The Big Picture - ‘Bros’ and Our Top Five 21st Century Comedies

Episode Date: September 30, 2022

‘Bros,’ Billy Eichner’s first leading role in a feature, is in theaters. Sean and Amanda dig into the movie before sharing their five favorite studio comedies of the century (1:00). Then, Sean is joined by Nicholas Stoller, the director of ‘Bros’ and other comedy installments like ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ and ‘Neighbors,’ to discuss the film and the current state of theatrical comedies in relation to streaming and television (58:00). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guest: Nicholas Stoller Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. I have some good news for you. The hottest take, it's back. Oh yeah. Monday through Thursday, four times a week, you'll hear from me, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, Mallory Rubin, Wazni Lambri, Van Lathan, Judah Lippman, many other Ringer staffers. You get one take, you got a defendant to the death. Sports takes, pop culture takes, food takes, airplane takes.

Oh yeah, it's coming back. First episode drops August 29th. I'm Sean Fennessy. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about bros. The first ever LGBTQ rom-com from a studio to receive a wide theatrical release. Bros is a historic movie.

Is it a good one? We will dig into that and share our top five favorite comedies of the 21st century. A very difficult task, might I add, Amanda. Later in this episode, I'll have a conversation with the co-writer and director of Bros, Nicholas Stoller. Nick is the director of such recent modern comedy gems as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Neighbors, two recent rewatchables. Entrance, I hope you'll stick around for our conversation. First, let's talk about Bros, Amanda. You know, I want you to be really the leader in this conversation because in many ways, Bros is using a format of movie storytelling that one, We Lament no longer exists longer exists and two is frankly your specialty

it might look like a nick stoller judd apatow produced comedy but this is a true blue rom-com this is a romantic comedy if if anything it breaks a couple rules and in some ways it updates a couple rules but once you're into that ticky tack of like it does this and it does that um it's it definitely is a romantic comedy and it is really consciously a romantic comedy and pays homage to many romantic comedies that went before it uh specifically you've got mail and i won't spoil that lovely part of the movie but that that you've got mail is spoken within the universe of bros and that's just the surest way to my heart you know that is my favorite of the nora effron's if not the best thest way to my heart. That is my favorite of the Nora Ephraims,

if not the best. The best is When Harry Met Sally. My favorite is You've Got Mail. No one scream at me. So yes, I have been really looking forward to this, not only because it's romantic comedy and studios don't make romantic comedies more, but also because I'm a huge Billy Eichner fan. Me too. I think Billy Eichner is one of the funniest people on the planet, and his comedy is really tuned to my interests. How would you describe that, and how would you describe his comic persona? Well, he's most famously known for, well, to me anyway, for Billy on the Street, which was a YouTube series where, let's see if I can describe

this. He runs around sort of screaming at people on the street. And so it's a send up of like the man on the street interviews. But instead of the people that he encounters being like the subjects, he is surprising them and yelling pop culture trivia at them or prompts at them. A very famous one is like, for a dollar, you know, can you name a Jack Black movie? Which was a recent prompt that he did with Jack Black in order to promote bros. And so just unsuspecting people in New York try their best to yell a Jack Black comedy. What would have been your Jack Black comedy if you were faced by Billy Eichner? I think I would have gone like, ah, and then School of Rock.

I was also thinking about if I saw Billy Eichner on the street, doing Billy on the street, because he also, they filmed the Jack Black one in Los Angeles, I believe, on Hollywood Boulevard. I would absolutely lose my mind, Psycho. I would start, I would literally start jumping up and down and pointing and, like, lose words, which, then he would mock me mercilessly, like, which is his right and what he should do, but I love Billy on the Street, and I would be so thrilled and then throw it off my game and then forget all of my trivia trivia but he's a pop culture obsessive and that animates like all of the videos that he does and many of the guests that he has

um and there's a funny joke in bros about how all the billy eichner character wants is to well there's something i can't remember but it's like we just want to like want to talk about movies and have sex or something and i was like, that kind of like sums it all down. Very relatable stuff. In a really, really nice way. And I won't spoil all of the jokes, but one of the jokes in the movie that the two main characters meet at a party for the app launch of something called Zellweger, which, oh, that's what it is. And that's the premise. It's like Grindr, but to talk about movies and then hook up. So that's funny. It's good. But that is a

specific reference-based kind of humor that certainly speaks to me, I think speaks to you as well as like two nerds with a freaking movie podcast. Yeah. I think the pop culture obsessive part is definitely one aspect of it. The other is that he is this like amazingly assaultive comic force. He is very in your face and he is also extremely articulate and the collision of a loud, seemingly crazy person who's very smart and talking very fast.

He's naturally pretty appealing to podcast hosts, candidly. And lo and behold, here in the film Bros, he is in fact a podcast host. We can talk about that a little bit more as we get through the film, but, um, you know, he plays this guy, Bobby Lieber, who is simultaneously a curator of a LGBTQ museum. And so a lot of the kind of comics set pieces of the film are oriented around the launching

of this new museum. And he's also a podcaster and he is sort of like a... Is he like one part Dan Carlin's hardcore history, talking about the history of gay rights, and then also one part like a little Joe Rogany? Yes.

Like a little like into camera and a little bit Don't Worry Darling influenced kind of, you know, speaking directly to his vast and adoring fans. It's an odd, jerry-rigged construction of modern rom-com that I find kind of funny.

Because once upon a time, in the rom-coms of yore, you'd be a newspaper columnist or a magazine writer or an advertising executive or copywriter. Those would be the roles. An architect. An architect. That's a big one. Those are the roles that, you know, in your Nancy Meyers films and in your Nora Ephron films, and even going back to your screwball comedies of the 40s,

were sort of like white-collar professionals, not necessarily upper class, but maybe mid-upper class. The new person who has that job is a podcaster in these movies. This is like the seventh movie in the last 12 months that features a podcaster as the lead character. Can you show your work on that? Can I show my, what are the films? Yeah. Well, off the top of my head,

I can think immediately of both Vengeance, which is the recent BJ Novak movie. There was the Ghostbusters, Afterlife, featured the podcast kid. Oh, right, the kid

who's named Podcast. And the show really finds its voice in the 400th episode. There's Godzilla versus King Kong. There was a key podcaster played by Brian Tyree Henry, I believe. There's a few more. I mean, of course, Don't Worry Darling was a bit of a spoiler, but that is a huge one.

Okay. That's five movies in the last 12 months. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing any romantic comedies that feature a podcast. There is another one, and I can't think of it. I mean, one could argue that Godzilla vs. Kong was in its way a romantic comedy. There was a meet cute, you know, and then they didn't really, they couldn't get things going and then they figured it out. Right. Yes.

There was also Just Like Us. No, Just Like Us is a great podcast that I produced. And Just Like That is the Sex and the Cityah deska parker does become a podcaster and there is that was really i loved every minute of that show i can't wait for it to come back but podcast representation as well as the aging woman representation pretty tough there's something that you say on the show all the time. There's two things that you say. It's not for me, but I'm happy for you. I think is like, you should get that on your license plate if you can without any vowels. But that's how I felt about it just like that.

I'm good. I'm all set. That's totally. Did you watch All of Sex and the City? I did many times because it was my wife's favorite thing. I actually have watched it with your wife. Like old school DVDs with the, you know, cuts to the DVD landing page and the music playing.

And I am very much that straight male bro who knows everything about that entire series, but really hated it the whole time. And I really did. I never came around like, oh, actually it's charming. Like, no, I actually hated it. I really didn't like it. Even the first time around?

Yeah. I just, I couldn't get into it. It was too broad and too specific for me at the same time. I guess I get that. The new reboot is really appalling. I've heard. I've heard it's... And I would watch a thousand episodes of it.

As a podcaster, when a film like this comes along or just like that comes along, do you see yourself in those figures? No. Do you feel shamed? I feel ashamed. Do you think this is how- I feel ashamed. Do you think this is how architects feel when they watch Nancy Meyers movies?

Maybe. It's getting increasingly embarrassing when I meet people in the world and they ask what I do. You know, I've just gone back to work. Well, we have this tricky thing where we do two different jobs. And one job is kind of boring

and kind of behind the scenes. And the other job is, hey, we yell at each other into a microphone. Sure. But, you know, generally, like I'm not really breaking that all down for someone like I meet at the playground or, you know, at like baby swim class

or whatever the hell. Okay. So people are like, what do you do? And I'm like, well, you know, I work for The Ringer and for Spotify. And like, I, you know, I like work in podcasts. And it's, I get, I shrivel up a little bit now when I say it because of this type of representation I don't really think you you say podcast and you think of like the 12 year old in the terrible Ghostbusters

movie who's like yeah my name is podcast like we're already the butt of a joke it's not necessarily a bad thing it's certainly normalizing our line of work nevertheless we can go back to bros but this is it's a joke he's it's in this in this film it's a joke for sure certainly like an exposition device as well and a way for you to know a little bit about the character i guess but a lot about the gay history that the movie wants to situate itself in. And because it is a history podcast, as you mentioned. So that's really useful. But he's also making fun of podcast tropes and podcast hosts. So that's actually something that maybe didn't totally occur to me

until we started having this conversation. But I think it's an interesting stroke of genius of the movie. I think the movie is funny in parts and not always as funny as I wanted it to be, candidly, but I thought it was incredibly effective dramatically, and I really liked the characters, and I liked spending time. I think, actually, you and I disagreed about that. So, the thing that's interesting about it is that Billy Eichner gets a series of monologues in this film that he has to deliver very passionately. It's a big ask of a person who's never carried a movie by himself before. I thought he was quite good at it, But in fact, it's like a useful instrument of the

character. It's true. If you've ever been out to dinner with me, I might monologue at you for a couple of minutes because that is something that I have been trained to do. And, you know, podcast hosts like to hear the sound of their own voice and they have a very clear sense of how to deliver what they're thinking. So when his character, the camera sits on his face for two and a half minutes for stretches of this movie, it actually makes sense. It's not just a cinematic trope. It's something that this person might have done, especially when faced with a Luke McFarlane character who is his love interest, who is a bit of a more bland, regular, maybe not that deep fellow who just happens to be the person he falls in love with. He's a bro.

He's a bro. He's a bro. Yeah. And I think the podcast narrative also makes space in this movie, and especially the history aspect of the podcast movie, makes space for this movie to grapple with and talk to the history and its place in queer movie history and just queer representation in general, which the movie is very concerned with. Very much. It is aware of its place in queer movie history and just queer representation in general, which the movie is very concerned with. Very much. It is aware of its place.

It's really leaning into it, talking about it, trying to make some sense of it and to make a lot of jokes about it at the same time. But the reason that this movie is being marketed as, you know, the first mainstream studio. The modifiers kind of keep changing on it, but a significant moment in gay representation on screen. And that is in part because that's good marketing strategy, I suppose, but also because the movie itself focuses on that. And so that's, you know, that's what people talk about on podcasts.

Yes. I was thinking of seeing the filmed adaptation of Love, Valor, Compassion as a kid. I was like probably 12 or 13 when I saw it. And not totally understanding it and not totally understanding that world. But I think Jason Alexander was in that film and being like, oh, wow, George Costanza exists off screen. Like he has another career. He's doing other things. And thinking even at the time,

like that is a true gay story. That is a comedy drama, you know, that is adapted from a famous stage adaptation. Actually, Harvey Fierstein plays a significant role in this film. And there's like all of this kind of interconnectedness of the history, not just of gay history,

but of gay culture and of like what, what gay representation is in movies. I mean, Brokeback Mountain, for example, is a significant turning point actually in this movie in a, Brokeback Mountain, for example, is a significant turning point actually in this movie in a humorous way. And so it does have a little bit of that historic forbearance and also a little bit of historic weight that we're talking about. I would say

it takes itself seriously, but not too seriously. In part because it is using, I think, this very familiar framework where once the throat clearing about the importance of the movie happens, it does start to really narrow on this relationship between Eichner and Luke McFarland. So, you know, there's falling in love montages. There's the aforementioned monologue. There's a menage a trois gone quattro in this movie. There is a lot of exploration. I love how you presented that as like a standard of the romantic comedy. Sex scene.

I think like there's a love scene. There's a love scene. Well, that sometimes is like a major distinction between a romantic comedy and more of like a straight up romance. I mean, if you think about the actual romantic comedies, as you move on in years they do have sex and do you wish we had a long scene of billy crystal with his shirt off and when harry met sally i mean the the sex scene that we have is like definitely the most awkward part of it and it's supposed to be and then they avoid each other for a very long time and we're in harry met s, but no, I think that I get enough. Okay. Yeah. So how much sex there is, is obviously based on the fact that romantic comedies were invented in the 1930s when like no one could have sex.

So, you know, the entire construction of a romantic comedy is like about different ways to represent foreplay like on screen. But yeah, there is a lot of sex in this it's not always the case in romantic comedies do you think it's a successful romantic comedy yes i do why because i think it's really knowing about the genre while updating it to its to this the core relationship i think it comments a lot on the genre itself which when you think about it all great romantic comedies do when harry met sally is about whether men and women can be friends and that like starts a whole

framework there is a metaness to if not the genre of a romantic comedy then types of relationships and you've got male i'm you know just doing the n Ephron's here, but You've Got Mail is about work foes and can two people who hate each other come together in real life? Also, can you overcome catfishing? But if you go through romantic comedy, part of what works is that it's dissecting a relationship in some way, which this movie very much is. And then is also very specific to a place and a specific set of culture or a world. You like, you know who these people are. And there are all these references, whether it's the architect's office or the bookstore

or the, you know, the Upper West Side or, I don't know, I'm stuck in Nora Ephron land, but it can, you know, Sweet Home Alabama. So like in Backwater, Alabama and also the New York fashion world. And they are ridiculous setups, by the way, but you get to spend time in another world while knowing how the movie's going to end.

This movie has the exact same thing. This movie largely takes place in New York City, but we do get a stretch of time where they travel the Provincetown, the sort of gay haven for vacation. And they have a grand old time and you get that. We're riding on a bicycle together and we're sitting on the beach together. And that montage that does feel very knowing and winking, but also is kind of sincere about the telling of the story.

I think, you know, obviously a lot of this is a credit to Billy Eichner putting a lot of his experiences and a lot of his struggles, I think maybe finding a partner or dating throughout his life. And then a lot of it is clearly Nick Stoller, who is very interested in the dynamics of a love relationship. Like most of his movies, especially in recent years, and even his TV show, Friends from College, like are about adults trying to figure out if they're in love or how to navigate their life in love. That is what Neighbors is about. That is what Forgetting Sarah Marshall is about. That is what the five-year engagement is about.

All of these movies, they all kind of circle back to the same big theme, which is like, am I better alone or not? And if I'm with this person, how are we surviving? And so it's an interesting framework for a movie. I think it's pretty effective. I think like all of these movies, like a little too long all these movies like 15 minutes too long a little too long and and i think there were probably one too many speeches or maybe two two minute speeches many speeches or they went on a little too long you responded

to the dramatic parts i responded to the comedic, I just, every single one-liner in this movie made me laugh a lot. I, again, find Billy Eichner extremely funny. And I think whether the references are to romantic comedies or just other random pop culture things, like, they made me laugh. And so I think this movie works more when it's energetic and fizzing and pulling in all those references. And it slows down. It takes them a long time to get back together. And that is kind of like the one rom-com note I have is that the success does depend on the pacing a little bit, right? See, I feel this way with every rom-com that I watch.

I really bump on this. No, that's not true. That's not true. You don't like romantic comedies. You don't. That's this. No, that's not true. That's not true. You don't like romantic comedies. You don't. That's okay. No, that's not true. What I don't like

is anything... You just got so mad. Because you've mischaracterized me. Your face is so red. Go ahead. Defend yourself. That's not even true.

I don't like anything that is below a B plus when it comes to rom-coms. As soon as it tips... That's a form... Like, I'll watch the formulaic version of an action movie. Yes.

And be content. Right. I can't in this subgenre if it isn't at a higher quality. Now, like when Harry Met Sally, that's like, that is probably one of my favorite movies. Okay. But it's not because it's a romantic comedy. It's because it is two actors at the perfect time with a great script and the perfect director coming together and using the

formula i don't know not to elevate it necessarily but almost like to redefine it right like that movie like rebuilds that genre and then paves the way sweet home alabama i just think it's crap like i just don't think it's good at all and That is just disrespectful to Josh Lucas and Patrick Dempsey and, of course, Reese Witherspoon, a commanding supporting performance by Candice Bergen. I have a lot of respect for some of those people. I just don't like that movie, and I think I don't like that movie in part because it feels so predictable.

I mean, they do also sing sweet home Alabama at the end it's like it's i don't know whether we would make it in 2022 die on that hill no it was just the one that came to mind for some reason i think because Reese Witherspoon is on the brain as we'll discuss later uh but i do i i do like romantic comedies um i probably like those screwball comedies a lot more um me too but well i i mean I like them both. Yes. I did ultimately like this movie. Do you think Billy Eichner is a movie star?

He could be a new type of... I mean, what is a movie star now? You know? I don't think that he is the... Well...

He's 44 years old. You know, I was about to say, I don't think he's in the George Clooney, Julia Roberts, like, charm offensive Hall of Fame, but in the same know, I was about to say, I don't think he's in the George Clooney, Julia Roberts, like, charm offensive Hall of Fame. But in the same time, I personally find,

have found his press tour and all of the charm around it to be incredibly effective. Now, he is like a pretty, I don't think he's as niche as you and I are describing. He just is really speaking to us and his type of humor and personality. And I say this as a compliment, abrasiveness and,

and in your faceness, but he has some of the appeal. I don't think he's like a, a broad movie star for everyone in the world just because he just, he just swapped him with Adam driver in the last duel. Would that work? Uh, yeah. So like, that's the thing is i wonder if he can be successful as a lead if the film is not sort of built around his persona right we'll see i mean it's like

judd apatow obviously has done this over and over and over again and nick stoller has talked about this too forgetting star marshall being built around jason siegel's comic persona right train wreck being built around amy schumer's the king of staten island around p davidson's yeah amy schumer and p davidson haven't made a whole lotreck being built around Amy Schumer's The King of Staten Island, around Pete Davidson's. Yeah. Amy Schumer and Pete Davidson haven't made a whole lot of movies built around that persona since those movies.

And so in a weird way, when you make one of these, it's almost like it sits there kind of stuck in the mud where it's like, well, this is your movie now. Right. And so then where does Billy Eichner go?

I saw glimmers of a gifted dramatic actor. Maybe it was because of the framework that you didn't respond to it as much. But I would like to see him in the hands of someone who could also mold him in a different kind of part. That's not really what these kinds of movies ask for specifically. But I'm really fascinated to see where he goes from this. Well, I just I would like him to keep being funny. He's really funny and i mean and it's a sad comment on the state of the movie industry and awards and our own brains that we don't equate movie star with funny

you know you were really like how can we get him into a serious dramatic role like the last duel well that was a joke but you know what i mean no no no no i know but you know what i mean of i think that we don't take someone like carrying a studio comedy regularly seriously as like a quote movie star. But I think that's as much to do with the fact that most movies don't really succeed as studio comedies don't really exist anymore. Well, that's a big part of this conversation. Before we dig into that, I do want to talk about Luke McFarlane really quickly. So Luke McFarlane, who I'd never seen before is a he's a regular in in hallmark movies yes um which is of course a very popular sub-genre of films most of these movies are oriented around

holidays and in fact this movie bros is also a christmas movie um is it oh are we going into home alone diehard territory here with the debate i haven't seen bill and i didn't want to do this over text so i haven't been able to respond to the latest uh entrance it's just shameful what the hell are he and van talking about i love those guys where the fuck are they talking where they said that christmas has to be a character in the movie i was like that's fine with me but you can't have home alone without christmas because he's home like he's home alone at christmas there is like the loss of the family and the you know that that, you're supposed to be with everyone together at the holidays is central to the premise of the movie and what's so sad about it. The same is true for Die Hard.

He's traveling across the country because it's Christmas. It's not because it's Tuesday. So I don't know what those guys are talking about this movie though I what I like about this movie is that there's a critical part of bros in which Luke McFarlane's character's family comes to visit him in New York he's a lawyer in New York he's in this relatively new relationship with Eichner's character and Amanda Beers from Married with Children famous LGBTQ pop culture icon plays his mother in the film very funny performance from her And they have a day in New York City at Christmastime. Yes. And it's a pretty important part of the movie because it leads to a pretty critical turning.

That, to me, is enough for it to be a Christmas movie. I think I want to add, and no one asked my opinions, that the movie has to end at Christmas for it to be a Christmas movie. I don't even know what that means. Well, this movie moves on past Christmas. The climactic moments are not at Christmas. What if it ends on january 6th well with a dramatic rating of the u.s capital it took me a second this isn't the chris ryan recap sorry sorry that's just my opinion just find that wherever your podcasts are sold i'm just waiting for you to weigh in on all the episodes of Just My Opinion we've been recording. I am subscribed via text message to it every single day.

And I got to be honest, I really enjoy it. It's a great show. Maybe it's not a Christmas movie. Maybe it is. Luke McFarlane's really interesting. He's like simultaneously like stiff hallmark actor guy. And he's asked to do a lot. And he's never been in a movie like this

yeah i kind of liked him i thought he was appealing he's really charming he's very charismatic yeah and you do understand he has chemistry with billy eichner you understand why they're drawn together i think there's one choice made of his characterization that i was just like what is this but we don't need to spoil it. Is it related to chocolate? It is related to chocolate. I had a feeling you were going to say that. I also, like, I really thought when they were doing that, that that was like another Billy on the Street style joke

that I thought was very funny. So I was like already laughing at the joke of it. And then it was real. And they have a lot of fun, actually, with Hallmark movies. In this movie, I think, and kind of like a knowing, good-natured nod to Luke McFarlane's like history yep and I thought it was that or maybe it was trying to be that I thought that was weird I have to be honest that joke didn't land for me I found it to be so weird as to be amusing I actually wish that some of the humor was a little closer to that

which just tells you everything you need to know about your taste and my taste in comedy and how we're very similar and very different yeah the payoff is is funny it is not weird i just don't know why he couldn't have had a better name for his chocolate shop it's really just like you know i i don't know you get you got to call up judd apatow about that one maybe billy will take your notes um you did mention the the state of comedy here which is a frequent topic of conversation on the show and whenever i have somebody on the show who has made a comedy, I'm always like,

hey, what the hell is going on? Why can't we make these happen? And this is, this film premiered at TIFF and it was rapturously received. It was like, you know, and that's a real kind of home crowd feeling where like a lot of pumped up audiences

who are really excited to see a movie. And the festival was sold against the premiere of this film along with a handful of others. But, you know, I was chatting with Craig Horlbeck, you know, who produces the rewatchables and The Town, and he got a chance to see Bros, and he loved it. He is the world's number one Forgetting Sarah Marshall fan. That's true.

And maybe he's just plugged into Nick Stoller's, you know, brainstem when it comes to comedy. But, you know, I see someone like Craig liking the movie as a really, really good sign. And it's a good date night movie. And I think it's a, even though Billy Eichner is 44 years old, it's like a, it could play with young people.

Yeah. And that's been part of the issue is that there's this concern that young people are not going to show up for movies like this. The same way that we did when, you know, when we start talking about our favorites from the the 2000s we'll cite some of these but in that 2003 to 2009 period when the apatow stuff was booming and there was a lot of attendance stuff that was a real fun night out you know i i think we talked about that on the hangover rewatchables we're like when you went to go see

that movie forget about how you feel about it right now that day that night you were like holy fuck what an awesome day we just had. We just laughed together for two and a half hours. We went out and had a couple of drinks. That was my whole day. And I was perfectly content with that. And like comedy definitely at the movies does not hold that place anymore.

You can no longer really like program your Saturday against a mainstream comedy with the rare exception of a movie like this. You think this movie is going to click with audiences? I think if people go see it it they'll have a great time i think yes once you get people in the theater um i saw it in a pretty packed theater like i had my popcorn everyone was laughing it was fun and i i it's appealing enough to enough people i think that yes but but i don't know and i don't mean this because of, like, this movie's banned in wherever and blah, blah, blah, which is all just absolute bullshit.

I think people just aren't used to going to the movies to see comedies in the same way. It's, you know, it's a classic. When we talk about recent comedies that do work, everyone saw Game Night at Home, you know, and was like, wow, did you check out Game Night? And then three years later, we were all like, wow, wasn't that a fun movie that none of us watched together? So it's more about audience behavior. We're just not used to it. That could be the fate of this movie. It's really hard to say.

I think some people will say, well, like older audiences are not going to like this brand of humor about a gay character. The truth is, is that older audiences don't dictate the box office fate of comedies anyway. These films are made to get young people's asses in seats so whether they show up or not it'll be interesting whether eichner alone is enough of a cell to get people in or not will be interesting because you and i like him you know he did a voice in the lion king but he's not really famous like you know what i mean he has not penetrated that like first tier of awareness the way that even someone like Florence Pugh and Harry Styles did in the previous weekend's big opening film. Don't worry, darling.

So I'm, I'm following it with some interest because I also think that some studios will observe what happens here and make some decisions against that. And I just want, I would like more comedies and theaters. Um, do you think we lived through in our youth a glory period or did it feel like a glory period because we were young? Both. Okay. I certainly put together, if not an idiosyncratic list, then a personal list of films that I pretty much have memorized. Yeah.

So we had a lot of, we had more access. I think they were just making more comedies for us. They shaped our sensibilities, so we found them funny. But they were still making comedies. At a heavy clip. Yeah. I mean, every other weekend, it felt like there was a new one. And most of them don't work.

That's the nature of comedy. But the ones that did, I don't know. Whether they were cult classics or immediate hits, there was always a new movie like this to talk about. It's fascinating when something like that fully falls out of the culture. And it just became different things. You know, I was thinking a lot about Billy on the Street, obviously, and also some of the comedians

or the directors who are represented on my list or your list. There's one director where my favorite comedy that he's made is a Funny or Die short that I didn't feel... And we can talk about it when the time comes. But, you know, Billy on the Street, obviously YouTube, that just the vehicle for these things changes.

And it's not like we've totally lost it. It's just in different formats. But yeah, these, the movies that work, what a time for us. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. So the first film on your list is the most recent on either of our lists.

And it was released 10 years ago. So that's a bummer. And maybe just clearly indicative of everything we've just walked through for the last five minutes. Yes. Including the fact that you and I are old. Well, how dare you? But okay, you're right. I mean, we are, you know. I'm feeling actually not well. I severely threw out my back last week. And so I'm just really, really feeling my age. But not because I watch bros, just because my body is atrophying in real time. Right. But I think that means it's a little bit like music, right? It's like the things they made when I was like 20, whatever. When I was 27, I was that guy. I was that guy who was online, but I wasn't online. Like I was in clubs and in bars doing the thing. You were at clubs?

You know what I mean. That's why I followed up. I wasn't in Bergen in Berlin or anything like that. I was the person who was like, new music right now is as good as from any generation ever. And anybody who says otherwise is just not listening close enough because they've disengaged. 27, that would have been 2009? Yes. That was like really the great year of our life. So 2009, 2010.

Well, I guess maybe it was 2010. But my point is, is like, I don't listen to nearly as much new music. That was Channel Orange. That was Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. That was Teenage Dream. It was a great time. I was writing my music every day of my life. And I was having the time of my life. But at that time, I thought that I would be that way forever, which is to say

I would watch, I would listen to new music forever. And now I'm just spending Saturday morning just two hours of Disney classics with my daughter. That's on you. You got to turn on the Raffi instead. You know what I'm saying? That's not new music. That's not exposing myself to new things. I understand that. But I'm like disney classics is a choice that you made my point is is that i'm not listening to new records yeah but i haven't been listening to new records for years now okay so you still think 2009 that was the high time or 2010 i mean i mean 1997 was the high time that was when it was really fucking sure that Sure. That's true. You know, we had the peak of alternative rock and roll. Oh, man.

We also had the peak of East Coast rap. 2009, 2010 was like the last good peak moment. I don't even know how we got here. I was trying to relate to you being 27, listening to all the new music and justifying it and saying you had your finger on the pulse, Sean. I think I was really, really cool and really, really uncool simultaneously. Yeah. Is that possible? Is that my essence?

I don't know that you have like really, really. Maybe you were like retroactively cool. You weren't cool at the time. I was in cool places. But everything you were doing is like cool now. You've lived a cool life. Yes. Perhaps while not being cool well put that's

actually the definition all right thank you uh let's circle back to comedies it's interesting that you started by saying that we're old now because the premise of your number five is about a bunch of old guys going back to school right what is it 21 jump street yeah this remakes the action comedy and also remakes literally 21 jump street um Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum kind of at their first peak of their peaks, like their first Apex Mountains, I suppose, even though you're only allowed to have one. And I think those are the two of the funniest people in the world. This is a very fresh, knowing, somewhat meta, but not an annoying way, take on both action comedies and high school comedies. It's done by your best friends Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

Love those guys. When they make movies with real people, I mostly enjoy it. Spider-Man is real. Okay. Every bit of this makes me laugh every time I watch it. I like this movie a lot. Um, what was the movie that they were thinking of blending this movie with? Do you remember this? That they, oh, was it Men in Black?

That there was a, there was an idea to make the third Men in Black film or the fourth Men in Black film also a 21 Jump Street movie. I would have watched. That was such a good idea. Yeah, it would have been great. And now it'll never happen because we can't revisit Men of Black anymore. Jonah Hill is barely represented on my list, which is a huge L on my part because I love Jonah. That's insane.

He does have a key role in one of the two movies that I put at number five. I cheated, but it's on purpose. My number five is Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Step Brothers. These movies were released within two and a half months of each other. These are two of the funniest movies, one of which was, of course, directed by the guest that will be on the show in 15 minutes. And the other was directed by Adam McKay. This is the first of two Adam McKay movies for me on this list because of how much I enjoy what Adam McKay and Will Ferrell did together as the De Niro and Scorsese, frankly, of the 2000s. I agree with you.

It's really beautiful. But my favorite Adam McKay feature-length film is still The Big Short, which I was like, this is almost a comedy. I went with pure comedies, by the way, and not like, you didn't really. But that's okay. I would say that they are,

but that's maybe not how they were marketed. Yes. I went with like studio broad comedies. But then my favorite piece of Adam McKay and Will Ferrell work is still The Landlord starring Pearl, Adam McKay's daughter. It's very funny. And I just like, you know, her screaming, I want my money! Or like, I work too hard. Those play in my head all of the time it's very funny they're

really good that's not as good as forgetting star marshal stepbrothers no it's well it's not do i need to explain what those two films are i don't know um stepbrothers is a comedy starring will farrell and john c reilly about two grown men who still live at home whose divorced parents get married and then they are forced to become brothers and embark on the world together. It is one of the more psychotic premises and executions of a film ever, and it's beautiful. This is the number one movie for guys your age.

Yep. Like, who... I can only speak to the guys your age who lived in Brooklyn in 2008 when it was released. By the way, have you noticed that four, five of your movies are 2008, 2009? I was going to make a comment on that as we talk through this.

Yeah, there is a, and I'll get to it when I get to four and three, but that being the pinnacle of something, and I'm sure it is something for me in my life that is going on, and also for where the industry that we cover on this show was at that allowed for this to happen.

And it's wonderful. Step Brothers is like, did they have 30 pages of a script when they started on that movie? I mean, half of it just feels completely invented as you're watching it. And that's part of its magic. And it's the same with The Landlord. I mean, there's something so powerful about that style of filmmaking that McKay and Farrell totally mastered. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is kind of the opposite. It really is more of like a,

it feels much more like an Elaine May or Albert Brooks movie, which is really my favorite kind of movie, which is like really idiosyncratic weirdo with lots of anxiety and emotional confusion, but who just so happens to be hilarious. And, you know, Jason Segel, like as Nick said, when we talked, like that's a movie about depression.

I mean, it's a guy who's really, really depressed, who also finds himself, you know, plummeting into the most beautiful place on earth and for someone like you who really appreciates locales yeah there's a whole has hawaii ever looked better in a movie it looks so good in this movie that's true um and i think it's really really good and mila kunis and and kristen bell and uh russell brand who was like an absolute revelation to americans when this movie was released and maybe didn't have the career that I quite thought he was going to have

but he was so so funny Paul Rudd Jonah all those people in that movie it's just dynamite comedy and also very sweet and kind of sophisticated

yeah it's a great movie it's a very good movie okay what's number four for you number four is Legally Blonde have you seen Legally Blonde in the last 20 years

yeah it falls in the same exact category as Sex and the City. Not because I dislike it. I like it. I like it okay. What is wrong with you? But my wife loves it. It's so good.

And it's pitch perfect. It holds up. I was thinking about it after our blonde conversation. Blonde. Still two thumbs down to that movie, but it is... Honestly, the movie Legally Blonde has a more interesting take

on Marilyn Monroe and the idea of the blonde in American cinematic history than the three-hour movie that Andrew Dominic made about it. Reese Witherspoon, very important to me, very winning in this. Again, it's like a movie that takes over a world, in this case, law school and or lawyers and provides like all of your joke references for like anything to do with lawyers is the mark of really good success

to me. So, and funny all the way to the end and with real staying power. I like it. I'm not going to be smart to this movie on this podcast. Okay. Do you want to have a fight with me about a movie that I said I like? You're like rearing back. You're like the deep exhale

and you're like, the hand goes to the eye. All the gestures are coming out. Now it's on the neck like you're being strangled by yourself. Your taste is like really irritating and wrong. But that's on the neck like you're being strangled by yourself. Your taste is like really irritating and wrong. But that's fine. So you would say that your taste is not irritating and not wrong. Correct. Okay, cool. We are representing the energy that we find in the

movies on this podcast. My number four is Burn After Reading, which is probably one of the movies that you're talking about that doesn't necessarily firmly fit the comedy, the studio comedy description, dynamic. Yeah. And that's really as much about like marketing and where it's placed and probably like how many people saw it, how wide an audience it's aiming for. This is a really funny movie, though. Really, really funny. So I wanted to find a way to represent the Coen brothers who, of course probably made me laugh more than any filmmaking group um in the last 25 years but they don't make too many out now comedies they've made a handful um raising arizona of course is a pure comedy

i think to some extent hud sucker proxy is a comedy although it doesn't always hit um comedically this is the movie of theirs that i think makes me laugh out loud the most largely because of brad pitt and francis mc McDormand and their performances. Pitt is out of this world. Just incredible. It just so happens to be a kind of spy film about the CIA and things getting into the wrong people's hands. That was, of course, as all Coen Brothers movies are very prescient about what was coming in our time. If you watched this movie during the Trump era and the sort of like the Steele dossier and all of that stuff,

like it was remarkably resonant and hilarious how much they understood the way that a lot of these morons walk through the world. I just, I get a huge kick out of this movie. I could have put like Hail Caesar here or A Serious Man, which I think is also very funny, but it's maybe not a pure comedy. But Burn After Reading is,

it's a winner if people haven't seen that one. They filmed this movie next to my first apartment in New York. You know this? Like they just, I believe it was. Meant to look like DC? Yes. Okay. Yeah. In Brooklyn Heights. And they just took it over for like weeks and weeks and it was fun. Can you be seen in the film? No, but like the security guards all definitely like knew me by the end because they had to monitor everyone walking through. And it was basically like I lived on set. When George Clooney reveals the machine that he's building in this film, what was your reaction? Okay. We can go on to the next one.

My number three is Superbad. Right. So this isn't on my list. I'm glad you put it on yours. You don't have an Apatow on your list. Is that true? I don't think so. I have two Apatow produced films.

Okay. I mean, this isn't directed by Judd either. No, I know. But like the app of the, you know, the umbrella, I guess that's true. I think my number one does not exist without Judd Apatow. That is true. We can talk about that. That is very true.

Fair enough. But it's so associated with the two other individuals that it's not like top of mind. You're right. This is obviously associated with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg who wrote the script. And then Jonah Hill who stars in it with Michael Cera. And God, what is McLovin's real name? I just completely blanked. Christopher Mintz-Plasse?

Christopher Mintz-Plasse. He is McLovin forever. This is my favorite of the Apatows. And I have a very vivid memory of seeing it at the Park Slope Pavilion in a completely packed theater on a Saturday night and just laughing. I think it's like the purest of this late 2000s man-boy project, mostly because it's about boys and not men. There's not any of the complications of it. It's really endearing. It's more comfortable with its emotions than most of the other Apatow movies. As previously discussed, Jonah Hill is the funniest person behind Billy Eichner to me

of all time. It makes me laugh. But I was just watching clips of this before we started recording and laughing out loud alone in a weird conference room in this office. It's perfect. I may have out-thought myself by not including it here because it is probably the movie that has made me laugh the most

with the exception of my number one. Actually, the movie that's made me laugh the most in my life is your number two, but... Oh, interesting. Yeah. Well, we've talked about that one as well and we'll get to it. Bobby, our producer, has left a note

that this is the funniest movie to people his age by a country mile. Super bad. And, I mean, that might even be true for people my age you know i'd hit like such a perfect time where if you were in high school it was incredible if you were in college it was incredible if you were in your 20s it was incredible if you were in your 30s you might have been like okay this is moving past me a little bit um but i i agree with the point that you made too that it was it's like it's a very sincere movie

yeah and you really feel connected to the characters and you feel like they're real people and that's part of what makes these movies work is um it's not just gags it's something beyond that anyway but the gags are incredible the gags are incredible so number three has been on my mind a lot lately because the guy behind it martin mcdonough has a new movie coming out in a few weeks called the banshees of in a sharon this movie i'm talking about here is In Bruges. It's also from 2008. This is four consecutive movies from 2008 that I'm referring to. In Bruges also stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, who are the stars of The Banshees of Inisharen. And they're an amazing comic duo. And much like In Bruges, Banshees is very dark in terms of its subject matter, but amazingly funny in the script and in the performance.

And these two guys have incredible chemistry in Bruges is about a hit man who travels to Bruges to sort of avoid being pursued by some dangerous forces. Um, and it's just a road trip movie. It's just a road trip movie with two bros. And they're really, really, really funny together. And they're really,

really funny together in Banshees too. Martin McDonough, of course, you know, an Irishman with a tinge of sadness in his throat.

So there's always a little bit of emotionality. Maybe I'm responding to that in some way when I like this movie. But it's really, really, really funny and I love it.

So that's my number three. You've seen Imbruge, right? Yes, but not maybe since 2008 it's on the list we're revisiting before we talk about banshees for sure and we will because i think it's probably earmarked for the best picture race yeah um okay number two my number two was my number three until last night when i re-watched it and then i was like i have to put this in number two. Funny. I haven't seen this in a long time. This is the movie I've seen the most of all of them. Oh wow. Well what is it? It's Zoolander. And I think this just

this was released like famously and or infamously two weeks after 9-11 in 2001. And so it didn't do very well but it became the most watched movie for me in college I started college in the fall of 2002 and I have seen this movie so many times that major parts of its dialogue

have become like earnest parts of my dialogue I quote it all the time without knowing it even with as a joke like the whole speech that Hansel gives at the VH1, you know, fashion awards about like, you know, I love Sting and do I like know his music? No, but he's there and he's trying and I give that to him. And like, I am like unconsciously

like doing that in podcasts all the time, sort of joking, sort of not. Like I didn't realize until last night i've just been stealing zoolander you're a hansel does that make me dark yeah i that would be hilarious i regularly what is this a center for ants i say center for ants all of the time straight face and no one else knows the reference zach does inside the computer at least once a day like it just became a part of just my language. It's good that you're representing Ben Stiller here, too.

Yeah. Who plays actually a role in Bros. We won't spoil that. Does he? Yeah. Do you want me to ruin it? I don't remember. We'll do it off mic.

Okay. I don't want to ruin it for everybody. Yeah. No, I think that's great. Zoolander's really funny. This movie is now 21 years old. Yeah. It did have a sequel that was, I would say, pretty unsuccessful. Zoolander's really funny. This movie is now 21 years old. It did have a sequel. It was, I would say, pretty unsuccessful.

It didn't really totally work. There was a time, though, when Ben Stiller was, before he was directing episodes of Severance, among the luminaries that we're talking about here, the Will Ferrells and the Seth Rogen's and the Jonah Hills. And he's kind of taking a step back from that. He's much more focused on filmmaking and TV and things like that, but this movie,

very similar to most of the films we've mentioned so far, absolute phenomenon in theaters. Yeah. In theaters, people were loving this movie.

I remember when the sequence where Waking Up Before You Go plays when they're spraying the gasoline all over themselves. That's among the funniest I've ever laughed in,

like, hardest I've ever laughed in a movie. I love that scene. That's a good one. Yeah. I was going to do In the I've ever laughed in a movie I love that scene that's a good one yeah I was gonna do In the Loop for my number two but I'm pivoting

oh you're changing yeah well I would've had I might've had it on my list In the Loop is still the hardest I've ever laughed in a movie theater In the Loop might be

the best script it might be the absolute like line for line yeah cleverest movie and we've talked about it a few times on this show I think you've had it

on a couple of lists and episodes in the past. But when I really get down to thinking about movies that make me laugh, it's Best in Show. That's probably the one. A wonderful film.

Christopher Guest's dog show mockumentary. I just thought about the Terrier song. I mean, every, especially everything

that Fred Willard does in Best in Show is, is, it's the pinnacle of comedy to me. I mean, it is like, and it is perceived that way by many people. And it's also a very, very short movie. Very easy to rewatch. Very easy to jump in at any moment because of how episodic it is.

I, you know. Yeah. It's a classic. In the Loop 2 is a classic, but as I think about what I want my list to be i feel like i need a christopher guest movie on yeah um and i think best in show is 2000 so it qualifies there you go number one mean girls okay pretty i don't know it seems pretty obvious to me it is genuinely like a great script funny line for line also just in terms of not just comedy shifting um but which i don't even know if it like shifted comedy but it was just a moment unto itself that's interesting well like in what way would it have shifted comedy is it like modernized high school movies modernized

high school movies for sure and certainly comedies featuring women. I mean, you know, Heathers is like the obvious direct reference in terms of actual mean girls. It has a different tone, though. It has a completely different tone. And kind of acknowledging and putting at center the way that high school girls speak to each other has just been ripped off over and over and over and over and over again.

And so, you know, it kind of does in one movie what all the Apatow boy movies do in like 10 or something. Also just really funny and good. Can Lindsay Lohan make a comeback? I don't know. I mean, not to go back to Blonde again, but I was thinking a lot about the... Remember in 2010 when she did a shoot for New York Magazine

that was just recreating one of the last Marilyn Monroe shoots? I do. That's tough. She looked beautiful. Everything else that has been made in the world that is commentary on Marilyn Monroe is better than Blonde, the three-hour movie about Marilyn Monroe. Including that photo shoot you're saying? Yes.

There was actually more cleverness in positioning Lindsay Lohan. Yes, that's what I'm saying. You're right. You're right. Well, that's depressing. Well. Mean Girls is wonderful. Yeah.

Who is, oh my God, what is the actress's name who plays a sort of like goth hipster? Lizzie Kaplan? Lizzie Kaplan. Yeah. Who like at the time I was like, who is that? And now is one of my favorites. That was Lizzie Kaplan. Yeah.

She's wonderful. Tina Fey should write more movies. That's a take I have. I wish she wasn't making TV shows for Netflix. Yeah, but the last couple movies I don't think have been as strong. I want her to focus her energy on a movie. Okay. I'll let her know. You know, when Mean Girls was coming out, it was like, here's't think have been as strong. I want her to focus her energy on a movie. Okay, I'll let her know. You know, when Mean Girls was coming out, it was like, Tina Fey is here.

It was the same like Elaine May, Albert Brooks thing where it was like, now this comic mind will develop feature films and transition away from SNL. And it feels like she's lost interest in that, which I think is sad. My number one, Anchorman, The Legend of Ron Burgundy. I've heard of it. You know, we did Boogie Nights on the rewatchables this week. Have you heard about this? Quick 15-minute podcast. In and out. We did a four-hour and 15-minute podcast about Boogie Nights. Boogie Nights is one of the most requested movies of all time. Bill's favorite movie of all time. I think Anchorman might be

with Pulp Fiction at the top of the request list now. Oh. And I don't know how to do it justice. We've done a bunch of comedies on the rewatchables, and they're fun episodes. But sometimes the show can just devolve into just saying lines from the movie. Yeah. And Anchorman in particular,

because I think it's a huge one for both Chris and I. And it did invent an entire generation of comedies in part because it is the first fusion of apatow and mckay on set together apatow producing mckay directing and will ferrell at the height of his power and also steve carell sitting right there yeah along with a number of other amazing comic actors you know paul rudd and david keckner christina applegate lots of great people in that film katherine han you know, Paul Rudd and David Koechner, Christina Applegate, lots of great people in that film. Catherine Han, you know, people who've gone on to create success.

But that triad, those three dudes, more or less, more or less redefined the tone of the studio comedy with that movie. That movie doesn't have like a lot of the heart that we're talking about, that Superbad had. It doesn't have some of the like impressive filmmaking that like Burn After Reading might have, but laugh for laugh moment for moment um it's the best so that's why

it's my number one i'm a big fan it's very very good i still like the landlord better but okay you know it's just it's focused energy you know anchorman is so unfocused. In fact, they made a whole other movie out of the outtakes. Right. It's, it's like the height of chaos as art, you know? Well put. Um,

and I, it's incredibly funny. Uh, out of a million stars, how many stars would you give bros? Three and a half. Oh, of a million?

Oh, I thought we were doing five. I was just checking to see if you were listening to me. a million? I like, mostly was, but not totally. That was real mom brain where it's like, I thought we were doing five. I was just checking to see if you were listening to me. Yeah, a million. I like mostly was, but not totally. That was real mom brain where it's like, I, you know, I'm on autopilot.

Okay, one million stars. But still. I don't know now. You can do it out of five stars. I was like 700,000? Yeah, that's good. Put that on the poster. 700,000 stars. Amanda Dobbins.

Yeah. Dobbins, thank you. What are we doing next week? We didn't do any of our honorable mentions. I mean, there's so many. And we have a lot of overlap. Do you just want to read yours? I just don't want angry messages.

I wrote The Trip. I always said Superbad and Wedding Crashers. Jackass, the movie. That goes for all the jackass movies. Wet Hot American Summer. That's a huge one. Hot Fuzz. They had a great movie. I also had Mean Girls on my list. Wet Hot American Summer. That's a huge one. Hot Fuzz. They had great movie.

I also had Mean Girls on my list. Everybody Wants Some, the brilliant Richard Linklater movie. A Serious Man, I mentioned. Lady Bird. Bridesmaids. Bridesmaids almost made the cut on my list. That's also a great comedy. Game Night, you mentioned briefly.

Snatch, low key, very, very funny. The Guy Ritchie movie from 2000. And of course, Borat. But I probably could have put 30 more movies on the list. What are your honorable mentions? I have all of yours. I've got Neighbors, which becomes like

truer and truer for me every single day. Bring It On was very hard for me to leave off. Something's Gotta Give, obviously, which is like, I didn't put like

romantic comedies on it, but I mean, that's one of the most important movies of the last girls trip. I really like Two Days in Paris. Two Days in Paris, the Julie Delpy movie? Yeah.

Yeah, that's a good one. Really funny. Wedding Crashers. Did you say Wedding Crashers? I did, yeah. Okay, yeah, Wedding Crashers. You have Walk Hard 2 here too, which is really good. Oh yeah, that's important.

But that's, you know, like that's sort of parody comedy. So it's a sub-genre. Okay. Next time you and I talk, what are we talking about? I don't know you're the keeper of the spreadsheet I look at it every day

have you reflected more on the fact that we just communicate and you put things in a spreadsheet and then I text you about them? We talk every day Amanda every day

not every day but but like that's how the conversations start a lot of the time I'm hoping that we have a special guest returning to the show

next time you and I talk. We'll see. Fingers crossed that actually happens. In the meantime, let's now go to my conversation with Nicholas Stoller. So excited to have Nick Stoller in the studio we're talking 2005 movies but yeah 2022 2022 17 years later how you doing i'm good thank you for having me thanks for being here you have a really exciting new studio comedy in 2022 called bros yes in theaters

it'll be this weekend it's coming out september 30th um it's it's amazing that that is something that i have to acknowledge and yet they're very rare and you've been responsible for like five or six of the best ones the last 20 years thanks so much um so i'm glad you're here but i'm wondering if we could start with that because bros is a is a landmark movie in a couple of different ways but in a very obvious way we just don't see a whole lot of these what's it been like just the last 10 years or so as you've seen the business kind of change and been working pretty firmly in this genre as it's evolved? I mean, I love, obviously I love movies. I love going to a movie theater

and seeing a movie in a movie theater. There's kind of nothing like that experience. And I think the R-rated comedy, the kind of comedy where you just can't stop laughing. It's like a party. It's like going to a party. And it's just such a human experience. And so I don't really understand it. Around 2019, everyone was like, they're done. And I was like, why? No, they're not. They're not done. Like everyone just decided that they were done, but they're not, you know? And so yeah, I don't really know why. My hope is that this works. People, I mean, we just screened it in Toronto. Obviously that's its own thing. I've never done that before. Uh, cause comedies don't tend to go to film festivals. Yeah. Congratulations on

getting one in there. Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy. A comedy is, and it was, you could feel the audience just being like, finally a comedy, finally. So we can all laugh together. And there's something, it's very primal. It's a very primal experience. Did you feel that changing though? In that 19 era? Were you pitching things? Was it harder to get stuff across the line? Like, was there a significant change in those rooms where the decisions are made? No, it wasn't that. It's that, it's just that people would,

you just headlines, the media. It was a media narrative. And then I would hear people in the business say like, we don't know if these work. And there is a shrinking of the bullseye. You really need a reason to leave your house more than ever given all the streaming stuff and all that is great it means there's so much content there's so many different voices which is great which is great for art uh but it

means that to get off your couch and go to the movie theater uh you really have to have a compelling reason so it can't i think there's a kind of soft, more adult movie, not like porn, but like an adult drama that I don't think. Or porn. Or porn. That could be on streaming that I really, I don't think can work in movie theaters anymore. You know, but I think the stuff that can is like obviously the big spectacle stuff, like Marvel movies, and then horror movies because you're screaming together, and then comedies. If they're very funny, they have to be really funny. You know, they can't be that kind of 90s softer thing thing i do want to ask you how you make a movie really funny oh

yeah like you've got a few on your resume and i was saying when you first came in like we've covered forgetting sarah marshall and the rewatchables here you know we've covered neighbors on the rewatchables like we love those movies and we love re-watching them and talking about them and like how a movie stays in the culture i think is also something that is a little bit more challenging these days do you have a mind to that when you're working on a script, like when you and Billy are writing this movie or when you're working on one of your previous films? Is it, do you have a mind to the lasting power of a film that you're working on? Not really. And it's only something that I've noticed as I've gotten older and I've seen how

my movies have aged, that it's something that, and I don't know, I have a older and I've seen how my movies have aged, that it's something that, and I don't know, I have a fear, and I think Billy shares this with me, but I have this fear with all my movies of it sucking. That's it. I've been terrified of my thing not being funny, not being dramatic, not being boring, really a total fear of boredom, of people being bored while they watch one of my movies. And so I think that that's my main driver. The, I mean, the staying power. I'm so, you know, when we made Sarah Marshall, the reviews at the time, they were positive. They were, I would take those reviews any day.

But they were, a lot of them were kind of, they were positive, but very, a little dismissive. They were like, Apatow wanted to go on vacation. Like that was literally the headline. A lot of the reviews. And I was like, whatever, they're positive. It's fine. And then it's become this kind of cult thing

where people, it is the movie that more than ever, people come, you know, more than almost any of my movies that people come up to me

and are like, I've seen that movie a hundred times every time it's on. And I don't, you know, I think there's a variety of reasons why

that's the case. But I think, you know, someone said, I heard, Warren Beatty said that you don't know anything about your movie

until 10 years after it's come out. And you have no idea what it is and like what the culture thinks of it. And I think there is some truth to that. So what is Forgetting Sarah Marshall now that you've had 15 years?

I mean, it's about a really depressed guy is really what it's about. And it's a little bit about mental illness, I think I'm talking about, you know? And like, you know, and it's also like a total amazing fantasy. I call it like a a Vicodin

because you're in Hawaii with Mila Kunis who's like so gorgeous and so funny and charming and Kristen Bell who's so funny and so yeah but it also

and it also is obviously about having your heart broken but these again we were just trying to make it as funny as possible and make sure it emotionally made sense

you know so tell me about you and Billy Eichner did you guys meet working on your series is that when you first connected it emotionally made sense, you know, so. Tell me about, um, you and Billy Eichner. Did you guys meet working on your, your series? Is that when you first connected?

Yeah, so he and I, um, I cast him in Neighbor, I knew him from Billy on the Street, like everyone. I cast him in Neighbors 2, uh,

and he had like a two, two scenes in that movie. Um, and he was great. Um, and then I cast him in Friends from College, which is a show I created,

uh, with my wife for Netflix. Um, and he played Fred Savage's boyfriend and then later husband. And he surprised me. He was an incredible actor, which I did not know. He was really good. We had some very dramatic scenes and he was excellent in them.

And then in the first, the pilot we screened in a movie theater. And the audience, every time he was on screen, the audience died laughing. It was like he destroyed, even if it was just a look or something. And it's not like the funniest character. It's just like, and I was like, oh, he's like a movie star. This is a movie star that we're dealing with. And so I approached him. I'd been intrigued by, by the idea of a gay love story. Um, and, uh, I approached him, uh, but I'm straight. That's not my story to tell, but, but I, but I also saw him as someone worthy of having a vehicle built around him. So I asked him if he'd be interested in this.

And he and I have a lot of the same touchstones. And so we're both middle-aged, tall Jewish men. I'm married and have three daughters. And I'm straight. And he's single and gay. But we have so many similar movies that we love and whatnot. And so we just started working on it. We started working on it five years ago,

which is longer than I've maybe ever worked on anything. And that's mainly due, it was on a normal trajectory, but it was due to the pandemic. We had a year and a half delay, like a lot of productions. And so that made the script really good because we kept working on it and working on it and working on it. Was there like an operating premise of the film? Like, were you like, this generation needs a When Harry Met Sally,

or is there some sort of light that you guys were following when you were working on it or was it like there's obviously never been a studio comedy about a gay couple or a gay romantic comedy

in quite this way yeah I mean when you talked about the movies you liked that you connected on was that a part of the writing process

you know there'd never been first of all it started for me because I've built a lot of my movies around comic personas. And for me, the first and foremost, Billy Eichner deserves a movie for it.

Like he deserves a movie. He deserves a movie vehicle. And I've like, it's like an exciting thing you feel in a movie theater. I remember seeing it with Jonah Hill in 40 Old Virgin when he's in the eBay store. And the audience just started. And I was like, oh, he's some kind of movie star, this kid this kid you know and it was the same thing with screening this I mean it sounds silly but screen this episode of Friends from College he he just was electric you know um so it started with that and then I knew he had a very strong point of view comedic point of view uh from

Billy on the Street and then in addition to that I was like where has why hasn't there been the like you can't stop laughing like gay romance like why like why are, you know, romance between two men, you know? And so it was kind of all of those things, but first and foremost, and I don't know, I don't know if you've seen it yet. It's, it's his point of view. It's his world. Um, it's like, you know, like Amy Schumer, a train wreck or something. And then not secondarily, but in addition to that, it happens to be, uh, you know, this, uh, a romantic comedy about two men, you know. So I have seen it. I thought it was really funny. But more than that,

and you mentioned that Billy is a very good dramatic actor, but I thought it was really affecting as a drama in some ways even more than a comedy. So I saw it before the Toronto Film Festival and it was interesting to see. I saw it in like a quiet screening room. And you premiered it at a festival

and people were really laughing and people were saying they missed jokes because the laughs were so big and you know they were kind of stepping on the laughs which is something I'm sure you've thought about as a as you edit your movies but can you tell me about like um constructing kind of like the dramatic elements of the movie and then way to make that fit and that also ties into I think some of the casting because not only have we never seen Billy in a part like this but Luke who plays his counterpart like I'd just never seen before and had never heard of, and I was kind of blown away by him too as a presence. So maybe you can talk about like building their story.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, all comedies, I mean, this is probably something, you know, are dramas. You know, every movie is a drama essentially. And so, and that's true of every movie I've made. I, as a director, I mean, I write stuff too, but as a director, I have to have an emotional way into something. I can't do it otherwise. Um, and so there are, they all start as drama. They are dramas and it's the tone that changes it from a comp, whatever, you know? And so, you know, you know, Sarah Marshall, as we

were talking, is about a depressed guy. Uh, get into the Greek is all about addiction. Like they, they, they're serious, but then I bring a tone to it that's funny because that's the way I see the world, honestly. It feels honest to me when something's very melodramatic. I'm like, I'm sorry, this is not the way the world is. I always say that my grandparents died over a weekend just randomly, and my dad couldn't stop making jokes. I don't know if it's a Stoller thing or whatever.

It's just like how we react to the world. So it starts with it's it they are essentially dramas um and with bros uh and this was something you know i also learned something from all of my collaborators and that's what's great about making movies is you are constantly learning um you have to be if you remain open you're constantly learning um we let some scenes kind of sit there and play dramatically. And my instinct is always like for the tone to try to break the tension with a joke or whatnot.

And I certainly had never done monologues before in something. And Billy's style is very monologue heavy. And so we shot that. There's a beach monologue, which I'm sure you're referring to. Yes, it's an amazing scene. Yeah, and it's a beautiful scene.

And he, it was, we were shooting 10 minute takes of that. And I was like, I mean, we'll cut this. I was thinking, oh, we'll cut this into like a 30 second thing. And then he watched my first cut of it. And he was like, this has to be a lot longer. And he extended it. And I was like, I got kind of worried,

but we trusted each other, you know, it's kind of a give and take. And when we would screen it in test screenings, you could hear a pin drop during that monologue. And then it was ultimately became one of the top favorite, top five favorite scenes.

And usually the top five favorite scene is like some silly big set piece or whatever. But people just really responded to it. It's very memorable. And I'm trying to figure out what it was about it because it's not

kind of inherently cinematic, right? You're just, you're kind of locked on his face with maybe a couple of cutaways to Luke during like a very pivotal emotional moment in the movie that is otherwise like has a lot of gags, has a lot of laugh lines, you know, like has like, it is still a true blue comedy,

but it felt even more so. And I hear what you're saying about how it's, you know, your stories are very character based and they're very dramatic. But this one, I don't know, maybe it was just me, but it somehow like resonated a little bit more deeply. Maybe it's Billy's performance or something else to it. But it felt almost like you were reaching even further for something

that maybe you hadn't fully gone after before in the story. Yeah, I mean, I think his story is really moving. It's a really moving story. And it's true. I mean, Bobby is not an autobiography. It's a character. But the emotional truth of that is, I it's it's a character but there's the emotional truth of that is i think true to a lot of what billy's had to fight for and he could

speak to it more than me but in his career and so i think like that and then i think trusting that you can just sit in this moment i i had never done that before um you really sat for a very long time you know it's a couple it's a it's a few minutes i should time it but really sat without a very long time. You know, it's a couple, it's a few minutes. I should time it. But really sat without a joke or without, you know, and I think in a movie which is so many jokes and so rat-a-tat, it is a little bit,

shocking's not the right word, but it is a little, it's a little bit off. It's surprising. It is surprising. Yeah. You got your start and have worked in series television

over the years, which is kind of historically more formulaic. I wonder if you think about that when you're thinking about writing a comedy script for feature, is there like a joke number that you're trying to hit? Is there like a, we need to make sure that we remind the audience that they're still in a funny movie? Like how much is that on your mind when you're putting something together? You know, the biggest laughs always come from honesty and from a real moment like every time like uh and so i like my

thing about is i actually don't i'm bad at pitching just like pure jokes like set a punch line like it's just not like what i'm good at i i worked one time on a multi-cam which had like a lot of setup but not uh like early on in my career that was a very set up punch it was a great show but i couldn't write that kind of thing so i feel like the you know if you were to like there are certainly jokes obviously and everything i do but it's more just finding the tone where you feel like the character is very relatable. And if the audience will laugh hardest when they relate to what you're what they're watching, when there's something relatable about it. And so it isn't, it's, it's a tone thing. And it's certainly something, you know, I'm always trying to go

for the joke, but then, but then it's always coming back and trying to make sure that it's certainly something, you know, I'm always trying to go for the joke, but then it's always coming back and trying to make sure that it's grounded and it's honest and that it emotionally makes sense. Because if that stuff doesn't work, then your movie doesn't work. You mentioned seeing the reviews of Forgetting Sarah Marshall at the time. The reception of a movie like this, both kind of critically and audiences and then how it does at the box office, does it feel more burdened than something previously just because of the historic nature of the film and it being billy's first starring role in a feature like this i mean it's hard not to be you know this is a very nerve-wracking period of time for both of us i'm sure more for him since he is this is his first script that he's written in the first thing he started and um but i really have learned over the bunch of things i've made that

it's just you have no idea what the life of your movie is going to be and like how it's going to age. And like, you know, we were talking about how like when Harry Met Sally got a bad review in the New York Times and it was like considered a Woody Allen knockoff. And that's one of the best movies ever made, like I think, you know. And so, yeah, you just don't know, you know. You don't really know how your thing is going to age. And I have more of a Zen. I'm nervous. I'm nervous for the box office. I'm nervous for reviews. I'm nervous for all how it's because you feel exposed. But it's, but I don't, but in my heart, I don't really care because it's really, it's going true to Billy's life. You know, it's his story that I feel like, you know, I've enough people have been like, yeah, this is, this is working. This works that I'm like, I'm not, I feel confident in it for its long longevity. Having been down this road, like almost 10 times at this point, what do you tell Billy? Do you tell him what you just said? Yeah. I mean, I say it's hard for me to, because he's way more exposed than me. He's like the face

of it. And this is so important for the lgbtq community you know and so if this works commercially it opens the door to a whole bunch of kinds of movies that are like this and if it doesn't it potentially doesn't open that door right you know and i think he feels burdened with that in a way me as a straight person i don't you know um like we we get to tell our stories a, you know, and but I think that if this works the way like when Bridesmaids worked, it opened the door to like, like, I remember before that movie came out, a lot of people, smart people were like a woman driven comedy. That's not going to work, you know, literally. And like it's in retrospect, that's like that's insane. That's like an insane thing to say, you know, and then it opened the door, like a bunch of movies, you know? And so that's the hope.

And every, I personally think all these, you know, we're casting comedians. It's an entirely LGBTQ cast, but that's not why we cast them. We cast them because they're so funny, you know? And so I really hope it works just because I want to see a movie about each of those characters, you know, each of those actors deserve or a TV show or whatever, just because they're so funny. I would watch a show about Bowen Yang's character. god me too so funny yeah um and eve lindley yeah she's so funny like i was just like we cut so much out of those museum board scenes you know

like like so many there's so much funny stuff in that yeah uh you have a very what seems like cleverly managed career i I didn't plan it. I was hoping you could kind of help me understand like how you pursue stuff because you have done, you know, like you said, any kind of the aftermath of the Apatow explosion.

You made a series of comedies with some of the guys who first kind of popped in that space. But you've also worked in serious television. You created, co-created this Netflix series. You have made animated films you have made you worked on the muppet movie you have worked on children's entertainment like you have a

very well-rounded collection of stories almost all of which are successful and it's hard to have a career in hollywood let alone do like more than one kind of thing and not get typecast into that kind of thing so i'm kind of curious like how do you pursue projects? How do you convince people to let you do something you've never done before? Yeah. I mean, well, thank you very much. That's, uh, that's, uh, really nice. Um, uh, I mean, I pursue stuff if like, as a director, it has to be something I feel in my heart that I just, that I emotionally understand that is somehow connected to my life in some way. Uh, uh, not, not necessarily autobiographically but some in some connection that there's some emotional truth that i understand or experienced um and

then with writing there's sometimes some of that but like with muppets i mean i always i called muppets the gateway drug to comedy you know and so it's like the first thing you try as like a kid you're like oh my god what is this like i need more and more of this and then you graduate to snl or whatever and like jason siegel and i obviously jason is obsessed with puppets and that was you know on sarah marshall um that was something that he asked me because we we were you know we're great partners and great writing partners he asked me about it when we were working on sarah marshall and i was like oh my god that'd be incredible and so we i think we had our first meeting on it like a few weeks before sarah marshall came out and we're pitching and nothing was happening

with it at the time it was one of those things so you know and we very we had a very clear idea of what it could be and also confusion as to like where it had been you know um and then other things you know like uh like uh captain underpants or storks storks i directed and wrote um that that because that's something i directed is very story really close to me like my wife and i were we have three uh daughters were very happy with that we're so happy but it was very long there's a lot of science involved to get there you know it was a very it was it was challenging and it through that experience i think i took my first daughter for granted a little bit because we just and and then i suddenly was like oh my god this is like a precious moment and you might not have it again and so Storks was kind of all about that and

there was this kind of amazing moment at Warners when Greg Silverman was in charge where he basically was like make animated movies like directors who haven't done this before go do it and it was crazy freedom and so that that's how that happened what did you learn from doing that and how how radically different was it from what you had done before i loved it it was really fun i learned how to really think visually which is not coming primarily from writing um you have to think visually all the time and i i've gotten better at that through directing but that was just like all you do is think visually and it's changed the way i approach stuff and then you also can just it you're not like when you're making a movie, you're under the gun.

Like it's particularly once pre-production starts, you, there's no stopping. And there is this, you know, I remember we had our first screening for Storix, like a kind of internal screening and it sucked. It was terrible. First screenings of animated movies always suck. Like I've never heard of one.

And I was terrified and no one else seemed to care. And I was like, why does no one care? And then after like four more years, I was like, oh, I see. This is more like an office job where you can really like, you have time to figure everything out. And so there's like, you know, and that crew too, it was great to just work with the same people for many years on this thing and fine tune it and make it absolutely perfect, you know.

Would you do that again? Yeah, I would love to. Because it takes so many years, it has to be the right idea. And just by its nature, animation tends to be a little bit more studio driven. So you can't be quite as like, that was like this moment where you could just, I was able to just kind of, they certainly had notes and stuff, but I had so much freedom. But I would totally do it again.

It was really cool and it was you know and it also helped me understand like oh what would visual effects be like because your visual effects I mean those Marvel movies are like almost half feel like they're half animated so I could could understand like what that experience could be like yeah I wanted to ask you if you ever got any um inquiries about working on because you mentioned what spectacle and going to the movie theater is now and and it's very much franchise entertainment, horror and comedy, as you're saying.

Is there a world in which you would make a Marvel movie? Is there a world in which you'd make a horror movie? Oh, yeah. I mean, I think,

you know, I definitely, like, I think, like, I've been up for various Marvel movies and stuff, and, you know, like, and I think

it's a really interesting world and I love the tone of them. They're so funny. So it definitely is something that I would think could be really cool to pursue at some point. But I keep getting sucked into just people talking and falling in love and falling out of love. I don't know what it is. I just get pulled back to that, you know. And then I'm like, I should try.

I should do the big visual effects thing. And then I like, I don't know what it is. I get pulled. I ultimately just like to see two people fighting with each other. What? With words. Not with powers. How did you?

But then I see something like Thor Ragnarok and I'm like, that is so funny. Yeah. And like, it's like a giant Fly of the Conchords episode. Right. And like, you know, and that's like, seems really cool and exciting to get to make something on that giant canvas. Yeah. That would be, I would, I would, I would watch your Marvel movie for sure.

Um, what, so when you're deciding what to do next, what is influencing that? Is it like someone, as you said, like has to come along like a persona that you want to try to develop and work through?

Is it just an idea that you have? Like what, what inspires the next project? Um, it tends to be like, it, it tends to be either like, uh, actor driven, like someone who I really want to work with. Or, and sometimes there's an idea.

It also tends, it needs to be something that I have experienced in some way. You know, like, so for example, on Neighbors, I'd known Seth since he was like 18 and I was 22. We worked on that show Undeclared together. And his producing partner Evan Goldberg called me about Neighbors. And that was a movie that Brendan O'Brien and Andrew Cohen wrote.

They had sold it and it was like this thing. So he called me and he told me the idea and I instantly knew emotionally what the movie was. I hadn't read the script. I knew everyone involved. But I was like, oh, like the two times I've had like, kind of like a nervous breakdown in my life was when I graduated from college when I had my first kid, it was the same emotional experience.

And so I said to Evan, I want to do it. Like before I'd read it, I was like, I just want to do it. I know. And then, you know, and then it's like, we're all, we all got kind of got together and ground on the script and worked on it. And Andrew Brendan wrote a million drafts and we turned it into that. But that was the initial thing. And I think it was a very funny idea.

It was a very commercial idea. But that wasn't what made me want to direct it. It was like knowing exactly the emotional core of that film. That movie is a gem. I also have a one-year-old. So it's very resonant. Yeah. I showed it to my now almost 15-year-old daughter.

And at the end, I like forgot that the end, that that last scene, I like started tearing up and was like hiding from her. Because it is like, it is this thing of just like, it is so, it's so hard having a baby. But then it also is like over in a second. Yeah, I know. I feel like it's now over for me and I'm in a totally different,'re entering toddlerdom and it's radically different it's so different yeah um so there's a cult of friends from college here at the ringer oh my gosh people love that show here and i was curious like what it was like to shift into making something for a streamer um especially since that's such a dominant mode of delivery these days.

Was it, did you have to change anything about what you did creatively? You co-created with your wife, as you said. So that sounds unique, possibly challenging, possibly exciting. I'll let you be the- I wish Francesca was here. Yeah. It was very, it's funny. Every time people are like, what is it like working with your wife? I'm like, great.

Like we don't have like, you know, we both respect each other. Obviously, it's why we're married. And, you know, I mean, I think the way we work is like, if one of us really doesn't like something, it doesn't go in the show. And if one of us like love something and everyone is like, they're like, OK, maybe you're right, you know. And so but yeah, it was great. You know, there was a lot of stuff that we both wanted to talk about, about the dangers of nostalgia to really tell like almost a French farce kind of show with cheating and infidelities, but play it for comedy instead of,

I mean, it is a dramatic show. It's sad. It's very sad. But with the tone, again, is more comedic. And it's stuff that I don't think you could do in a multiplex. I mean, maybe you could do it in an art house kind of setting,

but it just, it seemed like mean maybe you could do it in an art house kind of setting uh but it just it seemed like the best way to do it but we also I like it to be entertaining we both we both wanted to be entertaining both want to be funny we didn't want to be boring like again it's the same thing uh and to be emotional and so I love making that show it was fun Netflix was like completely hands off they you know they would tell it give us a note or two every once in a while the cast was a dream um I would have made that show forever and we were so sad when it was over after two seasons that's cool that you got to do it though yeah it was yeah that's the other thing it was very cool we got to do it if you could program a double feature with bros what would you uh want

to pair with hmm i mean we the movie the rom-com i've watched a million times is i mean it's not like that it's when har Met Sally so I feel like When Harry Met Sally potentially just because there are a lot of I mean you've seen it there's a lot of long

talky scenes which is not which is a little rare and especially in the studio space and so so I feel like that could be an interesting

you know yeah and there's like one character who's kind of constantly saying like who they are and what they're about and then there's another character who's like slightly more reserved in your film and not quite's kind of constantly saying like who they are and what they're about and then there's another character who's like slightly more

reserved in your film and not quite sure how to express like exactly who they are and what they want that's interesting yeah yeah they are like

one of them or another way to say is one of them is the Jew and one of them is not you said that not me yeah exactly I'm in the tribe

I'm part of the tribe and then I also say Francesca and I are doing the thing we were shooting this summer is a show Platonic which is like it's different

but it's with Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne and it's for Apple and so that and that's like in the same tone as Friends from College interesting

yeah it's a series it's a series yeah it's 10 episode 10 episode series that's cool yeah what do you prefer

at this point TV film I don't there's they're both really fun for different reasons you know i think with tv there's a little bit i always want everything i do to be really funny like if there's even if you're sitting at home for you to be laughing at home but i think that with with a movie there is just tremendous pressure to deliver laughs that you get laughs in a movie theater um which is just a different thing. Like with the TV show, you can be like, I think that's funny. I don't care if the world doesn't. Like at a certain moment, you can do a few of those. I think in a movie, you get like one of

those. I think I get one weird joke that I like, you know, that maybe eats it in a movie theater. And even that I'm a little bit like, I don't, you know. Can you reveal what the weird joke is in Bros? You know, I don't know, actually. I what the weird joke is in bros you know I don't know actually I think bros are kind of everything in there kind of just works if it's in there

at this point it works the weirdest the weird joke in there that works it this is not what you asked it's kind of the opposite that like I remember is this I pitching on

the day and it gets this weird laugh in the movie theater every time that we screen it which is when Guy Branum who's like one of the funniest humans alive is just saying is that the Christmas party I don't like one of the funniest humans alive, is just saying,

is that the Christmas party? I don't even know if you'd remember this. And he's just going, he's telling Billy some very long story and just keeps saying, am I boring you? Am I boring you? And it always gets this giant laugh.

And I'm like, oh, everyone knows that guy. He's great though. Yeah, he's really good. Nick, we end every episode of the show by asking filmmakers, what's the last great thing they've seen? Seen something good lately Zola

okay I haven't seen that and I just saw it please tell me what you liked about it that was a very good film from 2021 yeah

I am from Florida there are very few movies that capture Florida I would say that and Magic Mike are the two best things that I've seen

at least that have to capture Florida I'm from Miami so first of all it got my heart just with that both of those films are about strippers Nick

they are both about strippers it's actually I didn't even realize that but it's the it's just how where they were shot you can feel how humid it is in those movies

yes for sure there's the lobbies of those hotels it's so Florida I can't I just it's so lush but also crappy

you know but so pretty you know um so I feel like that movie and then I like love the story I had no idea what was gonna happen um it wasn't boring I very like basic I have basic so many things are boring I'm like you can't be boring you know I agree yeah um and I thought it was hilarious I thought the acting was incredible I thought the directing was it The tone was just great. The weird light tone that suddenly went dark and strange and scary.

I really dug it. It's a great recommendation. Congrats on Bros, Nick. Thanks for being here. Yeah, thanks for having me. Okay, thanks to Nick Stoller. Thanks to Amanda, thanks to our producer Bobby Wagner for his work on today's episode. Next week, we also have two very special guests I didn't mention,

Griffin Newman and David Sims of the Blank Check podcast will be joining me for a very special episode with James Cameron's 2008 blockbuster Avatar Back in Theaters and a sequel on the way we're going to conduct the great Avatar debate once and for all. See you then.