Sardonicast - Sardonicast 219: Toy Story 5, Hairspray (2007) Feat. kaylasays ​

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

Listen early and ad-free at https://sardonicast.com or https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast. Merch: https://ymsmerch.com/products/normie-masterpiece-sticker-sheet Website: https://sardonicast.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/sardonicast Twitter: https://twitter.com/sardonicast Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/sardonicast.bsky.social Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sardonicast Sardonicast Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8AhJ0bzQgs5fb9m_ZCRqkw/featured Adam's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@YMS Alex's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/IHEOfficial Jake's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ManCarryingThing Jake's movie channel: https://www.youtube.com/@womancarryingman Alex's Twitter: https://twitter.com/IHE_OFFICIAL Adam's Twitter: https://twitter.com/2gay2lift Adam's bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/yms.bsky.social Jake's twitter: https://x.com/ManCarrying Jake's bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mancarryingthing.bsky.social Adam's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/YMS Jake's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mancarryingthing Intro music by: https://www.youtube.com/user/anUnkindnessvideo Timestamps: 0:00 Intro + guest questions 32:46 Toy Story 5 1:01:14 Hairspray (2007) 1:37:56 Questions 1:56:48 Recommendation + outro

three two one what is this some kind of toy story five that was a quote from toy story six surprisingly enough high effort yeah i'm adam from your movie sex this is sardonicast i'm alex from i'm gonna whip out penny pangleton you know you are punished from now on you're wearing a giant pee on your blouse every day to school so so the whole world knows that penny pylton is permanently positively punished. Nice. And I'm Jake from Man Caring Thing, and dancing is not your future.

One day you're going to own Edna's Occidental Laundry, which is a quote from Toy Story 5, weirdly enough. Yeah, very interesting film. And we've got a special guest, who that be. Show yourself. Hello, I'm Kayla Says. My quote from Toy Story 5 is tablet bad, computer bad. Oh, that was a good quote.

Nice. Yeah. Yeah, that's from the climax of the movie. How are you? How are you doing? I'm good. I figured I will introduce myself if you all don't know me. I make videos over on YouTube.com slash Kayla says.

I make videos about pop culture, celebrity stuff, music, television, and movies are what I'm most fascinated in. I usually only talk about movies on my channel if they have, like, relevant discourse around them. but yeah I'm excited to be here with you guys awesome yeah thank you for being here your channel your channels are fantastic I always go to your videos when I need like a level-headed understanding of discourse that eludes me you know if I want to know what's going on with Jojo Siwa you know it's like I don't I have no other you're the only person I can trust and you also have you have a book channel

now too which I didn't even realize until recently That's awesome. I do. Yeah, it's called Kayla Reeds. It's a little side project that I started just because I was like, you know, YouTube gets kind of grindy to a point where it's like, yeah, I, you know, I'm kind of fitting the formula there and doing what I need to do there. And I was like, I want to do something that's like just kind of like a fun, more low-key project. And that's been, that's been good. Doing book reviews over there has like kept me sane almost when I'm spending every week talking about like the most nonsense.

internet bullshit. Can I curse? I can curse, right? Yes, please. Oh yeah, please. Please. Please do. There's only there's only three demonetizable words and I don't expect anyone to say them. Okay, great. Excellent. No, yeah, your book channel is wonderful. I watched your review of yesteryear. Didn't you read yesteryear? Is that one of your videos you did? I did. Yeah, I did that review a month or so ago. I listened to that audio book while I was moving apartments. And so that was like a good like just thing to have in the background while I was going insane on packing so many boxes. Yeah, your videos cover so many. And I love all your videos, but so many of your videos covers topics that we end up discussing on Sardonicast, you know, because there's like that

overlap between what's going on in pop culture world and just like movie world in general. I know Timothy Shalome was like, we were talking about him and his fall from grace. I mean, I don't know. What is even going on with Timothy Shammie right now? my question. Timothy Shalame has been drunk for the last 12 days because the Knicks won the NBA finals. I love that for him. I really do. No, that's great.

So you're a New Yorker, right? I am a New Yorker. I'm from the New York City area. I grew up in a suburb outside of New York City, and I currently live in Manhattan. And I have for about five years now. Oh, wow. Are you familiar with John Wilson? Because if not, you should be.

No. He does. Okay. He has like, John Wilson. Alex, you still haven't seen it yet. It's insane. You would love it.

It's produced by Nathan Fielder. It's called How To With John Wilson. Oh, yeah. And it's a guy, it's three seasons, and he has a feature coming out soon. And he basically just like films everything in New York and creates these interesting art pieces where there is like a point to each episode. And he talks about some sort of. of like social grief or like something specific to New York like scaffolding right and just how it's how it's everywhere and what people think about it making these little mini documentaries but all of

the B-roll is just like insane weird characters that he's filmed throughout New York just by having his camera on all the time but it fits with like the voiceover narration and really clever punny ways it's incredible I would recommend it very hard the reason I was curious is because um I heard recently that he like operates a movie theater in New York too now and does like special screenings and weird stuff. But yeah, I love New York. I've only been there once. I was there for like three days. I love to go back. Yeah, I'm so jealous of your experience because I always see on Twitter you're posting, you're going to like these great movie screenings and Q&As and stuff. What is the movie scene like in New York? Like what what is it like being around all that stuff?

It's awesome. My closest theater, the one that we go to the most frequently, is the notorious AMC in Lincoln Square. So that's the one that gets all of like the big premieres and all of that. And like, it is nice that we usually don't have to go far if we want to see something. My fiancé and I are proud card carrying A-list members. We're also probably going to get the popcorn pass because we're literally there like every other day. But yeah, no, it's great. And there's like a lot of just folks here who are super passionate about it.

I know the New York Film Festival is here too. I know a lot of folks who like go and cover that. Like it's, you know, it's New York. It is the great, you know, the best place to be. And I always feel like I'm like sounding like a coastal elite New York asshole when I say that. But it is. You're allowed to. Okay.

Thank you. I appreciate it. It's like me talking about food in Vancouver. Although New York is like being there for three days, I'm like, New York might even be a better food scene. Maybe not for like sushi, but like it's got some great food. Can't find bagels like that anywhere else. The bagels are so good. When I, uh, I went to college in Boston, actually, and I would tell everyone there, like, we had this like shitty. It was called like Einstein Rose Bagels on my college campus. And I was like, you guys don't understand. These big,

these bagels are shit. They're in airport. This place would have like a, it would irritate me because this place every day would have a line out the door of people trying to get these trash ass mediocre bagels and I'm like I like you don't understand there are no in Boston when I what I lived in Boston like people would like go and get like airport bagels and I'd be like no there is a whole culture out here that you're missing yeah yeah and so when I would go back to New York like when I wasn't staying in Boston like it was it was a refuge from that which was great oh my goodness well actually makes them so good like I've always heard about the New York bagels I don't I've never made my way to New York but I've heard it something to do with like the water or something

yeah for the dough the pizza too but that's what they say Is that like an urban legend? I think there is some validity to it. Otherwise, you would think that if the entire world is wanting this thing, that someone would try to replicate it somewhere else. Exactly. Right. Like, we've got great sushi in Vancouver because a bunch of Japanese people

moved to Vancouver 100 years ago or whatever, right? Yeah. You'd think the same thing would be true for New Yorkers moving to different parts of the country making pizza, but it's very difficult to find the right to dough. or especially for bagels too. There's something different about it. I have no idea. I'll have to do a deep dive one day.

Maybe not. I mean, the podcast is turning into a bread podcast. That's been a running thing. We keep talking about bread. It's just like a secret obsession of us. I've made sourdough now, actually. Oh, nice. Love.

But I'll talk about that later. Yeah, the bagels here, the water is the rumor. It's also a rumor that, I'm like, I think it's actually somewhat true. but we say in New York City the water is not kosher because it technically has a lot of micro-crustations in it. So it's like that's why the water is different here

is because we got little crabs in the water. That's awesome. It's the crabs that make it special. It's the crabs that make it special. Is a bagel an appropriate movie food to take into a theater in New York or is that just like, what are you doing? I'm sure you can. I do it. I mean, at our AMC

like people kind of don't give a fuck like we take an outside food all the time. So I personally have never taken a bagel inside of a theater, but I don't think they would say anything. Have any of you ever been harassed by theater employees for bringing food into a theater? Because that's never happened. And I've never been very subtle about it. I don't, I don't know.

Yeah, no, I think as long as you're not really, really obvious, then it's fine. And even if you are probably the employee is not. or not going to care, but maybe. I have a weird memory of it happening in London because you often get your bag checked when you go into places. No. I can't remember what the specific reasoning was,

but I think I couldn't take something in. You didn't have a license? Yeah, my cinema license expired, so. I definitely snuck in an entire pizza into a movie once. That's amazing. I was in Edmonton. It made sense.

I think that should be a lot. If you can get it in the theater, you should be allowed to have it. Yeah. No, I brought, within the past year, I've brought, like, homemade pasta in a Ziploc bag. Like, just, that was during Avatar 3, because I didn't respect the movie, and I was like, this is three hours. I'm hung, like, I was doing a two-movie day. I need food at one point.

Like, I just literally plastic fork and just, like, a hot zip lock of fucking steaming spaghetti. Oh, my God. I was happy. And then the seats were moving because it was debugs. but I was eating the spaghetti anyway. In D-Box, too, that's... Oh, yeah, it was unhinged. I, you know, it was unhinged watching it in the first place,

so I figured it didn't matter. Spilling like pasta everywhere. No, I didn't spill my spaghetti. They stayed tightly in my pockets. As a person that looks up a lot of movie listings, trying to find a lot of obscure movies, it seems to be the case that if a movie's out in the U.S. at all, it's definitely playing in New York or L.A.

Like, those are the two. Those are where they'll play exclusively for like one or two weeks before doing a wider release for certain films. Or if it's like a Netflix or some other type of weirdly distributed film that's trying to get an Oscar nomination, they'll play in New York and L.A. for a couple weeks, literally just to qualify. Because there's rules within the Academy qualification for,

if you want to be nominated, you have to play in theaters for like a couple weeks. And I'm pretty sure it literally specifies New York and L.A. Because that's probably where most of the Academy voters are. Yeah, the only time within the last year that we have had to see a movie outside of our like AMC, or one of the AMCs in the area. It was still New York. It was the theater that Netflix owns for Wake Up Dead Man

because that was the only place it was playing in a theater. So I had to go to like the Netflix branded. It was called the Paris Theater. And then like all of the advertisements beforehand were like just for Netflix properties. It was very odd. Here's a question. What's the weirdest response you got for your Michael Jackson movie review?

Holy shit. Those people are crazy. And like I knew it was going to be the case because I just those that particular group of people I said before that movie came out a year ago, I was like this movie is going to make people lose their minds. And in my comments, I got called like an Israel plant quite often because there's there's a cons a odd conspiracy surrounding like that I don't know. They killed Michael because he was pro-Palestine or some crazy shit. So I got called like, you know, an IDF op. And I was like, yeah, I don't think so, guys. I don't think that's correct. That's a real boss baby vibes type political commentary. Every day I'm like, the bar gets up as to like what kind of crazy shit people will leave in my comments. It's wild.

Oh, yeah. No, I was asking because it's nice that there's, it's nice that there's, this thing where a lot of people get to experience what I was experiencing with like the Kimba crowd at one point. It's like it's very similar. You got like the, you, yeah, you know, it's, you have like a gospel and you have these tenants, you know, like you have to, you have to adhere to like a belief system as a part of the group. Like the support for an artist doesn't exist without this weird story that people tell. It's very interesting.

hyped for the second movie that might exist or might not exist. My favorite genre of comment that I get in that I got on that video and like usually when I cover like popular mass marketed thing that I don't like is a lot of comments are like, well, it made money. So that means you're wrong. Hell yeah. It's like, oh, you got me there, guys. You got me there.

Elon Musk is a trillionary. You're wrong to criticize it. That means he's the best person in the world. He's the most moral person in the world. Yeah, insurance companies in the United States are making a lot of money. So, like, that means they're doing something great. Yeah. Yeah, they're killing it.

Literally. They're doing a wonderful job. Yeah, everyone's very happy with this. So, I mean, I think one thing I really want to ask you, Kayla, is like, what is the origin? And we ask all of our guests, or at least I think they do. I mean, I was once a guest, and then I was recruited into being a host, so just watch out. We trap you. Yeah, they might try to trap you.

No, but like, what is your movie origin story? Like, what made you such a cinephile that you are today? Oh, great question. When I was younger, I really wanted to be a screenwriter, and that is like what my goal was. And then I sort of shifted focus. When I went to college, I went to school for broadcast journalism. So I took a bit of a pivot into television. But my first love was always screenwriting.

I took a couple classes. I was one of those kids that, like, made short films with my friends, inspired by, like, whatever movie I saw that week. Like, we would watch horror movies that we weren't supposed to see. And then we would go and try to, like, imitate them in my backyard with my, like, shitty, like, flip, like, camera that I got for Christmas or whatever. So it's always just been, like, it's always been a part of me, I think. It's also, like, I love pop culture.

And I think film has always been, like, a really, big and interesting part of that. And I like how film sort of reflects where we are in the moment. That's why I like seeing new films and talking about them. But yeah, I always wanted to make movies. And so I did take like a bit of a detour in life and went into TV instead and then left that to do YouTube. But that's that's my origin. Dope. Yeah. How does that, uh, your like love of movies, did that like apply in any way when you were starting your YouTube channel? Like how did that form to its like current iteration? Yeah. I mean, I was always, I always loved to write when I was a kid. And so, like, I would write scripts for films

and, you know, over time that kind of pivoted into like, like, I always wanted to be a YouTuber. Like, I was just, like, raised in that generation of, like, watching, like, I grew up watching YouTube. And so I feel like I very much, like, I always saw myself doing this in some capacity. And the writing is really kind of what took me through, like, being able to script, like, little short films that I would make with my friends to, to, you know, my real job for a while was, I was a TV producer, so my job was to, like, write the words that news anchors say. And I think a lot of that I was able to, like, pivot into, you know, taking a controversy and being able to explain it in like a 15-minute script. So that's kind of how that thread evolved through time. Well, it's amazing. The tightrope walk,

you have to walk sometimes when you're addressing these controversies. And, I mean, it takes a lot of skill to be able to like find the right path so that people aren't insane which I mean they are going to be anyway I mean they are inevitably but yeah yeah that's hard to avoid no matter what's something I've had to learn how do you approach like the research like part of it then in order to make sure you get your dot your eyes and cross your twos or whatever and not upset anyone because I was drawn to like your Ryan Reynolds and the rock kind of like videos um and just I I don't know. Like these are people of like huge van bases and I guess that's part of it like talking to them or talking about them and yeah it's definitely part of it. I try like I try to

consider as much as possible like any because okay I'll be I'll be so for real a lot of it is like that I've learned is woman talking on internet like you're already starting at zero you are like you are already you're like I've gotten comments that are literally like women talking not relevant and like fair. Like, okay. So I'm already like starting at a place where I have to win these people over. And so that's why I try to do my due diligence in like trying to understand as many possible angles or like issues that people could take with what I'm saying before I say it.

And I try to address everything like as equally and neutrally as possible. I try to do it to the best of my ability. It's always like I'll upload something. And the way I can tell like if I did something right is if I have like both sides of a, fan base or an issue like telling me I did a bad job. I'm like, if you all think I did a bad job, then that actually means I did this correctly. Oh, yeah. Right, right. Yeah, those are fun. Yeah, it's a good gauge. Do you have like any favorite filmmakers or films? I'm a big Luca Guadignino fan. Hey. Call me by your name is one of my favorites. I actually just caught

a re-release screening, which was great. I'm a big like, I'm big into like kind of like the coming of age genre. I love those types of films. Those are the kinds of films that I like grew up with and like, you know, wanted to make. I also, I don't know, I'm a big fan of like, uncut gems is probably one of my favorites within the last like decade or so. I fucking love that movie. I'm a big, I know the safeties are a little controversial, but I'm a big fan of their work. And I also like, I don't know, I like animation. I love spirited away. That's one of my favorites as well. So kind of all over the place. But yeah, I'd say Luke right now is probably my favorite, even though I didn't love after the hunt that much.

So I'm like- Sure. Yeah, no, that was a beautiful mess. A mess. Oh my God. An interesting mess. Like, I was intrigued in all of the ways in which it went wrong. Yeah, like, I would watch it again. I might buy it. Like, it's a fascinating mess. Yeah. It's very like rage baity, which I kind of appreciate. I was like, all right, this is an interesting swaying, but an interesting direction. But I'm excited to see what he's going to do next. Isn't he the one that has the AI, Sam Altman film that just got shelved because of some bullshit? That's him, right? That sucks. Well, it's not shelved.

Amazon dropped out. And so now they're looking for a new buyer. And it's kind of revealed a very interesting state of the film industry where every single major studio is now having major conflict of interest with AI companies. So even A24 is now partnered with like this AI. firm, I think, with Google or whichever one, but A24 is not interested in this Guadignino film because it's critical of AI. So now the only two like major buyers that are even like interested are neon and mooby and that's it, which is like a fascinating and kind of disturbing exposure of what the industry is right now. Like it's crazy how fast it's moving

too. It's just the fact that when they start production on this movie, it's just like, oh, yeah, a movie about Sam Altman, Open AI, okay, let's do this. And now it's like, even A24 is like flirting with, and partnering with, you know, AI and it's AI research or whatever it is. This is like a new developing thing. But it's crazy. It's so like, they're hedging their bets and just kind of like jumping full in on AI and they're afraid. They're all scared. That's crazy. I hear it's going to replace our jobs and we shouldn't do anything about that. Yeah, we should just let it happen. We shouldn't mitigate the effects of that in any way, actually. No, not at all, because it's the future. It's progress. No, I think I, an interesting, like when I, you know, I kind of, on my

channel, I cover sort of like the controversy of the week. And there are certain themes that come up when you do a lot of these things. And one of them, I think, is the way that art and the process of getting art made is sort of diametrically opposed to like corporate interests in 26, because here in America, at least, corporations have consolidated so much power that it is now, like, trickling down to things that you think would be insignificant. And it's really, it's been, this has been a trend, like, as someone who used to work in, like, the television news industry, it started happening back in, like, 2016. And now we're really just starting to see, like, the full-on ramifications of, like, big corporations quite literally silencing, like, the media apparatus that's supposed to hold. the government accountable. And so now to see it infiltrate in film in sort of a different way with AI, it's scary. Not great. Not going to lie. Yeah. I mean, you even mention, you know,

like with the, I know you just did a Jimmy Fallon video, but in terms of like silencing these TV, like the the tepid criticism of Trump that, you know, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert and these people will do. It's just like, that's even too much at this point. And it's also like, How do you feel about like the talk show, like late night TV? Like what is happening to the collapse of that in your opinion? It's so interesting because late night. And yeah, it's kind of on my mind because of the Jimmy Fallon episode I did. It's, you know, late night exists right now for like people to watch it on Facebook

reels the next day. You know what I mean? And so a lot of it like to me, it doesn't even really seem that like cutting or biting or biting or offensive. You know, they're just taking little jabs at the government. and the fact that, you know, the government is so petty. Like, I'll give you an example right now. Yesterday, my fiancé is a producer for WABC,

which is the biggest ABC affiliate station in New York City. He works, he's been working for them for almost a year now. And they just put out like a campaign being like, if you value this station, let the FCC know because all of the ABC affiliate stations are, under review because the FCC doesn't like what, you know, Jimmy Kimmel and the ladies on the view had to say about Donald Trump. And so now all of a sudden, like, all of these people are at risk. My, my fiance is at risk of losing his job because Donald Trump got offended

by like a joke some white ladies made. Like, it sounds ridiculous to say it. And like the crazy thing is at the origin of like this source material late night, the view. It's like so palatable and inoffensive that it's, it's crazy that we've gotten to this point genuinely. There's a band called Guar that is known for their, like, shocking performances. Basically, they'll do, like, weird theatrical things. And during every administration, they'll do, like, these weird mock executions of political figures from every persuasion. And as of yesterday now, this is the first time they're actually being investigated by the Secret Service. Because even though it's been a thing that they've done for decades, now it's bad.

Now it's too much. Very sensitive. Can you really be an artist without being investigated by some shadowy government organization? I mean, really. Yeah, it's their own fault. That's how you know you've made it. Yeah, exactly. I mean, William T. Voleman, they thought he was the Unabomber.

You guys probably don't know who William T. Volan is. But, no, I think I actually was wondering, Kayla, if I could do a lightning round of movie takes. Oh. Would you be down for that? Yes. Yes. Okay. Because, you know, we cover a lot of new releases, but you don't always talk about your recent movie takes.

So I'm just want to run through some recent movies with you. And you can either say, four against pro, con. whatever. Okay. And we'll go through it. Okay. Are you ready? Okay.

Yes. Okay. Del Toros Frankenstein. Loved it. I know that's a minority opinion. I loved it. Okay. Was that a boo?

Are you booing? No, I was saying books are a cool thing. I'm glad you cover on your channel. Okay, cool. Hamnet. Didn't like it. Boo. Boring.

Boo. Boo to the movie, not your take. Okay. Just to be clear. No other choice. I liked it. I thought it was pretty good. All right.

One battle after another. Loved it. Thought it was great. Had a great time. One of my favorites of last year. Nice. Obsession. Loved it.

Nice. Thought it was so good. I wasn't going to see it because I'm not a big horror person. But then everyone was like, no, go see it. And I'm glad I did. It was great. You're not a big horror person. That's interesting.

I'm not. I'm a little bitch. I'm scared. What about backrooms? Did that work for you? Backrooms I liked. I didn't love it. But I liked a lot of the swings that it took.

I thought it was pretty cool that that kid, you know, he's 20 years old and he made that. Like, oh my God, I need to get killed. This is crazy. Marty Supreme. Loved it. That was very saffty core. I'm a saffty fan. I'm a Shalamey fan.

I enjoyed it. Okay. What about the Rock Safty? What is that one called? What was that called? Oh, um... Smashing machine. Smashing machine. One smash after another. Um, found it pretty boring. Great cauliflower ear SFX. Very impressive. Yeah. Truly. That's a good date. Um, the running man.

Didn't see it. Brian saw it. My fiance saw it. He said it was all right. Okay. All right. I'll give you a couple more. Um, Wicked for God. Good. Bad, do-do-ass, terrible, not good. Finally vindicated because everyone gave me shit because part one was better than people were expecting. And I was like, yeah, part two is going to be ass because part two that musical's ass.

And I was right. Nice. I'm so glad I didn't get nominated for anything, so I didn't have to watch it. Yeah, it was so bad. Okay. Ella McKay. Didn't see it. Best movie of the year, though.

You missed the movie event of the year. Okay, whatever. I missed the movie event of the year. A fake cinephile award. The Devil Wares Prada, too. Didn't see that one either, actually. Got to catch up on that one. Didn't get a chance.

Wow. Okay, Wuthering Heights. Oh, oh, Christ. That was my least favorite movie of the year so far. Jesus fuck. Yeah, I hated that movie. So bad. All right.

Fair, fair. Okay, well, follow-up question, moving away from movies, I know you're a huge musical theater nerd, correct? Yes, yes. Okay. Do you have a favorite show that can be anything? Oh, my God, that's such a good question.

I mean, I love Rocky Horror. I just saw the revival of that on Broadway. I'm a big, let's see, one of the ones I saw in the last couple years that came to town was Parade with Ben Platt. that was really, really great. I'm a fan of Phantom, you know? Like, it's corny, but it's an old school classic. And I appreciate the staging and the pageantry of Wicked, even though I don't think it was adapted the best to a film.

So those are some of my theater takes. Nice. Who here's seen the Book of Mormon? I love Book of Mormon, too. Oh, yeah. That's great. I haven't seen that. Yeah, Book of Mormon's great.

Also, I'm very curious, Kayla, because if you enjoy Safeties, have you seen The Curse, the show? Love the Curse. Thank you. Curse is awesome. I will follow Nathan Fielder to the end of this earth. All right. Well, now you have to definitely check out the John Wilson show because Nathan produced it. I will.

I will. Yeah, no, I love the curse. I think it was so underrated because I feel like it just flew under the radar for a lot of people. I want to go back and rewatch it because. my fiance hasn't watched it. Yeah. No, I'm going to rewatch that at some point for sure. I would love a physical media release.

I don't know if Paramount is going to do that after Nathan called them Nazis in rehearsal season two. Now they own Warner, so hopefully he continues to be able to create things. Yeah. Don't even get me started on Paramount, bro. I used to be employed by that company. And now I'm not and it's awesome. Yeah.

They gave me a free Paramount Plus login and then they took it away. And I was like, you guys suck. This was the only like benefit of working for you guys. It cusses them nothing. Yeah, it's bullshit. Yeah. Oh, man. Okay, well, that's terrific.

I'm sorry about the Paramount Plus situation. That sounds really difficult. But I don't know. I have one more question. We probably need to move along. move along to the first movie, but I just, I need your take. Lynn Manuel Miranda, how are you feeling about him? These days, I think he is, he's rather inoffensive.

I'm grateful to him because that is one of the most popular videos on my channel when I made a video about him. And so I'm happy for everything he's contributed to the ecosystem. And I do think he's coming out with a new Broadway project. So I'm excited to see what that entails. Oh, sweet. Is it what about Ben Franklin or something? Yeah, he should just do, yeah, he should just do like an MCU, like all the founding fathers get their own hip hop musical. I think that would do really well. It actually probably would. I mean, it'd be crazy, yeah. Yeah.

Okay, well, thank you for that. And that satisfied some of my, you know, curiosities about your movie. I think you're a true cinephile. I think we've got a real one here. Thank you. I love being purity testing. Yeah, yeah, no. No, it wasn't a purity test. It was just, you know, a rigid examination. All right, so are we talking Toy Story 5? Yeah, Toy Story 5 time.

I will qualify that, you know, I had such a debate in my head over whether or not I was going to watch the film. And I've just been, I've been too busy. And I was like considering just like, yeah, should I download a camera? And I didn't. And so, yeah, you can all have this conversation and I'll listen. And you can spoil it and it doesn't matter because I was never going to enjoy this film in the first place because you know me. Oh. You know me.

Okay. And I'm going to throw this out there to anybody who's these consistent idiots who when there's one person that didn't watch a movie that wasn't even recommendation. They go, do your job. It's like, okay, well, none of you did your job

because we could have been talking about fucking, you know, the love that remains by Cleaner Palmerson. Okay? Like, that's a new film

that's on digital right now. And it's incredible. It's incredible. I would love to talk about that. But, you know, everybody has different ideas about what an important

movie to talk about is. So go for it. Talk about Toy Story 5. Do you know that, Adam, by not seeing, you are pulling money out of Tom Hanks' pocket. That's the goal.

And Tim Allen. Yeah, Disney need your cash, man. That's struggling. Yeah. Tim Allen made enough money by being a snitch. Who do you snitch on? Oh, he used to be a cocaine dealer. And then he snitched.

He got a plea deal. And then he became a Disney icon. This is all true. What? Yeah, don't you? Oh, my God. I'm not even joking. He is a snitch.

I'll drop his mugshot in the Discord. Yeah. Just make the thumbnail his mugshot. Instead of your face. To infinity. And a plea deal. It's snitching with style. I'm dead.

Okay, so I saw this, right? Alex, you were able to catch it? Yep, my sort. I saw it, too. Okay, great. Well, what did you all think of this film? I really enjoyed it. I, uh, not the mugshot.

Bye, he looks good. He's got the mustache. He's so young. He looks good. He looks fine. Good for him. Wow. No, I enjoyed it.

I, Toy Story is not my favorite Pixar franchise. So I actually like didn't even see four until this week. Like me and Brian watched it like before we went to see five. I wasn't a huge fan of four. Four to me was like, okay, why does this exist? Once I got over that, I had more fun with five. I really liked it. I feel similarly as far as like four felt more insulting.

Like, man, you had this nice trilogy like wrapped up and you just got to go back to it. What are you doing? So then when you get to five, it's like, okay, just make a hundred of them then. Like, I don't even care at this point. I wish I could say I enjoyed it, though. Like, I don't know. This to me has kind of like Star Wars vibes. Yeah.

This is just creatively bankrupt. I just don't go there. I just not feeling it anymore. No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Jake. I was too positive last episode. I got to like bring this down. Got to make up for Disclosure Day. I'm sorry.

I wasn't feeling it. It just felt like, it feels like there's nothing really left to do with these characters anymore. It just feels like a bunch of familiar story beats and stuff we've seen before. Like, it looks good. Looks amazing. Oh, the textures are crazy. The way they were doing, like, the Dot Matrix LCD screens on these, like, computer characters. It looked incredible. But, like, it was just in service of something I don't really care about, you know, because I thought this looked more interesting on a concept level than for trying to address the I, bad parenting thing in some way. What's it going to do? How's it going to integrate that into the story? And I just don't think it does anything interesting with it. I think it kind of, again, it just kind of feels like familiar ground with this kind of what the first movie was sort of about with like the buzz, sci-fi toy kind of usurping the old out-of-date cowboy. And yeah, sure, it's broader with like the friendship angle and like, I don't know. It just doesn't have this

sophistication to really provide a solution through the lens of like, toys to address like that issue so it just felt like kind of a neutral take on the tech stuff by the end of it like they're just kind of like hand wave it in a way and it doesn't really feel that impactful or important or like well explored and I don't know I thought the structure of it was kind of clumsy with like these ABC plot threads that like coalesce in like this really kind of awkward non-organic way um I feel like I'm killing the vibe right now so Jake You lift a circle of something. You're killing the vibe.

First off, fuck all of you. Because Toy Story 4 is fantastic. First, okay, before I even get to 5, okay, Toy Story 4 is the sin eater of the fucking franchise. Everyone is like, hey, Toy Story 3 ended it perfectly. Why did we have to go back to the franchise? Obviously, yes. Like, they should have just ended it at 3.

But Toy Story 4 is like the, I don't know, the palate cleanser now before 5, people are Like, oh, fuck, we have to do four. But now, if we're going to keep making these movies, whatever. I feel like the reception of five has been pretty positive overall. But Toy Story 4 is really, I don't know, I really like Toy Story 4. And I kind of think visually this was a bit of a step down creatively. I think Toy Story 4 is the best looking of the franchise. The mud.

And yeah, yeah, it looks great. It's got that, like, cinemascope. It's kind of really interesting. Like the camera lenses, like how they are able to replicate that in the fourth one is really interesting. The fifth one, yeah, just looks a little more flat. But like, you guys are going to hate this because I have, I have parent brain now. And I feel like Toy Story has, it has always been kind of like a movie for parents in a sense, even though like, of course it's for kids. But there is that kind of like second perspective where a lot of more recent Pixar movies you can kind of tell,

like these are more for kids. I feel like Lightyear is a movie for kids, you know. And I feel like Toy Story in general is, especially this movie, is addressing the anxieties of parents, like, specifically. And, like, the toys being there for the kids and watching them grow up and not need them anymore is such, like, a parent metaphor type of thing. And, but also, like, you can apply it to life. Like, they have this existential crisis. Every movie, every movie, Woody has a crisis. They have crisis about, oh, the kid isn't going to need us anymore. And, yeah, they're doing it again in this movie. But I feel like the conclusion it reaches through Jesse's character really hit home. I don't know.

I mean, it had me crying, you know, in that climax of the movie. Then again, speaking on Alex's points, yeah, the movie is kind of messy. Like the ABC plot threads, it's juggling a little too much and a lot of it feels a little too familiar, especially like all of the multiple buzz dolls doing their thing and then... Yeah, there was like no payoff to that. Yeah, the logistics of the technology and how it's all coming together just does not work perfectly and you kind of have to, you know, just accept a few things like that a potty training toy can send an email, you know? Yeah, that was so confusing.

Like, why? That felt very going to boomery. Yeah, I think also I read that the buzz toys were supposed to originally be like the villains in the film. I think a lot of those like early D23, you know, news updates were like the antagonist in this film is going to be the buzz toys. and obviously that is not really what they were in the, you know, final outcome. And I think you can tell that they just had this idea of like, what if we had a bunch of buzz toys on an island? And then they had to find a way to sort of connect it to the rest of the plot.

And I do think it was a little kind of like shoehorned it in that way. The real antagonist is big tech. Yeah. It wasn't really one otherwise. Yeah. It's funny to say that it felt like it was more for like the parents because I feel the same way. And I had a really weird experience in my cinema with this because it was packed.

Like every single seat filled. But like kids weren't really laughing. Like they laugh at one time at one of the like toilet jokes. And the irony of it, I couldn't. There was a kid sat sat to my left who every five minutes was checking his phone and scrolling. I just, I just was like, dude, this battle has already lost. That's ironic. Yeah, exactly.

Did that just happened? Uh-huh. I was like, really, man? Fuck. Yeah, this battle's already lost at this point. That's funny. I don't know. There was some stuff I liked about it.

I liked when they were doing the imagination play sequences, and it was a bit more kind of visually creative and had that, like, hostile kind of color palette, and they're doing the silly voices and kind of parodying, like, spy movies and stuff like that. That was cool. That was fun. But I just couldn't really... There's someone about those first three movies.

They have these incredible sets. pieces that they like build up to and it feels like so organic yeah there isn't really a moment in this movie that's like oh that's what this has all been building to this is this feels like a payoff after payoff after pay off and the like the music is like complimenting it and it feels like this big the climax whereas i don't know it just didn't hit for me like that and i'm pretty easy to manipulate with these movies like the usual trilogy gets me i didn't like four but i don't know just someone about this was not clicking for me it just felt too I don't know, kind of cynical with like, immediately when it ended, I went and Googled, like, can you, like, buy a toy of this, like, villain from this movie?

Of course you can. Of course you can. I do. You can buy the Lilacad. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I think, can I give a hot take? I think the issue with Toy Story is that it is so, it's kind of odd.

It's beloved. It's revered. And it has been going for so long that I think they almost don't make it with kids in mind anymore. they make it for their parents who watched the movies when they were kids. Yes. And I think in that way, like, like, I was tearing up. Yeah, I was tearing up at that Jesse scene. Like, I was, but I'm like, I'm aware that I'm being emotionally manipulated.

That's what, that's what Toy Story does. That's their whole thing. That is what makes them good, quote unquote, you know what I mean? I still had fun, but it's like, I am self-aware that at this point, like, I am, they're putting extra effort in to like make me cry because I'm 28 years old. and that's the target audience. Unironically, is 28-year-olds, I feel. Yeah.

No, you're right. I guess to me why that bugged me was, it's like, well, it's not earned emotion because it was just like, I remember that sad scene from Toy Story 2, where we earned it? I was doing that again. I remember bearing it. That was the last film they'd earned it. I don't know.

I feel like this movie does and puts in the work to try to find, like, an interesting angle on, what's going on, you know, especially with like embracing the tech, but also in terms of like Jesse's crisis of realizing, okay, I'm not going to be needed anymore. What do I do with my life? Like Woody had a similar crisis in the fourth one and he has a certain, not to spoil that movie or anything, but he has a certain revelation. I can spoil the fourth one. I've seen it too. Okay, fine. He goes off on his own, right? He leaves and to go rescue. He realizes I don't need to, you know, please a kid anymore. You know, I don't have to be there for them. And in this. movie Jesse is having a similar crisis but comes to a different conclusion. And I think like the way the movie earns it works really well and especially the way this movie and Alex, you mentioned like the visual style of the play sequences. I thought were really fun and enjoyable.

And those were some of my favorite parts. But also this movie is addressing the idea of play fundamentally. Like we kind of like obviously the toys are played with. But this movie is addressing like there's a type of play. There's a type of imagination that kids can tap into. special, you know, that we see Bonnie tap into and this new character blaze and that there's something that needs to be treasured and preserved and that the danger of technology isn't necessarily that it's technology. It's the difference. The issue is the way that it is limiting kids' imaginations

and kind of making them grow up before they should. And that's, you know, especially the way that Bonnie is like teased for wanting to play with her toys. I was like, that's such a special and, know, for, like, kids with an overactive imagination, like, I was that kid who was like, why is everyone done playing with toys all of a sudden? Like, I don't want to be done playing with toys. I'm not done. Yeah. I'm still getting strong. Well, yeah, we're all on YouTube. No, especially. No, I definitely, I saw a tweet that I retweeted that was like, don't watch Toy Story 5 if you were a weird girl with no friends. And I'm like, yeah, retweet. Like, I do think it definitely, that's, that was kind of my favorite part about it was it nailed.

I mean, obviously it's different for kids now because tech has introduced so much earlier. Like, for me, you know, when I was growing up, it was like middle school was when, you know, all of that was kind of introduced to our lives and social media. But even, even then, like, when I watched Bonnie, like, going through this sort of social isolation because she's not playing the right way and she's not like the other kids, I do think that's, that's the part of this that they nailed for me more than anything else. And I thought that was like the most, that was like, I was like, okay, that's the, reason this movie exists and so therefore I am happy I saw it because they had something to say

about that particular aspect of it, you know? Right. Yeah, it felt like that, okay, there's a reason why they're doing it. Like, of course, they're doing it for money. Like, the only reason they're making is just to make a bunch of money. Easiest billion dollars ever. Yeah, but I mean, they have Andrew Stanton, you know, finding Nemo, Wally and everything. And it's like, it felt like, okay, here's something that they're trying to address. That's like a big deal that, again, it, like we're saying, It's more for the parents these days because it is like parents are worried about technology and kids who are, but also on like a fundamental level, it made me just think in general, not even just about parenting, but about like the human, the human species dealing with technology in this way. Like the first movie, what came out in 1995, four? I think so.

But, you know, the fact that they have to address now this level where we are all drones on our devices. You know, there's a shot of Jesse climbing up to the top of the houses and she can look into the windows of all these houses that are around and she can see all the kids just staring at the screens. And it is kind of like, hey, this is us. This is what we're all like now. And what does that say about us? So, I mean, maybe I'm reading too much into it. But I do think the movies has like a very good heart and it's trying to approach it sincerely, even though it is kind of a mess. And part of that has to do with the fact that we have all these characters we need to cram into this story. Like even though Woody ran off into the sunset at the end of the last movie, he has to be here. He has to be here.

Buzz has to have his little side plot. Like all of these things, it's just a little too stuffed with side stuff. You can tell what they're interested in. They should have just focused on that. Way too many characters. Got to go through the motions. There's a checklist. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. There's something kind of derivative about it. And like the multiple buzz thing even is like, well, they did that in Toy Story too, right? That was like one of the things I did in that movie. Yeah, that's where the meme is. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, exactly. So I don't know. I was just hoping for more from this, especially because I rewatched Hoppers the other day, which I thought was like a real surprise and it's like genuinely funny and like really weird. Love Hoppers. Yeah. Yeah, I thought it was really good. Like one of their best films in a while.

I was like, oh, this is like inventive and reminded me of like some of their older movies where it would just keep like escalating. on itself and would just go in unexpected directions where this is kind of the opposite. It's like, yeah, this is like, I guess the Toy Story formula. They've got it down to a T. You know exactly like when to make you cry, when to put this here and da-da-da. And I don't know. Like I get what you're saying about the Jesse arc.

There is something there. But like it's like half an hour of the movie maybe. So all the fluff in between it, like to get to that end point. It's just like, I didn't need these like old tech characters, you know, the Conan O'Brien poo joke guy. He's the poo dispensers. character, and like the camera.

Come on, it's Conan. It's Conan. He was great. I don't really like Conan, but I wasn't really into that character. I mean, yeah,

stuff that he writes. Yeah, yeah. I like the whole entourage of the original characters, you know, like, pagan stuff.

They're all like sideline. Everyone's sidelined. They're all a million years old or dead. Yeah, a lot of them are dead. Yeah, exactly. It's a good metaphor for the film. I was actually going to ask,

like, how was the voice acting? Because when I watched the I was like, Jesse kind of sounds like, who's the... Jane Cusack, right? She's up there now. Yeah, she sounds like ancient to the point where it's distracting. I didn't find her performance distracting.

A little bit, yeah. The Mr. Potato Head, like, because they were placed Don Rickles, obviously, with another voice actor. It does not sound like Don Rickles, in my opinion. Which is kind of interesting because I feel like that's a pretty easy voice to imitate. I do not think the actor did the best job, but... That's just me, I guess. Oh, you think it's so easy. Why don't you do Don Rickles right now?

I don't think I can. That's what I thought. I'll do it. Hey, I'm Don Rickles. That was pretty good. I'm in casino. Meat spaghetti and meatballs. That's pretty good.

You should have been in the movie. You should have been in the movie. Same. I do think that actually. You do have kind of a Pixar voice a little bit. Oh, of course. Yeah. Yeah, no, I'm best friends with.

Pixar. I should go in. Here's a question I'll open up to all of you. When was the downfall of Pixar? When did that start? And when did the peak end? Let me pull up my timeline here for reference. I always have this featurette in my head where they were marketing some of the films. and I forget which one.

I think it was like in the trailer for like Wally where they had already built such a large enough brand that now their marketing was including like the legacy of Pixar. And so it started out with this big, it had all the Pixar people just basically talking about how like, there was a meeting and we had lunch and we came up with all these different concepts. And one of them was like about a toy that wanted to exist

and one was about a bug. one was about a car and stuff. And then they're basically just leading up to the reveal of Wally saying, and the last idea that we had was about this little robot. And so the implication of this through this marketing is like, oh, there was this original series of ideas. And then everything after was them kind of like maybe trying to chase something. And that doesn't mean that it's illegitimate because at the end of the day,

it's just more people coming up with different ideas. But it did feel to me that that was around the time where like things started falling apart. Because even though everybody loves the first 10 minutes of up, right, I find the rest of the movie to be like, meh, right? Toy Story 3, I didn't like. I mean, like, I'm going to have a very different experience in the timeline than most people,

because I started becoming a Pixar hater way early. People usually catch up to my opinions is how it goes. but yeah I ran that time okay I think it's cars too I think that was when the streak ended that's when the streak ended like before then it was like all pretty consistent quality I would say

maybe outside of cars yeah that's always been a weird one yeah because then it was cars too brave I think brave came out right after cars too Monster's University that's like three kind of like that's brutal yeah that's pretty bad run that is brutal yeah and that's when they started getting like the sequelitis like they started doing they did cars three

They did Incredibles too. Like it's that kind of like fall down, I think. I can never stop thinking about Disney as grandma in the slot machine now. I brought that up a couple episodes ago. It's just like it really just seems like that's what they're doing. Like, oh, we had a hit. Let's just try it again. Come on.

One more. I was watching a really, some video about like the downfall of Pixar and what happened. Although it's not really a downfall. But it's like a big part of it was them. being fully bought by Disney because they made some level of independence for those first early movies. And then it was probably right around Toy Story 3, Cars 2,

when it's like, okay, we're pumping out the sequels. And then obviously like the pandemic and they're starting putting movies on streaming. You know, like Soul is a really good Pixar movie, but no one cares about it because it wasn't like a big deal, you know? And also like for those early Pixar movies, like those first 10 Pixar movies,

they had a brand and an identity that was special. That was like just mint condition, like perfect level of quality that everyone knows you're going to see something special and original that's going to touch you. And not in a creepy way. Not in a John Lassiter way, but in like a good way. Touch on the doll, but not in that way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like another factor too, and I didn't realize this until recently is that John Lasseter literally moved into being in charge of Disney animation. I was going to mention proper, right, at the same time. So it's just like the level of influence and control and all of these creatives were kind of being filtered into Disney animation too. And that's when you start seeing tangled and frozen and all of that.

So it's like they kind of like took all the juice that was packed tight into, that's a weird metaphor. I don't know why I'm saying it like that into Pixar. And it got spread around a little bit. So maybe that's part of it. Yeah, a little bit and shittified. I don't think it's a total wash though, like where Adam's at with these. I think they're more just all over the place now, you know? Yeah, inconsistent.

I did like Inside Out, but then they'll do Good Dinosaur. You know, it's like, what the... Oh my God, Good Dinosaur. That was like the worst date of my life. Yeah. I went on a date to see the Good Dinosaur, and I was like, this is the worst date movie I've ever, ever watched. Yeah, how do they fuck that up? Like an animate Dino movie?

What are you doing? I know, right? I liked Coco, but like... Yeah, Lightyear. Elio. But is the good dinosaur, is the good dinosaur a worse date movie than the drama? That's what I want to know. At least you know something to talk about after the drama.

I love the drama. Yeah, the drama's great. That's another movie I've seen twice. Yeah, no, the identity of Pixar just started becoming this weird, like, blurred line. Because at one point, even ignoring whether or not John Lasseter started, you know, making Disney branded films without Pixar sort of thing. There was a point where it was so distinct because Disney was still making 2D animated films also.

Pixar was kind of like the 3D computer animation brand of Disney, the subsidiary that was pumping out things that had a consistent look and you knew that it was Pixar. They didn't even have to say it in the trailer. but then there was a certain point where people just started getting confused rightfully so because Disney movies started looking

like Pixar movies and vice versa and it was just like okay well I guess everything is just looking like Pixar now and the entire industry was looking like Pixar fucking DreamWorks was looking like Pixar so now we're finally breaking free because of Spiderverse but like now Pixar dropped a new trailer for a movie

where they're doing with cats called Gato. And it's like, oh, wow, they're trying a different style. And I wonder, it's, it's probably a combination of different factors, A, Spiderverse, and then B, fatigue, and then C, now every single AI model is just, like, trained only on Pixar. So now the look of Pixar is, like, synonymous with the look of AI slop. So it's like, yeah, you kind of have to evolve away from that, actually. Yeah, that's funny. Yeah, I was going to say a lot of people were talking about that, that, uh, the Disney, it's a Disney animation studios production, Hext. It's like this, they released the trailer for it.

It's this like quirky little witch girl. And everyone's like, yeah, this literally looks AI generated. But it's because all the AI models were trained on Pixar, unregulated for so long. Yeah. It does look generic as hell, yeah. And also people don't have much of a comprehension of animation. No, that's so true. I really remember associating Pixar of like pushing the, almost the tech demo kind of avatar-esque.

the tech side of it, you know? But there's only a certain amount of like return you can get from that and it can't like be your only thing without the stories. Hot take, I think movies with interesting styles and good stories are better than movies without those things but really hyper-realistic textures. You know? Agreed, yeah. Focus on the things that matter.

You know, you can save money even by having more simplified. but stylistic backgrounds. Like in that trailer for Gato, it was like, oh, they're like paintbrush strokes, kind of, like in the background. It would look nice. It looks interesting. And if you can save money doing that and still have a style, you know, simplify a bit of the texture. It's like, great. Focus on the story.

Focus on the characters. What the hell are we doing here? It's storytelling. Be in service of something. Yeah. Not that it matters for Toy Story 5, but God damn, the budget is tight. high, $250 million for that one. That's stupid.

Isn't that? For Toy Story 5? For Toy Story 5? Yeah. Hoppers was 150. Yeah. And like you can see it, I guess. That's kind of the only thing I was really engaged by.

It was like, wow, the texture on that paint is next level. Oh, the wood looks so real and very realistic. Like, you know, but that's all I'm really getting stimulated by. We should move on from Pixar in general. Do it real quick. favorite Pixar movie? Do you guys have a favorite? Ratatooie. I guess Wally for me. It's Finding Nemo or Ratatoui. Probably Finding Nemo. Okay, cool. I'm going Monsters, Inc.

Cool. I mean... Nice. It's a good one. Yeah. All right, we moving on to the next film. Yeah. Right things? Any other Toy Story 5 thoughts? It was great. I don't think so. 10 out of 10. I'm like right down the middle as far as like a rating.

I'd give it like a two and a half star on that's a box. I won't see it again. I won't think about it again, but I'll watch the original trilogy again. I gave it a four on letterboxed. Nice. Okay. Yeah, I gave it a four. Wait, hold on.

Hold on. Out of ten? Hold on. Are we talking stars or full star? Out of five on letterbox. Oh, okay. Out of five on letterbox. Four out of five.

I guess eight out of ten, but four out of five stars for me. Wow. Cool. Yeah. All right. Good to talk about the film recommendation. Kayla, take it away. Okay.

So I chose hairspray. Can I really quickly have to tell you what I was so close to choosing. I was very close to choosing a completely different film called Remember Me. And the only reason why I was going to choose it. It's not a good movie is because Robert Pattinson canonically dies in 9-11. And I was like, I don't know. think that's a good enough reason to pick it, but I did come very close because I thought it would be funny. We've mentioned that movie probably so many times and I've never seen it. Yeah, who's

actually seen it? We've all seen the clip from the ending, right? Who's actually seen the movie? I've seen it. I'm a Robert Pattinson fan. He's like my favorite. He is my favorite actor. And so I was like, I think it would be kind of funny if I chose that. But then I was like, you know, But I don't think it's, it's, it's good enough for like a bit. Like, it would have just been like the whole bit is that he dies at the end. Like, the rest of the movie's not. So I was like, okay, let me, let me pick something that we could actually talk about. And the reason why I picked it was, obviously, I'm a pop culture critic.

And I think this movie is a very, like, interesting sort of landmark in pop culture for that time. People love this movie. I know so. I like this movie a lot. Oh yeah, it was big when it came out. Yeah, so many people go up for this movie and, like, always have. I even, like, a couple days ago, I was scrolling on TikTok, and there was, like, a viral clip from it.

Like, I just think it's so interesting. I love the John Waters influence, even though it's not, like, obviously it's not John Waters directed, but the influence is very much there because it's based on his 1988 film. So I like how, like, kind of weird it is. Like, I feel like it does have a lot of that John Waters tinged vibe to it. And I like movie musicals and I like talking about them. So that is why I chose hairspray.

Very nice. Very nice. Thank you. Yeah, no, I remember it being huge when it came out. Because I was alive and conscious at that point. And also, yeah, like John Travolta and Drag was like a huge marketing point. Oh, yeah. Obviously.

Yeah, that was a big deal. Yeah, because you didn't really see. see anything like that for like a major well-known actor especially, let alone lesser-known actors in a project that's actually being marketed. You couldn't do that today. It's kind of controversial, right, at the time, right? Like, I found this Guardian article from 2007 talking about it. And the quote, and it's pretty funny.

What was it? Critics, including the editor of leading gay newspaper, Washington Blade, have claimed that the actor has no business playing an iconic gay role because they allege that his Scientology faith is homophobic. However, Travolta defended the role in an interview with the Scoot website. Quote, there is nothing gay in this movie. He said, I'm not playing a gay man. Scientology is not homophobic in any way.

In fact, it's one of the more tolerant faiths anyone's accepted. Love that. That's awesome. That's great. And it's like, this is based on the, it's confusing. Because it's the original John Waters movie, then there was the musical, and this is based on the musical. Yeah. And obviously, the bones of the original.

Yeah. Yeah. John Waters gets to play a flasher. Have any of you seen the original? I did a long time ago. Yes. I watched it, yeah. I watched it in prep for this.

Same. Okay, cool. We've all seen it. What did I think? Which one? The original, yeah, we can do it like a tiny little thoughts on the original before we get into more. I kind of wish I watched it, watched it first, honestly, because while I was watching the 2007 version, through the whole thing, I was kind of like, this isn't really for me. There's just something.

It's not missing with this. I could see little little moments that I felt like man why isn't this really connecting and then I watched the 88 John Waters one it was like oh right this is kind of what I wanted this to be this is like the high camp

satire stuff I felt just Landibeta was like funnier so absurdist and like mocking like white liberals through like a B movie trash aesthetic was like really funny to me it's like aged and has some

has some weird stuff that is an issue in like both movies but yeah just the prioritizing the camp over like historical accuracy thing was kind of speaking to be more on that original it's just that personality the John Waters personality kind of bled through it stronger than the three white people and the white director of the remake did for me

I don't know honestly the 2007 version felt more aged than the 88 one to me. You can get into that. No, that's a great observation because I felt very similarly about that. And it's so interesting because I've always really liked hairspray. It's one of Nadia's favorite movies. She actually rewatched it with me to prep for this.

And she just loves it. It's got some great music and we'll get into that. And it's such, it's got some great moments. I will say that about it. But I watched it immediately after watching the 88. version for the first time. And the 88 version is really good. And it has that John Waters camp, but it's also kind of like toned down a little bit because it is like a PG movie or whatever. And it, a lot of it, a lot of the stuff that I don't love about the 88 movie is kind of like,

remember the 60s? Wasn't, weren't the 60s weird? And it's clearly from someone who lived through the 60s and is like, doesn't have this reverence for a time period. That's, and it's just kind of like shitting on it and making fun of it with some affection, but it's mostly like this ironic distance that it's like, like Alex you were saying, it is kind of like making fun of white liberals in a sense. And the 2006, 2007 version, it is kind of like this is an important iconic era. Like you can tell John Waters doesn't think any of the people in the original are cool, you know, whereas in the 2007 version, it's like everyone here is, is cool and great and they're doing something important, capital I important. We're emphasizing that.

And it is like, you know, it's talking about racism. It's talking about the civil rights movement, but it is very much from that green book, the help kind of like the white person is going to save the day. Like it is kind of, my jaw dropped because I've forgotten about the scene where Tracy literally says to the black characters like, have you guys thought about doing a march? What if we do that? It's like, holy shit. And that's where. it does feel like it is more dated than the 88 version for sure. Yeah.

Yeah, definitely. It's, I like the 88 version because I think it's the most accessible of John Waters films. I actually, I did debate. I was like, oh, should we do? I debated a John Waters recommendation, like pink flamingos or something because it is Pride Month. And I was like, that'd be fun. But then I was like watching pink flamingos for this would be fucking crazy. But I do like that it's the most accessible of his films.

and I do think that like watching them in contrast to each other. I haven't seen the 88 version a long time. It is such an interesting dichotomy because like you guys said, I think this, the 2007 version of it, obviously Obama wasn't elected yet, but it is like the precursor to like Obama level optimism type thing. And like the 88 version is not really that at all. It's kind of making fun of that spirit.

So it's fun to watch them in contrast to one another. Yeah, for sure. I haven't seen the 88 one in a long time, but according to my rating, I enjoyed it and everything that you all are saying about it is giving me hints of memories of it and is feeling like it's ringing true. There's so much sincerity in the 2007 version that is just not there in the original. And I was trying to explain to Nadia as we were watching like a heartfelt comment about racism. and there's like a slow song where they're marching, you know, and I was trying to explain to Nadia, like, you know, in the original 88 version,

it ends with Debbie Harry hiding a pipe bomb in her massive hair, and it blows up. It's loony tunes. And she's like, what? Really? Why? And I'm like, because it's just a joke. It's just stupid.

Like, that's the point. And John Waters, like, it's so over the top. And it's this, like, tonally so different. Yeah. Yeah, it's totally different. And just the satire element. It's just on point. Like, it's got absurd dialogue, like, in earnest, they're saying,

our souls are black even though our skin is white. And, like, ridiculous stuff like that. And, yeah, John Waters' cameo in the original where he's, like, got this hypnotizing device. And it's like, laugh out loud, hilarious. And Divine, oh, my God, Divine is so good in that movie. Like, steals the whole show playing, like, two characters. I thought it was, like, hilarious. I think it's Divine's last role, I'm pretty sure.

Yeah, yeah, you're right. It's Devine's last role. But, yeah, she's iconic. And it was like, I guess the context partially was it was parodying this Buddy Dean show, which was like a real show. It was like a teen dance show that was, you know, aired in Baltimore between like 57 and 64. And it was taken off the air because it was unable to integrate black and white dancers. So it was kind of like a jab at that. That's crazy.

Yeah, I think one of the biggest like defining features of between these two movies, that really tells you what you need to know about the movies is that the studio set in the 88 version is like small and dumpy and kind of lame because it's like a local TV. Like there's nothing glamorous or cool about it. Whereas in the 2007 version, it's like a movie studio. It's like it takes away that kind of intimacy where it does feel like total Hollywood fantasy world, which has its own pleasure to it, you know. There's something really fun about that.

but it's just totally different. Yeah. You know, we can make fun of the weird optimism and white savior tropes all we want. But the reality of the situation is one year later, Obama got elected. And racism came back after it was ended by hairspray. That's true. Yeah, but he wore a town suit, though. And he thought that he was too good for regular people because he had ordered Dijon mustard.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that one. And now he is responsible for poisoning the reflecting pool. The pool. It's his fault. Oh, my good. Yeah, he's terrorism. So, so insane. I would love Adam bringing up the Obama presidency to be kind of like how I bring up 9-11 and tying it into movies.

Yeah, I mean, it kind of is. It is interesting to see this as like the Obama era movie because it so completely is. It feels like it's from a different. timeline. If this was made today, like, it would be like lambasted by every right wing like YouTuber. I was like, look at this woke shit. Look at the, you know what I mean? But it's so earnest and it's so sincere. And it's like that there is no place for that in 2026. This is, this is exactly the movie that Ben Shapiro would secretly love, but he'd have to pretend that he doesn't. Exactly. Yeah. 100%. He loved Wicked. Did he? No, he did.

He's open about it. Oh, I hope you were joking. No, yeah. No, dude loves musicals. Yeah, he absolutely would have to. He'd have to pretend to hate this one. Exactly. It succeeds at being a musical for sure.

Like the focus being like the song and dance in terms of what it's like capturing on film. Like it definitely succeeds in that sense. I would say one of my criticisms with it. it would be, I guess, like, the pacing. Like, it is a two-hour-long movie. Yeah, feel so. Yeah. And, you know, if I was, like, very, very enthusiastic about every single song,

then perhaps, like, the runtime would be, like, you know, a bit better for me. And it's still good. Like, I enjoy this movie, but, like, it felt like each song was kind of, like, most of them were inching the plot forward rather than, like, taking full step. So it was like a little bit repetitive, but still some good stuff. It really sags in the middle with, I would say, like the Travolta Christopher Walkin number, that just doesn't, it doesn't work for me. It just really grinds to a halt. You don't like their little romantic duet in the backyard?

I don't love it. I feel like I, oh, here's the thing. I love Christopher Walken, but he is really half-ass. it in this movie. Oh, absolutely. Like, Trevolta is going 110%. And Christopher Walken is like,

I don't really want to be here. When I rewatched it, I told my fiance, I was like, this is the most gender euphoria that John Travolta has ever experienced in his life. And I fear he has spent the rest of his life chasing that high. And that's why he's going through his beret phase. And I feel for him. Like, his TV was glowing.

How do you feel about the beret phase? I like the beret phase. I think it's good for him. I like it. You know, I think it works for him. And I like the explanation that he was like, well, I'm a director now and directors wear them. And it's like, go off, King. How observant.

I never knew that's what that hat was called. But I've always hated it. Then you're real directors wear beret. How can you dislike what you don't understand? I do that every day. There are so many iconic performers. performances in this movie. Like, Travolta is great, but Michelle Pfeiffer is so fucking good in this movie.

She is so good as this evil villain. And like that energy, like the movie wouldn't have any energy if it didn't have, like, her being such a good antagonist. And obviously the lead performance from Nikki, God, what is her name? Nikki Blonski. Nikki Blonski. Is everyone here familiar with the Nikki Blonski? familiar with the Nikki Blonsky lore?

No. I was looking through your channel and I saw you made a video about her not that long ago and I was like, holy shit. What's the lore? The lore is that Nikki Blonsky is racist herself. And this was like a long time. A couple years after hairspray came out, she got into an altercation with an America's next top model contestant and her mom in an airport. And that contestant was black.

and apparently her and her family, according to this America's Next Top Model contestant, started saying a bunch of crazy racist shit to them in the airport and there were like arrests and stuff. Oh, my God. So that's Nikki Blonsky and now she's like kind of, you know, she's, she also was known for like, she would like at random celebrities on Twitter back in the day and be like, hey, it's Nikki Blonsky from Hairspray. And she also went on like a bunch of daytime talk shows and was like, I know Zach Efron

better than anyone else and he should break up with Vanessa Hudgens, which is crazy. That's funny. So, okay, this is fascinating because I always got the impression that it was like, okay, Nikki Blonsky was super talented and she couldn't get any work because of she was fat. That was like the impression and that was kind of the narrative that was like, hey, Hollywood was so brutal and she couldn't get any real work. But I didn't understand that she was also like totally not suited to the celebrity world, basically.

Yeah, yeah, very much. Like, she's now like basically a locale. Like people pay her for cameos ironically. And she like half sings like random songs on cameo and people pay her for that. And it's unfortunate because she does a great job in this movie. This was a great performance from her. She should hit up the Daily Wired studios. True.

Well, I think she's gay. So she can't really do the full right wing pivot. I guess that's never that doesn't always stop everyone. Yeah, look at Dave. You know, she's... Which Dave? Dave. Dave Rubin.

Sorry, I'm terminally on. Oh, wait, Dave Rubin's gay. Oh, yeah, Dave Rubin is gay. I get them confused. That's his whole thing, yeah. I got him confused with Tim Poole. Oh, no. Tim Poole's the other one.

Yeah, he's the hat one. He's the Beanie. He's the hat guy. Or the Took guy. He's the reason I got banned from Twitter because he tweeted something and I quote tweeted him, and I was like, I'm going to beat the fuck out of Tim Pool with my bare hands, that thing.

That's crazy. That's great. Violence. What we're talking about? There's so much more I want to ask about that, but we'll go back to the film. Now, we're talking about great performances in this movie. I think James Marsden stood out to me on this run. I thought he was great.

He had some great energy. And the woman who plays Michelle Pfeiffer's daughter, what is her name? She's in Pitch Perfect movies. She's great. Oh, I always forget her name. I wish she had more to do in this movie because I feel like it's funny because in the original, she is like the main antagonist, how everyone is like immediately on board with the main character being like really good at dancing. And they're like, yeah, let's do this.

And she's like the only one who's like against it. It's very funny. Very different dynamics. But yeah, she's fantastic. And Zach Efron. What era was Zach Efron in at this stage? This was like a couple years post-high school musical. Okay.

Because he was, I thought he was fine in this. I did get a sense that he didn't really, I don't know. I kind of got a sense like he was sort of overdoing musicals. Maybe he didn't really want to do this that much. But I think he's good in this. Did you know, he had to learn how to sing in the first high school musical that's not him singing. He couldn't sing. had another kid dub it over, and then he learned how to sing after that.

That's funny. Really? So was he singing in this? He was. I think by this point, if the timeline is corrected my head, he had like, because in high school musical two and three, he is singing himself. But in the first one, like, if you, he's just lip syncing to some other fucking kid who's singing. So he might have not been like caught.

I guess he might have not been like fully comfortable in his like performing days by this. Like he wasn't ever really like, he was. just like a young actor who like they taught how to sing he wasn't really a musician first what i want to point out is this feels like it's from one of the last eras of musical films where the the the production of the songs still put focus on actually having singers sound like they're singing because even in wicked like when when jeff goblum start singing. It's like, oh, you just took, you just took someone who can't sing and then told the audio engineers, oh, you can do magic, right? And then they tried their best, and it sounds like

auto tune shit, right? Like there used to be some premise of, oh, we should have singing talent with the singers, right? And we're not going to Frankenstein their voices 100%. maybe we'll do a little bit of tuning because that's industry standard just as you know like a little touch-ups right like it still sounded like people were singing in this film which is great and it's crazy that that low of a fucking standard is just not the norm at this point every single fucking Disney remake and even yeah again like it it shouldn't be the case in something like wicked where it's not it's not a Disney remake right like it's advertising itself as like this musical theater thing like Why the hell is that the standard? I'm just, I'm so irritated by this. Or in the case of Travolta, it's like he can't sing, but that's the, like, we're just going to go with that. It's part of the charm.

We're not going to pretend. Yeah. Yeah. I think what is interesting about this movie, too, is it's still from the era to your point, Adam, where it's like, this is still when musical movies were like unapologetically musical movies, whereas I think now a lot of these Disney remakes, I'm also thinking about the Mean Girls remake that we're. was based on the musical similar to how Hairspray had this similar kind of remake cycle.

Like a lot of those trailers tried to hide the fact that these movies are musicals. And I think I enjoy that this is so unapologetically what it is. They are singing the whole time. They are putting effort into the staging and the choreography. And I kind of missed that. I miss that a little bit. I think Wicked Part 1 at least like attempted it, but it's still, you know, there's still some staging in both of those.

that are questionable, whereas I really enjoy that this is like so unapologetic for what it is. Yeah, and it's fascinating that in this current generation, there's films that that have to hide being musicals. Like in the marketing, they're just like, no, we're not a musical. And now I'm thinking, what, what movie would it be funny to just have like a secret musical that you didn't know, like Disclosure Day? Like, that could have been interesting. Like, if everybody he was like hyped for this, hyped for this new Spielberg alien thing. And then they get inside,

they're like, what? Yeah. That'd be interesting. Joker, Fully Adieu. Oh, it was Joker. Yeah.

Joker, too. I mean, at least they, you're right. At least they said it beforehand, but it was like, but I remember with Joker too, it's like you're watching and you're like, oh shit,

this really is a musical. They weren't kidding. Yeah. A jukebox musical, nonetheless. And Joaquin can't sing. Yeah, they didn't. hide that. And they just auto-tuned him.

No, this movie, it does have a kind of like, it has a pepinnate step. It feels refreshing. Like, it doesn't, I always enjoy this movie no matter what. And I think because even though it kind of has a wobbly second act, that gets a little dull, it nails it in the ending. Like, everything it needs to do, it just has such like an upbeat ending that is so fun and the best song is saved for the ending. And it's just like, it makes you feel good at the very end. know, everyone, all the bad guys, they get their comeuppance and all the good characters, they get to be stars on TV. And it's, it's just so, I don't know, it made me so happy rewatching it.

It also is one of my favorite opening sequences. I love the Good Morning Baltimore sequence. Yeah. The way that it sort of moves throughout the song is really great. Like the sequence of like her on the bus and missing the bus and being on the garbage truck. Even the sequence with like John, John Waters being the flasher. She's dancing with rats.

Like you get such a really nice sort of intro to this world. And again, like that John Waters type of freakiness. Like I just think it's really inventive and creative. And I miss that kind of thing in modern day movie musicals where it feels like they're just like obligatory. Like we're doing a song, but we're not going to do anything super interesting with it. You know? Yeah, that opening song is catchy. Like I can vividly remember how it goes, which is good.

That is good. Good tone. some really good. By the way, the actress who I was praising is Brittany Snow, who plays the daughter of Michelle Pfeiffer in this movie. Britney Snow. Yeah, she was in some of the pitch perfect movies. But another big name who's in this movie is Amanda Bines. And this is, I think, one of her last big movies that she was in. She was really fun. She's really fun in this. It's really unfortunate that she, you know, what happened to her career happened. I don't really know much about, you know, what did happen with her career.

But it seemed like at this time period, it was like, oh, yeah, she's like a future major star, like in the realm of Emma Stone, you know. Yeah, she's super talented. I hear she's working with RFK Jr. doing Maha. Really? Is that true? No, that's a pun joke that I made that only a couple people in the comments will get, but it's fine. Oh, oh, it's an Amanda. Okay.

Okay. Okay. I got it. Isn't that silly? They named their thing that? Wait, that's so funny. Okay. Sorry.

Sorry. It was worth it. That's all right. I was sad that I believed you. I was like, oh, no, that's really unfortunate. She's, she's great in this movie, though. I feel like you can't even discuss Amanda Bynes without being like, wow, she was such a great comedic talent. Very sad.

And it sucks. But yeah, she's great in this movie. Yeah. Also, there's some other great performance. I mean, Jerry Stiller is in this movie. I like that they brought him back because he plays, of course, her dad in the original. And he didn't, he doesn't look like he aged a day. Like, he's always just been old.

Well, I guess he's dead now. So he's, but, you know, R.P. Jerry Stiller. You know, you got Allison Janney, who's, I thought, I thought she's really funny, you know, with her little. racism. It's just like so comically You know, I love One of my favorite moments is when she sees

Amanda Bynes kissing the guy on on TV and she just like falls over her table And does a big Pratt fall Queen Latifah Was an interesting presence Because I kind of forgot about her She was like a big part of this era of film She was everywhere for a while

She was What happened? Where is she? What's she doing? She's doing like a TV like crime procedural. They film all in my neighborhood all the time. I forget what the name of it is. That's what she's, but she's, she's around all the time. I see her trailers. The Equalizer? Yeah. So she's on streaming. Wow. She's on streaming.

74 episodes, the Equalizer. Okay. Never heard of it. Yeah, they're constantly filming that here in my neighborhood all the time. Hmm. I don't know. I feel like there's a core issue with this story at its heart, right? I just think equating body shaming with like Jim Crow era racism is like just, that's certainly a choice. I just find that to like just not work for me, especially of like, I don't know, you could kind of modernize this and like make like the black characters like a main character and not just be like a background like, you're there, I guess.

It's mostly about these other characters are more important, even though it's about your struggle. That's kind of just like a crazy angle. Let me do this for you. Yeah, exactly. In the original version, at least you kind of like have more of the satire element going on. It feels like a bit more

clever and like self-aware with that kind of stuff, but like who the the gags are like directed at. It just felt, it was reminded me too much of like a crash or the blind side or something where it's just like come on. Oh my God. It's exactly Obama America, right?

Yeah. We did it. This movie got him elected. Yeah, literally. Yeah. This movie... It solved it. It made Middle America realize what racism was, and we got our first black president.

Thank you. Adam Shankman and the hairspray gang. In that way, yeah, it did, I don't know, it just kind of felt like a parody of itself. That's fair. To me. And I do agree that there is outstanding stuff in there, you know, like, but, but, half an hour I feel like could have been taken out of this for like my sanity's sake because there were a couple songs I liked but yeah this just was not for me and I

kind of feel insane with all the John Travolta love I find it just like such a weird I was curious what you would think about that actually go off because I've always seen like screens and like clips of him in this movie and I've always just thought like this is like terrifying. I don't know what the voice is about. I don't know like what. Mike Myers. He's going for? The accent. The accent is so fucking funny. No one else talks like that in the movie. Yeah. What the fuck is he doing? There were a couple words where like it's like, okay, he said iron is urn. I'm like, I know that as a Baltimore accent from a meme I saw. But then a lot of it is he sounds like Mike Myers Doctor Evil at much throughout much of it oh that's a good

comparison yeah it felt like a character plucked out of like Austin Powers guy oh yeah oh yeah no it was like he stood out in a very fascinating way where it was like you've got it you've got a fairly normal cast for the film in the time period and then one character that's like from white chicks basically or Austin Powers for some some amalgamation of the two. It's interesting because, I mean, obviously, Divine played the original character. Harvey Firestein played Edna on Broadway.

And my question, when I went back and rewatch this like a couple times, is like, I don't understand why they would not have brought Harvey Firestein back to play Edna in the movie because it just, it seems like it would just kind of fit much more in the world because Harvey has experience,

like, doing drag and playing this, character. And so that's why the John Travolta, like, casting is so, it's so interesting to me. Like, I just, I never would have, like, been like, yeah, that's who we should get to play into this film. It's completely bizarre. But then when it was just finding that Guardian article, was just like, wait, what? He said that. There's nothing gay in this movie. I'm not playing a game. I guess it's just, it's like, what? What? What are you talking about? I've ever played. And that's the most himself he's ever played. He's ever felt in his life.

I think I can kind of see where the producers would be like, okay, like Jean Travolta, iconic, you know, performances and musicals. I mean, Greece and Saturday Night Fever, like, great. Like, what if we have him in? I can kind of see where they're coming at. And look, clearly it worked because I remember that was everything anyone was talking about with this movie. Yeah.

That was all I knew about this movie when it was coming out. But no, I do think it is fun. Like to me, the best moment with Trouvault is like at the very end when he goes out there and dances. And that's just like great. I mean, I do think that it sucks that James Marsden is the one who tells Queen Latifah, this is your time now to go up on stage and dance and perform. Like all it's so crazy because literally none of the black characters have like, any agency after until a white character says, hey, you should do this. Like, Nikki Blaskey is like, hey, you guys should march because this is segregation is bad.

Did you guys know that? And then like James Marston is like, okay. We're just going to give up. Yeah, it's your time now. Literally, it's just all the white characters being like, hey, guys, we're, we get it. And you guys should should do your thing now. So it's just very, very, very toned. enjoyable enjoyable in many other ways yeah

yeah this was a good discussion I think I'm fine wrapping it up if anybody else had anything more they wanted to add let me know but I would like to say Adam Shankman directed this and I would like to list some of the films on his glorious filmography ready for this All right we're ready oh yeah

I know one of them Rock of Ages starring Tom Cruise. Yep. Cheaper by the dozen. Two, the pacifier, disenchanted, bedtime stories,

the wedding planner, a walk to remember, and what men want. This is pretty good. And he just recently directed Stop That Train featuring RuPaul and the cast of RuPaul's drag race.

Yes. Yes, he did. Which was a movie that I saw. Glowing review. Okay. Was it, was it bad? I mean, did it have AI in it?

That's what I want to know. I mean, yes, it did. Okay, so, all right, I actually, yes, yeah, quick, quick tangent on that. Yes, it did. And they tried to deny that it did. They tried to say, like, Adam Schaikman had to be out, be like, oh, it doesn't have AI. And then after the movie came out, he did another interview where he was like, actually,

yes, it does. But it's only shots of the train, which is false. There are several. Like, they do like little gags and bits that involve like AI. So clearly AI generated images. So it's like they're being dishonest about it the whole time. Not great. That's silly.

That's very silly. It is silly. It would have been better if they just like did what they do on RuPaul's Drag Race, which is like use shitty like generated like like stock images, not like AI generated assets. That's how they've been getting on on drag race forever. So it's really dumb that they used AI. Just befriend a very autistic. person and film some exterior shots of their miniature model train.

And it doesn't have to look real. That's what they should have done. No, like that's the charm. Yeah. Like a handmade quality. Do a ship post. But yeah, that is that is Adam Shankman's most recent venture. It was fine.

It was very okay. Well, I'm giving hairspray, 2007, a six out of ten. Classic. All right. I'm giving hairspray a six out of ten. Wow. Seven out of ten. Okay.

Yeah, I'd give it like a two-star. I think a good way I put it, is like, this film's ridiculous derogatory. The original was ridiculous, complimentary. What would you give the original? I'd give the original a seven out of ten. Nice. I'd watch that again.

It flew by. It's really funny. Yeah, this just. something going on with this remake. Yeah, I'd give the original like an eight out of ten, I think. Nice. Me too. All right.

I gave him both sixes, but I would have to rewatch to like, I don't know, have a more accurate. I watched it so long ago. But still, good recommendation. Great discussion. Thank you for recommending this. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah, that was a good one.

And now it's time to answer. some questions. Yeah, let's do some questions. Actually, I just want to chuck this in. Chuck in. A quote of John Waters addressing the casting of John Travolter, and his quote was, who better to replace a 300-pound drag queen than John Javolter? Hell, yeah.

Oh, my God, that's so good. He's so fucking funny. He's such a troll. He's awesome. I fucking love him. Yeah. John Waters is great. Yeah.

So let's do some questions then from the Sard on a Cast community. Head over to the suggestion thread over on the subreddit. If you want to leave questions for future episodes, should I skip this one on the Sam Altman biopic? We already talked about it. Yeah, we kind of talked about that already. So I'll jump to this one instead from Sloth 710. Hey Sard's, happy belated Father's Day, Jake. My question is for Kayla Says.

How do you feel about the state of films coming out today? Do you have anything you dislike or like that's been released these past couple of years? Talks about this a little bit. How do you broadly feel about the state of the industry? because we talk about that a lot how a lot of people just kind of hand wave all of films saying like they're the worst they've ever been but I think it's a little bit more complicated

than that. A lot of those people really like the new Ova Bull movie though with Army Hammer where he kills immigrants or something. It's got Kevin Spacey vogue. Oh yeah he's wearing a turtle neck too. He's got a turtle neck and he's shooting people. P.O.5-8s, yeah, I can't wait to see that show. But it looks like it won't be as good. Sorry.

You say, what were you? I feel good. I feel like I like that there is sort of a variety out there. I think people tend to, this is the discourse thing that bothers me a lot. It was happening a lot with, you know, backrooms, obsession. And obviously those are great fantastic films from young filmmakers and that we want to see more of that. And people sort of being like, this is what we want and not, you know, a Spielberg movie. And like, whatever you all feel about disclosure day, however you feel about it. But it's like, I like that we can see all of that. actually. I like that I have the option to go see Spielberg film and then go see some,

some well-funded films from some, you know, young directors. I like that there's a lot of variety out there and, you know, some inventive stuff getting made. Boots Riley's new film, I love boosters, loved it. I just think that there's a lot of really cool stuff that people are giving a chance in a way that they might not have always, and I'm optimistic about it. Yeah, I agree with you. It's not only easier to make a movie than it ever, has been, it's also easier to distribute. However, I will still say that we have a long ways to go. Because if you look at like any other entertainment medium, whether it be like book publishing or game publishing or music publishing, all of those things, there is not this same weird perceived

illegitimacy towards self-publishing and self-distributing movies as there are in those other mediums, right? So we definitely, we've talked about this before on the podcast, uh, in terms of like this perceived sense of legitimacy between like someone publishing something on YouTube versus like making a film that's in theaters. I'm hoping that that line blurs even further because, you know, I would, I would, I would love to see a platform exists like Steam, but for movies, you know, where, where things, where things are just easier to get to an audience and, you know, like professional productions even, you know? Like, it's just all in the same place.

There's a hunger for it, definitely. Yeah. Like, have you seen how much money digital circus is made from just screening that last episode? I only started watching it today. I've only seen like the first two episodes, but that's cool to me. I've always wondered, like, man, could that be done? And they're really doing it. And also, like, it's big news now.

The obsession just passed a Star Wars movie on the global. box office. Like, that would have been unthinkable 10 years ago. Like, that's, that's so interesting to me. Like there's, even though there is this kind of like scary AI, creative bankruptcy IP slop thing going on, it's, it is causing these other kind of sprouts to come up in other places, which I think is cool. Yeah.

I mean, I think it's good that some of these traditional gatekeepers are no, no longer have as much control. But on the downside. is I don't want people thinking they need to become like market supplier levels to succeed, you know, or fighting an algorithm, you know, if is like people finding success on YouTube or social media, are they going to be the only ones who find financing for their films or stuff like that? So it's like, I definitely don't want things to turn in that direction where it's just like algorithmically giving people the tools to make films. But I mean, like you guys are saying,

The tools are for everyone right now and are extremely accessible. So in theory, things should be changing. But I mean, it's just, it's going to be a slow process, I think. I mean, yeah, like, if you're trying to pitch a story or, like, get something out there, it seems way more feasible to get, like, a short together and put it on YouTube. And if it's good enough, you know, like lights out or something, then it is to go through the traditional studio system at this point, unless you're like a NEPO or something. Or throw a whole feature on YouTube.

Like Curry Barker did it. Yeah, feature. Joel Hayward does it all the time. Yep. Yeah. Exactly. Okay. I got a silly one here from Hello.

It is Joe. Kayla, if you could pair up with one of the sides to fight the other two in a fight to the death, who would it be? Wow. Think hard about this. Tim Poole. I think I would pair up with Alex. And I think we could, just based on vibes, I think I could take down Jake and Adam, although I appreciate all of you dearly.

We're both really tall, though. Yeah, we're both quite tall. They're both really tall. We're both like way taller than you'd think. Oh, that's true. I'm only five feet tall, guys. You put the two tallest people on the same team. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

All right, challenge accepted. Yeah, challenge accepted. Yeah, let's go Okay, cool What kind of fight? Bear knuckle What kind of, you want to get into this? Yeah, Atlantic Tiger has one for us.

Question for Kayla, what's your favorite camp movie? And going further, do you want to talk about what camp means to you? What stands out to you in that space? That's a really fun question. My favorite camp, It's probably to Wong Fu, thanks for everything, Julie Numar. It's a, it's another drag film. It's an LGBT film.

And it's about some, it's about a couple drag queens who go on an adventure. And that's, that's a lot of LGBT cinema to me. It kind of exists in this, in this really sort of like, like, can't be fun place. It's about, you know, not taking yourself too seriously, but also like having, having a heart. and being genuine and speaking to a subculture, and I think a lot of LGBT movies do that really well. And in that vein, I think John Waters has some really great options as well. So, yeah.

Yeah, and you mentioned Rocky Horror earlier. That's another... Yeah, Rocky Horror. See, Rocky Horror is one of my favorites. Yeah, great book. I'm curious on this one from Vince is depressed. Have any of you seen Euphoria Season 3 thoughts? I haven't outside of funny clips out of context.

have, Kayla, because I saw your video, and I've seen it too. What the fuck? One of the strangest seasons of television I've ever seen. Like, it just feels like a different show, like, kind of, like, laughing as if it's the same thing. Like, what happened? Yeah, Sam Levinson is a hack, and I've had quite a lot of beef with him for a long time. I don't know if anybody ever saw the movie he made in 2021 with Zendaya, Malcolm and Marie. it's horrible

and it was just like okay let's give this guy like a movie Oh I saw it, it was hilarious Off the back of Euphoria And that's when I was like Okay the train is going to fall off the tracks With this guy As soon as he's like given an inch

And that is definitely what happened With Euphoria Season 3 He can't write He's got a decent enough visual eye He can't write and he's obsessed with Tarantino and porn And that's how you get Euphoria Season 3 Unfortunately

Yeah Yeah that was That's fascinating. I thought you put it well in your video, which I hadn't thought about when you phrased it, like, as soon as Cassie kind of became the main character, it, like, lost a lot of its, like, heart or direction, you know? Like, it does just feel, like, exploitative and just all over the place. Well, it's just a lot of the season three is like, okay, it's about Cassie and her relationship

to only fans. And I think people get confused when people take issue with that because they think it's, like, Like you're offended by the content. I'm not offended by the content. I would love more stories about sex workers and people who work in that space. It's just that Sam Levinson is not really interested in that. He's interested in the fetishy aspects of it. And that's not interesting to me as a viewer.

So. Yeah. And it was just a Tarantino crime thing somehow. It's just. The last episode, like some of the worst shit I've ever seen in my life genuinely. So bad. It just feels like there were multiple times where I was like, do we get here? Like, why are these people even interacting in this show? Like, it's just,

God, it's bizarre. It was kind of entertaining there through that angle of like, what? Yeah. Is it true they shot the whole thing on VistaVision or 70mm or something? It's shot on film. It looks like gorgeous. Like, it's crazy. Yeah, it looks great. It's just like such a waste. Like what they do is the actual story. It really is. That's the best way to describe it. Waste of talent, waste of visuals, waste of money. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Well, I'm glad we could connect on that one because... No investigator 7-827 has one.

Hello, Sard and welcome Kayla, a Kayla-themed question for all. What celebrity's career has been the most riveting saga for you to follow throughout your life, tracking their ups and downs, falling in and out of favor with the public, putting out work that meets the cultural moment or completely misses the mark, etc I've got an answer to kick this off and we just mentioned him

with Peter 58 it's gotta be Kevin Spacey like a spectacular fall from grace like that early like projects as a part of was so good

and then just everything that came out with him and his weird YouTube videos and just all topping off with Peter 58 and tap dancing and Tel Aviv It's just so insane.

That's a classic. I want to go back and revisit that. Can someone put that on IMDB? I'll rate it. I'd probably say Shalame is my answer for that. I feel like he's just always very interesting every time award season comes around. There's a lot of sort of discourse around him

from being this sort of like artsy kid in these more queer-centered, women-centered films and people trying to project that onto his real-life persona when in real life he's a white kid from New York City who loves the Knicks. And I just, I like that sort of that heel-turned transformation that he's had, the Kylie Jenner of it all. It's been very fascinating for me to cover over the years.

Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, people projecting weird shit onto celebrities always is just, it's so not healthy like people should just be more realistic about the concept of a person but I don't know whatever yeah I mean it's I'm going to have to go with maybe

Brad Pitt right now because it feels like there's a big Brad Pitt bubble you know in terms of everything that we know about him and like all of his kids are changing their names. Like there's just so much weird shit that's going on behind the scenes. And it feels like the industry is like collectively like, no, no, no. We're not doing this with Brad Pitt. You know what I mean?

It's just very, very weird vibes right now in terms of Brad Pitt's like star power. And what everyone is just kind of like, okay, we're not going to address these things. You know what I mean? Can you read the first part of the question again? Um, where was it? Oh my god, I've lost it. Rett Row. Oh no, there it is.

What Celebrity's career has been the most riveting saga for you to follow throughout your life? Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, you know. So you can't say Derek. Will Smith is up there. Yeah, I was going to say it has to be Derek, right? Oh, yeah, Will Smith's a great one. Will Smith is pretty legendary, right?

Like, I, because I, I was, I was. was into the weird like family lore when I was doing my after earth review like I was saying a lot of shit that now people are learning about after the slap. I love how the slap is a cultural event too. Oh my God. Fascinating. And now he's just like I wish I was watching that watching that one. Yeah. No he's he's like trying to revive his hip hop career and just kind of kind of doing like a really embarrassing job at it. I love BBLs. You know?

So out of touch. Will's, I'll be, I'll be keeping an eye on Will, for sure. And also his family by proxy. It's like he doesn't know how to be a human being anymore. Yeah. Yeah. What a mess. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, this is some good answers there. Should we round off with one more here? Sure. Sure. Let's do this one then from soggy perspective, 604. Several years ago, Adam, Alex and several other YouTubers made videos discussing media that traumatized to them when they were younger. Jake and Kayla, what pieces of media had the biggest impact on you when you were younger and scared you to death?

Oh, I can give you two answers. My first one is Coraline. Great movie. Scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. And the ring. I watched the ring when I was way too young. Hell yeah. And Samara, like, I literally used to hallucinate her in my closet,

and I would be, like, so scared as a child. Both movies that I appreciate now, obviously, but, like, when I was a kid, no way. Yeah, it's that tape. How young were you when you watched The Ring? Oh, my God. I was probably, like, 11, maybe, 12, around there. But, like, I'm a bitch.

I'm a scaredy cat. So, like, I, you know. You know, that was one of those things where it's like, it's a terrifying movie, though. It is really genuinely scary. No, it's so scary. And, like, you know, you watch it with, like, your friend when you're not supposed to be watching it.

Your parents don't know what you're doing. And, you know, and it's, it was bad. It was rough. Damn. The, uh, the DVD menu of, uh, the ring. Like, if you leave it for long enough, it'll like, oh, did it stop doing the video? So there's like a, there's like a featureette where,

you can watch like the video uncut like without the reaction shots of the people in the film watching. So it's like you're watching what they watch like just the video in of itself. Yeah, I've watched that on YouTube. I do it like regularly. Yeah. And then on the DVD when it goes back to the main menu,

it like is the same as before. But after a certain amount of time it'll play like the sound effect of your phone or ringing like a landline just to like fuck with you, which is so funny. That's awesome. Yeah. I have never seen the ring.

Oh my God. Yeah. It's a Gore-Varbinski certified classic. No, I know. I need to watch it. One of you should recommend that. Yeah, well, maybe in October or something. Yeah.

There was a time. I feel like I wasn't traumatized so much by horror movies, but by the trailers when I was a kid, because I was way too scared to watch any horror movies. But I have a specific memory of my sister, who's four years older than me. She'd watch movies with her friends and have them over. and I remember the village came out on DVD,

and that was the movie. All of the teenagers wanted to watch or middle stories or whatever. And I remember them watching it and screaming, and I was so scared. I thought they were going to die. I was like in the other room listening to the movie, but I couldn't watch it, you know. But I was like, this is not normal.

Like they're in distress. They're going to die, you know. So. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. And now I know about the village, and that's very funny to me. M-night

Another interesting career M-night Kayla are you an M-night fan I wouldn't say I'm a fan Well I mean I'm a casual in that He made some good stuff And then he made the live action avatar And some other bullshit

And now I'm not as much of a fan I will defend What's that one movie Cooper is the butcher What is the fucking name of that movie with the concert Oh my god trap Trap Just because

Because it was, I just remember. I love how you said that as a quote to like, that's the first thing you were thinking of when you thought the movie is that line delivery. Cooper is the butcher. That's awesome. I just thought it was so entertaining. Like, I mean, I'm into it in that way. Okay. It was fun.

I thank you so much. I love trap and, yeah, it's been tough. It's hilarious. Okay. Whatever. Alex and I are haters Yeah The stands went after us

Mm-hmm Really? Crazy M-night has stands Isn't that weird? I think that movie specifically has like a pretty Interesting following

Like Mia Khalifa is like the biggest trap fan ever And she's about all time Interesting What? Yeah Okay Okay sure

More power All right Well Thanks for the questions Yes. Yeah, that was fun. Did a great job. And I guess it's time for a recommendation.

And I think it's my turn. It is. What do you go? You know, I'm about to, I'm about to, like, denormify here. Okay? We're about to, like, get some interesting. We've had too much normie happening. Okay.

We're about to. Right. We're going to go for a film that I've already seen. called Miserycordia from 2024 directed by Alain

Guiraudi and it's a journey don't look up too much about it is all I'll say okay yeah I've just found it that looks interesting

and I'm excited to talk about it it's French um yeah Yeah, think about it. Well, I think the director, is he? He might be... Oh, he is French.

Allé, he's only French. For some reason, I thought that he might have been, like, born in Spain or something. Because everybody thinks Gaspar no way is French, and he's actually Argentinian. But that's another story. Oh, I didn't know that. I know, right? Yeah. You would assume he's French.

With all the... Anyway, Misery Cordia, 2024. If you don't want to be spoiled for this, watch this before the next episode comes out. We release these episodes every two weeks. You can listen to them early by going to sardonicast.com, sign up for premium. It's only a few bucks a month. Or patreon.com slash sardonicast. It does the same thing.

Or click join on the YouTube thing. And then just make sure if you want the ad-free version on YouTube, you've got to go to the community posts tab. for the unlisted video because YouTube doesn't let... It's silly. I'm not going to explain the whole thing. Okay, it's YouTube's fault, but turn on the bell or whatever. Even if you're not a member, turn on the bill, then you'll get the notifications. Do you know how many comments I get throughout all my different channels

of people saying, oh, YouTube, stop sending me your videos. Turn on the fucking bell. That's your fault. Turn on the fucking bell. You can't complain. This is within your control. Turn on, hit the bell. It's not the same as subscribe.

You have to hit the bell. Smash that like button. Leave a comment. Give us all your money. Wow. All right. Thank you so much for joining, Kayla. That was an awesome discussion.

Great recommendation. Yes, thank you. Really loved having you here. Thanks for happening. Is there anything you'd like to plug also? You can find me on YouTube at YouTube.com slash Kayla says. I also have a reading channel called Kala. Kayla reads where I talk about books.

And what else? I have a link tree with all my socials that you can take a look at. And I have a Patreon where I make weekly bonus exclusive content for just $2 a month. So check all those things out. Hell yeah. Nice. Thank you so much. And I guess this is where we all seek apply to the listeners.

Bye. Bye. Have a happy. Yeah. Have a happy Sharon. John Trivolta. Andrew. Happy John Trulta.

Well done. Bye bye. All right. Bye, everybody. Bye.