Blank Check with Griffin & David - Yesterday with Zach Cherry

Episode Date: April 30, 2023

Our Danny Boyle series comes to an end with a mind-bending movie that dares to ask the question, “What if The Beatles didn’t exist?” Severance’s Zach Cherry makes his long-overdue first appearance on the pod to profess his love Boyle’s most recent film, while David nearly has a stroke from trying to wrap his brain around all its logic loops. We’re asking all the big questions - if the Beatles never existed, would Charles Manson? If cigarettes never existed, how would that change the colonization of the New World? If John Lennon is alive in this universe, does this mean that Paul is actually dead? When does Ana de Armas show up? This episode is sponsored by: Nuts.com (Nuts.com/check) Join our Patreon at patreon.com/blankcheck Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter and Instagram! Buy some real nerdy merch at shopblankcheckpod.myshopify.com or at teepublic.com/stores/blank-check

I've been waiting for half of my life for you to wake up and love me. Having loved you for half a lifetime, I realized when you left that I had made a bad choice doing that. And now it's gotten even trickier because if... When you were playing in pubs, we were the perfect match. But now... I'm an actual school teacher, an actual low-st stuff, and you're the world's greatest podcast. That is not what I thought you were going to go for. Yeah.

I mean, the other one I was thinking about doing was most of the quotes on this page are like five sentence exchanges with a lot of back and forth. You could have done Sheeran where he's like i'm sally airy or whatever his big moment how do i change that that line is that line is so strange seeing written out like this because it's just uh uh i'm definitely sally airy and you're a mozart mate night jack yeah all right fine uh no the other one i was thinking about was uh was a world without the podcast is a world that's infinitely worse. There you go. But it felt wrong. No, I like that.

I like that. Let him know. You gotta let him know. It felt like do the Richard Curtis speech. Yeah. The closest this movie gets to. But that speech is infuriating in this movie. It is.

Where you're just like, well, what the fuck? Why haven't you? Whatever. We'll talk about it. Look. Look. Look. This is quietly a very divisive movie. Wow.

And David, you and I. This is news to me, by the way. This is the thing. You and I had our reactions to seeing this film in theater that I think were similarly agitated, frustrated, befuddled. I can talk about my experience, and I'm sure you can talk about yours. Sure. Our guest today, we will introduce in a moment, long overdue on the show,

sent a list probably of almost a year ahead of scheduling to go, you know what? We need to rectify this. We need to get you on the show. We already have to be booking you. We're at a deficit. We're behind. We're in the hole. Basically already. We already have to be booking you on something new. We're at a deficit. We're behind. Exactly. We're in the hole, okay?

And basically, we presented the list to him, and this was the furthest episode out. True. But he said, I have to admit, I kind of love Yesterday. And you and I said to each other, no one else is going to want to do the Yesterday episode. Give it to him immediately. Yeah. This is so surprising.

It didn't feel like, and correctly, it wasn't really that up. There were a couple people who spoke up for it. Well, this is what's surprising. It didn't feel like, and correctly, it wasn't really that, there were a couple people who spoke up for it. Well, this is what's surprising. Right, there is a bit of a fan club. We locked it in so early because we gave him like first crack

at a long list of things ahead of us. And then in the time since we locked you in and we never considered letting anyone else do it. It was yours. It was like maybe a little. No, but like.

No, no, no, no. But like people did actually ask for it. Friends of of the show past and future guests they were like who you going yesterday i would love to do by the way i'd love to do yes i kind of kind of i kind of like yesterday you're gonna have to get me in a group chat with all these i've had in-person conversations where people are like you guys aren't just gonna shit on yesterday right you have someone who's gonna come on and fight for yesterday i don't want to shit on this movie. I don't either. It's very complicated. I'm fascinated by it. I'm fascinated by these reactions to this movie because my reaction to it is so uncomplicated, and we'll get to it. We'll get to it. Great. Listen, this is Blank Check with Griffin and

David. I'm Griffin. I'm David. It's a podcast about filmographies. Directors experience massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. Sometimes those checks clear. Sometimes they bounce. Baby! That's all true. What is this? This isn't really a bounce.

This was a hit. It made money. This was a hit. Yeah. Not only that. That was not critically well-received, really. But it made money. it made money this was a hit yeah like not only that was not critically well received really but but it made money it made money it was a hit it was his most successful movie since slumdog by a good mile it's similar it cost 30 and it made like 150 worldwide or whatever yeah like yeah healthy yeah healthy hell and you're like this is a movie that will sell in fucking supermarket spinner rack dvd selection for the next decade. I'm sure this thing does well on streaming.

I'm sure it gets good play on cable. Like, this is a movie that will be wildly profitable for a decade plus for everyone involved. It is his most recent film as of the time of our recording, the time of this miniseries. Yeah. He has not made a film since. He's done another season of an FX show. I didn't even know that. He did two shows.

He's done two shows. Trust happened before this. Am I wrong? I think you... Well, actually, I can't remember. Let's find out. I believe Trust was 18. You're right.

So, yeah. So, Trust, then this, and then... Pistol. Yes. Which he directed... I didn't realize... Trust, he directs, like, the first three or four. Pistol, he did all six.

Pistol, he did the whole thing. Yeah. Basically, like, a little mini-movie. Yes. movie and we're gonna cover it in opposite world yep never happening i will say i tried watching the first episode and i was not grabbed by it yeah uh craig pierce wrote it who is uh one of the baz lerman's cool cast you know i had a lot of big and i was watching it and it's yeah, I would totally be into watching Danny Boyle make a two-hour movie about this. I do not need to watch the six-hour version. But that's a modern TV problem.

Anyway, this is his most recent film. It is called... Yesterday. His miniseries is called, of course, Trains Podcast. I keep on thinking it's called Slumpod Million Cast, but it's not. That's what it is in Opposite World. Sure, that's true.

And our guest today, Beyond Overdue. Beyond Overdue. It is shameful that in the time it has taken us to get him on the show, he has rightfully ascended to the mountain of the greatest guests in comedy podcasting. I feel like he's had a run over the last year of just nothing but net. And that run stops now. No. You're running into a wall.

I'm going to grind this episode into the ground. No, absolutely not. No, this is going to be great. From Succession. Succession? I'm leading with that. Because it's a great appearance. Factual. But probably, most famously, from Severance.

From Shang-Chi and the Spider-Man Homecoming? Yeah. Yep. Accurate. I'm just trying to do your credits off the top of my head. Have we ever established if they are the same character? We haven't, and I have no further knowledge about that. I try to ask you. one like came in and was like

hey by the way you're playing the same every two months i try to ask you is there any clarity no i've received no additional clarity and i had none from the beginning the great zach cherry is here long overdue first time guest hello hi hi zach hi i'm very excited to be here very excited to talk about this movie you know i. That's all I got so far. Among your credit sack, among your honorifics, your titles, right before recording,

you said to me, my wife wanted to make sure I told you to tell your dad she says hi. Ben says, how does your wife know Griffin's dad? And I said, save it for Mike. And the story is, we knew each other through UCB,

through comedy. I'd say we were like friends of friends. We would sometimes get on the same show. We were friendly. We didn't know each other very well, right? Sure, yeah. I think it was in 2019, the year of yesterday itself,

that fateful year, we book you to be a guest on the New York Comic Con George Lucas talk show panel, which has now become a tradition. Yes. You've now done every year, I think, since then. Yes. My dad, who usually doesn't want to be caught dead in association

with this stuff, and was pointedly not coming to see the George Lucas talk show, I think had a former student who had a different panel at New York Comic Con and was pointedly not coming to see the George Lucas talk show, I think had a former student who had a different panel at New York Comic Con and was going to that. And you, Patrick Otner, Connor Ratliff and I were in the Jacob Javits Center food court waiting for our panel to start. We used to get the worst time slot, which was our panel would be one hour after the Javits Center closed, basically. Yes, like right at the end of the night. And we're talking and you start telling me like, you know, I'm going off.

You were about to go shoot a Quibi in Vancouver. Yeah, that sounds right. I think that matches up timeline wise. And you said to me, you know, I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but I'm a blankie and I said, you should be embarrassed. That's an embarrassing thing to admit in public. And you said, but I'm really stressed out because Gemini Man's about to come out

and I'm going to film in Vancouver and I don't know if I'm going to be able to see it in a high frame rate. Oh, sure. Were you? I think I was able to see it

not in the highest frame rate. But in something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're having this conversation and I'm like, Zach, I had no idea you listened.

You're deep in on this shit. We should have you on the show this is certainly a thing it won't take four years to correct right yeah well some things happen in between bonding over this right and then my dad walks up and i was like hey i don't know if you're my dad connor you've never met before hi nice to meet you patrick and then i go to my dad and I go, dad, this is. And then he truly falls to his knees. I had forgotten. And starts bowing, Ben.

And Zach goes, what's happening? You're saying literally. Yes. Literally, yes. And I didn't put this together. In the food court. Right. And I went, oh, Zach, I should explain.

I forgot, but you are my dad's number one favorite actor. My dad had seen Zach in an Ask Cat show where I did monologues and for weeks was like, I can't get over that guy. That guy was the best. That guy, Zach Cherry, he's unbelievable. What does he do? And I was like, he's great. He's great. He's one of the best in the city. Anytime Zach, and this was when your career was starting off, but you weren't, you't you know booking series regular tv show job anytime zach would show up in a commercial yeah my dad would like take a photo of the tv screen send me an email subject heading all caps my guy my god this is so funny too because my dad had this reaction to sebastian cannelli at a nascat show yeah and will not stop talking about him so you

know i'm familiar with the dad having a guy genre my dad was genuinely starstruck like couldn't how did you not tell me and now just keeps up with everything zach does weirdly has not watched severance well i keep my you know zach's like a series regular on a show that everyone like yeah you know i gotta watch that i gotta watch yeah that's a good one but I saw him in the in the in the commercial right yeah uh yeah biggest biggest biggest fan uh sent you an email to congratulate on your wedding he was supposed to come your wedding got caught in traffic yes panic attack that's that's my wife's connection to your dad yes she knew she knew that he was going to come to our wedding yeah um and was excited to meet him but but did not get the chance it will happen that is yeah he was going to come to our wedding. Yeah. And was excited to meet him, but did not get the chance.

It will happen. That is sad. Yeah. He's going to take you to dinner at some point. Yes. Looking forward to it. My father, number one Zach Cherry fan. His favorite living actor.

Oh, I'm a big fan, too. No, it's a good taste. I mean, I appreciate it. You know? It's great. I love getting, when you update me on if he's seen something else um i usually get a little report about his reaction to it i love getting them you have the series of commercials i'm forgetting which food delivery service it is uber eats uber eats that's right he loved it

yeah absolutely yeah it was fun it was fun um sack yesterday 2019 Do you see this movie in theaters? No. No. And also bigger, like Danny Boyle in general. Like pro, neutral, pro. You texted me the other day. Yes. So I've been listening to the series of Trains Podcasting. Correct. And it was kind of the first time I even put together that all these movies were Danny Boyle movies because he's got quite a varied filmography.

He does, which is part of the joy, of course. It's great. So I'm a big 28 Days Later fan. Tried to rewatch it when the episode came out, but it's not streaming anywhere for some reason. I would have sent you a special file if you had just asked me. I'll get back to it at some point.

I was a big Sunshine fan when I finally saw that. I saw that much, much later than it came out. Love Slumdog Millionaire. So I am a Boyle guy. This movie I did not see in theaters. I have an interesting

relationship with this movie, which is I did like nothing about this movie seems like it would be for me. I'm not a Beatles fan. I don't like musicals. I tend to not love sort of like, uh,

I don't know what you'd even call them. Just like pleasant comedy. You're not really like a Richard Curtis guy. No, I mean, I do like love actually, or at least I, you know,

I went through a phase of really enjoying that. But yeah, almost everything about this movie is like a red flag for my taste in general. I'm on a plane. Okay, I didn't want to leave. I mean. I had a feeling. Yeah, this is the other. We were talking about this movie making money.

We're not even counting plane dollars. This thing must have cleaned up on Delta. You expected this to be a plane movie? I just kind of had a feeling and also you're an actor actors are often traveling yes so i turn it on yeah and i loved it so much i became obsessed with the beatles for like a month after this wow this movie is like this is your entree this movie got me into the beatles i watched the peter jackson documentary after,

because I think I only watched it maybe a year and a half ago, this movie. And I was a little nervous because I hadn't seen it since then. And I knew I was going to come on and talk about it. And I was like, I'm a little nervous. I won't like it as much. I might have just been in a weird place. There's something about a good plane movie where you're just like,

me and this movie are friends. This movie is helping me through this. Like, we're going to be good plane movie where you're just like, me and this movie are friends. This movie's helping me through this. Like, we're gonna be friends forever. It was sort of like your puppy patrol. Paw Patrol.

Or Paw Patrol, sorry. Yeah, well, it was like my puppy patrol or my Paw Patrol. You know the story that Ben started crying hysterically watching Paw Patrol over the shoulder

of a small boy without audio. I do not. I missed that one. The opening is so strong, Zach. Wow. There's this turtle crossing the road, and this guy swerves out of the way,

and the truck's hanging over the edge. And then the Paw Patrol shows up and saves the day. This is an animated film? Correct. Ben and his wife were on a plane. His wife. Ben and his girlfriend. Oh, boy.

You've got to bleep that out. We were on a plane. His wife. Ben and his girlfriend. Oh, boy. You've got to bleep that out. We're on a plane, and she looks over, and Ben is sobbing hysterically, and he is looking at the opening of Paw Patrol in the crack between the two seats in front of him, being watched by a little boy with headphones on, so Ben's hearing no audio, and the plane had not taken off yet. That's about the highest praise a movie can get. Yeah. Yeah.

The visual filmmaking on display must have been incredible. Right. not taken off yet that's about the highest praise a movie can get yeah yeah yeah just the visual filmmaking on display must have been incredible right that's like pure soviet montage level yeah it's like yeah but i've had to i when i fly i will often text david movie opinions where i'm like does the spider dump me secretly rip and i'm like what's the plane movie bell curve it can do strange things i usually i'm usually a re-watcher on planes right i'm usually like a comfort exactly same i know i'm probably gonna fall asleep so like i'll turn on like a john wick or whatever just you know kind of movies i've seen a million times by the way also sometimes i'm on a plane i'm like oh i've been meaning to see this i should watch this i put it on 10 minutes i'm like it's not bad but it's not a plane movie yes this is not the

right way to watch it absolutely so i don't and i don't even remember what inspired me to turn it on maybe i had like i honestly cannot remember i would say this is a classic plane movie in that it's the kind of movie you are going to get around to maybe you're not thinking like well i gotta be their opening weekend but you're sort of like, well, I like Danny Boyle. And also, I don't even know if I knew it was Danny Boyle. That's true. It doesn't really lead with that. I truly have no

idea why I turned it on. But I think if it's a movie, I think if you ever saw the trailer for this movie. I did. You ever read a review. I saw the trailer for this movie 400 times. Exactly. They really pushed the trailer for this movie. This is a movie where if you were aware of it when it was coming out, you know what the premise is. You're not sitting on a plane two years later going, what is that thing again? You go, oh, that's the movie where everyone forgets about the Beatles.

It's such a weird concept for a movie. It's going to jump out on a plane movie selection. But when the trailer came out, I remember having a very strong not for me reaction to it i was like totally uninterested again didn't care about the beatles not a musical person so i think i must have heard someone say they enjoyed it like a friend of mine or something um anyway i re-watched it to to today to talk about it i was nervous going in and it hit exactly as hard as it did the first time i love this movie literally every element of this movie works for me um it somehow in retrospect feels like a movie that was made for me even though none of the pieces of it are things that i normally like about movies is there yeah is there like a comp is there like another movie you love

oh good question you feel this way about where you're like oh yeah made for me i just i just i'm so locked in with this i will you can think about i have to think even though on paper it's not playing into your yeah your your pick is a great question and i i i will arrive at one by the end yes by the end of the pod all right right, Ben, had you seen Yesterday Before This? No, I had never seen it. I assume you skipped it just out of disinterest. No, all right. Oh, okay.

Okay, all right, go ahead. All right, I kind of liked it. I mean, I kind of enjoyed it. You enjoyed it this time. I did. Okay, so move me a little bit. I had a feeling this was going to happen. Yeah.

Okay, so it's a two against two situation. David. Now, well, I'm Let's go. It will be a little bit. I'm not surprised. I had a feeling this was going to happen. Yeah. Okay, so it's a two against two situation. David. Now, well, I'm not going to... Okay, look. I saw this film at its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Okay. I saw it the first time I'd ever screened

for public audiences. Yeah. Partly, I think, because the studio was like, I don't know, just come to the fucking Tribeca premiere. Right. We're not... Who cares? I mean, they weren't...

That's not true. They weren't unenthusiastic, but they were like, just come. June release. It was a June release and a premiere to Tribeca in May. So I saw it, I guess, quite far in advance. And I was a little baffled. I was pretty excited for it. I was like, this is the kind of shit that's right up my alley.

I like a good Richard Curtis cheese fest. And I remember talking about danny boyle when the trailer came out we were like it's so weird that danny boyle made this and you saying like it's kind of an indictment of the state of the film industry right now that he is having a hard time getting things made yeah and just beatles and richard curtis makes it a go project it was a thing he could sign on to that would get a great we'll talk about it but it's post james bond yeah there is that kind of like maybe maybe I'll do a Richard Curtis script. I'm a big British filmmaker.

I've never done one of those. But I think it felt like you and I were both like, everything about this is weird. What if it's secretly really good? Danny Boyle can over-deliver things. And I watched it, and I would say I was kind of baffled and somewhat angered by it. Very similar. Frustrated. Confused. Felt like I was losing my goddamn mind. baffled and somewhat angered by it. Very similar. Frustrated. Yes.

Confused. Felt like I was losing my goddamn mind. Now I rewatched it. I felt like I was at home for the first time. Whereas I'm like, my home is different in ways I don't understand. Like there's something about the couch that's not right. Yeah. I rewatched it on Blu-ray. I own it on Blu-ray. I bought it on 4K. He bought it on 4K.watched it on Blu-ray. I own it on Blu-ray.

I bought it on 4K. He bought it on 4K. Universal sent me the Blu-ray. I bought it on iTunes to get the extras. Yep. He's got the extras. Extras are important. And we're going to talk, because you also dug into the extras.

I did. We're going to talk about some fun extras opinions. And I will say, this movie plays far better on television, on second viewing, just because, you know, it's a movie,

it's made for television. You know, I don't mean that in a negative way. I mean, it's a gentle film. It's got pretty people in it. It's got Beatles songs in it. All of that is pretty tranquil. And it's one of those things where I was yelling this at my wife

as she came in and started, as many people do, asking questions. She's like, I don't understand. And I was like, well, and trying to get into the logic of the film. And then, of course, myself getting mad. I was trying to do this the other day to someone. And it was a difficult exercise. It's an endless series of questions.

Right. But I was like, look, I think it looks good. I think Danny Boyle cast it really well. I think he just doesn't make bad looking movies. I really like the sort of immediacy of it. it i think performance is kind of the name of the game in this film performances are very strong yeah but there is something fundamental where i just cannot shake like my my sort of my questions i've had so many people like you zach some other people i'll say in a moment uh who have vouched for this movie who whose respect uh i i

whose opinion i hold an infinite respect who made me go maybe i was too harsh on this film i need to give it another look i'm gonna re-watch it with a completely open mind i want to love this right right right i'm on i'm on this movie's side absolutely and i'm like here i am watching comfort of my own home this feels like i'm meeting the movie on its turf. You know, I'm ready. And first, like 15, 20 minutes, I was like, yeah, this is charming. Okay, okay. Absolutely. And then I get into the two, and I am not, I try so hard not to be a nitpicker about things. Me too. I'm not a person who cares about plot holes at all.

I'm not a cinema sins guy at all but there are two basic logic loops in the inherent premise in this film that break my fucking brain and at the deeper it went on the more drove me crazy and i kept trying to be like griffin just calm down and just watch there's one that is too too strong for me this is so fun i would love to hear them too because i normally am a like you're like i don't get that. How does that follow that? Yeah, I'm such a like, oh, you like that thing? Well, I think it's stupid because of this one thing. The rules don't make sense. Exactly.

I often am that kind of guy. But for this movie, I just turned it off and was like, give it to me. Which is what it's asking. It's asking you to turn it off. This movie is not like ironclad. This movie is just being like, hey, just have fun with it. It's a silly premise. Look, I was trying to be constructive. And I was like, let me fill in the gaps.

Can I add some text to fill this out for me? Right. The Lily James-Himesh Patel relationship inherently makes no sense to me. I get hung up on that so much more than I do the why were things forgotten, which things have been forgotten. I agree with you on that. I do think there's a general, they don't have enough of an obstacle

between them for you to be like, why didn't these two get together? And we're going to dig into this. So pin in that. Pin in that. That's more of an inherent, that's not a science fiction question. That didn't bump me at all.

I'm like, they didn't hook up. Yeah. Why not gonna get into this we're gonna get into this we're gonna get into this but like i was trying to sort of generously like view this movie with the same sort of latitude i give to something like groundhog day right sure where i'm like i think in a way some of the central key brilliance of groundhog Day is we're making no attempt to explain this. Right, there's not an internal lie to it. I don't fucking care. There doesn't need to be a witch that cursed him. There doesn't need to be a reckoning that makes it clear what the rules are.

It's just happening, right? I do like that about this movie. It's happening until it doesn't happen. Right. Except in this movie, of course, it has happened and that is it. It's over. And also like every 15 minutes they keep on establishing new wrinkles in it. Well, that's where I'm going to get really worked up, but what's your thing? Right.

And so I'm like, if the Himesh Patel-Lillie James relationship worked for me on just the charming British Richard Curtis, these two actors are very hot and have very charming chemistry. I think I would be a lot more forgiving. I found them so charming. Of the world. I thought they had such they're doing we'll talk about what's your other thing why is there any rhyme or reason to which things have been forgotten and which people still remember no there's not there's not except for the oasis

joke that's a that's funny and i give them that i did love that that's a fucking here's my thing i think when i first watched it that was the moment where I went, I'm all in on this movie. That joke shatters the backboard. I will give the movie that. That joke is a tomahawk dong. That joke works. It's funny. And he says figures, and you're like, ha ha.

Funny. If cigarettes didn't exist. We're saying the tobacco trade never existed? I will admit that one is confusing. That would fundamentally shift geopolitics for 600 years at the very least. If tobacco never existed? And then the people who wouldn't have died from lung cancer, from smoking. What are the...

It's the spider webs. It's insanity. This movie needs to have the fucking... People should have donuts for head in this movie. It should be just completely different. I agree. You don't learn that until almost the end of the movie it's insane but he's like wait no one has cigarettes don't exist it's a town in france that's it because

basically everything they're dealing with until that point is like at least coca-cola it's like okay synthesized sure i didn't quite get that one either i don't really get that one either but at least it's like well at least carbonated soda the fact that i know so little about the beatles may have helped me in this case because i was able to just go i don't know maybe the beatles like invented coke okay and i could i could just let that live like it was a side project right i don't know i don't know stuff together can i tell you guys to the best of my understanding what that is? The coke or the cigarettes? Let's get into both.

Go ahead. But this gets into this like. I don't think you're going to sell me on whatever it is here. David, I'm not sold on it. But I just feel like after this movie, I was like, can anyone parse the logic of which things are missing? And I saw someone online explain. Please, I want to hear it. This is my fan theory, but I went,

this checks out, that is absolutely what Richard Curtis must have been intending, even though he never explained it. Part of the lore of the Beatles is that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, met

neighborhood kids cutting class, smoking cigarettes, and drinking Coke. Uh-huh. And they're like, well, the chain is the reason the Beatles don't exist

is because cigarettes and Coke don't exist. Wow. So, like, that wasn't there to bring them together. Correct. Harder to pitch a movie where you say

it's a world where cigarettes and Coke never existed. So, it's like the Beatles are actually a later consequence. Like, link on the chain that has been removed. Right. So it's like the Beatles are actually a later consequence. Like, link on the chain that has been removed. Right, so you're like, what is the original...

But then why do the Rolling Stones exist? Exactly. Those guys smoke cigarettes, I'll tell you that much. And David, I agree with you. If you're like, the Beatles is step one in the chain of things that are being forgotten, and that means Oasis, then by proxy doesn't exist. But Ed Sheeran, I mean, this is what my wife kept saying.

She's like, Ed Sheeran wouldn't exist. No. Like, that guy's got, you know, the Beatles influence on British music. I think Ed Sheeran would I mean, this is what my wife kept saying. She's like, Ed Sheeran wouldn't exist. That guy's got the Beatles influence on British music. I think Ed Sheeran would probably be a little different. He raps a little bit. He does rap. He has a different chain that he can be inspired by. Yeah, but leave it to the brothers.

I guess so. I did also love that joke. Joel Fry is good in that song. Joel Fry is really fun. But yes, the fact that cigarettes don't exist immediately turns this. It's a bridge too far. It's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He should wake up and everyone should have like flowers for hands.

See, I was like, damn, that would have probably helped my life. Well, you're just like a paradise. Yeah, I was great. It's not even on offer. At 13 years old, I wouldn't have made a horrible decision. Like, what if it's like tobacco exists, but it's just in a different form? Maybe. We don't know. We didn't get into that. We don't really answer that question.

It's just that cigarettes themselves don't exist. Or maybe it's literally just that they're not called cigarettes. They might exist as cigarettes. But we don't see anyone smoke. They might be called champagne. I kind of thought maybe people just vape. Honestly, it could be. You know what would be funny, though, is if everyone actually chewed tobacco like baseball

players and everyone was spitting into jars constantly throughout the movie. We don't know. Pulling spring bottles, spitting into it. That would be funny. The fact that he Googles it, sees the town of Cigarette in France, and then we get no further answers about

Which I will say, that joke is always funny. The Google reflecting something else. The Google joke works for me every time. Good. I agree. And we've established the Joel Fry character is a stoner. I suppose so. He's a drinker.

Yeah. I don't know if he's- Do they not call him a stoner in the initial setup? He's just kind of like the classic Risa fans-esque Richard Curtis character of like, this guy's fun. Like, this guy's a wild card. I want to counterweight my complaints with compliments. Joel Fry in this movie is the best anyone has done of the Risa Fanz thing post-Notting Hill,

which became such a towering performance of that archetype that actors have talked about like, I didn't want to take this fucking best friend role in this movie because what are you going to do a worse version of risa fons like you want to be the worst version of the best comedy roommate he's funny that guy's funny joel fry's good where'd that come from he just a lot of tv and then yeah and he does music too yeah cool i learned that from uh the director's commentary oh really yeah wait so you listened to the director's not all of it i i i checked in on a piece is it it Boyle alone or is it Boyle and Curtis? Wow. Okay.

Okay. Are they chummy? Yeah, they're pretty chummy. I only listened to maybe 20 minutes of it. I will also say, I believe I've said this on the podcast before. I saw this at the Tribeca Film Festival. Danny Boyle introduced it. Yeah.

And he came out and he said, my sister is a public school teacher and I really made this film as a tribute to public school teachers. I'm sitting with my friend Emma Stefanski and I'm like, oh, that's interesting. The lights come up and I'm like, that wasn't an amazing tribute to public school teachers. It's not negative about them. Well, there is a scene. There's two scenes. There is a scene in which Himesh Patel goes, maybe I go back to teaching.

Yeah. And Lily James stops the car dead in its tracks right and goes you absolutely cannot if you go back to teaching those kids are gonna suck all your creativity out of you and you'll be dry in this movie but it does end with him becoming a teacher it does but there's a scene where she's like that is a fate worse than death there's multiple scenes where she's like i'm just a teacher she's so down on herself for being a teacher. Look, I was trying to find. Even though she seems to enjoy it.

It was just, it felt like Danny Boyle coming out and being like, I don't really know. Because Richard Curtis was there too. He'd already said something nice. Sure. And Danny Boyle just being like, yeah, I don't know. I mean, my sister's a teacher and that really helped motivate me. Like, it didn't feel quite right when he said it. It is weird that this movie which is

for how bizarre it is is also meant to be like perfect movie a light perfect masterpiece right it's a light era comedy basically had three controversies of some size spin out of it really the first of which i think if we're just going in chronical chronological order there's a controversy within the development of this move okay hold on hold on. Before we get too far from cigarettes, I just want to say, I agree that doesn't make sense. By the way, we're never going to get too far from the cigarette discussion in this episode. But you don't learn that until pretty deep

into the movie. It's like two-thirds into the movie. So like, you know, I've already so locked into this movie at that point that that's maybe the first thing that bumped me and I went, okay, I can forgive that. Is it after he has sex that he references i need a cigarette i think he's just stressed he's just stressed out right okay yeah yeah yeah he is so cute i just think he's such a handsome cutie he's so good and we talked about this but he does good in this he does this and then the

following year he's in tenant and tenant he plays like, he plays, like, Cockshore, like an asshole. He is. Dude. I wouldn't call him an asshole, but he's definitely, yeah, he's a classic Nolan pro who's just sort of like, yeah, crash the plane for you. Yeah, absolutely. My line in that episode was, like, the fact that this guy has the range to win one year ago from Hugh Grant to Adam Goldberg, and sell both. He's fucking great in Tenet.

You know, he had been on east enders the british soap i don't know if you guys know east enders it's the most popular popular television show in britain it's a soap opera there's pretty much every day and he'd been on that for like 10 years i did see that he was in like 250 episodes let me give you the exact count here 556 because that's what it is man it's daily's daily. Incredible. It's daily. Or maybe four times a week or whatever. And it's like, you know how American soaps are in the daytime? So they're really only for old people and people at home or whatever? British soaps are at 6 p.m.

So the idea is you sit down with your dinner to watch the soap. It is prime time in a way. Wow. You know what I mean yeah that's like if you're if when i was visiting with a lot of friends exactly you would go home with them after school and then they'd be like it's time for eastenders and you'd be like oh shit and like everyone has to sit down and watch eastenders did you write that song? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's good, right? I've never heard of it. Are there other shows like that? Or is that the main one? EastEnders and Coronation Street are the two big cahoots. Are they still running? Yeah. Wow.

EastEnders is on BBC. Coronation Street is on ITV. EastEnders is set in East London. Coronation Street is set in Manchester. But they're both like working class dramas with a lot of you know uh plot twists sure you know anyway he got plucked out of that sure himesh patel yes and look there are a few things i love more and it's a it's like it's like it's a workout it's like you're really you know you're learning the fucking craft right you know you do all that shit

yeah there are a few things i love more than a a wide studio release film with an introducing yeah in the lead sure which this film did in its marketing oh really yeah this is like his first film it's his first film wow period first movie period but it's just cool to see like he was good in station 11 right people like yeah he's great yeah he's building a really good career, but this is really the start for him. And it's like, yeah, like Universal putting trailers

into thousands of theaters that say introducing Himesh Patel is exciting. They're like calling their shot. They wisely were like, the Beatles are the sort of brand this thing has. And also,

so we don't have to worry about it. The Beatles cost them $10 million. Amen. And that will be the greatest selling point, and they can put all the songs in the trailer. They don't really need a star. Lily James is a little bit of insurance. Kate McKinnon's a little bit of insurance. Yeah, but right. But Danny Boyle was

like, this guy auditioned, and he did the songs himself on guitar. Needed to sing. Needed to sing. Right? That was sort of the primary thing. And he was just like, watching him perform the songs, I was sold. Now, the origin of this film. it starts as a spec script idea it is a man by the name of let me pull this up uh paul mccartney no his name is jack barth he wrote a bunch of jonathan ross yes he has a bunch of he has a story credit on the film. Yes. Yeah, okay.

Let me, you got the dossier, I got the dossier. Yes, he had worked on some TV shows. He wrote a Speck-Simpson script, which was then purchased and was... Turned into a fish called Selma. Right, which is one of the great episodes. Great episode. Yeah. And his script was called Cover Version.

You can do that? You can just write a Simpsons script. At that time, you could. I think his idea was like, you know, let's all do it. Let's all write a Simpsons script. His thing basically- It was like, what if Star Wars didn't exist

and I just wrote Star Wars? Basically, he was like 60 and had written like 20 film screenplays and none of them ever got optioned. Right. And he was at this point in frustration where he said to his wife, I think out of frustration,

like, I'm so cursed that in a universe where Star Wars didn't exist, I could write Star Wars now and no one would buy it, right? And what he really latched onto was this idea of a universe in which one person remembers the biggest hits,

the biggest cultural impact projects. Right. And yet something is so fundamentally wrong with them that they cannot figure out how to turn successes out of what are clearly winning lottery tickets. He wrote this spec script that was basically an ode to his career frustrations of, am I just the wrong guy?

Right. And so I would watch that movie as well. That's interesting. It's interesting. I'd be into that. Might be frustrating. That's the sort of philosophical loop he's obsessed with, is this movie that's about sort of accepting

that you're never going to be the guy who changes the world. But you're saying... So, yeah, he writes a treatment. It does get to, like, working title, the production company which produces the movie. And the Beatles were part of it, but it was not exclusively, like, a Beatles script. It was just... I think it was gonna apply to just

Yeah there was definitely some Beatles element Because he was being told like Those songs are too expensive Like so how could this ever get made Right Mackenzie Crook Gareth from the original British office Wanted to do it at one point

He wanted to direct it Right But then Richard Curtis gets involved Well there's like the point basically wanted to do it at one point. Forgetty from Heart to the Caribbean. True. He wanted to direct it. Right. But then Richard Curtis gets involved. Well, there's like the point basically where people are like, you could make this as like a cute, like $2 million indie film, right? I think that's when Mackenzie Crook is like attached. And then at some point, Working Title sniffs it out.

Working Title is like, this sounds like a good premise. If we, with our muscle, got the Beatles rights, and you really built this around the Beatles, that feels like a good premise if we with our muscle got the beatles rights and you really built this around the beatles that feels like a sellable movie and then they basically go to richard curtis and go we have this idea and we link it up to the beatles thing and richard curtis claims that he never read the script that basically was presented as a piece of paper of this basic starting point one person remembers the beatles music a failing musician remembers the beatles songs in a universe where they're forgotten and we have all the rights tied up there were lawsuits that went on after this film came out where this guy uh barth got demoted to

just story credit and then when he saw the film and had very little payment or association with it was like there are story beats that are in my script. Can I give you the details? Yeah, yes. He gets the story credit. Yes. Part of the deal. And he was given money. Yes.

But there's a big shift between story and screenplay credit. Of course. But he didn't write the script. Richard Curtis wrote a new script. He claims the two things That are the same Are John Lennon The inclusion of John Lennon And the Harry Potter joke

And That's when he starts Complaining and the lawyers Get involved and then as he Puts it once lawyers are involved They just drag it out It becomes like lawyers versus lawyers And then

Someone called David Blott Who has His own credits A French writer Had a graphic novel called Yesterday That followed a 20 year old Who travels back in time and records Beatles songs Before the Beatles are able to do it

and he was like what the fuck this is my idea and Richard Curtis was also like didn't know what that was you know wasn't aware so he was basically like and he claims I turned in the first draft before his book was published

and Danny Boyle was like look i don't know anything about this i assume it's all parallel thinking i wash my hands of it like or that's what barth said that his draft existed before richard curtis comes on which is after the french graphic novel is published the quote i read from barth that that is not in the dossier here but i thought was really interesting where he was just like richard curtis goes to university right prestigious university he meets rowan atkinson he hitches himself to that ship he basically has a career of only success oh wait he's saying richard curtis never did anything himself like he's trying to do a full

no no what he's saying is richard curtis has kind of never failed and he's like i wrote this script that's about the struggle like i understand the failure side of it richard curtis can't grapple with right and he was like he took my concept and immediately went well of course from he was a wunderkind from his early 20s right right he met the right people he had the right talent all of that and he's basically like what i thought was interesting about this concept is even if you have the winning lottery ticket you can't cash it in but and he's like richard curtis couldn't imagine a world in which you don't become immediately the biggest pop star in the world but i'm also is it just richard curtis or is it just kind of hollywood

being like no one wants to watch a movie about a guy failing i think it's both and like obviously look in my worldview i'm certainly more inclined to like the the fucking lewin davis version of this movie it's the biggest question this movie poses. Say the Beatles never existed and you've sort of come out on stage and you sang Yesterday. Would everyone just sort of be like, oh, that's nice?

Or would they be like, you are transforming songwriting, as they did. The run of this movie I like the most is in the first 30 minutes when he can't get anyone's attention. And he's like, I'm performing yesterday for you and no one will listen to me.

What do you guys think? Like, forget the movie. What would happen in this? I remember hearing about, I think like when like Napster was big, there was some study that someone ran about like the most downloaded songs were just the songs that were listed as the most downloaded.

Like they, they like self-perpetuate. Yeah. They like faked it where it didn't matter the quality of the songs. They ran something where it's just like, Oh, it's popular. So it's popular.

So it's popular. So I, I guess I fall on that side of like, but you know know you hadn't heard of the beatles no you watched this i mean you've heard of them but you didn't care i didn't care you watched this movie then you got into the beatles he's kind of the argument for maybe i think it's why they wanted this movie that you know there's a film here if we get the beatles catalog and you focus in on

the beatles and not anything else because it's just that notion of like are the beatles just kind of undeniable right like 60s undefeated little kids like them as much as old people do part of that is they're so ever present because even though i never intentionally sought out the beatles they're a band that you just know every song just from living so at least the tunes are familiar right there's a built-in nostalgia, even though I never put them on on purpose necessarily. What do you think, Ben? Do you think like, today, today. Right.

I just, I'm dropping, my new single is dropping. And we know that Ben thinks that England has never produced a single note of good music. Wrong. Damn it. No, but no. He's said that many times in private text threads. That is not true at all. And this isn't a world where Ed Sheeran

is still a stadium-filling success. Which is very perplexing. Which is a question perhaps. No offense to Mr. Sheeran. We're going to pin that as well. Okay, I'll say this. I think the songs are of course incredible, right?

The production value, the way that these songs are like recorded and played in this movie leads me to believe that maybe they wouldn't necessarily resonate as much as the beatles actual catalog he's doing them unavoidably they are different i mean you can't replicate you need the instrumentation. You need even the different recording studio techniques, the analog sound. And they don't really get into it much at all. It's just the one moment where he's like, the guitar has to gently weep this way. But you have the scene later where he performs help at the hotel and he really kind of makes it his own thing. Yes, because he's anguished.

own thing yes because he's anguished right and you're like yeah these songs are so like just fucking structurally sound right and potent that like yes maybe the way these songs become big again is someone reinterprets them into the musical taste of the time without fucking them up you know but sometimes he's just doing cover band version of them uh uh josie and the pussy cats one of the 10 best movies we've ever covered on the podcast. Have you seen Josie and the Pussycats? I don't think I have. I think you'd enjoy it. It's a good movie. Josie and the Pussycats,

a scathing indictment. On my character. Of your character. I'm pointing at you. No, no, no. But it's like a real angry satire of the music industry, entertainment industry, and sort of what you're talking about.

Especially at that moment. Right. Where basically they're like, if we tell everyone this is the number one band in the world, it will become the number one band in the world.

This is like Britney Spears boy band kind of era of music. They're like, I might go watch this immediately. I kept thinking about the similarities between these two movies

in weird ways, even though that film's less supernatural. But basically, they're like a band playing to no attention in the back of a bowling alley and they can't get booked and then a record executive is like you have the right look

we're gonna put you up on a billboard we'll just put the machine behind we don't have the songs written yet we haven't recorded anything yet we can make anyone a star and it starts to become this whole conspiracy in a fun way but like that movie makes it very clear of like oh this is how the machinery can make an audience like anything this movie has such a weird switch flip of being like well the songs are undeniably a hit but then everyone acts like he's not sellable

so they try to transform him but they don't change him that much yeah that part was a little I don't know but I have a question about Joe's and the Pussycats do they play original songs in that movie? Yes. Because I always find that tricky in movies where you're supposed to believe that,

oh, this song hits super hard. This is one of the biggest hits of the year. The Josie and the Pussycats songs are bangers. It's why the movie works. But I feel like with this movie, you solve that problem by just putting Beagle songs. Which works. Easy fix.

Which works. And even if you're maybe like hey maybe that actually wouldn't be how it went yes you can still accept like yes people like yesterday yeah people like whatever now what i go see a dude play by himself like just an electric guitar and be like as like blown away i don't know necessarily it is interesting that he's a solo act when the beatles are such an iconic group it's such a weird choice but if you try and make him a group you got to get into how the other people no it wouldn't make sense i understand it really is the only way to do it yeah yeah um i just we have to touch on boyle in between train spotting two and

yesterday of course mostly bond first he wanted to he directed a nativity play with Banksy called Alternativity, which is a pretty funny name. Damn, that's sick. At the Waldorf Hotel in Bethlehem. I don't know what that was like, but it was weird. What a queer this guy is. I know. Do you know what he's doing right now, Zach? Beyond Pistol, i couldn't i

couldn't tell you he's he's he's working on a dance production based on the matrix wow like a like live or yes okay like a matrix ballet it's a matrix musical event of some sort in manchester right yeah but dance base not like a musical. Yeah. I have to see it. As we briefly mentioned, he does Trust. Yes. That was for FX, correct? Which comes out like two months after All the Money in the World is the same story with like an alternate universe cast.

It is the reason why they wouldn't push All the Money in the World back and did that insane, we're going to reshoot Christopher Plummer. This TV show. Because they were like, if we don't come out before the end of the year not only we're going to miss Oscar season but also this show's

coming out in like February and it was Brendan Fraser Hilary Swank Donald Sutherland like it had big names in it

Donald Sutherland as J. Paul Getty is a really good physical match he is apparently it was like going to be a multi-season

like their original concept for season 2 would go to the 30s and you would see like the birth of Getty's monstrousness or whatever they had a whole yeah idea didn't happen but they did get kind of completely overshadowed by all the money in the world even though that movie wasn't very successful um now according to jj researcher boyle actually agreed to direct yesterday before he went to james bond 25 and he was going to do them like somehow in the same year or something insane. This would be a quick shoot.

It probably was a quick shoot. He loves Richard Curtis. It's come up in previous episodes that he always sort of had this like, I'd love to make that kind of movie at some point. And that Life Less Ordinary was him trying to like make a rom-com in a more traditional bent. Yes. Which he was, you know.

But throughout the early career, especially post-Beach, he's like, I don't want to do big budget early career especially post beach he's like i don't want to do big budget movies right so he's never really in don't want to be playing in the studio system want to be working small but yeah post uh specter he is tapped and he and john hodge start working on a james bond screenplay he and craig had done a thing together for the olympics craig liked him goes to the broccolis said what if we brought Danny Boyle in? Boyle brings Hodge in. I can't get over just the Broccoli's. Anytime I hear someone say the Broccoli's, I gotta.

It is very funny. You just imagine a bunch of. You know, they invented Broccoli. They invented Broccoli. It's named after. If the Beatles had not existed, what would they have? That would be funny. If that was a little sly joke, too.

It was called Little Trees. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tree, would be funny if that was a little sly joke, too. It was called Little Trees or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tree, tree, tree. There is a movie in which James Bond doesn't exist, and the guy's Googling furiously, and then 45 minutes, and he realizes broccoli doesn't also exist. It's because the family never... They never had the money for it!

Right. By August of 2018, he departed the project. Yes. Now, Boyle said the primary creative dispute was between the producers and John Hodge, the screenwriter. They asked him to fire Hodge, and Boyle said, no, no. Like, I work in partnership with my writers, especially with someone like John Hodge, who I've worked with many times. So, I'll be leaving, too. And those Bond movies almost always start in the recent history.

Start with director bringing in writer or Craig bringing in writer, and then the Broccoli's go, Purvis and Wade's going to rewrite this. To do this sort of Bondy stuff. Thank you for your new ideas. We're going to run it through the Bond machine and make it normal. Mark Tildesley, a longtime production designer who also did end up working with Boyle, but he also actually worked on No Time to Die, said that Danny had, quote, crazy madcap ideas.

This is what everyone was saying at the time. That didn't tie in with whatever was planned. And the whisper at the time was. And that movie is obviously very elegaic. Right. But it just kept on being this, he's trying to do something really weird and the Broccoli's are pushing back

and who knows what's going to happen. And the scuttlebutt even at that time was, he wants to kill off James Bond. And that was a non-starter, and so he quit the project. But that's not true. Because No Time to Die ends with James Bond dies. But that's not what it was. No, it wasn't.

Boyle says, the whole movie was set in Russia. I wanted to put it in present-day Russia and go back to the origins of James Bond and the Cold War. They lost confidence in it. Apparently, he wanted to cast Tomasz Kot from Cold War, the Polish film, as the Cold War. They lost confidence in it. Apparently, he wanted to cast Tomasz Kot from Cold War, the Polish film, as the Russian villain. And I don't know. Whatever.

Well, then the story became Danny Boyle is threatening to quit because MGM and the Broccoli's don't want him to hire this guy. And this guy had to put out a statement being like, I'm not a part of this. This movie isn't not happening because of our client.

He did meet with everyone. Boyle says the big thing he, his big idea was that James Bond had a kid. Yeah. And that's in the movie. He's like, that's the one thing they kept from me. He says they did differently,

but still. All right. Yesterday. He got to go to Russia after all in this movie. So yeah, he did. He went to the USSR. Right. Yes. That's absolutely right right yeah uh they don't dig into

whether the cold war maybe ended at a different time or anything like that just a little remark from sharon that's all we get uh so we talked about all the crazy screenplay stuff with this obviously um but uh you know this is interesting oh my did you read this quote Griff Richard Curtis talking about how he works He'll get his characters together and write Conversations between them he says this is a huge Part of his creative process Have dinner with the characters spend the night with them

So they discover how they talk Quote I'm slightly obsessed with Crocodile Dundee What Everyone remembers this is a knifeife and all that stuff. But that movie spends a whole hour in Australia. He's like, I like the conversational vibe of early Crocodile Dundee. A film we've covered on this.

Have you seen Crocodile Dundee? I don't think I have. Well, maybe you should as a Yesterday fan. Apparently, he was a huge influence. I will say, when we were watching him. We loved all that. That first hour. Him hanging in the bush.

Loved it. He was so cool. You never hear people cite that though as like a key cornerstone of their writing development. Especially because that movie is like a contemporary of his career. It's not like he saw that when he was five. Clearly he must have seen it when he was 20 or whatever. He's already working at that point. And then he sees that and he's like this is what i need to strive for fair warning when he if you do watch it when he comes to new york things get a little

bit more dicey oh okay i love the idea just so you know of richard curtis watching paul hogan's career and being like i'm the beatles and he's the Beach Boys. And we're competing with each other. He said that specifically about this movie or just all his movies? He's talking about this movie, but he does seem to just sort of cite Crocodile Dundee. He's always aiming for Crocodile Dundee. Loose conversational style.

It's the high watermark. He also likes The Deer Hunter. That's the other movie he's in. Funny. I have you, Rich Witch. Ultimate just hangout movie. That's my other movie he used. Funny. I have you now. Which, which, oh. Ultimate just hangout movie. That's my other comfort food that I didn't think I would like.

Right. And you never used to be into Russian roulette, and now you love it, right? The Deer Hunter does have a long first act. The first hour is the wedding. Where they're not in, right, Vietnam yet. I guess that's what he's thinking of. Yeah. Now, Richard Curtis also says,

I could have done a more complicated Piece of sci-fi Where you know Notice that things have changed Because there's no lung cancer or something But we didn't want to do that You know I wanted to keep everything else ultra realistic

So he's basically telling me not to worry about it But like About time which was his pretty much his previous project yes right i mean he writes uh mama mia here we go again in between or is that the same year no that's 2018 that's the year before that's true but yes about time have you seen about time his time travel rom-com yes which he also directed and Mia, in those movies, does ABBA exist? Yeah. Oh, no.

No. Very much no. No. Those people are spontaneously summoning music from another dimension. Well, in Dancing Queen, that was Donna's band. That's right. That was their band. That's their song.

Those movies are basically like yesterday, if there was no Himesh Patel character, to realize that ABBA didn't exist. And also where, like, even though they were a band that had Dancing Queen, they never had much success. That's the thing, right. Meryl Streep, Julie Walters, and Christine Baranski did write Dancing Queen, but none of the other ABBA songs. Only the one came to them.

Every other ABBA song has come to them only in moments of great emotion. Correct. They are moved to perform Waterloo. It comes straight out of their soul. Yeah. I didn't realize there was such a robust sci-fi adjacent musical. Lily James, of course.

Yes. Both. Wow. You know, her and Mamma Mia, Here We Go Again, is just an insane movie star performance. I think so, too. I love her. And I love that movie. That's a movie that should not work

i haven't seen that one either and this is what i mean any musical movie i'm a no did you see mama mia one no mommy one pretty good two two is oh wait i literally just thought of the exact perfect comp to this okay the movie sing the animated movie oh sure yeah i went into the animated movie yes yes okay What were you thinking of? Sing Street is another. Sing Street I love. I went into both of those movies, but Sing really, really hit me. Where I was like, I don't think I'm going to like this.

I'm not even a big... You don't love cartoons that much? No, not that much. No fan of koalas. No fan of koala bears? No, koalas don't do it for me. You know, they have their sexual disease problem that concerns me. But I went and saw Sing, and I loved it.

I did see that one in theaters. Okay. And that's a perfect comp. I only saw Sing 2. I just, like, loved it. And it made me laugh, too. Like, I thought it was funny. I figure I'm seeing Sing and Sing 2

in the next couple years. That was like Sean Clements said in our 127 Hours episode where he's now filling in every gap of an animated film he missed in the last 15 years. They're all going to love it. Wait, the thing I was going to say about Mommy, here we go again. First, Mama Mia, Meryl Streep,

lives on Greek Island, runs a hotel, Man of Seafreed's her daughter, never knew her father, finds her mother's old journal. Founds out she slept with three guys in the same week around the time that she would have gotten pregnant. Invites all three to the island to try to figure out which one's her dad, right? Meryl Streep says, I refuse to do a sequel, even though the first one's huge. And Richard Curtis comes up with, with his daughter, basically said, you should make the sequel The Godfather Part 2.

with with his daughter basically said you should make the sequel the godfather part two so the movie is half amanda seyfried post meryl streep's death trying to run the island grieving her mother and half her going back into the journals and trying to imagine what her mother's life was like where lily james plays young meryl streep wow and they recreate the three things you know what happens because they say it the first week. She meets three guys. Her heart's broken three times. And Lily James just sells it so fucking hard, replacing Meryl Streep, which is a thankless task. That it's very clear that her getting cast in this movie is like working title, Richard Curtis, everyone being like, we're in on this. And she's so cute in this movie.

She's got those bangs. Which came first, Yesterday or Mamma Mia those bangs yes which came first yesterday or mama mia came first yeah uh of course the biggest question is why didn't richard curtis direct this at this point he's directing his own scripts fairly often every time he directs one of his scripts he's like i hate this i don't like directing i mostly want to protect my scripts he says he gets imposter syndrome yeah he just doesn't think he's very good at it and and he's like this is the last one i'm ever going to direct now about time i brought up just because i think about time is a perfect richard curtis sci-fi movie in terms of how you time travel you go into a closet and you close the door and you hug your chest you're back in time right and i'm like great i don't need to talk

about fucking time loops i don't need to talk about butterfly effect i don't need the science of this movie to make any sense it's like magical romantic realism right that works for me right this movie's concept is so much more complicated though it is and yet it works perfectly for every second yeah it works just fine there's a big blackout in the beatles don't exist um he i will also say they i will mention they they had also worked together explicitly on the mr bean Bean bit in the Olympics. Oh, of course. Curtis did write that.

He wrote it. If you haven't seen it, Zach. He wrote for the Olympics? Well, Danny Boyle directed the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012. And there is a Sterling bit with Mr. Bean. Zach, it is some of the funniest shit. It is really funny. I have not seen it.

In which Mr. Bean is playing the Chariots of Fire theme song. They bring out a full orchestra to play the Chariots of Fire theme song. And then you realize the camera starts to slowly push in on one member of the band. And in fact, it is Mr. Bean. Stuck among them. He's up to no good. And he's like blowing his nose and then throwing the used tissue into the opening of a Baby Graham piano.

The joke is he's playing like the boring synth part where it's just him pushing a key repetitively. Yeah. That's really funny. That does sound good. I have a whole list of things I'm going to watch immediately now. That's great. Both Mamma Mia's, Josie the Fuzzy Cats, and Mr. Bean at the Olympics. Mr. Bean at the Olympics.

I'll send that right to you. Danny Boyle considers Richard Curtis our poet laureate of romance and comedy, whatever that means. Okay. He called the script like coleridge or wordsworth unborrowed genius so danny boyle likes this script yeah he's not like and i gotta do something he's he's he's as he always often is very effusive sure very full of energy and light look when this movie starts i'm like uh i i re-watched a notting hill pretty

recently and you and i got into a bit of a scuffle. We did? Yeah, because I was like, that's a perfect movie. And you were like, I have some gripes. These things are weird. I'm like, no, that's a sterling, perfect screenplay. I'm not kidding. I do believe that this movie is a near-perfect movie.

Can I pose a theory? So we will be scuffling as we continue. That's fine. Can I pose the theory? Yeah. You guys, you don't smoke pot, right? Famously. Once in a while.

Hey, my friend, I'm hitting dad grass on a nightly basis now. Okay, that's true. Gummies, gummies only. Gummies only. Very low dosage. But they really got you, huh? They really, like, you're on the monthly plan at this point, basically? Yeah, it's working for me.

Damn, that's great. It's the exact right amount. CBD, I mean, you know, it can help people relax. Yeah. A thing I'm notoriously great at. Yeah. Yeah. But okay, so growing up though, you weren't like big potheads, right?

You weren't stone. No. Okay, because I feel like with this movie, it's that thing of being like, dude, did you ever think about? And then you're just on board because you're high with your friend you're like damn man i never did think about that right like the sort of uh one might say half-baked ideas that emerge during a little smoke sesh sure or let's say there's like four characters from that 70s show and they're kind of sitting in a circle and the camera's

whipping around yeah sure yeah but i'm just saying like i feel like i'm just immediately like all right yeah so the beatles only one guy knows about it this is funny too because when i first saw this movie i i had you know i had a little bit of a weed era in college but i had left it behind completely so when i first watched the movie on the plane no no weed in my life at the time okay in between weed returned slightly to welcome oh okay and yet the movie worked exactly the same for me in both in both circumstances so i look i did i did take a dad grass before watching this last night i watched the the nighttime formula i'm just saying i was i was looping myself up to enjoy this as much as possible but this opening chunk,

I bring up Notting Hill just because I think this is getting at the great Hugh Bonneville, Hugh Grant friend group stuff in Notting Hill that, you know, in Four Weddings and a Funeral

is running off the same gas as well. Richard Grant is very good at just the old friends hanging out thing. Richard Curtis, you're saying? Not Richard Grant. Yes. Richard Grant also I would love to hang out with. He probably is a fun hang. But Richard

Curtis, that's like secretly one of his strongest skill sets is here's a group of people who have clearly known each other since they were 15 and all poke fun at each other but love each other and what nice little traditions they have and their fun little activities they do and all their peculiarities. I want to hang out with these people right this is nice yeah and then they

disappear from this movie it's a little bit of a bummer for me yes yeah i did i will admit i did find that odd a bit yeah and it seemed like oh okay here's his group of friends and then you see them maybe one more time at the very end but the other thing we're setting up at the very end. But the other thing we're setting up at the very beginning of this film is Lily James is Himesh Patel's pro bono manager. She drives him everywhere. She books his gigs. She carries his equipment.

She sets it up. She does everything for him. Now, Ben, I agree with you. I am the king of it just never happened. Right? In terms of romantic what if, what could have been.

Why are you friends with this beautiful single lady who clearly holds a torch for you i know this too well okay what what gets me hung up in this movie is it takes the approach of he never once considered it i i buy it there are minor adjustments that make this relationship work for me where it's like i buy it if it's like we were both two in our heads and we never had the conversation. We were scared to ruin this or whatever. Instead, she's here devoting her entire life to him at the beginning. Yes.

And he appreciates her so much as a friend. She is the most luminous woman on the planet. Right. luminous woman on the planet. Right? She's this like perfect idealized Richard Curtis, charming girl next door, who does everything for him, is his biggest cheerleader, and 40 minutes in she's like, can I ask you the tough question? Why did you never fall in love with me? And he seems gobsmacked at the notion.

He does. Damn, dude, you're right. I never thought of that. Because he does do the old drop jaw. What do you mean? But maybe he was just gobsmacked by how he thought he would just never have the conversation. Maybe he thought they had reached this sort of equilibrium of like, you know, we're just not going to talk about it. We're never going to bring it up. Also, when you cross that line with a friend, it's like you can't ever go back on the other side.

So it's hard to have that. Yeah, there's the risk, sure. What you guys are saying right now. Am I going to ruin it? If that is what he said in the scene, I would still be in. Griffin, it's called subtext, my man. I just think, David, back me up here. He literally makes the gobsmacked face.

His jaw drops. It does drop. What do you mean? Like, he's confused by the notion. And that's where I start to go, go like what the fuck is going on here okay here's what i will say about their relationship yeah i do i do agree her character it doesn't make a lot of sense in in terms of yeah she's devoted her entire kind of life to this guy and his dreams and that kind of thing quick rewrite fix maybe he was in a relationship for 15 years sure sure and the timing never worked out oh you just broke up with sarah right you know you verbalize the we're such good friends we don't want to do anything to jeopardize

that right any of those things there's so many quick one sentence things you can put in there that explains why there's clearly a simmering feeling there that is mutual but it just never happened i think it might be it might be fixed also by like i think it makes sense on a shorter timeline like if they hadn't been friends since they were 14 when you go like oh she saw him swooning through the curtains but his first performance then it doesn't hit as hard when it finally comes about. Because then you don't have that half a life, you know, then what would you have said at the beginning of the podcast?

You wouldn't have had anything to say about half a life. Half a life is really brutal when she says that. Yes. It's really sort of hammering home, like, TikTok. Like, you know, I've wasted time here. Yeah, I just don't buy that he never noticed or considered her in that way and then we'll get to but some of her decisions later in the movie also are bizarre look we don't have a sense of who he is really as a person here's my thing sweet floppy haired richard curtis boy well

i've got a couple addendums okay he does live at home with his parents yeah lovingly played by sanji bashkar and mirasiel he's like a sitcom legend those are two great actors so funny they're so funny they were the leads two of the four characters two of the four actors on the iconic sort of culturally pivotal british sketch show goodness gracious me which was like the first time that British Indian people had like a big sketch comedy show. And it's one of those shows, it was so pivotal for me because I had just moved to England and I was

like, this is a window on humor that doesn't exist in America. Sure. And it's like one of those sketch shows where like now you watch it and you're like, almost all these sketches hold up. There's a couple things where you're like, eh, it's a little like 90s or whatever. Of course. But like the most, maybe the most famous sketch sketch ever have you ever heard of going for an english yes it's like it's all of them at an english restaurant all the indian characters you know

and they're basically like behaving like english people behave at indian restaurants where they're like what's the blandest thing on the menu can you get us four of those like and like things like that where it's like instead of asking for the spiciest thing and then they're like we have fries we need chips we need chips uh 40 plates of chips please and the guy's like i think that's too much and they're like don't you tell me how to behave like it's so funny it's a good bit it like held a mirror up to society yeah it transformed britain a little bit okay they rule yeah they're also really funny in this movie yeah but he's home with his parents yeah is it supposed to be kind of an arrested development thing yes right like he's kind of a he's kind

of an eternal teenager yeah and it's hard to have game when you live with it reminded me a lot of uh elton john in rocket man he's living with his parents and playing on the piano i mean he was like a child at the time he's a child but you know i don't know that all felt that all felt good to be i do think it's funny that they're like we need songs that are his own songs that he wrote that just inherently don't connect hamash you want to try writing them yourself did he write the writing credit at least on the summer song i saw that's amazing but like there's something kind of passive-aggressive about like we like songs that are close but they're not really good there is something insipid about the summer song isn't there yes that's so funny do you guys think he tries to sneak the summer song

onto the track list for the album that he's like okay we can have yesterday i saw her standing there she loves it yeah sure summer song like track eight and they're like i would cut that that's a b-side he He's like, I insist. There's the scene where McKinnon's like, I hate it and I don't want to know anything more about it. Which is funny. Yeah. Like, the way she does that. I hate it, but I'm not interested. Right. Yeah.

Right? That song's kind of insipid. I don't even remember the song at all. It's a dud. Something all summer long. But it's also one of these questions where I'm like, this guy is talented, right? Like, you know, singer not the song. He performs these well. When he gets the Beatles songs in hand, he performs them well.

You kind of understand why, like, Lily James, as a little girl, watching him play Wonderwall, would be like, this guy's got the goods. Little local papers are going to write about him because the kid knows how to sing and play guitar. But his songs suck and there's something to the fact that like at the beginning of the movie it's not like i'm here i'm grinding out and it's just not connecting and i don't know why when he's writing original songs it's not even like i'm not getting booked as a cover guy you know i almost want him at the beginning of the movie to be like uh outwardly specifically obsessed with the beatles like i almost he kind of is in terms of his relationship with his friends yes the language he uses with lily jane you know they're they're they reference the beatles like

a few times kind of in there it comes up in his like regular vernacular. But I'm like, I kind of like, I was just, I was stewing on different things as I was watching it. Right. I was like, if this guy's a crazy Beatles super fan and at the start of the movie,

he's like, you know, the Beatles had already broken up by the time that they were my age. It's never going to happen. You know? And you're sort of obsessed with this burst of insane creativity,

youth, right time right place right energy that these guys had that he feels like he's never gonna get and suddenly he's handed like their whole library do you think he has to be a super fan to know the songs that well because i feel like the songs are so ubiquitous no but but i i would forget lyrics it's a weird balance but he does any of it he does i love the eleanor rigby which is sort of fun the eleanor rigby bit i think is great i kind of want more of that i know because that is the one time because obviously the early beatle songs are fairly simple yes maybe i could pretty much do those from memory yeah yeah maybe i mean i don't know how to play music like or i haven't played music in a long time so it'd take a while to figure that out sure but i

could still probably i could release some really great poems yeah right right yeah i could just sing i could just sing yesterday to someone be like what chords are these yeah yeah right that's part of the power of ed sheeran and you could you could make it happen but then eleanor rigby it's like yeah that's like a pretty complex song it's lyrically pretty dense i don't remember every word of eleanor rigby right off the top of my head sure maybe if i as he does kind of really went to my memory palace maybe then i could do it and look that's some good boyle cinematic visualization the him replaying the tape trying to find he doesn't phone it in he doesn't and he is a way better director than richard curtis yes like richard curtis is a pretty perfunctory visual

filmmaker yes whenever he's direct about I think, is very good. Yeah, that's a... I've only seen that movie once. Some people really love that movie and some people really hate it. Yeah. They find it manipulative, I guess. Right. So, it's kind of the Richard Curtis thing, though. Yeah. He's kind of manipulative. No, that one totally works for me. Yeah, it's whether or not it works for you. Yeah.

I have two thoughts. Please. That just came up. Please. One is about the relationship between... I don't even remember their characters' just came up. Please. One is about the relationship between, I don't even remember their characters' names. Jack. Jack Malick. Jack and Ellie. Ellie.

So I agree, in the script, it's a little weak, but I just felt like their performances were so, like, human. I just felt it. You know, I got it from her. I got it from him. I think they're both selling it really hard. Totally. Totally.

So I was willing to kind of, to let that stuff slide. The other thought I just had is I cannot believe he didn't, uh, perform wonder wall ever because we know that that song doesn't exist as well. Right. Throw that in,

add that onto the album. So here's another logic question. Well, and sorry, and I'm also about to get very, why did he invent cigarettes? He could have made a lot of money. That's true. He could's another logic question. Sorry. I'm sorry. And I'm also about to get very frustrated. Why did he invent cigarettes? He could have made a lot of money. That's true. He could have crushed it up to back. Maybe he did

because he's decided he won't, you know, I'm not going to profit off the Beatles. I will profit off of cigarettes. Yes. Beatles open source. Cigarettes, you gotta pay. What's your complaint? And then I have a question. Their origin story of their relationship is

she sees him perform Wonderwall at the talent show and she never gets over it if Oasis doesn't exist and he asks her why do we know each other what is her memory does she exist in an alternate timeline where she's like of course you perform truly madly deeply damn dude

this is what I think it is Griffin i think it is griffin i know you were in spider-man uh far from home but if beetles had not existed i may have would have been well that is probably true and i also maybe kind of was a little bit okay oh no not far from home you're not in far from home yes yes yes but you're in homecoming you're in homecoming and what do you make an appearance in wait Wait, which fucking one is it? The last one. What is the last one? Is that No Way Home?

Yes. No Way Home. They really should have switched. The home thing was too complicated. It was. Home, I think about as being the most important element of Spider-Man and his mythology. The guy's always in his house. Yeah.

No Way... At the end of No Way Home, where it's like, everyone has forgotten about Spider-Man, but that's just... Or Peter Parker. But that's just kind of like, we just lifted that out and everything else is the same. I think it's the same. She's just like,

if you were just like sitting her down being like, well, do you remember? She'd be like, I don't know, you performed a song. Right. Like it's just sort of like blurry in her memory now. Or it was a kink song. That's my question. No, but I'm saying, I think she just doesn't remember.

It's my question. In her mind, is she just like, huh, what song was it? Or does she now, is there like some timeline mush up that's happened where she's like, I'm from the timeline where you did Savage Garden. But this is the thing. I think she just doesn't remember. I'm with you. I think she doesn't remember.

But then, of course, the one thing that kind of. They flash back to it. They do. But I'm saying like. It's just a blur. If you ask her, she'd just be like, oh, I don't remember. But they flash back to it for us, the audience. We're existing on the outside of both of these universes yes also true so so we do get to see

the flashback cut to a young him just like when i feel heavy metal here's the other thing yeah i would love to see that i can make that argument of like oh it just everyone forgot about the beat sure but then john lennon exists yep the you know the now this on fire ace of spades that this movie plays at the poker table i'm just saying that kind of world's largest pin i know i know like we're sort of like trying to get it but here's my oh i haven't my other complaint we're getting fiery here yeah he's obviously not like my first album should be called please please me and it should be sequenced this way and i'm like he's not going to release the exact same album no he's like

two disc basically beatles number one this is my question what is the sequencing of this album yes is he putting like songs from abby road on the same fucking album as songs from please please me because that makes no sense yes you can't pack it all into one record no respect for the order and i think they're all mixed the fuck up yeah what the fuck is going on hey as somebody who didn't care about the beatles at all didn't matter yeah you're just like you said that that wave comes and your boat just goes right over it. To the point where just this is a,

I'm going to take the pin out of the linen very briefly to get into this. Hold it against the wall so it doesn't fall down to the ground. We're going to put it back in. Pin in one hand

holding linen against the wall. I believe when I first saw the movie I maybe didn't know who that was at all. Zach is miming holding the pill. When I, the pin. And when I rewatched it two days ago with my wife.

John Lennon opened the door and I turned to my wife and said, who is that? So you. And this is post watching the entire documentary. Yeah. I've seen the film twice. And you've seen Get Back. I've watched the documentary. Loved it.

I watched Get Back. Loved Get Back. And still, I said, who is that? Wow. So that's my level of beatles knowledge going okay put the pin back in the pin back in the wall zach i'm just thinking about like us talking about the the richard curtis dynamics right yes and and the proper like uh nodding hill another thing i think it does really well which this movie tries to do a little bit is the

sort of insecurity of am i worthy of being with this person? This person is so successful and they're so beloved and they're destined for greatness. And look at me. I own my little travel bookshop. There's the sort of self-doubt where the person self-defeatingly fucks up the relationship because they feel insignificant next to this famous person. Right. But there's also just this weird sliding doors. Is he just the most oblivious man in the world for how outwardly aggressively on his side

she is, right? Your story of you meeting your wife and the two of you ending up together is like a good Richard Curtis story of like you almost blowing it in your sort of like this couldn't be. Sure. I mean, it's I think it's incredibly charming. Sorry. Sure. But that's like a realistic one where I'm like, this couldn't be. Sure, I mean. I think it's an incredibly charming story. Sure. But that's like a realistic one where I'm like, yes. Now, just to clarify what you're speaking about,

the way I met my wife is, she came to an improv show of mine, she tweeted at me, asked me out for a drink, and I thought to myself, hmm, I wonder if this woman wants to talk about uh improv comedy right you're you jumped to the assumption that she was looking for advice on how to make it on advice but more just like pick my brain about improv or whatever yeah turns out that was not the case spoiler alert we're married now right oh yeah um so yeah sure i see that and now if danny

boyle made a movie about this, you'd be in here yelling about how little this thing made. No, this is what I'm saying. I buy, like, that makes sense where it's like, you know. Because it was only over the course of about 15 minutes where I had that thought, as opposed to half a life. Your wife goes to the show with her friends, and she's out at the bar, Ben's smiling. It's a charming

story. It's a great story. It is. It is. It is wonderful. It is wonderful. She goes to the bar with her friends. What a nice surprise. Great for me. Sorry, go on and instead talk romance yes uh she like goes to the bar with her friend she's like i think that guy was cute they're like do it tweet at him zach sees it he's like i guess sure i have some stature in the improv scene we can talk talk about improv. Goes out with her. And as I remember you telling it, you're only talking about improv for like 15 or 20 minutes. I think even not at all.

And then she basically says, you know, this is like a date, right? We don't have to talk about it. No, we didn't. See, now, just like in this movie, we didn't have to make it text. Okay. It was subtext.

Okay. I made a baffled face and then i quietly in my head went oh this is a date okay and then we had a date okay okay okay okay so maybe that's why i like this movie because i'm equally one of the most oblivious no but i'm like right right you just let that stuff bounces off. That is charming and does not make you seem dumb. Sure. I am dumb. You're not.

Well, I think you're highly intelligent. I got some old tests I could show you. I got some report cards. Some people weighed in on this topic. This is a true story. I once in college took a midterm for a lot of credit in my course and the professor at the top just wrote yikes wow did not give me a number grade or a letter grade just wrote yikes i'm sorry for laughing no it was wonderful it's just very weird i wasn't trying to i used to get sure okay okay i used to get frowny faces on tests like is it is it in college? I dropped out of college pretty fucking quickly.

You ever got a yikes? Yeah, did you ever get a yikes? I don't think I ever got a yikes, but in high school I would do... My stupid high school where David's wife also went. Yeah, they don't do grades. Like, pride themselves on we don't do grades. Yeah, but you know what that means? They give you a test.

Do you do frowny faces? They give you a test and they go, you got five out of 80 questions right. Frowny face. You still know how you did. Sure, it's a score of sorts. And then there's a real frowny face next. They use that like doctor pain scale. Yes.

Where it's like, you're a nine. Decreasingly frowny. Yeah, this guy lost a limb. Have you ever gotten a box of ashes because they had to burn it and then give it back to you? Ben? No. Did that happen to you? No. I'm just to you? No.

I'm just joking. Yikes is funny. I just think there, I'm watching this movie and for the whole first part of it, I'm like, is the notion that he's like so in his head,

caught up in his own shit, so oblivious, he's just never considering this stuff. Is this guy kind of adult? He almost reads as aromantic for the first like hour of the movie. He seems to have no interest in any woman almost seems like it's a topic the movie doesn't even want to brush up

against and then the scene where she flies out to meet him when he's there or takes the train goes to liverpool to liverpool but he's there on a research trip live street station basically right and suddenly he becomes like perfect rom-com leading man. Their chemistry is crackling. He's wearing a sweater so fucking well. Sure. They're hot together. They're very hot. And you're like, great.

Now have to be together in the movie can test their relationship. And instead she's like, I can't do this. I have to leave. Which I sympathize with her. I mean, it seems like you do Tuesday. Yeah. But you know what? Something you just said made me clock.

Maybe it's just that he was so focused on, am I worthy as a musician? Am I ever going to get my career off the ground? He couldn't even think about that. Now that he's having success in that area, he's able to open his eyes and go, oh, what's been going on in my romantic life? It's called getting self-confidence.

It is the interpretation that comes closest to working for me. When I was trying to make the headcanon to make it all good for me i still think they don't quite pull that it's just the scale of the thing of how into him she is well that's but her saying like it honestly hurts that you've never made a move yeah i get it yes yeah It honestly hurts that you've never made a move. Yeah. I get it. Yes. Yeah.

But it does come out of nowhere just in this movie. Right. Like, I can understand in the scope of their lives why that would be frustrating. But I am kind of saying to her at the same time, I'm like, I don't know, man. You guys have barely flirted. Right. Rich and famous, like, contract. He's getting on a plane the next day. And she's like, I'm going to ask you the eight big questions I've been holding on to for half of my life.

If you're going to do this, then this is it. It's over. And I'm going to date train tracks, man. Right. I'm going to date, you know. Did you watch all of the deleted scenes? I don't think I watched all of them, but I watched a significant portion of them. A thing I found very interesting, and I was sort of trying to like puzzle piece this together.

It feels like from watching the deleted scenes, the movie originally had a somewhat different order uh-huh and he basically flies himself out to la to try to pursue the career he gets fired from his day job yeah and he's like this is the motivation i need which is kind of a thread they dangle and then forget about i did not watch that this is the motivation i need to get on the plane and go out there with joel fry and they're like staying at a shitty hotel and it feels like the hookup hasn't happened it almost feels like uh from the delete scenes this is interesting because it's ed ed sheeran hires him to be the support act for the one show in russia right kate mckinnon does not discover him for another like 20 to 30 minutes of the movie this is just a different version of the movie where it's like

him getting famous is takes a little longer part of the stakes whereas this the movie we actually have him getting famous is almost like inevitable but within that the minute anyone he sees him perform they're like I'm into you within that in these deleted scenes he's out in LA and he calls her and he's

talking about how bad it is betting himself he still can't get any attention, this and that. And she's like, well, I have some big news to tell you. Right. He's like, what? I'm seeing somebody. I'm seeing Train Man. She says it much earlier. And he, well, she doesn't say Train Man. She says, I'm seeing somebody. He goes, who?

She goes, that's too much information for one call. And then it cuts back to her and you see Train Man in the background. And then there are multiple deleted scenes that are her back home with train man and her friend and her friend who they clearly established as sort of pining for train man yes okay i was gonna say it feels like that was deleted because in the movie she sort of steps up and and is excited to be with train man but you basically don't ever see her train man Man also has much more of a setup, which is they go, they rent a recording studio. The guy

at the recording studio is like, oh, I'd buy that song from you if you rewrote it into a jingle for this or whatever. And he's so offended. He's like, that's the greatest song ever written and you want to turn it into a fucking jingle. And he storms out and he's like complaining about it at the cafe afterwards. And

then Train Man follows them to the cafe. And he's like, I'm so sorry cafe afterwards and then train man follows them to the cafe and he's like i'm so sorry i just quit my job i love that you're right that song is a masterpiece i'm i'm in on this i want to produce your album right his name is gavin i believe right yes so it's sort of like train man is the first guy who really bets on him and like stakes his career on again right this is a more complex version of the movie that's career and you see instead they made perfect choices and a perfect you see gavin and ellie connecting from that early moment so then when he's in la before he's successful she tells him i'm dating somebody you see her having fun with gavin right then when she would go out to liverpool she has already had a boyfriend which in this movie she says i don't

want to be a one-night stand perpetually she takes she goes this is your final chance he says i got to get on the plane and then when he goes to la she calls him and goes now i'm dating somebody in your absence because you just fucked it up which is a pretty big shift it is it there is a logic to it i understand that she's held the torch yes and when she finally lets it out she's like the spell is kind of broken she's like i should just date train boy right i mean he's tall yeah friendly music adjacent yeah exactly and and it's just a little chiller you see her having chemistry with train guy earlier versus it being like i don't know chemistry with train guy yeah but it feels like I don't know who's fucking around train guy

it feels like she goes back almost with contempt and she's like who's the last guy I met train guy come over here you're my boyfriend maybe they have a lovely thing going on in the deleted scenes they do but also when you get your fucking heart broken sometimes you just need to reach for some comfort who's comforting who's easy I mean

I mean the thing about Train Boy is he even takes the breakup like Bill Pullman in fucking Sleepless in Seattle where he's like, what can I do? Yes. I can't fight love. He's extremely chill.

And then they need, it ain't bad being number two. Pulp were never number one. And then they need to like cut to her teacher friend standing looking at Train Boy being like, well, you're not gonna be alone because I've been secretly pining over you the whole time. Yeah, he basically just gets Lily James, diet diet lily james he gets like lily james generic brand

so quickly so cleanly where he's like no one is sad and like and this is a world without coke i was gonna say he gets the pepsi to her coke no there's no coke no mr pibb he gets the yeah he gets the rc cola shasta cola here's another thing yeah go ahead oh sure when he does the concert in russia he sleeps with hot mean russian which he does he mentions there's a lady yes a brief they have a one-night stand you're like oh he's like cashing in on the beatles thing and then most infamously this movie has this deleted flirtation with anand to armis which was in the trailer. You see him on the James Gordon couch. Yes. Playing something.

And Ana de Armas sitting next to him. Is she playing herself? No. She's playing a fake movie star. Yes. Sure. Just named, I forget. Right.

Like Vanessa, Vanessa Showbiz. Sure. I like Ana de Armas. Me too. I will say, watching this deleted scene zach i don't know if you had this feeling i did watch the scene most of this scene is and i did call my lawyer okay okay uh most of this scene is james corden famous gotcha journalist yeah in this movie it makes it seem like going to it's like going to meet the press with tim rosser to where he's gonna hold your feet to the fire but one is a nightmare

sequence this one is reality this is reality but i swear in the actual trailer for the film they presented the nightmare as if it was in the movie right as if it was in real life right in the movie and she's not in the nightmare she's not right um okay real life. He says, so part of your famous lore, not only do you write all these songs, you play them by yourself, you're one man only, whatever, but also, apparently you write all these in 15 minutes. People have watched you write these in real time. Here you go.

Here's a guitar. Write a song right now on TV. Yes. Which is the kind of thing Gordon does. Also happens in his other moments in the movie as well. People do keep being like, alright, come on! Right. on right so he goes write something and then he's like plays something right you play you play the song something right my favorite good clever one of my favorite songs as well and then most of didn't even pick up on that but love it like it just cuts to anna de armas watching him play this song sure and it is one of the most convincing silent

wordless watching someone fall in love acting performances I have seen basically for just like 40 minutes you watch Ana de Armas go through an entire life with this man as Richard Curtis says she's brilliant and radiant in the scene and that was

the problem that people got flipped out in test screenings because they were like, why is he not dating her? They were like, it's just too complicated. Either they want him to just get with her or they're mad that he's like, even considering briefly very entangled. They're like, this is unsympathetic.

I want him to be with Lily James. Unless there's a deleted scene that is not included on the iTunes extras. No, no, that's it. That's it. It's just the performance, the two of them next to each other and it cuts to her in bed, watching it on the iTunes extras. No, no, that's it. That's it. It's just the performance, the two of them next to each other, and it cuts to her in bed

watching it on TV and crying. Richard Curtis says his favorite joke in the film, which apparently his son came up with, is that he plays something when being asked to play something. Funny. And he was really sad to cut that,

but he was like, the underarmist thing was too complicated. It was messing with the test screenings and all that. It's gotta go. And of course, when they cut it out, all complications were over.

Psych, just kidding. Ben, do you know what this movie's number one lasting legacy, a thing that is still unresolved is? No. Ananda Armis fans.

A big thing. Ananda Armis fans who are rabid. Even by the standards of online movie fans. Of like modern movie stars, she weirdly has like the most organized,

Like if you put them in a gladiator pit with like Zack Snyder fans, they would dismantle them. Right. It's truly up there with like Snyder Bros and like Swifties.

To the point where I may not even want to wade into any, I may not even mention her. Of course. But they just, they're crazy about her. For someone who,

when this movie comes out, is like pretty much just starting to connect, right? But they include in the trailer her sitting next to him at the James Corden show. There is a class action lawsuit

that is still unresolved from Ana de Armas fans saying that they were sold this movie on false premises. Because she's in the trailer for a second or something right yeah that it was false advertising that basically they never ever under any circumstances would have paid 15 in theater or 4.99 for a digital rental if on dermis had not been in the trailer they watched it only for her she does not appear even

for a second and because of that they demand their money back and it has become a lawsuit that might end up like ripple effect changing like the advertising the way trailers you're not allowed to put anything that's not in the final cut in a trailer because right now it's still ongoing it keeps on getting approved it keeps on getting pushed to further and further courts and it's like they might have to refund every anna de armes fan who rented this movie oh my god at least some amount have to send out like five dollar itunes gift cards what is that thousands of on it who who are they suing uh universal pictures okay okay comcast be the owners of the owners okay yeah sure you know know. That's really funny. I find it so funny that like,

A, there are many instances. Just to be clear to the On a Day Armageddon fans listening, I agree with you 100%. We all support your call. I'm trying to sign on to the lawsuit. We're signing on. That's super serious.

I do think it is genuinely, I'm kind of like, hats off to you. Yeah. If you can win a battle against this corporate BMO, fine. I just think it's so funny

that there are so many movies that feature alternate takes, shots. Because they make these trailers before the movie is done. If not even clips of scenes that do not exist in any form in the movie. And then one step beyond that, Marvel and some of the other blockbuster films now will purposefully design things only to be in the trailer to throw people off their scent. things only to be in the trailer to throw people off their scent like they finish visual effects for fake scenes putting characters and things to not spoil that this character dies at the beginning of the movie or whatever it is and this is the movie that breaks everything it's putting on dearmus in a couch in one shot is the one where they were like we are being lied to yeah well they were so funny too because even if if the scene had made it in yeah do you think

they would have all been like fully satisfied no they would have been she's barely in the movie that he doesn't end up with her right wait but what if they made a movie where it was about her character like a side movie that would be such a funny settlement that they're like tomorrow like it's like we order you to make right exactly we have to make tomorrow starring anadarma yes showing the parallel plot in which this she interacts with him briefly every every member of the suit gets a voucher for one free ticket this future film yes which has to have a budget of at least 30 million dollars um that would be good that would be good for the judge if that's how movies get made go over to the judges just order them

it's Koopa and the movie it is your favorite sketch my favorite sketch I will say this about Honored to Armistice fans and I say this with all due respect

they're right and correct and smart and keep it up but I also think they will never be satisfied we love you stand back and stand tall right stand by

stand by but they'll never be satisfied no it's an endless mall It's never going to be enough But that's fine, that's part of what fuels it There's always another battle to fight They thought Anna DeArmour didn't have enough screen time in Blonde

And I have contacted my lawyer About that as well I've got a lawsuit to file about Blonde But it's definitely not enough time being spent on it um what are we you know okay so like you know he's about the plot i mean we haven't really talked about sharon obviously we've got the opening he's a lovely boy his one break there's a bus crash doing the the song on local tv which bombs and the host is dismissive, but it happens. And he does the festival when he plays it like the chill-out tempo.

Right. But I like all these bits of him playing for his parents and them taking phone calls and all this sort of stuff. There's a little cameo from Michael Kiwanuka, a British musician. He's the one who fires Joel Fry. I went to school with his brother, Robert. Oh, I love that scene.

Yeah, that scene's funny. This is when i'm enjoying the movie the opening was so well paced for me like yeah i loved every little like you know yeah he he does it on the show and it doesn't quite work and then he does it and he incrementally gets the success like it felt like a compressed uh like like biopic like a like of a real band basically you see them kind of make their way up and they get bigger gigs and then another band sees them invites them on the road i loved all he does this local tv appearance it feels like it doesn't make any difference but it turns out that quietly superstar ed sheeran lives in this small town because he wants to have this off the grid.

Yeah, he's within the local TV catchment area. And he happened to catch it and he thinks it's a great song. And he comes over to Jack's house for some reason. I will say, this film is set I believe in Suffolk. And Ed Sheeran is from Suffolk. So I guess

that tracks. Another logic loop closed. Perfect screenplay status confirmed That just turned to me with the energy of a lawyer In like a divorce settlement So we agree on Next item Ed Sheeran

Can I just say I bear this man no good or ill will Here's my entire knowledge of Ed Sheeran I know he's a famous musician Game of Thrones actor of course Can I just say? Yes. I bear this man no good or ill will. Sure. Here's my entire knowledge of Ed Sheeran. I know he's a famous musician. Game of Thrones actor, of course. I remember when he was on Game of Thrones and everyone got grumpy about it. I've listened to his off-menu episode.

Anyone who's been on off-menu is good in my book and his episode was very fun. James Acaster, come on, blank check. Yeah, please. Or Ed Gamble. And I know he's sort of just this little ginger boy with glasses. But he also raps. Yes. And I know he's sort of just this little ginger boy with glasses. But he also raps.

Yes. And all his albums are called like Plus or Minus or Division or Times. Square Root. What is he? He looks like a human Muppet. He's a little Muppety boy. I know also that he writes songs for a ton of... Right.

He's generally a... He's like a prolific songwriter. This is what I think is kind of... And I know he's sort of in the Taylor's... Like he's sort of Taylor Swift. He toured with her. He got discovered as a busker too. Right.

Yeah. He's got that back. This is what I think is kind of interesting about it being Ed Sheeran in this movie. Because it was written to be Chris Martin. Oh, interesting. Which, sure. But Ed Sheeran is more the classic like one man with a guitar actual success story but not only that basically like here's this guy who looks in no way like a traditional pop star who does not have

that swagger that energy right is kind of inherently goofy and but like voice of an angel and wow listen to these songs he writes and it's sort of like he is the model for what they're trying to argue jack malik would be in this movie yeah where it's like this guy out of nowhere but the songs work it just cuts to it denny have y'all like ed sheeran i have like no opinion that i hear you've heard some of the big songs i like the shape of you you know i like anytime I hear him, I enjoy him. He was a guy where I like, I was hearing the name everywhere

and I was seeing pictures of him and I was like, really, this guy's a pop star? And then I was like, I've never heard Ned Sheeran's song. I've never heard Ned Sheeran's song.

It's weird that he's the successful. And then you realize, oh, I've heard some. But you have. Right, and I was just like, none of these sound like what I assumed this guy was.

But yeah, it's like, his songs play at every fucking supermarket. I mean, I feel the same way. Yeah, just like, none of these sound like what I assumed this guy was. But yeah, it's like his songs played every fucking Super Mario. I mean, I feel the same way. Yeah. I like completely like ignore, actively ignored this guy. Right. And then realized, oh, actually, I know like five of them. Which is essentially how I felt about the Beatles prior to this movie. Sure, sure.

Truly. But you need it to be him, I think, in the sense that, like, he bucks against the idea of things are only going to get successful if the machinery is already behind it. Sure. Right. Because he's basically, like, game recognize game. I know a good song when I hear it. If I put you in front of my fans, this is undeniable. Slowly, you will just worm your way into people's ears.

This is what's funny about, again, like, this movie isn't too worried yes about the complexity of his career yes it's also not that worried about like another very obvious concept for a movie like this which is once the corporate machinery gets going you're doomed they corrupt they suggest that yeah like they're mostly just have a little fun exactly like the mckinnon character is kind of annoying yes the scene with um with Lamorne Morris Lamorne Morris from New Girl, you know, is funny. I think, you know,

like it's like, oh, corporate record speak. Underused. We deserve so much more of him. Yeah. But like, neither of those things are like,

oh my God, like this guy's fucking lost. No, and especially with the pacing of this movie. It's just kind of like, he is wearing that corny vest. And that's an indicator of like, uh-oh, something's going awry.

There's a scene in Josie and the Pussycat Sack where you have this montage of everything like blowing up for them, right? And then like Josie turns to the other two and she's like, does anyone else find it weird that this has all happened in the last two days? And it's kind of like a good meta joke.

Yeah. But it's also part of the thing of like the machinery is so fast. Right. And also just the structure of these movies works so quickly. There are parts of this movie where I feel like, has it been two days?

How quickly are things advancing? I will say, I don't think these movies worried about anything. It's not. I agree with you on that. That's what's interesting about the deleted scenes is that they thought about worrying about them. They fleshed all of that out. And then they were like,

why don't we just not? Just vibe it out. And then, of course, the most pivotal example, the final act twist that there are other people like him who we assume were also in a traumatic injury the second this magical event happened or something. You see him do a concert and they cut to a large

bearded man in the back and he looks mortified. And then you start seeing him follow him down the street at different points in time. There's also a deleted scene where they establish the other woman and you see her watching him on TV so you pin her into that. But when they confront him, they're just like, thanks, it's really nice to

hear the Beatles sing. I think that's nice. I don't mind it. First, there's the press conference. There's the press conference where you hear one of them say who is your favorite Beatle and one of them is

holding up a yellow submarine. Right. And in that moment you're like oh no is he Do they want to expose Mr. Gamers or also you know

my mind jumps to are they going to fucking assassinate him? It does feel like ominous. No this movie yeah cutting to like them like following him in the streets and yeah i mean i know what you're saying i was getting on edge watching it i thought they were just gonna call him out and be like you're

a fraud which they start to do and then he's like backstage joel fry goes like these two people they brought a yellow submarine they seem weird weird. I can send them away. Which, that's another logic thing. How does the yellow submarine still exist? Because his records disappeared. No, no. My wife and I had a 10-minute conversation about this. We were like, did they paint a submarine yellow? It might just be from some other... Maybe it's a Paw Patrol toy

or something. Yeah. And then I start... That could be true. Ben just lit up. Ben liked that. And then I start thinking like, sure, he's coming out with she loves uh sure you know uh i want to hold your hand but is he gonna bust out yellow submarine the fuck is this right yeah i do like the joke of when like ed sheeran is so impressed with back in the ussr that he's like what a weird choice to call it the ussr why would you today write the song uh that is one of the riskier ones he busts out yeah what's the what's the most

difficult beatles song to try and sell in 2020 2019 i will say i was surprised they did not comment with a meta joke about the, she was just 17. I know they do that. And then they just move past. People lose their minds. People enjoy it. They love it. They could have easily had a joke there about him making it.

She was just 21. Because of course they have, hey dude, right? There are other things that get altered. They make the comment about, he fucked up all the lyrics to being the benefit of Mr. Kite. Yeah, right.

Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite. The arrangement's wrong. I'm surprised you even tried to do that. Way over my head. That's a weird one. That's again where I start to get hung up. I'm like, what, is that just track eight on your fucking album? Right.

Like, Sgt. Pepper is a concept album. Those songs build into each other. Even on a double disc, that's not making the debut. Can't just slip that in. Yeah. Is he just going for like Maxwell's Silver Hammer? Your fucking you know i want to hold your hand like this doesn't work this the songs are supposed to be these are this was an album band they basically invented the rock album yeah also look i'm a movie guy i want to see him pitch the movies oh that would be funny

did not touch movie the movies if he's just like okay listen we're on this magical mystery tour yeah yeah i like when one at one point you're so psychedelic and that's the other thing where it's like well that wouldn't track now no yeah all the later stuff someone asked like what does hard day's night mean he's like i don't know yeah good question kind of a funny joke yeah yeah i like that my guess is i am the walrus i think that song yeah it'd be a tough one to just be like what the fuck is this yeah yeah i am the walrus is up cuckoo cachoo or if he was just like trying to recreate like revolution nine or he's like okay and then it's like you know this sound great scene of kate mckinnon reacting to that that would be funny yeah if she's like uh

what she'd be like that. So we're all on the same page that this movie should have been longer. I think. I mean, would Charles Manson not exist? Okay, look, you can't even touch that one. They already do the absolute insanity of bringing John Lennon back. They can't also,

I mean, a truly daring, transgressive filmmaker, and I love Danny Boyle, would show her watching a Sharon Tate movie that was clearly made that year. Right. Okay? Something really crazy like that. She plays the mom in My Best Friend's Wedding or some shit. Because that's what I would do.

I Google Beatles don't exist. Okay. Sharon Tate. Like, I just immediately, I would be like, how deep does this go? You don't go to Childish Gambino next? Okay, that's also insane. Clearly his second favorite musical act is Childish Gambino. In the universe in which you are the main character in this movie,

and you're the only one who remembers the Beatles. And I'm probably almost immediately like, I don't think I'm going to be able to record those songs. The movie cuts to two weeks later, your wife knocking on the door. You haven't showered. Your beard is to the floor. David, you haven't showered your beard is to the floor David you haven't eaten anything I got to google 15 more things there's so many implications

and I have like a list of like still exists doesn't exist that have like been scrawled on the wall I think if it was me I genuinely when I first discovered that no one else remembered I would go huh and then it would never come you forget it would just never come does this mean in this universe the rudels

don't exist david probably not and what a tragedy monkeys wouldn't exist monkeys wouldn't exist or do they did the monkeys become the definitive rock act of the early 60s. Damn. Last train to Clarksville. The thing with the two fans who remember. Yeah. And they are essentially just like, which makes sense that they can't expose them who would listen to them. They would sound crazy. Right. So instead they're just like, it's nice to hear the song. Which that felt

very real to me. It is nice. If you did remember the Beatles and it all disappeared and all of a sudden you hear a guy doing like pretty fun, good versions of the songs, you'd be like, this is great.

I love hearing them again. So, a starly kind friend of the show, past and future guest. I ran into her at a birthday party last week. I'm alright. And she said,

you have a defender on for yesterday, right? And I said, Zach Cherry. And she said, he'll be great. You don't like it, right? I've heard you make a lot of snide comments over the years? And I said, Zach Cherry. And she said, he'll be great. You don't like it, right? I've heard you make a last night comments over the years.

And I said, yeah, I have a lot of problems with this movie. And she went, look, I saw it. I think they were working on Search Party. She was a writer on that. She saw it with Charles Rogers, another past and future guest friend of the show, who also threw his hat in the ring too yesterday. He said, I'd either do Trainspotting or

Yesterday. And we were like, why don't you take Trainspotting? Yeah. And Craig Rowan, who is in that boardroom scene with Lamar Morris, great UCB guy, comedy writer, Craig Rowan. Very funny. And all of his dialogue is cut out. And they went to go see it, I think.

Danny Bowles sent him an email, but like only the day the movie came out that was like, I'm so sorry, mate. We did cut your stuff out of the movie. They all went to see it. And we're like, we had this like near religious experience where we almost went in upset like that. He was cut out of the film. Our friend was such a good time. And she was like, I don't know if it was just the right place, right time.

But we all have continued talking about this. Charles and I texted each other four weeks ago and just said still thinking about yesterday and I said me too I was just thinking about it on the drive home years later and she said I think I understand all the things that bug you about this

movie but I think you're missing the core and I said what's the core Starley and she said I don't want to tell you I want to see if you find I trust you I want to see if you find it and so I

watched the movie last night and i email starly today and i go starly for the love of god please help me i am the core i'm stanley chuchi but i haven't made it right to the core what is the core and she said when are you recording and i said about an hour and a half sure and she went okay stand by corinne coming and then she sent me a very long email which is like starly's want yes and by the way very well written we love it uh but uh i will not read the full thing here but this was the cornerstone of her like that this movie really as a text about the beatles first and foremost

about the just sort of like odd ephemeral power of the Beatles and the cultural good of them existing and almost like the public resource of needing them in our world, combined with what she views as the ultimate act of kindness in this film, a thing she said made her cry and still makes her cry in rewatching it, which is the John Lennon reveal, which happens after this confrontation. The guy knows he's now off the hook. The woman hands him a slip of paper. She went, by the way, it took a lot of searching, but I thought you might want this. You don't know where it's going. You see him driving to the countryside, right?

They're on the beach. He knocks on a door. Who opens the door? It is Robert Carlyle. And what let's say is a pretty eerily accurate makeup job. Here's my, is it too eerie? There's something almost disturbing. I was watching it. I was like, is this a deep fake thing?

Like at certain point you realize, cause he's uncredited. I didn't know he was going to be in the movie. I didn't know the character was getting movie. I certainly know. It was. And it was when I saw it at Tribeca, which was obviously like two months before it came out,

they did the whole like, and please don't spoil the thing we do at the end of this movie before the movie. So I was like, all right, something's coming. When he first opens the door, I went like, did they find some guy who just looks exactly like him? Is this weird digital shit? I also did not initially clock that it was Robert Carlyle. Because he's in the makeup. initially clocked that it was Robert Carlyle. Because he's in the makeup. When it goes to their longer conversation and you're mostly seeing him in

profile, the makeup kind of falls apart. It feels like it only works dead on. And then you realize, oh, it is just prosthetics. And it's prosthetics that basically benefit from forced perspective. It almost looks like he's wearing like a sort of... Like a mascot head. Yes, yes!

What's the word? Plastered. But head on, it totally would have looked if he got to that age. We don't know. Head on,, like a what's the word? But maybe that's plastered, you know. But head on, it totally would have looked if he got to that age. We don't know. Head on, it's weird. Zach's like, you can't prove to me that he wouldn't look like that. That might be exactly what he would have looked like. But let's interrogate the logic of the scene for a second. And for

one, of course, we're told these other two fans found him. Yes. That they, I guess they were like me. They started Googling so furiously that they tracked John lennon down right um he knocks on his door he goes oh my god are you him are you john he goes yes then it cuts to them like walking on the beach yeah sip and tea having deep philosophical conversations right absolutely and it's sort of very vague sense where John's like, I had a good life. I had a job I loved. I fought for the woman I was with.

Right. And he just keeps on asking him the biggest questions. Are you happy? Right. Did you do what you wanted in your life? This guy clearly just chills in his seaside hut. And if a stranger comes by being like, hello? He's like, all right, buddy.

Let's take a walk. How are you doing? Because you're seeing this time lapse. And then then like three minutes in he goes like by the way who are you right he asks it late yeah he lets him in cup of tea long walk i'll tell you about my dead wife here are my wins here are my losses by the way what's your name again not asking why who are you why are you here What are you probing me? And to that, I will say vibes. Hell yeah.

He goes, how old are you? He says, what? 78. 78. Oh my God. You made it to 78.

Right. Like you're crazy. A weird, intense conversation, but he's sort of trying by like, Oh, well, I guess you should get help.

You know, like a little help from your friends, whatever he said. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Double fantasy. It's nice to see that he made. Whatever he says. Yeah, right. Exactly. Double fantasy. It's nice to see that he made it to old age.

Look. I love John Lennon. I think he's a great guy. But here is my question. Yeah. Does that imply that the other Beatles were assassinated in this universe? It is weird that when. They don't answer the other questions.

Because they never come up. That's true. Well, the only time they come up is in the nightmare. They mention Paul and Ringo, who are, of course, to him, to Jack, the two living Beatles. Correct. So I guess in his nightmare, he would be like, well, they'd still be alive. They dodge George entirely because I guess they just don't want to touch that. You know, he died of cancer.

It's sort of can't really virtual history that in the same way. Although, of course, cigarettes don't exist. Snoopy could right but we don't have to talk about that right now but but you're saying what they all got they all died one no i'm just one i'm posing the question questions because in the world where the beatles don't exist if it's just a inverse if the if the plane if the plane is beatles don't exist then john lennon doesn't get assassinated beatles do exist other beatles do get assassinated you're saying it's like if is it a direct equation yeah exactly i could see mccartney becoming a politician i mean sure you know he's like he's likable he's likable uh he's an intelligent guy handsome yeah yeah uh ringo

probably still just has like a viral twitter account where he's like peace and love peace and love people like ah it's the peace and love guy i love that guy he just becomes a he just only posts this one thing every day no but it's weird so you know he then has this moment of like clarity right he he pulls all the strings he asked to take over a shiren concert he invites everyone in his entire life he hooks up all the cameras joel fry taps into the main this is of course after he's done his rooftop concert right where he screams help and it's sort of like which i love i think that seems good yeah he really kind of kills that and also the first time i watched it i did not know that The Beatles did a famous rooftop concert.

Of course. So that went over my head. That went over your head, but you still like... I mean, I want to point out, of course, all the songs in this film were sung live. Yes. And you can feel it. You know, like it's not lip synced at all.

Boyle wanted that. He's a star. That immediacy. Yes. So he does this Sheeran concert where he seemingly does an hour of new songs. Yeah, he really... Yeah, that's the thing. What is this concert where Sheer does an hour of new songs uh yeah he really yeah that's the thing what is this concert where sharon's like hello my 70 000 fans yeah assembled here at wembley

stadium britain's largest stadium right anyway ta-ta here comes jack to do not like one or two songs i think sharon has been so thoroughly like little brothered by him after their songwriting competition that he's just like, all right, man, whatever you want. It's just like stalking the earth. For people who have not watched this movie, it's not like Sheeran's in a cameo. He's in two scenes playing himself with Ed Sheeran and Kate McKinnon. scenes playing off character with ed sheeran yeah he gets the way and kate mckinnon yeah he's in it so fucking much and there's the scene where post-concert when this guy's fucking killed he goes like here let's do it challenge right we both go to separate minutes yeah i'll write a song you'll write a song and he comes out and he james corden exactly. And, you know, Jack is like, he does Long and Winding Road.

Right. Yeah. And he goes, Ed Sheeran says, my friends always told me someday it would happen. Who are your fucking friends? What the fuck are you talking about? They're just like, Sheeran, you might be on top now, and I will expect you to pay for this dinner. Right. But someone's coming.

But he frames it like his friends go, Ed, we know, of course, you are uncontested the greatest songwriter of all time. Number one. No one could challenge this. Wait, hold on. Let me look this up. Ed Sheeran's friends. Nothing's coming up. Oh, no! Oh, my God. You're just seeing Friends the TV show. Someday

there will be another. It's almost like a Jedi prophecy. Someday there will be the one man who can write songs better and faster than you. I mckinnon says he's john the baptist you're you're jesus she does make a john the baptist right and he makes the sally or mozart joke but there is this attitude that he has for he's like i was told this day would come my time is up yep it's so it's over yeah you are you don't even let the audience you are the shadow that has been stalking so he's had the debut concert. The album, I assume, has now come out.

Or it's about to or whatever. I think it's about to. It hasn't come out yet because Kate McKinnon makes no money. Of course. Of course. So machinery is all in place. But the guy has made his big landing. Right.

Everyone's amped for this album. Ed Sheeran goes, I got a surprise for you. He's the greatest songwriter in the world. He cucked me. He fucked my wife and she liked it. Ladies and gentlemen, Jack Malick. Right? And then he does a bunch.

And one assumes this was actually filmed at a Sheeran concert because the whole crowd's there. And then he comes out. There's like production. They do a bunch of bits. Yes. And then he goes like. Do you like this stuff, I'm assuming? I love this stuff.

It's pretty fun. Okay. I love it. This feels like a good Danny Boyle. And the big screen, Lily Jane. That's a real Danny Boyle conce conceit when i saw that i was like as an actor that is my nightmare to have to perform this intimate oh sure scene with all of these background tens of thousands of actors just watching you on a massive close-up on a huge like

100 foot television screen but she is so good in this movie she's she's just it works she's a winning presence yeah miss lily jane he makes his grand plea for her love that he fucked it up right they cut to gavin the train man in the audience at first he's kind of like yeah and then he's kind of just like and then they cut to him again he's got tears yeah he's kind of like carving his own name in his gravestone he's like he got like, and then they cut to him again. He's got tears. Yeah. He's kind of like carving his own name in his gravestone. He's like, he got me. Right.

And also meanwhile, his other friends are holding up a sign that says play summer. So yeah, that's true. That's like their bit. Yeah. It's pretty good. Yes.

Rude to invite Gavin to the concert. I understand. Maybe what was happening. She's like, Hey, you have to give me a plus one. You cannot invite him. Yeah.

Maybe that's what it was. Trust me. Three hours from now, you're going to thank me if he's not there. It's better for everyone if he's not here. But he says, I have to admit, I didn't write the songs. I didn't write it. There's earlier scenes in the movie where he basically tries

to say that he didn't write them. Right at the start. What are you talking about? What do you mean? Right? And he's like, no, I'm gonna make the impassioned plea to make people believe me. And he goes, I didn't write them. They were written by four men. John Paul Ringo George. Right. John Lennon sitting in his cottage.

Whenever word gets back to him. It's a fair question. Right. It's going to go. What are you talking about? I've never written a song. When I was 13, maybe I knew a little on guitar a bit. I'm out here collecting seashells.

I don't like shit. He's going to sue Jack Malick for spreading misinformation. He'll join into the Anad Armas lawsuit with a side suit. They're trying to frame this like everyone goes like, holy shit, he stole it from four men. This is not going to be the end of this media coverage. There's going to be a new story. People are going to try to track down these four guys.

There's going to be so many stories. And then those four guys are going to go, I never, I don't write songs. Truly. I'm a shoe salesman. Maybe my favorite part. Peace and love. I don't write songs. Truly.

I'm a shoe salesman. Maybe my favorite part is that the audience in this stadium goes on such a roller coaster where they process this information so quickly. Their first reaction is boo, which I don't even understand

because I think no one would believe him. No, everyone would just be like, you're being weird. It would absolutely be TMZ cell phone footage of a really weird thing happening all of us would be saying hey let's not make jokes clearly something's wrong with this guy it would be very quickly right immediately disassociated

yeah right we believe what you're saying which makes no sense and we hate you right away then he gets to the next part about the the love of his life and they essentially collectively oh right right then they win him back it's true lily james has put him really then they're almost like angry at lily james for almost not wanting to come on then he announces he caught us all he will be uploading the songs for free, at which point they cheer and thank this great man. We love your songs again. That whole thing happens in about

the course of 15 seconds. The entire audience processes it together in perfect harmony, and I love that. And Richard Curtis is kind of just, like you say, he's like, done.

Just vibes. The society is updated to Just vibes Then they go backstage They go to each other Gavin comes out of the shadows Well I have a pretty funny perspective on this whole thing Friend peering around the corner She's like don't worry we'll probably get married Move you over

Well they flee Kate McKinnon Who's like oh yes And then there is The kind of thing that just always gets me these days, a little montage of them with their beautiful children after they have a beautiful wedding, you know, and they're playing with their cute little kids. I am fully on board with watching these two actors be in love. It is a thing that frustrates me in the movie.

That it's not happening enough. That both of them are so self-defeating for so long. It'd be one thing if they're trying to make the relationship work and it's being tested by all of this but i'm like that scene where they spend the day in liverpool is so fucking charming and when they're in the hotel and they start kissing i'm like fucking hooting and hollering like david i'm like thank you thank you thank you thank you absolutely and then for her to say i don't want to be a one night stand i'm leaving right now he wakes up runs to her she's like i'm giving you one last chance but it's an ultimatum you have

to pick one or the other i the person who have told you to prioritize your career above all else forever i'm now saying you have to choose these two things can't exist oh you also see him i forgot playing obla de obla da for a bunch of school kids because he's become a teacher. And Danny Boyle goes, see? And then there's the Harry Potter joke. And they both changed their minds. I know, I just think

her behavior is pretty erratic. Well, because it's an insane situation that he's been put in and that she's been put in. And I think that she may have, for years and and years been in his corner when he was nobody and then all of a sudden when he gets this opportunity she's like well i'm not going to be able to be a part of your life anymore he also goes i need you to be part of my life and she goes like i can't i'm a school teacher well one might also say oh but the other life goes on

that's true but also it's part partially i think what inspires her to finally be like enough of this is he's now writing these love songs sure and she's like how am i not the one you're writing these songs about and he's like you don't understand it's kind of just the middle of their career is right sell that i do think that is such a good little curtis yeah but she's like what the fuck penny lane eleanor rigby who are we talking about here but also the end her. I'm just like seeing that song written on a board and being like, who is the her? I think that's why she's finally like enough of this.

Like you gotta, you gotta make your move. He also tries to confess to her and she shuts it down. Like it's like, she shuts down. Cause it's nonsense. Yes. You'd be like,

if I was like Griffin, all my reviews, I didn't write them. Jim Smith wrote them. And you're like, who's Jimim smith i'm like you don't know who he is because he doesn't exist but he used to exist and only i know about him he doesn't know that he wrote that you would just be like what are you talking about you held a gun to jim smith's head he would say i've never seen a movie in my life it would just we would not be able to further the conversation because you'll just be like i don't know what you're talking about. I'd be like, well, I have no proof of what I'm talking about.

Yes. That would be it. Now, the iTunes extras. No, no, wait. Harry Potter. What I'm going to say is off that as well. In the extras, they have an alternate ending. Here we go. I actually

preferred. I agree. What happens in the movie as is we see that they're in they're having their life together and he makes a voldemort reference he says like this is so weird i feel like i'm harry potter and i just you know which is an incredibly trite thing to say sure whatever and he's like and now everything's supposed to go back to normal but but you know and she's like how can she says who's har's Harry Potter in the deleted scene in the alternate ending? She is the one who makes the Harry Potter reference.

And he says, who's Harry Potter. It's the exact same. No, I can't handle that. No, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, David is truly spinning in his after she says this there is quite a lingering shot on her face where it almost is implied that

she makes the decision to not write the harry potter book right like hamish patel does more of a never mind where he's like i've've been down this road before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That way lies trouble. Right. She's, you, and Lily James plays it very well, is doing the math in her head of like, I could just fucking write this. Yes. But then she's already got the life she wants. Right. So she goes back to it. I'm sorry.

No, I can't handle that. Another change in the alternate ending, which I actually also preferred, is at the end of the movie, movie and ed sheeran song plays as they're getting in the car and driving off together when they're finally like together in the alternate ending he's in the car playing that song for her and it's himesh patel performing it and it's really nice he's got a great voice he's got a lovely voice they're so charming i imagine the reason they got rid of that is they didn't want to get into, did he write this or did Ed Sheeran write this? It took a further logic sinkhole. So I assume that led to it being kind of on the soundtrack.

No, I just cannot handle that alternate ending. But David, follow me down this road for a little bit. No, I can't. I thought it was that he got hit by the bus, which is why he's like somehow. But then why do the other two people remember i i just assumed that they similarly in that split second had some traumatic event that had kind of removed them from now here's one little director's commentary what the other things are right like or he does know what the other he knows what cigarettes and coke what happens in the director's commentary there's one moment where I think Richard Curtis I couldn't really tell

that was my one shred of sanity and now you're taking off let's see how this hits you I truly cannot remember the last time I've seen David be this worked let's see how this hits you because I believe it's Richard Curtis says he's always asked you know well why didn't you like it or like

what caused this like Like what happened? What was it that caused it? And he says, like, I don't really know specifically, but I always kind of thought of it as in that, because the moment before he gets hit by the bus is that moment where Lily James is in the car and she like almost reaches out to like almost kiss him.

And then you see her face kind of fall. And he says, I always thought of it as the force of her love is so strong and she wants something to change that can make them be together. Like cosmically wills that causes a global shift in reality.

She's like the Scarlet Witch ultimately leads to them being together. This is a House of M situation. That is wild. Kezi, another thing left on the cutting room floor. The soundtrack for this movie, track two, is Daniel Pemberton who did the score for

this film. He did the score, obviously mostly supporting stuff to the Beatles music. I tell you, Beatles music maybe takes front seat on this movie. It does. I mean, they spent enough money on that one. Yeah. But Daniel Pemberton is great. Track two on the soundtrack is Daniel Pemberton's version of the universal fanfare done in the style of the Beatles.

Oh. And David, we are fanfare aficionados. I think it is incredibly well done. That's because Daniel Pemberton? Good. I don't know why they did not use this. They should have. I'm going to check that out later.

It's like 15 seconds and you're just like, and it even, he does a really good job of like, it's somehow within the very limited amount of universal fanfare, covers different eras of the Beatles. That's fun. Yeah. I mean, Pemberton is such a genius.

Yeah. He did the Steveve jobs score obviously he did my one of my favorite movie scores that i listened to more than i've seen the movie king arthur legend of the sword you fucking love that thing i'll crank it after we're done recording do you like listen to that when you're like at the gym yeah it's like pump up music yeah yeah like that it's like very big it's like all of David's top 25 most played on iTunes is the King Arthur Legend of the Sword I'm going to have to add that to my list of things to check out

after the episode the most important American media should we talk about what's next for Danny Boyle I have one final iTunes extras moment did you watch the gag reel no

it's a couple minutes it's pretty fun unfortunately a lot of it in the beginning iTunes extras moment. Did you watch the gag reel? No. Okay, so the gag reel, it's a couple minutes. It's pretty fun. Unfortunately, a lot of it in the beginning is just things falling over. Not very funny. You're like, that's not that fun. But there is one moment which was so funny

and it's one of the best bits in the movie where, what is the guy's name? Rocky. His roadie friend. Joel Fry. Joel Fry. They're at the hotel concert. He Rocky. His roadie friend. Joel Fry. Joel Fry. They're at the hotel concert. He's about to lead him out

in front of his thousands of adoring fans. And he starts to give him this emotional speech of like, you know, up until now, I kind of felt like my life had no purpose. I didn't know why I was born. But now I feel like it's to help you bring your music to everyone. And then he opens the door and says, oops, wrong door.

And then leads him the other way to the crowd. Yes. Funny moment. Very funny moment in the movie. Yeah. And in the gag reel, it's very funny because Himesh Patel cannot keep it together during the emotional part of the speech because he knows what's coming. So he sees this.

So Joel Pryor is really trying to give him his best and he keeps laughing and he keeps being like why are you laughing at this and that is to me that's worth paying for the itunes extras all right uh or you can probably find it on youtube i imagine well let's say it's probably let's let's just say just blu-ray two other long tail effects of this movie the on down lawsuits number one right after it comes out uh the writer jack barth went to do a bunch of interviews to talk about how he felt you know there was a lot of unsurprisingly he he did leap for his moment of fame after searching for so over that right so that got like a couple news cycle rotations and then the other thing is deadline every year now does their like most valuable blockbusters and their biggest failings where they try to using some sort of like anonymous data they have tabulate for different movies what their net profit was.

So it's like, you know, which movies relative to cost. Money versus cost. Right. But they're trying to factor in all these other things like marketing and theater splits and all that sort of stuff. So they said that this film made like a $45 million profit within its original theatrical run. That's nothing. Very tidy. Tidy.

Right. And they were like, it was a $40 million budget or so with tax incentives. It was 23. It was cheap. Yeah. It played well over the world. And like this movie is probably going to have a long tail. Right.

And then like four months later, Deadline ran a story which was like, we never get these. But someone sent us the full like write down on this movie. The like classic Hollywood accounting where Universal tried to argue that this film was made no money. Ninety million dollars in the red. Right. Right. Right.

Right. So they wouldn't have to pay any profits on it. And it's one of the, like this and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix are the two times those documents

have basically leaked out. This is like, they were like, not since Harry Potter has one of these hit the internet. You can read it. It's pretty fascinating because it includes stuff like

the way this all works where they're like, NBC Universal, the company paid universal studios to distribute the film right and they paid them 40 million dollars to distribute it to be able to say well we made a mistake we paid paid too much money uh-oh to ourselves to ourselves we bought way too many tv ads on nbc losing money for this company. Right. The company we own that owns the billboards. We bought too many of them.

Anyway. All of that shows. That doesn't even include that I spent $14.95 to buy it on iTunes two days ago. And you talked them up, right? Right. iTunes was like, we'll give it to you for $10. And you were like, higher, higher. Exactly.

I'm negotiating this up. I'm paying you what it's worth. Right. exactly i'm negotiating this up i said i'm paying you what it's worth right you you bought it on itunes and immediately hamesh patel got a call where he was like we need you to wire us 15 dollars yeah and he's why and he's like zach chery bought it and for some reason now you have to pay us exactly i'm sorry that that happened but i had to get the extras yes the extras um the way the scene's fast dann Danny Boyle's career. I'm sure he will make

another film. God bless. You know, we'll see. Will he make Methuselah? Will he make Miss Saigon? Obviously, he worked on Pistol. You can watch that. I would love to see him

jump off of FX and back into the theaters. I agree. I want to see him make a movie about someone trying to pitch this movie in a world where the Beatles do not exist. That's what I want. That's insane.

That's insane. That movie would be bleak psychological horror. That movie is like William Franken's bug of extremely stressful psychological situations. You just cast Michael Shannon and it's about a man losing his mind.

Obviously, yes, he's been attached to Warner Brothers, Methuselah, a very long running project, about a thousand year old. Yes, it's an action movie starring Michael B. Jordan. It was originally developed as a Tom Cruise vehicle about the world's oldest man. Various people have been anyway. But no one really knows what's up with that. Michael B. Jordan has the juice now. If he wants to make that movie, I'm sure.

He may or may not. That could get made. There is also, of course, the long running rumors that he wants to make that movie, I'm sure. He may or may not. That could get made. There is also, of course, the long-running rumors that he wants to make a 28 Months or Years Later. The only other thing he's been linked to very recently is Fox Searchlight's Antarctica. Okay. Which is, we were texting about this. Some sort of survival against the odds type movie about a guy who like ran a thousand miles across Antarctica this has come up since we started our minis

is that in the Australia cinematic universe? well you know what I mean it would be fun if they if there was like a project to get every continent a movie like yeah no no just you wait you could imagine five years ago someone going to the studios and going globe cinematic

universe listen guys we start out with europe everybody knows post credits though africa i don't know um do you have and miss saigon he does talk about a lot is sort of like we haven't gotten the script there but i really want to do i just i'd love to see him do music i'm not sure i want to do that one no do you have danny boyle rankings i do oh he does look at me i did it in advance i prepped it i put up a private I'm not sure I want to do that one. Do you have Danny Boyle rankings? I do. Oh, he does. Look at me. I did it in advance.

I prepped it. I put up a private letterbox list, and I made sure my rankings were settled before I came But should we play the box office game before we do that? Absolutely. I don't have Danny Boyle rankings, but Yesterday is my number one. It's your number one. I'm not joking. It is definitely my number one. We're going to read them out, and so you're going to hear all his films?

Yes. I have not seen all of his films. I know, but maybe you'll think, oh, do I like it more than that? Yeah. The answer is yes, I do like it more than that. So this film opened June 28th, 2019. Okay. It opened number three to a healthy $17 million.

It ended up making $16 million. Yeah, it legs that out to $73 million. Jesus. Pretty good. And it does like 150 worldwide. 154 worldwide. Yeah. And I did not even see it legs that out to uh 73 jesus pretty good and it says like 150 worldwide 154 worldwide yeah and i did not even see it at that time you know zach wasn't even pumping money into the arcade machine at that point uh number one of the box office however in its second week is a gigantic animated sequel although i think it didn't make quite as much money as hoped it is a weird case i obviously

know what we were talking about toy story 4 film is toy story 4 and it made a billion dollars it outgrossed it didn't toy story 3 but the jump between 2 and 3 was so huge and the jump between 1 and 2 was so huge that i think they assumed this one will also make 30 percent more than the previous one but it basically made the same amount it made a tiny bit more. It was a huge hit that somehow was still seen as almost quietly a disappointment. The other thing was, the year before that was Incredibles 2, which overperformed so greatly.

So they were like, these Pixar sequels are running in the bank. And it made money. Made a lot of money. What do you think of Toy Story 4? I remember liking it, but I don't have strong feelings. How do you feel about Forky?

I do enjoy Forky. He gets Forky? I do enjoy Forky. He gets a turtle. I do enjoy Forky. Yeah, Forky's fun. Got my big old Forky mug over there against the wall. I've now seen Toy Story 4 several times, and I really, I do like it. I've always liked it. Lucky you.

Every time you text about re-watching Toy Story 4 and finding new appreciation for it, I feel vindicated. Vindicated I am. Number two, new this this week is a horror sequel it is the third in this specific series which is part of a larger universe so it's a sub-series correct is it third annabelle it's the third annabelle which is called comes home annabelle comes home right now i've seen it's also like Annabelle 3 Conjuring 3.

I mean, don't even. Tom Holland is not in that one. Even though it's in the home version. That's true. Annabelle's coming home. Spider-Man I guess remains far from it. He can't touch Annabelle. They should cut to you standing to the side of Annabelle's

glass case saying a cell phone do nothing i think people haven't seen i know i haven't seen comes home i have seen annabelle one which is fairly bad and the second one and i've seen annabelle two annabelle creation the prequel which is pretty good david sandberg's a pretty good director. Yes, but it's not as good as Ouija, Ouija, Argent of Evil, which is fantastic, which is the, what's his name? Flanagan.

Flanagan. Yes. It's just funny that there are two prequels within these sort of silly horror franchises that were both made by kind of like slightly elevated horror directors that are better than the movies around them. Where that was their launch pad.

Yes. Animal Creation, the Sandberg movie, that's the one with like Anthony them. Where that was their launch pad. Yes. And Animal Creation, the Sandberg movie, that's the one with Anthony LaPaglia running an orphanage. Sure. It's just so funny that I think people who haven't seen any of these movies don't realize she's not like Megan or Chucky. She doesn't

move. She sits in a glass case and bad things happen. Annabelle never gets out and is possessed and does shit. No, she's always just kind of there. She just there she's just in the glass case you never see her go like maybe sometimes i think you do they look over and she's sitting in a different place yeah but she never moves and which franchise did that spin off of conjuring right in conjuring one she's in the basement and they're like we dealt Conjuring. And they're like, we dealt with her.

Woo! She's like, right. We do not want to open that fucking case. They talk about that as like their worst case. And then Annabelle Comes Home is about them getting her? Annabelle comes, well, Annabelle 1 is about that case. Right. And Annabelle Comes Home is the prequel. Right.

And of course, I just, as we always have to point out, the real Annabelle is just a raggedy It's just a raggedy Annabelle. It's just a raggedy Annabelle. It's just a raggedy Annabelle. But it is a real doll and it is in the Warren Spooky Connecticut Museum of Crap. Wait, really? Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. And she really is in a case and it really does say do not open. Formiga and Wilson are in Come Home. They are in both movies, but I think not main characters. They pop up in both. You know, it's a pop-up. I get it. Number three, Yesterday.

Number four is a Disney remake. Should have been number one, sorry. Is it Aladdin? It's Aladdin. Another quick bill for Disney. That's true. Just racking them up. I mean, this was the year where it was like...

It was like, this is going to work? Oh, it worked. Right. And then they had Star Wars at the end of the year where it was like... It was like, this is going to work? Oh, it worked. Right. And then they had Star Wars at the end of the year. They had like $5 billion movies in this one year. Number five... Frozen 2 was the same year. It was like insane.

Number five animated sequel. This was the year that caused us, for when people replayed the clips, were like, why is it all ending? Why is Disney releasing every big sequel this year? Anyway, whatever. Go on. Number five animated sequel. I just hate talking about this movie. You sequel this year? Anyway, whatever. Go on. Number five animated sequel.

I just hate talking about this movie. You hate this movie? I know. I hate it coming up with a box office game because I'm bored of it. I don't care. It's an animated sequel. It's Illumination. Who cares?

Who cares? It's from Illumination. Secret Life of Pets 2? Exactly. Why are you so... I'm sick of talking about it. Secret Life of Pets 2. You say this like it's coming up all

the time it's always coming up when i don't know anytime we do a movie for around now i think we just did our men in black international oh that's what it is six okay then avengers endgame is seven okay you got child another insane disney two billion dollars yeah you got child's play the uh the remake without right mancini so this annabelle kind of underperformed a little bit did it did it outgross opening 20 remake chucky split the doll vote that's the thing yeah yeah it's opening a week after chucky yeah well that's the thing also you know he's not chucky in that movie right that was the weird split of the right i can't talk about this with you he's not chucky his name is buddy well He's not Chucky. His name's Buddy.

Well, he's not Chucky in the originals. His name is like Buddy Goodguy or something. Right, right. And then Chucky is the serial possessing. He's a good guy doll. Chucky is the Charles Lee. He's like the villain himself. So the weird split of the rights is that Don Mancini owns Chucky.

And MGM owns Child's Play. So this movie is about, it's Megan. It's an AI doll. I hate it. It's not possessed. It's an AI doll named Buddy. Number nine is a film

that Zach already referenced that I'm a fan of and I think you're a fan of. Okay. Rocket Man. Oh, yes. I thought, Harlan Williams,

I thought, did Disney re-release it this year? No, Rocket Man is very, I wasn't making a joke. I got confused. Harlan Williams is too busy recording endless episodes of Puppy Dog Pals that I have to watch. Disney did a live action Rocketman. They did.

Bring him back. State of the art ILM. Yeah, right. Motion capture. Stagecraft. No, it's the charming Elton John. Yes. Do you like Rocketman?

Yes, I loved it. Very pro-Rocketman. And the number 10, John Wick Chapter 3. The best. Parabellum the best parabellum parabellum yeah um and that was what was doing at the box office in that glorious summer of 2019 i went to see this film with emma stefanski at the trebek and film festival i remember it well we went to mudville nine afterwards which i believe closed during the pandemic no it's still open well famous wing bar on Chamber Street. I want to end this episode because we've already taken up

enough of Zach's time that he missed his showing of Dungeons & Dragons. That is fine. You gotta catch the 7 o'clock or whatever. Sorry, Zach. Boil list. Do you want to go first? No, you go first. Down to up? Whatever you want. Whatever you think. What do we usually do?

I don't know. Ben, what do we usually do? You usually go bottom up. Okay, bottom up. Okay. Bottom of the list for me? Or no. It's never consistent. It's never consistent, so it doesn't matter.

So do whatever you want. Let's do middle out. Middle out compression. You want to do it. I know what you're going to do. Just do it. Number 13 for you. No, that's not what I want to do.. I know what you're going to do. Just do it. Number 13 for you. No, that's not what I want to do.

Oh, okay. Fair enough. Number 13, lucky number 13, life less ordinary. Wow. Yeah. Right at the bottom for you. My apologies. Number 12, yesterday.

That's what I thought you were about to do. No, I wasn't going to do it. I apologize. I hope we can remain friends. I'm just stewing over here. I hope we can remain friends. My father still wants to take you out to dinner. Number 11?

Slumdog Millionaire. Wow. Really low. I don't even hate it, but truly, I know we said this in the rewatch, it just did nothing for me. Okay, what's 10? Trance. Yeah. Compellingly weird.

Keep going. Nine? Millions. Sure. Eight? Shallow Grave. Eighth. Wow.

Okay, keep going. Seven? Da Beach. Da Beach. Okay, six? 127 hours. Eight Shallow Grave Eight Wow okay Keep going Seven Da Beach Da Beach Okay six 127 Hours Yeah I have not seen that one

Didn't even know that was a boil This is what I mean This guy does everything Five Go ahead T2 Trainspotting Yeah

Which A secret winner And has jumped up in the three days Since we recorded that episode It was at six It went right up to the top five number four 28 days later yeah david congratulations number three steve john i'm happy you made it that high good job steve it would have without a rewatch sure been bottom three for me question. I was so sour on it the first time. Sorry, which Steve Jobs? He did the

Fastbender. He did the Fastbender one, not the Ashton Kutcher one. It would be really funny if it was the Ashton Kutcher one. The Fastbender one is the Sorkin written. Gotcha. Number two on my ranking, Jobs. The Ashton Kutcher movie. I just included it.

No, it's, uh, well, what is it? Number two is Trainspotting. Which means, of course, that number one is Darkman. My number one is Sunshine. Yeah, there you go. Can I say, well, no, you do your list and then I'll say this. Number 13 yesterday. I'm sorry, Zach, don't get mad at me.

I like all his movies. I mean, everyone's allowed to be wrong. I like all his movies. And maybe this one will allowed to be wrong. I like all his movies. And maybe this one will rise for me. This has actually been a very pleasant conversation about it, and I really did have a nice time with it. Zach's one of the kindest men in the world. Number 12, Trance. Number 11, A Lifeless Ordinary. Those are certainly, those three are

kind of just in the kind of mixed bag territory for me. Yes. What's up, Ben? Wow. Okay. Oh, did I put Trance over it? Yeah. Wow, you guys are really making me feel like a bully Yeah come on I don't know I have a lot of problems with this movie I'm not even sure either of you watched the movie

I watched it You want me to call my wife right now I got the 4k There was no steel block I got the 4k you sound like Tim Blake Nelson Look at the ahoy Look at the ah-ho. I just shot that pointed at him. Look at the oh-ho. Number 10, The Beach.

Yeah. Number 9, Millions. Number 8, 127 Hours. Mm-hmm. Number 7, Slumdog Millionaire. Mm-hmm. I have a little more respect for it.

Number 6, Train, T2, Train Spotting. Mm-hmm. Number 5, Shallow Grave. Mm-hmm. 4, 28 Days Later. 3, Train Spotting. 2, Sunshine.

1, Steve Jobs. I have to listen to my heart. Steve Jobs, number 1. Mm my heart Steve Jobs number one yeah that was close though this top two yeah and sorry where does yesterday rank with the alternate ending oh that would put it in a new terrifying zone its

number would be some eldritch rune that's on fire I'll say this Zach watching the deleted scenes I was like there is possibly a version of this movie that i bump up right you're there's a movie you prefer that's so interesting in the alternate cut yeah i get why they smoothed it all yeah i was like just get all the decisions they made just vibe i mean you just give me the you're the producer who when they're running these you're just like vibes man make the vib the vibiest choice. What are you looking up, Griffin?

I want to pull this up because we were just obviously so. He's bringing up his apology letter that he's written me about. Right, there's no tap. Yeah. He's screenshotting it. He's going to tweet it out. We were obviously very, just very gung-ho pro sunshine in our episode. I did love sunshine to be clear.

Great movie. And we were like, anyone who doesn't like the ending is stupid, right? And then I saw some people on the Reddit be like, can you at least explain why you like the ending? Even if you're gonna argue that it works, can you explain it? And then one Redditor I just thought fucking nailed it. And I've been sitting on this

since the episode came out, where I'm like, I wish I had said this, okay? Go ahead. Big moment. 226 upvotes from death underscore mullet. My argument when it comes to the ending is that when you think about the theme of mental health survival and Christian fascist proselytization,

the last third isn't so much, quote unquote, devolving into a slasher as it's more humanity meeting with its final obstacle, a version of itself so imbued with zealotry it turns against all notions of self-preservation or hope for the collective. It's pretty much perfect. Right.

That is my feeling, is that the ending is a literalization of the themes that have been there the entire time. So whereas for some people, it feels like a wild swing in terms of genre and reality, I'm like, it's the escalation of a movie in which humanity keeps on failing to rewrite the rules of its universe.

I'm all for that. Yeah. That's just terrific. And literally the same could be said about the ending of Yesterday. I don't really know. I would not be surprised if I found out that Pinbacker was a producer on Yesterday.

That's all I'm going to say. That too. When he gives the record label, he's just like, I am God. The sun is your only boss. One man only. we we the sun is your only one man only here comes the sun i love that song you have about what a good day sunshine um oh my god danny boy i think it's been

july for us to cover yeah i've just liked the the swings and round it's been a fun ride hey let's say what's happening next i was about to to tell you. You got to set it up. David's had his choice. Let's, yeah, let's, let's, let's say what the next series is going to be. Ben is holding up

an intertitle card that says The Films of Buster Keaton. Hey! You guys already guessed it, basically. My guy, I've wanted to do

for a very long time. Here's what we're doing. It is the run of films that he directed. Right. Buster Keaton Productions. With his first two MGM films tacked on at the end. Yes. It's going to be double banger episodes because his films are very short.

They're short. So next week, with no break. Going straight in. We have Three Ages and Our House Hospitality. Our Hospitality. short so next week with no break going straight in we have three ages in our house hospitality our hospitality three ages and our hospitality three ages in our hospitality uh and then we're going to be doing sherlock jr and the navigator seven chances and go west battling butler and the general college and sceneboat bill jr and then the cameraman and spite marriage those are the first two movies but those are the films that he either directed or sort of ghost directed.

That are long enough to qualify as. Sap House. Sap House. The Sap Head is his first feature film, but he did not direct that. We're not including that. We're starting with, as you said, Three Ages, which is his first directorial credit. Now, important to note, I've seen some people when they saw it or started to surmise that perhaps we were doing this,

oh, are these movies going to be so hard to watch? Hey, guess what? These movies are public domain. They are the easiest movies to watch. They're on YouTube. We have ever covered on this podcast. But they're also all collected quite nicely on the Criterion Collection.

The Criterion Collection right now has basically a near-complete run of Buster Keaton and really good Collection. The Criterion Collection right now has like basically a near complete run of Buster Keaton in really good transfers. The thing that obviously changes is the transfers, the color timing, where for some of the films they're tinted even though they're in black and white, the scores, those things can be trademarked.

But Criterion has a really good collection including basically his entire surviving short film collection. And we're going to do an episode with a bunch of those short films with the great Dana Stevens, who of course wrote Cameraman, the Buster Keaton book. So that will be happening on Patreon. But those will be the Buster Keaton episodes.

And it's going to be fun. It's going to be fun. Ha ha ha. Let's all laugh. Please don't be daunted by the fact that we're doing silent films from the 30s. I want everyone to like this. It'll be fun. It'll be fun anyway ha ha ha let's all laugh please don't be daunted by the fact that we're doing silent films from the 30s i want everyone to like this it'll be fun it'll be fun do you want to get a player piano in the studio absolutely no i do want to get a x-men versus put it on the blank check well we could talk about that i have i've had some thoughts okay fair enough i think you should experiment with the medium and do silent episodes. God, that sounds easy.

I'm really in on that. Yeah. Let's do that. That's a great idea. We should do silent cuts on Patreon. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Definitely.

Like the way we did the version of the They Live episode. Yeah, which got mostly just people posting in the Reddit, what is this and what is going on? I don't understand. Every week on Patreon patreon we should post the silent cut and should be the exact same runtime as our main feed episode but with no audio all right good i think that's good funny i think that's good zach you're a prince among men thank you you're one of the best people out there on the planet hey love that you know, Zach, we exist in a world

of bitter, angry, jealous people in this industry. Sure. Everyone's angling, trying to get one over on the other person, trying to get the big job. Sure. I can think of very few people where this is the case. I do not know a single person who is not thrilled for your success.

That's nice to hear. In our world of like bitter comedy people they don't know that i uh stole all my performances from the beatles well that's true and you have to are you going to confess it now in front of everybody yes i have to admit we're going to put your wife on a big screen behind you i'll be releasing all my bits for free in the timeline in the timeline you're from that only you remember, the Beatles were the best Herald team of all time. Uh-huh.

And you saw all of their performance. Destroyed on Herald Night. And I remember that. I have to memorize that. Yeah. But you're the best. Severance is coming out

sometime. Sometime. Season two. But go watch season one. The Great American Baking Show. Yes. Yeah. The main season will also

come out sometime. Yeah. Check that out. also come out sometime. Yeah. Check that out. But the holiday special is available. That's pretty much it. And hey, I got a thing I want to plug.

You coming back on the show again. Oh, yeah. Keep your eyes peeled. Yeah. Because we got to make up for lost time. Yeah.

Come back anytime. I'll do yesterday again. That's fine. We'll have you come on again for yesterday. Thank you for being here. again. That's fine. We'll have you come on again for Yesterday. Thank you for being here. Yeah, it was great. And thank you all for listening.

Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. Thank you to Marie Barty for our social media and helping to produce the show. Thank you to AJ McKeon, Alex Barron for our editing, Lane Montgomery and the Great American Owl for our theme song, JJ Burt, for our research,

Joe Bowen, Pat Reynolds for our artwork. You can go to BlankCheckPod.com for links to some real nerdy shit. Including links to our Patreon, Blank Check Special Features, where we do film series. Such as Planet of the Apes. And stuff like the Buster Keaton short films we just talked about. Tune in next week for Three Ages in Our Hospitality. Planet of the Apes. And stuff like the Buster Keaton short films we just talked about. Tune in next week for Three Ages in Our Hospitality. And as always, in this universe, do cigars exist?

What song are you going to sing? I don't want to. Come on. Don't do it. Do whatever you want. She loves you, yeah. But, you know, she podcasts you, yeah.