph in an earpiece. So then he needs to get like rehab off of the show and then continue selling beer to an audience. And this is what I think is great about Peter Weir, right? Is there some people that would put all of that into the movie.

And Weir allows a lot of this stuff. And this is... Yeah, yeah, to be subspoken or thought about it. I mean, like there's the line that I love like parsing this movie because I've seen it so, so many times where he talks about, remember when I got pneumonia and Truman's like, yeah, you were out of school for a month. And they're laughing about it.

And you don't notice it. But then you're like, what you mean he was out of school for month? And you're like, oh, that was for some extra reality reason, right? And it's just shit like that. But then when I was,

so when I first saw this movie, when the rain falls on Truman in a column before it kicks off, right? One of his many moments of like reality is not right. Obviously, the first one is the light falling from the ceiling. Yeah. Which happens less than three minutes into the movie. Right away.

It is a ston. Yeah, big pin. so many pence. I immediately start being like, well, why can't they just raise Truman to think that rain falls in a column? And why can't they train him to think that like, yeah, there's lights in the sky that might fall down or whatever.

Like, why can't they just? And then, like, as I grow older, I'm like, right, because then we wouldn't like the show. The show needs to reflect reality. Because it's not for Truman. None of this was for Truman. Right. This was all for everyone else.

Yeah. Because, like, if he was just taught in school, like, well, rain falls in a column and you can't get on boats. Like, and you can't leave your town. People would just like, you know, whatever. Like, it just would break the way that people experience him. Well, it's also, like, our relationship to this movie, which is, like, the buy-in, the suspension of disbelief, right?

Like, what are the questions you need to answer, the things you need to explain to get people to accept the rules of your universe? And this is such an excellent example of it gives you a satisfying answer for just what you need to be able to engage with the story. And it's really smart about when it does, not like info dumps, but, like, how it distributes the information, so you don't have to deal with 30 minutes of explanation. You don't have to deal with the last 30 minutes is just uncovering everything. But also, the answers it gives are so satisfying and are so often, like, show don't tell,

that you start to be able to just infer, you can fill in the blanks, and more than anything, you can tell that there are internal answers that they don't feel the need to communicate to you. Well, like, one thing that I was watching it the second time last night is I was like, Oh, how much of the cameras are justified, right? How much is an omniscient camera that is the movie's movie? And how much is it justified within the Truman Show? Yeah.

It's mostly all in the world of the Truman Show. I think other than when it goes to like, you know, Christoph and people watching on TV and whatever, in past times, I'd heard Weir say that was a big thing that he like tried to design the coverage of where the cameras would be. And previous times I'd watch this movie, I'm like, well, the obvious shots were clearly that's a weird angle, that's a hidden camera, you see the obstruction of a leaf in front of it or whatever.

Now watching it this time, I'm like, I think basically every single setup within the bubble of the Truman Show, 100% is a very specifically justified camera angle. even down to when it feels like the movie is doing more traditional coverage, that is coverage in what would be the main locations of his life in the setups where they would have to invest the time and energy and technology to get a really high quality unobstructed two shots. Well, they show the trick off in one of the first interactions when the neighbor comes up and talks to him is that they have a tracking shot that's sort of this handheld tracking shot

that walks up to Truman and he's getting into his car. And in my brain, I'm like, well, of course they wouldn't have tracking shots. And then they obviously cut to the reverse and you see him holding up a trash can with clearly a big lens that's very obvious on it. To sort of teach the audience, hey,

these are always going to be justified. And then throughout this, like, I remember there was the scene where he's running through the hospital and I was kind of like, I was like, all right,

well, here's one place where they're kind of stretching the credulity of that because he's running and there's a camera following him. And then they cut to a nurse running behind him and you're like, right,

there's... And there's cameras and all their clothes, essentially. Yes, and you can tell they just took the time, for every shot to go,

even if they go, we want this coverage, they go, okay, but how would we justify that with this? And then they put it in there in some way, which is such great fun,

specific. When he's in his home, it can be as polished as, like, friends because they've refined that. Yes. And when he gets into wilder environments,

they're improvising, you know, they're, like, manipulating things. But you start to see the recurring design element of what are clearly the hidden cameras,

which are like these black domes, which are in the, like, the lining of the buildings, the houses on the street, street, the signposts. You know, they're like all over everything. Someone's ring.

There's one moment where it's like, yeah. How are they getting the sound? Everyone's miced as well. It's all ADR. That's so true. The Truman show airs at a five minute delay. And someone's just like, oh, hi, I'm Truman. They probably just have booms hidden all over.

Yeah. You can just do directional mics far away pointing, you know, everywhere. Yeah. So you just get total coverage. Yeah. Seaside, Florida. is this creepy, crazy town where they filmed it, obviously, which is a town that was basically built in the 1980s

to look like a, quote, neo-traditional community, a produced Matt Gates, who lived in the house that Truman lives in. Which I love. Which makes you happy. Well, you endorse it. You endorse it. Well, I think it's actually a very interesting,

cultural... I don't even know how to describe it. Go off? The fact that that is the childhood home of a... famous, infamous, Republican politician. A lot of different words you could say here. Yes. And I'm, you know, I, exactly.

So I think it's actually very interesting because the whole point of the Truman show is that it's this enclosed universe that is controlled to make the people in it believe, or one person in it, believe that the world exists in a very specific way. And obviously, we know that you know, there's a certain positive aspiration of the idea of someone

like Truman going out in the real world, and now he's going to get to see what real life is like, but that's actually going to be a very pretty traumatic process. I think he's going to be okay. Which I've thought about this a lot over the years because Natasha Acklehan's going to get him. And because I used to think, like, oh, he's so fucked. What? He's going to

walk out. Immediately some agent will approach him. Some, you know, like, and then I remember, like, no, I forget that like we're being shown. Natasha's going to get him. And she knows him. And she knows what's going to happen. She knows the real world and she knows his world. And she's going to be the bridge that will, I think, make him out.

Yes, but it's going to be like a hearing. But all that aside. It'll be sure. Yeah, I'm just saying like it's a very fundamental thing to me in the movie that their journeys are intercut. All that aside. I think there are strings that you could tie between someone growing up an environment like Seaside, Florida.

That is Truman Show-esque, that then holds belief. that are very extreme and maybe don't interact with the full diversity of life as it unfolds in the rest of the country. We should live in places like C-Sconnected from most people's realities. Well, but. Yes. They wanted a Norman Rockwell heightened reality, right? Like, I mean, that's what they were looking for. Yes, and I guess my point is like, of course that's where someone like that came from, right?

Like, of course, that's one of the issues that we have, right? Is that you can grow up in these bubbles where you see the world in a very specific point of view. And then when you get into the real world and that's different, right? And then this thing that has been constructed to make you believe that this is the utopian, idyllic life. Yeah, there's going to be people who react to that different ways. And some of them it is through, you know. I think Matt DeKate is, he's doing good. Seems really balanced to me.

All right. Well, that's David Sims of the Atlantic. I'm going to say that I don't endorse him. The funniest thing about that Gates to me is that Trump, like, you know, has violated every Norman existence in appointed psychopaths. Like he was like, what about Matt Gates? Everyone was like, buddy. And he was like, all right, all right, not Matt Gates. That's the one.

That's too far. Like the old one. I don't know. There's something. There's something interesting about the fact that that's the home. That's like, I think it's interesting. I think we should move on. Yeah, I agree.

Can I say, can I just say off the thread of like, I know this is jumping to the end of the movie, but like, is he going to be okay? I was thinking about jury duty while watching this, which we were talking about right before recording, right? and how they have a second season coming out, and it's one of those, like, how could they possibly pull that off a second time? But everyone who worked in that show talked about

that they, like, shot it two times before it worked. Like, I think one time incomplete, one time maybe borderline complete, where they, like, picked the wrong person. I think one time the person figured out, and the other time they were just like, this is not compelling television. And then they found someone who was not only compelling,

but, like, kept kind of making the moral, humane choice in these insane circumstances. And then they were like, oh, the show's actually more interesting if the guy is like passing these morality tests rather than falling into the chaos of the situation. And they're like rewriting it in time in a Truman show way to try to like guide him towards like presenting him as like a moral beacon of like,

you won this show by being unwavering in your humanity. And then he has talked about when the show ended, he like could not readjust to reality for like a year. And it's not like that was all consuming in the same kind of way. And he knew he was on camera. He thought it was just a documentary series. And by the time the show premiered, he had worked through this and time had passed. But was like, I for like the next couple of months kept thinking it was still going on.

Right. That was like three weeks of this guy's life. Totally. That even when that final episode is like, congratulations, you're a good human. This was a TV show. It's a comedy. go on. He's like back to spending time

with his parents and he's like, but are my parents in on this? Were they in on this? How far did this reach? Would that be an interesting finale for the show or is that the midpoint and I'm still in it?

That, you know, to the Truman point, it's like, you're right that he kind of is set up in the best way he could to transition out of this, but God, is there going to be fucking damage on him?

Of course. I'm not saying, I'm saying, the point I was making was not, actually. I don't think you can actually... I'm not fighting you on it. I just think about that guy. I want to say that Peter Weir took the like commercials, wanted a movie to look like commercials.

Because he's like, everything needs to be really brightly lit, right? Because, again, the way the world would function. How do you light exteriors like their interiors? He had one crazy idea that he wanted a video camera installed in every theater the film was going to be seen. And when the movie ended, he was going to switch the feed to the people being filmed. Kind of a cool idea. There was a live in a...

interactive. Love that idea. Adaptive. But I think they were just like, this is impossible. Obviously, that's ridiculous. But it would be so cool.

I like that like 30 years later, Coppola could barely pull off. A guy stands in front of a screen. It's like, what do you believe art is or whatever that question is? Well, that, it happened to me twice once I was watching as a screening of Gremlins 2. And it was like that they actually, in the film,

they set the movie on fire. That is so crazy. The same thing happened to me when I, I saw Remlins Sue. That's so wild. Then it happened a second time when I was watching the Muppet movie. Yeah.

And, um... Has anyone done that recently? You know what's even crazier? Is, uh, Gremlin's, I see it. Uh, the gremlins got into the projection booth.

They ripped through the film. You wouldn't believe what happened in mind. Who fixed it? Well, I don't, I don't want to want to one up you here. I don't want a big dog you, but my screening was the holkster.

No, no way to, in a second. Guys, I have a question for you to get you off of this. If we do Dante, will you want to do Gremlins Sue? Oh, I mean...

Or is there a different Dante? Because Dante does feel JD... Dante, I would want to do The Explorers. Hell yeah. There you go. That was... That's great. That'll give that up a boost.

That was a movie that I watched constantly growing up. And that was like... Never seen. You've never seen it? No. I haven't seen it. I don't mean that. I'm just saying that's...

I mean, it's... I haven't seen a lot of those 80s kid movies because, like, I was too young for them. And then I didn't have the like sort of whatever cable TV, American life that I guess... like kept the Goonies and it's many. Yeah, that was video store for me. Right. We would rent the

Explorers, never-ending story, labyrinth, and Goonies, like, on loop. And, like, I've seen those four movies a grand total of three times. You know what I mean? But you haven't seen Explorers ever. No. That's what I'm saying. I've seen the left-handed one. The thing with Explorers that's interesting very quickly, David, is it

basically is like a fucking snowman Harry Hole thing where they just didn't let him finish the movie. And so explorers had to be kind of like stitched together. he never got to shoot everything that was written. Wait, what's the Snowman thing? The movie, the Snowman, like, ran out of the time. Oh, that one.

I thought you're talking about the animated short film. Oh, no. I was like, I was like, what? Yeah. That one feels finished. That one's pretty finished. It's pretty short, too. You know, snowman.

I will say, no joke. Creatively in my life, I, one of my, the references I've referenced the most is the 30-second live action opening to the Snowman. Because it's incredible. It's incredible. It's so specific. that I have, it has been a part of several things. I'm like, we want that feeling.

You know who's big for me was Corderoy, the TV version of Cordon. Oh, with the live action one? Yeah. Yeah, it was really good. I don't know that's weird. Yeah, because it's also an animated Corderloor. No, fuck that. I don't think I know what Corderoy is.

Quarterway said Children's book about a little bear in a toy store who comes to like. Tim's story was announced to do a big budget. No, he should. Oh, that sounds fun. That sounds like it would be really calm and relaxing. I know we got to get back to Truman's, but can I just say, craziest thing. So I see Grimlins too in a theater. Okay, no.

And I'm like, well, that was fun. It was a fun experience. I'm lucky that I got to see this crazy screen, but I'd love to see what happened in the missing scenes when they bit through the film. So I rented it on VHS. And yeah, and you got to see it unbroken all the way through. Shady, the craziest thing happened on the VHS.

What's that? And this is just my tape, my player Gremlins too. The Gremlin's like broken to the TV. And did it stay broken? And it was like staticy. And then they were like in all. other movies. They, like,

change the channels to, like, Western films and stuff, and then the movie just, like, went back. Can't do that bit on Gremlins, too, now. Crazy.

That's what I'll say. We'll do it again. Trust me. Five times. This is a show that's never done a bit twice. David is, tightly hugging his baby Joey.

Who is that? He's from Superman. You see the new Superman movie? I did not. David loves baby Joey. I love him. I think and tug is you're holding him in a way that shows that.

The Truman Show, I'm going to unpin one of your big pins. Yes. Begins almost immediately with the light falling from the sky. Which, I've been on this show before ranting about story structure. And what I love about the Truman Show is that I think there's a version of this movie where you do this, like, all right, let's spend 10 minutes with seeing Truman's life. It's the big question. It's like, right.

How quickly do you start to break it and how quickly do you, you unattached from his reality, all that stuff? And I, what I love about the arc of this movie is that that, that has. happens within whatever one minute of the movie beginning is that immediately it starts falling apart and you're not we don't have to live in the Truman world for 10 minutes before he starts to notice it's like it's risky because like yeah you do have that fear of like will audiences accept this reality as we begin to break it right like but i think you do i think they do such a good job explaining how everything works yes and then the movie runs for an hour yeah and then we take a 10 minute break to have an interview with christoph it's a good solid time

right before we finally are like, okay, all right. It's the movie has felt like it's about to haul off its hinges. They saved the day and then suddenly it's like, we're actually going to unpack this now, but they've given you so much information already up until that point that it's just hard data points you need. And it works because it's still dramatized because you're learning about the guy who made the thing.

And you do not. You don't see Christoph until an hour into the film. Opening shot. Opening shot. And then not until an hour. And then not until an hour in. He's in less than 10 minutes of the movie. He's the,

I think it's one reason you didn't when he asked him. Because there would be a version of this movie, right? Yeah. Where you keep cutting back to him and you're seeing him. Well, the other thing that interests, yeah, of course. That it's about him. But then the movie's more about him,

right? Which is what's brilliant because that's what the movie isn't about him. Right. Christoph thinks it's about him. Sure. But it's not. But that's the moment when it finally slows down. David is very annoyed.

I'm just trying to make a point. I don't want to forget the point. Please make it. Please make it. When they have sex, you cut to flat top from Brooklyn Nine Nine and the other guy. Yeah. Where he explains like, but you never see anything. They point the camera.

The wind blows. The curtain. It's a very funny moment. That's one of the very few moments that they caught to the audience before the reality breaks and then we're cutting to them all the time. And it's the first time. They don't explain it. They kind of don't do it again for like a long while.

Just forgetting they show the bar with Oland Jones because when they get into them in Tasha McElehone. Yeah, yeah, they show. Yeah. But that's later. That's later. Yes, this is the first one. Yeah. But it's very brief.

They add more people post-reveal, of course, Napoleon and such. They do, but they do it slowly, but they do do it before the Christoph moment, which is the full kind of like, okay, pause. And what I think is really bold about that cutaway, right, is it's not like, I don't believe, maybe I'm going to say this and I'm wrong, but as I remember it, it's just a hard cut right to those people going, nah, you never really see anything. It is.

It's like, you don't cut to the TV. No, you never see the TV. You just know that the audience. is going to pick up, they're going to be jarred for a second to be like, what am I watching? It's like, oh, these are people watching the show. And it's just interesting. And maybe it was a studio note of like, can we please? Like, just a tiny, tiny bits of context, please.

Like, it's too overwhelming. Maybe not. Maybe they just editing wise were like, no, no, no, it belongs there. Like, we need it a little bit. It feels to me like you need to ease the audience into that as a language that's going to exist. Because also at that point, the audience is, starting to wonder, how do people watch this? Like, what is their relationship to this?

That becomes as pressing a question as the reality of how the show is made is like, so are they watching it like it's sports? Are they watching it like it's a soap opera, you know? To me, you would just have it on, right? Like, that, like, obviously maybe sometimes you do lock in with the Truman show. And I have questions of like, do they do like a highlight reel? And any, like, during primetime show, I think it's streaming. I think it's what we

sort of now have but then they do the flashbacks it's a channel with flashbacks yeah so this I'm going to unpin one of the other big things is that obviously one of my I say obviously Griffin probably

I'm obsessed with the early 2000s era of reality TV and what turned into it and especially the big swings that turned into disasters in a lot of ways and what's so interesting is that the state of reality TV now

versus what it was in 2003 I think because there's the sort of like boiling a frog element to it. Like, you think that it's like always been like this. But if you go back and you watch season one of the real world or survivor, you're like, oh my gosh, it feels like a documentary. And back then it was people, it was like, oh, this is a spectacle. Well, that's even like 20 years past an American family, which was presented as a similarly high-minded PBS thing and people got into like

debates of whether it was exploitive or ethical. And then by the time the real world premieres, it's like, well, that was an interesting artistic experiment, much like Seven Up, and the real world is crass and exploitative. And so there was all these different folds of reality television, which I'm fascinated with because I think they're these weird cultural mirrors in a lot of strange ways. But some of them that are interesting is obviously like Big Brother did, played around with the streaming aspect of stuff. I'm not a big brother guy.

A friend of the show, Zach Cherry, is a huge Big Brother guy and has tried to get me into it. It's the only reality TV show I ever watched, first season of UK Big Brother. Well, I tried to start watching Season 1 and then Zach got mad at me. He's like, don't watch season one. And so it was a whole thing. But one of my favorite things that then, in turn, I got Zach into was Utopia. So the Truman Show, as it exists, right, is this premise that, okay, there's a show that's on 24 hours a day. I think they would do it like they did Utopia or some other shows.

I think Big Brother does that time where you could tune in and watch some of the webcams. The way Big Brother worked was every day there was a digest. But there was, yes, you could tune to E4 and watch the live stream, which was. was incredibly boring. And in the States, it was similarly a website where with some censoring, there was more raw feed, but you were getting the edited... It was always so boring. Because, like, it's just people sitting there. Well, so that's the thing is that I think is interesting, is that in the fictional reality of the Truman Show, right, this is something people are engaged with. In reality, what transpired is that anyone that tried to do anything like this, it ended up not

working in a lot of ways. And that's why I think the closest thing is Seven Up because they really, you know, that was a pure... It's a different thing. And Seven Up is owning that it's a documentary. And the thing that's interesting about reality TV is just like our discussion about the Truman show of being like,

oh, it has to be this certain way. People put their fingerprints on it too much, right? Well, they all know they're doing it. They all know they're doing it, but then also the construct of it is always,

there's interference. So Utopia, because Ben, I saw you looking quizzically at Utopia. Utopia was, at the time, it was the highest budget, one of the highest budget

reality programs ever made that Fox was putting out. I was obsessed with this well. I was, I was, me and Emily were based on a Dutch show, I think. Yes. Yes, which is so often true. Big Brother was also based like the Dutch would start with these crazy concepts. Yes, that happens

a lot. And so one of the, the premise of utopia was, we're going to take a plot of land and we're going to put people there and we're going to give them basically like none of the major things that they have that come from the public constructs, water, gas, electricity, food, and they're going to have to form their own

utopia society and solve these problems and they can build their own internal government and their own way to make decisions and all this stuff. Right. The idea is cool. You see the vision of it. But then this was a Fox product at a time when that sort of that Fox reality programming had to be, it had to be about conflict and sex and drama and all of this stuff. And so number one, they ended up casting people who were diametrically opposed, right? It would be like, we're going to form a utopia society. And here's a conservative preacher and a woman who is a a polyamorous stripper. And here's a racist guy.

And here, you know, I'm a racist guy. I mean, but it's like that was the- 100% of course. And so, of course, the show is just replete with people at each other's throats, arguing, and no one can really figure things out. But the premise of it is they spent all this money making this space.

And it was just outside of Los Angeles. And they had cameras everywhere. And like Truman's show, the idea was that you could log in online, watch Utopia 24 hours a day. and sort of see what they're up to. And then twice a week, they do these digest episodes

where they told you what big things happened. What do they accomplish? What do they accomplish? They find the compelling dramatic strains within all the footage. So right off the bat, people aren't that interested because it just feels like regular

sort of reality shock. That's my editorializing of it, is that it's just the same people arguing and, you know, not much happening. Yeah, totally. And then there's people that are online watching it 24 hours a day, and then there's a lot of people

that are just like, waiting for the women to like take baths and like watch them naked on it's like that it's that it's it's that level of polarization of like there's the the level of interest in this is not truman i was bath hunter one two three on those boards but that's like that if you try to when will they take baths here's a thing david bath hunter is so funny it's just like such a hilariously kind of old fashioned like like fucking horizon in americans like i like to watch a woman Take a bath. It's like Mr. Skin,

but it's just about dirty bath water. It's the fucking tub report. The other day I met someone and I was describing this show to them and I was describing David and like they Describing blank check to them?

Well, yeah, and they weren't piecing it together. I was like David Sims Atlanta and they're like then they're like oh, bath hunter. And I was like, oh, I didn't, yeah, yeah, you know him best

is bath hunter. Right, right, my earlier internet career. I'm not picturing. I'm a boff hunter. David dressed up like dog the bounty hunter with a bunch of bath paraphernalia fucking looflo. With night vision goggles. So anyways, the show, the show is not succeeding.

Make Bath Hunter. Yeah. It lasted for like 13 episodes. It lasted for like 13 episodes. What's funny is that if you try to find the episodes online, what comes up is people being like, hey, does everyone have the footage of them taking baths? And it's like, David replying being like, yeah, mate, I got you. And he replies like really really fast, like even if it's not in like a designated place.

racist guy? I got a lot of him. He was really taking a lot of baths. It's a lot of David dropping the address to the Blank Check Studio being like, meet me here, bring a hard drive. Bring bath. Bring bath, bring hard drive. Bring water, bring soap, bring hard drive. It's like many terabytes. You can't upload it. It has to be transferred. No, exactly. And right now in the studio, it's hot because these are on 24 hours a day. We got tops running. It's like an AI processing bar. I'm going to have to ask you to finish this tangent. Just so we can discuss other things in the Truman Show. So, Utopia ends up starting to fall. part. One of the things that I think is fascinating about Utopia is that the people on the show were told this is going to be a Truman Show-esque thing that's going to sweep the nation. Yeah, right. So throughout the show, they keep going, guys, the world is watching us. It's crazy how famous we are right now. Well, they keep going, we have to figure it's out the world is watching. Right. And what they didn't realize that this was. 1.2 in the demo. And so then they start trying to do these weird things to sort of bring up ratings to start having

these ads that are like very like, is someone going to die? Like, one of the last episodes was Halloween themed and the host is dressed like Dracula. And I remember the promo for it was like, will someone die tonight on Utopia? And the answer was like, no, they won't. Of course not. But it was just like the PT Barnum like, will you see this?

And the show ended after like 10 episodes. It was a 12. 12 episodes, yeah. But it's fascinating because to me it's exactly why the Truman show couldn't exist in real life, right? Because number one, no one would have the patience to actually let real life unfold. And two, if they did have the patience to let real life

unfold and not put their finger on the scale. I don't know that people would watch it. So I think the Truman show would succeed. You do? Yes. Because I think the difference obviously he doesn't know. He doesn't know it's a TV show. Yes. I guess that is a point difference. Beyond that, so when this movie came out, everyone was like, well, this would never

no one would watch it too boring. Right? And I'm like, no, everyone would watch it because it would be a window into a life we want. Yeah. In a way, into a fantasy. A lot of YouTube social media stuff 100%. The Truman Show. What's that Japanese show where everyone's a nice to each other in a house.

Terrace House? That one. Yes. Terrace House. Yeah. Terrace House, colon, boys in girls in the city was the first one. Okay, fair enough. Like, you know, but like those shows where people, like, I crave calm.

I crave quiet. And, like, it just feels like all the people watching, right? Like, the audiences. There's, like, the nice old ladies. There's the security guards. It's the whole TV phenomenon, which is much bigger in other countries than it is here, but then Netflix started licensing it. It's really fucking big.

I just can't get on more with slow, with slow, programming. Okay. What about? Oh, yeah, 12 hour a day. Everyone listened. They put out a new episode recently, didn't it? Someone who doesn't episode is 12 hours. Also, obviously, the holiday season, you want to slow things down in terms of what you listen to. You'd be like, well, that's a good point. Yeah.

You wouldn't you maybe just get home and be like, what's Truman doing? Yes. You know, flick it on. Yes. You, yeah, I, listen, I could see you being someone who would be like, oh, the eight-year-old Truman's doing homework. I'm going to turn that on the background while I make dinner. Obsessed with Truman and would be like, you guys need to watch this. He took a bath. No, I'm joking. Let's drop that bit. Why are you telling us to drop the bit?

Can you drop the bit? No, no. Let's focus on the podcast and maybe spend a little less time on your bathtub web. Yeah, David, I'm going to shorten this up so you're back to the show. You're right. Do you figure that there is? Because they say, like, we've never stopped transmission, right? So do you figure there's a channel that's just the live show?

But then there's maybe another channel that has, like, flashbacks, old stuff, like, you know, like compilations of what happened today. This is like the Manning Cats. and the actual football game going. I imagine it's like a syndication deal where one of the networks is airing the package, the best of, their rerun rotations, and then this channel is the raw feed.

I also think that they... Which then will cut in flashbacks at relevant moments when what he's going through is boring. Yes, I also think when he's sleeping and stuff, they're playing best of and they're playing... Right, yes. And behind the scenes interviews like we can watch him sleep.

Yes. But in the movie, we see it's like a picture and picture where they're like showing in the corner the raw feet of him sleeping while doing the Christoph interview. I was recently, I forgot that I did this, but I was recently,

it was brought up that I did a project back in the day where I would broadcast myself sleeping. And the idea was called, please influence my dreams where I would sleep. And then there was a system where you could come on and you could, if you would take turns, being able to speak through speakers

that spoke to me when I slept. And people watched it. I wonder if he asked you to be the guest on this episode. because there's a part of my life that I'm like, Christoph's a bad guy as I'm like slowly marching my way towards trying to become Christoph. Christoph and Truman at the same time. Can I pull down a pen?

I think what's interesting about this movie is there is something. He's on the air unaware. Well, of course. That was very interesting. That's why they put it on the poster and it opened to a robust $35 million, $40. I think there's something that feels naive about this movie's understanding of how we'd want to watch other people's lives, which isn't to say that people wouldn't watch. I agree with you. But the way the television industry has curdled and adjusted to what people are telling them they want, and vice versa has led things into like an insane direction. And I think there is this turning point of Survivors 2000 and I think the first American Big Brother season is 2001. Something like that.

First UK Big Brother was, I was like 13 or 14. And that concept felt insane of like we're putting people on an island. There is like not a fake reality, but there's a forced reality on them. We're taking people out of their element and you're going to watch human behavior and how they survive. And Richard Hatch, who ends up winning that first survivor, comes in and is like, this is a game. Yeah. Survivor is a game. I need to win a million dollars.

Right, right. But you watch that first season and most of the people are just like, this is interesting. I hang out in an island and I guess. At the end of every week, there's a popularity contest, and someone gets a million dollars at the end. That's the bait to get someone to sign up for this. Why else would you do it? And he immediately is like, this is a game, you play it. People were aghast that Richard was lying.

Right. I know. In Britain, British Big Brother was Nasty Nick was the Richard. This is the thing. And then Big Brother has to do the same. And people become like, I don't think they have to do the same. People just play it like a game because it is a game because there's a prize. But that's why I brought up Utopias because I generally think if they had just not.

cast for conflict and they put together a group of people to try to actually do this. I think it might have actually been engaging television. Possibly. But I, I, in a television context where they were like, no, no, no, we need conflict, drama. We need ratings. The juice of Survivor and Big Brother and the copycat shows ultimately becomes the contestants inside of it manipulating reality. The audience seeing the way that they are working things to their own advantage, right? And then that, my opinion, morphs into like the modern era of like the Bravo reality show and and the similar shows to that, which are presenting to you something almost as if it is the Truman show where these people are acting like they are not constantly being followed by cameras. Other than when they're doing the direct address moments, they're acting oblivious to it.

They're letting people into their homes. Their homes are outfitted with cameras that like both hidden and like right around them. And there are like manipulated plot lines. You have producers going. Those are scripted, right. Right, 100%. And it's the fascinating inverse of this where we now have these shows where like, you know, they walk among us. It happens in our reality.

It is constructed in every step of the way and is presented to us as you're just seeing a raw feed of people behaving. But also it has the same kind of weird gamesmanship inside of it without the prizes of, I need to pop. If I get a two-episode contract on this, this is a lead to a. a spin-off. Does that lead to me being able to start my own fucking lifestyle brand, right? And I had this moment the other day in the supermarket where I was like buying soda, my beloved like fucking digestive sodas. I'm constantly trying every probiotic soda brand to see if anything fixes my body. And there's like a mother, a father, and a young child. And the mother is talking about like, oh, Ali Pop, I love these sodas, but they're so expensive. We could never buy a six

pack here. And then he goes like, well, you don't buy them a Target. Yeah, they're much cheaper at and name some website where you can get them sent direct. And then he calls Cut and he's like, yeah, I think that's good. And she was like doing a Truman show ad read in real life. And I'm like, this is some family influencer account in which they're shopping at big box stores and then acting out scripted scenarios of their deciding prices based on who's paying the most to sponsor buying from them instead. And I'm like, we now, it's flipped into people are acting fake in our real world, broadcasting that stuff back out to us.

And we are obsessively watching all of it. Yeah, it's the Truman Show without Truman. Yes. It's fascinating to me. I hear you. And what we don't want is the like idyllic, can we just watch a person like grow and learn thing? Yeah. And that's, I think that's what I, why I bring up the seven up series is because I, I,

I think it's so beautiful in that it's the, it is the irregularity of real life, right? And what's so fascinating is when you watch, especially the most recent one, it's really powerful to watch because you realize both how predictable, how unpredictable, how fickle, how solid,

all of it together is what life is. And the fact that it goes in these directions that only real life could is what's so fascinating. And the moment you try to control it, it becomes this weird sort of, you know, you're, it's a reflection of reflection. Uncanny Valley. Yeah, you're living, it's not even the uncanny valley.

It's just like on the other side of the graph. It's just not real. This also, this movie comes out the same year as 42 up. You know, it's like Andrew Nicol sells his script, I think, the same year that 36 up comes out. 35. Thank you. I'm not good at math.

Which is basically like the age carry is when he's doing this movie. like the one model of, I'm not saying he was even directly inspired, but the one model of following someone for this long is basically concurrent with the age of this character. Ben, what did you want to say? You put a pin in Scandival. That was all the stuff I wanted.

Can we talk about the Truman Show? I think we're clear. I didn't watch it. So when you say talk about Truman Show, plot stuff? You want to dive in. Because we're out about two hour or 20. Can I talk about the trailers I saw before?

No, you cannot. I think there was a Rugrats movie teaser because that was Paramount's big holiday release. I did not think this would be a long episode for the record. So I think we kind of touched on... Just because I think it's an incredible film. Yeah, we're going to be done in like two minutes.

We're so close to ending. We've literally got to the light fell. So let's pick up there. This is exactly what I'm saying. As much as yes, it can be interesting to talk about reality like in life and all this stuff. Like, we should talk more about the movie, which is clockwork construction

as J.D. pointed out and just has like a million bits like that, you know, we should, we got it. So he drives to work. We see, we get a taste of what his life is like. Ben angrily going through the plot points of the Truman show. May I run through some time code things as a way of getting us from plot points? Because it's also just fascinating like at what moments the movie reveals certain things. Okay. Sure. You open with like the opening credit interview stuff, right? Yes. Light falls at. Score is amazing, by the way. Yes. The score is, Because it's largely other music.

It's largely Philip Glass music from Mishima and from Pauvacazzi. But then also some original Philip Class tracks. No. Original Burkhard Dahlwitz is the guy who's doing the Doon Do Do You Truman Sleeves? That stuff is not, I think, well, now I want to look it up. Because I met this girl online who told me that she wrote Truman Sleeves.

Yeah, and I've... Did you get that? I didn't. You have to explain it to me. That is the inciting incident in Pactfish the movie. I have not seen that. Okay, so Griff has now checked the bingo card of the two things he texted me that he wanted to talk about today. Okay.

He's like texting with this woman and he's like, she's a musician, listen to this thing she wrote and it's fucking Truman sleeps. Stop. Okay, all right. So after he goes to work, I swear to God. That was written by Philip Glass, correct? Truman sleeps is written, but so yes, he must have done some new stuff. David, what if I got you a crossing guard stop sign? That would rock.

That would rock. That would fucking rock. Truman sleeps written by Philip Glass and that girl from Facebook. The light falls out at three minutes. right? Under 10 minutes, he can't get on the boat. Like, you're introducing that. Correct. So he goes to work. He's doing the, you know, making, tearing out the pages of the magazine, which you're kind of like. I thought you're doing a lawnmower motion there. But all of his- Peter Krause that comes over, the great Peter Krauss. His catchphrasy routines of the banter with the magazine guy about for the wife and the greeting to the neighbors.

But yes, the, you know, Krause that comes out to. to give him the challenge. Clearly, it's basically like, here's, here's today's drama. He's going to have to go to the island, you know, to do a sales pitch or whatever,

and he can't do it. It is fascinating to consider. It's beautifully played by Kerry. The way he, like, holds on to the little, you know, post on the dock. But also, fasting to consider that,

like, the way they enforce his fears is to constantly test them rather than push him away. But I also think it's that they need something interesting to happen today. Like, he can't just go to work every day.

The thing is, I like the most in that scene is that the guys on the boat are like hey do you need help which is like a normal thing to do and you're like they're actors and they're like what are they thinking about? Am I wrong though that also before this Truman starts talking about how he wants to see the world

and so a part of me... It happens right after. Basically nothing has happened because I felt like he made some reference to it and that's why they're sort of inserting remind him that he hates traveling. After that he has... It just feels like right. This is a thing they do on some schedule every four months

or whatever to re-establish it, whether for the audience or for him. Because after that is, Laura Linney arrives with the dice or slicer, you know, and then it's him and Noah Emmerich. What is his character name? Lewis.

But that's when he's, like the golf ball talking about wanting to travel. That's when he does the Fiji, does the around the golf ball. And then the movie gives you the first flashback of his dad drowning. Right. Which at that point in the movie,

you maybe think that's just movie language rather than understanding that would be part of the broadcast. But then as you said, like the security guards are the first audience members you see it like 15 minutes in. They then basically immediately go into, well, he sees his dad. The next thing is he sees his dad. What do you want to say, J.D.? I also think, and sees his dad and then talks to his mom right after that.

No, no. The sees his dad sequence is so awesome because it's like you watch reality warp. Yes. The thing that I want to talk about briefly, though, is that in the flashback of the dad, the thing that is set up that is like so hard. horrific is it's not just that his dad dies. He begged his dad to take him out. And that they set it up so that it's Truman's fault. It's the worst. It's like so horrifying. It really upset me watching it this time now that I have kids. Like in a new like freaky way. It is fascinating character

motivation shit where they're like, well, you sit down, you write a screenplay. There's nothing immoral about it because you're not fucking dealing with a real life. But at a certain point, they understand this falls apart if he ever has the the desire to reach further beyond the reality we can construct. So we have to narrativeize. What are the, like, incidents of motivation that would cripple him this thoroughly? Which I think is such a crazy ethical thing to put on screen is because, right, to the actors in it, they're like, well, this isn't real.

You know, I'm performing a role. But to this kid, it is real. His dad, he watched his dad die. But this is what I mean? Like, to Truman, this is all real. which is what's so fascinating because I think that's also a thing that TV uses a lot where it's like, you know, it's like the this is a prank thing where it's like, it's a prank, it's a prank. It's like, well, no, you actually did that shitty thing to that person.

But also, this is how we talk about like movies every fucking, you know, several times a week in this room where you're like, do you buy that he's like too scared to travel? And you go like, yeah, because, you know, if it was just that his dad drowned, that'd be one thing. But the fact that he wanted the dad to take him on the trip, that makes it personally. And you're like, right, that's a good writing. Is Holland Taylor's character kind of the most horrifying to consider? I think so. The fake mom.

The mom, sorry. Like, because she's essentially raised this child since birth, but she's not his mom. And she seems to have no lingering guilt about it. No, and she plays all the lies very well. Well, and she seems very proud of the fact that she's Truman Burbank's mom. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, that's her role. Like, when he's missing, she has that line where she's like, she's like,

Let me say his name. It's in a way that's like, like, you know, chilling. But it also feels like you don't want to see her do talking head interviews because that becomes too depressing. Like, it's kind of a good judgment on weird. The other thing I think about of, like, how often does he see his mom? Let's say once a week, a couple times a week, right? So what does she do otherwise? Does she leave?

And that's the question for all of this is like, what is the schedule of their lives? Right. That's why it's, like, fascinating when that elevator door opens and you see people in, like, this little mini green room. That I love, but I love the bus driver. Yeah. Where I'm like, so do they just sit there all the time in case Truman wants to take a bus? Or did they get kind of assembled there? Or does he drive the bus? My reading.

Does he kind of just drive it off and drive it back? There's the part where he is starting to realize. And he says, I'm the bus driver because I love that part. Well, no, I was, though, more referencing the part where Carrie starts to realize that people are just on a loop. Yeah, people are on loops. Right. And they do their loops. The bus driver just might have his route.

And they just does it every day. They have their first position, which clearly is like, oh, this is where we start our day. Start 6 a.m. Right. And you probably have an eight-hour shift where you do X, Y, and Z. Wait, and if you think about it, our lives, it's almost kind of like we're showing up to first position. Ben, more. So, like, especially when you run a podcast.

Sure. Very true. Slaves to the wage. When I walked in late, you guys were all frozen in place. And then when I opened the door, you're able to start moving. 15 minutes in is the mom. Right? Then Laurelini comes down with a slice and diceer. Yeah.

Takes out the cardigan and that's when we cut to the bar for the first time. And you do the big flashback. Right. Long flashback. We also went over. I know David wanted to talk about seeing the dad for the first time because that is... Oh, I just love the way that, like, without us listening to Christoph and watching him direct traffic, we're watching traffic get directed against him. Yes, it's brilliant.

The runners coming out and blocking him, like, the way people just suck him into a bus. Just like, just paranoia, baby. Well, you know. experiencing the world from Truman's point of view. Because if you kept cutting to Christoff and him going, send out the runner, send up to this, you wouldn't be experiencing it the, you wouldn't be having the same journey Truman's having, which is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is starting to fall apart. Also, what I love about the dad is he's kind of just like standing there in a very strange way, dressed and very, you know. I think he got in pretending to be like a hobo or something. Right, but he's just

standing there. Seemingly not interact with him or he's gauging whether or not it's the right move. Right. Right. And then when Truman looks at him, he's like, this is my shot. Right, because he knows if he just ran up to him, then obviously, you know, he'll get taken out. That's part of what's, I think the movie very wisely understands almost 20 minutes in, if we start thinking about the immorality of what's happening here, it could get too depressing. And so you need an interception from the outside world to be like, there are people who are morally conflicted about what's going on here. And so the idea that this moment with the dad, you're like, has he been in the system for months or years just observing him from a distance? And this is the first time he's actually like gotten close enough to him? I don't think so. I think it's pretty recent.

It seems like this has been his plan. The town is small. Like it's like it's not that big. And we'll get to it. But one of my favorite details of it that I think answers a lot of those questions in the simplest way possible is they show the two clips of the person, parachuting in and the person jumping out of the Christmas present. Yes. And those are two things that, like, the inclusion of those two things implies a whole universe that's happening in the real world of people who are like, this is horrific that you're doing this and you have to stop it. Well, the person who parachutes seems to want to save him a little bit more.

Because the person who pops out of the present says, I'm on TV. I did it. I did it. I made it. I'm on the Truman show. It's the baseball streaker. Exactly. Like the guy who's like, I can't believe it. But even Natasha McElhom. McLehlehone. The pin feels like it's part of a movement that isn't looking to completely destroy the show, but is sort of like... Is obsessed.

How is it going to end? The ethics of it. Right. And that she... She's not waiting for him to interact with her. And in fact, she's sort of freaked out by like, I've clearly wanted this, but I wasn't planning to, like, breach the seal here.

The question of how's it going to end? The implication to me could mean, like, they're not, you know, they're obsessed with the show. It could also mean the big question of the Truman show, which is like, are we going to watch him die one day? And how? Is that the end of the show? What is it? You know?

Now, we're not asking the biggest question. Poop. Sorry to. No, that one doesn't bother me. What do you mean? Oh, sure. Jacking it. How much is he jacking it?

Well, the wind blows the curve. And what do they do? Right. You buy women's magazines and he makes collage art and he never touches his privates. He might not. I mean, he's a pretty uptight guy. He has wrote sex with Laura Lennie who's crossing all fingers on all hands crossing her toes.

Yeah, it's rough out there. A funny detail. Just like the idea we're like, oh, he made a show about a guy. You're like, oh, yeah, what's the like? He jerks awful. What was like 13 to 19? Like, he jerked off. 13 to 19.

It must have really cut to a lot of flashbacks. Yeah, 13 to 19. We had to hire extra editors to put some packages of baseball games and stuff. Yeah, right. But there's also Truman's remembering his third birthday party again. Interesting. You can ask like dog tooth

style questions about the world where you're like, Ray, rain can't exist in a narrow silo because that disconnects us from our reality. But if these are the things you don't want to show on television, then maybe in sex ed class they're like, and of course sexual intercourse is when you touch someone else's hand.

And then every night he and Laura Linney just like shake hands and he never considers his penises for anything other than peeing. I think these are the big questions this movie asked. I'm sure there's like fan fiction about it, but it would be interesting like to see the movie from the perspective of like a hired actor who's just like a kid in his class.

He's not a main character. He's fascinating to consider all that shit. Exactly. Like what was his classroom? Like how did those kids not talk to him? Seems insane. And those kids just had to like show up and live that life. In the same way that like, you know, when you look at child actors, they're like, well, my whole life was on set. I didn't get to have a child. I don't know. And all these kids not only didn't get to have a childhood. They had to have Truman Burbank's childhood. Well, and even the Noammer character, it's like, like, Topanga on Boy Meets World was like a one

episode character named Weird Girl. And then they were like, Weird Girl is good. And then they like bring her back for more. And then it develops into a romance and the entire show is about them as a couple. And she spent eight years growing up on like American screens. They deleted the scene, but there's a scene from the Truman show where he, one of his neighbors comes over and like, knocks over a bunch of stuff and is like, did I do that? And then like, everyone went nuts and like, spin him off. People were trying to tear down the dome because they wanted more of him. He like goes inside and then you hear like a lot of machines whirring and then a similar

looking guy comes out, but he's really cool. Yeah. So after this sort of first half hour, which is like Truman. Like the seems. It's a great bit. It's a great bit. I just support the bit. Thank you.

By the bit, I mean what those guys did on family matters. That was so great. greatest bit of writing. But it's that kind of thing where you must be like, was Noah Emmerich hired to be his best friend? No, I think no, Emmerc popped. Exactly.

Like, that's what it is. He had chemistry with them and they were like, great, okay, you'll be the friend. Yeah. So after that first half hour is when Truman, so we're just like, in which we vaguely feel narrative, you know, that's right,

the scenes of reality. 30 minutes is the moment where he starts pushing against it, where he's stopping the traffic. He goes through the revolving door, comes out the other side. Philip Glass's anthem starts playing the And he stops the buses and all that. And we introduced the bar on either side of the sort of flashback thing of them being like,

oh, there's a new hire who doesn't, isn't up with the Truman lore. And all the other staff members at the Truman Bar are like, this is the fuck. I can't believe you don't know the plot line about the woman. But there's, yeah, great. He starts having that realization because the system starts breaking. The light falls, the radio tuner changes. That happens later, the radio thing. But yes, yeah, absolutely.

There's one or two other things that happened that. Dad is two and Radio Tuner is three. Dad is two. It's what I love, I think this movie is perfectly dialed in on are I hate movies in which people figure things out too quickly, but I hate even more movies in which people continue to not get smart about the reality about them. And I think like a lot of modern horror, elevated horror in particular has this problem where characters just keep going like, that was weird and then go back to reality. and this is a movie where it's like,

if the light flies out of the sky, he doesn't immediately go, oh my God, my life's been a TV show. But when three things happen within two days, it's just enough to start him testing, like, what are the limits of this? But what I also think is fascinating about this and why I think it resonates so much, right,

is that how many systems this is related to, right, where people try to create a sense of control, to create some sort of thing that is this is the way the world works, and then people's journey is that they start to see the cracks of that. And it's that system, it's impossible to create a system that permanently embubles someone, whether it's religion or society or schooling or family. It's like that's such a universal feeling that you start seeing the cracks and the seams. The more you, you know, enclose, the more people will push back.

What do you make of? I love the photo album scene, obviously, because the fake Mount Rushmore is so funny. Yeah. But then she's also a whole car ride. It also presupposes that they're sort of like, oh, shoot, we need some of this stuff. And like, we don't really have the budget to really go for this. So, like, we can probably just get this out of the way now, right? It's earlier days of the show.

And also, can the family go on this many trips so he doesn't grow up and go like, you know, I've never actually been. They can just kind of rely on his, like, fuzzy childhood memories. Where I start, I'm like, but how would he know that families go on trips? But again, I feel like they're just like, everyone should talk to him like he's normal. that, right. Laura Linney, they're looking at the wedding photos and Laura Linney points

to these three girls and she goes like, Judy, Jody, Joanne. It's a weird gag because it's never like, are those like runner up Laura Linney types? Like, who are they?

They're just like the lame supporting cast she used to have or maybe not used much anymore. Get to the flashback and Linney is like faking the injury to fall into its arms. You go like, is this an actress who's really enterprising

or did she go through all the levels of casting? And Christoph is like, perfect. You're the one. And now you have to win him over. And they're panicking in real time that he's naturally looking somewhere. Because like when they're, when Laura has left him, when, you know, and they introduced the new love interest. Right.

Clearly, like, she's been preselected. Because you have to pick someone who will play the game. Yes. Like, you can't just say like, you know what? He has chemistry with Natasha McElho now. We'll figure it out. So he keeps pressing against reality. He goes to the hospital to look at the operation.

Which is so funny. the guy being like, I'll just make the incision here now. And he does. He does something. She freaks out. And they put the gas mask on her and he goes, we'll have someone else clean this up.

And Laura Linney's like, this is really good. You've handled that really well. Where it's just like, yeah, an actor has to stay in the reality. If pushed to the limits, you have to make an incision on this one. The travel agency where every poster is like, you could die. It's like lightning striking a plane.

Yes. What I also think is fascinating is that. Fiji's booked out for a month. It's the busy season. I actually sympathize with the fake travel agent there where she's like, we live in sometime. You want to go to Fiji? How many flights to Fiji are there?

Well, that's the thing is I'm also, I'm like, we live in New York City and it's like to get to Fiji would be like three planes. Oh, yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, exactly. Let's see. But I think something that resonates to me about Truman's experience and being slightly tangential to the immersive theater world in New York. York and things like that, right?

Like, everybody's first instinct when they realize there's a system or something to explore is you start trying to find the places where it could break to see where it could go, right? Like, when you go to sleep no more, it's like, yeah, there's the instinct where you want to follow the main characters. But there's also the instinct where you're like, I want to go find the room that no one else is in. I want to see where the boundaries of this thing are. And so I love the fact that when he starts realizing what's going on, his instinct is like,

let me sprint towards the things that I've never. never seen her. Let me see where the boundaries of this are. I think it's such a good detail that he's like, I'm running into the office building. That's not the one I work at, the place I never have a reason to go into. He pushes the limits. He sees the elevator. People get in. The doors close. Like they were prepared enough for that. What they weren't prepared enough for was the feeling that that wasn't enough because everyone loosens up after that moment when the security guards are getting through to be like, well, we don't have to fake it again. Yes. And I also love the idea that it sort of begs the question.

And again, this is all subtext, which is so fun about it, is that he goes to the hospital and you can kind of tell everyone's like, oh, normally we just like kind of hang out here and wait until it's time for, you know, us to interact with Truman again. I think that's what they do, right? That's, back to the

Holland Taylor question. It's like, okay, does she do? Does she only, like she's a higher level? Yeah. Truman could have to call his mom at any point. Totally. If you work about, I feel like the hospital might be empty unless he's starts going near it and then they're like, fuck, get people.

Which it seems as the energy at the hospital. Everyone's like, what's going on here? I love to think about it. I think it's more like the people at the hospital are like Broadway standbys. And they're like prepped for this day, but it's rarely tested.

Yes. Because it's like they're ready enough to have someone on an operating table, all the equipment, the set going that deep, like all of that. The thing is that it's just like, they're kind of out of practice.

And he usually settles for seeing far less. One of my core childhood memories is there's a period of time where I was dealing with a lot of anxiety and a lot of sleep issue stuff. And I worked with the therapist who tried to get me into lucid dreaming stuff. And whether I was actually lucid dreaming or if I was like dreaming that I was lucid dreaming, who knows what the difference is? And later you let people influence your dreams. Yes, exactly. But one of the things that I remember, it's a dream that like stays with the end and might have brought this up. People have like, oh, I've had a similar dream where it's like, I was in a dream and then I was like, I want to go explore the city.

and then my dream was like, no, no, you're supposed to be in this storyline. But I was like, no, I want to go climb a building and jump off of it and see if I can fly. And like the dream kind of being like, you're not supposed to. And so I feel like that Truman experience is this like relatable feeling that's so core of like, all right, there's this path you're supposed to go on and what happens if you just run in a different direction. I looked it up. All right, the flight's in an hour. So I don't think I could make it.

But I could go to Fiji. When would you get there? So I would leave now. 4.30 p.m. from John F. Kennedy International Airport. 3.30 p.m. You're forgetting daylight savings time. No. What do you mean? I'm forgetting that. It already happened. I'm saying it is 3.30 p.m. Oh, you're saying the flights at 4.40. I'm so sorry.

It would get me there 5.45 a.m. two days later. There's one stop, just one stop at Dallas, Fort Worth. Is it at Sea Haven? Yes, it's at Sea Haven. American Airlines, and then I switched to Fiji Airways. And how long is the second left? It says the entire thing would take me 21 hours and 15 minutes, which is not short. It's not short.

And then the way back also just one stop, but that one seems to have a longer stopover, so it's a 30 hours. Sorry, I just have to correct you, David. Way back is Peter Weir's final film. And we'll be discussing it in just one, two weeks. And you know who takes that trip all the time? Who? Jeff Probst. Probably, right.

Because he has to go to Fiji all the time. And it's $1,100, which is not that much money considering you're going to fucking Diji. No. It's not nothing. I'm just going to say it right now. It's economy. Should we all Truman show ourselves? Should we just get up and go to Fiji right now?

Oh, so to you, Truman, show yourself, it's not like, be the star of a show. I love the Truman Show. It's tried desperately at all costs to go to Fiji. It's now like a medical term for like a psychological condition and we're going to take it back and being like, I'm going to do a Truman show, just get on a flight to Fiji. If I'm a travel agent and a guy walks in in shorts with one small suitcase

and is like, Fiji today, please. I might be like, are you okay? No, let's all, okay, let's Trumaning pretty hard. Let's do a Truman Show day where we bumrush a surgery. Yeah. And then try to go to Fiji as fast as possible. No, no, try to go to Fitchiege. Pivot to Chicago and then pivot to, I feel like it just kind of pivots to like New Orleans, right?

That's his next. I also, I love that Fiji is like a panic-inic-City from the dad. Okay, the Truman Show challenge is you have to bum rush a surgery and then get away from a landmass. It's like you try plane, then try bus, try car. Press elevator buttons in a bunch of random office building lobbies. Yes. You have to go past security guards and office building, bum rush a surgery. By one magazine?

Right. So after the bus. I just want to see the Fiji thing. Oh, sure. I think that moment is so effective where, like, Natasha McElhone is like in true conspiracy thriller. This is about to end any moment kind of panic that he's oblivious to. The dad comes, is playing it really well. Yeah, he's like, sorry, mentally ill.

like, you know, these things happen. You're not the first guy she's taken to the beach. And the dad does not feel like an actor. The dad feels like someone who's part of like the security detail of the show. He's good. Actually, he wanted to know me back here. Right. I'm seeing here.

And he's like prepped with the things to say. And then Truman goes like, well, like, can I call Tamara to see how she's doing? And he goes like, no, we're moving to Fiji tomorrow. Like the Fiji is such a panic. It's why he calls Fiji like directory. But that's like a bad lie that now has, he's hyper fixated. on for 20 years? Which I love because, yeah, again, I think...

Not 20. 15. Not that old. No, no, like 10. Like, Truman's maybe 29 or 30. Like, he's pretty young. I think he's... No, they keep saying 30.

That's 30th year. Yeah. But what I love is that you get the sense that this guy is not an actor. He's not... He's someone who is probably part of the security detail or something. And so the fact that in that moment, he's like, she's like, find me. And he's like trying to figure out how to solve this, but he's not a creative guy. He's like, we're just going to Fiji.

The fact that that becomes now imprinted lore in the history of the show is so amazing. But it's like fucking like kryptonite being invented because the guy doing the Superman radio show needed an excuse to take vacations. And they were like, sometimes Superman gets really tired for two weeks. Right.

It's day 10,909. Yes. And that's 29 years and eight-ish month. Because they keep talking in interviews about our 30th year of doing this show. I guess he's mid-30s when they film it. Maybe. But like the show started.

She's like, we're going to have a baby soon. Or, Carrie. It started before he was born. Yeah. Yes, the first. It started with one camera. That's true. And this movie was filmed before our current Jim Carrey was born.

Right. Jim Carrey 5. Oh, got it. Yes. Right, right, carry 5.0. So wait. Okay, got it. Weapon B.

Can I say, I just don't understand why that is breaking people's brains where I'm like, every famous person looks weird now. Every famous? Well, no, it's not just that. Remember when Tom Cruise looked kind of weird? Yeah. Have you seen pictures of him recently? He looks better.

Right. He was at the hockey game and it was like the work hasn't settled. They get Botox or they get an old, you know, something and like it looks weird for a bit. He didn't even seem like himself though. It's a different guy. And I'm like, he challenged himself. To give a speech in French, not his native language. He is the weirdest most inconsistent man in the world who's been very open with his like mental health struggles. Like the idea that people are like there is no other explanation. Well, it's also, I don't think it's any of our business how people choose to look. I don't either. Any of the reason any people feel like they need to change their look is because of people

commenting and talking about it constantly over and over again where I'm like, I'm like, it's that self-fulfilling thing where you're like, yeah, that's the hell cycle. You're curious why celebrities are changing how they look because of this conversation. Okay. Jim Carrey, sorry, Truman takes, after all this, takes Laura Linney in the car to show her the, like, the loops, like the cars coming out and the disappearing. He's gone from like hospital. Merrill.

Yeah. So the actress is Hannah, the character is Merrill. He's gone from hospital to the bus. Like, he's tried to escape immediately. And then he's, right. And then they drive over the bridge. He still thinks he can maybe trust her. They drive over the bridge together.

They're kind of in it together, which I do like. And she has a moment where she's like, oh, Truman. There's that part when they hit the bridge where she's like, yeah, you could never do this. And it's like, then you'll do it. Oh, sweetheart. Right. But then she kind of. She is a good actor where she knows what to say to psychologically,

manipulate him in behavior, not in, like, telling him what to do. But she kind of likes that they make it over together. Like, he's like, we did it. Yeah. And then there's the fire. You know, they have to, like, drive through the fire. Right. And I love that he keeps pointing out, like, look at that timing.

It's so perfect. Right. You know? The traffic jam. And then, no, no. Oh, that's later. Then it's the cop. No, the traffic jam already happened.

Right. The fire. And then the cop who's like, whole area's been evacuated, chemical spill. He's like, all right. The guy's like, no problem. Which I just love. you're like, it would happen. It would happen.

Because also these guys, these guys are not called upon. These guys who are, their job is to show up and eat donuts all day. And they're like, oh, no, we have to do the thing today. And so then the guys in the hazmat suits gathered.

He's never been this. He's never been this. Right. Yeah, yeah, paranoid. And then we have the moment Ben called out where he fully like blips out,

grabs her. And it's a terrifying moment. You're, it's, it's the moment in which you're like, this is a not well person who's been broken. by all of this.

I guess maybe I just wanted them to cut to the viewers at home witnessing that. There's just something about it to me that it doesn't feel like it's passing enough judgment on that action.

Ben, I want to say he does not hold the thing to her. He grabs, she's pointing it at him and he grabs her by the arm you know, and pulls her up to him.

But there's the point where... And then disarms her. He takes it out. He sends her. He's not threatening her with the blade. She's coming at him. He's grabbing because she's threatening him. I remember when his friend comes in, he has it pointed at her.

Yes. No, no, she points it at him, right? Wait, wait. No, this is later. He has his arm like around her. She says do something. Right here. Well, no, he's, again, he's, no, he's not pointing it at her.

I know, but he's holding her. Yes. I know. I mean, we're arguing Samantha. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He's holding her. She says do something.

When she says that he lets go and he's like, what the fuck is going on here. And then she's like, I didn't say anything. I didn't say anything. Like, you know, and like, it's trying to go back to normal mode. And then what I love is, how can they expect me to carry on under these conditions? The most, like, actually way to put, like, I can't do my job anymore. Right. That she goes, it's unprofessional.

It's unprofessional. When Noah Emmer comes in, Ben, she's, like, trying to leave. He's holding her against the wall and he's got the dicer in his hand. So it's kind of in the touchy area of, like, he's holding the weapon because he'd had to take it away from her. and he's physically losing it and she feels threatened by the fact that there's a sharp thing near her. He knows that he's lost his trust in her.

He's never like... He's going crazy. It's important that we're pointing it out. It's still, you know, upsetting. Yes, it's upset. I think, supposed to resonate of domestic violence and the feeling, you know what I mean? It's like, it's... We go right to another upsetting thing, which is Noah Emmerich's like, let's go have a beer.

Well, and I also just want to say that like, when Noah Emmerich comes in, when he hears the knock at the door and he's like, it's going to be more men in suits or whatever, that's the one time he sticks the dicer out. He does, yeah. Not at her, at the door where he's like, someone worse is about to come in. But then it's so depressing that it's like,

they go sit, they have the beers, and no, I'm extremely usual, like, you know, we all feel this way. And we, you know, like, but you're cutting now to Giawati and Christop beating him the wines. And you're just like, right. And what he's saying is, there's no sincerity to it. Is if everyone's in on it, Truman.

I would have to be in it. And then, of course, they're like, and now here's your death. Like, and that's how, this is where we're going to cut. This is one hour into the movie. It's also like a Mahal and Drive moment where Christoph's giving him this like somewhat boilerplate dialogue. And he's tweaking in a little bit.

And Emmerk's also like grounding it in something real. And he changes words and stuff. Like, and it's like clearly he has the latitude to do that. And when you hear him say, if everyone's in on it, that would mean I'm in on Truman. It's heartbreaking because he's found a way to make that line feel honest. But it also probably is reflective of the fact that this guy feels so fucking guilty. that he's having to say this to this guy and he is on.

They have the reunion with the dad. And it's like you're playing the evil, like the number one card. Your father who died is alive. He also must be feeling shame because everyone's watching him at home. Do this shit. And this is where,

where you like the reality breaks where you're like, Congress, I know Congress isn't always number one. But we're coming. But like, wouldn't someone have objected to this, like, sick freak show? close. Like at some point shortly. So when Andrew Nichol pitched this film, it was pitched as in the near

future. A man lives unwillingly, unknowingly, in a 24-hour soap opera. This movie doesn't really make it clear what year it is. I'm not saying it's secretly 30-57. No, because like everyone seems pretty modern, like, regular, contemporary. But it's another line of dialogue that we're almost at that I think about so much where Harry Shearer is doing this kind of victory lap interview with Christoph to like address how close the show came to going off the rails and how they like snatched it from the jaws of defeat. And he goes, Truman was the first child legally adopted by a corporation.

Isn't that true? And he goes, that's right. And they don't tell you that it's happened many other times since then. But it's presented as like, and people might not remember that was the first time that ever happened. You're right that you could take it that way, right? It's sort of like, was this the beginning of some ball. So the ripple effects of it, especially not seeing broadly the outside world. I'm not like this is happening 80,000 cases all over the place,

but when you're like, why is Congress intervening or not? You're like, to some degree, he's crossed all those barriers and continued to get approval, collusion, you know? I also think with the reunion of the dad and all that stuff, I think part of the point of the violent scene between him and the wife where it's like it is violent and scary is that there's no, you can't go back from that. You can't go.

She's gone. You can't go back into normalcy. Even the relationship. Your relationship will never be the same if you've had that interaction. And so it's like... Also, if you basically accuse your wife of being a pod person. Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, an actor.

All of this stuff has, as... They have now crossed the line where there's no world in which they can go back to happy 50s universe unless they make, quote-unquote, major rewrites. Which critical of technologists were, like, Harry Shearer's like a master stroke. How did you come up with that to bring the dad back? And he's like, look, everything started going kind of. sideways because of the dad. So the only way to resolve this was to like bring it

full circle. The best line in the movie though is when it's like and how are you going to explain? He's like amnesia and they're like brilliant. And so the dad wanted to get back on the show. He was doing that independently and obviously Christoph is like all right. It's like Christoph would have said a week ago that would destroy reality under no circumstances and now he's pushed into a situation where he's like we have to bring the dad in.

At this point there's 30 minutes left in the movie. Yeah. Right? And like, you know, you have the whole, the whole Christoph sequence is about 10 minutes, the sort of Harry Shearer interview stuff. And you have just a few minutes of like, okay, he's sleeping. Things are back to normal. He does the, you know, the soap in the mirror, right? Like, you know, like, oh, it's our state. Truman's back. Strokes his big face. Is that? That's after that the Harry Shear interview. That's after. That's basically when it's like Truman has woken up. Then we get the impression that maybe a little bit of time has passed because like Laurelini moves out. Right. So like maybe. weeks have passed and he's being normal. I think we're said the movie is supposed to depict the last week of broadcasting on this show. But like he digs a ton, you know, like she moves out, whatever. You know, something's going.

The Harry Shear interview serves to give us our first sort of temporal time. Right. We can kind of like take a bit of a break. It answers a handful of the questions. How does this work? The Christmas present guy and all of that stuff. Also a great side point of thing that when I was looking up actors last night, they, with the, with the, with,

I hope you say what I want to say. I think it is with the Matt Gats of Gates of it all, the guy who paraglides into the, uh, into the homes. His name is Marco Rubio. Are you serious? Yeah, but with an E. So, Rubio or whatever. Wow.

Fuck. But it was just funny. I was like, I was like, what if it was actually anyways? It should be Marco Rubio. Um, but I think it's, I think that's brilliant because also at that point, you go from this character having this extremely low, low. this moment where this whole thing is falling apart. And then instead of feeling the panic and stress

and the moral and ethical quandaries that this all, it's blowing up. Instead, it is a victory lap. It is a wow, Christoph, you are a genius. You did a great job. You've solved your problem, but then the next thing is Truman escaping and just being gone. The one past thing I wanted to call it quickly,

sorry, is an actress named Una Damon who is like the woman in the main console board with Christoph and Giamad. And I was like, why does this woman look so familiar? And she basically has a career in the 90s and early 2000s of constantly being the woman who stares at a screen and explains to the audience what's going on in like Gattaca and Deep Rising and Deep Impact. But the big thing why she's stuck in my brain is she is the person who explains the spider in Spider-Man. And that is the tour guide who goes like 27 radioactive spiders. That's funny.

Well, the reason I was on IMDB is because they have the call-in section there. and one of the callers is like, I forget the question, but it's like, hey, how do you do with da-da-da? And it's like, the voice is so unactually. And I was like, that's someone. And then I looked it up and he's the editor on the movie.

So clearly it was a scratch track that they're like, I'll just keep that in. Yeah, yeah. But yes, basically from the moment Christoph has taken his victory lap, Truman, unbeknownst to them, has perfectly planned his escape.

He knows. They think that they... He's not believing the dad thing. They think they've reset the board. I love the moment with Giamati and the other guy where they're watching him talk to the mirror and they're like, oh, fuck, he knows the camera's here.

No, he's back to normal. He's playing the role. He's doing a bit. He's talking to the neighbors. That one's, after the thing, he goes like, that one's for free or whatever. Like, it's like he, yeah, he's, you know. But it's, he's towing the line just enough

that they don't need to flag it to crystal. But we barely see anything. Because then it's just, he's sleeping. No, yeah, yeah. And then what I love is the no Truman section, cue the sun, the moon, turning into a spotlight. The actors just patrolling.

Like, just like the reality of the world completely falling apart. Like arm and arm. Yes. All just like marching. Like the twins are like so mean. Yes. Yeah.

I love those twins. Well, because there's also, there's a version of this, right? Where Great Escape version of it, where we see Truman escaping and we see him hatching his plan. We see him pull it off. Totally. And you don't.

No, he dug a tunnel. He figured out the tape recorder thing. Like, yeah. And the big narrative shift that's happened is the first hour, we're seeing the experience from the POV of Truman. The moment we do the Christoph interview until the end,

we are now seeing the experience from Christoph's experience. We're inside the moon looking down at Truman. Yes. And I think it's, I mean, both in terms of how they shot it

and how, like, the moon turning into a spotlight obviously is great. That the moment of turn on the sun is like such a beautiful, iconic moment of that. You know, it's just like so, and that shot,

how they got, you know, like, just like, oh, that's a practical effect. They are, they are moving a light on a crane past it. You know what I mean? It's like, it's so cool to see. Yeah. And the fact that all the actors

are arm and arm and it's like, it feels like Disneyland where the ride is shut down. You know what I mean? Earlier in the movie, too, they show a model that's so important to give you a sense of the geography. Yes. Because when he then tries to escape, you understand that, right? Like, there's nowhere to go. There's nowhere to go.

And they say in the Harry Scherer thing, that it's the only man-made structure, or one of only three man-made structures, It's the Great Wall of China and the Truman Dome, basically, or the only two. Yeah, it's fascinating. And then the fact that they're walking around. And then that's where you start seeing the masks drop, a lot of these actors, and you start seeing, I love the fact that Emmerick, basically, you can tell he's kind of like stage manager

that they've sort of entrusted him. I'm sure he gets a producer credit on the show in some way, because, like, they're talking to him as though he is like the problem solver, boots in the ground guy. And then I also love that you get that moment where they're all trying to find Truman, and then you have both the mom and dad, having this moment... He'll listen to me. Having this moment of vanity where the mom is like, well, surely, if I say his name... Griffin mentioned this, I feel like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then I love that the dad chimes in, too, and you can... You know, he's newly back in the cast, but now he's so proud of himself. And he's like, Truman, boy! And you're like, oh, my God, these people are disgusting. Well, and they try the three things. They look for him, then they find he's in the boat. Okay, they do the weather. They try that to scare him.

And the crew, though, is disgusted. Of course. He's pushing it way too far. But even Giamati's character at one point earlier, he's looking at the classified section. He's done with this job. He hates it. Because he's slightly,

he's quietly training the guy where he's, when he's sitting in the piece and he's like, cut to this. And then Christop shows up and he, Giamani has this little bit of lines where he's like, I was just trying to get him ready. And it's clearly like,

oh, he's on the way out. He's sick of this. And Christoph comes in and is like, I want to review the full. for the big insurance conference tomorrow, the camera angles or whatever. And he's like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But then what I also like about that storm section, number one, we are in a world where practical water effects are happening less and less, right? Sure, they shot this in a tank. Like I said, they almost drowned Jim Carrey

because they misinterpreted his, I'm in distress signal, which was a closed fist. They thought he was just acting. But carry on, yes. But it's beautiful to see because there's, there is a, an animal part of our brains that's seeing water like that.

Like, there's something beautiful and captivating about it and wind and all that stuff together. I just love Christoph's Godhood melting away, like, where he's like, well, I'll scare him with the water. Like, harder, harder. And then he's like, realizes like, oh, this is now just down to, do I kill him or not? Because Truman would rather die than not know the answer. Right, right. And I love the moment. But then he tries his last thing, which is saying, like, what if I just told you that you are safer here?

Like, you have to believe. The outside world sucks and I care about you. The also thing that I think is important is that he tells Giamadi to turn it up and Giamadi doesn't do it. Yeah, he doesn't. Christoph does it. Which is, I think it's a small thing, but I'm like, it's important that Christoph is the one. And it's like, everyone else

is at this point like, hey. I think Giamatti literally says there's nothing left to do but kill him. Like, or something like that, like if I turn it up anymore. Yeah. And you're right. Perfect image of the sky turning into a painting, like the edge of the wall where it just looks a little shitty. Well, the end of the ship puncturing through.

It's all... I just want to say, to that end, the ship, the boat. This is a film that I think has, like, six or seven, like, iconic images. Agreed. That are just... They're ingrained into film history

of just, like, perfect, beautiful storytelling images. So, I made a list of us watching it. It raining just on him is the first one that I think is like... Totally. And then the multiple shots, whether it's them on the pier, or on the beach with the friend, it's like the beautiful sunsets and they're talking.

I think those are so just sort of like connected to this movie. The moment when he stops the traffic is like, you know, that's like an iconic. He's doing this with the bus. It's incredible. Christoph watching Truman's sleep, I think, is such a beautiful, when he goes up. It's like that it's so of that era that I love it. And then, of course, the storm. What if you went to the end of the world?

Oh, my God. And it was a wall. And you walk up the stairs. Yes. And what I love is I think when so much of cinema storytelling, right, is that you're trying to create these stories and this context. So you can have an image that in of itself is abstract, but that because you watch this entire movie,

it has all of this meaning and that it becomes a haiku that represents that entire story. Just the image of the bow of a ship cracking through the edge of a, of reality. That's the entire story of the Truman show. That one shot tells the entire story of the Truman Show.

Okay, now, I don't want to cheat. Oh, sorry. No, I just, I'm sorry. I need to call out. There's one important, iconic image that David would probably add to that list. Terry Camilleri in the bathtub

watching the Truman Show. Oh, yeah, some big bathtub action. Now, I don't want to change the movie. I think it's great, but I do kind of feel like it would have been cool if instead of poking through

he just sailed into whiteness, kind of like Looney Tune style. Like going on the, you know what I'm saying? Or if the way he got out was that he drew a big tunnel. If he painted a tunnel, the tunnel. And that train came through. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or if the sailboat

took off into the air and started flying into the sky. And then everyone waves as Truman flies away in the sky boat. What have you sent us, you monster? Okay. So what I sent you is from the Paramount Lot. My parking spot for the past when I was running. Okay. Mr. Parking

spot got his own parking spot. Well, when you're the sure runner of a late night show that only exists for a year and a half. That CBS is eager to cancel. Yeah. So my parking spot was in the tank, which is now there's, it's interesting because there's conflicting reports as

to whether they shot it in the Paramount tank or the Universal backlog. All the official reports say it was Paramount, but people claim it was universal. And then an interview I was reading with the DP, he referred to the Universal lot. But Paramount has it on their tour

and all of the things online people will correct and say that's Paramount. So I'm going to say that it was Paramount. But so every day I would drive into work and I would park beneath the wall where Truman escaped. And it was, you know, there's my first time working at a lot like this.

And it was, you know, one of the fun perks of that job was getting to have that lot experience and feeling like, you know, you're in the movie biz, you're in the TV biz. So anyways, those are photos of my partner.

spot. Yeah, it was so cool. I mean, I talked to you on the phone sometimes when you were like walking the Paramount lot. And I always thought the Paramount Lot's so cool. Like it's like one of the true classic like old school movie lots. Yeah. And what's funny is, you know, I think originally they're talking about where they're going to shoot the film and they looked at all the lots of all the different studios to see could we shoot it in some of those studio lots. And they're originally going to and then they found Seaside or whatever. But yeah, I would, I would, when I was stressed out and wanted to talk to my friends, I would, I think I've thought, I've I just talked to all of you.

And I know, David, I remember walking through the back lot and describing the fake New York City because our offices were right across. I said I know well because it's been used in so many things. Yeah. It was very, it was very surreal. A funny story that I can tell now because I'll never be back there again was that our staff was an amazing staff for people who loved to have a good time. And multiple times we had staff members get sent to Paramount Jail for, we would all go hang out in the fake New York City. And you weren't allowed to do that. And so we had multiple members of our staff

that got taken to Paramount jail for various reasons and we had to go like freedom. Yeah, you had to be like no, they're, no, we need them. No, they're necessary staff. You can't ban them from Paramount forever. Trying to think of who from Paramount would defend Paramount Jail. You know,

who's on the mountain, Griffin? Who's on the mountain? John Luke Picard. Eric Hartman, Spongebob. And one of the Transformers. Yeah, yeah. I'd say probably Bumblebee. Yeah, they had a big bumble be there. Someone from Yellowstone. There'd be a

dutton. And then, of course, the T-Man himself. T-C. Cruise control. Yeah. Would it be all of his characters? Together? Would you pick one as a representative? I think it's him as a human man. Yeah. I think that's his actual job.

All right. So, wow. We got to a point where Ben is wrapping us up. Ben, why? You know you're an uncharted territory when Ben is wrapping things up. Just saying that. Like, for how great. When Mr. Slow Christmas himself is like,

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Actually, a lot less. Visit staples.ca.ca. Preferred. That was easy. No, the film ends with good afternoon and good night. I mean, is there anything you guys want to say about the Truman's closing triumph before we talk about the reactions to this film? No, which is great that it's you, to mirror what you said earlier, that you are cross-cutting between him and the viewers. And then working Natasha McElan really closely.

I think you're cutting to her intermittently, but it starts to become almost like an unknown conversation between the two of them. and her, like, rooting for him. You see the bar that we keep cutting to. It's, like, packed now. Tubman and the security guards, you're, like, cutting back to all your established people. Tubman. We love Tubman.

That they, like, love that, like, even unknowingly Truman understands how to end the show. Yes. That he, like, understands the most kind of, like, dramatically poignant, kind of, like, concise narrative closure. What if it turned out? They switch to another channel

that's, like, a shittier Truman show where they're like, Yeah, it's like six warehouses in fucking Louisiana. It's like the gym show. And it's like, he kind of knows it's a TV show. We've done our best. The gym show and Jim's kind of aware of it. And everyone's kind of like, there's like knockoff,

Drewman shows. Anyway, he just plays paintball. Right. Shooting people. Well, according to Jim, now this just sounds like. I mean, we're getting towards what YouTube is. Yeah. Pretty much.

You're right. Yes. No, I just think it's great that he walks through the door that we don't see anything of what is beyond. that frame for him. And then it's just like, it's an obvious joke, but it is the only way

to end the movie is just people going what else is on. Yeah, of course, but it's a great, it's perfectly done. It's perfect. It's perfect.

Because it's just flat top. It's just, yeah, it's flat top. Dick Tracy. I don't understand how this film did not get a nomination

at the Academy Awards for Best Picture. It gets three nominations. Well, that's a big year for movies. It's a big year for movies, but I'll tell you who got Best Picture.

Yeah, who will be like, what the nominations? So Truman's, gets three nominations, as Griff said. Director, screenplay? Correct, and supporting actor. What are the best picture nombs, then? I'll tell you in one second, but I just want to say

that this home got no craft nominations is pretty insane. That's wild. It's like a pretty, like, high-level craft accomplishment. It just things like editing. But, you know, like... Well, I think weirdly there was obviously the, like... I think there's a spillover distaste for TV at the time.

Maybe, I think... Obviously, that Carrie was snubbed was like a huge story. He won the Golden Globe, wasn't even nominated. I don't know who snuck in, but I guess it was Nick Nolte. It's a fairly strong... He's sneaking here. Don't mind me. It felt like a classic, not yet.

Real bath hunter behavior. Right? But, I mean, like, Jim Carrey refused to let you have everything. It was a, you can't just, right, be a movie star and an Oscar. Like, but it's like fucking crazy because of what a cultural, like, smash the movie was. The five actor and... are Roberto Bonini for Life is Beautiful. Which, who wins?

Which it's like, in retrospect, that's obviously all just really silly. But he was going to be it. When he won. I was about to do the exact same bit. I was about to do the exact same bit. I accept tastefully. I was going to say, change. Go ahead.

I walk up to the stage normal. I was going to say, yeah, but of course, when he won, he just walked up like a normal person. I simply have one to two things to say. I was going to say when he won, he planted his feet on the ground and kept them there. That's exactly. took one floor step at a time. Tom Hanks and Savan Private Ryan, who is Shoo and Ian McKellen and Gods and Monsters,

which was obviously also... Who should have won? Of the nominees. Great performance and his shoe and then, you know, it was sort of like time for Ian McKellon to get recognized. Edward Norton in American History Acts, which is a very big, visceral performance

from a big young actor. And then Nultean Affliction, who I feel like is the more thinking it a little bit. Best picture, Shakespeare and Love wins. Obviously, it's controversial in its own right. Great movie, though. and a big hit.

Beating Private Ryan. Saving Private Ryan. The thin red line, which it's kind of rocks that it got a bunch of awesome because it's a masterpiece. Yep. Life is real.

Okay. Okay. Like, that's one of those things where I'm like, I don't like that movie. I can at least understand the spell that was cast. It was a phenomenon.

You know, by Harvey and it's a Holocaust film and yet there's nothing like it. And the fifth one is Elizabeth, which is a movie, I think, is pretty good. Like, it's a pretty good British costume drama

with a good performance. But you're like, What crack was being smoked that they were like, I think Elizabeth needs to make the five. Also, like, Truman Show is in, like, psych textbooks for the rest of time. Yeah, and, like, made $200 million. It's just like, what the fuck are we doing?

This is maybe the first Oscars that I watched and, like, tracked as a kid. Right. Sure, it makes sense. Because the Truman Show is a movie, because it might be the, Truman Show might be the first movie that I was like, oh, I know that movie. I think that sometimes weirdly,

the Academy has a hive mine, and we'll talk about, about them like they're one person when obviously it's a bunch of disparate voters, but you think more of like the hive mind of the highest level people in Hollywood deciding how they communicate to the public what represents them and carry just being a like, this guy kind of came out of nowhere. He wasn't selected. He runs the industry and now he wants to be serious to. Right. He was in stupid movies basically up until this year. I'm sorry. He pays our bills. Access to deny. But we refuse to treat him seriously. And the noms that the Oscars give it feel bad.

backhanded towards Kerry, where they're like... We think Peter Weir and the script were great. Peter Weir obviously Ed carried all his stuff. But it's like Peter Weir did a good job toning Jim Carrey down. The screenplay was a good concept and Ed Harris grounded the film. Jim Carrey is just kind of like, they treated him almost like he was like an animal performer. Where it's like, they somehow tricked him into being a little bit normal. But you look at the other bodies and it like, it wins actor, supporting actor, and score at the

Golden Globes. They nominate it for picture director screenplay. The BAFTAs nominates it for film, director, supporting actor screenplay, cinematography, production design, special effects. It wins director screenplay and production design. Like, everyone was kind of more generous to it than the Oscars who felt like,

don't tell us we have to treat this seriously. Yeah. And also that it was partially like it's a big summer hit and all the critics are sort of going like, is Jim Carrey going to win an Oscar? And they're like, don't fucking tell us. Don't make up our mind for us.

The film opened June 5th, 1998. Number one at the box office, $31 million. Big hit. It makes $264 million worldwide. How much to make domestic? 130-something. Yeah. Yeah, $1.25.

A lot of money in 1998. Big hit. Number two, the box office is also new this week. It's a thriller for grown-ups. Our friend Sean Clements was just texting us about it. Are French? Oh, fuck, I'm not up to date on the tax. That's so crazy to me.

We think Truman Show would be direct to Apple TV in 2026? Don't even fucking talk about it. They're gonna fucking like announce it tomorrow. Yeah, Truman Show 14-part Peacock. Come. Right, and the first season ends with Christoph being born. Beacock is now straight to come. Okay, got it.

Just when you come, you see it in the come. I've been broadcasting for three hours. They've done such a poor job. I just like the silence we all gave David to just work that out. You know, it's just like, what if we could put TV on to vomit? Lindvoo, anytime anyone vomits, they watch an ad. Like, you know what I mean? Guys, we spent six or seven years trying to get people to sign up and pay money for peacock, and they're not biting.

So we go. So give it to them for free in their comp. We're buying ball real estate. What is this bit? It's like the U-2 album. Don't worry about it. It's free. You come to get a little peacock.

by the state of modern media. But how do we make money? Well, every time they vomit, we show them an ad. That's what I'm saying. That was my job. It's free in the come, but when you vomit, you see that. I will say this about number two at the box office. It's a thriller.

I would say somewhat of a forgotten movie. It's a remake of a classic. You know, it has movie stars in it or whatever. It's not the jackal. No. It's just one of those movies who are like, I don't think anyone really remembers this one. It made $70 million domestically,

$128 worldwide. Like, for a pretty forgotten movie. Now, I had a big star. And the big star, the big male star is someone who knows his way around to sort of grown up thriller. It's not a Ford. It's not a big male star. He mean, Mr. McPheely. Wow.

That was pretty good. It was really good. It was better than my cum thing. No, the cum thing's good. The big female star is going to win an Oscar this year. She's going to win an Oscar. She's on the up and up, and this is her big star year. It's a Helen Hunt?

Nope. No, no. It's the year before. It's Gwyneth. You're after. Gwyneth Paltrow. It's a perfect murder. A perfect murder.

You're right. I did catch those. Which is an Andrew Davis remake of Hitchcock's Dallim for murder. I always forget it. It's a remake. With Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, and a youngish Vigo Mortensen. I say youngish because he actually had been around for a while, but, you know.

But it's just one of those things. No one remembers that. I'm like, I kind of made money. Wow. Number three of the box office is a film that I'm sure we all as children were very excited about. And maybe we enjoyed it. Maybe we were disappointed. I was pretty into it.

Summer 98. Yeah. Big, big, big, big, big blockbuster. It's a big hit. It does hit. It works. It was a hit. I think it's pretty quickly recognized

is not big enough of a hit, but it made $136 million domestic, close to 400 worldwide. It's not Batman and Robin. No, that's the year before. Disappointment. It's the latest, it's a reboot-ish of a franchise, I guess. Mm-hmm.

Sort of. It's not Godzilla. It is. It is, God's, it is. It is. is Godzilla. Yeah.

It is a movie I watch basically every five years and go, am I going to like it this time? And you go, he's kind of like, it's okay. Yeah, I, there are things about it that I really like in its jankiness, and I have such a role in Emmerick's soft spot, but I always go like, has the nostalgia cycle hit where I'll just appreciate everything in its brokenness for just representing this time? I, and some of it is so insane. That's a movie that I remember. I can see me watching it on my TV with my mom and my sister.

Totally. And me questioning how Godzilla's size keeps changing so much throughout the film. It's a bit of a problem. It's one of many problems. He's like sometimes he's skyscraper size. Sometimes he's much smaller. It's very strange. Yes.

Sometimes he's like a man. Oh, so he's a she. Right. That's the great Matthew Browder performance where he's like testing all the blood samples they got. And they're like, so what do you know about him? And they're like, well, he's 8,000 feet tall. He weighs 400 pounds and he's pregnant? Ben, do you like Godzilla?

Big. Thank you. Ben's lost it. Fourth at the box office is a movie about girls. Okay, I'm listening. Sort of a, you know, chick flick. Classic chick flick. It's a classic.

Romantic drama. It's not how Stella got her group back. No, that's a good movie. I would say this movie I've never seen. It's got an interesting director in a way, an actor. It's not Hope Floats. It is Hope Float. It is Hope Float.

Sandra Bullock. Do you know who? who directed Hope Floats. Harry Conick Jr. Ben, J.D., do either of you want to wage a guess as to who directed Hope Floats? No, I don't. I'll tell you, it's the guy who directed waiting to exhale. It's the same director, you're saying.

Yes. Does that solve anything for either of you? It doesn't hit me. He was fired off of directing the Fat Albert movie. Bill Cosby? No, by Bill Cosby. Or sort of. He did rebound by directing First Daughter, the Katie Holmes,

I'm not getting this. It's crazy. Forrest Whitaker. Forrest Whitaker is the director. Forrest Whitaker just directed all of those movies. I had no idea. Forrest Whitaker had a, you know, a side career directing like, you know, pretty good kind of female-centric, like romantic dramas, like for a while.

It felt like he's like steady studio hand. He gets fired off a fat Albert. He keeps bringing this up. And it's like, oh, is his directing career kind of over? And then just like, fucking wins an Oscar for Best Actor for playing idiot men and getting a fart pushed out of his body. And also he was in Rogue One. Great career. Enviable.

Enviable. Hope votes is number four. So that one, it's like Sandra Bullock is a housewife. And then her mean husband reveals that he's cheating on her on like Ricky Lake, like a Ricky Lake show. And so she goes to her small town where she grew up. And she's got this old friend like Harry Connick Jr. And like, are they going to fall in love?

And she's got like a big box of hope in the basement. And she's like, fuck this. I got to get rid of this. So she goes to the river. And she's like, I'm just going to throw this over. I will say to the bottom. I love Sandra Bullock. It feels like one of those movies where I'm like,

that thing could have made twice as much money if you didn't call it hope floats. Yeah. It's kind of like, there's got to be a better title out there. This is also that era like you're saying where there's all these movies that you're like, have you ever heard of this movie? It's like, no. It's like, well, it made $170 million. A little bit.

What was the final total? 60. It made 60 domestic. It made one. 81 worldwide. It has a terrible title and the poster was just here is Sandra Bullock and people are like, that's worth testing out. She's getting a hug from Connick.

That's all they needed to say. That's all they needed to say. A little Connick embrace. Is the 226 equivalent of these like YouTube channels that you're like, you've never heard of it, but has four billion followers. Sure. I don't know. Bubby man has four million followers and he like.

Well, no, Bubby man's are in those followers. He's put in the work. Number five of the box office is then another big blockbuster that also like slightly disappointed. Dement. Directed by a woman. Is it deep impact? Deep impact.

I would say that didn't disappoint. It's just that Armageddon ate its lunch. Armageddon ate its lunch. I think it did okay. It made 140 domestic. You know, I think that was seen as like, maybe it's the Armageddon thing of like, okay, you know, like, it's not fair to compare them. There was a feeling that could compare them because they are kind of the same thing. I think there was a feeling that one of them would flop.

They couldn't both succeed. Yeah, you're right that it did totally good. Impact did well and then Armageddon came in and Big Dog Day. I kind of like Deep Impact. I've still never seen that. I told Mimi when I interviewed her that it was kind of like important to me as sort of a different kind of movie because it's very emotional. I don't remember the difference between Deep Impact and Armageddon.

The big difference is that obviously Armageddon feels like it was written by monkeys doing Coke. But beyond that, Armagedon is. Brous Willis, Banffleck. Yes. What's the story of Deep Impact though? I forget what it is. You know what?

We don't have to get into the story of Deep Impact. I keep trying to say it and everyone is just, I could just do it. Armageddon is there's an asteroid coming. We need to deal with it. And obviously the best way to do that is to hire drillers who yell at each other. That's Deep Impact. No, that's Armageddon.

That's what I thought. Yes. Deep Impact has this much more like weird unfolding where it's like it's about a journalist who's on a story of a presidential coverup that she thinks is an affair and it turns out it's like, no, we've realized an asteroid's going to blow up the earth and we are basically trying to figure out how to evacuate a million people underground. Got it. Okay.

And then they do sort of stop it, but in deep impact, the asteroid hits. Got it. In Armageddon, spoiler alert, it does not. Also in the top 10, you got the Horse Whisperer. You've got Bullworth, Warren Beatty's Bullworth. A movie I love, and I hope we get to talk about it. We're going to cover it someday. It's a movie that I have a lot of fondness for.

I watched it, like, you know, within the last five years and was like, okay, some notes. I am sure. Some notes. I'm sure it's pissing. on a bunch of third rails. Yeah, but, you know, glad it exists. Yeah. What was the song from it?

Getto Superstar. Getto Superstar. Pretty good. The only reason, I've never even seen the movie. But the only reason why I know of it. The whole soundtrack is great. Yeah. Number eight is Titanic.

I heard of it. In June. Still came out in December. So this, yeah, seven months in. Number nine is, oh, hell yeah. A movie that should be remade instantly. The crime comedy film, I got the hookup.

Starring Master P. I have not seen, I don't think ever in full, but I've seen some of it on TV. I think we need to bring back. I got the hookup. Number 10, the animated film, Quest for Camelot. Which one is that? Which studio is that trying to break in? That's bad Warner Brothers run.

That bomb's so hard that Iron Giant is basically told like, you're the last one. We're closing up shop. It's like, they found it. He's like, but this one's good and they're like, shh, and they're closing them. Quest for Camelot is like them very much trying to do the Disney model. and have like big ballads and emotional romance story in front of a backdrop, but then funny animal characters. Then it's like Iron Giant is him trying to do this thing off to the side.

And then I think Osmosis Jones is truly the last one, but is only half animated. Because it did too well. Asmosis Jones told too many truths about the cops that live in our body. Yeah. I rewatch that recently. It's like 2026 like that is like what a lot of our society believes is happening. RFK.

It's true. We have to stop Osmosis. Chris Rock lives in my body. He's a policeman. RFK is going to enforce one viewing of Osmosis Jones to every American citizen. Griffin, did you just say you watched it recently? I did. And how was it?

It is very odd. I remember that the animated stuff is pretty cool. I would agree. And that the live action stuff is pretty dreadful. The live action stuff is like repellent. There is Bill Murray. Because it's mostly Bill Murray burping. Being like, it feels like Chris Rock's in here.

It's like half the movies. It feels like a buddy comedy comedy. happening in my digestion. Half the movie is like an animated movie. The other half is like footage of a sick man. Basically. He's the grossest man who ever lives. He works at like a zoo or something.

Correct. Chris Elliott. Right. And his daughter cares about his health and he won't listen to her. And he's eating a hard boiled egg. And he's by the monkey cage trying to feed them. And then the egg slips out of his hand. It falls into the cage. He reaches in the cage to pick it up.

He takes it out. It's covered in like monkey hair. and like dirt and bacteria. And he's like, it's still good. And he eats it. And that's the inciting incident of Osmosis Jones is that's what makes him sick. And it is grosser than anything

that John Waters has ever put on film. It is the most repellent thing I have ever seen. And the movie is just, yeah, it's very bizarre. But I was like going to do, Scott hasn't seen, and Ockerman sent me the list of movies

to choose from. And I was like, Osmosis Jones is on here. I did weirdly watch it in the last 40s But I can't tell if I would not be able to contain my thoughts to four hours or if I will run out after five minutes. Yeah, right. Where you're like, yeah, it's like what you think it is. Yeah.

Yeah. Osmosis Jones. Yeah. My favorite movie of all time. I'm glad we finally fucking mentioned it. Finally. This was the Osmosis Jones series. Yeah.

This is the Osmosis Jones series. We will do Osmosis Jones that we ever do the Farley brothers. Yeah. Because they did direct the live action portions. And part of their contract was that the animation. director wouldn't get credited as director. Which I think is good. They are the only directors on the movie, even though they came on and shot one week

eight months after the animation was locked. It's insane. The whole structure of that movie was we only have to animate half a movie, and then when we have the animation, we'll shop it around and try to get a fancy live action director to agree to do the other part. Osmosis Jones. Osmosis Jones. J.D.

Your book is called The Endless Game, and it is available. Is there anything else you would like to plug on this podcast? No, that's it. I mean, one half hours into its running time. No, I would really like people to buy the endless game for a child in their lives. It's a really fun book. It's based loosely on my, you know, I moved around as a lot as a kid and it's about a kid who moves around a lot and ends up in a town where every kid in the town is part of a game of capture the flag that's been going on for 80 years, been passed down from generation to generation. And so this entire universe unfolding where kids sort of have to find their role within this game.

I think it's a fun story, and I think kids will like it. I'd love for you all to read it. There's a link in the description. Thank you. And watch the undercovers on Amazon Prime Sports. Oh, yeah. Do watch that. It's own a little Truman show in a way.

Yeah. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. Tune in next week for Master and Commander. That's right. It is out of the wild. It's Mando. I watched it for the first time.

Oh, you're right. It's Mando. Next week. Oh, boy. This is a wild one to punch for weeks then. Yeah, Getherd coming on. Oh my gosh, that's going to be... To talk Star Wars.

Boy, there's a... I just looked at the running time and imagined a higher one. That's a lot of podcasts. You should just get beds for our stations. Well, I think we can just have a break. Because, like, we can just be like, all right, and we'll check in with you guys tomorrow, wherever you guys are at in that part of the

conversation. That works. It's a 12-hour day crossover. Yeah, that's wild. That's a crazy one-two punch of episodes here. I legit thought this was going to be a short episode because I'm like, it's a, there's so much to talk about but it's not like a rambly movie, but we just love talking about it.

I think it was really good episode. I think we nailed it. I definitely thought this was going to be a long episode. It's a big one. Also, I was texting David. I watched Master and Commandor for the first time. That is a great movie. I thought it was a different kind of movie and I watched it and it's so good. I know you're going to talk all about it. I have not seen it since theaters. And at the time I went, not my kind of movie. And so I'm very eager. I've been saving the rewatch.

that Weir was inevitable and that it's such a beloved David favorite. I watch that now and I'm like, Weir is a master. Tune next week for the Mandalorian and Grogu, a movie we're so excited for it. What if it's pretty enjoyable? I would love nothing. Because, like, John Fevereaux tends to be

okay at making a pretty enjoyable movie. I saw the trailer with my daughter in front of Hoppers. Yeah. And I was not like, wow, this looks awesome, but I was like, I mean, I guess they'll, like, fly a spaceship and baby O'Do eat a cracker. Like, I guess it'll be I've talked about it before, but every time I see that trailer, I am astounded by how nothing I feel.

I'm not like dreading it. I'm not like, this looks like shit. I'm just like, okay. And I saw Hoppers with David Erlich and his son. And Erlich just immediately went like, ugh. And his son starts pumping his fists. And I'm like, oh, he literally points at the screen and goes, Star Wars, that's my favorite movie. And he's never seen Star Wars in the theater before.

What if Manilary and Grogu is that there's a, uh, a transporter ride, you can take the job as pass with eight and a half minutes. And so it's just 10 trips, five trips up, five trips back. That should be your Star Wars movie, you pitch. I actually, yeah. Speaking of new movies over on Patreon, a few days, we're going to be releasing an episode. It's the final in our Moral Combat Commentary series.

We're going to be putting out an episode about the new Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2. I will say every Mortal Kombat movie is good. Have you watched Annihilation? recently. Yes, I have, and is it not good? Yes, but is it also good? Yes. Okay. Annihilation is not so good. I will say. It's a rough one. I will say with with respect to all of the great. I've talked about this before. The first Mortal Kombat ending is one of my favorite endings to a film of all time. And I think if every film ended like that, it would be perfect. So you must love the opening of Mortal Kombat Annihilation. Yes, I do. It must work. When you were a kid, that is all you want is for a cliffhanger to pick up right in the fucking next movie.

That is a good point. Anyway, go over to patreon.com slash blankcheck. Do it. That's awesome. And as always, good afternoon, good evening, and good night. Blank Check with Griffin and David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Sims. Our executive producer is me, Ben Hossley. Our creative producer is Marie Barty Salinas,

and our associate producer is A.J. McKean. This show is mixed and edited by A.J. McKeon and Alan Smithy. Research by J.J. Birch. Our theme song is by Lane Montgomery and the Great American novel, with additional music by Alex Mitchell. Artwork by Joe Bowen, Ollie Moss, and Pat Reynolds. Our production assistant is Minnick. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production help. Head over to blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit.

Join our Patreon, Blankcheck special features for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social at BlankcheckPod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Checkbook on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by Blank Check Productions. All right. I started rolling. Okay. Are you going to send it to me, Griff?

Yeah. Okay. And I trust your improv skills to make the necessary word substitutions. Yes. I'm not going to say the word, though. No. You know what I mean? I'm not going to say...

Yes. I'm not going to say the P word. Right, but like replace like camera with microphone. Yes, exactly, exactly, exactly. Great. This is UCB training right here. Okay, where is this? I like how it's a secret.

There's nothing secret about it. Okay, I'm air dropping. Except. This is the actual script? Yeah. Okay. What page is that on? Let's start on.

105. Okay. Ready? No, I have to find page one. You sent me an 100-page document. Let's the original script. Okay, do you want me to start in 105? No, I'm starting. Wait, who's who? You're Truman. Why? You should be Truman? You think I should be Truman? Okay. Because the whole thing, But the whole thing is that you launch into the, instead of good afternoon, evening, good morning, and good night, you launch into your thing. Okay. Right? Okay, sure. Do you need a minute to adjust?

Yeah, just give me one second. I think there's also, I think there's a line for David in here, too. Or Ben. Which is... Is there Giamati in here? No, in the actual edit, it cuts to someone watching... watching TV, watching it, and they're like, just do it, just do it.

I don't think that's too confusing, I think. Yeah, let's just, the visual element. Let's just do this. Okay, great. Okay, ready? Truman. Hold on, I'm going to have reset. Should it be my name.

Oh, yeah. Let's, I just, it just hit me. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Okay, ready? Sorry, that's not me. I fucked up our... No, no, it's good. Griffin.

Griffin. Griffin. You can speak. I can hear you. Who are you? I'm the creator. Creator of what? A show that gives hope and joy and inspiration to millions. Take that again with a podcast.

But it's a show. Make a podcast. Okay, take it from the top. Okay. But that's not going to say the P word. I think you have to if we're doing it. Okay, fine, fine, okay. Sorry, guys.

This is the artistic process at work. The actor becomes the director, okay. Griffin. Griffin. You can speak, I can hear you. Who are you? I'm the creator. Creator of what?

A podcast. That gives hope and joy and inspiration to millions. Millions sounds a little high. A podcast? And who am I? You're the stuff. or one of them. Nothing was real.

It was all bits. No, you were real. That's what made you so good to listen to. The eyes are everywhere. Ears. Not on video. Listen to me, Griffin. You can leave if you want.

I won't try to stop you. But you won't survive out there. You don't know what to do, where to go. I have a dossier. Truman, I've watched you here a whole life. Take that again. Also, that's not in the actual movie. I'm adding certain lines on certain.

What do you mean? This whole section is not the movie. They cut it. Okay, we'll just do it. Okay, keep you off. Using this script may have been a mistake. Yeah, that's what I think. What would you have suggested?

The IMDB thing. What would I suggest it just doing the normal thing we do? Is IMDB going to have all of this? I have no idea, but I would assume yes. Okay, okay. It's very, very quoted. Reset. Reset.

From the top. Should I go to IMDB and try to find it? Let me find it for you right now. You could have just asked. Yeah, because you famously look it up and offer everything. I don't look it up and offer every week, but I'm sure I have a computer right here. You just ask. Griffin sent the shooting script that has like, it still has like hopper in it.

I feel like usually they don't have. They don't. Yes, I don't think they have all of it. Back and forth. Yeah. I mean, they, yeah. I mean, how many. at least Ben has the cold clothes now.

Yes, I do for sure. Yeah, you guys just gotta do what you gotta do. You're working off the shooting script, I guess. I know. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, I got it. Is that, okay. I was like, there's just lines in here that aren't, didn't make the final edit of the movie.

I mean, they wisely cut it down. Exactly. Dramatically weighty. Exactly. Now, do we want to start from the top or just pick up? No, we're starting from the top. Let's start from page one. Let's do the whole thing.

Actually, you're right. I got it. I got it. The Truman Show. I got it. Okay, just remember Griffin instead of Truman. Podcast instead of show. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Ready?